In the sermon titled 'Hell in Context,' Jason Dohm explores the concept of hell by emphasizing the importance of understanding it within the broader framework of God's nature and justice. The sermon begins with a reading from Mark 9, highlighting the severity of sin and the need for repentance. Dohm argues that to grasp the doctrine of hell, one must first understand God's perfect justice, love, and wrath. He discusses the pervasive presence of hell as a doctrine throughout the Bible, stressing that it serves to glorify God's justice and express His anger towards sin. Hell is described as a place of eternal punishment, characterized by unquenchable fire, outer darkness, and unending torment. The sermon warns against the dangers of viewing hell in isolation, which can lead to questioning God's justice, as evidenced by historical figures like Rob Bell. Dohm emphasizes the necessity of fearing God, fleeing to Christ for salvation, and loving one's neighbor by sharing the message of salvation. He concludes by urging believers to reflect on their own salvation and praise God for His mercy, reminding them of the reality of hell for those who reject God's offer of pardon.

Turn to Mark 9. Hallelujah. May today's sermon make us so thankful all we have is Christ. Mark nine, 42 through 48, But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to stumble, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea. If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off.

It is better for you to enter into life maimed rather than having two hands to go to hell into the fire that shall never be quenched, where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched. And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maim rather than having two feet, to be cast into hell, into the fire that shall never be quenched, where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched. And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye rather than having two eyes to be cast into hellfire where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.

Oh God our Father, Jesus, thank you for teaching us about hell. Thank you for saving. Thank you for redeeming. Thank you for showing us that are saved what we have been saved from. Father, may Your Word through Jason, Holy Spirit, may You through Jason preach this truth.

This is your word. Holy Spirit, please open hearts, open ears, open eyes to see that you are the Christ, the Son of the living God who covers sin and redeems from the pit of hell. May you be praised in the preaching of your word today. Amen. I'm so glad that Taylor frequently uses the phrase, worship through song, worship through singing.

In other words, so many churches just designate that as the worship time. The worship time is when you're singing And then you go do something else in some other kind of time. Well now we come to the time of worship through preaching. I'm not a lecturer. I'm not a college professor.

I'm a preacher. And I come to declare the Word of God authoritatively not because I'm wise or have anything to give but because the Word of God is all truth. God has spoken to His people. This is a time of worship for God's Word to be declared and to be received by His people. And we should approach that time this time in that way.

Hell is a topic that occurs 16 times in the Gospel of Matthew. Many times it's explicit. In other words, it says hell in the passage or Hades in the passage. And the other times it's so clear that's what's being described and discussed. In terms of fire that's not quenched, worms that don't die, weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Sixteen times in the Gospel of Matthew. It is everywhere in Matthew. But Matthew in that sense is just a microcosm of the Bible. It is just a little example of what the Bible is like from end to end. Hell is in the law.

The word starts being used in Genesis. It is in Deuteronomy. It is in Numbers. So the Pentateuch is full of the doctrine of hell. And it's in the prophets.

And it's in the Psalms. And it's in the wisdom books. And it's in every single one of the Gospels. And it's in the epistles. And it is pervasive in the book of Revelation.

Hell is a doctrine that is everywhere in the Word of God. If you don't believe in the doctrine of Hell, you cannot believe in any doctrine. It's everywhere. The teaching is consistent. The teaching is clear.

And so we thought, since it appears 16 times in the Gospel that we've been considering, that it made sense to take time and just look at the full counsel of God on the doctrine of hell. Solomon writes this in Ecclesiastes 7 verse 2. Better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting. For that is the end of all men. And the living will take it too hard.

It's better to go to a funeral than to a dinner party. That's what Solomon is saying. Because you can drown yourself in mirth. You can drown yourself in rejoicing and entertainments and fill up every second of your time so that you never consider the day that you will die. So Solomon says it's better to go to the house of mourning.

It's better to go to a funeral than it is to the house of rejoicing because it will make you wise. It will make you consider that you're like every other man who's ever been born, every other woman, every other child. The day of your death will come. It is certain. And then what?

And the thoughts that happen when we think of the day of our death and consider the question, and then what? Makes us consider our latter end, makes us consider eternity, makes us consider the condition of our soul before an almighty God who has given us life, and makes us walk in wisdom. The sermon title is Hell in Context. What does that mean? It means this.

If you start with hell and you just teach on hell, even if you just teach what the Bible says on hell, you get the doctrine wrong and you'll begin to question the justice of God. Because the things that are taught about hell are so terrible, are so horrific, are so graphic, are so fearful that if you just in isolation put those things before your eyes, then you'll begin to look for alternate explanations for why that can't possibly mean what the Bible clearly says. Church history proves this out. Even to the modern day, a couple of years ago, an emergent church pastor named Rob Bell released a book called Loved Wins. His theory behind the book was there is no hell.

Hell is just what we do to each other when we live sinfully in this lifetime. And eventually after death, Even those who died in an unregenerate state will repent after their death and they will be received in and love will win and there is no real hell." He's got creative alternate explanations for why the text doesn't say what the text says, for why the scriptures don't really teach what it appears to teach in the scripture. That's because Rob Bell started with hell and he read these things and he came to the conclusion that these things are so horrific that the Bible can't possibly teach that. That can't possibly be true. When you start with hell in isolation, you'll always look for a way to wiggle out of it.

There was a Rob Bell, by a different name, in Spurgeon's time. Spurgeon talks to him in his comments on hell. There was a Rob Bell, by a different name, in Spurgeon's time. Spurgeon talks to him in his comments on Hell. There was a Rob Bell, by a different name, in Jonathan Edwards' time.

And Jonathan Edwards talks about these men. Men have always questioned the doctrine of hell, not because the scriptures aren't clear, but because if you just look at it and study it in isolation, you'd say this cannot possibly be true. Brothers and sisters, it is true. And so this morning we don't start with hell. We start with God.

We start with the doctrine of God. In Exodus 3, Moses is before a burning bush, a bush that is on fire but a bush that is not consumed. God is speaking to Moses. Moses says this in Exodus 3 verses 13 and 14. Then Moses said to God, Indeed, when I come to the children of Israel, and say to them, The God of your fathers has sent me to you, and they say to me, What is his name?

What shall I say to them? And God said to Moses, I am who I am. And he said, thus you shall say to the children of Israel, I AM has sent me to you. The only reason that there is any reality at all is because God is reality. When he introduces himself, he simply says, I am.

I exist. Every other reality, every other thing you know, every other thing you've seen or heard, goes right back to the ultimate reality of God. He is. And every other reality takes its realness from the fact that God is. And we will deal with this God on his terms or we will not deal with him at all.

God is I AM. He is the eternally existence one and nothing else that you have ever known makes sense outside of the context of the God who is. And He is a God who is perfect in justice. He is an almighty God. He is a God who is perfect in wisdom, Perfect in love, perfect in His wrath, perfect in His mercy.

If we want to understand God, if we want to understand hell and the doctrine of hell, we start with God, and then we start with man. Three times in the Scriptures you find the author saying, what is man that you are mindful of him? Why would this God, this I Am, this eternally existent one, even notice these creatures, these specks of dust, who have a life that's only vapor? Why would he even notice them? In our own eyes, We're the center of a little universe.

That's not the universe. God calls you dust. God says that your life is just a breath. It's just a vapor. God says that you didn't make yourself, but that every breath that you've ever taken, how many breaths have you breathed in this life, every one of them was given to you by God.

You never have taken even the first one without Him. And so the picture of the Bible is a picture where God is everything and man is nothing. And everything exists for the glory of this Almighty, perfect God. Therefore, He has every right. You have no rights before Him.

He has every single right and you have none, you have no claim to make on this almighty God who has given you every breath that you have ever breathed. And so Paul, when he begins to talk about the mysteries of the faith, he says, Clay, you better be careful how you speak to this potter. You're nothing but clay on the wheel. And he'll make of you whatever he desires to make of you. And you'll never be able to say that he's unjust because he's given you everything that you have.

And he can make of you whatever He wants to make of you. If we want to understand hell and the doctrine of hell, we start with God, we start with man, we start with Christ, the incarnation of the Son of God, the taking on of flesh of the Son of God. Romans 5 verse 6, For when we were still without strength in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. So far we have an eternal, self-existent God who is perfect in all of his attributes and we have a man who is nothing, who is just dust, who is just a breath and his life is a vapor. This God has the right to require of, command, make laws for this speck of dust, this breath, this vapor, and to condemn him for the smallest, littlest, first violation of those laws and commandments and requirements.

And yet, The story is not done there. God could do that. God would be just to do that. No one could say God had done wrong for doing that. And yet that is not the end of the story.

The climax of the story is the coming of the Son of God to lay down His life for sinners, to offer mercy to these specks of dust who have lived in rebellion to Almighty God. God offers mercy to specks of dust who have raged against an Almighty God in their insanity, in their desire to be the God of their own universe and to do whatever it is that they wanted. And yet God in His mercy has made an offer of pardon. He has offered pardon. And here's what we're left with.

An almighty self-existent God. And a man who's nothing. And an offer of pardon and mercy. And when you're here, you can begin to study the doctrine of hell. When you're here, hell makes sense.

Because when you're here, our sin is not just an indiscretion, a shortcoming, but it's cosmic treason against Almighty God who's given you the breath, every single breath that you've ever breathed. Breathed. And so you can begin to understand the divine justice of hell, and the divine wisdom of hell, and the divine perfection of hell. All things exist to the glory of God and hell is a thing. Hell is one of the things of all things that exists for the glory of God.

You have seen your crimes through a very man-centered worldview, and I've seen my crimes through a very man-centered worldview. And so we relabel it, and we think our crimes are so small. But the Word of God declares to us that our crimes are not small, that our crimes are mighty, that our crimes are great and they cry out for justice. And God is a God of justice. In Matthew 18, we have the parable of a king who's settling accounts with a servant, and his servant owes him 10, 000 talents.

Now to most of the people listening to Jesus, one talent equals 20 years of labor. One talent equals 20 years of labor. And this servant, who the king has come to settle accounts with, owes 10, 000 talents. And the point is, it's a debt without measure. It's incalculable.

You've won lifetime, but you owe 200, 000 years of labor. It is a debt that can never be paid. And so we are before God. And He will come and He will settle His accounts. And you with one life to give will owe 200, 000 years of labor.

It is a debt that can never be canceled. If you don't understand God, I AM. If you don't understand man, and you elevate man, and you make God smaller, then you will never understand the doctrine of hell. Here's how we're going to spend the balance of our time. Asking and answering four questions.

Number one, why does hell exist? Number two, who will God cast into hell? Number three, What is hell like? Number four, what should we do about hell? And this is just a way to organize a mass of information.

I was pouring over all that I had, all the material that I had accumulated during the course of the week yesterday, And it just seemed like this was the one way I could sort of organize it and make sense of this massive information. Before we start, I want to talk about the words associated. We have a couple of English words, but what are the real words in the original languages? In the Old Testament, there's one word and it's sheol. And many of the translations in spots preserve the word as sheol, So you'll actually see that word.

And that word has two meanings. One is simply the grave, where all the dead go, regardless of how God judges them to be righteous or unrighteous. And so there are times where you'll see it and it just means grave. It just means you die. And then in some places it's used as hell or as the place of eternal punishment.

And Almost always the context makes it so clear which it is. It's not hard to discern whether the grave is meant where all the dead will go or whether it means a place of eternal punishment. You have to look at the context to see what the author intended from this word that has two meanings. In the New Testament, one of the two words used is Hades. Hades maps most closely to the Hebrew word sheol because it also has the same two meanings.

It can either mean just death, the grave, or it can mean the place of eternal punishment. And again, you go to the context, you look and see how the author uses it, and overwhelmingly it's clear what the author meant by it. The second word is Gehenna and it's actually an important picture that helps us understand this place of eternal punishment and we'll talk about that at length in another part of the sermon. So Hades and Gehenna in the New Testament and Sheol in the Old Testament. First question, why does hell exist?

Turn your Bibles to Isaiah 66. Isaiah is a book that is Structured like the Bible. It is a microcosm. It is a miniature of The whole Bible there's 66 chapters in Isaiah. There are 66 books in the Bible the Old Testament There are 39 chapters the big shift that happens in Isaiah is after chapter 39 and then chapter 40 picks up hot and heavy with the Messianic promises.

And so those last 27 chapters of Isaiah are very much like the 27 books of the New Testament. It's quite amazing actually. And Isaiah 66 ends, you think you're reading Revelation, you think you're reading the end of Revelation when you read the end of Isaiah. And Isaiah 66 talks about the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, says the Lord. So shall your descendants and your name remain.

And it shall come to pass that from one new moon to another and from one Sabbath to another, all flesh shall come worship before me, says the Lord." So far we have a vision of heaven. We have the new heavens and the new earth that will be described by John in Revelation 21. And we have all flesh coming before God in perpetual worship. This is where we are in Isaiah 66. Now look at verse 24.

And they, these worshipers of God who are always in the presence of God, always worshiping Him, and they shall go forth and look upon the corpses of the men who have transgressed against Me. And their worm does not die, and their fire is not quenched. They shall be an abhorrence to all flesh." And if there is any question about whether hell is being described here, in the scripture that was read prior to the preaching, right? Jesus quotes this three times. The fire will not be quenched, their worm will not die.

Three times. Right here from Isaiah 66, 24. And so a contrast is drawn between all flesh which have been given a new and incorruptible body and the corpses of those who have raged in rebellion to God. And it actually says that somehow in a way that I do not claim to fully understand, a part of that worship will be to look upon the corpses of those who have transgressed against God and are being eternally punished in hell. And we are going to see as we get further along and we go look at Luke 16 that Jesus says something that is so similar to this in the New Testament.

What we see here in Isaiah 66 are two of the foundational reasons why hell exists. It is the glory of God and it is the justice of God and they are inseparable. The justice of God will always bring God glory. That He does what is right is always to His glory. And so people, dust, vapor, has lived in rebellion to God, has corporately shaken their fist against God and spit upon God and raged against their Maker, and God is just.

And all of creation will know that God is just. When The penalty that God has appointed is applied to all those creatures who have raged against Him. The angels will praise God that He is just. Those who were born again and who were adopted into His family and made sons and daughters will praise God that he is just as they look upon the corpses of those who have transgressed his law." The 1689 Confession says that some men exist to the praise of his glorious grace. In other words, God has put His hand upon them, that is His grace, and He has delivered them from what they deserved.

And this is to the praise of His glorious grace. God will be praised because he has taken some that deserved hell, that deserved this punishment, and he has had mercy on them. He will be glorified as a God who is merciful. There are others who exist to the praise of His glorious justice. That they are raging against God, and their rebellion will be reckoned with, and the Reckoning will be to the praise of God, because it will declare to a watching universe that God Himself is just.

Every man will glorify God in his life, in his death, in his eternity. And It will either be to the praise of God's glorious grace because He has put His hand on them and proven Himself able to redeem and full of mercy, or it will be to the praise of His glorious justice because He is a God who will make all things right. He is a God who will make all things right. Jonathan Edwards says this, All will see how dreadful a thing it is to sin against such a God and to reject such a Savior, such love and grace as you have rejected and despised. For those who have not only raised against God but have rejected the offer of pardon and mercy, all the universe will see how dreadful it is to sin against such a God and to have rejected the offer of pardon." God's glory explains the existence of hell.

God's justice explains the existence of hell. And God's anger against sin explains the existence of hell. That's the third thing. His anger against sin. Listen to Deuteronomy 32 verse 32.

For a fire is kindled in my anger, and shall burn to the lowest hell. It shall consume the earth with her increase and set on fire the foundations of the mountains. It is the anger of God against sin that kindles the fire of hell. That's what Deuteronomy 32 verse 32 says. For a fire is kindled in my anger and it will burn to the lowest hell.

Do you know where this verse is? It is in the Song of Moses. Do you remember that? The Song of Moses, Deuteronomy 32. Revelation 15 verse 3 says that There are two songs that we will sing in heaven, those who have been redeemed.

The song of Moses and the song of the Lamb. These words of the anger that had been kindled by sinful man that will burn to the lowest hell, you will sing those songs, that song, those words if you've been redeemed. If we wonder about the anger of God against sin, we need look no further than the cross of Jesus Christ. If you wonder about His justice, if you wonder about His anger against sin, the cross is the perfect demonstration that He cannot just overlook sin, that His anger burns unquenchably that his anger burns unquenchably against sin, so that to redeem a people he would have to pour out his anger on a substitute at the cross. Hell exists for the glory of God.

Hell exists because of the justice of God. Hell exists because of God's anger against sin. Question number two. Who will God cast into hell? Consider Isaiah 14 verses 12 through 15.

Fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning, how you are cut down to the ground, you who weakened the nations. For you have said in your heart, I will ascend into heaven. I will exalt my throne above the stars of God. I will also sit on the mount of the congregation on the farthest sides of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds.

I will be like the Most High, yet you shall be brought down to Sheol, to the lowest depths of the pit." Satan will be cast by God into hell. This is confirmed in the New Testament in the text that we are reciting together and memorizing. Matthew 25 verse 41, then He will also say to those on the left hand, depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. Hell is prepared for the devil and his angels and at the end of time when there's a great dividing line between his left hand and his right hand between the sheep and the goats and the goats are made to depart and cursed and sent into everlasting damnation. They are going to what has been prepared for the devil and his angels.

This brings us to a false doctrine that Satan rules in hell. Satan does not rule in hell. Satan is in hell to be punished and tormented like everyone else in hell. Hell is not the domain, the dominion, the place of governance of Satan. Jesus Christ is King in Hell.

Jesus Christ is Lord of Hell. God is over hell, not Satan. Revelation 20 verse 10, speaking specifically of the devil, says this, They will be tormented day and night forever and ever. If you want to know what Satan is doing, what the angels who followed him in rebellion to God are doing in hell, Revelation 20, 10, they will be tormented day and night forever and ever. The Bible does not teach that Satan rules in hell.

Hell is for his torment and his punishment. Who else? Satan and all those angels that are now demons that followed him into rebellion against God will be in hell. Who else? Psalm 9 verse 17.

The wicked shall be turned into hell. The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God." The wicked will be cast into hell by God. All those who forget God will be cast into hell by God. We look at Psalm 9 verse 17 and we are tempted to set the bar so low and say, I'm not wicked, I've not forgotten God. Consider what Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5 verses 21 and 22, Jesus says this, You have heard that it was said to those of old, You shall not murder, and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment.

But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. And whoever says to his brother, Raka shall be in danger of the Council. But whoever says, you fool, shall be in danger of hellfire. What Jesus is teaching in Matthew 5, 21 and 22 is the prevalent thought at the time of Christ, which is the prevalent thought today. It's the big sins that cause you to fail on the day of judgment.

Like murder. The murderers are in danger of judgment. And Jesus says, no. It's those who have anger without a cause in their hearts. They're the ones in danger of judgment.

But at the time, it was those who cussed their neighbor, cursed their neighbor, rock up. The serious sins put you in danger of the council, but God says no. It's the man who says you fool that is in danger of hell fire. It is only man who divides up serious sins and sins that don't matter. God never does that.

God is a holy God. Every idle word will be brought into judgment. Every idle word. The one time that you called your neighbor, you fool and you despised your neighbor in your heart. Put you in jeopardy of hellfire.

So says Jesus in Matthew 5. Revelation 20 gives us additional insight here. And really gets to the crux. Revelation 20 verse 15. Anyone not found in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

Anyone not in the book of life cast into the lake of fire. The very next chapter, Revelation 21, the book of life is called The Lamb's Book of Life. The Lamb's Book of Life. It's Jesus' book. And it contains those who have been given life because the blood of the Lamb, the blood over the doorpost has been applied.

And so the destroying angel passes over. It's the Lamb's Book of Life. If you are in this book, because you have trusted in what has been done on your behalf that you could have never done from yourself. You have life. But if you're outside that book, anyone not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

In sum, everything sinful, everything worthless, everything unclean, everything detestable will be cast by God into hell. And this is the natural man. The natural man is sinful, worthless, detestable, unclean. You must be born again to be anything other than sinful, worthless, detestable, unclean. This brings us to the word Gehenna.

Jesus most frequently uses Gehenna when he is talking about hell. Gehenna is a real place and it's a picture of hell. It's just south of Jerusalem. You can see it from the wall. And it's a valley.

It's called the Valley of Hinnom. And it has the most horrendous history because at the height of idolatry in Israel, King Ahaz sacrificed his children by burning them in the fire. The Valley of Hinnom just south of Jerusalem, You can see it from the wall. Because it had such a horrific history, a king of the people of God sacrificing his children to foreign God in this place, Josiah, when he came and brought his reforms, defiled that place to honor God. And it became a place of contempt.

It became a place where you would take your trash and your refuse to burn it. And that all the carcasses of the sacrifices that were made day after day, all the carcasses would be cast outside into this place of contempt. And it was always burning. It was full of maggots all the time because you had these carcasses. So it's a place of maggots, it's a place of unending fire and burning.

And every time a Jew went up to one of the three times a year to a feast, The smoke is rising from Gehenna. The smoke is rising from the valley of Hinnom. And you know that the maggots are there and the fire has been there since the last time you came to Jerusalem. And God has given his people a picture of hell. That it's the place where you take what is worth nothing and you burn it.

This is hell. This is the fate of the specks of dust that will rage against Almighty God and make themselves worthless and detestable and unclean and sinful. They are to be thrown out with the trash where the fire never goes out, where the maggots are. The third question, what is hell like? Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 2 verse 9, I has not seen nor ear heard nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love him.

First Corinthians 5 verse 9 is about heaven and a contemplation of the things in heaven. The point is you can't even imagine the glory of the things that await His children in heaven. I submit to you that the converse is true. That hell is so horrific. The torments are so exquisite.

That's almost always what the commentators use of the torments of hell. They call it exquisite. That you can't imagine. You have no frame of reference for it. That's what Paul is saying of heaven.

The children of God have no frame of reference. Their best imaginations fall short of heaven. The same is true of hell. Your worst nightmares, your worst imaginations, the greatest agonies that you've ever experienced in this world don't do justice to hell. It's worse.

You cannot even imagine what it's like. So the Bible gives us pictures. You say, well, is it figurative? Is the fire figurative? Are the worms figurative?

Here's the answer. It does not matter. It's either literal or it's worse than literal and God has just given you some frame of reference for it. How about that? First, hell is a place of unquenchable burning fire.

Turn in your Bibles to Luke chapter 16. Luke chapter 16. Interestingly enough, normally Jesus and the Gospel writers identify parables as parables. Luke 16 is not identified as a parable. It's possible that it's a parable, but normally the gospels identify parables as parables.

This reads like an account to me. And even if it's a parable, there's much to be gained from it. But consider, you've probably thought of Luke 16 as a parable, and the Gospel writer doesn't identify it as such. Luke 16, beginning in verse 19, and we'll read through 31. There was a certain rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day.

But there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, full of sores, who was laid at his gate, desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table. Moreover, the dogs came and licked his sores. So it was that the beggar died and was carried by the angels to Abraham's bosom. The rich man also died and was buried. And being in torments in Hades, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham afar off and Lazarus in his bosom.

Then he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue. For I am tormented in this flame. The Abraham said, Son, you remember that in your lifetime you received your good things. Likewise, Lazarus, evil things. But now he is comforted and you are tormented.

And besides all this, between us and you there is a great goal fixed, so that those who want to pass from here to you cannot, nor can those from there pass to us." Then he said, I beg you therefore, Father, that you should send him to my father's house, for I have five brothers, and he may testify to them, lest they also come to this place of torment. Abraham said to him, They have Moses and the prophets, let them hear them. And he said, No, father Abraham, but if one goes to them from the dead, they will repent. But he said to him, If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rise from the dead." The rich man is in this place of torment. That's the word used in verse 23 and again used in verse 24.

He's tormented. He's in the flames. And he's abased so much. He's brought so low. He's at such a point of torment, you cannot even imagine this, that you would beg that someone would dip their finger in water and give you one drip of water on your tongue.

What is this place that would make you beg for one drip of water on your tongue? Jesus said of His people in the Sermon on the Mount, in the Beatitudes, Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted. It's here in Luke 16, this man who had such sorrow on earth, trusted, sorrow on earth trusted, had faith, and it be credited to him as righteousness. And now the roles are switched. The mourner on this earth who knew sin, the effects of it, who was made wise to salvation through his sufferings by the hand of God, is comforted for all eternity, and the man who fared sumptuously every day, who was lifted up in his own heart and lived a life in rebellion to God, is brought low and would beg for one drip of water on his tongue and would not receive it.

No one can even have mercy upon him because there is a chasm fixed between here and there. You see how close that is to Isaiah 66, those who worship in the presence of God looking down upon the corpses of those who transgressed. Isaiah 33 verses 14 and 15, The sinners in Zion are afraid. Fearfulness has seized the hypocrites. Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire?

Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings? Have you ever had a bad burn? I've never ever ever had a third degree burn. It's possible maybe one time I had a second degree burn.

I doubt it, but I've had some burns. And there's no escape with a burn. There's just no escape. You just wish. It's throbbing.

It's persistent. It's with you every second. You just want to go to sleep so that it's not with you. Everlasting burnings. A fire that can never be quenched.

So first, hell is a place of unquenchable burning fire. Second, Hell is a place of outer darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. It is an outer darkness and it is a place of sorrow and weeping and gnashing, Grinding of teeth. The inhabitants of hell will grind their teeth because of the torments. In Matthew 8 verse 12, Jesus says that The sons of the Kingdom, we're talking physical sons, genealogy, Jews, Jews in lineage only, outwardly only.

The sons of the kingdom are cast out into outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. In Matthew 22 verse 13, there is a man without a wedding garment and the king identifies him and he directs his servants to cast him into outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." In Matthew 25 verse 30, The Master says, cast the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Three times alone in Matthew, hell is described the same way.

Outer darkness, weeping and gnashing of teeth. Terrors are always worse in the dark. You know that? Terrors are always worse in the dark. You've had that night.

You have a nightmare or something frightening happens in the middle of the night, a sound you didn't expect, something like that. And the thought that keeps going through your head as you stare and look at the ceiling and can't get back to sleep is when will it be morning? The answer in hell is never, never, never, never, Never, it will never be morning. The terrors will continue in darkness forever and ever and ever. It is eternally night.

And you will weep. And you will grind your teeth because of the torments and there will never be a morning. Think upon these things. God has brought us to the doctrine of hell 16 times in the Gospel of Matthew so that we'll think about these things and be wise. We're going to the house of mourning today.

We're bypassing the dinner party and we're going to the house of mourning today. Woe to us if we fill every moment of our lives with entertainments and things to fill our brains and we never think about the things that God has set before us 16 times in the Gospel of Matthew. We are not wise to fill every minute of the day. So that we are always entertained and we are always occupied and we have no time to reflect on a night that never ends, on a fire that's never quenched, on a worm that never dies, on torments that extend out forever and you're never any closer to the end of them. Number three, third, hell is a place that the worms never die.

We saw that in Isaiah 66, for their worm does not die and their fire is not quenched. We heard that before the sermon started in Mark 9 three times. Jesus quotes that. And Jesus says in Mark 9, because that's true, If your eye offends you, pluck it out and cast it from you. If your hand offends you, cut it off and cast it from you.

It would be better that someone would take a millstone and put it around your neck and cast you into the depths of the sea, rather than to go to this place and suffer there, and suffer there, and suffer there where it will never end. Isaiah chapter 14 verse 11, It's written in judgment of the mighty, haughty, arrogant, proud king of Babylon. It says this, Isaiah 14 verse 11. Your pomp is brought down to Sheol And the sound of your stringed instruments. The maggot is spread under you, and the worms cover you.

Fourthly and lastly, hell is a place of uninterrupted, unending torment. Uninterrupted, you'll not sleep there. Unending, there will never be a morning and end to this. It is eternal. As I've studied these things this week, it has caused a dread, a trembling to settle on my soul.

And this is the thing that has done it. Thinking of fire, thinking of darkness and weeping and gnashing of teeth, thinking of torment, thinking of worms and unending corruption of the body is in a category, but then applying eternity to that, making it eternal, is what more than anything else should cause us to tremble before God. It never ends. Matthew 25 verse 46, again the passage that we are memorizing together, and these will go away into everlasting punishment. And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life, every man, woman and child has an eternal soul.

And they will spend it in one of two places. It will either be everlasting punishment or it will be eternal life. This brings us to another false doctrine about hell and it's called annihilationism. And many have held it through the centuries, but it's never been what the Bible has taught. And that is that yes, the righteous, those saved by Jesus Christ, will spend eternity with Him, But the unrighteous will be destroyed at the judgment and will cease to exist.

That's not what the Bible teaches. What the Bible teaches is given to us in Matthew 25, verse 46, and many other places. It is everlasting punishment, a punishment That never ends. The commentators use this phrase over and over and over again. They must be copying each other, I assume, but they use this phrase, millions of ages.

Millions of ages. So your life is what? If you've got great genetics, your life is 100 years. What is a million years? But the commentators don't talk about a million years.

They talk about millions of ages. Think about eternity. Think about this life and the sorrows and hardships of this life. They are nothing. The sorrows and hardships of life.

And the pleasures that can be gained in this world are nothing set beside eternity. You will have your pleasures. You will do your own will. And you will spend eternity In this place that we've been describing, and for what? For what will you trade?

For earthly pleasures that last a shorter and shorter period of time every time you indulge in it. Surely this is one of the great sorrows of hell, is the contemplation of the trade that you've made. That you would not be governed by God and His mercy. Lastly, question number four, what should we do about hell? First, we must fear God.

We must go to the house of mourning and consider that all men go there and take it to heart and fear God. Matthew 10 verse 28, and do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul, but rather fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. In the scope of the fear of God and the fear of hell, what is the fear of circumstances? Think of these circumstances that we fear. They are nothing.

In the scope of the fear of God, in the fear of the destruction of your soul and hell, think of the fear of man. What has man done when he has killed your body? What has man done? Secondly, we must flee to Christ. It is the Lamb's Book of Life.

Jesus Christ, His person, His work, what He has done for sinners on the cross is our only refuge. Brothers and sisters, there is only one refuge from this ending. And it is the Lord of heaven and earth, Jesus Christ. It is the Lamb's Book of Life. John 3, 36.

He who believes in the Son has everlasting life. And he who does not believe in the Son shall not see life, but The wrath of God abides on him, not for a second, or a minute, or a week, or a month, or a year, or a decade, or a century, or a millennium. But for millions of ages, The wrath of God abides on him who does not believe in Jesus Christ. But the one who believes in the Son has everlasting life. Consider Revelation 21 verses 6-8.

And he God said to me, John, it is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give of the fountain of water of life freely to him who thirsts. He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God, and he shall be my son. But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death." Finally on this point, consider what Jesus said in Matthew 11, verses 23 and 24.

Jesus taught us this, and you Capernaum, who are exalted to heaven, will be brought down to Hades. For if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained to this day. But I say to you that it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the Day of Judgment than for you. This is a terrible reality. That on the Day of Judgment, it will be more unbearable for those to whom God has sent the means of grace.

To the ears that God has filled with the Word of the Gospel, but they would not have God. They would not turn from their wicked ways. They would not repent and trust in Christ. The Day of Judgment will be a more unbearable day for Capernaum. Capernaum that was drowning in the means of grace.

Capernaum that had the Son of God there using their town as his base of ministry and was doing miracles there and was preaching perfect sermons there and was saying repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand there, it will be more tolerable for Sodom that the fire rained down upon on the day of judgment than Capernaum, who had their ears filled with the gospel and had the confirming miracles that God sent to prove that the things that Jesus said were true. Next we must love our neighbor. We must love our neighbor, our regenerate neighbor, our unregenerate neighbor. Will you not pity your unregenerate neighbor? Having been lifted out of this end, will you then have no pity for those who are still where you were?

What have you contributed to your salvation, believers? What have you contributed? What have you brought to God that He should give it to you as payment? I say to you, it's nothing, nothing. Not one speck of sand have you contributed to your salvation?

Charles Spurgeon, a great Calvinist, a mighty man in the doctrines of grace, Prayed this, save the elect and please elect more. Save the elect, oh God. Pity the elect, but elect more, oh God, of these souls that are perishing forever. That's terrible theology, but that is a brilliant expression of a heart that has mercy for those who will spend their eternity this way. That He would give us a heart that would cry out, that He would use us to have mercy on people around us who are today living in rebellion, shaking their hands against Almighty God, who unless He will put their hand upon them, have no hope in this world.

Finally, we must praise God for salvation. To deserve this end and be pardoned. To have pardoned. To have earned this end, he who breaks One law is guilty of all of it. What is your standing without Christ?

Guilty or innocent? This makes things easy. This is a pass fail test. Fail, fail, fail, fail, fail, fail, fail, fail, fail, fail, Fail, fail, fail, fail, fail, fail, fail, fail without the mercy of Christ. Everyone deserving this end, this horrific end that in contemplating it has made me physically shudder at times this week, physically tremble, and have that response that you get when something is just unthinkable.

The end that you deserve left to your own devices. But Christ has laid down his life to offer pardon, and he, before the foundation of the earth, determined that he would show mercy on some and reveal himself to some and cause some to believe in him and grant them faith and repentance as a gift. Shall we think on these things and not praise God that he has saved us? We'll give Charles Spurgeon the last word. Oh, that none of us may know what it is to be ruled in justice by Christ, because we would not be ruled by mercy.

That none of us may know what it is to be ruled injustice by Christ because we would not be ruled by mercy. Let's pray. Father I pray that we would be a people so happy to be ruled by mercy, fleeing to the refuge of the cross considering this fearful doctrine and trembling before you, and that today a mercy might be born in our hearts that has been missing for those who do not know you. Father, come and use this doctrine mightily. May we consider you as you are.

May we consider man as he is. May We consider the work of Christ and the pardon extended to rebels and understand the doctrine of hell. I pray that it would be so in Jesus' name. Amen. There's one thing that I intended to say that I didn't say, but it occurred to me as I was praying.

Hell is not theory. Probably everyone in this room knows someone who is experiencing this reality right now. If you've known one unregenerate person who's died, then Luke 16 should take on a whole new meaning for you. They are there. And if they could speak to you, they would beg that you would put your finger in the water and put one drop on their tongue.

Hell is a place, a real place, for real people who lived real lives and who really will be cast out into outer darkness where there's weeping and gnashing of teeth, where there's a fire that will never be quenched, where morning will never come, where the worms will never die. You know someone who is there now, and you will follow them in death, and I will follow them in death. It is better to go to the house of mourning than to the house of feasting. That is the end of all men and the living will think about it and be wise.