Sermon: Why Would God Send Anyone to Hell Forever?

Good evening. Thanks for coming back out tonight. Uh, we're gonna continue in our series 10 hard Questions for Christianity that we're taking a look at over this fall and the evenings. So please, if you would join me in Matthew, the gospel according to Matthew chapter 25, which is on page 8 31 in your Pew Bible.

The question, hard question before us tonight is this, why would God send anyone to hell forever? This

is a hard question. It's a hard question and it is for a variety of reasons. It's an unpleasant topic. It's unpleasant for a preacher. It's difficult to accept. Similarly, it's a difficult question because there are so many objections to the subject, but if I had to put my finger on the issue that makes this question so difficult and so hard to answer, it's that the subject of hell hits so close to home. It hits so close to home.

The subject of course requires each of us to acknowledge our own depravity and who likes that.

But if we are old enough, and this is perhaps even more difficult, if we are old enough, we've had loved ones die, and to consider that any of our loved ones may even now be in hell is a most dreadful thought. This is a hard question and for these reasons, it often feels easier to avoid the subject or just try your hardest not to think about it. But we can't do that tonight. We've gotta answer this question. And what we're gonna do is hear what the Bible has to say about hell

and then we're gonna also consider what it urges us to do in light of its teaching. So before we read, let me just orient your expectations, uh, for tonight by saying that I'm not under any assumption that I'm going to convince every skeptic. I'm not under the assumption that I'm going to answer every last question that you may have tonight. And I'm also not under the assumption that I'm going to make everyone happy preaching on this topic.

If Jesus had to preach on the subject of hell on a number of occasions, then I believe it's probably gonna take more than one sermon or more than one conversation to help you along and even help myself along. And so let me just offer this tonight. If if there are questions you have or you want to dialogue further after tonight, there can be a time and a place arranged for just that very thing. But tonight, I do want to give it my best effort.

It's share with you what the Bible says about hell. And so before we read the scriptures together, let's pray.

Holy Father, as we come now to listen to you, speak to us in the scriptures, I ask that you would pour out your Holy Spirit, that he might guide us into all the truth. Your word is truth and it is living and active, discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. I humbly ask that you would use these sacred writings, even this reading to make some many wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus, where it's in his strong name we pray, amen.

Matthew 25, beginning in verse 31 and through verse 46,

when the son of man comes in his glory and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne before him will be gathered all the nations and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats and he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on his left, then the king will say to those on his right, come you who are blessed by my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.

For I was hungry and you gave me food. I was thirsty and you gave me drink. I was a stranger and you welcomed me. I was naked and you clothed me. I was sick and you visited me. I was in prison and you came to me. Then the righteous will answer him saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you as stranger and welcome you or naked and and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?

And the king will answer them truly. I say to you as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me. And then he will say to those on his left, depart from me, you cursed into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels where I was hungry and you gave me no food. I was thirsty and you gave me no drink. I was a stranger and you did not welcome me naked and you did not clothe me sick and in prison and you did not visit me.

Then also they will answer saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and did not minister to you? Then he will answer them saying, truly, I say to you as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me. And these will go, go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life. Invite you to keep your Bibles open. We're gonna be, uh,

looking at a lot of different passages. So keep your Bibles open there and I wanna share with you our roadmap for this evening. I have two overarching questions that I will seek to answer. First is this, what does the Bible teach about hell? And I'll answer with three realities. And then secondly, the second overarching question will be this, how shall we respond? To which I'll answer with four exhortations. I promise we will get to the question, uh, before us this evening. So first,

what does the Bible say about hell? Three realities. First that we must acknowledge is that hell is real. It actually exists. Hell is not fictitious. It's not a figment of one's imagination such as the world of Narnia, for example. Hell is more than a literary device and it's more than a mythical locale. Hell is a place, it's a real place as real as hell, Michigan, that town that's just east of here,

apparently Jesus believed that hell is real as real as heaven. In fact, indeed, as many scholars have pointed out, there is no one in the gospels who are in the New Testament who speaks more of hell than Jesus himself. Jesus believed, believed it was real and he called it a place. So you look at verse 30 right before our section, and he calls it a place where there will be weeping, a gnashing of teeth, he calls it in Matthew 5 29 and 30 in Matthew 10 28,

A place where both soul and body can be cast into. And then according to verse 41, in our passage, hell is the final dwelling place for the devil and his angels. Hell is real, hell is real. The Bible also presents hell as an awful place. Some people, and perhaps maybe you've been this person or you know people like this have tried to make comparisons to hell, sound positive. So for example, I'm looking good as hell, or some

who have presented being destined for hell as a tolerable reality such as I'm on a highway to hell. But the Bible only only presents hell in the negative in utterly dreadful ways. Hell is awful. Verse 41, Jesus associates hell with fire in Matthew 18. He calls it a hell of fire in Mark nine in unquenchable fire in Matthew 13. He calls it a furnace of fire. In Jude seven, hell is called a punishment of eternal fire. And then in Revelation 21, which may be well known to many of you,

hell, the image given for hell is a lake of fire.

For those of you who have read your Bibles, you'll know that fire is often associated as a symbol of the anger and wrath of the Lord presented that way throughout the Old Testament, and we see it even in the new. And then in Second Thessalonians chapter one, it says that when Jesus returns, he'll return with his angels and he will come inflaming fire hell's associated with fire because hell is a place of judgment. At the same time,

the Bible associates hell as a place of outer darkness. So Matthew eight verse 12, Matthew 25, verse 30, again, two Peter two. And then in Jude 13, and this probably symbolizes the existence in extreme isolation, extreme deprivation, there is no light, there is no warmth, and you are far away from an from others. In Matthew 25, verse 30, hell is described as a place where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, as is said elsewhere in Matthew,

which speaks to the anguish of hell, the inconsolable, everlasting, hopelessness, excruciating pain, anger, frustration. These sound, these, this anguish I think is even audible. It's audible, the weeps of people, the grinding of teeth, how unpleasant that is.

I think of the 20 something year old man who was providentially placed in the seat next to my wife Sarah, and our one-year-old daughter. On their flight last week, a parent's worst nightmare was realized. Aubrey became inconsolable on that flight and nothing worked to calm her down. And this 20 something year old man sitting next to Sarah and Aubrey could not handle the uproar from our child. And so he put his hands over his ears and he

put his head into his lap to try and make it go away.

The sound, the anguish in hell and the sounds of anguish in hell will be absolutely unbearable.

Hell is also a place where the wicked will actually suffer, torments both in body and soul. So think with me for a minute, you, you know that when Christians die, those who die in Christ believers, they will immediately enjoy heaven and all of the joy that comes with it, right? Jesus says to the criminal, today, you will be with me in paradise. But believers are waiting for a day of consummation, a day when their souls will be reunited with their body and there will be a new

heavens and a new earth. And God himself will dwell with his people and there will be fullness of joy. So just as that's true for believers, those who die in Christ, the opposite is true for those who die without Christ, the souls of the wicked are immediately cast into hell where they will experience torment, but they too will wait for the reuniting of their soul with their body at the judgment day when they will experience the fullness of punishment in hell.

So consider then with me, Matthew 10, verse 28, which says this from Jesus, do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Jesus, of course, is here making a comparison. He's exhorting his disciples not to fear people in the face of extreme persecution because as Jesus says, the worst thing they can do to you, the worst thing is they can kill your body,

but they cannot kill your soul. But God can, and rather than fear people, you should then fear God. And Jesus' point here, his point is that the suffering of the body and soul in hell is beyond comparison to any bodily suffering. Even, even death. Any bodily suffering endured on earth cannot compare to the suffering of body and soul in hell.

Let me share one other description of the dreadfulness of hell, which comes from our passage in verse 46. Jesus says, these ones, the wicked ones will go away into eternal punishment. Hell is awful because it is the place of punishment, the place where punishment is meted out upon the wicked.

The question before us tonight is how can God send anyone to hell forever? But perhaps there are some of you, and I would expect this to be true. Some of you until tonight maybe weren't concerned with the forever part of that question, and you might be more just concerned in general that God would send anyone to hell at all, at all. I wanted to hold off getting to this question and address it head on until we laid some of this groundwork,

until we also made it to this point about punishment. Because I think the language of punishment helps us to understand and to make sense of why God would send anyone to hell.

The Bible is clear that God will hold each one accountable, every man, every woman for what he or she has done in his lifetime or her lifetime. The second Corinthians five, verse 10 would be a good representative text. Uh, for that though there are many other texts like it. And in verses 31 and 32 of our text, Jesus describes what this day of judgment will be like, where there will be an accounting. Jesus says that when he comes in his glory, when he returns,

when he his second at his second coming, he will come in his glory. All of his angels will be with him, and he will sit, he will sit on his glorious throne and he will judge both the living and the dead. All nations. All nations. Which is just another way of saying he will judge all people. Every single nation from every time period throughout history will be at this judgment day and Jesus will render the judgment and each one

will receive the punishment that is deserved. We've already referenced verse 46, but look there again. Here are the two and only two judgements that one can receive for what he has done or what she has done in the body. The righteous will go into eternal life. The wicked will go into eternal punishment. Now, let me just clear the air and make sure that we're all on the same page. Do not hear me saying, and let us all be clear on this point.

One's works cannot merit eternal life. One's works will not get you into heaven.

I think perhaps upon first read of this text that some of you could have come away thinking that. So that's why I want to take a moment just to clear the air and to make sure we're clear on this. Throughout scripture, throughout scripture, the testimony of scripture is this one is saved only by grace through faith in Christ alone, saved by grace through faith in Christ alone. And even here, I think Jesus, Jesus' teaching agrees with that.

So you look at verse 34, for example. Jesus says, inherit the kingdom. How? How do inheritances work? Inheritances can't be earned, right? They're, they're a gift. They're a gift. So it's all of grace. Salvation is all of grace works cannot save. But, and here's Jesus' point. In a believer, there will be evidence of true faith, and that's what he's referring to here in verses 35 through 45. And similarly in the unbeliever,

there will be evidence of unbelief, there will be evidence of unbelief. And that's what Jesus is getting at in verses 42 through 45. Those who lack good works prove. They demonstrate that they are not trusting in Jesus. And so verse 46 says, the wicked shall be punished in hell. They are those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of Jesus Christ. They are unbelievers, they have rejected Christ, and they have demonstrated it in their neglect for his people.

Now, the Bible calls this sin, okay? The Bible calls unbelief, sin, rebellion against God, rejecting God guilty of law, breaking

sin. I fear for some of us is conceived in our minds as a silly mistake. I I Didn't really mean to do that. Or it wasn't that big of a deal or as a weakness like, like it's just a character flaw. It's not really who I am.

Sin is serious. Sin is dead serious. Every single sin deserves God's wrath and curse.

If God is holy and just as the scriptures testify all throughout, then he must punish sin and he must punish those who commit sin. Otherwise he would be unjust. And then therefore, he would not be God. God must punish sin. So back to the question, why would God send anyone to hell? Why would God send anyone to hell? Because justice demands it. Divine justice demands it. Sin deserves to be condemned and God will rightly punish sinners in hell.

But as we see next, this is a punishment that will never end. It's a punishment that will never end. Even prisoners in our judicial system have a date in which their punishment will mercifully come to end, even those who are serving a life sentence, right? Even those who are sentenced to be in jail until the day they die, they have a date in which their sentence will expire, and that date may be the date of their death,

but those in hell have no such thing. There is no expiration date because their souls, which are immortal, will never cease to exist. Their souls will never cease to exist. And God's verdict having been rendered to each person once and for all, once and for all time will leave no hope of a retrial. It will leave no hope of an expiration date to the sentence, to a merciful end for their punishment. What the Bible is saying is that hell is everlasting.

And that's exactly what Jesus says in verse 46. He calls it an eternal punishment. Notice by the way, that eternal shows up twice in that verse, okay? Verse 46. These ones will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life. That's the same word, the same Greek word, eternal or everlasting. And just keep that in, keep that point in your mind for the rest of our sermon. Jesus elsewhere speaks of the everlasting nature of hell. Again,

mark 9 43, the fire of hell is unquenchable. This is a suffering which will be unending. Other passages make this point as well. Two Thessalonians one verse nine, Jude seven, revelation 14, verse 10,

as one might expect with a doctrine so sobering and grim as that of hell, alternative theories have been presented to either soften this teaching or to do away with it all together. Okay? And and you're familiar with some of these theories. You've maybe at one time held them. Maybe you're here tonight and this best represents your view. Or perhaps as I've heard even recently, some of you have been having conversations with people you know who believe

these alternative theories. I, I think it's true of all of us, that we naturally shrink back at contemplating such a dreadful outcome. I think that's true for all of us. We all naturally shrink and, and what I don't want you to hear from me is that I think it's easy to just to just accept what the Bible says this, this is a hard saying,

but we don't do anyone any favors to soften this teaching or sugarcoat this teaching or to just leave it for somebody else. Okay? So what I want to do just briefly is to share two of the most common, common alternate theories and then just give a quick response. Okay? And this is a, these are alternative theories to the eternal existence of hell. And the first is this annihilationism annihilationism. It's the view that the wicked are not punished in hell forever,

but that their souls will cease to exist. They will be destroyed, they will be annihilated instead. And some would say that happens immediately at death. Others would say that it happens at some point later, maybe after their sentence for sin has been served. The reason that's often cited by proponents for this view is maybe one of two things. Either it's this, that the eternal punishment is too severe for sins offense. So in other words, the punishment doesn't fit the crime.

Eternal punishment is too long a sentence to serve for sin or this, that the Bible's language about hell is better explained by annihilationism. And I wanna take those two uh, reasons backwards in the reverse order. So does Annihilationism best represent the Bible's teaching? Well, we've already seen one big key, okay? The Bible speaks about hell Everlast as an everlasting punishment, speaking of it the same way as it does about heaven everlasting life.

Okay? Either if it's true that there's an end date to hell, well then there's an end date to heaven, okay? There you can't have one and not the other. But we can also look at the words that are used in the Bible, some of them, which are used to used by some to say that annihilationism is true. So one of those words is the Greek word Apollo. Me, Apollo, me. It's used in the New Testament in many places in Matthew 10 28, which we already looked at earlier. It's translated destroy, okay?

Fear him who can destroy both soul and body and hell. So proponents of Annihilationism might say, see, here's evidence that the wicked ceased to exist. They're destroyed, they're utterly destroyed, they're annihilated and they cease to exist. But a pmy in other places in the New Testament cannot mean annihilation, annihilationism, it cannot mean annihilate or destroy as some might assert about Matthew 10 28. So Luke 15,

you've got the parables of the lost coin, the prodigal son, the lost son, and Apollo is used there. It means to be lost. It doesn't mean destroy. It means to be lost. Matthew nine, verse 17. Jesus is speaking about new wine and o old wineskins. And Jesus says that the skins will be destroyed if you pour new wine into them. What he means, what is meant there is they become useless, right? You can't use them anymore. You can't mix new wine and old wine or Matthew two.

You could translate a pollie as kill, such as when Herod was seeking for Jesus to destroy him, to to kill him at his birth. Apollo does not have to mean destroy. That's that's the point I'm trying to make. Apollo mean does not have to mean destroy as in annihilate or cease to exist. And what we've already considered from scripture, including that punishment is everlasting. We would not expect that it would mean annihilate or cease

to exist. Here's how one scholar says, we would better understand this idea of destruction. Here's what he says. When you see destroy, it means everlasting perdition, a perdition consisting of endless loss of fellowship with God, which is at the same time a state of endless torment or pain. Okay? So that's, that's a rebuttal to, does Annihilationism best represent the Bible's teaching? And I would say, no, it does not.

So what about this concern that eternal punishment does not fit the crime? Well, first of all, I think we have to acknowledge that hell is severe, even if hell is not eternal from everything that we've just looked at, I don't think anyone can conclude that hell is not severe. Okay? But is it so severe that it's actually unjust? Is it so severe that it's actually an unjust punishment or sentence? Well, one underlying problem, I think,

with this line of questioning is this. It doesn't take the seriousness of sin. It doesn't. It's minimized. The seriousness of sin is minimized. Man is thought of too highly. God is not thought of highly enough because sin what the Bible says, sin offends an eternal God. Sin offends an infinitely holy God. When you sin against anyone else that it, it pales in comparison to God whom you've offended.

We don't think sin is as bad as the Bible says it is. So my encouragement to those who are maybe having trouble with this question is to try to allow the punishment's severity to inform your understanding of the seriousness of the crime rather than the other way around. So rather than trying to be the arbiter of what form of punishment fits the crime for sin, you, you should take what the Bible says in terms of punishment and take that back to

your view of sin. Are you with me? That make sense? Yeah. Some of you, okay. Sin is serious, it's severe, and it deserves that punishment. We are not the offended party, okay? We are not the offended party. And that I think then means we ought to let the offended party speak about the seriousness of the crime. Who are we to say how serious the crime is when we aren't the ones that have been offended? When we are offended,

we often find ourselves coming down on people, okay? We, we have too high a view of ourselves, too low a view of God. Abraham in Genesis 18 asked this rhetorical question, which I think is appropriate for for this. Here's what he says, shall not the judge of all the earth do what is right? If you're having a hard time eternal punishment, everlasting punishment seems too severe for sin, ask that question. Shall not the judge of all the earth do what is right?

What other answer is there than yes, indeed. He shall do what is right. And on that day of judgment, he will be vindicated. Okay? So that's annihilationism. That's annihilationism. That's the first alternative view. The second is this, universalism. Universalism. And this would be perhaps maybe more common to us universalism. It's the view that all people will be saved. The reason often cited by proponents of this view is that hell is

inconsistent with a loving God. And so there's a book called Love Wins that might describe in two words, that whole view. Love wins out over God's justice. They're inconsistent, therefore, hell can't be eternal or everlasting. It doesn't work. It's inconsistent. Indeed, we have to say God is love. God says it about himself over and over and over again in scripture, and he demonstrates it over and over and over again in scripture.

God speaks very directly about how he loves sinners, though God speaks very directly. And lemme say this, it's not how we would expect God to speak if universalism was true. If universalism was true, we would not expect to hear what we're about to hear from John three 16 in Romans five, verse eight. For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

And then listen to Romans five, verse eight. But God shows his love for us in that while we were sinners, Christ died for us at the cross. God's love and God's justice meet. They meet. It's not as if they were inconsistent all throughout the other ages, but we see it at the cross where they come together and they fit together. God shows his love to sinners by sending his son to atone for sin and thereby save us from the wrath to come.

God does not ignore sin. He does not ignore it. He never ignores sin. What does he do? God forgives sin. He forgives sin. And the reason he can do it justly be a just God is because his son, his holy, perfect son, paid the penalty for sin. That's how God can be just and forgive our sin. Listen to how Bink thought of these things. Okay? Listen to Herman Bink says it much better than me. If the object had not been salvation from eternal destruction,

the price of the blood of God's own son would've been much too high. The heaven that he won for us by his atoning death presupposes a hell from which he delivered us. The eternal life he imparted to us presupposes an eternal death from which he saved us, the grace and good pleasure of God in which he makes us participants forever presuppose a wrath into which we would otherwise have had to be plunged forever. That's how Bain

describe, describes and thinks through this, okay? We've spent a lot of time on these three realities, these three realities. Hell is real, hell is awful, hell is everlasting. And I promise you, we're gonna spend much less time with these four exhortations, okay? How shall we respond? How does the Bible urge us to live? Four exhortations and so that you can remember them. They all begin with T, the letter T. Okay? The first is this,

take heeded. Take heed my friends. I admit questions may remain. I may not have satisfied every question that you came with tonight, but you must take heed. Do not be so preoccupied with those questions that you miss the warning in these passages. The warning in these passages, these dreadful descriptions of hell should cause alarm. For some of you, they should. There are some of you here who are seeking to live your life without God.

And should you conclude your life without Christ, you will perish. This will be your destiny. These descriptions of hell should cause alarm for you. Jonathan Edwards once said this, almost every natural man that hears of hell flatters himself that he should escape it. Every natural man that hears of hell flatters himself that he shall escape it. Take heeded. Don't flatter yourself, my friends. John 3 36. Whoever believes in the sun has eternal life. Whoever does not obey,

the son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him. Take heeded. Secondly, if that is you, and perhaps you're convicted by the spirit, you're saying, you know what? You're right. These passages should cause alarm for me because I'm condemned in the way that I'm living. Here's the second thing. Turn to Jesus. Turn to Jesus. Perhaps you're like that terrified Philippian jailer, who at the end of himself asked this great question,

what must I do to be saved? He was terrified. Terrified. What must I do to be saved? And the Bible tells you, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. Why Jesus? Why Jesus? Why must you believe in him? Well, first Thessalonians one verse 10 tells us, here's what it says about Jesus. He is the one who delivers us from the wrath to come. He's the one who delivers us from the wrath to come. When Jesus died on the cross for our sins,

he turned away God's wrath from us. By facing it himself. Jesus took on the wrath of God that our sins deserved, that we might not have to face it ourselves. Jesus is the one and only thing that can deliver you from the wrath to come. There is nothing and no one else by which you can be saved. So turn to him. Trust in him entirely. Trust in Him fully. Come to him. Take Him as your salvation today. Take him as your salvation today.

Third, if you have turned to God, if you have turned to Jesus and you have believed in him, thank him. Thank God believer, when you hear of hell, you don't have to fear condemnation. We just sang it this morning. No condemnation. Now, I dread.

When you take into consideration the wrath of God on sins and how apart from God's grace, you deserve that wrath. It ought to move your heart to thankfulness to him for saving you from that wrath. It ought to move you to thankfulness. We ought to learn from the example of that one leper in contrast to those nine other lepers in Luke 17. You might remember this story where Jesus heals 10 lepers of their leprosy and nine of them go away.

They continue living on with their life. But Jesus makes a point to highlight this one leper. The one leper who praised God returned to Jesus. He fell on his face at Jesus's feet, and he gave him thanks. He gave him thanks. He was healed from his disease. And what did he do? He thanked. God learned from that leper. And then fourth and finally, tell others. Tell others. We have spent a lot of time this evening studying bad news, maybe not too pleasant.

But I hope what you've just heard is that there's good news. There is good news to share. There is salvation from wrath to come. And who among us doesn't like to share good news? I love sharing good news, don't you? I love receiving good news. Maybe even, even more than telling others of good news. There are many people who are waiting to receive this good news. The gospel of Jesus is the best of all possible news. There is nothing better that you can share.

And so let us humbly, let us winsomely, persuasively, joyfully, tell others and invite all people to take hold of Christ our savior, that they too may be saved. Let's pray. Father in heaven,

your word speaks what is true.

It does not always tell us exactly what we think that we want to hear, but you are God. You have ordained all things, and you have been so kind and merciful to record in your scriptures for us. Warnings. Warnings about the peril of unbelief.

And in eternity in Hell, I pray, oh God, that tonight you would use these words to cause sinners, to turn to Christ, to believe on him that you would use these words so that believers would thank you and would tell others. And Father, we know this to be true, that these your words always will, will, will profit. They'll always exist for your glory. But we are grateful that you have told us this good news and we pray this all in Jesus' name. Amen.