Mesa Hills Bible Church

Pastor Tim Dane: We are in Revelation chapter 20. How do you like the title of that message, "The Burning Hell"? How encouraging is that? What else are you going to say when it's the passage about hell? But there is always good news from God's word on how we are to apply it to ourselves.

A couple of weeks ago, I was talking with my pastor from Las Vegas, from my home church. He has been back in Los Angeles for a few years after spending almost 30 years in Las Vegas. We were talking about different things, and he reminded me about a movie that they showed at his home church in Los Angeles back in the 70s at Alex Montoya's church, First Fundamental Bible Church.

John reminded me about a movie called "The Burning Hell." He said it was not even B-grade; it was like a C-grade movie, kind of a homemade Christian movie where they were showing scenes of hell. They had a blowtorch showing the flame and people screaming. It was a really cheesy, low-class movie, but he said it really got people to confess their sins and turn to Christ.

All of this raises questions about the concept of hell. Does hell really exist, or is it simply something that we have come up with? I don't know why anybody would want to come up with the idea of hell. Does it exist? And if it does exist, what is it like? If hell really is a place of torment and judgment, does that punishment and judgment go on forever and ever, or is there some point in the future where that judgment in hell would come to an end?

These are questions that people talk about a lot, and for good reason. This is what John addresses here in Revelation chapter 20, verses 11 to 15, in what would be the sixth and seventh scene of the seventh bowl. As I've explained to you, if you start in Revelation chapter 19, verse 11, when you look at the second coming of Christ, there are a series of eight times where there's a scene to the vision that God is showing him about the unfolding of the seventh bowl of judgment. If you look at chapter 19, verse 11, John says, "And I saw heaven opened." There are eight times when John says, "And I saw." So what you're seeing is the unfolding of the seventh bowl judgment that starts in chapter 16, actually. This right here, chapter 20, verses 11 to 15, are the sixth and seventh time when John says, "And I saw."

"And I saw a great white throne and Him who sat upon it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and the books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the Book of Life; and the dead were judged from the things written in the books, according to their deeds. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them; and they were judged, every one of them according to their deeds. And death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone's name was not found written in the Book of Life, he was thrown into the lake of fire." This is God's word. Amen.

Father, we thank You for telling us who You are, and we thank You for giving us the message that You do forgive sinners who trust in Your Son Jesus. We thank You for giving us the promise of eternal salvation because Your Son took the judgment and paid the price so that we could be restored and redeemed. We thank You for showing us that You have a plan to deal with the evil of this world and that we can entrust ourselves into Your hand as a faithful creator. Even when times are tough, we can still trust You. So, I pray that You would take this morning and this study and use it to help us know You and love You and serve You better. We ask this all in Jesus' name. Amen.

Well, there are two of these scenes. The first one is verse 11, the placement of this great white throne. Then verses 12 to 15 is the second scene where you actually see the judgment itself. Here in verse 11, we see the placement of this great white throne. Let's make a couple of initial observations. First of all, we can ask the question, when John says, "I saw this great white throne, and there's somebody sitting upon it from whose presence earth and heaven fled away," who is this sitting on the throne?

Part of this would involve a theological Trinitarian answer. This is God sitting on this judgment throne. There are about 50 times in the Book of Revelation where you see a throne occurring where John sees a throne in heaven. In some of these, the identity of the one sitting on the throne is more distinctly connected with God the Father, and in some of these, it's more distinctly related to God the Son, Jesus Christ.

But I think the best way of understanding this is that right here, what you're seeing is the person of Jesus Christ, God the judge in the person of Jesus Christ sitting on the throne. Something you have to remember right here: Jesus Christ is the one who took on flesh. He came from heaven to earth to take on human flesh. The reason why He did was so that He could become a human being, so that He could die on the cross to bear the judgment that you and I deserve. This one that died and rose again, the Bible shows us He's also the one who's going to be there at the end to judge sinners at the end of the age.

Here is Christ. He's creator. Does the Bible really say that He's the creator? Yes, it does, a multitude of times. Christ is the creator of all things. He's also the one who, the Bible says, sustains all things. In Hebrews chapter one, it says not only did He make heavens and the earth, He sustains them by His powerful word. This universe is holding together because Christ holds it together and sustains it.

Now, if you say, "Well, it's laws of nature, laws of physics that hold it together," well, that's true in part, but He's the one who made the laws of physics and the laws of nature. Guess what? According to the laws of physics, it should not even be staying together if you want to study what it says about nuclear law. Our universe should not be holding together. But Christ is the creator, He's the sustainer. He's also, the Bible shows us, the redeemer. He's the one that came to die so that we could be brought back to God and restored to God. He's the redeemer because of His salvation, His work on the cross.

The Bible also says that He is the heir of all things. Hebrews chapter one: not only did He make everything, but He's the heir of all things. Paul said the same thing in Colossians 1. Everything belongs to Him. So when it's all said and done and this creation is restored from sin and curse, it's all going to go to Him. It's His. Lastly, not only is He the creator, sustainer, redeemer, and heir, but He's also the judge. You guys remember that 70s comedy show with Flip Wilson? One of the things that Flip Wilson used to say is, "Here comes the judge." Well, He is the judge.

How do we know He's the judge? Well, the resurrection is evidence that He is who God says He is. He is the God in flesh, the Son of God, He's the creator, He's the redeemer, and He is the judge. When Paul was in Athens, he began evangelizing. We try to do what we can to take the gospel into the world as much as we can. We did that a few weeks ago down at Acacia Park; we took the gospel out there. We got to speak to several hundred people. Back in June, we did a giant mailer and we sent out gospel information to 25,000 homes. Back in the spring, we went out to the Territory Days and evangelized, and in a few weeks, we're going to go out here to the balloon fest.

Should we really be doing this? Well, I believe we absolutely should because God commanded that we should take the gospel into the world. When you look at the Apostle Paul in the New Testament, that's what he did. The Apostle Paul would go to cities and because he was a Jew and you have the background of the Bible, oftentimes Paul would start his missionary work by going into the synagogues. He would start talking to the Jewish population of the city, and it usually would only take a few weeks before the unsaved Jews would get antagonistic and violent. Paul would say, "Alright, fine. I brought the gospel to you; now I'm going to go out to the Gentiles here in the marketplace," and he would go wherever he could.

In Acts chapter 17, he came to the city of Athens, and he went up into a place called the Areopagus. Now, he began his outreach in Athens out in the marketplace. So he was sharing the gospel with all these people, and they said, "Wow, that's really an interesting message you have. Come and talk to us." Now, as you know, Athens and the Greeks were very, very fond of their philosophy and the idea that they really had answers to life. So what happens is that Paul goes up into this place called Mars Hill, which is right up as you're going toward the Acropolis in Athens, and this is where all the philosophers used to hang out and talk their different philosophical ideas.

Paul was up there and giving the gospel to these Athenian philosophers. Then what happens, it says in Acts chapter 17, in verse 30, Paul says, "Therefore, having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead." You want to know who the judge is? He's the one that conquered death. There's only one. There's only one that has come back in resurrection.

This is Jesus Christ, the Son of God. So the resurrection is God's way of saying to the world, "This is My Son. This is the Savior of the world. He's the one you need to believe. He's the one that is going to judge the world." This means that when we talk about Jesus being the Son of God, that expression "Son of God" does not mean He's like junior executive. "Son of God" is a biblical title that means He is God who has taken on flesh. Look with me at John chapter 5 for just a minute.

"Son of God" is a biblically driven title. It comes out of Old Testament promises that the Savior of the world was going to be a descendant of King David. When God talked to David and told David, "David, the Savior of the world is going to come from your family," God says, "I will be as a Father to Him. He will be as a Son to me." That expression "Son of God" goes back to the promise of this Savior that's going to come from the family of David. If you look here in John chapter 5, notice how Jesus talks about Himself. Going back to John 5, verse 17, Jesus had just told them, "My Father is working, and I am working." In other words, everything that God the Father's doing, that's what I'm doing. This is a statement that He is God Himself. Everything that God does, Christ does.

"For this cause therefore the Jews were seeking to kill Him all the more, because not only was He breaking the Sabbath in their eyes, but also He was calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God. Jesus therefore answered and was saying to them, 'Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son does in like manner. For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself is doing; and greater works than these He will show you, so that you may marvel. For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom He wishes. For not even the Father judges anyone, but He has given all judgment to the Son, in order that all may honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him. Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes Him who sent Me has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life. Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear shall live. For just as the Father has life in Himself, even so He gave to the Son also to have life in Himself; and He gave Him authority to execute judgment, because He is the Son of Man. Do not marvel at this; an hour is coming in which all who are in the tombs shall hear His voice, and shall come forth; those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life, and those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment.'"

He is the Son of God. He is the judge of the world. This is what we see here in Revelation chapter 20. This is the time when Christ takes His place to bring that judgment. Here's another observation that we get out of this right here. John says when Christ takes His place at the end of the age—and this is the end of the millennial kingdom, the Bible has just shown us back in Revelation 20, verses 1 to 10—when He takes His place as judge, it says here in verse 11 that when He takes a seat on this throne, it says, "from His presence earth and heaven fled away."

This verse right here is telling us about the destruction of the material universe. The Bible tells us that at the end of the millennial kingdom, there is going to be a physical destruction of this material universe. Now, there's a physics-based kind of statement that goes along with this. If you talk to somebody who is a physicist, they will tell you that as far as they can understand, there's no reason why atoms should stay together. They should be bursting apart because of the protons and the electrons and the neutrons, the electrical kind of relationship that you have in an atom. They don't understand why atoms stay together. It should blast apart.

Now, I presume that what you have happening right now is that God by His design is holding together a material universe, going against what they understand from laws of physics. But there's going to come a point in time where God basically pulls the plug on this universe and says, "That's it. It's time to let this one go up in flames. We're going to make a new heavens and a new earth." And there is a physical scientific answer that would coincide with what the Bible shows us right here. Peter talks about what's going to happen here. Turn with me back to 2 Peter chapter 3 because Peter actually tells us in a more detailed description what's going to happen here at the end of that millennial kingdom.

Peter is dealing with people mocking the Christians because the Christians were saying Jesus Christ is returning soon; He's going to bring His kingdom to this world. And the unsaved world was saying, "Yeah, come on, Peter. It's been 30 years. Where's the promise of His coming?" Peter says you're mocking God. What you should do is understand that He's patiently giving sinners an opportunity to hear and believe and be saved. If you look at 2 Peter chapter 3, verse 3, Peter says, "Know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts, and saying, 'Where's the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation.'"

Peter is going to say let's talk about the physical realm of nature, the creation. Some people say that nothing's ever changed ever since creation came into existence. But then in verse 5 he says, "When they maintain this, it escapes their notice that by the word of God, the heavens existed long ago." Genesis chapter 1, right? In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. God said, "Let there be." The word of God. God was expressing His creative will and creative power. So God made a universe by the word of God. The heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and by water.

In the beginning, it was a giant planet covered by water, and then God began to shape that. He separated the waters below from waters above, and then He began to separate the land masses because in the very beginning it was just a giant ball covered with seawater. Then He brought the dry land out of the water. That's what he means when he says here that the earth was formed out of water and by water. This is physical creation, the creation process. Then he says, "through which"—in other words, through that water, verse six—"at that time the earth was destroyed, being flooded by water." That's a literal physical flood, Noah's flood.

"But," verse seven, "the present heavens and earth by His word are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and the destruction of ungodly men." God is going to bring another catastrophic global judgment, but this one is going to be with fire, not with water, not a flood. Verse 8: "Do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years like a day." If you're mocking God by saying Jesus hasn't returned yet, Peter says don't put God on your microwave timetable. God is outside of time.

Now days mean days, years mean years, thousand years means thousand, but what Peter is telling us is that God does not operate on our same kind of relative level of time in terms of statements. But he says in verse 9, "The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but He's patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish, but for all to come to repentance." Why is it that God has not yet sent Christ back to bring these judgments? He's patiently giving people an opportunity to hear the gospel and get saved.

But, verse 10: "The day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up." He's been talking about physical creation, the flood. When he talks here about this destruction of the universe, this is talking about literal physical destruction of the material universe. Revelation is what tells us it comes at the end of the millennium. Verse 11: "Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming day of God, on account of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning? The elements will melt with intense heat. But according to His promise, we are looking for the new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells."

Literal creation, literal flood, literal future destruction. Revelation is telling us it's going to happen at the end of the millennial kingdom. This whole universe is going to go up in flames. God has placed an expiration date on this creation. Now we get a lot of people that think the end of the world is coming. Well, it's not going to come for at least 1,007 years. God does have an expiration date on this creation by His design, and this is not something that man is causing. This is God; He's going to pull the plug at the end of the millennium and recreate it with a brand new heavens and earth.

John Walvoord, one of the greatest Bible scholars of the 20th century, says, "Many references in the Bible suggest that the earth and heavens as now known will be destroyed," and he cites a number of verses. This is confirmed by the opening statement in Revelation 21 where he says that the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. That day is going to come. John MacArthur says, "The present earth and heaven will not merely be moved or reshaped; they'll be un-created and go totally out of existence. This is nothing less than the sudden, violent termination of the physical, natural universe."

The Bible says this and it says it very clearly. Now, some people who don't believe in premillennialism, they say this just is talking about political upheavals in the nations of the world. I intentionally took you to read through some of these passages like 2 Peter so you can see this is not talking about political unrest; this is talking about a physical destruction of a material universe. Notice what else it says right here. After it says that heaven and earth fled away, it then goes on to say, "and no place was found for them." The "them" is not referring to the physical universe. The "them" is referring to the resurrected souls that have been raised at that time.

Revelation chapter 20, verse 5 says, "The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were completed." In verse 5, it speaks about the resurrection of the unsaved of all ages. In the kingdom, when Christ comes and brings His kingdom, there's going to be resurrection to everybody that has lived in the past. Everybody that has lived and died is going to be resurrected—Old Testament believers like Adam, Noah, David, and Moses; all of these believers are going to be raised and in the kingdom. All of the church is going to be there.

But what about the unsaved people? Revelation 20:5 says the rest of the dead, that is the unsaved, they were not raised until the end of the thousand years. So Revelation presents us with two resurrections: the resurrection of the righteous that comes at the beginning of the kingdom, and then the resurrection of the unsaved that comes at the end of the millennial kingdom. By the way, when I use that expression "the resurrection of the righteous," does that mean that we're such nice people? No, it doesn't mean that. Biblically speaking, it means those that have the righteousness of Jesus Christ because they've recognized they are rebellious sinners and they've trusted Christ.

When the Bible uses the term "righteous" or the "saints," this doesn't say you Christians are such lovely, wonderful people. It's not always like that, is it? We should be, and we should be growing towards that kind of lifestyle, but it's the resurrection of those that have received the righteousness of Jesus Christ. They've been forgiven, completely cleansed. Amen. Not by our works, but according to His mercy and grace. So the believers are raised at the beginning of the kingdom, unbelievers at the end of the millennial kingdom, and that's who you see being described right here in Revelation 20.

It says no place was found for them. I read an article last week talking about a man named William Lester Suff. Down in Southern California in 1986, he murdered a 19-year-old girl, a mother of two. He was a serial killer; he had murdered countless different women, and he got away with these things. Now, they had caught him on some things and put him in jail, but he got away. Just last week, they found out through DNA studies that one murder that he committed way back in 1986, 38 years ago, he was the one that did it. They busted him on this. This guy was able to get away with a whole bunch of really wicked stuff for a long time.

That's because we live in a fallen world and things don't always work the way they're supposed to. Well, guess what? When Jesus Christ returns and brings His kingdom to this world, nobody is going to get away. No place was found for them. All of the unsaved of all ages brought into resurrection, standing before Jesus Christ. Even creation has been taken out of the picture. This is going to be the most horrific event and experience for these people that they could ever imagine. Not one shred of mercy or grace is going to be there for those people that are standing before Christ. No more mercy, no more grace, no more opportunity.

When we think about this and then we apply this to ourselves, this has to move us to say, "Oh God, I believe in Your Son Jesus Christ, and Oh God, I thank You that You have given a way that I could be saved. You have sent Your Son to take my punishment. And Oh God, please help me to start living for You and to keep living for You." Amen. This truth about what God has done for us has got to be what changes us and shapes our heart. Now you come here to verses 12 to 15, and the description continues where we come to the judgment itself. No mercy, no grace, only judgment according to what you've done.

Remember, it was probably 30 years ago, I was at a Taco Bell in Redondo Beach, and I got into a discussion with this guy in the line because I had some kind of Christian shirt on. He made some kind of comment, so I started sharing the gospel with him, and he was kind of antagonistic with me. I asked him a question. I said, "When you stand before God, what do you want? Do you want Him to treat you with mercy or justice?" He says, "I want justice." I just kind of cringed and said, "Oh, not me." You don't want justice when you stand before God.

We do obtain justice when we factor in the fact that Jesus Christ paid the price for our sins. So justice has been satisfied because of the cross of Christ, but it's not justice based upon our own life. Because if you and I got what we deserve, it's bad news. Here in verses 12 to 15, we find three biblical truths about this final judgment. The basis for it, first of all, verse 12 tells us, is what you've done. Deeds. Not only what you've done, but also what you've said and what you've thought. Because what you think is ultimately what comes out in your mouth, and what you think is ultimately what comes out in your deeds.

Every lie. I don't need you to raise hands on this because I already know the answer to it. How many of you have told a lie? Every one of you. How many of you have stolen? I'm sure that every one of you has stolen. We could roll back the videos, God's videos, and say, "Oh no, you have stolen." What about every lustful thought? Desiring things that aren't yours. Every hateful thought. Have you ever had hateful thoughts against another person? Jesus said if you have hateful thoughts, you're guilty enough to go into eternal hell. Maybe you never committed murder, but you're guilty enough to go into eternal hell.

What about every prideful thought? Thinking, "Well, that guy on that other row, I'm sure that he's done these things, but I've never done that." That's pride. You don't recognize your own sin before God. Every greedy thought, every prideful thought. When God judges mankind, each individual, He's not going to be grading on a curve. When you grade on a curve, the professor says, "Well, maybe I made this test a little too hard, so I'm going to adjust it and I'll see what everybody does on the test and then I'll kind of give a little leniency because my test was not really a good test."

No, God's test is perfect because it's driven by His own perfectly holy moral character. Deuteronomy 32:4 says, "His work is perfect, for all His ways are just." Now, there's a difference between God judging a believer and an unbeliever. The Bible does say that God judges believers. In Romans chapter 14, verse 10, Paul says to Christians, "We must all appear before the judgment seat of God." He repeats that in 2 Corinthians 5: "We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ." But when the Bible talks about the judgment that God brings to the believer, that judgment seat, it's called the Bema seat. It means the place of evaluation.

God is going to evaluate and judge your life and my life as a Christian. But here's the difference between the believer and the unbeliever. For the believer, the Bible says Christ has taken the punishment for every single sin. What is left for evaluation is: have you lived for the Lord? Have you served Him with a godly, humble attitude? Your life is going to be judged, but the sin has been taken by Christ so that not one pinprick of the wrath of God will touch you. Not so for the unbeliever, though. For the unbeliever, the focus is on the sin that has been committed.

They rejected the forgiveness of Christ; now all they have is sin. One writer says, "There will be no debate over guilt or innocence. There will be a prosecutor but no defender; an accuser but no advocate. There will be an indictment but no defense mounted by the accused. The convicting evidence will be presented with no rebuttal, no cross-examination. There will be an utterly unsympathetic judge and no jury." No mercy. Right now is that time for mercy. When we bring the gospel to people, we're saying here is what God has done to save you. Trust Him. The guilty will be punished eternally with no possibility of parole, no escape.

This is what we have here in chapter 20. Look at verse 12. "I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and the books were opened." First thing we notice here is that nobody is going to be exempted. I saw the dead, the great and the small. Who are the great ones? Everybody likes to pick on Hitler; there's a big name. Joseph Stalin. We can look at the big names, but also you've got the people that nobody has ever heard of. Nobody's ever heard of this unsaved person in the whole world. They could die and nobody would know the difference. Nobody's exempt from this.

In today's world, if you have enough power, if you have enough money, you can maybe buy your way out of it. We could probably multiply some illustrations of people who have done that in our own legal system here in America. Not when you stand before Jesus Christ. It'll be nothing but Christ on His great white throne and the sinners that have rejected Him. It says that these books were opened. First of all, the first book is the Book of Life. What is this Book of Life? You see the Book of Life mentioned several times throughout the Book of Revelation. The Book of Life is the record book of every person that belongs to Jesus Christ.

You could look at this book from two different perspectives: one of them from a divine perspective, the other one from a human perspective. The human angle would be this: these are the people that have been willing to repent from their sin and trust in Jesus Christ. Acts chapter 16, verse 31: how does a person get saved? Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved. That's the human angle of salvation. If you will trust Christ, God will save you. But the divine angle would be from this perspective: those whom God chose in eternity past and who get saved because He wrote their name in the Lamb's Book of Life before He even created the universe.

Revelation chapter 17, verse 8: "The beast that you saw was, and is not, and is about to come up out of the abyss and go to destruction. And those who dwell on the earth will marvel over the Antichrist, whose name was not written in the Book of Life from the foundation of the world." This is election. Election is a biblical doctrine. These are names that Christ wrote into the Book of Life before He even made creation. When we evangelize, when we bring the gospel, we're telling them Jesus Christ gave His life to save you. If you will repent and believe, God will save you.

But here's the key principle: God knows who belongs to Him. So He's got the Book of Life. He knows those that are His. But then it also says the books were opened, and that's a plural term. In Daniel chapter 7, when Daniel was looking at the end of the age, Daniel said that he saw God on the throne, and he says in 7:9, "I kept looking until thrones were set up, and the Ancient of Days came and took His seat. His clothing was like white snow, the hair of His head like pure wool. His throne was ablaze with flames, its wheels a burning fire. A river was flowing and coming out from before him. Thousands upon thousands of angels were attending him, and myriads of myriads were standing before him. The court sat, and the books were opened."

What Daniel saw fast-forward 2,600 years later, this is exactly what John sees here in Revelation chapter 20. This is a record of everything that every human being has done. Now they're going to stand before God and give an account. Verse 13: "The sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them." When it talks about the sea, this goes back to some of the pagan thinking. One writer, Craig Keener, says many Gentiles in the ancient world questioned whether those who died unburied, especially at sea, had a part in the afterlife. John says they're not lost. Davy's Locker is going to give them up.

Death and Hades speak about death in its entirety. We call that grammatically speaking a hendiadys, two words that make a single statement. It's talking about death in its totality. Hades is not hell; it's the idea of death, the grave. But you have here no escape. Nobody is going to escape this judgment. John Phillips says, "There is a terrible fellowship here. The dead, the small and the great standing before God. Dead souls are united to dead bodies in a fellowship of horror and despair. Little men and paltry women whose lives were filled with pettiness, selfishness, and nasty little sins will be there. Those whose lives amounted to nothing will be there, whose very sins were drab and doughty, mean, spiteful, peevish, groveling, vulgar, common, and cheap."

"The great will be there. Men who sinned with a high hand, with dash and courage and flare. Men like Alexander, Napoleon, Hitler, Stalin will be present. Men who went in for the wickedness on a grand scale with the world for their stage and who died unrepentant at the last." Nobody will be exempt. And then it says once again they were judged, every one of them according to their deeds. What they've done, what they have said, and even what they've thought. Nothing more horrific for you or me to be standing before God and have everything exposed. Every single detail brought out.

Look with me at Matthew chapter 11. We sometimes look at the overt kinds of things that people have done, but the Bible speaks very strongly about the wickedness of hearing the gospel, knowing about God, and just refusing to even respond or believe. Jesus began to reproach the cities in which most of His miracles were done because they did not repent. He says, "Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles had occurred in Tyre and Sidon which occurred in you, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. Nevertheless, I say to you, it'll be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for you."

It's going to be a hot hell for you that have heard me and not responded. "And you, Capernaum, you will not be exalted into heaven, will you? No, you're going to descend to Hades. For if the miracles had occurred in Sodom which occurred in you, it would have remained to this day. Nevertheless, I tell you, it'll be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for you." To whom much is given, much is required. If you have heard the message of the gospel and then you walk away, it's going to be a hotter hell than Sodom and Gomorrah. It's about hearing and knowing and then willfully walking away.

The Bible makes it clear that all men have a knowledge of God. Everybody knows God's there. But when you bring them the gospel, it's maximizing and intensifying the guilt and the responsibility that they have. Verse 14: "Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire." The Old Testament taught eternal punishment. Isaiah 66:24 tells us that the fire never goes out, the worm never dies. Daniel chapter 12, verse 2 says it's everlasting shame and contempt. But the New Testament really teaches the idea of hell much more intensely than the Old Testament.

The word "Gehenna" was often used by the Jews as a word to describe eternal hell. Gehenna was actually Ge Hinnom, the Valley of Hinnom on the southern edge of Jerusalem. It used to be a place where the apostate Jews would sacrifice their children to the pagan god Molech. Eventually this just turned into a burning heap, a trash heap where there was a perpetual fire that just went up, and they began to use this as an image for eternal hell, a flame that never went out. Certain passages of the New Testament call it the place of outer darkness, weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Revelation 14, verses 9 to 11 talks about the lake of fire. It says the unsaved person that dies in their sin will be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb, and the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest day and night. That's horrifying stuff. And I can understand why an unsaved person would say, "I don't even want to talk about that." This is the second death. This is the lake of fire. As a closing thought here, look at verse 15.

Is there any way to escape it? There is. "If anyone's name was not found written in the Book of Life, he was thrown into the lake of fire." How do you receive salvation? Believe in Jesus Christ. Turn your heart to Him, trust in Him. This is the promise of God's word. If you will turn to Him and repent, if you will trust in Christ, God will forgive you. Amen. That's the gospel. This is the message that we bring to people. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Whoever believes will not perish but will have everlasting life.

Father, we thank You for Your free gift of salvation. We know that it's a work of Your sovereign grace. It's Your grace at work in the hearts of sinners, but we know that You offer that salvation and You call upon men to believe in Your Son. So I pray that You would help us individually and as a church to be faithful in bringing this message to the world around us. All men need the Lord. We thank You, Oh God, for what You've done for us. We pray that You would help us to live in a manner worthy of this calling. And we pray it in Jesus' name. Amen.