Somebody Loves You

Raul Ries: Sometimes we have accidents and the devil uses those things to put you down so you can't worship the Lord. You can't have the Holy Spirit convicting and leading you and guiding you and doing everything in your life for you. And that's why Jesus spoke so much about the body, about the spirit, and about hell.

Guest (Male): [Singing] I am falling. I am falling in love. I am falling in love. I am falling in love with you.

Welcome to Somebody Loves You Radio, the Bible teaching ministry of Raul Ries in Diamond Bar, California. As we press on in our study of heaven and hell, Raul will urge you to consistently keep eternity in view. If you've received Jesus' gift of salvation, there's no need to fear death. Your future is secure.

But as you stay with us today, you'll get a challenge to point others to Christ through the witness of your life, recognizing that God doesn't want anyone to experience eternal separation from him. The title of today's study is "The Doctrine of Hell." Here's Raul Ries.

Raul Ries: In the book of Revelation chapter 21, go there. Chapter 21, verses 5 through 8. "And then he who sat on the throne said, 'Behold, I make all things new.'" So right off the bat, he's going to tell you that this is the time now that everything's going to become brand new. No longer darkness, no longer hell, but this is the time where it comes to an end. It is done. It is finished. Only two times: on the cross and here. It's finished. Done.

He says, "I make all things new." He said to me, "Write, for these words are true and faithful." And he said to me, "It's done. Finished. I am the Alpha, the Omega, A to Z, the alphabet in the Greek. I am the Alpha, the Omega, the beginning, the end. I will give of the fountain of water of life freely to those that are thirsty. He who overcomes shall inherit all things," spiritually. "And I will be his God and he shall be my son." Capital M-Y, my son. Speaks of Jesus, my son.

"But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the abominable, the murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, all liars, have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death." Now you see, that's not hell. That's the lake of fire. Hell is a different place. Hell is going to be cast into the lake of fire. The antichrist, the false prophet, every person that did not accept Christ and the world became totally a heathen, they'll be cast into the lake of fire.

If their names are not found written in the Book of Life, they'll be cast into the lake of fire. But those that accepted Christ, your name is going to be in the Book of Life. That when you came to Christ, he gave you life. He took his blood, he wiped out every one of your sins, and he wiped it all out where there is no longer that sin in his past. Then why would you want to go back to your past sins? Your drugs, your alcohol, lying, stealing, all these things that you used to do but you're not doing today.

That's what the devil wants. The devil has come to be a liar. He's a liar. He's a murderer. He's a thief. And he comes because he hates the Lord. Jesus threw him out of heaven with one-third of the angels. And whenever he sees someone come to know Jesus, he is furious. He has his army that he prepares, that he trains because he can't be everywhere at one time. But he has an army that he sends out to people, people that are having situations that are Christians in their lives.

He doesn't have to worry about the non-believer. He doesn't have to worry about you or me. We're lost. We're on our way to hell. He's our father. He's our general when we don't know Christ. But the moment I come to Christ, he gets blown out the door. He says, "I cannot believe another one." And think of how many have come to Christ and the devil has lost so many, but also he's gained many. Many that have come to know the devil and already have died and they're in hell. And in hell, they're waiting for the lake of fire.

Remember we talked about Luke chapter 16, verse 19 to the end? We talked about Lazarus and remember the rich man. And there we see the reality of hell and heaven or paradise because Christ had not died or rose again yet. So Abraham's bosom, 2,000 years way back, he put them there to receive those that would die, they were written in the Book of Life. And so here is the rich man and here is the poor man, Lazarus, which they didn't know each other, but in hell he knows who he is. And he knows who he is.

People will be able to think over and over forever and ever in pain, in flames where the worm never dies, the Bible says. Where the worm never dies. I don't understand that. But imagine being there forever, thinking of everything you ever did, never to be erased. And I think that when you have that mentality in your mind that I am in a war every single day 24/7, while you sleep, they plan. How am I going to get them tomorrow? Because he hates you.

Verse 7: "He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God, he shall be my son. But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the abominable, the murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death." You know, it's interesting that Jesus in Matthew 25:41 said, "Then he also said to those on his left hand, 'Depart from me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.'"

So hell, the lake of fire, was prepared not for you, not for me, not for man, but for the devil and his angels. But man takes himself and places himself with the devil and his angels in hell forever. Antichrist, false prophet, hell will be cast into the lake of fire after it's emptied out. When they stand in the Book of Revelation 20:11-15 at the white throne judgment, when the books are open and whoever's name was not written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire. They never repented. They never came to Christ.

And Job 14:14, Job said, "If a man dies, will he live again? All the days of my struggle I wait until the change comes." How does that change come? When you die. When this tent is taken down. For those of us that are older, and those that are older, pretty soon they can be in heaven or hell depending who they are. Because this tent, when you first get saved, it's a brand new tent. You buy a tent, you put it up, and you can enjoy it. Rain can't come in, the wind ceases. You can get inside and you can stay all night or all week.

But as that tent is used year after year, year after year, you come to a place where you've got to buy a new tent. And that tent that is old will be gone, but you receive a new spirit, a new body. Paul says in Romans 6: "Reckon the old man to be dead because of what God has done through the Holy Spirit." Therefore, there's no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. In the book of Ephesians 42 times, he speaks of our position in Christ, not outside of Christ, in Christ. Every one of us we're in Christ.

Your neighbor comes and knocks on the door, he says, "Hey, I want to ask you a question. I've been watching your life for the last six months and you're not the same. You're different. What's that?" And then you say, "Christ came into my life." Wow. Some will say, "Oh, you're too religious for me." But the Holy Spirit is the one that is going to convict that person. The Holy Spirit is the one that's going to bring them to repentance. So the witness of the Holy Spirit is working here, trying to convict this person like you, like me.

And when I began to have for the last two years before I came to Christ, I was so convicted in my life. I couldn't do anything. I couldn't do anything. People were praying for me. I didn't know that. But then when the last day came, the last day came, the Holy Spirit just zapped me. And I knew that it was God and I got on my knees, not in church, but my home, and I asked Christ in my life. My wife was at church. And when I went to the church to see my wife, she got my kids, got them out of Sunday school, got in the car and went home because she knew why was I doing at church.

She thought I was looking for her. And then when I got home, she found out that I accepted Christ. And she had to watch my life for six months to see if I was really a Christian or not. You see, there has to be growth. There has to be a change. You can't continue drinking. You can't continue womanizing. You can't continue in drugs. You can't continue to lie, to cheat, to curse. And so the devil sees that opportunity that already he has millions in hell and Jesus knows that because Jesus created hell for the devil and his angels.

Guest (Male): You're listening to Somebody Loves You Radio with Raul Ries. Connect with us anytime at somebodylovesyou.com to look through our wide selection of Bible-rich resources. And Raul's four-part series titled Heaven or Hell is conveniently available on both CD and flash drive. We'll tell you how you can get a copy in just a few moments. But first, here's more from Raul Ries.

Raul Ries: He says as we go in Matthew 5:29, remember? "If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you. For it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish than your whole body be cast into hell." He's not saying to pluck your eye. He's saying this: get rid of your sin so you can see. You can see spiritually. And sometimes we have accidents and the devil uses those things to put you down, to bomb you out so you can't worship the Lord. You can't have the joy of the Lord.

You can't have the Holy Spirit convicting and leading you and guiding you and doing everything in your life for you. And that's why Jesus spoke so much about the body, about the spirit, and about hell. He goes on and he declares in Matthew 16:18, "I also say unto you, Peter, that you are Peter and on this rock," Jesus, "I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." Up in Caesarea Philippi is a huge hill or a mountain with a big hole where the Romans used to worship the god Pan, a god of fertility.

And we go there and we stand there and we look at this mountain. Because this is the place in Caesarea Philippi on his way to Jerusalem that he stood and got the disciples and wanted to know what they believed. And the Lord had the opportunity to say, "Upon you, Peter, I will build my church." Never said he was going to be the Pope. Never said there was a purgatory. There's a heaven and there's a hell. And Peter, you're going to be the little rock and I'm going to be the massive stone. So when we're there, I point out that huge mountain. Petros, Petra. And Peter, you're this little stone. Picks it up. This is you, Peter.

Who are we? Little Peters. Nobody. And yet there are Christians, they think they're something when we're supposed to be nothing. We're supposed to be servants. Servants of the Lord, every one of us here. Young guys, young girls, don't give it up. Do not give it up. You're the next generation. And Jesus loves you and he wants to empower you with the Holy Spirit for your friends, for your family, for whoever comes to you. He wants to empower you so you can be the next generation ambassadors for Christ, servants of Christ.

We're trying to finish well. We're trying to finish well and you should try to finish well too. You don't want to finish the race where you were not disciplined. And yet at the Bema seat of Christ, not at the White Throne Judgment. In 2 Corinthians 5:10, 1 Corinthians chapter 3, verse 10 through 15, you're going to come to that place in Romans 14:10 that the Bema seat of Christ will be given to us, which is going to be a judgment not of sin, but a judgment of what you did for Christ.

Can it last? Can it last? And we're not saved by works. And the Bible says he's going to take that work, he's going to throw it into the fire to see if it's gold, silver, wood, hay, or stubble. And whatever the value of your work is, you will receive a reward. I don't know what the reward is, but you'll be saved if you have no reward because God has given us his gift and what's that? The Holy Spirit. Salvation is the gift through the Holy Spirit. Where the grace of God, until the day I die, the grace of God is in my life. Unmerited favor. I don't deserve it, but it's given to me.

He takes away the fear of me dying. No fear. Whatever God has, Lord, go for it. Because I know where I'm going. Do you know where you're going? This world is so horrible. But when you come to the Lord, we're all the same. All the same. Just a time limit. A month, 10 years, 20 years, 50 years in the Lord. And your relationship with him is very important. That's why when I look at hell, I'm real concerned for my life too. Anything could happen in my life.

If I don't stay in the Word, if I don't get in prayer, if I don't have fellowship with people that are right on in the Lord, then I'm going to have problems. It's better to break that fellowship with friends that are trying to take you down when you want to bring them up to the kingdom of God by the way you live, not by the way you preach. By the way you live your life is so important that the Lord can say, "Here's one of my ambassadors. Here's one that I've saved."

He says in Matthew 23:33 to the Pharisees, "You snakes, you brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell?" Condemned to hell. Jesus was the first one to use the term hellfire in the scripture many, many times in the New Testament. In Mark 9:43-48, he says, "If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off." He says it's better for you to enter maimed with two hands to go to hell where the fire never goes out. He's saying cut off the sin. Don't go home and cut your hand off. Don't you blame me. Don't do that.

Sin, cut off sin. He goes on. The Word of God unquestionably here teaches what? That there is a hellfire and brimstone and a place called in the center of the earth, hell, right now. Millions of people. Millions of people. And one day Satan, before the kingdom age, will be taken and will be incarcerated in hell in a cell and will be locked up for a thousand years. And then the Lord, after a thousand years, he's going to take again, he's going to open the lock and Satan is going to be let out one more time because the Lord wants to test the people's hearts for a thousand years if they still want to follow Satan or not.

We will have our new bodies. We'll be there already. No problem. But those that have lived a thousand years, had children, are 100 years old, 200 years old like in the Old Testament. A thousand years, 900 years, 800 years. And so those things are very, very well known in the scriptures. In Matthew 25:41, he says, "Then he will say to those on his left hand, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.'" He lets you know hell was for the devil and his angels, but now you will partake of hell like the rich man forever and ever. He said, "I am in these flames burning and I am tormented." Never to cease. Ever. Ever to cease.

In the Old Testament, Sheol, and the New Testament, Hades, have the same meaning. The unseen state of the underworld, of the underworld. The place which the soul and spirit of the unbelieving dead go at death, and where they remain until the resurrection at the White Throne Judgment of God, Revelation chapter 20:11-15. And then it says the first place of torment is not Sheol or hell. In the New Testament, we read it is Gehenna, the lake of fire. Hell is the center of the earth. In the story of Lazarus and the rich man, we see the state of the dead where they had consciousness. They could see, they could hear, they could speak, they could recognize each other. Wow. There's what's-his-name screaming, yelling just like you, can't stop.

The soul of a man goes into one of two places: the righteous heaven and the unrighteous hell. Matthew 13:41-42: "The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. They will throw them into a fiery furnace where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." Jesus over and over and over in the Gospels about the lake of fire and hell and Sheol.

In Matthew 22:11-13: "But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there was not wearing the wedding garment." So he comes into a wedding, he doesn't have the garment that everybody else has. "He said, 'Friend, how did you get in here without wedding clothes?' The man was speechless. And then the king told the attendants, he said, 'Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside into the darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'" Over and over and over and over.

Revelation 9:1-2: "The fifth angel sounded his trumpet, and I saw a star was fallen from the sky," who's that? Satan, "to the earth. And the star was given a key to the shaft of the abyss, the bottomless pit. And when he opened the abyss," you see there's a lock, there's a key, "smoke came out from it like the smoke from a huge furnace, and the sun and the sky were darkened by the smoke from the abyss, from hell." And so on and so on. I care for you and I don't want you to go to hell, any one of you here. Young people, please give your lives to the Lord.

One thing in conclusion here, it's actually something really incredible by Moody. He says this: "No one should ever preach on the topic of hell without a tear in their eye." This quote emphasizes the importance of compassion, emotionalism, authenticity when discussing the concept of hell.

Guest (Male): Well, if you've not received the gift of Jesus' salvation through faith and repentance, we urge you to make that all-important decision today. You're listening to Somebody Loves You Radio with Raul Ries. Today's lesson was titled "The Doctrine of Hell." To get a complete version with much more teaching, just call us at 800-634-9165. And for a donation of five dollars or more, we'll send a copy to you.

We'd also like to offer you Raul's four-message "Heaven or Hell" series, available on either CD or thumb drive. Further establishing the realities of life after death, this study will help you better understand the two widely divergent paths that are available to all of us as we respond to Jesus' forgiveness and redemption. You'll also learn more about God's merciful heart as you explore his desire for every person to enjoy everlasting life in his presence.

To order Raul's four-part study titled "Heaven or Hell," visit somebodylovesyou.com or call 800-634-9165. We'll send you the CD set for 18 dollars or the flash drive for just 10. That's 800-634-9165. To order this resource by writing us, the mailing address is Somebody Loves You Radio, Post Office Box 4440, Diamond Bar, California 91765.

We've developed a wide range of resources to aid you in studying the Bible on your own. Download our app to your iPhone or Android for a variety of digital Bible studies and a personal Bible reading plan. To keep listening to Raul's teachings, you can also download all of these programs as podcasts using iTunes or Spotify. And thank you for your partnership. Every gift you give helps us keep sharing truth, wisdom, and hope from God's Word. And next time, we'll continue with more in this series with thought-provoking insight into the spiritual realm.

It's easy to discount the existence of angels and demons because they feel so far removed from daily life. But as we'll see, we're already engaged in spiritual warfare every day. That's next time on Somebody Loves You Radio.

Guest (Male): [Singing] I am falling. I am falling in love. I am falling in love. I am falling in love with you.

This program is sponsored by Somebody Loves You Radio in Diamond Bar, California.