Hell is real

Hell.

Most people don’t give it much thought…if they believe in it at all…and when they do it’s little more than a passing thought. Scripture teaches us that hell is not only a real place but it is a place of torment.

And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”  Matthew 25:46

And throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.  Matthew 13:50

 “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.  Matthew 25:41

The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers, and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.  Matthew 13:41-42

And 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.  Matthew 10:28

And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than with two hands to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame than with two feet to be thrown into hell. And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell, ‘where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.’ Mark 9: 43-48

For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment; 2 Peter 2:4

So it will be at the close of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.  Matthew 13:49-50

Those are only a handful of verses that speak of hell. Time and time again Scripture warns us that the wicked, the sinners, the idolaters, murderers, liars, sexually immoral will all be punished in hell. It tells us that hell is a place of weeping and gnashing of teeth, that it is better to cut off your hand and pluck out your eye than to be thrown into hell.

There must be horrible agony in dismembering your body in such a way and yet we are told it is better to dismember ourselves than it is to be thrown into hell. My mind shies away from even the thought of doing that kind of harm to myself. And yet the pain of it would be nothing compared to what those in hell face.

Hell is such a horrible place that our minds can’t comprehend the horror of it. Nothing on earth comes close to what hell will be like. Try as we might our human minds simply can’t fully grasp how utterly awful hell will be.

Johnathon Edwards gives a chilling and sobering image of what hell is like in his sermon Sinners in the hands of an angry God. Here’s a small sampling of what he had to say about hell.

And the reason why they don't go down to hell at each moment is not because God, in whose power they are under, is not exceedingly angry with them, as He is with the many miserable human beings now tormented in hell, and who there feel and bear the fierceness of His wrath. Yes, God is a great deal more angry with the great numbers that are now on earth; yes, doubtless with the many that are now sitting in this congregation, who feel completely at ease, than He is with many of those who are now in the flames of hell. It is not because God is unmindful of their wickedness, and does not resent it, that He does not let loose His hand and cut them off. God is not like them, though they imagine that He is. The wrath of God burns against them, their damnation does not slumber; the pit is prepared, the fire is made ready, the furnace is now hot, ready to receive them; the flames now rage and glow. The glittering sword is sharpened and held over them, and the pit has opened its mouth under them.

He described it way better than I ever could. Hell is without a doubt a place of unrelenting torture and fury. It is the one place all people should be willing to do anything to avoid and instead most of them go about their way without giving it a thought.

But think about it they should. Everyone that has ever, or will ever, live will reside in one of two places for all eternity. Heaven or hell. Hell or heaven. There is no other eternal option. There’s no plan b. There’s no escape clause. You either go to one or the other.

Everyone believes that they will go to heaven. In that same sermon Johnathon Edwards said...

Almost every natural man that hears of hell, flatters himself that he shall escape it.

They believe they will go to heaven…or whatever their version of heaven is. When was the last time you heard someone say ‘I’m going to hell when I die.’ I’ve never heard anyone say such a thing. I guess there could be some out there that do but they are few among the millions that believe they will one day reach heaven.

But Scripture tells us otherwise.

“Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. ¹⁴ For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few. Matthew 7:13-14

Wide is the gate and easy is the way that leads to destruction. Easy is the way that leads to hell. And the gate is wide open. But the gate that leads to life…eternal life…is narrow and few will find it.

Hell is a very real place. It is where the Lord will unleash all His wrath, all His anger, on those that did not make it through the narrow gate.

Does that scare you? It should. It should have you shaking where you sit. It should make your heart cry out in anguish. It should terrify your mind, grieve your heart, and pierce your soul. If your salvation rests in a prayer you said asking Jesus into your heart you should know it’s a false salvation. There’s more to it than that.

Hell awaits many a professing ‘Christian’ that believes their salvation is secure. But even for the regenerate, for those that have repented and tested themselves, for those that have found themselves to truly be in the faith…we should all be terrified. We should be weeping and praying, begging the Lord on behalf of all those that are bound for hell. We should hurt for every person that will ever find themselves in hell.

Can you imagine the cries of anguish that must fill hell every second? Can you imagine even a tiny measure of the wrath the Lord must unleash on those in hell? God who out of his wrath destroyed everything on earth except eight people and the animals they put on the ark has more anger…more vengeance…to unleash than we could stand even for a moment. It would be too much for us to bear for even a single second. And those cast into the lake of fire will experience it for eternity.

We should cry out for those that are right now on a path of destruction. We should hurt and beg and intercede with all we have on their behalf. Because even if they don’t know what’s in store for them…we do. And we should try with all our might to intercede for them.

Abraham did that for Sodom. He asked God time and again not to destroy the righteous with the city.

Abraham answered and said, “Behold, I have undertaken to speak to the Lord, I who am but dust and ashes. ²⁸ Suppose five of the fifty righteous are lacking. Will you destroy the whole city for lack of five?” And he said, “I will not destroy it if I find forty-five there.” ²⁹ Again he spoke to him and said, “Suppose forty are found there.” He answered, “For the sake of forty I will not do it.” ³⁰ Then he said, “Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak. Suppose thirty are found there.” He answered, “I will not do it, if I find thirty there.” ³¹ He said, “Behold, I have undertaken to speak to the Lord. Suppose twenty are found there.” He answered, “For the sake of twenty I will not destroy it.” ³² Then he said, “Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak again but this once. Suppose ten are found there.” He answered, “For the sake of ten I will not destroy it.” ³³ And the Lord went his way, when he had finished speaking to Abraham, and Abraham returned to his place. Genesis 18:27-33

The Lord saved Lot because Abraham interceded. How many times might Abraham have felt like he was questioning God in vain? But he continued. Just think what Abraham’s perseverance meant for Lot.

Hell’s torture should hurt us so much that we are willing to intercede for those that are headed there.

Imagine you saw someone standing next to a cliff they couldn’t see. At the bottom of the cliff is a raging forest fire destroying all in its path and on the way down are all the wild creatures trying so hard to escape the fire. The animals are tearing at each other, fighting, attacking anything they can reach out of their desperation to escape.

And here…just above all that…is someone that has no idea of the danger they’re in. With one foot resting on solid ground they are unknowingly dangling the other over the side of the cliff. There they stand precariously balanced between safety and destruction. From where you stand there seems to be nothing keeping them from falling off the cliff. One more step, one wrong move…any movement at all…may send them toppling over the side.

What would you do? Would you call out to them? Would you warn them? Would you run to them and grab onto them, pull them away from the cliff?

Now imagine you did all of those things and they laugh at you. They tell you that they’re standing on sure ground. There’s no cliff, there’s no fire, no wild animals. They’re safe. They don’t need your help.

But you know they do. You can see the danger they’re unaware of. You try again, tell them that the danger is there, that it’s real.

And they laugh at you. They push you away and go walking along the edge of the cliff, that one foot coming down just on the edge of solid ground…but the ground is crumbling.

That is where so many people, many of them professing ‘Christians’, are walking. They won’t listen to warnings, they won’t hear a word about the solid ground they think they’re on, they just go on walking along the cliff only one misstep away from tumbling into the inferno below.

And those of us that can see the danger are left watching them literally play with fire and are unable to do anything.

These people…friends, family, strangers…unless they are regenerate are balanced on ground that is in danger of giving way. They may claim to know Jesus but their lives show that they love the world more than they do Christ. And when we try to warn them of the danger they’re in they brush us off, push us away, get angry and refuse to listen to what we have to say.

If we could really see the inferno with flames and angry arms outstretched…waiting…grabbing at those we know and those we don’t know…what would we do to warn them of the danger they were in?

We can’t save them. Nothing we do will pull them away from the danger. All we can do is warn them. And wait. Our prayers can intercede for them but only the Lord can save them from the danger. Only He can open their eyes. Only He can show them the danger waiting, so close, to grab them.

But…what would we do to warn them of the fire they were so carelessly playing with if this was the scene in front of us?

Because it is in front of us. Every day. People all around us are playing with just such a fire. They’re playing with the wrath of God. Carelessly, selfishly, and mostly unknowingly, dangling just above that inferno whose flames are licking the bottom of their foot.

Hell is real. It is the place where the Lord will unleash more anger than we could handle. There are people we love that will experience that very anger. They will suffer the wrath. We can’t save them from it; we can’t save them from the hardness of their hearts and their unbelief. Only the Lord can do that. But we can pray for them. We can intercede for them. We can beg the Lord to save them. Because even though they may not know the danger…we do. Hell. Is. Real.

It is there and it will be the eternal home of many, many people.