Latest / truthunedited / What Is Hell According to the Bible_ – The Truth About Hell

Transcript

What Is Hell According to the Bible_ – The Truth About Hell · truthunedited

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: What if I told you that the most misunderstood place
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: in all of Scripture isn't just a myth or metaphor,
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: but a terrifying reality that Jesus himself spoke about more
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: than any one else in the Bible. Bit of this
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: a place so horrifying that it was never meant for humanity,
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: Yet millions are walking straight toward it without even knowing.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: The ancient Hebrews whispered its name in fear she Ol.
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: The Greeks called it Hades. Jesus warned about Gehenna with
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: tears in his eyes. But what is Hell really? Is
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: it fire and brimstone, eternal darkness, complete separation from everything good.
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: Here's what will shock you. Most people have it completely wrong.
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: The Bible reveals a truth about Hell that's far more complex,
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: far more serious, and far more urgent than Sunday School
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: ever taught you. From the shadowy depths of the Old
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: Testament to the apocalyptic visions of Revelation, Scripture paints a
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: piqure that will challenge everything you thought you knew. To day,
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: We're diving deep into God's word to uncover the raw,
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: unfiltered truth about Hell and why understanding it might be
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: the most important thing you ever do. Are you ready
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: to face what the Bible really says? Long before anyone
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: spoke of flames or eternal torment, the ancient Hebrews had
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: a different understanding of what happened after death. They called
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: it Sheol, and it appears throughout their scriptures as a
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: mysterious place beneath the earth, where all the dead gathered,
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: regardless of whether they had lived righteously or wickedly. When
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: Jacob believed his beloved son Joseph had been killed by
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: a wild animal, his grief was so deep that he
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: refused all comfort. In Genesis thirty seven thirty five, he
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: declared something striking, I will go down to Sheol to
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: my son mourning. Jacob wasn't talking about a grave on
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: the surface of the earth. He was speaking of a
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: realm low, a shadowy place where he expected to be
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: reunited with Joseph after his own death. This wasn't a
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: place of fire or active punishment in the early Hebrew mind,
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: it was simply where everyone went. The word Sheol appears
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: dozens of times in the Old Testament, and its consistently
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: portrayed as a dark, quiet realm separated from the land
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: of the living. It was the great equalizer. Rich and poor,
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: righteous and wicked, all descended to Shiol when they died.
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: But Sheol could also open up suddenly to swallow the
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: living as a form of divine judgment. When a man
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: named Cora led a rebellion against Moses' leadership, questioning his
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: authority in God's choice, God demonstrated his displeasure in a
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: terrifying way. The ground beneath the rebels literally split open.
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: Number sixteen thirty thirty three describes what happened next. But
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: if the Lord creates something new, and the ground opens
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: its mouth and swallows them up with all that belongs
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: to them, and they go down alive into Sheol, then
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: you shall know that these men have despised the Lord.
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: And as soon as he had finished speaking all these words,
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: the ground under them split apart, and the earth opened
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: its mouth and swallowed them up with their households and
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: all the people who belonged to Corah and all their goods.
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: So they and all that belonged to them went down
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: alive into Sheol, and the earth closed over them, and
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: they perished. From the midst of the assembly. This dramatic
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: event showed that Sheol wasn't just a passive destination after
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: natural death. It could also be a place of judgment
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: for those who rebelled against God. The rebels went down alive,
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: conscious aware of what was happening to them. Moses later
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: spoke of God's anger in Deuteronomy thirty two twenty two,
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: saying for a fire is kindled by my anger, and
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: it burns to the depths of Shiol, devours the earth
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: and its increase, and sets on fire the foundations of
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: the mountains. Even in these early writings, there were hints
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: that Shiol had depths that it could burn, and the
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: God's justice reached even into the realm of the dead.
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: As Hebrew thought developed over centuries, another concept emerged that
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: would eventually become central to understanding Hell. This was Gehenna,
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: and unlike Shiol, it had a physical location that anyone
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: could visit and see with their own eyes. Gehenna was
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: the Greek pronunciation of the Hebrew gay Hinum, which meant
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: the valley of Hinnum. This valley ran along the south
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: side of Jerusalem, forming part of the natural boundary of
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: the city. Joshua fifteen eight mentions it as a boundary
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: marker when the land was being divided among the tribes
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: of Israel. Then the goes up by the Valley of
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: the Son of Hinnom at the southern shoulder of the
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: Jebusite that is Jerusalem. At first, it was just a
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: geographical feature, unremarkable except for its location. But this valley
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: would become infamous for something far darker than being a
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: simple geographical marker. During some of the darkest periods of
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: Israel's history, when they turned away from God and worshiped
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: the false gods of the nations around them, this valley
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: became a place where people committed the most horrific sin imaginable.
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: They built altars there and sacrificed their own children to
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: a false god named Mulik, burning them alive in fire.
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: The very ground of this valley was soaked with the
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: blood of innocent children, and the air was filled with
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: their screams. King Josiah, one of the few righteous kings
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: of Judah who truly followed God, was so disgusted by
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: this practice that he took dramatic act to stop it forever.
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: In Second King's twenty three ten we read that he
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: defiled Tofith, which is in the Valley of the son
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: of Hinnham, that no one might burn his son or
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: his daughter. As an offering to Molech. He essentially desecrated
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: the sight, making it ceremonially unclean, to make sure it
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: could never be used for worship again. What was once
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: a place of false worship became a place of refuse.
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: The prophet Jeremiah spoke God's burning anger about what had
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: happened in this valley. The practice of child sacrifice was
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: so evil, so contrary to God's nature, that he had
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: to address it directly. In Jeremiah seven thirty one thirty two,
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: God declared through him, and they have built the high
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: places of Tophoth, which is in the valley of the
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: son of Hinnam, to burn their sons and their daughters
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: in the fire, which I did not command, nor did
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: it come into my mind. Therefore, behold, the days are coming,
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: declares the Lord, when it will no more be called Tophith,
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: or the valley of the son of Hinham, but the
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: valley of Slaughter, For they will bury in Tofoth, because
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: there is no room elsewhere. This valley, once a place
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: of child sacrifice and later a garbage dump, where fires
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: burned constantly would become in later Jewish thinking, a powerful
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: symbol of God's judgment. While she Al was the general
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: realm of the dead where everyone went, Gehenna represented something
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: more specific and more terrifying, a place of fiery destruction
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: reserved for those who rebelled against God. The physical valley,
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: with its dark history, became a picture of a spiritual
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: reality that awaited the wicked. The prophet Isaiah brought a
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: new intensity to the discussion of what awaited those who
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: rejected God. His visions of judgment introduced imagery that would
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: echo through scripture all the way to the words of
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: Jesus himself centuries later. Isiah looked beyond the physical realm
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: and saw spiritual realities that made him shudder. In one vision,
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: he saw the downfall of the king of Babylon, but
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: his words seemed to describe something even greater, the fall
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: of a spiritual power behind earthly kingdoms. Isiah fourteen nine
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: fifteen records this haunting vision. She ole beneath is stirred
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: up to meet you when you come. It rouses the
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: shades to greet you. All who were leaders of the earth.
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: It raises from their thrones all who were kings of
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: the nations. All of them will answer and say to you,
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: you too have become as weak as we. You have
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: become like us. Your pomp is brought down to she
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: Ol the sound of your harps. Maggots are laid as
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: a bed beneath you, and worms are your covers. How
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: you are fallen from heaven, O, Deestar, son of Dawn,
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: How you are cut down to the ground, you who
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: laid the nations low. You said in your heart, I
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: will ascend to Heaven above the stars of God. I
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: will set my throne on high. I will sit on
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: the mount of Assembly, in the far reaches of the north.
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds. I
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: will make myself like the most high. But you are
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: brought down to Shiel, to the far reaches of the pit.
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: This wasn't just about a human king any more. The
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: language of ascending to heaven, setting a throne above God's stars,
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: making oneself like the most high. This was pride that
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: reached cosmic proportions, and the fall was equally dramatic, plunging
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: not just to Shiel, but to the far reaches of
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: the pit, the deepest darkest parts of the realm of
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: the dead. But Isaiah also spoke of those who would
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: face God's judgment in terms that were even more direct
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: and personal. In Isiah thirty three fourteen, he posed a
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: terrifying question to the sinners in Jerusalem. The sinner in
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: Zion are afraid trembling has seized the godless. Who among
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: us can dwell with the consuming fire? Who among us
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: can dwell with everlasting burnings? The prophet was forcing his
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: listeners to confront an uncomfortable truth. God himself is like
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: a consuming fire to those who remain in their sins.
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: His holiness is so pure, so intense, that it burns
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: away everything that is impure. Perhaps most disturbing of all
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: is Isaiah's final vision in his book. In the very
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: last verses of Isaiah, after describing the new heavens and
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: new Earth that God would create, he ends with a
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: sobering warning. In Isaiah sixty six twenty four, he describes
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: what will happen to those who rebelled against God? And
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: they shall go out and look on the dead bodies
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: of the men who have rebelled against Me, For their
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: worms shall not die, their fire shall not be quenched,
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: and they shall be an abhorrence to all flesh. This
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: image of undying worms and unquenchable fire would later be
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: picked up by Jesus himself when he warned about hell.
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: Isaiah was showing that divine judgment wasn't temporary or light.
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: It was serious, lasting, and horrifying to contemplate. The rebel's
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: bodies would be consumed by worms that never died and
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: fire that never went out, a picture of judgment that
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: never ended. As the prophets spoke God's words to Israel,
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: a theme began to emerge that went beyond physical death
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: or even the shadowy existence in Shiol. They started speaking
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: about a separation from God that had eternal consequences, about
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: individual responsibility for sin, and about a resurrection that would
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: lead to different destinations. The prophet Ezekiel brought a message
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: that shattered the common excuse that people were suffering for
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: their ancestors sins. People in his day would quote proverb
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: the fathers eat sour grapes and the children's teeth are
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: set on edge. They were claiming they were being punished
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: for what their parents and grandparents had done. But God
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: said that wasn't how it worked. In Ezekiel eighteen twenty,
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: God declared through him the soul whose sins shall die,
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: the son shall not suffer for the iniquity of the father,
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: nor the father suffer for the iniquity of the son.
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself. Each
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: person would face the consequences of their own choices. This
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: was a revolutionary concept that made the question of judgment
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: deeply personal. You couldn't blame your parents or your circumstances.
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: Your eternal destiny depended on your own relationship with God
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: and your own choices. The prophet Daniel took this even
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: further with a vision that explicitly mentioned resurrection and different
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: eternal destinies. Near the end of his book, after receiving
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: visions about the end times, he was told something that
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: had never been stated so clearly before. In Daniel twelve two,
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: he wrote, and many of those who sleep in the
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life,
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: and some to shame and everlasting contempt. Death wasn't the
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: end of the story. People would wake up again, and
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: they would face either eternal life with God or eternal
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: shame and contempt. This was one of the clearest Old
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: Testament statements that the after life involved conscious existence in
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: vastly different states. Not everyone would experience the same fate.
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: Some would know everlasting joy, while others would know everlasting shame.
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: Even the Psalms, which are songs and prayers, touched on
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: this theme of separation from God. In Psalm nine seventeen,
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: the writer declared, the wicked shall return to Siol all
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: the nations that forget God. There was a direct connection
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: between forgetting God, rejecting him, ignoring him, pushing him out
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: of your life, and ending up in sheol. It wasn't
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: just about doing bad things, It was about forgetting the
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: God who created you and gave you life. Between the
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: time the Old Testament ended and the New Testament began,
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: Jewish thinkers continued to wrestle with questions about death and
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: what came after. Their writings during this period, while not
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: part of scripture, show us how understanding was developing, and
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: set the stage for what Jesus would later teach. The
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: Psalms had already hinted that God wouldn't abandon the righteous
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: to sheol forever Psalm sixteen ten expressed confidence in God's
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: protection even beyond death, for you will not abandon my
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: soul to Siol or let your holy ones see corruption.
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: This suggested that Shechiol wasn't the final destination for those
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: who trusted in God. There was hope of deliverance, of
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: being brought out of the realm of the dead. Another
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: psalm developed this idea further, drawing a sharp contrast between
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: the fate of the wicked and the righteous. Psalm forty
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: nine fourteen to fifteen said, like sheep, they are appointed
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: for Sheol, Death shall be their shepherd, and the Upright
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: shall rule over them. In the morning, their form shall
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: be consumed in Sheiol with no place to dwell. But
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: God will ransom my soul from the power of Sheol,
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: for he will receive me. The wicked would remain in Sheiol,
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: consumed there with death as their shepherd, a dark and
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: disturbing image, But the righteous had a different future. God
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: would ransom them, buying them back from the power of Sheol.
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: He would receive them to himself. This was a powerful
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: expression of hope that went beyond simply accepting death as
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: the end. Even the Book of Proverbs, known for its
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: practical wisdom, touched on this theme. In Proverbs fifteen twenty four,
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: we read the path of life leads upward for the prudent,
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: that he may turn away from Shiol. Beneath there were
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: two paths, one leading up to ward life and one
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: leading down toward Shiol. The wise person chose the upward path.
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: During the centuries between the Testaments, Jewish teachers reflected deeply
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: on these passages. They began to describe Shiel as having
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: different compartments or sections, one for the righteous dead who
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: awaited redemption in comfort sometimes called Abraham's Bosom, and another
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: for the wicked, who already experienced torment while awaiting final judgment.
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: This wasn't random speculation. It grew from careful reflection on
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: the scriptures they already had, trying to make sense of
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: passages that suggested different fates for different people after death.
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: When Jewish scholars translated the Hebrew scriptures into Greek around
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: two hundred and fifty BC, creating what's called the Septuagant,
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: they faced an interesting challenge. How do you translate Siol
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: into a language spoken by people with completely different religious
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: and cultural assumptions? They chose the Greek word Hades, which
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: was the name of both the Greek god of the
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: underworld and the underworld realm itself in Greek mythology. But
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: the Biblical writers didn't adopt Greek mythology along with the
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: Greek word. They transformed it, stripping away the pagan stories
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: and using it simply to mean the realm of the dead,
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: just as Sheiol had meant in Hebrew. Job had written
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: about this realm long before. Even though he didn't use
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: the Greek word, he understood that even the realm of
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: the dead was not hidden from God's eyes. In Job
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: twenty six six, he said, Siol is naked before God,
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: and a baden has no covering. A baden was another
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: Hebrew word for the place of destruction, and Job was
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: making the point that even these hidden places were completely
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: visible to God. Nothing was concealed from him, not even
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: what happened in death. The Psalmist expressed the same truth
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: in more personal, beautiful terms. In Psalm one thirty nine eight,
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: he declared, if I ascend to Heaven, you are there.
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: This was an expression of God's omnipresence his presence everywhere.
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: Whether you went up to the highest heights or down
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: to the lowest depths, God was there. You couldn't escape him,
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: even by dying. The prophet Amos used this truth as
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: a warning to those who thought they could hide from
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: divine judgment. In Amos nine two, God proclaimed, if they
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: dig into Sheiel, from there shall my hand take them.
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: If they climb up to Heaven from there, I will
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: bring them down. The wicked might try to escape judgment
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: by hiding in Siel or fleeing to Heaven, but God's
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: reach extended to both places. There was no escape from
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: his justice. When the Greek word Hades entered Biblical vocabulary,
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: it carried this Hebrew understanding with it. It wasn't the
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: mythological underworld ruled by a god named Hades, where heroes
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: could journey and return, where posephone spent half the year.
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: It was simply the place of the dead, the realm
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: where souls went after physical death, and it was completely
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: under the authority of the One True God of Israel.
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: The Book of Revelation, the last book in the Bible,
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: introduces a concept that appears nowhere else in scripture, the
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: Lake of Fire. This isn't the same as Shiol or Hades,
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: or even Gehenna. It's presented as the final, permanent destination
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: of all evil, the place where everything opposed to God
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: will end up forever. John's vision in Revelation shows a
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: progression of judgment events happening in a specific order. First,
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: he sees the great battle at the end of history,
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: and two specific beings are captured and judged. In Revelation
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: nineteen twenty, he writes, and the Beast was captured, and
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: with it the false Prophet, who in its presence had
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: done the signs by which he deceived those who had
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: received the mark of the Beast and those who worshiped
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: its image. These two were thrown alive into the lake
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: of fire that burns with sulfur. The Beast and the
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: false Prophet, symbols of political and religious evil, are the
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: first to be thrown into the lake of fire. They
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: don't die first, They're thrown in alive, conscious to experience
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: the full reality of this place. Then, after describing a
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: thousand year reign of Christ, John sees the final enemy
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: dealt with. In Revelation twenty ten, he describes what happens
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: to the devil himself, and the devil who had deceived
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur,
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: where the beast and the false prophet were, and they
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: will be tormented day and night forever and ever. Notice
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: the detail. The beast and false Prophet were still there.
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: They hadn't been annihilated. They had been in the lake
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: of fire for a thousand years, and now the devil
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: joins them, and the torment will continue day and night
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: forever and ever. This is John's way of expressing absolute endlessness.
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: It never stops, it never diminishes, It goes on eternally.
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: But the Lake of Fire isn't only for spiritual beings
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: like the devil, the beast, and the false prophet. Revelation
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: twenty fourteen fifteen shows its ultimate purpose. Then Death and
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: this second death, the lake of fire. And if any
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: one's name was not found written in the Book of Life,
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: he was thrown into the lake of fire. This passage
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: reveals something stunning. Even Death itself, the last enemy, as
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: Paul calls it, and Hades, the temporary holding place of
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: the dead, will be destroyed by being thrown into the
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: Lake of fire. The Lake of fire is called the
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: second death because it comes after physical death, which is
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: the first death. It's the permanent, final state of separation
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: from God and all good things, and any person whose
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: name isn't written in God's Book of Life will be
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: thrown into it. Why does hell exist at all? If
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: God is love, as the Bible declares, why would he
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: create such a place. This question troubles many people, but
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: scripture provides clear answers about Hell's purpose in God's plan
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: and character. Jesus himself revealed something important. Hell wasn't originally
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: created for humans. In Matthew eight twelve, when talking about
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: those who would be excluded from the kingdom, he described
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: them being thrown into the outer darkness. In that place
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. This place
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: of outer darkness wasn't designed with humans in mind. He
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: made this even clearer later when describing the final judgment.
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: In Matthew thirteen forty two, when explaining the parable of
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: the weeds, he said that the angels will throw them
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: weeping and gnashing of teeth. The phrase weeping and gnashing
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: of teeth appears repeatedly in Jesus's warnings, emphasizing the reality
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: of conscious suffering in hell. Peter explained that even angels
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: who sinned weren't spared from judgment, showing that Hell was
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: originally prepared for rebellious spiritual beings. In Second Peter two four,
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: he wrote for if God did not spare angels when
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: they sinned, but cast them into Hell and committed them
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment,
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: trials and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: day of judgment. Hell exists because God is perfectly just,
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: and perfect justice requires that evil be punished. A God
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: who simply overlooked evil, who shrugged at sin and rebellion,
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: wouldn't be good or just. He would be indifferent to
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: the suffering that evil causes. Hell exists because free will
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: is real, and God respects the choices his creatures make,
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: even when they choose to reject him forever. He doesn't
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: force anyone to love him or be with him. Hell
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: exists because holiness and unholiness cannot coexist in harmony. God's
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: presence is pure, blazing holiness, and those who refuse to
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: be cleansed from their sins cannot enter that presence without
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: being consumed. Hell is, in one sense, the only place
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: where someone can be separated from God as they've chosen
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: to be, yet continue to exist. When Jesus began his
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: public ministry, he went up on a mountain side and
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: taught the crowds in what would become known as the
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: Sermon on the mount This wasn't just beautiful poetry about
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: loving your neighbor. Hidden within these teachings were some of
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: the most serious warnings about Hell that anyone had ever heard.
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: Jesus shocked his listeners by saying that anger could send
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: someone to Hell. In Matthew five twenty two, he declared,
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: but I say to you that everyone who is angry
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: with his brother will be liable to judgment. Whoever insults
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: his brother will be liable to the council, and whoever
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: says you fool will be liable to the hell of fire.
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: The people listening knew the commandment you shall not murder,
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: but Jesus was taking it deeper. He was saying that
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: the hatred and contempt that leads to murder was itself
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: worthy of judgment. The hell of fire he mentioned was Gehenna,
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: that valley outside Jerusalem where garbage burned constantly. But Jesus
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: didn't stop there. He continued with warnings that made people uncomfortable.
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: In Matthew five twenty nine to thirty, he said, if
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: and throw it away, for it is better that you
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: lose one of your members than that your whole body
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: you to sin, cut it off and throw it away,
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: for it is better that you lose one of your
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: members than that your whole body go into Hell. Jesus
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: wasn't literally telling people to mutilate themselves. He was using
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: dramatic language to make a point. Sin is so serious.
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: Hell is so terrible that you should be willing to
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: do anything, sacrifice anything to avoid it. Whatever causes you
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: to sin, whatever leads you away from God, get rid
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: of it. Better to enter Heaven disabled than to enter
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: Hell with your whole body intact. Later in the same sermon,
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: Jesus presented two paths in Matthew seven thirteen two fourteen.
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: He warned, enter by the narrow gate. For the gate
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: is wide, and the way is easy, that leads to destruction,
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: and those who enter by it are many. For the
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: gate is narrow, and the way is hard, that leads
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: to life, and those who find it are few. This
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: was a disturbing statement. Jesus was saying that most people
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: were on the wrong path, the path that leads to destruction.
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: The road to life was narrow and difficult to find,
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: and few people were on it. Jesus performed many miracles,
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: healing the sick, casting out demons, even raising the dead,
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: but the religious leaders, the Pharisees, refused to believe he
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: was from God. They came up with an explanation that
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: revealed the hardness of their hearts. They said, Jesus cast
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: out demons by the power of Satan himself. This accusation
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: prompted Jesus to give one of his most sobering warnings
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: in Matthew twelve thirty one thirty two. He said, Therefore,
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: I tell you every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people,
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven.
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: And whoever speaks a word against the Son of man
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: will be forgiven, But whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: will not be forgiven, either in this age or in
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: the age to come. There was a sin that had
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: no forgiveness, not in this life or in the life
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: to come. This was terrifying to hear. What was this
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: unforgivable sin? Jesus explained it in the context. It was
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: attributing the work of the Holy Spirit to Satan. It
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: was seeing God's obvious work and deliberately calling it evil.
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: It was a hardening of the heart so complete that
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: the person could no longer recognize good from evil. Mark's
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: Gospel records this same incident with slightly different words. In
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: Mark three twenty eight to twenty nine, Jesus said, truly,
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: children of man, and whatever blasphemies they utter. But whoever
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: guilty of an eternal sin. The phrase eternal sin is chilling.
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: This wasn't a sin that could be repented of. It
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: was a permanent state of rebellion that resulted in permanent consequences.
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: Luke's Gospel also captures Jesus warning about this. In Luke
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: twelve ten, he stated, and every one who speaks a
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: the one who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: be forgiven. The repetition of this warning in three different
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: gospels shows how important it was. Jesus wanted people to
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: understand that there was a point of no return, a
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: hardening of heart that put someone beyond the reach of forgiveness.
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: Jesus often taught through parables, simple stories with deep spiritual meanings.
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: Several of his parables dealt directly with the reality of
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: eternal separation between those who were saved and those who
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: were lost. One of the most vivid was the story
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: of a rich man and a poor beggar named Lazarus.
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: In Luke sixteen nineteen thirty one, Jesus told this story.
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: There was a rich man who was clothed in purple
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: and fine linen, and who feasted sumptuously every day, And
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: at his gait was laid a poor man named Lazarus,
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: covered with sores, who desired to be fed with what
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: fell from the rich man's table. Moreover, even the dogs
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: came and licked his sores. The poor man died and
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: was carried by the angels to Abraham's side. The rich
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: man also died and was buried, and in hades, being
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: far off and Lazarus at his side. And he called out, Father, Abraham,
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: end of his finger in water and cool my tongue,
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: for I am in anguish in this flame. But Abraham said, child,
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: remember that you in your lifetime received your good things,
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: and Lazarus in like manner bad things. But now he
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: is comforted here and you are in anguish. And besides
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: all this between us and you, a great chasm has
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: been fixed in order that those who would pass from
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: here to you may not be able, and none may
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: cross from there to us. And he said, then, I
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: beg you, father, to send him to my father's house,
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: for I have five brothers, so that he may warn
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: them lest they also come into this place of torment.
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: But Abraham said, they have Moses and the prophets let
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: them hear them. And he said, no, Father Abraham, but
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: He said to him. If they do not hear Moses
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: and the prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: should rise from the dead. This story revealed several truths
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: about the after life. Both men were conscious after death.
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: The rich man was in torment in flames, while Lazarus
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: was comforted. There was a great chasm between them that
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: couldn't be crossed, no second chances, no moving from one
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: place to the other, and the rich Man's concern for
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: his brothers showed that those in hell are aware of
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: what they've lost and don't want others to end up there.
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: Jesus told another parable about fishermen sought their catch in
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: Matthew thirteen forty seven fifty. He said again, the Kingdom
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: of Heaven is like a net that was thrown into
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: the sea and gathered fish of every kind. When it
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: was full, men drew it ashore and sat down and
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: sorted the good into containers, but threw away the bad.
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: So it will be at the end of the age
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: the angels will come out and separate the evil from
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: the righteous, and throw them into the fiery furnace. In
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: The separation was final. The good fish were kept, the
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: bad fish were thrown away. At the end of the age,
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: angels would separate people the same way, and those separated
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: as evil would be thrown into the fiery furnace, where
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: they would be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Jesus also
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: told a parable about ten virgins waiting for a bridegroom
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: in Matthew twenty five one to thirteen. Five were wise
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: and brought extra oil for their lamps, while five were
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: foolish and didn't. When the bridegroom came at midnight, the
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: foolish ones had to go buy more oil, and while
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: they were gone, the door was shut. When they returned
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: and knocked, the bridegroom said, truly, I say to you,
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: I do not know you. The door to the wedding
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: feast was closed, and those who weren't ready were left
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: outside in the darkness. Jesus told a story about a
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: farmer who planted good seed in his field, but while
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: everyone slept, an enemy came and planted weeds among the wheat.
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: In Matthew thirteen twenty four to thirty, he described what
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: happened the Kingdom of heaven may be compared to a
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: man who sowed good seed in his field, but while
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: among the wheat and went away. So when the plants
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: came up and bore grain, then the weeds also And
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: the servants of the master of the house came and
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: said to him, Master, did you not sow good seed
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: in your field? How then does it have weeds? He
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: said to them, an enemy has done this. So the
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: servants said to him, then, do you want us to
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: go and gather them? But he said no, lest in
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: gathering the weeds, you root up the wheat along with them.
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: Let both grow together until the harvest. And at harvest time,
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: I will tell the reapers, gather the weeds first and
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: bind them in bundles to be burned, But gather the
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: wheat into my barn. The disciples didn't understand this parable,
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: so they asked Jesus to explain it. His explanation in
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: Matthew thirteen thirty six to forty three was crystal clear.
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: Then he left the crowds and went into the house,
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: and his disciples came to him, saying, explain to us
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: the parable of the weeds of the field. He answered,
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: the one who sows the good seed is the son
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: of Man. The field is the world, and the good
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: seed is the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: the sons of the evil One, and the enemy who
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the end
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: of the age, and the reapers are angels. Just as
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: it be at the end of the age. The Son
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: of Man will send his angels, and they will gather
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: law breakers, and throw them into the fiery furnace. In
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: kingdom of their father. He who has ears, let him hear.
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: Jesus left no room for confusion. The weeds represented sons
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: of the evil one. The harvest was the end of
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: the age. The angels would gather every one who caused
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: sin and broke God's law and throw them into the
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: fiery furnace. The image of weeds being bundled and burned
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: was a picture of Hell's reality. Jesus repeated this theme
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: again in Matthew thirteen forty nine to fifty. So it
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: will be at the end of the age. The angels
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: will come out and separate the evil from the righteous,
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. The phrase
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: weeping and gnashing of teeth appears multiple times in Jesus' teaching.
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: Weeping represents sorrow and regret, gnashing of teeth represents anger
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: and anguish. It's a picture of conscious suffering and awareness
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: of what's been lost. Jesus described the final judgment in
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: vivid detail in Matthew twenty five thirty one forty six.
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: He painted a picture of himself sitting on a glorious throne,
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: with all nations gathered before him. When the Son of
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him,
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: people one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: from the goats, and he will place the sheep on
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: his right, but the goats on the left. Then the
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: king will say to those on his right, come you,
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: who are blessed by my father inherit the kingdom prepared
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: for you from the foundation of the world. For I
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: was hungry and you gave me food. I was thirsty
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: and you gave me drink. I was a stranger and
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: you welcome me. I was naked and you clothed me.
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: I was sick, and you visited me. I was in prison,
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: and you came to me desire. Then the righteous will
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: answer him, saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: when did we see you a stranger and welcome you,
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: or naked and clothe you? And when did we see
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: you sick or in prison and visit you? And the
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: King will answer them. Truly, I say to you, as
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: you did it to one of the least of these
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: my brothers, you did it to me. And then he
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: will say to those on his left, depart from me.
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: You cursed into the eternal fire prepared for the devil
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: me no food. I was thirsty, and you gave me
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: no drink. I was a stranger and you did not
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: welcome me naked and you did not clothe me sick
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: and in prison, and you did not visit me. Then
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: they also will answer, saying, Lord, when did we see
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: you hungry or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: Then he will answer them, saying, truly, I say to you,
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: as you did not do it to one of the
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: least of these, you did not do it to me.
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: righteous into eternal life. This passage revealed several crucial truths. First,
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: Jesus himself would be the judge. Second, the judge and
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: would be based on how people treated others, especially the
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: least of these. Third, the eternal fire was originally prepared
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: for the devil and his angels, not for humans. Fourth,
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: the punishment was described as eternal, just as the life
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: given to the righteous was eternal. Jesus also warned that
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: not everyone who called him Lord would enter heaven. In
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: Matthew seven twenty one twenty three, he said, not everyone
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: who says to me, Lord Lord will enter the Kingdom
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: of heaven, but the one who does the will of
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: my Father, who is in heaven on that day, many
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: will say to me, Lord Lord, did we not prophesy
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: in your name and cast out demons in your name?
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: And do many mighty works in your name? And then
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: will I declare to them, I never knew you. Depart
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: from me, you workers of lawlessness. Ye, people who thought
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: they were saved, who even did miracles in Jesus's name,
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: would be shocked to hear him say he never knew them.
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: Religious activity wasn't enough. What mattered was truly knowing Jesus
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: and doing the Father's will. Luke records Jesus being asked
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: a direct question about salvation. In Luke thirteen twenty four
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: to twenty eight. Someone asked if only a few would
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: be saved, and Jesus answered, strive to enter through the
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: enter and will not be able. When once the master
• 41:28
  Speaker 1: of the house has risen and shut the door, and
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, Lord,
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: open to us, then he will answer you I do
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: not know where you come from. Then you will begin
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: to say we ate and drank in your presence, and
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: you taught in our streets. But he will say I
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: tell you, I do not know where you come from.
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: Depart from me, all you workers of evil. In that place.
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth when you
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: see a Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: prophets in the Kingdom of God, but you yourselves cast out.
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: Jesus made it clear that salvation wasn't automatic or easy.
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: He used the image of two gates and two roads
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: to illustrate the choice everyone faces. In Matthew seven thirteen fourteen,
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: he said, enter by the narrow gate. For the gate
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: is wide, and the way is easy, that leads to destruction,
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: and those who enter by it are many. For the
• 42:30
  Speaker 1: gate is narrow, and the way is hard, that leads
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: to life, and those who find it are few. The
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: wide gate was easy to find and easy to enter.
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: Many people were going through it, but it led to destruction.
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: The narrow gate was hard to find and hard to enter.
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: Few people found it, but it led to life. Jesus
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: wasn't teaching that salvation came through good works, but he
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: was teaching that following him required commitment and sacrifice. Luke
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: records someone asking Jesus a direct question about this. In
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: Luke thirteen twenty three twenty four. The person asked, Lord,
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: will those who are saved be few? And Jesus answered,
• 43:16
  Speaker 1: strive to enter through the narrow door? For many I
• 43:20
  Speaker 1: tell you will seek to enter and will not be able.
• 43:25
  Speaker 1: The word strive meant to make every effort, to fight
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: hard for something. Entering through the narrow door required effort
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: and determination. Many people would try to enter, but wouldn't
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: be able to because they weren't willing to meet God's conditions.
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: Jesus also made an exclusive claim about salvation in John
• 43:47
  Speaker 1: fourteen six. He declared, I am the Way and the
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: except through me. This wasn't one way among many, Jesus
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: claimed to be the only way to God. The narrow
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: gate was narrow because it was a specific gait faith
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. A wealthy young
• 44:11
  Speaker 1: man came running to Jesus with an urgent question. He
• 44:16
  Speaker 1: wanted to know how to get eternal life, and he
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: believed he'd done everything right. This encounter, recorded in all
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: three Synoptic Gospels, revealed how difficult it was for some
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: people to enter God's kingdom. In Matthew nineteen sixteen to
• 44:31
  Speaker 1: twenty six the story unfolds, and behold, a man came
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: up to him, saying, Teacher, what good deed must I
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: do to have eternal life? And he said to him,
• 44:42
  Speaker 1: why do you ask me about what is good? There
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: is only one who is good. If you would enter life,
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: keep the commandments. He said to him, which ones, And
• 44:52
  Speaker 1: Jesus said, you shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery,
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness.
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: Honor your father and mother, and you shall love your
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: neighbor as yourself. The young man said to him, all
• 45:06
  Speaker 1: these I have kept, what do I still lack? Jesus
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: said to him, if you would be perfect, go sell
• 45:14
  Speaker 1: what you possess and give to the poor, and you
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: will have treasure in heaven, and come follow me. When
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: the young man heard this, he went away sorrowful, for
• 45:23
  Speaker 1: he had great possessions. And Jesus said to his disciples, truly,
• 45:27
  Speaker 1: I say to you, only with difficulty will a rich
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: person enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Again, I tell you
• 45:34
  Speaker 1: it is easier for a camel to go through the
• 45:36
  Speaker 1: eye of a needle than for a rich person to
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: enter the kingdom of God. When the disciples heard this,
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: they were greatly astonished, saying, who then can be saved?
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: But Jesus looked at them and said, with man, this
• 45:50
  Speaker 1: is impossible, but with God all things are possible. Mark's
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: account adds emotional details in Mark ten seventy. In twenty seven,
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: we learned that Jesus looked at the young man and
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: loved him, yet still gave him the hard command to
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: sell everything. When the man went away sad, Jesus observed
• 46:12
  Speaker 1: how hard it was for the rich to enter God's kingdom,
• 46:15
  Speaker 1: and the disciples were astonished. Luke's version in Luke eighteen
• 46:20
  Speaker 1: eighteen twenty seven emphasizes the same points. The young rulers
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: claim to have kept all the commandments from his youth,
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: Jesus's command to sell everything and follow him, the man's
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: sadness because he was very rich, and Jesus's statement about
• 46:35
  Speaker 1: how hard it was for the rich to be saved.
• 46:39
  Speaker 1: The point wasn't that rich people couldn't be saved. The
• 46:42
  Speaker 1: point was that anything you love more than God, whether money, possessions, reputation,
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: or anything else, will keep you out of heaven. The
• 46:52
  Speaker 1: young man loved his wealth more than he loved God,
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: and he walked away from eternal life because he wasn't
• 46:58
  Speaker 1: willing to give up his earthly treasures. Jesus didn't just
• 47:02
  Speaker 1: warn about judgment. He claimed to be the judge himself.
• 47:06
  Speaker 1: This was a claim to divine authority that shocked his
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: listeners and ultimately led to his crucifixion. In Matthew seven
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: twenty one twenty three, as we've seen, Jesus spoke of
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: people coming to him on judgment day and him telling
• 47:21
  Speaker 1: them to depart. He positioned himself as the one who
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: would make the final decision about who entered heaven. But
• 47:29
  Speaker 1: he made this claim even more explicitly in John's gospel.
• 47:33
  Speaker 1: In John five twenty two twenty nine, Jesus said, for
• 47:36
  Speaker 1: the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment
• 47:40
  Speaker 1: to the son, that all may honor the son, just
• 47:44
  Speaker 1: as they honor the father. Whoever does not honor the son,
• 47:47
  Speaker 1: does not honor the Father who sent him. Truly, truly,
• 47:51
  Speaker 1: I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes
• 47:54
  Speaker 1: him who sent me has eternal life. He does not
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: come into judgment, but has passed from death to life. Truly, truly,
• 48:02
  Speaker 1: I say to you, an hour is coming and is
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: now here, when the dead will hear the voice of
• 48:07
  Speaker 1: the Son of God, and those who hear will live.
• 48:11
  Speaker 1: For as the Father has life in himself, so he
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: has granted the Son also to have life in himself.
• 48:17
  Speaker 1: And he has given him authority to execute judgment, because
• 48:20
  Speaker 1: he is the son of man. Do not marvel at this,
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: for an hour is coming when all who are in
• 48:27
  Speaker 1: the tombs will hear his voice and come out, those
• 48:30
  Speaker 1: who have done good to the resurrection of life, and
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: those who have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment.
• 48:37
  Speaker 1: Jesus claimed that the Father had given him all judgment authority.
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: Everyone who had ever lived would hear his voice and
• 48:44
  Speaker 1: come out of their graves, some to the resurrection of life,
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: others to the resurrection of judgment. This was an astounding claim.
• 48:52
  Speaker 1: Jesus was saying he would personally judge every human who
• 48:55
  Speaker 1: had ever lived. In the Book of Revelation, Jesus appeared
• 48:59
  Speaker 1: to John in a vision of overwhelming glory. In Revelation
• 49:04
  Speaker 1: one seventeen eighteen, John describes his reaction and what Jesus said.
• 49:09
  Speaker 1: When I saw him, I fell at his feet as
• 49:12
  Speaker 1: though dead, but he laid his right hand on me saying,
• 49:16
  Speaker 1: fear not. I am the first and the last and
• 49:18
  Speaker 1: the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore.
• 49:23
  Speaker 1: And I have the keys of death and hades. Jesus
• 49:27
  Speaker 1: held the keys of death and hades. He had authority
• 49:30
  Speaker 1: over death itself and over the realm where the dead
• 49:33
  Speaker 1: were kept. This meant he controlled who stayed in death
• 49:37
  Speaker 1: and who was released from it. He decided who would
• 49:40
  Speaker 1: face eternal judgment and who would receive eternal life. After
• 49:44
  Speaker 1: Jesus ascended to Heaven, his apostles continued teaching about judgment
• 49:49
  Speaker 1: and hell. Paul, who wrote much of the New Testament,
• 49:53
  Speaker 1: began his letter to the Romans by establishing why God's
• 49:57
  Speaker 1: wrath against sin was necessary, and thus in Romans one
• 50:01
  Speaker 1: eighteen twenty, Paul wrote, for the wrath of God is
• 50:05
  Speaker 1: revealed from Heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men,
• 50:10
  Speaker 1: who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can
• 50:15
  Speaker 1: be known about God is plain to them because God
• 50:18
  Speaker 1: has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely
• 50:23
  Speaker 1: his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived
• 50:27
  Speaker 1: ever since the creation of the world. In the things
• 50:30
  Speaker 1: that have been made so they are without excuse. Paul
• 50:35
  Speaker 1: was saying that everyone knows God exists because creation itself
• 50:39
  Speaker 1: testifies to him. People who reject God aren't innocent their
• 50:44
  Speaker 1: suppressing truth. They already know. This made God's judgment fair.
• 50:49
  Speaker 1: Paul then described how God responds to persistent rejection. People
• 50:54
  Speaker 1: exchange the truth about God for lies. Worship created things
• 50:59
  Speaker 1: instead of the creation, and God gave them up to
• 51:02
  Speaker 1: their sinful desires. This phrase gave them up appears three
• 51:07
  Speaker 1: times in Romans one, showing a progression of judgment. When
• 51:12
  Speaker 1: people persistently reject God, he eventually lets them have what
• 51:16
  Speaker 1: they want, life without his restraining influence. Later in his letter,
• 51:22
  Speaker 1: Paul wrote about the day of God's wrath. In Romans two,
• 51:26
  Speaker 1: put five to eight. He warned, but because of your
• 51:29
  Speaker 1: hard and impenitent heart, you are storing up wrath for yourself.
• 51:33
  Speaker 1: On the day of wrath, when God's righteous judgment will
• 51:37
  Speaker 1: be revealed, he will render to each one according to
• 51:40
  Speaker 1: his works. To those who, by patience in well doing
• 51:44
  Speaker 1: seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give
• 51:47
  Speaker 1: eternal life. But for those who are self seeking and
• 51:51
  Speaker 1: do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will
• 51:54
  Speaker 1: be wrath and fury. People were storing up wrath like
• 51:59
  Speaker 1: putting money in a bank account. Every unrepented sin added
• 52:03
  Speaker 1: to the account that would be opened on judgment day.
• 52:06
  Speaker 1: But those who patiently did good, seeking God's glory would
• 52:11
  Speaker 1: receive eternal life. Paul made the stakes clear in Romans
• 52:16
  Speaker 1: six twenty three. For the wages of sin is death,
• 52:20
  Speaker 1: but the free gift of God is eternal life. In
• 52:23
  Speaker 1: Christ Jesus, our Lord. Sin earned death as payment, but
• 52:28
  Speaker 1: God offered eternal life as a free gift through Jesus.
• 52:32
  Speaker 1: Paul used specific language to describe what awaited those who
• 52:36
  Speaker 1: rejected the gospel. He didn't use soft or vague terms.
• 52:41
  Speaker 1: He spoke of eternal destruction and exclusion from God's presence.
• 52:46
  Speaker 1: When writing to the Thessalonians about persecution they were facing,
• 52:50
  Speaker 1: Paul assured them that God would bring justice. In Zach
• 52:54
  Speaker 1: and Thessalonians one six to ten, he explained, God considers
• 52:58
  Speaker 1: it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you,
• 53:02
  Speaker 1: and to grant relief to you who are afflicted, as
• 53:04
  Speaker 1: well as to us. When the Lord Jesus is revealed
• 53:08
  Speaker 1: from heaven with his mighty angels. In flaming fire, inflicting
• 53:12
  Speaker 1: vengeance on those who do not know God and on
• 53:14
  Speaker 1: those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.
• 53:18
  Speaker 1: They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from
• 53:22
  Speaker 1: the presence of the Lord and from the glory of
• 53:24
  Speaker 1: His might when he comes on that day to be
• 53:27
  Speaker 1: glorified in his saints. The phrase eternal destruction was striking.
• 53:35
  Speaker 1: It wasn't temporary punishment or correction. It was permanent, ongoing destruction,
• 53:41
  Speaker 1: and it involved being excluded from the presence of the
• 53:43
  Speaker 1: Lord and the glory of his might. Hell meant being
• 53:48
  Speaker 1: cut off from everything good that flows from God's presence.
• 53:51
  Speaker 1: Paul warned that this judgment would come suddenly. In First
• 53:55
  Speaker 1: Thessalonians five one three, he wrote, Now, concerning the times
• 53:59
  Speaker 1: and the season, brothers, you have no need to have
• 54:02
  Speaker 1: anything written to you, for you yourselves are fully aware
• 54:06
  Speaker 1: that the day of the Lord will come like a
• 54:08
  Speaker 1: thief in the night. While people are saying there is
• 54:11
  Speaker 1: peace and security, then sudden destruction will come upon them
• 54:14
  Speaker 1: as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they
• 54:17
  Speaker 1: will not escape the comparison to a thief in the
• 54:20
  Speaker 1: night and to labor Pains emphasized two things. The judgment
• 54:25
  Speaker 1: would be unexpected, and it would be unavoidable. Once it started,
• 54:30
  Speaker 1: people might feel safe and secure right up until the
• 54:33
  Speaker 1: moment destruction came upon them. Paul also spoke bluntly about
• 54:37
  Speaker 1: those who oppose the Gospel. In Philippians three, eighteen nineteen,
• 54:41
  Speaker 1: he wrote, with tears, for many of whom I have
• 54:44
  Speaker 1: often told you, and now tell you even with tears,
• 54:48
  Speaker 1: walk as enemies of the Cross of Christ. Their end
• 54:51
  Speaker 1: is destruction. Their God is their belly, and they glory
• 54:55
  Speaker 1: in their shame. With minds set on earthly things, wept
• 55:00
  Speaker 1: over those whose end was destruction. They lived for earthly pleasures,
• 55:05
  Speaker 1: made their appetites their God, and their final destination was destruction.
• 55:10
  Speaker 1: The Letter to the Hebrews was written to Jewish believers
• 55:14
  Speaker 1: who were facing persecution and tempted to abandon their faith
• 55:17
  Speaker 1: in Christ and return to Judaism. The writer warned them
• 55:21
  Speaker 1: in the strongest terms about the danger of turning away
• 55:24
  Speaker 1: from Jesus. In Hebrews ten twenty six thirty one. The
• 55:29
  Speaker 1: warning was severe, for if we go on sinning deliberately
• 55:33
  Speaker 1: after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer
• 55:36
  Speaker 1: remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of
• 55:40
  Speaker 1: judgment and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries.
• 55:45
  Speaker 1: Any One who has set aside the law of Moses
• 55:48
  Speaker 1: dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses.
• 55:52
  Speaker 1: How much worse punishment do you think will be deserved
• 55:56
  Speaker 1: by the one who has trampled underfoot the son of
• 55:58
  Speaker 1: God and has feigned the blood of the Covenant by
• 56:01
  Speaker 1: which he was sanctified, and has outraged the spirit of grace.
• 56:06
  Speaker 1: For we know him who said, vengeance is mine, I
• 56:10
  Speaker 1: will repay, and again the Lord will judge his people.
• 56:15
  Speaker 1: It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands
• 56:17
  Speaker 1: of the living God. The writer was describing people who
• 56:21
  Speaker 1: had received knowledge of the truth but then deliberately turned
• 56:24
  Speaker 1: away from it. For them, there was no sacrifice left
• 56:28
  Speaker 1: that could cover their sins. Christ's sacrifice was the only
• 56:32
  Speaker 1: one that worked, and they had trampled it under foot.
• 56:35
  Speaker 1: What awaited them was a fearful expectation of judgment and
• 56:39
  Speaker 1: a fury of fire. The phrase it is a fearful
• 56:43
  Speaker 1: thing to fall into the hands of the living God
• 56:46
  Speaker 1: captured the terror of facing God's judgment without Christ's covering.
• 56:50
  Speaker 1: God's holiness, which is beautiful to those covered by Christ's righteousness,
• 56:55
  Speaker 1: is terrifying to those who stand before him in their sins.
• 57:00
  Speaker 1: Earlier in the letter, the writer had given another warning.
• 57:03
  Speaker 1: In Hebrews six four to eight, he described people who
• 57:07
  Speaker 1: had experienced God's blessings but then fell away. For it
• 57:11
  Speaker 1: is impossible in the case of those who have once
• 57:14
  Speaker 1: been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift and have
• 57:18
  Speaker 1: shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness
• 57:21
  Speaker 1: of the Word of God and the powers of the
• 57:23
  Speaker 1: age to come, and then have fallen away, to restore
• 57:27
  Speaker 1: them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again
• 57:31
  Speaker 1: the Son of God to their own harm and holding
• 57:34
  Speaker 1: him up to contempt. These people had tasted spiritual realities
• 57:38
  Speaker 1: but then rejected them. The writer compared them to land
• 57:42
  Speaker 1: that receives rain but produces only thorns and thistles. That
• 57:47
  Speaker 1: land ends up being burned. The writer also warned that
• 57:51
  Speaker 1: there was no escape from God's voice. In Hebrews twelve
• 57:54
  Speaker 1: twenty five twenty nine, he wrote, see that you do
• 57:57
  Speaker 1: not refuse him who is speaking, For if they did
• 58:00
  Speaker 1: not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth.
• 58:04
  Speaker 1: Much less will we escape if we reject him who
• 58:07
  Speaker 1: warns from heaven. Peter wrote two letters that contain some
• 58:11
  Speaker 1: of Scripture's most vivid warnings about judgment, especially for false
• 58:15
  Speaker 1: teachers who led others astray. In his second letter, Peter
• 58:20
  Speaker 1: devoted an entire chapter to describing false teachers and their
• 58:24
  Speaker 1: fate in sects Peter two one to four. He began,
• 58:28
  Speaker 1: but false prophets also arose among the people, just as
• 58:32
  Speaker 1: there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly
• 58:36
  Speaker 1: bring in destructive heresies, even denying the master who bought them,
• 58:40
  Speaker 1: bringing upon themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their sensuality.
• 58:46
  Speaker 1: And because of them, the way of truth will be blasphemed,
• 58:50
  Speaker 1: And in their greed they will exploit you with false words.
• 58:54
  Speaker 1: Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their
• 58:58
  Speaker 1: destruction is not asleep. For if God did not spare
• 59:02
  Speaker 1: angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and
• 59:04
  Speaker 1: committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept
• 59:08
  Speaker 1: until the judgment. Peter pointed to the angels who sinned
• 59:13
  Speaker 1: as proof that God would judge false teachers. If God
• 59:17
  Speaker 1: didn't spare angels, he wouldn't spare humans who led others astray.
• 59:22
  Speaker 1: These angels were in chains of darkness, awaiting final judgment.
• 59:27
  Speaker 1: Peter then used historical examples. He mentioned the flood in
• 59:30
  Speaker 1: Noah's day and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, showing
• 59:34
  Speaker 1: that God knew how to rescue the godly and keep
• 59:37
  Speaker 1: the unrighteous under punishment. The judgment of false teachers was certain.
• 59:44
  Speaker 1: Later in the same chapter, Peter described these false teachers
• 59:48
  Speaker 1: in harsh terms, calling them waterless springs and mists driven
• 59:52
  Speaker 1: by storms. In Second Peter two seventeen, he said for them,
• 59:57
  Speaker 1: the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved. Peter's second
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 1: letter also addressed those who mocked the idea of judgment.
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 1: In Second Peter three three seven, he wrote, scoffers will
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 1: come in the last days with scoffing, following their own
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 1: sinful desires. They will say, where is the promise of
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 1: His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 1: things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation,
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 1: he drey. But by God's word, the heavens existed long ago,
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 1: and the earth was formed out of water and through water,
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 1: through which the world that then existed was deluged with
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 1: water and perished. But by the same word, the heavens
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 1: and earth that now exist are stored up for fire,
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 1: being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 1: the ungodly. The current earth was being stored up for fire.
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 1: Just as the ancient world was destroyed by water, the
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 1: present world would be destroyed by fire on the day
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 1: of judgment. Peter's first letter also touched on judgment. In
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 1: verse Peter four seventeen eighteen, he wrote, for it is
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 1: time for judgment to begin at the household of God.
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 1: And if it begins with us, what will be the
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 1: outcome for those who do not obey the Gospel of God?
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 1: And if the righteous is scarcely saved, what will become
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 1: of the ungodly and the sinner? If God judged his
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 1: own people first, how much worse would it be for
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 1: those who rejected the Gospel entirely. Jude wrote a short
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 1: but powerful letter warning about false teachers who had crept
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 1: into the church. He used vivid Old Testament examples to
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 1: illustrate the reality of eternal judgment. In Jude one five
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 1: to seven, he wrote, now I want to remind you,
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 1: although you once fully knew it, that Jesus, who saved
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 1: a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 1: those who did not believe, and the angels who did
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 1: not stay within their own position of authority, but left
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 1: their proper dwelling. He has kept it in eternal chains
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 1: under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the Great Day,
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 1: just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 1: likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 1: as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire.
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 1: Jude pointed to three examples, the Israelites who died in
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 1: the wilderness, the fallen angels in chains, and Sodom and Gomorrah.
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 1: The cities were particularly significant because they serve as an
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 1: example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire. Sodom and
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 1: Gomorrah weren't still burning physically, but their destruction served as
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 1: an example of eternal fire. They showed what awaited those
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 1: who rejected God and pursued wickedness. Jude continued his description
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 1: of false teachers with disturbing imagery in Jude Zon twelve
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 1: to thirteen, he wrote, these are hidden reefs at your
• 1:02:59
  Speaker 1: love feast, as they feast with you without fear. Shepherds
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 1: feeding themselves, waterless clouds swept along by winds, fruitless trees.
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 1: In late autumn, twice dead uprooted wild waves of the sea,
• 1:03:13
  Speaker 1: casting up the foam of their own shame, wandering stars
• 1:03:17
  Speaker 1: for whom the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever.
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 1: The phrase gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 1: was chilling. It wasn't temporary darkness or correction. It was
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 1: utter darkness reserved forever for those who led others astray.
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 1: Jude also quoted from the Book of Enoch about judgment.
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 1: In Jude one fourteen fifteen, he wrote, Behold, the Lord
• 1:03:43
  Speaker 1: comes with ten thousands of his holy ones to execute
• 1:03:47
  Speaker 1: judgment on all, and to convict all the ungodly of
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 1: all their deeds of ungodliness that they have committed in
• 1:03:54
  Speaker 1: such an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 1: that ungodly sinners have spoken again d the repetition of
• 1:04:02
  Speaker 1: ungodly emphasized the complete separation from God that characterized those
• 1:04:08
  Speaker 1: who would face judgment. The Book of Revelation contains the
• 1:04:13
  Speaker 1: Bible's most detailed description of the final judgment. John saw
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 1: a vision of the end of history and what would
• 1:04:20
  Speaker 1: happen to every person who had ever lived. In Revelation
• 1:04:24
  Speaker 1: twenty eleven to fifteen, John described this scene. Then I
• 1:04:29
  Speaker 1: saw a great white throne and him who was seated
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 1: on it. From his presence, Earth and sky fled away,
• 1:04:36
  Speaker 1: and no place was found for them. And I saw
• 1:04:39
  Speaker 1: the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and
• 1:04:43
  Speaker 1: books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is
• 1:04:47
  Speaker 1: the Book of Life. And the dead were judged by
• 1:04:50
  Speaker 1: what was written in the books, according to what they
• 1:04:52
  Speaker 1: had done. And the sea gave up the dead who
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 1: were in it. Death and Hades gave up the dead
• 1:04:58
  Speaker 1: who were in them, and they were judged, each one
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 1: of them according to what they had done. Then Death
• 1:05:03
  Speaker 1: and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This
• 1:05:07
  Speaker 1: is the second death, the lake of fire. And if
• 1:05:10
  Speaker 1: any one's name was not found written in the Book
• 1:05:12
  Speaker 1: of Life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.
• 1:05:15
  Speaker 1: Every person who had ever died would stand before God's throne.
• 1:05:20
  Speaker 1: Books would be opened, containing records of what every one
• 1:05:23
  Speaker 1: had done. Another book, the Book of Life, would be opened,
• 1:05:27
  Speaker 1: containing names of those who belonged to God. Those whose
• 1:05:30
  Speaker 1: names weren't in the Book of Life would be thrown
• 1:05:33
  Speaker 1: into the Lake of fire. John called this the second death.
• 1:05:37
  Speaker 1: Physical death was the first death. The lake of fire
• 1:05:41
  Speaker 1: was the second death, a death that lasted forever, a
• 1:05:45
  Speaker 1: separation from God that never ended. Earlier in Revelation, John
• 1:05:49
  Speaker 1: had seen another group thrown into the Lake of fire.
• 1:05:52
  Speaker 1: In Revelation fourteen nine to eleven, an angel proclaimed, if
• 1:05:57
  Speaker 1: anyone worships the Beast and its image and receives a
• 1:06:00
  Speaker 1: mark on his forehead or on his hand, he also
• 1:06:03
  Speaker 1: will drink the wine of God's wrath poured full strength
• 1:06:07
  Speaker 1: into the cup of his anger, and he will be
• 1:06:10
  Speaker 1: tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the
• 1:06:13
  Speaker 1: Holy Angels and in the presence of the Lamb, and
• 1:06:17
  Speaker 1: the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever,
• 1:06:21
  Speaker 1: and they have no rest day or night. These worshippers
• 1:06:26
  Speaker 1: of the Beast and its image. The phrase forever and
• 1:06:29
  Speaker 1: ever appeared repeatedly in Revelations descriptions of hell. The torment
• 1:06:34
  Speaker 1: didn't end, the smoke kept rising. There was no rest
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 1: day or night. John also saw the final state described
• 1:06:43
  Speaker 1: in Revelation twenty one eight. But as for the cowardly,
• 1:06:47
  Speaker 1: the faithless, the detestable, As for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolatus,
• 1:06:54
  Speaker 1: and all liars, their portion will be in the lake
• 1:06:57
  Speaker 1: that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second
• 1:07:01
  Speaker 1: death and douge. Throughout the New Testament, the writers use
• 1:07:04
  Speaker 1: specific language to describe Hell's duration. They didn't use terms
• 1:07:10
  Speaker 1: that suggested temporary punishment or eventual annihilation. They consistently described
• 1:07:15
  Speaker 1: it as eternal, everlasting, forever. Jesus himself had used the
• 1:07:21
  Speaker 1: word eternal in his most detailed teaching on judgment. In
• 1:07:26
  Speaker 1: Matthew twenty five forty six, he said, and these will
• 1:07:29
  Speaker 1: go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.
• 1:07:34
  Speaker 1: The same word eternal described both the punishment of the
• 1:07:38
  Speaker 1: wicked and the life of the righteous. If eternal life
• 1:07:42
  Speaker 1: never ends, then eternal punishment never ends. Jesus also spoke
• 1:07:47
  Speaker 1: repeatedly about fire that was never quenched. In Mark nine
• 1:07:51
  Speaker 1: forty three forty eight, he said, and if your hand
• 1:07:55
  Speaker 1: causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better
• 1:07:58
  Speaker 1: for you to enter life crippled than with two hands
• 1:08:01
  Speaker 1: to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. And if
• 1:08:05
  Speaker 1: your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It
• 1:08:09
  Speaker 1: is better for you to enter life lame than with
• 1:08:12
  Speaker 1: two feet to be thrown into hell. And if your
• 1:08:15
  Speaker 1: eye causes you to sin, tear it out. It is
• 1:08:18
  Speaker 1: better for you to enter the Kingdom of God with
• 1:08:21
  Speaker 1: one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell.
• 1:08:25
  Speaker 1: Where their worm does not die and the fire is
• 1:08:28
  Speaker 1: not quenched. The fire was unquenchable, it couldn't be put out,
• 1:08:33
  Speaker 1: the worm didn't die, the consuming never stopped. This was
• 1:08:38
  Speaker 1: Jesus quoting Isaiah's vision of judgment that never ended. John's
• 1:08:43
  Speaker 1: vision in Revelation confirmed this permanence. In Revelation fourteen eleven,
• 1:08:47
  Speaker 1: he wrote, and the smoke of their torment goes up
• 1:08:51
  Speaker 1: forever and ever, and they have no rest day or night.
• 1:08:56
  Speaker 1: The Greek phrase forever and ever literally meant unto the
• 1:09:01
  Speaker 1: ages of ages, the strongest possible expression of endlessness. The
• 1:09:08
  Speaker 1: final chapters of Revelation present a beautiful picture of God
• 1:09:12
  Speaker 1: dwelling with his people in a new heaven and new Earth.
• 1:09:15
  Speaker 1: In Revelation twenty one one four, John saw God wiping
• 1:09:20
  Speaker 1: away every tear, abolishing death, mourning, crying, and pain. But
• 1:09:24
  Speaker 1: even this glorious vision acknowledged that some would not be there.
• 1:09:28
  Speaker 1: In Revelation twenty one eight, immediately after describing the new creation,
• 1:09:33
  Speaker 1: John wrote, but as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable,
• 1:09:37
  Speaker 1: as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolators, and all liars,
• 1:09:44
  Speaker 1: their portion will be in the lake that burns with
• 1:09:46
  Speaker 1: fire and sulfur, which is the second death. The final
• 1:09:50
  Speaker 1: chapter of the Bible contains both invitation and warning. In
• 1:09:54
  Speaker 1: Revelation twenty two fourteen to the fifteen, John wrote, blessed her, though,
• 1:10:00
  Speaker 1: who wash their robes so that they may have the
• 1:10:03
  Speaker 1: right to the tree of life, and that they may
• 1:10:05
  Speaker 1: enter the city by the gates. Outside are the dogs
• 1:10:09
  Speaker 1: and sorcerers, and the sexually immoral, and murderers and idolators,
• 1:10:14
  Speaker 1: and everyone who loves and practices falsehood. Even in the
• 1:10:18
  Speaker 1: final vision of perfect peace, there were those outside the city.
• 1:10:22
  Speaker 1: They had chosen to reject God's offer of salvation, and
• 1:10:26
  Speaker 1: he honored their choice, but the invitation remained open. In
• 1:10:30
  Speaker 1: Revelation twenty two seventeen, John concluded, the spirit and the
• 1:10:35
  Speaker 1: bride say, come and let the one who hears say
• 1:10:40
  Speaker 1: come and let the one who is thirsty come. Let
• 1:10:43
  Speaker 1: the one who desires take the water of life without price.
• 1:10:47
  Speaker 1: The offer was free. Anyone who wanted could come and
• 1:10:51
  Speaker 1: drink the water of life. God's desire was for people
• 1:10:55
  Speaker 1: to be saved, not condemned, but he gave humans genuine
• 1:11:00
  Speaker 1: freedom to choose, and hell was the necessary consequence when
• 1:11:04
  Speaker 1: that freedom was used to reject him permanently. If this
• 1:11:08
  Speaker 1: video opened your eyes to the reality of hell and
• 1:11:11
  Speaker 1: the urgency of the gospel, please share it with someone
• 1:11:15
  Speaker 1: you love, your family, your friends, your co workers. They
• 1:11:19
  Speaker 1: need to hear this truth. Hit that subscribe button and
• 1:11:22
  Speaker 1: turn on notifications so you won't miss our next biblical
• 1:11:25
  Speaker 1: deep dive. And most importantly, if you don't know Jesus
• 1:11:29
  Speaker 1: as your savior, don't let another day pass. Surrender your
• 1:11:34
  Speaker 1: life to him right now. The Spirit and the bride
• 1:11:38
  Speaker 1: say come, Will you answer the call