Nov 13, 2018
If you did not wake up in hell this morning, or in a thousand miseries that befell the world last night, there is great reason for thanks.
Darin C. Smith
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If you did not wake up in hell this morning, or in a thousand miseries that befell the world last night, there is great reason for thanks.
Darin C. Smith
Sobering Reminders About Hell
Fact: Hell is conscious awareness.
Meaning: One’s mind will never be more active, alert, and sharp than when he/she is in hell. Forever in their minds, those in hell will be replaying the torment of their memory of rejecting the Gospel (Lk. 16:25). God will able give them the ability, it seems, to retrace their steps of how he brought people to share the gospel. Such opportunities will haunt them for ages to come (Rev. 20:19-20).
Sobering Reminders About Hell
Fact: Hell is outer darkness.
Meaning: The panic of being blind and not being able to see is one thing. Those in hell will live in existence of outer darkness. They will never again be able to see anything with their eyes (Matt. 8:12; 22:13; 25:30). R.C. Sproul noted: “You can’t think about hell for long without almost going insane.”
Sobering Reminders About Hell
Fact: Hell is day and night.
Meaning: Revelation 14:11 states that there is “no rest day and night.” Revelation 20:10 says those in hell will be “tormented day and night.” There’s no vacation day or an easy button.
Sobering Reminders About Hell
Fact: Hell is unmitigated.
Meaning: That is, it is never moderated, for it is always severe and intense. Matthew 13:42 and 50 tell us that hell is “weeping and gnashing of teeth.” All the weeping in the history of the world (wars, families, deaths, etc.) doesn’t begin to compare to those who are in hell. People in hell aren’t repenting for their sin. Rather, they’re angrier at God than when they were alive on earth. They are to the breaking point…but never breaking (Lk. 16:28; Rev. 14:10-11). Everyone is screaming and crying out. This is God’s Word.
Sobering Reminders About Hell
Fact: Hell is a lake of fire.
Meaning: Everything about hell is fire (Rev. 19:20). There’s no unconscious state or “soul sleep” in hell. All there are fully awake, alert, and in conscious existence. People are, literally, immersed in fire and engulfed in fire and unable to swim out of the lake of fire. In other words, they’re drowning in fire. This isn’t symbolic—it is literal. The picture never fully represents the reality of what it portrays (Matt. 25:41).
Sobering Reminders About Hell
Darin C. Smith: As we consider this biblical doctrine, hell, what are some faith lessons for our life and ministry?
Fact: If you did not wake up in hell this morning, or in a thousand miseries that befell the world last night, there is great reason for thanks. Reflecting on the loss Christians often sustain in this world, Richard Sibbes said, “It is better to limp to heaven than dance to hell.”
Fact: If there’s no sin, wrath, and hell in what you teach, there’s no gospel in what you preach. If you always talk about grace but never talk about law, sin, or hell, you’re actually never really talking about grace. When the church caters to a godless culture to keep it within the fold, the gospel is lost, God isn’t honored, and the culture goes to hell.
Fact: God’s glory would not be diminished and creation would suffer no loss if he let us run our course into hell without the slightest intervention. If we don’t know we deserve hell, we don’t know Christ. If you want to know how much God hates sin, look only at the cross of Christ and the reality of hell.
Fact: I want to be more concerned about my neighbor’s eternal condemnation in hell than I am about my own embarrassment in telling him about it. Charles Spurgeon has famously said: “If sinners be damned, at least let them leap to hell over our bodies.”
Fact: The ethnic diversity of hell is a crucial doctrine. No ethnic group can boast of exclusion. All deserve condemnation.
Fact: Every sin, every crime will be punished—either in hell or on the cross. No one anywhere at any time gets away with anything. Trust in the Lord’s justice as you walk on this unjust earth.
Sobering Reminders About Hell
Fact: Hell must be avoided (Matt. 5:22, 28-29).
Meaning: Such truths about hell call for dealing with sin in a dramatic way. It is better to lose a part of your body now than your whole body in hell. Once you’re in, you can’t come out.