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One of the most important questions your mind can ever entertain is this question: Who is going to heaven? There is only one alternative to heaven. That is hell, the place the Bible calls outer darkness, where there shall be weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth, where "the smoke of their torment ascends up for ever: and they have no rest day nor night" (Rev. 14:11). And there is nothing in between. It is heaven or it is hell. God says in His Word that all men and women must appear before Him in death. Then they shall be divided as a shepherd would divide the sheep from the goats; one into everlasting punishment, into everlasting hell and torment; and the other into everlasting glory.Who are going to heaven? Are you?
And, if so, why so?
I will answer that question from the Scriptures today. In fact, in answering the question "Who are going to heaven?" I intend to limit myself to the book of Revelation, the very last book of the Bible. The book of Revelation contains much rich teaching on heaven and on the frightening reality of hell.
I want to answer that question strictly from the Bible because it is only the answer of God's Word that matters. It is only the answer of God's Word which the Spirit will take to press down upon your conscience. The answer of the Scriptures is the answer of God. That is the answer you and I have to have. You see, it is not your answer to that question, it is not your opinion that counts. It is not anyone else's opinion or answer to that question that counts. I caution you: do not try to make your own contract and your own peace with God and imagine that you can answer who is going to heaven on your own terms. No. You must know the true answer, God's answer. The only thing that counts is God's answer, for God Himself will either open heaven or shut heaven to you and to me.
And God's answer is very clear. You may take up the Bible and read for yourself. I will be pointing you to many places in the book of Revelation today, so take your Bible and follow along with me.
I am going to bring at least two things that the book of Revelation says in answer to the question, Who are going to heaven? Next week I will consider two more things. But I want to say something about those four things from the book of Revelation which are an answer to the question, Who are going to heaven?
It must be very clear to you that all four of these things are true of those who are going to heaven. Not one or two of them, but all four must be true of anyone who enters heaven. I want you to listen very carefully and very personally, in your own conscience. Do you have a biblical ground to believe that you will enter heaven if you were to die today? Remember, once again, not your answer, not man's answer, but God's answer. And if you answer other than what God answers, your hope is only a dream.
Who is going to heaven?
First of all, the Bible answers that question this way: Those, only those, but all of those, whose names are found written in the Lamb's book of life.
There are many references to the Lamb's book of life in the book of Revelation. Let us look at three of them. First of all, turn in your Bible to Revelation 3:5. In this chapter the Lord Jesus Christ, as the risen Lord and King of the church, is speaking to the seven churches of Asia Minor. One of them was at Sardis. As Christ speaks, He concludes His message to the church of Sardis with these words: "He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels." Notice what the Lord Jesus does in that verse. He brings into closest connection His confessing of an individual (of a boy or a girl, of a man or a woman) and that individual's name being written in the book of life. All whom He confesses before the Father are those who are found written in the book of life.
Jesus says, "I will confess their name." There is nothing more personal than your name. To have Jesus confess your name before the Father is synonymous with being welcomed into heaven itself. Jesus says, I will confess their name, I will welcome them to My presence, I will say, "Father, this is one of My own, this is one for whom I have shed My blood." But all those who are confessed by Jesus Christ are those who are found written in the book of life. You will not be confessed by Jesus Christ unless your name is written in the book of life.
Turn to Revelation 20:15. Here we have the scene which depicts the final judgment on the last day. Beginning in verse 11 we read that John saw a great white throne. And there he sees that all men are brought from the state of death, both the believing and unbelieving, and stand before God's throne to be judged. Then we read the conclusion in verse 15: "And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire." That is, any name of any man, woman, boy, girl, of any age, country, whatever the social status, regardless of the race (white, black, whatever it might be) whose name is not found in the book of life will be cast into the lake of fire. The absence of a person's name in that book will result in his being cast into the lake of fire.
One more passage: Revelation 21:25-27. In that chapter the perfected church of the new heaven and the new earth is likened unto a beautiful city which comes down out of heaven. Its gates are of pearl and its streets are of gold. The gates are never shut, we read. Then, in verse 27, we read the following: "And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life."
Could the Bible be plainer? Can God put it into simpler language? Who are going to pass through the gates of pearl? Who are going to go to the place of perfect peace and light, where sin and evil are done away? Who are going to go to heaven? They that are written in the Lamb's book of life.
But you ask the question, What is this book of life? And how does one get his name written in the Lamb's book of life?
To answer that question, turn in your Bible to Revelation 17:8. In this chapter God is speaking of the many who will wonder at the Antichrist. The Antichrist is the final man of sin who is going to persecute the church. There are many who will follow him and be stupified before him. We read this: "And they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life (and note the following) from the foundation of the world." When then was this book of life filled up with specific and individual names? It was written before the foundation of the world, which is a figurative way of referring to the creation. Before time, before the world was created, God had already written this book. The book of life is the way the Bible refers to God's pre-determination of the eternal destiny of the souls of men. The Lamb's book of life is a figurative way of speaking of the glorious truth that those who are found in heaven are those whom God chose, whom God chose before He created the heaven and the earth, those whom He set His own love upon before the world began and set His love upon for no other reason than that He would do so out of His own heart. Before Adam stood in the Garden of Eden, before the creation stood out from the hand of God, before the sun shone in the heaven, before you and I had any existence, God freely, God sovereignly (that means because of His own good pleasure) set His heart upon specific individual sinners and wrote their names in His book, the Lamb's book of life. Names that he entrusted to the Lamb, to the Son of God, who would come to be slain upon the cross and in whose blood there would be forgiveness.
Perhaps you have heard a hymn once which went this way:
There's a new name written down in glory.
And it's mine!
That is not true. That is false. There are not new names written down in glory. My name was written before I was converted. I am converted because my name was written. For those whom God has pre-determined to save are also the ones whom God, in time, calls to His Son, Jesus Christ. You may look at Romans 8:29, 30. God is the Scribe. He writes the name down. Grace is the determining factor. God Himself determines who shall be saved. And the Lamb, Jesus Christ, is the Steward entrusted to save those whose names are written in the book of life. It was entrusted to Him to do all that was necessary to save all those chosen by the Father and given to Him.
What does that tell us?
It tells us at least this. It does not matter a snap about the prestigious organizations and clubs and societies that your name may be written upon. Your name may be written upon the marble and polished slab of great accomplishments. But that does not matter. If it is not on God's registry of His elect, you will not enter the gates of that city. Mark it well. At death, whether your name is found on the rolls of clubs, unions, countries, or whatever does not matter. Is it found written in the Lamb's book of life and inscribed with the blood of Jesus Christ?
That also shows you and me that the things we are going to talk about (as being true of those who go to heaven) are true about them because of God's grace, because of the free electing love of God. Salvation is of God, of God's grace. If you have any hope of going to heaven it must be something outside of yourself. It must be in the free grace of the living God.
You say to me, well, if it was written down from eternity I cannot change that. I guess I'm hopeless. The answer to that is: Yes. The way of salvation is a way in which you are shut up to a sovereign God. You see, the message of the Bible, first of all, that God must give you to understand is this: it is not you who have God in your hand and that you determine who are going to be saved. Oh, no! The message of the Bible is that God has you in His hands.
But the Bible tells us more.
Who are going to heaven?
The second answer to that question is this: only those washed from the guilt and filth of their sin by the blood of the Lamb. You see, it is not enough to have your name written in the Lamb's book of life. It must be written there, but, in the grace of God, you must also be washed from your sin and your filth from before God. Listen to me carefully. God's eternal election brings no one to heaven. God's election determines who will be brought to heaven. Those elected must be washed in the blood of Jesus Christ. That is the way to heaven.
Turn in your Bible to Revelation 7:9-14 (another marvelous picture of the redeemed standing before the throne of God). John sees that they all fall upon their face before God and worship God in a glorious song of praise. Then the question is asked, Who are these who are glorified and how did they come to be in heaven? The answer is spoken in verse 14: "These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." Who are going to heaven? Only those who are washed from their sin in the blood of Jesus Christ. The focus falls upon this: those who stand before God are washed from their sins and their filth by the blood of Jesus Christ, washed in the blood of the Lamb.
You say to me, What does that mean? One's robes or garments refer to how one appears, how one appears before God. Of ourselves, we appear defiled in sin, guilty and filthy and unclean. In the Old Testament book of Zechariah, chapter 3, the first four verses, God pictures a high priest who stands before Him with dirty and defiled garments. Then we read that God replaces those garments with pure and clean garments so that the high priest is acceptable for the presence of God.
So the blood of Jesus Christ is the cleansing power. That blood that Jesus poured out upon Calvary removes the filth and the guilt of my sins. And that is very powerful. Whoever heard of taking a filthy garment and making it white as snow by washing it in blood? We understand that blood stains. Yet the Word of God teaches that the only way to heaven is through the cross, through the blood of Jesus Christ, through His dying for our sins in such a way that when He died for them He washed them all away out of God's sight and made me clean and whole before God.
You see, heaven is not a place for people who of themselves are inherently good and pure and clean and lovely. It is not a place for people who say, "Basically I am OK, I'm a pretty good guy. I need a few fixing-ups here and there, but basically I'm all right." Heaven is not a for these kinds of people.
Heaven is for those who know that of themselves they are filthy. They need to be washed. And they know there is nothing that can wash away their sins except Jesus Christ and His cross. Those who are in heaven have found only one solution to their filth of sin: the blood of the Lamb. They did not wash themselves in the washing machines of their own works. They did not come along and try to scrub out the stains of their sins by their own works. They did not trust in their own human efforts. They know that all that they can do is rub the stain of sin deeper into their life. But they were brought, by the grace of God, to a fountain, a fountain for spiritual cleansing. And that fountain is Christ crucified. Plunged into that blood, they come forth clean, clean before the eyes of the holy and almighty God who says, "I cannot find a stain in them."
That is why Jesus said, "I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. They that are whole need not a physician." Jesus Christ came for those who are given by God to see that they are guilty, that they are filthy sinners. Those who no longer bring excuses before God. Those who no longer exalt themselves before others as being better than others, but those who are oppressed with one question: How shall my filthy sins be washed away from the sight of God? How can I be clean?
Everyone who goes to heaven is given to know the precious answer to that question: The wonderful grace of God in Jesus Christ. The answer is this: You are made clean not in yourself, not in man, not by anything you can do, not by having some water sprinkled over your head. Do not put your trust in that, but in the blood of Jesus Christ His Son, that cleanses us from all our sins.
We will come back next week to the question, Who are going to heaven? Today you heard God's answer: those who are found written in the Lamb's book of life, that is, those who are the objects of God's grace. And those who are washed from their sins in the blood of Jesus Christ.
Search the Scriptures yourselves. I hope you wrote down those passages that we looked at together.
Next week we will return to the question and will go to God's Word to answer the question, Who are going to heaven.
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Let us pray.
Father, we thank Thee for Thy holy Word. We pray that we may search it out, and may Thy Spirit write it on our hearts. Amen.
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August 10, 1997; No. 2849
"Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple: and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them."
Who are going to go to heaven?
We began to answer that question the last time we met. We saw from the Word of God that the answer is, first of all, those, all of those, but only those, who are written in the Lamb's book of life. Secondly, we saw that only those who are washed from the filth of their sin by the blood of Jesus Christ will go to heaven.
I am not going to take the time to explain some of those things again. You can study it by re-reading the above message.
I want, now, to continue with our answer. I want to go on to answer that question, Who are going to heaven? and emphasize that for one to go to heaven he must be cleansed from his sins in the blood of Jesus Christ. If you have never been given to see yourself as a sinner before God in need of cleansing, you are in a horrible state of self-deception. You are a guilty sinner. You are defiled and polluted in the sight of God. Perhaps you say to me, "Now wait a minute. You do not know me. You did not follow me around this week. How dare you say those things about me?" The answer is, "No, I do not know you, and I did not follow you this week. But God does. And He told me all about you and all about myself in His Word. He told me in His Word (Rom. 5:12) that we all sinned in Adam; that we have come short of the glory of God (Rom. 3:24); that we were conceived and born in sin (Ps. 51:5); that we are gone astray even from the womb and that there is none who is righteous, no, not one ( Ps. 14); that God looked down from heaven to see if there were any righteous and they are all, He says, gone out of the way, they are all unprofitable. You are not righteous before God. You are a filthy sinner."
Has that come home to you, by the grace of God? Do you know your need of cleansing? I pray God that it may be for you the most disturbing thing that you will ever hear: God says you are not OK, and until grace shows you that, you will never go to heaven. Do you say in your heart, "Well, I'm not so good, but I'm not so bad. Others are better and there are some who are worse. God should be, over all, satisfied with me. He's getting a pretty good bargain with me." Until you stand as though you were the only creature in the universe and your mouth is now closed before God and you are burdened with the question, How shall I be cleansed from my sins? you are not in touch with spiritual reality. Those who go to heaven are the ones who, by the wonderful grace of God, are removed from their delusion and pride and see themselves as sinners and, by the grace of God, have fled for refuge to Jesus Christ.
The only way to heaven is through Jesus Christ. There are no incantations that a priest or a preacher can say over your coffin or at the grave that are going to help you. Those who go to heaven pass through the blood of Jesus Christ.
But there is another answer to that question, Who go to heaven? Only those who have been freed from their sins by the grace of Jesus Christ. We read in Hebrews 12:14 that, without holiness, no man can see the Lord. Again, in Matthew 5:8, "Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God."
In heaven we will be in the presence of God. What do the saints look like in heaven? Do they stand there bored to death? Are they nervous and uncomfortable? Are they reluctant? We read in Revelation 7:15, Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple: and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them." Everyone that is in heaven is so delighted to serve God that he does not sleep, but serves Him day and night and stands in His presence.
How did they get that way? What were they like by nature? The Bible answers that we are by nature the very opposite. Romans 8:7 says that we are at enmity with God, we are not subject to His law, neither indeed can be. The attitude of our heart is the attitude that Pharaoh, king of Egypt, expressed before Moses: "Who is the Lord that I should obey Him?" "What kind of restrictions is God trying to put on me?" is the language of the human heart. Rebellion and stubbornness. "No one is going to tell me what I may and may not do!" But in heaven they serve Him. They have been freed, by the grace of the Lamb of God, so that now they want to be holy, freed from the willing service of sin. Now they look to the throne of God and, when they see the slightest glance from His eye, they dash off and do His will. Revelation 22:3, "And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him."
There are going to be slaves in heaven. You say, oh, how horrible! No, not if you love the Master, not if you love His ways. There will be nothing in our minds but to obey and serve Him and to live as His slaves. We read in Revelation 14:12, "Here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus." In heaven they keep, they guard as a precious deposit, all that is revealed of Jesus Christ, His work, His graces, His name, His commandments. Obedience is the fundamental position of their hearts. They have been changed from rebels to willing servants of Christ, from the slaves of sin to the slaves of the Lamb.
Who go to heaven? Those who are freed from the power and the love of sin, by the grace of Jesus Christ. No unholy person enters heaven.
We read in Revelation 21:7, 8, "He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son. But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death." Did you listen carefully to that verse? Who are not going to go to heaven? The very first word which described them was "the fearful." You do not have to be a murderer, a sorcerer. You do not have to dabble in the occult and worship the devil to go to hell. But the fearful: those who are afraid, afraid to confess Christ for fear of rejection among men, afraid to confess Christ in from of their friends, embarrassed, afraid to be called "goody-goody." Afraid because, one knows that if he confesses Christ, then he must renounce that hellish music that all of his friends are addicted to that magnifies sex and rebellion and lawlessness, and that then he will be called a "weirdo." Afraid because one knows that he cannot simply talk of the latest stuff on MTV. Afraid because one is going to be rejected and called "holy." God says that a person will go to hell in the way of shame and fear over confessing Jesus Christ. I did not write that. Take it seriously. The fearful shall not enter heaven.
Those who overcome. Overcome what? Overcome peer pressure. Overcome conformity to this present world. As a young person, not afraid to be called a virgin, to tell your boyfriend to keep his hands where they belong (off your body), to confess that Christ is the Lord of your body and has it as His possession. As married persons, not afraid to confess Christ as husband and wife in their neighborhoods. As a believer in the office, not afraid of the smirks from others because you have confessed Christ. That is what God wrote. The fearful shall not enter heaven. Are you ashamed of Christ?
Much of Christianity today says, "Well, you can have an attachment to Jesus Christ which is secret. Religion, you know is a very private matter. You can come to Jesus Christ and you can continue in your sinful way of life. You don't need to deny your sinful way of life. You can have Jesus as your Savior and you can live your life the way you want, the way you always have." They are afraid to cast in their lot entirely with Christ, afraid to give up the former life of sin. Afraid of what people might think.
God says, not the fearful! They will not enter into heaven. Those who overcome, in the blood of the Lamb. Those who are freed from the power of sin by the grace of Jesus Christ. Not those who continue willingly to give their body over to sinful ways, who live simply for the lust of the moment. But those repentant sinners, transformed by grace from rebellion and the love of sin by the Spirit of God.
Those who go to heaven have been washed in the blood of Jesus Christ. And the Spirit of Jesus Christ has broken the chains of their sins.
There is one more answer to the question of who is going to heaven. Only those who overcome and persevere in the strength of the Lamb. In Revelation 2:7 we read, "He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God." We read in Revelation 3:5, "He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment." Revelation 21:7, "He that overcometh shall inherit all things."
Could the Word of God be plainer? No one goes to heaven who does not go on the path of overcoming and persevering. That overcoming and persevering in faith is not the reason they go to heaven, but it is the way that God takes them to heaven. In the way of overcoming. Overcoming what? Overcoming everything that the world would use to draw your heart away from heaven and away from Christ, everything that would draw you back to the chains of a life of sin and the service of the devil. Overcome anything and everything against the Word and the will of Jesus Christ.
We do not do that in our own strength. In the Christian life we do not overcome the forces of sin by our strength. Revelation 12:11 says, "They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb." Philippians 4:13 says, "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me." And in II Corinthians 12:7-10 we read, "My grace is sufficient for thee."
But, you see, if you are not convinced that you must overcome by the grace of God, you will not seek the grace of Christ by which alone you can overcome. Do you know why a Christian plays with his sin? Because, at that moment, he does not believe that he must overcome. He really does not believe it. God says to those who are His children: Overcome! The way to heaven is not the way of capitulating to our weaknesses and to say that it really does not matter anymore, I'm forgiven. No! The Word of God says, Overcome! Do you trifle with your sins? Do you trifle with the reading of the Bible, do you let that go? Do you trifle with church attendance and say, "Oh, that's not so important"? Do you trifle with your prayers? Do you let those things go? If you do not overcome, you will not go to heaven. When you believe that, you will not play games with your sins. You will not play games with the means that God gives you to be strengthened in your faith. You will come to church, you will hear His Word, you will pray. You will use the means that God gives to strengthen you in the Christian walk of life.
Overcome in the strength of Christ.
Who goes to heaven? Those who are made sincere and eager to go there, ready to face and overcome whatever stands in their way.
Are you going to heaven?
You heard God's answer in the last two weeks. Not my answer, but God's. The answer of God is this: Those who go to heaven are those who are written in the Lamb's book of life; those who are washed in the blood of the Lamb; those who are freed from the power of sin by the grace of the Lamb; and those who overcome and persevere in the strength of the Lamb.
The answer is this: Those who are chosen in Christ alone; those who are saved by the cross of Christ alone; those who are freed from the power of their sins by the love of Christ alone; those who persevere in the Christian walk by the strength of Christ alone.
Do you know the way to heaven? The way to heaven is through Jesus Christ alone.
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Let us pray.
Our Father, we pray for that grace of Thy Spirit that we may trust and believe in Jesus Christ who is the way, the truth, and the life, through whom alone we may come to Thee. Amen.
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THE REFORMED WITNESS HOUR
August 17, 1997; No. 2850
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We are finding biblical answers to some of the most basic questions a person could ever ask.
The first question we asked was, What is heaven? Turning to the Word of God, the Bible, we learned that heaven is the dwelling place of God with His people. It is the place where God's people shall have perfect communion with their God and where salvation will be perfected. We saw, too, that heaven is a place of everlasting rest for the saints, where sin and sorrow and struggle will be forever gone, and God's people shall enjoy the perfect work and salvation of Christ. Still more, we saw that heaven was the ardent hope of every believer. A believer lives now in the hope of heaven. He looks for, yearns after, and sets his heart upon the hope of eternal glory.
Then we asked the question, Who are going to go to heaven? We stressed the importance at that time that the answer must come from God's Word. So we limited ourselves exclusively to the Word of God to answer that question. From the book of Revelation we answered in four statements. We saw from the book of Revelation that only those who are written in the Lamb's book of life go to heaven, that is, those whom God chooses and gives to Jesus Christ, a choice that He made before He created the world, a choice He made in free grace and love. We saw, more, that those who go to heaven must be washed from the filth of their sins in the blood of Jesus Christ; that of ourselves we are corrupt and filthy sinners, and before we could ever appear before God's presence in heaven we must be washed clean from our sins. Still more, we saw that the answer to the question of who is going to heaven was that one must be freed from the power of sin in his life, one must be made a servant of Jesus Christ who desires, already now, to serve Him and obey His Word. Finally, we learned that the answer to: Who are going to heaven? is that only those will enter heaven who overcome, by the strength of Jesus Christ, everything that would keep them away from Christ and from heaven.
So we have answered two of the most important questions a person could ever ask: What is heaven, and who are going to heaven?
Today we will ask another important question: What is hell?
Can you conceive of a more sobering thought than hell-hell which, the Bible says, is everlasting torment of the body and soul in the lake of fire, prepared for the devil and all who do not repent? My heart trembles over the truth of hell.
The world today mocks hell. They make it an object of their ridicule and laughter. In fact, they even challenge God to cast them into hell. Other people imagine hell to be something in this life. They say that their life is a living hell, referring to all the suffering and miseries that they have had. There are others who readily tell other people to go to hell. Or, the moment they hurt themselves, they say, "Oh, hell." They use it as a curse-word.
When one comes before the Bible, one finds that the truth of hell is the most sobering truth we could imagine. It is the truth of God's Word which wakes the child of God out of the daze and stupor of this world. The devil seeks to have the children of unbelief, the children of the world, deceived. He seeks to keep them in blindness and darkness to the reality of the fact that eternal hell awaits all who do not repent and believe in Jesus Christ.
A believing child of God stirs up his mind over the subject of hell. He sees the reality, not the myth, of the place Jesus called outer darkness, where there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. We see the seriousness of our sins. And we understand that sin is not a plaything, sin is not an excusable thing. Sin is a horrendous thing that deserves eternal punishment in hell.
Still more, we see the wonder of belonging to Jesus Christ who has delivered us from hell.
If the truth of hell does not produce in your heart trembling, if, perhaps, there is just a little, fleeting trembling, but you have never contemplated the truth of hell and never truly fled for refuge to Jesus Christ, then the Word of God to you right now is: Repent. If your life is only one of hypocrisy, if your confession of Christ is only outward, and if, in all seriousness, you have no foundation under you, no foundation to keep you from the flames of hell, then the Word of the gospel to you now is: Repent! Jesus said, "Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish." The sober reality of hell is used of God to bring His children to the wonderful reality of belonging to the Savior Jesus Christ.
If heaven were the only eternal state that God tells us of in His Word, we could stop our series on heaven. But the Word of God makes very plain that there is not only a heaven but also a hell. If it were true that a soul could be annihilated, simply cease to exist; or if it were true that we could hold out the possibility of amnesty (that a person, at death, would get another chance), or somehow receive a pardon, or that there would be a period of probation-then, too, perhaps, the human mind could have peace apart from Christ. But the Word of God speaks very solemnly of the truth of eternal hell.
Most people choose not to believe in hell. They say that death is the end, or the great unknown (we don't know what happens after death). So they try to push death and hell out of their daily consciousness. There are many who call themselves Christians and do not believe in hell. They say, "My God would never send anyone to eternal torment." In fact, it is commonly believed today that a Christian, by definition, is one who rejects the truth of hell. Scarcely anyone believes that he is going to go to hell. Man insulates himself from the reality of eternal punishment.
Yet the Bible is plain for any who will read it. God's Word speaks of hell. And hell is not, as many modern Bible expositors teach, a garbage pit outside of Jerusalem. That is the way it is presented by many Bible expositors. No, the Bible says that hell is a bottomless pit (Rev. 9:1), it is a lake of fire, burning with brimstone (Rev. 19:20). It is the place where men and women are tormented, held in chains of darkness, where the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and they have no rest day nor night (Rev. 14:11).
Do you believe that hell exists?
The question really is this: Do you believe the Bible? Do you subject yourself to the truth of God's Word?
Of all the testimony that is found in the Bible concerning hell, there was one who spoke more of hell than any other, and warned of it, and lived in the consciousness that impenitent sinners go to hell. That One was Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ was the One who told us (Matt. 10:28) that we must not fear those who killed the body and after that have nothing more they can do. But He told us whom we should fear. Fear Him who could cast body and soul into hell fire. It was Jesus Christ who described (Matt. 8:11, 12) hell as a place of weeping and gnashing of teeth, of the place where the worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched. It was Jesus Christ who said ( Matt. 22) that those who would not be found in the last day in the garment of His righteousness would be cast out into outer darkness. It was Jesus Christ ( Luke 13) who warned that a failure to repent meant that one would perish forever in the damnation of hell. Jesus Christ talked of hell with His disciples. He brought it up when He spoke of our personal relationships. He warned us that whoever calls another person a fool would be in danger of hell fire. He spoke of the fact that when we refuse to forgive one another we would be held over in the prison of death.
Then Jesus Christ said ( Matt. 11) that it would be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for those who heard His word and did it not. Sodom and Gomorrah, you may remember, were cities in the Old Testament which were destroyed by fire and brimstone for their sin against God. Jesus said, in the day of judgment it will be better for Sodom and Gomorrah, men who were filled with wickedness, than for those who heard His Word and did not repent. He said to the cities of Chorazin and Bethsaida, where He had done His mighty works and preached His wonderful sermons, "Woe unto you, Chorazin and Bethsaida."
Hear now the word of God. Repent. Go to your house, by faith, confident of refuge-refuge that is found in belonging to Jesus Christ, the only One who can deliver and has delivered His people from so great a death as eternal hell.
Jesus spoke of hell so often. He spoke of it very pointedly in Matthew 25. In verse 41 we read, "Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels." There Jesus describes hell as the place where the curse of God is inflicted upon a person to be endured for ever and ever. He says that hell is where the wicked are shut up under the curse of God in everlasting misery, with the company of the devil and his angels. The time will come when men will hear the words, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels. Jesus, in Matthew 25, was speaking of the final judgment, when all men will be gathered before Him. And He says that He will divide them as a shepherd divides the sheep from the goats.
Just as the Bible teaches that at death the soul of a believer goes up to heaven and his body goes to the grave to await the resurrection day when the body will be raised to go into final glory, so also does the Bible teach that the soul of an unbeliever at death goes to hell. Jesus taught in Luke 16:24 that a man who did not believe or repent awoke in death to the torments of flame in hell. Further, the Bible teaches that the body of an unbeliever will also be raised up at Christ's return. In John 5:29 we read of the resurrection of the good and of the evil, a resurrection unto life and unto death. So, body and soul, a person will go into everlasting punishment, where all the haters of the Lord, all who despise His Word, all the unbelieving, are damned under the curse of God.
What is the curse of God?
When Jesus spoke of the curse of God He was referring to the just penalty of the holy God for the breaking of His law. We read in Galatians 3:10, "Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them." The law of God, the Ten Commandments, express the will of the holy God for the life of men and women, boys and girls-of all men and all women of every age and every place. The curse is the infliction of God's wrath upon those who would presumptuously stand in defiance of His law and transgress that law.
The Word of God says to us in Galatians 3 that that was the curse that was also due unto believers. It was the curse that Christ redeemed us from when He was made accursed for us upon the cross of Calvary. To be cursed, then, is to appear before the face of God, before the face of the eternal Judge, to stand before the judgment seat of Christ as a transgressor, as one who has broken the law of God. Not having faith in Jesus Christ, not belonging to a Christ who has delivered you from that curse, but rather, in your heart agreeing with your transgression. Standing before the holy God in enmity and saying in your heart to His law, "I will not, I never will bow to that holy law." Then to hear the words of holy indignation, the most horrible words that a soul could ever hear: "Depart from me, ye cursed." To have the full penalty of a holy God's wrath fall down upon a person, pressing him down to the pit for an eternity in suffering-that is hell.
Let all who now curse inwardly, let all who in the pride of their heart set themselves up over against God's law, let all whose mouths are filled with cursing and bitterness repent and flee to Jesus Christ in faith. Let all who would, in the words of Psalm 50, imagine that, after all, a little transgression will never hurt a person, all who are willing to consent with the thief and with those who curse and swear and say, "Well, it's all right to sin"-let all such hear the Word of God: Repent, lest God descend upon you and tear you in pieces.
I said that this was the curse from which Jesus Christ has delivered believers, the penalty for our rebellion and sin against God, the penalty for our repeated offenses against God. Jesus Christ has delivered us from this curse because this curse was actually inflicted upon Jesus in our place. So we know how dreadful this curse is. We know how dreadful it is from what it did to our Savior upon the cross. Our Savior upon the cross was banished from the smile of God. He was lashed with all the blows of God's holy wrath which should have been directed against us. Paul says, in II Corinthians 5:11, "Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men." Those who are confident of their deliverance from sin in Jesus Christ, but who know how terrible is the judgment that their sins deserve, do not simply go out and forget the penalty that their sins deserve. Rather, they go out, says Paul, and persuade men, they urge men, "Are you going to go on in the way of sin and rebellion and clothe yourself with the curse of God?"
Although our society professes widespread belief in God, yet the knowledge of the curse of the holy God against those who break His holy law does not exist for our culture. That is evidenced, for example, in homosexuality. Romans 1 says that homosexuality is the depths of breaking God's law. Yes, homosexuality is a sin that Jesus Christ delivers from, that the grace of God pardons from. He takes us out of that sin. But that very act of homosexuality today is promoted as being right. It is condoned by the church, so that, if we listen to much of the church which claims that it has the gospel, we would conclude that God ought to apologize for what He did to Sodom and Gomorrah, for He destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah for the sin of homosexuality. Today, salvation is no longer declared as deliverance from the curse of God against sin. Today, salvation is simply freedom from frustration. Jesus has come to remove our frustrations, to save us from anxieties, to teach us to live with our doubts and our fears. The curse of God? Threatened upon a man or woman for breaking His law? That is no longer declared.
But let it be heard today! The Bible, the truth, is this: Salvation is to be delivered from the curse which was due to us. Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. That is salvation! And hell is when that curse is inflicted upon you.
Hear the Word of God. Repent. Forsake your sins. Go to Jesus Christ in the gift of faith. For there alone is refuge.
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Let us pray.
Our Father, we pray that Thy Word may enter into our hearts. By the power of Thy Spirit, turn us unto Jesus Christ. Amen.
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THE REFORMED WITNESS HOUR
August 24, 1997; No. 2851
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Can you conceive of a more sobering truth than hell?
The Bible teaches that hell is everlasting torment of body and soul in the lake of fire which is prepared for the devil and all who do not repent. There are many who say that the judgment of hell, of everlasting penalty for sin, is so enormous, so horrible a thought, that they could not conceive of a God who is capable of inflicting such a punishment. There are many who say, "My God would never send a soul to the eternal torment of hell."
Those who speak so do not know the reality of sin, of how enormous an evil sin is in God's holy judgment. Those who speak so do not know God, do not know God in His essential attribute of pure holiness. You see, it is not the doctrine of hell that is the point at issue. It is the truth of God's holy being and the nature of sin which is at issue. Always the truth at issue is: Who is God? What is God? Always the point at issue is: Who is man, what is man, what is sin? And the Bible is straightforward and true on those issues. God is the Holy One. He is pure, perfect, and infinitely good. And man? Man, of himself is a sinner. And sin is an infinite offense against the holy God which truly deserves everlasting destruction. The Bible is straightforward to tell you the truth. Why is hell a reality? Why is there a lake of eternal burning to which impenitent sinners go? Because of the holiness and justice of God! Because sin is enormous and is committed against God. Because of the true nature of sin and the nature of an impenitent sinner. Get hold of this truth: the basic issue revealed in the Bible is not man's welfare, man's happiness, and man's rights. But the basic issue revealed in the Bible is God, and His glory. The holiness of God and the awfulness of uncovered sin call for the eternal curse of God in the fires of hell.
Jesus taught this. He said, in Matthew 25:41, that in the last day, the day of judgment, He shall say unto impenitent sinners: "Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels." That is what the Son of man, when He comes in all of His glory, is going to say. When He sits upon the throne of judgment and impenitent sinners stand before Him, Jesus Christ, the real Jesus Christ, is going to say to impenitent sinners: "Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels."
Hell is to be separated from God. The impenitent and hard-hearted sinner gets exactly what he wants: banishment from God. That is the loss which the damned have.
When Jesus said that hell is to be separated from God, the idea is not that hell is the place where God is not. Psalm 139 says, "If I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there." But Jesus meant that hell is to be deprived of the glorious enjoyment of God and to have nothing but one wave after another of His wrath to roll over the sinner. It is to have God's heart alienated from him, to be hated of a holy God. It is to taste, in the very center of the soul, divine vengeance against sin.
God is good. That is what Jesus said in Matthew 19. There is none who is comparable to Him. There is nothing that can make up for God. Psalm 73: Having Thee on earth, there is naught, there is nothing that I could yet desire. If you have God you have everything (the true God, that is). You may be cast off by man, your way may be very lonely. You may be distressed and filled with trial. But if you have God, you can sing and say, "I walk with Him and make His word my guide." But to be separated from the living God, from the blessed and good One? To receive His burning anger? Hosea 9:12 says, "Woe also to them when I depart from them." All peace is removed, all joy. There is unmixed sorrow. It is to be filled with horror and the anger of a holy God against you. What a horrible thing! When the creature made by the hand of God is separated from God, then only despair can seize that soul. That is why hell is called, in the Bible, "outer darkness."
Be afraid of living in any sense separated from God. Do not make friends who will draw you away from your God. Do not reach out for the job, money, promotion which you know is going to put distance between you and your God, which is going to force you to compromise on your Sabbath observance and the attendance of God's house on the Lord's day. Do not put up walls of separation between yourself and your God by continuing in a sinful course, by willfully deceiving yourself, telling yourself lies that your sin is only for a little time and then you will put it away. Repent! Put it away! Tremble at the thought of distance between yourself and your God.
We can be so concerned at losing things, worldly things, losing this friend, losing this possession, losing this money, losing this business account. But think of His Words: What doth it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Think of the Words: Depart from me, ye cursed. Then all those things a man sought to substitute for God are gone. The covetous person's money is gone. He cannot have that in hell to soothe him. The drunkard's bottle is gone, the fornicator's bed, the philosopher's wisdom. There is nothing left. Everything has vanished. And they are alone forever with the holy hatred of God whom they have offended.
Jesus said that to be cast into hell is to be cast into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels. "Depart from me, ye cursed," He says, "into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels."
I will not go into the question as to what kind of fire that is. The Bible uses stark language, repeatedly speaking of fire, of the fire that is not quenched, it is not put out; of the fire that burns with brimstone, intense, heated fire; of a lake of fire, an immensity of fire in which a soul will swim. Fire is the most horrible pain that we know.
What pleasure, what possession, what lust of your flesh, what amount of money could I offer you right now which would induce you to hold your hand over a lit candle, over a flame of a candle for one minute as it burned your flesh? What could I give you so that you would be induced to do that? Would you do that for all the wealth of the world? Would you? What pleasures of sin, what gratification of the flesh, what earthly possession, what honor is worth an eternity in hell? Do you see the folly of sin? Hell contains greater torments than anything found on earth.
When the Bible tells us about heaven it speaks to us of heaven as a city with gates of pearl and streets of gold. And we know that when the Bible speaks in those terms it is presenting heaven as being more excellent than the finest and most precious things in the world. When Jesus speaks of hell-fire, we must understand by it something more vehement, more tormenting than any fire ever seen by human eyes on earth. Heaven is represented as a treasure, as paradise, as a feast, as rest. And we know that the Bible is saying that words are not sufficient to express what God has in store for those who love Him. Even so, the torments of hell, represented in the idea of fire, a lake of fire burning with brimstone, those ideas are not sufficient to express the dread of falling into the hands of God as an impenitent sinner apart from Jesus Christ.
Jesus said, There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. And, understand, weeping and gnashing of teeth without repentance towards God. Revelation 16:21 reads: "And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, and men blasphemed God because of the hail." Their conscience will condemn them, but they will not repent.
There is no repentance in hell.
What an awful punishment. Whose damnation, the Bible says, is just. It is everlasting fire in the company of the devil and his angels. That is dreadful, everlasting, no period to it, no stop, without intermission, without an end. We cannot conceive of that without horror. That is the evil of sin. The pleasures of sin are bought at a costly price. Brief moments of pleasure bring down eternal misery. That is the stark truth taught in the Bible. That is what sin is. Remind yourself of it. Sin is not a little thing. Sin is something so horrendous that it deserves everlasting punishment which only God's Son can take away for us. What hatred God has for sin. How severe is His punishment. And, remember, God does not punish more than justice requires. Flee to Christ. In Jesus Christ you see sin as an ugly and vile thing.
Then, to be with the devil and his angels. What a horrible company! Revelation 20:10, "And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever." In hell one is bound up with the devil; with the lion who seeks to destroy; with the serpent who hisses and spits his venom into a person's face.
What a glorious thing it is for a Christian to have the company of the saints and Jesus Christ and the angels. What a terrible thing it must be to have nothing but the company of the wicked, of the devil, and his demons. Will you join yourself to those who worship the devil? Will you follow the way of those who follow the devil? Join yourself to those who call upon the name of Jesus Christ. Follow them in faith and holiness.
Flee the everlasting fire.
Do you tremble? Do you tremble because you take God's Word seriously? Do you tremble because you know yourself as a sinner? Do you tremble because you say, "It is true. I violated God's law. I deserve such a death." This then is the testimony of God, the testimony of God to those who, by His grace, touched by His Spirit in their hearts to know their sins, this testimony comes now to them: Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Not your works can deliver you. Not your ability to merit deliverance. Believe the free gift of God. Trust in Christ as the only One who can take the hell-coals away from you. Jesus Christ was sent of God to bind up the eternal hell deserved by His own elect, to hold that hell in His hands, and then to extinguish it by pressing it into His own bosom upon the cross and dousing the flames with His blood. Trust in His righteousness. Follow Him in this world. Go to Him for strength for repentance and holiness. As great as the horror of hell is, and as strong as the trembling can be in us over it, so the grace of God is greater to His people, Romans 8:1, "There is therefore now no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus." Did you hear that, believer? There is no condemnation to you in Christ Jesus. Jesus has taken away our eternal hell.
You might remember that John the Baptist, in Matthew 3 and Luke 3, cried out to his audience, "Flee the wrath to come." In part he was speaking to Pharisees. Those Pharisees did not believe that they had to flee. They said to John, "What are you talking about? We are the children of Abraham. We are righteous. Hell is deserved by other people, not by us." Oh, the blindness of self-righteousness. Let the Word of God tear those blinders from our eyes and prick our hearts. No, you are not righteous of yourself! No, you cannot remove your sin. Sin is an infinite thing. It is an infinite wrong against God. Sin is so heavy, so lasting in its vileness, that nothing can remove it. Your suffering for it eternally in hell cannot remove it. Only God's mercy can remove it. The offended God must bring my sin to an end. He must kill it. My death must die in Jesus, and, praise be God, it did. For the Bible tells me that mercy awoke, meeting justice at the cross, that righteousness and peace have embraced, that they stand in full accord. God has shown mercy in the way of perfect justice. In mercy He has given His Son. In justice, His Son bore in the place of His elect their eternal hell. There is no condemnation for them in Jesus Christ.
Now the word is: flee! "Get you out of this place; for the Lord will destroy this city," said the angels to Lot when they came to take him out of Sodom. "Do not look back." The angels took him by his hand and led him out. In Revelation, chapter 18, there is this Word of God to you: "Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins." Press towards Christ.
Your time is very short. Are you going to go on in the way of that sin? Will you for sixty or seventy years live simply to pile up wealth and possessions as being the end-all, and let your soul be poor? Will you come to lust and to greed and say, "Satisfy me, be my portion in this life?" Will you entertain hatred and unforgiveness in your heart? You, you who have been forgiven so great a debt? You who frankly could never pay what you owed? Is sin in your life, that pet sin, that ensnares and enslaves you? Is it that important? Is it that satisfying? Is it worth it?
And are the difficulties of faith in Jesus Christ and of confessing His name so great? Repentance and forsaking sinful friends, standing up for the Lord-is that so hard, in the light of what He has done for you?
Eternal life! We must have it. There will be time enough to rest when we reach the other shore and sit down under the tree of life. Right now the time is short. For the child of God, the Bible says, there is a race to run. There is a fight to be fought. There is a Christ to confess. There are sins to be battled. Flee!
There is one argument that unbelief makes against the truth of hell, an argument that has cut me to the very bottom of my soul. It is not the argument that I already referred to, that "your God is so evil to do that. My God would never do that." That argument does not move me. Anyone who would so argue does not know God in His holiness. And, very frankly, they do not know the reality of what their sin is. They are blinded to the horror of their own sin. Yes, sin deserves exactly that: eternal hell.
That is not the argument that moves me. There is another argument that hurts. It is put this way: "If it is true that hell awaits the impenitent sinner and burns with a fire which will never be put out, and you believe that, then why do you live as if it is not so? Why do you not warn your neighbor? Why are you so careless about your sins as if, after all, they are of no consequence? Is hell real? We cannot tell from your life that hell is a reality." Do not let that be said about you, child of God.
Flee to Christ in faith and holiness. Escape the everlasting fire.
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Let us pray.
Our Father in heaven, we praise Thy name for the great deliverance in Jesus Christ. Wilt Thou ever humble us and wilt Thou ever give to us that amazing and wonderful comfort that we are delivered. We shall not see death, but we shall live and praise the Lord. Amen.
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The Reformed Witness Hour
August 31, 1997; No. 2852
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