Grace Bible Church
Pastor Robert R. McLaughlin
Tree Of Life
Week Ending 8-8-2021


“There Is A Literal Hell – Do Not Take The Blue Pill !!!”


In this week’s synopsis we will examine the following:
- Hell is a literal place
- Hell represents total, eternal separation from God AND His grace function/provisions
- There is need and pain and agony but no relief – relief is grace
- There are no second chances or bailouts!
- The devil is not the ruler, when he is in hell he is just another inmate
- There is no hierarchy or system of authority among the tormented
- There is no hope of escape
- Unbelievers will remember their lives and be consumed by regret and sorrow
- All this is why Jesus was willing to be humiliated and slain – so we have a way out!
- We can’t love God until we are born again spiritually

We are still studying the Substitutionary Spiritual Death of our Lord in the gospel of John chapter 3.

Last time we closed by noting how the Bible is very dogmatic about a literal hell, with over one hundred sixty-two texts in the New Testament alone are given, over seventy were uttered by the Lord.

There IS a real hell and it’s underlying the whole chapter of John 3, because man is born spiritually dead and condemned to hell. Our Lord came to the earth in order to provide a solution to this problem, and he is giving Nicodemus the opportunity to accept it, graciously and with patience and gentleness answering his questions. But of course Nicodemus is a worldly-minded man, like we read about in 1Co 2:14, and so he is trying t iunderstand spiritual and supernatural things in the worldly/material context and with a rational/empirical system of perception. Hence, Nicodemus is confused…but the Lord knows that as of that moment, Nicodemus is condemned to hell in his sins, and until he is born again, he can not even see, let alone enter, the kingdom of heaven. This is the whole reason the true Messiah came!

Joh 3:17 "For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, (many believers and unbelievers think that the Son came into the world to judge sin) but that the world should be saved through Him. "He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

NOTICE: He has not been judged for sins! He has been judged for refusing God’s offer of grace! When you reject Jesus Christ, you reject the pardon. God holds out His hand and says, “I want to save you from condemnation, take my hand!” But the unbeliever defiantly and proudly and bitterly spits back, “I don’t want your salvation or anything else from you, leave me alone!”

Hell is just that – God leaving you alone, with all His grace, which you have failed to realize includes your body, everything that sustains it - gravity, sunlight, water, food, air, the laws that keep matter together, comfort/relief from discomfort, and basically every single thing that is good! So hell is where you are forced to learn this principle, having all those things revoked. You’ll finally be emancipated, and you’ll realize everything you thought came from you or from the world really came from God, in the hardest way imaginable. But make no mistake and deceive yourself not – this was your choice! God has done everything to make His offer available and all those who desire it are able to find it.

Now, we did go through some of these (what we call-- ) “divine descriptions” of a literal Hell on Sunday morning rather quickly, so we will now look at them a little more in depth and detail, so that we can actually know and reveal this to individuals that we truly love and care about and make sure they know what the eternal state is truly all about and what awaits them should they choose to put their faith in men and the ways of the world.

As we go over what the Bible says about hell, we will also dispel some of the false doctrines you encounter in religions, cults, and misinformed pop culture (TV, movies, video games, music, etc).

Right off the top, Satan is not a red-skinned, horned, goat-legged, bat-winged monster with a pointy tail and a goatee, in case you didn’t know! This is nowhere in the word of God. He is an angel, still, when he fell he was not physically altered. He is just as beautiful and charming and charismatic and alluring and sophisticated and intelligent and clever and cunning and attractive generally as ever, which is why worldly people follow him like the pied piper! They don’t recognize him as who he truly is, and that is by design. The notion of the devil as some cartoon monster is a wooden duck designed to ensure that the ignorant do not recognize him or his doctrines, because they are nothing like what Hollywood or Walt Disney etc depict! IF anyone saw the devil, they would not think he was the devil, but they would think he was an angel or even God himself – which just so happens to be what Satan wants! He is the deceiver after all, and anyone who thinks they are too smart to be deceived by him has already been compromised!

Satan is also not the “king of hell” as so many think – he is not even there yet! He is out on personal reconnaissance bond, free to come and go as he pleases – until the second advent when he will be removed from the earth until the end of the millennium. But when he is in hell, he is not the ruler, he is just another inmate! There will be no hierarchy or wardens who can be bribed or no prison dons who run the cell block and have the peons doing their dirty work. There will be NO WAY to escape the torment and suffering there, or even lessen it, sorry! So to all the rock stars and pop idols and movie stars (and wanna-be’s) who think they’re earning themselves a position of authority and freedom from torment in hell by serving Satan, or who think that hell is going to be a big licentious Las Vegas party where you can do whatever you want with no laws or rules, you are the most pitiful lot ever. There are no words to describe their shock and horror when they find out the truth. We must pray for them that they are stripped of their delusions!

Now that that’s out of the way, lets look at a popular one among the RCC, or the Roman Catholic Church. Purgatory! Contrary to false teachings perpetrated in that church and based on apocryphal books in their version of the Bible, there is no second chance! It is appointed unto man once to die, and then after that comes the judgment according to Heb 9:27 There is no purgatory; it’s saved or not saved, no in-between! There is only a choice – a choice in time – and that choice in time is believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved, or do not believe and spend eternity with the others who refused God’s offer. Once you are dead, your decision becomes absolutely final.

The Doctrine of Purgatory was established by Pope Gregory I in the year 593 and then as a dogma by the Council of Florence in 1439. A dogma in Catholicism is a dogmatic doctrine that must be believed in or you were sinning against God. No wonder the Catholics all believed it! You were actually commanded by the pope and by Roman Catholicism to believe that there was a place called purgatory, and that after you died you went to this metaphysical detention hall where you pray your rosary and maybe you could get let out on “good behavior”, which is complete nonsense and totally unbiblical.

And then of course they come about with a lot of nonsense doctrines like the one we recently noted in Tobit 4:11, where the giving of money can get you out of hell – imagine the idea that God lets you buy your loved ones out of hell with earthly money! However it may sound, there are vast numbers of people who believe this to be true and spend loads of money in vain following it. Their compassion is commendable, but sadly, this is just not true. It’s just another incarnation of the satanic doctrine of works and legalism, good old Santa Clause mentality – good deeds buy heaven but bad deeds get you the lump of coal - which symbolizes hell! But you can’t buy the stairway to heaven (sorry, Robert Plant!) with all the money or good works in the universe, because Jesus Christ already bought it for you with His substitutionary spiritual death! All you have to do is say to God the Father - “I BELIEVE!!” But if you don’t want it, so be it!

Now you know some things about hell that aren’t true, lets crack open the can of what IS true!

1. As a part of the divine descriptions of Hell there is what is known as Hell being a place of fire and brimstone, Rev 19:20.

Everybody knows what “fire and brimstone” means. But when you are totally immersed in your immediate empirical experience of material reality and tied up with post-modern rationalism you just can’t take it seriously. This is fully exploited by the kingdom of darkness.

“The matrix is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you to the truth”
-Morpheus, The Matrix

“In whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, so that they can not see the light of the glory of the gospel of Christ, who is the image of God.”
-2Co 4:4

Shocking similarity, no? But I digress! I think I see a red devil outside the window...

Rv 19:20 And the beast was seized, and with him the false prophet who performed the signs in his presence, by which he deceived (think faith healers and the pope curing cancer by kissing babies...) those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image; these two were thrown alive into the lake of fire which burns with brimstone.

Please notice the principle of fire and brimstone. Brimstone is the biblical word for sulfur which not only keeps the fire going but has a very disgusting smell which we are probably all familiar with – rotten eggs. It’s a very disgusting smell but that’s something we are going to see in our study – that hell is not just a place of fire and brimstone. According to the Bible:

2. Hell is a place of burning wind constantly, Ps 11:6.

3. Another divine description of hell is that it is a place outer darkness (where its completely dark and) where there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth (Mt 25:30)

There’s weeping because there’s tears of regrets, and there’s also gnashing of teeth because of fear and pain.


4. In Mat 25:46 Jesus says, "And they will go away into Eternal Punishment (HELL),"

5. In Mk 9:43-48, it is called a place of UNQUENCHABLE FIRE, and a place where the MAGGOTS NEVER DIE and the FIRE NEVER GOES OUT."

Maggots…….really, what do we need to say about that?

6. Luk 6:24-26, a place of SORROWS (it will be filled with sorrows because it is filled with regrets) and a time of AWFUL HUNGER which awaits you.

Remember earlier what was said about God’s grace being removed? There is no light (outer darkness), the fire and maggots (torment, pain, discomfort) never end, there is hunger but no food, thirst but no water; there is no comfort and no relief….these paint a picture of life without grace! It is vital to impress on the unbeliever who thinks they aren’t getting anything from God because He doesn’t make them rich or remove their self-induced misery or uncomfortable circumstances etc. that their entire existence is provided and sustained by God, even as they reject and curse Him, BY GRACE, and just exactly what life without grace REALLY looks like. It looks like what we are describing here. It is the absolute absence of anything good!

There’s a lot of individuals that laugh at us now, feeling strong and self-assured, even superior and sophisticated...they laugh at us being here in church on a Friday night instead of having a good time and enjoying the cosmic amusement park with all of its thrills and chills, but their laughing and mocking WILL be turned to MOURNING AND SORROW. Think about that word, sorrow. What is more sorrowful than realizing you had a chance for something amazing beyond your dreams but you didn’t recognize it and refused it, and now it was gone forever, you would never have another chance….I know I’ve experienced this “sinking” feeling, like a bottomless pit has opened up under your feet and there is nothing to grab onto. It is the worst! We have a good time in our defiance - sin beings pleasure for a season - but then the unthinkable happens: we get CAUGHT! And then comes the crying and begging and pleading and the “I’ll never do it again, I swear!” Imagine spending eternity stuck in that feeling of regret, bitterness, rage, hatred, starving, burning, being eaten by worms! Sometimes I ask unbelievers, “have you really ever seriously thought about hell? Like even just hypothetically? Really imagine it, visualize it…. What if you’re wrong? They don’t take it seriously.

Lk 16:31 “But he said to him, ‘if they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead’”

But let’s see God’s attitude:

Pro 1:22-26 "How long, O naive ones, will you love simplicity? And scoffers delight themselves in scoffing, And fools hate knowledge? Turn to my reproof, (turn to my reproof when I’m trying to get your attention to correct yourself -- or even better – rebound and recover - Turn to my reproof ) Behold, (if you do) I will pour out my spirit on you; (in the old testament the Spirit would be upon us – in the NT the Spirit is alive with us) I will make my words known to you. Because I called, and you refused; I stretched out my hand, and no one paid attention; And you neglected all my counsel, And did not want my reproof (negative volition toward bible doctrine); I will even laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your dread comes,

Please note that this is an example of what is called an anthropopathism… (which is when human traits or emotions are ascribed to God for the sake of impressing upon us in our own terms God’s stance or attitude toward something. In this case it really just means that God will not rescue us against our own will and volition, He will let us lie in the bed we made)

Pro 1:27-29 When your dread comes like a storm, And your calamity comes on like a whirlwind, When distress {and} anguish come on you. Then they will call on me, but I will not answer; They will seek me diligently, but they shall not find me, because they hated knowledge, (doctrine) And did not choose the fear (or respect) of the Lord.

7. In Luke 16:19-31. Hell is said to be a place of TORMENT, (people will be tormented there) and a place where literal thirst is never quenched.

Lk 16:24 "And he cried out and said, 'Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus (the poor man, the beggar to whom he wouldn’t even give the crumbs off his plate), that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool off my tongue; for I am in agony in this flame.'

Thirst, pain, hunger, sorrow, regret, agony, turmoil, and no relief – because relief is a provision of GRACE. We take it for granted, we go through life like a child living in their parents’ house, fully supported by them in every way, but totally ungrateful and unappreciative, really having no real concept of the truth that we are helpless and hopeless without that support. We like to think these things are provided because we are so wonderful, but they’re provided even when we are awful. It’s only when we’re out in the cold, alone, fending for ourselves, that we really can understand how much we took for granted!

8. Hell is a place where the Fiery Furnace is and again our Lord says there will be WEEPING AND GNASHING OF TEETH

Mt 13:41-43 "That is the way it will be at the end of the world. The angels will come and separate the wicked people from the righteous, throwing the wicked into the FIERY FURNACE, where there will be (again) WEEPING AND GNASHING OF TEETH."

Another important principle to remember is that just as there will be different Rewards in Heaven for Believers, there will be different degrees of punishment for unbelievers based on what they KNEW and on their DEEDS. (Lk 12:47)

9. 2Pe 2:17 These are springs without water, and mists driven by a storm, for whom the black darkness has been reserved.
Jud 1:13 wild waves of the sea, casting up their own shame like foam; wandering stars, (they don’t have any idea where they are going) for whom the black darkness has been reserved forever.

David wrote in Ps 41:6 He (God) rains down blazing coals on the wicked, punishing them with burning sulfur (Fire and Brimstone) and scorching winds.
10. Hell is also a place where there is no escape
Ps 140:10 "Let burning coals fall down on their heads, or throw (cast) them into the fire, or into deep Pits from which they can't escape."
Once again, NO SECOND CHANCES OR BAIL BONDSMEN!

Earlier we saw the verse in Matthew which mentions the worms that will not die. Pastor has taught us that the worm represents the memories of life and of loved ones who are in heaven, and all the times they had the chance to make the choice to believe, and rejected, mocked, scoffed, feeling proud and strong...these are worms of regret and bitterness which will eat them alive for all eternity. But for believers, we will not remember those loved ones who are not with us anymore. Think about it, heaven couldn’t be heaven if we had to bear that pain and sorrow! Heaven is a place of no sorrows. Perhaps we remember but there is no pain associated with it, but I believe they are wiped away, per

Rv 21:4 and He shall wipe away every tear from their eyes; (this is the heavenly state) and there shall no longer be any death; there shall no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away."
11. Hell is also called a place of destruction
Ps 55:23 "But You, O God, shall bring them down to the Pit of destruction; Bloodthirsty and deceitful men shall not live out half their days; But I will trust in You."
Hell is a place where people will be destroyed continually.
12. Hell is also identified as a bottomless pit in Rv 9:1-2.
Think about falling – but never hitting the ground… forever and ever and ever..and ever… in the eternal state…
Let’s review:
1. Fire and brimstone, Rv 19:20.

2. Burning wind constantly, Ps 11:6.

3. Outer darkness & weeping & gnashing of teeth, Mt 25:30


4. Eternal Punishment, Mt 25:46

5. Maggots never die & the fire never goes out, Mk 9:43-48.

6. SORROWS & AWFUL HUNGER, Lk 6:24-26

7. Torment, & unquenchable thirst, Lk 16:19-31

8. Fiery Furnace & again weeping and gnashing of teeth, Mt 13:41-43

9. Blackness and darkness, 2Pe 2:17
10. No escape, Ps 140:10
11. Destruction, Ps 55:23
12. Bottomless pit, Rv 9:1-2.
There are many many more verses we could give. Jesus spoke of hell far more often than heaven, so as you can see, it is not a figure of speech! It is a place, a very real place! Jesus is the one who has warned us about it. It is as though no one else could be depended upon to speak forth all of this terrible truth. That's why we read in
2Co 6:2 "Now is the time of acceptance; now is the day of salvation."
Now is the moment to be prepared for eternity by personal faith in TLJC. Now is the time. Live your life in the light of eternity.
Why does the Lord tell us so much about it? Because He does not want anyone to go there! But free will means personal responsibility and accountability. If you are exempted from the consequences of your choices, you are not really free! Freedom is not for babies, it is for grown-ups. This is true in the physical as much as in the spiritual realms.
Gal 6:7 “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap.”
But He wants us to make the right choice, so He does everything He can without violating our free will to make sure we have the information and the opportunities. Yet the adversary does his best to thwart that through every kind of deception and subversion and obfuscation as well as by encouraging pride and arrogance so that we will have a million false gospels to obscure the one true gospel – the gospel of Jesus Christ and His substitutionary spiritual death! This is the importance of this teaching on hell for us as believers – we need to understand why God was willing to give His own Son, and why Jesus was willing to carry the cross for us! The stakes are very high!!
Joh 3:16 "For God (so loved) so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish,(should not go to hell) but have eternal life.
because:
Joh 3:17 "For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through Him.
World’ is ‘kosmos’ which refers not to the physical, material earth or universe, but to the organized world system of human beings, those under total sin nature control and spiritually dead, and to their humanistic, empirical/rational and secular system of thinking and (un)belief. This is the real life “Matrix” as mentioned above. The purpose of the cosmic system is to build an entire alternate reality of the mind which is engineered to deny God and Jesus Christ and promote every and any kind of human and/or angelic (aka FALSE) salvation. But God didn’t send His Son to judge it, or us, but rather to provide a way OUT, a way to leave the Matrix and its slavery to the senses for all eternity, not to mention, a way to avoid eternal separation from God, which is also called HELL. Awesome!
Do you know that we don’t have the ability or the power to love Him? We are all born without the equipment to love God i.e., spiritually dead. Spiritual death means more than being separated from God, it means we do not even have the ability to love God. That’s what we started off with in this study. But He did something for us so that we could have the ability to love Him and His word. He provides everything for us but we aren’t able to see it because we are blinded by arrogance and pride.

So, when Joh 3:16 says “For God so love the world that...” the word “that” is a preposition “henah” which means that the word “that” introduces a result clause, i.e. when God loves, His love always produces a result...an action. The action is He sent His only begotten (or uniquely born – monogenes in the Greek) Son”, this is the result of God’s impersonal love which He has even for those who choose to be His enemies and who reject and hate Him, because He knows we can’t love Him until we are born again, spiritually regenerate.

Thank God – He so loved the world to take us away from the things of this world, the evil things like bitterness and jealousy and to get us ready for eternal life.
1Joh 3:14 – we knoooooow you’ve heard it before but do you live in it now?

1Joh 3:14 We know that we have passed out of death into life, (how do we know that?) because we love the brethren. He who does not love abides in death.

He who does not have agape love for all believers is separated from God, out of fellowship, and therefore living as a spiritually dead person, hence, abiding in death. For we see in
1Joh 4:20 “If someone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates (does not love) his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen.”
1Joh 3:15 “Everyone who hates (does not love) his brother is a murderer; and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.”

When we understand that “the sin issue” has been taken care of, and that God took care of it because He doesn’t want anyone of us to go to this incomprehensibly terrible place which we studied this evening, called hell, then we should be humbled by that principle and realize –
THANK GOD – that He so loved us that He – the one true infinite, eternal, magnificent, all-powerful, absolutely perfect God – actually was willing to sacrifice of Himself for us – lowly, selfish, ignorant, violent, lustful man! We await the day when every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord!

Thank you Royal family.