Word of Salvation – Vol. 37 No. 10 – March 1992

 

The Final Destiny Of The Unbeliever

 

Sermon by Rev. P. Abetz on Matthew 25:46a

Reading: Matt.25:31-46; Matt.5:21-30; 2Thess. 1:3-10,

 

Brothers and sisters in our Lord Jesus Christ,

I am sure we have all heard those jokes that begin: 'I've got good news and I've got some bad news...!'

Today I am not going to tell you jokes, in fact what our text focuses on today is no joke at all.  But Matthew 25:46 does contain good news and bad news.  The good news is that many people go to heaven.  The bad news is that many people who think they are going to heaven are going to end up in hell.  That is not the word from a depressed and morbid preacher.  This is what Jesus the most compassionate and merciful person who ever walked this earth, says.  These are the words of Him who went all the way to the cross that we might be free to go to heaven.  Today I will focus on the bad news in Matt.25:46 because in order to fully appreciate the good news of our text, we have to understand the bad news.  But the exciting thing is that even within the bad news, there is good news.  Many of us find it very difficult to speak about the bad news.  For example we prefer to say: not everyone will go to heaven rather than that some people are going to go to hell.

In our secular Australian society, when someone has died, even if he has never seen the inside of a church, it is quite polite to say that they are now at peace.  It is a kind of non-religious way of saying that they are now in heaven.

But if you would try and tell your work-mates that the chances of this person having gone to heaven are very slim indeed, and that it is far more likely that he went to hell, because he never showed any interest in Jesus Christ, then you will run the risk of being labelled a religious fundamentalist freak!

An AGE newspaper poll of several years ago showed that only 50% of the population of Melbourne believes in heaven, and only 33% in hell.

While we might think that this is to be expected, the figures for people who claimed to belong to churches are not much higher:
            Anglicans: 55% believe in heaven, 34% in hell.
            Uniting: 60% believe in heaven, 37% in hell.
            Catholics: 71% believe in heaven, 56% in hell.

The doctrine of heaven has rarely been challenged in the church.  But the teaching that there is such a place as hell, where all unbelievers will spend eternity, has been attacked by various groups throughout the ages.  But it was not until the 18th century that there was a significant growth in the opposition to this teaching within the church.  By the 19th century, with man's increasing confidence in his own ability to control and direct his future, there seems to have been a wholesale revolt against any teaching of hell.

The disbelief in hell takes on a variety of forms.  Perhaps the most common is:
            Universalism – the belief that in the end God will allow everyone into heaven.
            Annihilation – a belief popularised by the Jehovah's Witnesses
                        and Seventh Day Adventists
                        which says that all those who are classified as goats
                        at the final judgement will simply be annihilated.
                        They will cease to exist.

With such conflicting ideas around, it is important that we are clear on what the Bible teaches about heaven and hell.

So let us look at our text.  Notice that our text uses the word eternal twice.  It is important that we understand that...

1.  A person's final destiny is for all eternity.

Our text clearly states: they (that is the goats) will go away to eternal punishment but the righteous to eternal life.  As Matthew 25 makes very clear, the ultimate destiny of a person is determined in this life, before a person dies.

That destiny is determined by their relationship with Jesus Christ.  And once Jesus returns, everyone will be called from the grave, and believers will receive their glorified body in which they will enjoy life in the presence of God for all eternity.

Similarly, the unbeliever will enter hell in body and soul, to suffer the anguish of hell, for all eternity.  Contrary to what people seem to believe, our text, and indeed all of Scripture, is very clear that a person's final destiny is for all eternity.  A person who has not believed in Jesus Christ will be condemned to hell for all eternity.  Once that day arrives, there is no longer a way out.  It is no pleasant news to think that nice people could end up in hell.  Yes, those nice people next door, or your relative who would do anything for you.  That they could go to hell does not sit well with modern man.  Yet, modern man loves the idea that those who go to heaven should be there for all eternity.  We think that it is truly wonderful to be able to spend all eternity in the presence of God, but when it comes to eternal punishment many people want to make it less than eternal.  Our text is not ambiguous.  The words used for 'eternal' to describe eternal life and eternal punishment are exactly the same.  It is the same word used to describe the eternal nature of God.

So there is no escaping it: when our text says, they will go to eternal punishment, it means unending punishment.  Nevertheless, we need to deal honestly with questions such as:
            How could a loving God condemn people to suffer for all eternity?

We find the answer in the Bible:
            - Our God wants the voluntary worship of His people.
              Those who reject him, who want nothing to do with Him,
                        will now get their way!
            - God will separate Himself from them completely.
            - And they will suffer the full consequences of their own actions,
                        as well as the wrath of God.

Did not this God send his only Son into the world to die for sinners because he loved them so much?  And will He let people – people made in His own image suffer for all eternity?

Some people say that this is contrary to the Jesus they meet in the Bible.  If you are inclined to think this way it may surprise you to know that it was Jesus who speaks more of hell than anyone else in the Bible.

In fact most of the detailed teaching about hell which appears in the New Testament is what Jesus told his disciples.  But it is also Jesus who tells us the most about heaven.  Jesus did not hide reality.  He knew man must make a choice.

Having seen that a person's final destiny is for all eternity, let us look at the term 'hell'.

2.  Hell.

a.  The term 'hell' is not directly used in our text, yet our text is clearly talking about the same thing.  So it is good to see what light other parts of Scripture shed on our text.

Jesus frequently uses the word 'gehenna', which is translated in our Bibles as 'hell.  In fact, He uses it more than any other person recorded in the Bible.  This word is the Greek version of the Aramaic word (the language Jesus would have spoken) for Valley of Hinnom.  This valley was south of Jerusalem, where in the days of king Ahaz and Manasseh, children were sometimes sacrificed to the Ammonite god Molech.  So it was a place of utter repugnance to the Jews.  And so in the time of Jesus it was deliberately used as the local rubbish dump.  On this rubbish tip fires burned continually.  The prophet Jeremiah (7:32, 19:6) says that the valley of Hinnom would one day be called the valley of Slaughter because God would punish his people there.  Throughout the New Testament the word 'gehenna' means the final place of punishment.

b.  Hell as the final place of punishment.

Let us look at a few Bible references to see that the eternal punishment our text is talking about is in fact what the Bible says will take place in hell.  Our text clearly states that the final condition of the unbeliever is eternal punishment.

Similarly Matthew 18:8-9 reads: If your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away.  It is better to enter life maimed or crippled than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into eternal fire.  And if your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away.  It is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell.

The fire is spoken of as being eternal, unending fire.

And it is presented as being the worst fate that could befall a person.  The parallel passage in Mark's gospel (Mark 9:43-48) says: ...better to enter life maimed than with two hands to go into hell, where the fire never goes out and their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.

c.  The nature of the punishment in hell.

The Bible does tell us a little about the nature of the eternal punishment of the wicked.

Firstly, it tells us that every unbeliever will be punished according to his deeds.  Their punishment will be what in God's perfect justice they deserve.

Secondly, Jesus tells us that it will be so severe that there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matthew 8:12).  And not only Matthew 5, but also in other places, Jesus describes the suffering in hell as being in a fire.

Thirdly, and this is the worst of all the dimensions of hell, those destined to hell will be cast into the outer darkness.  He will be banished from God forever.

The gospel of John, which is often referred to as the gospel of love presents us with the same picture of hell.

[READ JOHN 3:16 & 36]

The words: 'shall not perish' imply that those who do not believe will indeed perish.  And the word 'perish' does not mean to cease to exist as Jehovah's Witnesses will try to tell you, for when you look at how that word is used elsewhere, you will find that it means, 'to render useless'.  For example, in the story of the wineskins, the old wineskins, if filled with new wine will be rendered useless.

John uses the word 'to perish' to convey an endless loss of fellowship with God, which is at the same time a state of endless torment and pain.  And John 3:36 tells us that those who have rejected the Son will not see life, 'for God's wrath remains on them'.

Paul in 2Thessalonians 1:8 tells us that when Jesus returns those who do not know God and who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus '...will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and the majesty of His power.’  And in Revelation 14:10-11 we read: '...the smoke of their torment shall go up forever and ever.'

Revelation 21:8 says: 'But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars – their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulphur.'

The various figures by means of which the punishment of hell is depicted, are not to be taken literally.

But one thing stands out very clearly: that the reality of hell is far worse than any symbols can communicate, just as heaven is far more wonderful than words can communicate.

Brothers and sisters, our text speaks of the eternal punishment awaiting those who have not believed in the Son of God.  But of what significance is that to you?  Perhaps the first effect it should have on us is that we no longer use the term 'hell' in a flippant manner.  But on the deeper level, the effect the teaching of our text will have on you will depend on where you stand in terms of your relationship with Jesus Christ.  If you have never accepted Jesus Christ as saviour, then may the teaching of the reality of hell make you wake up to the fact that you cannot pretend that it is not real.  The day will come when it is too late to turn to Jesus.  That will be when He calls you from this life, or when He returns.

May our text impress upon you the urgency of accepting the saving work of Jesus Christ.  If you do not accept Him, your destiny will be hell.

But if you heed His call and turn to Him in faith, then at death you will enter a state of very real but nonetheless provisional happiness while you await the return of Jesus and the resurrection of the body and the new earth which God will create as the culmination of his redemptive work.

And it is in this new earth that believers will spend eternity.  It is either heaven or hell.  The choice is yours.

If you are a believer, our text points us to our great responsibility to share the gospel with those who still live in darkness.  Knowing what the eternal destiny of those who do not know Jesus as Lord and Saviour is, should spur us on to be more faithful in proclaiming the good news to those amongst whom we live, for God does not desire that any man should perish.

If you see a friend reaching out to grab a live electrical wire which would kill him, you would do all in your power to stop him grabbing it.  And yet so often, we are so complacent and allow people to slip into a Christ-less eternity in hell, without making any effort to confront them with the gospel message.

Every one of us is called to be a witness, a soldier of the Kingdom.  And our primary task is the furtherance of that Kingdom.  Soldiers are trained to do their task.  Are you willing to be trained to share the gospel effectively?

And finally our text points us to the grace of God.  For the Bible's teaching on hell, must surely remind every believer as to what their eternal destiny would have been had it not been for the saving grace of Christ.

Brothers and sisters, praise the Saviour now and forever!

AMEN