Our reading is from Isaiah chapter 30, Isaiah 30, beginning at verse 15. It's on page 591 in that blue pew Bible. Isaiah 30, beginning at verse 15. I want you to notice the good news and the bad news that flows throughout this passage and the offer that's made, the promises that are given. Isaiah 30, 15 through 28. For thus said the Lord God, the Holy one of Israel, In returning at rest, you shall be saved, and quietness and trust shall be your strength. But you were unwilling and said, No, we will flee upon horses. Therefore, you shall flee away. And we will ride upon swift steeds. Therefore, your pursuers shall be swift. A thousand shall flee at the right at the threat of one at the threat of five. You shall flee till you are left like a flagstaff on the top of a mountain, like a signal on a hill. Therefore, the Lord waits to be gracious to you, and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all those who wait for him. For a people shall dwell in Zion, in Jerusalem. You shall weep no more. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry. As soon as he hears it, he answers you. And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your teacher will not hide himself anymore. But your eyes shall see your teacher, and your ears shall hear a word behind you saying, this is the way, walk in it, when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left. Then you will defile your carved idols overlaid with silver and your gold plated metal images. You will scatter them as unclean things. You will say to them, be gone. and He will give rain for the seed with which you sow the ground and bread the produce of the ground, which will be rich and plenteous. In that day your livestock will graze in large pastures, and the oxen and the donkeys that work the ground will eat seasoned fodder which has been winnowed with shovel and fork. And on every lofty mountain, on every high hill, there will be brooks running with water in the day of the great slaughter. when the towers fall. Moreover, the light of the moon will be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be sevenfold as the light of seven days, and the day when the Lord binds up the brokenness of His people and heals the wounds inflicted by His blow. Behold, the name of the Lord comes from afar, burning with His anger and in a thick rising smoke. His lips are full of fury, and His tongue is like a devouring fire. His breath like an overflowing stream that reaches up to the rock to sift the nations with the sieve of destruction, and to place on the jaws of the peoples a bridle that leads astray. And now we turn to the gospel according to Matthew chapter 5, Matthew 5, reading verses 27 through 30. It's page 810. This is in the middle of the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount. And what Jesus is doing here is he is not taking the law, the Ten Commandments, and correcting them in some way. He's not challenging them. He's actually challenging the religious elite's interpretations of the law. The religious elite's interpretation of the law. And you will notice that here as you read these passages, but especially verses 20, 17, 30. Here are Lord Jesus. You have heard that it was said you should not commit adultery, but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your eye, your right eye, causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. or it is better that you lose one of your members and that your whole body go into hell. The word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Let's pray. Oh, holy God, holy mighty, holy immortal. We look to you to help us through this series that we begin today, especially as we scrutinize what your scriptures teach us about the terrifying subject of hell. Have mercy on us, Lord. Help us and change in us what needs to be changed for the sake of your son, Jesus Christ. Amen. You may be seated. And so most of you know, we're beginning a series today called Hell and Heaven. We're starting with hell. Everybody else starts with heaven. I like to be the odd man out. I like to start with hell here because I want to talk more about heaven and end the series on an up note. So we're going to actually begin at talking about hell starting today. It'll be three Sundays on hell, five Sundays on heaven. And so on the back of your worship guide are the three points, and there are some questions there. Parents, listen to me for a minute. One of the questions for the kids is, did this subject scare you today? And it's I mean, and so I tell them in the in the question, if so, go talk to your parents. So pay heed, because towards the end of this sermon this morning, you will have something to tell them if it scares them. OK, so I just wanted to be careful there. So you may be sitting there asking me, Mike, what in the world possessed you to do such an insane thing as to dive into the subject of hell publicly? I mean, this is public. We're all here, but we're also being recorded, and this is going to go out on sermon audio to be heard for years to come. It's being live streamed and being recorded, so it'll be seen. What in the world would possess you to do such an insane thing as to dive into the subject of hell publicly? Well, here are at least two reasons. There's more, but these are the two that really stick out. A while back, one of the teachers at our local private school just down the road, a couple miles down the road, asked me to come to her class and to talk about Jonathan Edwards' sermon, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. And so she explained what she generally wanted me to cover. She made a personal observation. She had been going, at that point, had been going to her congregation well over 10 years, and while thinking about Jonathan Edwards' sermon, it made her reflect on what she had and had not heard at her church. And so she said to me, and I think this is a direct quote, or as close as I could get to it, quote, you know, I can't remember a sermon on hell ever being preached at my church. Then she went on to ask me, why do preachers no longer mention hell? which got me thinking about the importance of tackling this subject. And I did tackle it Sunday evenings in 2014. So the five of you in here who were there, you know this series. I actually did it then. That brings me to the next reason to do it. About six to eight months ago, one of you asked me some questions on this subject. And I mentioned, well, I'd mentioned that I'd done this sermon series back in 2014. And you said, I had no idea that you did it. which made me realize that most of you have never heard this series. And so I decided it was a good time for all of us to hear it together. Now, I'm likely not going to answer all of your questions because you will have lots and lots of questions, and I will probably not deal with every angle. I'm just doing eight sermons, three on hell and five on heaven. And so I would recommend to you, if you wanna write this down, Edward Donnelly, D-O-N-N-E-L-L-Y, his book, it's a Banner of Truth book, I believe, Biblical Teaching on the Doctrines of Heaven and Hell. I would recommend that book. You will notice some overlap, and he goes in places that I don't have time to get into, but it's a good additional material. Edward Donnelly, Biblical Teaching on the Doctrines of Heaven and Hell. And so, my friends, to start this series this morning, we must think about this terrifying topic of hell for three reasons, at least. It is of great importance. It is of great importance. It is grossly disbelieved, grossly in the sense of universally or broadly. It is grossly disbelieved and it gashes our illusions. It's of great importance, grossly disbelieved and gashes our illusions. So it's of great importance. My friends, as I talk about this, I want you to know that I am being very sensitive, knowing what's happened just this year alone and just the last part of last year. To begin with, in 2019, in America alone, just in the United States of America, 2,854,838 people died. About that number in America die every year, according to the CDC and the National Vital Statistics Report. Just do the math. That's 237,903 that die per month. That's slightly over 59,476 persons per week. That's near 8,400 people die each day. It's a little bit more than 350-something individuals per hour. And that means it's about six grandmas or grandfathers or mothers or dads or sons or daughters each minute. And so hordes of people are dropping every day. And the likelihood is that this year, it's already been a tough year for crying out loud. It's likely that this year, at least one or more of those whom you know or love or related to will die. So further, none of us will be armchair warriors when it comes to death. We will not be able to watch it happen on reality TV, YouTube, TikTok, off at a safe distance, untouched, like a video game or a movie. You know how it happens in movies, right? You see your favorite actor die in this movie, and the next thing you know, he's over in that movie. Well, how'd that happen? He died. No, he didn't really. Or like in video games, where your character dies, and then it spawns, I don't know, 30 seconds or 40 seconds later, you know, somewhere else. It's not going to be anything like that. All of us will enter into our eternal destinies, some sooner and some later. To put it quite bluntly, friends, at the end of the day, all doctors' remedies are only temporary. They will wholly and decisively fail in the end. Finally, my friends, Scripture itself gives enormous weight to this subject. I want you to notice our Lord here. He talks about it in Matthew 5, verses 27 through 30. Notice He mentions it twice. He mentions it as a warning. Look, it's far better that you lose one part of your body than all of you be thrown into Gehenna, into hell. Now, Jesus is not recommending we start doing body part surgeries and stuff and cut off things. He's speaking in some hyperbole. But he's emphasizing some very serious stuff. And our Lord talks about it. In fact, if you want to do the math, Jesus himself alone mentions it more in Holy Writ than all the rest of the authors. Jesus mentions hell more than anyone else. And I find this truly intriguing. If as we believe as Christians, Jesus is the eternal son of God who became man and so was and continues to be God and man in two distinct natures and one person forever. If he was in the bosom of the Father and has come to make him known, and we find out that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. If all of that is true, and I believe it to the nth degree and down to the bottoms of my feet, If all of that is true, then notice that it is Jesus who knows God, who is eternal, who is part of the Godhead, if you will, who comes and he makes known to us this place actually exists. Our Lord Jesus knows what is lying in wait for many. That means then that Jesus mentioning it and mentioning it and mentioning it is actually a mercy. I know what's there for some, and I don't want you to go there. I'm telling you to warn you because it's real. It's a mercy. If God was not loving and caring, he could have said, to hell with you all. But he didn't. It's a mercy. So the scripture and our Lord Jesus clearly define that our afterlife is being either one of indestructible glory, joy, delight, relief, and satisfaction, or one of never-ceasing agony and grief, weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. The Bible repeatedly bids us to recognize that there are only two destinies. There is no middle ground. There's no halfway house. There's no cosmic recycling bin. And that's what lies behind our Lord's words and urgency in Matthew 5, 27 through 30. I don't want that for you because it's a reality and it's coming. I want this for you. Therefore, my friends, this subject is of great importance. That's why we're talking about it. But secondly, it is grossly disbelieved. I mean, and broadly disbelieved. I mean, for example, it receives popular ridicule. One of my favorite comics, I have two, Calvin and Hobbes and Farside. That tells you how twisted I am, right? Gary Larson, my favorite one, of course, is The School of the Gifted, the guy pushing on the door that says pull. That's my favorite. But Gary Larson, Farside, his comics often depict hell with ridicule to some extent, making light of it. Or this is going to date a few of you, but it's OK. We can be in there. I turned 60 this week, so we can do this, OK? But that 1980s rocker, Pat Benatar, hell, hell is for children, she screamed. To TV shows, to admired comedians, I still remember something that rats. Steve, I'm at that age, Steve, whatever. I still remember comedians in the 1970s doing some of these jokes. To costume parties that make light of it. Hell is, receives popular ridicule. But also it is doubted by serious thinkers. No surprise with some of these, like Bertrand Russell, who was an atheist. He knows better now. Is he dead? He knows. Of course, he ridiculed the whole thought that there was hell. There's the Catholic theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Willamette University in Salem, Oregon, Thomas Talbot, and a mass of others. And I'm not naming names to shame anyone. It's so as you stumble across them, you'll at least know this part about them. It's important. And then there's our own culture that scoffs at hell. Albert Moeller, I think, is right. He's the president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He has rightly pointed out that the, quote, the biblical vision of God has been rejected by the culture as too restrictive of human freedom and offensive to human sensibilities. God's love has been redefined so that it is no longer holy. God's sovereignty has been reconceived so that human autonomy is undisturbed, end of quotation. It's made light of in our own culture because we don't want a God who actually is serious. But quite surprisingly, it is questioned by many who are within the boundaries of Christianity, somewhere in there by many. There are usually three of those questioning categories that go like this. One of them is an outright denial that there's a hell at all, that that's all just hyperbole. Some of those who are within the boundaries of Christianity posit, secondly, that hell is only momentary and that all of those in hell will cease to exist. That's called annihilationism or conditional mortality. And then a third group are those within Christianity who advance the idea that hell is remedial and that all of those in hell will eventually be purged of sin and saved. And that's called universalism. Like the ancient pastor Gregory of Nyssa thought that hell was actually going to be redemptive for even Satan, who would finally see the folly of his ways would be changed. Or C.S. Lewis's mentor, George MacDonald, falls into one of those three categories. Some of you may remember the old Barclay Bible study series. You remember those little Barclay commentaries? William Barclay, not only did he deny the miracles and the physical resurrection of Jesus, he also really denied that there was a hell. But really surprisingly, John R. W. Stott, who was an annihilationist, Philip Hughes, who wrote a couple of hymns that are in our hymn book, Clark Pinnock, John Wenham, Rob Bell, and a host of others. Again, none of that is naming to shame. I'm not naming to shame. I'm not naming to shame them. Hey, that works. I like that. I'm not naming to shame them. It's so that we know when we read that that's where they are. Those folks go against the Scripture's witness and the testimony of 2,000 years of Christian history. In the words of D.A. Carson, quote, it is getting harder and harder to be faithful to the hard lines of Scripture. And in this way, evangelicalism itself may contribute to the gagging of God by silencing the severity of His warnings and by minimizing the awfulness of the punishment that justly awaits those untouched by His redeeming grace." Even the likes of Leslie Newbigin, who would never be mistaken as a fundamentalist, let me just say, even he observed. Quote, it is one of the weaknesses of a great deal of contemporary Christianity that we do not speak of the last judgment and of the possibility of being finally lost. And finally, J.I. Packer himself observes in his little book you've seen me recommend, Concise Theology, he says, quote, the sentimental secularism, that's a great line, the sentimental secularism of modern Western culture with its exalted optimism about human nature, its exalted optimism about human nature, its shrunken idea of God, and its skepticism as to whether morality really matters. In other words, its decay of conscience makes it hard for Christians to take the reality of hell seriously." End of quotation. You can always count on G.I. Packer for great statements, and that was why. Well, let me tell you a little personal testimony. I've said it before, so I'm not ashamed to say it again. In my heart of hearts, I am a universalist. Down, down deep in my heart, I don't want to see anybody go to hell. I don't want to see that day. I don't want to think that it's going to happen. I want to think that God is going to turn everything around at the end. I'm just telling you what's in my heart of hearts. I've said it before. And what I want, though, is not what scripture says. And this is a crucial moment. If I really believe what scripture says, sometimes scripture goes against what I want. So what I want cannot be the rule of thumb or it's the rule of thumb for everything. And heaven forbid, it's a rule of thumb for everything. You know what I mean? So I think maybe a good way forward for us is heard in the words of Tim Chaley's. I think this is a great place to be. Tim Chaley's wrote this article originally in 2007 and made this statement. And then later he kind of redid it and still made this statement in 2011. And it's this. I hate hell. I hate that it exists and hate that it needs to exist. What I want and what I wish to be true must be ruled and sometimes overruled by God's own word. Did you hear that? What I want must be ruled and sometimes must be overruled by God's word. This is what we mean that God's word is the final rule of faith in life. It doesn't mean I always like what it says. But it means I bow the knee to what God has said there. Number four, my friends, the second reason to delve into the topic of hell is because it is grossly disbelieved. But further, it is a truth that gashes our illusions. It gashes the illusions, for example, of our Pollyanna syndrome in America. I mean, one of the reigning notions in American heads is I mean, it's the it's like at the top drawer, it's human well being. It's like the be all the end all human well being. And elevating human well being to the top shelf is the backbone that is holding up the entitlement mindset. And this reigning notion says that the purpose of everything we do, the purpose of everything we do, our reason for living, even the object for God itself, to use that language, is my personal happiness, my personal wellness, my personal well-offness. I don't know if I've ever told you a story, but I ran across a woman years ago who supposed to be a Christian. She and her husband supposed to be Christians and they're getting a divorce. And I'm like, well, what's up with this? Did he commit adultery? No. Well, why are you getting a divorce? Well, I just, I'm just not happy anymore. And surely she said this, I'm quoting, and surely God wants me to be happy. That's become the infallible and inspired rule of America, human well-being. People must be happy, don't you know, Mike? And so this reigning notion flowing in our drinking waters and filtering through the oxygen that we breathe actually takes the Westminster Shorter Catechism, number one, and turns it on its head. What does the Westminster Shorter Catechism ask? What is the chief end of man? And the answer is, man's chief end is to glorify God and enjoy him forever. And this reigning notion turns it on its head and it says, what's God's chief end? God's chief end is to glorify me and enjoy me forever. And yet, my friends, the truth about hell pulls every one of us short, reminds us that this reigning notion is not God's notion. Hell, like a sharp, jagged edge of broken glass, slices through the flimsy fabric, fanciful fabric of our duplicitous age, and it says to us, People are not at the center of God's order, God's will, God's mind. God Himself is. What He defines as good and wholesome is. Where He says true happiness can be found is. If you want more, I can recommend Wes's sermon he preached the other Sunday night on that part of the Lord's Prayer, Hallowed Be Thy Name. He does a great job laying that out. I would recommend you spend some time listening to that. But God is the center of his own purpose and being. My friends, that's part of the hope-filled, heartfelt statement in this hard-hitting passage we began with in Isaiah 30. It was a hard-hitting passage, but there's so much hope there and heart in this passage. In the midst of all the flaming fire and everything else coming out, notice how God puts it. If you go back and look at Isaiah 30, look, in returning at rest, you shall be saved. In quietness and trust, you'll be your stream. Here's the offer. And what does his people do? No, we will not have that. In fact, we're going to sing with Frank Sinatra and I did it my way. So God says, OK, here's the result, the outcome of what you want. But then all of a sudden you come to chapter 30, verse 18. Therefore, the Lord waits to be gracious to you. He waits to be gracious to you and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you for the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all those who wait for him. Notice that, that in all of that and with all the fire and all the other aspects of judgment there is grace and mercy. And so the topic of hell actually splinters our phlegm, phlegm, pansy concepts of sin that we have. I mean, our modern idea of sin is dumbed down pretty narrowly to simply mean something like, oh, that's that all-important behavior that we're all to avoid. So what is that main nearly unforgivable sin in our day? What's the one wrong? I'm not talking about within Christianity I'm just talking about the broader American culture. For example, what's the one wrong that our age tells us that we're to avoid at all costs? Harming others Harming others now, there's some legitimacy here, but when it becomes elevated as the standard of We've moved outside of God's standards into something else. Harming others, whether emotional harm or physical harm. That's the point behind tolerance. Tolerance is good, but when tolerance gets elevated to become the be-all, the end-all, we've moved into a different realm. It's the concept behind microaggressions. where everybody's offended because I know whether you intended it or not, what you said was offensive to me. Everything you said was offensive to me or whatever. It's these microaggressions. It's what lies behind the use of the legislative, social, and political force that demands we affirm and we approve alternative lifestyle choices. And it's what is behind much, not all, but much of the anti-bullying campaigns. But the true truth about hell gashes through this flimsy facade, this insubstantial smoke screen, and it says to us loud and clear, wake up, people. There is one God, and He is pure and holy and fiery and just, and you and I are dreadfully guilty of offending Him. Hell reminds us that God is serious about being God. And sin is our grave revolt against God being God. It's a revolt because in all reality, let's just be honest, I want to be God. That's what sin is, the revolt against God being God. So as John puts it in 1 John 3, 4, everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness. Renegadeism. Practices lawlessness. Sin is lawlessness. Or think about David's own prayer in Psalm 51. He had committed adultery. He had been instrumental in Bathsheba's husband being put to death, being murdered on the battlefield. And yet David's own confession, all that's true. He sinned against all of them. But David finally says, against you, you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment. My friends, hell penetrates our thick, resistant heads with the truth. God is not to be toyed with. So here then is an acid test for our hearts. It's an acid test that exposes whether you are truly God-centered or not. Hell is that jarring test that exposes where you are. But remember, my friends, hell is ultimately not about us. It's not about misery, agony, weeping, gnashing of teeth. Hell is conclusively about the true and only God and all of His fiery holiness, His majesty, His power, His beauty, His splendor, His purity, and His genuinely jealous love. Scoff, if you will, But when He comes and reveals who He is and who we are in contrast to who He is, we will all fall down and we will all melt down before Him and wish we could eat all of our scoffing words. I mean, think of every time someone or some group of people actually seem to meet God in the Bible. Think of Israel at Mount Sinai. And there's God come down on top of Mount Sinai. And what's Israel's response? Ooh, party time. Is that the response? No, Moses, you go up there and talk to him. We're going to go over here. When Isaiah, after King Uzziah dies, when he sees the Lord in the temple high and lifted up, and he hears the angels crying out, the seraphim, the fire ones crying out, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of hosts. All earth is filled with his glory. What is Isaiah's response? Notice Isaiah doesn't say, can we take a selfie together? Isaiah says, woe is me. I'm coming apart at the seams. I'm a man who misuses my speech and communication, and I live amongst a culture that misuses its speech and communication. I'm melting down. Oh, but that's the Old Testament preacher, don't you know? The God of the New Testament is loving and cute and adorable. You could almost make a little squeezy. Really? What is John's response to Jesus when he sees him in Revelation chapter one? Revelation one He doesn't say oh, I'm so glad Jesus. You're my best friend. We're just lovers What does John do anybody remember? He falls down He can't even look up he drops Before my friends on that day, that terrifying day, no one will be laughing and telling jokes about hell, and no one will be questioning the morality of how could a good God, a God of love, send folks to hell. We will all tremble. Some will tremble out of the richest of joys. I think the statement we will hear the most is, wow, how did I get here? What amazing grace! How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. How'd I get in here? It was surely by you. We'll probably hear a lot of that, but some will tremble with the deepest of dread. But my friends recall that because God has deep love and serious concern for us, He has forewarned us and has given us a way of escape. You heard it in the call to worship. The Father loves the Son and has given all things into His hands. He who believes in the Son has everlasting life. He who does not obey the Son shall not see life. The wrath of God abides on Him. You heard it when we got our assurance of pardon from Romans chapter 10. If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. But with the heart, one believes and is justified, and with the mouth, one confesses and is saved. The Lord has opened the way. He doesn't want us to perish. And so, dear friends, why should we think about hell for a little while at least? because it reminds us of our own littleness, which is extremely healthy. It also reminds us rather graphically of the vileness and the awfulness and the terribleness of our own sins. And finally, this subject brings every man, woman, boy and girl face to face with the overwhelming holy presence of God and our desperate need for the salvation of God. This is why we need to approach this subject, approach hell. Remember the good news. If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. With the heart, one believes and is justified, and with the mouth, one confesses and is saved. Call upon the name of the Lord and you will be saved. Let's pray. Lord God, we do not come at this moment with glee and joy over the subject of hell. It does not tickle us, does not make us happy, does not make us celebrate and rejoice, except to realize this is what you saved us from. This is what you saved your people from. And Lord Jesus on the cross, this is what you bore for our sakes. And that, Lord, we do rejoice. I pray for any who are listening, who have been here and listen to now, or those who will listen in the near future. You, oh Lord, will take this home to them, that you may bring them home to you. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.