Chapter 8. Last time in the series on biblical distinctions, we began to look at the different hells of the Bible. If you're familiar with the scripture, you know that God has created three places of punishment with a specific purpose for each one. Two of those are temporary and one is eternal. Now, if you recall from last week, the most common word in the Bible, often translated hell, is Sheol. And Sheol is a Hebrew word, so you find in the Old Testament it's a word for the lower parts of the earth. It can refer to the grave or a place of judgment. The context actually determines the specific nuance of the word. But it certainly is translated judgment. Habakkuk 2, 4 and 5 says, behold, the proud, his soul is not upright in him. But the just, in contrast to the proud, shall live by faith. Indeed, because he transgresses his wine, He is a proud man. He does not stay at home because he enlarges his desire as hell. And he is like death, and it cannot be satisfied. He gathers to himself all nations and heaps up for himself all peoples." Speaking of how hell is enlarging itself for more people. And that is going to be the place of the proud who do not humble themselves under the mighty hand of God. Now, the Greek or New Testament equivalent to that is, for Sheol, is called Hades. It's a place for the saved and unsaved dead prior to Christ's ascension into heaven. The word Hades is found 11 times in the New Testament. Again, it's a place of the saved and the unsaved after death. We saw this in Luke chapter 16 when Christ told the story of a rich man and Lazarus. It wasn't a parable, again, because Jesus never used names in his parables. It was an actual two actual men that he was talking about that the audience knew. They had two different lots in life and yet they both died. The rich and poor died alike. And yet their condition in Hades couldn't have been further apart. Now their position in Hades had nothing to do with their lot in life. One was rich and one was poor. That was irrelevant. But Christ told that story because the Pharisees who were part of the audience were under the wrong assumption that if you were rich, that was a sign that God was pleased with you. And so when Christ said the rich man was in the torment side of Hades, their world was rocked. And the beggar whom they likely despised and looked down upon in their minds was a sign of God's disproval, was actually in a place of comfort. And so both the saved and the unsaved went to Hades prior to the resurrection of Christ. Now, if you think of Sheol or Hades, it consists again of two compartments, a torment for the unsaved and a paradise side for the saved. Paradise now today is in the third heaven because when Christ, who arose, it says he led captivity, captained, he took those who are on the paradise side or Abraham's bosom side and took them to heaven with him. And this is why we can say in 2 Corinthians 5, 8, absent with the body for the believer in Christ means he is in the presence of the Lord. And the Lord, we know, is in heaven because he told his disciples that he went up there to prepare a place for them, that where he is, they can be also. And so very important to understand. So you think it's a description? Sheol is what Hades described as a literal place of torment. It's a place of conscious memory in which a person's destiny is unchangeable. That's the reality of hell. It's the worst nightmare that could ever be imagined or experienced and at the same time it never ends. And people in hell are very, very conscious. They have a conscious memory of what transpired in this life. They'll have the opportunity for all eternity to experience the regrets that they had. Again, the rejection of the God of creation and his gospel of grace will hound them for all eternity. In fact, the mental torment will be at least as bad as the physical torment, as they will receive bodies that will be able to withstand the torment of fire for all eternity. There's nothing pleasant about any of this. And this is why we need to be mindful of the lost. We need to be mindful of their condition and mindful of our position as an ambassador for Christ and share with them messages God would give opportunity. And so there's a torment side, paradise side. Now the torment side fills all of Hades because the paradise side has been translated to heaven. Now, Hades, again, is a temporary place of God's judgment for the souls of people. It will eventually be cast into the lake of fire, which we're going to look at here tonight. Revelation 20 tells us, verses 13 and 14, that the sea gave out the dead who were in it, and death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them, bodies and souls, and they were judged, each one according to his works, and then they were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second or final death. There'll be no more death after this. We saw that Jesus Christ alone has the keys of Hades and of death. He is the final judge. Those who put their trust in Him and Him alone as their Savior will never experience Hades. And those who reject Him, they will experience Hades and then the lake of fire. So we looked at a couple different words for hell that the Bible uses. Again, very obviously places of judgment. Well, there's two more words in our New Testament translated hell, and we're going to get those tonight. And the first one is Tartarus or the abyss, but it's not to be confused with Sheol or Hades. So we think it's degnation. The Greek word tardus, tardarus, is found only in 2 Peter 2 and verse 4. Those will see other passages refer to it. This is what 2 Peter 2.4 says. For if God did not spare, and notice this, the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell and deliver them into change of darkness to be reserved for judgment. And so we have, if you have a New King James Bible, the word hell translated there. It's the Greek word charterous. And the Holy Spirit directed the New Testament writers to use this word rather than Hades, and for good reason, as we will see. It's not a place for human beings. It's only a place for fallen angels. And Luke 8 gives us here an account of Jesus casting demons out of a man. Here, a final law here in Luke chapter 8, Notice, if you will, verse 29. Well, we'll pick it up here in verse 28. When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell down before him, and with a loud voice said, What have I to do? This is the demons talking here. What have I to do with you, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, do not torment me. For he had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. For it often seized him and was kept under guard, bound with chains and shackles. And he broke the bonds and was driven by the demon into the wilderness. Jesus asked him, saying, what is your name? And he said, Legion, because we are many demons, because many demons had entered into him. And they begged Jesus that he would not command them to go out into the abyss. And so they begged him that he would not send them to the abyss. Now the Greek for the abyss there in verse 31 is Abbasos, and it's also translated the bottomless pit or the abyss. And so it's also called the abyss or bottomless pit. In fact, to see this, go with me to Revelation chapter nine. We're going to be doing some serious flipping tonight. Revelation chapter nine. Notice verse 1 of Revelation 9. Then the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fallen from heaven to the earth, and to him was given the key to the bottomless pit. And he opened the bottomless pit. The context here is the tribulation, by the way. And smoke arose out of the pit like the smoke of a great furnace. So the sun and the air were darkened because of the smoke of the pit. Then out of the smoke locusts came upon the earth, and to them was given power as scorpions of the earth to have power. These are the demons that have been in the abyss, as we'll see here, for a long, long time, and they're released from the bottomless pit, and they'll spread over the earth like smoke, and they'll have the power to inflict pain like scorpions. But the name or designation of this place is Tartarus. It's translated in the Bibles, again, as the abyss or bottomless pit. speaking in the same place. And again, it's for fallen angels. It's for fallen angels. In fact, jump down to verse 11. And they had a king over them, the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon, but in Greek, here's the name Apollyon. Now that is, those are two other names for Satan who is the king of the demons. So as we think of the description and destiny here of these angels, this refers to a temporary place of God's judgment for select fallen angels whose king is Satan. Now with select fallen angels, we know that all fallen angels are not in this place of judgment. I mean, we know from 1 Peter 5 that Satan is walking around today looking for someone to devour. According to Ephesians 2, Satan is the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that's now working in the unsaved. In fact, Ephesians 6 says this, put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in heavenly places. So there's many demons today that are in the world, if you will, but there's a select group that is in the bottomless pit. And we're going to see why here in just a second. These demons here are bound in chains of darkness. but they do have a king over them, and that king is Satan. So what do these particular angels do in order to warrant the punishment in Tartarus or the abyss? These angels were involved in the unsuccessful satanic plot in Genesis 6 to destroy the bloodline of the Redeemer. And since that time, so this has been thousands of years, they've been kept in change of darkness. In fact, let's see this. Let's go to Genesis chapter 6. Genesis chapter 6. Notice verse 1. Now it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them, that the sons of God, now that phrase, the sons of God, is a description of angels in this context, saw the daughters of men that they were beautiful, and they took wise for themselves of all whom they chose. And the Lord said, my spirit shall not strive with men forever, for he is indeed flesh, yet his days shall be 120 years. There were giants on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came unto the daughters of men, and they bore children to them, those who were mighty men, who were of old, men of renown." And so what happened is, as we're going to see here, these angels violated a barrier that God had set up when they were marrying, if you will, humans to try to disrupt the birth line of Christ. And the world was so bad God had to destroy it. Notice verse 5. When the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord was sorry which he had made man on the earth, and he was grieved in his heart. So the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I've created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air, for I'm sorry that I made them. But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Only Noah and his family found grace in the eyes of the Lord. The rest of humanity had been so corrupted and either influenced or actually engendered, became engendered children of these fallen angels that God had to destroy all of them and start over with just Noah and his family. Now, it's not that grace wasn't available to the rest, but they had rejected God. They rejected his salvation. And it's not like Noah was worthy. He didn't earn grace from God. That would be an oxymoron. You don't earn grace. But he responded to the grace that was available to all. And you know, Christ said at the last times, it's going to be like the days of Noah. And evil is going to exponentially increase. And just like then, most people today are in bondage to the influence of the prince of the power in the air. And they're not interested in a free salvation that God has provided them. That is what was going on. But these fallen angels, because of what they did, were cast into Tartarus and they're held in change of darkness. And Jude tells us this. Jude 6 says this, and the angels who did not keep their proper domain, they had no business, from God's perspective, marrying humans. They left their own abode. He has reserved an everlasting change under darkness for the judgment of that great day. And so they're in a holding tank called the bottomless pit in chains of darkness. Peter mentions this. Notice what it says in 1 Peter 3, 19 and 20. By whom also he, that's Christ, went and preached to the spirits in prison. These spirits in prison are the fallen angels in Tartarus, who formerly were disobedient when once the divine long-suffering waited in the days of Noah while the ark was being prepared in which a few, that is eight souls, were saved through water. And so what Christ did, part of his three days in the earth after his crucifixion, is he went to the Tartarus here and he spoke to these spirits in prison and said, guess what, your plan didn't work. I came, I have crushed Satan, I have won the victory, I have sealed your doom. Interesting, isn't it? And so the current purpose for Tartarus or the Abyss, it's a holding cell for fallen demonic angels who try to corrupt the world in a way that God never designed of Noah's day. Now it's going to also have additional angelic inmates when Christ returns to set up his kingdom. In fact, after Christ's return, Tartarus will function as a temporary prison of God's judgment for Satan and his angels during the Millennial Kingdom. Go with me to Revelation chapter 20. Revelation chapter 20. Notice verse one, then I saw an angel coming down from heaven having a key to the notice and bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold of the dragon that is the serpent of old who was called, who is the devil and Satan and bound him for a thousand years. And he cast him into the bottomless pit and shut him up and set a seal on him so that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished. But after these things, he must be released for a little while. Now why is the dragon Satan put into the abyss and not Hades? Because the abyss is a place that is specifically created for rebellious angels. It's not created for man. It must be an awful place because the demons in Luke 8 begged him, begged Christ not to send him there. But no human will go there because it's only for angels. And so what's going to happen here? And I'm presuming that when Christ comes back, this is second coming. At that point in time, before he sets up the kingdom, he's going to take Satan and I presume the rest of the angels because there's going to be no satanic influence in the world and they're going to be bound in the abyss. for a thousand years. And then at the very end he'll be loosed, him and his army will go out and deceive the nations, and then God will blow them away, and we'll see here they'll be then cast into the lake of fire. In fact, after Satan's last rebellion, the abyss will be replaced by the lake of fire, where Satan and his angels will be cast and be tormented forever and ever. You can continue reading here, verse 4, I saw, then I saw thrones and they sat on them and judgment was committed to them. Then I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God, who had not worshiped the beast or his image and had not received his mark on their foreheads or their hands. And they lived in rain with Christ a thousand years. And so the tribulation saints are resurrected at this time and they live with rain with Christ for a thousand years, but the rest of the dead, did not live again until the thousand years were finished. The rest of the dead are the unsaved dead." And so if you're not part of the first resurrection, which has to do with the saved, you're going to be part of the second resurrection, which has to do with the lost. Verse 6, "'Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ and shall reign with him a thousand years.'" Now when the thousand years have expired, Satan will be released from his prison. He'll be out of the abyss, and he will go out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle, whose number, and this is so depressing, is as the sand of the sea. These are people, again, living during the thousand-year kingdom that have perfect knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. They get to see him. They understand perfectly what he did for them in dying for their sins, and yet they flagrantly reject him. Verse 9. They went up to the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints in the beloved city, and fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them. The devil who deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever." Notice, Satan and his angels will be cast into the lake of fire where the beast and the false prophet what? Were or are? Are. They've already been there a thousand years. Wow. Which tells us the lake of fire is not annihilation, is it? And Satan and his angels will join those two already there and they'll be tormented day and night forever and ever. And so Sheol or Hades is a temporary holding place of punishment for mankind until the great white throne judgment, until the day of court before our Lord. Tartarus or the abyss or the bottomless pit is a temporary holding place for certain fallen angels. And then during the thousand year kingdom, Satan and all the angels will be there. And then they'll all be thrown into the lake of fire eventually. Now this brings us to Our third word translated hell in our English Bibles, it's Gehenna or it's equivalent to lake of fire. It's the ultimate destiny for the unsaved mankind and rebellious angels. The unsaved angels and man will be thrown into the lake of fire for all eternity. Now as you think of Gehenna, It was an actual place in the Valley of Hinnom, southwest of Jerusalem. It's mentioned in Joshua 8. It's a place where children were sacrificed to Moloch, and it was later used to dispose of garbage and dead bodies. Now, just to see that this place outside Jerusalem was a horrible place, Manasseh, the most evil king to ever reign, in Israel's history. It says, Manasseh was 12 years old when he became king, and he reigned 55 years in Jerusalem. But he did evil in the sight of the Lord according to the abominations of the nations whom the Lord had cast out before the children of Israel. He rebuilt the high places which Hezekiah, his father, had broken down. He raised up altars for the Baals and made wooden images, and he worshiped all of the hosts of heaven and served them. He also built altars in the house of the Lord, of which the Lord had said in Jerusalem, Shall my name be forever and he built altars for all the host of heaven and the two courts of the house of the Lord Also, he caused the son his sons to pass through the fire in the valley the son of him This guy was as evil as they come He practiced soothsaying he used witchcraft and sorcery. He consulted mediums and spiritists He did much evil in the sight of the Lord to provoke him to anger You wonder why didn't the Lord kill him? It's then you wonder why hasn't the Lord killed me. I But it's just amazing. And so this was a place where children were sacrificed through the fire. So it's an awful place in that regard. But if you'd lived in the first century in Jerusalem and you went outside the city walls to the southwest side of the city, you would have encountered a valley full of garbage and dead decaying bodies of both man and beast. I'm sure it would have smelled unbelievably horrible. There would have been all kinds of rats and maggots and who knows what else. But fires burned there continually night and day. And so when Jesus talked about hell, he used this Gehenna, this Valley of Hinnom, which would be something everyone in that generation understood as a place to describe in a small measure what hell is like. And so Jesus Christ repeatedly utilized the word Gehenna to designate the place of eternal punishment for the lost. This word occurs 12 times in your New Testament, the word Gehenna. It's translated hell each time, and 11 times it's used by the Lord Jesus Christ. The one other time it's used in your New Testament is used by James, When he describes the destructiveness of the tongue, he said it's set on fire of hell. So he uses it descriptively as well. Jesus Christ repeatedly utilizes this word, it's synonymous with the lake of fire. It's synonymous with the lake of fire. It's the place of eternal punishment for the lost. Now to see his description, We see, first of all, that it's a literal place. Notice Matthew 10, 28. It's a place where God is able to destroy both one's soul and body. Christ's words here in Matthew 10 say, do not fear those who can kill the body but cannot kill the soul, because the real you, your soul, is what goes on forever. But rather fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body, in hell. It is a literal place. It's not a state of being. Some believe who don't take the word of God seriously and literally, they would say, my condition right now is a living hell. It's a term that is thrown around in our vernacular. It's not what he's talking about. It's a place where God is able to destroy Now, if hell was just simply a place where dead bodies of animals and people and so were thrown and they would be consumed, why would he mention soul then? If the soul did not go on, there'd be no point in mentioning here. How can fire ruin a soul? But the fire in the worms of Gehenna continually destroyed the garbage there. There was always garbage, however, to be destroyed. There's an endless supply of garbage making and a great example of continuous destruction never being consumed. And so you'd recognize that this garbage dump that was always on fire was always on fire. It never ended. And so Christ used it as a illustration to describe a literal place where God can destroy one's soul and body. Now the word destroy there means to be put to ruin, to render useless. to, it doesn't mean annihilation. And so, your soul and body, in fact, everyone who is part of the second death gets a body that is able to withstand torment for all eternity. The destruction there is a ruin, not an annihilation. It's a Greek word, apollumia. And that's why, metaphorically, it means to devote or give over to eternal misery in hell. to be lost, to perish, to ruin, to be destroyed. And that's what happens. Which means it's a place of God's damnation of the lost, including the religious lost. And this becomes apparent. Let's go to Matthew chapter 23. Matthew chapter 23. In Matthew 23, this is shortly before Christ is going to be crucified, he gives a scathing rebuke to the Pharisees and the scribes who were leading people astray. Verse 14. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! For you devour widows' houses, and for a pretense make long prayers. Therefore you receive the greater condemnation. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you travel land and sea to win one proselyte. And when he is won, you make him twice as much a son of hell as you are. Woe to you, blind guides, who say, whoever swears by the temple, it is nothing. But whoever swears by the gold of the temple is obliged to perform it. And he continues to rebuke him. Verse 22, or verse 23. Woe to you, scribes, Pharisees, hypocrites, for you pay tithe of mint and anise and cumin and have neglected the weightier matters of the law, like justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done without leaving the others undone. Blind guides who strain in a net and swallow a camel. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside you're full of extortion and self-indulgence. And on and on he goes. Verse 31, therefore you are witnesses against yourselves that you are the sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up then the measure of their father's guilt. Serpents, brood of vipers, how can you escape the condemnation of hell? Now he says in verse 15, for you travel land and sea to win one proselyte. A proselyte is a convert. And when he is one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as you are yourself." And so, a proselyte was a non-Jew, and these Pharisees would convince them to convert to Judaism, but in doing so, would make them twice the child of hell they already were. Now, how is that? Well, you know if you're familiar with religious cults, they would tell you that their best members are converts from another religion Not the members who have grown up within the organization or the cult Oftentimes they become the most ardent defenders of the religion For they gave us something that was wrong and they embraced something else which is wrong, but they thought it was right they finally found the answer they were looking for and so Because of their pride, rarely when someone converts to a cult can you ever get them out of it. Because they will be so proud of their decision, nobody ever wants to admit that they went from bad to worse. And so they're blinded because they think they finally found the truth when they haven't. And again, Satan's got his hand in this. 2nd Corinthians says, for such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. They look good. And no wonder, for Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. Therefore, it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works. By their own pride, they will actually reject the appeals of a clear gospel. And so they become two times the child of hell. Satan or Christ hates religion. It's religion that blinds people to the truth of the gospel and appeals to the pride of man. And so he says at the end here in verse 33, he calls them serpents and vipers. They're examples of religious loss, but they deceive others as well. And because of their position of influence and their deceitfulness, they're going to receive the greater damnation. Now, that doesn't mean they could never have gotten saved if they changed their minds about Christ and recognize he's the Messiah that he died for their sins and he paid the penalty in full and they humble themselves They're saved but in their current condition They weren't and this is why God hates pride Religious pride is the hardest thing to overcome. I Mean you sit you look at people you wonder how much misery can they stand and in their pride. I I mean, I've talked to people that their life couldn't be any more messed up when you give them the gospel, they reject it out of hand and think, I can still fix this thing, or they just think that's not the answer. It's religious pride that they're buying. It's unbelievable. What else? It's a place of unquenchable fire. Let's turn to Mark chapter nine. Mark chapter 9. Let's pick it up in verse 43. If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It's better for you to enter into life maimed rather than having two hands to go to hell. And what's hell like? Into a fire that shall never be quenched, where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched. And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It's better for you to enter life lame rather than having two feet to be cast into hell and in the fire that shall never be quenched, where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched. And if your eye causes you to sin, plug it out. It's better for you to enter into the kingdom of God with one eyeball rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched." Now, Jesus is not saying here that your hand or your foot or eye make you sin, because sin is conceived in the mind. He's using a shocking metaphor to get across the idea that whatever is hanging you up from believing in Christ, you need to deal with it, whether it be religious pride or the lust of the flesh or the pleasures of life, the very things that are whatever your weakness might be. He's saying deal with it and get saved because the alternative is unthinkable and it's horror. Remember in Luke 16, the rich man was tormented in this flame. He said, send Lazarus that he could just dip his finger in water and cool my tongue for I'm tormented in this flame, he said. Jesus says six times in this stretch here that the fires of hell will never be quenched by using Gehenna as a real life illustration. I can't think of a greater reason to get saved than to escape the horrors of hell. where the fire will never be quenched. Some people don't know exactly what that phrase, worm does not die, but it gives the idea that some equate it to the soul, where your soul doesn't die. You'll be tormented not only physically, but also mentally for all of your days. Next thing about hell is it's originally prepared for the devil and his angels. Let's go back to Matthew chapter 25. Matthew chapter 25. At the end of Matthew 25 here Christ is talking about the judgment that he is going to render After the tribulation, when he comes back, he's going to evaluate those who survive. Those who are saved are going to walk into the kingdom. Those who are not are going to be cast into the lake of fire. And notice what he says here in verse 41. Then he will say to those on his left, those are the ones that are unsaved, depart from me you cursed into everlasting fire, prepare for the devil and his angels. First of all, know that hell is a place of everlasting fire. And the word there for prepared is in the perfect tense in the Greek. In other words, it was prepared at a perfect time, at a time in the past and it remains prepared. for the devil and his angels. It was originally prepared for them. They're not there yet, but it's been prepared and it's awaiting. You know, it's funny, that same word for prepared is used by Christ in John 14 too, when he says, I go to prepare a place for you, for the saved. Christ is preparing a perfect place for the saved. He's already prepared a perfect place for the lost, but it's perfectly horrible is what that means. It's also a place of everlasting punishment. Notice verse 46. Then he will answer them, saying, assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not, well, I'll start at verse 45. Then he will answer them, saying, assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me. And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but they're righteous to eternal life. Now the Greek word for everlasting, describing punishment, is the exact same Greek word for eternal that describes life. So everlasting and eternal are the same words that could have been translated eternal punishment or eternal life. They both go on forever and ever. You know, as I thought about this today, I thought, you know what, I can't imagine. Psalm 1611 says, in Christ's presence is fullness of joy. And he's prepared a place that's going to go on. And I can't even imagine how wonderful that's going to be. And yet, how much harder is it emotionally to try to imagine a place of everlasting torment? I can't even imagine it. But that same word for eternal is the same word that describes God in the Bible. Notice 1st Timothy 1.17, Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, to God who alone is wise, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen. And so, people have a hard time thinking hell is eternal. Well, it's as eternal as God is. Everlasting is everlasting. In fact, these verses here describe everlasting eternal hell, by using the words everlasting punishment in Matthew 25, 46, eternal condemnation in Mark 3, 29, eternal judgment in Hebrews 6, 2, everlasting destruction in 2 Thessalonians 1, 9, eternal fire in Matthew 18, 8, and eternal torment in Revelation 20 in verse 10. I mean, imagine again the worst possible situation of physical and mental anguish and multiply that times infinity. That is what awaits the unsaved. And yet you're so concerned about what they think of you that you won't give them the gospel. Because they might think you're a weirdo. And it should cause you to deeply appreciate what Christ suffered on your behalf on the cross because he bore the equivalent of hell and those three hours. Number six, it is the final place of torment where the beast, who is the Antichrist, and the false prophet, the devil and his angels, and all unsaved mankind are cast. And so it's the final place of torment where the beast and the false prophet, the devil and his angels, and all the unsaved mankind are cast. Turn with me to Revelation chapter 20. First of all, let's stop at chapter 19 and read verse 20 again. And the beast was captured, and with him the false prophet who worked signs in his presence, by which he deceived those who received the mark of the beast and those who worshipped his image. These two were cast alive into the lake of fire, burning with brimstone. Isn't that interesting? This is before the millennium. So they're cast first, so the first ones in the lake of fire. They're translated, they don't even see death, physical death, they're translated, boom, right into the lake of fire. Verse 10 of chapter 20. The devil who deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and false prophet already are, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever. And so after the final rebellion, Satan will be cast into the lake of fire and all his demons with him. Verse 14, death in Hades, that's a description of the unsaved. The souls and the bodies of the unsaved were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second or final death. And anyone not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. And so anyone who's not saved, this is their final and eternal destiny where they're cast into the lake of fire, which tells us that the lake of fire is referred to as the second death or eternal separation from God. Remember, death in the Bible always speaks of separation. And since the unsaved chose to live all their lives Their physical lives separated from God. At death, God makes their choice a permanent condition. He's a perfect gentleman, granting their wish to exist without him in their lives for all eternity. And what makes hell so terrible is the absence of the goodness and the grace of God. All the good of God is not there. Now, the good news In fact, 2 Thessalonians 1.8 makes the issue not obeying the gospel. 2 Thessalonians 1.8 and 9 says, In flaming fire, take vengeance on those who do not know God, on those who do not obey the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. These shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord for the glory of his power. There's only one way to escape the horrors of hell. It's through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone is revealed in the gospel of grace. See, the thing about the gospel and the good news of the Bible is you don't have to go. You don't have to go to hell. John 5, 24 says, most assuredly I say to you, he who hears my word and believes in him who sent me has right now everlasting life. And in the future, notice, shall not come into judgment or condemnation because they've passed once and for all from death unto life. If there's only one thing that condemns a person to hell, it's not because they're a filthy, rotten sinner to the max. God so loved the world He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. God did not send a son of the world to condemn it, but that the world through him might be saved. He who believes is not condemned, but he who does not believe stands condemned. Why? Because he's a filthy pedophile. No, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. Christ did everything necessary for mankind to be saved. On the cross of Calvary, he bore the wrath of God in every individual's place, lock, stock, and barrel. Everyone's sins were paid for. And so the issue in salvation is, will you accept the payment Christ made? And those who are rejected never change their condition of condemnation. They were born condemned. This is why they need to be born again. And everyone we know, walking down the street, rubbing elbows with, co-workers, whatever it might be, is born condemned. They need to hear the gospel of grace so they can escape the condemnation they deserve through simple faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and the fact that he died for them, was buried, and rose again. Humbling, isn't it? Very humbling. Any questions about what I've talked about tonight? Well, let's thank God for our salvation. Father, we are so grateful for your love and your care. For you so loved the world, you sent your only begotten Son, thanking that you demonstrated your own love toward us. And while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. I pray that the reality of hell would humble our hearts and soften them, That we look at others around us that you put in our path in desperate need of a savior. And that we'd recognize our ambassadorship and that we consider ourselves to be your vessels, vessels to be used to open our mouth and share that message of salvation. We pray for opportunities, we pray for those we know and love that are not saved. We ask that you continually work in their heart to draw them to yourself. that they can understand that glorious message of salvation and put their faith in Him. Thank you for saving us for all eternity, all by your glorious grace. And we give thanks and pray in Jesus' name. Amen. With that, you're dismissed.