If you would like to join me in the scriptures this morning, we'll begin again in a passage that we've read several times recently in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 25. We're continuing our theme of the last several weeks, this is probably now the fourth week As we've been studying through for months now the subject of what the Bible has to teach about the end of the world, God's plan for the ages, how all things are going to culminate and conclude in His great purpose, and the grand climactic finale event of all of history being the second coming of Christ, when the Lord will return to the earth, when He will begin with first raising all people from the dead, and we've looked at all of those things in some detail, and then He will cause all people to come before His presence, before His throne, and give an account for their lives in what we know as, what we call, the Day of Judgment. We've seen that in that day the Lord is going to evaluate everybody's life, and He's going to separate and divide everyone into two categories, into two groups. What He calls on the one hand on His left, the goats, and on the right, His sheep. One group, the goats, will be given punishment forever and ever. The other group, the sheep, will be rewarded with blessing forevermore. And in just these last four weeks, we've studied in particular what's going to be the circumstance, what's going to be the experience of those who are on his left-hand side, and what this all means, what hell is all about, what the final sentence that they will hear from the Lord on that day is going to mean for them. And after four weeks of study of this, you might think, well, we've probably done enough teaching on hell. Let's move on to something a little bit more pleasant. And you know what? We will eventually move on to something a little bit more pleasant. But we're not done yet. We're going to focus more attention on hell today and again, Lord willing, next week. And if you're at any point in this study feeling, you know, maybe Maybe there's just been too much teaching on this subject already. I would say that's usually the point for me as a teacher where that's a signal from the Lord that I need to hone in and teach more rather than less. So if I hear anybody saying, I think we've done too much on hell, don't say that because I'll just stay there for a while. And we'll look at it until our heart is satisfied and we, when I start to hear, when I start to hear, wow, you know what, I want to learn a little bit more about this, then I'll feel like, okay, I've done my job and we can move on. Reverse psychology won't work, at least on me. All right, what we did last week, or actually the last two weeks, is we've studied the major errors on this teaching of hell. I've identified nine major errors on hell, and I didn't go into sufficient detail on any one of them. They all deserve their own individual teaching, but I meant to give just an overview and introduction of these major errors that you will at one time or another, if you haven't already, encounter. both in the world, the four major errors that the world makes as they consider the possibility of hell and what is actually a reality, but for them they try in every possible way to disassociate themselves from that inevitability. And then we looked last week specifically at the errors that the church itself has made through 2,000 years of church history. And we've identified in these nine errors total materialism, reincarnation, hedonism, limited but real hell, universalism, probationary hell, annihilation, purification, and finally an alternative kingdom in hell. As we've looked at these nine errors, we've hopefully have identified the primary ways that people are wrong about this very critically important subject. So what I want to do from this point forward for the next couple of weeks is teach the truth about hell. and to go through so that we're all equipped to understand not just the errors, not just to recognize the errors when we see them, but then to be able to communicate rationally and intelligently and spiritually with anyone that ever comes across our path what the reality of this most important subject is. I titled this A History of Hell, and that's because it's important for us to think of hell in that perspective. Hell has a history. Just like this world has a history. And the reason for that, let's read starting in Matthew 25 again. As I said, I've read this passage before. This is part of the account of the Day of Judgment. The Lord Jesus is speaking these words Himself. This is the Lord's own description of what the Day of Judgment will be like. And we'll re-read Matthew 25, 41. And what we're reading here is the sentence pronounced on the goats on that day, those who are assigned eternal punishment. Then he will say to those on his left, depart from me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels. Now, generally speaking, when we read verse 41 and the flow of his description of the Day of Judgment, the emphasis is on the fact that there is a separate sentence given to the ghost. There's a separate sentence of punishment given to those who are on his left-hand side. And some of the details that are at least implied in what the Lord Jesus has to say here are oftentimes overlooked. And I want to stop and focus on these details. First is this. Hell is a prepared place. What that means is that hell was created. Now, if you think this through, I don't think anybody's going to have a problem with this, but hell is not eternal. in the same sense that God Himself is eternal. When we talk about terms beyond time, there are two basic terms that the Bible uses, and it's important for me to make a distinction here. Those terms are eternal and everlasting. And sometimes they're used interchangeably and there are some contexts where they can be used interchangeably, but it's important on this point for me to make a distinction and to describe this distinction to you. If I have a timeline of all of history, and I'm just going to draw a line right in the middle of this timeline and say this is where we're at right here at this moment in 2003. on God's timeline of history. If I say something is everlasting, what am I referring to time-wise? I'm referring to something that starts here and moves forward in history into the future and never stops. An infinitely long line into the future. If I refer to something, however, that's eternal from our standpoint, what I'm really describing is something that stretches in both directions. in an infinitely long line. And in that sense, there's only one eternal thing, and that thing is not actually a thing, but a person, and that is God Himself is eternal. Meaning that God stretches as far back along the timeline of infinity as He does forward in time. God never had a beginning point, He doesn't have an end point. But everything else other than God Himself has a definitive, specific start point. That means that everything besides God is created. So there are two basic categories of existence. There's God and then there's creation. Hell is part of God's creation. Now, all we have here in this detail of what the Lord Jesus said on the Day of Judgment in verse 41 of Matthew 25, let me re-read that verse again. Then he will say to those on his left, apart from the accursed ones, into the eternal fire, which has been prepared for the devil and his angels. Has been prepared is a time clue. And the time clue is simply this. When was it prepared? In the past. At what specific point in the past? We don't know. The Lord doesn't say. We don't know exactly when He created hell. My presumption is, and it is a presumption because we don't have a specific identifiable passage that we can point to for this particular point, but it's a logical conclusion based upon the implications of many passages, and that is that hell was created in the past before the world itself was created. Why? Well, as we'll see, the purpose of hell is to be a holding place for spirits, and there are going to be spirits that need to be held throughout all of history. And so it would be logical and it would be rational on God's part, and he is a logical and rational being, the ultimately logical and rational one. It would be right on his part, it would make sense to fit his plan, that at whatever point he created the world itself, that somewhere in proximity to that, probably just before the creation of Adam and Eve, He created hell itself. It is a place. It is a location that was created by God for a specific purpose. Now, we have a hint of that purpose right there in the same passage. Verse 41 again. What was the original intention of the Lord? What was in His mind and heart as He prepared or as He created hell? Depart from the accursed ones into the eternal fire which has been prepared for..." Hell was created for the devil and his angels. Now, this is an easy to misunderstand passage. And this is one of the passages that is taken by one of the nine errors that we've taught about the last two weeks to mean that, therefore, no human beings will ever end up in hell. Because it was created, according to the Lord Jesus here, for the devil and his angels. It was created for the devil and his angels, it wasn't created for human beings. At least this is the way their thought process works. And so, you know, in their perspective, maybe the devil and his angels will end up there, but people, no people, zero people will ever end up there. Well, that's reading into the text more than what the Lord Jesus actually says. And this is a common way that people err on these critically important subjects. There's a difference in doing Bible interpretation. I'm going to give you a couple of $10 words here. I don't want to lose anybody on this. These are theological terms that you'll find if you enroll in and attend a class on Bible interpretation in your local seminary or Bible college. And they'll tell you there are two basic ways to interpret the Bible. And they use these two Greek terms to describe this, but they're pertinent to our point here. They're called exegesis and eisegesis. And basically, these are words which just simply mean this, exegesis means to read out, and eisegesis means to read in. And to do right Bible interpretation, especially on these most difficult topics like this, what we're called to always do is exegesis. And our goal, our responsibility, our calling in Bible study is simply to read the Bible and read out of it what's already there, to let the scriptures speak for themselves, to let God speak for himself through his own word. Reading in an eisegesis way would be to read into the text things that aren't there, things that we want to see there for our own purposes. so that we can change the meaning of God's Word to make it mean what we desire it to mean. And that's human tendency, human nature. And I guarantee you that one time or another, every one of us has been guilty of this second way of interpreting God's Word, reading into it what we wanted to see there. I can still remember early in my Christian life, and this experience didn't cure me of the danger of this forever and ever and ever. It just safeguarded me so that I really never wanted to do this again. But I can remember, and I don't remember specifically what the topic was, but I was studying out as a young believer some very controversial topic. And it was one in which I was already committed to a particular position. And yet I felt like I had a responsibility, I need to study this out. But you know how it is, when you come to a controversy in study, you can enter that study with your mind made up before you ever really look at the evidence. And when you do end up looking at the evidence, what are you looking for? You're looking for some support for what you've already decided, what you already believe. We've all done that, I believe. But I remember in this particular study, I was building my case, you know, for anyone I would ever talk to about this. And I came across a passage that clearly and obviously didn't fit my position. And if I took the passage for what it simply said and what it obviously, to me, meant, I would have to change my view. And I can still remember to this day I was greatly tempted to do something to that passage. Now, I'm not going to ever physically rip it out of my Bible. I couldn't get away with that, you know. I'd be walking around as a teacher of God's Word forever with this big section ripped out of my Bible. And you'd be looking at it as I'm turning the pages and you'd say, how come that page is all torn up and missing a big chunk? Well, you know, there's a portion in there that I don't really want to pay attention to. It just wouldn't fly very far. So I can remember the Lord dealing with my heart at that point to say, are you going to allow my word to shape your view? Are you going to shape my word from the standpoint of your view? So we all have to guard ourselves against this this danger of reading into the text what we want to see there. And this Matthew 25, 41 is a classic example of how this one group that believes that no human beings are going to end up in hell read into the text what they want to see there. The Lord doesn't say anywhere in verse 41 that no human beings will ever end up in this place which has been prepared for the devil and his angels. That's reading into the scripture what they want to see. They're reading it for the devil and his angels, and they tack on this one word, only. And they read it this way. Then he will say, depart from ye accursed ones into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels only. And if you add a word like that in meaning, then if the word actually did, occur there in that passage. If the Lord Jesus did speak the Word only at that point, then I would follow that conclusion wherever it led me because that would be God's Word. But He didn't speak the Word only. All He was doing at this point was giving us, as human beings, a glimpse behind the veil. so to speak, showing us behind the scenes what was in God's mind and heart when he originally created hell. The purpose of God in creating hell was as a holding tank for spirits that sinned. And those spirits happened to be angelic spirits. And when did God create it? Again, My conclusion is that he created hell before he created a single human being. Therefore, at that moment in time, the only spirits that were ever held in hell as a holding place were the angelic spirits that sinned. Therefore, the Lord Jesus is telling us this is what was in God's heart and mind when he originally created hell. However, we don't want to presume that God didn't think far enough ahead to recognize that eventually there were going to be another part of his creation called human beings, and that they would sin, and that many of them would sin in such a way that they would never be restored to fellowship with God, and would end their lives in that broken fellowship of sin, and that in that place they would also, as spirits, need a holding place for them. like the devil and his angels required a spiritual holding place. So God wasn't just planning on the fly when he later added human beings to the holding place that was originally designed and created for Satan and his angels. What we're meant to see by this is that this is a holding place that is perfectly designed and suited for its purpose. which is to provide a prison for spirits, powerful spirits. And the implication is, if it's powerful enough and perfect enough and designed to hold the devil and his angels without any recourse for them, without any escape by them, it's certainly powerful and perfectly designed enough to also hold the human spirits that sin and are left in that place. of permanent, eternal, broken fellowship with God from the point of their death forward. Okay, so that's our first point, which is that hell is a created place, perfect and powerful in its design. Let's look at another place, or another portion here. Turn with me from Matthew 25, if you would, back into the Old Testament. Psalm 16. The second major point about hell is that, and this is based on the idea that hell is a created place, is that hell, let me get this on the board, hell changes. Anything that's created changes. The Lord says this about Himself to describe to us His eternity. He says, I am the Lord, I change not. Everything that's created by God changes. Only the Lord doesn't change. Hell is a created place. Are we tracking on that? Therefore, hell changes. Hell has already changed from when God first created it to what it is today. And it will again change from what it is today to what it will be in eternity. So there is a past, present, and future reality to hell. How many times you've ever heard this taught? Okay, this is important stuff. It's critically important, okay? Let's follow this as we go through first the past of hell. Psalm 16. We'll read from verse 7. This is known as a messianic psalm, meaning it's a psalm, a prophetic psalm, that was written to describe something that the Messiah himself would accomplish or experience when he later came. Verse 7, I will bless the Lord who has counseled me, indeed my mind instructs me in the night. I have set the Lord continually before me, because he is at my right hand I will not be shaken. Therefore my heart is glad and my glory rejoices. My flesh also will dwell securely. For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol. Nor will you allow your Holy One to undergo decay. You will make known to me the path of life. In your presence is fullness of joy. In your right hand there are pleasures forever." Alright, this psalmist is writing, again, we'll see in a moment how he's writing actually about an experience of the Messiah, the Lord Jesus, when he comes. But he's writing to describe his confidence in his relationship with God. And in this confidence, he describes two possibilities. The two possibilities for himself are, one, soul abandoned. In what situation? Soul abandoned. In my translation, the word used here is shio. I'll describe this in a moment. The other possibility is pleasures forevermore. in God's presence. Now what we have here, without using the specific terms that we're familiar with, is we have a description of hell and a description of heaven as the two possibilities of what can happen at the end of this person's life. And it's the confidence that's expressed here that no matter what the situation looks like, for this person. His confidence is that at the end of his life his soul will not be abandoned in Sheol. And he uses a very specific Hebrew word here. The Hebrew word is Sheol. And it's going to be important for us to properly define this word Sheol. Sheol is the most common Hebrew word used to describe what we call hell. But it's not only used for hell. I heard someone reading out of their translation. They were reading from a different one. It's also commonly translated by the word grave. It's translated shadow. It's translated hell. And it means literally the unseen realm. You'll have to trust me on this. I can bear this out in various Hebrew lexicons and dictionaries. The word Sheol literally means the unseen realm. Now let's turn from Psalm 16 and read in Acts chapter 2 how Peter takes on the day of Pentecost this passage from Psalm 16 and he applies it to the circumstances of the Lord Jesus. Acts chapter 2, we are going to read just a small part of what Peter has to say on the day of Pentecost. This public message about Jesus. Verse 22 of Acts 2. Men of Israel, listen to these words. Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through him in your midst, just as you yourselves know, this man delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put him to death. But God raised him up again, putting an end to the agony of death since it was impossible for him to be held in its power. This is a side point, but the reason why it was impossible for Jesus to be held in the power of death was one thing and one thing only. We, when we die, are held in the power of death. Jesus could not be held in the power of death because throughout the duration of his life, he lived a perfect, sinless life. It's only sin that gives death the power to hold us in death. Jesus never sinned, therefore he could not be held in that way, therefore God raised him from the dead. Verse 25, for David says of him, I saw the Lord always in my presence, for he is at my right hand so that I will not be shaken. Therefore, my heart was glad and my tongue exalted. Moreover, my flesh also will live in hope. And he's quoting here from Psalm 16. Peter is because you will not abandon my soul to Hades, nor allow your holy one to undergo decay. You have made known to me the ways of life. You will make me full of gladness with your presence now. Peter quotes this same passage from Psalm 16, and as he goes on, we didn't read on here, he's applying this to the circumstances of Jesus' death and subsequent resurrection. And when he quotes it, he uses a similar term, but a completely different one. He doesn't quote it using the term Sheol, he quotes it that the soul of Jesus was not abandoned to Hades. Now, this is a simple... I don't want to confuse anybody here. It's the same word, just in two different languages. Sheol is a Hebrew word. And when the psalm was originally written, it was written in Hebrew. Later, when Peter quotes it, he's speaking to a Greek-speaking people. And so he uses the Greek word instead of the Hebrew word, but the two words mean exactly the same thing. They're referring to the same thing. Hades is Sheol, and Sheol is Hades. Now, you may not be that familiar with the term Sheol, but you've probably, throughout your life, heard the term Hades used in various circumstances. What is it normally of reference to when people speak about Hades? Well, if you've studied mythology, like David just said, it's the mythical Greek underworld, the world that exists below this world. it is normally referred to as hell itself. Now what I want us to see is that, and what we're going to see here as we go through a couple more passages, is that Sheol and Hades is a larger concept than hell itself. It includes the concept of hell, but it's not limited to hell. Alright? It's kind of like this, and I'm just going to put these two together here. Sheol, Hades is A concept that embraces more than one thing, biblically. It is the unseen realm. And what we mean by the unseen realm, we could call it the spiritual realm, the spiritual world. It's that part of existence that once a person dies, and their soul leaves their body, their soul immediately, the moment the soul leaves the body, immediately enters into Sheol and Hades, which is simply the unseen realm. For instance, if one of us were to drop dead here this morning, in the presence of all of the rest of us, what would happen to that person is their soul would leave their body. And as their soul is leaving their body, where does their soul immediately go? And I don't mean somewhere else, I'm just talking about as it's leaving the physical body. It's not floating in the physical atmosphere, it is in the spiritual realm, which is Hades and Sheol. Hades and Sheol is all around us at every moment. I'm here and Hades is right here. Sheol is right here. It's the unseen realm. It's the spiritual realm. The spirit world. Call it whatever you want to call it in that regard. Various colloquialisms that we use to describe this. But where does hell fit into this? Well, in the biblical concept of Sheol and Hades, there are areas, or parts, or categories of Hades, of Sheol. And there are, biblically, three sections of Sheol and Hades. I want to go through these three together. But before we do, turn back with me to Job 21 and Matthew 12. We're going to go to Job first and then hop back to Matthew. In one sense, I just described Hades is everywhere that existence is, other than heaven itself. But even in that sense, understand this, and I don't want to confuse anybody, heaven itself is part of the unseen realm. We can't see it, okay? It's just a generic term to describe what can't be seen with human and physical eyes. But generally speaking, when the scriptures describe Sheol and Hades, they're focused on these three sections which are where the spirits of human beings go when they die, where their souls go. And I said, to introduce this whole concept, that hell has changed. What I mean by that is that we're going to go on to a timeline here, so that I... Keep these things straight in your mind. And this is history. This line is history. Right here in the middle of the timeline, I'm going to put a cross, which represents the coming of Christ. And as you might suspect, if hell has changed, the biggest change in the circumstances of hell happened when Jesus came, when he died on the cross, when he rose from the dead, and when he ascended back to heaven to be at God's right hand. So, what we have to first understand is what was... What was Sheol like from the point of creation? Adam and Eve being created in the garden until Christ came. What was the nature of Sheol or Hades during that period of time? That's what we're going to look at here for a moment. Job chapter 21. I said that hell is a place. Sheol is a place. Hades is a place. It's a place that has a specific location and it's important for us to identify that and not be afraid of the terminology and not be apologetic for the terminology. In Job chapter 21 we'll read verse 13 where he talks about someone who dies. We'll read from, well I'll just read verse 13. Basically he's talking about what happens when people die. He says, they spend their days in prosperity and suddenly This is at the point of their death. Suddenly, they go down to Sheol. All right, in Job's perspective, what happens to the soul of an individual? Job, of course, lived in the Old Testament time period before the cross. What happens to the soul of an individual when they die? Where does their soul go? It goes into Sheol, but where is Sheol? Sheol is down. Down is clearly contrasted with up. I mean, some of this is very simple, but it's, you know, it's so simple, we kind of overlook it. The souls of individuals in the Old Testament, all the souls of the individuals who died in the Old Testament went down. You can check me out on this. Check out in your concordance what happens to the souls of both the righteous and the unrighteous throughout the entire Old Testament, including Job himself, who was a righteous man, and described in other places in his book, that his expectation was that when he died, his soul would go down. And all of the other righteous individuals and unrighteous individuals are described as their soul going down at the point of their death. So, down is where, though? Where is that? Well, turn with me back to Matthew. Matthew chapter 12. This is a passage, again, referring to the experience of the Lord Jesus after His death, but it applies to our point here. We'll read from verse Then some of the scribes and Pharisees said to him, Teacher, we want to see a sign from you. But he answered and said to them, An evil and adulterous generation craves for a sign, and yet no sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah the prophet. For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights where? In the heart of the earth. Where is down? The heart of the earth. Jesus, when he died, spent three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. Now, when we use the term heart of the earth, it's not talking about like the Wiccans, the witches of this world who believe that the earth is a living, breathing organism. The earth is not alive. It doesn't have a pumping heart. Biblically and spiritually, when we talk about heart of the earth, we're talking about what? The center of the earth. Okay. I don't care how many times you've heard somebody make fun of, or if you yourself have made fun of this concept, that hell is in the heart of the earth. That's the reality of it. Hell, in the Old Testament, is in the center of this planet that we live on. The center of the earth. Now, scientists will tell you, no, I'm sorry, there's molten magma down there at the core. Well, how many of those scientists have actually been down to the core of the earth? Anybody? I mean, they made a movie about it just recently, The Core. where they got in and traveled, and then of course Jules Verne wrote about it, and you know, I've read those stories and seen those movies, and you know, it's an enjoyable science fiction. The reality is nobody's been there. Plus, what we're talking about here is a spiritual reality, not a physical reality. Is it possible that physically at the core of the earth is magma, whereas spiritually there's something else entirely different going on? Absolutely. We're talking about a spiritual experience, something that is side-by-side with the physical. Just like right here, there's physical reality and side-by-side there's the unseen realm all around us. In the same way, in the heart of the earth there are two layers of something that's happening. There's physical reality and there's spiritual reality. So, Sheol, Hades, is in the heart of the earth during the entire Old Testament time period. But there are, like I said, three categories of are three parts of this Sheol place in the heart of the earth. Three parts. Let's look at the first one. Let me give you this one passage just for that. Deuteronomy chapter 32. Deuteronomy 32. Verse 22, this is from what Moses revealed to the children of Israel right toward the end of his life. We're picking up as part of what is called the Song of Moses, but reading one particularly important verse in Deuteronomy 32, 22. This is according to the Lord. For a fire is kindled in my anger, and burns to the lowest part of Sheol and consumes the earth with its yield and sets on fire the foundations of the mountains. The Lord says here that when He is angry, when His wrath is kindled, that His wrath burns to this extent. It burns to the lowest part of Sheol. Lowest part of this unseen realm. Which again implies what? there's a lowest part, there are other parts. Okay? I'm recommending that we see this as there's a total of three parts. So there's a highest, there's a middle part, and then there's a lowest part. Does that make sense? Okay. Track with me here if you would. Let's go to, from here, Luke 16. Very famous story that the Lord Jesus told. I use the term lightly when I say it's a story. You know how it is that Jesus taught oftentimes in parables? This passage that I'm going to read is oftentimes described as a parable. There's good, solid reason, and I do believe this, that this is not actually a parable at all. One of the reasons for that, this is not the only one, but one of the reasons is in parables, when Jesus is teaching in parables, He always uses description of kinds of people, but never identifies a specific person, never names a name, never talks about a specific individual in that way. Here in this passage that we're going to read in Luke 16, He names a specific individual and He describes their life circumstances. I believe that what Jesus is about to do here as we read in Luke 16 is describe a real event. So we're going to read from Luke 16, and read from 19 through 31. This is the story of the rich man and Lazarus. This is a different Lazarus, by the way, from the one that he had another time raised from the dead. Now there was a rich man, and he habitually dressed in purple and fine linen, joyously living in splendor every day. And a poor man named Lazarus was laid at his gate covered with sores, longing to be fed with the crumbs which were falling from the rich man's table. Besides, even the dogs were coming and licking his sores. He didn't have a good life. It was a difficult life that he had. Now the poor man died and was carried away by the angels to Abraham's bosom. The rich man also died and was buried. In Hades he lifted up his eyes, being in torment. and saw Abraham far away and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried out and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me and send Lazarus so that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool off my tongue, for I am in agony in this flame. But Abraham said, Child, remember that during your life you received your good things and likewise Lazarus' bad things, but now he is being comforted here and you are in agony. And besides all this, between us and you, there is a great chasm fixed, so that those who wish to come over from here to you will not be able, and that none may cross over from there to us. And he said, Then I beg you, Father, that you send them to my father's house, for I have five brothers, in order that he may warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment. But Abraham said, They have Moses and the prophets, let them hear them. But he said, No, Father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent. 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. Obviously, at the end there, Jesus is teaching about the implications of his own resurrection and how that will be rejected by people that should know better and should learn the lesson from him rising from the dead. There's a lot of information here and some very important stuff. But in essence, what we have identified for us here in Luke 16 are our first or our two highest locations of Sheol. The highest location is called... I'm going to have to give myself some extra room here. The highest location of Sheol. And all of the... this whole scenario that we're reading about in Luke 16 is the unseen realm. The highest location or the highest part equals, it's called here, Abraham's bosom, which is kind of a strange term. I mean, it's not something that would make a lot of immediate sense to us. The basic sense of this is, Abraham is identified because he is the father of the covenant. He's the first man that's identified in scripture as having this special covenant relationship with God, that going along with it are blessings of the covenant that extend beyond the point of death. He's also called the Father of Faith, and so he's the identifiable figure in this location throughout the Old Testament of this highest part of Sheol. It's called his bosom because the idea here is that the person, the righteous person that dies and their soul goes into this unseen realm, goes to join Abraham in close and intimate relationship and fellowship with Him and with all of the other righteous dead. So it's a place that's identified here of blessing. It's also called specifically in verse, let's find that verse again, verse 25. But now, speaking of Lazarus' circumstance, he had a difficult life, but now he is being comforted here. So this is a place of blessing and comfort. But it's not directly in the presence of God in heaven. Why not? Well, in the Old Testament, and there's a whole other teaching that needs to go along with this, but I'll just briefly overview this, no one died and went immediately to heaven in the Old Testament, because the way into the heavenly temple of God's presence was not yet opened, because Christ had not yet come, He had not yet shed His blood on the cross, and had not yet opened the way into God's direct presence. Therefore, even the righteous dead had to be given a holding place. Now, it was a place of blessing and comfort. It was a place, a glorious place. It was a wonderful place. This is also called, by the way, in other biblical passages, by a more familiar name, Paradise. But, what is not as commonly known is that Abraham's bosom and Paradise were in the entire Old Testament time period in the heart of the earth. And so when a righteous person died, their soul would go down into the heart of the earth, but enter into this place of intimate fellowship with all of the other righteous dead, of great blessing and great spiritual comfort. That's the highest location. The middle location is here called Hades, which is using our overall term of the unseen realm, but here it's in a more focused way, describing it as what we commonly refer to or call Hell. So the middle ground, or the middle part, we'll just call Hades, as the Lord does in this passage, or Sheol. And there's some basic information given to us about this middle ground. It is first, looking in verse 23, in Hades, the rich man lifted up his eyes, being in It's a place of torment. What else? He also describes it as, looking in verse 24, For I am in agony in this flame. It's a place of flames. Now we've already identified that there's an overlap here between spiritual reality and physical reality. Okay? Whatever these flames are, they're not They're not physical flames only, they're spiritual flames, but they're real flames. Just because something is called a spiritual fire doesn't mean it doesn't burn and doesn't do what flames do. This is a real flame that's causing real agony and real torment, but it's not solely physical, as if someone could come with a fire extinguisher and put it out with foam or water or something like that. These are spiritual flames designed by God for a specific purpose, which we'll talk a little bit more detail about next week. The third thing is, as we just identified, the flames create agony. for the person that is in them. And that's the concept here. This person is in flame and as a result is experiencing agony. And part of the expression of that agony is described in this interchange between this person and Abraham where he's desiring, this rich man is desiring, that Lazarus would be sent over to where he is by just dipping his finger in water so that he could just touch his finger to my tongue. If I could just have that little measure of comfort, just a drop of water on my tongue, my agony would be so much lighter. And of course, the response of Abraham is what? I don't want to do that. I mean, there's an implication here by Abraham of, you know, it's an incredibly sad situation that you find yourself in, but the implication, as Abraham answers, is there's nothing that can be done. Why? Because of what is identified here, and this fits in between these two locations, of what is called a great chasm. The word picture, the imagery here, is as though we're talking about a shelf with a big chasm and another shelf. And on this side is paradise, and on this side is Hades, and one person cannot leap across this chasm. But again, we're describing spiritual reality, not physical. So what we're meant to see by that is that there's some spiritual boundary line between these two sections that cannot be crossed by people on either side. God has erected this boundary line Himself. And there's an interesting side point here when he uses the terminology in verse, let me find this verse again, verse 26. Besides all of this between us and you, there is a great chasm fixed so that those who wish to come over from here to you will not be able, meaning, As people in this one section apparently are able to observe at this point in the Old Testament what's going on in this other section, they're moved to want to alleviate the suffering of the people in this second section. But they can't. They can't do anything about it. And he then goes on to say, at the end of this same verse, where was I there? Verse 26. So, and none, he says at the very end, none may cross over from here to us. Meaning anyone that wants to leave this location and cross over is not going to be able to. And he uses this specific terminology, cross over, and I say this is just an interesting side point because right now, and most of you have at least noticed this or seen it, there's a guy that's writing books and he's actually got a television show that's called Crossing Over. And this guy is an evil person. I don't even remember the guy's name, or else I'd just say it out loud. But he teaches. He's basically a medium. Basically what he does is he claims to channel the presence of lost, dead loved ones who come through him to speak to their family and loved ones that they left behind on the earth after they've died. The implication here for this is that Jesus is saying, look, it's not even possible within the boundaries of this unseen realm for one category to cross over to the other in either direction, let alone the idea of leaving that area altogether and coming back to the earth and communicating with people on the face of the earth. It's not even possible. They cannot cross over. They can't leave their assigned category. All right. I said there's a third part. I won't go into detail on this third part, but this is the lowest part. I want to at least identify it. And this, again, deserves its own separate teaching. But since I'm just doing overviews here, I'm not going to give that. I'm just going to introduce the concept. Turn to 2 Peter 2. And we'll end with this today. 2 Peter 2. Now, in these first two parts, what we're dealing with is all of the righteous dead in the Old Testament go to Abraham's bosom. All of the unrighteous dead go to Hades. Who does that leave out? Yeah, it doesn't leave out any human beings, that's for sure, because all the human beings are in one part or the other, either the highest or the middle part. But there's a part even lower. 2 Peter 2, we'll read verse 4. For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of darkness reserved for judgment. Peter uses a specific term here, different than Sheol or Hades, to describe what God did with angels that sinned. And he cast them into what is translated in our English language as hell, but he uses the Greek term Tartarus. A whole different term. If you've studied Greek mythology at all, which I did a lot when I was a kid growing up, it was one of my personal enjoyments to read Greek mythology, one of the most interesting things I learned as I grew up and became a Christian and studied God's word is that the same term that the Greeks used to describe a specific location of Hades is the same word that God chooses to have Peter use to describe where angels are kept reserved for judgment. And it's this term, Tartarus. In the Greek mythology, there was a particular class of sinning gods. And not all of the gods that sinned, but a specific group that were taken and cast into the lowest of the lowest pits, which was called Tartarus. This is actually loosely based through the oral mythology of the Greeks on a spiritual reality of what actually happened in ancient history, ancient world history. What this is describing is this. Angels that sinned were cast into the lowest part, the lowest category, and one that is called here, or described for us in these terms, cast them into hell, committed them to pits of darkness reserved for judgment. The term pits, if you look it up, is actually chains of darkness, meaning they're chained there. They can't leave. They're restricted, and it's utterly dark there. Now, here's the question. Don't we believe that Satan himself is loose? and roaming about the earth like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour? And yet there are angels that are cast into the pits of darkness. What's going on here? Well, the idea is this, and this is the part that I say really requires a whole teaching onto itself, but in a nutshell, when Satan and the demons, the fallen angels that fell with him, when they fell, Not all of them were cast into this place in Tartarus, but a certain group of them. Why was a certain group cast into Tartarus and the rest were left loose? Well, you'll have to read back in passages like Genesis chapter 6, 2 Peter chapter 2 goes on to describe some of this, and also the book of Jude. There was a specific sin that this group of angels committed, and when they did, they were removed from the surface of the earth altogether. They're not left to just continue in this particular sin, they're assigned Tartarus. So, human beings are not in this location at all. This is a holding tank for angels only, but not a permanent one, temporary. Until reserved for judgment, until the day of judgment. Now what's going to happen with all of this? Turn with me to one last passage. I said we'd end in Peter, but I lied. We're not going to end there. We're going to end in Revelation 20. I promise I will end here. And I'm going to leave some of this explanation for next week because I'm not done with the explanation of some of this overlapping of these things and how this changes then in the New Testament. I haven't even gotten there yet. But Revelation chapter 20, we'll read the Day of Judgment account in verse 11 again. Then I saw a great white throne and him who sat upon it from whose presence earth and heaven fled away and no place was found for them. I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened, and another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books according to their deeds. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them, and they were judged, every one of them, according to their deeds." Verse 14, very mysterious verse. I hope it's going to begin to make more sense now. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. I'm saying all of this was Old Testament. Something's changed at the cross, the resurrection and the ascension. We'll talk about that next week. But one thing for sure is this, none of this is ultimately permanent. Hell changes. It's already changed from Old to New Testament. We'll focus on next week, but it's going to change again from the Day of Judgment forward in which hell itself, Hades itself is going to be permanently cast into the lake of fire, which of course includes anyone that's still an occupant of that location. We'll talk about that next week, but I'll put an end point here and Lord willing, we'll be able to pick up and go further with the explanation. Let's pray. Father God, my hope is that with all of the difficult stuff that we looked at today, all the details and going back and looking at the ancient history of your plan and purpose and this location of Hades and Sheol and these different parts and how they all connect to each other and what your plan and purpose is and all of that and how that's all changed. I hope that I haven't lost anyone. I hope that I haven't confused anyone. But if so, Lord, I pray that you would make up the difference in my lack of adequate and effective communication. I pray that you would open their minds and hearts to understand these things. And I pray that, Father, it would all serve your purpose. to inform our hearts, to prepare us for the fulfillment of your plan for our lives, and that it would equip us, Lord, so that when we talk to others in the world around us who live in darkness, who live in ignorance, that we would be able to effectively describe the realities, the eternal realities, the spiritual realities that are taking place around us at all times. And I thank you for that grace. In the name of the Lord Jesus. Amen. The copyrighted product of Tree of Life Christian Church of Canoga Park, California. You are welcome to pass this message along to others, as long as it is not sold, and it is passed along unaltered in its entirety, with source credit given to Tree of Light Christian Church.