REVIEW
FLIP CHART: SOM’S KEY VERSE, GOAL, MOTTO
“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness ….” (Mt. 6:33a).
The law sends us to Christ for justification; Christ sends us back to the law for sanctification.
FLIP CHART: Show new “Perfect Righteousness” chart explaining steps to coming to Christ (As a worm, mourning, meek, spiritual hunger/thirst with the result of legal righteousness). Explain moral righteousness, immediate moral change at conversion, gradual change through life’s challenges and speeding up moral change via CCRC (Concentration, Choice, Reflection and Confession/Thanksgiving). Repeat the verse, “By one sacrifice He has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.” (Heb. 10:14) HAVE SOMEONE COME FORWARD AND EXPLAIN THE CHART.)
FLIP CHART: Go over John Stott’s outline of SOM. Show that 5:17-20 was an introduction to a Christian’s righteousness.
INTRODUCTION:
OUTLINE FOR TODAY:
1. The Moral Justification for Hell
2. A Brief Physical Description of Hell
3. The Eternity of Hell
4. The Suffering of Hell
5. Nine Objections to the Idea of Hell
6. God’s Solution to Eternal Suffering in Hell
“You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother, ‘Raca,’ is answerable to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell . . . . You have heard that it was said, ‘Do not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell” (Mt. 5:21-22, 27-30).
OBJECTIONS TO THE ETERNAL TORMENT OF HELL
I. THE MORAL JUSTIFICATION FOR HELL
No one likes the idea of hell. God is the most perfect, loving, gentle and caring of beings. If He created hell and allows people to go there, that in itself justifies the existence of hell.
God does not want anyone to suffer in hell, “I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked” (Ezek. 33:11).
Hell is necessary because of the sinfulness of sin and the holiness of God. Hell is a direct consequence of God’s love. “Hell is God’s great compliment (way of showing respect) to the reality of human freedom and the dignity of human choice” (G.K. Chesterson).
How can a sinful man ever stand in the presence of a holy God? Hell is God’s way of protecting sinful people from His presence.
“Then the kings of the earth, the princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty, and every slave and every free man hid in caves and among the rocks of the mountains. They called to the mountains and the rocks, ‘Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?’” (Rev. 6:15-17).
“When years of time shall pass away,
And earthly thrones and kingdoms fall,
When men, who here refuse to pray,
On rocks and hills and mountains call,
God’s love so sure, shall still endure,
All measureless and strong;
Redeeming grace to Adam’s race –
The saints’ and angels’ song.”
(The Love of God)
II. A BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF HELL
The word often translated for “hell” in the KJV is “hades,” which means “the place of the righteous and wicked dead.”
It appears that “hades” is divided into two sections, “paradise” (“Today thou shalt be with me in paradise”) and “tartarus,” a place where the wicked dead are “reserved unto judgment” (II Peter 2:4)
“Gehenna” is the third term for hell and is a transliteration of the Hebrew word “Hinnom” from the expression, “The valley of Hinnom.” It denoted a ravine on the southwestern side of Jerusalem. It was where apostate Jews placed their children in the fiery arms of the pagan God Moloch while drums beat to muffle the childrens’ screams. It was thus an area of suffering and weeping and was regarded as a place of heinous abomination. It became the city garbage dump for all refuse and there was continual burning. It became identified in people’s minds with all that was accursed and filthy, the place where useless and evil things were destroyed, and thus it became a synonym for the place of God’s destroying power. “Gehenna” is the term used for Hell in Mt. 5:22.
When the Bible speaks of the “fire of hell” it seems that these flames are figurative. For example, when it is said “heaven’s streets will not be made of gold,” or “Jesus will come with a two edged sword in his mouth,” we accept these statements as figures of speech. For how can there be flames of fire and at the same time outer darkness. Jesus uses the strongest language possible to show how terrible hell is.)
III. THE ETERNITY OF HELL
ILL: Bird transferring one particle of dirt from Mt. Everest to Arizona every thousand years. How long would it take the bird to transfer the whole mountain? That is a picture of eternity.
IV. THE SUFFERING OF HELL
QUESTION: If the flames are figurative and the darkness is figurative, what then is the suffering of hell like and is it all that bad?
It is important to remember that the dead in hell are conscious. Thus Gehenna involves a state awareness.
QUESTION: What will the dead in hell be aware of?
1. They will be aware of their separation from God.
Billy Graham said, “I believe hell is essentially separation from God. When we are separated from God, we can have hell in this life and hell in the life to come ….” (To an interviewer in 1991).
Though the non-believer in this life is separated from God, yet there is still an interchange between them. For example, God gives him many good gifts. But in hell there is total separation and the unbeliever will enjoy none of God’s good gifts. The wicked will see their separation from God to be the very hell of hell. Since they are separated from God they are deprived of all good.
Their consciousness that God is their enemy forever is overwhelming. Furthermore having by their own deliberate folly forfeited the highest blessings for transitory and delusive pleasures humiliates and depresses them beyond measure. The desire for happiness inherent in their very nature, wholly unsatisfied and no longer able to find any compensation for the loss of God in delusive pleasure, renders them utterly miserable. . . . The pain of loss is the very core of eternal punishment. If the damned beheld God face to face, hell itself, notwithstanding its fire, would be a kind of heaven. Had they but some union with God even if not precisely the union of the beautific vision, hell would no longer be hell, but a kind of purgatory. (The Catholic Encyclopedia)
2. They will remember their sins.
Conscience will be a worm to gnaw and prey upon them; remorse for their sins shall seize them and torment them forever, and they shall not be able to shake it off, as once they did; for ‘in hell their worm does not die.’ (Mk. 9:44,46)
3. They will remember the good things they enjoyed in life.
The good things that they set their hearts on in this world are beyond their reach there. The covetous man cannot enjoy his wealth there, nor the ambitious man his honors, nor the sensual man his pleasures – no, not a drop of water to cool his tongue (Luke 16:24-25).
4. They will remember all of the opportunities they had to meet with and follow God. (Rich man / Lazarus – Luke 16:19-31)
5. They will still have a desire for happiness.
Man forever has a desire to be happy, and an understanding that he needs something outside himself to make him happy. The rational creature can never lay aside this desire, not even in hell.
“If hope deferred makes the heart sick (Prov. 13:12), what will it be like with no hope at all? With one window in a house, there is some joy, some light. But what is it like when all windows are closed, eternally and there is never hope again of any happiness.
Mark Twain made light of hell when he said, “Heaven for the climate, Hell for the companionship.”
But in hell the companionship will be with devils and demons, for hell will be a society of devils.
“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels’” (Mt. 25:41).
Hell was created for the devil and his angels and they both shall inhabit it along with all the children of men who have not found the Savior. Who would choose to dwell in a palace haunted by devils or confined to the most pleasant place on earth?
“Hell is not a place where people are consigned because they were pretty good blokes, but they just didn’t believe the right stuff. They’re consigned there, first and foremost, because they defy their maker and want to be at the center of the universe. Hell is not filled with people who have already repented where God isn’t gentle enough to let them out. It’s filled with people who, for all eternity, still want to be the center of the universe and who persist in their God-defying rebellion. What is God to do? If he says it doesn’t matter to him, then God is no longer a God to be admired. He’s either amoral or positively creepy. For him to act in any other way in the face of such blatant defiance would be to reduce God himself.” (The Case for Faith, Lee Strobel, 193).
SO WHAT!!!
- Jesus talked more about hell then did any other Biblical personage. Hell was very real to him.
- Suffering eternally in hell is not laughing matter. It is the most horrible thing that can happen to any a person.
V. NINE OBJECTIONS TO THE IDEA OF HELL
*** Taken from The Case for Faith by Lee Strobel
QUESTION: Ask the class which of the nine questions / objections from “The Case for Faith” they feel are the strongest, most valid.
1. How can god send children to hell?
2. Why does everyone suffer the same in hell?
3. Why are people punished infinitely for finite crimes?
4. Couldn’t god force everyone to go to heaven?
5. Why doesn’t god just snuff people out?
6. How can hell exist alongside of heaven?
7. Why didn’t god create only those he knew would follow him?
8. Why doesn’t god give people a second chance?
9. Isn’t reincarnation more rational than hell?
TABLE ACTIVITY: Have each table choose the three most important questions / objections from the nine that they would like to see discussed.
FLIP CHART: List each tables three choices on the flip chart. Then start by discussing the one that had the most points.