In today’s sermon, Greg Ho teaches on the four horrors of hell:
- The darkness of hell
- The sorrow of hell
- The pain of hell
- The eternity of hell
Greg explains that, to understand why hell is so horrible, we must understand the holiness of God; God’s holiness is the fuel of hell’s fires. Despite God’s holiness, He does not take pleasure in the death of the wicked. The Father sent His Son Jesus Christ to make atonement for sin so that men can escape the horrors of hell. Greg concludes by exhorting Christians to warn people of the reality of hell and to urge people to avoid the way to that place.
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Summary
The reality of hell as described in Scripture demands urgent attention. Drawing from Jesus’ own teachings, this sermon examines the four horrors of hell—darkness, sorrow, pain, and eternity—and why understanding God’s holiness makes hell’s severity comprehensible. We are reminded that Jesus himself spoke more about hell than anyone else in Scripture, describing it as a real place of unimaginable suffering.
Key Lessons:
- Hell only makes sense in light of God’s perfect holiness—the fuel of hell’s fires is God’s holiness and justice unleashed upon sin.
- Jesus spoke repeatedly and plainly about hell as a real place, and he himself will send the unrighteous there—this is not a metaphor or exaggeration.
- The four horrors of hell—darkness (total absence of God), sorrow (unending grief and shame), pain (fire and torment without relief), and eternity (suffering that never ends and only intensifies)—should shatter any complacency about the fate of the lost.
- Silence about hell is not kindness but cruelty—like a doctor who withholds a cancer diagnosis from a patient with a curable disease.
Application: We are called to break our silence about hell and urgently warn those around us—family, friends, neighbors—about the reality of eternal judgment. We must share the gospel: that faith in Jesus Christ, who bore God’s wrath on the cross, is the only way to escape hell and be clothed in his righteousness.
Discussion Questions:
- Why do so many churches avoid preaching about hell, and how does that silence actually harm the people they are trying to protect?
- How does a deeper understanding of God’s holiness change the way we view the doctrine of hell—and the way we view our own sin?
- Who in your life needs to hear the warning about hell and the good news of salvation in Christ, and what is holding you back from telling them?
Scripture Focus: Matthew 13:41-42 (Jesus casting the lawless into the furnace of fire), Matthew 22:11-13 (the outer darkness), Mark 9:47-48 (the undying worm and unquenchable fire), Luke 16:19-26 (the rich man and Lazarus), Matthew 25:46 (eternal punishment vs. eternal life), and Matthew 7:13 (the narrow and wide gates).
Outline
- Introduction
- The Vanishing of Hell from the Pulpit
- Understanding Hell Requires Understanding God’s Holiness
- The Way of Escape: Faith in Christ
- Jesus Had Much to Say About Hell
- The Four Horrors of Hell
- Horror #1: Darkness
- The Wedding Garment of Christ’s Righteousness
- Horror #2: Sorrow
- Horror #3: Pain
- Gehenna: The Image Behind Hell
- The Rich Man and Lazarus: No Mercy in Hell
- Horror #4: Eternity
- The Wide Gate to Destruction
- Closing Appeal
Introduction
Well, when I was in high school, I remember that as part of our English curriculum we were required to read the sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” The sermon was preached by the great Jonathan Edwards during the time of the Great Awakening, and it’s really one of the most famous sermons ever preached.
One of the things that made the sermon most remarkable was the reaction it received. When he preached it during one Sunday in July in 1741 in Enfield, Connecticut, there were people moaning and crying throughout the whole church. “What shall I do to be saved? Oh, I am going to hell!” At one point, the preacher had to stop the sermon entirely because he couldn’t talk over all of the shrieking and crying.
In the sermon, Edwards, who by the way is actually buried just a few miles from here in Princeton, used a series of memorable word images to drive home his main point. The point was: “There is nothing that keeps wicked men at any one moment out of hell but the mere pleasure of God.”
Let me read to you two of my favorite quotes from the sermon. Edwards says this: “The bow of God’s wrath is bent and the arrow made ready on the string. And justice bends the arrow at your heart and strains the bow. And it is nothing but the mere pleasure of God and that of an angry God, without any promise or obligation at all, that keeps the arrow one moment from being made drunk with your blood.”
Here’s another. This is probably my favorite. “The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much as one holds a spider or some insect over the fire, abhors you and is dreadfully provoked his wrath towards you, burns like fire.
He looks upon you as worthy of nothing else but to be cast into the fire. He is of purer eyes than to bear to have you in his sight. You are ten thousand times more abominable in his eyes than the most hateful, venomous serpent is in ours.
You have offended him infinitely more than ever a stubborn rebel did his prince. And yet it is nothing but his hand that holds you from falling into the fire every moment.”
Back when we read this sermon as an assignment in high school, we read the sermon mostly to mock it. We derogatorily dismissed Edwards as one of those fire and brimstone preachers. We wrote essays about how quaint the sermon was, maybe how emotionally manipulative it was.
With our nose high in the air, we dismissed how contrary it was to our now enlightened and cosmopolitan understanding of the world. But nevertheless, those images stuck with me. Spider hanging by a thread. The bow tensed with the arrow pointed at your heart.
It was only years later, after I became a Christian, that I came to see the sermon in a different light. Not as a piece of melodrama, but as an accurate warning that, if anything, actually understates the real danger that you are in.
The Vanishing of Hell from the Pulpit
I don’t think I have to tell you that today this type of preaching has largely vanished. In fact, if you visit any church in the United States, it is extremely unlikely that you’ll even hear hell mentioned, much less hear a whole sermon on it. Churches have by and large stopped talking about hell entirely, and that’s very much by design.
In fact, there was one survey of evangelical seminary students. Almost half—46%—felt that preaching about hell to unbelievers was in poor taste. Poor taste? Poor taste is not preaching about hell and watching silently as your whole congregation slides into it.
“Poor taste is not preaching about hell and watching silently as your whole congregation slides into it.”
Silence About Hell Is Cruelty
I’ve heard one preacher put it this way: to not preach about hell is like being the doctor who finds that his patient has a curable cancer. There is a treatment that will cure him completely. But the doctor, not wanting to offend the patient or upset him, says nothing and watches as his patient slowly dies.
Friends, that’s not tolerance. That is cruelty. And for every pastor who treats his congregation that way, that is not love. That is hatred.
“To not preach about hell is like being the doctor who finds a curable cancer but says nothing.”
And Christians, for you too. For you to know the truth about hell and to stay silent in the face of your neighbors, your family, and your friends—that’s cruelty. It’s up to you to warn them.
This morning, we’re going to look together at what the Bible says about hell. I want us all to be clear about what hell is and what the danger is, so that it will ignite a proper sense of urgency in us.
Before we get into it, I just want to say one thing. I want to make it clear that I take no pleasure in talking about hell or even thinking about hell. Nobody does. The Bible says even God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked, and neither do we.
I wish that what I was going to preach to you now was not real. I wish it was an exaggeration. The doctrine of hell disturbs me to my innermost being. And it should disturb you too.
If you properly understand it, you would not wish this fate, not even on your worst enemy. But we don’t get to choose what’s in the Bible, do we? We can only read what God put into it.
Understanding Hell Requires Understanding God’s Holiness
Okay, now before you could understand hell, you need to understand one thing, and that is the holiness of God. The holiness of God. See, hell will not make any sense to you whatsoever until you grasp the holiness of God.
Why does hell have to be so horrible? Because God is so holy. God is so holy and so righteous and pure that he cannot even look upon sin. Yet you and I, we are nothing but corruption. We sin and we see continually in our thought, in our words, and in our deeds so much sin that, in fact, it no longer seems that bad to us anymore, does it?
“Why does hell have to be so horrible? Because God is so holy.”
But God is perfect and pure and holy. And hell is the full force of that holiness and judgment unleashed upon sinners. Listen to this: the fuel of the fires of hell is what? The holiness of God. That’s the fuel of the fire.
The Way of Escape: Faith in Christ
So everyone in this room, everyone in this world has sinned, and everyone deserves to go to hell. And yet—and yet—some will escape. How can we escape the horrors of hell?
The Bible provides a way. God is pure and holy and cannot look upon sin. Somehow, we need to become pure and holy and without sin, just like God. That’s the only way we can be acceptable into heaven.
To do that, we need to get rid of our sin. How can we get rid of our sin? God, in his deep mercy and his deep love and his pity, at great cost to himself, has made a way for us.
God has sent his son, Jesus Christ, who, as God’s son, is pure and holy and without sin. He sent Jesus into the world so he could die and pay the punishment that you need to bear in hell. So you can transfer your sin to Jesus on the cross. And then God will transfer the righteousness of Jesus unto you.
“You can transfer your sin to Jesus on the cross, and God will transfer the righteousness of Jesus unto you.”
Then you will be perfectly righteous in the eyes of God, as if you were Jesus Christ himself. You get that? That’s the way to escape hell.
The way to become part of that deal is by faith in Christ Jesus. By faith in Christ Jesus. If you believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God who died on the cross for your sins, then you will never experience the horrors that we’ll talk about today.
Remember, Jesus came to the world to save sinners. But save sinners from what? Did you ever ask that question? To save sinners from what? To save sinners from hell. That was his primary mission in coming to earth.
Jesus Had Much to Say About Hell
It shouldn’t surprise you then to know that Jesus had a great deal to say about hell. Great deal to say. Remember, this is Jesus we’re talking about. Gentle Jesus. He cured the sick. He healed the blind and the lame. Compassionate Jesus who fed the hungry, ministered to the poor and needy.
This Jesus is the one preaching over and over about the fires of hell. He did not stay silent. Jesus was not afraid of offending you. Jesus didn’t pull any punches. That’s the kind of preacher he was.
“Jesus was not afraid of offending you. Jesus didn’t pull any punches.”
In fact, the majority of what we know about hell, we know from Jesus. Jesus speaks of it. Just to give you an example, Jesus speaks of it in Matthew 5. That’s his very first sermon that’s recorded. Matthew 10, Matthew 11, Matthew 13, Matthew 16, Matthew 18, Matthew 23. That’s just the book of Matthew.
Hell Is a Real Place
And when Jesus spoke of hell, I want you to understand, he spoke of it as a real place. It’s a real place. Hell is not a metaphor. It’s not a figure of speech. It is a very real place, as real as the pews and the chairs that you are sitting in right now.
“Hell is not a metaphor. It is a very real place, as real as the pews and chairs you are sitting in.”
Just to show you an example of that, I want to read to you from Matthew 13:41. When Jesus not only spoke of hell as a real place, but remarkably—remarkably—he spoke of throwing people into it personally.
Let me read to you from Matthew 13:41. It says this: “The Son of Man—that’s Jesus—will send forth his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all stumbling blocks and those who commit lawlessness and will throw them into the furnace of fire.” That’s hell.
Did you catch that? The Son of Man throwing them into the furnace of fire. Not only is hell a real place, it will be Jesus himself that throws you in.
The Four Horrors of Hell
All right, now with that introduction, we’re ready to look at what Jesus says about hell, what the scriptures say about hell. The scriptures tell us a great deal about hell, and I’ve organized what the scriptures say about hell into about four main categories. We’ll call them four horrors of hell.
“I’ve organized what the scriptures say about hell into four main categories—four horrors of hell.”
I just want to pause for a moment now to ask for God’s blessing on the rest of our sermon. Let’s bow for a moment of prayer.
Father, I pray that, Lord, you would be in this sermon. As we preach it and as we look in your word, may everything we see and read be something we are attentive to, so that some of us can escape the fires of hell. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Horror #1: Darkness
Here’s the first horror of hell that we see in the scriptures. The first horror is darkness. In multiple places, the scriptures talk of hell as black darkness. This is, for example, Jude 13 and also in 2 Peter 2:17. Literally, the term means the blackness of darkness—the very blackest black that darkness can be.
Jude 13; 2 Peter 2:17: “The blackness of darkness—the very blackest black that darkness can be.”
Even as an adult, I find few things as terrifying as being stranded in total darkness, don’t you? It’s not often that we find ourselves in darkness today. There’s street lamps. There’s LED lights everywhere. We almost never experience total darkness.
But if you are engulfed in total darkness, it is terrifying. It is terrifying to be totally blind. You can see nothing, and you are totally helpless.
Darkness as the Absence of God
But it’s not just literal darkness that the Bible is speaking of here, because darkness is really the absence of something, right? What is it? The absence of light. That’s right.
And consistently in the Bible, who is the light? God is the light. Jesus is the light. 1 John 1:5 tells us that God is light, and in him there is no what? Darkness at all.
Jesus refers to himself in John 8:12 as the light of the world. Revelation 21:23 tells us that the new heavens and the earth will not need a sun or a moon because the glory of God will be the light.
You see, if God is the light, then the black darkness is the utter absence of God. Indeed, 2 Thessalonians 1:9 tells us that hell will be away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power.
2 Thessalonians 1:9: “Hell will be away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power.”
A World Without Any Good Thing
Now, if you hate God, this might not seem like such a bad thing to you. But realize, the Bible tells us that every good and perfect thing in this world comes from God. And the utter blackness of hell will be utterly devoid of those things.
There will be no creativity in hell because the creative force comes from God. There will be no interesting things in hell. There will be no new technology, no new innovation, no sports, no entertainment, no politics or art or movies or books, no learning, no imagination.
And there will be no beauty in this darkness. You will never behold beauty ever again. You will hear no music to soothe your soul. There will be nothing pleasing for your senses to enjoy at all.
“You will never behold beauty ever again. You will hear no music to soothe your soul.”
Also, there will be no joyful family reunions. There will be no companionship. There will be no embraces from your wife or your husband or your children. You will be forever alone, abandoned in the complete darkness.
Abandoned by God
In fact, you will have been literally abandoned by God. How do I know? In Matthew 27:46, we read that Jesus on the cross cried out saying, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
Jesus was showing us what being judged by God looks like. Watch this. Jesus cried out, and in response, does God comfort him? No. Jesus received no comfort. Did God send him any aid? No. He received no help. Did God come and get him in response to his cry? His father did not come to get him or to relieve his pain in any way. God turned a deaf ear. No sympathy. No relief. No encouragement.
Jesus was abandoned on that cross. And likewise, when you are in hell crying out to God for mercy, your cries will be met with nothing but cold, dark silence.
“When you are in hell crying out to God for mercy, your cries will be met with nothing but cold, dark silence.”
The Outer Darkness
Abandoned in the darkness. Jesus refers to this darkness again as the outer darkness in Matthew 8:12, Matthew 22:13, and Matthew 25:30. It is the outer darkness.
I’d like to look at one of those verses with you. Turn with me in your Bibles to Matthew 22:11.
In Matthew 22, Jesus is telling a story, a parable. Jesus tells the story of a king who throws a wedding feast. He slaughters the fatted calf. The king sets the table, pulls out all the stops, and makes everything ready for the joyful banquet.
Then the king invites everybody into the banquet hall. But when the guests arrive, the king looks over the crowd and sees someone out of place. Let’s see how the king responds in verse 11.
“But when the king came in to look over the dinner guests, he saw a man there who was not dressed in wedding clothes. And he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you come in here without wedding clothes?’ And the man was speechless.”
Now listen to this. Then the king said to the servants, “Bind him hand and foot and throw him into the outer darkness.”
The Wedding Garment of Christ’s Righteousness
Stop right there. You say, “Wow, that’s really harsh for violating dress code, right?” But you have to realize that the wedding garment represents something in this parable. The wedding garment is the righteousness of Jesus Christ.
God is only going to let those who are clothed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ, obtained by faith in Christ Jesus, into his banquet. You need to have the proper attire, and it’s God’s righteousness.
“The wedding garment represents the righteousness of Jesus Christ, obtained by faith in Christ Jesus.”
But for the guy who tried to show up without it, who tried to show up in the filthy rags of his own sinfulness, God says, “Bind them up. Tie him up so he can’t move. And throw him into the outer darkness.”
In the verse, it says, “In that place?” See, it’s a real place. The term “outer darkness” here literally means the darkness of the outer. Throw him into the darkness of the outer place.
Here’s the comparison that Jesus is making. Consider the wedding feast: bright lights, merriment, joy and celebration, food and drink to go around, prepared by the king himself. There is love there. There is companionship, fellowship, fulfillment, peace, and contentment.
In stark contrast to that, far away from that, is the darkness of the outer place. You are thrown so far away from that place of joy, so far that even if you would strain with your eyes, you couldn’t see it as even a speck in the distance. That’s the picture.
Horror #2: Sorrow
The first horror that we see in hell is darkness. The second horror is this: sorrow. Sorrow. A deep internal anguish.
Look again at the verse in Matthew 22:13. The king says, “Bind him hand and foot and throw him into the outer darkness. And in that place there will be weeping.”
In hell, you will retain your ability to feel emotion. Some translations will render this word “weeping” as “wailing.” This is emotion so deep that it bubbles up in you as a scream. You will weep, and you will wail out of a sense of deep loss. Deep loss.
“In hell, you will retain your ability to feel emotion—so deep that it bubbles up in you as a scream.”
Some of you have struggled with or known somebody who struggles with depression, and you would know the suffering that causes. The deep sense of hopelessness, of despair, and you can’t shake it.
I imagine that the deep darkness and depression of hell would be but a faint shadow of the sorrow in hell.
You’ll have a lot to be sad about. For example, you will have lost everything that matters to you: family, friends, hope, joy, achievements, accomplishments—gone forever.
Guilt, Shame, and Rejection
And finally, but even more than that, you will weep because of your own guilt and your own shame. Your conscience, which in this life you have suppressed and seared, will be brought back with crystal clarity and an awesome force. And it will accuse you. You will remember all of the sins that you are guilty of, and your conscience will torture you forever over them.
This deep shame will also be accompanied by a deep sense of rejection, knowing that God, your creator, has rejected you. Most of us in this life have lived through rejection, haven’t we? Then some form another—maybe a significant other or a spouse or a parent—and we know the kind of sorrow that rejection in this life can bring.
But in hell, you will be rejected by God, the one person in the universe of most worth, whose opinion counts the most, and who loves you the most and knows you the best. He will reject you. And the type of anguish you will feel over this rejection will be incomparable to any earthly rejection that you can imagine.
“You will be rejected by the one person in the universe of most worth, who loves you the most and knows you the best.”
This is the kind of rejection that’s spoken of in Daniel 12:2. It tells us that those who sleep in the dust of the ground who aren’t raised to eternal life will be raised to what? Disgrace. An everlasting contempt. You will feel disgrace. You will feel in your bones the contempt of God himself.
The word “contempt” can also be translated “abhorrence.” Abhorrence is something that generates revulsion or loathing. And this is how God will feel about you. God will be repulsed by you. So will all of creation. And so will you yourself when you see yourself for what you really are.
You will weep and wail in sorrow. In heaven, God says he will wipe every tear from your eyes. In Revelation 21:4, it says that there will be no longer any mourning or crying or pain in heaven. There will be no sorrow.
But in hell? Nothing but sorrow.
Horror #3: Pain
Well, we’ve looked at the horror of darkness. We’ve looked at the horror of sorrow. And we come to the third horror: the horror of pain. Pain.
Hell is not merely the absence of God, although it is that. And hell is not merely an internal sorrow, although it is that. But it is also God’s active wrath and his full justice poured out on you. It is God’s active punishment.
Remember back in Matthew 22:13? How do we finish that verse? “In that place there will be weeping and what? Gnashing of teeth.”
“Hell is God’s active wrath and his full justice poured out on you—God’s active punishment.”
Gnashing of teeth. This is pain so excruciating, so punishing, so unbearable that all you can do in response is to gnash your teeth.
Back before the days of anesthesia and epidurals, when somebody maybe needed to get a limb removed, or when a woman would go into labor, they would often be given a stick to put in their mouth to bite down on. So when the pain came, it wouldn’t cause them to bite down so hard as to bite off their own tongue.
That’s the kind of pain in view here. Teeth gnashing pain.
The Worm That Does Not Die
The Bible uses a great deal of imagery to describe some of the sources of this pain. Let’s just look at a few of them. The first image is that of being eaten by worms or maggots. I don’t know about you, but there’s very few things more revolting to me than the thought of worms crawling all over my body eating me.
We find this worm mentioned in many places, but let’s turn to Mark 9:47. Let’s look at that one.
Mark 9:47. This is just one of many places it’s talked about. Verses 47-48. It says this: “If your eye causes you to stumble, throw it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than having two eyes be cast into hell, where their worm does not die.”
Mark 9:47: “It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than having two eyes be cast into hell.”
You should rather rip out your eye than be in hell, however horrible that is, however painful that will be. It’s better than having to endure the horrors of hell.
I want you to notice a little something, a little subtle thing going on in this verse. Back in the verse, it says, “Where the—well, Jesus doesn’t say, ‘Where the worm doesn’t die,’ right? What is that word? ‘Where their worm doesn’t die?’ Their worm. You see, it’s a worm especially assigned to torment you.
Gehenna: The Image Behind Hell
This is graphic imagery about a personalized, enduring, unending physical punishment. And this worm is to be understood in the greater context of another image that the Bible uses to describe hell, and that’s the idea of Gehenna.
Gehenna was a place in that time outside the city of Jerusalem. It was there that we read in 2 Kings 23 that the ancient kings of Judah who were worshiping idols would sacrifice human children to the idol Molech. They were doing human sacrifices there.
This was so repulsive to God that he cursed the place. In Jesus’ day, this place became a city dump, a place where the city’s garbage and waste were taken, and where corpses were taken to be burned.
That’s what the Bible is likening to hell: a cursed wasteland of refuse and garbage and corpses where maggots are eating everything and fire burns continually.
“A cursed wasteland of refuse and garbage and corpses where maggots eat everything and fire burns continually.”
It’s why back in our verse in Mark 9:48, it says, “After the worm does not die, and what? The fire is not quenched.”
The Unquenchable Fire
That’s the second source of pain that we see, and that is fire. Fire is pervasively associated with hell throughout the Bible. We’ve heard previous verses of Jesus speaking of a furnace of fire. Jesus speaks of the fiery hell in Matthew 5:22 and 18:9. And Revelation 20 speaks of a lake of fire and brimstone into which you will be thrown.
You drown in that lake, and the hellfire gets into your eyes and your lungs and your nose and your throat, and it burns you. Not only from the outside, but from the inside out.
And if you are in our summer Sunday school series, you’ve heard of a few reformers who were burned at the stake for their faith. Burned alive. I’d be hard-pressed to think of many more painful ways to die than to be burned at the stake.
I’ve burned my finger before. I’ve burned my tongue before. And that pain was excruciating enough. But now imagine that whole pain over your whole body. It is still far better to burn at the stake than to burn in hell, because at the stake, the fire eventually will be quenched. It will burn out.
“It is still far better to burn at the stake than to burn in hell, because at the stake the fire eventually will be quenched.”
But in hell, the fire burns eternally.
The Rich Man and Lazarus: No Mercy in Hell
I want to look at one last passage with you about this fire, and that’ll hopefully drive this point home. Let’s turn to Luke 16:19.
This is another parable of Jesus, a story that Jesus is telling. The story itself is fiction, but in telling it, Jesus tells us a lot about the afterlife.
The story features two men. One man is rich—incredibly rich. But in this life, he rejected Jesus. The other man is a poor man, very poor, by the name of Lazarus. Lazarus is destitute, but in this life, he has believed Jesus and has saving faith.
Let’s pick up in verse 19 in this story.
Verse 19: “Now there was a rich man, and he habitually dressed in purple and fine linen, joyfully, joyously living in splendor every day. And a poor man named Lazarus was laid at his gate, covered with sores, and 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.”
“Now the poor man died and was carried away by the angels to Abraham’s bosom. And the rich man also died and was buried. Now where does the rich man find himself?”
Verse 23: “In Hades. That’s another name for hell. He found himself in hell. See, it didn’t matter how rich this man was, how powerful, how much he had it together in this life. All that matters was what he did with the message of Jesus.”
And back in verse 23: “He lifted up his eyes being in what? 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 what? Agony.’”
Listen to what this rich man is asking. He is thirsty. So thirsty. And he’s just asking for someone to dip the tip of his finger in water and just to place it on his tongue. Not his whole body. He’s not asking for that. He’s just asking for the tip of his tongue. Just a little bit of relief.
And the answer is no. No.
Verse 25: “Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that during your life you have received good things, and likewise Lazarus bad things. But now he is 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 from here to you will not be able, and that none may cross over from there to us.’”
It is final. You are in hell, and that is it. No more chances. And the answer to “Can I have just a little bit of mercy? A little drop of water?” is no. No. You may not have even the tiniest bit of relief for your suffering.
“You may not have even the tiniest bit of relief for your suffering.”
My friends, I have to admit, this deeply disturbs me. Remember, this is Jesus telling the story. Sweet Jesus. Loving Jesus. Compassionate Jesus. Remember, he gives sight to the blind, feeds the hungry, weeps over the death of his friend, weeps over Israel.
This is Jesus. He is the one telling the story. In hell, there will be no mercy. No relief from the relentless and eternal flame.
Horror #4: Eternity
And that brings us to our last horror of hell. We’ve looked at the horror of darkness. We’ve looked at the horror of sorrow. We’ve seen the horror of pain. And our last horror is the horror of eternity. Eternity.
Darkness, sorrow, pain are all made infinitely worse by the horror of eternity. It’ll last for eternity. And I have to tell you, this is the one that is the most difficult for us to accept.
“Darkness, sorrow, and pain are all made infinitely worse by the horror of eternity.”
In fact, there are many who, because they are not able to accept this horror, have veered into great error. You’ll find many people who say it’s too horrible. My friends, the Bible tells us that this suffering will never ever end.
The suffering will be so horrible that you will wish you could die, wish you could fade into oblivion. But that will never happen. There will be no end to your suffering.
No Rest, No Relief, No End
Compounding all of that suffering is then the knowledge that you will never have any relief coming. None. Not only that, there will be no breaks. Revelation 20:10 tells us that it will be torment day and night, forever and ever. Day and night forever and ever. Bible saying that, not me.
Revelation 20:10: “It will be torment day and night forever and ever.”
There is no sleep. There is no rest from this torment. There were no breaks.
You may still ask, “Are you sure it means eternal? Maybe it just means a long time?” I just want to show you another verse. Let’s turn to Matthew 25:46.
I want to show it to you from the Bible. Matthew 25:46 reads this: “These, speaking of false converts in this verse, will go away into what? Eternal punishment. But the righteous into what? Eternal life.”
I couldn’t be clearer. Jesus is speaking of both eternal punishment and eternal life. What does that mean? That means that the eternalness of punishment will be the same as the eternalness of life.
You want heaven to be eternal. You want that to be eternal. Hell will also be eternal. It’s the same eternal here. There’s no difference.
In hell, the worm will not die. The fire will not be quenched. The worm will eat you. But listen, you will never be fully consumed. The fire will burn you, but you will never be completely burned up.
A Body Made for Punishment
You say, “How will that work?” Well, in hell, God will create a new body for you that will be created specifically for this type of punishment, to withstand the full fury of God’s wrath for all eternity.
In this body, you may have eyes. But they will be designed not so that you can behold the beauty of God’s creation, but so that you can weep forever in darkness.
In this new body, you may have skin, and it will be designed not so that you can feel the comfort of another person’s touch, but so that you can burn and be eaten by worms forever.
“You may have eyes—not to behold beauty, but to weep forever in darkness. Skin—not for comfort, but to burn forever.”
In this new body, you may still have teeth. Not so that you can enjoy food, but so that you can gnash them in pain for all eternity.
In this body, you may have a voice. Not so that you can communicate with anybody or scream for mercy, but so that you can wail in pain.
Still Sinning in Hell
But that’s not the worst part of any of that. Understand this: the worst part is that in hell, you will still remain a sinner. You will still be sinning. You will continue to sin in hell for all eternity.
In fact, you’ll be sinning worse than you are now, because in this life, God’s restraining hand is on you, and there are checks and balances to your sin. But in the darkness of hell, where God has left, your restraint is gone. And you are going to be free to sin to the full force of your sinfulness for all eternity.
Remember, repentance is a gift of God. That gift will be inaccessible to you in hell.
That means you will sin more than ever. You will hate God more than ever. The purpose of hell is not to reform you. It’s not to make you better in any way. The purpose of hell is one thing and one thing only: to punish.
“The purpose of hell is not to reform you. The purpose of hell is one thing only: to punish.”
Don’t get it wrong in your head. Hell is not filled with penitent people, people who wish they could go to God, people who are sorry in any way for their sin. It is filled with people who hate God with a vengeance, continually, from the time they get there to all eternity.
When baking in the flames of hell, if you gave them a choice, they would choose to stay there rather than repent and be with God.
Every minute you are tormented in hell, you will shake your fist at God in rebellion and rage ever more profoundly. As you do, the ledger of your sins will grow. The guilt of your sin will increase. And the punishment due your sin will increase as well. Forever and ever.
We’ve seen this morning the four horrors that we can expect to meet in hell: darkness, sorrow, pain, and eternity.
Hell is a place of darkness where the worm does not die, where the fire is not quenched. It is a place of weeping and of gnashing of teeth, where there is unquenchable thirst but never a drop of mercy, where torments are endless, day and night, forever.
The Wide Gate to Destruction
What a horrible, horrible picture of hell that the scripture tells us. This is what breaks my heart. Christ tells us that most people in this world, even the vast majority of the people in this world, will find themselves in hell.
Jesus says this plainly in Matthew 7:13. I’ll read it to you. Matthew 7:13 says this: “The gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to what? Destruction. And there are few or many? Many who enter it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life. And there are what? Few who find it.”
Matthew 7:13: “The gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter it.”
Friends, most of the people in this world that you see are taking the wide gate to hell. Maybe some of us, even in this church—in a church of this size, it is very likely that some of you will wake up in hell. And that’s too horrible to think about.
Closing Appeal
I just want to close with this. Christian, have you become numb to the idea of hell? Have you forgotten the stakes? If you have any compassion at all, you can’t keep silent. You must tell those around you. You must warn them of the horrors to come. You must tell them to be reconciled to God while there’s still time.
Jesus came so that you would never have to suffer in the flames of hell. Hell is almost right upon us, but God has made a way of escape for you. The door is closing fast, and soon it will be shut forever. Don’t delay. Repent and believe the gospel.
“Hell is almost right upon us, but God has made a way of escape. The door is closing fast—repent and believe the gospel.”
Let’s pray. Father, we don’t enjoy this type of sermon. None of us want to hear about the horrible things you have in store for those who reject you in hell. Lord, as we listen to your word, we’re filled with grief because we don’t want this to happen to those we love, even to those we don’t love as we should. Lord, we don’t want this to happen to anyone.
Lord, you have sent us with the mission of warning the people in this world. Help us, Lord, to be faithful to that as a church, a beacon of light, so that people can hear the message and be saved from the darkness to come. In Christ’s name, we pray, amen.
If you have any questions about what you’ve heard, or if you want to know more about how to escape hell, you can talk to me after the service. You can talk to Keith. We’ll probably be up here anyway. We’ll be thrilled to talk to you and answer any questions you might have.
Please, it’s so important. We don’t want anybody to leave today without settling the question of your eternal fate.