Are the Fires of Hell Literal? Part 1

Pastor Mike will be speaking on Are the Fires of Hell Literal? Part 1. He will be reading out of Revelation 20: 7-10.

Satan is destined for defeat and that’s why we as believers, no matter how much opposition we have, we are people of joy and we are people of confidence and we are people of faith because we know the end of the story. Hello and welcome to Hope Worth Having radio program. This is Pastor Mike Sanders from the Open Door Church in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania.

Today, we’re beginning a new series entitled, Are the Fires of Hell Literal? Revelation chapter 20 verse 7 through 10 is our text. We’ve been teaching on heaven and you have to teach on hell because like heaven, hell is real and what does that mean when the Bible describes these fires and how does that apply? So let’s grab our Bible and get into this passage. Get your Bibles out.

I want you to turn to Revelation chapter 20 this morning. Revelation chapter 20 and we’re gonna be covering verse 7 through 10 and of course some other assorted verses. Today, we are in the midst of a series.

We’re picking back up on that series. If you remember that we were teaching before on five questions about heaven and five questions about hell and today we’re on that fourth question about hell and so we’ve already had four sermons on hell. You have one more to endure and I admire you because most churches could not even endure one sermon on hell, much less four headed to number five.

So thank you church. Our goal when we preach on hell is we are not gleeful. We are not happy about hell but we want to send out a message of warning and we also want to make sure as believers that we understand what the Bible teaches us about hell.

So we come to Revelation chapter 20 and verse 7 through 10. The And will go out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth Gog and Magog to gather them together to battle whose number is as the sand of the sea. They went up on the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of the Saints and the beloved city and fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them.

The devil who deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beasts and the false prophet are and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever. Perhaps the most striking image of hell is that it is a place of everlasting fire. The Bible refers to this terminology the lake of fire.

It is specifically mentioned in Revelation chapter 19 and of course in our text today and if you go on down further again in verse 14 it is referred to the lake of fire as the second death. Now to understand what we’re reading this morning let me just give you a little bit of context. At the end of a thousand years now you say a thousand years what are you talking about? I’ve shared with you Church that there are what we might refer to as dispensations and that there is now the dispensation of grace.

Some people call it the dispensation of the church in which we have this great responsibility to take the good news of Christ to every person on every part of the planet. This is our responsibility to get the good news but the Bible tells us that there is going to be a rapture. That is the believers are going to be one day caught up.

Jesus was asked in Matthew chapter 24 what would be the signs of his second coming. Jesus described those signs. You can read about them.

We’ve taught on them but I want to tell you that we can already start to see the tea leaves of those signs and if we can already see some of these signs emerging in our communities and cultures and our land how much closer are we to the rapture of the church. We have to be cognizant of the fact that Jesus is coming again but you do not have to be discouraged because the Bible says we’re going to be raptured out of here which leads us into the tribulation period which is going to be for seven years. Now I know that people debate and people question and people sometimes struggle with what I just taught you but I always remind them though you and I may have some differences on timing and particulars about the rapture and the tribulation period I’m telling you my friends you cannot deny that it’s in the Bible.

You just can’t but I am of the persuasion that we’re gonna be raptured out of here as believers. There’s gonna be a seven-year tribulation and then we are going to experience the second coming of Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ will establish his kingdom on this earth for a thousand years the Bible says that he will rule and he will reign for a thousand years with his saints. That would be you and that would be me that would be all who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ for a thousand years.

One might wonder why? Why would Jesus do it this way? Well there are many prophecies in the Old Testament that are yet to be fulfilled and I want you to remember that in those thousand years Jesus Christ will do just as the prophets said that the Messiah will sit in the seat of Jerusalem the beloved city and he will rule and he will rule with righteousness and he will come as a king that second time the first time he came as a lamb to give his life for for each of us he came to give his life and to pay the penalty of sin on the cross and then he would be resurrected but friends I want to remind you that Jesus is coming and when he comes that second time he will rule with justice and peace as believers sometimes we get so frustrated with the lack of justice in this world we are so upset about what is wrong in this world but I want to remind you that one day Jesus will make every wrong right and we can rejoice in that wonderful truth then the Bible tells us that during that thousand years Satan will be bound he’ll be bound for a thousand years where we picked up in our text in Revelation 20 and verse 7 through 10 we are seeing that after that thousand years Satan will be released and then he’ll be defeated again and he’ll be cast into the lake of fire the Bible says for all of eternity Satan is destined for defeat it is revealed in our text today it is recorded in our text today that Satan will not get the last laugh and that’s why we as believers no matter how much opposition we have how much pushback we have in this world we are people of joy and we are people of confidence and we are people of faith because we know the last end of the story we know how it’s all gonna end in that Jesus Christ has not only won the victory at the cross but he will continue that victorious March in his second coming and then he will eventually cast the devil into the lake of fire and all those who do not believe or reject Jesus Christ will be cast into the lake of fire the Bible teaches us in verses 10 through 15 that Christ will judge all the unbelievers Jesus referred to that in Matthew chapter 25 where the sheep and the goat are separated it is called the great white throne of judgment you and I as believers will not be at the great white throne of judgment because we have already put our trust in Christ and Jesus already took our punishment on the cross he absorbed the wrath of God on our behalf and therefore there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus when we are judged it is about rewards it is about our faithfulness it is about our obedience to God and we are rewarded for all that we have accomplished and been a part of in the kingdom of Christ so we rejoice in that but when you read verse 10 through 15 understand this is about the great white throne judgment and God judging those who have rejected him and rebelled against him sadly the Bible says he’ll be casting them all into the lake of fire after that he will usher in a new heaven and a new earth which you can read about in Revelation 21 and 22 those who have rejected Christ right now those who have refused to believe in Christ even now are in a what we might refer to as a temporary hell we have taught you about the five different names for hell the New Testament often refers to this temporary hell as Hades sometimes even Gehenna and it is a place the Old Testament was called Sheol and it was the abiding of the dead the place of the dead and that is a place that they go as believers who have trusted in Christ for their salvation the Bible says to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord can God’s people say amen and so we are in the immediate presence of Jesus Christ and we are enjoying all the blessings and rewards that God has for us but those whose names are not written in the Lamb’s Book of Life they are not written in the Lamb’s Book of Life what awaits for them is not only a hell that is separated from God but a place that the Bible refers to as the lake of fire the lake of fire the eternal destination of the devil and all of his demons and those who reject Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior now the question before us this morning as we have been learning about hell in the Bible is are the fires of hell literal there are many even within evangelical Christianity who would say to you that when the Bible refers to hell it’s all figurative that it is not literal or it is not even real well I want to share with you first of all the argument for a literal fire note again that Jesus said in Matthew 25 verse 41 then shall he say also unto them on the left hand depart from me you cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels you understand that the devil rose up against Almighty God you understand we’ve already taught you that the scriptures teach us that the devil was filled with pride in heaven and he was cast out and a third of the angels with him these are his demonic forces that are crisscrossing this world causing so much chaos in this world the devil’s desire Jesus taught us was to kill and to destroy never forget that it is the devil’s desire to destroy your family to destroy your life and to destroy your testimony and to make a mess of this world I think he’s doing a pretty good job I hate to say that I hate to say that the world is in chaos the world is in confusion but it is only setting the table for the Antichrist to come in with all the solutions and all the answers and claim to be the one who can bring peace but it’s a pseudo it’s a false it’s a fake peace we know that that’s why I tell you that Jesus taught us this he taught us what it would be like and what the circumstances and what the environment would be like before his return which would be at the end of the tribulation but Jesus describes this day of judgment in Matthew 25 and he describes those who are cast into this lake of fire as an everlasting fire you remember that we taught you that the Bible describes hell also as Gehenna and Gehenna was an actual burning place outside of Jerusalem it was in the valley of Gehenna and it was adjacent just south of Jerusalem and it was a place where we might call it a burn pile now every once while I might drive around our county and different people will be burning trash and the smoke gets everywhere and I start hacking and coughing and they mess me up for at least two weeks amen trying to figure all that out the church used to have a burn pile and finally the fire department said please stop please stop burning all that trash you say where would all that trash come from well if you have a Christian school of 500 students there is a lot of trash don’t be upset students but I’m just saying there’s a lot of wear and tear there’s a lot of food there’s a lot of eating there’s a lot of paper plates there’s a lot of stuff that has to be thrown away and it has to be gotten rid of and sometimes we would burn some of that trash I want you in your mind to understand that there was a place south of Jerusalem called Gehenna as Jesus spoke about hell he would reference this burn pile this place where it was constantly burning they even it was such a massive place of burning they not only put their trash there the pagans would put their dead bodies in this burn pile and it was just constantly burning and burning and Jesus is referencing to us that he is he is teaching about hell that it is a place of fire it is a place where there is constant burning now one might ask two questions relating to that which I think are really good questions and I appreciate that there is thinking going on amen it’s good to see people come into the church and not take their thinking cap off and to have some good questions but we know first of all Jesus described hell as a place of outer darkness and yet he describes it as a place where there is an eternal fire we know that fire gives off light and so how is this possible that fire could be literal and yet it be a place of outer darkness well friends there is some kind of a unique fire that God is going to create that does not give off light the second question you might have about this being a burning fire is we know that fire consumes it consumes and yet Jesus described this place of eternal fire in hell as a place that does not consume you remember Lazarus was in Abraham’s bosom which was one of the names that was often referred to the rich man was there in this burning place Lazarus was Abraham’s bosom and there the rich man looked up and he wanted just a drop of water on the tip of his tongue because the fire the flames that he was in and so Jesus is helping us to understand that this unique fire is not going to be exactly like the fire that you and I see and that we use for cooking or we might use to burn trash or we might use it in some other fashion but it is a unique fire that is everlasting and definitely it is punishment and definitely people can sense it they can see it they can feel it and it has an impact upon them because the Bible is so clear about that that it’s definitely a place though that does not consume now again someone might say well our bodies you know I taught last week about how one day as believers that when we die we our soul and spirit is separated from our body and we go into the presence of heaven and then one day there’ll be a resurrection your body is not immediately in heaven when you get there but your soul and spirit is with Jesus Christ your body comes remember at the rapture the Bible says the dead in Christ shall rise and your soul and spirit is reunited with this new body this glorified body the Bible describes all this in 1st Corinthians and it is a glorified body that is resurrected so your soul and spirit is reunited and now you’re in heaven with body soul and spirit now this was put out there and of course sometimes I read I know I shouldn’t but I read the social media sometimes what people saying and people just saying no there is no resurrection of the dead you know in my mind I don’t respond but in my mind I got to think does anybody read the Bible anymore because the Bible not only teaches us that believers bodies will be resurrected but the Bible teaches us that unbelievers bodies will be resurrected so what is unique in this final stop for unbelievers in this lake of fire is that not only where their soul and spirit be there but the Bible teaches us in John chapter 5 that the unbelievers body will be resurrected and that they will be cast into the lake of fire soul spirit and body into this lake of fire Jesus said in Matthew 13 verse 41 and 42 the Son of Man will send his angels and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all lawbreakers and throw them into the fiery furnace in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth now if you believe that the fire is symbolic or that it is something that is metaphorical in describing the punishment of those who reject Jesus Christ I propose this question to you do people use symbols because the reality is less or more than the symbol I want you to think of like this if I were to say that my wife is the diamond of my life I’m not limiting her to a diamonds value I’m just saying that she’s even more than a diamond to me I’m trying to illustrate so we use symbols we use metaphors in our life and if Jesus if for any reason if he were to somehow say I’m gonna use the fire as a metaphor do you think that he meant that that was just the limitation of that metaphor of the punishment I think it’s even worse I think Jesus was wanting us to know and understand that hell is even worse than what can be described in the human language the teaching of hell is meant to appal us it is meant to fill us with godly fear it is designed to shake us it is designed to persuade us that though heaven will be better than what we could ever dream hell will be worse than what we could ever imagine and so I am a strong believer that the fire in hell is literal now let’s understand the literal interpretation because I believe it is the most straightforward understanding of the scriptures there are many times people like to come to the Bible and rather than believing what it says they want to explain it away they want to explain away the horror of hell they want to explain away the punishment of hell because in their mind they cannot conceive and I’m here to tell you I believe that it’s even worse than what Jesus said that the human language limited him to how horrible hell is now the Bible describes hell as a place of fire I’ve already read you several verses but here’s another one Luke 16 then he cried and said father Abraham have mercy on me and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue for I am tormented in this flame as we mentioned to you already it is this flame of fire that is tormenting this rich man it is not consuming him but it is tormenting him hell is described as a place of fire and darkness we see this again in the book of Jude and we see it again in Matthew chapter 8 so my question is simply this why not take the Bible at face value why not let the Bible simply speak for itself what is the testimony of the Bible I know that there are people with many letters after their names and before their names and maybe underneath and maybe on top of their names and they’ll come out and tell you I mean I just read an article by a scholar who claimed that hell a was not real and the fires were just metaphorical but I’m here to tell you that this is what the Bible says now you have to make a decision Revelation 21st 15 says whoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake fire I read that verse and I believe it and I believe that God meant what he said and that he says what he means now I know that Jesus used illustrations and I know that he used symbolism to get his point across you remember that Jesus taught in Matthew chapter 5 that if your hand offends you cut it off he said that if your eye offends you pluck it out I do not think that Jesus was saying that you and I need to literally cut our hands off or even pluck out our eyes but what he is saying is that whatever is causing you to sin whatever is leading you down the path that you are sinning against God get it out of your life perhaps even a person get them out of your life and that for some of you it might be that you might need to take that cell phone and you need to cast it as far as the east is from the West amen I didn’t get a lot of amen whatever it is the devil knows our weaknesses he knows what temptations are most effective upon us and there are times that you and I need to be alert to that if there are things that are hindering us from following Christ obediently and honoring him in our life we need to get those out and I think that Jesus was speaking in that way I think he was explaining in that way Jesus said I am a door he didn’t mean he was a literal door he was saying I am the entryway to heaven I am the way to heaven Jesus said that he was the way the truth and the life and no man comes to the father but through him and so we understand when he describes that symbolism and he uses it often but when it comes to hell and understanding the context of his teaching I do not see any effort on Jesus’s part to use the fires as something as being symbolic or metaphorical the other reason that I believe in a literal fire is not only that I believe what the Bible says and I believe it is the most straightforward in what God is teaching us is that a figurative interpretation of the fire undermines biblical authority again I’m just pounding you with one verse after another and you have to make this decision is the Bible right or the Bible wrong is the Bible true or the Bible false revelation 21 8 but for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and sexually immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone which is the second death I don’t think there’s any figurative interpretation of this I think this is literal and I think for me to deny this is to deny the Bible hell was not created for you and me but for the devil and his angels unfortunately many refuse to believe and follow Jesus Christ and so the Bible tells us that if we do not believe in Christ that we will be cast into the everlasting lake of fire and we understand this to be literal we understand this to be as God describes it in the book of Revelation we understand also that there’s a lot of symbolism in the Bible and so we’re not ignorant to that but we know that Jesus described hell as a place where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth I pray today that you will not go to hell but that you would turn your life and fully surrender to Jesus Christ receive him as your Lord and Savior and that you would faithfully follow him we don’t preach on hell to scare people but we do preach on hell to warn people that there is a place that we should shun a place that we should not go to and we should strive to receive Christ as our Savior and go to heaven now I want to encourage you to make sure that you check out our YouTube channel if you go to youtube.com then type in hope worth having you’ll see an assortment of opportunities where we have been teaching the Bible doing some Q&A some interviews and I want you to take advantage of that by checking out our YouTube channel I know you’ll be blessed in doing that this is Pastor Mike Sanders reminding you that in Christ there is hope worth having.