What Does the Bible Mean When it Speaks on Hell Part 2

Pastor Mike will be speaking on What Does the Bible Mean When it Speaks on Hell Part 2. He will be reading out of Revelations 20: 11-15.

When the doors of the Lake of Fire was open, all they could see was the torment and the torture and the weeping. My friend, I want you to know that they did not wanna go when they had to be cast into the Lake of Fire. Hello, this is Pastor Mike Sanders coming to you today from Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, and we are broadcasting Hope Worth Having Ministries, and we’re excited to be able to share God’s word with you today.

We’re gonna be in Revelation chapter 20, verse 11 through 15. What does the Bible mean when it speaks of hell? It’s a heavy subject, and I pray that it awakens each of us and draws us to him. Let’s grab our Bibles and get into this subject of what does the Bible mean when it speaks of hell? Sometimes you hear people say, well, that kid needs a spanking.

Now, don’t turn me in. All my kids are raised, okay? And in our house, we had a little paddle called Mr. Move-It. Okay? Mr. Move-It was highly effective until about the age eight, and then they started running faster than me.

But anyways, he says in verse 14, you shall beat him with a rod and deliver his soul from hell. It’s the Hebrew word shiol. Shiol.

Shiol. Now, here he is talking about the unrighteous, and he’s saying generally when children are corrected and they are disciplined, they’re going to turn out to be good people who love God and follow God. But is that a promise? No, because we know that’s not always true.

But what he is telling us, please, parents, correct your children. Please discipline your children. And he does tell you to use a rod.

It was never a firm rod. It was a flexible rod, but it was a rod that left a sting. It’s kind of like grandma used to say.

How many of you remember had grandma or mom go out in there and say, go out there and get that switch in the backyard and buddy right on the back of the gluteus maxus muscle where it stings the most. But anyways, what I want you to know is shiol is the place where the unrighteous are held until one day that they will be given up for that final great white throne judgment. The second word is the word Hades.

Hades is a Greek word. It is in the New Testament. In the Old Testament, the Bible was written in Hebrew.

There’s a few passages in Daniel that are written in Aramaic, but in general, the Old Testament is written in Hebrew. In the New Testament, it is written in Greek. But in the Greek, the word Hades is also the place of the unseen or the place of the dead.

Jesus said in Revelation chapter one and verse 18, I am he that liveth and was dead and behold, I am alive forevermore, amen. And I have the keys of hell or the keys of Hades and of death. He is saying that when you have the keys, you have the authority.

I have the authority of Hades or the place of the unseen and of death. That is what Jesus is saying. Hades is the place where the dead are waiting for judgment.

It is a parallel word to shiol in the Old Testament. Those who do not believe in God, that they are going to a place that is often translated in today’s translations as hell. Some of the newer translations use the word Hades.

It is the place where the unrighteous go to wait for judgment. Revelation six, verse eight, in describing the tribulation period, John the Revelator said, and I looked and behold, a pale horse and his name that sat on him was death and hell or Hades followed with him. And power was given unto them over a fourth part of the earth to kill with sword and with hunger and with death and with the beasts of the earth.

And so we think about that, a fourth. There’s 7 billion people today, over 7 billion. We’ll quickly be at eight.

But let’s just take that out and extrapolate that. That would be over 2 billion people. 2 billion people are destroyed.

Death and Hades followed this pale horse. And it is speaking metaphorically about how God is going to bring death during the tribulation and there’s gonna be just a rise in the number of people who are dying. There are times I think maybe we may already be in the tribulation.

Before COVID, I only did about seven to eight funerals a year. Now I do sometimes up to 22 funerals a year. Death is on the rise.

We can all speculate and we can contemplate what might be the cause of it. But my point is that one day it’s gonna go even higher. That death will be so prevalent in the world.

And the Bible says that’s the way it’ll be in the tribulation. Now when we think of Hades as we mentioned to you, it is a comparative word or parallel word of Sheol. Now I want you to take your Bible and go to the Gospel of Luke.

Join me, grab your Bible. This is a Bible-believing church. And I know some of you have your devices.

I’m old-fashioned. I still like to grab my Bible. But whether you’re using a device or you’re using the old-fashioned Bible, get to Luke chapter 16.

Luke chapter 16, Jesus describes or tells a story about a rich man and a poor beggar named Lazarus and how this rich man had everything in the world. And this beggar had nothing in the world. It is a picture of the contrast of their life and then how the rich man ended up being cast into hell or as we’ll see the Greek word Hades.

And the beggar was in Abraham’s bosom, which again was a holding place for the righteous waiting for the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. So I’m gonna pick up in verse 22 just because of time. And it says, so it was that the beggar died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s bosom.

The rich man also died and he was buried. But look in verse 23 where he goes. And being in torment, the new King James says in Hades, the King James says, hell, he lifted up his eyes and he saw Abraham afar off and Lazarus in his bosom.

And he cried and he 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. This place called Hades, this place that is often translated hell, this place where the unrighteous go, the unbelievers go in this time period that we are in now, this is a place of torment. It is a place where the rich man desired just a tip on the tip of his tongue, a drop of water that he might find just a moment, a millisecond of relief from the torture that he was in so he could cool his tongue.

And the Bible is very clear that this is the place that anyone goes that does not believe in Christ. Jesus described it as a place where there’s weeping and there is gnashing of teeth. Often there will be songs written and there will be unbelievers who will proclaim on stickers and bulletin boards that they’re gonna have a party in hell.

And I’m telling you, friends, in hell, there is no partying, there is weeping. And there is gnashing of teeth. And if you have ever stubbed your toe, if you have ever hit your knee, if you have ever taken a hammer and instead of hitting the nail, you chose to hit your thumb, you know what gnashing of teeth is.

And you, in that moment, the pain was excruciating. But would you imagine with me what that would be like throughout eternity, every day, every hour, and every second gnashing your teeth. The Bible teaches us that unbelievers go to a place that is called Hades or translated as hell.

It is a place where those who do not follow Christ are sent for punishment, but it is not their final place. It is not their final dwelling place. It is a place that’ll eventually give them up to stand before God in the great white throne judgment.

Some of you may be wondering, how can I avoid Hades? How can I avoid hell? Friends, it’s very simple. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ today and you will be saved.

Call upon the Lord and whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be what church? Saved. There’s nobody that I’m aware of in this church that wants you to go to hell. And people say, I don’t believe in a God who sends people to hell.

Well, friends, that’s certainly something we could spend some time talking about. But God’s not sending anybody to hell. People are choosing to go to hell.

Do you understand that? As I had just recently told someone, they had remembered what I had said many years ago, that if you go to hell, you’ve got to climb over the church. You’ve got to climb over the Bible. If you go to hell, you’ve got to climb over the prayers of your mother.

If you go to hell, you have to climb over the prayers of God’s people who are crying out day and night that God would save your soul, awaken your heart and draw you to him and that you would have a love for God birthed in your heart. Friends, it’s harder to go to hell than it is to go to heaven. And I want you to know that people are working overtime and sacrificing diligently so that more and more people can go to heaven and that they can choose to receive Jesus Christ as their savior.

Can God’s people say amen? But people choose to go to hell, do you understand that? People choose to go to hell. And I can believe in a God who has made it every possible way to have my sins forgiven. And has made it possible for me to receive Christ and to inherit eternal life in heaven with him.

I can believe in that kind of a God. Now, Hades is also something we need to understand that is often misinterpreted. The Bible says that the gates of hell shall not prevail against the church.

Again, it is not referring to the final dwelling place. It is talking about death. It is talking about the place of the demonic and the place of the unseen.

And what Jesus is saying is that all the demonic forces and all of hell, or if you will, Hades, cannot stop the work of Christ and the church no matter what they try. The grave could not hold our savior and the grave will not hold believers because one day the Bible says that the dead in Christ shall rise. Yes, we are not going to be victims.

We are not gonna run around and say poor me and have pity. We understand what the scripture says. Oh, death, where is your victory? Oh, death, where is your sting? The sting of death has been muted.

It has been gotten rid of because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And that’s why we have so much hope. I gotta hustle here.

We’re on point number three, if you’re keeping time, and that is that we’re on the letter Gehenna. Gehenna is another word in the Bible, the New Testament, that refers to hell. Gehenna appears 12 times in the New Testament.

Jesus, when speaking to the religious crowd, he said in Matthew 23, verse 33, you serpents, you generation of vipers. I love that. You say, wow, that’s not too positive, is it? It isn’t, so I always tell people my preaching is not as harsh as Jesus’ preaching, amen? I mean, I haven’t called you a viper yet and I haven’t called you a serpent.

I’ve had a few people call me the devil and a demon, but I’ve never called you a devil and I’ve never called you a serpent. But Jesus looked these people square in the eye and he said, you’re serpents and you’re a generation of vipers and how can you escape the damnation of Gehenna? Translated, hell. Gehenna was a place outside of Jerusalem.

It was a place that they took the dead animals, they took their trash, and they took all their filth and they put it in this place and they just burned it. And there was so much filth and so much trash and so many dead animals in that place, it was always burning. And Jesus would use that as an example, as an illustration of hell.

And he said, how are you gonna escape Gehenna? Now, the religious crowd, man, they were like, what? We’re religious. We are from Abraham. We got it in our blood.

We got it in our heritage. There’s no way God would send us to hell. But friends, I want you to know that you can grow up in the church, you can have Christian parents and you could have cut your teeth on these pews and I can see some of those marks.

But friends, unless you come to Jesus Christ and repent of your sins and believe in Christ, you will split hell wide open. And Jesus wants you to understand it’s a filthy place. It’s a place where there’s constant fire.

It’s a place where there’s constant burning. It’s a place where there’s constant suffering. It is like Gehenna outside of Jerusalem.

It’s where the dead go that do not believe in Jesus Christ. Jesus said in Matthew 10, verse 28, fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul, but rather fear him, which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. Now the fire we know is a fire that consumes, it melts, it destroys, it disintegrates.

But the fire that’s in Gehenna or in hell is a fire that yes, it does burn. It apparently is a different fire because it does not give off light because the Bible says it’ll be eternal darkness. And it is not a fire that consumes the body and consumes the soul, but it is a fire that tortures the soul and body.

It is constant and it will never end. It is the place that we go who do not believe in Jesus Christ. Number four, hang in there.

We’re gonna make it after all. And that is the lake of fire. We read about the lake of fire in Revelation chapter 20.

It is also mentioned in chapter 19. This lake of fire is mentioned in Mark chapter nine, as well as Luke chapter 16. The lake of fire is the final place for those who do not believe.

For those who do not believe now in this time period, they go to Gehenna or we might refer to it as Hades. It is the place of the dead. It is the place where there is suffering.

But the Bible says one day that Hades will give up the dead, the unrighteous dead. And the Bible, and I just read it to you, that they will stand before God. They’ll give an account of their works, the evil that they did, their evil motives, their injustices, their desire to hurt, to kill, to destroy their hate for God.

And the Bible tells us that they will be cast along with Satan and his demons into the lake of fire. I want you to look at Revelation chapter 20 in verse 10. The devil who deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.

And the Bible reminds us in verse 14 of chapter 20 that death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. Anyone not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

People say, man, I can’t wait to get to hell. I wanna go to hell. Let me tell you something, friends.

There will never be one person that wants to go to hell because the Bible tells us they had to be cast into hell. They didn’t jump into hell. They didn’t willingly go to hell.

They had to be cast into hell because they didn’t wanna be there because when the doors of the lake of fire was open, all they could see was the torment and the torture and the burning and the weeping and the gnashing of teeth. And my friend, I want you to know that they did not wanna go when they had to be cast into the lake of fire. But I give you hope today because those names who are written in the Lamb’s book of life do not need to fear this terrible fate for it is by faith in Christ and his work on the cross that our sins are forgiven and we as believers are destined to live eternally in the presence of God.

I said there’s five words. Let me get this last word in so we don’t have to drag this sermon out. And that is the Greek word tartarus.

It is found in what was read in our scripture today in the scripture reading 2 Peter 2, 4. And the Bible says, for if God did not spare the angels who sin but cast them down to hell or tartarus and delivered them into the chains of darkness to be reserved for judgment. This is a pagan term that developed in the Greek culture in the Greco Roman world. And it was often referred to as a place for the dead.

And so Peter, the apostle later in his life as he’s writing 2 Peter, he uses this Greek word. It’s the only time it’s used in the New Testament or anywhere in the Bible, but it is translated to understood to be cast in to hell. We know in other writings, historical writings of the Greeks, it was often referred to as a place of punishment for fallen angel.

My friends, I want you to understand those different words, but more importantly, I want you to avoid going to hell. I want you to believe in Jesus Christ. I want you to trust him.

As I’ve told you, the souls of the righteous are immediately in the presence of God. The Bible says to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. Your loved ones are with Jesus when you and I leave this world.

Don’t be sad for Mike because he’s in the presence of God and in thy presence is fullness of joy. And at thy right hand, there are pleasures forevermore. As I’ve told you before, church, when somebody goes to heaven, they do not say, man, this is a disappointment.

They don’t think it’s a downer. They don’t feel let down. They’re like, wow, it’s mind blowing.

They’re like, Lord, can I go back and tell them how great and awesome it is? He said, I got preachers down there that’ll tell them. My word will tell them. And they need to believe by faith.

And so it is my friends, that is important. And so what is our response this morning? Three words real quickly and I’ll get you out of here. First, if you are a saved born again believer, would you rejoice that God has spared you and saved you from his wrath and this place called hell? He didn’t have to.

He didn’t have to save your soul. There’s nothing in heaven that said he had to save you. But through grace and mercy and loving kindness, he stooped down, sent his only begotten son and his son lived a sinless life, qualified him to die for our sins.

And he was put on a cross and he took your punishment, my punishment for our sins. And my friends, he was buried. And then three days later, he rose again.

And friends, all who believe in Christ not only have their sins forgiven, but they have a home in heaven. And Jesus said to his believers that one day he would return for them. I go to prepare a place for you, Jesus said.

And where I am there, you will be also. And I don’t know, but if nothing else, you ought to be rejoicing. And as I taught in Sunday school to the young adults, that we ought to be full of joy, that your joy may be full or complete.

And we should be these people that are most joyful because we have a home in heaven and we have been rescued from the wrath of God and the punishment of sin. Second of all, what should I do? Not only rejoice, but reach, reach out church. I’m telling you, I don’t want anybody to go to hell.

And the Bible says in 2 Peter 2.9, God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. That means I have a job every day. You think you’re at your job for your job.

You’re at your job for your money. You’re at your job for your pension. I’m telling you, you’re at your job to reach people for Christ.

And some of you say, well, I don’t know anybody. And you know, I just got a small circle. Friends, reach them for God.

Some of you say, I don’t like to talk to people. I don’t like to be friendly. We need to work on you, but get filled with the spirit and we need you to understand that you have a job.

Maybe you could send a track. When I got saved, I sent a track to everyone in my family. They all thought I was following a cult.

They didn’t know what happened to Mike, but I wanted everybody to be saved. I knocked on all the doors. My preacher told me to do that.

Now, I haven’t told you to go knock on doors, but I’m not against it, but I knocked on every door and tried to witness to everybody just because I didn’t want anybody to go to hell. You say, pastor, why? Do you get up early, stay up late? Because I don’t want anybody to go to hell. Why will you do whatever it takes? Because friends, I don’t want anybody to go to hell.

And I want you to reach out. And some of you moms and dads and grandmas and grandpas, would you start right with your children? Would you be a missionary to your grandchildren? Would you be a missionary to the people in your own family? Maybe you don’t like to talk to strangers like Pastor Mike does. I go into Cracker Barrel shaking hands, slapping high fives, and just talking to anybody and everybody.

And there my food is getting cold. But I wanna see people saved, amen? Church, the reason you sacrificed for Sunday school, the reason you sacrificed for Awana, the reason you sacrificed for the youth group, the reason you’re doing everything that you’re doing around this place. And I’m sorry if I missed you.

Yes, I don’t wanna forget the nursery workers who are saying, when’s this guy gonna get done right now? But listen, the reason we sacrifice is we wanna see people saved. Hell should motivate you to tell others about Christ. Finally, is respond.

If you’re here this morning, if you’re listening on radio, if you’re watching on television, if you are watching on internet right now and you don’t know Jesus Christ, respond to him. If you say, man, if I died right now, I don’t know if I’m going to heaven. Let’s get that settled right now.

I want us to bow our heads right now, church. I want us to close our eyes. I mean, the most important time to me is this moment.

And you say, man, I don’t know, pastor. I wish I could tell you the stories of people in this moment gave their life to Christ. I wish the people that have come to me and said, pastor, I received Christ while you were preaching, while you gave the invitation.

That’s why I want you Christians praying right now. You never know who shows up in this church and you never know who needs Jesus. I want you praying, but if you’re here this morning and you don’t know Jesus Christ as your savior, your steps to finding salvation and avoiding hell is first to acknowledge that you’re a sinner.

To just be real with God and say, Lord, I’m a sinner in need of a savior. Your second step is to believe. Believe that Christ died for your sins.

Believe that Christ went to that cross for you, that you should have been punished, but he took your place. Believe that, my friends, because the Bible teaches it. And final step, call upon Christ.

In prayer, ask him to forgive you of your sins. In prayer, ask him to be your savior. In prayer, receive him as your Lord.

Submit your life to him. And whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. The gospel is worthy of a response.

You say, I might do this later. I might do this another time, but you’re not promised another minute, church. You’re not promised another moment.

Please, make your decision today. Believers, make a decision to reach out, to send a track, to send a book, to give your testimony to your grandkids, to let people know how you came to Christ, to tell your children how much you love God, to reach out to that stranger, to tell them about Christ, wherever and whoever God puts in your place. I promise you that he will not turn away a broken heart and he will come and he will protect you from the wrath of God and you will receive eternal life as you believe in him.

Now, we encourage you to learn more about this and I know you have a lot of questions. So, go to hopeworthhaving.com and there are more sermons on hell, there are more sermons on the afterlife. Take some time to reflect, review.

Feel free to send us any questions. Just hit the contact button on the website and we’ll be glad to respond to you. This is Pastor Mike Sanders reminding you that in Christ, there is hope worth having.