"In danger of the hell of fire."—Matt. 5:22.
My subject is "Is There a Literal Hell?" I wish that the things that I
am going to preach to you were not true. God wishes so, too, +"The
Lord is longsuffering to usward, not wishing that any should perish,
but that all should come to repentance"+ (2 Peter 3:9). But God has
made us in His own image, with a moral nature, with a capacity for
self-determination, with a power of choice; and men can if they will
choose darkness instead of light. They can choose to trample God's
saving love under foot. They can choose to reject the One who was
wounded for their transgressions and bruised for their iniquities, and
upon whom the chastisement of their peace was laid; and some will so
choose. I am sorry that they will. I would be willing to die to save
them. The Lord Jesus did die to save them. But they spurn Him. So these
things that I am to speak to-night are true and I am going to preach
them in order that you may know them, and in order that you may be sure
of them. I am going to preach about hell to keep as many of you as
possible from going there.
Is There a Literal Hell? Almost all intelligent people who believe that
there is a future life at all, believe that men and women who sin in
the present life and who die impenitent and unsaved will be punished
to some extent at least in the life that is to come. They believe that
whoever sins must suffer, and that the suffering which sin causes will
not be limited to this present life. But, while almost all intelligent
people who believe in a future life at all believe that there is some
kind of future punishment, there are many that do not believe in a
literal hell, that is, in a place of awful and unutterable torment. Is
there a hell? Is there a place to which impenitent men and women will
go some time after death and suffer agonies far beyond those that any
one suffers here on earth? Some say, "yes," there is a hell. Many,
even including not a few supposedly orthodox preachers, say, "No, the
only hell is the inward hell in a man's heart." How are we to settle
this question? How are we to determine who is right? We cannot settle
it as some are trying to settle it by "counting noses." Majorities are
not always right. Especially is it true that majorities are not always
right in science and in philosophy and in theology. What the majority
of scientists firmly believed a century ago the majority of scientists
laugh at to-day. What the majority of philosophers once believed, the
majority of philosophers to-day regard as ridiculous. So majorities
cannot always be right. And, therefore, we cannot settle this question
by asking what the majority believe.
We cannot settle the question by reasoning as to what such a being
as God must do, for how can finite and foolish man judge what an
infinitely holy and infinitely wise God would do? Man never appears
more foolish than when he tries to reason out what an infinite God
_must_ do. All these arguments about hell by reasoning as to what
God must, or must not, do are stupid. A child of seven cannot reason
infallibly as to what a wise and good man of fifty will do, much less
can puny creatures of the dust (such as you and I are, such as the most
learned philosophers and theologians are) reason infallibly as to what
an infinitely wise and infinitely holy God must do. It is, however, far
easier to believe in a literal hell, and an everlasting hell, from the
standpoint of pure reasoning to-day than it was three years and a half
ago. Nevertheless, we cannot settle the question as to whether there is
a literal hell by reasoning even to-day as to what such a being as God
must do.
There is only one way to settle this question right, that is by going
to the Bible and finding out what it says, and taking our stand firmly
and unhesitatingly upon that. We have seen the last three Sunday nights
that the Bible is beyond an honest question God's word, so whatever the
Bible says on this subject, or any other subject, is true and is sure.
Especially is it true that we must go to the Bible and find what it
says in the matter of future punishment and future blessedness. All we
know about the future is what the Bible tells us. All reasoning about
the future outside of what the Bible tells us is pure guessing, it is
a waste of time. We know nothing about heaven but what the Bible tells
us, and we know nothing about hell but what the Bible tells us. On a
subject like this one ounce of God's revelation is worth a thousand
tons of man's speculation. The whole question is what does the Bible
say about Hell? But while we are dependent entirely upon the Bible,
the Bible clearly reveals all that we need to know. The Bible tells us
a great deal about heaven, and it tells us still more about hell, and
it is an interesting fact that the Lord Jesus Himself, whose authority
many are ready to accept who do not accept the authority of the rest of
the Bible, is the One Who tells us the most about hell, and the most
clearly about hell. Indeed, all that I am going to show you is what
_the Lord Jesus Himself says_ on this subject.