Hell

For the short version just read the text in this "yellow" font . The beginning couple paragraphs and the conclusion.

“The bow of God’s wrath is bent and the arrow made ready on the string. Justice directs the bow to your heart and strains at the bow. 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.

The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much in the same way as one holds a spider, or some loathsome 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 fire every moment. It is ascribed to nothing else that you did not go to hell the last night; that you were suffered to awake again in this world, after you closed your eyes to sleep; and there is no other reason to be given, why you have not dropped into hell since you arose in the morning, but that God’s hand has held you up. There is no other reason to be given, while you have been reading this address, but His mercy; yea no other reason can be given why you do not this very moment drop into hell.

O sinner, consider the fearful danger you are in! It is a great furnace of wrath, a wide and bottomless pit full of the fire of wrath, that you are held over in the hand of a God whose wrath is provoked and incensed as much against you as against many of the damned in hell already. You hang by a slender thread, with the flames of divine wrath flashing about it and ready every moment to singe it and burn it asunder; and you have no interest in any Mediator, and nothing to lay hold of to save yourself, nothing to keep off the flames of wrath, nothing of your won, nothing that you have done, nothing that you can do, to induce God to spare you one more moment.” -Jonathan Edwards

How often do you contemplate hell? Do you ever? What is hell? Has Hollywood shaped your beliefs of hell?

I must admit that since it’s not a place I believe I will end up or intend on going I don’t give it much thought. I’ve often heard that if we set our minds on heaven that it would change our view and actions in this life. What if we were constantly meditating on the consequences of hell? Would it change our prayer life? Would we have a sense of urgency with our beloved family members and neighbors? Would we care about the souls of those who are not followers of Christ?

There was a time that a great preacher or Sunday message was known as “fire and brimstone.” Have you ever heard one? What happened to those messages? Are we too fragile or immature to handle having the fear of the living God presented to us?

My intention is to remind us of the great grace that God has freely given us. If we don’t understand what we are saved from then how can we be thankful for the greatest sacrifice ever known?

I also want us to think about a verse like Isa 30:27- which states, “The Name of the Lord comes from afar, with burning anger and dense clouds of smoke; His lips are full of wrath, and his tongue is a consuming fire. His breath is like a rushing torrent, rising up to the neck. He shakes the nations in the sieve of destruction; he places in the jaws of the peoples a bit that leads them astray…the Lord will cause men to hear his majestic voice and will make them see his arm coming down with raging anger and consuming fire, with cloudburst, thunderstorm and hail. The wrath of God is to be respected at all times.

Depictions of God’s Wrath

Blazing Fire

2 Thess 1:6-7 God is just, He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels

Burning Sulfur

Ps 11:6 On the wicked he will rain fiery coals and burning sulfur; a scorching wind will be their lot.

Ezek 38:22 I will execute judgment upon him with plague and bloodshed; I will pour down torrents of rain, hailstones and burning sulfur on him and on his troops and on the many nations with him.

Consuming Fire

Lev 10:2 So fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord.

Deut 4:24 For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.

Ps 18:7 the earth trembled and quaked, and the foundations of the mountains shook; they trembled because he was angry.

Ps 18:13 The Lord thundered from heaven; the voice of the Most High resounded. He shot his arrows and scattered the enemies, great bolts of lightning and routed them. The valleys of the sea were exposed and the foundations of the earth laid bare at your rebuke, O Lord, at the blast of breath from your nostrils.

Isa 30:27-29 See, the Name of the Lord comes from afar, with burning anger and dense clouds of smoke; His lips are full of wrath, and his tongue is a consuming fire. His breath is like a rushing torrent, rising up to the neck. He shakes the nations in the sieve of destruction.

Is 33:14 The sinners in Zion are terrified; trembling grips the godless. Who of us can dwell with the consuming fire? Who of us can dwell with everlasting burning?

Destroying Fire

2 Pet 3:10 but the day of the lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare.

Devouring Fire

Deut 9:3 But be assured today that the Lord your God is the one who goes across ahead of you like a devouring fire. He will destroy them; He will subdue them before you. And you will drive them out and annihilate them quickly, as the Lord has promised you.

Ps 50:3 Our God comes and will not be silent; a fire devours before him and around him a tempest rages. He summons the heavens above, and the earth, that he may judge his people

Fiery Furnace

Ps 21:8-9 Your hand will lay hold on all your enemies; your right hand will seize your foes. At the time of your appearing you will make them like a fiery furnace. In his wrath the Lord will swallow them up, and his fire will consume them.

Mal 4:1 “Surely the day is coming; it will burn like a furnace. All the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble, and that day that is coming will set them on fire,” says the Lord Almighty. “Not a root or a branch will be left to them.”

Fire

Ps 89:46 How long, O Lord? Will you hide yourself forever? How long will your wrath burn like fire?

Isa 47:14 Surely they are like stubble, the fire will burn them up. They cannot even save themselves from the power of the flame.

Lam 2:4 Like an enemy He has slain all who were pleasing to the eye, he has poured out his wrath like fire on the tent of the Daughter of Zion.

Nah 1:5-6 The mountains quake before him and the hills melt away. The earth trembles at his presence, the world and all who live in it. Who can withstand his indignation? Who can endure his fierce anger? His wrath is poured out like fire; the rocks are shattered before him.

Isa 66:15-16 See, The Lord is coming with fire, and His chariots are like a whirlwind; He will bring down His anger with fury, and His rebuke with flames of fire. For with fire and with is sword the Lord will execute judgment upon all men, and many will be those slain by the Lord.

Heb 10:26-27 If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God.

Vengeance

Heb 10:30-31 For we know Him who said, “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” and again, “The Lord will judge His people.” It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

Descriptions of Hell

Abyss

Rev 9:1-11 When he opened the Abyss, smoke rose from it like the smoke from a gigantic furnace. The sun and sky were darkened by the smoke form the Abyss. And out of the smoke locusts came down upon the earth and were given power like that of scorpions of the earth…They had as king over them the angel of the Abyss, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek, Apollyon. (Destroyer in English)

Burning Sulfur

Rev 14:10 “… he, too, will not drink of the wine of God’s fury, which has been poured full strength into the cup of his wrath. He will be tormented with burning sulfur in the presence of holy angels and of the Lamb.”

Condemnation

Matt 23:33 “You snakes! You brood of viper! How will you escape being condemned to hell?”

Mark 16:16 “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.”

John 5:29 “…and come out—those who have done good will rise to live, and those who have done evil will rise to be condemned.”

2 Pt 2:3 In their greed these teachers will exploit your with stories they have made up. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them; and their destruction has not been sleeping.

Darkness

Matt 8:12 But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Matt 22:13 then the king told the attendants, “Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Jude 4,13 For certain men whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are godless men, who change the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord… they are wild waves of the sea, foaming up their shame, wandering stars, for whom blackest darkness has been reserved forever.

Destruction

Matt 7:13 Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.

Rom 9:22 What if God, choosing to show His wrath and make His power know, bore with great patience the objects of His wrath, prepared for destruction?

Phil 3:18-19 for, as I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things.

1 Thess 5:2-3 For you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying, “Peace and safety,” destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.

Eternal Fire & Punishment

Matt 18:8 If your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life maimed or cripple than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into eternal fire.

Matt 25:41 Then He will say to those on His left, “Depart from me, you who are curse, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.

Jude 7 in a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion, they serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment to eternal fire.

Matt 25:46 then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life

2 Thess 1:8-9 He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power…

Fiery Furnace

Matt 13:42 they will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Matt 3:10 the ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into fire.

Hell

Matt 5:22 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 say, “You fool!” will be in danger of the fire of hell.”

Matt 10:28 Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both should and body in hell.

Judgment

1 Tim 5:24 the sins of some men are obvious, reaching the place of judgment ahead of them; the sin of others trail behind them

Jude 6 And the angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their own home, those He kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great Day.

2 Pt 2:4-9 For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell, putting them into gloomy dungeons to be held for judgment; if he did not spare the ancient world when he brought the flood on its ungodly people, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven other; it he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by burning them to ashes, and made them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man, who was distressed by the filthy lives of lawless men (for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard), If this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue godly men from trials and to hold the unrighteous for the day of judgment, while continuing their punishment.

Lake of Burning Sulfur and Fire

Rev 19:20 But the beast was captured, and with him the false prophet who had performed the miraculous signs on his behalf. With these signs he had deluded those who had received the mark of the beast and worshiped his image. The two of them were thrown alive into the fiery lake of burning sulfur.

Rev 20:10 And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever.

Rev 20:14-15 then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

Rev 21:8 But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars, their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.

Luke 3:17 His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.

Nature of Hell

It’s Everlasting

Rev 14:11 and the smoke of their torment goes for ever and ever. There is no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and his image, or for anyone who receives the mark of his name.

Rev 20:10 … They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever.

Exclusion from God’s Presence

2 Thess 1:8 He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of His power…

Matt 25:41-46 …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…

Luke 13:24-28 Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to. Once the owner of the house gets up and closes the door, you will stand outside knocking and pleading. Sir, open the door for us…. There will be weeping there, and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but you yourselves thrown out.

It’s a Place of Suffering

Matt 10:28 Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather; be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

Luke 16:23-24 in hell, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. So he call to him, Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because am in agony in this fire.

Matt 8:12 but the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside into darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Rev 14:9-11 A third angel followed them and said in a loud voice; “If anyone worships the beast and his image and receives his mark on the forehead or on the hand. He, too, will not drink of the wine of God’s fury, which has been poured full strength into the cup of his wrath. He will be tormented with burning sulfur in the presence of holy angels and of the Lamb.” And the smoke of their torment rises for ever and ever. There is no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and his image, or for anyone who receives the mark of his name.

It’s Separation from the Righteous

Matt 13:47-50 Once again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was let down into the lake and caught all kinds of fish. When it was full, the fishermen pulled it up on the shore. Then they sat down and collected the good fish in baskets, but threw the bad away. This is how it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come and separate the wicked from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Mat 25:31-33 When the Son of man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, he will sit on His throne in heavenly glory. All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on His right and the goats on His left.

Mat 25:46 Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.

Occupants of Hell

The Beast and the False Prophet

Rev 19:20 But the beast was captured, and with him the false prophet who had performed the miraculous signs on his behalf. With these signs he had deluded those who had received the mark of the beast and worshiped his image. The two of them were thrown alive into the fiery lake of burning sulfur.

Rev 20:10 And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever.

Death and Hades

Rev 20:13-14 The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what he had done. The death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death.

Satan the Devil

Matt 25:41 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.

Rev 20:10 And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever.

The Lawless One

2 Thess 2:8 then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendor of his coming.

Wicked Angels

Matt 25:41 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.


Evildoers

Matt 7:19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire…

Matt 13:38-41 The field is the world, and the good seed stands for the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one… As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. The Son of man will send out His angels, and they will weed out His kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil.

1 Cor 6:9-10 Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderer nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

Gal 5:19-21 the act of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity, debauchery, idolatry, and witchcraft, hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy, drunkenness, orgies and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Eph 5:5 For of this you can be sure: no immoral, impure or greedy person, such a man is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.

2 Thess 2:9-12 … For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness.

Rev 22:14-15 Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city. Outside are the dogs, those who practice magic arts, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.

Unbelievers

Luke 8:11 this is the meaning of the parable: The seed is the word of God. Those along the path are the ones who hear, and then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved

John 3:18 Whoever believes in Him is not condemned but whomever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.

John 3:36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him.

Jude 5 though you already know all this, I want to remind you that the Lord delivered His people out of Egypt, but later destroyed those who did not believe.

Heb 3:12-19 See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first. AS has just been said, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion.” Who were they who heard and rebelled? Were they not all those Moses led out of Egypt? And with whom was he angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the desert? And to whom did God swear that they would never enter his rest if not those who disobeyed? So we see that they were not able to enter, because of the unbelief.


Conclusion

“And let every one that is yet out of Christ, and hanging over the pit of hell, whether they be old men and women, or middle-aged, or young people, or little children, now hearken to the loud calls of God’s Word and providence. This acceptable year of the Lord, a day of great mercy to some, will doubtless be a day of as remarkable vengeance to others. Men’s hearts harden, and their guilt increase apace at such a day as this, if they neglect their souls. Never was there a period when so many means were employed for the salvation of souls, and if you entirely neglect them, you will eternally cruse the day of your birth. Now, undoubtedly, it is as it was in the days of John the Baptist; the axe is laid at the root of the trees, and every tree which brings not forth good fruit, many be hewn down and cast into the fire. Therefore, let every one that is out of Christ, now awake and flee from the wrath to come. The wrath of Almighty God is now undoubtedly hanging over every unregenerate sinner. Let every one flee out of Sodom; “Escape, for your lives, look not behind you, escape to the mountain, lest you be consumed.” - Jonathan Edwards

Hell is a real place of eternal torment, pain, and separation for all those who willingly reject the grace and mercy of the Almighty. In His love for humanity our Lord has provided the way of escape through the blood atoning perfect sacrifice of His own Son, Jesus the Christ. He, Himself bore our sin taking on the God’s wrath and granting us reconciliation for our unrighteousness.

As we have seen Our God is mighty and His anger and wrath come down hard on those who reject Him. Be wise; stand in fear and awe of His glory.