[Note: This sermon expounds the teaching of the Lord Jesus on hell, concluding the study of Matthew 23 before moving into Matthew 24. Delivered 21 June 1981, Montreal.]
Today, before we leave Matthew chapter 23, there is one more thing I must expound from the Lord's teaching — the teaching about hell. I have felt reluctant to speak on this subject, but I would not be faithful to the whole counsel of God if I did not return to it. The word "hell" occurs twelve times in the New Testament, and eleven of those twelve times it is found on the lips of the Lord Jesus: seven times in Matthew, three times in Mark, and once in Luke. The Mark and Luke occurrences are largely parallels to Matthew. Seven times in Matthew, always in the teaching of the Lord Jesus — we cannot escape the subject.
Why should there be a hell at all? Is it not barbarous? We must settle between two things: either there is justice in this universe or there is not. If there is no justice, then a person can do any evil he likes — gas millions of people to death and use their bones for fertilizer, and we have no grounds to object. But if there is no justice, then there is also no need for reward, no need for anything except chaos. If we want justice, we must accept punishment. We live in an age so enlightened that even the death penalty for murder has been removed in many places; a murderer can get life imprisonment, watch colour television, and be maintained by the taxpayers. You can tone down punishment further and further until there is no punishment at all — and then justice collapses along with it. We must decide: either God is a God of justice or he is not.
The first striking fact about the Lord's teaching on hell is one that astonishes me when I examine it carefully: five of the seven references to hell in Matthew are addressed not to unbelievers but to the disciples. "If your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out — it is better for you to enter life with one eye than to be thrown into hell with two." The Lord is speaking to his disciples. Of the remaining two references — including verse 33, "How are you to escape being sentenced to hell?" — these are addressed not to unbelievers either but to the most religious people in Israel, the Pharisees. So the notion that hell is primarily a subject to frighten unbelievers into the kingdom is simply wrong. A doctor who tells you that you have six months to live is not trying to frighten you; he is stating a medical fact. The Lord is warning those who think they are on the road to life.
There is a second related set of words in the Lord's teaching: "weeping and gnashing of teeth," which occurs seven times in the Gospels (six in Matthew, once in Luke). Weeping and gnashing of teeth is the expression of total despair. In China after the communists came, I watched many times as people were taken out in cages to be shot. When you know you are going to be shot in ten minutes, you see people huddled on the floor, weeping, grinding their teeth — utter despair at the terrible predicament they have found themselves in. This is what the Lord uses to describe the reaction of those who face his judgment. And again, like the references to hell, this expression is addressed primarily as a warning to those who profess religion.
The Lord Jesus explicitly connects the weeping and gnashing of teeth with the furnace of fire. Matthew 13:41–42: "The Son of Man will send his angels and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all evildoers and throw them into the furnace of fire; there men will weep and gnash their teeth." And again in verses 49–50 of the same chapter: "So it will be at the close of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous and throw them into the furnace of fire; there men will weep and gnash their teeth." Let us draw a certain conclusion from this: there will be a period of time in the furnace of fire —
[Continues in Part B]
# Hell — Matthew 23:33 (Part B) — Outer Darkness; Destruction vs. Suffering; The Second Death
[Note: This is Part B of the sermon on Matthew 23:33, continuing directly from Part A. Delivered 21 June 1981, Montreal.]
There will be a period of time in the furnace of fire during which the evildoer will realize what has befallen him and will weep and gnash his teeth. Now, alongside the expression "furnace of fire," the Lord uses another expression: "outer darkness." Matthew 8:12: "The sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness; there men will weep and gnash their teeth." The parallel in Luke 13:28 makes the meaning plain: "You yourselves will be thrust out" — thrust out of the kingdom. So outer darkness means the darkness outside the kingdom of God. In scripture, light represents life and darkness represents death. Only inside the kingdom of God is God's life available. To be thrown into the outer darkness means to be cut off from God's life — to perish. The outer darkness and the furnace of fire are different images for the same reality.
Now Matthew 10:28 is crucial: "Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell." The word destroy here is the Greek word apolumi, which when used of persons means to kill. In Matthew 2:13, Matthew 12:14, Matthew 21:41, the same word consistently means to kill. Hell is the place of destruction. I must stress this, because if you misunderstand it you will misunderstand hell. Most people think hell is primarily a place of suffering — but that is the error. Hell is the place of destruction. God does not send you there to suffer forever; God sends you there to be destroyed. You will inflict sufficient suffering upon yourself simply by realizing what you have lost, what a fool you have been. "What do I need grace for? Grace is useless. Grace is unnecessary in that." The torture of self is more than anyone can inflict upon you from outside. God does not need to put flames on you; you will torture yourself enough just by realizing the truth of what you have thrown away.
The notion that a person will exist in hell roasting forever and ever is a logical contradiction. You cannot have an eternal destruction. If something is destroyed, it ceases to exist — permanently. If it exists forever, it is not destroyed. These two ideas contradict each other. "Eternal destruction" can only mean: destroyed permanently, so that it will never exist again. If I burn this piece of paper, I can say it has suffered eternal destruction — it will never exist again in all eternity. That is the biblical sense. But God is not consigning people to suffer for a billion years because they sinned for one hundred. That is not justice, and I agree it is not justice. If you sin for one hundred years and suffer for one hundred years, that is approximately justice. Hell and suffering are not the same thing. Hell is the opposite of life. That is why Matthew 7:13–14 sets the two roads in precisely this contrast: "The gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction" — "the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life." Destruction versus life, not suffering versus comfort.
Revelation 21:8 makes this perfectly clear: "their lot shall be in the lake that burns with fire and sulphur, which is the second death." The lake of fire is not eternal suffering; it is the second death. The first death is the death of the body; the second death is the death of the soul — which is exactly what the Lord Jesus said in Matthew 10:28: he can destroy both body and soul in hell. Death does not mean life in some other form. Death is the cessation of life, the cessation of activity. A body that dies ceases to function; it disintegrates. The same is true of the soul. And therefore the claim that "death means separation from God" — a phrase I search the scripture in vain to find — is a confusion of cause and result. Separation from God results in death; it is not the same thing as death. Hunger results in death; it is not synonymous with death. These are different things.
God does not wish to see one person go to hell. God has no pleasure in the death of the wicked — the Old Testament says so explicitly. Jesus came personally into this world to plead with us not to go that way. I am pleading with you now not to go that way. Peter says God's patience is waiting, that he is restraining himself to the absolute limit of what his holiness can endure, giving every person a chance to repent — count that patience as salvation. But if you give him no choice, he will act with grief. Just as he wept over Jerusalem and still allowed Jerusalem to be destroyed, he weeps over every sinner who has to be destroyed, and still he must do it, because he is a God of justice. If we cling to evil, choose life, then pray.