Hell And What We know About it

“Hell, And What We Know About It (Part One)”
Matthew 13:24-30

INTRODUCTION

Let us look into Matthew 13:24-30…

EXAMINING THE PARABLE VERSE BY VERSE…

Verse 24…“The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field:”

The kingdom of heaven = The kingdom of heaven includes all those that belong to Christ.
A man= This man is Jesus Christ in the flesh on earth
which soweth = preaches and teaches
Good seed= The “good seed” is the children of the kingdom (saved people)
In his field= His field is the world
Jesus Christ is saying in this verse that… all of Christianity is like the times when Christ walked this earth and was preaching and teaching His doctrines to the children of God in this world.

Verse 25… But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way.

But while men slept – While Christians were being complacent (not paying attention, not caring about what was being taught to them).
his enemy came – Satan came, using people who looked like Christians but lacked the knowledge or the heart of one.
and sowed tares among the wheat – These false Christians were able to manipulate God’s people to their way of thinking.
and went his way. – Then Satan’s work was finished and he left the church with a crippled religion, faith and doctrine.

Verse 26… But when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also.

So when the right doctrine was presented to the people, the false doctrines were presented too.

Verse 27… So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? From whence then hath it tares?

So the members of the church come to the pastor and asked … “how did these false members and their doctrines get into the church?” Didn’t you start with strong doctrine from the beginning?

Verse 28… He said unto them, An enemy hath done this. The servants said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up?

The Pastor said to them, Satan has done this to our church. Then the members ask.. “shall we go and kick out the bad members?

Verse 29… But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them.

The pastor said “No.” Because when you remove the bad members, many times the weak members will follow them.

Verse 30…Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn.

Let both grow together until the harvest – Let us all grow together in the spirit and truth of God’s word until the time is right.
“…and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them:” – And when the time is right (harvest, when the wheat is ready) takes place, the angels will gather the false children and they will cast into the lake of fire at the judgment.
“..but gather the wheat into my barn.” But the true Christians will be taken to heaven (His Barn).

I. THE DEVIL’S GOAL

Destroy any fear that man might have of going to Hell.
Cause weak Christians to doubt the doctrines of Hell.
Satan using three methods to reach his goal…
Rationalism- “There is no God, so there is no Hell”
Ridicule- “There may be a God, but that is ridiculous to think that someone’s soul may be floating around in this lake of fire.”
Religion- “There is a God, but He is a God of love, and would never send anyone to Hell.

Men can refuse to believe Hell, refuse to think about Hell, and even refuse to talk about Hell.
But that does not take away the reality and fact that there is a Hell!

II. DEFINE WORDS REFERRING TO HELL

A) Sheol

It is a Hebrew word.
It is found 65 times in the Hebrew Old Testament
It is translated “hell” 31 times, “grave” 31 times, and “pit” 3 times.

B) Hades

It is a Greek word.
It is found in the Greek New Testament 11 times.
The word “hades” is translated “hell” in the KJV Bible.
There is reason to believe that hades was once divided into two compartments with a great gulf fixed between them (Luke 16:26)
Hades was also a temporary place to stay for all departed human spirits.
The saved people went to a part of hades called “paradise” which Christ emptied after He died on the cross.
The unsaved people have gone and continue to go to the “hell” section part of hades in the flames while they wait to be judged at the final Judgment before the “Great White Throne” of God.

C) Gehenna

A Greek word(with Hebrew background).
This word (Gehenna) is found 12 times in the Greek New Testament and always translated correctly as “hell.”
A history of the word will be helpful in understanding the word.
In the Old Testament (II Kings 21), a wicked Israelite King turned from worshipping the LORD and followed the devil god “Molech.” The worship of this god demanded parents to sacrifice their own children in the fires as a burnt offering to the idol Molech.
This place of worship was located in a deep narrow valley south of Jerusalem called “The Valley of Hinnon.” This kind of worship was stopped under the reign of Josiah, but the Valley of Hinnon continued to be used as a garbage dump for the city.
As you combine the New Testament with the Old Testament, you can see Gehenna described a place of filth, sorrow, smoke, pain, fire, and death.
Gehenna Hell is God’s final dumping place, and burning place for the refuse of His universe. Namely all unsaved people and apostate (abandoners of the faith) angels.

III. HELL IS A BIBLICAL SUBJECT

If you don’t believe that hell is a real place then you don’t believe that the Bible is true. You call God a liar, and are totally blinded by Satan. Below are verses that talk about hell…
32:22, Matt. 13:49,50, II Sam. 22:6, Matt. 22:13, Job 26:6, Matt. 25:30 Psalms 9:17, Matt. 25:41-46, Psalms 116:3, Mark 9:32, Psalms 139:7-12, Luke 12:5, Prov. 15:24, Luke 16:19-31, Isaiah 5:14, John 3:18, Isaiah 14:9, John 3:36, Isaiah 14:15, II Thess. 1:7-9, Isaiah 33:14, Heb. 2:1-3, Isaiah 66:24, Heb. 10:26-31, Ezek. 31:15-16, II Pet. 2:9, Amos 9:2, I John 5:12, Matt. 3:12 Jude 13, Matt. 5:30, Rev. 1:18, Matt. 5:22, Rev. 6:8, Matt. 7:12, Rev. 9:1, 2, Matt. 10:28, Rev. 14:10,11, Matt. 11:22-24, Rev. 19:20, Matt. 13:41-43, Rev. 20:15, Rev. 21:8

IV. HELL and the LAKE of FIRE are two different places

The people who rejected God, did not live for God, did not believe in the death burial and resurrection are considered “lost.”
When lost people die, they go to hell (A part of Hades) Luke 16:23. They will wait there until the “Great White Throne Judgment.”
After the Judgment, they will then be cast into the lake of fire eternally.

20:11-15… Hell is emptied after the White Throne Judgment.
Hell is like the “county jail” where a prisoner is held until his trial. In jail, they have the same confinement as prison but have not been sentenced yet. In Hell the lost are in torment, but await their trial (Judgment).

V. THE EXISTENCE OF HELL

Look at Luke 16:19-31…Pay attention or note

Verse 23…And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments,
Verse 29…Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.
Verse 31…And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.

In the above passage we see the word “hell” used.
The Bible specifically says there is a hell 54 times. By this we mean that the word hell is used 54 times.
Let us know that GOD created Hell. Look at John 1:3… “ALL things were made by HIM.”
“All things” includes Heaven and HELL!
Listen to some in hell mentioned in scripture… Look at Luke 16:24 and verses 27, 28.
Hell is a real and literal place.

VI. WHERE IS HELL?

The Bible clearly teaches us that hell is in the center of the earth.
The Hebrew word for Hell is Sheol.
Sheol means “Abode of the dead”
Everyone that died went to Sheol. It was divided into three sections…1) the flames, 2) the bottomless pit (The great gulf), 3) The Great Gulf
In Luke 16, the rich man was in the flames, and Lazarus was in paradise (Also called Abraham’s bosom).
When lost people died they went into the flames and the saved people went to paradise.
Paradise is the same “paradise” that Jesus talked of in Luke 23:43.
In the Greek New Testament the word Hades means “Shoel” in the Hebrew.
Look at Acts 2:29-31… that his soul was not left in hell (Hades), neither his flesh did see corruption. David had prophesied this in Psalms 16:10…
There is no doubt that Jesus went to Hades for 3 days and 3 nights while His body was in the tomb.
Watch closely… Look into Ephesians 4:8, 9…(Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth?
Where is Hades? Where is Sheol? In the LOWER PARTS OF THE EARTH.
The only ones that are there now are those “in the flames.”
When the “lost” (unsaved, followers of satan) people die, they go straight to hell. This burning place of fire is in the center of the earth…

Psalms 55:15…go down
Proverbs 7:27…going down
Isaiah 14:15…brought down
Ezekiel 31:16, 17…cast him down
Matthew 11:23…brought down
II Peter 2:4…cast them down

The “eternal fire” talked about in in Jude 7 is the same in hell.
The same fire is also mentioned in 14:10, Rev. 19:20, Rev. 20:10, and Rev. 21:8.
Question : IS THERE AN ANNIHILATION (total wipe out, or destruction) OF THOSE IN HELL?
Look at Matthew 7:13, 14 and Matthew 10:28, and II Thess. 1:7-9.
So, will these people in Hell be wiped out of existence? NO!
Why not?
According to God’s Word in Revelation 20:13…And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. 14) And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. 15) And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.
At His “Great White Throne Judgment” then Hell (All the lost people who live there) will be brought up before Him. Also see Rev. 19:20, Rev. 20:1-3, 7, 10.
NO ONE IS ANNIHILATED!
More proof? Look at Rev. 14:11…And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever:
Now the last time I checked… “forever” means eternal, never stopping!
According to Jesus, The BODY and SOUL will not be together in Hades. But they will be in the “Lake of Fire.”
Look at Matthew 10:28…
The word Hell in this passage of scripture was translated from the word “Gehenna” which means a place of never-ending unquenchable fie.
The word Gehenna is derived from the HH Hebrew word “Ge-hinnon.” Like we mentioned before it is a place where the fire never went out and it was a refuse place for trash, dead animals, bodies of criminals.
DEAD: The soul of a lost person LEAVES the body and goes to the flames of Hades.
The soul cannot “sleep” within the body in the grave. A person is NOT DEAD until the soul DEPARTS from the body. (Example verse Gen. 35:18)

The Lord Jesus used the word “Hades” 5 times, and the word “Gehenna” 11 times.
Never did Christ confuse the two.
Christ used the word “Hades” when referring to the unseen world in the heart of the earth. Sometimes He referred to the hot and cool sections.
Jesus never said the dead person’s BODY is in Hades, only the SOUL.
When Christ spoke of “Gehenna,” He always spoke of it as the final habitat of the sinner. 7 of the 11 times He said that the body was there. (Matt. 5:29, 30 and Matt. 10:28, and Matt. 18:9, and Mark 9:43, 45, 47).
The sequence is this….

When a lost person dies, the SOUL goes to Hades, but the BODY stays in the grave.
When God has His “White Throne Judgment” the grave will give up the BODY and Hell will give up the SOUL.
The BODY and SOUL of each individual will then be reunited.
After The Great White Throne Judgment, the lost person’s BODY and SOUL will be cast alive into the Lake of Fire, just like the anti-Christ and the false Prophet! (See 19:20)
When the BODY and SOUL are together, the person is ALIVE. This is why the events of the White Throne are called the “Second Resurrection.”

When is the “First Resurrection?” Look at Rev. 20:5.
The “SAVED” people come out of Heaven to meet their bodies at the “First Resurrection.”
Note that Rev. 20:5… But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished.
What is the difference between being ALIVE and being DEAD?
When your SOUL is in your BODY, you are ALIVE!
When your SOUL is not in your BODY, you are DEAD!

VII. DOES HELL MEAN “THE GRAVE?”

This idea has come from the Jehovah’s Witnesses.
Their religion is already considered by many as “a cult.”
The J.W.’s insist that “Sheol” and “Hades” are always the grave. (This is why they refuse to believe in a literal burning Hell.
Look at Zophar’s thoughts in Job 11:8.. here Zophar contrasts the depth of Hell (Sheol) with Heights of Heaven.
Now was Zophar thinking that Heaven was 6ft. high? I don’t think he is that stupid. A grave is six foot deep, but Hell is much deeper than that!
Look at Psalms 9:17… The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.
If the J.W.s are right and Hell means the grave… then it is going to be one very crowded grave if every lost person (wicked) goes to the grave!

VIII. The Nature of Hell

A) THE DARKNESS OF HELL

Matthew 8:12 and Matthew 22:13, and Matthew 25:30…
Peter talks of the darkness of Hell also in ..
II Peter 2:4.. The Greek word for Hell here is “tartarus.” This word is used only once in the New Testament.
The word Tartarus means … “a subterranean prison.” In Peter’s day it was considered to be some sort of a cave located in the bottomless pit.
Somewhere in the darkness of the bottomless pit is Tartarus, where fallen angels are held in chains of darkness mentioned in II Peter 2:1, 17.
Many will ask… “How can it be dark in Hell when there is fire in it?”
Scientifically:

Fire intensifies in heat, it changes colors.
A fire starts out YELLOW in color, then turns ORANGE, later it becomes RED. The more intense the heat, it then changes to a BLUE.
When a cutting torch is lit, it has a BLUE flame to begin with. When it gets heated up the flame becomes white or clear.
Scientists in photographing the sun through specially filtered telescopes, have discovered all the colors we just mentioned except one. The hottest flame in the sun is BLACK.

B) THE DEMINSIONS OF HELL

It is Hell’s nature to be “deep” and wide.”
Revelation 9:1,2 refers to it as the “Bottomless pit.”
The book of Revelation calls it the bottomless pit 7 times.
Scientists who do not claim the truths of the Bible say that the earth’s center is a mass of fire and brimstone.
“Brimstone” is a molten (Liquid) rock.
The rocks that are located in the center of the earth have been heated with such intensity that they have become a liquid.
Scientists also claim that in order for the earth to maintain its equilibrium, it must be hollow in the center. With the heat and hollowness of the earth’s center it creates an atmosphere of “no gravity.”
If someone were placed in the earth’s core, they would have the sensation (feeling) of FALLING without end.
Imagine falling in darkness for eternity. Hell is DEEP!

C) HELL IS WIDE

Look at Matthew 7:13…wide is the gate.
When Hell becomes cramped or crowded, it enlarges itself (It becomes bigger) (See Isaiah 5:14)

D) THE DESPAIR OF HELL

Revelation 14:11… Hell is a place of despair!
Despair means “without hope.” You take away someone’s hope and their will to live is gone.

E) THE CONCEPT OF HELL

Separation

The concept of Hell is three things.. 1) Separation 2) Association, 3) Retribution
Look at Luke 13:23-28…Wow!
The Lake of Fire is called “the second death” in Rev. 20:14.
Death for any human being is “separation.”
When a person dies, they are not “out of existence” but rather “separated from the living on earth.
When a “lost person” (non-believer) dies and stands before God at the White Throne, they will be cast into the Lake of Fire. This is called “the second death,” because they will be “separated for the second time.
Separated from God, from love, from light, and from everyone that resides in Heaven.
Matthew 25:46… Note the two different directions that this verse brings up …everlasting punishment and life eternal.
This is your choice to make as you live on this earth!

Association

Hell is a place where the lost people will make their home with all the wicked ones ever to live on earth.

The Devil… 20:10
The Beast (Anti-Christ)… 19:20
The False Prophet… 13:11,12
The Fallen Angels…II Peter 2:4
Those possessed with devils (demons)… Matthew 8:28,29 and Luke 7:21 and Acts 19:12.
The Fearful… 21:8 those who knew the truth of the gospel but rejected Christ because they were fearful of what others might say, do or think if they made a commitment for Him.
The Unbelieving…John 3:18, 36… “Believeth”
The Abominable… 10:29… Those who completely reject Christ! (See Prov. 11:20 and Prov. 1:24-29)
Murderers… John 8:44 (Satan), I John 3:12 (Cain followed),
Whoremongers… (Sex mad crowd) Hebrews 13:4, Leviticus 20:18, Exodus 20:14. Homosexuals Leviticus 18:22, Romans 1:26,27,32…rapists Deuteronomy 22:25-27.
Sorcerers…Acts 13:6-10, Acts 8:9-11…sorcery includes fortune telling, reading palms, reading cards, reading tea leaves, gazing into crystal balls, using ouija boards, following the signs of Zodiac, witchcraft, séances, etc.
Idolaters (idol worshipers)…Exodus 20:3-5
Liars…Matthew 23:27, Romans 3:4
The Wicked…Rev. 9:20,21, and Rev. 16:9-11
Dogs… Rev. 22:15. Dogs here, is referring to a wicked human being. To an Easterner “dog” is always attributed to something vile. They are not domesticated house hold pets. Another word we may liken to “dogs” is scavenger.

Dogs (cont.) Who are these dogs? It could be your pastor, elder, pope, minister, rector, etc. If they do not believe in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. If they do not believe in the “blood atonement” for sin. If their doctrines do not line up with God’s Word… then they are DOGS!
Look at Philippians 3:2,3.. the circumcision here is of the heart, not the flesh. These are those who believe that salvation is by grace and not of flesh.
Look at Isaiah 56:10,11… Dumb dogs, greedy dogs…
Remember when Paul said in Philippians 3:2… Beware of Dogs? He was talking about these kinds of barkers (Preachers, priests, elders, etc.)

Retribution

What do we mean by retribution? Hell is a place where a person will “reap” what they have “sown.”
Your retribution will come in a three-fold manner;

Shame

Look at Daniel 12:2…
The SHAME will hit you when you stand before God at His Great White Throne as Daniel describes it in chapter 7:9,10.
Isaiah describes SHAME in Isaiah 13:6-8.
Every sin that you ever committed will be presented for you to realize your worth.
Look at Isaiah 13:11… Their punishment will be SHAME for their wickedness, their iniquity, their pride!

HELL is not the party some believe it will be!