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Sermon on Hell (page seven)

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But, to be plunged into that pleasure! Not into the wading pool that we experience on this earth, but plunged into the ocean of pleasure! The same is true for hell. It’s far beyond our understanding, and there is no end.

  In the parable of the sheep and the goats, Jesus says (Matthew 25:41), “Then the king 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.’ ” Notice, it is eternal fire. “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”

  Eternal life, eternal punishment. Hell is a real place. There is a destiny waiting for us after death of either endless delight or endless misery.

  The last thing I want to say about hell is that no one needs to be there. I’ll be even bolder! Anyone who is there, prefers hell to heaven.

  Just as the definition of heaven is to be with God (for what could bring greater joy to our hearts than that?), so the definition of hell is to be forever separated from God.

  But mark you well, it is a separation that begins in this life. You can see it in the life of the rich man, can you not? His life was lived for the enjoyment of his pleasures. But he had nary a moment for God.

  So it is that those who are in hell have chosen a life without God. In fact, their understanding of life excludes God. It is intolerable for them to bow to God as their Maker and as their Judge.

  Someone once said, and I think there is a great deal of truth in this, “The door of hell is locked and barred on the inside.” That’s what we sinners do. We lock God out.

  When I go out in the spring and hold little corn seeds in my hand and I put them in the ground and voilà! three months later up comes... rutabaga? No! Corn! I planted corn. I reap corn.   We plant in this life, and we reap in the next. What we plant, we shall reap. God is not mocked. This earthly life is the place where we choose our eternal destiny. The whole point of earthly existence consists in this one thing: to choose God. When we pass through death’s door, we will reap the consequences in either heaven or hell. The Bible says, “God so loved the world that He gave His only Son that whoever believes on Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” Why would anyone choose to perish? But God gives us that choice.

  J. I. Packer writes: “There is nothing arbitrary about the doctrine of eternal punishment: it is essentially a case of God respecting our choice, and continuing to us throughout eternity the spiritual condition which we choose to be in while on earth.”

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