A Place / Torment / Body and Soul

Driving home: Men were never humored into trembling at the wrath to come. Men were never tickled in the third rib and made to weep and to wail and to cry out, What must I do to escape the horrors of the damned?

Martin states that men are never 'humored into trembling at the wrath to come' or 'tickled in the third rib and made to weep,' illustrating that a lighthearted approach is inappropriate for the gravity of Hell.

At the moment of death, there is an experience, of a dimension of felt, conscious, spiritual existence which come under the general teaching of Heaven and Hell. However, the primary focus of Scripture is not upon the intermediate state, that is, the state of the soul from death till the coming of Christ and the resurrection of the body, but the focus of Scripture, both with respect to Heaven and to Hell, is upon the eternal state. That state, in which the souls and bodies of the righteous and of the damned enter into the consummate bliss of Heaven or the unspeakable agonies of Hell. And then f...

3:47 - 5:10 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Men were never humored into trembling at the wrath to come. Men were never tickled in the third rib and made to weep and to wail and to cry out, What must I do to escape the horrors of the damned?

Martin expresses that if he had the power, he would remove any preacher who made a jest while speaking about Hell, highlighting the solemnity required for the subject.

And if I personally had the power to legislate and execute the legislation, I would run from every pulpit, every so-called preacher, whoever made a jest, in the midst of seeking to fix men's minds upon the realities of Hell. And the glories of Heaven are so inherently wonderful, they do not need, as handmaiden, anything of human jesting. And so we approach our subjects with humility, with sobriety, and with the measure of our doctrine, not what we think is either possible or doubtful. But in a disposition of faith that believes what God says is possible and just is possible and is just. Now, s...

5:10 - 6:23 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Using Matthew 10:28, Matthew 25:41, and Matthew 13:41-43, Martin argues that Hell is an actual, spatial place where bodies will exist. He refutes the idea that Hell is merely a…

He compares the physical space occupied by bodies in the church building to the physical space bodies will occupy in Hell, reinforcing Hell as a literal place.

Now as surely as this body needs space in which to exist, to function, to operate, to move, so in Hell there will be a place in which there is space enough for the bodies of all the damned. So that Hell must not be conceived of as merely a horrible notion, nor only as a state or condition of the soul. What is Hell? According to the Scriptures, Hell is a place, a place somewhere in the universe of God in which bodies will be found.

11:20 - 12:00 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin explores the 'shocking, horrific language' of the Bible to describe Hell's torment, focusing first on the imagery of 'outer darkness' from Matthew 8, 22, 25, 2 Peter 2, and…

Martin recounts his parents' use of 'privative punishment' (taking away privileges for sins of omission) and 'punitive punishment' (for sins of commission), illustrating the two forms of divine judgment.

You see, punishment can take two forms. There are times when as a child when I did things that I should not have done, and most frequently when I didn't do things I should have done. My parents generally applied privative punishment when certain duties were not fulfilled, sins of omission. And then there was punitive punishment for sins of commission when I did things I shouldn't do.

26:23 - 26:47 Read in full sermon

The point: May God have mercy upon you. May God have mercy upon your darkness-loving soul. Because unless that love of darkness is transformed into love of light... then outer darkness will be your portion and that forever.

He uses the analogy of a Palestinian banquet house, where being cast outside into the 'murky thick darkness' was a vivid image of vulnerability and misery, to explain the significance of 'outer darkness' as privation from God's light.

And all the pain of that privation. You see, there is a privative kind of punishment. And in all of these pictures our Lord is using a graphic imagery that would have struck to the very heart of every Palestinian. Remember, these were before the days of Con Ed and Jersey Power and Light.

27:11 - 27:32 Read in full sermon

The point: May God have mercy upon you. May God have mercy upon your darkness-loving soul. Because unless that love of darkness is transformed into love of light... then outer darkness will be your portion and that forever.

Martin uses the metaphor of 'spiritual moles' who burrow deeper into darkness, ignoring God's call, to describe those who refuse the light of conscience and the gospel.

Turn, believe, and men like spiritual moles let every sound of his voice go deeper into the caverns of the darkness that they love. Then Almighty God finally says, is it darkness you love? It is darkness you shall have. And that forever.

29:30 - 29:52 Read in full sermon

The point: Do you want to come into face to face dealings with a God like that and have no mediator to plead your cause, no savior to say in His presence, Holy Father, he or she is one of mine.

He explains the historical connotation of 'Gehenna' (the valley of Hinnom) as a place where refuse and criminals' bodies were burned, illustrating Hell as God's 'junk heap' for the filthy and unworthy.

There was a place outside the city walls of Jerusalem where all of the refuse was burned and where the bodies of unwanted executed criminals were cast that they might be consumed and destroyed in a final act of public disgrace. That place was originally the valley of Hinnom. That place had come to be called Gehenna. And our Lord uses the imagery of that place to describe in the most graphic way this dimension of the biblical answer to the question what is hell?

34:44 - 35:21 Read in full sermon

Driving home: There is no pain you've ever known in your body like the pain you've known in your soul.

He asks listeners to consider the pain of unrequited love or a broken heart, arguing that this emotional pain is often deeper than physical pain, to illustrate the soul's capacity for agony in Hell.

There is no pain you've ever known in your body like the pain you've known in your soul. Maybe some of you have known the pain of unrequited love or your heart was broken by someone you loved. And you'd say I'd sooner undergo any pain than the pain you've known of a broken heart. Is it true?

46:17 - 46:42 Read in full sermon

The point: I didn't create the Bible and it's high time some of you began to take what God has revealed seriously.

Martin shares his personal experience of back surgery, noting the relief provided by anesthesia, to emphasize that there will be 'no anesthesiologist in hell' to relieve the body's torment.

That's why Jesus said there will be the wailing and the gnashing of teeth. Some years ago, six or seven to be exact, my body underwent the gracious, careful, but nonetheless mutilating influence of the surgeon's knife. I had to have back surgery. And though there was pain before and after, I was blissfully anesthetized while they did the real cutting.

49:48 - 50:19 Read in full sermon

The point: I didn't create the Bible and it's high time some of you began to take what God has revealed seriously.

He references the rich man in Hell crying for a 'drop of water,' illustrating the intense physical suffering and lack of relief in Hell.

You won't and you won't tell you. And God won't send one to relieve you. For the rich man in hell cried, Father, drop of water for my parched drop of water. Do you dare to think that giving that body to whatever sinful pleasure now is the hook as it were that binds your soul to the service of the devil, be it an illicit sexual relationship, be it adorning that body with finery, surrounding that body with sumptuous food, giving to that body the so-called assurance by the accumulation of things, whatever it be, my friend, is it worth it that that body in which you sit in this building and listen...

50:44 - 52:13 Read in full sermon

The point: I didn't create the Bible and it's high time some of you began to take what God has revealed seriously.

Martin compares dismissing his sermon to 'a man whistling in the dark,' suggesting a false bravado against an inescapable reality.

of Almighty God until you weep and wail and mash your teeth in hell. I didn't create the Bible and it's high time some of you began to take what God has revealed seriously. You see, you do me no harm like that to go out of here tonight and, like a man whistling in the dark, say, ha, I thought the days of preachers like that were over. Oh, in the world does that mean that you will be able to go to hell and somehow with star war like ability poof it into annihilation? I ask you, if you have any rational faculties my friend, answer me in the bosom of your own heart, answer me. Will all of your si...

52:13 - 53:42 Read in full sermon