The Most Terrifying Words Ears Can Hear, Part 2

Driving home: These shall go away into eternal punishment. That is into a state of conscious, painful, acute discomfort.

Martin uses the translation of 'fear hath punishment' in 1 John 4:18 to illustrate that 'punishment' means conscious discomfort, not annihilation, by asking if one could imagine 'fear hath annihilation.'

In 1 John 4 and verse 8. I'm sorry, verse 18. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casteth out fear, because fear hath, the unauthorized version translates it torment, but the 1901 edition translates it properly, fear hath punishment, and he that feareth is not made perfect in love. Now can you imagine translating this word fear hath annihilation.

8:25 - 9:05 Read in full sermon

Driving home: These shall go away into eternal punishment. That is into a state of conscious, painful, acute discomfort.

He uses Acts 4:21, asking if civil authorities sought to 'annihilate' or 'punish' early Christians, to further define 'punishment' as inflicting pain, loss, or suffering, not obliteration.

And then the two verbal uses of the word. One is found in Acts chapter 4 and verse 21. Acts chapter 4 and verse 21. Speaking of those early followers of our Lord who are called upon to suffer for His name, the civil authorities in their action towards them, it is said, verse 21, and they when they have further threatened them, though finding nothing, how they might annihilate them?

9:45 - 10:23 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin emphasizes the 'eternal' nature of hell, drawing a strict parallel between eternal punishment and eternal life. He argues that Christ, knowing hell best, spoke more…

He describes every faculty of mind, spirit, and body as a 'track upon which the white-hot anger of God will run and run and run and that for eternity,' conveying the intensity and unending nature of divine wrath.

seated upon the throne of His glory, summons men out of their graves, and the impenitent, the deceived religionist, and the self-righteous hypocrites, and all the indifferent hearers of the Gospel have a resurrected body joined to their lost and doomed souls, and in soul and body they shall stand before the Judge. When they hear the words, Depart from me, then, alas, the warning of our Lord will come to pass. Fear not them which kill the body, but after this have no more that they can do, but fear Him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. These shall go away, soul and body, into eternal ...

27:15 - 28:38 Read in full sermon

The point: Consider why a minister would choose to speak on such a terrifying text, and believe that it stems from a genuine desire for your well-being.

Martin shares his personal experience as a boy and teenager living with the 'frightening, awesome fear' of hell, and the subsequent 'sweetness of living now under the consciousness of sins forgiven,' to explain his earnestness in preaching on the subject.

Or you must believe me when I say that God is so thirsty for your salvation that He would take a natively selfish, man-pleasing, man-fearing creature such as I am and so work in my heart a genuine desire for your well-being that I would speak to you simply, plainly, tenderly and earnestly, pleading with you to flee from the wrath of the devil. Now I ask you in the theater of your own conscience, what do you regard me to be? A psychopath? Someone bordering on mental and emotional and psychological imbalance? Or will you believe me that I stand before you as one who is a brand plucked from the b...

39:51 - 41:16 Read in full sermon

The point: Examine your heart to see if your refusal to come to Christ is due to a love for darkness and evil deeds.

He describes faith as 'fleeing for refuge to the Lord Jesus,' likening it to running away for a hiding place, emphasizing the urgency and helplessness of the sinner seeking salvation.

you flee from your sins and run to Christ and say hide me from the destruction of my sins faith is described in Hebrews 6 as fleeing for refuge to the Lord Jesus now running away for a hiding place is not the act of a hero but a penitent believing sinner is not a hero the hero is the mighty Savior who enfolds needy helpless sinners in His grace and in His love as I was meditating this morning before coming to preach to you there was a text of scripture that was brought to my mind and I read this as I close tonight from Ezekiel's prophecy chapter 3 and it was this text among others that pressur...

48:55 - 50:24 Read in full sermon