A Place / Torment / Body and Soul

Introduction: The Importance and Approach to Doctrines of Heaven and Hell

0:04 This sermon was preached on Sunday evening, July 24th, 1983, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Since our blessed Lord has told us, without me ye can do nothing, I trust we never grow weary of acknowledging our utter helplessness and dependantness by drawing near to God again and again and again and seeking the help of His Spirit. But let us once more bow in the presence of God.

0:46 Our Father, we have been reminded in the singing of this paraphrased version of the parable of the sower, that though the seed is good seed, and though it is sown freely, and though it is sown in the motive of communicating grace to others, the problem lies with our own hearts. And oh, how we pray that by the...

1:15 The mighty, mysterious, and inward work of the Spirit, every heart may be made into good soil to receive the word of God and to bring forth fruit thirtyfold, sixtyfold, a hundredfold. Lord, do for the preacher and the hearer what they cannot do for themselves and what must be done for both if we are to prosper, that from this hour, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

1:56 Now those of you who attend regularly upon this ministry will remember that several weeks ago we began a series of Sunday evening studies under the broad heading of The Biblical Doctrines of Heaven and of Hell. And in the first two studies under that heading, I set before you what I call the Bible. What I entitled Some Introductory Perspectives on the Biblical Doctrines of Heaven and of Hell. And in those two messages, I sought to accomplish basically three things.

2:36 First of all, to highlight the importance of the Biblical Doctrines of Heaven and Hell. And we saw from the study of the Scriptures together that integrity and handling the word of God demands an adequate doctrine of Heaven and Hell. That sympathy with major elements of Biblical religion also demands an understanding and commitment to the doctrines of Heaven and Hell. And that honesty in dealing with the souls of men also demanded a doctrine of Heaven and Hell that was true to the word of God.

3:18 Then having highlighted the importance of the doctrines of Heaven and Hell, I spent just a short time focusing on what would be the primary area of our concern in this study, namely the eternal state. There is a Biblical doctrine of the Heaven and the Hell that awaits every soul upon the moment of its death. There is no soul sleep. There is no annihilation.

3:47 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 finally, I sought to set before you the attitudes essential in seeking to approach the doctrines of Heaven and Hell. We must come with an attitude characterized by humility, by sobriety, and by faithfulness, by faith. 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?

5:10 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, so much for that brief review of the two previous studies. Tonight we begin to address ourselves to a study of the awesome doctrine of Hell. You ask, Pastor Martin, why begin with the doctrine of Hell and not the doctrine of Heaven?

What is Hell? Proposition 1: A Place of Unspeakable Torment, Misery, and Woe

6:23 Well, there are many reasons, the most fundamental of which is simply this. The Bible has far more to say explicitly about Hell than it does about Heaven. And in particular, our Lord Jesus Christ says much more about Hell than He does about Heaven. And seeking to reflect the sensitivity and the proportion of the Word of God, we will probably have three or four messages on the doctrine of Hell and two messages on the doctrine of Heaven.

7:03 And so we begin tonight, then, a consideration of some of the major aspects of the biblical doctrine of Hell. And as we come to this awesome subject, we will seek to follow a very simple outline couched in the form of several questions. First of all, what is Hell? We'll begin to answer that question tonight.

7:29 And then secondly, who will be sent to Hell? And thirdly, how may one be certain to escape Hell? Now the questions are not profound, and yet they are the questions which press themselves upon every person who takes the Word of God seriously. First of all, then, what is Hell?

7:56 And with our Bibles open before us, we shall begin to answer that question in terms of several simple, straightforward propositions which embody a distillation of large blocks of scriptural teaching. In answer to the question, what is Hell? I assert, first of all, Hell is a place, and a condition, of unspeakable torment, misery, and woe. Hell is a place, and condition, of unspeakable torment, misery, and woe.

Hell as an Actual Place in the Universe

8:40 That Hell is an actual place somewhere in the universe of God is clear from the language of the Word of God. Turn with me to several passages that make abundantly clear, or make it abundantly clear, that Hell is indeed a place as well as a condition. In Matthew's Gospel, chapter 10, our Lord Jesus Christ, speaking in verse 28, says to His disciples, or to His friends, as we have in a parallel passage, Matthew 10, 28, And do not be afraid of them that kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul, but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in Hell. And here our Lord tells us that Hell is a place where there will be the destruction, whatever that means, of the body and of the soul. And when He uses the term body, He uses it in such a way that there is an inseparable correlation between the body which we now possess and the body that will be sent

10:09 or can potentially be sent into Hell. Notice that conjunction. Don't be afraid of them that kill the body. What body?

10:19 He's talking to living disciples who have bodies of various sizes and shapes, height and weight, bodies that occupy space, real living bodies. Now He says, don't be afraid of those who can kill this body, who can by violence cause your heart to stop beating or your lungs from breathing. Don't be afraid of those who can kill the body. But I will tell you whom you shall fear.

10:50 Fear Him who can destroy both soul and body. What body? That very body concerning which He has just been speaking destroys soul and body in Hell. And the word our Lord uses here for Hell is found 12 times in the New Testament, 11 times it is recorded as being spoken from the lips of incarnate love even our Lord Jesus Christ.

11:20 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.

12:00 As surely as this building is a place tonight in which several hundred bodies are found, so there is a place somewhere in the universe of God where the bodies of the damned join to their souls, will undergo the destruction of eternal punishment. Turn to Matthew 25 and verse 41 where again the emphasis falls upon the fact that Hell is a place, even according to our Lord, a prepared place. Matthew's Gospel, chapter 25 and verse 41. The context is the judgment of the last day.

12:45 Jesus Christ, the judge of the universe, is speaking. Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me. And here is the judge upon a throne somewhere in the universe of visible, tangible, glorified, embodied Christ. Depart from me.

13:08 There is distance, there is space from proximity to banishment. And depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire which is prepared for the devil and his angels. Verse 46. And these shall go away into eternal punishment.

13:33 And eternal punishment in this context is in terms of banishment from the presence of Christ the judge into the presence of the devil and his angels. But it is a spatial banishment. Heaven is a place. Hell is a place.

13:55 It is a place of unspeakable misery, torment and woe. And then another passage in which if I had no other text on which to rest the case, this would bear the full weight of it because of the peculiar words chosen by the Spirit of God. Mark's Gospel, chapter 13, verses 41 through 43. Mark's Gospel, I'm sorry, Matthew's Gospel, chapter 13, verses 41 to 43.

14:31 The Lord Jesus again is speaking. He is explaining a parable which he previously gave to the multitudes. Verse 41. The Son of Man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that cause stumbling and them that do iniquity, and shall cast them into the furnace of fire.

15:01 Now this next language, there shall be, is not simply the use of a simple future of the verb to be. We say there shall be this, that or the other. But in the construction in the original, in this passage and in the parallel passages, you have an adverb, ete, which means there, that place. Then you have a form of the verb to be in the future tense.

15:33 There place shall be. And then the description follows. There in that place shall be the weeping and the gnashing of the teeth. And again in Revelation 20 and verse 15, they shall be cast into the lake of fire.

16:02 And those described as cast into have previously been described as those whose bodies joined to their souls have been summoned to judgment and soul and body have been cast into the lake of fire. Now it is both fruitless and the height of carnal arrogance to speculate precisely where hell is located in the vast universe of God's creation. But suffice it to say, based upon the clear teaching of these and many other passages that could be brought forward, that is surely as this building tonight houses human beings with a space-time existence, your hips occupying so many inches on the chair, your back occupying so many inches upward, your shoulders so many outward, there is a place in the universe of God into which your body that now occupies this space will occupy space in a state of unspeakable torment, misery and woe unless you are brought into vital life-transforming,

17:31 character-transforming experience of the grace of God in Jesus Christ. What is hell? The answer of the word of God is hell is a place, a place of unspeakable misery, torment and woe, and therefore, if we are to be subject to the word of God, we must reject with every fiber of our being the notion put forward by even some apparently godly men that hell is simply the ultimate extension of the soul's miserable state apart from God, the idea that there is an actual place, I say it without being irreverent, a divine, tortured chamber for the damned, they say is beneath the dignity of our concept of God. My friend, if your concept of God does not allow for the hell of the Bible, your concept is that of an idol and not the God of Holy Scripture. And rather than rid the Bible of its clear doctrine of hell, repent of the idol God whom you worship and fall at the feet of Him who is awesome and majestic in His fiery indignation so that He will exercise

The Imagery of Outer Darkness: Privative Punishment

19:00 the rights of His prerogative as Creator and Owner of the universe to mark out a segment of His universe into which He'll cast every impenitent, unjustified, unsanctified soul and body that has ever lived. But furthermore, under this first proposition, that hell is a place of unspeakable torment, misery, and woe, having established it is a place, let us now establish from the Scripture that it is a place of unspeakable misery, torment, and woe. And we learn this from what I don't know what else to call the shocking, horrific language of the Bible. Now the dominant, though not the exclusive imagery to describe the torment, the misery, and the woe of hell focuses upon two figures of speech. One, the concept of outer darkness and the other, the concept of the furnace or the lake of fire. And if you will simply take your Bible and a concordance

20:27 and look up all the references to hell, you will find that the dominant imagery is this. On the one hand, that place called hell is a place characterized by outer darkness on the one hand, and as a furnace or lake of fire on the other hand. Let us consider the testimony of the Word of God. Matthew's Gospel, chapter 8.

20:58 First of all, the imagery of outer darkness which is set before us to underscore, to highlight, to bring into sharp pinpoint focus the unspeakable misery, torment, and woe that is to be found in hell. Again, it is Jesus, our gracious Redeemer, the Son of God, who spoke with such grace that men marveled at the words of grace that proceeded from his mouth. This language of the horror of hell comes from his lips. Matthew 11, Matthew 8 and verse 11. And I say unto you, Jesus speaking, many shall come from the east and the west, and shall sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. There is his teaching on heaven, but the sons of the kingdom shall be cast forth into outer darkness. There, in that state and place and condition described as outer darkness, there shall be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth.

22:21 There, in outer darkness, shall be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth. Matthew chapter 22. Again, our blessed Lord speaking. Matthew 22, verses 11 through 13.

22:36 Our Lord is giving a parable. And in the midst of the parable he says, But when the king came in to behold the guests, he saw there a man who had not on a wedding garment. And he said unto him, Friend, how is it that you came in here without a wedding garment? And he was speechless.

22:55 And the king said to the servants, Bind him hand and foot and cast him out into the outer darkness. There shall be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth. For many are called, but few chosen. Matthew 25 and verse 30.

23:18 Again, our gracious Lord speaking. Matthew 25 and verse 30. At the conclusion of the parable of the talents, cast you out, the unprofitable servant, into the outer darkness. There shall be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth.

23:40 Add to this the testimony of Peter in 2 Peter chapter 2 and verse 17, in which the language of our Lord is obviously reverberating in Peter's mind and heart, speaking of the ultimate destiny of false teachers and those who follow their teaching. Verse 17 of 2 Peter 2. These are springs without water, mists driven by a storm, for whom the blackness of darkness hath been reserved. The blackness of darkness has been reserved.

24:21 And in similar language, Jude and verse 13, the last epistle before the book of the Revelation, speaking again of these false teachers, Jude writes, wild waves of the sea foaming out their own shame, wandering stars for whom the blackness of darkness hath been reserved forever. You see, anyone who comes to his Bible with no mountain of carnal pride under which he will bury its clear testimony, anyone who comes to his Bible with the question, what is hell, must come to the conviction that it is indeed not only a place, but a place of unspeakable misery, torment and woe, because this horrific language is used, outer darkness, which, whatever it is, produces such agony and woe that it shall be above all other places in all the universe, the place marked by the wailing and by the frustration and agony of the gnashing of teeth. This is not the language

25:46 of seventeenth century revivalists who preyed upon ignorant peasants and tried to scare them with medieval theology and get them to be Christians. This is the language of the Incarnate God and of those inspired by His Holy Spirit. Now, what is the significance of this imagery of outer darkness? Well, I believe it is calculated by God to underscore what we would call the privative aspects of the punishment of hell.

26:23 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.

26:47 And I frankly think there is some good sense in that. And if I did not fulfill certain contractual arrangements such as having a long cut on such and such a day or scrubbing so many floors at such and such a day so many times a week and I'm still alive to talk about it, kids. It won't kill you. Then certain privileges were taken away from me.

27:11 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.

27:32 And though the Banquet House was the place of laughter and merriment and warmth and light, to be cast outside the Banquet House was to be placed out in the murky thick darkness and to be vulnerable to all that is there in the unknown darkness. And so our Lord uses this imagery again and again to underscore that outer darkness is pointing us to the misery, to the torment and the woe of the privation that will come when men are cast out away from Him who is light and from His people who reflect His light. One of the great emphases of the doctrine of heaven as set before us in the book of the Revelation is that everywhere you turn it is flooded with light. No need of the sun for the Lamb is the light. And there is no day nor night.

28:34 You get the picture of eternal day, eternal noonday. And the antithesis is eternal midnight. It's as though God says to all those described in John 3, this is the condemnation. Light is coming to the world and men love darkness.

28:54 Men love darkness rather than light. And in your love of darkness you refuse to bow before the prickings of conscience about your sin that you know can only be resolved by having dealings with God in Jesus Christ. When men are so determined to run from the light of an accusing conscience, to run from the light of a condemning law, to run from the blazing light of an impaled deity upon a cross, that God finally says, you're stretching out his heart and his hands, why will you die? Why will you die?

29:30 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.

29:52 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, beginning with an earnest desire to come to the light of an accusing conscience and a condemning law, and an impaled deity, and all the glories of the gospel, my friend, unless you come to that light and have a heart that is made to love that light, then outer darkness will be your portion and that forever. And surely that hell is enough hell for any preacher to bear upon his spirit in seeking to be true to the word of God. But that's not the full imagery. For as often as the imagery of outer darkness is set before us, almost with equal balance but even with a little more emphasis, is the imagery of the furnace of fire, and the fire unquenchable. Let's look at just several passages.

The Imagery of the Furnace of Fire: Punitive Punishment

31:03 This is not an exhaustive list, only a specimen one. Back to Matthew 13. Matthew's Gospel, the 13th chapter. Verse 41 again.

31:24 The Son of Man shall send forth His angels, and they shall gather out of His kingdom all things that cause stumbling and them that do iniquity, and shall cast out them into the furnace of fire. Now notice the parallel. There shall be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth. Well, I thought the weeping and the gnashing of teeth was to be found there in outer darkness.

31:55 Now we are told that it is there in the furnace of fire that shall be found wailing and gnashing of teeth. Well, there is no contradiction for it is one in the same place. The place the Bible calls hell. Verse 49 of this same chapter.

32:15 So shall it be in the end of the world. The angels shall come forth and sever the wicked from among the righteous and shall cast them into the furnace of fire. There shall be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth. Matthew 25 and verse 41.

32:36 Again our blessed Lord. Then shall he say to them on the left hand, depart from me ye cursed into the eternal fire which is prepared for the devil and his angels. And this is the testimony of apostles as well. Second Thessalonians chapter 1.

32:59 The language of the apostle is equally vigorous. Second Thessalonians chapter 1. And verse 7. And to you that are afflicted rest with us at the revelation of the Lord Jesus from heaven with the angels of his power in flaming fire rendering vengeance to them that know not God and to them that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ who shall suffer punishment even eternal destruction from the face of the Lord and from the glory of his might.

33:41 You see the two elements here? Eternal destruction from there's the privative cast off from the face of him who is light and life and love and grace cast off from him. But he shall in the positive application of divine judgment he shall come and with consuming fire destroy all his and his people's enemies. In Revelation 20 and verse 15 the second death is called the lake of fire.

34:16 We read similar language in Hebrews 10.27 in Jude verse 7. I'll not weary you with all of the references but suffice it to say again we are drawn back to the teaching of our Lord. Our Lord's most frequently used word to describe hell is a word which in its derivation and in its historical connotation could mean only one thing.

34:44 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?

35:21 It is a place of unspeakable misery, torment and woe. A place which by the very linguistic association conjures up the imagery of fire that consumes what is filthy and unclean and unworthy of even decent burial. It is God's junk heap. As our God is described as a consuming fire and His wrath is often expressed as being an outgoing of the fire of His judgment, so the imagery of eternal fire, the lake of fire, focuses upon what we would call the positive punitive aspects of hell. Hell is not simply a matter of what a soul misses, the privative. Hell is a matter of God's holy and righteous heart without one least stain of sinful vindictiveness, taking holy vengeance upon every one of His creatures that have dared to defy His law and His grace, and die in that state. No wonder the writer to the Hebrews says, it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

36:50 My unconverted friend, 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 or she came to own his sin, own his undone-ness. He or she came to acknowledge that there was no good in themselves, and they turned away from all trust in themselves, and they put into my pierced hands the case of their sin-sick soul, and Holy Father, and don't miss this, and Holy Father, I sent my Spirit into their hearts. I broke the dominion of sin. I gave them a new heart, a heart that loves Your law, seeks out of a motive of obedience and love to keep that law, and walk in Your ways. Holy Father, I plead the case of this sinner who deserves Your sentence.

37:59 My friend, you may think yourself clever, young person, but you're cocky, smart aleck, quick-tongued, proud of your so-called keen mind, proud of the fact that you've got your act together. My dear young man, what a fool you are. You want to contend with a God like that and have no Savior to plead your cause. You want a God like that to take a worm like you and say, depart from me, you cursed one.

Proposition 2: Both Soul and Body Will Undergo Torment

38:33 You in the name of rationality, to take a worm like you and say, out of darkness, lay to fire. Put mercy upon your soul if you're fool enough even to run the slightest risk of having to deal with a God like that with no mediator to stand in between. You see, it is a place of unspeakable misery, unspeakable torment, unspeakable woe. Then I have time only to lay out a second proposition about the biblical doctrine of hell and it is this, and I will not be as extensive, hell is a place where both soul and body will undergo unspeakable misery, torment, and woe. Not only does the Bible teach that hell is a place as well as a condition, of unspeakable misery, torment, and woe, but the Bible teaches us

40:01 in the second place that hell is a place where both soul and body will undergo this unspeakable misery, torment, and woe. You see, when God made man, He made him a body, soul, entity. God breathed into man the breath of life and literally, man became living soul. Man as a body, soul, entity, a psychosomatic entity, that is what we are as creatures made in the image of God.

40:37 And as body, soul, creatures, we live out our lives and die and will go to judgment and according to the Bible, as body, soul, entities, we shall spend eternity in heaven or in hell. And here the testimony of the word of God is unequivocally and indisputably clear. John chapter 5, verses 28 and 29. John chapter 5, verses 28 and 29.

41:10 Again, our Lord Jesus Christ speaking and He says, Marvel not at this, for the hour is coming in which all, all, all that are in the tomb shall hear His voice, shall hear His voice and shall come forth. They that have done good unto the resurrection of life and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of judgment. All shall come forth, resurrection of life, resurrection of judgment, but all shall come forth to a resurrection that involves the body. Revelation 20 and verse 11 and following. John envisions seeing this very day dawning upon the human race. John's vision in Revelation 20 and verse 11. I saw a great white throne and Him that sat upon it from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away and there was found no place for them.

42:18 And I saw the dead, now notice, disembodied spirits. I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne. And the books were opened and another book was opened which is the book of life. And the dead were judged out of the things that were written in the book according to their works.

42:39 The sea gave up the dead that were in it. The souls of the dead are not in the sea, it's their bodies. And death and Hades or the grave, which that, the abode of the dead, death and Hades, I'm sorry, the significance of Hades in this context is disputable, but this much of it is clear. When death and Hades give up the dead that are in them, it is with a view to standing before God in judgment.

43:07 And we find the same emphasis even in the Old Testament, Daniel 12 and verse 3. This is why Jesus said, words with which we began our study tonight, don't fear them that kill the body, but fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Now pause here for a moment and think with me. Young people, teenagers, children, adults, visitors, members, hear me for these moments.

The Torment of the Soul in Hell

43:37 The soul, what is it? Who can describe what the soul is? Can you? That noble faculty of thought, of affection, of will, imagination, desire, memory and a host of other faculties.

43:54 Who can contemplate this magnificent element of human existence? The soul. Think of it. The soul of man with all of its faculties and capacities.

44:08 All of its intellectual and aesthetic and moral activities and capacities. The soul of man. And it is that soul which because of the entrance of sin has sold itself to the service of sin so that in the case of every sinner, that soul, that noble faculty which should have been the leading element in man's response to his commitment to glorify God has become the leading faculty to bring in its train a host of sinful patterns and actions and deeds. That soul in which the sinner has carried on his rebellion against God, that soul with its intellectual faculties that has conceived all forms of iniquity, the soul with its capacities to love and to attach itself to objects that has been the very purveyor of idolatry and the creator of a million idols. The soul, that noble faculty, now twisted and deformed and misshapen by sin. Romans 2 in verse 18 says, tribulation, wrath and anguish

45:34 upon every soul of him who works evil. My friend, I'm not letting my imagination run. The doctrine of hell is horrible enough without needing preacher's imagination to embellish it. You stop and think for a moment what is the deepest agony you've ever known.

45:56 Think for a moment. Some of you, some of us, in the providence of God have known intense physical pain. Some of you live with intense physical pain. But unless you're a little child, I doubt there are many who would debate my statement.

46:17 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?

46:42 The soul, its capacity for pain, for agony. Oh, my friend, what will it be when an omnipotent God is determined that that soul to the fullest of its capacity will receive the full weight of his unmixed wrath. Destroy the soul of the broken heart. The soul of the broken heart will be destroyed and the soul of the broken heart will be sold in hell.

47:19 That soul that now experiences pleasure for pleasure registers in the mind. Though it may come from the senses, the sense of pleasure is a disposition of the soul. Think of it, my friend, that sinful pleasure that brings your soul some immediate delight. It would be worth it to have that soul to destroy your soul in hell.

The Torment of the Body in Hell

47:54 But then it says, fear him who can destroy soul and body. These bodies of which the Psalmist said, were fearfully and wonderfully made. Its almost infinite faculties and capacities with its members all given that they might serve the living God. But alas, Scripture says with the fall not only has become the haunt of every demon of uncleanness and selfishness, but the body in its members has become the willing slave of sin.

48:33 That's the imagery of Romans 6. As you presented your members instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, when sin through the soul said, fingers, do my bidding for this pleasure, the fingers said, yes, Master. When sin with its seed in the soul came upon the body in its members and used them for self-gratification, no matter what the law of God said, you presented your sexual faculties, yes, Master, instruments unto sin, the ears to gossip and to filth, the eyes to uncleanness and the inlet of covetousness to see and to desire, to look and to seek, to possess. That's why the word of God says the body in the body that your rebellion to God has been carried out in this life and in that very body you will pay forever. Soul and body in hell. And there is no indication from Scripture that the body with which the impenitent dead are raised will lose any of its faculties of feeling and of sense.

49:48 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.

50:19 And how we thank God for modern anesthesia so that though raw nerves were being cut from the back of the back of the back were being cut through. I was totally oblivious. I was anesthetized wholly out of it. My friend, there'll be no anesthesiologist in hell.

50:44 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 to me tonight, that body shall be the recipient in all of its faculties of the wrath and judgment

52:13 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 sins and all of this scrub away reality? Will it cancel

53:42 judgment? Will it cancel the resurrection of that body? You know it won't. Your own conscience is on my side and you can't escape it.

Pastoral Exhortation: Flee from the Wrath to Come

53:59 Oh, my friend, why longer fight the realities that you have to deal with? It is a place of torment and woe, the imagery of outer darkness, the lake of fire, the furnace of fire. It is a place of unspeakable misery because the entirety of your humanity, soul and body will undergo its torments. And one has sought a place where men no longer see God's face, where pain can have no end.

54:43 There fiery waves shall ever roll and conscience chides the sinking soul while memories torments rend. From hope of heaven by sinning driven, the anguish of the unforgiven no mortal tongue can tell. Despair, their lot shall be. Eternal storms sweep over that sea.

55:11 No rest, no peace in hell. With thee, praised God, tis not too late. Thy doom's not fixed nor sealed thy fate. Salvation's offered thee.

55:28 Repent at once. There's mercy here. Today high heaven will hear thy prayer why has God revealed the doctrine of hell? My friend, one of his major reasons is that you might flee from the wrath to come.

55:51 And I say in the presence of that God my major reason for preaching it not the only but my major reason for preaching it is that I might be used of God to warn you to flee from the wrath to come. And that's what I'm going to do tonight is to collate bring into focus and expound simply in the natural sense of the words the teaching of the Bible. And when any preacher does that your dealings are not with him they are with his God. Now the issue's clear.

56:33 You can go out of here spend a few miserable hours trying to put down what you heard. And you say well by Tuesday it'll be business as usual. My friend do you place so light a price on your soul as to sit in this meeting and calculate how you can remove every arrow of conviction that is meant for your good and your salvation. If you put so light a price on your soul I don't.

57:02 I don't. And I stand to plead with you in the name of the God of heaven don't trifle with your soul. So chiefly in that immoral relationship adulterers effeminate materialists when what will burn on your soul and body God have mercy on you. God have mercy on you. Oh that you were free from any sin any relationship any position possession anything

58:26 that keeps you from a whole hearted whole grace of Jesus Christ who bore the hell of an innumerable multitude upon the cross when his body and his soul upon the cross in a few hours experienced the eternity of the damnation of the sinner and when it was done he cried to Telestai it is finished it has been accomplished oh my friend run to that savior away from sin away from the world away from self run to him and in the unreserved wholehearted embrace of faith take him as he is offered in the gospel though your sins have been as numerous as the stars of the heaven his work for sinners will make you fit for heaven and will make you fit for heaven in a moment flee to him flee to him give yourself no rest till you know that he is yours

59:42 and you are his holy father we bow in your presence having been made sober by the words of our lord Jesus and his apostles we cry with the psalmist of old who knows the power of your wrath and your fear according and your anger according to the fear that is due to your name as we cannot fathom your love but stand before it baffled in the mazed and staggered in spirit so lord we cannot understand nor fathom the infinity and the fury of your wrath oh gracious god don't let sinners go carelessly to hell from this building tonight but have mercy upon them oh father have mercy upon every boy every girl every teenager every man every woman who is yet wedded to sin and to self and to the world and things and break the bewitching power of the devil and draw them to your dear son and for those of us who have been drawn and transformed

61:11 what can we say lord but thank you thank you that you didn't cut us off in our sins when we knew we would go to hell we think of those of us who lived for years in constant dread of the hell we knew was our portion if you took our lives we thank you oh what can we say lord but blessed be your holy name for your patience with us for your long suffering over us thank you that you've made us vessels of mercy hear our cry may the blessings of your grace rest upon this congregation for jesus sake amen