There is a Heaven and There is a Hell -- Hell is a Spiritual Reality

Hell is a spiritual reality that can be countered only by the Cross of Christ.
Introduction

• Read Matthew 13:47-51 47"Once again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was let down into the lake and caught all kinds of fish. 48When it was full, the fishermen pulled it up on the shore. Then they sat down and collected the good fish in baskets, but threw the bad away. 49This is how it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come and separate the wicked from the righteous 50and throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
51"Have you understood all these things?" Jesus asked. "Yes," they replied.

• Jesus uses a commercial fishing illustration to teach about the afterlife: (1) there will be judgment for everyone, (2) people will be separated into two groups, and (3) the saved will be destined for heaven and the unsaved for hell.
• Jesus speaks often of hell, and other biblical writers do, too.
• In Scripture, justice demands a hell.

WHY IS HELL NECESSARY?
A. Its necessary for the devil, who it was created for in the first place-Matthew 25:41.
B. Its necessary for those who do not trust Jesus to pay for their sin-Romans 6:23 and II • Thessalonians 1:5-9.

Hell involves emotional anguish.

• Hell is like gehenna, the smoldering trash dump outside Jerusalem, and in hell, people will be consciously aware that they have been deemed trash--worthless, irredeemable, fit for no good purpose.
• Hell involves gnashing of teeth-
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• Hell is described as fire, flames, furnace-a pain so intense that in the parable in Luke 16, a man begs for a few drops of water.
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• Preachers of the past thought it was a terrible place to go. An example comes from the great speaker Gharles Spurgeon…

“There is a real fire in hell, as truly as you have a real body, a fire exactly like that which we have on this earth except this: it will not consume you though it will torture you. You have seen asbestos lying amid coals but not consumed. So your body will be prepared by God in such a way that it will burn forever yet without being consumed, with your nerves laid raw by searing flame yet never desensitized for all its raging fury. And with the acrid smoke of the sulfuric fumes searing your lungs and choking your breath you will cry out for the mercy of death, but it shall never, never, no, never come
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Even Billy Graham is uncertain about the literal nature of hell being on fire.
In Time Magazine on November 15, 1993, he said, “I think that hell essentially is separation from God forever. And that is the worst hell that I can think of. But I think people have a hard time believing God is going to allow people to burn
in literal fire forever.”

A few years before that Billy Graham said in his book, “A Biblical Stand for Evangelists”,1983, pp 45-47….. “When it comes to a literal fire, I don’t preach it because I’m not sure about it.”
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