There are some who say, well, you know, hell is right here. We're going through hell right now. And they don't realize that no matter how bad things are now is not as bad as it's going to be. Because if you're on your way to hell, you got to realize that this is your heaven right now.
Welcome to Treasure Truth with pastor and author James Ford, junior senior pastor at the Christ Bible Church in Chicago. I'm Steve Hillard. Glad that you're with us. And pastor, uh, for those who do know Christ, it's great to know that this life is as bad as it's ever going to be. This is as bad as it gets. That's right. But for those who don't know, Christ, this is as good as it gets.
And I couldn't have said it better myself.
Steve, you know.
You need to say that again.
Okay? Yeah. For those who know, Christ, this life is as bad as it gets. If you don't know Christ, this life is as good as it gets. because as we're going to be beginning to look at in the next couple of broadcasts, uh, hell is a real place, and it is a place that none of us want to go. I think sometimes the culture we have, this perception that hell's going to be a big party, but what does hell actually going to be?
Wow. It's a place of torment. Wow. And even our Lord said where the worm dieth not. And they're not sure whether it's consciousness or the soul. Theologians aren't agreed. I would say. Why make it either or? Why can't it be both? And because that's exactly what's going to happen. And the tragedy is you don't hear much preaching on the doctrine of hell today, which is very tragic because it is a reality. As a matter of fact, I
stayed in the message. Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ talked about hell more than anybody in the New Testament.
Sure. Yeah. And if it's something that Jesus spoke so frequently about, you would think that's something that we got to give some serious attention to. You call this message seven things in hell that ought to be in the church. It's kind of a provocative title.
It is. And I'm trying to do two things at once. One lay a backdrop or a foundation for the doctrine of hell, and then to go in by way of application and show things like, what are one of the things we'll talk about? Prayer. He prayed fervently. So he prayed like we ought to be praying the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. Here you have an unrighteous man in hell who is praying fervently, passionately.
Now he wants to get out. Sure. But you get the sentiment that if we would pray in the church like they pray in hell. Wow. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. So it's principles like that.
Well, that's just one of those principles. And we're going to expand on that one, of course, and six more over the next couple of days, so if you can, I hope you'll open your Bible. Join us in Luke chapter 16 as we begin this message. Seven things in hell that ought to be in the church. Here is Pastor Ford.
Okay, so the doctrine of hell has fallen on hard times. Uh, I guess you can say that, uh, in the church, hell has frozen over, uh, because 64% of people don't believe it even exists. Uh, worse than that, uh, 35% of Baptists say hell doesn't exist. 54% of Presbyterians say hell doesn't exist. 58% of Methodists say hell doesn't exist. 60% of Episcopalians say hell doesn't exist. And here it is 71% of all seminary Students say that they don't believe in
a literal hell. And so of the 34% who believe in hell, 15% are certain they know somebody who's going there. Only 4% felt that they deserved to go. So? So even those who accept hell as a reality don't accept it as a possibility. And so I remember one of the students at, uh, Moody gave this to me. He was a single student in the marriage, was singing, and I joined the married choir for a little bit. And, uh, well, actually, just for the for the, uh, what we call chapel
and sang. And so he brought me a slip of paper, and the slip of paper was a cartoon. And it was one of those cartoons where you put your own caption in, and the caption was two devils, and they were freezing and it was snowing and it was icicles and they were supposed to be in hell. And the caption read, I guess Pastor Ford has started his music ministry. Yeah, you get it, you get it, you get it. And so there are some who say, well, you know, hell
is right here. It's we we going through hell right now. And they don't realize that no matter how bad things are now is not as bad as it's going to be. If you're going to hell. Uh, because if you're on your way to hell, you gotta realize something. And you know what that is? That this is your heaven right now. Hell, yeah. This is about as good as it going to get. So I was talking to a guy and he said, I don't believe in hell. He's like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
I went there, I went there. Me and my boys went there. Hell was so full, uh, that, uh, I got sent back. What you got to say to that? I said, well, Isaiah chapter five verse 14 says, hell hath enlarged her borders. Uh, so, so hell was like the womb of a pregnant woman. Uh, whatever, whatever needs to be in there is going to grow and, and the capacity is going to stretch to fit it. Amen. And so, uh, Proverbs 2720, uh, tells us, uh, that, uh, it will definitely be something, uh, that will expand to
fit those who are going. And so it says, uh, hell hath enlarged her coast. And Proverbs 2720 says, there are some things that are never full. Hell and destruction are part of them. C.S. Lewis, the great writer, said, uh, he laughed when he read the epitaph. Here lies an atheist all dressed up and nowhere to go. And so I'm sure he wishes now that that were true. And some say hell is living with their husband, living with their wife, living with their children, living in in the ghetto.
You know, all that kind of stuff. No, no no, no. Uh, so there is a hell and, uh, the Bible teaches now there's, uh, a place called Tartarus. Some of you know this very well. There's a place called Tartarus and, uh, not tartar sauce. Uh, it's the temporary abode of the angels. Yeah. So let me give you the passages. We're not going to look at all of them. Second Peter two four. Uh, I just want to give it out to you so you can see second Peter two four, Jude six, Jude six.
And this is translated hell. It's translated hell. There are several words translated hell. And I want to give them to you now, uh, Tartarus is a place, uh, where the angels that sinned, uh, there in Genesis chapter six, and they are called the sons of God, the sons of God. That's a phrase in the Old Testament that refers to angels. How do we know that? Job one and job two. There came a time when the sons
of God. Uh. What is that? Angelic host? And so, in the Old Testament, sons of God, uh, are angels. So then what we had was, uh, the sons of God saw daughters of men, and they cohabited, and they created a superhuman race of individuals called the Nephilim, called the Nephilim. And so they were angelic and they were human. And so when they did that, what they were trying to do was stop the line of our Lord and
Savior Jesus Christ by polluting it. Uh, you'll find it in first Peter chapter three, and I hope you'll go home and do some some studying on this of First Peter chapter three, verse 18, so that when they cohabited and created the superhuman race of people, God brought the universal flood, killed all of them, and then started all over again with Noah and his family. But the angels that did this, and Jude says they kept not their first estate. In other words, angels neither marry nor are
given in marriage. And so they violated what God had set up, and they, uh, cohabited with, uh, women. Now, some people don't believe that that's possible. Uh, but yes, it is. Uh, supernatural beings can hook up with human beings and have a child. How do you think Jesus got here, a man? So it is not impossible. But you study these, and if you'll study them, you'll see. So what did God do? Uh, God says he put
them in hell. Tartarus. Okay. And so they then, uh, those part of the one third that fell, that cohabited with women. He said, you're not going to do that again. And he put them in a place called Tartarus. And it's translated hell in first Peter chapter three, verse 18, at least in the King James it may be, uh, and it's 18 through 20. Uh, so and so you have these individuals, then these angelic beings that are cast down into Tartarus or in hell. As a matter of fact,
the Bible tells us, uh, that Jesus went there. So this is where he went to preach the gospel or to inform them, because the word is not you and I. What's that word mean to preach the gospel? But it says he proclaimed Kerygma or Caruso. It literally means to proclaim. What did he proclaim? Well, we can just about figure it out, can't we? He went to hell and he proclaimed, you tried back in the book of Genesis or 4000 years ago to subvert my line so that I would
not be who I am. And you have been circumvented. Uh, I have died and paid for sin. Uh, which which you tried to stop through birth. So then the second word. The second word translated hell, uh, is the word Gehenna. Gehenna. That's the second word in the New Testament translated hell. And so Gehenna. Uh, when you look at Gehenna, what you need to understand is it's the final destination of fallen angels and unsaved humanity. In the Hebrew, it's Gehinnom,
or the Valley of Hinnom. And what they would do is take, uh, trash and refuge and other things, and they would have a perpetual fire and they would throw things in there. As a matter of fact, some idol worshippers would even throw their children there. Yeah. And so
they took that valley. And just like they do, everything else in the Old Testament made it a symbol of the final hell to give you a picture in the Old Testament of what was going to happen in the New Testament, so that we would understand what hell was going to be like. So then you have you have the word, uh, Tartarus. You have the word Gehenna. Now, when you look at, uh, Gehenna, what you're going to find then is that in the New Testament, in revelation 1920,
it's called the Lake of fire. It's called the Lake of fire. And in revelation 2014, it's called the second death. So Gehenna the final destination. So then this is the hell, uh, That nobody's in. This is the hell that Jesus talked about as being a real place right here in Luke chapter 16.
You're listening to Treasure Truth with Pastor Ford and a message called Seven Things in Hell that ought to Be in the church. Really a provocative title, and you may want to go back and listen to this message again. You can do so by coming to our website. It's Treasure Truth Radio org. There you can stream today's program. You can also download MP3's for free, or you can order copies of this broadcast on CD. You'll also find a link to begin podcasting this program. Again, stop by
Treasure Truth Radio. Back to the message. Here's Pastor Ford.
So hell is not as bad as you think. It's worse, it's worse. And so Jesus talked about heaven once. He talked about hell 11 times. He talked about heaven once. He talked about hell 11 times. And so here we find then, uh, in this, uh, narrative, a certain rich man and in, in a person named Lazarus. So here's what people will say. Well, this is a parable. And parable is not about real people. No, parables don't have
the names of real people. And so Jesus took it out of the realm of parable when he called the name Lazarus. So this is in Lazarus is a historical person. So then here's what we know about hell according to this text. It is a fact. It is a reality. Whether you believe it or not. So remember the Baptist, the Methodist and the positive thinker. They all died and went to hell. What the Baptists say I thought I had it, but I didn't. What the Methodists say I
had it, but I lost it. What the positive thinker say. It's not hot and I'm not here. It's not hot and I'm not here. And so the first occupants of Gehenna is the beast and the false prophet. Revelation 1920. Let me say it again. You're in the final destination of fallen angels, demons, unsaved humanity. Uh, Lake of fire in Revelation 1920, second death in revelation 20, verse 14. And the first occupants are the beast and the false prophet.
Revelation 1920. So nobody's in hell. So when you hear me say, you know all the time, that gives you a context, doesn't it? When people say things like Satan, I rebuke you and consign you to the pit of hell. And the devil say, you don't know your Bible because nobody's there yet in the final hell, nobody's there. Okay, then then the third word is Sheol in the Old Testament. S h o l. That's the word in the Old Testament. Hades in the New Testament. Hades in the New Testament.
So it is Hades. Now it's transliterated, not translated. What? What does that mean, Pastor Ford? That the spelling is brought over into the New Testament, not the meaning. So they brought the spelling over because there wasn't a word in the English that would be equivalent. So somebody tell me another word that they did that to. We talked about it plenty of times. Baptismal got a star girl. Baptismal is transliterated. What is the meaning? So then Hades
is the place of the unseen. It literally means not to see. Everybody still with me? Okay. So then, uh, when you look at, uh, this here's here's the picture you get. I hope you can understand this. And remember, it's not purgatory. It's not purgatory. There's no such place as purgatory. Now, now, what's this between Hades and Purgatory? Purgatory. You can get out. All you gotta do is pay your way out. You can pray your way out of. Has somebody pray. Pray you out of purgatory. So here's
what happens in the Old Testament. Because Jesus Christ had not died. Uh, then your spirit went back to God. Who gave it? Uh, your body went to the dust of the ground and your soul either went to, according to Luke 16, Abraham's bosom or Paradise. Then there was a great gulf, fixed a separation. Then there was a place of torment. Just call it pot for short. And so when Jesus, before Jesus died, our sin was only covered because the word atoned in the Old Testament means
to cover something. So they look forward to Jesus Christ coming and dying on the cross when Christ died on the cross. The Bible says that he went down into Tartarus first and proclaimed to those angels I have redeemed mankind. Then he went into Abraham's bosom, and he released all the souls that were there waiting for him to do it. Uh, waiting for him to die on the cross. Then the Bible tells us he led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men. That is, he took these souls, ascended into
the heavens. How many heavens are there? Three. So he went through the sky. Then he went through the universe. Verse. Then he went into the third heaven or the throne room of God. And he took those souls and brought them into the presence of the Lord, so that now absent from the body on this side of the cross, you don't no longer go to Abraham's bosom or Paradise. So immediately then spirit goes back to God, who gave it.
Body goes to the dust of the ground, and the soul goes to be in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. Why absent from the body present with the Lord? So then, uh, hell is a real place. And you remember this one, uh, when, uh, the professor said, uh, I don't believe in hell and I don't believe in the Bible. And the believer said, well, I do. And he said, I don't believe some of the miracles in there either, like Jonah swallowed up by a fish. I don't believe it, Christian said, I do. He said, how
are you going to be sure? He said, when I get to heaven, I'll ask Jonah. He said, well, wonder if Jonah ain't in heaven. He said, then you ask him. Uh, so Billy Graham said this if there were more hell preached in the pulpit, there would be less hell in the pew. That's a good quote. That's a good quote. Now, what are the characteristics of hell? We study this too. So what are the characteristics of hell here? Here's what it says. Uh, look at Luke 16. Look what it
says in Luke 1619 through 31. Let me give you the characteristics of hell. Characteristics of hell. Number one is for self righteous sinners. What's the problem with the rich man? It isn't that he just didn't share. He demonstrated that he did not have the love of God in him, according to all Old Testament passages. And so, uh, he is a self righteous sinner. Secondly, it is a place for souls. It's a place for souls. So it's a place for self righteous sinners, and it's a place for souls.
So then this teaches us and the other passages about it. There's no such thing as annihilation that a soul is eternal. And so everybody in here, whether you know Jesus Christ or not, you are going to live forever somewhere. Those of us who know Jesus will live forever in heaven, and those who don't are going to bust hell wide open. In the words of my mama. And so, just because we don't believe it doesn't change anything. Notice then. So it's a place for self righteous sinners. It's a place
for souls. Then thirdly, it's a place of suffering.
Really a sobering message today here on Treasure Truth with Pastor Ford. But the topic of hell is a topic that we just can't ignore. You know, this program exists to teach and equip you to be an effective Christian, not the kind who hears the word and then immediately forgets what it says, but one who applies the word to life and then shares it with others. With that in mind, we have a book today called How to
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present Pastor Ford's teaching each and every weekday. So call us at 888 644 7660 or go online to Treasure Truth Radio.com. Hi, I'm Steve Hiller. Our producer is Amy Rios. We're going to hear from Pastor Ford again tomorrow with the conclusion of this message. Seven things in hell that ought to be in the church that's here on treasure. Truth. A production of Moody Radio, a ministry of Moody Bible Institute.