EIGHT CHARACTERISITCS OF HELL FROM REVELATION 14--Part III

HIS WINNOWING FORK IS IN HIS HAND, TO CLEAR HIS THRESHING FLOOR AND TO GATHER THE WHEAT INTO HIS BARN, BUT THE CHAFF HE WILL BURN WITH UNQUENCHABLE FIRE. John the Baptist, speaking about Jesus, when asked if he (John) was the Messiah, in Luke chapter three, verse seventeen.

Part 3 0f 4 from Revelation 14:9-12.

PREVIOUSLY COVERED:

I. Hell Is One of God's Great Passions. IN THE CROSS HAIRS.

II. Hell Is Punishment. NO EXCUSES.

III. Hell Is Public. THE DISPLAY OF THE DAMNED.

IV. Hell Is Permanent. NO BACK DOOR.

V. Hell Is Painful. NO RELIEF.

VI. Hell Is Personal. GOD KNOWS YOU.
God personally hates each and every sinner personally. That is to say, on the personal level at which one chooses friends and enemies, God finds each and every one of us thoroughly filthy and repulsive because each of us has sinned and each of us is a sinner. He can’t stand us. If you doubt me, then read this from verse 10: “He himself will drink the cup…” Most translations just say “he”, not “he himself.” That’s because “he” is a good translation that gets the literal sense. However, there is something more than simply the literal word-for-word meaning of the vocabulary here in this passage. Beyond the vocabulary, the grammar in the Greek of this sentence has a double emphasis on the concept of “he”. It actually says “he” twice in a weird way we can’t do in English. Why would God do that?

Well, to answer that let’s find out who “he” is. The previous verse tells us he’s the man who has worshiped the beast and his image or taken his mark. In other words, he’s the man who has sinned in this life. The emphasis in this whole passage until verse is on the individual. Only in verse 11 is the plural used. Until then it is all the individual.

God isn’t going to put a herd of folks in hell. He’s going to judge each one and sentence each one and supervise the punishment of each one for all eternity. Each one. And each one will stand in front of God and all His other creatures as every act, word, and thought is exposed. Not one person who ever lived, now lives, or ever will live will have one THOUGHT that won’t be exposed on the biggest big screen that has or ever will exist. The lady down the street that you lusted after will know. The innocent fellow you started a rumor about will know. The shop keeper you stole from will know. The co-worker you pretended to like but hated because he got the promotion and you didn‘t will know. The teacher on whose test you cheated will know. The job applicant you didn’t hire because of the color of his skin will know. The cab fair you cheated will know. Everyone will know. Everything.

But most of all God will know. And He will personally punish you for every individual sin in your life for eternity. God will personally be in full knowledge of each of your sins for eternity. And He will punish you.

Read what David said about the murder of Uriah in Psalm 51. King David committed adultery with another man‘s wife. When it was found out she was pregnant, he tried to arrange to cover his sin by making it appear that her husband, Uriah, was the father. When that didn’t work, David hatched a conspiracy to have Uriah murdered so he wouldn‘t be around to tell folks that the new child wasn‘t his. This is a sad story. David lied to the whole nation and killed one of Israel’s finest warriors. He sinned against the nation. David committed adultery with Uriah’s wife, sinning against her whole family, including her husband and children. David murdered Uriah, sinning against, not only him, but his mother and father, against his children and wife. David murdered Uriah by purposely having a portion of a battle go badly, murdering other fine men as well. Thus he sinned again against the whole nation. He sinned against the army by lessening their numbers and spoiling their moral. He sinned against every member of every family of each of the soldiers who were murdered that day. He involved his captains by ordering them to commit this conspiracy with him. There were hundreds David sinned against.

Yet, he said this in Psalm 51:4: “Against You, You only, have I sinned and done what is evil in Your sight, so that You may be justified in Your words and blameless in Your judgment.”

No matter what one has done and no matter to whom it was done, it is God Himself we have offended. If I steal, I offend against God so much so that He is the primary concern, not the human victim. And God hates it. In Psalm 5:5 we read, “Those who boast will not stand in the sight of Your eyes. You hate everyone who does iniquity.”

In Deuteronomy 32:39-42, God said, “’See now that I, even I, am He, and there is no god beside Me; I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal; and there is none that can deliver out of My hand. For I lift up My hand to heaven and swear, As I live forever, if I sharpen My flashing sword and My hand takes hold on judgment, I will take vengeance on My adversaries and will repay those who hate Me. I will make My arrows drunk with blood, and My sword shall devour flesh-- with the blood of the slain and the captives, from the long-haired heads of the enemy.’”

The psalmist says in chapter 145, verse 20, “Yahweh preserves all who love Him, but the wicked He will destroy.”

In Romans 5:10 the unsaved are called God’s enemies. Paul said, “ For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by His life.”

God expressed His hatred for sinners in Hosea 9:15, where the prophet records, “Every evil of theirs is in Gilgal; there I began to hate them. Because of the wickedness of their deeds I will drive them out of My house. I will love them no more; all their princes are rebels.”

Amos 5:21-24 has hatred from God written all over it. It is addressed to the religious who are disobedient to Him. God said, "I hate, I despise your feasts, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. Even though you offer Me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; and the peace offerings of your fattened animals, I will not look upon them. Take away from Me the noise of your songs; to the melody of your harps I will not listen. But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.”

Does that NOT sound like a very personal thing between two people? That is to say between God and the sinner? You will NOT be a face in the crowd. He will know you and He will hate you as much as you hate Him. Only He can do something about it. And He will. It’s called Hell.

And God has three good reasons to hate each and every one of us personally. Look at verses 9 and 11 OF rEVELATION 14. Starting in the middle of verse nine, we read, “If any man worships the beast and his image and receives the mark on his forehead or on his hand even he himself will drink of the cup of the passionate anger of God…” Then we read the description of the punishment. And in verse 11 we read the same thing almost word for word. Starting in the middle it identifies those who will be punished as “… those who worship the beast and his image or if anyone receives the mark of his name.

So, where do we receive the mark of his name? On the forehead and on the hand. We sin in what we think and we sin in the things we do.

Proverbs 1:22-33 speaks of what God thinks of how we think. It says, “How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple? How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing and fools hate knowledge? If you turn at My reproof, behold, I will pour out My Spirit to you; I will make My words known to you. Because I have called and you refused to listen, have stretched out My hand and no one has heeded, because you have ignored all My counsel and would have none of My reproof, I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when terror strikes you, when terror strikes you like a storm and your calamity comes like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come upon you. Then they will call upon Me, but I will not answer; they will seek Me diligently but will not find Me. Because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of Yahweh, would have none of My counsel and despised all My reproof, therefore they shall eat the fruit of their way, and have their fill of their own devices. For the simple are killed by their turning away, and the complacency of fools destroys them; but whoever listens to Me will dwell secure and will be at ease, without dread of disaster."

Nothing is said in this passage about sins of doing. Only sins of the thought life. God hates what we think.

Then remember that the mark is on the hand. God hates the way we act. Look again at the judgment of the white throne in Revelation 20. Verse 13 says, “And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done.” God hates the things we do. A specific thing that we do to earn God’s hatred is mentioned in the Revelation 14 passage. Those punished are those who worship the beast and his image. God hates natural man-made religion. Much is said these days about being “spiritual”. As long AS there's some sort of religion it’s good, it seems. Not in God’s eyes. He hates man’s religion. Going to church gains you no favor in God’s eyes. Rather, obedience does. Verse 12 says, “Here is the perseverance of the saints, those who are keeping God’s commandments and the faith of Jesus.” God hates what we do, including our religion.

In the passage there is a third reason for God to hate men. The passage mentions two types of men. There are those who worship the beast and in verse twelve there are those who keep God’s commandments and the faith given to mankind by Jesus. One sort of men will be damned and one sort will not.

Here is the point: GOD HATES THE KIND OF PEOPLE WE ARE. Even if we hadn’t sinned in our actions and even if we hadn’t sinned in our thoughts, He’d have plenty of reason to damn each and every one of us because of the kind of people we are. It isn’t just that our thoughts and deeds are evil. WE are evil! And that’s why our deeds are evil. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit and a bad tree cannot produce good fruit. We sin when we are drawn away by our lusts. We sin because we are sinful. Thus if we don’t have the chance to sin, we are still sinful. A red car is red even if everyone on the street is blind.

Romans 5:6-8 says, “For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person--though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die-- but God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by His blood, much more shall we be saved by Him from the wrath of God.”

In this passage we are called “helpless” in verse six. In verse 7 we are called implicitly “unrighteous”. And in verse eight we are called “sinners”. So we are unrighteous sinners, helpless to do anything about it. God hates us for what we are like.

God personally despises each and every one of us.

VII. Hell is certain.
In verses 9 and 10 we read, “If someone worships the beast…” and so on, concluding with “Even he himself will drink of the wine of the passionate anger of God…” and so on. And this is close to the way most translations render the passage. However, this doesn’t do justice to the Greek grammar. While it’s a good word-for-word translation, the syntax has a hidden message that an English speaker just doesn’t get. A sentence that comes in an if-then form is called a conditional sentence and every language has them. It’s like this: If my dog is hungry, I’ll feed him. Or: If the temperature too high, we will have to water the lawn. Conditional sentences usually speak of something of which we aren’t sure. That’s why there is the “if”. In Greek, though there are four classes of conditional sentences. One is like the ordinary English and speaks of something of which we aren’t sure. However, this sentence in verses 9 and 10 is called a First Class Condition in Greek grammar and it speaks of something we know will happen. Thus, accounting for the grammar, we could say truthfully, “Since someone will worship the beast…then we also know that exact one will drink of God’s passionate anger…”

In other words, hell is a certainty. We know it WILL happen because we know that many ARE sinners who have not and will not repent. In Ezekiel 16:20-29 we read what God had to say to Jerusalem about the spiritual adultery of that city:

And you took your sons and your daughters, whom you had borne to Me, and these you sacrificed to them to be devoured. Were your whorings so small a matter that you slaughtered My children and delivered them up as an offering by fire to them? And in all your abominations and your whorings you did not remember the days of your youth, when you were naked and bare, wallowing in your blood. "And after all your wickedness (woe, woe to you! declares the Lord Yahweh), you built yourself a vaulted chamber and made yourself a lofty place in every square. At the head of every street you built your lofty place and made your beauty an abomination, offering yourself to any passerby and multiplying your whoring. You also played the whore with the Egyptians, your lustful neighbors, multiplying your whoring, to provoke Me to anger. Behold, therefore, I stretched out My hand against you and diminished your allotted portion and delivered you to the greed of your enemies, the daughters of the Philistines, who were ashamed of your lewd behavior. You played the whore also with the Assyrians, because you were not satisfied; yes, you played the whore with them, and still you were not satisfied. You multiplied your whoring also with the trading land of Chaldea, and even with this you were not satisfied.

Later in the same chapter of Ezekiel, God promises punishment. He is dead set on this punishment and He has it planned it down to individual punishments. I will list all the shalls and wills in all capitals to emphasize the doggedness of God’s determination in the matter. Here is Ezekel 16:37-42:

…therefore, behold, I WILL gather all your lovers with whom you took pleasure, all those you loved and all those you hated. I WILL gather them against you from every side and WILL uncover your nakedness to them, that they may see all your nakedness. And I WILL judge you as women who commit adultery and shed blood are judged, and bring upon you the blood of wrath and jealousy. And I WILL give you into their hands, and they SHALL throw down your vaulted chamber and break down your lofty places. They SHALL strip you of your clothes and take your beautiful jewels and leave you naked and bare. They SHALL bring up a crowd against you, and they SHALL stone you and cut you to pieces with their swords. And they SHALL burn your houses and execute judgments upon you in the sight of many women. I WILL make you stop playing the whore, and you SHALL also give payment no more. So WILL I satisfy My wrath on you, and My jealousy SHALL depart from you. I WILL be calm and will no more be angry. ESV.

In Exodus 23:7 God said, “Keep far from a false charge, and do not kill the innocent and righteous, for I will not acquit the wicked.” Hannah said in I Samuel 2:9, “He will guard the feet of His faithful ones, but the wicked shall be cut off in darkness, for not by might will a man prevail.”

COMING UP:

VIII. Hell Is Appropriate and Measured. NO APPEAL.