Matthew 24:45 - In That Place There Will Be Weeping and Gnashing of Teeth

Preached on September 24, 2006, by Eric Schumacher

Topics: Systematic Theology

(c) 2006 Eric Schumacher - Preached September 24, 2006 at Northbrook Baptist Church, Cedar Rapids, Iowa

Matthew 24:36-51 But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only. As were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. Then two men will be in the field; one will be taken and one left. Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one left. Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect. "Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom his master has set over his household, to give them their food at the proper time? Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. Truly, I say to you, he will set him over all his possessions. But if that wicked servant says to himself, 'My master is delayed,' and begins to beat his fellow servants and eats and drinks with drunkards, the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know and will cut him in pieces and put him with the hypocrites. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

In this passage, Jesus warns us of believing that he will not return and falling into disobedient behavior. He encourages his followers to be actively awake and doing his will. We are to be alert because, when he returns, he will reward all those who are doing his will. On the other hand, he will punish those who have lazily moved into disobedience, indulging in sinful pleasures and mistreating others. He will take away the wicked to another place, where they will be cut into pieces. In that place, says Jesus, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

The place that Jesus speaks of in this passage is hell. While Jesus spoke more of hell than any other person in the Scriptures, the doctrine of God's wrath and hell are sorely neglected today, except perhaps occasional lip-service while sharing the gospel. For Jesus, it was a great motivation for perseverance in the last days.

Since we are among those who ought to be waiting for our master to return, we should think about hell. We should pray that the Lord would use this topic to awaken us to alert faithfulness and diligent service until he appears.

Why "Hell" is Neglected
1. Because it doesn't fit our view of God.
Sometimes people will argue, "The God that I know would never send someone to hell!" Or, "I could never love a God like that!" However, as we know, if we are to love God for who He is we must know Him. The doctrine of hell reveals part of God's character and therefore helps us to know and love Him more. Hearing about hell should not make it harder for us to love God. If it does, it is because we are not operating off a fully Biblical picture of God, but are instead trying view God through the tainted lens of a contemporary philosophy, which esteems a distorted perception of mushy love and all-embracing tolerance.

This doctrine is one, which challenges the Christian to answer the question: Do we believe in the God of the Bible? Or, do we simply believe in some infinitely big human in the sky who must conform and act according to our preconceptions of who He is? We should praise and love God for all that he is. We should not imply by silence that God's wrath makes him less lovely.

We cannot be ashamed of God's wrath, for it is His character. To be ashamed of any part of God's character is to be ashamed of Him.

2. Because hell doesn't seem real.
Some don't preach or think about hell because it seems unreal, like a myth from long ago. But, hell is real. It is not an idle threat God uses to scare sinners, but is a real place where His wrath is and will be poured out on the damned for eternity. Christ spoke of hell more often than anyone in the Bible. One example is Matthew 13:49-50, "So it will be at the close of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."

People today are not fearful of hell because they don't understand the truth about hell. They may think of it as a party for sinners or a place of mild disappointment. They may take Billy Joel's attitude, "I'd rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints, 'cause sinners are much more fun."

Many fail to fear hell because they don't believe in it. And, they don't believe in hell because they've never been taught about hell. What we are not taught forms just as much a part of what we believe as what we are taught.

3. Because hell doesn't seem useful.
People don't think that the doctrine of hell makes any practical difference. It only offends people and make people uncomfortable, so why talk about it? We will see at the end of the sermon that learning about hell is useful for many reasons.

I want to answer each of these three objections against hell this morning.

Answer to Objection #1: Given God's Nature, Hell is Both Right and Necessary.
Lest anyone argue that a loving God cannot and will not punish people in hell forever, we need to understand why hell is necessary.

Three reasons why hell must exist:
1) God is Holy.
This means God is perfect, upright, and completely untainted by sin. Perfect holiness cannot tolerate sin in the least. Habakkuk 1:13 states, "You who are of purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong." Because God is perfectly Holy, He cannot allow sin into His presence. This is why He pours out wrath. A.W. Pink defines God's wrath as 'the holiness of God stirred into activity against sin.' Hell is what happens when God's unbridled wrath meets with sin.

2) God is infinite in nature.
Every sin we commit is an attack on an infinite, eternal God. Thomas Shepard wrote that when man chooses to sin he 'sets his own will above the Lord's, and so kicks God as filth under his feet.' Any act we commit again an infinite, Holy God deserves an equally infinite punishment. It is an infinite evil to sin against an infinite God.

3) God is perfectly just.
Because God is just He must punish each and every offense committed against Him as fully as it deserves. Jonathan Edwards explained it this way:

The glory of God is the greatest good; it is that which is the chief end of creation; it is of greater importance than anything else. But this is one way wherein God will glorify Himself, as in the eternal destruction of ungodly men He will glorify His justice. Therein He will appear as a just governor of the world. The vindictive justice of God will appear strict, exact, awful, and terrible, and therefore glorious.

Every sin exalts the sinner over God. For God to look past or leave a sin unpunished would to be for Him to say He does not mind that His glory is second place and that a idol is exalted over Him. God's justice and holiness cannot allow this. God will vindicate His name and display the glory of His wrath and justice in hell.

Answer to Objection #2: Hell Is Real.
The Nature of Hell:
There is a great deal of misunderstanding about what hell is like. Hell is a place of conscious and eternal punishment for those who live unholy and unrepentant lives. William Nichols, in his book The Narrow Way, describes hell as this:

A place of everlasting punishment, where its victims are tormented in both their bodies and their minds in accordance with their sinful natures, their actual sins committed, and the amount of spiritual light given to them, which they have rejected. Hell is a place where God's mercy and goodness have been withdrawn, where God's wrath is revealed as a terrifying, consuming fire, and men live with unfulfilled lusts and desires in torment forever and ever.

1. Hell will be a place of torment:
Matthew 3:12 speaks of "unquenchable fire."
Ezekiel 22:20-22 states:

As one gathers silver and bronze and iron and lead and tin into a furnace, to blow the fire on it in order to melt it, so I will gather you in my anger and in my wrath, and I will put you in and melt you. I will gather you and blow on you with the fire of my wrath, and you shall be melted in the midst of it. As silver is melted in a furnace, so you shall be melted in the midst of it, and you shall know that I am the LORD; I have poured out my wrath upon you.

Yes, this passage does pertain to the Lord's outpouring of his wrath on Israel to purify her. It is a refiner's furnace. Yet, I still believe that this passage is worth referencing when thinking of hell. I say that for this reason: if the refining fire of God is so severe, then how much more severe must be the fire meant to consume his enemies? If the fire meant to redeem his people is so hot, how much worse the fire meant to destroy his enemies?

Isaiah 30:33 speaks of the fire the Lord prepares for his enemies:

And the LORD will cause his majestic voice to be heard and the descending blow of his arm to be seen, in furious anger and a flame of devouring fire, with a cloudburst and storm and hailstones. The Assyrians will be terror-stricken at the voice of the LORD, when he strikes with his rod. And every stroke of the appointed staff that the LORD lays on them will be to the sound of tambourines and lyres. Battling with brandished arm, he will fight with them. For a burning place has long been prepared; indeed, for the king it is made ready, its pyre made deep and wide, with fire and wood in abundance; the breath of the LORD, like a stream of sulfur, kindles it.

This passage give us a glimpse of the what Hell is like: His descending arm is to be seen in 'fierce anger' and His anger will be a 'flame of consuming fire'. Verse 33 describes hell as 'Topheth.' Topheth was a place where child sacrifices were offered to the god Molech. The prophet Isaiah states that the place long prepared for God's enemies will be similar in that it will be 'deep and large, A pyre of fire with plenty of wood; the breath of the Lord, like a torrent of brimstone, sets it afire.'

2. Hell will be a place of physical torment.
God will raise everyone with physical bodies--some to judgment, some to life. We cannot imagine the sheer pain a person's body feels in hell. Imagine the worst pain you have ever felt in your life. Imagine the pain of your entire body on fire, every nerve and fiber of your entire person screaming in sheer and utter agony. Hell is a place where the damned will undergo this sort of torture as there is 'wailing and gnashing of teeth' as the flames constantly consume their bodies.

3. Hell will be a place of mental torment.
Imagine the worst mental torment you have ever felt, the worst guilt, desire, frustration, regret, and anguish. In Luke 16:19-31, the rich man in hell is told to 'remember that during your life...' He is mentally tormented, by the remembering all the opportunities he had in life to repent and the times they rejected Christ's word.

The damned will be in mental torment as they consider they will be in hell forever and ever, with no end. Those in hell will be tormented as they are forced to view the far-off glories and joy of heaven, of which they can never partake.

4. This torment will be inflicted by God Himself.
Yes, look to Isaiah 30:30-33: it is the arm of the Lord that brings His fierce anger. It is the voice of the Lord that strikes terror. It is the rod of punishment 'which the Lord will lay on [them].' It is 'the breath of the Lord, like a torrent of brimstone, that sets the pit afire.'

2 Thessalonians 1:6-8 says:

God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.

God is the one who will repay. It is the Lord Jesus who, with his mighty angels, will inflict vengeance on those who do not know God or obey his gospel.

Hebrews 10:30-31 says God states, "'Vengeance in Mine, I will repay', And again, 'The Lord will judge His people.'" God is what makes hell hell.


How Will God Inflict This Torment?
a. Without mercy or grace.
And God will give no mercy and make room for no grace in hell. There will not be one moment of relief for those in hell. Jonathan Edwards describes the unbearableness of hell with these words:

Nor will they ever be able to find anything to relieve them in hell. They will never find any resting place there; any secret corner, which will be cooler than the rest, where they may have a little respite, a small abatement of the extremity of their torment. They never will be able to find any cooling stream or fountain, in any part of that world of torment; no, nor so much a drop to cool their tongues. They will find no company to give them any such comfort, or do them the least bit good. They will find no place, where they can remain, and rest, and take breath for one minute: for they will be tormented with fire and brimstone; and they will have no rest day nor night forever and ever.

b. Without pity.
God states in Ezekiel 8:18, "Therefore I will act in wrath. My eye will not spare, nor will I have pity. And though they cry in my ears with a loud voice, I will not hear them." This Scripture teaches us that God will withhold nothing and will have no pity in hell. God knows that the sinner will not be able to bear up under His wrath, and yet He will not withhold it. God knows the damned will have no strength to stand under His wrath, yet His foot will trample and crush the damned in hell. God knows they cannot bear up under His wrath, yet He will still crush them the same, without a passing thought of mercy. For, God abhors the sinner in hell. Psalm 5:5 says of God, "you hate all evildoers."

c. With mocking.
Proverbs 1:24-28 describes how wisdom will only 'laugh and mock' while those who rejected "wisdom" cry for mercy. (As "wisdom" speaks, keep in mind that Jesus Christ is the wisdom of God, as the New Testament tells us.)

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.

It is truly a 'terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God!' (Hebrews 10:31)

5. This Torment is Eternal.
Perhaps the most terrifying aspect of hell is that it will have no end. Isaiah 66:24 states 'their worm shall not die, and their fire shall not be quenched.' It does not end.

Scripture describes the torment of it as in being cast into a fiery furnace. Therefore, imagine that you are placed into a furnace of flames that burn as hot as physically possible. Imagine that once your body is placed in them every fiber and every nerve of your being would be on fire with the greatest pain and terror imaginable. Imagine that the pain will not cease or diminish in the least.

Now imagine that you were to be placed in this furnace for fifteen minutes. Imagine how slowly the first minute would pass and how much longer the remaining 14 would seem!!! Now imagine not 15 minutes but an hour! A week! A month! A year! Now imagine what terror and hopelessness is in your mind as you realize that no matter how you move, how you plead, where you go, there is no relief. You realize you can do nothing to soothe yourself and it is by your own doing, by your own sin you are there!

Now imagine it is not for 15 minutes or even a lifetime, but instead for millions and millions and millions of ages. And when these millions and millions of countless ages have passed it is not even the slightest speck of an instant on an infinitely long timeline with no end. You find yourself stuck forever in the terrors of hell without hope of relief, mercy, or end. Yet, this description does not come close to describing the reality of hell faced by the unrepentant sinner.

6. This Torment Will Be In Different Degrees for Different People.
The degree to which the sinners in hell are punished individually differs according to their sins while on earth. This doesn't mean that hell will be bearable or easy for anyone, only that it will be worse for some according to the revelation they received (and rejected) while alive.

Verses like Luke 12:47-48 describe this: "And that servant who knew his master's will but did not get ready or act according to his will, will receive a severe beating. But the one who did not know, and did what deserved a beating, will receive a light beating." Both did things that deserved beatings, and so both received beatings. Yet, one knew his master's will so it was more severe. This does not mean the light beating was not painful. Both were beatings. Both were painful. But one was more painful because the man knew his master's will and still did wrong. Being involved in church and living an unrepentant life does not earn you any favor with God. It only earns you a worse beating in hell because you are hearing your Master's will and disobeying anyway. It would be better for you to go to hell without having heard the Scriptures, than to attend church your whole life and go to hell. Now you have more to be accountable for.

Romans 2:5 states, "But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous God." It is as if there is a great dam, which is the hand of God, which is holding back the mighty waters of a great river, God's wrath. Each time an unbeliever sins in this life, he piles the floodwaters higher and higher. In the day of wrath God will remove his hand and the unbeliever will be unpleasantly surprised at the power and quantity of the flood.

Answer to Objection #3: The Doctrine of Hell is Useful.
1. This doctrine is also useful for the believer.
a. It is a source of worship, in two senses.
The first sense is that we will worship God for hell when we are in heaven. At least twice, Scripture seems to clearly state that we will see the damned in hell and rejoice in God's destruction of His enemies:

Isaiah 66:24 And they shall go out and look on the dead bodies of the men who have rebelled against me. For their worm shall not die, their fire shall not be quenched, and they shall be an abhorrence to all flesh.

Notice this speaks of God's people witnessing an eternal destruction of their enemies. That is how the great book of Isaiah ends, because a key part of the salvation of God's people is the judgment of their enemies.

We see the same in the book of Revelation, the end of the Bible and the description of our salvation:

Revelation 16:5-7 And I heard the angel in charge of the waters say, "Just are you, O Holy One, who is and who was, for you brought these judgments. For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and you have given them blood to drink. It is what they deserve!" And I heard the altar saying, "Yes, Lord God the Almighty, true and just are your judgments!"
Revelation 19:1-3 After this I heard what seemed to be the loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, crying out, "Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God, for his judgments are true and just; for he has judged the great prostitute who corrupted the earth with her immorality, and has avenged on her the blood of his servants." Once more they cried out, "Hallelujah! The smoke from her goes up forever and ever."

William Nichols explains that the angels and saints will worship God for the punishment of the wicked 'not for punishment's sake, but because it is perfectly just and righteous punishment, fully deserved by those who are suffering it. They will delight in seeing the justice and power of God glorified in this manner.'

Some often argue that this (the saved seeing into hell from heaven) is "theologically impossible." They argue that heaven is a place of eternal joy and it would be impossible to see someone in hell (such as a grandparent or friend) and have joy at the same time. Three responses to this objection will suffice:

First: God is the one who pours out his wrath in hell, and his blessedness (joy) is not diminished for it.

Second: Those in hell will have all common grace stripped away from them; the raw wickedness of their rebellious souls will be fully revealed. We will not see them as our teacher, friend, spouse or parent. We will see each as a soul that refused to honor the Living God and exchanged his glory for a lie. Our minds and hearts will also be made perfectly holy, so that we will give full assent to that God does and praise him for it.

Third: The final response is that this is what Scripture plainly teaches. We can "reason" all we want about what is theologically impossible in eternity. Yet, when Scripture speaks, we must bow to it, regardless of whether our small, finite and sinful minds can grasp or approve it.

The second sense is that seeing hell will increase our worship of Christ. Imagine looking into hell and seeing the torment that sinful rebels are enduring and then realizing that hell is what you deserved. Then imagine turning around and seeing Christ standing there--with His hands and feet and head and side and back all still bearing the marks of crucifixion. You glance at hell and then back to Christ and realize: "That is what you endured on the cross for me."

Some people like "fire and brimstone" sermons because they love to make people feel bad, they love to "stick it to the sinner." This is not why we study the doctrine of hell. Like any doctrine, we study this subject in order to love God more rightly.

If anything at all happens this morning, I pray it is this: That you would leave loving Jesus more because you have thought about hell. The doctrine of hell should make us love Jesus more, as we gain a greater appreciation for what Jesus accomplished on the cross. The doctrine of hell should cause us to overflow with thankfulness that Jesus interposed his precious blood and rescued us from hell through his death on the cross for our sins and his resurrection from the dead.

b. This doctrine should also deter us from committing sin.
In Matthew 24:48-51 that it is the servant who says "May master is delayed' and then begins to mistreat others and live in sin that will be thrown into hell. Jesus specifically warns those who claim to be his servants, who claim to be believers, that if they fall into unrepentant, presumptive sin, then they will be cast into hell. This should cause us to pursue alertness and faithful service and to flee from sin.

c. The doctrine of hell is a source of patience in suffering.
What we endure on earth is the closest we shall ever come to feeling and experiencing hell. This should make us willing and patient when faced with enduring the sufferings of this earth. We know they will end in heaven.


d. Finally then, hell is an excellent motivation for evangelism.
We should not want men to go to hell! Paul says in Romans 9 he has unceasing grief and great sorrow over the Jews who do not trust the Messiah. We too should have this same grief that souls are going to hell. We ought to be broken over those going to hell and plead with God for their salvation. We should work untiringly for the salvation of those who know not Christ.

2. This doctrine is useful for the false believer.
John the Baptist spoke of the Messiah buring the chaff to the Pharisees and Sadducees-those who thought they were God's people but had only deceived themselves. Jesus warned of the wicked servant--the one who thought he was safe with his master away. D.A. Carson writes, "Hell is not a doctrine used to frighten unbelievers; it is a doctrine used to warn those who think themselves believers."

3. This doctrine is useful to the unbeliever.
To those who do not trust in Christ, those who are content to continue living in sin: consider what great danger you are in! Consider the fact that your sinful nature causes you to be worthy of hell. Consider that there is NOTHING but the hand of God that keeps you from dropping into hell at any moment. Jonathan Edwards offered this warning to the unbeliever:

The bow of God's wrath is bent, and the arrow made ready on the string, and justice bends the arrow at your heart, and strains the bow, and it is nothing but the mere pleasure of God, and that of an angry God, without promise or obligation at all, that keeps the arrow one moment from being made drunk with your blood. Thus all you that never passed under a great change of heart, by the mighty power of the Spirit of God upon your souls; all you that were never born again, and made new creatures, and raised from being dead in sin, to a state of new, and before altogether unexperienced light and life, are in the hands of an angry God....You have offended Him infinitely more that ever a stubborn rebel did his prince; and yet it is nothing else but His hand that holds you from falling into the fire at this moment...And there is no other reason you have not dropped into hell since you rose this morning, but that God's hand has held you up...Consider the fearful danger you are in: it is a great furnace of wrath...full of the fire of wrath, that you are held over in the hand of God, whose wrath is provoked and incensed as much against you, as against the many of the damned in hell. You hang by a slender thread, with the flames of divine wrath flashing about it, and ready every moment to singe it, and burn it asunder; and you have no interest in any Mediator, and nothing to lay hold of to save yourself, nothing to keep off the flames of wrath, nothing of your own, nothing you have ever done, nothing that you can do, to induce God to spare you one moment.

If you don't know Christ, realize that you have offended and sinned against an infinitely worthy and holy God. Confess your sins, repent of them and believe on Him. Your opportunity to repent ends at death. Do not delay, for you are hanging by a slender thread.