Lecture 3 THE FINAL DESTINY OF man without christ

THE FINAL DESTINY OF
MAN WITHOUT CHRIST

We have seen that God
divides all mankind into two
groups: the righteous and
wicked who have completely
opposite eternal destinies,
which are determined at
death.

>Upon death, the righteous
go up to be with their Lord in
Heaven.

>The wicked go down to
Hades, under the earth, a
place of punishment and
torment, sometimes also
called Hell to await their final
sentencing and dismissal to
the Lake of Fire.

To talk about Hell is
unpopular nowadays even in
the church-world but Jesus
wants us to tell people there
is a heaven to gain and a
hell to shun.

In John 16:8, Jesus
described the Ministry of the
Holy-Spirit to the world
through us: “when He has
come, He will convict the
world of sin, and of
righteousness and of
judgment.”

As a general rule, those who
are warned about a coming
danger are far more likely to
take action to avoid it,
whereas those who have no
warning are in far greater

danger of falling into that
danger, so it is obviously
right to warn them, as you
would warn someone about
to walk off a cliff unawares or
someone sitting in a burning
house who did not know it.
You would risk their rejection
of your message because
you knew their life was at
risk and that it was a small
price to pay in comparison.
How much more is this true
when someone’s eternal
future is at stake, under

threat of eternal destruction!

Jude 22,23: “on some have
compassion, making a
distinction; but others save
with fear, pulling them out of
the fire.

Some say: “I believe in a
God of Love, not
Judgement.”
How do you know God is
Love? The Bible says it
(1John 4:8). But the same
Bible says God is just and

must punish our sins.
Exodus 34:7: “He will by no
means clear the guilty.”

Some say: “My god would
never send anyone to hell.” It
may be true that your god
would not send anyone to
hell, but your god is just a
figment of your imagination,
rather than the God of the
Bible. The only way we can
know God is how He has
revealed Himself in the Bible
- and it is not as a harmless

kindly heavenly grandfather,
but He reveals Himself as a
holy God, a just Judge to be
feared, as well as a God of
boundless love.

Some may say: “I don’t
believe in the OT God of
judgement, but the NT God
of love as preached by
Jesus.” They know neither
the OT or the NT which are
in full agreement - for Jesus
spoke on hell more than any
other prophet or writer of the

Bible.

We must let our thinking be
controlled by scripture not by
the world or the worldliness
that has got in the church
that only wants to talk about
self-esteem and God’s love
and ignore His judgement
side: Romans
11:22: “Behold, the
Goodness and Severity of
God.” To know God we must
consider both sides of
God, His goodness and

severity (from the word for
‘cutting off’).

He is merciful, long-suffering
and good to us far beyond
what we deserve. He does
not treat us according to our
sin, but postpones His
judgement and continues to
move in goodness towards
us to give us a chance to
repent (Romans 2:4).
However although He is
quick to show mercy and
slow to anger, His patience

(the time of grace) will run
out. We are to proclaim
both: “the acceptable year of
the Lord and the day of
vengeance of God” (Isaiah
61:2). After the Acceptable
Year of God’s Favor, the day
of salvation is over, there will
be the Day of Vengeance of
our God.

“Vengeance is Mine, says
the Lord, I will
repay” (Romans 12:19 -
quoted from Deuteronomy

32;35). Vengeance is
Retributive Justice. God will
punish all sinners, for Justice
demands they pay the
punishment for their sins.

The time will come when He
will judge, and cut the
stubbornly unrepentant off
from His goodness. Then it
will be too late and all they
have left to look forward to is
everlasting punishment, for
they can never pay the full
price for their sin against an

infinite God.

During the time of grace
(postponed judgement), we
must not be deceived into
thinking that we can sin and
get away with it, because He
does not seem to send
judgement
immediately. Don’t think God
will never judge, just
because He is slow to
judge!

Galatians 6:7,8: “Do not be

deceived. God is not
mocked, for whatever a man
sows that he will also reap.
For he who sows to his flesh
will of the flesh reap
corruption (sin-death), but he
who sows to the Spirit will of
the spirit reap everlasting
life.”

Clearly the reaping, both
good and bad, goes beyond
the grave. There will be an
everlasting harvest of what
you sow in this life.

In His kindness, He delays
His judgement to give you a
chance to repent, but if you
harden your heart and
despise His goodness to
you, you are just storing up a
greater judgement for
yourself when your time of
grace comes to an end.

Romans 2:4,5: “Do you
despise the riches of His
goodness, forbearance and
longsuffering, not knowing

that the goodness of God
leads you to repentance?
But in accordance with your
hardness and your
impenitent heart you are
treasuring up for yourself
WRATH in
the (predetermined,
fixed) DAY of WRATH and
revelation of the righteous
judgement of God.”

2Peter 3:9,10: “The Lord is
not slack concern His
promise (to judge) as some

count slackness, but is
longsuffering toward us, not
willing that any should
perish, but that all should
come to repentance.” His
delay is to give us an
opportunity to repent for He
does not want anyone to
perish.

He sees and records
everything and will surely
judge, and when He does He
will rigorously bring
everything (thought, word

and deed) into judgement.
The wheels of His justice
may grind exceedingly slow,
but they grind exceeding fine
- there is a slow train coming
round the bend, and unless
you repent it will run you
down.

*Both the goodness and
severity of God are revealed
in what happens at death.

Men go one of 2 ways.
All mankind is divided into

two groups:
(1) Those under

the goodness and mercy of
God in Christ, go to heaven.

(2) Those who die
unrepentant in their sins
outside of Christ and His
mercy will experience
His severity, being cut off
forever from His goodness
and go to a place of
punishment, to await their
final judgement.
God’s severity is that He will
at last finally cut off

unrepentant sinners from His
goodness and then it will be
too late for them, means we
must warn people about the
reality of God’s judgement
and hell.

*Only by understanding the
goodness and severity of
God can you understand the
glorious Gospel of Christ.
>His severity means that He
must and will punish all our
sins.

>His goodness means that
He offered to take that
punishment upon Himself
rather than us having to bear
it.

>>>His Severity upon
sin was revealed through the
Cross, for He did not even
hold back from punishing His
Son when our sins were
upon Him.
>>>His Goodness was also
fully revealed at the Cross in
providing propitiation for us

through His self-sacrifice.

However anyone that does
not believe in Him, but
rejects Him and His
salvation, remains under
condemnation. As we read
in John 3:18: “He who
believes in Him is not
condemned; but he who
does not believe is
condemned already,
because he has not believed
in the name of the only
begotten Son of God.” In fact

his rejection of Christ has
compounded his sin and
judgement.

John 3:36: “He who believes
in the Son has everlasting
life; and he who does not
believe the Son shall not see
life, but the wrath of God
abides on him.”

God has given us this life on
earth as a time of grace to
give us an opportunity to
repent and receive His

salvation. In this life-time He
patiently holds back His
judgement and offers us His
free-gift of forgiveness, but
once this life is over it will be
too late to receive it. This life
is acceptable time of the
Lord, the day of salvation,
but if you do not receive Him,
upon your death you will
have to start facing the day
of vengeance (punishment)
of our God.

*Every man’s final destiny is

determined and fixed by God
at the time of his death. At
death, the unsaved, being
still in their sins, are found
and pronounced guilty by
God and are sent to a place
of punishment (Hades)
where they must await their
resurrection and sentencing
to their final judgement in the
Lake of Fire.

Revelation 20:11-15: “Then I
saw a Great White throne
and Him who sat on it, from

whose face the earth and the
heaven fled away. And there
was found no place for them.
And I saw the dead, small
and great, standing before
God, and books were
opened. And another book
was opened, which is the
Book of Life. And the dead
were judged according to
their works, by the things
which were written in the
books. The sea gave up the
dead who were in it, and
Death and Hades delivered

up the dead who were in
them. And they were judged,
each one according to his
works. Then Death and
Hades were cast into the
Lake of Fire. This is the 2nd
death. And anyone not found
written in the Book of Life
was cast into the Lake of
Fire.”

*The Lake of Fire is the final
state and eternal destiny of
the lost.
It is called the 2nd death - an

eternal separation from the
goodness (life) of God.
Although believers die once,
unbelievers will be raised
and then suffer an eternal
death. (This is what most
people think of as HELL, a
word that the KJV
confusingly uses to translate
HADES (Greek) or SHEOL
(Hebrew), the place where
unbelieving souls go after
death at this present
time).Jesus believed in the
Lake of Fire, infact He spoke

on it more than
anyone. When Jesus
referred to the Lake of
Fire(rather than Hades) He
called it GEHENNA, after the
Valley of Hinnom, a deep
and narrow valley south of
Jerusalem(Matthew
5:22,29,30; 10:28; 18:9;
23:15,33; Mark 9:43-47;
Luke 12:5, see also James
3:6; Matthew 3:12;
13:41,42) where children
were sacrificed in fires to
Molech (2Chronicles 28:1-4,

33:6; 2Kings 23:10;
Jeremiah 7:31-33). A place
of continual burning.

Let’s see the Old-Testament
background to GEHENNA:

2Chronicles
28:1: “Ahaz was 20 years old
when he became king, and
he reigned 16 years in
Jerusalem; and he did not
do what was right in the sight
of the LORD, as his father
David had done. 2 For he

walked in the ways of the
kings of Israel, and made
molded images for the Baals.
3 He burned incense in
the Valley of the Son of
Hinnom, and burned his
children in the fire (abortion,
200,000 a year, 600 a day,
secularists, shows if reject
God lose all sense of right
and wrong), according to the
abominations of the nations
whom the LORD had cast
out before the children of
Israel.”

2Chronicles 33:6: “Also he
(Manasseh) caused his sons
to pass through the fire in the
Valley of the Son of
Hinnom; he practiced
soothsaying, used witchcraft
and sorcery, and consulted
mediums and spiritists. He
did much evil in the sight of
the LORD, to provoke Him to
anger.”

Jeremiah 7:31 And they
have built the high places of

Tophet (Fire-

Place), which is in the Valley

of the Son of Hinnom, to

burn their sons and their

daughters in the fire, which I

did not command, nor did it

come into My heart. 32
“Therefore behold, the days
are coming,” says the LORD,
“when it will no more be

called Tophet, or the Valley

of the Son of Hinnom, but

the Valley of Slaughter; for

they will bury in Tophet until

there is no room. v33 The

corpses of this people will be
food for the birds of the
heaven and for the beasts of
the earth. And no one will
frighten them away.”

2Kings 23:10: “And he
(Josiah) defiled Topheth,
which is in the Valley of the
Son of Hinnom, that no man
might make his son or his
daughter pass through the
fire to Molech.” Since Josiah,
it was turned into a rubbish
tip for dead bodies of

animals and criminals, a
place continual fire without
and worms within.
In Jesus’ time, it was a
rubbish dump where the
rubbish was burnt in a
perpetual fire and where
worms thrived. Hence, Jesus
used it as a picture of the
fires of Hell where God burns
His rubbish - those who
refuse to be salvaged
(saved), and turned
(changed) into something
worthwhile as subjects in

God’s Kingdom.

Isaiah 30:33: For
Tophet (the Place of Fire -
Gehenna) was established of
old, Yes, for the king it is
prepared. He has
made it deep and large; Its
pyre is fire with much wood;
The breath of the LORD, like
a stream of brimstone,
Kindles it.” Since he threw
children into Fire he will be
thrown into the Lake of Fire.

The Old-Testament talks
about the Lake of Fire in
other places too: Psalm
11:4 The LORD is in His holy
temple, The LORD’s
throne is in heaven; His eyes
behold, His eyelids test the
sons of men. 5 The LORD
tests the righteous, but the
wicked and the one who
loves violence His soul
hates. 6 Upon the wicked He
will rain coals; Fire and
brimstone and a burning
wind Shall be the portion of

their cup.”

Malachi 4:1 “For behold, the
day is coming, Burning like
an oven, and all the proud,
yes, all who do wickedly will
be stubble. And the day
which is coming shall burn
them up,” Says the LORD of
hosts, “That will leave them
neither root nor branch. 2
But to you who fear My
name The Sun of
Righteousness shall arise
With healing in His wings;

And you shall go out And
grow fat like stall-fed calves.
3You shall trample the
wicked, For they shall be
ashes under the soles of
your feet on the day that I
do this, ”Says the LORD of
hosts.”

Nahum 1:6 Who can stand
before His indignation?
And who can endure the
fierceness of His anger?
His fury is poured out like
fire”

Isaiah
26:11 LORD, when Your
hand is lifted up, they will not
see.
But they will see and be
ashamed for their envy of
people;
Yes, the fire of (reserved for)
Your enemies shall devour
them.

Isaiah 33:14: “The sinners in
Zion are afraid;
fearfulness has seized

the hypocrites:
“Who among us shall dwell
with the devouring fire?
Who among us shall dwell
with everlasting burnings?”

Jude 7 tells us that God’s
Judgement on Sodom and
Gomorrah by FIRE and
BRIMSTONE was a picture
and warning of His coming
eternal judgement of sinners
which will also be by FIRE:

“as Sodom and Gomorrah,

and the cities around them in
a similar manner to these,
having given themselves
over to sexual immorality
and gone after strange flesh,
are set forth as an example,
suffering the vengeance of
eternal fire.”

Isaiah 66:24 “And they shall
go forth and look upon the
corpses of the men who
have transgressed against
Me.
For their worm does not die,

and their fire is not
quenched. They shall be an
abhorrence to all flesh.”

This describes the dead
bodies of those killed at the
2nd Coming, but the famous
phrase: “For their worm does
not die, and their fire is not
quenched” describes the
state of their soul in hell,
suffering an eternal
conscious punishment.

*Gospel appeal. Hell is real,
but Jesus died so you don’t

have to go there. Receive

His offer of forgiveness and

eternal life.