Heb 9:27+28 And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment, so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, shall appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await Him. 
	This morning we come to the end of our Biblical consideration of hell. We are looking at how hell should affect the believer. We are seeing the manner in which faithful Christians should learn that which the Holy Spirit has to teach us about Himself through this doctrine. Then, Lord willing, next week, we will begin our Biblical consideration of the doctrine of heaven and its place within the heart of God. 
	Last week, we regarded the first three of the six effects that Dr. Donnelly outlines that hell should have in our hearts. First, we saw that the knowledge of hell should cause us to put sin to death on a daily basis. Second, it should create in us a contentment in the salvation so greatly and freely offered in Jesus Christ. And third, we should be very serious in our deliberation of all that God means in our lives and in the lives of those around us. There should be a serious measure about us that reflects our care and concern for others and our deep consecration to God. 
This then brings us to the fourth effect that hell should create within us. It is that of a deeper and increasingly greater appreciation for Jesus Christ, Himself. The Apostle Peter tells us …and though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, obtaining as the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls, 1 Peter 1:8+9. Our very salvation from hell should stir within us a tremendously increasing love for Jesus Christ. 
Our Lord tells us in Luke 7:47 "For this reason I say to you, her sins, which are many, have been forgiven, for she loved much; but he who is forgiven little, loves little." Because He has forgiven all our multitude of sins and trespasses, there should well up in us a fountainhead of endless love for Him. How much has He forgiven? How much love should be welling up in us? It is not until we gaze into hell and all that Christ suffered in our stead that we can even begin to consider how great is His love toward us. 
	We can’t even imagine with our finite minds all that Jesus suffered in our stead. As we are told in Isa 53:3-11 He was despised and forsaken of men, A man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; And like one from whom men hide their face, He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. Surely our griefs He Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him. He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He did not open His mouth; Like a lamb that is led to slaughter, And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, So He did not open His mouth. By oppression and judgment He was taken away; And as for His generation, who considered That He was cut off out of the land of the living, For the transgression of my people to whom the stroke was due? His grave was assigned with wicked men, Yet He was with a rich man in His death, Because He had done no violence, Nor was there any deceit in His mouth. But the Lord was pleased To crush Him, putting Him to grief; If He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, And the good pleasure of the Lord will prosper in His hand. As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied; By His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, As He will bear their iniquities. Our hearts should be unable to express the depth of love that we owe Jesus for all that He endured for your sake and for my sake.
	In this light, hell should give us a deeper insight into the value that God placed on the sacrifice of His Son. We have tried to consider the eternal punishment of those who refuse to accept the covering of Jesus’ sacrifice. All of eternity in hell’s damnation will not satisfy the righteous and just wrath of God for those who turn away from Christ. Consider that His sacrifice, however, is fully sufficient to satisfy the wrath of the most Holy God. How worthy must that death be in the eyes and heart of God? How infinitely great a being He must be that His blood can wash away all the sins of those who believe upon Him! In Him is found all the righteousness necessary to cover all the evils and rebelliousness of our heart’s unto God, if we will but believe upon Him. This must cause us to cry out with the Apostle Paul in Gal 6:14, But may it never be that I should boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. 
	Quote, Hell brings us to our knees, moving us to wonder and gratitude. Hell inspires us with a new adoration for Him Who loved us and gave Himself for us. His death destroyed and cancelled hell for us. That is what He is worth; that is Who He is. When we believe in Jesus we are linked with a being of unimaginable power, glory and grace. It is not a small thing to trust in Christ. It is not a trivial matter when He invites us to ‘Come to Me” (Matt. 11:28). He is the infinite God, whose love fills and transcends our comprehension. This mighty Saviour, in His majesty and kindness, summons us to the salvation which He has provided for us at the cost of His own death-agony. End quote. Hell should cause us to fall at the feet of Jesus Christ in worship, adoration, praise, thanksgiving, and honor.
	The fifth effect that hell should produce in us is a zeal for evangelism. There are very many people surrounding us who are going to hell unless they hear and accept the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Our hearts should so well up with compassion and love for the lost that we must tell them about Jesus Christ. We are saved from hell because someone shared the Gospel with us and we ought to want to share the Gospel with others. It is a responsibility that Christians should undertake with duty and with determination in obedience to Christ. Luke 14:21b-23 'Go out at once into the streets and lanes of the city and bring in here the poor and crippled and blind and lame.' "And the slave said, 'Master, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.' "And the master said to the slave, 'Go out into the highways and along the hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled. 
	We should gaze into hell and be overcome with the horror that faces anyone who does not hear of Christ. Our hearts and mouths should be emboldened to share of the love of God with earnest and sincere motives of love for the unconverted. We should love them, pray for them, speak of Christ to them, and live our lives before them in every manner to win them out of the fires of hell. Our hearts should be as the Apostle Paul writes in Rom 9:1-3, I am telling the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit, that I have great sorrow and unceasing grief in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh… 
	The sixth effect that hell should produce in Christians is a humble acceptance of God’s Sovereign Purpose. We are to do as much as we can in service to the Lord in our sharing the Gospel, but we are not all called to be evangelists. We have other duties and responsibilities in our lives that we are to live before God. We must never shirk our responsibility to share Christ, but we must also realize that we must not take more on ourselves than God has planned and purposed for us. 
Quote, Our responsibility for others, though real, is limited. Ultimately, if people go to hell, they have no-one to blame but themselves, for God says, “The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not bear the guilt of the father, nor the father bear the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself’ (Ezek. 18:20). If we fail to tell our friends about Christ, we will be held partly accountable for their damnation, but the final responsibility rests with the individual concerned…We need not be afraid that, if we do not immediately evangelize everyone we know, they will drop into hell by mistake. Christ will save every one of His chosen people. He reassures us that ‘All that the Father gives Me will come to Me’, and that ‘Those whom You gave Me I have kept; and none of them is lost’ (John 6:37, and 17:12). End Quote. 
We must trust in the Sovereign will of God. We keep those whom He puts on our hearts in prayer and we count on His faithfulness in all our dealings with them. We share as He gives us prompting and utterance and we live our lives before them as He directs. We must remember, however, that we cannot save anyone. That is not in our power. That belongs solely and singly to God to confer His salvation upon those whom He will save. Rom 9:14-16, What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be! For He says to Moses, "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion." So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy. We can fully trust God to act justly and righteously with every person whom He has created.
	This means that we must accept God’s Sovereignty in creating hell. There are many Christians who fully wish that God had never created hell. They are embarrassed and distressed by it. In their human compassion, they would will it away. That is an utter denial of the holiness and the justice and the righteousness of God. He does all things perfectly and His plan and purpose for hell will serve only to bring Him glory. It may be that we are unable to give Him glory at this time for the suffering of the sinners in hell, and that it is not the time to give Him that glory. To do so would be to deny the heart of compassion that we are to have for all those who are created in the image of God. Even our worst enemies should be held in our hearts with prayers for their salvation from hell, rather than cursing them to go to hell. We have no idea if they are part of God’s elect, chosen by Him for His own purposes. I continually hold before myself the thought of Saul of Tarsus, persecuting the early church, trying to wipe out the very name of Jesus of Nazareth from the earth. Yet, in God’s sovereignty, this Saul became Paul, an Apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ and the missionary of the Gospel to the Gentile nations. 
	We are told that we will eventually give God glory for His punishment of those who are suffering in hell. But it will be at a time when we are translated out of these mortal bodies, beset with sin and corruption. We will have put on a new body, incorruptible and glorified. At that time we will be part of the chorus of the voices as recorded in the Book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ. Rev 11:16-18 And the twenty-four elders, who sit on their thrones before God, fell on their faces and worshiped God, saying, "We give Thee thanks, O Lord God, the Almighty, who art and who wast, because Thou hast taken Thy great power and hast begun to reign. "And the nations were enraged, and Thy wrath came, and the time came for the dead to be judged, and the time to give their reward to Thy bond-servants the prophets and to the saints and to those who fear Thy name, the small and the great, and to destroy those who destroy the earth." And Rev 16:5-7 And I heard the angel of the waters saying, "Righteous art Thou, who art and who wast, O Holy One, because Thou didst judge these things; for they poured out the blood of saints and prophets, and Thou hast given them blood to drink. They deserve it." And I heard the altar saying, "Yes, O Lord God, the Almighty, true and righteous are Thy judgments." 
	Quote, When we are in heaven, however, we will praise God for all that He accomplishes by means of hell. For we will be purged of sin, our motives will be entirely holy and we will be filled with the mind of Christ. God’s just and righteous judgment will be revealed. All the inequities of this life will be swept away. All the apparent unfairnesses and mysteries of time will be solved. Everything will be made right. The Lord’s majesty will shine forth and all those who have arrogantly raised themselves up against Him will be humbled and cast down. God will be glorified in hell, and if the glory of God means more to us than anything else, can we be sorry that hell exists? We cannot; and in heaven we will be transformed, able to worship God for all that He has done, including hell. End Quote. 
	As Jonathan Edwards has written, It becomes the saints fully and perfectly to consent to what God doth, without any reluctance or opposition of spirit; yea, it becomes them to rejoice in everything that God sees meet to be done. 
We get a sense of the glory that God will receive as we read what God showed to the Apostle John in Rev 5:9-14. And they sang a new song, saying, "Worthy art Thou to take the book, and to break its seals; for Thou wast slain, and didst purchase for God with Thy blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. "And Thou hast made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God; and they will reign upon the earth." And I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne and the living creatures and the elders; and the number of them was myriads of myriads, and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing." And every created thing which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all things in them, I heard saying, "To Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever." And the four living creatures kept saying, "Amen." And the elders fell down and worshiped. 
And, in describing the New Jerusalem, Rev 21:22-27 And I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God, the Almighty, and the Lamb, are its temple. And the city has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine upon it, for the glory of God has illumined it, and its lamp is the Lamb. And the nations shall walk by its light, and the kings of the earth shall bring their glory into it. And in the daytime (for there shall be no night there) its gates shall never be closed; and they shall bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it; and nothing unclean and no one who practices abomination and lying, shall ever come into it, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life. So be it!
	And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment, so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, shall appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await Him. Amen.

This morning’s benediction reading is Ps 150 Praise the Lord! Praise God in His sanctuary; Praise Him in His mighty expanse. Praise Him for His mighty deeds; Praise Him according to His excellent greatness. Praise Him with trumpet sound; Praise Him with harp and lyre. Praise Him with timbrel and dancing; Praise Him with stringed instruments and pipe. Praise Him with loud cymbals; Praise Him with resounding cymbals. Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord! Amen.