Clarifies the biblical understanding of hell by distinguishing it from the grave, using the Genesis 37 account of Jacob mourning Joseph as a key illustration. It explains that the Hebrew word 'Sheol' and the Greek word 'Hades,' often translated as 'hell,' primarily refer to the unseen realm of departed spirits, not the physical grave. The message emphasizes that Jesus Christ himself spoke extensively about hell, describing it as a place of 'hell fire,' unquenchable fire, and eternal punishment, distinct from the grave where bodies are buried. The sermon concludes by asserting that the reality of hell, as taught by Christ, is the ultimate explanation for his sacrifice on the cross, urging listeners to consider this truth and seek salvation.
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Let us read tonight what at first may seem to be rather an unusual passage for this. Genesis chapter 37, the 37th chapter of the first book in our Bible, beginning our reading at verse 31. Genesis chapter 37 and verse 31. And they took Joseph's coat and killed a kid of the goat and dipped the coat in the blood.
And they sent the coat of many colors and they brought it to their father and said, this have we found know now whether it be thy son's coat or no and he knew it and said it is my son's coat an evil beast hath devoured him joseph is without doubt rent in pieces and jacob rent his clothes and put sackcloth upon his loins and mourn for his son many days and all his son and all his daughters rose up to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted.
And he said, for I will go down into the grave unto my son mourning. Thus his father wept for him. The Bible, our English Bible, the one that we normally use, the King James Version, version, uses the word hell in the English 54 times. 54 times. 31 of those times are in the Old Testament.
23 in the New Testament. In the Old Testament, where you find the word hell, it is always a translation of one Hebrew word. Now, I suppose, frankly, all of you know that many of the original words, the Hebrew and the Old Testament, the Greek and the New, are translated in our Bible by different English words. And the study of this that very often our Bible but in the Old Testament every time you read in English the word hell you know that in the original scriptures in the Hebrew it's the same word it's the word shield that is the Hebrew characters translate into our English language shield Now, while I'm not going
to explain it right now, I want to tell you right at this point that the same Hebrew word shiel is translated grave 11 times, and three times it translated pit. The same Hebrew word is translated 11 times as a grave and 3 times as a pit besides the 31 times of its translated hell.
Now I shall explain that is why I read this passage from Genesis chapter 37. But we'll come back to that. Now, when we come to the New Testament, the English word hell, as I said, is found 23 times. It is the translation of three different words. One word is practically the same in meaning in the Greek. as she all is in the Hebrew.
And that's what I want to explain to you tonight. Now, that is the word Hades. Hades. Now, that word is also translated grave once. Ten times translated hell once. It's translated grace. For the sake of simplicity tonight, although I'll include this note, I'm going to pass over the other two Greek words that are translated hail in our Bible, in our New Testament.
I might say this, as I've often mentioned from this booklet and others, an absolutely accurate book it uses the right word in the right place and if tonight we were having more or less of a conversational bible reading i would point out to you how accurate the spirit of god is in using these three different words that are translated hell If he had used them in any different way, it would have been a contradiction of something that is in the Bible.
But with that accuracy that we can expect in a divinely inspired book, each one of these three words for hell in the original is used in just the right place. have then, in our Old and New Testament, taking the different ways in which these words are translated, we have hell referred to by these words a total of around 69 times. Now we could stop and make this point right here.
The Bible then has quite a bit to tell us about hell. If a person says just very scoffingly, I don't believe in hell. You are on good safe grounds to say that you don't believe the Bible. Oh yes, I believe the Bible. Well, how can you believe the Bible when the Bible speaks about hell 69 times and you say you don't believe it they may say if they're sharp enough well but I don't believe that hell is what you believe it is well that's a different thing altogether but to claim that you believe the Bible and also claim you don't believe in hell is a contradiction of terms because as I repeat for emphasis 69 times the Bible speaks about hell now I want to go back to we have
had quite an influx of animals today but these things are expected I have had a lot worse when I've been preaching I want to go back now and take up that, which I referred to, because when you are teaching the Bible, you don't need to evade anything that look like a contradiction.
You don't any deceit or subterfuge at all when you are teaching the Word of God. I long since learned you can face up to every apparent contradiction or difficulty, and you'll find when you get the answer that actually confirms the Word of God. Now I told you that in the Old Testament, the same Greek word, the same Hebrew word, pardon me, is translated, hell, and the grave.
And even the New Testament, the word Hades, is translated, hell, but is also once translated, the grave. now that's what makes the Jehovah's Witnesses claim that hell is the grave if you talk with them for any length of time get round to this they will say but hell is just the grave I want to show you from the word of God it is not and before we look at these scriptures the question naturally arises in your mind, well, why was it translated the grave?
If it isn't the grave as we think of the grave, why is the same Hebrew word and Greek word as well, why are they translated grave some places and not hell every time? Well now, suppose you were a translator of the English Bible. Suppose back in 1611, when our King James Version was translated, you were a translator. Now you were an orthodox Christian. For those men, those scholars who translated our Bible, the King James Version, were undoubtedly, they were orthodox believers in God.
God and Christ and in his word. But as you are translating this, you come across a wicked man going out into shield. Well, you say, well, he went to hell. Of course. And so were you found a wicked man dying And going to Shio, as for instance in Psalm 9, 17, the wicked shall be turned into hell.
Well, you'd have no difficulty. In other words, there is Shio. I might say that both Shio in the Hebrew and Hades in the Greek simply mean the unseen. simply mean the words themselves have no connection whatsoever with happiness or unhappiness, no connection whatsoever with fire or torment or anything at all like that. Shio, the Hebrew word, and Hades the Greek simply mean the unseen world, that which is beyond the grave.
which you can't see with your natural eye, that to which the Spirit goes when the body is put in the grave. Now, your translator then, you come to Psalm 9, 17, and you have the wicked, and they're going to shield. Well, naturally, you say, and you translate, perfectly correct, The wicked shall be turned into hell. But before that, you run into this difficulty in Genesis chapter 37. Because in verse 35, where bereaved and brokenhearted Jacob cries out, I will go down into the grave unto my son mourning.
That word grave is shield. it's just the same as the wicked go into in Psalm 9 17 now you know that Jacob I'm referring to you as one of the translators that we're imagining you will know that Jacob in spite of his failure was nevertheless a believer in God you know that he was in New Testament terms a righteous man you can't put him in hell you feel now that wouldn't be right but nevertheless he says I'll go down to Shio and so unfortunately they translated the word grave here they would have been perfectly correct if they had translated it hell it's unfortunate they didn't just transliterate instead of translating Shil if they just had
transliterated it brought it out of the Hebrew and put it into the English and made it Shil everywhere just the same as baptism is not a translated word if they had translated baptism, they would have had to translate it immersed, submerged. But you see these good brethren who were the translators of our King James didn't believe in immersion. So they just left it in the Greek, baptism. They transliterated it.
It would have been so much better if they had done the same with Sheol and with Hades, and put the righteous in Sheol and the wicked in Sheol too, because that's where the Bible says they go. When a man dies, whoever he is, his body goes in the grave, perchance, but his soul and spirit go out into the unseen, don't they? You've never seen where a soul is. goes. I've never seen where a soul goes. No one's ever seen where a soul goes.
No one ever will see where a soul goes until we're all in eternity. Now this passage here is a favorite verse of Jehovah's Witnesses. And yet the very passage they love to bring up, if you know how to handle it, absolutely false say up and how wrong in their interpretation you see they'll say now look this word grave here is shield the word for hell well if you don't know you take their word for it if you do know you say that you agree that's perfectly correct well then that proves that shield is the grave.
But it proves the very opposite. Will you notice in verse 33, where was Jacob's son? Where did, well, he was alive, we know. But where did Joseph? Where did Jacob think Joseph was? the grave not according to my Bible verse 33 says and he knew it and said it's my son's coat an evil beast hath devoured him Jacob thought his son was in the belly of a beast he didn't think he was buried at all he thought that out there when he saw this blood stained coat.
He thought that out there somewhere a lion or a bear or something had leaped on the young fellow and torn the pieces and eaten them so that he would be his body, not in a grave. That's what broke the old man's heart, that his body, the body of his beloved son wasn't in a grave. It was in the belly of a beast. How would you feel? It would be bad enough to know that your son was dead. But it would be worse to think of him having been devoured by a beast and didn't even have a decent burial.
And yet, now guess this, because when the next Jehovah's Witness goes out on this limb, You cut it off after him, and let him fall down good. Get it. Jacob believes that his son, so far as his body is concerned, is inside some wild beast. But in spite of believing that, he says, I shall go down unto him. Where? Into shield.
You see? He knew that even though Joseph's body might be in the belly of a beast, his soul and spirit were in shield. And he said, that's where I'm going. I'm going to meet my son. meet him, not in the grave, he wasn't there. Neither in actuality nor in the imagination of Jacob. He was going to meet him in the shield, where his soul and spirit were.
You see, Now get that. It's a very proof that Sheol is not the grave. I think that that is quite simple for all to follow. Now there's another word. I want right here to explain this. There is another word employed in our Old Testament that does mean the grave. It's the word it is translated always the grave or sepulchre or a burial place and the proof that that is quite different from shio i'm going to give you the reason i have taken quite some pains to examine every one of these references and I shall give you all this in note form Thursday night in such a way that you'll be able to confirm it yourself.
But here are a few things seven I notice seven things that are not true of Shio. In the Old Testament The place of departed spirit. You never read of it in the plural. That is, you never read of Tushio. What, verse 29 times you read of the grave in the plural. Hebrew, the grave. Now that's understandable. There are millions of graves.
But there's only one place of departed spirit. Now, I'm not talking about the difference between the saved and the unsaved. Yes, I'll get round to that. But the saved and the unsaved go out into the unseen, don't they? So to talk about two unseen would be ridiculous. But to talk about two graves is perfectly sensible. talk about a million graves that's perfectly sensible so that shield and what I'm saying now is true of Hades, hell in the New Testament and the word for grave Nema in the Greek it's just as true in the old as it is in the new and vice versa the brahity is never spoken of as being put in shield.
The body is never spoken of as being put in shield. It's the place of departed spirit. But 37 times you read of the body going into Kiber the grave. There is never any earthly location given. for shield, that it's never located anywhere on the earth. But I found that 32 times you can locate the grave. It tells you where it is. For instance, the grave, the sepulchre, and it's the word Hebrew, in which Abraham buried his wife Sarah, was in the field of Machpelah.
Now you see if it said that Sheol was in the field of Maxilla, why everything that we believe would go up. But it doesn't say that. It never says that Sheol is anywhere on the earth, but it says that the grave is, which again is according to what we know. Another thing I learned in my study was this Sheol is never spoken of as belonging to any individual. That is it's never Abraham Sheol or Sarah's Sheol.
But the grave is how many times? I had to put it down. 44 times you read of the grave of an individual. the keeper of an individual. Now that again is according to our common note. Sheol is never said to be dug or to be made by a man. You can understand that. If we're correct in saying sheol is the unseen world where the spirit goes to, Man couldn't make that.
Man couldn't dig it. But I found men digging a key birth six different times. Digging a year on the earth in preparation for a burial. Nor do you ever read in your Bible of anyone putting someone into shield. But I found on 33 different occasions that they put a certain individual in his key birth, in his grave. Well, there again I say this is just all common knowledge.
When we're talking about a key birth, a grave, it just fits into today's life and today's knowledge and today's practice perfectly. none of these things are true of that which is translated hell. You see? Finally, it never says in the Bible that anyone touches shield. That is, it isn't something you can walk and put your hand on. But I found on five different occasions they either touched the keeper or they were against touching because an Israelite was ceremonially unclean if he touched a grave or a bones of a dead person or even the body of a dead person.
And so you see the Bible with that absolute accuracy that makes us so confident that this is the word of God. It tells us about a place called Hell in our language. Sheol in the Hebrew. Hades in the Greek. And it has none of the characteristics of a grave. But there are seven things about it that are easily understood as characteristic of the unseen world. Where the spirit and the soul of an individual goal.
Now, that, as I say, is illustrated so clearly and simply here by Genesis chapter 37, this incident of Joseph and Jacob. I remember seeing this, I suppose, almost 40 years ago. When I was first saved, when the first foolishness things I did, amongst many since, I gave up a real good easy position in an office and I went out on a harvest excursion to the Canadian West.
I moved in haste and repented at leisure, although you don't get much leisure on a harvest field. But one thing I did that had a little bit of sense to it I took along with me, not only my Bible, but I took along one book. It was called Scriptures of Truth, and it dealt with the supposed difficulty in the Bible. Now, there are other things in it. It's a lot of interesting information about the Bible, and I was just in that first stage of Christianity.
in life where I wanted to know all about the Bible at once. I was working in a place where there was an ungodly bunch that were continually challenging me on my faith in the Bible. They asked me a lot of questions that I couldn't answer. But I'd tell them, well, I don't know the answer to that, but I'll have the answer for it by the more. And I'd have the telephone that night calling up some of the older brethren to find out, well, what does this mean? What does that mean? And then I'd go down to the office next day all charged up to give them their answer.
Well, I wanted to know all I could about the Bible. So I saw this book in the bookstore. I bought it and I took it with me. And I thank God many a time these learned as I read my Bible in those few hours that we got off after a day of 14 and 16 hours on the harvest field one didn't feel a great deal like reading man in fact I think I prayed more for rain during that time to have all my life put together it was the only chance we got to rest but I prayed too hard one time that rain so long that the man put us to digging potatoes and that was worse than harvesting so i just stopped praying about the weather and left that for the lord i knew he'd do a better job but any time that we could get a few minutes i would be reading my bible and reading this book and trying to learn all i could about the bible and i remember well when i came to this explanation of genesis chapter 30
and it opened up to me because one of the things, of course, the men had challenged me on was my belief that I'd been saved from hell. Why is there no such a place as hell? It's just the grave, you die, and that's all there's to it. Well, I knew that wasn't right, but I wanted to be able to show them from the Bible it wasn't right. And so I say this illustrates, I think, very, very clearly between hell and the grave, and that this word shield cannot be translated the grave with accuracy.
Now, now that we have disposed then of this matter distinguishing hell from the grave, let us look a little at the Bible description of hell. Now there's nothing that I know of in the Old Testament to describe Sheel. I don't know anything there that really gives you a description. I think someone was right who said that the Old Testament takes you as far as the grave. And then it leaves you with this impression. Now it's well with those that die righteous and it is ill with those who die without God that's about as far as the Old Testament takes you so far as understanding conditions and eternity you see as Paul wrote to Timothy it was through the death and resurrection of Christ that life and immortality were brought to light to the gospel, not brought into being, no,
but brought to light. And so we have to go to our New Testament for description of hell. And we are indebted to our Lord Jesus Christ for most of that which we know about hell. Now, I was pointing out to you that 23 times in the New Testament, we read about hell. 15 of those are in the words of the Lord Jesus. I've said then that if a person says to you, I don't believe in hell, you are on perfectly safe ground to say, then you don't believe the Bible.
If they say, I don't believe perfectly good faith ground to be able to say it, then you don't believe the Lord Jesus. Oh, yes, I do. Well, how come that the Lord Jesus spoke 15 times out of 23 in the New Testament? He spoke 15 times about hell. That is, the word occurs 23 times Fifteen of those twenty-three are from the lips of our Lord Jesus Christ. And from him we learn almost all that we know about hell.
And I want you to take time with me now just to turn to a few of these passages. They are verses that you should know. I want you to see what the Bible says. not what I have to say the first place I want you to turn is to Matthew chapter 5 and this is our Lord's first reference to this Matthew chapter 5 verse 22 but I say unto you that whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment whosoever shall say to his brother Raka shall be in danger of the council but whosoever shall say thou fools shall be in danger of hell fire now I am not tonight at this time going into an exposition of the meaning of this verse all I point out to you is this which no one can deny Christ associated fire with
hell. There it is. Thou fool shall be in danger of hell fire. Now that's the first time in your Bible that you have any indication, so far as my knowledge goes, that there is fire in hell. I don't know one thing in the Old Testament that says that but here you've got it who said it Jesus Christ hail fire came first of all from the lips of our blessed Lord who himself was the truth and that isn't the only occasion on which he did you might want to turn over in the same gospel to the 18th chapter Just for confirmation, although certainly one reference is enough from our Lord.
Verse, chapter 18, verse 9, Matthew 18, verse 9. And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee. It is better for thee to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire. There again, the only thing I want, now this verse, is for you to see that Jesus Christ said, Hail fire. Now he described that fire, and he's the only one that I know in the Bible that did.
He described it. Turn on to the next gospel, to Mark's gospel, chapter 9. Verse 43 Mark 9 43 And if thy hand offend thee, cut it up. It is better for thee to enter into life maimed than having two hands to go into hell into the fire that never shall be quenched. Who said that? Jesus. Christ. Verse 44 Where there worm dieth not, and the fire is not quench.
Verse 45, if I put offend thee, cut it off, it is better for thee to enter into life, than having two feet to be cast into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched. For 46, where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quench. And if by an eye of envy, pluck it out, is it better for thee to enter the kingdom of God of one eye than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire, where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quench.
Jesus Christ said, the fire is not quench. I just leave it there. There it is. Five times over. I remember many years ago when our brother W.G. Smith of Burlington, I were having some meetings in a certain part of the country and we had children's meetings connected with that. Back in those days, we always used to have children's meetings at least three nights a week and preach every other night in the week.
We were having these children's meetings and we'd assign them some verses to learn. It was an area where they just had, well, the Bible had just been neglected. Well, I remember on one occasion, Father Smith said, no, children, got to learn three verses for next meeting. And some of the children protested. Mr. Smith, we can't learn three verses for one night. You've just been giving us one verse. That's enough that he has got to learn three verses for the next meeting.
And the verses are Mark chapter 9 verses 44, 46, and 48. Personally, I thought at first he was a little heavy on the little top, getting them to memorize three verses, and then I looked to see, and the three verse are just the same. And so when we had our next meeting, every child that knew their verse stood up and slid over three times over where the worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched where the worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched where the worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched and brother smith with his sincerity was just seeking to impress upon them to be for them to belong now I want you to turn back to the first gospel again Matthew chapter 23 and
you'll see something else that our Lord associated with hell I'm just giving you what he says Matthew chapter 23 and verse 33 Ye serpents, degeneration of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell? Our Lord Jesus Christ then, he associated fire with hell. He described that fire as unquenchable, and he associated damnation with hell.
So that on the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ and death, hell is described as a place of fire, unquenchable fire, a place of damnation. Now, I think you described something else that we should look at about this. In Luke's Gospel chapter 12, Verse 4 Luke's Gospel Chapter 12 Verse 4 And I say unto you My friends Be not afraid of them that kill the body And after that Have no more that they can do As a man can kill you But that's all He can even kill you dead But that's all he can do But, says our Lord in verse 5, Well, I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear.
Fear him whom after ye have killed have power to cast into hell. Yea, I say unto you, fear him. Man cannot put you in hell. So you don't need to fear man. kill you, but says the Lord, that's all they can do. But there is one who cannot only kill you, he can put you in hell. Who is that? God. So that our Lord is describing to us that awful place of hell is a place of damnation, of unquenchable fire where God alone can put you.
Now, I think possibly we'll just take a minute or two for me to point out to you the duration of this. How long is it for? And here again we turn back to the first gospel, Matthew, this time to chapter 25. We've established, I think, quite clearly on our Lord's word. that it is a place of fire. Now we read verse 41 of Matthew 25. Then shall they say also unto them on the left hand, depart from me, cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angel.
Everlasting fire. I have pointed this out to some, and they said, oh, yes, Mr. McKay, that may be so. But even though the fire is everlasting, well, you know what happens when you put something in the fire here on Earth? Well, it just burns up. Some things burn longer than others. But they have said to me, but after all, a thing that's put in the fire is consumed. And even if the fire were everlasting, that in itself wouldn't prove that the individuals were going to be in it forever.
And undoubtedly, that's why our Lord gives us verse 46. These shall go into everlasting what? Punishment. You can't punish a person who doesn't exist. The fire is everlasting, and the punishment is everlasting. And so, on the basis of our Lord's word, we can know for sure that the duration of hell is everlasting. Not only in the fire that is there, but in the punishment of those who are unfortunate enough to go there.
You remember our Lord in the 16th chapter of Luke's Gospel? He told us about that great gulf that was fixed between those who were lost and those who were in the place of bliss. So that it was impossible to pass from one place to the other. Surely our Lord is teaching us in that what he's teaching here, that the destiny of a person is irrevocably and eternally sealed once they pass out into eternity.
Now there's very much more. This is, as I think you're already beginning to see, a vast subject. But I have pointed out enough to you I think, to make you realize that you have never realized before, it's on the authority, not only of the Bible, that would be quite enough for me, but it's on the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ that we believe what we do, that there is a place called hell that is a place of punishment of eternal fire and believing that on the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ I feel like the old preacher who had delivered quite a stirring message on Matthew 25 and verse 46 and he'd scarcely gotten through and had come down from a pulpit when a young fellow charged up to him and he said, Mr.
I've got an argument with you. Oh, what's your argument with me, young fellow? I don't believe there's any such place as hell or whether it's eternal punishment. Oh, son, he said, you don't have any argument with me. You've got an argument with the Lord Jesus Christ. You just go and argue with him. He's the one. I didn't like it. I just preached it. And if there's anyone here tonight that doesn't believe in hell, my friend, you haven't got an argument with me at all.
You've got one with Jesus Christ. And if you feel that you're safe in calling Jesus Christ a liar, then my friends, you can suffer the consequences. If you feel that you're safe in saying he didn't know what he was talking about, or he willfully deceived people, then friends, I leave it with you. I can't do any more than just point out to you what God says in his word. There was a preacher who went to hear another preacher one night.
And the man who was preaching somewhere along his message, he used an illustration. He told about a house that was on fire. And the family, the head of the family, the father, was able to get out of the burning house. And he, when he got out, as soon as he got out, he realized that his loved ones weren't out. And he turned around and dashed back into the flaming house. He went to the room where he knew they were, and he discovered it was lost.
But he got back, and he charged shoulder first into that door and smashed it down, picked up his sleeping children and carry them out to safety. My, said the preacher, was sitting down there listening. That's a real illustration of what Jesus Christ did. And so the next time he was preaching, he told about the man who came out of his house, turned around, ran back in, charged into the door, smashed it down, picked up his sleeping children, and carried them out.
And somehow or another, it just didn't seem to go off. He was conscious of that. So when he got home, he said to his wife, he said, wife, what was wrong about that illustration you tonight. He said, I thought it would just clinch my message. But he said, I could tell it just didn't have any effect. Well, she said, honey, you forgot to tell them the house was on fire. You see, she said, they were wondering what was wrong with that fool.
Running at the house and knocking down a door and picking up his sleeping babes and running them out into the night, said you forgot to say the house is on fire. Listen, friends, if there's no fire in hell, I say reverently, God made an awful mistake in sending his son to death. If there's no eternal punishment, Jesus Christ made an awful blunder. in letting them put him to death on the cross of Calvary. Friends, the only explanation of Calvary's cross and the gift of God's love and the death of Jesus Christ is this, but hell is on fire.
And you and I were headed for it. And the only way we could be saved from it was by that blessed one coming down off the throne, going to the cross, giving us all for us that we might be saved. I tonight am saved from hell because Jesus Christ died. I'm saved for heaven, yes, and I'm looking forward to the glories of heaven. and eternity in the likeness of my blessed Redeemer friends I'm going to be there because he saved me from that awful place the Bible calls heaven this is not what I think this is not what I imagine this is not what I was taught in some school this is What your Bible says.
May each one of you act wisely in the light of this. And if you would like personal help before you leave this building, so you'll know that you'll never be lost, never be in hell, I invite you to meet me in the inquiry room, this circle, shall we pray. you