Welcome to From the Pulpit in Classic Sermons.
Each week we bring you a different message
from some of history's greatest speakers in the
Christian faith, and powerful sermons from modern preachers,
too.
This week, we have William Blackburn with his
message, Hell is Real.
The headline in the Metropolitan newspaper simply read,
Man on Fire.
And it was the story of a Midwestern
Union official who had been forced into his
automobile at gunpoint.
He'd been driven to the outskirts of town.
There he'd been drenched in gasoline and set
on fire.
His photograph was in newspapers all across America.
The article told about how horrifying and painful
it was to burn to death.
The article told about a wife and children
that he left behind.
And our hearts were touched, and we sympathized
with a man on fire.
In Chicago several years ago, a school building
burned to the ground.
Eighty-nine children were burned to death, along
with three school teachers.
A newspaper article described it as a glimpse
of hell.
And again our hearts were touched, and again
we sympathized.
Off the coast of New York many years
ago, two ships collided.
One ship was filled with a million gallons
of gasoline.
The explosion that resulted literally set the water
on fire.
Many seamen were lost in the blaze that
day.
A New York paper described it as an
unquenchable, fiery grave.
You see, my dear friends, fire and tragedy
are two words that always go together.
In Franklin County, Arkansas, near my hometown of
Fort Smith, several years ago an oil well
exploded.
Three men were burned very badly.
Two of those men were rushed to the
hospital in Ozark.
There, standing in the emergency room, a woman
who had been a nurse more than 20
years said she had never seen anything like
it.
Here were these two grown men.
Their clothes burned off their body.
They were screaming and wailing and crying as
the flesh on their bones literally melted and
dripped to the floor.
Fire and tragedy are two words that always
go together.
Oh, my dear friends, as awful as those
true stories are, the Bible teaches us there's
something worse than that.
The Bible teaches us that there is coming
a day when every person who has rejected
Christ, they will be cast into a lake
of fire and they will be tormented forever
and ever.
Oh, my dear friends, the most important thing
in your life is to know for sure
that you really are truly born again.
One second after you die, one second after
you drop into the lake of fire, it'll
be too late to say, I thought I
had it right.
Jesus said, And fear not them which kill
the body, but are not able to kill
the soul, but rather fear him which is
able to destroy both soul and body in
hell.
Now, you may be asking, William, why in
the world would you talk about hell?
Well, I want to talk about hell today
for three reasons.
Number one, I want to talk about hell
because it's in the Bible.
Now, do you want your preacher to preach
out of the Saturday Evening Post or the
Reader's Digest or do you want him to
preach the Word of God?
You say, William, we want our preacher to
preach the Word of God.
Well, dear friend, when a man preaches the
Word of God and he preaches the whole
counsel of God, he's got to preach about
heaven and rejoice in it, but he's also
got to preach about hell even though it
breaks his heart.
You see, my dear friends, I haven't been
called to preach what men think and I
haven't been called to preach what a church
thinks and I have not been called to
preach what a denomination thinks, but I've been
called by God to preach what God has
said and God says hell is real.
So, I want to talk about hell, number
one, because it's in the Bible and I'm
a Bible preacher.
But the second reason I want to talk
about hell is I want to wake up
the Christians who are watching.
Oh, my dear friends, there are people all
around us going to hell and most Christians
are asleep.
I mean, everybody watching this program right now,
you know somebody who's going to hell, perhaps
in your own family, maybe your mom or
your dad, your son, your daughter, your brother,
your sister, your uncle, your aunt, somebody at
school, somebody on the job.
But everybody watching knows somebody who's on their
way to hell and we're not motivated.
We're not concerned.
And so today, I want to wake you
up.
I want to motivate you and inspire you
to be burdened for a lost and dying
world.
So, I want to talk about hell, number
one, because it's in the Bible.
And number two, I want to wake up
the Christians who are watching.
But number three, I want to talk about
hell to warn lost sinners.
There are many of you right now who
are watching by television and in the eyes
of God, you are lost.
And what that means is, friends, your heart
beats once and then it's got to get
permission from God to beat again.
There's not a doctor in America who can
guarantee you that you'll even be alive tomorrow.
So, I want to warn you about hell
and I want to beg you to get
saved before it's everlastingly too late.
Many people don't want to hear a sermon
about hell.
Many people think it's wrong to tell people
about the lake of fire.
I had a lady one time in a
very large church come up to me.
She said, William, you seem like a nice
guy.
But she said, you know, that old hellfire
preaching has gone out of style.
She said, you really can't be a success
today with that negative kind of preaching.
She said, if you want to be a
success today, you need to be a positive
preacher.
She said, William, what you really need to
do, you need to preach like Jesus preached.
And I said, well, ma'am, tell me,
how did Jesus preach?
And she looked at me and she smiled,
one of those little smiles that people sometimes
get when they think they know more than
you.
And she said, William, everybody knows Jesus always
preached on love.
Well, I knew right away here was a
lady who didn't know much about Jesus.
Because contrary to popular belief, Jesus Christ didn't
go around talking about love all the time.
In fact, Jesus Christ was an old-fashioned
hellfire preacher.
You say, well, William, how do you know
that?
I know it because Jesus Christ preached on
hell 57 times in the Bible.
He preached on heaven only 24.
Jesus Christ preached on hell 10 times in
the book of Matthew alone.
Jesus Christ preached on hell in the very
first sermon that he ever preached, the Sermon
on the Mount.
Jesus Christ preached on hell in the very
last sermon that he ever preached, the Mount
Olivet Discourse.
Jesus Christ was an old-fashioned fundamental hellfire
preacher.
You know why?
Because Jesus knew there were a lot of
folks that were going to hell.
And Jesus loved those people.
He didn't want them to go to hell,
so he preached about hell to warn them
to flee from the wrath to come.
The Bible says, for what shall it profit
a man to gain the whole world and
lose his own soul?
Here's what Jesus said about hell.
One day he was preaching a message.
He said, here's what hell is like.
He said, there was a rich man.
The rich man died and he went to
hell.
Now, don't miss the point.
He didn't go to hell because he was
rich.
He went to hell because he was lost.
And Jesus said, there was a poor man.
The poor man died and he went to
heaven.
He didn't go to heaven because he was
poor.
He went to heaven because he was saved.
And Jesus Christ said, there's a contrast here
in lifestyles.
These men had different lives, different deaths, and
different eternities.
And Jesus said, if you'll study the lives
of these two men, you can learn what's
really important here on planet earth.
The first man was a rich man.
The Bible says he wore purple robes and
fine linen and fared sumptuously every day.
Now, that purple robe he wore was an
indication of wealth and religion.
In those days, only the most wealthy people
could afford the purple dye to have a
purple robe.
So this man was a very wealthy man.
Perhaps he was a businessman.
He obviously had a house and a garage
for three or four chariots.
He had everything the world says it takes
to be happy.
In fact, the Bible says he fared sumptuously
every day.
Now, let me translate that for you into
Arkansas.
That means he ate high on the hog.
I mean, anything this old boy wanted to
eat or drink, service weighed on him hand
and foot.
He was a rich man.
He was also a religious man.
That purple robe he wore indicated he was
a man who believed in God.
He might have been a church member, a
deacon, a Sunday school teacher.
He was a man who believed in God.
He was a man who thought he knew
God.
But when the rich man died, Jesus said,
he went straight to hell.
His big house, his cars, his influence in
the community didn't keep him out of hell.
His church membership did not keep him out
of hell.
When the rich man died, Jesus said, he
went straight to hell.
Now, the poor man was different.
The poor man didn't have anything of what
the world says it takes to be happy.
Why, he didn't have a place to sleep.
He had to sleep out there by the
front gate of the rich man's house.
He didn't have any food.
He had to eat the crumbs that would
fall from the rich man's table.
He didn't even have any friends.
Why, the only friends he had were the
dogs that would come and lick the sores
on his body.
This man had absolutely nothing of what the
world says it takes to be happy.
But he had a lot of what God
says it takes to be happy.
Because when the poor man died, he went
to heaven.
Now, do you see the contrast?
Here's a man on earth who has everything,
but when he dies, he has nothing.
Here's another man who has nothing, but when
he dies, he has everything.
The Bible puts it this way, For what
shall it profit a man to gain the
whole world and yet lose his own soul?
Oh, I imagine the funerals were something.
I imagine the headline in the Jerusalem Gazette
said, Rich prominent businessman passes away.
They probably had to get the biggest auditorium
in town so people could come to the
funeral.
They probably had the rich man in a
coffin that was worth thousands of dollars.
The place was probably packed.
Every big shot in town was there.
Oh, the mayor was there.
The police chief, the fire chief, the school
board, the city council, all the religious leaders,
all the business leaders were there to pay
their respects to this rich prominent businessman who
just passed away.
Some of the men probably stood out there
in the foyer and talked in little quiet
voices about what a good man he was.
They probably said things like this, You know,
he was a very wealthy man, but you
know what?
He was always helping less fortunate people.
Somebody would say, yeah, you know, he was
on the school board for 15 years.
He was on the city council for 20
years while he was president of the United
Way three different times.
And they would say, yeah, you know, he
was a member of that church down the
street always talking about God.
And they all agreed, my, my, my, this
man's going to be missed.
And little did they know that as they
bragged on this man and honored this man
and reverenced this man, Jesus said, this man's
in hell being tormented by the flame.
Now, the poor man was different.
The poor man, he probably died out there
by the front gate of the rich man's
house.
Perhaps one day he was so beat up
by the world, so exhausted, he just gave
up the ghost.
Perhaps the servants of the rich man came
out that morning and at first they thought
it was just some old bum asleep on
the boss's sidewalk.
So they went out there to run him
off.
They probably kicked him a couple of times
trying to wake him up.
Then they saw he was dead.
They probably reached down and dragged him by
the ankles and dragged him out to a
field somewhere and just dropped him into a
hole because after all, he was nobody.
Nobody to the world, that is, but he
was somebody to God.
Jesus said the angels came.
The angels came and escorted him into the
very presence of God.
For what shall it profit a man to
gain the whole world and yet lose his
own soul?
Friend, what good does it do if you've
got the biggest house in town, the finest
car that money can buy, a pile of
money in the bank, and you're the biggest
big shot in town?
If you die and go to hell, it
profits you nothing.
Well, the rich man died and he went
to hell.
He learned three things about hell.
Number one, he learned the certainty of hell.
He learned that hell is real.
Now dear friends, we live in a day
when folks don't believe in hell anymore.
And I'm not talking about outside the church.
I'm talking about inside the church.
People inside the church don't believe in hell
anymore.
Many preachers don't preach on hell anymore.
But dear friends, I want to tell you,
men may have changed their mind, but God
has not changed His mind.
And it's true, preaching on hell has cooled
off, but friend, hell is as hot as
it ever was.
And this man in our story might have
been one of those guys that didn't believe
in hell.
Maybe he debated back and forth, is there
really a hell?
I mean, how could a God of love
send somebody to hell?
And anyway, how can you have flame and
darkness at the same time?
But dear friends, one second after he died,
the debate was over.
One second after he drew that last breath,
the theological discussion came to an end.
And he found out what the Bible says
is true.
Let God be true in every man, a
liar.
He found that hell was a real place
where real people go when they die without
Jesus.
The second thing he learned about hell was
this.
He learned about the character of hell.
He learned what hell was really like.
The Bible describes hell as a lake of
fire, a bottomless pit, outer darkness, a place
where the worm dieth not, a place where
the fire is never quenched, a place where
men have no rest.
Jesus Christ said this.
Jesus said, listen, hell is such an awful
place that if your hand is going to
make you go to hell, cut it off.
Jesus said hell is such a terrifying place
that if your foot was going to make
you go to hell, cut it off.
Jesus said hell is such an awful place
that if your eye was going to make
you go to hell, pull your eyeball out.
Jesus Christ said you'd be far, far better
off to go through this life maimed with
one hand, one foot, and one eye rather
than be dragged into a place where the
fire is never quenched and the worm dieth
not.
The third thing that the rich man learned
about hell, he learned about the citizens of
hell.
He learned what kind of people go to
hell.
Revelation 21 verse 8 says, But the fearful,
the unbelieving, the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers,
and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars shall
have their part in the lake which burned
with fire and brimstone, which is the second
death.
You say, well, William, I'm not on that
list.
I'm not a murderer, or a robber, or
a whoremonger, or an adulterer.
I'm not on the list.
But dear friend, the second name mentioned by
God is unbeliever.
You see, God puts unbelievers in the same
category as murderers.
God puts unbelievers in the same categories as
those who practice witchcraft.
God puts unbelievers in the same category as
the most vile, wicked sinners the world has
ever known.
Now, what does it mean to be an
unbeliever in God's eyes?
Oh, my friend, you can believe in God
and be an unbeliever.
You can believe in Jesus and be an
unbeliever.
See, to be a believer in the Lord
Jesus Christ means you don't believe facts with
your head.
It means you have committed your life to
Christ.
You have surrendered your will to Christ.
You have become one with Jesus.
And, my friend, if you have not been
born again the way the Bible says to
be born again, then you are an unbeliever,
and unbelievers go to hell.
When does hell begin?
The minute a man dies without Jesus.
No purgatory, no soul sleep, no second chance.
A man draws that last breath without Jesus,
he goes straight to a devil's hell.
But, my friend, listen to me.
I did not come to glorify hell.
I have come to glorify the one that
saves from hell, and that is Jesus Christ.
Yes, the Bible teaches that there is a
hell.
And the Bible teaches that we deserve to
go to hell.
But the Bible says that God has mercy
on us.
And so God has sent his Son to
save us.
And the whole story of the Bible is
God's plan to reconcile sinful man with himself.
You see, the story of the Bible is
we have broken all of God's laws.
We have rebelled against God.
We've lived a selfish and self-centered life.
And the wages of sin is death.
But the Bible says God has sent his
Son to save us.
And what Jesus did simply is he took
all of our sin upon himself, and he
said, Father, I'll take their place.
You can punish me for what they've done.
So Jesus took our sins, and he took
our place.
He went to a cross, and on that
cross he died paying for our sin debt.
He suffered hell on that cross so that
we could enjoy heaven.
He died.
He was buried in a tomb.
And after three days, God raised him from
the dead.
He's alive today, and one day he's coming
back.
And the Bible says God gives every man
a choice.
A man can turn from his sin and
place his faith in Christ and be forgiven,
be saved.
Or a man can reject Jesus and hang
on to his sin.
But that condemns him to hell for all
eternity.
Oh, my friend, listen today.
If you were to die today, where would
you spend eternity?
Would you spend it in a place called
heaven?
Or would you spend it in a place
called hell?
You see, Jesus said when the poor man
died, that angels came to escort him into
the very presence of God.
Charles Spurgeon, the famous English preacher, said that
he believed the purpose of demons was to
come to a lost man when he died
to drag his soul into hell.
Thomas Paine, the great revolutionary soldier, Thomas Paine
was an atheist.
Thomas Paine said there is no God.
But when Thomas Paine got on his deathbed,
he lifted up his head, and the last
words of old Thomas Paine are these.
He said, can't you men see the head
of that demon at the foot of my
bed?
He's come to drag me to the pit.
Are demons real?
Yes, they are.
Are demons sent by Satan to deceive men
and women?
Yes, they are.
You would have been amazed.
If you had been in a big convention
there in Ocean City, New Jersey, a big
youth rally, 5,000 kids in attendance, a
young girl comes forward screaming and crying and
wailing.
She says, I've read the Satanic Bible through
six times.
I told them I wanted to join the
witch's coven.
She said, people don't believe that demons are
real.
But she said, I know they're real.
I've seen them with my own eyes.
Morris Rollins, a medical doctor, a cardiologist, wrote
a book called Through Death's Door.
One chapter's titled Descending into Hell.
In that book, he talks about a young
girl who had overdosed on drugs.
They had her in the emergency room on
the operating table trying to save her life.
She kept screaming, saying, Mama, help me.
Mama, help me.
They're pulling at me.
They're tugging at me.
They're trying to get me.
Please, Mama, help me.
Help me.
She died.
They pronounced her dead.
They were able to bring her back to
life by means of resuscitation.
Two weeks later, she went through a hypnotic
session, said the very same thing, that demons
had come to drag her to the pit.
Oh, we don't believe that, do we?
Oh, but my dear friends, if today in
God and His mercy and grace would roll
back the covers of hell and let us
peer in for 30 seconds, I promise you,
it would change your theology.
A few years ago, I did a revival
at West Memphis, Arkansas.
On a Wednesday night, there were about 1
,200 people there, including 300 teenagers.
There were two young men in the middle
of those teenagers dressed in solid black.
They were professing witches from the local high
school.
As I poured out my heart that night
in begging people to come to Christ, as
I was preaching, a young teenage boy there
in West Memphis named Damian Echols and he
and two of his high school buddies were
out in West Memphis, Arkansas, murdering three little
eight-year-old boys in satanic sacrifice.
And everywhere I go across America, I see
Satanism and demonology and witchcraft.
And my friend, the devil is alive and
well.
And what the devil wants more than anything
else is to drag your soul to hell.
William Booth of the Salvation Army fame was
talking to a group of graduating preachers one
day.
And he told these young men, he said,
Young men, I wish we didn't have to
send you to school for several years to
learn how to serve God.
He said, If I had my way, we
wouldn't do it like this.
He said, If I had my way, what
I would do to train young preachers is
this.
He said, I'd take you into hell for
24 hours, let you get a vision of
hell, then we could bring you back, we
could evangelize the world.
You know, as an evangelist, I get invitations
all the time to go to mission trips.
I get invitations to go to Russia or
the Philippines or Brazil or India.
I'm always getting invitations to go to faraway
places to tell people how to be saved.
But, you know, the mission trip I'd really
like to take, I'd like to come over
here in America and I'd like to get
a bunch of greyhound buses.
And I'd like to fill them up with
old backslidden church members.
Then I'd like to take those greyhound buses
into hell for about 24 hours.
Watch those old backslidden church members, watch a
few lost people burn in hell.
Let them see that the flame is real.
Let them see that the torment is real.
Let them get a smell of the stench
of hell.
Let them get a sense of the hopelessness
of hell because when a man goes to
hell, he doesn't get out.
We could bring those old backslidden church members
back to America.
We could evangelize this place if Christians could
just get a vision of hell.
I promise you, it will change your life.
And these shall go into everlasting punishment, but
the righteous into life eternal.
My friend, it is true that hell is
an awful place and an awful subject to
talk about.
But the good news of the Bible is
a person doesn't have to go to hell
because God has done everything necessary to save
you.
You can be saved from hell right here,
right now if you'll turn your life over
to Christ.
See, the Bible says the whole story is
that you have sinned against God.
If you will agree with God that you're
a sinner, if you'll simply say, God, you're
right and I'm wrong, but God, I want
to repent.
I want to change my mind.
I want to turn away from my rebellion.
And I want to take Jesus as my
God, my Lord, my Savior.
I want to commit everything I have to
Him.
If you'll do that right now, God will
save your soul.
Why don't you kneel right where you are
and pray with me and commit your life
to Christ.
Let God save your soul right here, right
now.
You don't have to go to hell.
You don't have to be separated from God
for eternity.
You can be saved, born again right where
you are and one day spend eternity in
heaven.
If God is speaking to your heart and
you want to be saved, pray with me
right now.
Just pray, Lord Jesus, I know that I'm
a sinner.
I know I've broken your laws.
I know I'm lost.
I know I cannot save myself.
But God, I believe you love me.
And I believe Jesus died for me to
pay for all my sin.
The best I know how, I repent.
I turn away from my sin and I
receive Jesus as my Lord and Savior.
I commit my life to Him.
I believe in my heart that God has
raised Him from the dead.
Forgive me of my sin, Lord.
Come into my heart and save me.
You have been listening to the From the
Pulpit and Classic Sermon Series.
This week you heard William Blackburn with his
message, Hell is Real.
Tune in next week to hear A.W.
Tozer talk about miracles that follow the plow
on the From the Pulpit and Classic Sermons.