I want to bring this evening a second
and concluding message upon the subject that we
commenced last Lord's Day.
The burning hell which Jesus preached.
This is an answer to an Ulster television
program specially designed to pour storm and ridicule
upon the teaching of the Word of God.
And of course, as I said last Lord's
Day, the powers that be in Havlock House
saw to it that no strong, fundamentalist, Bible
-believing Ulster preacher would have the opportunity in
this program to state clearly what the Bible
really teaches.
And we passed words of condemnation upon the
principal of the Irish Baptist College who appeared
upon the program and was very weak indeed
upon this subject of hellfire.
Now I showed you last Lord's Day from
the Word of God that the Lord Jesus
Christ thought that there was literal fire in
hell.
We saw that hell was a place, and
what an awful place it is.
So under John the Baptist, raising both hands
to heaven and looking over the great clouds
that swung to his ministry at the bank
of Jordan, cried with pumped voice, Flee!
Flee from the wrath to come!
Why did he utter such words with such
zeal and such fire and such passion?
I'll tell you why.
Because he knew that hell was a real
place.
And we went down the Word of God
last Sunday and we showed you that Jesus
taught that hell was a literal place.
That Jesus taught that hell was a place
of torment.
And that Jesus taught that hell was a
place of literal fire.
I want to carry on this message this
evening.
And I want to show you from the
Word of God that the very character of
hell as described in the Bible makes it
imperative that it is a place of literal
fire.
And if you deny the literalness of the
fire of hell, then you must deny the
literalness of the place called hell itself.
Now we're turning to the Word of God.
This is the sole rule of faith and
practice.
We're not going to some tom of theology.
We're not going to some volume written by
some philosopher.
We're not going to the reasoning of the
schools.
We're going to the infallible Book and to
the infallible Christ.
What saith the Scriptures?
What saith the Bible?
What saith the Lord Jesus Christ?
And we are an apology, a Bible-believing
church and a Bible-preaching church.
That's all we preach.
We preach the Word of God.
You want to know what we preach?
Here it is.
The blessed Word of God.
Hallelujah for the Book.
Amen.
We've got authority to that.
We're standing where Christ stood.
That's why we're strong.
That's why this church is growing.
That's why God has blessed us.
We received into our membership this morning 36
new members.
That's why.
Because the Lord's blessings.
Saving people.
Why?
Because we preach the Word.
There's nothing formal about this church.
You already know that, of course.
If there was anything formal about it, I
would be the first one to step on
it.
I don't believe in formality.
I believe in the fire.
That's what I believe in.
Formality kills you, but the fire warms you.
And by the look of some of you,
you need warmth.
So we're going to warm you tonight.
Yes.
Praise the name of the Lord.
Now, let's look at the Bible.
And remember what I'm showing.
That the character of hell proves that hell
is a place of literal fire.
And I'm going down through the characteristics of
the place called hell.
Now, first of all, Luke's Gospel, chapter 16.
And I want to show you some things
here for a moment or two.
I want to show you that there is
a call here for literal water.
What use would literal water be if there
was not literal fire in hell?
Hell is a place where men have their
senses.
What senses?
Physical senses.
They see.
They hear.
They feel.
They thirst.
They're in pain.
And they cry for water.
There's no literal fire in hell.
Then, friend, you've got to destroy the literalness
of the body prepared for the judgment.
It's all here in Luke 16, isn't it?
And let me tell you that Luke 16
is not a parable.
Luke 16 is a historical record given by
the infallible Christ of a certain rich man.
He didn't say a symbolical rich man.
He said a certain rich man.
And he actually named the name of the
beggar Lazarus.
Now, look at it.
It says the rich man also died and
was buried.
There's nothing about the burial of Lazarus.
Because, my friend, as I showed you this
morning, you can't really bury a Christian.
A Christian's body is not buried.
A Christian's body is sown.
When you go out to sow, you expect
a resurrection, don't you?
So you don't bury the Christian's body, thank
God you sow it.
It's sown in dishonor.
It's going to be raised in honor.
I was out visiting in the Musgrave Park
Hospital this afternoon.
I was with a brother.
He said to me, going down the Lisburn
Road, he said, I'd love to go and
see the tomb of Dr. Henry Cook.
I said, well, you're just beside it.
Just turn back and I'll take you there.
So I took him into the Malone Burying
Ground.
And, you know, many of the great old
Revival preachers, Hugh Hanna, James Edgar, Henry Cook,
were all buried there.
And my brother said to me, he said,
Why, there'll be a stir here on the
day of resurrection.
And so there will be.
These men rise in the resurrection of the
just.
The body of the believer is not buried,
it's only sown.
So when you lift the Belfast telegraph, and
there will have three-inch black headlines that
day that Ian Pearsley is dead, you'll know
it's a lie.
Because I'll be living more than I ever
lived.
I'll really be living.
You'll know that.
And you know the telegraph couldn't tell the
truth about me even if they tried anyway.
So there you are.
They rang me up some time ago, and
I said, What are you ringing me for?
He says, We heard you were shot.
And we wanted to confirm it.
I said, That's right, you wanted to confirm
it, all right.
He says, I am not shot.
And I have no intention of letting anybody
shoot me either.
Good afternoon.
Amen.
It wasn't a dialogue, it was a monologue.
Now, when you get down to this portion
of Scripture, you'll find the rich man was
buried.
And in hell he lift up his eyes.
And in hell he's calling for what?
He's calling for Lazarus, that he may dip
the tip of his finger in water and
cool my tongue.
For I am tormented in this flame.
Did the rich man see in hell?
Yes.
He woke up.
He lift up his eyes.
That's the first time he woke up.
He was sleeping while he lived.
But in hell he lift up his eyes.
Thank God for man that could wake up
in time and could see it.
And friend, if you have never awakened to
see you're a lost, perishing sinner in God's
name, wake it up tonight.
He saw.
He heard.
He thirsted.
He felt.
He cried.
There was a flame and he wanted water.
Friend, when I go to Calvary and I
stand under the shadow of the cross, I
hear a cry from Calvary, I thirst.
I thirst.
And I know that my Savior was enduring
my hell for me at the cross.
He thirsted that you might never thirst.
He was God-forsaken that you might never
be God-forsaken.
He suffered physical anguish on the tree that
you might be delivered from wrath to come.
And from the depths of our heart we
cry, Hallelujah!
What a Savior!
He has delivered us from wrath to come.
Saved them from going down to the pit.
For I have found the ransom.
Don't you see the character of hell here?
It's stamped with literalness.
And to be called for water, it was
literal fire.
I want to tell you, friends, soul anguish
wouldn't be soothed with water.
Anguish that's spiritual could not be soothed with
something that's physical.
But in hell there's not only eternal anguish
and mental anguish and bitter remorse, but there's
bodily, physical sufferings in hell.
You know why?
Because the body is the instrument of sin.
That's why.
And God will punish the instrument of sin.
You have sinned in your body.
You'll pay for it in eternity.
The very body you've sinned in.
The very instrument that was used for sin
will bear the curse of God.
And thank God this instrument that has been
redeemed and used for God's service, it will
bear the glory of the Lord.
Let's look a second time at the Word.
Let's turn to Matthew, his Gospel.
Matthew's Gospel, chapter 13, verse
42.
And shall cast them into a furnace of
fire.
There shall be wheeling and gnashing of teeth.
And you go down, my friend, to verse
50.
And we read these words.
And shall cast them into the furnace of
fire.
No other furnace like this furnace.
This is unique.
This is the lake of fire.
This is the final great house of imprisonment
for damned souls.
Now I've talked to men who have a
bitter soul trouble.
I've gone into homes and the hearts of
the father and mother were torn because of
some grief that settled down in their inmost
being.
But I never saw yet a man gnash
his teeth because of mental pain.
Mental pain, my friend, does not affect the
body in that way.
But I've gone through the hospital wards.
I've seen men with broken limbs and torn
ligaments and fractured and smashed and broken bodies.
And as they lay in pain, I've seen
them gnash their teeth.
Why?
Because they were suffering physical torment.
And my friend, this torment that's here is
physical.
They gnash their teeth in hell.
Wailing and gnashing of teeth.
This is why we're concerned, sinner of Budger.
This is why this church runs on prayer.
This is why the preacher pleads with the
people to pray for him.
This is why the preacher, before he preaches,
bows the knee and says, God help me.
Why?
Because my congregation is in danger of the
weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth in
hell's literal flame forevermore.
I'm not here to question what Jesus said.
I'm here to proclaim it.
I'm not here to argue.
The gospel is not an argument.
The gospel is a declaration.
I've got to declare it.
Oh my friend, tonight you're listening to me
and you're in danger of gnashing of teeth
down in hell.
Tell you something else, friend.
Hell is characterized by something else.
Matthew 8 and 12.
But the children of the kingdom shall be
cast out into utter darkness.
In hell they call for literal water because
it's a literal flame.
In hell they gnash their teeth because it's
physical torment.
Hell is described as utter darkness.
Ah, says the old critic of the Bible,
I've got you now.
How could fire be darkness?
If you say that, you're only showing your
own ignorance.
For the greatest heat known in science is
the dark flame.
The greatest heat is darkness.
Let me give you this statement.
Luminosity is vibration of the ether.
Light is a wave of ether driven hard.
But let the waves be driven faster and
faster.
The sight, sense, feels that take in the
luminosity.
And what is light becomes darkness.
And what a darkness.
A sound higher than the register of your
ear can take becomes silence.
And what a silence.
The silence of an ear burst.
The darkness, an eye blindness.
There are chemicals that give forth no light
when they burn.
But they pierce and bite to the bone.
Blister and kill with no light at all.
Only the blackness of darkness.
And the blackness of darkness is the worst
possible flame.
And the writer says, the black depths of
the bottomless pit absorb all the red rays
of the wrath of God.
But they remain black with the blackness of
darkness forever.
The Bible is right scientifically.
It will stand any test.
Jesus knew what He was talking about.
He made every flame ever know.
When He talked about the blackness of darkness
forever, He was talking facts to be plunged
into hellfire.
You know what the old book says upon
the wicked?
He shall reign snares, fire and brimstone shall
be the portion of their cup.
There is man tonight in eternity.
And their cup is a cup brimful with
bliss and happiness.
I have seen the righteous die.
And I have said, let me die the
death of the righteous.
Let my last end be like them.
And our loved ones in heaven are drinking
the cup of bliss and peace and happiness.
Friends, I am there I loved long ago.
Joy like a river around them does flow.
And just a smile from the Savior I
know is for them eternal glory.
But friend, there is another cup.
A cup of wrath upon the wicked.
He shall reign snares, fire, brimstone.
This shall be the portion of their cup.
You would not drink the cup of salvation,
but you will drink forever the cup with
the dregs of damnation, friend.
You would not join in singing of the
song of redemption.
But some of you, my hearers, how can
I say it?
But my God, it is true that they
will not repent.
They shall will the groanings of the damned
in hell.
Man without Christ, woman without Christ tonight, get
on your knees and ask God to save
you from the darkness of blackness forever.
If this was only the statement of a
preacher, you could shrug your shoulders and go
home tonight.
If this was only a school of theology's
thought, you could shrug your shoulders and go
home.
But friend, this is the statement of the
blessed Savior.
And He came all the way from heaven
to tell you and to warn you.
And then He sealed His testimony in the
bloodshedding of Calvary.
Oh, how can you reject His message?
How can you be so filled with folly
as to stagger on down the road to
the abyss of the damned?
Man without Christ, woman without Christ tonight, get
on your knees and cry to God for
mercy.
The time is short.
Eternity is long.
Long it never ends.
If there was some escape door from the
bottomless pit, if I could say to you,
my hearers, tonight, that after ten million billion
years that hope would revive, that a star
would appear in the darkness of hell, that
there would come a morning in this terrible
night, you would have some hope, but no
star will ever arise in the dark night
of hell.
There will be no morning to the black
night of perdition.
And you are lost!
You are lost forever!
Forever stumped on the locks of hell!
Forever stumped on the chains of hell!
Forever burned on the walls of the pit!
Forever is the message across the horizon of
perdition!
It is forever.
Forever.
And forever.
May God have mercy upon you, sinner.
May you awaken to see your need.
May you come to the blood tonight, and
to the cross tonight, and to God's place
of pardon, and God's place of peace.
You know, these Jehovah Witnesses, these false cultists,
they come along and they say, death means
annihilation, destruction means annihilation, perdition means annihilation.
You have nothing to worry about.
Don't be fooled, friend.
Oh, friend!
There's too much at stake to be fooled!
Let me show you from the Word of
God what perdition means, what destruction means, what
death means, so that you can be absolutely
sure if you have your testament.
Turn with me now to the book of
the Revelation.
Revelation chapter 17, and verse 8.
The beast that thou sawest was and is
not, and shall ascend out of the bottomless
pit and go into perdition.
And they that dwell on the earth shall
wonder whose names were not written in the
book of life from the foundation of the
world, when they behold the beast that was
and is not, and yet is.
Would you look at that?
Into perdition.
Now the word that's translated perdition there is
the same word that's translated elsewhere, destruction.
I want to show you what perdition and
destruction is.
Come to Revelation 19.
Revelation 19.
And verse 20 says they shall go into
perdition.
Now what's perdition?
Here's what it is.
Revelation 19, 20.
And the beast was taken, and with him
the false prophet that wrought miracles before him,
with which he deceived them that received the
mark of the beast, and them that worshiped
his image.
These both were cast alive into a lake
of fire, burning with brimstone.
They went to perdition.
They were destroyed.
What does God mean by perdition?
What does God mean by destruction?
God means the lake of fire.
All right, you saved preacher.
You go to the lake of fire, and
you're burned up.
You're annihilated, and that's it all.
Oh, don't be deceived, Frank.
God has made it clear.
Turn to the next chapter.
Revelation chapter 20 and verse 10.
And in chapter 20, there's a thousand year
period.
A thousand years between the sending of the
false prophet and the sending of the beast
into the lake of fire.
And at the end of the thousand years,
the devil, look at it, verse 10, and
the devil that deceived them was cast into
the lake of fire.
Look at it.
Where the beast and the false prophet were.
It doesn't say that.
Where the beast and false prophet are.
They're still there.
They're still being tormented.
A thousand years have passed, and they're still
being tormented in hell.
Oh, this is terrible, isn't it?
This is the Word of God.
You can make sure, friend, that hell is
not annihilation.
Yes, and they come along and they say
death's annihilation, isn't it?
You turn to chapter 21 and verse 8.
What does it say there?
Look at it.
The fearful, unbelieving, abominable murderers, whoremongers,
sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their
part in the lake which burneth with fire
and brimstone.
This is the second death.
So perdition, destruction, and the second death are
all one and the same.
And what are they?
They are eternal, conscious, tormented in the lake
of fire.
There's no annihilation in the book of Acts.
It's not there.
God says what He means, and God means
what He says.
My, you turn over, my friend, in the
book of Revelation to Revelation 14 and verse
10 and 11.
And it says the smoke of their torment.
Listen to this.
Verse 10, the same shall drink of the
wine of the wrath of God.
The wine of the wrath of God.
It's what you're going to drink, friend.
Unseated with it.
That's your cup forever.
And what does it say?
He shall be tormented with fire and brimstone
in the presence of the holy angels and
in the presence of the Lamb.
And the smoke of their torment ascendeth forever
and ever.
Look at it.
And they have no rest day nor night.
No rest in hell.
It's conscious, physical, never-ending torment in physical
fire forever.
And don't sinner be foolish enough to mock
it, lest ye taste it sooner than ye
expect.
Let's bow our hands.