Oh great God, I come to you now
in the name of thy dear son, Jesus.
There may be someone here who's never been
regenerated and they're yet a stranger to saving
faith in Christ.
I pray great God that you open hearts
tonight.
I pray that you come among us this
evening with your presence and disturb folks.
I pray these things in the strong name
of Jesus.
Amen.
Well, I've got a very alarming sermon tonight
friends.
It's alarming because I have a burden for
your souls.
I don't want you to go to hell.
There may be someone here who's one foot
away, one step away from dropping into hell.
Listen to me.
Most folks are not concerned about going to
hell when they die.
Most folks believe they are going to heaven
because most folks believe in an imaginary God
that's all love and mercy and tolerant towards
sin.
Third God, you're just like them.
Third God would never send anyone to hell
and if hell did exist, it's just a
place to party with your friends.
That's what a lot of people think.
I was watching a TV interview with Freddie
Mercury, the lead singer for the rock band
Queen and the TV interviewer asked Freddie Mercury
if he thought he'd go to heaven when
he died and this rock star arrogantly sneered
at that question and replied, I don't want
to go to heaven.
I'd much rather go to hell.
You'll be much more fun there.
Well, he's going to go there and party
when he dies he thinks.
Well, he got his wish but I guarantee
you friends he's not having fun.
Tonight we will discuss the reality of hell
and the aspects of hell.
Why it is a region of darkness and
suffering and misery and you never ever want
to go there.
Get the wax out of your ears and
listen to me this evening friends.
We are very confused about God in heaven
today.
We are very confused about the lost in
hell.
We've blurred the lines between reality and fiction.
We think good people go to a place
called heaven only because of their goodness and
only really bad people like serial killers and
sociopaths go to a place called hell.
Next time you watch a movie or TV
show where someone dies and they'll say well
he's up there looking over us now or
old grandfather is reunited with grandmother now and
they are happy.
Everybody goes to heaven and we say that
because we believe God would not send a
hard-working decent honest person who loved people
to hell.
Society believes when a Hollywood entertainer dies they
go to heaven because of all the joy
and happiness they brought people.
Surely God wouldn't send our favorite celebrity to
hell because our God just won't act that
way but that's not the God of the
Bible friends.
The God of the Bible sends all rebels
to hell.
Listen to me the objective of this sermon
is to get your attention to get you
focused off of this world to get you
focused on eternity so that you'll be afraid
of going to hell and you'll be crowded
to Christ for forgiveness of sin.
You don't want to go to hell friend.
Hell is a region of unspeakable horrors.
There is an unseen world all around us
in 2nd Kings.
We have verification of this in 2nd Kings
chapter 6 we read and when the servant
of the man of God was risen early
and gone forth behold a host compassed the
city both with horses and chariots and his
servant said unto him alas my master how
shall we do and he answered fear not
for they that be with us are more
than they that be with them and Elisha
prayed and said Lord I pray thee open
his eyes that he may see and the
Lord opened the eyes of the young man
and he saw and behold the mountain was
full of horses and chariots of fire round
about Elisha there is an unseen world friends
of angels and demons all around us I
once knew a satan worshiper and I asked
him how he became a satan worshiper and
he took the time he took a whole
hour to share with me about his life
and how his eyes were opened to the
unseen world I'll never forget it I asked
him to tell me a story and this
is what he said he said it all
began when he was listening to rock music
and one night while listening to a certain
rock album he had a desire to pray
to the devil so he prayed to the
devil and he began to pray to the
devil on a regular basis and one night
in his bedroom a presence came into his
room it was a demonic visitor the demon
had an ancient name and he was hideous
to look at but he spoke with authority
and he asked the young man if he
wanted to go further in satan's kingdom and
he said yes so the demon gave him
instructions that evening that after midnight he was
to drive his pickup truck to a neighboring
farm out in the country and there he
was ordered to steal a goat and to
take that goat to a wooded forest where
he would build a fire and then take
a knife and slit the goat's throat and
then place that carcass on the fire as
an offering to his satanic majesty and if
he did this then he would be rewarded
the young man did exactly as he was
told he carried out the plan he went
to the farm he stole a goat he
took it to the woods he killed it
he sacrificed the goat to the devil himself
the next evening this same demon entity visited
this young man in his bedroom and he
asked the young man if he would like
to receive his reward for worshiping satan he
said yes and the demon told him he
had the power to open his eyes to
the unseen world the demon spoke some ancient
words in a language that the young man
didn't understand but suddenly scales fell off his
eyes his eyes were opened to the unseen
world this young man told me he could
see demons everywhere when he went to the
mall he saw demons walking beside the shoppers
in the mall he saw demons walking up
and down city streets in a crowd everywhere
he went this young man saw demons and
he said that when he visited the city
of rome it was terrifying because he was
shocked to see the city of rome literally
crawling with hordes and hordes of demons i
believe that young man was telling me the
truth and i know there are demons in
this world i know it for a fact
because i used to live in a haunted
house when i was a young teenager my
family moved into a very haunted house our
first week in that little home we were
sitting in the living room watching tv and
all of a sudden we heard above us
loud footsteps walking up and down the hall
we all looked at each other startled and
my father tried to laugh it off by
saying spooks but we soon discovered it was
no laughing matter one time while we were
sitting downstairs we heard those footsteps they went
plop plop plop and i ran upstairs to
see if i could find an intruder but
there was no one there there was no
one at least that i could see that
house had something terrible in it terrible entities
but the worst thing of all happened occasionally
there was a stairwell some people call them
a safe room where you go a storm
closet beneath the stairway well it bothers me
to even talk about it but one time
i was home alone and all of a
sudden a pounding started on that door a
pounding a pounding and one time it was
so hot in that house and i was
home alone it was summertime the ac window
units were on the brink and it was
like 110 degrees in that little home and
all of a sudden i heard that pounding
on that door well i ran over to
it i grabbed that crystal doorknob i yanked
that door open and what came out on
me was a cold chilly blast i never
ever went by that door again i sure
was glad when my family finally moved away
listen to me friend the first aspect of
hell i want us to know is that
hell is populated with demons when a lost
soul goes to hell it's surrounded by demon
entities when you shut up in hell there's
no one to rescue you from the demons
who brush up against you abuse you in
hell you are existent literally in a haunted
region you cannot escape from the demons will
mock you torment you and tear at you
i've encountered a mocking demon before on several
occasions at bridge street cemetery in northampton massachusetts
where david brainerd is buried i've encountered a
mocking demon every time i have visited that
cemetery there's a tree about a hundred feet
behind brainerd's grave and a mocking demon stays
there the first time i heard it i
heard its mocking laugh i ran over to
the sound of the voice by that tree
but there was no one there on my
second visit to bridge street cemetery i heard
that demon once more laughing in a shrill
voice i thought maybe i was just imagining
things or perhaps the sound came from voices
from some nearby apartments but no it was
always the same shrill voice always the same
mocking laugh the same disembodied demon who mocked
the revival under jonathan edwards in northampton during
the great awakening the same demon who mocked
the sacred ministry of david brainerd stays at
that cemetery mocking to this very day i
shared this with an evangelist friend of mine
and he was unconvinced until he traveled with
me one year to bridge street cemetery to
visit the grave of david brainerd and as
we stood there over that mossy tombstone we
heard the laughing demon my friend became so
alarmed he said we need to leave here
immediately so we left but he heard what
i've been hearing for years demons are all
around us but in hell you'll not only
hear them you will see them you will
feel them as they brush up against you
for in hell it's populated by demons listen
to the words of the apostle peter from
the second epistle in chapter two for if
god spared not the angels that send but
cast them down to hell and delivered them
into chains of darkness to be reserved onto
judgment this brings us to our next aspect
of hell friends and that it is a
prison once you're shut up in there you
can never get out there's no exit doors
in hell some people imagine that if there
is a hell then it's not such a
bad place to be at least you can
hang out with your old friends but that's
not the case at all a lost soul
in hell has no freedom no liberty no
rights to move about wander you're bound in
chains you're chained up in a prison in
darkness for all of eternity and you will
never ever have freedom to ever move about
again you're a condemned prisoner and in second
peter we also see another striking aspect of
hell and that it's a region of pitch
black darkness jesus calls it outer darkness like
the darkness in outer space but without the
light of the celestial moon and stars just
pitch black thick darkness so dark you can't
see your hand in front of your face
let me ask you friend have you ever
been in a cave or a cavern or
a room where there was no light whatsoever
and you couldn't see what was in front
of you you couldn't see what was behind
you it's terrifying you're lost in the dark
that's the darkness of hell that's the darkness
of hell itself the bible mentions this in
the book of job where god is describing
the fate of the wicked he shall be
driven from light into darkness and chased out
of the world imagine that friend chased out
of the world into a region of darkness
if you lay dying without god in the
world then demon entities hover around your deathbed
like howling hyenas ready ready to drag you
down to hell it breaks me up to
try to talk to you tonight friends it's
horrible in hell some of you are so
anesthetized in sin so dead to spiritual things
you don't even ever think about eternity or
wonder about the horrors of hell but it's
real friends in luke chapter 16 we read
the words of christ and it came to
pass that the beggar died and was carried
by the angels onto abraham's bosom but there
is a story about charles spurgeon told by
his secretary mr harold who always accompanied spurgeon
everywhere and when the great british preacher lay
dying in his hotel in menton france mr
harold looked out the hotel's window where he
saw and he said so until his dying
day he said he saw he saw on
the hillside under a clear blue sky a
bevy of angels hovering like they were waiting
for someone well soon after that spurgeon died
i believe that story friends that when a
believer dies he or she is carried to
heaven by angels just as angels carried the
beggar lazareth to heaven so too if you
die without christ then demons will steal your
soul away into the darkness of hell you'll
be chased out of light into darkness complete
darkness mordecai ham used to relate a story
in his famous sermon entitled sudden death where
he related the darkness of hell he said
well just let me read you his words
taken from his biography the lord allowed me
to witness the horrible death of one eternally
lost two sisters were living in a log
hut near the church both were young girls
and were dying with tuberculosis the mother of
those two girls met me at the door
of the little log cabin and begged me
to hasten in and do something lulu is
dying the mother sobbed well i hurried to
the girl's bedside and tried to talk to
her about her need of salvation i played
with her for a long time but to
no avail she refused to hearken but then
she closed her eyes and death i called
to her lulu how is it a voice
came back not the voice of one living
but that of one who is in another
world it was a voice that came up
from the depths without any signs of movement
of the dead girl's lips or throat muscles
a voice i've only heard once in my
life and that i've never been able to
forget the lost lost oh oh so dark
so dark so dark that story always sends
chills down my spine friends in the lost
soul of that girl lulu all she could
see was darkness in matthew's gospel jesus relates
where a lost soul goes then said the
king to the servants bind him hand and
foot and take him away and cast him
into outer darkness there should be weeping and
gnashing of teeth well that's a vivid description
of hell weeping speaks of great loss and
grief gnashing the teeth signifies great anger and
regret all a lost soul has in hell
is regret regret regret they can't even speak
they're so full of regret they're choking on
sorrow they're thinking about all the times they
were witness to and they turn their back
to the gospel they turn their back to
the witness they scream in anger for being
shut up in there the sound of weeping
souls is a terrible sound friend it's horrible
multiply that by millions and millions of people
and that brings us to our very last
aspect of hell i want to warn you
about tonight and that is this hell is
a very crowded place it's been said that
85 people a minute die in this world
apart from christ and enter hell do the
math that comes to five thousand an hour
going to hell every day 120 000 people
are cast into hell forever that's almost a
million people a week think of it a
million people a week being shut up in
that prison of misery through the course of
a year that adds up to 40 million
new arrivals in hell let 10 years go
by and another 400 million souls are placed
in chains of darkness chased out of light
into darkness chased out of this world into
hell to scream in agony now think in
your mind friends of all the generations of
people who've lived and died since adam and
who occupy hell at this very moment and
you'll soon learn and admit that hell is
a very crowded place that's why it's a
bottomless pit there's always room for new arrivals
you don't want to go to hell friend
trust me it's a region of horror darkness
and damnation if i could walk you over
to the very verge of that smoking bottomless
pit and have an angel lift the lid
off that pit why the screams of the
damned would keep you up tonight if you
were here lost without god in the world
and all you have as your hope of
heaven is an empty religious profession and deep
down even though you've been going to church
you know you've never been changed you've never
experienced the new birth you don't know what
it's like to have an experiential knowledge of
god listen to me friend i implore you
not to go to bed tonight until you
see christ for pardon the sin listen to
me friend jesus said i am the way
the truth and the life no man cometh
unto the father but by me here jesus
answers the three greatest questions of the human
heart how can i be saved jesus says
i am the way how can i be
sure jesus says i am the truth how
can i be satisfied jesus says i am
the life and in john 6 35 jesus
declared i am the bread of life he
that cometh to me shall never hunger and
he that believeth on me shall never thirst
listen to me friend the gospel is for
the hungry the weary and the thirsty let
me ask you friend are you hungry for
god are you sick and tired of your
sins are you thirsty for christ then what
are you waiting for listen mister what are
you waiting for come to him believe on
him own him as your savior and lord
but the only way you're gonna stay out
of devil's hell is if you're born from
above and washed in the blood you gotta
get your sins onto the blood of christ
friend come to the cross of a bloodstained
christ and lay your sin burden down jesus
saves let us pray