I believe hell is real and I believe
hell is a terrible place of torments.
I believe hell is a lot worse than
we can imagine.
I believe hell is a very crowded place
and that the majority of each generation since
Adam is chained up in hell and smoking
flames at this very hour.
I believe every atheist that shook his fist
in the face of God is remorseful in
hell, but it's too late for them.
I believe every person that God's spirit strived
with, wooed and reproved, is very sorrowful in
hell for rejecting God.
I believe all the billionaires whose money was
their God would give all their wealth back
now if they could as they now regret
the choices they made in life while they
suffer in hell's agonies.
I believe all the careless Hollywood celebrities that
laughed in the face of God and mocked
him with their lives are sorry for their
actions as hell is a place of sorrow
and regret.
Jesus told us that hell is a place
of sorrow and regret.
Jesus said about hell there will be weeping
and gnashing of teeth.
Weeping speaks of deep sorrow and gnashing of
teeth signifies great regret, but I believe some
of the most miserable souls in hell at
this hour are the ones who thought they
were on the way to heaven.
They were good church members for years.
They did what the minister told them to
do in what they thought was salvation, but
they were misled by a false gospel and
a blind guide who deceived them.
I can't name all the times I've sat
in churches in my long life and heard
absolute heresy from the pulpit.
I'm talking about seminary-trained men, some in
high standing within their denomination, but liars and
frauds just the same.
To tell someone that all they have to
do to be saved is to accept Jesus
as a lie, to tell someone all they
have to do to have eternal life is
to believe that Jesus died for them and
accept him as their personal Savior is not
even found in my Bible.
I believe many pastors have broadened the way
of salvation in ways Jesus never did.
I believe there are many folks who have
mistaken church membership for salvation.
I believe there be a multitude of surprised
church members who will wake up in hell
and hear Jesus say to them, I never
knew you.
Depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
I believe hell is full of unsaved Baptists,
unsaved Methodists, unsaved Presbyterians, and unsaved members of
every denomination.
They're crying out in sorrow and agony in
hell at this very moment, but it's too
late for them now.
A surface Christianity will surely send you to
hell, no matter how religious you are.
And that's the title of my message today,
friends.
A surface Christianity will surely send you to
hell.
There are many religiously lost seminary professors and
pastors and deacons and elders who walked a
chalk line but who never got to Christ
for salvation.
This is serious business, friends.
Eternity is no laughing matter.
You better be sure you were saved while
you were still in this world, because once
you were taken out of this world by
death, then it's too late for you then.
I've been reflecting on my life lately.
I reckon because I'm closer to leaving this
world than I am staying in it.
I wish I could go back and change
things in my life, but I can't.
I wish I could rewrite eighty percent of
my life, but it's too late now.
I've done hardly nothing for God in my
generation, and my time is running out.
I look at men like Whitefield and Moody
and John Song, and I'm ashamed for my
lack.
You only have one life, and how you
live it for Christ and the gospel is
all that matters.
I wish I could have done more for
God, but my best years are behind me.
What breaks my heart the most is a
church that lives carelessly in a day that
is full of evil.
I've known a lot of surface Christians in
my time.
Their Christianity never went any deeper than a
profession.
I can assure you, friend, that a surface
Christianity will surely send you to hell.
God doesn't care how much you tied to
your church, how many committees you served on,
how many times you attended weekly worship and
sang along to the hymns.
If you did not know Christ, it was
all dead works.
There will just be wood piled up to
fuel the fire that will burn around you
in the devil's hell.
You listen to me, friend.
This stuff that passes for salvation and Christianity
in our modern church today is not even
remotely close to the one found in my
Bible.
In Matthew chapter 7 and verses 13 and
14, Jesus said enter ye in at the
straight gate for wide is the gate and
broad is the way that leadeth to destruction
and many there be which go in there
at because straight is the gate and narrow
is the way which leadeth unto life and
few there be that find it.
Now you can try and honeycoat that and
lessen it but it won't help you in
hell.
The gate Christ is speaking of here is
the straight gate of repentance and if you
miss repentance, friend, then you will miss faith.
The narrow way Christ is speaking of here
is regeneration for no man can enter the
kingdom of heaven unless he is born again.
A man's duty of repentance and man's necessity
of regeneration are the hinges that swing the
gate open on some and shut it on
others.
I don't care if you're the popular president
of your denomination.
If you've never been born from above and
washed in the blood, then your surface Christianity
will surely send you to hell.
Repent and turn to Christ while you still
are in this world.
Before you are taken out of it, I'm
pleading with your friends.
Repent and turn to the Christ of salvation,
the pearl of great price.
Christ is the way of salvation.
Let us pray.