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When I was a little boy, a house

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caught fire on the street where we lived,

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and that house burned to the ground.

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I used to walk by that house on

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the way to school each day and look

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at the twisted, charred walls and heaps of

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black ash that were frightening to look at,

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and the smell of burned things stayed in

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the air of that neighborhood for months on

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end, until that house was finally bulldozed and

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taken to the trash heap.

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I can't remember the last time I heard

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a sermon preached on hell.

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I've been to dozens of churches over the

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last 30 years or so and have listened

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to hundreds of messages by pastors eager to

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please their congregations, but I have never heard

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in person a sermon on hell.

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Have you?

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Why is that?

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Why don't preachers use one of the most

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effective tools to awaken lost sinners, which is

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the doctrine of eternal punishment and hell?

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I'll tell you why, friends, because most pastors

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don't want to awaken anybody, because if they

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did, they wouldn't know what to do.

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It'd be too disturbing to the congregation of

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nice church folk to have somebody sitting next

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to them suddenly cry out as they see

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hell and its torments open before them, and

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the sanctuary become an abacum where people were

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shrieking and crying out like the hearers under

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Jonathan Edwards who preached on hell's punishment.

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In his sermon, sinners in the hands of

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an angry God that he preached in Enfield,

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Connecticut in 1741, and as an eyewitness recorded,

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ye minister had to desist from preaching because

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of all the shrieks and cries throughout the

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house.

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You start preaching on hell, brother pastor, and

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you'll have a fight on your hands because

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you have to preach against sin.

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You had to preach up man's duty of

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repentance.

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You had to preach about a God who

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must punish sin, and if you do that,

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why, some of the good deacons will come

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at you.

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I'll tell you what, friends, nobody wants to

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preach a disturbing message.

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Why trouble your church?

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Why upset the apple cart if you don't

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have to when you can get by with

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just preaching on more pleasant subjects?

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I remember Vance Havner saying, when I pastored

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a country church, a farmer didn't like the

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sermons I preached on hell.

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He said, preach about the meek and lowly

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Jesus.

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I said, that's where I got my information

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about hell, and that's what we're going to

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look at tonight, friends, what Jesus has to

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say about hell.

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The title of my message this evening, friends,

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is Hellfire, and my text can be found

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in Mark's gospel in chapter 9.

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You can turn in your Bibles.

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There now, friends, we will be in verses

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43 to 47.

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Listen to what Jesus has to say about

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hellfire, and if thy hand offend thee, cut

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it off.

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It is better for thee to enter into

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life maimed than having two hands to go

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into hell, into the fire that never shall

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be quenched, where the worm doth not, and

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the fire is not quenched.

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And if thy foot offend thee, cut it

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off.

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It is better for thee to enter halt

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into life than having two feet to be

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cast into hell, into the fire that never

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shall be quenched, where the worm doth not,

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and the fire is not quenched.

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And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it

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out.

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It is better for thee to enter into

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the kingdom of God with one eye than

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having two eyes to be cast into hell

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fire.

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Jesus states several things here about hell.

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He says it's a fire that is never

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put out.

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It's a burning region all the time, engulfed

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in flames that never ever shall be quenched.

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They will burn for all eternity, unlike that

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house fire that did all the damage, but

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finally was put out by several fire trucks

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and a score of firefighters who worked like

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trojans to put that fire out.

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But Jesus says you'd be better off chopping

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off your offending hand or foot and being

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maimed here in life than tortured in hell

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forever.

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That's how radical his sermon on hell is,

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friend.

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It's disturbing to think of taking an axe

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and mutilating yourself rather than going on to

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hell to suffer there indefinitely.

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It's disturbing to think about plucking your eyeballs

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right out of their sockets.

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But Jesus says you'd be better off if

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you did and could stay out of that

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place that's far worse than that, which is

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hell fire.

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Then Jesus talks about a worm where the

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worm doth not.

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When you die and your body is laid

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in the grave, the worms come after you

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and eat away on your corpse.

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But they stop when all that's left is

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bones, but not in hell.

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You'll be eaten by worms in hell that

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will crawl all over you.

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They will feed on your charred, twisted flesh

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and gnaw away on you forever.

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Jesus has described hell as a place of

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outer darkness.

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It's so dark you can't see your hand

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in front of your face.

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He calls it a bottomless pit, a place

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of torment where there's wailing and gnashing of

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teeth, the shrieks and incessant wailing that's going

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on in hell right now.

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If you could listen to it, it's so

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loud and disturbing it would give you nightmares

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tonight to hear the collective suffering of the

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damned who line chains in a burgeoning, burning

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region of hell fire.

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You don't want to go to hell, friend.

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Once you shut up in that prison, there's

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no escape.

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It's dark.

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It's crowded with the worst elements of every

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society from each generation since Adam.

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They're locked up and they're screaming and hollering

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and cursing God and spewing out all kinds

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of blasphemy.

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There's a raining spirit of rage and hate

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in hell.

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You better be sure you don't end up

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in hell, friend.

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You may not like me now because of

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this message, but you'd surely hate me if

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I failed to warn you and you were

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cast into that smoking pit of darkness and

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flames and chained up in there to suffer

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forever and ever.

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Repent before it's too late.

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Let us pray.