IF THE INHABITANTS OF HELL COULD PREACH TONIGHT
Luke 16:19 “There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day: 20 And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate, full of sores, 21 And desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table: moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. 22 And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried; 23 And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. 24 And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame. 25 But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented. 26 And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence. 27 Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to my father's house: 28 For I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment. 29 Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them. 30 And he said, Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent. 31 And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.”
The subject I must preach on tonight is not a popular one in the world, or, dare I say, in the churches today. We are living in the age of the prosperity doctrine, where prosperity is king; where preachers preach more about financial blessings and the power of positive thinking than they do about our desperate need for true salvation. But the Bible is emphatic and clear. We must be saved. We cannot save ourselves. No amount of positive thinking can save us without the blood of Jesus. Jesus did not suffer the tortures and horrors of Calvary so we might sit comfortably in luxurious buildings, listening to men preach about positive thinking. He did not die on Calvary to make us financially prosperous. Jesus died to pay a debt of sin we owed and could not pay. I owed a debt I could not pay. He paid a debt He did not owe. I needed salvation, not from negative thinking, not from poverty, but from a terrible place I must preach to you about tonight. A place where the worm dieth not, and the fires are not quenched. Jesus died on Calvary to save you and me from a place called Hell.
We would be hard-pressed to find a belief less palatable to both believers and nonbelievers as the biblical doctrine of an eternal Hell. We often attempt to gloss over, or avoid altogether any discussion of that place. But I am here tonight to take the gloss off the subject. I am here tonight to try to paint a picture of that place. I want you to know where you are going if you reject His salvation. I have a duty to inform you what the word of God says about this subject. Jesus did not avoid the subject of Hell. In fact, though one may believe otherwise by what they hear preached so often today, Jesus spoke more about this place called Hell than He talked about love.
The Hell Jesus spoke of is a place of unimaginable terror. He called it a place of fire, the fiery furnace, unquenchable fire, the place of perdition, a place of everlasting contempt, eternal punishment, the second death, the outer darkness, where there shall be weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth.
The subject of Hell is controversial. Some believe in its existence, but claim it is reserved for only the exceptionally heinous among us; the Hitlers of the world, or the murderers. But I am here to tell you it is for the unrepentant sinner. The Bible teaches that ALL sinners are going there. God, who is holy, must one day separate those who reject Him from His holy presence. That is what Hell is; it is to be apart from God, separated for all eternity from His presence. This is the goodness and severity of God. He came into this world, robed in flesh, gave himself to the tortures of the cross to save us from the tortures of Hell. But what will happen if reject so great a salvation? What will happen if we reject the love of God? We will be cast into outer darkness, where there is weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. We will be cast into an eternal Hell.
There are teachings floating around about Hell that are simply not biblical. Many claim today that Hell is not a place of eternal torment. They claim the word for eternal and everlasting, used by Jesus, does not really mean eternal and everlasting, but that Hell will actually end. Some claim that Hell is a place where souls simply cease to exist. But that is not what the Bible teaches.
In Mt. 25:46, Jesus said, “and these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” Rom. 16:26 speaks of the everlasting God, while Heb. 9:14 speaks of the eternal Spirit. There are four expressions to be considered in these scriptures. They are: Everlasting punishment, eternal life, everlasting God, and eternal Spirit. In the English language, the only difference between eternal and everlasting is the spelling of the words. The words mean the same thing. The Greek word translated as everlasting and eternal in these passages is the same word, ionious, which means: eternal, everlasting, without end, never to end. One must therefore consider that if Hell is not eternal, everlasting, and without end, then neither is God, because it is the same word that describes the eternity of God and the eternity of Hell. We know God is eternal. My friend, so is Hell. It does not end.
The Bible continuously warns us about this place called Hell. There are over 162 references in the New Testament alone, and over 70 of these were uttered by The Lord Jesus Himself!
Several years ago, Dr. Maurice Rawlings, an Internal Medicine and cardiovascular disease specialist published a book called Beyond Death’s Door. He had been a devoted atheist, considering all religion to be “hocus-pocus.” He did not believe in an afterlife. He did not believe in Heaven, and he most certainly did not believe in a place called Hell. All that changed dramatically one night when he was involved in resuscitating a man who was clinically dead. As he worked on the man, the man would regain consciousness, and would begin screaming, wide-eyed and terrified, “I am in Hell! I am in Hell! Dr. Rawlings said, “The man was terrified, and screaming for me to help him. I was scared to death. The man had a genuinely alarmed look on his face. I began to realize it was true. This man was descending into the depths of Hell. He had a look on his face more terrifying than what is seen in death. His face was frozen into a terrible grimace, expressing sheer horror. His pupils were dilated. He was perspiring and trembling. The man screamed, ‘Can’t you see? Don’t you understand? I am going to hell…Don’t let me go back to Hell!’ It finally occurred to me that he was, indeed, in trouble. He was in a state of panic like I had never seen before. No one could have heard his screams and seen the terror on his face, and doubt for a minute that he was actually in a place called Hell.”
And in Luke chapter 16, Jesus gave us a glimpse into that horrific place. The rich man also died, and was buried. Now, understand this, his physical body was dead and buried, no doubt in the whited sepulcher of the wealthy, affluent men of his time. His friends had already attended his funeral, no doubt saying wonderful things about him. His family was in the process of dividing the riches he had accumulated in life, and trusted in. All the riches he was unable to take with him. But in Hell, he lifted up his eyes. His physical body was buried in the grave, but his spiritual body could see. Being in torments, he saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. He was in torment. His spiritual body felt pain. And he cried out. His spiritual body could cry out. Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip his finger in water, and cool my tongue. He was thirsty. But Abraham answered, “Remember how good you had it in life? You had the finest food, the finest drinks, you lived in the nicest home. You had servants. You had power and prestige, respect. Remember how bad Lazarus had it, lying, covered in sores at the exquisite, fashionable gates of your mansion. Remember how you ignored him? Remember how you refused to even look at him? All he wanted was some scraps from your table. Well, now he is comforted, while you are in torment. And, besides all that, he can’t come to you, and you can’t come where we are.” The rich man answered, “Then, please, send Lazarus to My Father’s House, for I have five brethren. Let him warn them not to come to this terrible place!”
The request from the rich man makes me wonder. What if…What if the inhabitants of Hell could leave that place of torment for a short while, and come to My Father’s House? What if they could come here tonight, and stand behind this pulpit?
If the inhabitants of hell could preach tonight, what would they say?
In my mind’s eye, I see the rich man, his eyes filled with more than two-thousand years of horrors he suffered in that place. He walks through the back door, and there is a sudden smell of sulfur in the air, as he makes his way down the aisle to the front of the church, and up to the pulpit. His voice is raspy and dry, for he has not had a drop of water since his conversation with Abraham. His words tremble with the terror of the place he just left, and must return to.
What would he say?
I do not believe he would stand up here and preach to you the prosperity doctrine. I do not believe he would tell you that wealth is the proof of God’s favor on people. He would not speak to us of the power of positive thinking. He would not be concerned with luxurious buildings and comfortable pews. If the rich man were honest, he would tell us the love of money is the root of all evil. He would tell us that no man can serve God and money. He would warn us not to trust in riches. He would tell us we should love our neighbor as ourselves. He would lament the fact that it is too late for him. How he should have helped Lazarus when he had the chance. Then, before stepping down, before returning to the place he came from, he would cry out, “Don’t come to the place I must return to! Don’t go to Hell!”
Oh, and there are so many others in Hell tonight. There are some who have been there for thousands of years. Others are arriving there as we speak, lifting up their eyes in Hell for the first time. Earlier this evening they were still alive. Now they are in Hell. On average, three people die every second. One-hundred and eighty every minute that passes by. Since I started preaching this message, greater than two-thousand souls have slipped out into eternity. Automobile accidents, sickness, heart attacks, strokes; some were rich, others were poor, but they are equal in death. Some knew the Lord, and are, at this very moment, beholding the precious face of the one who suffered so they didn’t have to. Others did not know him. Some were atheists, but, friend of mine, there are no atheists in Hell. They know the truth now. They are lifting up their eyes, beholding the horror, the reality of an eternal Hell.
A young man who was invited to church last week; he felt the pulling of the Spirit of God. He felt the presence of God, leading him to a place of repentance, but he thought he had time. He was a young man, after all. There is always tomorrow. But now there is no tomorrow. He is looking at his surroundings, hearing the great cries of the inhabitants of Hell. It is dawning on him just now that he should have obeyed the leading of God in that church last week. If only he could go back! If only he had one more chance! But his chances are over. The flames spring up around him, and he hears screaming. He realizes with a dull vagueness that the screaming is coming from his own mouth. He hears the wailing and gnashing of teeth.
If he could preach tonight, what would he say?
Judas Iscariot, the apostle who betrayed The Lord is in Hell tonight. What a tragedy. What if he could preach tonight? He had walked with Jesus, sat at His feet, heard his teachings. He had beheld the miracles of Jesus. He saw the sick healed. Jesus had given him authority to heal the sick and cast out devils. But Judas was serving two masters. Judas was the man who handled the money bags, and he was a thief. He stole money that was set apart for Jesus. Money became his God. He was angry when Mary anointed the feet of Jesus with costly perfumed oil. His love of money ended with him selling the Master, his place with God, for a mere thirty pieces of silver. Then, after they crucified The Lord, Judas tried to take it all back. But it was too late. His fate had been sealed. He went out and hanged himself.
I see him entering this place, a terrible ligature mark around his neck. He makes his way to the pulpit. What does he say? No man can serve two masters! You will love one, and despise the other! I could have been an apostle. I could have been in Heaven with the other apostles. I was one of His chosen, one of His own. But I am doomed to an eternity in Hell! I do not believe Judas would be concerned with money. I don’t believe he would urge us to start multi-level-marketing companies in the House of God. He would say, the apostles were sometimes poor, sometimes hungry. Most died terrible deaths at the hands of wicked men. But they are in Heaven. Then, as he shuffles out of this church, returning to the place from where he came, he cries out one last time. Don’t go to that place! Don’t go to that place!
I was a young man, a corpsman in the Navy when I first met Allen Hunt. I was stationed at naval Hospital Oakland. He was a student there at the Preventive Medicine School, and became my roommate in the barracks for a number of months. He was the worst roommate I ever had. When he found out I was a Christian, he took it upon himself to torment me. He made fun of me in front of his friends. He openly mocked my beliefs. He smoked cigarettes in our room, so my clothes smelled like smoke when I went to church. He would sneak women into his bed at night, laughing at me when I protested. He played loud Rock music all night, knowing I had to work in the morning. Through all this, I tried to show him the love of The Lord. Finally, he graduated from his school, and the Navy transferred him. Before he left, he told me, “I know I gave you a hard time, but I want you to know, if I ever decide to be a Christian, I want to be the kind of Christian you are.”
A year and a half later, I was deployed with the Marines to Somalia. While on ship, I started a Bible study, and God blessed. Many were baptized in Jesus name, and God filled them with the Holy Ghost. We had Bible study every day, meeting in various places all over the ship, coming together for one large service in the chapel on Sundays. It was in the midst of this revival that I ran into Allen Hunt. He was only to be on the ship for two weeks, flown in to teach classes on Aids prevention. When I saw him, I invited him to a Bible study, but he turned me down. He said, “Maybe I will come another time.” I realized God was dealing with Allen, when every day, on my way to Bible study, no matter which path I took on a ship of more than two-thousand people, no matter where the Bible study was, I ran into him. It was nothing short of miraculous. I would invite him, and he would turn me down. Finally, we had a conversation about it. I told him it wasn’t a coincidence we were running into each other. To my surprise, he agreed with me. He had gotten married since I had last seen him, and his wife had given birth to a baby girl. “My wife keeps trying to get me to come to church,” he said. “Why don’t you come with me tonight?” I asked him. Allen said these words, “One day, I will go to church. But I have too much I want to do first. I want to play a little more, but I will go one day.”
I attended one of his lectures on AIDS before he left the ship. In front of all the sailor and Marines, he made a crude joke at my expense, and made fun of me for being a Christian. Allen Hunt did not realize it was his last chance. He did not understand God was using me to reach for him one last time before he slipped into eternity.
Allen Hunt left the ship. He was scheduled for a routine surgery, a scope of his knee. While still under anesthesia, he was left alone in the recovery room. While still unconscious, he vomited, and drowned in his own vomit.
What if he could preach tonight? What would he say?
What if he had another chance? What if he could do it all over again?
I shudder to think that he is in that place. I tremble when I consider it is my voice he remembers, inviting him, drawing him, calling to him. Come, Allen. Come to church. The same voice that is calling for someone tonight.
He would say, don’t wait for tomorrow. Tomorrow may never come. Seek The Lord while he may be found. The time will come, when the chance you’re given will be your last chance. Then, you may find yourself in eternity.
But God is not done yet. He is still reaching. He is still calling.
