The reality of hell
Key Passage: Luke 16:19
Date: June 7, 2024
We’ve been talking about beating the Presbyterians for a while. We haven’t done it yet, so might as well just come to get something, not come to leave. But turn your Bible, if you would, to Luke 16, Luke chapter number 16. We’ll start in verse number 19, Luke 16.
Verse number 19 is a little amazing as you age. None of us know anything about that, right? But your likes sometimes change. I used to somewhat like preaching on the subject I’m preaching on today. It’s not my favorite anymore for sure, but it’s Bible. And I think we really need to be—and I say we myself—reminded of the subject today. In Luke 16, let me just say a word about it. It is a story about two men: one went to paradise, one went to hell. We want to just for a little bit look at the reality of hell.
Someone said Hollywood sometimes makes things that aren’t real seem like the real. And Christians sometimes we make things that are real seem like they’re not real. Friend, as much as I like to say, hell’s a fairy tale, it’s not; it’s real. This story will tell those that try to teach there’s no hell. They don’t like the story. Often the way they try to write it off is they’ll say it’s a parable, and it’s not.
Never in the Bible is a parable used that it gives a name. You’ll never find that. You’ll find them using the name of Lazarus in the story; you’ll never find that. The parable is not a parable, but even if it was a parable—a parable means an earthly story that has a heavenly meaning—even if it was, it’s not. But even if we were to give that to them, well, what in the world is a heavenly meaning? It’s hell, friend, no matter how you look at it. It’s just a reality. For a little while, we want to focus on this thing: there is a hell.
I don’t know about you, but I’ve been saved since I was a boy, and thank the Lord for that. So sometimes I tend to just kind of forget about hell. Because of my salvation, because of Jesus, I personally—myself—I don’t have to worry about it. I need to be reminded there’s still a hell, and there’s eternity, and there’s value in living for the Lord.
Luke 16, we’ll start verse number 19. Would you please stand together as we just show the word of God in respect, if you’re able to? Luke 16 in verse 19. The Bible says, “There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day. And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate full of sword.”
Can I pause for just a moment? I tend to think the wealthy man was a very kind man. I think that’s why he chose to be laid at his gate because the rich man took care of him a little bit. That’s the gate he chose to be laid at, see? But kindness didn’t get you into heaven; Jesus does.
Verse number 21: “And desiring to be fed with crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table. Moreover, the dogs came and licked his sores.” And it came to pass that the beggar died and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom.
Another timeout for just a moment. Sometimes you’ll be in the hospital room and they’re taking their last breath or nearing that. If we could have spiritual ears on, you’d hear, if you will, those wings rustling a little bit. They’re about to take that soul home to heaven. That’s what happens for the beggar right here. The angels took him home.
Last part of verse number 22: “The rich man also died and was buried. And in hell, he lifted up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. 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; I’m tormented in this flame.”
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. Beside all this, between us and you, there’s a great gulf fixed, so that they which were passed from hence to you cannot, neither can they pass us that would come from thence.”
Then he said, “I pray thee therefore, Father, that thou would send him to my father’s house, for I have five brethren, that he may testify to them, lest they also come into this place of torment.” By the way, I think maybe the only, oh, if you will, good cry from hell is when they say, “Hey, would you send someone to my loved ones?” That’s what’s going on here.
Verse number 29: Abraham saith unto him, “They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.” And he said, “Nay, Father Abraham, but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent.” And he said unto him, “If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.”
This is one instance in the Bible where God really just says, “I’m going to peel back the cover of the lid of hell and let you look in for just a moment”—just the reality of hell.
Now think with me: If I were to have a terminal disease that’s going to take my life, and I go to two different doctors. I go to the first doctor and I say, “Doctor, I think maybe…” and so on. He says, “All right, let me check you out.” He runs all the kind of tests. You know, sometimes the tests are worse than the sickness. Anybody know what I’m talking about out there? Some of you as you get older, you understand those things. And then they want money after they torture you for a while. But he runs all those tests. He comes out; he’s just the nicest guy in the world. He cracks some jokes, makes you laugh a little bit, smile a little bit, and you get warm feelings, kind and friendly. He says, “Well, thank you so much for coming in, and I think you’ll be okay.” So, “Well, doctor, what about this disease?” He says, “Well, I don’t even know if that’s real or not. That’ll bring you down anyway, so let’s just don’t focus on it too much. You just have a great day. And by the way, pay your bill on the way out,” type thing.
You go to another doctor. Now, he is just on it. I mean, he runs every test in the book, and he writes another book. He’s just running them all. He comes in; he’s got a serious game face on. He says, “Hey, Paul, we need to talk. You have this disease.” And, “Paul, I’m concerned because this disease is going to take your life. I hate to tell it, but I’ve got to be honest with it because we need to do something about it. There is a cure for this disease. And look, if you don’t get the cure, it’s not going to be good for you, friend.” Now, help me out. Who in the end is really your friend that loves you? The first guy? Or the second guy? In our day and time, not a lot of people like to talk about hell.
But the one that truly loves you—in fact, Jesus Christ, when he was here on earth, 70 verses Jesus is referencing hell. Some say Jesus talks seven times more about hell than it is about heaven. Why would he do that? Because he wanted to warn you and I of the reality of hell. A friend, in the end, the guy that really loves you is going to be honest with you, even though it might hurt you a little bit up front, and say, “Hey, you got a disease, buddy; we need to do something about it.”
It’s interesting. A couple weeks ago I had to sit down, and I got the privilege of sitting down with someone I love. They’re a distant relative of theirs, a Jehovah’s Witness. For about three hours, we discussed and argued and talked and all that. I talked to him about an hour before, and I really hadn’t gotten on this subject, but I knew I wanted to get on the subject of hell. Jehovah’s Witnesses very quickly, one of the first things they want to indoctrinate them with is there’s no hell. See, because if you don’t believe there’s a hell, the gospel’s lost its punch. If there’s no hell to be feared, then, well, if it’s true, all right; if it’s not true, no big deal, I’m just going to die, and it’s all over. But, friend, there is a hell.
I couldn’t look into his heart, but it seemed like when I quoted some verses from here—“in hell he lifted up his eyes in torments”—that torment kind of hit him a little bit. Friend, there is a literal place. It’s not someone’s mind, imagination, or an imaginary place that you go; there is literally a place called hell.
They say there were some sailors on a ship years ago, and God was stirring some of their hearts. They went to the chaplain that was on the ship. Not all chaplains are like this, but this one was, sad to say. They said, “Sir, we want to talk to you.” And I said, “Sir, Mr. Chaplain, is there a hell? Do you believe there’s a hell?” Unfortunately, that chaplain said, “No, I don’t believe there is a literal place.” Not all chaplains are like that.
It’s very interesting what those sailors said to him. They said, “Sir, then you need to resign. Because if there’s no hell, we don’t need you. And if there is a hell, then you’re not being honest with us. So we don’t need you anymore.”
Friend, it’s amazing how the Holy Spirit reproves the world of sin. From creation, Romans 1:20 says there is a God, an eternal God, so they are without excuse. Even those in a jungle, they’ll offer their little babies up to a crocodile because they need—no, they need to make peace with a higher power. That’s not the way to do it. Christ has already been offered up; He’s our sacrifice. But it’s instilled in their heart by the Holy Spirit of God, and just by creation, to know there’s a God. Folks can say in their heart there’s no God, but deep down inside, they can say it all they want; they know there’s a God. You let that atheist get hit by a car, the next thing he’s going to say is, “Oh my God, help me!” because instinctively he knows. And there’s a hell.
Can I say this? God made hell for the devil and his demons. I read it: Matthew 25:41, “Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.” That’s for the devil, that’s for the demons. God does not want one person to go to hell. Second Peter 3:9: “He is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” It’s not God’s desire. He didn’t originally create hell for you or for a lost person; He did it for the devil and his demons. That’s why He’s offered—notice we use the word offered—salvation as a gift.
Someone says, “Well, how can a loving God send anyone to hell?” I always say that: God leaves the choice up to you. He’s provided a way for every individual in this world to go to heaven through Jesus Christ, for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. He’s offered it; He’s paid for it. They don’t even have to pay money; they’ll never work for it. God simply—He’s offered it as a gift, but He doesn’t twist their arm. The choice is up to them. If someone does not receive that gift, they’ll go to hell and burn for all eternity.
Now let’s, for just a minute here, talk about this thing of hell. Would you look in verse number 24, the passage we just read—verse number 24, Luke 16, verse number 24? In your Bibles, you’re there already. “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…” What’s the next word? There are flames there. There is literal fire. Matthew 13:42: “…and shall cast him into a furnace of fire.” John Rice used to say, we’ll talk about what it means later on. Right now, let’s talk about what it says. It says flame; it says fire. Is that what it says? Yes, sir.
I welded for years, welded through Bible College or whatnot. Every welder that’s welded very long, every once in a while will do what I call the welder’s dance. It’s like a jig. Some of you men are smiling already. What in the world is that? As you weld, it’s making all the heat, melting the metal and melting it together—very, extremely hot. As that metal heats up and cools very quickly, often there are little tiny BBs. Man, they’re just turning from metal to red metal, and they pop off often as you’re welding. I used to—I think I still have one T-shirt left where you can tell where a little bit of BBs rolled down that T-shirt and got little charcoal marks, a little hole sometimes, just kind of remind me of the day.
But here’s the thing: sometimes those BBs pop off, and they land inside your boots. Woo! That’s when you do the jig! You can’t get that boot off quick enough, man. It seems like it hurts worse because that BB sometimes falls inside the top part of your boots, so you lift your foot up, man, you’re just pushing it in there more. You do the jig, I’m telling you, because it was on fire.
Can you imagine that burning all over your body? That’s just a little bit of a tiny BB inside your boot. Can you imagine that burning? The Bible literally calls it a lake of fire: “Death and hell were cast into the lake of fire.” Can you imagine that?
Maybe a lake of lava. One of the reporters reported on May 18th, 1980, Mount St. Helens. When interrupted, this is what he described it. He described it when hell surfaced upon the earth. It’s a lake of literal fire, flame.
I was a little fellow in Plant City, Florida, in Jordan, Tennessee, grew up a lot down there. My grandpa had one of those old flat roofs. You know, those old flat roofs back in the day, they leaked a lot of times. You were continually working on those. He had a fire pit out back, and he had a five-gallon metal bucket of tar, and he was trying to heat it up. I was like every other boy in the world, just running around misbehaving, causing trouble—well, I mean, my brothers were; I never did that, of course, I was doing that—and I fell, and the side of my face hit that five-gallon bucket. Praise the Lord, Grandma/Granny had that aloe vera plant put on there real quick. Just that boom, just that quick, it singed and burned.
Can you imagine just the burning, not for just a split second, but the burning? It’s a literal lake of fire.
There are just a couple different senses, maybe. What about the smell? Do we know anything about how hell will smell? What’s interesting is the Bible gives us a little light into it. Revelation 14:11 talks about the smoke of their torment ascending up forever and ever. A smoke of their torment. They say—I was not there at that time, I’ve been there since—but they say a little bit after the World Trade Towers came down, after the planes crashed, they say if you just got close and smelled, it had a stench of death about it. You can smell it. Sometimes you can actually literally smell a little bit when someone gets burned enough; you can smell that stench from burning. The Bible says the smoke of their torments ascended up forever and ever.
Not only that, just talking about the smell—going back to it for a second—we heard of a car somebody was trying to sell. A body had died in that car and had been left in that car for a good while, and they say that smell just overwhelmed you, and you’ll never get that smell out of the car—just a stench of death. It’s eternal death, the smell of hell.
Not only that, Revelation 20:10 says, “And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone.” We use this word sulfur.
How many have ever had well water or just been around sulfur water? Boy, I’m surprised how many. I know some folks, man, they had sulfur water, and it smelled to the point they got the health department to come in, and you think, “That cannot be healthy.” And the health department came in and said, “Well, actually, it’s pretty healthy water.” You said, “Well, it doesn’t smell like that, you know.” Ever been somewhere and you had to take a shower in sulfur water? A lot of them like, “Oh yeah, I remember those days.” Fire and brimstone—that brimstone has to do with sulfur, just that stench. The smoke of their torment that ascends up forever. A lake of fire and brimstone, just the smell.
Really, I’m trying to describe just briefly here a little bit of hell, but I’ll never—I’ll never come close to describing hell. The Bible describes it in John 3:36: “The wrath of God abideth on them forever.” I can’t describe that or do it justice. It’s a place of fire. It’s a place of torments.
Back in that verse we just read, verse number 23 over here in Luke 16—would you notice just a couple more things about hell this morning? Verse number 23: “And in hell he lifted up his eyes, being in torments”—plural. I don’t understand anything about that. I can describe a couple things. I think sometimes about the sound. Can you imagine the sounds? The Bible does tell us a little bit about the smell—the smoke of their torment, brimstone—and the sounds of hell. Matthew 13:42: “…and shall cast him into a furnace of fire, there shall be wailing.” Three times the Bible says, “shall cast him into outer darkness, there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
Can you imagine that weeping and gnashing of teeth? When I was in Bible College, we’d go to a nursing home a little bit north side of Chicago, and we’d go up there. We had three different floors, a different wing, and every floor, different wings. If you walked down this one wing, we all knew there was an older lady over there. I don’t know her issues or what was going on, but when you started walking down that hallway, you could often hear her just scream. She would scream a lot of curse words. A lot of preachers’ boys would go there, and some would say she’s demonic. I don’t know; maybe possessed. But you go down that hallway, and she just—ah!—and she just screamed all kinds of filth and just screaming and vulgarities and cursing. A lot of guys didn’t like to go down there because you could hear it. Can you imagine the screams, the weeping and gnashing of teeth in hell?
Three times, three times God, when He gives us a little glimpse, mentions weeping and gnashing of teeth. What about the sights of hell? It’s interesting here in Luke 16; he could see Abraham. Maybe in hell they can see into a distance; we’re not sure. Abraham was across the great gulf in what was paradise then. But the Bible often describes hell as this outer darkness. Matthew 8:12: “…and shall be cast into outer darkness.”
Anybody ever see a race where a guy’s got a suit on—a good thing—but he’s at the pit stop, whatnot, and they’re trying to hurry, and they catch fire? That’s a flame. You really can’t see it; it’s a different type of flame. It’s a pretty hot flame. But then they say there’s even a hotter flame than that kind of invisible flame. It’s a black flame. They say it’s very, very hard to create even in a laboratory because it’s so hot—it’s a black flame. For years, the old timers put that—well, how can hell have fire and yet be outer darkness? That’s a contradiction. Now we know about a much hotter black flame. It’s just black; it’s dark. The Bible describes hell as outer darkness, a very intense flame.
Here’s an interesting thing. Would you look at verse number 25? Verse number 25 of Luke 16. Y’all still with me this morning? It’s a different subject, I understand, but it’s reality. We need to look at it from time to time. Verse number 25: “But Abraham said, ‘Son, remember…’” He goes on; he’s talking about things that happened in his life: “…that thou in thy lifetime receivedst a good thing, likewise Lazarus evil things, but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented.” But I want you just to remember, son, remember.
I came in this morning, and Brother Marlin and Brother John Casey were talking. They were talking about someone yesterday whom they were out witnessing to, trying to win souls for the Lord. They did not want anything to do with it. They didn’t even get to the door; they didn’t get to talk to them. They were just like, “Move on, go on. We don’t want you.” As they were talking coming in this morning, I felt like it was a little confirmation in my heart; they were talking about how those people will remember. The Bible very clearly says, “Hey, son,” he said, “remember those people that have had an opportunity from creation, but they’ll remember things in their lifetime.” They remember when someone gave them a gospel tract. They remember when they heard the gospel on the radio. They said, “I don’t listen to that.” They’ll remember times when the Holy Spirit convicted them. They’ll remember—just some mental torment for all eternity. They’ll have an opportunity to remember: “If I would have just listened.” And they’ll remember. The torment—can you imagine remembering?
I think my family was talking while back—from the son of Donald when I was here—if he had a minute to relive, just a minute, what would you go back and relive? I imagine these people for all eternity will remember: “I wish I could go back and relive that. I wish I could.” Abraham said, “Son, remember.” Some of them don’t torture remembering.
Years ago we had a funeral here. It was, I think, a grandmother of a bus kid. I had never met her. They wouldn’t have the funeral. It’s the only time I’ve ever let—well, we’ve let our dog in here a time or two, I’ve got to be honest, but I’ve ever let a dog—actually, we’re in Tennessee, so it was all right. The grandfather said, “Can I let the dog?” It was just a smaller funeral, the bus family and whatnot. He said, “I promise you that dog.” And actually, the dog was much, much better than the grandkids. You don’t know what I’m talking about. It sat right down there, didn’t move, and praise the Lord, it went outside. You understand what I’m talking about. Everything was good. But the family, you know what comes to funerals: the family tells you all the good things, and they kept saying she knew the Lord and things like that. I did not know; I never met her. I did not know the family very well. They kept saying that. Sometimes you preach a funeral, you don’t preach them into heaven, you don’t preach them into hell; you just leave it alone. You don’t know. I kept saying in my mind, “Well, hopefully, this lady is saved.”
I preached the funeral. We left, went to the hearse, put the casket body in there, and went to go to my car. A lady was there; she shook my hand. She said, “You know, I worked with her for years and years.” She said, “First of all, thank you for presenting the gospel at the funeral. I really appreciate that.” Then she began to tell me, “You know, many, many a time, I tried to tell her how to be saved. I tried to tell her about Jesus Christ, and she never would listen.” Wow, it changed my whole thought pattern. Oh, wow. I just preached this funeral, and this lady, she’s in hell. It’s a sad thing.
I went to the graveside at Mapleview, I believe it was over here in Smyrna. I went to the graveside; I’ll never forget it. The family was just—especially the young ones—was in a frenzy to get… they wanted some rock and roll music played. They wanted to play it here, and of course, I would not let them. So they were on the same side, and they felt like they could do what they want. I said a few things, of course, tried to get the gospel to hear that. Then I prayed, and, you know, you shake hands, the pastor does, and you step aside, and they’re free to do what they want to do. They were just frantic about getting the rock and roll music playing. They actually had a DVD player—I’m not sure what it was—and they had placed it on top of the casket, and they were going to play their music. One of the old ones, just a very hard, acid rock. I can’t remember what it was; my wife knows them all. Very sad thing.
It’s amazing; I really believe the Lord was working. They could not get that thing to play. Someone else had an old boombox-type thing. They brought it out. If I remember, they could not get it to play. Finally, someone went and got their just a little compact car, and they pulled it up as close as they could to where everybody was, and they got that CD—I guess it was—and they put it in there. They just blared that music as loud as they could. I could not help but think: they’re up here just getting intoxicated with the devil’s music while their loved one is burning. Well, that whole day, I could just think that lady’s in hell burning. And they’re just getting—the devil is just trying to get their mind elsewhere because their loved one is burning.
Friend, there is a literal place of fire, torments. The devil would love to do his best just to get our mind all the way off of that and just take that reality away from the Christian world. But friend, it’s there. There is a hell.
Perhaps my saddest thought about hell is that it is eternal. Jesus said in Matthew 25:41, “Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire.” Revelation 14:11: “…and the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever; and they have no rest day nor night.”
You see, they would not let Jesus Christ pay for their sin. They would not accept Jesus’ payment for their sin. So, friend, God says, “All right, my justice must be satisfied, and the penalty for sin is death.” That’s death in hell. And yet they never fully pay their penalty off. That’s why it’s forever and ever and ever and ever.
My grandfather was from Hungary. He was a Hungarian. As a young man, he snuck over on a ship and went to West Virginia, worked in the coal mines all his life. He was raised Catholic, and we witnessed to him many a time. I remember many trips from Tennessee to Florida trying to witness to him. Mom and Dad made us fast the whole way down there because they wanted to save money—no, I’m teasing—but we would, as a family, fast and pray going down there.
He liked—I’m still a little bitter over this—he liked my sister better than anybody. He liked those girls, you know, and me and my brothers. He was good to us, but he… so we tried to get Elaine to witness to my sister. I don’t know. My dad holds out that maybe he got saved. Maybe he did. I don’t know. I wasn’t super close to my grandpa. He was a hard man. I still love him. He’s one of those guys; he’s old school. We would buy him—he had new sweaters all over the place—but he’d still have that old sweater about 20 holes in it with patches on it. I’m told he had to smoke his pipe all the time. I had a fireplace. I still love him.
Now, I think about it: if he didn’t get saved, I don’t know. He’s been gone in eternity a little over 35 years ago. If he didn’t get saved, he’s still there. 100 years from now, it’ll be 1,035. A thousand years, 1,035. Ten thousand years, 10,035 years… all eternity. I don’t know. We all grade ourselves probably by our own curve. Sometimes I think I can take pain pretty good. I know what pain is and all that, but it helps me if I know there’s an end to it. I can take it for a little bit because it’s going to heal up and get better soon. They don’t have that hope in hell. It’s forever and ever and ever.
Now let me give you just two closing thoughts. We’re done. We’re not going to beat the Presbyterians, so just get that out of your mind. They all missed; they’re already out. Let me give you two thoughts here real quickly.
Number one: If you’re saved, if there came a time in your life you’re born again, you’ve trusted Jesus Christ as your Savior, you don’t have to worry about suffering the flames of hell, not for one second. I don’t have to put my head on the pillow tonight and think and worry about it. Me personally, hey, I’m going to heaven because of Jesus. My hand and my face will never burn in hell, not for one split second, for Him. He took my hell on the cross of Calvary. Why did He have to bleed, why do you have to have the crown of thorns, the spitting, the nails in His hands and His feet? Why pluck His beard out? Because He was taking your hell for you. We ought to rejoice in the Lord! I’m going to heaven!
One chapter over there in Psalms: “The mercy of the Lord endureth forever.” Because Jesus shed blood, Brother Mike, if you’re a Christian this morning, we don’t have to worry about it a bit as far as us personally. I’ll never, I’ll never even for a split second feel those flames, all because of Jesus. He reminds me of Romans 12:1: “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.” It’s only reasonable that I live for Him after He has taken my hell. He gave His life for me; I ought to lay down my life. Shame on me! When I get saved, I’m going to heaven, I’ll never burn again, and yet I’m living my life for myself. Shame on me! He took my hell. I never have to worry about it again. He said, “I will in no wise cast you out.” You’ll never perish, John 10:28 says. Passed from death into life, born of the family of God, a child of God, never have to worry about it again because of Jesus.
And can I say this? This old world down here is this sin-cursed, sin-messed-up world. There’s a whole lot of pain and sorrow and suffering and disease and sadness. There’s enough to go around for everybody and much more left over. But friend, nothing this world can offer you is as bad as hell. So I say, “Man, I’ve got it so bad. I’ve got all these things.” Hey, if you’re not going to hell, you’ve got it a whole lot better than hell. The Bible says, “Hey, this is just a moment. What is your life? It is even as a vapor that appeared for a little time, and then vanished away.” Romans 8:18: “For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” That’s eternal; this is temporal. Man, I got a lot of bad things in my life. I’ve got all kinds of problems just discouraging me all over the place, and I understand that. I’m not trying to make light of that. But hey, praise the Lord, we’re not going to hell; we’re going to heaven. Curtis Sutcliffe used to say, “I can take a lot of the trip as long as I know it’s heaven at the end of the road,” because of Jesus.
And then the last thing—you know the preacher has a last thing, but he’s got about 20 things underneath that last thing. This is so helpful, and I need this from time to time. I don’t know about you, but I need it. Sometimes I need to realize this thing of Christianity—living for God, selling out for the Lord, getting in church, tithing, offerings, and missions, and soul winning and bus routes and all of it—this is not just a social club. This thing is real. There is a heaven for all eternity; there’s a hell for all eternity. Hey, if there’s no hell, let’s pack them all up and go home. But, friend, there’s a hell. This thing is real. This is not just a game where we’re trying to gain popularity. No, no, friend. Hey, there’s a hell that we’re trying to—by the blood of Jesus—keep people out of hell. It’s not just some game where somebody gets a little trophy at the end. It’s the greatest cause there ever has been in all mankind: souls. That soul is going to live somewhere forever. It’ll live forever in heaven or die forever. This thing’s real.
There was a preacher preaching Sunday night, I believe it was. He said at the end, during the invitation, a man came down. I believe he was older than this side. The preacher said he’d never seen that before, though he’d seen it a couple times in church. This man just came down weeping, just weeping. The preacher took note, thinking, “Wow.” He stayed there the whole time. The preacher dismissed the service, closed out the invitation, gave the last prayer, and nobody was leaving, but that young man was still there just weeping.
So the preacher said, “I went to talk to that young man.” He said, “Sir, I’m sorry, I know you well. I’ve seen you around a time or two, but is everything okay?”
That preacher said that young man, with tears coming, said, “Preacher, I just got a job at the hospital, and I’ve seen something last night that I’ve never seen anything like it.” He’s in the ER. He said, “Preacher, this is what happened. A young man worked at a chemical plant. He had gotten just a small little tube of some chemical—I don’t know what it was; the preacher did not say—but that chemical, when it was in water, would ignite.”
The young man had that little tube and was having a party last night at his house. They were all drinking and high and whatnot, having a party night. Towards the end of the night, he said, “Hey, let me show you guys something. Come down the hallway here.” He opened the door to the bathroom. “Everybody look up. Everybody look up.”
He pulled out that little tube, a little vial, if you will, and said, “Hey, y’all, watch this. This is cool, man. This is awesome.” They put the stopper in the sink, filled the sink up with water, and he took that little tube of chemical. They say just one drop came out, boom! When it hit the water, poof, and it flamed up. “Wow, man, that’s awesome! That’s cool!” they said. “Do it again, do it again.” So he took that tube, and another drop came out, and when it hit that water, poof. “Hey, man, you’re awesome! That’s neat.” He did it a couple times. Finally, the last time: Grand finale!
He turned to go from the sink over to the toilet. He had a drunken stupor, as eternity tripped. As he tripped, he took that whole vial, and it turned over in the toilet. His face ended up being right over the toilet, and the explosion went right on his face.
This young man said, “Preacher, I was in here all when they brought him in. Preacher, I can hear his screams. He kept screaming, ‘I’m on fire! I’m burning!’” And it was awful. You could hear him screaming. He said, “Preacher, that’s not it.” One of the nurses trying to help noticed his face was literally burning. She took a wet, cool towel trying to help. He said, “Preacher, she took that and she put that on his face.” When she put that cool, wet towel on his face, literally his face went on fire. “Preacher, it was awful. I could see his face literally burning.”
He said, “Preacher, one of the doctors noticed the nature of the chemical, and he knew. He took a knife and began to scrape it—literally, the chemical mixed in with his skin—just scrape it off his face.” He said pretty soon the man passed out.
He said, “Preacher, it shook me so much. I was over in the corner, and a doctor walked by. He said, ‘Son, you just saw the best illustration you’ll ever see of hell. In hell, he lifted up his eyes being in torments.’” Oh, friend, Satan plays for keeps. That’s not just a social club; play church. It’s reality: heaven and hell.
Original File: Hell is real - Pastor Paul Chisgar Sunday AM 51621