HELL - What The Bible Says About It by John R. Rice

 

HELL - What The Bible Says About It

By John R. Rice

How Can We Know About Hell?

There was a certain rich man, who was clothed in purple
and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day: And there
was a certain beggar named Lazarus, who was laid at his
gate, full of sores, and desiring to be fed with the crumbs
which fell from the rich mans 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 Abrahams bosom:
the rich man also died, and was buried; and in hell he lift 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; for I am
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. And beside all this, between us and you
there is a great gulf fixed: so that they who would pass from
hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would
come from thence. Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father,
that thou wouldest send him to my fathers house: for I have
five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also
come into this place of torment. 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 (Lk. 16:19-31).

Hell, What A Horrible Thought

If there is a place of eternal torment where damned souls
cry in vain for water amid the flames they cannot escape
forever, it is the most terrible and alarming fact in this
universe! The very possibility that such a doom may await
the sinner is so shocking that no other question can compare
with it in importance. How can todays feasting or hunger,
clothing or nakedness, honour or infamy, pleasure or pain
compare in importance with a million years of pain, torment
of body, mind, and conscience? I beg the sinner to consider
how worthwhile it is to know what God says about Hell.

And, fellow Christian, if one loved one of yours is in
danger of the fire of Hell, how alarmed and anxious you
ought to be! How earnest ought to be your entreaties, how
fervent your prayers, how sleepless your efforts to save him
from the doom of lost souls! Yes, if men are going to such
a Hell that is so terrible, bonds of kinship and family ought
not to be the limit of our prayers and efforts. If there is one
man on this earth, even a total stranger, who may go to
Hell, then every person who has any love for his fellow man,
ought to have a consuming passion to rescue that poor soul!
To saints and sinners alike the question of Hell becomes
one of alarming importance. We ought to learn about Hell to
escape it ourselves and to rescue others from it as well.

The Bible Our Only Source Of Information About
Hell

The only place to learn about Hell is in the Bible. Man's
science knows nothing beyond death. Human experience
does not reach beyond the grave. If men on earth are ever
to know what is beyond this life, they must learn it from
God. Heaven, Hell, rewards, punishments, happiness and
sorrow beyond the grave are matters about which the Word
of God is the only authority; so this book will show what the
Bible says about Hell.

The Scripture which begins this booklet is what Jesus
Himself said about Hell; and much more than this He said,
as recorded in many places in the New Testament. Jesus
Christ was the greatest preacher on Hell of all the Bible
preachers. People often speak of the Lord Jesus as the
lowly Nazarene or the meek and lowly Jesus. But actually,
though Jesus is the very essence of God's love made manifest
in human form, His message of warning against the
terrible consequences of sin was the plainest and sharpest
in all the Bible.

Consider the following Scriptures, every one of them
statements of the Lord Jesus about Hell:

But whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell
fire (Mt. 5:22).
And fear not those who kill the body, but are not able to kill
the soul: but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul
and body in hell (Mt. 10:28).
As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so
shall it be in the end of this world. The Son of man shall send
forth His angels, and they shall gather out of His kingdom all
things that offend, and those who do iniquity; and shall cast
them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing
of teeth (Mt. 13:40-42).
So shall it be at the end of the world: the angels shall come
forth, and sever the wicked from among the just, and shall cast
them into the furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing
of teeth (Mt. 13:49-50).
Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the
damnation of hell? (Mt. 23:33).
Then shall He say also unto those on the left hand, Depart
from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the
devil and his angels (Mt. 25:41).
And they shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the
righteous into life eternal (Mt. 25:46).
And if thy hand offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to
enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell,
into the fire that never shall be quenched: where their worm
dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. And if thy foot offend
thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter into life [lame],

than having two feet to be cast into hell, into the fire that
never shall be quenched: where their worm dieth not, and the
fire is not quenched. And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out:
it is better for thee to enter into the kingdom of God with one
eye, than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire: where their
worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. For every one
shall be salted with fire, and every sacrifice shall be salted
with salt (Mk. 9:43-49).

The above Scriptures are all in the words of the Lord
Jesus Himself. Jesus was a Hell-fire preacher. To Him, Hell
was a fact, a horrible fact, but a necessary one. With holy
indignation, He preached against sin and with solemn
warning He urged men to flee from the wrath to come. Bible
preachers, preachers who follow the Lord Jesus Christ, must
preach about Hell.

But I call your attention again to the passage in Luke
16:19-31, quoted in the beginning of this chapter. Jesus
uttered these words in the presence of men as solemn
history. This is not a parable. The Bible does not call it a
parable. It does not have the marks of a parable. Abraham,
a historical character, is mentioned by name. Lazarus has
his name given. These are not imaginary characters. No
doubt the name of the lost man, too, would have been
given, but the tender heart of the Saviour would not give
offence to loved ones who may have heard the true account
of the rich man who died and went to Hell because he did
not repent.

If I do not believe this passage, I do not believe Jesus
Christ. If this Scripture about Hell is not absolutely trustworthy,
then I must reject the Bible as the Word of God and
Jesus as the Son of God. If I could not believe what the
Bible says about Hell, I could not believe what it says about
Heaven, about God, about Christ, about salvation, or about
right or wrong. If the Bible is proved inaccurate and unreliable
on one point, then it is a human book, not divine; and
the Christian religion is no better than any other man-made

religion. If the Bible is true, then I must believe what it says
about Hell.

Jesus said more about Hell than did Moses, David,
Isaiah, Paul, Peter, John or anybody else in the Bible. Jesus
is an authority. We are compelled to take what He said. We
dare not take away one word concerning the torments of a
doomed soul in Hell. We cannot add one comforting fact to
what Jesus said there. To tamper with this account means
straight-out infidelity. If I prove any part of this teaching
untrue, I have proved Jesus a human impostor, not the Son
of God, and the Bible a human book, not the Word of God.
If we are not to believe this story of the rich man in Hell,
there is nothing we can believe about the Bible, and there is
nothing left to the Christian religion. We must believe and
we must take at face value what Jesus said about Hell. If we
trifle at this point, we shall earn the curse of those who die
unsaved, unwarned, and who go to this Hell.

From the garden of Eden until now the devil has been busy
leading men to rebel against God and to sin. The best
argument the devil can bring to get men to sin is to say that
God does not punish sin. To Eve in the garden of Eden
when God had said, In the day that thou eatest thereof thou
shalt surely die, the devil answered, Ye shall not surely
die. He made Israel believe in the days of Malachi, It is
vain to serve God, because they said, They that work
wickedness are set up; yea, they that tempt God are even
delivered, and Every one that doeth evil is good in the
sight of the Lord, and He delighteth in them (Mal. 3:14-15;
2:17).

It is the business of the devil to make men believe that
sin will not be punished. If the devil can get men to believe
that there is no Hell, or that Hell is the grave, or that Hell is
only figurative, not a literal place, or that men in Hell will be
burned up at once without much pain, or that they will have

another chance to be saved, or that, after all, God is too
good to send folks to Hell; then the devil accomplishes his
purpose, gets men to continue in sin, and so go to Hell. It is
the devil's business to minimise or deny the Bible teaching
on Hell.

After all, the modern ideas about Hell are just a part of
the modernism which denies that man is inherently wicked,
denies the deity of Christ, the blood atonement, and the
inspiration of the Bible. Instead of direct creation of man, his
fall in the garden of Eden, and the depraved hearts of all
mankind which the Bible teaches, the modernist believes
that man is a product of evolution and is getting better all the
time. Instead of salvation by the blood of Christ, an atonement
made by the Son of God for sinful men, the modernist
teaches salvation by man's works and character. Instead of
a Bible which is the verbally inspired Word of God picturing
man as a great sinner doomed to an awful Hell, with salvation
offered free by a great Saviour, the modernist follows
traditions of men, theories of science and reason.

Hell is an unpopular subject. Dr. J.M. Dawson said in
1930 that the old idea about Hell has faded out and pastors
of cultured churches refuse to revive it. But a man of God
who believes the Bible must preach the terrible truth, or he
will be to blame for the ruin of those who lift their fruitless
cries in a Hell of which they were not warned! A man who
believes the Bible and seeks to please God must preach
Hell.

Hell A Literal Place Of Torment

Those who encourage men to reject Christ sometimes say
that Hell is only the grave. How foolish that is when you hear
the rich man cry out in Hell, I am tormented in this flame!
He was not simply in the grave! He wanted his brothers to
repent, lest they also come to this place of torment.
Repenting would not have kept his brothers from the grave;
it would keep them from Hell. Jesus spoke about Hell as a

place where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not
quenched (Mk. 9:48). We are told also that Hell is a lake
of fire burning with brimstone (Rev. 19:20), and that:

the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever:
and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast
and his image, and whoever receiveth the mark of his name
(Rev. 14:11).

The Scriptures about Hell are so definite that any man
who says Hell is the grave is either an ignoramus or a deliberate
deceiver. If I had a mind to, I could talk very learnedly
of Sheol, of Hades, of Tartarus, and of Gehenna.
These are the Bible words in Hebrew and Greek for Hell. I
could show that the Hebrew word Sheol and the Greek word
Hades, the latter used in Luke 16:23 in the passage about
the rich man in Hell I could show that these two words
might often be translated simply the unseen state. But
Hell never means simply the grave, and the way the Lord
Jesus used the word in this passage proves that certainly to
Him Hades simply means what we mean by that old-
fashioned word Hell, the place of the damned.

The rich man in Hell knew that he was not simply in
some spiritual state, and he wanted his brothers warned
lest they also come into this place of torment. Hell is literally
a place of torment where the wicked are punished.

Hell is not a state; it is a place. Notice that throughout
this book Hell is spelled with a capital letter, as names of
other places are. If Chicago or America should begin with a
capital letter, so should that city of the damned, that country
of lost souls, Hell.

Hell Is A Place! No Stops Between Death And Hell

Do not be deceived into thinking that a sinner will be given
another chance to repent after death. The Scripture says:

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; and in hell he lift up his eyes, being in
torments (Lk. 16:22-23).

Lazarus died and immediately was carried by the angels
to Paradise and found himself with the beloved ancestor,
Abraham. There was no delay. There was no soul sleeping.
There was no probation period for Lazarus. The Christian
who dies goes immediately to the happy presence of God.
When the thief on the cross died, he went with Jesus to
Paradise according to the promise of Jesus in Luke 23:43.

My mother died when I was a six-year-old boy. She was
conscious and happy to the last. She talked to us one by
one about the Lord in Heaven, and then she smiled and
said, I can see Jesus and my baby now. It is certain from
the Bible that when a Christian dies, he goes without delay
to be with God.

So with the sinner on the road to Hell. The rich man
died, was buried, and in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments.
There is no evidence here of any delay in punishment.
Notice that the torment of the rich man mentioned
here took place during the lifetime of his brothers, not in the
far distant future. When a lost man dies, he goes immediately
to Hell and torment. That is the plain teaching of the
Word of God.

Teaching About Limbo Or Purgatory Is Unscriptural

The Roman Catholics have invented the doctrine that there
is a purgatory, or limbo, an intermediate place between
death and Hell. They say that after one suffers in purgatory
for a time, he may then be allowed to go into Heaven.
Catholic priests often teach their people that prayers, good
deeds, or money paid to the priest will secure the release of
loved ones in purgatory. This is a teaching founded on
priestly covetousness, without one verse of Scripture to
back it up. The Bible does not even mention limbo, purgatory
nor any such place. Jesus never hinted that a man who
died unsaved would ever have another chance. If you value

your soul, poor lost man, do not depend upon any mercy or
hope or opportunity for salvation after death. The rich man
also died, and was buried; and in hell he lift up his eyes,
being in torments. That was not purgatory. That was Hell.

The rich man would have been glad to learn that there
was hope of release, hope that he could be prayed out of
Hell. If he could get out for good behaviour, as one does in
the penitentiaries of our land, or if he could have paid his
debt for sin and then passed on to Paradise with Abraham
and Lazarus, that would have made the fire easier to bear.
He may have had such hope. He thought one could pass
between Heaven and Hell. He was told that between us
and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that those who would
pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us,
that would come from thence.

That great gulf between Hell and Paradise, or Heaven,
is fixed, that is, it is permanent. No one ever can pass
from one to the other! There is no limbo, no purgatory, no
middle ground! Beyond this life there remains only an
eternal Hell and an eternal Heaven, eternally separated!

Hell a place of unutterable suffering.

The torment in Hell is evidently the principal point in this
Scripture in Luke 16. Notice the words being in torments

(v. 23), I am tormented in this flame (v. 24), and thou art
tormented (v. 25). There is torment in Hell!

This is the only glance that God has ever given us into
Hell and of the suffering there. How terrible it is! Here is a
man, formerly rich, now poor. Before, he had all that his
heart could desire; now he has nothing but torment. The
beggar who lay at his gate full of sores on earth is now
happy in Heaven. The rich man is tormented in Hell.

Conscious Pain In Hell

This man in Hell is the same person that he was on earth.
He has the same kind of mind. He recognised Lazarus. He

remembers his brothers. He remembers that he did not
repent. He has the same bodily desires that he had on earth
and longs for one drop of water to cool his tongue! He did
not yet have his body in Hell, but he certainly retained bodily
senses.

When the kind voice of Abraham answered from Heaven
and said, Son, remember, we can see that remembering
will be one of the torments of Hell. Supposing that the
rich man died and went to Hell during the lifetime of Jesus;
then he has been remembering in Hell nearly 2000 years.
He may remember every sin he committed. He may remember
his base ingratitude to God. He may remember
every opportunity he had to be saved and would not take.
He may remember every sweet song, every mother's
prayer, every wife's tear that urged him to seek the Lord. He
may remember, now, one by one, the sins he was too busy
to think of while he was clothed with purple and fine linen,
faring sumptuously every day on this earth. Hell is a place
where men are conscious, in possession of their faculties of
mind, memory, and conscience.

There is no indication that this rich man in Hell loved
God or wanted to do right any more now than when he died.
He loved his brothers as he did on earth. His nature was not
changed when he died. His soul did not sleep. There is
conscious suffering in Hell.

Body And Soul Destroyed In Hell

The Hell where men are now is a Hell of lost souls where
people are conscious and suffer while their bodies remain in
the graves on earth. But at the final judgement of all the
unsaved who ever lived in the world, we are told that the
sea gave up the dead who were in it; and death and hell
delivered up the dead who were in them (Rev. 20:13). The
bodies come from death to life so that men stand before
God. Hell gives up the spirit dead while the earth gives up
the physical dead, and the bodies and souls of lost men
come together again. This is the time of which God speaks

when He says:

that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those
in heaven, and those in earth, and those under the earth; and
that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to
the glory of God the Father (Phil. 2:10-11).

Literal knees will bow and literal tongues will confess
their sins, will be compelled to do so, before Christ and the
assembled multitude. Then these people in literal bodies will
be cast into the lake of fire. They will be tormented in body
as well as mind. Jesus spoke of physical bodies in Hell
when He said:

And fear not those who kill the body, but are not able to kill
the soul: but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul
and body in hell (Mt. 10:28; emphasis added).

The devil has deceived people who do not know God's
Word into believing that Hell is some indefinite, ghostly
place where there might be discomfort but no actual personality,
no conscious suffering, no physical torment. May God
help us to see that these tortures await the doomed and
damned and ruined souls who reject Christ and go to Hell!

Is There A Literal Fire In Hell?

We have already seen that Hell is a literal, physical place,
where physical bodies will dwell. The question arises, is
there literal fire in Hell? The answer of the rich man in Hell
is, I am tormented in this flame. Again and again in the
Bible we are told of the fire of Hell. Jesus often spoke of
hell fire, where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not
quenched. In Revelation 20:14-15, Hell is called the lake
of fire, and there it is said that Hell (Hades, the spirit Hell)
is to be cast into the lake of fire, the second death. If we
believe the Word of God, then we must believe that when
physical bodies leave the great white throne judgement,
they must go into a place of fire.

Hell Is Eternal Punishment

If a condemned soul after rejecting Christ on earth were to
die and then be blotted out forever, simply cease to be, that
would be a terrible punishment. When a sinner dies without
Christ, it means that he misses all the glories of Heaven, the
reign of Christ on earth, and eternal happiness in the
presence of God. If Hell meant only to pass out of existence
and miss the joy that God has prepared for those that love
Him, that would be an eternal loss that no sinner could
afford to risk.

Or if a sinner might stay in Hell for a little while, stay
until his suffering passed beyond endurance, and then
mercifully cease to be, cease to know, cease to feel, cease
to suffer, and be no more, that would be a terrible Hell. Ten
minutes of Hell would be so horrible that any man with any
sense would dread it and want to miss it at any cost. But the
awful fact is that the Hell spoken of in the Bible is an eternal
Hell. I mean not only that the place itself is eternal but that
men will be there forever, tormented forever. There is no
other honest construction to be put upon the many, many
Scriptures that talk about Hell.

The rich man is still in Hell, just as Lazarus is still in
Heaven. Abraham said to the rich man, Now he is comforted,
and thou art tormented. The time element in the two
cases is the same. Clearly the rich man is still in Hell.

Judgment Before Eternal Damnation

God pledged Himself that every sinner shall come to judgment.
He promised that dead bodies shall rise again:

And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall
awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting
contempt (Dan. 12:2).

Notice that lost people will be resurrected just as surely
as the saved. The same thing is taught in John:

Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in which all who
are in the graves shall hear His voice, and shall come forth;
those who have done good, to the resurrection of life; and
those who have done evil, to the resurrection of damnation
(Jn. 5:28-29).

Lost people who are in the graves will hear His voice
and come forth to the resurrection of damnation! The rich
man was buried, and in Hell he lift up his eyes, being in
torments. As long as his body is in the grave, the rich man
will stay in Hell. The millions in Hell cannot be brought out,
cannot cease to be, for God has promised to bring them
back to their bodies when the lost people who are in the
graves hear the voice of Jesus and come forth!

Revelation 20 tells us when the resurrection of lost
people from the grave will take place. Read these verses
carefully and see that after the thousand years reign of
Christ on earth is over, sinners shall come out of Hell; their
bodies will be gathered from the sea and from the land; and
in their bodies men shall stand before Christ to receive their
eternal condemnation!

And I saw a great white throne, and Him who sat on it, from
whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was
found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great,
stand before God; and the books were opened: and another
book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were
judged out of those things which were written in the books,
according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead who
were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead who were
in them: and they were judged each one according to their
works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This
is the second death. And whoever was not found written in
the book of life was cast into the lake of fire (Rev. 20:11-15).

The rich man, then, with all the other millions in Hell,
must stay there, tormented in flames, remembering, remembering,
until he faces Jesus on the great white judgment throne.

As long as you can find a skull in a museum, a
skeleton in a doctors office; as long as human bodies are
yet decaying in the cemeteries; so long the souls of lost men
are tormented in Hell, awaiting the resurrection of their
bodies in the last great judgement day! Then the rich man's
ashes will reassemble, and his soul will come out of Hell to
face Jesus so that his knee can bow before Christ and his
tongue can confess that Christ is Lord! At the very least,
sinners cannot cease to suffer in Hell until that day.

Physical Torment Continues Forever

If every sinner would have to suffer in Hell a few score
years or hundreds of years or thousands of years until the
great white throne judgement, that would be terrible enough,
God knows! Every sinner could then come out of Hell, get
his resurrection body, and appear before that awful court for
sentence. If then he could drop into the lake of fire and his
poor wicked personality be snuffed out in a moment's flame,
that would be bad enough. But the Bible carefully teaches,
with many scriptural statements, that sinners must live on in
torment forever beyond the judgement in the lake of fire.

The terms used in the Bible about Hell and about the
condemnation of lost people are not words of temporary
meaning. They are words that indicate an eternity of suffering
and shame. Daniel says that some shall awake to
shame and everlasting contempt (Dan. 12:2). Everlasting
contempt! Jesus warned against the danger of eternal
damnation (Mk. 3:29). The future blessedness of a Christian
and the doom of a lost man are often contrasted in the
Bible, and the inference everywhere is that the one lasts as
long as the other. To the one is promised everlasting life,
and to the other everlasting contempt.

In Revelation 14, God gives us a vivid and fearful
picture of the torment of the lost. These verses prove that
people will remain in an eternal Hell of torment:

The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which

is poured out without mixture into the cup of His indignation;

and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the

presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb:

and the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and

ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the

beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his

name (Rev. 14:10-11; emphasis added).

The smoke of their torment continues to rise day after
day, forever and ever. If that were all, one might hope that
after a sinner had been consumed with the fires of Hell and
had ceased to be, the smoke should go on up and up and
higher up forever. But the rest of the verse makes clear that
sinners continue to suffer there forever, for it says: And
they have no rest day nor night. This is the kind of Hell
Jesus talked about when He said, Where their worm dieth
not, and the fire is not quenched. I do not know all that this
Scripture means. I know that in this present world all the
aches and pains of the body are caused by sin. The
infections of germs, the plagues of parasites which infest the
human body, the decay of cancer, all these are the result of
sin. They could not have happened to a perfect Adam in the
garden of Eden. It may well be that a thousand such
unspeakable horrors of bodily suffering await the sinner in
Hell beyond the resurrection of the unsaved dead and the
last judgment day. Their suffering in the place of torment
will be continuous.

Eternal Torment Of The Antichrist And The False
Prophet

As if given to prove this very point, the Bible tells us of two
men, human beings like ourselves, who will be in the lake of
fire with their physical bodies a thousand years. Then at the
end of the thousand years, we find that they are still to be in
Hell. In Revelation 19:11-21 we are told of the return of
Christ in glory, and the battle of Armageddon. Verse 20 tells

us how the beast (the Antichrist) and the false prophet with
him, who deceived humanity to worship the beast, will be
cast alive into the lake of fire. Though John sees these
events in Revelation as if past, it is clearly a prophecy of the
future. Verse 20 reads:

And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet
who worked miracles before him, with which he deceived
those who had received the mark of the beast, and those who
had worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a
lake of fire burning with brimstone (Rev. 19:20).

The Hell into which these two men will be cast alive is a
physical Hell, the lake of fire. They will be both soul and
body in hell as Jesus said men would be (Mt. 10:28). Now
read on through chapter 20 of Revelation. Read how that
old serpent, the devil and Satan, is shackled a thousand
years and shut up in a bottomless pit. Read how the saints
will reign with Christ on the earth a thousand years. Read
how when the thousand years are finished Satan shall be
loosed for a little season and cause the last great rebellion
against the kingdom of God.

Then read in Revelation 20:10 how the devil himself is
seized at the end of the thousand years reign and cast into
Hell. There we find that the beast and the false prophet,
after a thousand years in the lake of fire, are still there. This
verse says: And the devil who deceived them was cast into
the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the
false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for
ever and ever.

Sinner, do not fool yourself, do not let Satan deceive
you about this matter. As sure as the Bible is God's Word,
then just that sure there is an eternal Hell, a place of
everlasting torment for the sinner who rejects Christ as his
Saviour.

Will A Loving God Send A Sinner To Hell

Infidels love to say that they, weak, sinful men would not
send their children to a place like Hell, and that if God loves
His children He would not condemn them to go to Hell. My
answer is that unsaved sinners are not the children of God.
No person is a child of God until he has been born again.
Others are the children of wrath. Jesus said to the Pharisees,
Ye are of your father the devil (Jn. 8:44). God's children
never go to Hell, but the children of the devil do.

How foolish to charge God with wrongdoing because
men go to Hell. Hell is the result of mens sins. Men go to
Hell because they ought to, not because God hates them.

The Wages Of Sin Is Death

Sin is a hateful subject to those who do not like the Bible
teaching about Hell, but sin is the cause of Hell. The wages
of sin is death. When God said to Adam in the garden of
Eden, In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely
die, He had reference, not primarily to physical death, but
to death of the soul. When Adam sinned, he began to die
physically; but he immediately died spiritually. He became a
lost soul. But for the mercy of God, he would have gone to
Hell. The second death is caused, like the first death, by sin.
Unless God changes all His laws in the next world, there will
have to be a place where sin is punished.

Any man who cannot believe in Hell is not intelligent. He
does not face the facts. He will not examine the evidence
that God puts on every side of him. You who say you cannot
believe a loving God would send a sinner to Hell, let
me ask you some questions:

+ Do you believe a loving God will allow sin to put a man in
the hospital with a diseased body?
+ Do you believe that God will allow sin to put a man in jail,
with his liberty taken away for years or even for life?
+ Do you believe that God does allow sinners to go to the
electric chair to pay for murder? Whether you like it or
not, doesn't God allow that?

+ Doesn't God allow sin to break homes, to bring disease
and death and misery?
+ Doesn't God allow sin to bring war with all its horrors to
the nations that forget God, and death to millions? And if
the same God is running things just the other side of the
thin veil we call death, then you may be sure that in the
next world the sinner will reap what he sows, and will get
his honest wages. And every poor, wicked, Christ-
rejecting, Hell-deserving sinner will come to the place of
torment, reserved for those who will not repent, will not
trust Christ, and will not be saved.

The man who does not believe in Hell is a willful fool
who does not want to believe what his eyes see.

The wages of sin is death (Rom. 6:23).
Be sure your sin will find you out (Num. 32:23).
Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatever a man

soweth, that shall he also reap (Gal. 6:7).

When you see the ruin wrought by man's sin, tell me,
please, is God to blame for that? In this world, trouble, tragedy,
heartache, ruin, death, are the fruits of sin. We may
be sure that in the next world God's laws about sin have not
changed. People go to Hell because they are sinners. The
torments of Hell are the fruits of their sin. People go to Hell
because they ought to go, because it is right. Hell is the
place for sinners.

Punishment Differs According To Their Works

Some people are more wicked than others; so they deserve
more punishment. Some had greater opportunities and have
turned them down. They ought to be held more strictly
accountable. The Bible teaches that they will be. Hell is hotter
for some people than for others.

In Revelation 20:12 we are told that the unsaved dead
will be judged according to their works: And the dead

were judged out of those things which were written in
the books, according to their works. Judgement will be
on the basis of what men deserve. People go to Hell
because they deserve to go; some have a worse Hell
because they deserve a worse Hell. They will be judged
accurately according to God's records of their works and
punished in Hell accordingly.

This teaching that Hell will be more bearable for some
than for others is found elsewhere in the Bible also. Jesus
said that Sodom, Tyre, and Sidon would find it more tolerable
in the judgement than Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum,
or other cities that rejected the gospel after much
enlightenment (Lk. 10:10-15). The greater the enlightenment
and opportunity which a sinner has, the greater his
punishment will be if he rejects it:

And that servant, who knew his lord's will, and prepared not
himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with
many stripes. But he that knew not, and did commit things
worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. For to
whomever much is given, of him shall be much required; and
to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the
more (Lk. 12:47-48).

Hell will certainly be hotter for some than for others. God
always does right. We may be certain that a man who
rejects Christ fifty years and with great enlightenment still
resists God, will be punished more than a younger person.
We may be certain that one who is reared in this enlightened
land and hears the gospel all his life, and then dies
without Christ, will find Hell more terrible than a heathen
who had only the enlightenment of the law written in his
heart, that is, his conscience, and the evidence of nature
round about him that there is a God. Hell is the result of
men's sins. Greater sin makes a more terrible Hell for the
sinner.

Sin Continues In Hell

The torments of Hell seem to be so terrible! Would a short
life of sin here earn an eternity of torment? Is God fair to
keep a man forever in Hell for the sins of this life? That is
an intelligent question, and there is an intelligent answer.
The reason sinners must stay in Hell is because they are
sinners still. Hell is not only a place of punishment for sin; it
is a place where sin continues.

When the rich man lifted up his eyes in Hell, being in
torments, he was still the same sinner, unchanged in character
and heart. He uttered no word of sorrow for his sin. He
asked Abraham for mercy, but he did not ask God for
mercy. As a lost Jew, he revered the memory of Abraham,
the founder of the Hebrew race, but he did not love God. He
asked for water to cool his tongue, but he did not ask that
his sins be forgiven. He knew that he was in Hell because
he did not repent, and yet in Hell he still did not repent! He
was a sinner on earth, and he remained the same in Hell.

There is every reason to believe that in Hell there will be
an abandonment to wickedness such as is not possible on
this earth. On earth there are many restraining influences,
many holy and blessed impulses which will never affect any
person in Hell. Here there are Christian people on every
side to restrain the sinner, to warn him. There he will be
forever in the presence of those who hate God.

In Hell he will never hear a gospel sermon or a sacred
song. There the influence of respectability will be lacking
and we may be sure that people in Hell will give themselves
over to unbridled sin forever. It seems almost certain that
their wicked hearts will grow more wicked. The most terrible
thing about Hell is that it is a place of sinning as well as sinners.
Sinners themselves continue to make Hell what it is.

No Honour Or Virtue In Hell

Thousands of men go to Hell who in this world call themselves
honest men. Remember that paying grocery bills

does not make one a Christian. Jesus said, Marvel not that
I said unto thee, Ye must be born again (Jn. 3:7). We may
be sure that no man in Hell would remain an honest man
very long when every motive for virtue and honesty is gone.

Thousands upon thousands of virtuous women, chaste
wives and mothers it may be, will be in Hell. Human virtues
are not enough to save the soul, for there is no difference:
for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
Christ is the only way of salvation. But we may well believe
that virtuous women will not remain virtuous and chaste in
Hell. Hell will be given over to the unsaved, and the leading
spirits there are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers,
and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and
maketh a lie (Rev. 22:15). When every restraining influence
of respectability, and example, and the Holy Spirit, and
good advice is gone, there will be no virtue in Hell, no
honesty, no goodness.

Preachers Have Misrepresented Hell

There are preachers, among them good men, who picture
sinners in Hell repenting, loving God, begging for forgiveness,
and picture God as laughing and mocking at their
torment. That is not the Bible teaching about the people in
Hell, or about God. The rich man in Hell was sorry to reap
what he had sown. He wanted mercy for his body, but he did
not seek for forgiveness of his sins. On the other hand,
Abraham, speaking for God in this case, did not laugh at the
rich man's torment nor mocked his cries. Instead, Abraham
said with tender sadness, Son, remember.

When evil catches up with the sinner, then wisdom,
even his own common-sense, laughs at the sinners calamity
and mocks when his fear comes (Prov. 1:20-27). We may
be sure that this is true about sinners in Hell. But God does
not rejoice over their torment; and the reason sinners are
left in Hell is that they have the same rebellion, the same
wickedness, the same unbelief that they had here on earth,

intensified by the environment of Hell, unrestrained by a
single godly influence.

Can you see why sinners who reject Christ, deliberately
choose evil instead of good, and then when they go to Hell
continue in sin; can you see why they should continue to be
punished? Sinners in Hell make their own Hell. People go to
Hell because they deserve it. They stay there for the same
reason. Punishment continues because sin continues in
Hell.

Sinners Would Be Miserable In Heaven

Suppose sinners should go to Heaven or should come back
to the glorified new earth where Christ and God the Father
will reign forever with the saved. There all the millions of
angels and the millions of the redeemed will be praising
Christ; but these despise Christ, some of them crucified
Him, and all of them turned Him down. We will not have
this man to reign over us, they said. In the heavenly world
there would be no room for lust or drunkenness or covetousness
or lies; all these wicked went to Hell because they
loved such things. Sinners would be miserable in the
presence of a God that they did not love, living according to
rules which only the good would enjoy. Heaven would be a
Hell to the sinner.

Sinners Would Ruin Heaven For Others

In fact, sinners would make Heaven a Hell for everybody
else. Sinners, let out of Hell, would covet the golden paving
of the heavenly Jerusalem, the pearls which make her
gates, and the precious stones which are the foundations of
her walls. For their own greed they would destroy the
Paradise of God if they could. Sinners, let out of Hell with
their vile hearts still unchanged, would lust after the angels
as did the men of Sodom. Remember that the men of Sodom
are in Hell and that Sodom was destroyed for such sin.
Such sinners would defile and taint Heaven. They would
make the new Heaven and the new earth like the old one.

If There Were No Hell

Suppose one fine day I wake up in Heaven and all my loved
ones are there. As I settle down to enjoy my wonderful mansion
in Heaven, there comes a ring on the doorbell and I
find the angel Gabriel waiting for me. John, get your Bible.
The Lord wants to send you out on an evangelistic tour, he
tells me.

Well, I say hesitantly, I thought I would get to rest
with my family now. I thought the fight was all over. But
bless God, Jesus died for me and I will preach for Him a
million years if He will let me. So I take my Bible and get
ready to leave with the angel Gabriel.

Meantime he explains, Well, all the sinners you know,
are up in Heaven. God was too good to send any sinners to
Hell so they are all here and they need preaching mighty
bad. As I go out the front door with the angel Gabriel, with
my Bible under my arm, ready for an evangelistic tour, Gabriel
turns and warns me sharply, Don't ever leave your
door unlocked! Remember, every thief, every bum, every
crook and burglar that ever lived on earth is in Heaven now.
Lock your door! Rather startled, I turn and lock the door, and Gabriel
continues, And that reminds me, don't you have some
lovely daughters? Boy, you ought to see my six girls with
their long, lovely hair! I say. Well, don't let them out at
night unescorted. They must be warned to keep themselves
very carefully. Remember that Heaven is now a city of
criminals. God was too good to send any sinner to Hell, and
so all those wicked Sodomites who would have raped the
angels are now in the streets of Heaven, and every lustful
man who ever betrayed and seduced an innocent girl is
here, so take good care of your girls!

By this time my eyes are misty and I am feeling the
keenest disappointment. This is not the kind of Heaven I
was looking forward to! But bravely, taking my Bible, I start
down the street. Here we are interrupted by a funeral pro

cession; for if there are sinners in Heaven, there will be
death. We find policemen on every corner because with all
the unregenerate sinners who hate God and would not turn
to Christ, of course Heaven would be filled with crime unless
carefully policed. As we go down the street we pass a great
jail, for where sinners are, there must be jails. Soon I hear
the cry of a newsboy, All about the war! Hitler's war in
Heaven. Towns wiped out and now in flames. Thousands
homeless. Millions under arms, and other millions dead.
Oh yes, of course, if God were too good to send sinners to
Hell, then Hitler would be in Heaven and with him would be
war and murder and misery.

God in Heaven, is that possible? No! Thank God, that is
not a true picture. I am sorry that sinners reject Christ, and
sorry that they must go to Hell, but with all my soul I thank
God that one day there will be a place where every wicked,
Christ-rejecting sinner will be shut out, and those that love
God can at long last have peace, sweet peace!

If God did not send sinners to Hell, then there could be
no real Heaven for God or saints or angels. But there is a
Heaven and so there must be a Hell, and the only way
Heaven can be the place of joy and peace it is promised to
be, is that there must be a Hell to confine sinners.

What does God say about that blessed home of the
saints in eternity? In that heavenly place, we are told by the
beloved John in Revelation 21 that:

God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there
shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither
shall there be any more pain: for the former things have passed
away (Rev. 21:4).

That could only be a world without sin. The lovely perfection
of a redeemed earth, as told in Revelation 21 and
22, would not be possible if sinners were there! An earth
cursed by sin must bring forth thorns and thistles; it would
be infested with ravenous beasts and germs of decay and
disease. There must be no sinners on the new earth. There

must be no sinner to contaminate the holiness of the presence
of God and take the joy from the hearts of Christians in
the presence of God.

Do you see why sinners must go somewhere else
besides Heaven? There, thank God, we will be done with
sin! If God should empty Hell into Heaven, there would be
no more Heaven. That world, like this, would be a vale of
tears. It would be a place of sin, suffering and broken
hearts. Would you have Heaven a place of lies, deceit,
envy, strife, hatred, covetousness, drunkenness, and lust?
Then a good God must keep sinners out of Heaven.

It is the providence of a good God that one day those
who hate God and love sin, those who will not be born
again, those who follow darkness instead of light, rebels
against the Father and haters of His Son, will be taken away
and will no more temp the children of God nor bring them
grief and pain. Matthew says:

The Son of man shall send forth His angels, and they shall
gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and those
who do iniquity; and shall cast them into a furnace of fire:
there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then shall the
righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their
Father. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear (Mt. 13:41-43).

It is the providence of a wise and good God that those
who will not themselves enter into joy and peace everlasting,
may be segregated in Hell. If they will not have a Saviour
from sin, at least God must see that they do not make
Hell for a whole universe by their sin.

Keeping People Out Of Hell

How profoundly moved a Christian ought to be when he
thinks of Hell and the millions who go there! It is little
wonder that the modern Christians got away from the
burden and passion for the salvation of sinners. They have
forgotten the Bible teaching on Hell. The preachers have
explained away the torments of the damned! What a

compelling motive we have for prayer, for preaching, for
soul winning when we learn that every human being who
leaves this world without a definite change in heart, immediately
lifts his eyes in Hell, tormented in flames!

The motive of saving sinners from Hell moved Paul, the
apostle. He was so troubled because his kinsmen, the Jews,
were in danger of Hell, that he could honestly say: For I
could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my
brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh (Rom. 9:3). In
Ephesus he warned everyone day and night with tears.

He realised the doom of a soul; it never left him! Day
after day he toiled, working far into the night to teach people
to repent. Paul did not have any different gospel from what
we have; he just had a deeper concern for the salvation of
sinners. With him it was a holy passion, practically the only
concern of his life. To see sinners saved from Hell, it was
almost worth to Paul being himself accursed from Christ.

May God grant that this book may print in the hearts of
Christians a holy fear concerning Hell so that they will snatch
their loved ones out of the fire itself!

Man's Duty To Man

Lay aside for a moment every consideration of duty to God.
Forget, if you will, every command of God's Word to win
souls. Even yet it remains that if you love your fellow man,
you ought to win men to Christ and so save their souls from
an eternal Hell. No excuses are good here.

You would not wait to be formally introduced to someone
before you would put up a ladder to a burning building
where they were held captive at an upper window. Good
men would not leave to paid lifeguards the business of
throwing a rope to the drowning. To leave this matter of
saving souls to the preachers is not only heartless; it is inexcusably
wicked.

God pity us, we preachers ourselves are all too guilty!
We are concerned too much with a hundred details to have
tears and efforts for sinners!

How Jesus Valued A Soul

Jesus said:

For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole
world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in
exchange for his soul? (Mk. 8:36-37).

My soul is worth more than the world! And the soul of
every poor sinner is worth to him just as much as mine is to
me, worth more than the whole world. Sinner, everything is
lost if your soul is lost. That is one way Jesus had of measuring
the value of a soul.

But the best measure of how Jesus felt about this is that
He died for sinners. If you ever doubt that there is a real, a
terrible, a burning and eternal Hell, just go back and read
again the story of Christ in the garden of Gethsemane, of
Christ on Calvary's cross. If there is not a Hell, then the
bloody sweat in the garden was wasted. If there is not a
Hell, then the shame, the spitting, the plucking out of His
beard, the crown of thorns, the cat-o-nine-tails upon His
back were worse than useless! If there were not an awful
Hell to save sinners from, then the horrible death that Jesus
died after hours of agony on the cross was not worth while.

Jesus knew the torments of Hell, and that is the only
reason that makes His death for sinners logical and reasonable.
Knowing the doom of condemned sinners, it is no
wonder that Jesus interrupted His sleep to win Nicodemus,
did without food to win the people of Samaria, yea, even
stopped dying in His torment on the cross long enough to
save the thief!

Dear Christian, if you have any kinship to the Saviour, if
your heart is concerned about the things which move His
heart, then I beg you, help keep sinners out of Hell!

How can you live with loved ones unsaved?

In a revival service at Shamrock, Texas, a young woman
arose and with sobs and tears told how her husband was
unsaved. When I want other things, I go after them, she

said, and I have decided this morning that I want my husband
saved more than anything else in the world. The next
day I went to the home of the young couple for lunch. After
the meal, Miss Jessie, as she was commonly known,
brought the Bible and said in the presence of her husband,
Brother Rice, Charles is not a Christian. I want you to read
and pray with him now that he will be saved. We read the
Scriptures and I prayed for the young man. I urged upon him
his duty and his danger, but he did not trust the Lord.

As we arose from the table, the young husband prepared
to take his wife to the store where she worked and to
go to his own labour. But Miss Jessie said, Charles, I am
not going to work this afternoon. You tell Mr. Forbis that I
will not be there. Puzzled, and very grave, the young man
went to his job. As I departed, the wife said with tears,
Brother Rice, how could I stand behind a counter, measure
goods, sell hose, ribbons or gloves, knowing that my
husband is lost and may die at any moment and go to Hell?
I must get hold of God today. My husband must be saved!

That night when Charles came home, his wife called him
to supper. There was only one plate on the table. Somewhat
disturbed, the young husband asked no questions. When he
wanted to rest in the evening, Miss Jessie said, No,
Charles, you must go with me to church. And he did.

That night I preached the best I could, but Charles did
not come. Others were saved, the last pleading verse of the
invitation was sung, but he did not come! We stood about
afterwards and talked and prayed until finally all were gone
home but a few. Big Jeff Mankins stood ready to pull the
light switch in the tabernacle. The janitor was ready to lock
the door. Miss Jessie stood in the centre of the floor weeping.
When Charles suggested, Honey, we had better go,
she simply shook her head and sobbed the more. I saw him
walk about here and yonder, distressed and troubled, until
finally when I laid my hand on his arm, he burst into tears.
I will never forget how he came up behind his young wife,

put his arms around her and said, Jessie, I will settle it tonight!
She won her husband's salvation because she put it
first. She realised a little of the terrible danger and condemnation
of a lost soul.

Millions of people go to Hell because fathers, mothers,
brothers, sisters, wives, husbands, neighbours, care little
and do nothing about their welfare, their eternal destiny.
May God lay this on your heart today. If there is someone
you might keep out of Hell, do it today.

Rescue the perishing, care for the dying,
Snatch them in pity from sin and the grave;
Weep oer the erring one, lift up the fallen,
Tell them of Jesus the mighty to save.

Who Goes To Hell And How To Miss It

Do many people go to Hell? Yes, Jesus teaches that there
are far more people who die unsaved and go to Hell than
there are Christians who go to Heaven:

Enter ye in the strait gate: for wide is the gate and broad is
the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there be who
go in thereat: because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way
which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it (Mt. 7:
13-14).

The gate to Hell is wide and the road is broad. Many
people follow the road to perdition! The gate to life is strait,
that is, tight, and the way is narrow, and Jesus says there
are few that find it! Most people, then, are going to Hell.
One who reads this ought to be alarmed and make the more
certain that he does not go unawares into Hell.

Surprised To Wake Up In Hell

We may be sure that most of the people in Hell did not
expect to go there. Certainly the rich man did not. He
thought Lazarus ought still to be his servant. He was startled
to find himself in flames! Jesus told about some people who

expect to be saved but who will be condemned:

Not everyone that saith unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into
the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of My
Father who is in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day,
Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Thy name? And in
Thy name have cast out devils? And in Thy name done many
wonderful works? And then I will profess unto them, I never
knew you: depart from Me, ye that work iniquity (Mt. 7:21-23).

Many places in the Bible tell where tares are mixed with
wheat, where good fish are with bad, where lost people mix
themselves with Christians and even deceive themselves.
The Pharisee who went into the temple to pray (Lk. 18:914),
thanking God that he was a better man than the
publican, was doubtless surprised when he went to Hell. He
thought he was good! Did he not fast two days a week. Was
he not a leader in public prayer? Was he not a churchgoer?
Was he not an honest man, paying all his debts? He even
tithed all his income, as he reminded the Lord! Yet he was a
lost sinner, and unless he repented before he died, he is
now in Hell! It becomes very clear, then, from God's Word,
that multitudes go to Hell who did not expect to go there.
Friends, I beg you, do not be deceived by Satan. Don't face
the terrible surprise of waking up in Hell.

Wicked And Unregenerate Hearts

Unsaved people are always wicked. Men are not willing to
believe that, but the Bible constantly affirms that it is so.
The wife may believe that her lost husband is such a good
man. God alone sees his heart, and He says, The heart is
deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can
know it? (Jer. 17:9).

The fond father and mother in doting blindness may
speak of their dear innocent child. Many a mother has
talked to me about her wonderful child, saying, Why, Brother
Rice, he never did anything wrong in his life! That is a
direct contradiction of the Word of God which says that:

There is none righteous, no not one (Rom. 3:10).

For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God
(Rom. 3:23).

All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every
one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on Him the
iniquity of us all (Is. 53:6).

The rich man deserved to go to Hell. He was a sinner.
Outwardly he may have been moral, upright, intelligent,
loveable. In his heart, where God alone could see, he was a
deliberate, malicious, willful, continual, unrepentant sinner
against God.

Remember those were refined, educated, cultured, religious,
praying men who condemned Christ to be crucified.
They were wolves in sheeps clothing. What Jesus said
about them in Matthew 23 perfectly describes the heart of
the best moral man who has not trusted Christ.

Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye are
like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful
outward, but are within full of dead mens bones, and of all
uncleanness. Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto
men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity (Mt.
23:27-28).

Those who have not had a change of heart may appear
to us moral or clean or good, but they are only so outwardly.
God, who knows the hearts of all men, here pictures to us
the unsaved heart. It was for this reason that Jesus said to
Nicodemus:

Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again,
he cannot see the kingdom of God (Jn. 3:3).

So that there could be no misunderstanding, Jesus repeated
twice more in the same conversation the requirement
that all men must be born again to ever see the kingdom
of God! Has the Holy Spirit regenerated your heart and
can you indeed testify that everything has become new?

Lost men love darkness, hate light, choose sin,
reject Christ.

Jesus gave a very clear picture of why sinners must turn
and believe in Christ or be forever condemned. He said:

And this is the condemnation, that light has come into the
world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because
their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the
light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved
(Jn. 3:19-20).

The best proof of any man's wicked heart is the fact that
he has not turned to Christ. The only honest reason any
man could ever give for not coming to Jesus is that he loves
his sin and will not come to Christ, the Light, lest his sin
should be reproved.

Men without God may be cultured, may be pleasant,
may be courteous and refined; but they certainly are not
good. They are bad by choice. The lost man's heart is
wicked, deliberately wicked, wicked enough to hate Christ,
the Light. Men reject Christ purposely, loving sin. Without
being converted such wicked sinners must go to Hell.

Let me press on your heart another saying of Jesus
concerning the wickedness of men. He says:

No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the
one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and
despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon (Mt.
6:24).

We are told here that the man who does not love Christ
hates Him. The man who does not hold to Christ despises
Him. Few men anywhere would admit that they hate Christ
or that they despise Him; but God's Word here tells us that
all men who are unsaved and therefore holding to Satan
and serving him, are the bitter enemies of the Son of God,
hating and despising Him! They have taken sides with those
who have rejected God's Son.

By nature and by choice men are wicked, enemies of

God, children of wrath, headed towards Hell. Men, then,
must repent, must turn to Christ for mercy and pardon and a
new heart if they are to escape the fires of Hell.

Moral People Go To Hell

Jesus did not say that the morals of the rich man were
worse than others. All that is said about the rich man's life
on earth is this: There was a certain rich man, who was
clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously
every day (Lk. 16:19).

That verse does not say that he was any more covetous
than others. It is not said that he mistreated or refused to aid
the beggar. The Scripture does not say that the rich man
committed adultery, or murder, that he gambled, or drank,
or swore. His trouble was inside. Like unsaved men, women,
and children everywhere, he had a wicked heart. In his
secret heart, he was against God.

Men by the thousands go to Hell who outwardly are
moral and upright.

Be sure to remember, too, that the rich man did not go
to Hell because he was rich. Hell has more poor men than
rich men, we may be sure; and the Bible clearly teaches that
Abraham, David, and many other rich people will be in
Heaven.

In Hell Because He Did Not Repent

The rich man himself knew why he went to Hell. He pled
that Abraham might send Lazarus to testify to his five
brothers, lest they also come into this place of torment. In
the conversation he said, If one went unto them from the
dead, they will repent! The rich man knew that if his
brothers were to escape Hell, they must repent. He went to
Hell because he did not repent.

What was true of this rich man and his brothers, is true
of every man, for Jesus says twice, I tell you, Nay: but,
except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish (Lk. 13:3, 5).

It is repent or perish for every sinner in the world! Sinners,
you must turn, or burn!

How shall I repent?

Repentance means to change your mind and heart; to turn
from sin in the heart, towards the Lord Jesus. To repent
includes trusting Christ. Trusting Christ includes repentance.
You could not truly turn from sin in the heart without turning
towards Christ, without trusting Him.

The rich man had a wicked heart, as does every person
born in this world. He loved his sin and did not turn from it
towards Christ. That is why he went to Hell. Everyone who
reads this, then, may be sure that unless you have turned to
Jesus Christ, trusting Him to change your heart and forgive
your sins, you are condemned to Hell. Turn, turn today,
before you find yourself where the rich man is, tormented in
flames.

You Need Not Be Lost

My own heart has been deeply stirred and burdened as I
have talked to you about Hell. But one blessed fact comes
back to my mind again and again; nobody need go to Hell!
The heart of God is concerned about sinners. He does not
want a single soul to be lost:

For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the
world; but that the world through Him might be saved (Jn.
3:17).

The Lord is not willing that any should perish, but that all
should come to repentance (2 Pet. 3:9).

Sinner, you need not go to Hell; God wants you saved.
Let us look again and find new meaning in that little Gospel,
in John 3:16:

For God so loved the world, that He gave his only begotten
Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but
have everlasting life.