Why I Preach On Hell

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WHY I PREACH ON HELL

By George W. Sinquefield

Matthew 25:31 through Matthew 25:46 (KJV)
³¹ When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: ³² And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: ³³ And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. ³⁴ Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: ³⁵ For I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: ³⁶ Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. ³⁷ Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungered, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? ³⁸ When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? ³⁹ Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? ⁴⁰ And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. 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: ⁴² For I was an hungered, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink: ⁴³ I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not. ⁴⁴ Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungered, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee? ⁴⁵ Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me. ⁴⁶ And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.

I. I preach on hell because the Bible declares that hell is a reality.

I feel like Billy Sunday did when he said, "I am not going to give you my speculations or theories or opinions. They are worth no more than any other fool's speculations, theories or opinions and any man who preaches his speculations, theories or opinions is a fool. One ounce of God's revelation is worth forty million tons of man's speculation and theories. The man doesn't live that can go to the Bible to find out what it teaches in order that he may preach what it teaches and then not stand up and tell people there is an eternal hell for the people who won't repent."

I preach on hell because the Bible tells me there is a hell and I believe the Bible. I believe the Bible is God's Word and that it is true. no one can believe the Bible and not believe in hell.

Two Hundred Thirty Four times God speaks of judgment and eternal punishment. Notice a few of these.

Psalm 9:17 (KJV)
¹⁷ The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.

Deuteronomy 32:22 (KJV)
²² For a fire is kindled in mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest hell, and shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains.

Psalm 11:6 (KJV)
⁶ Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest: this shall be the portion of their cup.

Isaiah 66:24 (KJV)
²⁴ And they shall go forth, and look upon the carcases of the men that have transgressed against me: for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched; and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh.

Isaiah 33:14 (KJV)
¹⁴ The sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites. Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?

Isaiah 1:28 (KJV)
²⁸ And the destruction of the transgressors and of the sinners shall be together, and they that forsake the LORD shall be consumed.

Isaiah 66:15 (KJV)
¹⁵ For, behold, the LORD will come with fire, and with his chariots like a whirlwind, to render his anger with fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire.

2 Thessalonians 1:8 (KJV)
⁸ In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ:

2 Peter 2:4 (KJV)
⁴ For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment;

Revelation 21:8 (KJV)
⁸ But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.

The holiness of God demands that there be a hell. We all know that sin is not fully punished here. Think of the man who swindles hundreds of poor widows and orphans of all their savings and then when apprehended by the law commits suicide, think you this is the end? Think of the man who ruins fair young womanhood and then throws the life, crushed and broken upon the rubbish heap of life while he goes on, respected and honored among men. What about him? What about the man who deliberately squanders all his earnings upon drink and gambling and lewd living, causing his family to suffer in squalor and want. What about him? Folks, the holiness and justice of God demands that there be a hell.

A preacher, who did not believe in hell, preached that everyone would be saved. His wife died, leaving him with a little girl. When she was almost grown, a man enticed her into sin and ruined her. The the preacher said, "If God Almighty doesn't have a hell for fiends like the one who ruined my child and wrecked my life, He ought to make one."

Browning once said, "There may be a heaven; there must be a hell."

One gives us this good advice. "If you are honest you will accept God's Word and study it carefully. Saying there is no hell does not do away with it. Ignoring the teaching of the Bible does not put it out of existence. One ounce of what God says is worth a million tons of what some modernist preacher says. Who will you believe, God's Word or some atheistic professor or unbeliever? Some of these scoffers won't be in hell five minutes before they will scream out, "What a mistake I made in my teaching regarding the Bible!"

Jesus preached the fact of hell. Time and again He emphasized the fact that He was proclaiming the truth. The doctrine of eternal hell was part of His message. Of 162 texts in the New Testament which speak of the doom awaiting the lost, Jesus spoke 70 of these and he used strong language in telling us about it. A few of these:

1.    "He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire."
2.    "Wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction and many there be which go in there at."
3.    "Rather fear Him who is able to destroy both body and soul in hell."
4.    "And shall cast them into the furnace of fire -- there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth."
5.    "It is better for thee to enter life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell."
6.    "And in hell he lifted up his eyes."
7.    "The smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever and they have no rest day or night."
8.    "Depart from me into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels."

Jesus was the greatest preacher on hell the world has known. He knew of its existence and its terrible nature. He spoke of hell as:

1.    A lake of fire
Revelation 20:15 (KJV)
¹⁵ And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.
2.    Unquenchable fire
Mark 9:48 (KJV)
⁴⁸ Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.
3.    Fire and brimstone
Revelation 21:8 (KJV)
⁸ But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.
4.    Place of torment
Luke 16:23 (KJV)
²³ And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.
5.    Flames of fire
Luke 16:24 (KJV)
²⁴ And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.
6.    Everlasting fire
Matthew 25:41 (KJV)
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:
7.    A furnace of fire
Matthew 13:41 through Matthew 13:42 (KJV)
⁴¹ The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; ⁴² And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.

He wanted men to know the truth and He didn't speak lightly or jokingly about such an awful subject.

Three times in Mark, Chapter 9, the tender hearted Savior speaks of a worm that never dies and a fire that shall never be quenched. Did the Lord lie? Did He lie when He told of the rich man lifting up his eyes in torment and begging for a drop of water to cool his tongue? Did He lie when He spoke of the unquenchable fire? No, He did not lie. Jesus referred to Himself as "the truth."

John 14:6 (KJV)
⁶ Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

He was the very embodiment of truth. What ever He did or said was the truth. Jesus is God and the Bible states that God cannot lie.

Titus 1:2 (KJV)
² In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began;

It further states that it is impossible for God to lie.

Hebrews 6:18 (KJV)
¹⁸ That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us:

Now is hell a fact? Somebody says, "I don't believe in hell because it is too awful." There are a lot of people who have that notion -- hell is too terrible for a man to believe in; how a God of love and mercy can send a man to hell -- ; it is too awful! My friend, suppose I walk down Queen Street out here and see a street car hit somebody. I go along and there is a mangled body on the street. I say, "Oh it is too awful. I don't believe it happened. Therefore I don't even believe he go hurt." That would be foolish. Suppose I go to a hospital and see someone there suffering and in pain and agony, and I say, "It's too awful, and I don't believe they are sick." You would brand me as an insane man, a lunatic, a fool! And I say that you and I cannot do away with the fact of hell just because it is awful. There is a hell.

Dr. Hershel Hobbs, a noted Greek scholar, says; "If Christian faith did not require a belief in hell, then I would be a Christian," said a keen student. This statement represents the current reasoning among many people. Friends, today as we look at the nature of hell as taught in the Bible, let us face many of the false notions, the superstitious accretions that have gathered around Biblical sayings through the centuries and let us honestly try to separate the truth from the hearsay.

Is belief in hell fundamental to Christian faith? Anyone who knows the Bible at all must answer with unhesitating certainty, yes, belief is essential in the fundamentals. If one is to accept only what strikes his reasoning as logical or pleasing while deleting what he doesn't like or agree with, then his religion is not that which was practiced by Jesus Christ. Heaven and hell are taught as the logical ends of good and evil personalities.

Some say "Preacher, I don't believe there is a hell." I say to them, "You talk to God about that." "I don't believe that good people who reject Jesus go to hell." "Talk to God about that." "I believe hell is the grave." "Talk to God about that." "I don't believe a God of love will send a person to hell." "Talk to God about that." "I believe all will be saved and go to heaven." "Talk to God about that."

Some people would have us believe that there is a heaven without a hell. That is impossible for the very argument you would use to abolish the fact of hell would at the same time abolish the fact of heaven. And any argument you would use to establish a heaven would at the same time establish a hell. If we're going to preach the whole truth we're going to have to match our preaching on the love of God with sermons on the wrath of God who hates sin as much as He loves the sinner.

We are more positive there is a hell than we are that the sun will rise tomorrow. I do not have one word of authority to tell you that the sun will rise but I do have the Word of authority to tell you there is a hell. We're not sure of many things.

1.    That we'll meet again in this building to worship.
2.    That we'll even eat another meal.
3.    That we'll live another day.

But we are sure that hell is a reality for God says it is. I believe it, do you? May I take the words of Dr. Bob Shuler and make them mine?

"I am anxious to emphasize one thing only: the fact of hell. The man of clear vision faces facts because they are facts, and not because he likes them or wants them to be facts. Side-stepping the unpleasant in reality is one of the great feats of this generation. It is cowardly, hypocritical, and disastrous. What we do not like we push aside as error, a phantom of the mortal mind, an illusion, a mirage. By doing so we plow straight ahead into catastrophe. The fact that we do not want it to be there doesn't keep it from being there.

Our generation is continuously seeking for some comfortable adjustment. We want a lounging chair religion. We want to go to heaven along the road of selfishness, greed, worldliness, sensuality, appetite, passion, and all the rest of the sordid pottage for which we are constantly selling our birthrights. And above all, if we miss heaven, we want to side-step hell. We have decided that the best way to do that is not to have any hell. So we do what Russia tried to do with God" we simply throw hell through the window!

It is an unbelievable complex that seems to afflict us. We deny all reality, if thereby we escape our consciences and avoid the consequences. The terrible truth is that we neither escape our consciences nor avoid the consequences. The most disappointed man on earth is the man who tries to make himself believe a lie."

II. I preach on hell because I believe there is a hell.

Billy Sunday said, "I believe there is a hell. If I didn't, I wouldn't have the audacity to stand up here and preach to you. If there ever comes a time when I don't believe in hell, I will leave the platform before I will preach a sermon with that unbelief in my heart. I would rather believe and preach the truth, no matter how unpleasant, than to believe and preach a lie simply for the friendship and favor of some people.

The preacher must preach on hell and warn the people. "America is in need of much vital, constructive preaching on the subject of eternal punishment. The people have wandered so far from God, we even question whether there be any such place as hell."

So unpopular has the subject of hell become that it is seldom heard in the average pulpit in the land today and never heard at all in many, many churches. You can hear the word "Hell" used far more frequently on the street, on the train, in the business offices, than from the pulpits. profane men use it in cursing far oftener than many preachers use it in their pulpits. It is avoided on every hand, in the very place where it should be spoken the most.

"Today, people having caught the spirit and mind of this modern age, look lightly upon sin. Sin is accepted and openly practiced. Men must know the outcome of a life of sin -- eternal separation from God.

Ours is a modern age, an age of form and ceremony, and age of substitutes. Our reverence and fear of God are gone. Our realization of the awfulness of sin has gone. Any preacher who believes in hell and preaches it, is considered ignorant, a fanatic, one holding to this sixteenth century theology, a person who may be sincere but is to be pitied."

A radio preacher received a letter from a listener, who said, "I am surprised that a man of your training with a college, university and seminary background, could still believe in that antiquated, moth-eaten, disproved apparition of the age of superstition and paganism, a literal hell. No modern scholar believes that at all any more." This preacher answered it by saying, "Well, so I am not a scholar if this is true. But suppose that no intelligent scholar believes anymore in eternal punishment. What does that prove? It still does not change the Word of God on iota." He further states, "I wish that I could believe that there is no eternal hell for the lost, but to do so, I would have to reject the Bible, refuse to believe Jesus, and violate every single principal of moral justice in the universe. This truth of the eternal perdition of the lost is the whole background of Calvary, for if there is no doom and judgment from which to be saved, there is neither point nor reason for the suffering and death of a Savior, for the very depth of His agony and His suffering speaks to us of the awfulness of the judgment from which He came to save us."

Preaching that ignores the doctrine of hell lowers the holiness of God and degrades the work of Christ, if there is not a hell. I do not want to believe there is. But I would rather believe and preach unpleasant truth than to believe and preach pleasant error. As awful as the thought of hell is, I can do no less than believe and preach about it because I believe the Bible which declares that hell is real, is the Word of God.

R. G. Lee says, "If there is no hell, it is reprehensible to say there is. If there is a hell it is criminal not to tell people."

Dr. John Sutherland Bonnell, pastor of the Fifth Ave. Presbyterian church of New York said, "The records of Fifth Ave. Presbyterian church indicates that no sermon has been preached on hell in 40 years. Henry Howard, John Kelman and John Henry Joulett (former pastors and all considered great servants of the Lord) all ignored it."

D. L. Moody: "The same Christ that tells us of heaven with all its glories, tells us of hell with all its horrors; and no one will accuse Christ of drawing this picture to terrify people, or to alarm them, if it were not true. The same Bible that tells us about heaven, tells us of hell. The same Savior that came down from heaven to tell us about heaven tells us about hell. He speaks about our escaping the damnation of hell, and there is no one that has lived since that could tell us as much about it as Himself. If there is no hell, let us burn our Bibles. Why spend so much time studying the Bible? Why spend so much time and so much money in building churches? Let us turn our churches into places of commerce or amusement. Let us eat and drink and be merry, for we will soon be gone if there is no hereafter!"

"If there is no hell, then every preacher who warns sinners to flee from the wrath to come is a despicable, repulsive, calamity howler and ought to be silenced immediately and forever. But if God and the Bible are right and therefore there is a hell, then by the very same token, the preacher who does not lift up his voice and cry and warn sinners to flee from the wrath to come, becomes a pitiable, unfaithful traitor to his fellow men and disobedient to God and His word."

If there is no hell, is not Calvary, with all its suffering and sacrifice and finished atoning work, a blunder and all the voices thereof a babel of incoherency? By every contemptuous mouthful of spit that befouled His face, by every hair of His beard which cruel fingers tore from His cheeks, by every bruise of His face, by every mark of the scourge upon His back, by every thorn that punctured His brow, by every nail that held Him to the tree, by every breath He drew which was a pang of pain, by every beat of His heart which was a throb of agony -- by all the shadows that covered the earth when black midnight came at noonday, we say that if Calvary be not the way of escape from an eternal hell -- then Calvary is a mistake. It is not credible that the Son of God should have become man and died on the cross merely to save men from the short and temporal consequences of sin. The infinity of the sacrifice implies an infinity of punishment as that from which the sacrifice was intended to deliver those who would accept the sacrifice. If a man accepts the atonement of Christ -- how can he doubt the dogma of hell?

III. I preach on hell because the majority of people are going there.

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

There are millions more people in the world today than there was a year ago. During the next 24 hours, nearly 146,000 will die and most of them will go to hell. They never accepted Jesus as their Savior and He is the only way to escape hell.

Most people that we know will never mount the golden stairway of the stars, will never see the glittering gates of light, will never walk the transparent golden pavement, will never stand with the ransomed throng about the throne of God to sing that song of sweet deliverance - the song of Moses and the Lamb, and that's an appalling, and a stunning thought, and a sobering fact.

Bob Ingersoll, a famous infidel, denounced the doctrine of hell everywhere he went. A drunkard in Ingersoll's audience one day staggered to his feet and yelled, "Make it loud and strong, Bob; there are a whole bunch of us who are sure counting on you!"

And there are millions of people today who count on liberal preachers who have told them there is no such place as hell, and that eternal punishment is an old-fashioned idea.

An irate church member walked out by the pastor at the conclusion of the Sunday morning sermon, and said: "I came here to be comforted and you sound a fire alarm." My friend, you and I had better begin to sound fire alarms before it is everlastingly too late.

Dr. R. A. Torrey once said: "The old crude form of Universalism that no matter what a man lives in this life he enters at once into blessedness at death has largely disappeared, except from funeral sermons. If that were true, the kindest thing that we could do for people in the slums and other unfortunates would be to put them to death at once in some painless way."

Listen, America is on her way to hell. Think of:

1.    The wickedness going on everywhere today
2.    How God's Word is ignored
3.    How His blessed name is blasphemed
4.    His day is desecrated
5.    Unbelief in Jesus, God's Son, is so widespread.

As one preacher said, "I don't believe there are enough Democrats nor Republicans put together to keep America out of hell. I believe it will take an old-fashioned, heaven-sent, window-rattling, shingle busting revival to ever save this country."

Winston Churchill once said, "The moral landslide in Great Britain can be traced to the fact that heaven and hell are no longer proclaimed throughout the land."

If we are to have a revival of soul winning, it will come only when we return without compromise or apology to the preaching of the awfulness and filthiness of sin, the holiness of God, and the certainty of a Bible hell. Read the story of revivals throughout the ages and you will find that in every instance it came as a result and was accompanied by the preaching not only of the love of God but the wrath of God upon sinners. We read a lot about the "key to revival," but I declare that the real key is a return to good old-fashioned preaching of the holiness of God, His hatred for sin, and a revival of some good fire and brimstone preaching for sinners.

A. C. Archibald says, "Today the word hell is a word of jest and easy profanity. It has been emptied of all serious meaning. As a force to startle people into repentance, it is no longer impressive. How different is the attitude from the situation in the centuries preceding ours. Everlasting punishment was the constant theme in arousing a sense of Christian responsibility and in awakening the indifferent sinner."

We who preach on hell are asked, "Are you trying to scare me into heaven?" Our answer is, "No, not necessarily but it would be a thousand times better for you to go to heaven scared than to die and go to hell unafraid." The Bible is filled with the idea of fear as a motive to bring men to Christ.

Hebrews 4:1 (KJV)
¹ Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it.

Hebrews 11:7 (KJV)
⁷ By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.

Fear of punishment holds men in restraint in this world. And if it weren't for jails and penitentiaries, if it weren't for the fear of punishment, your life would not be safe, your property would not be safe. It is the fear of punishment that holds many a man and woman in restraint. You remove the penalty for wrongdoing and you lift the floodgates of iniquity. Remove the penalty for taking life and I tell you, your streets would flow with blood. Remove the penalty for breaking into a house or for cracking a safe, and burglary and theft would be rampant.

It is the fear of punishment, of jails, of penitentiaries and of the rope or the electric chair, that holds many a man and woman in restraint. Remove the fact that there is punishment for wrong doing and you lift the flood gates of iniquity.

Thirty years ago Dr. Ralph Sockman, a Methodist preacher said, "We have to find a new moral corrective besides hell. People aren't worried about sin anymore. The wages of sin is still the same as it has ever been -- death -- eternal death, the second death -- death in hell fire. Hear Jesus:

Matthew 10:28 (KJV)
²⁸ And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

If you will not repent and let Christ become your Lord and Master, if you will not pay the price in order to be saved -- out there beyond life, out there beyond death, out there beyond the funeral, out there beyond time there is a hell waiting for you.

A. C. Dixon said, "There is something in God for sinners to fear."

People nowadays serve a weak-kneed, compromising, paper doll God, one who has all love and no mercy, and no justice -- one who will wink at sin and let sinners have their own way. Modern day teaching is that God has changed -- that though He at one time did show forth His wrath against sin, no longer is He the same God who lived in those days.

But this is not the God of the Bible! The God of the Bible is the One who must punish sin. God has not changed! Though men may lift Him up as one whose hatred for sin has been exhausted, yet He is still the same.

Malachi 3:6 (KJV)
⁶ For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.

The God who rained fire and brimstone on the wicked cities of Sodom and Gomorrah is the same God who lives today! The God who broke up the fountains of the deep and opened the windows of heaven and sent a flood upon a corrupted world of sinners is the same God today! The God who displayed His wrath against sin in the Old Testament by striking men dead with fire, sending plagues and death, killing first-born children, drowning wicked men in a sea is the same today! God will punish sin! His justice requires it. His holiness demands it, and His uprightness vindicates it. Do not be deceived here -- there is a hell. `

IV. I preach on hell trusting that the Holy Spirit will, in a very special way, speak to our hearts.

I trust that He will reveal to us the greatness of our salvation. How we who are saved need to realize what we've been saved from. Dr. A. C. Dixon said, "If we had more preaching on hell in the pulpit, we might have less hell in the community." I believe that once we are saved we are saved forever. The Bible is very clear on this.

John 6:47 (KJV)
⁴⁷ Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life.

John 5:24 (KJV)
²⁴ Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.

When we are saved and realize how wonderful is our Savior and our salvation, our desire will be to please Him. Out of gratitude for saving us we'll want to live for Him and serve Him. Our love for Him will compel us to cry out, "Not my will but thine be done."

When we face the unpleasant and sobering truth about hell, it intensifies the meaning of the cross and the mission of the church. When we flash John 3:16 on the dark backdrop of an everlasting hell, it indeed becomes gospel truth, the best news this old sin cursed world has ever known. Salvation taken on a fresh dimension and our work for the Lord will be done with zeal and enthusiasm.

One pastor faced his cold, indifferent congregation one Sunday morning and began his sermon by saying, "I wish every one of you would go to hell." Then he paused and continued, "for just five minutes." General William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army said, "If every one of our workers could spend twenty-four hours in hell, it would be the best possible training they could receive. It would be worth far more than three year of intensive training in our schools.

Facing fairly and squarely this Bible concept of hell will inspire us to greater missionary fervor. It will help us to purify, by God's grace, our own lives. It will provoke us to personal soul winning. It will cause us to give gladly our tithe and offerings to support earth's greatest and grandest enterprise, man's redemption from sin. It will bring us to our knees as we seek God's strength and guidance for our task of preaching the gospel and winning the lost.

V. I preach on hell in order that I may magnify and exalt the love, grace and mercy of God.

Robert Stewart McCheyne, great preacher of Scotland, was asked on Monday by another preacher, "What text did you preach on yesterday, Robert?" He answered, "This was my text. The wicked shall be turned into hell and all nations that forget God. "But," he added, with tears in his eyes, "I preached it with a breaking heart." Has a preacher any right to speak of hell in any other way? Hell must ever be thought of against the background of the love, the compassion, the persistence, and the grace of the great heart of God yearning to save men from such an awful death.

Dr. Herschel Hobbs, on "The Baptist Hour," said, "If you can preach about hell without a broken heart you should never preach about it." Billy Graham said, "Jesus must have had tears in His eyes and a lump in His throat when He spoke of hell." Richard Baxter wrote, "I preached as never to preach again -- as a dying man to dying men."

About 30 year ago Dr. R. C. Campbell brought a message in which he said, "Preachers, it is all right to preach against sin. You ought to! It is all right to preach about hell. You ought to! It is all right to preach about the awfulness of the Christless Judgment. You ought to! But never leave you people in despair. Before you end you sermon, always dip your brush in colors of hope and paint for them the rainbow of God's love. Paint for them a picture of the Christ Who loves them and Who died to save them for their sins!"

Dr. Oscar Lowry tells of a man whose daughter was sick and who paid $20,000.00 for a Dr. to come from Austria to take care of her. Now do you think it was just some little something wrong with her, maybe a headache or a stomach ache? Would her father have gone to such trouble and expense if her trouble was some little thing? If he was willing to pay a large sum of money to get a doctor to come all the way from Austria, there must have been something terribly wrong with her.

If God was willing to pay such a price on Calvary's cross for us there must have been something terribly wrong with us, something awful He wanted to save us from. Yes, there is something terribly wrong with man. He is a sinner, a lost sinner and on his way to hell.

Where is hell? In the New Testament there are 27 books, 260 chapters and 234 verses that deal directly with hell. This is almost one verse per chapter that deals on this terrible, hideous, horrifying place called hell. Hell is a place -- but where? It is described as a subterranean area, created and located for specific purpose.

That says to me, the place is beneath, low down in location, low down in its habitation.

Isaiah 14:9 (KJV)
⁹ Hell from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming: it stirreth up the dead for thee, even all the chief ones of the earth; it hath raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations.

Job 11:8 (KJV)
⁸ It is as high as heaven; what canst thou do? deeper than hell; what canst thou know?

It is as high as heaven -- deeper than hell.

Psalm 55:15 (KJV)
¹⁵ Let death seize upon them, and let them go down quick into hell: for wickedness is in their dwellings, and among them.

Proverbs 7:27 (KJV)
²⁷ Her house is the way to hell, going down to the chambers of death.

Proverbs 15:24 (KJV)
²⁴ The way of life is above to the wise, that he may depart from hell beneath.

I can tell you for sure where hell is. According to the Word of God hell is at the end of a life lived without Christ. It was so for the rich fool. He died and in hell he lifted up his eyes.

Someone has said that "hell is a fact unbelievers will discover too late." Billy Sunday said, "Hell is the highest reward that the devil can offer you for being a servant of his."

"How can we doubt the existence of a personal devil of great cunning and great power when we see how men are so utterly blinded and deceived by his cunning and so completely enslaved by his power that they choose the wrath of God rather than eternal life." R. A. Torrey

Have you chosen the wrath of God, rather than a home in heaven? You don't have to go to hell. Praise His name, Jesus will save you and give you a home in heaven if you'll only trust Him.

A robber entered a house and took the life savings of an old man. A friend said to him, "Why in the world did you give it to him?" He said, "Because hell was too close."

One night a group of seminary students heard a fire engine go by. They followed the fire engine blocks to a sanitarium which was burning down. These students went in with the firemen and helped to bring out the patients on the first two floors. Then as they stood in front of the building, they heard screams from the rear of the building. They rushed around to the back and found that four men were trapped on the third floor and were standing at the window pleading for someone to save them from the flames. Since all the ladders were being used, four firemen set up a net and then cried out to these men, "Leap down one at a time and we will save you." The first three men leaped to safety and were caught in the net. The fourth man drew back in fear. He said, "I am afraid to risk the net. Isn't there some other way?" The firemen and the students cried out, "The net is safe. Leap out and we will save you." But the man would not risk it. He turned back in the building and later they found his charred body. Listen, men without Christ are in danger of the eternal flames. There is only one way of escape.

Trust Him dear lost friend -- trust Him now for you don't know how close hell might be.

John 3:16 (KJV)
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.

Angel Martinez said, "If you do not want to believe the doctrine of hell get saved and you can forget about it."