assurance of hell i dreamed that the great judgment morning had dawned and the trumpet had blown i dreamed that the sinners had gathered for judgment before the white throne oh what weeping and wailing as the lost were told of their fate they cried for the rock and the mountains they prayed but their prayers were too late the soul that had put off salvation not tonight i ll get saved by and by no time now to think of religion alas he had found time to die and i saw a great white throne now some have protest by saying that the fear of hell is not good for motivation yet jesus thought it was paul thought it was paul said knowing therefore the terror of the lord we persuade men today too much of our evangelism is nothing but soft soap and some of it is nothing but evangelical salesmanship we don t tell people anymore that there s such a thing as sin or that there s such a place as hell as jayne has said this doesn t mean we have to come on so strong so as to hit people over the head with a baseball bat yet the fact remains there is a place called hell a place so fearful that god died to save us from having to experience it whatever you or i as christians do we should do whatever we can to win people to the lord if for no other reason to keep them from going to outer darkness jesus in mt tells us that he didn t prepare hell for people he prepared it for the devil and his angels no where in the bible do i read anywhere that god predestined anybody to go to hell d l moody use to say that the elect are the whosoever will and the nonelect are the whosoever wont s whether or not that s theologically sound i couldn t defend but its practical jesus said to the people of israel ye would not now some of you may not be students of the bible heck some of you may not be christians have you ever said to somebody i don t believe in hell i believe in the religion of jesus but did you know that jesus talked more about hell than he did about heaven oh i believe in the religion of the sermon on the mount you find hell taught by jesus in the sermon on the mount you ll read that jesus talked about the tree being cast into the fire several times he talks about hell and about judgment in fact over and over in the synoptics matthew mark and luke jesus talks about hell not isaiah not moses not john the baptist though he did but jesus the son of god the great beloved one preached about hell because he loved people and didn t want to see them go there now if there is no hell then jesus preached in vain it was our lord jesus not some angry baptist preacher that said where the worm never dies and where the fire never goes out jesus said that it was jesus who called hell a furnace of fire it was jesus that used the word condemnation and this is the condemnation that men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil jesus said that how can we get it across to you that a loving dying jesus preached about hell not only that but he went through hell that s what calgary was all about when my lord was on the cross darkness fell he called hell outer darkness do you have this idea that hell is a place where the gamblers are gambling over here the drunks are getting drunk over there and the prostitutes are prostituting their bodies over there that s not what hell is hell s not a party there s no fellowship there he called it outer darkness outer away from god darkness god is light no when he was on the cross he was made sin for you and for me god treated jesus the way sinners have to be treated that s is a sobering thought as my son would say an awesome thought my god my god why hast thou forsaken me hell is isolation there s no fellowship in hell there s no friendship in hell there s no loving embrace in hell there s no hand shake in hell there s no word of encouragement in hell i thirst it goes much deeper than physical thirst hell is eternal craving with no satisfaction the man whose life was lived for drugs will crave it eternally the man whose life was lived for the lust of a woman s body will crave it eternally and not be satisfied one theologian has put it this way and i think it deserves merit what is hell hell is just the kind of environment that matches the internal condition of the lost in a recent post i was trying to remember the founder of the word of life ministries i ve remembered his name jack wertzen and found that the illustration that i gave wasn t his his illustration was that he was talking to his barber and his barber s wife and daughter had just recently been saved and he was commenting about it to jack they sing these songs and read bible verses and their praising this and that i can t stand it jack do you think god would send me to hell jack answered by saying yes i think he would of course the barber said what do you mean by that well if you can t stand living at home with your wife and daughter who sing hymns and praises to god now what would you do in heaven where they ll do it for eternity you d be miserable because god loves you he d put you where it would match what you really are it makes a man think the crucifixion of jesus christ is a fact that necessitates the eternal existence of hell because on the cross he performed an eternal act don t ask me how i don t know but he is god and he is the infinite eternal and when he died he died an infinite eternal death it is by that eternal act that he purchased eternal life for the whosoever wills he suffered eternal judgment a lot of people would like to detour around hell by saying everybody is going to be saved eventually universalism my bible says no he ll separate them the sheep from the goats after you die there s a probationary period in which god prepares you for heaven no my bible says that it is appointed unto men once to die and then comes judgment some of the cultist believe in annihilation after you die sssswish just like a mosquito you re squished out no in rev we are told that their is eternal existence in hell just as there is in heaven i don t enjoy making these kind of statements and maybe you don t enjoy listening to them but we have to preach the entire word of god there is a place called hell if i could give one verse of scripture that could give any hope that people aren t going there i d give it to you but i haven t found it that fact that there is a place called hell the fact that our god is a god of holiness and must judge sin the fact that he has made us the kind of creatures we are and therefore we re responsible the fact that he has placed us in a uni verse that has purpose and design behind it the fact that sin is such an awful thing and the fact that god himself went through hell to save us from hell leads us to two applications as i ve already mentioned if you are a christian you must worn others its not good enough to stop and fix their flat tire and not tell them that just around the bend the bridge is out knowing therefore the terror of lord we persuade men if you haven t accepted jesus are your savior you re taking an awful chance as i say to the jehovah witnesses who no longer frequent my door if you are right and i am wrong then i will have lived a good life and will die and cease to exist but if i am right and you are wrong then you will die and suffer eternal damnation i don t mean to make fun at this point but its like dirty harry said you ve got to ask yourself do i feel lucky well do you a man s got to know his limitations don t be one of the whosoever wont s because while i was yet a sinner he died for me there s no greater love than this that a man lay down his life for another rex
