I feel impressed to bring to
you is not a pleasant message at all. It's the most difficult subject. I don't enjoy preaching it, and
I don't expect you to enjoy listening to it. I'd much rather rejoice
in the mercy of God than to talk about the wrath of God. I'd much
rather preach the grace of God in Christ Jesus and the condemnation
and punishment of sin outside of Christ. And I honestly believe
that I can say that I wish it was possible for every person
to be saved. I tremble at the thought of any
mother's son perishing in hell. I don't know that I can say what
Paul said in Romans 9, verse 3. Do you know what he said?
Let's turn over there a moment. In Romans 9, I wish that I could
say this and mean it. I wish I could say it genuinely
from my heart. I'm afraid that I can't. I would like to be able to. Paul
said in Romans 9 verse 1, I say the truth in Christ, I lie not. He preceded the statement with
that affirmation and vow. My conscience bearing me witness
in the Holy Ghost that I have great heaviness and continual
sorrow in my heart. For I could wish that myself
were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according
to the flesh. Now, that's a burden, isn't it?
That's concern, that's compassion, that's intercession. You want
to know what intercession is, that's it. That's the man who
can say, he said, I'm not lying, my conscience bearing me witness,
I'm telling you the truth in Christ. If God had saved Israel,
I'd be willing to go to hell. If God had saved my friends,
I'd be willing to go to hell, to be accursed from Christ. I
know we can bring all the different arguments. Well, Paul knew that
he couldn't. Paul knew that he couldn't perish, therefore he
said it. That's not what he said. He's speaking as a man. And he
said, I'm not lying. I'm telling the truth. My conscience
bears me witness. I've got that kind of burden.
And Moses said something similar. Moses stood between an angry
God and a sinning people. And I believe Moses meant this.
I don't think that Moses was was a hypocrite in this at all,
because God heard his prayer, and God lifted his judgment and
his wrath. Moses stood between God, an angry
God, and the fallen people, and he said, Lord, God said, Moses,
move out of the way. I'm going to destroy these people
from the face of the earth. And Moses said, Lord, if you
destroy Israel, blot me out of the book. which you have written,
just take my name off the Lamb's book of life." Boy, I tell you,
that's a heap better than saying you can go to hell for your trouble,
isn't it? That's more tender. That's compassion. Oh, Jerusalem,
our Lord prayed, how oft would I have gathered you unto myself,
as a hen doth gather her brood, but you would not. I realize
that we are preaching like Moses and Paul to a people who will
not hear, but they prayed for them. They cared for them. They interceded for them. They
wept over them. They were concerned for them.
They were not willing to let them go. And their hearts, the
hearts of those who are listening to us are hard like the millstone. They will not hear. They are
hard-hearted. Are we in that group? I worry about this. I'm concerned about hardness
of heart. Hardness of heart. How do men's hearts become hardened? There's several ways. I'll give
you five or six. Number one, ignorance hardens
the heart. blandness and hardness of heart
go together. Let me show you a verse there.
Turn to John chapter 12. Now, what I'm talking about here,
verse 40, is just like this message I'm preaching tonight. It's an
awesome, it's an awesome, fearful, terrible message. We're talking
about death and judgment and eternal hell, and yet many will
hear it. and be unmoved by it, be unaffected
by it. And this is because of a hardness
of heart. Your heart has to be hard to
hear these grand and glorious, earth-shaking truths and not
be moved. And not be moved. You've got
a hardness of heart, and a hardness of heart is to be feared. A hardness
of heart reveals an unteachable heart, an unmovable heart. And
here in John 12, verse 40, our Lord said, He hath blinded their
minds and hardened their hearts. Those two things go together. Blinded minds and hardened hearts. They go together. Men do not
know. They're ignorant of God's righteousness. They're ignorant of God's Word.
They're ignorant of God's redemption. They're ignorant of Christ's
glory, and therefore their hearts are hardened. They're ignorant.
Ignorance breeds hardness of heart. unwilling to learn. I don't see and therefore I will
not obey. That's what we're saying. I don't
see that, I don't understand that, and therefore I'll not
submit to it. Blindness, ignorance. This is
one of the tragedies of today's ministry. We listen to fellows
attempt to preach and they're not teaching. Our Lord said,
go into all the world and make disciples of all nations, baptizing
them and teach them. And men aren't teaching the Word
of God, they're entertaining sinners. And they're leaving
the congregation in ignorance and blindness, and ignorance
and blindness breeds hardness of heart. You see what I'm saying? If a man doesn't know, he cannot
believe. Paul said, I know whom I have
believed. How can they call on him in whom
they've not believed, and how can they believe on him of whom
they've not heard? So that's the first thing that
breeds hardness of heart, is ignorance. The second thing is
unbelief. Turn to Hebrews chapter 3. In
Hebrews chapter 3, our Lord says here in the third chapter of
Hebrews, beginning with verse 7, He's talking to us now, as
the Holy Ghost said today, if you'll hear His voice, Harden
not your hearts. As in the day, as in the provocation,
in the day of temptation in the wilderness, your fathers tempted
me, proved me, and saw my works. Now, here's the second thing.
Some people have a hardness of heart that's born of ignorance.
Others aren't ignorant. These people in the wilderness,
Jews, weren't ignorant. They saw God's works. They heard
God's preaching. They saw God's miracles. They
saw me, they proved me, they saw my works. Wherefore I was
grieved with that generation, and said they do always err in
their hearts, and they have not known my ways. So I swear in
my wrath they shall not enter into my rest. Take heed, brethren,
lest they be found in any of you, an evil heart of unbelief."
What was wrong? Now, ignorance breeds heartness
of heart. But sometimes we can't plead
ignorance. We've seen God's works, we've
heard God's word, but we haven't believed them. So unbelief breeds
hardness of heart. How often will God speak? I don't
know. How often will God warn a man?
I don't know. How often will God show man the
way? I don't know. How often will
God visit a group? I don't know. But I know that
Israel saw his works. He revealed himself through his
law, through his prophets. He gave them the prophets and
the law. Our Lord said, Woe unto thee, Carazza, it's going to
be easier for Sodom in the day of judgment than for you. You've
seen my works. Unbelievable. Turn to Mark 6.52. Here's another verse on that,
Mark 6.52. And this is where we, here's where we, come in
here, he said in Mark 6.52, "...for they considered not the miracles
of the loaves." They saw our Lord take five loaves and two
fishes and feed five thousand people. They saw the miracles. "...for their heart was hardened."
Unbelief hardens the heart. I will not believe And then you
go into a hardness of heart. And then the third thing, turn
to Hebrews 3 again. Hebrews 3. Here's another thing
that breeds hardness of heart. In Hebrews 3, verse 13. And that is the deceitfulness
of sin. He says in Hebrews 3.13, "...exhort
one another daily while it is called today, lest any of you
be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin." Sin, the deceitfulness
of sin, hardens our heart. What do we mean by the deceitfulness
of sin? I think this verse will help
you on that more than anything. Turn to Ecclesiastes. Ecclesiastes
chapter 8, and listen to this verse and see if this helps you
on the deceitfulness of sin. Ecclesiastes 8 verse 11. Now
listen to this. Because sentence or punishment
against an evil work is not executed on the spot, speedily, therefore
the heart of the sons of men is fully set, hardened in them
to do evil. You know, we don't become rebels
overnight. It's like going in a cold lake
to go swimming. You put a toe in there and you
test it. Well, it didn't kill you, so
you put a foot in it. And that didn't wipe you out, as Jim Spence
says, so you put the whole leg in there, you know. And you go
in slowly. And this is the thing about sin,
about rebellion, about drifting. I hear people say, I've just
drifted away from God. Well, there's a lot of truth
in that. They talk about not coming to the house of God, not
worshiping, not reading their Bibles, not fellowshipping with
the people of God, not hearing the gospel. And they say, just
kind of got out of the habit. You're right. You're right. You
missed a Sunday and you were concerned about it, but, well,
you're still there on Monday. And then you miss two or three
more and you're still there on Tuesday, you know, and you know
that's not well. God didn't kill you on the spot.
And this thing of sin, because God doesn't step in and judge
it right now, and deal with us right now, and deal with us in
wrath right now, our hearts become hardened and set in us to do
evil. And this is the way, this is
the deceitfulness of sin. There may be somebody here tonight,
and they haven't handled this thing of an interest in Christ.
And I hear people say, well, I know I'm lost, I'm going to
do something about it some day. You don't know you're lost either.
No, you don't. You just think you know it. Folks
come and they set you know. That's the deceitfulness of sin.
You really don't know what sin is until you've cried for mercy.
And folks come and said, well, it's just another service, but
God Almighty says there's going to be a last service one of these
days, and a last message, and a last warning. Like the rich
young man who lay on his bed, and he was counting all of his
prosperity and his prosperous ventures, and he said, now soul,
just eat, drink, and be merry, or tear down those barns over
there and build some new ones. And God said, now fool, this
is the night. So that's the deceitfulness of
sin, because judgment, because God doesn't right now deal with
us. And you know it, that our hearts
have become so set, so hardened in this presumption and in this
procrastination, that we're not going to do a bad thing about
tonight, because Mondays always come. For the last 40 years,
Mondays come. and Tuesday and Wednesday, and
you'll be around next Sunday. That's all right. Some of you,
this thing about following the Lord in baptism or confessing
Christ or receiving Christ as Lord, you're thinking about it.
And you've been thinking about it a long time. You say, well,
we'll do it tomorrow. But you know what's happening,
don't you? That's the deceitfulness of rebellion and the deceitfulness
of procrastination and the deceitfulness of sin. And because God hasn't,
you felt led this way and you felt moved this way, but because
God hadn't stepped in and said, if you don't do it now, we'll
cut you off, then your heart has become hardened. Hardened
heart. That's right. That's hardness
of heart. And religious duties harden men's
hearts. The Pharisee, listen to him in
the temple, you all remember this one, he said, Lord, I thank
you I'm not like other men. I tithe, I give alms to the poor,
I fast twice a week. Our religious duties, and this
is where you and I better really take stock. Our religious duties
and doctrines and deeds finally give us a comfort. A comfortable
refuge in which we just snuggle down deeper and deeper and deeper
and become more set, more hardened in this pursuit. And we don't
hear. We don't hear God's warnings.
We don't hear God's invitations. We don't hear God's wooing spirit. We are set. We're all right.
We're set in our refuge of lives. We've made an agreement with
hell. We've got a covenant with death. And when the overflowing
scourge comes now, when God's whirlwind or tornado passes over,
a hurricane, we've got us a storm cellar. We've built us a hiding
place, a bomb shelter, and it shall not come near us. We are
religious. moral, Bible-reading, Bible-believing
people. And my, a sermon comes along,
and if it doesn't fit our doctrine, we won't hear it. If it doesn't
meet our approval, I often want to say, when somebody
comes to me and says, you really preached the truth tonight, sometimes
I want to say, how do you know? You know, that, who is the, who's
the criteria of truth? By whose standards did I preach
the truth? I preached the Bible, I hope. But have we decided what
truth is and measured it by our refuge and our doctrine? We must
be careful when we listen to any part of God's Word expounded,
we must be careful that we're not listening with a critical
ear, measuring that man's message by what we already believe. Now
see how that fits in with my Calvinism. Well, it doesn't really
matter. Charles Spurgeon said one time, a man who's trying
to be consistent with himself will in the end find that he's
been consistent with a fool. We're not striving to be consistent,
we're striving to preach the Word. Just God's Word. So this is another thing that
contributes to hardness of heart. It breeds hardness of heart,
and that is to get locked in. To get locked in in a doctrinal
system. to get locked in in religious
professions, to get locked in to a religious creed or catechism
before you've waited on the Holy Spirit to give you some wisdom.
It's too early. It's too early. It's just like
I quoted in this month's paper. Brother Barnard said to me, back
when I was just a boy preacher, he said, don't write it, Preach
it. When you preach it, you can retract
it. When you write it, it's done. And it'll find its way into the
hands of men for years to come. But get a little wisdom before
you burden people with what you think they ought to hear and
read. Don't get locked in because you'll
get hardened and sent in a refuge of lies. Be open. Have an ear. Have an ear laid to the rail
to hear God speak. And then the fifth thing that
that promotes pride, promotes hardness of heart, is pride. Now I wonder if we are humble
enough for God to use a build-ad. Was that the fellow's name, the
fourth one that spoke? What was his name? Elihu. Are we humble enough in our gray
hair to hear an Elihu? He might tell us something like,
we're too proud. What's he know? I tell you, a
haughty spirit goes before a fowl. And he that being often reproved,
and God will choose the instrument, the messenger that he sends.
He may send you, like he did Balaam, a donkey to speak to
you. What's he know? That's what they said about the
Lord. Does thou teach us? Where'd you go to school?" That's
what they said to him. How does this man know letters?
He's never learned. He's got no degree. But I'll
tell you, pride grew up before destruction.
That's what Pharaoh said as he sat on his throne and Moses came
to him and said to Pharaoh, with respect I'm sure he said, Pharaoh,
he said, God said, let my people go. And Pharaoh laughed and he
said, who's the Lord that I should obey him? Who are you? You're
nobody. Well, that's generally whom God
sends, is nobody. That's generally whom he sends.
But pride breeds hardness of heart. And oh, how we must fear
this and guard against this. We become experienced. We become knowledgeable. spiritual intellects. We become all of these things
and God in a simple, humble fashion sends us a message by the rustling
leaves or the rippling brook or the falling star. And we don't,
we're too busy, we're too wrapped up in our sins, our hearts are
too, what a terrible thought to be unteachable, to be hardened
in sin or in religion and to have to learn these lessons in
hell. blind, unbelieving people, ensnared by the deceitfulness
of sin, going about their religious duties in pride and presumption,
and finally wind up in hell. And there they learn five awful
lessons. The man Joe read about a moment
ago went to hell. That's what it says, verse 23,
Luke 16. It says in hell he lifted up his eyes. What did he learn?
First thing he learned, he learned there's a hell. He learned there is a hell. Do
you believe in hell? The rich man did not believe
it at one time, but here he finally believed it. He learned it in
hell. Now, the disciples didn't have
a lot to say about hell. They really didn't. They didn't
have a lot to say about hell. Let's see what some of them said.
He talked about it in 2 Thessalonians. Do you want to turn over there?
2 Thessalonians, chapter 1, beginning with verse 7. Now this is Paul
talks about here, about eternal punishment held. 2 Thessalonians
1, 7. And to you who are troubled,
rest with us when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven
with his mighty angels. in flaming fire, taking vengeance
on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our
Lord Jesus Christ, who shall be punished with everlasting
destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory
of his power." Peter talked about hell. 2 Peter 2, verse 4, the
Apostle Peter had something to say about hell. In 2 Peter 2,
verse 4, he says, For if God spared not the angels at sin,
but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of
darkness to be reserved unto judgment. The beloved John had
something to say about hell in Revelation chapter 20, verse
10. The beloved John, who leaned
on the breast of our Lord at the Last Supper, called the beloved
disciple, had something to say about hell. He said in Revelation
20, verse 10, And the devil that 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 forever and ever. And
I saw a great white throne, And him that sat on it, from whose
face the earth and the heaven fled away, and found no place
for them. And I saw the dead, small and
great, stand before God. And the books were opened. Another
book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were
judged out of those things written in the books according to their
works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death
and hell, the grave, delivered up the dead which were in them,
and they would judge every man according to his works." We'll
be judged on the basis of Christ's works. This is a judgment of
unbelievers. This is a judgment of rebels.
You and I, our works in Christ are perfect. These people are
getting what they call a fair shake. They're getting their
day in court. That's what this is here. This is God giving every
man his day in court, and he's going to judge them according
to their... They're boasted, they said, we cast out devils
in your name, we did many wonderful works, we preach, we prophesy,
all right, let's judge them by their works. You'll be weighed
in the balance, every man will be given his day in court, God
will hear him, And God will judge him by those things that are
written. Verse 14, And death and hell were cast into the lake
of fire. This is the second death. And
whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast
into the lake of fire. That's the disciples talking.
They didn't say much about hell, but they did say that. But our
Lord Jesus Christ spoke often of hell. He said, If thy right
hand offend thee, cut it off. It's better to enter into life
maimed than to have two hands to burn in hell, where the worm
dies not and the fire is not quenched. If I offend thee, what
he's saying, he's not telling us to mutilate our bodies. He's
telling us no matter how dear a thing is to us, or how important
a thing is to us, or how valuable a thing is to us, it's better
to be done with it. It's better to cut loose from
it than to take it to hell with you. If it gets between you and
God, if any person or thing permits you or prevents you from resting
in Christ, no matter how valuable, no matter how important it is,
if it keeps you from leaning on Christ and receiving Christ
and believing on Christ, be done with it. Cut it off. It's better
to do without this thing in life. It's better to go through life
with patches on your britches than to go to hell dressed in
satin. That's what he's saying. It's better to go through life
disliked and despised than to go to hell, the most popular,
famous man in town. That's what he said. Cut it off. And then he said, fear not them
which kill the body, but I'll tell you whom you shall fear.
Fear him who is able to cast your body and soul into hell.
That's God he's talking about there. God is able to cast your
body and soul into hell. stand before him in fear and
awe. Our Lord spoke often of hell. This rich young man found
out that there's a hell. I went to Cincinnati one time
for something. I don't remember why I went down
there, but I got home late one night, and I told Arsh not to
wake me the next morning early. I wanted to rest. I was tired.
About 8 o'clock she knocked on the door and said, you've got
to get up. And I looked at my watch, you
know, And I wanted to know why to get up, and she said, there's
a lady called here, said her sister-in-law was on her way
to jump off the Ashland Bridge, and she'd been listening to you
on the radio, and you might be able to persuade her otherwise.
So I got up and put my clothes on. I drove down here to the
foot of 13th and 12th Street, and this was years ago, and I
parked there where That Borden's Burger used to be that Jeffers
place, Jeffies or whatever it is. I parked right there and
I sat there and watched the bread. I saw a woman come walking in
front of Winefurter's Pontiac place there and start walking
across the bread. And I thought, well, that's evidently the woman,
so I left my car and I followed her to a safe place. pace behind
her, and she got up right in the middle of the bridge, and
she just stopped and leaned over the edge. And I quickened my
pace a little bit, and I walked up behind her and took her by
the arm like that, you know, and I said, I'm Brother Mahan.
And she turned big-eyed and looked at me and said, what are you
doing here? I said, well, your sister-in-law told me that you
were coming here and that you knew me or knew of me and I might
be able to help you. She said, nobody can help me.
I said, why can't anybody help you? Well, she told me of a very
miserable, unhappy life. She was 40 or 45, and her husband
was a drunk and a gambler and a profane swearer and a God-hater
and a little bit of everything else, who had retired from the
Army, and he was wicked and beat her around and mistreated the
children, and her life was hell and her home was hell and all
these things, and she was just going to end it. And I pleaded
and talked to her, and I used every argument I could think
of. She said, when you leave, I'm
jumping. And I tried something, I didn't
know, I wasn't very smart, not now, but God must have, like
Barnett said, the Lord or somebody told me to do it, but I just
backed off and I said, well now, why don't you just go on and
jump? Why don't you go on and jump?
And I said, I'll tell you one thing, five seconds after you
jump, you'll wind up in hell. Because you don't know God, that's
obvious. She said, I don't believe in hell. Well, I said, that's
more the reason to jump, so you can find out there's a hell.
You're ready. If you jump, if you kill yourself
this morning, you'll know in just a few seconds whether or
not there's a hell. She said, you believe in hell?
I said, I do. I believe in heaven, but I also believe in hell. And
I said, I don't see any hope for you. You don't know Christ.
I said, I could see hope if you knew the Lord, But I said, I
don't see any place for you to go but to hell this morning.
And she turned around and we walked arm in arm down the bridge
and got in my car. And we drove out and picked up
Doris and we took her home to Grayson, Kentucky. But you know,
this is what men find out after they die. They find out there's
a hell. that God will punish sin, that
these false ideas they've had about there not being a hell are not true. Second thing this
man found out, look at verse 24 of Luke 16. He found out there's
a hell, and then he found out hell is a place of eternal misery,
everlasting punishment. Was that what Paul said a while
ago? These shall go away into everlasting punishment. And then
he says here in Luke 16, 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. I am tormented
in this flame. Hell is a place of misery, eternal
misery. Now, I don't like to dwell on
this flame business. It may be, I don't know. I see
the cartoons picturing people down in flames going everywhere,
you know, But I'm not sure that sometimes the Bible talks about
burning when it's not referring to a physical flame. Burning. Burning. But this is what makes
hell, hell. This is what Paul or Peter 1
mention. The first thing is separation
from God. Now, that's the first thing. God is good. Light, God is light,
God is beauty, God is love, God is joy. And everything to be
separated from God is to be in outer darkness, complete darkness,
is to be without joy, to be without love, to be without mercy, to
be without happiness. Hell is to be separated from
God. God's not in hell. was separated from God. Secondly,
hell is a place of truth realized too late. All the things that
we have preached and studied and we haven't believed, we find
out in hell that they're so. That's what this man found out.
It was gnawing at him. It was burning in him. This is
so. I've missed it. I've missed it. It's truth realized. And then
hell is unfulfilled lust. Unfulfilled desires, unfulfilled
passions. These needs of the flesh and
needs of the affections and needs of the heart can be met here.
You get lonesome, you call a buddy. You get thirsty, you drink. You
get hungry, you eat. No matter what passion or desire
or need you have, there's an outlet, there's a means, but
not in hell. He that's filthy, let him be
filthy still. He that's unholy, let him be
unholy still. He that's evil, let him be evil
still. And that's what he said. Turn
to Revelation 21. Let me show you. That's the companionship
of hell. He says in hell, in Revelation
21, verse 8, but the fearful and the 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." That's
your companions in hell. That's your society. That's hell's
society in its darkness. That's eternal, your eternal
social circle in hell. That's hell. And then hell is
memory. He said, son, remember, remember,
memory is a terrible thing, a terrible thing. It can serve a good purpose. When we're in hell and remember
all of the privileges and all of the blessings and all of the
gifts and all of the goodness and all of the grace, the common
grace of a merciful God, and we in our stubborn, proud arrogance
and unbelief chose to depart to hell, now just sit down and
think about it. I don't know much about what
I'm about to say, but In fact, this is the first time in preparing
this message that it ever occurred to me. It's often occurred to
me, why not just annihilate people? Why not just like a dog that
dies? It is no more. You know that
and I know that. God's not going to resurrect
dogs, cats, squirrels. They're just dead. Why not, if
men don't believe God, and love God, and walk with God, why not
just... And I realized as I was preparing
this message, it can't be done. Now there's several forms of
life. There's mineral life. But now
that can be done away with. God's going to burn up this earth,
and with it He'll burn up all the iron ore, and coal, and all
of the mosses and things like that, you know, that there's
a mineral life. God'll burn it all. The plant
life, there's plant life. But now we cut a rose and nobody
has a funeral. When that rose withers and dies,
you take it, when it's blooming beautifully and you go out and
cut it and bring it in and it's beautiful and everybody sighs and oohs
and ahhs over it, you know, but when it dries up you just throw
it over your shoulder, you know, because you have no time to waste
on a wilted rose. It's annihilated. It's nothing
to keep. And then animal life. You have
your pets, and you love them, and they're in your home, but
you take one down when it gets old and put it to sleep, and
you don't say any words over it or anything like that. That's
paganism. That's heathenism to have a funeral for a cat or a
dog. That's annihilated. That animal's dead. It's annihilated.
It doesn't even exist anymore. And those are forms of life.
But now, wait a minute. God made man out of the dust of the ground
the same way these others were made. But God breathed into man
the breath of life, and man became a living soul. And he got that
life from God. He got that soul from God. You
remember the scripture says, when a man dies, the body goes
back to the dust from whence it came, and where does it say
the soul goes, Charlie? To God who gave it. That soul. Man was created in the image
of God. And I don't care about our fall
and our spiritual death, Joe, and our lack of knowledge of
God. We still retain some of the image of God. It came from
God. There's a light that lighteth
every man that cometh into this world. The law of God is written
on the conscience of every man because the life of God is given
to every man. There's no accident when a child
is begotten and conceived and born. God gives that child life. It's not created, as Adam was
created, a full-grown man out of nothing. It comes from a seed
that came from one whom God did create back yonder. And it's
the life of God. The life of God can't be annihilated. God can't die. God can't die. And life that came from God can't
die. The same thing is true of Satan. Satan shall be cast into everlasting
punishment, everlasting destruction, everlasting death. He can't die. His life came from God. He's
a mental creature, a spiritual creature. You're a spiritual
mental creature. Your life came from God. It can't
be annihilated any more than God can be annihilated. A living spirit. No, your dog
has animal life. He doesn't have the life of God.
He wasn't created in the image of God. His soul didn't come
from God, in that God breathed into him the breath of life.
God made the animals, but they're not made in God's image. The
dust returns to the dust from which it came, the soul to God,
either in grace and mercy to be received, or in judgment and
wrath to be judged and to be separated from God. God, Barnett
used to say, is going to put the wicked where they can do
no more harm. Spurgeon used to say, back in
his day, you know, they had to fight epidemics back then. They're not like us today, and
thank God for our vaccinations and inoculations and these things,
where we can curb an epidemic. But when they had something like
that, they had to build what they call a pest house, P-E-S-T,
a pest house, out of town, out in the woods somewhere, and take
the people who were contaminated and put them in that pest house
to keep them from touching anybody else, communicating that disease. They had pest houses clear out
in the country. Hell is God's pest house. He's
going to put the wicked where they can do no more harm. He's
going to put Satan where he can do no more harm. He's going to
put the fallen angels where they can do no more harm. He's going
to put every rebel, every unbeliever, every God-hater, every Christ-rejecter
in his pest house. And it will be burning with evil
and burning with rebellion and burning with hatred and burning
with malice and burning with memory and burning with remorse
and burning with despair. It will be tormented, tormenting
ourselves to a great extent. That's the reason. And you think
about that a while. that man cannot be annihilated.
I have something that will live eternally, and that's my living
soul. Now where it lives depends on
if God can cleanse me of my sin and purge me of my disease and
put away the leprosy of my soul by the cleansing blood of his
precious by the atoning work of my Lord on the cross, and
make me in my soul and in my heart a new creature. If he doesn't,
he's got to put me away. He's got to put me away. He's
got to separate me. And that brings me to another
thing that man learned in verse 26. Look at verse 26. And beside
all this, between us and you, there's a great God fixed. There's
only God can fix it. An impossible barrier, like between
here and Mars, you can't cross it. So that they which would
pass from hence to you cannot, neither can they pass to us that
would come from you." He learned there's no second chance after
death. That's what he learned. There's
no gospel in hell. There's no such thing as purgatory.
I regret that men started that foolishness so long ago. There's
no such thing as praying people out of hell, or buying people
out of hell, or begging people out of hell, or anything else.
He said there's a gulf fixed. That pest house will never be
visited. He'll never come back. When God
puts you out there, you're out there to stay. Separated from
God. You're there to stay. In verse 25, he learned the fourth
thing. He learned that poverty with
God is better than prosperity without God. He cried and said,
Father Abraham, have mercy. You know, in verse 25, Abraham
said, son, Remember that you in your lifetime on earth, you
receive many good things and last with evil things. Now he's
comforted, not tormented. We have so much, don't we? We
have so much. I hope we don't get so taken
up with toys and perishable relationships and perishable items that we
neglect. to hear the voice of God and
have to learn in hell. You had all that God planned
to give you while you were on the earth. We used to sing a
song down in Alabama. I look for it in the books here,
and we used to have it here, but I hadn't been able to find
it. But I remembered the words, and I jotted them down. It goes
like this. I dreamed that the great judgment
morning had dawned and the trumpet had blown. I dreamed that the
nations had gathered to judgment before the white throne. And from the throne came a bright
shining angel, and he stood on the land and the sea, and he
swore with his hand raised to heaven that time was no longer
to be. And oh, what a weeping and a
wailing as the lost were told of their fate. They cried for
the rocks and the mountains. They prayed, but their prayer
was too late. The moral man stood at the judgment,
but his self-righteous rags would not do. You see, the men who
had crucified Jesus had passed off as moral men too. The religious
man was there, but his good deeds, when death came, were left far
behind. The angel who opened the books,
not a trace of his goodness could find. The rich man was there,
but his riches had melted and vanished away, a pauper. He stood
at the judgment, his debts too heavy for him to pay. The man
who had put off salvation, not tonight, I'll get saved by and
by, no time right now to think of religion, at last he'd found
time to die. And oh, what a weeping and wailing
as the lost were told of their fate. They cried. for the rocks
and the mountains. They prayed, but their prayer
was too late. And then he learned the fifth
thing quickly. He learned, verse 27 through 29, that the only
way men can be saved is by hearing and believing the gospel. Well,
he said, Father Abraham, verse 27, I pray you, therefore, there's
nothing for me, I know that now. Send Lazarus to my father's house,
I've got five brothers. Let him go there and testify
to them, lest they come to this place of torment." And Abraham
said, they have Moses and the prophets, that is, they have
the Word of God. They have the writings, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus,
Numbers, Deuteronomy. That's Moses, the prophets, Isaiah,
Jeremiah, Daniel. They have them. Let them hear
them. And he said, nay, nay, Father Abraham, but if one went
back from the dead. Now, Father Abraham, let me tell
you how to get these people saved. If you send Lazarus back from
the dead, They'll believe him. They'll see this miracle that
a dead man has risen, a dead man has come back, and he can
tell them what's down here. He can tell them what this place
is like. Just send him back from the dead. And Abraham said unto
him, verse 31, If they hear not the word of God, Neither will
they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead. And let me
tell you something. God had chosen by the preaching
of the gospel to save them that believe. And for all of you who
think that if somebody rose from the dead and spoke here next
Sunday morning, in the first place, they couldn't tell you
any more than what I told you, that hell is real, that hell
is miserable, that the only way to miss hell is through Christ,
that hell is eternal, that there's no second chance. What more could
they tell you than this book tells you? It says the same thing.
You don't believe the Word of God, why would you believe them?
Oh, but it'd be a miracle. Our Lord rose from the dead.
They didn't believe him. He raised Lazarus from the dead.
They didn't believe him. Jairus' daughter was raised from
the dead. They didn't believe her. You
could go on and on. The widow's son was raised from
the dead. They didn't believe him. You see the preaching of the
gospel. It is the gospel the Holy Spirit
uses to convict men of sin. It's the gospel the Holy Spirit
uses to quicken men from the state of heartness of heart and
deadness of soul and give them spiritual light. It's the Word. It's the Word of God he uses.
It's the Word of God that begets faith and repentance. It's the
Word of God that changes men's hearts. It's God's Word. And
that's the reason I say, if you're interested in knowing God, search
the Scriptures. They testify of Him. If they
hear not the Word of God, they wouldn't be persuaded, though
one rose from the dead. Somebody said one time, wouldn't
it be wonderful if somebody would rise from the dead or come back
from heaven and tell us what it's all about? Well, if one
dead, Christ dead, and He told us, we won't hear Him. And Paul
said, I went up there and I saw things that are so wonderful
you couldn't understand them if I told you. You've got to
receive them by faith. May God give us a broken heart,
a teachable spirit, a hungry heart, a thirsty heart. I don't
have the answers, all of them. God's taught us some things,
but I do. I do believe we can say as a
congregation, as a preaching people, We're willing to be tolerant,
and it's hard to tell what he might show us if that willingness
is sincere. Our Father, we thank Thee that
we have felt Thy presence. We believe that the message tonight
is one that You would have preached. We know that our words will just
fall on on fallow ground and be borne so quickly away by inattention
and unbelief and pride, presumption, religious duties, borne away
by the birds of entertainment, materialism, and covetousness.
But, Lord, Your Word will not return void. It shall accomplish
that whereunto Thou hast sent it. It will bring forth the fruit
it was Your intention to bring forth. And so we pray that you
take thy word and bless it to our prophet and to the glory
of thy son. For it is in his name we pray.
Amen.