Well, I want to thank the young people very much tonight for singing those lovely, lovely pieces. And the big questions are, where will you spend eternity? And weigh up all your life's decisions on the scales of eternity. And that's the subject tonight that we're going to be looking at. And I'd like you, if you have a Bible, first of all, to turn to 1 Peter chapter 4. and then to keep a finger in that chapter and then we're going to be going over to Luke's gospel chapter 16. It's lovely to see you all in again tonight and we do bid you a very warm welcome and we trust that the Lord tonight will speak to your heart and soul and that you will be conscious that the Lord is here speaking right into your heart and life. First Peter chapter 4 And we'll just read two verses from this chapter and then we'll be going over to Luke's Gospel, chapter number 16. 1 Peter chapter 4 then, reading at verse 17. Peter says, For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God. And if it begin first at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? And if the righteous scarcely be saved, Where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear? And then we'll go over to Luke's Gospel, chapter 16. And we'll take up a reading, please, from the 19th verse of the chapter. And we'll read down to verse number 31. Luke's Gospel, chapter 16, verse 19. The Lord Jesus here is the speaker. And he says, there was a certain rich man which was clothed in purple and fine linen and fed sumptuously every day. And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus which was laid at his gate full of sewers. And desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table, moreover the dogs came and licked his sewers. And it came to pass that the beggar died and was carried by the angels into Abram's 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 receivest thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things. But now he is comforted, and thou art tormented. Beside all this, between us and you, there is a great gulf fixed, so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot, neither can they pass to us that would come from thence. And he said, I pray thee therefore, Father, that thou wouldst send him to my father's house, for I have five brethren. that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment. Abram said 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. And we trust and pray that God will add a special blessing to this reading of his eternal truth. and let's still our hearts just now and pray for God's immediate help and pray for the Spirit of God to write God's word upon our hearts and open it to every single one of us. Let's pray. Father, we still our hearts at thy feet. We thank thee, O God, for the privilege of prayer Father, we thank Thee that we can come to Thee, Lord, asking that Thou wilt impart to us more grace. Father God, I thank Thee that Thy grace is sufficient for me, O God, to preach Thy word and for sinners to hear Thy word, and Thy grace is sufficient to save to the uttermost them that come unto God by Jesus, because He ever liveth to make intercession for them. Father, we pray that just now Thou wilt speak to hearts We pray that, O God, in the solemnity of this meeting, that eternal realities, Lord, will be pressed upon our minds and spirits and souls. And we pray, O God, tonight for Thy glory, that Thou wilt see. I pray that Thou wilt give me help that I need. I give myself unreservedly to Thee. And I pray that Thy Spirit will take this earthen vessel and fill me and hide me behind the cross. May none be seen but Thy Son. And, Father, may He see the travail of His soul. and be satisfied for worthy and worthy alone is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. We pray that you'll glorify his name in the salvation of precious souls tonight. We ask for Christ's sake. Amen. I'd like you to look first of all at 1 Peter chapter 4 and verse number 17. Peter says judgment must begin at the house of the Lord. Judgment must begin at God's house. If you're a Christian tonight, I'm not sure whether you've ever considered the very solemn responsibility that God has placed upon your shoulders to live a holy life and to live a God-glorifying life. And I have to say tonight, in all honesty, that I believe the Church of Jesus Christ outwardly is living in such a way that rather than being a channel of blessing to God's people and to the unsaved, the Church of Jesus Christ, largely speaking, has become a stumbling block. Because there are so many tonight that take the name of Christ upon their lips and by their lives they do not show any reality that Jesus Christ gives joy and pardon for sin and is able to sanctify and make sinners clean. Involved in outreach work, I've often met people, and there's many here tonight, that would say the same. And perhaps you're one of them that we're speaking about. And you will say, well, I would get saved, and I would become a Christian if it wasn't for the hypocrites. If I had five pounds for every time somebody said that to me, I would be a rich man tonight. So many people will say, you know, I would think about it more sincerely and more seriously, but whenever I look at those that profess to be saved, my, their lives are more unclean than mine. And they're hypocrites. And maybe tonight that's your excuse. You know, you'll give an account of yourself. You'll not give an account of the hypocrites, but I'll be honest with you, you've got a very, very valid argument. Because I'll tell you something that the visible church of Jesus Christ tonight is full of hypocrites. And the Lord Jesus himself said that it would be so. He said, let the wheat and the tares grow up together. They look alike, they grow up together, and let them grow up together until the time of the harvest. And then he says, the angels will come and they'll separate the wheat from the tares. And it's a valid argument. to say that there are hypocrites in the church and maybe that's why you are not saved. It was exactly the same in Peter's day because he said the time has come that judgment must begin in God's house. Amongst those that profess to know Christ and those that profess to be saved and belong to the Lord, we need to begin to judge ourselves because things aren't right in God's house. And dear friends, that's exactly the same case tonight in the visible church of Jesus Christ. Now a Christian, a true Christian, is a person that has been saved from the wrath to come. The book of Romans, Paul says that those that are in Christ are no longer under condemnation. And a true, born-again, blood-washed, saint of God that has been saved will never be in God's hell. But nevertheless, every single one of us will one day stand at the judgment seat of Christ. And if you look at what Peter says in verse 18, he says that there are certain righteous people that have received of Christ's righteousness, but they'll scarcely be saved. In other words, they'll get into heaven by the skin of their teeth. The Apostle Paul said exactly the same thing in 1 Corinthians chapter 3. And he talks about this foundation that's been laid in the gospel. The foundation that is Christ and Christ alone. And then he goes on in 1 Corinthians 3 verse 12 and he says, if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay and stubble. There are six materials and there are two categories, three in each category. He says, every man's work shall be made manifest, for the day shall declare it. That's the day of judgment that every believer will stand in. We all will stand at the judgment seat of Christ. Then Paul says, every man's work shall be revealed by fire. And the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. And if you put gold, silver or stones into the fire, they will survive the fire. But if you put wood, hay, and stubble into the fire, they'll be burned up. And there's a lot of Christians tonight, and they are standing on that solid rock foundation of Jesus Christ, and they are building a life around that foundation. Some are building a life of gold, silver, and precious stones, and sadly others are living in a kind of second-rate Christianity, and they're building just with wood, hay, and stubble. And Paul says there's a day coming whenever their works will be tried. And he says, if any man's work abide, in verse 14, which ye have built her upon, he shall receive her award. If any man's work shall be burned, the wood hen stubble just burned up like that in the day of God's judgment, he himself shall be saved, yet so as by fire. And what Paul's saying here is exactly the same as Peter. There's people, and they'll get into heaven by the skin of their teeth, but they'll lose their reward. And I don't think it's a surprise that the Bible says all tears shall be wiped away from their eyes. Because I'll tell you, on the day of God's judgment, there'll be a lot of people standing at the judgment seat of Christ, weeping. Because yes, they were saved, but they didn't live all out for Jesus Christ. And dear friends, that's a tragedy. And I sympathize with you people tonight in this meeting that are not saved, that say, we'd be saved if it wasn't for such people. Because there are, indeed, such people. But back to this text that Peter says in 1 Peter 4, 17. The time has come when judgment must begin at God's house. And if it first begin at us, what shall the end of them be that are they not the gospel of God? I might paraphrase this text by putting it this way. God's people, although they are saved and washed in the blood, will stand at a judgment seat and therefore in this life must judge themselves. And if God's people have to judge themselves, what will be the final destiny? What will be the fate? What will be the end of those that have never even responded to the gospel in the first place? Well, that question is answered in Luke's gospel. But I want you to notice just before we turn to Luke's gospel, a few things about this gospel that Peter speaks about. You'll notice that he calls it the gospel of God. It's not something that Peter or the Apostle Paul or anybody else has dreamed up. I want to tell you tonight it's not something that David Stewart or Roger Higginson have thought up. It's not some creed that a church has got together. It's not some just theology that a church has dreamed up. But I want to tell you tonight that it's God's gospel. It's God's gospel tonight. And you know the gospel is set forth and declared very clearly in Scripture. Whenever Paul was writing to the church at Corinth, he talked about the gospel that he declared on to them, by which also you are saved, if you keep in mind what we preached on to you. And he says that the gospel that he preached was this, very, very simple, that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures. And you need to understand the gospel. Remember the time in Acts chapter 8 that a man came from Ethiopia and he went all the way up to Jerusalem to try and learn something about salvation and about how to get right with God. The Bible says he went up to Jerusalem to worship and he mustn't have found what he wanted because he was in the chariot coming home again and he had a big scroll and it was the prophecy of Isaiah and he couldn't understand that he was reading in Isaiah chapter 53 which speaks about Christ. And isn't it an amazing thing? that there was a man that was hungry, there was a man that was searching for answers and maybe you fall into that category tonight and you're searching for answers in life and he went all the way to Jerusalem, the center of religious worship to the people that had received the law and the oracles of God and had received the Messiah and he went up there and they couldn't give him what he wanted. They couldn't explain even the scriptures to him. I'll tell you tonight there's a man, he's a church house you could go to. And you could sit week after week after week and you'd never hear the gospel mentioned. You'd never hear the blood mentioned. You'd never hear any preaching about God's judgment or about God's love or about God's salvation. And that's the case with this fellow from Ethiopia. And whenever he was coming back, the Lord loved this man so much that he called Philip out of revival to go into the desert and find him. And Philip spoke to him and saw that he was reading from this scroll and asked him a question. Understand this with thy readers. And he says, I don't. How can I accept some man teaching me? And so Philip hopped into the chariot and opened up the scriptures, Isaiah 53, and preached on to him Jesus. That's what the Bible says. So you would need to understand something about the gospel. Not only do you need to understand the gospel, but the Lord Jesus says you need to repent and believe the gospel. It's not enough just to understand it, you see. You need to believe it. But Peter takes it a step further and says you also need to obey the gospel. What will be the end of them that obey not the gospel of God? Now I'm certain tonight that the majority of people in this meeting have heard the gospel before. And you've probably even understood it. Do you understand tonight that you're a sinner, that you can't save yourselves, that Jesus Christ is the only way of salvation, and that He shed His blood by His death on the cross, and that He has risen, ascended into heaven, and He's the only one that can save? And do you understand that tonight? Maybe some of you even believe it tonight. But let me ask you this, have you obeyed it tonight? You say, how do you obey the Gospel? Well, you obey the Gospel by repenting and turning from sin and embracing Christ as He's offered in the Gospel, and by faith accepting Him into your life. That's how you obey the gospel. And maybe tonight in this meeting you've understood it and you've believed it, but I want to challenge you. Have you obeyed the gospel? Well, if you haven't, I want to direct your attention just now to Luke's gospel, chapter 16. Peter asks the question, what shall the fate or what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel? And here in Luke's gospel, chapter 16, We have the story of the rich man and Lazarus. The rich man's name isn't given, but the name of the beggar, Lazarus is. And whenever you consider the rich man, it illustrates for us what the end shall be of them that obey not the gospel. Now, I know many as a person will come along and say, well, you know, this is a parable. You can't just stand up tonight and take in this literally. I want to tell you tonight that it's not a parable. It's a true story. If this was a parable, Jesus Christ would have told us. In Luke chapter 15, there's the parable that it indicates in chapter 15, verse 3, that Jesus spoke by way of parable. We don't get such an introduction to this portion of scripture in Luke 16, 19 to 31. Furthermore, the Lord Jesus talks about people that did exist. He talks about this rich man. He talks about Lazarus. He talks about Moses. He talks about Abraham. And he talks about the prophets. And so it's a true story. It's an historical record. But even if it was just a parable, the Lord Jesus Christ never spoke by way of parable to tell people a lie. If this is a parable, it illustrates a very strong Christian biblical principle that there is a hell and those that obey not the gospel of God are going to the place that this rich man went to in Luke chapter 16. Now there's a few things that I just want to leave with you. Very, very simple thoughts about God's hell. First one. is in Luke 16 verse 22. It says it came to pass that the beggar died and was carried by the angels into Abram's bosom. And then it says the rich man also died and was buried. And in hell, lift up his eyes. Hell is a real place. Hell is a real place. The rich man died. Dear friends, tonight death comes to us all. That's an indissoluble fact that we cannot get away from. Death comes to us all. Nobody's getting out of this alive. I just wonder what the rich man was doing whenever he died. And I wonder where you will be and what you will be doing whenever death comes and takes your soul out of your body and takes you to one of two places. I just wonder what you'll be doing. Maybe you'll be doing something as simple as crossing the street. Maybe you'll be sitting in your car and suddenly death will come. And that will be the end. Maybe you'll be lying in a hospital bed. Maybe you'll be lying in your own bed at home. Maybe you'll be sitting in the garden. Maybe you'll be sitting in front of the television. Maybe you'll be sitting at the dinner table. You might even be sitting in a meeting just like this. We all know that death is coming, but we don't know where we'll be when death comes. And that's why the Bible says, Be ye also ready, prepare to meet thy God. And let me tell you that what you are at death, You will be for all of God's eternity. There are a thousand ways to die, and many more. But the door of death leads us to but one of two places. Heaven, God's heaven, or hell, God's hell. There's no in-between, there's no limbo, there's no purgatory. Heaven or hell, it's, dear friend, it's as simple as that. Now, I find it an amazing thing that most people believe in heaven. Most people seem to have this hope that there is something better than this world, and I want to tell you there is. There's a celestial city. There's a place that's free from death and pain and sorrow and night and darkness and destruction. A place that's light and a place that's love and a place that's liberty. A place where God is. A place of happiness, a place of bliss. A place where there's no suffering or crying or sorrow or pain or death. There is a heaven, praise the Lord, but I want to tell you something, there's a hell as well. And if you take God's word and you read it, you'll learn about heaven. And if you're going to accept what the Bible says about heaven, boy, you have to accept what it says about God's hell, just the same. You might ask the question, well, why did this poor fellow go to hell? It's not really fair to say that just because he was rich, he went to hell, and this fellow suffered in life, and this other boy, this beggar, went to heaven because he was poor. That's exactly right. Because there's many a poor man in hell, and there's many a rich man in God's heaven. Joseph of Arimathea was a rich man. Abraham was a rich man. There's many rich men in heaven. This man did not die and go to hell because he had a lot of money. Nothing wrong with that. This fellow's problem was that he was a sinner and he'd never been born again and it's as simple as that. This man went to hell because of sin. Salvation is all of God. Damnation is all of sin. And this man went to hell just because he was a sinner. It says in hell he lift up his eyes. You know, a second after he died, closed his eyes in death, he opened his eyes, and dear friend, the Bible says he was in hell. What a shock. I'm sure he just cried out, this place doesn't even exist, but it did. He was in God's heaven. If you close your eyes in death without Christ, that's where you'll be. You might say to me, well, where is hell? You talk about all this heaven and hell. Where is hell? I don't know where hell is, but I'll tell you something, hell is at the end of a Christless life. Live your life without Jesus and you'll have all God's eternity to regret it. Hell is at the end of a Christless life. I remember hearing about a preacher once, I think it was Vance Hafner, and he was preaching in a church in the States on this very subject. And he was waxing eloquent, and he was preaching away. And whenever the meeting was over, he went to the door, and a lady stood with him. And she was fuming, and she was furious. And she says, would it not be more suitable or profitable to speak about the meek and lowly Jesus instead of all this hell and lake of fire and fire and brimstone stuff? Why don't you speak about the meek and lowly Jesus? And he says, well, I'll tell you something. It was from the meek and lowly Jesus that I got all my information about God's hell. You know, for every sermon that the Lord Jesus preached about heaven, he preached 13 sermons about hell. Nobody preached about hell or spoke about hell or spoke about the lake of fire or spoke about judgment more than the Savior. And yet, these are the people that would say, well, all he ever did was speak about love and mercy. He didn't. Of course he did, but he spoke about much more. He spoke about sin and about righteousness and about judgment to come. The church I used to attend years ago, we had a minister. He had been in a church away about the Dungannon area. And I remember him saying that he preached about hell. And a lady came out and slapped him in the face for daring to speak about it. Nobody likes to hear about God's hell. But dear friend, it's a reality. And thousands upon thousands every day step out of their bodies and step into God's hell. Hell's a real place. Something else that I want you to notice about hell, you'll see it in verse number 23. After he lifted up his eyes in hell, it says he was in torment. Hell is a place of intense suffering. You know, I could speculate and think about this man's funeral. And I say this respectfully, and I know I'll probably tramp on a few toes, but the amazing thing is, whenever you go to funerals, people always say the same sorts of things. And I'm sure this man's funeral was no different. You know, I'm sure people were standing around looking into the casket or whatever he was lying in. You know, it was so, so sudden. Such a lovely man, you know. I just can't believe that he's gone. Lovely family man. I tell you, he would have done anything for you. He's a good man, sweethearts. He did well in life, too. I wonder who'll get the farm. I wonder who'll get the business. I wonder who'll get the inheritance now. He's left it all behind, you know. He would have done anything for you. Such a high church man. A good church attender. paid well into his local church. Well, you know, at least we can comfort ourselves in this, that he's not suffering now. At least he's not in any more pain. I know he's in a better place. I'm able to rest assured that he's not suffering. I want to tell you he wasn't in a better place. He was in God's hell. And he was suffering. He was in torment. That's why it's such a foolish thing to say that suicide's the way out. We hear a lot about it today and it's getting into young people's minds that if I just evolved out of nothing and nobody created me and there's no reason in life and there's nothing after life, well sure I might as well end it all because life is miserable and I'll just step out and I'll just fall asleep and that'll be it all over. And youth and easy is the same. You know I'm suffering so much, could you not end my life and end the suffering? Mercy killing and all the rest of it. Dear friend, it's not the end and you'll not be in a better place. No, it says the rich man was buried and then it says in hell he lift up his eyes. You say, how do you explain that? Sure you could stand at any funeral and you can see that there's a body in the coffin and it was the same for the rich man. Sure his body was in the ground, how could he lift up his eyes in hell? Because your soul is every bit as real as your body. As soon as blood stops circulating and the breath leaves your lungs for the last time, the soul steps out of the body. We hear people talking today, I don't understand it, about all this stepping out of the body and astral projection and people trying to get into it. But you know, the Bible says that whenever Sarah died in the Old Testament, it says, as her soul was in departed, Paul says, absent from the body, present with the Lord. And that's what's the case with Lazarus. He was absent from the body and was present with the Lord. And for this old rich man, whatever his name was, he was absent from the body, but he was away from God. He was absent from the body, and his soul, dear friend, was in God's hell. You see, the soul is every bit as real as the body. The soul feels what the body feels in God's eternity. Now, don't ask me to explain that, but the Bible says there is a physical body, and there's also a spiritual body. And you've got within that body of yours a soul that will live as long as God lives. A soul that was given to you at conception. A soul that will never perish. A soul that will never extinguish. A soul that will never wear out. And where your soul is, and where the tree falleth, there it shall lie, and what your death shall be for all God's eternity. You know, there was another rich man in Luke chapter 12, verse number 20. And this was a parable that the Lord told about a rich man that says, listen, I'm going to rip down my barns and I'm going to build bigger ones. And I'm just going to live for this old world. And I'm just going to get everything that I can. And you know what the Bible says? The Bible says you're a fool. Because tonight, your soul will be required of you. You know what the original Greek says? It says, thy fool, tonight they shall require thy soul of thee. Remember it says that the beggar died and was carried by the angels into Abram's bosom. And whenever the beggar's body fell to the earth and the soul left the body, the angels came and escorted, the messengers of God came and escorted that soul to God's celestial city. Well, the Bible says that whenever a sinner dies, without Christ his soul will be required And this night they shall require thy soul of thee. And dear friend, there are messengers that take the soul of a believer to heaven, but I believe there are messengers as well that take the soul of a sinner to God's hand. And the soul was every bit as real as the body. You see, this man had memory. He could remember everything that happened in this life. Amazing thing. The Bible says that he He was a rich man that he was clothed in purple and fine linen, and he fared sumptuously every day. You see, whatever he was in God's hell, he could remember all the privileges that he had in life. Why he was clothed so well, wasn't it? And I had servants at my fingertips and had everything that the world could give me. And I never wanted for anything. There was never a night that I went to my bed hungry. He fared sumptuously every day. He fled in a gluttonous way every single day. And dear friend, now he's in God's hell and he can remember his privileges. He can also remember his pleasures. how he just lived for this world and my it was just it was just everything the world could give him and there was so much pleasure in his sin and so much pleasure in the world and he could also think maybe about that copy of the scriptures that he had and we know he had a copy of the scriptures because Abraham says about Moses and the prophets, that's the Old Testament scriptures and how it will maybe lay in his bedside cabinet and he saw it every night and maybe he lifted it and he read it and he went to the synagogue and he heard it preached and expounded and he thought about God's eternity, he thought about God's heaven, he thought about God's hell, he thought about God's Messiah, but all he ever did was think. Dear friend, don't just die thinking about getting right with God. Don't just die thinking about God's heaven. Don't just die thinking about God's hell. Don't die thinking about God's salvation because multitudes have gone out into eternity thinking someday I'll get right with God and suddenly the soul left the body and time for thinking was over and now all he could do was think about how many times he'd thought about getting right with God and all the opportunities that he'd had for God's salvation. You know, the Bible says, he that being often reproved and hardened at his neck shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy. You know, there's a high church man in England. And it's recorded, and I believe it's historically accurate as far as I can see in a little book that I was reading. And he related a story about a young girl that was brought up in a lovely Christian home. This girl had thought of her younger days and her teenage years and as a child and in her early twenties about what her mother told her about Jesus Christ and about God's heaven and about salvation. And after many days she had thought about these things and then she came to a decision and she says, not for me. And she just went the way and she did very well in life and she got herself a good earning, and a good living, and she indulged in the world, and she indulged in sin, and she just went on in her duties. And then there came a time whenever she had to return home because she was very, very ill. And her mother says, will you not come to Christ? She says, I'm not coming. The last night that she spent on God's earth, she was lying in bed sleeping. And suddenly she woke up and she called for her mother. And her mother came and she says, Mother, I've just had a terrible dream. And in my dream there was a voice that came and it says, what is Ezekiel 7, 8 and 9? Maybe it was a verse that she had heard preached on or a verse that she had learned in Sunday school. But she says, Mother, it was so real to me. What is Ezekiel 7, 8 and 9? And her mother opened the Bible. And she'd gone, going through looking for the book of Ezekiel. She didn't know what it said herself. And she was so anxious to hear what this verse of Scripture said as her rebellious daughter lied in bed. And then she read these words. Now will I shortly pour out my fury upon thee, and accomplish mine anger upon thee, and I will judge thee according to thy ways, and I will recompense thee for all thine abominations. Mine eyes shall not spare, neither will I have pity. I will recompense thee according to thy ways, and the abominations that are in the midst of thee, and ye shall know that I am the Lord that smiteth. And her mother closed the Bible, and tears running down her face, and her sick daughter fell back into bed, and she never woke up when she went out into God's house. privileged girl and she'll never be out of it. In the same way that the rich man will never be out of it. He had memory and he could think about every opportunity. He also had vision. It tells us there in verse 23 that he looked across a great gulf and he saw Lazarus so far off in Abraham's bosom. He could see. He could see that old filthy beggar that he'd never so much as given a morsel of bread to, and that old beggar who just cried for the crumbs that fell from the rich man's table, and the dogs came and licked his sores. But you know something? Things have turned around, haven't they? The rich man is now poor, and the poor man is now rich. The rich man is now tormented and Lazarus, he's comforted and he's happy and he's at peace and he's clean and he's cleansed and he's pure and he's glorified and he's happy and the rich man can do nothing but see it. What a turnaround it is. He also had feeling. He felt the flames as they licked his eternal soul. There was no relief and dear friend, there was no water either. And it says in verse 24, he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me. He's learning to praise. who had all his life to pray. And there's no greater school of prayer than God's hell. And you'll only be in hell but a few seconds, and dear friend, you'll learn how to pray. And this man was praying honestly, he was praying sincerely, he was praying earnestly, he was praying fervently, and he was learning how to pray, but his prayer was in vain. And I'll tell you why, because eternity is too late to pray. Even if you're a Christian, eternity is too late to pray, whether it's in heaven for revival, or in hell and repentance, eternity is too late to pray. I remember whenever I was working in a big firm in Lisburn on Thursday nights, we used to stand at an open air and so often it was late night shopping and fellows that I worked with would have been walking past and would have seen us and would have gone on well with them, but you know the boys would have maybe had a wee dig at you. And I remember the next day going into work and there was a fella, Michael you called him, and he was working away at a break press, you know, a lovely Roman Catholic fella, and where he called me over and he says, you know, how do you do that? I've watched you and I've seen you standing out there and he says, what is it that compels you to stand out and give out that literature and stand at that wee pulpit and do whatever you do? And I says, well, you know, We're just concerned about souls and we believe that there's an eternity and people need to get right with God and there's a heaven and there's a hell. And you know what he said? He says, well, you know, my father used to tell me that this world in which we're living on is hell. He says, look at the pain and the sorrow and the suffering and look at all that goes on and the unhappiness and the murders and the little children that suffer and the famines that there are. He says, is this not hell? And I says, Michael, you know, no, it's not. And he says, how can you be so sure? And he says, well, it's very simple. For one thing, the Bible says there's no water in the world. You just think about that. Have you ever been parched and felt the pain of it? Dear friend, there is a hell, and it's not on this earth. It's somewhere else. I don't know where it is, but God knows. There's no pleasures in hell either. There's no booze in hell. There's no sex in hell. There's no cigarettes in hell. There's no drugs in hell. There's no parties in hell. There's no... So many people have said to me... In fact, I remember speaking to a man just recently in the doors, and he was well into his 80s, and he was old and frail, and he could hardly even get a word out, and he was a hardened little man, and I gathered from his conversation that he'd served in the Navy, and he'd fought on the battlefield, and he'd seen lives been taken, and he was so hard, and I says, well, you know, I just says, listen, it's heaven or hell, and he just smiles and says, I'm going down there. And I says, what do you want to do something like that for? He says, far more fun. I remember one night in Lisburn, a man came with a drink on him. And there was a girl singing. And he came up, and she was singing from a sheet of paper. And he snatched it off her. And he ran up the street with it. And I went after him. And he was drunk. And he says, I'll break your legs if you come near me. And I says, well, don't be doing that. And he ended up talking. And he says, listen. He says, I know there's a hell. And he says, whenever I stand before God, he says, I'll just ask God to hand me a shovel, and I'll be happy enough to take it. Drink was talking. And about a year later, I started a new job in that other place I was telling you about. Remember, staying behind one day after work with some drawings. And one of the men says, there'll be a welder in the middle shift, and he'll be standing behind one of those curtains. You go in and hand him that drawing and get him to weld up this prototype. And so I went in with the materials and the drawing. And who pulled back the curtain but your man? And I'll tell you, whenever he was on his own and without his mates, he wasn't so smart. And I knew him, and he knew me, but I'll tell you what, just let him think about it. And it's so, so easy, isn't it, to run with the crowd. Stand down the street, you know, and you're giving out gospel literature. And you'll get somebody coming along on their own, and generally they'll take it. And then you get a crowd of young fellows, or a crowd of young girls, and the first one will say no, and then the rest will look at her and say, well, if she doesn't take it, I'm not going to have the humility to take it. And it's so easy, isn't it, to run with the crowds. Listen. There's no pleasure in hell. And if you're going to live your life without God's salvation and without God's mercy, I say to you, live it up. Take all the drink that you can take if that's the way you're going to go. Take all the cigarettes and the drugs, because there'll be none of it in God's hell. People say, I would love to go to heaven, but I can't give up my sin. Can't give up my pleasures and my sinful habits. Well, if you don't give them up, you'll have to give them up in a Christless hell. Something else I want you to notice about hell is that hell has no exits. His prayer didn't get answered and Abraham says to him, decide all this between us and you, there is a great gulf fixed. Nobody can pass it. You can't come to us and we can't go to you. Nobody can pass it. Hell has got no exits. There's no parole. There's no second chance. The old hymn writer says, you've only one life, it'll soon be past. And only what's done for Christ will last. And then in verse 28, he just realizes, I'm here forever. And then he says, but Father Abraham, he says, listen, I've got five brothers. He says, will you send Lazarus to go and speak to them? Lest they also come to this place of torment. And all of a sudden he's praying for his loved one. Do you think it's possible that there's a friend or a loved one that's gone into God's eternity, not seen? And right now, in God's hell, they're praying for you, lest you also come to that place of torments. Grandparent, uncle, brother, sister, friend that you work with, in hell tonight, and they're praying for you, lest you also go to that place And then Abraham says, well, listen, they have got Moses and the prophets. Moses wrote the first five books of the Bible. That's God's law. And then there's the prophets that point to Christ. And they've got sufficient light in the scriptures. And if they don't believe the Bible, they'll not believe the biggest miracle that anybody's ever seen. If they don't believe God's word, some of you could write damnation in the dust in your Bible. You know, it might sound like a legitimate argument, and people have said it to me, and they've said, well, you know, if there's a heaven or if there's a hell, how come somebody hasn't come back to tell us? And if somebody would only come back and tell me, I'd maybe think about what you're saying. Think about how stupid that argument is. If you're walking through Macrophelte, wherever you come from tomorrow afternoon, and some ragged oil man comes up and grabs you by the coat and says, listen, I've been to hell and I'm back for a week to tell people it's real. Don't be going. Would you believe him? Or if you turned on the television and some person comes on and says, I've been to God's heaven and it's real and God's allowed me to come back and tell you. Would you believe them? Or if you were lying in bed and you woke up and there was a friend or loved one standing in your room and said, listen, there is a heaven and there is a hell and I want to tell you, you need to get right with God. And you woke up the next morning, would you not go and see the doctor? Beside all this, there was one that died and that rose again who came from heaven. and descended into the lower parts of the earth, and his name was Jesus. And you're telling me tonight you'll believe anybody else, but you'll not believe Christ. You'll believe what anybody else tells you, but you'll not believe what the Bible says. Dear friend, may God have mercy on you. You know what? Something else. I don't believe that this rich man is praying for his friends and loved ones out of love, because there's no love in hell. No, God's a God of mercy and God's a God of grace. And there's such a thing, you know, as common grace. And you might not be saved tonight, and you might never be saved, but in this life, God has been good to you. God's given you breath in your body, God's given you food on your table, God's perhaps given you family, God's maybe given you children, God's maybe given you a husband or a wife or a boyfriend or a girlfriend, and you've experienced joy, you've maybe experienced a level of peace in your life, you've maybe experienced a level of contentment, you've known what it is to love and to be loved, and that's God's grace. But dear friend, whenever you go out of God's presence, God's grace ends. And I firmly believe that if this man's family came to him, he'd hate them, and they'd hate him. And he's asking for mercy for them out of regret. Because he was a man that was privileged, and he never once spoke to them about Christ, never brought up his family in the right way. And now, dear friend, he's praying for them. He was an unfaithful steward, and he helped die of his own family. You know, there's many as a preacher. And I've been to many as a funeral. And I remember standing and sitting in funeral services, and the person that had died, unless God had mercy on them, they never showed one ounce of God's grace. They were liars. Blasphemers, took the Lord's name in vain, drunkards. And the old minister will stand up and say, well, when I commit this man's body to the ground, and his soul to the Lord that gave it, and all the rest of it. And he paid him to the church, and he's a good church attender. You know, dear friend, there's an evangelist called Brownlow North that preached in 1859 in the revival of Ulster. And he said this. He says, I do not believe that there exists a more miserable soul Even amongst the lost themselves, than a lost minister shut up in hell with his own congregation. Don't you be taking my word for it tonight. Or your minister's word, whoever he or she might be. Take God's word for it. And make sure whatever answers you're getting in life, you're getting them out of the Bible. Because another thing about hell, hell is eternal. David said the other night that eternity is too long to be wrong, and that's That's good theology. This man lifted up his eyes, and he beheld eternity. Hell is eternal, because death and hell will one day be cast into the lake of fire. The rich man now knows it's real, but he's no nearer his release tonight, 2,000 years later, than he was back then. You know, Isaac, or John Newton, penned the words to the hymn, Amazing Grace. In the last verse, he says, concerning heaven when we've been there 10,000 years bright shining as the sun we've no less days to sing God's praise than when we first begun. You could say the same about hell. When any man's been there 10,000 years weeping, wailing and gnashing his teeth he's no less days to endure God's wrath than when he first begun. If I could lift the lid off hell tonight and say into that caverns of the damned, you know, in a thousand years, five of you will get out and one of you will be released. A little shaft of hope and light will shine into the blackness of the darkness, but that will never happen. Because hell is eternal. There's no hope in hell. Well, you might say to me, preacher, you're talking a little bit, you're not talking much about God's love tonight. We've talked about God's love on nights past, about the cross. You might say to me tonight, preacher, how could a God of love allow hell? Well, that's the last thing that I want you to consider, because hell is completely just. You know full well tonight that God's a God of love. And you know full well tonight that God commendeth, demonstrates, proves his love toward us, and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Now, if you reject God's love, And we know that the Bible makes it clear that God is holy, God is righteous, God is just, and God's a God of war, and he's a man of wrath. And you reject God's love, what do you expect to receive but God's wrath? God must and will punish sin. He'll do it at Calvary, or he'll do it in God's hell. Let me tell you, hell was never intended for man in the first place. Jesus says concerning the last day, the day of reaping and bringing in the harvest, he says, I'll say to them in the right hand, enter thou into the joy of the Lord. And then in verse 41 of Matthew 25, he says, but unto them in the left, depart ye cursed into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his agents. Hell and the lake of fire was never intended and prepared for man. God prepared an intended paradise for man. Then the devil came and brought sin with him and deceived Adam and Eve and they brought sin into the human race. And the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life. And the Bible says that by nature we are all the children of wrath. Sin seeks to overthrow God. And I'll tell you tonight that God has put many a barricade in the road to hell for you. Every gospel tract that you ever received was God's way of saying to you, stop! Turn around and receive Christ. Every gospel sermon that you ever heard was God's way of saying to you, listen, there's love and there's mercy and forgiveness. Turn around and receive Christ. Every person that knows the Lord that God's brought across your path was a barricade to hell. And the greatest barricade to hell was the cross of Jesus Christ. And you know, I know for a fact tonight, unless God moves, that all of you that are not saved will go out of this meeting without Christ. You know what you're doing? It's like you going to the cross and looking up into the face of God's beloved Son. that's beaten and bruised and bloody, and looking into his side, and looking at all the scars and the blood flowing from him, and looking into his eyes of love and compassion, knowing full well that he loves you, knowing full well that he'll save you, knowing full well that he offers you heaven and forgiveness, and that he'll take away the condemnation and the curse of the law, and you saying, curse you, damn you, and lifting him off the cross, laying him across the gate of this building, stamping in his heart on the way out, I'll have my sin and I'll go to God's hell because salvation is not for me. That's exactly, dear friend, what you're doing. You might say to me tonight, why would you not come and preach in God's love? Well, we've preached in God's love and night's gone past, but this needs to be spoken on. A famous preacher, Harry Aronside, was invited to speak in a church, and the old preacher said, or one of the deacons says to him on the way in, he says, now, Mr. Aronside, this is a very respectable church, and I don't want you rocking the boat, so don't be talking about hell or judgment or anything like that. Preach about God's love. And Aronside says, well, you know, as a matter of fact, that's the subject that we want to speak on. I'm going to speak about God's love. And the old deacon smiles and says, that's great. And Ironside got up into the pulpit and lifted his Bible and set it up and says, I want to preach to you tonight upon the subject of God's love. And I want to read to you the most well-known and beloved verse of Scripture, John 3, verse 16. And he looked down at the preacher, and he went, the preacher, this is going to be good. And he began to read the Scriptures, and he says, For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, whosoever believeth in him should not. And then he stopped reading and he looked down at the old deacon and he says, what shall I tell the people now? We all know that the next word is perish. And you will perish for all eternity if you don't receive Jesus Christ. Look, I'm not trying to scare anybody tonight or bend your arm up your back, but dear friend, I need to warn you tonight. I'll stand before God one day myself and give an account of this meeting. And we'll give an account of this mission. And if we just told you night after night about God's love and about God's mercy, but never told you what the end will be at the end of the day, not the gospel, I will give an account for that. And I need to warn you and plead with you to come to Jesus Christ. Now you might say to me tonight, well, why was the rich man's name never given? And that's a very good question. His name's not given in scripture. He's just called the rich man. We're not told much about his life apart from that he had plenty to eat and plenty to wear and plenty of money. Why is his name not given? Well, you know, the Bible says in Revelation that God's got two books. There's the Book of Life and there's the Lamb's Book of Life. And in the Book of Life, there is recorded the name of every man and woman that has ever lived. And then in the Lamb's Book of Life, there is recorded the names of every person that has been born again and washed in the blood. And whenever a person dies without Christ, their name has not been found written in the Lamb's book of life, and then it's erased out of the book of life. And then they're cast into the lake of fire. And it doesn't really matter how big a name you've got for yourself in this life. There's no special names or categories in God's head. Nobody has a name for themselves. Just another damned sinner, and your name will count for nothing. Dear friends, the meeting's almost over. But let me just finish with a very stark illustration of what this meeting is now like. Those of you that are not saved are perished without God and without hope. W.P. Nicholson told a story of a young man that was 14 or 15 years of age during the First World War. And he loved king and country. And so he filled in forms. And he lied about his age that he might go and fight in the foreign battlefields. Well, the authorities accepted him and believed him. And he went out in the battlefield. And after a short time, a cannonball blew his arm out of its socket. And he began to lose blood at a tremendous rate. And he was lifted and taken immediately to the nearest casualty clearing station. And the surgeon that came looked at him and says, this man has lost too much blood. And he's going to lose too much more. And he says, he's going to die. And he says, I'll prolong his life. And he put a little stitch in the artery that was broken and covered it up and bandaged it up and lay him in a bed. gave a nurse a charge and said, look, sit by this young man's side. And if he wakes up or regains consciousness, call for me because I'm a Christian. I want to speak to him. And that young nurse, for a night or two, just wiped the sweat off his brow as he slipped in and out of delirium. And then in the middle of the night, watch this. You heard a groan coming from another bed. And she left him. And she went away for a few minutes. And whenever she came back, the young man was hooking himself up and trying to sit both upright in bed. And he was wide awake and fully conscious. And she looked at the bandages that were now crimson red. And it was obviously that the stitch had burst, and the artery is now open, and the blood was pulsing out. And she cried for the doctor, who came immediately, knew what was happening, and he ripped off the bandages. And between his finger and thumb, he pinched closed that artery. And he began to witness to it. And he says, young man, tell me, are you saved? Is it well with your soul? He says you're dying, you're perishing, you're going out into God's eternity and I can only hold you now for a few more seconds and I'm going to have to let you go. Is it well with your soul? Let me tell you tonight that I feel a lot like that doctor. Some of you are not saved and you're perishing. You're going out into God's eternity. And in a few meetings, this sermon will be over and the meeting will be over. And I'm going to have to let you go. And I'm very reluctant to do that because some of you are on the broad road that leads to destruction. And you're lost. And you're going to God's hell. Come to Christ. Trust him. He'll save you tonight. Let's bow our heads. Maybe tonight you're in the meeting and you're not saved. You're concerned about eternal things. Would you not ask the Lord just now to save you? Maybe you're far from the Lord and you could point to a time in your life whenever you were walking with the Lord and tonight you're far from him. Dear friend, will you not come back to him? If David or myself can be of assistance to you, I'll be standing just at the door for a while As at other nights, David will be in the building as well somewhere, or some other believer, you speak to them. Dear friend, you need to get right with God. God loves you. May God save your soul tonight. Our Father, we pray that thou wilt take that which has been of thyself. And Lord, we pray that thou wilt write thy word upon hearts. Father, we pray that your spirit will speak on and strive and save men and women from destruction. and from God's hell. Father, we pray that thou wilt give mercy. Don't let anybody harden their heart one more time, but Father, may there be a Lydie here tonight whose heart that the Lord will open, give deciding grace, and Father, impart faith to believe the gospel of Christ. We pray these things for thine eternal glory. In Jesus' name.