Hell

[0:00] Luke 16. Talking about hell. With any kind of doctrine, it's vital we're clear about what it says, aren't we?

[0:17] ! Clear about what the Bible says. What does the Bible actually teach on the subject?! Some would argue that doctrine divides. So we should steer clear of anything that's controversial or anything that's a bit of a touchy subject.

[0:33] But actually, division is a good thing, isn't it? What does our Lord do? He separates the sheep from the goats. There will be a separating. There will be a dividing. There is a right dividing.

[0:44] And it's needful to have right doctrine in contrast to false doctrine. So what the Bible teaches about a subject, we ought to be mindful of and heeding of.

[0:58] What does the Bible teach us about hell? And we can have all of our own ideas and feelings and thoughts and opinions on all manner of subjects, on various issues.

[1:10] But when it comes to doctrine, it's what the Bible teaches that matters. It's what the Bible teaches that counts. We must have Bible for that, the doctrine.

[1:21] And our teaching must be Bible-based. Bible-based. We have to go to the authority on the subject. And the authority on the subject of any Bible doctrine is the Bible.

[1:34] It is the Bible. We need biblical authority behind what we believe. So what does the Bible say about hell? Hell, you could say that it's a hot topic.

[1:47] That's the end of all the jokes because this is a solemn subject, isn't it? This is a solemn subject. Much as we might not take that view.

[1:58] This is solemn. This is serious. Some would try to dispute this truth of a real, eternal, awful hell. Hell is a vital issue because it is one of two places everyone is going to go, one or the other.

[2:15] So some would think that the idea of a hell is an old-fashioned, kind of archaic, out-of-fashion kind of idea. That's out of date. That's what people used to think about.

[2:27] That's what old-time churches and preachers used to talk about. It's not for today. We've grown out of that.

[2:39] As if hellfire preaching is something that's for a bygone era and that is for yesteryear. As something as if it's not relevant for this modern, so-called scientific age.

[2:51] We've grown there. Some would try to play down the idea of hell. Fact is, the Bible has much to say about the subject of hell.

[3:02] And the authority of the Bible, it has not changed. The authority of the Bible is, for now, it remains our authority. There is no new authority.

[3:16] The authority of the Bible is the authority that we need. Hell hasn't changed. It is what the Bible says. It is. And there's repeated warnings through the pages of Scripture.

[3:27] We do well to take heed of. Repeated warnings about this vital, critical matter of hell. About this place of eternal punishment.

[3:41] We would do well to take heed to this. Firstly, hell is important. It's a sobering subject. Some would think, oh, hell.

[3:52] Some in their worldly thinking would think, oh, hell is going to be such a big party time. All my mates are going to be there. And we're just going to carry on and party on.

[4:02] But no, friends, that's nothing like hell. That's nothing like what the Bible says about hell. Many would seek to improve, sorry, to ignore it, to redefine it, to downplay it.

[4:16] And they would scorn the idea of fire and brimstone preaching. The devil would have you believe otherwise than such a place as hell.

[4:27] The question is, tonight, do you believe in hell? Do you really believe in hell? You, me, us.

[4:40] J.C. Ryle, an old-time preacher, said this. If you would promote faith, defeat the devil and save souls, preach hell. He says the conscience of man cries out of hell.

[4:54] Go to the bedside of some dying child of the world. And fear not to talk to him of God's judgment upon sin and wrath upon the sinner.

[5:05] Preach to him of a saviour who went into the yawning jaws of hell. That forgiveness might be purchased at great price. His own shed blood.

[5:18] And offer him mercy. But only by faith in that blood. And watch his restless anxiety about the future turn to calmness and marvel as he departs in peace.

[5:32] And when you're at the bedside of a lost sinner shortly to enter hell, then you must speak of these things. Of warning.

[5:44] That message of life. This is no trifling matter. And hell is important, I put to you. It's important for us. It's important for our world.

[5:55] Hell is important. Because the Bible teaches that to die without Christ is to die and to go to hell. Plain and simple.

[6:06] That's what it says. We see in Luke 16 an account of our Lord of his telling the account of Lazarus and the rich man.

[6:19] And we see Luke 16. Some would say, oh, it's just another parable. Just a story. Just a symbolic, picturesque, figurative story.

[6:37] But no, it is not a parable. Because it names, names. Lazarus. Name. Lazarus. Here's a person's physical name. And we see, as we read Luke 16, verse 19, it tells how there was a certain rich man.

[6:54] He was clothed in purple and fine linen. He fed sumptuously every day. Everything was laid on. Verse 20. And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate full of sores.

[7:09] Leopard. Or beggar. Verse 21. And desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table, moreover the dogs came and licked his sores.

[7:21] And it came to pass that the beggar died and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom. The angels came for this man.

[7:35] The rich man also died and was buried. No talk of angels coming for him. Verse 23. And of the rich man, And in hell he lift up his eyes.

[7:47] Being in torments, seeth Abraham far off and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried, said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me.

[8:00] And send Lazarus. He may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am tormented in this flame.

[8:12] 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.

[8:24] And beside all this, there is, between us, 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.

[8:38] Then he said, I pray thee therefore, Father, that thou would ascend into my father's house, for I have five brethren that he may testify unto them, lest they also come unto this place of torment.

[8:51] Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the prophets, let them hear them. They've got the Bible. They've got the message of the prophets. It's got the law of Moses. Verse 30, And he said, Nay, Father Abraham, but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent.

[9:08] He said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded that one rose from the dead. Now what a, what a gripping, horrific story of a man in torment.

[9:22] It says that those who die without Christ die and go to hell. And it's immediate. It's immediate. Some would think of soul sleep, some, or some, a supposed purgatory that the Bible tells nothing of.

[9:39] Some limbo, some sleep. No, immediately. And in hell, he lift up his eyes. He went straight to hell. Notice the record says he died and immediately was in hell.

[9:53] Friends, hell is important, number one. Secondly, hell is a place. Hell, it's a place. It says that verse, sorry, verse 28 it says.

[10:11] The rich man says this, For I have five brethren, that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment.

[10:21] Some would say hell is just figurative, just some symbolic thing, whatever. The rich man said, I've got five brothers.

[10:35] Send Lazarus, that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place. Hell, it's a place.

[10:46] It's a place. It is a place of torment, a place of sorrow, a place of shame, a place of everlasting contempt, a place of eternal damnation.

[11:01] Hell is important. Hell is a place. Hell is real. It is real. It is not imaginary. We've got an account here from the one who cannot lie.

[11:12] God is not a man. He should lie. We've got an account by the one who is the truth. He records this account. This is true. Truth.

[11:23] Hell is real. It is not imaginary. In 2003, a research group discovered that 64% of Americans expect to go to heaven when they die.

[11:34] 64%. But less than 1% think they might go to hell. A lot of people don't think they're going to hell. The Bible is actually quite the reverse of that, isn't it?

[11:47] That the broad way that leads to destruction, many there be that go thereat, narrow way leads to life. Here there be that find it.

[11:57] Friends, the Lord spoke plainly about hell. It says that the majority badly will go to hell. The Lord Jesus spoke about hell more than anyone else in the scriptures.

[12:13] He spoke of hell more than of heaven. Hell. A place of conscious suffering. As it reads in verse 24, the rich man cried, Father Abraham, have mercy on me and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger.

[12:30] Just wanted a drop. Just a, just a, what a picture of torment, of, of, of, of intense agony and anguish and suffering.

[12:44] That he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue for I am tormented in this flame. This is a gripping an account here.

[12:58] Our Lord speaks of eternal fire and power as the final abode of angels and of humans who have rejected God. Friends, there is an everlasting hell for lost souls.

[13:09] This is Bible doctrine. Our Lord tells the people in danger of the fire of hell. I'll give you the references here. But God's word says that the fire is eternal. He's eternal. And we see in this account hell is a place where there will be memory.

[13:25] Luke 16, 25, Abraham said, Son, rememberest that thou in thy lifetime receivest thy good things, likewise Lazarus the evil things, but now he is tormented that thou art, sorry, he is confident that thou art tormented.

[13:40] And it goes on to say, I'm worried about my brothers. My brother's still back home. I'm worried about them lest they come to this place. He says, Son, remember.

[13:54] Remember. There will be memory in hell. There will be remembering in hell. People will remember a mother's pleadings. People will remember the unheeded warnings. People will remember a friend's counsel.

[14:07] People will remember the preaching of a gospel preacher. People will remember the spirit's strivings. People will remember the tormenting of a conscience. They have rejected God's drawing.

[14:18] There will be regret. That the offers of mercy were despised. Friends, death does not end consciousness. And the rich man could see, he could hear, he could talk, he could taste, he could feel, he had memory, and he had remorse.

[14:36] But it was too late. Hell. Should be a motivator for us that know him. Shouldn't it? Hell should motivate us as believers. And it should be a motivation to the lost to get saved.

[14:50] Well, they can. Some have reckoned 70 times in the gospels Christ, our Lord, warns about a literal place called hell. People every day are dying and going there to hell.

[15:06] And we, brother, sister, we, the church of the living God. We have the duty to warn. Wages of sin are still the same. They haven't changed.

[15:18] It hasn't been revised. You can change, you can look in any Bible pretty much. The wages of sin, it says, death. Damnation.

[15:31] Second death. Hell. Eternal death. Hell is forever. 2 Thessalonians 1 verse 9, it says, 2 Thessalonians 1 verse 9, of them, it says, he shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, from the glory of his power.

[15:47] Some have said, in hell the sun never shines, in hell the grass never grows, the flowers never blossom, because it is a place of total outer darkness. They're going to be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord.

[16:02] Revelation 14, 11, it says, and the smoke of their torment ascendeth up forever and ever, and they have no rest, day nor night, who worshipeth the beast in his image and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.

[16:15] No rest. Imagine that. Now some of you like to come to church and have a bit of a rest. Now you have a little bit of a sneeze. But no, there'll be no rest. You can't go home and have a snooze.

[16:27] You can't go home and have an afternoon sleep. There'll be no napping in hell. There'll be no rest in hell. Day nor night, day nor night, forever and ever and ever. The smoke of their torment ascendeth forever and ever.

[16:42] Fire shall never be quenched. Whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. Of course we know all the technicalities of things but the hell of Luke 16 is Hades which and it says death and Hades or this hell was cast into the lake of fire at the end in Revelation at the latter end of Revelation where the hell thrown into lake of fire.

[17:12] That lake of fire is obviously it is eternal. It tells of a furnace of fire. It tells of a weeping and gnashing of tea. And friends someone tried to discount these words eternal everlasting forever as if they could redefine them to mean something other than that.

[17:32] But these words eternal everlasting forever and ever are the same words used of the eternity of God of our Lord Jesus Christ of the Holy Spirit.

[17:45] The punishment of those in the lake of fire is unending. And the book of Matthew speaks of a burning to come. Matthew 3 verse 12 it tells of a man winnowing the wheat and the chaff and he says that he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.

[18:02] Matthew 3 verse 12 unquenchable fire. The word here for unquenchable is asbestos. Asbestos which means it cannot be extinguished.

[18:15] It cannot be extinguished. You know you get asbestos and it's pretty you can't hardly damage it. got that almost indestructible I suppose sense that it cannot be put out asbestos.

[18:32] It's perpetual. It's unquenchable is the sense of this fire of Matthew 3 verse 12. And it tells elsewhere their worm dies not. The worm as it were of those that are in this lost estate that there is that anguish of conscience that ignoring that unceasing existence for me.

[19:00] The punishment or destruction is eternal. Matthew 25 verse 46 is a good scripture to go to when you encounter those of false cults who would try to argue that hell is not eternal.

[19:14] Matthew 25 46 is a very good scripture to have in mind when you encounter such false cults. It says of the saved and they shall go away into everlasting righteousness.

[19:32] Now this word everlasting is the word eternal. It is the same word. It is the same word of used of the everlasting glory of the righteous as is used of the duration of the punishment of the lost.

[19:47] It is eternal. Hell is as eternal as life everlasting is eternal. And so the punishment is eternal for the lost.

[19:58] The life is eternal for the saved. Same word. It's eternal, never ending. This is a really important truth to the doctrine of hell. It's a gripping truth and it should make us very mindful.

[20:14] Hell is eternal. Hell is hopeless, friends. Hell is hopeless. I know this is a bit of a downer, this sermon tonight, but I'm telling you the truth because I must tell you the truth.

[20:27] Hell is hopeless. There is no hope there. There's no fire exit there. There is no escape there. There's no way out. Hell is final and forever. Final and forever.

[20:40] And the anguish will never end. No way out. Luke 16, 26, the rich man was told by Father Abraham, between us and you there is a great gulf.

[20:52] There's a great camp. So they that would pass from hence to you cannot, neither can they pass from us who would come to you. There's this great gap between heaven and hell. There's no crossing over, no exit from hell.

[21:07] Men will pray in hell, but their prayers will be used. No hope of receiving mercy. Father Abraham, have mercy. There's no mercy in hell. After you die, after you have your last breath, there's no changing your destiny.

[21:24] It's determined. You need to face up to this reality. You will die. Friends, I'm preaching to Christians, but are you saved? If you're not saved, you will die and you will go to hell.

[21:38] Are you ready? Are you prepared? Have you made plans for heaven? There's only one way, that narrow way. Christ, he says, I am the way, the truth, the life, there is no other.

[21:50] Careless ones, you might think, I'll put it off, I'll make time, I'll get around to it, I'll get it sorted one day, down the track. God's judgment and hell are sure, the rich man died and immediately he lift up his eyes in hell.

[22:06] There wasn't any time to make a change of plans. It was too late then. Hell, it's a literal place and I know this is, it's an irksome subject to realise these horrors of hell, the darkness, the flames, the Bible speaks of everlasting burnings.

[22:27] But the good thing about hell is that hell shows how far God went, that he went through to save us, through to the very cross, through to the nailing, the beating, the spitting, the cursing, the mocking, the curse that was the cross.

[22:46] He's done all he can to save us from hell, from God's just wrath. The greatest evidence of hell is Calvary. There was no other way to keep us from going to hell.

[22:59] Hell reveals the holiness of God. God cannot bow up his holiness by allowing some lack of righteous judgment.

[23:14] His holiness is absolute. You cannot deny that. And sin is evil and it has its own. Psalm 9 verse 17 it says, the wicked shall be turned into hell and all the nations that forget God.

[23:28] Wicked turn into hell. It says in Daniel 12 2 that some will awake to everlasting life, some will awake to shame and everlasting contempt.

[23:39] Revelation 20 15 it says, whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. Some have reckoned 83 people per second die without Christ.

[23:52] These figures is probably more than when this was written. 6,000 per hour around the world. 144,000 per day die without Christ. This is a gripping figure, isn't it, to think of that.

[24:04] 144,000 per day die without Christ. Just to illustrate things, a story, a dream that a missionary told as a picture of the need for us as believers to warn people.

[24:27] to reach people who are, without that warning, are going to hell. Her name was Amy Carmichael, a missionary to India.

[24:42] Let me read her dream to you, as it were, her allegory of this picture that she wanted to paint. She's, I guess, in some kind of dreamy landscape where there's a big cliff and there's a sheer cliff and there's people that are just traipsing blindly and going over the edge of the cliff.

[25:07] Let me tell you her words here. The tom-toms thumped straight on all night and the darkness shuddered round me like a living, feeling thing. I could not go to sleep.

[25:19] So I lay awake and looked and I saw as it seemed this, that I stood on a grassy sward and at my feet a precipice broke sheer down into infinite space.

[25:33] I looked but there was no bottom, only cloud shapes, black and furiously coiled, and great shadowy shrouded hollows and unfathomable depths.

[25:44] Back I drew, dizzy at the depth, the sheer cliff that she saw. Then I saw forms of people moving, single file along the grass. They were making for the edge.

[25:55] They were making for the edge. There was a woman with a baby in her arms and another little child holding on to her dress. She was on the very verge. Then I saw that she was blind. She lifted her foot for the next step.

[26:08] It trod air. She was over and the children over with her. Oh, the cry as they went over. Then I saw more streams of people flowing from all quarters, all were blind, stone blind, all made straight for the precipice edge, the sheer cliff that she saw.

[26:25] There were shrieks as they suddenly knew themselves falling and a tossing up of helpless arms, catching, clutching at empty air, but some went over quietly, fell without a sound.

[26:37] Then I wondered why, with a wonder why that was simply agony, why no one, no one stopped them at the edge. I could not, I was glued to the ground and I could only call, though I strained and tried, only a whisper would come.

[26:55] Then I saw along the edge there were these sentries set at intervals, but the intervals were too great, there were wide, unguarded gaps between, and over these gaps the people fell in their blindness, quite unwarned, and the green grass seemed blood red to me, and the gulf yawned like the mouth of hell.

[27:13] And I saw like a little picture of peace, a group of people under some trees with their backs turned toward the gulf, they were making daisy chains. Sometimes when a piercing shriek cut the quiet air and reached them, it disturbed them, and they thought it rather a vulgar noise.

[27:35] And if one of their numbers started up and wanted to go and do something to help them, all the others would pull that one down. Why should you get so excited about it? You must wait for a definite call to go.

[27:47] You haven't finished your daisy chain yet. It would be really selfish, they said, to leave us to finish the work alone. Here's this picture, to interrupt the account, of this little group of people on this grassy top of this sheer cliff, they're making daisy chains, you know, threading daisies together to make little necklaces, little trinkets and fancy things.

[28:15] It's a picture of the church, isn't it? A picture of the church, while the lost are going over this sheer cliff to their damn nation, the church is there in this little huddle making daisy chains.

[28:29] And the story goes on. There was another group, it was made up of people whose great desire was to get more sentries out, but they found that very few wanted to go. Sometimes there was no centric's for miles and miles of the edge.

[28:43] Once a girl stood alone in her place waving the people back, but her mother and other relations caught and reminded her that her furlough was due, she must not break the rules. And being tired and needing a change, she had to go and rest for a while, but no one was sent to guard her gap, and over and over the people fell like a waterfall of souls.

[29:05] Once a child caught a tuft of grass that grew at the very brink of the gulf, it clung convulsively and called, but nobody seemed to hear. Then the roots of the grass gave way.

[29:16] With a cry, the child went over, its two little hands still holding tight the torn of bunch of grass, and the girl who longed to be back in her gap thought she heard the little one cry, and she sprang up and wanted to go, at which they reproved her, reminding her that no one is necessary anywhere.

[29:32] The gap would be well taken off. The gap would be well taken care of, they knew. And then they sang a hymn. Then through the hymn came another sound, like the pain of a million broken hearts, wrung out in one full drop, one sob, and a horror of great darkness was upon me, for I knew what it was, the cry of the blood.

[29:56] Then thundered a voice, the voice of the Lord, and he said, what hast thou done? The voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto thee, unto me from the ground. Toms-toms beeped heavily still, the darkness shuddered and shivered around me, and weird wild shrieks, and such, and what does it matter?

[30:16] After all, it has gone on for years, it will go on for years, why make such a fuss about it? God forgive us, God arouse us, shame us out of our callousness, shame us out of our sin.

[30:29] End quote. Now, of course this is just a figurative language, of this woman's allegory of the sheer cliff, but it is a reality, brothers and sisters, there is a sheer cliff, the lost our marching ever to the edge, and over the edge, yet the church is making daisy choices, playing church, missing that call, missing, denying that accountability, that need for us to warn, to reach them.

[31:04] This preacher, Ryle, said of this, of hell, let others hold their peace about hell, if they will, I dare not do so. I see it plainly in the scriptures, and I must speak of it.

[31:14] I fear that thousands are on the broad road that leads to it, and I would arouse them to a sense of peril before them. What would you say of the man who saw his neighbour's house in danger of being burnt down and never raised the cry of fire?

[31:31] End quote. There's many pictures we could paint, brothers and sisters, and the Bible says there is a real place.

[31:44] Do we really believe in hell? It's easy to pay lip service to it. Do we think through the implications of this doctrine? Do we treat the subject of hell carelessly?

[31:58] Thankfully, there's good news that hell can be avoided. Hell is avoidable. Amen? Amen. John 3, 36, He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life.

[32:11] He that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. Friends, if your name is not written in the Lamb's book of life, you will be cast into the lake of fire.

[32:25] Revelation 21, verse 8, but the fearful and unbelieving and the abominable and murderers and whoremongers and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.

[32:41] The ungodly love darkness more than light, yet there is opportunity to turn. The good news is that hell is avoidable, friends. Man has the power of choice. No one need ever go to hell.

[32:53] Christ saves from hell. One can be saved, snatched from the fire, as we read in Jude 1, 23, pulling them out of the fire. And we're all accountable for this.

[33:04] Our need of soberness, friends, brothers and sisters here tonight, to be sober in our thinking, praying, action, to sound the warning, to warn others. We are called to this.

[33:17] Every believer is called to this. Every believer has this calling. And we ought to have this sense of urgency, this need of concern, this calling to a compassionate urgency.

[33:31] We have a message to shout. Flee the wrath of God. Trust Christ without delay. Much more we can say about this subject, and I trust we've scratched the surface enough that we've provoked some thoughts about hell tonight.

[33:48] That it is an important truth. It's an important doctrine. It's a Bible doctrine. It's important. It is a place. This is no figurative, imaginary, fairy tale land.

[34:02] This is a place. The Bible says it is a place. A physical place. It is real. There's memory there. There's regret there. It's forever.

[34:13] Hell is forever. And hell is hopeless. Once you're there, you're there. And you'll stay there. In hell and then the lake of fire. It's forever.

[34:24] It's hopeless. There's no exit point. No exit. Hell is... Thankfully... Thankfully... Thankfully...

[34:34] Thankfully... Thankfully... The opposite of hell.

[34:46] God's love. Calvary is the opposite of hell. Calvary is the answer to hell. Calvary is the... The... The... From hell.

[34:59] If we will but trust... Jesus died for us. This side of... Yeah. In. And... The cross is...

[35:12] The... Interacting of hell. And... The cross shows us that... Hell is... So dreadful that God had to take...

[35:27] Christ to... Contrapped hell. If there was no hell, there would have been no need for the... But because there is a hell, there was the need for it.

[35:39] So this side of death... Guide for... Trust him. Now... Follow him. Trust him. Believe.

[35:51] Receive. And be in that shelter from God's wrath. Who is Christ. The reality of hell...

[36:02] To provoke you and me. Be sounding a warning. Loud and clear.

[36:14] And as much as people would mock us for it. And scorn us. And you might lose face. You might be... Ridiculed for it.

[36:25] There is a hell... To warn people about. Friends. And that's... That's a hard thing to do, isn't it? People think... That's... A bit extreme. That's a bit over the top.

[36:37] You know... Kind of... That's not... Modern... That's not contemporary. That's not... The way we do things in our modern world. But hell is...

[36:49] Hell. It always has been. Always will be. Hell is not changed. Hell is hell today as it was... Through the Bible.

[37:00] Hell is... Changed. And... And it's still the destiny of the lost. And so... We have need of warning. We've got a responsibility for that.

[37:11] A brother and sister. In fact, it's our glad privilege to be such. Isn't it? That we can be, as it were, as Amy Carmichael's dream.

[37:22] As it were. We can be the sentries that are there. Maybe in someone's last hours or days that we can say, Stop! Stop! And in the prayer time earlier, we had a prayer.

[37:36] God says, Stop! Doesn't he? I'm not sure who prayed that prayer this morning. But God puts a big stop sign, doesn't he? We're holding up a stop sign. Saying, Stop!

[37:47] You're going the wrong way. Turn around. Do a U-turn. Repent. Turn to God. Stop! You're about to go over the edge. We have that warning.

[37:57] And what a joy to think that, as it's been said, as some would say it, that the only thing of earth that we can take to heaven is those we might have reached for Christ.

[38:14] Those that we might have reached for Christ. Those human souls that we might have talked to about the Saviour and they trusted him. They'll be by our side in heaven. They'll be an eternal fruit for this short, earthly life.

[38:27] That we will have that privilege and joy. That wow. Thank you, Lord, that I've been able to bring someone with me. We've got that responsibility.

[38:38] Friends, the great news about hell is that it is avoidable. It's avoidable. God has made a way that we can know everlasting life.

[38:50] We can know Jesus and know his saving. And what a joy that is. And how glad we can be to share that glad news with those yet to trust him. And it burns deep in my heart, this conviction, this dread, really, of loved ones of mine that might be on the way to hell.

[39:11] And this is no light matter. This is no trivial matter. It grips me to think of loved ones of mine that may be destined for hell.

[39:23] I urge them. I urge everyone to wake up to the reality that hell is real and we need to know the Saviour from hell. Our Lord Jesus.

[39:34] Let's pray. Lord, we thank you that you came as the ultimate redeemer from sin, Satan. And Lord, you took upon yourself the very wrath of the Father against our sin.

[39:51] Lord, you took the pain, our penalty. You've made the payment fully for us. Lord, we thank you for that. Help us, Lord, to get a sense of the awful reality of that place, of that eternity, to realise lost souls are going to spend an eternity forever away from you.

[40:18] And in conscious suffering, Lord, we pray for them, these ones that have yet to trust you, that we can be messengers to them and know, Lord, use us, Lord, even if they refuse the message, Lord, to extend the invitation to invite them to know you.

[40:38] Help us, Lord, to be sentries, as it were, on the edge, as it were, that we can warn those blindly stumbling to their doom, that we can alert them to their peril and point them to the only one who can save them, you, Lord, our precious Saviour.

[40:58] And thank you, Lord, for the cross where you took hell upon yourself, Lord. You took our hell, you took our punishment, our sin, and the very penalty of it.

[41:08] You took it all, our wickedness, and you paid the price for it there. And we thank you, Lord, for that great love that still extends grace today. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

[41:19]