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Hell is rarely preached on today. When it is, often it's just a mention in passing, something like, "And if you don't get saved, when you die, God will judge and you'll be in hell." And it's said softly, and nervously, as if the preacher fears to even say it, and is embarrassed by it. Very few times have I heard a sermon on hell, one that strikes the dread fear of God in a soul. The scripture says in Jude "some save with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment spotted by the flesh."
When was the last time you saw the gravity of your sin, and squirmed? Even professing believers in Christ must know the utter vileness of sin, and how the LORD must punish it, and those who choose to live in sin over the will of the Father. It is good if it frightens you. If you know the fire is hot, why will you reach out into the flame? Why will you walk in the blazing coals that crackle and burn, searing everything amongst them?
And despite all this, it should be your hatred of sin, rather than a fear of the punishment in hell that drives you to your knees before a Holy God. Fear Him who hath power to destroy both soul and body in hell, yea, fear Him: that is, God the Father, who desires to pull you from the terrible flame.
Here then are some quotes by various preachers of the past regarding Hell....
AW Pink, Eternal Punishment
A Truth Lost in These Days
The subject before us is one that needs stressing in these days. The great majority of our pulpits are silent upon it, and the fact that it has so little place in modern preaching is one of the signs of the times, one of the many evidences that the Apostasy must be near at hand.
The need of giving this solemn subject a prominent place in our witness is apparent, for it is our bounden duty to warn sinners of their fearful peril, and to bid them flee from the wrath to come (Mat 3:7). To remain silent is criminal; to substitute anything for it is to set before the wicked a false hope.
Jonathan Edwards - Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God
“God judgeth the righteous, and God is angry with the wicked every day.”—Psalm 7:11
They are now the objects of that very same anger and wrath of God, that is expressed in the torments of hell; and the reason why they do not go down to hell at each moment, is not because God, in Whose power they are, is not at present very angry with them—as He is with many miserable creatures now tormented in hell, who there feel and bear the fierceness of His wrath.
The wrath of God burns against them, their damnation does not slumber; the pit is prepared; the fire is made ready; the furnace is now hot, ready to receive them; the flames do now rage and glow. The glittering sword is whetted and held over them, and the pit hath opened its mouth under them.
CH Spurgeon, Turn or Burn
We must sometimes use the knife where we feel that mortification would ensue without it. We must frequently make sharp gashes into men’s consciences, in the hope that the Holy Spirit will bring them to life. We assert, then, that there is a necessity that God should whet His sword and punish men, if they will not turn. Earnest Baxter used to say, “Sinner, turn or burn; it is thine only alternative. Turn or burn!” And it is so. We think we can show you why men must turn or else they must burn.
a. First we cannot suppose the God of the Bible could suffer sin to be unpunished. Some may suppose it; they may dream their intellects into a state of intoxication, so as to suppose a God apart from justice; but no man whose reason is sound and whose mind is in a healthy condition can imagine a God without justice.
But to imagine that there shall be no punishment for sin, and that man can be saved without repentance, is to fly in the face of all the Scriptures.
WC Nichols, The Terrors of Hell
Every part of the body will feel the pain of that fire. Men with severe stomach pains can be in great agony from that alone, but this pain will be far greater. Death from cancer is sometimes said to cause extreme pain in the body, but the pain of hell will be far worse. If your body were afflicted with many different and painful diseases all at the same time, you still would not begin to approach the pain of the damned in hell.
Men’s consciences shall be in torment in hell as well. Conscience is the worm that will not die, which the Scriptures speak of (Mar 9:48; Isa 66:24). Dives is told to “remember…in thy lifetime.” Men will be tormented with extreme pain, but they will also be tormented by their own memories. They will remember hearing of hell and scoffing at it. They will remember being warned and told to repent, or told that accepting the blessings of heaven without submitting to Christ as Lord falls short of salvation—but they took no heed to those warnings.
Horatius Bonar, Practical Religion
There is a day coming when sinners shall be afraid, and when terrors shall overtake them as a flood. They are not afraid just now; they eat and drink and make merry, as if they had no eternity to prepare for, no danger to alarm them. But it shall soon be different. What is now far off shall then be near, and sinners shall realize too late the horrors of that wrath from which they refused to flee. In the agonies of despair, when the flames are kindling round them, they will burst forth in such bitter outcries as these, “Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire, who among us shall dwell with the everlasting burnings” (Isa 33:14)? Oh, that shriek of agony! Oh, that awful outcry of surprise and despair! Careless sinner! That cry shall soon be yours; these words shall soon be the very language in which your wretched soul shall give vent to its hopeless anguish when it sees itself shut in within the flaming walls, and feels damnation sure! Oh, then, flee from the wrath to come! Make haste to escape from the devouring fire!
AW Pink,
What has been before us ought to make every professing Christian diligently examine himself. Weigh carefully the tremendously solemn issues that turn on whether or not you have really passed from death unto life. You cannot afford to be uncertain. There is far too much at stake. Remember that you are prejudiced in your own favor. Remember that you have a treacherous heart. Remember that the devil is the great deceiver of souls. Remember that “there is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death” (Pro 14:12). Remember it is written that “many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?” And then He will answer them, “I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity” (Mat 7:22-23).
There are many who now wear the guise of saints, who appear like saints; and their state, both in their own eyes and that of their neighbors, is satisfactory. And yet they have on only sheep’s clothing; at heart, they are wolves! But no disguise can deceive the Judge of all. His eyes are as a flame of fire: they search the hearts and try the reins of the children of men (Rev 1:14; Jer 17:10).
JC Ryle, Our Souls
But who is responsible for the loss of our souls? No one but ourselves. Our blood will be upon our own heads. The blame will lie at our own door. We shall have nothing to plead at the Last Day when we stand before the Great White Throne and the books are opened. When the King comes in to see His guests and says, “Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment?” (Mat 22:12), we shall be speechless. We shall have no excuse to plead for the loss of our souls.
But where does the soul go when lost? There is only one solemn answer to that question. There is but one place to which it can go, and that is hell. There is no such thing as annihilation. The lost soul goes to that place where the worm dies not and the fire is not quenched—where there is blackness and darkness, wretchedness and despair forever. It goes to hell—the only place for which it is [suited], since it is not [suited] for heaven. “The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God” (Psa 9:17).
We live in an age of great temptation. The devil is going about and is very busy. The night is far spent. The time is short. Do not lose your own soul.
When was the last time you saw the gravity of your sin, and squirmed? Even professing believers in Christ must know the utter vileness of sin, and how the LORD must punish it, and those who choose to live in sin over the will of the Father. It is good if it frightens you. If you know the fire is hot, why will you reach out into the flame? Why will you walk in the blazing coals that crackle and burn, searing everything amongst them?
And despite all this, it should be your hatred of sin, rather than a fear of the punishment in hell that drives you to your knees before a Holy God. Fear Him who hath power to destroy both soul and body in hell, yea, fear Him: that is, God the Father, who desires to pull you from the terrible flame.
Here then are some quotes by various preachers of the past regarding Hell....
AW Pink, Eternal Punishment
A Truth Lost in These Days
The subject before us is one that needs stressing in these days. The great majority of our pulpits are silent upon it, and the fact that it has so little place in modern preaching is one of the signs of the times, one of the many evidences that the Apostasy must be near at hand.
The need of giving this solemn subject a prominent place in our witness is apparent, for it is our bounden duty to warn sinners of their fearful peril, and to bid them flee from the wrath to come (Mat 3:7). To remain silent is criminal; to substitute anything for it is to set before the wicked a false hope.
Jonathan Edwards - Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God
“God judgeth the righteous, and God is angry with the wicked every day.”—Psalm 7:11
They are now the objects of that very same anger and wrath of God, that is expressed in the torments of hell; and the reason why they do not go down to hell at each moment, is not because God, in Whose power they are, is not at present very angry with them—as He is with many miserable creatures now tormented in hell, who there feel and bear the fierceness of His wrath.
The wrath of God burns against them, their damnation does not slumber; the pit is prepared; the fire is made ready; the furnace is now hot, ready to receive them; the flames do now rage and glow. The glittering sword is whetted and held over them, and the pit hath opened its mouth under them.
CH Spurgeon, Turn or Burn
We must sometimes use the knife where we feel that mortification would ensue without it. We must frequently make sharp gashes into men’s consciences, in the hope that the Holy Spirit will bring them to life. We assert, then, that there is a necessity that God should whet His sword and punish men, if they will not turn. Earnest Baxter used to say, “Sinner, turn or burn; it is thine only alternative. Turn or burn!” And it is so. We think we can show you why men must turn or else they must burn.
a. First we cannot suppose the God of the Bible could suffer sin to be unpunished. Some may suppose it; they may dream their intellects into a state of intoxication, so as to suppose a God apart from justice; but no man whose reason is sound and whose mind is in a healthy condition can imagine a God without justice.
But to imagine that there shall be no punishment for sin, and that man can be saved without repentance, is to fly in the face of all the Scriptures.
WC Nichols, The Terrors of Hell
Every part of the body will feel the pain of that fire. Men with severe stomach pains can be in great agony from that alone, but this pain will be far greater. Death from cancer is sometimes said to cause extreme pain in the body, but the pain of hell will be far worse. If your body were afflicted with many different and painful diseases all at the same time, you still would not begin to approach the pain of the damned in hell.
Men’s consciences shall be in torment in hell as well. Conscience is the worm that will not die, which the Scriptures speak of (Mar 9:48; Isa 66:24). Dives is told to “remember…in thy lifetime.” Men will be tormented with extreme pain, but they will also be tormented by their own memories. They will remember hearing of hell and scoffing at it. They will remember being warned and told to repent, or told that accepting the blessings of heaven without submitting to Christ as Lord falls short of salvation—but they took no heed to those warnings.
Horatius Bonar, Practical Religion
There is a day coming when sinners shall be afraid, and when terrors shall overtake them as a flood. They are not afraid just now; they eat and drink and make merry, as if they had no eternity to prepare for, no danger to alarm them. But it shall soon be different. What is now far off shall then be near, and sinners shall realize too late the horrors of that wrath from which they refused to flee. In the agonies of despair, when the flames are kindling round them, they will burst forth in such bitter outcries as these, “Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire, who among us shall dwell with the everlasting burnings” (Isa 33:14)? Oh, that shriek of agony! Oh, that awful outcry of surprise and despair! Careless sinner! That cry shall soon be yours; these words shall soon be the very language in which your wretched soul shall give vent to its hopeless anguish when it sees itself shut in within the flaming walls, and feels damnation sure! Oh, then, flee from the wrath to come! Make haste to escape from the devouring fire!
AW Pink,
What has been before us ought to make every professing Christian diligently examine himself. Weigh carefully the tremendously solemn issues that turn on whether or not you have really passed from death unto life. You cannot afford to be uncertain. There is far too much at stake. Remember that you are prejudiced in your own favor. Remember that you have a treacherous heart. Remember that the devil is the great deceiver of souls. Remember that “there is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death” (Pro 14:12). Remember it is written that “many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?” And then He will answer them, “I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity” (Mat 7:22-23).
There are many who now wear the guise of saints, who appear like saints; and their state, both in their own eyes and that of their neighbors, is satisfactory. And yet they have on only sheep’s clothing; at heart, they are wolves! But no disguise can deceive the Judge of all. His eyes are as a flame of fire: they search the hearts and try the reins of the children of men (Rev 1:14; Jer 17:10).
JC Ryle, Our Souls
But who is responsible for the loss of our souls? No one but ourselves. Our blood will be upon our own heads. The blame will lie at our own door. We shall have nothing to plead at the Last Day when we stand before the Great White Throne and the books are opened. When the King comes in to see His guests and says, “Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment?” (Mat 22:12), we shall be speechless. We shall have no excuse to plead for the loss of our souls.
But where does the soul go when lost? There is only one solemn answer to that question. There is but one place to which it can go, and that is hell. There is no such thing as annihilation. The lost soul goes to that place where the worm dies not and the fire is not quenched—where there is blackness and darkness, wretchedness and despair forever. It goes to hell—the only place for which it is [suited], since it is not [suited] for heaven. “The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God” (Psa 9:17).
We live in an age of great temptation. The devil is going about and is very busy. The night is far spent. The time is short. Do not lose your own soul.