In this sermon, the preacher begins by leading the congregation in a song about being close to God. He then prays for people to have a personal encounter with God and for them to do business with Him. The preacher emphasizes the importance of being near to God and not being far from Him, especially for sinners and those with aching hearts. The sermon then transitions to the topic of hell and the need for believers to have a broken heart for the lost. The preacher shares a personal story about a boy who was relieved to hear that someone he cared about was going to be okay, but later discovered that person had actually died. This story serves as a reminder of the reality of eternal judgment and the need for believers to share the truth about hell. The sermon concludes with an invitation for the preacher to return to the city for an association-wide meeting.

Touch your feet, that's what this song is about. Let's sing it as we stand together. Reach out to the Lord, and He'll rest upon you. Life is not to fear your heart, each passing life is moment. Your need is to look for people. Pray that people will do business with a living God tonight. He's here, He's not a way off, He's right there by them. Not far from that poor old sinner, just as far as a child pays. He's not far from the aching heart of some child of God. We pray that men and women shall hear from Him tonight, feel His touch, and be brought face to face with a living God one more time. In His name we pray. Amen. Thank you so much. I wish to speak to you tonight on the message of hell. The threefold message of hell. From the twelfth chapter of the Gospel of Luke. We begin reading with verse four, and read verses four and five of Luke's Gospel, chapter twelve. These words are from the lips of the Lord Jesus. Luke's Gospel, chapter twelve, verses four and five. I say unto you, my friends, be not afraid of them that kill the bottle, and that to that hath no more that they can do. But I will forewarn you, whom ye shall fear. Fear Him, which, after He hath killed, hath power to cast into hell. I say unto you, fear Him. The Lord Jesus Christ, let the fellow listen to Him. He'd fear God. And he'd fear a God who'd not only kill you, but after He's taken your life and cast you into hell. I want to let what the Bible has to say about hell. Mount this pulpit stand tonight, for there's a message that we need to hear. And let this awful place called hell be the messenger. Ladies and gentlemen, don't you play tiddlywinks with the desperateness of this hour. The Bible says, don't take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. That doesn't mean get out here and do what we call the curse. That means to claim to be the product of a God of all grace, and then live an ungodly life and ask Him to put His lame along. The serious thing, claim to be a child of God. The serious thing, claim to be a Christian. You bear not your name, you bear another's name. We've had incense, we've cut out all this foolishness we've had for the last 40 years. And we look at face to face the fact that the worst thing we can do to a man is to convince him that he's a child of God, unless God's put the stamp of holiness on his soul. It's a serious thing to stand up and say, look at me. I'm a child of the King. That means you're a representative of the Lord Jesus Christ. That means you're to represent Him just as the new thing. As He said He was sent to represent the Father. No man ought to take lightly the name of Christ. It's a serious thing to live in a day when the fear of God has departed from America, where inside the church and out there is no fear of God before their eyes. Wherever radio entertainers got religion now, and they talk about the man upstairs, being proud that when he's sober he'll sing songs that melt the heart of the devil, and gets very religious, or that God's prayer will go off the air, and be the good Lord willing, we'll see you tomorrow. The football players all pray that the Lord give them power to beat the stuff in out the other fella. Every prize fighter thanks the Lord that he won the fight. Everybody's done got religion in your day and mine, but we haven't got a religion that set our feet in the paths of holiness, and therefore it's a stench in the nostrils of a cop who for holiness is that which makes him beautiful, and who says I'm holy, you be holy too. It's a serious thing, it's a serious thing to live and dare to represent a holy God in this day when church people have turned God's holy day into a holiday, and when there is no fear, everybody's mighty familiar with almighty God now. Some of you old gray-haired people can remember when you were a boy, your papa and mama take you to church, and they'd call on old Deacon so-and-so to lead in prayer, and it'd take him about ten minutes to come into the presence of God. He thought it was quite something to dare to address God. I hear some of those old-timers now, but now we just rush mightily in, you know. We're on mighty familiar terms not knowing that the God of the Bible says I'll be sanctified in them that draw near unto me. You ever read that? I'll be sanctified in them that draw near unto me. What's it talking about, brother preacher? I'm saying that if we wanted to see God's Word, we'd set our faces toward the holy wall of mourning and prayer and ask God to bring to us once again a sense of his majesty and of his holiness and of his power until we'd have a reverence for God. And I think the reason we do not have much reverence for this book is we do not have much reverence for the one whose book it is. Oh, how we desperately need to take our place at the foot and the reverence. Listen to me. This familiarity isn't of God. He's still God high and lifted up, and it's still sure we had a little sense if when we dared to come into his presence, we'd beat our breast and say, woe is me. I'm a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. Oh, I think the reason we are so familiar with the mighty God is we've forgotten what kind of a God he is, and we've dared, we've dared to create a God that would make us comfortable in our sinfulness, not remembering that God hath eyes so pure that he cannot look upon sin, nor behold iniquity in your life or anybody else's. And what's that got to do with the subject, brother preacher? It's this. I think we church people could stand a little hellfire preaching now. Anybody here believes the Bible, what it says about hell? Any of us? I was struck reading some months ago from a little book by Leonard Ravenhill. He's a member of some sort of a holiness group in Ireland and Scotland. Now he's ministering in this country. I've had the honor of having some fellowship with him. He's a man of the spirit and of prayer. And I was just reading in his book, I forget what the book was, and I came across a sentence that I've been under conviction about that sentence ever since. Mr. Ravenhill said, some of these days, some of these days, some simple child of God is going to pick up this book and read it and believe it. And when he does, he'll make the rest of us ashamed of ourselves. I ain't mad at nobody. But I live in a day, and you live in a day, when we give in to modernist hell. But I'm not worried about the modernists. I'm worried about people who claim to believe the Bible. Can't have a prayer meeting hardly. I'm worried about people, oh boy, they tear up passions that tatters about how somebody's denying the bodily resurrection of Christ. We don't seem to have much glow from associating with the resurrected Christ. I remember that in the New Testament, folks had the experience for the road out to doctrine. It wasn't hard for those New Testament Christians to believe in the resurrection of Christ because they associated with him every day. I expected us fundamentalists, thought I was going to go to hell, believe in a doctrine, never get acquainted with one the doctrine is talking about. I'm not talking about people who are denying that this is the word of God. They're not bothering me. Maybe they do you. Maybe you ought to fight them. I don't know about that. I can't tell the other fellow what he ought to do. What breaks my heart as I go up and down this country is fundamental, independent, Baptist churches that believe the book, but can't weep over sin. Can't weep over sin. It'd get embarrassing if Brother Barnum, I'm not going to do it, it'd get embarrassing if I ask you how long since this beautiful rug was wet with the tears of this church weeping for sin. It wouldn't hurt you, would it? Young man, that red tie of this generation don't give a hoot if you are fundamental. This world don't care what you believe. This world isn't interested in truth. I've never yet found anything that'll break the heart of a sinner except the tears of a child of God. You know anything else, Will? Oh, I think some of us church members could sit at the feet of hell for a while until we believed it. Jesse Henley, the evangelist I used to travel with a lot in the old days, he said if a man at least one-tenth of what the Bible says about hell, look at it every day for 30 days, it'd break our heart. You want a broken heart or are you just kidding this morning? I'll tell you how to get it. If we could just leave this book. If this book tells us the truth, it'd break our heart. Would you let me just quietly let hell say three things tonight? Hell, what the Bible teaches about it, has a message about the kind of God is in this book. I think there's nothing in the Bible that'll give you as good a picture of the character of God as the awful teaching of hell. Ladies and gentlemen, I heard your young pastor say last Tuesday at our fellowship meeting that this world doesn't know anything about the God of this book. He is right. The God of this book is the God, now listen to me. The God of this book is the God who's so holy that he sends men to hell because he's so holy. The God of this book is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and he sends men to hell. He doesn't. Hell says, Rob, God's holy. That's what hell says. You Sabbath breakers, every drop of fire in hell says God is holy. What is that? God's either a monster or God's gonna punish sin. That's what hell says. There are two things in the word of God that this world hates and I'm quietly hoping the Holy Spirit will probe your heart, mister, as I make this statement. The organized churches of the world are joining the world in disbelieving in the doctrine that God sends people to hell. I wanna ask you a question, brother. Is hell a doctrine for you or is it a burning truth? God knows if we could pick up the Bible and read it and believe it, we'd learn to fear God for this Bible tells us about a God who, whether this generation likes it or not, is going to send men to hell if they bypass the cross of Jesus Christ. Your pastor, who went to lunch today, said the first time he ever heard me preach, I was in a meeting in East 25th Street Baptist Church in Winston-Salem, the month of February of 1948, I remember. And I don't know whether he is there enough to know it or not, but I've been preaching two or three nights. People got to gathering an hour before time to open the door so they'd be sure to get the front seats. And after the meeting got in progress, before the Lord took charge, about 40 people would be there and as soon as the front doors opened, they'd come and they'd get inside and take the first seats. And several nights, they spent the time doing the song service heckling. And when I'd get up to preach, they'd say out loud, he's a false prophet. Don't listen to this man. He's a false prophet. He makes God a monster. He says God will send people to hell. God don't send people to hell. They said men send themselves to hell. And you know, they got me a crowd and I've never seen the Holy Spirit challenged in my life that he didn't take charge and whip the devil out of the devil's gang. I wish we'd get something started around here. Get somebody mad or something. Get some excitement. You know, anybody that'd heckle me, bring them along tomorrow night, anything. Let the devil know that we are out. I sure would love to get that rascal mad, you know. You know, we're so nice and dignified that we hold meetings and have revival campaigns and the devil doesn't even know we had one after it's all over. I sure wish we'd get something started. Well, the Lord took charge. I hope he'd do it again. I'm just leaving. I wish he would. I sure wish he would. But you know what I said all that for? People have found out that God don't send anybody to hell. But he does. God ever speaketh. Hear me? Every precious drop of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Every drop of it says that God will not forgive any sin unless that sin has been paid for in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. We haven't got any use for the cross now. By the kind of so-called gospel we've flooded America with for 50 years. We bypass Christ. All the sinner needs to do now to get saved, they tell me, is to get out on his knees and say, Oh God, save me for Jesus' sake. And that'll fix it up. No, no. You've got to do business with that cross, brother. You can't bypass that cross, brother. That cross has got to be stamped on your heart, brother. Something's got to take place. The word of God's is plain as a word on a man's nose. That you must die. Then get the cross with Jesus. In order to participate in the wonders and the merits and the blessings of his shed blood. You believe that? Why, we just say, get out on your knees, sinner, and say, God, be merciful to me, sinner. And he'll save you. No, he won't. You've got to do business there at the cross. No, sir. God never saves anybody apart from that anybody being brought to the cross of Christ. Where God poured out his eternal wrath on sin. And if a man wants to find out whether there's a hell or not, just let him look in the word of God at the cross. Brother, that's hell. When Jesus Christ was abandoned of his father and out of the agony of his soul, he cried, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? That's hell, brother. That's hell. That's hell. Listen, church member. Listen to me. Hell says God is a God of eternal burnings and eternal judgment against us, I am sin. I wish we believed that. Years ago, I happened to be in the midst of a spirit of revival in another state. One of these simultaneous evangelistic campaigns, all the Baptist churches in the association had been preaching at the same time. It so happened that I was in the largest church in the association, and they had a 30-minute daily radio program. And we had a 10 o'clock morning service. And the spirit of God took charge, and the thing spread. And it turned out that after the meetings were coming to a close, the committee of the Baptist Association got in touch with the pastor I was with, and they arranged a meeting with me. And that committee, acting for all the pastors of the association, said, brother preacher, we've come authorized to invite you to come back to our city for an association-wide meeting. Said, we'll rent the city out for him. If it's not available at the time, we'll get a large tent. We'll put it right in the center of town. We'll back you with our might and means if you'll come back. Well, that sounded good to me. And then they said two things, and I labor this, but I want you to get the point of it. They said, we have two requests we'd like to make of you before you tell us whether you'll come or not. And I wondered what they'd be, and I'd say, say on. They said, we want you to pray about it. We wouldn't want to dictate to God, but this is a matter of deep conviction with us. We want you to pray about it. And if you find it in your heart, you think it'd be pleasing to the Lord, you tell us. We want you to come and preach a month, one hour every night. And we'll buy you 30 minutes of time on the radio, and we want you to preach a month on just one subject. Will God punish sin? They said nobody down in this country believes he will. Everybody down in this country thinks he'll overlook it, but he won't. Everybody down in this country thinks he'll just close one eye to it, but he won't. Said nobody down in our country needs the Lord, because unless God punishes sin, I don't know anybody needs the Lord. Imagine those Baptist preachers. They station the fact. We're trying to get people to pick a Christ they feel no need of. The only reason anybody ever comes to Jesus Christ means business, is when he knows he needs him. And the reason you need him is because he's the one that can take the guilt of sin away. And they said, you come and preach a month on will God punish sin. I said, what's your second condition? This one from Baptist preachers. They said, but don't you give any kind of a public invitation for a month. They just preach on will God punish sin. You don't have to have that subject. Just preach on that truth. That's what needs to be preached in high form. Yeah. That's what needs to be preached in Greensboro and Winston-Salem. Everybody in Winston-Salem doesn't join the church, but they just live in like that there. Oh my soul, will God punish sin. And we are begging people to take Jesus. And they say, well, if you leave me alone, I'll take him if you won't bother me anymore. Oh, in the Bible, my Lord is represented as the one out in the agony of the heart of God, hanging on a cross closest to all the way that God could save sin. He's not a convenience. He's a necessity. He's the only hope. He came to pass. I took that invitation up. The Holy Spirit let me preach three weeks. He wouldn't let me preach four. The crowds came from far and near from every direction. I preached on will God punish sin. I never did give an invitation. That never did get sent. There's a banker going to be released from prison in the next two months. He came to him and he came to him and he came to him. And he'd go home, get out on his knees. He begged God to save him. But he's $150,000 into the bank. And nobody knew about it. And God wouldn't do business with him. He committed a public sin. It had to be publicly confessed. A man can't get saved on the fly. The sin question's got to be brought out as soon as you put your head out. You've got to come clean with God if he ever delivers you from hell. That man broke up that meeting. He's the happiest white man in the penitentiary than that in 12, 14 years. They sent him to the pen for stealing $150,000. But bless God, he stood up and got right with God. A sinner, son of a man, is a sinner. And he'll take his place as a sinner. And he'll plead guilty as a sinner. But Christ is a savior of sinners. Big sinners, little sinners, white sinners, black sinners, respectable sinners, any kind of sinners. Christ is a savior of sinners. Hell speaks of the necessity of Christ. In the second place, briefly, hell speaks to us about man. What hell says about you and me isn't very pleasant. Hell says three things about me. And listen to Ralph Barnes tonight. Hell describes sinners who have a satanic spirit. I'm going to bore a little deep tonight. You listen to me. You stay home tomorrow night if you want to. God, not fooling around. This ain't serious. But we just well do a little clown right now. I'm telling you what this Bible tells about hell. Describes the spirit of men and women who do not have Christ in here. And it's the spirit that they got from the devil. And it's I will run my life into hell with God. That's what the devil said. I will ascend to the most high. I will be like God. He put it into Eve. And she talked Adam into it. And they called God a liar. Satan did. And Adam and Eve believed it. And they got Adam and Eve to push God off the throne. Or try to. And say we'll not be subject to you. That's the spirit of sinful men. Ladies and gentlemen, you can just put this in your pipe and smoke it. God Almighty is going to put down the rebellion in the heart of sinful men. Or they're going to ruin him. Hear me now. I never knew a mother that had a bad boy. I never knew a father that had a bad daughter. But that daughter of yours with rebellion in her heart. If she gets by with it, she'll put God out of business. And she's not going to get by with it. And if she's not brought to the cross, God's going to send her to hell. Pay for that rebellion. All the rest of her eternity down so. This world is made up of folks that some there knows is in the face of God. And say you can't run my life. The satanic spirit. Hell says another thing about men. It says that men have a satanic purity. They're mad at God. Brother Bill, I want some of you young preachers. To get the way you preach us old folks. Nobody pay much attention to us older men anymore. We've made so many mistakes. But then anything on God's shining sun this generation needs to hear. Quite so much as the truth about itself. Hear me now. Hear me now. You want me to tell you why there's so much hell in our churches? I've just gone through one of the hardest meetings I've ever been in my life. The church trying to fire a godly young preacher. You know what they're trying to fire him about? Because he was talking to them about their ungodly living. And he was doing it in love. Businessmen that were not honest in their business. And he was preaching about it. And they were setting the things. I sold my tent. The doctor said I couldn't have a whole tent meeting again. I sold it last year to a fine young fellow. If I told you his name, I sold it on credit. You'd know it. And he can't pay me now. Because his church fired him the other day. And wouldn't even let him preach another sermon. They're so mad at him. You know why they fired him? And he's been talking about sinful living. Ladies and gentlemen, there isn't anything on earth wrong with our churches. Except men and women in them that have never discovered the hatred and hostility in your heart. And that's never been conquered by the blood of Christ. And you still haven't got a new heart. And you still got that old heart. And that old heart's not subject to the law of God. Neither can it be. And that heart is in hostility. It's at enmity with God. Brother, if you ever see yourself like God says you are. And God shows you up. You'll start screaming to God to give you that new heart that he says he'll give men who believe in him. For that old heart you got's as black as the hinges on the doorpost of hell. And if you don't get a new one, you're going to have to spend eternity in hell. Somebody says, well, Brother Byron, I just don't believe people are mad at God. Yes, sir. I'll prove it to you. If you'll preach a nice little God that's not holy, this generation of people will accept it. If you preach a holy God, then this generation won't accept it. You preach a God, watch it now. You preach a God of power that's got you in his hands. And this generation will raise old Billy Hale. You preach a nice little God that's helpless, sitting around waiting to see what you're going to do. And that makes me feel proud, and I'll accept you. But Bill, you preach the God of the Bible. He's holy. You preach the God of the Bible. He's God of all power. He holds this world in his hands. He got you in his hands. It's a terribly important thing what you're going to do with Christ. But I'll tell you something a whole lot more important than that. What's he going to do with you? What's he going to do with you? Ladies and gentlemen, God's a God of power. He's not a helpless little God. Old Pilate said, what then shall I do with Jesus, which is called Christ? And the Lord said, you wouldn't do anything unless God gave you power to do it. That's right, brother. That's right. And if I preach a God who saves people by grace, I'll get a fight starting around here, I'll tell you. That's right. Oh, boy. Unsaved church members. Why, they couldn't brag no more if we believed in salvation by grace. If you just let me and God work it out, him do part of it, me the other, then I'll have something to glory. And I can get along with a God like that. But there's no salvation there. You preach a God of power and a God of holiness and a God of grace and hostility. It's in there, brother. It'll come out. Hell says that man has a satanic spirit. He gonna put God out of business unless God deals with it. Hell says man has a satanic fury. He's mad at God. Hell says that man has a satanic destiny. In the word of God, I read this scripture. Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. First time I ever heard a man quote that, he said that man, that hell wasn't for men, that God prepared hell for the devil and his angels. And I suppose he knew what he was talking about, but of course he didn't. There are no accidents, nothing. God don't have to get up and consult the morning newspaper to find out what's happened. He's there at God. What does that verse scripture mean? I'll tell you what it means, my friend. It means if you land in hell, that hell is of a character that it just fits the devil's sin. And everybody that follows him, God will have the punishment just exactly right. God pities tonight. Depart from me into such a terrible place, it'll just fit the sin of Satan and all of his angels. What a destiny. What a destiny. The last word's this. Hell brings a great revelation of Calvin. Word's healed. The Bible says that many things the blood of Christ hadn't done anything about. You still got to earn your living for the sweat of your brow. Calvin, oh Calvin, is that right? Sin still will ruin your body. Calvin, oh Calvin. Women still bring children into the world by prevailing pain. Even though Christ has died. Wonder what he died for. Just one thing. To take the kindling gift of sin away for believing men and women. Glory to God. Oh, hell reveals the glory of Calvin. If there's no ruin, why the blood of Christ? If there's no judgment, why the blood of Christ? But there is eternal ruin. Thank God for Calvin. There is a judgment to come. Thank God for Calvin. Oh, the precious blood. The precious blood. Thank God for the blood of Christ. Hell reflects the glory of Calvin. We're on holy ground now. Sinners, don't despise the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Don't you do? Precious blood. A little boy, a little new boy in Chicago. Had no mother or father. Geeked out. Some kind of a living 13-year-old boy selling newspapers, begging. Lots of kids like that in our cities. One morning, Sunday morning, after he'd made his delivery. Had a few papers ready. He's sitting in the stairway. Only half lighted. Looking at a picture in the newspaper. It was a picture of a beautiful young lady. And they said she is dying. Because they couldn't find, hadn't found in all of the cities, the exact type of blood that he required. He was dying because he needed blood. And they tested and tested and tested and they hadn't found anybody with her exact type. She's a beautiful young lady. That little old new boy reading that. He sat there and looked at the beautiful young lady and said, I wish I could help the pretty lady. Got no mama, got no papa. Got no friends, got no loved ones. Never have done anything to anybody. Wish I could help the pretty lady. And somehow another little old boy got into the presence of the doctor. That was standing by, watching this young lady die. And he tugged at the white tail coat of the doctor. Doctor looked around and saw a little old dirty youth boy and said, get away son. Said, I'm very busy, don't want to bother. But the little boy wouldn't quit and kept tugging away and finally got the attention of the doctor. And he said, doctor, I want to help this pretty lady. And finally the doctor had a test made. And sure enough, the little boy's blood was the type needed. And they took blood out of the little boy's body. He hadn't had a square meal in so long. And that they took too much blood away from him, he went to sleep. And when he waked up, he raised up in bed and the nurse was sitting by the bed, knowing that they had taken terrible chances with his life, not knowing how weak he was to start with. And soon as he raised up, she pushed him down and said, lie quietly. But he said, how is she? And she said, oh, the nurse said, she's going to be all right now. And the little old 13-year-old dirty youth boy sank back in his pillow and said, I'm so glad. I'm so glad. A few days later, they had the biggest funeral that Chicago, Illinois had ever witnessed at that time. And in the casket headed out to the cemetery followed by the longest procession of any funeral procession in the history of Chicago. They took the 13-year-old boy's body and put it out there in a grave. The Chicago Tribune said years later that every Sunday afternoon, a young man and his wife, this pretty lady, is now married in full health, which she and her husband can be seen winding through the streets of Chicago, heading out on Sunday afternoon, nearly every Sunday afternoon, to a lonely cemetery. And there they find the grave of this little boy, and they lay some flowers on the grave. And the husband gets on one side of the grave, and the pretty lady gets on the other. And they perfumed those flowers with the salt of their hearts' tears as they thanked the little boy who gave his blood that the pretty lady might live. And I read that, and I said, yes, thank God. Thank God. Let my lips be closed forever when they cease to praise him who shed his blood as an awful necessity. For without the shedding of blood, there is no remission. But thank God with it, the worst old sinner that ever walked and writhed or wriggled his way to hell can be made white as snow if he'll come to the cross and do business with the Son of God. I'm here, ladies and gentlemen. I believe my sins are gone. I believe they've been made, washed away. Why? Because the Lord Jesus Christ shed his blood, gave his life that I might live forevermore. And I'd want to pull my tongue out at the roots if I ever got to where I couldn't say, thank you, Lord, and me. Thank you, Lord, for saving my soul. Thank you, Lord, for making me whole. Thank you, Lord, for giving to me thy great salvation so richly by your hand. In a moment, we're going to stand, and people will be invited to come forward with your needs and your desires. What a holy moment that'll be. Let us pray. Our Father, please undertake this now. Listen to people as they talk to you. Please do it. By the power of the Holy Ghost, glorify the Lord Jesus Christ. Let us hold this moment. Give men and women courage and desire to do business with you. Grant that people may seek you right now. And seek you with all of their hearts. And seek you till they find you. We ask you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, for our salvation. Amen. We're going to stand while Brother Carter leads us in some good old gospel song. What will the number be? Number 158. 258, I beg your pardon. Let's stand together and sing a verse of that. See what God has for us.