This sermon delves into the vivid descriptions of hell as a place of eternal torment, emphasizing the unquenchable fire and the undying worm, portraying the anguish and suffering of those condemned. It highlights the haunting memories and regrets of individuals in hell, illustrating the eternal consequences of rejecting God's salvation and the unimaginable horror of an enlarged hell. The urgency to flee from the wrath to come and accept God's grace is emphasized, warning against neglecting the salvation offered through Christ.

Christ depicts hell as a place where the worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched, as a furnace of fire. It's referred to as the lake of fire and brimstone. We cited that scene from Luke 16, that in hell he lift up his eyes being in torment and seeth Abraham afar off 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. Just give me a little drop on the end of his finger. My throat is parched. I'm in torment. So often the Lord said it's a place of weeping and wailing. Can you imagine what it would be like if we could open the lid of hell and hear the weeping and the wailing of the death, pain I can't describe. I read about you know, I read about those that have suffered third degree burns, put in special burn units. I read about the debridement where they have to take away their dead flesh. I read about them groaning and crying and screaming because of the pain and then I think it's not. Will the men realize I think the power and the depth of the wrath of God. Imagine every part of your body being on fire at the same time so that every fiber of your being is feeling the intense torment of being burned. But the most terrible thing about hell remains yet to be said. More awful than the fact that it is a place of torment and alleviated in both body and soul in varying degrees. Indeed the most awful thing that can be said about it, the inconceivably terrible thing about it is that it's empty. You know and I know in this world it doesn't make any difference what the pain is. Maybe something like a toothache. It may be a heart attack. It may be life. It may be excruciating. But if we can only say to ourselves tomorrow it'll be better. In a year I'll be cured or whatever distress we have. We know that it ends with the grace. There's always some consolation no matter what the pain in the hope that it will cease. A time will come when there'll be no more. On the other hand, suppose you had anything, it doesn't make any difference, trifling, call it a toothache if you please. A headache. With the knowledge it could happen forever. Would never get the slightest bit better. You'd never wake up one morning and find it's gone. How terrible it would be. Just something like that. With the aggravation of the knowledge that it would always be with you. That's what Jesus Christ says about the world to come. It's not only punishment. It's eternal punishment. That's the word. Eternal. That's the awesome word. Holy word. Something other than eternal. But it isn't. It's eternal. Jesus Christ had various ways of expressing this. I call your attention just to one or two of them. One figure he uses, you all know, he describes hell as the place where the fire is not quenched, the worm dieth not. What's the meaning of that kind of image? But when Jesus Christ refers to the place where the worm dieth not, he is referring to one method of destroying the human body after it has died, namely by burying it in the earth and having it consumed by maggots. You all know full well that when we do place a body in the ground, it decays, it's destroyed, it's consumed. But as soon as a maggot has devoured a body, the maggot dies. Because it has no more food on which to sustain its own existence. And the body having been destroyed, it perishes. When Jesus Christ therefore describes hell as a place where the worm dieth not, the meaning is unmistakable. Here is a place where the worm as it were is never destroyed because the body on which it feeds is never destroyed. It doesn't die because that it devours is never consumed. The fire is not quenched. It's a reference to the other method by which we dispose of dead bodies, namely cremation. We know that when a body is burned, as soon as the body has been completely consumed, the fire goes out. It has no more fuel to sustain it. When Jesus Christ describes this place, this hell, this coming judgment, as a place where the fire is not quenched, the meaning again is unmistakable. The fire doesn't go out because that which is burning is never consumed. How could you think of language more graphic, more vivid, more unmistakably telling us that this abode of judgment and condemnation and woe and bickering and anguish is an endless abode? The fire is not quenched. The worm dieth Go to heaven by coming to Christ in time. All the good people will not take the soul from hell and put it into heaven. All the deceivers that these ecumenical ministers are, these ungodly men, these blinded men, will not tell the people the truth. But one day the people will read the Bible and find out what's going to happen to these lying clergymen that tell people that you never go to hell. Romans 1, 28, 32, and even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind to do those things which are not convenient, being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, deviant, deceit, malignity, whisperers, bag-biters, hearers of God, despiteful, proud, bolsters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenant-breakers, without natural affection, inflatable, unmerciful, knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do they see Him, but of pleasure in them that do them. Romans 1, verses 28 to 32. Oh, he's been down there all this time, so here's that fella, the rich man's body, according to the scriptures, still in the grave. His old brain's long since decayed, but his memories live in hell. I'll tell you, memories can be mighty sweet, or they can be awfully bitter. Son, remember, remember, Lord, let's be done with this now, what's done's done, let's just forget about it, no way for heaven's sake. Son, remember, remember, remember what? Remember what happened down there? Well, I won't forget it, no, son. To be condemned, to be harassed, and tormented, and sat down, and trailed. You take yours, Sam. I want you to join me tonight. I'm going to ask Abraham if he will, to take us on a tour of hell. Abraham, if you don't mind, take me on a tour of hell. I want to help me preach, I want to help me warn sinners. I want to help me brave the ridicule of this religious generation that says, well, that preacher trying to scare people. You're dead right, I sure wish I could scare you. I wish I could get you where you're afraid of sin. I wish I'd get you where you're afraid of facing the holy fire. Oh, well, I can't enough. I walk with tears, I walk with authority, I walk with passion. The word is not of something I thought of, but of the eternal consequences of the fact that God's a holy God, and he's got to punish me. So I want Abraham to take us tonight on a tour of hell. And Abraham and I go down the elevator and land in hell. And immediately, we're in bedlam. And I see a multitude of people over to my right, and they're knocking. Open, open the door, please, open the door, please, open the door. For God's sake, somebody open the door, open the door, please, open the door. And I said, what on earth going on over there, Abraham, what they trying to do? Oh, he said, they're knocking on the door of Noah's ark. I said, well, I don't see Noah's ark yet. He said, oh no, Noah's ark's not in hell, but they think it is. It's in their memory. And all they do is go around back and forth hours a day. But it's in their memory. They lived unrighteous lives, because Noah preached righteousness. They wouldn't believe him. Oh, that judgment was coming. Every time it is saying, judgment's coming, judgment's coming, judgment's coming, judgment's coming. The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness. Judgment's coming, judgment's coming. Nobody dead, nobody dead. Seven years, more than Noah said, seven days later, still nobody got in the ark. He condemned the world. He said to both rocking boys, this ain't not going on forever. The wrath of God can be, can come to its end sometime. It's piling up, wrath on wrath, vengeance on vengeance. The judgment's coming, judgment's coming, judgment's coming. He said to his generation, and repented, but nobody dead, nobody dead. When the flood came, scientists tell us there were three billion people on the earth at that time. I don't know if that's true or not. I have no reason to doubt it. Three billion people, at least as many people as live on this earth now. And you know how many of them God Almighty destroyed and sent to hell and they're down there now, knocking on a door that's not there, haunted by the memory of passing by the only ark of safety and frowning under their rebellion, their unrighteous, lawless living. The cries of the prophet of God, crying righteousness. They'll never get away from it. God sent three billion of them to hell. Oh, I know, I know. We don't believe that. Oh, good God. Wouldn't send three billion people to hell at one time, I think so. But he did. He did. God help us. Throw our Bibles away and just face it. God won't catch up with sin some of these days. That's right. And we pass by and Abraham says, remember, remember. That's all I got to do. Remember, remember, remember. We pass on through the corridors of hell and I see a man over there and he says, take it away, take it away, take it away from that people. Somebody please come and take this away. And I say, who's that? Abraham. He said, that's heaven. I said, what is he trying to do? He said, he's trying to get somebody to take the head of John the Baptist away. So he carried it around with him and tried to get somebody to take it. It burned. He can't forget. I said, well, Abraham, I don't see the head of John the Baptist. Abraham said, no, Rob, the head of John the Baptist isn't in hell, but it's in the memory of heaven. He can't get away from it. He remembers how he went out to get John the Baptist, preached and appeared and called him a just man. And he put John the Baptist drinking liquor and stealing money and a few other things. But, but one day John said, Paris, you're living in open lawless, adulterous relationship with your brother's wife. And old Herodias would have killed him, but you couldn't. But Paris had a drunken party. His stepdaughter, thanks heartily, sent in his cubs. He was pleased and he was going to give her a present. And she slipped in the curtain and said, Mom, what do you want me to ask the old man? He said, ask the head of that preacher. And so he came out and said, I'll give you everything you want on behalf of my kingdom. He said, well, give me the head of John the Baptist. He sent a couple of boys down and locked the jail door and took John the Baptist, the greatest man that ever lived. And he laid his head down on a block like an old turkey gobbler and severed it off and put it in a big charger and took it and brought it to that wicked woman. And old Herod, old Herod is tormented by the head of the John the Baptist's wife while I'm speaking to you now. You can't get away from it. We passed by and Abraham said, son, remember to pass on. And there's a man going around screaming, oh, if I could just get it off, if I could just get it off, oh, if I could get it off. Well, that's private. What's the matter with him? He's trying to get the blood off his hands. And I walk up close and I don't see Abraham. I don't see any blood. Oh, no, there's no blood on his hands. It's in his memory. It's in his memory. He remembers. He remembers being warned of his wife. He remembers that experience. He remembers when he tried that fellow Jesus according to the law of the Roman Empire, the justice law of the world that ever known. And found not a thing on earth to condemn him over. And he would have released him. But he said, no, sir. And there he was. Will he defend Caesar? Will he defend the Jews? Or will he release that innocent man? And so he weighed the situation carefully. Some of you will have to weigh it tonight. That sore spot in your life, it's got to go. If you get to Christ, you're going to weigh it. Some of you have prayed your hope of salvation one more time for that rotten spot in your life that kept you from Christ all these days. And so he got him a basin of water and he washed his hands. But he never did get rid of the blood. And it's still there in his memory. He remembers. Abraham and I pass by and Abraham says, son, remember, we pass along and there's a little girl and she looks up and she sees me. And she said, that's not fair. Get away. Get away. Get away. Get away. Get away. Get away. I said, Abraham, I know that girl. He said, yes, sir. Everybody in hell knows who you are. So that little girl just spoke to him all the time. Get out of my way. Get out of my way. I don't want to see him again. I don't want to take over again. Get rid of him. Get rid of him. I said, Abraham, I'm not in hell. No, no. But you are according to her. You're in her memory. She can't forget you. She can't forget that time in Arkansas. One night, the God fell on the congregation. Multitudes were swept into the kingdom of God. The whole congregation became agited. Primate and Christians praying for souls and sinners, screaming for mercy. It was the work of the sovereign spirit. That little 16-year-old girl didn't kneel, but she stood there and grabbed the pew in front of her. Until it looked like the veins in her hands were burst. And a great pool of tears were at her feet. And she held her own for dear life. You know, that sort of atmosphere where God's people spoke to her. And the spirit honored her. And she stood there. And she trembled. And she wept. And that service passed away. And finally the people began to go home. And I couldn't have skipped from it if the devil and all his angels were there. As the congregation was melting, she kept standing there, holding on to that seat and weeping. And I flipped up to her and would have a word to say. And she turned and looked at me and said, No, don't talk to me. I said, I'm going to be saved tomorrow night. I said, I'm going to get saved tomorrow night. I said, I'm not going to be saved tonight. I said, I know she talked to me. I'm not going to be saved tonight. And the tears melted. And she turned loose. And all I could think of was Proverbs 27 and 1. And she went home. And at 10 o'clock the next morning, she was a star basketball player, girl's basketball player. She had two teams. And she was practicing. And she got right in the exact middle of the court. And she gave a great agonizing cry. She fell over on the floor. By the time the plane got to her, she was dead. Tomorrow, she died. Oh, she said the night before, don't talk to me. I'm going to get saved tomorrow night. Oh, my. Tomorrow night, she was in hell. Oh, and she can't forget it. Abraham says she quotes Proverbs 27 and 1. Oh, not thy step of the morn, for thou knowest not what a day will bring forth. I know people don't believe that, but still, so. That little girl in hell, quoting that scripture, trying to get people to get me out of hell. I'm in her memory. And that scripture's in her memory. And that knife's in her memory. And those tears, the Holy Spirit producer in her memory. Had to hang on to that seed to keep from yielding to the spirit ruling. She'll never forget it. And we pass by the little girl. And Abraham says, son, remember, I'm going to get into theology now. It's bigger than I am for just a minute. But the memory of the love of God will be the most terrible thing to torment you. Oh, the love of God don't limit it. Oh, it's greater far than tongue or pen can ever say. To say that God so loved the world as to give. Men despise it, take it for granted now. It'll haunt them throughout the reaches of eternal day. I'm here, despising the fact that God so loved. Bigger than earth for ten million worlds is the love of God. Yet I'm in hell. The memory of the love of God. They'll never get away from it. And he says. In the presence of the Holy Father. In the presence of the Holy Son. In the presence of the Holy Ghost. And with God's holy book in my hand. I would cry out to you. Flee. Flee. Flee from the wrath that is to come. The man who lived in the age before the flood. Never knew that it would enlarge hell. But they did. The nation of the Jews. Never knew that it would enlarge hell. But it did. The Christian church by apostasy. Never dreamed that it would enlarge hell. Consider dear sinner friend. This night, your latter end. Your end is near. Sinner awake. Before your doom is eternally and forever sealed. Beware of taking the first step. What is the first step to an enlarged hell? It's neglecting God's salvation. The Holy Word speaks nothing but God's eternal truth. And it asks the question. How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation? The neglecting of salvation is taking a step which seals your loss of salvation forever. Your sins have put you in a lost condition. By neglecting salvation. You take the first of these three steps. Which will lead you to eternal damnation. Why do you neglect? Why do you neglect the salvation of your immortal soul? You know that you're a sinner. You know very well that the wages of sin is death. You know very well that after death there is judgment. You know there is a heaven. You know there is a hell. You know that if you live in your sins. You will be buried in your sins. You'll rise again from the dead in your sins. You will appear before the God of heaven on his great white throne. Judgment in your sins. Before God in your sins. You will go to that hell. Of which this chapter speaks. A hell enlarged. To take your doomed and damned soul forever. You know all this. Oh dear sinner. Awake before it is forever too late. Oh immortal soul. Listen to this solemn fact. If you do turn from neglecting you will be damned. Withdraw your feet this very night from the broad road that leads to hell. Accept the cleansing blood of Christ. Which purchased you for Christ upon his cross. Oh take God's grace now. The forgiveness of sins by the blood of the Lamb. It was Bishop J.C. Ryle. The first Church of England Bishop of Liverpool. Who said this. The saddest road to hell. Is that which runs under the pulpit. Where the gospel is preached. Past the Bible. Where the gospel is recorded. And through the midst of warnings. And beware. The God God.