Dead Souls in a Living Hell

My Bible speaks of hell in the most terrifying of terms. The expanse and breadth of hell is seen in Isaiah 30 33 which declares that hell is fueled by a continuous stream of fire and burning brimstone. For Tophet is ordained of old, yea, for the king it is prepared.

He hath made it deep and large. The pile thereof is fire and much wood. The breath of the Lord, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it.

Revelation describes hell as a burning lake of fire. Jesus described the region of hell in terrifying terms as a place of outer darkness where the worm doth not and whose inhabitants are continually weeping and gnashing their teeth. If I could only awaken you, friend, to see your great danger of dying in your sins and being bound hand and foot and placed in chains and fastened down into the region atop its deep black gulf where flames twirl and twist like a volcano erupting out of control, maybe, just maybe, you would sense a little of your danger and taste a little morsel of your future misery and it would be enough to strike terror in your soul, to turn you from your sins, to turn you to God and to cast you entirely upon his mercy and the blood of Christ Jesus his Son.

If you perish in your sins, Christ can't help you, for he will not own you then. Your pitiful cries and prayers to him will only be met with a turned face that declares, I never knew you, depart from me, ye that work iniquity. And right now, while you have life in your mortal body, you spurn his love and refuse to turn from your sins.

While you work your sins of iniquity to your pleasure and hurt, you think you are safe in your church membership and service and that a holy God will overlook your rebellion and self-love. But listen, friend, a righteous God will allow no rebels into his holy heaven. The burning region atop it awaits you if you continue on in your natural condition, for an unconverted person is a child of darkness who walks in darkness, lives in darkness, dies in darkness and spans eternity in the darkness of hell.

Sadly, many sit in church sanctuaries in the darkness of an unconverted state, sitting on a rotten foundation of an empty religious profession. The natural condition of the sinner is a damning one, for if they continue on in their natural state, they'll surely die in their sins and enter that deep gulf atop it to spend eternity beneath the smoke and furnace of God's wrath and join that vast company of the damned from every generation since Adam. Hell is crawling with the worst refuse of mankind.

The deep gulf atop it is that deep pit full of venomous snakes which slither and crawl in continuous waves of tortured energy, because every psychopath and every sociopath from each generation is in hell at this hour, squirming and retching and wailing for their next victim, who will soon die and be shut up in there with them in that chamber of horrors. The vile and wicked Roman emperors are shut up in there, along with every pervert from every ancient civilization, from Sodom and Gomorrah to the present. The miseries of the damned in hell make a continuous loud commotion and a combustion that is fueled with never-ending shrieks and curses.

A man dead in sin lives in sin and dies in his sins, and his sins follow him into eternity like hounds of hell. The collective shrieks of dead souls in a living hell could create enough force to shake a city off its foundation. The very sound of their sufferings would make the strongest men tremble like a leaf in a violent wind.

The damned in hell are bound in chains, and the rattling of those millions of chains would drive anyone insane. If I could walk you over to that bottomless pit, friend, and lift the lid on Tophet's miseries, your eyes would burn from the sulfurous smoke, and your ears would ring from the collective cries of the damned, the shrieking and wailing of dead souls in a living hell. When I was a little boy, I went to my Italian grandfather's wake, and that room was full of the wailing and crying and shouting of my bereaved relatives.

Their collective cries sent shivers down my spine, but that is nothing compared to the millions and millions of tortured souls who suffer and shriek in hell at this very minute. Don't go to that smoking furnace of affliction, friend, that boils and shakes from the outpoured wrath of God upon the damned. Turn from your sins, friend, in repentance and faith toward God, and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, whose blood can wash you from your sins.

Get to Christ, friend, while you're still in this world, while you still can think and reason, before you are suddenly cast into another world you were quite unprepared for. There is nothing worse than being a dead soul in a living hell. Let us pray.