Six Horrors in Hell

Years ago, when I still played the game of golf, I was playing with a wealthy businessman who had one of the filthiest mouths I ever heard. Why, every other word that would come out of this man's mouth would be a cuss word, and he'd take God's name in vain. Finally, I asked this question to him.

I said, Let me ask you, friend, how was your relationship with God? And he smiled a big grin and said, I have a good relationship with God. I leave him alone, and he leaves me alone. And sadly, friends, that's the quickest path to hell, to have God leave you alone.

It's so easy to be occupied with this world and the things of this world, and focused on accumulating the things of this world which may impress some folks while you're here, but which don't mean a hill of beans in eternity. And eternity is my subject this evening, friends. The title of my message is Six Horrors in Hell, and my text can be found in Luke's Gospel.

You can turn in your Bibles there now, friends. We will be in chapter 16 and verses 19 through 24. Our text from Luke is a striking passage of Scripture that describes the terrors and torments of the damned in hell as they suffer there.

When my mother lay down in a hospital, they had to dope her up at night. So they told me because her screams were disturbing the other patients and keeping them up. And if you took all the patients off all their pain medications, in every hospital in your city tonight, friend, their shrieks and screams would keep your town up tonight.

And if I could walk you this evening over to the brink of hell and lift the lid off that smoking bottomless pit and let you listen for a while, the cries of the damned would keep you up tonight. In our text this evening, we're going to hear someone cry from hell. Let me begin reading our text from Luke.

Here now is the word of God, and may the spirit of the Lord be pleased to attend the reading of his holy word. There was a certain rich man which was clothed in purple and linen and fared sumptuously every day. And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate full of sores.

Let me pause here, friends. It is the Lord Jesus who is relating this story as he is deeply familiar with it. For being God, he knows all things here in this world and in eternity.

Notice the rich man is nameless, and Jesus knows the name of the godly beggar, Lazarus. This tells me that God took little notice of the rich man's life, but took note of Lazarus. I don't believe, friends, the big names in this world who command the attention of men, and whom men envy, like Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, both of whom are the two richest men in the world and are both atheists.

I don't believe God takes much notice of them, and unless they repent and turn to Christ, they will die in their sins like this rich man here in our story, unnamed and unnoticed in eternity. All the gold in China won't help you in hell, friend. Now let's return to our text as related by Christ Jesus.

And desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table, moreover, the dogs came and licked his sores. Let me pause again, friends, to say that these dogs of the rich man were more compassionate to the beggar Lazarus than the rich man was. He fed his dogs better than this beggar, and I believe with all my heart that there are some Christians out there today who spend more money on their dogs and cats than they give to missions.

Yes, sir, their pets have a full belly, but there are millions perishing hungry for the word of God and the gospel, and they don't have it. Now listen to these next five words. And it came to pass that the beggar died and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom.

The rich man also died and was buried. Those words, and it came to pass, should startle you, friend, for a day will come to pass that you also will die. And it came to pass that both these men died.

Death is no respecter of persons. It takes the rich and the poor, as well as the young and the old. You're going to die.

Are you prepared for eternity? Have you lived your life in light of eternity? There is a judgment that awaits you. The rich man died. Lazarus died.

Now you can rest assured, friends, that the rich man had a big funeral with many in attendance because he was an important man in his community. And old Lazarus had no one at his but the gravediggers. But notice how Jesus sees the scene for the spiritual reality of the death of a saint as opposed to the death of the wicked.

Lazarus is tenderly carried up to heaven on the wings of angels and brought to the heart of God, whereby the rich man died in his sins and was cast immediately into the agonies of hell, as we will see in a minute. There's a story about Charles Spurgeon that has always gripped my attention. When Spurgeon lay dying in a hotel in Menton, France, his close friend and aide, Joseph Harold, swore to his dying day he saw the following sight.

He said, as he stood in the lobby of the hotel and looked out into the distance, there on a hillside beneath a clear blue sky was a bevy of angels hovering in the air as if they were waiting on someone, and they did not have long to wait for the great preacher died shortly thereafter. I believe that, friends, that when a true Christian dies he's given a heavenly escort by angels who bear him up to the eternal city and into God's presence. And I also believe that when a lost person dies that demons bind that person and drag them down to hell.

There's an unseen world all around you. It'd make your hair stand on edge, and your eyes were open to it. Now notice our next few verses, friends.

And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeing Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. 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. I will stop there, friends.

There are six horrors in hell you can't get away from. And these six horrors are chains that hold you fast, and of which you will never gain relief nor escape. These six horrors of hell are as follows.

Number one, there's a cry from hell. There's great suffering in hell. There is no rest in hell.

There's deep regret in hell. There's no escape from hell. There is an eternity of hell.

Notice this man's cry from hell. For I am tormented in this flame. Why, the heat and oppression of that hot region, of outer darkness, lit only by flashing and swirling flames, and attended by the shrieks of the damned, is a horror one cannot evade.

Also, it is clear from our text there, there's great suffering in hell. The man is thirsty, and he can't get his need met. I believe one of the hallmarks of hell is, you will feel your need for physical gratification.

But there won't be any. You'll just have that ache, that itch, without relief. The next horror in hell is, there is no rest in hell.

For my Bible says, and I say, but the wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. There is no peace. Peace, saith my God, to the wicked.

No rest in hell, friend. I live in Florida, and I have been in a couple of hurricanes since I've been here. And during one of them, I went to the seashore, to watch its approach.

And it was as if there was an unseen force, lifting up those furious waves, and crashing them into the shore. It was violent in nature, and terrifying to behold. I believe hell is like that, unrest, but continually.

And I believe there is deep regret in hell. If you went a little further in our text, you would see that the rich man wants someone to go witness to his brothers, so they won't join him in those torments. He regrets living as he did, and he wishes he could live it over again, so not to come here to the agonies of hell.

And he doesn't want his loved ones there with him. Jesus mentions in the gospels that those being cast into hell will be ones who will be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Wailing speaks of deep grief and loss, and gnashing of teeth signifies great anger and deep regret.

And the fifth whore in hell is that there are no exit signs in hell. Once you're shut up in there, friend, once you're shut up in that region of Hades, you cannot escape. How would you like to be locked up in prison, and your cellmates are serial killers and perverts? In hell, no one is there to protect you from the demons who will brush up against you, and the souls of the worst element of society since the days of Noah.

But I believe the worst whore in hell is the reality that hell is never ending, and it is a eternal place of torments for the wicked dead, for there is an eternal of hell. If you have a loved one, friend, who was lost, what are you doing about it? Do you pray enough for their soul? Do you agonize enough over them before the Lord? Do you bring the gospel to them? Are you too timid to witness to them? The rich man in hell begged for a witness to go tell his brothers and to warn them. Are you warning your loved ones? Are you warning your lost loved ones and your lost friends? If you fail to warn the wicked to turn from their ways, then their blood will be on your hands.

That's what my Bible says. The whores of hell are unavoidable if you die in your sins. Exercise repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ before it's too late.

Let us pray.