The Sun Never Rises in Hell

The beauty of God's creation is wonderful behold. Just watching the sun come up in the morning is a pleasant sight. It's pretty to see a sunrise as it appears over the peaks of the golden mountains.

And it's pretty to see the sun come up near the ocean as it begins to shine its sparkling rays on that blue-green canvas. The Bible speaks of this very thing in Ecclesiastes chapter 11 and verse 7. Let me read that to us now. Truly, the light is sweet and a pleasant thing, for it is for the eyes to behold the sun.

In an age of computer technology, we tend to miss much of God's creation all around us. When I'm driving my car and I come to a stoplight, everybody around me is glued to their cell phone. They're not even enjoying the pretty sky or the trees.

We take a lot for granted in this world, friends. In Ecclesiastes 1.5, it states, The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteneth to his place where he arose. Like I said, there's great beauty in the sunrise.

I want to make a solemn statement, friends. The sun never rises in hell. And that's the title of my message today.

The sun never rises in hell. Try to imagine a place where it is dark all the time, and the sun never, ever penetrates that darkness. Jesus referred to hell as a place of outer darkness, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Weeping speaks of great loss and grief, and gnashing of teeth signifies great anger and regret. Hell is often spoken of in terms of a bottomless pit. A pit is dark, and the deeper the pit goes down, the darker it is.

When there is a thunderstorm at night and the power goes out, you know how hard it is to see as you search for a flashlight. You're literally groping along the walls in darkness. That's what hell is like, friends.

It's dark there all the time. The sun never rises in hell. It's so dark in hell, you can't see your hand in front of your face, but you can hear the cries of the damned all around you.

You can feel the sweat off a demon as it brushes up against you in that region of outer darkness. Intermittent flashes of flames are the only light you will have in that place of endless torment and misery. For the sun never rises in hell.

Oh, once you shut up in there, you were in there forever and ever and ever. Jesus said it is a place where the worm doth not. Hell is an endless place of misery and torment.

The abode of the damned is filled with their shrieks of their cries, and their painful anguish cries are incessant. Imagine, friend, if you went to every hospital in town tonight and took all the patients there off their pain medication, their cries would keep your town up tonight. Hell is a pit of noise, a dark pit of noise.

The heat in hell is so oppressive, it's like being in an oven continually. When I was a boy in high school, I worked summers in a grocery store, and one of my duties was to take the cardboard boxes that the produce came in and break them down with a box cutter, and then stack those boxes on a two-wheeler and wheel them to a cast iron furnace in the back of that store. Of all my duties as a grocery clerk, I hated that job of burning those boxes.

I'll never forget the heat in that raging furnace. I had to pull open a heavy cast iron door with both hands, and as soon as I pulled it open, my face would be singed with the white hot flames dancing in that furnace of fire, and those flames would twirl and dance like demons as I threw in those boxes of fuel for that fire. Did you know that God's anger is like that oven? His justice will burn like that oven.

This is spoken of in Malachi chapter 4 and verse 1. For behold, the day cometh that shall burn as an oven, and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly shall be stubble, and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that is, shall leave them neither root nor branch. There is a great day coming, friends, and it is fast approaching. It is the final judgment, and it is on its way, as sure as the sun will rise in the morning.

But the sun won't rise in the morning in hell, friends. It's just another dark day there, for it is a region of deep and outer darkness. The prophet Malachi states that the day cometh, and it's a day that will burn as an oven, and instead of cardboard boxes being used as fuel for that oven, the fuel will be the sinners, all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly shall be stubble, and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts.

Did you hear that, friend? That day is coming. It'll be here sooner than you realize. And do you know what else? My Bible says, the soul that sinneth, it shall die.

If you die in your sins, you will surely be cast down to a devil's hell. You could be removed from this world quite suddenly. A stray bullet may get you.

A car might run you down, or you may just slip and fall and break your neck. You can be in hell tonight without having time to pack your suitcase. I was talking to a friend in the hallway.

He was a young man and in good health. That night he went to bed, and in the early hours of the morning, he awoke with chest pain. He got up out of bed, took two steps, and dropped down dead to the floor.

You have no guarantee of tomorrow, friend. If you were to suddenly die and die in your sins, your new address would be 666 Darkness Lane. And you won't ever have another peek at a sunrise again, because the sun never rises in hell.

You can count on that. It's dark in there. It's a miserable hot oven in there, an oppressive furnace of heat and misery and flames.

We have a picture of this in my Bible. It's found in the Gospel of Luke in chapter 16. You can turn in your Bibles there now.

Our passage will be found beginning in verses 19 through 31. Jesus is speaking on the torments of hell. Let me read it to us now.

There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day. And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate full of sores desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table. Moreover, the dogs came and licked his sores.

And it came to pass that the beggar died and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom. And the rich man also died and was buried. And in hell, he lifted up his eyes, being in torments and seeing Abraham far 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. But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivest thy good things and likewise Lazarus evil things. But now he is comforted and thou art tormented.

And beside all this, between us and you, there is a great gulf fixed so that they which would pass from hands to you cannot. Neither can they pass to us that would come from thence. Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou would have sent him to my father's house for I have five brethren that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment.

Abraham saith unto him, they have Moses and the prophets. Let them hear them. And he said, nay, father Abraham, but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent.

And he said unto him, if they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rose from the dead. Now I want us to notice several aspects from this passage, friends. Number one, hell is a place of torment and that torment is endless.

Number two, there are no exit doors in hell. Once you shut up in there, you were in there forever. Number three, hell is a place of misery and flames.

Number four, if you do not repent from your sins, you will surely go to hell for them. I want you to realize a surety in this passage as well, friend. There are four words in this passage which speak of your date with the king of terrors, which is death.

And it is those four words and it came to pass and the beggar died and the rich man died. It came to pass. It is inevitable that there is a common day when you will surely die and it will happen before you're prepared for it.

And if you die, a saved individual with your sins washed in the blood and your faith in Jesus Christ, you will be carried by angels to heaven as sure as the sun will come up tomorrow. Let me share a story with you about Charles Spurgeon, the famous British preacher. When Spurgeon lay dying at a hotel in Minton, France, his faithful aide and secretary, Joseph Harold, was standing in the passage of the hotel and he looked out the window toward the hills beyond that were under a cloudless sky.

And what he saw astonished him. There on the hillside, hovering in the air, was a company of angels looking as though they were waiting for someone. They didn't have long to wait.

Spurgeon died several hours later. I believe that, friends. I believe that when we die, we're like Lazarus and angels carry us into the presence of Jesus.

I also believe that when a sinner dies in his sins, that demons drag that person down to hell. Our text says that the beggar died and he was carried to heaven. The rich man died and was buried.

And in hell, he left up his eyes being in torment. Torment. Listen, friends.

Hell is a terrible place of torment. When a naked soul stands trembling before a holy God without the robe of righteousness, that person will be bound hand and foot and dragged down to a devil's hell. They'll be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Our passage states that the rich man cried that he was in torment and misery. He wanted water because his tongue was so dry. It seemed as if it would break off.

Flames raged around him. Others were there as well in that pit of noise. The cries of the damned were all around him.

And the cries of the damned would be all around you if you were to suddenly die in your sins. You may not worry about death because you may be young or presently in good health. But listen to this passage.

For man also knoweth not his time as the fishes that are taken in an evil net and as the birds that are caught in the snare. So are the sons of man snared in an evil time when it falleth suddenly upon them. We live in a land of sudden death.

You could be gunned down as soon as you step outside your door. We live in a violent nation, a bloodstained nation. You could be quite suddenly removed from this world.

It's been estimated that every minute 80 people die and go to hell. But why should that concern you? You only believe that really bad people go to hell like murderers and rapists. You've never killed anybody.

You're not bad enough to go to hell. But you're not good enough to go to heaven either, friend. In case you didn't know, good people don't go to heaven.

Only forgiven people get to go there. I may be the only preacher you've heard bringing your attention to these things. You and I live in a unique day, friend, when most preachers don't know how to point you to heaven.

Some of them aren't even going there themselves. Most preachers today don't know how to warn you about your great danger of going to hell because they do not preach the law of God to awaken people to their lost condition who are apart from God. The blind lead the blind today and both fall into a ditch.

But I'm going to warn you of your duty to repent of your sins because Jesus declared, Except ye repent, ye shall likewise perish. And I will warn you of the strict requirements of the law of God. Do not steal.

Do not lie. Do not commit adultery. Do not covet, or some of them.

You see, friend, you are not a sinner because you sin. Rather, you sin because you are a sinner. You were born with a rude nature, bent towards sin and are under a curse because of sin.

And the only way you're going to get to heaven on your own merits is by being perfect because God requires perfection to get into his heaven. But you are not perfect. Neither am I. No one is.

And there is a future day of judgment fast approaching where you and everybody else will be held up against the strict and severe law of God. And you will fail that test, friend. A man is a guilty rebel who has transgressed the perfect law of God.

A sin is treason against a sovereign king. That king is God. And the rebel is the sinner on the wrong side of God.

A sinner on the wrong side of God is in a perilous position of great danger. For God views that person as his enemy. My Bible declares, God is angry with the wicked every day.

If he turn not, he will wet his sword. He hath bent his bow and made it ready. The strictness and severity of the law of God will condemn every person held up against it.

And the sentencing of the law must be carried out. And that is damnation and up devil's hell. God is holy and God must punish sin.

The sun was shining in Sodom one morning until a lot was taken out of the city. Then the sky grew dark as doom and God rained fire and brimstone out of heaven upon the inhabitants of the cities of the plain. He destroyed them all quite suddenly and burned them up without warning.

Listen, friend. There were sunny days back in the time of Noah when he was building the ark. There wasn't a storm cloud in the sky.

But when the appointed time arrived for God to judge the world, the sky suddenly turned black. The wind began to bend the trees. And quite suddenly and without warning, the skies burst open with a Russian torrent of rain.

Houses began to float and then sink. Cattle were drowning. People were climbing trees, getting up on rooftops to avoid the rising water.

But to no avail. They were all drowned and sent to hell. All except Noah and his family who were safe in the ark.

There's an ark of safety for you today, friend, if you will only seek refuge in it. And that ark of safety is in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus came down here so we can go up there.

When Jesus was here on earth, he went about doing good. He healed the sick. He gave sight to the blind.

He made the lame to walk, the deaf to hear. He even raised the dead. But what did wicked man do with Jesus? They said, away with him.

Crucify him. He deserves death. And they took him with cruel hands and beat him and spit on him.

And then they nailed him to a wooden cross. Roman soldiers pounded nails through the palms of his hands and the soles of his feet. Every stroke of that hammer cried out with an explanation point.

Jesus took the punishment of my sins on that bloody cross. Listen, friend, I know I am a sinner and I need a sin substitute in the person of Jesus Christ. And so do you, friend.

So do you. He's your only refuge from damnation and hell. He's your only remedy for sin.

But you must exercise repentance toward God and faith in Jesus Christ to avoid the torments of hell. Hell is closer than you believe. And you were nearer to it than you realize.

When I was a kid of a boy, I liked to put on magic shows. I had a trick table that had a trap door which opened on a hidden hinge. And when you placed a baseball on that trap door and covered it with a bowl, the ball would drop down through that trap door and disappear.

You, my friend, are sitting on the trap door of hell right now. Right now. Calamity is ready to fall upon you at any given time unless you repent.

Listen to God's warning. To me belongeth vengeance and recompense. Their foot shall slide in due time for the day their calamity is at hand and the things that shall come upon them.

Make haste. Make haste, friend. Repent of your sins and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ before it's too late.

Ask a holy God to give you the grace to turn from your sins and to turn to him in saving faith. Remember, friend, you may be enjoying your last days of sunshine here on earth, for the sun never rises in hell. Did you know that the gospel is for the hungry, the weary, and the thirsty? Let me ask you a question.

Are you hungry for God? Are you weary of your sins? Are you thirsty for Christ? Then come, listen to the following calls of the gospel. And it is my prayer that you will not hear the voice of this poor preacher, because I can't save you. Nobody can.

Only God can take the heart of stone and make it into a heart of flesh. But it is my prayer, friend, that you will be enabled to hear his voice through the following gospel call as it comes to you in all power, majesty, and authority. Listen to the word of God.

Ho, everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the waters. And he that hath no money, come ye, buy and eat. Yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.

Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth. For I am God, and there is none else. All that the Father giveth me, shall come to me.

And him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out. I seek ye the Lord, while he may be found. Call ye upon him, while he is near.

Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts. And let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him. And to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.

O come unto me, all ye that labor, and are heavy laden. And I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me.

For I am meek, and lowly in heart. And ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

And the Spirit and the Bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst, Come.

And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.