1. Proverbs 15:11 says, "Hell and destruction are before the LORD: how much more then the hearts of the children of men?"
2. In the Bible, various words are used to describe the horrors of hell: eternal damnation, weeping and gnashing of teeth, place of torment, and fire and brimstone.
3. Psalm 11:6 says, "Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest: this shall be the portion of their cup."
4. Revelation 14:10 says the wicked "shall be tormented with fire and brimstone."
5. Revelation 19:20 says the beast and the false prophet will both be "cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone."
6. Revelation 20:10 says, "And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever."
7. Revelation 21:8 says, "But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death."
8. We are all familiar with the heat and destructive power of fire, but perhaps there are some here this morning who do not understand the significance of brimstone. Why is it "fire and brimstone"?
9. Brimstone is burning sulfur. It is insufferable in its heat and terror. Brimstone boils at 832 degrees Fahrenheit.
10. Think about that! When the temperature on earth goes up to 100 degrees Fahrenheit, people complain and say, "It is hotter than hell."
11. But brimstone boils at 832 degrees Fahrenheit!
12. In Mark 9, our Lord made this same statement three times: "Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched" (9:44, 46, 48).
13. I have heard various explanations about the "worm dieth not." Our Lord was quoting Isaiah 66:24, the last verse in the book of Isaiah.
14. I read something very interesting recently. The earth's crust on land is approximately 50 miles thick, but in parts of the ocean floor the earth's crust is less than one mile thick.
15. Scientists recently discovered cracks on the ocean floor where fire was leaking out. And around these fiery vents they found eight-foot long worms, called "riftia" or "tube worms."

I. THE REALITY OF HELL

1. It seems that these days most people do not believe in a literal hell. A few years ago, the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life did a survey and discovered that only 59% of Americans believe in hell, compared with 74% who believe in heaven.
2. First of all, this discrepancy makes no sense. The same Jesus who spoke of heaven also warned of hell, so the 74/59 percentages indicate many people do not understand Scripture, and do not take it literally.
3. Secondly, though 59% of Americans may say they believe in hell, most of them are not concerned that they will soon be there. They mistakenly believe hell is only for people like Adolph Hitler or Osama Ben Laden.
4. But that is not what the Bible teaches (John 3:16-21, 36).
5. The Hebrew word translated "hell" in Proverbs 15:11 is sheol, and it is defined in Strong's Concordance as the "underworld, grave, hell, pit, the Old Testament designation for the abode of the dead, the place of no return, the place where the wicked are sent for punishment."
6. Since the word can sometimes refer to the grave, the JW cult denies a literal hell, and insists sheol must always refer to the grave.
7. But we must always look at the context when we study the Bible. Deuteronomy 32:22 says, "For a fire is kindled in mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest hell." That's not the grave! That is hell.
8. Psalm 9:17 says, "The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God." If this is speaking merely of the grave, why say that those wicked sinners that forget God are going there? Because everyone -- the wicked and the godly alike -- will some day go to the grave.
9. Hebrews 9:27 says, "And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment." There are only three notable exceptions: Enoch, Elijah, and the generation of believers alive when the Lord returns.
10. Genesis 5:24 says, "And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him." There was never a funeral service for Enoch.
11. Hebrews 11:5 says, "By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God."
12. And there was never a funeral service for Elijah.
13. Second Kings 2:11 says a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, descended from heaven, "and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven."
14. And there may never be a funeral service for some of us.
15. First Corinthians 15:51 and 52 says, "Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed."
16. First Thessalonians 4:17 says there will be believers caught up together in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. We could be that generation of believers (cf. I Thess. 4:13-18).
17. So there are these few exceptions, but the general principle is: "And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment" (Hebrews 9:27).
18. So when Psalm 9:17 says, "The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God," it cannot be referring to the grave. It is referring to the torments of hell (cf. Luke 16:19-31; Rev. 14:10, 11).
19. Consider Proverbs 15:24 -- "The way of life is above to the wise, that he may depart from hell beneath." Wise men cannot avoid the grave, but they certainly can avoid going to hell!
20. The Bible says, "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom" (Psalm 111:10; Proverbs 9:10). The reason so many people are heading straight for hell is they have no fear of God.
21. The apostle Paul, quoting Psalm 36:1, says, "There is no fear of God before their eyes" (Romans 3:18).
22. And since sinners do not fear God, they ignore God's repeated warnings about the judgment to come.
23. There are 260 chapters in the New Testament, and in these 260 chapters there are approximately 234 references to either hell or the judgment of God.
24. One preacher put it this way: If you and I were traveling down a highway 260 miles long, and we passed 234 signs warning us of danger ahead, I'd think we would have to be crazy not to want to get off onto a different road!"
25. Some here today are on the road to hell and you do not have enough sense to get off.

II. GOD'S JUDGMENT OF THE WICKED

1. In his book, Death and The Life Hereafter, Dr. Herbert Lockyer says, "Belief in a life beyond the grave is all but universal...When the Eternal God created Adam and Eve, He wove into their nature the hope of immortality which the succeeding centuries of sin and darkness were not able to completely erase from man's inner being."
2. Furthermore, there is deep in man's inner being a belief in divine retribution. The doctrines of heaven and hell must stand or fall together. Man instinctively believes in a future judgment.
3. One preacher put it this way: "Both (heaven and hell) rest upon the same divine revelation, and both have the same word 'everlasting' applied to their duration. If the threatenings of God's Word are unreliable, so may the promises be; if the denunciations have no real meaning, what becomes of the invitations?" (William C. Procter, The Fundamentals).
4. D.L. Moody said, "The same Christ that tells us of Heaven with all its glories, tells us of Hell with all its horrors."
5. Psalm 7:11 says, "God is angry with the wicked every day." God not only hates sin, but God is angry with those who continue to indulge in it.
6. Spurgeon said, "The best day that ever dawns on a sinner brings a curse with it. Sinners may have many feast days, but no safe days. From the beginning of the year even to its ending, there is not an hour in which God's oven is not hot, and burning in readiness for the wicked, who shall be as stubble" (Treasury of David).
7. "God is angry with the wicked every day" (Ps. 7:11). The word "wicked" is found 344 times in our English Bible (cf. 15:6, 8, 9).
8. The first time we see the word "wicked" in the Bible it is in Genesis 13:13 -- "But the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the LORD exceedingly."
9. God judged the "exceedingly" wicked sinners of Sodom and Gomorrah, and that judgment is referred to many, many times throughout the Bible (cf. Luke 17:28-30; II Peter 2:6-8; Jude 7).
10. Psalm 9:17 says, "The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God."
11. In addition to the word "wicked,' there are many Scriptures with similar terms like "evildoers."
12. Jeremiah 23:14 says, "I have seen also in the prophets of Jerusalem an horrible thing: they commit adultery, and walk in lies: they strengthen also the hands of evildoers, that none doth return from his wickedness: they are all of them unto me as Sodom, and the inhabitants thereof as Gomorrah."
13. Sometimes we feel oppressed by these wicked evildoers. They get more and more wicked every day. They get bolder, and more ungodly, and sometimes Christians feel overwhelmed.
14. Psalm 37:1 says, "Fret not thyself because of evildoers."
15. Psalm 37:2 says, "For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither as the green herb."
16. Psalm 37:9 and 10 says, "For evildoers shall be cut off...For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be: yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall not be."
17. Proverbs 15:10 says, "Correction is grievous unto him that forsaketh the way: and he that hateth reproof shall die." This is not only referring to physical death, but what the Bible refers to as "the second death" (Rev. 21:8).

III. HELL IS ETERNAL

1. Charles Haddon Spurgeon said, "The wrath of God does not end with death. This is a truth which the preacher cannot mention without trembling, nor without wondering that he does not tremble more. The eternity of punishment is a thought which crushes the heart. You have buried the man, but you have not buried his sins. His sins live and are immortal. They have gone before him to judgment, or they will follow after him to bear their witness as to the evil of his heart and the rebellion of his life. The Lord God is slow to anger, but when He is once aroused to it, as He will be against those who finally reject his Son, he will put forth all his omnipotence to crush his enemies."
2. A.W. Pink has defined the wrath of God as, "His eternal detestation of all unrighteousness. It is the displeasure and indignation of Divine equity against evil. It is the holiness of God stirred into activity against sin” (The Attributes of God).
3. Some have asserted that "destruction" in Proverbs 15:11 and other verses indicates annihilation (sinners will be reduced to nonexistence), but they are badly mistaken.
4. Second Thessalonians 1:9 refers to "everlasting destruction."
5. Words like "destruction, perdition, and perish" do not refer to annihilation, but to eternal damnation.
6. "Damnation" means "punishment," and "judgment," but "eternal damnation" means eternal punishment and judgment.
7. In Mark 3:29, our Lord referred to the "danger of eternal damnation."
8. In Matthew 25:46, our Lord warned about "everlasting punishment."
9. Hebrews 6:2 warns of "eternal judgment."
10. Jude 7 warns of "the vengeance of eternal fire."
11. In Matthew 18:8 and 25:41, our Lord warned about sinners going into "everlasting fire."
12. Daniel 12:2 describes hell as a place of "shame and everlasting contempt."
13. Revelation 14:11 says, "And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night..."
14. These Scriptures are not referring to annihilation, but to eternal torment in the lake of fire!
15. The great evangelist R.A. Torrey said, "Shallow views of sin and of God’s holiness, and of the glory of Jesus Christ and His claims upon us, lie at the bottom of weak theories of the doom of the impenitent.”

CONCLUSION:

1. One night a worldly unsaved lady was invited by a friend to a preaching service at her church. The pastor preached that night on the subject of hell.
2. As she was leaving after the service the unsaved woman made a point to tell the pastor she disliked his message. In fact, she said she was greatly offended.
3. She said, "Why don't you preach on the Sermon on the Mount? You know, 'Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God' (Matthew 5:8)."
4. The pastor said, "Yes, I am familiar with the Sermon on the Mount. Why don't we turn there for a minute -- to the same chapter you referred to."
5. The pastor turned to Matthew 5:29 and 30 -- "And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell."
6. It is sad that many church-going people have never heard a message on hell.
7. And there are millions of sinners who never attend church.