DON'T GO TO HELL!

A sermon on Hell by Dave Jones

Lord Jesus, our Father, we're thankful now for the day when you 
reached 'way down and saved our soul and washed us, and gave us 
something to live for and gave us something to sing about. And we're 
thankful, Lord, that it is just as real today as it was thirty-two 
years ago, when you saved us. God, I pray now that, Lord, you'd remove 
from our hearts and minds everything that would be a distraction or a 
hindrance from the blessed word of God. I pray that the Holy Ghost of 
God may come and hover over this place. God, may great conviction come 
upon this audience tonight. I pray, Lord God, that if there is one in 
this building that's not saved, that, Lord, this would be the hour of 
their conversion. Lord, that they'd go home a different way than what 
they came here tonight. Lord, I pray that you would challenge your 
people. God, help us to look to the masses that are dying and going to 
hell without God. Lord, touch our hearts and break our hearts tonight, 
Father. Lord, may there be a great burden upon our hearts tonight for 
the lost. Father, may the cries and the weeping go up out of this 
place tonight. May the names of loved ones be called out. We'll thank 
you for it in Jesus' name. Amen.

Take your Bibles and turn to Matthew chapter 5, please. Matthew, the 
fifth chapter. I want to begin reading in verse 21. Matthew chapter 5, 
and in verse 21. Jesus said, "Ye have heard that it was said by them 
of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in 
danger of the judgment. But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry 
with his brother without a cause shall in danger of the judgment: and 
whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the 
council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of 
hell fire. Therefore, if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there 
rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee; Leave there thy 
gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy 
brother, and then come and offer thy gift. Agree with thine adversary 
quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him: lest at any time the 
adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the 
officer, and thou be cast into prison. Verily I say unto thee, Thou 
shalt by no means come out thence, till thou hast paid the uttermost 
farthing. Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou 
shalt not commit adultery: But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh 
on a women to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already 
in his heart. And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast 
it from thee: for it is proifitable 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 tht one of thy members should perish, 
and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell."

What you're reading from, here, is what is commonly known as the 
Sermon on the Mount. If you're familiar with the Book of Matthew at 
all, you understand that in chapter 1 of Matthew you have the 
genealogy of Christ given. That is, his lineage, his earthly lineage, 
is given in Matthew chapter 1. In chapter 2, his childhood activities 
are recorded there, part of his early childhood on this earth is 
recorded in Matthew chapter 2. In Matthew chapter 3 John the Baptist 
comes on the scene, crying "Repent!" and "Turn or burn!" and "The axe 
is laid unto the root of the trees," and "Prepare the way of the 
kingdom," and that kind of preaching. In chapter 4 you find Jesus 
tempted on the mountain.

And then here in chapter 5, you find Him preaching His first major 
sermon on this earth. And in this sermon he covers a whole lot of 
stuff. He covers a lot of topics in this Sermon on the Mount. Let me 
zero in on three, and then zero in on one subject for tonight's 
message.

Three Locations


I want you to get verse 3. In this message, when the Lord is preaching 
the Sermon on the Mount, he deals with three geographic locations in 
the sermon. The first one he mentions is called heaven. He uses the 
word sometimes in conjunction with the Kingdom of heaven. Look what He 
says in verse 3: "Blessed are the poor in spirit: for their's is the 
kingdom of heaven." Then He says in verse 10: "Blessed are they which 
are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for their's is the kingdom of 
heaven." Then He said in verse 12: "Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: 
for great is your reward in heaven." He says in verse 16: "Let your 
light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and 
glorify your Father which is in heaven." Verse 18: "For verily I say 
unto you, Till heaven and earth pass..." Verse 19: "Whosoever 
therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach 
men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven." Verse 
20: "For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed 
the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case 
enter into the kingdom of heaven."

All right, in this first major sermon that Jesus delivers on this 
earth, He mentions a geographic location. He uses the word heaven. He 
uses it in conjunction with the heaven of heavens; He uses it in 
conjunction with that kingdom that came down out of heaven to be 
established here in this world. But He talks about a geographic 
location called heaven.

Now, we enjoy that. We say, "Thank God there is a heaven." And we 
don't have any problems believing that. Jesus said there was a heaven. 
We sing songs about heaven. And everybody wants to go to heaven. If 
you knocked on 25 or 30 doors out in this community, and asked them, 
"Do you want to go to heaven?" everybody would say "Sure, man, I want 
to go to heaven. That's where I want to go. I don't want to go to 
hell. I want to go to heaven."

And so we've established that there is such a place called heaven. 
Jesus said so in the Sermon on the Mount. Look at the second 
geographic location found in verse 5. He said, "Blessed are the meek: 
for they shall inherit the earth." Then in verse 13: "Ye are the salt 
of the earth." Then He says in verse 18: "For verily I say unto you, 
Till heaven and earth pass..." The second geographic location Jesus 
referred to in the same sermon is earth. He said there is a heaven, 
and He said there's an earth.

Now, you and I would be a fool to deny that there's an earth. We're 
standing on it. We're breathing the atmosphere of this earth. We know 
there is an earth. Jesus said there was an earth, and we're standing 
on it. So, we've established from Jesus' sermon that there is a 
heaven, and there is an earth.

But look at the third geographic location He mentions, in verse 22. He 
said, "But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother 
without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever 
shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but 
whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire." Then 
He said in verse 29, the last part of that, "Not that thy whole body 
should be cast into hell." Verse 30, He repeats the statement, in the 
same sermon, preached at the same time, in the same location, by the 
same Saviour. He said there was a heaven, He said there was an earth, 
but He also said there was a hell.

Now, neighbor, if there is a heaven--and there is--and if there is an 
earth--and there is--then there MUST be a hell fire. That's what Jesus 
said. There's GOT to be a hell fire. If there is a heaven and there's 
an earth, there's GOT to be a hell fire. Either that or the Bible is a 
lie, and Jesus was a lie. But we know that's not so! We know it's 
true. We know He said there was a heaven, He said there was an earth, 
and there IS a hell fire. That's what God said.

I watched a man paint a picture one day. I watched Brother Bernie 
Moret paint a picture. And when Bernie started, he started with a 
blank canvas. And he dipped his fingers in these chalks and began to 
brush around. And every time that he brought his fingers to that 
canvas, it began to take on depth. I couldn't understand the picture 
at first, when he started touching the canvas. But with every new 
color and every placement of his hand, that picture took on depth and 
clarity.

A Pit


I want to preach to you a word picture tonight of this place called 
hell fire. I want you to look in the Bible with me tonight. Look at 
Isaiah chapter 14. The Artist's hand comes to the canvas tonight and, 
first of all, He paints us a picture that hell is a pit. Look down 
please at Isaiah 14:12. He said, "How art thou fallen from heaven, O 
Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, 
which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I 
will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of 
God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in ther sides 
of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be 
like the most High. Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the 
sides of the pit."

Stones


Verse 19: "But thou art cast out of thy grave like an abominable 
branch, and as the raiment of those that are slain, thrust through 
with a sword, that go down to the stones of the pit."

God said here that hell is a pit. The Artist's hand goes to the 
canvas, and He draws us a pit. God says this pit has sides. And He 
said that in the sides of this pit there are stones, set in the sides 
of that pit. Neighbor, hell, is a PIT.

Have you ever thought about falling? Have you ever just dreamed about 
falling and tumbling, over and over again, seeming like you never hit 
bottom? I'm going to tell you something. One of the ways the Lord 
describes hell is as a pit. And, for God's sake, if you're lost here 
tonight, PLEASE, PLEASE, don't go to hell! Please, please don't go to 
hell.

Look in your Bibles at Revelation chapter 20. Look down at the first 
three verses. The Artist's hand comes to the canvas again, and He 
clarifies the picture. Look what He says. Verse 1: "And I saw an angel 
come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a 
great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old 
serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand 
years, And cast him into the bottomless pit."

No Bottom


Now we know this tonight. We know that hell is a pit. It has sides. In 
the sides of that pit, there are stones set beside that pit. But 
there's something else about hell. It has no bottom. You just read it 
right there in your Bible--it has no bottom. He talked about "the key 
of the bottomless pit." That place is locked up; the angel has got the 
key. There's a lid on it. There must be a place where you get in and 
out. There must be access to it somewhere. And it's locked up; God 
said it was. It's a bottomless pit.

Neighbor, imagine with me tonight in your mind falling through a 
horrible pit in the darkness, never hitting the bottom, bouncing maybe 
against the sides of it, and just rolling and tossing and tumbling and 
rolling through that pit. Dear neighbor, you don't want to go to hell! 
In your wildest imagination, you don't want to go to hell tonight. 
Please!

You don't want your neighbors to go to hell. You don't want your mom 
and dad to go to hell.

Graves


Look in your Bibles at Ezekiel chapter 32 just a minute. Now the 
Artist's hand comes to the canvas, and He adds yet another dimension 
to this. Ezekiel the 32nd chapter. Look at verse 19. The reference 
here is to Egypt. Now watch what he says. He says in verse 19, "Whom 
dost thou pass in beauty? go down, and be thou laid with the 
uncircumcised. They shall fall in the midst of them that are slain by 
the sword: she is delivered to the sword: draw her and all her 
multitudes. The strong among the mighty shall speak to him out of the 
midst of hell with them that help him: they are gone down, they lie 
uncircumcised, slain by the sword. Asshur is there and all her 
company: his graves are about him: all of them slain, fallen by the 
sword: Whose graves are set in the sides of the pit, and her company 
is round about her grave: all of them slain, fallen by the sword, 
which caused terror in the land of the living."

Now keep that phrase in mind--"the land of the living." In verse 24: 
"There is Elam and all her multitude round about her grave, all of 
them...gone down uncircumcised into the nether parts of the earth, 
which caused their terror in the land of the living; yet have they 
borne their shame with them that go down to the pit."

All right, the Artist has made another clarifying mark on the canvas. 
And here's what it is. He said this pit has got sides, but doesn't 
have any bottom. It's got a lid on it, and somebody's got the key, and 
you can't get the lid open unless you've got the key. In the sides of 
that pit, there are stones set there. But God said also about this pit 
that there are graves set beside this pit. And I don't know but what 
they don't spew their rotten, filthy contents out into that pit and 
out into hell. He said there are GRAVES set beside that pit. You just 
read it there in your Bible.

And I want to tell you something else. He said that place is in the 
NETHER PARTS OF THE EARTH. That is, compared to the land of the 
living.

Friend of mine, if you go to hell tonight, you'll no longer be in the 
land of the living, which you are in tonight. You'll be in the nether 
parts of the earth. You'll be cut off. There's NO WAY you can come 
back. There's NO WAY you can get a prayer through. There's NO WAY 
anybody can come to you. For God's sake, don't go to hell tonight! 
Please! PLEASE!

I beg you in Jesus' name, if you don't know Jesus Christ as your 
Saviour, for God's sake, PLEASE don't go to hell! Run to Calvary! Run 
to Calvary!

God said here it's a pit. It's got sides, but doesn't have a bottom. 
It's got stones set in the side of that pit. There's a lit, and an 
angel's got the key. And God said there are graves set in the side of 
that pit.

Fire


That isn't all; notice the second thing. The Artist's hand comes to 
the canvas, and now He draws more depth and dimension to it. Notice 
something in Matthew chapter 5. You say, "Preacher, I don't want to 
look at this." You better look at it! You need to look at it tonight.

Look down there at Matthew chapter 5 just a minute. Look at verse 22. 
There's a new depth and a new dimension wrought here. Look what the 
Lord said. He's talking about this pit, and He says about this pit, 
"But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without 
a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to 
his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever 
shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire."

Now there's a new dimension. There is a pit that's got sides but no 
bottom. It's got stones in the side of that pit. It's got a lid, and 
somebody's got the key. The thing is locked up. There are graves in 
the side of that pit. It is in the nethermost parts of the earth. It 
is separated from the land of the living. And now, there's a new 
element introduced. You've got fire in that pit. You know what you get 
when you put fire in that bottomless pit? Neighbor, you have a 
FURNACE--that's what you have.

Look at Matthew 13. Look at what Jesus said; He described it just this 
way. Verse 41: "The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they 
shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which 
do iniquity; And shall cast them into a furnace fire: there shall be 
wailing and gnashing of teeth."

Verse 50: "And shall cast them into the furnace of fire: there shall 
be wailing and gnashing of teeth."

Have you ever been around a blast furnace? Ever been around a smelting 
furnace? That heat is unbearable; you can't stand in front of it. 
It'll devour you. But, when you introduce fire into this pit, Jesus 
said you have a furnace.

Friend of mine, look at the canvas. Look what the Artist has drawn. 
It's a pit with sides but no bottom. When fire is in there, it's a 
roaring blast furnace. You'll fall through there, if you're lost 
without God. Your neighbors, your kids, your mom and dad lost without 
Jesus Christ, going to hell--when they get there, they'll fall through 
that flame, that roaring flame will roar. And they'll scream, and 
they'll cry out.

I'm going to tell you something, neighbor. For God's sake, win your 
loved ones! Don't quit praying for them. PLEASE! Don't quit praying 
for them.

The Lord said it's a pit. It's got sides but no bottom. You put fire 
in that pit and you have a furnace.

Worms


But now the Artist's hand comes to the canvas and again. And many will 
hide their eyes and say, "NO, preacher! No! I don't want to see this 
any more! I want to go home now! I don't want to look at this any 
more!" YOU BETTER LOOK AT IT tonight! You better look at it.

Some of you have got so flippant and so complacent and you've got so 
much knowledge, and you've got all your dispensations figured out, and 
you know when the Lord is coming back, you know who the Antichrist is. 
But you don't have the right kind of spirit to win folks to Christ.

Look at the third thing, please. Look in your Bibles at Isaiah chapter 
14. The Artist's hand comes to the canvas again, and now He adds a new 
element to this picture. Look at Isaiah 14:9: "Hell from beneath is 
moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming: it stirreth up the dead for 
thee, even all the chief ones of the earth; it hath raised up from 
their thrones all the kings of the nations. All they shall speak and 
say unto thee, Art thou also become weak as we? art thou become like 
unto us? Thy pomp is brought down to the grave, and the noise of thy 
viols: the worm is spread under thee, and the worms cover thee."

This place is infested with worms! Yes, it's a pit. It's got sides but 
no bottom. There are graves in the sides of this pit. There are stones 
set beside this pit. It's got a lid on it, and the angel has got the 
key. It's in the nether parts of the earth. God said there is fire in 
that pit that roars like a furnace. But, in the midst of that fire, in 
the midst of that pit, God said this place is fully infested with 
worms. You never dreamed of any thing so horrible!

Look at Mark chapter 9. Jesus preached out of Isaiah 66, which is a 
little Bible inside a Bible. And Jesus took a text out of Isaiah 66, 
and look what it says in Mark in that chapter. He's preaching about 
this very thing. And He says in verse 43: "If thy hand offend thee, 
cut it off: it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than 
having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that never shall be 
quenched: Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. 
And if thy foot offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to 
enter halt into life, than having two feet to be cast into hell, into 
the fire that never shall be quenched: Where their worm dieth not, and 
the fire is not quenched."

And He repeats it again the third time. Neighbor, in this awful place, 
in this awful pit called hell, falling through that flame, screaming 
and crying out--the lid is on you; you can't crawl out. There's no 
bottom to it; you're falling through that flame. The worms are 
covering you. It is infested with worms. Neighbor, let me tell you--no 
wonder He said, "Cut your hand off. Cut your foot off. Put your 
eyeballs out." Do anything! Take radical measures! But PLEASE, don't 
go to hell! That's what He's saying. Don't go to hell!

I'm going to tell you something tonight. I've heard every kind of 
excuse given for that passage there. Somebody said, "Well, that means 
your conscience." God is not tongue-tied. If God wanted to say 
"conscience," He could have said "conscience." He said, "Worms!" 
That's what He said. He said, "Worms!"

Now, I'm trying to tell you tonight. There are folks who laugh about 
hell. They talk about something being "cold as hell." Or, "funny as 
hell." That kind of stuff. I want to tell you something, neighbor--
hell is neither cold nor funny. People who are in hell are not 
laughing. No, they're not. The place is full of worms.

And God said that they said about Satan, "The worms cover thee." And, 
boy, that place is infested with worms. I read about a trial in New 
Guinea back before the turn of the century. When they captured their 
enemy, if he wouldn't talk and give them strategic information, they 
would stake him down over a bed of some kind of exotic worms that were 
peculiar to that part of the world. And those worms would just 
literally eat him alive. They would crawl up in his eyes and eat his 
eyeballs out. He'd lie there in the sun for days, horribly tortured as 
those worms would just eat into his body cavity, and ate his heart, 
and ate everything off his face--before he ever died.

My God, dear neighbor, that's awful!

You say, "Preacher, that's terrible!"

Yeah, and I'll tell you something worse than that. It's to die without 
Jesus Christ and go to hell and fall through the flame in a bottomless 
pit with the worms covering you! That's pretty awful! That's worse. 
That's worse.

Devils


Notice the fourth thing. The Artist's hand comes to the canvas again. 
And, by now, some of you are cringing. And you're saying, "Dear God, 
please, I don't want to look at this! I don't want to see this any 
more! I don't want to think about this! I don't even want to talk 
about this!" Neighbor, you'd better look at it! You'd better think 
about it! You better talk about it! Because, even if you're saved 
yourself, you've got loved ones who are going to this place.

We live in such a complacent society.

Look in your Bibles at 2Peter chapter 2. The Artist's hand comes to 
the canvas, and He adds yet another dimension. He shows us that hell 
is the prisonhouse of devils. Look at 2Peter chapter 2. The Lord says, 
concerning these devils in verse 4, "For if God spared not the angels 
that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into 
chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment."

There are devils in this place! God said there are two classes of 
devils in the Bible. You've got those that were active during Noah's 
day; they're chained up, awaiting the judgment of that great day. 
They're beneath your feet; they're chained up in outer darkness. 
There's another group of them that are running loose; they're the ones 
that possess people. They're the ones that enter people's bodies, and 
things like that. But God said over here that they're chained up.

Look at Jude verse 6 for just a minute. That's the little book right 
before the Revelation. He says, "And the angels which kept not their 
first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in 
everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day." 
Look at verse 13: "Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own 
shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness 
for ever."

Dear neighbor, let me tell you something. If you die tonight without 
God and go to hell, if your loved ones die, if your kids, some of your 
young ones that are of age of accountability die, your mom and dad die 
without Christ, your friends and relatives die without Christ--they're 
going to a bottomless pit; they'll fall through that flame; they'll 
scream and cry out; the worms will cover them; and chained up in that 
pit are awful, horrible devils and demons, crying out and screaming, 
every day and every night, throughout eternity!

And they'll cuff their ears and say, "God, I don't want to hear this!" 
BUT IT WILL BE A REALITY TO THEM! It won't be a dream or a nightmare; 
it'll be a reality.

I worked in a prison for several years as an assistant chaplain. Had a 
guy walk into the chaplain's office one day, and he was just 
trembling. A great big fellow--just shaking. He couldn't talk. We gave 
him a cup of coffee, and he slopped it out; he couldn't even put it to 
his lips. We finally got him calmed down, and we said, "What's the 
matter with you, boy?"

He said, "I'm not crazy."

I said, "Nobody thinks you're crazy."

He just kept saying, "I'm not crazy! I'm not crazy! I'm not crazy!"

We finally got him calmed down. He said, "Preacher, I'm a good artist. 
That's what I did on the streets. One day, I decided to draw me a 
picture of what I thought the devil looked like. I went down to the 
sign shop, and got me a big piece of canvas. I put it up in my cell. I 
spent two days and two nights, drawing that picture with these 
fluorescent chalks. I went down to the sign shop and got me the strobe 
lights, like the rock bands use. I turned those on, and I shut down 
all the lights in my cell.

"With those lights on that picture, that picture seemed to come alive. 
I got on my knees, and I asked the devil to come into me. And I 
promised him I'd serve him all the days of my life."

And he broke down and started crying.

He said, "Since that night, from that night on, when they shut those 
cell doors electronically, when those lights go down in that cell 
block, the demons come to my cell. They tickle my feet. They tell me 
to kill myself. They tell me to kill my cell mate. They tell me that 
I'm going to wind up in hell with them. And I ask the guards to please 
let me out. I tell them my cell is full of demons. I tell them they're 
tormenting me, and I want out.

"They sent me to a psychiatrist. They said I'm crazy. But, preacher, I 
AIN'T CRAZY!!"

You say, "Do you believe him?"

You better believe I believe him! Cause he fooled with something he 
ought not to have been fooling with.

Are you listening to me tonight?

There came a day when that boy got paroled. He walked out the front 
gate of L.C.I., out of the ward I had up there. I don't know whether 
the demons went with him or not, but, friend, if you die without 
Christ and go to hell, THERE WILL NEVER BE A DAY YOU'LL WALK OUT THE 
GATES OF HELL! You'll be there with those devils, screaming and 
tormented, and cussing God and blaspheming God, chained to the sides 
of that pit!

As you fall, those devils may reach out and grab you, and scream at 
you, and curse you, and you'll say, "Dear God, I'm going to wake up. 
This will be a nightmare!" But you can pinch yourself, and you'll be 
VERY much awake! Very much!

I beg you in Jesus' name, DON'T GO TO HELL! Don't go to hell.

Horrible Monsters


Well, the Artist is not done. He's painted us a pit. It's got sides, 
but doesn't have a bottom. It's got a lid on it, and it's locked up. 
There are graves in the sides of that pit that belch their filthy 
contents out into the guts of hell. In that pit, there is a roaring 
blast furnace-like fire that burns and scorches and roars like a 
furnace. In that pit, people are covered with worms; they fall through 
that fire, and they're clawing at those worms, trying to get them off 
of them. And they're there day and night, day and night, never a 
minute ceased, never one time when the worms go away. They're covered 
with worms. In that awful pit, there are demons and devils chained up.

But now the Artist's hand comes again. And He draws us yet another 
dimension. Look what He says in Revelation chapter 9. Hell is the 
abode of monsters. In Revelation chapter 9, you're over in the 
Tribulation period. Verse 1: "And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a 
star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of 
the bottomless pit." And this star is an angel, because it's called 
"him." And he's got the key to the bottomless pit.

Verse 2: "And he opened the bottomless pit: and there arose a smoke 
out of the pit..." now watch it! "...as the smoke of a great furnace." 
Isn't that what we just said? Isn't that what God said? "And the sun 
and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit. And there 
came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given 
power, as the scorpions of the earth, have power."

Verse 7: "And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared 
unto battle; and on their heads were as it were crowns like gold, and 
their faces were as the faces of men. And they had hair as the hair of 
women, and their teeth were as the teeth of lions. And they had 
breastplates, as it were bnreastplates of iron; and the sound of their 
wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle. 
And they had tails like unto scorpions, and there were stings in their 
tails: and their power was to hurt men five months."

Now I want to ask you a question. This is yet future. What you read 
here has not happened yet, but it's future. Whenever the Tribulation 
breaks on this world, God said He's going to open that pit, and those 
monsters are going to come crawling out. But here's my question to 
you: Where did those monsters come from? You just read in your Bible 
right there, they came out of that bottomless pit, out of that smoke, 
out of that fire. Where are they today? They're somewhere in that pit, 
awaiting the day when God will unleash them on this world during the 
Tribulation period.

Dear God in heaven, you die without God and go to hell, you're going 
to go to hell in a flame, and those worms are going to cover you. The 
demons will crackle and scream and blaspheme. Those horrible monsters 
are there! They may ride you through that pit and sting with that tail 
and look you in the eye. And you'll say, "Dear God, I'm dreaming all 
this! These are horrible creatures!" You'll hear them roar and scream 
all through eternity! Dear God, DON'T GO TO HELL! Oh, please, don't go 
to hell!

DON'T GO TO HELL! I beg you in Jesus' name, don't go to hell! Don't 
let your neighbors go to hell. Don't quit praying for your mama. Don't 
give up on your son who's lost.

God said it's a pit. It's got sides, but no bottom. He says it's got 
fire in there like a furnace that roars. People in hell are covered 
with worms. And in this awful place, God said it is the abode of awful 
monsters.

The Insane Asylum of the Universe


But that isn't all. The Artist's hand comes to a canvas another time. 
And people already are shrinking back and saying, "No, no, please, 
please, don't do this! Please, I don't want to see it! It's too 
horrible! I don't want to look at it!" YOU NEED TO LOOK AT IT TONIGHT! 
You need to look at it.

Look, please, at the Book of Matthew, chapter 8. Hell is the insane 
asylum of the universe. Look at Matthew the 8th chapter. Jesus said 
this about it, and I'm just quoting what He said. You can take it or 
leave it; that's up to you. But in verse 11 He said, "And I say unto 
you, That many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down 
with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven. But the 
children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness: there 
shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth."

In hell tonight, there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. People grind 
their teeth. They're crying out and screaming.

Look at Luke chapter 16. Do you know that, in the Bible, Jesus had 
recorded about a man who actually went to hell? And he records it and 
tells us about it in verse 19: "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. And 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: the rich man also died, and was 
buried: And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments." Look at 
the plurality: TORMENTS. "And seeth 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. But Abraham said, 
Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst 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 hence to you 
cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence.

"Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send 
him to my father's house."

Now let me ask you a question. What's going on here? You've got a man 
who went to hell, and the first thing he does is CRY OUT for mercy. 
And the second thing he does, he says, "If I can't have mercy, GIVE ME 
SOME WATER." And then he says, "If I can't have water," then he's 
praying for his brothers. What's going on tonight in hell? Somebody's 
screaming! Somebody's crying! Somebody's praying! Somebody's cursing!

Neighbor, let me tell you something. Hell is the INSANE ASYLUM of the 
universe!

Don't you go out of here tonight and say that Dave Jones made fun of 
anybody who had a mental affliction. My heart goes out to them. But, 
if you've ever been in a mental institution, ever visited in one--I'm 
talking about people who were seriously, seriously afflicted.

Some time back, we had a guy saved in prison. He wanted us to go visit 
his wife. My pastor and I went to the Longview State Hospital in 
Cincinnati, Ohio--the state mental hospital where they put the worst 
cases--to visit his wife. She was twenty-four years old; she got to 
taking pills and drinking wine. The combination did something to her 
chemistry, and she lost her mind. And now she was like a three-year-
old child. She walked around with a teddy bear under her arm all the 
time--twenty-four years old.

We got on an elevator and went up. That day was a cold, dark, rainy 
day. It was thundering outside. It was almost as black as night 
outside--in the middle of the day. I never will forget it. We rode 
that elevator up and got off on the women's wing. A matron met us. We 
gave her the name of this lady. We said we'd like to talk to her.

The matron said, "I'll be happy to get her. I'll pray for you while 
you talk to her. But I don't think you're going to reach her. She's 
gone. Her mind is gone."

That lady opened that big old lead door. That door was so thick, it 
swung open on big rollers, and it was all she could do to open it. And 
when she opened it, you could hear the sounds of that wing back there. 
You could hear women screaming and cursing. You could hear somebody 
trying to restrain them. You could hear somebody bouncing off the 
wall. You could hear the attendants back there, cussing those people 
out. And they were screaming and crying out, just babbling.

I thought, dear God, what a HORRIBLE place to be in!

They brought this girl out, teddy bear under her arm. We sat her down 
there in the hallway and talked to her for nearly an hour about the 
things of God. And she couldn't even talk! She couldn't even speak 
three words and put them in a sentence!

Finally, the matron came and got her. She opened that door again, and 
back in that wing, there was screaming and cursing and calling God all 
kinds of dirty names, filthy talk, people bouncing off the wall. You'd 
hear people running down the hallway, trying to get out that open 
door. The attendants would come and put them in a strait jacket.

And, as we went down the elevator that day and got out in the parking 
lot, I said to my pastor, "Jack, I'm so glad I don't have to stay in 
this place. I thank God I can come, and get out the door, and get into 
my car, and drive off."

He said, "Dave, let me tell you something worse. When people die and 
go to hell, they'll NEVER get out of it. Never! Never!"

Hell is the insane asylum of the universe.

Tonight in hell, if you could drop a microphone in there, you'd hear 
people screaming, you'd hear people praying, you'd hear people 
blaspheming God, you'd hear people cursing. And as they fall through 
hell, the fire burning them, the worms covering them, the demons 
cursing them, and the awful monsters riding them through hell, 
stinging them with their tails. And in that awful pit, God said, 
"There's no hope!" That's what He said.

No hope. Never. Never get out.

Your Only Hope of Escape


Look at Psalm 22. The only hope today to avoid hell is the finished 
work of Jesus Christ on Calvary. And in Psalm 22 you have a pre-record 
of Jesus' thoughts on Calvary--what He said, and what He thought--what 
was going through His mind. God recorded them before it ever happened. 
Look at Psalm 22:1: "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why 
art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring? O 
my God, I cry in the daytime, but thou hearest not; and in the night 
season, and am not silent. But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest 
the praises of Israel. Our fathers trusted in thee: they trusted, and 
thou didst deliver them. They cried unto thee, and were delivered: 
they trusted in thee, and were not confounded. But I am a worm, and no 
man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people. All they that see 
me laugh me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, 
saying, He trusted on the Lord that he would deliver him: let hi 
deliver him, seeing he delighted in him. But thou art he that took me 
out of the womb: thou didst make me hope when I was upon my mother's 
breasts. I was cast upon thee from the womb: thou art my God from my 
mother's belly. Be not far from me; for trouble is near; for there is 
none to help. Many bulls have compassed me: strong bulls of Bashan 
have beset me round."

Look at verse 13: "They gaped upon me with their mouths, as a ravening 
and a roaring lion. I am poured out like water, and all my bones are 
out of joint: my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my 
bowels. My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue 
cleaveth to my jaws; and thou hast brought me into the dust of death. 
For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have inclosed 
me: they pierced my hands and my feet. I may tell all my bones: they 
look and stare upon me. They part my garments among them, and cast 
lots upon my vesture."

Neighbor, can't you understand tonight that the only reason Jesus 
Christ came--if there was any other way that you and I could be saved, 
God would have never subjected His blessed Son to Calvary. But the 
only hope for mankind was for somebody to come and live the perfect 
life they could not live, and fulfill every jot and tittle of the law, 
and then go to Calvary, and be a sin-bearer, and take every sin upon 
Him, in His own body, die in their place, and get up three days and 
three nights later, overcome death, hell and the graveyard, and seat 
Himself at God's right hand, and say, "I am alive forevermore!" and 
invite sinners to come and trust Him as their Saviour.

The only hope to shun hell is Jesus Christ. The only hope.

I picked up a poem the other day. I thought it was a good poem. The 
poem was called, "The Horrors of Hell." It says this:

Hell is the prison house of despair--

Here are some things that won't be there:

No flowers will bloom on the banks of hell;

No beauties of nature we love so well.

No comforts of home, music, and song,

No friendship of joy will be found in that throng.

No babies to brighten the long, dreary night,

No love, no peace--not one ray of light.

No blood-washed soul with face beaming bright,

No loving smile in that region of night.

No mercy, no pity, no pardon nor grace,

No water--O GOD! what a terrible place!

The pangs of the lost, no human can tell;

Not one moment's ease; there's no rest in hell.


Hell is the prison house of despair--

Here are some things that will be there:

Fire and brimstone are there, we know,

For God in His Word hath told us so.

Memory and more suffering and pain,

Weeping and wailing--but all in vain.

Blasphemer, swearer, hater of God,

Christ-rejecter while here on earth they trod.

Murderer, gambler, drunkard and liar

Will have his part in the lake of fire.

The filthy, the vile, the cruel and mean--

What a horrible mob in hell will be seen!

Yes, more than humans on earth can tell

Are the torments and horror of an eternal hell.


I beg you in Jesus' name. If all you got is ten cents' worth of 
somebody's church membership, I challenge you to junk it tonight and 
come running to Christ. And cast yourself on Him for mercy and for 
pardon and for release and for salvation. He said, "I am the way, the 
truth, and the life."

If you're burdened tonight about a loved one, I ought not to have to 
give fourty or fifty verses of the invitation tonight. Some of you 
have dads or mothers who are lost. My mother got saved two weeks after 
I got saved. She and I together have been praying for my dad for 
nearly thirty-two years to get saved. My dad's not saved yet; I hope 
you'll pray for him. I hope you'll remember him tonight in your 
prayers.

I have a brother who's not saved--my brother Ronny doesn't know the 
Lord. A man nearly fourty years old--he is fourty, I guess--never been 
saved. A good family man, a good provider, a good dad and a good 
husband--but he's never been saved.

I have a neighbor who's a Roman Catholic, Dennis Wicke. Dennis is a 
dentist there in town. And Denny's a good neighbor. And he comes and 
looks in on us, and he's been good to us. Brings us things at 
Christmas. My neighbor and his wife are not saved. We've witnessed to 
them, given them gospel tracts, and talked to their children about the 
Lord. I hope you'll pray for them.

What I'm saying is this: When you think about people going to hell, 
get personal with it. That's your mama screaming; that's your daddy 
crying out. That's your brother screaming that the worms are covering 
him. That's not some impersonal voice; that's somebody you know and 
love.

Let's stand with our heads bowed and eyes closed. We're not going to 
play or sing. My heart's burdened tonight. We have so much knowledge. 
Oh, we pride ourselves in the fact that we've got it all figured out, 
and we have all this wonderful knowledge on prophecy--and you ought to 
have it, nothing wrong with having it. But we're so flippant when it 
comes to lost people. We just really bear down on it and say, "Well, 
you know, you either get saved or go to hell"--and that's about all we 
tell them. That's about like Jonah going into the middle of that thing 
and saying, "Well, God's gonna burn this place down. You better just 
look out for it." No remedy. But they took that and repented, and God 
spared His hand of judgment.

I'm going to ask you tonight. There are two things that can happen to 
a church: They can turn in on themselves, and pick each other apart 
and remain just a little old group of folks that never do anything for 
God--just pick each other apart, and fuss and get mad and leave. Or, 
neighbor, you can reach out to this world, you can turn outward, you 
can say, "By the grace of God, my heart and my eyes are going to look 
out on this harvest field. And I'm going to be interested in getting 
somebody saved."

Some of you have got loved ones and friends, people you went to school 
with, people who are neighbors to you--your uncles, your aunts, your 
grandfather--lost without God. We're not going to play or sing, but 
I'm going to give you an opportunity to come and pray for them.

Your Invitation


And I'm going to say this to you who are lost. You and God know 
whether you are lost or not. You don't need me to tell you. You and 
God know whether you've got salvation or not. Friend, if you don't 
have salvation, when you get out of your seat tonight when these 
Christians come forward to pray, would you get Pastor Smith--I'm sure 
that he would be able to take a Bible, or somebody here, one of these 
soul-winners here tonight, can take a blessed old Bible and get it 
settled with you for time and eternity. The altar's open; you come and 
pray however you want to.

This is our invitation. If you're waiting for the invitation, this is 
it. This is it right here. Maybe you're burdened tonight over a loved 
one. Maybe you're burdened over the fact that you don't care any more, 
that your heart has got cold and hard and mean. You've got an old mean 
spirit, and you don't really care whether people get saved or not. 
You've been sidetracked, and all this other business. Maybe you need 
to come pray for yourself; I don't know. If you're not saved, you can 
come tonight. I want to come and get ahold of the pastor and say, 
"Preacher, I came tonight because I'm not sure I saved. And I want to 
get saved. I want to settle it. I don't want to go to hell. I'm not 
going to hell for anybody." Come on. You're welcome to come and pray.

This is the invitation. This is it. If you're waiting on the 
invitation, this is it right here. You need to come and pray. Come and 
call somebody's name out; pray for your neighbor, loved one, a husband 
or a wife. How awful for a precious wife who's saved to go to heaven, 
and her husband die and go to hell, and be eternally separated--with 
no hope of ever being reunited again. How horrible!

How horrible for kids to be saved, and have a mama who's lost and 
without God, and go to hell!

I'm going to wait. You just come on, then I'm going to have a season 
of prayer here, just for all of us. I believe that's the way God wants 
it done tonight. I mean, this is exactly what God wants at least for 
my part. Just come on. We're going to wait just a minute. If you're 
burdened tonight, you've got a real burden on your heart and you want 
to pray for somebody, or you want to pray for yourself, I want you to 
come tonight. You're welcome at the altar. We're going to pray 
together.

My Father, Lord we want to thank you for the verses you put in the 
Bible about hell. Lord, they awaken us--even though we know as 
Christians we're not going there. They awaken us, dear Lord, to 
understand that, but for the grace of God, we'd already be there. And 
I pray tonight, Father, as we have looked at this canvas that you've 
put on before us and painted us a word picture of hell, I pray, my 
Father, that you'd break our hearts. God, we're so guilty of 
arrogance. We're so guilty of complacency and flippancy. Lord, we're 
so guilty tonight of our old, cold hearts. God, my heart gets so cold 
and so hard. God, I get so mean-spirited sometimes. God, my tears dry 
up, and my heart gets so stony. And, Lord, I get to a place, God, 
where I don't care any more. God, that's wrong; it's wicked. I ask you 
to forgive me. I ask, God, that you'd break my heart again--like you 
did when I first got saved. I pray, God, for our dads and our mothers 
who are lost and without Jesus. God, our brothers and our sisters who 
are at home without Christ. Our neighbors, like Denny Wicke and Tiny 
Wicke, and God, Dave Seiseman, and these men, Lord, and women, who are 
good neighbors to us. And, Lord, these people who knelt here tonight 
and have called names out of neighbors that they live just across the 
fence from that have never heard one time how to be saved. God, if we 
don't reach out, we'll turn in on each other. We'll pick each other 
apart; we'll get thin-skinned, we'll get critical. And, God, all we'll 
have is just a bunch of little Bible critics, sitting around at 
church, Sunday after Sunday, trying to find some fault. God, deliver 
us from that. My God, my God, deliver us from that. And, Lord, help us 
to look up on the fields that are white already unto harvest. Break 
our hearts; help our main business, God, to be to get sinners in and 
get them saved. And, God, I pray for these very altars that are being 
wet with the tears of your children tonight. I pray this week they'd 
be wet with the tears of repentance of lost sinners coming to Christ. 
God, hear our cry; save our loved ones, Lord. Don't let them die and 
go to hell. God, if you've got to save them at our own funerals, then, 
God, do what you need to do. But, God, don't let our loved ones, don't 
let our children go to hell. And God, break our hearts. Lord, after 
tonight, may we have a more vivid picture of hell than we ever had 
before. God, bless your people. Save every one they've prayed for 
tonight. We'll love you for it all in Jesus' name. Amen.