Chapter 16 and verse number 19, the Bible said, There was a certain rich man which was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day. 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, 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." Let's pray. Father, Lord help me, God, never to get over the fear of standing in this place God, especially with this great company before us this morning, God, we know not the state of the souls of men and women that are here, but we know, God, that You've brought us here and ask, God, that Your Holy Spirit, God, would do a work this morning that cannot be done by the power of any man, woman, boy or girl in Jesus' name Help us, God. Protect us from unclean spirits. We plead the blood of Christ and ask for a clear mind for the next few minutes. In Christ's name we pray. May He be magnified. Amen. I want to preach this morning on the subject, A Letter from Hell. Now, we read many places in the Word of God about hell, but never anywhere in Scripture do we have, I suppose, such a clear account of what hell is like from someone who actually died, and went there. Now there will be many that will say that this account in the Word of God is a parable. And certainly it is told by Jesus Christ. Christ told many parables. But when He tells a parable, which is nothing more than a fictional story, that never really did happen, but that illustrates a truth. When Christ relates a parable, He always says, and He spake a parable unto them. Now, I want to say this morning that this passage of Scripture is not a parable. It is a true story. It's a real story about real people that actually happened. And I want to say that this rich man that's told about, he's never named. Jesus will say one day to them on His right hand, Come ye, blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from before the foundation of the world. But then He will say to them on His left hand, Depart from Me, ye that work iniquity, I never knew you." They are unnamed in hell, and so this rich man, is unnamed, but make no mistake, he's a real person. He lived and breathed one day on this earth. He lived in his lifetime, and the Bible said he died, and in hell he lift up his eyes in torments. And I want to say this morning that about eight miles beneath your feet, where you sit on the church pew, that rich man right now is screaming in the flames of hell in torments, just like he was when Jesus told about this. Now, I want to look at a few things about hell this morning. Let's consider, first of all, the torments of hell. Notice in verse number 23, the Bible said, after the rich man died and in hell, He lift up His eyes being in torments. Notice those torments are many. There's not one torment in hell. There's just not pain. Oh, there's just not intense heat. Yes, there are all of those things. I want to say the torments of hell are multiple this morning. There are physical torments in hell. then I want to say there are mental torments in hell. If you are lost, you never have been born again, you'll die in your sins. If you don't get saved before you breathe your last breath, you'll go to hell. And when you arrive in hell, my friend, just a few moments in hell will drive you absolutely mad, just knowing that you're never going to get out of that suffering. and pain, my friend, it will drive you absolutely insane. The torments of hell are certainly terrible. Then I want us to consider the finality of hell. The Bible said here in verse number 22, some of the sweetest words ever found in Scripture when it comes to the suffering of a child of God, says, and it came to pass that the beggar died. My friend, the death of this poor beggar that laid daily at the rich man's gate. But he did die. He had to suffer the pangs of death. But my friend, the Bible said that his death came to pass. But as you read on down in that verse, the Bible says, when it speaks of the death of the rich man, Those words are left completely out. The Bible said the rich man also died. His death didn't come to pass. My friend, when a sinner dies without God, the death doesn't just come. and then go as he's ushered off into a land of eternal bliss, but know that death comes. And as that lost sinner is ushered into the halls of the damned, death never does stop. Death just keeps on coming. It's kind of like being locked in the throes of death for all eternity. You just die and you never stop dying. I don't know if you've ever been at the bedside of somebody that's died, but I've seen them die with Christ and I've seen them die without Christ. And all the pain as they lay there and they gasp just fighting, I mean laboring just to get that last breath. That's death. And for a lost sinner, it never stops. It just keeps on coming. Like being gripped in the throes of death forever, and then just when you think the misery could not get any worse, the devil comes and snatches your soul away from you and drags you down into that pit where you'll spend eternity Eternity. The finality of hell. I want us to consider then, my friend, the hopelessness of hell. In verse number 26, this rich man, he's in hell. And he's looking across this great open expanse, this great gulf, as Abraham calls it. And he says, Father Abraham, send Lazarus. He says, have mercy on me. Abraham's answer in verse 26, he said, beside all this, between us and you, there's a great gulf fixed. Well, we're packed in here this morning. You don't even have to reach out your arm to touch the person next to you. But I'm telling you, if you're here this morning and you're not saved, and that person that you're sitting close enough to this morning to feel the very warmth from their body, my friend, if they're saved and you're not, One day when death comes, or when Jesus sounds the trumpet and separates the wheat from the tares, He separates those that have been washed in the blood of Christ from those that are yet in their sins. My friend, this Bible tells me there's going to be a great gulf fixed between the saved and the lost. And Abraham said, so that they which would pass from where we are to you cannot, and neither can they come from your abode in hell to where we are in eternal pleasure and bliss. The hopelessness of hell. Never any more connection with the saints of God. Notice that none, this rich man, I find three requests that he made after he wound up in hell. He asked for mercy. He didn't get any. An explanation, but no mercy. He asked for just one drop of water, not a glass, no ice. Not even room temperature, just one drop of water to cool the fire that was burning in his tongue. It was denied. Then when all hope for himself was gone, only then does he begin to think of his family. And he said, I pray thee therefore, Father Abraham, that you'd send Lazarus back from the dead to my father's house. Because I have five brethren and I sure don't want them coming here. Didn't get that request either. They were all denied. Then I want us to consider not only the hopelessness of hell, but I want us to consider the justice of hell. My friend, God is holy. The Word of God declares in the Old Testament that God is of pure eyes than can behold iniquity. Now, I want to say this morning that we have cracked up salvation to be something that it is not, never has been. God never just overlooks sin. He never has. He never will. Every single sin that's ever been committed, in deed, in thought, in attitude, by every man, woman, boy and girl that has ever lived from Adam to right here in 2006, Every single sin must have the justice of a holy God, and His wrath against sin must be satisfied. Every one. Every one of your sins must be paid for. Not one. Not two. All of them have got to have the justice of a holy glorious God that created this universe, His justice must be satisfied against that sin. Jeremiah chapter 17 tells us that the sin of the people that God has created is written in the stony tables of our cold heart And our sin is written there with an iron pen and a diamond point. Down in verse 9 of Jeremiah chapter 17, the Bible says the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? God Almighty looks down at man that He created. God just created Adam and Eve. He made Adam of the dust of the ground, pulled a rib out of his side, made Eve, brought them together, and said, Multiply and replenish the earth. And just look around in this building. We see the product of that commission. Every one of us is a descendant of that man, Adam. And everyone out here in town, and everybody that you know, and all the strangers that you pass by every day, because of the record of sin that is engraved in your heart, The Bible says, again in Jeremiah 17, God told those people, there is because of your sin, because of what's in your heart, there is a fire kindled in mine anger that shall burn forever. That, my friend, is the source of the fuel for the fires of hell. Hell, as I understand it, is nothing more than a manifestation of the righteous judgment of a holy God. So the flames of hell beneath your feet this morning cry out day and night for vengeance against the sins that you have committed. They leap up out of hell. The Bible says in Isaiah, hell hath enlarged herself and opened her mouth without measure. The picture I have of hell is like a great big gaping set of steel jaws with teeth opening up her mouth and breathing out the flames of the wrath of God that begged day and night for vengeance and justice against your sin. But God, who is rich in mercy, loved you beyond my comprehension. I cannot explain. I do not understand. A God that so loved the world, so loved a bunch such as we are, that He gave His only begotten Son. While the very flames of hell leap out of the halls of the damned in an effort to consume your very soul on the church pew where you sit, God loved you and He gave His Son. His Son came willingly. Went to an old rugged cross. Hung there between heaven and earth. Suffered and bled and died. And while He was hanging there, He said this, My God, My God. Somebody said it last night or Sunday. My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? The only time that Jesus did not refer to God as His Father. He was separated from His Father. What was happening when He hung there on the cross? The Bible said in Psalms 22, the bulls of Bashan had compassed Him around. All the unclean spirits Every devil and demon in the pits of hell was there at Calvary while my Lord suffered for me. While the flames rose up around His soul, the demons gnashed on Him with their teeth and pulled His soul down into the very pits of hell. Even Christ, our Passover, is sacrificed for us according to Exodus chapter number 12, that those Israelites were forbidden to eat the Passover raw or sodden with water, but it had to be roast with fire. And Jesus felt the very torments that the rich man in hell felt as the flames of hell began to eat at and consume his soul and pull it down into the pits of the dam. I'm talking about the justice of hell. While he hung there, the reason that his soul was tormented like that on Calvary, it's not because he was a bad man. It's because I was a bad man. It's because you are a bad man or a bad woman. And he bore our sin in his own body on the tree. Deuteronomy chapter 32. The Bible declares in verse number 18, of the rock that begat thee, I'm talking about the justice of hell. Of the rock that begat thee, thou art unmindful and has forgotten God that formed thee. God made you, gives you breath, life and all things, gives us all things richly to enjoy. And yet the Bible says that we have turned everyone to His own way, and God has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. In verse 21 of Deuteronomy 32, the Bible says, They have moved Me to jealousy with that which is not God. They have provoked Me to anger with their vanities daily, every day, Men and women saved and lost are provoking a holy God to jealousy, and He is justified in being jealous with our vanities. And He says, because of this, a fire is kindled in mine anger and shall burn unto the lowest hell. He said they shall be burnt with hunger and devoured with burning heat and with bitter destruction. I will also send the teeth of beasts upon them, the poison of serpents into dust." So as you sit here in the church house with the very Word of God in your lap, and you look into that Bible, and you think you're reading that Bible, that Bible stares back at you and reads you. It reads your very sin. It reads your very soul. And it testifies to you and convinces you and persuades you without any doubt that you're deserving of the hellfire that licks up around your soul this morning. We have a letter from hell as close as we'll ever get, but I wonder what it might be like to talk to perhaps a young man in hell. I have such a letter this morning written by a young man whose mother was a God-fearing Christian, and he died and went to hell. He says, Dear Mom, I'm writing to you from the most horrible place that I have ever seen and more horrible than you could ever imagine. It is black here so dark I cannot even see all the people I am constantly bumping into. I only know they are people like myself from the blood-curdling screams that I hear. My voice is gone from my own screaming as I writhe in pain and suffering. I cannot even cry for help anymore, and it's no use anyway. There's no one here that has any compassion at all for my plight. The pain and suffering in this place is absolutely unbearable. It so consumes my every thought, I could not know if there were any other sensation to come upon me. The pain is so severe, it never stops, day or night. The turning of days does not appear because of the darkness. What may be nothing more than minutes or even seconds seems like many endless years. The thought of this suffering continuing without end is more than I can bear. My mind is spinning more and more with each passing moment, dear mother. I feel like a madman. I cannot think clearly under this load of confusion. I fear I am losing my mind. And Mom, the fear is just as bad as the pain, maybe even worse. I don't see how my predicament could be any worse than it is, but I am in constant fear that it might be so at any moment. My mouth is parched and will only become more so It is so dry that my tongue cleaves to the roof of my mouth. I remember that old preacher down at the church saying that that's what Jesus Christ endured as He hung on the old rugged cross. There's no relief, Mom. Not so much as a single drop of water to cool my tongue, to add even more misery to this place of torment. I know that I deserve to be here. I am being punished justly for my deeds. The punishment, the pain, the suffering is no worse than I justly deserve. But admitting that now will never ease the anguish that burns eternally in my wretched soul. I hate myself for committing the sins to earn such a horrible fate. I hate the devil that deceived me so that I would end up in this place You better listen to this. As much as I know it is an unspeakable wickedness to think such a thing, I hate the very God that sent His only begotten Son to die for me that I might not come to this place of torment. I can never blame the Christ of Calvary that suffered and bled and died for me. But I hate Him anyway. I can't even control my feelings when I know they're wicked, wretched and vile. I am more wicked and vile now than I ever was in my earthly existence. Oh, Mother, if only I had listened! Any earthly torment would be far better than this. to die a slow, agonizing death from cancer, to jump out of the 40th floor of a burning building like those that died on September 11th. But to choose those over my present fate, I have no power. I do not have that choice. I now understand that this torment and suffering is what Jesus bore for me. I believe He died to pay for my sins, but His suffering was not eternal. In three days, He arose in victory over the grave. Oh, I do so believe, but alas, it's too late. As the old invitation song says, I remember hearing so many times, you came, but you came one day too late. We are all believers in this terrible place. But our faith amounts to nothing. It's too late. The door is shut. The tree has fallen, and here it shall lay, in hell, forever lost. No hope, no comfort, no peace, no joy. There will never be any end to my suffering. I remember that old preacher as he would read from the book of Revelation. And the smoke of their torment ascended up forever and ever. They have no rest day or night that worship the beast and his image. There is no peace. No peace saith my God to the wicked. For the wicked are like the troubled sea when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. There is no peace to the wicked. And that's perhaps the worst thing about this place, Mom. I remember. I remember the church services, the invitations. I thought they were so corny, so stupid and useless. I used to sit in the back and hide my face while I laughed at that old country preacher. I thought he was a fool. I see things different now, Mom, but my change of heart Matters nothing at this point. I have lived like a fool. I'm talking to somebody this morning. I don't know who you are. But this boy here says, I've lived like a fool. I've pretended like a fool. I've played church like a fool. I've died like a fool died. And now I have to suffer the anguish of a fool forever. Oh, my, my, long. just to stroll through a lush green meadow, smell the beautiful flowers, stopping to take in the fragrance of their sweet perfume. There's no flowers in hell, Mom. Long to see one of those little innocent babies that just used to aggravate me. Now I'd love to see their little cherub-like face. But there's no babies in hell, Mom. Mom, there's no Bibles in hell. There's no Bibles in hell, Mama. The only Scriptures inside these charred walls are those that ring in my ears hour after hour and moment after miserable moment that I remember being preached as that old preacher hammered the pulpit and preached under the inspiration of a Holy Ghost. Oh, Mom, they offer me those verses that I remember offer me no comfort at all. They only serve to remind me of what a fool I have been. Mom, if it wasn't for the futility of them all, you might otherwise rejoice to know that there's a never-ending prayer meeting here in hell. No matter, there's no Holy Spirit to intercede on our behalf. The prayers are just empty and dead. They amount to nothing more than cries for mercy that we all know will never be answered. Please warn my brothers, Mom. I was the oldest. I thought I had to be tough. Please tell them there's no tough guys in hell, Mama. Nobody's cool in hell. As terrible as this place is, Mom, I see it's not my final destination. As Satan laughs at all of us here, and as multitudes join us continually in this feast of misery, we're constantly reminded that one day in the future, we'll all be summoned up one by one to stand face to face with the God that we have offended by our unholiness, by our wickedness, by our thoughts and deeds and attitudes, And as we stand before Him, we'll be judged by our own wicked works out of those things written in the books, and then thrown into the lake of fire saying, Amen, to our own condemnation. Just before we're cast into the lake of fire, we will have to look on the face of Him who willingly suffered the torments of hell that we might be delivered from them, the Lamb of God, that came to take away the sin of the world. As we stand there in His holy presence to hear the pronouncement of our own damnation, you will be there, Mother, to see it all. Please forgive me for hanging my head in shame, as I know I will not be able to bear to look upon your face. You will already be conformed into the image of the Savior, and I know it will be more than I can stand. I'd love to leave this place and join you and so many others I have known for my years on earth, but I know that will never be possible. Since I know I can never escape the punishments of hell that I rightly deserve, I say with tears, with a sorrow and deep despair that can never be completely described, I never want to see any of you again. Please don't ever join me here in eternal anguish, your son or daughter condemned and lost forever. Some years ago in southeast Georgia, there was a young man named Barry Garlick in his early 20s, I guess 21 years old. Barry had a mama who loved God. sang on a radio program, sang songs for Jesus, faithful to the house of God. They were having a revival meeting and she begged Barry to get right with God. Please, Barry, please give your heart to Jesus. Please get right with God, Barry. Barry said this, Mama, get off my back. I've got plenty of time. Barry worked, you better listen, Barry worked for a concrete block company and was out unloading a truck. He was on the back of that truck and that boom as he lifted up a load of those blocks, this is less than 48 hours after he said, Mama, get off my back, I've got plenty of time. That boom ran into a power line, electrocuted Barry. He went out to meet God right there. I've got plenty of time, Mama. I guess if you call 48 hours, plenty of time. There may be somebody sitting here that will be buried before we have the last Amen Friday night. You're lost. You don't have it. You don't have God. Can't you hear the jaws of hell opening up and snapping at your soul? Can't you hear them? Don't you hear the cries of the flames of the wrath of an Almighty God crying for vengeance against your sin? I urge you this morning to flee into the arms of the lovely Lord Jesus that suffered all the torments of hell. I will never have to worry about hell. I lay down my head every night on my pillow, knowing that if I died before morning, that underneath are no longer the flames of hell, but, Moses said, underneath are the everlasting arms of the darling Son of God. Sinner friend, Isaiah chapter 14 says this. This is your verse. 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, all those that lived in luxury and fame and fortune. When you get there, this is what they're going to say. This is what all the inhabitants of hell are going to say to you. Are thou also become weak as we? Art thou become like unto us? five seconds in hell, you'll lose your mind. You are not tough enough to handle that. You will not handle it. Every head bowed. Every eye closed. Just a minute. I'm going to turn the service over to the pastor. Let him proceed with the invitation as he sees fit. I'd like you with your head bowed and your eyes closed, I'd like to say this to you. Would you just consider the gamble that you're taking? Are you willing to walk out these doors this morning without Christ and say, well, I think I'll make it for another invitation? Are you willing to take that gamble? with heads bowed and eyes closed, would there be anybody, man, woman, boy or girl, any age in the building, lift up your hand and say, Preacher, God rung my bell. I am not saved. I don't want to go to hell. Would you pray for me? Nobody's going to come try and drag you out of your pew, out of your seat. Anybody lift up their hand and say, Preacher, I'm not saved. Would you pray for me? Father, Lord, I pray that the truth of hell would ring not only for those that are not saved, but for those of us that are saved that have missed opportunity after opportunity to rescue someone that we know is perishing. God, I want to pray for my dad this morning. God, that the Holy Ghost would corner him, draw him to the cross of Calvary. Bless this time of invitation. May the Spirit of God work in Jesus' name.