Hell — Leonard Ravenhill

Preparation for Preaching and the Call to Be Moved

Preacher had his own method of preparation and usually when i finish here friday night i go home i don't sleep much but i try and get something from the lord for the next friday night. And if i haven't much to do on saturday i spend saturday preparing for the next friday night.

But sunday night i'm going to preach. Uh i'm going to preach assembly of god church. I think the favorite text of pentecostals is none of these things move me. Thank you. But not many people want to be moved anymore.

So i'm going to assembly of god church at shady grove. That's a bad name. Isn't it shady grove in uh ballast. I think six o 'clock sunday night i want you all to come to sing. He did such a good job tonight.

Revelation 20 and the Majesty of Eternity

The book of the revelation. We're not going to stay here long in this part. Book of revelation chapter 20. When i think of this book i think of three things. To me the book of revelation is a book of majesty.

It's a book of mystery. And it's a book of misery because it tells me about the end of time. And it tells me about beyond the end of time. If your faith needs a lift now and again don't keep running to romans 8 28.

You've worn that out. Why not get something inspiring. Why not get out of time into eternity. A preacher came to see me a few days ago. He said you talk about the puritans. You talk about hawker and owen and some of those majestic characters.

What's the difference between those men in in the 1600s and the men today. Oh that's easy to answer. They lived in eternity. We live in time. Yeah. Yeah. We're so earthbound. We're always talking about numbers.

The unsaved the last. Never. That's right. But first of all if you're going to get inspiration we've got to look unto jesus the author and the finish of our faith. This is an awesome chapter. Chapter 20.

The Great White Throne and the Second Death

Let me read from verse 11 and i saw great white throne again. My quip is i'm reading from the king james version. You know the living bible. And i saw great white throne and him that sat upon it from whose face the heavens on the earth fled away.

Can you think of anything more awesome than that. It doesn't say who sits on the throne. I believe god himself sits there. The believers. Paul says we are going to be. We are going to the judgment seat of christ.

This is not the judgment seat of christ. This is the judgment seat of god. In this 20th chapter from his face the heavens on the earth fled away and they were found no place for them. And i saw the dead small and great stand before god.

And the books were opened. And another book was open which is the book of life. And the dead were judged out of those things which are written in the books according to their works. The sea gave up the dead which were in it.

Death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them. They were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. Last monday night i said to my wife i said sweetheart i'm going in my office for a while.

I got my bible at this chapter. I began to read. I've read it often maybe thousands of times over the years. But i read this. Suddenly it seemed as though this uh i felt like a man going down the road and he gets ambushed.

There's somebody behind the bush and they grab hold of him and just make him look and listen. I read this last verse in the 20th chapter. Whosoever is not found written in the book of life. No pardon me the 14th verse.

Death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. And this is the second death. It's mentioned again in the next chapter the second death. You can listen to your tv and radio evangelist for 10 years. You won't hear a sermon on the second death.

They hardly dare preach on the first death. Never mind the second one. When did you last hear a sermon on tv about hell about everlasting destruction. It's not fashionable. It doesn't bring the money in.

It doesn't tickle the ears tickles the conscience. Whosoever is not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. I sat at my desk and the tears began to pour down my face. The lord shot the name of a man into my mind.

I've never seen the man in my life. I knew he used to be considerably wealthy. I don't know much about his name even i know his son. I love his son very well. I began to think about that man with all his privileges in social life and everything.

But his name is not in the book of life and he's going to be participating in this second death. There's only one way to understand this i think. And that is to go into the gospel recorded by recorded by luke and the 16th chapter.

Lazarus and the Rich Man

There are a lot of wonderful expositions of the what we call the sermon on the mount. But they're called in the scripture the beatitudes. You know i recall the beatitudes without being facetious because they should be the attitudes of every believer.

That's a normal christian life not the abnormal christian life. The normal christian life is holiness. Outside of that it's sickness. Luke chapter 16. Again i was going to say that you know when you come to you read the what matthew 7 and you read through the beatitudes.

And then suddenly you bump into jesus saying something that you hadn't noticed about because three times in the beatitudes it mentions hell. But we stress all the beautiful things about the beatitudes.

Verse 19 of chapter 16. There was a certain man which was clothed in purple and fine linen and he fed sumptuously or extravagantly every day. And there was a certain beggar named lazarus which laid at his gate full of sores.

Now notice there are two two beggars in this story. One begs in time and the other begs in eternity. The other is begging at the gates in hoping he can get a few crumbs. But you'll find a little later in verse 24 that this man cried and said father abraham have mercy on me.

He's begging. Have mercy have mercy. This shatters forever. The idea you can pray to saints. This man prayed at the wrong time to the wrong person for the wrong thing and he got the wrong answer. There was a certain man named lazarus laid at his gate full of sores designed to fed be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table.

And moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. Well they were kinder than the old rascal that had the money. He never helped him. He came to pass. That the beggar died. And what was he showing your version.

He was carried. He was carried. The rich man died and was buried. There's no record that the poor man was ever buried. He was most likely taken to gehenna the place where they dumped all the offal and the dirt and the filth in that valley where the worms didn't ever die and the fires never went out.

But the rich man had an ostentatious funeral. I was going to say maybe he's a mason. But they weren't masons then. But it was a show richest man in town. I remember when i came to america the first time in 1950 there was a the funeral of a gangster.

I happened to see there in chicago. Good night. You thought it was julius caesar. They were burying. They had crosses longer than the two longer than the casket they had open. Uh what do you call them.

Carriages behind stacked with flowers. Thousands of dolls. Were the flowers. A wicked violent man who'd been involved in murders and rape and bootlegging and every devilish thing. And they gave him the wedding of they gave him a funeral.

The king. Now which is best to be to be carried or to be buried. I thought i was going to be carried away tonight when you were singing. But i knew it wouldn't be because you wouldn't have got this great truth.

But anyhow he came to pass. The beggar died and was carried by the angels into abraham's bosom which that was a jewish conception of heaven which one also died and was buried in heaven. He lifted up his eyes being in torments and he seeth.

Hell Has No Exits

Abraham thought you know that thing got hold of me and it still has hold of me. This man is in torment. You've heard me say more than once i'm going to heaven and i'm not going for the weekend. And some of you are going to hell and you're not going for the weekend.

I didn't have time. I'd like to have had a piece of paper put across here with this printed in big letters on it tonight so you would see it. Hell has no exits. We read of heaven. There are 12 gates into heaven.

It doesn't say any gates into hell. It's it's jesus says. Quoting what. Uh i think it's the fifth chapter in isaiah which he quoted most often from that chapter. Helleth enlarge their mouth to swallow the generations of all the people that think they're secure and happy.

They don't say much about this rich man except that he was rich. The poor man sat at his gate. Everybody despised rejected forgot about him. The rich man was cast down. The poor man went into abraham's bosom.

Notice what it says carefully here in hell. He lifted up his eyes being in torments. And he seeth. He seeth. You know people in hell can see if you were to pull out blind away. Don't do it. Well. But if you did.

And there were some people standing out there they could see in here and say well that's brother in your last sister somebody. Those people in darkness can see everything that's going on in this room.

I can't see a thing. Somebody might be choking a man out there. Somebody might have a revolver at his head. I can't see. But he that's out in the darkness. The total darkness can see everybody in here.

I believe one of the perpetual torments. Remember it's not going to pass in a weekend. I believe everybody goes to hell. We'll see everything that's going on in heaven. And that's 23. He seeth. He lifted up his eyes being in torments.

So he's very conscious. You know some people try to say well uh there isn't such a thing as hell. A few minutes after the man gets angry he said go to hell. What's he saying. Go to nowhere. Jesus spoke about hell 10 times.

He spoke about heaven only once. We need to recover our balance. I've said to you over and over again we are. We are not eternity conscious enough. 12 gates into the city of god. Only one way into hell.

No exits. It says they go in and out of the city. But nobody went in and out of hell. It says there's a new heaven and a new earth. It never says a new hell and a new devil. I told you about a man that lived in a city that i lived in before i was born by the name of charlie peace.

Charlie Peace and the Reality of Eternal Judgment

He was the al capone of our nation. He raped he robbed. He did every devilish thing. And the cops couldn't get him. But once they got him he was sentenced to death in the city where i lived. And the judge said to him you'll hang by the neck until you die and god have mercy on your soul.

Charlie peace was put in a cell with a guard watching him every moment. Because in english law at that time a man was given 20 21 days three weeks what was called amendment of life or repentance. And he was guarded day and night.

So he didn't commit suicide and beat the law. The night before he used to go to the gallows an officer came in and said mr peace. And he stood up and said yes. I'm mr peace. I'm charlie. Is that a name for a criminal.

I'm mr peace. Well he said in the morning he said yes. At eight o 'clock i go to the gallows put a rope around his neck put him on a trap door pull a switch. He drops down there and he's killed quicker than being executed.

He never failed. Quarter of eight. In the morning the judge came. The prison governor came in. The prison doctor came in. The hangman who was peer point came in and a preacher came to say a little prayer.

He said a moldy miserable little prayer. Then he began to walk toward the scaffold a little room he had to go through a door and charlie peace was following and the man was reading. And suddenly he mentioned hell.

Oh yes. He mentioned heaven about streets of gold and angels and everything. Then he mentioned hell. Charlie peace reached for the for the preacher and spun him around and said what are you reading. Well he said i'm reading from a a book called the consolations of religion consolations.

I'm not concerned about concerned about heaven. I'm not going. You just said a minute ago that hell is a bottomless pit. You said that hell is fire that never goes out. You said hell is a death that never dies.

Do you mean that when i swing on that rope something goes out of me away into what you call eternity and my body goes down into that quick line. But something gets out of me before i get down to the bottom.

Are you telling me that i charlie peace will be eternally burning and never consumed eternally dying and never die eternally in the grip of death and never feel relieved. I'm going to be in eternal agony forever and ever.

Oh the preacher said that's what i was taught at school. I don't care what you were taught he said. I'm asking you do you believe in a hell like that where people never never ever die. Well i i i think it is where charlie peace said that was.

The city of leeds is in the middle of england northern england. Over here you have liverpool. Over there you have hell. Charlie peace said if you covered the ground between the hull hull and and liverpool.

Thank you. If you covered it with broken glass and made me crawl on my hands and knees leaving a trail of my own blood behind me and i could snatch just one man from that eternal hell. I would say charlie peace you've done.

Preaching Hell Despite Its Unpopularity

Well i hear people say you know one of the signs of the last day is all this heresy. But the jehovah's witnesses don't believe in hell. The mormons don't believe in hell. Mooniites don't believe in hell.

I've got news for you. You don't believe in hell either. We've got a crowded house for once in six months normally. And get a chair anywhere you like. Are you suggesting to me that either this school or any other school around here would live.

Its normal course if we all believe that men outside of jesus christ are going to perish forever and ever and ever. Come on now. Here's a man and all his life. He went to church when they made appeals.

He pulled out a checkbook. He's very generous a soft touch as you say. He'd give to missions. He'd give to other things. But he died unsaved. He had a fine service the preacher told lies over him. They often do when they bury people.

And he wakes up in hell. And when. And he looks there into eternity and has his precious wife. He's scorned and ridiculed and laughed at. And she's at the marriage supper of the lamb. And he's going to burn forever and ever.

That's what the word of god says. He sees in the bosom of abraham. He sees lazarus there. I went to a lovely wedding last week and the bride came down the eye looking so gorgeous. And i was. I tried to pronounce the benediction.

At least i tried to pray. But you know i suddenly got caught away in that thing. I recognized this sweet young lady in beautiful white. And then i visualized the marriage supper of the lamb with millions and millions and millions of people there.

And singing such you've never heard. Because there's 144 000 in the orchestra again not with guitars. Thank god. With harps. I've told you what guitars are. They're backslidden harps. Can you imagine a choir a multitude which no one can number.

And 144 000 in the orchestra singing with rapturous delight. And watching the bride come. Who is she. She's the bride of brides who's going to be married to the king of kings. And there's a man moldy in hell.

And he's looking back and thinking. How many times i laughed when my wife talked about that. How many times i heard a preacher. I thought it was too far out. I thought it was a kind of a fairy story. Everybody who goes to hell will be able to recite every word of every sermon they ever heard since they were a child.

The agony of hell is there's no way out. The agony of hell is that we'll have the sharpest memories you ever had if we get there. He seeth abraham in the bosom. He says the man in the bosom of abraham.

Other words in heaven. And he prayed. What does he pray in verse 23. You you you notice that he can see in hell. He lift up his eyes being in torments. All that conscience he smothered. Now it feels like a spark of hell itself inside of him.

Verse 23. He can see verse 24. He can hear because abraham spoke to him. Verse 24. He cried and said father abraham have mercy on me. And sent lazarus. He may dip uh dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue.

Look. That man's going to be chewing his own tongue for a million years. And he'll see people sitting at the marriage supper of the lamb drinking the wine of the ages. He has an appetite but he there's nothing to satisfy all his life.

He lost it for women. And now he can't celebrate his lust. If you think men aren't idiots why in god's name do you think they get aids. They say it's the most cruel thing that men have ever experienced.

It's even more painful than a woman having an agonizing time in childbirth. But that pill of aids he has for three years. He won't live more more than three years with it. It's just a foretaste not a glory divine.

It's a glow a foretaste of eternal misery. He's got hell on the way to help the devil's a bad task master send lazarus that he may recognize lazarus. I tell you if you go to hell you recognize people.

You see your preacher. You wish to god. He come and preached you once more. You'll hear your mother praying. I wish to god. You'd you'd been sensible when she was praying. You remember every time your conscience began to tremble and you smothered it.

You remember when the fear of god came on you. But the fear of man crowded out. The fear of god come on. Now hell is eternal. There's no escape. There's no way out. I went to a devil's island just off the coast of south america and sneb and israela.

I went across with the officers from the prison on a beautiful yacht and i said well this is some place i noticed. This great big prison of yours has no bars around it. No no no no no. The men are walking around the edge.

Don't they ever try. Don't they jump in the water. One or only one man in history ever got out of this prison. This sea is the most shark infested sea there is anywhere in the americas. One man did it.

Only one. Usually the sharks are there. Usually there's a patrol boat. When a man up there sees a man dive in the water he sounds he sounds a buzzer. And he also sends a message to the coast of america.

And they send a patrol boat out. The man who escaped had been a champion swimmer. And the reason he escaped was every time he kicked and kicked. And the sharks didn't come. Every time he saw a boat or somebody coming there he swam underwater said he swam underwater for miles coming up and down up and down up and down.

But he made it. But no man has ever escaped the eternal judgment of god again. They go in and out of the city of god. Nobody ever went in and out of hell. Just then say what you like. Every true revival.

Revival, Holiness, and Preaching on Hell

I know we don't preach it today. We're smooth. We're careful. I see people half naked in some places. Well you see we go into these uh camps with these young people and we dress like them to win them.

I suppose some of you boys are praying. You get called to a nudist colony. Well if you're going to dress like them to win them you have to go without anything on. It's the very opposite. We don't dress like them to win them.

That's the very opposite that we do what we do. The opposite of that. You cannot find me a generation of preachers you can have who you like that hasn't had a revival at some time. And one of the main supports in that theological supports in that revival has been preaching on hell.

Moody preached on it very much again. I read through the other week where greatest revival in the history of america was 17 what 27 through jonathan edwards maybe the greatest genius america ever had went to school at university of yale at nine.

At 13 years of age he became the uh he uh valedictarian and he went on and on. But he was in the course of an ordinary series of meetings. When revival broke out he knew that george whitfield was coming later but didn't say.

We're going to have a big meeting and we're going to stage whitfield and get some good singers. Then it was on the ordinary course of a preaching service. But remember this man according to his daughter at nine years of age says people think my daddy has a face of granite and a voice of gravel.

And he preached. Remember that message of sinners in the hands of an angry god. And all they know is my daddy's thundering. I wish to god we saw he could thunder. These days. Everybody's teaching. Do you know why.

Teaching. Because you didn't get to your conscience. It doesn't disturb you. We don't show it is sit nice and be comfortable. Just talk to us. America is going to hell on on under about 13 feet of teaching tapes from the coast of from canada down to the gulf.

The Eternal Perspective on Tragedy and Earthly Ambition

You read today or hear today about this horrible thing that happened right after this super accident that they had down in mexico city and now about 60 miles east of bogota the capital of colombia a volcano that hasn't spewed out for 400 years except one little freak about 100 years ago and it blew the top and melted all the snow in the mountains and sent a tidal wave of 13 feet deep that's wiped out towns.

20 000 people have perished. The people say isn't it awful. Isn't it awful. They've lost their furniture. Come on supposing. You look it from god's angle. Most of the catholics they didn't know god. 13 000 20 000 people gone to hell.

But we listened to the news as though they were you know just going to smoke and relax. 15 000 people perished there in mexico city. Many of the thousands not even be discovered. They went straight to perdition.

Most of them tonight. They showed children just plastered with dirt and plastered with blisters because the villages near the volcano felt the fiery blast as though the door of hell had opened and the skin came off.

The people and there they are in their misery. And if you translate that again into this thing that's mentioned here in the word of god this man has spent all this time getting nothing again. Quoting that old chorus.

Turn your eyes upon jesus. Look full in his wonderful face. And the things of earth will grow strangely dim. I turn it around and say when you get to eternity and look back you'll discover you spent most of you spent your life gathering sawdust.

The things of earth for eternity won't look strangely dim. They look strangely grim. You see this man prays. He doesn't pray about his sins. He doesn't even pray to be delivered. He just says send lazarus and he may dip his finger in water and cool my tongue.

I am tormented in this flame. Won't it be something for a man to sit there in hell where there's no rest there's no peace. And suddenly he looks up and he sees his wife at the marriage supper of the lamb.

Or his wife in a marvelous thing that's mentioned. Where is it matthew 7. Where they sit down with abraham and isaac and all the saints of all the ages. And he sees his wife with a glorified body. He sees with resurrection life.

He sees with the majesty he never dreamed that he'd ever see her in. And here he is in his perpetual misery. There's going to be no change for him. I'm tormented. Tormented with my memory. Tormented with the times i rejected god.

Tormented with the times he offered me some service and i didn't do it. Tormented with my guilt. It's come alive now more than ever. I'm tormented in this flame. I say again believe. You remember every sermon he ever heard preached.

You remember every time the spirit of god was tugging at his conscience. And he said no. Isn't it amazing that an omnipotent god would let you smack him in the face. He struggled with you so often and he hasn't destroyed you because you disobeyed him for him.

That says depth of mercy. Can there be mercy still reserved for me. Can my god is wrathful. Bear me. The chief of sinners spare. I had long withstood his grace long provoked him to his face would not hearken to a call grieved him by a thousand falls.

Isn't that your history. Be honest about it. Did you really get saved the very first time you heard the gospel. I heard the gospel a hundred times. And yet i was only 14 when i got saved. I was only 18 when i got filled with the spirit.

And then i went to a church where holiness was stressed. I'm glad one day somebody pushed a little book into my hands. The life of a great american. One of the greatest americans ever lived. You know him david brainer.

Christian Discipline and the Pursuit of Holiness

They died at 28. You know it's killing america killing christians. Creature comforts. Our beds are too comfortable. Our homes are too comfortable. You know some people think that they're fasting or they're really crucifying the flesh.

If you don't have a coke for two days or dr pepper or whatever your weakness is. You know we're the most undisciplined generation the world's ever known. I saw a boy in a church so long ago. I said well how old are you.

He said oh i'm 16. See that fellow there. I'm discipling him. You know what a kid 16 discipling a boy 14 disciple comes from the word discipline. How many of you are disciplined. How many go to bed at the same time every night get up every morning at the same time.

How do you discipline your appetite. How do you discipline your tongue. We have the most weak effeminate christianity the world's ever had. No but no wonder nobody wants it. It has no strength. It has no character.

It has no. I'm going to use an old word but i won't use it. Let me go back to this a minute. Abraham said son remember. You say well mr raymond that doesn't worry me too much. What doesn't. What is. I never had a very good memory.

You know sometimes i don't see tv often. But i used to like to watch these tests that they give kids one school competing against another. You know. Ask who alexander the third married or something. And they say this is intelligence test.

It's nothing of the kind. It's a memory test. If you have a good memory you can get through. It's a memory test. Son remember. You say i don't have a very good memory. But let me tell you something. I think the psychologists say the little thing down here called the repress.

In the repress complex is it of the subconscious. In one of the great hospitals in canada a few years ago they put some. I forgot what they called the things on a guy's temples electrodes. And they turned his mind back and asked him what he did when he was 11 years of age.

And he he just went through everything he did from 11 to 12. What did he do when he was 16. He went back. His mind all came back. It was replayed. Well you say i don't have a mind like that. But let's wait till the resurrection finger of jesus christ tragedy will have.

When thomas stockley was the mayor of athens in greece there were 200 000 people in the city and he knew the name of every one of them. One of the greatest generals in the world had over 115 000 soldiers in his army.

They said he could recall the name of everyone. But he says son remember. Remember. Remember in your lifetime you had your good things. You were privileged to live in a christian country. You went to a good church.

You've got me parents. Remember all the good things you had and you treated them as though they were dust or dung. You can't have them right now. Son remember. Remember the missed opportunities. Remember the times you denied the holy ghost arrived to come further into your life.

Remember. Remember every time conscience work with the touch of god on it. Son remember in your lifetime all the warnings all the pleadings. Pleadings with by men pleading by god pleadings by your relatives pleadings by the preachers.

And you turn them all all all away. Remember them now. Come on let them torment it. Then look at your wife there. She's with that holy group of people forever and ever. He says send him as he may touch my tongue.

His wife his wife is going to drink of the waters of life from the middle of the city of god. And this man is going to be riding in pain in agony. And he could have been with her. But this stole him. Sport stole him.

Some of you men have been 10 miles further up the road. If you haven't watched so much tv on football football on tv. And you've raised it. You can't get it back. I remember once when i was working with dr force in england one day he held his watch.

If he said len you see this thing god will forgive you. This thing won't you passed it up. Remember son in your lifetime. So his lifetime is over. When the great hymn was written in america was written in uh the great north church there in boston.

I preached there once and asked them to sing it. My faith looks up to thee. It was written by uh an elder in the church. And the tune was put into the hymn by the organist of the church. My faith looks up to thee.

Do you remember the last stanza. Maybe you don't. I'll tell you what it says in the last time. It says this. When ends life's transient dream. When death's cold sullen stream shall o 'er me roll. Bless savior.

Then in love fear and distrust. Remove. Oh bear me safe above a ransom. So when ends life's transient dream. We have a little creature in england like a rat. But it has a beautiful coat. It's called a mole and and men trap them.

And then they have them skinned. And they they make ladies coats. They're beautiful. You can see them all going on the on the street or in a field. Pick it out. Why didn't. Why didn't it run away. Because it's blind.

But if you hit it and kill it its eyes open. It's blind all its life. Its eyes are open. Immediately it dies. You know that's a tragedy with millions of people. They'll go through life blind blind to god blind to god's righteousness blind to his justice blind his holiness blind to his commandments.

And in a moment of time they'll wake up in hell. What's the condition of america like spiritual tonight. Zero. Why. Because we've got blind men coming out of seminaries that men there don't teach them.

They don't hear a word about hell. They're blind themselves. And they as blind men they lead the blind. They go to hell. Send me may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue. For i am tormented in this flame.

False Prophets and the Need for Worship

Let me look at my bible here. Testament a minute. Matthew 7. Matthew 7 in verse 15 it says. Beware of false prophets. They come to in sheep's clothing. But inwardly they are ravening wolves. And verse 21 says.

Not everyone that saith unto me lord lord shall enter into the kingdom of heaven. But he that doeth the will of my father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day lord lord have we not prophesied in thy name and in thy name of cast out devils.

And then i named the many mighty things. Verse 23 says then that i profess unto them. I never knew me. Ye workers of iniquity depart from me. Remember the first word of jesus was not come unto me. His last word is depart from me.

And he's saying it to preachers. He's saying it to miracle workers. He's saying it to men that have bled money by the millions of dollars out of people. And they're going to say we prophesied in thy name in that something.

They said we did it in my name. He said your workers of iniquity. You did it in my name to exalt your name. I never knew you you say. But god knows all things. Yes he does. He's of holy rise. And to behold iniquity.

Well then didn't he know what they were doing. Surely watched every miracle they did. But he said i never knew you in a love relationship. You were professional preachers. You never had a love a love relationship with him.