Living on the Verge of Hell — E.A. Johnston

The Danger of Living Outside Christ

A person outside of Christ is a person in great danger, a person who has not savingly been brought to Christ, lives their life upon a slippery precipice over a dark and treacherous chasm. A person who has never had their sins pardoned by God is a person who walks blindly through this world on their way to eventual destruction.

False Security and the Reality of Hell

A person who has never had their sins washed in the blood of Christ through the forgiveness of sins lives under a delusion that all will someday be well with their soul, but the reality of their danger is not apparent to them in their blind ignorance, for they are indeed living on the very verge of hell, and at any moment can be suddenly removed from this world and brought violently into another world against their will, into a world full of agony and misery, of torment and anguish.

A devil's hell is a place of unrest, unease and unending damnation, of fear. There are many good church members in hell at this hour who mistook church membership for salvation. Although they got to church every Sunday, they made the fatal error of never getting to Christ.

There are many religious demons in hell, for they once were angels in heaven before they lost their first estate by joining in the rebellion with Lucifer against the Most High God. And there are many religious devils sitting in churches on Sunday mornings, proud in their accomplishments in life and proud of their social stature and status in men's eyes.

There are thousands upon thousands of deceived church members who are living on the verge of hell. And that's the title of my message this evening, friends. Living on the Verge of Hell. My text can be found in the Gospel of Matthew, in chapter 7.

The Narrow Gate in Matthew 7

You may turn in your Bibles there now, friends. We will be in verses 13 and 14, and I bring this solemn message before you this evening. It burns in me. It burdens me. It makes me weep just having to preach it to you.

But let me read these words to us at this time. Here now is the Word of God, and may the Spirit of the Lord attend the reading of His holy Word. Enter ye in at the straight gate, for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go on thereat.

Let me pause here, friends. Our Lord Jesus Christ is issuing a solemn statement here about eternal life. To find eternal life isn't as easy as most pastors would lead you to believe, for they have broadened the way of salvation in ways Jesus Christ never did.

Straight is the gate, narrow is the way. Jesus declares in this passage that the multitudes will end up in hell. Many are on the broad road that leads to destruction, meaning the doom and damnation of hell's fire.

Many good church members are sadly on this broad road to hell, believing themselves to be saved, when in reality all they are are religious frauds and hypocrites who occupy seats in the sanctuary and serve in some capacity in church, but who are at the same time living on the verge of hell.

The Testimony of a Childhood Funeral

At any moment their last breath can be taken from them, from the flu, from a sudden accident, from an unforeseen circumstance that will thrust them from this familiar world into an unfamiliar and unwanted region of outer darkness, full of screaming and wailing and hollering, when I was just a kid of a boy, about eight years of age.

I went to my Italian grandfather's funeral, to what was known at that time as a wake. I walked down the funeral corridor with my mother, with her hand in my hand, and to my horror I heard what seemed to me the very turmoil of hell itself, with loud screams of agony and loud wailing, and as we entered the room where my Italian grandfather lay in his open casket, he was surrounded by black-clad family members who were undone with emotional grief and screaming in anguish and wailing at the top of their lungs so loudly I thought their very heads would burst right open before me.

It was a terrible scene to thrust an eight-year-old boy into, but it showed me a glimpse of the agonies of hell. For when that Italian wake was ended, they buried my grandfather in the ground, and to my amazement we all then went back to my grandmother's house and ate a meal that would choke a horse.

There was no more crying at that dinner table, but stories, and even laughter, of memories of the deceased. The terrible god-awful moaning and misery I witnessed at the funeral parlor ended at a table with food, but in hell there is no table laden with food, and no end to the remorse and misery of those individuals who are shut up in there forever and ever and ever.

Few Find the Way to Life

Many are living on the verge of hell at this very hour, the Lord Jesus declares. Look at verse fourteen. Because straight is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.

Few are saved. Few find life. Few find heaven. Few find Christ. Hell is spewing over with hordes of lost souls, wailing and weeping and screaming and hollering, and there's no end to that chamber of horrors, there's no end to that clamor.

The Torment and Bedlam of Hell

If you want a sense of this, imagine in your mind right now, if all the patients, in all the hospitals, in your town tonight, were taken off all their dope, taken off all their morphine that silences them, and they were left to suffer as they died, as people did in former times, their screams and shrieks would keep your town awake tonight.

Hell is like that constant bedlam of unrest, to no end. Hundreds of millions of souls from former generations from all over this earth are tortured in hell at this hour, and if I could walk you over to the very verge of hell, and lift the lid off that bottomless pit, the noise that would rise out of that smoking furnace would overtake your emotions and make you insensible.

Repentance, Faith, and the Blood of Christ

Many are living on the verge of hell, ready to topple over any instant. Few there be that find life on the narrow way, and pass through the difficult straight gate, and take heaven by violence. Don't be fooled, friend, by the easy-believism of the broad way to heaven, for it will surely send you to hell.

Repent of your sins, and throw down the weapons of your prideful rebellion, and beg God for mercy, and for saving faith, as you seek his Son, who is hidden in the bosom of the Father, and who must be revealed to you before he can be received.

Jesus Christ sits at the right hand of the Father, and he earned that right by way of a bloody cross. You must get unto the blood, and you must be born from above, or you will surely go to hell, and be there in torments for ever.

Let us pray.