Souls of the Damned Cast Into Hell Fire — E.A. Johnston

The Law’s Warning and the Reality of Hell

Preachers today have put yous in one of the most effective means to bring sinners to Christ, and that is to present them with the tares of hell. Preachers of former days knew how to use the law to shut men up to God, and how to warn them of the absolute horrors of hell's fire.

Read a copy of Jonathan Edwards' Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, friends, and you get a glimpse into how men of former days dealt with lost sinners for their good. They didn't promise them an easy way to heaven like we do today, and they didn't soft-soap the gospel like we do today either.

Rather, they preached up the terrors of the broken law, and that the sentencing of the law must be carried out upon all guilty rebels who had broken that strict and severe law of God, and that God was a God who punished sin and sent people to hell for their sins.

You won't hear many sermons today, friends, on hell, but you will hear one now as I bring it before you, with the intent that if any of my hearers are lost and without Christ, they will be awakened to their lost condition, and turn in repentance toward God and faith in Jesus Christ.

Jesus’ Warning in Mark 9

The title of my message this evening, friends, is Souls of the Damned Cast into Hellfire. My text can be found in Mark's Gospel in Chapter 9. You can turn in your Bibles there now, friends. We'll be in verses 43 to 48.

This passage is one of the most descriptive found in my Bible on the realities of hell as described by Jesus Christ. If I could walk you, friend, over to the pit of hell and lift the lid off, and let you smell the stench of sulfur and burning flesh, if you could only witness the horrors of those tortured souls engulfed in swirling red-hot flames amidst the total darkness, and listen to their shrieks and screams of agony, it would keep you awake tonight.

Listen to what Jesus had to say about hell. And 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 the 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 the worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.

And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out. It is better for thee to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye than having two eyes to be cast into hell-fire, where the worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.

The Unquenchable Fire and God’s Judgment

Listen to me, friends. Hell is no joke. Hell is a reality because Jesus said so. Hell is a place of torment that is endless, like a worm that continues to crawl and crawl, slowly and slowly, continually, and just keeps wiggling on and on forever, five times here in our text.

Jesus places emphasis on the terrifying fact that the fires of hell will never go out. They just continue to burn on and on, like a raging furnace, as God pours His wrath upon hell-deserving sinners who have broken His holy law and committed treason against the sovereign.

Those that are ruled by sin and life should be ruined by sin and hell-fire. When I was a boy in high school, I had a job where I worked in a grocery store, and one of my tasks was to take a box cutter and cut down the boxes that the produce came in.

I then had to carry those boxes down to the cast-iron furnace and open that heavy door and throw those boxes into that furnace. There was always white-hot swirling flames in there. Why, it singed my face just as soon as I opened that furnace door.

Hell is like that furnace, friend. I've heard preachers make the following statement. They say, God won't send you to hell. You send yourself there. I don't agree with that, friend, because if I walked you over to the brink of hell and told you to jump in, you would turn heel and run for your life.

No. God sends you to hell because God is a God who must punish sin, and Jesus uses the word cast. In another place, Jesus relates there be bound hand and feet and cast in there, and that means thrown in there against their will.

The Damned in Outer Darkness

Listen to me, friend. The souls of the damned are cast into hell where they are forever damned to a place of torment and punishment or once you're locked up in there, friend, in that pitch-black region of outer darkness, dark like outer space.

You can never leave. Your only companions will be demons and the souls of the damned around you who scream and holler continually as they suffer in that furnace of affliction. Jesus warned that hell is such a horrible region that you'd be better off plucking out your eye or chopping off your foot or cutting off your hand so as not to go there.

Jesus warned that the fire is never quenched. Five times he underlines that statement that you will pay attention to his solemn warning not to be cast into hellfire. Turn ye, turn ye. Why will you die?

Except ye repent. Ye shall all likewise perish. Perish into what? A prison of never-ending flames and where suffering is endless like a worm that never dies. Listen to me, friends. The souls of the damned in hell suffer on and on and on and on forever and ever.

Hell’s Torments and the Urgency of Repentance

I'll go to a funeral and I hear someone try to comfort the grieving widow by saying well, at least old Joe is not suffering anymore. Listen to me, friend. If old Joe died in his sins then he's suffering a thousand times more for thousands and thousands of years with no end or relief in sight.

Don't go to hell, friend. Hell is a house of horrors a chamber of terrors populated by demon entities which will tear at you and torture you and your screams will be drowned out by the shrieks of the damned all around you.

Serial killers and perverts are waiting for you in hell right now. Their evil wickedness is multiplied by the thousands and they want you for their next victim. Hell is a nightmare you can never wake up from.

Hell is the worst horror film you've ever seen become reality and there's no escape. There's no exit doors in hell. I can't paint the terrors of hell black enough for you, friend. I can only warn you not to go to that region of the souls of the damned where flames swirl and twist like enraged demons licking and devouring everyone in their destructive path.

A lake that burns with fire is where the souls of the damned will be cast to forever sink in a swirling abyss of red hot and white flames that make you scream in continuing agony. Friend, please don't go to hell.

Christ as the Only Way of Salvation

I've done my level best to warn you. Listen to this poor preacher who cares enough about your soul to be honest with you and warn you of your great danger. You may suddenly be removed from this world through sudden death and make your bed in hell tonight.

I say with John the Baptist flee from the wrath to come. Turn from your sins and repentance toward God and place your faith in Christ, friend. Christ is the only way to salvation. Christ is salvation.

Listen to this gospel, please. Oh, friend, you have to get under the blood. You have to get under the blood of Christ. Listen to this gospel, please. Seek ye the Lord while he may be found. Call ye upon him while he is near.

Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts. And let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon. Turn to Christ, friend, and repent.

It's your only hope. Let us pray.