A Plain Talk on Hell — E.A. Johnston

Religious Activity Without the New Birth

You can go to hell as a deacon. You can go to hell as a pastor. You can go to hell as a seminary professor. And you can go to hell as the head of an entire denomination. Going to hell is easy. All you have to do is not be born again.

Perhaps you, friend, fall into the following category. You have religion, without life. A profession, without Christ. And a church membership, without salvation. You walked an aisle and repeated a prayer and were baptized.

And you joined the church, thinking that church membership was salvation. Perhaps you cleaned yourself up on the outside somewhat. And you know something about Reformation. You may have quit boozing, stopped smoking, quit going to places of ill repute when you joined the church.

But you know nothing of regeneration. You must be born again. The title of my message this evening, friends, is Plain Talk About Hell. Because I can't make it any plainer than this. If you have never experienced a new birth, you are on your way to a devil's hell.

Hell as the Destiny of the Unregenerate

Unless you've been washed in the blood and born from above, then hell will be your home for all eternity, and your neighbors will be the damned. That's about as plain as I can make it. When George Whitefield preached, he preached in such plain language that everyone could understand it, from a high society duke to a little child.

And it is my intention here this evening, friends, to take you off your false bottom if you're truly not saved. Oh, why go to hell, friend? Why will you die? Turn ye, turn ye, says the God of the Bible.

Hell is a horrible place, filled with the wicked dead and populated by demon entities. I once knew a Satan worshiper. He was so deep into Satan worship that he possessed a demon, and this demon ordered him to do things, and he would do it.

The demon would tell him to go steal a ram from a farm and then kill it and sacrifice it to Satan, and he would go and do it. He told me that he could see demons wherever he went. If he went to the mall, he could see demon entities walking between the people at the mall.

He said that there are demons wherever you go, and he would see them every day. He saw them all the time. He said some cities were more populated by demons, more than others, and he said the most populated city that was full of demons was Rome.

He said that when he was in Rome, it was crawling with demons, and that's what hell is like, friends. It's an abode populated by demon entities, and if you're cast into hell, they will brush up against you, and there's nothing you can do about it.

Jesus’ Teaching on the Necessity of the New Birth

All you have to do to go to hell is to continue to be a church member who has never been born again. What does it mean to be born again? Well, let's turn to our passage this evening, friends, as we will be in the Gospel of John.

In chapter 3 and verse 3, in this passage, Jesus speaks plainly to a religious scholar, and he tells them, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God, meaning, if you are not a subject of the new birth, you cannot go to heaven, but you surely will go to hell.

That's plain talk about hell. Except a man be born again, meaning, there's no other way to escape the fires of hell but to be born again. Well, what does it mean to be born again? I've had people ask me that from time to time.

What the New Birth Is Not

Well, let us first see what it is not. It is not walking an aisle to accept Jesus. It is not repeating the sinner's prayer. It is not being baptized, and it is not making a profession of Christ, and it is not joining the church.

Those are all things a lost person can do under the cloak of an empty religious profession. Like I said at the beginning of this message, you can go to hell as a deacon, or a pastor, or a seminary professor.

You can go to hell as a good choir member, or a good Sunday school teacher. Hell is full of unconverted church members who served their church in some capacity and thought that was salvation. Unless you are born again, you will surely end up in hell.

Jesus Explains the Spiritual Birth

Jesus spoke very plainly to this religious man, Nicodemus. He told him that which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is spirit. So here in our text, Jesus explains to us what the term born again means.

It is a divine work of God performed in a center by the Holy Spirit. Look at verses seven and eight, friends. Marvel not that I said unto thee, ye must be born again, meaning there is no other way to get to heaven than this way of the new birth.

The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, meaning when the wind blows, you hear it. But canst not tell whence it cometh and whither it goeth. That's the old king's English for you can hear the wind, but you can't see the wind because the wind is invisible, and so is the Holy Spirit.

So is every one that is born of the spirit. Listen to me, friend. If you are not born of the spirit, you have a serious spiritual problem, and that means you have missed Christ. Because if you miss the new birth, then you miss Christ, and only Christ can save you.

Regeneration as a Supernatural Work of God

Christ is salvation. The new birth is a supernatural act of regeneration upon the heart by the Spirit of God. It is the implantation of a new nature, the divine nature of God. Perhaps this story will help you to understand it better.

George Whitefield’s Discovery of True Religion

George Whitefield, the great British evangelist, was a religious student at Oxford when he met John and Charles Wesley. And at the time, they all belonged to a religious group of students there called the Holy Club.

And this group of students were so deeply religious that they met often and spent entire nights in prayer. They fasted and visited the poor and those in prison. They visited widows and did all sorts of self-denial as they served their religion.

But the problem was they were all unconverted men at the time who were merely working their way to heaven. Then one day, Charles Wesley loaned the young George Whitefield a book by a Scotsman named Henry Scougal.

It was called The Life of God in the Soul of Man. And as George Whitefield read that little book he realized he was a lost religious man. That true religion was the life of God in the soul of man. That to be born again was a divine work of grace by God whereby through the supernatural act of regeneration the Holy Spirit implanted a new nature in man.

A divine work of God. A union of the soul with God. To where the life of God was in the soul of man. And from that time onward George Whitefield began preaching his constant theme you must be born again.

And God used that message from the lips of Whitefield to shake two continents in revival. Whitefield was preaching on Boston Common to 20 ,000 people during the Great Awakening. And this is when Boston only had a population of about 60 ,000.

One third of the city was in that vast crowd as he preached on the necessity of a supernatural act of God in regeneration through the new birth. And a Boston minister approached him one day and asked, Mr. Whitefield since you've been amongst us all you preach is you must be born again.

When will you preach another message, sir? To which Whitefield replied until you are born again. Now listen to me friends this has been a plain message on hell. I have warned you that unless you are born again you will go to hell.

Christ as the Only Hope of Salvation

That's what Jesus declared. If you're not born again then you have missed Christ and you have a serious problem. Hell is in your future unless you are born again. Jesus said except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.

Now that's plain talk friends. Whether you believe it or not Jesus is your only hope of salvation. He is the remedy for sin. Repent and believe on him. Let us pray.