Voices From Hell Speaking to America - Part 4 — Alan Cairns

Voices From Hell and Their Testimony to America

And I do so again tonight. But on this occasion, the voice that speaks from heaven bids you listen to the voices from hell. That's what I want us to think of this evening for a few minutes. Voices from hell and what they have to say to America today.

Sheol as the Old Testament Name for Hell

First and foremost, very obviously, they testify to the reality of hell. Now, I know that commentators and linguists generally, coming to this passage, take the word that's translated hell, the Hebrew term sheol, and they most generally say that it refers to the grave in the sense of simply the state of death.

There are places where that is the significance of the word. But to insist on that in this passage is to ignore the main thrust of the meaning of this word. Wherever the word sheol appears in the Old Testament to describe the state of people after death, it always has the connotation of darkness, a place of dread, a place that is threatened as the punishment of God upon sin.

In fact, I agree with the great American theologian W .G .T. Shedd when he said, in reality, sheol is the proper name for hell in the Old Testament, and there really is no other. I want you to understand this, therefore.

Beyond the Grave: The Continued Existence of Souls

This is not merely a translation or a mistranslation of the King James translators when it says hell, where many modern versions will say grave. They have got to the depths of this word. They have laid hold of the true and inward meaning of this word, and of the idea in the passage.

God is dealing with people whose bodies are lying in the grave. But if that's all he had meant to say, there would have been another term entirely that he would have used. He is going beyond the obvious.

He's going beyond the place of interment, and he's looking to the place of souls. He's speaking of a continued existence. He's speaking of people who are testifying from their place of punishment in the darkness, and the terror of God's hell.

America’s Denial of Hell

The very first thing that is obvious, if this is a reference to hell as it is, is that these people in hell, like the man that Jesus spoke of in the Bible of Debas, the rich man, and Lazarus, saying hell is real.

That's a message that America desperately needs to hear today. According to the pollsters, and of course we live in a day when you have polls about everything. I was taken... I thought it was rather humorous.

A local radio station just the other day was conducting a poll. And the poll was, are you going to go to the polls on Tuesday? Vote to tell us if you're going to vote. You know, they take a poll about anything nowadays.

But according to the pollsters, Americans want to believe in heaven, and they do believe in heaven. Of course, they have the most obscure, heretical, and crazy views as to who gets to heaven and why. If ever you want to get proof of the utter curse of apostasy, and what it has done to this nation, you've just got to find out what Joe Public believes is the way to heaven.

And it's totally unbiblical. But when they're asked about hell, no, no, we don't believe in that. And here's the amazing thing. Well, maybe it's not amazing at all. When they go to the churches, they go around the churches and they ask the same question.

And we're reaching the stage where there's practically nobody left in the churches who believes in the reality of hell. And those who do sing dumb about it, and preachers rarely mention it, it's not the end thing.

It's not the way to win friends and influence people. So therefore, you ignore it. Men and women, let me tell you why preachers and evangelists, I, and even theologians pervert their skills and their learning to try and prove the fact, as they would see it, that there's no hell.

Ezekiel and Luke: Objective Testimony About Hell

God says there are voices from hell, and you should listen to them. In many ways, as I've indicated, this text in Ezekiel 32 is an Old Testament counterpart to that passage in Luke chapter 16 where the Lord Jesus speaks of the rich man of Lazarus.

And I want to tell you, this puts an end to all argument. We have learned, and theologians who will tell you, that there is no such thing as an everlasting, burning, tormenting hell. It's not real. They tell you, I can't conceive of this.

I can't believe in this. You know, that's not really the point, is it? What does it matter what I can bring myself to believe in, or bring myself not to believe in? What does that establish? Nothing, except that I may be crazy.

We've got to get to some objective truth and reality here. The Lord Jesus, who spoke more about hell than all the other preachers in the Bible put together. The Lord Jesus, who has love incarnate. The Lord Jesus, who out of love gave Himself to save sinners because there was a place called hell.

The reality of that place, stamped upon His own heart and mind. The Lord Jesus said, there was a rich man who died and was buried, and in hell He lift up His eyes, being in torments. Wouldn't it be good enough for anybody that the Lord Jesus said, there is a hell, a place of torment?

The Voices of the Rich Man and Father Abraham

Wouldn't that convince anybody with any ounce of spiritual insight or wit? But the Lord Jesus goes further, and He lets you hear the voice from hell. The rich man cries, I am tormented. Now, if the testimony of the Son of God on its own is not sufficient, will you not hear the testimony of the man who has already died, and He's already gone into eternity, and He says, hell is real.

And then the Lord Jesus adds a third strand, for a threefold cord is not easily broken. And He gives you the testimony of Father Abraham. And He looks at this man and He says, thou art tormented. And men and women, I want to put it to you very clearly.

Christ’s Tears Over Judgment

Hell is real. That realization brought our Savior to tears. I read in Luke chapter 19, that He stood one day and He looked. As He came near, He beheld the city, verse 41, and He wept over it. I wonder what He would do with New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, or Greenville.

He wept over it, saying, if thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace, but now they are hid from thine eyes. The reality of hell reduced our Savior to tears.

You hear the voices from hell tonight. Some of you young people, perhaps, and some of you not so young anymore.