The Burning Hell That Jesus Preached — Ian Paisley

The Burning Hell Preached by Jesus

I want to bring this evening a second and concluding message upon the subject that we commenced last Lord's Day, the burning hell which Jesus preached. The burning hell which Jesus preached is an answer to an Ulster television program specially designed to forescore and ridicule upon the teaching of the Word of God.

And of course, as I said last Lord's Day, the powers that be in Havlock House saw to it that no sleeping Ulster preacher would have the opportunity in this program to see it clearly. The Bible really teaches.

And we pass words of condemnation upon the principal of the Irish Baptist College who appeared upon the program and was very weak indeed upon this subject of hellfire. Now, I showed you last Lord's Day from the Word of God that the Lord Jesus Christ, that there was literal fire in hell.

We saw that hell was a place. And what an awful player, John the Baptist, raising both hands to heaven, to his ministry at the bank of Jordan. Why did he utter such words with such zeal and such fire and such passion?

I'll tell you why. Because he knew that hell was a real place. And we went down the Word of God last Sunday and we showed you that Jesus taught that hell was a literal place, that Jesus was a place of literal fire.

The Bible as the Sole Rule of Faith

I want to carry on this message this evening and I want to show you from the Word of God that the very character of hell, as described in the Bible, makes you deny, then you must deny the literalness of the place called hell itself.

Now, we're turning to the Word of God. This is the sole rule of faith and practice. We're not going to some tome of theology. We're not going to some volume written by some philosopher. We're not going to the reasoning of the schools.

We're going to the infallible book and to the infallible Christ. What have the Scriptures, the Bible, taught the Lord Jesus Christ? And we are, on apology, a Bible-believing church and a Bible-preaching church.

That's all we preach. We preach the Word of God. You want to know what we preach? Here it's here. The blessed Word of God. Hallelujah for the book. Amen. We've got authority to that. We're standing where Christ stood.

That's why we're strong. That's why this church is growing. That's why God has blessings. We received into our membership this morning thirty-six new members. That's why, because the Lord's blessings.

Saving people, why? Because we preach the Word. There's nothing formal about this church. You already know that, of course. If there was anything formal about it, I would be the first one to step on it.

I don't believe in formality. I believe in the fire. That's what I believe in. Formality chills you, but the fire warms you. And by the look of some of you, you need warmth. So we're going to warm you tonight.

Yes. Praise the name of the Lord. Now let's look at the Bible and remember what I'm showing, that the character of hell proves literal fire. And I'm going down through the characteristics of the place called hell.

Lazarus, the Rich Man, and the Physical Reality of Hell

Now, first of all, Luke's Gospel, chapter 16. And I want to show you some things here for a moment or two. I want to show you that there is a call here for literal water. What use would literal water be if it there was not?

What sense is literal fire in hell? Then friend, you've got to destroy the literalness of the body prepared for the judgment. It's all here in Luke 16, isn't it? And let me tell you that Luke 16 is not a parable.

Luke 16 is a historical record given by the infallible Christ. He didn't say a symbolical rich man. He said a certain rich man. And he actually named the name of the beggar Lazarus. Now look at it. It says the rich man also died and was buried.

There's nothing about the burial of Lazarus. Because my friend, as I showed you this morning, you can't really bury a Christian. A Christian's body is not buried. A Christian's body is sown. When you go out to sow, you expect a resurrection, don't you?

So you don't bury the Christian's body, thank God you sow it. It's sown in dishonor. It's going to be raised in honor. I was out visiting in the Musgrave Park Hospital this afternoon. I was with a brother.

He said to me, going down to Lisburn Road, he said, I'd love to go and see the tomb of Dr. Henry Cook. I said, well, you're just beside it. Just turn back and I'll take you there. So I took him into the Malone Burying Grounds.

And you know, many of the great old Revival preachers, Johanna, James Edgar, Henry Cook, they're all buried there. And my brother said to me, he said, why, there'll be a stir here on the day of resurrection.

And so there will be. These men rise in the resurrection of the just. The body of the believer is not buried, it's only sown. So when you lift the Belfast Telegraph, and they will have three-inch black headlines that day that Ian Pearsley is dead, you'll know it's a lie.

Because I've been living more than I ever lived. They're not really believing. You'll know that. And you know, the Telegraph couldn't tell the truth about me, even if they tried anyway. So there you are.

They rang me up some time ago, and I said, what are you ringing me for? He says, we heard you were shot. And we wanted to confirm it. I said, that's right, you wanted to confirm it, all right. He says, I'm not shot.

And I have no intention of letting anybody shoot me either. Good afternoon. Amen. It wasn't a dialogue, it was a monologue. Now, when you get down to this portion of scripture, you'll find the rich man was buried.

And in hell, he's calling for what? He's calling for Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his water. Did the rich man see in hell? He woke up. He lift up his eyes. That's the first time he woke up. He was sleeping while he lived.

But in hell, he lift up his eyes. Thank God for a man that could have wakened up in time and could see him. And friend, if you have never awakened to see your lost, perishing sinner, and God see him, wake him up.

He saw, he heard, he thirsted, he felt. Friend, when I go to Calvary and I stand under the shadow of the cross, I hear a cry from Calvary, I thirst, I thirst. And I know that my Savior was enduring my hell for me.

At the cross, he thirsted that you might never thirst. And from the depths of our heart, we cry, Savior, he has delivered us from wrath to come. Save them from going down to the pit. For I have found the ransom.

Don't you see the character of hell here? It's stamped with literalness. And to be called for water, it was literal fire. I want to tell you, friend, soul anguish wouldn't be soothed with water. Anguish that's spiritual could not be soothed with something that's physical, eternal anguish.

You know why? Because the body is the instrument of sin. That's why. And God will punish the instrument of sin. You have sinned in your body, you'll pay for it in eternity, friend. The very body you've sinned in.

The very instrument that was used for sin will bear the curse of God. And thank God, this instrument that has been redeemed and used for God's service, it will bear the glory of the Lord. Let's look a second time at the Word.

Fire, Weeping, and Gnashing of Teeth

Let's turn to Matthew, his gospel. Matthew's gospel, chapter 13. Glory to God. Cast them into a furnace of fire. There shall be wheeling, gnashing of teeth. And you go down, my friend, to verse 50. And we read these words.

And shall cast them into the furnace of fire. This furnace. I've talked to men who have a bitter soul trouble. I've gone into homes and the hearts of the father and mother were torn because of some grief that settled down in their inmost being.

But I never saw yet a man gnash his teeth because of mental pain. No, mental pain, my friend, does not affect the body in that way. But I've gone through the hospital wards. I've seen men with broken limbs and torn ligaments and fractured and smashed and broken bodies.

And as they lay in pain, I've seen them gnash their teeth. Why? Because they were suffering physical torment. And my friend, this torment that's here is physical. They gnashed in hell. This is why we're concerned, Senator Budger.

This is why this church runs on prayer. This is why the preacher pleads with the people to pray for him. This is why the preacher, before he preaches, bows the knee and says, I'm not here to question.

But Jesus said, I'm here to proclaim it. I'm not here to argue. The gospel is not an argument. The gospel is a declaration. I've got to declare it. Oh, my friend, tonight you're listening to me and you're in danger of gnashing of teeth down in hell.

The Darkness of Hell and the Cup of Damnation

Tell you something else, friend. Hell is characterized by something else. Matthew 8 and 12. Children shall be cast out because it's a literal flee. And hell, says the old critic of the Bible, I've got you now.

How could fire be darkness? If you say that, you're only showing your own ignorance. For the greatest heat known in science is the dark flame. The greatest heat is darkness. Let me give you this statement.

Luminosity is vibration of the ether. Light is a wave of ether driven hard. But let the waves be driven faster and faster. The sight, sense, feels that take in the luminosity. And what is light becomes darkness.

And what a darkness. A sound higher than the register of your ear can take becomes silence. And what a silence. The silence of an ear burst. The darkness, an eye blindness. There are chemicals that give forth no light when they burn.

But they pierce and bite to blister light at all. As the black depths of the bottom absorb any task. Jesus knew what he was talking about. He made every flame ever know. When he talked about the blackness of darkness forever, he was talking facts to be plunged into hellfire.

You know what the old book says, upon the wicked, he shall rain snares, stone shall be the portion of their cup. There's man tonight in eternity and their cup is a cup brimful with bliss and happiness.

I have seen the righteous die and I have said, let me die the death of the righteous. Let my last end be like them. And our loved ones in heaven are drinking the cup of bliss and peace and happiness. Friends, I am there.

I loved long ago. Joy like a river around them does flow. And just a smile from the Savior I know is for them eternal glory. But friend, there's another cup. A cup of their cup. You wouldn't drink the cup of salvation, but you'll drink forever the cup with the dregs of damnation, friend.

You wouldn't join in singing of the song of redemption. But some of you, my hearers, how can I say it, but my God, it's true that they will not repent forever. If this was only the statement of a preacher, you could shrug your shoulders and go home tonight.

If this was only a school of theology's thought, you could shrug your shoulders and go home. But friend, this is a Savior. And He came all the way from heaven and then He's shedding of Calvary. Oh, how can you reject His message?

The Eternality of Hell and the Call to Repentance

How can you be so filled with folly as to stagger on down to the damned? Man without Christ, woman without Christ tonight, get in your knees and cry to God for mercy. The time is short. Eternity is long.

Long it never ends. If there was some escape door from the bottomless pit, if I could say to you, my hearers, tonight that after ten million, billion years, that hope would revive, that a star would appear in the darkness of hell, that there would come a morning in this terrible night, you would have some hope.

But no star will ever arise in the dark night of hell. There'll be no morning for the black tradition. It's forever, forever, and forever. May God have mercy upon you, sinner. May you awaken to see your need.

May you come to the blood tonight and to the cross tonight and to God's place of pardon and God's place of peace. You know, these Jehovah Witnesses, these false cultists, they come along and they say death means annihilation, destruction means annihilation, perdition means annihilation.

You have nothing to worry about. Don't be fooled, friend. Oh, friend, there's too much at stake to be fooled. Let me show you from the Word of God what perdition means, what destruction means, what death means, so that you can be absolutely sure if you have your testament.

Perdition and the Lake of Fire in Revelation

Turn with me now to the book of the Revelation. Revelation chapter 17 and verse 8. The beast that thou sawest was and is not and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit and go into perdition. And they that dwell on the earth shall wonder whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was and is not and yet is.

Would you look at that? Into perdition. Now, the word that's translated perdition there is the same word that's translated elsewhere, destruction. I want to show you what perdition and destruction is.

Come to Revelation 19. Revelation 19 and verse 20 says they shall go into perdition. Now, what's perdition? Here's what it is. Revelation 19, 20. And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that received the mark of the beast and them that worshiped his image.

These both were cast alive into a lake of fire. What does God mean by perdition? What does God mean by destruction? God means the lake of fire. All right, you say, preacher, you go to the lake of fire and you're burned up, you're annihilated, and that's it all.

Oh, don't be deceived, Frank. God has made it clear. Turn to the next chapter. Revelation chapter 20 and verse 10. And in chapter 20, there's a thousand year period. A thousand years between the sending of the false prophet and the sending of the beast into the lake of fire.

And at the end of the thousand years, the devil, look at it, verse 10, and the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire. Look at it. Where the beast, prophet, where? It doesn't say that.

It's not in the past tense. Beast in hell. Oh, this is terrible, isn't it? This is the word of God. You can make sure, friend, that hell is not annihilation. Yes, and they come along and they say death's annihilation, is it?

The Second Death and Everlasting Torment

You turn to chapter 21 and verse 8. What does it say there? Look at it. The fearful, unbelieving, abominable murderers, whoremongers, and all liars of the second death are all one in the same. And what are they?

They are eternal, conscious, tormented in the lake of fire forevermore. There's no annihilation in the book, friend. It's not there. God says what he means, and God means what he says. My, you turn over, my friend, in the book of Revelation, to Revelation 14 and verse 10 and 11, and it says the smoke of their torment.

Listen to this. Verse 10, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God. That's what you're going to drink, friend. Unseeth one. That's your cup forever. And what does it say? He shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb.

And the smoke of their torment ascended forever and ever. Look at it. Physical, never-ending torment in physical fire forever and ever. And don't sinner be foolish enough to mock it, lest you taste it sooner than you expect.

Let's bow our hands.