Lost in Hell S Horrors Demons Darkness Damnation — E.A. Johnston

A Call to Regeneration and Saving Faith

O great God, I come to you now, in the name of thy dear Son, Jesus. There may be someone here who's never been regenerated, and they're yet a stranger to saving faith in Christ. I pray, great God, that you open hearts tonight.

I pray that you come among us this evening with your presence and disturb folks. I pray these things in the strong name of Jesus. Amen. Well, I've got a very alarming sermon tonight, friends. It's alarming because I have a burden for your souls.

Hell as a Rejected Reality

I don't want you to go to hell. There may be someone here who's one foot away, one step away from dropping into hell. Listen to me. Most folks are not concerned about going to hell when they die. Most folks believe they are going to heaven because most folks believe in an imaginary God that's all love and mercy and tolerant towards sin.

Their God is just like them. Their God would never send anyone to hell. And if hell did exist, it's just a place to party with your friends. That's what a lot of people think. I was watching a TV interview with Freddie Mercury, the lead singer for the rock band Queen.

And the TV interviewer asked Freddie Mercury if he thought he'd go to heaven when he died. And this rock star arrogantly sneered at that question and replied, I don't want to go to heaven. I'd much rather go to hell.

It would be much more fun there. Well, he's going to go there and party when he dies, he thinks. Well, he got his wish. But I guarantee you, friends, he's not having fun. Tonight, we will discuss the reality of hell and the aspects of hell.

Why it is a region of darkness and suffering and misery. And you never, ever want to go there. Get the wax out of your ears and listen to me this evening, friends. We are very confused about God and heaven today.

We are very confused about the lost and hell. We've blurred the lines between reality and fiction. We think good people go to a place called heaven only because of their goodness. And only really bad people, like serial killers and sociopaths, go to a place called hell.

Next time you watch a movie or TV show where someone dies and they'll say, Well, he's up there looking over us now. Or old grandfather is reunited with grandmother now. And they are happy. Everybody goes to heaven.

And we say that because we believe God would not send a hardworking, decent, honest person who loved people to hell. Society believes when a Hollywood entertainer dies, they go to heaven. Because of all the joy and happiness they brought people.

Surely, God wouldn't send our favorite celebrity to hell. Because our God just won't act that way. But that's not the God of the Bible, friends. The God of the Bible sends all rebels to hell. Listen to me.

The objective of this sermon is to get your attention. To get you focused off of this world. To get you focused on eternity. So that you'll be afraid of going to hell. And you'll be crowded to Christ for forgiveness of sin.

The Unseen Spiritual World

You don't want to go to hell, friend. Hell is a region of unspeakable horrors. There is an unseen world all around us in 2 Kings. We have verification of this in 2 Kings chapter 6. We read, And when the servant of the man of God was risen early and gone forth, Behold, a host compassed the city both with horses and chariots.

And his servant said unto him, Alas, my master, how shall we do? And he answered, Fear not, for they that be with us are more than they that be with them. And Elisha prayed and said, I pray thee, open his eyes that he may see.

And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man. And he saw, and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha. There is an unseen world, friends, of angels and demons all around us.

A Satan Worshiper's Account of Demonic Encounters

I once knew a Satan worshiper, and I asked him how he became a Satan worshiper. And he took the time, he took a whole hour to share with me about his life and how his eyes were opened to the unseen world.

I'll never forget it. I asked him to tell me a story, and this is what he said. He said it all began when he was listening to rock music. And one night while listening to a certain rock album, he had a desire to pray to the devil.

So he prayed to the devil. And he began to pray to the devil on a regular basis. And one night in his bedroom, a presence came into his room. It was a demonic visitor. The demon had an ancient name, and he was hideous to look at, but he spoke with authority.

And he asked the young man if he wanted to go further in Satan's kingdom, and he said yes. So the demon gave him instructions that evening that after midnight he was to drive his pickup truck to a neighboring farm out in the country.

And there he was ordered to steal a goat and to take that goat to a wooded forest where he would build a fire and then take a knife and slit the goat's throat and then place that carcass on the fire as an offering to his satanic majesty.

And if he did this, then he would be rewarded. The young man did exactly as he was told. He carried out the plan. He went to the farm. He stole a goat. He took it to the woods. He killed it. He sacrificed the goat to the devil himself.

The next evening, this same demon entity visited this young man in his bedroom, and he asked the young man if he would like to receive his reward for worshiping Satan. He said yes, and the demon told him he had the power to open his eyes to the unseen world.

The demon spoke some ancient words in a language that the young man didn't understand, but suddenly scales fell off his eyes. His eyes were opened to the unseen world. This young man told me he could see demons everywhere.

When he went to the mall, he saw demons walking beside the shoppers in the mall. He saw demons walking up and down city streets in a crowd. Everywhere he went, this young man saw demons. And he said that when he visited the city of Rome, it was terrifying because he was shocked to see the city of Rome literally crawling with hordes and hordes of demons.

I believe that young man was telling me the truth, and I know there are demons in this world. I know it for a fact because I used to live in a haunted house. When I was a young teenager, my family moved into a very haunted house.

Testimony of a Haunted House

Our first week in that little home, we were sitting in the living room watching TV, and all of a sudden we heard above us loud footsteps walking up and down the hall. We all looked at each other, startled, and my father tried to laugh it off by saying, but we soon discovered it was no laughing matter.

One time while we were sitting downstairs, we heard those footsteps. They went plop, plop, plop, and I ran upstairs to see if I could find an intruder, but there was no one there. There was no one at least that I could see.

That house had something terrible in it, terrible entities, but the worst thing of all happened occasionally. There was a stairwell, some people call them a safe room, where you go a storm closet beneath the stairway.

Well, it bothers me to even talk about it, but one time I was home alone, and all of a sudden a pounding started on that door, a pounding, a pounding, and one time it was so hot in that house, and I was home alone, it was summertime, the AC window units were on the brink, and it was like 110 degrees in that little home, and all of a sudden I heard that pounding on that door.

Well, I ran over to it, I grabbed that crystal doorknob, I yanked that door open, and what came out on me was a cold, chilly blast. I never ever went by that door again. I sure was glad when my family finally moved away.

Hell Populated by Demons

Listen to me, friend. The first aspect of hell I want us to know is that hell is populated with demons. When a lost soul goes to hell, it's surrounded by demon entities. When you shut up in hell, there's no one to rescue you from the demons who brush up against you, abuse you.

In hell, you are existent literally in a haunted region you cannot escape from. Demons will mock you, torment you, and tear at you. I've encountered a mocking demon before on several occasions. At Bridge Street Cemetery in Northampton, Massachusetts, where David Brainerd is buried, I've encountered a mocking demon every time I have visited that cemetery.

There's a tree about 100 feet behind Brainerd's grave, and a mocking demon stays there. The first time I heard its mocking laugh, I ran over to the sound of the voice by that tree, but there was no one there.

On my second visit to Bridge Street Cemetery, I heard that demon once more laughing in a shrill voice. I thought maybe I was just imagining things, or perhaps the sound came from voices from some nearby apartments, but no, it was always the same shrill voice, always the same mocking laugh, the same disembodied demon who mocked the revival under Jonathan Edwards in Northampton during the Great Awakening, the same demon who mocked the sacred ministry of David Brainerd stays at that cemetery mocking to this very day.

I shared this with an evangelist friend of mine, and he was unconvinced until he traveled with me one year to Bridge Street Cemetery to visit the grave of David Brainerd, and as we stood there over that mossy tombstone, we heard the laughing demon.

My friend became so alarmed, he said, we need to leave here immediately, so we left, but he heard what I'd been hearing for years, demons are all around us, but in hell, you'll not only hear them, you will see them, you will feel them as they brush up against you, for in hell, it's populated by demons.

Hell as an Eternal Prison

Listen to the words of the Apostle Peter from the 2nd Epistle in chapter 2, For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment, this brings us to our next aspect of hell, friends, in that it is a prison.

Once you're shut up in there, you can never get out. There's no exit doors in hell. Some people imagine that if there is a hell, then it's not such a bad place to be, at least you can hang out with your old friends, but that's not the case at all.

A lost soul in hell has no freedom, no liberty, no rights to move about and wander. You're bound in chains. You're chained up in a prison in darkness for all of eternity, and you will never ever have freedom to ever move about again.

Outer Darkness and the Fate of the Wicked

You're a condemned prisoner. And in 2nd Peter, we also see another striking aspect of hell, and that it's a region of pitch black darkness. Jesus calls it outer darkness. Like the darkness in outer space, but without the light of the celestial moon and stars, just pitch black, thick darkness, so dark you can't see your hand in front of your face.

Let me ask you, friend, have you ever been in a cave or a cavern or a room where there was no light whatsoever, and you couldn't see what was in front of you? You couldn't see what was behind you? It's terrifying.

You're lost in the dark. That's the darkness of hell. That's the darkness of hell itself. The Bible mentions this in the book of Job, where God is describing the fate of the wicked. He shall be driven from light into darkness and chased out of the world.

Imagine that, friend, chased out of the world into a region of darkness. If you lay dying without God in the world, then demon entities hover around your deathbed like howling hyenas, ready to drag you down to hell.

It breaks me up to try to talk to you tonight, friends. It's horrible in hell. Some of you are so anesthetized in sin, so dead to spiritual things, you don't even ever think about eternity or wonder about the horrors of hell.

The Destinies of Lazarus and the Unbelieving

But it's real, friends. In Luke chapter 16, we read the words of Christ. And it came to pass that the beggar died and was carried by the angels onto Abraham's bosom. But there is a story about Charles Spurgeon told by his secretary, Mr. Harold, who always accompanied Spurgeon everywhere.

And when the great British preacher lay dying in his hotel in Manton, France, Mr. Harold looked out the hotel's window where he saw, and he said so until his dying day, he said, he saw on the hillside under a clear blue sky a bevy of angels hovering like they were waiting for someone.

Well, soon after that, Spurgeon died. I believe that story, friends, that when a believer dies, he or she is carried to heaven by angels just as angels carried the beggar Lazarus to heaven. So, too, if you die without Christ, then demons will steal your soul away into the darkness of hell.

A Dying Testimony of Darkness and Loss

You'll be chased out of light into darkness, complete darkness. Mordecai Ham used to relate a story in his famous sermon entitled Sudden Death, where he related the darkness of hell. He said, well, just let me read you his words taken from his biography.

The Lord allowed me to witness the horrible death of one eternally lost. Two sisters were living in a log hut. Near the church, both were young girls and were dying with tuberculosis. The mother of those two girls met me at the door of the little log cabin and begged me to hasten in and do something.

Lulu is dying, the mother sobbed. Well, I hurried to the girl's bedside and tried to talk to her about her need of salvation. I played with her for a long time, but to no avail. She refused to hearken, but then she closed her eyes in death.

I called to her, Lulu, how is it? A voice came back, not the voice of one living, but that of one who was in another world. It was a voice that came up from the depths without any signs of movement of the dead girl's lips or throat muscles.

A voice I've only heard once in my life and that I've never been able to forget.

Lost, lost. Oh, oh, so dark, so dark, so dark.

Weeping, Gnashing of Teeth, and Regret

That story always sends chills down my spine, friends. In the lost soul of that girl, Lulu, all she could see was darkness. In Matthew's gospel, Jesus relates where a lost soul goes. But then said the king to the servants, bind him hand and foot and take him away and cast him into outer darkness.

There should be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Well, that's a vivid description of hell. Weeping speaks of great loss and grief. Gnashing of teeth signifies great anger and regret. All a lost soul has in hell is regret.

Regret. Regret. They can't even speak. They're so full of regret. They're choking on sorrow. They're thinking about all the times they were witness to and they turn their back to the gospel. They turn their back to the witness.

Hell as a Crowded Place

They scream in anger for being shut up in there. The sound of weeping souls is a terrible sound, friend. It's horrible. Multiply that by millions and millions of people and that brings us to our very last aspect of hell I want to warn you about tonight.

And that is this. Hell is a very crowded place. It's been said that 85 people a minute die in this world apart from Christ and enter hell. Do the math. That comes to 5 ,000 an hour. Going to hell every day.

120 ,000 people are cast into hell forever. That's almost a million people a week. Think of it. A million people a week being shut up in that prison of misery. Through the course of a year that adds up to 40 million new arrivals in hell.

Let 10 years go by and another 400 million souls are placed in chains of darkness. Chased out of light into darkness. Chased out of this world into hell to scream in agony. Now think in your mind, friends.

Of all the generations of people who've lived and died since Adam and who occupy hell at this very moment and you'll soon learn and admit that hell is a very crowded place. That's why it's a bottomless pit.

The Urgent Call to Christ

There's always room for new arrivals. You don't want to go to hell, friend. Trust me. It's a region of horror, darkness, and damnation. If I could walk you over to the very verge of that smoking, bottomless pit and have an angel lift the lid off that pit why, the screams of the damned would keep you up tonight if you were here lost without God and the world and all you have as your hope of heaven is an empty religious profession and deep down, even though you've been going to church you know you've never been changed.

You've never experienced the new birth. You don't know what it's like to have an experiential knowledge of God. Listen to me, friend. I implore you not to go to bed tonight until you seek Christ for pardon of sin.

Listen to me, friend. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. Here, Jesus answers the three greatest questions of the human heart. How can I be saved?

Jesus says, I am the way. How can I be sure? Jesus says, I am the truth. How can I be satisfied? Jesus says, I am the life. And in John 6 .35, Jesus declared, I am the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never hunger.

And he that believeth on me shall never thirst. Listen to me, friend. The gospel is for the hungry, the weary, and the thirsty. Let me ask you, friend. Are you hungry for God? Are you sick and tired of your sins?

Are you thirsty for Christ? Then what are you waiting for? Listen, mister. What are you waiting for? Come to Him. Believe on Him. Own Him as your Savior and Lord. The only way you're going to stay out of the devil's hell is if you're born from above and washed in the blood.

You've got to get your sins unto the blood of Christ, friend. Come to the cross of a bloodstained Christ and lay your sin burden down. Jesus saves. Let us pray.