The
Reality of
Hell
By
Rolfe Barnard
(1904-1969)
We
find these striking words in Psalm
However,
the modern "god" has no judgment in his hand; according to the popular
gospel today, the modern "god" has sheathed the sword, and sits down
as an indulgent weakling. His arm which used to visit vengeance upon impenitent
sinners, now hangs nerveless and paralyzed--that is the popular "god"
of today. I refuse to worship such a "god"--such a "god" is
the creation of man's wishes, but not the true God of the Bible.
My
friend, the true God is unchangeable. The Word of God says in Malachi 3:6,
"For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not
consumed." That is the Word that smites modern thought and popular
infidelity on the cheek and one day will put an end to all unbelief. An old-time
writer has said, "He Who heralded oceans over Alps and Andes, drowning a
guilty world, He Who reduced Sodom to ashes, He Who destroyed Jericho with its
inhabitants, He Who gave Jerusalem to the Roman armies -- He is the One Who
says, 'I am Jehovah, I change not,' and what He has done before, He can and will
do again."
It
is a fact whether we are willing to face it or not -- it is settled in Heaven
that the God of the Bible has both mercy and justice. At
Justice
and mercy are the pillars of God's throne, and the day you take away God's
justice, and His punishment of sin, that's the day you have denied the true God,
and made yourself a "god" out of the figment of your own imagination.
But such a created "god" is not the God of the Bible, is not the God
of redeemed people, nor the God of Calvary -- he is not the God of all Heaven
and all earth! But the true God of the Bible, the God of Calvary, the Maker of
Heaven and Earth -- before that God all men must stand one day!
Oh,
hear me this day: There is a Hell, be sure of that. Do not hide your face as an
ostrich in the sand. Do not throw the Bible out the window, and Christ and the
Gospel with it -- as if the modern mind has been able to undo God's revelation
about Hell. Oh! hear me! There is a Hell! Listen to the words of the Lord Jesus
in Matthew
You
know, the Hebrew people took their idea of that awful place called Hell from
Gehenna, which was a deep gorge on one side of
Yes,
there is a Hell. Isaiah
Universalism
-- my, how it is growing today! -- arises to tell us that all alike, saint and
sinner, will turn up in Heaven at last. There is a Hell. Revelation 21:8,
"But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and
whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part
in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second
death." There is a Hell -- although today soft sentimentalism tells us that
the murderer and the murdered, the seducer and the seduced, the hater and the
hated, the thief and the victim, will all find Heaven at last. Though all of
that is taught and believed by multitudes, there is a Hell! Although popular
theology assures us today that Cain and Abel, David and Herod, Jezebel and
Elijah, Judas and Peter, Nero and Paul, all come out at the same side of the
Judgment Throne, there is still a Hell! Listen to Revelation 20:13-15, "And
the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hell delivered up the
dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their
works. And death and Hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second
death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the
lake of fire." What a strange Heaven we are to have after all, if we
believe what we hear today. The hypocrites and whoremongers will be there, the
drunkards and backbiters will be there, the blasphemers will be there -- all of
them together with the saints of God in the undefiled home of God. Now if reason
has not altogether left us, such thinking is blasphemous! Men and women, you
need to ponder the truth that if sin is being rooted into your soul, you shall
not throw it off as you do your clothes. Sin becomes a part of your being, and
long after sun and moon have passed away, sin that was not checked in this life
will destroy or ruin you in the life to come.
I
am saying to you that the hour calls us to hurry back to the Bible and find
Truth to walk therein, whatever the cost. If we be called old fogies, so be it;
if it be said of us that we are trying to scare men into Heaven -- I well know
that we cannot scare men into Heaven, but the Truth is sometimes used by the
Holy Ghost to induce men to seek a living faith, in a living relationship with
the Christ of God.
I
am not ashamed of trying to scare men unto God. If the Bible be true -- and it
is -- there are things that men ought to fear. I don't want to go to Hell and
I'm enough of a Christian, I hope, that I don't want anybody to go to Hell. I
thank God the Gospel shows us that God does not want men to go to Hell. I thank
God the Bible is true, that He prefers to show mercy instead of justice. I thank
God the Scripture says in 1 Timothy 2:3-4, "For this is good and acceptable
in the sight of God our Saviour, Who will have all men to be saved, and to come
unto the knowledge of the Truth." I am preaching to you now in a generation
that has heard so little of the terrible, terrible truth of Hell. We need to
face the truth, and when we do, we shall find again that the God of all the
earth has spoken, Psalm 9:17, "The wicked SHALL be turned into Hell, and
all the nations that forget God." God cannot be changed, nor can He be bent
to modern-day thinking. We need to read over and over again Mark 9:43-48. Three
times in these verses our Lord when He was here in the body of His humiliation
speaks of a worm that never dies and of a fire that never shall be quenched.
Now, do you suppose our blessed Lord told a lie when He spoke of unquenchable
fire?
In
Luke 16:4-31, do you believe that God's Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, speaks a lie
when He shows us the rich man lifting up his eyes in torment and begging that
Lazarus may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool his tongue? The rich man
said, in verse 24, "Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus,
that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue: for I am
tormented in this flame." Do you believe the Lord Jesus was lying? Do you
believe that he would frighten men with pictures of that which never existed?
Oh, dear ones, our Lord either told the Truth or He is a deceiver. Let it be
burned into our hearts again and again that if there is no Hell, there is no
Heaven, for they stand or fall together. Listen to Matthew 25:46, "And
these shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life
eternal." All that we know about either Heaven or Hell is found in the Holy
Word of God -- and if Hell is a fable, so is Heaven. God help us, there is a
Hell!
As
you love your own soul, let no doubt rest in your mind. If there be no Hell,
then
Again,
in the words of John the Baptist, Luke 3:7, "Then said he to the multitude
that came forth to be baptized of him, 'O generation of vipers, who hath warned
you to flee from the wrath to come!"
When
our Lord speaks to you in such a way that you will flee from the wrath to come
by fleeing in repentance and faith to Him whose hands and feet were pierced on
Calvary's cross, then you can say the words that David said in Psalm 86:12-13,
"I
will praise Thee, O Lord my God, with all my heart: and I will glorify Thy name
forevermore. For great is Thy mercy toward me: and Thou hast delivered my soul
from the lowest Hell!"
Praise
the Lord!
The
closing prayer by Brother Barnard:
"Our
Father and our God, we ask Thee in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that You
will be pleased to have mercy on poor lost sinners, and bring them to salvation
in Christ, that He may be glorified. Amen."
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