Thank you, Mac. Shall we turn to Luke chapter sixteen, please? Luke chapter sixteen. Verse nineteen of Luke sixteen. Luke sixteen and verse nineteen. There was a certain rich man which was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day. There was a certain beggar named Lazarus which was laid at his gate full of sores. Designed to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table. Moreover, the dogs came and licked his sores. It came to pass that the beggar died and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom. The rich man also died and was buried and in hell. He lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water. Cool my tongue, for I am tormented in this flame. Abraham said, Son, remember, that thou in thy lifetime receivest thy good things, likewise Lazarus evil things. But now he is comforted, and thou art tormented. Beside all this, between us and you, there is a great gout fixed. So the day which would pass from hence to you cannot, Neither can they pass to us that would come from them. Then he said, I pray thee, therefore, Father, that thou wouldest send unto my father's house. For I have five brethren that he may testify unto them lest they also come into this place of torment. Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the prophets. In other words, they have got the Bible, the Word of God. they have Moses and the prophets. Let them hear them. And he said, Nay, Father Abraham, but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent. He said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets or the Bible, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead. There are certain passages of Scripture that certain theologians and certain movements, called religious movements in the earth, would like to have taken out of the Bible certain chapters, certain texts of Scripture. They don't like. They like to evade them. They like to avoid them. Because these passages of Scripture just mark the foundation out from under their argument and from their doctrine. Those who believe the Ten Commandments can save one. or were obligated to keep the Ten Commandments, don't like the Book of Galatians, they'd like to have that book taken out of the Bible, because it's so devastating upon their doctrine. There are those who don't like to believe in punishment, conscious punishment after death for the wicked. And this passage we have read is the very passage that loves to be able to eradicate or have eliminated from the Bible. But here it is. The Son of God is the one who gives it to us, and we must accept it as it is. It's not easy to preach on a subject of this kind. I would far sooner preach on heaven. I would far sooner take up a subject like we did this morning than to speak on the subject that I am going to speak on tonight. But we must be faithful to the Word of God. The Bible is our guide. And we've got to preach all the word of God. The Apostle said he determined to know nothing among them, said Jesus Christ, him crucified, and he declared unto them the whole counsel of God. Not part of it, but the whole counsel of God. And so it will be our responsibility tonight to preach on this passage and give you what we earnestly believe is the mind of God concerning eternal punishment after death. I remember hearing of a case of six brothers, this was a true case, six dirty brothers and a family, godless young men, no respect for God or anybody that had any faith in God or anybody that had any thought of a hereafter. One of these boys was tragically killed without a chance. No question about him being lost. Quite a crowd was at his funeral. and the preacher got up and the preacher was faithful. He read this passage of Scripture. You'll notice this man had five brothers. This man's praying in hell, and he says, I have five brothers. O Abraham, send Lazarus to my father's house. I have five brothers. One, unless they come to this place of punishment. And this preacher took this passage, and he pointed to those five burly men, sitting up at the front at that funeral. He says, You men have got a brother in hell at this very minute. That brother is praying that you will not come to where he now is in a place of conscious punishment. He laid it on the line. Those who knew these men expected anyone to spring from his seat and tackle the preacher. But the preacher preached the truth. He came in the Word of God. He was fierce. The result was that all pie for those men came to know Jesus Christ as their Savior. Faithfulness to God's Word. You can't pussyfoot when you're dealing with the Bible. You've got to give it as it is found here in this blessed book. I would sooner pitch conscious punishment after death and be wronged. I would almost say I'm glad if I'm wrong. I would sooner do that than the preachers know such thing as eternal punishment after death and belong in Acts. There are those today who preach no such thing as eternal punishment after death. No such thing as conscious torment throughout eternity. Friend, those men are wrong, and they'll have to give an account to God for it. There's too much scripture against them for them to claim to be right. I would love to think that I am wrong. All others, men like Billy Graham, Brother Fuller, Ed, Andy Hong, those who are seeking to be faithful in this blessed book, I think every one of us, would love to believe that somehow we're mistaken. And there's not such a thing as eternal punishment after death. But, friend, we've got the Word of God to back us up. We've got the words of the Lord Jesus Christ that after death there is judgment. We can't evade it. We cannot avoid it. Today you seldom hear it preach. Preachers would almost get their walking ticket if they dared to preach an eternal punishment after death. They'll preach about heaven. And even in that they're very vague, let alone preach about hell. They're not clear at all. They try and mystify things, try and get around it by using different words in the Bible. For instance, in the Old Testament, the Hebrew word sheol has to do with the place of departed spirits. The Greek word in the New Testament is Hades, referring to the same place. Whether sheol in the Old Testament or Hades in the New, it's always in the singular, it always refers to the place of departed spirits. And they try and use that word instead of use the word hell. In the New Testament, the Hebrew word for grave is creeper. And then we have our English word grave. And that refers to the body. And many, many times it's in the plural because there are many graves. But as the place of eternal punishment, it's in the singular. And they can try their best to use other words. But friends, using other words, don't change the place. It still exists. A lot of places received a different name, but three years ago when President Kennedy died, Kennedy's airport, Kennedy's streets, and so on. It didn't change the place. It changed the name, and you can do what you like to try and change the name and not use the word hell. You can use Krieger if you like, Rochelle, or Hades if you like. It doesn't change the place. It's there. Hell, a place of eternal punishment. The Bible says the wicked shall be turned into hell, into shiloh, for it's found in Psalm nine, seventeen, the Hebrew word. The wicked shall be turned into hell, the place of departed spirits, and all the nations that forget God. There are those who try and tell us, well, that means the grave. Then if the wicked... And they that forget God are turned into the grave, where do the righteous and those that don't forget God go? Do they go the same place? How ridiculous is their argument? Death does not end all. I think one time before I told you of my encounter with two young men who claimed to be atheists up in Washington, D.C. one time in one of my trips to Canada, one was a Turk, although he had forsaken his religion. In other words, in America, all you had to do is take one look at those two young men to see that they lived lives of dissipation. And there was a friend of mine who invited me along and more or less maneuvered this argument as the four of us sat at a table. Carl Gordon spoke up, he said, Brother Wilson, he'd had many an argument with these same two young men living in the same home. He said, Brother Wilson, how did you get saved? So I proceeded to tell how I got saved, and these young fellows had a sneer on their face, kind of a laugh, poking one another in the ribs. So the discussion started, and it went on, and it went on. I said, you believe we die like a dog then? Nothing after death. Absolutely, absolutely. Well, you're having a good time, I presume. We sure are, and we're enjoying. Well, I said, now I'm going to appeal to your logic. You don't have any faith in the Bible. No, not a bit of it. Well, let me appeal to your logic. Supposing all three of us live to be one hundred years of age, you go your merry way, live your wicked ungodly life, plunge into sin. You know the many times you wake up in the morning with a head like a balloon. You're bringing on ill health. You're paying the price for your life of sin and shame. And you stagger to be a hundred years of age. I question you'll ever reach it. Maybe not halfway there. But supposing you do, you live to be a hundred, and you die like a dog. You say that's the end of it. All right? I found Christ at nineteen. I was made good and happy. I knew my sins were forgiven. A change came into my life. I started to think of others. and I had a desire to preach to others, to win others to Christ. For many years I have been seeing precious souls brought to the Savior. Experience exactly what I experienced. I've seen families change. We were established. Many people made happy. People come to church sad and go away glad. And I had a wonderful life thus far, and this happened about twenty years ago. I said, I've had a wonderful life thus far, and as long as I live, I'll keep at it. I said, supposing I live to be a hundred, doing exactly what I'm doing now, that's all I have a desire to do. Supposing when three of us come to die, you men are right, death ends all. I've lost nothing. I've had a wonderful life. I've had good health. I've made a lot of people happy. I've seen a lot of people glad, rejoicing. Life's been made easier for them because they've accepted Christ. Even if you men are right, I've lost nothing. You've had your apes and pains. You've lived your life of sin and you've reached the consequences and it'll help even in this life. I win if you men are right. But I said, Supposing you men are wrong, and after death, and judgment, and I'm right, it means you've gone to hell in the place of eternal punishment, where you'll weep and wail and nap your feet forever. And I've gone to heaven, a place of bliss and eternal happiness. Even if you're right, I win. But if I'm right, what a sad and pathetic and eternal loss is yours. That ended the argument. That's all you've got to do, friend, is look at this thing even logically, even apart from Scripture, but it's always safe to take the Scripture as the basis of your argument. There have been too many testimonies of man infidels, especially, who during their lives have fought life after death. I have a book with many, many names. of those who lived such wicked ungodly lives. Some of them didn't live wicked lives, but they were infidels. They were atheists. They repudiated life after death. Also the confession of the deathbed of many, many Christians in that same book. But I wrote out four or five testimonies of infidels. Men who laughed at the Bible, ridiculed the Bible, then they came to die. And here is one. They had a foretaste of hell before they entered it. The nurse of Voltaire, that great infidel, said, For all the wealth of a Europe, I would never see another infidel die. Sir Thomas Scott, another infidel, said, Until this moment I thought there was neither a god nor a hell. Now I know that our boat, that I am doomed to perdition by the just judgment of the Almighty. The French statesman and infidel said, I am suffering the pangs of the dam. The dying Alamont, O thou blasphemed, Lord, hell itself is a refuge if it hide me from my frown. Sir Francis Newport, that there is a hell I am certain, having received a foretaste of my inheritance already in my breast. O that I were to lie a thousand years upon the fire that never shall be quenched. to purchase the favor of God and be united to him. But it is a fruitless wish. Millions and millions of years will bring me no near the end of my torments than one full hour. Oh, insufferable pang of hell. Oh, eternity. Forever and forever. And he was gone. These are but a few testimonies of men who during their life while enduring good health. They laughed. They who proved the idea of punishment after death, but all the starch was taken out of their collar when they were face to face with it. Death held them in its pangs and soon have embraced them with its pains. All they've got to do is turn to this blessed book, and we'll be cleared up on all this subject of whether there is held conscious punishment after death. Never will I forget an experience I had many years ago. I suppose thirty years ago I hadn't been preaching too long. One night I was going to preach on this subject, and somehow the horror of it, the burden of it, pressed in upon me. And I began thinking, is it possible, who were sinners are going to suffer forever? Are they going to be lost throughout all eternity? Could it be, could it be that such is the fate of all those who miss the Lord Jesus? I went into my room and I got on my knees and I said, Oh God, I can't preach anything I have any question or doubt about. I've got to be sure. Please let me know before I leave my room whether the sixteenth chapter of Luke depicts the lost soul The world who misses Christ and what awaits all who miss the Savior. Is there such a thing as conscious eternal punishment after this life for the Christ rejected? I expected God to more or less give me a vision of hell, but he didn't. You know what happened? God brought before my soul a vision of the Lord Jesus Christ suffering on the cross. Selt in my life have I seen the sufferings of the Savior so vivid and so real that I wept. The sufferings of Christ, and it came into my heart like this. There must be an awful hell. There must be an awful judgment after death. An awful place of punishment for God to give his son to die. Such as death is that. Send and its consequences must be fearful. The necessity sought a sacrifice as Jesus Christ came to this world to me. And then the second thing that came home to me while on my knees, any sinner who rejects such a manifestation of love as that is deserving of the hell that Jesus came to deliver a man from. I rose from my knees with those true thoughts paramount in my mind. There must be an awful place of punishment for Jesus Christ to endure the cross, to deliver a man from, and such love spurned is deserving of the lowest hell. From that moment till this I have never questioned my subject. There is a hell and an awful hell awaiting all those who refuse to be born again except Jesus Christ as Savior and as Lord. There are those who very subtly talk about this subject. They say, Do you mean to tell me that a loving God in heaven will send his children to hell? A very subtle remark, didn't it? But let me tell you, not one of God's children will ever go to hell. And let me tell you something else. God's not even sending the lost to hell. the lost are going there of their own will. None of God's children will be in hell. All who are the children of God through faith in Jesus Christ, those who have been born again, they're going to heaven. There won't be one of God's children in hell, but there'll be millions of God's creatures in hell. There's a big difference. Everyone's God's creature. Born into this world, God's creatures, But then when you're born again into the family of God, you become a child of God through faith in Jesus Christ. To as many as receive Christ, to them gave ye the power, the right, the authority to become the children of God, even to them that believe in his name. There will not be one of God's children in heaven, not one. That's why Jesus Christ died to save them from that place. And they accepted them. But there will be millions of God's creatures. Tonight this audience is divided. divided between children of God and God's creatures, those unreached as yet by the gospel, and spoken of in the Bible as the children of the wicked one, the children of the devil. Think of the reasonableness of this subject. Violated laws must be punished. You break the laws of nature. That's why a lot of people are sick. In fact, that's why most people are sick. They've broken the laws of nature. There are certain laws that govern our bodies. The laws of nature are the laws of God. You eat things that disagree with you. Certain food disagrees with the laws that govern and control your body, your anatomy. Unviolated laws must be punished. When you eat something and have a stomachache, it means a law in your body has been violated. Violated laws must be punished, whether it be relative to your health, or whether it be the laws of gravity, you leap off a ten-story building, you break the laws of gravity, you know what they're going to pick up down on the pavement. You suffer the consequences in a horrible day. The laws of the land are supposed to be punished. We're supposed to have laws, bylaws, other laws, laws. to govern our great society and if justice were executed the violator would be punished but today it's a joke almost to think of how the law is flouted in our country many criminals are not brought to justice they're not punished and I'll tell you friend there's no flouting the law of God and getting by with it I'll tell you that right at this moment God will see that every offender, every transgressor will be punished. There's inequality here, injustice here. In many cases courts are farces. Righteousness suffers. The wicked and wickedness seems to prosper. And even the wicked are condoned in preference to the righteous. The very fact of such inequality in this present world make sure that if there's a righteous God governing this universe, there must be a day of reckoning. When men like Hitler or Mussolini and these other butchers, God speaks of them as beasts when they've got to be brought to account and given account. They're not giving their just desserts in this life. There is no justice really in this life. Too many wicked, ungodly men and women are getting tired of living lives of luxury while the righteous and the innocent suffer. inequality here. This is not the way a loving God and a God of righteousness and justice and perfect holiness would have it. There's got to be a world of reckoning and straightening things out and equalizing things. And that's not going to be here. It'll be in the next world. And so violated laws must be punished. And I want to say this world is not hell because here's a man he's crying out for one drop of water to cool his parched tongue. Now you can get all the water you like. There's a glass right up here. What a vessel with water in it. There's plenty of water here, so this world is not hell. A lot of people say all the hell you're going to get is right here. Don't fall for that lie either. There's plenty of water here, and the description I read here certainly doesn't describe this life. Some say, well, it's a parable. It is. Well, let me tell you something. If this is a parable, what must the reality be? A parable falls far short of the real thing. This is not a parable. This man eating, dying, being buried is not figurative speech. Here stands the word of God, and behind it the awful realities it expresses. Let me tell you this is no parable. If I were trying to illustrate in parabolic language the Niagara Falls that I've seen many, many times, no language I could employ, no word painting or word pictures could really give you a true picture or portrait of the Niagara Falls. Every endeavor of mine to illustrate it would fall short of the beauty of that wonder in the world. That's what a parable is. A parable falls short of the reality. And if you say this is a parable, then you only make the real thing that much worse. I would far sooner take this the way it is, but to try and say it's only an illustration because it makes the real thing terrific and terrible at all. It's no parable. The Lord calls the man here by his name. In other places in your Bible, when the Lord tells a parable, he says so. The seven parables of Matthew thirteen, he tells you what are parables and what are not parables. But in this case, he calls the man's name. Well, Lazarus, you say that he didn't give the rich man's name. That's understandable. The Bible says that the name of the wicked shall rot. but the righteous shall be had an everlasting remembrance. That's why God didn't mention what Christ didn't mention the rich man, but he did mention Lantus, the poor man, the Christian, for the righteous shall be had an everlasting remembrance. But the rich man who went to hell, God says the name of the wicked shall rot. I don't want their name to continue, continue, or to be perpetuated. No, this is not a parable. You know, God has blessed preaching judgment. There's no grip to a man that doesn't preach it. I've listened to men who don't believe in punishment. You might as well have listened to her message in politics. There's no grip. There's nothing to stir your heart that a man utters who doesn't believe. in conscious eternal punishment for the wicked after death. I had a friend, he was a preacher. He was a Baptist preacher until he came to fellowship in the non-denominational church up in Raleigh, North Carolina. He told me an experience he had. He said, Brother Lester, he said, I used to preach just like you preach. And he said, God used to help me. And he said there was grit. People used to get saved. Then he said, I came under the influence and he told me the man's name and I met him. He believed that there was no eternal punishment for the wicked. There was heaven all right, but there was no eternal punishment for the wicked after death. They died like dogs. They were annihilated. And he said, you know, I fell for it. When I did, there was an awful deadness came into my soul. He said, now I'll tell you this, there was a deadness in my ministry. He said, I just couldn't seem to get at it. I didn't have any liberty. There was no power to my preaching. And he said, finally, I got so sick at heart with going through the formality, just the ritual, and not really preaching with all my heart, with no blessing of God on my preaching. I said goodbye to that doctrine. I went back to the old-fashioned gospel. I went back to the book. and I preached what I used to preach he said and when I did the peace and power of God returned to my soul he said that's all I need he said the joy of preaching the whole word once again filled me and he said I preached again with power and with unction and God gave us blessing in seeing souls saved God has blessed it I want to say this you're not believing in what I'm preaching is not going to do away with it. It's your prerogative to say I don't believe it. But, friend, if that would do away with it, it would pay you to go on believing that. But you're not believing it. It won't do away with it. I can tell you about Niagara Falls. You've never seen it. No matter how I would describe it, you say I don't believe it because I haven't seen it. friend, it's still there. You're not believing that there's a place of eternal punishment. It's not going to do away with it. Hell is going to be cast eventually into the lake of fire, which makes hell eternal, along with the bottomless pit and the lake which burneth with pine and brimstone, which is the second day. So God has blessed this. Do you know one of the reasons there are so many suicides? Do you know these modernists are responsible for the rise in suicide? Back when preachers used to thunder out the old-fashioned gospel and warn men and women of sin and of the judgment that come, a man thought twice, he thought three times, he thought a thousand times before he put a revolver to his brain and blew his brain out. He was afraid of after death. No one was trying to commit suicide when they knew they were going to meet God, when they knew they were going to hell and a place of eternal punishment. But you do away with that and let a person believe he dies like a dog and that's the end of it. He's ready to get out of the mess he's in in this life. He's ready to commit suicide. And since this kind of preaching has been preached, Modernism in the last thirty, forty years, look up the statistics. Write to Washington, if you will, and ask the rising statistics of suicide. And more the old-fashioned gospel has left the pulpits and the preaching of eternal punishment have left the pulpits. Suicides have risen and risen and risen and risen. People say, well, why live any longer? I don't want to live like this. I'm going to end it. I think we're just going to blow out the light and that's it. But friend, let me tell you one thing. It's not the end. After death. The judgment. They're going into something far worse as they say out of the frying pan into the fire. That's what it is. Getting out of hell here means our worst hell on the other side unless you know the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Savior. Why is your Bible so full of appeals? If there's nothing on the other side of death, death, the fear. Why is it the Son of God pours out his heart? Why is it God the Father pours out his heart? Even in the Old Testament, old tyranny, old tyranny, for why will he die, saith the Lord? Come now and let us reason together, saith the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet, they should be as white as snow, then, that though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. God is pleading in the Old Testament. Christ is pleading in the New Testament. Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets and stonest them. How often would I gather thee together as a hen gathereth her brood under her wings, but she would not. And he pleads with the sinner to come, and I will give you rest. Why is such pleading? Why does the Spirit of God plead? Why does he strive with men and women? Why does he tug at their heartstrings? It is just death and that's the end. It is annihilation and nothing on the other side of death. Why such pathos? Why such compassion? Why such pleading? Why such entreating? Why such appeal? There's something awful awaiting the sinner when your Bible is full of such language of compassion and entreaty. It's hell. It's judgment. Many don't think of this, do they? Think of everything else. They don't think of this. Like the young fellow just graduated and studied to be a lawyer. He went to visit a friend of his after he graduated. His friend was a very wise man, happened to be a Christian. The young fellow wasn't aware of that fact. So this older gentleman said to the young... Jack, he's just graduated. Well, Jack, what are you going to do now? Well, he said, I'm going to start up in business as soon as I can. Oh, you are. Well, I hope you succeed. What are you going to do then? Well, he said, I'm going to start up in business as soon as I get enough money. I'm going to get married. What are you going to do then? Well, he said, I'm going to build a house. I've got a good idea of what kind of house I want. Now I'm going to build a house. You are. And what then? Well, he said, I'll settle down to your family. He said, prepare for my children, have a good education. That's fine. I hope you succeed. And what then, Jack? Well, he said, I guess I'll be putting a little by for a rainy day. Of course... We never expect, we don't know what's going to come. Sometimes things are unexpectedly turned up and I'll have to prepare for them for a little money in the bank. Well, that's fine, Jack, but what then? The young fellow got a little uneasy. Well, he said, I guess I'll be getting old by that time. He said, I'll likely have enough money so I can retire, make enough investments so I'll be able to retire at a early age. I hope so. Educate my family. Be able to take it easy in my old age. Try and I hope you success. What then, Jack? Suppose all your dreams come true. What then? Well, he said, I guess, like everybody else. I'll die. Yes. But what then, Jack? What then? Well, at this time, the young man was very serious. He said, tell me the truth, I hadn't thought that. I hadn't thought that. That's where your thinking stops. It's dead, this side of it. As to the other side, you don't think of that. You don't give it a moment's thought. You're thinking about this life. You're thinking about the body. You're thinking about material things, tangible things. You're thinking about your family. As to your soul and eternity, you're not giving it much thought. If you were to think but a little, we couldn't pull you with a tractor out of this chapel tonight. If you realized the seriousness and solemnity of what we were telling you, friend, you wouldn't get out of this building without the knowledge of Jesus Christ as your personal Savior. You never thought of it. Hell instantly at death, unless you were born again Christian. then it will be heaven instantly at death. It's one or the other. You know, a visitor came to this rich man one day in our passage. Oh, yes, the rich man could keep Lazarus outside his gate, his vast estate. He could keep Lazarus outside, off his premises. He could keep the dogs out. He had a guard stationed there. undesirables, men or beasts, not allowed into this man's premises. But there was a visitor who came one day. He paid no attention to the gates, nor the guard. He went right in. He went right into the rich man's palace. He walked right up to the rich man's bed. He pointed his long, bony finger in the rich man's face, and he says, come with me. That visitor was dead. The rich man died. Friend, that same visitor is going to walk up your street one of these days and turn in your house. There's been another visitor at your heart's door time and time again, and you've turned him away. That's your prerogative. The Lord Jesus Christ on pierced feet has walked up the pathway to your heart, and he's knocked. with those nailed pierced hands. You said, Lord, I'm not ready. Not now. You turn the Lord Jesus Christ away and He's gone. He's come back again. You turn them away a second time. God only knows how many times you have turned them from your heart's door. He's not going to break the door down. He wants to be wanted. He wants you to be willing to admit Him. But there's a visitor coming one of these days, and you won't turn him away either. He won't take no for an answer. He's come, and he's come for one thing, and it's you, and it's death. There'll be no discharge in that warfare. You'll have to go. You may call your doctors the best there is. You may take all the medicine you like. You may put up your hands and tell him he's unwelcome, he's not wanted. Death pays no attention to those appeals. He's come for you, and the death rattle will develop in your throat, and there'll be the final gasp, and you're gone. The rich man died and in hell lifted up his eyes, being in torment. This is not the grave. To say this is the grave, like some foolishly try to tell us. Then there's torment in hell. Why do we put our loved ones in their grave if hell needs the grave? Because according to this passage, there is torment in the grave if what these people tell us is true. The rich man died and was buried. There's where the grave comes in. His body went into the grave. But in hell was his soul, and he lifted up his eyes, being in torment. Think of what this man could do. He had his sight. Hell is no asylum, by the way. People are not insane there. They're very intelligent. They wish they weren't. This man's intelligent. He had his sight. He saw Abraham way off in the distance. He saw Lazarus in his bosom. He had recollection. He saw Lazarus. That's the man that used to the outside my gate, that beggar that used to eat the crumbs that fell from my table. He had recognition. He had hearing that Abraham could answer. Not only so, he could speak. But he said, I want a drop of water to cool my tongue. His tongue was in existence. And he could speak. He had feelings. He said, I'm tormented in this flame. The saddest of all we have memory. We have memory. Son, remember. I don't know anything more fearful to think of for a soul to go into eternity with a keen, active, unfailing memory. Here memories fade. The older you get, The more your memory seems to fail, but remember, friend, when you die and go to hell, your memory will become young. You remember everything. Memory, like an adder, stingeth, all my wasted past upbringeth. If I could that vipers strangle, half my miseries would be oar. But around my heart it coileth, all my frantic efforts coileth, Tis the worm that never dieth, knowing at my bosom's core. Will it quit me, nevermore? Echo answers, nevermore. Nevermore, memory. Son, remember, thou in thy lifetime. Receivest thy good things and lancest evil things. But now the tables are turned. He is comforted, and thou art tormented. Memory. what one of us don't have regrets we sat long enough we could be in tears we think of loved ones gone on before what we would like to have done for them when they were alive and we didn't do it we hurt their feelings we were unkind but now they're gone we give anything we possess to have them back just to show them we appreciate them but they're gone and all we've lived with now sister departure is memory and regret. Memory and regret. What's going to make hell hell, not only the fact of the conscious punishment and pain, but memory. Memory, when you recall the times you sat and listened to the gospel, And you turned it down. When the Spirit of God strove with your hearts, maybe tonight, you'll relive this meeting. You'll recall when you sat here and you remember the text, you remember the passage, you remember the preacher, and you remember what was said. Memory will be keen and alert. Memory and hell. One word or one little group of words will fall from your lips. If I only have. If I only have. That's hell. That's hell. This is what's after death for all those who miss the Lord Jesus Christ. There'll be no release. There's no purgatory here. He says, between us and you, there's a great golf fix. I don't read anything like purgatory in this place, this text. There's a great golf fix. There's no going from the place of the bliss to the place of burning, or from the place of burning to the place of bliss. There's no interchange here. There's a great golf fix. Once death finds you, and how death finds you, that's the way you'll be throughout all eternity. There's a great golf fix. No coming and going here. You go in and there's no coming out. There's no getting up. You can get up and go out of this meeting tonight in a few minutes. That's your privilege. But, friend, if you go to hell, you'll not get up and go out of there. You're there forever. There's a great golf pitch. There's no release. Figure this man praying for those on earth. He said, Oh, Abraham, I have five brethren. Go to my father's house. I have five brethren. No, says Abraham. They have Moses and the prophets. They have the word of God. Let them hear it. You say tonight, oh, if someone would only come back from the dead, if we had something, some further evidence other than the Bible, if someone would only come back from eternity and tell us about it. I believe, would you? He says, Neither would they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead. If a man turned up tomorrow morning in Albany and said, I was dead for five hours, I was in the place of the loss. I can tell you some of my friends who were there. And he went to the Albany Herald, tried to get them to publish his story, get them to return it and come back. You know where they're at home? The hospital. Where did he end up? Military. They wouldn't listen to him. Neither will they be persuaded that one rose from the dead. And yet, friends, someone has come back from the death, from death. One did rise from the dead. Jesus Christ, who's telling us this insolence. Jesus Christ died. He went to Hades. He rose from the dead. He's the one that's telling you not to go to that awful place. Will you believe him? Here's the Bible. Abraham says they have Moses and the prophets. They have the Scriptures. Let them believe that. You know, friend, all God's going to give you the scriptures. He's not going to give you anything else. He's not going to send an angel. He's not going to dispass Gabriel to tell you about this awful eternity that awaits the lost. He's giving you just what you're hearing tonight, the Bible. That's all you need. You'll be wise if you heed it. So I conclude my message. You can escape it solemn thought to think there may be voices in hell this very minute praying for you think about a prayer meeting in hell people in hell praying that you will not come to that place where they now are christ suffered thirst this man prayed for a drop of water jesus christ suffered for he suffered thirst on the cross when he said i thirst He suffered thirst, that you might not thirst forever in a lost eternity. He suffered mental torment, that you might not suffer mental torment throughout a long, unhappy eternity. He suffered separation from God when he cried out, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me, that you might not be separated from God throughout a long eternity. The Lord Jesus Christ, that pains of hell get hold upon him when he was on that cross that the pains of hell might not get hold upon you. Jesus Christ went to the cross to deliver you from this awful place of punishment. The question is, are you going to believe it? Don't take my word for it. Take this blessed book. You're a lost sinner. They're on the way to hell. Some men, in a careless and different manner, use that expression, go to hell. Friend, that's off. He saw them. I wouldn't want a dog to go there. Yet men and women, human beings with intelligence are going there. God doesn't want them to go there. He's put the cross right in their way, where they're crouched upon it with his arms that are extended, trying to stop them. on their mad career for the picked. And if you go to hell, you'll have to duck under the outstretched arms of the Son of God and stain your coat sleeve with the precious blood that is shed to keep you from going to hell. God's put the cross right in the middle of your pathway, and yet you'll go around it sooner than come to Jesus Christ and accept him as you're saved. Yes, there's a head. I would to God I could keep you from going to. I washed my hands clean of the blood of everyone. The responsibility is yours. Do you want to go to heaven? What a precious word, sweet word, in contrast to hell. If you want to go to heaven, you better come to Christ. If you want to escape hell, you better trust him. Trust him right now. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. That was Christ. Our Heavenly Father, in the name of the Lord Jesus, we ask thy blessing upon thy word. We thank you for all those solemn and searching. Yet it's thy truth. We cannot turn the page and look at something else that suits us better. The page is open. We've read it. I must have us face it. We pray for the lost in our audience. Oh, that such may come to know Christ, and may they come tonight. May we tonight or never with many of them. You know the days coming when the door will be shut. All hope is gone. Oh, we pray for thee. Speak to hearts in tonight's meeting and say them for thy grace and for thy glory. We ask it in our Savior's precious name. Amen. Shall we sing two hundred and eleven, hymn two hundred and eleven. Almost persuaded now to believe, almost persuaded Christ to receive. seems now some soldiers say go spirit go thy way some more convenient day on thee I'll call maybe someone has trusted Christ tonight I hope no one will do what this hymn suggests the possibility of you doing you trusted Christ tonight or some previous night you haven't told us won't you come and tell us bring added joy to your heart and added glory to God and if you haven't yet trusted him and you'd want to you'd love to We'll do it now. We stand and sing two hundred and ten.