Every time I go into the jail to preach to prisoners, they often tell me about their experiences, and it never ceases to fail that they will refer to the hard times that they have gone through as “hell.” I always point them to the fact that it was really bad, and I wouldn’t want to go through that, but let’s not diminish the fact of the place and the power that is behind the word “hell.” WHY? Because Hell is a totally real place that people actually go to, and the horrors of the stench and the smoke and the fire and the brimstone, and the realization that you will never get out torment every resident of that God-forsaken place.
I read in Mark 9 about Hell “where the worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched.” This phrase is mentioned three times in the chapter. Three times it shows up in the KJV and in most other translations, it shows up ZERO times. Yes, you read that right. Some may have it once in verse 48 but overwhelmingly, the idea of elaborating on Hell is not popular. For instance, in the KJV, hell is mentioned 54 times, and in the ESV, it is mentioned 14 times, and only 13 times in the NIV. Quite a difference. The worm dies not? There is an old hymn called At Calvary that says, “Would he devote that sacred head for such a worm as I.” Later on, people editing the hymn books came across that song and got rid of the word “worm.” They must have thought it was too offensive. I am convinced that if you never come to that realization about yourself in THIS life, you will BECOME a worm in Hell, after being there for decades and centuries and millenniums. WHY? The fire is not quenched. You never taste water again, you never feel relief again, and you never feel the presence of God or light again. You devolve.
Matthew 13:50 calls this place a “furnace.” I know that Billy Graham came out later in life and told everybody that hell was only separation from God, but the Bible is clear that it is much more than that. When Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were thrown into the fiery furnace, the Lord Jesus showed up with them and they felt no flame and no heat. Hell without Jesus is a furnace with a fire that will never be quenched. You sinned against a God that lives forever, so you have to be “punished” for it forever (Matthew 25:46). Your fleshly temple comes off exposing your SOUL that lives forever, and you will “die” forever in Hell. This is called the second death. Don’t go there. Trust Christ.
Luke 12:5 says “FEAR HIM” which is able to cast BOTH body and soul into hell. How strange that the enemy is getting teenagers and those coming up into the world to have the ideology that they shouldn’t fear anything. The old communist president Franklin Roosevelt said that there is nothing to fear but fear itself. The man was an idiot, no offense to idiots. We are told to fear God and keep his commandments. The government responds by saying that the kids can’t see the commandments in a government building like a public school and they can’t say the name that is above every name, JESUS CHRIST, but they can use it as a curse word. Oh, merciful heavens, God have mercy on your poor souls if you think that type of governance is justifiable. We are to fear God, not what other churches think, or what Joe Biden would say, or what any other governmental authority tells us we should or shouldn’t do. ONE DAY, we will ALL be either in Heaven or Hell, and it will all be based on what we decided to do with Jesus on the cross. Did we laugh at him, ignore him, or did we say, “Yes, Lord, remember me, and save my soul?” God is rich unto all that call upon him by Jesus Christ.
Amen!!!