06.08 To Hell And Back
6 - Hell; Section 8 TO HELL AND BACK
Mothers, your boys have sinned. They were dragged into sin and died in sin, and you have been weeping because they went to hell. Mothers, if the Christ would guide you down to hell to talk to your son there, would you not go? Would you not go and plead with your son to come back with you to the Kingdom of God? If I had my choice of any mission field, I think, if the Lord would send me there, I would like to have a lick at the devil at his headquarters in hell. I have never been afraid of him on earth, and I will not be afraid of him in hell. I would like to take the captives out of his hands. I mean what I have said, that if ever I am permitted in the good grace of God, there is not a hell in the universe to which I would not ask to be sent as a revelation of the Christ, that He might fill even that part of the "all things." There is nothing I should like better than to be sent on an evangelistic tour down to hell, and clean it out.
There is no hell that could be more vile than the hell I see around me right here in Florida; the hell of sin, sorrow, torment, fear, demon possession, hatred, murder, strife, drugs, vile rock music, immorality, rebellion, cursing, nervous breakdown, godlessness and wretchedness. We have a great deal of hell here in Florida, and there are no hells that could be worse than Miami, San Francisco, New York, Chicago, London, Hong Kong and Calcutta. "Oh, but there is a hell that is full of murderers!" you say. Well, these cities today are full of murderers. "But there is a hell that is full of devils!" you say. Well, these cities today are full of devils. "But there is yet another hell that is filled with liars, fornicators, and blasphemers!" you say. Well, these cities today are filled with liars, fornicators, and blasphemers. "Ah, but there is a hell where the devil himself dwells!" you say. Well, the devil himself is also right here on this earth, cursed to crawl upon his belly, to eat the dust of the carnal mind and nature of man. He that is joined to the devil is one satanic spirit. Or is it that people cannot be that bad? What about Dachau and Buchenwald? Just let a war start and see what devilish, satanic, vile, brutal, inhuman things men do! Germany is the place where the Reformation started, it is a place of high education and culture. But it was Germany also where in the second world war some people made lampshades out of people’s skins. It was a German who said, "We will eliminate the Jews from the face of the earth," and Germans killed in mass killings and devilish tortures. Remember how the Church in the dark ages persecuted the saints? You would not believe that a human being could conceive such evil! What makes them act like that? He that is joined to Satan is one spirit with him! That is why Cain slew Abel. The devil is a murderer and liar from the beginning and that murderous spirit entered into Cain.
We have lots of hell beyond us, but our work is to follow Christ, to be willing, as Sons, not only to ascend the throne, exalted far above all heavens, but to be poured out as a River of Life INTO THE LOWEST PARTS OF THE EARTH, INTO ALL THE HELLS, and clean them out by His conquering power and transforming life, until there is no more hell anywhere. What father would not go to any of the hells of the world, what father would not trudge through the saloons of the Bowery or the sex-filth of Times Square in the hope that he might run across his son or his daughter who is captive to the devil there and bring them back to God and to the Kingdom? This is the Spirit of the Father who "so loved the world" and it is the Spirit of the Son who "descended into the lower parts of the earth" and it is the Spirit of every Son of God, born of the incorruptible seed of a Divine Hope, a Divine Faith and a Divine Love. If you would not walk across the street to see some poor soul delivered and converted by the redeeming power of Christ, don’t waste your time relating to me how you are one of God’s "chosen ones" to help in the delivering of the whole creation from the bondage of corruption. The Spirit of Reconciliation must reign within our hearts even now. The Ministry of Reconciliation must proceed from our lives even now. Rivers of Living Water must, even now, pour forth from out of our innermost being, bringing hope and victory and life to all who will come and drink!
While preaching about the harlot who washed the feet of Jesus, J. A. Dowie related the following story which graphically illustrates the truth of which I write: "This poor woman who came in from the streets is called ’Hamartolos’; in the original word, that is to say, a prostitute, a harlot; a poor, wretched, outcast woman. Oh, is there any being upon God’s earth so much to be pitied, so deplorably miserable, as such an one? Perhaps she had known virtue, and a happy home. She may have been pampered and petted; perhaps educated and made to think that she was the cynosure of all eyes. Now she finds herself, by the betrayal of her heart’s affection, a poor wretched outcast, whose only means of sustenance is to prey upon unclean and vicious and foul humanity. I know nothing so sad as this. In all its naked horror it appeals to no one. I have never ceased to shrink almost with terror, man of mature years though I now am, whenever I have been accosted in the street by such an one.
"One night in Melbourne, Australia I had been engaged in writing in a newspaper office. I had been asked to write something for that paper, and I had written it for God, and for the people. It was very late. I came downstairs, and stood out in the cold night air for a moment, with bared head. I was looking up at the stars from the quiet, silent street. A little way off was a great thoroughfare where the people were coming out of the theater, and were crowding the street. I was in a quiet part of the street, standing there thinking what way I should go home; whether I should take a cab or whether I should walk.
"I was enjoying, for a moment or two, that cool, fresh air, when I heard a clear and beautiful voice say to me, ’Good evening, sir.’ I turned around and saw the lovely face of a very beautiful girl. I said, ’Good evening,’ but I trembled as I said it; because I knew at once what kind of woman she was. Yet she did not seem to be deeply stained with sin. ’Good evening,’ she said; and I again said, ’Good evening,’ and that was all. She said, ’Will you go home with me?’ And then, having silently prayed, I turned to her and said, ’Home with you?’ ’Yes.’ ’Where is your home?’ So she told me. ’Oh, no,’ I said, ’that is not your home. Your home is the house of her which is the gate of hell. The dead are there. If I went home with you I should share the fate of all who enter there, unless God delivers them. But will you go home with me?’ She was trembling violently, holding on to an iron post with a ring at the top of it, and her fingers were grasping the ring. ’Home with you?’ she said. ’Yes, sir, but where do you live?’ I said, ’I live on earth, but my home is in the heavens. Oh, won’t you go home with me to heaven, I will take you to a lovely woman tonight in Melbourne who will be as kind to you as to her own daughter.’ She then knew that she had spoken to one who was a child of God.
"I am sure that she had not been long in sin. She opened her eyes wide and held up her hand, and I will never forget her cry - ’It is too late. The waters have gone over me. It is too late,’ and with that she darted away. I went after her, but she was lost in a moment amidst the great multitude that was surging up and down the streets. ’Too late! The waters have gone over me.’ I went home that night with these words ringing in my ears: ’Too late! Too late! The waters have gone over me.’ I said, ’It is not so, God; we shall search for that woman in this city until we find her.’ And blessed be God, today that woman is living a holy and happy and virtuous life" - unquote.
This is the ministry of the Good Shepherd. This is the ministry of the Son and the Sons. Rescue the perishing, Care for the dying, Snatch them in pity from sin and the grave; Weep o’er the erring one, Lift up the fallen, Tell them of Jesus, the mighty to save. Down in the human heart, Crushed by the tempter, Feelings lie buried that grace can restore; Touched by a loving heart, Awakened by kindness, Chords that were broken will vibrate once more.
Oh God! Every man of the untold billions of earth is Your creative offspring. They may have wandered far from You. The mark of Cain may be upon the brow; but even Cain You would permit no man to kill; and You did send into the abyss Your sinless Son to bring back those who had sinned when the whole world rejected You thousands of years before. Here in this land, and in all lands, there are many spirits in the prison house of sin and darkness, and damning lust and fear, and vile habits and wretchedness, and all kinds of devious and guilty ways. God bring them out into the light! Help us, Oh Father, to BE THE LIGHT and shine, and shine, and shine, till there is no more darkness anywhere. Help all who read these lines to understand Your great love.
Jude tells us to "convince some, who doubt; save some, by snatching them out of the fire; on some have mercy with fear, hating even the garment spotted by the flesh" (Jude 1:22-23). It is our job to do the snatching. Christ has shed His blood and poured out the Holy Spirit of power! Our part is to pick up our weapons and go out against the powers of darkness and drive them off the land. Christ bought us with His own blood - we belong to Him. And so, by the same token, do all men. John said that Jesus "is the expiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the WHOLE WORLD" (1 John 2:2). No person is exempt from Christ’s work of salvation. What remains is for us to work with God - to fight the good fight that loosens Satan’s hold on lost men and women and compels them to come into the banquet hall. Do you believe that the weapons with which God has equipped you are effective? Do you believe that merely speaking the Word of Reconciliation in faith, in utter dependence upon the Holy Spirit, will cast down strongholds and bring down every high thing that exalts itself against God? Do you believe that your weapons can and will bring minds - rebellious minds to obey Christ? They will! Let us challenge hell’s gates. They cannot prevail against God’s Church! Let us break them down in order to bring out the captives that they might serve Christ and know true freedom.
I do not wonder sometimes that those who only read my writing think that I am a hard and vindictive man, especially as I warn men of the error and abominable apostasy of the nominal Church systems. But if you only knew, I am one of the most peaceable and gentle men in the world. I am a very quiet man (except in the pulpit), and believe that I am merciful and compassionate toward every sinner. I have only been a fighter because I had to fight. Was Jesus Christ not a great fighter? Is He not a great fighter still? And is He not the Prince of Peace? Is He not God’s Lion, the Lion of the tribe of Judah? And is He not the Lamb of God? God’s Lion is a Lamb! God’s Lamb is a Lion!
I call God to witness and you to witness that when I have had to fight - for whom have I fought? I fought for God. I fought for Truth. I fought for reality. I fought against the false shepherds who were taking away the key of knowledge, who entered not in themselves, and them that were entering in they hindered. I fought those who fought the right ways of the Lord, deceiving the people and holding them in bondage to slavish forms of empty religion. Stephen fought the devils in the Jewish system to their very faces although he knew he would die. He saw his Master in the heavens. Do you see your Master in the heavens? Do you see Him by your side? Do you know Him within, in the depths of your spirit? Do you hear His voice? Do you know what He wants you to do? He wants you to follow in His steps, to BECOME HIS SALVATION unto the ends of the earth. He wants you to deliver His creation from sin, sorrow, death, hell, and the demonic power which curses this world. Who follows in His train? Not those whose Christianity consists in a feeble conformity to a creed, and go through the motions of a Sunday morning ritual. The peace of God means war with sin. He that is a friend of evil is the enemy of God. This is the kind of peace Jesus left. He made warriors of men. They went forth to fight the world and the devil, in Greece and Rome, with thirty thousand gods. They marched up the Acropolis; they marched upon the Parthenon; they threw down the altars of the boni dei; they threw down the altars of Venus; they destroyed the altars of Jove; they threw down the altars of Mercury. They smashed them, by the Spirit’s power they trampled upon them; they triumphed, and they died.
Oh, that is such a sublime verse where Jesus said, "ALL AUTHORITY is given unto Me in heaven and in earth. Go therefore and teach all nations ..." (Matthew 28:18-19). Do you see that? There is a tremendous power in that "Therefore," I am with you. I will back you. Every angel in heaven if needful will come forth and surround you. Fight! What does it matter, the puny governments and armies and courts of THIS WORLD? All authority is given to the Christ of God, and we are His body! The hosts of God will troop over all the skies, ten thousand times ten thousand millions, if need be. "I command ... Go therefore, you poor fishermen, and tax-gatherers and discredited rabbis, go, I am with you." If only we realized what power there is behind us!
General Grant marched out because he felt that it was an honest nation behind him that would lay all its millions of dollars down to carry that thing through, and can we not march out and take the devil’s forts, knowing that we have got all the omnipotence of heaven with us? Cowards you are, talking about "holding the fort"! Get out of your forts! What is the use of going inside of fortifications? I tell you, the army that fights behind entrenchments is whipped every time. God is raising up a SONSHIP COMPANY that will go for the devil’s fortresses, to batter him, shatter him and break up his kingdom. God is even now, in the end of this age, preparing an army of OVERCOMING ONES who shall go forth in the fullness of the power of the Spirit to pull down the strongholds of creed and ritual and religious ignorance and set the captives free; who will beat down the strongholds of sin and rebellion and let the prisoners go free!
I am not afraid to take the blows from the devil, and I am not afraid to give blows! I have a shield upon which I can take the fiery darts. I am glad for the fight. It is the good fight of faith. It is the good fight of love. The thing, however, that buoys up my heart above everything else is the hope, the hope that springs perennial in this breast, that I shall see victory; victory for purity and righteousness and peace; that I shall hear a song of universal joy from the whole earth, and from hell, and from the farthest reaches of the universe when they sing: "Hallelujah! For the Lord God omnipotent reigns, and the kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ." Blessed hope!
We must have it! We shall fight it out to the end, and we will win. Sin shall be abolished. Disease, death, pain, and hell shall pass away. Then, O Christ, and then alone, will You see the travail of Your soul and be satisfied. Then, O Christ, and then alone, can we be satisfied; when the last rebel has bowed at Your feet, and there is no more fight; for there is no more rebellion anywhere. Hallelujah! God shall reign forever! It is a living hope; this hope that, at last, every poor sinner will have heard the glad sound, and that at last every poor spirit in earth and heaven and hell will bow before the Christ, and will own His sway, and there shall be harmony and peace and unity everywhere, for God shall be All in All. That is my hope.