Devil's Got the Highway Does He Got Your Soul

I'm here to unburden my heart before you today, friends. I know most preachers just give you nice little messages that don't disturb anyone, but I have a disturbing message for you today, friends. This sermon is a solemn warning.

It's about judgment, hell, and eternity. The title of my message today, friends, is devil's got the highway. Does he got your soul? You'll never forget this message, friend, as long as you live.

I promise you that this message is a hard one to bring before you. I'm going to need help from the God above because this is a battle for your soul. So let me pause here now for a moment, friends.

Bear with me as I address the almighty great God in heaven whose name is holy and who dwells in a high and holy place. You dwell among the cherubim, Lord. You spoke a world into existence.

You hold the world in your hands. You are a God of majesty and authority. You're the true God of heaven and earth, great heavenly king.

I need your spirit, Lord, to attend this message. I need your power and your authority from on high. Give me the courage to deliver the hard things in this message.

Don't let me fear man, but help me, Lord. Let me have some help because these folks need help and let me only fear you. Have mercy upon these precious people and break up any false foundations.

Destroy every false hope. I pray that these people don't only hear my shaky voice, but that by your grace they will hear your voice as it comes with majesty and authority. Lord, may your spirit start pointing folks out a great God, a great God right now.

Maybe there's a woman here who has thought of herself as a Christian for a long time and her robe is a robe of self-righteousness and to a holy God. All self-righteousness is nothing but filthy stinking rags that need to be thrown away. Maybe it's high time she got down from her high horse and came to a bleeding Savior on a cross for sin.

Perhaps there's someone here who believes they are saved because they responded physically to an emotional appeal or they trusted in a verse or maybe they got a fuzzy feeling and went to shouting, but the only shouting they will do is in a devil's hell for they've never trusted in the person of Christ Jesus. Maybe there's an office bearer of this church who's been religious all his life and he's done his best, but man's best isn't good enough to get into your holy heaven. Although he can recall a time in his life where he made a public profession for Christ, he's never ever once been regenerated by the Spirit of God and though he is religious, he's as lost as a drunk at the end of a barstool.

He needs to come to Jesus. Maybe there's a man here who graduated seminary, thinks pretty highly of himself for that achievement. He knows his Bible, but if he was honest with himself, he doesn't know the God of the Bible and he's lost as a goose in a snowstorm.

He lacks one thing needful. He still needs Jesus. Maybe, just maybe, there's a good person here who enjoys doing good things for others, doing good things at church, doing good things in their community, and deep down they believe they're saved because of their goodness.

They're a good person, but good people don't get to go to heaven. Only forgiven people get to go there. Only those who are washed in the blood of the Lamb let that good person see the badness of their black heart.

Your judgment day is fast approaching and no one can stand there in their own merits and escape, but only those who stand in the merits of another, the Lord Jesus Christ. Let this good person take an honest look at themselves held up against the strict, severe, and unbending law of a holy God who declares all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Perhaps there's a young person who, since they were in diapers, grew up in church, but they've never had an experience of you, Lord, one time in their entire existence.

They can't see the reality of God in the lives of their parents, so they don't know what being born again really means. And this young person is sick and tired of hypocrisy in people's lives and deadness in the church. They long to see reality, the real God, the real Christ, who hung naked on a bloody cross for sin.

They want reality, Lord, O great King of eternity. You have made heaven and earth. You've placed the twinkling stars in the galaxy like diamonds on a black velvet setting.

O great and terrible God, I pray right now, whose arm is not too short to save, not too short to cast into hell. Have mercy, I pray, Lord, and come down, great King of glory. I ask you to step out of the pages of your book today, Lord.

Hear me, Lord. Come walk among us like the king at the wedding banquet who came in and found a guest without a wedding garment. He said, friend, where is your wedding garment? And that man was speechless because he was guilty.

I ask you, great God, by your Holy Spirit to gaze at each one of us here with your intense scrutiny and in your mercy, point out in this crowd the ones who are sitting here without Christ's robe of righteousness. Touch them gently on the shoulder. Search their hearts and reveal to them that although they might be baptized and members in good standing and they do their giving and they're serving, the only thing they are really standing on is a rotten foundation of carnal security because they've never been born from above or washed in the blood.

They must absolutely exercise repentance toward God and faith in the Christ of the Gospels or they'll die in their sins and demons will drag their deceived souls down to a devil's hell. Awaken them, I pray, Lord, to their lost condition because Jesus declared the Son of God is come to seek and to save that which was lost. Show them they are a lost guilty sinner, Lord.

Oh, beg you to have mercy. Show them they need a substitute for sin in the person of the Son, the Lord Christ. Life is short.

Eternity is forever. Let someone here see Jesus. Let someone here see Jesus.

Show them a bloodstained savior for sin. Great God, have mercy and awaken the hell bound in this crowd today. I pray, I pray all these things in the strong name of Jesus.

Amen. Thank you, friends. I want to start my message now.

I used to live in a forest and the area that I lived in was prone to violent thunderstorms and once in a while a bad storm would roll through there and knock down one of my trees and wherever that tree fell, there it would lie. There's a verse in God's word in Ecclesiastes that states, if the clouds be full of rain, they empty themselves upon the earth and if the tree fall toward the south or toward the north, in the place where the tree falleth, there it shall be. God's just not talking about trees here, friends, but a person's immortal soul.

I like what John Wesley had to say about this verse. He said, therefore, let us not just bring forth the fruits of righteousness because death will shortly cut us down and we shall be determined to unchangeable happiness or misery according as our works had been. In other words, if you die in your sins, you'll go to the miseries of hell.

If you die a born again believer, you go to heaven's bliss and be with God forever. But this is where the rubber meets the road, friend. If you're deceived, thinking you're in one place and you end up in another, then it's hell for you.

Like the verse in Revelation that's a companion verse of this, I believe it's one of the best pictures of the state of one who just died like that tree laying out in the forest. It can only face one way. In Revelation 22, 11, we read, He that is unjust, let him be unjust still.

And he which is filthy, let him be filthy still. And he that is righteous, let him be righteous still. And he that is holy, let him be holy still.

How is it with you, friend? If you drop dead right now while I'm talking to you, which tree would you be? The one pointing toward hell or the one pointing toward heaven? Do you know who's got your soul? I'm not talking about being religious. No, sir. I'm talking about knowing the God of the Bible.

Nobody likes to be in a strange and uncomfortable place. It's terrible to wake up in a place you don't want to be, like an emergency ward or a prison. We all have nightmares, but we wake up from them and all is well.

What if we dreamed we were shut up in hell and our screaming woke us up to realize that's exactly where we were in a smoking dungeon of darkness and torment? The Bible describes what it's like to wake up in hell. As a hypocrite, hear me now in Isaiah, we read, The sinners in Zion are afraid. Fearfulness has surprised the hypocrites.

Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings? I'm going to make a statement that I wish it wasn't true, but I fear that it is. I believe we're living in a day where the vast majority of people in churches across this land are yet unregenerate individuals who, if they stopped dead right this instant, would drop dead this instant, would bust hell wide open. I'm including unconverted ministers in that statement as well, friends.

When I hear a pastor tell his congregation, all you have to do to be saved is to believe John 3 16. I'm dealing with a man who isn't saved himself. I believe in these last days we're living in these end times and the devil's got the highway.

Yes, sir. The devil's got the highway and you and the so-called church in America can do anything to stop them. We're powerless because of our conformity with sin and compromise with the world.

We've watered down the gospel so long and we've brought in the way of salvation so wide that we take all comers, baptize them all. It's no different than in the days of Constantine the emperor who persuaded just about all of Rome to become Christians even though he worshipped the pagan sun god himself. We'll tell folks they're now Christians because they did what we told them to do.

We told them to walk an aisle or repeat a prayer or raise their hand. Then we slap them on the back and say welcome. We get them baptized.

We put them to work and the trouble is our brand of Christianity doesn't resemble the New Testament standard and all we do is make lost people religious. We don't tell folks that one must have a work of grace upon the heart by the spirit of God in regeneration and all men need to repent if they want to go to heaven. There's so much apostasy in our denominations today.

There's little difference. Hear me now. There is little difference between a southern Baptist and a Muslim.

In fact, some Muslims are even more clean than a lot of Baptists I know. The devil's got the highway to hell and most folks are on it. Listen to me friend.

Hell is a terrible place friend. It's full of demons. I don't know if you ever had an encounter with a demon but I sure have.

I grew up in a haunted house. It bothers me now to even tell the story but I must. I must tell it to you friend and it will hopefully keep you out of hell.

My family moved into an old house. It was a hundred years old and as soon as we moved in there we began hearing things. We were sitting in the living room watching TV when we heard loud footsteps right above us.

It sounded like a big man was slowly walking up and down the hall upstairs. We looked at each other in alarm and my father tried to laugh it off saying spooks but it was no laughing matter. Time and time again over the following weeks we heard those heavy footsteps walking up and down the hall.

They went plop, plop, plop. One time I ran upstairs to see if there was an intruder but no one was there. At least no one you could see with your eyes but you felt a presence like you were being watched.

It was creepy as bad as that sounds. It paled in comparison to what else happened in that home. There's what you'd call a storm closet beneath the stairs.

Under the stairs was a door that opened to a little closet where families would take shelter in a bad thunderstorm or tornado. Many of you know of which I speak. Anyhow once in a while someone or something would go to pounding on that door.

It would stop you dead in your tracks. You'd be frozen with fear for that's how terrifying it was to suddenly hear loud pounding on that door. It was a violent pounding.

Lack of rage. One summer I'll remember as long as I can remember anything. I was home alone one day and our air conditioning was out.

It was on the brink. We didn't have central air. We had these window units that you put in a window but the one downstairs wasn't working and it was awful hot in that house.

The temperature outside was over 100 degrees. Well I was walking from the living room to the kitchen and I had a past that storm closet when all of a sudden I heard that violent pounding begin. Normally I just would stand there silent waiting for it to stop but this day I'd had enough of that and I ran to the door.

I grabbed the crystal door knob. I turned it and yanked that door open but no one was there. But as soon as I opened that door I was hit in the face with a cold blast of air that sent shivers down my spine.

Even though it was 100 degrees in that house that little closet felt like I had opened up the freezer. There I stood shivering. That house was full of demons.

I sure was glad when we finally moved away. But listen to me friend. There's demons in hell.

You can't get away from the demons in hell. They'll tear at you. They'll violate you.

There's no one to help you. No one cares and there's no way of escape. I plead with you friend.

Don't go to hell. Hell is crowded with demons. Hell is crowded.

It's a crowded place. Listen to me. It's been estimated that 85 people a minute die outside of Christ's blood in this world and drop into hell.

That's over 5,000 people an hour. That's 122,000 every day. Do the math.

That comes to 850,000 souls every week being cast into hellfire. That means every month 3.4 million souls are crammed into that bottomless pit. Let a year go by and another 41 million people go kicking and screaming into hell's regions.

Let 10 years pass and that comes to 411 million new arrivals in the region of the damned and every one of them is hollering nonstop while you can't ignore the noise in hell. It sounds like 10,000 locomotives, 10,000 cannons being fired every minute, reverberating, shaking the very ground onto your feet like Mount Vesuvius erupting with all that rumbling, boiling lava, brimstone falling on you and fueling that fire behind it is the wrath of God on sin. Oh, listen to me, friend.

Don't you ever go to hell. If you can help it, you better start looking for mercy in a holy God and his bloodstained son. There's no exits in hell.

Once you shut up in there, it's forever, ever and ever. Listen to me, friend. You got to come to Jesus.

He's your only refuge. If you're still in this world and you still have time, you can still turn to him and surrender all you are to all he is and he is Lord, but only Christ alone can save you. Let me ask you, friend, who's got your soul? The old devil or is Christ's blood on your soul? Have you ever been washed in the blood and born from above? Have you had an experience of God? Do you know the true God of the Bible? Are you saved or are you lost? Don't be deceived.

I beg you. If you're lost, wouldn't you want to know it now before it's too late after you die and go beyond the reach and help a God? Oh dear, sinner friend, there's nothing worse than being chained in outer darkness in a prison of a bottomless pit that smells like sulfur all the time and it's full of screaming all the time from the cries of the damned. The devil's got the highway.

Does the devil have your soul? Don't go to a devil's hell, friend. I beg you not to go. I've warned you today.

My hands are clean of your blood. I don't want to see you at the judgment being bound hand and foot, kicking and screaming while strong angels cast you into that boiling, crackling spit lake of fire. I was witnessing to an old woman in the hospital and as I sat by her bed, she informed me she was a long member of the Methodist church and this is what she told me.

She said, that's fine, but I know I'm going to heaven because I've never robbed a liquor store or killed anyone. That's what the old girl said. She wasn't as bad as she could be.

That's why she was going to heaven. I told her, good people don't go to heaven. Only forgiven people get to go there.

One's washed in the blood of the lamb. Are you really safe, friend? Don't let your hope of heaven be a hole in the wall like that old lady. Listen, friend, I'm not preaching this sermon just to preach a message to you, just to pass some time, just to occupy you.

I'm preaching a solemn warning to you. This may be the last message you ever hear before you're pulled out of this planet through sudden death. Listen to this sermon.

It may be the one that leads you to Jesus by his spirit. Listen, friend. When Jesus was here in his earthly ministry, he went around doing good.

Jesus gave sight to the blind. Jesus fed the hungry. Jesus made the lame to leap.

Jesus even raised the dead to life. Yet what happened? Men cried away with him and nailed them to a cross. Listen to the gospel of Matthew.

Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the common hall and gathered unto him the whole band of soldiers, and they stripped him, and they put on him a scarlet robe. And when they had plaited a crown of thorns, they put it upon his head and a reed in his right hand, and they bowed the knee before him and mocked him, saying, Hail, King of the Jews. And they spit upon him, and they took the reed and smote him on the head.

And after they had mocked him, they took the robe off from him and put his own raiment on him and led him away to crucify him. Oh, look at that man on the cross, friend. Look at that blessed man on the cross.

See him there with his arms outstretched, beckoning you to come to him and believe on him. Look at that bloodstained Savior for sin, wiggling and writhing under the weight of sin. My sins, your sins, hear him.

Look unto me and be saved. All the ends of the earth, for I am God and there is none else. Listen, friends.

The cross is the place where men try to get rid of him. But by his death, it becomes the place where his saving power flows out to all who come in repentance, confessing they are sinners and own them as their Savior and Lord. If you've not trusted this blessed Savior, receive him now before it's too late.

Soon he will come in judgment on this world when his anger shall burn as an oven, and then you shall meet him as your judge. For he declares, I will in no wise clear the guilty here in his love. Not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins.

That word, propitiation, means an atoning sacrifice. Jesus hung naked on a scandalous cross, becoming sin for us, satisfying the justice of God saving all who believe on him. This may be the last sermon you ever hear, friend.

This may be the last night you ever sleep in your own bed. You may be unexpectedly swept out of this world by sudden death like so many friends of mine that I've known personally. They went to bed one night and the next day they were taken right out of this world.

Get right with God, friend, before it's too late and you're not beyond his mercy. Listen, dear sinner friend, hear me now. God gets serious with those who get serious with him.

Jesus can save you from your sins, but you must feel your need of him. He can't help the self-satisfied, the gospels 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 filthy sins? Are you thirsty for Christ and the living water? Listen to this pleading gospel call and the spirit and the bride say come and let him that hears say come and let him that is a thirst come and whosoever will let him take the water of life freely.

Turn to Jesus, dear sinner friend. Don't let your full pride get in the way, even if you're a pastor and you're lost. Come to the cross now and settle it with a bloody savior for sin.

Throw down your rebellion. Come to Jesus, the friend of sinners. Are you a lost sinner? God will meet you in your brokenness, friend.

Are you broken before him? Are you ready for Jesus? Jesus is your only hope, but you must close with him. I want you right now to get down where you are. Get down off where you're sitting.

Get down on the ground right now, friend. Get on your face before thrice holy God and beg him for mercy. Salvation is of the Lord.

Listen, friend, if you're saved, it's because God gave you saving faith. Saving faith isn't the same faith as trusting in a chair like some evangelist told you. Any atheist can trust in the chair.

I wish evangelists would stop using that erroneous illustration. It's deceived so many. Saving faith comes from God and God alone.

Jesus said no man can come to me except the Father which has sent me. Draw him and I will raise him up at the last day. You get saved, friend, by receiving a revealed Christ.

Get serious with God now. Get serious with God now, friend. Go look and go find and go get to a bleeding Christ.

Go to praying and let God deal with you. I'm going to take this time to close this message with a hymn. I don't even know if I can sing it.

Pray you bear with me while I do and forgive me that my voice isn't that good anyhow. I want to give you time to do business with God. This is one of my favorite hymns by a woman named Louisa Stead.

She wrote it when her newlywed husband drowned while they were out on a picnic on a sunny day. Someone in the lake was drowning and her newlywed husband went in the lake to save that person and he did but he died in the process and in her heartbreak she wrote the following words. Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus just to take him at his word just to rest upon his promise just to know the sayeth the Lord Jesus Jesus how I trust him how I've proved him o'er and o'er Jesus Jesus precious Jesus oh for grace to trust him more oh how sweet to trust in Jesus just to trust his cleansing blood just in simple faith to plunge me neath the healing cleansing flood Jesus Jesus how I trust him how I've proved him o'er and o'er Jesus Jesus precious Jesus Jesus oh for grace to trust him more yes it is sweet to trust in Jesus just from sin and self to cease just from Jesus simply taking life and rest and joy and peace Jesus Jesus how I trust him how I've proved him o'er and o'er Jesus Jesus precious Jesus oh for grace to trust him more I'm so glad I learned to trust him precious Jesus Savior friend and I know that he is with me will be with me to the end Jesus Jesus how I trust him how I've proved him o'er and o'er Jesus Jesus precious Jesus oh for grace to trust him more