Heaven Or Hell

Before I begin my message today, friends, I want to say that if you have an unsaved loved one or friend, please let them listen to this message which is being taped as I speak, for it is a message of the gospel of Jesus Christ unto salvation. I want to bring before you today, friends, the subject of eternity, and as I turn your minds and thoughts to eternity, I want to ask you each a question. I want you to take your current age and add ninety years to it.

How old will you be? More than likely your physical body will be in a coffin in the ground in decay. But where will your spirit be? Will you be in heaven or hell? Some of you are quite confident you will go to heaven when you die, but some of you rest upon a false bottom of carnal security, although you believe you have access to heaven. Unless your sins are washed in the blood and you were born from above, you will surely die in your sins and drop down into the regions of hell, and there be tormented in agony forever and ever.

Hell is a prison that has no exit doors and no parole. Once you're shut up in there, friend, you can never, ever get out. The title of my message today, friends, is Heaven or Hell, and my text can be found in the book of Hebrews, in chapter nine.

You can turn in your Bibles there now, friends. We will camp out in verse twenty-seven. Allow me to read us this eye-opening scripture at this time.

And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment. Now there are several aspects I'd like to draw out from our text to us at this time. I will first list them, and then elaborate upon each head.

And before I begin this sermon, friends, I want to address particularly the lost church member who sits upon a false bottom of a long track record of service and a good opinion of themself. If this is you, friend, unless you repent and trust in Christ, Christ Jesus alone, you will surely go to hell. I know this for a fact, as I was once myself a lost church member who rested upon a long track record of service and a good opinion of myself, and I was greatly deceived, but God had mercy on me.

You may be deceived as well, friend. It is my earnest prayer that the Spirit of God will speak to you today, that you will not hear the voice of this poor preacher so much as you hear his voice, as it comes to you in all authority, power, and majesty, heaven or hell. Where will you end up, friend? Will it be the joy of heaven, in the presence of God and the heavenly host, or will the agony of hell be yours, in the presence of Satan and his demons? When you die, will the angels of God escort you to glory, or will the demons of the devil drag you down to hell? There is a story about Charles Spurgeon, which I believe is true.

Spurgeon often went to Mentone, France, for his health, and it was there that he died in a hotel at the age of fifty-nine. Spurgeon's close friend and aide, Mr. Harold, related about the day of Spurgeon's death that, while he was standing in the hallway of the hotel window, where Spurgeon lay dying upstairs, and he looked out the window, and it was a clear blue sky, and he swore to his dying day that out beyond the window in the distance was a host of angels hovering in the sky, as if they were waiting for someone. Sure enough, in just a matter of minutes the great British preacher died.

Did not Jesus describe the death of a saint in the Gospel of Luke in these terms? And 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 lift up his eyes, being in torments. Listen to me, friend.

I believe that when a Christian dies, that person is carried by angels into the presence of Christ. But when an unbeliever dies, that person is dragged down by demons to the very bowels of hell. Oh, friend, I beg you, I plead with you, don't go to hell.

Hell is a region of misery and torment, a place of burnance and agony. If I could walk you over to the very lid of hell right now, and lift that lid off that smoking, bottomless pit, and let you listen to the cries of the damned, it would so frighten and alarm you, you'd never be the same again. Hell is a pit of screaming and noise and swearing and regrets.

It's so hot in there you cannot breathe. The worst element of mankind is shut up in there, the refuse of mankind, as well as the most wicked demons, who will brush up against you in hell, and you can't do anything about it. Forgive me for being so carried away with emotion before I get to the point of my message, friends.

But you only have one life, and you have an endless eternity that you will spend in either heaven or hell. Please, I beg you, don't go to hell. Repent of your sins and turn to the only remedy for sin, which is Christ Jesus, who hung on a cross for sin and who died for sinners.

Now let me get to the points of my message. Number one, all men must die. Number two, all men will face the judgment.

And number three, life is short, eternity is forever. Our text declares that. It is appointed unto men once to die.

You have an appointment with death, friend. Death is facing you. Some of you, within the sound of my voice, won't be on this earth this time next year.

It doesn't matter if you're young or in good health, or if you're old and in poor health. Some of you could very well die within the year. Listen to me, friend.

Life is shorter than you realize. You don't have as much time as you think you do. You will die and be in eternity and open your eyes in heaven or hell.

Number two, all men will face the judgment. There is a tribunal judgment awaiting all mankind, and no one will escape standing before the judge of all the earth as he sits on that heavenly throne, and the books are opened. I have visited the island of Patmos in Greece, and I have been escorted by a Greek Orthodox monk to the very cave where the Apostle John received the book of Revelation.

Tradition has it that, at the time, he was a very elderly man, so frail he had to lay his head on a ledge in that cave and dictate to his scribes what he saw and heard from the Lord. There is an open Bible and a dove above the entrance to that cave, and John wrote about the last judgment of all mankind in the following descriptive terms. And I saw a great white throne and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away, and there was no place for them.

Let me pause here, friends, for that speaks of the majesty and authority of Almighty God. The judge of all the earth sits on that pure white holy throne. Now let me continue.

And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God, and the books were opened, and another book was opened, which is the book of life, and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books according to their works. Let me pause here, friend. What this means is that there is a biography being written on your life, and every thought, word, or deed is recorded in that biography, and you have to give an answer to God for how you lived your life here on earth.

Evidence will be presented. Cases will be reviewed. Arguments made.

But the judge of all the earth has the final word, and if your name is not found written in the book of life, you were doomed and damned to hell. Listen to verse 15 from chapter 20 in Revelation. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

Do you know how intense the flames are in a lake of fire? Have you ever watched a house burn to the ground, how the flames swirl and lick every piece of wood and debris until all is reduced to smoke and ashes? When I was a little boy, the house next door to me burned to the ground. It was horrible, and the stench of that fire stayed in the air for weeks and weeks after the flames burned out. There is a stench of rotten flesh in hell, and it will be your flesh, friend, but you will never be consumed, but you will be tormented forever and ever by those horrible flames and that burning lake of fire.

Let me ask you, friend, is your name written in the Lamb's book of life? Let me put it to you this way. Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb? Are you born from above? Have you experienced the new birth, or did you just make a decision? There is a coming day of judgment for all mankind, where you will face the Lord Jesus Christ, and every knee will bow to Him and confess Him as Lord. Will you go to heaven, or will you go to hell? My Bible says, He will make His enemies His footstool.

Will He have to put His foot on your neck and hold you down until you are taken and bound hand and foot and cast into the torments of hell, where there's weeping and gnashing of teeth? Listen, friend, weeping speaks of great loss and grief. Gnashing of teeth signifies great anguish, anger, and regret. The tortured souls in hell regret that they are there.

They gnash their teeth together in anger as they suffer in that horrible region of flames. My last point is, life is short. Eternity is forever.

I was sitting at my kitchen table with my best friend, an African pastor, and my wife, and they were both in good health at the time. And within six months, both of them were dead. Life is short, and death is often unexpected.

How about you, friend? When you die, will you enter heaven or hell? I pray that the Holy Spirit will be merciful and bring conviction to your heart right now, right now. Turn from your sins, friend, and turn to Christ Jesus, your only hope of heaven. God is a judge.

No matter sin, all men will be held up to the strict and severe law of God. And if you stand there in your own merits, you will fail that test, because only a perfect person can go to heaven. And you are not perfect, friend.

Neither am I. Listen to me, and listen to me closely, friend. Good people don't go to heaven. Only forgiven people get to go there.

You must get under the blood. You must get under the blood. You must be born from above, or you will die in your sins and be sent to a devil's hell.

Before I bring this message to a close, I'm going to preach the gospel to you. Listen to me now, and beg God for mercy and grace as you hear the word of God. Look to Christ, friend.

Look to Christ. Listen, friend. The gospel is for the hungry, the weary, and the thirsty.

Let me ask you, are you hungry for God? Are you weary of your sins? Are you thirsty for Christ? Then come, ho, everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money, come ye, buy and eat, yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Listen, friend, come lay your burden down and take up Jesus. Listen to Jesus.

Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Do you want rest for your soul, friend? Then listen, and the Spirit and the Bride say, Come, and let him that hear this say, Come, and let him that is a thirst come, and whosoever will, let him take the water alive freely.

Listen to this promise from Jesus, friend. All that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. Did you hear that? He declared, I am the bread of life, he that cometh to me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.

Christ is the bread of life. He invites poor sinners to come to him and believe on him. The duty required is to come to Christ, and he has a pure gospel promise to all who come, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.

Heaven or hell, which is it for you, friend? Let us pray.