Repentance Or Hell

Old-time preachers, like Sam Jones and Mordecai Ham, could shake entire towns by their mighty preaching. Sam Jones' powerful preaching so shook the city of Nashville with a mighty revival that saloons had to shutter their businesses because so many drunkards were being saved that the business fell off in the liquor trade. When Mordecai Ham preached, the life of entire city was transformed for God.

In the city of Jackson, Tennessee, under Ham's preaching, one-fourth of the population was saved. What was the message that these old-time preachers preached that God honored so greatly? It was the same message, friends, that stirred the Second Great Awakening under Finney and Nettleton. The message was repentance.

You probably won't hear your pastor tell you that you must repent or be sent to hell. It's a doctrine that has been erased from our modern pulpits of our day because the institutional church has failed to warn sinners to repent of their sins. That is the big reason why we have churches full of unconverted members.

And this missing doctrine from our pulpits is the cause of a society that is spinning out of control. Listen to me, friends. When the church fails to be a moral compass to society, and when society stops looking to the church for direction, then what results is moral chaos.

Wrong is right, and right is wrong. Evil is called good, and good evil. That's where we are today all over this world, this sinking world.

I'm gonna dust off this doctrine tonight, friends, and this doctrine of repentance will divide you right down the middle aisle. You'll either agree with it and do something about it, or you will disagree and disregard my message. Some of you may even get mad at me for preaching that.

Unless you repent, you will surely go to hell. I might even upset the good deacons with my message tonight. I know that Jesus divided his crowd when he preached.

Half of them loved him and put palm branches at his feet. The other part of his hearers hated him and took up stones to throw at him or to throw him over a cliff. But I did not come here, friends, to win your approval, but to save your soul from a burning hell.

And I will preach up this powerful biblical doctrine to you this evening with the prayer that the Holy Spirit will go to work on your heart. You may be the biggest sinner in your town tonight. You may feel all hope is gone.

But listen to me, dear friend. There isn't a sinner on this planet that's too wicked to be saved. The title of my message tonight, friends, is Repentance or Hell.

There are multitudes of church people in hell tonight who swallowed the easy-believe-ism gospel of our day. You see, the gospel in this country over the last 60 or 70 years has become so diluted of its saving power that the gospel of our day can't save a flea, much less a hardened sinner on his way to hell. And what you hear today, from nine out of ten pulpits, is only a perverted gospel that will only damn you.

If you want to grow a church quickly today, then make it real easy for folks to walk an aisle, to accept Jesus. Just preach a only-believe gospel and you'll fill up your pews for sure. Preach a feel-good message on heaven and God's love every Sunday, and you'll more than likely have your crowds for sure.

Why, they'll be crawling over each other's backs to get a seat on Sunday morning. Why, you'll be in a building program before you know it. But if you start preaching a crucified Christ who demands repentance, and that the gospel has rights and claims on your life under the lordship of Jesus Christ, then you will divide your crowds, but bless God, somebody, oh, just somebody might get saved.

There are some of you here right now who like to sit and rule on the throne of your hearts, and you accepted Jesus as your savior, but you are yet tied to your idols. Listen to me, friends, and listen to me very closely. Unless you repent, you will go to a devil's hell.

There's only two types of people in this world, and I don't mean rich and poor, but I'm speaking of the saved and the lost. You're either yet dead in sin and lost, or you are dead to sin and saved. I'm not gonna honeycoat this message to soothe you, but rather give you like we say in the South.

I'm gonna give you the oil straight from the can. Please don't go to hell, friend. Hell is a chamber of horrors too terrible to imagine.

Hell is a dark region burning with flames and torments. Won't you shut up in there? You shut up in there forever. There's no parole in hell.

You're a prisoner with no rights in hell. You will be subject to the most wicked demons in hell who will tear at you day and night. The worst serial killers in history will brush up against you in hell forever.

They will be your roommates. Every pervert and refuse of society will have their way with you in hell, and there's no police force to protect you from them. Listen to what John the Baptist preached.

In Matthew chapter 3 and verses 1 and 2, we read, In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, and saying, Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. John the Baptist preached repentance, friends, and Jesus' first sermon was on repentance. Listen to the word of God from Matthew's gospel.

From that time, Jesus began to preach and to say, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And his last word to the church as a revelation was, Repent. Listen to the message Peter preached on the day of Pentecost.

Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins. And ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. If you think that was an isolated message on repentance, well, listen to Peter's next public sermon, as he addresses a crowd that has gathered around the lame man, who was just miraculously healed.

This is what Peter told that crowd that day. Repent ye, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out. That's what the old boy told them.

But most preachers today don't mention sin, so they don't have to mention the need for repentance. They never mention hell either, where you go for punishment for sin. They just preach a love God who loves you.

Just accept this loving God who is tolerant toward sin. That's the message of our pulpits today. And sadly, many folks swallow that diluted gospel, and join the church, and serve in some capacity.

Then they die in their sins and drop into a devil's hell. Listen, friends, Jesus declared, Accept ye, repent, ye shall all likewise perish. Repentance was the message of the early church.

The doctrine of repentance was Paul's message. Listen to him from Acts chapter 20. And how I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, but have showed you and taught you publicly, and from house to house, testified both to the Jews and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.

When I was in Rome, I stood at the site of the Nero Circus, where persecuted Christians were hung up on poles, then oil was poured on them, and they were lit with a torch to be human lights for the gladiatorial games. The early Christians were human torches that lit up Nero Circus because they refused to say Caesar is Lord, but rather Jesus is Lord. Those early believers, friends, knew the cost of following a crucified Christ.

Would you, if you were faced with death, deny Christ or profess Him? With hot persecution on the way to this country, you may just have your opportunity to demonstrate your love for Christ by laying down your life for Him. Some of you here join the crowd in my Bible who cried out, we will not have this man reign over us. But listen to me, dear friend, true salvation occurs when self is dethroned and another is enthroned there.

The Lord Jesus Christ, my Bible declares, without holiness, no one will see the Lord. Let me ask you, friend, are you pursuing a life of holiness? Are you? Can God bear witness to that fact? Or are you one way of church and quite another once you get home? Does your temper run your life and ruin your home? When the devil crooks his finger at you, do you blindly go to your lust like a sheep to the slaughter? Do your lusts break out and run all over you like a burning fire? Do you habitually tell lies? Do you hate another person so much that when you see them or think of them you seethe with anger? Do you say with your lips that you love Jesus and yet live like the devil and still call yourself a Christian? True repentance means throwing down your most beloved pet's sins like a filthy cloth that repulses you not to be picked up and hugged again. Listen to me, dear friend, there are no rebels in God's holy heaven.

You can't have Christ and still hug your sins. You must throw down your shotgun of rebellion and surrender to a sovereign. We'll leave you, friends, with God's final word on this matter.

Proverbs 28 declares, He that covereth his sins shall not prosper, but whosoever confesseth them, forsaketh them, shall have mercy. Let us pray.