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Why You Must Not Perish in the Lake of Fire

And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.

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 found no place for them. 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.

And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. AND DEATH AND HELL WERE CAST INTO THE LAKE OF FIRE. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

Revelation 20:10-15

Christ died to save us from perishing in the lake of fire. All through the Bible we are told that there is a place called “hell”. The lake of fire is the final destination for all who go to hell.

The Room Mate Who Went To Hell

I once heard a startling story of how the Lord Jesus appeared to an Assemblies of God pastor in a vision and told him, “I want you to become more evangelistic so I am going to take you to hell so you see how real it is.”

This pastor had known the Lord from his youth but when he became a teenager he backslid and forsook God. This backsliding continued until he went to the university, where he re-dedicated his life to the Lord.

In fact, he became so zealous that he left college and decided to go into Bible School and into the ministry. One Sunday night, the Lord appeared to him, urging him to be more evangelistic.

During the vision the Lord took him to hell, where he saw all the sights and sounds of hell. He saw the weeping, the gnashing and the wailing of the lost. He said, “If the Lord had not been with me, I would have been really frightened of what I saw in hell.”

Suddenly, they came across someone in hell whom he recognized. This person was his roommate whilst in second year in college.

He exclaimed, “What are you doing here? “

To his amazement his roommate said, “I was killed in an automobile accident on Friday.”

Remember that this vision took place on Sunday night.

When he came out of the vision, he was so disturbed and wanted to call his mother to find out if she knew anything about his roommate but it was too late to call. So he called his mother on Monday. After exchanging niceties with her he asked, “Have you heard from so and so, my roommate?”

His mother answered, “I was going to tell you, he was killed in a terrible car accident on Friday.”

The pastor could not believe his ears. He was in shock. It was real. He had actually seen his former roommate in hell. He had actually seen the inside of the prison with his own friend and roommate in it.

Dear friend, hell is real and the people in hell know and remember how they died! They know when they died! They have found out first hand that the Bible is true!

1. You must not perish in hell because hell is a vast lake of burning brimstone (sulphur).

There are many huge lakes of burning sulphur on the earth today. We call them volcanoes and indeed they are a sober reminder of the reality of the eternal lake of fire.

Burning sulphur has an acrid odour that is found in volcanoes. It is a marvel that modern sceptics cannot imagine lakes that are continually on fire. Volcanoes are burning lakes of fire found in different mountains all over the earth. Many of these volcanoes have been simmering for hundreds of years and no one has asked how the liquid fire in these vast lakes is kept ablaze.

And the devil that deceived them was cast into the LAKE OF FIRE AND BRIMSTONE [burning sulphur], where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.

Revelation 20:10

2. You must not perish in hell because it is a place of sorrows.

There are many well-known sorrows on this earth. However the Bible warns of the sorrows of hell. If the sorrows of this earth are difficult to bear how much more terrible will the sorrows of hell be? Hell is a place to avoid because of the sorrows there.

The SORROWS OF HELL compassed me about; the snares of death prevented me;

2 Samuel 22:6

3. You must not perish in hell because it is a place where you never die and where the suffering never ends.

And IN THOSE DAYS SHALL MEN SEEK DEATH, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them.

Revelation 9:6

The Husband Who Thought He Could End It All

The endless nature of hell is perhaps the most frightening aspect of all. I once heard the true story of a Swiss lady who was suffering in the hospital from terminal cancer. Her husband visited her everyday and watched his wife suffer and her health deteriorate. His wife was constantly writhing in agony and desperately wanted to die.

One day, he decided to end it all himself. Since he was a member of the reserve army of Switzerland, he went home, took his gun, went back to the hospital and shot his wife. Then he handed himself over to the police. He could not stand the suffering of his wife any longer and he decided to end it all. This gentleman was happy with the outcome because he knew he had ended his wife’s suffering on this earth.

As I thought of this story, I remembered what Jesus had said about a place where the suffering never ends. You will not be able to take a gun and end anything. The worm never dies and the heat is never turned off.

And if thy hand offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched: WHERE THEIR WORM DIETH NOT, AND THE FIRE IS NOT QUENCHED.

Mark 9:43-44

4. You must not perish in hell because it is a place worth giving up your eyes, arms and legs in order to avoid.

I know of no place on earth that is worth giving up your arms or your eyes for. Perhaps there is no stronger description to help us comprehend the kind of place that hell must be. A place so terrible that you should gladly offer your hand, your foot or your eye so as to escape from there!

And if thy hand offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than HAVING TWO HANDS TO GO INTO HELL, into the fire that never shall be quenched: Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.

And if thy foot offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter halt into life, than having two feet to be cast into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched: Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out: it is better for thee to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye, than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire:

Mark 9:43-47

5. You must not perish in hell because in the lake of fire, you will be bound in chains forever.

To be bound for a few hours is a hard enough experience. I cannot fathom what it must be like to be bound forever in chains of darkness.

For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into CHAINS OF DARKNESS, to be reserved unto judgment;

2 Peter 2:4

6. You must not perish in hell because you will remain alive in the lake of fire.

You will not drown in the lake! Neither will you be burnt to ashes! You will be alive in this fire! This is not comparable to death by firing squad, drowning, hanging, poisoning or even electrocution. In those cases, death comes after a few minutes; and the horrors of the execution scene will pass away quickly whilst you are transported into another world. In this lake of fire, you will be alive whilst burning in a lake of fire.

And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were CAST ALIVE INTO A LAKE OF FIRE burning with brimstone.

Revelation 19:20

7. The lake of fire will never be full because the Bible says hell is never full.

There is space for you in hell if you stubbornly refuse the gospel salvation through Christ.

Hell and destruction are never full; so the eyes of man are never satisfied.

Proverbs 27:20

8. The lake of fire is constantly being expanded.

Because the majority of people are on the broad way, there are endless numbers of people heading towards hell. Multitudes await the good news of Jesus Christ in the corners of the earth whilst Christians rejoice over nothing in their big city churches.

The lake of fire is being expanded because more and more people are rejecting God, in their pride.

Therefore HELL HATH ENLARGED HERSELF, and opened her mouth without measure: and their glory, and their multitude, and their pomp, and he that rejoiceth, shall descend into it.

Isaiah 5:14

9. You cannot afford to perish in the lake of fire.

Today must be the day of your salvation. You must not wait even one minute. You must not juggle with your very life.

The Italian Juggler

One day, an Italian man was returning home to Italy after living in America for a number of years. He was on a steamboat that was crossing the Atlantic Ocean from America to Europe. The journey across the ocean took several days and everyone on board was looking for some entertainment.

One day, this Italian man came across a young boy who was juggling a couple of oranges on the deck of the ship.

It happened that this Italian man was a professional juggler and that was the job he had been doing in America for so many years. He approached the young boy and offered to juggle his oranges for him. Because he was so good at juggling, a little crowd gathered around him. The juggler became excited and took on more and more oranges. Each time he took one more orange the crowd became more frenzied and cheered him on. The Italian juggler became even more excited and told the crowd, “I am going to show you something.”

He excused himself from the crowd and went to his cabin to take something. When he came back on the deck he showed the crowd what he had in his hand. Everyone gasped! It was a huge valuable diamond belonging to this Italian juggler. He had bought it with all the money and savings he had earned from his years of work in America. He told the crowd, “I am going to juggle this diamond. It is my life’s savings.”

People told him not to do it but he told them that his hands were very sure and that juggling was his profession. He threw the diamond into the air with the other oranges and began juggling. The crowd was silent as they watched the Italian juggler play with his whole life’s fortune.

Up went the diamond, glistening and sparkling in the sunshine. Just when the diamond came back to the juggler’s hand the ship lurched and the diamond missed the juggler’s hand and fell on the deck and bounced off the deck into the sea to the disbelief of the entire crowd.

This is what many people are doing in their lives. They are juggling with their souls. They are playing around with the reality of eternity. Like the Italian juggler, they do not realise how high the stakes are. It is their very lives that are at stake. Walking away from Jesus is walking away from your life. Walking away from Jesus Christ is to walk into the lake of fire.

by Dag Heward-Mills

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