Finestwheat
07-30-2008, 10:26 PM
Paths to Hell
Let us turn to an important verse in the Bible, whose words were spoken by Jesus Christ himself: "Wide is the gate and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction" (Matt. 7.13b). Here we seem to be told of a place called destruction. The entrance to that place is by means of a wide gate, and beyond the gate can be found a broad way. Countless people are hurrying towards this place; they even appear to be riding express trains, so fast are they heading for this destination! Because the gate is wide, everything can be brought through it. And since the way is broad, it is quite easy to travel on it. But this gate and this way lead to destruction.
The place of destruction is the place of perdition which is hell. Hence what the Lord Jesus is really saying here is that wide is the gate and broad is the way to hell, and many there are who enter into it. You may be among these very people who are entering in.
Do not speculate that there is no gate to hell. On the contrary, a gate to hell exists and it is wide. Do not imagine that there is no pathway to hell: a way exists that leads to hell and it is broader than any thoroughfare in this world. It is much broader than the broadest superhighway ever laid down. As a matter of fact, the ways to hell are many—there not just being one way. If anyone wishes to go to hell, there are many alternate roads among which he may choose. But though the roads are many, the destination is one. Though the starting points may vary, the finish line is the same. Though people travel by different roads, they will all end up in hell.
So if you are determined to head for this place, the Bible can very easily show you many ways to hell. Of these many paths to perdition I will mention but five here. All who desire to go to hell may simply practice any or all of these five ways and they are guaranteed to end in hell. Yet those who do not wish to end up there may learn from this discussion how to escape from such a destination. How I long that none of you goes to hell; but if any of you insist on traveling this path, who can change you?
The First Way to Hell: Suicide
Suicide is a shortcut to hell. There is no way which leads to hell more quickly than this. Note this brief Bible passage: "He [Judas] might go to his own place" (Acts 1.25). Judas had never believed in Jesus Christ. Though outwardly he pretended to be one of His disciples, he was "a son of perdition" (John 17.12) who had never experienced salvation. After he died, he went "to his own place." What was his own place? It was destruction or perdition. After he died, he went to hell. How did he go to hell? He killed himself by hanging.
If anyone wants to go to hell, suicide is the most convenient method of doing so. A razor, a rope, or a cup of poison will quickly send the soul to the place of eternal suffering. Hell may be quite distant from you in this life; it might, in fact, take many years for you to end up there. But if you commit suicide, you shorten the days of your life on earth and speed yourself to the place of eternal perdition.
Once an unbelieving master asked his believing chauffeur what the shortest road to hell was. At that time his car was speeding along the highway. The chauffeur opened the car door and said to his master: "If you jump out of the car, you will immediately arrive at that place. Since you do not believe in the Lord, you will go to hell as soon as you fall to your death."
The easiest and quickest way to hell is indeed suicide. If you want to arrive at hell in a few hours, swallow a large dosage of raw opium and you will be at your destination. If you wish to arrive in hell in a few minutes, take some cyanide and you will surely be there. And if you consider these ways far too slow, and you want to descend to hell in less than a minute, blow your brains out with gunshot and you will certainly be there. There are many other ways to commit suicide. For example, you may starve yourself to death or you may leap into the sea. Or you may lie on the railroad track and let the train break you in two.
By committing suicide, a person deprives himself of the hope of salvation. But if he continues to live on earth, he may hear the gospel of the substitutionary death of the Lord Jesus and believe for salvation. But if he kills himself he destroys forever the opportunity to hear the gospel. Please take note of this observation: whether one is saved or perishes is a matter decided in this life. If you refuse and do not believe in the Lord Jesus in this life, you will have no further opportunity to hear the gospel and be saved after death. In killing yourself you end your life and forfeit any chance of salvation. Hence the suicide victim will go straight to hell. His very blood is the stamp on his ticket to hell.
Once I was conducting a meeting in Chuanchow. I spoke on the same subject. That evening there were more than fourteen hundred people assembled together. Among those in the audience was a large number of high school boys and girls. As I was speaking, I thought to myself: What is the use of saying these things to them; surely they would not harbor any idea of committing suicide. But the Spirit of the Lord was working in me so that I had to say what I was led to say. And thus, I spoke to them frankly that if they truly wanted to go to hell they would no doubt end there by committing suicide.
After I finished speaking that evening, a teacher came to see me. He was a college graduate and was very clever and learned. He told me how life had become so tasteless and monotonous and how he had thought of killing himself many times but had dared not because of the darkness ahead of him. Now he knew that if he killed himself he would have no more hope of being saved. Hence he had decided not to take his life thereafter. A few days later a high school student came to see me and told how pessimistic he was about life and how he had thought of killing himself many times but had no opportunity to do so. Upon hearing the preaching of God’s word a few evenings before, he had given up the thought of taking his life.
Several months ago I was preaching in Amoy and spoke again on this subject. If anyone would kill himself, I repeated, he would surely go to hell. Later, a medical doctor told me she had a nurse who had frequently tried to kill herself but had been hindered by her from doing so. That night after she heard what I had said from God’s word, that nurse dared not entertain such a thought again.
Now these people whom I have mentioned have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. Not only did they dare not kill themselves, they also did not need to kill themselves; for they now have Christ—they are saved! Christ has so comforted their hearts and transformed their lives that they no longer nurse the thought of taking their lives. I have no idea how many people meditate such a thought. But I do know this, that Christ can satisfy every heart. So why any longer contemplate suicide and head for hell?
Once I was preaching the gospel for a few days in a college in Nanking. In the after-meeting on the last night, a townsman of mine who was a college student there came to talk with me personally. He had no difficulty in paying the tuition and his family financial situation was adequate. Moreover, he was not in any danger of failing in his studies. Yet he took a very pessimistic view towards life. He wondered where men came from and where they would go afterwards.
He had been in this frame of mind since his high school days. He felt life was so uninteresting and extremely cruel, and he thus sensed a need and a longing—a lack within him which nothing in this world could satisfy or fulfill. So he began to take a passive attitude towards all things. Life to him was meaningless and a heavy burden. The longer he lived, the more vexations he experienced. Except for the monotony and the pain, life for him had no other flavor. He often kept to himself and passed his lonely life in musing. However, the more he contemplated his situation, the more abstract everything became. He searched in darkness and could not find a ray of light. For him such a burdensome life should now be quickly ended. He had no desire to continue on in vexation. So he decided to leap into the sea and end his miserable existence at the time when he would be returning home by boat during the winter vacation.
Now, though, he had been hearing the gospel during the few days of meetings just concluded. And he today knew that the Lord Jesus Christ had died for all and lives to be a Friend of many. So why, he thought, should he die? During our conversation, he accepted the Lord Jesus to be his Savior. After he had decided to accept the Lord, I told him to tell God about his thought of suicide. He did so as we prayed together. After prayer, he asked me what he should do when he got up the next morning. I told him he should find an opportunity to read the Bible prayerfully and to meditate on God’s word so as to nourish his spiritual life. We then parted.
A few days later I asked his friend about him. His friend told me he was today very different from before, he now being a happy man. A few days after that, I met his friend once more and again I asked about him. I received the same answer. Praise God, now that he has the Lord Jesus he has no need to take his life.
Why do you seek for death? I know you are dissatisfied with life. I know you often feel lonely and miserable. I know your life is monotonous. I know you frequently sigh. You sense the vexation of life. And you are no stranger to tears. Though you possess many things of this world, these cannot satisfy your heart. In the depth of your being you sense a need, a longing for something which you do not know but which you hope will fill that void.
It is true that besides sorrow and vexation, life has no other taste. And hence you sometimes think of suicide. But why should you take that route? Jesus Christ has come to save suffering people. He has comforted many hearts, satisfied many souls, transformed many lives, and wiped away many tears. He is willing to help you turn your vexatious life into a joyful one. He can be the sun in your cloudy days, and He can be the song in your dark nights. With Him your soul can be comforted and made joyous. Why then must you die? Why commit suicide and end in hell? Today you must heed the gospel. The Lord is able and He cares for you. Accept Him as your Savior and Lord, and your life’s problems will be solved.
The Second Way to Hell: Unwillingness to Deal with Sin
If thy hand cause thee to stumble, cut it off: it is good for thee to enter into life maimed, rather than having thy two hands to go into hell, into the unquenchable fire. And if thy foot cause thee to stumble, cut it off: it is good for thee to enter into life halt, rather than having thy two feet to be cast into hell. And if thine eye cause thee to stumble, cast it out: it is good for thee to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell; where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. (Mark 9.43-48)
The one speaking here in this passage is the Lord Jesus, who tells us clearly how we can go to hell. If our hand causes us to stumble—that is to say, if our hand makes us sin—we must cut it off. This word is not meant to imply that we literally cut off our hand of flesh; it simply indicates that we must cut off the lust and sin of our hand. Cutting off the hand is very painful and is something we are unwilling and most reluctant to do. Likewise, dealing with the lust and sin of the hand is also most painful and goes against our natural will to do. Nevertheless, if we love our hand (and the lust and sin which the hand represents), we shall meet great disaster. It is not the hand alone that sins; our foot, our eye, and our whole body sin as well. The hand and the foot and the eye are representative of the entire body.
How frequently our hand sins. Many things we do which we ought not to do, while there are many things we ought to do which we do not do. Lift up your right hand, put it before you, and look at it. As you look attentively at it, ask yourself quietly what your hand has done. How many sins has it committed? How many times has it resisted God? How many things has it done that are more or less harmful to men? How many acts has it performed in sinning against oneself? Let us all look at our hands and recall the things they have done. And I trust that by the time you finish you will mourn over your sins and shed tears for them. You cannot be lighthearted, you cannot afford to be careless. You should feel sorry and cry over the many evils which your hands have done so that you will desire to get rid of your sins and be saved by believing on the Lord Jesus.
Contemplate also at this moment the paths of your feet. How many times have your feet led you to where you should not have gone? How many sins have your feet committed? Are you now standing at the gate of destruction? Are you today traveling along the pathway of destruction? Are you descending so steadily that you are about to reach the point of no return? Turn back, sinner; why must you perish? Why must you travel on this way of sin? This is not a road of peace. On the contrary, it is a most miserable way for you. Why not turn to the Lord Jesus and be rid of your sins? I beg you to return and walk in the way of life.
How about our eyes? Our eyes serve as the main contact between our inner world and the outside world. Through these, we transfer the things outside of us and make impressions within our heart. What are the things being transferred inward? No doubt our eyes have sinned, and our eyes have caused us to sin. With our eyes we read books and papers and see pictures which we should not read and see. We desire to read certain novels, but we pretend to do so out of a love for literature. We lust to see pornography, yet we feign to do so in the name of art appreciation. How our eyes long to look at scenes which will stir up our lusts. Who can tell of all the sins our eyes have committed? Eve saw the forbidden tree as being delightful, with the consequence that she committed the sin of rebellion. David saw Bathsheba bathing and committed the sin of adultery. Have your eyes sinned? You know, and God knows too.
How difficult it is to get rid of the sins of the hand because you enjoy them so much. How you love your sinful feet. How natural and comfortable for them to walk in the way of sin, and how frustrated your soul feels if you do not walk according to that old way. How you delight to amuse yourself and not turn your eyes away from looking at dirty things. A look—an attentive look—will gratify your lust and give you pleasure for a moment. It really is not easy to get rid of the lusts and sins of the hands, feet and eyes. Yet the real problem is not that they cannot be gotten rid of (for in the Lord Jesus there is salvation), but is due to your unwillingness to be rid of them (for your soul will suffer if these lusts and sins are eliminated). Nobody can force you to get rid of your sins. Nevertheless, the decision of God stands: He declares in His word that no one who is not born anew may enter the kingdom of God. You may treasure the sins of your hands, feet and eyes, you may not be willing to be rid of them, you may in fact wholeheartedly embrace your sins; but one thing is quite certain, which is, that no unsaved sinner can ever enter the kingdom of God. None who sins has eternal life.
Either you bear the pain of a moment in your willingness to have your sin cut off so that you may have eternal life and enter the kingdom of God, or else you carry your sin with you so that you may feel comfortable and pleasurable during your earthly life but enter hell to be burned by fire and consumed by worms. Either get rid of sin and be saved or carry your sin and end up in hell. To enter life, sin must be eliminated. To enter hell you need not worry about sin but may keep on sinning and enjoying its pleasure. Since sin does not exist in heaven, no one who wants to enter there may bring sin into it. Sin must either be left at Calvary or be carried into hell. Heaven allows only saved sinners to enter its precincts. Therefore, do not expect to enter heaven with your sin. You either leave it and enter yourself, or both you and yours will be left outside.
The gate to hell is wide. If you wish to go there, you may bring in any sin, whether it is pride, jealousy, strife, adultery, uncleanness or any other sin. Hell is not afraid of too much sin; it is afraid of too little. If you want to go to hell, you may freely sin. Hell will not cast you out because you sin too much. It is ready to receive the chief of sinners. It never refuses anybody. It welcomes all who come there. If you prefer to go there and suffer the wrath of God, let me tell you that you may freely sin and do whatever your heart desires. Otherwise, I beg you to get rid of sins by believing in the Lord Jesus. The sins of the hand as well as the sins of the eyes and feet must be cut off. Are you, a sinner, willing to stop sinning? Or are you thinking of committing that sin which you premeditated an hour ago on doing? Let me warn you to be careful lest you end up going to hell. The Lord will receive a sinner who is willing to forsake sin and turn to Him.
Once a house was on fire. This house was well built, and the beams were made of massive stones. One person in the house learned of the fire too late. As he descended the stairs and fled across the hall, he was struck by one of the stone beams which at that very moment fell down. One of his hands was pinned beneath the fallen beam. The beam was so heavy that he could not move it nor pull his hand out from under it. He shouted for help, but no help came. He exerted his utmost strength to move the stone beam, but he was not able to do so. He tried to pull his hand out by force, yet he could not. The fire came closer to him. If he did not escape now, he would have no further chance. What could he do?
He noticed some broken pieces of stone lying close by. So he used his free hand and quickly selected a piece of very sharp stone and began to cut the sleeve of his trapped hand. Gradually he cut his flesh, and in the process he lost lots of blood and suffered great pain. But in order to save his life, he had to do it. Life is more important than a hand. If he had not endured the pain for a while, he would have lost his entire body because of trying to hold on to just one member of the body. He finally cut through his wrist bone and was set free.
Supporting the broken arm with his good hand, the man ran out of the burning house. But as soon as he was free of the building, he collapsed. People took him to the hospital. After several months, the man was fully recovered. A trapped hand had caused him to lose his free movement. But by cutting off that hand he was able to flee for his life. He may have lost one hand but he preserved his life.
All sinners must realize that the fire of hell is approaching. You who are a sinner are in a precarious situation. Your hand is oppressed by sin. Though only one of your members sins, that is sufficient to deprive your entire body of its legitimate freedom. That one member sinning is enough to cause you to lose your life and to be burned in everlasting fire. The fire of hell is coming closer and closer. Now could be the last five minutes. It could be now or never. In an instant the opportunity may forever be lost. Therefore, you must flee for your life immediately, otherwise you will perish. Why let your whole body go to hell for the sin of one recalcitrant member? For the sake of your entire body you should be willing to endure momentary pain, get rid of your sin, and trust in the Lord Jesus. Thus shall you enter life. Otherwise, let me speak frankly, that if you insist on keeping both your hands or both your feet, your whole body will be burned to death. If you are unwilling to endure the pain of cutting off a hand or a foot, your entire body will end up in hell.
The Third Way to Hell: Pride
Let us read several passages from the Bible. The first one is found in the Gospel according to Luke chapter 18 verse 14. There the Lord Jesus tells us how the incident of the Pharisee and the publican ends. The Pharisee is a religious fanatic as well as a most moral person, whereas the publican is not only most immoral but also very unspiritual. Nonetheless, they both go to the temple to pray. The good Pharisee will not humble himself to acknowledge that he is a sinner and to ask for God’s mercy, but the bad publican humbly confesses his sins before God and also asks to have his sins atoned for because he knows he has nothing good with which to please Him. In verse 14 the Lord Jesus is recorded as telling us their respective ends: "I say unto you, This man [the publican] went down to his house justified rather than the other [the Pharisee]: for every one that exalteth himself shall be humbled, but he that humbleth himself shall be exalted." So that this most moral Pharisee is not justified whereas the most unlawful publican is.
To be justified means not just being forgiven, for forgiveness means only having our sins remitted. For one to be justified, it means his being declared to be without sin. And hence the one who considered himself to be sinless is condemned by God, while the one who reckoned himself to be sinful is declared by Him to be without any sin.
Yet how is it that such a moral person as this Pharisee is condemned and such an immoral publican is justified? For no other reason than the one given by Jesus in the parable: "Every one that exalteth himself shall be humbled, but he that humbleth himself shall be exalted." To put it more starkly, to be justified means going to heaven but to not be justified means going to hell. Hence we see how the proud man goes to hell. Proud people should beware.
Let us ponder a few more verses from the Bible: "Jehovah will root up the house of the proud" (Prov. 15.25a)—"Every one that is proud in heart is an abomination to Jehovah: . . . he shall not be unpunished" (Prov. 16.5)—"There shall be a day of Jehovah of hosts upon all that is proud and haughty, and upon all that is lifted up; and it shall be brought low" (Is. 2.12). These passages tell us plainly that the proud will be punished in the day when God shall judge all the earth. To go to hell is to suffer eternal pains. If anyone really desires to go to hell, he merely needs to be proud and he shall arrive at the desired destination.
What, then, is pride? Pride means to exalt oneself, to place oneself above what he has actually attained. Claiming a name beyond reality—that is pride. In this story of Luke 18, the Lord has made this point quite clear. He said that the Pharisee exalts himself and is proud. Wherein is he proud? Is not his morality something to be admired? But before God, and under His light, the Pharisee is not willing to confess himself a sinner. He attempts instead to report to God of all his goodness but to omit any mention of his weakness, failure and defeat. He refuses to acknowledge that he is a sinner; on the contrary, he wants to display before God his own righteousness. This is his pride.
The Pharisee is proud because he insists on pretending before God that he is a righteous man, whereas he is not a righteous man but a sinner and will not admit before God that he is. Yet God does not interfere with his pride. He allows him to be self-righteous, self-content, and self-complacent. God will not argue with him. But He does not justify him either; rather, He permits him to perish and go to hell.
Hence the real meaning of pride is that man is not willing to humble himself before God, acknowledge that he is a sinner, and accept the atoning work of the Lord Jesus in order to be saved. The proud will perish—yet not directly because of his pride but indirectly because his pride hinders him from receiving salvation. Pride is but one of many sins. The Lord Jesus has already died for all the sins of the world; He has borne the penalty of all our sins. Even this sin of pride has already been punished on the cross. But if we allow pride to remain, we cannot believe in the substitutionary death of the Lord Jesus and receive eternal life. The proud will perish because pride hinders them from getting saved.
Unless a person confesses his sins and stands in the place of a sinner, he will not accept the Lord Jesus as his Savior. I am a preacher of the gospel, and I have yet to see a person get saved who, though he is willing to believe in the substitutionary death of the Lord Jesus, is nonetheless unwilling to confess his sins. To be saved requires humility. One must confess he is a sinner.
I remember once preaching in a certain place where I had a personal talk with a high school teacher in the evening. He asked many many questions about Christianity and other religions. We talked for a long while, and his questions continued to come forth like a flood. So I told him that these questions were not basic to his problem at all. Whether a person would believe in the Lord Jesus did not depend on the solution of these questions he raised. Only one question was of utmost importance, and it was the first and foremost condition for believing Christ. I told him it was confessing oneself as a sinner. If he would not confess himself to be a sinner, the solution of all these difficult questions would not help him to believe in Christ. But if he confessed he was a sinner because he knew he was in sin, bound by sin, and was afraid of the penalty of sin, then he would seek for a Savior.
This teacher, however, was quite confused about sin. Sometimes he confessed he had sinned, but at other times in our conversation he indicated he did not feel he had any sin. Finally I told him that unless he knew for sure he was a sinner, he had no way to understand the teaching of atonement in the Bible. We talked until about midnight, and still there was no result. At last I said this to him: "Please think more concerning your sins, and then many of your problems will be solved." A few days later this man really knew and confessed that he was a sinner, and he had also truly believed in the one and only Savior Jesus Christ.
Why do you not at this moment consider the matter of your sins? If you will humble yourself and confess that you are indeed a sinner, you can be saved. If you will not confess, however, but remain proud, your pride will hasten you on to hell. All who love to go to hell may freely deceive themselves, freely be arrogant, and freely disavow the fact that they are sinners. For hell has no need of humility.
The Fourth Way to Hell: Fornication
Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them, having in like manner with these given themselves over to fornication and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the punishment of eternal fire. (Jude 7)
We see here that a certain kind of people will suffer the punishment of eternal fire. They are punished because they have committed fornication. Unrepentant fornicators must go to hell. For eternal fire is the punishment of hell. There the fire never goes out. Accordingly, if anyone wishes to go to hell, he need only commit fornication. Hell does not shy away from the uncleanness of fornication. As a matter of fact, it welcomes all fornicators. If you do not wish to go to hell, you must cut off the sin of fornication.
How common this sin is. Modesty and virginity have become old fashioned and have for the most part been cast off by modern society. Take up any newspaper and see how many cases of fornication are recorded in one day. Read the court notices and learn how many cases of adultery are to be tried. Pornographic literature is openly printed and circulated.
I do not know how many of you have committed fornication. Neither do I know how many have kept their virginity as unmarried men and women. You may answer yourselves. You know the sin you have committed, and God knows too. Do you imagine that fornication is most pleasurable? Well, consider this, that the fornicators have but one end awaiting them—hell.
Please do not take this lightly. Those who break up the loving relationship between husbands and wives are the most heinous individuals in the world. Why do you steal another’s husband and cause his wife untold sorrows at home? Why do you entice another’s wife and so make her unfaithful towards her own husband? Fornication has destroyed the peace of so many homes. Countless numbers of mothers, husbands, wives, and children are broken-hearted and separated without any consolation—all because of fornication. Turn back, or else you are destined for hell.
Let us for a moment consider the definition of fornication as given by the Lord Jesus: "I say unto you, that every one that looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart" (Matt. 5.28). According to this definition, probably there are very few if any who have not yet committed fornication. How many there are who commit adultery in their thoughts! Numberless are the people who have committed this sin in their imagination! Why do you sin against a virtuous woman with such thought? Why do you conceive unclean thoughts against her who has no relationship whatsoever with you? Yet you have truly sinned against her. And you women, do not presume to think that only the men sin in this matter. Why do they lust after you when they see you? If they need to be punished because they lust after you, then you who excite them to such lust are also punishable. If your dress, your makeup, your attitude, and your flirtatious conduct stir up men’s lust, you as well as they must equally be blamed and punished.
The world is full of fornication and adultery. Yet do not think a particular place on earth is the worst. There is nowhere else that can be compared in quantity to the number of adulterous men and women found in hell, because hell is the main detention center for all the fornicators and adulterers throughout the ages. I must say with all frankness that if you are a fornicator who has not repented, your end will be hell. But there is salvation in the Lord Jesus. He has served as the substitute for all sinners. Whoever accepts Him as Savior shall not perish but has eternal life. Fornication will send you to hell, but you need not go there because of fornication, for many fornicators have been saved and are on the way to hell no more.
Fornication may indeed send you to hell, yet you will not necessarily end up there because of it specifically. How can I explain this? Let us first of all understand that the death of Christ was to atone for sin. He died for all sins, the sin of fornication being included. He has already borne the punishment due to our fornication. We therefore need not go to hell because of such sin. But to be saved from hell we have to believe in the Lord Jesus. Although He has died for us, we will still perish if we do not accept Him as Savior. In spite of the fact that fornication does not necessarily send us to hell, it nonetheless has the power of hindering us from accepting the Lord Jesus as our Savior. How many perish today—yet not because of the greatness of their sins, but because they are hindered by them from coming to the Lord for life. The Lord is able to save them but they love their sins far more than their souls. Many women cling to their adulterers, and many men hold on to their adulteresses. They will not be separated; they are unwilling to cut off their unclean affection. And consequently, they do not come to the Lord Jesus and get saved.
I must speak faithfully here, that unless you cut off your relationship with your adulterer or adulteress and come to the Lord, you will go to hell with him or her together. Today you must make a choice between the salvation of God or your adulterous partner.
Between heaven or your sinful partner. If you do not sever the tie to your illicit lover, you have decided against heaven. For the sake of obtaining heaven, you should forsake the sin of fornication.
Once I met a rich man. He was well known in his locality and was quite influential. He was good in every aspect of life except that he was most licentious. He had destroyed the virginity of dozens of women in upper society. Nonetheless, he was a deacon in the church. But one day, upon hearing the gospel and understanding the reality of his future, he made the choice between eternal life and his many mistresses. Thank God, on that day he made the right choice. He broke off his illicit relationship with all his former mistresses and received the eternal blessing of heaven.
I may not be acquainted with your particular past history, nor can I know what you have done in darkness, but I suspect that there are many of you who have committed the sin of fornication. I entreat you most earnestly to make your choice for eternal life and cease engaging in this sinful activity.
The Fifth Way to Hell: Disobeying the Gospel
The Bible shows us another way to hell. This one may appear more clean and less ugly than the other ways. What is it? It is disobeying the gospel of Jesus Christ. Let us read a Scripture passage:
The revelation of the Lord Jesus from heaven with the angels of his power in flaming fire, rendering vengeance to them that know not God, and to them that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus: who shall suffer punishment, even eternal destruction from the face of the Lord and from the glory of his might. (2 Thess. 1.7-9)
Eternal destruction is eternal suffering in hell. Accordingly, this Scripture verse tells us that all who do not obey the gospel of Jesus Christ will go to hell.
What is the gospel of the Lord Jesus? The Bible contains explicit teaching on this. The Lord Jesus does not come to serve, nor does He come to teach. He does not come to preach the principles of liberty, equality and fraternity, nor does He serve as the perfect and great example. Through the apostle Paul God tells us this concerning the gospel: "I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received [the gospel]: that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; and that he was buried; and that he hath been raised on the third day according to the scriptures" (1 Cor. 15.3,4). Thus the gospel of Christ is His death and resurrection.
Why did Christ die? Not surely to be an example, nor for martyrdom, nor for service, but "for our sins." This is substitution, since Christ has no sin. The Sinless One became sin for us. He stood in the sinner’s stead and suffered the penalty for all us sinners. We have sinned, but Christ has not. We are sinners, but Christ is not a sinner. Yet He, not we, bore our sins and was punished. What is this called? This is called substitution. The sinless Christ died for the sinful. And this is the gospel, this is the good news.
The gospel tells us that a Savior has come to save sinners by bearing the penalty of those sinners so that they might not be punished anymore. The gospel or good news of Christ does not persuade men to improve, reform, do penance, or change in order to be saved. It simply but gloriously announces to the people of the world that Jesus Christ has already accomplished salvation so that the world’s sinners have no need to do anything nor to add anything to this perfect salvation. All they must do is to accept the salvation which God has prepared for them.
Jesus Christ not only died for sinners for the remission of their sins but He has also been raised from among the dead that sinners might be justified. Jesus "was delivered up for our trespasses, and was raised for our justification" (Rom. 4.25). His death performs the negative work of taking away the penalty of our sins so that we may not be condemned. His resurrection accomplishes the positive work of giving us a new position before God since He has justified us and reckoned us as righteous. Forgiveness means that there is no more sin, that we therefore now stand on a perfectly righteous and sinless ground which requires no forgiveness. This is what the resurrection of Jesus Christ has done for us. All men die but no one is resurrected because the wages of sin is death. Jesus Christ died but He has been raised from among the dead to prove that God has accepted His substitutionary work and that He is without sin.
Consequently, on the one hand, through the death of the Lord Jesus we receive forgiveness, and on the other hand, through His resurrection we are proven to be justified. Justification builds on forgiveness. First the forgiveness of sin, then justification. By the death of the Lord Jesus we obtain forgiveness; by His resurrection we have the assurance of justification. And all this has been accomplished. A sinner can instantly receive forgiveness and justification by believing in the Lord Jesus as Savior.
Such is the gospel. Have you heard it? God now commands all men to obey this gospel. This is the gospel of grace which gives every sinner the possibility of being saved. Will you obey this gospel? How easy it is to go to hell. You need not proceed to commit more sins such as fornication and pride. You can be on the way to hell right here—by simply not obeying the gospel. Rejecting the substitutionary death of the Lord Jesus is enough to send anyone to hell. Do not assume that you must sin more in order to qualify yourself for hell. You are fully qualified if you merely disobey the gospel.
Do not imagine that all who go to hell are gross sinners. There are quite a few religionists, moralists, philanthropists, and social workers there as well. A person may be most moral, kind and upright, yet he can end up being an inhabitant of hell. What he waits for is death and judgment. And this is his destiny for but one reason, he disobeys the gospel. No religion or morality can save a single soul; only the gospel of God’s grace can save. Rejecting this gospel is to reject the only way of salvation. And such will naturally send a soul to hell. He may be good, but he cannot be perfect. Who can say that throughout his life he has never for a second sinned? If he has sinned just once in one tiny second, he will need a Savior because his sin must be punished. By rejecting the Savior, he causes himself to go to hell. Do not entertain the thought that if you do good, you will not go there. Unless from birth to grave you have never for a single second sinned in deed, word or thought, you will be destined for hell. Today you have heard the gospel. I beg you to accept the Lord Jesus as your Savior at this hour.
Through the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus, redemption has been accomplished. That which is delivered to you now is this gospel. Why is it called the good news, the gospel? Because every sinner on earth without exception could be saved. The Lord Jesus has died for all sinners. He has crucified all the sin of the world in himself on the cross. Hence whoever is willing to accept Him as Savior shall be freed from the oppression as well as the punishment of sin.
Man’s way is always to try gradually to reform himself, accumulating more merits and hoping for salvation at the last. That is not glad tidings; that is woeful tidings. For how many, if any, in this world are able to so discipline themselves as to accumulate virtues in life? Let all who want to save themselves by good works take careful note: except your good is perfect and without blemish, your so-called good is itself sin. Unless your righteousness reaches heaven and satisfies God, it is as filthy rags. In the solitude of the night, your conscience will accuse you of mixing self, fame, reputation, and other impure thoughts into your righteous acts; how can God ever be satisfied with such "righteousness" as that? Can you possibly do good that would satisfy God (and not just satisfy yourself or your neighbor)? Hardly. Since you cannot do good, the news that tells you to do good to be saved is in truth very bad news.
Thank God, He does not ask us for the impossible. He knows our frailty, hence He causes His Son to die for us and bear the penalty of all our sins. We do not need to gradually do good in anticipation of salvation; we may have eternal life immediately after we believe and accept the Son of God as our personal Savior.
This does not mean, of course, that we who have believed in the Lord Jesus do not need to do good afterwards; it only means that we cannot be saved initially through good works. Our salvation is wholly dependent on the grace of God (Eph. 2.8). After we are saved, however, the Lord gives us a new life and that life will do good spontaneously. First be saved, then do good. Not first do good, and then be saved.
Is there anyone who is oppressed by sin? Is there any who trembles at the thought of life after death? Does not your conscience tell you you are a sinner? Are you not afraid of death and judgment? Then here is salvation for the brokenhearted sinner. The Lord Jesus comes to save such sinners. Come to Him just as you are, and He will save you. He himself declared: "Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out" (John 6.37). Be fearful lest you do not come, but do not be afraid at all that He will not receive you.
Now you have no excuse because you have heard the gospel. Will you obey? The gospel has brought the Savior to you and informed you of the way of salvation which is by accepting Him. Now it is up to you to obey. In the event you perish, it will not be due to your past sins but for your not obeying the gospel.
Suppose you are sick and almost dying, and someone brings to you a medicine that can cure you. And suppose you refuse to take the medicine. If you eventually die, it is not because of your illness but because of your rejecting the medicine which could have healed you and saved you. No doubt you have sinned, but here is a Savior whose specialty is saving sinners. If you should perish, it will be because you will not to obey and accept this Savior of sinners. How many perishing souls are now in hell—yet not because of their sins but because of their rejecting the Savior. Therefore, do not let the Savior’s word be fulfilled in you which says: "Ye [I]will not [to] come to me, that ye may have life" (John 5.40).
Let us turn to an important verse in the Bible, whose words were spoken by Jesus Christ himself: "Wide is the gate and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction" (Matt. 7.13b). Here we seem to be told of a place called destruction. The entrance to that place is by means of a wide gate, and beyond the gate can be found a broad way. Countless people are hurrying towards this place; they even appear to be riding express trains, so fast are they heading for this destination! Because the gate is wide, everything can be brought through it. And since the way is broad, it is quite easy to travel on it. But this gate and this way lead to destruction.
The place of destruction is the place of perdition which is hell. Hence what the Lord Jesus is really saying here is that wide is the gate and broad is the way to hell, and many there are who enter into it. You may be among these very people who are entering in.
Do not speculate that there is no gate to hell. On the contrary, a gate to hell exists and it is wide. Do not imagine that there is no pathway to hell: a way exists that leads to hell and it is broader than any thoroughfare in this world. It is much broader than the broadest superhighway ever laid down. As a matter of fact, the ways to hell are many—there not just being one way. If anyone wishes to go to hell, there are many alternate roads among which he may choose. But though the roads are many, the destination is one. Though the starting points may vary, the finish line is the same. Though people travel by different roads, they will all end up in hell.
So if you are determined to head for this place, the Bible can very easily show you many ways to hell. Of these many paths to perdition I will mention but five here. All who desire to go to hell may simply practice any or all of these five ways and they are guaranteed to end in hell. Yet those who do not wish to end up there may learn from this discussion how to escape from such a destination. How I long that none of you goes to hell; but if any of you insist on traveling this path, who can change you?
The First Way to Hell: Suicide
Suicide is a shortcut to hell. There is no way which leads to hell more quickly than this. Note this brief Bible passage: "He [Judas] might go to his own place" (Acts 1.25). Judas had never believed in Jesus Christ. Though outwardly he pretended to be one of His disciples, he was "a son of perdition" (John 17.12) who had never experienced salvation. After he died, he went "to his own place." What was his own place? It was destruction or perdition. After he died, he went to hell. How did he go to hell? He killed himself by hanging.
If anyone wants to go to hell, suicide is the most convenient method of doing so. A razor, a rope, or a cup of poison will quickly send the soul to the place of eternal suffering. Hell may be quite distant from you in this life; it might, in fact, take many years for you to end up there. But if you commit suicide, you shorten the days of your life on earth and speed yourself to the place of eternal perdition.
Once an unbelieving master asked his believing chauffeur what the shortest road to hell was. At that time his car was speeding along the highway. The chauffeur opened the car door and said to his master: "If you jump out of the car, you will immediately arrive at that place. Since you do not believe in the Lord, you will go to hell as soon as you fall to your death."
The easiest and quickest way to hell is indeed suicide. If you want to arrive at hell in a few hours, swallow a large dosage of raw opium and you will be at your destination. If you wish to arrive in hell in a few minutes, take some cyanide and you will surely be there. And if you consider these ways far too slow, and you want to descend to hell in less than a minute, blow your brains out with gunshot and you will certainly be there. There are many other ways to commit suicide. For example, you may starve yourself to death or you may leap into the sea. Or you may lie on the railroad track and let the train break you in two.
By committing suicide, a person deprives himself of the hope of salvation. But if he continues to live on earth, he may hear the gospel of the substitutionary death of the Lord Jesus and believe for salvation. But if he kills himself he destroys forever the opportunity to hear the gospel. Please take note of this observation: whether one is saved or perishes is a matter decided in this life. If you refuse and do not believe in the Lord Jesus in this life, you will have no further opportunity to hear the gospel and be saved after death. In killing yourself you end your life and forfeit any chance of salvation. Hence the suicide victim will go straight to hell. His very blood is the stamp on his ticket to hell.
Once I was conducting a meeting in Chuanchow. I spoke on the same subject. That evening there were more than fourteen hundred people assembled together. Among those in the audience was a large number of high school boys and girls. As I was speaking, I thought to myself: What is the use of saying these things to them; surely they would not harbor any idea of committing suicide. But the Spirit of the Lord was working in me so that I had to say what I was led to say. And thus, I spoke to them frankly that if they truly wanted to go to hell they would no doubt end there by committing suicide.
After I finished speaking that evening, a teacher came to see me. He was a college graduate and was very clever and learned. He told me how life had become so tasteless and monotonous and how he had thought of killing himself many times but had dared not because of the darkness ahead of him. Now he knew that if he killed himself he would have no more hope of being saved. Hence he had decided not to take his life thereafter. A few days later a high school student came to see me and told how pessimistic he was about life and how he had thought of killing himself many times but had no opportunity to do so. Upon hearing the preaching of God’s word a few evenings before, he had given up the thought of taking his life.
Several months ago I was preaching in Amoy and spoke again on this subject. If anyone would kill himself, I repeated, he would surely go to hell. Later, a medical doctor told me she had a nurse who had frequently tried to kill herself but had been hindered by her from doing so. That night after she heard what I had said from God’s word, that nurse dared not entertain such a thought again.
Now these people whom I have mentioned have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. Not only did they dare not kill themselves, they also did not need to kill themselves; for they now have Christ—they are saved! Christ has so comforted their hearts and transformed their lives that they no longer nurse the thought of taking their lives. I have no idea how many people meditate such a thought. But I do know this, that Christ can satisfy every heart. So why any longer contemplate suicide and head for hell?
Once I was preaching the gospel for a few days in a college in Nanking. In the after-meeting on the last night, a townsman of mine who was a college student there came to talk with me personally. He had no difficulty in paying the tuition and his family financial situation was adequate. Moreover, he was not in any danger of failing in his studies. Yet he took a very pessimistic view towards life. He wondered where men came from and where they would go afterwards.
He had been in this frame of mind since his high school days. He felt life was so uninteresting and extremely cruel, and he thus sensed a need and a longing—a lack within him which nothing in this world could satisfy or fulfill. So he began to take a passive attitude towards all things. Life to him was meaningless and a heavy burden. The longer he lived, the more vexations he experienced. Except for the monotony and the pain, life for him had no other flavor. He often kept to himself and passed his lonely life in musing. However, the more he contemplated his situation, the more abstract everything became. He searched in darkness and could not find a ray of light. For him such a burdensome life should now be quickly ended. He had no desire to continue on in vexation. So he decided to leap into the sea and end his miserable existence at the time when he would be returning home by boat during the winter vacation.
Now, though, he had been hearing the gospel during the few days of meetings just concluded. And he today knew that the Lord Jesus Christ had died for all and lives to be a Friend of many. So why, he thought, should he die? During our conversation, he accepted the Lord Jesus to be his Savior. After he had decided to accept the Lord, I told him to tell God about his thought of suicide. He did so as we prayed together. After prayer, he asked me what he should do when he got up the next morning. I told him he should find an opportunity to read the Bible prayerfully and to meditate on God’s word so as to nourish his spiritual life. We then parted.
A few days later I asked his friend about him. His friend told me he was today very different from before, he now being a happy man. A few days after that, I met his friend once more and again I asked about him. I received the same answer. Praise God, now that he has the Lord Jesus he has no need to take his life.
Why do you seek for death? I know you are dissatisfied with life. I know you often feel lonely and miserable. I know your life is monotonous. I know you frequently sigh. You sense the vexation of life. And you are no stranger to tears. Though you possess many things of this world, these cannot satisfy your heart. In the depth of your being you sense a need, a longing for something which you do not know but which you hope will fill that void.
It is true that besides sorrow and vexation, life has no other taste. And hence you sometimes think of suicide. But why should you take that route? Jesus Christ has come to save suffering people. He has comforted many hearts, satisfied many souls, transformed many lives, and wiped away many tears. He is willing to help you turn your vexatious life into a joyful one. He can be the sun in your cloudy days, and He can be the song in your dark nights. With Him your soul can be comforted and made joyous. Why then must you die? Why commit suicide and end in hell? Today you must heed the gospel. The Lord is able and He cares for you. Accept Him as your Savior and Lord, and your life’s problems will be solved.
The Second Way to Hell: Unwillingness to Deal with Sin
If thy hand cause thee to stumble, cut it off: it is good for thee to enter into life maimed, rather than having thy two hands to go into hell, into the unquenchable fire. And if thy foot cause thee to stumble, cut it off: it is good for thee to enter into life halt, rather than having thy two feet to be cast into hell. And if thine eye cause thee to stumble, cast it out: it is good for thee to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell; where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. (Mark 9.43-48)
The one speaking here in this passage is the Lord Jesus, who tells us clearly how we can go to hell. If our hand causes us to stumble—that is to say, if our hand makes us sin—we must cut it off. This word is not meant to imply that we literally cut off our hand of flesh; it simply indicates that we must cut off the lust and sin of our hand. Cutting off the hand is very painful and is something we are unwilling and most reluctant to do. Likewise, dealing with the lust and sin of the hand is also most painful and goes against our natural will to do. Nevertheless, if we love our hand (and the lust and sin which the hand represents), we shall meet great disaster. It is not the hand alone that sins; our foot, our eye, and our whole body sin as well. The hand and the foot and the eye are representative of the entire body.
How frequently our hand sins. Many things we do which we ought not to do, while there are many things we ought to do which we do not do. Lift up your right hand, put it before you, and look at it. As you look attentively at it, ask yourself quietly what your hand has done. How many sins has it committed? How many times has it resisted God? How many things has it done that are more or less harmful to men? How many acts has it performed in sinning against oneself? Let us all look at our hands and recall the things they have done. And I trust that by the time you finish you will mourn over your sins and shed tears for them. You cannot be lighthearted, you cannot afford to be careless. You should feel sorry and cry over the many evils which your hands have done so that you will desire to get rid of your sins and be saved by believing on the Lord Jesus.
Contemplate also at this moment the paths of your feet. How many times have your feet led you to where you should not have gone? How many sins have your feet committed? Are you now standing at the gate of destruction? Are you today traveling along the pathway of destruction? Are you descending so steadily that you are about to reach the point of no return? Turn back, sinner; why must you perish? Why must you travel on this way of sin? This is not a road of peace. On the contrary, it is a most miserable way for you. Why not turn to the Lord Jesus and be rid of your sins? I beg you to return and walk in the way of life.
How about our eyes? Our eyes serve as the main contact between our inner world and the outside world. Through these, we transfer the things outside of us and make impressions within our heart. What are the things being transferred inward? No doubt our eyes have sinned, and our eyes have caused us to sin. With our eyes we read books and papers and see pictures which we should not read and see. We desire to read certain novels, but we pretend to do so out of a love for literature. We lust to see pornography, yet we feign to do so in the name of art appreciation. How our eyes long to look at scenes which will stir up our lusts. Who can tell of all the sins our eyes have committed? Eve saw the forbidden tree as being delightful, with the consequence that she committed the sin of rebellion. David saw Bathsheba bathing and committed the sin of adultery. Have your eyes sinned? You know, and God knows too.
How difficult it is to get rid of the sins of the hand because you enjoy them so much. How you love your sinful feet. How natural and comfortable for them to walk in the way of sin, and how frustrated your soul feels if you do not walk according to that old way. How you delight to amuse yourself and not turn your eyes away from looking at dirty things. A look—an attentive look—will gratify your lust and give you pleasure for a moment. It really is not easy to get rid of the lusts and sins of the hands, feet and eyes. Yet the real problem is not that they cannot be gotten rid of (for in the Lord Jesus there is salvation), but is due to your unwillingness to be rid of them (for your soul will suffer if these lusts and sins are eliminated). Nobody can force you to get rid of your sins. Nevertheless, the decision of God stands: He declares in His word that no one who is not born anew may enter the kingdom of God. You may treasure the sins of your hands, feet and eyes, you may not be willing to be rid of them, you may in fact wholeheartedly embrace your sins; but one thing is quite certain, which is, that no unsaved sinner can ever enter the kingdom of God. None who sins has eternal life.
Either you bear the pain of a moment in your willingness to have your sin cut off so that you may have eternal life and enter the kingdom of God, or else you carry your sin with you so that you may feel comfortable and pleasurable during your earthly life but enter hell to be burned by fire and consumed by worms. Either get rid of sin and be saved or carry your sin and end up in hell. To enter life, sin must be eliminated. To enter hell you need not worry about sin but may keep on sinning and enjoying its pleasure. Since sin does not exist in heaven, no one who wants to enter there may bring sin into it. Sin must either be left at Calvary or be carried into hell. Heaven allows only saved sinners to enter its precincts. Therefore, do not expect to enter heaven with your sin. You either leave it and enter yourself, or both you and yours will be left outside.
The gate to hell is wide. If you wish to go there, you may bring in any sin, whether it is pride, jealousy, strife, adultery, uncleanness or any other sin. Hell is not afraid of too much sin; it is afraid of too little. If you want to go to hell, you may freely sin. Hell will not cast you out because you sin too much. It is ready to receive the chief of sinners. It never refuses anybody. It welcomes all who come there. If you prefer to go there and suffer the wrath of God, let me tell you that you may freely sin and do whatever your heart desires. Otherwise, I beg you to get rid of sins by believing in the Lord Jesus. The sins of the hand as well as the sins of the eyes and feet must be cut off. Are you, a sinner, willing to stop sinning? Or are you thinking of committing that sin which you premeditated an hour ago on doing? Let me warn you to be careful lest you end up going to hell. The Lord will receive a sinner who is willing to forsake sin and turn to Him.
Once a house was on fire. This house was well built, and the beams were made of massive stones. One person in the house learned of the fire too late. As he descended the stairs and fled across the hall, he was struck by one of the stone beams which at that very moment fell down. One of his hands was pinned beneath the fallen beam. The beam was so heavy that he could not move it nor pull his hand out from under it. He shouted for help, but no help came. He exerted his utmost strength to move the stone beam, but he was not able to do so. He tried to pull his hand out by force, yet he could not. The fire came closer to him. If he did not escape now, he would have no further chance. What could he do?
He noticed some broken pieces of stone lying close by. So he used his free hand and quickly selected a piece of very sharp stone and began to cut the sleeve of his trapped hand. Gradually he cut his flesh, and in the process he lost lots of blood and suffered great pain. But in order to save his life, he had to do it. Life is more important than a hand. If he had not endured the pain for a while, he would have lost his entire body because of trying to hold on to just one member of the body. He finally cut through his wrist bone and was set free.
Supporting the broken arm with his good hand, the man ran out of the burning house. But as soon as he was free of the building, he collapsed. People took him to the hospital. After several months, the man was fully recovered. A trapped hand had caused him to lose his free movement. But by cutting off that hand he was able to flee for his life. He may have lost one hand but he preserved his life.
All sinners must realize that the fire of hell is approaching. You who are a sinner are in a precarious situation. Your hand is oppressed by sin. Though only one of your members sins, that is sufficient to deprive your entire body of its legitimate freedom. That one member sinning is enough to cause you to lose your life and to be burned in everlasting fire. The fire of hell is coming closer and closer. Now could be the last five minutes. It could be now or never. In an instant the opportunity may forever be lost. Therefore, you must flee for your life immediately, otherwise you will perish. Why let your whole body go to hell for the sin of one recalcitrant member? For the sake of your entire body you should be willing to endure momentary pain, get rid of your sin, and trust in the Lord Jesus. Thus shall you enter life. Otherwise, let me speak frankly, that if you insist on keeping both your hands or both your feet, your whole body will be burned to death. If you are unwilling to endure the pain of cutting off a hand or a foot, your entire body will end up in hell.
The Third Way to Hell: Pride
Let us read several passages from the Bible. The first one is found in the Gospel according to Luke chapter 18 verse 14. There the Lord Jesus tells us how the incident of the Pharisee and the publican ends. The Pharisee is a religious fanatic as well as a most moral person, whereas the publican is not only most immoral but also very unspiritual. Nonetheless, they both go to the temple to pray. The good Pharisee will not humble himself to acknowledge that he is a sinner and to ask for God’s mercy, but the bad publican humbly confesses his sins before God and also asks to have his sins atoned for because he knows he has nothing good with which to please Him. In verse 14 the Lord Jesus is recorded as telling us their respective ends: "I say unto you, This man [the publican] went down to his house justified rather than the other [the Pharisee]: for every one that exalteth himself shall be humbled, but he that humbleth himself shall be exalted." So that this most moral Pharisee is not justified whereas the most unlawful publican is.
To be justified means not just being forgiven, for forgiveness means only having our sins remitted. For one to be justified, it means his being declared to be without sin. And hence the one who considered himself to be sinless is condemned by God, while the one who reckoned himself to be sinful is declared by Him to be without any sin.
Yet how is it that such a moral person as this Pharisee is condemned and such an immoral publican is justified? For no other reason than the one given by Jesus in the parable: "Every one that exalteth himself shall be humbled, but he that humbleth himself shall be exalted." To put it more starkly, to be justified means going to heaven but to not be justified means going to hell. Hence we see how the proud man goes to hell. Proud people should beware.
Let us ponder a few more verses from the Bible: "Jehovah will root up the house of the proud" (Prov. 15.25a)—"Every one that is proud in heart is an abomination to Jehovah: . . . he shall not be unpunished" (Prov. 16.5)—"There shall be a day of Jehovah of hosts upon all that is proud and haughty, and upon all that is lifted up; and it shall be brought low" (Is. 2.12). These passages tell us plainly that the proud will be punished in the day when God shall judge all the earth. To go to hell is to suffer eternal pains. If anyone really desires to go to hell, he merely needs to be proud and he shall arrive at the desired destination.
What, then, is pride? Pride means to exalt oneself, to place oneself above what he has actually attained. Claiming a name beyond reality—that is pride. In this story of Luke 18, the Lord has made this point quite clear. He said that the Pharisee exalts himself and is proud. Wherein is he proud? Is not his morality something to be admired? But before God, and under His light, the Pharisee is not willing to confess himself a sinner. He attempts instead to report to God of all his goodness but to omit any mention of his weakness, failure and defeat. He refuses to acknowledge that he is a sinner; on the contrary, he wants to display before God his own righteousness. This is his pride.
The Pharisee is proud because he insists on pretending before God that he is a righteous man, whereas he is not a righteous man but a sinner and will not admit before God that he is. Yet God does not interfere with his pride. He allows him to be self-righteous, self-content, and self-complacent. God will not argue with him. But He does not justify him either; rather, He permits him to perish and go to hell.
Hence the real meaning of pride is that man is not willing to humble himself before God, acknowledge that he is a sinner, and accept the atoning work of the Lord Jesus in order to be saved. The proud will perish—yet not directly because of his pride but indirectly because his pride hinders him from receiving salvation. Pride is but one of many sins. The Lord Jesus has already died for all the sins of the world; He has borne the penalty of all our sins. Even this sin of pride has already been punished on the cross. But if we allow pride to remain, we cannot believe in the substitutionary death of the Lord Jesus and receive eternal life. The proud will perish because pride hinders them from getting saved.
Unless a person confesses his sins and stands in the place of a sinner, he will not accept the Lord Jesus as his Savior. I am a preacher of the gospel, and I have yet to see a person get saved who, though he is willing to believe in the substitutionary death of the Lord Jesus, is nonetheless unwilling to confess his sins. To be saved requires humility. One must confess he is a sinner.
I remember once preaching in a certain place where I had a personal talk with a high school teacher in the evening. He asked many many questions about Christianity and other religions. We talked for a long while, and his questions continued to come forth like a flood. So I told him that these questions were not basic to his problem at all. Whether a person would believe in the Lord Jesus did not depend on the solution of these questions he raised. Only one question was of utmost importance, and it was the first and foremost condition for believing Christ. I told him it was confessing oneself as a sinner. If he would not confess himself to be a sinner, the solution of all these difficult questions would not help him to believe in Christ. But if he confessed he was a sinner because he knew he was in sin, bound by sin, and was afraid of the penalty of sin, then he would seek for a Savior.
This teacher, however, was quite confused about sin. Sometimes he confessed he had sinned, but at other times in our conversation he indicated he did not feel he had any sin. Finally I told him that unless he knew for sure he was a sinner, he had no way to understand the teaching of atonement in the Bible. We talked until about midnight, and still there was no result. At last I said this to him: "Please think more concerning your sins, and then many of your problems will be solved." A few days later this man really knew and confessed that he was a sinner, and he had also truly believed in the one and only Savior Jesus Christ.
Why do you not at this moment consider the matter of your sins? If you will humble yourself and confess that you are indeed a sinner, you can be saved. If you will not confess, however, but remain proud, your pride will hasten you on to hell. All who love to go to hell may freely deceive themselves, freely be arrogant, and freely disavow the fact that they are sinners. For hell has no need of humility.
The Fourth Way to Hell: Fornication
Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them, having in like manner with these given themselves over to fornication and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the punishment of eternal fire. (Jude 7)
We see here that a certain kind of people will suffer the punishment of eternal fire. They are punished because they have committed fornication. Unrepentant fornicators must go to hell. For eternal fire is the punishment of hell. There the fire never goes out. Accordingly, if anyone wishes to go to hell, he need only commit fornication. Hell does not shy away from the uncleanness of fornication. As a matter of fact, it welcomes all fornicators. If you do not wish to go to hell, you must cut off the sin of fornication.
How common this sin is. Modesty and virginity have become old fashioned and have for the most part been cast off by modern society. Take up any newspaper and see how many cases of fornication are recorded in one day. Read the court notices and learn how many cases of adultery are to be tried. Pornographic literature is openly printed and circulated.
I do not know how many of you have committed fornication. Neither do I know how many have kept their virginity as unmarried men and women. You may answer yourselves. You know the sin you have committed, and God knows too. Do you imagine that fornication is most pleasurable? Well, consider this, that the fornicators have but one end awaiting them—hell.
Please do not take this lightly. Those who break up the loving relationship between husbands and wives are the most heinous individuals in the world. Why do you steal another’s husband and cause his wife untold sorrows at home? Why do you entice another’s wife and so make her unfaithful towards her own husband? Fornication has destroyed the peace of so many homes. Countless numbers of mothers, husbands, wives, and children are broken-hearted and separated without any consolation—all because of fornication. Turn back, or else you are destined for hell.
Let us for a moment consider the definition of fornication as given by the Lord Jesus: "I say unto you, that every one that looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart" (Matt. 5.28). According to this definition, probably there are very few if any who have not yet committed fornication. How many there are who commit adultery in their thoughts! Numberless are the people who have committed this sin in their imagination! Why do you sin against a virtuous woman with such thought? Why do you conceive unclean thoughts against her who has no relationship whatsoever with you? Yet you have truly sinned against her. And you women, do not presume to think that only the men sin in this matter. Why do they lust after you when they see you? If they need to be punished because they lust after you, then you who excite them to such lust are also punishable. If your dress, your makeup, your attitude, and your flirtatious conduct stir up men’s lust, you as well as they must equally be blamed and punished.
The world is full of fornication and adultery. Yet do not think a particular place on earth is the worst. There is nowhere else that can be compared in quantity to the number of adulterous men and women found in hell, because hell is the main detention center for all the fornicators and adulterers throughout the ages. I must say with all frankness that if you are a fornicator who has not repented, your end will be hell. But there is salvation in the Lord Jesus. He has served as the substitute for all sinners. Whoever accepts Him as Savior shall not perish but has eternal life. Fornication will send you to hell, but you need not go there because of fornication, for many fornicators have been saved and are on the way to hell no more.
Fornication may indeed send you to hell, yet you will not necessarily end up there because of it specifically. How can I explain this? Let us first of all understand that the death of Christ was to atone for sin. He died for all sins, the sin of fornication being included. He has already borne the punishment due to our fornication. We therefore need not go to hell because of such sin. But to be saved from hell we have to believe in the Lord Jesus. Although He has died for us, we will still perish if we do not accept Him as Savior. In spite of the fact that fornication does not necessarily send us to hell, it nonetheless has the power of hindering us from accepting the Lord Jesus as our Savior. How many perish today—yet not because of the greatness of their sins, but because they are hindered by them from coming to the Lord for life. The Lord is able to save them but they love their sins far more than their souls. Many women cling to their adulterers, and many men hold on to their adulteresses. They will not be separated; they are unwilling to cut off their unclean affection. And consequently, they do not come to the Lord Jesus and get saved.
I must speak faithfully here, that unless you cut off your relationship with your adulterer or adulteress and come to the Lord, you will go to hell with him or her together. Today you must make a choice between the salvation of God or your adulterous partner.
Between heaven or your sinful partner. If you do not sever the tie to your illicit lover, you have decided against heaven. For the sake of obtaining heaven, you should forsake the sin of fornication.
Once I met a rich man. He was well known in his locality and was quite influential. He was good in every aspect of life except that he was most licentious. He had destroyed the virginity of dozens of women in upper society. Nonetheless, he was a deacon in the church. But one day, upon hearing the gospel and understanding the reality of his future, he made the choice between eternal life and his many mistresses. Thank God, on that day he made the right choice. He broke off his illicit relationship with all his former mistresses and received the eternal blessing of heaven.
I may not be acquainted with your particular past history, nor can I know what you have done in darkness, but I suspect that there are many of you who have committed the sin of fornication. I entreat you most earnestly to make your choice for eternal life and cease engaging in this sinful activity.
The Fifth Way to Hell: Disobeying the Gospel
The Bible shows us another way to hell. This one may appear more clean and less ugly than the other ways. What is it? It is disobeying the gospel of Jesus Christ. Let us read a Scripture passage:
The revelation of the Lord Jesus from heaven with the angels of his power in flaming fire, rendering vengeance to them that know not God, and to them that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus: who shall suffer punishment, even eternal destruction from the face of the Lord and from the glory of his might. (2 Thess. 1.7-9)
Eternal destruction is eternal suffering in hell. Accordingly, this Scripture verse tells us that all who do not obey the gospel of Jesus Christ will go to hell.
What is the gospel of the Lord Jesus? The Bible contains explicit teaching on this. The Lord Jesus does not come to serve, nor does He come to teach. He does not come to preach the principles of liberty, equality and fraternity, nor does He serve as the perfect and great example. Through the apostle Paul God tells us this concerning the gospel: "I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received [the gospel]: that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; and that he was buried; and that he hath been raised on the third day according to the scriptures" (1 Cor. 15.3,4). Thus the gospel of Christ is His death and resurrection.
Why did Christ die? Not surely to be an example, nor for martyrdom, nor for service, but "for our sins." This is substitution, since Christ has no sin. The Sinless One became sin for us. He stood in the sinner’s stead and suffered the penalty for all us sinners. We have sinned, but Christ has not. We are sinners, but Christ is not a sinner. Yet He, not we, bore our sins and was punished. What is this called? This is called substitution. The sinless Christ died for the sinful. And this is the gospel, this is the good news.
The gospel tells us that a Savior has come to save sinners by bearing the penalty of those sinners so that they might not be punished anymore. The gospel or good news of Christ does not persuade men to improve, reform, do penance, or change in order to be saved. It simply but gloriously announces to the people of the world that Jesus Christ has already accomplished salvation so that the world’s sinners have no need to do anything nor to add anything to this perfect salvation. All they must do is to accept the salvation which God has prepared for them.
Jesus Christ not only died for sinners for the remission of their sins but He has also been raised from among the dead that sinners might be justified. Jesus "was delivered up for our trespasses, and was raised for our justification" (Rom. 4.25). His death performs the negative work of taking away the penalty of our sins so that we may not be condemned. His resurrection accomplishes the positive work of giving us a new position before God since He has justified us and reckoned us as righteous. Forgiveness means that there is no more sin, that we therefore now stand on a perfectly righteous and sinless ground which requires no forgiveness. This is what the resurrection of Jesus Christ has done for us. All men die but no one is resurrected because the wages of sin is death. Jesus Christ died but He has been raised from among the dead to prove that God has accepted His substitutionary work and that He is without sin.
Consequently, on the one hand, through the death of the Lord Jesus we receive forgiveness, and on the other hand, through His resurrection we are proven to be justified. Justification builds on forgiveness. First the forgiveness of sin, then justification. By the death of the Lord Jesus we obtain forgiveness; by His resurrection we have the assurance of justification. And all this has been accomplished. A sinner can instantly receive forgiveness and justification by believing in the Lord Jesus as Savior.
Such is the gospel. Have you heard it? God now commands all men to obey this gospel. This is the gospel of grace which gives every sinner the possibility of being saved. Will you obey this gospel? How easy it is to go to hell. You need not proceed to commit more sins such as fornication and pride. You can be on the way to hell right here—by simply not obeying the gospel. Rejecting the substitutionary death of the Lord Jesus is enough to send anyone to hell. Do not assume that you must sin more in order to qualify yourself for hell. You are fully qualified if you merely disobey the gospel.
Do not imagine that all who go to hell are gross sinners. There are quite a few religionists, moralists, philanthropists, and social workers there as well. A person may be most moral, kind and upright, yet he can end up being an inhabitant of hell. What he waits for is death and judgment. And this is his destiny for but one reason, he disobeys the gospel. No religion or morality can save a single soul; only the gospel of God’s grace can save. Rejecting this gospel is to reject the only way of salvation. And such will naturally send a soul to hell. He may be good, but he cannot be perfect. Who can say that throughout his life he has never for a second sinned? If he has sinned just once in one tiny second, he will need a Savior because his sin must be punished. By rejecting the Savior, he causes himself to go to hell. Do not entertain the thought that if you do good, you will not go there. Unless from birth to grave you have never for a single second sinned in deed, word or thought, you will be destined for hell. Today you have heard the gospel. I beg you to accept the Lord Jesus as your Savior at this hour.
Through the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus, redemption has been accomplished. That which is delivered to you now is this gospel. Why is it called the good news, the gospel? Because every sinner on earth without exception could be saved. The Lord Jesus has died for all sinners. He has crucified all the sin of the world in himself on the cross. Hence whoever is willing to accept Him as Savior shall be freed from the oppression as well as the punishment of sin.
Man’s way is always to try gradually to reform himself, accumulating more merits and hoping for salvation at the last. That is not glad tidings; that is woeful tidings. For how many, if any, in this world are able to so discipline themselves as to accumulate virtues in life? Let all who want to save themselves by good works take careful note: except your good is perfect and without blemish, your so-called good is itself sin. Unless your righteousness reaches heaven and satisfies God, it is as filthy rags. In the solitude of the night, your conscience will accuse you of mixing self, fame, reputation, and other impure thoughts into your righteous acts; how can God ever be satisfied with such "righteousness" as that? Can you possibly do good that would satisfy God (and not just satisfy yourself or your neighbor)? Hardly. Since you cannot do good, the news that tells you to do good to be saved is in truth very bad news.
Thank God, He does not ask us for the impossible. He knows our frailty, hence He causes His Son to die for us and bear the penalty of all our sins. We do not need to gradually do good in anticipation of salvation; we may have eternal life immediately after we believe and accept the Son of God as our personal Savior.
This does not mean, of course, that we who have believed in the Lord Jesus do not need to do good afterwards; it only means that we cannot be saved initially through good works. Our salvation is wholly dependent on the grace of God (Eph. 2.8). After we are saved, however, the Lord gives us a new life and that life will do good spontaneously. First be saved, then do good. Not first do good, and then be saved.
Is there anyone who is oppressed by sin? Is there any who trembles at the thought of life after death? Does not your conscience tell you you are a sinner? Are you not afraid of death and judgment? Then here is salvation for the brokenhearted sinner. The Lord Jesus comes to save such sinners. Come to Him just as you are, and He will save you. He himself declared: "Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out" (John 6.37). Be fearful lest you do not come, but do not be afraid at all that He will not receive you.
Now you have no excuse because you have heard the gospel. Will you obey? The gospel has brought the Savior to you and informed you of the way of salvation which is by accepting Him. Now it is up to you to obey. In the event you perish, it will not be due to your past sins but for your not obeying the gospel.
Suppose you are sick and almost dying, and someone brings to you a medicine that can cure you. And suppose you refuse to take the medicine. If you eventually die, it is not because of your illness but because of your rejecting the medicine which could have healed you and saved you. No doubt you have sinned, but here is a Savior whose specialty is saving sinners. If you should perish, it will be because you will not to obey and accept this Savior of sinners. How many perishing souls are now in hell—yet not because of their sins but because of their rejecting the Savior. Therefore, do not let the Savior’s word be fulfilled in you which says: "Ye [I]will not [to] come to me, that ye may have life" (John 5.40).