Hell Fire

Matthew 18:9

And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire.

The reality of Hell should cause all to stop and determine whether or not they are saved. Jesus preaches a sermon on Hell and tells of how horrific it is. Jesus gives two illustrations to tell us how horrific Hell is to those who go there. Jesus first said that if your hand or foot are keeping you from getting saved, that it is better to cut them off and go to Heaven than to go to Hell with both hands and feet. One can only imagine the pain that is caused by cutting off a hand or foot. Yet, Hell is much worse than doing that.

Jesus then illustrates how horrific Hell is by saying that if your eye is keeping you from getting saved, it would be better to pluck out your whole eye so that you will get saved than to go to Hell with two eyes and burn in its fire for eternity. Again, one can only imagine the pain of plucking out your eye and cutting the cord to it. Yet, no matter how horrible and painful it would be to do this, Hell is worse than that. Let me share a few thoughts about how horrific Hell is.

First, Hell is a real place. If Hell were not real, Jesus would not talk about it in His Word or His sermons on earth. Hell is such a real and horrible place that Jesus left Heaven to die for the sins of mankind so that they would never go to this real place. Hell is not the grave, and it is not a terrible situation we must endure in this life, but Hell is a real place where people who do not accept Christ will spend their eternity.

Second, Hell is a place of real fire. Several times throughout the Scriptures God talks about the fire of Hell. Dying in a fire would be a horrible way to die, but spending an eternity in Hell’s fire would be much worse. Hell is a horrible place because it is a place where the lost will spend an eternity in the fires of that Hell.

Third, Hell is a place of extreme pain. Think about the illustrations Jesus uses to explain how horrible Hell is. He talks about the fire of Hell. We all know that being burned causes extreme pain. However, Jesus talks about cutting off your hand or foot, and plucking out your eye as being better than spending an eternity in Hell’s pain. Hell’s pain is real, and nobody should ever want anyone to experience such pain.

Fourth, Hell is a place where your ailments on earth will follow you to add to the pains of Hell. Jesus talked about cutting off a hand or foot, or plucking out an eye to teach that whatever ailments you have on earth will continue when you get to Hell. Think about this; people take morphine to cover their pain, but there is no morphine in Hell. Add to the pain of fire or the cutting off of a limb to the pain you endure right now, and Hell is much worse than that.

Oh, if you are not saved, today is the day you must accept Christ so that you don't gamble on your eternity by saying you will get saved some day. However, if you are saved, how can you let people go to Hell if you truly believe in it. Believers should do everything in their power to tell people how to avoid the horrible place of Hell. The callousness of believers who will let souls go to Hell because they want to live their own life is nothing short of evil. Hell is a real place, and every believer should do everything in their power to reach these lost souls before they end up in Hell’s fire.