Read the following from Ironside's message on the missionary minded man in hell. Oh that we would be concerned for souls now. Let's preach the gospel. Let's get under the burden of souls.

But now what I am concerned about is the change that took place in this man after he died. He was very selfish while he lived, never interested, apparently, in doing anything for other people. But you know a remarkable thing is, after he died he became a missionary-minded man. He began to think of other people and what could be done for them. Not immediately; at first, just as before, he was thinking of himself and cried to Abraham—he could see him afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom—and he said, “Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.”

Look at this: you have a praying man in Hell. But the trouble was, he began praying on the wrong side of the tomb. He went through life prayerless. The moment he got over on the other side, he began to pray.

What did he pray for? He did not ask for very much; only a drop of water on the tip of a beggar’s finger. But even that was denied him. Living water, the water of life, might have been his. He had rejected it when grace was free. Now he had come to a place where living water was never known, where there was no relief from his misery.

Abraham said, “Son, remember.” Oh, the awfulness of memory! Some of you here tonight would give everything you have to forget some events that have taken place in your life. You look back over the years, and things come back that haunt you and trouble you many times in the restless night. Oh, if you could only put it away, only forget it! Sometimes you are able to forget it for a little while.

My friend, if you die in your sin, you will never be able to forget the one sin committed; you will never be able to forget the grace you have despised; you will never be able to forget the gospel messages you have heard and refused to believe; you will never be able to forget the invitations to come to Jesus which fell upon your ears but you turned them down. One of the most awful thoughts that can ever come to a lost soul must be this: Jesus died, yet I am in Hell. Jesus died and I knew all about it; I knew He died to save sinners like me, yet I am in Hell because I wouldn’t trust Him when I might have done so. I wouldn’t turn to Him in repentance when He waited to save me.

Memory! “Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented.”

The comfort that came to Lazarus would be in large measure the answer to the suffering that he endured on earth. We read, “Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory” (2 Cor. 4:17). But all the bitter anguish that this man endured in eternity would only be accentuated as he looked back and thought of the luxury in which he once lived on earth when he was so careless of God.

Eternity—it is an awful thing to have to look back through all eternity on mercy rejected.

Then Abraham went on to say, “Beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence.” There you have two things: the absolute denial of the annihilation of the wicked that lie on the wrong side of the fixed gulf forever; then the denial of universal salvation. The man who dies in sin will never get over to the other side of the gulf, just as the man who dies in Christ will never get over to the suffering side of the gulf. There is a great gulf fixed.

Thank God, it is not fixed yet. If you are here tonight unsaved, the cross of Christ is like a great bridge across that gulf. You may take Him as your Saviour and pass from one side to the other. If you die in your sins, it will be too late.

In Hell He Wanted Others Saved

Now we find how this man suddenly became awakened to the importance of missionary effort. I don’t suppose he had ever given a half-shekel in his life for missions. Why should he? He was not saved himself, so why should he be interested in others? Now in Hell he suddenly becomes very missionary-minded. He said, “I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to my father’s house: for I have five brethren.”

What a family—six brothers, one in Hell, and five on the way! “I have five brethren that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment.”

I have heard unsaved men foolishly saying, “Oh, well, if I am lost there will be a lot of people in Hell to share with me.”

My dear friend, that will be no comfort to you. Here is a lost man, and he says, “Abraham, can’t you do something to keep my five brothers from sharing this fate with me? I don’t want them here. I don’t want them to suffer what I am suffering. Won’t you send Lazarus to them? Let him go as a missionary to tell them the way out, to tell them to be saved while there is time. I don’t want them to come here.” He knew what it meant to be shut away from God for eternity, and he said, “I don’t want my brothers to share it.”

Abraham answered him, “They do not need Lazarus. They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.” He meant they had the Old Testament, they had their Bibles; let them read them. This man says, “Oh, if one went unto them from the dead they would repent. If Lazarus came back to tell them what it is like over here and attempted to warn them, they would believe him; they would repent.” But he was told, “Oh, no, they would not. If they would not believe the Bible, they would not believe a man who should rise from the dead.” In other words, “They would think he had not been dead at all, just in a swoon, that he was crazy anyway, and they would not believe him, even though he professed to come back from the dead.”

You may say, “Why doesn’t God work a miracle to save me?” He worked a miracle when He gave His Son to die, then raised Him from the dead. God says, “Here is the record of it. You believe this and you will be saved. If you do not believe that, you will never be saved.” God says, “He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already.” Why? “Because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”

What about you? I am not trying to explain Hell to you. I cannot. I am not trying to tell you what any figures mean, if they are only figures. I do not know. I am just giving what Jesus said. And you will have to admit this: that the Word of God says if you die loving what God hates and hating what God loves, there is something terrible awaiting you after death. Do not try to wriggle out of that. Do not try to dispute that. It is perfectly plain in God’s holy Word. Oh, think of going out into eternity without God!

Eternity: Time soon will end,

Its fleeting moments pass away;

O sinner, say, where wilt thou spend

Eternity’s unchanging day?

Shalt thou the hopeless horror see

Of Hell for all eternity?

 Henry Allen Ironside, “A Missionary-Minded Man in Hell,” in Great Preaching On: Hell, Great Preaching Series (Sword of the Lord Publishers, 1989), 69–72.