Father, I just pray that you would please just bless this service this morning and stir
us all up, dear God, and help us to learn something this morning that would stir us
to greater service for you, that would bring us a little bit back to the reality of the
truth of the Bible.
In Jesus' name I pray, amen.
Now this is a very famous passage in the Bible, of course, Luke chapter 16, especially the
latter part, discussing the rich man who died and went to hell.
Now hell is a horrible, awful place.
The Bible says in verse 23, if you look at it, the Bible reads,
And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off and Lazarus
in his bosom.
And he cried and 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.
Now flip over to Matthew 25, we're going to be back in Luke 16, but flip over to Matthew
chapter 25.
The Bible says in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments.
So a man in Luke chapter 16, he died and moments later, from the time that he bowed his head
and breathed his last breath, the Bible says by the time he lifted up his eyes, he was
already in hell.
You say, now wait a minute, Pastor Anderson, if a person dies unsaved, don't they go and
stand before God and they're judged by God?
Absolutely not.
The Bible says he that believeth on the son, the Bible says in John 3,
Significantly, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever
believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
For God sent not a son to the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him
might be saved.
He that believeth on him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already.
See, he doesn't need to stand before God and be judged.
He's already been condemned by the Bible.
The judgment's already happened.
The Bible says he that believeth not is condemned already, because he had not believed in the
name of the only begotten son of God.
We'll get to that a little later.
But look at Matthew chapter 25, verse number 41, you know the doctrine of hell is under
attack this morning.
Churches all over America do not believe in hell the way that they used to.
There are even many Baptists who do not believe in a literal, fiery hell.
Now it's something that none of us would like to think about, but it's something that we
must think about.
Paul said to Timothy in 1 Timothy chapter 4, he said, meditate upon these things, give
thyself holy to them.
Hey, the Bible speaks a lot about hell, and we're to meditate on hell from time to time.
That'll stir us to greater service for God.
That'll help us to remember that there's an unsaved world out there that needs the gospel.
We need to think about this thing of hell.
But the doctrine of hell is under attack even among independent fundamental Baptists, even
among Baptists, even among the evangelical so-called Christians are not believing in
hell as they used to.
For example, I was sitting in a Bible college, and the teacher asked a question.
He said, what's the worst part about hell?
And somebody shot up their hand like that.
And he pointed to them and they said the worst part about hell is the separation from God.
Now let me show you the worst part about hell.
Look at Matthew chapter 25 verse 41.
The Bible says in Matthew 25 verse 41, then shall he say also unto them on the left hand,
depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.
And then look down at the last verse of the chapter, and these shall go away into everlasting
punishment but the righteous into life eternal.
No, the worst part about hell is not being separated from God.
And I'll show you a little later that in hell you will not be separated from God.
The Bible clearly tells us what the worst part about God is.
It's one word, everlasting.
The worst part about hell is that it's everlasting.
And the teacher at the time, and I'm glad the teacher rebuked the boy who said that,
he said, you know what?
He said, you're like a mindless parrot.
And I was shocked that he was so rude to the guy.
But he said, you're just repeating something that you've heard somebody say your whole
life.
He said, that's not even in the Bible.
He said, the Bible does not teach that it's separation from God.
He said, the worst part about hell is the fact that it lasts forever.
The worst part about hell is that there's no hope.
The worst part about hell is that it's an eternal destination for the unsaved that it
lasts forever.
The Bible says clearly in Matthew 25, he says it's everlasting fire, and he says it's everlasting
punishment, a punishment that lasts forever.
Now think about when my children do wrong.
When my children do wrong, I spank them, as the Bible says.
I discipline them physically, corporal punishment, as the Bible teaches.
Now when I discipline them, you know what the wonderful thing about spanking your kids
is that it's over.
Once I discipline them, I never have to bring it up again, I don't have to give them some
kind of a verbal brow beating.
Hey, I spank them, and the punishment's over, but see with hell the punishment's never over.
It's an everlasting punishment, a spanking that never ends.
See, my children are my children.
We're God's children.
When God chastens us, when God punishes us as his children, it's just a temporal punishment
in this life where he disciplines us.
Maybe he might cause me to lose my job if I'm dishonest on the job.
He might cause me to get in a car accident if I did wrong, but he's never going to damn
me to hell.
But see, the unbelievers, the unsafe that are not God's children, will face a punishment
of eternal damnation in hell.
Now flip back if you would to Genesis chapter 3, Genesis chapter 3.
Now remember the Bible said in Matthew 25 41, then shall he say also unto them on the
left hand, depart from me, he cursed into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and
his angels.
You see, why would God make such an awful, horrible place, this torture chamber, this
furnace of fire, as the Bible calls it in the book of Matthew, why would he create such
an awful place?
Why would a loving God create such an abominable place?
Well, the answer's simple.
He created it for the devil and his angels.
He had no intention of man going there.
God's not willing that any should perish, but they'd also come to repentance.
See, God created it for the devil and his angels.
But look if you would at Genesis chapter 3 and we'll see what happened.
In Genesis chapter 3 verse number 4, the Bible says, and the serpent said unto the woman,
ye shall not surely die, for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your
eyes shall be opened and you shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
So the devil here tells Eve, he says, if you eat of this fruit of the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil which God has forbidden you, if you take a bite of this fruit, he says,
you will be like God?
God?
No, that's not what he said.
He said, you'll be like gods.
Now study the word God, lower case G, all throughout the Bible.
It only ever refers to one thing, devils, demons, false gods.
And so he's tricking Eve.
What he's saying is kind of true and kind of not true.
That's the way the devil is.
He never just tells you just a bold-faced lie.
He takes the truth and he changes it a little bit, and that is a lie, by the way, because
if you take the truth and just change it a little bit, you've lied.
And so the devil here takes the truth and he just changes it a little bit.
He says, you're going to be like gods.
Now what happens to the devils and his angels?
Now they're not in hell yet, but one day their abode will be in the lake of fire forever.
And so because mankind chose to follow the devil instead of following God, when mankind
chose to follow the devil and his angels, God had no choice but to damn mankind in the
same way that he damned the devil and his angels.
Because he says if you go down the road that the devil and his angels are going down of
sin and disobedience to God, he says you're going to have to end up where they end up
because the wages of sin is death.
And so you'll have to go to hell.
So God, it breaks God's heart every time a person enters into hell.
But everyone had their chance to be saved and they rejected it.
Look at Mark chapter 9.
Mark chapter 9, and this is all introductory into the sermons, but Mark chapter 9, look
at verse number 43 of Mark chapter 9.
The Bible reads in Mark 9, 43, and if thy hand offend thee, cut it off, it is better
for thee to enter into life maimed than having two hands to go into hell into the fire that
never shall be quenched, where their worm diet not and the fire is not quenched.
And if thy foot offend thee, cut it off, it is better for thee to enter into life than
having two feet to be cast into hell into the fire that never shall be quenched.
And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out, it is better for thee to enter into the kingdom
of God with one eye than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire, where their worm diet
not and the fire is not quenched, for everyone shall be salted with fire and every sacrifice
shall be salted with salt.
Now let me read for you some quotations here.
Here's some quotations from some of the religious leaders of our day.
Here's Pope John Paul II, not the current pope that's there in Rome, but this is the
pope before him, the head of the Roman Catholic religion, Pope John Paul II.
This is what he said on July 28, 1999, in an address he gave to about 8,500 people.
He described hell as the complete frustration and emptiness of life without God.
He said that's what hell is.
He said rather than a physical place, so he's saying hell is not a physical place,
hell is the state of those who freely and definitively separate themselves from God,
the source of all life and joy.
Damnation consists precisely, I'm still reading the quote from John Paul, damnation consists
precisely in definitive separation from God, freely chosen by the human person and confirmed
with death that seals his choice forever.
Listen to this, the thought of hell and even less the improper use of biblical images must
not create anxiety or despair because he wants you to go to hell, so he said don't be scared
of going to hell.
Hey, it shouldn't make you anxious or despair, hey Roman Catholics, hey one billion people
of the Roman Catholic religion, hey 8,500 Roman Catholics that are listening to me,
don't worry about hell, it's not that scary, it's just when people are separated from God.
Well, Pope John Paul II is burning in hell right now and he knows that hell is not separation
from God and he knows that hell is a real place of literal fire and torment.
You say well I agree with Pope John Paul because I just don't think that you should try to
scare people with hell.
Well didn't Jesus say if your right hand is fended, cut it off and cast it from me.
He said if your right hand is keeping you from getting saved, chop it off because the
pain of removing your own hand would be better than the pain that you're going to endure
in everlasting punishment and hellfire.
He said the pain and the agony of going through life without a foot and removing your own
foot from your body, he said can't compare to what you're going to face in hell.
Well it sounds like he was scaring people a little bit, sounds like he's trying to put
the fear of God into people, it sounds like he loves people enough to tell them the truth
and to warn them about an awful place called hell.
Here's what Billy Graham, America's preacher, here's what Billy Graham said about hell.
This is in 1993 in an interview with Time Magazine.
The only thing I could say for sure is that hell means separation from God.
That's all I know for sure is what he's saying and we're going to go into that in a minute.
All I know for sure about hell is that it's separation from God.
The one part about it that's not true, that's all he knows for sure and then it says we
are separated from his light, his fellowship.
That is going to be hell.
And by the way, Billy Graham's a Baptist.
When it comes to a literal fire, I don't preach it.
Unlike Jesus, he doesn't preach the literal fire of hell because I'm not sure about it.
When the scripture uses fire concerning hell, that is possibly an illustration of how terrible
it's going to be.
Not fire but something worse, a thirst for God that cannot be quenched.
Now would you rather have a thirst for God that can't be quenched or have somebody to
light you on fire?
I mean think about that for a second.
I mean I'm just trying to logically, come and let us reason together, the Bible says.
God's a very reasonable God.
What's worse?
Oh boy, I wish I could know God deeply or having somebody pour gasoline on you and light
you on fire.
Think about the ridiculousness of a religion that's taught.
Could it be that fire, this is him preaching in 1969, okay, you say Billy Graham used to
be fundamental.
No he didn't.
It's 1969.
Could it be that the fire Jesus talked about is an eternal search for God that's never
quenched?
Is that what it means?
That indeed would be hell.
To be away from God forever, separated from his presence.
So not only is the Pope, you know, he's trying to get people not to be afraid of hell.
Not only is Billy Graham trying to stop people from getting scared of hell, of course the
Jehovah's Witnesses, I don't have time to read it but I have several quotes from the
Jehovah's Witnesses saying that hell does not exist in a literal way.
So not only that but the modern Bible versions of our day have waged an attack on hell as
well.
I have in my hand the New International Version of the Bible, which was printed in the New
Testament in 1973, the Old Testament in 1980.
And the New International Version of the Bible is the most popular Bible version in the world,
second only to one, the King James Bible, which, despite what you'd think walking into
the Christian bookstore, is the number one best selling Bible every year.
2005, 2006, 2007, you know you've got to find it in the back corner of the Christian bookstore
because they push, you know, the new versions.
The KJV has always been the best seller.
It sells itself.
It needs no salesman.
God is its salesman.
But in the NIV here, you will read all the way until you get to Matthew chapter number,
I believe it's Matthew chapter number 8 before you'll see the word hell.
So you'll read the entire Old Testament, never a mention of hell in this Bible in the NIV
until you get to Matthew chapter 8, okay?
And then it removes half of the references to hell in the New Testament also, removes
the word hell half the time.
But listen to this, if you would, turn in your Bible to 1 Thessalonians and we'll examine
is hell really separation from God?
Look at 1 Thessalonians, I'm sorry, 2 Thessalonians chapter 1, I'm sorry, I had to turn to the
wrong place.
In 2 Thessalonians chapter 1, and we'll see what the Bible says in 2 Thessalonians chapter
1, the Bible reads in 2 Thessalonians 1, 7, and to you who are troubled, rest with us
when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming
fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the gospel of our Lord
Jesus Christ, who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord
and from the glory of his power, when he shall come to be glorified in the saints and to
be admired in all them that believe.
Now keep your finger there and flip over to Revelation 14.
Keep your finger there in 1 Thessalonians and flip over to Revelation 14, maybe a little
bit more like a Bible study this morning than a Sunday morning sermon, but look at Revelation
chapter 14 and look if you would at verse number 9.
The Bible reads in Revelation 14, 9, and the third angel followed them, saying with
a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark and his
forehead are in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is
poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation, and he shall be tormented
with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the
Lamb.
Now tell me that that doesn't say that the people in hell will be tormented in the presence
of Jesus Christ.
You say, well I don't believe that.
Well then you don't believe the Bible, you have some kind of tradition that's blocking
your mind here.
Look down at your Bible, look at verse number 10, the Bible says that the unsaved will be
tormented in the presence of the Lamb, in the presence of Jesus Christ.
Now flip back to 1 Thessalonians where your finger is, now read it again and see what
it clearly says.
It doesn't say what people try to change this verse, because this is the only verse in the
Bible that anybody uses to try to say that it's separation from God.
It's not what it says at all.
It says in verse number 9, who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence
of the Lord.
The destruction comes from the presence of the Lord being there, otherwise the Bible
is contradicting Revelation 14.
The Bible is clearly saying that the destruction of hell, the fires of hell, the torment of
hell is coming from the fact that God himself is there.
Let me read another verse for you.
Isaiah chapter 30 verse 33, you don't have to turn there, for Topheth is ordained of
old, and this is a metaphor that God's using for hell.
Yea, for the king it is prepared, he hath made it deep and large, the pile thereof is
fire and much wood, the breadth of the Lord, like a stream of brimstone doth kindle it.
You see that?
Hell is the culmination of God's wrath.
Hell is being in the center of God's wrath.
It's the cup of his fierce indignation, which is poured out without mixture upon the ungodly.
As it said in Revelation 14, see, hell is a place where you're confronted with the holiness
of God, and God is destroying you in a place called hell.
Jesus Christ is the one doing the tormenting.
Of course, we all have in our mind this picture of the devil down in hell.
You know, Porky Pig dressed up like the devil.
You know, you watch these Looney Tunes cartoons, and they always try to warp the things of
God.
They warp everything about the Bible.
You know, TV, that's why we shouldn't watch TV, but, you know, Porky Pig's down in hell,
and he's got the little mustache, and he's got the pitchfork, and he's poking people.
Look, the devil is going to be tormented in hell, along with the unsaved.
The devil is not doing the tormenting, who's doing the tormenting?
Jesus Christ.
God himself.
It's the wrath of God, my friend, poured out upon the ungodly.
Now let me open my NIV here that I was holding in my hand, which removes hell so many times.
Listen to what they changed the Bible to.
Look down at your Bible in 2 Thessalonians 1-9, and this is what the NIV says.
They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord.
See how they just add in a few words that totally change the meaning?
See, in the King James Bible, it's clear that they're being punished with destruction from
God.
Separation from the presence of God.
Not away from God.
Not shut out from God.
But the NIV adds in a few words here and says that they will be shut out from the presence
of the Lord.
See, you can tell where these preachers are getting it, that are repeating that over and
over.
Separation from God.
You know, they just keep repeating over and over.
Hey, they got it from the NIV.
Hey, they got it from a phony Catholic Bible.
That's where they got it.
It had to come from somewhere, and they repeat it, and they repeat it, and they repeat it.
Hey, study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that need not to be ashamed.
Hey, read Revelation 14, where the Bible says that the people of hell will be tormented
in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb.
Of course, a famous verse in the book of Psalms, you don't have to turn there, Psalm 139, 8,
if I ascend up into heaven, thou art there.
If I make my bed in hell, speaking to God, behold, thou art there.
The Bible says God's in heaven, God's in the earth, God's in hell.
Hey, God's everywhere.
God's omnipresent.
God is in all places.
He fills all things, the Bible says.
He is everywhere.
Jesus Christ said in John 3, 13, no man hath ascended up unto heaven, but he who came down
from heaven, even the Son of Man, which is in heaven.
So Jesus Christ was in heaven while he's talking to Nicodemus, because he's omnipresent, because
he's everywhere at the same time.
And so that's very clear in the Bible.
Amos 9, 2, though they dig into hell, the Bible says, thence shall mine hand take them.
So they climb up to heaven, thence will I bring them down.
So God is in hell.
God's presence is there in hell.
God's the one who created hell.
God's the one who torments people in the lake of fire and hell forever.
Now my first point this morning is that, of course, hell is a place of literal fire and
torment.
And we already talked about that.
But number two, hell is a real physical place.
Did you know that?
Hell is not just a spiritual concept.
Hell is a real physical place.
Turn, if you would, to Numbers chapter 16, the book of Numbers, the fourth book in the
Old Testament.
Numbers chapter 16, and we'll see that hell is a real physical place.
It has a physical location.
It has physical attributes.
Look if you would at Numbers chapter 16.
And we'll see in Numbers 16, verse number 28, the Bible reads in Numbers 16, 28, this
is the story about Moses confronting Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, rebelling against God
and rebelling against the man of God, Moses.
And look if you would at verse number 28.
And Moses said, here by you shall know that the Lord had sent me to do all these works.
For I have not done them with mine own mind.
If these men died the common death of all men, he's talking about Korah, Dathan, and
Abiram, or if they be visited after the visitation of all men, then the Lord has not sent me.
Sorry, I lost my place here.
But if the Lord make a new thing, and the earth open her mouth, and swallow them up
with all that appertain unto them, and they go down quick, quick means alive, and they
go down quick into the pit, then ye shall understand that these men have provoked the
Lord.
And it came to pass as he had made an end of speaking all these words, that the ground
clave asunder that was under them, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed them
up in their houses, and all the men that appertained unto Korah, and all their goods, they and
all that appertained to them, went down alive into the pit, and the earth closed upon them,
and they perished from among the congregation.
Now you have to understand that the Bible is very clear that the hell is in the lower
parts of the earth.
The Bible talks about this in Ezekiel 30 and 31, about seven different times it said that
hell is in the lower parts of the earth, in the nether parts of the earth.
The Bible talks about descending into hell, digging down into hell.
The Bible talks about Jesus being in the heart of the earth for three days and three
nights.
He said in Jonah chapter 2 verse 2, out of the belly of hell cried I.
Acts 2 31, this spake he of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell,
neither did his flesh see corruption.
You see the Bible is clear that hell is in the heart of a spherical earth.
That hell is down in the depths of the earth.
I remember when I was in science class as a kid, it always boggled my mind.
When we went to geology chapter and we would sit and look at the earth how it was just
one to ten miles thick of crust made of rock and dirt and then there's the bedrock and
then there's the ground water and one to ten miles thick is the crust of the earth.
What's the rest of it?
Fire.
Nothing but thousands and thousands of degrees of fire.
Boy, isn't that amazing?
You wonder, did the unsafe world ever scratch their head and wonder why the heart of the
earth is a fireball that's hotter than anything that's on the face of this earth?
It's hotter than they can even simulate in any hottest oven that they could create.
I mean, why it's so hot down there, they can't understand it, they don't know why.
They come up with all kinds of theories about it, none of it makes sense.
Hell is in the center of the earth, hell is a real physical place.
If you were to go down from where my feet are standing right now, if you were to go
straight down and keep going and going and going, eventually you would reach the depths
of hell.
So the Bible is very clear, the Bible teaches that.
And so hell, look at Revelation chapter 20, the last book in the Bible, flip back to Revelation
chapter 20.
And so we saw in that story, Dayton and the environment of Korah, the earth opened up
and they actually dropped alive into hell and the Bible says they died on the way down.
They died on the way down into hell, they dropped straight into hell from the face of
the earth.
It was a new thing, it was the first time that that had ever happened, probably the
last time that ever happened.
And so the Bible says in Revelation 20 verse 1, we'll see another description of hell,
the Bible says, and I saw an angel come down from heaven having the key of the bottomless
pit.
We know from our studies in Revelation chapter 9 that that angel's name is Apollyon, God's
angel of the bottomless pit who opens and shuts the bottomless pit.
And the Bible says, and I saw an angel come down from heaven having the key of the bottomless
pit and a great chain in his hand, and he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent
which is the devil and Satan, and bound him a thousand years and cast him into the bottomless
pit and shut him up and set a seal upon him and so forth.
See, hell is referred to as a bottomless pit.
Well why is that?
Because in hell there's going to be no gravity because it's in the center of the earth.
The whole gravitational pull of the earth comes from the earth, if you're in the center
of the earth, which way are you going to fall?
Up, down, left, right?
You're going to be just falling in a bottomless pit in the center of the earth.
That's why the Bible calls it the bottomless pit.
So we see that if hell has a real physical location, it's a real literal place of fire
and brimstone and torment and agony.
Isaiah 5 14, the Bible says, therefore hell hath enlarged herself.
We're talking about many people who are going to be dying, many unsaved people who are going
to be killed in a battle.
He said, therefore hell hath enlarged herself and opened her mouth without measure, and
their glory and their multitude and their pomp and need to rejoice it shall descend
into it.
This place had to get bigger, it had to get larger as people go into hell, the Bible says
it gets larger and larger.
That's why the Bible says in Acts chapter 2, who enlargeth his desire is hell and is
as death and never can be satisfied.
And so hell and destruction are never pulled, the Bible says, because it just keeps getting
bigger as need be.
See, God made it for the devil and his angels, he didn't make it a huge place, but he has
to keep making it bigger and bigger as people die without Christ and go to hell.
Of course, you study the size of heaven, it's big enough for every human being who's ever
lived to go to heaven, it's so huge and large because God doesn't want anybody to go to
hell, he wishes that everyone will be saved.
But not only is hell a place of fire and torment, not only is it a literal physical place, but
it's also a place of smothering smoke.
The Bible says in Revelation 14, 11, and the smoke of their torment ascended up forever
and ever, and they have no rest day nor night who worship the beast in his image and whosoever
received at the mark of his name.
Hell is a place of dismal darkness, the Bible says in Jude 1, 13, raging waves of the sea,
foaming out their own shame, wandering stars to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness
forever.
Hell is a place of screaming and crying and wailing, the Bible says in Matthew 22, then
said the king to the servants, bind him hand and foot and take him away and cast him into
outer darkness, there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Hell is a place of everlasting chains, the Bible says in Jude 1, 6, and the angels which
kept not their first estate but left their own habitation, he had preserved in everlasting
chains under darkness, under the judgment of the great day, how did you have to be chained
up for all eternity?
Have you ever been somewhere where you couldn't really move around much?
I used to call under houses from my dad running electrical wiring.
My job right now, I still do a lot of attic crawling and crawling into tight spaces.
Boy, have you ever been in a tight place for a long time?
I've gotten bunched up somewhere to work on some wiring before, and a couple hours
go by because you're working on something that's a ladder you don't realize, or
even sometimes just 45 minutes or an hour go by.
And you try to get out and you can't really straighten up, and you've got to straighten
up really slow because you've been hunched over so long, who's ever experienced that
before?
Well, how would you like to be in a cramped up space forever?
Ugh, it's a hell of a horrible place, I mean it's a place of total darkness, the
Bible says it's a darkness that may be felt, I mean it's so dark you can feel the darkness.
I mean it's a place where you feel the pain of literal fire burning your body, it's
a place where you can't quite get a breath of clean air because of the smoke that's
ascending out of it, and it's a place where there's fire and brimstone, and where you
can't really move around like you want to maybe because you're chained there forever.
What a horrible place, what a terrible place, I don't want to think about it either.
But we must think about these things because it's reality, and instead of just turning
a blind eye and saying, well if I just ignore it, it'll go away, why don't we just face
the reality of hell and say there's a real hell and I need to do everything I can, I
need to give every breath of my body to getting as many people saved and not on their way
to hell as I possibly can.
And there's so much more about hell, I mean the Bible teaches that there are creatures
in hell, the Bible talks about there being worms in hell, the Bible talks about worms
eating the flesh of someone who went to hell in Isaiah chapter 14, the Bible talks about
locusts being in hell in Revelation chapter 9, these locusts that tormented men and sting
them for five months, those locusts have been in hell for thousands of years now because
they were created in the first seven days of creation when God made everything that's
in the earth and in the heaven and everything that's been made.
And so they've been there right now tormenting the people of hell forever.
The Bible says in Revelation 14, 11, the smoke of their torment has set it up forever and
they have no rest day nor night.
Boy, have you ever been sleep deprived, have you ever been really sleep deprived where
you didn't sleep for days or you didn't sleep for a whole night?
One time the most sleep deprived I've ever been is I went a whole night without sleep
and I slept two hours the next night and I went all the way until that night.
And boy that is torture in and of itself, not to be able to sleep, but you can't rest
in hell, there's no rest, there's not even a break, there's not even a moment of respite
from the fires of hell the Bible teaches.
Why does God go into such a graphic description of hell?
Why does God take so much time and so much detail to tell us what hell is like?
It's because it's a horrible place, he doesn't want us to go there.
He says I want you to comprehend what it's like, I can't even put it on a printed page
exactly what it's like, you just have to be there to know what it's like, but he says
I'm trying to express to you in as powerful a way as I can so that you'll warn everybody
not to go to that horrible place of torment.
Now, let's go back to, well actually before we get into that, look at Matthew chapter
9, Matthew chapter 10, verse number 28 and I want to show you some things about hell
doctrinally that some people are confused about and let me just see if I can clear this
up for you.
The Bible is really simple but what happens is sometimes we've been taught something our
whole life that's a little bit off and so that's kind of a preconceived idea we have
and so we approach the Bible from that standpoint and we become confused when the Bible doesn't
line up with our paradigm that we already had, but this is actually very simple.
The Bible teaches this clearly.
Look at Matthew chapter 10, verse number 28.
The Bible reads, whoops I'm in chapter 11, Matthew 10, 28, the Bible reads, and fear
not them which kill the body but are not able to kill the soul, but rather fear him which
is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.
Now the Bible says here that God will destroy both soul and body in hell.
Now when a person dies, and think about this for a moment, the Bible is very simple but
you just have to put out any preconceived notion.
When a person dies, does their body go to hell right then?
No.
I mean you can see their body, right?
I mean if an unsaved person died, and of course Jesus said, who so liveth and believeth in
me shall never die.
So the believers will never die.
But when an unsaved person dies, does their body go to hell that second?
Well no, what's being buried?
I mean somebody takes the body, you have to think about these things, you take the body
and they bury it, okay, and everybody can look at the body.
Their soul goes to hell, okay?
A person's soul who is unsaved goes straight to hell.
Immediately, remember the rich man, he lifted up his eyes and he was in hell that fast.
Now when their soul is in hell, their body is buried in the ground.
That body will stay buried in the ground until the resurrection, the second resurrection
after the millennium.
Now look if you would at Revelation chapter 19.
Revelation chapter 19, see there's a place that's not mentioned in the Bible by name
really, it's not really talked much about until Revelation 19.
That place is called the lake of fire.
Now there are two different places, okay?
Hell and the lake of fire, two different places.
Hell is called the furnace of fire, hell is called the bottomless pit, the pit wherein
is no water, the pit all throughout the Old Testament.
That's hell in the center of the earth.
But in the end of the book of Revelation we see a new place mentioned, the lake of fire
which is in outer darkness.
Listen to what the Bible reads in verse number 20, let's start reading.
And the beast was taken and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him with
which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast and then that worshiped
his image.
These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone and the remnant
were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse which sword proceeded out of
his mouth and all the files were filled with their flesh.
So we see here in Revelation 19, 20 that the beast and the false prophet, the antichrist
and the false prophet were cast into the lake of fire, a place that has not yet been mentioned.
Now look over at Revelation chapter 20 verse 10, the Bible says, and this is after the
millennium now, that was before the millennium, the beast and the false prophet were cast
into the lake of fire.
In verse 10 of Revelation 20 the Bible reads, and the devil that deceived them was cast
into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are, okay,
and shall be tormented day and night forever and ever.
So the first people that we saw in the history of mankind go to the lake of fire are going
to be the antichrist and the false prophet.
That occurs in Revelation 19, 20.
Then in chapter 20 verse 10, after the millennium, a thousand years later exactly, the devil
himself, Satan, is cast into the lake of fire where the beast and the false prophet already
are.
Now let me read in verse 11, and I saw a gray white throne and in that sat on it from whose
face the earth and the heaven fled away and there was found no place for them.
And I saw the dead small and great stand before God and the books were open, these are only
the unsaved dead, and another book was opened which is the book of life and the dead were
judged out of those things which were written in the books according to their works.
Now watch this, and the sea gave up the dead which were in it and death and hell delivered
up the dead which were in them.
And they were judged every man according to their works and death and hell were cast into
the lake of fire.
This is the second death and whosoever was not found written in the book of life was
cast into the lake of fire.
Now you see in verse number 14 that hell and the lake of fire are two different places.
The people who are unsaved, they died, their body may be in the sea somewhere or it may
be laying in a grave somewhere, their soul is in hell, but if the great white throne
judgment after the devil is cast into the lake of fire with the beast and the false
prophet, then the Bible said that all the dead are going to stand before God.
Now the saved people, they've already been resurrected, they're not dead, they've been
already made alive forever eternally and so forth a long time ago.
But the unsaved are going to be reunited with their body, there's going to be a resurrection
that takes place of the dead, the resurrection of the unjust.
And those people are going to come up out of hell where they've been for thousands of
years, their soul has been burning in hell, it's going to be reunited with their body
and they're going to stand before God and God's going to judge them according to their
works.
Then the Bible says that death and hell were cast into the lake of fire.
Hell is going to be relocated to the lake of fire.
And then whosoever was not found in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.
So the first people to go to hell are the beast and false prophet, a thousand years
later, I mean the lake of fire, then a thousand years later the devil will be cast into the
lake of fire.
Then every unsaved person who's ever lived, hell will be relocated with them to the lake
of fire and that's where they'll spend eternity.
See on the new heaven and the new earth that's created in Revelation 21 and 22, hell will
not be in the center of that new earth, there will be no hell there.
Hell is going to be removed to a faraway place in the outer darkness.
And so this is just simple Bible doctrine that the Bible teaches that hell is where
people that are unsaved now, at the final judgment they're going to come out of hell,
be judged and cast back into the lake of fire, probably to determine exactly what degree
of punishment they're going to face in the lake of fire.
And so that's very clear from the Bible.
Now there's a false doctrine out there, flip back if you look at Luke chapter 16, Luke
chapter 16, and you know I could just get up for an hour and just scream and yell about
hell, you know hell is horrible, but I like to teach the Bible because it's so important
that we know what we believe and why we believe it.
It's so important that you have these things laid out to you and that you study even more,
ten times more, that you study these things yourself and learn the Bible and know what
you believe so that you can't be fooled and deceit and you'd be shocked, you'd be shocked
to know the people that are in Baptist churches their whole life and you talk to them about
these things and they don't have a clue what you're talking about.
You ask them a question, I mean I've been in a Baptist church and I had the youth pastor
tell me that he believed that when you die, if you're saved, just boom, it's just going
to be like you're just at the final judgment.
Like all the time will just go by like that for you.
You won't be waiting or anything like that.
It won't be like you're in heaven for a while waiting before the rapture.
It's just like boom, you're just at the rapture when you die.
Where do you get this stuff?
Baptists tell me that when an unsaved person dies and when saved people die, I think they're
just asleep in the ground and then the unsaved will be resurrected and cast into hell and
the saved will be resurrected and go to heaven.
It's like what are you talking about?
The Bible is so clear that the moment a person dies they go to heaven if they're saved and
the moment a person dies they go to hell if they're unsaved.
And the Bible talks about the people in heaven waiting, waiting for the final judgment, waiting
for these things.
But the Bible is so clear and so that's why I take the time to do this and if you already
know these things, you know, praise the Lord.
But some people don't know all these things and so I want to make sure that you understand
what the Bible teaches so clear.
And so look back at Luke chapter 16 and I'm going to disprove a fallacy in the Bible.
Now here's the thing, whenever there's a false doctrine it's usually based on one verse.
It's usually based on people ignoring the rest of the Bible's clear teaching and taking
one verse.
Remember how they took that one verse in 2nd Thessalonians chapter 1 and they even changed
it a little and tried to say that hell was separation from God?
That's so that pastors can get up in their pulpit and not mention the fire, not mention
the smoke, not mention the darkness, they just get up and say, if you don't get saved
you're going to be separated from God in hell.
That's not that scary.
Unsaved people want to be separated from God.
Hey, if they wanted to be with God they'd be in church this morning.
They don't want the house of God, they don't want the word of God, they don't want the
man of God.
Hey, they want nothing to do with God.
That's why they get as far away from God as they can.
But I'm going to tell you something, when the unsaved man dies he's going to be confronted
with the holy God that he wanted nothing to do with and that's going to be his companion
for all eternity tormenting him in the lake of fire.
He's going to have to face the God that he once hid from.
Remember when mankind says at the end of Revelation chapter 6, fall on us to the rocks and mountains
and hide us from the face of the lamb.
We don't want to see the face of the lamb, we don't want to face his wrath, but they're
going to face it for all eternity in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of
the lamb.
But people will take one verse out of conduct, people will take James chapter 2 and say that
salvation is by works.
When the whole rest of the Bible makes it so clear that it's by faith and they're misunderstanding
the passage.
You know, on and on.
So many examples like that.
False doctrines are always based on one verse.
Well here's the thing, people will take one scripture here in Luke chapter 16, here's
another example, and they'll get a twisted view of the whole rest of the Bible based
on this one story that Jesus tells.
Let me show you what I'm talking about.
The Bible says in Luke 16, in verse number 22, the Bible says that it came to pass that
the beggar died and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom.
The rich man also died and was buried.
And in hell he looked up his eyes being in torment and seeeth Abraham afar off and Lazarus
in his bosom.
And he cried and 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'm tormented in this flame.
But Abraham said, son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receiveth thy good things
and likewise Lazarus evil things.
But now he is comforted and thou art tormented, and watch this next verse.
And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gold fixed, so that they which
would pass from hence to you cannot, neither can they pass to us that would come from thence.
And we'll read the rest in a little bit.
Now some people, and in fact a lot of people, have taken this story, and nuts to what the
other 1188 chapters of the Bible say, they will take this story and try to say that in
the Old Testament, people who were saved did not go to heaven.
They'll say that people who were saved went to a place called paradise in the center of
the earth, right side by side with hell.
There's a good side and a bad side.
You go to hell, there's the good side and the bad side.
The good side is like, doo doo doo doo, it's like paradise, right?
Boy, that sounds like paradise, doesn't it, being in the center of the earth right next
to hell, talking to Lazarus while he's burning in hell?
The story here is talking about a miraculous event that took place where this man's burning
in hell and he somehow is allowed by God to see Abraham afar out.
Now this is not literally, Abraham was not there down in the center of the earth with
him.
And I'll prove that to you from the Bible in a second.
And so no, Abraham was not down in the center of the earth.
No people in hell right now are not conversing with all the saved people, begging them for
drops of water every five minutes.
It's not happening, okay?
This is a story, this is an event that literally did happen, but it was an event that God allowed
to happen so that he could illustrate to us what hell is like.
So he allowed this conversation to take place so that we could see what hell is like.
Now he says in the story, first of all, it says that he sees Abraham way far off, right?
And it also says there's a great goal fixed between the two.
Yet he's able to speak with him and be heard.
Okay, so obviously it's a miraculous event at the same place.
If he's that far away and it's totally dark in hell, according to the Bible, yet he can
see Abraham, he can't see anything without light.
He sees Abraham, he's talking to somebody that's way too far away to really be talked
to above all the screaming and wailing that's going on.
Obviously it's a miraculous one-time event that took place.
Now to say that paradise was where Old Testament saints went, they didn't go to heaven, they
went to paradise in the center of the earth, Hades, Sheol.
Now no one would believe that if they were only reading the King James Bible, because
in order to believe that you have to believe in a place called Hades, which is only mentioned
in the NIV and only mentioned in modern Bibles.
But listen to this, if paradise was the Old Testament location for saved people who died
in the Old Testament, then why is the word paradise never used in the Old Testament?
Okay, it's mentioned three times in the New Testament.
Yet they claim that for all the chapters, all the 39 books of the Old Testament, when
people died and they were born again, Christians, they went to paradise.
They went to Sheol.
They went to Hades in the center of the earth, into this island getaway paradise where there's
no gravity, where there's no sunshine, it doesn't sound that fun.
What good is it?
But anyway, listen to this scripture.
On my page here, Ecclesiastes chapter 3 verse 20, and you don't have to turn there, all
go into one place, all are of the dust and turn to dust again.
Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward, okay, you hear that, it's Old Testament Ecclesiastes,
the spirit of man that goeth upward and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to
the earth.
Or how about this one, it came to pass as they still went on and talked, this is Elijah
and Elisha, that there appeared a chariot of fire and horses of fire and part of the
earth and both, and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.
No Old Testament saying ever went to heaven.
Oh really, well the Bible says right there that Elijah went up in a whirlwind to heaven.
Oh no, Pastor Anderson, it says in John 3, 13 that no man hath ascended up to heaven.
And the Bible says in Acts chapter 2 that David is not ascended into heaven.
If David didn't ascend into heaven, he was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom.
Yeah, Elijah didn't ascend into heaven, only Jesus Christ ascended into heaven.
Today where he was carried, Elijah was, by flaming chariot into heaven.
No place in the Bible will you find saved Christians going down into the center of the
earth into some island getaway paradise.
That is such a weird warped doctrine to think that, I mean I don't even understand how you
could take one verse of the Bible and come up with that.
But how about this, look at Job, and we were here on, I think it was Wednesday night, we
were here briefly, but I want to dwell on it a little more, look at the book of Job
chapter 1.
And by the way, the word paradise is only mentioned three times in the entire Bible,
they're all in the New Testament.
The first time that it's mentioned is in Luke chapter 23 when Jesus says to the thief on
the cross, to thee shalt thou be with me in paradise.
Now Jesus went to hell, but because he's omnipresent, he already said in chapter 3 that he was already
up in heaven.
The thief on the cross went to heaven that day and he was with Jesus Christ in paradise
because Jesus Christ is outside of the realm of space and time, he's in heaven and in hell
at the same time.
If you don't understand that, then join the club.
But the Bible says that that's the case, that that's true.
Now that's the first time it's mentioned, today shalt thou be with me in paradise.
The second time it's mentioned is in 2 Corinthians chapter 12 when the Bible says I knew a man
how that he was caught up into paradise.
So which direction is paradise in 2 Corinthians chapter 12?
Up.
It's the only time it's mentioned.
Caught up to paradise and then it says he was caught up to the third heaven.
So paradise and heaven are the same place and they're both up, clear from the Bible.
And then of course the Bible says to him that overcometh will I give the eat of the tree
of life which is in the midst of the paradise of God in Revelation 3.
Those are the only times it's mentioned, but you'll find a whole book about it written
by a Roman Catholic in the 13th century named Dante who wrote a book called The Divine Comedy
which described Inferno and Paradiso right next to each other in the center of the earth.
It's a Catholic doctrine.
And so where did I have your turn?
Job.
Okay.
Job chapter 1.
Can you come finish the sermon for me?
You know where I'm going with this, right?
Job chapter 1 and look if you would and I'll show you further proof that Old Testament
born again Christians were in heaven.
Look at verse number 6.
Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord
and Satan came also among them.
Now where are the sons of God?
It sounds like they're in heaven presenting themselves to God and this is in the Old Testament.
Did you know that Job is the oldest book in the Bible?
Did you know that it was written before Genesis through Deuteronomy?
Because it was actually written chronologically between the books of Genesis and Exodus, but
the book of Genesis wasn't written until the time of Moses later on.
And so the book of Job is the oldest book in the Bible and here the Bible is clearly
talking about the sons of God being in heaven presenting themselves to God.
You say, wait a minute Pastor Anderson.
You don't understand.
The sons of God are angels.
You see, I've got the NIV Pastor Anderson and in the NIV in Job chapter 1 verse 6, the
Bible says one day the angels came to present themselves before the Lord and so Pastor Anderson,
that doesn't work.
It's the angels.
Even in the NIV, I've got the NIV in my hand, down in the footnote right here it says Hebrew,
the sons of God.
So they're saying that in the Hebrew it says the sons of God, they took the liberty of
changing it to angels.
They're unapologetically changing the Bible, saying we know it says sons of God, but we're
going to change it to angels because we think it's talking about angels.
Now let me ask you something, are the angels sons of God?
Well Hebrews 1.5 says, but unto which of the angels said he at any time, thou art my son
to stay if I begotten thee?
The Bible says no, none of the angels is God's son.
Hebrews 1.5, mark it down.
None of the angels is God's son, the Bible says.
Under which of the angels said he at any time, thou art my son to stay if I begotten thee?
He said their ministering spirits sent forth to minister to them who shall be heirs of
salvation.
And so no, the angels are not the sons of God.
Now flip in your Bible to Job, you're in Job 1, flip back to chapter 38.
I can't believe you're teaching the Bible like this, can't you just preach on comfort
and love?
Look, that's the problem with this country, is that nobody teaches the Bible anymore.
People don't know what they believe.
You say, well I just need something to get me through the week until next Sunday.
Hey, this will get you through the rest of your life if you learn the Bible.
Did you know that?
Did you know that if you know the Bible, did you know that if you realize there's a real
hell and you're off soul winning every week?
Hey, did you know that if you learn the Bible like the back of your hand and live by every
word of this book, did you know that you'll be in church for a lifetime and it won't just
be a vitamin pill that'll get you through to the next Sunday, some feel-good, sugar-coated
little message?
Hey, this will keep you going forever.
And so look down at your Bible in Job chapter 38 and look at verse 4, here again, one verse
to try to negate the Bible's clear teaching, but before you turn there, think about this
verse.
But as many as received him, to them gave thee power to become the sons of God, even
to them that believe on his name.
First John 3, 2, Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it does not yet appear where we
shall be, but we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him
as he is.
The angels are not like him.
The angels are not the sons of God.
We are the sons of God, beloved.
And so that's clear in the Bible.
But look, here's the one verse that people will use and that the NIV translators used
to say that the sons of God must be the angels.
Okay?
And I'm going to show you the fallacy of their thinking.
Look at Job 38 verse 4.
The Bible says in Job 38 verse 4, where wast thou, speaking to Job, where wast thou when
I laid the foundations of the earth?
Declare if thou hast understanding, who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest,
or who hath stretched the line upon it?
Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened, or who laid the cornerstone thereof?
Then the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy.
Now the reason that people wrongly believe that the sons of God is referring to angels
is because they look at this verse right here and they say, well, the Bible says when the
foundation of the earth was laid, then the sons of God shouted for joy, and the sons
of God didn't exist yet.
But here's the problem with their thinking, and I'm going to prove the wrong in a second.
Think about this.
Were the angels there when God laid the foundation of the earth?
No.
Because in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
And the Bible says in six days, in Exodus 20, this is kind of a review from Wednesday
night, but I'm going to do it a little bit deeper, in six days God created the heaven
and the earth and all that in the midst.
God in those six days of creation created everything in heaven, everything in earth.
See, angels and all these other things did not exist before God created the earth because
in the beginning God created the earth and he created all those things that dwell in
heaven, and animals, the beasts, the angels, the cherubims, the serpents, he created everything
in that time, according to the Bible.
But look, that's not even what the Bible says here.
Read it carefully.
Look at it again.
It says right here, where are the foundations there out fastened in verse number six.
But then he starts a new question, or who laid the cornerstone thereof when the morning
stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy.
So God is not saying that the sons of God shouted for joy when the foundation of the
earth was laid.
Look at it.
He says that the sons of God shouted for joy when he laid the cornerstone thereof.
Did you know that the word cornerstone is mentioned in 11 verses in the Bible?
Ten of them are a direct reference to Jesus Christ every time.
I mean, 10 of them are Jesus Christ.
This is the 11th one.
So God says when he laid the foundation of the earth, but he said when I laid the cornerstone
thereof was Jesus Christ.
When Jesus Christ died and was buried and rose again, when Jesus rose again, he said
the stone which the builders rejected is become the head of the corner.
This is the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes.
See, the Bible says that when Jesus died and was buried, but when he upped from the grave
and he rose, it said that he was laid as the cornerstone of the earth, and the sons
of God that were in heaven, the born-again, saved Christians who for 4,000 years had been
waiting in heaven, said Hallelujah!
Jesus Christ has become the chief cornerstone, crown him with many crowns, king of kings,
lord of lords.
All power is given unto him, Jesus Christ the chief cornerstone.
Look it up every time.
I mean I'm not saying most of the time, I'm not saying half the time.
I mean every time the word cornerstone is used, it's talking about Jesus Christ.
The stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner.
Jesus Christ being the chief cornerstone, the Bible says in 1 Peter.
And so that's when the sons of God shouted together, or I mean when the morning stars
sang together.
The morning stars are the angels, that's what it's talking about.
They're singing together because the Bible refers to the angels as stars in the book
of Revelation.
And the sons of God shouted for joy when Jesus Christ rose from the dead.
But see that's the road you go down when you start changing the Bible.
They didn't study the Bible well enough to understand that.
They didn't even say the Bible enough to know that Jesus Christ is the cornerstone, that
God didn't lay some imaginary cornerstone when he created the earth 6,000 years ago.
They didn't study that and then they said, you know, we're going to, since we're so smart
and we know that it's talking about angels, because of that one verse, now we're going
to change the whole Bible.
Every time it says sons of God in the Old Testament, we're going to change it to angels.
Is this Bible your authority?
I hope not because this NIV Bible is just, it's a real piece of work and they change
things at a whim and they do your thinking for you and I think it's created by the devil.
I'll be honest with you.
And so we see that that's so clear, but look back at Luke chapter 16 with all that being
said.
Luke chapter 16, and so we see clearly that hell is a real physical fiery place of torment
in the center of the earth.
God's people have never been anywhere near it.
God's people will never go there.
God's people have always gone to heaven to be absent from the body, is to be present
with the Lord, the Bible says, and on and on throughout the Bible we see that clearly
Old Testament saints being caught up to heaven, going up to heaven, and so forth.
So look at Luke chapter 16 and I'll close with this.
I hope you understand a little bit better the doctrines of hell this morning and it
makes a little more sense to you because there's so much false teaching out there, but the
Bible says in verse number 26, and beside all this between us and you there is a great
goal fixed so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot.
Neither can they pass to us that would come from thence.
Then he said, I pray thee therefore father that thou would ascend unto my father's house
for I have five brethren that he may testify unto them lest they also come into this place
of torment.
Abraham saith unto them, they have, Moses and the prophets, let them hear them.
And he said, Nay father Abraham, but if one went unto them from the dead they will repent.
Have you ever heard somebody say, I want to go to hell because that's where all my friends
are?
Have you ever heard people laugh and say that out so many?
Hey, I'm going to hell, that's where all my friends are.
Here's a man who said, I don't want my friends to be here.
I mean, here's a man who said, I've been in hell now for a little while, and he said,
I hope I never see my brother that I love.
I mean, you know, if you don't notice that people who have a lot of kids, usually big
families are pretty close, right?
Have you ever noticed that?
People have a lot of kids, sometimes it's usually a pretty close knit family.
I think this man really loved his brothers.
I mean, he loved his five brothers, he probably grew up, spent time with them.
I mean, they shared so many experiences together.
I'm sure that they'd spent a lot of time together in the world, but he said, you know what,
please, would you just tell them to never come here?
Please, would you just tell them to never, I hope I never even see my brothers again,
because I wouldn't wish this on anybody is what he's saying.
And he says, would you please send Lazarus back to warn them, lest they come also into
this place of torment?
Do you have the same feeling in your heart right now as an unsaved man who's burning
in hell?
I mean, an unsaved, ungodly man who rejected Jesus Christ, he still had enough love to
say, I wish somebody would go tell my family the gospel.
I mean, he's down below my feet right now as I speak.
I wish that somebody would please go warn my mom and dad.
I wish somebody would tell my grandmother or my granddaughter not to come to this horrible,
awful place.
Hey, I wish that we could get some of the spirit of that man in us.
Well, we would say, I will be the one to go warn somebody's brother, somebody's sister,
somebody's mother.
You say, oh, I'm just not really into this soul winning thing.
Hey, would you, what if it's your mom that lives somewhere here in Tempe?
What if it were your brother or sister that lives somewhere here in Tempe, Arizona?
Maybe there's some, what if there's some born again Christian somewhere in Minnesota or
in Illinois or in Ohio somewhere that's on their knees praying to God for some relative,
praying to God for some friend, praying to God for somebody who lives in Tempe, Arizona.
Oh God, would you please send someone to warn them not to go to this place of torment called
hell, salvation so free, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.
There are so many people that they would just hear the gospel, faith cometh by hearing and
hearing by the word of God.
If somebody would just preach the gospel to them, they'd get saved and somebody would
tell them.
And so that person's on their knees praying.
I'm going to tell you something.
I believe that when I get in my car and drive to that neighborhood somewhere, I believe
that when I get out of the car and walk down the street, I believe that when I come to
a street where I can go straight or left or right, I believe that God is leading me
because the Bible says in all thy ways, acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths.
The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord.
I believe God is leading me and I believe that solidarity is a spiritual action where
God can lead me to someone who someone else has been praying for.
He can lead me to the loved one of some, say, born again Christian somewhere who's been
thanking God that somebody would go talk to him or that he would lead me to somebody.
You say, well, I just don't believe in this soul anything.
Where are all these people you went to the Lord?
Hey, where were you the first eight years that you were saved?
Where were you all those years that you were saved?
Where were you all those years that you were saved and baptized?
Where were you all those years?
I can go around the room and point at the people who got saved and went years and years
without living for God, years and years without being in church.
Hey, I spent years in some liberal church.
I might as well not have even been in church.
I probably would have been better off.
I spent years in these liberal, dead, NIV rock music churches.
Hey, where are they?
You know what?
I don't know where they are, but I know where they're going to be someday.
They're going to be in heaven.
And I'm going to tell you something.
I want to be the answer to this man's prayer and I want to be the answer to the prayer
of every other person who's burning in hell right now, begging that their friends and
loved ones would not come along with them to that place.
And I want to be the answer to the prayer of every born-again Christian who's across
America, praying for some loved one who's in Tempe, Arizona.
You say, well, we can't get everybody saved.
You know, we can't get everybody saved, but we can preach the gospel to every single person
in this city.
Yes, we can.
And we can at least give everybody a chance.
We can at least give them the gospel.
And if they don't get saved, fine.
But you know what?
At least can we give them a chance?
Can you participate in soul when you please for the sake of them?
You say, well, you don't understand what my life is like, Pastor Anderson.
You don't understand the struggles that I struggle with.
Hey, you don't understand what people are struggling with who are in hell.
It's funny.
You know, Jesus said in Luke chapter 16, before we got there, he's having an argument before
we got to the story about hell.
He's having an argument with the Pharisees about divorce.
Did you notice that?
He's having an argument with them telling them, look, whosoever put away his wife and
married another committed adultery.
And whosoever married her was put away committed adultery.
Oh, we can't handle that.
Let me tell you about a guy who's burning in hell, and let's compare that to the suffering
of your bad marriage, Pharisee, that you don't like.
Let's compare that to the suffering of you not getting along with your wife or getting
along with your husband.
Let's compare that with the suffering of when you backed into a pole and dented up your
nice new car.
We need to get things in perspective.
We need to understand that there's more to life than food and raiment.
There's more to life than just our problems.
There's more to life than my financial problems or your financial problems.
Hey, there's more to life than relationship problems in your marriage.
Hey, there's more to life than the things that we can see or touch or feel.
Hey, there's a spiritual realm of a heaven and a hell, and we ought to be living with
that in mind and understanding that whatever suffering we go through in this life, whatever
pain God asks us to endure, whatever cross He asks us to pick up and bear with our lives,
it's nothing compared to the sufferings of Jesus Christ that He paid for us in hell,
and it's nothing compared to the sufferings that the unsaved people in hell are facing
right now.
Will you suffer a little bit and go out soul winning?
Will you endure a little bit of the pain of maybe the hot summertime in Phoenix?
I mean, can you endure the pain of going out soul winning when it's 110 degrees outside?
Can you endure a little bit of heat so that somebody can never endure the ultimate heat
in hell?
I mean, can you face the discomfort of having somebody shut the door in your face and tell
you to go jump in a lake?
It's nothing compared to what we're dealing with when we're talking about hell.
None of us can even comprehend what hell is like.
Hey, listen, why don't we just decide to suffer, be a partaker of the fellowship of the sufferings
of Jesus Christ for a little bit?
Let's suffer just a tiny bit.
Let's stay in church.
Let's stay with the Bible reading.
Let's get up a little earlier than maybe we want to so we can read the Bible.
Let's stay up a little bit later studying the word of God.
Let's stay up a little later maybe praying for lost souls.
Hey, maybe we could just go out soul winning, not just maybe just an hour.
Maybe we could push ourselves a little bit further.
Maybe we could go to just maybe one more door.
We're about to quit, and we say, you know what?
Why don't we just go to one more door so that somebody could maybe never have to see the
fires of hell forever?
Your life is not that bad.
I don't care who you are in this room.
My life is not that bad.
We're the sons of God.
We're going to be in heaven for all eternity.
Let's share a little bit of the sufferings right now.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, I thank you so much for saving us, God.
It's such a horrible thing to read about hell.
It's such a disgusting and horrible place, God.
I thank God that I'm never going to see it.
I'm never going to be anywhere near it.
Praise the Lord for the blood of Jesus Christ that cleanses us from all sin.
But Father, I just pray that you would help us not to just turn the blind eye to the millions
that are going to hell, but Father, would you please just use us as your servants and
your vessels to warn as many people as we can, even if we could just save one person
from the fires of hell, that would be worth this whole church's existence if we could
just get one person saved.
I'm sure it would be important to that one person, and I'm sure it would be important
to their mom and their brother and their cousin and their aunt and their uncle, dear God.
Jesus, help us to see someone saved this afternoon, our soul winning, dear God, but more importantly,
just help us to spend our life yielding our bodies to you, dear God, letting the Holy
Spirit's power rest upon us and guide us and direct us so that we could be used as a soul
winner for Jesus for the rest of our lives.