Now today when I was at Soul Winding, it's interesting because I knocked on a door and
a lady came to the door and I asked her if she knew for sure if she died the day she
would go to heaven.
And she said, I don't want to answer that question, but do you have a will or
trust set up?
And I said no.
And she said, well that's a lot more important.
And I said to her, I said, you know what, I said, burning in hell for all eternity is
a lot worse than not having a will or trust set up.
And that's what I told her, I said that's a lot worse.
And then I went on a little bit further and knocked a door down the same street.
I knocked on the door, a young guy comes to the door, hey how you doing?
I said, hi, we're from Faithful Word Baptist Church, just want to invite you to church?
And he said, I'm sorry I'm of another faith, I'm Jewish.
And I said, well more important than that, let me ask you a question, if you were to
die today, do you know for sure that you're on your way to heaven?
And he said, we as Jews do not believe in heaven or hell.
That's what he said.
And he had his Jewish self on the wall and whatever, and he said, we don't believe
in heaven or hell.
But let me tell you something, hell is the real place.
We read about it right here in Luke chapter 16, and we read this vivid description out
of the mouth of Jesus Christ of a rich man who went to hell.
Now let me start by just showing you a few things out of this passage, and I'm going
to explain more about the sermon.
He says, there was a certain rich man, verse number 19, which was clothed in purple and
fine linen and fared sumptuously as a pig.
And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid in his gate full of sores,
and desired to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table.
Moreover the dog came and licked his sores, and it came to pass that the beggar died,
that's Lazarus, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom, which is not a place
but a body part by the way, Abraham's bosom, Abraham's a person.
The rich man also died and was buried, 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 said Lazarus that he may
dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue, for I am tormented, or tortured
is what that word means, tormented in this flame.
Now the first thing I want you to see about hell, is that hell is a place that the unsaved
go to instantaneously, instantaneously.
A lot of people have this idea that they're going to just go into the ground and lay
there, and then one day they're going to stand before a judgment and be judged, and
they're going to be decided that they're guilty, and then they're going to be cast out.
No, he died and the sentence doesn't even end, he lift up his eyes in hell.
That's how fast it is according to the Bible.
I mean you die and boom, you're in hell.
Same thing with Lazarus, he died and boom, he was with Abraham in heaven.
He was leaning upon his bosom, just like John leaned upon Jesus' bosom at the last supper.
He's leaning upon the bosom of Abraham, and it's that fast, the dichotomy.
One is in heaven, one is in hell, that fast.
Now let me start out, because I want to preach about hell tonight, but before I preach about
hell, I want to start out by explaining what is going to happen to those who are safe.
I'm going to start out just explaining what happens to the believer, then I'm going
to come back and explain what happens to the unbeliever, because that's what the
crux of hell is all about, it's where their eternity is going to be in hell.
But first of all, what happens to the believer who died?
Let's say today I were to lay my head on my pillow and never to wake up.
Let's say I were to die in my sleep tonight.
What would happen to me at that moment of death, according to the Bible?
Well you say, well you'd just be asleep, you'd lay on the ground, one day you'd
be resurrected.
No, that's not what the Bible teaches.
The Bible teaches, he said, we are willing rather to be absent from the body and to
be present with the Lord.
He said as long as we're at home in the body, we're absent from the Lord, but when
we're absent from the body, we will be present with the Lord.
That's why Paul said, I have a desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is
far better.
Nevertheless, to abide in the flesh is more than equal for you.
He said, for me to live is Christ and to die is gain, for I'm in the straight
betwixt two, having a desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is far better.
So the Bible teaches very clearly that when the believer dies, his body is asleep.
That's the part that's sleeping, because one day that body will be resurrected.
The body sleeps, but the soul and the spirit are instantly in heaven.
Look at Revelation chapter 6, and we'll see this further.
I quoted you some verses from Paul, who has made it very clear, saying, when I'm
absent from the body, I'm going to be present with the Lord.
If I die, it'll be gain, because I'll go straight to heaven and be present with
Christ all the sooner.
I remember I went to a Baptist church as a teenager where they preached the NIV, and
the youth leader, he told me, he said, well, I just believe.
This is just our personal belief, my wife and I.
He said, we just believe that the moment that the believer dies, they're just
on every time more forward, to like the second coming of Jesus Christ.
So what if that's what you and your wife believe?
That's not what the Bible says.
The Bible talks about those, the souls and spirits of those who've been
believers going on to be with Christ in heaven, waiting, waiting.
Look at the waiting in Revelation chapter 6.
We're going to look at this.
This is obviously in the end times.
This is the tribulation is what this is talking about.
And when the fifth seal is open, look at verse 9.
And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls.
Did he see the bodies?
No.
He saw the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for
the testimony which they held, and they cried with a loud voice saying,
How long, O Lord, holy and true, does thou not judge and avenge
our blood on them that dwell on the earth?
So is there time?
Yes.
Are they waiting?
Yes.
Are they conscious of what's going on upon the earth?
Yes.
And they're waiting, saying, How much longer do we wait until
you avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?
That wasn't very loving and forgiving of them.
And it says in verse 11, and white robes were given unto
every one of them.
And it was said unto them that they should rest yet
for a little season, until their fellow servants also
and their brethren that should be killed as they were
should be fulfilled.
So does the fact that they're putting on clothing mean
that they're in the body?
No.
They were not in the body, and yet they put on these
white robes, okay?
Because the soul, and we don't understand all these things.
We've never been to heaven.
We haven't seen this face to face.
But we know that these people were not in a flesh and
bone body.
Because when Jesus Christ resurrected from the dead,
he showed them the holes in his hands and the hole
inside.
And he said that a spirit hath not flesh and bone
as ye see that I am.
Okay?
So these are not flesh and bone bodies.
It's the spirit, but still able to put on clothing,
still looks like a human being.
You know, we don't understand that.
We're not all-knowing, but we see here
that just because people are in heaven and they have
clothing on does not mean that they've been resurrected
yet.
They haven't, because he saw the soul.
A lot of people will take you to like chapter 5,
okay, where you see these elders up in heaven,
okay?
And the elders that are basically throwing down the
crown at his feet and saying all these different
things, and people will say, see, you know,
they've already been raptured.
But wait a minute.
They're in heaven just like everyone.
They say, well, how do these people get to heaven
if the rapture hadn't happened yet?
You know, how are these 24 elders up there in heaven?
How are the other millions of people up in heaven
that are in heaven right now?
Heaven is filled with believers right now
that have breathed their last breath and died
physically, yes, but spiritually they're alive
in the soul and in the spirit in heaven.
And so it's no wonder that those elders are there
and that these martyrs are there and that all
these people are there.
They're in heaven even though the resurrection hasn't
occurred.
If the resurrection didn't occur, why are they
just a soul?
Because they haven't happened yet, okay?
And so the moment that the believer breathes his
last breath,
the body died.
We see the body.
We bury the body in a coffin and a tomb.
The soul and spirit goes in heaven and is living
in heaven waiting for the time to come
that these things will be finished.
Now, why does it bury the body in the ground?
We bury the body in the ground because
the resurrection is likened unto a seed being sown.
You know, the seed falls to the ground and dies
the Bible says.
The corn falls to the ground and dies
and it dies, it goes into the earth
and then it's basically reborn as a plant, okay?
That's the illustration of planting that dead body.
Basically, it's a Christian way of burying
because it's a picture that one day that person
will rise up and give up their dead.
That's what we believe, okay?
Now, that's why I don't believe that Christians
should cremate their dead.
Everybody in the Bible is burying the dead
and it's explained in 1 Corinthians 15
that it's a picture of sowing that seed.
It's sown a natural body.
It's grazed a spiritual body.
That's where that comes from.
So, the soul and the spirits in heaven, waiting.
Waiting for what?
Well, the rapture, the first resurrection
as the Bible calls it.
When that first resurrection takes place,
the Bible says, you know,
For this I say unto you by the word of the Lord,
that we which are alive and remain
unto the coming of the Lord
shall not prevent them which are asleep.
For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven
with a shout,
with the voice of the archangel
and with the trump of God,
and the dead in Christ shall rise first.
Those bodies that have been buried
are going to be physically resurrected.
Just as Jesus Christ was physically resurrected.
The body will be physically resurrected,
but it will be changed, the Bible says.
In a moment, in a twinkling of an eye,
that body is going to be changed.
Obviously, it's decaying.
You know, depending upon how long it's been
since they died,
it could be extremely decayed
or just practically gone
or disintegrated, dust, bones, whatever.
But God is basically going to revivify
that body and change it
in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye.
Philippians 3.21 says,
From whence also we look for the Savior,
the Lord Jesus Christ,
who shall change our vile body,
that it may be fashioned like unto
his glorious body,
according to working where body is able
even to subdue all things unto himself.
That body is going to be resurrected
a brand new glorified spiritual body.
It is sown a natural body,
but is raised a spiritual body.
And at that moment,
the saved soul and spirit of the believer
is going to be reunited
with a brand new spiritual perfect body,
flesh and bone,
but perfect and without sin.
Right now, our flesh is sinful.
That's just why we sin.
When we walk in the flesh, we sin.
We walk in the spirit, we do that with strife.
But we're going to be reunited
and have a brand new resurrected...
We already have the soul and spirit regenerated
the moment we got saved.
But the flesh will be resurrected,
regenerated,
and we'll be caught up together
with them in the clouds,
those that are alive and remain,
we'll be caught up together
with us to meet the Lord in the air,
and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
So from then on, we're going to be what?
Ever be with the Lord,
because we're tracing the timeline of the believer.
We're with God.
We're with Jesus Christ
from then on forever.
So, we go up with Him into heaven.
We're caught up with the clouds,
caught up to heaven
with Jesus Christ.
And then, of course,
then God begins to pour out
His wrath upon this earth.
The golden censer from the altar,
fire and brimstone the same day
that we're caught up
out of this world,
fire and brimstone falls,
there will be all of God's wrath
poured out upon this earth.
And at the end of that time
of God's wrath being poured out,
basically, Jesus Christ comes on the white horse,
and we're coming with Him back.
He comes with all the saints,
according to 1 Thessalonians 3.13,
at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ
with all His saints.
He comes with the saints,
riding on white horses,
and He defeats the anti-Christ
and the false prophet
with the sword that proceeds out of His mouth.
He destroys them,
and basically then,
He physically sets up His throne
in Jerusalem.
All nations are gathered unto Him,
and He basically hands out the rewards.
That's the judgment seat of Christ.
A lot of people think it takes place in heaven.
Very clear.
I've preached on this many times,
but the judgment seat of Christ
will take place on this earth.
At the second coming of Jesus Christ,
His throne will be set up.
He'll say to one,
Be thou over ten cities.
He'll say to another,
Be thou over five cities.
Be thou over two cities.
When He comes back,
and basically He will set up
His millennial kingdom of Christ,
and we, the believers,
who will either die physically
and be caught up in the rapture,
or who will be alive and remain until that day.
It's possible it could be in our lifetime.
Those of us who are younger,
that is.
But anyway, you know,
it's possible it could be in our lifetime.
We'll be caught up
and come back with Him.
We will rule and reign with Jesus Christ
depending upon how faithful of servants
we were in our lifetime.
The one who gave ten talents,
you know,
He was over ten cities.
The one who gave one talent,
He's going to be over one city.
Basically, God is going to reward us
according to the work that we did.
Just like when you go to your job,
you get paid according to the work that you did.
He said,
What's us all about rewards?
I don't care about the rewards.
The rewards don't matter.
I'm just glad I'm going to heaven.
The rewards do matter.
Let me tell you why.
Because if God did not reward you
for the work that you did in this life,
then it would be like you're paying
for part of your salvation.
Because a lot of people say this,
Well, I just want to pay back,
you know, what God has done.
I mean, wait a minute.
The gift of God is eternal life.
We are saved by grace through faith,
not of ourselves.
It's the gift of God,
not of works,
that same ancient book.
It's a gift,
and we cannot pay back.
God won't even let us
pay any of it back.
If we do anything good for Him,
if we do any works for Him,
He won't accept that as a pay.
He says,
No, let me pay you.
Let me reward you for that.
Because I'm going to tell you something.
You did not earn your salvation at all.
And so that's why it's so critical
to understand this thing of rewards.
Knowing that whatsoever good thing
any man doeth,
the same shall he receive of the Lord,
whether he be bought or freed.
God will come to reward His servants
small and great,
the Bible says in Revelation 11.
He'll reward us.
Why?
Because He has to pay us
for the work that we did.
Because it's not like,
Well, He already saved us.
That's enough.
No, that was a gift.
So He'll pay us.
He'll reward us
for the works that we've done.
And He'll basically give
different people authority.
He'll give them,
you know,
basically authority
in this millennial kingdom of Christ.
Now, right now,
we're tracing the believer.
But just a side note
is that the unbelievers
that will be present
during God's wrath
being poured out,
they're not all going to be annihilated.
There's nowhere in the Bible
that says every single person will die.
Okay?
The only thing that the Bible says,
you know, it says like
a third of the people died over here,
a fourth part of the earth
was killed with death and so on.
And then it talks about,
you know,
God has wrath
turning the water into blood,
people are being scorched,
all the different plagues.
But wait a minute,
it doesn't say that they all died.
It says that the Antichrist army
will all be decimated.
But not everyone
in the whole face of planet earth
is going to be in that army.
You think every man, woman, boy, and girl
is going to be fighting in that army?
No.
And so there are going to be
a lot of people,
there are going to be a lot of people
who are still on this earth
going into this millennial kingdom of Christ.
Okay?
Because there's nowhere in the Bible
that says every human being on earth
is going to be decimated
in God's wrath.
And so there are going to be
a lot of human beings
going into this.
That's basically
who we're going to be
ruling and reigning over.
The human beings,
they go into it.
Okay?
Does everybody understand that?
Because, you know,
we that are believers,
we're in our new body,
we're immortal,
we will never die,
you know,
because we've already been resurrected
and given a new body
like Jesus Christ.
We're going to neither marry
nor give into marriage,
but it will be like
the angels in heaven,
the Bible says.
We're not going to be married,
we're not going to be
having children.
Okay?
Because we've already lived our life,
we've already been resurrected.
But there will be a lot of people
on this earth
that are still here from before.
Okay?
And they are going to go
into the millennium.
And in the millennium,
basically what we're going to experience
is a perfect place.
Look at Revelation chapter 20.
You can see a little bit
about the millennium.
Look at Revelation chapter 20.
And really,
the book of Isaiah talks a lot
about the millennium,
but look at Revelation 20.
It says in verse number 4,
Revelation chapter 20,
almost at the very end of the Bible.
Well, let's look at verse 2.
When he laid hold on the dragon,
that old serpent,
which is the devil and Satan,
and bound him a thousand years,
and put him on the earth,
But they haven't been resurrected
because they were after that first resurrection.
That's why there's got to be a second resurrection later.
But these people that are unbelievers,
there's going to be people that are saved,
and then there's going to be those
who've already been resurrected,
ruling and reigning with Christ.
After this whole thousand years is finished,
the Bible says,
look down at Revelation 20,
Satan shall be loosed out of his prison,
verse 7,
and shall go out to deceive the nations
which are in the four quarters of the earth,
Gog and Magog,
to gather them together to battle,
the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.
Now wait a minute.
Why in the world would people
in the number of the sand of the sea
try to defeat Jesus Christ
and try to rebel against his millennial kingdom?
You say, why in the world would people
not want to just keep living in the happiness
of Jesus Christ ruling, reigning,
everything's great.
Why would they do that?
Well, number one,
they're going to be deceived by the devil.
Now we don't know how he's going to pull off that deception.
It doesn't give us any details
how he's going to deceive them.
But stop and think about it.
There are some people who aren't going to like this millennium very much
because there's not going to be all these strip clubs for them to go to.
They're not going to be able to watch all the garbage on TV,
the movies,
because it's going to be a righteous place.
And there are a lot of people
who told Jesus Christ,
we will not have this man to reign over us.
Do you remember that spirit?
They just don't want to be told what to do.
They just don't want Jesus Christ ruling or anything.
And so to us, it's a perfect world.
It's a utopia.
Living in this wonderful place
where everything's peace,
there's no war,
everyone in the whole world will be living in peace.
We can sit out in our own vine,
our own fridge,
work our own job,
make our own money.
Nobody bothered us.
We have a perfect government.
We're not paying taxes to some abusive government.
But wait a minute,
without all the strip clubs and the porn
and all the warfare and all the killing,
some people want that.
Some people are wicked.
And so they're not going to like it.
And they're basically going to rebel against God.
And that's where they're going to be defeated.
The Bible says,
They went up on the breadth of the earth
and encompassed the camp of the saints around about,
and the beloved city,
and fire came down from God out of heaven
and devoured them.
And so basically we see here that people,
God basically does one final weeding out here
where all these people who have wickedness in their heart
come against Him and try to physically take over
and that's where God just pours out His fire and destroys them.
Now another interesting thing to bring up
is that the Bible says that in those days,
a man's days will be like the days of a tree,
the Bible says in the book of Isaiah.
And then a child will die,
basically if somebody dies at 100 years old,
let's say it was like he died young.
It's like a child.
Because people will live a lot longer.
Remember before the flood,
how people lived to be like 900 and 897 years old?
That's the way it's going to be during the millennium
because it's going to be back to like a non-cursed earth,
just like it was in the Garden of Eden.
People will be living to be that old.
And so that's just a side note about what the millennium is.
If you want to know the millennium,
just read the book of Isaiah.
I preached out a lot
when I was going through the book of Isaiah.
So then after this, what happens next?
Well the Bible says in verse 10,
And the devil that deceived them
was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone,
where the beast and the false prophet are,
and shall be tormented day and night, forever and ever.
And I saw a great white throne,
and him that sat on it,
from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away,
and there was found no place for them.
And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God,
and the books were opened,
and another book was opened,
which is the book of life,
and the dead were judged out of those things
which were written in the books according to their works.
We're not talking about believers here.
And these aren't the dead who live again.
This is just the dead.
They're dead as they stand before God.
Small and great.
The books will be opened.
And another book is the book of life.
The dead were judged out of those things
which were written in the books according to their works.
Look at verse 13.
And the sea gave up the dead which were in it.
What do you think I said about their dead bodies?
You know, those that are in the earth,
those that are in the sea.
He said, And death and hell
delivered up the dead which were in them.
And they were judged every man according to their works.
Now we will be there,
because heaven and earth will have passed away.
Everyone will be there.
But we're not going to be judged,
because we're not the dead.
And he said, And death and hell
were cast into the lake of fire.
This is the second day.
And whosoever was not found written in the book of life
was cast into the lake of fire.
Now stop and think about this.
Stop and think about this.
Have you ever wondered why,
because, you know, my whole life I grew up
and, you know, you hear this stuff preaching.
You hear a priest from a standpoint
sometimes of people who don't really understand
a lot of the things that end times.
They're a little mixed up, just kind of repeating like,
Hey, you know, any second now or here we go.
But wait a minute.
That's kind of the perspective that you hear from?
But all my life,
I just want to see if you've wondered about this too,
because I've wondered about this my whole life.
When he said, And whosoever was not found written in the book of life
was cast into the lake of fire.
Doesn't it sound like somebody's being found in the book of life
and not being cast into the lake of fire?
See what I'm saying?
It sounds as if some people's names are being found
in the book of life.
They're not going to the lake of fire.
Because they always say,
Well, it's only the unsaved that are being judged there.
So, you know, I mean, does he just keep checking?
Nope.
No.
Nope.
I mean, it doesn't make sense.
Why even check the book?
And I'll tell you why.
It's because of what I said about there being a second resurrection.
There's basically the firstfruits, which is Jesus.
There is only one person
who has been resurrected from the dead
to die no more in his immortal body,
and that's Jesus Christ.
That's all.
The Bible says, Every man is due order.
Christ the firstfruits.
Afterward, David the Christ that is coming.
Then come at the end.
And that's what we're looking at here, at the end.
Now, Christ the firstfruit.
You say, What about Lazarus?
Lazarus was resurrected, but guess what?
He died again.
At that time, he was really dead.
They probably waited a little while to do the funeral,
but, I mean, he was really dead that second time.
Whereas Jesus lived to die no more.
I mean, he was actually resurrected in his spiritual life.
No one else has been resurrected in that way to this point.
Afterward, David the Christ that is coming.
That's the rapture.
When the dead in Christ shall rise first.
Then come at the end.
You see, anyone who got saved, or was born,
or, you know, wasn't even alive before the rapture,
who's born after that, or gets saved after that,
sometime during the millennium,
or sometime during God's wrath, or whatever,
those people, okay, do not live again
until the thousand years finish.
They're resurrected here at the white throne,
and their names in the book of life,
they're spared, any kind of judgment.
The dead, those who are unsaved,
are judged according to the things that are in the books,
and are cast in the light of fire.
You say, what are these books?
I believe that these books are referring to the Bible.
I believe it's these 66 books.
Because I don't, some people have said,
well, it's books logging everything that they ever did,
and it's going to show them all their sins.
But, wait a minute.
The Bible says if everything was written down
that Jesus did while he was on this earth,
I suppose that not even the world itself
could contain the books that should be written.
That would be a lot of books, okay?
I don't think that there was that many books,
billions of books on one person.
I think that they're being judged
according to the things that are written in the books,
according to their works.
Basically, God's saying, well, the Bible says this,
and you did this.
The Bible says, thou shalt not kill,
and you had an abortion.
The Bible says, thou shalt not steal.
Here's where you stole.
The Bible says, thou shalt not take
the name of the Lord thy God in vain.
Here's you hitting your thumb on the hammer
and saying, you know, Jesus Christ, okay?
He's saying, the Bible says here,
thou shalt not make them be any graven image.
You bow down to the statue of Mary
and prayed the rosary.
You know, the Bible says here, thou shalt not covet.
Here's where you lusted after your neighbor's wife.
And he's going to go through,
and the books are going to condemn
everyone who's ever lived
that's an unbeliever, that's not saved.
They're going to have to give an account for their sins.
The Bible says, every idle word that men shall speak,
they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.
And so they're going to have to give an account
for every sin, not talking about the saved,
because their sins are gone, praise God.
As far as the east is from the west,
God has separated us from our sins.
He said, their sins and iniquities
will I remember no more.
But the unbeliever has to face God for his sins.
What a dreadful thought.
We're going to be there as spectators.
Those who go up in the second resurrection
are basically, you know, resurrected.
Their name's in the book.
They're good to go.
And then the Bible says in verse number 1 of chapter 21,
And I saw a new heaven and a new earth.
For the first heaven and the first earth
were passed away, and there was no more sea.
And I, John, saw the holy city,
New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven
as a bride, coming down from God out of heaven,
prepared as a bride, adored for her husband.
I heard a great voice out of heaven saying,
Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men.
And he was well with them,
and they shall be with these people,
and God himself shall be with them and be their God.
And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes,
and there shall be no more death,
neither sorrow nor crying,
neither pain, for the former things are passed away.
And he that sat upon the throne said,
Behold, I make all things new.
And he said unto me, Write,
because these words are true and painful.
Flip over to chapter 22,
and we'll quickly finish up this part of the sermon.
He said in verse 22, chapter 22, verse 3, he said,
And there shall be no more curse,
but the throne of God of the land shall be in it.
Talking about the new earth.
And his servants shall serve him,
and they shall see his face,
and his name shall be in their chorus,
and there shall be no night there,
and they need no candle,
neither light or the sun,
for the Lord God giveth them light,
and watch this,
and they shall reign forever and ever.
So that's really the end right there.
That's the end of story for the believer.
He's going to rule and reign on this earth forever,
on the new heaven and the new earth, okay?
The new Jerusalem comes down from heaven.
They'll be living upon this earth,
not the earth that we live on right now,
but a new perfect earth,
and live forever, serving God forever.
They're working,
not just sitting around and all this audio,
but working, serving God,
ruling with him forever and ever.
So that's the end.
But what about the unbeliever?
Let's trace his path.
The unbeliever dies tonight.
Somebody who's even in this room
may be his unbeliever, okay?
Or maybe somebody who's, you know,
will hear this sermon someday on the tape,
or somebody who's not here,
that's out there somewhere,
sitting in their house, you know,
maybe even 300 feet from me right now
while I'm preaching,
not hearing a word that I'm saying,
but they're sitting in their house,
watching their TV, sitting around,
not thinking about this.
Somebody knocked on their door today, in fact,
and they said,
I'm sorry, I'm not interested.
I'm busy.
And that person will die one day,
no matter who they are.
One day, they'll die,
and they'll breathe their last breath.
What's going to happen to them?
What exactly is going to happen to them,
point by point,
just like we went through the believer?
Now, there's not as much
to go through with the unbeliever, okay?
There's a little more complicated with the believer.
God has a little bit greater of a plan for us.
And here's what's going to happen.
The moment that they breathe that last breath,
there will be no trial,
there will be no jury,
there will be no courtroom,
they'll not have a chance to answer for themselves.
Nothing will be explained to them.
The moment that they breathe their last breath,
they will lift up their eyes in hell,
according to Luke 16.
I mean, they will lift up their eyes
and just, ah!
Just the agony of being in hell.
Because let me tell you something,
hell is a real place.
And people today don't believe in it,
but let me tell you why they don't believe in it,
because it's not being preached,
because faith cometh by hearing,
and hearing by the Word of God,
and when you don't hear the Word of God
preaching to you that there's a hell,
you begin to stop and think,
well, maybe hell is not real.
Maybe it's not really eternal,
maybe it's not really fire,
but let me tell you something,
I'm preaching it tonight
because faith cometh by hearing,
and hearing by the Word of God,
you need to believe that there's a hell,
that's what the Bible says.
A lot of people today,
they're Christians,
and maybe even on paper they believe in it.
Maybe even in their doctrinal statement,
yes, we believe that hell is real.
But in their heart, in their mind,
is hell a reality to them?
Or is it just something that's in a piece of paper
saying, oh yeah, heaven and hell,
heaven and hell,
do they believe that it's real?
Well, if they believe that it's real,
do you think it would affect
some of their actions
as far as giving the Gospel
to those that are lost
if they really believe that hell is a real place?
Now stop and think about this.
The moment the unbeliever dies,
he's in hell.
He's burning in hell.
Now, the rich man in the story
in Luke chapter 16,
God performs some kind of miracle here
where basically he's able to converse with Abraham.
Now personally,
I don't necessarily believe
that every single person that gets to hell,
Abraham is going to basically converse with them
and explain to them why they're there,
explain these things,
and we don't really know.
This is kind of an anomaly in the Bible
where somebody gets to hell
and somebody actually explains to them
and tells them why they're there
and explains what happened and so forth.
But when that person gets to hell,
immediately the first thing is they're in torment.
Even before this guy had anything explained to him,
he was just on fire.
And he saw some kind of a vision of Abraham far off,
way from great gulf fixed between them.
And he cried to Father Abraham,
have mercy on me,
and let Lazarus dip the tip of his finger in water
to cool my tongue.
He said, for I am tormented in this flame.
What does the word torment mean?
Torture.
That's what it means.
Torture.
I mean, that's a horrible thought.
To be on fire.
Have you ever put your finger in a fire and burned yourself?
I remember the worst time I ever burned myself
was with a hot glue gun
because basically I spilled hot glue on my finger
and it continued to burn.
You know, you try to wipe it off,
try to wash it off,
and the water doesn't really wash the glue very well.
And it just continued to burn.
I remember an hour later I felt like it was still on fire,
just the tip of my finger.
But imagine being engulfed in the flames of hell.
You say, I don't believe hell is a real place.
Well, why don't you go back to the public school
where you came from
and why don't you ask your teacher
in the public, godless school
who explained to you
and drew a picture of the earth on the wall
and showed you a crust that's one to ten miles thick
and everything else nothing but fire and brimstone.
All the waves.
I mean, think about it.
If we were to take the earth's mass,
if we were to take the earth,
and this is coming from the unbeliever,
this is coming from the elementary school teacher,
this is coming from the godless evolution teacher,
that if we were to take the earth
and we were to liken it onto an apple,
the skin of that apple would be thicker
than the crust is around the earth.
Did you know that?
The skin of that apple is thicker than the crust
if we were to make an apple be proportionate to the earth.
And everything white about that apple
is nothing but fire and brimstone.
Who knows what I'm talking about?
The mantle is what it's known as in science.
The mantle, the core.
And they don't even know how hot it is.
They say, oh, we think maybe the earth is a solid core
or we think it's a liquid core
or we think it's nickel
or we think it's iron.
You don't know what it is.
You can bounce your little wave down there,
you can bounce your little sound wave and say,
oh, I think it's what it is.
It's thousands of miles away.
The diameter of the earth is over 10,000 miles.
That means the center of the earth is 5,000 miles
from where I'm standing right now.
And all you know, geologists,
all you know, physicists,
all you know, scientists,
is that all I have to do is go down below my feet
less than 10 miles
and there will be nothing but fire.
And as you go toward the center,
it just gets hotter and hotter and hotter
and hotter and hotter.
Now you say, oh, love was written by man.
How did man know that
when he talked about hell being in the heart of the earth,
the nether parts of the earth?
I don't think that there are any volcanoes
erupting in Israel
or volcanoes erupting in the Middle East.
They didn't write the Bible from Hawaii, my friend.
How did they know?
And even if they saw a volcano erupt,
how would they know that the whole earth is brown, number one,
and that the interior of it is nothing but fire and brimstone?
I'll tell you why.
Because it's hell that's found in the center of the earth.
The Bible says hell is in the lower parts of the earth.
Jesus said, you know, that basically in Acts 2, 31,
it says, this spake he of the resurrection of Christ,
that his soul was not left in hell.
And he said,
as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly,
so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights
in the heart of the earth?
And it said that he was in hell for those three days and three nights.
Let me tell you something.
Jesus, during those three days and three nights,
he was not asleep.
He was dead.
Get that.
He was not...
Now, wait a minute.
What about Lazarus?
What about when Lazarus died and was resurrected four days later?
Was he really dead?
Jesus said, he's sleeping, but I go to awake him.
Remember when the maiden had died and they were carrying her
and the parents wept and Jesus said,
weep not, for the maid is not dead, but sleepeth?
And they lacked him to score because truly,
by our definition, she was truly dead.
By our definition, truly Lazarus was as dead as they could be.
They said, by now he's stinking.
He was so dead.
But wait a minute.
Jesus said, no, he's sleeping.
Because of the fact that the believer never truly dies.
The body dies, but the Bible says,
whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.
That's what Jesus said in John 11.
And so he was sleeping.
Are you going to tell me that Jesus was just sleeping
for three days and three nights?
You're not going to find that in the Bible.
Let me tell you what the Gospel is.
The death, the burial, and the resurrection.
Not just a sleeping session.
He's dead.
He died.
He said in Revelation chapter 1,
I am he that liveth and was dead.
And behold, I am alive forevermore.
Amen.
And have the keys of hell and of death.
But then he ascended, it says in Ephesians chapter 4,
but then he first descended into the lower parts of the earth.
He was dead.
He went to hell.
He took the sins of the world upon him.
He paid for our sins.
And he resurrected from the dead.
And this doctrine that Jesus was in heaven
for three days and three nights,
or he's in paradise for three days and three nights,
to me, it attacks the very death, burial, and resurrection.
Because it's saying he wasn't really dead.
Let me tell you something.
Abraham!
Remember when we saw Abraham in Luke 16?
Remember when Lazarus died, the beggar?
He went to be with Abraham in Abraham's bosom?
Well, guess what?
The Bible says Abraham is not dead.
Jesus said,
Abraham rejoiced to see my day,
and was glad when he saw it.
And they said to Jesus,
and by the way, how do you see it from the center of the earth?
He said, thou art not fifty years old.
Remember what they told Jesus?
And hast thou seen Abraham?
And he said, verily, verily, I say unto you, before Abraham was, I am.
Okay, you got that?
What about when the Pharisees, or the Sadducees, came to him
and tried to trip him up on the resurrection?
And he said, wait a minute.
Didn't God say I'm the God of Abraham,
and the God of Isaac,
and the God of Jacob?
God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.
And they put them to silence.
The Sadducees had nothing else to say,
because Jesus said Abraham is alive.
And if Jesus would have been with Abraham for those three days and three nights,
he would have been alive too.
But he was not alive.
He was dead.
He died for our sins, according to the Scriptures.
And he was in hell for three days and three nights.
In the heart of the earth, he said, out of the belly of hell,
crying right now hurts my voice.
And if you believe that the King James Bible is the word of God,
you believe that hell is hell.
Now somebody can take you aside and say,
well, you know, hell is not really hell.
In that place, when God is talking about hell,
he's talking about paradise.
Oh, come on.
Oh, thank you, Adolph Fiddler.
That's what Adolph Fiddler said.
He said, if you repeat something often, though,
with constantly applied propaganda,
this is an exact quote from him.
He said, you can make people believe
that paradise is hell and that hell is paradise.
That's what Adolph Fiddler said.
And it's happening in Baptist churches.
You'd say, oh, it says here it went to hell in Acts 2.31.
Oh, that's paradise.
Oh, Psalm 16.
It says here, oh, paradise.
Oh, what about here?
Ephesians 4.
No, that's not really hell.
Hell there is actually Hades.
Paradise, OK.
It's false doctrine, my friend.
Whenever somebody's got to go to some other language,
you know what I mean?
What they're saying is false.
I mean, if you can't see it in your own language,
there's a problem.
Somebody's trying to lie to you
because they know that you don't know Greek.
Who here is fluent in Greek?
Yeah, exactly.
And so they want to come in and lie to you and say,
well, eternal in the Greek doesn't really mean eternal.
And believe in the Greek actually means
it's an obedient faith.
It's a faith that does the works, you know?
Because they're evil.
And they want to lie and deceive,
and it's easy to deceive somebody in a language
they don't even understand.
That's why the Catholic Church preached in Latin
for a thousand years,
when no one could understand it.
Because it's easy to deceive somebody
in a language that they don't understand.
And that's why we speak English in church
so that everybody can understand what I'm saying.
Plain English, right down on the bottom,
as my pastor used to say,
right down on the bottom shelf,
where even a theologian can understand.
And so, you know, keep it that simple.
And so the unbelievers are burning in hell.
There are people in hell right now,
tormented in hell.
But ask yourself this question,
is their body in hell?
Or is it only their soul that's in hell?
Well, their body's not in hell.
Use a little common sense here.
You know, the Bible will guide us as well.
But you can use some common sense here.
We see the body.
We bury the body.
We take the body,
we put it in the coffin,
it's cremated, or it's buried,
or it's a burial at sea.
The body is not in hell,
but the soul goes immediately to hell
and is tormented in hell.
There's no reprieve.
There's no respite.
Wishing for a drop of water
just to cool a tongue.
Now, I don't know about you,
but if I'm thirsty,
I don't just want a drop of water.
Do you want to be served your water
on the tip of someone's finger?
It doesn't even sound quite sanitary
that someone would put their finger in your mouth
when they're giving you your water.
But you know what?
This guy didn't care.
He just wants that drop of water on his tongue
just so that some part of his body can feel cool,
okay, for a moment.
Let this sink down into your ears, my friend.
The Bible teaches this.
If you believe John 3.16,
you've got to believe Luke 16.
If you believe in heaven,
you must believe in hell.
Or why you can believe the Bible.
Because Jesus talked more about hell
than he talks about heaven.
So basically, we're tracing the line of the unbeliever.
He's in hell.
Let's say the one who dies tonight, perhaps.
Maybe even within a quarter mile of me right now.
Maybe his door was even not today.
Who knows?
And he rejected the Gospel for the last time,
and God said, that's it.
Tonight, thy soul shall be required of thee.
And what shall become of all the things
that thou hast laid up?
And he goes to hell tonight.
He hits hell.
He's burning.
He's on fire.
He's tormented in the flames.
But how long is he going to be here?
Just a little while?
Just a short punishment?
Is he going to burn up?
No.
He's going to continue to burn up.
I remember when I won my brother-in-law to Christ.
Years and years ago now.
I think it's been about six years now
since I won my brother-in-law to Christ.
And I remember giving him the Gospel,
and he said, wait a minute.
If a person goes to hell, if it's fire,
they just burn up.
He said, what about that?
And I said, wait a minute.
You remember the story of Moses?
Remember the bush that burned and was not consumed?
I said, that's what it's going to be like in hell.
You'll be burning, but you won't be consumed.
God's able to do anything.
And God did it with the burning bush.
And He'll do it for eternity in hell.
And so people are burning in hell.
But wait a minute.
A year goes by.
It's 2010.
They're still in hell.
Three years go by.
It's 2012.
They're still in hell.
Ten years go by.
It's 2022.
They're still in hell.
And that's a long, long time to be in hell.
From 2009 to 2022.
That's a very long time.
But wait a minute.
Let's say Jesus Christ returns.
We don't know when He's going to return.
We can know the times and the seasons.
We don't know the day or the hour.
One day Jesus returns.
Let's say Jesus comes back in 2022.
Just for brains.
So 2022 rolls around.
And Jesus Christ comes, sounds the trumpet.
The dead in Christ rise first, but He's still in hell.
Another few years go by as God pours out His wrath on this earth.
2025, 2026, He's still in hell.
Then Jesus Christ sets up His millennial kingdom, the judgment seat of Christ.
He hands out the rewards.
And my friend, the unbeliever, will still be burning in hell.
And then He's going to be greeted by a new visitor.
He's going to be greeted by a Savior.
Who for the very first time will be cast into hell.
See, the devil's not in hell right now.
He walked the bowels of the roaring lions, even when he made the bowels.
He's in heaven, accusing the brethren before our God, day and night.
But one day He'll be cast out.
Down to the earth, the tribulation will ensue.
And after God's wrath has completed the battle of Armageddon,
the devil will be cast into the bottomless pit, into hell.
The pit will be open, he'll be shut up, locked in for a thousand years.
And when he gets there, according to Isaiah 14, those that are there will say,
Art thou also become like unto one of us?
Thou which made us the nations to tremble?
You are here like us, you've been reduced, you've been humiliated to being like us.
And they'll all be burning together in hell for one, two, three, four, a thousand years.
We can't even comprehend that.
I've been alive on this earth for 28 years, and it seems like a long time, but it's nothing.
If you look at the 6,000 years of history, approximately, that our world has gone through,
if you look at the thousand years of the millennium, we can't even comprehend what a thousand years is.
No one in this room has any concept of a thousand years.
No one in this room has ever even experienced a hundred years.
You can't even comprehend, what does that mean?
What does it mean to go through a thousand years?
And what about when you're in that kind of pain?
Let me tell you something, time slows down when you're in pain.
If you've ever experienced an extreme amount of pain, you cannot calculate the time.
Because it slows down.
It seems like it goes on forever.
And so this thousand years, let's say you're about 300 years into it.
You know what's probably going through your mind?
If you have any sanity left in your mind?
You know, we don't even understand what hell is like completely, but...
What do you think is going through your mind after 300 years?
You're probably thinking, you know what?
This is it.
I'm never getting out.
You probably realize that by now, after 300 years.
I mean, 10 times my lifetime, that I've already lived, of agony and hell.
You're probably thinking to yourself, there's no hope.
And you're right, there's no hope.
And then another hundred years go by, and then 500 years, 600 years, 700 years,
you finally get to the end of this millennium.
The devil leaves, you're still there.
He goes out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth,
Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle,
the number of whom is as the sand and sea.
And when the devil...
When the devil does that last revolt, and God pours out his wrath,
and it's destroyed, all of a sudden, heaven and earth pass away.
And where's hell located according to the Bible?
In the heart of the earth.
And so therefore, hell and death will deliver up the dead which are in it.
The sea is going to deliver up the dead which are in it.
And every person who's ever died will stand before God at that great white throne.
Think about this.
Somebody who's been burning in hell for a minimum of a thousand years
is going to all of a sudden be removed from hell.
Imagine what that would be like.
You've been in hell for a thousand years.
All of a sudden you're pulled out of hell,
and basically your body is resurrected,
and you're put into that body,
you're still classified by God as dead, not alive,
but you're standing before God,
and you've been in hell for a thousand years being tormented.
Well, all of a sudden you're not being tormented anymore.
I mean, this is a break from the torment.
Now you're standing before God,
and who knows how much time you're going to have
to tell God you're sorry, right?
To say to God, I'm sorry.
I believe in Jesus Christ.
I was prideful.
I was a fool.
I was an idiot.
I believed a lie.
I believed evolution.
I believed Islam.
I believed Buddhism.
I mocked your word.
I slammed the door when somebody tried to give me the gospel.
I'm sorry.
I mean, you're probably just thinking, what do I say?
What can I say to get through to it?
And that's why the Bible says,
Every knee shall bow.
Because the most prideful, arrogant person
who mouthed off to us on sovereignty,
who mouthed off to God's people
and said, I'm going to go to hell
where all my friends are,
or I don't believe in hell,
we're the Jews,
we're God's chosen people,
and we don't believe that heaven and hell even exist,
like I was told out on sovereignty today.
The most arrogant professor
who stands and mocks Christianity,
like my sixth grade science teacher
when I was in public school,
my sixth grade science teacher looked at me
and he said, I don't care if you're a Christian.
He said, I don't care if you're a Baptist.
He said, I don't care who you are in this classroom.
He said, evolution's a fact.
He said, you be whatever religion you want,
but evolution is a fact.
He stood up and said, it's not a theory, it's fact.
And he preached to us evolution
at Earhart Elementary School in Laguna Creek, California,
in sixth grade class.
And that teacher who was so private,
he laughed at me,
he laughed at others that were Christian,
he mocked us.
I think of the radio show,
The Savage Nation, Michael Savage,
the political commentator and radio host
who screams and yells on his program, literally.
Michael Savage literally screams and yells
and says, any preacher who preaches
that evolution's not true
and the world's 6,000 years old
is an idiot and a fool
and a liar, he's a fraud,
it's like believing that the earth is flat,
one day he's going to be on his knees
confessing that Jesus Christ is Lord
to the glory of God the Father.
Every filthy sodomite,
every TV personality,
everyone who made a mock of God,
who laughed at us,
who laughed at the truth,
who laughed at Christ,
and they will be on their faces
saying that Jesus Christ is Lord
to the glory of God the Father.
That's what the Bible says.
Why?
Because a thousand years in hell
will do that to you.
That'll humble you.
No matter who you are,
the stiffest neck,
the most angry atheist
will one day be broken down
when they feel God's wrath.
And you say, well hell's separation from God.
Whoa, okay.
Is that why the Bible says
if I make my bed in hell,
behold, thou art there?
Is that why the Bible says
they shall be tormented day and night
in the presence of the holy angels
and in the presence of the lamp
and they have no rest day nor night
whosoever shall take the mark of the beast
or worship his image
is going to burn in hell.
He said they will be in the presence of Jesus
because the breath of the Lord
as a stream of green stone
doth kindleth the Bible says.
It's a place of God's wrath.
It's a hell that's created by God
called the furnace of fire.
Jesus said they shall be cast
into a furnace of fire.
There shall be weeping
and gnashing of teeth.
Weeping, crying,
grinding your teeth in pain, he said.
And after that event,
just put yourself,
put yourself there.
You just came out of this torture chamber
of the furnace of fire of hell
and all of a sudden you're coughed up
at the great white throne
and not only did you just get
punished for a thousand years for your sin
but now you're face to face
with Jesus Christ on the throne
who, by the way,
when John, a believer, saw
fill on his face as if he were dead,
the Bible says.
He fell at his feet as dead.
I mean he saw him in his glory.
His brightness is like the sun.
His eyes are like a flame of fire.
His feet like a refined brass
as if they burned in a furnace
and his voice as the sound of many waters.
And when I saw him, I fell
and his feet as dead, John said.
And imagine,
I mean, how do you feel?
You just came out of hell.
I mean,
people who go to prison
for 18 years,
20 years in solitary confinement,
they come out insane.
I mean, I don't know if you've known about this,
but there have been so many cases of people
when they're locked up in solitary confinement
even for 10 years, 20 years,
many will lose their mind.
You'll go nuts.
You'll go crazy.
You'll lose your mind.
You can't even handle it.
The solitude.
You can't handle the punishment
of even 20 years in a solitary confinement cell.
I mean, think about prisoners
that were locked up in France
in the Bastille.
Whenever they stormed the Bastille
in July 14th, 1789,
the people inside were shook up.
Some of them were insane.
They were nuts, literally,
because they'd just been locked up in a cell
in a dungeon somewhere.
They hadn't seen the sun for a decade.
They didn't know they were ever going to get out.
These people have been in hell, okay?
And just imagine the feeling.
All of a sudden,
they're not feeling the torment of hell anymore,
and they see this sight of Jesus Christ,
and the books are open,
and they're going to be begging God,
saying, oh, God, I'm sorry.
God, give me another chance.
But it's going to be too late.
I mean, it's a horrible thought.
And we're going to see this one day, my friend.
We're going to be there.
It's going to be a horrible sight
to see those groveling and begging for mercy
that were so prideful
and hardened their neck on this earth.
And the books are going to be open,
and they're going to be condemned.
He that believeth not
is condemned already
because he had not believed in the name of the only God son of God.
And when it's all said and done,
the Bible says that
whosoever was not found
written in the book of life
was cast into the lake of fire.
And then you never hear from them again.
Then it's just chapter 21, 22
of Revelation, just the new heaven, the new earth.
You never hear about the unbeliever again.
You say, well,
thank God it's finally over for the unbeliever.
Thank God.
I mean, he's been in hell for a thousand years,
or a thousand and twenty-five years,
or, you know, he might have been,
if he was one of the people who died a thousand years ago,
he might have been in hell for three thousand years.
But you say, thank God.
Because this rich man, he died two thousand years ago.
You say, thank God it's over.
Thank God it's finally over.
But it's not.
Look, if you would,
at Revelation 19.
You say, well, it's over then, right?
You say, wait a minute, Pastor Anderson,
hell's not eternal.
Because when that new heaven and new earth comes,
hell's not going to be there.
Because hell was in the lower parts of the old earth
that was destroyed.
So hell's gone.
But wait a minute, the Bible says,
death and hell were cast into the lake of fire.
This is the second death.
You see, the Jehovah's Witnesses will tell you,
well, you know, hell was cast into the lake of fire
and that's where it's just burned up.
Hell's just gone.
Well, wait a minute.
The lake of fire is also a place of eternal torment.
Now let me just make something clear.
Hell, located in the lower parts of the earth,
is not the lake of fire.
Two different places.
The lake of fire is referred to in the Bible as outer darkness.
There's nothing outer about what's in the lower parts of the earth.
Hell is known as the bottomless pit for obvious reasons.
Because if you have a round earth and hell is at the center,
where's the bottom?
Right?
We have a bottom because we fall toward the earth
because of gravity.
But in hell there is no bottom.
It's the bottomless pit.
And so basically the bottomless pit
is where hell is located at this point.
Outer darkness is where the lake of fire is located.
Now, no one at this moment is in the lake of fire.
There are people who are burning in the furnace of fire in hell.
But nobody is yet in the lake of fire.
Let me show you the first two people
who are going to the lake of fire.
Look at Revelation chapter 19.
And let me find my place here.
The Bible reads in verse 20.
And the beast was taken.
The beast is referring to the antichrist.
And by the way, the antichrist
is a human being, a man.
And the false prophet that brought miracles before him.
Guess what?
That's another human being.
It's a man.
With which he deceived them
that received the mark of the beast
and then that worshipped his image.
Both were cast alive into a lake of fire
burning with brimstone.
This is the first mention in Revelation of the lake of fire.
The first people who are cast into it
are the beast and the false prophet.
And they just burn up, right?
They just burn up.
But let's see.
Look at Revelation 20-10.
This is a thousand years later.
After the millennium of Revelation 20-10.
And the devil that deceived them
was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone.
This is our second mention.
Where the beast and the false prophet were.
Is that what it says?
Where the beast and the false prophet are.
See, every word of the Bible is important.
If that said, were, you'd say, yeah, they were there
until they burned up.
Nope.
Thousand years later, they're still there.
You say, well, hell is destroyed
when it's cast into the lake of fire.
Nope.
Because the Bible says this.
Here's a key verse.
Matthew 10-28.
You don't have to turn there.
Matthew 10-28 reads it.
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 let me ask you something.
Is the body of the unbeliever being destroyed
in hell right now?
No.
But one day it shall be.
Because hell, when it's cast into the lake of fire,
that's just relocating hell to the lake of fire.
Because then, when they're cast in,
in verses 14 and 15,
it says they will be destroyed in hell,
soul and body.
That's after what the Bible calls
the resurrection of damnation.
You know, there's the resurrection of the life,
the resurrection of the life,
and then there's the resurrection of death,
the resurrection of damnation.
See, resurrect.
Let's look at this word, resurrect.
What does it mean to erect something?
What is a steel erector?
He lifts up steel into the air
and builds a great structure of steel.
Well, the resurrection is basically
somebody coming up again.
That's what resurrect means.
Because erect means to come up.
If I were erecting a billboard,
I'd be putting it up.
Resurrect is basically you went down
and you're coming back up.
That's what the resurrection of Jesus Christ is.
He died, he buried, and he rose again.
It's a rising.
The dead will rise,
but will they come back to life?
Will they live again?
No.
They're dead.
Those who believe on Jesus will live again.
Their body will live again.
But those who die,
they are going to be resurrected
the resurrection of damnation,
the resurrection of condemnation.
And they will stand before God
in their body, flesh and bone,
and be cast into the lake of fire,
and their body and soul
will be destroyed in hell.
You say, well, then it ends.
They're destroyed, right?
They're gone.
No.
The beast and the false prophet
lasted there for 1,000 years,
and they're still there.
Look at Revelation 14.
Revelation, chapter 14.
One time my dad
was speaking to his sister-in-law,
and my dad was talking to his sister-in-law.
This was back in the 1960s,
and they both went to the same church,
Faith Baptist Church in Canoe Park, California,
and my dad was explaining to his sister-in-law,
and he said how some other religion
did not believe that hell was eternal,
and here's what she said to him.
Is hell eternal?
I mean, come on.
Is hell really eternal?
And my dad began to open the scriptures
and show her scriptures.
He showed her Revelation 14.
He showed her all these different scriptures.
Let me show you Revelation 14, verse 10 right now.
He said the same, verse 9, actually.
And the third angel followed them,
saying with a lot of voice,
If any man worship the beast in his image
and receive his mark in his forehead or in his hand...
Now, wait a minute.
Is this something that just a few people are going to be doing?
Everybody on the earth,
okay, who's not a believer,
everybody on the earth who's rejected Jesus Christ and God,
huge multitudes of millions of people
are going to be receiving the mark of the beast
and therefore in their hands.
We're not talking about two people,
the Antichrist and the false prophet.
We're talking about throngs of people
who sell their soul to the devil
by taking the mark of the beast
so that they can buy ourself.
And by the way,
you don't just line up and say,
okay, give me the mark.
The Bible says in order to get that mark,
you have to worship the beast.
You have to bow down and worship the devil.
You've got to worship Satan
in the form of the Antichrist
who the dragon gives his power
and receives great authority.
And all those who worship the beast
and receive his mark...
See how it says,
worship the beast in his image
and receive his mark?
Not or.
And, because it's both,
they go hand in hand.
Receiving the mark of the beast
goes hand in hand with worshipping the beast
every time it's mentioned.
And it says,
the saint 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.
And the smoke of their torment
ascendeth up forever and ever.
And they have no rest,
day nor night,
who worship the beast in his image
and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.
The Bible makes it clear,
Matthew 25, 41,
these shall go away into everlasting punishment.
What's that mean?
Punishment that lasts forever.
Let the righteous into life eternal.
You see, if they get burned in hell
for a thousand years,
then God opens the books
and goes through all their works
and then they just burn up.
You see, when he goes through the books,
you say,
why all that?
Well, is it because they have to be condemned?
No, they're condemned already.
But he goes through the books
and they're judged according to their works
to determine the degree of punishment
that they're going to receive
for all eternity in the lake of fire.
See, I think hell's the same for everybody.
Same hell for everybody.
For Adolph Hitler
and my neighbor who's not saved.
There is a difference in hell, my friend.
God said there would be those
who would receive the greater damnation,
those who would be in the lowest hell,
those who would have heat,
coals of fire heaped upon their head,
those who committed a greater sin.
And so that's why he goes through that.
Now believe me,
it's going to be torment for everybody.
It's going to be horrific for everybody.
I think the rich man in Luke 16
was probably a decent guy.
I say that for a couple reasons.
Number one,
he was feeding the beggar.
He gave him at least
the leftovers from his table.
The beggar lodged at his gate.
He didn't kick the guy out.
He let the guy be there.
He gave him what fell from the table.
I also think the rich guy
was a decent person
because he said,
I have five brethren.
He said,
Send Lazarus to warn them
lest they come to this place of torment.
So he cared about his friends.
He cared about his family.
But he was still tormented in hell
no matter how good he was.
No matter how nice of a guy he was.
I don't see anything that he really did wrong
except that he was an unbeliever.
And he was a sinner.
He lied.
He did everything.
He'd lust it.
He did everything that everybody does.
He's a sinner just like you and me,
but I don't see where in the Bible
he was particularly worse than the next guy.
I feel bad for him
when I read the story.
I wish he would have gotten a say.
I wish somebody would have talked to him.
I wish he would have believed.
I wish he would have listened.
And so hell goes on forever.
It goes on forever.
It's horrible.
I don't like to think about it.
I can't wrap my mind about it.
People say the Trinity,
it's hard to understand.
You know, I understand the Trinity
a lot better than I understand eternity.
I mean, the Trinity I can see.
Okay, the father, the son,
the Holy Ghost, these three are one.
I can comprehend that somewhat,
but I can't comprehend the time.
I can't comprehend what a thousand years is.
I'll just be honest with you.
I can't comprehend a million years.
I can't comprehend everlasting punishment.
I don't know what that means.
I mean, I know what it means
that it goes on forever,
but what does forever mean?
I mean, what is it?
I've lived for 28 years.
I don't know what that's like,
but I know that it's somewhere
I don't want people to go.
I know that it's somewhere
where we need to warn every man,
the Bible says.
I know it's somewhere,
and you say,
wow, we're not going to warn everybody.
We can't get to everybody.
You know what?
You're right.
There's people on the other side of the world
that are probably going to die and go to hell
and nobody's going to tell them the truth,
but you know what?
In Phoenix, Arizona,
there is no excuse for anyone
to go to hell without hearing the gospel.
There's no excuse.
Are we the only Baptist church in this city?
Are we the only people in Phoenix, Arizona
that believe the gospel?
No.
And so therefore,
there should be all kinds of people
in the highways and houses
knocking on the doors
and compelling them to come in
that God's house one day in heaven may be filled.
Where are they?
Where are all the independent fundamental Baptists
that I open the yellow pages
and I see a whole section
of twenty independent fundamental Baptists?
And we're not even talking about old Baptists.
We're just talking the independent fundamental Baptists,
which are supposedly the cutting-edge, right?
The old-fashioned,
the fire-breathing, hell-fire damnation,
that list of twenty.
They've never knocked on my door.
Where are they at?
Now, thank God there are some in this city
that do knock the doors of the gospel,
but you know what?
I could count them on one hand.
Where are they at?
But yet, if we looked at how many Baptist churches
there are in this city, just Baptists,
there are hundreds.
You know what I'm telling the truth?
There are hundreds of Baptist churches in Maricopa County.
There are hundreds.
There are about twenty or so that would say
independent fundamental.
And when I say hundreds,
I'm referring to all the ones who pretend
that they're not Baptists, too.
You know what I mean?
Even though they're part of the Southern Baptist Convention,
but they've taken out a name,
now they're just cross-point.
You know?
But their doctrinal statement says that it's by faith.
Their doctrinal statement says it's eternal.
I'm sure they're twisting the gospel
and using the wrong Bible and everything else,
but I'm going to tell you something.
Something's wrong with this picture.
If the gospel does not get out to every person in this city.
And you know what?
I'm not going to rely on the other handful
of fundamental Baptists that have a couple people
out knocking doors,
or several people out knocking doors.
You know what?
I believe that Faith Ford Baptist Church
will knock every door in this valley.
And that's why we have that...
We don't have that map out there.
It's just some pipe dream.
Wouldn't it be great to knock the doors
of four million people?
No.
We will.
With God's grace and God's help and God's strength
and God's multiplying and blessing on our church,
we will knock the doors of every person in this valley.
And then we'll do it again.
I mean, look what we've already done.
Look what we've already accomplished through God's grace.
And you know, we need to grow.
You need to win somebody to Christ,
get them baptized and teach them to observe all things whatsoever.
Jesus Christ has commanded you
that we must get the Gospel to every person
because at least if someone hears the Gospel and rejects it,
that's a little easier for me to swallow.
But what a tragedy for somebody to go to hell
that would have listened
but they're being lied to in their Methodist church every week.
They're being lied to in their Presbyterian church every week.
They're being lied to in their Lutheran church every week.
They're being lied to in their Catholic church.
You knock their door and they say,
Yeah, I think I do, because I'm a pretty good person.
And the truth of the matter is,
if you'd go talk to them, you could get them saved.
You could pull them out of the fire, as it says in Jude 23.
Let these things sink down into your ears, my friend,
and realize that if heaven's real, hell's real,
and every person in this city ought to hear the truth
from my mouth and your mouth
and the mouth of Maplewood Baptist Church.
And then there ought to be an army of young men
who rise up out of this church
and take this book to some other city in America
where there's no soul-wetting, fire-breathing,
King James Bible preaching church,
and you'll go do the same thing over there.
And we may not get everybody in Indonesia saved,
we may not get everybody in China saved,
we may not get everybody in India saved,
but why don't we at least give the Gospel
to everybody in Arizona?
Why don't we at least give the Gospel
to everybody in America as believers,
as Baptists, as so many Christians?
Why don't we at least give them a chance?
And they're not all going to get saved.
In fact, the majority will not get saved.
The majority will slam the door.
The majority will say no.
The majority will hang on to their religion.
But you know what?
At least let's warn them.
Warn every man, is what God said.
Let's warn them.
Let's praise that word of prayer.
Father, we love you and thank you for saving us, dear God.
Thank you so much that our sins will never be mentioned to us.
Thank you so much that as a six-year-old boy
I got on my knees and believed on the Lord Jesus Christ.
I didn't turn from my sins when I was six years old.
I didn't repent of my sins.
I didn't say that I was going to live a good life now
and that's how I'm going to go to heaven.
I believe that you have paid the price of my sins, Jesus,
and I thank you for giving me eternal life.
I thank you that as a six-year-old boy
I put all of my faith upon you
and I can remember it like it was yesterday
knowing that I was going to heaven.
Father, please help those who have not heard
to at least hear the truth, at least get a chance.
And God, help us to compel them to come in.
Help us to persuade them to be saved.
Please, God, help us.
Fill us with your Spirit as a church, dear God.
Pour out your Spirit upon us.
And God, help us to be a vessel
that you could use to the maximum
to see people saved in this city and this state
and around the world by your grace, dear God.
In Jesus' name we pray, amen.