Now in Luke chapter 16, turn if you would to Revelation 21. We'll come back to Luke 16, but in Luke 16 we saw the very famous story that Jesus tells where he describes the rich man and Lazarus and their eternal destiny.
One is spending eternity with Jesus Christ and with his spiritual progenitor Abraham.
The other is tormented in hell in a fire and brimstone and tortured forever.
But look if you would at Revelation 21 and I'm going to preach to you tonight on a subject that I really don't preach very often on this subject.
Because it's a very unpleasant subject and believe it or not it's a subject that I don't really like to think about very much.
Now I preach a lot of very hard sermons and I would be described by most as a hell fire and damnation preacher.
Because I preach hard on sin, I beat the pulpit, I shout against what's wrong.
But when it comes to hell it's a horrible thought, it's a horrible subject.
It's something that I don't like to often think about but it's my duty as a preacher I believe to preach to you tonight on this subject the horrors of hell.
Now I think in the whole time I pastored since I started this church it was a little less than two and a half years ago.
I believe I've only preached one entire sermon dedicated to this subject of hell.
But tonight I'm going to do that and I want to start tonight by way of introduction by talking about who is it that's going to go to hell?
Who will be spending their eternity in hell?
We'll look down at Revelation 21 verse 8.
The Bible reads, but the fearful and unbelieving.
Of course the unbeliever will spend eternity in hell.
It says, and the abominable and murderers and foremongers and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars.
Well that covers everybody.
And all liars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone which is the second death.
Now go down to verse 21 if you would.
We're going to see a description of heaven here.
The Bible reads in verse 21, and the twelve gates were twelve pearls.
And every several gate was of one pearl, and the street of the city was pure gold as it were transparent glass.
And I saw no temple therein, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb of the temple of it.
Talking about heaven of course.
And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it.
For the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.
And watch this, and the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it.
And the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honor into it.
And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day, for there shall be no night there.
And they shall bring the glory and honor of the nations into it.
Watch this now.
And there shall in no wise, what's that mean? Say no way.
There shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth.
Neither whatsoever worketh abomination, watch this, or maketh a lie.
How many lies? A lie.
I've heard people say, when I showed them that verse that said all liars are going to hell.
They said, well that's talking about a habitual liar.
That's talking about somebody who lies all the time.
I've been telling you, there are people who are saved who lie all the time.
I've known them. I can tell you about them.
But he says here, no, even a person who maketh a lie is not allowed to go into heaven.
He says, but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life,
they who are saved will be granted entrance to the pearly gates of that glorious city,
the new Jerusalem which descended from God out of heaven.
Right now it's in heaven.
Right now if you go to heaven you see the pearly gates and the golden streets.
One day that scene is going to descend upon a new earth
and the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it.
You see, in order to go to heaven you've got to be saved.
You say, how can I be saved?
Hey, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.
You see, if you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, you'll be saved from the awful punishment of hell.
You'll be forgiven of every lie that you have told.
Every sin you've ever committed.
Any murder that you've committed.
Any abomination you've committed.
The moment that you believe on Jesus Christ, your sins are washed clean in the blood of the Lamb.
Hey, past, present, and future.
Gone, gone, gone.
Yes, my sins are gone.
You say, are you ever going to tell a lie when you get to heaven?
Absolutely not.
The only reason I tell lies now is because I'm in the flesh.
I mean, my spirit is a brand new creature.
Old things are passed away beyond all things have become new.
That's why if I walk in the spirit, I'll not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
That's why if I put on the new man, I'll do what's right and godly.
But right now, oh wretched man, that I am living in this sinful flesh that causes me to sin on a daily basis.
One day, the moment that I breathe my last breath, the sinful flesh will be gone forever.
My soul and spirit will be transported to heaven in a sinless condition.
And then one glorious day, my body is going to be resurrected from the dead, changed in a moment of twinkling of an eye,
and I'll live forever in heaven without sin.
Sinless and perfect.
Now none of us can be there now because we have the flesh.
But one day that will be the case.
So who's not going to heaven?
Those who are not saved are the ones who are going to go to hell.
You'll be excluded from heaven.
What do you have to do to be saved?
The Bible says you have to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
John 3.15, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life.
John 3.16, 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 his son to the world and condemned the world, but that the world through him might be saved.
You know what I love about the word saved? It has a D on the end.
It's done. It's past tense.
And so he said, he that believeth on him is not condemned.
But he that believeth not is condemned already.
Because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten son of God.
Somebody said this, they said well maybe you could lose your salvation if you stop believing.
Well you can't lose your salvation if God is a liar because he said I give unto them eternal life.
No man shall pluck them out of my hand.
They shall never perish.
Personally I believe that when you're saved, the Bible says the spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God.
But let's say theoretically a person did stop believing.
Well Paul said to Timothy, he said if we believe not, yet he abideth faithful, he cannot deny himself.
He cannot alter the thing that is uttered out of his lips.
It said in Psalm 89, once am I sworn I will not repent, thy seed shall endure forever.
He said of Jesus Christ in Psalm 89.
But what about this? I just quoted for you John 3.18 where he said why?
He that believeth not is condemned already because he hath not believed.
That's the past tense. He never believed on Jesus Christ.
He hath not believed in the name of the only begotten son of God.
Because if Jesus Christ said depart from me I never knew you, once you've believed on Jesus Christ you're saved.
If you go to hell it's because he never knew you. It's because you have not believed on the name of the only begotten son of God.
But let's go into a little more, the finer points of who is going to be excluded.
Look at Romans chapter 11.
While you're turning to Romans chapter 11, and this is the introduction to the sermon on the fours of hell.
We better establish who it is because it's going to be in hell.
Let me quote for you Ephesians 2.8 and 9 while you're turning to Romans 11.6.
For by grace are you saved through faith.
Faith and believe are the same word.
And that not of yourselves is the gift of God.
Not of works lest any man should boast.
It's not of works, it's by grace through faith.
Look down at your Bible at Romans 11.6.
We're going to look at something.
And this is horrific my friend to realize that this group is going to hell.
But I'm going to show you right now that they're going to hell.
Look at Romans 11.6.
The Bible says, and if by grace then it is no more of works.
Otherwise grace is no more grace.
But if it be of works then is it no more grace.
Otherwise work is no more work.
What's he saying?
You cannot mix faith and works.
You can't do it.
He says as soon as you start trusting works it's no longer grace.
Now let me just prove that to you right now.
I shouldn't have to because that's what the Bible said.
But I'll prove it to you anyway.
If I said to you, I'm going to give you a free gift.
Brother Bosco, I'm going to give you a free gift tonight.
It's totally of grace.
It's nothing that you've earned.
It's just a free gift.
Now how much money would you have to give me
where it would cease to be a free gift?
One cent, right?
I mean if he put anything forward of his own,
that's not free.
That's not grace.
You understand what I'm saying?
So God says if it's of works,
if he has to lift one finger for me in order to get that gift,
it's no longer faith and grace.
It's works.
And by the works of the law,
shall no flesh be justified in his sight.
So number one, we saw the unbeliever will go to hell.
Number two, the person who is trusting faith plus works
is on their way to hell tonight.
I'm going to prove it to you again.
Turn to Galatians chapter 5.
The person who is trusting faith plus works
will split hell wide open.
Picture this.
There's an airplane in an airport.
The airplane is Jesus.
This is an illustration.
It's a parable that I'm telling you.
The airplane is Jesus.
The destination is heaven.
On that plane, it's headed for heaven.
What happens if you put one leg on the plane
and one leg on the tarmac?
What happens when that plane takes off?
You're not going anywhere.
You're going to split your britches.
You're going to land flat on your face.
On that tarmac, you're not going anywhere
unless you get all the way on board,
and it's just like when Noah got on the ark.
God shut him in.
God shut the door behind him.
You've got to get on board, shut the door,
and you can't get out.
You're on your way to heaven.
That's what salvation is.
Look at verse 1 of Galatians 5.
We'll see this proven further
that if a person is trusting faith plus works,
faith plus baptism,
faith plus church attendance,
faith plus I gave up my sins,
faith plus live a good life,
they're on their way to hell.
Look at Galatians 5.
Stand fast therefore in the liberty
wherewith Christ hath made us free,
and be not entailed again with the oak of bondage.
Behold, I Paul say unto you,
that if you be circumcised,
Christ shall profit you nothing.
Does that sound like you're going to heaven
if Christ profits you nothing?
No.
Watch this.
For I testify again.
Look at how he's reiterating this.
I testify again to every man that is circumcised
that he is a debtor to do the whole law.
Christ is become of no effect unto you
whosoever if you are justified by the law,
you are fallen from grace.
Here we have people teaching the Church of Galatia
that you have to be circumcised and believed.
He said, you're going to hell.
Christ is going to profit you nothing.
You're not saved.
If you want to add one thing,
he said, you've got to keep the whole law.
You better be perfect.
You better keep every part of the law.
If you want to go to heaven by the law,
okay, keep every word of it.
It's impossible for all of sin
to come short of the glory of God.
Being justified freely by his grace
through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus.
So we see here that another category
that's going to hell
is those who believe in faith plus works.
Matthew chapter seven.
Matthew chapter number seven.
And this is by way of introduction
to the sermon on the horrors of hell,
but we've got to talk about who's going to hell.
Number one, everyone who's an unbeliever.
Number two, those who are trusting faith plus works.
Jesus plus baptism.
Jesus plus living a good life.
That's your Roman Catholics.
Jesus plus the sacraments plus living a good life.
That's your Methodist.
You've got to live a good life.
You've got to endure to the end
or you're going to lose your salvation.
There's your Charismatics.
There's your Nazarene.
There's your Assemblies of God.
There's all these denominations that teach
that if you get out of church and quit on God,
he's going to take it away from you
as if church attendance is a prerequisite,
as if living a good life is a prerequisite,
as if the works of the law are part of your salvation.
Matthew 7 21, the Bible reads,
Not everyone that sayeth unto me, Lord, Lord,
shall enter into the kingdom of heaven,
but he that doeth the will of my Father
would say, Wait a minute, doesn't the Bible say
that for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord
shall be saved?
Well, keep reading.
For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord
shall be saved.
How then shall they call on him
in whom they have not believed?
You've got to call on Jesus Christ by faith,
belief is what saves you.
And so he says here,
Not everyone who sayeth unto me, Lord, Lord,
shall enter into the kingdom of heaven,
but he that doeth the will of my Father
would say, You have to go God's way,
the way that the Father has ordained.
Many will say to me in that day,
Who's going to hell?
The few are the many, the many.
Broad is the way that leads them to destruction,
and many there be which go in their act,
because straight is the gate,
and narrow is the way which leads them to life,
and few there be that find it.
And so he says, Many will say to me in that day,
Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name?
He's saying, We preach in the name of Jesus Christ,
in the name of cast out devils,
and in thy name done many wonderful,
and the word that's going to resonate in their mind
throughout all eternity works.
Then will I profess unto them,
I never knew you.
There's proof enough that you can't lose your salvation.
He said, I never knew you.
Depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
I'll read you two more verses.
You don't have to turn there, Matthew 25, 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.
Verse 46, Then they shall go away
into everlasting punishment,
but the righteous into life eternal.
So number one, now we're into the sermon.
Number one, what is the horror of hell?
You know what the biggest horror of hell is?
The duration, how long it lasts.
That's the most horrible part about hell.
I mean, if you ask me, what is the most horrible,
fearful part about hell, hands down,
at a moment, I will say to you,
the length of time that you're in hell,
the fact that it goes on forever,
that's what's so horrible about it.
I mean, that's the worst part about it.
He said that they will depart from me
into everlasting fire.
The Jehovah's Witnesses say they'll be burned up.
They'll be annihilated.
I show them this verse and they say,
well, but it also says they'll be burned up.
Well, I guess the Bible contradicts itself then,
if it says two opposite things,
but it doesn't say that.
It says that no word.
You see, the Bible's clear
that they shall go away into everlasting punishment.
That's not about being punished for all eternity.
I mean, a hundred years from now,
punished, a thousand,
I mean, a punishment that never ends
is what everlasting punishment means.
Number one, the length of eternity.
Let's use our imaginations for a moment
as we get into the sermon tonight.
Let's think about a person,
think about a man who's living his life
and he's an unbeliever, he's unsaved,
he's heard the gospel.
Maybe he hasn't heard it as clearly
as he ought to have heard it,
but he's heard the name of Jesus,
like everybody in this world has.
I don't care what anybody says.
That's the truth.
Somewhere along the way,
they hear something somewhere.
I mean, even in Africa,
somebody said, what about people in Africa?
You know, in Africa, I believe the population
is under 400 million.
It's under 400 million.
Not even a billion people
reside on the continent of Africa.
Forgive me if I'm wrong,
but I know it's far less than a billion people.
And yet, how many tens of thousands
of missionaries are in Africa right now?
I mean, there have been missionaries
to Africa for centuries.
There are missionaries all over the world.
The Muslim knows who Jesus Christ is.
All over the world,
their sound went into all the earth
and their words under the ends of the world,
God asks, have they not heard?
Yes, barely.
They've heard.
They've heard the truth.
But let's picture, if you will,
a man, and he's on his deathbed.
He's dying.
He's lived his life.
He's an old man,
and he's in the hospital, perhaps,
and the little monitor is measuring his heartbeat.
It's slowly declining.
He closes his eyes and slips off into death.
What happens to him?
What's going to happen?
He's an unbeliever.
He's unsaved.
Well, the Bible said in Luke 16,
and you can turn there if you like,
but in Luke 16, the Bible says,
and in hell, he lifts up his eyes.
That's how fast that man's going to be in hell.
You say, well, is he going to stand before judgment,
before God?
No, he's condemned already.
Does he not believe in the name
of the only begotten Son of God?
That man breathes his last breath,
and in a moment,
from the time it takes him to close his eyes
for the last time,
when he opens up, he's in hell.
What does he experience?
What is he feeling?
Well, immediately, he feels pain
envelop his entire body.
Have you ever burned yourself before?
Have you ever stuck your finger on something
that was very hot or burnt?
I remember one time,
I laid my hand on a metal pan
that had just come out of an oven,
and I seared the whole palm of my hand,
and it peeled and blistered,
and it was extremely painful,
and even after I took my hand away
and ran it under cold water,
I could still feel that burning sensation.
Another time, as a child,
I spilled hot glue on myself,
and I couldn't get the glue off.
It was an extreme pain,
and it went on for hours
after I'd gotten rid of the glue,
hours after I'd run under cold water.
He's going to feel the first thing
that's going to get his attention
is just to feel the burning all over his body,
every square inch of his body
inflamed in literal fire.
The Bible says,
and in hell,
look down at Luke 16 in front of you there,
and in hell,
he looked up his eyes,
being in torments,
seeing that Abraham was far off,
and then 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.
Watch this,
for I am tormented in this flame.
He said, I'm being tortured by flames.
And so the rich man here,
his body didn't go to hell at this point.
His body was laying there
for everybody to see,
just like the man in our hypothetical story.
He's laying in the hospital bed.
He breathes his last breath.
The monitor goes like,
beep,
and there he is.
His body's laying there,
just a lifeless shell of what was once
the man that lived and breathed
and talked and spoke.
Now it's just a lifeless cadaver.
But his soul is in hell.
He can feel every part of the flame,
and you say,
well, he doesn't have a body.
Well, but you know,
in a little bit of doctrine here,
in the book of Revelation,
the souls of them that had been martyred for Jesus
before the rapture,
he talks about them receiving white raiment
and wearing it.
They were able to wear clothing.
So we don't understand the soul,
but it's a body of sorts.
It's just not made of flesh and blood.
But it's still in the shape of a person,
and he's still going to have hands
and still going to have a tongue,
because he said,
put water on my tongue.
You see what I'm saying?
So it's a spiritual soul,
but it's like a body.
It has the same parts of body,
parts of body,
just not flesh and bone.
It's just not a physical,
flesh and bone body.
But the man's body is left here,
but his soul is burning in hell.
The first thing he's going to feel
is that burning sensation all over his body.
But then there's going to be
an extreme fear of falling,
because the Bible describes hell
as a bottomless pit.
Of course, we know from Ezekiel 30 and 31
and elsewhere in the Bible
that the Bible says that hell
is in the nether parts of the earth,
in the lower parts of the earth.
Underneath is what the Bible calls it.
And so in the center of the earth
there's no gravity.
And it's a sensation not of weightlessness,
but of continual falling,
is what it feels like.
Because he says it's the bottomless pit
in Revelation 20.
And so he's falling.
And you can imagine somebody
just free falling.
And they're trying to grab hold of something.
They don't know if they're going to hit the ground.
They don't know what's happening.
They feel like they're going to fall
and hurt themselves or hit themselves.
They're burning in flames.
They're trying to grasp something.
And it's just a continual falling.
I can't even imagine what that would be like
to just be falling forever.
But engulfed in flames, falling.
Total darkness trying to see.
The light's not enough for them to see anything.
Say, I want to go to hell
where all my friends are.
Nobody has any friends in hell.
This man said,
I don't want my brothers to go to hell
to be with me because I love them too much.
You won't have any friends in hell.
TV and movies try to make hell out
to be a place where sin dominates and sin reigns.
It's a lie.
You know, from the Mary Melodies cartoons
that you show your children.
That's why I'm against all the world's TV
and all the world's garbage and movies.
Because they all have an agenda.
From Looney Tunes and Mary Melodies
where Porky Pig is the devil.
And he's dancing around in hell
like he owns the place.
Laughing.
Ah ha ha ha ha.
The devil's not even in hell, my friend.
And one day when he goes to hell
he's not going to be laughing.
He's going to be tormented.
He's going to be punished.
He's not rolling around.
You see tables set up in hell.
You know there's a couple of coals smoldering
here and there in the underworld.
Porky Pig's got a pitchfork.
Everybody's sitting around at tables
playing cards, drinking, smoking.
You know, we've all seen the images.
They're drinking.
They're cursing.
They're just committing all the sin
and everybody's just kind of committing sin.
No, because you have to understand
the person who's running the show in hell
is not the devil but God.
That's who's in charge.
The Bible says in Revelation 14 and 11
they shall be tormented in the presence
of the holy angels
and in the presence of the Lamb.
You say, well I believe hell
is to be separated from God.
It's a lie.
I believe hell is eternal separation from God.
It's a lie.
Hell is a place where people are tormented
in the presence of Jesus Christ.
It's in the Bible.
He said that we tormented
in the presence of the holy angels,
in the presence of the Lamb.
And so the devil's not running the show in hell.
Jesus Christ is running the show in hell.
He's the one who created hell.
It's fulfilling His will and His purpose,
not that of the devil.
And so there's falling.
The man who just entered hell,
let's say he just entered 10 seconds ago,
the man that we're talking about.
He's falling.
He's burning.
He's in darkness.
He's scared to death.
And he's waiting for it to end.
I mean, wouldn't you?
I mean, if you got into some kind of an accident,
you say, the only hope I have
is that this is eventually going to end.
That's what Jesus said when He was in hell.
In Psalm 16 10 He said,
for thou wilt not,
He said, my soul shall rest in hope,
for thou wilt not leave my soul in hell,
neither wilt thou suffer thine holy one of corruption.
Acts 2 31, this spake ye of the resurrection of Christ,
that his soul was not left in hell,
neither did his flesh seek corruption.
But you see, Jesus' only hope
is that He was going to one day get out of hell
and reign forevermore
and be lifted up at the right hand of the Father,
of course, Jesus Christ, God in the flesh.
He said, I have the power to lay down my life,
and I have the power to take it up again.
But the man who's in hell,
he must be thinking,
surely there's going to be an end to this.
I mean, surely there's going to be some reprieve.
Surely it's going to end.
I mean, I've just got to hang on.
If I can just hang on for ten more seconds,
or maybe just five more,
I don't even know if I can endure five minutes of this.
But maybe if I can endure for five minutes,
it'll be over.
But it goes on and on and on and on and on.
Days go by.
I mean, one day in hell is unthinkable.
Three days and three nights in hell, unthinkable.
I mean, going to hell for five minutes,
it must seem like five years.
But He waits and waits and years and years go by.
In fact, hundreds of years go by.
And He's going to start to realize and say,
this is never going to end.
This is never going to be over.
This is going to go on forever.
I'm never going to get out.
I remember when I was a young child,
maybe about 10, 11, 12, somewhere around there,
I remember just sitting down
and just trying to understand hell.
You know what I mean?
Because I was just a kid,
and I knew what the Bible said.
I got saved when I was six years old,
and I had a clear understanding of hell at that time for sure,
a clear understanding of Jesus Christ
and salvation, eternal life, and heaven
and everything like that.
But I remember just sitting down as a 10, 11, 12-year-old boy,
sitting down on the couch in my house
and just trying to wrap my mind around hell.
To this day, I can't fully comprehend it, of course,
but I sat there and just tried to understand it,
and this is what thought entered my mind.
I thought to myself, I looked over at the closet,
and I thought to myself,
what if I were locked in that closet for 100 years?
Nothing to do, nothing to see.
The closet's dark, and I went in the closet
and just shut the door just for a moment,
and it was completely dark.
I couldn't really move around much
because it was a coat closet.
I couldn't really move around that much,
and it was totally dark, and there was nothing to do,
nothing to read, no one to talk to,
and I thought to myself,
I wouldn't want to be in here for two days.
It would be terrible.
I wouldn't want to be in here for two weeks.
Have you ever been really bored?
Remember when you were in school, you had detention?
The torture, detention is just sitting there doing nothing.
That's what it was.
You'd be detained for an hour, hour and a half.
It was like torture.
You just sat there, and it just went on and on.
You're staring at the clock,
but I thought to myself,
to be locked in this closet for two weeks straight would be torture.
I mean torture.
We're putting aside food and water
because this is obviously a spiritual place
where people don't need food and water.
He said I just want water to cool off my tongue.
You didn't need to eat food to exist or drink water,
but imagine just being locked up like that
in a place where you couldn't move around much,
couldn't see much, couldn't do anything,
just the boredom,
just the agony of just being by yourself alone.
And I remember just thinking about
two weeks, a month, years, horrible thought.
And I thought what if you could never get out of that closet?
That'd be awful, wouldn't it?
Just locked in the closet forever,
and you knew you'd never get out.
But then that's not even fire.
You see what I'm saying?
I mean hell would be horrible without the fire.
Think about that.
And yet there is fire.
And I remember that.
I thought about that when I was a young child.
I said, man, we've got to get people saved.
Good night.
It's terrible.
And I remember thinking to myself,
it's horrible that anybody goes to hell.
But you know what would be really horrible?
If somebody went to hell and they could have been saved,
if somebody would have told me not to,
they would have gotten saved.
Oh, well, if somebody really wants to get saved,
I was going to make sure of the nonsense, garbage.
It's a lie.
There are people in this city and elsewhere in the world
that if somebody would take the Bible
and really give them a clear presentation of the gospel
and really lay it out for them point by point,
they'd be thrilled to receive the gospel and be saved.
They're out there.
And if you don't believe it,
come out and show them what it would be next week.
I'll take you to them.
It might take hours.
We might knock doors for hours of being slammed in our face
or people saying no, but we'll find that one.
And they're going to be cast from death to life
and they'll never have to see hell
because we were used by God to preach him the gospel.
It's the truth.
I remember as a child, as a teenager,
these thoughts would come into my mind.
Please, can we just give them a chance?
I mean, if somebody just rejects it
and brazenly says no,
I mean, maybe I could swallow that a little bit more
than somebody who would have been saved
if they really had it clearly explained to them or persisted.
You know, my wife,
you know how many times I had to give the gospel to my wife
before she got saved?
In excess of 20 times.
And I'm not kidding.
I mean, I mean that.
I mean, it took a long time.
It took hours of persuasion.
It took Bible and verses and talking to her
and pleading, and it took prayer and weeping.
That's what it took.
Say, oh, well, if you hadn't have gone and saved,
somebody else would have.
You really think so?
A girl that grew up, born and raised in Germany, in Bavaria,
a girl who had never even heard the word Baptist,
never even heard of a Baptist.
She thought there were two Christian religions,
Catholic and Evangelical,
meaning Protestant, meaning Lutheran,
which is pretty much over there.
It's the same exact thing as the Catholics.
She thought anything else was a cult.
A girl who had never heard the gospel,
never even heard anybody,
put forth the idea that the Bible's creation account
was actually reality.
She never even heard of that.
And then she was, what, 20 years old when I met her?
You can get people saved if you try.
I mean, not everybody's going to get saved,
but you can pull them out of the fire
hating even the garments spotted by the flesh.
And so here's this man, and he's burning in hell.
He's pretty much given up on the fact
of ever getting out, you know,
about, well, for sure more than 1,000 years have gone by,
over 1,000 years, because he'd gone through
the whole rest of history
and through all the events in the book of Revelation,
the whole millennial reign of Christ for 1,000 years.
He's been languishing in hell this whole time.
Well then, suddenly, out of nowhere,
out of the blue,
turned to Revelation 20.
He didn't see this coming.
I mean, he'd long ago given up.
He's been in hell for over 1,000 years,
but it even seemed like longer than that,
which, you know, we can't even fathom these numbers.
I mean, think about how long we've been alive.
None of us even knows what 1,000 years is.
None of us can comprehend that,
let alone 1,000 years in hell.
But suddenly, out of the blue,
here he is, he's burning in hell.
He's given up completely.
What's he doing in hell?
The only thing there is to do, think.
That's all you can do in hell is to think.
Just remember.
And I believe he's probably just replaying his life
over and over in his mind,
just to pass this and do something,
starting from the time he's born,
all the way until he dies, just remembering his life,
just scene by scene, act by act,
living out, reliving his life in his mind.
And I bet something keeps coming up in his mind
every time he ever heard anything about Jesus,
every time he heard anything about hell,
any time he ever heard anything about the Gospel,
any time he ever sat in the church service,
any time he ever read a Bible verse,
any time he ever heard somebody quote a verse.
And you know, the Bible has become
part of our society in many ways, our culture,
and you'll hear verses.
You'll hear people make statements that are from the Bible,
out and about.
People have heard the verse, Jesus wept.
I heard somebody say one time,
he was like on a political-type talk show, he said,
let not your heart be troubled,
but he was talking about something completely different.
Of course, that's just quoting Jesus,
let not your heart be troubled,
you believe in God, you believe in God.
You know, people speak and they talk about,
oh well, render unto Caesar the things that be seen.
And he's probably thinking about every time he heard
the word of God, verses, about Jesus, the Bible, God,
maybe somebody knocked on his door at some point
and he said, I'm sorry, I've got to watch the game.
The Phoenix Suns are on right now.
He's into overtime.
I can't talk right now.
And he's saying to himself, oh God, why?
Why didn't I listen?
And he's replaying in his mind over and over again.
Suddenly he's plucked from hell.
Look down at Revelation 20, if you would.
The Bible says, and then verse number 12,
when 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.
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.
Our friend has just been delivered from hell.
You see this?
All of a sudden, he's transported.
Hell ejects him into the presence of God
at the great white throne of judgment.
Will we be there?
Yes, everybody will be there.
The heaven and earth are removed.
There's found no place for them.
Every human being in the world is there
at the great white throne of judgment.
Now we are not going to be there to be judged
because the dead were judged.
Of course, we've already been resurrected and alive.
We've been alive for over a thousand years.
Those of us who were living in 2008,
we've been alive for over a thousand years.
But the dead are brought out and we're there as spectators.
Everybody's there.
The angels, God's throne, man, every creature, everything is there.
There's no other place that exists.
There's no universe.
There's no sun.
There's no moon.
There's no earth.
There's no heaven.
It's just the great white throne of judgment.
They've all fled away.
No place for them.
Everybody is there at this moment.
And I'm sure that man, as he's ejected from hell,
he's shocked.
He's standing on solid ground.
He's no longer in flames.
He's saying, oh, thank you, God, for being merciful to me.
And in the last ditch effort, he falls to his knees
and confesses that Jesus Christ is Lord
to the glory of God the Father.
As the Bible says in Philippians 2,
that in the name of Jesus Christ every knee should bow,
of things in heaven and things in earth,
and things under the earth.
Things under the earth.
And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord
to the glory of God the Father.
And he falls to his knees and says,
Jesus Christ, you are the Lord.
You are the Savior of the world.
I mean, he can't even scream loud enough.
His voice is cracking and breaking as he cries out
to be heard among the thousands and millions and billions
of other people who are screaming,
Jesus, you're the Lord, save me!
But there's a deafening silence as the books are opened.
Every man is silenced.
It's silent and only one thing can be heard.
God, the Judge.
God the Father sitting on his throne, opening the books.
And another book is opened, the Lamb's Book of Life.
And any name that's not in the Lamb's Book of Life,
he gets out the other books.
You say, what are the other books?
The Bible. There's 66 of them.
Because you say, well, how do you know?
Well, because the dead are being judged out of those things
which are written in the books according to their works.
And you know what?
The Bible says this is what Jesus said on this earth
and John 5 said, this is what you'll be judged by, Moses.
This is what you'll be judged by, Moses and whom he trusts,
to the unbelieving Jews.
He said you'll be judged by God's Word.
And so I've heard people say that these books are a list
of everything that everybody's ever done in their life.
Of course, of everything that Jesus had ever done in his life,
the Bible says the world couldn't even contain the books.
And so I believe the books that are opened
is Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy.
The books are opened.
And he begins to expose to them their sin
and he runs through with them their life
and every idle word that men shall speak,
the Bible says they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.
Every time they've said something wicked,
every time they've said something ungodly,
every time they've committed a sin against God,
it's going to be put forth as evidence against them.
See, why do people go to hell?
Because they're sinners, because they've lied,
because they've murdered, because they've stolen,
because they've thought dirty thoughts,
because they've committed adultery physically or in their heart.
And so all those sins will be listed off.
Of course, our sins will never be mentioned to us.
The Bible says gone, gone, gone.
The Bible says as far as East is from the West,
God is so far as God separated us from our sins.
Hebrews 10, 17, their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.
But the unbeliever, it's not so with him.
God runs through and exposes to him his sins.
And then he opens up the book of life,
names not found therein, he says,
apart from me, I never knew you.
Apart from me, he curses the dead last thing while.
Fire, prepare for the devil's angels and the angels.
I can see a few strong angels take each one of them by the arms
and grab them and cast them into the lake of fire for all eternity.
That one little break is over.
That one little reprieve that they had from the flames and torment of hell, it's over.
And now they know it's forever,
because God has just explained to them from the Bible that it's forever.
And there they're going to languish forever more,
look down at your Bible and it says,
they were judged every man according to their works.
Every wicked work, every ungodly thing that was said out of their mouth.
It says, and death and hell were cast into the lake of fire.
So now hell is being relocated to the lake of fire, and I'll prove that to you.
This is the second death and whosoever was not found written in the book of life
was cast into the lake of fire.
See, how do you know hell is being relocated to the lake of fire?
Well, because the Bible says,
Fear not him which is able to kill the body, but is not able to kill the soul,
but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.
Now we know that the unsaved man who dies today, his body is not going to hell.
But there's going to be the resurrection of damnation,
described by Jesus in John chapter 5.
And in his soul and his spirit and his body is going to be cast into hell,
which is now in the lake of fire.
So it says 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.
And they'll be there forever.
The lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.
Let me show you a few things about hell tonight.
And by the way, let me tell you a little story.
When I go soul winning, I guess I'm a confrontational soul winner,
but I'm never mean or unkind to people.
There's no reason to be like that and that's not the way I am.
I believe that we're bearing the good news of salvation.
So it should be a positive message.
The first thing I obviously tell somebody is you've got to tell them that they're a sinner.
And I show them these verses from Revelation 21.
Showing them that they're condemned to hell.
Showing them that the wages of sin is dead.
Showing them that even a lie and all these other things
will damn them to hell.
But I say, God loves you. He doesn't want you to go to hell.
And I explain to them the gospel and Jesus Christ, death, peril, and resurrection.
I'm not going to go into that for the sake of time.
But when all I explain to them, then I go through that whole thing with them.
I give them the gospel.
And I don't go to people and you need to get saved or you're going to go to hell
and you're a filthy sinner.
People who are doing that, they're not getting people saved.
They don't have love and tear in the eye.
They're just going around screaming at people.
And if they really love them, they want them to get saved.
So they talk to them in a way that's going to get them saved.
And I'm not talking about toning it down.
I'm not talking about trimming the message.
But the Bible says speaking the truth in love.
It says to be gentle.
The fruit of the Spirit is gentleness.
And so I gently explain to them that they're on their way to hell.
That they're without hope.
That they're damned eternally without Christ.
But I'm not just going to yell at somebody and browbeat them and everything.
Because I care about them. I love them.
I want them saved.
But you know yesterday there was an exception to that.
And I was out soloing all day.
We stopped. We quit at 8.15 at night.
We started at 9.30.
We took a break for lunch, a break for dinner.
But we were out soloing all day long.
We talked to all kinds of people.
And in that whole day of probably just pure soloing
as far as forgetting all breaks and driving from point A to point B.
As far as just pure doorknocking and soloing.
The actual just labor time.
A good solid eight hours.
And in that time I had six people saved personally.
Okay in that time.
In eight hours.
And you know God was really blessing us yesterday.
Oh man.
I mean I've been praying for this day.
I know other people have been praying about that town Gila Bend.
And that never had a good church.
We went down there and it was...
I remember I mean literally for the last couple of days
I was thinking to myself you know this is kind of a weird idea.
This is a crazy idea.
I've never heard of anything like this.
You know another stupid idea.
Because I've had a lot of ideas.
Some of them are a flop.
Some of them work out great.
And you never know until you try.
So I just like to try things you know.
And so man alive did God just pour out his blessings.
Good.
Now 27 people saved.
We had 16 people.
But 27 people saved.
That's a lot.
I mean that's a lot.
But everybody was so friendly.
I've never been invited into people's houses so much.
I say come on in.
Sit down.
Show it to me.
I'm not sure if I had that kind of a reception.
I believe that was just God blessing us.
I think that's all it was.
It was prayer.
But there was one man yesterday.
I knocked on his door.
It was in an apartment complex.
I knocked on the door and an old man.
And you could tell he was a bitter old man.
And he was very old and he had to
he had to kind of hobble over to the door.
He was extremely old and looked mean.
And I said hi.
How you doing?
Can I invite you to Faithful Word Baptist Church?
You go to church anywhere?
No.
I said well if you die today
do you know for sure you'd go to heaven?
He said there's no blank such thing as blankety blank heaven.
He said because blankety blank God's a lie.
The Bible's blank blank blank.
And I mean he just cursed and swore
and blasphemed God, Jesus, the Bible.
Everything you can imagine.
And I said what do you believe?
I said what do you believe in?
I said look around.
I was trying to plead with him to get saved.
Even then I didn't just scream at him.
I just said look around.
And I quoted him some verses from Romans 1.
For the invisible things of him
from the creation of the world are clearly seen
even as eternal power and Godhead
so that they're without excuse.
I said look around at nature.
Look at the world.
Who made all this?
I said where did it come from?
I said you believe that?
He said it's foolishness.
I said it's foolishness that man came from a monkey.
And he said well you need to take a biology class.
You need to take science.
And I said you know what?
I said you need to take a biology class
because I said a single celled organism has 28 parts.
A single celled organism has a reproductive system,
a digestive system.
It has all these different functionality.
I remember when I was in high school
learning about microbiology
I said a single celled organism is like a city.
It's so complex.
I said it looks like a city.
There's transportation.
I mean it's amazing God's creation.
I said man can't create life in a laboratory this day.
Man can't even create the simplest life form.
Nobody can bring it to life.
When they talk about cloning
all they're doing is they take something that's already alive
and just replace the DNA.
They didn't create something new alive.
And they never will by the way.
Only God can create life.
Janice and Jan Breeze withstood Moses and said
we're going to create life out of dust
and they said we can't do it.
This is the finger of God.
Only God can create life.
They couldn't spontaneously create life from nothing.
I said if man and all his wisdom and knowledge
can't create life
how could life just create itself from nowhere?
How could it come from random?
He said well that's not true.
They can create life in a laboratory.
I said you're ignorant.
I said you're ignorant of science.
He said you need to do some reading.
Here you are pontificating to me
like you know so much science.
I said nobody can make something come to life.
I said what do you think is Frankenstein?
I said that's what Frankenstein was about.
Taking a body and bringing it alive.
They can't do it.
They can pump the blood.
They can beat the heart.
They can send electronic impulses to the brain.
It won't come to life.
It's gone.
It's dead forever because God has taken life
and the spirit went back to God that gave it.
You see, and I explained this to him
and he just went on to curse and swear again
and to blaspheme.
I'm not even going to repeat the stuff he was saying.
It was every four letter word mixed with Jesus and God and the Bible combined.
The boldness of this man who studied to me.
And I said to him, I said you know what?
I said if you don't change what you believe
I said you're going to burn in hell.
And I said look, I said take a good look.
This is exactly what I said.
And I said it this way because I was a little bit angry at this point.
I said take a good look at my face.
I said you're going to remember this face for all eternity.
I said for billions of years while you burn in hell.
You're going to think about this day is going to resonate in your mind
when I came here and told you the truth and preached you the gospel.
I said you're going to remember this forever.
And I said at the white throne judgment
I said I'm going to look at you right in your eyes.
You remember that I said this.
I'm going to look you right in the eye when God casts you into hell.
I said you better change what you believe.
And he said well I just hope that you don't influence anybody else.
I said we're knocking every door in this town.
Today.
I said and you can't stop us.
And he slammed the door.
Whoa, what's going to happen to you?
He breathes his life.
It could be today.
It could be a month.
Especially after you say that about God.
Who knows what he's going to do.
Remember when Nabal cursed David.
The next day his heart became a stone and in two weeks he was dead.
Who knows what is going to happen.
I don't know.
It could be years.
Hey who cares if it's 20 years that he lives and becomes a very old man.
What if he lives 100 more years?
Is it really going to matter?
His life is his vapor that appeared for a little time and then vanished away.
And the scope of eternity that he's going to spend in hell.
And you know hopefully he'll get saved.
Doubtful.
Pretty doubtful.
He sounded like he'd heard it a few times before.
I don't think he's going to get saved.
I gave him the gospel.
I told him the truth.
But he's probably going to spend eternity in hell.
Let me give you a few points just quickly because we're getting late tonight.
1. Hell is a place of literal flaming fire and torment.
2 Thessalonians 1.8 and 9.
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.
You know modern Bibles change that.
The NIV would change that to say away from the presence of the Lord.
No.
Destruction from the presence of the Lord.
Because in Revelation 14 says they'll be punished in the presence of the holy angels.
In the presence of the Lamb.
David said it this way in the book of Psalms.
If I make my bed in hell behold thou art there.
But not only is hell a place of literal flaming fire and torment as we saw in Luke chapter 16.
A man begging for a drop of water to cool his tongue in the flames of fire.
Mark 9 43.
You say why did he preach the sermon to scare people?
Well listen to this sermon.
Mark 9 43 and if thy hand offend thee, cut it off.
That's pretty extreme.
If your hand is going to send you to hell, he says just cut it off.
It is better for the entered 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 where their worm diet not and the fire is not 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.
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.
That's Mark 9 43 and 49.
That's Jesus preaching.
Wow.
But number two, hell is a real physical place.
It has a physical location.
In the book of Numbers 16, don't turn there.
It talks about them that go down quick into the pit.
You're talking about people falling into a chasm in the air and dropping alive into hell.
If God make a new thing, he says.
It's never happened before, Moses said.
But he said, if I'm telling the truth,
Korah, Dathan and Abiram and all their company will drop in a chasm of the earth alive into hell.
And that's what happened.
Because hell is a real physical place.
It has a physical real location in the heart of the earth.
And so they go down quick into the pit.
They and all that pertain to them went down alive into the pit.
And the earth closed upon them and they perished from among the congregation.
They died on the way down.
Obviously.
As they reached the flames of hell, it burned them up and their body was torched.
As their soul and spirit continued to drop all the way down to the bottomless pit of hell.
Amos 9, 2.
Though they dig into hell, then shall mine hand take them.
Though they climb up to heaven, then shall I bring them down to a physical place.
Ezekiel 32, 18.
Unto the nether parts of the earth with them that go down into the pit.
We already talked about that they're going to be tormented in the presence of God.
Let's skip over that for the sake of time.
But look at this verse.
Turn to Isaiah 30, verse 30.
Isaiah 30, verse 30.
Now who remembers reading in the Bible about a place called Tophet?
T-O-P-H-E-T.
Put up your hand if that sounds a little familiar to you.
Tophet.
Tophet is the valley of the son of Hinnom.
That might sound familiar to you.
It's a place that's described very often throughout the Bible.
Tophet or the valley of the son of Hinnom.
It was a place where wicked kings and ungodly Baal worshippers and Moloch worshippers would take their children and cause them to pass through the fire.
It was a valley that was set on fire and they would perform human sacrifice.
Wicked, ungodly action that God condemned again and again and again.
Remember I believe 11 times in the Old Testament he talked about people making their children to pass through the fire.
He condemned it and decried it all throughout the Old Testament.
But this place was called the proper name.
Our city is called Phoenix, our state is called Arizona.
This place was called Tophet.
It was the valley of the son of Hinnom.
Watch what God says here.
He's using Tophet as an illustration, as a picture of hell here.
Read this.
And the Lord shall cause his glorious voice to be heard and shall show the lighting down of his arm with the indignation of his anger.
This is God's anger. Are you reading this?
And with the flame of a devouring fire with scattering and tempests and hailstones.
For through the voice of the Lord shall the Assyrian be beaten down and smote with a rod.
And in every place where the ground and staff shall pass, which the Lord shall lay upon him, it shall be with taberns and harps.
And in battles of shaking will he fight with it.
Listen to this.
For Tophet is ordained of old, saying it's from a long, long time ago.
Yea, for the king it is prepared.
He hath made it deep and large.
The pile thereof is fire and much wood.
The breath of the Lord like a stream of brimstone doth kindle it.
You see that? Hell, what did we learn here?
Hell is the culmination of God's anger.
I mean the flaming fire of his rage and wrath is what hell is.
It's not separation from God.
It's being right smack dab in the middle of God's wrath and anger.
Turn to Revelation 14.
Let me read this for you.
John 3.36.
He that believeth on the sun hath everlasting life.
Never going to die.
Breathe your last breath and be in the presence of God in heaven.
He that believeth on the sun hath everlasting life.
And he that believeth not the sun shall not see light, but the wrath of God abide upon him.
That's what hell is.
God's wrath, God's flaming fire of his anger,
we read about in Isaiah 33.31.
The breath of the Lord like a stream of brimstone doth kindle it.
Wow.
But look at Revelation 14.
And let me turn there myself.
We'll be reading verse number 10.
The Bible reads, I'm sorry, look at verse number 9 to get the context.
And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice,
If any man worship the beast, he shall not be saved.
The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God.
Remember Isaiah 30.33.
Remember John 3.36.
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 receive it the mark of his name.
No rest.
Did you know that it's a torture method to keep people awake?
In places where people have been in concentration camps,
or maybe Vietnamese prison camps,
part of the torture many times is sleep deprivation.
There's torture when somebody's about to fall asleep and you wake them up.
They're about to fall asleep and you wake them up.
They're about to fall asleep again and you wake them up.
Imagine no rest.
Boy, isn't it good to go to sleep and rest.
Boy, there's nothing like after a hard day,
or out in the phoenix sun and the heat of the sun,
and it just feels like it's baking your whole body
and draining every ounce of moisture out of your body,
and you're weary and tired.
And sometimes you put your head on the pillow,
that pillow feels so good.
I mean, you'd rather be laying in that bed on that pillow,
and I feel this way a lot.
You'd rather be there than being on any sandy beach in the world,
riding on any roller coaster.
The only thing that you want, better than any meal,
you just want to put your head on that nice cool pillow.
And I remember what Daniel said,
my sleep was sweet unto me,
because he was spent awake and so tired, he talked about.
And boy, sweet rest and whatever happened in the day,
you can just kind of lay it to rest.
His mercies are new every morning,
great insight, faithfulness,
you can lay your head down on your pillow,
and it's all over for you to rest.
In hell, there's no rest, day nor night,
never to rest again.
Hell is a place of dismal darkness,
raging waves of the sea,
foaming out their own shame,
wandering stars to whom is reserved,
the blackness of darkness,
for every say, reserved or reservation?
Well, the Bible said,
you shall have this part, this part,
in the lake which burned with fire and brimstone,
which is the blackness of darkness.
Darkness I believe like it says in the book of Exodus,
which may be felt.
You remember that?
You can feel the darkness.
That's from Exodus, the ninth play.
Hell is a place of screaming and wailing.
The Bible says, then said the king to the servants,
bind him hand and foot.
It's a place, kind of like I talked about that closet,
you can't really get around much.
You can't move around too much
because you're bound in chains.
The Bible says, reserved and everlasting chains
under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.
But he says, bind him hand and foot and take him away
and cast him into outer darkness,
referring to the lake of fire that is,
referring to the new location of hell
when it's going to be away from the earth,
it's going to be in outer darkness
where hell is relocated in Revelation 20.
There shall be, say in that place,
there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Men are going to be gnawing their tongues in pain,
grinding their teeth and wailing.
The word wailing is just, ah!
It's not just a scream, it's like a wail.
It's something that,
see screaming doesn't really involve your vocal cords.
Wailing is more of something where you're vocalizing,
almost like saying something,
but you're not saying anything, you're just wailing.
It's a horrible sound.
Imagine listening to the wails.
You ever been in the,
I remember when my wife was giving birth in the hospital
with our first child.
You could hear wailing down the hall
from other women who were giving birth.
And you hear the mixture of a couple different people
screaming and wailing.
Imagine being in hell
and there's hundreds of thousands
and millions of people wailing around, screaming.
Not only that, but hell is a place,
believe it or not, of flesh-eating worms.
The Bible says in Isaiah 4, verse 12,
it says the worm is spread under thee,
and verse 11, the worms cover thee.
Pardon my hell.
It's basically you're covered in worms that are covered.
The Bible says the worm shall feed sweetly on thee.
You see, hell is a place of horrific creatures.
Did you know that there are living creatures in hell?
Please remember, Revelation chapter 9,
God opens up the bottomless pit.
Actually, he sends the angel of the bottomless pit
of all the honor of that army,
which is not the devil.
I proved that from the Bible many times.
The devil is thrown into hell by Apollyon in chapter 20,
you know, the angel of the bottomless pit.
He has the key, he opens it up.
So it can't be the same person.
The angel of the bottomless pit opens it up,
and you remember those locusts
that come out of the bottomless pit in Revelation 12
and torment men on the earth five months?
Remember the tales like scorpions
and the teeth like lions and they have breastplates
and they go around and the sting is in their tails
and they torment men?
That's just giving people on this earth a taste
of the hell beneath,
because those creatures were already in hell.
Horrible, tormenting locusts,
flesh-eating worms.
Their worm died if not and the fire is not quenched.
It's explained in Isaiah 14 in the same book
where the quote comes from,
Isaiah 66, 24, where it talks about
their worm shall not die,
neither shall their fire be quenched,
they should be in orbit.
It explains earlier about worms covering you,
feasting on you, feeding sweetly on you.
A place of horrific creatures and flesh-eating worms,
no rest, day or night,
screaming, wailing, darkness, fire.
You say, why preach on hell?
And I've moved much more to my sermon,
but I'm going to close with this.
Why preach on hell?
You know, and I make reference to hell
a lot of my sermons.
This is only the second time
I've ever spent a whole sermon.
I've spent half a sermon a couple times
where I talked about heaven and hell and doctrine.
Only the second time I've put the whole sermon on hell.
Why?
Why, Pastor Anderson?
Everybody who's here is probably saved
and on their way to heaven.
We all believe in Jesus.
After all, church is for the believer.
It's not for unsaved people.
We go out and get them saved,
but church is to edify the believer.
Why preach on hell?
Why think about something so awful?
Why even go there in our minds?
I mean, we're not going to go there.
Why comprehend it?
Because this week,
I spent some time thinking about hell.
It came in my mind for some reason,
and as I thought about hell this week,
I just realized the need to just give it all to God.
I mean, my whole life I'm just saying,
you know what?
People are going to hell.
We've got to give them the gospel.
I mean, it's just to give you the urgency,
and I'm not up here, you know,
I'm not up here just blowing a bunch of hot air.
Hey, I was out yesterday.
I was out knocking the doors,
and guess what?
I was out last week,
and the week before that,
for the last almost 10 years now.
I mean, I started soul winning
when I just turned 17 years old.
I'm going to be 27 in July.
I've spent almost a decade of weekly
for hours a week knocking the doors,
in addition to friends, co-workers,
I'm not up here just rattling my cage.
I'm not up here some kind of a silver-tongued orator.
I'm not up here just trying to preach a great sermon
and, well, I'm just going to blow off a bit.
Hey, I'm going to be there knocking the doors.
I'm going to be on the front lines.
I'm going to be in the trenches.
I'm inviting you to go with me,
and many of you, you've already been with me.
I mean, 90% of our church was out.
Yes, it had been practically, you know,
a lot of, well, not really 90% of our church,
but a lot of people were out.
It seemed like everybody was there, you know.
I mean, a lot of people were there.
Hey, it was great, but you know what?
You don't want to just go out one time
and just be a weekend warrior one time.
I'm going to tell you something.
I moved to Phoenix for one reason two and a half years ago.
Didn't have any family here.
Didn't have a job here.
I have no reason to come here except one,
to give my life to one thing.
This one thing I do, as Paul said,
one thing to give my life to preach the gospel
to every creature and to train you
and anybody else I can to do the same thing.
That's what this church is about.
Now, I'll teach you everything in the Bible
to the best of my ability.
I mean, we'll give you a well-rounded meal here.
You'll get doctrine.
You better know you'll get doctrine.
You'll get Bible teaching.
You'll get encouragement.
You'll get edification.
You'll get strength.
You'll get the truth from Genesis to Revelation.
But you better know that the one thing
that's kind of pulsing,
the continual heartbeat of our church,
the one thing that's pushing us forward all the time
is what beat in the heart of Jesus.
I believe when John leaned on Jesus' breast
and he could hear the heartbeat of Jesus Christ,
I think it beat the Son of Man to come
and to seek and to save that which was lost.
The Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.
I must work the works of my Father while it is yet day
and the night cometh when no man can work.
The Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.
As the Father has sent me, even so send I you.
Go ye therefore in the whole world
and preach the gospel every creed.
You wonder the heartbeat of faithful word by this church.
See, I don't understand why people go to that church anyway.
The pastor screams and yells.
He preaches all this crazy stuff
that nobody's ever even heard of.
He thinks everything is wrong.
Anything that people do,
TV, movies, rock music,
worldliness,
women that are dressed immodest.
He goes down the list.
The guy's insane.
He says it's wrong for women to wear pants.
He thinks that men are the boss in their home.
He preaches things I've never even heard.
He's a mad man.
Why would anybody go to that church
to get a brow beat?
Why would anybody go to that church
that's used in the old King James Bible?
Why would anybody go to that church
where the music's old-fashioned?
I'll tell you why people come to this church.
The same reason I joined an independent fundamental back church
when I was 17 years old.
It wasn't the music.
It wasn't the preaching.
It wasn't the standards.
It wasn't the radical preaching.
And it was there.
But that's not what got me to join.
It was the heartbeat of Faithful We're Back to Search,
and it was the heartbeat of the church
that I joined at that time.
Just beat solely.
Solely.
Win solos.
Love people.
They're going to hell.
They've got to be in the gospel.
It's the driving force.
Because you know sometimes the sermon's not always
the best sermon in the world.
Sometimes it's not the most entertaining sermon in the world.
Sometimes it is.
Sometimes it's entertaining.
Sometimes it's not.
Sometimes you want to go to church.
Sometimes you might not.
Sometimes you're healthy and feel good.
Sometimes you don't.
Sometimes you're joyful and rejoicing
with joy unspeakable and full of great glory.
Sometimes you're not.
Sometimes you're in heaviness because of manifold temptation.
Sometimes you're not.
But there's one thing that never changes in this church.
The preaching may go along different themes.
The membership may fluctuate up and down
in numbers of attendance.
But one thing never changes here.
It's the week in, week out, day after day.
Win solos.
It never changes.
It never stops.
Consistency week after week.
Day in, day out.
When you're tired of it, you say,
well, I'm tired of church.
This is a phase that I was going through.
But you know what?
One thing that's not a phase is hell and soul winning.
And soul winning in the gospel.
And that's what keeps me going.
You know what I mean?
That's what keeps me going.
I mean, it's not preaching that keeps me going.
What keeps me going is soul winning.
That's what keeps me going.
I'm just being honest with you.
I mean, the thing that keeps me going is soul winning.
I mean, that's the thing that keeps it real to me.
That's the thing that keeps me motivated.
Because it's a job that's never going to be done.
So I breathe my last breath.
It's the job that I'm going to work on.
All those maps.
What kind of stupid decoration is that?
What's a map?
You know what kind of stupid decoration is?
It's where I'm going to spend the rest of my life.
The map of Phoenix, the giant map of Phoenix,
spend the rest of my life making sure
that we knock every single door in the whole valley.
The map of Arizona, spending the rest of my life
making sure that we knock every small town in Arizona,
knock every door like we did in Hilo Bend yesterday.
We're going to go back and finish a few doors,
but we knock 80% of the town, and we'll finish it.
We'll go down a few people and just finish the remainder.
Knock every door in every small town in Arizona
that's under, say, 2,000 people or 3,000 people.
That's what I'm going to give my life to.
You know why there's a map of the United States out there?
That map represents the fact that we're going to send out
young men and men to go start churches all across America.
Because the local church should be getting after its own kind,
other local churches.
Just like I started this church here, I'm not talented.
I'm not anybody special.
I'm just a man like anybody else.
I hope that many young men will come out of this church someday
and go start churches all across that map.
We'll put their face on every place that they start
and say, there's a light out.
There's a candlestick of the gospel.
And then a map of the world to represent the people
that we support as missionaries around the world
so that the gospel can go to the dark corners of the earth.
That's why I have the verses to say,
but you shall receive power after the Holy Ghost has come upon you.
You shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem,
that's the map of Phoenix,
and in all Judea, that's the map of Arizona,
every small town, every village as Jesus went to every village,
and in Samaria, the adjacent, the area around it,
the other states, the nation, America,
and in the outermost part of the earth.
We're never going to finish, folks.
It's never going to be over.
Slowly, slowly, slowly.
Father, it was an unpleasant sermon.
It wasn't one that I even wanted to preach.
It's not the funnest kind of sermon to preach at all.
It's a horrible sermon.
But God, you took me on a tour earlier this week of hell,
and I just felt like I needed to take my people on the same tour of hell
that I took a few days ago.
Driving in my car, I took a little tour a few days ago of hell
that's in my mind and the Bible,
and God, I just felt like if I was going to be in one accord with my people,
that they might have to take the same tour that I took
and look around at the same sights that I saw.
God, please just help it to be real to us.
Help us to realize that David Letterman and Jay Leno just aren't that funny.
The sitcoms and the TV shows and the movies just aren't that cool.
The rock music just isn't that great anymore.
When we realize that there's a far greater purpose for our lives
to win souls to Jesus Christ,
oh, what a glorious day it's going to be.
I can't wait to get to heaven.
Man, I'm excited about seeing Jesus.
But you know what?
Almost as much as I'm excited about seeing Jesus,
I feel like I already know Jesus because I've got the Bible right here.
It's pretty much the same thing.
The Word made flesh is Jesus.
God, almost as much as I'm excited about seeing Jesus,
I can't wait to personally see every person that I've won to Christ.
That's what heaven is for.
It's not the golden streets.
It's not the pearly gates that I'm looking for.
I'm looking forward to putting my hand in the hand of every single person
that I've won to Christ in my life
and shaking their hand and looking them in the eye
and knowing that Jesus and I were co-laborers together
and that person's in heaven because of my life
and that my life meant something, dear God.
That's what heaven is to me.
It's going to be to see Jesus and to see every person that I've won to Christ.
What a glorious day that's going to be, Father.
Help us to live our lives with eternities, values, and view.
Forget the things that are seen which are temporal
and think about the things that are eternal, dear God.
Love you supremely.
Take inventory of every part of our life.
Amen.