(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

The chapter I'd like to focus on, really I'm going to pull some different things out of different parts of the chapter, but my text verse is found in verse 14 where the Bible says, Therefore hell hath enlarged herself, and opened her mouth without measure, and their glory and their multitude and their pomp and either rejoiceth shall descend into it. The title of my sermon is this, Hell hath enlarged herself. Now if you would, keep your finger to her, we're going to come right back to Isaiah 5, but look at Matthew 25. Hell hath enlarged herself. Look at Matthew 25, I'm going to show you how important that concept is found in the Bible here. In Matthew 25, verse number 41, the Bible says this, Then shall he say, and this is Jesus Christ speaking, Matthew 25, 41, Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, and watch this next phrase, prepared for the devil and his angels. So according to the Bible, hell is a real place, by the way. It's large, but guess what, it's getting larger. The Bible says hell hath enlarged herself. Now, the question tonight is, why has hell enlarged herself? Now first of all, God did not create hell for mankind. According to the Bible, he said, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. So the original purpose of hell, it's not that God wanted anyone to go to hell. It's that it was prepared for the devil and his angels, but unfortunately, mankind, simple as he is, will go to hell without being saved by believing in Jesus Christ. And so therefore, basically every day, people are constantly going to hell. Every single day, people die and they go to hell. In fact, the majority goes to hell. The Bible says, broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and in many there be which go in their act, because straight is the gate, and narrow is the way that leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. Let me tell you something. First of all, hell is a real place. People try to say that it's not real and they try to use logic. This is what they call it, logic. Logic tells us that there's no way there could really be a loving God that would create a place like hell. But let me tell you what you call logic. It's just you're programming from this world. You're programming from TV. You're programming from feel-good religion. You're programming from public school. You're programming from whatever church or whatever institution told you that. But that did not come from the Bible, because the Bible makes it clear that hell is a real place and that sin will be punished and that it's everlasting punishment, meaning a punishment that goes on forever. If you're still in Matthew 25, you don't have to turn there, but verse 46 says, these shall go away in the everlasting punishment. Hell is a punishment that goes on forever. The Bible says, if any man take the mark of the beast or if any man worships the beast or his image or receive his mark in his forehead or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation. And he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. And they have no rest, day nor night, who worship the beast. The smoke of their torment is set up forever and ever. And they have no rest, day nor night, who worships the beast and his image. That's talking about the entire people who worship the Antichrist. Guess what? Everybody's going to worship the Antichrist pretty much the whole world. I mean, except obviously there will be some who don't. And then, of course, believers. The Bible teaches that no Christian, no believer will be deceived by the Antichrist or will worship the Antichrist. But multitudes and multitudes will worship him. The Bible teaches clearly that hell is a place where unbelievers go. All liars shall have their part in the language of the Bible itself. We've all lied, but those whose names are written in the Book of Life, the Bible says, will not taste of the second death, will not go to hell, will not believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. But let me tell you something. Hell is a real place. The Mormons don't believe in hell. But immediately, the instant that they die, they will know that hell is a real place. It's true. The Jehovah's Witnesses do not believe that hell is real, but it's real and they'll go there. The Seventh-day Adventists say that there is no hell. They say it's just symbolic and it's just annihilation. Let me tell you something. Hell is an everlasting punishment. Now, the Antichrist is a human being that's going to be on the scene someday, right? A wicked man. The man of sin is a human being. And the Bible says that the Antichrist in Revelation 19 will be cast into the lake of fire. And so will his false prophet be cast into the lake of fire. He's also a human being. But a thousand years later, after the millennia, the devil was cast into the lake of fire. And whosoever was not found in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. And it says in Revelation 20, 10, the devil that deceived them, this is after the millennia, was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, present tense. And they've been there for a thousand years. Hell is a real place. Luke 16 makes it clear. Turn to Luke 16 quickly. Keep your finger on Isaiah 5, but Luke 16 will just barely touch on this story about a man who went to hell. And people will say, well, Luke 16 is just a parable. But hold on a second. He gives us the name of the person in the story. None of Jesus' parables use a name. It's just there was a man or a certain man. But this is a name that's given in this story. The name Lazarus. But let me just show you this one part. It says in verse number 22, And it came to pass that the beggar died and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom. Of course, Abraham's bosom is not a place for the body part. His bosom is basically his wife when John leaned on Jesus' bosom. Basically, Abraham's got a wrong around him. He's reigned up against Abraham in heaven. And it says that the rich man also died and was buried. And in hell, he lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and seeeth Abraham afar off and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and said, Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in blood and cool my tongue, for I am tormented in this flame. Don't tell me that hell is not a real place. Moses wasn't just talking about, oh, he's just separated from God. He has this thirst for God. No, he had a thirst for a drop of water, my friend, because he's in flames. And he said, please give me some respite. Please give me some relief. Please give me a drop of water. Hell is a real place. Jesus talked about hell because he didn't want people to go there. He was prepared for the devil and his angels. You see, because mankind is slipping off into hell on a daily basis, those who do not believe on Jesus Christ, back to Isaiah 5 where we started tonight, hell had enlarged herself. Why has hell enlarged herself? Well, first of all, here's the simple answer. Hell has enlarged herself because hell is a physical real place. It's not just a spiritual condition or just kind of a spirit place where it doesn't really have a location or a size. No, it has a size, and it's enlarged itself. The Bible teaches clearly. I'm not going to turn there for the sake of time. This isn't the thrust of the message, but in Ezekiel 30 and 31, the Bible makes it clear that hell is located in the nether parts of the earth. Nether means lower. It's located in the lower parts of the earth. The Bible also teaches that hell is located in the heart of the earth. Those are the two terms that he used to describe it. Hell beneath. I mean, I could show you 20 verses right now that say down to hell. Hell beneath. Whether you're in China or whether you're in the United States, hell is beneath you because hell is in the heart of the earth. That's what the Bible calls it. You see, even a child learns in his geology class that this whole world is filled. Beneath the crust, which is only 1 to 10 miles thick, the crust is what's called the mantle. And then beneath the mantle is what's called the core. But does anybody really know what's down there? Absolutely not. You can't measure through 5,000 miles of pure liquid lava. How do you know how sonar is going to react through that or radar? They basically tell us what's in the core. They say, well, it's nickel. It's made out of nickel. Oh, okay, wow. That's amazing. How'd you know that? Tin and copper and nickel. You know, they come up with this stuff. But hold on a second. You can bounce your waves all you want and your radar. You don't know what's beneath 5,000 miles of magma and lava. I know what's down there. You know what's down there. It's hell that's down there. It's hot. You know how hot that magma is? Even the magma on it. And they say it just seems like it gets hotter. They don't know what they're talking about. They say it's hot at the surface and then it just gets hotter and hotter. What's keeping it so hot? You ever wonder that? Maybe these scientists can tell us what's keeping it so hot down there. And what's keeping it so cool up here? You know what's keeping it hot? The Bible says that the fire of God's wrath is what's burning in hell. It says a stream of brimstone out of the Lord's mouth is what fiddles it. I mean, it's God's wrath. You're tormented in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. Jesus. It's a horrible place. It's a place we don't like to talk about. I don't like to think about it. Sometimes I find myself just pushing it out of my mind because I don't want to think about it. And I think that's the natural thing that sometimes people will do. But we need to face it here because it's in the Bible. And we need to answer the question, why is hell enlarged itself? Number one, because it's a physical real place. That's the first answer. But number two, there's another reason why hell is enlarged itself. Because you see, if you look at verse 14, are you in Isaiah 5? Look at verse 14, he starts out with the word therefore. Now the word therefore means because of this. Because of this, hell is enlarged itself. So you have to ask yourself, because of what? Whenever you see a therefore, you should always ask yourself, well, okay, what's the therefore there for? Because of what? Now let me ask something. Is it God's fault that hell has enlarged itself? Now I'm sure that the Calvinist will tell you, yeah, he just wants it bigger so he can just damn more people too to hell. Because it's all according to his will. But hold on, let's go back and let's see if it's God's fault. Before I get into verse 4, which explains why it's not God's fault, understand the chapter. The chapter is using a parable of a vineyard, like the vineyard is the world here. And basically the harvest, this is just like Jesus' parables about sowing. The harvest is talking about people being saved and the children of the kingdom. And then the weeds or the wild grapes is referring to the unbelievers who will be cast into hell. That's what he's referring to. The servants in the vineyard are supposed to be his people, God's people, who will work that vineyard, who will go out and sow that seed, water that seed, reap that harvest out on the soil-winning trail. That's what he's talking about here in this chapter. He says in verse 4, what could have been done to my vineyard that I've not done it? Wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes. He's saying, look, what more could I have done? It's not my fault, God's saying. Look, I did everything I could, but it was the servants, it was the ones who were supposed to be working the vineyard. They failed to till that vineyard. They failed to plant the seed that was the right seed, the cultivated seed. The cultivated seed of God's work, not the wild seed of the devil, of the wild grapes. He said, I did everything I could. You see, God did what he did. I mean, he died on the cross, he shed his blood, he lived a perfect life, he was tempted at all points like as we are yet without sin. He was beaten, he was spat on, he said, Father, forgive them, they know not what they do. He said, don't you think that I could presently call for six legions of angels to deliver me? But he said, you know what, if there's any way for this cup to pass from me, he said, but nevertheless, not my will to die. He was obedient of the death, even the death of the cross. He died on the cross, his body was buried, his soul went to hell for three days and three nights. He paid the punishment of the world, he arose victorious, having conquered hell and death, having the keys of hell and death. He did everything necessary for people to be saved. It's not his fault, but he asked why. Look at the question here. Why? The word wherefore means why. Wherefore when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought forth wild grapes. Why has hell enlarged itself? Did God do something wise or something that Jesus didn't do? No, he did it all, he paid it all. He paid for every single person. But why is it that hell has enlarged itself and that the masses today are going into hell? Millions and millions of people are going into hell constantly. I mean, it's going to have to get larger. I mean, every day millions are drawing on death. Why? Well, let's see what the therefore is there for. If we just go to the verse right before it, let's just get the immediate context, right? Therefore, my people are gone into captivity because they have no knowledge. And their honorable men are famished and their multitude dried up with thirst. Therefore, hell has enlarged herself. Go back up a little further to verse 11. He said, woe unto them that rise up early in the morning, that they may follow a strong drink, that continue until night to wine and flame them. And the harp and the vial, the tabret and pike and wine are in their feast, but they regard not the work of the Lord, neither consider the operation of his hands. Therefore, my people are gone into captivity because they have no knowledge. And their honorable men are famished and their multitude dried up with thirst. Therefore, hell has enlarged herself and opened her mouth without measure. And their glory and their multitude and their pomp and neither rejoiceth shall descend into it. You get this with the context of the chapter about the vineyard, about how it was labored. He explained that the vineyard, verse 7, of the Lord hosts the house of Israel and the men of Judah his pleasant plant. You see, in the Old Testament, the lighthouse to the Gentiles was supposed to be the nation of Israel. They were the ones that were supposed to be preaching God's word, preaching the gospel. They failed. Jesus came back and said, I sent my servants to the vineyard. Remember, some of them, they slew. And then I said, my only begotten son. He explained that whole parable about what this means. Why has hell enlarged herself? Hell has enlarged herself because of the failure of God's people. Now look, not everyone is going to get saved, no matter what we do. No matter what we do, people have to make the individual choice to be saved. And some will reject Christ no matter what we do. But you know what? There are a lot of people that would get saved if we would give them the gospel, if we would work that vineyard, if we would till that ground, if we would plant that seed. Look, if you plant the vineyard, if you sow the seed, if you water it, yeah, you're going to lose some of the crop, aren't you? Not everything is going to turn out right. There are going to be weeds. There are going to be tares. There are going to be tares. But when you don't do anything, the whole thing is nothing but leaves. The whole thing goes to hell. And somewhere, people are failing. God's people are failing. Why? Because they get up in the morning, verse 11, and it's just all about the flesh. Here he's talking about they just go out first thing in the morning and go after strong drink. You know, many people who are alcoholics literally drink alcohol for breakfast. Who's ever known somebody who drinks alcohol for breakfast? Oh yeah. I stood around a campfire on a camping trip in the early morning when it was really cold. We'd candle the fire first thing in the morning at 6 a.m. and watch people just drink corona after corona after corona. They woke up in the morning. But really, even God's people today are drunk today, literally. I mean, how many Christians I know who drink? And they get up and hopefully they're not doing it first thing in the morning. But you know, it's just getting up in the morning, just in a general way, and it's just the flesh. It's just sin. You know, we're choked out by the cares of this world. That's why we're not bringing forth the fruit that we should be bringing forth. Because of all the sin that so draws us and gets us enticed with the movies, the music, whatever. We just get caught up in all the sin. But you know, let's move on to the next reason. I don't want to spend too much time on that, but look at verse 12. He says, in the hearth and the vial, the tabret and pipe and wine are in their feasts, but they regard not the what? The work of the Lord. Neither consider the operation of his hands. Therefore my people are gone into captivity because they have no laws, none, none. So many people today, so many Christians today, and so many churches today, boy, don't they have in their feasts, in their services, in their gathering, don't they have, because back then they would have these feasts and it was kind of like their church service. When they would have these assemblies, these solemn assemblies and so forth on every Sabbath day, and they would also have them throughout the year on different holidays and so forth. Boy, many churches, they have the heart, don't they? And they've got the vial, think of it like a violin, right? They've got the tabret and the pipe and the wine, they've got the food, they've got the program, they've got all the music, but they don't have the work. That's what they're missing? The work! They don't understand about the work. The purpose of the church is for the work of the ministry, it says in Ephesians chapter 4. He said he gave some pastors, apostles, teachers, evangelists, he said for the edification of the body of Christ, he said for the work of the ministry. They regard not the work and today churches are not doing the work of God. They've become a social club, they've become a music club. Where we go, we have music, we have food, we feast, we fellowship, but where is the work? Where is it? Now look, do you think that our church is a really big church? Who thinks this church is huge? Who thinks this is a mega church? Anybody? No. This morning we had 49 people in church. I'm sorry, how much was it? 48. 48 people in church this morning. Wednesday night we had 51. Now is this church just bursting at the seams and exploding as a 10,000 member church right now? No. But let me tell you something. This church is knocking more doors than any other church in this city and preaching the gospel to every creature. I mean actually preaching the gospel, the number of doors knocked in this church, I would say it exceeds any other church, literally. And there are other great soul winning churches in the valley and I've looked at the number of doors knocked, I've looked at the number of souls saved, and our church is knocking a lot of doors. I'm not criticizing any church. I think it's great, but you know what, see the map out there in the lobby that shows every door we've knocked? Not one of them was a door hanger. Not one of them was, oh just leave a track. Every single door we knocked in advance of the door we said, you know if a certain day you go there. Unless they just slammed the door before you say that. That happened a few times. But you know what I mean. And again, like I said, there are other great churches around here but the point is, let's say we took that big orange blob on the map. Because we have a big map and the whole Maricopa County pretty much is on there. And that big orange section, that huge orange section, it's a big section. It stretches all the way from here to the west, it goes all the way to what? 16th Avenue or something, you know? And then we've gone up into South Scottsdale, we've gone a lot of different directions. It's a pretty big section that we've knocked. I mean there's still a lot ahead of us, we've still got a lot of ways to go. But we've still knocked a substantial portion, haven't we? And are we a big church? No, small church, right? New church, rolling around for four and a half years, just a new church, a small church. Didn't keep track of the soul winning for the first year and a half, but in the last three years we've knocked that big giant orange section that you see. Let me ask you something. What if we were to take that same map and put a pushpin of every independent fundamental Baptist church in Phoenix area? Put a pushpin where that church exists. Then what if we were to take our exact orange shape of what we've knocked around us? You know, the six mile radius pretty much or whatever approximately, but some areas further than that, some areas less than that. Whatever the radius is, I don't know the exact number but it's a pretty big number. What if we were to take that exact blob of orange and just put that around each independent fundamental Baptist church in Phoenix? Think about that for a second. Does everybody understand what I'm saying? That whole map would be totally orange and there would be tons of overlap. It's true. Every door would have been knocked literally three times in the last three years. And there are churches that are a lot bigger than our church. But you know what? I say this is a big church. I don't care how many people show up on the same way. This is a big soul winning church. And I mean if we sat there and took that orange blob, what if we took every independent fundamental Baptist church in America and we put that orange blob of just what a little small church of 50 people has done in life. I mean three years ago we weren't running 50. Three years ago we were running like 25 or less because we only started four and a half years ago. And yet in the last three years we knocked that whole thing. With the pastor working a full time job. We had full time staff for a little while when Brother Stuckey was on for six months. But by and large it was just in our spare time after work on Sunday knocking those doors. What if we took every independent fundamental Baptist church, whether they're running 50 or whether they're running 5,000 or whether they're running anywhere between 500, 200, 100, 150? Let's say 150 member church over the last three years and we put that orange blob that we knocked. Because how many independent fundamental Baptist churches or how many independent Baptist churches are located in Phoenix? Does anybody have a guess? I think they have a rough idea of how many independent Baptist churches there are in Maricopa County approximately. What do you think? I'd say it's at least 20. At least. It's probably more than that. There are independent Baptist churches that are preaching the King James Bible that are in the ballpark of what we're like. It might be a soul-eating church. That's my whole point. If we were to take the 20, 30, maybe even 30, I don't know, there's more than you think though. There's more than you think because you just don't really hear from them because they don't really come to your door or anything. But let's say there's 25 of them. Have we knocked more than 125th of Maricopa County? Oh yeah. Population-wise, we've knocked a huge percentage. If you had 25 churches or 20 churches... And that's not even counting all the other so-called Baptists and this Bible church and that Baptist church. I mean, even if we're just talking independent fundamental Baptists that would fall under that heading in the phone book or whatever, If they just did the orange section that we did, the whole city would have been knocked every door like five times in the last three years. And some of those churches are running 200. Some of them could be running more than that. And look, again, there are churches in this city that are a soul-eating church. I know Valley Baptist out in Mesa. They do a lot of soul-eating. I know that they give the Gospel. I know that Brother Coleman and 35th Avenue Baptist... You know, I don't want to start naming people and leaving people out or something. But there are some people who have a little bit of soul-winning and there are some people who have more soul-winning. But there are a lot that have no soul-winning. And there are a lot that are not even close to what they need to be doing soul-winning. If our little bitty, tiny church can knock the doors of that many people, and if we took that same bubble and put it on these much bigger churches all across America, and every independent Baptist church, then every door would be getting knocked by five times in three years. Think about that. Five times in three years somebody would come to the door with the Word of God, the King James Bible, the true plan of salvation by grace through faith, plus nothing myself, and giving someone a chance to be saved. And then somebody lives here for 60 years and they would get the Gospel brought to their door a hundred times. Think about that in their life. A hundred times if churches would just do what our church did in the last three years. Just a small church just trying to get off the ground with no full-time pastor, with no full-time staff, just trying to do our best with volunteers just because they want to, just out on Sunday, out on the weeknight, winning so. Somebody's not stolen. Somebody's dropping the ball and it's not us. We're not dropping the ball, but somebody's dropping the ball, my friend. We need a revival in this country of two things. Number one, preaching on hell, and number two, going out door-to-door winning souls to Jesus Christ, hang all your programs, get rid of your heart, sell your vial, sell the tabernet, sell the wine bottle, and get out there and get somebody's tape. We need to get out while the seller's done and keep it simple. Preach the Word! That's what it's about. Now look, I love music. We've got our harp and viol right here. You know, we've got the piano, we've got the organ up on the camping trip, we're going to have guitars and harmonicas, and we're going to have a great time. But let me tell you something, it's not about the music. Who cares? I'd rather sing a cappella for the rest of my life, and thank God, you know, we have people who play the piano a lot of the time, and the organ, and so forth. I'd rather sing a cappella. I'd rather sit in a storefront. I'd rather be Faithful Word Baptist Church as do I'd rather be, because I'd rather say that hell isn't large or so. But the portion of hell that's right beneath our feet, it's not our fault if it gets any larger. I often wonder if we could see a diagram of hell. You know, this is not Bible preaching right now for a moment. This is just something that I'm thinking about. Think about this. What if hell is not perfectly round? You know, because you probably think of it as just round, right? That's the way I saw it in science. The core was like round. You think of it as round, but what if it were shaped proportionally to certain areas? Think about this. What if it enlarges itself toward the area where people are going to hell? And I know this is silly. But think about it. What if basically you could look at a spiritual map of hell, right? And you could overlay that map. Take a globe. Take a really big globe that shows the whole earth, the map. And you could see down through the streets, down through the crust, and you could see down into hell and see where people were going to hell the most. Isn't that an interesting thought? And I wonder how our area is doing, because let me tell you something. If you stop and think about the whole world, and you think there's how many people in the world, approximately? Seven billion. Now think about this. Can our church ever reach seven billion people? No. It doesn't matter how big our church is. We would never reach seven billion people. We won't even be able to send out people to reach seven billion. I mean, seven billion is a really big number. I may need to tell this to our government, by the way, about these big numbers that they're spending. But seven billion dollars is a huge number. Did you know that you don't want to take an account to a billion? Solomon, how long would it take you to count to a billion if you counted one per second? I think 39 years. It's about 30-some years. You're right. It's not very good. He was talking about that a couple months ago, so I see that he still remembered that. It would take like 34 years to count to a billion. Seven billion is going to take you like 248 years to count to, just to count to. That's a big number, but you know what? Four million is a number that we can do, honestly. Because there's four million people in Maricopa County approximately. You know the surrounding area of Phoenix? The area of the doors that we intend to knock with the gospel? There's four million people in this area, in this greater Phoenix area. We've got small towns that we're going to. You know what? Why don't we just look at that four million and say, you know what? Maybe these other parts of hell are enlarging themselves massively. Maybe there's these big protrusions sticking into certain areas, you know? Based on my bizarre idea that I had a minute ago. But you know what? I don't want hell to enlarge itself in my area. Because let me tell you something. People in India that are going to hell, you know, that's a tragedy. But you know what? I think what's more of a tragedy is people who are in my area that I'm here. God put me here in this vineyard. God didn't put me in India. You know what I mean? God put me here in this vineyard right here. He didn't put me in India. I mean, I'm here in the United States. I'm here where God put me in a certain area. I'm in Phoenix, Arizona. This is my part of the vineyard. And you know, somebody else is messing up their part of the vineyard. But you know what? We ought to say, you know what? We're not going to rely on other churches to do it. If other churches do it, that's great. Praise the Lord for other soul-winning churches in this area. But let's not rely on them because they're dropping the ball on the most part. And they're a good church so I'm not criticizing everybody. But I am criticizing any Baptist church in Phoenix, Arizona that's not out there winning souls, that doesn't have people out winning souls, where the pastor's not preaching on winning souls, where the people are going out and hanging a door hanger or not even doing anything at all. I will criticize that because that's why hell has enlarged yourself. Because they've got the music right, they've got the dress code right, oh they're dressed right, things look right, but they're not doing the work and it's worthless today. And so we need to decide, hey you know what? We've got four million people here, our church needs to grow, we need to train laborers, we need to go out and win souls, and we can do it. We can get the gospel. Now is everybody going to get saved? No. But we can at least give everybody one chance to hear the gospel at least from a clear presentation of a spirit-filled soul within. And not only that, we can take it to them a second time as our church grows. So take it to them a third time, and take it to them a fourth time. You know how many times I had to give the gospel to my wife before she got saved? Probably 20 times. I kept talking to her about it, talking to her about it, talking to her about it. And you know what, she was just saying the other day, I would have got saved if somebody hadn't been that persistent with me, and kept talking with me, and showing it to me, and the friendship there. You know, because she was a tougher case to get saved. You know, some people get saved, you're knocking on the door the first time. Other people, it's going to take time. Things might have to happen in their life to get their attention and so forth, and it's going to get their attention, and later on they might be more receptive. But we've got to go back, and go back, and go back, and go back. Otherwise, what are we doing here? What is the purpose of the church here? Is it just all about the vial, and the tabernacle, and the heart? Is it all about the feast, and the wine, and the fun, and the wining and dining? Is it about the cars, and the fun, and the... I mean, we come to church because Pastor Anderson at least doesn't, you know, send us to sleep. You know, like Rip Van Winkle or something, with this boring, stupid, meaningless sermon. You know, at least Pastor Anderson is screaming and yelling, and keeps us awake. But you know what? Hold on a second now. Don't just come here and listen to the show. You come here and you be a doer of the word and not a hearer only. That's what our church is about. You know, our church is about doing the work of the ministry. Our church is about working the ministry. You know, farming is hard work, isn't it? You know, throughout history most of mankind has been a farmer for the last 6,000 years. These days not so much, but throughout history the majority of man on this earth was a farmer. Most people farm. Farming is hard work. It's backbreaking work out in the sun. But God says, go work today in my vineyard. He wants us to work. You know, if a man won't work, neither should he eat. You want to be spiritually fed. You want to hear preaching that feeds you spiritually. You read the Bible and get a spiritual feeding. But some of you, if we could look at your spirit, we would see someone who's bloated to 600 pounds. If we could see you spiritually, you're walking in the church like this. You're obese. Because you just beat me. You know, it says, listen to preaching, listen to preaching, listen to preaching. Read the Bible, read the Bible, go to the church. Now if we could look at some churches, people would probably look like they came out of a concentration camp because they're not getting anything preached. And they're not reading the Bible, so they're like starving. They get this one verse, like the pastor preaches one verse and then he just blah, blah, and illustrations for the next 20 minutes. You know, one verse sermons. And these people are just like... You know, that's just what's keeping them alive. You know, the crumbs that fall from the pastor's table. You know what I mean? But hey, if you come to this church, you get a lot of Bible preaching. I mean, this morning's sermon was filled with Bible. We read a chapter of the Bible before the sermon even starts. You're getting...you ought to be reading the Bible and eating it. You've got to work out some of those calories, spiritually. You know, physically it wouldn't be a bad idea either. You know, to make sure that you're putting out as much energy as you're taking in. But let me tell you something. Spiritually, you've got to work. You've got to put these things into practice or you're going to be spiritually obese. Now I'm not saying to eat less. Boy, keep eating, keep eating. You know, listen to sermons. Come to church, read the Bible. Keep...just eat as much as you can so you can have more energy to go out and use it to work, to do something. Otherwise, what's the point? Otherwise, why use it? I mean, why come to this church unless you want to be fired up about winning souls to Christ? I mean, unless hell has truly enlarged itself, if hell is just the same size as it's always been, because God knew exactly how many people he wanted to send there and they're going to go and let's all just eat and drink and be merry. No, if hell has truly enlarged herself, then doesn't that mean we should get busy and make sure it's not due to us like it was due to these people back thousands of years ago when he said, well, you know why hell enlarges itself? It's because you're more busy drinking when you ought to be preaching the Word of God. You're not filled with the Spirit. You're filled with drink. You're filled with drugs. You're filled with the world. You're filled with worldliness and Hollywood. You're filled with all this garbage. And he's saying, you know, you're interested in music instead of serving God by winning souls. It's just all about the feast and the music and the fun. He said, look, that's why hell has enlarged itself, but I hope it has enlarged itself for our area here because there's four million people. We can get the job done. We can do it. What are other people in the business doing? I don't know, but I don't have any control over that, but I do have control over what happens here, right? Don't we have some say-so whether people in Phoenix hear the Gospel or in small towns across the state of Arizona in our small town soul and ministry? Can't we do something about this? Can't we do something to warn them? Because let me tell you something. If somebody goes to hell, it's a tragedy, isn't it? It's a tragedy. But you know what? If somebody hears a clear presentation of the Gospel and rejects it and goes to hell, is that as big of a tragedy as somebody who maybe grew up, went to a Catholic school, had everything taught to them wrong, and nobody ever brought them the real Gospel? Isn't that more of a tragedy? I mean, what do you think is more of a tragedy? Somebody standing before God and God saying to them, look, people came to you and they came to you. Faithful Word Baptist Church knocked your door, then so-and-so Baptist knocked your door, then Valley Baptist knocked your door, and then this Baptist knocked your door, and then Trinity Baptist knocked your door, and they were all at the Bible. They were all trying to show you how to be saved, and they all told us the truth, and you rejected it. You know, depart from me. I never knew you. Or isn't it more of a tragedy than one that's saying, God, I didn't know. I didn't know. That's all I ever heard is that, you know, just be good. I thought I was good. I thought I was going to make it. God didn't know. God says, sorry, that was the wrong answer. What do you think is more of a tragedy? My human mind has probably been comprehending or coping with the fact that people are going to hell for all eternity, but I believe that. I believe the Bible. I believe God's Word. There's no doubt in my mind that hell is real. But I have a hard time even wrapping my mind around eternity and hell. I have a hard time wrapping my mind around the fact that people are going there, and it's hard for me to live with that. But you know what's really hard to live with? That people would go there who would have gotten saved if somebody would have given them the Gospel. That's the part that really gets me. Think about that. I mean, it's one thing you say, well, you know, they had a chance. He died for them. He sent servants to preach to them. He wanted to. He did all this. It's one thing to say that, but it's another thing to say, but you know, they never really heard a clear presentation of the Gospel, though. You know, if you would have gotten to knock their door, if you hadn't been so busy with everything else, if you hadn't been playing church, you know, and putting on a show and being a hypocrite, you know, they could have gotten saved. They would have gotten saved, actually. You know, look at Ezekiel 22.30. Quickly, we'll close on this. I don't want to spend too much time tonight, but look at Ezekiel 22.30. The Bible is clear here. Look at Ezekiel 22.30. There's no doubt about this verse. It says, And I sought for a man among them that should make up the hedge and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it, but I found none. He says, look, I sought for a man. I was looking for somebody that would make up the hedge that would stand in the gap. You know what I think of when I think of standing in the gap? I think of that map that I talked about, not the weird map about hell, but the other map, the map of our city with the orange, where we highlight with an orange highlighter every door we've knocked and preach the gospel to. I think of that map, and I wonder if we were to look at that map and we see gaps in it. Like, we don't know what other churches exactly have done. We kind of get a feel for what other churches in our city are doing. We don't know all, see it all, of course. We don't know exactly what kind of soul winning, what's going on. But what if we could see a map that's just like our map, and let's say there was a different color for each church and the doors that they're knocking. And I'm not talking about their stupid door hanger. You know what? All door hangers should be burned in the fire. No door hanger will ever accomplish anything for the kingdom of God. I'm sorry. I'm sick of it. I'm sick of your stupid door hanger. I mean, maybe you'll put 10,000 door hangers and one person will show up to church and then maybe they'll never come back. You need to go out and preach the gospel. And it's funny. You say, well, has anybody ever come from you just leaving the track on the door? Yeah, when I left the track on the door while I was out soul winning. Because God was blessing us for soul winning. Because when I've gone out in the war to just do nothing but flyers, no one comes. You know, God doesn't care about your flyer and your door hanger, and the devil doesn't care either. He'll probably buy the stinking door hanger for you. I mean, the devil's probably giving those things out just to keep you from doing what you're really supposed to be doing. Preaching the gospel. If he can get you to go around putting stupid door hangers everywhere or yelling into a megaphone somewhere, then he'll do it. He just doesn't want you to actually love somebody and actually open your Bible and tell them how to be saved. That's what he doesn't want you to do. But I wonder if we can see a map of true soul winning. Right? And let's say orange represents faith-forward Baptist because that's become our color that we use. And what if, say, green was this church and blue was this church? I wonder how many gaps would be on that map. I'll tell you right now, there would be some big gaps on that map that nobody's knocking the door. And God is looking for somebody to stand in that gap to make up that edge. God's looking for somebody to take the gospel. I think there are certain streets that you're supposed to go to. You don't go there. Nobody's going to go there. I pray every time I go slowly for God to lead me, for God to guide and direct my paths. But I wonder where God could lead you. I wonder what street he could lead you to. I wonder what young person today is waiting to hear the gospel. And maybe 20 years from now, when somebody finally knocks the door, they'll be so hardened and so they won't be interested anymore. But right now, they're 14. Right now, they're 20. And right now, they're receptive to the gospel. But nobody's there to conquer it, except some Mormon on his little tricycle. Except the Jehovah's false witnesses, you know, setting a new world record for how slow they can walk down the street. You know, I mean, they're there. They're there to brave lies and deception and confusion. But hold on a second. Where is the man who will make up the hedge and stand in the gap before me for the land? God said that I should not destroy it. He said, but I found none. Therefore, if I poured out my indignation upon them, I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath. Their own way of I recompense upon their heads, said the Lord, saying, they went to hell. They went to hell. Let me tell you something. Hell has enlarged itself. It sure is outstanding. I don't like to face it. You probably don't want to face it. You probably don't want to think about it. But you know what? Isn't it a lot better at the least, the people of Arizona, if they do go to hell, it will be by their own choice because they at least heard the gospel many times, a hundred times. Look, we're not being unrealistic here. We're not even talking about people starting a bunch of new churches. We're just talking about if the churches that are already existing, that already say that they take a stand on the King James Bible, we're just asking them to get their head out of the TV and get their head out of whatever stupid thing they're into, go out, throw away their door hangers, break their megaphone, and go out and win souls to Christ. That's all we ask. And every door could get knocked in the next 60 years a hundred times. That's all. Just with the same rate we're going so many. And we only have 50 people in our church. And they might have a hundred. So they would have to do half as much work per person as us. And churches that are running 200 would have to do a quarter as much work as us per capita. And still, if all 25 or whatever churches would be doing it, then we would not give a door a hundred times. But, you know, everybody's got a better idea. Everybody's got a new method, right? Everybody's got a different method than God's method, which is end daily. Look, it never changes. When I started the church, the Bible said the same thing as it says right now. When I started the church four and a half years ago, it says the same thing as when Roger Ximena started his church on September 5th in Sacramento, California. And daily in the temple and in every house, they cease not to teach and preach Jesus Christ. I wonder if we just named every church in this area or across America. Would you put their church in that? And daily in the temple and in every house, faith or Baptist church cease not to teach and preach Jesus Christ. But I wonder how many churches would they do? Well, they cease. They cease, they cease, they cease. They don't knock doors anymore because it doesn't work anymore. Yeah, it doesn't work when you're at the donut shop for a half hour, and then you hang out for a half hour, and then you fellowship for a half hour, and then you spend 20 minutes knocking doors, and then you go to McDonald's and hang out there for a while, and you put 20... 20 minutes is not what gets people saved, by the way. I've spent many hours outsold and had nobody saved before. But you know what? When you keep going and keep going and keep going, you get a lot of people saved. Our church gets a lot of people saved. Why? Because we're the hardest-working church that I know. Thank God for it. But you know what? Let's not get complacent. Let's not get satisfied. Let's push to the next level. Let's keep going. Let's not get weary and well-doing. Let's not get... Let's keep it going. Let's turn it up. Let's turn up the heat. Let's give it our best. And you know, it's hard for me to even say that because I know a lot of you are already giving your best. I mean, you're already giving your best. But you know what? Keep it up. And those of you who know who you are that might be thinking, I'm not giving my best. You know, that's between you and God. I'm not going to judge you tonight. You know? I look around. I see a bunch of people going, I praise God. I'm not going to judge you or decide how much you need to go slowly. That's between you and God. But let me tell you something. You ought to be giving it your best shot. You know, you ought to be doing what you can. And thank God you are in most cases, you know? And thank God for that. Let's get serious about this. I mean, look. Let that be real to you. You know? I mean, and look, we can't control what these other churches do, you know? But at least, you know, maybe every door is not going to get knocked a hundred times in the next 60 years. That would be cool, wouldn't it? And it's so, it would be so easy. It would be so within the grasp of the Christians that we already have in this area. The fundamental Baptists are already in this area. But you know what? We can't control them. But you know what? Every door gets knocked once. And then maybe again ten years later, you know, just to get the whole thing done in that time, start doing it the same. We can do it. We can do it. You know, but we've got to do it through the church here. I can't do it. I could literally spend my whole life and there's no way I would knock every door in this city. It's impossible. The numbers don't add up. I could not. I could spend my whole life here and not get the gospel to everybody in this city. It's a fact. And I don't mean the city of Tempe. I could do the city of Tempe in my lifetime. I mean the greater area. But you know what? A church can do it. And it needs to be a growing church that can do it. We need to grow. We need more laborers. We need you to win people to Christ and also train them to be like you, to win souls. We can do it. And God commands us to do it. And we don't want God to ever have to give us this epitaph, this obituary, this epilogue of, you know what? Well, hell, embarrass yourself because of that, because of my people. And he said I'm angry with you. That's probably his number one prayer. Father, please just help us to take this to heart, your God. I love you, God, and I love soul winning. And I love our church and God. You know, we don't know what other churches do. We can't really control what they do. We know that there are a lot of churches in the city that do no soul winning. We know that there are some that just barely kind of dip their toe in the water of soul winning every once in a while. And we know that there are other churches in this city that do a lot of soul winning and we praise God for it. But Father, I just pray that our church, we can't control other churches. You know, we're just hypothetically talking about the nation and the rest of the city. But God, help our church to get a vision here of what we can do and make sure that we give everybody a chance to hear the gospel. Everybody a chance. Everybody gets an opportunity to hear it clearly from someone who knows the Bible, from someone who has knowledge, from someone who's fired up, from someone who's filled with the Holy Spirit. Dear God, help me to be that person. But God, I can't do it alone. So I pray that you would do what you promised, dear God. You said upon this rock, I'll build my church. I pray that you would build this church, dear God, and use it as a great powerhouse of soul in this area. And I pray that other churches might see what we're doing and maybe they'll get fired up and knock the doors as well, dear God. And shame on the ones who don't. Shame on everybody who's got a better idea. Shame on every door hanger, carpetbagger, liberal who's walking around the city who doesn't have the guts to push the doorbell button. They just want to walk around and hide from everybody like Jehovah's Witness with their little door hanger. God, help us not to ever degenerate to that in this church. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.