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Amen. Amen. Revelation chapter 20, the part that I want to focus on is at the very beginning there where the Bible reads in verse 1, and I saw an angel come down from heaven having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand, and he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent which is the devil and Satan, and bound him a thousand years and cast him into the bottomless pit and shut him up and set a seal upon him that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years should be fulfilled and after that he must be loosed a little season. The title of my sermon this morning is The Bottomless Pit. The Bottomless Pit. Now this term, bottomless pit, is used seven times in the Bible. All seven of them are in the book of Revelation. But throughout the rest of the Bible, the term pit is used about the same place. But in Revelation, over and over again, it's highlighted the fact that it is the bottomless pit, and that's what I'm going to preach about this morning. Jump down to verse 7, if you would, and we'll get a little more from this chapter. And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison. Of course, he goes out to deceive the nations, but look at verse 10. And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are and shall be tormented day and night forever and ever. So in verses 1 through 3, we saw that the devil or Satan is cast into the bottomless pit and he's locked up there for a thousand years. Then when he comes out of the bottomless pit and deceives the nations, he's cast into a different place which is known as the lake of fire where the beast and the false prophet had already been from before the thousand years. And all three of them shall be tormented in that lake of fire day and night forever and ever, the Bible says. Then he goes on in this chapter and talks about the unsaved, the dead, small and great, standing before God. These people are not saved because of the fact that if you remember, the saved have already been resurrected long before this. So they're not dead, they're alive, right? So these are the dead that come up out of hell and they come up out of the sea and the death where they've been and they stand before God, the dead stand before God and they're judged by their works before being cast into the lake of fire just to determine their level of punishment, right? That's why the works come into play. Now I want to prove to you first of all that the bottomless pit is referring to hell. Go back if you would to Isaiah chapter 14, Isaiah chapter 14. So we see in Revelation that the bottomless pit is where the devil spends a thousand years before going out to deceive the nations and then ultimately being cast into the lake of fire where he's going to reside forever and ever. And by the way, the Bible goes on to tell us that anyone whose name is not found written in the book of life is going to that same lake of fire where they will be tormented forever and ever. But look at Isaiah chapter 14. The Bible says in Isaiah 14, 12, how art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning? How art thou cut down to the ground which didst weaken the nations? For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven. I will exalt my throne above the stars of God. I will sit also upon the mountain of the congregation in the sides of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds. I will be like the most high, yet thou shalt be brought down to hell to the sides of the pit. So here we see that being brought down to hell is the same thing as being brought down to the pit. And we notice in Revelation 20 when the devil's cast into the bottomless pit, that's a fulfillment of what's being prophesied back here in Isaiah chapter 14. Now flip back to Revelation chapter 9, and while you do, before we go any further, let me just make sure that we all understand the basic doctrines of hell that the Bible teaches. Hell is a pretty big subject in the Bible. There are hundreds of scriptures in the Bible that reference hell. So we actually know a lot about hell. In fact, it's a lot easier to talk about hell than it is to talk about heaven because the Bible just gives us a lot more detail about hell. It just spends more time explaining it and talking about it because God's not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. He doesn't want people to go to hell, so he spends a lot of time warning people of the danger that's there. Now just to explain quickly, the Bible teaches that hell or the pit or the bottomless pit is located in the heart of the earth. That's why it's always referred to as being down into hell, into the depths of hell, into the lower parts of the earth, the Bible tells us, and the Bible uses the word the heart of the earth. And of course, even scientists call the center of the earth, they call it the core, which is derived from the French word for heart because if we were to take an artichoke and go to the heart, where is it? It's at the center. It's in the middle of that three-dimensional object. And so hell is located in the heart of the earth. But there's another place that the Bible references known as the lake of fire. And this place is also referred to as outer darkness. Now there's nothing outer about the current location of hell because it's inside of the heart of the earth. But in the future, as we saw in Revelation 20, hell is going to be relocated someday to the lake of fire in outer darkness. And in the new heaven and the new earth, hell is not going to be there in the heart of that new earth. It's not going to be there anymore because it's been moved, it's been relocated. Now it's perfectly correct to refer to the lake of fire as hell. The Bible does refer to that as hell. And it's perfectly correct to say that people are going to be in hell for all eternity, even though technically they're only going to be in the current location of hell, the bottomless pit, until the great white throne of judgment. And at that great white throne judgment, they're going to be brought up out of hell. They're going to be judged according to their works. And then they're going to be cast in the lake of fire. But hell has been moved or relocated to the lake of fire. So it's still correct to say that they're in hell, whether we're talking about the current location or place of death, or whether we're talking about the second death or the place known as the lake of fire. Now let's look at all the other mentions of the bottomless pit in the book of Revelation. Look at Revelation chapter 9, verse 1. We're just looking, first of all, just at all seven mentions of the bottomless pit. We already saw a few of them in Revelation 20. But Revelation chapter 9, verse 1 says, And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth. And to him was given the key of the bottomless pit. And he opened the bottomless pit, and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace. And the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit. Now let me just point out to you that hell is a real place. It's not just symbolic or figurative. If it were symbolic, then how can you open the earth and actually access that place? I mean the Bible says that the earth is going to be opened up and that smoke will come up out of the bottomless pit that will darken the skies. In the end times, that would actually cause the sun's light to not be able to get through and for there to be a great smoke ascending out of the literal bottomless pit, out of hell itself. Why? Because it's actually physically there. That's why there arose a smoke out of the pit as the smoke of a great furnace and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit. Look at verse 11. And there's another mention of the bottomless pit, talks about the locust that came up out of hell. And it says they had a king over them which is the angel of the bottomless pit whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon but in the Greek tongue has his name Apollyon. Look at Revelation chapter 11 verse 7 and that is not a reference to the devil. The devil's not in hell at that point. This is the angel of the bottomless pit which is the one who actually binds Satan in chapter 20 and throws him into hell. Look at Revelation 11 verse 7. And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them and shall overcome them and kill them. Go to Revelation 17, 8. That verse in chapter 11 had to do with the antichrist coming up out of hell because he receives that deadly wound and he goes down to hell and so forth. Look at Revelation 17, 8. It says the beast that thou sawest was and is not and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit and go into perdition and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world when they behold the beast that was and is not and yet is. Now what does that mean? He was and is not and yet is. Well the Bible often uses the term is not to refer to someone who's dead. Like for example Jacob when he thought Joseph was dead he said Joseph is not. And so the Bible here is talking about the antichrist how he is not, right, or let me find the verse here. He was, meaning he was alive, everybody got that? He is not, meaning he's dead because they saw him get that deadly wound. But yet he is. But here he is. Why? Because he ascends out of the bottomless pit and so that's one of the lying signs and wonders that the devil does in the end times to deceive people through the antichrist. But that's not what the sermon's about tonight. Go to Revelation 14. The sermon today is about the bottomless pit or hell itself. Now what is so terrifying about the fact that it's called the bottomless pit? Because this is meant to give fear unto people so that they would not go there. The reason that the Bible talks so much about hell is to scare people so that they'll realize the danger and turn to Jesus Christ as their savior before it's eternally too late. You know the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. The fear of the Lord is above to the wise, you know, to depart from hell beneath. And it's the fear of God that causes people to want to shun hell and be saved and escape that fiery punishment. In fact, Christ told us that it is something to be afraid of when he said fear not them which kill the body but are not able to kill the soul but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. He said you better fear him. And so hell is meant to be a fearful place. That's why the Bible gives such a graphic description. And I believe that this term, the bottomless pit, is just another facet of hell that makes it terrifying. Now what's so terrifying about the fact that it's a bottomless pit? It's the fact that there's no stability. Think about this. There's no foundation. There's no place to stand. There's no place to sit. There's no place to lie down. In short, there's no rest day or night. Imagine that. I mean, there's no stability. You're in a bottomless pit. You're just falling. Now look what the Bible says in Revelation 14, 9, and the third angel followed them saying with a loud voice, if any man worship the beast in his image and receive his mark and 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 the smoke of their torment ascendeth up forever and ever and they have no rest day nor night who worship the beast and his image and whosoever receive it the mark of his name. There's so many things that are terrifying about hell. It's just a horrible place on so many different levels. The thing that we tend to focus on and that the Bible tends to focus on is the fire. You know, the fact that people are tormented with fire and brimstone, that it's a furnace of fire, the Bible calls it, flaming fire, just in case you didn't know what fire was. The Bible tells us over and over again, it's burning, it's fire, it's torment, it's hot, all these different descriptions. But there are so many other things that are terrifying about hell, just the fact that there's no rest. Have you ever gone without sleep for a long amount of time? It's torture. It's horrible just not to be able to rest. In fact, some of the cruelest regimes on this earth, one of the ways they would torture people is just every time that person would start to doze off, they'd just wake them up. Just wake them up immediately. You know, some of you mothers know what that's like. You know, that's your life story. But anyway, babies waking you up all the time. But the point is, you know, just being woken up constantly, no rest, no relaxing. Or think about doing a strenuous activity. Think about running or doing some hard exercise and you just need some rest. I mean, you just need a break. You just need to stop. And just think about working hard at your job and you're just waiting to get off. And you're just waiting until 5 o'clock for that bell to sound. But hell is a place where you never get off. You never get to go home. It never stops. You never get a break. You never get to go to sleep. You never dream about things being better. No. It's just no rest. You can't even sit down. You can't even stand up. You can't even lean against something. I remember we had a particularly fussy child and she would just want to be up all night screaming and so I was trying to help my wife out and we would kind of take shifts where we'd each do one hour. You know. We were using the biblical quote, you know. Could you not watch with me for one hour as our, you know, hey, we could stay up for one hour. You know, Christ said we could stay up for an hour no matter what. So you know, one of us would stay up for an hour with the baby and it's like, alright, it's your turn. You know. And we would trade off like that because this child would, I'm not going to say which one it was, but she was really fussy. Alright. So anyway, so we're up in the middle of the night and I just remember you had to just walk with her the whole time. And I remember sometimes I'd try to just kind of sneak in a little rest, just kind of leaning against the wall maybe. Just to get a break, you know, just to kind of lean against the wall, just so it would take a little, just, you know, you just got to keep walking, keep, it's just like you just had to keep moving, keep moving, keep moving. That's one night. No rest is a scary thought, isn't it? But it's a bottomless pit. You know, I was reading a book about the ocean and going down deep into the ocean. I read a paragraph in this book and it just immediately made me think of hell. Let me read it for you. This is a guy, he went down deep into the ocean a few thousand feet in a submarine. And he's just kind of talking about what it's like down there, he's describing the animals that you see. Because very few people have been down thousands of feet into the ocean. Here's what he said. While most creatures on land are restricted to a single horizontal plane, those between the surface and the bottom of the ocean, an area called the mid-water, can travel in any direction. The world is utterly featureless and unnervingly constant. There are no mountains here, no skies, no landmarks, nothing to distinguish right from left, up from down, night never becomes day, there are no seasons, the temperature is almost always the same, there's no specific home for the animals that live here, no place to return to, no destination to reach, just constant drifting. I feel a profound existential sadness here. It is the blackest, loneliest place I've ever seen. Now this is a guy who's in a submarine, he's only down there for a few hours and he just said man he could just feel the sadness, the bleakness, the loneliness, no up, no down, no left, no right, no light, there's no place to go and he's just looking at these animals who live down there, everything's the same to them. There are no plants, there are just animals that live down there and they just drift, they just float, there's nothing to do, there's nowhere to go, there's no goal, that's horrible but that's not even fire but you know what, hell is the same way as a bottomless pit. Think about that and you know what, the Bible even uses a term, he said here it's just a continual drifting that was depressing to him. Well what does the Bible say, wandering stars to whom is reserved, the blackness of darkness forever. Well it's certainly always night in hell, there certainly are no skies, landmarks, there certainly are no mountains, trees or anything like that, no there's nothing there. Now think about in life, I don't know about you but one of the things that gives me the most joy in life and I think most people are like this is having some kind of a goal and then you work toward that goal and you accomplish that goal. That's how most of us find meaning in our lives, right? We have, and even unbelievers, that's how they find meaning in their lives even though their goals are often vain and worthless. We as Christians you know we have goals that are meaningful for eternity but we as human beings we derive joy from having a goal, having a vision, having a job or a task to perform and working and getting it done but in hell there's no hope, there's no task to perform, there's no job to do, there's no light at the end of the tunnel, there's no destination, you're not going anywhere, you're not leaving anywhere, you're not returning anywhere, there's no schedule, there's no time, it's just endless nothing. That's not even to mention the fact that you're on fire. But just the fact that there's no stability, no rest, no goal, nothing to look at, no entertainment, no fun, there's no movies, there's no concerts, there's no partying, no drinking, no drugs, no five star restaurants, no hotel, there's just nothing except pain. It's a horrible place, it's horrific, it's so terrifying on so many different levels. Go if you would to Numbers chapter 16, Numbers chapter 16. So we've looked at the seven references in the book of Revelation to the bottomless pit and then we also went back to Isaiah and just proved that the bottomless pit is hell because that's where it said the devil would be going and it called it the pit and it called it hell and then that's where we saw the devil go. He went to hell, he went to that bottomless pit. Look if you would at Numbers chapter 16 verse 28. You say why do you feel like you have to prove to us that the bottomless pit is hell? I've never heard of anybody denying that but there are so many heresies that just come up all the time so I just feel like we have to prove everything we believe from the Bible. It's preventative maintenance against weird and strange doctrines that come out. I've never heard anybody dispute that but it's just good to prove everything from the Bible. Look at Numbers chapter 16 verse 28. This is where Korah, Dathan, and Abiram have challenged Moses and so Moses basically prays for their destruction in a very unique way that they will basically fall alive directly into the bottomless pit. Look what it says in Numbers 16 verse 28. And Moses said, Hereby ye shall know that the Lord hath sent me to do all these works, for I have not done them of mine own mind. If these men die the common death of all men, or if they be visited after the visitation of all men, then the Lord hath not sent me. But if the Lord make a new thing, and the earth open her mouth and swallow them up with all that appertain unto them, and they go down quick into the pit, then ye shall understand that these men have provoked the Lord. Now notice here the word quick, it does not say quickly. Quickly is an adverb that would mean that they did it rapidly or fast. But the Bible says that they go down quick, that is an adjective, which means that they are alive. You know where it says like Christ will judge the quick and the dead, right? You know he is saying they are going to go down alive into the pit. Then ye shall understand that these men have provoked the Lord. And it came to pass, as he had made an end of speaking all these words, that the ground clave asunder that was under them. And the earth opened her mouth and swallowed them up, and their houses, and all the men that appertain unto Korah, and all their goods, they and all that appertain to them went down alive. There is your dictionary right there built into the Bible, right? And the Bible often does this to help us understand, it will throw a hard word at us, but then a couple of verses later we get the definition that alive is quick. They went down alive into the pit, and the earth closed upon them, and they perished from among the congregation. You are not going to survive that trip. So they definitely died on the way down. But the point is, hell is a real place with a real location, and the Bible teaches this over and over again. And I find it strange, even a lot of Bible-believing Christians, even a lot of independent fundamental Baptists, even a lot of good preachers, for some reason they don't understand or don't accept this truth. I've heard preachers talk about hell as being in some kind of a spiritual realm only, or as being located somewhere else in the universe, or something like that. But the Bible is so clear. It's real. I've often told people who laughed at, or made fun of, or mocked at the Bible and scoffed at it. I often said to them, you know, do you remember when you were in school and you learned about the physical makeup of the planet earth? What's inside? Think about that. In fact, if you were to take an apple and have that apple represent the earth, and you could say that the core is the core, right? And then you'd say that the skin of the apple represents the crust of the earth. And then all that white meat of the apple would represent the mantle. That skin of the apple is way too thick to represent the crust. In fact, the crust is much thinner than that. The earth is what? About 8,000 miles in diameter. And the crust is just a few miles thick. It could be, you know, 10 miles thick in places. It varies in different places. But in some places, it's only a couple miles thick. At the most, you know, I believe it's somewhere around 10 miles. I don't have the figures in front of me. But it's nothing compared to the size of the earth. So just stop and think about the fact that this whole earth is just fire and brimstone, molten liquid, fire, magma, lava, whatever you want to call it. That's what the whole earth is made of with just this tiny little thin shell of what? The crust, which is made up of the bedrock. And then it's made up of the dirt or the sand or the mountains and grasses that you see or the part that's covered with water. But below that, water is the bedrock, and then you get into the mantle. Did you know that mankind, for all his big talk about knowing everything about the earth and we know everything as scientists, hey, they've never even been to the mantle. Mankind has never penetrated the crust. I mean, the only record we have of the crust being penetrated is in Numbers Chapter 16. I mean, this is a penetration of the crust. But did you know that mankind has never been able to drill down to the mantle? They can't do it. And in fact, they're just now trying to get to it. Forget going to the core. Well, they know what's down there. No, they don't. They can't even get to the mantle, let alone the core. They can only go by different sonar and radar and different readings that they take. And obviously, we see when a volcano erupts, we can see some of that magma come to the surface and come out of the earth to show us what's down there. But they don't know much about what's down there. And in fact, I think it's like 2028 or something. Sometime in the 2020s, they think that they're going to penetrate that crust. I don't know if they're even going to do it. They go out to the ocean to the place where they found the crust is the thinnest. And they have drill bits that are miles and miles long. They drill down a few feet and they have to change the drill bit. You ever been there on those jobs where your drill bit keeps getting dull and you have to keep changing it? It's a nightmare, right? This is bringing me back bad memories of when I used to work in construction. You know, you're just cursing the manufacturer of some of these drill bits. Like what in the world? Because they get dull so fast sometimes. So you know, I learned after a while, you walk into a store, you say, give me the most expensive drill bit you sell and you don't even mess with the other stuff. It's not worth it because you'll go through so many of them, it'll end up costing more. You know, always get the good drill bit. This message has been brought to you in part by Unibit. Those Unibits were good, weren't they? Those things have never done me dirty. Those little ones that look like an arrowhead, right? I love those things. But they're not very long. They're not going to get you through the crust, you know. The point is that, you know, the whole earth is filled with fire. And I've said to these people, you think that's just a coincidence? That the whole earth is fire and brimstone right below our feet? If we were to just go down just a few miles, it would be fire and brimstone and sulfur. Is that just a coincidence? Well, the Bible described that. The Bible described that thousands of years ago. You know, they only talked about the earth having a core in the early 1900s, okay? So thousands of years ago, the Bible described down in the earth, the heart of the earth, fire and brimstone. Now, I don't know if they had volcanoes in the Middle East or not. I don't know of, you know, I mean, I know that there have been volcanoes in all different parts of the earth. I don't know if they were erupting at that time or, you know, because how did they even know that? Except just through the divine inspiration of God. And that's why the Bible, it talks about so many subjects and it always ends up being right. There aren't any embarrassing teachings in the Bible where we, you know, that would defy science or defy medicine or defy logic. In fact, what the Bible teaches just keeps being proven right over and over again. The Bible says the earth is in the lower parts, is filled with fire and brimstone. It's there. You know, the Bible talks about germs and the Bible talks about washing your hands with running water and sure enough, it all ends up being true. God's judgments concerning all things are right all the time. And so that's got to make these atheists think a little bit when they look at that diagram but then they laugh at hell like it's a joke, like it's not there. Well, it's pretty strange because I wouldn't have guessed just looking out the window that there's a bunch of fire and brimstone that that's, you know, 99% of what our planet's made out of. I never would have guessed that. So why would the authors of the Bible have just guessed that that's all there is down there? But it's true. Amazing, isn't it? Let's look at some other scriptures in the book of Psalms. Go to Psalm 28. Psalm 28. Hell's a real place today, friend. It has a location. In the end times, it's going to be cracked open and smoke's going to come out of it. I mean, people fell alive into it. It's real. It's a bottomless pit. Now you say, how's it a bottomless pit? Well, what is it that keeps us anchored to the earth? It's gravity. Right? Okay. Well, is there going to be gravity in the center of the earth? Think about that. There's no gravity there because if gravity's pulling us toward the center of the earth, no matter where we are on the earth, the pole is toward the center. Well, if you're already at the center, there's nowhere to go. You're in a bottomless pit. Think about that. So it makes perfect sense. Psalm 28, verse 1, unto thee will I cry, O Lord my rock. Be not silent to me, lest if thou be silent to me, I become like them that go down into the pit. You know, being down in the bottomless pit is a place where you scream and cry out for mercy to God and you can call upon the name of the Lord every moment for a thousand years, but he'll be silent to you. What a scary thought. You know, isn't it great that we can call out to the Lord and he hears us? You know, wherever we are, whatever situation, we know that he hear us, the Bible says, whatsoever we ask. But when you're in hell, he's totally silent to you. There's nothing that's going to get his attention. Psalm 30, verse 3, just a few pages over, O Lord, thou hast brought up my soul from the grave. Thou hast kept me alive that I should not go down to the pit. Go to chapter 55 of Psalm, Psalm 55, and then we're going to go to Psalm 88 next. Psalm 55 and then Psalm 88. Psalm 55, verse 23, but thou, O God, shalt bring them down into the pit of destruction. Many in deceitful men shall not live out half their days, but I will trust in thee. He said they'll be brought down to the pit of destruction. This is another name for hell. In fact, the angel of the bottomless pit, his name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, and in the Greek tongue, he hath his name Apollyon, and in the English tongue, that name means destruction. His name is destruction. And in fact, the Bible describes destruction as a place, the pit of destruction. Go to Psalm 88. Now some people will take a logical leap, well, if it's the pit of destruction, then, you know, you're just destroyed, you're just wiped out. No, the Bible says they're tormented day and night forever and ever. That's a special kind of destruction. Not destruction as in ceasing to exist. You know, we could destroy a lot of things and they would still exist. But they'd be destroyed. You know, if I were to, for example, dump bleach all over my suit, it'd be destroyed, but it'd still be here, right? I mean, I could destroy my hand in an accident and it could become completely worthless, but it'd still be there. It's a place where hope is destroyed, life is destroyed, your mind is destroyed. Everything about you is just in a state of constant destruction. You're like the burning bush, where you keep burning but you're never consumed. Like the bush that Moses looked at. Look at Psalm 88 verse 1, O Lord God of my salvation, I've cried day and night before thee, let my prayer come before thee, incline thine ear unto my cry, for my soul is full of troubles and my life draweth nigh unto the grave. I'm counted with them that go down into the pit. I'm as a man that hath no strength, free among the dead like the slain that lie in the grave, whom thou remember'st no more, and they are cut off from thy hand. Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit, in darkness, in the deeps, thy wrath lieth hard upon me and thou hast afflicted me with all thy waves, Selah, thou hast put away mine acquaintance far from me. Oh, I want to go to hell because that's where all my friends are. He said, you've put my acquaintance far from me. Thou hast made me an abomination unto them. I'm shut up and I cannot come forth. Mine eye mourneth by reason of affliction, Lord. I've called daily upon thee. I've stretched out my hands unto thee. Wilt thou show wonders to the dead? Shall the dead arise and praise thee, Selah? Shall thy loving kindness be declared in the grave or thy faithfulness, watch this, in destruction? See what I mean about destruction being the name of that place? Shall thy wonders be known in the dark and thy righteousness in the land of forgetfulness? But unto thee have I cried, O Lord, in the morning shall my prayer prevent thee. Why castest thou off my soul? Why hidest thou thy face from me? I'm afflicted and ready to die from my youth up. While I suffer thy terrors, I am distracted. Thy fierce wrath goeth over me. Thy terrors have cut me off. They came round about me daily like water. They compass me about together. Lover and friend hast thou put far from me and mine acquaintance into darkness. And he said, what is this psalm about? You know, because he starts out by saying that the Lord's the God of his salvation. Why is he talking about being in this horrible place, in this horrible condition? I'll tell you why. This is a psalm about Jesus Christ. Here's the hint. Look at verse 4. I'm counted with them that go down into the pit. He's not just the type of guy who goes down into the pit. Hey, he's counted with them that go down into the pit. And he goes through God's wrath, and he faces that suffering, and he's forsaken by God. See, Christ has promised, I'll never leave thee nor forsake thee. God will never forsake me. God will never forsake you. If you're saved today, if you believe on Christ, this psalm will never be about you. But it's about Jesus, because you know what he said? My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? He went through all these things. Read this psalm carefully and you'll see. This is Christ's experience. Why? Because he was numbered with the transgressors. What's another word for numbering something? Counting. He was numbered with the transgressors. I'm counted with them that go down into the pit. And it goes through this description here about the loneliness, the pain, the sorrow, the wrath of God about going down to the pit. Because as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly, so the Son of Man was three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The Bible says that his soul was not left in hell, neither did his flesh see corruption. So God was a God of his salvation, God the Father. Go if you would to Psalm 143 verse 7. Hear me speedily, O Lord, my spirit faileth. Hide not thy face from me, lest I be like unto them that go down into the pit. I mean, you want to talk about a place where God has hid his face from them. He does not hear their cries. He does not respond to them. He does not succor them. They are done. When a person goes to hell, it's too late for them. Go if you would to Isaiah chapter 38. Isaiah chapter 38. Isaiah chapter 38, there's a lot of scripture here. I don't know if I'm even going to get to all of it. There's so much scripture on this subject. But the Bible talks about it a lot for a reason. It's important. Isaiah chapter 38, the Bible says, Behold, for peace I had great bitterness, verse 7. Isaiah chapter 38, the Bible says, Behold, for peace I had great bitterness, verse 17 of chapter 38. But thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption. For thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back. For the grave cannot praise thee. Death cannot celebrate thee. They that go down to the pit cannot hope for thy truth. You say, well, people that go down to the pit, they can still be saved. They're going to get another chance. Isn't this what the Mormons teach? You know, they die and they're damned. But if we go dunk ourselves for all these people over and over again, and we get baptized for the dead, isn't that what they do in these temples of Satan? And they say, hey, we're going to save these people who are already in the pit. They're already in the grave. They're already done. The Bible says that they that go down to the pit cannot hope for God's truth. They're done. It's too late. You know, there's a doctrine that misinterprets scripture that has Christ actually going down to hell and preaching to unsaved people down in hell so that they could get another chance, the people who went to hell before Noah's ark. You know, that's a false doctrine. I've done a sermon on that. I'm not going to re-preach that sermon. I think it was called Baptism and the Flood. Preached on it back in 2007, okay. But anyway, the point is that that is not correct because when people go down to the pit, they don't have any hope. And the Bible says that over and over again. They're doomed. They're damned. And God does not hear them. But thank God that in love of our soul, look at verse 17, God has delivered it from the pit of corruption. Isn't it good to be saved? Why are we delivered? Why are we saved today? It's because God loves us. He loved our soul and delivered it from the pit of the corruption. And here's the only way he could do that. By casting all of our sins behind his back. Do you see that in verse 17? He said, Thou hast in love to my soul, delivered it from the pit of corruption, for thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back. The Bible says, If thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? But there is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared. Look, if you think you're going to go to heaven because you're a pretty good person, think again. If you think you're going to go to heaven because you haven't done anything that bad, think again. Because it's the fearful that are damned. Have you been there? It's the unbelieving that are damned. Have you been there? It's all liars that are damned. Have you been there? We've all lied, we've all been fearful, we've all been unbelieving at times, we've all sinned and come short of the glory of God, being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that's in Christ Jesus. And without God's grace, without that unmerited favor, without that free gift of God, purchased by the blood of Christ, we would be doomed. The only way to be saved is for God to cast all of your sins behind his back. Because if he starts looking at your sins, you're done. If he starts judging you according to your works, forget it. You know, if you ever find yourself standing in front of a great white throne with God judging you for your works, you're in a bad place. You have no hope at that point. You better settle it now. You know, if you're not saved today, you've got to get saved now. You've got to get saved today. Say, what must I do to be saved? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Not go to church and you'll be saved. Not be baptized and you'll be saved. Not live a good life and you'll be saved. Not join the church and you'll be saved. Not repent of all your sins to be saved. No, no, no. You have to put your faith in Christ and he will graciously separate you from your sins as far as the east is from the west. He'll put all of your sins behind his back. He said their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. That is the only way that any of us could ever get into heaven. We all have thousands of sins. God would have to just put them behind his back. He would just have to forget about them and that's how we're delivered from that pit of corruption because of the love of God that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. So if you would to Ezekiel chapter 26. The Bible reads in verse 19, for thus saith the Lord God, when I shall make thee a desolate city like the cities that are not inhabited, when I shall bring up the deep upon thee and great waters shall cover thee. What's he talking about? Well, he's talking about that city that Garrett was preaching about on Wednesday night, Port Royale, right? Where he brought the deep and he brought the waves and the ocean and just covered them and made it a desolate city and a city that is not inhabited. When I shall bring thee down with them that descend into the pit with the people of old time and shall set thee in the low parts of the earth in places desolate of old and with them that go down to the pit that thou be not inhabited and I shall set glory in the land of the living. I will make thee a terror and thou shalt be no more though thou be sought for yet shalt thou never be found again, saith the Lord God. I mean, when we talk about somebody being lost, this is what we're talking about. He said you'll never be found again. You're gone. You'll be sought for and they'll never find you because you're in hell for all eternity. Ezekiel 28, you're in chapter 26, just flip over to chapter 28. This is a chapter that deals with the king of Tyre who he thought that he was a god on earth and a lot of kings, they've gone crazy like this and had this delusion where they think that they're god. We think of the ancient pharaohs and the Caesars and different rulers who thought of themselves as divine or godlike or even as god himself. The king of Tyre was like that. So in this chapter, God rebukes the king of Tyre and he compares him unto Satan because Satan was the one who also said I'll be like the most high. So he rebukes the king of Tyre and he also compares him to Satan. So a lot of the stuff in this chapter is about the devil himself. But it says in Ezekiel 28, 8, they shall bring thee down to the pit and thou shalt die the deaths of them that are slain in the midst of the seas. Wilt thou yet say before him that slayeth thee, I'm god? But thou shalt be a man and no god in the hand of him that slayeth thee. Thou shalt die the deaths of the uncircumcised by the hand of strangers for I've spoken it sayeth the Lord God. And I want to point out again in verse 8 there at the beginning, they shall bring thee down to the pit. He says you're going to hell. Over and over again, the Bible talks about the pit as hell. Now a lot of people, you know, they might just get a concordance, right? And a concordance is a tool where you look up a word and see every time it's mentioned in the Bible. Or, you know, they might do the electronic equivalent today of using a tool where you could search. You might search the word hell and you might think, okay, there's 54 references to hell in the Bible. Well, that's not even close. Because what about the references to the lake of fire? What about the references of being cast into a furnace of fire? And what about just reference after reference about the pit, the pit, the pit, the pit, the pit, the pit, the pit? And it's about hell. And so, you know, 54 mentions is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to actually studying what the Bible teaches about this subject of hell. For sake of time, I'm just going to have you jump to the last place, Matthew 25. Matthew 25. While you're turning there, though, I'll just read for you from Zechariah, chapter 9, verse 11. As for thee also, by the blood of thy covenant, I have sent forth thy prisoners out of the pit wherein is no water. You know, the only way that we can be saved from the pit, from hell, is through the blood of Jesus Christ. The Bible tells us in 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, and these shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal. Those are your choices. It's life eternal through believing on Christ, putting your faith and trust in him, or it's everlasting punishment. And you know what? If you are trusting in your good works, if you're trusting in your religious acts and your religious rituals that you've done or prayers that you've prayed or beads that you've counted and you say, hey, you know, I'm a pretty good person, I'm living a good life, I'm keeping the commandments, God's pleased with me, hey, it's everlasting punishment for you, because that stuff can't save you. You have to put your faith in Christ. We're saved by grace through faith, not of works, lest any man should boast. Your sins have to be forgiven, they have to be forgotten, they have to be washed away. The only way you get into heaven is free. You go for free or you don't go at all. You try to pay your way in, you don't have enough money, you're not getting in. You got to go in for free. He says it's everlasting punishment. You say, well, I just believe that when people get to hell they just burn up, the Seventh Day Adventist doctrine of annihilation. Well, you know what? That's not an everlasting punishment, but the Bible says it's an everlasting punishment and the smoke of their torment ascended up forever and ever and they have no rest day nor night. You say, you think a loving God will actually do that? Well, I don't sit around and think about what a God would do, because there only is one God and that's what he is going to do. And he's a loving God. So there's no question of what he would do, what did he do? What is he doing? What will he continue to do? I'll tell you what he'll do what he said he would do. And we can sit there and think that it's not fair, that it's not right, that it's not just, but the bottom line is if it were fair and just we'd all be going to hell. We have to thank God that there's a free gift there of salvation. But he says in verse 41, then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels. And I just want to close on that thought, prepared for the devil and his angels. That's where we started the sermon. Who was it that got thrown into that bottomless pit? It was the devil. It was prepared for him. The lake of fire, hell, these places of punishment were prepared for the devil and his angels. It's not that people have to go to hell. Like well I made this torture chamber, somebody's got to go there. Well you know what? The devil and his angels can go there. God does not want you to go to hell. God does not want you to go to hell. God sent his only begotten son into the world that we might live through him. And every single person on this earth, Christ died for them. Every single person. Every last one. From the worst degenerate to the cleanest living person, he died for all men. He tasted death for every man. He died not for our sins only but also for the sins of the whole world. He died for every last person. And not only that, every last person has the opportunity to be saved. They have the opportunity to be saved. Now some people have better opportunities than others. Some people get more opportunities than others. You say well that's not fair. Well you know what? If you feel so bad about it, why don't you go give somebody an opportunity this afternoon. Why don't you go give somebody an opportunity tomorrow. Why don't you go give somebody an opportunity out soul winning this week. Since you feel like God's not giving people enough opportunities, well you know what's stopping you from picking up your Bible and showing up to one of these soul winning times and get out there and give somebody an opportunity to get saved. Well people don't get enough of an opportunity. Well yeah you're right because Christians are lazy. Yeah you're right because churches are dead. That's why people aren't getting enough of an opportunity. Because what ought to be happening is that people would get their door knocked every single year with somebody at their door saying hey, may I show you from the Bible how to be saved? That people would constantly be hearing through all means possible from friends, from family, from co-workers, from TV and radio and billboards and church and everywhere. But the problem is that most people on this earth aren't saved. Many people are actively working against the gospel and many people are out teaching lies and false gospels and then the people who are really saved, the people who really have the truth, the people who know for sure they're going to heaven are often idle and doing nothing. The Mormons are riding around on their tricycles doing more than the people who are actually saved. That's not the same. It's an embarrassment. You know I thank God that our church does more soul winning than any Mormon church in this area ever thought of doing. But can every Baptist church say that? Unfortunately not. You know in our area they're going to start thinking the Mormons are from faithful word instead of vice versa. You know I'm sick and tired of the Mormons and the Jehovah's false witnesses having the reputation for spreading their lies. You know why don't we get a reputation for spreading the gospel? And you know what? God doesn't want you to be saved. He is constantly through the Holy Ghost working in the hearts of his people trying to get them to go out and preach. Right? He's trying to stir us up all the time. But many are quenching the spirit today and they're not going out there and preaching the gospel. He wants all men to be saved. He gives everyone an opportunity to be saved. Yes some people get more opportunities than others but you know what that's based on? Us. You know obviously somebody who grows up in a Christian home. Obviously somebody who grows up in a Baptist church. Obviously somebody who grows up in the United States of America is getting a lot more opportunities to be saved than the guy who's growing up in a Buddhist country or a Hindu country or a Muslim country. But you know what? Everybody's getting an opportunity. Everybody gets a chance. Everybody gets a shot. But you know what? Eventually it becomes too late. It becomes too late. Someday every person who's unsaved gets their last presentation of the gospel. The last one. You know what? It could be you today if you're not saved. This could be the last. You could get in the car and die on the way home. In fact you could die before this service is even over. You say oh you're being dramatic. Yes I am. And you know what? God could just literally just go like this right now and you just won't be able to breathe. I'm not kidding. Seriously. The Bible says when Daniel confronted the king of Babylon he said God in whose hand thy breath is. I mean God's got his breath in your hand. He decides whether you take the next breath and he decides when you once and for all give up the ghost. And the person who's not saved, it can end for them at any time. And you know what? Even people who are alive on this earth, some of them are just dead men walking. Because they've already crossed that line with God where their heart has been hardened and their eyes have been darkened and their ears have been closed and they are a reprobate and they're just like a dead man walking. You never know when your last chance is. You never know when other people's last chance is. Thank God we don't have to fear hell, but we ought to fear for other people. So if you're not saved today, you better just drop it, as soon as this service is over, you better just grab the guy who looks like a soul winner near you and say hey I need to get saved. Who here knows how to win somebody to Christ? Put up your hand. All right. So grab one of these people that has their hand up and say hey I need to get saved right now. I don't know for sure I'm going to heaven. I need to get saved right now. You ought to be scared to death. And you know what? If you're already saved, which is the vast majority of people in this building today, if you're already saved, let this sermon motivate you to have compassion on the lost and say you know what? I'm not just going to live life gratifying self and indulging self. I want to get out there and pull somebody out of the fire. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much, Lord, for delivering our soul from the pit of destruction, from saving us from the bottomless pit, Lord. Help us not to just take that for granted and help us not to just live our lives with no regard for the fact that people are really going there, Lord. Help us to do our best to serve you, to love you, and to work for you, Lord, and to raise our children in the nurture and admonition of you and also, Lord, to teach them to win souls and also to teach them the gospel and make sure that they're saved. And Lord, we pray that our church would reach as many people as possible and that other churches would look at our church and be inspired hopefully and motivated to get out there and deliver some souls, Lord. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.