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

Now tonight I'm going to preach about something that's probably like my least favorite thing to preach about, honestly, and it's something that I don't even like to think about, and that's I'm preaching on the subject of hell. Now, I've been probably called by many people who's one of those hellfire and damnation preachers, you know, because I preach hard, because I scream and yell and don't pull any punches and just lay it out the way it is. And I do preach on hell, but I don't preach that often, a whole sermon on hell, because it's such an unpleasant subject. It's something that I don't like to dwell on, but it's something that we have to think about, it's reality. And I'm going to show you some things from the Bible, because I feel like part of the problem with churches today, part of the problem with Christianity today, is that people just don't believe in hell. And not only that, when I go out so many, and people just don't care, you know, you ask them if you died at eight, you know for sure if you go to heaven, they really don't care in so many cases, and I think it's because they just don't realize that there's a real place called hell. They don't have that reality. To them it's maybe just something way off in the distance, they haven't really thought about it. And I think that if we would understand what hell is, and what it isn't, and have a true understanding of what the Bible teaches, hey, this would motivate us to go out and preach the Gospel, to be a soul winner, to spend the time out there knocking the doors, preaching people the Gospel so that they don't go to hell. And also I think people would maybe stop and think about the fact that they're just, you know, blowing off Jesus Christ and the Bible, and blaspheming him, when they stop and think, wait a minute, there is a punishment that is eternal for those who reject Jesus Christ. It's true. It's the Bible. I mean, how can you even pretend to believe the Bible, and not believe that there's a real hell, with real fire and real punishment. A guy knocked on my door about an hour ago, just right before I came to church, and he was a seventh-day Adventist. But it's amazing because they don't want to tell you that they're a seventh-day Adventist. I don't know why they're ashamed of being a seventh-day Adventist. I mean, when I knock on somebody's door, I say, I'm here to invite you to a Baptist church. That's the first thing I say. But then, you know, these cults, and that's exactly what the seventh-day Adventists are, cults, started by a woman named Ellen G. White about a hundred years ago. These cults don't want to tell you who they are, they're ashamed of who they are. He knocked on my door, he said, hi, I'm with Good News TV, and I want to take a survey. We want to ask you a couple of questions. So he asked me a couple of questions, I answered the questions, and then he said, I said, wait a minute, who are you really with? Good News TV. I said, no. Who are you really with? I said, obviously, Good News TV is just a little front organization for something else. I said, is it the Jehovah's Witnesses, or is it the Seventh-day Adventists? He said, oh, you mean what denomination? Oh, OK. Well, yeah, I'm actually a Seventh-day Adventist. Finally, I cried it out of him after I just looked at him and said, are you a Seventh-day Adventist? And he admitted to being one. And I said, I'm not a Seventh-day Adventist. I said, I don't believe in Seventh-day Adventist doctors. I said, Seventh-day Adventists don't believe in hell. I said, and the Bible says that there's a real place called hell that's a place of fire and torment where people are punished forever. And he said, it's not forever. I said, it is forever. And I quoted him some scriptures and said, well, I'm going to preach to you tonight. And I sent him on his way. But I'm here to tell you something. Hell is real. I don't like that. I mean, that's not pleasant thought. I mean, that's not something I want to think about. But yet, we must realize the reality that hell is a real place, whether we like it or not, whether it sets well with us or not. And you know what? Is God wrong to have created hell? No. You know, I believe that God was right. He created heaven and hell. I may not understand it or comprehend it, but I believe it because the Bible says so. And the Bible is not a smorgasbord. If you're going to believe on Jesus Christ, you're going to believe on heaven, you've got to believe on hell because that's what Jesus talked about more than he talked about heaven. He warned about hell because he didn't want anybody to go to hell. But this doctrine is under attack, even in independent fundamental Baptist churches. Let me tell you what the attack is. People have created a new version of hell and they say hell is being separated from God. So they've created a new definition of hell. Now, are you in Revelation 14 where we turn? Tonight's kind of a Bible study more than a sermon, but they've created a new definition of what hell is. Instead of hell being a place where you're tormented in literal fire and brimstone, they've changed hell to just being the absence of God, being separated from God. And now they get up and they preach in their pulpits and maybe in some doctrinal statement somewhere back in some office somewhere it says, oh, we believe that hell is real with fire in it. When they get behind that tulpit, they don't talk about the fire, they don't talk about the brimstone. They say, oh, you don't want to go to hell because then you'll be separated from God. And how many times have we heard, I mean, I grew up in independent Baptist churches and again and again and again, they didn't reference the fire. They just say, you'll be separated from God. Separation from God. And I don't know where they're all getting it from because it didn't come from the Bible. And yet Baptist after Baptist after Baptist after Baptist are all preaching the same thing. Hell is separation from God and it is a lie, my friend. Look down at your Bible in Revelation 14, 10. The Bible says, 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. So whose presence will they be tormented in? The presence of the Lamb, in the presence of Jesus Christ. So hell is not being separated from God because God is the one who created hell and when you're tormented in hell, if you're an unbeliever, you'll be tormented in the presence of Jesus Christ according to Revelation 14, 10. You say hell is not eternal. Look at verse 11. And the smoke of their torment ascended 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. Where did this doctrine come from? That hell is separation from God. When the Bible says that they will be tormented in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. You see, God is omnipresent. God is everywhere according to the Bible. David said if I ascend into heaven, behold thou art there. He said in Psalm 139, if I make my bed in hell, behold thou art there. And so we see no scripture in the entire Bible saying that hell is separation from God, but yet we have several scriptures where he says God is there. He'll be in the presence of the Lamb. He'll be in the presence of the holy angels. Look at 1 Thessalonians, I'm sorry, 2 Thessalonians chapter 1. You see, many people have a false idea about what hell is. They think that the devil is down in hell ruling and reigning. I've got news for you. The devil has never even been to hell. The devil walketh about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. Now eventually the devil will go to hell, but the devil's not in hell right now. He's down on the surface according to the Bible. And he's never even been to hell before. The demons have never even been to hell. Remember when Jesus Christ confronted a man who was possessed and he said, art thou come hither to torment us before the time? And they said they didn't want to be cast into hell. They didn't want to be tormented before the time because one day their fate is sealed. They will go to hell, the demons and the devil and all that. But see, we have this image that we got from Hollywood or from Looney Tunes, you know, Porky Pig. You know what I'm talking about, the Bludge Man cartoon where Porky Pig has a little mustache and he's got the little, you know, the horns and the pointy tail and the pitchfork and he's in hell, right? Poking, you know, hahahahaha, you know, because, you know, Bugs Bunny fell off a cliff and he died and went to hell. Who knows what I'm talking about? Or the Road Runner dies and he goes to hell. You know, whenever they die on Looney Tunes, they always pretty much go to hell it seemed like. And Porky Pig is down there and he's ruling and reigning as the devil. The devil is not ruling and reigning in hell. That's right. You know, that's what these Satan worshippers try to believe, that he has some kind of a kingdom and they say, well, when I get to hell, I'm going to be where all my friends are. You've heard people say that. Or, you know, somebody told me on the airplane not too long ago, he said, well, I hope that when I get to hell, the devil can at least have like an upper management position for me because he said, because I live such a wicked life. That's what the guy told me. He was sitting next to me on the plane. Look, the devil is going to be tortured and tormented in hell. He will not be ruling in hell. You know who created hell? God, not the devil. You know who's in charge of hell? God is. God is the one. Hell is the culmination of God's anger and wrath. Okay? And we'll get to that a little bit later on. But you say, where is this doctrine coming from? Because before I get into the doctrine of what hell is, I want to show you that it's not separation from God. Where is it coming from? We saw that they're tormented in the presence of God. We saw that God is in hell. He's everywhere. He's omnipresent. But look at 2 Thessalonians chapter 1. Here's another clear verse of scripture. The Bible says in verse 8, in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God. You say, I think the fire is figurative. Well, that's maybe why you said flaming fire. You know, you say, that's a little redundant. Well, but people just don't get it. He's saying, look, this is a flame. This is fire. In flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, verse 9, who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power. So where is the destruction coming from? From the presence of the Lord. From the glory of His power. Now, keep your finger there. Let's compare scripture with scripture. Flip over to Revelation 15. Keep your finger here and let's look at Revelation chapter 15. Again, I said it's kind of a Bible study tonight, just going through this point by point. Because if we want to understand the Bible, we've got to compare scripture with scripture rather than going to what man says the Bible means. Okay? And I'm going to show you, I've got the NIV right here, the new international version, the non-inspired version, the new Illuminati version right here. I'm going to show you how this changes this verse. Because I'm trying to show you where this false doctrine has come from, that all these Baptists are preaching that hell is separation from God. Because your King James Bible clearly says they will be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power, tormented in the presence of the Lamb. Okay? Look at Revelation 15, verse 8. It says, and the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of the Lord and from His power, and no man was able to enter into the temple till the seven legs of the seven angels were fulfilled. Now notice that sentence. He says that the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from His power. Now is that saying that it was filled with smoke because it was away from God? No. Look at the sentence. It's saying that the reason it was filled with smoke was because of the glory of the Lord and because of His power. Do you understand that? Now notice, that is the exact same sentence structure in 2 Thessalonians, chapter 1, when it says they shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power, right? So we can look at two verses and see what the grammar means. We don't even have to study English grammar to see that He's saying that God's presence is where the torment is coming from. Okay? And I'll show you that in the Old Testament in a moment. Listen to the NIV change this verse. And they add a word here that changes the meaning completely. And by adding this word they're basically contradicting other passages in the Bible because they're contradicting Revelation 14. Listen to this. 2 Thessalonians, chapter 1. You're looking down at your King James Bible. I'll read it to you in the NIV and show you the difference. Verse 9. They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord. Okay? And from the majesty of His power. So basically they've added these words that they'll be shut out. That's not in the Greek or anything. They just decided to add that for you because they just wanted to show you that you're going to be separated from God and hell. Hey, that's a lie. You'll be tormented in the presence of the Lord according to Revelation 14. Listen to what else they change. Look at verse 8. You got verse 8 in front of you? Who shall the inflaming fire take any vengeance on them that know not God? You got that verse? Listen to the NIV. He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the Gospel of our Lord Jesus. What's missing? The flaming fire. What's missing? The vengeance. Right? So pretty big difference here. And you know what? That's just a random verse. I mean, I didn't even notice that in verse 8 until I just popped open the Bible. The NIV changes so many things, I can't even keep up with how many changes there are. And that's a pretty dramatic change, my friend. And they're all dramatic. But who else is teaching this? What is it? Is it these Baptists are just reading out of the NIV? Is that the problem? Well, how about this? Did you know that the Catholics teach that hell is separation from God? Here's a quote from Pope John Paul II. In 1999, in his weekly address to approximately 8500 people, Pope John Paul II described hell as the complete frustration and emptiness of life without God. That's what he describes hell as. Just a frustrated life because you don't have God. He also said this, rather than a physical place, hell is a state of those who freely and definitively separate themselves from God, the source of all life and joy. So he said hell is not a physical place. It's just a state of mind where you're separated from God. He says this, damnation consists precisely in definitive separation from God, freely chosen by the human person and confirmed with debt that seals his choice forever. This is the Pope. He said the thought of hell, and even less the improper use of biblical images, must not create anxiety or despair. So he's saying don't worry about hell. As he sends everybody to hell with all his lying false doctrine, he says don't worry about hell, it's no big deal, it's not a real place. It's just a state of mind. Why did God warn us so many times about hell? Why did Jesus Christ plead with people and beg people to believe on him and tell them that they would have the damnation of hell? The world doesn't care about being separated from God. Do you really think that the unbelievers of this world are just shaking in their boots that one day they're going to be separated from God? They want to be separated from God. That's why they're not in church tonight. That's why they don't read the Bible. They don't want God. They don't love God. They don't care about God. But that's not the punishment for being an unbeliever. The punishment is damnation in a fiery hell. Now look, where are they getting it? Are they getting it from the NIV? I don't know. Are they getting it from Pope John Paul II? Are they getting Catholic doctrine? Or maybe they're getting it from Billy Graham. Listen to Billy Graham. This is what Billy Graham said in Time Magazine. The only thing I can say for sure is that hell means separation from God. Well I hate to hear what you're not sure about. I mean if that's the one thing you know for sure about hell. One time, well I had this friend and he was kind of a silly guy, you know, he's kind of a crazy guy, but I was sitting next to my friend John when I was a teenager. We were sitting on the couch and, you know, the Billy Graham Crusade came on TV. So he called in at the Billy Graham Crusade, you know, the phone number came on the screen. So John, my friend John Brody and him, you know, picked up the phone. He called in to the Billy Graham Crusade. He's like, hey, you know, I need to get saved, you know, what do I do? He's just kind of messing with them. And he asked them and they're telling him, oh you know, you got to commit your life over to Jesus and all this stuff. And he said, well what about hell though? He said, you know, I mean I've heard about hell, fire, I mean is that true? Is there fire and punishment? And the guy said, well, the Bible doesn't say that. The Bible doesn't say anything about fire. And he said, I don't want to add to the Bible. So he said, I'm not going to tell you that there's fire in hell because I'm not going to add to what the Bible doesn't say. But he said, what I do know is that hell is separation from God. That's what the guy told him on the phone, you know, of the Billy Graham Crusade. Listen to Billy Graham, the only thing I can say for sure is that hell means separation from God. Of course that contradicts Revelation 14 and several other places. We are separated from his light, from his fellowship. That is going to be hell. When it comes to a literal fire, I don't bridge it because I'm not too sure about it. When the scripture uses fire concerning hell, that is possibly an illustration of how terrible it's going to be. Not fire, but something worse. A thirst for God that cannot be quenched. Now let me ask you something. Let's put you in a fire, and then we'll ask you whether you'd rather be out of the fire, thirsting for God, or whether you want to be in that fire. Stop and think about that for a minute. Would you rather just be going through life without meaning and purpose, or would you rather be literally on fire? Obviously, fire is worse. Listen to this quote. This is another quote from Billy Graham. Could it be that the fire Jesus talked about is an eternal search for God that has never quenched? Is that what it means? That indeed would be hell. To be away from God forever separated from his presence. I like how he asked the question kind of like the devil. Yea at God's head? Kind of just questioning, is it real? Is there a fire? Is it eternal? Well, if they're not getting it from the NIV or Pope John Paul II or Billy Graham, maybe they're getting it from the Jehovah's Witnesses because they don't believe in hell either. And in fact, they believe that hell is separation from God. Again, listen to this. This is from the Jehovah's Witnesses official website. Again, is hell a fiery place of eternal torment or of annihilation? Or is it simply a state of separation from God? Origen and theologian Gregory of Nyssa thought of hell as a place of separation from God, of spiritual suffering. He said, Augustine of Hippo, on the other hand, hell, that suffering in hell was both spiritual and sensory. A view that gave acceptance by the fifth century, the stern doctrine that sinners would have no second chance after this life and that the fire which will devour them will never be extinguished was everywhere paramount. Maybe that's where they're getting it. But listen to this. These are quotes, and I've seen this in millions of them. Not millions, but I've told you a million times not to exaggerate, but I've literally seen this in over a hundred doctrinal statements. The lost are raised to eternal torment in hell, which is conscious separation from God. And then from North Valley Baptist Church's website in Santa Clara, California, How to Lead Children to Christ in this article of the June 2006 North Valley newsletter, he says, sin must be punished, explain hell, refrain this from an independent fundamental Baptist church, refrain from using frightening, offensive descriptions of punishment in hell. Don't frighten them with descriptions of hell. These are children, after all. Instead, focus on the worst part about hell, being separated from God and from everyone else who has been saved from that awful place. So apparently, when giving the gospel to children, we don't want to use those kind of frightening descriptions that Jesus used, like in Luke chapter 16. Turn there if you would to Luke chapter 16. We don't want to use frightening descriptions, but instead we want to emphasize the worst part of hell, which is being separated from God. Now wait a minute. If being separated from God is so much worse, wouldn't that be even more scarier to children? I mean, wait a minute. If being separated from God is worse than being on fire, that would be even scarier. You know, you're not going to be separated from God. That's going to really freak people out, right? No, it's not, because it's not scary at all. And you say, why do you want to scare people? Because the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. The Bible says, by the fear of the Lord meant to depart from evil. The only person that I have fear for is God. I don't fear man. I don't fear the government. I don't fear other preachers. I don't fear anybody or anything. I ought to only fear one, and that's God. The fear of God. We need to get back to having the fear of God. You say, are you just scared of God all day long? No, but I have the fear and reverence for God, where I know that He is the one who holds my destiny in the palm of His hand. He is the one who's causing me to be alive right now. He is the one that can bless me or curse me, and so that's the only person whom I fear. Now, if you're not saved, you ought to be scared to death of God, because you will go to hell if you're not saved. Now, you say, I don't believe that. I can't believe you'd say that. Then you don't believe the Bible. Why are you even in church? Now, look down if you would at Luke chapter 16. It says in verse number 19, there was a certain rich man which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day. And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus which was laid at his gate full of sores, and desiring to be fed with the crumbs was fell from the rich man's table. Moreover, the dogs came and licked his sores. And it came to pass that the beggar died and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom. The rich man also died and was buried, and in hell he lipped up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am tormented in this flame. But that was just his quenching, he was just thirsty for God, right? He just really wanted a Bible study, right? He just really wanted some purpose in his life. No, he's already dead, he's burning in hell, he's begging for a drop of water to cool his literal tongue, okay? And it says, But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receiveth the good things, and likewise Lazarus health them, but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented. And beside all this, between us and you, there is a great bull fixed, so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot, neither can they pass to us that would come from thence. Then he said, I pray thee, therefore Father, that thou would ascend him to my Father's house, for I have five brethren, that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment. Notice, it's a place, it's a place of torment. What does torment mean? Torture. It's horrible, it's excruciating pain. Abraham saith unto them, They have Moses and the prophets, let them hear them. And he said, Nay, Father Abraham, but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent. And he said unto them, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead. Now that's a pretty chilling story, isn't it? You say, oh, it's just a made up fairy tale or a parable. He gave the guy's name, his name's Lazarus, it's a real person. It's a real man. Lazarus went to heaven and the rich man went to hell. You say, why did he go to hell? Because he was rich? No, he did not believe Moses and the prophets. He did not believe the Bible, and so he ended up being tormented in hell. Now notice what it says in verse 26. It says, And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot, neither can they pass to us that would come from this. Now isn't that interesting? He's saying, look, people that are in hell, they wish they could get out of hell, they cannot get out of hell. There's a great gulf between heaven and hell. And that gulf is fanned by no one. And so he says that there are also those, look, that which would come from hence here, talking about in heaven where he is, to you cannot. So can you imagine that there are people who wanted to go from heaven to hell. You see that? You know why? Because they probably wished they could bring them a drop of water. You know what I mean? It's not that they wanted to be in hell, but they probably wished that they could come and give some kind of comfort to them or some kind of encouragement or some kind of a cup of water to them. Hey, they're sad, but let me tell you something. Instead of being one of those people one day that's in the heaven saying, boy, I wish I could just go and help my brother, help my mom or my dad. I wish I could go help my friends that are in hell. Hey, now is the time that you can help them. Now is the time when you can go out and knock the doors, preach the Gospel to every creature. Now is the time for your coworker to hear the Gospel. Now is the time for mom and dad and brothers and sisters to be saved because one day you'll want to help, but it'll be too late. And look, God is not willing that any should perish, the Bible says, but that all should come to repentance. Hey, it's not too late for people to change their mind, believe the Bible, and be saved. And so we ought to give him the Gospel now. But it was too late for this man. He is in hell, not saying I can't wait until my friends get here, saying I hope none of my friends ever come here. I don't want my brother to come to this place of torment. I hope that they never, I mean he's basically, and you know that he probably loved his brothers or else we wouldn't even be bringing him up. But he's saying I never want to see my brothers again if it means them coming to this place. I'd rather just never see them again than for them to come to this awful place. You see, the people in hell today right now are crying out and begging for you to go tell their loved ones how to be saved. Think about that. He's saying, Abraham, send someone. He's saying, send Lazarus. Send this man from heaven to come back from the dead to go tell my family how to be saved. Listen to me, people in hell today wish that you would go talk to their son, their daughter, their grandchild, their great great grandchild. They are crying out today for you to be a soul winner, for you to go out and see people. Do you ever ask yourself why this faith will work at this church, spend so much time out knocking all these doors? It's because hell is real. We're not trying to build the church. Have you noticed that this church is not built by soul winning? It's not. Oh, Pastor, I can't believe you say that. Hey listen, soul winning doesn't work as a method to build the church in 2009. Oh man, I can't believe you say that. But you know what, I'll be a soul winner until I die. I'll knock those doors till I die because my goal is not to build the church. Christ said, I'll build this church. Upon this rock I will build my church, Jesus Christ said. My goal in soul winning is to get people saved. And it works. When your goal is to get people saved, it works. It's not going to build the church. We don't see floods of people coming in that came from our soul winning efforts. No, but we see many people receiving Jesus Christ their Savior through our soul winning efforts believing on Christ. Hey, that's why we go to win souls. We don't care about just packing this place out and getting bigger. Hey, I want this church to be as big as possible. I hope it continues to grow and thrive, but I'm going to tell you something, that's not my goal. I want this church to grow so that we can win more souls. I'm not trying to go soul winning to make the church grow. I'm trying to make it the church to grow so I can win more souls. You see, soul winning is not the means to the end. Soul winning is the end. Do you understand that? Soul winning is not a tool to help us reach the goal of a bigger church. A bigger church is the tool that we're using to win more souls because that is our goal. So you don't get the cart before the horse here, my friend. We want to get people in this church so we train them to get people safe. You see, one little church, right? Oh, little old Faithful Word Baptist Church, and yet we win souls like we're thousands. Why? Because we go out, we spend hour upon hour, we do the soul winning marathons. If one small church like Faithful Word Baptist Church can knock every door in all these small towns all over Arizona, can knock every door in the valley, and we're doing it. Look at that map. We're doing it. Give us ten years, we'll have knocked the doors of over four million people. I believe that, my friend. Why are we doing it? Because we believe in heaven and hell. More than we care about Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night. We care about heaven and hell. And if they never come to church, we praise God that they got saved. Even if they continue going to a liberal church or no church or whatever church, hey, the important thing is that they're on their way to heaven. The important thing is that they're saved. And so we've got to keep that emphasis at our church all the time. And we do that as our emphasis. You say, is that all you guys are about? Is it soul winning, soul winning? No, we're about a lot of things. But I'll tell you what, that's the biggest thing that we're about. I mean, sure, we preach hard on sin, we're about studying and memorizing the Bible, we're about prayer, we're about everything. But I'm going to tell you, the biggest thing we're about is winning people to Christ. And the day that this church stopped being a soul winning church, then this church is worthless. I mean, this church doesn't even make sense without soul winning. Why? You just come and just hear some guy stand up and rattle his cage and yell and scream and tell you that everything you like to do is a sin and everything that you like is wrong and all your music's bad and your movies are sin and you're wicked and you dress wrong. I mean, why come? Why? Because you're coming because you're trying to live a clean and godly life so that God, He uses you to win people to Christ. Because the love of Christ constraineth us, that's why. To come to church, to learn the Bible, to grow in the Lord so that we can be used by Him to preach the Gospel to every creature. Now, there are many places in this world, and believe it or not, there are many, many places in America where people will live and die and nobody will ever knock their door and give them a really clear presentation of the Gospel. But you know what? Phoenix, Arizona is not one of those places. Because in Phoenix, Arizona, there's a faithful Word Baptist Church that will knock every door. We'll go to the poor first, but we'll go to poor, rich, white, black, Hispanic, Spanish speaking, English speaking. We, with God's help, will knock every door in this area and preach the Gospel to every creature. Would it be God that every church in America would get that same vision? That every missionary who's being paid to preach the Gospel would get a map out and say, I will knock every door, not with a track, not with a flyer, not with a door hanger, not with a sample kit, not with little samples and free sample welcome wagon kit, but hey, knock that door with the Bible in the hand, the Holy Spirit in their breast, and say, preach the Gospel to every creature, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. Wouldn't it God that every church in America would do that? There are churches that are much bigger than Faithful Word Baptist Church, so why aren't they knocking every door in their city and giving the Gospel to every creature? Because it's become a social club in many cases. I mean, what, are we just supposed to get together three times a week and just stare at each other? Yeah, we get together, we eat tacos, we sit around, we talk and hang out, and then we go home. But that's where most churches are today. Hey, we come here to this, you know, I love everything about even our building. I love our building. You know what I love about our church building? Because, you know, we've got our auditorium, and then in the foyer, it's just all these maps of all these places where we're soloing, you know what I mean? We've got these big street maps that are all shaded in, and we've got a map of Arizona with the towns shaded in, the small towns, and then I love how we have like a break room. And it reminds me of like when you go to a business and they have a break room, you know, with a fridge and a microwave and a table. You say, why do you have a break room? Because we come here to work, huh? We don't come here to sit around and sit down and enjoy the show, right? Pastor Anderson gets up and he screams and yells and runs around and it's exciting. No, we're here to work. This is just a meeting. We have the company meeting, right? Then we go to the break room, we get a bottle of water, a bottle of Gatorade, we throw our food in the microwave, we eat it, and then we go out and win people to Christ and do the work. Churches should be a place where you go to work, not to just come and sit around. No, you're part of the team. That's what you're doing when you come to church. You're being sent out to do the job that God has called you to do. But let's get back to the fact that hell is a real place. A lot of Baptists seem to have twisted it. The Jehovah's Witness, the seven-day Adventist, Pope John Paul, Billy Graham, all these people don't believe in it, they try to twist it. The NIV tries to change it, takes out the fire and adds in being shut out from God present. It's not the truth at all. Let's look at some of the proofs in the Bible that hell is a real place. Look at Mark chapter 9. It's got 2 Thessalonians 1, let's look at Mark chapter 9. Mark chapter number 9 and verse 43. Let me say this as well, in the NIV as well as all other modern perversions of the Bible, verses 46 and 48 are completely omitted. And the NIV actually goes 45, 47, 49. It leaves out these two entire verses of 46 and 48. But look at this, it says in verse number 43, and if I hand offend thee, cut it off. It is better for thee to enter into life maimed than having two hands to go into hell in the fire that never shall be quenched. So we see right here, hell is worse than having one of your hands chopped off. He said you'd be much better off if somehow your hand was hindering you from being saved to chop off your hand. Now that's pretty graphic. I mean, I have no idea what that would be like to have your hand chopped off. Especially to chop it off yourself. But he said you'd be better off than to spend eternity in hell. Look at the next thing he says, into the fire that never shall be quenched. You say well hell, it comes and it's over. No, it never shall be quenched. It says where there worm diet not and the fire is not quenched. And if thy foot offend thee, cut it off. It's better for thee to enter halt into life than having two feet to be cast into hell into the fire that never shall be quenched. Where there worm diet not and the fire is not quenched. And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out. It's better for thee to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire. Now look, the Bible couldn't be any more clear here. This is Jesus preaching and telling people beware of going to hell because you'd be better off chopping off your hand, chopping off your foot, plucking out your eye. Now Jesus should have read that North Valley Baptist newsletter about refraining from these frightening, because to me it's a little frightening, the image of somebody plucking out their own eye. That's a little scary. It's a little scary to talk about chopping off your hand and your foot. But wait a minute, Jesus Christ says maybe he just loves you, so he warned you so that you wouldn't go there. That's all. Look at Matthew chapter 22 verse 13. You're in Mark. Just go back a few pages to Matthew 22, 13. You say, well, how can you believe in a God, in a God that would send people to hell? Well, wait a minute. Wait a minute now. I don't believe in a God. I believe in the God. And God said that he would send people to hell, so any other God that doesn't send people to hell is not the God of the Bible. Plus that same God that people say he's not a loving God because he sent people to hell, he already went to hell and paid the punishment for your sins. He already died on the cross. He shed his blood on the cross. He was beaten and spat upon, died. He didn't just go to sleep. He literally died. His body was buried. His soul was in hell. And three days later, he rose again from the dead so that no one has to go to hell. So it's not that God is sending people to hell. God does not choose to send someone to hell. God gives everyone the chance to be saved. And when you decide that you're going to spit in the eye of God and say, you know what? I don't need Jesus. I'm a good person. I'm good enough to go to heaven myself. Or you're a liar, God. You didn't even create this world. It came from nothing. It just exploded into space. And so I'm going to live whatever I want. I'm going to do what I want. I don't care what you think. I don't care what you say. You're not going to tell me I'm wrong. And it's funny because God doesn't even tell people that they have to turn away from their sins to be saved. They just have to believe on Christ. But you know what? People still don't want to believe it because they don't want to just do their sins. They want to do their sins and not have anybody tell them it's wrong. They can't even stomach the fact that God is telling you, hey, if you live the way you're living, you're wicked. So they choose to just deny the existence of God. The Bible says the fool has said in his heart, there is no God. You could say that people always, you know, I'll be on soul when he survives. I'll run to these college people, these college guys that are professing themselves to be wise, they become fools. They're too smart for the Bible. They're too smart for God. They think Islam and Buddhism are just right up there with Christianity, you know. And they're too smart for God. They're too smart for the Bible. And they'll try to give me some kind of a debate about the existence of God. You know what? I don't have to prove to anybody that there's a God. Only a fool says that there's no God. And so it's silly. You're answering a fool according to his folly if you just go on and on with somebody. You know, like these guys in his way of the master. We're going to prove that there's a...they say we can prove the existence of God without using the Bible. No, you can't. God doesn't prove to you that there's a God. He just says, in the beginning, God. And you know what? Either believe it and be saved or don't believe it and go to hell. It's that simple. I mean, you can come up with all this evolution. Look, evolution's not science. Evolution cannot be observed. It cannot be tested. Therefore, it's not science. Science is data that's gathered by observation. It's gathered by repeated testing. It's a theory. And it's a lie. And anyone who knows science knows that everything brings forth after its own time, like the Bible says. And evolution doesn't even explain anything. Because evolution still doesn't tell you where life came from. They'll say, oh, we'll tell you how a single-celled organism became a human being. Wait a minute. I'd like to see how nothing became a single-celled organism. That's the part I'm interested in. How do you take nothing and bring it to life? Listen, people don't know this. People have their minds so warped by TV and science fiction, they think Jurassic Park is real. And let me tell you something. It is impossible for anyone to create life. Even in 2009, with all our science, all our technology, all our supercomputers, life cannot be generated by man. Did you know that? Now, the evolutionist wants us to believe that life came from nowhere. That it just, you know, there was the right amount of ammonia in the air, a little bit of carbon, you know what I mean? And just all the right, the temperature was right, the light shines just right, and boom, you know, life created this. Oh, you know, let's look for other planets where those same conditions are. We can see if life started there. But wait a minute. Wait a minute. Why don't they in a laboratory create that environment? They could make it whatever temperature they want. They could make whatever chemicals they want. They could put whatever ammonia, whatever carbon they want. They could even take a dead animal and they can't bring that dead animal back to life. Why not? They could pump its blood through the machine. They could breathe its lungs. They could pump air into its lungs. They could pump blood through its veins. They cannot produce life. Remember Frankenstein? It took the lightning bolt, right, to bring the monster to life. It took God. Even then, that's a stupid story. Look, scientists cannot bring things to life. They can't even take what God created and just bring it to life. I mean, you could just give them a ready-made animal or a ready-made human being. They can't bring it to life. You could give them all the chemicals. They could take all the chemicals on their shelf, all the little bottles and vials and heaters and computers and electricity. They cannot produce life. They don't even know what life is because God is the one who gives life. Look up life in the dictionary. It's ridiculous. If somebody gets alive, it moves and it reproduces. Okay, some of you single guys, you're not even alive because you've never reproduced. You don't have any children. You know what I mean? It's certain that some of these don't move. It doesn't mean that they're not alive. You see, man can try to give a little definition to life because you know what? Things can be moving and they're not alive. My cart moves. It's not alive. And so we can sit there and talk about it all day long. What does it mean? What is life? Well, I'm yet to see the scientist that can bring something to life, create life. Remember when Moses was in Pharaoh's port when he was saying, let my people go? And he threw down his staff and made it into a serpent and the sorcerer did that. Well, there's one part where he picked up dirt. He just picked up the dust on the ground and turned it into lice. Remember God created lice and the sorcerer couldn't do it. He said, this is the finger of God. We can't do it. Show me the scientist that can create a life. They tried to do cloning. Cloning is not creating life. You know what cloning is? It's where they take something that's already alive. They take the DNA from something else and they swap out the DNA. You understand what I'm saying? They'll take the DNA from one person, or they don't supposedly clone humans, but animal. They take the DNA from an animal and they put that in an embryo of another animal so that that animal will be a clone. But the animal was already alive because they cannot create life. Evolution explains nothing. The big bang explains nothing because where did the bang come from? It all comes back from one thing. We are not animals. We're human beings. We have souls, spirits, intelligence, and there is no way that this world came from nothing. It could be disproved a million different ways because you know what? You could disprove it all day long. Somebody could come back from the dead and come and tell them. And he says they have Moses and the prophets. He said if they don't hear Moses and the prophets, they'll not be persuaded the one came from the dead. So you say, oh, you just go around giving seminars on evolution. No. You could raise a dead body for these people. That's not their problem. They just refuse to believe the scripture is the problem. God's word is what they need. Two things. Moses and the prophets is what they need. Not a science lecture. That's not their problem. What they need is the scripture. What they need is the Bible. So hell is a terrible place according to Mark chapter 9. And you say, are you against people taking science and disproving everything? No. I can see a place for it. And some people that's a stumbling block and maybe they need a little explanation on that. But you know what? It's really not the big problem because it really doesn't take long to convince most people that it's a lie because it's not that hard to disprove. But look, if you would, at another chilling description of hell. Look at Isaiah chapter 14. See, hell is a real place and that place has a location. The Bible talks about often descending into hell. And I don't have time to turn there for sake of time, but in Ezekiel 30 and 31, the Bible talks about hell being in the lower parts of the earth, in the nether parts of the earth. It's in the center of the earth. It's in the heart of the earth. Now, even a scientist from the worldly university who doesn't even believe in God, he'll draw you a picture of the earth on the wall. Right? Phoenix Science Museum. They'll draw you a picture of the earth and you know what? The crust of the earth is one to ten miles thick. So in relationship to the earth, it's thinner. Like, picture an apple. The crust of the earth, which is the bedrock and the soil, the crust of the earth is thinner in proportion to the earth than the skin of the apple is on the apple. So the skin of the apple is thicker in relationship to the apple than the crust of the earth is. So the crust is very thin because who knows how big the world is? How many miles in diameter approximately? Ten thousand. Ten thousand miles in diameter. How many miles of that is crust? One to ten. So in the thickest part, you've got ten miles on this side, ten miles on this side. And then how many miles? Nine thousand, nine hundred and some miles. You know, really over ten thousand. So you have over ten thousand miles of what? What is the earth made out of? Is it hollow? Is it empty? Is it just a crust? Is there nothing in the middle? No. What do you have below that crust? Fire. That's all there is. Ten thousand miles of fire. That's what you have in this world. I mean, you have the mantle and then you have the core. So the core is made out of nickel and tin. Well, great. How do you know that? You see, no one can even get close to the core. No one can even go into the mantle because it's so hot. There is no machine. There is no equipment that can go into that lava without being destroyed because it is so many thousands and thousands of degrees. And inside the earth, it's just a theory of what they say. It's like a nuclear reactor. That's what the theory is. And here's what they say. Oh, it's just really, really hot and there's this fireball and then the outside is cool. And that's the crust. Come on. I mean, they call this science. It's just cool. Next thing we do, we have all these ice caps. I mean, think about this. Take something that's just burning on fire. A thousand degrees. And then the outside just cools. The rest of it just stays hot. The outside just cools and in fact starts getting icy and ice cubes on it and freezing and cold. But then underneath it's just fire. But it just happened that way, right? It was just an accident. No, I'll tell you what's in the core of the earth. Hell. A real place. A physical place. It's really there, friends. It's down there. It's a real place. I mean, explain how did the people who wrote the Bible, since they say the Bible was written by man, which of course the Bible was written by God, how did the people in the Bible know that the earth was filled with fire? I mean, I don't think there were any volcanoes erupting in the Middle East. I don't think they were writing the Bible from Hawaii and yet they knew that this earth was filled with fire. How did they know? They didn't know. God wrote the Bible and he knew that hell was there and that's what they believed and that's what they saw. Even if somebody saw a volcano erupt in those days, how would they know that that was just the core of the earth, the heart of the earth was nothing but a flaming fire? And so even science is witnessing to the fact, even the university geology class is witnessing the fact that hell is a real place within the earth. Where did I turn? Isaiah 14. Let me read a few verses from Isaiah 14. Let's start reading verse number 9. One second, let me turn there. Isaiah 14, 9 reads, Hell from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming. It stirs up the dead for thee, even all the chief ones of the earth that are raised up from their thrones, all the kings of the nations. All they shall speak and say unto thee, Art thou also become weak as we? Art thou become like unto us? Thy pomp is brought down to the grave and the noise of thy vials. Now look at these next words. The worm is spread under thee and the worms cover thee. Now that's pretty disgusting, huh? Being covered in worms? And he says, How art thou haulin' from heaven, O Lucifer? This guy got Satan of course. Son of the morning. How art thou cast down to the ground? He says, Weaken the nations. And then he said, I will skip down for the sake of time. Verse 15, Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit. They that see thee shall merrily look upon thee and consider thee, saying, Is this the man that made the earth a tremble, that did shake kingdoms, that made the world a wilderness and destroyed the cities thereof, that opened not the houses of the prisoners and on and on? But we see here that hell is a place of torment, torture. Look, if you would, at the book of Revelation. It's the last place we'll turn. Revelation chapter 9. Revelation chapter number 9. Look at verse number 1, the Bible says, And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven and the earth. And to him was given the key of the bottomless pit. Which is where? According to Isaiah 14, it's the same as hell and many other places in the Bible make that connection. 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. And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth. And unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power. And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree, but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads. And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months. And their torment was as the torment of a scorpion when he striked at the man. Look at verse six. And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it, and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them. You see, this is a time in the future, you know, when God's pouring out his wrath on this earth, when he opens up hell, you know, and brings out these horrendous creatures from hell. These locusts that basically sting like a scorpion. And people on this earth, you know, this is after we've already been raptured in chapter seven, and we're no longer on the earth. But people are going to be in so much pain and so much torment from these stinging beasts that they're going to wish that they were dead. They're going to desire to die. And that's basically a taste of what hell is going to be like. People who are in hell right now, they wish to basically, and they are dead, but they'll wish that it would just all be over. They probably wish that they could just disappear. In fact, Jesus said it'd be better for them if they'd never even been born, the people who go to hell. You know, which is pretty clear. I mean, that goes without saying, given what hell is like. So let's not lie to ourselves. We can sit here and we can lie to ourselves and say, well, hell doesn't exist. There's only heaven. And every wicked sinner in this world is just going to send their life away, do whatever they want, blaspheme God, not care, and then they're just going to disappear or go to heaven or whatever. You know, you can think that all you want, but that doesn't make it true. Hell is a real place. Let that motivate you so that the people that you love in this world, that you'll get them the gospel and get them saved. And by the way, remember that word of vengeance, which was taken out of the NIV in that verse about hell? You know, we don't have to worry about taking vengeance on ourselves, on people who do wrong things. There are people who've done wrong. And you know what? If they're Christians and they've done wrong, God's going to chastise them. God's going to take care of them. God will discipline them. And we ought to love our brother in Christ and we ought to forgive our brother their trespasses anyway. So if our brother in Christ does us wrong, we're just supposed to just, you know, forgive our brother even if they do it 490 times, is what the Bible says. But you know, there are really wicked awful people in this world. You know, for example, you know, child molesters. You know, and I've had people that I love that were molested and abused. And you know, basically our instinct is to want to take vengeance, right? When someone that we love is murdered or molested or abused, we want to take vengeance on that person, right? We want to kill that person or torment that person or do something. But wait a minute, God said vengeance belongeth unto me. I will recompense, save the Lord. And so we don't have to worry about it because look, if that person's an unbeliever and they go to hell, they will get the punishment that they deserve. And so we don't have to worry about trying to bring punishment on them. I mean, some people are so wicked, you know, they need to go to hell. I mean, these molesters, these pedophiles, these freaks, I mean, they ought to go to hell. And God's going to send them to hell. So we don't have to sit here and worry about it and try to take vengeance or take things into our own hands, you know? And you know, people have done me wrong in the past. You know, we ought to forgive, love our enemies, and you know, that's the message to the Bible. Love your enemies, right? Do good to them that hate you. You know, pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you. You know, obviously something bad happened to me a couple weeks ago. You know, I got attacked and beaten and whatever. And you know what? When I was in that police car, after these people had beaten me and laughed about it and tortured me and tormented me and stunned me with their tasers repeatedly and whatever and thought it was a game and had me in a pool of blood and stepped on me and beat me up. You know, I got in that police car and you know, I had to go to the bathroom bed. My face was covered in blood. No skin on my face was visible. Just blood. And I was crunched up in a real uncomfortable position. I had my hands cuffed behind my back like this. They were on pretty tight, you know? Kind of jammed in there, not in a very comfortable position and I drove the 75 mile drive to the emergency room in Yuma. And when I sat in that car, you know what? God is my witness right now. I stand in the presence of God that what I'm saying is true. Those names that I was memorizing, remember when the blood was running down my face and I was memorizing the names of the people who had done this to me? I prayed down the list of those names and prayed that God would bless them and that they would be saved. And God is my witness. And I wasn't just doing it because I knew it was the right thing to do. You know what? I was doing it from the heart. I said, God, I said, you know what? Maybe some of these guys are saved. I don't know. I said, you know, if they're saved, you need to chastise them. But I said, God, if any of those guys are not saved, I said, I don't want them to go to hell. I said, even after this, I mean, I don't want them to go to hell though, God. And I said, God, I want these guys to be saved. And I went down the list, you know, C.D. asked. I said, help someone to knock that door and give them the gospel so they can be saved. E. Gomez, B. Griffiths, you know, I said, God, please send somebody to give these guys the gospel so that they can be saved, so that they can receive Jesus Christ as their Savior. You know what? That's what we're commanded to do. And that's what I did. And I meant it from the heart. And I could stand here right now, you know, a couple of weeks later and tell you right now, I have no feeling of vengeance toward those guys at all. None of them. And it's not because they didn't do wrong to me because they did. It's not because they didn't torment me because they did. It's not because they didn't beat me and abuse me because they did. But I'm going to tell you something right now. I could stand here right now with God as my witness and say that I really have no desire for anything bad to happen to any of those men. I mean, I could stand up here and tell you. I have no desire to be vindicated. I have no desire, boy, I hope to get them back or boy, I hope this comes back around and bite them. I hope this comes back. I don't have any feeling like that in my body right now because I have forgiven them completely. And I forgave them when the wounds, when I still had glass shards in my head, I'd already forgiven them. And I mean that from the bottom of my heart. And as I said, God's my witness right now. And you know what, though? The only reason that I think that those men should be punished for what they've done is just because I think that otherwise if they don't, you know, basically our country is just going to get even worse. You know what I mean? I mean, I do think that these guys need to be punished. Don't get me wrong. Justice is different than forgiveness. I do believe they need to be brought to justice because of the fact that I believe that if they don't go to justice, then our country is just going to get more into slavery. These guys are just going to be more out of control if they think they can get away with this and it's going to happen to other people. And so yeah, we need to fight for our liberty in this country. We need to stand up and fight for liberty. That's what I was doing that day. But that's the only reason why I'd like to see those guys punished is just to preserve our liberty. Because all I care about is that I live in a free country, that my children live in a free country, that we can live a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. That's all I want. But do I have personal hatred for those men? None of them. Do I have personal feelings of vengeance and revenge? Do I sit around and think, you know what? Honestly, if nothing bad ever happens to those guys again, praise God. So what? What needs to change is the system though. What needs to change is the rules. And you know what? I will press criminal charges against those guys for what they've done. Not because I want to see them punished because of my own vindication, but only because it's important because the fight is about America. It's not about them. It's not about these guys. It's not about me. It's not about you. It's about our country's freedom. And so these guys need to pay for their crimes. I believe that the murderer should get the death penalty. I believe that the rapist should get the death penalty. I believe that people who steal should pay fourfold. I believe that people who've committed crimes should be punished for their crimes. Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying I don't believe in justice, because I do. I think justice needs to be served on those who break the law. But what I'm saying is I don't have hatred or vengeance on those that have done me wrong, because I know that God will balance the scales. And however He sees fit to do it is fine with me. I hope these guys get saved. You know, God chases them, whatever. And if they're not saved and they go to hell, then they'll be punished when they go to hell a lot worse than they did to me. You see what I mean? That's why I don't have to take things into my own hands. That's why you don't have to take it. You know, you've had people do you wrong. I'm sure no matter who you are in this room, there have been people who've done you wrong. Instead of taking it into your own hands, say, wait a minute. If it's my brother in Christ, he's forgiven like I'm forgiven. And if he's an unbeliever, he's going to burn in hell. And so that's worse than anything that he made to do with it. So let that thought, that's why, and it's hard for you to understand sometimes, but when you read in Revelation, it says, this is the patience and the faith of the saints. He says, these people are going to hell. He that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. This is the patience and the faith of the saints. You don't have to take things into your own hands and feel feelings of vengeance. Go to bed tonight. If you have feelings of hatred toward someone or vengeance or vindictiveness where you say, boy, I'd like to pay them back for what they've done to me. You know what? Lay your head on your pillow tonight and just go to sleep. And don't worry about it because God will take care of you. And the Bible says, you know, the righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance. You know, one day vengeance is coming on evil doers. And so we don't have to take them into our own hands and we don't have to let it eat us up. Let's live a joyful life. Let's have joy in our lives and not just let bitterness eat us up about the wrong things that have been done because we serve the God of heaven and the God of hell. Let's call our hands and have a word of prayer. Father, please just help us to keep this thought in our mind, dear God. I'll confess to you right now, God, this is something that I probably push out of my mind too often. And that's the reality of hell. It's something that I don't even like to think about. And God, I'm sorry that I do that. But Father, please just help every single one of us to keep this good for us. Not because it's pleasant, but help it to motivate us, dear God, to love our neighbor, to love our brother, to love our sister enough to win him to Christ. Help us to love the people that we don't even know in Phoenix, Arizona, the stranger that's behind that door we're going to knock. And as we open our Bibles and talk to that person, help us not to just do a quick hurried job of giving them the gospel. Help us not just blow through a bunch of verses and try to pray with them. Help us to realize that's a human being. We better make sure that we're doing it right because we want these people to really understand what they're doing and really believe and be safe. Father, thank you for everything that you do for us. Thank you for blessing us with America, a free country. Please help our freedom to be preserved in this country, dear God. And God, help those men that are abusing their power today. Help them if it's not too late to believe on Christ and be safe. But Father, at the same time, I pray that justice will be served in our country so that we can continue to lead a quiet and peaceable life in all Godliness and honesty. Help America to be here for my children and my children's children. It could be your will. In Jesus' name, I pray the same thing. Amen.