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🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 Hello, welcome to Sure Foundation Baptist Church. We're so glad you're here this morning. Thank you for attending. Let's grab our seats and open our green hymn books to page 266. Honey in the Rock, green hymn books, please take your seats. Welcome to Sure Foundation Baptist Church, page 266 in your green hymn books. 🎵Piano Music🎵 Honey in the Rock, page 266. On the first with me. 🎵Oh, my brother, do you know the Savior? Who is wondrous, kind and true? He's the rock of your salvation. There's honey in the rock for you. Oh, there's honey in the rock, my brother. There's honey in the rock for you. Leave your sins for the blood to cover. There's honey in the rock for you. Good job on the second. Have you tasted that the Lord is gracious? Do you walk in the way that's new? Have you drunk from the living fountain? There's honey in the rock for you. Oh, there's honey in the rock, my brother. There's honey in the rock for you. Leave your sins for the blood to cover. There's honey in the rock for you. Do you pray unto God the Father for me to do? Never fear, He will surely answer. There's honey in the rock for you. Oh, there's honey in the rock, my brother. There's honey in the rock for you. Leave your sins for the blood to cover. There's honey in the rock for you. Lift it up to the Lord on the last. Then go out through the streets and byways. Preach the word to the many or few. Say to every fallen brother, there's honey in the rock for you. Oh, there's honey in the rock, my brother. There's honey in the rock for you. Leave your sins for the blood to cover. There's honey in the rock for you. Amen. Great singing this morning. We're so glad you're here. Brother Temo, can you open us with the word of prayer? Amen. Page 157 will be our second song this morning. 157. Come Thou Almighty King. Page 157 on the first. Come Thou Almighty King. Help us Thy name to sing. Help us to praise. Father all glorious. All all victorious. Come and reign over us ancient of days. On the second. Come Thou incarnate Word. Gird on Thy mighty sword. Our prayer attend. Come and Thy people bless and give Thy word success. Spirit of holiness on us descend. Come holy Comforter. Thy sacred witness bear in this platter. Thou who Almighty art. Thou rule in every heart. And ne'er from us depart. Spirit of power. Lift it up on the last. To the great one and three. Eternal praises be. Hence evermore. His sovereign majesty may we in glory see. And to eternity love and adore. Great singing at this time. We'll have our announcements. All right. Good morning, everybody. Welcome to Sure Foundation Baptist Church. Let's take our bulletins and go through some of the announcements. You need a bulletin? Just lift up your hand with the ushers. We'll bring you a bulletin. Raise your hand in the air. Wave it like you just don't care. All right. On the front cover there we have our verse of the week. It says, Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord. Because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain. That doesn't sound like King James version. Is that King James version? Let's look it up. If it's not, Ryland is definitely fired. Somebody fact check this. That sounds like NASB or something. Oh, man. Oh, man. Oh, man. Definitely fired. Trying to trick a King James only pastor like that? Not going to happen. Sorry, Ryland. But I'm sorry. I should have caught that last night when I was looking over the bulletin. But that is not King James. Sorry, guys. Yeah. Let's look that up real quick. Everybody just turn your Bibles to 1 Corinthians 15, 58. I'll add to the embarrassment, Ryland. Shame. Shame. He probably just looked it up real quick and maybe it's new King James or something. Yeah, it does. All right. Alex, come up here and read it. This is a good verse, so we don't want to miss the verse of the week. 1 Corinthians 15, 58. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, for as much as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. 1 Corinthians 15, 58. All right. That's the verse of the week. Let's shred these after the service and get the verse right for the evening service. Okay. Sorry about that, beloved brethren. All right. On the inside page here, we have our service times. Sunday morning service, 10.30 a.m. Sunday evening service, 3.30 p.m. Thursday evening Bible study, 6.30 p.m. We'll be back in 1 Chronicles 21 to finish off the chapter this coming Thursday. And if it's your first time here, we're happy that you're here. Thank you so much for being a first-time guest. We do have some gift bags on the right-hand side on the way out. You can just grab one on your way out. Just take that as a token of our appreciation of you being a first-time guest. And below the service times, we do have our soloing times listed below. We do have soloing today at 1 p.m. If you're planning on going out from here, just meet in the auditorium here at 1 p.m. We'll get you a partner and a map to go to. Otherwise, if you're in the WhatsApp group, just make sure that you know what group you're in. Brother Alex will make sure that you're assigned to a group. If you are not in the WhatsApp group and you want to go soloing, just come to me or my wife and we can get you in the soloing group. If you've been coming regularly to the services or if you just come to a few services, we'll gladly put you in there. And let's see. We had a couple of salvations yesterday out soloing in Hazel Dell. And thank you for everybody that came out soloing yesterday. Also, if you look down, you can see the praise report, the salvation so far for the month of February. And our attendance from last week. And the upcoming events are many here. We have the sixth anniversary of our church plant in Spokane coming up on March 14th through 16th. And I'll be preaching Friday night. And then there'll be some soloing. I'm not sure if it's going to be a full blown marathon or not, but it'll probably be weather dependent on that. And of course, we'll probably hang out on Saturday afternoon or evening and do some fellowship and food that usually goes along with Baptist churches. And then I'll be preaching or Remy will be preaching, excuse me, on Sunday for both services as he's taking over that church plant here pretty soon. He had a good job interview take place. And so it looks like they might be moving sooner rather than later. And he did ask me to do a recruitment, which is probably very necessary because Brandon and Nia are also moving to Texas. And so that's two of our song leaders. So that leaves one song leader that we have in the rotation, Brother Bill. And I don't think that he's going to be able to do all that by himself. So I'm asking if anybody would be willing to come forward and try to step up and do any song leading, maybe on a rotational basis. And of course, we're not going to just throw you to the wolves. We're not going to throw you into the fire. Remy will be doing some song leading classes for anybody to be interested. So if you're interested in doing that, please see me anytime in the short future here and we'll get a song leading class going. And also, if anybody's interested in learning how to play the piano, I will personally buy any instructional books that you would need to learn how to do that because we're also losing both of our piano, two of our piano players that we have. We have Gabe, who's learning right now, but he's not all the way there yet. But he is fast tracking, trying to get himself ready to go. But it would also be nice to have some other people to learn how to play the piano. And so we're definitely needing some people to help out with the music ministry coming shortly because Kayla is getting married in August. And so she is going to be moving to Tucson. And so after August, we'll have a shortage on piano players. But congratulations to Kayla. Hopefully I was supposed to – was it not okay for me to say that? Oh, it's in July. Yeah, you're right. It is in July. Sorry about that. I said it was in August, but I lied. So, all right. Sorry about that. You're right. My calendar in my brain is messed up. So, yeah, you're like, did we change the date? Sorry about that. People were panicking everywhere in the auditorium. I'm like, what did I say? What did I do? Was I not supposed to say anything? But Gabe proposed. I saw the pictures at sunset and he's on a bended knee. And I couldn't see her face, but she was probably crying because she's a girl. So, she was crying. I asked C.J. and he said she was. So, if she wasn't, then I would think that there's something wrong. Anyway, so, congratulations to them. They're engaged now to be married. They're getting married here at our church on – probably should have put it in the bulletin, but I just want to make sure. I didn't even have permission to announce that. So, I'm just doing all kinds of things wrong. The King James isn't even right in our bulletin. I mean, I'm just really screwing everything up today. But anyway, let's look at the calendar. The 18th is – the 19th is going to be the wedding. It's going to be at 12 o'clock. So, reception will be here. Wedding will be here. So, we definitely have some planning to do there. And, yeah. So, that's that announcement. All those in that one little bit there. So, any marathon will be on March 29th. We do one every quarter. So, I haven't picked a location yet, but that will be forthcoming. Men's preaching night is March 30th. So, if you're a man and you want to preach, all we require is that you wear a tie, use a King James Bible, and don't preach any heresy. So, and if you're not sure what heresy is, come see me and I'll – if you just tell me your subject. If you think that some weird stuff about the Trinity, I would definitely like to know so I can correct you about that. And, yeah, just trust me. I'll let you know if you're preaching heresy, especially if you're doing it during the men's preaching night. So, just check with me. If there's a doctrine that only you believe and nobody else in the world believes it, it's probably you believing heresy. So, anyway, we also have the Lord's Supper, April 13th, the Mega-Marathon, the All-SFBC Mega-Marathon Plus. I'm sure other churches are going to be involved in this. April 19th, April 20th is Easter Sunday. And April 25th is the SFBC second year anniversary. Pastor Anderson will be preaching Friday night up there and we'll be doing a Sony marathon on Saturday. I'll be preaching on Sunday. May 15th through 18th is the King James Conference. All the pastors listed there, Pastor Shelley, Pastor Mejia, Pastor Anderson will be there and yours truly. And you can RSVP through our email or text TheChurch at 360-718-3834. And there's a Sony marathon in Chicago June 28th and 1 in Detroit September 6th. I'm sure there'll be other stuff to add in here later on. We're family integrated. That means the children and infants are welcome during the church services. Please use the mother-baby room located in the back there for your needs and the dad-baby room located back there for your needs. All the rules and regulations that I'm not going to mention every time are located underneath there. Please silence your cell phones if you would, please. And text-giving information or if you don't want to give in person or if you don't want to give at all, you don't have to, obviously. But the information that's coming, the tithes and offerings that have come in so far is at the bottom of the page. We've already done all the birthdays and anniversaries. I just have one other embarrassing thing to talk about before we're done. So the last two services we've had some issues with the toilet and so the toilets around the corner. And I'm not sure if this is the culprit or he said he was going to, the guy that fixed it said he was going to leave whatever got flushed down the toilet and was found in the tank here. I'm not sure if this is what it was. This might be not the item. He was supposed to take a picture of it and send it to me. He said he was leaving it on the sink. Was there anything else left on the sink that wasn't like this guy's? Was it a black cap? Okay, that's what it was. Did you throw it away? Oh, you have it? Oh, he's going to go get it. All right, the drama thickens. So I just, there's signs in both bathrooms that you cannot flush anything down those toilets that is not toilet paper, that is not officially designated toilet paper of SFBC, okay? We buy the thin stuff so that there's nothing getting flushed down those toilets that's too thick for that system to handle. Those bathrooms were installed after this place was designed. So this is like a propane cap or something. This was flushed down the toilet. I don't know if this is what clogged the toilet. It might be. But both times, and this is two services in a row, that the toilets were clogged. I don't know if he just, he had to bring in an auger. And so both services, and then it just caused a whole bunch of problems. We ended up having to replace one of the toilets. And so it's just been a real poopy situation, okay? And I've spent a lot of extra time here after the last two services and then had to hire someone to come in and fix the toilets. Kids, I'm just going to tell you right now, if I find anything else, and I'm not saying you did it, it could have been somebody else, it could have been an adult. But usually adults don't flush stuff like these down the toilet. But that system cannot handle anything else. It could have been accidentally dropped. I don't know who would be just accidentally dropping this. I don't even know if this is what caused it. But even the paper towels, that system cannot handle. Do not flush paper towels or propane caps or whatever this is. I mean, it might not even be in a propane cap, but that's kind of what it looks like. I don't know. But system can't handle. So I just want to ask for some help from, it might not have been, it might not even have been this, but I don't know what else it would be. This is the only, because we had to tear apart the whole tank. Because our system in there, it shoots, usually poop rolls downhill, if anybody has ever heard that term, but usually they usually say a different word. But it doesn't usually go uphill. But that system is designed to shoot it up because of the way this bank was built. You know, it's made out of reinforced concrete because it used to be a bank. So they had to design that system so it goes up through a tube. So anything that goes into that that would clog up the system is going to just completely just shut those bathrooms down. So that's why it's just so important not to mess with the system, okay? So please, do not flush anything down that toilet. And parents, if I could just get your help, I know that foolishness has been on the heart of a child and sometimes if a kid is just in there messing around, kids are going to just mess around with stuff. So please just, if you know, just pay some special attention if your kids are just in the bathroom too long messing around or whatever, just pay special attention to how long they're in there and what they're doing. So if I could just get your help in that. And if adults, if you're the one that did this, shame on you. I'm just kidding. I don't think it was an adult. I don't know what it was. But all I know is that if I have to spend any more time messing around with those bathrooms, if something like that happens today, tonight's sermon is going to be a really potty talk situation, all right? It's going to be sewers in light of the Bible or something. I don't know. Anyway, if I could get your help with that, I'd really appreciate it. So anyway, I flooded the whole church and had to come in and clean up a bunch of water because I thought I was draining the baptismal thinking it was unplugged and it wasn't. And then all the water got all over the, and I had to shop vac it all out. I was here until like 9 o'clock at night doing that. So anyway, lesson learned. Don't ever do it through the toilet if you think it's possibly still could be plugged, all right? So that's my fault. But anyway, that's all I have for announcements that are long. But let's go ahead and sing another song and cheer up. And yeah, I'm not trying to come down on you too hard about it, but things happen. But if I spend one more hour here dealing with toilets and stuff like that, I'm going to lose my mind. All right. Let's sing another song. Get back in the spirit. Page 312 will be our next song, Open My Eyes That I May See. Page 312, Open My Eyes That I May See. Sing out loud with me on the first. Open my eyes that I may see Glimpses of truth thou hast for me Place in my hands the wonderful key That shall unclasp and set me free Silently now I wait for thee Ready, my God, thy will to see Open my eyes, illumine me Spirit divine Open my ears that I may hear Voices of truth thou sendest clear And while the wave notes fall on my ear Everything false shall disappear Silently now I wait for thee Ready, my God, thy will to see Open my ears, illumine me Spirit divine On the last. Open my mouth and let me bear Gladly the warm truth everywhere Open my heart and let me prepare Love with thy children thus to share Silently now I wait for thee Ready, my God, thy will to see Open my heart, illumine me Spirit divine Amen. Great singing. At this time, our ushers will come forward to receive the offering. And Brother Ramon, can you please bless it for us? Father, thank you so much, Lord, for this church and for us to be able to gather here and worship you. Lord, I pray you bless everything that you do here today serving you. And I put past you with your spirit and bless this offering. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Amen. All right. Open your Bibles to Deuteronomy 32. Deuteronomy 32. As is our custom, we'll read the entire chapter, so please follow along silently. Did you not have a Bible? There should be one in the seat in front of you. Deuteronomy 32, the Bible reads, Give ear, O ye heavens, and I will speak, and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth. My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distill as the dew, As the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass. Because I will publish the name of the Lord, ascribe ye greatness unto our God. He is the rock, His work is perfect, for all His ways are judgment. A God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is He. They have corrupted themselves, their spot is not the spot of His children. They are perverse and crooked generation. Do ye thus requite the Lord, O foolish people and unwise? Is not He thy Father, that hath bought thee? Hath ye not made thee and established thee? Remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations. Ask thy Father, and He will show thee, thy elders, and they will tell thee. When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when He separated the sons of Adam, He set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel. For the Lord's portion is His people, Jacob is the lot of His inheritance. He found Him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness. He led them about, He instructed Him, He kept Him as the apple of His eye. As an eagle stirreth up her nest, floodereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings. So the Lord alone did lead him, and there was no strange God with him. He made him ride on the high places of the earth, that he might eat the increase of the fields, and he made him to suck honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock, butter of kine, and milk of sheep, with fat of lambs, and rams of the breed of Bashan, and goats, with the fat of kidneys of wheat. And thou didst drink the pure blood of the grape, but Jeshurun waxed fat and kicked. Thou art waxen fat, thou art grown thick, thou art covered with fatness. Then he forsook God which made him, and lightly esteemed the rock of his salvation. They provoked him to jealousy with strange gods, with abominations provoked they him to anger. They sacrificed unto devils not to God, to gods whom they knew not, to new gods that came newly up, whom your fathers feared not. Of the rock that begat thee, thou art unmindful, and hast forgotten God that formed thee. And when the Lord saw it, he abhorred them, because of the provoking of his sons and of his daughters. And he said, I will hide my face from them, I will see what their end shall be, for they are a froward generation, children in whom is no faith. They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God, they have provoked me to anger with their vanities, and I will move them to jealousy with those which are not a people. I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation. For a fire is kindled in mine anger, and shall burn under the lowest hell, and shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains. I will heap mischiefs upon them, I will spend mine arrows upon them. They shall be burnt with hunger, and devoured with burning heat, and with bitter destruction. I will also send the teeth of beasts upon them, with the poison of serpents of the dust. The sword without, and terror within, shall destroy both the young man and the virgin, the suckling also with the man of gray hairs. I said, I would scatter them into corners, I would make the remembrance of them to cease from among men. Were it not that I feared the wrath of the enemy, lest their adversaries should behave themselves strangely, and lest they should say, Our hand is high, and the Lord hath not done all this. For they are a nation void of counsel, neither is there any understanding in them. O that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end. How should one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, except their rock had sold them, and the Lord had shut them up? For their rock is not our rock, even our enemies themselves being judges. For their vine is of the vine of Sodom, and of the fields of Gomorrah. Their grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters are bitter. Their wine is the poison of dragons, and the cruel venom of asps. Is not this laid up in store with me, and sealed up among my treasures? For when he belongeth vengeance and recompense, their foot shall slide in due time, for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that shall come upon them make haste. For the Lord shall judge his people, and repent himself for his servants, when he seeth that their power is gone, and there is none shut up or left. And he shall say, Where are their gods, their rock in whom they trusted, which did eat the fat of their sacrifices, and drank the wine of their drink offerings? Let them rise up and help you, and be your protection. See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no God with me. I kill, and I make alive. I wound, and I heal. Neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand. For I lift up my hand to heaven, and say, I live forever. If I wet my glittering sword in mine hand, take hold on judgment, I will render vengeance to mine enemies, and will reward them that hate me. I will make mine arrows drunk with blood, and my sword shall devour flesh, and that with the blood of the slain and of the captives, from the beginning of revenge upon the enemy. Rejoice, O ye nations, with his people, for he will avenge the blood of his servants, and will render vengeance to his adversaries, and will be merciful unto his land and to his people. And Moses came and spake all the words of this song in the ears of the people, he and Hoshea the son of Nun. And Moses made an end of speaking all these words to Israel. And he said unto them, Set your hearts unto all the words which I testify among you this day, which ye shall command your children to observe to do, all the words of this law. For it is not a vain thing for you, because it is your life. And through the thing ye shall prolong your days in the land, whether ye go over Jordan to possess it. And the Lord spake unto Moses that selfsame day, saying, Get thee up into this mountain, a barram, unto Mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab, that is over against Jericho, and behold, the land of Canaan, which I give unto the children of Israel for possession. And I in the mount whither thou goest up, and be gathered unto thy people, as Aaron thy brother died in Mount Hor, and was gathered unto his people, because ye trespassed against me among the children of Israel, as the waters of Meribah, Kadesh, in the wilderness of Zen, because ye sanctified me not in the midst of the children of Israel. Yet thou shalt see the land before thee, but thou shalt not go thither unto the land which I give the children of Israel. Brother Bill, can you pray for the service? Amen. All right. Well, I've been preaching a series called the Foundation Series, and last week I preached a sermon about salvation. And normally, when I give the gospel, I usually tell people about hell first. So this morning I'm going to be preaching out of that same series, a sermon called The Reality of Hell. The Reality of Hell. It's been a while since I've preached a sermon about this. It's a very, it's not a very positive sermon, obviously, but it is a sermon that needs to be preached, and so it is going to be a doctrinal sermon, but I will definitely be preaching this sermon also, so it's not just going to be all dry material, but it's very important that people understand that the doctrine of hell is something that we need to put forth in our gospel presentations as we go preach the gospel. It's something that people need to understand, because if people are being saved, what are they being saved from? People need to understand that there is a heaven to gain in salvation and a hell to shun. We need to have people understand that, and sometimes people aren't afraid of God, and people need to understand that they need to fear the Lord, and that is the beginning of wisdom. That is the beginning of knowledge, but fools will turn away from believing that there is a hell, and unfortunately, there's a lot of preachers out there today that will say that hell is just separation from God, and they'll downplay what hell really is, and they want to just candy-coat hell and make it a little easy pill for people to swallow, or they'll just flat out say that hell isn't real, or they'll just say that hell is, you know, everybody goes to heaven, and say that when Jesus died on the cross, that because he died for everybody, that everybody gets to go to heaven. Well, everybody has a chance to go to heaven, but that's still free will. You don't just automatically go to heaven because Jesus died on the cross. So in the What We Believe section on our website, it says, we believe that the unsaved will spend eternity tormented in a literal hell, and eventually the lake of fire, and we use verses from Mark 9, 43 to 48, Jude 1, 6, Revelation 14, 11, and Revelation 20, 14, and 15 underneath that little statement there. And so in the Foundation series, I've been reading what our doctrinal statement says online. These are the things that our church believes. And sometimes we'll leave our, well, every time when we go out soul-willing, we leave our cards of nobody's home, our invitations to our church that have the Gospel presentation on it, and many different resources that people can look at. And sometimes people call and they get really mad because it says that if they don't get saved, they're going to go to hell. And they get really upset about that. But how good of Christians will we be if we did not tell people that they're going to go to hell if they don't get saved? That is the whole point of preaching the Gospel so that we would save people from the fires of hell, because the reality is that hell is real and that we need to tell people about heaven and about what Jesus did for us so that we could go there so they could escape that place, because we're not good Christians if we're not telling people how to escape hell, in all honesty. Telling our relatives and our family members is not good enough. What about other people's friends and family? They deserve to know too, don't they? And maybe if you start telling other people's friends and family about it, maybe God will send somebody else that will actually listen, that your friends and family might listen to. Because a lot of times, and Jesus said this, a prophet is not without honor, but in his own family. You know, in his own nation, in his own city or whatever. So, let's look at Deuteronomy 32 verse 15. And God is basically, this is the first mention of the word hell in the whole Bible. And let's actually look at verse 20. So, it says, and he said, I will hide my face from them, I will see what their end shall be, for they are a very froward generation, children in whom is no faith. They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God. They have provoked me to anger with their vanities, and I will move them to jealousy with those which are not a people. I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation. That's us, the Gentiles, right? It says, for a fire is kindled in my anger, and shall burn unto the lowest hell, and shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains. So, the first mention of the word hell, it's talking about burning. It's talking about the lowest hell. And so, one thing that you need to understand about hell is that it's a place of burning. And it says the lowest hell, so there's degrees of hell. There's, you know, however wicked you are is you'll be put to a lower hell. Those people that are going to go to hell are going to suffer based upon how wicked they were in their life. You know, people say all sin is equal. Well, that's not true, because some people have greater sin, and so greater is going to be their suffering in hell. And so, we, you know, obviously, the worst serial killer or the worst false prophet, they're going to be into the deepest parts of hell. And obviously, the little old lady that just didn't believe in Jesus, but she was, in our minds, probably a decent person, by human standards, a good person, but just never believed in Jesus. That person will be in hell, but maybe not tormented like everybody else. But who wants to be tormented for all eternity? Nobody wants to be tormented for all eternity. But the reason why I have this chapter read, though, and hell is mentioned 54 times in the King James Bible, by the way, and that's not the only verses that talk about hell, but just hell itself is mentioned 54 times. Now, there's a principle called the principle of the first mention. And it refers to a method of biblical interpretation where the first time a concept, word, or doctrine appears in the scripture is considered the most foundational and primary understanding of that topic, suggesting that the initial mention provides the clearest and most essential meaning for further interpretation. Essentially, the first time something is mentioned sets the precedent of how it is understood throughout the text. So the first time it's mentioned is in a negative regard as to it being a place that you would want to avoid, a place that burns, a place that's in the lowest place. So if we go straight down from where we're at now, the lowest place that we could get to is in the center of the earth. And that is where the Bible teaches that hell is at. That's where Jesus' soul went for three days and three nights in the center of the earth. Jesus said, as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly, so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The heart meaning like the core, the middle of the earth. And so even scientists know what is in the heart of the earth is hot lava, magma, and excessive heat, right? So it makes sense that that's where hell would be. So the doctrine of first mentions is a good doctrine to apply to the situation because every time you see hell in the Bible, it's always a negative mention. We always know what hell means. Ask anybody on the street, what is hell? And they're always gonna tell you the same thing. Nobody thinks hell is a good place. Nobody's ever gonna say, if you go, hey, do you think hell's a good place? They're not gonna go, oh yeah, yeah, I wanna go there someday. Nobody thinks that. Even people that aren't saved, even people that don't even necessarily believe in God, a lot of people do believe in hell, even though they wouldn't say they believe in God. Because even people that are like these extreme animal lovers, when someone mistreats an animal, what do they say? There's a special place in hell for people that abuse animals, right? Or even people that aren't saved, when someone molests a child or hurts somebody or is a serial killer, there's a special place in hell for that person, right? When Ted Bundy was killed, he was executed. He was a really horrific serial killer. My mom said, she worked at Research at that time, which is a food place, but they were all watching on the break room during his execution, because they had televised it, and they put a Reese's like a burrito in the microwave and did the countdown according to the television countdown on there, and when it went ding, they were just like all excited that he got, they nuked the burrito at the same time he got nuked. And they celebrated the fact that he got killed. So, I mean, people want judgment to happen, but sometimes they just don't want it to happen to themselves. So another term for hell in the Bible is the pit. I'm sure if you've read the Bible at all, you understand that when it's talking about the pit, it's usually talking, it could be talking about just a pit that someone would be thrown into, like a hole, but there's also a spiritual application of the first mention in the pit. Let's turn over to Genesis chapter 3, or 37, excuse me, verse 24. Genesis chapter 37, verse 24. Now, this is the first time the word pit is mentioned in the Bible. Now, of course, you have Sodom and Gomorrah being destroyed with fire, and in the New Testament it says that it's eternal fire that they were destroyed by, and even today, you can go to that area in the sulfur, and you can still light it with a flame, and it'll still burn today. So it makes sense. Nothing grows there today, and that area was all like lush, tropical land like you would see in the land of Egypt. Obviously, we probably think of desert when we see the land of Egypt, but as you get closer to the Nile River, it's not like that. And back in the day, it wasn't all desert like it is today. So anyway, the first mention, if you want to take a spiritual application to this, it is an actual pit that they throw him in, a pit that was probably dug or just somehow this is a pit that he's thrown into, but the spiritual application to it is a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ being put into hell because Joseph does picture the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at verse 24, it says, And they took him, talking about Joseph, and cast him into a pit, and the pit was empty, there was no water in it. But one of the things about hell is that there's no water in it, and there's no way to get a drink of water. And it says in verse 25, And they sat down to eat bread, and they lifted up their eyes and looked, and behold, a company of Ishmaelites came from Gilead with their camels bearing spicery and balm and myrrh, going to carry it down to Egypt. Now, there's a lot of aspects of this story that are all out of order, but there's aspects that you could see that are picturing Jesus' life and death, like they all sat down to eat bread, and Jesus sat down with his 12 disciples and ate bread before he died, right? And then you have the people that came, the Ishmaelites, they lived in the east, right? So you had people from the east that came, and then it says they had spicery and balm and myrrh, and those are the things that Jesus was buried, you know, that he was embalmed with. He was actually anointed with that before he died, and then he was embalmed after he died. So, and then it says, going to carry it down to Egypt. When Jesus fled from, was fled with his parents, where did he go? He went down to Egypt. It says, And Judah said unto his brethren, and Judah, if you put an S at the end of that, is Judas, right? And Judah said unto his brethren, What profit is it if we slay our brethren and conceal his blood? Come, let us sell him. What did Judas do? Judas sold Jesus, didn't he, for 30 pieces of silver, but since Joseph was only 17 years old, he was only worth 20 shekels of silver instead of 30. It says, Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and let not our hand be upon him, for he is our brother and our flesh, and his brethren were content. So the Bible says that Jesus came to his own, and his own received him not, right? So when Jesus came to his brethren, they rejected him, they hated him, and Joseph's brothers hated him. They couldn't even speak peaceably to him, and that's how Jesus was treated when he came. Look at verse 28, and it says, Then there passed by Midianites merchantmen, and they drew and lifted up Joseph out of the pit, and sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites for 20 pieces of silver. And they brought Joseph unto Egypt, and Reuben returned to the pit, and behold, Joseph was not in the pit, and he rented his clothes. So this is kind of like Jesus coming back from the dead, so to speak, like Reuben comes and he's not there. When the disciples came to the tomb, Jesus was not there, for he was risen, right? But it says, and he returned to his brethren and said, The child is not. So he thinks that Joseph is dead, and it says, And I whither shall I go? So obviously Jesus didn't die, I mean, he died, but he rose from the dead, and Joseph didn't die in the pit. He went to Egypt, and then he was alive. He showed himself alive to his brethren. Later on, many, many years later, when he was the king of Egypt, basically, except for Pharaoh was over him, which is another picture of him being Christ, because Christ is gonna be the king of kings, Lord of lords, and God the Father is the only one that would be over him. And it says, And they took Joseph's coat and killed the kid of the goats, and dipped the coat in blood. So this would be a spiritual picture of Jesus going into hell, descending into hell, his soul descending into hell, and this is the first mention of the word pit. Now turn to Numbers chapter 16, verse 29, Numbers chapter 16, verse 29. So I know that that's not the literal application of this, but all scripture is given by inspiration of God, and it's profitable for doctrine. So the first mention of hell definitely is just a straight up imagery of the punishment of hell. Now, there's many different mentions of a pit or pits that are not, obviously, hell, but it usually doesn't say holes in the ground in the Bible, it says pit, right? But a pit is obviously talking about hell in different passages here, so look at Numbers chapter 16, verse 29, this is the rebellion of Korah, and so they're trying to overthrow Moses and Aaron and take over the priesthood, and Moses says this, he says, 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 up 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. So Moses says, hey, these things are gonna happen, or God didn't call me to be the leader of Israel, right? And it says, and it came to pass, as he had made an end of speaking all these words, so right after he gets done saying it, it says that the ground clave asunder, that means it moved apart, that was under them, and the earth opened her mouth, this is not literally, the earth doesn't literally have a mouth, but it's just like, this is the imagery, right? And swallowed them up, and their houses, and all the men that appertained unto Korah and all their goods, they and all that appertained to them went down alive. So what is happening here? Well, the earth opens up just like Moses says, and they all drop into the pit. What is the pit? The pit is hell. They drop into the pit, and the earth closed upon them, and they perished from among the congregation. So they dropped, you know, people will say that term, they split hell wide open, this is where the term comes from. These people split hell wide open, and they dropped straight into hell from there alive, and they perished from among the congregation, and all of Israel that were round about them fled at the cry of them, for they said, lest the earth swallow us up also. So this is a fearful thing for people to go to hell, and this term, the pit here, is talking about going to hell. They dropped into hell, and it says, and there came out a fire from the Lord, and consumed the 250 men that offered incense. So then here you have the imagery of fire also associated with this pit. Turn to Psalm 88 verse four, I'm gonna read for you Psalm 55 verse 23. Psalm 55 verse 23, you're going to Psalm chapter 88 verse four. Psalm 55 verse 23 says, but thou, oh God, shall bring them down into the pit of destruction. Bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days, but I will trust in thee. So what's he saying? David is saying, or whoever the Psalmist is here says, that God is gonna bring wicked men down into the pit of destruction, and bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days. So what is this pit that it's talking about? Well it's talking about hell. It's not just talking about just some shallow grave. So look at Psalm 88 verse four. Now I believe that this is prophetically speaking of Jesus' soul going to hell, and I think that this is very clear because Jesus, when he was on the road to Emmaus, he revealed to the men on the road to Emmaus that he told them all the things that were written about him in the Psalms, and other specific books in the Bible, and if this is talking about David, did David ever go to hell? Did David ever go to the pit? Did David ever go to the lowest pit? Did God's wrath lie upon David in the afterlife? No it didn't. So look what it says in verse four. It says, I am counted with them that go down into the pit. I am as a man that hath no strength, free among the dead like the slain that lie in the grave, whom thou rememberest no more. You know one of the things about hell is that it doesn't really matter what your name is anymore because it doesn't matter because you're no longer alive. Even with the rich man in Lazarus, you notice how the rich man doesn't have a name? It's because it doesn't matter what his name is anymore, and Lazarus does have a name. His name lives on forever, but the men that are wicked, they are not men of renown. They're not gonna be known among the people. It says, I am like the slain that lie in the grave, whom thou rememberest no more, and they are cut off from thy hand. Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit, in darkness, in the deeps. So another thing about, so if this is true, if this is talking about Jesus here, which I believe it is, that it says thou hast laid me in the lowest pit. Well, why would Jesus go to, his soul go to the lowest hell? Well, if every sin that every person from Adam and Eve to the last person on the face of the planet, every sin that Jeffrey Dahmer committed, every sin that Ted Bundy committed, every sin that Adolf Hitler committed, every sin that Charles Manson committed, every sin that every homo and every child molester committed on the whole face of the earth was placed upon Jesus, then where would it make sense if his soul did go to hell, which the Bible says it did, where would it make sense that his soul went? Every false prophet's sin. Where did it go? It was placed upon Jesus on the cross of Calvary. So wouldn't it make sense that his soul would go to the lowest place in hell? I'm not saying it stayed there, so don't get all upset. He rose from the dead, right? But if it's not talking about Jesus, is it talking about David? Did David go to the lowest place in hell? David never spent one second in hell. Nobody that's saved has ever spent one second in hell, but Jesus' soul was not left in hell, the Bible says, in Acts chapter two, verse 31. So it says, Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit in darkness. The other thing about hell, you know, people are like, oh yeah, I'm just gonna go to hell, I'm so happy I'm gonna go to hell and hang out with my friends. In darkness? Is that where you're gonna go and hang out with your friends in darkness? Isn't that what it says? Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit in darkness. The Bible says it's outer darkness. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. That's not having fun with your friends. If you're gonna go to hell, you're not having fun there. You're not playing cards like the Looney Tunes shows where you're all hanging out with your friends and playing cards and gambling and drinking beer. You're gonna go to hell to be punished. There's no hanging out with your friends. Your friends might be there, but they're gonna be screaming in some other area of hell. It says in the deeps, thy wrath lieth hard upon me. So you're gonna be experiencing the wrath of God and this is what the psalmist is talking about. Thy wrath lieth hard upon me, thou hast afflicted me with all thy waves. Now that term waves is talking about waves of wrath. And so when Jesus did go to hell for three days and three nights, his soul, his body was in the tomb, his soul was in hell for three days and three nights, then what this is saying, if I'm interpreting this correctly, which I believe that I am, it says thou hast afflicted me with all thy waves. All the punishment that ever could be given was given to Jesus in those three days and three nights and so that's why it was as if he was in hell forever. Because he experienced all of it in those three days and three nights. So when he rose from the dead, it says he was loosed from the pains of death. Well, the last time I checked, if you're just in the grave in your body and your soul's just resting somewhere, you're not in pain. Your body is, if your soul and spirit are out of your body, what pain are you experiencing? But yet the Bible says in Acts chapter two that Jesus was loosed from the pains of death. Death is hell. That's what death is. When saints die, when saved people die, they don't experience hell at all. We never have to set foot in hell. We never have. Because Jesus was the lamb slain from the foundation of the earth and because people have always had faith in God from the time of Adam and Eve till now and in the future, nobody has ever had to set foot in hell. There is no such thing as Abraham's bosom. There is no such thing as purgatory. That is all phony baloney. That's not true. Abraham's bosom might as well be Baptist purgatory. It's not true. It's made up. It's in the Apocrypha. It's not in the Bible. Now, in the story of the rich man and Lazarus, yeah, Lazarus is in Abraham's bosom, but a bosom is a chest part, in case you didn't understand that. Bosom is just like this area right here. He's giving him a hug. He's like, come on. He's comforted. When you give somebody a hug, isn't that comforting someone? He's like, come on up, buddy. You're not gonna have to have the dogs lick your sores anymore. You're comforted. And so when the rich man's speaking to him, that's what it means. It's not saying that it's some cavity in hell that's like Paradise Hotel or something where all the good people go, and then when Jesus died, he went down and broke them out of the good prison camp that was the good hell or whatever. That's just garbage. That's just garbage. It's not true. So anyway, it says, Thou has afflicted me with all thy waves, Selah. Thou has put away mine acquaintance far from me. Thou hast made me an abomination unto them. I am shut up, and I cannot come forth. So Jesus, when he was in hell for three days and three nights, he could not come forth, but God the Father raised him from the dead. The Bible says that the Holy Spirit raised him from the dead. Jesus did not belong there, because Jesus himself did not sin, and so therefore Jesus was able to be raised from the dead. But anybody else, they cannot come forth. They cannot, once you're in hell, you're not escaping from hell. The Bible says that it's appointed on a man once to die, and after this the judgment. If you're saved, you go straight to heaven to be with God, and forever you'll be with the Lord, and he's gonna give us a glorified body that we'll have forever. When he comes back, and he raises the bodies from the dead, they'll go back into the souls and spirits that they belong to. The souls and spirits will go back into that body they belong to, but the people that die, they instantly wake up in hell. I'll show you that verse later on, but it says, my eye mourneth, mine eye mourneth by reason of affliction. So this isn't just talking about going into a grave. You're not afflicted when you're in the ground, in a body. When your soul and spirit leave your body, your body doesn't feel anything after that. So this is talking about afterlife. Lord, I have called daily upon thee. I have stretched out my hands unto thee. So the only way you're getting out is if God gets you out, and he's not letting people out. You have one time, one chance to get saved in this life, and once your eyes shut for the last time, your mortal body goes to sleep for the last time. If you didn't choose to be saved, if you didn't choose Jesus Christ, and you didn't believe in him, then you're going to hell. It's that simple, and it's sad. Turn to Isaiah chapter 14 verse number 12, Isaiah 14, 12. This is written to the king of Babylon, but it's also written to Satan himself, and this is the only passage in the Bible that tells us of his name, Lucifer. Satan is his name now, but Lucifer was his original name. It says in Isaiah chapter 14 verse 12, it says, How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning? How art thou cut down to the ground which did 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 mount 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. See, Lucifer didn't like the fact that he wasn't the top dog, and God does not share his throne with his creation like that. You're not going to rule over God. Satan wanted to ascend over the top of God, and he wanted to be like the most high. It says, Yet thou shalt be brought, where? Down to hell. To the sides of what? The pit. So there you have where you see hell and the pit being both in the same verse there. So now there's the connection where you see hell and the pit being used simultaneously as the same thing. Now you know for sure that the hell and the pit are exactly the same thing. So it says, They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee and consider thee, saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble and did shake the kingdoms, that made the world as a wilderness and destroyed the cities thereof, that opened up the house of his prisoners? All the kings of the nations, even all of them, lie in glory, everyone in his own house, but thou art cast out of thy grave like an abominable branch, and as the raiment of those that are slain, thrust through with the sword that go down to the stories, oh excuse me, the stones of the pit, as a carcass trodden under feet. So Satan's doom is going to be to be cast into hell in the end, and there he will ever be. And like I said, the other names of hell in the Bible would be outer darkness, the lake of fire is where hell ends up being, hell is moved from the center of the earth at the final judgment, and is called the outer darkness and the lake of fire. Hell, death and hell are cast into the lake of fire, that is the second death. So what are some other truths about the reality of hell? Well, let's look at some other truths, look at Mark chapter nine verse 43. Mark chapter nine verse 43 is a very famous passage, it's very redundantly, Jesus redundantly just keeps saying the same things over and over again because I think he wants us to get the point here. He wants people to understand just how horrific hell is, and I think this is very horrific imagery that he's using, and it's not because he wants us to think that hell isn't real, he wants us to know hell is real, and he wants to warn people away from it. So, one truth here is that it's better to go into heaven missing body parts than to go to hell. Look at verse 43, it says, and if thy hand offend thee, cut it off, it is better for thee to enter into life, like going to heaven, maimed than having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched. So, the first thing, one of the first realities of hell is it's better to enter into life, maimed, not having one of your hands. It'd be better to have, you know, go into heaven with just one hand than to have two to go into hell. So, you know, it'd be, so like, nobody wants to have just one hand. I mean, everybody wants to have both hands, right? Who wants to have one of your hands removed right now? Anybody? I don't. But it'd be better to go into heaven with only having one than to go to hell having two hands. And number two, hell is a place of fire that never goes out. Hell is a place of fire that never goes out. Look at verse 43 again. It says, and if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, it is better for thee to enter into life, maimed than having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched. So, into fire that never shall be quenched. I've already mentioned before, hell is a place of fire, but one aspect of that fire is it never shall be quenched. Most of the times, if you've seen a fire, fires eventually burn out, don't they? But not this fire. This fire never shall be quenched. It's a fire that's an eternal fire that never goes out. Number three, people in hell's corpses, their corpse never dies. It never burns up. It never ceases to exist even though it's on fire that's never quenched. Look at verse 44. It says, where their worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched. So, that term worm, I used to believe that it was talking about that you're eaten by some kind of worms or something like when you're in hell because in the grave, we do get eaten by kind of worms and whatever bugs get to you or whatever if you're buried. But, I don't believe that that's what that's saying anymore. What does the term worm actually mean in this passage? I believe it means any, because in the dictionary, it'll say any of numerous relatively small, elongated, usually naked and soft bodied animals. It could be that, you know, worms, like earthworms, right? Or a pinworm or a grub or a shipworm or a slowworm or whatever kind of worm. But, the second definition is a human being who is an object of contempt, loathing, or pity. A wretch. That's the second definition. So, human beings can be considered a worm if they're an object of contempt, loathing, or pity. So, in Psalm, turn to Isaiah 66, verse 24. Psalm chapter, actually, yeah, keep your finger in Mark, I'm sorry, keep your finger in Mark 9. I'm gonna try to pull off the pastor of minutes here real quick. Mark chapter 9, keep your finger here. And I'm just gonna have you turn to Isaiah 66, and while you're turning there, I'm gonna read Psalm 22, verse 6, where Jesus is prophesying about being persecuted on the cross. In Psalm 22, verse 6, it says, but I am a worm and no man a reproach of men and despised of the people. So, Jesus calls himself a worm in the Psalm and a reproach of men and despised of the people. You're in Isaiah 66, verse 24. It says, and they shall go forth and look upon the carcasses of the men that have transgressed against me, for their worm shall not die. You see that? So, it's quoting, or, Mark, or Jesus is quoting in Mark 9, the worm that's taught, that is actually coming from Isaiah 66, but first it says, look upon the carcasses of the men that have transgressed against me. Then it has that colon there and it says, for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched. So, it's comparing carcasses, so carcass and worm are kind of synonymous with each other there. It says, and they shall be an abhorring to all flesh. So, when Jesus said, I'm a worm and a reproach of men, that does kind of go with that definition of a human being who's an object of contempt and loathing and then, in Isaiah 66, it says, you know, that they're gonna be an abhorring unto all flesh and, you know, several years ago, Manley Perry preached that doctrine and he was like, well, you know, nobody burns in hell, is what he said. He said, nobody burns in hell, you know, and he's like, you might, you know, you might say that everybody burns like a hot dog or whatever and he said, but, and that might make for good preaching, he said something along those lines, but nobody burns in hell. Now, he retracted that statement because he got really taken to task over that, but, you know, out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh, you know. He obviously didn't understand what the Bible is saying here or he would have never said that. So, turn, flip back to Mark 9 where we were at because, yes, you do burn like a hot dog, but that hot dog never, never goes away. So, because a hot dog kind of looks like a worm when you first take it out of the package, right? Doesn't it? But see, you know when you accidentally, you're like cooking hot dogs at the campfire, you know, and it kind of has that, it gets all charcoal-y when you actually, kids will do this a lot of times, they'll drop it in the fire or whatever and it's got ashes all over it, you gotta pull the ashes out of it. So, it's like, you know, a charcoal-looking hot dog on the end of the stick, who's like gone camping and put hot dogs on sticks? Okay. All right, all right. So, it's like, but that, so like if you think of that as a human being in hell, that hot dog just never burns up, it just stays on fire and it just never goes, it never goes out, it just stays on fire. And I mean, I guess, the hot dog is a, might be a bad analogy or whatever, but it does kind of change it. I mean, obviously, it's a horrific thing for a human being to be subject to a fire that never goes out. Look what it says in verse 45, it says, and if thy foot offend thee, cut it off. It is 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 their worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched. So, what's he saying? That body is never gonna die. That body's not gonna die, it's always gonna experience pain, it's always gonna be on fire, but it's never going to die. Which seems weird because it's called the second death. So, you're not really living though if you're just completely on fire all the time. You never eat, you never drink, and you're just constantly tormented. That's not really living, is it? You're not alive. But, because your body's alive, but it's not really living, is it? I mean, who would say that like being on fire constantly and being tormented and screaming all the time is living? I wouldn't call that living. I would be like, please just let me not exist anymore. Which is what people think, they're like, well how could God do that to somebody? Well, how could people be stupid enough to not believe in God? How could people be stupid enough to choose to go to hell when they had a choice to go to heaven? It says, the fire is not quenched. That means it never goes out. And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out. It is better for thee to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire. So he's telling us over and over again in this passage, hey, don't go to hell. It's better to have a limb missing, an eye missing, a foot, a man missing, than it is to have these things and go to hell with them. Where their worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched. But he makes specifically sure to say in verse 47 that it is not just some regular fire. It's not a natural fire like we experience on this earth. It is hell fire and hell fire never, ever, ever goes out. Amen. Why does Jesus keep repeating it? Is it because it's just figurative? No, he's repeating a lot because it's true. And it's something to avoid. This is what false prophets and false religions teach is that it does go out. You do burn up. It isn't real. And they're leading people actually further to hell by teaching this garbage. There was a pastor several years ago now named Rob Bell. Rob Bell is from Mars Hill Bible Church in Michigan. How do you call it a Bible church when you don't even believe what the Bible says? But he wrote a book called Love Wins. Sounds like a queer. Anyway, a book about heaven, hell and the fate of every person who ever lived. In the book, Bell suggests that Jesus' redemptive work may be universal. So he's a universal person that believes that everybody is saved because Jesus died on the cross. He believes the idea that the place of eternal torment is incompatible with the God of love. See, this is what happens when you only preach positive stuff, you only preach the love of God, and you never preach the other attributes that God has. Because God is a God of love. God is love. But he's also a God of judgment. He's also a God of wrath. He's also a God that does have his limits, although he is merciful. Although he is long suffering. He is still a God that punishes sin. He has to. He's a God of judgment. And he sent his only begotten son to us so that we could avoid that judgment. He's done everything he could to possibly get us into heaven, but people still choose to go to hell. And then people want to blame him for people that go to hell. Oh, my family member went to hell, or my family member died. Well, you know what? He's done everything he could do. He can't make you go to heaven. That's one thing he won't do. He lets us choose. People are like, well, God just allowed this to happen. No, you allowed it to happen. They allowed it to happen. You can't have it both ways. People are like, well, why would God just allow bad things to happen? Well, do you want to be a robot, or do you want to have free will? Which one is it? Because they get mad when people go, oh, you guys are just going to want. Do you want us to shove it down your throat? Do you want to be forced to believe, or do you want to have a choice in the matter? You can't have it both ways, but Rob Bell's book caused controversy in Christian circles. Yeah, you can say that. Again, if hell's not real, what are we being saved for? Why is he even a pastor? What are you preaching? If everybody's saved, what's the point of even having church? Seriously. Like, oh, we're all saved? Well, cool. We'll just eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die, and we're all in heaven, right? Well, like, I don't get it. Why would you even want to go to church? Just live your life. But you know what? It's not true, and that guy is sending people to hell by the droves, and people want to have an excuse why they don't have to go to hell, and they love to probably cling to false prophets like this because it makes them feel good about their sin. Oh, you can be a queer and still go to heaven? Sure, yeah. Let's do it. You can do whatever you want and still go to heaven. No, that's not true. Carlton Pearson is another one I've never heard of until I was just looking up people that believe this, but his name is Bishop Carlton Pearson was a mega church leader in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Was because he died a few years back. But he had a crisis of faith and came to believe that the doctrine of hell was inconsistent with God's mercy. Sounds like Rob Bell. He advocated for fag rights and questioned core doctrine. Said gay rights, but I'm for gay rights. I want everybody to be happy. So, but yeah, I wonder why he advocated for that. Anyway, I'm always suspect of these pastors that are just like, yeah, I fight for gay rights. Okay, well, I'm suspect of you immediately when that happens. But he was considered a heretic by many religious circles. Yeah, I would consider that. He was the story of the subject of the Netflix film Come Sunday. In a video released by his followers, to his followers, he said, and this should be really telling of what his real problem is. He said, I'm facing death, but I'm not afraid of dying. I don't fear God. And if I was going to fear anybody, I'd fear some of his so-called people because they can be some mean sons of biscuit eaters, as my brother used to say. So he doesn't fear God. He fears his people. That's your problem. You don't fear God. You're an apostate. You're a false prophet, and that's why in November of 2021, he died and went to hell for all eternity. I'm sure he fears God now as he's roasting in hell for all eternity. And really, this is kind of like, these people buy into this Christian universalism. And what this is is the belief that teaches that hell is a later creation of the church and is not supported by the Bible. Well, you know, when you have modern Bible verses that calls it Hades and Sheol and whatever else they want to put in the word hell, like the Bible should actually say in all those verses, they want to just, you know, use, oh, Sheol. What does Sheol mean? It means hell. That's what it means. But then the modern translations like the New King James version will take hell out of the Bible and put Sheol. Nobody knows what that means. Like I said earlier, you go out and ask people, what do you think hell's like? And they know exactly what it is. But nobody knows what Sheol is. Like a shield, like something to block and protect yourself with. That's what people, in the New World Order Bible versions movie, they went out and did like these interviews with people and said, what is Sheol? You know, people don't know what that is, but they know what hell is. Everybody knows what hell is. And so these modern Bible versions, they say, oh, we're just, we're trying to update the language and make it more understandable. Oh, really? Well, then you should not take hell out of the Bible then. But that's what they do. They never have answers for that. When you ask them, well, why do you do that then? They never want to answer those questions, I notice, these little perverts, these Bible pervertors. So it says, in this article, it says, Christian Universalism is a school of Christian theology focused around the doctrine of universal reconciliation. The view that all human beings will ultimately be saved and restored to a right relationship with God. It's heresy. It's what it is. Many people see Jesus as a moral exemplar who personified acceptance, compassion, and inclusion. Although, they do not recognize him as God. So, they're just wrong about everything, pretty much. Universalism focuses exclusively on God's love and mercy and ignores his holiness, justice, and wrath. It also assumes that God's love depends on the sins on what he does for humanity rather than being a self-existing attribute of God present from eternity before man was created. So basically, they just kind of like choose the things that they like out of the Bible and then they just discard the things that they don't like. They don't like the negative parts. They only like the positive parts. This is my old sermon on our YouTube page and made some shorts out of it in honor of him dying and going to hell. So, that was seven years ago, a couple days ago. But, I wanted to read, and he basically turned into one of these universalists. People get really upset about talking bad about what he said on this program. It's on YouTube. You can look at what he said. You can hear out of his own mouth, out of his own lips, what he said. And you can get mad about it all you want, but he was on a program called the Power of Power with Robert Shuler. They're members of the body of Christ. God is calling people out of the world for his name. Whether they come from the Muslim world or the Buddhist world or the non-believing world. They are members of the body of Christ. Oh, that's funny. He says they're all members of the body of Christ because they have been called by God. They may not know the name of Jesus, I'm trying to use his voice, but they know in their hearts that they need something they do not have and they turn to the only light they have. I think that they are saved and they're going to be with us in heaven. How can you say that Billy Graham is saved and that he got people saved when he's spouting off this kind of garbage in 1997? This was from 1997, he lived way past that. He just died like in 2018. So he was saying that kind of garbage then before he was preaching repent of your sins and turn from your sins and stop sinning and all kinds of garbage. Yeah, he would say yeah, you got to believe in Jesus and stuff like that, but he was also adding other stuff to it. He was always a snake. He wasn't like a good guy and then he turned bad. He was always bad. He was always preaching garbage. And so seeking clarification, this Schuler guy who was a weirdo too, he had these Kool-Aid eyes, and he says, what I hear you saying that it's possible for Jesus to come into human hearts and soul and life even if they have been born in darkness and have never had exposure to the Bible. Is that a correct interpretation of what you're saying? So he's asking him to say, he's just clarifying, right? Graham answered, yes, it is. Case closed, folks. He's a false prophet. I mean, why is that so hard for people to understand? Schuler replied, I'm so thrilled to hear you say this. There's a wideness in God's mercy. And Graham added, there is, there definitely is. There. That is damnable heresy, folks. If you're non-believing, that means you don't believe. That means you're already condemned. I mean, there's so many Bible verses that fly in the face of what he said. You have to believe in Jesus or you're gonna go to hell. That's what the Bible teaches. And that kind of stuff is sending people to hell. That is ecumenicalism. That is universalism. That's why Billy Graham is up at the Vatican with all these other different religions while they're waving their little fans and burning incense and all these different Buddhists and stuff. He was kissing the Pope's ring and kissing his big toe. I mean, he was friends with the Pope. He's friends with Johnny Carson. He's on The Tonight Show. Do you think that I would ever get invited onto The Tonight Show? I don't even know if they have The Tonight Show anymore. I know Johnny Carson died, but there's no way. They wouldn't even have any, I mean, they'll have the phony pastors on Larry King Live and all that kind of stuff, but they're never gonna have a real man of God on there. These, and here's another thing that these false religions teach, annihilationism. This is what the Jehovah's Witnesses teach. This is what the Seventh-day Adventists teach. They teach that, yeah, people do go to hell, but they're annihilated. The hot dog does burn up, so to speak. They do, the worm does die. The worm does burn up. But doesn't that fly in the face of what Jesus clearly said in Mark chapter nine? It clearly flies in the face of that, doesn't it? It never is quenched. The fire never goes out. The worm does not die. Your body never burns up in hell. It's forever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever. It never stops. Amen. That's the truth of the matter. So these people are, you know, people are always like, why are you making fun of Billy Graham? Why do you hate on him so much? Did you talk to him before he died? No. I don't think he's taking my phone calls. I'm like, why are you making fun of Ravi Zacharias and they're charlatans, they're phonies, they're fakes. Dude, look, people that are false prophets are sending people to hell. That's why I hate them. God hates them. God wants them destroyed. Once they're destroyed, they're going to hell. He loves them no more. See, God does stop loving people. And people are like, well, when does God stop loving people? Do you think that he stops loving them when they're in hell? Does he still love them? Or does he remember them no more? He forgets their names. Does their name matter anymore? It does not matter anymore. But your name matters if you're in heaven. Your name matters if you're saved. So what's another thing that is important to know about hell? Well, the wicked go there in Psalm, go ahead and turn to Revelation 20, verse 11. I'll read Psalm 9, verse 17. It says, the wicked shall be turned into hell and all the nations that forget God. The wicked shall be turned into hell and all the nations that forget God. These atheistic nations, as a whole, I mean, obviously there's a remnant that is saved in every nation, but these ones that want to be atheists and communists, we're fighting in this country to stop, to not be communists. I mean, it's like, what, you can't learn your lesson from all the other communist nations that have been total hell holes? They take all your guns and stuff and throw you in gulags, and you're like, oh yeah, let's do that. Yeah, sounds like a good idea. Let's be total slaves to our government like China, like Russia was. Revelation 20, verse 11 says, and I saw a great white throne. This is the great white throne judgment, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and heaven fled away, and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God, and the books were opened, and another book was opened, which is the book of life, and the dead were judged out of the things which were written in the books according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them, and they were judged, every man, according to their works. So what's gonna happen? Well, God's gonna pull out the books, and if you're in the book of life, you're gonna go to heaven. But the dead that are in hell, they're gonna be judged according to their works. And guess what? If you're judged according to your works, you're not gonna go to heaven, because everybody has sinned. And if you're judged according to the deeds that you've done, one sin is good enough to get you thrown into hell, so guess what? When you're judged by your works, you're going to hell. Nobody can work their way to heaven. It's not of works, lest any man should boast. Look at verse 14, it says, and death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. Hey, if your name's not written in that book, you're going into the lake of fire. That's all there is to it. So people have like this moment of reprieve, maybe, to where they're just called up, given back their worm bodies, and then they're cast into the lake of fire. They're judged for the final judgment. God pronounces that judgment upon them. They're done forever. And who are the type of people that go there? Well, Revelation 21, verse eight says, but the fearful and unbelieving and the abominable and murderers and whoremongers and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. So who goes there? The wicked go there. And hey, we've all been wicked, too. As if you're saved today, you were wicked once. But you know, people don't have to go there if they get saved. This is the warning. You know, we are warned to stay away from hell, and we don't wanna go where the devil and the angels were. That place was not created for us. It was created for the devil and his angels. Look at, I'll just read for you Matthew 25. Go ahead and turn to, you're in Revelation 20. I'm just gonna read Matthew 25, 41 for you real quick. I gotta hurry up and finish this. Then they, so hell was created for the devil and his angels. It says in Matthew 25, 41, it says, 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. So Jesus will send, and does send human beings to hell, to everlasting fire. See, right, I mean, just that verse there says it's everlasting fire. Prepared for the devil and his angels. Revelation 20, verse 10 says, 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 that torment to the devil and his angels is, again, it lasts forever and ever. Jude 1, six says, and the angels was kept not their first estate but left their own habitation. He hath reserved into everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of that of the great day. So the angels and the devil will all be in hell. It was created for them, it was prepared for them, but human beings fell, and therefore they are cast into hell also. So, and I've already kind of hit on the topic of it being a punishment that lasts forever, but, so I'll skip that, but Revelation 14, 10 and 11 also say if you take the mark of the beast, that that torment ascendeth up forever and ever, there's no rest day or night. And again, you know, people will say, like, hell is separation from God, right? This is what preachers will say to dumb down the gospel. Turn to Revelation 14 real quick, and I'll cover that just real quickly. I know I gotta hurry up here, but I don't have time to finish my notes, but I've only been preaching for an hour, so it was the announcements that went along. It was your fault. So, it's Ryland's fault. Somebody's fault, it's not mine. Blame the people, no, I'm just kidding. Revelation 14, 10 says, and 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, does it say separated from the lamb? No, it says in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the lamb. So, you think that hell is separation from God? Well, where are they getting that from? Because they're not getting that from the Bible. Hell is not separation from God. And even in Psalm 139, seven, it says, whither shall I go from my spirit, or whither shall I flee from my presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there. If I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. There's no way to escape the presence of the Lord. Jonah was just being foolish when he thought he could escape, he could flee from the presence of the Lord. God's everywhere. And certainly going to hell is not escaping the presence of the Lord. So, you know, in my final thoughts, I would just say, if you're not saved, you better get saved. And if you're not afraid of God, you better get afraid of God. You better start to fear him. Because once your mortal body dies, you are done. And I was gonna go into the story in Luke 16, but I just don't have time for that, but it's a good one to read. The rich man lifts up his eyes in hell being in torments, and Lazarus is comforted. But we should fear the Lord. The Bible says in Proverbs 1.7, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction. Don't be a fool. Fools are the ones that go to hell. And in Matthew it says, and fear not then 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. People are afraid of so many things, but you know who you should really be afraid of? The one that can actually, after the body is already dead, throw you into hell. That's who you should actually fear. Fear God. God is the one that can actually throw you in hell. The devil can't throw you in hell. The devil can't do that, but God can. And the Bible says in Revelation 22, 17, it says, and the spirit and the bride say come, and let him that hear us say come, and let him that is athirst come. Don't wait till you're dead in hell and you're so thirsty you can never get a drink of water. Hey, he says, if you're thirsty now, come. He says, and whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. I'd rather have the water of life that's free and it lasts forever, and not have to worry about scrounging for a drip of water and be in hell. So the only way to avoid hell is to take the free gift of salvation, to put your faith and trust in Christ, and never fear hell again. That's why I got saved. In Jude it says, and if some have compassion making a difference, people are like, why are you preaching about this, Pastor Thompson? We already know about hell. Well, not everybody does. And maybe not everybody in here is saved, I don't know. But it says another is saved with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment spotted by the flesh. You know, some people do just get saved through our compassion and whatever, and they already know about hell and everything, but some need to have the hell scared into them. They need to fear hell, and ultimately God is the one that puts people there, so they need to fear the person that can actually put them in there. And Jesus experienced death and hell for you, so you'd never have to experience it for one second. And so if you're not saved, you better get saved. And if you're not fearing the Lord, you should fear him today so that you can have that wisdom to get saved. Let's pray. Lord, thank you so much for the Bible. Thank you so much for a sure doctrine that we can get from the Bible. Lord, I pray that we'd be able to discern our right hand from our left, and that we'd be able to show people. And Lord, that we'd care about people. Lord, there's so many people that just go to hell every single day. I pray that you'd help us to have compassion in our hearts for people, and that we would love people, and we'd tell them about you. Tell them about the Lord Jesus Christ so they could get saved. I pray that you'd help us to discern when we need to turn it on and just show them just how horrible hell really is. And Lord, that we know that there's many people that are going there. I pray that you just help us to have compassion, and that we'd have our first love for you by doing the first work. So in Jesus' name we pray, amen. And our last song this morning would be page 304. Nothing Between, page 304. Nothing Between, page 304, listed up to the Lord on the first. Nothing between my soul and the Savior, not of this world's delusive dream. I have renounced all sinful pleasure, Jesus is mine, there's nothing between. Nothing between my soul and the Savior, so that His blessed face may be seen. Nothing preventing the least of His favor. Keep the way clear, there's nothing between. Nothing between like worldly pleasure, habits of life, though harmless they seem, must not my heart from Him ever sever. He is my all, there's nothing between. Nothing between my soul and the Savior, so that His blessed face may be seen. Nothing preventing the least of His favor. Keep the way clear, let nothing between. Nothing between like bride, like station, self or friend shall not intervene, though it may cost me much tribulation. I am resolved, there's nothing between. Nothing between my soul and the Savior, so that His blessed face may be seen. Nothing preventing the least of His favor. Keep the way clear, let nothing between, on the last, nothing between, and many hard trials, though the whole world against me convene, watching with prayer and much self-denial, I'll triumph at last with nothing between. Nothing between my soul and the Savior, so that His blessed face may be seen. Nothing preventing the least of His favor. Keep the way clear, let nothing between. Amen, thanks for visiting this morning. Love to see you back here this afternoon. Great sermon pastor, and hope you guys get a good lunch in. Brother Alex, you wanna end us with a word of prayer this morning? Dear Lord, thank you for your word and the clear doctrine of health, and thank you for the clear preaching of that this morning. Amen.