 Amen. All right, so here we are in Luke chapter 16, a couple of stories here in the Bible and of course we're going to focus on the latter part of Luke chapter 16 which is the rich man and Lazarus. We hear a we hear a sad story here in the Bible of a man who went to hell and this story talks about this man going to hell and he raises up his eyes after he's died and he's in hell and it talks about, you know, his experience in hell. It's the only, you know, the most vivid story in the Bible where a man is actually in hell and gives his perspective on the situation. So this evening I want to just preach a sermon tonight and talk about hell itself. I want to talk about, you know, what is hell, what does the Bible say about hell and just see if we can kind of imagine hell in the Bible. We talk about it a lot, especially out soul winning. I think it's important that we touch on it, these things, especially when we go out soul winning and for all of you who are out and your, your talkers and your experienced soul winners, you go out and you say things and just like Jesus talked about with vain repetition, sometimes we need to remind ourselves that things that we Bible verses that we say again and again and we need to remind ourselves that, that we don't lose those meanings of those Bible verses. You know, as we say things over and over and as you may explain hell to someone a hundred times, you know, it may lose its seriousness to you and we need to just kind of constantly refresh ourselves because look, the idea of hell is important to the soul winner and we'll get that, get to that at the end of the sermon with a little bit of application. But let's just look at hell in the Bible. Turn to Matthew chapter 25. We'll just look at hell in the Bible for a few minutes and then we'll see how it's important to us. Look, we're not going to go to hell. Thank God. None of us here, if you're saved, you are never going to go to hell and thank God for that. What an ease of, you know, off of our shoulders that is nothing that could ever go wrong. This whole city could burn down tonight and we know that we are not going to go to hell. Everybody could get sickness and disease on this earth and we know that we're never going to go to hell. That is a huge comfort to us. That's why we should fear nothing. We should fear nothing but the Lord and it's very simple. All right. But look, hell is a serious thing that many people have to worry about. All right. So let's take a look at it this evening for a few minutes. Matthew 25, look down at verse number 41. What is hell? What is hell? The Bible says in Matthew 25, 41, then shall he say unto them on the left hand, depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels. So look, here's this idea of these people that are going into everlasting fire. These certain people Jesus is saying are going to go into this place of everlasting fire that was prepared for the devil and his angels. So the first point is this. Look, this is not Satan's hangout. You know, hell is not a place that Satan is hanging out in that he wants to go to that he rules over. It's nothing like that at all. I don't know where that idea came from, you know, other than, you know, loony tunes, cartoons, but it is not Satan's hangout. It is a place that was prepared for Satan and his angels. Turn to Revelation chapter 14. Look, we even get to see the beauty of the Bible is this. The beauty of hell and the judgment of God and the wrath of God is that God gives us the ending. God tells us how it's going to end. And look, we don't know exactly how it's going to go down. We don't know when it's going to go down. We don't know what all these different things that are going on in our world really mean until, you know, we're looking back at these things. But look, we know how it's going to end. We know the end of the story because God gives it to us. Look at Revelation in chapter 20. Revelation, did I say Revelation 14? Go to Revelation in chapter, hang on, I think I messed up here. Revelation chapter 20, I'm sorry. Revelation chapter 20 and look at verse number one. And the Bible says this, we get the ending of the story folks. And I saw an angel come down from heaven having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. Where did this angel come from? He came from heaven. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is who? I mean, is this confusing? Which is the devil and Satan and bound him a thousand years and cast him into the bottomless pit and shut him up and set a seal upon him that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years should be fulfilled. And after that he must be loosed a little season. This of course telling us the story about the devil being cast into hell, you know, as the millennial reign begins, the millennial reign of Christ. So look, the angel with the key came from heaven. The angel with the seal came from heaven. God controls throwing people into hell. God control has the key to hell because God created hell. God controls everything about hell because He created hell for the devil and his angels. Now where is it? Turn to Psalm chapter 63. Psalm chapter 63. So this idea that Satan has any control over anything or he wants to go there, Satan doesn't want to go to hell either. And you'll find out why as we study more about hell. Look at Psalm 63 in verse number nine. The Bible says, but those that seek my soul to destroy it shall go into the lower parts of the earth. Turn to Ezekiel 26. So the Bible talks about hell being in the lower parts of the earth. That's a very specific place that is a real physical place. Ezekiel 26, look at verse number 19. The Bible says, for thus saith the Lord God when I shall make thee a desolate city like the cities that are not inhabited, when I shall bring up the deep upon thee and the great waters shall cover thee, when I shall bring thee down with them that descend into the pit with the people of old time and shall set thee in the low parts of the earth in places desolate of old and with them that go down into the pit thou shall not be inhabited and I shall set glory in the land of the livings. Turn to Ephesians chapter 4. Look, the Bible even says that Jesus went there. The Bible says in Acts 231 I'll read for you while you're turning to Ephesians 4. The Bible says he seeing this before, talking about David, prophesying that Jesus would go to hell, seeing this before a spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell. Neither did his flesh see corruption, proving that Jesus's soul when he died went to this place called hell which is in the lower parts of the earth. Ephesians 4.9 backs this up. It says now that he ascended, but what is it but that he also descended first? I mean, how could you not say that Jesus didn't go to hell? I mean, it is so clear in the Bible. I mean, there's people, I mean, I'm not, look, it doesn't really have to do, I don't think, with your salvation to believe this, but how it is so clear in the Bible that Jesus, I mean, now that he ascended, I mean, we know he ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God, but that he also descended first, well, where? Into the lower parts of the earth. I mean, we know that to be hell. He descended is the same that also ascended up far above the heavens that he might fill all things. So we see that hell, I mean, hell isn't this magical other dimension. Hell is literally in the lower parts of the earth that we are standing on right now. Look, on a spherical surface, the earth being a round sphere, I'm not even going to make reference to it. Don't even look at me like that. That's the center. The lower parts of the earth, the lowest part of a spherical object is the center. The center of the earth. And look, here's the funny thing. Science actually agrees with this. Science actually agrees with the idea that the center of our earth is this molten ball of fire or whatever. And I mean, it doesn't take, you know, a rocket scientist to figure out that, you know, when a volcano explodes and, you know, the earth is opened, lava comes out. I mean, you can see it, right? But look, scientists figured this out, you know, decades ago. But look, the Russians, here's what's really interesting. The Russians tried to drill through the crust of the earth in like the 70s. They actually tried to drill through the, I mean, if you've ever seen like a model of the earth, they have the crust, which is this tiny little thin layer. It's like 30 miles. And then the rest of it's this mantle, which is, you know, thousands of miles. And then the core, the molten core that scientists believe is the core, is the very center. Look, so the Russians tried to drill through the crust of the earth to find out what was in the mantle. They weren't even thinking about getting to the core because it's so far. All right? So they tried to drill and they started in the 70s. And here's what happened. The borehole reached about 40,000 feet into the crust of the earth, which was about a third of the way through the crust of the earth. And they actually had to stop for what reason? It was too hot. It was too hot. It was melting the bits. It was melting the machinery. They couldn't keep the bits cool. There's no, so basically, there's no material on planet earth. Look, I think it's funny. We were talking about why we couldn't have a, we're going to talk about space elevators real quick. We're talking about why we couldn't have a space elevator this morning before church. But the bottom line is that there's no material on planet earth that is strong enough to make a cable that can support itself that's, you know, 300 miles long. There's just no material that's available to us. I've worked in thermal power plants for, you know, 15 years. And the reason that we can only get so much efficiency out of a certain power plant, look, all you have to do to get a thermal machine to operate more efficiently is just make hotter temperatures and higher pressures. That's it. We know how to do that, but there's no material that can contain it. See? So God has put these, these boundaries on us. Maybe God doesn't want us drilling into hell. You ever think about that? Maybe. It's all, you know, it's funny when you look at things with a science perspective and a Bible perspective. It's almost like you're smarter that way when you look at things from a biblical perspective. So these Russians, they try to drill through the crust of the earth, the crust, the tiny little, the skin of the apple. Think of it that way. They couldn't even get a third of the way through because God basically said, no, you're done. It was too hot. Now look, there's all kinds of YouTube videos. We can go on YouTube and they had to stop drilling because they heard people screaming. That's not true. Okay? They stopped drilling because it got too hot, because the earth is hot. You actually, the earth itself, even the earth under your feet gives heat. The earth itself is in North Dakota. You actually can make heating systems for your home by digging down about 10 feet, burying pipes in the ground. And that ground is always about 55 degrees. So that provides heat. You say that's heat? Yeah. Well, when it's negative 20 degrees outside and you can pull 55 degree heat, you're adding B to U's. So you can get heat from the center of the earth. You're literally heating your home with hell. Think about it that way. Because the earth is warm and the further down you get, the hotter it gets. All right? So look, science agrees here. Science agreed. But a couple of things I want to point out. The temperature of this borehole, they had to stop because the temperature was over twice as hot as they thought it was going to be. Okay? And you will find this over and over and over again when people theoretically, you know, they theorize the way something's going to go and then they actually experiment and do it. It's usually very different. All right? So it was twice as hot as they thought it was going to be. So they had to stop. All right? They were also, here's another thing. They were also completely wrong on the makeup of what the material of the crust was made of. Completely wrong. So what does this tell you about, this isn't in the sermon. I'm just going to talk about this. What does this tell you about all these people that say, oh, these rocks are billions of years old and these fossils are this many years old and the earth was made, you know, 2.3 billion years ago? Look, they can't even tell you what's in the top third of the crust. You will have people who are PhDs in college and teaching geology and they'll say, oh, this layer is this and this layer. They have no idea. They have no idea. They drilled down and there was all kinds of hydrogen gas and all kinds of different types of rock and all types of fluids. They had no clue what was down there until they actually did it. All right? So all that to say this, you know, you base your beliefs on the Bible, number one, and what can actually be proven through experiments. That's it. That's my theory, right? There's your theory on what to believe, right there. If somebody's done an experiment on something, okay, let's talk, right? But look, all this archaeology, all this geology, it's just some high school science teacher or some college professor that's been teaching the same thing for 30 years and is just writing the same thing on a chalkboard acting like he's an expert. They don't have any idea until you do it, all right? Astronomy, don't even get me started. Same thing. They have no idea what's out there. It's all theory. It's all theory. At the end of the day, we don't know what we don't know. It's that simple, all right? But look, here's the funny thing. The Bible actually knew what was in the center of the earth way before any scientist even had a theory on what was in the center of the earth, right? But everything else is, you know, speculation. All these scientists, it's just speculation. So we know that hell, back to the sermon, we know that hell is below us. We know that people descend into hell. It's the lower parts of the earth and that it's fire. We know that. Look back at Luke chapter 16. Luke chapter 16. I mean, it's a sad story of this guy that goes to hell. I mean, the guy doesn't sound like a bad, horribly human being. I mean, he's in hell. I'm sure that's a humbling experience for anybody, you know, waking up in hell, opening your eyes and finding yourself in hell. But look at Luke 16 in verse number 24. We know that it's a place of fire from the Bible. We don't need, you know, theories on it. We know it's a place of fire. The Bible says in Luke 16, 24, the guy cries. He says, I am tormented in this flame. In Matthew 13, 42, I'll just read it for you. Turn to Matthew 25. Matthew 13, 42, Jesus says, and shall cast them into a furnace of fire. And there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Look, people are going to be crying out. They are going to be suffering. They are going to be gnashing their teeth together in pain because of the fire. In Matthew 25, 41, Jesus says, depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire. So we see that hell is a literal place in the center of the earth. It's a place of fire. Volcanoes is hell opening to the surface of the earth as a witness to us. We hiked a volcano a couple of years ago or a year ago or whenever it was. We're hiking up the volcano. It's the one that blew up a few months ago. We're hiking up the volcano and it's literally smoking under our feet. There's literally sulfur, which is brimstone by the way. There's literally sulfur gas coming up out of the ground that we're walking on. And then a few months later, the thing actually blows up and is spewing lava everywhere. I mean, look, we have witness to this. We don't have to speculate. The Bible tells us and then God shows us. Turn to Numbers chapter 16. It's a witness to us. This is God showing us what the Bible says. This is God proving to us what the Bible says. Even times in the Bible, hell has opened. God has opened hell in the Bible. Look at Numbers chapter 16. Look at verse number 31. These are people that turned against the children of Israel, turned against the leadership, turned against Moses. Look at Numbers 16 and verse number 31. And the Bible says, And it came to pass, as he had made an end of the speaking all these words, that the ground clave a sunder that was under them. And the earth opened her mouth and swallowed them up and their houses and all the men that appertained unto Korah and all her goods. Now you say, oh, maybe just a crack in the earth opened up. Look at verse 33. They and all that appertained to them went down alive into the pit and the earth closed upon them and they perished from among the congregation. And all Israel that were round about them fled at the cry of them for they said, lest the earth swallow us up also. Look, it's a literal place of fire in the center of the earth. And God has opened it in the Bible and he has opened it several times for us to see on this earth. You know, when volcanoes explode or there's magma coming up anywhere, whatever, how much more evidence of hell, of a literal hell, do we need is the question. And look, the Bible knew it already. You know, look, there could have been, here's the funny thing, there could have been anything. I mean, there could have been anything at the center of the earth for all scientists. No, it could have been water, it could have been rock, it could have been, you know, heavy metals. I mean, you would think that, you know, a scientist would think like, you know, you ever heard of how they gold mine? They like take all these rocks and dirt and they shake it so the heaviest, you know, the heaviest substance or the heaviest materials fall to the bottom, which is what? What's the heaviest metal? Gold, lead, mercury, these types of things. They all fall to the bottom and then they can get, they can separate the gold. You would think that, you know, that'd be a pretty decent theory. I think that the whole center of the earth is mercury. But no, it's fire. It's, it's, it's eternal fire. The Bible says, and the Bible was right. The Bible was right. So, we know where hell is. We know what hell is. Who's going there? Turn to Luke chapter 13. Turn to Luke chapter 13. Luke chapter 13. And look at verse number 23. The Bible says in Luke 13 verse 23, then said one unto him, Lord, are there few that be saved? And he said unto them, Strive to enter in at the straight gate, for many I say unto you will seek to enter in and shall not be able. Turn to Matthew chapter 7. Let's get a little bit more perspective on this story. Look at Matthew chapter 7 in verse number 13. Matthew chapter 7 in verse number 13, where the Bible says, Jesus says kind of the same thing here. It says, enter in at the straight gate, for why does the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction? And many be there, be which go in there at. So, but Jesus is saying, look, they asked him, the context of this answer is, are there few that be saved? And Jesus says, basically, yes, there's few, because broad is the way that leads to destruction. And then verse 14, because straight is the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. So look, you should be very, very thankful every single day of your life because very few people are going to heaven. It's a sad thing to report. Very few people, most people, most people are going to hell. And that's one of the things that you will find that Christians and people that believe in God or whatever out there, it's a total misconception today. And look, if you're a soul winner, and you talk to people, and you kind of get a feel for where people are at, because being a soul winner will give you a feel for where people are at in this country today. And you will find that most people think that if you're pretty good, you're going to heaven. And if you're pretty, if you're really bad, you're going to hell. And you will find that most people think that most people are good enough to get to heaven, especially themselves. So people have this exactly wrong today. Even Christians that go to these, that's one of the biggest, one of the biggest frauds of the watered-down church today, even if they have the right gospel. And I don't think there's that many that do anymore. But one of the biggest frauds is that just, you know, God's just a loving God, he's just not going to send people to hell. But John 3.36 says, he that believeth on the sun, hath everlasting life, but he that believeth not, wrath of God abideth upon him. Look, most people are going to go to hell. Most people in this world, if you're a soul winner, I mean, you're not even, that doesn't even shock you even a little bit because you know most people aren't saved. You assume that most people, you assume that when you go to someone's door that they're not saved, just because of the fact that 99% of the people you run into aren't saved. That's the bottom line. So most people are going to go there. Jesus said it himself. How could you come out and say that most people are going to go to heaven when Jesus in his own words said, the broad is the way and many are going to go to destruction? So when are they going to go there? Turn back to Luke 16. Are they going to go to sleep and then the millennial reign, you know, there's all kinds of weird doctrines out here about when people go to heaven, when people go to hell, you know, the different places in between. It's really much simpler than that. And it makes sense that it would be simple because the gospel is very simple, right? So I mean, how could the gospel, think about it this way, how could the gospel be simple? If like, you know, if you're saved, you're going to go to this weird place for a while and you got to be in this, you know, like evangelical purgatory for a while. And then if you're, you know, you're damned, you're not, you're going to go to sleep. And then, you know, for however long till the end and then after the wrath, I mean, that's very confusing. I mean, that's very confusing. It's much simpler than that. Immediately when you die is when you're going to go to wherever you're going to go. Look at Luke 16 and verse 19. That's why this story is so important to us in the Bible. There's so much information here on what happens to someone after they die. In verse number 19, it says there was a certain rich man with closed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day. There was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate full of sores. And desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table, moreover the dogs came and lit his sores. And it came to pass that the beggar died and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom. And so we see right away that as soon as he dies, he's carried to heaven. He goes to heaven right away. And then right away we see the rich man also died and was buried. And in hell he lift up his eyes. So immediately he dies and he lifts up his eyes and he's there. He's in hell, being in torments and seeing Abraham afar off and Lazarus in his bosom. So as soon as your life on this earth is over, you're going to go to wherever you're going to go. You're going to be there. And look, look at verse, go to, let me get to Luke 16, and look at verse number 26 of Luke 16, where the Bible says, And besides all this, between us there is a great golf fix so that they which could pass from hence to you cannot, neither can they pass to us that would come from then. So look, not only are you going to, you know, not only are you there as soon as your life on this earth is over, I mean I tried to explain this to this kid today. And I was like, look, you know, you're 20 years old or whatever you are. But and everyone, here's the thing, everyone will admit this. I'm like, how do you know how much longer you have on this earth? And because all these kids now, especially in some of these neighborhoods are like, yeah, you know, you're right, I could die right now. You know, that's how they all are. So why aren't you more concerned about this? You know, I mean, I told them, I was like, I could step out in the street and get hit by a car right now. We have no idea when our life on this earth is going to be over. But look, as soon as this life on this earth is over, you're either in heaven for eternity, or you're in hell for eternity. That's it. It's a done deal at that point. That's what the Bible teaches. And look, verse number 26 says that once you're in that place, it's eternity either way. It's eternal either way. And no one knows when that will be. So look, everyone's a gambler out there. Everyone is gambling with their eternity out there. And I mean, you have these people that are so cautious about everything, and they're so afraid about everything. But this, they don't seem to be worried about. You know, I mean, they're so concerned about, you know, coronavirus or whatever. And this, they're not concerned at all about. It's weird. It's not logical. It's very strange. Look, every single day, most people, the vast majority of people on earth are risking an eternity in hell. I mean, that's quite a risk. And it's because of the cares of this world. We know why it is. It's because of the cares of this world. They're just blinded to it. That's it. So look, we see, we know what hell is. We know what hell is. We see what the Bible says about hell. It's been proven to us. We know it's a real place in the center of the earth. We know that people are going to go there if they're unsaved and they die. So what is the application here? The application is this. I mean, do we believe the Bible? It's really what it comes down to. We basically have an entire population of the world walking towards a cliff is what we have. I mean, look, I mean, millions, yay, billions of people are already there. I mean, when a person dies, they open their eyes in torments. We all know people who have died. We all know, look, and you may not like think about this, but we all know people who were not saved and died. We all know people that maybe we're close to us, maybe that we loved. We all know people who have died and have opened their eyes in torments. We know those people and we don't like to think about it, but maybe we should. Look, these people, when a person dies and they're not saved, they're going to open their eyes. They're going to be conscious. And you know what? They will remember the soul winner. I often think about that. I often think about that when I talk to someone and they're just not interested. Or I talk to someone and I explain the gospel to them and they understand the gospel and they say, no, thank you. I'm not going to accept that. I think about that person because they will remember me in that moment when they open their eyes. They will remember the soul winner. I mean, will they remember you? Will they remember will they remember you? Will you have situations where you can say, you know, that I tried with a person, right? Look, they will remember. They will remember that they thought that a loving God would never create a place like that. They'll remember that too. They'll remember all these false things that they believed about God. They'll remember all these false things that they were taught and that they accepted because that's what they wanted to hear. They'll remember all these things, but then they will recognize right away that God is a holy God and he must punish sin. Joshua 2419 says, for he is a holy God, he is a jealous God. You know what? Another thing it shows? I mean, it shows how, I mean, think about it. Think about a person that's a pretty good person. A nice guy, he does, you know, some good things in his life. He tries to love his wife and raises some kids and works hard all his life, but he just doesn't believe in Christ. Think about that guy. Think about that guy dying and going to hell and suffering for eternity, right? Think about that because that's what's going to happen, right? Look, there's going to be really nice guys in maybe our eyes that end up going to hell forever. But you know what that tells us? That tells us that we're really desensitized to sin because that guy is a sinner just like you and me and he's broken God's law just like you and me and he deserves it just like you and me. So don't, you know, we're so, we just have this worldly view of things that these are nice people and these are bad people and these people do this sin and thus they're not good people. Look, none of us are good. None of us are good. Even the nice guy is not good. That's why you have to believe on Jesus Christ or you're going to pay for what you did. You're going to pay. Look, the punishment fits the crime. It's that simple. And if you don't think so, you're desensitized to sin, period. It's the most serious punishment. Turn to Mark chapter nine. Imagine, you know, the person just arriving in hell. You know, imagine, you know, imagine the shock of that. Imagine the shock of that. The person just arriving in hell. Imagine the pain, you know, the torment. But look at Mark chapter nine and verse forty-four. This is another thing that I often think about. Mark chapter nine and verse number forty-four. The Bible says this, it says, talking about someone that's in hell, it says, where there worm dyeth not, and the fire is not quenched. You know what that means? You know what that means? That means that the worst thing about that person being in hell, that guy lifted up his eyes and he realized he was in hell and he was in pain. He was in torments. He was in those everlasting chains. But you know what the worst thing has got to be? The worst thing has got to be when you realize that it's never going to end. You know, when you realize, you know, I mean, I hurt my shoulder like a month and a half ago and I was like, man, am I like, am I going to have to deal with this like the rest of my life, like this shoulder pain? And then luckily, you know, after a couple weeks, you know, it got better and then it went away. But the thing is, I was sitting there and I was thinking about, you know, this shoulder pain. I was like, I don't want to have to, what if it's something serious and I have to have surgery? And I'm like, maybe I could just live with it. Maybe I could just live with that pain, right? But look, when you're in hell and you're in that kind of torments and then you realize, you must realize this all instantly. And then you realize that this is never going to end and you're going to have to, you're never going to get used to it. You're never going to get used to it. There's no rest from it and you're not going to die. I mean, when you're in horrible pain like that, there must be at least a thought in your mind like this is just going to be over soon. But when you realize that you're warm, die if not, it's never going to end. You're never going to get good at it. You're never going to get used to it. You're warm will never die. That's what that means. Turn to Philippians chapter 2. It does make some sense of this though. It does make some sense of Philippians chapter 2 in verse number 10. Because look, if you didn't really believe all these literal things about hell and you were a soul winner, which it would be difficult to not believe literal hell and also be a soul winner. But look, if you didn't really believe all these eternal aspects of hell and the seriousness of it, and then you read Philippians chapter 2 in verse number 10, this would be difficult to imagine this actually coming true. But the Bible says in Philippians 2.10 that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow of things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth. And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Turn to Revelation chapter 20. Look, think of the most hardened person you've ever met out so many. And think of, you know, these people that just mock the Bible, these people that just hate God, these people that just have like just disdain for Jesus Christ. And just think of like what would it ever take? You could probably literally threaten these people or even kill these people and they would never say anything good about Jesus Christ. They hate God that much. You will find these people. You know, that's another benefit of being a soul winner. You will get a full spectrum of what's out there from the way good to the way bad. You'll get it all. But look, how would this person ever bow his knee to Christ? How would this person ever confess with their mouth Christ? How? Well, guess what? Turn to Revelation chapter 20. Look at verse number 11. Here's how. In the Bible says, and I saw a great white throne in him that sat on it from whose face the earth and the 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 open which is the book of life and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books according to their works. These are the people that have now been pulled out of hell and they're being judged for their works. So guess what? You're going to be judged for your works if you're not saved. If you're not covered by the blood of Jesus Christ, you'll be judged by your works on this earth and you're going to come up in debt as we talked about this morning. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it and the death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them and they were judged every man according to their works. So here these people are being brought out of hell. They're being brought out of hell and they're being brought before this great white throne. You don't think they're going to be down on their knees begging? Don't put me back there. Bowing their knee, confessing that Jesus Christ is Lord, everything. Don't put me back there. Don't throw us back in there because they've been in pain and suffering and torments for hundreds, thousands of years and they're going to be pulled out and they're going to stand before God and they're going to be judged by their works and then they're going to be cast into the lake of fire for eternity. But at that moment between verse number 13 and verse number 14 is when Philippians 2 verse 10 and 11 will be fulfilled they will beg for mercy. They will bow that knee and look they deserve that they should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord and they should bend their knee but it's too late for them at that point to avoid the eternal suffering. Look you say it's harsh. Look the punishment fits the crime is the bottom line. That's what the Bible says. I mean so that brings us to us. The punishment look if you sit there and you say the punishment sounds so serious but that's why our job is so serious because the punishment is that serious. I mean that I mean that really puts the duty of the soul winner in perspective doesn't it? Really puts it in some context doesn't it? So those of you who are like I think I'll go soul winning one day maybe I'll give the gospel one day. I mean what in the world? Maybe I'll give the gospel today maybe I won't. I mean what in the world? I mean it is an emergency situation for like everybody. It's like you're at a beach and you're a lifeguard and everybody's drowning and you're like maybe I'll decide to learn how to swim one day and everyone's just dying. I mean it really puts the soul winner in perspective. Do you know that if we had 10 talkers out soul winning today we will get more people saved than if we had seven? Do you know that? I mean well let me get specific. I was going to give kind of a tip this morning but let me just get specific. I kind of had a decent conversation with Frank out soul winning today but let me ask you let me ask the men a question. Do you guys like soul winning? So let me ask you know spouse is a question. Let's say we have a spouse who likes to go soul winning and we have a spouse who doesn't. I mean I asked brother Frank do you like to go soul winning and he's like I love soul winning. I mean I know you love soul winning. I mean I love soul winning too. Okay look we all have those days where it's just kind of like I mean there's those days where it's just like man I'm just I'm grinding it out today. You're stressed out you're tired whatever but look in general I love soul winning. There's so many good things about it. I mean there's so many look there's selfish things about it. I like hanging out. It's one of the best times for me to talk with you all. It's one of the best times I have for fellowship to find out you know what what's going on with you. What's going on in your life. I mean it's great that we fellowship all together but I get to know individuals in the church best out soul winning period. It's always been that way. It's always been that way in Sacramento. That's all I met my best friends. That's all I got to know you know the most about people. That's when people can talk you know personally with each other about something that's going on or that they can help each other with. Look it's the best fellowship first of all. You will get you I mean this these are selfish things. This has nothing to do with the person's soul with the door. This is just something God's given me for being there. I mean think of it. There you will you will learn so much about people. You'll become so much you know that my daughter is I'm sorry Ashley. My daughter is an introvert. My daughter is kind of a quiet person. You know that if her mother didn't encourage her and lead her into soul winning you know she never would have done it. Do you know that now she's this outgoing this I hear her soul winning and I'm just like where did this come from. Nothing will give it gives you know it's given her confidence. It's it's I mean it's it's blessed her life. It's blessed it's it will bless all of your lives because you think you're going to go out there and you're going to do the labor for God. I mean I told I told Brother Frank I'm like I'm like of course you love it because we're out here hanging out. You're doing what you're supposed to do. You're doing God's work. You're doing the one biggest thing that the Lord wants you to do. Of course you love it. So could you help your spouse love it too. I mean if I love something that's good and the Bible says and then my wife just hates it maybe I should focus on that and I should help there maybe there's a problem there with the my management of the situation and you know we're going to talk about one aspect of that today which is kids and look if I can't be an example to you in this because my kids are older but look we have women in Sacramento that are dragging six seven kids soul winning women and men and no problem no problem it can be done there's a method it can be done and look the bottom line is you need to if if your wife or your hot your wife is having a hard time out soul winning she doesn't like doing it maybe try to make it easier on her maybe take those kids maybe let her go but on her own look I mean if you have kids causing problems and you're trying to listen to somebody give the gospel it's not going to work it's going to be a stressful terrible situation you're not going to enjoy it and it's going to drive you further from it men we need to help out men you need to help your wife you need to help your wife here now to all the non-talkers look I know you know look to all the non-talkers that are out that are soul winners it's great that you're out soul winning but here's the thing we've been here for nine months we just start the church yesterday you know this is an emergency situation you know people are going to hell every single day look there will always be a reason to not do what you are supposed to do I mean if I have seen one thing consistently over and over and over since I started this ministry it is that that there will always be a reason for people to not do what they're supposed to do and guess what turn to mark chapter 16 none of them are good remember last week when we talked about you know taking God's will in vain well here's God's will right here look at mark 16 you probably don't even have to turn there and he said to them go ye into all the world and preach the gospel onto every creature that is God's will for your life right there look that is God's will that you go out and you preach the gospel to every creature and anything that you put in between you and that goal is not God's will it's that simple it is God's will that you go out and preach the gospel and if you say well you know this is going on look that's your will that's fine you make that decision but that's your will don't make your words God's words period the situation is urgent folks look it's it's everlasting all around we're sitting here how long is everlasting you tell the kid today well forever it never ends how long is eternal forever it never ends how long is eternal damnation how long are everlasting chains it's forever it's forever i don't even like thinking about it we all know people who we loved who died unsaved we all know and you know what if you don't become a season soul winner there will be people that you love that will not get saved there's another one so you say i don't i don't give two cents about the people in these neighborhoods well you know what do you care about the people that are not saved in your own family because there will be people in your own family and i mean i get these people all the time that are like they never soul win they're never going to go soul winning i've never seen them soul win one time but every time i see them they're like oh i'm soul winning all over the place give me a break we've all seen the person that comes here for the first time and tries to give the gospel to somebody you have no idea what they're doing they're like just waving the sword around hacking things all over the place they don't know what they're doing but that's what we're supposed to do we're supposed to be here to sharpen each other to become good at this to become proper ambassadors for christ and you know what that's what's happening here and that's what can happen to any of you it's god's will it's god's will for your life it's the will for your life i mean can i be more clear hell is real it's right now it's right around the corner for many people we need to take it seriously let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer dear heavenly father thank you for this church i thank you for this evening um i thank you for all these people war that would take a full day today and just come here to worship you and go out and just put their feet to the pavement lord and just you know go out and just try to get as many people saved as they can what i pray that you just strengthen us as a church and just grow us as a church lord i thank you for um your word and the clear direction that you give us in your word lord that you didn't you're not surprising us with anything you told us everything you told us how it began you told us the beginning and you told us the end and you told us everything in between i pray that you just give us the courage and the strength and the faith to just execute what we're supposed to execute in this tiny little blip that is our life on this earth lord we love you and i thank you and jesus name amen