He is the best thing that's ever happened to me. And if you don't know him, then you're missing out. So you need to know him before it's too late. I was studying today, and I was listening to a sermon from Bonnie, trying to gather my thoughts and gather my direction, I guess. I don't know. It's funny how I just think about that. I was thinking about listening to a sermon from Bunny and how that he still leads me. Now, even my pastor from 43 years ago, he's still leading me and saying his words that he spoke. I think that sermon I listened to today is from like 1987. And he's still leading. And his leadership, his guidance, his direction is still evident in my life. And I praise God for him and what he's done in my life. And I praise God for allowing him to be a big part of my life. But we're going to be in Luke chapter 16 tonight. Luke chapter 16 verse 19 through 31. Now on Wednesday night I teach the middle school and high school class and we have been, I don't know if you call it, Van wants to call it a debate. We've been debating on hell a little bit and I've been thinking, I mean I've been studying and reading and trying to find scripture on hell. We're not debating anything that can hinder the faith. We're not debating anything that really matters in the grand scheme of things, because as long as we're Christians, it doesn't matter what hell is, right? But I want us to see, as a Christian, what hell is, because I want us to see what we've escaped as Christians. And I want us to see that, and I know that if you're not a Christian, you've never been saved, I want you to see what may await you one day if you're not saved by the grace of God. So the title of this message, I would say, Hell, the Future of the Wicked. It's the future of the wicked. I was thinking about, this is where it all started on Wednesday night when I was teaching the kids on the rich man and Lazarus and some questions arose and some of my theories that I thought of where hell was. where the hell literally is in the universe or in all of creation. And that was what the debate was about. It wasn't nothing. He didn't believe it's where I believe it is, but see, that's nothing that's going to separate us if we believe differently. So I'm not saying that he was debating something. As long as we're not telling my so we can disagree on a lot of things and we can debate about a lot of things, even biblical things. We may disagree on some things, but the only thing we cannot disagree or debate about is that Jesus is the Son of God. He died, rose again three days later, and he's the only way to get to heaven. I said we'll never debate about that, because that's the one thing that we cannot debate so. We debated a little bit. We've talked about this for several weeks and I don't think I don't know if I've convinced him my way and I don't he convinced me his way. So we're just at a a good conversation. It's really just good conversation between the middle schoolers and high schoolers and I know that some of them like through I've talked to Diane and said Landon Van's been talking about it on the way home and Pat told me Cameron she sent me an article about hell that Cameron had obviously been talking about it on the way home. So if it keeps these young people thinking about it and talking about it, I feel like maybe God's really using it, even if it's just to maybe have a disagreement and then look up scripture and show them why I believe what I believe biblically. So that's where my mind's been, so that's where my mind's going again tonight. So in Luke chapter 16 and verse 19, I've got a lot of scripture tonight, but you just bear with me and we'll get through this. And I believe the devil doesn't want me to preach this, so you just pray for me as we preach this that God will use it. It says, there was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day. And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate full of sores, and desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table. Moreover, the dogs came and licked his sores." You see the pitiful state that Lazarus was in here. I mean, it was just a miserable, I'm sure, a miserable state of life. This is about Lazarus here, and this message is not about Lazarus unless God just takes off about Lazarus right here, right now. But Lazarus laying at the gate of this rich man. This rich man, you can see the difference between the rich man's life and Lazarus' life here. The rich man, he's fared sumptuously. I'm telling you, when he went to the dinner table, it was probably full of food. He could probably eat whatever he wanted to, whenever he wanted to, but you have Lazarus here laying at the rich man's gate, just waiting for just maybe a crumb to fall from the rich man's table. And I see a lot of times in life, I think sometimes in life, we look at people in this world and we think, how come they have it so good and we have it so bad? But listen, One of these days, more than likely, we're going to be able to say, well, they've got it bad, and we've got it good. Because one of these days, we'll be sitting at the master's table in heaven. And we'll see that even in this story. So Lazarus here, laying at the gate, full of sores. The dogs are coming by to lick his sores. It says, and it came to pass that the beggar died and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom. Now, the rich man also died and was buried. Now, I stopped there because this is where the debate kind of came in a little bit. We were talking about Abraham's bosom. Now, Abraham's bosom, now we got to know that Abraham's bosom was not heaven, but Abraham's bosom was for all the people who believed that Jesus was coming. Was coming because nobody could go to heaven unless Jesus died and resurrected. Nobody could go to heaven until Jesus came and died on the cross. So all the people that died like David and Moses and Noah and Adam and Eve and all those people that put their faith that Jesus was coming. It's almost like you draw the cross here and everything from here to the cross was was. You had faith in Jesus was coming, but now after the cross, everybody believes that Jesus came, right? So now that's where we're at now. Because Jesus came, he died on the cross, and now we believe that Jesus did come. But for all those people that would believe that Jesus was coming, they went to Abraham's bosom. They didn't go to heaven. They didn't go to heaven to be with God. But when Jesus died and was resurrected, and I believe in those three days, He went and set the captives free. Those were the people that were in Abraham's bosom. He went and got those people out of Abraham's bosom and took them to heaven. I believe that's when they entered into heaven. Okay? So, The debate came in here in just a minute. And in hell he lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. So now you see the rich man dies and goes to hell. And he says that he lifted up his eyes and he could see Lazarus afar off. And he could see that he was inside Abraham's bosom. Now this is my, where is hell, the literal hell? And this is my opinion. This is my thought on it. And I'm not going to tell you that if you disagree with me, you're wrong. I'm just going to say that if you disagree with me, then we just disagree, all right? And we love each other still. Because I really don't care where hell is because I don't need to get there one day. I don't need directions to a place I'm not going, so I don't really care where it is. But just for a conversation, I believe hell is in the center of the earth. I mean, this is just my belief, and me and Patty talked about it a little bit Wednesday night, and I don't know if she believes it that way, and that's fine, Patty, that's fine, right? We can disagree and be happy together, and that's fine, we can still worship together. There's just a lot of things that I look at and point to, it's like it's in the heart of the earth. It talks about, and this is not even where the message was supposed to go tonight. I wasn't even gonna read this up, but I want y'all to know what we're debating about. But I believe it's in Ephesians chapter four. It talks about Jesus when, let me, I'm just gonna have to look it up, because I don't wanna. of the into heaven, right? He says he ascended up on high. He led captivity captive. So that means he took the captives up on high and he ascended up on high. And he says, and gave gifts unto men. But now verse nine says, now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first, he descended first into the lower parts of the earth. I mean that right there just, I mean that's not really, you better believe what I believe now because I, but this is just, that just makes me think that hell was in the center of the earth. Because he ascended up, he took the captives, but he descended first, it says, into the lower parts of the earth. Now, it may not be that hell's in the center of the earth, and I'm not going to sit here and argue with you and tell you you're wrong, but that's just my belief right now. That's what I believe, that hell's in the center of the earth. So, we were talking about that, and Van didn't believe it's in the center of the earth, and that's fine. That is fine with me. I don't care, really. Like I said, it doesn't matter where hell is. It doesn't really matter to me where heaven is, as long as God's there and Jesus is there, right? And it says, anyway, back on track here. And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torment, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue. For I am tormented in this flame. So this is where we really wanted to maybe point to most about hell. right here is that he wanted him to dip his finger in water. How much water can you get on the tip of your finger? Just I would say maybe by the time he got there he might have one drop left. That he was in such torment that he would just wanted one drop of water just to cool his tongue. Now I'm thinking about, you start thinking about hell. And he says he was in torment. It says in 23, being in torment, he seeth Abraham afar off. And now we see in 24, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am tormented in this flame. So he's down there. We know hell is a place of fire. We know hell is a place of torment now. We see that. We see he's tormented in the flames, so there's fire there. We see that there's torment there, period. So he's in torment in hell. That where all he wants is one drop of water on his tongue, and he feels like that's going to give him so much relief, just to have one drop of water on his tongue. That's how bad the hell is, as far as what we can see here, but we got more. It says, But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivest the good things, and likewise Lazarus, evil things. But now he is comforted, and thou art tormented. There we are again, tormented. That word torment is, that don't sound good. Torment sounds terrible, terrible. And besides all this, between us and you, there's a great gulf fixed so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot, neither can they pass to us that would come from thence. So now that we see there's a gulf, Now, this is back to the debate. Now, there's a gulf fixed between Abraham's bosom and hell. Now, you could take the earth, and the earth is over, I think it was 4700 miles wide. That's almost as I believe that's what it was. Anyway, that is ridiculously wide. You know what I'm saying? So you take 4,700 miles wide. I believe there was a gulf fixed in between the two. And this is just my thought and my theory and just what I'm figuring out, but so you got Abraham's bosom is on this side of the earth, hell's on this side of the earth, and there's a great big canyon in between the two where they can't get here and they can't get there. Now, we talk about, you talk about hell and you look in Isaiah, Isaiah talks about hell and largest itself. Now, if the captives are no longer there, then that makes a lot more room in the heart of the earth. There's a lot, I mean, I'm not saying this is, I'm not trying to convince you that this is the truth, this is what it is. What I'm saying is I feel like now that the captives are not there, now that Abraham's bosom's not there, they've all gone to heaven, there's a lot of empty space down in hell. And I believe that that gulf has probably been, that it's probably caved in and all the heart of the earth is probably all hell now. Like I say, you may disagree with me, and that's fine. I mean, I almost think that, hey, how can we explain global warming? Maybe because it's getting hotter in the center of the Earth. Maybe. I'm not, but just, I mean, don't, don't, just, Maybe study it for yourself. It's interesting. It really is interesting to kind of look through this and try to study this. And maybe study it and say, I'm going to prove him wrong. That's fine. Go ahead, please. And let me know what you find out, because I would love to talk about it. I'd love for you to prove me wrong. Or I'd love for you to prove me right, whatever. So anyway, so now we see that the point of this though, the point of the message is hell is a tormenting place. It is a place that nobody should want to go. It just makes me sick when you hear people out there that says we had fun as hell. Usually I'm thinking, you don't even know what hell is going to be like. I don't even know who'd come up with that term. I know it was somebody that's lost. I know somebody that don't put their faith in Jesus Christ, because I would never make that statement. And besides all this, he's talking about the go, fix, in between. Then he said, I pray thee therefore, Father, that thou wouldest send him to my father's house. For I have five brethren that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment. This place must be a bad place. This guy's talking about it being torment a bunch. Now, I mean, if you could talk to somebody in hell today, I would say the word torment would be brought up quite a bit. But he's saying again, torment. He said, go save my brothers so they don't come to this awful place. And Abraham said unto him, they have Moses and the prophets, and let them hear them. And he said, nay, Father Abraham, but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent. And he said unto them, if they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead. Now you think about that last statement there, the world that we live in, a lot of people, majority of the world today is not convinced even though one rose from the dead, right? So he's saying, and what Abraham's telling him is, listen, hey, you can send Lazarus back to your brothers, but if they won't listen to Moses and the prophets, then they're not going to listen to the one that comes back from the dead. They said, if we cannot believe, and this is before Jesus came, if they cannot believe with Moses and the prophets saying that there's going to be a Messiah come, that there is going to be the Son of God who comes and dies on a cross or is sacrificed for you, if they can't believe that from them people, then what makes you think they're going to believe it from some beggar that died? He said they need to, I mean, and that's the truth. If you're not going to believe, there's people out there that won't believe in Jesus Christ, even though he's raised from the dead. They will not believe, even though there are witnesses upon witnesses in 1 Corinthians. There's over 500, I believe it's 1 Corinthians, I may be wrong. There's 500 witnesses that saw Jesus alive after he was buried. That's proof right there. I'm telling you they was 100 something thousand people saw Tennessee be Florida yesterday. You think everybody believes it? Yeah, they believe it, right? But there was people in these days that saw I don't need 500 people to tell me that Jesus is alive, right? I don't need that many people, but he gave us that many people. It was over 500 people, but there's people that saw him after he resurrected from the grave. I believe that Jesus is alive. I believe that he died to save us from our sins. And I believe what the Bible says. So now these people are in torment in hell. Now there's still today people in torment in hell. There's still people today that, man, they wish they listened to Josh Green when he preached the message. We wish they listened to Billy Graham when Billy Graham was going around the world telling people about Jesus. There's people in hell right now that are lifting up their eyes in torment, wishing that somebody could get a hold of their friends, their loved ones. There are people in hell today in torment. This is an awful place. And so, hell, we look some more. There's a lot of scripture that we were looking at Matthew chapter 13 And I know this is I don't have any of this marked I've just got it wrote down the Matthew chapter 13 There's a parable spoken by Jesus. And I like the words of Jesus. Don't you? But he's talking about a parable of the tares. And verse 24, it says, Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is like unto a man which sowed good seed in his field. But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way. And when the blade was sprung up and brought forth fruit, then he appeared the tares also. So you don't want the tares, right? The tares are the bad stuff, right? That's the bad stuff you don't want. So somebody came and planted tares among the good wheat and the good the good grain there. So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst thou not sow good seed in the field? From whence then hath it tares? He said unto them, An enemy has done this. The servant said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up? But he say, Nay, lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them. Let both grow together into the harvest, and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together, or first the tares, bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn." Now you skip over to verse 36, and this is his explanation of that parable that we just read. Verse 36 says that Jesus sent the multitude away and went into the house and his disciples came unto him saying declare unto this the parable of the tares of the field He answered instead of them. He that soweth the good seed is the son of man. He that soweth the good seed is Jesus Christ He's the one that sows the good seed the field is the world The good seed are the children of the kingdom the children of the kingdom of God But the tares are the children of the wicked one Now the enemy that sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the world, and the reapers are the angels. And as therefore the tares are gathered and burned into the fire, so shall it be in the end of this world. The Son of Man shall send forth His angels, and they shall gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity, and shall cast them into a furnace of fire, There shall there be wailing and gnashing of teeth." Now we got torment. The rich man says, I'm in torment in this flame. Now we see we're in a furnace of fire, and now we see wailing and gnashing of teeth. Now, this is not a very good vision of the place I want to go, right? This is a place of constant crying and wailing out. I could just, I believe I've heard a certain preacher before, may have been Dean. I remember hearing him say, I can just picture people sitting in hell, and when the gates open, they're wondering if it's one of their loved ones coming in behind them. and hoping that it's not, and wailing, and crying, and just in misery and torment, hoping that somebody that they love had put their faith in Jesus Christ. wailing and regret and torment and pain of wishing that they would have just listened to what the preacher had said. Or they would have just listened to the call of Jesus Christ. Or they would have just believed that Jesus was the Son of God. There are many, many, many millions of people in hell today that wish they would have just put their faith in Jesus Christ. So now they're in fire and in torment, in the furnace of fire. They're wailing and gnashing of teeth. But then, verse 43, then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father, who hath ears to hear, let him hear. So listen, listen, Christians. We shall shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of our Father, our Father in heaven. Right? Listen, if you're a Christian and you're a follower of Jesus Christ, you put your faith and trust in Him, hell is not where you're going. But, praise be to God, hell is not where you're going. Right? This is the intent of the message. I'm not going there. Praise the Lord. Right? That's not to make anybody scared or make anybody dread anything. It's not that. The point of the message is this. I'm not going to hell. Praise God. Because if it wasn't for Him, I would be wailing, gnashing of teeth. I would be in torment in a flame of eternal flame in hell. That's the parable of the chairs. Think about the Matthew chapter 25. Like I said, I'm just going to skip through these. These are descriptions of hell. In Matthew chapter 25, 41 through 46, the Bible says this, Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire. I'm talking about, we talk about John 3 16, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. Now you read Matthew chapter 25 verse 41, depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire. Have you ever been burnt? I mean, have you ever burnt yourself on the stove or have you ever been sunburned? I'm telling you, 100 degrees outside, I want to be inside, right? I could not imagine the heat and the torment of hell. I remember a long time ago, when I was younger and still living at home, we had a big wood-burning stove downstairs, and I was down there putting wood in it, and I kind of slipped, and I was about to fall, and I caught myself on the edge of that wood-burning stove. That was very, very, very hot. I had a big crease on my hand where I caught myself. But the pain and the agony from that burn on my hand, Yeah, I start thinking about that today. And I think about that kind of burn all over my body for everlasting fire and torment. Do you think that it gets numb after a while? I don't think so. And it's all because of your sin. It's all because of not putting our faith and trust in Jesus Christ. I think about that sometimes and I really, I'll just be honest with you, it wasn't long ago I thought about that one night laying in bed and I started thinking to myself, am I saved? Because I don't want to take a chance in going there, right? And I started thinking, Lord, thank you for what you've done. So this is the part where he cursed the everlasting fire, prepared. Now listen to this part. This is the part where he cursed into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. Hell was not prepared for us. It was prepared for the devil and his angels. But if you don't follow Jesus Christ, this is your doom. He said, For I was hungered, and ye gave me no meat. I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink. I was a stranger, and ye took me not in, naked, and ye clothed me not, sick and in prison, and ye visited me not. Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thou thee and hungered and thirst? a stranger, naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee? Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily, verily, I say unto you, As much as ye did it not to one of these, the least of these, ye did it not to me. And these shall go away into everlasting punishment." Now we've got everlasting fire. We've got everlasting punishment. We've got everlasting torment. We've got everlasting wailing and gnashing of teeth. We've got everlasting punishment. He said, but the righteous, the righteous, they'll go into eternal life. I'm telling you, I don't know about you, but we can weigh the pros and cons of following Jesus Christ. And the pros definitely add up to following Jesus Christ. The cons definitely should scare us into wanting to follow Jesus Christ. And I'm not trying to scare nobody at all. And that should not be the intent of why we follow Jesus Christ. Let me break that clear. Our intent to follow Jesus Christ should not be because we're getting out of hell. Our intent should be that God saved us from our sin. and that we will not be eternally separated from God and Jesus Christ in hell one day. That should be their intent. So we've got everlasting torment, we've got everlasting flame, we've got everlasting punishment, everlasting wailing and gnashing of teeth, and we've got Mark 9, verse 42. I'm not even going to read the whole thing, but it says this, that you go to hell, and that's a place where the worm dieth not. The worm doth not, and the fire is not quenched. I'm telling you, when you're outside on a hot day, what quenches your thirst? Water. He says this, the fire in hell will not be quenched. There'll not be any relief from this fire. None. None. No relief from the fires of hell. But Jesus, but then Jesus came. Dial it across. It says Matthew 7 13 says enter ye into straight gate for wide is the gate and narrow and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction. And many there be which go in there at. That destruction is hell. That's a that's a big picture right there of listen, there's a gate. There's a broad gate. There's a broad way that leads to hell and many there be that find it. But he talks about straight is the gate and narrows the way that leads to everlasting life. He says few there be that find it. Listen, this is not this is a serious matter that needs to be seriously considered of what we're doing with our lives. what we are, what the intent or the purpose of our life is. The intent and purpose of our life is, number one, to follow Jesus Christ and put our all in him and let him lead, guide and direct us. That should be the intent and the purpose of our lives. Anybody that has another purpose, then maybe you're probably on the Broadway that leads to destruction. Proverbs chapter 15 verse 25 says, the way of life is above to the wise, that he may depart from hell beneath. So he's saying the way of life is above to the wise, that he may depart from hell beneath. So he's saying our ways should be God's ways. Our thoughts, we should be trusting and putting our faith and trusting in him. But now, Revelations chapter 20, Some good news here. Revelation chapter 20 verse 10. The Bible says this. And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophets are and shall be tormented day and night forever and ever. You know that old guy that's trying to get all of us to follow him on the Broadway? You know one day he's going to be down there with them? You know that one day he's going to be cast into the lake of fire to be tormented forever and ever and ever. That old sneaky guy that don't want me to preach this message, that old sneaky guy that tried to get me to do something I shouldn't have done last night, or you to do something that you shouldn't have done last night, that sneaky old guy that tries to fill your life full of regret, that sneaky old guy wants to tell you you don't know who Jesus is. where he'll be tormented forever, and ever, and ever, and ever, and ever. I'm telling you, just keep on saying ever, because it's forever. He ain't getting out of there. Thank God that I serve God, that one of these days, he's going to set things right. One of these days, he's going to say, listen, all you down there in hell, you deserve to be there. And every one of us there in heaven are going to say amen, right? And Bronson told me that one time. He said, I believe I'll fucking have one day. He said, Bronson, there's somebody I love very dear that comes before Jesus Christ. And Jesus Christ said, depart from me and work beneath me. Even though I love him so much on earth, Bronson said, I will not say anything. Because you can't put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ. Right? Because once we get to heaven, we're going to agree everything. We're going to agree with God. Everything that God does. Everything that he does is correct. It is the right thing to do. Yes. And we'll say amen. Amen. Even though it might be your brother, even though it might be your sister, even though it might be your wife or your husband, even though it might be your mom or your daddy, I believe all these days we'll say amen. Amen. Thank you, sir. I'm as sad to think about right now, but all these days we'll say, God said it. I believe it. That's what should happen. So but listen, but the devil's going to be there. He's going to be cast into that fiery lake of fire. He's going to be tormented day and night forever and ever. Praise the Lord. Right? Listen, the devil is a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. He's coming up on you every now and then, trying to get you. I'm telling you, you know. You fought the battles. You fought him. He's tried to get you. He's tried to pull you down. He's tried everything in the world to get you to deny Jesus Christ. He's done everything. Every day He comes against us. Every day He tries to get us to fall and fail. But one of these days, He's going to get His. And praise God, the One who does all that to you is going to get what He deserves. Praise the Lord. Right? Praise the Lord. that not only is those people that should have put their faith in Jesus Christ going to be there, not only those angels that decided they would go with the devil, that turned their back on God, not only them will be there, but the devil himself will be there for all of eternity. to be tormented, day and night, forever and ever. And I want you to see something else, too. That's very, very cool to me. And I love it. In Revelation 1, verse 17, when Jesus here, speaking in the end of verse 17, says, Fear not, I am the first and the last. I am He that liveth and was dead. Do it, buddy. Whoopee! Listen to what He said. He said, I am He that liveth, and I am He that was dead, but now liveth. You know what He could say right now from heaven? He could say this, fear not. I am the first and the last. I am He that liveth and was dead. He can say that right now to us at West South Baptist Church. He can say that. He is saying that right now. He said, I am He that was dead, but now I liveth. Praise the Lord! He's alive. Right? Praise the Lord. He is alive. He said, I am alive forevermore. Who won? Oh, you think the devil? I believe the devil was there when Jesus was on the cross. I believe he looked up there and said, I think I got this thing licked. He didn't read Revelation chapter 1 yet, had he? Jesus said, I am the first and the last. I am He that liveth and was dead. And behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen, He said. He said, if you ain't going to amen it, I will. I'm alive forevermore. And listen to the next part. The God, now listen, I'm not reading that right now, right this second. The God of all the universe. The Jesus Christ who was there in the beginning, in the beginning of time. I believe when God said, let there be light, Jesus was right there with him. The Jesus Christ who was there from the foundations of the earth. Jesus Christ who was there in the beginning. Jesus Christ who says, I am Alpha and Omega in verse 8. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. He says, listen to this. He said, I am the beginning and I'm the end. Right? He is the end. He is the, what's the Bible say? He is my expected end, right? Those that put their faith in Jesus Christ, He is our expected end. That's where we go when this life is over. We go to Him. He says this, though, back in 18. I am he that liveth and was dead. And behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. Westside Baptist Church, if you won't say it, I will. Jesus said, amen. I am alive forevermore. He said this, though. Guess what? I have, he's telling them, and I have the keys of hell and death. Ain't nobody getting out of that place unless Jesus unlocks the door. Ain't nobody getting in that place unless Jesus unlocks the door. He's got the keys to death and hell. He is in charge of this place. Listen, hell's an awful place, it's a bad place, but guess who's in charge of hell? Jesus Christ is in charge. I'm telling you what, you know who's in charge at Jason Turner's house? Me, I'm in charge keys to the house, right? Anybody tries to get in any other way is a thief and a robber, right? If they don't come through the door, they don't come with the key, and they don't get in the right way, they're a thief and a robber. Well, guess what? Jesus has the keys to death and hell. Woo! Right? I'm telling you what. He's going to put G.A. One of these days, we're going to see it. We're going to witness it. He's going to take that old devil. He's going to throw him in that lake of fire. He's going to block the door and cast him probably out in the outer darkness somewhere, where they'll be tormented day and night forever and ever. And then there'll be a new heaven and a new earth. Right? Oh, wow. Oh, wow. Praise the Lord. Thank you, Jesus. Do you love the Lord? I'm telling you why. We sung that, this choir sung that song, first song they sung, and I can't even remember it. I'm talking about how wonderful it'd be there, right? Won't it be wonderful there? I believe it was. If I'm wrong, I'm wrong. I'm sorry. Won't it be wonderful there? Right? Amen. Right? Amen. That's the truth. Yes. It'll be wonderful there. That's right. Ain't nobody singing that down there. That's right. Today. Amen. Ain't nobody saying, ain't it wonderful here? No, it's wailing and gnashing of teeth. Amen. That's right. I briefly listened to a little bit of Dean's message. I saw it on Facebook today. And he brought it up, and I've heard him say it before. He's over at that woman's house where her son was dying on the couch. And he was kicking him. He was kicking the foot of the couch. And his head was digging into the arm of the couch. And he was telling, he was dying. And he told his mom, he says, mama, get my feet out of the flame. He was dying and going to hell. And his mom couldn't do nothing. It was too late. Digging they said he was pushing so hard that they had pieces of his hair in his scalp In the arm of the couch where he was pushing the other end so hard trying to get out of the flame Telling you what, hell ain't real. It was real, they didn't dig it. You ask somebody that room, is hell real? They tell you it's real. Right? He said mama get my feet out of the flame Get my feet out of the fire It was too late I'm telling you, listen, the hope of this is, the hope of that is, you sitting here tonight, it's not too late. You can put your faith and trust in Him. Jesus has the keys. The devil will be casting a lake of fire forever. I'm telling you what, and it's all because of Jesus. I have no part in that bliss. It's all because of Him. As we get a song ready tonight, I don't know how many of you have ever listened to Adrian Rogers, but I bought a couple of books that were Adrianisms. It's just things that he said. All these quotes that he said throughout his ministry, he's done went on to be with the Lord. And I got those out today and was looking through them. He said this, he said, don't get the idea that Jesus died to save you from hell. He died to save you from your sin. And if he can't save you from sin, he can't save you from hell. Pretty much he's saying if Jesus can't save you from sin, then He can't save you from hell. But guess what? The hope is this. What we know is Jesus can save you from your sin. And when He does save you from your sin, added bonus, He saves you from hell. Right? He said this too. God did not spare His own Son from the cross. If God did not spare His own Son from the cross, what makes you think He will spare you from rejecting the cross? Right? He said he didn't spare his son. He didn't spare his son from dying on the cross. So what makes you think he'll accept you for rejecting what his son did on the cross? I'm telling you, if you don't know Jesus Christ, listen, don't get saved because you don't want to go to hell one day. Be saved because you want to be with Jesus and God for all of eternity, and you want to be forgiven of your sins. I can't wait. I know Joshua said it too recently. I can't wait until I don't have to fight this old flesh no more. I can't wait till I don't have to fight the temptations and the attacks that Satan puts on me. I can't wait till I don't have to do that no more. And it's all because Jesus died on the cross for my sins. He saved me from my sins. Not only He saved me from my sins, but added bonus, I don't have to go to hell either, where devil and his angels will be. What song should we sing tonight? Put Your Faith and Trust in Jesus Christ. Follow him!