Chapter number 5, verse number 17, if you'd
like to stand with me this morning.
The fifth chapter of Matthew is the Sermon
on the Mount.
The liberals love the Sermon on the Mount.
You'll never hear a liberal preach what I'm
about to preach to you from the Sermon
on the Mount.
Matthew chapter number 5, verse 17, think not
that I am come to destroy the law
or the prophets, I am not come to
destroy but to fulfill.
For verily I say to you, till heaven
and earth pass, one jot or one tittle
shall in no wise pass from the law
till all be fulfilled.
Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least
commandments and shall teach men so he shall
be called the least in the kingdom of
heaven.
But whosoever shall do and teach them the
same shall be called great in the kingdom
of heaven.
For I say unto you, that except your
righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes
and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter
into the kingdom of heaven.
Ye have heard that it was said by
them of old time, thou shalt not kill.
And whosoever shall kill shall be in danger
of the judgment.
But I say unto you, that whosoever is
angry with his brother without a cause shall
be in danger of the judgment.
And whosoever shall say to his brother, Rokkah,
shall be in danger of the council.
But whosoever shall say, thou fool, shall be
in danger of hell fire.
Father, add your blessing to the reading of
your word and give me unction to preach
this now in Jesus' name, amen.
You can be seated.
The last two words of verse 22 came
from the lips of the blessed son of
man, hell fire.
And there are two words, not just one
where it could be misunderstood as to say
hell is the grave, but he said hell
fire.
So in saying that, he gave a descriptive
term to what hell is about.
There are those who like to point out
the compassion of Jesus Christ and rightly so,
the shepherd carrying a lamb.
There are those who base their ministry upon
his miracles and talk much about the one
who raised the dead and healed the sick
and cleansed the leper and cast out demons
and rightly so.
There are those who say much about the
kingdom that Christ came to build and how
he offered himself as a sacrifice for us
and went to the cross and died that
we could be saved and rightly so.
But in this day and time, it's not
popular at all, 19, 2008 as a matter
of fact, it's not popular at all to
take everything that Jesus Christ said and preach
on it.
For the son of man is the one
who said hell fire.
If you could take hell from the Bible,
which most churches have today, then you could
accommodate people in a different way.
You could make them comfortable for there would
never be a fear of a future judgment.
But according to the New Testament, there is
no doubt that Jesus Christ of all people
that ever lived on the face of this
earth preached more on hell than anyone else.
And he told us about hell, described it,
laid it out in simple terms where it's
unmistakable as to what kind of place it
is.
Here in Matthew chapter number 5, he said
that it is hell fire.
Therefore the word fire is included in this
place called hell.
He spoke of it in the simple sense
that you accept it for what I say,
it is hell fire.
In plainer words, it does exist.
The Bible makes declarations, definitive statements, declares things
to be so.
You can believe it or you can reject
it.
The Bible does not set about to prove
anything.
It simply says in the beginning, God.
You can say there is no God until
you turn blue in the face.
That will not change the issue.
One day we'll all stand before God.
The Scripture says God created the heavens and
the earth.
I don't make any difference to me if
you're a professor at some college or university
in anthropology, archeology and what have you.
It doesn't change the fact that God created
the heavens and the earth.
God became man 2,000 years ago.
He came into this world and told us
things that we had never heard before.
We know in the Old Testament that hell
is a place.
Bible said the nations that forget God shall
be turned into hell.
We know that.
And we know it is mentioned time and
time again throughout Old Testament Scriptures.
It even says that hell has enlarged itself,
apparently it is never full.
But when the Lord Jesus Christ showed up
2,000 years ago, the lowly Galilee and
the carpenter and all of that, my friend,
He preached about hell.
And in Matthew 5 at the Sermon on
the Mount, which is supposed to be the
great liberal sermon, He brought in the doctrine
of hell.
And He said, it is hellfire.
So according to the Scriptures, hell is a
place that literally exists.
That's not a Baptist doctrine.
That's not a Methodist doctrine.
That's a doctrine of the Bible.
It exists, friend.
There's nothing you can do to change that
this morning.
Hell does exist.
It is a place.
It is somewhere.
And it awaits those that, my friend, leave
this world unprepared to meet God.
Hell exists.
It is a place that was created, the
Bible said, for the devil and his angels.
That's what the Scripture says.
And the Bible says that when it was
made for the devil and his angels, it
was made therefore as a place of punishment.
Not a place to simply go to.
It is designed for punishment.
So the Bible says it is a place
that is called hellfire.
If you're very smart today, have half intelligence,
you ought to be doing some thinking about
where you're going when you leave this world.
There's one thing that is absolutely certain, and
you ought to know this.
You shouldn't know it and come to face
with it.
Come to the facts and settle this.
You are going to die.
You will leave planet earth.
I know you think that you're going to
live forever.
You'd like to put this out of your
mind and not think of the fact that
one day you'll draw your last breath.
Your heart will beat its last time.
There'll be no more life left in your
body.
Where is your soul going?
Are you prepared?
I know you prepared your house.
I know you prepared your income.
I know you prepared your marriage, your children.
You planned that your whole life.
But you've made no plans whatsoever for where
you're headed when you leave this world.
Hell is a place.
It is a place that existed before you
were ever born.
It is there, it's going to be there,
and there's nothing you can do to change
that one bit whatsoever.
It doesn't make any difference if the churches
today have stopped preaching on hell, if the
preachers don't preach on hell, if the seminaries
and Bible colleges don't teach the young men
about hell, if they extricate it from the
Bible, it makes no difference whatsoever.
It is still a place that you must
deal with one day.
Somebody, my friend, died this morning and they
went to hell.
Somebody took their last breath this day, July
the 20th, 2008.
They drew their last breath and awakened in
hell.
What a shock it must have been.
There are those that deny that it exists,
but that doesn't change it.
One day you'll lift up your eyes and
hell.
It's prescriptive talk in Luke chapter 16, when
the rich man died and was buried, and
the Bible says in hell he lifted up
his eyes.
It's almost as if it says he awakened
in a place that was absolutely beyond his
wildest imagination.
He never for one time thought that such
a place like that could exist.
He lifted up his eyes and hell.
He became aware of his presence.
He knew where he was, and from that
moment on, there's not a thing he could
do to change his circumstance and his situation.
There is no salvation in hell.
There's no Savior in hell.
There's no Bible in hell.
There's no blood in hell.
There's no altars in hell.
There's no forgiveness in hell.
Whatever goes to hell stays in hell.
It's permanent.
It's settled.
It's over with.
What you've done in this life is what
determines where you go.
When you die without God, you go to
hell.
Hell is a place, therefore, that awaits you
at the end of your life.
It's waiting.
It's a place that my friend has plenty
of patience.
It doesn't matter if you live 150 years.
It won't bother hell one bit.
It's waiting.
It has much patience, for it knows that
every soul lost without God that departs from
this world will enter into its mouth.
It will take its clutches, as Joel said,
and wrap themselves around it and pull it
down into the midst of hell itself.
It gives it an identity, a personality, almost
like hell takes glee in the fact that
those that die without God are entering into
its presence.
That's why Jesus came 2,000 years ago.
That's why He died at the cross at
Calvary.
He didn't die to make you rich.
He didn't die because of who you are.
He didn't die to create this hell hole
you know about.
He died to keep you out of hell.
That's why He went to the cross.
That's why it's so horrible.
That's why it took the precious blood of
the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's why the Bible said God made Him
to be sin for us who knew no
sin.
That's why Calvary was so horrendous, because He
would keep you out of hell.
There's only one name on the face of
this earth that can keep you out of
hell.
It's not Baptist.
It's not Methodist.
It's not Presbyterian.
It's not Catholic.
It's not Jew.
There's just one name that can keep you
out of hell, and it's the name of
Jesus.
Folks use that name day in and day
out.
They use the word hell day in and
day out.
They become desensitized to it.
It has no meaning anymore.
It has no punch to it.
It doesn't grab the soul and the spirit.
And that my friend was born in hell
itself, Satan created that.
You become so familiar with the word that
it's just part of the average language of
people who walk to and fro on the
street.
But hell is still existing.
Nothing has stopped it.
It burns to the lowest hell.
That Bible says in Hebrews chapter number 12
and verse 29, our God is a consuming
fire.
There's holiness about God.
If you could go into the presence of
God unsaved, He would literally annihilate you.
You'd rather be in hell in a heartbeat
than to come before a holy God.
Christ holy, holy, holy, holy.
Dare walk into the presence of God without
the blood covering your soul.
You'd scream for hell.
You'd beg for hell.
You'd cry for hell.
And yet I firmly believe hell burns because
of the holiness of God.
That's what hell is about.
It's about a place that you go to
without God.
Somebody said hell is separation from God.
Who told you that?
Where's that in the Bible?
Find it from Genesis through Revelation.
Well, I heard the greatest evangelist say that.
It doesn't make any difference what he said.
What does the Bible say?
He'll be dead and gone and another generation
will come on.
Then another generation will come on.
What does the Bible say?
We're judged by the book, my friend.
What does the Bible say?
Well, preacher, I want to tell you the
truth.
I've never read it.
That's the truth.
Most Christians haven't read it.
They've never read it through from Genesis to
Revelation.
The sad state is that in the church
today, most people are as ignorant of the
Bible as they can be.
That's why they can be tossed from one
church to the next church, one doctrine to
the next doctrine.
It's because we are such a phlegm, phlegm,
butch because we don't know anything about God
or His Word.
It's a sad commentary, but the Bible has
not changed.
Hell is real.
I'm not going there.
Jesus Christ said in Matthew chapter number five,
hellfire.
Oh, if I thought for a moment I
was going to hell, I don't think I
could sleep tonight.
If I thought for a moment that I
may die, my body may cease today, my
heart may beat its last.
This may be my last day on planet
earth and it may be your last day
on planet earth.
You may be totally, completely, physically healthy right
now, but something takes your life away.
You could die before the sun goes down.
Your body could be lying dead in the
morgue down here somewhere, and they'd be having
your funeral a couple of days from now.
Well, preacher, I just don't believe all that.
Oh, you don't, do you?
Well, what do you base it on, dear
friend?
What do you base the fact that you
don't believe in hell?
What do you base it on?
Well, I just don't believe God's like that.
What do you know about God?
What God you talking about?
You ever bothered to read His Word?
You ever bothered to read the Word of
the God that you say you know about?
What did He say in His Word?
He said, My spirit shall not always strive
with man.
He brought a flood upon this earth one
time.
Thousands of years ago, the layers upon planet
earth proved that flood was universal.
From one end of the globe to the
other, water covered this earth.
Water was all over the planet, and you'd
find it everywhere if you want to look.
It's there.
He destroyed it one time with water, never
to do it again, but next time He's
coming with fire.
The Lord Jesus Christ said the elements are
going to melt with fervent heat.
Where's that adverb?
It's in the Bible, friend.
Read the Bible, you'll find out that God's
not too happy with what's going on around
us.
We live in a generation that's literally brainwashed.
I've never seen anything like it in my
life.
This generation will embrace anything.
They'll believe anything, embrace anything.
This is the most relativistic bunch that ever
lived on the face of the earth.
And they marvel at how they're in your
face with it.
In your face constantly.
And it's gotten to the point where everybody's
desensitized.
Nobody's convicted of anything anymore.
In Chicago, Illinois, they've called out the National
Guard.
Children are dying daily in Chicago, Illinois, on
the streets.
They're shooting them down dead by drug dealers
and drive-by shootings and all the rest
of that.
And so it's gotten so bad that the
governor of Illinois has called out the National
Guard.
They're going to have to turn it into
a police state city to keep kids from
being shot to death.
Murderers day in and day out.
Murderers in this town right now would blow
your brains out for enough money for a
fix-it crack cocaine.
It's never crossed their murdering mind that they're
going to burn in hell.
They've never thought the fact that they're going
to burn one day in hell.
We've gotten to the point now where it's
just simply passe.
It doesn't matter anymore.
There's no meaning to anything.
Whatever you feel good about doing, do it.
Here's the situation.
I see it today and I know how,
my goodness, Satan is so smart.
Satan has brainwashed a whole nation.
He's brainwashed them to the point to where
sin is no longer sin.
Death is no longer death.
Human life has no value.
Boy, do they walk to the streets today.
We've got them locked up in our jails
right now perpetrating some of the worst crimes
in history of this nation.
Right here in Knoxville, Tennessee.
The families have been going through hell now
and will be going through hell.
They keep postponing the dates of the trials
time and time again.
Some of the worst murdering that ever happened.
If those men had thought that one day
they're going to die and drop off into
hell and burn forever, it might have caused
them to take note.
And without Jesus Christ they will drop off
into hell and they will burn forever.
Hell is full of murderers.
One man was just recently sentenced to 40
years in Knoxville, Tennessee.
40 years for raping four women on Chapman
Highway at knife point.
Raping them and he's just 26 or 27
years old himself.
There's no fear among anybody today to take
a woman and rape her.
Put her at knife point and just rape
her.
He'll go to hell without Jesus Christ.
You didn't hear about that in the news.
You don't read in the papers because they
don't want to scare you to death.
You live in an insane society for there
is no fear of God in their eyes.
Nobody fears God anymore.
Hell is not full.
Hell is full of multi-millionaires and multi
-billionaires.
There are old men in this world in
their 80s and their 90s that are so
rich they could buy and sell Knoxville, Tennessee.
My friend, they're going to die and go
to hell.
Yes, they will.
They'll die and they'll go to hell.
There are politicians running this world right now
that one day they'll step down from the
kings and the queens and the presidents and
the parliamentarians and they'll go to hell one
day.
Hell is full of kings.
Hell is full of queens.
Some of the biggest and greatest that's ever
lived among men are in hell right now.
Hell knows no identity.
It is no respecter of persons.
The young and the old go to hell.
The rich and the poor go to hell.
The black and the white and the red
and the yellow go to hell.
Hell knows no distinctions.
Baptists go to hell.
Methodists go to hell.
Presbyterians go to hell.
Catholics go to hell.
Episcopalians go to hell.
Russians go to hell.
Jews go to hell.
Americans go to hell.
Englishmen go to hell.
Portuguese go to hell.
Africans go to hell.
Without Jesus Christ there is no way out
of hell.
There is hell, preacher.
Hell is a place at the end of
your life.
That's where it is.
That's at the end of your life.
Some say it's in the heart of the
earth.
Let me tell you this.
Hell is a place for a soul to
go to that doesn't know God.
Jesus Christ is the only way to the
Father.
He that hath the Son hath life.
He that hath not the Son hath not
life.
Can you imagine what the greatest religious leaders
of this world, dying without Jesus Christ, where
they go?
But now let's get home here this morning.
I'm not preaching to them 10,000 miles
from here.
I didn't get up here and say, listen,
America.
Listen, Woodrow Drive.
Some of you in here are going to
hell.
You're going to hell.
And here's the saddest thing about hell.
When you get there, it's too late.
Nothing can be done for you.
You're going to hell.
And when you die, it's too late.
The rich man said, let me go back.
Let me go back and warn my brethren.
Oh, Abraham, let me go.
This place of torment, I've got to warn
them.
He said, they've got Moses and the prophets.
If they hear not Moses and the prophets,
they hear not one that comes back from
the dead.
He said, oh, Abraham, would you just please
take Lazarus and just send him here with
a drop on his finger to drop it
in my tongue.
Oh, just a little drop.
Oh, Lazarus, just a drop.
Ah, tormented in these flames.
Hell is at the end of a Christ
-rejecting life.
Where's hell?
It's waiting.
It's been around a long time.
Your little 50, 60, 70, 80, 90 years
is not even a breath.
To hell.
It was there when your great, great, great,
great grandfather and grandmother were alive.
And they were dying then and going to
hell.
I've often thought about this when I walk
through old graveyards.
I look at the old tombstones.
We've got Revolutionary War soldiers buried around here.
We've got soldiers from the war between the
states.
We've got soldiers from the Spanish-American War.
We've got a huge military cemetery over here.
It's old gray.
It's got huge military crosses everywhere.
And you've got some of the finest in
Knoxville, Tennessee that ever lived.
Governors are buried over there in old gray
cemetery.
You've got mausoleums in this town.
You can walk by these mausoleums and you
know at the time they built them, late
1800s, early 1900s, it cost thousands of dollars.
These people had money.
You can walk through a graveyard.
All you've got to do is look around,
and you'd be amazed at the history lessons
you can learn just walking through a graveyard.
And I've often said to myself, I wonder
where he is.
I wonder where she is.
But over here is a lieutenant just right
over here.
I used to run by his grave all
the time.
Lieutenant from World War I mausoleum.
Captains, majors, generals, governors, mayors, doctors, lawyers, buried
right here within 200 feet of where you
sit.
Right here, just a stone's throw.
I can walk out that door right there.
I can throw a rock to one of
the biggest graveyards in this town.
Every one of them lived their life and
died and went somewhere.
And if the Lord doesn't come back soon,
you'll live out your little short life.
You'll die, and you're going to go somewhere.
Are you ready?
How do I stay out of hell, preacher?
See, that's the good thing.
I don't want to go to hell, preacher.
That's good.
Thought of it, that worries me, preacher.
I don't want to go to hell.
That's good.
That's real good.
How can I not go to hell, preacher?
One name.
One name given among men whereby we must
be saved.
Only one name.
That's the name of Jesus.
He that hath the Son hath life.
He that hath not the Son hath not
life.
What does it mean to have Him, preacher?
It means you've embraced Him.
You believe on Him.
He's in you.
He's your Savior.
Is He?
Just recently a man got a few months
in prison for killing a 17-year-old
girl within three or four miles of where
you're sitting right now.
Seventeen years old.
Killed her.
He crossed over, slammed head-on into her,
killed her.
Didn't kill her on the spot.
She went to the hospital and called her
mother and was talking to her and said,
I believe I'll be okay, Mom.
She didn't know her liver had been cut
in two.
She's bleeding to death internally.
Well, Caesar gave him a few months for
killing that girl.
How did he do it?
He didn't do it intentionally.
I think he was dialing text messaging on
his cell phone.
If Caesar really cared about your life, he
wouldn't be hollering about seat belts.
He would immediately stop cell phone text messaging.
There'd be no argument.
No argument.
I get so sick of the hypocrisy, I
can't stand it.
It's garbage.
But in any event, 17 years old now.
She's a good Christian girl.
She's with the Lord.
She's just 17.
Seventeen.
We've got a whole lot of 17-year
-olds in here.
And 18 and 19.
20.
16, 15, 14, 13.
A 13-year-old got killed this last
week.
Right here in this community, right here in
this area.
Thirteen years old, dead.
One little boy got killed just a few
days ago riding a bicycle.
Dead.
Children getting killed all the time.
Dead.
You're going somewhere.
Are you ready?
Let me tell you where hell is.
It'll be at the end of your life.
If you don't know the Lord.
It'll be waiting.
Father, in Jesus' name, I preach what you
gave me, Lord.
You gave me this a long time ago.
And I preached it.
And that's all I'm going to say.
I preached the Word.
Now, Lord, use it for whatever purpose you
intend to do with it this morning.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.