You're listening to him with the master and teacher. Master Kevin is the senior pasture. Please join us, please. First by first.

And there isn't one person on the face of this earth. Will there be those that go there? Absolutely. But they didn't have to. And because of the grace of God and the shed blood of Jesus Christ, you don't have to go there either.

The Gospel of Luke is the third account in the Gospels of the life and teachings of our Savior, Jesus Christ. As believers, there are a few studies that will benefit us more spiritually than studying the life and teachings of the master. It isn't God's desire to see anyone go to hell. In fact, he said it's a time for all mankind, even though he knew that many would still reject it. You see, God has given us a choice. He desires his children to worship him with a sincere heart. And if we don't wish to receive his gift of salvation, he will not force it upon us. Don't forget to stay with us after today's message to hear more information about He the Word, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. But for now, please open your Bibles to the Book of Revelation, chapter 20, verse 1, as we join Pastor Kent.

I don't want you to feel this morning that I'm beating you without being beaten myself. We are at fault. We live, with few exceptions, the life of that rich man. Our efforts, our energies, our resources, our strength is spent upon our own comfort and our own pleasure. When right outside our gate is a world that is in need of Jesus. And yet we seem so unwilling to share it with them. Now, when Jesus died and he descended into paradise, and he preached to those that were there and ascended to heaven, many teach that that side of Hades, which was paradise, Abraham's bosom, was emptied. And I believe that that is so. You see, because before, when a righteous person died, they died having believed in the Messiah, looking forward to him. But the cross had not yet come. His blood had not yet been shed. But when Jesus died and paid the price for all of our sins for all eternity, I believe that he brought those people into the very presence of God. That's why Paul says that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. But what of those others who were there in torment? What of them? Will they be there in Hades for all eternity? What is their end? We've seen two lives, we've seen two deaths, we've seen one destiny. What is the destiny of Lazarus? It's that he be in the presence of God. What is the destiny of this rich man? Let's look to Revelation chapter 20. Now the revelation was given to John, and John was shown those things that were to come. Starting in verse one, John writes, Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, and he cast him into the bottomless pit and shut him up, and set a seal on him, so that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished. But after these things he must be released for a little while. And I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was committed to them. Then I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God, who had not worshipped the beast or his image, and had not received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands, and they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. You see, I believe that when we come to this time, that we come to the millennial reign of Christ, where Christ rules upon this earth for a thousand years. This is after the great tribulation, this is after the rapture of the church which preceded it. This is that time when Christ will establish his kingdom upon the earth. But the rest of the dead, verse five tells us, did not live again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ and shall reign with him a thousand years. Now, this first resurrection, those that took part in this first resurrection, guys, that's us. Because it says that the dead in Christ shall rise first, and that those who remain shall be caught up together with them in the air. That is the rapture of the church. Those who believe in Jesus, who are called by his name, who put their faith, their hope, and their trust in him and him alone, will have part in this first resurrection. And the scripture tells us here that they are blessed and they are holy, and that the second death has no power over them. Verse 7. Now, when the thousand years have expired, Satan will be released from his prison and will go out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle, whose number is as the sand of the sea. They went up on the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, and fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them. The devil who deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and they will be tormented day and night for ever and ever. Verse eleven. Then I saw a great white throne, and him who 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, standing before God, and books were opened, and another book was opened, which is the book of life. That's important. Books were opened. What's in those books? I believe that that is the record of the lives of the people of the earth. Everything that they have done, everything that they have thought, is recorded in those books. But then, aside from those books, another book was opened, a different book altogether than those, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged according to their works. Now let me ask you this: if you are a Christian, are you dead? You are not dead, nor shall you ever die. Jesus said, He who believes in me shall never die. So even if your physical body has been put in the ground and your soul separated from it, you are, as a believer in Christ, going to live forever. And so when it says here that the dead were judged according to their works, it is talking about the dead apart from Christ. Because as Christians, you will not be judged according to your works. Now you will be judged to give an account of your stewardship, you see. And there will be rewards, but that is not a judgment, that is not condemnation to you. And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God. And books were opened, and another book was opened, which is the book of life, and the dead were judged according to their works by the things which were written in the books. The sea gave up the dead who were in it. Not just those who died at sea, but those who died in the waters of judgment. The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. Guess who's there? That rich man, right here. And they were judged, each one according to his works. Then death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And anyone not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. Friends, Hades is a bad, bad place. But that lake of fire is hell. And there isn't one person on the face of this earth that has to go there. Will there be those that go there? Absolutely. But they didn't have to. And because of the grace of God and the shed blood of Jesus Christ, you don't have to go there either. Jesus did not come to condemn you. He came to save you. Turn with me to John chapter 3, verse 16. To verse 1. There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, Rabbi, we know that you were a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him. And Nicodemus was right. They knew who Jesus was. That is what made their sins so grievous. The rich man in our story had said, if you'll send someone back from the dead, they'll believe him. And Abraham said, Hey, if they won't believe Moses and the prophets, they won't believe, even if someone is raised from the dead. Well, a short time after telling this story, another man named Lazarus was indeed raised from the dead by Jesus. A man raised back to life from dead, who was able to bear witness both of what came after life and of what Jesus had done for him. Did the Pharisees all say, wow, this is the power of God manifest in human flesh? It's the Messiah. Let's worship him. Let's bow down to him. Let's give our lives to him. Did they do that? No. They said, let's kill him in that Lazarus, too. Not only did they want to kill Jesus, but they wanted to get rid of the evidence of who Jesus was. And so Nicodemus says, We know that you are a teacher come from God. For no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him. Jesus answered and said to him, Most assuredly, I say unto you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus said to him, How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born? Jesus answered, Most assuredly I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. To be born of water is to be born of woman. During childbirth, what occurs? The woman's water breaks that envelope within which the child was held. And that child is then born physically, born of water. But what is it to be born of the Spirit? What it's speaking of here is being born of the Spirit of God, being born from above, having the new life that is given to you by God, that second birth, to be born again. Jesus says in verse 6, that which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, you must be born again. It's a difficult thing to understand because you can't see it. You can see the physical birth, can't you? I've seen three. Ugh. Really, they weren't that bad, but you you can see the physical birth. You cannot see the spiritual birth. Now you can see the effects of the spiritual birth, but you can't see the birth itself. And Nicodemus was having trouble wrapping his finite mind around this supernatural process, as we all do, if we're honest. Jesus said to him, The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but you cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit. You see, you can't see the wind, can you? But you can see the effects of the wind. You cannot see a person be born again. But you can see the results in their life of having been born again. Nicodemus answered and said to him, How can these things be? How is this possible? Jesus says, Are you the teacher of Israel and do not know these things? Most assuredly I say to you, we speak what we know and testify what we have seen, and you do not receive our witness. Is Jesus talking about himself and the disciples? No. He's talking about the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. He's talking about Elohim, he's talking about himself, he's talking about God. If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended to heaven but he who comes down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. He's speaking now of the crucifixion, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Everlasting life begins the moment you believe. If you are born once, you will die twice. The first natural death and the second death, which is spiritual in the lake of fire. But if you are born twice, born of woman and then born of the spirit, then you will die only once. Because as Revelation told us, the second death will have no power over you. Why? Because your name is written in the Lamb's Book of Life. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. That whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. You see, salvation begins with God. Let's look at that verse. It's one that we're so familiar with. Do you know familiarity breeds contempt? When we become so familiar with it, over God's all over the world. He gave his only beginning. We hold it up at football games. But do we really know what it means? Do we really understand how wonderful and how awesome and how incredible these words are? For God. God. Not some Yahoo up the street, some dignitary or some official, but God. Not some preacher. Not Ken or Bill or Billy Graham or any of them. But God. The one who spoke heaven and earth into existence. The one who said, Let there be light and there was light. The one who formed man of the dust of the earth and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. God, whose arm is not short that it cannot save. God. For God so loved the world. The Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, so loved the world. It doesn't say he kind of loved the world. It doesn't say even that he loved the world. It says that he so loved the world. There is a power and a passion and an intensity in those words. For God so loved the world that he was moved to action. You know, we say we love people, but I don't believe we do until I see us take action on their behalf. You say you love people, but if you're not praying for them, do you really love them? Because if you prayed for them, I might have some evidence of the fact that you love them. For God so loved the world that he did something. What did he do? He gave. He didn't sell, he didn't bargain. Or barter. He gave. What did he give? He gave the most precious thing he had. He didn't give a gift that cost him nothing. He gave that which cost him everything. He gave his only his unique. His only begotten son. Why would he do that? For love's sake. Does that sound like a God who wants to send anybody to hell? Does that sound like a God who is anything but just? Does that sound like a God who deserves anything other than our love and loyalty and service? For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. And what was the result? That whoever believes in him that word believes means to put our faith, hope, and trust. It's not just mental assent. It's not an acknowledgement of a fact. It's confidence in a person. In the person of Jesus. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him, not in Allah, not in Buddha, not in my favorite self-help teacher, not in my own belief. I believe in my belief. I have faith in my faith. I have faith in God. That whoever believes in him should not perish. But have everlasting life. And I love verse 17 almost as much as verse 16. For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world. You see, that is key. God did not send Jesus to condemn the world. He didn't have to. The world was already condemned. For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. He who believes in him is not condemned. But he who does not believe is condemned already. Because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation. That light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen that they have been done in God. But you see, those who hate the light are those who shake their fist and say, How could a loving God send anybody to hell? They don't realize this.

The economy is bad, work is sparse, and there's no shortage of strife throughout the world. But as believers in Jesus, we've been given many great and precious promises. For instance, listen to this verse, taken from our current study. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear, therefore, you're of more value than many sparrows. You see, it doesn't matter how bad things get, God has promised to take care of us. Today's teaching was only part of a full-length message taught by Pastor Ken Davis on a Sunday morning at Calvary Chapel, Southwest Metro, Burleson, Texas. To hear this message in its entirety, log on to heathheword.org. That's heedtheword.org. Once you're there, select the Listen Online page. Or if computers aren't your thing, that's okay, you can always call us. The number to call is 817-447-5675. That's 817-447-5675. Even if you're not ordering a copy of today's study, we'd love to hear from you. Knowing that God is using He, the Word for His glory, and to encourage His saints is one of our greatest joys. So call us today. This study through the Gospel of Luke has been a real eye-opener. Maybe you've been challenged in some areas in your walk with Jesus, but we want to exhort you not to just hear God's word, but to do it. Begin to walk in obedience to the things you're learning. From all of us here at Heather Word, we want to say thank you for tuning in, and may God richly bless you as you see his face.