Hell, The Justice and Wrath of God
Notes
Transcript
Matthew 10:28
Matthew 10:28
28 And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.
Big idea - The justice of God is final and perfect.
My intention today as we consider this extremely serious topic is to lay over you (like a blanket) a burden for those in your life who are lost. My hope is that this burden that God has called you to cary will help motivate you to share Jesus with those in your life who have not trusted Jesus for salvation.
Prayer
The complexity of God (Introduction)
Opener -
When I was in middle school I went to the skating rink with friends every 2-3 weeks.
During the night there was always a couple of times during they lowered the lights and turned on the disco ball.
Having hundreds of light beams circling the large rink always seemed so great to me. In fact always wished they kept it on longer.
When you add just a little fog from the smoke machine, there are light beams that reflect from each of the hundreds of tiny mirrors on the ball.
Each of these light beams always reminds me of a different attribute of God.
God is love, but that is just one of the light beams.
In the complexity of God there are hundreds of light beams. There are hundreds of attributes.
-God is incredibly complex and big. He is not like any person.
God is not like his creation. He is not like us at all.
In His greatness He is simultaneously: all knowing, holy, unchanging, infinite, loving, kind, pure, jealous, patient, just, wrathful, and so much more!
God is not just one of his attributes at any single time, He is all of his attributes all of the time.
This is part of God’s great beauty. This is part of why we worship him.
-On that disco ball we tend to look at his love, grace, mercy, and forgiveness the most, but we like to ignore God’s Wrath and justice.
-Why? God’s wrath and justice is uncomfortable to think about.
-Non of us like it.
-God not only is willing to do difficult things, He does difficult things.
Today we look at the wrath and justice of God.
Transition - Why is focusing on God’s wrath and justice important?
That’s a great question. I’m glad you asked.
Good News and Bad News are friends.
The word Gospel means good news.
You can’t fully understand the Good News unless you understand the Bad News.
If you don’t get the Bad News, You don’t get the Gospel (the Good News).
If you are not in awe of God in the Gospel, it is because you have forgotten the Bad News.
-Sometimes you hear someone passionately talk or pray about the Gospel.
-In your heart you’re like, I know those facts. They are important facts, but why is that person getting so hyped up about it. Why are they so passionate about Jesus, the Cross, faith and forgiveness?
-The answer is that this person has not forgotten the Bad News. It has been cemented to their heart and mind.
Jesus saves, but what does He save you from?
Transition - We start by asking the question...
What is Hell?
Hell is a real place.
Illustration - A Ukranian riff raff group of make shift soldiers who were made up of who were defending Kyiv, Ukraine spray painted a sign to the oncoming Russian soldiers that said, “Welcome to Hell”.
Many have said, War is hell. And while it is one of the absolute worst experiences someone can encounter, it still does not compare to true hell.
Hell is a place of eternal torment. Eternal sorrow. Eternal regret. Eternal misery. There is no joy or pleasure in hell.
Once you are in hell, you are there forever. You are there for eternity. You never escape.
10 and the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.
Matthew 25:41-46 “41 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ 44 Then they also will answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?’ 45 Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ 46 And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.””
Matthew 13:49-50 “49 So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous 50 and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
So many more scriptures on Hell, you can just google for them.
Warning people of God’s judgment was so important...
-Jesus spoke about hell more often then He spoke about heaven.
-In fact, Jesus spoke about hell more often than everyone else in the entire Bible combined.
Why would Jesus do this?
There is nothing that comes remotely close to the painful, horrifying, eternal tortures of Hell.
God’s divine wrath & justice against sin and against those in hell, and it is poured out for eternity.
It is a place of extreme misery. There is continual weeping and gnashing of teeth. There is continual sorrow and regret.
Your sin has eternally offended the perfect holiness of God and so your punishment is for eternity.
-Every sinful person who has walked this earth deserve hell.
-You deserve hell and I deserve hell.
Transition - That leads us to our next question.
Why are people sent to hell?
Matthew 13:41-42 “41 The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers, 42 and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
2 Reasons that people are sent to hell.
All people are law breakers. People break God’s moral law.
-We break the 10 commandments in action and we break the 10 commandments in our heart.
-There must be punishment for breaking God’s law.
-God wrote the Law. In the writing of the Law God determined the punishment for breaking the law.
-The problem is that every single person, besides Jesus, who walked this earth have all been a law breaker.
-All deserve hell.
-You deserve hell. I deserve hell. All law breakers deserve hell.
-Everyone has rebelled against the perfect holiness of God.
Romans 3:10-12 “10 as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; 11 no one understands; no one seeks for God. 12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.””
Because we have all turned away from the righteousness of God and gone our own way in rebellion … The punishment for sin is definite. Pause
There is no person in the history of the world that ever got away with any sin. Every sin, large or small, is accounted for. Every sin is eventually punished.
Sin is either accounted for by eternal punishment in hell or sin is accounted for by the blood sacrifice of Jesus payment on the Cross.
2. The second reason people are sent to hell ...
is related to the first.
It is because of a hard heart.
Romans 2:5 “5 But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.”
John 3:18 “18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.”
The second reason people are sent to hell is that they have hardened their hearts.
They have refused to believe.
The truth that God has given the unbeliever, they have refused to believe.
-Some of these people are your friends and neighbors.
They say they are Christians, but they only know of God, they know that facts of the Gospel,
they like the idea of the Gospel,
but they have never put their full faith and their life into the hands of The Savior.
Salvation is not just an emotional decision, or mental decision, but it is a spiritual decision. IT is a life decision
Romans tells us that the wrath of God is stored up against sin due to hard hearts.
-Is this you? Do you know of Jesus, but have hardened your heart to believing In Jesus?
-My friend, you are held responsible for the condition of your spiritual heart.
-Is your heart tender? Is it supple in the hands of your creator?
-When He tells you to follow Him are you quick to lay down you pride and follow Him?
-When you have done wrong are you quick to go to God and admit your sin and turn from him?
-Or are you numbered with those who have a hard heart?
Transition - ???
The Justice of Hell
God is a perfect judge and He brings perfect justice.
Illustration - Pretend with me that someone breaks into you house late in the night, slaps your child, kicks your dog, and steels your wallet.
The burglar is caught, prosecuted, and found guilty.
Upon sentencing, the judge looks at the convicted criminal and says, “I feel bad for you. You’ve had a hard life - you can walk out right now and be free.” No consequences whatsoever.
What’s your reaction?
You are outraged - furious - the judge didn’t do His job.
The judge should have thrown the book at him.
The convicted criminal deserved a harsh punishment.
This is not a good judge. He should lose his position. Pause
But God is not a bad judge. He is a good judge.
Psalm 9:8 “8 and he judges the world with righteousness; he judges the peoples with uprightness.”
11 Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. 12 And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. 13 And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. 14 Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. 15 And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.
God is a good judge. God rightly judges the guilty and rightly punishes the guilty.
One of the most painful things about considering Hell is that we all have friends and family who we know, if they died today, would be judged and cast in to Hell.
Our hearts ache for those we know who will go to hell.
There are those we don’t know who have not heard of Jesus, who have never had the opportunity to accept or reject the Gospel - who when some die today will go to everlasting destruction.
Illustration
A friend of mine who I pray for regularly has a deep love and ache for people who have never heard of Jesus.
This man, came and spoke on a Sunday morning out on the front porch, during the pandemic to the parking lot.
He took his young family to Pakistan.
He is focusing on a people group of 225,000 who have zero Gospel witness.
Richmond county has about 225,000 - Can you imagine all of Richmond County with zero churches. Every person you ask, Do you know who Jesus is? You get back, “Jesus who?”
Randall loves these people so much and wants them to be saved from Hell to God so bad that He has sacrificed his life to reach them.
Slowly some of these people are coming to Jesus and telling their friends and family.
They are being saved from the Justice of Hell.
Who is in your life that God has called you to talk to about Jesus?
Every single Christ Follower is a missionary in their own community. God has placed you where you are to reach those around you who need Jesus.
They need to be saved from the condemnation of hell TO the Salvation of God.
Who in your life do you need to share Jesus with?
Transition - While the reality of hell is so heavy
Hell inspires the Christ Follower
-Inspires our worship.
We worship more passionately because we serve a God who has graciously, mercifully and lovingly saved us from an eternal destruction we rightly deserve.
Not only has God saved us from hell, but He has saved us to Himself.
-And in him we find love, kindness, compassion, strength, and purpose.
-God has taken condemnation from us and given us joy and satisfaction in Him.
Not only does Hell inspire our worship, but our obedience.
-Inspires our obedience.
-We obey Him and follow Him, because He is such a great King.
-We follow and obey Jesus because He leads us away from the path of destruction and on to the path that leads to life.
Not only does Hell inspire our worship, and obedience, but it inspires our Gospel sharing.
-Inspires our Gospel sharing.
-Every Christ Follower in this room has at least 2 people in their life they need to share Jesus with.
-There is someone in your life that God wants you to say to them, Can I share with you how God has changed my life? Then share the gospel.
-God has called you to proclaim the Gospel to others.
-Who are those people God is calling you to share Jesus with?
-He is dropping those faces in your in box as I speak.
Transition - I‘ll close with this.
Gospel
Illustration - SOMEONE ELSE IS PUNISHED
There was once a movie called The Last Emperor. A young child was anointed as the last emperor of China and lived a life of luxury with 1,000 servants at his command.
He was once asked by his brother, "What happens when you do wrong?"
"When I do wrong, someone else is punished." Then he demonstrated by breaking a jar and one of his servants was beaten.
In Christianity, Jesus reverses that ancient pattern so that when the servant (us) makes a mistake, the king is punished. Instead of being condemned eternally for our sin nature, Jesus was condemned instead.
If you do not know Jesus as your Savior, will you fully trust that He will happily save you from sin?
Will you...
-Trust that He has paid the sacrifice for sin.
-Fully surrender your life to Him.
-Will you in your heart say “Yes, I confess my sin now to you God. Save me.”
-Will you trust Him now?
Pray