TITLE: Why wicked men belong in hell
SCRIPTURE: Psalms 9:17 "The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God."
PROPOSITION: to use this text and others to show why wicked men belong in hell and also to show why many are not in hell now. and also to show that wicked men can be converted to Christ and be delivered from going down into hell, if they will but turn from their wickedness and receive Gods free gift of salvation that is in Christ alone.
1.) Why wicked men belong in hell.
A. because the law of God is against them, every transgression creates a wider and deeper chasm between a sinner and an infinitely holy God, and that chasm represents a broken law.
Romans 2:21-22 "Thou therefore which teachest another, teachest thou not thyself? thou that preachest a man should not steal, dost thou steal? Thou that sayest a man should not commit adultery, dost thou commit adultery? thou that abhorrest idols, dost thou commit sacrilege?"
Isaiah 59:2 "But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear."
B. because Gods word which cannot be broken has promised them that "their damnation shall not slumber". if wicked men could escape judgment and hell it would mean that God put no value on his word, but God has stated "he that believeth not shall be damned".
Psalms 138:2 "...for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name."
C. Because it is only fitting that a king should subdue his enemies, and that all stubborn rebels within his Dominion be incarcerated and punished. Christ is the great King of kings and Lord of lords and it is only proper that he should spoil his enemies and make a show of them openly.
Deuteronomy 7:10 "And repayeth them that hate him to their face, to destroy them: he will not be slack to him that hateth him, he will repay him to his face."
D. Because what gasoline is to fire in this world, sin is to hell fire in the world to come. hells furnace and sin have kissed each other and said their vows, they are married eternally and their embrace shall never end, "our God is a consuming fire".
Isaiah 9:18-19 "For wickedness burneth as the fire: it shall devour the briers and thorns, and shall kindle in the thickets of the forest, and they shall mount up like the lifting up of smoke. Through the wrath of the LORD of hosts is the land darkened, and the people shall be as the fuel of the fire: no man shall spare his brother."
E. Because it would be contrary to the benevolence of God to force wicked men into heaven. wicked men have hated and rejected God and it is only suitable that they who have chosen to live in darkness should go into outer darkness. those who have rejected God should know what it is to be rejected by God.
Matthew 25:41 "Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:"
F. Because it would not be fitting for Christ to suffer such horrible agony to satisfy the justice of God at Calvary and for wicked men who died impenitently not to suffer to the same degree in the torments of hell.
what Christ suffered for them they must suffer because the only substitutionary payment was rejected, spit upon and ignored.
Acts 7:51 "Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye."
G. Because Gods moral government has its foundation in justice and truth, and the honor of his majesty is at stake. God must punish the wicked eternally or he would not be true to himself or to the honor of his moral government and his majesty, and because of this the wicked belong in hell where they can suffer just torments.
Romans 3:5-6 "But if our unrighteousness commend the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unrighteous who taketh vengeance? (I speak as a man) God forbid: for then how shall God judge the world?"
H. Because wicked men are on a direct road to hell.
If you choose a highway that would lead you to a certain destination and you did not arrived at your destination you would be disappointed. Wicked men should not be disappointed when they lift "up their eyes being in torments". The highway that leads to hell has many road signs that give clear indication that this is the way to destruction, in contradistinction the road to life is the way of holiness. Matthew 7:13-14 "Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it."
Isaiah 35:8 "And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called The way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it; but it shall be for those: the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein."
I. Because wicked men have done nothing with their whole life but to provoke God's pure eyes and ears.
Evil men have stored up wrath against the day of wrath and at this very moment Gods Wrath abides upon them. to this regard it is only fitting that wicked men go down into a place where they can be inflicted by this wrath, bear it, wrestle with it, and be tormented by it.
Romans 2:5 "But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God"
J. Because wicked men are the devils children.
Sometimes we hear natural men refer to all of humanity as being Gods children but nothing could be further from truth. Wicked men are the devil's children they belong to Satan and he holds their souls in his possession and they are taken captive by him at his will.
Paul spoke to Elymas the sorcerer Acts 13:10 "And said, O full of all subtilty and all mischief, thou child of the devil, thou enemy of all righteousness, wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord?" God will never treat the devils children as though they are his own, this would be contrary to truth.
K. Because they deserve to be in hell.
Sin deserves eternal torments and for wicked men not to get what they deserve would be an additional insult to God and compound the aggravation of their sin and put the wicked man in a position to mock God and laugh at him, but the scripture teaches that "God is not mocked".
Romans 6:23 "For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."
L. Because wicked men are under a sentence of condemnation.
In our judicial system a person is not condemned until proven guilty in a court of law, however God does not need to be given evidence to make this declaration about wicked men, God has seen every evil work and heard every evil word, he has seen that their thoughts are at enmity with him and that they are not subject to him and his moral government and because of this they belong in hell. apart from Christ they remain under a sentence of condemnation.
Psalms 90:8 "Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, our secret sins in the light of thy countenance."
M. Because all men were created to enjoy, and glorify God actively, but wicked men have wilfully refused to give glory unto God.
It is only fitting that they glorify God passively by satisfying God's justice being punished endlessly in hell, in this way they will know that the glory of God was nothing to be trifled with, and that it had an infinite weight of worth, and that the egregiousness of their sins had to be counterbalanced by it. They will know that God was true to himself, his word and the honor of his majesty.
1 Corinthians 10:31 "Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God."
1 Chronicles 16:29 "Give unto the LORD the glory due unto his name: bring an offering, and come before him: worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness."
N. Because the goodness of wicked men has no goodness in it.
The Scripture likens it unto filthy rags and an unclean thing. their goodness is not just tainted by sin, it is sin, because it came forth from a wicked heart. God cannot accept any goodness as meritorious that has been flushed through the sewage pipe of the human heart.
Isaiah 64:6 "But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away."
Romans 7:21 "...when I would do good, evil is present with me."
O. Because wicked men must reap what they have sown.
In the law of the Harvest we always reap what we have sown, we reap more than what we have sown and we always reap later than what we have sown. it would not be right for wicked men to be able to sow wild oats and reap wheat. When we sow to the flesh we must reap corruption, and a destination.
Galatians 6:7 "Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap."
P. Because wicked men are criminals and all criminals belong in prison.
Gods prison for wicked men is hell and all wicked men and wicked angels belong in hell. in scripture hell is referred to as a prison, a place to be bound hand and foot and to be incarcerated in chains of darkness.
Revelation 20:7 "And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his PRISON," 1 Peter 3:19 "...the spirits in PRISON"
Q. Because wicked men have trampled the Son of God under foot as though he were worth no more than the mire of the street.
It is only suitable that Christ put them under his feet and that he crush them without mercy in the winepress of his wrath.
Hebrews 10:29 "Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?"
Isaiah 63:3 "I will tread them in mine anger, and trample them in my fury; and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all my raiment."
R. Because wicked men are of this world and this world with the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life is not a friend of Christ.
This world must pass away and the lusts thereof
James 4:4 "Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God."
S. Because Satan is the god of this world and wicked men belong to him, hell was created for Satan.
It is only proper that wicked men should be in hell with their father the devil who is their god, in this way the devils family will be damned together all being unified in purpose and rebellion. all servents of sin and Satan.
John 8:44 "Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it."
T. Because wicked men would absolutely destroy heaven in the same way that a gang of criminals would destroy a small peaceful town.
Heaven would be destroyed by riots, vandalism, violence and pride.
James 4:1 "From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?"
U. Because a wicked man's nature is agreeable with those who are already in the torments of hell.
Birds of a feather flock together because they belong together, and those who are of the nature of Satan and are wicked men belong in hell with other wicked men.
Jeremiah 17:9-10 "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings."
V. Because hell is a place where there is no love only hate and all sin revolves around a hatred for God and a hatred for our fellow man.
Those who have chosen a life seperated from Gods love must know a life without love forever, this will be the portion of all wicked men.
Mark 12:29-31 "And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord:
And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these."
W. Because wicked men are like a tree in a fruit Orchard that bears bitter fruit.
There is nothing to do with a tree that bears poisonous fruit but to cut it down, that it should not cumber the ground.
Matthew 3:10 "And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire."
Luke 13:7 "Then said he unto the dresser of his vineyard, Behold, these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and find none: cut it down; why cumbereth it the ground?"
X. Because wicked men have no character substance to them.
They are light as chaff, chaff has no value to the farmer it is separated from the wheat. "What is the chaff to the wheat? saith the LORD." It is only the wheat that is gathered and stored in bins, but the chaff is good only for the fire, it is burned and forgotten.
Luke 3:17 "Whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and will gather the wheat into his garner; but the chaff he will burn with fire unquenchable."
Y. Because wicked men are referred to in the scripture as "children of Wrath".
It would not be proper for wicked men to be called the "children of wrath" and to experience anything but wrath, God refers to wicked men as children of wrath because his wrath abides upon them and he is angry with them every day and every night.
Ephesians 2:3 "...and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others."
Z. Wicked men are filthy in the sight of a holy God, they have stained their soul and body with the dung of sin and heaven is a place of purity.
It would not be proper for wicked men to bring their filthiness and their stench into heaven, if a young hog were to spend time wallowing in the mud and mire, you would not bring it into the living room of your house to sit on your couches and join you at your supper table, and neither shall a holy God invite the defiling presence of wicked men into his heaven to desecrate and defile it.
Revelation 21:27 "And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life."
2.) If wicked men belong in hell why are millions of them not there?
A. The answer for this can only be found looking at the magnanimous character of God. God is long suffering and takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked and pleads with wicked men to turn from their wicked ways that they might live and not die.
2 Peter 3:9 "The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance."
Isaiah 55:7 "Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon."
CONCLUSION: Wicked men don't belong on this earth they belong in hell, they don't deserve pleasure and comfort and security. Why? Because they are wicked men, but the good news is that God sent his Son to die at Calvary on a rugged cross for wicked men to pay the sin debt that wicked men have incurred and that he was buried and rose again the third day for our justification. We are commanded to repent and believe the gospel.
Mark 1:15 "And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel."
