A few days ago someone asked me why preachers never talked anymore about what was going to happen to you if you didn’t do what God said. I answered that I thought it was because we’d lost the whole concept of sin and judgment over the past 30 or 40 years because everybody’s been preaching that we’ve all been saved by the blood of Christ and all we have to do to receive eternal life is believe. People think there’s no longer any such thing as sin or judgment, and our loving, kind, fatherly God would never dream of punishing one of his beloved children.
This is pretty much all we heard at seminary, too. There weren’t any classes on sin and salvation; no one spoke about being judged or punished; and everybody seemed to have the same theology: Christ died for our sins, therefore, we’re going to heaven. And that’s true. Christ did indeed die for all of our sins, and Christ himself said that all we have to do is believe in him and we’ll be saved.
And that’s where the young people and the born-agains and the feel-good religions stop. The problem is, that’s not where God stopped. Sure, we’re saved by grace. Yes, all we have to do is believe in Jesus and accept him as our Lord and Savior. BUT, we can’t stop there. There’s still work to do.
God loved us. We were sinners. God sent His son to die for us. All our sins were atoned for, and the very instant we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior, it’s as if we never sinned at all. We’re washed clean by the blood of the Lamb. A new birth. A new start. A clean slate.
The problem is that from the time we accept Christ to the time we start sinning again is sometimes pathetically short. And that’s where the problem comes in. The whole idea behind this salvation thing is that we STOP SINNING. We can’t accept Jesus as Lord, and then turn right around and go back to sinning. Jesus’ death freely atoned for all our sins up to the time we accepted him, but after that, we’re supposed to make an effort not to sin again. And when we fail, as we will surely do, we’re supposed to have the good grace to realize it, admit it, and repent. THEN Jesus’ death will continue to atone for us. But if we keep on sinning, brush it off as paid for by Christ, and don’t even bother to feel guilty or sorry, then we’re in big trouble.
One of the most famous sermons ever written about God’s judgment came from a preacher back in about 1741. Jonathan Edwards was a Puritan, and we all know how Puritans felt about God and sin and punishment. Theirs was a rather joyless religion, full of fear and threats, and when Edwards wrote Sinners in the Hands of An Angry God, he was writing for his time.
I had to read this sermon in seminary, and my daughter actually had to study it for a literature class. I would love to read the entire sermon to you, but it’s about 40 pages long and would take more than an hour to read, so I figured you’d probably rather I didn’t. I do like his imagery, because it’s classic hellfire and damnation. I think we could use more sermons like this.
Back when Edwards was preaching, no one gave feel-good sermons. None of this "Jesus loves me and died for me and so I’m saved forever and ever, and I’m going to Heaven where I’m going to walk golden streets and pick pretty flowers and ride on clouds for all eternity." The sermons back in Puritan times were long, intense, and filled with threats about what was going to happen to the unrepentant sinners who failed to heed the words of the preacher. They were blunt and direct, with no innuendo or hints at what might happen. They were very specific about what would happen to sinners, and how bad it would hurt when you were tossed into the lake of fire for all eternity, to burn but not be consumed.
Most of what Edwards preached is still good material for today, if ministers were only brave enough to preach it. Sad to say, most ministers need their jobs badly enough that they’re afraid to tell their people what they need to hear, for fear of ending up homeless and jobless.
Edwards starts out by telling the audience that "There is nothing that keeps wicked men at any one moment out of hell, but the mere pleasure of God. By the MERE pleasure of God, I mean his SOVEREIGN pleasure, his arbitrary will, restrained by no obligation, hindered by no manner of difficulty." Let me first explain that when Edwards refers to men, he means everyone, male and female alike. Keep in mind that this sermon was written long before political correctness became the norm.
He’s telling us that nothing is keeping us out of hell except God. Not our works, our deeds, our thoughts, our prayers, nothing. It is by the mere grace of God that we’re not burning in hell at this very moment. Not because we’ve been good, or because God needs us, or because Jesus is our brother, but because God has not at this particular moment decided that all we’re good for is to act as kindling for Satan’s fires.
These fires are referred to in both the Old and New Testaments. In today’s scripture, the author tells us that, "If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God." And in Isaiah, chapter 26, verse 11, "O Lord, your hand is lifted high, but they do not see it. Let them see your zeal for your people and be put to shame; let the fire reserved for your enemies consume them."
Contrary to what we’ve taught and been taught the last 2 or 3 decades, that God is good and kind and loves us as we love our children, Jonathan Edwards pictures God as angry. He says:
"Yea, God is a great deal more angry with great numbers that are now on earth: yea, doubtless, with many that are now in this congregation, who it may be are at ease, than he is with many of those who are now in the flames of hell. The souls of the wicked are in scripture compared to the troubled sea . . ." He’s referring to Isaiah 57:20-21: But the wicked are like the tossing sea, which cannot rest, whose waves cast up mire and mud. ‘There is no peace,’ says my God, ‘for the wicked.’"
Edwards continues: "All wicked men’s pains and contrivance which they use to escape hell, while they continue to reject Christ, and so remain wicked men, do not secure them from hell one moment. Almost every natural man that hears of hell, flatters himself that he shall escape it; he depends upon himself for his own security; he flatters himself in what he has done, in what he is now doing, or what he intends to do. Every one lays out matters in his own mind how he shall avoid damnation, and flatters himself that he contrives well for himself, and that his schemes will not fail. They hear indeed that there are but few saved, and that the greater part of men that have died heretofore are gone to hell; but each one imagines that he lays out matters better for his own escape than others have done."
How many of us are guilty of doing the same thing? We know in our hearts and minds that there is a hell, and we know that there’s going to be punishment, if we’ll only admit it to ourselves. But isn’t it rather natural for us to think that hell is there for everyone else? Hell is where the bad people go and I’m not a bad person. Hell is for rapists and murderers and child molesters, and I don’t do any of that. Oh, I might cheat a little on my income tax, or ‘borrow’ a little money from my business partner, or smack my kids around a little bit when they deserve it, but surely God can’t be mad at me for that. And even if he were, my actions wouldn’t merit going to hell. Well, let’s see.
"Thus it is that natural men are held in the hand of God, over the pit of hell; they have deserved the fiery pit, and are already sentenced to it; and God is dreadfully provoked, his anger is as great towards them as to those that are actually suffering the executions of the fierceness of his wrath in hell, and they have done nothing in the least to appease or abate that anger, neither is God in the least bound by any promise to hold them up one moment; the devil is waiting for them, hell is gaping for them, the flames gather and flash about them, and would fain lay hold on them, and swallow them up; the fire pent up in their own hearts is struggling to break out: and they have no interest in any Mediator, there are no means within reach that can be any security to them. In short, they have no refuge, nothing to take hold of; all that preserves them every moment is the mere arbitrary will, and uncovenanted, unobliged forbearance of an incensed God.
"That world of misery, that lake of burning brimstone, is extended abroad under you. There is the dreadful pit of the glowing flames of the wrath of God; there is hell’s wide gaping mouth open; and you have nothing to stand upon, nor any thing to take hold of; there is nothing between you and hell but the air; it is only the power and mere pleasure of God that holds you up. "
You’ll notice that Edwards doesn’t mention any specific sin. He’s talking about sinners who have failed to accept Christ. But, as it says in today’s scripture, "If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left." So after we come to know Christ, and after we accept him as our Lord and Savior, if we keep on sinning, there won’t be a sacrifice acceptable for us to get back right with God. We have to stop doing the things we know we shouldn’t do. And I don’t need to stand up here and tell you what all those things are. You know what they are. The question is will you choose to stop doing them? Will you choose to stop sinning when sinning feels so much better than being good? Will you choose to stop sinning when sinning is so much more fun and exciting than living according to God’s gracious word? Besides, you give money to the church; you come on Sunday mornings; you bake cookies for the youth and fix little things for widows; you sing in the choir. You’re good, right? Let’s see.
"Your wickedness makes you as it were heavy as lead, and to tend downwards with great weight and pressure towards hell; and if God should let you go, you would immediately sink and swiftly descend and plunge into the bottomless gulf, and your healthy constitution, and your own care and prudence, and best contrivance, and all your righteousness, would have no more influence to uphold you and keep you out of hell, than a spider’s web would have to stop a falling rock."
"Were it not for the sovereign pleasure of God, the earth would not bear you one moment; for you are a burden to it; the creation groans with you . . . the sun does not willingly shine upon you to give you light to serve sin and Satan; the earth does not willingly yield her increase to satisfy your lusts; nor is it willingly a stage for your wickedness to be acted upon; the air does not willingly serve you for breath to maintain the flame of life in your vitals, while you spend your life in the service of God’s enemies."
Well, even if we are bad, God loves us. It says so in the Bible. At John 3:16 we’re told that God loved us so much he sent his Son to die for us so we could have eternal life. He’s not going to go now and take all that back just because we have a little fun now and then. Well, we can read at Deuteronomy 32, verse 35, what God has to say about this: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay. In due time their foot will slip; their day of disaster is near and their doom rushes upon them." God’s vengeance is not something we talk about much anymore, but it’s there. It’s still a threat if we fail to accept Christ’s offer of salvation. Even though we’ve accepted Jesus, every time we sin, we’re rejecting God’s most precious gift. And Jonathan Edwards draws a vivid picture of God’s vengeance:
"The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much as one holds a spider, or some loathsome insect over the fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked: his wrath towards you burns like fire; he looks upon you as worthy of nothing else, but to be cast into the fire; he is of purer eyes than to bear to have you in his sight; you are ten thousand times more abominable in his eyes, than the most hateful venomous serpent is in ours. You have offended him infinitely more than ever a stubborn rebel did his prince; and yet it is nothing but his hand that holds you from falling into the fire every moment. It is to be ascribed to nothing else, that you did not go to hell the last night; that you was suffered to awake again in this world, after you closed your eyes to sleep."
"And there is no other reason to be given, why you have not dropped into hell since you arose in the morning, but that God’s hand has held you up. There is no other reason to be given why you have not gone to hell, since you have sat here in the house of God, provoking his pure eyes by your sinful wicked manner of attending his solemn worship. Yea, there is nothing else that is to be given as a reason why you do not this very moment drop down into hell."
We’re told to fear God in the New Testament as well as the Old. At Luke 12, verses 4 and 5, Jesus himself warns us, "I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that, can do no more. But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear him who, after killing the body, has power to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him." Jesus is telling us that we should fear God, who controls eternal consequences.
We can read of the fury of God in Isaiah 59:18. "According to what they have done, so will he repay wrath to his enemies and retribution to his foes." And at Isaiah 66:15. "See, the Lord is coming with fire, and his chariots are like a whirlwind; he will bring down his anger with fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire." Don’t fool yourself into thinking that you’re not a foe of God - every time we sin we become enemies of God, and we’re not put right again until we offer up true repentance.
In the New Testament we can also read of God’s wrath. In Revelation 19:15, we read of "the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty." At John 5:29 Jesus tells us that those who have done evil will rise to be condemned. And at Matthew 25, verse 46 Jesus tells us that those of us who don’t visit the sick or clothe the naked or feed the hungry will go away to eternal punishment.
There are many references to God’s punishment in the Bible, so I don’t really understand how we could have so completely convinced ourselves that we’re all going to heaven because God loves us. The truth is, not all of us are going to heaven. Some of us are going to spend eternity in the lake of fire. And it may not be long in coming Here’s the way Jonathan Edwards put it:
"And it would be a wonder, if some that are now present should not be in hell in a very short time, even before this year is out. And it would be no wonder if some persons, that now sit here, in some seats of this meeting-house, in health, quiet and secure, should be there before tomorrow morning. Those of you that finally continue in a natural condition, that shall keep out of hell longest will be there in a little time! your damnation does not slumber; it will come swiftly, and, in all probability, very suddenly upon many of you."
So be warned. You are going to die. You are going to stand before God for judgment. And you will be taken to task for every sin you ever committed. Especially for those sins you committed after accepting Jesus as your Savior, because after receiving God’s most wonderful gift, eternal life through Jesus Christ his Son, you don’t have the excuse of ignorance to keep you out of hell.
Jonathan Edwards summed up his sermon in this way: "Therefore, let every one that is out of Christ, now awake and fly from the wrath to come. The wrath of Almighty God is now undoubtedly hanging over a great part of this congregation. Let every one fly out of Sodom: "Haste and escape for your lives, look not behind you, escape to the mountain, lest you be consumed."
Today’s scripture puts is a little more succinctly: "It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God."
Shall we pray?
