I call your attention this morning
to four words found in the 18th verse of Romans chapter 1. Here are four glaring words,
alarming words. Four words, if you could hear
them, that would terrify your soul if you're yet without Christ. God help you to hear them. The
wrath of God. That's my subject this morning.
The wrath of God. I stand here with a heavy, heavy
burden on my heart, a weight crushing my soul, overwhelming
my mind. It's been pressing heavily upon
me all week. Every soul to whom I now preach, to whom I may never preach again,
will soon stand before the judgment bar of God, before the judgment
seat of Christ, and receive exactly that which is justly due from
God, according to what you've done, whether it be good or evil. Everybody. You and I will receive from God
only what we fully deserve and exactly what we fully deserve. If you're without Christ, you'll
receive from God exactly the merit of your sin paid out to
you. If you are in Christ, if you
believe on the Son of God if you trust Christ. You will receive
from God exactly the merit of perfect righteousness paid out
in full in everlasting salvation because Christ has made you the
very righteousness of God. Knowing, therefore, the terror
of the Lord, we persuade men. Oh, hear the word of God and
tremble. The wrath of God is revealed. There's no question. You're fully
aware. The wrath of God is a matter
of certainty. The wrath of God is something
of which you have been increasingly aware every day of your life. The wrath of God, you know, is
real. It is revealed. It's revealed
from heaven. It's revealed to everybody, to
everybody. Some suppress, they hold this
truth in unrighteousness, but the wrath of God is revealed. You have an undying soul. If
you die without Christ, you will perish forever under the wrath
of God in hell. What a statement. Having said
that, I warn you even now as I begin this message, flee from
the wrath to come. I urge you, I beseech you, I
implore you, I beg you for Christ's sake, for your soul's sake, go
to Christ as the penitent thief and cry for mercy. Come ye sinners,
poor and needy, weak and wounded, sick and sore. Jesus ready stands
to save you, full of pity, joined with power. Come to Christ. and live. Where you are right
now, come to Christ. Believe on the Son of God. Wait
not a moment. Flee away to Jesus Christ for
salvation. In this chapter, the Apostle
Paul, writing by divine inspiration, shows us that the wrath of God
is revealed. God's power and wisdom is shown
in creation. And the wrath of God is made
known in the conscience of every man. so that every human being
is born with a sense of God consciousness, which constantly annoys and disturbs
and times screams loudly within you, showing you plainly you're
going to meet God in judgment. And that's what terrifies folks
with regard to the life and death and eternity. But there's an
even greater revelation of God's wrath than that which is found
in creation and in conscience. The Scriptures, the Word of God
gives witness abundantly clearly. In fact, if you care to, at your
leisure, get you a Bible concordance or just flip to the back of your
Bible, even the small concordance in the back of your Bible, and
care to look the words up, you will find that the Word of God
has much, much, much more to say. about the wrath and judgment
and fury and justice of God than it does about the love, mercy,
and grace of God. It's spoken of a great deal more. And yet, in this day of modern
religious tomfoolery, the modern-day church plays down the subject. I heard that buffoon from Houston
one night talking to Larry King Ostey don't like King had been
some years ago, and he he said What about sin and judgment and
he smiled like a possum chewing on briars is it Larry? We don't
talk about things like that and it suits everybody not to talk
about things like that and The modern day church plays down
judgment, plays down the wrath of God. When was the last time
you heard somebody on television or radio or read in one of those
little columns in the newspaper about the wrath and judgment
of God? And if you should hear someone
speak about it or read or someone writes about it, it'll be a while
before they're asked to speak or write again. The fact is the
subject of God's wrath. has become taboo in today's society. And religious folks by and large
have accepted the taboo and conditioned themselves just not to bring
the subject up. It is true. Mercy, love and grace
are attributes of God. How we rejoice to know that so. We rejoice that the God of heaven
is long suffering and patient. merciful and kind, good and gracious,
loving and tender, slow to anger, quick to mercy. He forgives sin. He justifies the ungodly. He
pardons the criminal. But my friends, it is equally
true that the Almighty is just and righteous. He will by no
means clear the guilty. God is angry with the wicked
every day. His fury, His wrath, His indignation
against the wicked is constant, poured out upon the ungodly unceasingly. As surely as God poured out all
the fury of his indignation and wrath upon his darling son when
he was made sin for us, so the God of heaven will pour out the
fury of his wrath and condemnation and indignation upon you if he
finds sin upon you in the day of judgment. Hear what I say. God must punish sin. The Word of God labors this point.
Just as God is good to those who trust him, so he is terrible
and furious to those who do not. Is the God of heaven a God of
wrath? Hear what he says. Let me just
read some scripture to you. Hear what God says. According to thy fear, so is
thy wrath. Behold, the day cometh. cruel,
both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate, and
he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it. God says,
I will punish the world for their evil and the wicked for their
iniquity, and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease
and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible. Therefore will
I shake the heavens and the earth shall remove out of her place
in the wrath of the Lord of hosts and in the day of his fierce
anger. But the Lord is the true God. He is the living God and
everlasting King. At his wrath, the earth shall
tremble and the nations shall not be able to abide his indignation. Listen to Nahum's prophecy, that
little book of Nahum. Nahum spends much time talking
about God's wrath. He says, God is jealous and the
Lord revengeth. The Lord revengeth and is furious.
The Lord will take vengeance on his adversaries and he reserveth
wrath for his enemies. The Lord is slow to anger and
great in power and will not at all acquit the wicked. The Lord
hath his way in the whirlwind and the storm, and the clouds
are the dust of his feet. He rebukes the sea, makes it
dry. He dries up the rivers, Bashan
languishes, Carmel and the flower of Lebanon languish. The mountains
quake at him and the hills melt. The earth is burned at his presence.
Yea, the world and all that dwell therein. And then the prophet
raises the question. Who can stand before His indignation? Who can abide in the fierceness
of His anger? His fury is poured out like fire. Yes, the God of the prophets
is God of wrath, of judgment, but that's not all. The New Testament
speaks even more distinctly, even more clearly about the wrath
and judgment of God. The apostles all speak of it. The day of wrath, the day of
judgment, the day of indignation. God has not appointed us to wrath,
but to obtain salvation. The scriptures are full of warnings
with regard to God's wrath. The wrath of God is not as it
is imagined by many. It is not an uncontrolled, passionate
fit of anger. That's the wrath of man. The
wrath of God is not an unmeasured, passionate fit of anger. It is
a necessary part of God's moral perfection. Wrath is God's judicial
retribution for evil. It is God's judicial retribution
for sin. God who is perfect in purity,
righteousness, justice, and truth, must be angry with the wicked
every day. He must punish sin. Is the God
of heaven a God of wrath? Behold the judgments of God visited
upon the ungodly in history and see. Go if you dare. O sinner, go if you dare to the
gaping jaws of hell. and listen to the screeches of
the damned, and ask those who are shut up in the prison of
darkness forever, is God a God of wrath? Go ask Cain, wandering
in the wilderness of hell. Go to burning Sodom and smoldering
Gomorrah. Go to the sons of Korah falling
down headlong into hell. Go to the burning sons of Eli,
the smoldering heaps of Nineveh. Descend, if you dare, to the
pits of the damned and ask Pharaoh, Judas, Lucifer, and the fallen
angels, is God a God of wrath? And hear the screeching answers
they give. Oh, I hope the words of Scripture
and the remembrance of the damned have already begun to make your
ears tingle and your heart quake before God. I speak not merely
to frighten you, but to warn you and to press you into the
arms of the crucified Redeemer. I speak not merely to terrify,
but that God may be pleased now to persuade you to believe on
the Son of God. Flee to Christ and sue for mercy. Before the trumpet sounds, before
God wakes the dead, all sinners hear the gospel sound since Christ
for sinners bled. God's just to pardon sin and
promises to save all who believe on Jesus Christ, the darling
son he gave. Oh, sinner, seek his grace, whose
wrath you cannot bear. Fly to the shelter of his cross
and find salvation there. Now, I want you to understand
plainly. Hell is the eternal portion of
all who perish without Christ. Hell is the place for the execution
of the fierceness and terror of God's infinite wrath eternally
poured out upon sinners who will not bow to Christ. First thing
I want you to see is this. There is a place of wrath reserved
for God's enemies. I sometimes hear preachers say
God won't send people to hell. Yes, God does send people here.
He created a place specifically for that purpose Hell is a real
place Created by God for the eternal punishment of all his
enemies and there is a day coming When all the wicked shall be
cast into hell painful as that subject is It's one which I dare
not. I cannot I must not I will not
be silent. I who would desire to speak of
hellfire if God hadn't spoken of it. But since God has spoken
so plainly, how dare any who are his hold their tongue concerning
it? Though hell is spoken of often
in scripture, let me speak only the words to you here that the
Son of God spoke. When you think of Jesus, everybody
likes to call him Jesus, Why don't you call him as he is,
the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus the Christ, Jesus the Lord. Everybody talks about sweet little
Jesus and they can't imagine Jesus talking about judgment.
Hear what Jesus of Nazareth said concerning hell. Whosoever shall
say thou fool shall be in danger of hell fire. You serpents, You
generation of vipers, how shall you escape the damnation of hell? Then shall he say to them on
his left hand, depart from me. You curse it into everlasting
fire prepared for the devil and his angels. Everlasting fire
prepared for the devil and you who follow him. If thy hand offend
thee, cut it off. It is better for thee to enter
into life maimed than having two hands to go into hell, into
the fire that shall never be quenched, where the worm dieth
not and the fire is not quenched. Hell is described in more ways
than I could begin to name in this message this morning. The
scriptures often use metaphorical language and use it repeatedly
to describe things that can't be described by just one word
or one statement. Our Lord Jesus is called the
Good Shepherd. He's called the surety. He's
called the door. He's called the way. He's called
the bread of life and the water of life. Those are all metaphorical
terms used to describe him who cannot be described with just
one word or one adjective or one sentence describing him.
Heaven is described as a city. is built or maker is God, a city
without foundations, a city full of squares, a new Jerusalem,
the streets are described as being paved with gold, we hear
about the gates, all the jewels surrounding those gates, all
of those things are allegorical words used to describe that which
cannot really be described with just one thing. So it is with
hell. What hell is, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. But I know this, hell is represented
by fire. People ask, are the fires of
hell real? More real than any fire you ever
imagined. More real than any fire you ever
imagined. The fire you see and feel and touch, the fire you
burn in your fireplace or in your wood stove or when you're
out camping, the fire you light, that's just an emblem of the
fires of hell. Some of you know what it is to
be burned. Probably if I remember correctly, you've got a bad scar
burn when boiling water. I bet you remember it, don't
you? You don't remember it? I do. When I was 15 years old,
I worked in a service station, and they had just come out with
cars with air conditioning. A fellow drove in, knowing full
well the car was boiling, and asked me to check his water,
and I did. I've never taken off a hot radiator
cap since. I remember well the feeling.
I was scalded, scalded from the burn. Oh, but the fires of hell. flames that will never burn out. The sun will soon cease to burn. The fire that destroys the world
will burn out, but the fire of hell will never diminish in the
least. Hell is a place of blackness
and darkness forever. You should be cast into outer
darkness. Those who are cast into hell
are shut out from the kingdom of light, the saints of light,
and the God of light. Shut up in the blackness of your
own dark soul. Shut up in the blackness of the
midnight of your own dark conscience. Shut up in the blackness of the
darkness of your own depraved heart. Hell is a place where
the worm dives not. The conscience of man is a worm
that never dies, constantly gnawing away at him. You know a little
bit, just a little bit. I mean, just, I mean, Merle,
when your conscience screamed and you couldn't stand the roar
of the scream in your soul, that's just a little, just a little
what I'm talking about, just a little bit. Much mental illness is conscience
overwhelming a man. Conscience. Conscience. Conscience. Conscience men do everything
they can to suppress. Conscience men do everything
they can to silence. Conscience. Screaming. Oh, but imagine having a conscience
keenly awakened. completely aware, always screaming,
never silenced, gnawing at you in hell. Hell is described as the second
death. This is the meaning of God's
sentence upon Adam and the cursed race of Adam. In the day thou
eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. Have you ever seen the ungodly
die, clenching their teeth, grabbing the covers, doing everything they can to
hold on to just one more breath? Hell is a place of endless dying,
the second death. is a bottomless pit. It's the
everlasting prison of the damned where God's law, God's holiness,
God's justice, God's righteousness are bars that hold you in. Hell
is a place of unutterable woe and suffering. I tried in preparing
this message to do what I try to avoid doing all the time.
I tried to imagine the sufferings of the damned in hell. In hell, you will be torn in
pieces like a lion tears his prey relentlessly. Cut asunder like Agag was hewn
in pieces by Samuel continually. Slaughtered like helpless animals
continually. drown in perdition continually. Oh, what pain is expressed by
the screeches of the dam where there's weeping and wailing and
gnashing of teeth forever. Inhale. I can almost picture
a lost son screaming at his lost daddy and his lost mother, screaming
and cursing them, screaming and cursing them because they taught
them not the way of life. I can almost picture, I can almost
picture a lost congregation screaming and cursing, reaching out and
bashing upon the lost preacher who dared not speak the truth.
In hell, you will see this face, this face right here. This face
right here. You've heard me preach the gospel
to you, some of you, all your lives. And you will see this
face and hear this voice forever. And you will scream, God, give
him out of my way! Shut his mouth! Let me not hear
him again! In hell, the torments of the
damned are indescribable. In hell, you'll suffer the loss
of everything good. Bandaged forever. from Christ,
banished forever from comfort and peace. Abraham, sin lies
as dead as he can just cool my tongue with a drop of
water. I'm tormented in these flames.
You'll be banished from heaven and banished from hope. In hell
you'll be punished in body and in soul and in heart. As your body was the servant
of sin, so it shall be the object of wrath. As your heart and soul
burn with the sense of God's wrath now, your heart and soul
shall burn with the experience of God's wrath in hell. But who
can describe the woe? There's no end to it. No annihilation. The fate of Judas tells us that
hell is forever. Woe unto that man by whom the
Son of Man is betrayed. It had been good for that man
had he never been born. O Christless soul, to die without Christ, to die without Christ, you'd
have been better off never to have drawn your first breath.
For untold millions there are today who scream and curse the
day of their birth in hell. Hell is eternal. Your sins are offense against
the infinite God and demand infinite punishment. You can never pay. As God lives forever, God will
punish your sin forever. Pastor, why are you talking so
much about hell today? I remember the words of a dying
man to his pastor, a faithful man, a far better preacher than
the one talking to you now, John Newton. That dying man said,
sir, you often told me of Christ in salvation. Why did you not
oftener remind me of hell and danger? I must warn you. because I care
for your soul. Hell is real. They do not care
for your soul. They do not warn hell-deserving
sinners of eternal damnation. Second, all by nature are sinners under
the wrath of God. sinners under the wrath of God. The wrath of God is not yet executed upon you,
but if you're without God, without Christ, If you're yet unbelieving,
if you yet live with your fist shoved in God's face, if you
yet refuse to believe on the Son of God, God's glittering
sword is already brandished against you. He that believeth not is
condemned already, because he believeth not the Son of God. That's the language of Scripture.
The wrath of God is not something that one day will be put upon
you. It is upon you. Listen to the
psalmist. Surely thou didst set them in
slippery places. Thou castest them down into destruction. How are they brought down into
desolation? As in a moment, they're utterly
consumed with terrors. You see, If you go to hell, are
you listening to me? If you go to hell, you will but
eat the fruit of your own way and you will reap only exactly
what you deserve because you're a sinner. Your heart is iniquity. Your heart is corrupt. You may
cover it up on the outside and folks may pat you on the back
and say, my, he's a mighty fine fellow. She's a mighty sweet
girl. But your heart. Now, you've got
somebody telling you the truth. Eric Wall, I've been telling
you the truth all your life. Your heart is a den of iniquity. It's time you tell yourself the
truth. Should you go to hell, It's exactly
what you deserve. You're a rebel against God. Your
heart's enmity against Him. You despise God's law. You hate
His grace. You hate His Son. You hate His
righteousness. You hate God. And hell's mouth is open wide
to receive you, just waiting for you to take another breath.
And most likely, God's eternal wrath will be suddenly poured
out without warning. Many years ago, a very dear friend
of mine, a grandfather, said to me when I went to speak
to him about his grandson's sudden death. These are the words he
spoke. You can find them in Proverbs
29.1. He, that being often reproved, hardeneth his neck, it shall
suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy. You think, I'm young, I'm strong,
I'm in good health, I've taken good care of myself. Soon, you're
going to meet God in judgment. The day is marked. when you will
die. God marked it before ever you
drew your first breath. There's nothing you can do that
will preserve your soul for a moment from the terror of God's wrath.
And God's under no obligation to keep you out of hell. How miserable, how lamentable,
how sorrowful is your Christless soul hanging on the brink of
destruction. with no hope, without God, without
Christ, without hope. Third, understand this. The reason God will send you
to hell is, as the psalmist says in Psalm 11, the righteous Lord
loveth righteousness. He's a purer eyes than to look
upon iniquity. God is love, how we rejoice to
know he is. God has no pleasure, no satisfaction
in the death of the wicked. God delights in mercy. Oh, how
we rejoice to know that. Will he? Can he send men to hell? Yes, he must. Because the righteous
Lord loveth righteousness. As long as God is righteous,
The ungodly must suffer in hell. God's glory demands the eternal
damnation of the ungodly. God's willing to show his wrath.
Read the ninth chapter of Romans. God showed his wrath in the overflow
of Satan. He showed his wrath in the flood.
He showed his wrath at Calvary. And he'll show his wrath on you. And he'll make his power known.
and your everlasting destruction. The pastor is foolish to talk
about hell and the fires of hell being forever. Surely fire is
consuming. Yes, it is. It is. Consumes from
you everything desirable. Everything you want. Everything that you can wish
for. But while God pours out His wrath
upon you, He will sustain you to endure His wrath forever.
He will sustain you under His wrath so that hell is a place
of endless dying forever. I went to see my doctor this
week. I don't remember whether I said it to him this time or
not, but I've said to Dr. Hendrickson a number of times, I'm a believer. For me, dying is not a problem.
That's not a problem. But it's the process I want to
avoid. It's all you got to go through to get there, I want
to avoid. That's why I come see you. You keep me from feeling
it. In hell, you're going to die forever. Forever die without hope. Forever die without life. Forever die in excruciating pain
that can't be compared to anything painful on this earth. Forever
die without relief. Now I have one last thing to
say. Oh God help you to hear me. God make you hear me. God graciously calls you to hear
me. The God of glory, justice, and
truth is gracious. He delights in mercy. And He's
willing to save sinners like you and me. He's willing to save sinners
like you and me. For God so loved the world, that
he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him
should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son
into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through
him might be saved. Have I any pleasure at all? that
the wicked should die, saith the Lord God. I have no pleasure
in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord God. Wherefore,
turn yourselves and live. As I live, saith the Lord God,
I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked
should turn from his way and live. Turn ye, turn ye from your
evil ways, for why will you die? Would God have sent his prophets
and given us this book if he weren't willing to be merciful?
Would God have sent his son to die in the place of sinners were
he not willing to save? Would God urge you to seek his
salvation were he not willing to be gracious? Would God have
sent me here to preach to you this day if he weren't willing
to forgive? Would God have brought you to
this house to hear this word? Were he not willing to pardon?
God will save sinners for precisely the same reason that he damns
the wicked. Because the righteous Lord loveth
righteousness. God will save every sinner who
looks to Jesus Christ, the Lord, like that publican in the temple
and says, God, be merciful, God, be propitious to me, the sinner,
looking to Christ alone for righteousness. For God loves the righteousness
of his Son, and loves the sacrifice of his Son, and loves every sinner
who trusts his Son. May you now have grace given
from God to believe on the Son of God. Believe in Him right
where you are. Trusting Him right where you
are. Looking to Christ right where you are. Living forever
under the mercy and grace of God. Expecting eternal life with
Christ in glory. You have every reason to if you
believe Him. If you believe Him. Your faith
in Him is His gift. Your faith in Him is the evidence
of His love of you. Your faith in Him is the proof
of His election. Your faith in Him, the proof
of His calling. Your faith in Him, the fruit
and proof of your redemption by His blood. We've sinned and
come short of the glory of God. But we're justified freely by
His grace. Through the redemption that's
in Christ Jesus. whom God sent forth to be a propitiation
through faith in His blood to declare His righteousness for
the remission of sins. God forgives sin because He loves
righteousness. Here I am, my God. The words I painted today of
sin don't come close to describing what I am. Hell is in me, and I deserve
it. But here I confess my sin. And
you've declared you're faithful and just to forgive sin. The blood of your Son cleanses
from all sin. I bring your sacrifice, your
Son. And God smells the sweet savor
and says, Don Fortner, well done. Well done. Well done. I'm pleased with you. I'm pleased
with you. God help you now to believe on
the son of God. and go home this day justified
by His grace. Amen.