A day of wrath part 1 of 3 Destiny of those who dont know Christ. Remember the three purposes of judgement? Gods grace will be revealed. His rewards will be unveiled. And those who do not know him will pay a severe, terrible price. The Lord knows those who belong to him ( 2 Tim. 2:19). For those that dont know Jesus will declare Get away from me, you who do evil. I never knew you. (Matt. 7:23). For that person, the day of judgement will be a day of shame. His sins will be revealed, but not as forgiven sins. One deed after another until not even the sinner questions Gods right to punish. For those who never accepted Gods mercy, judgement will be a day of wrath. It will be like it was in the days of Noah. The door was shut then. Once it is shut, it is shut forever. There was screaming on the day of the flood. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth on the day of judgement ( Matt. 25:30 NIV). Regarding the lost, the Bible says, the smoke of their torment goes up for ever and ever; and they have no rest, day or night ( Rev. 14:11 RSV). Hell is a topic we rather avoid. We would like to think that all will be saved. But scripture does not support such an idea. The Bible repeatedly affirms the dualistic outcome of history. Some will be saved. Some will be lost. Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt ( Dan. 12:2 RSV). Paul agreed: To those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; but for those who are factious and do not obey the truth, but obey wickedness, there will be wrath and fury ( Rom. 2:7-8 RSV). Many object to the idea of hell, they say its an Old Testament idea. They point to the teachings of Jesus. Curiously, the Old Testament is comparatively silent on the topic. The New Testament is the primary volume of thoughts on hell. And Jesus is the primary teacher. No one spoke of eternal punishment more often or more clearly than Christ himself. Thirteen percent of the teachings of Christ are about judgement and hell. More than half of his parables relate to Gods eternal judgements of sinners. Of the twelve times that the word GEHENNA---- the strongest biblical word for hell---- appears in scripture, there is only one time in which Jesus was not the speaker. No one spoke of hell more than Christ did. Anyone who believes and is baptized will be saved, but anyone who does not believe will be punished ( Mark 16:16). Yes Jesus warned us of hell. He is the only eyewitness of hell who has walked on earth. And his description stands as the most reliable and graphic ever written. Every single word Jesus uses in his story of hell is significant. And every single word is sobering. We will see what he has to say in detail in our next post. God bless.
Posted on: Tue, 12 Nov 2013 22:24:38 +0000