Hell To Pay On Judgement Day!

I have a very serious message for us tonight, friends. In fact, it's a solemn warning. Let me start by making this opening remark.

I was eating a hamburger a week ago while parked across from a car wash on a Saturday night, and it amazed me how carefully and painstakingly people would take a cloth to their car after it was washed and wipe away any smear or smudge, even if it was no bigger than an inch that remained. And I thought while I sat there that most folks spend more time detailing their automobiles than they spend on time on the details of their eternity. They never even give it a thought, and then they die and enter a Christless eternity.

Well, this evening, friends, we're going to focus on the details of eternity and one's destiny, for there is either bliss and peace in heaven or torment and misery in a devil's hell. But first, let me pray. Oh, great God, open hearts, I pray.

Grant the grace this hour. Help us, Lord, to take a walk to the very verge of eternity and catch a glimpse of your white, holy throne of justice and to feel the heat of a burning hell of punishment as your law convicts us and arranges us and condemns us. Let each one of us examine ourselves before you now to see where we stand, for we read in your word in Ezekiel 18, 20, the soul that sinneth, it shall die.

Oh, that's a terrible statement, Lord. Lord, there may be some here who are hell-bound sinners, and this sermon may be the very last opportunity they'll have to come savingly to Christ for forgiveness of sin. Lord, you know I'm just an old preacher with a weak heart and a pacemaker, and I need a large measure of your Holy Spirit right now.

Oh, great God, anoint me from on high. Make my weakness strong as my reliance is totally upon thee, and I pray, Lord, that your Spirit will disturb folks during this message and confront them with eternity and the God of that eternity. I pray these things in the strong name of Jesus.

Amen. Well, friends, I want to tell you one thing for sure that our Texas evening is found in the book of Revelation in chapter 20. You can turn in your Bibles there now, friends.

Here now is the Word of God, and may the Spirit of the Lord attend the reading of His Holy Word. And I saw a great white throne and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away, and there was found no place for them. Well, let me pause here, friends, to say this speaks of the final dissolution of all things, where the very earth and heaven dissolve.

Peter writes of it in his epistle where he says the elements are passing away with a fervent heat. And here we see a great white throne, which speaks of the holiness of God, and there sits the judge of all the earth at that throne. Oh, what a solemn scene this is, friends.

What a terrible, alarming, solemn scene. Well, let's continue with our striking passage of Scripture. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God, and the books were opened, and another book was opened, which is the book of life.

And the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books according to their works. Well, I'll pause again, friends, to say what books are these here referred to? I believe one book is the biography of your life, friend, all the details pertaining to how you lived, how you lived your life. It's all about you.

Also, the book of the law, which men will be held against, up against, and there there is the book of life. And it says they were judged out of those things which were written in the books. This speaks of a heavenly courtroom scene.

And if I may so speak, God is the judge, the angels are the bailiffs, and the prosecutor is the devil. Cases are reviewed, lives are revealed, evidence is presented, all in an orderly fashion, and sentences are handed out, for the sentencing of the law must be carried out. The text says, and whosoever is not found written in the book of life, meaning justified in God's sight, by a vital union with Christ, by faith, will be cast into a burning lake of fire.

This is indeed the final judgment. My sermon is entitled this evening, friends, Hell to Pay on Judgment Day. It's about the perdition of sinners in everlasting burnings.

Well, let's see how men will be judged. First, we see the strictness of God's unbending law. We read in Matthew 5.18, one jot or one tittle of the law shall in no wise pass till all be fulfilled.

Listen, friends, the law is never out of date. It cannot be modernized, nor can it be abrogated, and it certainly cannot be ignored, for a day is fast approaching where men will face a future judgment and be held up against its strictness and severity. The severity of God's unbending law, it's inflexible, and it must be exactly attended, and it must be answered when men are held up against it, but they will fail that test.

For God's word in Romans 3.23 declares, For all have sinned, all. That means me. That means you, friend.

For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. I cannot stand there in my own merits, for I will fail that test. I must stand in the merits of another, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Listen, friend, I know I am a sinner, and I'm in need of a savior for sin. I'm in need of a substitute for sin. And so are you, friend.

So do you. But men must be awakened to their lost condition. They must be brought off their self-righteousness in a good opinion of themselves.

They must be brought to see by sharp law work, the justice of God in divine vengeance on sin. That God must punish sin. That their life has been nothing but a continual act of rebellion against God.

And that they justly face damnation for their original and actual transgressions. That the law must be answered by a verdict. The sentencing of the law must be carried out upon all guilty lawbreakers.

And that means you, friend. And even your present efforts to improve yourself is not acceptable to God. For He declares our righteousness is nothing but filthy rags in His sight.

That there is a final judgment that awaits all mankind. And every mother's son will one day stand before the judge of all the earth. And there is no hope, no hope outside of the blood of Christ Jesus and faith in Him alone.

Only the imputed righteousness of Christ can justify us before God. When I read about this judgment, my mind goes to the following story. And let me share this wonderful story with you, friends.

And I will bring this sermon to a close. A man was traveling through the city of St. Louis. And it was a Sunday.

And he was a Christian. So he parked his car at a downtown church and went inside to worship. Once inside, he realized he was the only white person in an all-black church.

So he took his seat on the back row. Up on the platform stood the elderly pastor, whose subject this morning was heaven. He began his sermon by saying, Some folks call heaven paradise.

Other folks call it Abraham's bosom. I like to think of heaven this way. Here is Jesus, just returned from His earthly ministry.

And old Gabriel greets Him. Hello, Jesus. Sure is good to see you, Jesus.

Welcome home, Jesus. But wait, but wait. Who's that with you? Is that that thief from the cross? We can't have no thieves up here.

No, sir. He's not welcome here. Jesus replied, Never you mind, Gabriel.

Never you mind. Just then, Jesus wrapped His arm around the thief and hugged him and declared, Never you mind, Gabriel. He's with me.

Do you know this Jesus friend? If you have not trusted this blessed Savior, receive Him now before it's too late. Soon He will come in judgment on this world, when His anger shall burn as an oven. And then you shall meet Him as your judge.

And this was manifested, the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him, here in His love. Not that we love God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. And listen, friends, at the very end of the Bible, in Revelation 22, in verse 17, we find the last gospel call to sinners.

This may be your last gospel call for you, friend. So pay attention. You don't want to slip into eternity and be without Christ and be in eternity without God forever in a place of punishment for sin.

Listen to me, friend. And hopefully, as you hear this scripture and invitation, you just won't hear my shaky voice, the old shaky voice of an old preacher. But perhaps, by God's grace, you will hear His voice as it comes to you with majesty and authority and particularly.

Listen, friends. And the Spirit and the Bride say, Come. And let Him that heareth say, Come.

And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.