The Terrible Wrath of a Holy God

A Window to Understanding the Magnificence of the Salvation Provided by the Savior

A Biblical Description of Hell

·         What are some of the Characteristics of this place:

1.      It will be a place of memory and remorse. - Luke 16:19-31

2.      It will be a place of thirst. - Luke 16:24

3.      It will be a place of misery and pain. - Rev. 14:10, 11

4.      It will be a place of frustration and anger. - Matt. 13:42; 24:51

5.      It will be a place of separation. - Rev. 2:11; 20:6, 15

6.      It will be a place of undiluted divine wrath. - Hab. 3:2; Rev. 14:10

7.      It was originally prepared for Satan and his hosts. - Matt. 25:41

8.      It will be a place created for all eternity. - Dan. 12:2; Matt. 25:46; Jude 7 

·         When Scripture is understood properly, there is no hint anywhere of the termination of the terrible state of unbelievers in hell.

·         Their doom is unending; there is a solemn finality about their miserable condition. (It is significant that the most descriptive and conclusive utterances about hell come from the lips of Jesus.)

·         A marvelous, though certainly not conclusive description of human misery comes from the lips of Job in Job 6-7

·         We’ll not take time to read it…but if we had time we could take it and the rest of the book of Job and create an exquisite portrait of Job’s human suffering: 

·         If that caused Job to lose his marbles – imagine what unending suffering will do!

·         If the descriptions of hell are figurative or symbolic, the conditions they represent are more intense and real than the figures of speech in which they are expressed.

·         A place of weeping and gnashing of teeth - And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth" (Matthew 25:30).

·         A place of outer darkness - "Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth" (Matthew 22:13).

·         A place of torments - "And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom" (Luke 16:23).

·         A place of Sorrows - "The sorrows of hell compassed me about; the snares of death prevented me;" (2 Samuel 22:6).

·         A place of everlasting destruction - "Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power;" (II Thessalonians 1:9).

·         A place where men are tormented with fire and brimstone - "But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death" (Revelation 21:8).

·         A place where fire is not quenched - "Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched" (Mark 9:44).

·         A bottomless pit - "And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit" (Revelation 9:2).

·         A place of no rest - "And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name" (Revelation 14:11).

·         It is ultimately a lake of fire - "And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death" (Revelation 20:14).

·         A place of hopeless of unsatisfied desires - "And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame " (Luke 16:24). The rich man wanted water but could not get any.

·         A place of hopelessness and suffering - as a woman is about to give birth to a child, many go through painful labor that can last from a few minutes to a few days. But through this painful anguishing time, there is hope that when the child is born this terrible labor pain will subside. Just imagine if you can if that pain was multiplied many times over and you would never have hope of it ever going away forever? You would do anything to die to get rid of the pain, but it would always remain and continue forever and ever and ever. THIS IS HELL!

·         A place of memory - When a person is tormented with a bitter memory they sometimes may commit suicide as a way out. In hell this is impossible because your spirit will never die, but will always remember how you sold your soul for the pleasures of this short sinful life. You will continue to always wish you were in heaven instead of hell, if only you would have made the right decision.

APPLICATION

·         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 creature is made subject to the bondage of your corruption, not willingly; 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.

·         God's creatures are good, and were made for men to serve God with, and do not willingly subserve to any other purpose, and groan when they are abused to purposes so directly contrary to their nature and end. And the world would spew you out, were it not for the sovereign hand of him who hath subjected it in hope.

·         There are black clouds of God's wrath now hanging directly over your heads, full of the dreadful storm, and big with thunder; and were it not for the restraining hand of God, it would immediately burst forth upon you. The sovereign pleasure of God, for the present, stays his rough wind; otherwise it would come with fury, and your destruction would come like a whirlwind, and you would be like the chaff of the summer threshing floor.

·         The wrath of God is like great waters that are dammed for the present; they increase more and more, and rise higher and higher, till an outlet is given; and the longer the stream is stopped, the more rapid and mighty is its course, when once it is let loose.

·         It is true, that judgment against your evil works has not been executed hitherto; the floods of God's vengeance have been withheld; but your guilt in the mean time is constantly increasing, and you are every day treasuring up more wrath; the waters are constantly rising, and waxing more and more mighty; and there is nothing but the mere pleasure of God, that holds the waters back, that are unwilling to be stopped, and press hard to go forward.

·         If God should only withdraw his hand from the flood-gate, it would immediately fly open, and the fiery floods of the fierceness and wrath of God, would rush forth with inconceivable fury, and would come upon you with omnipotent power; and if your strength were ten thousand times greater than it is, yea, ten thousand times greater than the strength of the stoutest, sturdiest devil in hell, it would be nothing to withstand or endure it.

·         The bow of God's wrath is bent, and the arrow made ready on the string, and justice bends the arrow at your heart, and strains the bow, and it is nothing but the mere pleasure of God, and that of an angry God, without any promise or obligation at all, that keeps the arrow one moment from being made drunk with your blood.

·         Thus all you that never passed under a great change of heart, by the mighty power of the Spirit of God upon your souls; all you that were never born again, and made new creatures, and raised from being dead in sin, to a state of new, and before altogether unexperienced light and life, are in the hands of an angry God.

·         However you may have reformed your life in many things, and may have had religious affections, and may keep up a form of religion in your families and closets, and in the house of God, it is nothing but his mere pleasure that keeps you from being this moment swallowed up in everlasting destruction.

·         However unconvinced you may now be of the truth of what you hear, by and by you will be fully convinced of it. Those that are gone from being in the like circumstances with you, see that it was so with them; for destruction came suddenly upon most of them; when they expected nothing of it, and while they were saying, Peace and safety: now they see, that those things on which they depended for peace and safety, were nothing but thin air and empty shadows.

·         The wrath of God due your sin holds you over the pit of hell, much as one holds a spider, or some loathsome insect over the fire,

·         He abhors it, and is dreadfully provoked: his wrath towards it burns like fire; he looks upon it as worthy of nothing else, but to be cast into the fire; he is of purer eyes than to bear to have it in his sight; it is ten thousand times more abominable in his eyes, than the most hateful venomous serpent is in ours.

·         The dreadful truth is that the sin of the individual is absolutely and completely inseparable from the individual himself.

·         There is no “hating the sin and loving the sinner”, at least, not in the sense of the complete sense that many mean it.

·         That is a fairy tale created by those who dislike the justice of God as the Bible presents it.

·         What there is is a God who hates sin and sinners, but in this age loves sinners by holding His wrath in abeyance and offering them opportunity for mercy and salvation.  

·         The offense of sin is NOT just future – it is present.

·         Remember that it is impossible to separate the sin from the sinner.

·         Thus it is impossible to separate God’s displeasure from the sinner.

·         Because the unredeemed bear their own sin, they bear the results of that sin, here and now, as well as the future implications of that sin regarding ultimate judgment.

·         It has offended God infinitely more than ever a stubborn rebel did his prince; and yet it is nothing but His hand that holds the sinner from falling into the fire every moment.

·         That judgment has not fallen is to be ascribed to nothing else, that an unsaved man did not go to hell the last night; that he was suffered to awake again in this world, after he closed his eyes to sleep.

·         And there is no other reason to be given, why he has not dropped into hell since he arose in the morning, but that God's hand has held him up.

·         There is no other reason to be given why he has not gone to hell, since he has sat here in the house of God, provoking His pure eyes by his sinful wicked manner of attending his solemn worship.

·         Yea, there is nothing else that is to be given as a reason why the sinner does not this very moment drop down into hell.

·         And consider here more particularly,

·         1. Whose wrath it is: it is the wrath of the infinite God.

·         If it were only the wrath of man, though it were of the most potent prince, it would be comparatively little to be regarded. The wrath of kings is very much dreaded, especially of absolute monarchs, who have the possessions and lives of their subjects wholly in their power, to be disposed of at their mere will.

·         The subject that very much enrages an arbitrary prince, is liable to suffer the most extreme torments that human art can invent, or human power can inflict.

·         But the greatest earthly potentates in their greatest majesty and strength, and when clothed in their greatest terrors, are but feeble, despicable worms of the dust, in comparison of the great and almighty Creator and King of heaven and earth.

·         It is but little that they can do, when most enraged, and when they have exerted the utmost of their fury.

·         All the kings of the earth, before God, are as grasshoppers; they are nothing, and less than nothing: both their love and their hatred is to be despised.

·         The wrath of the great King of kings, is as much more terrible than theirs, as his majesty is greater.

·         2. It is the fierceness of his wrath that you are exposed to.

·         We often read of the fury of God; as in Isaiah lix. 18.

·         So Isaiah lxvi. 15.

·         And in many other places. So, Rev. xix. 15, we read of

·         The words are exceeding terrible. If it had only been said, "the wrath of God," the words would have implied that which is infinitely dreadful: but it is "the fierceness and wrath of God."

·         The fury of God! the fierceness of Jehovah!

·         Oh, how dreadful must that be!

·         Who can utter or conceive what such expressions carry in them!

·         But it is also "the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God."

·         As though there would be a very great manifestation of his almighty power in what the fierceness of his wrath should inflict, as though omnipotence should be as it were enraged, and exerted, as men are wont to exert their strength in the fierceness of their wrath.

·         Oh! then, what will be the consequence!

·         What will become of the poor worms that shall suffer it!

·         Whose hands can be strong? And whose heart can endure?

·         To what a dreadful, inexpressible, inconceivable depth of misery must the poor creature be sunk who shall be the subject of this!

·         That God will execute the fierceness of his anger, implies, that he will inflict wrath without any pity.

·         When God beholds the ineffable extremity of your case, and sees your torment to be so vastly disproportioned to your strength, and sees how your poor soul is crushed, and sinks down, as it were, into an infinite gloom; he will have no compassion upon you, he will not forbear the executions of his wrath, or in the least lighten his hand; there shall be no moderation or mercy, nor will God then at all stay his rough wind; he will have no regard to your welfare, nor be at all careful lest you should suffer too much in any other sense, than only that you shall not suffer beyond what strict justice requires.

·         Nothing shall be withheld, because it is so hard for you to bear.

·         Ezek. viii. 18.

·         Now God stands ready to pity you; this is a day of mercy; you may cry now with some encouragement of obtaining mercy. But when once the day of mercy is past, your most lamentable and dolorous cries and shrieks will be in vain; you will be wholly lost and thrown away of God, as to any regard to your welfare.

·         God will have no other use to put you to, but to suffer misery; you shall be continued in being to no other end; for you will be a vessel of wrath fitted to destruction; and there will be no other use of this vessel, but to be filled full of wrath.

·         God will be so far from pitying you when you cry to him, that it is said he will only

·         Psa. 2:4

·         How awful are those words,

·         Isa. lxiii. 3, which are the words of the great God.

·         It is perhaps impossible to conceive of words that carry in them greater manifestations of these three things, vis.

·         Contempt

·         Hatred

·         Fierceness of Indignation.

·         If, once judgment has fallen you cry to God to pity you, he will be so far from pitying you in your doleful case, or showing you the least regard or favor, that instead of that, he will only tread you under foot.

·         And though he will know that you cannot bear the weight of omnipotence treading upon you, yet he will not regard that, but he will crush you under his feet without mercy; he will crush out your blood, and make it fly, and it shall be sprinkled on his garments, so as to stain all his raiment.

·         He will not only hate you, but he will have you, in the utmost contempt: no place shall be thought fit for you, but under his feet to be trodden down as the mire of the streets.

·         3. The misery you are exposed to is that which God will inflict to that end, that he might show what that wrath of Jehovah is.

·         God hath had it on his heart to show to angels and men, both how excellent his love is, and also how terrible his wrath is.

·         Sometimes earthly kings have a mind to show how terrible their wrath is, by the extreme punishments they would execute on those that would provoke them.

·         Nebuchadnezzar, that mighty and haughty monarch of the Chaldean empire, was willing to show his wrath when enraged with Shadrach, Meshech, and Abednego; and accordingly gave orders that the burning fiery furnace should be heated seven times hotter than it was before; doubtless, it was raised to the utmost degree of fierceness that human art could raise it.

·         But the great God is also willing to show his wrath, and magnify his awful majesty and mighty power in the extreme sufferings of his enemies.

·         Rom. ix. 22.

·         And seeing this is his design, and what he has determined, even to show how terrible the unrestrained wrath, the fury and fierceness of Jehovah is, he will do it to effect.

·         There will be something accomplished and brought to pass that will be dreadful with a witness.

·         When the great and angry God hath risen up and executed his awful vengeance on the poor sinner, and the wretch is actually suffering the infinite weight and power of his indignation, then will God call upon the whole universe to behold that awful majesty and mighty power that is to be seen in it.

·         Isa. 33:12-14.

·         Thus it will be with you that are in an unconverted state, if you continue in it; the infinite might, and majesty, and terribleness of the omnipotent God shall be magnified upon you, in the ineffable strength of your torments.

·         You shall be tormented in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb; and when you shall be in this state of suffering, the glorious inhabitants of heaven shall go forth and look on the awful spectacle, that they may see what the wrath and fierceness of the Almighty is; and when they have seen it, they will fall down and adore that great power and majesty.

·         Isa. 56:23, 24.

·         4. It is everlasting wrath.

·         It would be dreadful to suffer this fierceness and wrath of Almighty God one moment; but you must suffer it to all eternity.

·         There will be no end to this exquisite horrible misery.

·         When you look forward, you shall see a long for ever, a boundless duration before you, which will swallow up your thoughts, and amaze your soul; and you will absolutely despair of ever having any deliverance, any end, any mitigation, any rest at all.

·         You will know certainly that you must wear out long ages, millions of millions of ages, in wrestling and conflicting with this almighty merciless vengeance; and then when you have so done, when so many ages have actually been spent by you in this manner, you will know that all is but a point to what remains.

·         So that your punishment will indeed be infinite.

·         Oh, who can express what the state of a soul in such circumstances is! All that we can possibly say about it, gives but a very feeble, faint representation of it; it is inexpressible and inconceivable: For

·         How dreadful is the state of those that are daily and hourly in the danger of this great wrath and infinite misery!

·         But this is the dismal case of every soul in this congregation that has not been born again, however moral and strict, sober and religious, they may otherwise be.

·         Oh that you would consider it, whether you be young or old!

·         There is reason to think, that there are many in this congregation now hearing this discourse, that will actually be the subjects of this very misery to all eternity.

·         We know not who they are, or in what seats they sit, or what thoughts they now have.

·         It may be they are now at ease, and hear all these things without much disturbance, and are now flattering themselves that they are not the persons, promising themselves that they shall escape.

·         If we knew that there was one person, and but one, in the whole congregation, that was to be the subject of this misery, what an awful thing would it be to think of!

·         If we knew who it was, what an awful sight would it be to see such a person!

·         How might all the rest of the congregation lift up a lamentable and bitter cry over him!

·         But, alas! instead of one, how many is it likely will remember this discourse in hell?

·         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 to-morrow 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.

·         You have reason to wonder that you are not already in hell.

·         It is doubtless the case of some whom you have seen and known, that never deserved hell more than you, and that heretofore appeared as likely to have been now alive as you.

·         Their case is past all hope; they are crying in extreme misery and perfect despair; but here you are in the land of the living and in the house of God, and have an opportunity to obtain salvation.

·         What would not those poor damned hopeless souls give for one day's opportunity such as you now enjoy!

·         And now you have an extraordinary opportunity, a day wherein Christ has thrown the door of mercy wide open, and stands in calling and crying with a loud voice to poor sinners; a day wherein many are flocking to him, and pressing into the kingdom of God.

·         Many are daily coming from the east, west, north and south; many that were very lately in the same miserable condition that you are in, are now in a happy state, with their hearts filled with love to him who has loved them, and washed them from their sins in his own blood, and rejoicing in hope of the glory of God.

·         How awful is it to be left behind at such a day! To see so many others feasting, while you are pining and perishing!

·         To see so many rejoicing and singing for joy of heart, while you have cause to mourn for sorrow of heart, and howl for vexation of spirit!

·         How can you rest one moment in such a condition?

·         Are not your souls as precious as the souls of the people at Suffield, where they are flocking from day to day to Christ?

·         Are there not many here who have lived long in the world, and are not to this day born again?

·         And so are aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and have done nothing ever since they have lived, but treasure up wrath against the day of wrath?

·         Oh, sirs, your case, in an especial manner, is extremely dangerous.

·         Your guilt and hardness of heart is extremely great.

·         Do you not see how generally persons of your years are passed over and left, in the present remarkable and wonderful dispensation of God's mercy?

·         You had need to consider yourselves, and awake thoroughly out of sleep.

·         You cannot bear the fierceness and wrath of the infinite God.

·         And you, young men, and young women, will you neglect this precious season which you now enjoy, when so many others of your age are renouncing all youthful vanities, and flocking to Christ?

·         You especially have now an extraordinary opportunity; but if you neglect it, it will soon be with you as with those persons who spent all the precious days of youth in sin, and are now come to such a dreadful pass in blindness and hardness.

·         And you, children, who are unconverted, do not you know that you are going down to hell, to bear the dreadful wrath of that God, who is now angry with you every day and every night?

·         Will you be content to be the children of the devil, when so many other children in the land are converted, and are become the holy and happy children of the King of kings?

·         And let everyone that is yet out of Christ, and hanging over the pit of hell, whether they be old men and women, or middle aged, or young people, or little children, now harken to the loud calls of God's word and providence.

·         This acceptable year of the Lord, a day of such great favors to some, will doubtless be a day of as remarkable vengeance to others.

·         Men's hearts harden, and their guilt increases apace at such a day as this, if they neglect their souls; and never was there so great danger of such persons being given up to hardness of heart and blindness of mind.

·         God seems now to be hastily gathering in his elect in all parts of the land; and probably the greater part of adult persons that ever shall be saved, will be brought in now in a little time, and that it will be as it was on the great out-pouring of the Spirit upon the Jews in the apostles' days; the election will obtain, and the rest will be blinded.

·         If this should be the case with you, you will eternally curse this day, and will curse the day that ever you was born, to see such a season of the pouring out of God's Spirit, and will wish that you had died and gone to hell before you had seen it.

·         Now undoubtedly it is, as it was in the days of John the Baptist, the axe is in an extraordinary manner laid at the root of the trees, that every tree which brings not forth good fruit, may be hewn down and cast into the fire.

·         Therefore, let everyone 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 everyone fly out of Sodom: