Applying the doctrine of hell | Clip from Divine Retribution

The Madness of Ignoring the Warning of Hell

Well, he gives some applications. His first application, he has kind of two big applications, and the first is, you know, he kind of calls attention to the madness, to the insanity of ignoring this. So he says, how can you still prefer a few moments of sinful pleasure when you know that you are running the risk of everlasting misery?

But I think the more penetrating application under that first one is this insanity of coming to church and agreeing with the preacher who preaches on the topic and, you know, and talking about those liberals out there that don't even believe in hell anymore, and it never changes the way you live.

The insanity of walking daily toward the precipice of an eternal misery of which you will be conscious forever without hope of, you know, relief, and you do so with the words of a preacher or a parent or a Bible verse or a good book crying out in your ears, and you nod and agree with every cry, and you still move in that direction.

Yes, madness. His final application is to the lost. Consider how great and terrible a thing eternity really is when you will be called to suffer the very fair, equal, appropriate punishment for your sin.

You know, you think about on earth, even the worst physical pains that we suffer or emotional pains which oftentimes are worse. Even in the back of your mind, when things are darkest, you do say kind of like, this has a limitation.

It won't last forever. Even if it lasts your entire life, the Christian thinks, this is just this life. There will be an infinitely longer existence without this sorrow. So the fact that there is hope makes everything bearable.

But, on the day of judgment, it will be the first time that humanity faces something without hope. There is no hope. There will never be an end to the justice that you will endure. And so, the utter hopelessness of the justice, to me, is perhaps the most terrifying thing.

Yeah, I can think of a time or two I've heard people in so much pain that they would say, just let me die. But then, in eternity, death is not an option to end the torment that you feel.

Fleeing to Christ Under the Warning of Judgment

And finally, one final great application is, if God has warned you in a timely fashion, do not sin against His kindness and add to the list of your crimes against the King the crime of an indifference to His mercy, that He would stoop down to explain to you what's coming in time for something to be done about it.

And the thing to be done is to run to the one being who has actually endured the infinite wrath of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, to come to the God-man and to lay everything before Him and to say, if you, triune God, have appointed your Son as the representative of the sinner and commanded the sinner to come, without restriction, come, come, then why should I not avail myself of that?

And to just, in a simple way, we could say, to give all that you know of yourself and to lay hold by faith of all that the Scripture describes of Christ for the sinner. It is the only appropriate response to the warnings that God has given us.

Closing with Christ and Responding to His Claims

And so, it would just be wisdom for anyone who has listened to the podcast and considered these things, at times, to take seriously the claims of Jesus Christ, to go to Scripture and read what He says about Himself, and to see how God has, in Scripture, explained the way of mercy, a path of mercy, that Christ, living a life of perfect obedience that we've refused to live, would satisfy the law of God, and that Christ's suffering on the cross, the infinite wrath of God on behalf of His people, has satisfied the penalty, the law's justice, and He's been raised to demonstrate to everyone with an empty grave that God has accepted what He's done.

What can we do then? Well, we come to the Scripture and we see what He says about Himself, we read His claims, and we believe, and we turn away from everything else in order that we might turn our lives toward Him, you know, to what the old writers call closing with Christ, that is, you know, really appropriating, grabbing hold of what He's promised and giving all that we are in response.

We really do appreciate being able to interact with you through the comments. So, if you have questions or just comments you'd like to leave, leave them below and we'll get back to them as we have a chance.