“In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power.” – 2 Thessalonians 1:8-9
IT IS A FEARFUL THING to fall into the hands of the living God (Hebrews 10:31), for in his hands are the keys of hell and of death (Revelation 1:18). I take no pleasure in informing you, that if you have not yet trusted Jesus Christ as your Savior, you are at enmity with God. His wrath abides upon you (John 3:36). He is angry with you every day (Psalm 7:11). And if you die without Christ, you will be the recipient of this awful fate above described. You will be punished with flaming fire, everlasting destruction, ceaseless torment, unending anguish, inexorable despair. You will be cast into hell, into everlasting fire (Matthew 25:41), into that horrible place of torment where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched (Mark 9:43-49). Unsaved reader, heed well these words from Revelation 14:11: “And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night…”
Before I delve into my text, I first ask you to perform a brief thought experiment. Suppose there is before you a campfire. If I directed you to stick your hand into the flame for five seconds, would you do this? Of course, you would not. You would have sense enough to refrain from such folly. Yet, when it comes to matters of eternity, you will embrace greater folly still, by rejecting Jesus Christ, who alone can keep you out of hell. Please do not be so foolish. However torturous holding your hand into the fire would be, it would “only” be for five seconds. Hell knows no such limits. It is forever.
My aim in composing these pages is to prevent you from making this dreadful mistake of dying without believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. Consider again my text verse. Ponder those horrible syllables. Contemplate that merciless atmosphere. Is this really where you want to spend eternity? Do you want to suffer the vengeance of eternal fire? Do you want to agonize in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone? Do you want to plunge into the interminable flames, with no hope, no relief, no rest day nor night, for ever and ever and ever?
Such Scriptures as 2 Thessalonians 1:8-9 should incite fear in your bosom – a fear which ultimately spurns you to the cross of Christ, where you find redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins. But perhaps these warnings of the wrath to come do not terrify you. Perhaps, rather than dreading hell, you mock at the mention of it. You scoff that the Bible is merely a collection of antiquated philosophies and primitive myths. You produce all manner of “logical” and philosophical objections to why hell cannot be a real place with real fire and real brimstone and real suffering.
I wish you were right. I wish no lake of fire and brimstone did exist. I wish everyone who rejects Christ would simply be annihilated and suffer no eternal wrath, as certain odious, pseudo-“Christian” cults claim (looking at you, Seventh Day Antichrists). But what I wish has no effects upon the reality of hell. And what you think has no effects upon the reality of hell. You may convince yourself that this talk of hell and damnation is stupid prattle, imbecilic religious jargon, but it is true. It is real. And if you perish in your sins without Christ, you will spend eternity tortured by the inexorable flames, your body charred yet undestroyed, your ears pierced with the horrid screams of the damned, your eyes assailed with the unrelenting smoke.
But just as God’s justice demands you pay for your sins in hell, his love provides the way for you to spend eternity with him in heaven. Because you could not save yourself, God sent his only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, into the world (John 3:16) to die on Calvary’s cross and pay the debt of the your sins with his precious blood (1 Peter 2:18-19). After he was buried, he bodily rose from the dead three days later (1 Corinthians 15:4), thereby conquering sin and the grave, and making it possible for you to go to heaven. Now, if you will acknowledge that you are a sinner who has sinned against a holy God and is under the condemnation of his holy law; that, because you have sinned, you deserve to go to hell forever; and that there is nothing you could ever do to make yourself righteous before God; and if you will believe that Christ died for your sins, was buried, and bodily resurrected three days later, you will be saved. You will not go to the lake of fire, but instead to the paradise of God, where you can spend eternity in the heavenly city, and enjoy all the glories therein.
CONCLUSION
Do not take this matter lightly, dear reader. You may think you have a long life to live, but you are only dust. Your very breath is in the hand of God (Daniel 5:23), and your life is but a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away (James 4:14). And when death comes, and your unbelieving soul is cast into hell, there can be no undoing this. It is done; everlasting fire shall be your eternal abode.
Do not let cults keep you from Christ. Do not let false teachers keep you from Christ. Do not let seminary teachers and scholars and philosophers and professors and religions of this world keep you from Christ. Do not let false gospels keep you from Christ. Come to Jesus at once, admitting you are a guilty sinner who deserves to burn in hell, and cannot do anything to rescue yourself from that terrible fate. Believe that Jesus Christ died at Calvary to pay for your sins with his blood, was buried, and bodily resurrected three days later – believing this as your only hope for heaven – and by receiving Christ as your Savior, you will be delivered from the wrath to come. But unless you believe this – and this alone, apart from all good works and human effort – you will spend eternity weeping and gnashing your teeth in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.