because we believe what we just sang. He comes with justice to redress evil and to judge the nations in His righteousness, because we believe what we just sang is the Word of God. We read that same truth in the book of Jude. Relatively unknown book among many of God's people, and probably relatively unknown because it, from one point of view, is very, very negative, but it's that negative that is the subject of the preaching this morning. So we read together the general epistle of Jude, the 25 verses of that book. This is the word of God. Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, to them that are sanctified by God the Father and preserved in Jesus Christ and called, mercy unto you and peace and love be multiplied. Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, It was needful for me to write unto you and to exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. And here's why. For there are certain men crept in unawares who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness and denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. I will, therefore, put you in remembrance, though you once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt afterward, destroyed them that believed not. And the angels which kept not their first estate but left their own habitation, He hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day." even as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities about them in like manner giving themselves over to fornication and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. Likewise, also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh. despised dominion, and speak evil of dignities. Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil, he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not, that is, did not dare bring against him, the devil, a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee. But these speak evil of those things which they know not. But what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves. Woe unto them, for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Korah. These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear. Clouds they are without water, carried about with carried about of winds, trees whose fruit withereth without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots. Raging waves of the sea foaming out their own shame, wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever. And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of His saints to execute judgment upon all and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed. and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him. These are murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lusts, and their mouth speaketh great swelling words, having men's persons in admiration because of advantage." But, beloved, remember ye the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, how that they told you there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts. These be they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the spirit But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. And of some, have compassion, making a difference. And others, save with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment spotted by the flesh. Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen. Passages like the book of Jude that underlie the teaching of the Lord's Day before us this morning, Lord's Day 4, In the back of this altar on page 586, we have Lord's Day 4. Page 586, questions 9, 10, and 11. Does not God then do injustice to man, that is, isn't he unfair, by requiring from him in his law that which he cannot perform? Not at all, for God made man capable of performing it, but man, by the instigation of the devil and his own willful disobedience, deprived himself and all his posterity of those divine gifts. Will God suffer, that is, permit such disobedience and rebellion to go unpunished? By no means, but is terribly displeased with our original as well as actual sins and will punish them in His just judgment, temporally and eternally, as He hath declared, cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. Is not God then also merciful? God is indeed merciful, but also just. Therefore, His justice requires that sin, which is committed against the Most High Majesty of God, be also punished with extreme, that is with everlasting punishment of body and soul. Now, before you close your Psalter, ask yourself what is the subject, the main subject of this Lord's Day. What word or words that are synonyms are found in all three questions and answers? In question nine is the word injustice. Is God unjust or is God fair? That's the question there. In the answer to ten, And God will punish in His just, that is fair, judgment. And then in the answer to 11, God is merciful but also just, and therefore His justice requires that sin be punished. The subject of Lord's Day 4 is God's justice, and that's the answer to the question that we face this morning, why must the church preach about hell? Because God is just. God is fair. And God is good. exactly because God is just. If you would analyze one of the teachers at one of our schools and ask whether that teacher is good, and therefore either maintain your hiring of that teacher to teach your children or grandchildren, or not renew his contract or hers, if you would ask whether a teacher is good, One of the questions that you ought to ask about that teacher is whether that teacher is fair. Just, that is. And if that teacher is not fair or just, then that teacher is not a good teacher, and therefore ought not be teaching your children. The same question may be asked about God. Is God good? And one of the ways in which we answer that question, whether God is good or not, is to ask this question, is God fair? Is God just? And that's the subject of Lord's Day 4, as it's establishing our need for Christ by establishing our need for our misery. Is God good? Here's the question. Is God just? And here's the answer. Yes. And here's the explanation. Some men and women are going to go to hell, and the church needs to preach about hell. So, Lord, day four, remember, talking about justice is talking about whether God is fair, and if God is fair, then He's not going to let sin go unpunished. He's going to punish sin. That's the simple subject that even the children understand. Let me approach that question in another way that the children also can understand. If God were not fair, that is just and didn't punish sin, why is Jesus important to you? Why would you love Him? Why would you need Him? Why would you cling to Him as you have if God doesn't punish sin? Why is Jesus important to you? Now do you understand a little bit more the answer to the question why the church must preach about hell? What the catechism is doing is what the Bible does when the catechism is painting a background that's very, very dark in order that on that dark background can stand brightly the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. If you don't see this dark, dark background, you are not going to appreciate the light of the gospel that saves you from this darkness that the book of Jude talked about. Paint the background properly, as Paul did in the book of Romans, as Jude does in the book that we read. Paint the background properly. That's what the Heidelberg Catechism in Lord's Days 2 and 3 and 4, and even when we spill over into the next section of deliverance, even in 5, the Catechism is painting this dark background. Number one, big brush stroke. You are prone by nature to hate God and your neighbor. You can't keep this law of God perfectly. That's Lord's Day 2. Broad stroke of background, secondly, it's your fault. That's questions and answer six and seven of Lord's Day three. It's not God's fault, it's not anyone else's fault, it's your fault and it's my fault. Broad brush number three, this is how bad it is. You're depraved fully. You're dead in sin, and you can't escape by yourself. get the background painted properly, or you can't see the gospel of Christ. And now broad stroke brush number four is in Lord's Day four, when you ask the question, but maybe we can escape the judgment of God because God's not fair in requiring of us in His law what we can't do. And maybe we can say, well, God will just permit that to go unpunished, and maybe we can appeal to God's mercy. Isn't God also merciful? That's what Lord's Day 4 is doing for us this morning, enabling us not to get away with any excuses and not to squeeze out from under the truth of the Word of God that God is a just and fair God. So let's look at that. Lord's Day this morning and the truth of the Bible that the church must preach about hell. Remembering first of all God's justice, that is the right that God has to punish sin. Secondly, remembering God's judgment, that is what is that punishment that God will inflict upon men and women who do not believe. And number three, remembering God's gospel. which is the intent of the Word of God when it paints this dark background so that we see clearly the gospel. Lord, day four, as I said, is man's attempt to escape God's punishment for his sin. Do you remember the very first words out of the mouth of the devil when he came to Eve? He came to Eve and said to Eve, you can escape the punishment that God promised to inflict upon you when you disobey. Will you really die? That's the punishment that God promised to them if they disobeyed. And the devil put a question mark behind that and said to Eve, in so many words, you're not going to be punished. You can escape punishment. Disobey. See how that goes. And it's that original temptation that man can escape punishment that carries through all of biblical history and even into history today. It's what we see in society today. You can escape punishment. You're not going to suffer consequences for sin. And when you go to jail, it's not punishment, it's rehabilitation. Rehabilitation. Sinners don't need to be punished, they just need to be rehabbed. And then that spills over into the church when the church begins thinking that sin that's committed impenitently and continued in doesn't need to be disciplined. And so discipline has gone out of the window in many churches. And when the churches then get on board in society and say capital punishment is evil, we don't want to punish with capital punishment those who murder others, We're just going to be nice. We're going to rehabilitate. We're going to educate. They just need therapy because the poor man is sick. That's all the fruit of that very first temptation which said you are able to escape the punishment of God. You need to hear the gospel this morning, and I need to hear the gospel this morning, and that gospel cannot be heard without that dark, dark background of the justice of God. Turn with me again to the book of Jude, and I'd like to look at a couple of other passages with you to see that this is not one man's opinion that we need to preach judgment and justice. In that chapter that we read when the apostle gives examples of Egypt and angels and Sodom and Gomorrah, he ends that section, 5 through 7, by saying that these are set forth for an example when they suffer the vengeance, the vengeance of eternal fire. That's a scary word. We are not to exercise vengeance. Paul says to the church at Rome in chapter 12, we are not to execute vengeance because God says vengeance is mine, I will repay. And that confirms what we read in Jude chapter 7, that God is a God of vengeance. There are some new translations of Jude that change that word vengeance to punishment. I hope that's not an attempt to soften the idea there. It is a different word than is translated vengeance in other places, but it's the similar word, and the truth is the same. God will repay sinners who don't find refuge in the shelter that He provides. Either your sin is punished in you, or your sin was punished in Him. God is a God of vengeance. And so we read in Romans 12 verse 19 what I said a minute ago. Vengeance is mine, God says, not yours, mine. I will repay. It's a very important ingredient in the very gospel itself. It's not just what Paul said in the end of the book of Romans, but he said it in the beginning of the book of Romans, so that you need to know that the preacher has not lost his mind when he says that the church needs to hear about hell, that God is a God of vengeance. And that punishment is going to be eternal darkness, wrath, fire where the worm doesn't die and that fire isn't quenched. He hasn't lost his mind. He's been reading the Scripture. And he's been reading the Scripture with the church of all ages who understand that God is a God of justice. And if anybody objects this morning, that's not fair. Then realize that you're saying that God, when He's fair, isn't fair. Really? That when God is just, God isn't just. You, if you say that, haven't been reading the Scripture. Read Romans 1. Verse 16, when Paul says, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of God, and then goes on to explain the gospel of God as beginning with the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. That's the gospel. That's where Paul began. And he didn't just mention it in Romans 1, he brought it up again in Romans 2, verses 8 through 16, where you read that there's indignation. Think of these words. and wrath and anguish and tribulation. And then Paul says, according to my gospel. All of these things don't sound to our minds to be an important part of the gospel, but they are in that negative way. You can't know the gospel unless you know the wrath and judgment of God. But let's think about what Jude does the servant of Jesus Christ, brother of James, when he writes to those that are sanctified by God the Father, preserved in Jesus Christ, and called. What does Jude say? I want you to contend earnestly for the faith that was once delivered to the saints that has by many been forgotten. What is it that was forgotten by these who are turning God's grace into lasciviousness and who are living just like the men of Sodom and Gomorrah, going after strange flesh? What is it that they have forgotten, Jude says? This, that God is a God of vengeance. I want verse 5 to put you in remembrance, though you once knew this, How that, and now Jude begins with Egypt, and then he goes to the angels, and then he goes to Sodom and Gomorrah, but let's go more historically and see what Jude says, but also what Jude does not say. Let's begin at the beginning with the angels who fell. He refers to them in verse 6. So does Peter in his second epistle, which is very similar to Jude. This afternoon, if you read the Scripture, read 2 Peter chapter 2 especially, and then reread Jude and see how that probably one of them had the other's letter in front of him when he wrote his letter. in 2 Peter also speaks of the fall of angels, as Jude does here in verse 6, and says that God did not provide a way of escape for them. He didn't spare them who fell. You might say, well, God would have mercy upon angels and maybe save them, but God gave them no way of escape as He's given us a way of escape. The angels who fell are reserved now in darkness for everlasting punishment. Then, historically, for us, let's go to Adam and Eve. What about Adam and Eve in the fall into sin? What God said, God carried out. You eat, you die. And they did die. God's justice is manifested. Then go on to what Peter goes on to in 2 Peter 2, and the doctrine of the flood. He spared not the old world, but saved Noah, the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly. Do you understand why evolutionists, even those who call themselves Christians, want to deny the reality of the flood? and the extent of the flood to cover the whole world, because in the end, they want to deny the reality of God's judgment in the end of time that the flood portrayed and pictured. If you've not been to the Ark Encounter down south, put on by the Answers in Genesis and Creation Research people, you ought to go there and hear the witness that they give to the Christian faith when they speak of the flood and God's judgment upon the whole world. Listen to the witness that they give that is so different from the witness of many even Reformed Christians today who want to deny the historicity of the flood. They call, they're at the ark encounter, they call men and women to repentance because as God destroyed the world by the flood, God's going to destroy the world again, and if you don't find shelter In the cross of Christ, you are going to perish. I thank God for those who are still willing to make that kind of witness and testimony to men and women today. That's the biblical testimony. Then go on in history to Egypt and the ten plagues and how the Egyptians drowned in the Red Sea. But don't forget that Jude in verse 5 doesn't talk about the Egyptians destroyed in God's judgment. Jude says, God afterwards destroyed them that did not believe. And he's referring there to the Israelites, all of whom escaped Egypt and went through the Red Sea. Some of them didn't believe and God destroyed them too. And that is application to us. Very important application to us. And then Jude goes on in verse 7 to speak of Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities round about them in like manner, and it's almost as though he's describing the United States of America and Western Europe in the 21st century. What kind of life are they living? What kind of sexual immorality are they promoting and defending Sodom and Gomorrah? Remember, Jude says, Sodom and Gomorrah who gave themselves over to fornication and strange flesh. They're an example to you. When God destroyed those cities, they're an example to you of the vengeance of eternal fire, temporal fire on Sodom and Gomorrah. They burned. They were turned to a valley of salt. But they're an example to us of the eternal fire that God promises to bring upon impenitent people. And if you say, well, that's just the Old Testament, angels who fell, Adam and Eve who disobeyed, Egypt, Sodom and Gomorrah, and so forth, well, don't forget, number one, that this is what Jude says in the New Testament. And don't forget that Jude and Paul and Romans were simply teaching what they had learned from Jesus because the reality of hell never comes out so strongly as when it comes out of the mouth of Jesus. Read the Bible, Jesus teaching that it's better for you to enter into hell, enter into life maimed than having two hands going into hell. where He says, the fire shall never be quenched and the worm does not die. Sometimes wonder if we know what that means and if we remember that Jesus taught this. We'll see what that means in a moment in the second point, but let's just remember that Jesus taught this. And then when He said to His disciples in Matthew 22 about the final judgment, what He did, He says that at the end of that parable, these shall go away. That is, who said that they worshiped God and didn't, and taught in Jesus' name, but really didn't, said about them, these shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal. Everlasting punishment. Jesus taught that. And what we need to do to end the first point this morning is to say that's fair. That's not unjust, that's not unfair. When God is just, He is just. And when He's fair, He's fair. And we say that because sometimes men who deny this paint God as a wild-eyed fanatic. who, looking at the whole massive human race in glee and arbitrariness, plucks one out, casts him into hell, and plucks another out, puts him into heaven, and another in laughter to hell. And because they abandon reason, they need to, as they say, resort to ridicule, and so they try to ridicule the Christian faith in that way. But worse, Worse is when people like that say, God isn't fair. He isn't fair. And so the catechism explains very carefully that God does not do injustice, and we saw a couple of weeks ago why that's not unjust, because God made man capable, and man deprived himself of his divine gifts. And the Catechism is explaining there what the Apostle Paul, now turn with me to Romans again and the beginning of that book, what is happening now and what's happening in the future. We need to study and restudy and read and reread the first two chapters of the book of Romans to see. But let me point out in chapter two, Paul's conclusion, therefore, that is his initial conclusion. Therefore, you are without excuse, oh man. You don't have any excuse. And then in verse 2, we are sure that the judgment of God is according to truth. That is, it's right judgment. It's not unfair. It's not unreasonable. It's a judgment that's according to truth. And then in verse 4, he says, don't despise the riches of God's goodness and forbearance and longsuffering. Don't you know that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? If you do, now go to verse 5, after your hard and impenitent heart, you treasure up to yourself wrath against the day of wrath. What is that day of wrath? Well, it's the final coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, who's going to gather all of the human race before Him and judge them. Judge them. And at the conclusion of that judgment, every single person who is judged is going to say one thing. It was fair. It was fair. Look again at verse 5. You're treasuring up to yourself wrath against the day of wrath. In that day of wrath, what's going to happen? The righteous judgment of God is going to be revealed. The revelation of the righteous judgment of God. So I say again, every single person who's judged in that final judgment will walk away from that judgment saying, that was fair. It was just. No injustice done at all. Those who go to everlasting judgment are going to say, I knew. I did. It's my fault. There aren't any excuses. And those who go to heaven, are going to say, I don't deserve this. I'm going here because God executed his justice on someone else in my place. And we'll get to that later, too. But everyone will say, with regard to original sins and with regard to actual sins, God was fair. They knew. If they didn't know, they should have known. As when you speed and get a ticket and say, I didn't see the sign, The policemen will say to you, but you should have looked and thought about it. No excuses. And God will say to men and women, no excuses to you. And everyone who goes to hell will say, that was fair. The angels who fell will say, God was fair. The wicked who perished in the flood will say, God was just. We heard Noah's preaching. We didn't listen. We laughed. The Egyptian armies and the firstborn in the land will confess, God was just. The Israelites who went through the sea and then in the wilderness didn't believe and perished with Korah and Dathan and Abiram and others will say in the judgment day, God was fair. Every man who wakes up in hell after having lived a life of profligacy here, even if he never heard the gospel, will say, God's judgment of me is fair. The revelation, memorize Romans 2 verse 5, in that day of wrath is going to be the revelation, the uncovering of the righteous judgment of God. God was just. Don't forget that, but don't forget either, and this is almost worse, which is why we don't really like to choose these passages and thankful that the catechism forces us to examine some of these truths by asking us to preach through all of the doctrines. What's almost worse is that that judgment is hell. And when you understand what hell is, you're going to cringe even more. We're going to be very careful, but we're going to remember what the Word of God teaches us as the catechism leads us to see. Question 10, what is that judgment? Temporal and eternal, now and after you die. And question 11, isn't God merciful? Yes, God is merciful, but He's also just, and His justice requires that sin that's committed against God's most high majesty be punished with, here's the important word, extreme. You mustn't be extreme in your behavior. That is, go to the end of what you can do. But God goes to the extreme in his punishment. Extreme. What do you mean by that, God? Well, everlasting punishment. What kind of punishment? Punishment in your body and punishment in your soul. The catechism is simply explaining that though God is merciful, he's also just, and this is the justice, body and soul, now and forever men will be punished. Paul says in Romans 2, indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, that sounds internal to me. Reread the book of Jude. So let's start here by saying that the punishment is not simply in the future, but the punishment is now in the body and in the soul. The Catechism quotes Galatians 3 verse 10, or gives that as the proof, which says, "'Cursed is everyone that continues not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.'" Not cursed shall be after you die, but cursed is the man or the woman. The book of Galatians is simply saying what the book of Proverbs says, that the curse of the Lord is in the house of the wicked, not shall be, but is. God's judgment, that is, comes down upon men for their impenitent sin in time. In time. Just think about that for a moment. Physically and outwardly, in time, on our nation. What's happening to the United States of America? It's a disaster. I had a man at the gym the other day say swear words when he described what's happening to the United States. And I said, apart from the language that you used to describe it, I agree that our country is going down and is in ruin. Why? Why, we have to ask. And the answer is the judgment of God is coming upon the disobedience of our nation that approves every kind of immorality and calls darkness light and light darkness. It's not surprising that our country is coming under the judgment of God. You can look at Europe and see Europe is a generation or two ahead of us, worse than us, but we're right behind them. You can look at South America. You can look at Africa and the judgment of God on all kinds of nations. The answer is, they deny God and disobey God. He doesn't wait till eternity, nor does He wait till eternity. And now let's not look at the nation there or here, but let's look at us, and remember that God judges churches in time with temporal punishments and judgments. And it's not just those churches that approve evil things and teach error, but it's these churches who maybe disobey God in other ways. Let's examine ourselves and ask ourselves what we need to repent of, that God is judging us for. He judges families now. Families. whose parents were bad examples to their children and aren't repentant of those bad examples to their children because you may be, you may be repentant, you may see your sins in your children, but go to them and apologize to them and confess your faults and sins to them and turn from those sins and plead with God for mercy so that the judgment of God doesn't continue to the third and fourth generation of you He judges families. And probably the clearest testimony of this is the judgment of God upon individuals, where Romans 1 says He gives them over to sin. They saw God, they did not want to worship God, and so here's the judgment of God to them. He gives them over to sin so that they can't do anything other than sin. He hardens them in their wickedness injustice of judgment because they saw the truth and they suppressed it. The judgment is in consciences of men. We know that by experience, a bad conscience is worse than almost anything. You go to bed at night, you can't sleep because of your bad conscience. You all know that's the judgment of God upon you. If you're an unbeliever, a judgment that will never leave you, if you are a believer, a judgment that will bring you to repentance for the sins that your conscience plagues you for. Their conscience, Paul says in Romans chapter 2, bearing witness, their thoughts, the meanwhile, accusing or excusing them. They know. That's why they suffer insomnia. That's why they suffer anxiety. That's why they suffer depression. Insomnia, anxiety, and depression aren't all always explained by impenitent sin, but they certainly are often. And we ought to examine ourselves if there is in us those kinds of distresses, whether we are living in impenitent sin. And you need to do so soon because the Word of God says eventually your conscience will be seared as by a hot iron and you won't even feel the plague and pangs of conscience any longer. But all of that is in time. Bad enough. But the Word of God emphasizes is eternity, and that's worse. It was a book written about 30 years ago, I think, by a very faithful man in England called Whatever Happened to Hell. It would be worth getting that book, Whatever Happened to Hell. I reread that book on my plane ride to Iowa yesterday or Friday and on my way back yesterday and reminded myself what a faithful man that author was in describing not only hell but heaven. but emphasizing the reality of hell, asking himself and asking you, whatever happened to hell? Why is it lost in the preaching of the churches? And then he went through the scripture and pointed out the reality, the awful, utter reality of hell, including, number one, I'll use his words, absolute poverty. And if that doesn't seem important, just think of what riches you have now in an earthly way, experiencing love and family life and fellowship and good food and drink and home and shelter and everything. All of that in hell is gone. Absolute poverty. Agonizing pain. Fire. If you've ever been burned, even the littlest bit, you know what extreme pain fire causes. That's the figure that the Bible uses for hell. We need to preach this. Jesus preaches this. He wants us to know this. There's hell to pay, and it's going to be the most extreme pain, whether it's the pain of fire, we don't know, but it's an example or a symbol used to help us realize that it's going to be bad, very bad, agonizing pain. It's going to be the angry presence of God. You say, isn't hell the absence of God? Yes. Is it the presence of God also? And the answer is yes. The absence of God in His favor and the presence of God in His anger. Agonizing pain, angry presence, and then the climax of all of it is that it's an appalling prospect for men and women because it's never going to end. And this is where I stop thinking about hell because I can hardly bear to think about everlasting, never-ending, never-ending punishment. I can't grasp the reality of heaven. I try to think more of heaven and the unending, beautiful bliss of being with God. But think for a little while, once in a while, about the never-ending punishment of God. Never, ever ends. And that's the misery of man, because God is just. And God's justice will punish sin committed against his most high majesty with extreme punishment of body and soul now and in eternity in hell. Are there some people who say the preacher has lost his mind when he preaches that? Well, let them say that, but let them read the Bible first and see whether he's lost his mind or whether he's simply been reading what Jesus taught. Those who say the preacher's lost his mind have made an idol of God. They've turned God into someone other than the Bible teaches us he is. For that background, people of God, dark, dark background, see for a little while to end the gospel. The gospel. And remember why we love Jesus so much. Because Jesus went to hell for us. Think about what Jesus endured for us in his body and in his soul all of his life long, but especially at the end where eternity was compressed in a way that I cannot fathom. Eternity was compressed so He experienced an eternal judgment of God against our sins. Think of what Jesus experienced. Absolute poverty. Absolute poverty. agonizing pain in his soul, loss, sorrow, saw the sin, bore your guilt and bore your shame, and though I cannot fathom eternity compressed into a little while in Jesus' life, you ought to try to think about it that though we can't fathom it, He did endure it. Everlasting punishment of God against the sins of His people. For Him, it never ended. I can't fathom it, just believe it. Jesus suffered the punishment that you and I deserve. agonizing pain, the angry presence of God, both sides of that. God is absent from him in his love. God, why have you forsaken me? And he's present in his wrath for all of our sins, fire and brimstone inside him. And the appalling prospect, as I said, of an eternal suffering of God. And I can't love Jesus enough when I think of what Jesus did for me with regard to hell with regard to hell. I'm not going to hell. Say it. I'm not going to hell. And I'm not going to hell because Jesus did as a substitute for me. And when you let that reality sink in, you may say to yourself, I hate sin. I hate it. And I don't hate it nearly enough, but I hate it, and the more I see what Jesus suffered to me, for me, the more I hate it. When you see that reality that I'm not going to hell, you say not only do I hate sin, but you say there's nothing too great to ask of me to show thanks to God, nothing. Whatever God asks me, I'm going to give because my thanks will never be expended sufficiently in all eternity for what Christ did for me. I'm not going to hell. I want to be content in all of my sufferings and all of the troubles and all of the sorrows that God gives to me. I want to be content because in wisdom God gave that to me. In love God put these things in my life. And I'm going to learn to be content because I realize I'm not going to go to hell because Christ went there for me. That's the gospel. And you can't appreciate that gospel unless you see that dark, dark background of what God would justly do to you and me if he didn't, hadn't done it to Christ. I love Christ. And I also love you. And you say that now with me about the neighbors in the congregation and the neighbors outside of the congregation. And you see them perishing in unbelief, maybe some of them here, you know, living in impenitence, making a show of Christianity but behind the scenes not living Christianity, maybe you know them, do you love them? Do you? Imagine if a plague came again across Ottawa County and Kent County and wherever you live and maybe Michigan and all of the United States and you saw dead bodies around because of that plague. and you had to step over dead bodies to avoid them, and wear a mask to keep from contracting their disease. Would you not feel sorry for those who were not yet infected with that disease? And would you not call them to repentance? Would you not want to pluck them out of the fire, as it were, and say, there's danger here? And now I'm simply saying what Jude said at the end of his letter, to us, have compassion on some, making a difference, verse 22, and others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire. Change the figure. It's not a plague. It's a fire. The building is on fire. People are in it. What are you going to do? You're going to go in and warn them. You're going to grab hold of them and pull them out. That's what Jude says in the chapter we read. Save them by pulling them out of the fire. Translated into practical language, it's this. If you know someone who's living in impenitent sin, understand they're going to go to hell if they don't turn from that sin. And this is what hell is. They deserve it. You deserve it. You aren't going to receive it because you believed in Jesus Christ by the gift of faith. Now what about them? Are they going to perish, or are you going to warn them and say there's mercy in our Lord Jesus Christ for everyone who repents? Mercy, pity, and then bliss. Amen. Let's pray. Our Father which art in heaven, made not one of us here go home without thinking of their eternal destiny and why it is they imagine that they will be going to heaven. Send us home, Father, with these thoughts. Forgive us when we have been earthly-minded, and especially forgive us if we have neglected to warn our neighbor about the prospect for them who dies in unbelief. Forgive us and make us more and more love Christ. In His name we pray, amen.