I've talked to a lot of folks through
the years about their eternal destiny.
I've gone door to door in neighborhoods ringing
doorbells and talking to people about their soul.
I've stopped them on the street to hand
them a gospel track and say a word
to them about their salvation.
And one thing I've learned is that seldom
have I ever talked to anyone who thought
they were going to hell.
Every single one of them thought one of
two things, that either they were good enough
to get to heaven or that God was
too good to send them to hell.
The title of my message today friends is
God's too good to damn me because that's
what most folks think.
Those are the two responses I've heard from
time and time again.
I can't tell you the countless times I've
heard people say to me that they were
good enough for heaven because they weren't as
bad as somebody else.
I had a friend ask me to go
to the hospital to talk to his dying
aunt who was the member of a Methodist
church because he was concerned about her soul.
He didn't think she was really saved.
So I went to see her and as
I sat by her hospital bed I asked
her if she thought she was going to
heaven when she died and she told me
yes because I haven't robbed a liquor store
or murdered anyone.
That was her criteria.
She wasn't as bad as others so that's
why she was good enough for heaven.
The other response I've gotten from folk is
that God is too good to send anybody
to hell.
They believe that God was too good to
damn them but their misconceptions of the God
of the Bible won't keep them out of
hell.
In Matthew 10 28 Jesus spoke plainly when
he said, And fear not them which kill
the body, but are not able to kill
the soul, but rather fear him which is
able to destroy both soul and body in
hell.
The most hated doctrine in the church today
is that God will and must punish sin.
People refuse to believe in that kind of
God.
Their God wouldn't act that way.
Their God would never send anybody to hell.
Their God is too good to damn them.
But my Bible says that God is a
God of justice as well as a God
of mercy and God is a God who
must punish sin.
The slain Christ on the cross is a
vivid reality that God must punish sin.
When Christ was led away to Calvary to
be crucified as the Roman soldiers took Jesus
to fasten him to that cross, they drove
nails into his hands and feet and every
stroke of their hammer was an explanation point
that God must punish sin.
God must punish sin.
But if you were to stand in the
pulpit of most churches in America today and
tell folks that God will punish sin, they
would reject that message and persecute the preacher
who gave it because their God wouldn't punish
sin.
But the God of the Bible will.
And the folks I've witnessed to who told
me they felt they were good enough for
heaven held a false concept of God as
well because good people don't go to heaven.
Only forgiven people get to go there.
Those who have had their sins washed in
the blood of the Lamb.
You go and tell folks today that they
must repent or just go on to hell
and all hell be thrown at you because
men hate the doctrine of repentance because they
love their sins.
They love darkness more than light.
They will accept a Jesus for a savior
but they'll have nothing to do with him
as their Lord.
Men want a God who won't get in
the way of their daily living.
So they get out their pocket knives and
whittle out a God for themselves that they
can live with.
And their God is too good to damn
them.
He just wouldn't act that way.
But the God of the Bible of Matthew
22 13 declares that God is a God
who will punish sin.
Then said the king to the servants bind
him hand and foot and take him away
and cast him into outer darkness that there
shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Weeping speaks of grief and loss and gnashing
of teeth signifies great anger and regret.
And that's what hell is like friends.
A region of outer darkness where there is
continual weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Repent before it's too late.