I receive a number of religious emails
each day, and because of my studies into the denominations of
Christianity and the other major world religions many of those emails
come with some questionable doctrine attached. A couple of weeks ago I
came across one of these emails with the subject line of “Why
homosexuals are deserving of Hell.” The author of the email, I will
intentionally not be including their name, was detailing why a true
Christian would never even try to evangelize to homosexuals (and by
proxy other groups of people engaging in knowing sin). The problem was
as I read this email, everything he was writing applied to all sinners,
not just homosexuals. The writer was totally missing the irony of his
own words.
Matthew 7:4-5 sprang to mind:
Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let
me remove the speck from your eye’; and look, a plank is in your own
eye? Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you
will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.
I thought about how many Christians are
just like that writer and that is where this sermon comes from.
We are often told by the world how much
we or conversely it deserves. But what do we and by extension, the
world as a whole, deserve? I know Thursday was Thanksgiving and you
probably came in here this morning thinking that you would hear an
upbeat sermon on Thanks… sorry, this sermon is of sterner stuff. Here
is what Scripture says we all deserve:
Romans 3:23
for all have sinned and fall
short of the glory of God,
Romans 6:23:
For the wages of sin is death, but the
gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Luke 16:23-24
And being in torments in Hades, he
lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.
“Then 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.’
Matthew 25:41
Then He will also say to those on the
left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire
prepared for the devil and his angels:
Isaiah 33:14
The sinners in Zion are afraid;
Fearfulness has seized the hypocrites: “Who among us shall dwell with
the devouring fire? Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?”
Matthew 13:41-42
The Son of Man will send out His angels,
and they will gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and
those who practice lawlessness, and will cast them into the furnace of
fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth
Mark 9:47-48
And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck
it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye,
rather than having two eyes, to be cast into hell fire— where ‘Their
worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.’
Revelation 14:10-11
he himself shall also drink of the wine
of the wrath of God, which is poured out full strength into the cup of
His indignation. He shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the
presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. And the
smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever; and they have no rest
day or night, who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives
the mark of his name.
Did you pay attention to these
verses?
All men are guilty of sin.
Period.
The sentence for sin is death in
Hell.
Hell is a never-ending torture of
heat, thirst, pain, and burning, from which there is no rescue.
The reality is just that, we all, each,
and every one of us deserve to go to hell. That is quite the depressing
message. But you really need to understand that point. I need you to
really grab onto and concentrate on it. You are not deserving of
anything. You have not earned anything. Nor, can you earn anything.
Remember that time, that first time, you knew what you were about to do
was wrong and then did it anyway? That was the moment. That was the
moment you earned a trip to Hell. And all of us have at least one
memory that goes like that (who am I kidding we all have hundreds of
memories like that).
Think on that for a moment, we all
deserve to go to Hell. Not once, not twice but over and over and over
again. Everyone in this room, everyone of you who watches the video of
this sermon, and everyone else, we all deserve to go to Hell. That is
not a message you will hear from the world, is it? It is even a fairly
rare message to hear from a pulpit.
If God had left the story of the world
the way, it was after the sin of Adam and Eve. That is exactly what we
would all receive, a trip to hell. And it would have been fair. It
would have been his right. It would have been just. Yet, God did not
forget or right off men for their sins. Instead, He put into motion a
plan. That it might save a few obedient believers from Hell.
Never forget this as we talk about the
lesson this morning. Becoming a Christian does not entitle us to
Heaven. We are still deserving of Hell, but Christ who was in Heaven,
not just deserving of Heaven, he was in Heaven, died so that those that
believe in, and obey him could by grace receive a gift that none of us
can earn; eternal Life in Heaven as opposed to eternal death in Hell.
Would you minister to a murderer, a
theif, an adulterer, or to a homosexual? What about your best friend,
parent, or sibling?
Don’t get me wrong I am not saying that
someone who is engaging in knowing sin can be baptized. But by
ministering to one of these could they not come to repentance? And then
into Christianity? It is a hard question, for many Christians. And it
boils down to:
Who is deserving of grace?
As I have already demonstrated, the
answer is no one. Why then is it so hard for some Christians to admit
that all sinners are equal, and it is only through the blood of Christ
that we have access to grace?
There was a prophet once that felt much
like the Christians I am describing.
Our primary text this morning will come
from the book of Jonah. We are going to focus on the end of the book,
but, if you don’t know the story, let me do a quick summary:
God tells Jonah to go and declare that
Nineveh would be destroyed for their sins. Jonah instead tried to run
to Tarshish. God stirred up the sea and the sailors freaked out. Jonah
tells the sailors to toss him overboard and the sea would settle. The
sailors do toss him into the waves, the sea calms, the sailors fear the
God of the Jews. Jonah is swallowed by a whale. Jonah spends three
days in the belly of the whale. Jonah prays to God. The whale vomits
Jonah out on shore. God again tells Jonah to go to Nineveh. This time
Jonah obeys. When he gets to town, he starts prophesying the
destruction of Nineveh in 40 days. The whole town repents and fasts and
prays for mercy. God forgives Nineveh and stops the disaster that he
had prepared. This is where this morning’s lesson begins.
Turn with me to Jonah 4:1-3. These
verses show Jonah’s answers to the questions that I asked in the
beginning and tells
you WHY Jonah disobeyed in the first
place.
Now to Jonah 4:1-3.
But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and
he became angry. So he prayed to the Lord, and said, “Ah, Lord, was not
this what I said when I was still in my country? Therefore I fled
previously to Tarshish; for I know that You are a gracious and merciful
God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, One who relents from
doing harm. Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it
is better for me to die than to live!”
You see Jonah KNEW that God
wanted to turn the Ninevites away from their sinful ways and back to
him. And he did not consider them worthy of God’s grace. He wanted the
Ninevites punished so badly that he disobeyed a direct command from
God! Now, that is a foolish decision. Yet, God not only forgave Jonah,
but God also gave him another chance to obey. Jonah was granted God’s
Grace.
Does this sound exactly like the
Christians I was describing earlier? They are so angry, disgusted,
unforgiving, take your pick, about whatever sin they see they want the
person to be punished. What they forget is just what Noah forgot; that
God has shown them grace for the same crime… disobedience. That is what
all sin is… disobedience.
The Bible says do not lie, so a lie is…
disobedience.
The Bible says do not kill, so killing
is… disobedience.
All sin can be boiled down to that
simple word… disobedience.
And the any who have sinned
deserve what… hell.
The only people not going to hell
will have been given grace.
Back to Jonah. And, now after the
Ninevites repent and God gives them grace, Jonah is so angry with God
that Jonah tells God to kill him! (This is hyperbole by the way. Like
when a grounded child screams, “are you trying to kill me,” at their
parents.)
Jonah 4:4 gives us God’s answer
to Jonah’s angry rant:
Then the Lord said, “Is it right
for you to be angry?”
Effectively God is saying, “Why are you
mad? It was always my right to punishment them or not; never yours.”
Jonah then stalks out of town, like a 3-year-old throwing a fit, and
builds himself a shelter so he can see what happens to the town. Over
one night God causes a plant to grow up and give Jonah shade. Then the
next night God sends a worm to kill the plant. What does Jonah do?
Look at verse 4:8:
And it happened, when the sun arose,
that God prepared a vehement east wind; and the sun beat on Jonah’s
head, so that he grew faint. Then he wished death for himself, and said,
“It is better for me to die than to live.”
Jonah AGAIN asks God to kill
him! That is some temper tantrum! Now the important point I want to
point out here comes in the last 3 verses of Jonah.
Jonah 4:9-11:
Then God said to Jonah, “Is it right for
you to be angry about the plant?”
And he said, “It is right for me to be
angry, even to death!”
But the Lord said, “You have had pity on
the plant for which you have not labored, nor made it grow, which came
up in a night and perished in a night. And should I not pity Nineveh,
that great city, in which are more than one hundred and twenty thousand
persons who cannot discern between their right hand and their left—and
much livestock?”
Here we see God chiding Jonah,
but we also see the reason God granted his grace. In verse 11 God says
the people of Nineveh did not know their right hand from their left. We
have a similar saying today; they don’t know their back end from a hole
in the ground. You see the Ninevites were ignorant of their sin and had
they continued in their sin God would have destroyed them. Proving that
being ignorant of the law was no excuse. When Jonah made them aware of
their sin they immediately repented. And God showed them grace.
It was the acts of repentance and
obedience that caused God to show the Ninevites grace.
Those of us who have already
accepted God’s grace through obedience sometimes forget that once we
were ignorant, living in sin, without grace and condemned to hell. When
that is forgotten it can be so easy to face the world with the same
mentality that Jonah faced the Ninevites with. It can be so easy to see
the sin and condemn the person. The tag line often used is hate the sin
and love the sinner. I would put a very different way. Teach the
sinner, let them decide what to do with the sin. If you are a
Christian, then somewhere, somewhen, someone taught you, and you decided
to hate your sin and obey the Gospel. Can you do any less for someone
else?
Can you do less for a murderer, a
theif, an adulterer, a homosexual, your best friend, a parent, a
sibling, or even a complete stranger?
If you want to keep that grace
that has been gifted to you… you can’t. You see all Christians were
told to, “Go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in
the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching
them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with
you always, even to the end of the age.” Matthew 28:19 – 20
No, you do not have to stand in
the front of a church sanctuary and deliver a sermon; but each of you
has the ability to impact someone, and through that impact you have the
chance to teach them, or not. I know that it is uncomfortable, I know
that it is terrifying. You might ask how could I possibly know that,
after all I am up here, right? You should all know that teaching and
preaching in the church are two of the most terrifying things I have
ever considered doing. But if you do not take that opportunity when God
provides it, are you not disobeying? And disobedience is sin… Noah
ended up in the belly of a whale for not going when God called him…
Where might you end up? That is not a risk anyone should take.
Today if you have decided you
would like to stay out of hell, then I urge you to obey the Gospel.
Peter gave us the first steps of obedience in
Acts 2:38
“Repent, and let every one of you be
baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you
shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”
If you have not already obeyed
this command? Will you make the decision to obey God this morning? Or if
you have any other need of the church… please come forward as we stand
and sing.
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