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Home , Fire and brimstone, Outer darkness

Luke 10:10­16 , Fire, and Brimstone

Main idea: Judgment is real, and is a consuming fire. Yet it’s His kindness that leads us to , because mercy triumphs over judgment.

It’s amazing how casually we often go about our sin. We sin as if we’re our own boss and sin is okay. We sin as if nothing’s going to happen to us. We sin as if and Hell were not real, but even while we do that, we prove to be children of Hell, because Hell reigns in our hearts. Whenever we sin, choosing to live our lives apart from the Lordship of Christ, it’s like we look forward to Hell, where we can remain in rebellion against God.

Sin is serious, and deserves God’s judgment.

Hellfire and brimstone preaching was popularized in the 18th and 19th centuries, and even extended into much of the 20th century. It’s typically characterized by a of shouting, detailed descriptions of Hell, and warnings to unbelievers and even to believers of what happens to those who reject God, when people choose to live their own lives apart from Jesus Christ.

Many of you may have grown up hearing hellfire and brimstone preaching. Some of you may even long for it, thinking that it will scare you enough to get your life right with God.

Because Hell is not a party. Hell is a very scary thought. All of the movies and cartoons depicting Hell as the place where rules and sin is celebrated forget one thing: that Hell was created by God to punish Satan and his demons. The Bible calls it the . The pit. . The place where God’s wrath is unleashed on wickedness in all His power and sovereignty.

Now, I’m not typically a hellfire and brimstone preacher, just because if I shout that long, I lose my voice. But I hope that my voice won’t give out on me today, because as you can see, the title of my is Hell, Fire, and Brimstone, and that’s exactly the kind of sermon I intend to bring today from Luke chapter 10.

In fact, just a few weeks ago, after I got back from my sabbatical, someone, I don’t know who, suggested while answering the Question of the Week that we needed more hellfire and brimstone preaching. Well, here it is. And I believe this is God’s will for the sermon today, because I started preparing this message even while I was on sabbatical. It’s amazing how God lines up these small details to confirm to me what I ought to be preaching.

Well, anyway, one of the most popular hellfire and brimstone ever preached was one by Jonathan Edwards. The sermon was titled, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” The title alone is pretty scary, isn’t it? Because we’re all sinners, and we know that God intensely hates all sin. So it’s a scary thought for us sinners to be in the hands of an angry God.

Grace Baptist Church 965 E. Union Street, Nokomis, IL 62075 graceisgood.org

And the content of that sermon was even more terrifying. In it, Jonathan Edwards made the point that all sinners deserve Hell, and that God can easily cast any sinner into Hell whenever He desires. That’s a scary thought! The main point of his sermon was this:

There is nothing that keeps wicked Men at any one Moment, out of Hell, but the mere Pleasure of God.

And you know what? That is completely true. Since we are all sinners, and since the wages of sin is death, the only thing that keeps any one of us out of Hell now is that it’s God’s mere pleasure to keep us out of Hell. It’s God’s pleasure. God’s sovereign choice. So we are all sinners in the hands of an angry God.

It’s a good sermon. And yet, I think it’s also an incomplete sermon. Because what is the pleasure of God? Jonathan Edwards seems to say that it’s God’s pleasure to keep sinners out of Hell now while they live, but implies that it’s also God’s pleasure to condemn sinners to Hell when their time comes. It’s God’s pleasure to show mercy now, but also God’s pleasure to show wrath later. But in the Bible, God says,

As I live, declares the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel? (Ezekiel 33:11)

I think this is a very important verse in Scripture, because it’s a theme that runs throughout the Bible. It’s saying this: even while warning of the judgment to come, God’s desire is to show mercy.

God’s pleasure is to show His mercy. The only thing that keeps any one of us out of Hell right now is the mere pleasure of God, which is God showing His mercy to all people even now while we live, for the very fact that we’re still alive means that God’s mercy is being shown to us. And the only thing that keeps any one of us out of Hell in eternity is God’s mercy, that Jesus died in our place, paying the price for our sin, so that by grace through in Him, we are saved from our sin and saved from Hell.

Remember that theme as we read our text this morning, which is Luke chapter 10, verses 12 through 16. We’re going to begin reading in verse 10 for just a bit of context.

Luke chapter 10, beginning in verse 10.

But whenever you enter a town and they do not receive you, go into its streets and say, 'Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet we wipe off against you. Nevertheless know this, that the kingdom of God has come near.' I tell you, it will be more bearable on that day for Sodom than for that town. "Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida!

Grace Baptist Church 965 E. Union Street, Nokomis, IL 62075 graceisgood.org For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. But it will be more bearable in the judgment for Tyre and Sidon than for you. And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? You shall be brought down to . "The one who hears you hears me, and the one who rejects you rejects me, and the one who rejects me rejects him who sent me." (Luke 10:10­16)

Father, I pray that everyone here today would heed the warnings throughout Scripture to repent, remembering that our sin deserves death, judgment, and Hell. Draw each one of us to Yourself, so that we will not reject You, but love You, as You love us. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.

Our passage this morning is a continuation of the instructions that Jesus gave His disciples as He sent them out to be His witnesses. The last instruction Jesus gave them was concerning towns that would not receive them, to shake off the dust against them, which we’re to understand as a final testimony toward them. The testimony was basically this: “If you won’t receive Jesus, then you are as dust. From dust you were formed, and to dust you will return!”

If you read Genesis chapters two and three, you find that Adam, mankind, was formed out of dust. And after he sinned in the garden, he was sentenced to return to dust. And the serpent was sentenced to eat dust. Did you get that? Because of our sin, we would return to dust, and Satan will eat the dust.

So if you put all this together, Jesus was saying that any town and any person who doesn’t receive Jesus is in grave danger! And even though the kingdom of God has come near to them, Hell is also just around the corner! So repent, and believe the gospel, and don’t be consumed by the devil!

And then Jesus said this in verse 12.

I tell you, it will be more bearable on that day for Sodom than for that town.

Wow. For any town that does not receive Jesus, it will be more bearable on the day of His judgment for Sodom than for that town. For that person.

And recall what happened to Sodom. It was destroyed by !

Then the LORD rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the LORD out of heaven. (Genesis 19:24, KJV)

And Jude says this about it:

Grace Baptist Church 965 E. Union Street, Nokomis, IL 62075 graceisgood.org and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire. (Jude 1:7)

Jude says that Sodom wasn’t just destroyed by fire, but by eternal fire. A neverending fire. A fire which utterly consumed them, because God is a consuming fire.

And Jesus was saying that it would be even worse for the town, and therefore worse for the person, who rejected Christ and His disciples. But what’s worse than being destroyed by fire and brimstone? What’s worse than being consumed by eternal fire?

Well, Jesus then names three cities that are in danger of this fate worse than Sodom: Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum. Now, the Bible doesn’t talk too much about Chorazin, except to say that Jesus performed mighty works there, and that they largely did not repent. There’s a little more about Bethsaida in the Bible. This was where Jesus fed over 5,000 people with five loaves and two fish. This was where Jesus healed a blind man by rubbing spit on his eyes. Not exactly how I would choose to be healed, but it worked, so I guess he can’t complain, right? Bethsaida got to witness some amazing miracles! But according to this passage, Bethsaida also didn’t repent.

But of these three cities, the one we read most about in the Bible is Capernaum.

Now, Capernaum is the city that Jesus performed most of His miracles in. It’s where Jesus often stayed, and He taught in their synagogues. He cast out demons there. It’s where all those who had any who were sick with various diseases brought them to him, and he laid his hands on every one of them and healed them. So the people of Capernaum had a lot of knowledge of Jesus, yet they still rejected Him!

Let that be a warning to all of us. It doesn’t matter how much you know about Jesus. It doesn’t matter how much you’ve seen Him work in the lives of those around you. You might even feel extremely blessed by God. After all, every good gift is from above.

And yet, the question is not how much do you know about Jesus, but rather, do you know Jesus? Do you have a relationship with Him? Is He your Savior and Lord? Have you received His grace, and been changed by His grace, so that you look to Heaven as your home, or are you still a child of Hell?

So Jesus said in verse 15,

And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? You shall be brought down to Hell!

Well, it actually says, "Hades," and I honestly don't know if it's referring to Hell. Hades is the equivalent of the Hebrew word "" in the Old Testament. It means, "the

Grace Baptist Church 965 E. Union Street, Nokomis, IL 62075 graceisgood.org grave." And according to early Jewish thought, it’s where everyone goes when they die, the good and the bad. Many people think it’s a real place, as real as heaven and hell, and others think it’s just a concept, like death. The realm of the dead.

It’s where Abraham believed that his son Joseph went when he was told that he had died. It’s where Moses said those who disobeyed God would go. When Samuel was born, Hannah praised God, saying in 1 Samuel 2:6,

The LORD kills and brings to life; he brings down to Sheol and raises up. (1 Samuel 2:6)

And Job actually prayed that he would go to Sheol, and that God would then deliver him out of Sheol, saying this:

Oh that you would hide me in Sheol, that you would conceal me until your wrath be past, that you would appoint me a set time, and remember me! (Job 14:13)

In the Psalms, David often praised God that he would be rescued out of Sheol. Psalm 86:13,

For great is your steadfast love toward me; you have delivered my soul from the depths of Sheol. (Psalms 86:13)

And often Sheol is used metaphorically, like when Jonah was in the belly of the fish. Jonah prayed this:

"I called out to the LORD, out of my distress, and he answered me; out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and you heard my voice. (Jonah 2:1­2)

Some take this to mean that Jonah died when he was swallowed by the great fish, and then God raised him back to life, and maybe that’s true, but either way, Jonah was saying, “God, I was lost, but now I’m found, I was dead, but you gave me life.”

And God can do that, you see, because even God Himself is said to be present in Sheol. Psalm 139:8­10 says this:

If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me. (Psalms 139:8­10)

So what it seems to be saying is that we can’t escape from God, who is love. There’s nowhere we can run to escape from God and His unending love for each of us. Even if we find our home in the depths of the grave, God will find us there, and raise us up.

Grace Baptist Church 965 E. Union Street, Nokomis, IL 62075 graceisgood.org Have you ever felt like you were in the depths of the grave? Like Hell was all around you? Like life couldn’t possibly get any worse? Even there, God is with you, calling you to rest in Him, and He will lift you up.

And for many of us, maybe even all of us, we won’t call out to God until we get that low. It’s when we realize how sinful we are that we also see how good God is.

Verse 15.

And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? You shall be brought down to Hades. (Luke 10:15)

So, if you’ve been following what I’ve been saying, I don’t think Jesus was condemning the whole city of Capernaum, and yet He was. I think Jesus was saying that sin leads to death, Hades, the grave. Jesus was warning them exactly how much they would need to be humbled, because even though they had been shown God’s power, in their pride, in their exalting themselves, they still had not received God’s grace.

But it wasn’t too late.

You see, even while warning of future judgment, God gives us opportunities to repent. He continues to show us mercy, and tell us of mercy, that we might receive the fullness of His mercy.

And yet, judgment is coming.

We saw a very clear picture of that judgment on Sodom. Because of the wickedness in that city, God destroyed Sodom with fire and brimstone. And even today, Sodom is still a wasteland consisting of salt, sand, and rock.

But did you know that the Bible actually tells us that Sodom will be restored?

"I will restore their fortunes, both the fortunes of Sodom and her daughters, and the fortunes of Samaria and her daughters, and I will restore your own fortunes in their midst. (Ezekiel 16:53)

Sodom was utterly destroyed with eternal fire, because God is a consuming fire! Yet God is going to restore their fortunes.

And there are similar stories for Tyre and Sidon, prophecies of their destruction in Ezekiel, but by the time Jesus said these things about them, both of these cities had already been restored. And Acts chapter 12 seems to end by saying that the word of God was increasing and

Grace Baptist Church 965 E. Union Street, Nokomis, IL 62075 graceisgood.org multiplying among the people of Tyre and Sidon. A good number of people in these cities were being saved! Restored by God’s mercy through faith in Jesus Christ.

So we might respond to Jesus, of course it will be more bearable for these cities! Out of the ruins, out of their desolation, God was renewing them, giving them new life!

So what’s worse than what was happening to Sodom, Tyre, and Sidon. What’s worse than destruction and restoration? Jesus tells us: you shall be brought down to Hades! That’s worse, but as we already saw, even that is with the hope that they might repent and be saved.

So if Jesus used these towns, that God had destroyed, and yet was restoring, as examples of how His judgment works, He wasn’t saying there was no hope for Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum, but just the opposite, that there’s all kinds of hope for them, if they will repent and allow God to restore them out of their ashes.

I think some come to church expecting the preacher to preach fire and brimstone sermons so that it will scare the hell out of them. They think they need to have the hell scared out of them. But we can't have the hell scared out of us any more than we can have Jesus scared into us. Fear of hell only gets us to take notice of God just enough to begin to see His mercy, but it's his kindness that leads us to repentance.

As I read through the Bible during my sabbatical, I saw this theme over and over again, that God’s judgment is meant for good. And that when God destroyed something, a city, or a people, even though they were utterly destroyed, we often see them popping up again, like they were reborn, or something, and in fact, in order for anything to be reborn, it first needs to die.

It’s just like the symbolism of baptism. Buried with Christ in His death, we’re raised to walk a new life in Christ.

Am I saying God’s wrath isn’t real and terrifying? No, I'm saying it’s more real and terrifying than we often imagine. Because God’s judgment was poured out on Jesus Christ on the cross. God’s full wrath was poured out on Him, so that Jesus Himself cried out to His Father, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”

But, you see, God’s judgment leads to mercy. Because of the judgment poured out on Christ, for those who believe, the title of the sermon changes. It’s no longer “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” but rather, “Sinners in the Hands of a Merciful God.” Because God shows mercy to sinners through faith in Jesus Christ.

Yet if you continue to reject Christ, then you continue to reject God, which leads to more judgment. And judgment is not a party. So repent, in sackcloth and ashes.

Grace Baptist Church 965 E. Union Street, Nokomis, IL 62075 graceisgood.org For some of you this morning, I may have scared the hell out of you. But not yet. Because maybe you haven’t yet asked for forgiveness, so the hell is still in you, in your heart. Jesus said, “Unless you repent, you will perish.” Repentance is simply agreeing with God. It’s changing your mind about your life, in which you say, “God, I’ve been going the wrong way! I want to go Your way! Save me, Lord!” And God does it. Because Jesus died on the cross, everyone who asks for forgiveness is given God’s grace.

So right now, I’m going to lead you to pray silently, and if you’ve never trusted in Jesus Christ as your Savior, I’m going to invite you to do that right now, just between you and God, and then I’ll lead us all in prayer. Let’s bow together.

If you were scared by my description of hell and judgment, and you’re afraid you might go there, simply tell God right now, I don’t want to go to hell. Confess to God that you’re a sinner, and you need His grace. Surrender to Jesus, say, Jesus, I surrender to you. Thank Jesus for dying for your sin. Thank Jesus for preparing a home for you in heaven. And thank Jesus that He will be with you all of your life, to help you glorify God with your life.

Lord Jesus, draw us near to Yourself. Help us to rest in the truth that You’ve paid the price for our sin. And help us to follow You, because You’re good. In Your name we pray, Amen.

If you confessed your sin to God for the first time just now, and surrendered to Him for the first time, welcome to the family of God. After we dismiss in just a moment, let me know you did that. What you did is a step of obedience, it’s the fruit of faith. The next step is baptism, which is a symbol of your dying to yourself and living in Christ. Even if you’ve surrendered to Jesus a long time ago, but haven’t yet been baptized, it’s not too late. Be baptized in obedience to Christ, because you want to joyfully follow Him all of your life.

You see, God doesn’t want you to be scared into a relationship with Him. In fact, I don’t think we can be. I think the person serving God out of fear doesn’t understand God. He’s the Father who longs for you to return to Him, who welcomes you with love, and gave His own Son that you might have life.

Grace Baptist Church 965 E. Union Street, Nokomis, IL 62075 graceisgood.org Further Study

Edwards, Jonathan. 1797. Sinners in the hands of an angry God a sermon, preached at Enfield, ​ July 8, 1741, at a time of great awakenings ; and attended with remarkable impressions on many of the hearers. New­York: Printed by G. Forman, opposite the post­office, for C. Davis, no. ​ 94, Water­Street.

"Thus says the Lord GOD to Tyre: Will not the coastlands shake at the sound of your fall, when the wounded groan, when slaughter is made in your midst?” "For thus says the Lord GOD: When I make you a city laid waste, like the cities that are not inhabited, when I bring up the deep over you, and the great waters cover you, then I will make you go down with those who go down to the pit, to the people of old, and I will make you to dwell in the world below, among ruins from of old, with those who go down to the pit, so that you will not be inhabited; but I will set beauty in the land of the living. I will bring you to a dreadful end, and you shall be no more. Though you be sought for, you will never be found again, declares the Lord GOD." (Ezekiel 26:15, 19­21)

"Son of man, set your face toward Sidon, and prophesy against her and say, Thus says the Lord GOD: "Behold, I am against you, O Sidon, and I will manifest my in your midst. And they shall know that I am the LORD when I execute judgments in her and manifest my holiness in her; for I will send pestilence into her, and blood into her streets; and the slain shall fall in her midst, by the sword that is against her on every side. Then they will know that I am the LORD. (Ezekiel 28:21­23)

These prophecies happened to Tyre and Sidon in the fourth century B.C. when Alexander the Great conquered the region. But by the time Jesus ministered on the earth, both cities had already been rebuilt.

Grace Baptist Church 965 E. Union Street, Nokomis, IL 62075 graceisgood.org