It’s No Joke

Read Genesis 19
 
Gen 19:14 So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were pledged to marry his daughters. He said, “Hurry and get out of this place, because the LORD is about to destroy the city!” But his sons-in-law thought he was joking.
 
SEE the world around you, and you’ll quickly find people who think that God is joking when he speaks of judgment and destruction. Cartoons, comedians and Halloween costumes trivialize and give a light-heartedness to Satan, demons, Hell and their eternal horrors.
    We Christians sometimes trivialize Hell, too. Making Hell smaller takes away our urgent responsibility to tell people about the destination of destruction. If we think, “It’s not so bad.” then we can excuse ourselves for keeping the gospel’s saving message to ourselves. After all, why would we want to offend someone to talk of sin, judgment, destruction and punishment? They will just laugh and mock us, won’t they?
    Maybe they will. Maybe they won’t . Maybe they will say, “Thank you for telling me of sin’s penalty. Thank you for pointing me to Jesus’ saving grace.”
    Know and remember that God is the God of salvation. He demonstrates this in the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. Yes, just as surely as God gave the warning message to Lot, God has given to us his warning of destruction. Before there was destruction, God sought good people, honest men. He was willing to forego the destruction of the cities if 10 righteous men lived there. And in his true judgment, he destroyed the unrepentant, mocking cities.
    God’s will is to rescue us broken, sin-dead people from Hell. God has sent Jesus to warn us and to save us unto heaven’s joy.
    Are you a Christian? Then thank God the Holy Spirit has awakened you to hear and believe the warning. Confessing Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you are saved from Hell. Now you have the Good News to tell the world, “Jesus saves!”
 
Pause and Consider: the horrors of Hell…do you believe Jesus saves us from that horror? What will you do? Whom will you tell?