When I walked into the church, I was so low I wondered if I would ever be able to look another human directly in the eye again. However, as the word of God washed over me, I was reminded I was not alone in my condition. It is not as if I deserve hell and everyone around me deserves heaven. Sin has condemned us all.

I walked into the church with my eyes cast down, but I never expected that a sermon on hell would be the very thing the Lord would use to lift my head. I was at one of the lowest places I had ever been spiritually, and even before I walked into the building, the heavy hand of God was already on me. My life had wandered off course spiritually, and I had come to sit under the preaching of the word because I needed the grace of God. To my dismay, the sermon topic listed in the bulletin was eternal punishment.

As I sat there with the guilt of my sinfulness nearly crushing me, I knew what I deserved. If the preacher had stood and proclaimed a watered-down version of the wrath of God, it would not have comforted me. Had he brushed off the idea of hell by highlighting the love of God, I would have had only two options. Either this man is a false teacher, or God is unjust for not properly punishing sin.

The Holy Spirit had shown me the darkness of my soul, and the everlasting torment proclaimed by the pastor was the only proper response of a just God. I had sinned against him, and when a finite creature sins against an infinite God, only an infinite punishment will suffice.

With a calm but almost trembling voice, the pastor reminded us that hell is not a place where we are handed over to Satan and the demons so they can do their dirty work. The Lake of Fire is a place where God pours out his wrath. It is his work. Hell is the justice of God against sinners.

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