Puritan sermon on 1 Thessalonians 1:10. Much here on hell, but wider focus.
The wicked, if awakened, look for Christ’s second coming with dread and fearful expectation, because of the wrath which He will bring with Him—because He will come in flaming fire to take vengeance upon them. The righteous, if assured of their saving interest in Christ, look for Christ’s second coming with gladness and joyful expectation because He has delivered them from the wrath to come. “Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come!”
And this is the wrath which is to come, which will be most bitter—beyond any gall or wormwood to the taste. This wrath will be most pure—without any allay or mixture of any comfortable ingredients. This wrath will be most plentiful—the treasury of which will be opened in hell, and all the damned will be filled with it abundantly. It will be most weighty—beyond any mountain of lead, to sink sinners down into the bottomless pit. It will be mostfierce—and so powerful that all the powers of men and devils shall not be able to make the least resistance. It will be intolerable—and yet must be borne; it will be implacable—so as never to be appeased; and it will be eternal—so as never to be ended!
But, the sentence being pronounced—the execution will follow—and none can escape it! From Christ’s tribunal seat, the wicked will be thrown into the fiery prison of hell, where they will be shut down and shut in, and that forever! There they will lie; there they will fry, and there they will cry! Though always dying—they will never die! The fire there will burn most dreadfully and continually, yet will never be extinguished! The wicked will be tormented there in every part and in extreme measure, and their torment will never be ended!
The dignity of His person, put an infinite merit on His sufferings—and so His sufferings became a sufficient satisfaction to justice, and that was accepted as fully as if sinners had done it in their own persons.
Behold this wonder in Christ: everlasting burnings have become everlasting mercies! And he who will come at the last day as a judge in flaming fire to take vengeance upon you, if you are found without a saving interest in Him—now offers to be your Savior and Advocate to deliver you from the wrath to come. And is it not the height of folly and sottishness, to slight and refuse such a person, and, by refusing Him, to plunge yourselves into unavoidable ruin and destruction!