About the Author

Thomas Ray Floyd was born in 1953 in Simpson County, Mississippi, the son of Roy Thomas Floyd and Lina Sue Shows Floyd. Thomas Ray's mother was a member of a Primitive Baptist church, and he cut his teeth on the doctrines of distinguishing grace.

When he was a small boy, his father was converted to Christ and became a member of a Missionary Baptist Church. Thomas Ray joined the church of his father when he was 13 years old, and thought of himself as a Christian. The doctrines of grace that he had heard as a child continued to be precious to him and when he became an adult, he joined a Primitive Baptist Church. When he was 27, Thomas Ray made his first effort to preach the gospel in public and was ordained to the full functions of the ministry in 1985. In 1986 he was convinced under the preaching of Rolfe Barnard (by tapes from Mt. Olive Tape Library), the written sermons of Spurgeon, and the ministry of Elder Zack Guess that he had been a false professor and cried out in agony of soul to the Lord Jesus Christ to have mercy and truly save him. And He did! Floyd then began to preach the gospel as he had been taught of the Lord.

Floyd has pastored churches in Mississippi, Louisiana, and Tennessee and until recently was pastor of a church plant known as "Particular Baptist Fellowship." He and his wife Brenda presently attend Zion Baptist Church at Polkville, Mississippi, pastored by Elder Glen Hopkins. The pulpit ministry of Zion Baptist Church can be heard at Sermonaudio.com.

Monday, April 25, 2011

The Justice of God in Sending Sinners to Hell

(Article for publication week of 4-27-2011 AD)

“The Lord is slow to anger, and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked…” (Nahum 1:3).

We have noticed in previous articles that God’s justice is holy and inflexible. Since God is thrice holy and unchangeable He must of necessity send sinners to hell.

Now, our text begins with a very hopeful expression- “the Lord is slow to anger.” God does not always execute His justice immediately. He gives sinners space to repent. But sinner, suppose not that since God is slow to anger, He will not be angry. Nor suppose that God will not execute His holy and inflexible justice on you because He delays the sentence.

It is wonderfully just of God to execute His justice in sending sinners to hell. Sin is nothing less than High Treason against the King of the Universe. Sinner do you realise that you are a cosmic traitor?! You are in rebellion against your Maker. You have declared that you will not have Him to rule over you. You have broken His just and good laws and you have despised His grace. In order to maintain His strict justice, God will send sinners to hell.

Sin is against an infinitely holy God, and so it deserves infinite and holy punishment. This is the reason that hell has to go on forever, because transgressions against an infinite God must be punished according to the nature of the crime. I wish you would wake up and smell the coffee and realise and believe and know that there is a real hell awaiting you if you continue in your rebellion against God.

Now, I know some of you think that when I write of God’s justice in sending sinners to hell, that I have reference to murderers and thieves and drunks and dope heads, and of course I do. But dear friend do you not see that you also are a poor sinner. If you have not Christ, you also are guilty before God. The strictness of God’s law includes every sin of the heart as much as open and vile sins. Some of you are religious as all get out, but you have never been saved. You are still in your sins, and you have added false profession to your other sins. God will not all acquit you my dear reader who is a lost church member. Nor will God acquit you my dear reader who is a moral pagan. Some of you think that because you are a moral person that you are all right. You don’t think you need Christ or the gospel or the Church. You think you are as good as those church members, and you might be, but you are a sinner and God is going to send you to hell.

Poor sinner, there is only one way for you to escape the strict and inflexible and holy justice of God. That is if Another would bear the penalty of your sins for you. God is bound and determined to punish sinners, and so He will. He will either punish the sinner, or He will punish the sinner’s Substitute. And that will be the theme of our article next week as we take up “the Justice of God in Punishing His Son.”

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