"Then He will say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, accused ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels.’" Matthew 25:41

 We learn from our text today that hell was not made for man but for the devil and his angels. It is not God’s will for any person to perish in hell. However, it is necessary to cast sinners into the Lake of Fire in order to destroy sin and establish a heavenly utopia.

 God’s nature is holy, righteous and just. God sees sin as an enemy that kills and destroys. Every bad experience you have ever had is a result of sin in the world. If you have suffered sickness, abuse, betrayal or the death of a loved one, sin is what caused it. If you have ever been stung by a bee, suffered from poison ivy or pierced your finger on the thorn of a rose, it was because of sin in the world.

 There is no place in the Kingdom of Heaven for those who love their sins and refuse to stop practicing them. Jesus taught His disciples that sin is a leavening agent saying, -"Beware the leaven of the Pharisees." The Lord wasn’t referring to bread but to their hidden sins. The Pharisees worked hard to look good on the outside, but inside they were, -"dirty cups" and "full of dead men’s bones."

 Paul wrote the Corinthian Church concerning a man who was practicing immorality and instructed them to put the sinner out saying, -"Don’t you know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump." Paul went on to remind the Church that Christ, their Passover had been sacrificed and that in Him they were in fact unleavened. Obviously, the adulterer had to be removed from the brethren so that his leaven could not infect them, and also in order for the man to realize that he was in sin. Paul’s second letter to the Church gives us the good news that the Church obeyed him and the man became convicted, repented and was restored to the body.

 The Bible says that no sinner will inherit the Kingdom of God. This is why the first requirement for salvation is to confess your sins and turn from them. A sinner is a person who holds onto their sins. If God were to allow sinners into the Kingdom of Heaven He would be allowing sin in too. By its very nature, sin spreads and infects. As a result Heaven would not be the paradise God made it to be.

 You might remember this scene in some of America’s old western movies. The Sheriff goes out to meet a stranger coming into town and says, -"We don’t want no trouble mister but we’ve got a no gun law in this town and you need to give me your guns if you’re coming in." Because God wants no trouble in His Kingdom He says to sinners, -"If you want to enter you must give Me your sins."

 When a sinner gives God his sins Jesus bears the penalty for them and the sinner receives forgiveness, deliverance and the righteousness of Christ through which he now has fellowship with the Father and the Son.