The Other Side of the Gospel

What if the part we’re most afraid to say is the part people most need to hear? We walk through Paul’s address at the Areopagus to show why the gospel isn’t just comfort—it's also a clear warning rooted in God’s holiness, justice, and love. Starting where Paul starts, we introduce God as Creator and sovereign over nations, then move to the urgent call to repent because “He has fixed a day” to judge the world in righteousness through the risen Christ. Along the way, we explore why Jesus spoke so plainly about hell, how the church lost its clarity on wrath, and why recovering it actually magnifies grace.

We draw a careful line between two very different judgments: the judgment seat of Christ for believers—an evaluation for reward and future service—and the great white throne for unbelievers, where the books reveal the truth of our worship and the verdict is just. With vivid stories—from Rodin’s The Thinker to a housefly that disarmed a stubborn listener—we highlight how God still opens ears. Athens responds in three familiar ways: some sneer, some delay, some believe. Dionysius and Demaris remind us that even among skeptics, the Spirit still saves.

This conversation is not about fear-mongering; it’s about honest love. If everyone is immortal and eternity is real, then clarity is compassion. We model how to speak plainly like C.S. Lewis urged—no jargon, no hedging—while keeping a humble tone that invites, not condemns. Listen to strengthen your convictions, sharpen your witness, and recover a full view of the gospel: heaven to enjoy, hell to avoid, a Savior to trust, and a hope that outlasts every age. If this helped you think and speak more clearly, follow the show, share it with a friend, and leave a review telling us what part challenged you most.

Chapters

• 0:00 The Thinker and eternal judgment
• 3:59 God’s wrath and biblical evidence
• 8:40 Jesus’ teaching on hell
• 12:55 Recovering clarity about judgment
• 16:44 Paul’s case in Acts 17
• 20:10 Repentance and a fixed day to judge
• 24:05 The judgment seat of Christ
• 29:20 Rewards, legacy, and lingering fruit
• 33:25 The great white throne explained
• 37:15 Athens’ reactions: mock, delay, believe
• 41:20 Dionysius, Demaris, and lasting impact

Transcript

SPEAKER_01: 0:06

There's another judgment described in Scripture, and this is the judgment that Paul is referring to here in Acts chapter 17. It's the judgment of the great white throne. Now that judgment is for unbelievers only. The books will be opened, and God will reveal through the deeds of every individual why they are worthy of this verdict. How, in fact, their rebellion against God was nothing less than idolatry and their heart worshiped themselves.

SPEAKER_00: 0:53

Do you know people who live as if this world is all there is? They live with no thought to the fact that there's an afterlife that they should prepare for. As Christians, we need to remember that there really are two sides to the gospel. But the problem is that most people take God's love to mean that he would never punish sinners. Well, that's the other side of the gospel. Because God's wrath will be poured out on those who refuse the salvation he offers. Stephen Davies' message today is entitled The Other Side of the Gospel.

SPEAKER_01: 1:35

Well, a man by the name of Uga Strudin was relatively obscure during most of his career. He would die in 1917. And yet today there are a few sculptured works as well known as this work called The Thinker. The man sits obviously deep in thought, and he actually is thinking about something. Anybody, by the way, anybody know what he's thinking about? What's for dinner? Um I heard something back here. Where his clothes went. Okay, yes. Uh that could be a thought. That's possible. Any other ideas? I missed that one. What was that one? What does she really want? Okay, that's these are not planned, but they're brilliant. Um meaning of life, we're getting a little closer. Getting a little closer. He's actually, if you could have seen the entire sculpture, it would have been 20 feet high, and behind him would be many other people sculptured. They have already entered the gates of hell. And he's pondering. He's thinking about their eternal state. Rudain intended to sort of capture Dante's epic poem written in the 14th century. And he would, by the way, spend 37 years on that entire work and never really finish it. This man became a standalone piece and no doubt the most famous of all of it. He would write this, by the way, once this piece made him world famous in his later years. He said, My thinker thinks not only with his brain, but with his knitted brow, his distended nostrils, his compressed lips, with every muscle of his arms, back, and legs, even with his clenched fist. And when you stare at that, knowing that context, you are led to consider the eternal state and a place called hell. Frankly, if there are any attributes that are the least appreciated about God, they would be the attributes of his justice and his wrath. Many people would sort of dismiss them entirely out of hand, right? And choose to focus on his love or his mercy, and we hear most often of those. But the truth is the attributes of wrath, anger, are just as real. You study the illustrations of God early on in the Old Testament and watch as he deals with the exile of Adam and Eve from the garden, Genesis chapter 3. You study the horrific global flood where God literally drowns the human race, except for eight individuals who board the ark, Genesis 6. Watches his wrath sends down fire and brimstone upon the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. Genesis 16. This is the other side of God. Most people would agree that there's a heaven to enjoy, but far less of those same people believe there is a hell to avoid and rarely contemplate it. In fact, it's interesting to me in my study. Ellen G. White, the revered prophetess of the Seventh-day Adventist movement, in its formative years, wrote in her work entitled The Great Controversy, that the idea of hell actually came from the devil. He made it up. She writes, and I quote, the Prince of Darkness, working through his agents, represents God as a revengeful tyrant. How utterly revolting is the belief that as soon as the breath leaves the body, the soul of the unrepentant is consigned to hell. In other words, God would never create a place of torment like that. So that's a revolting thought. And the only person that could have come up with that would be the devil. The trouble is, Jesus spoke more often about torment and the wrath of God than about heaven. We learn most about this place from the lips of Christ himself. In John's gospel, for one illustration, Jesus said, He who believes in the Son has eternal life, but he who does not obey the Son does not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him. John 3 36. You go back into the Old Testament, by the way, if you were to start there, you would find about 20 different words used to describe the fury of God. The Apostle Paul in his letter to the Romans says that God's wrath is storing up, it's building up. If you can imagine the horror of that idea. John Lennon sang with that response in mind in his famous song entitled Imagine, with lyrics like these. No hell below, above us only sky. A.W. Tozer wrote that this vague hope that God is too kind to punish the ungodly is deadly opium for the consciences of millions. See, the real question boils down to what does the Bible say, right? And I know I'm preaching to the choir here on this one, but you know, what does Jesus say about it? What does the Son of God say about it? Well, you study the scripture and discover that Jesus describes it as a real physical place. Matthew 24. It's a place to be avoided at all costs, Matthew 5. It's a place of darkness with weeping and the gnashing of teeth, grinding in pain, Matthew 8. It's far worse than death, Matthew 10. The punishments will vary in severity, Matthew 11, just as, by the way, for the believer, rewards will vary in joy. It's an eternal place of no return, Luke 16. I mean, frankly, the church really shouldn't be unclear about it because Jesus certainly wasn't. In fact, one author wrote, People are driven from the church not so much by truth that makes them uneasy, as much as by weak compromise that destroys their credibility, standing for nothing. We need to recover the truth about hell and carefully include it in our gospel witness. You may be familiar with a man by the name of D. Martin Lloyd-Jones, who said a generation ago, there is, this is not the age to advocate restraint. The church today does not need to be restrained, but to be aroused, to be awakened, for she is failing the world in not warning it of coming judgment. Frankly, I fear that the church today, and I hear leaders often, it's as if they want to appear to make God less offensive. Maybe they're going to sweeten the gospel so that more people will take a sip. But in the end, they they fail to do what Jesus did over and over and over and over again, warning people of a coming horrific judgment. So let's be clear. Because we understand the stakes are high, right? They are eternal. Let's spell it out. Let's make it clear. C.S. Lewis once heard a young man preach, and he preached on the subject of judgment. He concluded his message by saying, if you do not receive Christ as your Savior, you will suffer grave eschatological ramifications. Lewis asked him after the service, Did you mean that a person who doesn't believe in Christ will go to hell? Yes, the young man said, to which Ulyss responded, then say so. Say so. Now the Apostle Paul is about to say so, okay? He is about to speak the truth of a coming judgment, and with it, of course, would be the displeasure of God. So let's go back to Acts chapter 17 one more time. Paul has nearly finished his introduction in Acts 17 of this unknown God, and he's revealed several attributes. So far, we've discovered that God is creator of the universe, that he is transcendent, that is, he is above and separate from all of creation, yet he is imminent, that is personally deeply involved in his creation. He is the maker of mankind, the human race from one man, one original man and his wife. He is sovereign over the nations. He, in fact, determines how long they'll exist and their borders. He's determined that. Now, Paul has, he's sort of laid all this out as background. And by the way, he doesn't begin his message with hell, okay? He doesn't begin his message with judgment. He reserves that after he's delivered all of this background information about who God is. And I think that's instructive, by the way, for us as well. In fact, background information is very helpful. I came across this rather humorous illustration of what happens when you don't give enough background. This is from James Woolsey, the former director of the CIA. He told the following story of a funny incident. It wasn't funny at the time, but it's funny later, when FBI agents were conducting an investigation at the San Diego Psychiatric Hospital for medical insurance fraud, and they'd spent all day, hours and hours and hours, reviewing thousands of medical records, dozens of agents. They worked up quite an appetite. The agent in charge of the investigation called a pizza parlor across the street to order dinner for all of his colleagues. And the following telephone conversation was taped, and it could be played back in transcript form. The agent calls and says, Hello, I'd like to order 19 pizzas and 67 cans of Coke. Pizza Place. Where would you like them delivered? Across the street to the psychiatric hospital. You want 19 pizzas delivered to the psychiatric hospital. That's right. And who are you? I'm an FBI agent. You're an FBI agent. Oh, that's correct. There are a number of us over here, and we've been working around the clock and we're starving. Oh, is that right? Oh, yes, and by the way, deliver the pizzas around to the back entrance. We've got the front doors locked. The pizza guy said, I don't think so, and hung up. That was the end of it. Well, background information, okay. He should have given a little bit of it. Well, having provided all the background of information about this unknown God, now Paul moves to this eternal verdict and he brings up what I'm I'm referring to as the other side of the gospel. Let's pick it up at verse 30 at chapter 17. Therefore, now this is his conclusion on the basis of everything I've said. Therefore, on that basis, here's the verdict. Having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all everywhere should repent. This is not, by the way, Paul's way of saying that God has chosen to overlook sin. Paul actually uses a play on words here that's lost to the English reader. He uses the word for ignorance. It's the same word translated unknown for unknown God. Earlier, for their altar to the unknown God. In other words, he's saying all this time you've been worshiping the unknown God out of ignorance, and God has mercifully left you unpunished because of your ignorance. He could have, in other words, already brought judgment because of your unbelief, but God is gracious and long-suffering, and we know this from other texts of scripture. Paul's hinting at this. He's merciful in withholding his wrath from being poured out, which he could have done. He could have buried all of you and this Areopagus, this hill, long ago. Paul is effectively saying you're still alive, which means the judgment of God hasn't happened yet. And there's time to repent. Do it now. There's an urgency. Why? Look at verse 31. Because he, God, has fixed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness, perfect justice. Judgment is coming. By the way, Paul isn't just talking to the Athenians. Notice how Paul refers to the whole world. God is going to judge the whole world. And you notice that God has determined a date. He's already determined a time for this to take place. The term Paul uses for judgment is in the future tense. It points to a future moment when he will judge the world. This word judge carries the legal, technical nuance in Paul's day of being hailed into court. There's a coming day when you will have an appointment in the courtroom of God who will judge you rightly. He will judge you justly. The date has already been set. He has fixed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness. Notice, through a man, capital Ilm, this is a reference to the God man, Christ, whom he has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising him from the dead. Now let me kind of push the pause button here for a moment and tell you about a couple of judgments the Bible clearly reveals for us. There's more than one. They're very different. There's the judgment of all believers. We call that the judgment seat of Christ, or the bimah seat of Christ. The Bima was the place where victorious athletes were awarded their laurel wreaths and different Greek city-states, made their lorries out of different vines, different leaves, for having run their race. The Bible is very clear that this judgment is going to be for the purpose of then determining all that was profitable in a person's life and thus worthy of rewarding. You can jot a reference down and read at your leisure, 1 Corinthians chapter 3, 2 Corinthians chapter 5. I'll read a brief verse, verse 10 from that text, for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be rewarded, recompensed for his deeds in the body according to what he has done, whether profitable or unprofitable. Keep in mind, this judgment has nothing to do with whether or not you're going to get into heaven. Frankly, nobody gets into heaven by doing profitable things, right? Nobody gets in for doing more profitable things than unprofitable things. The fact that you're being rewarded for that which profited the glory of God, as it were, proves you're already there. No unbeliever will ever be rewarded for anything except judgment. It's also important to understand that the rewarding of the individual believer is the outcome of the evaluation. That's the outcome. The believer will be judged on how they ran their particular race, how they brought glory to God through mundane acts of repetitive service in the home, being faithful to spouse and family would be rewardable. At your job, where you clock in and do your duties well would be rewardable. In the church, where you serve the body will be rewardable. In the world, delivering the gospel, planting, sowing, watering the seeds of the gospel. Perhaps dying, a martyr's death. We're given specific texts that that will be rewardable. Perhaps serving the church faithfully as an elder, a special reward as well. These are all mentioned in Scripture. Well, following this evaluation, the believer is then going to serve Christ in the kingdom in their assigned honored position. The Lord talks about the faithful steward of one talent is given five, the one with five given ten. This relates to our service for him in that millennial kingdom. So the judgment is going to take place sometime after the rapture of the church. We're never given a text that tells us specifically when. I believe it'll be at the end of the tribulation period, when all of the spiritual fruit from someone's life will be able to be tallied by our sovereign rewarding Lord. Here's why I believe that. Imagine that the rapture of the church takes place tomorrow. Your testimony is going to linger. The effect of your witness will linger in ways that we can't even imagine, right? There will be neighbors, there will be friends, there will be classmates who know you're just not showing up anymore, and they remember what you believed. And we know during the tribulation there's going to be an incredible movement of the Lord bringing many to believe from every tribe, tongue, and nation. It's going to be an amazing period of spiritual harvest as God also calls Israel to repentance and faith as a nation. Those 144,000 Jewish evangelists are, they're going to circle the globe. It's going to be absolutely amazing. All that to say it's possible that something you are now doing, something you have said to someone, can trickle down through the course of that tribulation period and bear spiritual fruit that then would be rewardable. So it's still effectively being tallied, so to speak. And since the purpose of the Bhima seat is to reward the gospel and the character of God lived in and through your life, God will more than likely wait until the end of human history as we know it, preceding the millennial kingdom to reward his church. I can't remember if I told you this or not. If I have, you'll enjoy hearing it again. That's optimism for a preacher. Jay Vernon McGee has been on the radio for decades. In fact, it's almost now 30 years after his death. How many of you have heard Jay Vernon McGee? Look at that. That's amazing. Well, Jay Vernon McGee has a desire, among others, to be on the radio during the tribulation. After the church's rapture, he had the strong desire to be used by the Lord as long as his radio program could be aired, even during that tribulation period. I think he wanted to irritate the Antichrist, as only Jay Vernon McGee could irritate the Antichrist. Actually, he wanted to add to the fruit for the glory of Christ through his ministry. He's right now being heard more after his death than during his life. He is, I believe, right now in about 100 languages delivering the gospel. So the reward and the spiritual fruit of his testimony isn't going to end until the end of that tribulation period and the end of that age. There's another judgment described in Scripture. And this is the judgment that Paul is referring to here in Acts chapter 17. It's the judgment we call the judgment of the great white throne. Now that judgment is for unbelievers only. If you're there, it is forever too late for you. The books will be opened, and God will reveal through the deeds of every individual why they are worthy of this verdict. How, in fact, their rebellion against God was nothing less than idolatry and their heart worshipped themselves. So he's going to take time, we don't know how, but he's going to reveal the truth of their just punishment, and Paul writes, their mouths will be stopped. This is an awful moment to consider. It takes place just prior to the destruction of the universe and the recreation of the universe, the new heavens and the new earth. And Revelation chapter 20 gives us the details. But every unbeliever of all of human history will stand before the judge at this great white throne judgment. Now, Paul tells the Athenians here that that judge just so happens to be Jesus, God the Son, the man, God the Father raised from the dead. So if you can even imagine the irony and the fitting nature of the Lord, God the Son, being the one with a gavel in his hand, so to speak, he's going to sit as judge over all of humanity. Why? Because ultimately they worship themselves rather than place their trust in the plan of God through blood atonement that looked toward the cross, and those who lived after the crucifixion who trusted in that blood atoning sacrifice after the cross, looking back toward it. So after their own personal judgment by Christ himself, having been hailed into the courtroom of God, they will be sent to hell forever. Now, when Paul delivers this verdict, the most popular opinion in Athens, and by the way, to this day, is the opinion that at your death you cease to exist. That was the popular opinion in Athens. In fact, people in Paul's generation in Athens and beyond often had these letters written on their tombstone. N F N S N C. It was an abbreviation for the Latin phrase translated into English, I was not, I am not, I care not. I was not, I am not, and I care not. And Paul comes along and announces the other side of the gospel, which is this bad news about a coming judgment, this terrible truth, as if to say you'd better care. You'd better care. He's speaking to these Epicurean and Stoic philosophers gathered here on the Areopagus before the Supreme Court of Athens. Mankind, he effectively says, is not moving toward extinction, which the Epicurean philosophers would have believed. Mankind is not moving toward being absorbed into the universe as the Stoics believed, and Buddhism, which had reached this Mediterranean world by the time Paul stands here on this hill. Mankind is actually moving toward this unavoidable appointment with the risen Christ who will be seated on this terrifying white throne. So Paul delivers this in his first message to these Athenians. Mankind is not heading toward a reunion with all their friends. A man once told that to pastor and author Tony Evans, and he added it in his book on the attributes of God, which I've surfed a little bit. He said this a man once told me, I'm not into that hell stuff. I don't believe in the wrath of God. But even if hell is true, I'm going to turn that place around because all my friends are going to be there and we're going to go down there and have a party. Evans responded to this man. Listen, do me a favor, when you get home today, turn on a burner on your stovetop and wait until it gets really hot, and then sit on that burner and try to get a party started at the same time. Wow. Evans concluded, this man didn't understand that hell has no parties, no fellowship, no get-togethers. God will eternally quarantine all those who rejected him in the pit of the universe in a place called hell. And what was the reaction of Paul's audience? The same reaction we get to this day. Three of them. First, some ridiculed. Look at verse 32. And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some began to sneer. Now the language here indicates that they're sneering. Didn't begin right when Paul mentioned the resurrection. Paul is actually finished with his message, and then they begin to sneer, primarily because of the resurrection. The verb to sneer means to scoff, it means to literally to mock. In other words, Paul's message is immediately followed by jeering and mocking and laughing. And Paul, no doubt, I'm sure, at that moment, felt perhaps something that you might have felt, wondering if anybody heard anything he said about the gospel. There's ridicule. Secondly, while some ridiculed, others procrastinated, verse 32, again, the end part. Others said, We shall hear you again concerning this. Hey, hey, let's make an appointment. I'd like to hear a little bit more about that stuff. It's interesting. But many do that with me. How about you? We have no indication that Paul ever returned to the Areopagus, that he ever returned to that hill, that he ever returned to that Supreme Court. Ever again. Some ridiculed, some procrastinated. Thirdly, some believed. Verse 34. Some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Demaris and others with them. Don't you love that? Some believed. Some believed. Some were rescued from this future, eternal, horrific, unremitting sentence of fury and wrath from God. Now we're not told anything about Demeris, and we're not given other names of those who became Christians. We're only left with this one name, which is interesting. Verse 34, Dionysius, the Areopagite. In other words, Dionysius belonged to the council that sat on this hill. He was a member of the Supreme Court of Athens. And he believed. And by the grace of God, he really is. God was at work. And when you deliver the gospel by the way to your Athens, some will sneer, some will mock, some will jeer, they may not do it to your face, they may do it behind your back. Some might procrastinate and say, you know, you're a nice guy. It's such a nice crutch you have. I'd like to hear more about that one. But you never know in whose heart God is moving, who will be leading. James Montgomery Boyce, in his commentary on this text, told the story of something that happened in a church, pastored by one of his assistants before joining his staff. James Montgomery Boyce, of course, with the Lord now. He retells the story in his commentary. There's a man who lived next door to a church there in St. Paul, Minnesota. And uh he never wanted to go to church. However, one week the church had a series of special meetings and it featured really wonderful music. And uh the neighbor heard the music and was so taken that he decided to go in and hear it. He reasoned with himself, I'll just go in for the music and then I'll leave before the sermon. So he went in. He sat down in the back of the church, the last pew, you know, the good seats. And uh he said, I'm just gonna listen to the music and leave. When the musical portion of the evening was over and the pastor stood to preach, he realized that every seat was taken around him and he was hemmed in. And there was no way he could get out without being noticed. And he didn't want the pastor to know he'd been there. So he thought to himself, I'll just do the next best thing. I'll put my fingers in my ears so I can't hear them. So there he sat with his fingers in his ears, hemmed in by people, as the pastor began to preach. However, God had been at work in his heart through the music and the gospel that was presented and the lyrics and the joy on people's faces as they sang it, and God had a plan. It wasn't long into that sermon, Boyce writes, that a little house fly began to buzz around the man's nose. The man ignored the fly as long as he could. But finally, that little fly buzzing around his nose got to be too much for him. He took one hand and he swatted at the fly, and at that moment the pastor said, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. His hand froze in mid-air, and he knew this was for him. And he listened and he believed and was saved by the grace of God. What I discovered in my study is about a hundred years after this event took place in Athens, a church leader in Corinth, there in the church, mentioned in one of his letters that Dionysius became the first elder in the church at Athens. He became one of their shepherds. Can you imagine this church now? A church whose pastor was a member, more than likely a former member of the Supreme Court. This city where God was introduced and some of his attributes explained, and his coming wrath delivered, and a call to repentance extended. And Dionysius and others were saved. And it's intriguing to me, beloved, that all Paul did was simply describe God as creator, as the sovereign ruler, the Lord of the universe, of all the nations of earth, and the coming judge. And that was enough. That was enough. Some believed. And I think this is instructive to us. This is the gospel we really must introduce to the Athens where God has placed you and me. Because listen, he is still the unknown God. He is more than ever the unknown God. Our world may respond in the same way, but in spite of that, we go into Athens like Paul, burdened over their unbelief, asking, as it were, God to use us, being willing to deliver both sides of the gospel, heaven and hell, peace with God and the wrath of God. And some will ridicule you and some will put you off, and some will have ears to hear. That's up to God as we deliver the gospel. And some will believe and be saved from the wrath that is coming. Father, would you help us to be faithful in our testimony and recognize we never meet anybody, as your servant said, who is simply a mortal. Everyone is immortal. Everyone will live somewhere forever. We want to thank you for delivering to us the gospel and giving us ears to hear and opening our eyes to this glorious gospel where our minds and eyes had been blinded by the God of this world. We want to thank you for your work in our hearts. Might not have been a housefly. It might have been a friend. It might have been your servant J. Vernon McGee. But we had delivered to us through a parent, perhaps, or a friend or a pastor the gospel, and you opened our eyes and our ears. Now, as we live in this Athens of our day, we find the same objections, we find the same need to describe you as the creator. In a world enveloped in evolution, we deliver the truth of you as creator, that all of mankind came from one man and his wife. That you are the ruler of the nations, that you are a coming, terrifying judge. Help us to be gracious and tactful and truthful as we deliver to our Athens the truths about you, the unknown God. And we thank you for the privilege that you've allowed us to come to know you and even through this study to know you perhaps a little better. We thank you. In Jesus' name.

unknown: 40:12

Amen.

SPEAKER_00: 40:23

Today's message was the conclusion to Stephen Davies' series entitled Introducing God. It might be that as you are listening today, the Lord brought to mind some people who would benefit from hearing this message. You can go to our website, wisdomonline.org, and send your friend the link to this message or the link to the entire series. Today's the last day that this CD set is available at a deeply discounted rate. Please visit our website today or call us at 866-485. Next time, Steven begins a series from 1 Corinthians entitled True Live. Join us at Heroine.