When you sin once, you feel guilty and in need of forgiveness. But when you continue to sin again and again, a time comes when your conscience dies—you no longer feel guilty, no longer feel the need for forgiveness or repentance. This is wickedness.
When you commit fornication once, you feel ashamed and filthy. But when you continue in it, guilt fades away, and fornication becomes part of you.
This is wickedness.
When a person kills once, guilt overtakes them. But if they kill again and again, killing becomes normal—a way of life.
That is wickedness.
In wickedness, doing what is evil or wrong becomes a normal way of life. You start to wonder how others live without sinning. In this state, sinning becomes natural. It is a stage where people:
- Call evil good and good evil
- Replace darkness with light and light with darkness
- Call bitter sweet and sweet bitter
(Isaiah 5:20)
In wickedness, a person’s ability to know right from wrong becomes completely corrupted—dead. Their thoughts become entirely evil.
Genesis 6:5 – “And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”
Wickedness not only approves evil but also defends and promotes it. It casts aside what is good and elevates what is wrong in the eyes of the Lord.
For example, if you sit among the wicked, you may hear them justify drinking a little alcohol, fornicating, divorcing, or lying once in a while. They are of the devil, approving what is evil before God. Wickedness actively fights for evil and is a deliberate, continuous sin, which is why God has reserved a special judgment for it.
Psalm 9:17 – “The wicked shall be turned into hell…”
If someone sins but is still able to confess and ask God for forgiveness, that person has not yet reached the stage of wickedness. In wickedness, the conscience is dead. The person knowingly commits evil without any remorse, without trying to hide it. Wickedness is deliberate, continual sin, and it’s not just about burying someone alive—it also includes “small” repeated sins like lying.
Revelation 21:8 – “…and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and sulfur.”
Wickedness is the stage of sinning where there is no remorse, no desire for repentance. People living in wickedness devise, spread, and defend evil. They live as if they are sovereign, accountable to no one—even God.
In the Bible, sinners are often rebuked, but the wicked are judged. The gospel is preached to sinners, but judgment is declared to the wicked.
- Psalm 145:20 – “The Lord preserves all who love Him, but all the wicked He will destroy.”
- Psalm 9:5 – “You have rebuked the nations, You have destroyed the wicked; You have blotted out their name forever and ever.”
The judgment of the wicked often even affects their descendants, showing the severity of their evil:
- Psalm 37:28 – “…the descendants of the wicked shall be cut off.”
- Malachi 4:3 – “…the wicked will be ashes under the soles of your feet…”
Wherever there is wickedness, judgment follows.
Sodom and Gomorrah were not destroyed because a few people sinned—but because the entire city lived in wickedness. Instead of receiving rebuke, they received destruction—burned to ashes and wiped from the face of the Earth.
Likewise, God judged the entire earth in Noah’s time not merely for sin but because of wickedness:
- Genesis 6:5 – “And God saw that the wickedness of man was great…”
- Genesis 6:7 – “So the Lord said, ‘I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth…'”
Where there is wickedness, judgment follows—and it often means being wiped off the face of the Earth. Sin can be rebuked, but wickedness is judged.
Psalm 1:5 – “Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.”
The Bible distinguishes the sinner from the wicked. Though both will be judged, the wicked receive direct and severe judgment.
- Job 36:6 – “He does not preserve the life of the wicked…”
- Psalm 9:17 – “The wicked shall be turned into hell.”
But there is hope…
Despite our wickedness, God offers mercy.
- Ezekiel 18:27–28 – “If a wicked person turns from the wickedness they have committed and does what is just and right, they will save their life.”
God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked. He longs for repentance:
- Ezekiel 18:21–23 – “Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked? …Rather, am I not pleased when they turn from their ways and live?”
When God says the wicked “shall not die” upon repentance, He speaks not of physical death, but eternal death—the lake of fire. Similarly, when He says they “shall live,” He means eternal life on the new Earth, with Him.
You may be alive now physically, but dead in God’s eyes if you’re living in sin and wickedness.
So… are you ready to forsake your evil and sinful ways?
God is ready to abundantly pardon you. He has no pleasure in seeing you perish in hell.
- Isaiah 55:7 – “Let the wicked forsake his way… and return to the Lord, and He will have mercy…”
- Ezekiel 33:11 – “I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked… Turn! Turn from your evil ways!”
It is not God’s will for you to perish—but to come to repentance and be saved.
If anyone perishes, it is by their own choice—by rejecting the truth and the light.
- 2 Peter 3:9 – “The Lord… is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.”
No matter how grievous your sin is, no matter how wicked your lifestyle, God is willing to forgive you. Come to Him just as you are, and He will receive you.
You Cannot Stand God’s Wrath
No one—not the poor, not the rich, not kings or slaves—can stand against the wrath of God. The only way to escape it is to forsake sin and run to Jesus for salvation.
- Revelation 6:15–17 – “And the kings of the earth… hid themselves… and said to the mountains, ‘Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne… for the great day of His wrath has come, and who shall be able to stand?'”
You cannot stand the lake of fire. It is not for a moment, but forever. Imagine swimming in a lake of fire—yet never dying, never consumed. No punishment in the universe compares to this.
People end up there not because of anything else—but because of sin.
That is why God is willing to forgive anyone—to save them from such a tragic end.
Come to Jesus
No matter the degree or frequency of your sin—come to Jesus and be saved.
You cannot stand God’s wrath.
The lake of fire is forever.
- Repent of your sins
- Acknowledge and confess your sins before the Lord
- Harden not your heart—open it to Jesus.
- Jesus is coming.
Repent, repent, repent—for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.
