In the parable of the Pharisee and the publican in Luke 18, two men go to the temple to pray. The publican humbly pleads, “God be merciful to me a sinner,” while the Pharisee says to himself, “God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican.”

This is God’s example of how people, instead of coming to Him as sinners, try and cover up who they really are by condemning others.

I always find it kind of unbelievable but I occasionally encounter individuals who think the whole concept of sin is bogus.

If they do even half-way acknowledge there’s sin in the world, it’s always something that has nothing to do with them because they don’t drink, smoke, cuss, eat too much, look at dirty magazines, cheat on their taxes, lie to their bosses, etc.

It’s almost like they’re simply too naïve to understand sin has much more to do with a person’s mental attitudes than it has to do with any unhealthy addiction, fleshly lust, petty crime, etc.

To see what I’m talking about, look at this truly unsophisticated line of questioning New York Times reporter Deborah Solomon used in a Q&A interview with former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft appearing in last Sunday’s paper:

Solomon: So you see yourself as a sinner?

Ashcroft: Yes. I fail and do things that I wish I didn’t do.

Solomon: Such as?

Ashcroft: I’m unkind on occasion, and I am selfish. For me, embracing the Christian faith is something that I do not because I am good but because I am not good, because I need help.

Solomon: Why? Do you drink?

Ashcroft: I drink probably a quart or two a day, but not of alcohol! I don’t consume alcohol at all. I’ve never had a mixed drink.

Solomon: Have you ever smoked a cigarette?

Ashcroft: No. I puffed on a cigar one time, and it just made my mouth feel like someone had shot a cobweb all inside my mouth.

Solomon: If you felt temptation for another woman, what would you do?

Ashcroft: Call my wife.

Can’t you just hear Solomon’s condescending, mocking tone?

From Romans 2, the Apostle Paul gives sinners the seven-pronged approach God will use in judging them and figuring out just where they’ll be eternally stationed in the multi-ringed bottomless pit known as hell:

No. 1 Judgment is according to truth. (Romans 2:2-3).

No. 2 Judgment is according to accumulated guilt (Romans 2:4-5)

No. 3 Judgment is according to works (Romans 2:6-10)

No. 4 Judgment is without respect of persons (Romans 2:11-12).

No. 5 Judgment is according to biblical light received--and denied (Romans 2:13-15).

No. 6 Judgment is according to Paul’s gospel. (Romans 2:15)

No. 7 Judgment reaches the deepest secrets of men’s hearts (Romans 2:16)

As my pastor, Richard Jordan, sums it up in an old study I have on tape, “Your attempt to cover up the reality of your own situation isn’t going to stop God, because God’s going to deal with the situation just as it is. God knows the truth of your heart. You can fool everybody else, but you can’t fool him. God Almighty is going to judge you on the basis of reality, not the show, the pomp; not what you try to convince someone else is so. He knows exactly why you do what you do. He does not look at outward appearances. He goes right for the heart. He sees right in there. That’s where God’s judgment is going to be based.”

The way Paul puts it in Romans 2:5-6, “But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God; Who will render to every man according to his deeds.”

I find there are many unsaved people who’ve consigned themselves to an eternity in hell who do not realize their station in hell will vary and that there are degrees of punishment in the lake of fire based on the accumulation level of guilt.

Jordan confirms, “God will reward men based on the accumulation of their guilt, and the more guilt there is—the more hardness against God’s goodness, the more impenitence, the more lack of sorrow and contrition, the more rebellion of heart there is—the more wrath there’s going to be.”

When Jesus Christ warns in Matt. 10:14, “Verily I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrha in the day of judgment, than for that city,” He’s saying the people of Sodom and Gomorrha won’t have eternal judgment as bad as the people who reject the Kingdom will have it.

Jordan explains, “More light, more responsibility. More opportunity, more judgment. The greater the light and the greater the privileges, the greater the sin and the greater the wrath. It’s all degrees of punishment.

“That’s why when someone says, ‘Well, if my grandmother’s going to hell, and Hitler’s going to hell, and they get the same end, and my grandma was a wonderful, sweet, kind old gal who lived good all her life, there’s no justice in that and that’s right; there’s not any justice in that if they get the same punishment. So God isn’t going to give the same punishment to both of them. Hitler’s going to have white hot heat and maybe grandma will just have it a little reddish white. It’s still going to be hell, though. It’s going to be awful.”

Just as Believers have the opportunity to lay treasures in heaven for themselves by living godly lives, unbelievers are laying up their own treasures in hell and it’s all about degrees of indignation, tribulation, anguish and wrath.

“There’s a very basic principle of God’s justice; an infallible rule in the Bible that says you get what you seek for,” says Jordan. “When you come to that Book and you want the truth out of that Book, you know what you’ll get? The truth. But you come to that Book and you want to prove yourself right and everybody else wrong, you know what you’ll get? A verse to break your fool neck on! And when God puts someone into hell He’s going to have good reason for doing it.

“God’s judgment is on the basis of divine justice. That is, God doesn’t put people in hell because they don’t deserve to be in hell. He puts them in hell because they do deserve to be in hell and He puts them there on the basis of their activity and what they’re seeking after. Judgment is on the basis of the man’s deeds—what the man seeks after.”