The Bible deals with the most heart-moving
themes that ever entered the mind of man; with the deepest woes of human
misery and the highest heights of blessedness and ecstasy; with eternities,
not time alone. It centers not on food and drink, nor houses and jobs,
but on sin and salvation, Heaven and Hell, everlasting joy or sorrow.
The preacher of the Gospel has more wealth at his disposal than any other public speaker. No other speaker could deal with such themes of joy and promised blessedness, such peace
and eternal glory. No other speaker deals with such themes as ought to
move the human heart to sighs and tears.
How terrible are the woes pictured
in the Bible for the unredeemed, for Christ-rejecting sinners!
With deep moving of heart I have searched
through the Bible for the seven saddest sayings about sinners in all the
sacred Scriptures. These Scriptures ought to move every Christian to tears
and earnest effort to serve the Lord; ought to move the sinner to godly
fear and earnest, tearful repentance; ought to move the sinner to seek
today the forgiving mercy of God which he has so long rejected.
These are solemn words, tragic words
about sinners which we find in the holy Book of God.
I. The Sinner Is Already Lost - John 3:36
In John 3:36 we find these sad words
about the state of unconverted sinners:
"he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him."
The sinner is not going to be lost when
he dies, not going to be lost after the judgment, but is lost now. The
wrath of God is on him all the time.
This same verse says that "he that
believeth on the Son hath everlasting life." One who has trusted Christ
is already saved, has a new heart, a new life in Christ. Romans 5:11 says,
"we have now received the atonement." So those who have trusted in Christ
for salvation and have been converted are already children of God, have
already received the atonement. John 5:24 says that the believer "is passed
from death unto life." But the unregenerate sinner already has the wrath
of God abiding on him.
How does God feel about a sinner who
has not trusted Christ? We know that God loves the whole world and gave
His Son to die for sinners. But along with this love for all men there
is a growing, burning anger against all who reject Christ. Psalm 7:11 says,
"God is angry with the wicked every day."
Then those who are not saved are lost.
They are lost now. They are under the wrath of God. Romans 9:22 says, "What
if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured
with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction?" Christ-rejecting
sinners are under God’s wrath, and He has already consented to their destruction
because they are "vessels fitted to destruction."
John 3:18 says, "He that believeth
on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already,
because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God."
One who has not trusted in Christ is already condemned. It is not said
that he will be condemned when he dies or condemned at the judgment, but
he is already condemned.
I went to see a man in the jail at
Fort Worth, Texas who was already condemned to die in the electric chair
within thirty days. He was brought out of solitary confinement so I could
talk to him about his soul.
His face was pasty white. His body
was thin. His transparent hand trembled like that of a man of eighty, though
he was only twenty-two. He was condemned. The court had already tried him.
It had already proved him guilty. It had already sentenced him to death.
He knew that he was condemned.
All about us are people who are just
as certainly condemned as that man, though they do not know it. They have
not trusted in Christ, so they have already been found guilty by the court
of Heaven. They have spurned the offers of pardon, ignored the plea to
repent. God says they are condemned already.
This horrible thought, that unconverted,
unrepentant men are already lost, already condemned, already under the
wrath of God, is one of the most solemn, saddest taught in the whole Bible.
II. "Ye Will Not Come to Me, That Ye
Might Have Life" John 5:40
The fact that sinners do not come to
Jesus is sad, but far worse is the fact taught in the Saviour’s words in
John 5:40. The tragedy is not that people DO not come; it is not that they
CANNOT come; it is not that they do not KNOW HOW to come. No, it is that
they WILL NOT come.
A wealth of sadness is in these words,
"Ye will not come to me, that ye might have life." What is it that stands
between a sinner and salvation, the sinner and peace, forgiveness, a new
heart, everlasting life and Heaven itself? It is simply his own wicked,
stubborn will.
Someone has said, "The one thing you
own is your will." Some dictator might be able to make you do what you
did not want to do. By torture you might be compelled to tell secrets you
never intended to repeat or to betray friends and loved ones you had vowed
to protect forever. People might seize your property, take away your liberty,
put out your eyes, amputate your limbs, or take away life itself; but no
human power, no government, can control your will. You can still want what
you want.
Persecution might make you betray your
country, but could not make you hate your country. Persecution could make
you say, "Heil, Hitler!" but could not make you love Hitler. Circumstances
might make you eat black bread and cabbage soup, but they could not keep
you from preferring sirloin steak and strawberry shortcake.
That realm of the soul where a man
says "yes" or "no," "I love" or "I hate," "I will" or "I will not" that
is the last fortress of a man’s soul.
With all the reverence of my soul,
I say that a holy God will not batter down the door of the will and save
a man who does not want to be saved.
Why do not people come to Christ? Because
they do not want to come! Why do sinners not repent? Because they do not
want to repent! Why do sinners not trust Christ for salvation? Because
they do not want to trust Him!
These words of Jesus, "Ye will not
come to me, that ye might have life," tell what is wrong with every atheist,
agnostic or infidel. The trouble is not that they CANNOT believe, but that
they WILL NOT believe. The trouble is not with the intellect, but with
the heart, the will.
The truth was wonderfully illustrated
with a great meeting which D. L. Moody and Sankey had in East London in
1883 or 1884.
One Monday evening was reserved for
an address to atheists, skeptics and freethinkers. Atheists’ clubs, led
by Charles Bradlaugh, accepted the challenge and came five thousand strong
to fill the building except room reserved for ministers and workers. The
late Mr. George Soltau tells of that wonderful service in these words:
The service commenced earlier than
usual. After the preliminary singing, Mr. Moody asked the men to choose
their favorite hymns, which suggestion raised many a laugh, for atheists
have no song or hymn.
The meeting got well underway. Mr.
Moody spoke from "Their rock is not as our Rock, even our enemies themselves
being judges" (Deut. 32:31). He poured in a broadside of telling, touching
incidents from his own experience of the deathbeds of Christians and atheists,
and let the men be the judges as to who had the best foundation on which
to rest faith and hope.
Reluctant tears were wrung from many
an eye. The great mass of men, with the darkest, most determined defiance
of God stamped upon their countenances, faced this running fire attacking
them in their most vulnerable points; namely, their hearts and homes.
But when the sermon was ended, one
felt inclined to think nothing had been accomplished, for it had not appealed
to their intellects, or their reasoning faculties had convinced them of
nothing.
At the close Mr. Moody said, "We will
rise and sing ‘Only Trust Him,’ and while we do so, will the ushers open
all the doors so that any man who wants to leave can do so; and after that
we will have the usual inquiry meeting for those who desire to be led to
the Saviour." I thought, All will stampede, and we shall only have an empty
hall. But instead, the great mass of five thousand men rose, sang and sat
down again not one man vacating his seat!
"I Can’t!" "I Won’t!"
What next? Mr. Moody then said, "I
will explain four words: receive, believe, trust, take HIM." A broad grin
pervaded all that sea of faces. After a few words upon "receive," he made
the appeal, "Who will receive Him? Just say, ‘I will.’"
From the men standing round the edge
of the hall came some fifty responses, but not one from the mass seated
before him. One man growled, "I can’t," to which Mr. Moody replied, "You
have spoken the truth, my man; glad you spoke. Listen, and you will be
able to say ‘I can’ before we are through."
Then he explained the word "believe"
and made his second appeal: "Who will say, ‘I will believe Him’?" Again
some responded from the fringe of the crowd, till one big fellow, a leading
club man, shouted, "I won’t." Dear Mr. Moody, overcome with tenderness
and compassion, burst into broken, tearful words, half sobs, "It is ‘I
will’ or ‘I won’t’ for every man in this hall tonight."
The Atheists Confounded
Then he suddenly turned the whole attention
of the meeting to the story of the Prodigal Son, saying, "The battle is
in the will, and only there. When the young man said, ‘I will arise,’ the
battle was won, for he had yielded his will; and on that point all hangs
tonight. Men, you have your champion there in the middle of the hall, the
man who said, ‘I won’t.’ I want every man here who believes that man is
right to follow him and to rise and say, ‘I won’t.’" There was perfect
silence and stillness; all held their breath, till as no man rose, Moody
burst out, "Thank God, no man says, ‘I won’t.’ Now, who’ll say, ‘I will’?"
In an instant the Holy Spirit seemed
to have broken loose upon that great crowd of enemies of Jesus Christ,
and five hundred men sprang to their feet, their faces raining down with
tears, shouting, "I will, I will," till the whole atmosphere was changed
and the battle was won.
Quickly the meeting was closed that
personal work might begin. And from that night till the end of the week
nearly two thousand men were swung out from the ranks of the foe into the
army of the Lord, by the surrender of their wills. They heard His "rise
and walk," and they followed Him.
The permanency of that work was well
attested for years afterward, and the clubs never recovered their footing.
God swept them away in His mercy and might by the Gospel. (From The Sword
Book of Treasures)
Dear sinner who reads this, do not
deceive yourself. Your trouble is not in your head, that you cannot believe;
but in your heart, that you will not!
This truth needs to be pondered well,
for it proves the depravity of the human heart. It proves that men are
wicked sinners, alien from God, enemies of God by nature. If men were naturally
good, then they would choose to come to Christ, choose to be forgiven,
choose to be redeemed. Since they are wicked sinners by choice, they will
not come to Jesus that they might have life.
How wicked the human heart that will
not take mercy when it is offered, will not accept the salvation purchased
at such a price the blood of God’s own Son!
Surely this is one of the saddest sayings
in the Bible, "Ye will not come to me, that ye might have life."
III. Why People Are Not Saved: They Love
Darkness Because of Their Evil Deeds - John 3:19,20
The moving complaint of the Lord Jesus
against sinners, "Ye will not come to me, that ye might have life," is
sad. But another Scripture tells us why sinners do not come to Christ,
why they do not want the light. Jesus, in John 3:18, said, "He that believeth
on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already,
because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God."
One who has not trusted Christ is condemned already.
Then the following verses take up this
terrible condemnation that rests upon sinners and tell why they deserve
no mercy and why they must be condemned. These show the awful moral guilt
of Christ-rejecting sinners. Read these verses and see if they do not hold
another of the saddest sayings:
"And this is the condemnation,
that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light,
because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the
light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved." John
3:19,20.
Does some sinner protest that he wants
to do right and that there is no moral guilt in delaying his salvation?
Does some sinner pretend that there are good reasons, good motives back
of his failure to trust Christ as Saviour?
Do not believe it! There is never a
good reason for doing wrong. In this case, the Lord Himself opens the door
of the human heart and lets us look within. Light has come into the world,
He said. Jesus Himself is the Light of the world. But men love darkness
rather than light because their deeds are evil. Those who do evil hate
the light; that is, they hate Christ who is the Light, and they will not
come to Him because their deeds are evil. They love their sins. They will
not come to Christ lest their sins should be reproved.
Unsaved men do not always know why
they reject Christ. You see, "The heart is deceitful above all things,
and desperately wick-ed: who can know it?" (Jer. 17:9). No man realizes
how wicked he is unless the wickedness of his heart be revealed by the
Holy Spirit of God.
Whether or not sinners know it, that
is one ghastly and tragic reason why every Christ-rejecting sinner goes
on without Christ and salvation. He will not come to Christ because he
loves his sin. He does not want his sin reproved. So he hates Christ, the
Light, and chooses the darkness of unbelief.
Thus a man chooses to have his mind
clouded, chooses to go toward agnosticism or atheism rather than come to
Christ and have his sins forgiven.
These words of Jesus prove the moral
guilt of unbelief.
One may say that he does not come to
Christ because he cannot give up some enslaving habit, some binding sin.
But Christ did not say one should wait until he conquered habit or until
he made his own heart white.
Thank God, Jesus Christ will accept
the vilest sinner, the sinner who knows that he cannot reform himself,
cannot break himself loose from the chains of habitual sin. No sinner need
wait for victory over drink or lust or dope or over the power of sin in
any other form before he comes to Jesus.
Jesus Christ will take the sinner just
as he is and do for him all that he needs done, including not only forgiveness
but cleansing.
Christ can save not only from the penalty
of sin but from the power of sin; but He cannot save the sinner against
his will. He cannot make a drunkard sober unless the drunkard wants to
be sober. He cannot make the harlot pure unless the harlot longs to be
pure. He cannot make the infidel into a believer unless the infidel wants
to be a believer. The choice must rest with the sinner.
As long as a man loves his sin, holds
onto his sin and hates the light that would expose it, he will not come
to Christ, and Christ will not save him.
Last night I heard a successful businessman,
greatly respected in a wide circle of prominent friends, tell how he came
to Christ after forty-seven years in sin. He told how he said to God, "I
am not coming signing any pledge to quit drink. I have signed them before,
and that didn’t work. I am not coming to You promising that I will never
swear again. I have tried again and again to conquer that habit, and failed.
Lord Jesus, I believe that You died for my sins, and I want You to do for
all my habits and sins what I cannot do for myself."
He trusted Christ and since then has
been used to win hundreds of souls one by one. There was a glad joy in
his voice as he said publicly last night, "And since that time I have never
taken a drink and have never sworn an oath!"
Christ will take a sinner who is covered
with sin and save him, but the sinner must be willing for Christ to take
away the sins and rebuke them and reprove them.
By the testimony of the man quoted
above, I do not mean to indicate that God always instantly takes away a
habit without effort. Sometimes He means for men to struggle and watch
and pray and so have victory. But I do mean to say that it is not the fact
of an enslaving habit or sin that keeps a man away from Christ. It is the
wicked will of the sinner which makes him hold onto his sin and turn from
the light and choose the darkness which makes it so God cannot save.
God can save the drunkard, the murderer,
the whoremonger, the atheist instantly, if in his heart he hates his sins
and turns to Christ, the Light. But God cannot save the purest woman or
the most innocent child until each chooses to come to Christ.
How foolish are the ultradispensationalists
who teach that repentance was necessary for Jews but not for Gentiles;
it was fitting in the preaching of John the Baptist but not proper today!
Such foolish talk springs from an utter misunderstanding of the unregenerate
heart and of the Bible.
Everyone who is ever to be saved must
face this innate love for sin and darkness, this natural antipathy to Christ
and the light of the Gospel. And preachers everywhere should expose sin
as the hateful, wicked thing it is, and urge men to repent, as did John
the Baptist, Jesus and Paul, as well as Old Testament prophets.
What a sad fact is revealed in these
words of Jesus that "this is the condemnation, that light is come into
the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds
were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh
to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved."
Oh, surely if any sinner wants to do
right, he will turn to Christ at once for mercy!
IV. Such Love and Compassion Rejected - Matt.
23:37,38
We have already used three sad verses
that talk about the tragedy of sinners who will not come to Christ. In
John 3:36 Jesus said, "He that believeth not the Son shall not see life."
In John 5:40 Jesus said, "Ye will not come to me, that ye might have life."
In John 3:20 Jesus said, "For every one that doeth evil hateth the light,
neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved."
Now we have another sad saying of Jesus
lamenting that sinners would not come unto Him. In Matthew 23:37 we hear
the sad words of Jesus weeping over Jerusalem:
"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou
that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how
often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth
her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!"
Can you imagine the scene? It was only
two days before the Feast of the Passover when Jesus would be crucified.
He had spent many of the days of His ministry in Jerusalem, the Holy City.
How He loved this city of David, the city of the kings, the city of the
prophets, the city of the Temple worship! Again and again He had tried
to win people to love and trust Him. He knew all the prophets whom they
had murdered, all the preachers whom they had stoned; yet He loved them
and wanted them saved.
Consider this tenderhearted Saviour
weeping over the city that will murder Him in two days! Consider why men
hate such a good Saviour.
Did the Jews find Jesus austere and
unapproachable? No, He said, "I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall
find rest unto your souls" (Matt. 11:29). The harlot woman stooped to weep
over His feet until her tears washed away the dust, and then she dried
them with the hair of her head without rebuke.
Austere? Unapproachable? No. He cast
seven devils out of Mary Magdalene, the outcast. He took little children
in His arms and blessed them. He took part in wedding feasts and Pharisees’
suppers. He wept with Mary and Martha at the grave of Lazarus. No sinner
ever has a right to say that Jesus is unapproachable, that He cares only
for the rich, that He cannot be found by any humble heart that seeks Him.
Are, then, the demands of Jesus so
difficult to fulfill? Is He a hard Master? Does He take away all pleasure
and leave life bitter? No. He so well said, "My yoke is easy, and my burden
is light." What freedom every sinner has found when set free from Satan’s
bondage!
I have been a Christian since I was
nine years old, and a preacher of the Gospel for many years. If I had a
dozen sons, I would want each to be a preacher. Oh no! Jesus is not a hard
Master. His way is not bitter. His yoke is not heavy and hard.
What is there wrong with Jesus that
sinners will not have Him? Is He harsh and unforgiving? No. He received
the traitor’s kiss of Judas on His cheek and called him "friend"! On the
cross He prayed for those who killed Him, "Father, forgive them; for they
know not what they do." Sinners who have rejected Him forty or fifty years
often still find this pleading, small voice of the Holy Spirit speaking
to their hearts. Jesus loves them and seeks them still.
Does Jesus offer enslavement? Is that
why sinners reject Him? No. He cast out the legion of devils from the maniac
of Gadara and set him free, clothed and in his right mind!
When a father brought his son, often
cast into the fire by devils, Jesus cast out the devils and sent the lad
home, well and sound, with his happy father.
The businessman who served Satan forty-seven
years and now for ten happy years has been going about telling what wonderful
things God has done for him, tells me that often as he travels over the
country he passes a place where once he drank and swore with wicked men.
His heart wells up in gratitude that he is no longer a slave and that he
will never be driven to do those things anymore.
Does Jesus ask you to give Him too
much? No. Instead He wants to give you life, peace, joy and a home in Heaven.
I think I know as many as twenty people
who found life so barren that they planned suicide, but at the last moment
let Jesus Christ come in to make them happy and set them free.
Every sinner should remember that it
is a weeping Saviour whom you reject, a Saviour weeping over the sinner’s
lost soul. It is a compassionate Saviour whom you reject. How many times
He would have drawn you to His heart! He knows that you are of a race of
sinners, He knows every secret of your vile heart, yet He loves you and
died for you.
Surely it is one of the saddest sayings
in the Bible that the people over whom Christ yearns and broods, the people
He would so often have hugged to His bosom in forgiveness and peace, would
not come. Jesus said, "How often would I and ye would not!"
The same teaching is given in Revelation
3:20: "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice,
and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he
with me."
Christ stands at the door and knocks,
but you ignore Him and go to Hell. Christ stands at the door and knocks
and pleads, but you bar the door and continue in a sin that damns you.
How sad it is that Christ says, "How
often would I and ye would not!"
V. Religious, Cheerful, Confident, but
Forever Lost! - Matt. 7:22,23
One of the saddest passages in the
Bible for sinners is in Matthew 7:22,23, where Jesus tells of many who
have forms of religion and go merrily on to Hell, thinking they are en
route to Heaven:
"Many will say to me in that day,
Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast
out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I
profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity."
Every sensible man should weep to see
a sinner who knew all the facts, knew he was lost and still chose to remain
lost. But that is not so tragic as the case of multiplied thousands who
are confident they are going to Heaven, though they have never personally
trusted Christ for salvation, and go unwarned and unsuspecting to eternal
torment.
If a man went weeping and fearfully,
yet determinedly, to Hell, that would be sad. Then how much sadder is it
when one lies down in death, depending on baptism or on confirmation or
on good deeds, and in horror wakes up in Hell!
In the stockyards at Fort Worth, Texas,
a packing company had a goat named Judas. He deserved the name, for when
he was turned in with each new flock of frightened sheep, he confidently
led them through a passage into the slaughterhouse. The unsuspecting sheep
followed the goat. Always the goat was spared and sent back to lead others
to their doom.
Those sheep, blindly following their
new friend, Judas, hoping again to find the pasture or meadow, are not
nearly so pitiful as sinners who go on to Hell right merrily, feeling confident
that with holy water put upon their heads they cannot be lost, or with
the catechism and confirmation over, they surely are saved, or with confession
made to the priest and penance done, the church will surely see to their
salvation!
Sad, sad it is when religious people
wake up in Hell because they would not come to Christ and personally trust
Him for salvation.
VI. Men Made in the Image of God Cast Into Fire Prepared for Demons! - Matt. 25:41
Another of the saddest sayings in the
whole Word of God is that which fell from the mouth of the Lord Himself,
in Matthew 25:41. Jesus tells of His future return to the earth when He
will set up His kingdom at Jerusalem and reign from David’s throne. Then
the people of the earth will be gathered before Him for judgment.
"Then shall he say also unto them
on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared
for the devil and his angels." There are many striking things about this
tragic saying of Jesus.
First, it is remarkable that it is
Jesus who will send sinners to Hell. We preachers sometimes say to a sinner,
"It is your own fault. You send yourself to Hell. You cannot blame Christ
for it." That is essentially true, yet we must remember that the tenderhearted
Jesus Himself who died to save sinners will also be the Judge who will
personally condemn every Christ-rejecting sinner and send him to the flames.
This word is all the sadder because it must fall from the mouth of the
Lord.
When the Lord condemns a man to Hell,
who is there who can intervene? Who is there to make atonement? Who is
there to be an advocate, a mediator? Once Jesus said, "Come"; now to those
who would not come, He says, "Depart!"
Another tragic thought in this saying
of Jesus is that the unsaved are cursed. Jesus says He will say, "Depart
from me, ye cursed." In John 3:18 Jesus says that the sinner is condemned
already. In John 3:36 He says that the wrath of God abides daily on the
sinner. Here Jesus says that the unconverted sinner is cursed!
Mother, is your accountable child unconverted?
Then you must be alarmed, for that child is under a curse. You should act
more quickly than you would if you knew he was stricken down with polio
or leprosy. Sinners are cursed of God.
Sometimes a Christian young woman falls
in love with an unsaved young man. She feels that he is essentially good,
and she loves him so dearly and wishes to marry him. Don’t do it! The curse
of God is on him if he is not saved.
How well Paul knew this great truth that
every lost sinner is accursed for in I Corinthians 16:22 he says, "If any
man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema" that is, let
him be accursed.
It is as if Paul said in earnest prayer
to God, "Lord, if any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be damned
to Hell forever." For that is what does happen to Christ-rejecting sinners.
Christ Himself will have to turn sadly to unconverted sinners and say,
"Depart from me, ye cursed."
The sadness of the verse grows deeper,
for Jesus said, "Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared
for the devil and his angels."
Some ultradispensational Bible teacher
would have us believe that there will be no lake of fire until after the
last judgment; but here we see that the fire is already prepared. It is
the same fire mentioned by the Lord when He told of the rich man who fared
sumptuously every day until he died and woke up tormented in flames and
Hell.
There seems to be a deep pathos in
the thought that even when Jesus sends cursed Christ-rejecters to Hell,
He tells them, "I never meant it for you! You were made in the image of
God! It was intended that you should be saved, that you should be forgiven,
regenerated! Hell was intended for Satan and his demons!"
How sad that men, made in the image
of God, reject Christ and will not be saved. How sad that men turn down
the offers of mercy and will not go to the Father’s house of many mansions!
They were told, "Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely,"
but they would not drink.
God loved the whole world those who
will never be saved as well as those who would. "He is the propitiation
for our sins: and not for our’s only, but also for the sins of the whole
world" (I John 2:2).
It is a tragedy unspeakable for men
who were intended for Heaven to land in the pit of Hell, in the fire prepared
for the Devil and his angels.
Every man and woman and child who goes
to Hell will know that it was not intended for him, and that he could have
escaped had he turned to Jesus for mercy and pardon.
Surely these words are among the saddest
that Jesus ever spoke, "Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire,
prepared for the devil and his angels." In the same chapter, in verse 46,
we are told, "And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but
the righteous into life eternal."
VII. The Eternal Burning - Rev. 14:10,11
Now we feel compelled to mention another
tragic Scripture which naturally follows:
"The same shall drink of the wine
of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of
his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the
presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: And the smoke
of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest
day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth
the mark of his name." - Rev. 14:10,11.
The immediate context shows that God is
speaking of Christ-rejecting sinners who, in the Great Tribulation time,
side in with the Antichrist.
We are told that everyone who takes
the mark of the Beast is past all pardon. Those who trusted Christ and
are saved will refuse to take the mark of the Antichrist. We are not here
interested in the Antichrist, for those who reject Christ in the future
Great Tribulation will go to the same Hell as all other Christ-rejecting
sinners. There is no special, hand-tailored Hell for a few. This is the
doom of every sinner who dies without Christ.
First, it is obvious by this tragic
Scripture that the wrath of God at last will put a sinner in the torments
of Hell. Oh, flee from the wrath of God! Seek God’s mercy and escape His
wrath. The wrath of God burns now on all Christ-rejecting sinners and will
at last be poured out like wine unmixed into the cup of God’s holy indignation
against sinners! The poor lost sinner "shall be tormented with fire and
brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the
Lamb."
There are wicked people, infidels in
bishops’ robes, ministers of Satan who appear as angels of light who say
that the God of the Old Testament was a dirty bully, that any God who would
punish sin is their devil.
Such blasphemers, often from pulpits,
pour out their scorn on the Psalms that threaten judgment on sinners. They
call all preaching about Hell and judgment "negative preaching." They hate
the God of judgment. But He is the God of the Bible. The God of love is
the God of wrath. The God of mercy is the God of judgment. The Saviour
who said, "In my Father’s house are many mansions I go to prepare a place
for you," is the Saviour who will say, "Depart from me, ye cursed, into
everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels."
God’s wrath has long been mixed with
mercy. But one day it will be poured out into the cup of His indignation
without any mixture, without any palliation, without any dilution.
"Tormented with fire and brimstone"?
Yes. Do not ask me how sinners escape annihilation in the torment of eternal
fire.
I do not understand how the three Hebrew
children walked in the fiery furnace and had no smell of smoke on their
garments. I cannot ride in a passenger train where others smoke without
having the smell in my clothes.
I do not understand how these Hebrew
children in the fire had not a hair singed but only their bonds were burned.
It seems quite clear God can make fire
do anything He wants it to do. God can make fire torment the damned in
Hell without bodies being oxidized and turned to ashes and without the
souls ceasing to be. I do not understand it, but where God said fire so
many, many times in talking about Hell, dare I say less?
This passage is so terrible that I
wonder men can eat and sleep when they read it. Do you realize that people
are tormented day and night in Hell? Do you realize that one man, about
whom Jesus told, for two thousand years or more has been begging for just
a drop of water to cool his tongue and has found none?
I do not pretend to know all the torment
in Hell. But this I know: sin brings torment, and those in Hell will still
be sinners. I know that sin brings disease and pain to bodies. I know that
sin brings torment to the conscience. I know that sin brings the scourge
of lost opportunities, and deep will be the lament of soul for every man
and woman in Hell who has a memory. But I would be less than honest as
a preacher of the Gospel if I did not remind every reader that there is
unceasing torment for soul and body in Hell.
There is a sadder note yet in these
verses. I do not pretend to understand it, but the Scripture plainly declares
that those tormented in Hell will be "in the presence of the holy angels,
and in the presence of the Lamb."
I do not think for a moment that Christ
will gloat over their sufferings, nor will angels. It must mean that Hell
is not left to itself. Those in Hell are not forgotten. They suffer on,
but it is the deliberate decree of God who knows their continuing sin,
who knows their ever-burning rebellion against Him.
After a man has been in Hell for a
million years, the Lord Jesus and the holy angels will be there to see
that there is not an ounce of pain more than is deserved, that each sinner
gets not one hair’s breadth of punishment less than is right.
It may mean too that those in Hell
with be forever reminded of the joy they might have had, of the mercy which
was offered freely, and of the glorious happiness across the eternal gulf
separating them from Heaven. I do not understand all of this, but it is
sad with an infinite sadness of eternal damnation.
Yet another word we see in this sad
saying. "The smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and
they have no rest day nor night"
How real God makes Hell! It is like
some eternal concentration camp where restless, tormented prisoners mark
upon the walls of their cells the passing days and nights and long for
the release that never comes.
The smoke of torment ascends up forever
and ever the torment continues. The torment of the day comes, and those
there will cry, "Oh, that it were night!" And the night of tormenting conscience,
the memory of lost opportunities, the pain of pres-ent sin, the shame of
present punishment will make the night as the day.
One of the blessed things we have in
Jesus is rest: "Ye shall find rest unto your souls." But there is no rest
for the wicked in Hell, no rest day nor night.
This is the Word of God. We are not
to argue with it. Does it seem unreasonable? Then your reason is not sanctified
by a surrendered will and the light of the Holy Spirit.
Whether this God whose sayings we have
quoted is the God you would like to have or not, He is the God you must
meet. You may love Him or hate Him, but you must deal with this God who
tells us that the wicked will be tormented in Hell forever!
Conclusion: Flee From Those Woes!
And now my message is done. It has
been a heavy burden to preach. Any man must be stirred, moved, burdened
by the awful doom of the wicked. But, dear sinner, if you let these words
slip, if you are not moved to heed these warnings, how hard must be your
heart, how blind must be your spiritual sight!
Oh, thank God that all these sad sayings
are counterbalanced by precious promises! One who has not trusted Christ
shall not see life, and the wrath of God abides on him; but the same verse
says, "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life" (John 3:36).
You may trust Christ today and have life instead of the wrath of God.
Jesus said, "Ye will not come to me,
that ye might have life." So it was with those to whom Jesus spake. So
it is with many today. But you may come. Oh, I hope you will! Some would
not come because their deeds were evil, and they hated the light. But if
you will turn your heart away from your sins and come to Jesus, your sins
will be forgiven in a moment, and Christ, the Light of the world, will
make your whole heart glad.
It is true that Jesus wept over Jerusalem,
and His pleadings were scorned. He said, "How often would I and ye would
not!" But you can say, "I will." "Whosoever will, let him take the water
of life freely," is the blessed promise of Revelation 22:17.
It is true that those who depend on
baptism, on church membership, on confirmation, on good deeds are deceived.
They are religious, perhaps, but lost. But you may depend upon Christ Himself,
depend upon the blood He shed for you and risk His promises. Other dependencies
fail, but He is sure! Take Him today and be saved.
Two of the sad sayings mentioned above
referred to Hell. But the Bible tells also about Heaven, and God wants
you there. You need not go to Hell. Today you may turn to Jesus and trust
Him and be saved. Will you do it?
Now I appeal to your will. I appeal
to your conscience. I appeal to your good sense. Will you today turn from
your sins? Will you today give up your will to Christ? Will you here and
now decide this question and accept Christ as your Saviour, depending on
Him for forgiveness? If you will, then today the peace of God will come
into your heart, your sins will all be forgiven, and I will meet you in
Heaven.
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