You and I have no way to know
for certain what, if anything, lies beyond the experience of
this life unless God himself is pleased to make such a revelation. This is precisely what God has
done in his holy word, the Bible, that word which reveals that
just as surely as every 24-hour period is divided into night
and day, Just as surely as all human beings are divided into
male and female, fellows, girls, men, women, so just as certainly
all men will ultimately find themselves in the bliss of heaven
or in the terrors of hell. For four Lord's Day mornings,
we have been considering the teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ
on the subject of hell, looking particularly at his teaching
as it comes to light in the Gospel of Matthew. We have seen four
principles that are a summary of our Lord's teaching on the
subject in our previous studies. Let me just give them to you
briefly, and then we shall move to the fifth this morning. We
have seen that in the teaching of our Lord that hell is a place
and a condition of unspeakable misery, torment, and woe. The two most oft-used figures
of our Lord in the Gospel of Matthew are outer darkness and
fire. The outer darkness speaking of
what we would call the privative punishment of hell, that from
which sinners are excluded, the light of God's countenance, the
warmth of his presence. Fire speaks of that which connotes
his punitive punishment, that which is poured upon them. of
God's wrath and anger, both of which result in weeping and gnashing
of teeth. In the second place, we have
seen that hell is a place and a condition where soul and body
shall suffer the punishment of sin. Our Lord said, Fear not
those which kill the body, and after this have no more that
they can do, but fear him who hath power to cast both soul
and body to entity. The soul is not the body, the
body is not the soul. The soul and body make one man,
but the soul exists beyond the destruction of the body. For
our Lord said, Don't fear those which can kill the body, but
they cannot touch the soul. But fear him who can destroy
both soul and body in hell. In the third place, we saw that
hell is a place and a condition of divine retribution. That is,
God is punishing sinners for their sin. It is not a place
of instruction. It is not an extension of the
day of grace. It is not a place to display
His power in obliterating evil. It is a place to display God's
justice in the punishment of evil. And so the words wrath,
punishment, vengeance are used continually in Scripture in connection
with the Bible doctrine of hell. Then in our last study we saw
that hell is a place and a condition of degrees of punishment. Jesus
speaks of some finding it more tolerable in the day of judgment
than of others. And the basis for this, of course,
is the judgment, the justice of God. And the basis upon which
God will mete out the differing degrees of punishment are the
extent to which men abandon themselves to sin. Romans 2.5 speaks of
those who treasure up wrath. They've abandoned themselves
to sin and therefore will receive a greater weight of judgment.
The second basis of this degree of punishment is the influence
our sin has had upon others. Our Lord repeats this again and
again, where He says, Woe unto those by whom offenses or occasions
of sin come. And then in the last place, the
degree of a man's light and privilege will be the degree of his punishment
in hell. It shall be more tolerable for
Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for Capernaum
and Bethsaida, because Bethsaida and Capernaum had greater light.
and greater privilege. Now we come this morning to the
fifth in this series of studies, and the principle that I want
to set before you that is so clearly stamped upon the face
of our Lord's teaching is this, that hell is a place and a condition
of conscious, endless suffering, misery, and woe. There are many
who find themselves unable to escape or twist the force of
the biblical language on the first four points. But they are
found to balk at this fifth point. They will acknowledge that hell
is a place and condition of unspeakable misery, torment, and woe because
they can't erase the words, wailing, gnashing of teeth, outer darkness,
unquenchable fire. They will acknowledge that soul
and body will suffer because our Lord says soul and body shall
be destroyed in hell. They will acknowledge that hell
is a place of divine retribution because they cannot escape the
words anger, wrath, vengeance. They will even acknowledge that
there will be degrees of punishment because the scripture is so obvious.
But when it comes to this fifth principle in the teaching of
our Lord, that that condition of unspeakable misery, torment
and woe for Saul and Bobby, as divine retribution in degrees
of punishment, when they are confronted with the teaching
that this suffering is conscious and eternal and unending, they
dig their heels in and they say no. Why? Is it because the language
of the Bible forces a conclusion upon them contrary to this statement? No. Rather, by listening to the
language of human wisdom, human sentiment, and human pride, they
frame a notion and then attempt to force that notion upon the
Bible. Perhaps there is no doctrine
so much hated and maligned and misrepresented, except it be
the doctrine of the absolute sovereignty of God, as this aspect
of the doctrine of hell, that the suffering of the damned is
conscious and is eternal. Next week, the Lord willing,
I shall deal with some of these attempts to reject the biblical
teaching. Restorationism, annihilationism,
universalism, all of these attempts to somehow tone down the teaching
of scripture. But I'm not going to deal in
a negative way this morning. That will come next week, God
willing. But I want today to convey the positive evidence
that the suffering of hell is conscious and is eternal. Mr. Sterrick mentioned something
that was so apropos this morning when he said that a man who has
been brought as the disciples were to the place of subjection
to the authority of Christ, even though they cannot understand
or grasp the weight of his words, when he says, Will you go away?
They say, Lord, we can't. We don't understand. There's
much we cannot comprehend. But you have the words of eternal
life. We must cling to you and to your
truth, for there is no other course open to us. And I confess
that as I've tried to meditate and think upon this aspect of
truth, there is but one thing that holds me to it and that
drives me to preach it. It is that my conscience is held
captive to the Word of God. No other reason. I would be some
kind of a fiend who was fit for a place there on Fairview Avenue
in Verona if I sat in a corner somewhere and concocted a doctrine
of eternal punishment. When that doctrine is forced
upon us by the Scriptures, to twist the Scriptures to any other
doctrine is to play the fool and to be wiser than God. Now,
how should we lay out the evidence of Scripture? I will attempt
to do so this morning in a threefold manner. I want to set before
you, first of all, the words used to describe the duration
of hell. Does the Bible use any adjectives
or adverbs to describe the duration of hell? Secondly, I want us
to look at the figures employed that touch on the duration of
hell. And then thirdly, the explicit
statements of scripture which touch upon the duration of hell.
The words used, the figures employed, and then the explicit statements.
First of all, then, What words are used to describe the nature
of hell as far as duration is concerned? Quoting just at random,
listen to these words. Everlasting fire, Matthew 18,
8. Eternal fire, Matthew 25, 41.
Eternal punishment, Matthew 25, 46. 2 Thessalonians 1, 8 and
9. Everlasting or eternal destruction. Revelation 14.11, the smoke of
their torment ascendeth up forever and forever. The words used in
these passages and in many others are the words I own, the Greek
word I own, and the Greek word Ioneos. And their Hebrew equivalents
are used in the Old Testament. Now the question is this, what
do those words properly mean in their natural and most normal
usage? And any lexicographer, that is,
a man who traffics in seeking to understand the meaning of
words, if you will turn to any lexicon dealing with the meaning
of these words, their Hebrew equivalents or these Greek words,
you will find that the normal, most natural meaning of the words
is to denote that which is endless, that which is without termination,
that which is eternal. Quoting from one of God's servants
summarizing the teaching of this, Ionios is used in the New Testament
sixty-six times, fifty-one times of the happiness of the righteous.
In other words, the life they have is Ionios' life. Dealing, of course, with quality
of life, but one of the unique things about that quality is
its duration. It shall be forever. Two times
of the duration of God and His glory. God is called the Ionios
God, the everlasting God. Six other times where there is
no doubt as to its meaning being endless. Seven times of the punishment
of the wicked. Ione is used 95 times, 55 times
of unlimited duration, 31 times of duration that has limits,
9 times to denote the duration of future punishment. The plain
and usual meaning is that which is endless without termination. So, when we find eternal life
described, these are the words used. The rich young ruler comes
to Jesus in Matthew 19.16 and says, what shall I do to inherit
eternal life? Matthew 25.46, the righteous
shall go into eternal life. John 3.16, should not perish
but have eternal or everlasting life. These are the words used
to describe God, Revelation 4, 9 and 10. He is called the God
who liveth forever and forever. The Father is specifically called
this kind of a God in Romans 16 and in verse 26 we read, but
now is manifest and by the scriptures of the prophets according to
the commandment of the eternal God, the Ionious God, the everlasting
God, the God who has no beginning and who has no ending. It's used
of the Son in Revelation 1 and verse 18. He says, I am alive
and was dead, and behold, I am alive unto the ages of the ages. I'm alive forever. It's used
of the Spirit in Hebrews 9.14, who, through the eternal Spirit,
offered himself unto God. I want you to see, in the book
of the Revelation, by just contrasting three sets of passages, how these
words have this plain and obvious meaning of speaking of duration
that has no end. If it doesn't have that meaning,
then John has deliberately confused people. No, the Holy Ghost has,
for he inspired the words of John as he wrote the book of
the Revelation. Will you contrast, first of all,
Revelation 11.15? with Revelation 14.11.11-15.
The seventh angel sounded, and there
followed great voices in heaven, and they said, The kingdom of
the world is become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ,
and he shall reign forever and ever. And the marginal reading,
your footnote if you have an ASV says, Unto thee ages of the
ages. There is that phrase to speak
of an unending reign of Jesus Christ. Now in chapter 14 and
verse 11, the exact same terminology is used of the suffering of people
who've been cast into the place where God's wrath is meted out
upon them. Verse 11, and the smoke of their
torment goeth up forever and ever. Notice, not the smoke of
their annihilation. The smoke of their torment, which
is conscious pain, goeth up forever and forever, and they have no
rest day nor night. It doesn't say they have no existence.
That would be the way an annihilationist would read the passage. They
have no rest day nor night. They that worship the beast in
his image, whoso receiveth the mark of his name. So see the
contrast? In 11.15, a reign that is forever
and ever, conscious torment that is forever and ever. Now contrast,
please. Revelation 15.7. 15.7 with 19.3. 15.7 says, And one
of the four living creatures gave unto the seven angels seven
bowls full of the wrath of God, who liveth, here we are, forever
and forever. God is described as the God who
lives, who exists, who goes on forever and forever. Revelation
19.3 says, speaking of the judgment that
God has brought upon that which is symbolically called the harlot,
and the second time they say, Hallelujah, speaking of the redeemed,
and her smoke, that is the smoke of that which is born the judgment
of God, goeth up forever and forever. And then the last contrast,
Revelation 22.5, there shall be night no more, They need no
light of the lamp, neither light of the sun, for the Lord God
shall give them light and they shall reign. Speaking of the
redeemed forever and forever, here is the picture of a reign
with Christ without end. We shall be with Him forever.
The great heaven of heavens to the child of God. Contrast that
with chapter 20 and verse 10. And the devil that deceived them
was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where are also
the beast and the false prophet? And they shall be tormented day
and night, forever and forever. The bliss of the redeemed, forever
and ever. The torment of the devil, and
according to Matthew 25, 41, the same hell into which the
devil goes, that prepared for the devil and his angels, is
the hell to which the wicked go. And here we see the words
used, forever and forever. So when these words are used
to describe God, the life of the redeemed, the life of those
or the existence of those apart from Christ, there is no question
that they mean endless duration. Now listen carefully. Occasionally
the words are used figuratively. And they're used figuratively
to speak of that which has permanence, and that's why they can be used
figuratively, because there is a true eternity in the words. When you want to describe something
that has great permanence, the biblical writers occasionally
use these words. So in the psalm, I mean in Genesis
49, 26, you have this phrase, the everlasting hill. Does that
mean that the hills are going to be there forever and ever
in a strict eternity? Of course not. We know that the
world as we now know it is going to be consumed with fire. There
shall be the new heavens and the new earth, a reconstructed
earth. But the figure is obvious to anyone who reads it. It's
a figure used in constantly in our own language interchange
and in poetry. Because there is a true eternity,
when you say the everlasting hills, you mean hills that will
last as long as hills can last. It's used of slaves who bind
themselves to their master in Exodus 21.6, and it says that
the slave shall serve forever. What does that mean? As long
as he has been, he'll be a slave. That's why Paul could say to
Philemon, take back Onesimus, that he may be with you forever.
What did he mean? That forever he was going to
be in that house? No, but as long as he has been, he will be with
you. And everyone says and acknowledges,
of course, sometimes the words figuratively, poetically mean
that which cannot have strict eternity of duration, but in
their natural, most obvious, most frequent use, they mean
that which is endless. Or we have no word in the Bible
to describe God as far as duration. We have no word to describe the
duration of the bliss in heaven. These are the words that are
used. And if they do not mean a strict eternity for God and
for the bliss of the redeemed, simply because we would avoid
the teaching that there is a true and strict eternity of hell,
we are denuded of any word which has this meaning. The Apostle
Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4.18, while we look not on the things
that are seen, for the things that are seen are temporal, that
is, they are bounded by time, but the things that are not seen
are eternal. There the contrast is, whatever
is temporal with that which is eternal. One is bounded by this
age, the other has no bounds, the age to come. When our Lord
uses these words to describe the duration of the punishment
of hell, he meant to teach us this awesome doctrine that the
suffering and the punishment of hell is conscious and unending
punishment. Now, consider with me the figures
that our Lord employs. Let's go back to those two initial
figures that we started with in our first message, outer darkness
and the symbol of fire. Does our Lord in any way give
hints as to the time period of that outer darkness? Yes. He
says in Matthew 22, 13, a very interesting thing. Using again
the figure of that day when a person would be cast out of the banquet
house. In this instance, it's the man,
Matthew 22 and verse 13, who did not have a wedding garment.
And in the oriental culture, if such a one should appear,
he would not just be thrown out of doors, for then he might break
back in through a window. But notice what it says. When
they find the man who is without the wedding garment, verse 13,
the king said to the servants, bind him hand and foot. Now, what happens when you bind
a man with his hands and with his feet? He is rendered what?
Immobile. So that wherever you put him,
he stays. It's the picture of permanence.
And our Lord says this is what happens to those who do not have
the wedding garment, who are not found clothed in the righteousness
of Christ. They are not just thrown out
into a temple state. They are bound hand and foot
and cast into this state and condition of eternal night. So that Jude, picking up this
very thought, says in Jude 13, to whom is reserved the blackness
of darkness. forever, and there's no escaping
the word we confronted again. I tell you, dear ones, those
little words put together cause me trembling as I speak them.
Darkness of darkness forever! Bind them, hand and foot, and
then cast them. So the figure our Lord employs
without a darkness speaks of permanence, of duration, And
then the figure of fire, this oft-repeated figure, our Lord
calls it in the first place, eternal fire. Notice Matthew
18 and verse 8. And if thy hand or thy foot causeth
thee to stumble, cut it off and cast it from thee, it is good
for thee to enter into life maimed or halt, rather than having two
hands or two feet, to be cast into the eternal fire." The same
word used that we've been studying. Ionias, fire. Fire that as far
as duration is concerned is unending. Matthew 25, 41, you have the
same phrase used. Now follow me closely. I want
to do a little English grammar. The word fire is a what? A noun. The word eternal is a
what? Adjective. Now follow closely. Here's what
I've seen people do. I mentioned this earlier. I want
to repeat it. I saw a man one time say, now look, here's my
paper. And he lit a match to it. And
he said, see, it's burned up. Therefore, it is burned up for
eternity. It'll never be a piece of paper
again. That's what the Bible means when it says eternal fire.
Wait a minute, you played a verbal trick on me. That makes this
passage say, into the fire, the effect of which is eternal. That
isn't what the passage says. The passage says the fire is
eternal, not the effect. The adjective describes the noun. And so, for my friend's illustration
to work, he better take his piece of paper and have it held in
his hands and burn. One day, two days, three, five,
ten, and on! Millenniums! Then he's rightly
illustrated what eternal fire means. Don't let anyone play
any little verbal tricks on you to avoid this biblical doctrine
by burning up a piece of paper and saying, see, it's burned
up for eternity. That's all the Bible means. Wood to God! That's
all it meant. What a lot of communities! Annihilation
would be a revelation of grace. But our Lord says it is eternal
fire. And then He calls it unquenchable
fire. John uses the term in Matthew
3.12. He speaks of the Lord Jesus. Here is His concept of Jesus.
And would to God this concept would come again to the Church
of Christ? And I say to all of you future
ministers of the gospel, may this be the Christ you preach,
the Christ of grace and of judgment, of mercy that cannot be fathomed,
of judgment that cannot be plumbed. For when John speaks of him,
he says in verse 11 of Matthew 3, I indeed baptize you in water
unto repentance, but there cometh after me one who is mightier
than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear. He shall baptize
you in the Holy Spirit. Notice, he will be a Savior who
pours out all the gracious influences of the Holy Ghost. That's mercy.
That's mercy. The Holy Spirit, who alone can
illuminate the mind, who can regenerate the heart, break the
chains that bind us, give us to see the glory of God in the
face of Christ. Oh, how we should bless God for
a Savior who sends forth in copious measures the Spirit. But, ah,
listen, He not only does a baptizing work of the Spirit, but also
of fire. whose fan is in his hand, he
will thoroughly cleanse his threshing floor, and he will gather his
wheat into the carter, but the chaff will he burn up with unquenchable
fire." And that word, quench, is exactly the same word used
in Matthew 12, 20, where it speaks of our Lord, that He will not
quench the burning flax, the smoking flax, There's the little
wick that's smoking. Someone alluded to it in their
prayer this morning. There's still a little flame.
It says he won't put it out. He'll nurture it. This is the
word used with a little what we call alpha privative, which
means not. It is not able to be put out. It is unquenchable. It will exist for all eternity. For what purpose? To do its work
of judgment upon those whom it falls. So by the words our Lord
uses, he teaches that the duration of the suffering of hell is eternal. By the figures he employs, outer
darkness, fire that is eternal, that is unquenchable. And now
will you consider with me the third, and as far as I am concerned,
the most, almost crude, shocking figure, and it's the figure of
unending consumption in the ninth chapter of the Gospel of Mark.
If you have an ASV, you will notice that several verses in
Mark 9 are omitted which use this phrase, but there is no
question as to the textual warrant for its use in verse 48. Mark 9 and verse 48. Back up to verse 47. If thy eye
calls thee to stumble, cast it out. It is good for thee to enter
into the kingdom of God with one eye, rather than having two
eyes, to be cast into hell." Now notice, "...where, in which
place," it's a word of location, "...there worm dieth not, and
the fire is not quenched." What is this figure which our Lord
uses? Because we are not Easterners,
it's difficult for us many times to see the things that are most
obvious. It wasn't until a few months ago that I understood
this very simple figure. Everyone to whom our Lord spoke
had seen human bodies destroyed two ways. They had seen the maggots
breed from the very carcass until the maggot does what? Consumes
the flesh. And listen, when the flesh is
all consumed, what happens to the maggot? What happens to him? He dies. Why? He has nothing
more to feed upon. If that were not true, our world
would be overrun with maggots. So in all ordinary consumption
of the body, when the body breeds worms, the worms swarm until
they consume it, and having consumed it, they die. Second way bodies
are consumed is by cremation. The Jews have seen this. Out
there in that valley of Hinnom, where the offal was thrown, and
where the dead bodies of dogs and the carcasses of criminals
were thrown, they had seen what happened. In an area where the
fire burned brightly while consuming a carcass, when the carcass is
consumed, what happens to the fire? Lacking fuel to feed upon
it, what? It dies. Oh, do you catch the
horror of our Lord's figure? He says the true Gehenna The
true lake of fire is one where all who are cast into it will
experience, notice, their worm dies not. Why? Because it has
something to feed upon for all eternity. And the fire never goes out because
it has something to feed upon for all eternity. What more vivid
figure could our Lord use to show the eternity of the duration
of the punishment of hell? And everyone who says, as we'll
see next week, that the words destroy and perish mean to annihilate
and obliterate are twisting the word of God, doing violence to
every usage of the features of Christ. And listen, will bring
upon themselves the judgment of God for lulling men to sleep
with the hope that there will be mercy in the world beyond.
For I repeat, annihilation is mercy. Jesus said of a certain
man, it were better that he had never been born. Why? If there were annihilation out
there, he would say it will be the same as if he had never been
born. But he says it'd be better if he'd never been born. If there
is ultimate restoration, it is good for him that he has been
born. For what a monument of grace Judas will be, the one
who killed Christ, will ultimately be restored. You see, to twist
the Scriptures on this doctrine is to do violence, to passage
after passage of the Word of God. And so I submit that the
words used teach the duration is eternal. The figures used,
outer darkness for which men are bound, the fire which is
eternal and unquenchable, the unending consumption of the worm
and of the fire, they all unite to say the punishment and the
suffering are eternal. Now consider in the last place
the plain statements, the explicit statements which deal with the
torments of the damned in hell. statements which speak of duration. And I read earlier the one in
Revelation 14. I want to read it again in this
light. Notice of whom this is said,
beginning with verse 9 of Revelation 14. And another angel, a third,
followed them, saying with a great voice, If any man, if any man
worshipeth the beast in his image, and receiveth the mark in his
forehead or upon his hand, he also shall drink of the wine
of the wrath of God. See that word again? Hell is
the place where God's wrath is meted out. It is prepared unmixed
in the cup of his anger, 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
goeth up for ever and ever, and they have no rest day and night. They that worship the beast and
his image. What more explicit statement
could there be to show that the duration is endless? Not enough
to say forever and ever, but it was on to enlarge, which means
that day and night, no rest, no rest. Eternity will find them
as the judgment leaves them. You have the similar phrase in
Revelation 19, 1 to 3. We'll not look at it. Revelation
20, 10. The devil that deceived them
was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, and they shall
be tormented day and night, forever and forever." And then that pivotal
statement of our Lord in Matthew 25, verse 46. The text that has
borne the weight of this doctrine in the midst of controversy,
that has stood unscathed against all of the pride of man who has
attempted to somehow scrub out this teaching of Scripture. For
Jesus says in Matthew 25, 46, and these shall go away into
Ionian Colossus. into eternal punishment, but
the righteous into eternal life. And here you have the same word
used, eternal life, eternal punishment. What is that life? In quality,
it is the life of bliss. In duration, it is endless. What
is that punishment? In quality, it is the horrors
and agonies of the damned. In duration, it is unending. Explicit statement of our Lord.
I mentioned to someone in my reading in preparation, I found
many of the theologians giving logical reasons for eternity
as the duration of the punishment of hell. Using human reason and
logic, I have desisted from this and shall continue to do so and
let the whole case stand on Holy Scripture. Now, may I close this
morning with several very personal and, I trust, by God's grace,
persuasive applications and exhortations. In the first place, in the light
of what we have studied, I believe it is accurate to say that this
biblical concept of the duration of hell is the crowning horror
of the doctrine of hell. It is the crowning horror of
the doctrine of hell. As one servant of Christ has
said, this is the world's woe, the hell of hells, that its woe
and hell are forever. After the sinners have been in
hell millions and millions of years, hell will be as much hell
as it was at first. The fire that burns will never
go out, and the worm that gnaws will never die. These things
are three times repeated by our Lord and Savior in one chapter. It will be a lasting, indeed
an everlasting misery. It is everlasting punishment.
and everlasting fire. In all the sufferings that any
of you have known, you little kiddies, when you've had a toothache,
there's always the hope that if you can't get to the dentist,
maybe the ache will stop or the aspirin will help. Some of you
adults who've known the inner pain, to which physical pain
cannot be compared, there's always the hope, as scripture says,
that though weeping may endure for the night, joy cometh in
the morning. And in every form of human suffering,
the man who lies upon his bed there at Mountainside Hospital
today, wracked with pain, can look out his window and see the
chirping of a bird. There's a pleasant sight, there's
a pleasant sound, there are pleasant memories of better days when
he walked through the woods on a Sabbath. But in hell, none
of this, none of this. Our minds recoil from even the
thought, what will the reality be? What will the reality be? I tell you, dear ones, the hell
of hells is its eternal duration. And if that thought can but somehow
filter down into our hearts, then it may be to us, and this
is the second point I want to make by way of application, This
biblical doctrine of the eternity of hell has often been the means
to somehow break sin's spell and cause men to begin to take,
in earnest, the call to repent and to believe the gospel. That's
how it worked with Moses. For we read in Hebrews 11 that
when he was come to years, he refused to be called the son
of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with
the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. You see, Moses sat down and did
some calculating. He sat down like an accountant,
and he put on the left-hand side of the ledger all of sin's pleasures,
and he listed them in his mind. But after each one he had to
put a parenthesis. Temple. Temple. Temple. Temple. Temple. Temple. On the other side of the ledger
he put a word at the top. Sin's punishment. And next to
each one he drew his line across. This pleasure. Temple. Punishment. Eternal. This sin. pleasure,
temple, punishment, eternal. This sin, pleasure, temple, punishment,
eternal. And when he came to the end and
drew his line and added it up, he said, what have I if I have
all of my senses satiated with every form of carnal pleasure
in this temple and time plus time plus time plus time equals
time. But eternity, plus eternity,
plus eternity, plus eternity is eternity! I'll not play the
fool. He turns his back upon Egypt
and goes out to face suffering in his own flesh, to batter down
his lusts, to turn from human pride, to turn from pomp and
glory, to walk with the people of God, to suffer! But he said,
I have no course, because I've done my ledger work. My precious
young people, have you done your ledger work? May God help you
to do some ledger work today. Shall I seek the sweetness from
this sin for a few more days and drink the wine of God's wrath
for that sin forever? Shall I? Shall I court my lust
for a few days and be mine to its punishment? Forever? Shall I be too busy to make my
calling and election sure today, when I might enter hell tomorrow
and grieve my busyness forever? Shall Christ be set before you
as a willing and able Savior, only to be slighted and ignored,
when for all eternity some of you would give listen? You would
give everything to have just one Lord's Day morning in the
Trinity Baptist Church given back to you. When your pastor
looked you in the eye with tears, pled with you to repent, pled
with you to fear Christ, pled with you to turn your back upon
the world, the flesh, and the devil. You'd give anything for
one, one hour! One hour! In that place with
somebody you love you'd preach to you. Pledge with you and treat
it with you. And you bargained your soul for
a pittance. May God have mercy upon some
of you who have come Sunday after Sunday, week after week, and
you're sick, wedded to your sins. What will pry you loose? My friend,
if it won't be the preaching of hell to drive you, and the
glories of Christ to draw you, then it'll be the fires of hell
to reveal your folly for all eternity. You see, the scripture
says in Ecclesiastes 8, Because sentence against an evil work
is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men
is emboldened to do evil. You see, if God were to cut men
off every time they sinned, people would say, oh, look at God, He's
a tyrant, no mercy! But because He doesn't cut them
off, men say, oh, well, God's easy. He doesn't mean what He
says. See? Psalm 50, verses 21 and 22, God
says, when you did your evil, Because I didn't immediately
judge you, you thought I was like you, that I forgot, that
I was overlooking. But now listen to the words of
God. Now consider this, ye that forget God, lest I tear you in
pieces and there be none to deliver. Oh, dear young people, dear adults,
moms, dads, children, this is not preacher's talk. This is
serious business. You better judge God's future
dealings by his past, how many have wrought themselves to sleep
and ended up in hell, who said, oh, well, I just trust God won't
be quite that stern. Listen, you want to know what
God will be like in the future? You look and see what he was
like in the past. You look at that world. Some tell us the
population of the world of Noah's day had reached tremendous proportions. They talk about up into the millions
of millions, up into the high figures. How did God feel about
that generation, my friend? This many were spared, that many.
You want to know what God will do in the future? My friend,
listen. They tell us in thirty years there will be five billion,
something like that. If God finds that many who have
repented and fled from His Son, the earth shall be consumed in
His wrath. God will be in the future just
like He was in the past. You go out on the plains of Sodom
and Gomorrah, a whole city. And there's a servant of God
pleading, Lord, if they're 50, 40, 30, 10! God says no, just
a little handful. And Jude tells us that what happened
there is a type, it's a figure, it's a preview of that which
God will do in the future. May God be pleased to use this
doctrine to shake some of you loose from the folly The terrible
course in which you're walking, some of you no open profession
at all, others of you your profession. Listen, it wouldn't take you
by the first second of the day of judgment. All you've got is
a name that you're alive, but you're dead. Your heart and your
affections, your time, your interests are wedded to the world, to the
flesh, to the devil. And you merely name the name
of Christ. And oh, dear child of God, what should this doctrine
do for you and for me? It ought to fill us with wonder
and awe at the mercy revealed to us. Jesus is spoken of in
1 Thessalonians 1.10 is the one who delivers us from the wrath
to come. To be saved from hell is mercy
enough, but to be saved unto all the glories of heaven, who
can begin to express the thanks that he owes to God? Scripture
says, look to the rock from whence you were hewn and the pit from
whence you were digged. Dear ones, we need more often
to meditate, to be still, to put our ear to the walls of hell
and hear the groanings of the damned and search for the sound
of our own voices. Why, why, why, why is not my
voice joining the chorus of the damned?" And the answer will
come in two words, sovereign mercy. A debtor to mercy alone. Not only should it fill us with
wonder and awe at the mercy of God, it ought to do a little
something to stir us with compassion and urgency for the lost. Do we really believe this? Then
we should be able to say with Paul, knowing the terror of the
Lord, we persuade men. And this is the point at which
I confess, I feel most keenly, the sin and the coldness of my
own heart. A man who believes that when
you die, you die as a dog, he's got reason to be indifferent.
The professing Christian, and there are some who in the judgment
of charity I would have to call Christians. who believe the heresy
of annihilationism, if I don't see them tearful and burdened
and pleading with God for sinners and pleading with men to repent,
I can understand it. What is there to be dreaded if
you're going to be sent back into non-existence? You won't
know any more about it than you knew before you were born. There's
nothing to dread, nothing to fear. But, O dear ones, we who
say we believe the teaching of our Lord, what kind of stalks
and stones are we? We are not found pleading with
God for our children. Listen, mom and dad, you have
within your power given by God something the devil doesn't have
in his power. The ability to populate hell.
Never forget it. All the devil can do is poach
on somebody else's property. You can create the property. Some of you spend all your time
providing for shoes, and stockings, and clothes, and underwear, and
food. No tears of pleading with God
to save your children. No time to catechize them. No
time to gather them daily, morning and night, to instruct them.
No time for this. Too busy making money to provide
for them. Too busy running here to do something
for them. My friend, one day in the day
of judgment they'll rise up And they'll turn the accusing finger
and say, Mom, Dad, you did everything for me, but prepare me for this
hour. And I am confident if my kids
don't have the fanciest clothes, and they don't have the fanciest
toys in the block, and they don't live in the fanciest home, and
if they've got some threadbare furniture, I'm confident in the
day of judgment that they stand with me and say, Dad, thank you
for living before me in a way that I knew these things were
real. Thank you, Dad, for taking time to pray with me, to instruct
me, to pray for me. And I say to him, son, daughter,
how do you feel now about that threadbare couch that made you
a little embarrassed to have your kids in? How do you feel
about those shoes that were a little out of style? What do you think
they'd say? They'll look you in the eye and
say, you're kidding? What's all of that? mercy on you. God have mercy
on you. You're going to be raped with
the blood of your own children. How dark and dreadful is the
place where men no longer see God's face. Where pain can have
no end. There, fiery waves shall ever
roll, And conscience chides the sinking soul, While memories'
torments rend. From hope of heaven, by sinning
driven, The anguish of the unforgiven, What mortal tongue can tell? Remorse, despair, their lot shall
be, Eternal storms sweep o'er that sea, No rest, no peace in
hell. With thee, praise God, tis not
too late. Thy doom's not fixed, nor sealed
thy fate. Salvation's offered thee. Repent
at once, there's mercy here. Today high heaven will hear thy
prayer and set thee fully free. May God grant that you'll seek
mercy in that blessed fountain of all mercy, the Lord Jesus,
crucified, buried, risen, and exalted. For he came to deliver
men from the wrath to come. Are you delivered? I'm not asking
if you've got a few notions floating around in your head about Christ
and about the gospel. I'm asking you, do you have biblical
grounds to believe that you have indeed repented and laid hold
of Christ? My friend, do you have any crack
in your certainty? Have you been shaken a little
bit this morning and said, boy, am I real? Don't you just sad
that over? with the drooliness that will
come from a full stomach in the next hour when you go home. Cherish
that little question mark. Press it home. Get along with
God. Open up the Bible and say, Lord,
am I indeed ready? And let the Bible judge your
state. Let the scriptures evaluate your profession. And give yourself
no rest until you know that you're hidden in the Lord Jesus and
can say in the words of that great Moravian hymn, Bold shall
I stand in thy great day. Bold in a day like this? You
crazy? No. For who ought to my charge
shall lay. Fully absolved from these I am
from sin and fear and death and shame. How, Jesus, thy blood
and righteousness, my beauty are, my glorious dress, midst
flaming worlds in these arrayed. With joy shall I lift up my head. Are you clothed in the righteousness
of Let us pray.