This sermon was preached on Sunday
evening, August 28, 1983, at the Trinity Baptist Church in
Montville, New Jersey. Think of the words of James,
one through whom you gave us even a portion of your infallible
and written word. In many things we all offend. O Lord, we must stand before
the clear, white light of your holy law and confess that we
are sinners yet, in need of the cleansing of the blood of your
own dear Son. And how we thank you for your
promise that if we confess our sins, you are faithful and righteous
to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Holy Father, as we have been
sobered in the portion of the Word of God read in our hearing,
as our hearts have run out to you as we were led in prayer
that your Spirit would come with power, as we have been reminded
of the great realities of the coming day of judgment, so now,
Holy Father, as we turn to your Word, come to us, we pray, that
the one who attempts to open your word may do so in the consciousness
of your presence and grace upon his mind and spirit and with
his mouth, and that everyone who listens may be conscious
of the same influence of the Holy Spirit upon the inner ear
of the heart. O Lord, meet us this night, that
we may in this place taste of the power of the world to come. For Jesus' sake, we plead these
mercies from your hand. Amen. We have come tonight in our study
of the Word of God to the sixth message in this Sunday evening
series that I've been engaged in off and on throughout the
summer months. focusing upon the biblical doctrines
of heaven and of hell. And it should be a sobering thing
to every one of us to face the very simple fact that a hundred
years from now, every one of us will be in a state and a condition
in which our eternal destiny will be forever fixed, either
with respect to the unspeakable the indescribable glory of heaven
and the presence of Christ, or the unspeakable misery, torment,
and woe of outer darkness. Thus far in this series of studies,
what I have attempted to do in opening up the Scriptures is
to underscore the importance of the doctrines of heaven and
hell in biblical religions. Secondly, I have suggested that
the focus of our study would be not the intermediate state,
the condition of the soul after death and before the judgment,
though the Bible addresses itself to that issue, but rather the
major focus of scripture is the major focus of our study, namely
the eternal state after that great day of which we have sung,
the day of resurrection and judgment. And then I sought to underscore
from Scripture the proper attitude that we must have in approaching
the subjects of heaven and of hell, and then for several weeks
we have occupied ourselves with the question, what is hell? And with very little illustrative
material, with very little imagination and description, bare, simple
exposition, We have answered the question, what is hell, with
our Bibles open before us? And our answer has had five parts
to it. We have seen from the Scriptures
that hell is a place and a condition of unspeakable misery, torment,
and woe. And the two major figures in
Scripture by which the misery and woe are underscored are the
figures of outer darkness on the one hand and the lake of
fire or unquenchable fire on the other. We have seen, secondly,
that hell is a place and a condition where soul and body shall suffer
unspeakable misery, torment and woe. Thirdly, that hell is a
place and a condition where there will be degrees of punishment
for sin. Fourthly, that hell is a place
of unending misery, torment and woe. And finally, that hell is
a place and a condition where men will receive the just punishment
of God for their sins. Hell is not remedial. Hell is
not didactic, therapeutic, or sanctifying. Hell is the place
for the outpouring of the righteous vengeance of Almighty God. And then in our final study,
we began to address ourselves to the next major question that
ought to press itself upon our minds, namely, who will be sent
to hell? In the light of this awesome
teaching on what hell is, then surely the question ought to
be pressed in upon all of our hearts. Does the Bible give us
clear light as to who will and will not be sent to this awful
place and this frightening condition? And I suggested to you in that
study that the biblical materials can be ranged under two major
headings. general descriptions of those
who will be sent to hell, such descriptions as 2 Thessalonians
1.8, Matthew 13, 41, 49, and 50, and other texts that we examined. And now tonight we come to the
second major category of biblical descriptions concerning those
who will be sent to hell, and it is what I am calling the specific
description of those who will be sent to hell. The descriptions
of such texts as 2 Thessalonians 1.8 are general. Christ will
come in flaming fire to take vengeance on all those who know
not God and obey not the gospel. That is a general description
But tonight we turn to a text in which we have not a general
description, but a very specific description of the various categories
of human character that are the earmark of those who will be
sent to hell. Now, as we turn to the text that
will form the focal point of our meditation this evening,
Revelation 21 and verse 8, Let me seek to secure a careful
hearing by the use of a very simple analogy or illustration. What would you do if next week
there came from your local town hall what appeared to have all
the marks of an official announcement from the mayor of your town or
city that some man had placed time bombs in the homes of a
hundred people in your community, and that this madman had not
given to the town officials the names and addresses of those
in whose homes the bombs had been placed, but rather he had
left a description of the character of those in whose homes these
bombs had been placed. This letter from your mayor and
town officials bore all the marks of seriousness, of sobriety,
of honesty, and carried with it the weight of conviction that
they weren't fooling, that in a hundred homes in your community
there was even now planted a time bomb. And we didn't know the
homes in which it was planted, but the madman had left a description
of the characters, a very detailed description of the characters
of those in whose homes the bombs were placed. Furthermore, the
notice from the town officials said that they had this list
and they were enclosing it with the letter. Now, if you were
convinced that the letter was not a ruse, some kind of a sick
joke What would you do with the enclosed letter that contained
not the names of the families in whose homes the bomb had been
deposited, but a careful description of the character of those who
were the heads of such homes? Would you not take that enclosure
and very carefully and with judgment and honesty seek to ascertain
whether or not the description in the letter in any way matched
what you were and are? Now that is precisely what God
has done in His Word. God, who in no way is to be found
in an analogous relationship to a madman, but who is the thrice
holy sovereign judge of the universe, this God has declared that certain
people shall perish in this awful place called Hell. And He has
not given us a role on which their names are presently inscribed. There is no place in the universe
where you can go and find a roll call of the future inhabitants
of hell. But God has given us in this
book a very clear, a very specific, a very penetrating description
of the character traits of those who will perish in hell. And
if you take the doctrine of hell seriously, then you will come
to such descriptions with all the earnestness and sobriety
of the last day upon your soul, saying, O God, do I in any way
fit that description? If I do, Lord, help me here and
now to begin in earnest to flee from the Raftica. As I looked
out upon you as a congregation singing that hymn, Great God,
what do I see and hear? I saw something that convinced
me that at least one person believes that God means what he said.
I saw one of our members overcome and break into tears in the midst
of that hymn, probably with the burden of an unconverted lost
loved one. upon her heart. My friend, do
you believe that there is a place called outer darkness, the lake
of fire, where soul and body shall suffer the torments of
the damned forever? When you and I dare not give
ourselves the luxury of a careless passing encounter with those
specific descriptions of those who will be sent to hell, we
must come to such descriptions with the earnest prayer, Lord,
is it I? If so, O God, help me here and
now to do what I must do. to be taken out of that description
and into the description of the blessed who shall enter the presence
of God and of the Lamb with joy. Turn now to Revelation 21 and
verse 8. The setting is obvious. The chapter
begins the first seven verses with this breathtaking description
of the glories of heaven, the new heavens and the new earth,
the imagery of the holy city, New Jerusalem, which is nothing
other than the perfected church as we understand from parallel
passages, and then the glory of heaven, verse 3, the presence
of God with His people. Verse 4, the absence of everything
that causes grief and pain, a passage, God willing, we will examine
in some detail when we come to answer the question, What is
heaven? But after this glorious and breathtaking
description of heaven, the promise of the blessedness of this to
all the overcomers in verse 7, notice then the contrast. But, verse 8, for the fearful,
and unbelieving, and abominable, and murderers, and fornicators,
and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, their part shall
be in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone, which is
the second death." And here the God who has given us some specific
revelation of the glories of heaven is the God who has given
us a specific description of those who will be sent into the
lake that burns with fire and with brimstone, that which is
called the second death. And as we come to look at these
eight specific character traits that are set before us, Listen
carefully as I make two qualifications at the outset. First of all,
this passage is not saying that anyone who at any time has committed
any one, two, three, or all eight of these sins at any point in
his life can never be a candidate for heaven. This passage is not
teaching that if a person has ever once lied or lied twice
or a trillion times, he must of necessity perish in hell.
This passage is not teaching that if one has murdered once,
twice, or a thousand times, he cannot possibly escape hell. This passage is not teaching
that which would contradict the entire teaching of the Bible
that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, all kinds
of sinners who've committed all kinds of sins any number of times. And many such sinners sit here
in this building tonight, forgiven, cleansed, and pardoned by the
grace of God. So when we look at these specific
descriptions of those who will be sent to hell. We must not
read the passage as though this says, if there has been a lie
or many, a murder or many murders, an act of fornication or many,
there is no hope. The passage teaches no such thing,
nor does it teach, follow carefully now, that one who does name the
name of Christ, who may fall into one or another of these
sins, cannot have any further hope that he is indeed a child
of God. For with but one exception, as
I studied these words in their usage in Scripture, with but
one exception, all of these sins are either attributed to a child
of God in a moment of weakness, or the people of God are warned
against falling into them. So this passage does not say
that if you have named the name of Christ and given evidence
of having been transformed by His grace, and your feet have
been planted in the way of obedience and holiness, that in surprisal
or in a moment of declension and backsliding, you should fall
into any one or more of these sins. That automatically means
there is no hope for you. That is not the teaching of the
passage. Now, I know as carefully as I make that disclaimer, the
way some of you will wiggle out of the pressure of the passage
is to say that I was teaching that if you ever fall into any
one of these sins, there's no hope. And if you profess to be
a Christian and ever fall into one of these sins, you've fallen
from grace. I am saying no such thing, because
that would be a contradiction of the entire overarching teaching
of the word of God. What we have in this list of
eight specific categories of sin and sinners is a description
of a fixed pattern of life. Notice the text, but the fearful,
in other words, fearfulness or cowardice, are the fixed, settled
principle of the person's life. It is not a matter of a true
disciple overcome with fear in a moment. Jesus came to his own
and said, be not fearful, but believing, acknowledging that
in a moment of weakness, the child of God can be guilty of
cowardice. And likewise, the child of God
can fall into any sin of the flesh or of the spirit. But these
are descriptions of a way of life, the features of an unsanctified
character and untransformed practice. And with respect to those things,
the Bible says all who are locked into a lifestyle characterized
by any one or combination of these eight things, notice the
text, their part shall be in the lake of fire. Now I've qualified,
I've excluded what the text does not mean, what we must not make
it mean. But having done that, let me
say, if you find yourself in any one of these eight categories
as the basic pattern of your life, as the unchallenged, untransformed
lifestyle in which you are locked, mark it, friend, unless you are
forgiven by the blood of Christ and transformed by the Spirit
of Christ, as sure as you stand hearing the word of Christ preached
your part shall be in the lake which burneth with fire and with
brimstone." Notice then the list, but for the fearful. Perhaps a better translation
would be the cowardly. Here is a description of the
first category whose part shall be in the lake of fire. They
are described as the cowardly, the fearful. They hear the word
of the gospel. They hear the call to discipleship. They hear the Lord Jesus saying,
count the cost. I must have the place of supreme
affection in your life. You must be prepared to be ostracized,
if necessary, from your peers. You must be prepared, if necessary,
to be ostracized from your own mother, father, son, or daughter. Matthew 10 and Luke 14. And when
such people hear the call of Jesus Christ, there is something
in them that says, Long to know the forgiveness, the pardon,
the release that is in Christ. But my peers, I can't stand the
thought of being mocked out. I can't stand the thought of
being cut off from social relationships. I can't stand the thought of
being labeled the oddball in my school, in my place of work. The thought of being cut off
from social intimacies and social acceptance, I can't hack it.
Or perhaps they are fearful not with regard so much to people
but to possessions. They see that Jesus Christ says,
coming to me, you must renounce all that you have. That is, you
must come in the posture that from here on in, everything that
you are and have, you willingly, joyfully give up to me to be
held loosely in my service. to be a steward of everything
that you possess, and if you do not renounce all that you
have, not knowing what I will do with it, you cannot be My
disciple. And Jesus Christ has not rescinded
that word to twentieth-century affluent America. It is still
the Word of Christ. You may name Him, but He does
not own you if you have not renounced all that you possess. People
see that and they're fearful. They say, well, if I do that,
will the Lord demand of me as he did of the rich young ruler
to relinquish title to all of it? Or will He allow me, like
Zacchaeus, to exercise on discretion with respect to it the half of
my goods I give to feed the poor? If I've taken wrongfully, I restore
fourfold. Will He allow me to go on in
the sanctified use of some of what I possess? Or will He demand
of me the actual relinquishment of it? And you don't know that
coming to Christ. And that's why He says, without
exception, Whosoever he be that renounces not all that he hath
cannot be my disciple. And before such demands, there
is this cowardice that says, I dare not put myself in that
place. So there is the fear of people,
the fear of possessions for some. And this was peculiarly relevant
when the book of the Revelation was written, the fear of pain. John wrote from the Isle of Patmos,
and he wrote to the seven churches. And how did he identify himself?
He said, I, John, your companion in tribulation. The churches
were undergoing a baptism of physical suffering and persecution. And as was true then, it's true
now. When religion rides in her fair
clothes, Lots of people follow in its train. But when it begins
to cost and may bring physical harm and pain, when identification
with Christ might mean going to the Colosseum, when it might
mean deprivation of possessions and actual physical pain, then
the cowardice draws back multitudes from identification with Christ.
My friend, listen to the Word of God. Sitting here tonight,
aware of the claims of Christ, aware of the provisions of the
Gospel, If you are a fearful one, a coward who will not come
to Christ on his terms because of the fear of man, the fear
of what he may do with your possessions, the fear of pain, listen to the
Word of God. The fearful shall have their
part in the lake of fire. If that cowardice is not purged
from your heart so that you come to Christ on his terms, made
strong by His grace to bear whatever His yoke brings upon you. This
book says that the cowardly have their part in the lake of fire. I didn't say it. And surely reading
that passage in 1 Kings has put fresh fear in my heart. I dare
not go back from the Word of God God has said, the fearful
shall have their part in the lake of fire. I speak to some
of you young people tonight. You know the gospel is true.
You've seen its power in your mom and dad and in many around
you. And not only are you convinced
the gospel is true, you're convinced it is in your own best interest
to become a Christian. You see the wrecks of humanity
all around you, in your neighborhood, in your school, in your place
of business. And you see the wholesome, healing
power of the gospel in your family, maybe the only family on the
block where there's real love, real cohesion, real respect,
where people actually love one another. And you not only believe
the truth of the gospel, you see the winsomeness of Christ.
What keeps you back? Isn't it this? Fear. Cowardice. Cowardice! Afraid of being cut off from
your peers. Perhaps afraid of being cut off
by your own sons and daughters. Cut off by mom and dad. Cut off
from friends. Listen to the Word of God. The
fearful. The fearful. The fearful! shall
have their part. Oh, my friend, take your fears
and go and bring them to the foot of the cross, and behold
him who was not afraid to be cut off from all his peers, mocked
by his own half-brothers and sisters, cast out by the religious
leaders, impaled upon a Roman gibbet, stripped of all of his
clothes, and there, in stark nakedness, he hangs. And the
Apostle Paul could say, God forbid that I should glory save in the
cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world, its smiles,
its frowns, its possessions, its threats, the world is crucified
to me, and I unto the It is in the saving sight of Christ crucified
that all of your cowardice will be swallowed up and you will
be prepared in loving identification with Christ to bear all for his
sake. But then notice the second category,
the unbelieving, the unbelieving. Now again, this is a word used
to Christians, believers, in John 20, 27. Be not unbelieving. It is possible for a true Christian
to be overcome with unbelief. Lord, I believe. Help thou my
unbelief. But when the word is used as
a description of fixed character, it means one who has not radically,
irreversibly, entrusted himself to Jesus Christ as Savior and
Lord. Luke chapter 12 and verse 46
speaks of one whose portion shall be with the unbelievers. It is not speaking of the spirit
of unbelief that lurks in the heart of the most believing child
of God. But it is speaking of that cursed
spirit that fills the heart of the impenitent in which they
will not entrust themselves to Jesus Christ and to the salvation
so freely offered even to them in the gospel. Do you believe
this, my friend? Is this a description of your
character? Notice, it doesn't say the unbelieving who curse
God. the unbelieving who mock Christ,
the unbelieving who cast aspersions upon the Word of God, you can
be an unbeliever who speaks highly of God, of Christ, of His Gospel,
of His Church, of His people, of His ways. But if you are still
an unbeliever, your part will be in the lake of fire. You will
not go to heaven Because you speak well of God. You speak
well of Christ. You speak well of the gospel.
You speak well of His people. My friend, you will only go to
heaven if you are united to Christ so that His righteousness becomes
yours. And in union with Him, the Holy
Spirit is given to you to give you power to live a believing,
righteous life. And you cannot be united to Christ
apart from faith. And our text says that the unbelieving,
yes, the unbelieving who in their unbelief mock God. There may
be such here tonight. Who mock the gospel, who mock
holiness, who mock the law of God, who mock the people of God? There may be such, and surely
you fit this category. But I'm concerned for those of
you who have enough, quote, belief in the truths of the word of
God that you're here tonight on a Sunday night. listening
to the Word of God, giving attention, riveting your eyes upon Mine,
and as far as I know, giving your ears to what I am saying.
But, my friend, if you leave an unbeliever still, you leave
under the sentence of death. He that believeth not, the wrath
of God abides upon him. You must believe. But you say,
Pastor Martin, I've been well taught enough from the catechism
and in my Sunday school and in my home to know that true faith
is not something that I can just engender on my own. That's true. But believe you must. You say,
what can I do? When you're convinced you must,
and with that conviction is joined the conviction you can't, you'll
go to Christ as a desperate, needy sinner. and ask him to
do for you what you cannot do for yourself. But then notice
the third category, translated in our 1901 version as the abominable. I believe the NIV translates
it vile. It's a difficult word to translate
out of the original. Perhaps the best way to think
of it is in these terms. Such as have been made a moral
stench in the nostrils of God. The root word here is the same
one used in Luke 16 15. That which is highly esteemed
among men is an abomination in the sight of God. It is a stench
in the presence of God. Very interestingly, it is this
word that is used in the Greek translation of the Old Testament
Hebrew scriptures in that section, particularly Leviticus 18, where
all of the vile sins of perversion of the Canaanite nations are
described and the people of God are forbidden from having anything
to do with them. Bestiality, homosexuality, the
life of a transvestite, all of these abominable perversions,
not merely the lawless indulgence of God-given sexual appetite,
but the total perversion of that appetite into every form of that
which God calls abomination. And that's the word that is used
to translate the Hebrew word into Greek in the Septuagint,
abomination. And oh, if any word is needed
for our generation, it is this. All forms of perversion that
are a peculiar stench in the nostrils of God, those who take
their placards and march down the avenues of our city for their
so-called gay rights, in other words, they want approval for
abomination. that take them and their nation
into hell. If I am speaking to any man,
any woman, any boy or girl in this place who is even flirting
with, let alone abandoned to, a life of perversion, God calls
it abomination, moral stench. And all of the vile who create
that stench have their part in the lake of fire. And no amount
of respectability gained by legislation from a perverted national government
will cancel what this book says. Perversion is perversion and
leads to hell. The abominable who will not repent,
who refuse to repent, will not flee to Christ to have the chains
of their foul lust broken by his almighty power, they shall
know the reality of this text fulfilled in themselves. And
notice the fourth category, murderers. Murderers, those who wantonly,
willfully destroy human life, without divine authorization.
Not all destruction of human life is murder. It is destruction
of human life without divine authorization. Romans 13 says
that God has given to human government the power to bear the sword of
his vengeance against evildoers. But when men wantonly, willfully
destroy human life without divine authorization, that is the biblical
definition of murder. And add to that all who inwardly
entertain the Spirit, which, if led to its ultimate expression,
would wantonly, willfully, without authorization, shed human blood. Matthew 5, verses 21 and 22.
Who so has hatred in his heart, Jesus said, is guilty of murder. Are you a murderer? It's perfectly possible that
there may be someone sitting here who knows in his heart of
heart that you willfully, deliberately contributed to the snuffing out
of human life, whether out of the womb or in the womb. It is murder still. And if you
sit here in the character of a murderer, having wantonly,
willfully destroyed human life without divine warrant, then
this text says, living and dying in that condition of a murderer,
your part shall be in the lake of fire. And if you sit here,
not with your hands actually stained with human blood, But
entertaining that spirit, which would naturally result in such
destruction of human life if it had its way, even Jesus said
to abusive speech, he who says, The fool shall be in danger of
the hell of fire. And if that spirit is the substructure
of your soul, bitterness, rank, animosity, Ill will, you are
a murderer. Living and dying in that character
state, you will have your part in the lake of fire. But then
notice the next category, fornicators. And here the word in its context
obviously is not broad enough to include all forms of perversion,
though sometimes it means that. For God has already spoken of
the abominable, the vile, that which causes a stench, the perverse
and the perverted. But it speaks here of sexual
behavior that is illicit. Though carried out within the
framework of the divinely ordained pattern of male and female conjugal
intimacy, it is carried out apart from the sanctity and the sanctuary
of the marriage bond. God says fornicators and whoremongers
and adulterers He will judge. Hebrews 13 and verse 4, in the
old authorized version, this word is translated again and
again as a whoremonger. In other words, the person who
has adopted and lives by the playboy and the playgirl philosophy. My body is my own to do with
it what I will. And God and society and nobody
is going to tell me what to do. God's not interested in what
goes on in my bedroom. If there is a God, He's got bigger
concerns. My friend, I stand here to inform
you what you do in your bedroom may land you in the ante-room
of hell itself. Fornicators! Fornicators! Those who indulge in illicit
sexual dalliance, who have the spirit, my body is my own. And here I must say a word. that's not pleasant for me to
say. Fornication, perhaps more than anything else, is the sin
that is being made respectable by the mass media. Woven through
the fabric of almost any TV program for entertainment is the theme
of respectable fornication. To relax my mind for a few minutes
yesterday, I thought I'd turn on the program that was supposedly
going to give us information about people preparing for the
Olympics in 84. I thought that'd be innocent
enough. And no sooner had I turned on the program when the cameras
zeroed in on a woman, an Australian woman, who is a discus thrower. And I happened to turn in at
the point where she talked before national TV audience. and allowed
herself to be photographed in a home with a man who is not
her lawful husband, and could say, I enjoy living with my boyfriend
so-and-so, and no sense of shame while the camera pans their life
together. Fornication is respectable. It is acceptable. You young people, listen. Almighty
God has given you your body, and He's given you all the parts
of that body, and He's given you desires that as you get older
are going to awaken in you, and you're going to want to have
a wife someday like Daddy does. Because if Daddy didn't have
a wife, you wouldn't have a mommy. And if mommy didn't have a husband,
you wouldn't have a daddy. And all those desires as they
awaken in you are wholesome and good and pure, but listen, Almighty
God has told you how those desires are to find an expression. And
Almighty God has said only within the sacred commitment of your
life to another life and that for life is it proper that you
should give full and joyful vent to those God-given appetites.
Rejoice in the wife of thy youth, God said. Let her breath satisfy
thee at all times. Be thou ravished with her love.
We're not prudes. That's the Bible. And I'll quote
that as freely as I quote John 3.16. But the same Bible says,
Whoremongers and adulterers God will judge. And fornicators have
their part in the lake of fire. Say, what difference does it
make If I do a little dallying, if I do a little playing around,
if I do a little fooling around, I'll tell you the difference
it makes. It's the difference of heaven and hell. Then quickly
notice the next category. It's translated as sorcerers. The best translation in modern
English would be this. Those who practice magic arts. It refers to the occult. Sound
contemporary? Listen to the comments of Jeffrey
Wilson in his helpful little commentary on the book of Galatians,
where this same word is used in Galatians 5 and verse 20. Idolatry and sorcery. There's the same word. Here's
his comment. False religion. Man in his rebellion
against his Creator remains inturably religious, and he seeks to satisfy
this instinct by making his own deities. He much prefers these
lifeless puppets to the one true living God, because these lifeless
puppets allow him to pull the strings. In the same way, magic
is man's unlawful attempt to manipulate unseen spiritual forces
to his own advantage. Now, we're not talking about
a man who's an illusionist and says, I have no magical powers.
Everything I do has an explanation. And so he tells you that. And
then you see him pull a rabbit out of the hat. I'm not talking
about the innocent world of the illusionist. Now, I know some
people would charge me with compromise. Go ahead and charge me if you
will. If that's sin, then I sin with many of the kids in the
church when I play a little sleight-of-hand game with them with a nickel,
and they think I'm picking it off the ceiling when in reality
I'm just putting it up on the ceiling. But anyway, this is
not talking about that. It is talking about dabbling
in the occult and the spirit world, the demons and the devil. And Wilson goes on to say, in
an age which is not ostensibly religious, There's been a remarkable
proliferation of false gods and a terrifying revival of the occult
arts and practices. There are stores in Willowbrook,
a few miles from here, where you can buy your books and paraphernalia
to dabble with the devil and with the occult. Besides the
parasitic growth of many new cults, the secular gods of communism,
scientism, humanism are worshipped with a fervor approaching religious
ecstasy, while the increasing popularity of witchcraft, spiritism,
alias spiritualism, clairvoyance, astrology, and horoscopes heralds
a relapse into the dark ages. Have you called the weather number
in New Jersey recently? 936-1212? When you're done with your weather
report, it says, so much for the weather. Now for your horoscope
today, dial such and such. That's right. You don't believe
me? Go home and dial it. I've never dialed a number. I
would not so much as dabble, even with curiosity, to hear
a horoscope. It is abomination. And if I'm speaking to someone
whose life is sucked in to a so-called relationship to the stars, and
your horoscope is your Bible and has become your God, and
you dabble in the spiritual and the occult, the illicit spiritual,
God says, unless that fundamental trait of character is radically
revolutionized by the power of the Gospel, you'll have your
part in the lake of fire. And then he speaks of idolaters,
all who worship false gods, whether those gods are made of wood and
stone, whether those gods are called St. Christopher, St. Mary or St. Joseph. Any material
representation that is made an object of veneration and worship
is in the determination of God an idol. and all who worship idols. But
the Bible says idolatry is not only found in the worship of
visible representations of God and the gods and other human
beings. But Colossians 3.5 and Ephesians
5.5 say that covetousness is idolatry and a covetous man is
an idolater. Idolatry is the worship the service,
the abandonment of affection to any other being or thing but
the living and true God. And any person in whose soul
the substructure is the worship of anyone other than the living
and the true God, such a person is an idolater and will have
his part in the lake of fire. And then finally notice the last
description, and I want you children to look carefully at your Bibles.
You will notice there's something different about this last character
description. It says not and liars. All the others have been joined
together with an and you see it for the fearful and unbelieving
and abominable and murderers and fornicators and sorcerers
and idolaters and liars. No. A word is added, and it's
only with this category that it's added. All liars. All liars. What is a liar? A liar is anyone who willfully,
knowingly, misrepresents reality, or anyone who knowingly and willfully
will not perceive reality. Let me illustrate. Ananias and
Sapphira were guilty of lying to the Holy Ghost when they attempted
to lie to Peter. What was reality? Reality was
they got a certain amount of money for the land they sold.
Now, they tried to misrepresent reality. They had kept back some
of that money for themselves. But when they came to Peter and
the apostles, they tried to represent as though they were bringing
the whole amount. They were willfully, knowingly misrepresenting reality. That was lying. The Bible also teaches that the
willful, deliberate misinterpretation or refusal to perceive reality
is lying. Who is a liar? But he that denieth
that Jesus is Christ. Reality is Jesus is the Christ. If I will not so conceive him
in terms of that reality, God says I'm a liar. Who is a liar? But he that denieth that Jesus
is the Christ. Now our text says all liars. And why? I've got a sneaking
suspicion. I wouldn't give my life for this
interpretation of why, but I think it's sound. God knows that one
of the most subtle forms of unrenewed character is found in the area
of lying. Deception is so shameful that
few of us will own up to it. So God has to put a hook in our
consciences and say, all liars. Now you children, let me ask
you something. How many of you can tie your own shoes? Let me
see your hand. You can tie your own shoes. All
the kids can tie your own shoes. Okay, all right. Now, how many
of you learned how to tie your shoes without any help from mom
and dad? You learned all by yourself.
Mom and dad never helped you. Well, we've got one who says
she did. Now, I don't know whether she's lying or not. I'll have
to check with her mommy and daddy. But she says she did, all right?
How many of you had to have mommy and daddy teach you how to make
the loops and pull them through? How many of you had to have mommy
and daddy teach you? Alright, good. Now, how many of you, you
know you've told a lie? I'm not going to ask you what
it is, but you know you've told a lie sometime. How many of you
have told a lie? How many of you kids under 12,
you've told a lie? Now let me ask you, did mommy
and daddy have to teach you how to lie? How many of you had to
have mommy and daddy sit you down and say, now son, Now honey,
I want to teach you how to lie. How many of you had to have mommy
and daddy teach you how to lie? Not a one of you. How come? You
know why? You've got a built-in teacher.
And you know what that built-in teacher is? Your own bad heart. And one of the first signs of
the sinful nature of a child is its ability to lie with such
convincingness that only God can sort out truth from the lie.
All of us who are parents have faced that frustration. You have
looked the kid straight in the eye. You've reminded him that
God knows his heart. You remind him of everything
that ought to sober him. And he'll look you straight in
the eye, and you find out three weeks later he was lying hands
down, case dismissed, verdict, guilt. And we become so clever at lying.
And added to that inbuilt disposition, the scriptures as they go astray
from the womb, doing what? Not cursing, not thieving, but
speaking lies. They go astray from the womb,
speaking lies. Now add to that, add to that
the aggravated situation of this generation that has produced
such pressure to the lie as the blanket for the double life.
along with all dalliance in drugs for any kid who's still at home
in a home that stands for any kind of decency, is learning
to lie at the slightest impulse. Lying and deception are the handmaidens
of the drug culture whenever it has to be carried on under
the canopy of a decent home. And I may be speaking to some
of you teenagers that are dabbling in pot, you've popped your pills,
you're fooling around with other dope, and you're lying to mom
and dad week after week, month after month. You listen to the
Word of God, teenager. All liars have their part in
the lake of fire. Maybe your lies are not to cover
your use of dope. Maybe your lies are to cover
Some of the fooling around you're doing with fellas and girls.
You look mom and dad straight in the eye and say, oh no, we
just were out, didn't do a thing, didn't do this, didn't do that.
And you know what you're doing in that seat of the car. You
know what's going on. And you dare to face that holy
mom and dad and lie, breathe out lies. My dear teenager, you
listen. God says all liars, those who
lie to cover up They're fooling around in the backseat of a car.
Those who lie to cover up their dabbling in dope and booze. Those
who lie to cover up whatever they're doing that they know
would bring the frown and perhaps the discipline of their parents.
You children, listen, listen. All liars. It doesn't say all
20 year old liars, all 40 year old liars. It says all liars
have their part. in the lake of fire. Do you believe that? If so, you
better repent of your lies. Your lies of deliberately, willfully
misrepresenting reality to mom and dad and others. Your lie
of being willfully and deliberately set against perceiving reality. Reality is God did not make you
to live for yourself. God has claims over you, and
Jesus Christ has rights upon you. And it is a lie to act as
though he doesn't. And unless you repent of your
lies, your part shall be in the lake of fire. Dear friends, I've
only sought to be faithful to eight character descriptions
in the Word of God. I didn't write them, but like
that prophet, who was under solemn obligation to stick by what God
has said. I am a man under authority. I
must stick by what God has said and He has said against the backdrop
of the glories of heaven in the first seven verses of Revelation
21. But the fearful, the cowardly,
the unbelieving, the vile, those who dabble in witchcraft, fornicators,
Liars, idolaters, murderers shall all have their part in the lake
which burns with fire and brimstone. This is the second death, the
final death, the death of deaths, eternal outer darkness, unquenchable
fire. My friend, there is but one way
to escape. you must get out of any one or
combination of these character descriptions. And you have no
power to do it on your own. And even if you did, what would
you do with all the offenses against God caused by your past
sins? Who would rub them out? No, the
answer is not in personal reformation. The answer is in coming to Jesus
Christ, the one who took for sinners pangs of hell upon the
cross, who felt in His own breast the fury and the wrath of Almighty
God, flee to Him. And in His blood find cleansing
and forgiveness from all of your sins. And in the gift of His
Spirit, find the power to know the transformation of your character
from an idolater into a worshiper of God, from a liar to a speaker
of truth, from a murderer to a lover of life, from a vile,
abominable person to one who has a living sacrifice as a sweet
odor unto God. The opposite of every one of
these character descriptions is the fruit and the power of
the gospel. Oh, may you know that power in
your life, and for those of us who do, May we take seriously
what we read. Don't let the press and the TV
erode the edge on your conscience. Could you sit and watch the unashamed
admission of a fornicating relationship with no sense of horror? Then
the world has squeezed you into its mold. We need to cry to God that the
edge will be put back on our consciences. Maybe that's why
you have so little burden for your neighbors. You really don't
believe the lifestyle described in this passage and exemplified
in them is going to take them to hell. You never would say
you believe in purgatory, but you have a de facto belief that
maybe there's some middle ground. There is no middle ground. May
God grant that we shall believe what we say we believe. and with
tears and compassion pray and plead and witness and preach
and sigh and cry and groan that we may yet see loved ones and
neighbors rescued from the pit of everlasting burnings. Let
us pray. Our Father, We are sobered by
your holy word. You have given us this eightfold
character description of those who shall be cast into hell.
And as we seek honestly to hold our lives up before it, many
of us have felt the pain and the sting of the remembrance
of what we once were. But our hearts have thrilled
again. at what you in grace have made
us. And though we confess with shame
that too often the grave cloths of our past life still cling
to us, we thank you that we can say with all of our hearts that
we are not now what we once were. Oh, may that be the testimony
of some who came into this gathering tonight In one or more of these
categories, Lord, come and meet them by your transforming power
that they may leave washed, cleansed, and sanctified in the name of
the Lord Jesus and by the Holy Spirit. Oh God, do that mighty
work. We pray especially for the young
ones and the children and the teenagers, for some who are fearful,
for others who are liars, for others who may be fornicators.
O God, have mercy. Arrest them. Turn them. Draw
them to Yourself. O God, do not let Your Word fall
to the ground unheeded. We cry to You. Hear our cry. O God of heaven, the cry that
together we brought into Your presence in our hymn tonight. O rend the heavens and come down. and make a thousand hearts your
own. Hear our cry. Seal the word to
our hearts. And to your name be praise and
honor and glory through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.