A text to be found in verses
10 and 11. The title of the message is, A Divine
Division. A divine division or distinction. Here in these two verses, the
Holy Spirit has laid out for us and painted such a picture
for us of two distinct characters. Two distinct people. In verse
10, we have those that fear the Lord, those that obey the voice
of His servant, and yet walk in darkness. And they trust in
the name of their God. They are commended to trust in
Him. And in verse 11, we have those who have kindled their
own fire, those who compass themselves about with sparks and walk in
their own light. These, God said, shall lie down
in sorrow. We have here this distinction
painted these two divisions of men. If you remember, the Lord
Jesus Christ did this Himself when He spoke of the coming judgment. He said, in that day He shall
take the sheep and put them on His right hand and the goats
on His left hand. He will divide all men into two
groups, sheep and goats, lost and saved, vessels of mercy and
vessels of wrath fitted for destruction. He will divide all men into two
groups. And even so, the Holy Spirit
here divides all men into these two groups, the chosen of God
and those hated of God. Those who are heirs of heaven
and those who are heirs of hell. Therefore today, by the grace
of God, may each one of us see which group that we're of. That's my hope. I don't care
for us to look at the other person and try to determine which group
they're in. I don't do that for you. I only
want to know my group. I want to know that about my
soul. Which group am I in? That we may know that if we are
an heir of heaven, or shall we lie down in sorrow with the heirs
of hell. And I tell you, as even Jesus
told you, many Many will say unto me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not done many wonderful
things in thy name, cast out devils and done many wonderful
works? You see, there are some people who will assume themselves
to be heirs of heaven, but in the end, they will not be. They were confident right up
until the point of judgment. And yet Jesus says to them, depart
from me, you that work iniquity, I never knew you. And so I want to divide this
into two parts, the heirs of heaven, and then describe them
as the Holy Spirit does. And then I will look at the heirs
of hell and describe them as the Holy Spirit does in our text. First of all, the heirs of heaven.
There are three distinguishing marks in our text concerning
the heirs of heaven. Notice this. He begins with this
question, who among you, who is among you that feareth The
Lord, well there's one, that obeyeth the voice of his servant,
two, and three, that walk in darkness and have no light. Friends, these are the marks
of an heir of heaven. First of all, they fear the Lord.
The Lord begins here by asking a question. Who is it among you
that feareth the Lord? that obeyeth the voice of his
servant, that walketh in darkness, hath no light. The Lord asked,
Who among you, who among the whole fallen race fears the Lord?
This is a very easy question to answer. No one by nature fears
the Lord. No one. Nobody. Go over to Jeremiah chapter 5. Jeremiah chapter 5. Look at verse
22. Thus saith the Lord, Behold,
a people... I'm sorry, I'm in the wrong one.
That didn't sound right, did it? Nope. There it is. Verse
22. Fear ye not me, saith the Lord? Will you not tremble at my presence? which have placed the sand for
the bound of the sea by a perpetual degree, that it cannot pass,
and though the waves thereof toss themselves, yet can they
not prevail? Though they roar, yet they cannot
pass over it. But this people hath a revolting
and a rebellious heart, And they are revolted and gone, neither
say they in their heart, Let us now fear the Lord our God.
So what does man say in his heart by nature? He is a revolting
creature, he is a rebellious creature, and he says in his
heart, No God! The fool hath said in his heart,
No! God. I will not have this man
to rule over me. That's what the fool says. And
you know what we are by nature? We are fools by nature. To not
fear the God who set the bounds of the sea. Do you not see that
God spoke and the worlds were created? And yet man has no fear
of God. You see it on their bumper stickers,
don't you? No fear. No fear. Man by nature is corrupt and
vile. that he does not fear God. Now we know that man can and
does have a terror of God, a terror of God on occasion. I mean, I've seen people get
into automobile accidents and all of a sudden, boy, they get
religious real fast. They're approaching death, and
oh, they get real serious about it, but you give them life again,
and all of a sudden, they're right back to where they started.
They have a little terror of God. They have a little fear
of God. They start to fear His justice.
They start to fear hell and judgment. A hundred out of a hundred surveyed, and none wanted to go to hell.
Who wants to go to hell? Nobody. So if you talk about,
say, hey, you better do this or you'll go to hell. Well, sure.
Yeah, they get a little scared. They get a little fear. But listen,
that kind of fear doesn't do anything for the soul. Listen,
the devil's fear and tremble. A man may hear of God's holy
law and its absolute demands. He may see the terror of God's
upcoming judgment and be so moved to change his life. Get religious. It makes him religious. He becomes
a good citizen. But this fear is not the fear
of our text and it is not a fear that saves the souls of men. It's like James says, he says
a man takes a glass, a mirror and he holds it up and he turns
away and forgets what kind of man he was. Sometimes men get
scared, they look into the law of God and they get fearful.
But as soon as you give them something religious to do, well
that fear just dissipates. I mean this morning, you may
walk out of here and you may be scared of hell. But I'll tell
you, if that fear is not of God, you'll just turn right out and
you'll continue as life was before you came in. How many of you who profess faith
in Christ You who call Him Lord, who among you feareth the Lord?
So not only among the natural man, who is it among you? The race of Adam fears the Lord.
Well, we know this. Nobody by nature fears the Lord.
Now, you who profess to fear the Lord, do you truly fear the
Lord? Do you know what it is to fear the Lord? I tell you, many shall say to
Jesus, Lord, Lord, in that day, but shall be cast out. But those
who fear the Lord, God pronounces many blessings. Those who truly
fear the Lord. God said, blessed is everyone
that feareth the Lord. Blessed is everyone that feareth
the Lord. This fear of the Lord is something that cannot be taught.
It cannot be stirred up by religious exercise, but only comes by the
working of the Holy Spirit upon the soul of man. The only way
you or I could ever fear the Lord in this sense is by the
power of the Holy Spirit working in us this fear. Surely the outward means of God
in salvation is through the means of preaching the gospel. Paul
said, I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus
Christ, Him crucified. He said, I'm not ashamed of the
gospel of Jesus Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation
to everyone that believeth. So the means that God has chosen
to save sinners is preaching. And yet, even now, as I preach
the gospel to you, if that's all you hear, you will never
fear God. You'll never fear God if that's
all you hear. You see, the preaching of the gospel must be accompanied
by the power of God. It must be accompanied not by
the voice of the preacher, but by the Spirit of God working
in your heart. This is a mysterious thing. It
is a supernatural thing. It has nothing to do with me
or you. It is the working of the Spirit
of God in a man. It's His quickening power, giving
life from the dead. And no amount of this means can
save a man, except the power of God accompanying it. Therefore, we preach the gospel
message of men, man's complete and utter depravity. so that
you might fear the Lord. That man cannot and will not
ever be subject to the law of God. The scripture says, for
the natural, the carnal mind is enmity. You know what that
is? Hatred. Opposition against God. The carnal
mind is against God. And listen, the carnal mind is
not subject to the law of God. It says, no, I will not. I'll have my own way. That's
the carnal mind. That's the natural mind. And
it's not subject to the law of God. And listen, neither indeed
can be. You get that? It's not willing
and it can't be subject. You see how people think sin
is freedom? Isn't that strange? They think, well, I can do what
I want to. I can get out there. You know that's bondage? Because
no matter, yeah, you can do what you want to and sin, but you
can't do what you want to and be righteous. Try it. Try it. You can't. I know you don't want
to, first of all, but you can't if you did. You can't do it. The natural mind is enmity against
God. Jesus said, no man can come unto
me. You get that? No man can come. You have no ability to come unto
God. Except God draw you. That's it. You not see you're
in bondage? You're enslaved. And truly, only the Holy Spirit
can convince a man of his absolute and utter depravity. Only the Holy Spirit can show
you the true knowledge and experience of this truth. And I'll tell
you, if he ever does, you'll fear God. If God ever gives you
the knowledge and experience of depravity, the doctrine of
depravity, matter of fact, I've got a pamphlet in the back that
gives you a little description of what total depravity is. Now,
you can go home and you can memorize that and you can say, well, man,
that's right there in Scripture. I see that. That's true. Look
at that. No man is righteous. No man is
able to come to God. Okay, I got that. That's not salvation. Have you
ever experienced depravity? Do you know your own depravity? You see, that's the work of the
Holy Spirit. is to show you your own. See that depravity of man
is not a mere doctrine to be accepted, but if a man is to
ever fear the Lord, this truth must be experienced in his own
soul. This is the first work of grace.
If there's any work of grace to begin in your heart, this
is the first ray of light that comes in, that you are absolutely
and utterly depraved, helpless, hopeless, condemned. That's what
the first light of the glory of God, when it shines in your
heart, that's the first thing you see. It's the first thing. This truth. is the first work of grace upon
the heart. And it shows us that we by nature
are only evil continually. Do you know that about yourself?
I'm not talking about somebody else. Do you know that about
you? That all you do and all you are
is sin. You are the fountainhead of all
iniquity is your own heart. Do you know that about yourself? If you ever work a grace in your
heart, I know you do. This truth is revealed to us. For what reason? In Lamentations 3 in verse 29,
it says, He putteth my mouth in the dust. If so be, there
may be hope. Do you not see that there is
no hope for you if you have never been put in the dust? If you have never been abased,
I tell you this, you'll never be exalted. if God has not put
you in the dust. And you know what? In Ezekiel
20, it tells us this. In that day, you shall remember
your deeds, your evil deeds, and loathe yourselves. Boy, that don't sound too fun,
does it? That don't sound like modern religion, does it? Modern
religion wants you to be excited, lift you up. I'll make you feel
good about yourself. What have you got to feel good
about? I don't have anything to feel good
about myself. You know what I do? I loathe myself. I do. I know what I am. When I'm telling
you all these vile things, you know who I'm talking about? me.
I know who I am. I know I'm a wicked sinner. And then you'll be cast down
before the holiness of God and you will be, you will see him
as he is, high and lifted up and his glory fills the heavens.
His perfections are holy and absolute. And then you begin
to see and are exposed that your righteousnesses are as filthy
rags, that all your sacrifices are nothing but smoke in the
nostrils of God, and all your good deeds are nothing but offensive
in the sight of God. You will see all your sacrifices,
prayers, sighs, and tears cannot redeem your soul. This is the
first ray of light of the Holy Spirit that shines out of darkness
into our heart. This is the experience of God's
promises to His elect that He will put His fear into our hearts. That's what He promised. He said,
I will put my fear into your hearts. that they shall not depart
from me. This fear of the Lord is the
beginning of wisdom. This fear of the Lord is the
fountain of life. This fear of the Lord is the
strong confidence of the believer. This fear of God is the treasure
of our hearts, and it will endure. Have you ever experienced this
depravity? Rather yet, do you still experience
it? Do you still know it? Are you
like the publican that still cries out, Lord, be merciful
to me, the sinner? Are you like Paul who cries out,
oh, wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body
of this death? All in my flesh, God, dwelleth
no good thing. Is that your cry? I tell you, there are many counterfeit
of godly fear. A man may say he's depraved,
say he's a sinner, he may even weep for a night, but that doesn't
last long. Matter of fact, most men use
depravity as an excuse for sin. Have you ever seen this? This
is vile. That a man says, oh, well, I'm
a sinner. You know, I'm depraved, I guess.
Well, I'll just go on and do what I want to. You know, I'll
just go ahead and sin anyway. God knows I'm a sinner. So he
uses depravity as an excuse for sin. No true believer does that. But the worm in the dust, that's
what we are before God. This is no light and frivolous
thing for us, but sin is an offense, an affront to the holy justice
of God. To us who believe and fear God,
sin is the wormwood and the gall. It is horrid and despised. I tell you, if you fear the Lord,
then you know the plague of leprosy that is broken out in your own
heart. You know that your leprosy is deeper than the skin. You
know that all you are is polluted with iniquity. And truly we rend
our clothes and shave our heads and cover our lips and cry unclean,
unclean, unclean before our God. Have you ever felt your depravity? If you haven't, Jesus is nothing
but a name on a page and not a person. Jesus may be to you
an idea to be studied, but not a reality. He may be a Christ
in your Bibles, but he's not a Christ in your heart. Listen,
only absolute sinners need an absolute Savior. Christ is an absolute Savior. He's not a partial Savior. And only absolute sinners need
that. And I tell you, that is the fear
of the Lord, is to know your utter depravity. Do you fear the Lord? Have you
been cast down before His omnipotent presence? That's what it is to
fear the Lord. Secondly, see this, that the
heir of heaven obeys the voice of his servant. He says, Who among you feareth
the Lord that obeyeth the voice of His servant? The Holy Spirit
here points to the servant of God, which He has already stated
in Isaiah 42. If you go back there, Isaiah
has already mentioned this, the servant of God, in chapter 42
and verse 1. He says, Behold my servant, whom
I uphold, mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth. I have put
my spirit upon him, and he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. This servant is the servant in
Isaiah 53 in verse 11. He said, By his knowledge shall
my righteous servant justify many. We who fear the Lord, we
know this servant. It is the Lord Jesus Christ.
He is the servant of God. and the characters of the heirs
of heaven, we hear and obey the voice of this servant. Now, what is the voice of Christ?
Well, it's not just the mere word of God, because I've declared
to all of you the mere word of God. You've all heard it. I've
just told you. I just read it to you. So this
obedience is just not taking this Bible and making a list
of things to do and following it. That's not what he's talking
about, obeying the voice of his servant. No, surely this voice has gone
out into all the world, but not all men are saved. You remember
the voice of Christ on Mount Sinai as he gave the law. Men
heard that and trembled, and yet they would not be subject
to it no matter how often they read it. If I preach to you the gospel
of Jesus Christ daily, and I preach it ever so clearly, that word, if it is not accompanied
by the power of the Spirit of God, will do your soul no good. Yet if a man will ever hear the
law of God, by the power of the Spirit, he will see his failure. to obey it. If you'll ever hear
the voice of the Son of God as the gospel is preached, it will
be heard by the power of the Holy Spirit and not by the voice
of the preacher. See then, to hear the voice of
Christ is a work of God and not a work of man. These words, Jesus
said, I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life. How wonderful is this voice of
Christ as it is heard by the new heart. I tell you, I've heard
this gospel for many, many, many years before the Lord gave me
a new heart. And I tell you, it was as cold
and dead and stale as ever as anything was before the Lord
gave me a new heart. And now I desire nothing more
than to hear it. again and again and again because
God has given me a new heart. He's given me a new heart to
hear it. The heart is made tender by the Spirit of God. The heart
is plowed up by the law of God so that the seed of the gospel
may be planted. Remember that it was only after
Lazarus had died that he was raised from the dead. Even so,
when sin revived, Paul said, I died. I died to all hopes of heaven
by works. But then he was raised to life
by what? The voice of the Son of God. The voice of Jesus Christ spoke
to my heart when I was dead and in my sins and had no care for
the gospel. It was then He spoke to my heart
and gave me life. Just as He did Lazarus from the
grave, He said, Lazarus, come forth. Now that was not a suggestion,
was it? He wasn't asking Lazarus to do
anything. He was commanding. And when God
gets a hold of you, I'll tell you this, it's a command, it's
not a suggestion. When He raised me from the dead,
it was no suggestion and it was no invitation. It was a command. And you know what? I was alive
before I knew it. I remember a young lady, she's
been visiting a while, she came and gave me her testimony and
she said she was listening to the gospel and she She said,
the Lord saved me before I knew what would happen. He'd already
saved me. That's what it is when the voice
of the Son of God comes. And I heard the voice of His
promise that says He would save and redeem Israel. He said, let
Israel hope in the Lord, for with the Lord there's mercy.
And with Him is plenteous redemption, and He shall save Israel from
all her iniquities. And even as God promised, so
did Jesus Christ come and redeem all His people. All Israel. You know, this truth is hated
by the world that Jesus Christ came to redeem Israel. Not that
physical land or people. Spiritual Israel. His elect people. That's who He came for. He came
to redeem them. Christ came to redeem His people
that God gave Him. And I tell you, the servant of
God did just that. He redeemed His people. He did
it. Behold Him as He hung upon the
tree, For God hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin,
that we should be made the righteousness of God in him. Now I'm going
to ask you a very important question. Was the servant of God successful? He was sent to redeem Israel.
Isn't that what the scripture said? He shall redeem Israel
from all her iniquities. That's what he was sent to do.
The servant of God. Now was he successful? Did He redeem Israel? Matter of fact, back in Isaiah
42, it says this about this servant, He shall not fail nor be discouraged. In Matthew chapter 1 it says,
Thou shalt call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people
from their sins. In John chapter 6 He said, All
that the Father giveth Me shall come to Me, and Him that cometh
to Me I will in no wise cast out. And this is the will of
Him that sent Me, that of all He hath given Me I should lose
how many? Nothing. Nothing. Therefore was the servant of
God successful? You bet He was. And He bore the sins of who?
Whose sins did He bear? Who did He redeem? Who are made the righteousness
of God in Him? I tell you, those only who fear
the Lord and have heard His voice. Only those that the Father gave
Him in eternal election Those are the ones the Son redeemed,
and He was victorious. And I tell you, He did save us,
He did redeem us, and God raised Him from the dead, and hath made
this one Lord and Christ. And now the hour has come, when
the dead shall hear, what? The voice of the Son of God. And they that hear. Who's going
to live? They that hear shall live. They
that hear. And we who believe on this servant
of God, we have heard him. I haven't heard him. I don't
know what to tell you. I have. I have. I've heard him. I've heard his
voice. And this is his voice. He shall redeem Israel from all
her iniquities. He shall not fail nor be discouraged.
This is the voice that the sheep hear. He said, My sheep, hear
My voice, and they follow Me. And I give unto them eternal
life, and no man shall pluck them out of My hand. And this
we heard as a command of the Father. Come unto Me, all you
that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. And
this command came to us and delivered us from the power of darkness.
See, I was in darkness. I was under the ignorance of
my own depravity. I was under the bondage of my
own sin, and I had no desire to be delivered until He came
and delivered me. until He came and took me and
commanded my soul to live, and I heard His voice. And what is
the result then of this? You who are heirs of heaven,
you who are totally and absolutely depraved by nature and have heard
the voice of the Son of God and brought light and life into your
very soul, what is the third thing that's a mark of an heir
of heaven? It says that He that walketh
in darkness. He that walketh in darkness and
hath no light. What does this mean? This was
confusing to me as I studied it, because I know the Scriptures
are clear. He has delivered us from the
power of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of His dear
Son. Paul says we are children of light. Jesus tells us you
are the light of the world. How then does the Scripture here
tell us that we should walk in darkness? How is that a character
of the air of light or the air of heaven? This is not spiritual
darkness, but rather the experience of darkness. The experience of
the believer in this life and through this world is like darkness. You remember that when the Lord
commanded the light to shine out of darkness in the beginning,
He said, let there be light, and there was light. But there
was also another kind of darkness, wasn't there? There was the darkness
of night. He said the morning and the evening were the first
day. There was a night. And I tell you, in a believer's
life, we walk through dark times. The experience of the believer is often in darkness. We're made
to feel our corrupt nature more and more as we grow in grace
and knowledge of Jesus Christ. Is that not true of you? You
who are believers in Christ, do you not feel more now your
corruption than you did before? I do. I know it more. Believers in Christ, we are still
encumbered with this old nature of death and prone to every evil. We are constantly flooded with
evil thoughts and deeds while we surely desire to be free of
all sin. And we long, as it were, for
the light of the gospel. And we see glimpses of our Savior
Glimpses of his pardon and peace in the song of Solomon. He said,
I see my beloved through the lattice. You know what a lattice
is? It's divided. And so you just
see glimpses. And that's the way we live in
this life. We just see glimpses. Paul said, we see through a glass
darkly. And this is the experience of
a true believer in Christ is that we feel our faith to lose
its grip, our love withers in our hearts, our comforts fail,
and graces are made low in exercise. Our peace becomes fear. The Bible verses that once shone
bright as noonday seem now to be a closed book. The windows
of heaven often seem shut to our prayers. John Newton said,
"'Tis a point I long to know, and oft it causes anxious thought." Do I love the Lord or no? Am
I His or am I not? He said, when I turn my eyes
within, all is dark and vain and wild. Filled with unbelief and sin,
can I deem myself a child? Is this not your experience? This is the experience of every
heir of heaven, is we often walk in darkness. The heir of heaven
is burdened with the darkness of his nature, the heir of heaven
is truly concerned about the weight of eternal matters. Only
the elect desire to make their calling and election sure. Therefore,
hear the remedy for this darkness. Look at your text and look at
the remedy. Let him trust in the name of
the Lord and stay upon his God. What's the remedy for our experience
of darkness? You who fear the Lord. You who
know your depravity. You who've heard the voice of
the Savior and believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. You who walk
in doubt and fear and trembling. What is the remedy? Trust your
God. That's your remedy. That's the
remedy for the error of heaven. Trust in your God. Faith. Faith is the victory. Faith. Do you realize in Scripture that
faith is always present tense? Have you noticed? You, that anybody
that studied the Word of God, you should see this. Faith is
always present tense. Why? Faith ten minutes ago and faith
ten minutes from now will not help me. I need faith in Christ now. And I tell you, if I have never
believed before, I believe now, and now, and now. Faith always
trusting, resting in God, no matter what we see, no matter
what we feel. Christ is all my hope and all
my righteousness. He's the fullness of my salvation,
and I rest on Him. This is an heir of heaven who
rests on Jesus Christ alone. That's an heir of heaven. And we rest by faith in him now.
So do you fear God? Know your depravity? Have you
heard his voice? Do you live in darkness and hatred and loathe
your own corruption? Do you trust in God alone, Christ
alone? Listen, you are an heir of heaven. You are. And quickly, I'll show
you the air of hell. In verse 11, it says, Behold,
all you that kindle a fire, that compass yourselves about with
sparks, walk in the light of your fire, in the sparks that
you have kindled. This you shall receive of my
hand, you shall lie down in sorrows. Now, the air of hell has committed
two crimes. First of all, he speaks of all who have taken up false
fire of counterfeit religion and call it the fire of heaven." Notice he said, "...all you that
kindle a fire, encompass yourselves about with sparks and walk in
the light of your fire." Listen, all false religion begins with
man. Begins with man. If your religion
begins with you, it's false. It's false. Your religion, all
false religion that begins with man and not with God, is a false
religion. As Aaron built the calf, he began
the work, he did the work. As Nadab and Abihud offered strange
fire, even so is every form of freewill works religion stamped
with this seal. It is a false fire. A false fire. These whores of religion profess
that a man can turn himself to God. That a man can give himself
a new heart. That if man would just exercise
his free will, he can bend the power of God and make salvation
happen. They believe that a man by natural
power and decision can create and kindle his own fire. This is a counterfeit work of
the Holy Ghost, and all who believe it are heirs of hell. These are men who are stirred
up by their own emotions, by festivals, plays, and musics. They're deceivers. They'll use
any means necessary to counterfeit or to make a man a convert, only
to make him twofold more a child of hell. and see that these false
fires, that they have to fan their coals
to make it, to keep it burning. They fan the coals of education. They fan these coals that they
make on their own with obedience to the law. You want to know
if a man's religion is counterfeit or not, listen to what he says
about the law. What's the purpose of the law? False religion will tell you
the law was meant to be a guideline. They believe that if you're saved,
that you should use that law as a guideline as how to live.
And by your obedience, you can become more holy. See, what are they doing but
fanning the flames of their own works? knowledge of grace cannot come
by natural ability. A preacher friend of mine, he
was talking about his daughter and her conversion. And she had
sat under the gospel of God's grace all of her life. She had
heard the truth all of her life. And she came to him one day and
she says, I want to be baptized. And he said, well, tell me your
confession. What is your confession? And she said this, she said,
you know, when I was all through my life, I could argue the doctrines
of grace. I could. With the best of men,
I could argue with them. I knew them in my head. She said,
but now they're real. Jesus is real to me. That's a good confession. That
is a true believer. These things become real. They're
not just words on a page anymore. And so they don't need to be
fanned by our education or by our learning or by our obedience. Therefore, false Christians may
claim Jesus to be their righteousness, yet by their own obedience they
surely become more holy and more sanctified. Therefore, this is
the conduct of the heirs of hell. They walk in the light of their
own fire. Surely there is no one more confident
of heaven than an heir of hell. We're troubled, aren't we? I'm often troubled as to know
my condition before God. I want to know. I have to know. But a person who's kindled his
own fire, there's nobody more confident. Nobody more confident. Nobody more sure. Yeah, this
is all gonna work out just fine for me. It's just gonna all pan
out. Everything's good. And you can't
move him from it. Man, no, no. I could tell him
about sin and justice and holiness and judgment and righteousness
and all that. Nah, it's all right. It's fine with me. I'm all right.
See, he's kindled his own fire. He's made up his own religion,
made up his own mind, and there's no way to get him from it. But
I tell you, one day God will divide all men. He will divide
all men. And those on his right hand,
he will say to them, come you blessed of my father, inherit
the kingdom, heirs of heaven. Inherit the kingdom prepared
for you before the foundation of the world. For when I was
sick, You visited me. When I was naked, you clothed
me. When I was hungry, you fed me. And you know what the righteous
say? The righteous say, Lord, when did we ever do that for
you? When? He said, when you've done it
to the least of these, my children, you've done it unto me. What
he's saying is, when I did it, you did it. When I was righteous,
you were righteous. When I died for sin, you died. And when I was risen again, you
were risen again. Come, you blessed of My Father. And you know what
He says to the heirs of hell? He says, Go out into eternal
darkness. For when I was naked, you didn't
clothe Me. When I was hungry, you didn't
feed Me. When I was sick and in prison, you didn't visit Me.
And you know what those people will say? They say, Lord, when
did we not do those things for You? We always did that which is good.
We did feed the poor. We did take care of these. We
did do this. We did do that. And he said,
no, you depart from me. All you did was work iniquity.
I never knew you. And he'll cast them into outer
darkness. You see, the false believer feels
no cutting conviction. He feels no depravity of his
own nature, and he only needs a partial savior. And listen, I'll try not to put
out, I won't put out your fire. If you've kindled your own fire,
I won't be able to put it out. My hope is the Holy Spirit will. My hope is that He would kindle
the fire of Jesus Christ in your hearts. That you might be an heir of
heaven. And when He does, listen, you
will fear God. You will hear the voice of His
Son. And although you walk in darkness all the days of your
life, you will trust in Him until the end. Now, which are you? into what group will your master
divide you? I thank God through Jesus Christ
that I am an heir of heaven and no one and nothing can remove
me from it. Because I didn't kindle it, I
didn't obtain it, all I did was receive it. No glory here. But you heirs
of hell, listen, you will receive of his hand this, you will lie
down in sorrow for eternity. I told you it wasn't a light
thing that I had to say. It's not, is it? Not frivolous. It has to do with the soul. May God himself now apply it
to your hearts. Let's stand and be dismissed
and pray.