I would like to read verse 35
of Deuteronomy chapter 32. Verse 35, God says, To me belongeth
vengeance and recompense. Their foot shall slide in due
time, for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that
shall come upon them make haste. Now what a verse of scripture.
Certainly this is a verse of scripture that speaks of the
judgment of God, of the condemnation of God, of the visitation of
God upon the souls of the wicked. Their foot shall slide. God says,
to me belongeth vengeance and recompense. Payday is coming. Their foot shall slide in due
time. For the day of their calamity
is at hand, and the things that shall come upon them make haste. Now this is not, and this may
seem rather strange to you, this is not a pleasant message for
me to preach. And I dare say that it will not
be a pleasant message for you to hear. It is pleasant, beloved,
to preach on the love of God, on the grace of God, on the kindness,
the mercy of our God. How wonderful it is to present
the truth of the gospel of the saving grace of Christ. It's joyful to do so. It's a
great message. It's a message which God is pleased
to own and bless. But beloved, there are times
when we must preach the judgment of God, when we must preach that
there is recompense with God, when we must preach that God
will punish sin, when we must preach that God will hold men
and women accountable for their rebellious lives and for their
wicked ways. God most surely will do that. Therefore, there is passed on
to us, whether it's pleasant or unpleasant, the duty of preaching
on the judgment of our God. Now, there are three reasons
why that I must preach this message to you today. I'm compelled to
do it. Woe is unto me if I preach not
this message, if I preach not the message of the gospel, the
message of God's Word. Now, first of all, I preach this
message because of the example of our Lord. Now, most of you
who have casually read the Word of God probably would agree with
the statement that the Lord Jesus Christ said more about hell in
His ministry than He did actually say about heaven. It is true,
if you read carefully the four Gospels, you'll see that our
Lord Jesus Christ, His example was to warn men. The Lord Jesus
said that if your eye offends you, He said, pluck it out. Because
it would be better for you to go to heaven with one eye than
for you to go to hell with two. The Lord Jesus said, if your
hand offends you, cut it off, because you would be better off
to go into heaven halt and maimed than you would to go into hell
with both hands and both feet. Now, beloved, Jesus was very
serious about this subject of judgment. And He said there will
come a day when men will be separated. Men will be on his left and on
the right, and those on the left will be sent off into everlasting
judgment where the worm dies not and the fire is not quenched. They will be cast into the lake
of fire. Now, beloved, then the second
reason that I preach this message is because if I do not, your
blood will be upon my hands. There's a verse of Scripture
found over in Ezekiel chapter 33. If you want to turn there,
you may. Ezekiel chapter 33, where the
Word of God says this. In verse 4, He says, Then whosoever
heareth the sound of the trumpet, and taketh not warning, if the
sword come and take him away, his blood shall be upon his own
head. He heard the sound of the trumpet,
and took not warning. His blood shall be upon him,
but he that taketh warning shall deliver his soul. But if the
watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and
the people be not warned, if the sword come, and take any
person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity, but
his blood will I require at the watchman's hand. So thou, O son
of man, I have sent thee a watchman unto the house of Israel. Therefore
thou shalt hear the word at my mouth, and warn them from me. When I say unto the wicked, O
wicked man, thou shalt surely die, if thou dost not speak to
warn the wicked. If I say, O wicked man, thou
shalt surely die, if thou dost not speak to warn the wicked
from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, he
shall die in his sin, but his blood will I require at thine
hand. Nevertheless, if thou want the
wicked of his way to turn from it, if he do not turn from his
way, he shall die in his iniquity, but thou hast delivered thy soul. Now this message was given to
the watchmen of Israel, and he was to speak unto them who were
not of the household of faith. He was to speak unto those that
were not the children of God, And he was to speak to them plainly
and to warn the wicked from his way, telling them that they were
going to die and they were going to die on their iniquity. But
his blood would either be upon the watchman's soul or it would
not, according to his faithfulness in delivering the message of
judgment. So first of all, the example
of our Lord Jesus Christ compels us to preach this message on
judgment. And secondly, because we do not
want the blood of men's souls on our hands. The Apostle Paul
said, I held back nothing that was profitable unto you. Held back nothing! Now we know
in this day and time it's very unpopular and we feel that even
this morning in our heart to talk about hell and to talk about
eternal judgment. We know that it's very unpopular,
but we know that the message must go out, because God very
shortly is going to bring this world unto judgment. He very
shortly will bring you before His throne, and the books will
be opened, and you will be judged out of those things that are
written in the book. I do not want your soul on my
hands, on my blood. I do not want to be guilty of
your soul. Now then, the third reason is
because of the possibility. The possibility that someone
might hear with their heart. Oh, there's always that possibility. Glory! Glory to God! There's
always that possibility that the Spirit of God will take the
message of the Word of God and arrest somebody's heart, maybe
even just a yard short of hell itself. But God will turn around
a man, or a woman, or a boy, or a girl, and turn their heart
in faith toward the blessed Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ. And so
because of that possibility, my friend, we must preach this
message on judgment. And oh, I do pray that your heart
will be open this morning and attentive. I say your heart.
Oh, there's so many that hear with their ears. and hear with
their head. And in just a few minutes after
the meeting, they no longer know what the preacher was talking
about. They no longer could tell you what was the burden of the
Lord upon the preacher for that morning. But I say to you today,
may God open your heart and to give you an ear to hear this
morning. Now, first of all, there's about
five things that I want to mention to you, and I will be very brief
this morning, because I believe that God would have me to say
these things, and I believe if I'm brief that you will listen
and pay attention to what we have to say. First of all, let
me say that God has the power to cast men into hell. God has the power to bring judgment
upon men's souls. I would invite your attention
to Luke chapter 12 if you have your Bible and you want to turn
there and look, if you will, at verse 5. The Lord Jesus Christ
warns here in this verse. He said, but I will forewarn
you. He tells them in verse 4, and
I say to you, my friends, be not afraid of them that kill
the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But,
He says, I will forewarn you whom you shall fear. I'm telling
you who you better fear. Fear Him, which after He hath
killed hath power, hath power to cast into hell. Yea, I say
unto you, fear Him. Now beloved, if you're here this
morning living in rebellion against God, if your heart has never
been reconciled to God through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ,
if you're still walking, living, breathing God's air in this world
and your sins are yet upon you, your sins have not been put away,
your sins have not been remitted, your sins have not been forgiven,
My friend, I will forewarn you who you must fear. You must fear
the God of all power, the God of all might, the God who after
He kills you is able to take your never-dying soul and to
cast it for all eternity into that place where the worm dies
not and the fire is not quenched in the hellfire itself. My friend,
fear this God because He has power. Now my friend, we know
that God demonstrated His power in the days of the flood. In
the days of Noah, God demonstrated His power when He brought upon
the earth the great flood and took everybody away, killed every
living thing that was not in the ark. I make haste to say
that ark was the place of safety for Noah and his family and for
all those animals that they had gathered together, and the place
of safety For your soul is the bosom of the Redeemer Himself. It's the Lord Jesus Christ. He
is the place of safety for your poor soul. And you must be in
Him. But God's power came, the mighty
rains came down from heaven as God dumped them onto this earth. And the whole, everything living
died in that flood except those in that ark. And then we know
that the destruction of Pharaoh, God raised up Pharaoh, and the
Bible says that for this purpose, this cause, have I raised thee
up that I might show them a power, that I might show them a power
in judgment. And you know how He brought Pharaoh
down? You know how He drowned His army
in the Red Sea? You know how that God demonstrated
that He has the power to cast men into hell and to bring judgment
upon them for their sins? And then the burning of Sodom
and Gomorrah. Was that not a picture of the
judgment of God? Opening heaven and pouring out
of heaven His hell upon the earth and burning up the cities of
the plain. Now there was once an atheist.
who stood on the street corner in Chicago, Illinois, and he
had a little soapbox, and he stood upon it, and he got up
on that box and said, If there be a God up there, let Him kill
me, let Him strike me dead. And then a little while, everybody
laughed, you know, around him, and teeheed, but he got down
off of the box, and he walked away, and somebody said, Why
didn't God kill that man? Why didn't He kill him? Well,
beloved, let me tell you this. The Bible says in due time, the
verse that we have here out of Deuteronomy, in due time, God
said their foot shall slide, for the day of their calamity
is at hand. Now, beloved, I want to make
sure that you understand this, that God pays his bills And you
can be sure of that. God pays His bills. There isn't
any question about it. Just as sure as you have sinned,
you will die. You will suffer the judgment
of God forever and ever. The Bible is clear on Romans
6 and 23. It says the wages of sin is death. But the gift of
God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. In due time,
in due time, your foot shall slide. God said, vengeance belongs
to me. Recompense belongs to me. That which shall come upon them
shall make haste. It is coming. And we need to
be aware of it. that God is going to come. His meal grinds slow, but it
grinds fine, and He is not going to clear the guilty. God is going
to punish sin. Now then, the second thing I
want to say, the first thing was that God has the power to
cast men into hell. And I know the Armenians, they
say, well, you know, I heard one man say one time that his
preacher had been telling him that he needed to let God save
him, because if he didn't let God save him, then God was going
to cast him into hell. And that fellow said to him,
he said, well, you know, if God can't save me whenever he wants
to, then whenever he is ready to cast me into hell, I won't
let him. Now, beloved, we're here to represent a different
God than that. The God we're here to represent
is a God who saves whom He will, when He will, and saves them
through the gospel of redeeming grace. He saves His people from
their sin. And no man lets God save him. We know that men and women are
saved when they're made willing in the day of God's power. Once again, God's will will rule
and He'll have His people. He'll have His people. But I'm
telling you, there is no rebel, no sinner that's going to stand
in the face of God and say, you don't have the power to bind
me hand and foot and cast me into the pit. No sinner will
ever stand in the face of God and tell Him that. And so I'm
here to represent the God who has power and the God who will
cast men into hell. Number two, I want to say this
and I know it's misunderstood and I know that there are people
maybe even here that will not agree with what I have to say
about this. Number two is men deserve to
go to hell. They deserve to go to hell. Now
you say, Preacher, I'm a little bit surprised to hear you say
that. That men deserve to go to hell? My friend, we were all
in our Daddy Adam when he sinned in the Garden of Eden. We were
in his loins. And he represented us. He was
the best of us that there was in the world at that time, and
still is the best of us outside the Lord Jesus Christ. We know
that man is a worm. The son of man, Job said, is
a worm. We know that. And we know that
all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. All are
lawbreakers. All have violated the principles
laid down in the holy word of God and sinned against God. Men deserve to go to hell. Men deserve it. Well, picture
yourself. You say, I'm not sure about that.
But picture yourself before God at the judgment. And the books
are open, my friend. The books are open. Oh, God keeps
good books. God keeps accurate books. God
keeps a good account. And everything is on the books.
It's all on the books. And the Bible says in the book
of Revelation, they will be judged according to that which is written
in the books. And God has your life all down
on the books. And here you are standing before
God. And God says to you, cast him
hand and foot. He says to the angels, bind him
hand and foot and cast him into the lake of fire. And you will
say, oh wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. You will say,
won't somebody stand and speak for me? Won't somebody speak
for me? Yes, the books have been read.
Yes, the account has been posted here before you, O Lord, but
won't somebody, won't somebody speak for me? And the judge will
look around and he will say to the law, Law, will you speak
for this man? Will you speak for this man?
The holy law of God. The ten commandments. Won't you
speak for this man? Do you have something that might
change the outcome of this judgment? Will you speak for this man?
And the law looks at this man and says, you never met my demands. I made demand after demand. I
made ten demands. of you and you never met my demands. You never was a friend of mine. You never obeyed me. You never
submitted yourself to me. Oh, the Word says that if a man
continue not in all things that are written in the Book of the
Law to do them, you're going to be condemned and you are condemned
and you're guilty. You're guilty. The Law says bind
him hand and foot. Go on with it and send him to
hell. He never satisfied me. Alright,
and then justice, the Lord turns, the God of all the earth, this
God who must do right, turns to justice, holy justice, and
He says, justice, do you have a word? This man, a word that
you might say that would change the outcome This man is going
to be cast into the fire, the lake of fire, and burned for
all eternity. Do you have a word, O justice,
that might change the outcome of this? And justice says, it
is written, the soul that sinneth, it must die. The soul that sinneth,
it must die. And justice says, he never satisfied
me. He never did. He never paid the
bill. I just looked under the account. He never paid the bill.
He owed a debt. He owed a debt to my justice
and my justice will only be satisfied with his never dying soul burning
forever in the lake of fire. That's the only way that my justice
will ever, ever be satisfied. Bind him hand and foot and cast
him into the lake of fire. And next, The Holy Judge turns
to the Lord Jesus Christ, his own son himself, and he says
to Christ, Oh, do you have something that you might say, that you
might speak for this man? And the Lord Jesus Christ said,
Well, he said he never came to me that he might have life. It was said in the word of God
that a man come to me and believe on me that he would have eternal
life. It is written, believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ and thou shall be saved. But he never believed
on me. He never trusted me. He never did believe that I was
truly the Lamb of God that you sent into the world to die for
men's sins. He never believed it. And it
is written in the word of God that whosoever shall call on
the name of the Lord shall be saved. But he never did call.
He never did call on me. Well, he heard that scripture
and he heard it many times, but he never called on me. He never did. Now then, he turns,
the judge does finally, he turns to the Lord's people and said,
will any of you speak for this man? And there will be some that
will speak up and say, well, we did speak to this man, but
this man would not hear what we had to say. We told this man
over and over that he was dying in his sin and his iniquity. We told this man that he must,
that he must repent and that he must believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ or he would perish forever. We told him that. We told him
that. But now, now we have nothing
to say for this man except this, O sinner, true and righteous
are the judgments of the holy God of heaven. True and righteous. Hallelujah! True and righteous
are His judgment. Bind Him hand and foot and cast
Him into the lake of fire. Revelation chapter 19. Sometimes
you can read that and see how the people of God react at the
judgment of God upon that great whore and upon the religious
people who died in their sins. in that day. Hallelujah! The Lord God Omnipotent reigneth
and true and righteous are his judgments. Now then my friend,
that is the second thing that I wanted to leave with you this
morning. Oh listen to me, men and women
deserve to go to hell. The books will prove it. The
old account which is not settled will prove it when you stand
at the judgment. Number three, Lost people are
already under the wrath of God as they live out their days in
this world. This is hard for people to believe.
You mean to tell me that I'm not on probation? I'm not on
probation? No, my friend, you are not on
probation. John 3.18 says, He that believeth
is not condemned. He that believeth not is condemned
already, already because they believe not on the name of the
Son of God. John 3.36 says, He that believeth
on the Son hath everlasting life. And he that believeth not the
Son shall not see life. But the wrath of God abideth
on him. It abides on him. And so those
of you this morning outside the Lord Jesus Christ, the wrath
of God abides on you. You're not on probation, my friend. In the Garden of Eden, we were
on probation in Adam. And Adam sinned. We're no longer
on probation. We are on death row, and we need
to remember that. Right now as we stand, right
now as we sit, wherever we be, right now, my friend, we are
on death row if we're not in Christ. Men and women who are
on probation are not in. They're out of prison and you
are not on probation. And I want you to know that the
wrath of God already abides on you and you are this morning. If suddenly cut off, you will
be taken by the black angels of eternal judgment in hell and
they fighting over your soul will drag you mercilessly into
the lake of fire. You will Go to hell, my friend,
because you're not under probation. You're under the wrath of Almighty
God. Number four, and I must hurry.
Lost people would not enjoy being in heaven if they were to be
let in by the Lord. They would not enjoy being in
heaven if they were not in. Now here, beloved, you know it's
true that many lost people, you have to rope them and tug-tie
them and drag them into the house of God for an hour and a half.
They don't want to come. They don't want nothing to do
with it. They just have to be drug into the place. And while
they're here, they're wanting to be somewhere else and can't
wait till it's over with to get on somewhere where they want
to go. Where their own natures will
feel comfortable and at ease. Now my friend, you listen to
me. How do you think that those people, what would make you think
that those people could go into the house of God forever and
be comfortable? My friend, they cannot. And the
reason being, my friend, is because they have not the divine nature in them. They
have not the divine nature in them. To be able to enjoy the
divine nature, you must have it. Your soul must be created
anew in Christ Jesus and you will not be at home in heaven. You will never go there. No,
no, no. Let me illustrate that quickly.
Now, for an example, maybe you would be invited to the White
House, and maybe, you know, being as there's a Republican in the
White House now, and you're a staunch Democrat, and you would be very,
very uncomfortable. My soul to sit across from a
Republican president, you would be the most detestable thing
that you could possibly enjoy. Now, my friend, you cannot enjoy
that. You cannot. And therefore, it's
the same as in heaven. You love not the Lord Jesus Christ.
You have no sympathy toward Christ. You have no desire to be with
Him. You have no desire to be like
Him. My friend, and how is it that you entertain the idea that
at last, when you drop over dead, God's going to usher you into
the kingdom? No way! No way, my friend. You say, well, I'm a friend of
God preaching. You are no friend of God if you're yet in your
sin and in your rebellion. You're no friend of God. The
Bible says God is angry with the wicked every day. Every day
God is angry with the wicked. And we know that you're not.
Now listen, the Bible says that you're The very whole nature
is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. How
could you say you're God's friend? You're not God's friend and He's
not going to have you in the kingdom. You will never be there
until you receive the divine nature of God and your soul is
regenerated and you come to life in the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh,
how much we need to understand that. I have told you people
through the years, over and over and over again, and I must say
it again, you must not expect anything in eternity, the seed
of which is not in your life here. You cannot, you must not
entertain the idea that you finally are going to heaven. No, no,
no, you're not going to heaven unless the seed of eternal life
is in you. The Word of God, the quickening
of the Spirit, the new birth, unless it's all real in your
soul, you are not going into the Kingdom of God. And the next
thing that I'll say, number five, is this. Don't think because
you're strong and well off here in this day that things won't
change. Don't think that. I know people,
you know, they act like, hey, I'm going to be here forever
just like this. I'm going to be here. I'm strong. I'm able.
I can make my own decisions. I'll do what I want to. I go
here. I go there. I'm up and down. I do whatever
I please. Nobody says anything about it.
Nobody's going to interfere. But my friend, I want you to
understand, in due time, in due time, your foot's going to slip.
In due time, God says recompense belongs to me, vengeance is mine,
saith the Lord. In due time, things that shall
come upon you are making haste right now. They're on their way.
Your days are appointed by God. Your time is coming. And regardless
of how much you think you've got a hold of the matter now,
I'm telling you it's going to change. And the way things are,
my friend, compared to eternity, think about the length of eternity.
The length of eternity. Oh my soul, I've read various
pictures of eternity and how long it is and all of that, but
let the word suffice for itself this morning, forever and ever,
eternity. And this life, compared to eternity,
is like one snowflake in a blizzard. It's like one drop of water in
the ocean. It's like one speck of dust,
my friend, in a huge field in the dust bowl of the thirties.
My friend, this is going to be over in the snap of your eye. It's going to be over in the
snap of your finger, in the blinking of your eye. It's going to be
over. And you're going to be facing God at the judgment. And
I want you to be aware of it. I'm telling you now, so that
when you get to the judgment, that I won't have to give an
account, your blood being upon my hands. It's going to change. It's going to change. The only
thing that is certain about life is the uncertainty of it. And
you surely know that. You surely understand that. And
I'm attempting by the grace of God to get you to seek the Lord,
to cry out to God, to go against your own rebellious nature. May
the Spirit of God plant enough of His power in your soul to
turn you away and to turn you unto Himself. And that brings
me to the last thing, and that is, there is, thank God, there
is a way out. There is a way out. Oh, wouldn't
it be an awful thing if I was assigned the duty of coming here
this morning and preaching these things to you that I preached,
and there was no way out. There was no way out. Oh, people
of God, you could weep, could you not? You could weep. You
could weep. There's no way out. There's no
way out. Some are saying that. There's
no way out. There's no way out. I must face
the books. The books will be opened. And
I will stand the great white throne judgment. Oh, no. There
is a way out. There is a way out. Job said,
deliver his soul from going down into the pit. He said, I found
a ransom. I found a ransom. Now you know
what it is for somebody to be kidnapped and their kidnappers
sending a ransom note saying you pay such and such amount
of money or I'm going to kill this man or this woman. This
boy or this girl, you know what that means? The ransom. If it's
paid, they live. Well, God says, I've found a
ransom. And that ransom is the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's the death of Christ. It's
Him suffering for sin that He might bring us to God. It's Him
dying on that tree. It's Him in agony and blood. dying and suffering in order
that we might be spared and delivered from His wrath. And my friend,
there is this way out. I always like that verse, Romans
6, 23. I use it a lot. The wages of
sin is death, but... But the gift of God is eternal
life through Jesus Christ our Lord. That's the gift of God.
The gift of God. Not something you can work for.
Not something you can buy. It's unpurchased and unpurchasable. You cannot get it any other way
except God give it to you as a gift based on the sacrifice
of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen? That's the way you get
it. That's the way you get it. You get it from the hands of
the living Christ. He gives the gift of eternal
life. Did he not say in John 10, I
give unto my sheep eternal life? He did. He said that. I give
it to them. I give it to them. Oh, if we
could ever believe that the gift of God is eternal, eternal, eternal
life. If we could just believe it.
and call upon the Lord by His grace and by His power working
in and through our hearts, giving us submission and giving us the
desire and giving us all that we must have in order to claim
the full blessing of life and life eternal. May the Lord be
pleased to bless this morning this message and to use it for
His glory and for His honor. I believe Eternity will reveal
that God sent me here this morning to deliver this message to somebody's
poor soul in this place. Do not take it for granted that
we'll be here next Sunday. Do not take it for granted that
this message that you will ever hear it again. Do not take it
for granted. May God be pleased to burn these
truths into your soul, that you may seek Him with all your heart. May there be somebody. You know,
I talked about the possibility. The possibility. And isn't it
wonderful? There is that possibility that
somebody here may be set to looking, set to reading, set to seeking
after the Lord, set to believing on the Lord Jesus Christ, saying
that if a man can have eternal life, by believing that I'm going
to believe the best I can. I'll believe the best I can.
Now, we all know here that if a man's saved, he's saved by
the gift of God's faith in his soul. And nobody's saved apart
from that. But I'm telling you, friend,
God is pleased to give His faith to the hearts of those that He
chose and gave to the Son in the eternal covenant of grace.
And there is a day when a man can stand up and say, I believe. When a child can say, I believe.
When somebody can say, I truly do believe that Jesus Christ
died for me. That's the gift of God's faith
in the soul. May the Lord work in your heart
and life this morning to the accomplishing of His good, sovereign
purpose. Brother, would you lead us