If you have your Bible open to
the book of Genesis chapter 19, I invite you to look at verse
27 and 28. And Abraham, this is Genesis
chapter 19, verse 27 and 28. And Abraham got up early in the
morning to the place where he stood before the Lord, and he
looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the
plain, and beheld, and lo, the smoke of the country went up
as the smoke of a furnace. Let me read that 28th verse one
more time. And he looked toward Sodom and
Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain, and beheld,
and lo, the smoke of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace. Early in the morning, Abraham,
the scripture tells us here, sought out that favored spot
where just the day before God was pleased to manifest himself
to him and where Abraham was able to pour out his heart to
God and to intercede on the behalf of the righteous in Sodom and
Gomorrah. It is a high privilege I think
probably the highest which mortals can enjoy to pray, to talk with
God, to plead with God, to use arguments, and to prevail with
the Lord as it seems that Abraham did. Abraham had found grace
in the eyes of the Lord. The Bible says that he was the
friend of God. Abraham could intercede, he could
pray, for those that he knew and certainly he knew that his
nephew Lot and his family was up in Sodom and he had a great
burden there for the righteous. Doubtless the reason why he rose
up early and went to this place and looked towards Sodom was
the desire to know whether or not the Lord had found ten righteous
there. He desired to know whether the
Lord had found 10 righteous people in all of Sodom. He feels sure,
I suppose, as we probably would, that there must be at least 10
righteous people in the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. He knew
that Lot, as we mentioned, his nephew were there and his family
and he supposed them to be righteous, but he thought surely there must
be 10 righteous. Now, Abraham, as he looked towards
Sodom, instead of seeing the well-watered plain and spires
of the city, saw nothing, the scripture says, but the black
smoke going up like the smoke of a furnace. In verse 24 of
this same chapter here that we've read from It says that the Lord
rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord
out of heaven. God rained this fire out of heaven
upon Sodom and there was a rapid destruction of these cities. It seems to have been done in
just a moment and all that was left for Abraham to see of what
had happened was the smoke, the smoke that ascended up. As wax
is melted in the fire, as the smoke is driven before the wind,
so does the enemies of God perish before the breath of God when
he comes forth to punish sin. And you can be sure God will
punish sin. Well, can we picture this morning
this patriarch, this old patriarch of the faith as he leans upon
his staff and as he looks towards Sodom and sees the smoke of their
torment ascending up like the smoke of a furnace. What must
have been his thoughts? What must have been the thoughts
of Abraham as he looked and saw this great smoke ascending up
into heaven. Well, let me, if I can this morning,
summons our souls to look as upon the smoke of the torments
of lost souls, our eyes to gaze upon that place where their worm
doth not and the fire of their torment is never quenched. I say let us summons our souls
and go to a place where we can look upon the sufferings of the
wicked damned and see how they're tormented and see the smoke of
their torment. But I believe in order to be
able to do this, what we might say to be able to do it most
profitably is for us to stand and look as we stand beneath
the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. where the blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ has been shed to make an atonement for our sin. Because from no other place can
we view the wrath of God with proper and profitable emotions. Abraham, you know, believed God. Abraham reverenced God. Abraham
trusted God. Abraham had a relationship, a
living relationship with God. There was something going on
between Abraham and God. And the Bible calls it worship.
This man worshiped God. And so he looked out and he saw
this smoke going up into heaven. The smoke is of a great furnace.
And I wonder what was the emotions that Abraham had on this occasion. What did he feel? What was it
in his soul? What did he experience inside
of his soul, his redeemed soul, on this occasion? Well, what
emotions ought we to look upon the torments of the ungodly and
the unregenerate? What emotions are we to have
in our souls as we with faith and confidence in the Word of
God, believing the Word of God as we do, knowing that what God
says, that every word is true, and knowing the holy jealousy
and righteousness of our God and His certainty of punishing
sin, my friend, what emotions are we to have in the light of
this? And what feelings are we to have? Well, certainly, I believe
it should always be that we would have a humble submission to the
will of God in the matter. Now, you take note, as Brother
Randy read the 18th chapter of Genesis, that Abraham started
out pleading with God, saying that if there was 50 righteous
there, asking him not to destroy the city, and indicating to him
all along that he believed that God was a just God. And in verse 25, that be far
from thee to do after this manner. What manner? That is to destroy
the righteous with the wicked. Far be it from you, O God, to
destroy the righteous with the wicked, to slay the righteous
with the wicked, and that the righteous should be as the wicked.
That be far from thee, shall not the judge of all the earth
do right? And so the Lord said, If I find
in Sodom fifty righteous within this city, then I'll spare all
the place for their sakes. And Abraham went on down, as
you've heard it already read, we won't read it again, but Abraham
was submissive to the divine will. He disbelieved and his
concern was for the righteous in Sodom and Gomorrah. He did
not in any way, shape, or form believe that God was unjust to
punish the wicked in Sodom and Gomorrah. He believed that God
would be totally just to bring fire and brimstone down from
heaven upon these perverts and upon these wicked sinners in
Sodom and Gomorrah? He believed God would be absolutely,
totally just to do that. But he prevailed on the Lord
for whatever righteous people there might be in that city.
Now are you surprised that there was not ten righteous in Sodom
and Gomorrah? My beloved friends, this morning
I want you to know that the only righteous people there are in
Great Falls, Montana this morning are those who are righteous in
the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you know that Jesus
Christ is God's righteousness? That God's righteousness is in
a person? And when you have a living relationship
with the Lord Jesus Christ, then you stand before God accepted
in Christ, and you stand before God as righteous as the Lord
Jesus Christ himself. But my friend, when you rule
out All of those are just professors of religion. When you rule out
all of those who are trying to do just unto others as they would
have others do unto them, when you would rule out all of those
who would seek to be justified on the basis of their own merit
and righteousness, how many righteous people are there in this city
this morning? How many righteous people are
there in this building this morning? How many of God as He looks down
upon us this morning? How many of us are righteous
as righteous as God demand that we be? And that is as righteous
as His only Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, if you have a living
faith, if you are truly in Christ, If you truly are trusting in
the Lord Jesus Christ with all of your heart and all of your
soul, then you are righteous before God, and you're accepted
before God as being righteous. But I said the emotion that filled
Abraham's soul, I believe, was one of humility and submission
to the will of God. Now the assurance that God is
just even when he damns the wicked must ever be upheld by believers
of the Bible. We must uphold the righteousness
of God in damning the wicked. The judge of all the earth cannot
but do right. He will do right. He must do
right. But can you not see that in the
doing of right by God, He must damn the wicked. He cannot clear
the guilty. He must, He must not spare those
who have sinned against Him and all have sinned against Him unless
they be found in the substitute, the Lord Jesus Christ. though
he is terrible and dreadful in his anger as a consuming fire,
yet is he still our God forever and ever full of goodness and
truth and mercy. Don't we worship this God as
being a God of goodness? A God that's full of truth and
mercy? Absolutely. There's a deep-seated
unbelief among those inside and outside of our churches in this
day, about the eternity of future punishment. About the eternity
of future punishment. Now, beloved, do we, I ask, secretly
hope that the doctrine of hell can be disproved sooner or later,
that somebody will come along who is clever, somebody will
come along who has a new way of interpreting old manuscripts
and discover for us that there is no such thing as the doctrine
of hell really in the scriptures. Do we secretly hold to that idea? Do we apologize for God being
absolutely just and his tormenting the wicked and his eternal punishment,
his everlasting punishment of the wicked. Now I want you to
look at a couple of passages in the book of Revelation. Turn
to Revelation chapter 14, and you ask yourself, do I really
believe in the doctrine of hell? Do I really believe that God
will punish the wicked? Or have you ever looked over
into the pit and saw the smoke of men's torment ascending up
as Abraham witnessed it above Sodom and Gomorrah? In the 14th
chapter of the book of Revelation, we read In verse 9, And the third
angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship
the beast and his image, and receive his mark into his forehead,
or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath
of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation. And he shall be tormented with
fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the
presence of the Lamb. And the smoke, look at verse
11, of their torment ascendeth up for what? How long? Forever
and ever. Do you believe that? The smoke
of their torment ascendeth up forever and ever and they have
no rest day or night who worship the beast and his image and whosoever
receiveth the mark of his name. Now turn over with me to the
19th chapter of the book of the Revelation and I want you to
look with me at these verses here, six verses. Revelation chapter 19 beginning
with verse 1, and after these things I heard a great voice
of much people in heaven saying, Alleluia, salvation and glory
and honor and power unto the Lord our God, for true
and righteous are his judgments. True and righteous are his judgments,
for he hath judged the great whore which did corrupt the earth
with her fornication, and hath avenged the blood of his servants
at her hand. And again they said, Alleluia. And her smoke rose up forever
and ever. And the four and twenty elders
and the four beasts fell down and worshipped God that sat on
the throne saying, Amen, Alleluia. And a voice came out of the throne,
saying, Praise our God, all ye servants, and ye that fear him,
both small and great. And I heard, as it were, the
voice of a great multitude, and the voice of many waters, and
the voice of mighty thundering, saying, Alleluia, for the Lord
God omnipotent reigneth. Now you see then the attitude
of these that are pointed out here in this 19th chapter of
the book of Revelation is one of hallelujah, salvation and
glory and honor and power unto God for true and righteous are
his judgments. The Lord is true and He's righteous. And when He pours out His judgments,
all of those who are in allegiance with the Lord and believe God
and trust God and are worshipers of God, they all say, Alleluia! Praise the Lord! Now I believe
in Abraham's heart that he agreed with what God had done in Sodom
and Gomorrah. He was still mightily interested
in whatever righteous there was there. And if you're back now
in the book of Genesis chapter 19, you read in verse 29, And
it came to pass, when God destroyed the cities of the plain, that
God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow,
when he overthrew the cities in which Lot dwelt. Now then
you see then that God did remember Abraham, and he delivered a lot,
even though there were not ten righteous in the city. But now
as old preacher Barnard used to say, he said, whenever God
sends your kinfolk and mine to hell, Are you going to be able
to say hallelujah, praise God, glory be to God that reigns,
the omnipotent God, for true and righteous are his judgments? Are you submissive to the divine
will? Now there is a suspicion, now
let me just talk a little bit more about this, that sin is
not after all so bad a thing as it is made out to be. We're
living in a day and time when men call black white and white
black. We're living in a time when people
give us the idea that sin is a mistake, that sin is something
that everybody has a little bit of in them, but really it's not
as bad as it's been made out to be. Well, I think that when
you see that God burnt up the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah
and the smoke of their torment rose up like a great furnace,
and as you see that God will punish the wicked and that he
will send them to hell everlastingly and eternally, then I think,
my friend, you'll find out that sin is every bit as bad and evil
as God said it was. Now I want to plant this thought
in your mind at this point in this message this morning, and
that is, friend, hell is but sin full grown. Now don't forget that statement.
Let it be planted in your mind. Hell is but sin that is full
grown. Now, beloved, it is the positive
duty of a gospel preacher to speak plainly about the reality
and the eternity of hell. It is my duty to talk about this. While we don't like to talk about
it, and while we would maybe like to be talking about something
else, it is our plain duty, positive duty, to talk about the reality
and the eternity of hell. Hell must have a place in our
theology. Beware of any ministry which
does not plainly teach the reality and the eternity of hellfire. We're told that God is too merciful
to punish the souls of ungodly men and women forever. We're
told that. that all men, however wicked
and ungodly they are, will sooner or later be saved by the common
mercy and common grace of God or the general mercy of God. Sooner or later, everybody will
be saved. We're told that we must embrace
what is called a kinder theology. A kinder theology, a kinder theology
than what the Word of God sets forth. We're told that the doctrine
of hell is to be treated as a pagan fable, or a bugabear to frighten
children and fools. Well, my friend, we believe that
on the authority of the Word of God, That hell is not something
that we can question. It is past the point of being
questioned. The Word of God is so clear on
this subject. Listen to John 3 and verse 36. He that believeth on the Son
hath everlasting life, and he that believeth not the Son, the
wrath of God abideth on him. The wrath of God abides on all
those who are outside God's beloved Son. The wrath of God has already
fallen on the Lord Jesus Christ. And if you're going to escape
the wrath of God, you must get into Him upon whom the wrath
of God has already fallen on the cross. And so my friend,
the wrath of God is real. It is the wrath to come for all
unbelievers. Now to question the doctrine
of hell is to question the very foundation of the gospel. The moral attributes of God,
His justice, His holiness, His purity, are all wrapped up in
the doctrine of eternal hell. Shake the foundations upon which
the eternity of hell rests, and you have shaken heaven's eternity
also. Now, you think with me a moment.
These shall go away, the Bible says, into everlasting punishment,
but the righteous into life eternal. Now, precisely the very same
word in the original is the word everlasting and the word eternal. Precisely the same word. So if the one be not eternal,
then the other is not eternal. You can't have an eternal heaven
and not have an eternal judgment, an eternal punishment upon the
wicked. So a humble submission to the
divine will is the first emotion, I think, that we're to have when
gazing upon the torments of the wicked damned. Do you have a
submissive will? Is it alright with you if God
sends Sodom and Gomorrah, all those except the righteous, to
hell? Is that alright with you? Is
it alright with you if God sends everybody that dies in unbelief
and dies in rebellion against God if God sends them off and
the smoke of their torment will ascend up ever and ever and ever. Is that alright with you? Could
you say hallelujah, amen to that? Would you be able to do that?
Is God just? Is he righteous? Well my friend,
We believe it on the authority of the Word of God. To question
the doctrine of hell, my friend, is not for us to do. Now if the
one be not eternal, we said the other is not. I look forward
to an eternal heaven, don't you? an eternal heaven. And I believe
that on the authority of the Word of God there is one. That
they that believe on the Son have everlasting life. They have everlasting life. They will not die because they're
in Christ. They will not die a spiritual
death. They will put off this body,
which we want to do, which we must do, which we ought to do,
is put it off. in order that we might have a
glorified body, an eternal body, and that we can dwell forevermore
with the Lord Jesus Christ. So then, do you have this humble
submission to the divine will in this matter of judgment? Now
another emotion which we will feel in our soul as we view the
wrath of God being poured out upon the unregenerate I think
is gratitude. Gratitude. I think we'll have
gratitude in our hearts. And the question I think that
would be upon our minds as we look at those that are in the
pit and as we look at the smoke coming up, ascending up We would
ask, and why am I not there? Why am I not there? Did they
sin? I have sinned. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. Did they curse God and die? I too have cursed God and it's
a marvel that I did not die. It is a marvel. Oh, how we ought
to be filled with gratitude as we look upon those who are perishing
in the flames of hell that God has been pleased to spare our
souls. And the poet said, oh, were it
not for grace divine that fate so dreadful had been mine. Is that not a true statement?
I want you to turn with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 6. I want to read verses 9 through
11. I'm talking about how grateful,
how much gratitude we ought to have in our hearts as we view
the pit and the smoke of the furnace coming up that God has
spared us. In verse 9 of 1 Corinthians 6,
Know ye not, let these words soak in, that the unrighteous
shall not inherit the kingdom of God. The unrighteous shall
not inherit the kingdom of God. Be not deceived, neither fornicators,
nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of
themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards,
nor revilers, nor extortioners shall inherit the kingdom of
God. But it's not our hearts filled with gratitude as we read
verse 11. Look at what it says. And such
were some of you. No question about it. We admit
it openly. We were sinners. But ye are set
apart unto God. You're sanctified. God has set
you apart. God has not appointed you to
wrath, but to obtain salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ. You
have been set apart by God from the rest of those wicked that
will be damned forever. but ye are justified. You mean
God? You say we're justified? Yes,
we've been declared to be just as if we'd never committed one
of these sins that verse 9 is talking about. We have been justified
in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.
Talking about gratitude, my friend, we should be filled with gratitude. Let the depths of hell constrain
you, my friend, to be lifted up in your voice to heights of
gratitude. And let the wailing and the gnashing
of teeth of those in hellfire appeal to your heart and to your
lips. that the music of thankfulness
and humility and gratitude might be in you that you have escaped,
that you've escaped. My friend, you're out of hell
and you ought to be full of gratitude. And I can think about old Abraham.
I don't think he was so calloused and so hard. as he looked over
there and saw the burning of that great furnace, as he saw
smoke going up, my soul, under God, there was a day when me
and Lot, when we discussed which way we were gonna go, and I told
old Lot, just go whichever way you feel, and I'll go the opposite
way, and I'm sure his heart was filled with gratitude, Lord,
thank you that you kept me from going that way, that I didn't
go to those cities, Like Lot did. Because see, at this time,
Abraham didn't know. He didn't know whether Lot had
been spared or not. He didn't know. The Bible says
that God remembered Abraham, but didn't say about anybody
coming to Abraham and telling him that God had spared Lot. but nevertheless he had been.
So may our hearts be full of gratitude that we have escaped
and that we are justified in the person of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Should there be no humility when
we look to that hole, the pit, where God has digged us out and
that rock where we have been hewing from? Should we not look
with gratitude and give God glory and praise? With those sinners
were such we are. That's exactly where these sinners
are today that died unrepentant. They're in that place today,
and they were just like us. But God had mercy on us. Should
there not be the emotion of gratitude as you look upon their suffering
and their pain? There was nothing in us by nature
that would take us to heaven, was there? nothing in us as we
come forth out of our mother's womb into this world. There was
nothing in us but that which would commend us eternally to
the judgment of God and the wrath of God. And we sit here like
we really deserve something and that God has, that God somehow
or other has made us different. And well, He has made us different
if we be in His Son. Because he called us and put
us in his son. But beloved, there was nothing,
there was everything in us to condemn us to hell when we come
into this world and nothing, nothing that would take us to
heaven left to ourselves. We were brands plucked from the
burning that would have burned in that fire as well as other
brands that were never plucked from the burning. You believe
that? Were not we all the children of wrath, even as others? Were we not? Absolutely we were. I'm trying to stimulate a little
gratitude in your heart, in your soul, for what the Lord has done
in sparing you the judgment of that awful place. Not one of
us here can lift up our head and boast and say, God, I thank
Thee that I'm not as other men. No, my friend, we are just like
other men. Isn't that the mercy of this?
Isn't this the glory of this? That God, through discriminating
grace, has had mercy on you, and justified you, sanctified
you, and declared you to be righteous enough to spend eternity with
Him in the fellowship of the holy angels. Oh, gratitude, my
friend, gratitude. We cannot help having a subdued
heart, being humbled and yet thankful that God has plucked
us from everlasting burnings and guided our feet into the
way of peace. God has guided us into that way of peace through
his Son, the Lord Jesus. Now then you see the smoke going
up out of hell. Have you ever thought, have you
ever for a moment thought, what if I should come there after
all? After all my religious profession, after all my struggles, after
all my efforts, what if I should come there at last? All true
believers have doubts at one time or another. Have you ever
had a doubt? Have you ever had one doubt whether or not you
truly are the Lord's or not? Remember, it's one thing to profess
to be a Christian and quite another thing to be truly converted. Another thing you can make a
profession as someone said you may go to the gates of heaven
by profession But remember there's a back door to hell and so my
friend profession alone is not enough and What should happen? What would it be like? And I'm
sure that this emotion may be as we mentioned earlier briefly
about Abraham when he said I could have been there have you ever
thought about What if you end up there? My friend, there's
been so many professions which have turned out to be lies. Turned
out to be nothing but lies. People have professed. People
have said, I believe, but the profession, is it real? Is it
real? Now, beloved, listen. The question
needs to be put to each one of us. Is it I, Lord? Is it I? You remember when The
Lord was saying that there would be one that would betray and
the disciples sitting around said, is it I Lord? Is it I? Is it I? Do I truly have a genuine
profession? I mean laying everything, stripping
all the veneer off, stripping all the pretense off, everything
off. Are you sure that you're not
going to wind up in this place where the smoke of a great furnace
will ascend up forever and ever, you burning in that place. Only
the righteous, truly righteous in Christ, will miss that. Come,
if we feel this morning that there's some doubt in our hearts
as to the matter, then come and let us go together. If we never
went before, let us go to the cross of Jesus. Let us look up
to Him as He hangs bleeding there. And if up to this moment we never
have been saved, let us say, Dear Lord Jesus, Dear Lord Jesus,
accept me and Your Son now. Accept me and Your Son, Jesus,
now. That's what we ought to do. A
guilty, weak, and helpless worm, on thy kind arms I fall. Be thou my strength and righteousness,
my Jesus and my all. Now these are some of the feelings
that surely we have as we look upon that smoke this morning,
as Abraham looked on the smoke that went up from Sodom long
ago. If you're a lost soul here today, I want you to know this,
that hell is the true harvest of the sowing of iniquity. The
statement that I made earlier, hell is but sinful growing, and
that is all hell is. I want you to know, I just want
you to know, that hell is the true harvest of the sowing of
iniquity. You say all my sins have been
little sins, preacher. They've just been little sins.
But you know sin's going to grow up. And when it grows up, it's
hell, my friend. You know the Bible says in James,
Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth. You say, my sins
are little. My sins are just little bitty
sins. You did not realize, did you, that sin was so evil as
it is, and now that you've looked upon that smoke coming out of
Sodom and Gomorrah, what are you thinking? What are you thinking,
my friend? What are you thinking? Now some
of us may never know. How awful sin is until we drop
into hell. How awful it really is. Is there
no way, I ask myself this question, to teach men and women the evil
of sin, but for you to be cast into hell to learn the lesson
where you cannot profit but only perish by the knowledge acquired
too late. Is there any way that we could
teach you the awfulness of iniquity and sin. Oh, that we could learn
from the smoke of the ruin of others. How dreadful is that
sin which will ruin you as it already has ruined them. Sin,
I'm talking about you living in sin. You thumbing your nose
at God. You saying, I'll do what I want
to do. I will do as I please. The end
of that kind of attitude and life is hellfire. It's smoke
ascending up forever and ever. Shall Sodom and Gomorrah perish?
And the perverts and the sinners of our day escape? Absolutely
not. Judgment is coming. It's right
around the corner. Payday is coming. Face it. No, God is the same today to
punish sin as he was when he burned up Sodom and Gomorrah.
Do you believe that? Anybody here think God's changed?
Absolutely they're not. He has not changed. He is the
same God. And may we see the blackness
of our sin today by the light of hell's fire. And as the smoke
goes up forever, may we ask ourselves, will we continue in sin when
this is the inevitable result of our sin? Judgment and hell,
will we continue in our sin? My friend, God is severely just. Severely just. Do you mean to
say, preacher, that God is that just? How awfully just is God? I'll tell you how just He is.
He's just enough to send a sinner to hell. If he'll thumb his nose
at his son and not believe on Christ, if he'll not believe
on Jesus Christ, if he'll not come to Christ, then God is just
enough to send him to hell. My friend, we must admire the
justice of Almighty God. That's one thing you can count
on to remain sure is that God will remain absolutely just. Well, looking at the destruction
of the wicked as we have, this reflection crosses our minds
as we prepare to close this message. What a price must that have been. Now you listen to this. What
a price must that have been which redeemed us from such woe and
rescued us from such a place of torment. Did you get that? You think about this a little
bit. What a price must that be which have redeemed us from such
woe, and rescued us from such a place of torment. You have
learned from this pulpit through the years the doctrine of substitution. How that the Lord Jesus Christ
took the sins of his people and stood to suffer in their rooms. and in their stead and in their
place. I believe in the doctrine of
substitution. Don't you believe in it? If you
don't believe in it, my friend, you'll perish. Substitution. Somebody has got to answer to
God for you. Somebody got stabbed between
you and God. Somebody must meet all the requirements
that God has placed upon your soul. And it's our substitute,
the Lord Jesus, hallelujah, who can form an idea of what the
torment of one's soul must be that is cast into hellfire forever. Can anyone here, my friend, can
you measure that? Can you measure the suffering,
the torment of the agony of one's soul that is cast into hellfire
forever? Well, we cannot do that. Whatever
it be, we're not able to do that. But we would have to multiply
that, whatever that be, whatever that measure would be. We'd have
to multiply that by 10,000 times 10,000. When you recollect that
Jesus laid down his life for many and gave himself a ransom
for his sheep. None but a God could endure what
the Lord Jesus Christ endured on Calvary's cross to spare my
soul from that eternal woe which we've been talking about this
morning. He bore all, the poet said, that incarnate God could
bear with strength enough but none to spare. Think of the cup
that he drank. The hells of all of his people
virtually condensed into the pangs of an hour, the cup. He did drink it, you know, the
cup. He cried, if it be possible,
let this cup pass from me. It was not possible. It was not
possible if he was going to save his people from this awful woe.
I like the way one old writer put this. Listen to what he says. He says it was not possible.
He had to drink the cup. He put it to his lips. He drank. He drank right on. His back was
scourged, but still he drank. His head was pierced with the
crown of thorns. But he drank on, the spit flowed
down his cheeks, they were black with the bruising of the fist
of his persecutors. Reproach had broken his heart,
shame had covered his face, but he took not away his lips. from the cup. They pierced his
hands and his feet, they offered him vinegar, they rent his clothes,
they stripped him naked, they left him without a comforter.
Devils surrounded him with mockery, men with scorn, but on, still
on, He drank, O blessed Savior, till at last He had swallowed
every bitter drop, and the cup being turned upside down, not
one drop trembled on the brim of that cup. Isn't that an amazing
thing? Our Lord Jesus Suffering. And as the poet said, at one
tremendous drop of love, he drained destruction dry. He drained it
dry. For every one of his people,
he exhausted the cup. There was not a grief nor a penal
groan left. for one of his elect to bear.
He suffered the just for the unjust that he might bring them
to God. So as we look to the smoke of
men's torment ascending up forever and ever, let us say hallelujah,
Jesus, for thou hast redeemed us unto God by thy blood, and
we shall reign forever and ever with thee. So my friend, I trust
this morning that God has helped us somewhat As we've attempted
to go yonder and look at the smoke of men's torment that will
ascend up forever and ever. If you're here this morning and
you're an unjust soul, if you're here this morning and you're
not righteous in the Lord Jesus Christ, you can only be righteous
by faith. The brother quoted it out of Romans 4 this morning. The ungodly, their faith is counted
for righteousness. Faith is counted for righteousness. It's the righteousness that God
demands. You say, I don't understand all the ins and outs of it, preacher.
Dost thou believe on the Son of God? Dost thou believe on
the Son of God? Do you trust Christ in your heart
and your soul this morning? This, my friend, is the righteousness
of God. This will be imputed to you for
righteousness. Can you believe? Well, we know
that God is gracious and kind, loving and merciful, and He's
given to us, thus, us that are saved, us that do have hope in
Christ, He's given to us the measure of faith that enabled
us to embrace Him. In spite of all of our failings
and faults, We still have been given the gift of faith. And
may God be pleased to give it to you this morning. If you're
here, a lost soul, may God move upon your heart this morning
and may, ere you leave this building this morning, that you be able
to cry out in your heart and even to speak up in this assembly
and say, I believe. I believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
I don't know that much about it, but I know I believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ. I know He's appeared to my soul,
and He's given me the gift of faith, and I do believe on Him.
I do believe on Him. Father, in the name of Jesus,
we pray that Thou would own the message, and that Thou would
bless this message, our Father, to the edification of Your people,
their up-building, and them being established in the holy faith
of the Gospel, And Lord, that you will use it to bring the
lost sheep into the fold. We ask it in Jesus' name, and
for His sake. Amen.