Let us read beginning with verse
5 and read down through verse 10 of 2 Thessalonians chapter
1. Which is a manifest token of
the righteous judgment of God that you may be counted worthy
of the kingdom of God for which you also suffer. Seeing it is
a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation or trouble
to them that trouble you. And to you who are troubled,
rest with us when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven
with his mighty angels in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them
that know not God and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus
Christ, who shall be punished with everlasting destruction
from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power,
when he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired
in all them that believe, because our testimony among you was believed
in that day." Skip over to verse 6 of chapter 2, and we'll read
just a few verses here. Remember ye not that when I was
yet with you I told you these things? And now you know what
withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time. For the
mystery of iniquity doth already work, only he who now letteth
will let, until he be taken out of the way. And then shall that
wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit
of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming.
Even him whose coming is after the working of Satan, with all
power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of
unrighteousness in them that perish, because they receive
not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for
this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should
believe a lie. that they all might be damned
who believe not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. Now I want this morning, if the
Lord will permit, will allow me to preach what I think is
a very serious, very sober message and one which I believe that
we need to hear as the people of God and those who are lost
outside of Christ, those who do not know the Lord Jesus, they
certainly need to hear this message this morning on the damning of
the lost. The damning of the lost. Now
regularly, too regularly really, on a daily basis, we hear from
the lost warlings around us This oath or curse, well, I'll be
damned. Have you ever heard that? I'm
sure you have, especially if you've been out in the world
any at all. Now, the Christian heart recalls
at that kind of an oath or that kind of a curse, that kind of
a language, and we're shocked and we're taken aback by it when
we hear it. I guess we should ask ourselves
why we're taken aback by this kind of language. And the reason
is not in words. Words are nothing in and of themselves. It is the use of the words, I
suppose, that takes us back. Now it is not for us to take
the position that the words damned or damn is never to be used. They are Bible words and they
are indeed to be used. But the real reason why we take
exception to the world's use of these oaths and curses is
because, and listen carefully, because it minimizes and trivializes
the ultimate horror which can be known by a man as made in
the image of God. Let me say that one more time.
The real reason why we take exception to the world's use of these oaths
and curses is because it minimizes and trivializes the ultimate
horror which can be known by man as made in the image of God,
the damnation of the lost. Now when a man says, I'll be
damned, he does not realize that he is minimizing and trivializing
his own destruction. The psalmist said in Psalm 109
verse 17, they loved curses, now let them come upon them. Now the day will come and you
mark my words, there's no question about it, on the authority of
the word of God that they who love the curse and love the oath,
who have damned themselves with their trivial oaths, will be
damned by the awful and ultimate oath of God. Depart, ye damned,
into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. And that is the reason why we
take exception to that kind of a language. When a man says that,
he's damning himself. He's bringing damnation upon
Himself. They love the oath, they love
the curse. Let it now come upon them, saith
the Word of God. When you and I hear the people
around us use this oath and curses, we know that they're using language
they don't understand. Not really. They do not understand
what they're saying. They do not understand, but it
will overtake them finally. It will undo them finally. It
will undo them throughout all eternity. The very oaths which
are coming out of their filthy mouths. So it is the damning
of the lost that Paul is talking about here in our text. These verses that we've read
to you this morning. It is to this subject that I
would direct your attention for a while this morning. Now brother,
sister, and lost friend this morning, we need to remember
that we're in the presence of the God who can save and the
God who can damn as it pleases Him. James 4 and verse 12 says,
there is one lawgiver who is able to save and to destroy. And we need to be aware of the
fact that we're in His presence this morning. First of all, let
me talk to you a little bit about the solemn fact that the lost
shall be damned. Now when we read again, let me
remind you of a couple of things here in our text. Look in verse
5, the first sentence, which is a manifest token of the righteous
judgment of God. Verse 6, seeing it as a righteous
thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble
you. in flaming fire, in verse 8,
taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not
the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall be punished
with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord
and from the glory of His power. Now, beloved, this is the testimony
of the Word of God from Genesis to Revelation, the testimony
of Holy Scripture from the beginning to the end, that the lost shall
be damned. It is a testimony of the old
prophets out of the word of God. The wicked, the Bible says in
Psalm 9 and verse 17, shall be turned into hell with all the
nations that forget God. It was the testimony of our Lord
Jesus Christ who said in Mark 16 and verse 16, he that believeth
and is baptized shall be saved, and he that believeth not shall
be damned. Now the Word of God says in Matthew
10 and 28, again our Lord speaking, And fear not them which kill
the body, but are not able to kill the soul, but rather fear
Him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell, or
Gehenna, the place of judgment, the place of suffering. The lost
shall be damned. Do you realize this? Have you
paused lately to consider this fact of Holy Scripture? The lost
shall suffer throughout eternity, the lost shall be damned. Now
the day is coming when those all around us, those that are
going hither and thither all around us, those who are walking
up and down our streets, our neighbors that we wave to in
the morning and speak to in the evening, and our kinfolks who
come to our house, who sit at our table across from us, all
those who know not God, and those who know not God and have not
obeyed the gospel. The day is coming when they'll
be separated from us and consigned to eternal damnation. Now do
we realize that? Do we understand that? Do we
really believe that? They shall be punished, destroyed,
banished forever from the presence of the Lord and from the glory
of His power. Have you paused to consider this
fact? Do I really believe this fact
myself as a preacher? I wonder if you, as a church
member this morning, if you really do believe this fact. Sometimes
I wonder if we really believe this, the way we live. and the
way we occupy ourselves with trivial matters, the way we spend
our time, the lack of prayer for those who know not God and
who obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. It makes me
wonder, do we really believe this? This solemn fact of Holy
Scripture, that the lost shall be damned. Now the ones you live
with, the ones that you sleep with, the ones you work with,
the wife, the husband, the children. Do we really believe it? That
the lost shall be damned for all eternity. Now God help us. May we be moved and disturbed
this morning by this solemn fact. Have we been desensitized to
this solemn fact about what we believe? You know, there are
those who claim that they believe in the doctrines of grace, and
they say, well, I believe in eternal election, so therefore
it doesn't concern me really about anybody else. Just as long
as I know that I am in the fold, just as long as I know that I
am a Christian and that the judgment of God has already fallen on
Christ on my behalf, then it really doesn't bother me about
other people. Well, beloved, it bothered Paul
the Apostle. He said, I could be accursed. He said, I could pray that I
would be accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen after
the flesh. He wanted to present all men
perfect in Christ Jesus. He wanted to preach the gospel
to all. He was not ashamed of the gospel,
and he would preach it to all men. Not only that, but Jesus
Christ, he was not himself desensitized, and he believed the doctrines
of election. He did. You remember he said
that he had hid these things from the wise and prudent, and
he had revealed them unto babes. You remember he said, you have
not chosen me, but I have chosen you. He knew the doctrine of
election, but he was not desensitized to the fact that Jerusalem was
perishing, and he wept over the city and prayed for them that
they would be redeemed, that they would be saved. Now, beloved,
we better examine ourselves and don't blame our doctrine. Maybe
it's our hardness of heart. Well, Paul is setting forth this
fact to show us that in the damnation of the laws, there is, first
of all, punishment involved. Who shall be, verse 9, punished
with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord
and from the glory of His power. They shall be punished for their
sin. Payday is coming right around
the corner and the wicked shall pay. God will punish sin. That is a fact of Holy Scripture
and Paul is saying the wicked shall pay for their sin. They will pay for their sin.
The word Paul uses in verse 9 has in it the idea of payment. It
involves the concept of payment. And what he is saying is the
wicked shall pay with their own sufferings for their sin, and
the extent of their sin shall be meted out to them in punishment. Do we believe such a thing? The
people of the world living up their lives in sin, following
their wicked nature into the depths of depravity, yet never
fearing or considering that God will call them one day to account
and they'll have to pay the debt. that they have incurred. They're
dancing now. They're having a great time and
a lot of fun now. But every day they dance to the
devil's tune. They're laying up a debt before
the justice bar of Almighty God. Laying up a debt. Laying up a
debt. And every day that debt occurs
interest. And that interest on their debt
is compounded day after day, week after week. And one day,
there will come a day of reckoning. And the day to settle the old
account. And in that day, Payment will
have to be made. It's got to be paid. The debt
of sin must be paid. The wages of sin is death. And
if Jesus Christ does not die, your death is sin, then you must
die eternally, paying, paying, paying, ever paying on the debt
of sin. You say, how shall they pay?
Paul says, by their suffering. In verse 9, everlasting payment. There's everlasting payment that
is in view here in this text. Everlasting payment. The lost
in hell, the unbelieving in hell, the impure, the greedy, the proud,
and the arrogant, the up-and-outers along with the down-and-outers
will go through all eternity paying paying, paying, and never
reaching the final installment that is due of Christ's holy
God on account of their sin. Does that make you tremble and
shudder? It should, that is if we really care about the lost. Hell is an everlasting debtor's
prison. Hell is not a place to rehabilitate
people. Hell is not a place where God's
trying to do people good. Hell is a place where God sends
sinners not to do them good, but to punish them. And God will
punish the sinner. It's a place of suffering. Cast
into hell forever and ever and ever paying, but never paying
off the debt. Can you think of that? Paying,
paying, paying, but never able to pay off the debt. That's the
kind of debt that you owe God this morning. A debt that cannot
be paid. by anyone except the infinite
one, the Lord Jesus Christ. You sin against an infinite God
and only the infinite payment of the Son of God can satisfy
the justice of this God and deliver you from the wrath, from the
wrath to come. So what Paul is saying that the
damn, the damnation of the wicked, it involves punishment. It involves
suffering. Secondly, this damnation involves
destruction. That's also mentioned in verse
9. Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from
the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power.
Hell is the unmaking. Hear this statement by God of
what He made in the creation on the sixth day when He made
man in His own image. I say hell is the unmaking by
God of what He made in the creation of the sixth day when He made
man in His own image. Hell will be the everlasting
unmaking of man. That's what it will be. Fear
Him who can destroy both body and soul in hell, saith the Lord
Jesus Christ. The figures of speech that are
used in the Bible are very, very alarming. and they should stop
us in our tracks, and they should make us to think and to think
soberly about whether we're going to die in our sin, whether we're
going to die lost, or whether we're going to die trusting in
the Son of God. First of all, turn with me back
in your Bibles. You can keep your finger here
in 2 Thessalonians, but turn to the book of Revelation chapter
21. Revelation chapter 21. And notice verse 8, if you will.
But the fearful, and the unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers,
and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars
shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire,
and brimstone which is the second death. Revelation 21 in verse
8, fire, everlasting destruction in an indestructible body. The
Bible talks about where the fire is not quenched. Where the fire
over and over again, Mark chapter 9, over and over again, where
the fire is not quenched. Brimstone is mentioned here.
have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone."
That's burning sulfur. Yes, my friend, a lake of fire
and brimstone is what the Word of God says. This is the place
where sinners will be cast. This is the place where lost
sinners, this is the place where the lost will be housed for all
eternity. And then the Bible talks about
the gnawing worm in Mark 9 also. Where the worm doth not and the
fire is not quenched. Hell is like an everlasting garbage
dump where the maggots keep on working in the body throughout
all eternity. Just working and gnawing and
working and gnawing. Now, beloved, if you believe
that, you say, well, that's unthankable, preacher. That is unthankable. That a sinner could be thrown
into a place in his body of destruction where he's going to burn up or
where he's going to be gnawed on for all eternity. He's going
to be in the lake of fire. Well, that's unheard of. It's
unthankable. How in the world could it possibly
ever be? Now you listen to me, the God
who made the complexities of the human mind and the human
body can make a place complex enough to destroy both the body
and the soul for all eternity and to destroy without that destruction
ever reaching the point of annihilation. Do you believe that? Now, you
think about that a little bit. This God of ours can make a place
where a man can burn for all eternity and be destroyed, but
yet he never reaches the place of annihilation. No, my friend,
no, never be annihilated. It is not too much to say that
the undoing of man will go on forever and ever and that the
lost in hell will feel that they're being forever and ceaselessly
destroyed without any hope of ever being finally annihilated,
never finding any relief. from God's punishment in the
lake of fire, in the lake of fire, where it burns with brimstone,
burning sulfur. Now no rest day or night, forever
and ever, smoke of their torment ascending up, forever and ever,
out of that awful place that God has made to put sinners away. Now then, so we see then that
hell is suffering and hell is destruction and the damnation
of the lost. Thirdly, it involves banishment. It involves being banished. Punish, suffering, destruction,
banishment, found in verse 9. God will banish you from his
presence utterly, awfully, and completely. Now the wicked scoff
and say, that's all right, I'd like to be rid of God anyway.
If God wants to banish me out of His presence, let Him go ahead. I want to be out of His way.
I want to be rid of Him once for all. Well, my friend, let
me tell you this. When you're rid of God, you're
rid of everything like Him. Everything that's got anything
to do with Him. You're rid of any that ever had
anything, believingly, to do with Him. There will not be any
laughter in hell, my friend, unless it be the laughter of
the demons that are gloating over your suffering and over
your torment. My, how we need to think of this.
Not a smidgen of joy in hell. one bit of life to be found in
hell, not one bit of anything that is sweet, not one bit of
beauty, nothing that is pure, wholesome, good and worthwhile
shall be in the lake of fire. You'll never look on a face again
that you love. You will never reach out to touch
the hands of one you love again. Never, never will you have that
privilege and that joy. You will never take into your
mouth again a drink of water and know the experience, the
refreshment of it. Never again. You will never know
again the joy of good food and good fellowship and friendship
and comradery. All these things forever gone.
The day of vengeance has come for you, my friend, and there
isn't any relief. God is a God of judgment. It's
His strange work, but He's a God that most surely will judge the
wicked. Now, God is going to gather up
all the unbelieving good, all the unbelieving bad. He's going
to gather them all up, and He's going to banish them all together
from His presence. and the glory of the new heaven
and the new earth, which is the hope and the glory of the true
saints of God. Perhaps this is what God had
in mind when he spoke of some being cast into outer darkness,
the outer limits of darkness. The whole verse in the Greek.
This whole verse back in the 2nd Thessalonians again. I want
you to just think with me a little bit. Verse 9. This whole verse
in the Greek, I understand, is in the linear action. Which means
that it just keeps on going on without ever stopping. Just keeps
on going on. It won't stop. It just keeps
on going. This punishment this suffering,
this banishment, this destruction, on and on it goes. It is not too much to say that
the lost in hell will feel that they are forever and ever going
away from God and everything like Him without ever reaching
ultimate distance. Did you get back? Now my friend,
pay any attention to anything else. This is the thing that
you ought to be listening to. This is why you came here this
morning, was to hear the word of God. Now listen to this again.
It is not too much to say that the lost in hell will feel that
they're forever and ever going away from God in eternity. And everything like him going
away from it. without ever reaching the ultimate
distance. Perhaps this is what the term
bottomless pit is all about. Can you imagine being cast into
a bottomless pit? How long would you fall in a
bottomless pit? Well, think about it. Forever
and ever and ever, without ever reaching ultimate distance, always
going away from God, never reaching ultimate distance, never. I'm
talking about the damnation of the lost. I'm talking about those
who know not Christ, who obey not the gospel. They shall be
punished in an eternal debtor's prison. They shall be tortured
in God's eternal torture chamber for hating a good and a holy
God who gave his only begotten Son, that if they believe on
him they should not perish, but have everlasting life. They shall
be confined forever in solitary confinement, suffering the vengeance
of God Almighty. And the horror of all this, and
I'm gonna hurry to a conclusion, is compounded, I think, in verse
10. In verse 10 of 2 Thessalonians chapter 1 where it says, When
he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired
in all them that believe, because our testimony among you was believed
in that day. Now the lost, the wicked who
will be damned will miss out on the big show. They're gonna
miss out on this big show. Let me say that the biggest events
that ever happened in human history will be as a cap pistol going
off to what happens in verse 10 of this scripture right here. You need to look at it again,
my friend, if you somehow or other have missed the fact that
God is going to pull out all stops in glorifying His beloved
Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. The day is going to come when
God has banished the wicked, when God is punishing the wicked,
when God has sent men off into everlasting destruction, that
the Lord Jesus will come to be glorified in His saints. He'll
come to be glorified in His saints and to be admired in all them
that believe. When the Lord Jesus Christ comes
back, it will be evident that we're trophies of His grace. And His very presence will be
magnified in all of the saints. You know, we've been destined
to be like Him. Now we don't appear to be like him this morning,
but when he comes back, when he comes back, why when he comes
back he'll be glorified in all of his saints because we're all
going to look like him. And we're all going to be like
him. Because we're going to see him
as he is. He's going to be glorified in
all of them. Somebody said, we didn't want
Jesus enough. God didn't think it was enough
because he said he's the firstborn among all the brethren. They're
all going to be like him when he comes back. All believers,
he's going to be glorified in all of his saints. Now, if a
man had one son and he could like him so much, he'd say, I'd
like for every little boy born in the world to look like my
little boy. I'd like for him to be just like
my little boy. Well, can't you see what the
Father's all about? The Father is up to making all
the saints to be like His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And they're
all going to be glorified. I'm telling you, God's going
to just take all the stops loose and He's going to magnify His
Son. He's going to glorify His Son. And to be admired and all
that and to believe. It looks at you and me and others
that are believers on that great day in that assembly. Everybody
be admiring who? They'll be admiring not me, not
you. They'll be admiring Jesus. He's
the one that fixed it so we'd be there in the first place,
and He's the one whom we now are alike. We shall appear with
Him and shall be like Him for we shall see Him as He is. Now then, that's the big show,
my friend. But the wicked are not going
to be there. They're not going to be anywhere around. They're
not going to be there to experience what we're talking about here
in this text of Scripture. And all of this, Paul says, because
our testimony among you was believed in that day. Paul said, there
was a day when I come up the road. There was a day when I
stopped off in your town. There was a day when I came and
met with you in your assembly, and I preached to you. I preached
the gospel to you. And the testimony that I gave
of how God saved me on the road to Damascus, the testimony that
I gave of His Holy Word and His saving efficacy and power, that
testimony, you believed it in that day and that's why you're
here for this day. That's why you're here. That's
right, it's by believing on the Lord Jesus Christ that we miss
punishment, suffering, destruction, banishment. It's by faith in
the Lord Jesus Christ. You need to believe the testimony
of the Word of God. You need to believe the testimony
that this preacher is giving you today. And if you believe
that testimony of the Word of God, my friend, you can escape
all of the judgment of God by believing on the Lord Jesus Christ.
And you need to believe on Him, and to rest your soul in Him,
and to trust Him. The lost will have no part in
this, because they will not be around. The wicked shall be put
away. Sad, sad, that bitter whale, almost but lost. Doom comes at
last. The sinner is cast away into
everlasting darkness. Beloved, I feel these words are
weak and paltry, but oh, that the wicked should see what it
means, that God would make them to see what it means to be damned
with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord
and from the glory of His power. There's one other thing that
we need to say a word or two about. Why are the lost to be
damned? Why? Are they to be damned? Well, there's no arbitrariness
or capriciousness to be found in the Lord. There's not some
great mystery involved in the lost being damned according to
Paul in verse 8. In verse 8, he just makes it
clear to us why it is that the lost are going to be damned. The lost is lost. Why? Because
Paul says, they know not God. God's going to come with flaming
fire taking vengeance on them because they know not God. They do not know God. Religious
maybe, but they don't know God. Attended church today and last
Sunday, but they don't know God. They got a Bible, but they don't
read it much, but they know not God. That's why the wicked will
be damned. They're ignorant of God. They're
willfully ignorant of God. Willfully. Now, I believe that
anybody that comes to this church and stays here any length of
time, if they don't know God, it's because they're willfully
ignorant. That's one of the first reasons.
They're willfully ignorant of God Almighty. Now, they don't
want to know God. They don't want to know Him.
No, thank you, sir. We do not want to know God. Well,
I just simply don't want to know God if knowing God involves me
having to lay down my life for His sake. If it involves me doing
His will, then I don't want to know God. I've got a will of
my own. I've got a desire of my own.
I've got a plan for my own life. I am not interested in serving
the Lord God of heaven and earth. I'm not interested in obeying
God and walking in His ways. Not interested in doing that.
Now my friend, we must give ourselves up to Him. When you believe on
Him, you will give yourself up to Him. You will obey Him. You
will surrender to Him. Live for Him and not for yourself. Now listen, that's why the wicked
are damned. The knowledge of God is not something
that a man has in his head. It's something that involves
the whole of the man. His whole life is taken up with
this. Knowing God. Knowing God. Paul kept on saying it after
he experienced regeneration and salvation on the road to Damascus.
Later on in Philippians 3 and 10, he said, all that I might
know him, just keep on knowing him and understanding more. about
how to serve Him, how to follow Him, how to walk in His ways,
how to do what He wants me to do. The knowledge of God is not
something we have just in the head merely. It involves the
whole of the man. It involves all of the man. There
will be none so miserable in hell as those who throughout
eternity will remember. Will remember. And son, you will
remember. You will remember. You remember
in Luke chapter 16 when the writer of scripture talks about The
rich man in hell, and he remembered, he remembered, he remembered.
And you will remember what this old preacher said to you over
and over again. You heard this preacher say,
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ and you'll never perish. Believe
on Christ and be baptized and you will not be damned. The scripture
is plain on the subject, but there'll be none so miserable
in hell that it'll keep echoing and echoing through their mind
throughout eternity. God so loved the world that he
gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should
not perish, but have everlasting life. Can't you imagine? Can't
you just see some folks walking around in hell chanting that
over and over and over again, remembering, remembering that
in their days on earth they heard it over and over again, but they
would not believe, so they would not perish. Paul said they will
not receive the love of the truth, that they might all be damned.
who do not receive the love of the truth that they might be
saved. And the truth is salvation is in a person and that person
is Christ the Lord. Believe on him unto the saving
of your soul from everlasting perdition and judgment. Now then,
There's one other thing here that I want to say. Next thing
that Paul said here was, they're damned because of disobedience. Look at it. Take your vengeance
on them that know not God and that obey not the gospel of our
Lord Jesus Christ. They're damned because of disobedience.
There is an obedience of faith. Jesus said, believe. Believe
on me. Believe on me. Trust me. Obedience
is the willful. Here's the definition you need
to get. Obedience is the willful submission of the will to the
will. Let me back up. Obedience is
the willful submission to the will of another. That's what
it is. That's what obedience is. The
willful submission to the will of another. Are you willing to
bow to the Lord Jesus Christ? You remember what Jesus said?
Or some said? They said, we will not have this
man to rule over us. We won't have it. We're not going
to be obedient to him. He's not going to tell us what
we can do. Well, why is that? That when
people get saved, the first, first prayer out of their heart
is Lord, What will thou have me to do? What came out of Paul? Lord, what will thou have me
to do? Another said, first thing I want to find out is what God
wants me to do. God just saved you. The Lord
just saved you. I just want to know what the
Lord wants me to do with the rest of my life. Well, that's
what we're talking about. Obedience. Bowing to the will
of another. Submitting yourself. Do you know,
my friend, there wouldn't be any of us saved today if Jesus
Christ did not come down here having no will of his own, bowing
to the will of the Father and delivering up himself unto death.
We would not be saved without this very thing happening in
our blessed Master, the Lord Jesus Christ. So this is obeying
the gospel, bowing to the will of the Lord Jesus. The gospel
demands that you forsake all and plead to Jesus Christ, that
you believe on Him, that you trust Him. All the days of your
life that you believe on Him, you trust Him every day you get
up. Joyous, joyous obedience. Christ is my Lord. Christ is
my Savior. I'm trusting Him today. Whatever
happens, whatever the tide, God is on the throne. Christ dwells
in my heart. Now we need to turn from self,
we need to turn from sin and self-righteousness and trust
in the Lord Jesus Christ. The poet said best, no more my
God, I boast no more of all the deeds which I have done. I quit
the hopes I held before to trust the merits of thy son. That's
just how simple it all is. How simple it is. May the Lord
be pleased to bless these truths that we've talked about this
morning unto your heart. I feel like just backing up and
starting over again. I feel like it would do us all
good. I really do. I think we need to be stirred
up as the people of God to understand and to know what the people around
us are facing in eternity. And to know what the people that
sits across must earn their ice tea at our table, what they're
facing in eternity. They're facing the judgment of
God. Whenever you see somebody going up street pushing a baby
cart, ask yourself the question, is that soul going toward eternal
damnation? Is that baby in that baby cart
ever going to hear the gospel? Are they ever going to believe
the gospel? What about it? Are they going to be damned forever
in that place of suffering and torment? There's so many verses
in the Bible we could use in this message. Do you believe
in the resurrection? If you do, there's going to be
a resurrection to damnation. There's going to be one. Just
like there's a resurrection to eternal glory and life, one to
damnation. John 5 and 29 says that there
shall be a resurrection to damnation. And you know what that means?
That means the Lord's going to snatch you out of the ground
one of these days. You die an unbeliever. He's going to snatch
you out of the ground, and He's going to put your soul with your
body, and that body is going to be indestructible, and He's
going to put it in that lake, burning with brimstone and fire. And it'll burn and burn and burn,
as we said, tried to say in this message, and there'll never be
an end to it. never being into it, and you
will never burn up, and you will never be annihilated. My friend,
you need to wake up! The time has come. When? How
much more time do you have? May God move your heart to stand
this morning and confess the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior
and Lord. Father, in the name of Jesus,
use this message, and may it be that somebody here today would
be saved. Somebody would go out of here
seeking the Lord. I pray it in Jesus' name, for
his sake, amen.