I apologize in advance to those who don’t like
“hellfire and brimstone” sermons as being outdated. I’m not really sorry. That
was a phony apology. I need this from time to time and probably so does someone
hearing or reading this.
1John 3:4 Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also
the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.
Romans 1:29 Being filled
with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness;
full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, 30 Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud,
boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, 31 Without understanding, covenantbreakers,
without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:
Galatians 5:19 Now the
works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication,
uncleanness, lasciviousness, 20
Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife,
seditions, heresies, 21 Envyings, murders,
drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I
have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not
inherit the kingdom of God.
All of us here believe the Bible testimony that the
natural fate of all mankind is a burning Hell.
Deuteronomy
32:22 For a fire is kindled in mine
anger, and shall burn unto the lowest hell, and shall consume the earth with
her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains.
Psalm 86:13 For great is thy mercy toward me: and thou hast
delivered my soul from the lowest hell.
Luke
16:19 ¶ There was a certain rich man,
which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day:
20 And there was a certain beggar named
Lazarus, which was laid at his gate, full of sores, 21 And desiring to be fed with the crumbs which
fell from the rich man’s table: moreover the dogs came and licked his sores.
22 And it came to pass, that the beggar
died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom: the rich man also
died, and was buried; 23 And in hell he
lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in
his bosom. 24 And he cried and said,
Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of
his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.
And that this is just the holding place for a much worse fate…
Revelation
20:10 And the devil that deceived them
was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false
prophet are, and shall be
tormented day and night for ever and ever…14
And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second
death…15 And whosoever was not found
written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.
And that the only way out of that horror is to trust in Christ’s
righteousness and not our own, to live forever in Heaven with the God who
created us.
John
10:28 And I give unto them eternal life;
and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.
Philippians
3:8 Yea doubtless, and I count all
things but loss for the
excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered
the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ,
9 ¶
And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the
law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is
of God by faith: 10 That I may know him,
and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being
made conformable unto his death; 11 If
by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.
Romans
6:23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ
our Lord.
So, the possibilities are eternal life or eternal suffering.
Non-existence, oblivion isn’t in the cards. Street preachers will shout, “Born
once, Die twice. Born twice, Die once!”
So, we tell people about the free gift of salvation in Christ.
Ephesians
2:8 For by grace are ye saved through
faith; and that not of yourselves: it
is the gift of God:
John
14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way,
the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
Acts
16:31 And they said, Believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.
We believe that Jesus rose from the dead and we believe what He
said about Himself.
Romans
10:9 That if thou shalt confess with thy
mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him
from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
But very few will hear what we have to say, sadly.
Matthew
7:14 Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life,
and few there be that find it.
Each of us who witness to others about our faith and
why we believe what we believe have come across someone who has said, “why do I
have to be saved?” To risk oversimplifying complex human justifications I think
there are two main types of person who ask this question.
The first type of person has lived an honorable life.
They may have served in the military, raised a family, followed traditional
morality, payed their taxes, obeyed the law, didn’t lie, cheat, steal, or
tolerate anyone who did. I know some atheists with a stronger moral code than
most Christians. Maybe they are a Freemason and do lots of good works. Their
works are just based on the wrong thing and they are holding on to it as a
justification for their life. They don’t believe there is a God or a Heaven but
if there is they deserve His and its blessings.
I’m not going to foolishly tell them that if they ever
lied in their life they ought to consider themselves a liar or if they took a
pencil home from work they are a thief. We don’t think like that in this
culture and you don’t think like that. We typically think of a thief as someone
who has that as part of their character or just has a bad character as if that
was a fixed, definable thing in each person. They might even define themselves
by their sin. They don’t feel guilt about it. They don’t feel shame. They have
not repented of their wicked sinful nature or their behavior. Paul said that
unrepentant sinners shall not be saved, will not come to Christ unless they
reject what they are.
1Corinthians
6: 9 ¶ Know ye not that 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, 10 Nor thieves, nor covetous,
nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of
God. 11 And such were some of you: but
ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the
Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.
But, let’s look at a “good” person, by the world’s standard. This
person has done nothing, they say, that would merit them needing to be punished
in Hell or saved from it.
But, they are missing the point. The point is that we have
inherited a sin nature, rebellion against our Creator. Can you imagine a
computer program that refuses to do what the programmer created it for and then
replicates itself making other programs like itself just as worthless? Who here
has not stolen something or lied to
someone? Who here has not thought of
someone’s death in their heart? The problem is our sin nature not an individual
sin or careless pocketing of an employer’s pencil or a too long glance at the
magazine rack in the airport. Those things are just evidence of a much bigger
problem. In the old Perry Mason TV show from the 1960s they used to always have
a defendant on trial for murder whose character witness would insist that they
were not capable of murder. Of course, we know better. There is no one sin on
earth, one thing that we snort at when watching TV, that we are not perfectly
capable of doing ourselves.
You see, the problem is in your heart.
Jeremiah
17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things,
and desperately wicked: who can know it?
The human heart is not just evil. It is desperately wicked. Do you
know what that means? This is going to trouble some of you because you don’t
look at yourselves this way. If you chanced to be out walking and happened upon
a nightclub fire like some of the famous ones we’ve had in past days, say, the
Cocoanut Grove fire in Boston in 1942 during World War Two where in 15 minutes
492 people died and 166 people were injured you’d see what desperate means.
People crowded the exits and would have pulled anyone trying to get out or trying
to pull them out to their death in total panic. They were desperate to get out
but in their panic kept themselves and others from escaping. Your heart is that
desperate to be wicked.
You aren’t just prone to sin, or just an imperfect person who does
his or her best in life. You aren’t trying to do your best but making a few
mistakes along the way, with the best of intentions. No, your heart wants so
badly to do what it knows to be wrong it takes a great deal of socialization,
fear of public humiliation, and a desire for approval from others to keep you
from winding up on death row or being a permanent resident of the rescue
mission if you haven’t trusted Christ.
Admit it, you’ve been angry without a cause, you’ve sought your
own, just what you wanted regardless of anyone else’s feelings. You’ve lied,
cheated, stolen, and committed sexual immorality all the while justifying it by
some misunderstanding or unmet need. You’ve murdered people in your heart,
hated them and wanted them to die. I’m not talking about telling the proverbial
little white lie or stealing some paperclips from work so I can make some kind
of trendy argument to get you to admit something you don’t really believe about
yourself. I’m talking about what you and I really are like.
I had a customer in housing sales once who told me an interesting
story. He was a good guy, a little abrasive, but a skilled craftsman who loved
his wife and family. He was just pure Baltimore, if you know what I mean. He
had heart problems. Once, in an unnamed hospital in Baltimore he died on the
operating table and had to be revived. He became conscious cursing and
screaming and talking about fire and a Hell he didn’t believe in. When he was
able to he apologized to the nursing staff for his language. They shrugged it
off. A nurse told him that they’d experienced that even with sweet little old
ladies at the end of their lives. He thought it was funny and dismissed my
efforts to suggest it was real.
You see, this person you’re talking to, and it may be a relative,
even a sweet, little old lady, your mother maybe, is a vile, believe it or not,
wicked, nasty sinner by nature who cannot enter into the presence of God
without Christ’s sacrifice and resurrection.
Until most people can wrap their minds around that they will just
look at you like a cow looks at a new gate. Good people are hard to convince
that they are not good people. They have the testimony of their hearts, their
friends and family, their accomplishments, their material success, and, yes, the
testimony of their own seared and twisted conscience.
They’ve got to be made to understand that they are not being
compared to other, lesser mortals. They are being compared to Christ. In
comparison to a sinless, righteous, perfectly moral and obedient man to God,
who happened to be God in the flesh at the same time He was fully a man where
would this good person you are talking to stand? Imagine that. This good guy or
good girl is being compared to God. They are lost without His righteousness as
theirs does not and cannot measure up.
It even happens with religious people, people who say they believe
in God. Remember,
James
2:19 Thou believest that there is one
God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble.
And their works, which they trust in, while good and wonderful
have no effect on getting them into Heaven.
Whatever they think justifies themselves before God other than
Christ’s righteousness is a lie and a sham. If they don’t wrap their minds
around that they are not going to be saved.
They might reflect and say why would God allow us to be so vile?
Why does He put up with it for a second if all you’re saying is true? Well, God
gives man the desires of his or her heart. Not what you think you want, the new
house, the new kid, the new spouse. That’s not what you really want. What you
really want is to be selfish, like a cat to claim everyone and everything as
your own, to worship your god, Self, and God says, go ahead, but there are
consequences. The end of that road of rebellion is Hell itself and you will get
what you want unless God, like the owner of a cat intent on something the owner
doesn’t want them to do, distracts him to another purpose or terrifies him so
he’s in survival mode and doesn’t care anymore about what he wants to do. So,
you want to be a sinner and God lets you, unless it serves His purpose to focus
your attention on something else, or, best outcome, He knows you will trust in
Christ and He leads someone to witness to you for Christ.
Another person that is perplexing is that guy or girl who has led
such a rotten, miserable existence and is usually in such awful trouble when
you talk to them that they cannot believe that they even could be saved if they
wanted to. They are sick and tired of being sick and tired. They hate
themselves even while they continue to mess up their lives and the lives of
others. I knew a guy, a friend, once who was so full of self-hate for the evil
things he had done and thought that he just couldn’t understand why, if there
was a God, He would even consider forgiving him. He also doubted that all
mankind was saveable and if there was a Hell then he was pretty sure everyone
was bound for it. I’m going to focus on them. You good people won’t understand
what I’m about to say, you folks who’ve been good all your life, exemplary,
first-rate citizens. Only people like me will understand this. My friend
eventually trusted Christ but he needed a lot of answers first.
Their wickedness is a stench in their own nostrils and they’ve
lost all hope of redemption. Their family is going or gone and all sense of
self-respect or self-value has fled their disgustingly failed lives. Sometimes,
the first person I mentioned is really putting on a front and in his or her heart
they are really the second person but you might not find that out in
conversation, or you might.
They’ll say they’ve gone too far in their sins to be saved. It’s
too late. They’re too bad. But, they are missing something important, too. I
want to thank Jonathan Edwards, a great preacher of the 1700s for pointing this
out to me. It can be overwhelming but just try to pick through it and get the
gist of what is being said and think about it. The lack of this in many
so-called conversions is the reason why they often never darken the door of a
church again after they are “saved.”
King David wrote;
Psalm 25:11 For thy name’s sake, O LORD, pardon mine
iniquity; for it is great.
When this Psalm was written it was a time of great
trouble and trial for David. This is very clear by what he asks and what he
says;
Psalm 25:7 Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my
transgressions: according to thy mercy remember thou me for thy goodness’ sake,
O LORD.
Psalm
25:18 Look upon mine affliction and my
pain; and forgive all my sins.
Look at the argument he
makes pleading for forgiveness.
He pleads for pardon for God's name's sake. He
has no expectation of pardon for the sake of any righteousness or worthiness of
his for any good deeds he had done, or any compensation he had made for his
sins; though if man's righteousness could be a just plea, David would have had
as much to plead as many powerful leaders of men. But he begs that God would do
it for His own name's sake, for His own glory, for the glory of His own free
grace, and according to God’s mercy.
David pleads the greatness of his sins as
an argument for mercy. He not only doesn’t plead his own righteousness, or the
smallness of his sins; he not only does not say, Pardon mine iniquity, for I’ve
done much good to make up for it; or, Pardon mine iniquity, for it is small,
and you have no great reason to be angry with me; my sins aren’t so great, that
you have any just cause to remember it against me; my offence is not such but
that you may well enough overlook it: but on the contrary he says, Pardon
mine iniquity, for it is great; he pleads the greatness of his sin, and not the
smallness of it; he enforces his prayer with this consideration, that his sins
are very heinous.
But how could he make this a plea for
pardon? Because the greater his iniquity was, the more need he had of pardon. It is as much as if he had said, Pardon my
iniquity, for it is so great that I cannot bear the punishment; my sin is so
great that I am in need of pardon; my case will be exceedingly miserable,
unless you be pleased to pardon me. He makes use of the greatness of his sin,
to enforce his plea for pardon, as a man would make use of the greatness of a
personal disaster in begging for help. When a homeless person asks for food, he
will plead the greatness of his poverty and hunger. When a man in distress
cries for pity, what more can he say but that he desperately needs help?—And
God allows such a plea as this: for He is moved to mercy towards us by nothing
in us but the miserableness of our case. He does not pity sinners because they
are worthy, but because they need His pity.
Now, let’s put this into focus.
If we truly come to
God for mercy, the greatness of our sin will be no impediment to pardon.—If it were an impediment, David
would never have used it as a plea for pardon, as we find he does in the
text.—The following things are necessary in order that we truly come to God for
mercy:
That we should
see our misery, and understand
our need for mercy. This isn’t about
going, “oh, I made a few mistakes, forgive me,” like you were chewing gum
in class. They who are not sensible of their misery cannot truly look to God
for mercy; for it is the very notion of God’s mercy, that it is the goodness
and grace of God to the miserable. Without misery in the object, there can be
no exercise of mercy. To suppose mercy without supposing misery, or pity
without calamity, is a contradiction: therefore men cannot look upon themselves
as proper objects of mercy, unless they first know themselves to be miserable;
and so, unless this be the case, it is impossible that they should come to God
for mercy. What do I mean by their misery? They must understand that they are
the children of wrath; that God’s standard of righteousness for man is against
them, and that they are exposed to the curse of it: that the wrath of God abides
on them; and that He is angry with them every day while they are under the
guilt of sin.—They must understand that it is a very dreadful thing to be the
object of the wrath of God; that it is a very awful thing to have God for their
enemy; and that they cannot bear His wrath.
They must understand
that the guilt of sin makes them miserable creatures; that they can be no other than miserable, undone
creatures, so long as God is angry with them; that they are without strength,
and must perish, and perish eternally, unless God helps them. They must see
that their case is utterly desperate, for any thing that any one else can do
for them; that they hang over the pit of eternal misery; and that they must
necessarily drop into it, if God have not mercy on them.
They must understand
that they are not worthy that
God should have mercy on them. They
who truly come to God for mercy, come as beggars, and not as creditors: they
come for mere mercy. for sovereign grace, and not for any thing that is due.
Therefore, they must see that the misery under which they lie is justly brought
upon them, and that the wrath to which they are exposed is justly threatened
against them; and that they have deserved that God
should be their enemy, and should continue to
be their enemy. They must understand that it would be just with God to do as he
has threatened in his Bible, to make them the objects of his wrath and curse for
all eternity.— They who come to God for mercy in a right manner are not
disposed to find fault with His severity; but they come in a sense of their own
utter unworthiness, like they have ropes about their necks, and are lying in
the dust at the foot of mercy.
They must come
to God for mercy in and through Jesus Christ alone. All their hope of mercy must be from the consideration
of what He is, what He has done, and what He has suffered; and that there is no
other name given under heaven, among men, whereby we can be saved, but that of
Christ; that He is the Son of God, and the Saviour of the world; that His blood
cleanses from all sin, and that He is so worthy, that all sinners who are in
him may well be pardoned and accepted.—It is impossible that any should come to
God for mercy, and at the same time have no hope of mercy.
Their coming to God for it, implies that they have some hope of obtaining,
otherwise they wouldn’t think it worth the while to come. But they that come in
a right manner have all their hope through Christ, or from the consideration of
His redemption, and that it is enough.—If persons comes to God for mercy, the
greatness of their sins will be no barrier to pardon. Let their sins be ever so
many, and great, and aggravated, it will not make God in the least degree more unlikely
to pardon them.
Why?
Because
the mercy of God is as sufficient for the pardon of the greatest sins, as
for the least; and that because his mercy is infinite. That which is infinite, is as much above what is great, as
it is above what is small. So, God being infinitely great, he is as much
above kings as he is above beggars; he is as much above the greatest saint, as
he is above the most vile sinner. He is as high above someone who is a good
and moral person as he is above a child murderer on death row. One finite
measure does not come any nearer to the extent of what is infinite than
another.—So the mercy of God being infinite, it must be as sufficient for the
pardon of all sin, as of one. If one of the least sins be not beyond the mercy
of God, so neither are the greatest, or ten thousand of them.—
The blood
of Christ is as sufficient for the removal of the greatest guilt, as
the least:
1John 1:7b and the blood of Jesus Christ his
Son cleanseth us from all sin.
Acts 13:39
And by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye
could not be justified by the law of Moses.
All the sins of those who truly come to God for
mercy, however bad they are, are forgiven because God is willing and ready to
pardon them. So that Christ’s sacrifice having fully satisfied God’s
requirement for all sin, sufficient for all, it is now no way inconsistent with
God’s glory to pardon the greatest sins of those who come to Him in the right
way.
God may now pardon the greatest sinners without
any mark on His holiness. The holiness of God will not suffer Him to give the
least countenance to sin, and He says that He hates it. But Christ having paid
the price for sin, God can now love the sinner, and give no countenance at all
to sin, however great a sinner the sinner may have been. It was a sufficient
testimony of God's abhorrence of sin, that He poured out his wrath on Christ,
when he took the guilt of it upon Himself. Nothing can more show God's hatred
of sin than this. If all mankind had been eternally damned, the judgment would
have been just and right.
God may, through Christ, pardon the greatest
sinner without taking away anything from His majesty. God’s perfection
requires satisfaction; but the sufferings of Christ fully repair the injury
done by man to the relationship between man and God. Let the contempt be ever
so great, yet if so great an individual as Christ undertakes to be a Mediator
for the offender, and suffers so much for him, it fully repairs the injury
done to the Majesty of heaven and earth. The sufferings of Christ fully satisfy
justice.
All sin is against God ultimately, even though it
be an action directly against another person. The justice of God, as the
supreme Governor and Judge of the world, requires the punishment of sin. The
supreme Judge must judge the world according to a rule of justice. God does not
show mercy as a judge, but as a sovereign; therefore His exercise of mercy as a
sovereign, and His justice as a judge, must be made consistent one with
another; and this is done by the sufferings of Christ, in which sin is punished
fully, and justice answered.
Romans 3:25 Whom God hath
set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his
righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance
of God; 26 To declare, I say, at this
time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which
believeth in Jesus.
God’s standard of right and wrong in the Law given
to Moses is no impediment in the way of the pardon of the greatest sin, if men
do but truly come to God for mercy: for Christ hath fulfilled the law, he hath
borne the curse of it, in his sufferings;
Galatians 3:13
Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse
for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree:
Christ will
not refuse to save the worst of sinners, who in the right way come to
God for mercy; for this is His work. It is
His business to be a Saviour of sinners; it is the work upon which He came into
the world; and therefore He will not object to it. Paul wrote;
1Timothy 1:15
This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ
Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.
He did not
come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance,
Matthew 9:13
But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not
sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
Sin is the very evil which he came into the world
to remedy: therefore He will not object to any man because he is very sinful.
The more sinful he is, the more need of Christ.—The sinfulness of man was the
reason of Christ's coming into the world; this is the very misery from which he
came to deliver men. The more they have of it, the more need they have of being
delivered; "
Matthew 9:12
But when Jesus heard that, he said unto them, They that be whole need
not a physician, but they that are sick.
A doctor will not make it an objection against
healing a man who applies to him, that he stands in great need of his help. If
a physician of compassion comes among the sick and wounded, surely he won’t
refuse to heal those that stand in most need of healing, if he be able to heal
them.
The greatness of God’ grace appears in that God by
Christ saves the greatest offenders. The greater the guilt of any sinner is,
the more glorious and wonderful is the grace manifested in his pardon:
Romans 5:20
Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin
abounded, grace did much more abound:
Paul, when telling how great a sinner he had been,
takes notice of the abounding of grace in his pardon, of which his great guilt ignorantly
out of unbelief:
1Timothy 1:13
Who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious: but I
obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. 14 And the grace of our Lord was exceeding
abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.
Christ is
glorified as He proves sufficient to redeem those who are horribly sinful, in
that His blood proves sufficient to wash away the greatest guilt, in that He is
able to save men to the uttermost, and in that He redeems even from the
greatest misery. It is the honour of
Christ to save the greatest sinners, when they come to him, as it is the honor
of a physician that he cures the most desperate diseases or wounds. Therefore,
no doubt, Christ will be willing to save the greatest sinners, if they come to Him;
for He won’t hesitate to glorify Himself, and to commend the value and virtue
of His own blood. Seeing He has presented Himself to redeem sinners, He will
not be unwilling to show, that he is able to redeem to the uttermost.
Pardon
is as much offered and promised to the greatest sinners as
any, if they will come aright to God for mercy. The invitations of the
gospel are always in universal terms;
Matthew 11:28
Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give
you rest.
The wisdom of God calls;
Proverbs 8:4 Unto you, O
men, I call; and my voice is to the sons of man. 5 O ye simple, understand wisdom: and, ye
fools, be ye of an understanding heart.
Not to
moral men, or religious men, but to you, O men. So Christ
promises,
John 6:37
All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to
me I will in no wise cast out.
This is the
direction of Christ to His apostles, after His resurrection,
Mark 16:15
And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel
to every creature. 16 He that believeth
and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.
Which is agreeable to what the apostle said,
Colossians 1:23
If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away
from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to
every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister;
So, finally, good person or bad, hero or villain, admirable soul
or monster, you need God’s mercy as expressed in Christ’s sacrifice on the
cross and in His resurrection from the dead and He will give it to you.
Now, one final word on what you are being saved from. Eternity is
a long, long time. Humanity, at its best, is wicked and cut off from the God
who created them. But God provided a means by which they could be with Him in
that eternity. He did all the work Himself and what we must do is receive His
immeasurable gift.
If you have not had this experience anyone of us will be happy to
talk to you, pray with you, and pray for you. Let’s pray.
No comments:
Post a Comment