Future Punishment A Fearful Thing
DELIVERED ON SUNDAY MORNING, MARCH 25, 1866,
BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God."
Hebrews 10:31.
You will most cheerfully bear me witness that my most frequent subjects
are the mercy and abundant loving kindness of our God in Jesus Christ,
and that it is my favorite employment to invite the very chief of
sinners to come to Jesus Christ with the assurance that He will cast
out none who come to Him, but will assuredly give to them eternal life.
It is not to my honor to say so, but still you know how seldom I have
forced upon your attention those terrible subjects which concern the
state of the lost in Hell. I have felt more at home in using the
drawing of mercy than the driving of terror, and I can most honestly
plead innocence of any charge of delighting in declaring the torments
of the finally impenitent, or of entering upon the discussion of the
miseries of the lost with eagerness and enjoyment.
He who searches all hearts knows that under an overwhelming sense of
urgency and necessity, and purely out of love to the souls of men I
bring before you the text which I have announced. The burden of the
Lord hangs heavily upon me. I must deliver myself of the blood of some
of you who are living in impenitence and who will probably die in it,
and who, if you die unwarned, having often listened to my voice, may be
able to reproach me in another world if I do not faithfully and
earnestly bear my solemn testimony concerning the wrath to come.
Beloved, we know by observation in our pastoral work that while the
mercy of God draws many to Him, there are some who are more affected at
first by the terrors of the Law. We have many, now, who are members of
this Church walking in holiness and in the fear of God. They listened
to sermons upon the softer and more tender topics and were not
affected. But when they came under the heavy blows of the hammer of
God's Law their flinty hearts were broken into shivers and, by God's
Grace, before long they turned unto the hand which smote them! God has
ordained both the terrors of the Law and the tenderness of the
Gospel–that by means of both–men may be saved.
Gospel farming employs many implements, and there are some lands which
will never yield a harvest without much more exercising with the plow
than others may require. The light of Tabor and the fiery flashes of
Sinai are equally Divine and so long as we learn to rest in Calvary it
little matters by what means, whether tender or terrible, we may have
been brought there. The complete ministry leaves no revealed Truth of
God unuttered, but looks for a blessing upon the Word as a whole. The
themes of mercy need, in order fully to manifest their brightness, the
dark background of the terrors of the Law–for men will never value a
Redeemer so well as when they have a very clear consciousness of the
ruin from which He has redeemed them.
The preciousness of mercy is best known by those who discern the terror
of justice. If we really feel that God is angry with the sinner and
loathes and hates his sin and will certainly take fearful vengeance
upon him on account of it, we shall the better understand the force of
that Divine mercy which led Him to give His own dear Son, and which now
leads Him to cry unto the Sons of men, "Turn! Turn! Why will you die, O
house of Israel?"
In addition to these considerations I have been urged to bring this
subject before you because the assaults which are now made against the
Gospel frequently assail the doctrine of future punishment. It was once
the business of infidels to revile the terrible sanctions of the Divine
Law–but they may now suspend their exertions, for certain clergymen of
the Church of England are doing the work most effectually. No,
more–there are certain Dissenting ministers, successors of good and
venerable men, who are never more at home than when they are making
sport of the terrors of God!
Just now it seems to jump with the humor of certain philosophic schools
to depreciate our God as a Judge, and to magnify a supposititious
Divine fatherhood which is the offspring of their own effeminate
imaginations and flesh-pleasing dreams. It therefore behooves the
servants of the Most High and Righteous God to confess the faith which
they have received and not be ashamed of it, whatever disgrace may
cover them.
I. The text asserts that "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands
of the living God," and our first statement shall be, that SURELY IT IS
SO, as we may certainly gather from several considerations.
1. It must be a fearful thing for impenitent sinners to fall into God's
hands when we remember the Character of God as revealed in His
judgments of old. Taking the Scriptures as our guide we see in them a
revelation of God differing very greatly from that which is so current
today. The God of Abraham, as revealed in the Old Testament, is as
different from the universal Father of modern dreams as He is from
Apollo or Bacchus. Let me remind you that ever since the day when Adam
fell, with but two exceptions, the whole of the human race has been
subjected to the pains of sickness and of death.
If you would behold the severity of Him who judges all the earth, you
have only to remember that this whole world has been for ages a vast
burying place. Men whine out their abhorrence of God's justice and
scout the idea of future punishment with the question, "Would a father
do thus-and-thus with his children?" The question needs no other reply
than fact. All men die. Would a father suffer his children to pine in
sickness and die when it was in his power to prevent it? Certainly not.
Since, then, the great God evidently permits much pain, and even death
to happen to His creatures, He is evidently not merely father, but
something more!
To ungodly men Jehovah reveals Himself in the light of a judge–and a
judge, too, whose stern severity has brought to pass the terrible doom
of death upon every man of woman born, with two exceptions, from the
Fall of Adam even until now. This is the God of Love–but not the
newly-devised God who is love and love alone. Our business is not to
think out our own idea of what God should be, but to find out, as far
as we can, what God really is. Let me then remind you of the deluge.
When the world was covered with inhabitants, and according to the
computation of some, owing to the longevity of man, with a population
more numerous than the present which crowds it, (however that is not a
material point in the question)–when the world was covered with
inhabitants, and these had sinned–God destroyed all flesh from off the
face of the earth with the exception of eight souls, whom in His
sovereignty He saved in the ark.
Can you picture to yourself the horrors of that tremendous day, when
the fountains of the great deep were broken up and the rains descended
from on high? Here were millions of creatures like ourselves destroyed
at a blow! Can you hear their shrieks and cries? Do you see them
clambering in fright to the mountaintops? Do you behold them struggling
for existence amidst the devouring flood? Can you hear the cries of the
last strong swimmers in their agony? Who does all this? It is that God
who so hates sin that, though He is infinite Love–and we would never
detract from that attribute– He is also infinite Justice and will by
no means spare the guilty!
Do not imagine that He who thus destroyed the world with a flood was
never at any other time equally severe. Let me show you the dreadful
picture of Sodom and Gomorrah and the other cities of the plain. Those
cities were filled with inhabitants, happy and cheerful like ourselves.
They found their happiness, however, in sin, and their sin had so
provoked God to anger that after a personal visit to the spot what did
He do? You who believe in effeminate personification of shallow
benevolence, turn here your blind eyes if perhaps the fire which fell
from Heaven may yield you some ray of light.
Can you see the dwellers of those cities when the fiery hail begins to
fall? In vain were their cries! In vain their tears! The burning sleet
pitilessly descends until one dreadful sheet of flame enwraps the sky
and all the men of the plain are consumed before the terrible wrath of
the Most High. What do you think of this scene of horror? And what of
those words of Peter where he speaks of God who, turning the cities of
Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them with an overthrow and
made them an example unto those that after should live ungodly?
Let me direct your eyes to Egypt. You read the story of the slaying of
the first-born in one night and it does not strike you with horror. But
only conceive of the first-born throughout all London dying in one
night–what a visitation that would be! The whole of Egypt, it is to be
believed, contained far more inhabitants than London, and yet without
regarding Egypt's bitter cry which He foreknew would ring in His
ears–that God who revenges and is terrible slew in one night the chief
of all their strength!
Don't forget the destruction at the Red Sea. Pharaoh and his hosts
descended into the midst of the sea and perished there. You rejoice,
and rightly so, because Israel was preserved, but what a fearful thing
it was that Egypt should be destroyed! Pharaoh and all the chivalry of
Mizraim swallowed up by the waves, to be mourned by innumerable widows
and orphans! Do I hear anybody accusing our God of cruelty on account
of this? And why not, if the new benevolence theory is true? Let those
who accuse the infinite Jehovah beware! Let them strive with their
fellow potsherds, but strive not with the rod of iron! Jehovah needs
none of our defenses. O amazing God! Little does it matter to You what
man's judgment of You may be, for with You the inhabitants of the earth
are as grasshoppers! You do as You will, and Your judgments are past
finding out.
Think of the slaughter of the Canaanites. Palestine was filled with
Hivites, Jebusites, and other nations. All these were given to the edge
of the sword by God's express command. Dispute the Bible and you may
get rid of this, but believe it and you have that terrible fact before
you–that He gave a whole population to unmitigated slaughter–and, I
believe, justly and rightly so. I profess not to understand the ways of
God. Who am I that I should understand Him? Should the potter's vessel
think of understanding the potter? I bow before what He does and
believe that He is just. Let Him do whatever He may!
There is no need to detain you over the terrible spectacle of thousands
smitten by pestilence at the time of David's numbering of the people.
Or of Sennacherib's hosts slain in one night by God's own hand, or even
over that direst of all judgments–the destruction of Jerusalem! But I
cannot forbear quoting the memorable words of Moses when he said of
Jehovah, "He repays them that hate Him to their face, to destroy them.
He will not be slack to him that hates Him, He will repay him to his
face" (Deut. 7:10). Well does our Jehovah deserve the title which
Isaiah gives Him, "The Lord that renders recompense to His enemies"
(Isa. 66:6). What instances does the Scripture give of what Paul calls
"the severity of God," and how true is it that, "It is a fearful thing
to fall into the hands of the living God"!
2. Pursuing our heavy task we shall now draw your solemn attention to
the words of the Savior. Our Lord Jesus Christ we believe to be the
Incarnation of God, and to represent our God under a most tender
aspect. It is a very remarkable fact that no inspired preacher of whom
we have any record ever uttered such terrible words concerning the
destiny of the lost as our Lord Jesus Christ. You may search the
Scriptures through, but you will not find more solemnly alarming
expressions than those which the loving Jesus employed.
Now, Sinner, that you may feel their power, instead of quoting them
hurriedly, let me just remind you of them slowly and solemnly. It was
that tender Savior who still cries, "Come unto Me all you that labor
and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." It was also He who
said, "Fear not them which kill the body but are not able to kill the
soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in
Hell" (Matt. 10:28). Read in Matthew 13:41–turn to the passage and
read it with your own eyes that you may feel its power more–"The Son
of Man shall send forth His angels, and they shall gather out of His
kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity, and shall
cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing
of teeth."
He repeats that expression in the forty-ninth verse. "So shall it be at
the end of the world; the angels shall come forth and sever the wicked
from among the just, and shall cast them into the furnace of fire:
there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth." In the same Gospel, in
the twenty-second chapter, you will find words equally suggestive in
the thirteenth verse–"Then said the King to the servants, Bind him
hand and foot and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness;
there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." And so again He says of
the unprofitable servant in the twenty-fifth chapter of Matthew, which
chapter also records those dreadful words, which it is well for us to
read as we find them at the forty-first verse–"Then shall He say also
unto them on the left hand, Depart from Me, you cursed, into
everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels."
And as if this were not enough, Jesus closes His discourse with these
words at the end of the chapter, "And these shall go away into
everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal." Who was
it who uttered that fearful sentence written in the ninth of Mark at
the forty-third verse? Let it duly affect you as you read it–"If your
hand offends you, cut it off: it is better for you to enter into life
maimed than having two hands to go into Hell, into the fire which never
shall be quenched: where their worm dies not, and the fire is not
quenched."
Did Jesus say that once? Read the forty-sixth verse "Where their worm
dies not, and the fire is not quenched." Did He only say it twice? Look
at the forty-eighth verse–"Where their worm dies not, and the fire is
not quenched." Three times over in one discourse! Do not complain of
the preacher if you think him harsh. Oh Beloved, he does not wish to be
harsh, but to preach with tears in his eyes these dreadful things! But
look at my Master, the Lord Jesus Christ! Did He preach smooth things
on this matter?
We heard the other day that the unquenchable fire and the undying worm
were mediaeval ideas to be scoffed at in these enlightened times! A
courtly preacher insinuated as much and more–but a greater than he,
who wore no soft raiment and dwelt in no king's palaces–uses such
expressions unmodified and undiluted! I pray you laugh not at them, and
scoff not at them, for the lips that spoke them were the lips of Him
who loved the souls of men even to the death! The lips of Him who shall
come a second time to judge the quick and the dead.
My terrible list is very far from being exhausted. Look at the
twentieth chapter of Luke and the eighteenth verse, and the eighteenth
chapter of Matthew and the eighth and ninth verses. But still more
memorable is that parable of Lazarus and the rich man. The punishment
of Dives is not described in terms of gentleness! He cries, "Father
Abraham, send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water
and cool my tongue, for I am tormented in this flame." Abraham gives
him no hope of escape from his misery, for the answer to the enquiry
is, "And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf
fixed: so that they which would pass from here to you cannot, neither
can they pass to us that would come from there."
Oh, mournful picture, but Jesus drew it! He it was who told us of a
certain sinner it were better for that man that he had never been born!
And of others that it were better for them that a millstone were hung
about their necks, and that they were cast into the depths of the sea!
He it is who describes certain sinners as being miserably destroyed,
and in another place uses this fearful sentence which I confess,
although it is figurative, makes me shiver as I utter it, "The lord of
that servant will come in a day when he looks not for Him, and at an
hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in sunder, and will appoint
him his portion with the unbelievers" (Luke 12:46).
Do not talk about grim mediaeval expressions after this! This is the
Master Himself, and these are His own words! And I dare to say it that
all the glowing pictures ever painted designed to compel souls to
escape from Hell never reached the dread reality which is implied in
the words of our Savior, Jesus Christ. I hope that perceiving these
terrors to have come from the lips of Jesus, who is all love, kindness,
and benevolence, you will understand that it is the highest benevolence
to warn men of their danger and to exhort them to escape from the wrath
which will surely come upon them, for "It is a fearful thing to fall
into the hands of the living God."
3. We feel that it must be a fearful thing to be punished for sin when
you remember the Atonement. It is our full belief as Christians, that,
in order to the pardon of human sin, it was necessary that God Himself
should become Incarnate, and that the Son of God should suffer–suffer
excruciating pains–to which the dignity of His Person added infinite
weight.
Brothers and Sisters, if the wrath of God is a mere trifle, there was
no need of a Savior to deliver us! It were as well to have let so small
a matter take its course, or, if the Savior came merely to save us from
a pinch or two, why is so much said in His praise? What need for Heaven
and earth to ring with the glories of Him who would save us from a
small mischief? But mark the word! As the sufferings of the Savior were
intense beyond all conception, and as no less a Person than God Himself
must endure these sufferings for us–that must have been an awful, not
to say an infinite evil from which there was no other way for us to
escape except by the bleeding and dying of God's dear Son!
Think lightly of Hell, and you will think lightly of the Cross. Think
little of the sufferings of lost souls, and you will soon think little
of the Savior who delivers you from them. God grant we may not live to
see such a Christ-dishonoring theology dominant in our times.
4. But once again, and with this we close this point. The conscience of
every sinner tells him that there will be a wrath to come. I do not
mean that the conscience of the sinner tells him what kind of
punishment it will be, or dictates to him its duration. But we know
from facts that dying men who have lived in impenitence have often
exhibited fears that are not to be accounted for except upon the
supposition that the shadow of a terrible doom had cast itself upon
their minds.
These were not the old women of whom so much has been said in the way
of despising them. These have been strong men once as boastful as Tom
Paine and his fellows! These were men of intellect, sharp intellects,
who once threatened to strike the Gospel through the heart–and yet
when they have come to die their boasts have all ceased and the
blanched cheek and the terror of the wrath to come have all proved the
truth of what they denied, and have declared–"It is a fearful thing to
fall into the hands of the living God."
I am sure we all feel–at least I speak of my own conscience–I feel
that God could not be truly God if He did not punish evil. That it
would be a pity that there should be a God if He did not punish sin.
That He might as well have had no existence at all if such were the
fact, and that if a preacher should arise who would tell men that God
would not punish their sins, such a man ought to be carefully secluded
from society because of the mischief which his doctrines would
assuredly cause.
I feel like the judge in America, who when he was waited upon by the
Universalists for assistance in setting up a place for their meeting,
after hearing the arguments, said, "No, I cannot help you. In the first
place, I do not believe that your doctrines are at all consistent with
Holy Writ. And though I am sorry to say I am not so well instructed in
the Bible as I ought to be, I believe that if Scripture had meant to
teach eternal punishment, I do not see what other terms it could have
used. At all events, if your sentiments should prevail, if there is no
Hell hereafter, there would very soon be a Hell here. For as soon as it
were known that men might commit sin with impunity, men would plunge
into sin at once."
The moral sense of man is not stamped out yet, and while it remains it
will in more or less distinct terms declare that "It is a fearful thing
to fall into the hands of the living God."
II. Let me urge you, my dear Hearer, in the second place, NOT TO
ATTEMPT TO DEPRIVE YOURSELF OF THE BENEFICIAL EFFECT WHICH A PROPER
CONSIDERATION OF THIS DOCTRINE WOULD HAVE UPON YOU.
1. Do not deny the fact, at any rate. If you do, be consistent and deny
Scripture altogether. If you doubt the punishment of the future state,
doubt the inspiration of Scripture at once–for to doubt one and hold
the other is impossible! Do not so violate your own conscience as to
dream of sin's escaping punishment. If you should persuade yourself to
doubt the existence of Hell, your doubting it will not quench its
fires. If there is no Hell hereafter I am as well off as you are, but
if there is, where will you be? Take it on the most common
supposition–I have two strings to my bow, you have only one–and that
one I believe to be a lie. Oh, my Hearers, if I were to stand here and
persuade you that there was no danger, you might very well say, "Then
why need you tell us so? Why be in earnest when there is nothing to be
in earnest about?"
2. In the next place, do not have the edge of this truth taken off by
those who suggest a hope that though you may be punished for a time in
the next world you will ultimately be destroyed and annihilated. Now
nothing in nature ever has been annihilated yet, and it would be a new
thing if you should be. I am not about to argue the point this morning,
but I pray you do not let the terrors of the wrath to come be taken off
by that idea–for even supposing it to be true, yet those who teach it
tell us that there will be a limited but a very fearful punishment!
They still agree with the teaching of the text, that "It is a fearful
thing to fall into the hands of the living God."
If I knew that I should be damned for a day I would labor to escape
from it! But to be damned for a thousand years will be terrible,
indeed, and it would still be true that "It is a fearful thing to fall
into the hands of the living God." I dare not, however, hold out to you
the hope of annihilation while the Bible contains such words as
these–"These shall go away into everlasting punishment"–everlasting!
The word is precisely the same as that which is applied to Heaven, and
though I shall be told that this is an old argument, I reply that this
is the very reason why I use it.
Be it for others to invent novelty–we count that the old is better. If
that passage does not teach the eternity of punishment, neither does it
teach the eternity of reward. It is to be always punishment,
too–always punishment. Now if the lost should suddenly be annihilated,
that annihilation would be no punishment–it would be a gift to be
sought with tears. It would be the cessation of all punishment, for how
can they be punished who have ceased to be? The punishment spoken of is
said to be everlasting, and everlasting it will be!
In the second Epistle to the Thessalonians, the first chapter and
seventh and ninth verses, we are told that such men shall be punished
with eternal destruction. Some lay hold upon the word "destruction" as
meaning annihilation, but it is eternal destruction. Annihilation is
done at once and done with–but this destruction lasts on forever. It
is eternal destruction, and then it is explained–"eternal destruction
from the Presence of the Lord, and the Glory of His power." Therefore
to be forever banished from the Glory of God and shut out from every
source of hope is the destruction here meant.
There is a very terrible passage in the twentieth chapter of Revelation
where in vision John speaks concerning the condition of lost spirits.
If you read the tenth verse speaking of Gog and Magog, it says, "And
the devil that deceived them was cast into the Lake of Fire and
brimstone, where the beast and false prophet are, and shall be
tormented day and night forever and ever." I do not know what the words
forever and ever can mean if they do not mean forever and ever.
Yes, cries one, that torment is for the devil. Very well, why do you
not sympathize with the devil as well as with men? Is not there as much
reason to sympathize with fallen angels as with fallen men?
But our Lord has said that the same punishment which awaits Satan will
befall the impenitent, for He says, "Depart, you cursed, into
everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels." And in the
last verse of the twentieth chapter of Revelation we find that whoever
was not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the Lake of
Fire–that same place into which Death and Hell were cast! This fire
will not cause annihilation, for in Revelation 21:8 we are told that
certain sinners, such as the "fearful and unbelieving, and all liars,
shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone."
How can those have a part who have no existence? To have a part in that
fire is the second death. When Jesus speaks of the fire of Hell, He
does not say that annihilation is effected by it, but speaks on this
wise: "shall cast them into a furnace of fire, there shall be (not
annihilation, but the signs of conscious misery)–weeping, and wailing,
and gnashing of teeth." Now I am not going fully into this subject, but
I can only say this much–if our Lord and His Spirit intended to make
us believe that there would be a worm that never dies, and a fire that
never could be quenched, and did mean to teach us that there was a
punishment for sin which would last forever, I do not know what other
words could have been used.
And I do pray, dear Friends, whether you think so or not, be on the
safe side! For even if it were but a thousand years only, think what
that must be! It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the
living God, even if you could get out again. But when it comes with the
solemn sanction, as I am persuaded it does, that you never will escape
from those hands, oh, why will you die? Why will you die? Look, look to
Jesus, and find eternal life in Him! Beware lest you be "wandering
stars, for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever."
3. Some suppose that instead of annihilation, restoration awaits the
lost. There are no texts in Scripture which, when read by honest men,
can mean this. They must be wickedly and perniciously perverted before
they can be made to teach anything of the sort. Scripture does not
speak of the fire of Hell as chastening and purifying, but as
punishment which men shall receive for deeds done in the body. They are
to be visited with many stripes and receive just recompense for
transgressions.
What can there be about Hell fire to change a man's heart? Surely the
more the lost will suffer the more they will hate God! When God sent
plagues upon the earth men blasphemed His name (Rev. 16:9). Men do so
now. Are they likely to turn at His rebuke then? Satan has been
punished for these six thousand years–do you see any signs of
repentance about him? Do you see any tokens of his being reclaimed? Is
he not just as much a roaring lion, going about seeking whom he may
devour, as ever he was? And the case of Satan must run parallel with
ours! There are no tokens of his restoration now, nor will there be any
tokens of ours then.
Besides, if the Gospel of Christ cannot save you, what can? If the
wooing of Christ's wounds cannot make you love Christ, do you think the
flames of Hell will? Oh, my Hearers, if, with such a Gospel as that
which is proclaimed to you, you will not turn, do you think you will
turn in the world to come? Jesus says not so, but declares that, "he
that believes not shall be damned." You live in the company of saints
now–at all events, you live in a land which represses immorality. But
in Hell there are no preachers of the Gospel–no holy examples to win
you to holiness. The dwellers in Hell are enemies of God–a pretty
school for virtue that!
Do you suppose, then, that you who leave this life without the fear of
God will be led to turn to Him then? Cast away the thought, my Hearer,
it will deceive you. This fearful doctrine did much mischief in America
at one time, but it was so revolting to the common sense of many
consciences that its day was soon over. This error will eat out the
very soul of piety. Still, were it true, Believers in Jesus are as well
off as you are. A gentleman once said to a Universalist who had been
arguing with him, "I suppose if I hate your religion, laugh at it,
ridicule it, and spit on it, it will be all the same with me at the
last?" "Yes," said the other. "Well," said the first, "mind you do not
do that with mine, or you are a lost man."
I like the remark of the people who were requested to accept one of
these preachers as ministers. They said, "You have come to tell us that
there is no Hell. If your doctrine is true, we certainly do not need
you! And if it is not true, we do not want you–so that, either way, we
can do without you." It is a most dreadful fact that there is no
provision made for the future restoration of the lost. Not a word said
about it except that for them remains the blackness of darkness
forever.
Abraham did not say to the rich man, "My dear son, you will return to
my bosom when you have undergone those purifying fires." Oh, no! That
would have been something more than a drop of water to cool his
tongue–that would have drenched him with buckets full of the cooling
draught. But no, it was just this: "And beside all this, between us and
you there is a great gulf fixed so that they which would pass from here
to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from
there."
4. Some ungodly men say, "Well, you do not believe for a minute that
there is any material fire, do you?" My dear Hearer, what is that to
you? There is a text which speaks of destroying both body and soul in
Hell, which seems to indicate punishment for the body. But if it were
not so, do you think that soul punishment is a trifle? Why, it is the
very soul of punishment! It is far more dreadful than bodily pain. Go
across to Bethlehem Hospital and observe poor creatures perfectly free
of pain in body whose minds are wrung with bitter anguish–and you will
soon see that none can bear a wounded spirit.
Oh, listen to the Lord, for it is a fearful thing to fall into His
hands. If there is no material fire. If there is no literal worm, this
will be sorry consolation for a soul on flame with woe! Though I am
thus speaking, I know what some will do. You will go away and say, "I
could not bear to hear him." I do not ask you to hear me, but I pray
you do not neglect your souls. You will say, "What a harsh preacher!"
Say so, but do not be harsh with your own souls. You will say, "He
brings up the old bugbear." If it is an old bugbear, you are men and
need not worry about it–but if it is not so, should I not be a demon
if I did not warn you?
As long as God spares my life, I hope I shall not be found unfaithful
to your souls. So long as I believe this Book, I cannot but warn you
that "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God."
III. In the third place, and briefly, I should like you to CONSIDER HOW
THIS TEXT IS PUT. The punishment to be endured is here described as
falling into the hands of the living God. Will not that be fearful? You
hear men speak of falling into the hands of the devil–that, no doubt,
would be something terrible–but this is much worse, falling into the
hands of the living God!
But what could there be that would terrify and alarm the soul in
falling into the hands of the living God? Let me remind you. You
sinners, when you begin to think of God, feel uneasy. In a future state
you will be compelled to think of God. God is not in all your thoughts
now–it is the only place where He is not–but when you enter the
future state, you will not be able to escape from the thought of God.
You will then realize the words of David, "If I make my bed in Hell,
You are there also." That thought will torment you. You will have to
think of God as One to whom you were ungrateful. You will look up and
think, "There is the God who made me, who fed me, clothed me, and if He
chastened me, did it for my good, and I never thanked Him, but I used
His name by way of blasphemy."
You will feel remorse, but not repentance as you recollect that He did
honestly invite you to come to Him–that He did call and you
refused–that He stretched out His hands and you paid no attention to
Him. As you think of the happiness of those whose hearts were given to
Him it will make your miseries great to think of what you have lost.
You will hate Him, and here, it seems to me, will be your misery. The
hatred of the soul to everything that is good will involve fearful
misery, and more so if that soul sees that good is infinite, that good
is victorious, that goodness reigns in Heaven!
Well may the wicked gnash their teeth, as they note the overthrow of
evil and the establishment of good! Ungodly men, both here and
hereafter, hate God because He is good! Just as of old, the wicked
hated the saints because they were saints– and they hate Him all the
more because He is so powerful that they cannot defeat Him or frustrate
His designs. Ah, those sins of yours will feed the flame within your
conscience and will be an undying worm within your heart. Oh, Friends,
it is misery on earth to hate God! It is misery to live with those who
hate God!
But when sin shall become fully developed there will be no need of
racks and flames–sin itself will be enough to make its own
punishment–no punishment more acute and more terrible–while the
Presence of God all the while shall act as a great exciting cause to
stir up the bad passions, and the vile enmity, and the horrid rebellion
of lost, fallen spirits. Oh turn to Him, for to turn FROM Him is to be
unhappy! To love God is Heaven–to hate Him brings Hell. You are so
made that you cannot sin and be happy.
It was right of God to make you such a creature that holiness and
happiness should go together–it was right of Him to make you such a
creature that sin and sorrow must go together, and if you will have
sin, you must have sorrow. Oh turn from it while you may! Oh may God's
Spirit turn you now before you enter into that world where there is no
turning, but where the die is cast and the road is chosen. As the arrow
once shot speeds onward in its course and turns not from it, so must
you speed on in holiness and happiness or in sin and sorrow, for there
is no turning from the course.
IV. I desire to close by saying, if THESE THINGS ARE SO, THEN ACT
ACCORDINGLY. Sinner, unless you are prepared to say this text is a lie,
do not fall into the hands of the living God. But you say, "How can I
escape, then?" By falling into the hands of the living God now, in
another sense. If you will come and confess your sin. If you will trust
in Him whom God has set forth as a propitiation for sin, there is
pardon for you! There is pardon for you NOW!
However great your sins may have been, if with a broken heart you will
say, "I will arise and go unto my Father," there is room in His heart.
There is room at the table of His Divine Grace. There is room in Heaven
for you. Whoever among you turns unto the living God shall certainly
live. "Only confess your iniquity," said He, "only return unto Me, and
I will have mercy upon you–
"You sinners, seek His Grace, whose wrath you cannot bear: Fly to the
shelter of His Cross, and find salvation there."
To trust Christ is the true way of escape! Rely upon Him and you shall
live.
To the saint–what should be the effect of this doctrine? I will show
you from the lips of one who hates it. I read in a newspaper yesterday
the notes of a sermon preached by a certain Congregational preacher in
London, a sermon which I must confess did not altogether so much
startle me as it would have done if I had not known the gentleman's
past.
But it did startle me when I read these words. I will quote a few
sentences: "If I dwelt upon this doctrine Sunday after Sunday in this
place of worship, and induced you to believe that people who have lived
and died impenitent are thrown into a state of condemnation and
misery–I say, if I believed that, how could I fail to feel for you or
find rest to my spirit until I grasped every one of you and beseeched
you to consider how terrible is your destiny, and how awful your
danger?
"Are we not giving up ourselves to all sorts of pleasures and
entertainments? When the work of the day is over, do we not try to
obtain some sort of relaxation among the drama, the theater, the cards,
and all kinds of social delights to direct our thoughts from the
terrible, piercing realities which are every day and every hour wearing
out our lives? How dare you do that if spirits of men are going into
everlasting damnation every instant that you breathe! If you believe
that with every breath you draw there is some soul damned forever–some
poor human being which has lost its way and come into utter misery–how
can you go about playing games? How can you be going to concerts and
sitting in front of stages and theatrical entertainments and finding
your pleasures and recreations there?
"If you do, you are like demons! If you can look on and see unnumbered
millions of your fellow creatures perishing forever, and if you can
live and enjoy yourselves, you deserve to perish forever." And then he
goes on to say that if we can go to comfortable places of worship and
sit there contentedly, and spend our lives in making money and live for
nothing else, then we are false to our profession of belief in this
doctrine. And he denounces the inconsistency, and adds, "If I believe
that doctrine I dare not preach here. I do not know where I dare
preach, but somewhere under the open sky where I should be able to say
that human beings are being lost. If this doctrine of everlasting
damnation is true, how ought you to labor to save souls from
everlasting death!
"You ought never to think of anything else, but declare it from the
housetops, and never enjoy yourselves or make more money or sit quietly
in chapel! You ought to wander over all the earth and bring spirits
back again to the God who will damn them if they do not come unto Him."
Now when I read all this, I thought, "It is even so. The doctrine of
eternal punishment should thus act upon us! And for this very reason it
ought to be preached and insisted upon–one would not have been
surprised to hear the preacher proceed to press the doctrine in order
to produce just such hatred of frivolity and worldliness, and just such
zeal and fervor–but who is not horrified to find that the next
sentence is–"I really believe that the doctrine of everlasting
damnation is a blasphemy against God! I believe it to be demoralizing
to the spirit of man, and subversive of all the laws of humanity! I
believe that the doctrine of Atheism would be better."
After first of all showing how we ought to live if that doctrine IS
true, and very properly showing its influence in promoting zeal and
fervor, this misguided man declares that Atheism would be better than a
doctrine so practically useful! No answer is needed beyond his own
words. Surely that doctrine is not so very demoralizing which would
make ministers and hearers earnest to win souls, keep them from vain
amusements, and make them give up mere money-making, and
pleasure-seeking and self-comfort–and drive them into earnest,
passionate weeping, longing and labor for men that they might be saved!
I pray God that such teachers may have a better mind, and that all of
us may be kept faithful by the power of the Holy Spirit, working to win
men because "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living
God."