Glory, the Fountain, and the Lake of Fire

 •  11 min. read  •  grade level: 7
 
WHO but God Himself could unfold to us the eternal state? And this He has done in the first eight verses of the twenty-first chapter of the Revelation. In them, with His own divine hand, He has drawn aside the curtain of the glory, and told us what there will not be there; He also draws aside the curtain of the lake of fire, and tells us who there will be there. But He omits not to point us with loving finger to the ever-playing Fountain, planted midway between glory and the lake of fire, to which He invites thirsty souls to come and drink, as the only possible way of escape from the dreary, fathomless depths of the lake of fire on the one hand, to the peerless heights of glory on the other hand.
In the twentieth chapter of the Revelation we have an account of the two resurrections: the first resurrection of the blessed and holy, which takes place at the beginning of the millennium or thousand years of Christ’s reign over the earth; and then the second and last resurrection of the dead—the unforgiven, unpardoned, unsaved, unrepentant, Godless, Christless, wicked dead, who died in their sins—which takes place at the end of the world, in front of the great white throne. Then after the seven thousand years of this world’s sad and tragical history have run their course, we are introduced, in Rev. 21:1-81And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. 2And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. 4And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. 5And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful. 6And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. 7He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son. 8But the fearful, and 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 21:1‑8), into God’s eternity.
“And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.” (v. 4.)
Here we have glory as it were on the right hand, and the five things—tears, death, sorrow, crying, and pain, that this poor world is full of, have no place there.
“God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.” What a blessed prospect for the weeping child of God; in a world where tears are always falling, and sighs are always rising, God is about to wipe away with His own hand of love all tears from the faces of His own everlastingly loved ones. There will be the eternal absence of tears in glory.
“And there shall be no more death.” Now ruthless, arbitrary death, enters unbidden and unwelcome our dwellings, and snatches away the darling objects of our love; and neither bolts, bars, locks, nor entreaties can keep him out. But there is a land where there are no graveyards, no cemeteries, where the undertaker and the gravedigger are seen no more in their harrowing occupations, and where the solemn death-knell is never heard. And that land is you lovely home in glory, where Jesus is, and which He has purchased for us with His own most precious blood. Death is not ceasing to be, it is not annihilation. Death is viewed in three ways in Scripture, but always as separation.
First, the instant Adam and Eve disobeyed God in partaking of the forbidden fruit in the garden of Eden, death was the penalty, as God had said, “In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” (Gen. 2:1717But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. (Genesis 2:17).) Did they then cease to exist? Were they immediately annihilated? No. But they were at once separated in their whole moral being from communion and intercourse with their good Creator.
Secondly, there is physical death, or the death of the body, which is the separation of the spirit and the body. “Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was; and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.” (Eccles. 12:77Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it. (Ecclesiastes 12:7).)
Thirdly, there will be the re-union of the spirit and the body of those who die unsaved, and in this state they will stand before the great white throne, and will be consigned from thence to the lake of fire which is the second death, which second death will be eternal separation from God, Christ, the Holy Ghost, the saved, the unfallen angels, and the eternal glory. (Rev. 20:13-15, 21:8.)
“Neither sorrow.” Now we are in the scene of a thousand sources of sorrow. But
“In glory above, where all is love,
There will be no more sorrow there.”
“Nor crying.” Now the jarring, discordant notes of murmuring, repining, complaining, wailing, and clamoring, fall upon the ear sadly enough, but none of these will ever have an existence in the glory.
“Neither shall there be any more pain.” No more pain of spirit or body; no more mental and no more physical pain. Sin has wrought such havoc with the human body that it is a very rare thing indeed to meet in one’s travels with a sound body. The first cry that issues from the newborn babe is a cry of pain, and the last cry of the dying one is a cry of pain.
But, blessed be God, there is a home, a place, a land, where there are none of the five sad things we have been looking at, and that is the eternal glory of God, where it is all joy and no tears, all life and no death, all happiness and no sorrow, all singing and no crying, all bliss and no pain forever and forever and forever. Will you be there?
“But the fearful, and 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.” (Rev. 21:88But the fearful, and 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 21:8).) In this truly awful verse we have eight classes of persons described, who, should they any of them die unforgiven, are doomed to spend eternity in the lake of fire.
The first on the list are “the fearful,” or cowardly. Oh, how many are wearing the white feather of cowardice! They would like to be saved, but they are afraid of being laughed at for belonging to Christ. Man, you would like to be saved, but you cannot endure the thought of being laughed at by your fellow-men. Young man, you too would like to be saved, but you dread being scoffed at by your fellow young men. Young woman, you have a desire to be saved, but you fear being talked about and made game of by your fellow young women. Poor cowards, and will you sell your souls to death, damnation, and the devil, for a curled lip, for a scoff, for a laugh? You may be amiable, kind, and generous, but if you are a coward, God has put your name first on the list of those who are bound for the lake of fire.
Then, second on the list are the “unbelieving.” Skeptic, rationalist, rejecter of Christ and divine revelation, this means you. “He that believeth not shall be damned,” are the words of Jesus Christ Himself. (Mark 16:1616He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned. (Mark 16:16).) You may be moral, and yet a rejecter of Christ; you may be philanthropic, and yet a rejecter of Christ; you may be religious, and yet a rejecter of Christ. I do not ask you if you attend any “place of worship,” if you have been baptized, or if you are a member of a “religious society;” but, have you received Christ? You are either a receiver or a rejecter of Christ. And whatever people may think or say about you, or you think or say about yourself, if you have not yet received Christ as God’s gift of eternal life, you are one of the unbelieving, whose sad course ends in the lake of fire. You must spend an eternity with those who make themselves abominable, and with murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars.
But, says some one, “there are no idolaters in this land of Bibles, tracts, preaching, and Sunday schools.” Very likely, and I hope it is so, that there are none in Christendom who bow down to worship images of metal, stone, or wood. But do you not know that God says, “Covetousness, which is idolatry”? (Col. 3:55Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry: (Colossians 3:5).)
What is the crying sin of the present moment? I am bold to say that it is covetousness. Oh, covetous man and covetous woman, thou art an idolater—a worshipper of gold, and God hath put the number seven on the list of those unhappy beings who, living and dying in their present state, will find themselves at last in the lake of fire. Last on the list are the “liars.” How common is the sin of lying, from the very uppermost to the very lowest strata of society.
Ladies and gentlemen tell lies, say they are not in when they don’t wish to be seen, or don’t wish to see those who call. Tradesmen tell lies, say their goods are what they well know they are not. Servants tell lies to hide their sins or to get their own way. Children tell lies to hide their guilty faults. Whatever may be your standing in society, and whatever your age, if you have come to the years of responsibility, and are in the habit of telling lies, you rank among the “all liars,” who “shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.” I would ask any moral, proper, noble-minded person, “How would you like to be shut up for twelve months with these eight classes of guilty sinners?” “Ah!” you say, “I would rather die ten thousand deaths than be subject to it.” But if you are unsaved, if you are, in short, a rejecter of Christ, you will have to spend an ETERNITY with them in the lake of fire!
And now having looked at the glory, and seen what there will not be there, and at the lake of fire, and seen who there will be there, let us turn to “the Fountain” which we find mentioned in the sixth verse of our scripture, and which God has placed between glory on our right hand, and the lake of fire on our left hand, and coming to which is the only possible way of securing the glory, and escaping the lake of fire.
“O Christ, Thou art the fountain,
The deep, sweet well of love.”
Four things are stated in connection with this fountain. First, God is a giver. “I will give,” not I will sell for so much money, nor I will reward for so much done; no, “I will give.” God is the giving, not the exacting God. Poor sinner, He is not asking you to give Him something, but He desires to give you everything. Jesus said to the woman at the well, in John 4, “If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldst have asked of Him, and He would have given, thee living water.” Do you know God as a giver?
Secondly, to whom He gives. It is to the thirsty. Thirsty, anxious soul, do you thirst for pardon? then God will give you pardon. Do you thirst for forgiveness? then God will give it to you. Do you thirst for eternal life? “The gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord.” Do you thirst for the Holy Spirit? He will give you the Holy Spirit the moment you have believed in Christ to the salvation of your precious soul. Do you thirst for the glory? God will presently give you that with Christ eternally. The thirst that God creates God satisfies.
Thirdly, what God gives, it is of the fountain of the water of life. God gives the best He has to give. He gave Christ to die for us, and now, having raised Him from the dead, He gives Him to us as our life, our peace, our righteousness, our sanctification, our redemption, and our hope.
“Salvation in God’s Christ is found,
Cure for my grief and care;
A healing balm for every wound,
All, all I need is there.”
Lastly, how God gives. He gives FREELY. It is the style and fashion of God’s giving that adds significance to it, and makes it so welcome to us.
All this is the sovereign grace side of the giving; there is the other and b responsible side in Rev. 22:1717And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. (Revelation 22:17): “And let him that is athirst COME. And whosoever will, let him TAKE the water of life FREELY.”
It is divinely true that God gives to the thirsty, but such are responsible to come and take; and it is also blessedly true that God gives freely; but He expects us to take as freely as He delights to give.
In these eight verses of our chapter, God having rolled up the past ages, brings us into His eternity. He shows us the eternal glory which is ours who believe in Christ, as the fruit of His redemption work. He has shown us the lake of fire which He has prepared for the devil and his angels, and which we have seen will be shared by eight classes of persons living and dying in their described state. He has also shown us the fountain, to which He invites us to come in this day of His long-suffering mercy. Oh, will you not come and drink?
In conclusion, I ask, Where will you spend ETERNITY? with whom, will you spend ETERNITY? and how will you spend ETERNITY?