GOD has done a great thing that men might be saved from perishing. He could not have done a greater. He has given His only begotten Son. And after such a proof of His love, who would dare to question what Peter tells us in his second Epistle, chapter 3:9, that He is “not willing that any should perish.” Yet our text and many another show plainly enough that men are in danger of perishing; and if this is so, it is surely an end to be escaped if that is possible, and since it is possible, no man ought to be indifferent about it.
But what is it to perish? I heard a preacher spell out the word like this P-E-R-I-S-H-to Pass Eternally Ruined Into a Sinner’s Hell. What a terrible doom that must be! And almost too solemn a matter to be turned into an acrostic. Yet that is exactly what it is to perish. Let me hasten to say that hell was not prepared for man, the paradise of God in Eden was his prepared dwelling place; I am quoting the Lord’s own words as to hell: He spoke of “everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his angels” (Matt. 25:4141Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels: (Matthew 25:41)). Then why should men be condemned to such a doom? Because they will follow the devil in his revolt against God. The turnover from God to the devil was deliberate on Adam’s part, for he does not seem to have been deceived as Eve was, and by him sin entered into the world and death by sin, and death has passed upon all men for that all have sinned. There has been no difference in this, we have every one turned to his own way. The devil was the first to take that self-willed rebellious road, and Adam was the first man to follow the devil’s lead, and, like sheep, we have all gone the same way; and the end of that road is hell.
I own that this is not a subject upon which I can write with pleasure; it is a solemn and awesome subject. Men do not like it, and I do not wonder; and many modern preachers, in order to be popular, and please men, have cast it out of their theology; but can they stamp the fear of it out of the consciences and souls of men? Some years ago, I was introduced to a man in a Yorkshire town, who wanted a talk with me. He was a working man with more than ordinary intelligence, and instead of backing horses and handing his weekly surplus over to the bookmaker, he spent it in books and possessed a library of which he was proud. But most of his books were on Eastern philosophy, for he had become a Theosophist. I pressed upon him the great fact that God had highly exalted JESUS, and given Him a Name above every name, and that every knee must one day bow to Him and every tongue confess that He is the Lord. He, on his part, was quite willing to own that He must have been a good man―His teaching and works he thought proved that, but he would admit nothing more than that. As I had not spoken of hell, it seemed strange to me that he should declare several times during our conversation, “I’ll never believe in hell,” and as often as he did so I replied, “I am not asking you to believe in hell, but to confess Jesus Christ as your Lord.”
We parted late that night, and it was a long time before he was able to sleep, his confidence in the “wisdom” that he thought he had acquired had been shaken, and he was perturbed and restless. He dosed off at last, but was suddenly awakened in the early morning to find his bedroom alight with a lurid glow, and his first thought and exclamation was, “I’m in hell.” It was a great factory on the opposite side of the road that was ablaze, and it was the flames that were pouring out of the windows of it that lighted up his room. But why should his first thought have been of hell, when but five hours before he had asserted at least half a dozen times that he would never believe in such a place? Ah, it was his conscience that spoke out before he had time to marshal his arguments. Deep down in his soul he knew that there was a hell and judgment to come, and the Eastern philosophy that he had imbibed had been unable to stamp that knowledge out of him. I am glad to say that within a week, he had thrown to the winds his false theories, and had bowed down before the great Saviour; he had become one of the “whosoevers” that believe; and he made a bonfire of the books that had deceived him, for, said he, “Now I have found the solution of all my difficulties in Christ.”
It is out of the lips of the Son of God, who came from heaven to tell us of God’s great love, that the most solemn warnings as to hell have come. He said to His followers, “In My Father’s house are many mansions, if it were not so, I would have told you.” If there had been no heaven to win, He would have told us, and if there had been no hell to shun, would He not have told us? But it was He who said to the self-righteous, hypocritical Pharisees, “How shall ye escape the damnation of hell?” He it was who warned men of “Gehenna, where the worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched.” He told His hearers of one rich man who, after death, lifted up his eyes being in torment. You see, I am not giving you my opinions on so solemn a subject as this, I would not do that, for my opinions would be of no more value than yours. I am giving you the words of the Son of God, and His words are truth. He said, “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away” (Mark 13:3131Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away. (Mark 13:31)). Have you believed them? His words are spirit and life, those that warn of judgment to come equally with those that tell of the love that saves.
Why did He who was the gift of God’s love to men utter these solemn warnings? Why does a mother warn her child of the dangers of the road, or command him not to play with matches? It is her love for him that makes her do it, and it is the same love that made God give His only begotten Son that men might have a way of escape from perishing, that warns them of the irrevocable and everlasting consequences to them of neglecting His great salvation.
This “whosoever” of John 3:1616For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16) is not the only whosoever in the Bible. It is the Whosoever of blessing and salvation and eternal life; but there is another. It occurs in the account of the last Judgment, at the great white throne; it is the Whosoever of damnation and the second death. We read “The dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works... and whosoever was not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.” And again, “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.” AND THAT IS WHAT IT IS TO PERISH.