William C. Nichols said...
Hell is a furnace of unquenchable fire.
A place of everlasting punishment.
Where it's victims are tormented in both their bodies and minds.
In accordance with their sinful natures,
the actual sins committed,
and the amount of light that they reject.
Hell is a place from which God’s wrath
Is revealed as a terrifying consuming fire.
And men live with unfulfilled lusts
and desires
in torment forever and ever.
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Perhaps your sitting there under the gracious influence of God,
God is putting conviction in your heart.
This is the goodness of God seeking to lead you to repentance
and here is what God says you must do to flee from the wrath to come.
Number 1:
Be afraid, first of all, because the wrath of God abides on you
Listen to the text, John 3 in verse 36
He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life
and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life
but the wrath
the word there means the violent passion of God abideth on him.
Know every lost sinner that lives outside
of divine protection,
as only given through Christ today,
has abiding, resting upon them the wrath of God.
But it's only a small part
a small measure
compared to what it's going to culminate in
when they stand before God and they're cast into everlasting fire.
Everlasting fire.
At this very moment
in this very place
some are on the threshold of eternity.
"How do you know that Brother Currin?"
Because your looking at what formally was a Baptist preacher that had no reality in my life.
And God had mercy on me to save me.
I preached the bible, I was lost.
There was no reality.
You try to make things work.
You try to have devotions.
You try to encounter the presence of the living God.
You try to have sense of God in secret prayer, you just go through those disciplines...
And yet there's no reality.
And here’s probably the greatest evidence that your outside of Christ.
In the fact that you've no power to overcome sin.
Can you overcome sin?
Or are you still living in the muck and mire of Internet pornography?
[If you are, then flee to Christ now!]
[Don't harden your heart.]
Secondly:
I would encourage you to seek the Lord while He maybe found
and call upon Him while He is near.
Isaiah Chapter 55.
Listen friend...
That admonition presupposes
that there can come a time
where you will seek the Lord but He will not be found.
If God's dealing with you,
if there's conviction,
if there's brokenness,
if there's and understanding of your sin,
fly to Christ.
Look to Christ.
Eric Alexander said "The real horror of being outside of Christ
is that there is no shelter from the wrath of God."
No shelter.
Thirdly:
Abandon all hope of saving yourself.
Abandon all hope... of saving yourself.
Attempting to be moral and live up to these standards that you’ve heard in these days
without the power of grace resting in your heart
will only aggravate sin and increase your apostasy.
Animal rights people were real concerned
when so many of our national birds were washing up on the
shore of our great lakes in our country (U.S.)
The Bald Eagle.
So they began to closely investigate why these birds were dying the way they were.
See, because of so much environmental pollution
the birds were not able to find sufficient food,
and sustenance to sustain themselves.
And so these birds would fly across these lakes...
those monarchs of the sky would have those wings spread out and
flying just above the surface of the lake they could see a pickerel or pike (types of fish)
and suddenly they would draw those massive wings
as they would soar upward
they would draw them to their side
and then they would dive toward the water
and they would penetrate the surface of the water like a bullet
and then they would spread those big talons out
and they would grab that large fish
and make there way in a struggle to the surface of that water once again
and then spread out those wings,
and take their flight
with that fish in their clutches.
Only problem was,
many times the fish was so large
and the eagle was so far from shore
that it would not turn lose the fish
before the fish drug that eagle to it's death,
by drowning it.
It did not have enough strength to get back to the shore.
Friend that is a picture today of so many people in our churches.
They're embracing their own works, those are idols!
And before they’ll turn lose those things and abandon all hope of saving themselves
that very idol will drag them to their eternal damnation.
Believe on Christ once.
Believe on Christ... you say that's too simple.
You want to know why it's so simple?
Spurgeon said "The reason God has made it so simple."
Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. (Matt 11:28)
All that will come unto me I will in no wise cast out.
Why has God made it so simple?
To annihilate the pride of man.
Cause man always wants to take a little credit, a little glory, in what he’s done.
"I prayed the prayer."
"I walked an aisle."
"I made a decision."
No friend it’s all of grace,
it’s all of grace, you believe on Christ at once brethren.
Listen to the words of the Scottish minister Robert Murray McCheyne.
He said “The present is your only time to be saved.”
“There's no believing, nor repenting, nor conversion in the grave,
no minister will speak to you there.
This is the time of your conversion.”
This is the time of your conversion.
So once again, perhaps the words of Leonard Ravenhill are fitting.
He said “If they sing worthy is the Lamb in Heaven,
in Hell they will sing “‘The harvest is passed,
the summer has ended and we are not saved.’”
Isn’t it a good thing that God remembers mercy in wrath?
Isn’t it good news that in spite of all of this exposition on wrath and judgment God remembers mercy.
You say “Well I just don’t feel it right now, I don’t feel very contrite and remorseful over my sin.”
Listen friend.
If God has given you understanding,
I want to use a term that Spurgeon coined,
“Duty faith.”
You leave whatever is keeping you from Christ and you come to Him.
And I can assure you, He will show Himself strong on your behalf
and save you to the uttermost.
And save you to the uttermost.
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