BY THE REV. JAMES S. SINCLAIR, JOHN KNOX’S, GLASGOW.
(Continued from page 334.)
II. We now proceed to notice the solemn message of warning in the text, and in doing so let us observe—
The Persons to Whom This Message is Sent
I. The persons to whom this message is sent. They are called “the wicked.” When the word “wicked” is applied to a person or persons, apart from an immediate contrast with “the righteous,” it is generally understood as referring to such as are openly or exceptionally depraved, but when it is used in connection with this contrast, brought out in the words before us, it is commonly designed to describe all sinners in their natural estate, whether moral or immoral in their lives. In respect of relation to God, there is no middle class in the human race. All must be ranged under one or other of the two great classes—the righteous or the wicked. There are no doubt varying degrees of wickedness among natural men, but all such at their best are described in God’s Word as “dead in trespasses and sins.” The apostle Paul himself, when unconverted, was one of the fairest samples of morality that could be found, yet he bears testimony, by the Spirit, to the fact that in time past he was among those who were dead in trespasses and sins, and children of wrath (Eph. ii. 1-3). Let me notice that the wicked are so called on, at least, three accounts.
(1) They are called wicked because they are destitute of righteousness. The Scripture, as already quoted, testifies that “there is none righteous, no, not one.” God made man upright at the beginning, but in the person of his representative, the first Adam, he broke the law, as a covenant of works, and came under its curse. “By the offence of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation.” All mankind lost their original righteousness, and incurred the sentence of death. Being destitute of the Spirit and image of God, they have now no will or ability to meet the just requirements of His holy law, either in its precept or penalty. This is sufficient to deserve the name wicked. For when men are so depraved that they neither will nor can give to God the obedience, satisfaction, and glory justly due unto His name, they are truly wicked, whether they believe it themselves or not. Not to love and serve our blessed Creator, King, and infinitely bountiful Benefactor, is as surely a crime as to positively hate and disobey Him. Sad to say, both things are too true of our fallen race. Every unrenewed sinner is filled with unrighteousness.
(2) They are called wicked because of the entire wickedness of their nature. “The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked; who can know it?” This is the testimony of the divinely-inspired prophet Jeremiah in the Old Testament, and with it agrees the testimony of the equally inspired apostle Paul in the New. He says, “The carnal mind is enmity against God and is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.” (Rom. viii. 7.) God’s word in general clearly shows that the natural man is dark in his understanding, defiled in his conscience, perverted in his will, and depraved in his affections. He is destitute of all that is spiritually good, and is completely opposed to God and holiness. The sinner may be sublimely unconscious of all this, or he may deliberately disbelieve it, but our unconsciousness or unbelief will not alter the truth in the least. If we were wise for ourselves and for eternity we would seek to make haste to receive the whole testimony of God about our fallen and lost estate as sinners, for it is by the acceptance of the truth, through the Spirit, concerning both sin and salvation that we alone can be saved.
(3) They are called wicked because of the general wickedness of their works. The Lord Jesus Christ says, “For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness; all these evil things come from within and defile the man.” The wicked are known by their fruits; the polluted fountain bubbles forth impure water; the corrupt tree brings forth evil fruit.
One outstanding form of iniquity in Isaiah’s time, and during the Old Testament dispensation, was idolatry. The people were prone to go after the gods of their heathen neighbours or to worship the true God in ways He had not appointed. Idolatry was a very grievous sin in Israel. God had proved His absolute being, universal government and almighty power, as well as His infinite goodness, by His wonderful works towards the chosen people, and it was the most malignant form of unbelief as well as the basest ingratitude to give any place whatsoever to the false gods of the heathen or to depart in any particular from the true worship of Jehovah. Does anyone imagine that the sin of idolatry has ceased to exist in these latter days? If anyone does he or she is greatly mistaken. The same sin continues under new forms. It is not only to be found now in the Church of Rome with all its ceremonies and mummeries, but wherever a wrong conception of God or His Son Jesus Christ is held forth and accepted. There are false gods and false Christs to-day not a few. And many people who may be otherwise moral and respectable in their lives are showing the wickedness of their hearts in practice by the idolatry of which they are guilty. Idolatry is certainly not confined to the sphere of religious worship. Every natural man is an idolater in one way or another. He gives to self, or friends, the world or lust, the place that belongs to God and Christ; he worships and serves “the creature more than the Creator,” and so is guilty of a subtle but ruinous form of idolatry.
A second branch of evil doing is transgression of the law. There only a few, a very few, of the human race that may be strictly put in the same category with the Apostle Paul, who, in his natural estate, was as “touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.” Even those persons keep the law, in the letter and not in the spirit. Their obedience is rotten at the heart, and is counted naught in the court of heaven, so far as spiritual acceptance is concerned. No man can give a true and holy obedience to God’s law without regeneration. Many, on the other hand, are guilty of open breaches of the commandments of God. They show their disobedience by such crimes as murder, drunkenness, uncleanness, blasphemy, falsehood, or theft. Sabbath desecration is also a crime, though it has come to be condoned and white-washed at the present day. The Sabbath command stands in the centre of the moral law; Christ came not to destroy the law but to fulfil it; it is of perpetual obligation. Believers are delivered from the law, as a covenant of works, but are still under the law, which embraces the whole preceptive will of God, as a rule of life; they are “not without law to God but are under law to Christ;” and so those who profess to be Christians and at the same time treat lightly the fourth or any other commandment of the law entirely call in question their Christianity. The Word clearly declares that the carnal mind, which is enmity against God, cannot be subject to His law, and there is abundant proof of its wickedness in the lives and practices of men.
A third and very decided way in which sinners show their wickedness is in their disobedience to the gospel. The prophet Isaiah in his own time was commissioned to say to a sinful people, “Come now and let us reason together saith the Lord; though your sins be as scarlet they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson they shall be as wool.” (Is. i. 18.) By his mouth the Lord exhorted sinners to turn from their evil ways and to come to Him for pardon and cleansing. In word and sacrifice Christ as the true Messiah and Saviour of sinners was constantly set before them. The gospel was preached unto them as well as unto us, though “the word preached did not profit” many of them, “not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.” And what is to be said to sinners in New Testament times? Christ came in the fulness of time and finished the glorious work of redemption by His obedience and death, and His servants are now commissioned to go forth to all the world and “preach the gospel to every creature.” They are directed to say, “Repent ye and believe the gospel.” Disobedience to the gospel call is a very heinous form of iniquity. It implies contempt for the glory of God as surpassingly revealed in the face of Jesus Christ, and for the spiritual and eternal welfare of the precious immortal soul. “How,” exclaims the apostle, “shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?” Unbelief is the crowning condemning sin. Thus it is written “the fearful and unbelieving” will be cast into the lake of fire.
Reasons Why the Wicked Need to be Explicitly Warned
- The second point to which I desire to call attention in connection with this message is some reasons why the wicked need to be explicitly warned.
(1) The first, I may state, is their self-security. Though under God’s holy displeasure and righteous curse, they are at ease. As contrasted with the people of God, who are sometimes too ready to be alarmed, they are greatly disposed to speak peace to themselves when there is no peace. Though God lifts up His hand in threatening, they refuse to see it, and though He proclaims coming judgment by the mouth of His servants they refuse to believe it. If they find success in business, or enjoy social comforts, they imagine God is well pleased with them, not realising that temporal prosperity is often given with a curse and not with a blessing. The man in the parable who had goods laid up for many years is an illustration of this. He thought that all was well with him, and that he would have a good time of it in worldly pleasure, but at that very moment his soul was required of him, and he was called to a sad account. God warns self-secure sinners in our text that it shall be sooner or later ill with them.
(2) A second reason why they require to be warned is their presumption. Even when they hear the words of God’s curse they are ready to bless themselves in their hearts, saying “I shall have peace though I walk in the imagination of mine heart, to add drunkenness to thirst.” Many are disposed to presume upon the mercy of God. They choose to forget that God is righteous as certainly as He is merciful, and they concentrate their thoughts upon the fact of His longsuffering and compassion towards sinners. They reflect, perhaps, that He has pardoned great sinners at the point of death, and so they comfortably conclude that He will deal so with them. They also forget, in connection with this, that God only shows His saving mercy to those who repent and believe the gospel, and that all who continue to the end impenitent and unbelieving will be for ever under the just wrath and curse of God. It is very few indeed that get repentance and pardon at the last moment. There is only one example given in Scripture—the thief on the Cross—teaching us that while none may entirely despair of mercy on this side of time, yet none may presume. To make the mercy of God an occasion of continuing in sin or going deeper into it is to turn His grace into lasciviousness. Such presumptuous sinners, if ever they are to be roused out of the sleep of death, must be loudly and particularly warned of their guilt and danger. And it shows the great kindness of God that He commands them thus to be spoken to by His messengers. “Awake thou that sleepest and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.” (Eph. v. 14.)
The Message of Warning Itself
- The third thing to be observed is the message of warning itself, “Woe unto the wicked! it shall be ill with him.”
(1) It appears from this that there is a woe or curse pursuing the wicked. This is not the woe of men, but of God. Men may pronounce woes and curses upon their fellow creatures for little or no reason whatsoever, but these will have no more value or effect than an empty blast of wind. We have no reason to fear anything men may say unless the authority and truth of God are behind it, though they should use the language of Scripture in abundance. Christ says: “Fear not them that kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul; but rather fear him which is able to destroy both body and soul in hell.” (Matt. x. 28.) In the text we have God’s commission to His servants to proclaim, “Woe unto the wicked.” There is nothing more terrible in all the universe than the curse of God, which will yet overtake impenitent sinners in all its fulness. Even now, it is at their heels, and distresses them with the miseries of this life. They are here solemnly warned that the woe is their just and final portion if they continue in their sins. “And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?”
(2) Notice, further, it shall be ill with the wicked in time. “The way of transgressors is hard.” They do not escape pain and suffering in this world. It is very often to be observed that those who do not fear God, though they should be high in rank and rich in possessions, do not escape very severe afflictions in the present life. And even when they get off for a time, and all things seem prosperous with them, suddenly the hand of sorrow is laid on them. The impenitent have no reason to look for anything but ill even in time, and it is only of God’s infinite longsuffering that they experience so much freedom from trouble as they do. But they are here solemnly warned that if things are comfortable at present they will not be so always. And though, notwithstanding this warning, their worldly comforts should seem to be increasing, they ought to consider that it is only ill with them as long as these do not lead them to God and repentance. In any case, they do not know the day or the hour when “many sorrows” shall justly overtake them. (Ps. xxxii. 10.)
(3) It shall be ill with them at death. At death the people of God pass into the kingdom of bliss, but the wicked fall into the abode of misery. Death seizes on them, and they “go down quick into hell.” (Ps. lv. 15.) It is written of the rich man, who neglected Lazarus that, when he died, “in hell he lifted up his eyes, being in torments.” This is the portion of the wicked, whether rich or poor, at death. Sometimes we find that poor people who have much trouble in this present life seem to imagine that their present suffering will entitle them to heaven at last. But this is a great mistake. Poverty, of itself, will not prepare a man for heaven, nor will riches, of themselves, keep him out of it. Poverty without Christ shall go to hell, while riches with Christ will go to heaven. The matter lies deeper than outward circumstances, though these have peculiar dangers attached to them. It shall be inexpressibly ill with the unconverted sinner, whoever he be, at death. In the times in which we live almost everyone is spoken of as going to heaven at death, whatever their previous character may have been. And this fearful delusion is fostered by professed ministers of the gospel almost universally. But though all should combine to send an unregenerate sinner to heaven that will not change the absolute certainty—let us say it with trembling—of his eternal misery. “Though hand join in hand, the wicked shall not be unpunished.” (Prov. xi. 21.)
(4) It shall be ill with them at judgment. As already indicated in connection with the righteous, “We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that everyone may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.” (2 Cor. v. 10.) Sinners may escape punishment from men, but they cannot escape the righteous judgment of God. His hand will find them out at last, and they must all appear before Him to answer for their iniquities. Who can describe the awful solemnity of that day? Christ shall then come in glory with all His holy angels around Him, and shall sit on the throne of His glory. The despised and crucified Jesus of Nazareth, who was covered with the veil of humiliation in this world, will then appear in all His divine majesty to judge the world in righteousness. “The dead small and great” shall stand before Him, and while He sets the righteous on His right hand, He puts the wicked on His left. At that solemn and tremendous tribunal all who died in their sins, whatever their profession may have been in this world—some of them may have been reckoned true, yea, eminent Christians—shall hear the dread and final sentence that no power of men or devils can ever cancel, “Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.” No excuses or palliations of iniquity will then avail. The Judge will give justice to each one. Kings and great men who despised the day of mercy will then have their portion with the lowest of mankind “in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.” (Rev. xxi. 8.)
(5) It shall be ill with them through eternity. The punishment of the wicked is everlasting. Not a few attempt to deny this truth at the present day, but they are engaged in a vain and futile task. There are no stronger words in the Greek language to set forth the never-ending character of future punishment than those so used in the New Testament. Besides, such persons are landed in a dilemma out of which they cannot extricate themselves. For example, in the passage where the Redeemer Himself personally speaks, and where He declares that the wicked “shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal,” it is the same word that is used in connection with life as in connection with punishment. Thus such unbelievers must, on their own reasoning, limit the duration of the future happiness of the righteous as well as that of the future misery of the wicked. All such attempts to deny the eternity of future punishment we regard as due to an inadequate knowledge of the holiness of God and the sinfulness of sin, as well as a fleshly pity for the hell-deserving. Souls that have been deeply convinced of sin in their consciences have felt that hell was the only place good enough for them, and to which they deserved to go; and they were no worse than others in their lives. There is a false love as well as a true for the souls of men, and that love which overlooks the righteousness of God and the just desert of iniquity is of the devil and not of Christ. No one declared with greater clearness and solemnity the never-ending punishment of the lost than did He who was eternal love incarnate. O you, my friends, who are still without Christ, and still in your sins, turn a deaf ear to the ensnaring voice of the devil who endeavours to deceive you with false hopes for the future, and hear the voice of God saying, “Turn ye, turn ye, why will ye die?” Be assured in the very depths of your souls that there is an awful day coming, to which the Word of God bears unerring testimony, a day “when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire to take vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and the glory of His power; when He shall come to be glorified in His saints and admired in all them that believe.” (2 Thess. i. 7-10.)
Grounds for the Wicked’s Ill Fate
- The fourth point we observe in the text is the grounds on which it is declared it shall be ill with the wicked. “For the reward of his hands shall be given him.”
(1) Notice that it is sin, and not God, that is the immediate cause of a sinner’s punishment. God is the just judge who must condemn transgressors, but it is our own sin that is the meritorious basis of the punishment. Sin deserves wages, and “the wages of sin is death.” Many in our time, in their infidelity and blasphemy, misrepresent this doctrine as that of “a cruel God tormenting His creatures,” forgetting that God is not angry with us as creatures, but as sinners. The right way of putting the matter is “a just God punishing sinners.” Does not the Lord Himself with infinite tenderness and authority give this message to His servants to declare: “Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways, for why will ye die. O house of Israel?” (Ezek. xxx. 11.)
(2) Observe that every man will be punished according to the guilt of his deeds. The Lord Jesus says “And behold I come quickly, and My reward is with Me to give every man according as his works shall be.” (Rev. xxii. 12.) He will give justice to each one. The duration of the punishment is everlasting, but the severity of it is not equal in every case. The heathen who never heard the gospel will not be punished with the same rigour as gospel hearers in Christian countries. The greater the privileges the greater the guilt if neglected and despised. Christ said that it would be more tolerable in the day of judgment for Tyre and Sidon, who had not seen His mighty works, than for Bethsaida and Chorazin who had seen them. (Matt. xi. 22.) It is God alone who can apportion the exact guilt of every sinner that shall appear before His bar, and we may rest absolutely satisfied that no one will get greater or less punishment than he deserves. The guilt of rejecting the gospel and of a hypocritical profession will both appear terrible in that day. Christ will say unto many who made a high profession of Christianity in time, “Depart from me, I never knew you, ye workers of iniquity.”
(3) Sinners will be compelled to acknowledge at last that they are to suffer the reward of their own transgressions, “The wicked is snared in the work of his own hands.” (Ps. ix. 16.) Some are very much disposed to put on the devil or their fellowmen the guilt that belongs to themselves. Adam, at the beginning, fell into the snare of putting the blame of his sin, not only on his wife, but on the Lord Himself—”the woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat”—and his descendants have still the same spirit. But at the last day every false refuge will be swept away, and sinners will find that the burden of their eternal condemnation falls on their own shoulders. They heard the threatenings of God’s holy law; they listened to the gracious invitations of the gospel; Christ, as the sinner’s true and only refuge, was brought to their very door in the word of salvation; but they disregarded all their privileges. They refused to repent and believe the gospel; and now their condemnation is just. And, moreover, you, my friends, who are at this moment neglecting salvation, will find that your present total inability to repent or believe of yourselves will be no valid excuse in that day. For you will see your inability to have been your sin, and your sin, your guilt. O, sinner, “thou hast destroyed thyself.”
Duty of Preachers to Warn
- Our fifth and last point from this branch of the text is that it is the duty of preachers of the Gospel to warn the wicked concerning sin and its punishment. They are to encourage the righteous and warn the unrighteous. Sometimes preachers omit the latter duty for fear of incurring the displeasure of their hearers. The fear of man only brings a snare. It is the duty of the servant of Christ to deliver His message, whether men will hear or forbear. Better to retain the favour of a holy and gracious God than that of sinful dying men. Again, preachers are to be helped to perform this weighty task by the consideration that it is often a message of mercy in disguise. The Lord may sometimes send a word of warning in judicial judgment, but He often has a gracious purpose in it; He has the purpose of awakening some soul or other out of the deep sleep of spiritual death and unconcern. Therefore, let the preacher, with all affection and solemnity, lift up his voice in faithful declaration of God’s truth concerning the end of the unconverted. The ambassadors of Christ must warn the people of the sword of divine vengeance that is coming, otherwise they will not be innocent of their blood. It is their duty and privilege to cry “Flee from the wrath which is to come.” And the question may be put to hearers, who resent the voice of warning, by those who speak the Word in all love to their souls’ good, “Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the truth?” Surely they are indeed the enemies of precious never-dying souls, who never mention that there is such a place as hell from the pulpit. Many such preachers there are at the present day who, self-secure themselves, refuse to warn their hearers of the awful danger of being lost for ever. Such ministers and people will have a dreadful meeting in eternity. We, who speak in the name of Christ, are commanded to say, “Woe unto the wicked, it shall be ill with him; for the reward of his hands shall be given him.”
Application
(1) A word to the righteous. Sometimes the children of God cannot recognise themselves under this name. They are afraid when they examine themselves that they are wholly unrighteous and corrupt, no good thing in them or about them. Well, it is right to have a humble estimate of ourselves, yet if there is grace in the soul, the creature will not willingly give up all hope, yea, is at his lowest secretly cherishing a hope that will not be allowed to perish. A great man once said that there are two classes of people in the world—the righteous who believe themselves to be sinners and the sinners who believe themselves to be righteous. If you are truly among the righteous, one mark of you is that you are deeply sensible you are a sinner by nature and practice, yea, that you cannot do one thing that is spiritually good without divine grace. Another mark is that you base your hope for eternity upon the everlasting righteousness of Christ. It is His merits and not your own that afford you the hope of being able to stand with acceptance before the bar of a holy God. And a third mark is that it is the honest desire of your heart and effort of your life to do, in the strength of grace, what the Lord requires of you—His revealed will for duty. Here, no doubt, you feel you come far short of the glory of God; but, nevertheless, though you see yourself such a vain creature, ready to get giddy over any little thing you do in the name of Christ, yet cast not all away as counterfeit, but seek to give the praise to Him who is the author of all good. If you have the true marks of the righteous upon you it shall be well with you in time and eternity in spite of sin, Satan, the world, and unbelief.
(2) But what shall I say to you who are among the wicked? You know, or ought to know, in your own conscience that things are not right with you before God. Your best doings are but filthy rags in His sight. Time is short, death is near, and an endless eternity is fast approaching. If you die as you are you must inevitably be lost. You are not fit for heaven. Many want to go to heaven who know not what they want. Heaven would be worse than hell to an unconverted sinner. The heaven of the natural man is a happy place without holiness, but the heaven Christ has prepared for His redeemed is both a holy and a happy abode. There is nothing the unbeliever hates so much as holiness. O then, be warned in time of the awful eternity that awaits you if you die in your sins, and seek God now with all diligence if haply for Christ’s sake, He may wash you from your sins, make you a new creature in Christ, and prepare you for the enjoyment of an eternal inheritance beyond the grave. Unless you now repent of your sins and believe the Gospel, your pleasant lusts will make eternity endlessly bitter for you. “Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.”
May the Lord bless to us His own Word!