I mean, if there’s not a love for Christ, if He isn’t your all in all, if He isn’t what drives your life, if He isn’t the center and the core and the main movement of your whole life, if your life isn’t just revolving around Him, you’re going to get thrown away in the end. Can I tell you something? The wicked and the righteous – they’re here in this room. We’re here together. We’re in the same net right now. We can’t tell, but the day’s coming. Right now, we’re in close proximity with each other. So much so, sometimes even the most discerning of us, we can’t tell. But the day’s coming when a separation’s going to be made and it’s going to be final. We’ll never be together ever again.
Because you know what? In that Kingdom of Heaven, no liar is there. No coward is there. No adulterer is there. All the dogs, all the sorcerers, all those cowards, they’re on the outside forevermore. The separation is final. The separation is absolutely right. It is absolutely perfect. In professing Christianity, there is the true and the false, but a day is coming when both will be clearly distinguished and separated forever.
Ladies and gentlemen, this is us. I’m not talking about a fairy tale or some Hollywood creation, and I’m not talking about something that happened a long time ago or in a far away place. I’m talking about us. We have all been drug along and are being pulled along by the Gospel net. I’m in here right now because of the Gospel. And for one reason or another, I suspect you are too, even if you’re a child of somebody that came for that reason, and you didn’t want to be here. Or your friend dragged you in or whatever. You’ve gotten pulled by this thing one way or another. This is us. Those angels are going to separate us. This is real. This is true.
Jesus Christ came – do you know what He told Pilate about why He came into the world? To bear witness to the truth. And I’ll guarantee you if He says the Kingdom of Heaven is like this, it’s because it is. And this day is coming and this separation is going to happen. Both are right now in the net: wicked and righteous. Though there’s many kinds, bottom line, there’s only two. He says there is the evil or the wicked, and He says there is the righteous. Look, there is not a third category. There is not. You have people today: “I don’t go to church.” “I don’t bow to Christ.” “I don’t pray to Christ.” “But… you know, I don’t go persecute His people either.”
Listen, Jesus says, “If you’re not for Me, you’re against Me.” Lay it down. You’re for Him or you’re against Him. I’m not talking about whether you come to church or not. This says there’s many in the net that are going to be tossed out. It doesn’t have to do with whether you say, “Lord, Lord.” He says it’s not everybody that uses My name, that says to Me, “Lord, Lord,” that’s going to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. You know who it is? It’s those who have been genuinely born again. That’s somebody – a new creation in Christ, who now, out of a transformed reality, they do the will of the Father. They practice righteousness. Is that not the description? My wife was hitting 1 John. 1 John 3:9-10 – you see that kind of reality. If you’re born of God, you practice righteousness. You know the thing about this? You know the fact about this is that when we talk about the evil and the righteous, nobody ever thinks they’re the evil. We have them in this room, but you don’t think you are. The thing is, it’s not even just those that are caught in the net. It’s those that are out in the sea still that aren’t in the net. You go around to these homes out here, people think they’re pretty good people, don’t they? I mean, you go out and ask, it’s amazing. You can go to a prison where people are armed robbers, murderers, and rapists, and they’re pretty good people. They think they’re pretty good.
You know, who is wicked? Hitler. Right? Everybody says Hitler. Hitler is wicked. You know anybody else that’s wicked? You know what Scripture says? In 2 Thessalonians 2:12, when Jesus comes, He is going to condemn – now check this out – He is going to condemn all who had pleasure in unrighteousness. You say, “I went to church.” A profession of faith is no guarantee you’re saved. The fact that you sing the songs and even feel good feelings over the songs and say “Lord, Lord” in the songs, and cast out demons, and do many mighty works, and all those things – the Scripture says there are no guarantees there. No guarantees. Think with me here. They had pleasure in unrighteousness. That’s what you need to ask yourself. Can you sit back and watch a filthy movie and take good pleasure in that? Can you hear a guy tell a dirty joke at work and you laugh at that? I mean, you’re just going through life, and you’re just taking pleasure in unrighteousness. You take pleasure in gaining money. You take pleasure in the things that the world takes pleasure in. You take pleasure in sports or in sewing or gardening or whatever it is over and above Christ. Christ is not first. Christ is not chief. Christ is not loved.
How about Romans 2? “But for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury.” All you have to do is be self-seeking. Look, you don’t have to go through life living in the gutter; living the life of a prostitute or a drug addict or living in all sorts of heinous sin. You can just be a moral person. You just want to do life your way. You’re self-seeking. You know, you’ll look pretty good, pretty respectable. You’ll even go to church, but God forbid Jesus Christ command your life totally, and you forsake all and bow at His cross. Just self-seeking. Taking pleasure in unrighteousness. These are the people in the end who are these bad fish. And they’re separated from the good. They’re separated. They’re tossed out.
The test is not whether you make a profession. It is the fruit of your life. That’s why in the end, we’re going to be judged based on our works. You say, aren’t we saved by faith? Well, yes. Then why are we judged by works? Because true faith always produces love for Christ. It always produces a love for His ways, a love to be ruled by Him, a love for His commandments. That’s always the case. The love of Christ. Brethren, you have the other parable. The man’s walking along through the field and finds the treasure. He goes and sells all that he has so that he can have the treasure. I’ll tell you what, that’s forsaking all. Why? Why will a man forsake everything? Because he’s found something that’s a greater treasure. And when people’s eyes are truly opened to behold the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, they will abandon everything. They will abandon. And you know what? You don’t have to be around people too long. you can tell people who are religious church-goers versus somebody who loves Christ. I mean, you can tell. You can tell the difference.
I was just reading about one of those first Great Awakenings – Daniel Rowland – he was a key Great Awakening figure out of Wales. And he said this: lost men love doctrine. I’m not saying saved men don’t like it too, but his very point was lost men love doctrine. Saved men love Christ. Oh, you can get somebody that wants to argue all the five points of Calvinism and they want to argue the supralapsarianism Sam was talking about before. They want to argue election. They want to argue about all these things. Bottom line, you can tell the true Christian despite what his theology might look like. They can be Arminian to the core, but you can tell people when you’re around them, they are surrendered to Christ and they love Him. And they walk in the light of the glory of Him.
Let me tell you this. Men and women are thrown into hell. They’re not just put there. They’re thrown there. It is like a repulsive thing. It’s these holy angels. (incomplete thought) It’s like, even a man like Paul could say, right there as he’s wrapping up 1 Corinthians at the end of chapter 16, he says let everybody be cursed who does not love the Lord Jesus Christ. It’s that kind of thing. They find these fish who they were in the church, they were among God’s people. They got pulled in. They’re like that one that’s found at the wedding without the garment on. They’re naked. They’re filthy. They’re nasty. They’re vile. And these angels, it’s like they’re so repulsive they’re just cast. They’re thrown. They’re rejected. Men are thrown into hell. It is a fearful thing.
You know, one thing that’s just true of every one of us? You know how the Scripture says God is no respecter of men. We are respecters of men. The truth is everyone of us in this room respects ourself. I mean, there are things we just would not want done. Somebody throwing us into hell. People will say, “My God’s not like that.” But let me tell you something, the God of the Scriptures is like that. And the problem is it doesn’t have so much to do with what God’s like – well, it does in a great way, but it has a lot to do with what you’re like. You see, people have a very high view of themselves.
You know what it takes for a holy God to cast sinners into hell like that? In such a detestable fashion? It has to do with how filthy and how ugly and how useless and how wicked and how sinful you truly are. See, we’re respecters of self, so we generally have much higher views of ourselves than what we ought to have. Even as Christians, that’s true. But God is no respecter. And if He finds you in that net in that day by way of His angels, if you’re found in that net, and you’re found there in that condition, you are going to be thrown away. It is going to be violent. It is going to be on purpose. And God is going to be no respecter of you. And in that time, the age of the net is done.
Men typically look in this life for a second chance. You know, we get sick. We have this idea we’re going to get well again. You lose a job, you have an idea that you’re going to get another job again. And this life is full of second chances, but I’ll tell you in that day, there will be no more casting of the net. There will be no more offer of mercy. There will be no more offer of grace. No more offer of God’s compassion. You know what happens? They’re thrown out there and there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. And I’ll tell you one of the things that will induce weeping in the damned if they were in the net – think with me here – think with me if you’re like one of the demons. The demons fell into sin. The lake of fire has been created for Satan and for his demons. You sinned. You got what you deserved. Justice came. You’re in the lake of fire. It’s horrible. It’s horrible beyond imagination because the punishment is horrid. But can you imagine to be in the lake of fire and to be a man or a woman? To belong to a race to whom a Savior was sent? But you know what, we support missions in Papua New Guinea. What if you’re one of those cannibals and you died before the missionary ever came? That’s miserable. That’s miserable being in hell and to know you deserved it. But how much will it intensify it to know that a Savior was sent to your race, but you never heard? But in creation, there was light. You realized there was a God and you rejected it.
But I’ll tell you this, to not be like a devil, to not be like the cannibal, but to be like you – to have sat in the church; to have sat under the Gospel; to have had Christ offered right before you, the cross set up in your sight, Christ publicly portrayed as crucified. If any one of you in this room ends up cast away, thrown away, your weeping will be the most intolerable. To know that you had Christ set right there before you; right there. And you chose your sin. You would not bow your knee. You would rather take pleasure in unrighteousness. There was some idol in your life that you held on to. You will weep. It will be the most distressing thing to suffer punishment rightfully, justly like the demons. It’s horrible! But to know, I had eternal life – not only did I have an escape out of this place I find myself in, but it wouldn’t just to have been brought to nothing, or annihilated, or just to have been relieved from the pain. There was a Heaven. There was a glory. There was a Paradise to be had and I despised it. It was eternal, and I rather forsook Christ. I turned my back on Him. I didn’t listen to the preacher. I thought more about the football game. I thought more about the work. I thought more about money. I thought more about sex and all the gods of this world. I thought more about drinking and drugs and partying and pleasure and fun and being with my friends, and I chose that over Christ. And I sat there in the church. I heard Sam and others stand in that pulpit, and week after week, I heard it, and I rejected it. I went out and I shook myself like Samson did, and I just blew it off. I wanted those demons to come like birds and pick the seed away. I wanted it. I tried to douse my conscience. I didn’t want to feel it. And it says not only do they weep, it says they gnash with their teeth.
Christ is altogether lovely. He is altogether glorious. And there isn’t a thing in this world that is worth holding on to because you know what? There isn’t a thing in this world that you’re going to be able to hold on to. It’s all going to be taken away. I mean, what a fool that person is to hold on to something and reject Christ, that they’re going to lose in the end anyway. Absolutely foolish. Jesus Christ was nailed to that cross and He bore the wrath of God Almighty. He drank that cup. Even in anticipation of it, He said, “I sorrow unto death.” Even the contemplation by the Son of God, the mighty Son of God even contemplating what horrors lie in wait for the damned, that He must drink on behalf of His people. The Son of God – it brought Him to the point of death. He sorrowed unto death. He sweat great drops of blood. And He went to that cross, and the sun forbeared to shine and the wrath of God Almighty fell upon Him. The weeping and gnashing of teeth is real. He bore my weeping and my gnashing of teeth. He bore it. Full, poured on His head. I am free.
I mean, if there's not a love for Christ, if He isn't your all in all, if He isn't what drives your life, if He isn't the center and the core and the main movement of your whole life, if your life isn't just revolving around Him, you're going to get thrown away in the end. Can I tell you something? The wicked and the righteous - they're here in this room. We're here together. We're in the same net right now. We can't tell, but the day's coming. Right now, we're in close proximity with each other. So much so, sometimes even the most discerning of us, we can't tell. But the day's coming when a separation's going to be made and it's going to be final. We'll never be together ever again. Because you know what? In that Kingdom of Heaven, no liar is there. No coward is there. No adulterer is there. All the dogs, all the sorcerers, all those cowards, they're on the outside forevermore. The separation is final. The separation is absolutely right. It is absolutely perfect. In professing Christianity, there is the true and the false, but a day is coming when both will be clearly distinguished and separated forever. Ladies and gentlemen, this is us. I'm not talking about a fairy tale or some Hollywood creation, and I'm not talking about something that happened a long time ago or in a far away place. I'm talking about us. We have all been drug along and are being pulled along by the Gospel net. I'm in here right now because of the Gospel. And for one reason or another, I suspect you are too, even if you're a child of somebody that came for that reason, and you didn't want to be here. Or your friend dragged you in or whatever. You've gotten pulled by this thing one way or another. This is us. Those angels are going to separate us. This is real. This is true. Jesus Christ came - do you know what He told Pilate about why He came into the world? To bear witness to the truth. And I'll guarantee you if He says the Kingdom of Heaven is like this, it's because it is. And this day is coming and this separation is going to happen. Both are right now in the net: wicked and righteous. Though there's many kinds, bottom line, there's only two. He says there is the evil or the wicked, and He says there is the righteous. Look, there is not a third category. There is not. You have people today: "I don't go to church." "I don't bow to Christ." "I don't pray to Christ." "But... you know, I don't go persecute His people either." Listen, Jesus says, "If you're not for Me, you're against Me." Lay it down. You're for Him or you're against Him. I'm not talking about whether you come to church or not. This says there's many in the net that are going to be tossed out. It doesn't have to do with whether you say, "Lord, Lord." He says it's not everybody that uses My name, that says to Me, "Lord, Lord," that's going to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. You know who it is? It's those who have been genuinely born again. That's somebody - a new creation in Christ, who now, out of a transformed reality, they do the will of the Father. They practice righteousness. Is that not the description? My wife was hitting 1 John. - you see that kind of reality. If you're born of God, you practice righteousness. (Incomplete thought) You know the thing about this? You know the fact about this is that when we talk about the evil and the righteous, nobody ever thinks they're the evil. We have them in this room, but you don't think you are. The thing is, it's not even just those that are caught in the net. It's those that are out in the sea still that aren't in the net. You go around to these homes out here, people think they're pretty good people, don't they? I mean, you go out and ask, it's amazing. You can go to a prison where people are armed robbers, murderers, and rapists, and they're pretty good people. They think they're pretty good. You know, who is wicked? Hitler. Right? Everybody says Hitler. Hitler is wicked. You know anybody else that's wicked? You know what Scripture says? In 2 Thessalonians 2:12, when Jesus comes, He is going to condemn - now check this out - He is going to condemn all who had pleasure in unrighteousness. You say, "I went to church." A profession of faith is no guarantee you're saved. The fact that you sing the songs and even feel good feelings over the songs and say "Lord, Lord" in the songs, and cast out demons, and do many mighty works, and all those things - the Scripture says there are no guarantees there. No guarantees. Think with me here. They had pleasure in unrighteousness. That's what you need to ask yourself. Can you sit back and watch a filthy movie and take good pleasure in that? Can you hear a guy tell a dirty joke at work and you laugh at that? I mean, you're just going through life, and you're just taking pleasure in unrighteousness. You take pleasure in gaining money. You take pleasure in the things that the world takes pleasure in. You take pleasure in sports or in sewing or gardening or whatever it is over and above Christ. Christ is not first. Christ is not chief. Christ is not loved. (incomplete thought) How about Romans 2? "But for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury." All you have to do is be self-seeking. Look, you don't have to go through life living in the gutter; living the life of a prostitute or a drug addict or living in all sorts of heinous sin. You can just be a moral person. You just want to do life your way. You're self-seeking. You know, you'll look pretty good, pretty respectable. You'll even go to church, but God forbid Jesus Christ command your life totally, and you forsake all and bow at His cross. Just self-seeking. Taking pleasure in unrighteousness. These are the people in the end who are these bad fish. And they're separated from the good. They're separated. They're tossed out. The test is not whether you make a profession. It is the fruit of your life. That's why in the end, we're going to be judged based on our works. You say, aren't we saved by faith? Well, yes. Then why are we judged by works? Because true faith always produces love for Christ. It always produces a love for His ways, a love to be ruled by Him, a love for His commandments. That's always the case. The love of Christ. Brethren, you have the other parable. The man's walking along through the field and finds the treasure. He goes and sells all that he has so that he can have the treasure. I'll tell you what, that's forsaking all. Why? Why will a man forsake everything? Because he's found something that's a greater treasure. And when people's eyes are truly opened to behold the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, they will abandon everything. They will abandon. And you know what? You don't have to be around people too long. you can tell people who are religious church-goers versus somebody who loves Christ. I mean, you can tell. You can tell the difference. I was just reading about one of those first Great Awakenings - Daniel Rowland - he was a key Great Awakening figure out of Wales. And he said this: lost men love doctrine. I'm not saying saved men don't like it too, but his very point was lost men love doctrine. Saved men love Christ. Oh, you can get somebody that wants to argue all the five points of Calvinism and they want to argue the supralapsarianism Sam was talking about before. They want to argue election. They want to argue about all these things. Bottom line, you can tell the true Christian despite what his theology might look like. They can be Arminian to the core, but you can tell people when you're around them, they are surrendered to Christ and they love Him. And they walk in the light of the glory of Him. Let me tell you this. Men and women are thrown into hell. They're not just put there. They're thrown there. It is like a repulsive thing. It's these holy angels. (incomplete thought) It's like, even a man like Paul could say, right there as he's wrapping up 1 Corinthians at the end of chapter 16, he says let everybody be cursed who does not love the Lord Jesus Christ. It's that kind of thing. They find these fish who they were in the church, they were among God's people. They got pulled in. They're like that one that's found at the wedding without the garment on. They're naked. They're filthy. They're nasty. They're vile. And these angels, it's like they're so repulsive they're just cast. They're thrown. They're rejected. Men are thrown into hell. It is a fearful thing. You know, one thing that's just true of every one of us? You know how the Scripture says God is no respecter of men. We are respecters of men. The truth is everyone of us in this room respects ourself. I mean, there are things we just would not want done. Somebody throwing us into hell. People will say, "My God's not like that." But let me tell you something, the God of the Scriptures is like that. And the problem is it doesn't have so much to do with what God's like - well, it does in a great way, but it has a lot to do with what you're like. You see, people have a very high view of themselves. You know what it takes for a holy God to cast sinners into hell like that? In such a detestable fashion? It has to do with how filthy and how ugly and how useless and how wicked and how sinful you truly are. See, we're respecters of self, so we generally have much higher views of ourselves than what we ought to have. Even as Christians, that's true. But God is no respecter. And if He finds you in that net in that day by way of His angels, if you're found in that net, and you're found there in that condition, you are going to be thrown away. It is going to be violent. It is going to be on purpose. And God is going to be no respecter of you. And in that time, the age of the net is done. Men typically look in this life for a second chance. You know, we get sick. We have this idea we're going to get well again. You lose a job, you have an idea that you're going to get another job again. And this life is full of second chances, but I'll tell you in that day, there will be no more casting of the net. There will be no more offer of mercy. There will be no more offer of grace. No more offer of God's compassion. You know what happens? They're thrown out there and there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. And I'll tell you one of the things that will induce weeping in the damned if they were in the net - think with me here - think with me if you're like one of the demons. The demons fell into sin. The lake of fire has been created for Satan and for his demons. You sinned. You got what you deserved. Justice came. You're in the lake of fire. It's horrible. It's horrible beyond imagination because the punishment is horrid. But can you imagine to be in the lake of fire and to be a man or a woman? To belong to a race to whom a Savior was sent? But you know what, we support missions in Papua New Guinea. What if you're one of those cannibals and you died before the missionary ever came? That's miserable. That's miserable being in hell and to know you deserved it. But how much will it intensify it to know that a Savior was sent to your race, but you never heard? But in creation, there was light. You realized there was a God and you rejected it. But I'll tell you this, to not be like a devil, to not be like the cannibal, but to be like you - to have sat in the church; to have sat under the Gospel; to have had Christ offered right before you, the cross set up in your sight, Christ publicly portrayed as crucified. If any one of you in this room ends up cast away, thrown away, your weeping will be the most intolerable. To know that you had Christ set right there before you; right there. And you chose your sin. You would not bow your knee. You would rather take pleasure in unrighteousness. There was some idol in your life that you held on to. You will weep. It will be the most distressing thing to suffer punishment rightfully, justly like the demons. It's horrible! But to know, I had eternal life - not only did I have an escape out of this place I find myself in, but it wouldn't just to have been brought to nothing, or annihilated, or just to have been relieved from the pain. There was a Heaven. There was a glory. There was a Paradise to be had and I despised it. It was eternal, and I rather forsook Christ. I turned my back on Him. I didn't listen to the preacher. I thought more about the football game. I thought more about the work. I thought more about money. I thought more about sex and all the gods of this world. I thought more about drinking and drugs and partying and pleasure and fun and being with my friends, and I chose that over Christ. And I sat there in the church. I heard Sam and others stand in that pulpit, and week after week, I heard it, and I rejected it. I went out and I shook myself like Samson did, and I just blew it off. I wanted those demons to come like birds and pick the seed away. I wanted it. I tried to douse my conscience. I didn't want to feel it. And it says not only do they weep, it says they gnash with their teeth. Christ is altogether lovely. He is altogether glorious. And there isn't a thing in this world that is worth holding on to because you know what? There isn't a thing in this world that you're going to be able to hold on to. It's all going to be taken away. I mean, what a fool that person is to hold on to something and reject Christ, that they're going to lose in the end anyway. Absolutely foolish. Jesus Christ was nailed to that cross and He bore the wrath of God Almighty. He drank that cup. Even in anticipation of it, He said, "I sorrow unto death." Even the contemplation by the Son of God, the mighty Son of God even contemplating what horrors lie in wait for the damned, that He must drink on behalf of His people. The Son of God - it brought Him to the point of death. He sorrowed unto death. He sweat great drops of blood. And He went to that cross, and the sun forbeared to shine and the wrath of God Almighty fell upon Him. The weeping and gnashing of teeth is real. He bore my weeping and my gnashing of teeth. He bore it. Full, poured on His head. I am free.
