Spurgeon: June AM
* 06/26/AM
"Art thou become like unto us?"
--Isaiah 14:10
What must be the apostate professor's doom when his naked
soul appears before God? How will he bear that voice, "Depart,
ye cursed; thou hast rejected me, and I reject thee; thou hast
played the harlot, and departed from Me: I also have banished
thee for ever from my presence, and will not have mercy upon
thee." What will be this wretch's shame at the last great day
when, before assembled multitudes, the apostate shall be
unmasked? See the profane, and sinners who never professed
religion, lifting themselves up from their beds of fire to point
at him. "There he is," says one, "will he preach the gospel in
hell?" "There he is," says another, "he rebuked me for cursing,
and was a hypocrite himself!" "Aha!" says another, "here comes a
psalm-singing Methodist--one who was always at his meeting; he
is the man who boasted of his being sure of everlasting life;
and here he is!" No greater eagerness will ever be seen among
Satanic tormentors, than in that day when devils drag the
hypocrite's soul down to perdition. Bunyan pictures this with
massive but awful grandeur of poetry when he speaks of the
back-way to hell. Seven devils bound the wretch with nine cords,
and dragged him from the road to heaven, in which he had
professed to walk, and thrust him through the back-door into
hell. Mind that back-way to hell, professors! "Examine
yourselves, whether ye be in the faith." Look well to your
state; see whether you be in Christ or not. It is the easiest
thing in the world to give a lenient verdict when oneself is to
be tried; but O, be just and true here. Be just to all, but be
rigorous to yourself. Remember if it be not a rock on which you
build, when the house shall fall, great will be the fall of it.
O may the Lord give you sincerity, constancy, and firmness; and
in no day, however evil, may you be led to turn aside.