Morning By Morning #178

The grave below…will say…, “You have become like us.”

Isaiah 14:9 – 10

From the pen of Charles Spurgeon:

Imagine the doom of the apostate—one who once professed faith, then rejected it, but who never truly knew the Lord. What will it be like when his naked soul appears before God? How will he bear to hear: “‘Depart from me, you who are cursed’ (Matt. 25:41). You rejected Me, and I reject you. ‘You have lived as a prostitute’ (Jer. 3:1) and departed from Me, so I have also banished you from My presence forever and ‘will not have mercy’ (Isa. 27:11 KJV) on you.”

What shame this wretched apostate will experience on “the great day of the LORD” (Zeph. 1:14) as he is unmasked before the multitudes! Imagine profane sinners who never professed faith at all lifting themselves from their beds of fire, pointing at him and saying in disgust, “There he is! I wonder if he will preach his gospel here in hell?” Imagine another saying, “He rebuked me for cursing but was a hypocrite himself!” And yet another saying, “Here comes that hymn-singing churchgoer! He was always at church and boasted of being sure of his eternal life, but here he is with us!” There will be no greater eagerness amid Satanic tormentors than on those days when devils drag a hypocrite’s soul to hell.

In The Pilgrim’s Progress, John Bunyan (1628 – 1688) describes an awful scene of a “back way to hell.” He tells of a wretched soul being bound with cords by seven devils and being dragged from the road to heaven on which he had professed to walk, and then being thrown into hell through its back door.

Caution, you who profess faith! Remember, there is a back way to hell! “Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith” (2 Cor. 13:5). Closely investigate whether or not you are truly in Christ. And beware, for it is the easiest thing on earth to be lenient when it comes to judging yourself. Thus, especially when it comes to this, be honest. Always be just with everyone, but even more stringent with yourself in this matter. Keep in mind, if you are not building your “house on the rock,” when it finally falls it will fall “with a great crash” (Matt. 7:24, 27).

May the Lord grant you sincerity, endurance, and firmness of faith. May you never see the day, however evil things may become, that you will be led astray.

From the pen of Jim Reimann:

Indeed, not all who profess faith are true believers, as illustrated by this parable of Jesus:

The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat…When [they both] sprouted…the owner’s servants…asked him, “Do you want us to go and pull them up?” “No,” he answered, “because while you are pulling the weeds, you may root up the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.”

Matthew 13:24 – 30

“I write these things…that you may know that you have eternal life” (1 John 5:13).