When one preaches, and the stenographer is taking down every word that is uttered, one ought to be very careful what one says; and when we remember that God hears, God takes note, God makes record of every word that we utter, we ought to be careful, for we will have to meet it at the Judgment Seat of Christ. We ought to be very careful what we think; we ought to be very careful how we hear; we ought to remember that Jesus once said to the messengers that He sent out, "He that heareth you, heareth me; and he that rejecteth you, rejecteth me; and he that rejecteth me, rejecteth him that sent me."
I want to bring you a message from God, from His own Word. The infidel denies the Christian revelation; the agnostic stands with the future before him, and says, "We do not know"; but the man who believes the Word of God -- and every man and woman ought to pay attention to it -- learns this lesson, gets this great truth, that out in the beyond there is an eternal future. We look backward, and there is duration that never began; we look forward, and there is duration that never will end. In that future there are rewards. The Word of God teaches it. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus, when He had taken His place in front of that multitude, opened His mouth, and taught them, saying -- listen to it! "He that heareth my words, and doeth them, I will liken him to a man who built his house upon the rock; and the winds blew, and the floods came, and the rains descended and beat upon that house: and it fell not; for it was founded upon a rock. But he that heareth my sayings, and doeth them not, I will liken him to a man which built his house upon the sand: the floods came, the winds blew, the rains descended and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it."
ETERNAL DESTINY FIXED BY PRESENT ACTIONS
Your future throughout eternity will be the logical consequence of your actions here. Jesus Christ teaches us in this Word: "Behold, I come quickly, and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be." The beggar died and was carried by the angels to a place of rest; the rich man died and in hell he lifted up his eyes, being in torment. There is a hereafter. There is a future, and every man in that future will reap just exactly as he sows. Listen to the Apostle: "For me to live is Christ; to die is gain." "Having a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better." This Book says Abraham, Aaron, Moses, were gathered unto their fathers. Not where they were buried; back yonder beyond the Euphrates lay their ancestors.
It meant something more than that -- gathered where they were over yonder! Job says, "The rich man shall die, but not be gathered." Listen to my text: "Gather not my soul with sinners." What does that imply? That over yonder sinners will be gathered together. They will be associated together. They will go to one place. Judas killed himself, and went to his own place -- the place that he had fitted himself for. Men get what is coming to them. God is eternally just, and what you sow in this life, just as sure as that old Bible is true, you will reap hereafter. HELL, THE SLUM OF THE UNIVERSE
"Separate me from the sinners; gather me not with the sinners." What does that imply? Listen to it! HELL! Hell is the slum of the universe. I have been down at George Street Mission before the saints down there prayed away and out so many of the saloons, when it was as evil as the gutters of Hell. The "Red Light" district is everything that is vile, everything that is foul, everything that is unclean. Hell is the slum of the universe; devils, angels that kept not their first estate, which were cast down from the presence of God, to be reserved in chains of darkness unto the judgment of the great day -- angels fallen, demons, dark spirits, the damned of all ages, all the unclean, all the foul, all the filthy, all the sorcerers, all the whoremongers, all the adulterers, all the liars, all the incestuous -- everything that God hates gathered out of the universe of God, cornered up in Hell, with a door that never opens outward, with God Almighty writing "ETERNITY" across the bar -- shut in there forever. And as I hear their groans, as I hear the cries of the lost, as I hear the shouts of devils, as I hear the damned weeping and wailing and gnashing their teeth, as I hear the cries of remorse, and despair, and anguish, and know it is eternal, I join with the Psalmist and pray, "O Lord, gather not my soul with sinners." Listen, men and women! There are only two places; there is an eternal Heaven, and there is an eternal Hell, and every soul in the sound of my voice tonight, every person here is headed toward an eternal Heaven or an eternal Hell, and if tonight your heart should stop beating, if tonight you should cease to breathe, you would go to the place you are fitted for. Not that God did not love you; not that Christ did not die for you; not that the Holy Ghost did not strive with you; not that saints did not pray for you; not that you never heard the truth of God: but, because "ye could not" -- because "ye would not." Going toward eternity seventy heart beats a minute -- going to an eternal Heaven or an eternal Hell. "Gather not my soul with sinners."
UNDER THE CURSE OF GOD
Now, again. Hell is not only the slum of the universe, but those that are there live under the curse of Almighty God. I want you to get it. "God is angry with the wicked every day." A penitent sinner can make the heavens bend -- and God will incline His ear. God stepped all the way from the council chambers of the Eternal, down to where at Bethlehem's plains He robed Himself in mortal flesh in order to save man. God smiles upon us here. The sun shines and the rain falls on the just and on the unjust. The winds blow, the sun shines, the grain waves for them, the cheek of the fruit is colored by the sun and wind for their benefit. They have Calvary, they have Olivet, they have the Mediatorial Throne, they have the pleading Holy Spirit, they have the minister, they have the Word of God. Some of them have a mother's prayers. But listen! In eternity God never smiles on the sinner -- God never, never) never smiles on the sinner! The wrath of God rests upon the lost forever and ever and ever, and every unsaved man and woman here tonight, every praying mother's son who is unsaved, every girl who is going into eternity over a mother's prayers, over a father's prayers, over the blood of Jesus Christ, over the strivings of the Holy Ghost -- say, beloved, listen! In Hell you will lift up your eyes, being in torment, with the wrath of God upon you, and to last throughout all eternity. And as I think of it, and as I pray over it, and as I weep over it, I say, "O God, gather not my soul with sinners."
Another thought. To aggravate all the terrors and all the horrors of Hell, falling upon one's ear is only one sound, that of blasphemy, swearing The lost curse each other; they curse God; they curse Jesus; they curse the Holy Ghost; they curse themselves; they curse their lost opportunities; they bite their lips; they chew their tongues; they gnash their teeth; they walk on the red-hot pavements of an eternal hell, and they cry, I'm lost, I'm lost) I'm LOST!! The only music they ever hear is the groans of the damned. The only water they ever drink is the tears of the lost. The only prayers they ever offer are never, never, never answered. O God, "gather not my soul with sinners!" Who are the damned? The people who did what you are doing, sinner; rejecting Jesus Christ, grieving the Holy Ghost, going into eternity with your feet speckled, spotted, red with the atoning blood of Jesus Christ, that you despised and trampled upon. And then, memory aggravates all the horrors of the damned. Men will remember, "I might have been saved; Christ died for me, the Spirit of God pled with me, mother prayed for me, men of God preached to me, friends exhorted me to give my heart to God; but I would not, I would not!" Say, listen, sinner! How will you ever stand it?
THE UNCEASING GROANS OF HELL
Up in the hospital in our city there is a long corridor, and on each side of the corridor are rooms; in each one of these rooms a patient, some undergoing operations, some of them facing death. Here at one room is a glass partition. On the other side of the partition there lies a woman. She is going to die. The doctors say they cannot help her. Oh, how she groans with pain, with the suffering, with the heartaches. On this side of the partitions there are other patients. They say, "Please shut that door. I cannot stand that woman' s groans. Oh, for God's sake, please shut that door." That woman died during the night. One of the patients said, "I don't hear her groan. Where is she?" Oh, her groans are silenced at last! She died last night. But when you have been ten million years in Hell, and the groans of the lost and the damned have fallen upon your ears, they will never cease, and you never, never never can get used to it. There will never come a time when they can say to you, "Those groans are silenced," for in Hell they never die. May God wake us up. We are facing eternity, facing an eternal Heaven or an eternal Hell.
Jesus appealed to men's memories. Listen to what He says at the Judgment Seat: "I was sick, and ye visited me not; I was in prison, and ye came not unto me; I was hungry, and ye gave me no meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink." Listen! In eternity, when you stand at the Judgment Seat of Christ, God will appeal to your memory. The books of remembrance will be opened, and God will say, "I sent you a man of God. He gave you a Gospel sermon, and you rejected. I gave My Son to die for you, and you crucified Him afresh. I sent the Holy Ghost, and you said, 'Go Thy way; when I want You, I will call for You.' " Oh, the horrors! the horrors that will aggravate a lost soul when it remembers how it trampled the blood of Jesus Christ under foot, and rejected Blood-bought opportunities! "Son, remember, thou in thy lifetime hadst thy good things." You had campmeetings, you had Bibles, you had conviction, you had example, you had Blood-bought, Providential opportunities, and "you would not." Oh, the horrors of the damned! Oh, the agonies of the lost! "I am damned, I am lost, and it is my fault." O God, I pray, gather not the souls of this congregation with the souls of sinners! I do not wonder the Psalmist prayed that way. "Gather not my soul with sinners."
THEY NEVER SLEEP IN HELL
Again, here you can drown your memory with drink. There are no saloons in Hell. You can get drunk here. You can drink over bars legalized by the help of church members who voted for license for fear their taxes would be raised. But listen! You cannot get drunk in Hell! You can have so much business here, and so devote yourself to business you will forget other things, you will forget important things. They don't do any business in Hell. Here is the place to do business. God says, "Occupy till I come." The root meaning of that word, "occupy" is, "do business." Do business; do it for God; do it for eternity; do it for your own soul. But in Hell they do not do any business. All they do is to weep and wail, and gnash their teeth, and bite their lips, and shed tears, and regret the past, and roll and revel in remorse and despair. But they never do business in Hell. You can sin all day, you can violate the laws of God, you can take the name of God in vain, you can chew tobacco, you can drink whisky, and then you can lie down at night and sleep, and forget it all; but, beloved, they never sleep in Hell. It is dark -- it is dark all the time, it is worse than Egyptian darkness, it is darkness that the soul feels; but no matter how dark it is, they cannot sleep. The liquid waves of eternal fire dash against the walls that confine the damned, and keep on roaring throughout eternity. The wicked, the lost, never, never, never sleep in Hell.
Look at this fellow sitting down here. He is thinking. Oh, he is thinking! He says, "My thoughts will drive me to distraction. I am so distracted by my thoughts I cannot do business. My wife knows there is something the matter with me. The children know there is something the matter with 'Daddy.' My thoughts will drive me to distraction." One day he goes down to the hardware store and buys an automatic revolver. He goes home, goes into his room, pulls out his revolver (I am giving you an actual fact), he goes into his room where his wife is sleeping, shoots her through the forehead, and then he puts the revolver to his own brain -- in order to keep from thinking. He falls dead, his soul goes out into eternity -- and he is thinking yet. "Gather not my soul with sinners!" All eternity in which to think! Reaping what they sowed.
ETERNAL DOOM
Now, another thought: The sinner in Hell knows his doom is eternal, fixed.
I visited the State Penitentiary at Trenton, N. J. I went there with a friend of mine who at one time was employed in the Institution. We walked along the corridor and came to where a door was shut, but there was a small opening. He said to me, "George, look in here," and he tapped and a man inside opened a little door not much larger than my hand. I looked in, and saw a man there about forty-five or fifty years of age. After I came away, Mr.. said to me, "George, he is in there for life. In a moment of passion he took a knife and killed a boy who tantalized and angered him." But listen! In there the man has some hope. The Governor may relent, friends may intercede, they may say, "He has been there long enough." But, listen! In Hell the sinner knows his doom is eternally fixed, never can be changed, never any hope -- never, never, NEVER can hope that he will die and the thing end.
A woman lay dying with a cancer. She said, "Oh! Oh! Oh! Let me die! Oh! Oh! Husband, kill me! kill me! kill me! I cannot stand it!" That husband went to a doctor. He said, "Doctor, I want to ask you a question. In God's name, is there any hope for her?" "No, sir; she is going to die." "Doctor, in God's name, go over there and give her something that will shorten her sufferings, give her something that will help her out of the body." He went over there. He injected something into her arm. He said, "In two or three hours she will be over all her sufferings." And in two hours all was over. But when amid waves of liquid fire that roar and dash themselves against the precincts that confine the damned, there will never, never, never come a time when anyone can come that way and cause your sufferings to cease. You will groan, you will cry, you will pray, you will agonize, you will suffer, you will be remorseful, you will be filled with despair, regret; but there will never, never, never come a time when it will cease, until God Almighty Himself dies -and He will never die. "Gather" -- O God! -- "GATHER NOT MY SOUL WITH SINNERS!"
WHICH WAY ARE YOU HEADED?
Which way are you headed tonight? Seventy heart beats a minute, going toward an eternal Hell or an eternal Heaven. A few more heart beats, you will go across the line. A few more heart beats, and probation will end. A few more heart beats, mercy will be dethroned. A few more heart beats, no more sermons. A few more heart beats, no mourners' benches. A few more heart beats, no altar calls. A few more heart beats, God Almighty Himself will shut the door and you will be shut out for ever and ever and ever. O God, help this dying congregation tonight, facing eternity!
When the Titanic went down there were sixteen hundred people on board, and the lifeboats could not take them. The stern began to sink lower and lower, and lower in the water. The people ran up toward the bow and got up to the farther end. Still she went down, lower, and lower, and lower, and the lifeboats pulled away for fear of the suction. Those who were near said that when that vessel took the last surge and went down, from sixteen hundred souls went up one awful wail of despair, and they said, "I never want to hear the like of that again." They only heard it for five minutes -- they only heard it, perhaps, for three minutes; but in Hell they hear the like through all eternity -- the cry that is going up from the lost, the cry of anguish and despair that is going up from the lost, and going up forever and forever.
Now, again. We say no change, no respite in Hell, no let up -- a living death. Now wait a moment. After you have had everything that the world offers -- if the devil himself could give you the kingdoms of this world, and you had them all, if you had them all, if you had bought all its pleasures, gratified every passion, if you had satiated every appetite, and then should go down and make your bed with the devils damned in Hell, I want to ask you a question, What shall it profit?
God in His mercy sent some angels, and said, "Go down to Sodom and get Lot out of there." And they went down, and Lot was too slow for them. An angel took hold of one arm, and another angel of the other arm, and said, "Haste thee, get out for your life. I cannot do anything while you are here." Why couldn't he? Because off there Abraham was praying. "Get out of here; escape for thy life!" And then the fire descended. The wrath of God is hovering over a world that crucified His Son. God in His mercy sends the Holy Ghost, and He sends the Word of God, and the Word on one side, and the Holy Ghost on the other, are saying, "ESCAPE FOR THY LIFE!"
