“Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:” (Matt. 25:41)
People you know are actually going to hear these words, they will be standing right in front of the Lord Jesus Christ, begging for mercy, begging for another chance, pleading with great sobbing and tears, and then an angel is going to come over to where they are, and cast them into eternal fire.
It is going to happen to someone you know.
Some will curse Him to His face, gnashing their teeth it is called in the Scriptures, they have spent at least one thousand years in hell. “But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.” (Rev. 20:5) and have gone through every conceivable emotion known to man, many times over, and they have settled on an unquenchable rage. This is going to happen to someone you know today, someone from your past, those you will meet in the future are going to stand before the Lord Jesus Christ, and He will have no mercy on them whatsoever.
When was the last time you can recall telling someone about these truths, when was the last time after much conversation, much prayer to the Lord, and finally after realizing that you are casting pearls before swine, that you are speaking to a brute beast, that you have said to them, “If you do not repent, you will be cast into the Lake of Fire a few moments after you are brought up out of hell.”
The lost know about hell, you hear it used as a curse word many times, they may even have formed their own imaginative pictures of it in their mind, but very few of them know about the final place of eternity they will spend their existence in, the lake that burns forever.
There is actually very little of it written about in the Scriptures compared to hell. “Whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” (Matt. 3:12) “Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.” (Mark 9:48)
A place of complete and total separation from all things of the living God, save for His wrath.
Children’s fables, made up stories, the Christian equivalent of the opposite of heaven, they do not believe such a place exists, but you know it does.
The witness of far too many Christians these last few decades has failed to bring up this place of utter torment, the God of love is all they desire to speak of to those they meet, when and if they decide to converse with them about their immortal soul. Talk of the wrath of God abiding on the wicked today is difficult enough for those who profess to know Him, to serve Him, much less the fear of God by informing them of their final destination if they do not repent.
The words of the Savior, of His public ministry began with, “Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (Matt. 4:17) A word not palatable to most Christians today, just show them the love of Christ, do not warn them of the consequences if they reject Him, you might scare them away.
I wonder what the excuses of those who did not warn them will be when they themselves are standing before that Great White Throne?
