Ezekiel 33:11 Say to them, As I live, said the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked… I. A HORRIBLE RESOLUTION. A resolution to die — a determination to be damned. "Stay, sir," says one, "that is far too strong an assertion; who ever heard anyone say that he intended to go to hell?" I never said anyone had been heard to say so, all I say is, they determine to. 1. A man may De said to have resolved to die when he uses the means of death. There is a black mixture, sweet to the natural taste of man, but labelled by God "slow poison," called sin. The result of taking it is declared, in language that cannot be mistaken, to be certain death. "The soul that sinneth, it shall die." "The wages of sin is death." "Sin when it is finished bringeth forth death." These are a few of the red labels of caution that God has put upon sin. 2. A man may be said to have determined to die, who spurns all that could save him from death. It is possible to ensure death by simply refusing to accept anything that could rescue from it. The poison is in your blood, working death, and in rejecting Christ you have given as awful a proof of determination to die, as ever you could have given by the vilest of lives. 3. A man may be said to have determined to die who surmounts all obstacles placed in his way in order to prevent him. God only knows how many obstacles you have overcome in your race to ruin. In early days a mother stopped your path, but you soon evaded her, and broke her heart. A Sunday school teacher did his best. to arrest you, but he proved no great obstacle; you soon left his class when you found he was satisfied with nothing less than the salvation of your soul. Hundreds of sermons have been flung across your path, but you have somehow got over them all. II. A PLAINTIVE QUESTION. "Why will ye die?" 1. Is hell so pleasant a place you want to enter there? 2. Is it because heaven has no charms? 3. Is eternity in your estimation a trifle? I could better understand your indifference to salvation — or, as we are describing it tonight, your preference for perdition — if the future state was in either case of only limited duration. But to risk the loss of a soul, when forever and forever is part of the contract, is almost sufficient to stagger belief, were there not so many sad witnesses to the fact. 4. Do you consider a soul worthless? You value your health, you value your home, you value your friends, but you set no value on your soul. Is it so? Surely that which will outlive all the other possessions of a man must be of some worth. Remember also that if you count it of but little value, it has been differently estimated by One who ought to know, considering that He made it. Christ considers that the worth of one soul outweighs the accumulated wealth of a universe. III. A GLORIOUS TRUTH, FULL OF HOPE FOR SINNERS. If this text proclaims anything, it declares with trumpet tongue that hell is not unavoidable. It steps in the path of the sinner, throws a barrier before him, and argues with him to wean him from his fatal resolve. 1. God does not desire the sinner's ruin. 2. Hell was never prepared for man at all, but for the devil and his angels, and it is only if man prefers Satan to God on earth, that he must reap the consequences of his choice in eternity by dwelling forever in the home of the one he has preferred. 3. Although God hates sin, He loves the sinner, with a love unutterable. (A. G. Brown.) Parallel Verses KJV: Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel? |
    |