God Loves… Himself

Be persuaded that your soul is far more valuable to you than the whole world and there are only two places (heaven and hell) that you will spend all eternity in.

Did I ever see sin odious, black and hellish, defiling and damning? Have I seen it in the glass of the law, bloody and killing? But in [light of] Christ’s blood exceeding and above measure sinful?

One of the ways that the Lord Jesus Christ prepares the hearts of His people is by showing them the nature of sin in several aspects. He shows them their sin as to what it is to them, but also in light of the law and in light of the blood of Christ. There is an academic or letter of the law approach which will show men their sin to some degree, but when Christ teaches men about their sin He seems to dangle them over the fires of hell and makes them to feel the awfulness of their sin. With some He will give them just a little taste of their sin, but with others He will give them several meals and even feasts of it. Someone said, a few centuries ago, “Until we taste sin as bitter Christ will not taste sweet.” The Lord Jesus will have His people taste Him as sweet.

The very nature of sin is that it is odious to God and in the more obvious aspects of it is also odious to men. The idea of odious is something which deserves hatred or repugnance. Sin is hated by God and sin is repugnant to God. Sin is despicably black in the eyes of God and is the offspring or even vomit of hell. Sin is what defiles all it touches and makes men worthy of eternal damnation. Those who are unrepentant sinners are those who are throwing sticks upon their own fires as they treasure up wrath for the day of wrath. These words and concepts describe the true nature of sin and what sin is in the eyes of God, yet unregenerate man loves sin. Unregenerate man may see sin as harmful in some ways and some sin will be seen as immoral, but unregenerate men will not hate sin as sin. It is only when Christ is teaching the heart by His Spirit that the soul comes to understand something of the very hellishness of sin.

Unregenerate sinners are in darkness and as such they cannot see the true nature of sin. Unregenerate sinners are dead to the spiritual nature of things and as such they don’t see the horror of the spiritual nature of sin. Sinners must be taught the nature of sin and they must be taught the nature of sin in light of the law and of the blood of Christ, but we must know that the unregenerate will not know the depths of sin unless Christ Himself opens the eyes of the heart and teaches them. It is one of the “jobs” of the Holy Spirit to convict of sin and only as He illuminates sinners in accordance with the prophetic office of Christ will sinners begin to see.

People can be quite against a lot of sin and join forces with groups for morality and still have no true concept of sin. We see Roman Catholics as opposed to abortion and yet they stand firmly against the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This shows that men can stand against sin in one sense while they truly have no understanding of the nature of sin. These people can know that something is wrong and can know that it is wrong in the eyes of God, yet they have no sense of the odiousness of sin themselves or what it is in the eyes of God. Each person must ask him or herself the question from the top of the page. “Did I ever see sin odious, black and hellish, defiling and damning?” Am I just against outward sins because down deep I know they are wrong? Am I just against some sins because the Bible says that they are wrong? Has God in His great mercy ever opened my eyes to see the true nature of sin? Has the Holy Spirit truly convicted me of my sin as against God and the true hellishness of the nature of it? Have you ever known and felt deeply in you soul just how worthy of hell that you are and that truly you deserve nothing but hell? You see, it is not just slight feeling that is conviction, but a true conviction comes with something of horror to it.

While it sounds so nice to think of Christ preparing hearts for Himself, it is truly a painful thing. Our hearts must be stripped of pride and of self, especially of religious pride and self. We must see that no only are our obvious sins hateful in the eyes of God, but our religious acts apart from Christ are perhaps even more obnoxious to Him. Our righteousness is as filthy menstrual cloths to Him and we have no way or making up for our past sins. The Lord Jesus will begin to open our eyes to sin and it will be painful to see ourselves in the eyes of God as we are in truth. We deserve nothing but wrath upon wrath and that forever. We have no way of making up for the least sin and our every effort to make up for sin is just more sinful. We are helpless in the hands of the one and only sovereign God who alone can teach us about sin and who alone can take our sin away and give us a right standing in His presence in Christ by free-grace alone. Salvation is caused by Christ and nothing we can do helps our case.

Be persuaded that your soul is far more valuable to you than the whole world and there are only two places (heaven and hell) that you will spend all eternity in.

Search and try your hearts, whether you are in the faith, and your hearts sound in the faith, and your hearts sound in God’s statutes. Ask seriously, have I the love that is sincere, the faith that is sound, soul-saving, sin-killing, and life reforming? Am I sure, my face and heart are really set Zion-ward and heaven-ward? II Corinthians 13:5

The Scriptures tell us to do the following things:

II Cor 13:5 Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves;

I Cor 11:28 But a man must examine himself, and in so doing he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup.

1 Cor 11:31 But if we judged ourselves rightly, we would not be judged.

Galatians 6:4 But each one must examine his own work, and then he will have reason for boasting in regard to himself alone, and not in regard to another.

Titus 1:16 They profess to know God, but by their deeds they deny Him, being detestable and disobedient and worthless for any good deed.

Hebrews 4:1 Therefore, let us fear if, while a promise remains of entering His rest, any one of you may seem to have come short of it.

Hebrews 12:15 See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble, and by it many be defiled;

James 4:4 You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

When we see that the Scriptures are full of warnings, and many that tell us not to be deceived, we should take great heed of that. We should listen to the Scriptures when they tell us not to be deceived and that we should examine ourselves. We are to search our hearts and we are to put our own hearts on trial. We are to judge them by the Scriptures and the character of God rather than just going by what our feelings tell us and what our fallen reason and desires tell us.

This searching of the heart may lead people to a more settled assurance, so this searching of the heart should be seen as Christ teaching the hearts of His people and is a way of His stripping them of wrong ideas that stand in the way of their assurance. The searching of the heart, however, may also be the teaching of Christ in the inward man and be a way where He strips a person of the false idea that the person is saved. Instead of our own self-love and pride doing the judging concerning ourselves which will never give us an accurate judgment, we must seek the Lord to give us a true sight of our hearts. It will be the case that if the Lord gives us a true sight of our hearts, we will see more sin in the heart than we thought possible. But again, the Lord can give an assurance despite the sight of our heart. The eyes of self-love and wrong ideas of God will always try to blind us to the truth of ourselves, but we must have Christ teach us and prepare our hearts for the truth.

Regardless of whether we are deceived about our conversion or not, every single unconverted person will depart from Him into the eternal fire. We must cry out to Him and seek to know the truth of our own hearts. We must not spare our sinful self-love and our pride, we must seek Christ to give us the truth of our own hearts. We must not be concerned about what others will think of me, but we must seek Christ to give us the truth about ourselves. If we are deceived, we must know that rather than riding on a cloud of self-deception to hell. Christ must prepare our hearts or we will perish. We must not give in to the modern nonsense of praying a prayer or things like that, we must have new hearts or we will perish. This is not a small thing (in comparison) like finding out we have a serious disease, this is an eternal situation. Our eternal state is what we are looking at now. When Paul wrote that we should examine ourselves, he was writing as the apostle (sent one) of Christ. That means we should and that means that without that examination we may be deceived.

Be persuaded that your soul is far more valuable to you than the whole world and there are only two places (heaven and hell) that you will spend all eternity in.

Search and try your hearts, whether you are in the faith, and your hearts sound in the faith, and your hearts sound in God’s statutes. Ask seriously, have I the love that is sincere, the faith that is sound, soul-saving, sin-killing, and life reforming? Am I sure, my face and heart are really set Zion-ward and heaven-ward? II Corinthians 13:5

Since the soul is far more valuable than the whole world, it should be examined with that in mind. Sinners must not allow their pride, self, and deceptions to keep them from examining their own hearts and their faith, but instead should do so. Since there are only two places to spend eternity in, sinners should live in light of that eternity and seek the Lord Jesus to work in their hearts to prepare those hearts for Himself. But it is so hard, people say, to examine my heart as I only want to hear the positive things. Oh dear soul, you need to take a long and hard look at your soul. Paul told us to examine ourselves to see if we are in the faith and to see if Christ does indeed and in reality live in us. Oh if only people would see just how valuable their own souls are to them they would eagerly seek the Lord to show them their true spiritual condition. If only people would see just how valuable their own souls are to them, they would see just how little value the entire world should have to them.

The modern religious person will simply ask self if s/he believes and of course s/he does believe in some way, but that is far different from asking the soul if it has been born from above and truly has faith. It is one thing to simply have a belief about Christ, but it is quite another to have true faith. It is a dangerous thing to think that Scripture (in our English translation) means the same thing by “belief” as we do in the modern day. We know from the book of James that faith (translated as “belief” in many places) without works is dead. We should also know that it is a dangerous thing to ask our own hearts if we love God and others if we are using the modern culture as our way of defining love. It is easy to deceive our own hearts and have others deceive us when we use words that the English Bible uses and yet use a different meaning than the Bible uses.

It appears that it is common for people to think that they love God, yet in an age where people are taught that God loves each and every person it is not surprising for people to think that they love God. After all, Scripture teaches us that even sinners love those who love themselves (Mat 5:46). Even the tax collectors loved those who loved them. But how many people truly love God when things begin to turn against their worldly interests? How many people love God when they have a bad medical report? How many love God when there is a death of someone in the family? How many love God when they lost all of their financial security? How many love God when God appears to be against them in His providence and brings hard things into their lives? In other words, it is understandable when people profess to love God when things are going well in this life, but that is no proof that people have the love of God in them.

For those who are truly interested in knowing if they are converted or not, they need to search the Scriptures to find out what biblical faith is, what biblical love is, and what it means to really kill sin. Killing sin is not the same thing as suppressing the desires to do a certain action; being afraid that one will get caught doing an action, and becoming too busy to do the action. Killing sin is when God brings a trial to a person and the person is tested beyond his or her strength and has to die to all hope in self and the strength of self. Killing sin is not just stopping the sin, but it is dying to the love of that sin and being brought to a sense of being dead to that sin.

All of these things fall under Christ the Mediator and His offices. It is Christ who must prepare the heart by teaching the heart just how valuable it is to the person. It is Christ who must prepare the heart by teaching it about the true nature of Himself and what true faith is. It is Christ who must prepare the heart to kill sin by working death to self in the soul. It is Christ who must teach the person that all that comes from the strength of self is pride and self and that the person must look to grace alone. It is not coming up with faith that saves the soul, it is Christ alone by grace alone that saves the soul and grants faith to the soul. It is not loving God or others than saves our souls, it is Christ alone by grace alone that saves the soul and then abides in the soul giving it true love. The heart must be broken from thinking that it can break itself and it must look to Christ alone for that breaking and true faith.

Be persuaded that your soul is far more valuable to you than the whole world and there are only two places (heaven and hell) that you will spend all eternity in.

Debate the case with your soul solemnly. What is there in sin, that I so much dote on? What are my greatest designs and projects in the world? Can I dig the pearl of happiness out of this dunghill world? Can I get the houses, lands, honors, friends, that I aim at; and if I should, what are they? Certainly conclude, the greatest wisdom is to be wise unto salvation; and may best work is, to work it out with fear and trembling, lest I lose it.

In the last BLOG in this series (Christ Preparing our Hearts 25), a series of questions was given in order to help people examine their souls and to help others examine their souls as well. The point of the questions is not to make people discover their righteousness, but to discover their unrighteousness. When people discover their unrighteousness, they see their great and utter need for grace alone and for Christ alone. It also seems true that so many people are satisfied with their present religious practice and as such remain satisfied while dead in sins and trespasses. Eternity is perhaps the most real thing about our existence and yet we are blind and dead to it so much of the time. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the only way of salvation and the devil does a great job in deceiving people about whether they are saved or not and whether they really have Christ or not.

While the soul cannot be prepared in a way that makes it more likely for God to save it because of what it does, yet we must understand that in using the means of grace this is to be in the way or path that God saves sinners. We should pray as we meditate and think upon the Scriptures and our own souls. We must seek the illuminating work of the Spirit who alone can regenerate us and give us life. The Holy Spirit is sovereign in His work of regeneration as the Father was sovereign in His electing and the Lord Jesus was in purchasing salvation. The means of grace can be a very helpful thing if we use them correctly, which is to say that there is no merit in using them and we put no obligation on God to save us because we use them.

When we use the Scriptures, questions, meditation, and prayer we are to cry out to Christ to prepare us for salvation. But again, the true preparation for salvation is for Him to strip us of all hope in our selves and all help from ourselves. When Christ prepares the heart He takes the Scriptures we read, pray over, and meditate upon to show us our sin and just how unprepared we really are. Part of the work of the Holy Spirit is to convict us of sin, righteousness, and of the judgment to come. This all falls under the work of Christ in preparing a people to see themselves as totally and completely undone and as such to look to grace alone.

The world is a place where there are deceptive people, deceptive sin, a deceptive devil, and all working on the deceptive hearts of human beings. How deceptive the pleasures of sin are. How deceptive it is to our deceptive hearts for men to praise and honor us. How wicked it is for men to trust in themselves, yet how wicked that appears in their own eyes when Christ shows them that. While the physical world is presented to us today as a world that came into being on its own, or perhaps even created itself, the physical world is not morally evil itself. When the thinking about the physical world is in the hands of deceived human beings, it is used as a way to get people to look to the world as an answer for all our problems.

The real problem with the world is when the “world” is used as the Bible does at times. The “world” is used as a system of thought that is set against God and His glory. It is this world that men often times try to obtain pleasure and honors. It is that world that man must begin to see just how evil it is because it is set up against the living God as an alternative way of living and of morality. It is set up not just as an alternative, but as the only way. It is set up in direct opposition to the ways and being of God. As we begin to see the two contrasting systems, we must be enlightened to the opposing system and we must see that what we have as pleasure in the worldly system is wicked and sinful in the kingdom of God. Can the worldly system provide true pleasure to a spiritual soul who has Christ as his all in all? No, it cannot. Only worldly people caught in the deception of the worldly system can have pleasure that lasts as long as they lasts in this world. The work of Christ by His Spirit is to show us how deceptive the worldly system, how sinful it is against God, and then if He is pleased He can translate us from the dominion of darkness and into the kingdom of the Beloved Son. This takes the hand of God to prepare a soul and then transfer it.

Be persuaded that your soul is far more valuable to you than the whole world and there are only two places (heaven and hell) that you will spend all eternity in.

Debate the case with your soul solemnly. What is there in sin, that I so much dote on? What are my greatest designs and projects in the world? Can I dig the pearl of happiness out of this dunghill world? Can I get the houses, lands, honors, friends, that I aim at; and if I should, what are they? Certainly conclude, the greatest wisdom is to be wise unto salvation; and may best work is, to work it out with fear and trembling, lest I lose it.

The quotes above, though discussed previously, are wonderful as a use for souls to examine themselves with. One can take those quotes and with prayerful meditation have quite a quality period of self-examination. The prayer should include prayers to Christ to prepare our hearts for Himself, whether regenerate or not. Look upon this period of meditation as a means for Christ to prepare your souls rather than just another religious exercise for you to accomplish or do.

1. What is it about sin that is so attractive to my soul?
2. What is it about sin that I long to practice it?
3. What is it about sin that it seems to be part of my very nature?
4. What is it about sin that it so attracts my thoughts?
5. What is it about sin that it so draws out my affections and desires?
6. What do I really want out of life?
7. Do I have many things to accomplish for self or do I truly desire His glory?
8. What is the greatest design I have as my greatest love?
9. What is the deepest love in my heart in terms of what I want in this life?
10. Can I really find happiness in a sinful world when sin brings misery and death?
11. If my soul is spending its time and affection on the world, then isn’t that idolatry?
12. Is Christ my true and deepest happiness in this world and is my hope set on Him for the next?
13. If there truly is no happiness in this world, why do I seek so much from the world?
14. Why is my heart so easily deceived regarding houses and lands in this world?
15. Do I truly desire those things more than Christ?
16. Why is my heart so easily deceived regarding honors and friends?
17. What is it about my heart that it longs to receive honor from men rather than God?
18. Why is it that at the very least it seems that I fear men more than God and long to be honored by them?
19. Why is it that when I pray I want men to think highly of me and perhaps even more than God?
20. Why is my heart so corrupt that I am so easily swayed to become like men but fight being like God?
21. Why is it that I can be so easily swept into a worldly conversation and yet it is so hard to be part of a spiritual one?
22. The greatest wisdom is indeed to be wise unto salvation, so why do I want men to think of me as wise?
23. Do I really want to be saved from the power and deceptiveness of sin?
24. Do I really want to please God rather than men?
25. Why is meditation on these things so hard rather than delightful?

Be persuaded that your soul is far more valuable to you than the whole world and there are only two places (heaven and hell) that you will spend all eternity in.

Debate the case with your soul solemnly. What is there in sin, that I so much dote on? What are my greatest designs and projects in the world? Can I dig the pearl of happiness out of this dunghill world? Can I get the houses, lands, honors, friends, that I aim at; and if I should, what are they? Certainly conclude, the greatest wisdom is to be wise unto salvation; and may best work is, to work it out with fear and trembling, lest I lose it.

The Lord has told us to come and reason together (with Him). In the case above the unknown author wants men to reason with themselves. If we think through the situation, it is a wise question to ask ourselves as to what is there in a particular sin or sins that we are so taken with it. When we spend time meditating and debating with our own souls, this is one way that Christ may instruct the soul if we seek Him to do so. As we meditate we should pray for God to open our eyes to the true nature of sin rather than being deceived by it. Sin is deceptive, our hearts are deceptive, and the devil is the deceiver.

We should tell our souls that we shall die soon and enter eternity. In eternity there are only two places where we will end up and that will be our eternal dwelling place. In light of those eternal truths, what is in sin that I am willing to risk eternal damnation on? What is so good and pleasurable about sin in this life that I am willing to suffer for it for all eternity? What is so attractive about sin that it blinds me to the eternal torments that it will lead to? Does a particular sin really and truly offer me enough to suffer for it in eternity? If the whole world is not worth going to hell over, then why should I harden my heart in the pursuit of sin? If not, then I must tell myself that no sin is worth selling my soul for.

What are my greatest designs and projects in this world that I am willing to set aside the things of eternity for? Is any job or any salary worth going to hell over? Are my designs and projects worth the time and love I give them in neglecting my eternal soul? Are the things I am living for in this life worth neglecting eternity for? What do I hope to earn or obtain in this life that I am placing an equal value or even a greater value on than eternity? Do I love this world so much and my hope of gain in this life that I am virtually ignoring the great value of eternity? We must remember the words of Christ where He constantly placed eternal things over that of having the entire world. If I am placing greater value in my designs and projects in this world than that of eternity, even if I deny that in words, I am a great fool and am selling my soul at a cheap price.

Only those with the great peal of price will enter into the joy of their Master. But those with the great pearl of price will have sold all they had in order to obtain that pearl. But of course that is figurative language when it is said that they sell all they have, because there is nothing we have that can buy the smallest part of the pearl of great price. What it does speak of, however, is the nature of true repentance. It is in being turned from the things we have pride in and the things of self that we are said to have sold all. It is another way of saying that there is a narrow gate to go through and there is no room to get through that gate with love for the world and self. There is no room to get through that gate with pride.

It is also impossible to go through that gate and to sell all if I am in pursuit of lands, houses, friends, and honors. Even if I obtain those things, what have I gained? If I have not Christ, then I am selling my eternal soul in order to obtain earthly things that will burn. Perhaps I am seeking the wisdom of the world, but if so what will that wisdom do but blind me to eternal wisdom? What will all the honors of the world do but puff me up with pride and make me love the opinions of men? These are things that are contrary to the lowly heart, the humble heart, and the broken heart that are necessary to bow at the feet of King Jesus. We must listen to the words of King Jesus and ask Him to put them in our hearts as we meditate on Him and His words. If not, we are turning our backs on the things that can make us wise unto salvation and will pursue the things that make us fools unto damnation.

Be persuaded that your soul is far more valuable to you than the whole world and there are only two places (heaven and hell) that you will spend all eternity in.

If I shall come to glory, what a God shall I enjoy forever and ever! Into what blessed arms and bosom shall I cast my soul! And if I shall go to hell at least, can I bear up under the weight of God’s vengeance? Well, yet there is hope, God’s heart, the door of grace, and the gate of heaven, yet stands open. How would the damned in hell give thousands of worlds (if they had them) for my may be?

Christ prepares the hearts of sinners by crushing any hope they have in self. As long as a sinner has any hope in his or her own merits, ability to obtain merit, or worth to God, that sinner will not and cannot look to Christ alone. The only hope that a sinner must have is that God can show grace to anyone He pleases and that it is Christ who is the only sacrifice for sin and the only perfect righteousness for sinners. The glory of the Gospel is that Christ alone has provided all that is needed to save sinners and that the Spirit alone can apply what Christ has purchased to sinners. The sinner that looks to self for even the smallest amount of faith is a rebel against the perfect self-sufficiency of God and the perfect work of Christ to save sinners.

This alone must be the hope of sinners. They must have all hope in self crushed and that includes all hope that the sinner can make a choice or exercise his or her will to believe. Everything must come by Christ and Christ alone. We don’t look to Christ with faith in order to be saved, but instead we look to Christ for faith and all things that we must have in order to be saved. We look to Christ to prepare our hearts as we cannot do that either. Men and women can be self-righteous in thinking that they are righteous and they are like the Pharisees who trusted in self. Men and women can look to themselves in thinking that they are smarter than others and so they don’t trust in themselves, but in doing that they are trusting in something they have done. Men and women can think that they can prepare their hearts and in thinking that they are looking to self for something. The real state of the matter is that Christ alone can prepare the hearts of sinners for Him to take His throne in those hearts.

The real point of the previous two paragraphs is to point sinners to Christ alone as their only hope. No sinner has any hope in himself or in anything he can do. No sinner can prepare his heart in any way and no sinner has any hope but in Christ and Christ alone. There is no merit in any righteousness that a sinner can do, but not only that there is no merit in anything a fallen human can do. The only good that a human being can do is worked in him or her by Christ. There is no room for boasting in self, but instead there is only room for boasting in Christ and His cross. There is no room for boasting in my righteousness in the slightest, but we are to boast and make much of the righteousness of Christ. If a person truly values his or her eternal soul, that person must be ready to be stripped by Christ of all hope in anything s/he is or can do. The Christ who prepares souls prepares them to have no hope but in Him alone.

Sinner, what is your deepest trust? You may think of yourself as a Christian and you may be a leader in a church or you may be very active in a church. But in the deepest part of your heart, do you trust in your status at church or your activity in the church at all? Do you think or believe that you are converted because of things you do? You may not admit this with your mouth, but in the depths of your heart what do you really trust in? Do you despise others (comes from pride) because they are not as good as you or as active as you? Do you think of yourself as better than others because you know more about the Bible or you know more theology?

There are sinners in hell who were more active than you. There are sinners in hell who were leaders in the church. There are sinners in hell who thought they were converted because they were preachers or active leaders. There are sinners in hell who despised others. There are sinners in hell who knew more about the Bible than you do and probably know for more now than you do. At the very least the devil knows more about the Bible than you do. The devil is far beyond you in knowing about theology and there are many of his children in hell who know far more theology than you do or ever will. Those are the damned who would give thousands of worlds to be able to have the slightest bit of hope of being saved. If they would give so much to have the slightest bit of hope, what will you hope in? Sure enough Christ must break you from all hope in self and give you hope in Him. Seek Him.

Be persuaded that your soul is far more valuable to you than the whole world and there are only two places (heaven and hell) that you will spend all eternity in. If I shall come to glory, what a God shall I enjoy forever and ever! Into what blessed arms and bosom shall I cast my soul! And if I shall go to hell at least, can I bear up under the weight of God’s vengeance? Well, yet there is hope, God’s heart, the door of grace, and the gate of heaven, yet stands open. How would the damned in hell give thousands of worlds (if they had them) for my may be?

The heart cannot have a true view of heaven unless Christ prepares it and then gives it a foretaste of it. The heart cannot understand what the weight of God’s vengeance really is. But again, there are only two places that a soul can spend eternity in and it will spend eternity in only one of those two places. It will spend eternity in either eternal and exquisite joy and bliss in the arms of Christ or it will spend eternity in eternal torment and indescribable anguish of soul and body. This cannot be drilled home too deeply. This should and perhaps must become the driving motives of the soul and the deepest realization of it. Eternity, eternity, and eternity again; the words (word) that we cannot possibly begin to fathom and yet must be our deepest concern if we truly value our souls. How we waste so much time in such meaningless things (at best) and we do so in the face of eternity. The natural man cannot really have a glimpse or a taste of what it means to enjoy God, but he must take the words of God and the children of God for it. He must know, however, in some way that fleeing the vengeance of God is necessary, but pursuing the greatest good of the presence of God is even better. For the unconverted sinner there is always hope. It is the pleasure of God the Father to save sinners. It is the pleasure of God the Son to save sinners. It is the pleasure of the Holy Spirit to save sinners. The door of grace stands wide open and men should seek the Lord and with violence (to the lusts of self) pursue the grace of God pleading and asking Him. The gates of heaven are not closed and as such there is still hope. Oh sinners, look at how Christ prepares His people. Look at all His promises and the wonders of His grace. What stands in your way of seeking this Christ to prepare your heart to make you a new creation in Christ? What holds you back from a whole-hearted seeking of this grace? What ties to the world and sin can restrain you and entice you to enjoy this world which will go up in flames some day? It is the Lord Jesus who must teach us these things and prepare our hearts if we are going to flee from the reality of hell and seek Him in whose presence is the very wonder and glory of heaven. Even now every sinner has the opportunity to flee sin and to seek grace from God. Even now every sinner has something of a conscience that pokes and prods him or her about his or her sin. Even now every sinner has to suppress the truth to go on in ways of sin. Even now every sinner should flee from sin and pursue the Lord pleading for Him to show them grace. What is it that keeps sinners from seeking the Lord? It is their own selfish and proud hearts, but we must note that God turns people over to self and pride as judgment upon them. A selfish and proud heart is not something a person can just turn from in his or her own power, but instead a person’s heart must be softened by the hand of the God who hardened it. Sinners must seek the Lord to relent from His judgment upon them and grant them a soft heart. What God has hardened, no man can soften himself so each person must seek the Lord to soften his or her heart and that will only happen in the preparation of the heart that is the work of Christ. It bears repeating over and over again, so one more time. Self and pride are judgments of God in hardening hearts. No human being or a collection of human beings can overpower the work of God and obtain a soft heart. They must seek the Lord for it. The damned in hell would give a thousand worlds to be able to seek the Lord once again. As Jonathan Edwards put it, the damned in hell would give the whole world and all else they could get to have sinned one less time. This is not to say that unregenerate people don’t sin in seeking the Lord, but in seeking the Lord they are no giving themselves to seeking sin without restraint. As Edwards said once again, if a soul in hell could rejoice, those who had sought the Lord would rejoice for how much less their sufferings were. Each sinner should come to a realization that the pleasures of sin are only fleeting and lead to eternal and misery beyond what can be expressed by words. Sinners should seek the Lord because He alone can give grace and save them, but also so that their torment in hell will be less. If a thousand worlds are as nothing to sinners in hell, let those who are not yet there learn the seriousness of sin and learn to flee from the wrath to come. Seek the Lord for grace for He is a gracious God.

Be persuaded that your soul is far more valuable to you than the whole world and there are only two places (heaven and hell) that you will spend all eternity in.

Certainly believe it, that heaven is so glorious, that it is worth all your care and pains be it never so much; and that hell is so dreadful, that you may reasonably fly from it with all diligence, earnestness and speed; that it is better you had never been born, if you should die in your sins, and perish everlastingly. What a direful screech will your soul give, if it goes out of your body into unquenchable burnings!

The Scriptures sets out heaven as so glorious that it cannot be understood in this life. We know, however, that it is to be in the presence of God and it is (as Jonathan Edwards described it) a world of love. It is a place where every single person who has Christ will be taken and plunged into an ocean of perfect love. It is a place where people are beloved of God, beloved of others, and all love God because He first loved them. Christ Himself is the light in that place. It is pictured as a place of eternal pleasure, joy, and a place where there is no pain or sorrow. We are told by Paul that the glories to be revealed are worth all the suffering and pain that we have in this life, but even more that the things in this life are not even worth comparing to the glories to be revealed. Heaven, then, is a place that should be sought no matter what. But Christ alone can open our eyes to give us a longing for heaven because Christ Himself is our foretaste of heaven in this life. We should seek Him to give us this taste.

On the other hand, hell is a place to be avoided at all costs and all pains. Hell is such a place of incredible suffering and anguish of soul that a person should flee from it with all of their might. Hell is the place where out minds will be opened to every terror of mind and the body will receive suffering for what it has done in life as well. It is a place where there is the absent of all good and all comfort, yet the presence of all evil and suffering. All the lusts of the body will be raging and yet never satisfied. The body will crave water in the midst of the fire and yet it will never receive one drop of water. The eyes will see the good that believers have and yet know that the souls in hell can never have one bit of good. Oh how the soul will be tormented with hatred and jealousy while knowing that it will never have one moment of relief of this unceasing and unmitigated wrath upon it. Yet people go on in this casually as if time was nothing but to be wasted and religion was an easy way to go about things.

It has been said that one spark from hell dropped into the soul is what men need to be awakened to the sobering reality around them, but it is also true that one drop of glory from heaven should awaken men to the glories there.
As the first quote at the top of the page says, “be persuaded that your soul is far more valuable to you than the whole world and there are only two places (heaven and hell) that you will spend all eternity in.” In light of the glories of heaven and the terrors of hell, no soul should do anything that is inconsistent with seeking the Lord. No one should do anything but seek the Lord for a heart that is prepared for Himself and therefore for eternity. While Christ has been said to go in order to prepare a place for His people, we must also know that He alone can prepare out hearts as His dwelling place. No human being can make his or her heart fit to be the dwelling place of God, so we must know that the Lord must do this work if it is to be done at all.

What will happen to the soul that will not seek the Lord for his or her soul to be made into a dwelling place of the Lord? That soul will learn by experience and a doleful and awful experience that it is better if that person had never been born than to die in his or her sins and drop into the flames of hell to perish everlastingly. People speak of depression in modern America, but in that place there is utterly no hope in the soul when the veil of this life is taken away and it sees that nothing but eternal misery is ahead of it. As the soul is in this unspeakable misery without the slightest hope of the slightest mitigation of its torment and it has nothing to look forward to but an increasing torment forever and ever, that soul will know by awful experience what utter despair really is.

If the sinner could imagine what screams will come from his or her mouth as it hears the words of the Lord to go away from Him into the eternal fire and indeed it is delivered into unquenchable burnings, that soul will wish it has sought the Lord to be freed from its sins, its addictions, its lusts, and anything that could be thought of as sin. That soul will have wished it had sought the Lord with greater intensity to flee from sin and the hell it deserves. It will wish that it had sought the Lord and spent its time fasting and praying to avoid sin and to have Him.

Be persuaded that your soul is far more valuable to you than the whole world and there are only two places (heaven and hell) that you will spend all eternity in.

You can count on it that it is very difficult to come to heaven, but the way to destruction is broad and easy. Take it to heart that you have a deceitful heart with you, a wicked devil close to you, and snares and hindrances around and before you.

When we think of the power of the evil one and the power of sin, we should know for certain that we must have Christ as our Teacher or we will be deceived. The vast majority of people in our day who think that evangelism makes a difference are those who run around just telling people to believe as if all things depended on their mere choice or act of the will. No, as Scripture says, “So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy” (Rom 9:16). This text should be drilled into our hearts when we do evangelism. We must strive to get men to look to God to have mercy on them rather than for themselves to do something by an act of their own will or their own running or coming. Before men can be saved by Christ alone, men must be undeceived about himself, sin, and Christ.

20 “The one on whom seed was sown on the rocky places, this is the man who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; 21 yet he has no firm root in himself, but is only temporary, and when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he falls away. And the one on whom seed was sown among the thorns, this is the man who hears the word, and the worry of the world and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful (Mat 13:20-22).

Over and over again we are told not to be deceived regarding salvation. In the text above we see the parable of the soil or the parable of the sower. The sower went out to sow and some of the seed fell on rocky places. This is a man who heard the word and immediately received it with joy. This person can be seen as someone who is having a hard time in life and hears the word preached and responds with an act of the will or makes a choice and so has great joy thinking that s/he is saved. But that person, despite an act of the will or a choice, was deceived about being converted. Yes, the person believed. Yes, the person had great joy in believing. However, the person was not truly converted.

Some of the seed fell on some ground that had thorns. This is the person who hears the word and yet the worry of the world and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word. The text does not say that this happens immediately or whether it happens over time, but in accordance with the earlier verses and the analogy of the seed being choked by the thorns we can safely assume that the person believed the word for at least a short time. But again, the seed was choked to where there was no fruit because of the deceitfulness of wealth. The lure and the love of wealth takes the heart and trust of a person and they focus on it rather than on spiritual riches. The point, once again, is that sinners need Christ at all points and at all times to teach them.

For such men are slaves, not of our Lord Christ but of their own appetites; and by their smooth and flattering speech they deceive the hearts of the unsuspecting (Romans 16:18)

The pulpits of America (and beyond) seem to be full of men who are slaves of their own appetites and indeed they have smooth and flattering speech by which they deceive the hearts of others. These types of men have no ability to tell others the way of conversion, but they have nice and flattering ways of speech which sound good to those whose hearts are deceived already. These nice and flattering ways of speech can sound good to those who want to hear good things about themselves and about how easy salvation is. The road to hell is full of preachers who have nothing but nice things to say about them and even flattering things to say. The devil is not the meanest preacher in town, but the nicest preachers and the smoothest preachers are the ones he deceives people with.

The way to destruction is easy and takes no real effort. The way to destruction is filled with people who think that they are on the way to heaven when in fact they are almost in hell. The way to destruction has many deceptions about sin, our own hearts, other people, church, and Christ Himself. What we must see is that the way to destruction is full of deception. The deceptions are numerous and they are very deceptive. Only Christ can teach us the truth as He is the Truth. Only Christ can open our eyes by His life and light to see just how deceived we have been and perhaps still are. Only Christ can give us a new heart and give us true faith. Only Christ can drive His word into our hearts and make them bear fruit and to overcome and be steadfast in the difficulties. The narrow road is difficult, but Christ is the Way on that road and it ends in the presence of the living God.