But For The GRACE Of GOD, There Go I To Eternal Punishment

What is most needed today
(Arthur Pink, "Eternal Punishment")

It is the deepening conviction
of the writer, that what is most
needed today, is a wide
proclamation of those truths
which are the least acceptable
to the flesh.

What is needed today,
is a scriptural setting forth
of the character of God--
His absolute sovereignty,
His ineffable holiness,
His inflexible justice,
His unchanging veracity.

What is needed today,
is a scriptural setting forth
of the condition
of the natural man--
his total depravity,
his spiritual insensibility,
his inveterate hostility to God,
the fact that he is "condemned already"
and that the wrath of a sin-hating God
is even now abiding upon him!

What is needed today,
is a scriptural setting forth
of the alarming danger
which sinners are in--
the indescribably awful doom
which awaits them, the fact that
if they follow their present course
only a little further--
they shall most certainly suffer
the due penalty of their iniquities!

What is needed today,
is a scriptural setting forth
of the nature of that dreadful
punishment which awaits the lost--
the awfulness of it,
the hopelessness of it,
the unendurableness of it,
the endlessness of it!

Excepting the Cross of Christ,
nothing else so manifests
the heinousness of sin--
as the doctrine of eternal punishment.

It is just because these truths
have been withheld so much
from public ministry
to the saints--
that we now find so many
backboneless, sentimental,
lop-sided Christians
in our assemblies!

A clearer vision of the awe-
inspiring attributes of God--
would banish much of our levity
and irreverence.

A better understanding of our
depravity by nature--
would humble us, and
make us see our deep need
of using the appointed means
of grace.

A facing of the alarming danger
of the lost sinner--
would cause us to
"consider our ways" and make
us more diligent to make our
"calling and election sure."

A realization of the unspeakable
misery which awaits the lost
(and which each of us fully merited)
would immeasurably deepen our
gratitude, and bring us to thank
God more fervently--
that we have been snatched
as brands from the burning,
and delivered from the wrath
to come!

It would also make us far
more earnest in our prayers--
as we supplicate God
on behalf of the unsaved.

Grace Gems