If GOD is your enemy!
(James Smith, "The Way of Salvation Set Forth")
Unconverted reader, did you ever
Unconverted reader, did you ever
consider that solemn text,
hardens his neck, shall suddenly
be destroyed, and that without
remedy!" Proverbs 29:1.
You have been often reproved,
yet you delay; you have refused . . .
to bow to GOD'S authority,
to yield to HIS command,
to embrace HIS mercy,
to flee to the refuge HE has
to bow to GOD'S authority,
to yield to HIS command,
to embrace HIS mercy,
to flee to the refuge HE has
provided, to seek and obtain
the pardon which HE promises.
Instead, you have hardened your
neck. What if He should destroy you!
What if HE should destroy you suddenly!
HE can, for HE is almighty!
HE may, for HE has threatened!
If HE should, what a dreadful
condition would you be in forever!
Shut up in hopeless despair,
and destroyed without remedy!
While you delay, you are
While you delay, you are
in the greatest danger!
A person slumbering in a
burning house, a man sleeping
on the edge of a precipice,
a blind man walking round
the crater of a volcano--
is safe, in comparison with you!
Around you are kindling
the quenchless flames of Hell,
you sleep on the brink of
you sleep on the brink of
the bottomless pit,
you are in danger of
you are in danger of
plunging into that lake
of glowing brimstone,
where there is weeping and
wailing and gnashing of teeth!
"But those enemies of MINE who
did not want ME to be king over them--
bring them here and kill them in
front of ME!" Luke 19:27
"If we deliberately keep on sinning
after we have received the knowledge
of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left,
but only a fearful expectation
of judgment and of raging fire that
will consume the enemies of GOD!"
Hebrews 10:26-27
Consider, consider seriously,
that while you delay, GOD
is your enemy--
and HE is angry with you
every day!
Every sin provokes GOD to anger--
but no sin is so provoking as
unbelief, because it calls GOD a liar.
To have an absolute monarch
for your enemy is bad enough--
but to have GOD for your
enemy is infinitely worse!
"GOD is a just judge, and GOD
is angry with the wicked every day.
If HE does not turn back, HE will
sharpen HIS sword; HE bends
HIS bow and makes it ready.
HE also prepares for HIMSELF
instruments of death; HE makes
HIS arrows into fiery shafts!"
Psalm 7:11-13.
HE waits to watch the conduct
of delaying sinners, HE gives
them space for repentance, HE
is long-suffering toward them--
but they will not turn.
HE will sharpen HIS sword,
HIS bow is ready bent in HIS hand,
HE has taken out HIS arrow from
HIS quiver, and the impenitent
sinner is the mark at which HE aims!
Will not HIS arrows pierce the heart?
Will they not inflict dreadful pains,
and produce incurable wounds?
Will they not rankle and fester
to all eternity. If GOD wounds--
then who can heal?
Think, dear reader, if you were
shackled and placed before an
assembled crowd, to be shot at
with poisoned arrows, for injuring
and insulting the king, and
refusing his pardon--
would not your case be dreadful?
But this would be nothing, compared
with your present condition!
You have insulted the GOD
of mercy numberless times,
in ten thousand ways; you
have injured HIS creatures,
you have joined yourself to HIS
inveterate and determined foes!
And HE has offered you a pardon,
not once or twice--
but has waited years
to see if you would accept it--
but you have obstinately refused!
And now justice, holy justice,
demands that you be punished
according to your deserts.
Before assembled worlds,
your folly will be published, and
your sins will be proclaimed!
And while GOD lives to punish,
and justice remains unchanged--
your sad, your just, your
indescribable sufferings
will continue!
To have GOD for ones enemy,
is of all terrible things,
the most terrible!
Just look for one moment at
HIS perfections, and see them
all opposed to you.
If GOD is your enemy--
then HE is an Omnipotent enemy--
and can you effectually oppose
almighty power? HE could
crush you to atoms--
but HE will only punish
you as justice demands.
There is no cruelty in HIS nature--
but there is dreadful inflexible justice.
If GOD is your enemy--
then HE is an Omniscient enemy!
HE . . .
sees your heart,
reads your thoughts,
knows your motives,
understands your designs,
and penetrates the deepest
recesses of your soul.
Can you deceive HIM? Never!
There is not a thought in your heart--
but HE knows it altogether!
Your whole history is before HIM--
the secret, as well as the public.
HIS eye will pursue you, and
rest upon you throughout eternity!
Should you sink to the deepest
depths of Hell--
HIS eye will rest upon you,
and pierce your inmost soul.
There is something very fearful
in the thought of GOD'S eye
resting upon the lost soul
forever, flashing conviction
into the heart like the flashes
of the fearful lightning.
If GOD is your enemy--
then HE is an Omnipresent
enemy. As every sin was
committed in HIS presence--
so every pain must be
endured in HIS presence.
The sense of HIS presence
in Hell, will be very different
to our sense of HIS presence
on earth. It will be fearful!
It will be very dreadful!
HE is ever present--
how then can you flee
from HIM? Where can you go?
Where can you hide? What
will conceal you from an
ever present GOD!
O hasten to HIS throne of grace,
flee into the open arms of HIS mercy,
submit at once at HIS footstool--
and HIS omnipresence shall
be your joy, your safeguard,
and your refuge!
If GOD is your enemy--
then HE will be strictly
Righteous. HE will take
no bribe. HE will violate no
principle of HIS government.
HE will never forget or rescind one
threatening recorded in HIS word.
Your just wages shall be paid--
no more, no less. HE now mingles
mercy with HIS judgments--
but there will be no mercy then.
HE is now emphatically
"The merciful GOD," but
HE will not be so then.
Mercy will then give place to justice,
grace will then give place to equity,
and love will then give place to wrath--
in the experience of the lost soul.
If GOD is your enemy--
then you will have an Eternal
enemy. HE can never die.
From everlasting to everlasting,
HE is GOD. If only man
were your enemy--
he might die; and his death
may work a deliverance for you.
But if GOD is your enemy,
there is no hope!
HE ever lives, and while HE lives--
HE must hate sin. And while
HE hates sin--
HE must punish the sinner!
O fearful case!
The eternal GOD is your enemy!
HE will be your enemy forever!
Now, reader, dwell for one
moment upon the solemn
thought: GOD is my enemy!
I have an Omnipotent, Omniscient,
Omnipresent, Righteous, Eternal enemy!
ONE from whom I cannot escape.
ONE whom it will be Hell to face.
ONE whom my conscience will
forever justify, while suffering
the most dreadful torments.
Shall I rush upon the sword
of HIS justice--
or run into the arms of HIS mercy?
Think, delaying sinner.
Pause, and say to yourself,
"I am under the curse
and wrath of GOD.
If I die in this state I shall die . . .
without mercy,
without pity, and
without hope.
My sins are all recorded in GOD'S book,
I am unpardoned and unblessed,
satan is my father and my god,
and Hell is my everlasting home!
All creation will despise me.
All in Heaven will frown upon me.
All in Hell will eternally upbraid me.
No one will respect or sympathize
with me. I shall forever lie under
the burning wrath of GOD--
a curse and eternal execration!"
Unconverted reader!
Sickness is coming!
Death is coming!
Judgment is coming!
Eternity is just at hand!
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
GraceGems has published J.C. Ryle's helpful article,
"The Duties of Parents". Must reading for all parents!
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