Proverbs 14:32, Two Eternal Destinies!

August 30, Proverbs 14:32

Luke 16:19-31 “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rm. 6:23).

Two Eternal Destinies!

1. How Do The Wicked Die? Hopeless! It is true that God desires not the death of the wicked. Terrible must that death be! You only die once. You had better learn to do it well! Yet sinners entertain the vain notion that they have a chance of heaven, but there is no such a chance in the message of today’s proverb!

a. Their Recompense: The wicked is driven away. Suddenly he is cut off from all the old associations of life. Gone are all its pleasures, joys, family-ties, friends, familiar things. Gone is the career, the work-place, the money, the property. The wicked are driven from every influence for good or of salvation. There will be no churches there, no preachers pleading to turn from sin, no Bibles, no loving voice to warn them or to weep over them any more. Whither does the wicked go? Now, it is only as far to the grave for the body, but for the soul or spirit, there is the certainty of eternal retribution. And as it is appointed unto men once to die, and after this the judgment (Heb. 9:27).

b. Their Reluctance: The wicked is driven away, thrust out. This is a very strong action indeed, meaning, driven out (Jer. 23:12), cast down (Ps. 64:4; 118:13). Why? It is because they are reluctant to go! All that they know belongs to this life, to earthly objects, to physical touch. They are children of this world, but it is a world that cheats them in the end. It is the only life they know or cared about. Any thoughts of another world only terrify them. Therefore, they cling tenaciously to this life. They will not go. They cannot bear to be parted from it. They must be driven, like a ship to an unwanted shore, uprooted as a tree by the whirlwind (Ps. 9:17). The wicked will not heed the warning, or heed it too late, that life is short, but death is sure. Some will boast that they have no fear of death, but the real truth is that they have no hope in death, hence their reluctance to die!

c. Their Recalcitrance: The wicked is driven away in his wickedness. “At death we leave behind all we have and take with us all we are.” Tonight thy soul shall be required of thee. The wicked must take with them a frightful freight, “a ponderous chain” that they have “woven link by link, and yard by yard,” the cost of their wilful disobedience! They must take their vile passions, evil thoughts, sinful purposes, base habits, terrible guilt, yes, even their respectability! They must leave everything else, but their iniquity sticks fast to them, and, alas, their good works, too! “As you live, you’ll die, and as you die, you’ll live forever.” Oh! the weight of the wickedness of the wicked. It is like a millstone sinking them deeper and deeper, to live with the devil and his angels forever! “Hell itself would be endurable if after millions of ages there was a hope of freedom and of heaven. But universal salvation will find no foothold in Scripture” (J. C. Ryle).

Thought: “As death leaves us, so judgment will find us” (Thomas Brooks).

Prayer: O Lord, save me from a Christless death.