Bible Heaven/Bible Heaven.iso/spurgeon/ps9.17

Text File | 1993-03-19 | 6KB | 117 lines

                           EXPOSITION.

        The justice which has punished the wicked, and preserved
the righteous, remains the same, and therefore in days to come,
retribution will surely be meted out. How solemn is the
seventeenth verse, especially in its warning to forgetters of
God. The moral who are not devout, the honest who are not
prayerful, the benevolent who are not believing, the amiable who
are not converted, these must all have their portion with the
openly wicked in the hell which is prepared for the devil and his
angels. There are whole nations of such; the forgetters of God
are far more numerous than the profane or profligate, and
according to the very forceful expression of the Hebrew, the
nethermost hell will be the place into which all of them shall be
hurled headlong. Forgetfulness seems a small sin, but it brings
eternal wrath upon the man who lives and dies in it.

              EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS.

        Verse 17.--The ungodly at death must undergo God's fury
and indignation. "_The wicked shall be turned into hell_." I have
read of a loadstone in Ethiopia which hath two corners, with one
it draws the iron to it, with the other it puts the iron from it;
so God hath two hands, of mercy and justice; with the one he will
draw the godly to heaven, with the other he will thrust the
sinner to hell; and oh, how dreadful is that place! It is called
a fiery lake (#Re 20:15|); a lake, to denote the plenty of
torments in hell; a fiery lake to show the fierceness of them:
fire is the most torturing element. Strabo in his geography
mentions a lake in Galilee of such a pestiferous nature that it
scaldeth off the skin of whatsoever is cast into it; but, alas!
that lake is cool compared with this fiery lake into which the
damned are thrown. To demonstrate this fire terrible, there are
two most pernicious qualities in it. 1. It is sulphurous, it is
mixed with brimstone (#Re 21:8|), which is unsavoury and
suffocating. 2. It is inextinguishable; though the wicked shall
be choked in the flames, yet not consumed (#Re 20:10|); "And the
devil was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the
beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and
night for ever and ever." Behold the deplorable condition of all
ungodly ones in the other world, they shall have a life that
always dies, and death that always lives: may not this affright
men out of their sins, and make them become godly? unless they
are resolved to try how hot the hell-fire is.--^Thomas Watson.

        Verse 17.--"_The wicked shall be turned into hell_," etc.
By "_the wicked_" man we must understand unregenerate persons,
whoever they are that are in a state of unregeneracy ... That
person is here spoken of us a "_wicked_" man that "_forgets
God_," who does not think of him frequently, and with affection,
with fear and delight, and those affections that are suitable to
serious thoughts of God ... To forget God and to be a wicked
person is all one. And these two things will abundantly evince
the truth of this assertion: namely, that this forgetfulness of
God excludes the prime and main essentials of religion, and also
includes in it the highest and most heinous pieces of wickedness,
and therefore must needs denominate the subject, a wicked person.
... Forgetfulness of God excludes the principal and essential
parts of religion. It implies that a man doth neither esteem nor
value the all-sufficiency and holiness of God, as his happiness
and portion, as his strength and support; nor doth he fear him,
nor live in subjection to his laws and commands, as his rule; nor
doth he aim at the glory of God as his end: therefore every one
who thus forgets God must certainly be a wicked person ... To
exclude God out of our thoughts and not to let him have a place
there, not to mind, nor think upon God, is the greatest
wickedness of the thoughts that can be. And, therefore, though
you cannot say of such a one, he will be drunk, or he will swear,
cozen, or oppress; yet if you can say he will forget God, or that
he lives all his days never minding nor thinking upon God, you
say enough to speak him under wrath, and to turn him into hell
without remedy.--^John Howe, 1630-1705.

        Verse 17.--"The wicked shall be turned into hell."
_li-she'ôwl-ah_ <07585>, _--head-long into hell, down into hell_.
The original is very emphatic.--^Adam Clarke.

        Verse 17.--_All wickedness came originally with the
wicked one from hell; thither it will be again remitted, and they
who hold on its side must accompany it on its return to that
place of torment, there to be shut up for ever. The true state
both of "nations," and the individuals of which they are
composed, is to be estimated from one single circumstance;
namely, whether in their doings they remember, or "forget God."
Remembrance of him is the well-spring of virtue; forgetfulness of
him, the fountain of vice.--^George Horne, D.D.

        Verse 17.--
        Hell, their fit habitation, fraught with fire
        Unquenchable, the house of woe and pain.

^John Milton, 1608-1674.

        Verse 17.--
        Will without power, the element of hell,
        Abortive all its acts returning still
        Upon itself; ... Oh, anguish terrible!
        Meet guerdon of self-love, its proper ill!
        Malice would scowl upon the foe he fears;
        And he with lip of scorn would seek to kill;
        But neither sees the other, neither hears--
        For darkness each in his own dungeon bars,
        Lust pines for dearth, and grief drinks its own tears--
        Each in its solitude apart. Hate wars
        Against himself, and feeds upon his chain,
        Whose iron penetrates the soul it scars,
        A dreadful solitude each mind insane,
        Each its own place, its prison all alone,
        And finds no sympathy to soften pain.

^J. A. Heraud.

                       HINTS TO PREACHERS.

        Verse 17.--A warning to forgetters of God.