3 Words Haunt in Hell Sin is Costly

I believe there are three words which will haunt you in hell and I believe these three words are being shouted in hell tonight. The cries of the damned are encircled around these three terrible words. Listen to me friends, if you die in your sins and you were cast into hell's fire, the three words will follow you there.

Three words will gnaw at you there. The three words which will haunt you in hell are these, sin is costly, sin is costly, sin is costly. That's what the doomed are crying right now.

That's what the wicked are screaming right now. That's what the damned in hell are hollering right now. Sin is costly, sin is costly, sin is costly.

And that's the title of my message this evening friends. Sin is costly and my text can be found in the book of numbers and in chapter 32. You can turn in your bibles there now friends.

It's just one little verse, but that one verse will follow you into hell. Look at verse 23. But if ye will not do so, behold ye have sinned against the Lord, and be sure your sin will find you out.

While I was writing the authorized biography of J. Sidlow Baxter, I learned of his conversion. While he was a young man in England, Sidlow Baxter just loved detective stories. And while walking one day down the street in Manchester, he saw a sign over a advertising an evangelistic crusade.

And the sign said, the infallible detective. And Sidlow said to himself, my, I must go and hear that. And he did.

And the evangelist preached a message from numbers 32-23 on this infallible detective from the verse, your sin will find you out. And it's true friends, your sin will find you out. You may think you can hide from God's eyes as you hug your sins and indulge your flesh, but his eyes constantly upon you.

The infallible detective is at your heels tonight friends. I want to take a walk with you now through the bible as we look at our theme this evening of the three words which will haunt you in hell. Sin is costly.

And I want to explore this theme with the following divisions. Number one, how sin will cost you in life. Number two, how sin will cost you in eternity.

And I have several subdivisions attached as we proceed. You may want to get out your pens and paper and take notes as you take note of this frightening message on sin and its ramifications. Sin is costly.

I was having a conversation recently with a fellow evangelist. He's a veteran evangelist who has been preaching for several decades and he has a close walk with God. And he was sharing with me a sad story about his father.

He said his father was a pastor who had fallen into moral failure and committed adultery. He lost his church. He lost his reputation.

He lost it all for eventually this former pastor became homeless. And then my friend looked away to the distance and his eyes became sad as he related this tragic story to me as a warning to every one of us. And he made the final one comment.

He said a sin is costly. And I chewed on that for a while and his words stuck with me for several days. Sin is costly for I know from fact that it is.

And I could not let loose of those three striking words without putting them into this message tonight. This message which should be a solemn warning to all who hear it. Sin is costly.

Those three words will follow you into hell. Those three words will haunt you in hell forever and ever and ever. Sin is costly.

I wish to begin the sermon with the aspect of how sin will cost you in life. And I believe the proof text for this can be found in one of the saddest chapters in my Bible, 2 Samuel chapter 11. Turn in your Bibles there now as we peer into the life of a man favored by God who carelessly and presumptuously sinned against God.

And that man was King David. We find David reclining and resting on his recent successes when he should have been out fighting the Lord's battles. He rises from his bed and goes for a stroll atop his palace and his eyes fall upon a stunning beauty who is washing herself.

She is naked and he should have looked away. But instead he leered, he lusted, and he began his great descent into the sins of adultery and murder. Listen to me, friend.

Sin will always take you further than you want to go. It'll leave you there longer than you want to stay. And it'll cost you more than you ever realized.

Our text in verse 2 reads, And it came to pass in an eventide that David arose from off his bed and walked upon the roof of the king's house. And from the roof he saw a woman washing herself, and the woman was very beautiful to look upon. Now I want to have you turn over in your Bibles, friends, as we scan the price that King David paid for his sin, the consequence of his sin, the cost of his sin and his life.

In chapter 13 of 2 Samuel, we find the record of Ammon raping Tamar. Then Absalom kills Ammon for this wicked act. Then in chapter 15, in chapter 15 and verse 13, we read the hearts of the men of Israel are after Absalom.

David's choice son has turned against him in rebellion. Then Absalom is killed. And we'll see David's heartbreak from the news of his son's death.

Listen to the anguish in his voice as found in 2 Samuel chapter 18 and verse 33. And the king was much moved and went up to the chamber over the gate and wept. And as he went, thus he said, Oh my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom, would God I had died for thee.

Oh Absalom, my son, my son. This friends is a clear picture of the certain fact that sin is costly. Sin will cost you in life.

David's sin affected his entire family. I once knew a man who had a perfect life. He had a lovely home, a good job, an affectionate Christian wife and several beautiful children.

He served in several capacities of leadership at his church. Then he got a new young secretary who was half his age and he had an adulterous affair with her. His sin cost him his family for his marriage ended in divorce.

He lost his house. He lost his reputation as a Christian leader. One of his children rebelled in her teenage years and her life became a train wreck.

Listen to me friend and listen to me very carefully. Sin will cost you in life. It will ruin your marriage.

It will ruin your home. It will ruin your family. Do you believe that? Do you? Listen to me brother pastor.

Sin will cost you in ministry. How many men have I known through the years in ministry who have fallen into grievous sin and it wrecked their church. It wrecked their ministry.

Sin will cost you in life. If you want to pick a fight with me on that one, I believe you'll because in the end your sin will find you out. You may be able to hide it now brother.

You may be able to hide it now sister, but you cannot hide from the one who has eyes of fire. Holy God, your sin will find you out. Sin will cost you in life.

I can promise you that. You cannot escape the ramifications and consequences of sin. If you don't believe me friend, just go through your Bible and begin in the book of Genesis and see how sin ruined a human race.

How sin put a man under a curse. Every mother's son born into this world drinks iniquity like it's water. That's because his natural inclination, because of his real nature, is drawn to sin.

God spewed out the following bitter words to Adam. Cursed is the ground. For thy sake in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life.

Sin will cost you in life friend. You can count on that and that's not my saying it. That is a holy God saying it who hates all sin.

Come with me now to peer more deeply into how sin ruins mankind. God told Cain, sin, life at the door. And we see the first murder take place as Cain kills his brother Abel.

Then we see how costly sin is friends, as sin destroys an entire world, an entire race, save one family which was Noah's family. In Genesis chapter 6 and verses 5 and 6 we read, and God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth and it grieved a man's heart.

Sin will cost you in this life friend. A sin is costly. A sin is costly.

A sin is costly. Now I wish to explore this next aspect with you of our great theme tonight and that is number two. A sin will cost you in eternity.

I really believe friends that the three words you will hear in hell, the three words which will follow you into hell, the three words which will haunt you continually in hell are these, a sin is costly. A sin is costly. A sin is costly.

That's the cry of the damned as they gnash their teeth together in deep regret. Listen to me friend. If I could walk you right now over to the precipice of hell and lift the lid off that bottomless pit, I believe you'd hear millions and millions of lost souls crying out in agony tonight.

A sin is costly. Don't come here to this place of torment. Listen to our warnings.

A sin is costly. Sin is costly. It cost me my soul.

I can't get out of this horrible prison. Listen to me those of you still on the earth. Don't come to this place of torment and misery.

A sin is costly. Sin is costly. Sin is costly.

That is their cry friend. Will it be your cry as well? Now let me explore a final aspect of our theme this evening, and it is this. A sin cost a holy God, his only begotten son, and sin cost Jesus Christ his precious blood.

Mark 15 25 records the result of the cost of sin. Listen to these dark words which caused the angels in heaven to pause and weep. And it was the third hour and they crucified him.

Listen to me friend. The little God you serve in this life won't serve you too well in eternity. You better trade out your little God of your imagination.

The little God who lets you have salvation and still be comfortable in sin. Listen to me. You better get rid of that God friend, for he will surely cost you in hell because God must punish sin.

The God of the Bible must punish sin. Now some of you don't believe that. Your God wouldn't act that way, but the God of the Bible would.

God will and must punish sin. Sin costs. And when they took the Lord of glory with cruel hands, when they took that innocent blood and nailed them to that horrible death instrument of the cross, when the Roman soldiers took that hammer in their hands and began to pound and drive those thick nails into the Savior's tender hands, every blow of the hammer was an explanation point of God must punish sin.

God must punish sin. God must punish sin. Look at me friend.

Give me your undivided attention. Listen to what I'm saying to you right now. All of you within the sound of my voice, listen to these three words and listen to them loud and clear.

Sin is costly. Sin will cost you in life. Sin will cost you in eternity.

Sin is costly. Sin is costly. Sin is costly.

Jesus said, unless you repent, you shall all likewise perish. And that means you friend, even if you're the chairman of the deacons. I'm gonna take a moment to preach the gospel to you.

And it is my prayer friend said, you won't hear this poor preacher's shaky voice so much, but that you will hear his voice as it comes to you in all power, authority, and majesty. Listen to the following pleas of the gospel as they ring in your ears right now. Seek ye the Lord while he may be found.

Call ye upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man, his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord. And he will have mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon.

All that the father giveth me shall come to me and him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out. Oh, look unto me and be ye saved all the ends of the earth for I am God and there is none else. Come on to me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you and learn of me for I am meek and lowly in heart and ye shall find rest unto your souls for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. And the spirit and the bride say come and let him that heareth say come and let him that is a thirst come and whosoever will let him take the water of life freely.