A Blind Walk to Hell

The great British evangelist George Whitefield was preaching to London society and the famous Lord Chesterfield was among his hearers and in his sermon Whitefield was describing how a poor sinner was much like a blind beggar walking a winding path with his cane and his little dog beside him. The night was dark, the road treacherous, and there was the poor blind beggar making his way along that dangerous path. Suddenly the beggar comes to a precipice and his little dog abandons him.

There he totters back and forth, losing the grip on his cane, which falls into the black abyss beneath him. And Whitefield so warmed his subject and embroiled it with such graphic realism that Lord Chesterfield believed he saw the beggar totter over the cliff and he leaped from his chair and yelled, oh my god he's gone. And it's true friends that a poor sinner is nothing more than a blind beggar making his way through life, blind to all spiritual truths and blinded by the God of this world as my Bible declares in 2nd Corinthians in chapter 4 and verses 3 and 4 which state, but if our gospel be hid it is hid to them that are lost in whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ who is the image of God should shine unto them.

My message this evening friends is entitled A Blind Walk to Hell and we will look at how wretched a poor sinner really is apart from Christ. Our text will be found in the book of Jeremiah in chapter 23. You can turn in your Bibles there now.

Sometimes I go to a shopping mall and I'll just sit and people watch and as I watch hundreds of people pass by I think and I wonder how many of them will die in their sins and be cast into hell and its torments. There they go dead in their sins blinded to the reality of Christ Jesus and if they're not awakened to their lost condition and brought to a saving knowledge of Christ they will perish like that blind beggar and drop into the abyss of outer darkness which is hell itself. Let me read us our text from Jeremiah 23 and verse 12.

Wherefore their way shall be unto them as slippery ways in the darkness they shall be driven on and fall therein for I will bring evil upon them even the year of their visitation saith the Lord. Now I want us to think about that text friends and its striking imagery. It speaks of a path that is both dark and slippery.

It states that God himself will drive them on and make them fall as he visits them with evil. The way the wicked is perilous indeed. God is a just judge who must punish sin but many today don't believe in that kind of God.

Many church members, many pastors, many seminary professors don't believe in a God who will punish sin and send anybody to hell. They just don't believe in a God like that. I'll never forget the story I heard Ralph Barnard relate in regard to our view of God today.

He said one time he was the guest preacher in a country church and after the service he was invited to lunch at a deacon's house. He and the pastor rode together along to the deacon's farm. Ralph Barnard said he never saw a dinner table laden with so many different types of meat.

There was a platter of fried chicken, a platter of grilled sausage, a platter stacked high with big strips of bacon, another platter had fried pork chops stacked high plus all the homemade biscuits and jellies and there were vegetables and dessert that would stuff a mule and Barnard said that he was just enjoying that delicious meal when his host the deacon who sat at the end of the long table with a napkin tucked in his shirt collar began to look angry and upset. Ralph Barnard said that the deacon had a red face and a protruding Adam's apple that stuck way out his neck and every time the good deacon swallowed his food that big Adam's apple went up and down like a turkey's gobbler. Well this deacon finally hollered at Barnard, preacher I don't believe God would act like you said this morning.

Ralph Barnard had preached a message on hell that Sunday morning and his theme was God and that God was a God who must punish sin and as this deacon made that comment Ralph Barnard just kept on eating. He said he didn't want to miss out on all that good food and he didn't want to answer the deacon and make him mad because he was a much bigger man than himself so he pretended he didn't hear him as he reached for another pork chop. The deacon took his big meaty fist and pounded the table and yelled out preacher did you not hear me what you said this morning wasn't right about God punishing people to hell because my God wouldn't act that way.

Finally Ralph Barnard stopped eating put down his fork and replied I reckon you're right brother deacon your God wouldn't act that way but the God of the Bible would. And friends there are a number in our church today who don't believe in a God who will and must punish sin. I hear pastors make the following ridiculous remark they say God loves the sinner but hates the sin.

Really? Is that my Bible that God loves the sinner and hates the sin? My Bible says exactly the opposite. In Psalms God's word declares God is angry with the wicked every day if he turned not he will wet his sword he hath bent his bow and made it ready. And in our text from Jeremiah it declares that God drives a sinner on down that path to ultimate destruction.

Now there are several aspects I'd like to explore this evening friends in regard to a poor sinner on his blind walk to hell. The first is that he walks in darkness. This is seen in the book of Proverbs in chapter 4 and verse 19.

The way the wicked is as darkness and they know not at what they stumble. So their path is that of darkness as George Whitfield related. The poor blind beggar stumbling along in the darkness with his cane and his little dog beside him.

A sinner gropes his way through this world blinded by the world and the prince of this world. He is held man on pleasure seeking and self-gratification. His belly is his God.

His lusts consume him. The same comparison to a sinner walking a path of darkness is seen in the book of Deuteronomy in chapter 2 and verse 5. Let me read that to us now friends. They know not neither will they understand.

They walk on in darkness. All the foundations of the earth are out of their course. So the experience of the wicked is a dark way.

We see a solemn description of the blind sinner found in the book of Deuteronomy in chapter 28 and verse 29. I want us to see this second aspect of the poor blind sinner as he is on his blind walk to hell and that is his path is perilous. He's not aware of his perilous position outside of Christ and he's not aware of his great danger of dying in his sins and being cast into hell's fire.

We see how slippery and perilous his way is as seen in Psalm 35 6 which states, let their way be dark and slippery and let the angel of the Lord persecute them. And our text from Jeremiah mentioned earlier describing the peril of their slippery path of darkness. Wherefore their way should be unto them as slippery ways in the dark.

And there is a passage of scripture friends which I believe typifies this theme of the wicked's peril and is found in Deuteronomy 32 and 25. To me belongeth vengeance and recompense. Their foot shall slide in due time for the day of their calamity is at hand and the things that shall come upon them make haste.

So we see friends that the way the wicked is both dark and dangerous they are blinded to their lost condition and they are quite unaware of their great peril of dying in their sins. Now notice a third aspect of our theme this evening of the poor blind sinner and that is his path goes in the opposite direction to God in heaven and the very life is lived out against God and all things holy. Because of their spiritual blindness the Bible is a closed book to them.

God is a non-reality to them. All their thoughts, all their actions are self-focused and geared toward gratification of the flesh. In Romans we see this picture of the blindness of a poor sinner and how he lives his life in enmity against God and all things holy.

I'll read you Romans 8 and verses 5 through 8 now friends. For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh but they that are after the spirit the things of the spirit for to be carnally minded is death but to be spiritually minded is life and peace because the carnal mind is enmity against God for it's not subject to the law of God neither indeed can be so they that are in the flesh cannot please God. I was playing golf one time with a man who had a filthy mouth every word out of that man's mouth was either a cuss word or taking God's name in vain and as we stood on a I looked him in the eye and asked him the following question I said if you don't mind me asking what is your relationship with God like he grinned a big grin and answered just fine my relationship with God is just fine in fact we have an agreement between us I leave him alone and he leaves me alone and friends the sad fact of that man's statement is true God will leave him alone in his sins and that is the worst state of a man God will finally reprobate a person who continually rejects him then that person is beyond the reach of heaven's grace as they become reprobate silver God leaves them alone in their sins this truth is seen in Romans 1 28 and even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge God gave them over to a reprobate mind to do those things which are not convenient so a sinner's path is in the opposite of God and it describes the title of my message this evening a blind walk to hell because they are walking in the opposite direction of heaven and they're quite unaware of both their danger and their destiny and that brings us to our final point this evening friends and that is a poor sinner's way is that of certain doom and damnation listen friends God is a God who will and must punish sin God drowned the old world in Noah's day he burned up Sodom and the cities of the plain for their great wickedness and God will surely send the wicked to hell of the end of the wicked is doom and damnation in Matthew 23 33 Jesus declares how can ye escape damnation of hell and in Mark 3 29 he speaks of those being in danger of eternal damnation but a poor blind sinner is not aware of his danger of dying in his sins for the way the world seems the right way for him we see this truth in Proverbs 14 12 there is a way that seemeth right unto a man but in the end thereof are the ways of death the end of the wicked is certain as seen in Psalm 37 38 the end of the wicked shall be cut off listen friends we have seen from God's word this evening that the sinner's path is so dark his way so perilous his road so dangerous his doom so certain and the sad thing is friends he's quite unaware of his great danger he'll end up in hell without having time to pack a suitcase the sinner thinks he has all the time in the world especially if he's now in good health but God's word says otherwise surely thou did set them in slippery places thou cast them down into destruction as in a moment they are oddly consumed with terrors the king of terror is fast on their heels sudden death can remove them quite unexpectedly we live in a day friends of sudden death you can be gunned down in public just going to the grocery store or standing in line for a movie ticket you can be removed from this earth from a sudden terrorist attack which will become more and more frequent in this country i'm surprised we haven't had more terror attacks in america from our enemies but they are coming they're threatening to attack our shopping malls next they could plant a dirty bomb in a major city and wipe out a hundred thousand people in an instant we live in a land of sudden death for the pathway of the poor sinner is a dark and slippery and treacherous path at best and even though he thinks he has all the time in the world to sin as much as he wants to he is wrong friends uh dead wrong from my bible declares that a man has no guarantee of tomorrow listen to God's word for man also knoweth not his time as the fishes that are taken in an evil net and as the birds that are caught in the snare so are the sons of men snared in an evil time when it followed suddenly upon them that's what i'm talking about friends sudden destruction listen to me friend if you've been living your life on the wrong side of God if you are the person i've been talking about this evening if you are on that dark path that slippery path that path of doom and sudden destruction then listen to these following gospel invitations and as i pray as i preach them unto you that you do not hear the voice of this poor preacher as much but that you'll receive grace upon your heart to hear his voice as it comes to you with all power and authority and majesty listen dear friend the gospel is for the hungry the weary and the thirsty let me ask you are you weary of your sins are you hungry for God are you thirsty for Christ then come here now is the call to come to Christ in repentance and faith look unto me and be you saved all the ends of the earth for i am God and there is none else ho everyone that thirsteth come ye to the waters and he that hath no money come ye by and eat yea come by wine and milk without money and without price a 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 a Jesus declared all that the Father giveth me shall come to me and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest I take my yoke upon you and learn of me for I am meek and lowly in heart and you 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