The Fall of the Wicked

George Whitefield used to relate the story about how Lost's man was like a blind beggar groping his way along a path in the darkness with his little dog beside him and a cane to help him along the way. And before we go to a time of prayer, I want to bring a brief exposition on the subject of the fall of the wicked and it should spur us on to greater efforts in evangelism friends. My text is Jeremiah 23 12.

You may turn in your Bibles there now. It's been estimated that 83 people a minute die apart from Christ. Do the math.

That comes to about 5,000 an hour. Every day, 120,000 people fall into the agonies of hell. That's over 800,000 souls a week.

Every month, that adds up to 3.3 million people entering a crisis eternity. Through the course of a year, 40 million people populate the regions of hell. Let 10 years go by and another 400 million souls are shut up in there to scream in agony.

Hell is a very crowded place. There's no elbow room in hell. The fall of the wicked is certain and it should break our hearts that man is without Christ in the world and there are so few gospel workers to reach them with the truth of the gospel of the Son of God.

Jesus declared in the gospel of Matthew, the harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few. Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest that he will send forth laborers into his harvest. But friends, time is short.

Hell fills every hour with new arrivals and for many the only harvest they know is that which is spoken of in Jeremiah 8 20 which declares the harvest is past the summer has ended and we are not saved. How tragic a picture is that of a gaping hell ready to receive the fall of the wicked. Let me read us our text from Jeremiah 23 and verse 12 and listen friends to the sad picture of the lost sinner on a slippery path leading to his own destruction.

Wherefore their way should be unto them as slippery ways in the darkness they should be driven on and fall therein for I will bring evil upon them even the year of their visitation saith the Lord. Now friends there are four aspects I would like to draw forth from this text before us and these four aspects of the fall of the wicked are as follows. Number one, their way is dark.

Number two, their way is dangerous. Number three, their fall is certain. And number four, their punishment is in a burning hell.

Let's see this aspect from our passage that their way is dark. It says in our text that they walk in darkness and in Proverbs 4 19 it says the same about the wicked. The way the wicked is as darkness they know not at what they stumble.

They walk in darkness because they are blind to the truths of the gospel. In fact the gospel is hid to them that are lost. This is seen in 2 Corinthians 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 let the light of the glorious gospel of Christ who is the image of God should shine unto them.

So their minds are dark in the spiritual truths. They are blind to the realities of redemption through Jesus Christ. The gospel is foolishness to them.

They have no need of it. They are blind to their own condition. This is tragic and sad.

So we see that their way is dark. Number two, their way is dangerous. They are in great danger of dying in their sins and being cast into hell and its miseries our text says that their path is slippery.

They are on slippery ground. Have you ever slipped and fallen? I was in a hotel in Edinburgh, Scotland and I had just stepped into the shower and it was a death trap. The tub was oval and it had just been waxed.

I know sooner did I step in there that my feet began to slip and slide and there was nothing to hold on to and soon I was flipped out onto the hard concrete floor and I landed on my head and my wrist. I broke my wrist in the fall. I had dinner at Ian Murray's house that evening and I was in continual pain from my broken wrist because my feet had slid on slippery ground and there's a text from Deuteronomy which describes the sinner's dangerous condition.

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 that the wicked not only walk in the dark but that their path is treacherous and deadly.

It's a pathway of danger which leads to hell. In any moment God can remove them out of this world and send them into eternity that they are quite unprepared for. This leads us friends to our third aspect from our passage in regard to the wicked and that their fall is certain.

Our text reads they shall be driven on and fall therein. It's as if God has given them up to their own destruction. His wrath hangs over them ready to descend at any moment.

We see this from the book of Psalms which states God is angry with the wicked every day. If he turn not he will wet his sword. He had bent his bow and made it ready.

A sinner is a guilty rebel who's broken the strict and severe law of God and stands under the condemnation of that law and the sense in that law must be carried out. I know I'm a sinner. I need a sin substitute in the person of Jesus Christ so do you friend.

So do you. The fall of the wicked is as certain as the rising sun. This is seen in Proverbs 11 5. The righteousness of the perfect shall direct his way but the wicked shall fall by his own wickedness.

We see the same truth in the book of Jeremiah which in chapter 6 and verse 15 states the miserable fall of the wicked. Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? Nay they were not at all ashamed. Neither could they blush.

Therefore they shall fall among them that fall at the time that I visit them. They shall be cast down saith the Lord. So we see the utter ruin and fall of the wicked is certain.

And lastly we see that their punishment is in a burning hell. Our text declares I will bring evil upon them even the year of their visitation saith the Lord. Listen friends the God of the Bible is a God who must punish sin.

Sin cost him his precious son and sin cost Jesus his precious blood which he poured out on a bloody cross for sin. That the punishment of the wicked is a repeated theme through scripture. Jesus called it outer darkness where there's weeping and gnashing of teeth where the worm doth not.

It's an everlasting punishment and a hell of torments for all eternity. The fall of the wicked is a ruinous fall. The wicked will stand at the last judgment as seen in the book of revelation in chapter 20 beginning in verse 11.

Listen friends to this vivid picture of the doom of the wicked. And I saw a great white throne and him that sat on it from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead small and great stand before God and the books were opened and another book was opened which is the book of life and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books according to their works.

And the sea gave up the dead which were in it and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them and they were judged every man according to their works and death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death and whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. This should drive us to our knees friends.

The fall of the wicked is a dreadful thing. How lost men and women boys and girls need to hear the good news of the gospel. How they need to see the Christ of the gospel.

How we need to reach them with the truth of the gospel. I pray that the Holy Spirit will open their eyes and understanding to turn from their wicked ways and turn to God and repentance and faith in Jesus Christ. My Bible declares the soul that sinneth it shall die.

Oh friends how we need to pray for the lost in this community. How we need to pray for the lost in this nation. How we need to pray for the lost in the nations of the world.

Listen friends God is a long-suffering God of whom Peter declares the Lord is not slack concerning his promise as some men count slackness but is long-suffering to us word not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. May this spur us on in our efforts to reach the lost friends and pray that God will stamp eternity on our eyelids and give us a burden for lost souls. I want you to take out a pad and paper and write down the name of a lost person that you know and commit to God that you will faithfully pray for that person to come to Christ and pray with importunity friend.

Pray with faith and pray with persistence and then I want you to commit to God you'll ask God to put a lost person in your path this week that you can witness to about the Christ that came down here so we can go up there and let us pray to the Lord of the harvest that he will send workers into his harvest. Let us go to our knees now in prayer and supplication to the one who hears the cries of his people our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Let us pray.