Tottering Over a Smoking Pit

Have you ever seen an old man tottering down the street? His walk is unsteady, and he looks as if he will fall any moment. The dictionary definition of tottering is being in an unstable condition, walking unsteadily, lacking firmness or stability. All of these describe a situation that is shaky at best.

George Whitefield, the great British evangelist, was addressing a room of wealthy aristocrats in London, and one of his hearers on that day was Lord Chesterfield. Whitefield's sermon told the story of an old blind beggar out on a lonely road at night with his little dog and his cane. The blind beggar, said Whitefield, represented the poor sinner who was lost and can't find his way.

And as Whitefield described his subject, his oratory rose and became so realistic you could almost see the old blind beggar as he slowly made his way up that dangerous path near a cliff with his little dog beside him and unstable on his cane. Just then the dog disappears into the night, and in the excitement he drops his cane as it tumbles down the cliff. There the old man is tottering back and forth in peril as he desperately tries to regain his balance.

And so real was the scene that Lord Chesterfield rose from his chair in alarm, exclaiming, Oh my God, he's gone! I submit to you, friends, that man is represented in the Bible as being blinded by the God of this world, Satan. And man's condition is most unstable, and he walks in great peril at every moment. In Jeremiah we read, 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. That men already lie under a sentence of condemnation to hell is a fact of Scripture.

He that believeth not is condemned already, so says John 3.18. And the words of John the Baptist still ring true down through the centuries. And he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. That sinful man walks upon unsteady places and is ready to fall at any moment is a frightening fact full of impending doom.

For the psalmist declares the terribleness of damnation. The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God. Our Lord Jesus spoke of the terrors of hell as a warning.

He said they were a region of outer darkness, where there is wailing and gnashing of teeth. Hell is a bottomless pit which never is satisfied with enough souls, and there is always room for more to be cast in there. And that pit of hell burns like a furnace, with smoke billowing upwards, with a great force fueled by God's wrath.

Revelation speaks of this smoking pit, and the smoke of their torment ascended up forever and ever, and they have no rest, day or night. The title of my message today, friends, is Tithering Over a Smoking Pit. And I bring it before you as a solemn warning that your own situation is perilous at best, that you walk upon slippery ground, and that you are tithering near a dangerous preface, that you could tumble over at any moment, suddenly and without warning.

I was in a hotel in Edinburgh, Scotland, getting ready to have dinner with Ian Murray, when I stepped into the shower and my feet began to speed up beneath me. The shower tub had just been waxed, and as soon as I stepped upon it, my balance went out of control, and by momentum I was flipped out of the shower, upside down, and I landed on a cold concrete floor. My head hit the floor and I broke my wrist in the fall, but I could have been removed from this world quite unexpectedly and suddenly.

You, friend, could be removed from this world without any more notice than a bird being shot out of the sky, Ecclesiastes declares, 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 man snared in an evil time, when it falleth suddenly upon them. The current pandemic falls suddenly upon a person, sickening them, depleting their life force, until they are removed from this world and parted with their loved ones. Their estates go to others.

It falleth suddenly upon them. God will not dilly-dally with punishing sin, but will swiftly carry out the sentencing of the law against all lawbreakers. Sin is the transgression of the law.

His law is strict in its unbending nature. His law is severe in its punishment. The inhabitants of hell do not want for company, for hell is a very crowded place, yet they do not wish to suffer alone, as they welcome new arrivals every hour.

It's as if pulsating, sweating hands reach up from that pit to lay hold of whom ever they can, to drag them down to hell itself. The unsuspecting soul that is tottering back and forth over that smoking pit can almost smell the smell of burning sulfur, can almost hear the groans and cries of the damned. That men do not turn to God immediately to repent is seen in their mistaken perceptions of God's tolerance toward sin.

Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of man is fully set in them to do evil. Man cannot get enough of sin, and he drinks it like water, so says God in the book of Job. How much more abominable and filthy is man which drank at the iniquity like water.

This man lives in sin, blinded by the God of this world. He titers dangerously over a smoking pit, and soon will tumble down to hell itself. The prophet Isaiah describes the sinner's sudden alarm and horror in hell.

The sinners in Zion are afraid. Fearfulness has surprised the hypocrites. Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings? The wrath of God is like a smoking furnace against the wicked.

Malachi declares the vengeance God will take against sin. For behold, the day cometh that shall burn as an oven, and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly shall be stubble. And the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.

When I was in high school, I worked a job at a local grocery store, and part of my duties was to take the cardboard boxes that the produce came in, and break them down with a box cutter, stack them on a two-wheeler, and take them to the back of the store where there was a cast-iron furnace, and burn them there. I can still feel the heat from those white-hot flames as they singed my face as I opened that heavy door. Hell is a place of burnings, and its smoke billows up from a pit of raging fire.

God will punish sin as God leveled Sodom and Gomorrah, and turned them to ashes in an overthrow. He will overthrow you if you die in your sins in your natural condition. We have an eyewitness account of God's destruction of Sodom in Genesis chapter 19.

And Abraham got up early in the morning to the place where he stood before the Lord, and he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain, and behold, and lo, the smoke of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace. You stand, friend, in great jeopardy. You are in an unstable condition outside of Christ's blood.

Every step you take takes you nearer and nearer to that smoking pit which yawns and extends before you. You walk unsteadily, lacking firmness or stability, and you are tottering there, back and forth, back and forth, ready to fall headlong into outer darkness, where down and down you will go, never touching bottom, but continually flipped over and over like a burnt hamburger on a greasy grill, spitting and splattering, cursing and cussing, wailing and gnashing your teeth forever and ever in that region of smoke and torment Luke's gospel declares in hell. He lifted up his eyes, being in torment.

I refer you, friend, to a verse of scripture which points you to your only way of escape. Isaiah 45, 22 states, Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth, for I am God, and there is none else. The text exhorts you to look unto Jesus, the only remedy and refuge for sin.

Fasten your eyes on that bloodstained Savior from sin. See him there, his hands and feet nailed to the cross, his arms outstretched, beckoning you to come to him and believe on him. Salvation is in Christ Jesus.

His life must be laid down and applied to you. The remedy for sin must be applied through repentance and faith. He is God, and there is none else.

Look at that blessed man on the cross. He rears and wiggles beneath his sufferings. That bloody cross is the place where wicked men sought to get rid of him, but by his death it becomes the place where his saving power flows out to all who come in repentance, confessing that they are sinners and own them as their Savior and Lord.

The prophet Isaiah points you to your way of escape through this refuge from sin. 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. Great God, I pray now that you work on hearts and that your Holy Spirit will disturb some sinner listening to this message, and that you will enable that person to feel their need of a Savior from sin in your Son, Christ Jesus. Draw them, Lord.

Draw them to come to this blessed Savior and surrender all they are to all he is, and he is Lord. Amen. Listen, friend.

You come to this blessed Savior as I sing, "'Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus, just to take him at his word, just to rest upon his promise, just to know, thus saith the Lord, Jesus, Jesus, how I trust him, how I've proved him o'er and o'er. Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus, oh, for grace to trust him more."