On July 10, 2001, four young forest firefighters lost their lives in the Okanogan Highlands in Washington State. Every summer in Washington, young adults are hired as firefighters, given training and then sent throughout the state to fight forest fires. If you vacation in eastern Washington, you can often see crews of these young people driving down the highways in their yellow emergency trucks.
The Chewuch fire was started by a spark from a campground fire. Firefighters sent out to fight the flame thought it was going to be relatively easy to extinguish. When it rapidly grew into a large blaze, the crew that suffered the fatalities thought they would outrun the fire. They drove away down the road in their van, hoping to escape the flames. The fire, fanned by the wind, seemed to be traveling in the same direction as their escape route. To get out of the path of the fire, the crew turned left on a side road. Under most circumstances, this would have been a good decision, but due to an unexpected change of the wind, the fire made a sudden shift, “a freak of nature” it was later called, and headed up the Chewuch Valley Road behind the van.
The road up this valley is a dead-end road. It suddenly ends at the base of some rugged hills covered with brush and rocks. The fire racing down the valley had the fire crew trapped. The crew in the van didn’t realize this until the fire was almost upon them.
The Chewuch Valley Road is a dead-end street, and sin is a dead-end road too. Every sinner will come to the point where he has nowhere to go and no way to escape the fiery judgment of God that must overtake him. God’s judgment against sin will be like fire both in its energy and in its unsparing nature. Listen to these verses: “Our God is a consuming fire” (Heb. 12:2929For our God is a consuming fire. (Hebrews 12:29)).
Sinner, are you ready to meet God when He has plainly declared in His Word that His wrath is against sin? “The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness” (Rom. 1:1818For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; (Romans 1:18)). Do you think you will be spared for some reason or other when He has said His wrath is revealed against “all” ungodliness? Sin is a dead-end street, and the end of it is the fiery judgment of God. The only way to escape the judgment your sins deserve is to turn to the Lord Jesus Christ, the only Savior this world will ever know.
One of the basic rules of safety for forest firefighters is to never underestimate the power of a forest fire. This was tragically the case at the Chewuch fire. This same mistake is being made about God’s wrath against sin. Many people don’t believe God could possibly punish any person for eternity in hellfire. Is this a mistake you are making in your life? Underestimating the power of the forest fire cost the firefighters their lives. Underestimating God’s wrath against sin will lead many souls to make poor choices about salvation. Never realizing their need, they will eventually lose their souls in the place “where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched” (Mark 9:4444Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. (Mark 9:44)). What a tragic loss that will be, and all because they underestimated God’s wrath against sin.
The firefighters drove the van down the Chewuch Valley Road. They got to the end of itthe point where they could go no further. They hadn’t realized it was a dead-end. They tried to backtrack but had to give it up when they saw a giant wall of flame racing towards them. The truck was no protection, so they left it. Each firefighter was equipped with a type of silvery foil safety blanket or fire shelter that they could use in a last resort if they were trapped in a fire. Within seconds the fire would sweep over them. They didn’t have much time to deploy their fire shelters.
Some of the crew lay down on the middle of the road and covered themselves with the safety blankets. Six of the firefighters climbed an embankment of rocks, boulders and brush, called a scree, and deployed their fire shelters there. When the fire passed over them, the intense heat was trapped by the boulders and four of the six were asphyxiated, and one was badly burned. The heat was intense on the road also, but with no obstructions nearby the heat was able to radiate away from the firefighters under their safety blankets. They survived, and when the firestorm passed, they ran up the rock scree to see how their companions had fared. They were heartbroken to discover that several were dead.
When the Lord Jesus Christ died on the cross, His death provided an atonement or covering for sin for all who would believe on Him. This covering is the only way any of us will ever be saved. Even if your sins are the worst possible, the atonement Christ made on the cross will protect you from the judgment they deserve. There is no other way to be saved from the judgment to come.
If you are going through life without faith in Christ, what will you use for an atonement, a covering, when it comes time to die? If you are rich in this world’s goods, can you use them as a covering in that day? No, they never will provide any protection for your soul. “Riches profit not in the day of wrath.” You need Christ!
If you are trusting in your own “good works,” will they cover you in the eyes of a holy God so that He sees no sin in you? Will they give you a refuge? Absolutely not, “for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified” (Gal. 2:1616Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. (Galatians 2:16)). Salvation is “not of works, lest any man should boast” (Eph. 2:99Not of works, lest any man should boast. (Ephesians 2:9)). Faith in Christ is God’s way of salvation. Good works are the way men in unbelief vainly dream of being saved. They vainly dream this because in the pride of their hearts they think they know better than God. A covering of good works will be less than worthless in the day God calls you to give account of your life. You had better realize it now before it is forever too late.
Friend, take the warnings about God’s wrath in the Bible seriously, and get off the dead-end road of sin that leads to judgment. Turn by faith to Christ. Through His death on the cross, He will keep you safe when others come under the fiery judgment of God. Have a change of heart and mind towards sin. Recognize it as that which leads to death and judgment. Once you trust Christ, seek to live for the One who loved you and gave His life for you. “There is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:1212Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. (Acts 4:12)). If you will ever escape the judgment that will sweep over everyone in their sins, you must come to Christ!