God had been mightily working that night. Sinners had been awakened to a sense of their lost condition, anxious souls had found "peace in believing," and the people of God were stirred up and refreshed. While passing from one to another during the inquiry meeting at the close of this gospel service, a fellow-laborer in the harvest field said to me: "Here is a young man who does not believe in the Lord Jesus Christ."
"And are you not a sinner?" I asked of the youth in question.
"Oh yes, I suppose I am," was the somewhat careless reply.
"Then, if so, do you not need a Savior?" I continued.
"No, not tonight, thank you," he calmly replied.
"Yes, my dear lad, you do need Him, but it is evident that you do not want Him. There is a great difference between needing Christ and wanting Him. Every sinner needs Him; but, sad to say, some sinners do not want Him.
It evidently was thus with our young friend. I felt pressed to point out to him the awful risk he was running in rejecting the offer of forgiveness and salvation that God was making him, through faith in Christ and His work.
"It's no use," said he. "I simply will not even consider it tonight. Why, the young fellows down at the works would laugh it all out of me in no time."
"And do you think," I urged, "that if you die in your sins, and enter eternity rejecting Christ, that those young fellows will be able to laugh you out of hell? Take care they do not laugh you into it, for they most certainly will never laugh you out of it."
Oh, my friend, let not Satan rob you of your precious soul's salvation by filling you with the fear of man. Have you ever read the descriptive list of those who find their part in the lake of fire? If not, turn to Revelation 21: 8. Read these solemn words slowly and attentively, and may the Spirit of God send them home to you in soul-awakening power! Do you see yourself described there?
"But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone."
Let there be no mistake on this point. Do not imagine that those described in this verse shall by some means or another find their part in heaven. No. "In the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone," is the solemn declaration of God's Word, and remember,
"HE HATH POWER TO CAST INTO HELL."
But awful as is the doom of the godless, the abandoned, the wicked, and the depraved, it is shared by the "fearful and unbelieving." Is the reader one who is afraid of the consequences of believing in Christ? Then oh, beware! The "fearful and unbelieving," just as much as the murderer and the whoremonger, have their part in the lake of fire—they even head the list!
Away then with the moral cowardice that is afraid to believe in and confess Christ, and oh, for more of the courage that is not ashamed to confess Him before men.