Lost

This four letter word lost as an adjective means: unable to find one’s way; not know­ing one’s whereabouts, as in “Help, we’re lost!” It also denotes some­thing that has been taken away or cannot be recovered. But what does it mean to “be lost”? What thoughts invade your mind when you hear the word “lost”? I’ve had the experience of being lost while driving and I didn’t know where I was or in which direction to drive. I’ve been in that place where I was absolutely baffled not knowing which way was north or south.

 

Have you ever lost something valuable? When my children were just little babies and we would go to the store, one of my biggest fears was losing them in the store or not being able to find them because they could so easily get lost among the clothes racks. I remember one occasion, not too long ago, when on a trip to the country of Peru, I lost a brand new cell phone with all my personal informa­tion in it. And I could enlighten you of the many times my children have told me, “Dad, I lost my money.” A beautiful lady I know and love dearly frequently informs the family that she’s lost her bank card.

 

People all over this world have lost their valued possessions to house fires while others have “lost” their homes to natural disasters, i.e., hurricanes, ty­phoons, earthquakes, floods, etc.

 

There was a man some time ago who exercised regularly and ate well, however this man died at a very young age. Why? Because he lost his health. People have lost their eyesight in ac­cidents while others, like me, seem to lose it with age. While visiting Gua­temala a few years ago, I greeted a minister of the gospel in the Church who lost an arm in a work related acci­dent. Some folks have lost their ability to speak, lost their minds or lost their hearing. Others have lost total control of their bodies as was the case of an old friend of mine after a car accident suffered in his youth. Due to sickness and death, we’ve lost some very good people to death this past year. Mothers and fathers have lost sons on the field of war.

 

The saddest kind of “lost” there is and the saddest kind of “lost” to be is to be a lost soul! The Bible says that Jesus came to “seek and to save that which was lost,” and one of the greatest vers­es of the Bible, John 3:16, says, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have ever­lasting life.”

 

The word perish means “to be lost” and in Bible terms to be lost means to be far from God. It signifies that the person has not received the Lord Jesus Christ as the only and sufficient Saviour of their soul. When a person dies with­out accepting Jesus Christ as Saviour of their soul, according to the Bible, that person will perish. In other words, that person will be eternally lost—separat­ed from God and heaven forever and ever. They will spend eternity in a lake of fire that burns and will never go out.

 

I must inform you, perhaps remind you, that this awful place called hell was not anticipated for man, but for the “devil and his angels” (Matt. 25:41). I must also remind you that God does not send people to hell. They go there by their own choice; or rather, by making the wrong choice, perhaps through ignorance. When man, the sinner, is presented the sure cure (Je­sus Christ) and he spurns the great love of God and His free salvation, then finds himself in hell, it will have been because of his own neglect or rejection of the truth.

 

The following question and state­ments have been made: “Did you know that when I die, I will not die rich or poor? I will die saved or lost. When you die, you will not die educated or illit­erate. You will die saved or lost. When we die, we will not die famous or a ‘no­body.’ We will all die saved or lost!”

Oh, but how wonderful to know that Jesus, the Son of God, has pre­pared a special place for man! At this very present time, He is preparing “a place for you” (John 14:2). I de­sire to live with Jesus in that special home above. How about you? This special home is in heaven. I don’t know exactly where heaven is, but the majority of people who believe in that place called heaven where God is, think it to be high in the sky, even higher than the clouds and way beyond the sun. The Bible does tell us that heaven is up, such as in Acts 1:11, “Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gaz­ing UP into heaven?” and the Bible also transmits God’s desire that all men “be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim. 2:4). To go there one must be saved or free from sin.

 

Sin is that dreadful thing which causes separation between man and God and it will take a person to hell. Maybe one of our readers is asking himself or herself, “Well, what is sin?” 1 John 5:17 says, “All unrighteousness is SIN.” But beware of the many disguises which sin takes! I believe it would be beneficial to mention a few of those disguises to make you, the reader, aptly aware of the many faces of sin, and en­able you to be more fittingly equipped to take heed and also warn others.

 

UNBELIEF: “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned” (Mark 16:16).

 

NEGLECT: “How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him” (Heb. 2:3; also read James 4:17).

 

EXCUSES: “Then said he unto him, A certain man made a great supper, and bade many… And they all with one con­sent began to make excuse… For I say unto you, That none of those men which were bidden shall taste of my supper.” (Luke 14:16, 18, 24; also read Rom. 2:1).

 

WAITING TOO LONG TO DECIDE ON CHRIST: “When once the master of the house is risen up, and hath shut to the door, and ye begin to stand without, and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us; and he shall answer and say unto you, I know you not whence ye are” (Luke 13:25; also read Heb. 12:17 and Acts 24:25).

 

PLEASURES, CARES, AND PRIDE OF LIFE: “And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be over­charged with surfeiting, and drunk­enness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares. For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth” (Luke 21:34, 35; also read Matt. 13:22). “For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever” (1 John 2:16, 17).

 

SPIRITUAL SLEEPINESS: “Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober” (1 Thess. 5:5, 6). “Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning: Lest coming suddenly he find you sleep­ing” (Mark 13:35, 36).

 

DISREGARDING GOD: “The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the na­tions that forget God” (Psa. 9:17).

 

LIVING UNGODLY: “The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be pun­ished” (2 Peter 2:9). “But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdi­tion of ungodly men” (2 Peter 3:7).

 

WORLDLY GAIN AS YOUR PRIOR­ITY: “For what is a man advantaged, if he gain the whole world, and lose himself, or be cast away?” (Luke 9:25). “Perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness: from such withdraw thyself” (1 Tim. 6:5).

 

BEING A HYPOCRITE: “And shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matt. 24:51). “But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!” (Matt. 23:13).

 

The preceding list, extracted from one of our Church tracts, is by no means exhaustive. Consider this verse of Scripture, “But the fearful, and unbe lieving, 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: which is the second death” (Rev. 21:8).

 

C. T. Davidson wrote the following in the White Wing Messenger dated June 6, 1974, concerning the subject of hell: “If a man could foresee the disas­ter awaiting his soul in hell, he would labor, toil, struggle and strive with everything within him to stay out of hell… AND HE CAN STAY OUT OF HELL IF HE WANTS TO.

 

Despite the beautiful pictures painted by Satan, if one goes to hell he is an unwelcomed intruder, for hell was prepared for the devil and his angels. Man is not wanted there, even by his closest associates, and why should he not want to shun or keep out of this raging inferno?

 

“One may stall for a time to indulge in the pleasures of sin and try to excuse himself by saying he will have a lot of friends if he goes there, but this is ut­ter deception. His erstwhile friends of this world will then be his worst, most violent enemies, and they will hate him with an unparalleled passion. They’ll be screaming—yelling—ago­nizing cries of distress as he plunges into their midst. Some of them may pounce on him and gnash on him with their teeth… foolish soul, why did you come here?

“Then all of a sudden, the lisping, licking, lapping, crackling tongue of fire and flame will engulf him, parch­ing, searing, blistering and torturing him—no relief in sight. Then he re­members yonder world from which he had descended, just like the rich man that begged for even a drop of water to be placed on his parched tongue. He had his senses in hell and if you go there, friend, you too will remember. Keep out of hell—you’ve got no busi­ness there. You have no reason to want to go there. Your erstwhile friends of this world don’t want you there. So why don’t you stay away?

 

“As sure as there is a heaven, there is a hell. And in hell there are no churches, but there is a roaring concert prayer— the unfortunate writhing, screaming in Man must first be made aware of his problem—sin—and that he cannot save himself. He must realize that he is guilty, corrupt and offensive in the eyes of Almighty God. He must repent of his sins and acknowledge Christ as Lord and Saviour and renounce ev­ery form of sin. Christ is the only Sav­iour for every man that desires to be saved, “Neither 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; also read Jer. 10:23; John 3:16; Rom. 5:6).

It seems there is one calling that historically has not been overcrowded, and that is the missionary call. “How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear with­out a preacher?” (Rom. 10:14.) What is needed is men of God, true missionar­ies, doing God’s work so that not an­other soul will descend into that awful place. This world can do without many things, but it cannot do without the Gospel of the Son of God! Man can af­ford to lose just about everything, but, whether he knows it or not, he cannot afford to lose his soul. If he should lose it, let it not be because you and I, or the Church as a whole, sat idly by and did not warn this world of a hell to shun and a heaven to gain through Jesus Christ the Lord!

distress and agony, but the horrendous appeal for mercy rings on and on in fu­tility and rejection. Oh God, the plight of this person! Why didn’t he stop long enough to give his soul a breath of true redemption through Jesus Christ— long enough to even say, ‘I believe you Jesus, my Saviour. Have mercy on me. Forgive me of my sins. SAVE ME NOW, LORD, or I perish!’

“Friend, stay out of hell. You don’t want to go there… surely not. It was made for the devil and his angels.

“There will be no neighbors in hell. You’ll have no friends if you go there—no confidential and close as­sociates, no kindly hospitable visiting among friends, no societies, no enjoy­able associations, no entertainment, no churches. But there is a hell-wide prayer meeting now going on that would horrify the whole universe if only five minutes of it could be heard by the world today. If you don’t like prayer meetings, friend, then stay out of hell, for they will go on there for a long, long time.”

“Hell is not a place manufactured by the preachers to scare folks into do­ing certain things. Hell is not the grave. And, hell is not on this earth—but hell is an actual place.

“When man leaves this world in SIN, he goes directly to the place called hell, and there is positively and abso­lutely no stopover station! There’s no halfway station, no purgatory, no lim­bo, nor anything of the kind. The man who goes to hell stays there until he is brought before the judgment bar of God. Then he goes from the judgment bar of God to the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone—which is the second death” (For Love of Souls, by Harper Hunter).

Just as heaven is real, hell is real; and this subject must be spoken of and preached with entire fearlessness and frankness or we shall not succeed in keeping people from going there. It is indispensable that all men hear the gospel and believe in it in order to be saved, but mere agreement that Christ is the Son of God is insufficient for sal­vation. If that was the case then devils would be saved since the Bible says they “believe, and tremble” (James 2:19).