A Blind Walk to Hell — E.A. Johnston

Spiritual Blindness Under the God of This World

The great British evangelist George Whitefield was preaching to London society and the famous Lord Chesterfield was among his hearers and in his sermon Whitefield was describing how a poor sinner was much like a blind beggar walking a winding path with his cane and his little dog beside him.

The night was dark, the road treacherous, and there was the poor blind beggar making his way along that dangerous path. Suddenly the beggar comes to a precipice and his little dog abandons him. There he totters back and forth, losing the grip on his cane, which falls into the black abyss beneath him.

And Whitefield so warmed his subject and embroiled it with such graphic realism that Lord Chesterfield believed he saw the beggar totter over the cliff and he leaped from his chair and yelled, Oh my God, he's gone!

And it's true, friends, that a poor sinner is nothing more than a blind beggar making his way through life, blind to all spiritual truths and blinded by the God of this world as my Bible declares in 2 Corinthians in chapter 4 and verses 3 and 4 which state,.

But if our eyes are blinded by the God of this world, then we are blinded by the God of this world that are lost, in whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them, which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.

The Sermon's Text: The Slippery Path of Jeremiah 23

My message this evening, friends, is entitled, A Blind Walk to Hell, and we will look at how wretched a poor sinner really is apart from Christ. Our text will be found in the book of Jeremiah in chapter 23.

You can turn in your Bibles there now. Sometimes I go to a shopping mall and I'll just sit and people watch, and as I watch hundreds of people pass by, I think and I wonder how many of them will die in their sins and be cast into hell and its torments.

There they go, dead in their sins, blinded to the reality of Christ Jesus, and if they're not awakened to their lost condition and brought into a saving knowledge of Christ, they will perish like that blind beggar and drop into the abyss of outer darkness which is hell itself.

Let me read us our text from Jeremiah 23 and verse 12. 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.

Now I want us to think about that text, friends, and to strike an imagery. It speaks of a path that is both dark and slippery. It states that God himself will drive them on and make them fall as he visits them with evil.

God's Just Judgment Against Sin

The way of the wicked is perilous indeed. God is a just judge who must punish sin. But many today don't believe in that kind of God. Many church members, many pastors, many seminary professors don't believe in a God who will punish sin and send anybody to hell.

They just don't believe in a God like that. I'll never forget the story I heard Rolf Barnard relate in regard to our view of God today. He said one time he was the guest preacher in a country church and after the service he was invited to lunch at a deacon's house.

He and the pastor rode together along to the deacon's farm. Rolf Barnard said he never saw a dinner table laden with so many different types of meat. There was a platter of fried chicken, a platter of grilled sausage, a platter stacked high with big strips of bacon, another platter had fried pork chops stacked high, plus all the homemade biscuits and jellies, and there were vegetables and dessert that would stuff a mule.

Barnard said that he was just enjoying that delicious meal when his host the deacon, who sat at the end of the long table with a napkin tucked in his shirt collar, began to look angry and upset. Rolf Barnard said that the deacon had a red face and a protruding Adam's apple that stuck way out of his neck.

Every time the good deacon swallowed his food, that big Adam's apple went up and down like a turkey's gobbler. Well, this deacon finally hollered at Barnard, preacher, I don't believe God would act like you said this morning.

Rolf Barnard had preached a message on hell that Sunday morning, and his theme was God, and that God was a God who must punish sin. And as this deacon made that comment, Rolf Barnard just kept on eating.

He said he didn't want to miss out on all that good food, and he didn't want to answer the deacon and make him mad because he was a much bigger man than himself, so he pretended he didn't hear him as he reached for another pork chop.

The deacon took his big meaty fist and pounded the table and yelled out, preacher, did you not hear me? What you said this morning wasn't right about God punishing people to hell because my God wouldn't act that way.

Finally, Rolf Barnard stopped eating, put down his fork, and replied, I reckon you're right, brother deacon, your God wouldn't act that way, but the God of the Bible would. And friends, there are a number in our church today who don't believe in a God who will and must punish sin.

I hear pastors make the following ridiculous remark. They say, God loves the sinner but hates the sin. Really? Is that in my Bible that God loves the sinner and hates the sin? My Bible says exactly the opposite.

In Psalms, God's word declares God is angry with the wicked every day. If he turned not, he will wet his sword. He hath bent his bow and made it ready. And in our text from Jeremiah, it declares that God drives a sinner on down that path to ultimate destruction.

The Sinner Walks in Darkness

Now, there are several aspects I'd like to explore this evening, friends, in regard to a poor sinner on his blind walk to hell. The first is that he walks in darkness. This is seen in the book of Proverbs in chapter 4 and verse 19.

The way of the wicked is as darkness, and they know not at what they stumble. So their path is that of darkness. As George Whitfield related, the poor blind beggar, stumbling along in the darkness with his cane and his little dog beside him, a sinner gropes his way through this world, blinded by the world, and the prince of this world.

He has held men on pleasure-seeking and self-gratification. His belly is his God. His lusts consume him. The same comparison to a sinner walking the path of darkness is seen in the book of Psalms in Psalm 82 and verse 5.

Let me read that to us now, friends. They know not, neither will they understand. They walk on in darkness, all the foundations of the earth are out of their course. So the experience of the wicked is a dark way.

We see a solemn description of the blind sinner found in the book of Deuteronomy in chapter 28 and verse 29. And thou shalt grope at noonday, as the blind gropeth in darkness. And thou shalt not prosper in thy ways, and thou shalt be only oppressed and spoiled evermore, and no man shall save thee.

The Perilous and Slippery Path of Sin

I want us to see this second aspect of the poor blind sinner as he is on his blind walk to hell, and that is his path is perilous. He's not aware of his perilous position outside of Christ, and he's not aware of his great danger of dying in his sins and being cast into hell's fire.

We see how slippery and perilous his way is, as seen in Psalm 35, 6, which states, let their way be dark and slippery, and let the angel of the Lord persecute them. And our text from Jeremiah mentioned earlier, describing the peril of their slippery path of darkness, wherefore their way should be unto them as slippery ways in the dark.

And there is a passage of scripture, friends, which I believe typifies this theme of the wicked's path of peril, and is found in Deuteronomy 32 and 25. 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.

Enmity Against God and Reprobation

So we see, friends, that the way the wicked is both dark and dangerous, they are blinded to their lost condition, and they are quite unaware of their great peril of dying in their sins. Now notice the third aspect of our theme this evening, of the poor blind sinner, and that is, his path goes in the opposite direction to God and heaven, and the very life is lived out against God and all things holy.

Because of their spiritual blindness, the Bible is a closed book to them. God is a non-reality to them. All their thoughts, all their actions are self-focused and geared toward gratification of the flesh.

In Romans we see this picture of the blindness of a poor sinner, and how he lives his life in enmity against God and all things holy. I'll read you Romans 8 and verses 5 through 8 now, friends. For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh, but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.

For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace, because the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it's not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So they that are in the flesh cannot please God.

I was playing golf one time with a man who had a filthy mouth. Every word out of that man's mouth was either a cuss word or taking God's name in vain. And as we stood on a tee box, I looked him in the eye and asked him the following question.

I said, if you don't mind me asking, what is your relationship with God like? He grinned a big grin and answered, just fine. My relationship with God is just fine. In fact, we have an agreement between us.

I leave him alone and he leaves me alone. And friends, the sad fact of that man's statement is true. God will leave him alone in his sins, and that is the worst state of a man. God will finally reprobate a person who continually rejects him.

Then that person is beyond the reach of heaven's grace as they become reprobate silver. God leaves them alone in their sins. This truth is seen in Romans 128. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind to do those things which are not convenient.

So a sinner's path is in the opposite of God, and it describes the title of my message this evening, a blind walk to hell, because they are walking in the opposite direction of heaven, and they're quite unaware of both their danger and their destiny.

Certain Doom and Damnation

And that brings us to our final point this evening, friends, and that is a poor sinner's way is that of certain doom and damnation. Listen, friends, God is a God who will and must punish sin. God drowned the old world in Noah's day.

He burned up Sodom and the cities of the plain for their great wickedness, and God will surely send the wicked to hell. The end of the wicked is doom and damnation. In Matthew 23, 33, Jesus declares, how can ye escape damnation of hell?

And in Mark 3, 29, he speaks of those being in danger of eternal damnation. But a poor blind sinner is not aware of his danger of dying in his sins, for the way the world seems the right way for him. We see this truth in Proverbs 14, 12.

There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but in the end thereof are the ways of death. The end of the wicked is certain, as seen in Psalm 37, 38. The end of the wicked shall be cut off. Listen, friends, we have seen from God's Word this evening that the sinner's path is so dark, his way so perilous, his road so dangerous, his doom so certain.

And the sad thing is, friends, he's quite unaware of his great danger. He'll end up in hell without having time to pack his suitcase. The sinner thinks he has all the time in the world, especially if he's now in good health.

But God's Word says otherwise. Surely, thou didst set them in slippery places, thou castest them down into destruction, as in a moment they are oddly consumed with terrors. The king of terror is fast on their heels.

Sudden Death and the Uncertainty of Tomorrow

Sudden death can remove them quite unexpectedly. We live in a day, friends, of sudden death. You can be gunned down in public just going to the grocery store or standing in line for a movie ticket. You can be removed from this earth from a sudden terrorist attack, which will become more and more frequent in this country.

I'm surprised we haven't had more terror attacks in America from our enemies. But they are coming. They're threatening to attack our shopping malls next. They could plant a dirty bomb in a major city and wipe out 100 ,000 people in an instant.

We live in a land of sudden death, for the pathway of the poor sinner is a dark and slippery and treacherous path at best. And even though he thinks he has all the time in the world to sin as much as he wants to, he is wrong, friends, dead wrong.

For my Bible declares that a man has no guarantee of tomorrow. Listen to God's word. 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 men snared in an evil time when it falleth suddenly upon them. That's what I'm talking about, friends. Sudden destruction. Listen to me, friend. If you've been living your life on the wrong side of God, if you are the person I've been talking about this evening, if you are on that dark path, that slippery path, that path of doom and sudden destruction, then listen to these following gospel invitations.

Gospel Invitations to Repentance and Faith

And as I pray, as I preach them unto you, that you do not hear the voice of this poor preacher as much, but that you'll receive grace upon your heart to hear his voice as it comes to you with all power and authority and majesty.

Listen, dear friend. The gospel is for the hungry, the weary, and the thirsty. Let me ask you, are you weary of your sins? Are you hungry for God? Are you thirsty for Christ? Then come. Here now is the call to come to Christ in repentance and faith.

Look unto me and be you saved, all the ends of the earth. For I am God and there is none else. Ho, everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the waters. And he that hath no money, come ye, buy and eat. Yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.

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.

Jesus declared, All that the Father giveth me shall come to me. And him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me.

For I am meek and lowly in heart and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. And the Spirit and the Bride say, Come and let him that heareth say, Come and let him that is a thirst come and whosoever will let him take the water of life freely.