November 11 Daily Devotional

Bible Reading

Isaiah 14:3–11

Devotional

What must be the hypocritical professor’s doom when his naked soul appears before God? How will he stand to hear that voice, “Depart from me, you cursed! You have rejected me, and now I reject you! You have played the whore and departed from me; now I banish you forever from my presence, and will not have mercy upon you.”

What will this wretch’s shame be at the last great Day when—before assembled multitudes—the hypocrite will be unmasked? See the profane and the sinners who never professed religion, lifting themselves up from their beds of fire to point at him. “There he is,” says one, “will he preach the gospel in hell?” “There he is,” says another, “he put me down for cursing when he was a hypocrite himself!” “Aha!” says another, “here comes one of those evangelical Christians—one who was always at his meetings; he’s the one who boasted of being so sure of everlasting life; and look! here he is!”

No greater eagerness will ever be seen among Satanic tormentors than in that day when devils drag the hypocrite’s soul down to eternal perdition. In the Pilgrim’s Progress, John Bunyan pictures this with great but terrifying grandeur of poetry when he speaks of the back-way to hell. Seven devils bound the wretch with nine cords, dragged him off the road to heaven on which he had professed to walk, and shoved him through the back-door into hell.

Watch out for that back-door to hell, professing Christians! “Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves” (2 Cor. 13:5). Look well to your state; see whether you are in Christ or not. It is the easiest thing in the world to give a lenient verdict when you are judging yourself; but oh, be fair and true here. Be fair to all, but be rigorous to yourself. Remember, if you are not building on the rock, your house will collapse. O may the Lord give you sincerity, constancy, and firmness; and in no day, however evil, may you be led to turn aside.

[June 26]

Extracted from C. H. Spurgeon, Morning and Evening (public domain), language modernized by Larry E. Wilson.