LOST
The tremendous fact of man’s utter ruin is the underlying cause of the necessity for
grace to seek out its object. If the fall had not been so complete in its ruin, there had
been no need to seek us, for we should have sought the Lord. This, however, is the
gloomy truth, that we are altogether become abominable, and all flesh hath
perverted its way. Of this fact there can be no doubt, for you and I, who have been
saved by grace, know right well that we were lost; hopelessly and for ever lost, had
not Jesus sought us out. Many of the chosen seed are suffered to indulge in sin until
they are lost even to the pretence of virtue and morality; lost to the hopes of the most
earnest friends, and the most affectionate entreaties of anxious relatives. Lost we all
were in our federal head, by imputation of his sin; lost, effectually, by infusion of his
corrupt nature; lost, afterwards, actually, by our practice; lost, manifestly, by an
accumulation of evil habits, and the growing force of depraved appetites. 525.458
It is a very remarkable fact that no inspired preacher of whom we have any record
ever uttered such terrible words concerning the destiny of the lost as our Lord Jesus
Christ. You may search the Scriptures through, but you will not find more solemnly
alarming expressions than those which the loving Jesus employed. 682.172
How many have made the dread compact with the Prince of Darkness! They have
gained the world but lost their soul. They have sold their birth-right for a mess of
pottage, and bartered heaven for hell; time has been taken and eternity rejected. The
honour of men has been esteemed more than the praise of God; they have grasped
the gold and it has been a mill-stone around their neck, and into the deepest depths
of woe it has dragged them, lost! lost! lost for ever! 691.285
However much men may rebel against the doctrine, it is a truth of inspiration that
we are lost even when we are born, and that the word “lost” has to do, not only with
those who have gone into sin grossly and wickedly, but even with all mankind. 1100.134
If you do get lost, some of you will have to wade through your mother’s tears and leap
over your father’s prayers, and your minister’s entreaties; you will have to force a
passage through the warnings of godly people and the examples of pious relatives.
Why this effort to destroy your own souls? Why so desperately set on self-destruction?
1551.441
For a little sin, or for a sin, however great, which had but little of evil in its
consequences, we might have been saved by some finite being; but if God himself
must quit his high abode, and sojourn here to be our Saviour, then was our ruin
terrible in the extreme. 2416.266
It is a dreadful thing for anyone to be lost; I do not know if there is a more dreadful
word in the English language than that word “lost.” 3288.67
They are so lost that they need saving, but they are also so lost that they need
seeking. 3309.319
What is meant by “the lost”? Well, “lost” is a dreadful word. I should need much time
to explain it; but if the Spirit of God, like a flash of light, shall enter into your heart,
and show you what you are by nature, you will accept that word “lost” as descriptive
of your condition, and understand it better than a thousand words of mine could
enable you to do. Lost by the fall; lost by inheriting a depraved nature; lost by your
own acts and deeds; lost by a thousand omissions of duty, and lost by countless deeds
of overt transgression; lost by habits of sin; lost by tendencies and inclinations which
have gathered strength and dragged you downward into deeper and yet deeper
darkness and iniquity; lost by inclinations which never turn of themselves to that
which is right, but which resolutely refuse divine mercy and infinite love. We are lost
wilfully and willingly; lost perversely and utterly; but still lost of our own accord,
which is the worst kind of being lost that possibly can be. We are lost to God, who has
lost our heart’s love, and lost our confidence, and lost our obedience; lost to the
church, which we cannot serve; lost to truth, which we will not see; lost to right,
which cause we do not uphold; lost to heaven, into whose sacred precincts we can
never come; lost—so lost that unless almighty mercy shall intervene, we shall be
cast into the pit that is bottomless to sink for ever. “LOST! LOST! LOST!” The very
word seems to me to be the knell of an impenitent soul. “Lost! Lost! Lost!” I hear the
dismal tolling! A soul’s funeral is being celebrated. Endless death has befallen an
immortal being! It comes up as a dreadful wail from far beyond the boundaries of life
and hope, forth from those dreary regions of death and darkness where spirits dwell
who would not have Christ to reign over them. “Lost! Lost! Lost!” Ah me, that ever
these ears should hear that doleful sound! Better a whole world on fire than a single
soul lost! Better every star quenched and yon skies a wreck than a single soul to be
lost! 3309.317