1. Eternal Judgment

Oh, sinner, it is high time to wake up. All is summed up in this word, "eternal judgment." You say that is a very dark and gloomy subject. Well, but it is true; and if wise, you will be warned, will believe the gospel, and then gladly turn round to the heavenly realities that belong to the believer.
I want you to carefully notice, that one thing which the epistle to the Hebrews presents is, that the positive inalienable portion of every one who does not believe is judgment. Oh, you say, do not bring that subject ever before us; we do not like it. Ah, you will like it less when you are enduring it. You will remember then how you scoffed at the preacher, saying you did not believe it, and that God was love.
God speaks here (Heb. 6:2) of "eternal judgment," and He means what He says. The words are terrible, but true. Alas for the man who through sin and unbelief tastes it Reader, ponder it,—"Eternal judgment." Do you not shrink from it? You well may; but will you escape it, and how?
This is no figure, nor is the language figurative which describes the portion of the believer. He can say, " I have got eternal salvation,' eternal redemption,' which I enjoy, and an eternal inheritance' into which I am going." Oh, you say, when you talk of that side it is very different, and quite true and delightful to listen to. Ah, then it is only when we talk of your side, sinner, that it does not mean what it says? Vain man, know that "eternal" means "eternal," and the “judgment" of the infatuated unbeliever is as enduring as the "salvation" of the believer.
Man is an immortal being, sprung from God, with an eternal existence. Where will you, spend eternity? Oh, beloved friend, think of it. When one thinks of spending it with Christ, every Christian's heart swells with delight. But I cannot describe the eternity of a lost sinner; it is too awful, too terrible; you should flee from it. The poor ostrich when pursued by the hunter hides its head in a thicket, thinking itself safe because it does not see the danger, but the ball pierces it all the same. Because you do not feel the pangs of “eternal judgment," do not, I beseech you, suffer your eyes to be blinded to their reality; while there is time and a way of escape, seize it.
If once you are in judgment, you can never get out of it. The believer will never be in it. Christ Jesus went into it to deliver us from it. Then you will never come into condemnation? No, thank God, I am delivered from it by substitution. " As it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment; so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall be appear the second time, without sin, unto salvation.”
Well, if death be the common lot of men, how are we to escape from it? You cannot, unless by Christ. "Eternal judgment" is as much the portion of one man as another. “It is appointed unto men," &c. The Psalmist said," Enter not into judgment with thy servant, for in thy sight shall no man be justified." He knew he could not stand before God. In John 5:24 Christ says, " Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation " (or judgment; it is the same Greek word rendered judgment elsewhere). The due of man has been borne by Christ, and consequently the believer in Jesus will not come into judgment, just because Christ has for him, and therefore he in righteousness escapes.
Judgment is God dealing with man about sin, dealing out the proper and due reward for his sins. The Christian, the believer, parted company with his sins when he believed the gospel. He learned then, that Christ on the cross took his sins on Himself, and blotted them out; and I can say, It is true for me. Can they not? Two people may be sitting side by side, they were both born in sin, and shapen in iniquity, positive enemies to God; but one, through grace, has been convicted by God, and led to repentance; he has condemned himself, and said,” if I am condemned and damned, I deserve it.” That soul has been led to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. The other man has not, and perhaps that is your case, dear reader. What has made the difference between them? Faith. It is only unbelief that prevents your coming to God. The one man has through faith in Christ parted company with everything that would bring him into judgment—his sins, while the other goes on in the thing that must bring him into judgment, out of which he can never rise.
Peter says, “Judgment must begin at the house of God, and if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?”
That means, there is difficulty, even for the righteous. The difficulty lies in the scene through which he has to pass, because the devil is trying his best to trip up the godly. But if the godly are saved with difficulty, what about the sinner? Oh, careless, unsaved soul heed this, perhaps the last, warning that God shall give thee; awake, see thy danger, and flee from the wrath to come. God has delayed that day, He is keeping back the wheels of judgment, as it were, to give thee time to repent and be saved. Despise not His long-suffering, lest sudden destruction overtake thee!
To judge, however, is God's "strange work." He loves to bless and save, and therefore He puts before us, in this epistle,