The Sinner's Perilous Path

I was in a hotel room in Edinburgh, Scotland, and I stepped into the shower. And the next thing I knew, friends, I was lying on a concrete floor, almost unconscious, and my wrist was broken and my head injured. God could have easily removed me that day in death.

For no sooner stepped into that slippery bathtub, which was a death trap, that I was pitched right out on my head, and I broke my wrist in the fall. I share that story with you, friends, because it is a picture of the sinner's danger. For a sinner walks upon a perilous, slippery path.

And that's the title of my message this evening, friends. The Sinner's Perilous Path. And my text can be found in the Book of Jeremiah.

You can turn in your Bibles there now, friends. We will be in chapter 23 and verse 12. Let me read us this striking passage of Scripture from Jeremiah, which is a vivid picture of the sinner's path.

Here now is the Word of God. And may the Spirit of the Lord attend the reading of His Holy Word. 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, sayeth the Lord. Now, friends, there are several aspects I'd like to draw out from our text this evening.

Number one, the way the sinner is perilous. It is perilous to be outside of Christ. Number two, the sinner is oblivious to his danger, and he walks in darkness.

The devil blinds his eyes to spiritual truth. Number three, the way the sinner is slippery. Why, he's bound to slip.

And number four, the sinner is driven on by God along this treacherous path, and becoming more and more hardened in their sins, until sudden death overtakes them, and they're thrown down to a devil's hell. Well, let's look at the first aspect of the sinner's way. It is a perilous path.

It is fraught with peril, because the sinner is a guilty rebel, who's committed treason against a king. He's without a robe of righteousness, and he's naked and exposed to the wrath of a sin-avenging God. And at any time, evil can befall him and send him into another world he is quite unprepared for.

Number two, the sinner is oblivious to his danger, as he walks in darkness. I was not aware of the death trap that awaited me in that Scottish bathroom. God's mercy protected me, but I was completely unaware of my danger.

So too, the sinner cannot see the great peril he is constantly in, for he walks in darkness of sin. His eyes are blinded by the God of this world, Satan, and in his ignorance, he travels on towards hell. You may believe you have many good years left on earth, friend, but the very breath in your lungs is thereby, it's put there by almighty God, and he can remove you at any instant.

A car accident, a heart attack, a sudden illness or tragedy can cut you off and send you into another world. And if you die in your sins, you will open your eyes in a region of misery and flames. The sinner is completely ignorant to his danger.

Listen to this warning from Psalms 73, 18 and 19. Surely thou didst set them in slippery places. Thou castest them down into destruction, how they are brought into desolation as in a moment.

Listen, friends, America is a land of sudden death. You can be sitting in a movie theater and be murdered. You can be standing in line and be suddenly gunned down or run over.

Something noxious can be in your next meal and kill you. No matter how healthy and active you may be now, a sudden calamity can end your life without warning. The sinner is consumed with his own ways and oblivious to his danger.

Number three. The way of the sinner is slippery and he is bound to slip. We see this from Deuteronomy 32, 35.

To me belongeth vengeance and recompense. Their foot shall slide in due time, for the day their calamity is at hand and the things that shall come upon them make haste. The approaching danger to the sinner outside of Christ is an eternity without Christ.

Every day and every step brings the sinner nearer to hell. His foot shall slide in due time, the text says. So the sinner's path is a slippery and perilous path that ends in tragedy.

It's the most tragic thing in the world, friends, to die the death of the ungodly. Demons are all around you, ready to drag you down to hell. You are in trouble and you don't even know it.

Danger is approaching and it's intimate. Next, let's look at number four. The sinner is driven on by God and he is more hardened by sin.

A sudden death can overthrow them in an instant and terror fall upon them without warning. Ecclesiastes 9.12 speaks of this very thing. 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. God declares in our text from Jeremiah, friends, of the imminent danger approaching from a sin-avenging God. They should be driven on and fall therein for I will bring evil upon them.

The sinner's perilous path is both slippery and dark. On he goes, oblivious to his great danger. I watch them at the shopping mall, carefree and careless, consumed with this world.

I see them at night enter bars and nightclubs to emerge drunken and stumbling. I see them on college campuses, believing they have a whole life ahead of them as they walk the class stoned on drugs. I see them in the workplace as they labor and laugh and take God's name in vain, completely oblivious to their danger.

Yes, the sinner's path is a treacherous one, fraught with great danger. Only God can open their eyes to their lost condition and alarm them. In Jeremiah, in our same chapter, we see God describe his written word and the effect the preached word has on a sinner's heart and conscience.

Look at verse 29. It's not my word, like as a fire, saith the Lord, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces. What this means, friends, is that the word of God awakens a sinner to his lost condition and perilous position outside of Christ and alarms him to his great danger of dying in his sins as a fire awakens and alarms.

And also that the word of God is like a hammer pounding away on the conscience and breaking up the false foundations that the sinner rests upon. Oh, let us preach the full counsel of God under the power of the Spirit of God and see sinners brought to the Son of God, Christ Jesus. Let us pray.