Paths to Perdition
“Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, that leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it” — Matthew 7:13, 14.
THERE are juist two classes of people in this audience, those who are in the narrow road that leadeth to life, and those who are in some one of the many paths that make up the one broad road that leadeth to perdition, “eternal perdition” Some people say “let us go with the crowd.” Well, if you go with the crowd you will go to hell. Listen again to the words of Jesus Christ, “Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, that leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it” (Matt. 7: 13, 14).
A fool tries to avoid danger by shutting his eyes to it. That is the method by which modern Universalists and modern infidels try to escape hell, by shutting their eyes to it or by denying its existence. A wise man avoids danger by opening his eyes wide to it and getting out of the paths that lead to it.
That is the method I shall advocate from this plat¬ form to-night. I am sometimes said to be “a man without mercy,” or “a man without a sweet and forgiving nature,” because I tell you plainly your peril. Friends, I do not want around me any of those wonderfully merciful people who reveal their “sweet and forgiving nature” by throwing sand into my eyes and trying to make me think I am safe when I am in grave and imminent peril. The man who points out my sins and my peril is my best friend and my kindest friend. The man who flatters and deceives me is my worst foe and my cruellest foe. Delilah coddled Samson while she bound him for his foes. That is what these so-called “liberal minded preachers” are doing. God forbid that for the sake of popularity I should join them in their damnable work of destroying unwary souls.
I shall therefore point out to you to-night with great plainness of speech some of the paths that lead to perdition, in the hope that at least some of you who are walking in these paths will get out of them before you leave this building.
I. Suicide
The shortest path to perdition, the straightest and quickest road there, is suicide. This is the road that Judas Iscariot took and the Bible tells us that he went “to his own place” (Acts 1:25). If anyone wants to be in perdition in a few hours let him take an overdose of morphine or bichloride of mercury, if he wants to be there in a few minutes let him take carbolic acid, if he wants to be there in a second let him blow his brains out. There is absolutely no
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hope hereafter for a suicide, unless he is insane and therefore irresponsible for his foolish and wicked act. I do not know how many men and women have told me that they intended committing suicide. To every such an one I have said, “You will go to hell if you do.” I have not a doubt that my words were true. To anyone in this audience to-night who is being swept away by the epidemic of suicide that is engulfing us, and who is contemplating “solving the mystery of eternity” in that way, I wish to say to-night, that that is the shortest and swiftest road to hell known to man, and there is no getting out of hell after you once get in. A man once came to me in Chicago in great mental anguish. He told me that it Seemed as if he must end his life. I told him plainly what would be the certain consequence if he did, and then pointed out to him a better way, the way of faith in Jesus Christ. A short time after¬ ward I met that man again. His countenance was radiant. He had found rest in Jesus Christ.
II. Impurity
Impurity is sweeping more men and women and boys and girls into perdition in this city than any other sin. Intemperance claims but a small fraction of as many victims as impurity. The spread of im¬ purity in our land, because of the war and because of the movies and because of the breaking down of parental restraint at home, and of sound moral teaching and discipline in our schools, and because of the general outbreak of lawlessness in all departments of our modern life, and especially because of the sowing of the seeds of infidelity in schools, colleges, and even in Sunday Schools and churches and everywhere else, is simply appalling. The things I have personally known about the impurity in young and old, and in all classes of society, have made my heart sick and faint. I know some things about many of you in this audience to-night that you do not think I know. Some I know by your very looks, you bear the marks of your sin in your eyes, in your faces, in your gait and in your manner. Some things I know by direct testimony. Much of our Los Angeles life is festering with the sin of Sodom. Sins of impurity in their various forms are a swift and sure road to perdition. Impurity leads to perdition in many ways:
i. First of all, Impurity breeds unbelief in God, and in Christ and in the Bible. I have found by personal investigation that very much of the unbelief of our day has its origin in impurity of life. Let me give you an illustrative example. A young student came to me and said that he was sceptical. I asked, “Why are you sceptical?” He replied that he had been reading philosophy and the study of philosophy had made him sceptical. Then I said, “Is your life right?” He hesitated. I followed it up, “Are you not living in sin?”, and I named the sin I had in mind. He made a clean breast of it. He was. I told him to quit his sin and then do certain other things and he would find his scepticism would take to itself wings and fly away. He promised to do it. Some months passed. This young man came to me again and I said to him, “Where do you stand now?” “Just where I did,” he replied. I asked, “Why have you not gotten over
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your scepticism?” “I do not know,” he said. “Have you given up your sin as you promised to do?” He dropped his head and answered, “No.” “Well,” I said, “give up your sin and you will get rid of your scepticism. That’s your trouble.” He dropped his head lower and said, “I guess it is.” Yes it was, and it is the trouble with a good many of you men and women here to-night who flatter yourselves your trouble is scepticism. No, with many of you the real trouble is not scepticism, it is simply disgusting impurity of life. I say that in all kindness and for your own good. If I have hit you, do not get angry at me; for I am your friend. Get angry at yourself, for you are your own worst enemy. Get angry at yourself and quit your sin.
Professor W. W. White was once lecturing in Chicago on infidelity. A fine-looking, gray-haired man, a man with a bright mind, came up at the close of his lecture and said something like this, “You are a Christian and I am an infidel. I am just as sincere as you are, and you have no right to tell me I am not.” “Is your life pure?”, Professor White inquired in reply. “Just as pure as yours,” the man replied. “Have you any objection to giving me your name?”, Professor White inquired, “I want to look up your record.” The man began to edge away and refused, saying that his name was none of Professor White’s business. But Professor White secured his name from some one in the crowd; for he was one of the best known infidels in Chicago, indeed one of the best known infidels in America. In less than a year this gifted infidel was found dead in a Boston hotel side by side with a brilliant young woman (not his wife), whom he had led astray, first into infidelity and then into adultery. Impurity makes more infidels than all the infidel books that were ever written. Mind you, I do not say all sceptics and infidels are impure. God forbid! But I do say that impurity makes many infidels. Now you know whether you are impure or not. If you are, and are also an infidel or sceptic, give up your sin and see how quickly you get rid of your soul-destroying infidelity.
2. But impurity sends men and women to perdition in still another way. It entangles people in relations that it is hard to get out of, and that one cannot remain in and he saved. How many a poor, blinded fool of a man has become infatuated with some other man’s wife and run away with her, and then waked up some day to see that both he and she were in hell now and on the way to an eternal hell hereafter. But what could he do? The man who trifles with another man’s wife (or trifles with an¬ other woman while he has a wife of his own) is not only one of the vilest, most scoundrelly, most contemptible, and abject sneaks and villains that walk the face of God’s earth, but he is also one of the most arrant fools.
I dealt personally one night with a bright, intelligent young man. He was under deep conviction of sin. He told me he wanted to come to Christ. “Well then why don’t you come?” I asked. No answer. Then I looked steadily at him and his story lay revealed. “Is there a woman in the case?” I asked. “Yes.” “Will you give her up?” There was an awful struggle, a long struggle, but finally
HOW TO BE SAVED
he shook his head and walked out to his companion in sin and to hell.
Hell will be crowded with adulterers and adulteresses. Hell will be more full of adulterers and adulteresses than Reno, Nevada. Some of you men here to-night may well tremble. I am not going to point you out, but God knows you. Oh! I appeal to every man and woman here to-night who is taking their first steps in the path of impurity; yes, to you who have gotten further on in that road; yes, to you who are way down that road: Repent, Repent, Repent, and believe in Jesus Christ to-night. If you do, this will be the happiest night you ever saw.
III. The Love of Money
The next path to perdition is, the love of money. God says in I Tim. 6:9, “They that desire to be rich fall into a temptation and a snare, and many foolish and hurtful lusts, such as drown men in destruction and perdition How many there are in Los Angeles who are taking this road to hell. Go out any of our finest avenues, how many saved men are there upon it? Very few. Why? Their money keeps them from Christ.
But the rich are not the only ones “who desire to be rich.” Many people in very moderate circumstances are as eager to be rich as the multi-million¬ aire, only they have not been so successful in acquiring wealth. The love of money sends men to perdition in a variety of ways:
1. In the first place, The love of money leads to dishonest methods of acquiring money. A great many business methods of the present day are simply legalized robbery. There are a great many rich men who if they were genuinely converted would have to pay back most of their money to the persons from whom they have stolen it. Some try to get around this by giving away a part of their stealings to churches, to colleges, to hospitals, to public libraries, to various Christian organizations, .and to the poor. This may soothe their own consciences, but it will not satisfy God and it will not keep them out of hell.
2. Again, the consuming love for money blinds many men to the fact that there is anything worth striving for bat money; so they leave their souls and their eternal interests utterly neglected. The average lover of money is seldom seen inside a church. There is a great deal more hope of awakening a man besotted with whiskey to the fact that he has a soul to save than there is of awakening to that fact a man besotted with the love of money. I would a great deal rather undertake the job of bringing a rumsoaked man to Christ than of bringing a moneysoaked man to Christ.
3. Then again, many who love money when they are awakened to the fact that they have a soul and that it is lost, will not come to Christ for fear they will have to give their money up, if they do. A man once came to Dr. McArthur of New York and said, “Dr. McArthur, must I give up my money if I be¬ come a Christian?” Dr. McArthur replied wisely, saying, “If you become a Christian and Jesus Christ tells you to give up your money you must be ready to give it up, every penny of it, if Jesus Christ tells
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you to.” The man answered, “I will take a week to think about it.” At the end of the week he came back and said, “Dr. McArthur, I have settled it. I will hold on to my money till death, and if Christ and Heaven must go, they must go.” You may say that man was a great fool. I grant it; but there are many others like him, some of them right here in this audience to-night.
IV. Love of Pleasure
Love of pleasure is another path to perdition. Many people in this audience to-night are rejecting Christ Jesus because they think that an acceptance of Christ would involve their giving up many pleasures of which they are extremely fond, and very likely it would. Many young people are saying, “I don’t think a person can be a real Christian and dance or go to the theatre or to the movies or play cards.” Well, I admit I think there is a good deal of truth in what they say. “Well, then,” they say, “I will hold on to my dancing, or theatre, or movies (or whatever it may be), and let Jesus Christ go.” They would rather dance to hell than walk with a glad, Spirit-filled heart to Heaven. Alas, poor fools!
When I “was holding meetings in Nashville, Ten¬ nessee, there were four ladies’ colleges in that city, and a great many of the students came to the meetings. I think all but three of the young women who were not already Christians in one of the colleges accepted Christ at those meetings, and all but two in another, and I think every one in another. A large section of the Reimer Auditorium was reserved for them each night. One night one of the colleges had a very large group of students present in a body in one of the galleries, to the left of the platform. When I gave out the invitation, a very large number of those young women rose and afterwards made a public confession of their acceptance of Christ. But one prominent young woman, one of the great social leaders of the college, said after she got back to the college, “If I can’t escape hell without giving up my dancing, then I choose to go to hell.” It was an awful thing to say and you never put it as bluntly as that, but some of you are acting on that principle. I am glad to say that within a short time that young woman changed her mind, and accepted Christ, and became one of the great leaders in the work. I hope that some of you to-night will be equally sensible and change your minds.
V. Infidelity
Infidelity is another path to perdition. There is no hope for the infidel unless he gives up his infidel¬ ity. God tells us plainly in II Thess. 1: 7-9, that “The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven with the angels of his power in flaming fire, render¬ ing vengeance to them that know not God and to them that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus: who shall suffer punishment, even eternal destruction, from the face of the Lord and from the glory of his might.” And the Lord Jesus Himself says, in Mark 16:15, 16, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to the whole creation. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that disbelieveth shall be condemned.” And we read
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again in Jno. 3: 36, “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.” There is not the slightest chance for an infidel. But you say, “I cannot help being an infidel.” Yes you can. If you will come to me, I will show you how to help it. If you are really in earnest, I will show you a way, a way that will commend itself to your own reason and conscience, out of infidelity into faith. I have shown it to many infidels and it has never failed yet.
One of the passages I just quoted, II Thess.
1: 7-9, tells us that it is not only the agnostic and infidel who is on the road to perdition, but also, that all that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus:
... shall suffer punishment, even eternal de¬
struction from the face of the Lord and from the glory of his might.” There are many who in their intellectual opinion about God and the Bible and Jesus Christ are perfectly sound, but who still are “unbelievers” in the Bible sense of “unbelief,” and every form of unbelief is a path to perdition. They do not u obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus,” and therefore by the plain declaration of God’s Word are on the road to “everlasting destruction.” What does it mean to “obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus”? The Greek word translated “obey” in this passage means first of all “to listen” or “to hearken,” and then it means to do what is the result of really listening to a command, to “obey it.” So to “obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ,” means to listen to the gospel, believe what it says and do what it commands. What does the gospel say?
Paul tells us in I Cor. 15:1-4. He says, “Now I make known unto you, brethren, the gospel which I have preached unto you.... For I delivered
unto you first of all that which I also received; that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures; and that he was buried; and that he hath been raised up the third day according to the Scriptures” That then is “the gospel” (or, good news). The gospel says: first, that “Jesus Christ died for our sins,” believe that, believe that Jesus Christ died for your sins; and trust God to forgive you because Jesus Christ died in your place. The gospel says: second, that “Jesus Christ was raised from the dead,” believe that; and trust this risen Saviour, Who has all power in Heaven and on earth, to deliver you from the power of sin. So much as to what to believe. Then do what the gospel tells you to do, confess Jesus Christ before the world. As this same Paul puts it in Rom. 10:9, 10, “If thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord, and shalt believe in thy heart that God raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved: for with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation and also confess your renunciation of <sin and your acceptance of Christ as your personal Saviour, by being baptized in His name. The refusal or neglect to obey the gospel, by
NOT BELIEVING WHAT IT SAYS AND BY NOT DOING WHAT IT COMMANDS, LEADS TO CERTAIN PERDITION.
This same thought is found in another of the passages just quoted, Jno. 3:36, “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth
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not the Son shall not see life: but the wrath of God abideth on him.”
IV. Reliance Upon a Mere Profession of
Religion
Another path to perdition is, reliance upon a mere profession of religion. Jesus Christ Himself makes that very plain in the very chapter from which our text is taken. In verses twenty-one to twenty-three, He says, “Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of Heaven; but he that doeth the will of my father which is in Heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy by thy name, and by thy name cast out demons, and by thy name do many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity” (Matt. 7:21-23).
A man may be a church member and still be on the straight road to hell. A man may have his name on the church rolls (either Protestant or Roman Catholic), he may be a church officer, he may be very active in various church enterprises, he may be a priest or a preacher; but, if he has not been born again, if he has not obeyed the gospel, if he has not accepted Christ Jesus as his personal Saviour and Lord in such a real way that Christ is transforming him into His own image, that man is still unsaved and is on the road to perdition and will spend eternity there, unless he repents and accepts Jesus Christ with a living faith. Oh, you men and women who are building your hopes of Heaven on the fact that you are members of the Roman Catholic church, or members of the Methodist church, or the Episcopal or the Baptist or the Presbyterian church, or the Church of the Open Door, or any other church, if that is all you have to build upon, you are in a path that ends in hell, and you may not be very far from your destination.
VII. Putting Off Your Acceptance of Jesus
Christ
Just one more path that leads to perdition, that is, putting off your acceptance of Jesus Christ to some future time. There are many of you who know that the path you are now in leads to perdition and you fully intend to get out of that path some time; but you 6ay, “Not just yet, not to-night.” My friend, that path of delay is one of the surest roads to hell and one of the most crowded. More people go to hell by that road than by almost any other. I suppose that more people who have sat in days gone by in this building but who are in perdition to-night have gone by this path of putting off, putting off, putting off a decision, than by any other road. If we were to go into the world of those who have died without Christ, and ask the people who once lived in this city how they got to that dark world where they now exist, I suppose the great majority would say, “I got here by putting off accepting Jesus Christ.” That is what many of you are doing to-night. You are saying, “I will accept Christ some time, but not to-night.” Listen to what God says, “Boast not thyself of to-morrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth” (Frov. 27:1), and again, “He that being often reproved hardeneth his neck,
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shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy” (Prov. 29:1).
An active Christian young man some years ago was urging a friend to accept Christ. “Oh, no,” he said, “I like to go to the theatre, I love to hear Nat Goodwin and some other players. I won’t be a Christian yet.” The young man urged him to decide for Christ at once, and told his friend that there was great peril in delay. In a few days the man who refused to accept Christ at once was not at his place of business, and the Christian young man called on him. There seemed to be nothing very serious the matter with him. He had injured his leg slightly. And still he put off accepting Christ. In a few days the Christian young man was horrified to learn that his friend was dead. Delay had done its work. Delay had sent another soul to perdition. “Oh,” you say, “Dr. Torrey, don’t try to frighten us.” Listen, I would far rather be frightened into Heaven than laughed into hell.
Let me reason with you, let me talk to you as intelligent men and women: Quit right now all these paths that lead to perdition and get
INTO THE NARROW ROAD THAT LEADS TO ETERNAL
life, right now. Take Jesus Christ to-night. He says, and He tells the truth when He says it, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no one cometh unto the Father, hut by me.” Jesus Christ is the road and He is the only road to salvation and to sonship and to eternal life. Will you take that road to-night by taking Him?