Dear congregation, I would like to please turn now your very prayerful attention to that Old Testament reading that I read to you in your hearing there in the book of Proverbs and the 15th chapter. And I wish to take for my text a very similar verse that I took some four years ago. And it is the verse 11. I've never preached on this verse, but it is similar. to a verse that I preached from the book of Proverbs, and I'll read that verse in a moment. There are similarities, there are contrasts and comparisons. It is the verse 11, Proverbs 15 and the verse 11. Hell and destruction are before the Lord. How much more then the hearts of the children of men? Hear the word. God. Hell and destruction are before the Lord. How much more then the hearts of the children of men? I mentioned, and perhaps some of you might remember, if you can remember that far back, some years ago on the 28th of April 2019, I preached from Proverbs 27 and the verse 20. Hell and destruction are never full, so the eyes of man are never satisfied. You can see the similarities there. There is in the latter verse that I just read in verse 20 of Proverbs 27, hell and destruction are never full. We're told here in Proverbs 15, 11, hell and destruction are before the Lord. The contrast and comparison there In Proverbs 27 verse 20 is that hell and destruction are never full, so are the eyes of men are never satisfied. Man can never get enough through his eye. We read there in Colossians that covetousness is idolatry. Man seeks everything in this world but God. And man goes from one thing to the next, and then finally he ends up in hell. And we're told that hell is never full, and so are the eyes of man, never satisfied. But here we come to Proverbs 15, look at verse 11. Hell and destruction are before the Lord. How much more then the hearts of the children of men. The angle, the view is somewhat changed here. Our minds are fixed on something different. In the one verse, we thought of the eyes of man. Here now we're thinking of the heart of man. And really we can say that it's because of the heart the eyes do things, don't they? It is from an evil heart that we sin, that we covet, that we commit adultery, that we do all kinds of things out of the heart flow the issues of life. And here the contrast, however, is very different. There we were thinking in Proverbs 27 how hell has always got sinners in it. And how eyes of men are always covetous after the things of this world. But here is something different. Here is how God, if you notice, is viewing, how God is viewing hell, and how God is viewing the hearts of men. Can you see the interesting analogy here? It's not just an analogy, it's a truth. The truth is this, that hell is always before the Lord. And I want us to think about that as a very solemn subject here tonight. is always before the eyes of the Lord. And I wanted to ask why? As I address the unsaved here tonight, and even the saved, these gospel sermons are not just for unsaved people, but they are for the saved. How is hell and why is hell always before the Lord? And notice the other side to it, how much more than the hearts of the children of men. They're always, their hearts are always before God. So I want us to think here, first of all, tonight, as we come and as we gather around God's word. The clock is ticking on our lives. We're a minute closer to our death. This time, The world is fixed and we are brought here to this time to hear this message, to hear the Word of God. And it is appointed unto man once to die. And after that, the judgment. We cannot change that fixed appointment that we have with Almighty God. And even right now, hell is before the eyes of the Lord. It's a solemn thing. But also, and especially, how much more It's not just a comparison. Just as God's eyes are upon hell, his eyes are upon the hearts of men, but so much more. Men who will enter into that hell. God is looking into their hearts right now. We often hear people say, God knows my heart. It's a very Solemn thing to say. But people say that quite tritely, don't they? They say that quite glibly. They say that quite carelessly. God knows my heart. My friend, He knows your heart better than you know your heart. He knows the hearts of men. First of all, let's ask the question. As we look at the verse, Proverbs 15, 11, hell and destruction are before the Lord. Why? Well firstly, because God is holy. Do we realize that as we come here tonight, the God of heaven is not accommodating to sin? And God will be dissatisfied if he cannot punish sin. He must fulfill his justice. He must execute justice. For we read that he is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity. Habakkuk 1 verse 13. Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil. Thou canst not look upon iniquity. It's a solemn thing. As we come here tonight and as we think upon this subject, hell and destruction are before the Lord. Now we could not for a minute, as it were, gaze if we were to be given a glimpse of hell. If we could hear the cries of the lost, of the damned, I don't think we could stand a minute of it. I don't think we could tolerate it. We read in the Word of God how their cries will go up forever and ever. Even the lost now are consigned to a place of perdition. But one day they will be cast into the everlasting lake of fire. And we cannot fathom the infinite wrath of Almighty God in that place, the awful torments, the Lord Jesus described it by symbols, where the worm never dies. The worm of conscience never dies. Where their cries go up forever and ever. If only it could be annihilation, if only it could be being snuffed out forever. But that is always before the Lord. Hell, it's a solemn thing, friends. I can't escape such a verse. Hell is forever. We are told now it is even a place where the Lord Jesus says that is prepared for the devil and the fallen angels. And it's never before the eye of the Lord. Why? Because God is holy. I'm sure some people perhaps want to walk out of the service at this point. You want to hear more pleasant things. Pastor, will you please preach on something more palatable, something more pleasant? Friends, we are commanded in the Word of God to warn our hearers. The Lord Jesus spoke so often of hell and judgment. But why do I say these things? Why is this before us? Because we must understand, each and every one of us, whether saved or not, that God is holy. Do we realize it? God is holy. And God does not, although he does not delight in the death of the wicked, he must punish sin. He has to execute his judgment. This is why hell is ever before, and destruction, the Lord. If you turn to Psalm 90, here's another reason why hell and destruction is always before the Lord. Because God knows the hearts of men. In fact, we read it in this verse, how much more than the hearts of the children of men. Psalm 90. This is suggested to be the oldest psalm, for Moses wrote this psalm. You notice in the verse 3, speaking of man, Thou turnest man to destruction, and sayest, Return, ye children of men. For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday, when it is past, as a watch in the night. Thou carriest them away as with a flood, They are asleep in the morning. They are like grass which groweth up. In the morning it flourisheth and groweth up. In the evening it is cut down and withereth. For we are consumed by thine anger, and by thy wrath we are troubled. Now notice verse 8. It's very solemn. Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, our secret sins in the light of thy countenance. God knows our secret sins. They're all before him. We're told in Hebrews, there is all things naked and open before the eyes of him with whom we have to do. And sinner friend, I must remind you that God has even set our secret sins in the light of his countenance. And therefore, this is why hell is before him and destruction before the eyes of the Lord. How much more the hearts of the children of men who commit sins. The Lord searches the heart. and tries the ways of a man, to give every man according to his ways. And if a man is determined to go on in his sin, he will be judged for it. And we must understand that there is what we call human responsibility. Men want to go on in their sin. They sin willfully, and with a high hand, and with pride, they go down to the grave. And here the reminder, hell and destruction and before the Lord, how much more than the hearts of the children of men. God is looking at the two. He's looking at hell. And he's looking at the hearts of men. The hearts of men who deserve to be in hell. It's a solemn thing. And here you and I, we're looking at these two things and God one day has to put the two together. Hell. and men's hearts, men's wicked hearts. It's a solemn thing, isn't it? God is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity. Let me just take you quickly there to Genesis chapter six, when God judged the whole earth and destroyed every living creature that was upon the earth We read in verse 3, Genesis 6, and the Lord said, my spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh, is fleshly, is no longer concerned about the spiritual things. Genesis 6, verse 3, yet his days shall be in 120 years. That's before the destruction of the earth. And God has fixed a time, my friends. just as he did in the days of Noah, that he will judge this world in righteousness. There's a day fixed. And we read on, look at verse five, and God saw that the wickedness of man was very great in the earth, and that the imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. You see, God looked at the hearts of men then, and he looks at the heart of people People may say one thing. People may do another. People may appear righteous and good. And we're told in the Psalms that God looks down upon the sons of men and He finds that there are none that are righteous. They've all gone aside. And He looks at the heart of sinners tonight. And He looks at hell. Hell is ever before His eyes. Because that's where the sinners must go if they continue in their sin. that as we sang, there are his sinners, his sinners, that he is delighted to save, that he will save, that will hear the word, that will hear the word of life, that will hear about Christ, and they will be convicted of their sin, and they will come to a knowledge of Christ, and they will come to an abhorrence of their sin, I want to turn you back to that reading that we read there in Colossians chapter 3. For what sake do men go to hell? For what sake is the wrath of God coming down? There are two reasons. Chiefly because of sin. God's wrath is coming. And men who continue on in their sin are not the Lord's. Let me say that most solemnly. Men who do not repent of their sin and trust in the Lord will be damned forever, lost forever. The Apostle Paul in this chapter has been telling us about those who are saved and Christ becomes their life. This is the language. Look at verse one. If then ye be risen with Christ, let me ask you, my friend, have you been raised to a spiritual life? Have you been quickened? Have you been seen? Have you seen yourself that you are ripe for hell? I'm afraid the God that I'm preaching seems to be a very different God to so many churches today. A God that doesn't judge. A God that will somehow welcome everybody in. Or you go to church, you believe certain things, but your life hasn't changed. Or my God changes the life. My God makes people to hate their sin. If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above. You see, you don't just know Christ, but you seek Him, and you seek His ways, and you seek what pleases Him, And we read, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. That's where he is now. He has risen. He is glorified. He is in heaven. He has conquered death by his own body. And he says, set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth, for you're dead. You're a different person now. And your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ who not just is our life, He becomes your life. You lose your life. You forsake it. When Christ who is our life shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory. You see, as we read in this verse, hell and destruction are before the Lord. How much more the hearts of men. God knows the hearts of people. whose minds are set on Christ and those who are set on this world. If your mind is set on this world, you will be destroyed with this world. You'll be burned with this world. You'll be cast away forever. And what are the people of this world? How are they like? Well, he warns us there in Colossians 3, not only when he speaks about the believer's life, who has a different life now in Christ, mortifies, who puts to death, sin. And if you notice, he gives a litany of the various sins in verse 5. What are they? Fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry. Now notice verse 6, for which things sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience. This is why God's wrath is coming, because of sin. When the Lord saves you, He changes the heart. And He continues to look at the heart. The heart that He has changed. The heart that whose now mind is not set on things here on the earth. Oh my friend, would God bring you to a solemn realization that He's looking at hell, and He's looking at destruction, and He's looking at everybody's heart here tonight. And unless God changes your heart, you'll be destroyed. And you will face eternal perdition. It's a solemn thing, isn't it? Look at the verse. Hell and destruction are before the Lord always. He's preparing it. I don't wish to frighten you, but I must speak the truth. And I must speak the truth that he, as we read there in Psalm 90, he sees your sacred sins. There's nothing, sinner friend, that you can hide from God. We're told, he that covereth his sin shall not prosper, but he that confesseth and forsaketh his sin shall find mercy. My friend, the Lord is very merciful. What could that sinner do in the temple, unlike the other? But beat his breast, his breast, where he knew there was so much sin in that heart. God be merciful to me, a sinner. That's all he could cry. And he found mercy. The Lord Jesus said that man went home that day justified. He went right with God. He went home. Because God subdued that proud heart. and made him to see that he could not so much as even look to heaven. He was not even worthy of a look up to heaven. But all he could do was look down and feel shame. My friend, if God could put on display, perhaps on a big screen here, to show all my sins and all your sins before the watching world, How would you feel? But one day that is going to happen. It's going to happen. Because we're told in Revelation that the books shall be opened up and they shall be read, the deeds of men. Behold, I come And my reward is with me, said the Lord Jesus Christ, to give every man according to his deeds and the books will be opened up and the record, the annals of life and all that men have ever done will be weighed up in the balances and men will be found wanting. And God's eyes are continually looking on hell because he's holy. My friend, because he's a good God. God is good in that He must punish sin. But what did He do? He punished the sin of His people in His Son. He gave His Son. He gave His Son to reveal sin. And when He comes to the heart and He convicts the sinner, He convicts the sinner of sin and righteousness, the righteousness of Christ, and the judgment to come. There are billions, my friend. Billions. There are over 7 billion people upon this planet right now. And it is estimated that over 6,000 people die an hour. 6,000 people. And I suggest to you that the vast, vast majority of people are entering into hell. For many have never heard even the word of life. In the days of our Lord Jesus Christ when he preached to those impenitent cities, he warned them how greater wrath that they will experience than even those wicked sodomite cities. They never heard the gospel. Greater onus is upon men because the truth of God's word has been preached. And yet the hard heart becomes more obdurate Pharaoh received even greater judgment, didn't he? Because greater light was given to Pharaoh. Plague upon plague, and God didn't stop with the first plague, or the second, or the third. And it wasn't even the tenth plague that took him. It was, as we read in the Psalms, the sea, the Red Sea. My friends, there is going to be an infernal lake of fire, of wrath. Hell and destruction are before the Lord. Even right now, God doesn't change. He's looking to hell. How much more than the hearts of the children of men, men made in his image, And yet men living for themselves, they must go and be consigned there. As I said, there are over 7 billion people upon this planet, over 6,000 people dying an hour, and the vast majority entering into a lost eternity. And many would have heard, too, when the young man asked the Lord Jesus, Remember that question that was asked of him. Are there many that be saved? What did he say? Strive to enter in. For many, he said, will seek to enter in, but will not. My friend, you come as a sinner. And thank God he knows the heart. The Bible says he came into the world to save sinners. Sinners! And that's how you come. You don't come trying to fix your hair up and make yourself look good and clean your act up. You come with all your stinking filth of sin. And you confess it. And you give God the glory. Because that's what Christ came to do. He came to save poor, wretched sinners that could not save themselves. They will hear, they will be humbled, they will be quickened. This is the work of the Almighty. This is the work of God. And I must remind you, as we read in that previous portion there in the Proverbs, hell and destruction are never full. Not until the last hour. Not until the last sinner dies, then it'll be full. When the judgment comes and the Lord comes, Isaiah 5, 14, hell has enlarged herself and opened her mouth without measure and their glory and their multitude and their pomp and he that rejoiceth shall descend into it. You rejoice now. You rejoice in your youth. You rejoice in all the things that you have. You must remember God's eyes, look, they're upon hell. And they're upon your heart and my heart. Unless the heart repents, the Lord Jesus said, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. There's no hope for the sinner that never repents. But he that does, Oh my friend, there's unspeakable mercy. The fitness is in Christ. The fitness is not in you. He looks in the heart. He sees nothing good. But what does God do? He gives a new heart. He gives a new life. You say, I can't change. Of course you can't. That's God's work. That's God's work of grace. The sinner, as he repents, he finds God gives him grace to repent. As he prays, he's pouring out his heart. What is that? That's an honesty that God has worked in the soul. That's the sincerity that God has worked in that man, that woman. How did I come to see? How did I come to hear? You ask, how did I come to hear? It's a miracle. It's a miracle. God brings a man to here. He brings a man to see. Nicodemus, there was a time he never understood a single thing Christ was saying. He never understood of heavenly things. Nicodemus, you must be born again, but then suddenly he was. Suddenly he was. Suddenly we see him there at the death of our Lord. We see him standing with the disciples. We see him coming at night and then we see him in the broad daylight, standing with the Lord, standing strong. And that's how God's people are. He'll give them a new heart. He'll give them power to live. He'll give them love for Christ. He does all the work, my friend. He looks into the heart and he sees nothing. And he says, live. And a man lives. He sees hell. And you know what the sinner says, that's where I deserve to be. I have no problem. I understand that's my just desert. For I have sinned against my God. I have broken his laws time without number. I've sinned against him. I've lived for myself. But he looks in my heart and he says, I will have mercy on this one, on that one. My friend, it is about God's mercy. And in God's mercy, he gives a new heart. You do not worry about the power, the strength he gives. All the fitness he requires is to see your need of him. And this he gives you, tis the Spirit's rising beam. As we sing, the Spirit of God. God says, look unto me. As he looks into the heart of man, he says, there's nothing clean in you. But you look unto me, look unto me, all the ends of the earth, and be ye saved. For I am God, and there is none other. Only God can save a wretched heart from hell. The religions of this world don't really have a hell. I'd hate to be in their heaven. because there are terrible sinners that are not changed in their heaven. But in God's heaven, everyone is perfected and made like God's sinless Son, Jesus Christ. Oh, what a day that will be when we meet the one who died for us and gave his life as a ransom for his people. And we look sometimes as we sing there with Robert Murray McShane, when I stand with Christ on high, looking o'er life's history, then, Lord, shall I know, fully know, how much I owe? My friends, sinners owe it all to God's grace. They come with nothing in their hands and they plead the merit and the blood of Christ. They plead Him. We have no other plea. We cannot plead our hearts. Our hearts condemn us. But Christ saves us, not just from hell, but from our sin. As he looks in the heart, thou has set our iniquities before thee, even our secret sins, in the light of thy countenance. Who wrote this? Moses. By the Spirit of God. Moses. And then finally, where do we see him? On the Mount of Transfiguration, speaking with our Lord. And those who love him and confess him will find soon that they will be with him. Is Christ your life? We read there, didn't we, in Colossians, when Christ who is our life, then we shall appear with him in glory. The Christian, let me say, I'm addressing both believer and unbeliever, should hate any form of sin. Christian, do not compromise. I beg you with sin. God looks in the heart. There are times he has to chasten his people, but he does so in love. He sees the heart. and he chastens you to spare you that you will not be judged with the world. He awakens sinners from the wrath to come, but he awakens them to a new life in Christ. May we be satisfied in him. May we rejoice in Christ, our Lord and our King. Hell and destruction are before the Lord. Remember that. He's a holy God. How much more than the hearts of the children of men? He will have to cast them. It'll be a solemn day. And it'll not just be for a little while. It's not a purgatory, my friend. The Lord Jesus spoke of that awful place. May God spare sinners. Look unto Christ who saves. Seek the Lord with all your heart. And may God grant that grace this night to believe upon his Son. Jesus said, I am come that they might have life. Give you a new heart to renew you in himself. All may God have mercy, for his name's sake.