Their Foot Shall Slide In Due Time

Their Foot Shall Slide In Due Time

Text: Deuteronomy 32:35 (AV)

35 To me belongeth vengeance, and recompence; their foot shall slide in due time: for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that shall come upon them make haste.

Introduction:

* In this verse is threatened the vengeance of God on the wicked unbelieving Israelites, who were God's visible people.

* The People of Israel we chosen to be God’s visible people solely Grace of God.

* Today, under the new covenant that God has made with us, all men have been extended the Grace of God to be a spiritual people.

* The context of this verse is that even though God has extended his mercy toward the people of Israel, instead of obeying the covenant that they had entered into with God at M. Sinai, they had brought forth bitter fruit, and had become a wicked people.

*This is revealed in the verses right before verse 35:

Deuteronomy 32:28–29 (AV)

28 For they are a nation void of counsel, neither is there any understanding in them. 29 O that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end!

Deuteronomy 32:32–33 (AV)

32 For their vine is of the vine of Sodom, and of the fields of Gomorrah: their grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters are bitter: 33 Their wine is the poison of dragons, and the cruel venom of asps.

* Jesus told a parable about this very thing to the religious leaders of Israel in his day. We call it the parable of the talents.

* A lord had entrusted his servants various sums of money. They were supposed to take what he had given them and earn more money with it. One of the servants hid the money and was condemned to be punished by the master for his disobedience. Listen to what Jesus said his punishment would be:

Matthew 25:30 (AV)

30 And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Matthew 8:12 (AV)

12 But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

* Israel had been given the word of God to give to the world that men might come to God.

* Jesus was using this story that reveal to the religious rulers of His day that they were the disobedient servant in this story and that were headed for hell.

* The text I have chosen this morning reveals the coming punishment of Israel. The punishment of Israel will also be applied to those of us today who fall under the covenant, or agreement, of Grace that God has made with all men.

Hebrews 2:3–4 (AV)

3 How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him; 4 God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will?

* The following are some of the observations from the Bible that are warnings to us concerning refusing God’s Grace:

1). There is no lack of power for God to cast those who refuse the grace of God into Hell at any moment.

Matthew 10:28 (AV)

28 And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

2). Those who refuse to accept the Grace of God deserve to be cast into Hell.

Luke 13:6–9 (AV)

6 He spake also this parable; A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came and sought fruit thereon, and found none. 7 Then said he unto the dresser of his vineyard, Behold, these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and find none: cut it down; why cumbereth it the ground? 8 And he answering said unto him, Lord, let it alone this year also, till I shall dig about it, and dung it: 9 And if it bear fruit, well: and if not, then after that thou shalt cut it down. * The great preacher of the past, Jonathan Edwards, described the unsaved man’s situation like this:

“The sword of divine justice is every moment brandished over their heads, and it is nothing but the hand of arbitrary mercy, and God's mere will, that holds it back.”

3) Those who refuse to accept the Grace of God are already condemned to Hell.

John 3:17–18 (AV)

17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. 18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

* Every single unsaved man or woman has already been sentenced by the eternal and unchangeable Word of the Almighty God the great judge of all men.

* Every person who has not called upon the name of Jesus had been bound over by the sentence of God for his judgment to be carried out.

* Oh, you may be enjoying your freedom on this earth for just a little while, but my friend you are only out on bail until you sentence is carried out.

* My friend, if you have not accepted the Grace of God and repented and turned from your sins, calling upon Jesus to save you from the punishment of Hell, the Bible says that you will die in your sins.

John 8:23–24 (AV)

23 And he said unto them, Ye are from beneath; I am from above: ye are of this world; I am not of this world. 24 I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins: for if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins.

* God’s word on this matter is final. The judgment has been pronounced and cannot ever be changed. There are no appeals, so second chances, no special circumstances, no excuses! Everyone who has not came repented of their sin and accepted the grace and believed on Jesus for salvation is condemned to an everlasting Hell.

* Jesus said that knowing that every man is already condemned that we should fear the God who has the power to cast us into Hell.

Luke 12:4–5 (AV)

4 And I say unto you my friends, Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. 5 But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear him, which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear him.

4). Because of the sentence of God, the unsaved man now is the object of the anger of God.

* How terrible are the words of the great God who you have angered by refusing the Grace of His Son! "I will tread them in mine anger, and will trample them in my fury, and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all my raiment" (Is. 63:3).

* In the day in which we live preachers have over emphasized the love of God because it’s easy to hear. Preaching only the love of God and failing to give the other side of the coin is dishonest to the Word of God!

* God has revealed in the Bible, both how excellent his love is, and also how terrible his wrath is.

Romans 9:22–23 (AV)

22 What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction: 23 And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory,

* God will put His wrath, on the man who had refused his Grace, on display for all of heaven to behold and remember.

*If you continue to take for grant the grace of God and not come to the Lord Jesus for salvation, you will be tormented in the presence of His holy angels and the Lamb.

Revelation 14:10–11 (AV)

10 The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: 11 And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night…

* As preachers we and failed to warn people God’s anger against the wicked and unsaved.

* Listen to the word of Isaiah 63:3-5:

Isaiah 63:3–5 (AV)

3 I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the people there was none with me: for I will tread them in mine anger, and trample them in my fury; and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all my raiment. 4 For the day of vengeance is in mine heart, and the year of my redeemed is come. 5 And I looked, and there was none to help…

Isaiah 66:15 (AV)

15 For, behold, the LORD will come with fire, and with his chariots like a whirlwind, to render his anger with fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire.

* My friend consider this; when God judges the unsaved man who has refused his Grace, He will no longer have any pity on that man.

* Nothing will be with held because it is too hard for you to bear!

"Therefore will I also deal in fury: mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity; and though they cry in mine ears with a loud voice, yet I will not hear them" (Ezek. 8:18).

Proverbs 1:24–27 (AV)

24 Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded; 25 But ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof: 26 I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh; 27 When your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you.

* The anger of God is expressed in the torments of Hell.

* Rich man woke up being in torments.

Luke 16:22–24 (AV)

22 And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried; 23 And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. 24 And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.

* Listen to the word of Jesus as he describes the anger of God against those lost souls in Hell:

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Luke 16:23–24 (AV)

23 And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. 24 And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.

Luke 16:27–28 (AV)

27 Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to my father’s house: 28 For I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment.

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Matthew 13:40–42 (AV)

40 As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of this world. 41 The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; 42 And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.

Matthew 5:29–30 (AV)

29 And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. 30 And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.

* My Friend, if you have not yet come to the Lord to be saved your are the object of the fierce wrath of God!

Psalm 7:11–13 (AV)

God is angry with the wicked every day. 12 If he turn not, he will whet his sword; he hath bent his bow, and made it ready. 13 He hath also prepared for him the instruments of death…

Jeremiah 46:10 (AV)

10 For this is the day of the Lord GOD of hosts, a day of vengeance, that he may avenge him of his adversaries: and the sword shall devour, and it shall be satiate and made drunk with their blood…

* The bow of God’s fierce wrath is drawn back- - the bow strains with the pressure of the string

- and the arrow is ready on the string

- the arrow is pointed at your soul this morning

- nothing but the mere whim of God, and that of an ANGRY God, from being made drunk with your blood!

* The wrath of God is like a great ocean that is dammed up for the time being. The waters build up more and more and higher and higher. The longer the flow of God’s wrath is dammed up, the more force will be released when the dam breaks.

* The foods of God’s vengeance against your sin have been withheld temporarily. Your guild in the meantime has been constantly increasing.

* You are every day treasuring up more and more if the wrath of God.

* If God were to let go of the flood gate, the fiery floods of the fierceness of God’s wrath would rush forth with terrible furry and would come upon you with all the power that God possesses!

* My friend, who are you to be able to withstand the fierceness of the wrath of God?

Isaiah 13:6–11 (AV)

6 Howl ye; for the day of the LORD is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty. 7 Therefore shall all hands be faint, and every man’s heart shall melt: 8 And they shall be afraid: pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them; they shall be in pain as a woman that travaileth: they shall be amazed one at another; their faces shall be as flames. 9 Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it. 10 For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine. 11 And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity…

Jeremiah 46:10 (AV)

10 For this is the day of the Lord GOD of hosts, a day of vengeance, that he may avenge him of his adversaries: and the sword shall devour, and it shall be satiate and made drunk with their blood: for the Lord GOD of hosts hath a sacrifice in the north country by the river Euphrates.

* Listen to the words of Jonathan Edwards from the sermon “sinners in the Hands of a angry God”

There are black clouds of God's wrath now hanging directly over your heads, full of the dreadful storm, and big with thunder; and were it not for the restraining hand of God, it would immediately burst forth upon you.

The wrath of God burns against them, their damnation does not slumber; the pit is prepared, the fire is made ready, the furnace is now hot, ready to receive them; the flames do now rage and glow. The glittering sword is whet, and held over them, and the pit hath opened its mouth under them.

That world of misery, that lake of burning brimstone, is extended abroad under you. There is the dreadful pit of the glowing flames of the wrath of God; there is hell's wide gaping mouth open; and you have nothing to stand upon, nor any thing to take hold of; there is nothing between you and hell but the air; it is only the power and mere pleasure of God that holds you up.

5). The Devil stands ready to fall upon the unsaved man. The Devil is ready and waiting to claim your soul for Hell this morning.

Text: Deuteronomy 32:35 (AV)

35 To me belongeth vengeance, and recompence; their foot shall slide in due time: for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that shall come upon them make haste.

* The Bible gives us the picture that the unsaved man is the property of the Devil.

John 8:43–44 (AV)

43 Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word. 44 Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.

* My friend, the devils watch you! They are always by your side waiting, like greedy, hungry lions, waiting to devour there pray! The devils are waiting for the moment God releases your soul to them! They are waiting to drag your soul to Hell!

* If God would restrain his hand, the demons of Hell would fly upon you and drag you screaming to hell this very instant!

* That old Serpent the Devil is gnawing on you waiting to devour you!

* Hell is opening its mouth wide to swallow you!

* The only thing keeping you from the pit of Hell right now is the mere whim of God!

Illustration: My grandfather wall called to the bedside of a dying man.

6). The fires of Hell are already kindled in the soul of an unsaved man ready to flame up and consume him!

Text: Deuteronomy 32:35 (AV)

35 To me belongeth vengeance, and recompence; their foot shall slide in due time: for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that shall come upon them make haste.

James 3:6 (AV)

6 And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell.

* My friend, weather you realize it or not the fire of Hell already burns in your heart! According to the Bible the sinful nature that you were born with is ready to consume you!

* The ungodly lusts that lurk within the black depths of your wicked heart are ready to consume you like a raging fire! A fire kindled by the very fires of Hell!

* Look at the drunkard! Look at the person destroyed by meth! Look at the people all around you who have destroyed their lives by their ungodly sexual desires!

* You sinful heart is perched like a vulture ready to consume your body with drink and drugs and sex!

* Like with fire, you think you can control your sin. You think you are in charge! You think that you can flirt around with sin, have a little fun.

* The Devil has you deceived into think that you can just nibble around the edges of sin a little bit, but you’re not going to eat the whole thing! You’ve got it under control.

* My friend the Bible warns us that sin in the heart of man like a fire ready to flame up out of control and consume us.

Illustration: My brother and I playing with matches.

* Listen to the book of Proverbs as it describes how sin destroys:

Proverbs 5:3–14 (AV)

3 For the lips of a strange woman drop as an honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil: 4 But her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a twoedged sword. 5 Her feet go down to death; her steps take hold on hell. 6 Lest thou shouldest ponder the path of life, her ways are moveable, that thou canst not know them. 7 Hear me now therefore, O ye children, and depart not from the words of my mouth. 8 Remove thy way far from her, and come not nigh the door of her house: 9 Lest thou give thine honour unto others, and thy years unto the cruel: 10 Lest strangers be filled with thy wealth; and thy labours be in the house of a stranger; 11 And thou mourn at the last, when thy flesh and thy body are consumed, 12 And say, How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof; 13 And have not obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed me! 14 I was almost in all evil in the midst of the congregation and assembly.

7). Don’t make the mistake of thinking Hell is far off.

Text: Deuteronomy 32:35 (AV)

35 To me belongeth vengeance, and recompence; their foot shall slide in due time: for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that shall come upon them make haste.

* Jonathan Edwards described the false security that men have concerning Hell as a men walking over the pit of Hell on covering full of rotten holes that we cannot see.

* These rotten places cannot be seen, and if we should step on one, it would not be able to bear the weight of our sin.

* We would fall head first into the fiery furnace of Hell, falling into the hands of very Devils that Hell was prepared for!

Jonathan Edwards- “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”

Your wickedness makes you as it were heavy as lead, and to tend downwards with great weight and pressure towards hell; and if God should let you go, you would immediately sink and swiftly descend and plunge into the bottomless gulf, and your healthy constitution, and your own care and prudence, and best contrivance, and all your righteousness, would have no more influence to uphold you and keep you out of hell, than a spider's web would have to stop a fallen rock.

* God holds you over the pit of Hell like someone holding a ugly spider, hanging on a slender spider web over a fire.

* If you have turned away the grace of God, God abhors you. God is dreadfully provoked by your sin and your pride.

* His wrath toward you burns like a fire!

* You are fore despised in his sight than the most dreadful poisonous snake would be to you!

* By turning away the Grace of God you have offended God more that a rebellious, unthankful, hateful child would offend a loving parent!

* There a thousand ways that God could use to send to your eternal punishment this very day!

* But there is nothing but the mere whim of the God that you have so offended to keep you from falling into the eternal fires of Hell right this very moment!

* You did not drop off into Hell as you slept last night because God’s hand held you up!

*You hang by a slender thread, over the very pit of a fiery Hell, while you hear the screams of dammed souls. Those who have refused the Grace of a loving God!

* The flames of Hell are flashing all around that thread, threatening to singe the thread at any moment!

Text: Deuteronomy 32:35 (AV)

35 To me belongeth vengeance, and recompence; their foot shall slide in due time: for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that shall come upon them make haste.

Illustration: Just yesterday I was told the story of a young man who went for a routine check up and died right there in the doctor’s office.

8). You can take all the precautions necessary to protect yourself from the threat of imminent death, but there is no security form death.

* My friend death is stalking you every day! Everywhere you go the threat of death is with you! You can’t avoid death, you can’t hide from death, you can delay death or put it off!

Ecclesiastes 2:16 (AV)

16 For there is no remembrance of the wise more than of the fool for ever; seeing that which now is in the days to come shall all be forgotten. And how dieth the wise man? as the fool.

* Who are you to think that you have some kind of protection for security from death? All your hoping and preparing against death will not stop it from coming.

Hebrews 9:27 (AV)

27 And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:

* Every man has an appointment with Death and you will keep it.

Conclusion:

1.) Have you ever considered the reality that you will cease to exist on the face of this earth.

2). Have you ever considered the agony and misery of remembering the pleasures you were afforded by God’s grace?

* What would the people in Hell give to experience the pleasure of a soft comfortable bed one last time. The touch of a love one? One drop of cool water?

3). What reason could you possibility give to justify not running down this isle as fast as you can to escape the terrible wrath of God?

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Conclusion:

Outline Summary

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Introduction:

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Conclusion: