What will happen to those people living in the Church who only have a reputation of being alive but are dead? What will happen to the mere professors of Christianity who are not possessors of Christianity? What will become of those who are only outward religious?… They will walk in black, the blackness of God’s hell. They will walk in black, the blackness of hopeless despair. They will walk in black, the blackness of incomparable anguish. They will walk in black, the blackness of damnation.
They will walk in black forever because they are found unworthy. Oh you who profess to be a Christian, examine yourself. Oh ministers examine yourselves! Oh you who make a profession of Christianity today, look within your hearts and search your souls. You live in the sight of a holy God, Oh stop and search your own hearts. It is not a small matter of which I plead, but a matter of double importance. I beg you examine and cross examine your own souls and see if you are in the path of righteousness for it would be terrible for you to find in the end that you were in the Church but not of It!…
Oh I think I can hear them saying in hell, “Here is a preacher, here is a deacon, here is a church member, here is a man who has had the wine of the Lord’s Supper on his lips, here is a man that has the baptism water on his clothes.” Aah, take care my friends, there are only a few people in Sardis who will walk dressed in white. Make sure you are a part of that few! (Spurgeon)
What will happen indeed. This blackness will exponentially increase as the days of this world come to a close. With every passing day that draws us closer to the return of Jesus, the gross darkness falls and only the true light of Christ will shine in those days. For those who dwell in shades of grey will simply be swallowed up by the greater darkness. Grey can disappear into darkness but light and darkness cannot coexist. And so when the gross darkness comes then light must stand apart and everything outside of the light of Christ will be consumed. It must be so. 1Pe 2:9 But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light.
