WHY WILL YE DIE?
‘Why will ye die?’
I. You are in danger of death—the second death—eternal death. You deserve death—are condemned to die.
II. You need not die unless you will, unless you wish to die.—Your sin, which deserves death, is your own wilful deed, and from the death to which you are exposed there is a way of escape, if you will—if you are willing to take it. It is not that God wills—but that you will—that you die.
III. That you should choose to die rather than to live is most unaccountable.— Why will ye die? Can any one give a good reason why? (1) Have you no regard for your own best interests? ‘He that is cruel to his own house is like the ostrich that hides her eggs in the sand, and considers not that the foot of the traveller may crush them’; but he that is cruel to his own soul, what is he like? and unto what shall I resemble him? All nature has no imagery horrible enough to represent the murderer of his own soul. (2) Do ye ‘thus requite the lovingkindness of the Lord, O foolish people and unwise’? After all that God has done that ye might have life, why will ye reject His counsel, and refuse the best and greatest gift of everlasting love? (3) Or do you not believe that these things are so? that sin is destruction? that iniquity will be your ruin? or that there is a Saviour provided, and that to refuse Him is to choose death?