The wicked shall be turned into Hell, and all the nations that forget God! – Psalm 9:17
The words before us are a plain and unequivocal declaration from God Himself respecting the doom which awaits every impenitent sinner. May God impress our minds with a solemn awe as we consider them.
Who does God regard as being wicked?
1. God regards all those as wicked in His sight, who are heedless of His Word.
God’s Word ought to be the invariable rule of our conduct. It should be our constant inquiry: What is my duty? What does God command me in His Word?
2. God regards all those as wicked in His sight, who are forgetful of His benefits.
Every day and hour of our lives we have been laden with mercies by a kind and bountiful Benefactor. And should not God’s mercies to us, have excited correspondent emotions of gratitude in our hearts?
3. God regards all those as wicked in His sight, who are unmindful of is presence.
God is everywhere present, and every object around us has this inscription upon it, “You see me O God!” Now it is our duty and privilege to walk with God as His friends, and to set Him before us all the day long.
What will be the final doom of the wicked?
The word “Hell” sometimes imports no more than the grave. But here it must mean something far more awful, because the righteous go into the grave as well as the most vile.
1. Hell is a place of inconceivable misery.
Men in general do not wish to hear this place so much as mentioned, much less described as the portion of the wicked. But it is far better to hear of Hell, than to dwell in Hell!
Our Lord very frequently labors to deter men from sin by the consideration of its terrors, “But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear Him who, after the killing of the body, has power to throw you into Hell. Yes, I tell you, fear Him!” Luke 12:5
Who that reflects upon that “lake of fire and brimstone,” where the wicked “dwell with everlasting burnings,” and “weep, and wail, and gnash their teeth,” without so much as the smallest hope of deliverance from it; and where “the smoke of their torment ascends up forever and ever;” who that considers what it must be to have the devils for our companions, and to have the vials of God’s wrath poured out upon us without intermission and without end—who that considers these things, must not tremble at the thought of taking up his eternal abode in that place!
2. Yet Hell must be the portion of all who forget God.
Now scoffers make light of eternal torments, and sneer at the denunciations of God’s wrath. But before long they will call out “to the mountains and the rocks: Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb!” However reluctant they are to obey the divine mandate, “Depart from Me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels,” they must be “turned into Hell” with irresistible force and with fiery indignation!
Their numbers will not at all secure them against God’s threatened vengeance. Though there are whole “nations,” they will not be able to withstand the omnipotent arm of God; nor will they excite pity in God’s heart. Neither will their misery be the less, because of the multitudes who partake of it. For instead of alleviating one another’s sorrows with tender sympathy, they will accuse one another with the bitterest invectives.
The power and veracity of God are pledged to execute this judgment; and sooner shall Heaven and earth be annihilated, than one jot or tittle of His Word shall fail!
3. How awful is the insensibility in which the wicked are living!
Men seem as careless and indifferent about their eternal interests as if they had nothing to fear; or as if God had promised that the wicked would be received into Heaven! O that they would awake from their delusive dreams, and flee from the wrath to come!
4. How just will be the condemnation of the wicked in the last day!
Many think it a harsh thing that so heavy a judgment should be denounced merely for forgetting God. Shall they say to God: “Depart from us, we do not desire the knowledge of Your ways!” And shall God be accused of injustice if He says to them: “Depart from Me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels!” Matthew 25:41
-Charles Simeon
The Fight of Faith 