The hope of the hypocrite!

(Horatius Bonar, "Gain and Loss for Eternity")

"For what is the hope of the hypocrite, when he is cut off, when God takes away his life?" Job 27:8

The hypocrite has indeed a "hope."

He has a hope of being saved—or, at least, of not being lost.

He has a hope of going to Heaven—or, at least, of not going to Hell.

But his hope is not "the good hope through grace."  It is . . .
  a self-originated hope;
  an unscriptural hope;
  a groundless hope;
  an unreasonable hope;
  a fallacious hope;
  a hope that perishes at death.

Thus the hope of the hypocrite leaves him at death. All is loss—utter, infinite, irreparable, eternal loss!

For him there is no morning, but only night—night without a star, or even a meteor gleam.

His losses cannot be enumerated or estimated, they are so many and so terrible.

1. He loses HIS SOUL. The soul that is the special and supreme loss. The loss of that which cannot die is great beyond measure. He who has lost his soul is poor indeed. Yet in the case of the ungodly man that fearful loss is incurred.He loses his soul!

Not that the soul perishes or is annihilated. That would be some relief to the poor doomed victim of sin. The soul is lost, but cannot die. The loss of the soul consists in eternal condemnation and ruin. All is gone for which the soul existed. It exists now only for woe. Life is now become worse than death, for the soul is lost; lost in darkness, woe, anguish, and an endless hell; lost from God, and goodness, and blessedness, and from all holy beings forever and ever!

2. He loses HEAVEN. The future state and place of blessedness has many names: a kingdom, a city, an inheritance, a new heaven. All of these are names of joy. "Heaven" is a noble and glorious name, embodying in it all that is excellent, and divine, and perfect. Its joy is perfect, its light is perfect, its holiness is perfect. Its songs are perfect, its service is perfect. It is day without night, it is the blessing without the curse.

All this is lost to the hypocrite. What a loss must a lost heaven be! To be shut out from such a kingdom, dispossessed of such an inheritance; no, made the heir of such sorrow and darkness; how infinitely woeful! Think, O man, amid all your losses, past or prospective, what a lost heaven must be! A lost kingdom, a lost city, a lost inheritance! Who can measure such a loss?

3. He loses CHRIST. Yes, Christ is lost, and this is the heaviest loss of all. None like it, so infinite and so irreparable. This is the loss of losses, the woe of woes. A lost Christ! What can equal that! This is the loss of the hypocrite. This loss is indeed unutterable. Men do not see this, or think of it. Yet it shall one day be felt.

In hell it shall be realized as the loss of losses—that which makes the place of woe so unutterably woeful. "I might have had Christ," will the lost sinner say, "but I would not have him, and now he is gone forever; I cannot have him now. Instead of Christ—I have Satan! Instead of Heaven—I have Hell."

Consider your losses, O you ungodly ones!

They are unspeakable and eternal.

Look at them now, and prevent them.

There is some little compensation now for such losses, in the world's pleasure, or lust, or wealth. There shall be no compensationthen. It will be unmingled woe, a cup of undiluted, unsweetened gall and wormwood.

What a disappointment to you who have been hoping and hoping! To lie down witha false hope, and go up to the Judge expecting to be received!

How dreadful the agony of such a disappointment!

"For what is the hope of the hypocrite, when he is cut off, when God takes away his life?" Job 27:8

It is not too late. Your soul is not lost, Heaven is not yet lost, Christ is not yet lost. All may yet be won!The gate stands wide open—go in, go in!