ANATHEMA MARANATHA

Dr. W. A. Criswell

1 Corinthians 16:21-24

2-19-56     7:30 p.m.

 

 

This is the last message tonight on the 1 Corinthians letter.  You know how long I have been preaching on Corinthians?  I looked it up.  You know how long?  Does anybody know?  Tonight is the last of a solid year that I have preached on the 1 Corinthians letter.  This is a year.  You would not think it, would you?  This is a year that I have been preaching in 1 Corinthians.  I close the year tonight.  This is the last message. 

All right.  I quit off this morning at the fourth verse.  We will start at the fifth verse and read the rest of the chapter.  Do you have it?  1 Corinthians, the sixteenth chapter, beginning at the fifth verse, and we will read to the end of it. 

Now, you have some names in there, Stephanas, Fortunatus, and Achaicus.   When you come to them, if you can't pronounce them very well, don't worry about that.  Don't worry about that.  All right, all of us, 1 Corinthians 16, beginning at the fifth verse.  Now, we will read,  

 

Now I will come unto you, when I shall pass through Macedonia: for I do pass through Macedonia. 

And it may be that I will abide, yea, and winter with you, that ye may bring me on my journey whithersoever I go. 

For I will not see you now by the way; but I trust to tarry a while with you, if the Lord permit. 

But I will tarry at Ephesus until Pentecost. 

For a great door and effectual is opened unto me, and there are many adversaries. 

Now, if Timotheus come, see that he may be with you without fear: for he worketh the work of the Lord, as I also do. 

Let no man therefore despise him; but conduct him forth in peace, that he may come unto me: for I look for him with the brethren. 

As touching our brother Apollos, I greatly desired him to come unto you with the brethren: but his will was not at all to come at this time; but he will come when he shall have convenient time. 

Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong. 

Let all your things be done with charity. 

I beseech you, brethren, (ye know the house of Stephanas, that it is the firstfruits of Achaia, and that they have addicted themselves to the ministry of the saints,) 

That ye submit yourselves unto such, and to every one that helpeth with us, and laboureth. 

I am glad of the coming of Stephanas and Fortunatus and Achaicus; for that which was lacking on your part they have supplied. 

For they have refreshed my spirit, and yours: therefore acknowledge ye them that are such. 

The churches of Asia salute you.  Aquila and Priscilla salute you much in the Lord, with the church that is in their house. 

All the brethren greet you.  Greet ye one another with an holy kiss. 

The salutation of me Paul with mine own hand. 

If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha. 

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. 

My love be with you all in Christ Jesus.  Amen. 

 

That's the conclusion of the letter. 

Now, if I had a long time we would start at that fifth verse and just talk through some of these things in that chapter, wonderful chapter, concluding his personal remarks to the church he loved so much. 

But I'll take just the last.  As you look at your Bible, do you see the twenty-first verse there?  “The salutation of me Paul with mine own hand.”  You see, all of the rest of the letter, he wrote through an amanuensis.  His name was Sosthenes.  You find that in the first verse of the first chapter.  He dictated the letter.  Paul dictated all of his letters.  But, he had a habit, and he always did it.  When he came to the end of his letter, he picked up the pen himself, and he always wrote a concluding salutation.

Now, you look at that, if you have time, in the 2 Thessalonian letter, in the last verses.  There it is again, “The salutation of Paul with mine own hand, which is the token in every epistle:  so I write.  The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.  Amen.” [2 Thessalonians 3:17-18]  And that's the way he closes the 2 Thessalonian letter.  “The salutation of Paul with mine own hand.”  That's “the token in every epistle.”  That's the way you can tell it was genuine.  When he got through dictating it, he picked up the pen and wrote in his own hand a concluding salutation. 

Now, in the last chapter of the Galatians letter, you have it translated like this, “You see how large a letter I have written unto you with mine own hand.”  What Paul actually said there was this.—That's in the eleventh verse of the sixth chapter of Galatians—“You see with what large letters I write unto you with mine own hand.”  That eleventh verse, he picked up the pen himself and he wrote like a schoolboy.  There must have been something wrong with his eyes.  Practically everybody thinks there was.  And, when he wrote, he wrote in great big box letters, big capital letters, like a first-grader.  So, when he picked up the pen there, writing to the churches of Galatia, he starts of saying, “You see with what large letters I write unto you with mine own hand.” 

Now, that's the thing you find here in this concluding remark in the 1 Corinthian letter.  He picks up a pen and he writes, “The salutation of me Paul with mine own hand.  If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha.  The grace of our Lord be with you.  My love be with you all.  Amen.”  Now, those two unusual, untranslated words there, Anathema Maranatha, they belong to the dialect, the Aramaic-Syrian vernacular of Palestine in the day when Paul lived.  You find those untranslated Aramaic words all through the Gospels.  Don't you remember some of them?  Jesus said, “Ephphatha, that is, be opened.”  “And the field was called Aceldama, the field of blood.”  “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani, My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?”  All through those Gospels you will find those untranslated Aramaic words.  That's the language in which Jesus spake.  That's the language that Paul knew when he studied there in Jerusalem. 

Now, he picks up one of those words, maranatha.  That's an Aramaic word.  That anathema, by some peculiar turn on the part of these translators was left also untranslated.  But, they have nothing to do with one another, as such.  That is, anathema maranatha are not a phrase together, though the way Paul uses them here they have a tremendous import.   And, that's the message tonight. 

What does anathema mean?  That's a plain, simple English word now.  Actually, the word means “devoted completely,” and came to refer to a thing devoted completely by God for destruction.  All of Jericho was devoted for destruction, all of it.  All of it was accursed, and all of it was to be completely destroyed.  The ancient cities of Sodom and Gomorrah were completely devoted for destruction.  They were accursed.  And, that word means, accursed, it means damned.  It means an irrevocable, final sending away from God.  

And connected there with that maranatha, ”the Lord comes,” it means a final and irremediable, an irrevocable, an eternal, damnation.  To Paul it's an awful thing to say that.  “And if man love not the Lord Jesus, he is accursed.”  He is damned.  He is eternally devoted to destruction and hell and damnation--Ah, such things as you read here in the Bible. 

Now, that word “maranatha” is made up of two of those Aramaic words.  Maran means “the Lord,” and atha means “He comes.”  Maranatha: “the Lord comes.”  Evidently, in those early primitive days the Christian people who were Jewish, when they would meet one another, they would greet each other with that word maranatha, like the Greeks would greet one another with those Greek words achri hou elthē: until He come, until He come.  The Jewish Christians greeted one another with that word there, maranatha. 

You see, there are two great pillars upon which the testimony, the gospel of Jesus Christ, rests.  One of those pillars, one of those piers, is this, that Christ has come and that He died for our sins.  That's one of them.  And, the other one is that He was raised, that He lives, and that He's coming again in triumph.  Those are the two great pillars of the Christian faith.  In memory, the cradle and the cross, in hope that He's coming again with tremendous power, with the clouds of glory, with the saints and all the holy angels of heaven.  And, between those two great doctrines, like a bridge suspended, the present, fragile present hangs suspended in between. 

A tragic thing that we've come to the day when men have lost faith in the first, in the atoning Cross of the Son of God.  And, they've lost expectancy of the other, that someday He's gloriously coming again.  But however the modern faith is, however the churches of this modern life may be, the testimony of the Bible and the faith of those first Christians was just that:  That the Lord Jesus has come, that He died for our sins.  And the other:  And the Lord Jesus is coming again in glory and in triumph.  Maranatha, and the Lord comes. 

Now, you look at that final salutation and how it's put together.  You'll find there a very plain illustration of the whole fabric of the gospel of Christ.  One is terror and the other is tenderness, and they're right there together.  Look at it.  “The salutation of me Paul with mine own hand.  If any man spurns Christ, the overtures of love and mercy, the grace of Jesus, if any man spurns Christ, let him be anathema.”  That's not an implication.  It's not a wish.  It's a prophetic warning.  If any man turns from Christ damnation awaits him!  Hell awaits him! The torment of fire and destruction awaits him, if any man turns aside from Christ. 

And, then, right in the next verse, in the next breath, in the next syllable, in the next sentence, there it is, “Maranatha, He's coming.  The grace of our Lord be with you.  My love be with you all in Christ.  Amen.”  Just like that.  The terror and the tenderness of the gospel message of Jesus. 

It's that way all the way through.  When a man preaches just about heaven and just about the atoning work of Christ and just about all of the sweet things of the Christian gospel, and he preaches just that, he is in no wise approaching the whole counsel of God.  For, when a man preaches that Book, and preaches the whole gospel of Christ there are things in that Book that make your soul tremble.  Horrible things, terrible things, things of hell and destruction and damnation, they are in that Book. 

Right in the next verse, in the next syllable, there will be the most pouring out of the compassionate heart of God.  Brings you to tears.  The sweet pleadings of the Holy Spirit.  There they are in the book, right side-by-side.  That's the gospel message.  “If any man love not the Lord Jesus, let him be anathema.”  Let him be accursed.  He'll be damned forever.  That's in the gospel message.  Look at it here.  Look at it here.  In the 2 Thessalonian letter, listen to Paul as he says,   

 

To you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, 

In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: 

Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power; 

When He shall come to be glorified in His saints, and to be admired in all them that believe, among you that are believers, in that final in that great, and in that awful, day. 

[2 Thessalonians 1:7-10] 

 

“Ah, preacher, I don't believe in any such thing.  I don't believe in hell, and I don't believe in damnation, and I don't believe in the fires of punishment.  I don't believe in the judgment wrath of the Almighty God.”  The only thing about the Bible is this, that the same revelation that spake to us about hell is the same one that speaks to us about heaven.  The same one that speaks of the love of God speaks of the wrath and the judgment of Almighty God.  And if one's not true, then the other's not true.  If there's not any fire and torment in hell, there are no golden streets and no pearly gates and glory.  If there's not any Satan, there's not any Jesus Christ.  If there's not any devil, there's not any God.  If there's not any salvation, if there's not anything to be saved from, there's no need for a man to preach. 

It's because of the awful judgment of God, because of the wrath of God, it's because of that lasting torment, it's because of the reality of an anathema that Jesus came into the world.  There's a reason for His being here. There's a reason for His suffering and death; because we're lost; because we're damned; it's because we're not saved; it's because we face the wrath and judgment of God. 

If a man's not in Christ, he's anathema. He's cursed.  And that thing is always side-by-side.  The grace of our Lord be with you.  My love be with you, right side-by-side.  Wherever you have the true gospel preached, they will be right together: hell and heaven, right side-by-side.  This is hell.  This is it.  This is the fire and the torment.  This is heaven.  This is it.  This is the way to God and the glory. 

The same Lord Jesus that took little babes in His arms and blessed them, that same Lord Jesus took a whip in His hand and drove out the money changers and denounced hypocrisy of the Pharisees.  Same Lord.  Same Lord.  That same story that tells us about Lazarus, over there in the bosom of Abraham, he's in heaven, that same story tells us about Dives, who's tormented in hell.  It's in the same book.  It's in the same story.  It comes from the Lord Jesus. 

In that 2 Corinthian letter that we're coming to next Sunday, it says there is a savour of life unto life to those who believe, and there's the savour of death unto death to those who don't believe.  When a man hears the gospel of the Son of God, if he repents and if he turns and if he trusts and if he believes, he'll be saved.  But, if that man hears the gospel of Christ, he's doubly lost and doubly damned and doubly doomed.  This message is a twofold message, always and always. 

Well Preacher, isn't that a harsh thing for God to do, to tell us about those things and write them in the Book?  And isn't that an awful thing for a man to preach?  Yes, it is.  It's a terrible thing.  Well, then why does God do it?  Simply because the gospel is the gospel.  It's true.  It faces reality.  It's a merciful revelation of God that there's a reality in hell, and a man must escape with his life or he's lost and damned forever.  The Bible is the most realistic book in this earth, and it points out those terrible dangers and those horrible days that lie ahead for the soul without God and without Christ.  

I say it's a merciful revelation.  It's something God has done because He loves us.  Whenever you see a railroad track, there's an electric sign.  And that thing will come on, and it says, “Stop.  Stop.  Stop.  Stop!”  It isn't because the railroad company hates the people that cross over their property.  It's because they know the danger when those great high-speed freights come roaring by.  The man on the track is inviting death if he doesn't stop.  And, the railroad company puts it there: Stop.  Stop.  Stop.  Stop. 

That's the way with God.  God says, “This road leads to hell.”  And, the Lord Jesus Christ interposes blood, “This road leads to hell, and I'm dying to save you.  Don't go that way.  Don't go that way.”  And, the prayers of God's people.  “This road leads to hell!  Turn and be saved.  Turn and be saved.”  And, the compassionate hearts of all who love you and care for you.  “That road leads to hell.  Don't go that way.  Don't go out that door without God.  Don't go outside without Christ.  Don't spurn these overtures, these pleadings of compassion and mercy and love.  Hell's that way.  Death is that way.  Damnation is that way.”  It's that twofold plea always.  If a man is preaching the true gospel, then love is that way.  

Rebuke, rebuke is the voice of love, pleading against wrong and unrighteousness, is the voice of somebody who cares.  Are any of you men here fathers?  When your son does wrong, what do you do with the boy?  Don't you call in the boy and sit him down by your side and say, "Son, that road leads to damnation.  Don't go that way son.  Don't go that way."  Are any of you mothers here?  Do you have a daughter?  Don't you call in a daughter and sit her down by your side and say, "Honey, that way is an awful way, and it leads down and down and down.  O precious child, don't go that way. Don't go that way."  Isn't that because you love them?  Isn't it?  Isn't that what prompts it?  Isn't that what you're doing?  You love that boy!  You love that girl!  And, you don't want to see them fall into the abyss.  You don't want to see them fall into hell.  You don't want to see them go down that road.  And, love pleads and begs and importunes and cries and prays and intercedes, all day and all night, all in between time, and it never gets away from you, never gets off your heart. 

When your children are out there somewhere, if you are a good mother, chances are you don't sleep until they get back in.  “Well, that's a silly thing to do,” you say.  But, that's a mother for you.  That's love for you!  That's the way God is!  “This road leads to hell!  This is the way of damnation!  That's anathema!”  And, in the next verse, “All the grace of the Lord and my love be with you.”  That's what it is.  That's what it is.  Don't go that way.  Don't be that way.  Don't choose that way.  Don't.  That's the tenderness of God.  That's the love of the Lord Jesus Christ. 

I have to quit.  May I just point out this one thing?  What kind of folks were these that Paul is talking about?  Well, just by resumé, do you remember?  They were as pious as they could be.  One would stand up and say, “I'm of Paul,” another, “I'm of Apollos,” another, “I'm of Jesus.”  And, they go to all the rest of you.  Not only that, there were some in that church--one fellow, especially, he describes besides a multitude of others, there was one fellow living with his father's wife!  Paul said that was a heinous, foul iniquity, not even named among the Gentiles.  Even those wicked, iniquitous Gentiles didn't even have a name for a fellow that did that, living with his father's wife, with his stepmother.  That was over there in that church. 

And, then, not only that, but, in that church, there were those that, when they came to the Lord's Supper, some of them gormandized.  They just made gluttons of themselves at the Lord's Table.  And, some of them got drunk at the Lord's Table.  And, Paul was aghast.  There were men in that church that stood up and said, "There's no such a thing as a resurrection.  There's no such a thing as the doctrine of the resurrection.  There's no such a thing as the resurrection of Jesus Christ."  There was everything in that church! 

All right.  What does he say about them?  “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. My love be with you all in Christ Jesus.  Amen.”  That's the gospel.  A fellow can be just as vile and iniquitous as he can be, but God puts His arms around him.  And, the Apostle puts his arm around him and loves him just the same, foul and dirty and iniquitous.  Doesn't matter; love them all. 

Here's a man who's heretical.  Here's a man who's partisan.  And, here's a man that breaks your heart.  And, there's one that disappoints your soul.  Well, we call down the wrath of God on them!  No, we don't.  They just face the great and inevitable judgment of God upon the choices that they make.  But, we cry over them and love them and plead with them just the same, just like God does. 

“All,” do you look at that word there, “My love be with you all.”  My love be with you all.  He put his arms around the whole church.  Some of them disappointing.  Some of them denied the very gospel that he's preaching.  Some of them, everything else but what they ought to be.  But he picks up his pen, “My love be with you all.” That's the gospel.  That's the gospel. 

I don't guess there's any finer picture of the gospel than a man with his arm around a fellow that needs Jesus, loving him into the kingdom, praying over him for Jesus' sake.  That's the gospel.  I don't care what the man is or what he's done!  The gospel is the Christian down on his knees with his arms around a fallen and needy brother, asking God to save him.  That's the gospel.  If a man's outside of Jesus, it's anathema.  It's anathema.  It's anathema. 

“The grace of the Lord be upon us.  My love be with you all in Christ Jesus.  Amen.”  Just because He loves us.  Telling us, pleading with us, begging us, warning us.  The most importunate of all the pleas in this world is the plea of God.  Maranatha: the Lord comes.  Are you ready?  Are you ready?  Maranatha: the Lord comes.  Can you pray the prayer of the apostles, “Even so, come, Lord Jesus.”  I'm ready.  Come now and it's ready.  My soul, my life, my house, all, Lord, are ready.  Or, in the morning or at noontime or at midnight--anytime, Lord, just knock at my door.  Just knock at my door.  Maranatha, and He comes.  Amen.  Let Him come, “Even so, come, Lord Jesus.” 

Ah, bless the people who listen to this message that all of us could answer, "Lord, and I'm ready.  And I'm ready.  And I'm ready.  Ready for the judgment day; ready for death; ready for life; ready, whatever God should choose.  Here I am, Lord.  My faith is in Thee.  My trust is in Thee.  So help me, God!  I'm ready.  I'm ready."  And, that's why we are preaching.  Somebody you, somebody you, give his heart to the Lord.  “Preacher, I said No to Jesus for my last time.  From now on, it's Yes, yes, Lord, yes.  I'll take you as my Savior.  I'll follow you as my Master.  I'll give you my life; yes Lord, yes, yes.” 

Does He say you ought to be baptized?  Then you come down that aisle.  “Preacher, God's Book says I ought to be baptized, and I want to be baptized.  God's Book says I ought to publicly confess my faith in Him.  Publicly, I want to confess my faith in Jesus.  God says we ought to be in His church, baptized unto His body.  I want to be in the church.  Whatever God shall say, here I am, Lord, and here I come.  And, I make it now.” 

While we sing this song, anywhere, you, in the balcony around, in this great path of people on this lower floor, “Pastor, I'm coming tonight. I'm coming tonight.”  Some by confession of faith, some by baptism, some by letter, some by reconsecration of life, however God shall say the word, come, come.  Come, while we stand and while we sing.