Soul Murder–Who Is Guilty?
DELIVERED ON SUNDAY MORNING, SEPTEMBER 30, 1866, BY C. H. SPURGEON
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God, The God of my
salvation, And my tongue shall sing aloud of Your righteousness." Psalm
51:14.
DAVID had been grossly guilty towards his faithful and veteran friend
Uriah. He had given instructions that Uriah should be led into the
hottest part of the fight and then suddenly deserted so that he might
be struck by the sword of the Syrians, and might appear to have died in
the natural order of battle. Whereas, of course, his death was a
cowardly murder, planned and devised by the very man who ought to have
been his protector.
It is pleasing to observe in David's penitence that he plainly names
his sin. He does not call it manslaughter. He does not speak of it as
an imprudence by which an unfortunate accident occurred to a worthy
man, but he calls it by its true name, bloodshed. It is true he did not
actually slay the husband of Bathsheba–it was by another hand that
Uriah died. But still it was planned in David's heart that Uriah should
be slain, and he was before the Lord the murderer of Uriah. He calls a
spade a spade, and names his crime as bloodshed.
Let us learn in our confessions to be honest with God. Do not give fair
names to foul sins. Call them what you will, they will smell no
sweeter. What God sees them to be, that you must labor to feel them to
be, and with all openness of heart acknowledge their true character.
Observe, too, that David not only gives it the right name, but is
evidently oppressed with a sense of the heinousness of his sin. It is
easy to use words, but it is difficult to feel their meaning. He prays
like one who is consciously guilty. The blood of Uriah was now not on
his hands, alone, but on his conscience. The bloody hand was before him
continually and the impossibility to purge away the stain, except by
the sacrificial hyssop, made David's heart lay low in the dust.
The fifty-first Psalm is the photograph of a contrite spirit. Oh, let
us seek after the like brokenness of heart, for however excellent our
words may be, yet if the heart is not conscious of the blackness and
Hell-deservingness of sin, we cannot expect to find mercy with the
Judge of all the earth! Possibly, my Brethren, you will think that I
ought not to use such a text as this in addressing you, for there are
no murderers here. "A sermon from this text to someone who had
strangled another, or fired the deadly shot through his enemy's heart
might be well enough, but are there any here," says one, "that are
guilty of bloodshed?"
Yes, Friend. The preacher is guilty, at any rate, if no one else is!
And he believes that there is not a person here who will be able to go
out of this house unconvicted of sin in this respect, if God the Holy
Spirit is but here, first, to enable the preacher to lay the charge
clearly, and secondly, to enable your conscience honestly to take that
home which really belongs to you. There are other ways of being guilty
of bloodshed besides stabbing with a knife, or poisoning with a deadly
drug. There is another kind of murder far less detested, but equally
black in God's sight–not the destruction of the body–but the
destruction of the soul! Not the destruction of the mere shell, the
outward man, but the murder of the real man, the inward self, the inner
spirit, the soul murder which cries for vengeance before high Heaven,
concerning which we have need to offer the prayer of David, "Deliver me
from the guilt of bloodshed, O God, The God of my salvation."
Before I proceed to the heavy work of this morning, which is to bring
home sin to our consciences, I would like to put in a word by way of
caution. I shall have to speak of some who "destroy with their meat
those for whom Christ died," and of others who, "crucify the Lord
afresh, and put Him to an open shame." And when I do so, there will be
some who will not dare to take exception to the Scriptural phraseology,
because everyone yields to that, but they will fight hard against the
supposed meaning of the very expressions which they are forced to put
up with. They will say to me, "It is impossible that any should be
destroyed for whom Christ died."
And I may add it is equally impossible that Christ should be crucified
afresh. I shall quite agree with them in this, but if they, therefore,
gather that it is impossible for anyone to be guilty of the two sins
mentioned, I shall not agree with them, because such offenses would not
have been mentioned in Scripture as having been committed if they could
not be committed.
Do you not know, dear Friends, that a man may be guilty of a sin which
he never could actually commit, but which he committed in his heart?
For instance, in very deed and act, I can never destroy a man for whom
Christ died. It is not in my power nor in the power of even devils to
destroy such souls! But if I commit an action which in the ordinary
nature of things would destroy such a soul. If I utter teachings, or if
I present an example which, if God did not prevent, would destroy such
a soul, then I am guilty because I should have destroyed that soul if
it had not been for God's interposing. His interposition does not take
away my guilt though it prevented its effects.
Though I cannot crucify the Lord afresh, that is to say, He is so
exalted in Heaven that all Hell could not drag Him down to the
Cross–yet if I do an action which would crucify Him again, if it could
be done–an action which has a tendency to put Him to an open shame,
though I may not be able to complete the thing in act, yet, since its
natural influence would lead to such a result, I am guilty of it. This
is easily illustrated. Suppose that a man who had the management of
certain points on a railway should willfully turn the points in such a
way that two trains must come into collision and the passengers must be
killed.
Imagine that an angel should descend from Heaven and stand between
those two trains and prevent the collision. Where would be the
difference between the man's guilt whether the people were killed or
not killed? The guilt is the same, because the thing would have
happened if it were not for a miraculous interposition. So by bad
teaching, and by unholy living, those for whom Christ died would be
made to perish if it were not for a Divine interposition. And by
inconsistency of conduct Christ could be nailed again to the tree if it
were not prevented by Divine power. But that prevention does not at all
alter my sin. I am just as guilty as if the natural effect had
followed. If you should fire at a man and the bullet were unexpectedly
turned aside, you would be as truly guilty as if your victim had died!
Human law might not call you a murderer, because human law is obliged
very much to judge a sin by the effect, but the Lord looks at the heart
and weighs the motive, the desire and the design. Please understand,
then, that when I shall be speaking this morning about your destroying
souls, I do not mean that you will in the end defeat the Divine purpose
of Divine Grace, but you will be as guilty as if you could. Jesus
Christ will not lose a soul whom He has determined to save, or be
thwarted in any of His designs of mercy–but this will not extenuate
your guilt, or mine. I put this in by way of caution, lest any should
think me dubious of the great doctrines of Sovereign Grace which are
every day dearer than ever to me.
I. The first business this morning is to awaken and bring home to the
conscience of this assembled multitude A STARTLING CRIME. There are
many ways of being guilty of bloodshed. Every man is guilty of it in
one respect, namely, concerning the death of our Lord. I will not say
that we are all guilty of His actual murder upon the tree, for we were
not then born. Yet, as it was the common sin of mankind which rendered
it necessary that He should suffer, we cannot escape from a share in
His death.
This I can see very clearly, that those who reject, despise or neglect
the claims of the Lord Jesus, and refuse to bow before Him, do, in
effect mock Him, scourge Him, and put Him to death. In speaking against
His Gospel, in deriding His servants, in neglecting His Book, in
denying His Deity, and in refusing to believe in Him, men are virtually
guilty of crucifying the Lord of Glory–for they thus do that which
proves that if they had been in a like condition with the Roman
soldiers and with the Jewish priests–they would have nailed Him to the
Cross. We have committed actions tantamount to the crucifying of the
Savior, and therein His blood comes upon us to our condemnation–unless
by faith it comes upon us to our acceptance and forgiveness.
Oh, Sinner, let this be forever a subject of trembling to you, that you
have necessarily something to do with the Cross! That having heard of
it, it shall be unto you either a savor of death unto death, or of life
unto life! Either the blood of Jesus shall fall upon your heart to
cleanse you from all guilt, or it shall fall upon your head to condemn
you. You have said, "I know Him not. I will not obey Him. I will not
yield to Him. I will, as far as lies in me, put out His light and
quench His dominion in the midst of mankind." What is this but aiming
at the very life of Christ, and being guilty of His blood?
Another form of bloodshed, and I am only hinting at these two, is that
of anger without a cause. We are told on Inspired authority that he
that is angry with his brother is a murderer. Unless there is good and
sufficient cause for anger, in which case a man may be angry and sin
not, anger is murder! When I have a hasty thought against a man and
wish him out of the world, I have killed him in thought, and even
though I may disguise the wish under the expression of wishing him in
Heaven, there is guilt in the desire! Oh the hard, cruel, black
thoughts which men have towards one another when they are angry! Why,
they kill and slay a thousand times over! These hasty sins are soon
forgotten by us, but they are not soon forgotten by God. Let us weep
over our hot tempers, for the fire of Hell burns in them!
And let us be forever free from that lingering malice which harbors
resentment and will not be brought to forgive, for this, especially, is
before God a form of bloodshed, and concerning it we have need to pray,
"Deliver me, O God, from malice, and evil temper, and envy, and all
uncharitableness, lest the guilt of bloodshed should be at my door."
Having hinted at these, I now come to what I am driving at, namely,
those sins against men's souls by means of which blood may be at our
door.
Let me call to your remembrance, some of you, your early days and your
first youthful transgressions. It is taken for granted in the world
that young persons ought to be allowed to sow their "wild oats." And
then it is hoped that afterwards they will settle down. But these wild
oats are more easily sown than reaped, and many men might weep tears of
blood to think of what a harvest has sprung from them. We sinned very
carelessly and joyously, and led others into sin without a thought of
the future. And now that we are converted to God we have to look back,
and wish in vain that others could be turned from the dangerous paths
into which we led them! I do not want to bring any needless bitterness
into the heart of any person who is saved and pardoned, but I should
like to cast a dash of gall into men's hearts who have never sought the
Savior and who are growing gray.
I would make them seriously reflect upon the mischief of their early
days. Alas, you cannot undo the evils of your sins! Your children,
trained amiss with a bad example before them, are not now to be tutored
for God. Your acquaintances who have copied your habits are not now to
be reclaimed. Perhaps some of you have had companions with whom you
used to drink and feast who are now in Hell and brought there very much
through you. How sad should be those depraved men who have been
partners in the sin of guilty women, or women who have lured giddy
young men into the paths of vice. I feel sure that even when such
persons repent and find forgiveness the thought of the past cuts like a
knife.
I can hear one of them sighing. "Alas, I cannot undo my deeds! Those
with whom I sinned are gone, gone where I cannot reach them even with a
prayer. And although others linger upon earth, they are gone, now, to
such extremes of sin that it is almost hopeless to think that they
shall be reclaimed, and all this is due to my youthful follies. Oh that
I could wipe them out, even with my blood!" "Deliver us from the guilt
of bloodshed, O God, The God of our salvation."
Many unconverted persons here will perhaps feel, I trust they may, the
point of the next observation, namely, that false teaching involves the
guilt of bloodshed. Some, who afterwards have become ministers of
Christ, were at one time ministers of Arianism, Socinianism, Deism, or
infidelity. Now the man who leads the young mind astray from the Truth
of God and guides youth into doubt and skepticism must not think that
he shall go unscathed. Those who err from the Truth perish, but their
blood shall be laid at the door of the teachers who first sowed the
seeds of evil thought within them.
There was a despot in Italy who was wont to shoot poisoned adders at
passersby in the street, and there are men who delight to shoot sharp,
stinging doubts into young minds. They will not deny any one grand
Truth of God, but they will insinuate covert doubts which assail the
whole Gospel system. Pity, Brethren, heartily pity those false teachers
who have been able to attain to eminence by the fatal gift of
unsanctified talent. What must be at their door who have denied the
Deity of Christ, who have despised and spoken slightingly of God's
Atonement? To have beguiled the minds of men till they have looked upon
you as their oracle, and then to have taught them false doctrine–what
is more horrible? With what solemnity is the teacher's office invested
when we remember that God will require at our hands the blood of souls!
You who are now converted, but were once infidels, or miscalled
Unitarians, I pray you go not to your bed tonight till you breathe this
prayer, "Deliver me, O God, from the blood of souls! Let none go down
to the pit cursing me because I taught them error and led them away
from the fountain of life. Deliver me from bloodshed, O God, The God of
my salvation." It is a dastardly thing to poison the wells of a city,
but what is it to poison the well of the Truth of God and make
soul-thirst the medium of soul-ruin?
It was an accursed thing, in the old story, for a man to pour poison
into his sleeping brother's ear, and yet hundreds have done the same!
Sometimes by word of mouth, and still more often by infamous
literature. Who knows the evil caused by evil books scattered broadcast
over the land, which, like the ashes that Moses hurled into the sky,
have brought a grievous plague wherever they have fallen? O you authors
and editors of newspapers who teach ungodly principles and sneer at
Divine Truth–take heed lest the blood of souls cry out against you–as
the blood of Abel did against the first manslayer!
Our text has a voice in another direction. Some men actually trade in
luring others into sin. By this craft they get their wealth. Pandering
to the drunken and vicious habits of the multitude, they literally
fatten on the ruin of those whose evil tastes they gratify and excite.
Satan has many soul-hunters in his pay who hunt for the precious life.
It is an amusement to some to decoy others into the snares and meshes
of the Evil One. I have known beings of this class. I will paint one
whom I knew who is gone to his last account. He was an old drunkard,
hoary with years of infamy. His language–profanity. His
life–abomination. I should blush to mention the sins of which he would
speak with a delighted leer.
Never came there a young man within his range but what he tempted him
to the tavern and to places still worse. If one saw any youth of the
congregation walking with that man, you knew that he would soon be
missing from the House of Prayer. It was impossible for a person to be
five minutes with that old wretch without being infected by the
contagion of his filthiness. His whole heart went with his foul tongue
in the work of depraving the youthful mind! It was a sight to see the
man's lips as he spoke lusciously of a dainty sin, and to see the
contempt that was in his countenance as the minister of righteousness
looked sorrowfully at the destroyer and his victim. His joy was
greatest when he had been the means of casting down a professor of
religion, or could see young Hopeful become as vile as himself!
When he saw those die–whom he had led into sin and educated in
profanity till they became as bad as himself–no twitch of conscience
ever came over him! When he died and was buried, one almost thanked God
for his removal, for he was a most fearful hindrance to the kingdom of
the Lord Jesus. Oh, should I address some such who delight to sing
lascivious songs, and to talk loosely, God forgive you! You are a great
sinner, and may He take that black heart out of you, and give you a new
heart and a right spirit, for, if He does not, double damnation must be
your portion, since as he that, by God's Grace, turns many to
righteousness shall shine as the stars forever and ever, so shall you
who have turned many to unrighteousness be plunged in the blackness of
darkness forever!
This, I dare say, comes home to but very few–indeed, I trust to none
of you here–but the next point may touch us all in some respects. Bad
example is a way by which the blood of souls may come upon us. If a man
should live in a densely populous neighborhood, and should carry on a
trade which sent forth deadly fumes into the air so that everybody who
breathed them would be infected with disease and die, who could acquit
him of murder? Granted that he clearly knows that the fumes which he
makes are deadly–if he, for any hope of gain–causes such ruin, he
deserves to die himself.
But what is bad example? Is not that in the family and in the social
circle just such a deadly vapor? I spoke just now of bad teaching, but
bad example is even more dangerous, because its range is wider. Bad
example reaches those who would not have listened to false doctrine,
but who receive the poison through their eyes. How do you know, Mother,
but that the girl who breaks your heart learns her first sin from you?
Father, can you be so angry with your child when you are not quite sure
but what he has imitated you?
Master, you, the other day, spoke very severely about a certain servant
who forfeited your trust–are you sure there was not some irregularity
in your conduct which misled him? Every man, especially in a great city
like this, is responsible not only for himself but for his neighbors,
and there are some of us who are like the church clock–other people
set their watches by us. It becomes such of us as are religious
teachers to be particularly careful. There are some things which I feel
I might do, as far as I am concerned, which I believe I might do
without suffering any personal hurt. But I do not do them for your
sakes, and which I dare not do for the sake of many who would take
license from my example to do a great deal more than I would do, and
would make me the horse on which they would put the saddle of their
sin.
Christian parents, you must not always say, "I can do this." Yes, but
would you like everybody else to do it? Because, if it is unsafe for
one, it seems to me you have no business to touch it. "If meat offends
my brother, I will eat no meat while the world stands," is a grand old
Christian saying of one who was not a whit behind the very chief of the
Apostles. We must be careful even of things indifferent. But when it
comes to those things which are positively evil, the bad example of a
Christian is ten times worse than that of one who is not a Christian.
If I see a sinner commit sin, his example is poison, but it is labeled.
The inconsistent life of a professor is unlabeled poison, and I am very
likely to be injured by it. Inconsistent Christians, false professors,
you that have a name to live and are dead, take care lest bloodshed be
at your door, and much of it, too!
But these are things of which the ungodly have their share, and
therefore I come, now, to talk a few quiet words to the Christian only.
I want to single out those Brothers and Sisters who love the Lord, and
who are saved from the wrath to come through Him. I want to ask you, Do
you not think that you and I may have been guilty of the blood of
souls, though we are set by God to be, instrumentally, their salvation?
Though we are the lights of the world and the salt of the earth, yet
may we not have been darkness, and salt that has lost its savor?
Answer, I pray, such questions as these! May we not have bloodshed laid
to us from neglect of family duties? I fear that this is one of the
sins of this age.
The Puritans were noted for the care in which they brought up their
children–they never fell into the fault of sparing the rod, and their
children were catechized every Sunday. They were prayed for and wept
over, and the Puritan household was a very Heaven upon earth. But oh,
if some of us see our children running into sin, and growing up to be
thoughtless, careless, and giddy–what can we say–who shall we blame?
Are there none here, like Eli, who have only said to their children,
when they have done wrong, "My sons, why do you do this?" but have let
them go unchastised? Remember the character of Hophni and Phinehas, and
the message of Samuel concerning them–"Thus says the Lord, I will do a
thing at which both the ears of everyone that hears shall tingle: I
will judge the house of Eli because his sons made themselves vile, and
he restrained them not."
Let us take heed, lest God bring the like on us! Oh, Sirs, it is no
small charge to be a parent, and to neglect that charge brings no small
guilt upon us! When I see so many children of Christians turn out worse
than others. When I find some of the sons of ministers among the
ringleaders in sin–what can I do but pray that I may sooner die than
have such a curse fall upon myself? If any of us have neglected home
duties, let us beware lest we have the blood of our children laid at
our door!
Have we not often neglected the souls of seekers in distress who would
become very glad of our attention? At our meeting for prayer and
fasting last Tuesday, a Brother who was, I think, the best man among
us, made a confession of cowardice and we all looked at him and could
not understand how he could be a coward. A bolder man I do not know! He
told us that there was a man in his congregation who was a wealthy man.
If he had been a poor man he would have spoken to him about his soul.
But, being a wealthy man, he thought it would be taking too much
liberty. At last, one of the members happened to say to him, "Mr.
So-and-So, have you found a Savior?" and bursting into tears, the man
said, "Thank you for speaking to me! I have been in distress for
months, and thought the minister might have spoken to me. Oh, I wish he
had. I might have found peace."
I am afraid that often you good people have sinners convicted of sin
sitting beside you in your place of worship, and when the sermon is
over you ought to get a word with them–you might be the means of their
comfort–but you forget it, and you go your way. Now, is this a thing
to be forgotten, as if it were no great offense? Let me give you a
picture which may set it forth. See yonder poor wretches whose ship has
gone down at sea? They have constructed a poor tottering raft and have
been floating on it for days. Their supply of bread and water is
exhausted and they are famishing. They have bound a handkerchief to a
pole and hoisted it, and a vessel is within sight. The captain of the
ship takes his telescope, looks at the object, and knows that it is a
shipwrecked crew.
"Oh!" he says to his men, "we are in a hurry with our cargo, we cannot
stop to look after an unknown object. It may be somebody perishing, and
it may not be, but, it is not our business," and he keeps on his
course. His neglect has murdered those who died on the raft! Yours is
much the same case, only it is worse because you deal with immortal
souls! And he only deals with bodies which he allows to die. Oh, my
Brother, I do implore you before the Lord, never let this sin lay at
your door again! If there is one who is impressed, and needs a word of
comfort, fly on the wings of Mercy to such a soul and help cheer him as
God enables you!
May we not be guilty, in the next place, of neglecting to warn many
that are not impressed? If I saw a man go reeling on towards a
precipice, and knew, as he went staggering forward, that in a few
minutes he would go over the edge and be plunged into eternity–if I
did not shout out and warn him to draw back–I should feel that when he
fell I had a share in his death. When you hear a funeral bell toll for
a neighbor, can you say, "If that soul is gone to its last account, I
did at least tell him of the way of mercy"? No, I fear there are many
now slumbering in the sepulcher whom you can never warn now, but whom
you ought to have warned–your brothers, your sisters, your own
children, your next door neighbors– they are gone, gone from where
they never can return. And among the things they will have to say at
the Day of Judgment will be this, that they can bear witness against
you that you never warned them to flee from the wrath to come.
O God, we are all guilty here! "Deliver us from the guilt of bloodshed,
O God, The God of our salvation." Further, have we not been guilty of
the blood of souls by exposing them to danger? When a father puts his
boy apprentice, if he only cares about his worldly gain and not about
his soul's interest, I cannot acquit him, nor will God acquit him.
Parents have sometimes put their girls to school and their boys to
trade where if they had obtained any good it would have been a miracle,
and where if they met with mischief it was only what they might expect.
Now it is according to law that if I expose my child to the cold and it
perishes through my negligence I am punished. Surely it must be so with
sin. So with our servants, our neighbors, and work people–if we expect
them to do for us what we would not do for ourselves we are guilty of
their sins. Some here may possibly be carrying on unnecessary trades
which require working men to toil all Sunday (works of necessity, of
course, I speak not of), but there are systems of trading which for no
justifiable reason involve the keeping away of the men employed from a
place of worship. Now when these men are lost, I ask at whose door will
their blood lie? Who had the profits of their labor? Who fattened on
their gains? Who sucked the very blood of their souls to coin it into
wealth for himself? If there is such an one, let him cease from the
sin, and pray, "Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God, The God
of my salvation."
Christian, do you not think that sometimes you may have been guilty
from unholy silence? When I hear God's name profaned and offer no
rebuke, but take it quietly, is there no sin there? When I see my
neighbor going into sin, and have an opportunity of speaking and do
not, is that silence without blame? When I go up and down the street
and meet people in many ordinary avocations to whom I might speak of
Christ and never do–when they perish, shall I be clear? Oh the
thousands that some of us come in contact with, and yet leave them as
if we had no care about their eternal state! Shall we be clear,
Brothers and Sisters, shall we be clear?
May not another sin also be charged upon some of you? Some have a way,
not only of doing no good, but doing a deal of mischief by their harsh
conversation to young beginners. I have known elderly professors who,
instead of encouraging the young, would seem as though they would snap
the child's head off if it spoke of Divine things! They doubt the
possibility of the conversion of little ones and will ask knotty
questions, and raise difficult points to perplex those who have but
lately found Christ. They delight to insinuate that the convert's joy
is nothing but mere excitement, and they do all they can to thrust
seeking souls into despair.
Unlike the Master, who never broke the bruised reed, they break all
they can! And, unlike He who never quenched the smoking flax, they
would, if they could, quench even those that have begun to blaze! Is
there no guilt here? Are there none such in this House? I know there
are! May they have Divine Grace to feel the sin and to plead for mercy!
Unhallowed levity about Divine things is another home-born sin. Do we
ever trifle about God's Word? Are we not tempted to joke and utter a
silly jest when it would have been prudent to have urged a warning? I
fear, Brethren, and fear sorrowfully, that many of us who ought to know
better are verily guilty here. To trifle with eternal things is no
small crime.
But here is a point upon which I would speak more earnestly, still–how
often have we withheld prayer concerning others? We know they are
perishing, but we do not pray for them! We are conscious that their
state will be one of woe, but yet no tears flow from our inhuman eyes,
and our spirits are not affected. Neglected closets shall call upon
them to speak against us. I shall leave our lack of prayer in private
to be a matter of personal confession, but I am afraid that after
having thought it over we shall feel we have been guilty of bloodshed.
Then there is a general need of earnestness especially chargeable upon
us who are ministers. That I should ever have preached to you as I have
sometimes done ought to break my heart. And that some of you should
teach in Sunday school as you teach ought to cause you deep regret! And
that you should go even about tract distributing in so cold a manner as
you sometimes do should make you smite upon your breasts. Oh if we were
half as earnest to serve God as others are to win gold, what success we
might expect! And we have not had it because of our want of
earnestness! Deliver us from the guilt of bloodshed, O God!
II. In the second place, let us make AN EARNEST CONFESSION. Let us not
deny our responsibility or we shall be like Cain, who said, "Am I my
brother's keeper?" Shun a Cainish spirit. Let us not try to shift the
responsibility to God's shoulders by saying, "God's decree will be
fulfilled." That is true, but Divine sovereignty is no excuse for human
negligence. Let us feel, "We are guilty here," and do not let us
murmur, "Well, we have a right to do as we like. It is a voluntary
work."
It is so, but, Brethren, we are debtors unto the Jew and Gentile. Loved
with such mercy as that which we have received, we ought to have done
more for souls and we are guilty because we have not done it. Let us
not soothe ourselves with, "Well, we will do better in the future."
Look to the past–how can you undo that? And the souls that have gone,
past recall, down the cataract of death–what can you do for them?
Bestir yourself! Bestir yourself for the future! For there you can do
much. But for the past, what is to be done but weep! Let us make a
clean breast of it when we are alone, and solemnly confess that we have
been guilty of the blood of souls.
III. In the third place, our text has in it AN EARNEST PRAYER which I
commend to you. You observe it is addressed to God. It is not a
resolution made in his own strength, but it is addressed to God.
"Deliver me, O God." You observe that it is addressed to the God of
salvation. Thanks be to His name, He can save us! He is the God of
salvation. It is His prerogative to forgive. It is His very name and
office to save those who seek His face. Let us go to the God of
salvation!
Better still, the text calls Him the God of my salvation. Yes, blessed
be His name, guilty as I am I am saved! Though the blood of others once
lay at my door–and my sin humbles me–yet through Jesus' precious
blood I can rejoice in the God of my salvation! Then look at the word,
"Deliver." It has two meanings. "Deliver me from the guilt of the
past– whatever I may have been in the years gone by forgive it. But
Lord, deliver me from the power of it for the future." If I am a
minister, Lord, make me more prayerful. If I am a Sunday school
teacher, help me to teach the children as though they would be dead
before we met again. If I am a father or a mother, help me to instruct
my dear children as though their salvation rested upon me.
If I am a neighbor, let me not neglect the street, or court, or lane
where I live. If I am a citizen, let me not neglect the claims of those
who live in the same city with me. If I am a Christian, do not let me
be a dark lantern, do not suffer me to be unsavory salt. Some of you
professors are of no use to anybody. I know some professing Christians
who hoard their money just as if they did not owe Christ anything. They
never give to the cause of God and their gold and their silver are red
with blood–the blood of those who might have had the Gospel preached
to them if there had been the means of sending it. I know others who
come in and out and occupy seats and sing and pray as others do, but
take no part in the work of the Church. They are useless idlers, like
the mixed multitude that came out of Egypt with the children of Israel.
If such are present now, the Lord send the darts of conviction through
them! If you are His people, I hope you have the Grace to receive the
rebuke in the spirit in which it is sent to you and profit by it. If
you have been bought with blood, live as one who is not his own! If you
are a mere worldling, why do you come here and make a profession of
Christianity? But if you have been saved, ask to be delivered from the
great sin of bloodshed!
IV. The psalmist ends with A COMMENDABLE VOW. It is about the only vow
that I can advise any of you to make. He says, first of all, if God
will deliver him, he will sing. And I vow I will. If I am only able to
say as George Fox said, when he was dying–honest Quaker as he was–"I
am clear"–oh if I can say, "I am clear," I will sing, indeed! It is
enough to make any man sing if he can be minister to such a
congregation as this and be clear.
Sometimes when I have gone down out of the pulpit, and somebody has
said, "There are six or seven thousand people without excuse because
they have heard the Gospel," I have said, "Yes, it is so," but I have
thought, "Have I preached it as earnestly as I ought?" And many a time
it has made me toss on my bed to think of the responsibility of this
mass of human beings, and the twenty thousand or more who regularly
read the sermons as they come from the press. Who is sufficient for
these things? Truly a saved minister will be an everlasting wonder!
Then it is said, "My tongue shall sing aloud." Oh yes, indeed! Who can
sing in any other style if such a mercy as this is afforded us? If,
indeed, we are found faithful, we will not sing in a whisper! If we
have discharged our conscience, and no man can say, "You have been
unfaithful to me," our tongue shall sing aloud! But note the subject,
note the subject! It does not say my tongue shall sing aloud of my
faithfulness, of my integrity, or of my earnestness. Oh no! When I have
done my best. When I am delivered from all guilt of bloodshed, and my
tongue begins to sing–it shall not sing of anything but Your
righteousness, YOUR RIGHTEOUSNESS, YOUR RIGHTEOUSNESS, O Jesus!
We cannot sing of ourselves. We must sing of the finished work of a
precious Savior. "Ah," said one to a dying saint, "you have fought a
good fight!" "Ah," said he, "do not tell me that. I am thinking of how
Jesus Christ said, 'It is finished.' " This is solid comfort for our
souls. We must come as sinners, still! I would like to have some such
verse sung over my dead body as was sung over dear Rowland Hill when
they buried him under his pulpit at Surrey Chapel. He had asked them to
sing the hymn–
" Jesus, Your blood and righteousness
My beauty are, my glorious dress" and that verse was sung slowly and
solemnly–
"When from the dust of death I rise,
To take my mansion in the skies,
Even then shall this be all my plea,
'Jesus has lived and died for me.'"
Yes, we shall sing and sing aloud, too, but we shall not sing of
goodness, but of the righteousness of our dear Redeemer!
Now, poor Sinner, what do you say of Christ's righteousness? Do you not
see that you are guilty of many sins? Oh that you may have Divine Grace
to confess them! Remember the righteousness of Christ can wash away all
sin, and however black and foul we may have been, we have but to come
to the fountain filled with blood, and if we wash there, we shall be
white as snow! The Lord give us such a washing, and we will sing aloud
of His righteousness!