A Song, A solace, A Sermon and a Summons
A sermon
(No. 787)
Delivered on Lord's-day Morning, DECEMBER 29, 1867, by
C.H.SPURGEON,
At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington
"For His mercy endures forever."- Psalm 136:1.
THIS 136th Psalm was constantly sung in the Temple by appointed
singers, among whom the names of Heman and Jeduthun are mentioned.
These, we are told in the Book of Chronicles, were chosen to give
thanks unto Jehovah, whose "mercy endures forever." This continued
service of song was most fitting, for, if Jehovah's mercy endures
forever, our praise should endure forever! If His goodness never
ceases, our thanksgiving should never be silent! It seemed to me most
appropriate to direct your attention to this text in the closing Sunday
of the year because it is a fit accompaniment to that upon which I
addressed you on the first Sunday. [Good Cheer for the New Year, Sermon
#728.]
You will remember that we then spoke of the ever watchful mercy of the
Lord our God, from the words, "The eyes of the Lord your God are always
upon it, from the beginning of the year even unto the end of the year."
Having almost reached the close of the year let us acknowledge that the
mercy has been equal to the promise–that God has not failed to fulfill
his gracious Word, "for His mercy endures forever." May all your hearts
be full of gratitude and the music of your spirits stand in the stead
of trumpets and cymbals which of old proclaimed the joy of Israel when
they made mention of Jehovah's name!
I. At the outset we shall regard the text as A SONG. So it was
originally intended to be used. It was a song for all singers, for it
was the refrain of each verse, the chorus to be taken up by the whole
assembled multitude. I suppose that the practiced singers commenced
thus, "O give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good," and then the
entire multitude, whether they were taught in psalmody or not, chanted
the chorus, "For His mercy endures forever." Then would the choir again
sweetly sing, "O give thanks unto the God of gods," and a fresh burst
of many voices would reply, "For His mercy endures forever."
In imitation of that ancient mode of singing, I shall ask the whole
assembly to make a chorus with their hearts and mentally to bless the
Lord whose "mercy endures forever." Let the young and the old join in
the common praise! Let the rich and the poor, the instructed and the
ignorant, yes, let the saved and the unsaved each take a part in the
choral music, for the Psalmist so words the Psalm that even the
unconverted may claim a share in it! He bids us praise God for common
mercies–common as we frequently call them–and yet so priceless that
when deprived of them we are ready to perish! He bids us sing
concerning the great lights whose radiance is universally enjoyed. He
bids us extol the Maker of the sun and the moon, for without the
cheerful light of the celestial lamps we should live in perpetual
darkness, if, indeed, we lived at all!
Let us bless God for the eyes with which we behold the sun, for the
health and strength to walk abroad in the sunlight. Let us praise Him
for the mercies which are new every morning, for the bread we eat, for
the raiment which clothes us, for houses which give us shelter. Let us
bless Him that we are not deprived of our reason, or stretched upon the
bed of sickness. Let us praise Him that we are not cast out among the
hopeless, or confined among the guilty. Let us thank Him for liberty,
for friends, for family associations and comforts. Let us praise Him,
in fact, for everything which we receive from His bounteous hand, for
we deserve little, and yet are most plenteously endowed. "His mercy
endures forever." Every morning's light proclaims it, the beams of
every moon declare it! Every breath of air, every heaving of the lungs,
every beating of the pulse are fresh witnesses that "His mercy endures
forever."
But, Beloved, the sweetest and the loudest note in the chorus must
always be reserved for those who sing of redeeming love. A few verses
further down the Psalmist writes, "To Him that smote Egypt in their
first-born, and brought out Israel from among them with a strong hand,
and with a stretched out arm, for His mercy endures forever." Yes,
God's redeeming acts towards His chosen are forever the favorite themes
of praise. Many of us know what redemption means. Let
us not refuse our sonnets of thanksgiving. Glory be to God, we have
been redeemed from the power of our corruptions, uplifted from the
depth of sin in which we were naturally plunged! We have been led to
the Cross of Christ–our shackles of guilt have been broken off–we are
no longer slaves but children of the living God!
We can look back to the source of that redemption in the council
chambers of eternity where the plan was first ordained and settled. We
can look forward to the results of that redemption, and antedate the
period when we shall be presented before the Throne of God without
wrinkle or any such thing. Even now by faith we wave the palm branch
and wrap ourselves about with the fair white linen which is to be our
everlasting array! And shall we not this day give thanks to the name of
the Lord whose redeeming "mercy endures forever"?
Child of God, can you be silent? Shall there be one dumb soul here this
morning? Awake, awake, you heritors of Glory, and lead your captivity
captive as you cry with David, "Bless the Lord, O my Soul: and all that
is within me, bless His holy name!" Further on our poet invites the
experienced Believer to join in the Psalm. Just as some among us, whose
voices are deep, can take the bass parts of the tune, so the educated
saint who has been for years in the ways of the Lord can throw a force
and a weight into the song which no other can contribute.
We are reminded in the Psalm that the Lord led His people through the
wilderness and smote their enemies, "and gave their land for an
heritage: for His mercy endures forever." You who are men and fathers
among us, bless the Lord who has safely led you until this hour. The
pillar of cloud, the column of fire you have not seen, and yet you have
been conducted as pilgrims in the desert, safe and well. The heavenly
manna has been your food and the water from the living Rock has been
your drink. Your mightiest foes have been slain with the sword of the
Lord. Temptations sharp and strong have not prevailed against you.
Trials incessant you have been able to bear.
"Up to now the Lord has helped you." What is your experience worth if
it does not kindle the flames of gratitude? To what end has God
manifested all this goodness to you unless you delight yourself in God
in the remembrance of it? Remember all the ways by which the Lord your
God has led you these 40 years in the wilderness! Remember how He has
hedged you about, and kept off your enemies and given you peace within
your soul and fed you with the finest of the wheat! If you are silent
you will be most guilty of all the ungrateful ones! Therefore,
Believer, take the cymbals, yes, the high-sounding cymbals, and with
all your might dance before the ark of the Lord your God, and praise
and magnify His holy name!
The peculiar point which is brought out in this chorus is the enduring
character of Divine mercy–"His mercy endures forever." By this I
suppose is intended that God's mercy, as an attribute and as a rule of
His action, is continual throughout all ages. He was a merciful God to
our first parents. At the fatal portal of Eden when they were first
driven forth into the world in judgment, the sweet promise came like
the breath of Heaven upon them, "The Seed of the woman shall bruise the
serpent's head." Abraham and Isaac and Jacob received mercy at His
hands. Samuel and David and Solomon found Him gracious, and the
Prophets and those who loved the Lord in their days knew that He turned
not His love from His people. The multitude understood the abounding
mercy of the Most High when healing was given by our Lord on the right
hand and on the left.
In Apostolic times the first champions of the faith drank deep at the
fountain of God's love, and afterwards our sires, who upheld the banner
of the Cross in ages of persecution, trusted in God and bore witness
that His mercy endured unto them. It is the same today! God has not
quenched the lamp of His goodness–the river of His mercy flows deep
and broad as before. I was musing upon this–God's mercy through the
ages–and I saw as before my eyes the goodness of God conquering the
sin of many all along the ages.
Did you ever stand upon the field of Waterloo and see the golden
harvest waving there? So you have seen how the mercy of God has blotted
out the cruelty of man. There where man struggled with his fellow and
dyed the ground crimson with human gore–Mercy came and covered all
with a robe of emerald, covered with fairest flowers, turning Aceldama
into Eden! Moreover, Mercy so triumphs over Judgment that before long
men look upon the judgments as a noble form of mercy! When our ancient
city was consumed by fire and the distressed inhabitants walked among
the ashes of all their precious things, the pulpits rang with the cry
of the judgment of God.
But what do we say now? Why, that it was a most gracious
visitation–destroying pestilence in its lair, and banishing the plague
from the land! Thus it is seen that "His mercy endures forever." If
Jehovah shall shake the earth with earthquakes, or dash down the
dwellings of men with tornadoes, or make the cruel sea to engulf a
navy, the after results
teem with blessings to mankind! While the judgment itself vanishes,
flowers bloom amid the rifts of the earthquakes, and children play
where the hot lava ran from the red lips of the volcano! Mercy still
abides, and judgment is but for a little season.
Doubtless, also, the Psalmist meant that mercy continues in its
fullness. We make great draughts upon the mercy of God, but we do not
diminish it. There are fears that we shall one day exhaust those great
storehouses in which the earth's best fuel is laid up. This may be
probable, and is certainly possible–a few hundred years will make a
heavy demand upon our mineral treasuries–but quarry as you will in the
mines of God's blessing, neither you nor your children, nor your
children's children shall complain of a deficiency!–
"Great God, the treasures of Your love
Are everlasting mines,
Deep as our helpless miseries are,
And boundless as our sins."
May we not also understand by, "His mercy endures forever," that the
patience of God abounds? Have you ever reflected upon the infinite,
long-suffering of God? Consider, for a moment, the sins of men are all
before the Lord. You and I can readily put up with offenses which do
not touch us in the quick, or actually under our own eye–but the
sinner's sin is perpetrated before the countenance of Jehovah! No word
is said behind His back. No blasphemy is uttered in secret to Him–and
sin affects God as it does not affect us. We have grown so hardened
that the heinousness of iniquity is little discerned by us–we take it
as a matter of course.
But God, who is infinitely pure, is, if I may use such an expression,
infinitely sensitive in regard to sin. He knows sin to be sin and the
heinousness of it, which we do not perceive, is all before His mind
continually. And yet His mighty patience reigns over all and bears with
men's iniquities. Remember, too, that these insults against Heaven are
constantly repeated. The most patient man at last yields to anger.
Constant dripping will wear away a stone. But here is God insulted, as
I have said, to His face thousands and thousands of times a day, and
yet keeps His sword in its scabbard and bids His thunder sleep!
A wish would blast the rebels into everlasting torment, but He wills it
not. As the Lord lives He says He has no pleasure in the death of him
that dies, but would rather that he should turn unto Him and live. To
all this you must add the reflection that all the while rebellious
sinners are partaking of God's mercy–the rebel wears God's gifts of
clothes upon His back, and sits at the table of God's Providence. The
breath that is in his nostrils is the gift of Divine charity and yet
the wretch uses this breath against his Maker! Can you understand this?
Could you bear to be insulted for a single day by one who was receiving
all he had from you? Would you not, by-and-by, yes, very speedily, say
to him, "Get out of here! If you are my enemy, why should I treat you
as I treat my friend?"
Then be it remembered that God is not only sparing the guilty, but is
putting ways of mercy before them. Some of you are invited to repent as
often as the Sunday dawns! With some of you there are incessant movings
upon your con-science–you seldom pass a day without hearing the voice
say, "Turn you, turn you, why will you die?" God is always wooing you
to come to Him, inviting you by His mercy and threatening you by His
judgments. And yet while His long-suffering should lead you to
repentance, you add sin to sin and ripen in your iniquity!
One thing more I would have you remember and I think you will admire
the amazing patience of God, namely that He is doing this with
millions! Millions! Perhaps a thousand millions at this moment, for I
suppose–though no one can ascertain accurately–there are a thousand
millions of unregenerate men upon the face of this earth at this very
moment–all enemies of God! They are either worshipping gods of wood
and stone or else such spiritual idols as their imaginations have
fashioned. And with all these God is compassed about as with bees but
He does not destroy them! He still has patience, and still He cries,
"Come unto Me! Repent! Believe in My Son and you shall have eternal
life." Truly "His mercy endures forever," if you think upon these
things.
May not the endurance of Divine Grace be faintly pictured in the
following scene? Out yonder, just beyond those grinding rocks, there is
a vessel rolling and tossing on the jagged granite, and evidently going
to pieces. See you not the mariners clinging to the masts? It is not
possible that they should escape except by help from the shore. The
rocket apparatus has been used and a rope is fastened to the
vessel–and now a cradle is drawn along the rope. What joy! One man is
safely landed, but the rope is weak, and it is doubtful whether it will
bear the strain. Two at one time are clinging to the rope and the ship
is nearly broken up–will the rope bear them?
The wind howls terribly and the waves lash furiously–will the rope
hold out? Another is venturing! Ah, see how the rope dips! The waves
have gone over him. Will it be able to sustain his weight and save him?
Now we never have such anxiety concerning the salvation of souls by
Christ Jesus, "for His mercy endures forever." The salvation of God
brings every soul to shore that hangs on it, and, when the world is
gone to wreck, Free Grace will bring all who trust it to the eternal
shore! Should the biggest sinner out of Hell hang upon that rope of
mercy, it will bear him up and bring him safely to land!
I would liken God's mercy to a great temple which strong men have
sought to overturn with their utmost might. They have labored to
overturn the two great pillars where the house leans. The ancient
temple of the Philistines stood firm enough till an unexpected hero
entered it–Samson felt for the pillars, and finding them, bowed
himself with all his might–and the pillars snapped! And down came the
house upon the Philistine lords, and Samson himself perished. Many a
Samson-like sinner has gone into the temple of God's mercy and bowed
with all his might to overturn it–to see if he could not wear out the
patience of God and blaspheme himself into swift damnation–and yet
these bold and gigantic sinners have never been able to do this! And
very frequently these very men have been subdued by Divine Grace and
have worshipped Him in the temple which they once sought to destroy.
Yes, Philistia's house may bow, but the house of Jehovah stands fast,
and "His mercy endures forever."
There is but one reflection to make the subject of the song complete,
namely that the potency of God's mercy in delivering His saints is
equally immutable. He is always able to deliver His children, so that
we may say in the language of the three holy children, "Our God whom we
serve is able to deliver us out of the enemies' hands." There is no
possibility that a child of God should be cast into a difficulty out of
which the stretched out arm of Jehovah cannot bring him. He who brought
His people of old from the brick kilns of Egypt, and led them through
the Red Sea and the howling wilderness will surely bring all His elect
ones out of all their trials safely to their heavenly rest.
II. I now use the text as A SOLACE. We have many troubles and we need
comfort. God is willing that we should be comforted, for He says,
"Comfort you, comfort you My people." Moreover, He has provided for it,
for He has given us the Holy Spirit to be the Comforter. I shall use
the text as a solace as to the past. The year is all but gone. Have we
not found, up till now, that His mercy has endured forever? If the
stories of all could be told who are sitting here, I suppose a great
roll of lamentation would need to be written, and around every roll we
could bind the silken cord of mercy!
Beloved, whether you will say it or not, I must, as the minister of
such a congregation as this–involved in so many cares, with so many
labors and so much of anxiety pressing daily upon my soul–I must bless
my God that up till now, to me, at any rate, His mercy has endured. It
brought me to tears when you were singing just now–
"He His chosen race did bless In the wasteful wilderness."
Yes, it is a wasteful wilderness to us–but He has blessed us–He has
made it blossom like the rose where we expected nothing but weariness
and barrenness. Blessed be God for the past! We will comfort ourselves
with recollections of the past because He will not change in His
dealings. He that has helped us thus far will not forsake us. "Because
You have been my help, therefore in the shadow of Your wings will I
rejoice."
But the chief solace about the past lies in this–every right-minded
Christian at the close of the year looks back upon his sins of omission
and sins of commission. I shall not invite you to any lengthy
confessions this morning, but which of us would not blush scarlet if
his sins could be known? Beloved, acknowledge them now into the ear of
your God and then remember that mercy covers all. Whatever it may have
been, mercy covers all, and, "Blessed is he whose transgression is
forgiven, whose sin is covered."
I am no more a sinner than I was at the end of last year, and yet I
have committed thousands of sins. There is no more in God's book
against me than there was then–there was nothing then, blessed be His
name!–for the blood had cancelled all. There is nothing now, for the
same atoning sacrifice has taken all my sin away. Come to the Cross, my
Brothers and Sisters! Come to the Cross again, and as you look up to
the wounds of Jesus which bled for you, believe that "His mercy endures
forever." Your sins, however innumerable, are cast behind His back,
yes, thrown into the depths of the sea.
Our text is also a very sweet consolation as to the present. Have we,
at this moment, a sense of present sin? Then, "His mercy endures
forever." Our Lord comes to us, in the language of this text, girt with
the towel and bearing the ewer, and
the basin, and washes our feet yet again. From the accumulated dust of
a year's journey He cleanses us! May you have no consciousness of sin,
but on the contrary, a consciousness of reconciliation in the Beloved.
But perhaps you have on your mind some spiritual disability. Perhaps
you have been so disquieted at home that you cannot concentrate your
thoughts, and however the preacher may try to bring you to the point,
your mind is so disturbed that you cannot appreciate it.
There is a fog in your soul as well as in the streets. Beloved, thank
God our acceptance is not injured by our depressed state of mind!
Whether we are depressed or exalted, whether we are enjoying communion
or not, we still stand in the Beloved all fair and glorious in the
sight of Him whose mercy endures forever! Possibly you have come here
today and brought with you too much of yesterday's troubles. These
ought not to come into the Sunday, for this is a day of rest. Still you
cannot help it–you are beset with such daily anxiety that while
sitting here you have been mentally looking into your ledger, or
nursing the sick child. Your mind has been in the fields of vanity when
it should have been on the mountain with God. Drive out your cares by
remembering that "His mercy endures forever!"–
"Come, make your needs, your burdens known!
He will present them at the Throne,
And angel bands are waiting there,
His messages of love to bear."
You cannot be in such a difficulty that He cannot sustain you in it, or
bear you out of it. "His mercy endures forever."
As to the future. Ah, we are poor fools when we begin to deal with the
future! It is a sea which we are not called upon to navigate. The
present is the whole of life, for when we enter into the future it is
the present! Yet, standing here this morning, I can conceive some who
feel infirmities creeping over them, trembling with the foreboding,
"What shall I do when I come to extreme old age? My friends are gone. I
have none who are likely to maintain me. When these fingers cannot
perform their daily work. When my brow is wrinkled and I can scarcely
totter to my toil, what shall I do?" Ah, "His mercy endures forever."
It does not stop at 70, nor pause at 80–it will bear you safely over
90–if your pilgrimage is so far prolonged. When I looked the other day
upon a number of poor old men and women in the wards of the workhouse,
some of whom had not risen from their beds at all for years, I thought
to myself it was far better to die than so to live. And yet, if they
had a good hope, I was mistaken, for if Christ should make that bed to
become soft as downy pillows with His Presence, there might be a Glory
in the workhouse, and a Heaven in the midst of poverty and they would
there learn as well as anywhere, that "His mercy endures forever!"
"Even to your old age I am He; and even to hoar hairs will I carry you:
I have made, and I will bear; even I will carry and will deliver you."
Therefore trust in the Lord, and be not afraid, you whose days of
weakness are coming, for He will not fail you nor forsake you.
We are sometimes alarmed at the prospect of the storms of life. They
are not few. In the past they have been many– we may expect more. He
who reckons upon smooth weather between this and the Fair Haven,
reckons without his head! But, Beloved, come what tempest there may,
"His mercy endures forever." There must have been some trepidation on
board that mail steamer a few weeks ago when the tornado was thundering
over the West Indies. The captain very wisely put on all steam and
faced the wind–but with what anxiety must they have asked the
question–"Will she have force enough to face such a mighty whirlwind?
Can the engines keep up speed enough to battle with the hurricane?"
The engines groaned and every timber creaked as the good ship steamed
right into the teeth of the tempest, sailing, as it were, between the
very jaws of death and into the throat of the grave. Surely they
whispered to one another, "Will she brave it out? She seems but a mere
cockleshell in the midst of these huge Atlantic waves! Will she be
carried on the reef and dashed to pieces as hundreds of others have
been, or will she conquer the furious blast?" When the good vessel kept
her head to the wind and pierced the waves, holding her own against
such odds, there must have been great joy on board! You and I are in a
nobler vessel! With her head to the tempest Jehovah steers her! And we
shall not only outlive the storm, but sail into port with all our
colors flying to the praise and glory of His name whose "mercy endures
forever!"
Looking forward to the future, there are some who say, "We are most of
all alarmed because of far travels which we are expecting." Out of this
congregation a considerable number emigrate from year to year, called
to a distance from friends and kinsfolk. Should that be your case, dear
Friend, is it not a comfort to think that God's mercy endures forever?
Two friends agree never to go farther apart than they can communicate
with one another by telegraph. One of them
has crossed the Atlantic, and resides in the United States or in the
far west, but still he has only to go to the office where a wire can be
touched and a message will flash to his friend in England and tell him
his needs.
This is just the compact God has made with His people! They shall never
go where there is not a telegraphic communication between them and
Himself. You may be out at sea, or in Australia, but the communication
of prayer is always open between your soul and God! And if you are
commanded to ride on the wings of the morning to the uttermost parts of
the sea, or if for awhile you have to make your bed in the abyss–if
you are His child, still will you be able to reach His heart! Neither
distance, nor time, nor eternity itself, shall divide an heir of Heaven
from the mercy of God which endures forever!
I think I hear one say, "I am not looking forward to that, for I have
no doubt I shall lay my bones among my brethren. But I have lost many
friends and others are pining with consumption, and are likely to be
taken from me." This is a grief which occurs more often to us as we
grow older. The young man may look upon his wife and children and see
his father, and mother, and friends about him–but as sure as we are
men, either we must go from them or they from us– for no unbroken
families can long remain on earth. And the less of death we have had
the more is yet to come. We are those who have not drunk the cup, but
we must and will drink it even to the dregs. What a comfort to know
that we sorrow not as they that are without hope! If we lose our
friends and dear ones in the Lord, we part to meet, and we meet to part
no more. If they die–if our best beloved ones depart–yet "the Lord's
mercy endures forever."
And this year some of us will die. As I look around here I feel that
truth most solemnly. The young may die. The old must. Some of us must
tread the dark valley this year. It may be the preacher–there are many
more unlikely things. It may be you–you young people. It may be any of
us. Do we know the mercy of God? Then God forbid we should lift our
little finger to have it otherwise, for His mercy will endure when the
death dews lie cold on our brow! We shall find that last day to be no
more dreadful than the ordinary days of life. Yes, we shall perhaps be
favored with such visions of angels and such sights of the better land
that we shall be glad for evening, to undress that we may rest with
God!
III. I wish we had time to use the text more fully in that light, but
we have not. Therefore, I shall come, now, in the third place, and with
much brevity, to use the text as A SERMON–a sermon with three heads.
1. "His mercy endures forever." Then, in the first place, let our mercy
endure. Have you, during this year, or at any time previously, offended
another or been offended so that there is any ill-will in your mind
between you and anyone? Then may I entreat you, as this is a most
fitting day, at the close of the year, to end it at once! Even if we
feel we have been grossly ill-treated, grossly insulted, yet now let
the token of reconciliation be given by every one of us. Remember, you
Christians must do it or you are not Christians. You are nothing better
than deceitful hypocrites if you harbor in your minds a single
unforgiving thought.
There are some sins which may be in the heart, and yet you may be
saved–but you cannot be saved unless you are forgiving. "If you
forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your
trespasses." Those are Christ's own words. If we do not choose to
forgive, we choose to be damned! Now, there is a good deal of lying
about this. People will say, "Yes, I will forgive it, but I cannot
forget it." You mean you do not forgive it! Everything like enmity must
be renounced if you would be saved.
When Mr. Wesley was going out to America with General Ogilvie, he heard
a great storming and raging going on in the cabin. It was the general
scolding his servant. He said, "I had so many bottles of Cypress wine
put on board for me– the only wine I am allowed to drink–and that
villain has drunk it all himself. I have put him in irons, and I am
going to send him on board a man-of-war to be flogged, for I never
forgive." "Well," said Mr. Wesley, "I hope you never sin." The
inference was so irresistible that the general said, "Here, Sir, take
my keys. I forgive you this time." If we would be forgiven, let us
forgive.
2. The second head of the sermon is this–if God's mercy endures
forever, then let us learn the duty of hoping for everybody. You have
no right to say of the poor fallen girl in the street, "Oh, it is no
use looking after those outcasts, they always turn out badly before
long." God's mercy endures forever! If you had any of it, you would not
talk so! You have no right to say of the drunken man who has been
reclaimed three or four times, but has gone back, "It is no use trying
any more with him." Brothers and Sisters, "His mercy endures forever."
Would you be more severe than your Maker? He bears with sinners–surely
we may!
Especially this ought to be so with our relatives and children. A
mother's love must never burn out, and a father's patience never
expire. Hope for the most hopeless. Till they are in Hell pray for
them. Till they are in their graves, hope for them. Till they die,
labor to bring them to Christ. God's mercy endures forever–let our
tenderness endure.
3. And, in the third place, if God's mercy endures forever, then see
the duty of hoping for yourself. If you have been ever so guilty, do
not say, "There is no hope." "His mercy endures forever." Away with
that whisper of Satan, "Too late." It is NOT too late. So long as you
desire Christ, it is not too late for Him to receive you. It will, one
day, be too late, when life is over. Then will you hear those words,
"Too late! You cannot enter now!" But it is not too late for repentance
and faith to be accepted. Despair is sin–hope is the duty of man with
regard to God. I pray you cast not yourself away. Till God has cast you
into Hell, have hope, and come to Christ.
IV. I cannot say more upon the sermon, time is gone. The last head is A
SUMMONS: "His mercy endures forever." Is not that a most loving and
tender summons to the wandering child to return to his Father? To the
backsliding professor to approach his God? To the chief of sinners to
humble himself before the Mercy Seat? There is mercy–seek it! There is
mercy in Jesus–believe in Him! Bunyan tells us that Prince Emmanuel
hung out the white flag upon Mount Gracious. It is still there!
Surrender, Man! Surrender today, and fight no more against yourself and
your eternal interests. Behold the white flag! You have but to trust
your Lord, and leave your sin, and He will be merciful to you.
When that man of God, Mr. Andrew Fuller, was once preaching in
Scotland, the place was very crowded and numbers were outside. A woman,
the worst woman in the town, seeing the crowd, thought she would push
into the Kirk to listen to the English minister. He was preaching from
the text, "Look unto Me, and be you saved, all the ends of the earth."
"Ah," said she, "I have gone far, but I have not gone over the ends of
the earth, at any rate, and if God says, 'Look, and be saved, all the
ends of the earth,' He must mean me." She did look, and became
afterwards an honorable woman in that parish, converted by the Grace of
God!
On this last Sunday morning in the year, I solemnly present those same
words as fresh from God's lips to every unconverted person here, "Look
unto Christ, and be you saved, all the ends of the earth." "Come now,
and let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are as
scarlet they shall be as white as snow. Though they are red like
crimson, they shall be as wool." May God bring you to obey that gentle
summons to come to your heavenly Father and live!
Believers, the summons is also meant for you. It says this, "His mercy
endures forever," therefore let your love to souls continue! Let your
labor for conversions abide! Let your generosity to God's cause abound!
Let your endeavors to extend the kingdom of Christ endure evermore! At
this season, let me say, enlarge your exertions! If you have done much,
do more! If you have done little, be ashamed and begin afresh!
If God's mercy continue forever, do not let us talk about resting and
taking things easy! No, time is very precious, every hour has six
wings, like a cherub, and flies like the lightning's flash. Let us live
and work while we may, "for the night comes when no man can work."
__________________________________________________________________