Invitation to a Conference
(No. 2816)
A SERMON INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, FEBRUARY 1, 1903.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, JUNE
17, 1877.
"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." Isaiah 1:18.
THE persons to whom this gracious invitation was addressed were in a
terrible condition–they could not well have been in a worse plight.
They had provoked God above measure by their many sins. He had severely
chastened them, yet they had not repented of their iniquities. They
would not be either drawn from them or driven from them. Now the Lord
seems to say that something else must be done–such a state of things
must not be allowed to last any longer.
I am addressing myself to all the unconverted people who are in this
congregation and to all who have not yet believed on the Lord Jesus
Christ. I have to say that your condition is a very sad one and a very
sinful one. You are standing out against the God of Love, refusing to
submit to Him whose service is perfect freedom and joy. You are utterly
wrong in your relationship to God. You are either living in complete
forgetfulness of Him, or you are living consciously in antagonism to
Him in unrepented sin and, therefore, unpardoned. This state of things
cannot be allowed to continue–you have yourself felt that it must not.
There have been many times when you have been by yourself, when you
have felt that you must not remain in this sinful condition. You have
even breathed a prayer to God asking that you may not continue as you
now are, yet you have not had resolution enough to turn from your evil
ways.
The first temptation that has crossed your path has drawn you back into
the ways of sin and you still remain just as sinful as ever. Some of
you are getting old and it is a long time since you received your first
religious impressions. Possibly they have been repeated again and
again, yet they have all come to nothing and now you are in danger of
death at any moment. If you were to die in your present condition, your
everlasting state would be fixed and you know it would be a state of
the utmost misery and woe! You tremble at the very thought of being
launched into it, yet you may be so even while I am addressing
you–before the very next word that I shall speak shall have reached
the ears of others of my hearers! It may never reach your ears, for
they may be closed in the silence of death. You know this, but do you
always mean to go on in this way until you die? I know that is not your
intention–you have, within your hearts, a secret expectation that,
sooner or later, a change will come to you.
Why should it not come now? I would not like, even for a single moment,
to be slung by a slender rope over the yawning mouth of a deep pit. I
would not care to be, even for five minutes, in an upper room of a
burning house. I would not like, even for a few seconds, to have a dose
of poison in my system, although I might hope that there would be time
enough to swallow an antidote and so save my life. Yet your position is
more perilous than any of these conditions would be! Surely, you have
indulged long enough in hesitancy, delay, questioning and
promise-breaking, have you not? The Lord seems to me to say to you,
"Come now, let us end this state of things. 'Come now, and let us
reason together.' Let us talk over the matter and settle it, one way or
the other, so that, if your present condition is one that is worth
continuing in, you may continue in it with some justifiable arguments
to back you up. But if it can be clearly proved to you that something
better is to be had and oughtto be had by you, then perhaps our
reasoning together may be the means of leading you to a better
condition than that in which you are just now." May God the Holy Spirit
help me to speak upon this important theme so as to reach your hearts!
If it shall be so, He shall have all the glory!
Some texts need to be preached upon very often because they contain
such vital Truths of God, Truths of the very highest importance which
it is not easy to get into our hearers' minds and hearts. The carpenter
is not blamed because he strikes a nail many times on the head, nor
because he strikes the same nail with the same hammer, for he has to
drive it into the wood, somehow or other, and to clinch it on the other
side. So, if one stroke is not sufficient, he must not leave his work
incomplete, but must strike the nail again and again until it is driven
home. We shall do well to act in the same way. If we have preached from
these words before and, I daresay some of us have done so many
times–[Brother Spurgeon
preached the following sermons on Isaiah 1:18–No. 366, Vol. 7–THE
SILVER TRUMPET; No. 1278, Vol. 22–REASONS FOR PARTING WITH SIN and No.
2354, Vol. 40–SCARLET SINNERS PARDONED AND PURIFIED. –Read/download
them, free of charge at http://www.spurgeons.ore:–and we feel quite
justified in
doing so again.
Our first division is to be an invitation to a conference with
God.''Come now, and let us reason together, says the Lord." Secondly,
we have a example of the reasoning on God's part "Though your sins are
as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like
crimson, they shall be as wool." Then, thirdly, I shall endeavor to
show you that this example of the reasoning, on Gods part, is an
abstract of the whole argument, a summary of all the real reasoning
that there can ever be between the holy God and guilty sinners.
I. First, then, here IS AN INVITATION TO A CONFERENCE WITH GOD. "Come
now, and let us reason together, says the Lord."
The first observation I have to make upon this point is that sinful men
and women–the great mass of mankind–do not care to reason with God. I
am, on the whole, pleased when I find men reasoning about spiritual
matters, even although they argue in a foolish fashion. I mean when
they raise the objections and arguments with which skeptics and
infidels are usually tolerably familiar. There is a great deal more of
hopefulness about people in that condition than about those who will
not think at all on religious subjects!
A husband and wife had parted and had been separated for years. He, on
several occasions, entreated her to meet him and talk over their
differences with a view to reconciliation. She steadily declined an
interview and would not enter upon the subject of their alienation. Are
you surprised when we add that the fault from the beginning lay with
her? You cannot doubt that the sin of their continued separation was
hers alone. The parable is easy to be interpreted.
The great masses of men seem to want a form of religion that does not
require them to think. The people described in this chapter were quite
willing to bring their rams, their bullocks, their incense and their
oblations–for all that could be done without any effect being produced
in their hearts and lives. And there are, at the present day, plenty of
persons who will pay for masses, who will attend fine ceremonies and
who are very pleased to see the place of worship turned, at one time,
into a theater, at another time, into a conservatory, and at a third
time into a costumier's shop. They have no objection to all such
external observances, for there is nothing to give them any trouble or
pain. They just open their mouth, shut their eyes and take in whatever
"the priest" is pleased to give them! Many people like that style of
religion. They want to avoid the trouble of thinking about sin,
righteousness and judgment to come. In fact, they do not want to be
bothered about the whole matter. As they get their solicitor to attend
to their legal business, so they would prefer to have their priest,
their clergyman, their minister, to see to their spiritual business for
them. As to reasoning with God and having the matter out with Him, that
is not at all according to their ideas. A great many folk want somebody
else to do their thinking for them–they put it out, as they do with
their washing–so that somebody else may do it in their place.
But, dear Friends, this will not do! Of all things in the world, true
religion demands most serious thought. It is a thing which has to do
with our mind, heart and spirit. Even under the old Law, the command to
Israel was, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and
with all your soul, and with all your might." It was a matter for the
heart and soul even under that old, dim, preparatory dispensation–how
much more is it so under the dispensation of the Gospel whose very
first commandment is, "Believe," which does not mean a blind shutting
of the eyes, but the exercise of the most serious thought of which the
mind of man is capable!
"Come now, and let us reason together, says the Lord." This invitation
to a conference with God is, next, a mostreasonable thing. I know that
there is, in certain quarters, an idea that all religion is fanaticism,
that you have to believe in something or other, whether it is true, or
reasonable, or not–and then go ahead without thinking anything more
about the matter. It is not so, Beloved. To me, the religion of Jesus
Christ is as much the subject of cool, calculating, common
sense as anything that I have to do with. I know many Christians who
are gifted with calm, collected minds, and clear, argumentative powers,
and I am certain, from my conversations with them, that they have
reasoned out the truth of the things which are most surely believed by
them. They have proven, to their own satisfaction, that the Word of God
is a Divine Revelation to men. They have argued the matter out and they
are fully convinced of the soundness of their conclusions. And being so
convinced, they have ascertained what this Revelation from God demanded
of them and, finding what it was, they judged that it was an act of
true wisdom on their part to accept God's way of salvation. That way of
salvation has commended itself to their judgment as far as they have
been able to understand it. They have not pretended to comprehend it
altogether, but what they have understood of it has seemed to them to
afford such a solid foothold for their spirit that having reasoned the
matter out, in solemn earnestness–before the living God–they have
become convinced that they must believe in Jesus Christ as their Lord
and Savior!
Beloved Friends, we are not afraid to set publicly before you the
Gospel which we desire you to believe! The Romish Church locked away
the Bible from the people–the priests did not want to have a thinking
people, people who would search the Scriptures for themselves. But we
earnestly exhort you to study the Word of God for yourselves! Become
familiar with its words and seek the guidance of the Holy Spirit as to
their meaning. Judge of our preaching by its agreement with the
teaching of this Book–never accept anything we say simply because we
say it, but bring it all to the Law and to the Testimony, for if we
speak not according to this Word, it is because of the lack of the
Light of God in us.
It is most gracious on the Lords part to invite you to a conference
with Him. How condescending it is for the Most High to be willing for
you to reason with Him! He seems to say to you, "Come, My Friend, you
and I are not agreed. There is something or other in your mind that
keeps you from yielding to My love. I mean you no hurt. 'Come now,'
keep nothing back from Me. Come and tell Me all about the matter." How
graciously the Lord stoops down to us in saying, "Come now, and let us
reason together"! "Us." It is His voice that shakes the earth with
tempests, the voice of the mighty God, the Creator and Judge of All who
speaks to us, worms of the dust, utterly insignificant compared with
Him, and says, "'Come now, and let us reason together.' Tell Me what is
your difficulty. I will lay aside My Glory and will come down and talk
familiarly with you that we may have this question settled."
See, dear Friends, what a proof this is of God's loving kindness and
graciousness that He invites us to reason with Him! If He had not meant
good to us, He would have had no reasoning with us. He would simply
have said, "These people have sinned against Me–let then die. I have
already sent My Son to them and they have rejected Him. They have
disregarded My Sabbaths and despised My holy Word–why should I reason
with them? They have Moses and the Prophets–let them hear them. Their
fathers and mothers have reasoned with them and their minister has done
the same. Now I will punish them as they deserve." But, no, the Lord
still says to you, "'Come now, come now.' All the reasoning of other
people has failed. Perhaps the argument has not been put fairly before
you. 'Come now, and let us reason together.' Speak out the bitterest
thought that is in your mind. Let the very wormwood and gall of your
enmity against Me come out, but, 'let us reason together, says the
Lord.'" He must mean well to you, dear Friends, or He would never have
spoken such words as these. He could not have thought of them in anger.
Designs of love must be within His heart when He says, "Come now, and
let us reason together."
I think that there is also great tenderness in my text in the use of
the word, "now." "Come now, and let us reason together, says the Lord."
God would not have you live another moment as you now are. "As I live,
says the Lord God"– and He lifts His hand to Heaven and swears by
Himself, as He can swear by none greater–"I have no pleasure in the
death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live:
turn you, turn you from your evil ways; for why will you die?" The Lord
has no delight in having you continue to be His enemy! It gives Him no
pleasure to see your hardness of heart, or to see the consequences of
that hardness of heart in the awful peril that you are running every
minute that you live in sin, so He says to you, "There is the whole
universe for Me to govern, yet I am willing to have a conference with
you. ' Come now,' this very hour. Come now, do not put it off till
tomorrow. I am always at leisure to reason with a sinner–whenever
there is a soul that is anxious to seek Me, I am always ready to seek
that soul and to welcome it to My heart." "Come now," says the Lord.
Then, let it be now with you! God appoints this present time for His
conference with us–let it be our time, too. "Today if you will hear
His voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation." "Behold, now
is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation."
II. Now let us turn, in the second place, to AN EXAMPLE OF THE
REASONING ON GOD'S PART.
We will suppose that the sinner is willing to confer with God about
this all-important matter and that he goes at once to his main
argument. "My Lord," he says, "I would be reconciled to You if I could,
but, alas, sin lies at the door and I am no ordinary sinner! I have
broken Your commands a thousand times. I have done what I ought not to
have done and I have left undone the things that I ought to have
done–and there is no health in me." Now observe the method of
reasoning on God's part.
First, the one main ground of difference is honestly mentioned. The
Lord does not deny the truth of what the sinner has confessed, but He
says to him, "'Though your sins are as scarlet, I meet you on that
ground. You need not try to diminish the extent of your sin, or seek to
make it appear to be less than it really is. No, whatever you say it
is, it is all that and probably far more. Your deepest sense of your
sinfulness does not come up to the truth concerning your real
condition. Certainly, you do not exaggerate in the least. Your sins are
scarlet and crimson. It seems as though you have put on the imperial
robe of sin and made yourself a monarch of the realm of evil." That is
how a man's guilt appears before the searching eyes of God.
Now see how the Lord deals with this sad and difficult case. He Himself
removes the ground of difference between Himself and the sinner. He
says, "Though your sins are as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow;
though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool." He does not,
in our test, say how this great change shall be worked. It suffices
here to give us an assurance that it shall be so. Well, then, what is
the inference from that assurance? Why, Sinner, surely it is that there
is nothing now to keep you away from God because your sin, which was
like a great stone that had been rolled between you and your God, has
been rolled right away by God! He has removed every stain, spot, speck
and trace of sin by the precious blood of Jesus which cleanses all to
whom it is applied. Why do you stand back, then? Surely, you cannot
continue to stay in the background. If your sin is pardoned, you will
rush into your Savior's arms–the reasoning will be ended and your
heart melting with repentance! And God's Grace pouring itself over you
in a flood of holy joy, there will be no longer any ground of
difference between you and your God, for you and He will be truly one!
Now let us look a little more closely at this example of reasoning on
God's part. I have pointed out to you the grand outline, now let us
consider the argument in detail. This will show you that the Lord will
remove the offense perfectly– "scarlet" and "crimson" are to become
"as snow" and "as wool."
I suppose that the text implies that the sinner might say, "Lord, there
is the guilt of my sin–how can I ever get rid of that? I have been
guilty of transgression all my life–how can that guilt be put away? I
know of nothing that can remove it. Though I should give enough of the
blood of bullocks and rams to make a river, my guilt could never be
washed away by it." I remember how I asked this question of God many
and many a time and I could not, for a long while, exercise any hope of
salvation because the mountain of my guilt seemed to separate me from
the thrice-holy God. Our text shows us that the Lord meets the
difficulty, not by denying the sinner's guilt, but by removing it! He
says to the guilty one, "No doubt you are as bad as you say you are,
but I will make all this guilt of yours to vanish away. It shall be
cast behind My back into the depths of the sea and shall be found no
more forever. The scarlet shall be as snow, the crimson shall be as
wool."
Then the awakened conscience brings forward another difficulty and
says, "But, Lord, my sin must be punished." I cannot make out how it is
that some people seem to think that the punishment of sin is an
arbitrary act on the part of God. I remember well when God burnt this
Truth into my soul as with a hot iron, that sin necessitated
punishment, that if I walked contrary to God, if I was out of gear with
Him, I must suffer, just as certainly as I should do if I were to
thrust my arm amidst the wheels of a powerful engine when they were
revolving at a tremendous rate. If I were to do that, I am certain to
suffer, just as, in continuing to sin, I am resisting the moral Law of
God and its ponderous wheels must crush me. I remember when I used to
say to myself, when I was quite a lad, "If God does not punish me for
my sin, He ought to do so." That thought used to come to me again and
again. I felt that God was just and that He knew that I did not wish
Him to be anything but just, for even my imperfect knowledge of God
included my recognition that He was a just and holy God. If I could
have been certain of salvation by any method in which God would have
ceased to be just, I could not have accepted it on those terms–I would
have felt that it was derogatory to the dignity of the Most High and
that it was contrary to the universal laws of right.
But this was the question that puzzled me–"How can I be saved, since I
have sinned and sin must be punished?"You see, in our text, the blessed
answer which the Lord Himself gives, "Though your sins are as scarlet,
they shall be as white
as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool." That
is to say, the Lord means, "You shall have no sin to be punished, for I
will so effectually remove it that there shall be none left upon you. I
will be as sternly just to you as a righteous and holy God must be, yet
I shall not smite you, for I see nothing in you, or upon you, which I
ought to smite." O wondrous miracle of mercy and Grace!
Then the sinner further objects, "But, Lord, if You do thus pardon me
at once and take all my guilt and fear of punishment away, yet, alas,
there are habits of evil which I have acquired, but which I cannot
conquer. I would oh, that I could be perfectly free from sin, but,
Lord, how can I be? I find always within me a tendency towards that
which is evil– and though I now hate the evil, yet I find the law of
sin in my members warring against that better law which your Holy
Spirit has implanted within me. O God, how can I ever be reconciled to
You, for how can I kill these deadly serpents that are coiled up in my
heart?" To this piteous lament, the Lord graciously replies, "Yes, poor
Soul, your nature is all that you say. It is a nature that has been
lying soaking in the crimson lye till there is no getting the stain out
by any human instrumentality. This evil thing called sin is engrained
in your very being, but I can take it out and I will take it out. I
will conquer every propensity to sin–yes, and so utterly conquer it
that the day shall come when you shall have no tendency to sin
whatever, but shall be altogether delivered from it and dwell with Me
in spotless and eternal perfection." Oh, how sweetly does the Lord, by
promising to do all this, take away from the sinner the great barrier
that stood between him and his God! Thus, the guilt, the penalty and
the power of sin shall all be removed.
Now give me your most earnest attention, for two or three minutes,
while I remind you that although it is not in our text, yet, in other
parts of God's Word the Lord has been pleased to tell us how He works
this great change. I like you to understand, as far as you can, how it
is worked, though, mark you, many have been saved who have not
understood very clearly how their salvation was accomplished. They have
believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. They have not comprehended as much
as it is well that you should comprehend, but yet, simply trusting in
Jesus, believing that the promise of Grace was true, they have proved
it true to them.
But listen. God has told us how He can put our guilt away. Most of you
know "the old, old story," yet, perhaps, as I tell it once again, God
the Hoy Spirit may enable some people to understand it who have never
understood it before. I know that there are some of us who heard the
Gospel preached very plainly for many years, yet we did not understand
it till, one day, when the familiar story was being told to us yet
again, in much the same language as before, God the Holy Spirit let the
Light of God into our dark minds and we saw Jesus as our own dear
Savior and rejoiced in Him with unspeakable and glorious joy!
Now, this is how God puts away our scarlet and crimson sins. His Son,
His only-begotten and well-beloved Son came down from Heaven, took upon
Himself our nature and became a Man. And being found in fashion as a
Man, He stood as the Substitute for all who should ever believe in Him,
so that God regarded Him as the Representative of all those for whom He
stood as Surety–and laid upon Himall their sin. And when it was laid
upon Him, it was no longer upon them, since it could not be in two
places at the same time. So the sin of Christ's people was removed from
them and put upon Him, according as it is written in the Old Testament,
"The Lord has laid on Him ("caused to meet upon Him") the iniquity of
us all." And in the New Testament, "For He has made Him to be sin for
us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in
Him."
The sin being, by imputation, laid upon Christ, God the Father
proceeded to deal with Christ on account of that sin as though He had
been the actual sinner. He was brought up, charged, condemned and put
to death–and He died deserted of His Father, crying, "My God, My God,
why have You forsaken Me?" And that agonizing death of His–God tells
us that it is so, therefore we may well believe it–has vindicated the
justice of God, magnified the Law and made it honorable. And now God,
for Christ's sake, can–no, more, He doesblot out the sin of all His
people and make it cease to be, seeing that it is a rule of His never
to punish the same offense twice. So, if Christ was punished for my
sin, I can never be punished for it. For, as Toplady truly sings–
"Payment God cannot twice demand,
First at My bleeding Surety's hand,
And then again at mine."
If you, my Friend, whoever you are, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, I
am able to assure you, beyond all doubt, that He bore your sin, carried
your sorrow and discharged your debt and that, therefore, you are
forever clear! Do you not see
how reasonable all this is? Perhaps you raise a difficulty and ask,
"But why should Christ stand in my place? Where is the justice of
punishing the Innocent, and letting the guilty go free?" Ah, that is a
wonder of distinguishing Grace that we cannot comprehend! When the
angels fell, they fell one by one, each one sinned and rebelled as an
individual, but when you and I fell, it was in our representative head,
Adam the first. Therefore it became possible, since we originally fell
in one Adam, that we could be raised on the same principle through
another Adam and, lo, Jesus Christ, the Second Adam in whose loins lay
all His elect ones, even as the whole human race lay in the loins of
the first Adam, has come and, instead of all who are in Him, suffering,
He has suffered in their place upon a strictly righteous principle. At
any rate, you need not question the rightness of the principle–if God
approves of it, if it satisfies Him, it may very well suffice for you!
If the system of salvation by substitution meets the claims of eternal
justice, it should certainly content you. O poor Soul, trust in the
blood of Jesus and your sins shall all vanish through His
substitutionary Sacrifice!
Listen again. Something was said, just now, about evil habits that were
to be put away. How is that to be done? The moment you believes in
Jesus–at that very instant the Holy Spirit entirely changes your
nature! There is then born in your soul, a new principle–the spirit,
something far superior to the natural soul–a spirit which understands
and has to do with spiritual things. This is what our Lord Jesus said
to Nicodemus, "That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which
is born of the Spirit is spirit." And this new spirit within you is the
Spirit of Christ! It is a living and eternal principle which will
follow after holiness and which cannot sin because it is born of God.
Do you not see, then, how your old habits will be broken? You will be a
new man and you will be able to say with the Apostle, "We are dead, and
our life is hid with Christ in God." This is what God will do with
you–your scarlet and crimson sins shall vanish because you are
born-again–made "a new creature in Christ Jesus."
I do not know whether I am putting this matter plain enough for all of
you to understand it, but I know that there was a time when I was very
anxious about my soul, when I would have been very thankful to have
heard such plain talk as this rather than a fine sermon that would have
been of no service to me in my sad condition. And I say to you, young
man, you who are troubled because of your sin, that if you believe in
Christ Jesus, His atoning Sacrifice will take all your guilt away and
the Hoy Spirit will come and dwell within you–and so enable you to
conquer every sinful propensity, and your life shall, from this time
forward, become "holiness unto the Lord." "Come now, and let us reason
together, says the Lord." And is not this grand reasoning when your
greatest difficulties are thus swept away by His almighty
Grace?
III. I must, however, finish by briefly showing you that THIS EXAMPLE
OF REASONING IS AN ABSTRACT OF THE WHOLE ARGUMENT.
I do not know the particular condition of everybody now present, but I
do know that all possible cases are covered by the Divine invitation
given in this one verse of Scripture.
Possibly, somebody says, "I do not need to be saved." My dear Sir, I am
not speaking about such a case as yours, for you refuse to
reason–there is no sense or reason in you. "But," says another, "I do
not intend to yield to the Gospel." That is another case in which there
is no reasoning and no reason. You simply say, "I do not want to have
anything to do with Christ." Well, if so, you have only yourself to
blame for your fatal decision! Your destruction, when it comes upon
you, will rest upon you alone and, amidst the flames of Hell, as you
bite your tongue in anguish, you will not be able to charge your ruin
upon God, or upon the preacher who is now addressing you. You put the
Gospel of Jesus Christ away from you, counting yourself unworthy of
it–and if you continue to do so, there remains nothing for you but to
perish forever and ever!
But there are some people of another kind and these have various
difficulties in coming to Christ. One says, "I have been too great a
sinner." That difficulty is fully met here–"Though your sins are as
scarlet." Granted that they are scarlet, "they shall be as white as
snow." "But I have sinned so long." Very well, that case is also
included here–"though they are red like crimson." These two colors,
scarlet and crimson, are often made to lie a long time and soak till
the very warp and woof of the cloth has taken the dye. Well, you are
like that, but, though it is so with you, God will make you "as snow"
and "as wool"!
"Oh, but I have sinned against a great deal more Light than most people
have!" No doubt that is true. I do not deny it and that certainly
increases your guilt, but my text covers your case–"though your sins
are as scarlet, they shall be as
white as snow." "Ah, Sir, but I have resisted the Holy Spirit," says
another. Granted, but, "though your sins are red like crimson, they
shall be as wool."
"I fear," says yet another, "that the Holy Spirit has left me, for I
have so sorely grieved Him." Read the verse following our text–"If you
are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land." Now, if
you are willing to be saved and willing to be obedient to that Divine
command, "Believe and live," the Hoy Spirit has not left you! As long
as you have any feeling whatever, you have not committed the sin which
is unto death, for, if you had committed that sin, you would have been
utterly unmoved and careless–and no thought of Divine things would
come across your mind again.
Oh, you may tell me what you like about yourselves, but my text meets
your case! You may be a harlot, Sister–give me your hand, just as you
are, and listen to these words of God, Himself, "Though your sins are
as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like
crimson, they shall be as wool." If there were a murderer here,
red-handed from his crime, his sin would, evidently, be scarlet and
crimson, yet, my Brother, yes, even your hand would I take and I would
say to you, "'Though your sins are as scarlet, they shall be as white
as snow.' If you believe in Jesus Christ, that is, if you trust Him
with your soul, if you will accept God's way of salvation, which is
ceasing to try to save yourself and yielding yourself to be saved by
Jesus only, you shall be saved here and now!"
I cannot get out to you all that this text keeps on saying to me. It is
singing in my soul! I can hear the music of it even if you cannot. I
only wish that you might do so. Sometimes, when I am preaching, I feel
like a butcher at the block– cutting off large roasts of meat for
others and getting nothing himself. But just now I am feeding on the
text myself–I only wish I could make every soul here feel hungry after
it, for it is yours as much as it is mine–as you, too, are a sinner
against God. Perhaps I am addressing someone who says, "I do not see
any need to reason with God." Friend, let your condition of mind
startle and alarm you! A man who is not right with his God may be sure
that there is something wrong with his soul. And if this grandest of
all possessions–the possession of God Himself–does not seem to you to
be preeminently desirable, it is because your eyes are blinded and your
heart is dead to the things of God and you are in "the gall of
bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity." It is because you are of the
earth, earthy, that you find your pleasure in the things that you can
see, feel, taste, and hear. It is because you are carnally minded and
have never been renewed in spirit, that you are thus content with what
will do you no good!
Do you know what will become of you if you continue as you are? You are
born of the flesh and that which is born of the flesh is flesh, and
flesh will go to corruption one of these days–and that is what you
will go to, to corruption, the worm that never dies and the fire that
shall never be quenched! There is only one way to keep in check the
hurtful, horrible corruption that grows out of carnal mindedness. "You
must be born-again." "You must be born-again." There are some things
that may be or may not be, but you "must be born-again," for, unless
you are born-again, if you could go to Heaven, it would not be Heaven
to you! And if God gave Himself to you, you could not enjoy Him. You
must be born-again! Oh, let that, "must," impress itself upon your mind
and heart–and rest not, O dear Hearer, until you are born-again! This
is the work of the Spirit of God upon you and, side by side with it
runs that other text, "He that believes on the Son has everlasting
life." May you be enabled by the Spirit to believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ! Then you will be born-again–no longer will you be under
condemnation, but, as a spiritual man you will delight in spiritual
things– and, chiefly, you will delight in God and He will make my text
true to you, "Though your sins are as scarlet, they shall be as white
as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool." Pray
David's prayer and you will receive a gracious answer from the Lord
even as the Psalmist did, "Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean:
wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow."
I have done with my text for this time, yet I have half a mind to
linger a minute and say, "Come now, if you have not reasoned with God,
let me try to reason with you. Let us reason together. Come, my dear
Friend, can any good result from your continuing as you now are? You
unconverted men and women and especially you unconverted old people,
can any good come of your remaining strangers to Christ?"
Let me put another question. Could any hurt come of your being the
friends of Christ? Can you imagine any real loss that you could sustain
by being saved? I would not tell a lie, even for God, Himself, and He
would never wish me to do so, but this Truth of God I declare to you
now–ever since I have believed in Jesus, the joy, rest and peace I
have experienced are altogether indescribable! One thing ought to
convince you of the blessings of true religion and that is that you
never met a Christian yet–you never saw a dying Christian, setting up
in his bed, leaning on the pillow, with his
children round him, and saying, "My dear boys and girls, beware of the
Christian religion! Beware of confidence in Christ! It is all a
delusion." There has never, since the foundation of our blessed faith,
been one who, in the valley of the shadow of death, has said," I have
discovered all this to be a fiction and I wish to warn everyone else
against it."
On the contrary, they have unanimously said, either with shouts of
triumph or with quiet words of peaceful trust, "Blessed be the name of
the Lord! This is joy, indeed, to be found in Christ Jesus, now that I
am about to depart to be forever with Him!" Let practical evidence
convince you, dear people, and if there is anything real and precious
about all this of which I have been speaking–as there certainly is–if
it is anything worth having, it is worth having now! If it is ever a
good thing to be saved, it is well to be saved at once! If it is ever
worthwhile to be rid of sin, it is worthwhile to be rid of sin before
that clock ticks again! If it is ever worthwhile for you to have joy in
God, it is worthwhile for you to have it before your eyes have again
closed in slumber!
The Lord grant that you may find it right speedily, for His name's
sake! Amen.