A Sermon for the Most Miserable of Men
A sermon
(No. 853)
Delivered on Lord's-day Morning, JANUARY 31, 1869, by
C.H.SPURGEON,
At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington
"My soul refused to be comforted."- Psalm 77:2.
In this refusal to be comforted, David is not to be imitated. His
experience in this instance is recorded rather as a warning than as an
example. Here is no justification for those professors who, when they
suffer bereavements or temporal losses, repine bitterly and reject
every consoling thought. We have known persons who made mourning for
departed ones the main business of life years after the beloved
relative had entered into rest. Like the heathen, they worship the
spirits of the dead. The sufferer has a right to mourn, a right which
Jesus Christ has sealed, for, "Jesus wept," but that right is abused
into a wrong when protracted sorrow poisons the springs of the heart
and unfits the weeper for the duties of daily
life.
There is a "hitherto" beyond which the floods of grief may not lawfully
advance. "What?" said the Quaker, to one who wore the weeds of mourning
many years after the death of her child and declared that she had
suffered a blow from which she should never rally–"What? Friend, have
you not forgiven God yet?" Much of unholy rebellion against the Most
High will be found as a sediment at the bottom of most tear bottles.
Sullen repining and protracted lamentation indicate the existence of
idolatry in the heart. Surely the beloved object must have been
enshrined in that throne of the heart which is the Lord's alone, or
else the taking away of the beloved object, though it caused poignant
sorrow, would not have excited such an unsubmissive spirit!
Should it not be the endeavor of God's children to avoid excessive and
continued grief because it verges so closely upon the two deadly sins
of rebellion and idolatry? Sorrow deserves sympathy, but when it
springs from a lack of resignation, it merits censure! When Believers
refuse to be comforted, they act as mere worldlings might do with some
excuse, for when unbelievers lose earthly comforts they lose their all.
But for the Christian to pine and sigh in inconsolable anguish over the
loss of a creature good is to belie his profession and degrade his
name. He believes of his trial that the Lord has done it–he calls God
his Father–he knows that all things work together for good. He is
persuaded that a far more exceedingly and eternal weight of Glory is
being worked out for him. How, then, can he sit down in sullen silence
and say, "I will not be comforted!"?
Surely, then, the Truths of God which he professes to believe have
never entered into his soul! He must be a mere speculative theorizer
and not a sincere Believer! Beloved, shame on us, if with such a faith
as ours we do not play the man! If the furnace is hot, let our faith be
strong. If the burden is heavy, let our patience be enduring. Let us
practically admit that He who lends has a right to reclaim His own–and
as we blessed the giving, so let us bless the taking hand. At all times
let us praise the Lord our God! Though He slay us, let us trust Him.
Much more, let us bless Him when He only uses the rod.
Our text, however, might very fittingly describe individuals who,
although free from outward trial or bereavement, are subject to deep
depression of spirits. There are times with the brightest-eyed
Christians when they can hardly brush the tears away. Strong faith and
joyous hope at times subside into a fearfulness which is scarcely able
to keep the spark of hope and faith alive in the soul. Yes, I think the
more rejoicing a man is at one time, the more sorrowful he will be at
others. They who mount highest descend lowest. There are cold-blooded
individuals who neither rejoice with joy unspeakable nor groan with
anguish unutterable.
But others of a more excitable temperament, capable of lofty delights,
are also liable to horrible sinking of heart. Because they have gazed
in ecstasy within the gates of pearl, they are too apt to make a
descent to the land of death shade and to stand shivering on the brink
of Hell. I know this, alas, too well. In the times of our gloom, when
the soul is well
near overwhelmed, it is our duty to grasp the promise and to rejoice in
the Lord. But it is not easy to do. The duty is indisputable, but the
fulfillment of it impossible.
In vain is it for us, at such seasons the star of promise and the
candle of experience–the darkness which may be felt seems to smother
all cheering lights. Barnabas, the son of consolation, would be hard
put to it to cheer the victims of depression when their fits are on
them. The oil ofjoy is poured out in vain for those heads upon which
the dust and ashes of melancholy are heaped up. Brothers and Sisters,
at such times the unhappy should wisely consider whether their
disturbed minds ought not to have rest from labor. In these days, when
everybody travels by express and works like a steam-engine, the mental
wear and tear are terrible and the advice of the Great Master to the
disciples to go into the desert and rest awhile is full of wisdom and
ought to have our earnest attention.
Rest is the best, if not the only medicine for men occupied in mental
pursuits and subject to frequent depression of spirit. Get away, you
sons of sadness, from your ordinary avocations for a little season if
you possibly can, and enjoy quiet and repose–above all, escape from
your cares by casting them upon God. If you bear them yourself, they
will distract you so that your soul will refuse to be comforted. But if
you will leave them to God and endeavor to serve Him without
distraction, you will overcome the drooping tendency of your spirits
and you will yet compass the altar of God with songs of gladness.
Let none of us give way to an irritable, complaining, mournful
temperament. It is the giving way which is the master mischief, for it
is only as we resist this devil that it will flee from us. Let not your
heart be troubled. If the troubles outside the soul toss your vessel
and drive her to and fro, yet, at least let us strain every nerve to
keep the seas outside the boat lest she sink altogether. Cry with
David, "Why are you cast down, O my Soul? And why are you disquieted
within me?" Never mourn unreasonably. Question yourself about the
causes of your tears. Reason about the matter till you come to the same
conclusion as the Psalmist, "Hope in God: for I shall yet praise Him."
Depend upon it, if you can believe in God, you have, even in your
soul's midnight, 10 times more cause to rejoice than to sorrow. If you
can humbly lie at Jesus' feet, there are more flowers than thorns ready
to spring up in your pathway. Joys lie in ambush for you. You shall be
compassed about with songs of deliverance. Therefore, companions in
tribulation, give not way to hopeless sorrow! Write no bitter things
against yourselves! Salute with thankfulness the angel of hope and say
no more, "My soul refused to be comforted."
My main bent, this morning, to which I have set my whole soul, is to
deal with these mourners who are seeking Christ but up till now have
sought Him in vain. Convicted of sin, awakened and alarmed–these
unhappy ones tarry long outside the gate of Mercy, shivering in the
cold, pining to enter into the banquet which invites them–but
declining to pass through the gate which stands wide open for them.
Sullenly–no, I will not use so harsh a word–tremblingly they refuse
to enter within Mercy's open door, although infinite Love itself cries
to them, "Come and welcome! Enter and be blessed."
I. Concerning so deplorable a state of heart, alas, still so common, we
will remark in the first place that IT IS VERY AMAZING. It is a most
surprising thing that there should be in this world persons who have
the richest consolation near to hand and persistently refuse to partake
of it. It seems so unnatural that if we had not been convinced by
abundant observation, we should deem it impossible that any miserable
soul should refuse to be comforted. Does the ox refuse its fodder? Will
the lion turn from his meat? Or the eagle loathe its nest?
The refusal of consolation is the more singular because the most
admirable comfort is within reach. Sin can be forgiven. Sin has been
forgiven! Christ has made an atonement for it. God is graciously
willing to accept any sinner that comes to Him confessing his
transgressions and trusting in the blood of the Lord Jesus. God waits
to be gracious! He is not hard nor harsh. He is full of mercy. He
delights to pardon the penitent and is never more revealed in the Glory
of His Godhead than when He is accepting the unworthy through the
righteousness of Jesus Christ! There is so much comfort in the Word of
God that it were as easy to measure the heavens above, or set the
limits of space, as to measure the Divine Grace revealed in it.
You may seek, if you will, to comprehend all the sweetness of Divine
love, but you cannot, for it passes knowledge. Like the vast expanse of
the ocean is the abounding goodness of God made manifest in Jesus
Christ! Amazing is it, then, that men refuse to receive what is so
lavishly provided! It is said that some years ago, a vessel sailing on
the northern coast of the South American continent was observed to make
signals of distress. When hailed by another vessel, they
reported themselves as, "Dying for water!" "Dip it up then," was the
response, "you are in the mouth of the Amazon river." There was fresh
water all around them–they had nothing to do but to dip it up–and yet
they were dying of thirst because they thought themselves to be
surrounded by the salt sea!
How often are men ignorant of their mercies! How sad that they should
perish for lack of knowledge! But suppose after the sailors had
received the joyful information, they had still refused to draw up the
water which was in boundless plenty all around them? Would it not have
been a marvel? Would you not at once conclude that madness had taken
hold upon the captain and his crew? Yet, so great, dear Friends, is the
madness of many who hear the Gospel and know that there is mercy
provided for sinners, that unless the Holy Spirit interferes they will
perish! Not through ignorance, but because, for some reason or other,
like the Jews of old, they judge themselves, "unworthy of everlasting
life," and exclude themselves from the Gospel, refusing to be
comforted!
This is the more remarkable because the comfort provided is so safe.
Were there suspicions that the comforts of the Gospel would prove
delusive–that they would only foster presumption and so destroy the
soul–men would be wise to start back as from a cup of poison! But many
have satisfied themselves at this life-giving stream! Not one has been
injured, but all who have partaken have been eternally blessed. Why,
then, does the thirsty soul hesitate, while the river, clear as
crystal, flows at his feet?
Moreover, the comfort of the Gospel is most suitable. It is fully
adapted to the sinful, the weak and the broken-hearted. It is adapted
to those who are crushed by their need of mercy and adapted equally as
much to those who are the least sensible of their need of it. The
Gospel bears a balm in its hand suited to the sinner in his worst
estate–when he has no good thing about him and nothing within which
can, by possibility, be a ground of hope. Does not the Gospel declare
that Christ died for the ungodly? Is it not a faithful saying and
worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to
save sinners, of whom, said the Apostle, "I am chief"? Is not the
Gospel intended even for those who are dead in
sin?
Don't we read such words as these, "God, who is rich in mercy, for His
great love wherewith He loved us, even when we where dead in sins, has
quickened us together in Christ (by grace are you saved)"? Are not the
invitations of the Gospel, so far as we can judge, just the kindest,
most tender and most attractive that could be penned and addressed at
the worst emergency in which a sinner can be placed? "Ho, everyone that
thirsts, come to the waters and he that has no money; come, buy and
eat. Yes, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price."
"Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts:
and let him return unto the Lord and He will have mercy upon him; and
to our God, for He will abundantly pardon."
No qualifying adjectives are used to set forth a degree of goodness in
the person invited–but the wicked are bid to come–and the unrighteous
are commanded to turn to God! The invitation deals with base, naked,
unimproved sinnership! Grace seeks for misery, unworthiness, guilt,
helplessness and nothing else. Not because we are good, but because the
Lord is gracious, we are bid to believe in the infinite mercy of God in
Christ Jesus and so to receive comfort! Strange that where consolation
is so plentiful–where comfort is so safe, where the heart-cheer is so
suitable–souls should be found by the thousands who refuse to be
comforted! This fact grows the more remarkable because these persons
greatly need comfort and, from what they say, and I trust also from
what they feel, you might infer that comfort was the very thing they
would clutch at as a drowning man at a rope!
Why, they scarcely sleep at night by reason of their fears. By day
their faces betray the sorrow, which, like a tumultuous sea, rages
within. They can scarcely speak a cheerful sentence. They make their
household miserable. The infection of their sorrow is caught by others.
You would think that the very moment the word, "hope," was whispered in
their ears they would leap towards it at once! But it is not so. You
may put the Gospel into what shape you please and yet these poor souls
who need your pity, though, I fear, they must also have your blame,
refuse to be comforted. Though the food is placed before them, their
soul abhors all manner of meat and they draw near unto the gates of
death. Yes, you may even put the heavenly cordial into their very
mouths, but they will not receive the spiritual nutriment! They pine in
hunger rather than partake in what Divine love provides.
Need I enlarge on this strange infatuation? It is a monstrosity
unparalleled in Nature! When the dove was weary, she remembered the ark
and flew into Noah's hand at once. These are weary and they know the
ark, but they will not fly to it. When an Israelite had slain,
inadvertently, his fellow, he knew the City of Refuge. He feared the
avenger of blood and
he fled along the road to the place of safety. But these know the
Refuge and every Sunday we set up the signposts along the road, but yet
they come not to find salvation!
The destitute waifs and strays of the streets of London find out where
the night refuges are and ask for shelter! They cluster round our
workhouse doors like sparrows under the eaves of a building on a rainy
day! They piteously crave for lodging and a crust of bread! Yet crowds
of poor benighted spirits, when the House of Mercy is lighted up and
the invitation is plainly written in bold letters–"Whoever will, let
him turn in here"–will not come! They prove the truth of Watts'
verse–
"Thousands make a wretched choice And rather starve than come." 'Tis
strange, 'tis passing strange, 'tis amazing!!
II. Secondly, this strange madness has a method in it and MAY BE
VARIOUSLY ACCOUNTED FOR. In many, their refusal to be comforted arises
from bodily and mental disease. It is in vain to ply with Scriptural
arguments those who are in more urgent need of healing medicine, or
generous diet, or a change of air. There is so close a connection
between the sphere of the physician and the Divine, that they do well
to hunt in couples when chasing the delusions of morbid humanity. And I
am persuaded there are not a few cases in which the minister's presence
is of small account until the physician shall, first of all, wisely
have discharged his part.
I shall not, this morning, therefore, further allude to characters out
of my line of practice, but I shall speak of those whose refusal to
accept comfort arises from moral rather than physical disease. In some
the monstrous refusal is suggested by a proud dislike to the plan of
salvation. They would be comforted, yes, that they would, but may they
not do something to earn eternal life? May they not, at least,
contribute a feeling or emotion? May they not prepare themselves for
Christ? Must salvation be all gratis? Must they be received into the
House of Mercy as paupers? Must they come with no other cry but, "God
be merciful to me a sinner"?
Must it come to this–to be stripped, to have every rag of one's own
righteousness torn away–as well righteousness of feeling as
righteousness of doing? Must the whole head be confessedly sick and the
whole heart faint and the man lie before Jesus as utterly undone and
ruined, to take everything from the hand of the crucified Savior? Ah,
then, says flesh and blood, I will not have it! The crest is not easy
to cleave in two–the banner of self is upheld by a giant
standard-bearer–it floats on high long after the battle has been lost.
But what folly! Indeed, for the sake of indulging a foolish dignity we
will not be comforted!
O Sir, down with you and your dignity! I beseech you, bow down now
before the feet of Jesus and kiss the feet which were nailed for your
sins. Roll yourself and your glory in the dust. What are you but an
unclean thing? And what are your righteousnesses but filthy rags? O
take Christ to be your All-in-All, and you shall have comfort this very
morning! Let not pride prompt a fresh refusal, but be wise and submit
to Sovereign Grace. In others it is not pride, but an unholy resolve to
retain some favorite sin. In most cases, when the Christian minister
tries to heal a wound that has long been bleeding, he probes and probes
again with his lancet, wondering why the wound will not heal. It seems
to him that all the circumstances point to a successful healing of the
wound. He cannot imagine why it still continues to bleed, but at last
he finds out the secret. "Ah, here I have it. Here is an extraneous
substance which continually frets and aggravates the wound. It cannot
heal while this grit of sin lies within it."
In some cases we have found out that the sorrowing person indulged
still in a secret vice, or kept the society of the ungodly, or was
undutiful to parents, or unforgiving, or slothful, or practiced that
hideous sin, secret drunkenness. In any such case, if the man resolves,
"I will not give up this sin," do you wonder if he is not comforted?
Would not it be an awful thing if he were? When a man carries a
corroding substance within his soul, if his wound is filmed over, an
internal disease will come of it and prove deadly. I pray God none of
you may ever get comfort till you get rid of every known sin and are
able to say–
"The dearest idol I have known, Whatever that idol is, Help me to tear
it from its throne, And worship only You."
There must be a plucking out of the right eye and a cutting off of the
right arm if we are to inherit eternal life! Foolish, indeed, is he,
who, for the sake of some paltry sin–a sin which he himself despises,
a sin which he would not
dare to confess into the ears of another–continues to reject Christ.
Might I take such a one by the hand and say, "My Brother, my Sister,
give it up! Oh, for God's sake, hate the accursed thing and come now
with me! Confess to Jesus, who will forgive all your foolishness and
accept you this morning, so that no longer you shall refuse to be
comforted."
Some refuse to be comforted because of an obstinate determination only
to be comforted in a way of their own selecting. They have read the
life of a certain good man who was saved with a particular kind of
experience. "Now," they say, "if I felt like that man, then I shall
conclude I am saved." Many have hit upon the experience of Mr. Bunyan,
in "Grace Abounding." They have said, "Now, I must be brought just as
John Bunyan was, or else I will not believe." Another has said, "I must
tread the path which John Newton trod–my feet must be placed in the
very marks where his feet went down, or else I cannot believe in Jesus
Christ."
But, my dear Friend, what reason have you for expecting that God will
yield to your self-will? And what justification have you for
prescribing to the Great Physician the methods of His cure? Oh, if He
will but bring me to Heaven, I will bless Him, though He conduct me by
the gates of Hell! If I am but brought to see the King in His beauty,
in the land which is very far off, it shall make no trouble to my heart
by what method of experience He brings me there! Come, lay aside this
foolish choosing of yours and say, "Lord, do but have mercy on me. Do
but give me to trust Your dear Son and my whims and my fancies shall be
given up."
I fear, in a great many, there is another reason for this refusing to
be comforted, namely, a dishonoring unbelief in the love and goodness
and truthfulness of God. They do not believe God to be gracious! They
think Him a tyrant, or if not quite that, yet one so stern that a
sinner had need plead and beg full many a day before the stern heart of
God will be touched. Oh, but you do not know my God! What is He? He is
LOVE! I tell you He needs no persuading to have mercy any more than the
sun needs to be persuaded to shine, or a fountain to pour out its
streams! It is the Nature of God to be gracious! He is never so Godlike
as when He is bestowing mercy.
"Judgment is His strange work." It is His left-handed work. But mercy,
the last manifested of His attributes, is His Benjamin, the child of
His right hand. He delights to exercise it. Is it not so written, "He
delights in mercy"? Alas, Alas, Alas, that God should be slandered by
those to whom He speaks so lovingly! "As I live, says the Lord," here
He takes an oath, and will you not believe Him? "As I live, says the
Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the
wicked should turn from his way and live." "Turn, turn! Why will you
die, O house of Israel?"
He even seems to turn beggar to His own creatures and to plead with
them to come to Him. His heart yearns as He cries, "How shall I give
you up, Ephraim? How shall I deliver you, Israel? How shall I make you
as Admah? How shall I set you as Zeboim? My heart is turned within Me,
My repentings are kindled together. I will not execute the fierceness
of My anger, I will not return to destroy Ephraim: for I am God and not
man." O do not, I pray you, be unbelieving any longer, but believe
God's Word and Oath and accept the comfort which He freely offers to
you this morning in the words of His Gospel!
Some, however, have refused comfort so long that they have grown into
the habit of despair. Ah, it is a dangerous habit and trembles on the
brink of Hell! Every moment in which it is indulged a man grows
accustomed to it. It is like the cold of the frigid zone which benumbs
the traveler, after awhile, till he feels nothing and drops into
slumber and from that into death. Some have despaired and despaired
until they had reason for despair and until despair brought them into
Hell. Despair has hardened some men's hearts till they have been ready
to commit sins which hope would have rendered impossible to them.
Beware of nursing despondency!
Does it creep upon you today through unbelief? O shake it off if
possible! Cry to the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, to loose you from this
snare of the fowler! For, depend upon it, doubting God is a net of
Satan and blessed is he who escapes its toils. Believing in God
strengthens the soul and brings us both holiness and happiness–but
distrusting and suspecting and surmising and fearing hardens the
heart–and renders us less likely ever to come to God! Beware of
despair! And may you, if you have fallen into this evil habit, be
snatched from it as the brand from the burning and delivered by the
Lord, who looses His prisoner.
III. Thirdly, this remarkable piece of folly ASSUMES VARIOUS FORMS. If
I were to give a catalog of the symptoms of this disease which I have
met with and have jotted down in my memory, I should need not an hour,
but a month. For as each man has something peculiar to himself, so each
form of this melancholy bears about it a measure of distinctness. I can
scarcely put them under various heads and species–they are too many
and too mixed. I think they say
a sheep has so many diseases that you cannot count them. And I am sure
men have a great many more mental maladies than can be counted, too.
You might as well count the sands on the seashore as enumerate the
soul's diseases. But certain forms are very common. For instance, one
is a persistent misrepresentation of the Gospel, as though it claimed
some hard thing of us. Persons have been sitting in these seats, now,
for years, who have heard us say and who know the truth of it, from
God's Word, that all that is asked of the sinner is that he should
trust in the work which Jesus Christ has worked out–should trust
Christ, in fact. We have in all manner of ways, as numerous and varied
as our ingenuity could suggest, sought to show that there is nothing
for the sinner to do! That he is to be nothing, but just get out of the
way and let Christ and the Grace of God be everything!
We have tried to show that to trust in Christ, which is the great
saving act, is looking to Him, Resting on Him. Depending on Him. We
have multiplied figures and metaphors to make this plain. And yet, as
soon as ever we begin to talk to some of these who refuse to be
comforted, they say, "But I am afraid, Sir, that I have never been
sufficiently made to feel the evil of sin." Now, did we ever say that
feeling of sin was the great saving Grace? Does not the Word of God put
it over and over again that believing saves the soul, not feeling? Yet
these people virtually deny the Gospel and set up another Gospel–a
Gospel offeeling in the place of a Gospel of trusting!
"Oh, but," they will then say, "I have had these desires so many times
before and they have all gone and I cannot expect that I should be
accepted now." This is another denial of the Gospel! They make it out
that God will only accept those who have experienced good desires but
never repressed them. They reduce the Gospel into this kind of thing–
"You who never have repressed good desires, you may come." But the
Gospel says, "Whoever will, let him take the water of life freely." I
could not give you all the shapes and ways in which they will evade and
mystify the Gospel, but assuredly they use as much ingenuity to make
themselves unhappy, as the most ardent spirit that ever lived ever used
to discover a country or to win a crown!
Another shape of this malady is this–many continually and persistently
underestimate the power of the precious blood of Jesus. Not, if you
brought them to look, that they would dare affirm that Jesus could not
save, or that His blood could not pardon sin, but, virtually, it comes
to that. "Oh, I am such a sinner!" And what if you are? Did not Christ
come to save sinners, even the very chief? What has the greatness of
your sinnership to do with it? Is not Christ a greater Savior than you
are a sinner? Towering high, the mountain of His mercy is far above the
hills of your guiltiness! Yes, but you do not think so. Yes and herein
you limit the efficacy of an Infinite Atonement and so dishonor the
blood of Jesus Christ!
There are some who will then say, "But I have sinned such-and-such a
sin." What? And cannot the blood of Jesus wash that away? "All manner
of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men." There is no sin which
you can by any possibility have committed, which Jesus cannot pardon if
you will come to Him and trust Him, for, "the blood of Jesus Christ,
God's dear Son, cleanses us from all sin." Why, believe me, Sinner,
though your sin is such that, of itself, it will damn you to all
eternity, beyond all hope–though it is such, that could your tears
forever flow, not a particle of it could ever be washed out–yet in a
moment it shall vanish if you do but now trust in that bleeding Savior.
There is nothing in your sin that can now obstruct the power of the
bleeding Savior. God will at once forgive you. But I know that you will
still slander my Lord Jesus and refuse His comfort. I pray Him,
therefore to forgive you this wrong and bring you, by His Holy Spirit,
into a saner mind, to believe that He is able and willing and to doubt
no more. Many cast their doubts into the shape offoolish inferences
drawn from the doctrine of predestination. I do not find that the
doctrine of predestination impresses people in the way of sadness in
any way except that of religion!
Everybody believes that there is a predestination about the casting of
lots, and yet the spirit of gambling is rife everywhere and men in
crowds subscribe to the public lotteries, which to our shame, are still
tolerated. They know that only two or three can win a large prize, yet
away goes the money and nobody stands at the office door and says, "I
shall not invest my money because if I am to get a prize I shall get a
prize and if I am not to win a prize I shall not do so." Men are not
such fools when they come to things of common life as they are when
they deal with religion! This predestination sticks in the way of many
as a huge stumbling block when they come to the things of God.
The fact is, there is nothing in predestination to stumble a man. The
evil lies in what he chooses to make of it. When a man wants to beat a
dog, they say he can always find a stick to do it with. And when a man
wants to find excuses for not believing in Christ, he can always
discover one, somewhere or other. For this cause so many run to this
predestination
doctrine, because it happens to be a handy place of resort. Now God has
a people whom He will save, a chosen and special people, redeemed by
the blood of Christ. But there is no more in that doctrine to deny the
other grand Truth that whoever believes in Jesus Christ is not
condemned, than there is in the fact that Abyssinia is in Africa, to
contradict the doctrine that, Hindustan is in Asia!
They are two Truths of God which stand together and though it may not
always be easy for us to reconcile them, it would be more difficult to
make them disagree. There never seems to me to be any need to reconcile
the two Truths, nor, indeed, any practical difficulty in the matter.
The difficulty is metaphysical and what have lost sinners to do with
metaphysics? Fixed is everything, from the motion of a grain of dust in
the summer's wind to the revolution of a planet in its orbit–and yet
man is as free as if there were no God–as independent an actor as if
everything were left to chance! I see indelible marks both of
predestination and free agency everywhere in God's universe! Then why
do you ask questions about your election when God says, "whoever will"?
It is foolish to stand and ask whether you are ordained to come when
the invitation bids you come! Come, and you are ordained to come! Stay
away, and you deserve to perish!
Yonder is the gate of the hospital for sick souls and over it is
written, "Whoever will, let him come," and you stand outside that house
of mercy and say, "I do not know whether I am ordained to enter." There
is the invitation, man! Why are you so mad? Would you talk like that at
Guy's or at Bartholomew's Hospital? Would you say to the kind persons
who picked you up in the street and carried you to the hospital, "Oh,
for goodness sake, do not take me in, I do not know whether I am
ordained to go in or not"? You know the hospital was built for such as
are sick and wounded and when you are taken in you perceive that it was
built for you. I do not know how you are to find whether you were
ordained to enter the hospital or not, except by going in, and I do not
know how you are to find out your election to salvation, except by
trusting Jesus Christ, who bids you trust, and promises that if you do
so you shall be saved!
You may smile, but these things which to some of us are like spiders'
nets through which we break, are like nets of iron to those desponding
ones whose soul refuses to be comforted. I have known others and here I
shall close this list, who have tried to find a hole in which to hide
their eyes from the comforting light in the thought of the unpardonable
sin. The greatest divines who have written on this subject have never
been able to prove anything about it except that all the other divines
are wrong! I have never yet read a book upon the subject which did not,
one-half of it, consist in proving that all who had written before knew
nothing at all on the subject. And I have come to the conclusion, when
I have finished each treatise, that the writer was about as right as
his predecessors and no more.
Whatever the unpardonable sin may be, and perhaps it is different in
every person–perhaps it is a point of sin in each one, a filling up of
his measure beyond which there is no more hope of mercy–whatever it
is, there is one thing that is sure, that no man who feels his need of
Christ and sincerely desires to be saved can have committed that sin at
all. If you had committed that sin, it would be to you death. "There is
a sin which is unto death." Now, death puts an end to feeling. You
would be given up to hardness and to incorrigible impenitence. The
reason why you could not be saved would be because your will would
become fast set against all good and you never would will to be saved.
There is no difficulty in salvation when the will is made right–and if
you have a will and God has made you willing to come to Christ and to
be saved, you have no more committed the unpardonable sin than has the
angel Gabriel who stands at God's right hand! If your heart palpitates
still with fear. If your soul still trembles before the Law of God and
dreads His wrath, then still are you within the bounds of mercy! And
the silver trumpet sounds this morning sweet and shrill, "Whoever will,
let him take of the water of life freely." "Believe in the Lord Jesus
Christ and you shall be saved."
IV. We will not continue that dreary catalog, but turn to a fourth
consideration, namely, that this refusal to be comforted INVOLVES MUCH
OF WRONG. Much of it we can readily forgive, still we must mention it.
When you hear the Gospel and refuse to be comforted by it, there is a
wrong done to the minister of God. He sympathizes with you. He desires
to comfort you and it troubles him when he puts before you the cup of
salvation and you refuse to take it.
Now, I do not say that we, in our private persons, claim any great
respect from you. But I do say that to reject God's ambassador may not
be a light sin. And to cause the man whom God sends to speak words of
mercy to you to go, with a heavy heart, again and again to his knees,
may be such a sin as will rankle in your soul in years to come if it is
not repented of. But worse than that, you wrong God's Gospel. Every
time you refuse to be comforted, you do as good as say, "The Gospel is
of no use to me. I do not esteem it. I will not have it." You put it
away as though it were a thing of nothing.
You wrong this precious Bible. It is full of consoling promises and you
read it and you seem to say, "It is all chaff." You act as if you had
winnowed it and found no food in it. It is a barren wilderness to you.
Oh, but the Bible does not deserve to have such a slur cast upon it!
You do wrong to the dear friends who try to comfort you. Why should
they so often bring you with loving hands the Words of comfort and you
put them away? Above all, you do wrong to your God, to Jesus and to His
Holy Spirit. The Crucifixion of Christ is repeated by your rejection of
Christ. That unkind, ungenerous thought that He is unwilling to
forgive, crucifies Him afresh. Grieve not the Holy Spirit–
"He's waited long, is waiting still– You use no other friend so ill."
He is the Spirit of consolation and when you refuse the consolation,
you virtually reject Him–reject Him to your shame! Think, dear
Friends, wherever you may be this morning–your refusing to be
comforted is very wrong because it is depriving the Church of what you
might do for it. Oh, if you became a cheerful Christian, what another
in Israel you might be! I think I hear you sing as the virgin did of
old, "He has remembered the low estate of His handmaiden." How would
you rejoice with Hannah that, "He raises up the poor out of the dust
and lifts the needy out of the dunghill, that He may set him with
princes." How would your exultant Psalm go up to Heaven, "He has filled
the hungry with good things and the rich He has sent away empty."
The world–what a wrong you are doing to it! Why, that part of the
world which comes under your influence is led to say, "Religion makes
that woman miserable. It is religion which makes that man so sad." You
know it is not so! But they put it down to it–they say, "Religion
drives people mad." I would sooner lose this right hand and this right
eye, too, than have such a thing said of my religion! I cannot bear,
when I do anything wrong that men should say, "That's your
Christianity." If they lay the blame on me, who so well deserved it,
then let me bear it! But to lay it on the Cross of Christ–oh, this
makes a man shudder!
V. I will close with this remark–that SUCH A REFUSAL SHOULD NOT BE
PERSISTED IN. It is unreasonable to be sad when you might rejoice. It
is unreasonable to be wretched when Mercy provides every cause for
making you happy. Why are you sad and why is your countenance fallen?
If there were no Savior, no Holy Spirit, no Father willing to forgive,
you might go your way and put an end to your existence in despair. But
while all this Divine Grace is ready for you, why not take it?
One would think you were like Tantalus, placed up to his neck in water,
which, when he tried to drink, receded from his lips–but you are in no
such condition. Instead of the water flowing away from you, it is
rippling up to your lips! It is inviting you but to open your mouth and
receive it! While it is unreasonable to continue such a persistence, it
is also most weakening to you. Every hour that you continue sad you
spoil the possibilities of your getting out of that sadness. You are
dissolving the strength even of your bodily frame. And, as for your
soul, the pillars are being shaken. And, mark you, it is most
dangerous, too, for maybe–oh, I pray God it may not be!–it may be
that God, who gives you light when He sees you shut your eyes again,
will say, "Let his sun be darkened and his moon be turned into blood.
The creature which I made for light rejects it and no light shall ever
come to it, even forever."
The king who kills the fatlings and makes ready the feast and brings
you to the table, if He sees you still refuse to partake, may swear in
His wrath that you shall not eat of His supper. I have known parents,
when their children cried for nothing, take care to give them something
to cry for. And, maybe, if you are miserable when there is no cause for
it, you may have cause for it–cause that will never end. Oh, by the
blood and wounds of Jesus! By the overflowing heart of God! By the
eternal promises of Divine Grace! By the Covenant which God has made
with sinners in the Person of His Son! By the Holy Spirit, the
Comforter, put not from you the consolation which God provides! Say no
longer, "My soul refuses to be comforted," but cast yourself at Jesus'
feet and trust in Him, and you are saved!
God bless you and grant this prayer for Jesus' sake. Amen.