An Awful Premonition
A SERMON DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE,
NEWINGTON.
"Assuredly I say unto you, there are some standing here who shall not
taste of death till they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom."
Matthew 16:28.
I must confess that I have frequently read this verse with but a vague
sense of its profound impressiveness and I have passed it over rapidly
because I did not understand it clearly. Though well acquainted with
the usual interpretations, none of them had ever satisfied my mind. It
seemed to me as if the text had awakened surprise without suggesting a
simple obvious meaning, and therefore the good commentators had
invented explanations and offered suggestions widely different one from
another, but all equally obscure and improbable. Lately, however, in
reading a volume of sermons by Bishop Horseley, I have met with a view
altogether new of the passage which I firmly believe to be the correct
one.
Though I do not suppose I shall carry the judgment of all of you with
me, yet I shall do my best to bring out of it that terrible
denunciation which I believe the Savior has here left on record. With
His own Cross and passion in view, He was admonishing His disciples to
steadfastness, appealing to them at any sacrifice to take up their
cross and follow Him. Then portraying the inestimable value of the soul
and reflecting on the horror of the soul being lost–a doom, the full
force of which would be impossible to comprehend until He should come
in the Glory of His Father, with all His holy angels– He stopped
short, looked upon some of the company and said in words like these,
"There are certain persons standing here who shall never taste of death
till they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom."
Now what did He mean by this? Obviously it is either a marvelous
promise to some who were His disciples, indeed, or else it is a portent
of woe to others who should die in their sins. How do the popular
interpretations of our learned expositors look at it? Some say it
refers to the Transfiguration and it certainly is remarkable that the
account of the Transfiguration immediately follows this verse both in
Mark and in Luke, as well as in this record of Matthew. But can you,
for a moment, bring your minds to believe that Christ was describing
His Transfiguration when He spoke of "the Son of Man coming in His
kingdom"?
Can you see any connection between the Transfiguration and the
preceding verse, which says, "For the Son of Man shall come in the
Glory of His Father with His angels. And then He shall reward every man
according to His works"? We grant you that Christ was in His Glory upon
Mount Tabor, but He did not there "reward every man according to his
works," nor is it fair to call that a "coming" of the Son of Man at
all! He did not "come" on Mount Tabor, for He was on the earth already.
And it is a misuse of language to construe that into an advent.
Besides, where would be the occasion for such a solemn
prefix–"Assuredly I say unto you"?
Does it not raise expectation merely to cause disappointment if He
intended no more than this–"There are some standing here who shall see
Me transfigured"? That scene took place six days afterwards. The next
verse tells you so, "And after six days Jesus takes Peter, James and
John, his brother, and brings them up into an high mountain apart."
Why, the majesty of the prediction which carries our thoughts forward
to "the last things" in the world's history makes us shrink from
accepting an immediate fulfillment of it all! I cannot imagine,
therefore, that the Transfiguration is in the slightest degree referred
to here–and I do not think that anyone would have thought of such a
thing unless he had been perplexed and utterly nonplussed for an
explanation.
And again–though it seems almost incredible–Dr. Gill endorses this
view, and moreover says that it also refers to the descent of the Holy
Spirit. At this I am staggered! How any man can find an analogy with
Pentecost in the connection here I cannot understand! Pentecost took
place six months after this event and why Jesus Christ should say,
"Assuredly I say unto you there are some standing here who will live
six months," I really cannot comprehend! It seems to me that my Master
did not waste people's time by talking such platitudes. Who, that reads
this passage, can think it has any reference to the descent of the Holy
Spirit?–"For the Son of Man shall come in the Glory of His Father with
His angels. And then shall He reward every man according to his works."
Did Christ come at Pentecost in the Glory of His Father? Was there any
company of angels at Pentecost? Did He then reward every man according
to his works? Scarcely can the descent of the Holy Spirit, or the
appearance of cloven tongues, like as of fire, be called the "coming of
the Son of Man in the Glory of His Father with His angels, to give
every man according to his works" without a gross misuse of our mother
tongue, or a strange violation of symbolic imagery. Both these
constructions, however, which I now mention, have now been given up as
unsatisfactory by those modern students who have thought most carefully
upon the subject.
The third still holds its ground and is currently received, though I
believe it to be quite as far from the Truth of God as the others. Will
you carefully read the chapter through at your leisure and see if you
can find anything about the siege of Jerusalem in it? Yet this is the
interpretation that finds favor at the present time! Some persons were
standing there who would be alive when Jerusalem should be destroyed by
the Romans!! Nothing, surely, could be more foreign to the entire scope
of our Lord's discourse, or the narrative of the Evangelists. There is
not the slightest shadow of a reference to the siege of Jerusalem!
It is the coming of the Son of Man which is here spoken of, "in the
glory of His Father with His angels, to reward men according to their
works." Whenever Jesus spoke of the siege of Jerusalem and of its
coming, he was known to say, "Assuredly I say unto you, this generation
shall not pass till all these things are fulfilled," but He never
singled out some few persons and said to them, "Assuredly I say unto
you, there are some standing here which shall not taste of death till
the city of Jerusalem is besieged and destroyed."
If a child were to read this passage I know what he would think it
meant–he would suppose Jesus Christ was to come and there were some
standing there who should not taste of death until really and literally
He did come. This, I believe, is the plain meaning. "Well," says one,
"I am surprised! Do you think, then, that this refers to the Apostle
John?" No–by no means. The fable passed current, you know, that John
was to live till Christ came again. But John himself repudiated it. For
at the end of his Gospel, he says, "Then went this saying abroad among
the Brethren, that that disciple should not die: yet Jesus said not
unto him, He shall not die, but, If I will that he tarry till I come,
what is that to you?"
This, you see, was putting a suppositions case and in no sense the
language of prediction. Now, dear Brethren, if you are so far convinced
of the unreasonableness of each of these efforts to solve the
difficulty by feigning a sense, I shall hope to have your minds in
readiness for that explanation which appears to me to harmonize with
every requirement. I believe the "coming" here spoken of, is the coming
of the Son of God to judgment at the last great and terrible assize,
when He shall judge the righteous and separate the wicked from among
them. The next question is–"Of whom were the words spoken?"
Are we warranted in supposing that our Lord intended this sentence as a
gracious promise, or a kindly expectation that He would kindle in the
breast of His disciples? I suppose not. To me it appears to have no
reference whatever to any man who ever had Grace in his soul–such
language is far more applicable to the ungodly than the wicked. It may
well have been aimed directly at those followers who should apostatize
from the faith, grasp at the world, shrink at the Cross, endeavor to
save their lives but really lose them and barter their souls. At the
glorious appearing of Christ there are some who will taste death, but
will they be the righteous? Surely, my dear Friends, when Christ comes,
the righteous will not die!
They will be caught up with the Lord in the air. His coming will be the
signal for the resurrection of all His saints. But mark you, at the
time of His coming, the men who have been without God and without
Christ, will begin, for the first time, to "taste of death." They
passed the first stage of dissolution when the soul quitted the body,
but they have never known the "taste of death." Till then, they will
not have known its tremendous bitterness and its awful horror. They
will never drink of the wormwood and the gall, so as really to "taste
of death," till the Lord shall come.
This tasting of death here may be explained and I believe it is to be
explained by a reference to the second death, which men will not taste
of till the Lord comes. And what a dreadful sentence that was, when the
Savior said–perhaps singling out Judas as He spoke–"Assuredly I say
unto you, there are some standing here who shall never know what that
dreadful word 'death' means, till the Lord shall come. You think that
if you save your lives, you escape from death.
Ah, you do not know what death means! The demise of the body is but a
prelude to the perdition of the soul. The grave is but the porch of
death–you will never understand the meaning of that terrible word till
the Lord comes."
This can have no reference to the saints, because in the eighth chapter
of John and the fifty-first verse, you find this passage–"Verily,
verily, I say unto you, If a man keeps My sayings, he shall never see
death. Then said the Jews unto Him, Now we know that you have a devil.
Abraham is dead and the Prophets. And you say, If a man keeps My
sayings, he shall never taste of death." No righteous man, therefore,
can ever "taste of death."
He will fall into that deep oblivious sleep in which the body sees
corruption. But that is another and a very different thing from the
bitter cup referred to as tasting of death. When the Holy Spirit wanted
an expression to set forth what was the equivalent for the Divine
wrath, what expression was used? "Christ, by the Grace of God, tasted
death for every man." The expression, "to taste of death," means the
reception of that true and essential death, which kills both the body
and the soul in Hell forever. The Savior said then, as He might say, I
fear, if He stood in this pulpit tonight–"Assuredly I say unto you,
there are some standing here which shall not taste of death till they
see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom."
If this is the meaning and I hold that it is in keeping with the
context, it explains the verse, sets forth the reason why Christ
bespoke breathless attention with the word "assuredly," answers both
the grammar and the rhetoric and is not by any argument that I have
ever heard of to be repudiated. If this is so, what thrilling
denunciations are contained in my text! O, may the Holy Spirit deeply
affect our hearts and cause our souls to thrill with its solemnity!
What thoughts it stirs up! Compared with the doom which will be
inflicted upon the ungodly at the coming of Christ, the death of nature
is nothing.
We go farther–compared with the doom of the wicked at the coming of
Christ, even the torments of souls in a separate state are scarcely
anything. The startling question then comes up–"Are there any sitting
or standing here who will have to taste of death when the Lord comes?"
I. THE SINNER'S DEATH IS BUT A FAINT PRESAGE OF THE SINNER'S DOOM AT
THE COMING OF THE SON OF MAN IN HIS GLORY. Let me endeavor to show the
contrast. We can make but little comparison between the two in point of
time. Many men meet with their death so suddenly that it can scarcely
involve any pain to them. They are crushed, perhaps, by machinery. A
shot sends them to find a grave upon the battlefield, or they may be
speedily poisoned.
If they are for hours, or days, or weeks, or months, upon the bed of
sickness, yet the real work of dying is but short. It is more a weary
sort of living than an actual sense of dying while hope lingers though
even in fitful dreams. Dying is but the work of a moment–if it shall
be said to last for hours, yet the hours are brief. Misery may count
them long, but oh, with what swift wings do they fly! To die, to fall
asleep, to suffer–it may be but a pin's prick–and then to have passed
away from the land of the living to the realm of shades!
But oh, the doom which is to be brought upon the wicked when Christ
comes! This is a death which never dies. Here is a heart palpitating
with eternal misery. Here is an eye never filmed by the kind finger of
generous forgetfulness. Here will be a body never to be stiffened in
apathy–never to be laid quietly in the grave–never rid of keen pangs,
wearing disease and lingering wretchedness! To die, I say, is nature's
kind release–it brings ease. It comes to a man, for this world, at
least, a farewell to his woes and griefs.
But there shall be no ease, no rest, no pause in the destination of
impenitent souls. "Depart, you cursed," shall ever ring along the
endless aisles of eternity. The thunderbolt of that tremendous word
shall follow the sinner in his perpetual flight from the Presence of
God–from its baleful influence he shall never be able to escape–no,
never! A million years shall make not so much difference to the
duration of his agony as a cup of water taken from the sea would to the
volume of the ocean. No, when millions of years told a million times
shall have rolled their fiery orbits over his poor tormented head, he
shall be no nearer to the end than he was at first.
Talk of Death! I might even paint him as an angel when once I think of
the terrors of the wrath to come. Soon come, soon gone, is Death. That
sharp scythe gives but one cut and down falls the flower and withers in
the heat of the sun. But eternity, eternity, eternity! Who shall
measure its wounds? Who shall fathom the depths of the gashes? When
eternity wields the whip, how dreadfully will it fall! When eternity
grasps the sword, how deep shall be the wounds, how terrible its
killing!–
"To linger in eternal pain,
Yet death forever fly."
You are afraid of death, Sinner? You are afraid of death? Were you
wise, you would be ten thousand times ten thousand times more afraid of
the coming and the judgment of the Son of Man! In point of loss there
is no comparison. When the sinner dies it is not tasting of death in
its true sense, for what does he lose? He loses wife and children and
friends. He loses all his dainty bits and his sweet draughts. Where now
are his violin and his lute? Where now the merry dance and the joyful
company? For him no more pleasant landscape nor gliding stream. For him
no more light of the sun by day, nor light of moon and stars by night.
He has lost, at one stroke, every comfort and every hope.
But then the loss, as far as death is concerned, is but a loss of
earthly things–the loss of temporal and temporary comforts–and he
might put up with that. It is wretched enough to lose these, but let
your imagination follow me, faint as is my power to describe the
everlasting and infinite loss of the man who is found impenitent at the
last great Judgment Day. What does he lose then? The harps of Heaven
and the songs. The joys of God's Presence and the light. The jasper sea
and the gates of pearl. He has lost peace and immortality and the crown
of life.
No, he has lost all hope–and when a man has lost that, what remains
for him? His spirit sinks with a terrible depression, more frightful
than a maniac ever knew in his wildest moods of grief. His soul sinks
never to recover itself into the depths of dark despair, where not a
ray of hope can ever reach him. Lost to God! Lost to Heaven! Lost to
time! Lost to the preaching of the Gospel! Lost to the invitation of
mercy! Lost to the prayers of the gracious! Lost to the Mercy Seat!
Lost to the blood of sprinkling! Lost to all hope of every sort–lost,
lost, forever! Compared with this loss the losses of death are nothing,
and well might the Savior say that lost spirits shall not even "taste
of death" until He shall come and they shall receive their sentence.
Neither does death bear any comparison with the last judgment in point
of terror. I do not like to paint the terrors of the deathbed of
unrepentant men. Some, you know, glide gently into their graves. It is,
in fact, the mark of the wicked that they have no bands in their
death–their strength is firm. They are not troubled like other men
are. Like the sheep they are laid in the grave. A peaceful death is no
sign of Grace. Some of the worst of men have died with a smile upon
their countenance to have it changed for one eternal weeping. But there
are more men of other exquisite sensibility, instructed men, who cannot
die like brutes–and they have alarms and fears and terrors when they
are on their deathbeds.
Many an atheist has cried to God under dying pangs and many an Infidel
who up to then could brag and speak high things against God, has found
his cheek turn pale and his throat grow hoarse when he has come there.
Like the mariner, the boldest man in that great storm reels to and fro
and staggers like a drunken man and is at his wits' ends–for he finds
that it is no child's play to die. I try sometimes to picture that hour
when we shall perhaps be propped up in bed, or lying down with pillows
round about us, and diligently watched. And as they hush their
footfalls and gaze anxiously on, there is a whisper that the solemn
time has come and then there is a grappling of the strong man with the
stronger than he.
Oh, what must it be to die without a Savior! To die in the dark without
a light except the lurid glare of the wrath to come! Horrors there are,
indeed, around the deathbed of the wicked! But these are hardly
anything compared with the terrors of the Day of Judgment! When the
sinner wakes from his bed of dust, the first object he will see will be
the Great White Throne and the Judge seated upon it–the first sound
that will greet his ears will be the trumpet sounding–
"Come to judgment, come to judgment, Come to judgment, Sinner, come."
He will look up and there will be the Son of Man on His judgment
throne–the King's officers arranged on either side–the saints on His
right hand and angels round about. Then the books will be opened. What
creeping horror will come upon the flesh of the wicked man! He knows
his turn will arrive in a moment. He stands expecting it. Fear takes
hold upon him while the eyes of the Judge look him through and through
and he cries to the rocks to hide him and the mountains to fall upon
him! Happy would he be now to find a friendly shelter in the grave, but
the grave has burst its doors and can never be closed upon him again.
He would even be glad to rush back to his former state in Hell, but he
cannot!
The judgment has come, the assize is set–again the trumpet rings–
"Come to judgment, come to judgment, Come to judgment, come away." And
then the book is opened and the dread sentence is pronounced. And, to
use the words of Scripture, "Death and Hell are cast into the lake of
fire. This is the second death. And whoever was not found written in
the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire." The man never knew
what death was before. The first death was but a flea-bite! This is
death, indeed. The first death he might have looked back upon as a
dream, compared with this tasting of death now that the Lord has come!
From what we can gleam darkly from hints of Scripture, the pains of
death are not at all comparable to the pains of the judgment at the
second advent. Who will speak in a depreciating manner of the pains of
death? If we should attempt to do so, we know that our hearts would
contradict us. In the shades of night, when deep sleep falls upon men,
you sometimes suddenly awake. You are alarmed. The terror by night has
come upon you. You expect–you hardly know what it is–but you are half
afraid that you are about to die. You know how the cold sweat comes
upon the brow. You may have a good hope through Grace, but the very
thought of death brings a peculiar pang.
Or when death has really come in view, some of us have marked with
terrible grief the sufferings of our dearest friends. We have heard the
eye-strings break. We have seen the face all pallid and the cheek all
hollow and sunken. We have sometimes seen how every nerve has become a
road for the hot feet of pain to travel on and how every vein has been
a canal of grief. We have marked the pains, and moans, and groans, and
dying strife that frightens the soul away. These, however, are common
to man. Not so the pangs which are to be inflicted both on body and
soul at the coming of the Son of God!
They are such that I cast a veil over them, fearful of the very
thought! Let the Master's words suffice–"Fear Him who is able to cast
both body and soul into Hell; yes, I say unto you, fear Him." Then the
body in all the parts shall suffer. The members which were once
instruments of unrighteousness shall now be instruments of suffering.
And the mind, the major sinner, shall be also the greater sufferer. The
memory, the judgment, the understanding, the will, the imagination and
every power and passion of the soul will become a deep lake of anguish.
But I spare you these things! Oh, spare yourselves! God alone knows
with what pain I have talking about these horrors!
Were it not that they must be spoken of, or else I must give my account
at the Day of Judgment as a faithless servant. Were it not that I speak
of them in mercy to your souls, poor Sinners, I would gladly forget
them altogether, seeing that my own soul has a hope in Him who saves
from the wrath to come. But as long as you will not have mercy upon
yourselves, we must lay this axe at your root–so long as you will make
a mockery of sin and set at nothing the terrors of the world to
come–we must warn you of Hell.
If it is hard to talk of these things, what must it be to endure them?
If a dream makes you quiver from head to foot, what must it be to
endure really and in person, the wrath to come? O Souls, were I to
speak as I ought, my knees would knock together with trembling! Were
you to feel as you should, there would not be an unconverted man among
you who would not cry, "Sir, what must I do to be saved?" I do beseech
you to remember that death, with all its pangs, is but a drop in a
bucket compared with the deep, mysterious, fathomless, shoreless sea of
grief you must endure forever at the coming of the Lord Jesus unless
you repent!
Death makes great discoveries. The man thought himself wise, but Death
draws the curtain and he sees written up in large letters–"You fool!"
He said he was prudent, for he hoarded up his gold and silver and kept
the wages of the laborer. But now he finds that he has made a bad
bargain while the question is propounded to him–"What does it profit
you, to have gained the world and to have lost your soul?" Death is a
great revealer of secrets. Many men are not believers at all until they
die. But Death comes and makes short work with their skepticism. It
gives but one blow upon the head of doubt and all is done. The man
believes then, only he believes too late!
Death gives to the sinner the discovery that there is a God–an angry
God–and punishment is wrapped up in the wrath to come. But how much
greater the discoveries that await the Day of Judgment! What will the
sinner see then? He will see the Man who was crucified sitting upon His
Throne. He will hear how Satan has been defeated in all his craftiest
undertakings. Read from those mysterious books, the secrets of all
hearts shall then be revealed. Then men shall understand how the Lord
reigned supremely even when Satan roared most loudly–how the mischief
and the folly of man did but, after all, bring forth the great purposes
of God.
All this shall be in the books and the sinner shall stand there
defeated, terribly defeated, beaten at every point– baffled, foiled,
stultified in every act and every purpose by which he thought to do
well for himself. Yes, and utterly confused in all the hostility and
all the negligence of his heart towards the living and true God who
would, and who did rule over him. Too late he will discover the
preciousness of the blood he despised–the value of the Savior he
rejected–the glory of the Heaven which he lost and the terror of the
Hell to which he is sentenced! How wise, how dreadfully wise will he be
when fully aware of his terrible and eternal destruction! Thus sinners
shall not taste of death in the real meaning of the term until the Lord
shall come.
II. Still further–IN THE STATE OF SEPARATE SPIRITS THEY HAVE NOT FULLY
TASTED OF DEATH, NOR WILL THEY DO SO UNTIL CHRIST COMES. The moment
that a man dies, his spirit goes before God. If without Christ, that
spirit then begins to feel the anger and the wrath of God. It is as
when a man is taken before a magistrate. He is known to be guilty and
therefore he is remanded and put in prison till his trial shall come.
Such is the state of souls apart from the body–they are spirits in
prison–waiting for the time of their trial.
There is not, in the sense in which the Romanist teaches it, any
purgatory! Yet there is a place of waiting for lost spirits which is in
Scripture called, "Hell," because it is one room in that awful prison,
in which must dwell forever spirits that die finally impenitent and
without faith in Christ. But those of our departed countrymen and
fellow citizens of earth who die without Christ have not yet fully
tasted of death, nor can they until the advent of the Lord. Just
consider why not. Their bodies do not suffer. The bodies of the wicked
are still the prey of the worm–still the atoms are the sport of the
winds and are traversing their boundless cycles and must do so until
they are gathered up into the body again, at the trump of the
archangel–at the voice of God.
The ungodly know that their present state is to have an end at the
Judgment, but after the Judgment their state will have no end. It is
then to go on and on and on, forever and forever, unchanged and
unchangeable. Now there may be half a hope, an anticipation of some
change, for change brings some relief. But to the finally damned–upon
whom the sentence has been pronounced–there is no hope even of a
change. Forever and forever shall there be the same ceaseless wheel of
misery!
The ungodly, too, in their present state, have not as yet been put to
the shame of a public sentence. They have, as it were, merely been cast
into prison, the facts being too clear to admit of any doubt as to the
sentence. And they are their own tormentors, vexing and paining
themselves with the fear of what is yet to come. They have never yet
heard that dreadful sentence–"Depart, you cursed, into everlasting
fire, prepared for the devil and his angels." I was struck, while
studying this subject, to find how little is said about the pains of
the lost while they are merely souls and how much is said concerning
them when the Lord comes.
You have that one parable of the rich man and Lazarus and there it
speaks of the soul being already tormented in the flame. But if you
turn to the thirteenth chapter of Matthew and read the parable of the
tares, you will find it is at the end of the world that the tares are
to be cast into the fire. Then comes the parable of the dragnet. It is
when the dispensation comes to an end that the net is to be dragged to
shore and then the good are to be put in vessels and the bad cast away.
And then the Lord says, "The Son of Man shall send forth His angels and
they shall gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and them
which do iniquity. And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there
shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth."
That memorable description in Matthew of those of whom He said, "I was
hungry and you gave me no meat. I was thirsty and you gave me no
drink," is described as happening when, the "Son of Man shall come in
His glory and all His holy angels with Him." The Apostle Paul, too,
tells us plainly in the Epistle to the Thessalonians that the wicked
are to be destroyed at His coming by the brightness of His power. The
recompense of the ungodly, like the reward of the righteous, is
anticipated now–but the full reward of the righteous is to be at His
coming. They are to reign with Christ. Their fullness of bliss is to be
given them when the King Himself in His glory shall sit upon His
Throne. So, too, the wicked have the beginning of their heritage at
death, but the dread fullness of it is to be hereafter.
At the present moment, death and Hell are not yet cast into the lake of
fire. Death is still abroad in the world slaying men. Hell is yet
loose. The devil is not yet chained, but still does he go about the
"dry places, seeking rest and finding none." At the last day, at the
coming of Christ, "death and Hell shall be cast into the lake of fire."
We do not understand the symbol. But if it means anything, one would
think it must mean this–that at that day the scattered powers of evil,
which are to be the tormentors of the wicked, but which have up to now
been wandering up and down throughout the world, shall all be collected
together–and then, indeed, shall it be that the wicked shall begin to
"taste of death" as they have never tasted of it before!
My soul is bowed down with terror while I speak these words to you! I
scarcely know how to find suitable words to express the weight of
thought which is upon me. My dear Hearers, instead of speculating upon
these matters, let us try to shun the wrath to come. And what can help
us to do that better than to weigh the warning words of a dear and
loving Savior when He tells us that at His coming such a gloom shall
pass upon impenitent souls, that compared with it, even death itself
shall be as nothing?
Christians, by the faith of their risen Lord, swallow death in victory.
But if you die impenitent, you swallow death in ignorance. You do not
feel its bitterness now. But, oh, that bitter pill has yet to work its
way and that fierce draught has yet to be drained even to the dregs,
unless you repent! And now, does not the meditation of these terrors
prompt A QUESTION. Jesus said–"Assuredly I say unto you, there are
some standing here which shall not taste of death till they see the Son
of Man coming in His kingdom." Are there any standing or sitting here
who shall not taste of death till then?
In that little group addressed by the Savior stood Judas. He had been
trusted by His Master and he was an Apostle. But after all he was a
thief and a hypocrite. He, the son of perdition, would not taste of
death till Christ should come in His kingdom. Is there a Judas here? I
look into your faces and many of you are members of this Church and
others of you, I doubt not, are members of other Christian
Churches–but are you sure that you have made sound work of it? Is your
religion genuine? Do you wear a mask, or are you an honest man?
O Sirs, try your own hearts and since you may fail in the trial, ask
the Lord to search you! For as the Lord my God lives, unless you thus
search yourselves and find that you are in the right, you may come
presumptuously to sit at the Lord's Table. Though with a name to live,
you may be among His people here, but you will have to taste of death
when the Lord comes. You may deceive us, but you cannot deceive Him!
The preacher reflects that he himself may be mistaken. That he himself
may be self-deceived. If it is so, may the Lord open my eyes to know
the worst of my own state! Will you put up this prayer for yourselves,
professors? Do not be too bold, you who say you are Christ's–never be
satisfied till you are quite sure of it. And the best way to be sure is
to go again just as you went at first and lay hold on eternal life
through the power of the blessed Spirit and not by any strength of your
own.
No doubt, however, there stood in that little throng around the Savior
some who were careless sinners. He knew that they had been so during
the whole of His teaching and that they would be so still, and
therefore they would taste of death at His coming. Are there not some
careless persons come in here tonight? I mean you who never think about
religion, who generally look upon Sunday as a day of pleasure, or who
loll about in your shirtsleeves nearly all the day. You who look upon
the very name of religion as a bugbear to frighten children with–who
mock God's servants and despise the very thought of earnestly seeking
after the Most High.
Oh, will you, will you be among the number of those who taste of death
when the Son of Man shall come in His kingdom? Oh, must I ring your
death knell tonight? Must my warning voice be lost upon you? I beseech
you to recollect that you must either turn or burn! I beseech you to
remember this–"Let the wicked forsake his ways and the unrighteous man
his thoughts. And let him turn unto the Lord and He will have mercy
upon him. And to our God, for He will abundantly pardon." By the wounds
of Jesus, Sinner, stop and think! If God's dear Son was slain for human
sin, how terrible must that sin be! And if Jesus died, how base are you
if you are disobedient to the doctrine of faith! I pray you, if you
think of your body, give some thought to your soul! "Why do you spend
money for that which is not bread? And labor for that which satisfies
not?" Hearken diligently unto Jehovah's Word and eat of that which is
good, real, and substantial food. Come to Jesus and your soul shall
live!
And there are some here of another class–Bethsaida sinners, Capernaum
sinners! I mean some of you who constantly occupy these pews and stand
in yonder area and sit in yonder gallery Sunday after Sunday. The same
eyes look down on me week after week. The same faces salute me often
with a smile when Sunday comes and I pass you journeying to this, the
Tabernacle of your worship. And yet how many of you are still without
God and without Christ? Have I been unfaithful to you? If I have,
forgive me and pray to God both for me and for yourselves that we may
mend our ways.
But if I have warned you of the wrath to come, why will you choose to
walk in the path which leads to it? If I have preached to you Christ
Jesus, how is it that His charms move you not and that the story of His
great love does not bring you to repentance? O that the Spirit of God
would come and deal with you, for I cannot! My hammer breaks not your
flinty hearts, but God's arm can do it and O, may He turn you yet! Of
all sinners over whom a minister ought to weep, you are the worst–for
while the careless perish you perish doubly!
You know your Master's will and yet you do it not. You see Heaven's
gate set open and yet you will not enter. Your vicious free will ruins
you! Your base and wicked love of self and sin destroys you! "You will
not come unto Me that you might have life," said Christ. You are so
vile that you will not turn even though Jesus should woo you. I pray
you let the menace of judgment to come contained in my text stir you
now if you have never been stirred before! May God have pity on you
even if you will have no pity upon yourselves.
Perhaps among that company there were some who held the Truth of God,
but who held it in licentiousness–and there may be such here present.
You believe in the doctrine of election. So do I. But then you make it
a cloak for your sin! You hold the doctrine of the perseverance of the
saints, but you still persevere in your iniquity. Oh, there is no way
of perishing that I know of worse than perishing by making the
Doctrines of Grace an excuse for one's sins! The Apostle has well said
of such that their damnation is just–it is just to any man, but to a
seven-fold degree is it just to such as you are! I would not have you
forget the doctrine, nor neglect it, nor despise it–but I do beseech
you do not prostitute it–do not turn it to the vile purposes of making
it pander to your own carnal ease.
Remember, you have no evidence of election except you are holy and you
have no right to expect you will be saved at the last unless you are
saved now. A present faith in a present Savior is the test. O that my
Master would bring some of you to trust Him tonight! The plan of
salvation is simple–trust Christ and you are saved! Rely upon Him and
you shall live! This faith is the gift of God, but remember that though
God gives it, He works in you to will and to do of His own good
pleasure. God does not believe for you. The Holy Spirit does not
believe for you–you must believe, or else you will be lost!
And it is quite consistent with the fact that it is the gift of God, to
say that it is also the act of man. You must, poor Soul, be led to
trust the Savior, or into Heaven you can never enter. Is there one here
who says, "I desire to find the Savior tonight"? Go not to your bed
until you have sought Him and seek Him with sighs and with tears. I
think this is a night of Divine Grace. I have preached the Law and the
terrors of the Lord to you, but it will be a night of Grace to the
souls of some of you! My Master does but kill you that He may make you
alive! He does but wound you that He may make you whole!
I feel a sort of inward whisper in my heart that there are some of you
who even now have begun your flight from the wrath to come. Where do
you flee? Fly to Jesus! Hurry, Sinner, hurry! I trust you will find Him
before you retire to your beds, or if you lie tossing there in doubt
and fear, then may He manifest Himself to you before the morning light.
I think I would freely give my eyes if you might but see Christ! And I
would willingly give my hands if you might but lay hold on Him! Do, I
beseech you, put not from you this warning, but let it have its proper
work upon you and lead you to repentance!
May God save you and may the prayer we have already offered this
evening be answered, that the company of you may be found among His
elect at His right hand. To that end let us pray. Our Father, save us
with Your great salvation. We will say unto God, do not condemn us!
Deliver us from going down to the pit, for You have found the ransom.
May we not be among the company that shall taste of death when the Son
of Man shall come. Hear us, Jesus, through Your blood. God be merciful
to us sinners. Amen.