Filling Up the Measure of Iniquity
(No. 3043)
A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 1907.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING,
OCTOBER 8, 1871.
"The iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full." Genesis 15:16.
THE Amorites had indulged in the most degrading sin. God had observed
this, but He did not at once execute vengeance upon them. He had
determined that, as a nation, they should be destroyed and rooted out
from under Heaven and that their land should be given to the seed of
Abraham. But He tells Abraham that his seed must wait for it, for as
yet the Amorites had not filled up the measure of their iniquity. It
would take more than 400 years, during which time God's patience would
wait while the Amorites continued to heap sin upon sin, iniquity upon
iniquity, until they reached a certain point–and then God would bear
with them no longer. When the Lord uttered the words of our text, the
Amorites had not come up to that fatal point and, therefore, He did not
at once mete out their punishment to them, for the measure of iniquity
was not yet full.
It is a well-known Truth of God that God has great long-suffering, but
that there is a point beyond which even His long-suffering will not go.
It has been so in the great judgments of God in the world. Before the
days of Noah, men had revolted from God, but Noah was sent to them as a
preacher of righteousness. And he did preach and the Spirit of God was
with him. Yet, for all that, the antediluvian world turned not from its
sin and when the 120 years had expired–but not till then–God opened
the windows of Heaven and down came the deluge which destroyed the
whole race with the exception of the eight souls who were preserved in
the ark. Those old-world sinners had had 120 years for repentance, and
120 years of earnest, faithful warning from holy Noah–and not till all
those year's had expired did God's patience come to an end and His
judgments begin.
Remember also the case of the children of Israel in the wilderness.
They were a rebellious people–constantly revolting, often
murmuring–at one time setting up a golden calf in the place of the one
living and true God–yet the Lord had long patience with them. His
anger did sometimes wax hot against them, but Moses came in between
them as a mediator and God postponed the punishment of His wayward
people. But at last it seemed as though He could bear with them no
longer, so He swore in His wrath, "They shall not enter into My
rest"–and their carcasses fell in the wilderness till the track of
Israel through the desert could be marked by the graves of the
unbelieving nation–and there were funerals every day. It was this sad
fact that caused Moses so mournfully to sing, in the 90th Psalm, "You
carry them away as with a flood; they are as a sleep: in the morning
they are like grass which grows up. In the morning it flourishes, and
grows up; in the evening it is cut down, and withers. For we are
consumed by Your anger, and by Your wrath are we troubled. You have set
our iniquities before You, our secret sins in the light of Your
Countenance. For all our days are passed away in Your wrath: we spend
our years as a tale that is told. The days of our years are threescore
years and ten; and if by reason of strength they are fourscore years,
yet is their strength labor and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we
fly away. Who knows the power of Your anger? Even according to Your
fear, so is Your wrath. So teach us to number our days, that we may
apply our hearts unto wisdom. Return, O Lord, how long? And let it
repent You concerning Your servants. O satisfy us early with Your
mercy; that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. Make us glad
according to the days wherein You have afflicted us, and the years
wherein we have seen evil." Not a man of all that generation, save only
Joshua, the son of Nun, and Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, was permitted
to enter the promised land!
You will also at once call to mind the history of the two nations of
Israel and Judah in later years. They exceedingly provoked the Lord and
their land was, therefore, invaded by their enemies–and many of the
people and their rulers
were carried into captivity. But God did not cast off His people, nor
expatriate them from their highly-favored land till, by degrees, they
had reached the climax of rebellion and idolatry. Then He delivered the
chosen nations into the hands of their cruel adversaries. Israel was
swept clean as a man's threshing floor when he has purged it. And as
for the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, they ceased to dwell by the
vine-covered hills of their own dear land, for they were carried away
into captivity by the rivers of Babylon where they wept when they
remembered Zion. God is indeed long-suffering, but there is an end,
even to His long-suffering! The Jews in our Lord's day, and especially
the scribes and Pharisees, were so obstinate and perverse that, at
last, our Savior said to them, "Fill you up, then, the measure of your
fathers." He had borne long with them and He still pleaded with them
and wept over them–but at last, the nation as a nation, was given up
to blindness and hardness of heart! The beautiful city of Jerusalem was
destroyed and not one stone of the Temple was left upon another.
I might, if it were necessary, say that a similar experience has
befallen all the great nations of the earth, for all of them have been
greatly sinful. The crimes of the Assyrian king and people brought that
mighty empire to an inglorious end. Babylon sank, not so much beneath
the power of the Medes and Persians as beneath the sins of Belshazzar
and his blasphemous princes and lords and ladies! And the Persian
Empire, in its turn, passed not away because of Alexander's valor so
much as because the Medes and Persians were corrupt in the sight of the
Lord. So was it with Greece–her idolatries and her filthinesses
brought upon her the ruin which makes her at once the admiration of all
lands for her artistic beauty and the detestation of all lands for her
festering corruption and iniquity. As for the Roman Empire–who that
reads the history of her rise and fall but knows that long before the
city of Rome began to crumble and decay, her virtue had departed, her
ancient valor had declined, licentiousness had reached an awful
pitch–and then the Word of the Lord went forth that the iniquitous
empire should be swept away? I might give modern instances of the
working of the same Law, but I shall not. Certain is it that God has
long patience with the various nations and tribes of men that keep on
sinning against Him, but at last He utters that mysterious prophetic
sentence (Isa 34:5), "My sword shall be bathed in Heaven." And then woe
be unto the men or the nations whom He smites, "for it is the day of
the Lord's vengeance, and the year of recompense for the controversy of
Zion."
When we speak of this great Law of God as it operates on a large scale
among nations, many will admit the truth of it, but they are not so
willing to admit the truth of it so far as it concerns themselves. I
intend, therefore, to confine myself in this discourse to the great
principle of my text as it can be applied to individuals. There is a
fullness of the iniquity of every individualsinner in these days, just
as there was a fullness of the iniquity of the Amorites in ancient
times. And I will try to prove to you, first, that there is a time when
the measure of a sinner's iniquity is not yet full. Secondly, that the
measure ofhis iniquity is constantly being filled. And, thirdly, that
the measure willsoon be full And I want you all solemnly and seriously
to consider the question–What will happen then?
I. First, then, THERE IS A TIME WHEN THE MEASURE OF A SINNER'S INIQUITY
IS NOT YET FULL.
There is a measure for all iniquity and every iniquity is put into that
measure. Flatter not yourself, Sinner, with the false and foolish
notion that your sin is forgotten. You may possibly forget it, but God
never forgets. You may keep no record of your transgressions, but God's
recording angel does not fail to write in His Book of Remembrance, and
to engrave them as "with an iron pen and lead in the rock forever," as
Job said concerning the preservation of his own words. All those sins
of yours–the sins of your youth and of your manhood–are registered in
God's Book. You shut your eyes, and–like the ostrich that has buried
his head in the sand and, therefore, thinks itself secure because it
cannot see the danger that threatens it–you delude yourself with the
notion that because you have forgotten your sins, they have ceased to
be, but it is not so! Though you should seek to hide your sins in a
cleft among the snow on the top of the Himalayas, Jehovah would
speedily bring them down from those lofty heights! And though you
should attempt to bury them in the depths of the Atlantic, God would
bring them up from the lowest ocean bed! Sin is an everlasting thing–
unless it is put away by God, Himself, for the Lord Jesus Christ's
sake–no grave in the world can hide it. No earthly sepulcher can
conceal it from the all-seeing eyes of Jehovah. If buried for a while,
there will be a resurrection of sin as well as of sinners–and what a
dread procession of sin, iniquity, unrighteousness and transgression
shall slowly march before your newly-awakened eyes, O unrepentant and
unforgiven sinner, when your iniquities shall rise up in judgment
against you to condemn you!
Thus I have reminded you that there is a measure for all iniquity, but,
happily, that measure is not yet full. That was a very remarkable
vision that was seen by the Prophet Zechariah, "a woman that sits in
the midst of the ephah." And the angel said, "This is wickedness. And
he cast it into the midst of the Ephah," so that evidently the measure
had not been full. And it is still true that there is a time when a
sinner's measure of iniquity is "not yet full." Let me, however, also
remind you it is only God's infinite mercy that permits a sinner to
continue to live after he has committed even one sin. There is no
reason why, upon the basis of Infallible Justice, a man should be
allowed to sin up to a certain point. A single sin is the transgression
of the Law of God–it is high treason against "the King eternal,
immortal, invisible," and deserves to be punished. However much or
however little we may have sinned, "every transgression and
disobedience" ought to receive "a just recompense of reward," as in the
days of which Paul wrote to the Hebrews. Apart from the Atoning
Sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ, there is not one sinner living in
the whole world who could stand before God! It is not justice, but
boundless compassion and infinite pity which put a measure to man's
iniquity and allows him to live on until he has reached that point–for
sin is worthy of death in every case, and in any degree–so says the
Word of the Lord.
I must also remark that when we say that some sinners have not filled
their measure of iniquity, it must not be imagined that the same
measure of sin is to be filled up by every sinner The measures differ,
but when any man has filled his own measure, be it a large one or a
small one, then will God come to him in His wrath and punish him in His
hot displeasure. Some great offenders like Pharaoh and Judas fill up a
huge measure of transgression–some others, cut off in their earlier
days, spend a hot and hasty manhood in sin and go to their doom before
they have committed any notorious offenses against mankind in general.
The measures differ in size, but still in each case it gets filled
sooner or later. And then, woe, woe, woe unto the man whose measure of
iniquity is full! It is through God's long-suffering that we are able
to tell you this solemn Truth. I have reminded you already that if it
were not for His long-suffering patience, there would not be such a
point for sinners to reach, but their first sin would the crushing,
final, fatal blow from the hand of Divine Justice! It is God's
long-suffering that gives men space for repentance, that presents to
them, under the Gospel dispensation, the proclamations of mercy that
plead with them to turn from their sins and to lay hold on Eternal
Life.
Because of this, does anymore here wickedly say that as his particular
measure is not yet full, he may still go on in sin? Ah, my Friend, you
know not how small your measure may be, nor how soon it may be full!
But suppose it is a great measure which is to be filled by you? Then
the longer it is in getting filled, the heavier it will be when it is
filled and the more terrible will be your eternal doom! Little comfort
can any man ever derive from the fact that he is permitted to live long
in sin, for he will have to endure forever the heavier punishment for
the greater measure of guilt. Beware, beware, beware, you who would
draw the wrong kind of consolation from the subject we are now
considering, for there is no consolation in it for the willfully
wicked–only sorrow, fear and trembling of heart! Here we sit or stand
together in this House of Prayer–some of us saved by the Sovereign
Grace of God and others, sitting side by side with us, only here
because the measure of their iniquity is not yet full! Here is one who
is 40 years of age, but his measure is not yet full–he shall live
another year. Over there is one who is 60 years of age, but his measure
of iniquity is not yet full–he shall yet see another decade of years.
Yonder is one who is 70 and even his measure is not yet full, but it
soon will be! Ah, and how short is the span of human life even when it
is longest! And as I have already said, the heavier the sinner's
measure that takes so long to get filled, the more overwhelming shall
be the punishment that shall be meted out to such a sinner in the Great
Day of account.
When I have such a solemn theme as this, my words cannot flow freely
from my lips. I wish that I could speak out the inmost emotions of my
heart without even using my tongue, for my words fail to convey to you
what I feel in the deepest recesses of my being. O impenitent Sinner,
it is so sad to think that you are only sitting here because the
measure of your iniquity is not yet full! If there were half-a-dozen
persons together in a room and one of them was only there because the
hour fixed for his execution had not yet come, I think that you would
not take any particular interest in the other five individuals, whoever
they might be, but all your thoughts would center upon that one man of
whom you would say to yourself, sadly and sorrowfully, "He has been
judged according to the law of the land. The death-sentence has been
pronounced upon him and he is only spared because the clock has not yet
struck and the bell has not yet tolled for him to go out to execution."
You unbelievers are, according to God's Word, "condemned already"
because you have "not believed in the name of the only-begotten Son of
God." Christians, do you know that such condemned persons are here and
have you no heart of compassion for them? Children of God, do you know
that some of your own sons and daughters are in this terrible position
and yet have you no tears to shed on their account? O Preacher, can you
stand here and talk so coldly upon such a theme as this when words of
flame would be all too cold to express the horror that should fill your
soul in view of such an assembly as this? Oh, that we had more tender
hearts! For then should we more deeply pity those poor sinning souls
whose iniquity is not yes full!
II. With a heavy heart I must turn to my second point, which is that IN
THE CASE OF EVERY UNCONVERTED SINNER, THE MEASURE OF HIS INIQUITY IS
CONSTANTLY BEING FILLED.
Every sin that he commits helps to fill up the measure of his iniquity
and there is nothing that he can do without sin being mixed with it.
Solomon says that "the plowing of the wicked is sin." That is to say
even his common actions, in performing the ordinary avocations of his
daily life, bring sin upon him! Solomon also said, "The sacrifice of
the wicked is an abomination to the Lord," so that even when he
pretends to do that which is right in the case of a Christian, he is
still heaping up sin, filling up the measure of his iniquity!
There are some persons who fill up their measure very quickly–wanton,
dissolute, depraved sinners, they seem as if they could not heap up
iniquity fast enough! They are so greedy that with both hands they
labor to fill up the measure. They run, as Peter says, "to the excess
of riot,"with body and with the soul apparently determined to go post
haste to Hell. And if anything can be found by which they can quicken
their speed to destruction, they seek it out and seem to prize it. Is
it not strange that it should be so? Yet, in London, and I suppose it
is the same elsewhere, anyone who walks along the streets for a little
while will soon see evidences of the fact that there are many persons
to whom the usual methods of going to destruction seem to be all too
slow. I trust that if there are any young men here who are thus rapidly
filling up their measure of iniquity, they will stop and think. My
Friend, your candle will burn fast enough without your lighting it at
both ends! You will ruin yourself fast enough without needing to heap
up sin upon sin by becoming a drunkard and a gambler as well as profane
and unchaste! O man, why are you so diligent to be your own
destroyer?–
"Sinner, oh why so thoughtless grown? Why in such dreadful haste to
die? Daring to leap to worlds unknown, Heedless against your God to
fly."
Perhaps among the sins that fill up a man's measure very quickly, one
of the chief is persecution of God's people. A man will bear many
insults and even much injury to himself, but if you touch his children,
then the color comes into his face and he is swift to avenge the wrong
that has been done to them. So is it in the case of God's children and
their Father! He said to Zion in Babylon, "He that touches you, touches
the apple of My eye." If you want to be damned out of hand, become a
persecutor of the saints, for that is the quickest way to Hell! When
holy Wishart was chained to the stake, he pointed to the cardinal who
was gloating over the spectacle and told him that God's wrath would
shortly fall upon him–and so it came to pass, for God avenges His own
elect–and sometimes does it very speedily. The sin of persecuting the
Church of God is one which, perhaps more than any other, helps to fill
up the measure of a sinner's iniquity!
Another sin of a similar character is that of attending Gospel
ordinances and yet despising them. The Lord will deal more leniently
with those who are ignorant of the Gospel and have no opportunity of
hearing it, than He will deal with you to whom the Gospel has long been
familiar as a household word, yet in whom familiarity with it has only
bred contempt. Christ has been knocking at the door of some of your
hearts for many years. I can personally bear witness that the message
of salvation has come to you in many forms and various ways. I have
searched the Word of God with the view of finding the most impressive
texts–and I have prayed to God to guide me to subjects which might
savingly affect you. These topics have often affected my own heart
while I have been preparing for the pulpit, yet, so far they have not
affected your hearts–or at least not sufficiently to lead you to faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Depend upon it, you sermon-hearers are
bringing a curse upon yourselves by despising and refusing the blessing
which has so long been made known to you in vain! God may well say, "I
will not always send My servant to preach to those who judge themselves
unworthy of Everlasting Life. Why should I cast my Gospel pearls before
such swinish creatures? Why should I continue to call to those who will
not heed My voice?" Well may He say, as He did of old, "Because I have
called, and you refused; I have stretched out My hand and no man
regarded; but you have set at naught all My counsel, and would none of
My reproof; I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your
fear comes." It is no small sin to have heard the Gospel and yet to
have rejected it. You know how our Savior upbraided the cities wherein
most of His mighty works were done because
they repented not–"Woe unto you, Chorazin! Woe unto you, Bethsaida!
For if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre
and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes!
But I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at
the Day of Judgment, than for you."
It is another great help in filling up the measure of iniquity when a
man has had serious personal affliction, yet it has not softened, but
rather has hardened him. You, my Friend, were laid low a little while
ago. Was it a malignant fever, or some other dangerous disease that you
had? Your relatives said, "He cannot recover," and you turned your face
to the wall, in the bitterness of your spirit, for you feared that you
would die, and you knew that you were unprepared to meet your God. You
were glad enough if somebody would pray with you then! And, after a
fashion, you shuffled into some sort of prayer of your own and you
promised what you would do if the Lord would spare your forfeited life.
But where are your good resolutions now? There are some of you who used
to be Sabbath-breakers. And when you were likely to die, you said, "If
God will but spare me, the shop shall be closed on His holy day." Yet
you have opened it again though He spared you. You were a drunkard up
to the time of your great illness, but you said, "If God will spare my
life, I will never touch the intoxicating cup again." God did spare
your life, yet you are as conspicuous a slave of drink as ever you
were! And you have proved yourself to be a liar in the sight of God!
Young man, you got into a sad trouble once, but God, by a very special
Providential deliverance, helped you out of it and you then said, "I
will walk more guardedly for the future." Yet you have gone back to the
same sin, as the dog turns to his own vomit, "and the sow that was
washed, to her wallowing in the mire." But God will not waste His pains
on you much longer. A farmer plows his field and if it brings forth no
harvest, he may plow it again, but he will not always go on plowing a
field that is as barren as a rock. [See
Sermon #2977, Volume 52–PLOWING A ROCK.] A gardener may come to a
fig tree and if it bears no fruit, he may prune it and dig about it,
and fertilize it, but he will not go on doing that year after year–he
will at last say, "Cut it down; why cumbers it the ground?" And it must
be so with you if you still remain impenitent after all God's dealings
with you! By refusing to heed God's warning message which came to you
in the chamber of affliction. By forgetting the gentle pressure of
God's hand of mercy which raised you up to health and strength again,
you are helping to fill up the measure of your iniquity!
And let me further say that–and I know that my words will go home to
some here–when a man has been subject to convictions–whether those
convictions may be set down to an alarmed conscience, or to what I may
call the secondary operations of God's Holy Spirit, I will not
say–but, when a man has been the subject of convictions and has
stifled them, it greatly adds to the measure of his guilt The other
night a young man was in the street and a temptation was set before
him–and he knew it to be a temptation. He stood still a while and
thought within himself, "I know that this is a wrong thing for me to
do. It would break my mother's heart if she knew that I committed this
sin. And as for my father, I could never dare to look him in the face
again if he knew that I had done this and, besides, I am an attendant
at a place of worship and know that this is an evil thing–and that it
might be my eternal ruin." Now, after that young man had weighed the
matter, if he had deliberately chosen to commit that sin, there would
have been ten times the guilt in it than there might have been in the
case of another who was overtaken unawares by sudden temptation and had
no time to consider what was the right thing for him to do. In
proportion to the violence that a man has to do to himself in order to
commit a certain transgression, the measure of his guilt may be
estimated.
I believe there are people here who, on many occasions, have sat and
trembled at the Word of the Lord–and have been softened in spirit till
they have wept in silence–and sometimes openly. And they have
whispered to themselves, "We will really seek the great change. We will
cry to God for help that we may repent of sin and believe in Jesus, as
the preacher urges us." But on those steps outside they have met with
some worldly companion and, while talking with him, all their good
resolutions have melted away and the sinner who seemed to be impressed
remains a sinner still! The one who appeared to be awakened a month ago
is now a drunkard and the conscience that was thought to be getting
tender six months ago, is fast becoming as hard as the nether
millstone! These are dreadful facts, but they all go to show that a man
may be–even in the House of Prayer, and under the means of
Grace–continually filling up the measure of his iniquity. These are
terrible Truths of God for me to have to preach, but it is necessary
for them to be told. May you all feel the force of them and may God
thus drive you to seek shelter in His Son who died upon the Cross of
Calvary, "the Just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God."
III. My third point is that THE MEASURE OF INIQUITY WILL ONE DAY BE
FULL.
It will take time to fill it, but it will be filled in due time and, at
the rate at which some men go in sinning, they will soon fill up the
measure of their transgression. The tares are green and God will not
have them cut down yet, for He lets even the tares ripen. He allows
even the poisonous fruit of evil to hang on the tree till it grows
mellow and then it drops with its own weight. But the tares will ripen
and the evil fruit will become mellow–and then will their end come.
And it will take time for you sinners to ripen in sin, but you wil
ripen, and then you will be shaken from the tree and this life shall
know you no more.
I want you unconverted ones to think for a minute or two how nearly
full your measure probably is even now. Begin with your early childhood
and think over your many acts of willful disobedience and sin. I cannot
trace your whole life, but let me remind you of your early manhood. Is
there nothing for you to be ashamed of and nothing for you to repent of
there? I am sure that there are some here who cannot think of that
period of life without blushing for very shame. Then think of the later
days of your riper manhood. O Sirs, what heaps of sin are there! The
measure of your iniquity must be nearly full. Do not forget, too, that
we are usually very bad judges of our real state in the sight of God.
The probability is that the measure of our iniquity is a great deal
more full than we think it is. I hope none of you were ever bankrupts,
but if you ever were insolvent I expect that when you actually came to
look into your books, you found that you were much more deeply in debt
than you ever thought that you were! It is a common thing for men who
are in an unsound state in their business to fancy that their position
is better than a rigid examination proves it to be. And I believe it is
so in spiritual things with many of you. Take care, take care! You
suppose that only the bottom of the measure is full as yet, but the
recording angel sees that your iniquity is nearly up to the top! It is
a very mournful reflection, dear Friends, that there may be some
here–and that there probably are some here–who have only to commit
one more sin to fill up the measure of their iniquity! One more lie and
the measure is full! One more lascivious song and it is full. One more
act of theft, one more drunken bout and it is full! I have known some
people come here–and perhaps some such are now here–who have had
delirium tremens It is a wonder that they were not cast into Hell
then–a marvel of mercy that they were spared a little longer! But, the
next time that happens to you, Sir, it may be a delirium that will
never have an end! The next time you put that poison cup to your lips
and dare to drink till you are drunk, you will drink yourself into
eternal damnation! O beware, beware, BEWARE! It is not merely a man who
speaks thus to you–there is a warning Voice from Heaven which is
speaking to some people here through my lips. Stop, Sir, for if you
take only one step more you will be plunged in eternal ruin! Do you ask
what concern it is of mine whether you are lost or saved? It is as much
my concern as it would be if I could save your temporal life if I saw
you in danger! Much more would I desire to point out to you the danger
of your immortal soul that you may, by God's Infinite Grace, be saved
from spiritual and everlasting ruin!
All this while there is one very sad but most true reflection that I
must mention to you. It is this–while the unconverted are always
putting more sin into the measure, it is not in their power to take out
anything that is already in the measure. I can fill the ephah of my
transgression, but I cannot empty it, and I cannot even diminish it.
Somebody says to me, "Suppose, Sir, that I never sin again?" Well, what
then? Even if you get no further into debt, that will not pay off the
old score. "Then, Sir, what shall we do? Shall we stand here and weep
over our sins–will not our tears wash them away?" No, though you shed
a Niagara of penitential tears, there is no power in them to blot out a
single sin! "But what if we perform many good works?" No, though you
could fill an Atlantic with your good works, you would not have washed
out the crimson stain of even one of your innumerable transgressions!
No, you cannot take one sin out of the measure, though you can keep on
putting in sin upon sin upon sin–and so the measure is being filled
and it will soon be
full.
IV. So I close by asking you–what then?
I was reading in the New Testament, the other night, and there were
half-a-dozen words that impressed me with peculiar force. I think they
are, on the whole, as dreadful as any words that were ever spoken. I
may venture to say that even the Scripture, itself, contains no more
terrible words than these which I am about to quote to you, yet they
were spoken by the Lord Jesus, Himself–the loving, tender, gentle
Jesus, who called the little children to Him. They are recorded in the
8th Chapter of John' Gospel, the 21st verse. And then, as though one
thunder-clap must follow another, they are repeated in the 24th verse.
These are the words–
"You shall die in your sins."
Hear them again–"If you believe not that I am He, you shall die in
your sins." I heard of a man who died in a ditch, but that is nothing
compared with dying in the ditch of your sins! I heard of one who fell
down dead in the street, but what is that compared with dying in sin?
Some die starved, but that is nothing to dying in sin! Near my house,
the other day, there was one who sat down to eat and some coals from a
fire flew out and caught her clothes on fire–the people around her
tore her clothes from her back, but she was so badly burnt that she
died–but the flames of sin are worse than coals of the fire. "You
shall die in your sins." I have no choice as to how or where I shall
die except in this one respect–that I may never die in sin, with
iniquity like the fabled poison shirt killing its unhappy wearer. He
tried to tear it off and even tore away his flesh, but the poison burnt
into his bones–but it is worse than that to die in sin! Man, you must
die in your sins if you continue to live in them! You cannot escape
from the consequence of sin if you keep following in the pursuit of
sin. Work and you shall have your wages–and "the wages of sin is
death." Sow and you shall reap your harvest–and if you sow to the
flesh, you must and shall of the flesh reap corruption! I pray God that
none of you may ever know, in your own persons, the full meaning of
those awful words of the Savior, "You shall die in your sins."f you
believe not–
"YOU SHALL DIE IN YOUR SINS."
But I cannot send you away like this, although yonder clock has struck
the usual hour for closing the service. Thank God that no clock has
struck to forbid me to proclaim the tidings of mercy as long as men are
yet in this world. I told you that you could not take any sin out of
that measure and most truly did I speak, but let me whisper in your
ears that there is One, the ever-blessed Son of God, who can empty it!
He can take the measure of your sin, just as it is, and not merely take
out a little, but He can take it all and put it on His own shoulders
and carry it right away, and hurl it into his own sepulcher where it
shall be buried so deep that even the eyes of God, Himself, shall never
see it again! "Oh, would to God," says one, "that He would do that with
my sins!" Sir, He will do it with your sins, now, at this moment, if
you believe on Him. "Believe on Him?" says one, "I believe that He is
the Son of God and the Savior of men." Go further then, and trust Him
as your own Savior. Give up your sins! Give up your self-reliance and
cast yourself into those dear arms that were outstretched on the Cross
that great sinners might be folded in them and find eternal shelter
there–
"There is life for a look at the Crucified One. There is life at this
moment for you," if you will but look to Him! May God's gracious Spirit
enable you to look away from self to His great substitutionary
Sacrifice, to the full Atonement He made, to the utmost ransom that He
paid! Close in with Christ and the measure of your iniquity shall be
emptied!
But remember that if Christ is not received, there is no other hope of
salvation. And what is more, after this night there may not even be
another proclamation of the way of salvation for some of you. I do not
know when I am more pained–when I have to go to visit young men who
are dying, perhaps of consumption and without hope. It is dreadful work
to try to set forth the Gospel to them. I sometimes feel as if I must
proclaim the Law, though they are so sick and weak. And, sometimes, the
mother stands beside the bed and weeps, and says, "Ah, I have prayed
for him many times, but, oh, that I knew that he was saved!" Then she
says to me, on the stairs, "I could give him up, Sir, though I love the
dear boy–I could give him up without a sigh, but, oh, it breaks my
heart to think that he is dying without a Savior!" Yes, and every
Christian ought to feel the same, in his measure, about every sinner!
It is a trying thing to me, when I am walking in the street, to see an
accident. I feel as if my heart were in my mouth at once. If I were in
a railway accident and saw somebody killed, I do not think I would be
able to hold up my head for days. But, oh, to know that some of you are
losing your souls and that you are every day getting nearer and nearer
to your eternal doom! "Turn you, turn you, for why will you die?"
I often wonder why some of you come to hear me as you do. It puzzles
me, for I see no reason why you should do so. I offer you no amusement.
I tell you no comical stories, but I seek to break your hearts with the
hammer of the Word of God! You come and you go, yet you get no blessing
as far as I can see. Are you content to always have it so? If you are,
I am not content! I am at least responsible for faithfully warning you
and honestly preaching to you the great Gospel message, "Believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved." Every time I stand in this
pulpit, there is somebody here who never comes again–he cannot come
again, for he dies before the next Lord's-Day. So large is the
congregation here that I may almost say, speaking according to the laws
of probability, that it is almost certain that some one of us
will have gone the way of all flesh before this week is gone. Who will
it be? May God take the ripe and spare the green! May He take those who
are ready and spare those who are not ready! But, better still, may He
lead us all to trust in the Savior and then we shall all be ready
whenever the summons comes! May He do so, for His name's sake! Amen.