God's Barriers Against Man's Sin
A Sermon
(No. 220)
Delivered on Sabbath Morning, November 16th, 1856, by the
REV. C.H. SPURGEON
At New Park Street Chapel, Southwark.
BELOVED FRIENDS AND KINDRED IN CHRIST,
The days seem like weeks and the weeks seem like months since I went up
to the house of the Lord. My heart and my flesh are crying out for the
assembly of the saints. Oh how I long to hear once more the solemn
shout of the festal throng who with the voice of joy and praise keep
holy day!
I am slowly rallying. My great struggle now is with weakness. I feel as
if my frail bark had weathered a heavy storm which has made every
timber creak. Do not attribute this illness to my having laboured too
hard for my Master. For his dear sake, I would that I may yet be able
to labour more. Such toils as might be hardly noticed in the ramp for
the service of one's country, would excite astonishment in the church
for the service of our God.
And now, I entreat you for love's sake to continue in prayer for me.
When ye find access to God, remember me. Mind it is not by the words of
your mouth, nor yet by the cravings of your heart, but it is by the
precious blood of Christ ye must draw nigh to God. And when ye find his
sweet presence and are bedewed with his holy anointing, then pour out
your souls before him, and make mention of me in your supplications.
Yours to love and serve in the Gospel,
C. H. SPURGEON.
Clapham, Tuesday Evening, 26th October, 1858.
"Fear ye not me? saith the Lord; will ye not tremble at my presence,
which have placed the sand for the bound of the sea by a perpetual
decree, that it cannot pass it: and though the waves thereof toss
themselves, yet can they not prevail; though they roar, yet can they
not pass over it? But this people hath a revolting and a rebellious
heart; they are revolted and gone."–Jeremiah 5:22-23.
THE MAJESTY OF God, as displayed in creation and providence, ought to
stir up our hearts in adoring wonder and melt them down in willing
obedience to his commands. The Almighty power of Jehovah, so clearly
manifest in the works if his hands, should constrain us, his creatures,
to fear his name and prostrate ourselves in humble reverence before his
throne. When we know that the sea, however tempestuous, is entirely
submissive to the behests of God; that when he saith, "Hitherto shalt
thou come, but no further," it dares not encroach–"the pride of its
waves is stayed." When we know that God bridles the tempest, though
"nature rocks beneath his tread," and curbs the boisterous storm–he
ought to be feared–verily, he is a God before whom it is no dishonour
for us to bow ourselves in the very dust. The contemplation of the
marvellous works which he doth upon "the great and wide sea," where he
tosseth the waves to and fro, and yet keepeth them in their ordained
courses, should draw forth our devoutest emotions, and I could almost
say, inspire us with homage. Great art thou, O Lord God; greatly art
thou to be praised; let the world which thou hast made, and all that
therein is, declare thy glory! I can scarcely conceive a heart so
callous that it feels no awe, or a human mind so dull and destitute of
understanding, as fairly to view the tokens of God's omnipotent power,
and then turn aside without some sense of the fitness of obedience. One
might think the impression would be spontaneous in every breast, and if
not, only let reason do her office, and by slower process every mind
should yet be convinced. Let your eyes behold the stars; God alone can
tell their numbers, yet he calls them all by names; by him they are
marshalled in their spheres, and travel through the aerial universe
just as he gives them charge; they are all his servants, who with
cheerful haste perform the bidding of their Lord. You see how the
stormy wind and tempest like slaves obey his will; and you know that
the great pulse of ocean throbs and vibrates with its ebb and flow
entirely under his control. Have these great things of God, these
wondrous works of his, no lesson to teach us? Do they not while
declaring his glory reveal our duty? Our poets, both the sacred and the
uninspired, have feigned consciousness to those inanimate agents that
they might the more truthfully represent their honourable service. But
if because we are rational and intelligent beings, we withhold our
allegiance from our rightful Sovereign, then our privileges are a
curse, and our glory is a shame. Alas, then the instincts of men very
often guide them to act by impulse more wisely than they commonly do by
a settled conviction. Where is the man that will not bend the knee in
time of tempest? Where is the man that does not acknowledge God when he
hears the terrible voice of his deep-toned thunder, and sees with alarm
the shafts of his lightning fly abroad, cleaving the thick darkness of
the atmosphere? In times of plague, famine, and pestilence, men are
prone to take refuge in religion–they will make confession, like
Pharaoh, when he said, "I have sinned this time: the lord is righteous,
and I and my people are wicked;" but like him, when "the rain, and the
hail, and the thunders have ceased," when the plagues are removed, then
they sin yet more, and their hearts are hardened. Hence their sin
becomes exceeding sinful, since they sin against truths which even
nature itself teaches us are most just. We might learn, even without
the written oracles of Scripture, that we ought to obey God, if our
foolish hearts were not so darkened; thus unbelief of the Almighty
Creator is a crime of the first magnitude. If it were a petty Sovereign
against whom ye rebelled, it might be pardonable; if he were a man like
yourselves, ye might expect that your faults would easily find
forgiveness; but since he is the God who reigns alone where clouds and
darkness are round about him, the God to whom all nature is obedient,
and whose high behests are obeyed both in heaven and in hell, it
becomes a crime, the terrible character of which words cannot pourtray,
that you should ever sin against a God so marvellously great. The
greatness of God enhances the greatness of our sin. I believe this is
one lesson which the prophet intended to teach us by the text. He asks
us in the name of God, or rather, God asks us through him–"Fear ye not
me? saith the Lord: will ye not tremble at my presence?"
But while it is a lesson, I do not think it is the lesson of the text.
There is something else which we are to learn from it. God here
contrasts the obedience of the strong, the mighty the untamed sea, with
the rebellious character of his own people. "The sea," saith he, "obeys
me; it never breaks its boundary; it never leapeth from its channel; it
obeys me in all its movements. But man, poor puny man, the little
creature whom I could crush as the moth, will not be obedient to me.
The sea obeys me from shore to shore, without reluctance, and its
ebbing floods, as they retire from its bed, each of them says to me, in
the voices of the pebbles, O Lord, we are obedient to thee, for thou
art our master.' But my people," says God, "are a revolting and a
rebellious people; they go astray from me." And is it not, my brethren,
a marvellous thing, that the whole earth is obedient to God, save man?
Even the mighty Leviathan, who maketh the deep to be hoary, sinneth not
against God, but his course is ordered according to his Almighty
Master's decree. Stars, those wondrous masses of light, are easily
directed by the very wish of God; clouds, though they seem erratic in
their movement, have God for their pilot; "he maketh the clouds his
chariot;" and the winds, though they seem restive beyond control, yet
do they blow, or cease to blow just as God willeth. In heaven, on
earth, even in the lower regions, I had almost said, we could scarcely
find such a disobedience as that which is practised by man; at least,
in heaven, there is a cheerful obedience; and in hell there is
constrained submission to God, while on earth man makes the base
exception, he is continually revolting and rebelling against his Maker.
Still there is another thought in the text, and this I shall endeavour
to dilate upon. Let us read it again. "Fear ye not me? saith the Lord:
will ye not tremble at my presence?"–now here is the pith of the
matter–"which have placed the sand for the bound of the sea by a
perpetual decree, that it cannot pass it: and though the waves thereof
toss themselves, yet can they not prevail; though they soar, yet can
they not pass over it? But this people hath a revolting and a
rebellious heart; they are revolted and gone." "The sea," says God, "is
not only obedient, but it is rendered obedient by the restraint merely
of sand." It is not the rock of adamant that restrains the sea one half
so easily as just that little belt of sand and shingle which preserves
the dry land from the inundations of the ocean. "The sea obeys me, and
has for its only check the sand; and yet," says he, "my people, though
they have restraints the strongest that reason could imagine, are a
revolting and a rebellious people, and scarcely can my commands, my
promises, my love, my judgment, my providence or my word restrain them
from sin."
That is the point we shall dwell upon this morning. The sea is easily
restrained by a belt of sand; but we, notwithstanding all the
restraints of God, are a people bent on revolting from him.
The doctrine of the text, seems to me to be this–that without
supernatural means God can make all creatures obedient save man; but
man is so disobedient in his heart, that only some supernatural agency
can make him obedient to God, while the simple agency of sand can
restrain the sea, without any stupendous effort of divine power more
than he ordinarily puts out in nature: he can not thus make man
obedient to his will.
Now, my brethren, let us look back into history, and see if it has not
been so. What has been a greater problem, if we may so speak concerning
the Divine mind, than that of restraining men from sin? How many
restraints God has put upon man! Adam is in the garden, pure and holy;
he has restraints that one would think strong enough to prevent his
committing a sin so contemptible and apparently unprofitable as that by
which he fell. He is to have the whole garden in perpetuity, if he will
not eat of that tree of life; his God will walk with him, and make him
his friend; moreover, in the cool of the day, he shall hold converse
with angels, and with the Lord, the Master of angels; and yet he dares
eat of that holy fruit which God had set forth not to be touched by
man. Then he must die. One would think it was enough, to promise reward
for obedience, and punishment for sin; but no, the check fails. Man,
left to his own free will, touches the fruit, and he falls. Man cannot
be restrained, even in his purity, so easily as the mighty sea. Since
that time, mark what God has done by way of restraint. The world has
become corrupt it is altogether covered with iniquity. Forth comes a
prophet. Enoch prophesies of the coming of the Lord, declaring that he
sees him coming with ten thousand of his saints to judge the world.
That world goes on, as profane and unheeding as before. Another prophet
is raised up, and cries, "Yet a little while, and this earth shall be
drowned in a flood of water." Do men cease from sin? No; profligacy,
crime, iniquities of the vilest class, are as prevalent as before. Man
rushes on to his destruction; the deluge comes and destroys all but a
favoured few. The new family goes out to people the earth: will not the
world now be clean and holy? Wait a little, and ye shall see. One of
these men will do a deed which shall render him a curse for ever, and
his son Canaan shall in after years inherit his father's curse. Not
long after that you see Sodom and Gomorrah devoured with fire which God
rains out of heaven. But what of this? What though in later years
Pharaoh and his chariots are drowned in the Red sea? What though
Sennacherib and his hosts perish at midnight by the blast of an
archangel? What though the world reel to and fro, and stagger like a
drunken man, being drunken with the wine of God's wrath? What though
the earth be scarred and burned by war? What though it be deluged with
floods? What though it be oppressed with famines, pestilences, and
diseases? She still goes on in the same manner; at this hour the world
is a sinful, rebellious world, and until God shall work a work in our
day, such as we shall scarce believe, though a man tell it to us, the
world shall never be pure and holy. The sea is restrained by sand; we
admire the beautiful poetic fact; but man, being naturally more
ungovernable than the storm and more impetuous than the ocean, is not
to be tamed; he will not bend his neck to the Lord, nor will he be
obedient to the God of the whole earth.
"But what of this fact?"–you say–"we know it is true; we do not doubt
it." Stay awhile; I am now coming to deal with your hearts and
consciences; and may the Holy Spirit help me in doing so! I shall
divide, as God would divide them,–saints and sinners.
First of all, ye saints, I have a word to say to you. I want you to
look at this as a doctrine not more evident in the history of mankind
at large, than abundantly verified in your own case. Come, now, I want
to ask of you this morning, whether it cannot be said of you
truly–"The sea is bound by sand; but I am one of those people who are
bent on revolting from God, neither can any of his restraints keep me
from sin." Let us review, for a few moments, the various restraints
which God has put upon his people to keep them from sins which,
nevertheless, are altogether ineffectual, without the accompanying
power of irresistible grace.
First, then, remember there is a restraint of gratitude which, to the
lowly regenerated heart, must necessarily form a very strong motive to
obedience. I can conceive of nothing that ought so much to prompt me to
obedience as the thought that I owe so much to God. O heir of heaven!
thou canst look back to eternity and see thy name in life's fair book
set down; thou canst sing of electing love; thou dost believe that a
covenant was made with Christ in thy behalf, and that thy salvation was
made secure in that moment when the hands of the Eternal Son grasped
the stylus and signed his name as the representative of all the elect.
Thou believest that on Calvary thy sins were all atoned for; thou hast
in thy soul the conviction that thy sins, past, present, and to come,
were all numbered on the scape-goat's head of old, and carried away for
ever; thou believest that neither death nor hell can ever divide thee
from thy Saviour's breast; thou knowest that there is laid up for thee
a crown of life which fadeth not away, and thine expectant soul
anticipates that with branches of palms in thine hands, with crowns of
gold on thine head, and streets of gold beneath thy feet, thou shalt be
happy for ever. Thou believest thyself to be one of the favoured of
heaven, a special object of divine solicitation; thou thinkest that all
things work together for thy good, yea, thou art persuaded that
everything in providence has a special regard to thee, and to thy
favoured brethren. I ask thee, O saint, is not this a bond strong
enough to keep thee from sin? If it were not for the desperate
unstableness of thy heart, wouldst thou not be restrained from sin by
this? Is not thy sin exceeding sinful, because it is sin against
electing love, against redeeming peace, against all-surpassing mercy,
against matchless affection, against shoreless grace, against spotless
love? Ah! sin has reached its climax, when it dares to sin against such
love as this. O Christian! thine affection to thy Lord and Master
should restrain thee from iniquity. And is it not a fearful proof of
the terrible character of thine heart, of thine heart even now, for
still thou hast evil remaining in it, that all the ties of gratitude
are still incapable of keeping thee from unholiness. The sins of
yesterday rise to thy memory now. Oh! look back on them. Do they not
tell thee that thou dost sin most ungratefully? O saint! didst thou not
yesterday use thy Master's name in vain, and not thy Master's only, but
thy Father's name? Hadst thou not yesterday an unbelieving heart? Wast
thou not petulant when girded with favours that ought to make a living
man unwilling to complain? Wast thou not, when God hath forgiven thee
ten thousand talents, angry with thy neighbour, who owed thee a hundred
pence? Ah Christian! thou art not yet free from sin, nor wilt thou be,
until thou hast washed thy garments in death's black stream, and then
thou shalt be holy, as holy as the glorified and pure and spotless,
even as the angels around the throne, but not till then. I ask thee, O
saint, viewing thy sins as sins against love and mercy, against
covenant promises, covenant oaths, covenant engagements, ay, and
covenant fulfilments, is not thy sin a desperate thing, and art not
thou thyself a rebellious and revolting being, seeing that thou canst
not be restrained by such a barrier of adamant as thy soul
acknowledges?
Next notice, that the saint has not only this barrier against sin, but
many others. He has the whole of God's Word given him by way of
warning; its pages he is accustomed to read; he reads there, that if he
break the statutes and keep not the commandments of the Lord, his
Father will visit his transgressions with a rod, and his iniquity with
stripes. He has before him in God's Word abundant examples. He finds a
David going with broken bones to his grave after his sin; he finds a
Samson shorn of his locks, and with his eyes put out; he sees proof
upon proof that sin will find a man out; that the backslider in heart
shall be filled with his own ways. Abundant warnings there are for the
child of God, not of saints who have perished, for we have none such on
record in Scripture, and none ever shall finally perish–but we have
many warnings of great and grievous damages sustained by God's own
children when they have sailed out of their proper course. And yet, O
Christian, against all warning and against all precept thou darest to
sin. Oh! art thou not a rebellious creature, and mayest thou not this
morning humble thyself at the thought of the greatness of thine
iniquity?
Again: the saint sins against his own experience, When he looks back
upon his past life he finds that sin has always been a loss to him; he
has never found any profit, but has always lost by it. He remembers
such and such a transgression; it appeared sweet to him at the time,
but oh! it made his Master withdraw his presence and hide his face. The
saint can look back on the time when sin hung like a mill-stone round
his neck, and he felt the terrible flame of remorse burning in his
soul, and knew how evil a thing and bitter it is to sin against God.
And yet the saint sins. Now, if the unconverted man sins, he does not
sin against his own experience, for he has not had that true heartfelt
experience that renders sin exceeding sinful. But every time thou
sinnest, O grey-headed saint, thou sinnest with a vengeance, for thou
hast had all through thy life so much proof of what sin has been to
thee. Thou hast not been deceived about it, for thou hast felt its
bitterness in thy bowels: and when thou sippest the accursed draught
thou art infatuated indeed, because thou sinnest against experience.
Ay, and the youngest of the saints, have you not been made to taste the
bitterness of sin? I know you have, if you are saints! and will you go
and dip your fingers in the nauseous cup? Will you put the poisoned
goblet to your lips again? Yes, you will; but because you do so in the
teeth of your experience, it ought to make you weep, that you should be
such desperate rebels against such a loving God, who has put not merely
a barrier of sand, but a barrier of tried steel to keep in your lusts,
and yet they will break forth; verily ye are a rebellious and revolting
people.
Then again, God guards all his children with providence, in order to
keep them from sin. I could tell you, even from the little experience I
have had of spiritual things, many cases in which I feel I have been
kept from sin by Divine providence. There have been seasons when the
strong hand of sin has appeared for a while to get the mastery over us,
and we have been dragged along by some strong inherent lust, which we
were prone to practise before our regeneracy. We were intoxicated with
the lust, we remember how pleasurable it was to us in the days of our
iniquity, how we revelled in it, till we were on a sudden dragged to
the very edge of the precipice, and we looked down; our brain reeled,
we could not stand; and do we not remember how just then some striking
providence came in our way, and saved us, or else we should have been
excommunicated from the church for violating the rules of propriety.
Ah! strange things happen to some of us; strange things have happened
to some of you. It was only a providence which on some sad and solemn
occasion, to which you never look back without regret, saved you from
sin which would have been a scab on your character. Bless God for that!
But remember, notwithstanding the girdlings of his providence, how many
times you have offended; and let the frequency of your sin remind you
that you must indeed be a rebellious creature. Though he has afflicted
you, you have sinned; though he has given you chastisement, you have
sinned; though he has put you in the furnace. yet the dross has not
departed from you. Oh! how corrupt your hearts are, and how prone you
are still to wander, notwithstanding all the barriers God has given you
to encompass you!
Yet, once more let me remind you, beloved, that the ordinances of God's
house are all intended to be checks to sin. He girds us by the worship
of the sanctuary; he girds us by the remembrance of our holy baptism;
and all else that is connected with Christianity is intended to check
us from sin. And great are the effects which these produce; yet all are
insufficient, without the preserving grace of God, given to us day by
day. Let us think, beloved, too, that God has given to us a tender
conscience, more tender than the conscience of worldly men, because he
has given us living consciences, whereas theirs are often seared and
dead. And yet, against this living conscience, against the warnings of
the Spirit, against precept, against promise, against experience,
against the honour of God, and against the gratitude they owe him, the
saints of God have dared to sin, and they must confess before him that
they are rebellious, and have revolted from him. Bow down your heads
with shame while ye consider your ways, and then lift up your hearts,
Christians, in adoring love, that he has kept you when your feet were
making haste to hell, where you would have gone, but for his preserving
grace. Shall not this long suffering of your God, this tender
compassion, be your theme every day–
"While life, and thought, and being last,
Or immortality endures?"
Will you not pray, that God should not cast you away, nor take his Holy
Spirit from you, though you are a rebellious creature, and though you
have revolted against him?
This is for the saints; and now may the Spirit help me, while I strive
to apply it to sinners! Sinner, I have solemn things to say to thee
this morning; lend me for a few minutes thy very closest attention; I
will speak to thee as though this were the last message I should ever
deliver in thine ear. I have asked my God, that I may so speak to thee,
O sinner, that if I win not thy heart I may at least be free from thy
blood; and that if I am not able to convince thee of thy sin, I may at
any rate make thee without excuse in that day "when God shall judge the
secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel." Come, then,
sinner; in the first place, I bid thee consider thy guilt. Thou hast
heard what I have said. The mighty ocean is kept in obedience by God,
and restrained within its channel by simple sand; and thou, a pitiful
worm, the creature of a day, the ephemera of an hour, thou art a rebel
against God. The sea obeys him; thou dost not. Consider, I beseech
thee, how many restraints God has put on thee: he has not checked thy
lusts with sand but with beetling cliffs; and yet thou hast burst
through every bound in the violence of thy transgressions. Perhaps he
has checked thy soul by the remembrance of thy guilt. Thou hast this
morning felt thyself a despiser of God; or if not a despiser, thou art
a mere hearer, and hast no part nor lot in this matter. Dost thou not
remember thy sins in the face of thy mother's counsels and thy father's
strong admonitions? Do they never check thee? Dost thou never think
thou seest a mother's tears coming after thee? Hast thou never heard a
father's prayer for thee? When thou hast been spending thy nights in
dissipation, and hast gone home late to thy bed, hast thou never
thought thou hast seen thy father's spirit at thy bed side, offering
one more prayer for an Absalom, his son, or for an Ishmael, his
rebellious child? Consider what thou hast learned, child! Baptized with
a mother's tears, almost immersed in them; thou wast early taught to
know something of God; when thou didst go from thy mother's knees, thou
wentest to those of a pious teacher; thou wast trained in a Sabbath
school, or at any rate thou wast taught to read the Bible. Thou knowest
the threatenings of God; it is no new tale to thee, when I warn thee
that sinners must be condemned; it is no new story when I tell thee
that saints shall wear the starry crown; thou knowest all that.
Consider, then, how great is thy guilt; thou hast sinned against light
and knowledge; thou art not the Hottentot sinner, who sins in darkness,
but thou art a sinner before high heaven, in the full light of day;
thou hast not sinned ignorantly, thou hast done it when thou knewest
better; and when thou comest to he lost, thou shalt have an additional
doom, because thou didst know thy duty, but thou didst it not. I charge
that home upon thee, I charge it solemnly upon thy conscience; is it
true, or is it not? Some of you have had other things. Don't you
remember, some little time ago, when sickness was rife, you were
stretched on your bed? One night you will never forget; sickness had
got strong hold of you, and the strong man bowed himself. Do you not
remember what a sight you had then of the regions of the damned; not
with your eyes, but with your conscience? You thought you heard their
shrieks; you thought you would be amongst them yourself soon. Methinks
I see you; you turned your face to the wall, and you cried, "O God, if
thou wilt save my life, I will give myself to thee!" Perhaps it was an
accident; thou didst fear that death was very near; the terrors of
death laid hold of thee, and thou didst cry, "Oh! God, let me but reach
home in safety, and my bended knees and my tears pouring in torrents,
shall prove that I am sincere in the vow I make." But didst thou
perform that vow? Nay, thou hast sinned against God; thy broken vows
have gone before thee to judgment. Dost thou think it a little thing to
make a promise to thy fellow creature and break it? It may be so in
thine estimation, but not so in that of honest men. But dost thou think
it a little thing to promise to thy Maker, and to break thy promise?
There is no light penalty for sinning against the Almighty God; it will
cost thee thy soul, man, and thy soul's blood for ever, if thou goest
on in this fashion. Vow and pay, or if thou payest not, vow not; for
God shall visit those vows upon thee, in the day when he maketh
inquisition for blood, and destroyeth thy soul. Thou hast been guarded
thus; remember that thou hast had extraordinary deliverances, the
disease did not kill thee; thy broken bones were healed; thou didst not
die; when the jaws of death were uplifted, they did not close upon
thee: here thou art still. Thy life is spared.
Oh! my dear hearers, some of you are the worst; you have regularly sat
in these pews–God is my witness, how earnestly I have longed for you
all in the bowels of Christ. I have not shunned to declare the whole
counsel of God to you. If I had been a time-server, and kept back part
of the truth, much more honour would I have received from men than I
have received; but I have cleared my conscience, I trust, from your
blood. How many times have I seen men and women cry, the hot tears
falling down their cheeks in quick succession? and expected that I
should have seen a change in some of your lives. But how many of you
there are, who have gone on sinning against warnings, which, I am sure,
though they may have been excelled in eloquence, have never been
exceeded in heartiness! Do you think it a little thing to sin against
God's ambassador? It is no little sin: every time we sin against the
warnings we have received, we sin so much the more heinously. But there
are some–I had hope for you, but ye have gone back to the ways of
perdition; I have cried, "Turn ye, turn ye, why will ye die?" But I
have been obliged to go to my Master with that exclamation, "Who hath
believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?" Woe
unto thee, Bethsaida; it were better for thee that thou hadst been Tyre
and Sidon than that thou shouldst have been left in the midst of
privileges, if thou shouldst perish at last! Woe unto you, hearers of
New Park Street! Woe unto you that listen not to the voice of the
minister here! If ye perish beneath our warnings, ye shall perish in a
horrible manner! Woe unto thee, Capernaum! thou art exalted unto
heaven, but thou shalt be cast down to hell." Woe unto thee, young
woman! thou hast had a pious mother, and thou hast had many warnings.
Woe unto thee, young man! thou hast been a profligate youth; thou hast
been brought to this house of prayer from thine infancy, and thou art
sitting there even now; often does thy conscience prick thee; often thy
heart hast told thee that thou art wrong; and yet thou art still
unchanged! Woe unto thee! Woe unto thee! And yet will I cry unto my
God, that he would avert that woe and pardon thee; that he would not
let thee die, but bring thee unto himself, lest now ye perish in your
sins. Ye sinners! God has a controversy with you; he tames the sea, but
ye will not be tamed; nothing but his marvellous grace exerted in you
will ever check you in your lusts. You have sinned against warnings and
reproofs, against providences, mercies, and judgments, and still ye
sin.
Oh! my hearers, when you sin, you do not sin so cheaply as others; for
when you sin, you sin in the very teeth of hell. There is not a man or
woman in this place, I am sure, who, when he or she sins, does not know
that hell is the inevitable consequence! Sirs, ye do not sin in the
dark. When God shall give you the wages of your iniquity, you shall not
be able to say, "O God, I did not know this would be the pay for my
labour." When thou didst sow tares, thou couldst not expect that thou
shouldst reap wheat; thou knowest "that they who sow carnal things,
shall reap carnal things;" thou art sowing to the flesh, but not with
the hope that thou wilt reap salvation; for thou knowest that "he who
soweth to the flesh, shall of the flesh reap corruption." Sinner, it is
a dreadful thing to sin, when God puts hell before thee! What! sin when
he has given out his threatening? Sin! while Sinai is thundering, while
hell is blazing? Ay, that is to sin indeed. But how many of you, may
dear hearers, have sinned like this. I would to God, that he would turn
this house into a Bochim, that you might weep over your guilt. It is
the hardest thing in the world to make men believe their guilt. If we
could once get them to do that, we should find that Christ would reveal
to them his salvation. I cannot with my poor voice and my weak
utterance, even bring you to think that it is Christ Jesus in the
ministry of his Spirit who can give you a true and real sense of your
sin. Hath he done so? Hath he blessed my words to any of you? Do any of
you feel your sins? Do any of you know that you are rebellious? Do you
say, from this time forth you will mend your ways? Sirs, let me tell
you, you cannot do that. Are you better than the mightiest of men? The
best of men are but men at the best, and they are convinced that they
cannot tame their own turbulent passions. God saith that the sea can be
tamed with sand; but the heart of man cannot be restrained, it is still
revolting. Dost thou think thou canst do that, which God saith is
impossible? Dost thou suppose thyself stronger than God Almighty? What!
canst thou change thine own heart, when God declares that we must he
born again from above, or else we cannot see the kingdom of heaven?
Others have tried to do it, but they cannot. I beseech thee, do not try
to do it with thine own strength. I am glad thou knowest thy guilt; but
O do not increase that guilt, by seeking to wash it out in the foul
stream of thine own resolutions. Go and tell God that thou knowest thy
sin, and confess it before him, and ask him to create in thee a clean
heart, and renew in thee a right spirit. Tell him thou knowest that
thou art rebellious, and thou art sure that thou always wilt be, unless
he change thy heart; and I beseech thee, rest not satisfied until thou
hast a new heart. My hearer, be not content with Baptism; be not
content with the Lord's Supper; be not content with shutting up your
shop on Sunday; be not content with leaving off drunkenness; be not
content with giving up swearing. Remember, you may do all that, and be
damned. It is a new heart and a right spirit you want; begin with that,
and when you have that, all the rest will come right. Bethink thee, my
hearer; thou mayest varnish and gild thyself, but thou canst never
change thyself. Thou mayest moralise, but thou canst never spiritualise
thy heart. But just bethink thee. Thou art this morning lost; and just
think of this,–thou canst do nothing whatever to save thyself. Let
that thought rise in thy soul, and lay thee very low; and when thou
goest to God, cry, "O Lord, do what I cannot do; save me, O my God, for
thy mercy's sake."
My dear hearers, have I spoken harshly to you, or wilt ye rather take
it in love? Ye who have sinned thus terribly against God, do ye feel
it? Well, I have no grace to offer to thee, I have no Christ to offer
to thee, but I have Christ to preach to thee. Oh! what shall I say?
This:–you are a sinner. "It is a faithful saying, and worthy of all
acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners,
even the chief." Art thou a sinner? Then he came to save thee. Oh!
joyful sound. I am ready to leap in the pulpit for very joy, to have
this to preach to thee. I can clap my hands with ecstacy of heart, that
I am allowed again to tell thee–"It is a faithful saying, and worthy
of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save
sinners." Let me tell you that when he came into this world he was
nailed to the cross, and that there he expired in desperate griefs and
agony; and there he shrieked, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken
me?" There the blood ran from his hands and feet, and because he
suffered he is able to forgive. Sinner, dost thou believe that? Thou
art black; dost thou believe, in the face of thy blackness, that
Christ's blood can make thee white? What sayest thou, sinner? God has
convinced thee of thy sin; art thou willing to be saved in God's way
this morning? If thou art willing, thou shalt be saved. It is
written,–"Whosoever will, let him come." Art thou thirsty this
morning? come hither and drink. Art thou hungry? come and eat. Art thou
dying? come and live. My Master bids me tell you, all you who feel your
sins, that you are forgiven; all you who know your transgressions, he
bids me tell you this:–" I, even I, am he that blotteth out your
transgressions, for my name's sake." Hast thou been an adulterer, hast
thou been a whore-monger, a thief, a drunkard, a Sabbath-breaker, a
swearer? I find no exception in this proclamation;–"Whosoever will,
let him come." I find no exception in this;–"Him that cometh I will in
nowise cast out." Dost thou know thy guilt? then I do not ask thee what
thy guilt is. Though thou wert the vilest creature, again, I tell thee,
if thou knowest thy guilt, Christ will forgive thee. Believe it, and
thou art saved.
And now will ye go away and forget all this? Some of you have wept this
morning. No wonder; the wonder is that we do not all weep, until we
find ourselves saved! You will go away to-morrow to your farms and to
your merchandize, to your shops, and to your offices; and the
impression that may have been produced on you this Sabbath morning will
pass away like the morning cloud. My hearers, I would not weep, though
you should call me all the names you can think of, but I wilt weep
because you will not weep for yourselves. Sinners, why will ye be
damned? Is it a pleasant thing to revolt in the flames of hell? Sirs,
what profit is there in your death! What! is it an honorable thing to
rebel against God? Is it an honor to stand and be the scorn of God's
universe? Dost thou say thou shalt not die; yet thou wilt put it off a
little while? Sinner, thou wilt never have a more convenient season; if
to-day is inconvenient, to-morrow will be more so. Put it off to-day,
wipe away the tears from your eyes, and the day may come when you would
give a million worlds for a tear, but you shall not be able to get one.
Many a man has had a soft heart; it has passed away, and in after years
he has said, "Oh, that I could but shed a tear!" O God! make thy word
like a hammer this morning, that it may break the rocky heart in
pieces! Ye who know your sins, as God's ambassador, I beseech you, "be
ye reconciled unto God." "Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish
from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little." Remember, once
lost, ye are lost for ever; but if ye are once saved, ye are certainly
saved for ever. "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be
saved," said Paul of old; Jesus himself hath said "He that believeth
and is haptised shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be
damned." I will not finish with a curse. "He that believeth shall be
saved." God give you all an interest in that eternal blessing, for the
Lord Jesus' sake!
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This sermon was originally printed
together with a pastoral letter from C. H. S.