Help for Seekers of the Light
A sermon
(No. 884)
Delivered on Sunday Morning, AUGUST 8, 1869, by
C.H.SPURGEON,
At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington
"We look for light, but behold obscurity; for brightness, but we walk
in darkness."- Isaiah 59:9.
ISRAEL had greatly revolted from her God and in consequence she had
brought upon herself great sorrow. Still, instead of repenting of their
faults and returning to their allegiance to Jehovah, the nation
continued to be duped by false prophets and presumptuous pride into the
expectation of better days. The better days came not. They looked for
the sunshine, but they wandered in the mists. They waited for
brightness, but walked in gloom. Unhappy Israel! She turned aside from
Jehovah to worship Baal–she went after the gods of the heathen which
were not gods–and from that hour her land was afflicted with
pestilence and famine.
The spoiler came up against her. He stopped her wells, cut down her
vines and barked her fig trees. And in the end he carried her away
captive, made the sons and daughters of Zion to sit down by the waters
of Babylon and weep at the remembrance of the beloved city. Sin is
evermore a bitter thing and they who follow it expecting to arrive at
the light of joy are duped and deceived. They shall be plunged into
denser and denser darkness until they arrive at an unending midnight
unbroken by a solitary star.
This historical example might be used by way of warning to any seekers
after happiness who foolishly expect to find it in the pleasures of sin
and the neglect of God. You will certainly be disappointed, for, "joy
is a plant that does not grow on nature's barren soil"–only a renewed
nature can be blessed. The more intensely you pursue happiness in the
bewitching way of sin, the further will it fly from you. Like the
will-'o-the-wisp, the glare of pleasure will entice you into the
quagmire and there will leave you to find that your chase has gained
you nothing but danger and weariness. The pearl of happiness lies not
in the depths of dissipation. The broad road always ends in
destruction, never in peace.
Hoist the sails of desire to the breeze, let go the helm of reason and
let your soul be borne wherever the blasts of temptation or the
currents of custom may direct and one thing you may be sure of–your
unhappy boat will never be drifted by such means into the haven of
peace! To such a voyage shipwreck is the certain end! To other modes of
living disappointment is in like manner attached. Vain is it to pile up
gold. Vain is it to awaken the clarion trumpet of fame. Vain is it to
gather learning or to master eloquence, eminence, rank, wealth,
power–all these things are too little to satisfy the insatiable
craving of an immortal soul.
You must have God or you shall never have enough! You must be
reconciled to Him or you can never be at peace with yourself. Man must
enter into a covenant of peace with his God or all the creatures of God
shall conspire against him! Pilgrim of earth, your way must be towards
holiness and God, or in vain shall you expect the dawning–to the
sinner there is reserved the blackness of darkness forever and even now
his way is hard and his path is darkened with fear and disquietude.
I thought, however, this morning, of addressing myself through the
words of the text, to another class of individuals. To persons who are
sincerely seeking better things. Those desirous of obtaining the true
and heavenly light, who have waited, hoping to receive it–but instead
of obtaining it are in a worse, or at least in a sadder state than they
were. They are almost driven, today, into the dark thoughts that for
them no light will ever come–that they shall be prisoners chained
forever in the valley of the shadow of death.
If God shall bless a few words of awakening and encouraging to such
prisoners, so that some shall see the heavenly light today, thrice
happy shall our heart be!
I. We will commence by depicting the character we wish to speak to. Our
first head, therefore, may be remembered as DESCRIPTIVE. These persons
are in some degree aware of their natural darkness. According to the
text they are looking for light. They are not content with their
obscurity–they are waiting for brightness. In this audience there are
a few
who are not content to be what their first birth has made them. They
discover in their nature much of evil. They would gladly be rid of it!
They find in their understanding much ignorance and they would gladly
be illuminated. They do not understand the Scripture when they read it
and though they hear Gospel terms, yet they fail to grasp Gospel
thought.
They pant to escape from this ignorance. They desire to know the Truth
of God which saves the soul, and their desire is not only to know it in
theory, but to know it by its practical power upon their inner man.
They are really and anxiously desirous to be delivered from the state
of nature which they feel to be a dangerous one, and to be brought into
the glorious liberty of the children of God! Oh, but these are the best
of hearers–these in whom right desires have begun to be awakened! Men
who are dissatisfied with the darkness are evidently not altogether
dead, for the dead shall slumber in the catacombs, heedless whether it
is noon or night. Such men are evidently not altogether asleep, for
they that slumber shall sleep the better for the darkness–they ask no
sunbeams to molest their dreams.
Such people are evidently not altogether blind, for to the blind little
does it matter whether the sun floods the landscape with glory or night
conceals it with her sable veil. Those to whom our thoughts are
directly turned are evidently somewhat awakened, aroused and bestirred,
and this is no small blessing, for, alas, the most of men are a stolid
mass as regards spiritual things and the preacher might almost as
hopefully strive to create a soul within the ribs of death, or extort
warm tears of pity from Sicilian marble, as to evoke spiritual emotions
from the men of this generation!
So far, the persons whom I seek this morning are hopeful in their
condition–as the trees twist their branches towards the sunlight, so
do these long after Jesus, the Light and Life of men! Moreover, these
persons have a high idea of what the light is. In the text they call
it, "brightness." They wait for it and are grieved because it comes
not. If you greatly value spiritual light, my dear Friend, you are
under no mistake! If you count it to be a priceless thing to obtain an
interest in Christ, the forgiveness of your sins and peace with God,
you judge according to solemness. You shall never exaggerate in your
valuation of the one thing necessary.
It is true that those who trust in God are a happy people. It is true
that to be brought into sonship and adopted into the family of the
great God is a blessing for which kings might well exchange their
diadems! You cannot think too highly of the blessings of Divine Grace!
I would rather incite in you a sacred covetousness after them than in
the remotest degree lower your estimate of their preciousness.
Salvation is such a blessing that Heaven hangs upon it! If you win
Grace you have the germ of Heaven within you–the security, the pledge
and earnest of everlasting bliss!
So far, again, there is much that is hopeful in you. It is well that
you loathe the darkness and prize the light. Furthermore, the persons I
would gladly speak with have some hope that they may yet obtain this
light. In fact, they are waiting for it–hopefully waiting and are
somewhat disappointed that after waiting for the light, behold,
obscurity has come. They are evidently astonished at the failure of
their hopes. They are amazed to find themselves walking in darkness
when they had fondly hoped that the candle of the Lord would shine
round about them. My dear Friends, I would encourage in you that spark
of hope, for despair is one of the most terrible hindrances to the
reception of the Gospel.
So long as awakened sinners cherish a hope of mercy, we have hope for
them. We hope, O Seeker, that before long you will be able to sing of
pardon bought with blood–and when this scene is closed–shall enter
through the gates into the pearly city among the blessed who forever
see the face of the Well-Beloved! Though it may seem too good to be
true, yet even you, in your calmer moments, think one day you will
rejoice that Christ is yours, and take your seat among His people,
though you are the meanest of them all in your own estimation.
Then you imagine in your heart how fervently you will love your
Redeemer! How rapturously you will kiss the very dust of His feet! How
gratefully you will bless Him who has lifted the poor from the dunghill
and made him to sit among princes. How I long to see this hope of yours
transformed into joyful reality! May the chosen hour strike this
morning! May you no longer look through the window wistfully at the
banquet, but come in to sit at the table and feed upon Christ,
rejoicing with His chosen!
The persons I am describing are such as have learned to plead their
case with God, for our text is a complaint addressed to the Lord
Himself. "We look for light, but behold obscurity; for brightness, but
we walk in darkness." It is a declaration of inward feelings, a laying
bare of the heart's agonies to the Most High. Ah, dear Friends,
although you have not yet found the peace you seek, it is well that you
have begun to pray. Perhaps you think it poor praying– indeed, you
hardly dare call it prayer at all–but God judges not as you do. A
groan is heard in Heaven! A deep-fetched sigh and a falling tear are
prevalent weapons at the Throne of God. Yes, your soul cries to God and
you cannot help it.
When you are about your daily work you find yourself sighing, "O that
my load of guilt were gone! O that I could but call the Lord, my
Father, with an unfaltering tongue!"
Night after night and day after day this desire rises from you like the
morning mist from the valleys. You would, this morning, tear off your
right arm and pluck out your right eye if you might but gain the
unspeakable blessing! You are sincerely anxious for reconciliation with
God and your anxiety reveals itself in prayer and supplication. I hope
these prayers will continue. I trust you will never cease your crying.
May the Holy Spirit constrain you to sigh and groan still. Like the
importunate woman, may you press your suit until the gracious answer
shall be granted through the merits of Jesus.
So far, dear Friends, things are hopeful with you. But when I say
hopeful, I wish I could say much more, for mere hopefulness is not
enough. It is not enough to desire. It is not enough to seek. It is not
enough to pray. You must actually obtain–you must in very deed lay
hold on eternal life. You will never enjoy comfort and peace till you
have passed out of the merely hopeful stage into a better and a
brighter one by making sure your interest in the Lord Jesus by a
living, appropriating faith. In the exalted Savior all the gifts and
Graces which you need are stored up, in readiness to supply your needs.
O may you come to His fullness and out of it receive Grace for Grace!
The person I am desirous of comforting this morning may be described by
one other touch of the pencil. He is one who is quite willing to lay
bare his heart before God–to confess his desires whether right or
wrong and to expose his condition whether unhealthy or sound. While we
try to cloak anything from God, we are both wicked and foolish. It
argues a rebellious spirit when we have a desire to hide anything from
our Maker. But when a man uncovers his wound, invites inspection of its
sore, bids the surgeon cut away the leprous film which covered its
corruption and says to him, "Here, probe into its depths, see what evil
there is in it. Spare not, but make a sure cure of the wound," then he
is in a fair way to be recovered.
When a man is willing to make God his Confessor and does freely and
without hypocrisy pour out his heart like water before the Lord, there
is good hope for him! I believe I have some such here this morning. You
have told the Lord your case. You have spread your petitions before
Him–I trust you will continue to do so until you find relief. But I
have yet a higher hope, namely, that you may soon obtain peace with God
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
II. So I shall pass on to the second point, which is that of
ASSISTANCE. It shall now be my happy task to endeavor to assist into
the light these who would gladly flee from the darkness. We will do so
by trying to answer the query, "How is it that I, being desirous of
light, have not found it? Why am I left to grope like a blind man for
the wall and stumble at noonday as in the night? Why has not the Lord
revealed Himself to me?"
The first answer, my dear Friends, is that you may have been seeking
the light in the wrong place. Many, like Mary, seek the living among
the dead. You, it is possible, may have been the victim of the false
doctrine that peace with God can be found in the use of ceremonies. It
may be you have been brought in connection with that Church which
vainly rests its faith upon the figment of Apostolic succession and the
empty parade of Episcopal ordination. You have been taught to believe
on aquatic regeneration and confirmation by palmistry–you are the dupe
of the dogma of sacramental efficacy and priestly potency!
If so, it is little marvel that you have not found peace, for, believe
me, there is no peace to be found in the whole round of
ceremonies–even if they were such as God Himself prescribed! There is
no peace to be found in them, except it is that deadly peace which
rocks souls in the cradle of superstition into that deep sleep from
which only the judgment trumpet shall awaken them. These are they that
receive strong delusions to believe a lie that they all may be damned.
May you, my Hearers, escape from so terrible a doom! God has never
promised salvation by the use of ceremonies! The Gospel which He sent
His servants to preach was never a Gospel of postures, genuflections,
symbols and rituals.
The Gospel is revealed in these words, "Believe in the Lord Jesus
Christ and you shall be saved"–a mental thing, a spiritual thing, an
inner thing–not at all an outward display, a matter of the senses and
the flesh. Our Gospel is altogether a matter for heart and soul and
spirit. And such must be your salvation, or saved you can never be! It
is possible too, dear Friends, that you have been looking for salvation
in the mere belief of a certain creed. You have thought that if you
could discover pure orthodoxy and could then consign your soul into its
mold you would be a saved man. And you have consequently believed
unreservedly, as far as you have been have been able to do so, the set
of truths which have been handed to you by the tradition of your
ancestors.
It may be that your creed is Calvinistic. It is possible that it is
Arminian. It may be Protestant. It may be Romish. It may be truth–it
may be a lie. But, believe me, solid peace with God is not to be found
through the mere reception of any creed, however true or Scriptural.
Mere head-notion is not the road to Heaven. "You must be born again,"
means a great deal more than that you must believe certain dogmas. It
is of the utmost possible importance, I grant you, that you should
search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life. But
remember how our Lord upbraided the Pharisees. As the passage may be
read, He told them that they searched the Scriptures, but He added,
"You will not come unto Me that you might have life."
You stop short at the Scriptures and therefore short of eternal life.
The study of these, good as it is, cannot save you! You must press
beyond this–you must come to the living,personal Christ, once
crucified, but now living to plead at the right hand of God–or else
your acceptance of the most sound creed cannot avail for the salvation
of your soul! You may be misled in some other manner which I have not
time to mention–some other mistaken way of seeking peace may have
beguiled you and if so I pray God you may see the mistake and
understand that there is but one door to salvation and that is Christ!
There is one way and that is Christ! One Truth, and that is Christ! One
life and that is Christ!
Salvation is in Jesus only! It lies not in you–in your doings, or your
feelings, or your knowledge, or your resolves. In Him all life and
light for the sons of men are stored up by the mercy of God the Father.
It may be one reason why you have not found the light is because you
have sought it in the wrong place.
Again, it is possible that you may have sought it in the wrong spirit.
My dear Friends, when we ask for pardon, reconciliation, salvation–we
must remember to whom we speak and who we are who ask the favor. Some
appear to deal with God as if He were bound to give salvation–as if
salvation, indeed, were the inevitable result of a round of
performances, or the deserved reward of a certain amount of virtue.
They refuse to see that salvation is a pure gift of God–not of works,
not the result of merit–but of free favor only. Not of man, neither by
man, but of the Lord alone! Though the Lord has placed it on record in
His Word, in the plainest language, that, "it is not of him that wills,
nor of him that runs, but of God that shows mercy," yet the most of men
in their hearts imagine that everlasting life is tied to duties and
earned by service.
Dear Friends, you must come down from such vainglorious notions! You
must sue out your pardon, as our law courts put it, in forma pauperis.
You must come before God as a humble petitioner pleading the promises
of mercy– abhorring all idea of merit, confessing that if the Lord
condemns you He has a right to do it and that if He saves you, it will
be an act of pure, gratuitous mercy–a deed of Sovereign Grace. Oh, but
too many of you seekers hold your heads too high–to enter the lowly
gate of light you must stoop! On the bended knee is the penitent's true
place. "God be merciful to me, a sinner," is the penitent's true
prayer.
Why, Man, if God should damn you, you could never complain of
injustice, for you have deserved it a thousand times! And if those
prayers of yours were never answered. If no mercy ever came, you could
not accuse the Lord, for you have no right to be heard! He could
righteously withhold an answer of peace if He so willed to do. Confess
that you are an undeserving, ill-deserving, Hell-deserving sinner and
begin to pray as you have never before prayed! Cry out of the depths of
self-abasement if you would be heard! Come as a beggar, not as a
creditor! Come to crave, not to demand! Use only this argument, "Lord,
hear me, for You are gracious and Jesus died. I cry to You as a
condemned criminal who seeks pardon. Deliver me from going down into
the Pit that I may praise Your name."
This, I fear, may have been a great source of mischief with many of
you–this harboring of a proud spirit. And, if it has been so, amend
it, I beseech you. And go, now, to your Father whom you have
offended–go with humble and contrite hearts, in lowliness and
brokenness of spirit–for He will surely accept you as His children.
Others have not obtained peace, I fear, because they have not yet any
idea of the true way of finding it. This, though it is preached to us
so often, is still but little understood. The way of peace with God is
seen through a haze by most men–so that if you put it ever so plainly,
they will, if it is possible–misunderstand you!
Dear Hearer, your salvation does not depend upon what you do, but upon
what Christ did, almost 2,000 years ago, when He offered Himself
sacrifice for sin. All your salvation takes root in the death-throes of
Calvary. The great Substitute did, then, in very deed bear your sin and
suffer its penalty. Your sin shall never destroy you if upon that
bloody tree the Lord's chosen High Priest made a full expiation for
your sins! They shall not be laid against you any more forever. What
you have to do is but to accept what Jesus has finished. I know your
notion is that you are to bring
something to Him–but that vainglorious idea has ruined many and will
ruin many more! When you shall be brought to come empty-handed, made
willing to accept a free and full salvation from the hand of the
Crucified–then and then only, shall you be saved–
"There is life for a look at the Crucified One." But men will not look
to the Cross. No, they conspire to raise another cross–or they aspire
to adorn that cross with jewels, or they labor to wreathe it with sweet
flowers–but they will not give a simple look to the Savior and rely
alone on Him. Yet, dear Hearer, no soul can ever obtain peace with God
by any other means! And this means is so effectual that it never did
fail and never shall! The waters of Abana and Pharpar are preferred by
proud human nature, but the waters of Jordan alone can take away the
leprosy. Our repenting, our doings, our resolves–these are but broken
cisterns! The only life-draught is to be found in the fountain of
Living Water opened up by our Immanuel's death! Do you understand that
a simple trust, a sincere dependence, a hearty reliance upon Christ is
the way of salvation?
If you do, may the God who taught you to understand the way give you
Divine Grace to run in it and then your light has come! Arise and
shine! Your peace has come, for Christ has bought it with His blood.
For as many as trust in Him He has been punished. Their sins are gone–
"Lost as in a shoreless flood,
Drowned in the Redeemer's blood.
Pardoned soul, how blessed you are,
Justified from all things now!"
My dear Friends, if none of these things have touched your case, let me
further suggest that perhaps you have not found light because you have
sought it in a half-hearted manner. None enter Heaven who are but
half-inclined to go there. Cold prayers ask God to refuse them. When a
man manifestly does not value the mercy which he asks and would be
perfectly content not to receive it, it is small wonder if he is
denied!
Many a seeker lies, by the year together, freezing outside the door of
God's mercy because he has never thoroughly bestirred himself to take
the kingdom of Heaven by violence. If you can by any means be made
willing to be unsaved, you shall be left to perish! But if you are
inwardly set and resolved that you will give God no rest until you win
a pardon from Him, He will give you your heart's desire! The man who
must be saved shall be. The man whose heart is set to find the way to
Sion's hill shall find that way. I believe that usually a sense of our
pardon comes to us when, Samson-like, we grasp the posts of mercy's
door with desperate vehemence as though we would pluck them up, post
and bar and all, sooner than remain any longer shut out from peace and
safety. Strong cries and tears, groaning of spirit, vehement longing
and ceaseless pleading–these are the weapons which, through the blood
of Jesus, win us the victory in our warfare of seeking the Lord.
Perhaps, then, my dear Friends, you have not bestirred yourself as you
should. May the Lord help you to be a mighty wrestler and then a
prevailing prince!
To come closer home to your conscience, is it not possible–is it not
rather fearfully probable–that there may be some sin within you which
you are harboring to your soul's peril? When a soldier's foot has
refused to heal, the surgeon has been known to examine it very minutely
and manipulate every part. Each bone is there and in its place–there
is no apparent cause for the inflammation, but yet the wound refuses to
heal. The surgeon probes and probes again, until his lancet comes into
contact with a hard foreign substance. "Here it is," he says, "a bullet
is lodged here. This must come out or the wound will never close."
So my probe, dear Hearer, may this morning discover a secret in you and
if so, it must come out or you must die. You cannot expect to have
peace with God and still indulge in that drunkard's glass! What? A
drunkard reconciled to God? You cannot hope to enjoy peace with God and
yet refuse to speak with that relative who offended you years ago.
What? Look to be forgiven, when you will not, yourself, forgive? There
are doubtful practices in your trade behind the counter–do you dare
hope that God will accept a thief?–for that is what you are, a thief
and a liar! You brand your goods dishonestly–call them 20 when they
are fifteen–do you expect God to be your friend while you remain a
rogue? Do you think He will smile on you in your knavery and walk with
you when you choose dirty ways? Perhaps you indulge a haughty spirit,
or it may be an idle disposition–it little signifies which kind of
devil is in you–it must come out, or else the peace of God cannot come
in!
Now, are you willing to give sin up? If not, it is all lost time for me
to preach Christ to you, for He is not meant to be a Savior of those
who persevere in sin. He came to save His people from their sins, not
in them! And if you still must cling
to a darling sin, be not deceived–within the gates of Heaven you can
never enter! Have I yet to seek a reason why some of you have not found
the light? It may be that you have only sought peace with God
occasionally. After an earnest sermon you have been awakened. But when
the sermon has been concluded you have gone back to your slumber like
the sluggard who turns again upon his bed. After a sickness, or when
there has been a death in the family–you have then zealously bestirred
yourself! But soon you have declined into the same carelessness as
before.
Oh, fool that you are, remember he wins not the race who runs by
spurts, but he who continues running to the end! He gets not Christ who
does but think of Him now and then and in the meantime regards vanity
and falsehood in his heart. He only shall have Christ who must have
Him–who must have Him now and who gives his whole heart to Him and
cries, "I will seek Him till I find Him! And when I find Him I will
never let Him go." I shall not dwell upon this, but let me remind you
that the great reason, after all–let us say what we will–why earnest
souls do not get speedy rest, lies in this–they are disobedient to the
one plain Gospel precept– "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you
shall be saved."
I would pin them to this point. It is not necessary at all to combat
their doubts and fears. We may do it, but I do not know that we are
called upon to do so. The plain matter of fact is, God lays down a way
of peace and you will not have it. God says believing in Jesus you
shall live–you will not believe in Christ–and yet hope to live! God
reveals to you His dear Son and says, "Trust Him." And moreover says,
"He that believes not has made God a liar," and yet you dare to make
God a liar! Every minute that you live in a state of unbelief, you, so
far as you can, make God to be a liar!
What an atrocity for any one of us to fall into! What an amazing
presumption for a sinner to live in who professes to be seeking peace
with God! O hear me, now, I pray you! My soul for your soul if you are
not this day saved, if you confide in the work of Jesus Christ! If you
find not eternal life in Jesus, then we also must perish with you, for
this is our hope, our only hope! And if it fails you it shall also fail
us! Therefore do we with confidence, knowing it can fail neither of us,
declare to you this faithful saying which is worthy of all acceptation,
that, "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners," even the
chief. "Whoever believes in Him has everlasting life." "Believe, then,
in the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved," for, "he that
believes and is baptized shall be saved. He that believes not must be
damned."
III. A few words by way of WARNING. My dear Friends, I will suppose
that I have you by the hand and am gazing intently into your eyes. I
fear for you lest you become frostbitten by your long sorrow and fall
into a fatal slumber. You have been seeking rest, but you have not
found it–what an unhappy state is yours! You are now unreconciled to
God. Your sin clamors for punishment. You are among those with whom God
is angry every day. Can you bear to be in such a condition? Does not
something bid you arise and flee out of this city of destruction, lest
you be consumed?
What happiness you are missing every day! If you would lay hold on
Christ by faith you would possess a joy and peace passing all
understanding. You are fretting in this low and miserable dungeon like
that poor nun at Cracow! You have been in the dark year after year
while the sun is shining, the sweet flowers are blooming and everything
waiting to lead you forth with gladness. Oh, what joys you lose by
being an unbeliever! Why do you abide so long in this evil state?
Meanwhile, what good you might have done! Oh, if you had been led to
look to Jesus Christ these months ago, instead of sitting in darkness
yourself, you would have been leading others to Christ and pointing
other eyes to that dear Cross that brought peace to you!
What sin you are daily committing! You are daily an unbeliever–daily
doing despite to the precious blood–daily denying the ability of
Christ and so doing injury to His honor. Does not the Spirit of God
within you make you say, this morning, "I will arise and go to my
Father"? Oh, if there is such a thought trembling in your soul, quench
it not! Obey it, arise and go and may your Father's arms be around your
neck before this day's sun goes down! Meanwhile, dear Friend, as I
press your hand again, permit me to say what a hardening process is
insensibly going on within you! If you are not better, you are
certainly worse than you were 12 months ago. Why, those promises that
cheered you, then, now yield you no comfort! Those threats which once
startled you now cause you no alarm! Will you tarry longer?
You have waited to be better and you are growing worse and worse. You
have said, "I will come at a more convenient season," and every season
is more inconvenient than that which came before it. You doubted
then–you are the victim of deeper and more dastardly doubts today. O
that you could believe in Him who must be true! O that you could trust
in Him who ought to be trusted, for He never can deceive! I pray God
the day may come, come now this very moment, that you may shake
yourself from the dust and arise and put on your beautiful
garments–for every hour you sit on the dunghill of your
soul-destroying doubts you are being fastened by strong bands of iron
to the seat of despair!
Your eyes are growing dimmer, your hands more palsied–and the poison
in your veins is raging more furiously! Yonder is the Savior's Cross
and there is efficacy in His blood for you. Trust Jesus, now, and this
moment you enter into peace! The gate of Mercy swings readily on its
hinge and opens wide to every soul that casts itself upon the bosom of
the Savior. O why do you tarry? Mischief will befall you. The sun is
going down. Hurry up, Traveler, lest you be overtaken with an
everlasting night!
What else can I say to warn you but this–every man and every woman in
this house today who is unconverted, however hopeful you may be–is
running the awful risk of sinking into the place where hope comes not!
As the Lord my God lives, my Hearer, with all the hopefulness which is
now about you, unless you believe in Jesus, you shall be damned! There
may be 10,000 good points about you, but if you miss this one, you must
be a castaway. My soul is grieved and vexed within me that I have such
a message to deliver, but I must speak plainly. Will you have Christ or
not? If not, then whatever you may glory in, Christ will not know you
in the day of His coming, but you shall hear Him say, "Depart from Me,
I never knew you."
Unless Jesus Christ is your shield and help, you are undone. But you
may have Him–you may have Him now! His Spirit speaks through my voice
to you at this hour. I know He does! You are feeling, even now, the
gentle motions of His mighty power–
"Yield to His love who round you now The bands of a man would cast, The
cords of His love, who was given for you, To His altar binding you
fast."
This is your only opportunity. Once let life be over and there is no
Christ to be preached in Gehenna, no Gospel to be proclaimed amid the
flames of Tophet! Perhaps to some of you even this day is your only day
of Grace. Now is conscience yet tender. Tomorrow, touched by that hot
iron which Satan ever has at hand, it may be a seared conscience never
to feel again. Now does the Gospel trumpet ring sweet and clear, "Come
and welcome! Come and welcome! Come and welcome, Sinners, come!" Your
guilt shall vanish, though black as Hell before! All things that
separate you and God shall be removed! Only trust in Jesus and you
shall live!
I wish to put it to you more powerfully, but cannot. There is the
Gospel. You have heard it this morning. Perhaps you will never hear it
again. Or, hearing it again, perhaps it shall never have a power to woo
you as it has at this hour. By the wounds of Christ, I pray you turn
not from Him! By the second coming of Christ, I pray you regard Him!
Since He shall shortly descend in the clouds of Heaven to call the
nations to account, I pray you bow to Him! By that pierced hand which
shall sway the scepter–by those weeping eyes which shall flash like
flames of fire–by those lips of mercy which shall pronounce sentences
of thunder, to be accompanied with an execution of lightning, I pray
you, "Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and you perish from the way when
His wrath is kindled but a little!"
I preach to you Christ with the crown of thorns. Christ with the
wounded hands. Christ with the opened side, full of tenderness and
mercy to sinners though they forget Him and neglect Him. But if you
will not have this Christ, then I must tell you of the Christ who shall
come–
"With the rainbow wreath and robes of storm, On cherub wings and wings
of wind, Appointed Judge of all mankind." You may reject Him today, but
you shall not escape Him then! You may turn your backs upon Him on this
Lord's-Day, but the mountains shall refuse to give you shelter in that
tremendous hour! Come, bow at His feet! Look up, now, to His dear face
and say, "I trust You, Jesus, I trust You now. Save me now, for I am
vile."
IV. The last word is that of ENCOURAGEMENT. Dear Friends, there are
many, many around you, some of whom you know, who have trusted Jesus
and they have found light. They once suffered your disappointments, but
they have now found rest to their souls. They came to Jesus just as
they were and at this moment they can tell you that they are satisfied
in Him. If others have found such peace, why not you? Jesus is still
the same! It is not to Christ's advantage to reject a sinner! It is not
for God's Glory to destroy a seeker! Rather, it is for His honor and
Glory to receive such as humbly repose in the sacrifice of His dear
Son.
What holds you back? You are called–come! You are pressed to
come–come! In the courts of Law I have sometimes heard a man called as
a witness and no sooner is he called, though he may be at the end of
the court, than he
begins to press his way up to the witness box. Nobody says, "Who is
this man pushing, here?" or, if they should say, "Who are you?" it
would be a sufficient answer to say, "My name was called." "But you are
not rich, you have no gold ring upon your finger!" "No, but that is not
it, I was called." "But you are not a man of repute, or rank, or
character!" "It matters not, I was called. Make way."
So make way, you doubts and fears! Make way, you devils of the infernal
lake! Christ calls the sinner. Sinner, come! Though you have nothing to
recommend you, yet, since it is written, "Him that comes unto Me I will
in no wise cast out," come, and the Lord bless you, for Christ's sake.
Amen.
PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON–Matthew 11:12-30.