Loving Persuasion
A SERMON DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, JUNE 26, 1887,
BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"Persuading them concerning Jesus." Acts 28:23.
WHEREVER Paul is, he has but one errand and whenever Paul preaches, he
has but one subject. Once at Athens, when he addressed the Areopagus,
he seemed to wander a little from his main point and no special good
followed, but this experience bound him all the faster to the Cross,
for he afterwards said to the Corinthians, "I determined not to know
anything among you, save Jesus Christ and Him crucified." The Cross of
Christ was his one theme. He henceforth hammered on the head of this
one nail. Whatever faculty, ability and power he had, he turned its
whole current into this one channel and cried, "God forbid that I
should glory, save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the
world is crucified unto me and I unto the world." Brethren, we have not
strength enough for a dozen things. We have not even strength enough
for two. What little vigor we have, let us use it all in one
direction–let us say, "For me to live is Christ." You could not have
dropped into Paul's lodging at any time during the two years that he
was at Rome before the emperor liberated him, without hearing him
preach of the "things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ. Every arrow
in his quiver was aimed at the one target and he knew how to hit the
white of it each time. "This one thing I do," he said. His motto
was–All for Jesus, and for Jesus only.
This one topic the Apostle brought forward in different ways. When
addressing the chief men of the Jews in Rome, observe that he
expounded, testified and persuaded. These three methods were necessary
among the people of those days and they are the wisest that can be
adopted to bring men to Christ even now. We must expound., set forth,
explain, make clear the Gospel. We must tell men what the Word of God
means in the plainest possible language, for they need to know what it
is that the Revelation from Heaven has really declared. The more of
true exposition the better! We must also testify. We must bear witness
to the effect which the Gospel has had upon our heart and life. The
telling out of our personal experience is a means of Grace to our
hearers. Paul was known to describe his own conversion. He told the
story of how the Lord appeared unto him on the way to Damascus and he
did this so often that Luke and others, who were his companions, must
have heard it several times. Indeed, it was a tale so worth the telling
that none could weary of hearing it!
Paul knew that personal witness-bearing has a great weight upon the
minds of men and, therefore, he was not afraid of being accused of
egotism, for he knew that he did not preach himself, but Christ Jesus
the Lord–and the narrative of his conversion was not intended to honor
himself at all, but to glorify that blessed Christ who out of Heaven
had spoken to him and called him to be a chosen vessel to bear His Word
to the Gentiles. There is much force in such a personal testimony. Oh,
that you and I, after having explained the Gospel, may always be able
to tell out something from our own experience which will prove it! Men
love, when they hear of a medicine, to meet with a case of care and, in
the same way, when they hear of religion, they desire to hear from
persons like themselves what that religion has done for them. Brethren,
we should speak of Jesus in a happy, grateful, earnest manner and
commend him as a Savior to our fellow sinners. Yet this was not all,
our Apostle was not satisfied simply to expound and testify–his heart
was full of love to his countrymen and, therefore, he persuaded them.
He entreated, he besought, he implored his hearers to turn to the Lord
Jesus
Christ!
As Paul was speaking to Jews, he fetched the arguments of his
persuasion from their own Holy Books. I have no doubt that he had
spread out on the table before him the Books of Moses and the various
rolls of the Prophets. To these he continually referred his Jewish
friends. We cannot, this morning, go into that argument, neither is
there need, for you are not Israelites and you are already well
acquainted with that mode of argument. Paul must have been a master in
that
line of things. I think I hear him now explaining to them concerning
Jesus as He appeared in Melchisidec–that was a wide subject! Hear him
open up to them the justification of Abraham by faith and then the
allegory of Sarah and Hagar and the two Covenants. I should have liked
to have heard him speak of Isaac and Ishmael, and of Jacob and Esau and
the electing love of God as seen in those memorable instances!
With what rapture would Paul speak of the sacrifices, reminding them
that, "without shedding of blood there is no remission," and pointing
them to the blood of sprinkling which speaks better things than that of
Abel! How he would then open up to them the meaning of the daily
offerings, the mystery of the Day of Atonement, the sacred teaching of
the entering in of the High Priest within the veil! How earnestly would
he remind his brethren that the continual repetition of the sacrifices
was a sure evidence that they had not made the consciences of the
offerers clean from a sense of sin, or they would have ceased to be
offered! How heartily would he direct their minds to that one Sacrifice
which Jesus presented once and for all when He bowed His head in death!
I think I can hear him turning to that memorable passage in Isaiah
which so much engaged the attention of the Ethiopian eunuch and,
opening up to his audience the Person and suffering of the Lord Jesus
who was led as a lamb to the slaughter for our sakes–and for us was
stricken, smitten and afflicted.
With such arguments, men who believed those Books to be Inspired ought
to have been convinced! It is clear that Jesus of Nazareth is the
Messiah predicted in the Old Testament. Had not their hearts been so
gross, their eyes so blind and their ears so dull, they would have
believed in Jesus! But as it was, many of the Jewish leaders went away
in a pet, quarrelling with those who believed and angry with Paul. None
are such bitter enemies of the Cross as those who, by a firm resolve,
determine to be blind to its Glory and dead to its power.
Thus Paul, you see, in his pleading, adapted himself to his audience.
He had acquired the knack of being all things to all men that be might
save some. In pleading with Israel, for whose salvation his heart's
desire and prayer always rose to Heaven, he followed the wisest and
most hopeful course. He argued from what they believed–he urged the
Truths of God they already knew as a reason why they should admit
another Truth or, rather, let me say he showed them that the Gospel of
Jesus was involved and contained within those Truths of God which were
assuredly accepted among them! He spent the whole day at this, but at
this time I shall not pursue his line of reasoning because it is not
needed among you– you have need of persuasion of another sort.
It would ill become me to beat the air, or exhibit before you a mimic
combat with an absent adversary. No, my Friends, I have before me
another sort of people whose condition needs another treatment. I long
for your immediate conversion! With earnest prayer I have come here,
seeking with tears and entreaties, to win men from destruction! Others
have joined me in supplication and, therefore, I look to the Holy
Spirit for His gracious work, that my hearers may be convicted of sin
and led to Jesus!
I. LET ME FIRST DESCRIBE THOSE WHO WE WOULD PERSUADE. I will so picture
you that some of you will see yourselves as in a mirror. I shall not
talk to a people far away, but to you who sit before me this day.
I would persuade those persons who believe the Truth, notionally, and
yet do not receive it in their hearts. It seems a strange thing that
men should believe and yet not believe! This peculiar form of unbelief
is current among us at this day. It is strange that men believe the
Bible and even profess to believe it all–and yet they act as if it
were all a dream! If we preach the Deity of Christ, it is an easy task,
for they never thought of questioning it. If we proclaim the need of
the Holy Spirit in regeneration, they are agreed, for they never
doubted it. Whatever doctrine it is that we can prove by the Word of
God, they bow before it! They are not guilty of skepticism. Alas, they
hardly give the matter thought enough to observe any difficulties!
Avoiding the whirlpool of questioning, they run upon the rock of
indifference. Their belief holds the Truth as spices and linen preserve
a mummy. The Gospel is to them a dead monarch, honorably interred in
the sarcophagus of their reverence. It has no more power over them than
if they disbelieved it! As a medicine retained upon the druggist's
shelf has no effect upon the body, so is the Gospel stowed away in the
minds of many so as to have no result in their lives!
This is a sad misuse of Divine Revelation. It cannot have been sent to
us to be without effect. O my Hearers, if you believe that Jesus is the
Savior, why is He not your Savior? If you believe that repentance and
faith bring salvation, why have you not repented and believed? If you
believe that there is a God that hears prayer, why do you not pray? If
you know that you must be born again, how is it you are content without
the new birth? How is it that with regard to the hearing of the Word of
God you come and you go, not once nor twice, but year after year and
yet you are unmoved and
unchanged? Age steals over some of you and finds you not an inch in
advance of what you were in your youth! If you did not believe the Word
of God, I could understand your conduct–but if you do believe it, why
do you not receive it practically into your hearts?
If you were awakened by a cry of fire! and you were sure that your own
house was burning, I should expect to see you hurrying from the flame.
I could understand you keeping to your bed if you were persuaded that
the cry was the mere idle noise of boys in the street, but if you
believed it to be a real alarm, I should be perplexed if I saw you
seeking a little more sleep! If you were told that you had a disease
which would soon bring you to your grave and that a certain physician
could work a speedy cure–if you did not believe the report, I would
expect that you would suffer in the patience of despair. But if you did
believe in the reputation of the physician and in the cures which he
had worked, I would not be able to understand you if you did not go to
him and seek relief! O Sirs, how is it that you are willing to continue
in sin when Jesus is able to save unto the uttermost? How strangely you
act! Alas, human nature has become monstrous! It is false to its own
instinct of self-preservation and acts in a suicidal manner! Oh that
you were wise! If Jesus tells you the Truth of God, why do you not
believe Him? If Jesus is Himself the Truth of God, why do you not
receive Him? Why do you need persuading to a course so proper, so
reasonable?
Many need persuading who intend, soon, to practice what they have
believed, but the time has not fully come. You have a resolve in your
heart that before long you will turn to Christ, but the unhappy thing
is that you have for many a day retained this resolve and it has grown
moldy within your bosoms! When we met you as a child, you meant to love
the Lord. When we conversed with you as young men and women you were
very hopeful and your parents felt that their prayers would soon be
heard. You seemed so thoughtful and impressible–and you had such good
intentions–that we all reckoned upon your speedily being decided. You
are much older, now, but you are not more advanced– it is still, with
you, all intentions and intentions! I wish there could be a time fixed
in your mind when it should be either, "yes," or, "no." "How long halt
you between two opinions?" How long shall Jesus be put off and the
world be served?
Some of you are not a whit more hopeful than you were 20 years ago. Let
me recall the expression–you are a deal more hopeless, for you are
becoming Gospel-hardened! Appeals which once pierced your hearts do not
even wound you anymore. As water rolls down a marble slab and leaves
nothing behind, so is it now with what you hear. The sword of the
Spirit is as sharp as ever, but your heart has hardened like steel in
the annealing. Oh, you that are forever resolving and resolving and yet
abide where you are–you are the people whom at this time I would
persuade to decision!
Some have gone even further, for they are earnestly seeking salvation
but they have chosen a wrong method of search which can only end in
disappointment. I would gladly persuade them to leave off seeking the
living among the dead! Salvation is by immediate trust in Jesus, but
you need to feel up to a certain degree of anguish, or you need to
change yourselves up to a certain point of excellence! In a word, you
want to save yourselves, first, and then come to Jesus! You are trying
to make the lantern shine before a candle is put in it. You want to
renew your own nature and then come to Christ for a new heart–you are
not content to come to Jesus as sinners! All will be done for you if
you will but put your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, but this you fail
to do.
If I knew how to put the Gospel more plainly than I do, God knows I
would not be slack to do so, but yet, with all the plainness of our
preaching, our hearers still persist in going about after this and that
hope of their own instead of at once accepting salvation by Jesus
Christ. Oh, that you were so persuaded of the things concerning Jesus
as to lay hold of them at once! You need to be led to see that
salvation is all finished and that you have but to take it as a free
gift! "Christ has died," and in that expression lies your life!
Believing in Jesus, you have eternal life the moment you believe! You
need to be persuaded to accept this as the present Truth of God–the
most precious Truth of God you can ever hear! If you will receive it,
happy will it be with you. But if you continue running here and there
after salvation and neglecting the Lord Jesus, you shall perish in your
sins! Why will you pursue the will-o'-the-wisp and shut your eyes to
the Daystar? Why will you follow the mirage and leave the lone well in
the desert whose sweet waters will forever remove your thirst? Oh, that
you were rightly persuaded at this very moment!
One other class I should like to deal with this morning–I would gladly
persuade those who have tried a long time to do their best and, having
never succeeded, are falling into a state of despair. Theirs is not a
painful despair–I wish it were, but, alas, they have fallen into a
lethargy, a paralysis of the mind with regard to heavenly things! "It
is no good," they say, "I cannot get peace, I shall never find pardon.
A child of God I cannot hope to be! I might as well expect to be a peer
of the realm!" Therefore they sit down in sullen hopelessness. They
mutter that if it is to be, it will be, and it is of no use caring.
They are rendered insensible by the frostbite of their horrible idea of
fate. Oh, that they had been warmed by the sunlight of belief in a
gracious predestination! Men die by insensibility as surely as by
passion. I fear that some of you will never awake until in Hell you
lift up your eyes! I have had you laid on my heart and the thought of
your danger presses me down into the cast at this time. I feel but
little joy, even in these jubilee times, when I think about those of
you who are so near to the Kingdom of God and yet are aliens from it!
I must persuade you with all my heart to come to Jesus, for if you
perish in the light, you will perish with a vengeance! If you go down
to destruction from the borders of salvation, it will be sevenfold
destruction! If you die with Jesus weeping over you, as He did over
Jerusalem, you will die horribly! If you sink down to Hell with that
Word of God in your ears, "How often would I have gathered you, as a
hen gathers her chickens under her wings, and you would not!" your
sinking will be like that of a millstone in the sea! If you perish
under a Gospel ministry, it were better for you that you had never been
born!
These are the people I long to persuade. O Divine Spirit, work through
me at this time and let the eternal purposes of love be fulfilled! O my
Brothers and Sisters in Christ, I entreat you, by the love of Jesus,
strive together with me in your prayers for this blessing!
II. Our second point shall be–LET US PERSUADE THEM. But are we right
trying to persuade men? Are not human hearts too hard to be broken by
so feeble a hammer as our persuasion? Yes, I most solemnly believe they
are, but that is not the question. "What is the use of persuading them
if you know that they will not be won by your persuasion in and of
itself?" Well, Brethren, I feel safe in doing what Paul did. I will not
stop to solve difficulties, but merely say, Paul persuaded and so will
I. "Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men." "Oh,"
says one, "we may persuade awakened sinners, but not dead sinners!" But
I reply that Paul persuaded these chief men of the Jews, some of whom
never believed in Jesus, for their hearts were gross and their eyes
were blinded. Paul persuaded them, though they were judicially blind!
He knew that they were living men and that they were possessed of
reason, even though they had no Grace– and so he appealed to what
remained in them–and he persuaded them.
Again I say, I will do what Paul did. But I know, as Paul also knew,
that all the human persuasion in the world will fall short of the mark
without Divine Power! I never dreamed that my persuasion was of the
slightest avail without the Holy Spirit! If the Holy Spirit will cause
the persuasion to reach the inward ear, then it will prevail, but no
way else. If He will drive home the persuasion so that it touches the
heart which is encased in the fat of worldly pleasure, indifference,
prejudice and pride, then men will yield and men will be persuaded,
indeed! And the Holly Spirit will do this! He has done it! He is doing
it! He will do it and, therefore, we persuade! Brothers, why should we
not expect the Holy Spirit to display His power? We have sought it with
fervent prayer. The preacher comes on this platform neither without his
own prayers, nor without your prayers and so we are persuaded that we
shall have Divine help! Therefore, O Sinners, "as though God did
beseech you by us, we pray you in Christ's stead, be you reconciled to
God"!
Once more, in the name of God, I return to the work to which God has
ordained me. I would persuade you concerning Jesus. To what shall I
persuade you? My dear Hearers, I would persuade some of you to think of
Christ, the Lord's Anointed–to think of Jesus, the Savior! I would
have you read about Him and study His Person, work and Character. Turn
to the four Evangelists and see what He was and what He did. Read
carefully and reverently of the Inspired life of Jesus. Faith often
comes to men when they are thinking about Christ. The Cross not only
claims faith, but creates it! To sit and see the Son of God die on the
Cross is the way to get faith. Some of you, perhaps, have been sitting
still and trying to believe. That is a very absurd thing to do, for
faith is not a first effort of the mind, but it follows upon other
states. Know what is to be believed and why you are to believe it! Know
who He is in whom you are to put your trust and why He deserves to be
trusted! Shut yourselves up a bit–read the Bible carefully and then
meditate and meditate and meditate! This is the way in which faith
grows in the soul, even as plants spring from seed sown and watered.
Faith comes by hearing or reading–the hearing or reading of the Word
of God! "Incline your ears," says the Lord God, "and come unto Me: hear
and your soul shall live." May I not persuade you to think seriously
and often about the way of salvation by Jesus Christ?
The next thing I would persuade you to is to trust in Him. Trust is the
essence of saving faith. Faith is not merely believing facts, but
trusting to a person. God has set forth Christ to be a Propitiation for
sin–He becomes to me my Pro-
pitiation when I trust Him. Can you not trust Jesus? Is He not worth
trusting? Where else can you trust? The moment you trust in Him, you
are saved! You know that–why not prove it true by personal faith? To
trust is the meaning of that text, "Look unto Me, and be you saved, all
you ends of the earth." There is life in the glance of trust! You are
living men when you look to Christ, or trust Him.
"But," you say, "I do not feel." Away with your "buts"! What have I
said about your feelings? "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you
shall be saved." "He that believes on Him has everlasting life."
Salvation lies in the simple act of trusting in your Savior. Oh, that I
could persuade you to trust! And when you have trusted Him, I need to
persuade you concerning Jesus that you should avow that trust. The Lord
puts it thus–"He that believes and is baptized shall be saved." Be
baptized, therefore, in obedience to His command! Come out boldly and
say, "I am on the Lord's side." Do not attempt to go sneaking to Heaven
along some back lane–come into the King's Highway–take up your cross
and follow Him. He that will not confess Him before men, Christ will
not confess before His Father who is in Heaven! What is there to be
ashamed of in Jesus? If Christ is your Savior, the very least thing you
can do is to say, "I am His disciple," and openly declare yourself on
His side. He puts it so–"He that with his heart believes, and with his
mouth makes confession of Him, shall be saved." I would persuade you to
an open confession–may God the Holy Spirit lead you at once to the
doing of it!
And if I were happy enough to persuade you so far, I would persuade you
to obey Christ throughout life. "Whatever He says to you, do it." Seek
to lead a holy, harmless, blameless life. Endeavor to avoid all sin.
Endeavor to copy the Son of God throughout your whole course, making
Him your Model and your Master, your Leader and your Lord. Some of you
who have openly confessed Him still need to be persuaded to a closer
obedience. "Without holiness no man shall see the Lord." The way of
complete obedience is the way of happiness–and many professors miss
the joy of their Lord–I am half afraid they will miss His acceptance
at the last because they are not careful to walk in His ways and to
glorify His holy name by a holy life. I would persuade you, then, to
think of Christ, to trust in Christ, to confess Christ and to obey
Christ.
What shall be my arguments? I can summon battalions of them from Jesus
Himself. He is the Son of God–therefore, trust Him. He loves with a
supreme love–shall we not love Him who first loved us? He died! Oh, by
His agony and bloody sweat, by His Cross and passion, I would persuade
you to turn to Him! Every drop of blood of the great Substitute, every
sigh and every cry of the Redeemer is an argument with men that they
should not neglect His salvation, but should come and trust Him! He is
risen and lives again–despise not the risen Savior–come and bow
before Him who is proved to be the Son of God with power by His
Resurrection from the dead! He has gone up into His Glory. He sits at
the right hand of God–obey Him, then, for all power is given to Him in
Heaven and in earth. He will shortly come and you and I (in how short a
time!) will have to stand before His Judgment Seat. Believe not those
who would bid you to trifle with a future state and think little of the
judgment to come! O men and women, a short time will swallow us all up
in the grave and we shall pass into another world–in little more than
the twinkling of an eye we shall hear that last trumpet heralding the
Judge! Then shall we hear the summons, "Come to judgment! Come to
judgment! Come away!" Then I shall have to give an account of this
morning's sermon. What a weight to have to preach to all of you and to
have your blood laid at my door if I preach not faithfully to you! O
God Most Merciful, grant to all of us that knowing Christ will come and
come to judgment, we may lay this fact to heart and be persuaded to put
our trust in Him who will otherwise pronounce upon us the sentence of
eternal perdition!
I may summon another battalion of arguments from your own state and
need. O Sirs, you that are unconverted are yet in your sins, encrusted
with years of gathered foulness! Your sins hang about you now like the
white scales of leprosy– they are on your brows and in your hearts.
There is but One that can cleanse these defilements–it is Jesus! Why
do you not fly to Him? Moreover, remember the sinfulness of your
nature. You will go on to sin–your heart is deceitful above all things
and desperately wicked! You will not cease from sinning. Jesus alone
can give you a new heart and a right spirit. He is the one Physician
able to cure your fatal disease. Will you not cry to Him, "Jesus,
Emmanuel, heal me with a touch"? Will you refuse to be made whole? I
pray you do not so!
Even now you are conscious of a wearisome restlessness. You are not
happy. You have forebodings of an awful future. You know you are not at
peace. From all the gay and gallant sights you have seen this week
[Jubilee celebration of Queen Victoria] you have turned away sick at
heart. You need something better and more substantial. Be assured there
is
no rest for you but in Christ! He says to you, "Come unto Me, all you
that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Turn not
away from the one and only rest of your souls, but this day accept Him!
Take His yoke upon you and learn of Him–and you shall find rest unto
your souls. As you love your souls, as you desire happiness here–as
you desire blessedness hereafter–I beseech you to lay hold on eternal
life in Jesus!
If I needed more arguments, there are many quarters from which they
would come at my bidding. I would try to find them in your hopes and
fears. I do not know to whom I may be speaking now, but, my Friend,
there is a glorious future before you if Christ becomes yours. Burdened
Sinner, there is a peace which passes all understanding if you will
look to Jesus! O distracted, tempest-tossed Soul, there is a haven of
rest for you if you steer to Christ! I would gladly persuade you, now,
to come to Him whose gift is Heaven below and then, Heaven above! I
myself have tried Him. Blessed was the day in which I fell into His
arms! O happy hour in which I looked to Him and was lightened! Truly,
my face is not ashamed, nor is my tongue ashamed of my Lord, nor is my
understanding ashamed to believe His Gospel, though all men should cast
doubt upon it. I have no other hope under Heaven, no other joy in
Heaven but my Savior and His Infallible Word. If you knew the comfort
which my soul finds in Jesus, you could not desire a better. O you
young people, I would especially say to you–come early to Jesus, for
they that seek Him early shall find Him with supreme delight! You will
come to die soon–here is the antidote of death. The strongest and
youngest will, one day, have to go upstairs and gather up his feet in
the bed. Oh, what a comfort and joy it gives you in that hour to have
the Presence of your Lord! After death comes the forever and ever. What
bliss to be "forever with the Lord"! That endless fellowship with Jesus
means an immeasurable weight of glory. Surely these arguments ought to
prevail with you. They will, if your reason is made reasonable.
How ought I to plead with you when I have told you these arguments? I
ought to plead with you in a manner far superior to that which I have
yet reached. Alas, I cannot persuade you as I would. I think the
preacher should feel a burning desire for his hearers' conversion and
even an intense anguish of heart for the immediate salvation of those
to whom he speaks. To this I have attained–I long for your salvation
most vehemently. I would say anything and say it any way, if I could
but win you to immediate faith in the Lord Jesus! The desire is so
strong upon me that should I not succeed on this occasion, I will try
again and if, unhappily, I should fail again, I will continue at the
work as long as you live and I am able to reach you! O my Hearers, I
cannot endure that you should die in your sins! I will go before God in
secret and lay your case before Him and beg Him to interpose. We cannot
let you be damned, my Hearers. It is too dreadful! We cannot stand by
and see you lost! If you are so insane as to refuse the Savior, those
who have sober judgments will still continue to pray for you and to
weep in secret places because of your sins. If we cannot prevail with
you for God, we will endeavor to prevail with God for you. I would have
every person in this place act reasonably, righteously, truthfully,
honestly to his own soul–and if he does, he will be persuaded this day
to believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and cast himself at His
pierced feet!
III. Now I have to speak a few words upon another subject, with the
same objective. It is this–LET US LAMENT
THE FACT THAT OUR PERSUASIONS FAIL IN CERTAIN CASES. Paul found it so
and where this chief of Apostles
was baffled, can I wonder if I fail? The sower went forth to sow. He
was a model sower. The Master put him in His parable as a pattern–he
could not have sown better seed, nor have sown it better–and yet some
of his seed fell on stony places, some fell by the wayside, and yet a
third fell among thorns. Only one portion of what he sowed appears to
have fallen upon good soil.
Let me speak to those of you who will, I fear, be our failures. I
grieve to think there should be any such. It is a sad business, in the
present, for a man to be living without Christ. We pity abject poverty,
but this is worse than the worst poverty. We are sorry for the
friendless, but none are so forlorn as those who have not Jesus for a
Friend. No ignorance is so terrible as ignorance of the Savior; no
blindness so deplorable as blindness towards the Lord Jesus. To live
without Christ is not life, but a breathing death! You are in the
heyday of your youth, perhaps, and think that you are enjoying
pleasure, but, indeed, it is not worth the name! You are eating husks
and missing the kernels. Your mirth is as the crackling of thorns under
a pot–it flares and blazes up–but there is no heat in it! It dies
down in a moment and leaves nothing but a few ashes. If I had to die
like a dog I should still wish to live the life of a Christian! Faith
is good for this life. There is more solid joy in five minutes'
fellowship with Christ than in a thousand years of reveling in the
palaces of kings.
You are a loser in a thousand ways by remaining an hour without Christ!
It is a wretched business to be God's enemy, to miss rest of heart and
to be a stranger to the Holy Spirit.
It is a wretched business to be now neglecting the great salvation, but
this is not all–your present hardness of heart reveals a good deal as
to your past life. If you will not be persuaded of the things
concerning Jesus, it shows that your heart and conscience have been
injured by years of willful resistance to the power of the Truth of
God. You have been stopping up your ears and that is why you are so
deaf. You have been sealing up your eyes, or you would not be so
utterly blind. You have been hardening your heart against gracious
appeals, or else you would not now be made of such hardened steel.
Remember those years of broken Sabbaths and see what they have done for
you–they have blinded and hardened you. Remember the neglected House
of God and see how callous you have now become. Think of the times in
which you have heard the Gospel and refused its tender warnings,
instructions and invitations–and see what has come of those refusals.
You are now well-nigh insensible. Oh, that black, black past!
We are also fearful about you because your past and present foretell a
future of continued and increasing blindness, deafness and
insensibility. I fear for some of you that you have been judicially
hardened by the withdrawal of the Holy Spirit and that you are also
hardened by the terrible influence of Satan–and that you have also
allowed the suicidal influence of self-will to sear your conscience as
with a hot iron. You are such a trifler that it is hard to get a
serious thought into your mind. You are so fickle that none of our
hopes concerning you are ever realized. You are so superficial that it
is difficult to make any deep impression upon you. You crush beneath
your feet the eggs of better things–you stifle the good thoughts which
sometimes are born within you. Holy teachings fall upon your mind as
sparks which drop into a pool of water. You have almost come to a
condition of mind in which you are like a man covered with armor from
which the sharpest arrows glance off. O God, let it not be quite so, we
beseech You, with anyone here!
This is all the sadder because it suggests such tremendous sin and such
overwhelming punishment. I cannot tell you what must be the doom of
Sodom and Gomorrah, neither can you, yourselves, conceive its full
horror. They gave themselves up unto unmentionable lusts until, at
last, God was so provoked that He would bear it no longer and He
resolved to destroy the filthy ones and the place which they had
polluted. He pulled up the sluices of His wrath and cataracts of fire
poured down from Heaven upon the unclean ones! Heaven sent down fire
and brimstone instead of silver showers! Then were the sinners burned
up all of a sudden and not a speck, either of the Sodomites or of their
city, was left. This was an unparalleled instance of Divine Justice,
for their sin had broken all bounds. What their doom will be in the Day
of Judgement, I leave you to imagine–but remember these words and
weigh them well–"It shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in
the Day of Judgment than for you."
Dear boy that you were upon your mother's knee. Fair girl that you were
in the Sunday school class, speaking so hopefully in your younger
days–you will have to give an account for the delays which are ruining
you! Hearer as you were and as you are this morning, listening
respectfully to God's ambassador–if you refuse the monitions of
Infinite Love, what will become of you? Those were not my lips,
remember, which first spoke those dagger-like words–they fell from the
lips of the Prince of Love who died for men! It is Christ, Himself, who
said to those who heard His Word and saw His mighty works and yet
refused to repent–"Woe unto you! It shall be more tolerable for Sodom
and Gomorrah than for you."
Yes, I have endeavored to persuade you and if I must labor in vain, I
shall turn away with great reluctance, mourning that I may not be
allowed to be a blessing to you. I quit you with lingering footstep and
bow regretfully before the Lord, crying, "Who has believed my report;
and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?" Why will you die? Why
will you rush upon such a destruction? Oh, that you were wise!
IV. But now, to change my strain, that we may not finish upon so sad a
note, LET ME PERSEVERE IN PERSUADING OTHERS. Notice that the Apostle
was not hindered in his work by sorrowing over those who rejected his
persuasion, but he turned to others of whom he had better hope. Having
spoken a solemn parting word, he said, "Be it known, therefore, unto
you, that the salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles and that they
will hear it." To these Gentiles, for two years, Paul continued
"preaching the Kingdom of God and teaching those things which concern
the Lord Jesus Christ." He kept to his work, but he changed his
audience!
We, also, will preach the Gospel to those who have not enjoyed
Christian privileges. We preach Jesus to you who were not born of godly
parents, nor brought up under Christian care. We preach Free Grace and
dying love to you who
up to now have not attended the House of Prayer, nor cared to hear the
Word of everlasting life. If the moral refuse mercy, we declare it to
the immoral! The Jews had been religious in profession, but as they
refused Christ, our Apostle preached Him to the Gentile population in
Rome, which in Paul's day was worse than London, if there can be worse!
Rome was an infamous den of every villainy beneath the sky, but Paul,
without hesitation, preached Christ to all the Romans that he could
reach–to soldiers, to slaves, to Caesar's household and to runaways!
He believed in the adaptation of the Gospel to the most degraded. With
no weapon but the Cross, he attacked a city sunk in idolatry and vice!
So we, also, when repulsed by you who think yourselves exceedingly
respectable, turn with hope to those who have been drunks, swearers,
thieves, harlots and the like! To the chief of sinners we present the
great salvation! To you is the Word of this salvation sent. "Whoever
will, let him take of the Water of Life freely." "Christ Jesus came
into the world to save sinners." "All manner of sin and blasphemy shall
be forgiven unto men."
You far-off ones, that dwell out of the reach of the common means of
Grace–the arm of mercy is stretched out to you! You who are not a
people shall be made a people and she that was not beloved shall be
called the Beloved of the Lord! Paul said of the Gentiles, "They will
hear it," and we have the same confidence concerning many great
transgressors. I thank God that those who never heard the Gospel before
have heard it in this great house and have so heard it that they have
at once yielded to its demands and accepted its provisions! Many who
have been without hope, without God and without fear of eternal things,
have heard the doctrine of free, rich, Sovereign Mercy and have turned
at once from their sins and laid hold upon the hope set before them!
Oh that more would come! They will come–"They will hear it." The
Divine purpose is that the Lord will provoke the outwardly religious by
saving those who make no pretense of godliness. Because you were
invited to the feast and would not come, therefore the Master of the
house, being angry, issues a wider invitation and gives the grand
command, "Go out into the highways and hedges, and as many as you find
compel them to come in." If you will not have salvation, others will!
Christ shall not be disappointed! He shall not die in vain! His Spirit
shall not strive without success! "A seed shall serve Him." Jesus shall
have a people saved by His precious blood. I hope that many such are
brought here this morning on purpose to be blessed. I hope they will
leap forward to catch at the gracious message. Oh that some of them
would cry out, "I believe, I trust, I rest in Jesus!"
If it is so, go your way, God has saved you. If you believe that Jesus
is the Christ, you are born of God. You have been worldly, sinful,
abundantly wicked, but, if you will have Christ, now, have Him and
welcome! If you are now drawn towards Him, come at once and linger not!
"For the Scripture says, Whoever believes on Him shall not be ashamed."
May His sweet love persuade you in the things concerning Jesus! Amen.