Pleading and Encouragement
(No. 1795)
Delivered on Lord's-Day Morning, August 17th, 1884, by
C. H. SPURGEON,
At the [3]Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington
"Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die? saith the Lord
God: and not that he should return from his ways, and live?" Ezekiel
18:23.
"For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord
God: wherefore turn yourselves, and live ye." Ezekiel 18:32.
"As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the
wicked: but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn
ye from your evil ways for why will ye die, O house of Israel?"
Ezekiel 33:11.
SIN HAVING A THOROUGH POSSESSION of the human heart, entrenches itself
within the soul, as one who has taken a stronghold speedily attends to
the repairing of the breaches, and the strengthening of the walls, lest
haply he should be dislodged. Among the most subtle devices of sin to
keep the soul under its power, and prevent the man's turning to God, is
the slandering of the Most High by misrepresenting his character. As
dust blinds the eye, so does sin prevent the sinner from seeing God
aright. "Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God"; but
the wicked only see what they think to be God, and that, alas, is an
image as unlike to God as possible! They say, for instance, that God is
unmerciful, whereas he delighteth in mercy. The unfaithful servant in
the parable was quite sure about it, and said most positively, "I knew
that thou wast an austere man:" whereas the nature of God is as
opposite to overbearing and exaction as light is from darkness.
When men once get this false idea of God into their minds they become
hardened in heart: believing that it is useless to turn to God, they go
on in their sine with greater determination. Either they conceive that
God is implacable, or that he is indifferent to human prayers, or that
if he should hear them yet he is not in the least likely to grant a
favorable answer. Men darkly dream that God will not attend to the
guilty and the miserable when they cry to him; that their prayers are
not good enough for him: that he expects so much from his creatures
that they cannot even pray so as to please him; that, in fact, he
seeketh a quarrel against us, and is a taskmaster who will grind all he
can out of us. Being themselves slow to forgive, they judge it to be
highly unlikely that the Lord will pardon such sins as theirs. As they
will not smile on the poor or the fallen, they conceive that the Lord
will never receive unworthy ones into his favor. Thus they belie the
Host High: they make him who is the best of Kings to be a tyrant; him
who is the dearest of friends they regard as an enemy; and him whose
very name is love they look upon as the embodiment of hate.
This is one of Satan's most mischievous, devices to prevent repentance.
As in the old times of plague they fastened up the house-door, and
marked a red cross upon it, and thus the inhabitants of that dwelling
were sealed unto death, even so the devil writes upon the man's door
the words, "no hope," and then the sick soul determines to die, and
refuses admission to the Physician. No man sins more unreservedly than
he who sins in desperation, believing that there is no pardon for him
from God. An assault where the watchword is "No quarter" usually
provokes a terrible defense. The pirate who is hopeless of pardon
becomes reckless in his deeds of blood. Many a burglar in the old time
actually went on to murder without remorse, because he thought he might
as well be hanged for a sheep as for a lamb. When a man believes that
there is no hope for him in the right way, he determines that he will
get what he can out of the wrong way; and if he cannot please God, he
will, at least, please himself. If he must go to hell, he will be as
merry as he can on the road, and, as he puts it, he will "die game."
All this comes of a mistaken view of God. Do you not see the likeness
between sin and falsehood? They are twin brothers. Holiness is truth,
but sin is a lie, and the mother of lies. Sin brings forth falsehood,
and then falsehood nourishes sin. Especially in this fashion doth
falsehood maintain sin, by calumniating the God of love. He is a God
ready to pardon, and by no means hard to be moved to forgiveness; why
do men stand off from confessing their wrong, and finding mercy? He is
not a God who taketh pleasure in the miseries of men; why do they think
so ill of him? His ear is not dull to the cry of sorrow, his heart is
not slow to compassionate distress; on the contrary, he waiteth to be
gracious, "his mercy endureth for ever," he delighteth in mercy; why
will men run from him? God is love immeasurable, love constant,
boundless, endless.
"Who is a pardoning God like thee?
Or who hath grace so rich and free?"
Part of our business as ministers of Christ is to bear witness to the
loving-kindness of the Lord against the falsehood with which sin
dishonors his goodness. I desire to do so this morning, and to do it in
right down earnest, in the hope that those of you who are convinced of
sin may this day be able to rest in the mercy of God,even that
exceeding mercy which he has revealed in Jesus Christ, his Son.
I have been very much struck with several letters which I have this
week received from deeply-wounded souls. God is at work among us with
the sword of conviction. I have felt a great degree of joy in receiving
these letters; painful as they are to their writers, they are very
hopeful to me. I am sorry that any persons should be near despair, and
should continue in that condition; but anything is better than
indifference. I am not sorry to see souls shut up in the prison of the
law, for I hope they will soon come out of the prison-house into the
full liberty of faith in Christ. I must confess my preference for these
old-fashioned forms of conviction: it is my judgment that they produce
better and more stable believers than the modern superficial methods. I
am glad to see the Holy Spirit overturning, throwing down, digging out
the foundations, and making you like cleared ground, that he may build
upon you temples for his praise. How earnestly do I pray that the Lord
may make of these convinced ones champions for the doctrines of free
grace, comforters for his mourners, and consecrated servants of his
kingdom! I look for large harvests from this deep subsoil ploughing.
The Lord grant it, for his name's sake!
I can see in several who have written to me that their main idea is
erroneous, that they have fallen into a wrong notion about God: they do
not conceive of him as the good and gracious God which he really is.
This error I am eager to correct. Listen to me, ye mourners. I desire
to tell you nothing but sober truth. God forbid that I should
misrepresent God for your comfort! Job asked his friends, "Will ye talk
deceitfully for God? "and my answer to that question is,"Never." I
would not utter what I believed to be falsehood concerning the Lord,
even though the evil one offered me the bait of saving all mankind
thereby. I have noticed in certain Revival Meetings a wretched lowering
of the truth upon many points in order to afford encouragement to men;
but all such sophistry ends in utter failure. Comfort based upon the
suppression of truth is worse than useless. Lasting consolation must
come to sinners from the sure truth of God; or else in the day when
they most want it their hopes will depart from them, as the giving up
of the ghost. I will therefore speak to you the truth in its simplicity
concerning the blessed God, whose servant I am. I beseech you no longer
to persevere in your slander of his infinite love. Oh, you that feel
your sin, and dare not put your trust in your forgiving God, I pray you
to learn of him, and know him aright, for then shall that text be
fulfilled in you,"They that know thy name will put their trust in
thee." May the Holy Spirit come now in all his brightness, that you may
see God in his own light! As for me, I feel my duty to be one in which
nothing can avail me but that same Spirit. Chrysostom used to wonder
that any minister could be saved, seeing our responsibilities are so
great; I am entirely of his mind. Pray for me that I may be faithful to
men's souls.
Notice, that in each one of my texts the Lord declares that he has no
pleasure in the death of the wicked; but in each following passage the
statement is stronger. The Lord puts it first as a matter of question.
As if he were surprised that such a thing should be laid to his door,
he appeals to man's own reason, and asks, "Have I any pleasure at all
that the wicked should die? saith the Lord God: and not that he should
return from his ways, and live?" Oh, souls, can you really think that
God desires your damnation? Can you be so demented as soberly to
believe such a calumny? Will such a theory hold water for a single
minute? After all the goodness of God to multitudes of rebellious men,
can you allow such a dark thought to linger near your mind, that God
can have pleasure in men's being sinners, and ultimately destroying
themselves by their iniquities? Your own common-sense must teach you
that the good God is grieved to see men sin, that he would be glad to
see men of a better mind, and that it is sad work to him to punish the
finally obstinate and impenitent. He cries most plaintively "Oh, do not
this abominable thing that I hate." He puts it here as a question of
wonderment, that men should so grossly malign him as to think that the
God of love could have any pleasure in men's perishing by their sins.
But then, in the next place, in our second text, God makes a positive
assertion. Knowing the human heart, he foresaw that a question would
not be enough to end this matter, for man would say, "He only asked the
question, but he did not give a plain and positive statement to the
contrary." He gives us that clear assurance in our second text: "I have
no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord God:
wherefore turn yourselves, and live ye." When the Lord speaks he is to
be believed, for he is God that cannot lie. We know that this speech of
his is authentic; it comes to us by an inspired prophet, concerning
whose call by God we entertain no doubt whatever. Let us, then, believe
it heartily. If I were to state this as my own opinion, you might do as
you pleased about believing it; but since God saith this, then we claim
of you all, as God's creatures, that you believe your Creator, and that
this statement be never questioned again. "Where the word of a king is,
there is power,"power, I trust, to silence all further debate upon the
willingness of God to save.
But still, as if to end for ever the strange and ghastly supposition
that God takes delight in human destruction, my third text seals the
truth with the solemn oath of the Eternal. He lifts his hand to heaven,
and swears; and because he can swear by no greater he swears by
himself,not by his temple, nor by his throne therein, nor by his
angels, nor by anything outside of himself; but he sweareth by his own
life. Jehovah that liveth for ever and ever saith, "As I live, saith
the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that
the wicked turn from his way and live." The man who dares to doubt the
oath of God will be guilty of an arrogant presumption which I would not
like to impute to one of you. Shall God be perjured? I tremble at
having even suggested such a thing; and yet if you do not believe the
Lord's own oath you will not only have made him a liar, but you will
have denied the value of his oath when he swears by his own life. What
he thus affirms must be tree; let us bow before it, and never entertain
a doubt about it. Most miserable of all men that breathe must they be
who will dare to attack the veracity of God, when God to confirm their
confidence doth put himself upon an oath. Let us hear the voice of the
Lord in its majesty, like a peal of distant thunder,"As I live, saith
the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that
the wicked turn from his way and live."
I invite your earnest consideration of this utterance thus given in the
form of a question, an assertion, and a solemn oath.
I. And I notice, first, the assertion that GOD FINDS NO PLEASURE IN A
SINNER'S DEATH. Really I feel ashamed to have to answer the cruel libel
which is here suggested; yet it is the English of many a man's doubts.
He dares not come to God and trust him because he darkly dreams that
God is a terrible being who does not wish to save him, who is unwilling
to forgive him, unwilling to receive him into his favor. He suspects
that God finds some kind of terrible delight in a soul's damnation.
That cannot be. I need not disprove the falsehood. God swears to the
countrary, and the falsehood vanishes like smoke. I will only bring
forward certain evidence by which you who are still under the deadly
influence of the falsehood may be delivered.
First, consider the great paucity of God's judgments among the sons of
men. There are people who are always talking of judgments, but they are
in error. If a theater is burnt down, or if a boat is upset on the
Sabbath, they cry "Behold a judgment!" Yet churches and meetinghouses
are burned, and missionaries are drowned when upon the Lord's own
business. It is wrong to set down everything that happens as a
judgment, for in so doing you will fall into the error of Job's
friends, and condemn the innocent. The fact is there are but few acts
of divine providence to individuals which can definitely be declared to
be judgments. There are such things, but they are wonderfully rare in
this life, considering the way in which the Lord is daily provoked by
presumption and blasphemy. It was a judgment when Pharaoh's hosts were
drowned in the Red Sea; that was a judgment when Korah, Dathan, and
Abiram went down alive into the pit. There were judgments later on in
the church of God when Ananias and Sapphira fell dead for lying against
the Holy Ghost, and when Elymas the sorcerer was blinded for opposing
Paul. Still, these are few; and in later days the authentic instances
are equally rare. Does not the Lord himself say that "judgment is his
strange work"? Among his own people there is a constant judgment of
fatherly discipline, but the outer world is left to the gentle regime
of mercy. This is the age of patience and long-suffering. If God had
taken any pleasure in the death of the wicked, some of you who are now
present would long ago have gone down to hell; but he hath not dealt
with you after your sins, nor rewarded you according to your
iniquities. If God were constantly dealing out judgment for lying, how
many who are now here would by this time have received their portion in
the burning lake! If judgments for Sabbath-breaking had been commonly
dealt out, this city of London would have been destroyed like Sodom and
Gomorrah. But God reserveth his wrath till the day of wrath, for a
while he winketh at man's obstinacy, for this is not the place of
judgment, but of forbearance and hope. The fewness of visible deeds of
judgment upon ungodly men in this life proves that God takes no delight
in them.
And then, secondly, the length of God's long-suffering before the Day
of Judgment itself comes proves how he wills not the death of men. The
Lord spares many guilty men throughout three-score years and ten,
bearing with their ill-manners in a way which ought to excite our
loving gratitude. Youthful folly is succeeded by manhood's deliberate
fault, and that, by the persistence of mature years, and yet the Lord
remains patient! Some of you have rejected Christ after having heard
the gospel for many years; you have stifled your conscience when it has
cried against you, and you have done despite to the Spirit of God. You
have rebelled against the light, and have committed greater and yet
greater sin, but God has not cut you down. If he had found pleasure in
your death, would he have suffered you to live so long? You have
cumbered the ground, not two or three years, as the barren fig-tree
did, but two or three scores of years you have stood fruitless in the
vineyard of God; and yet he spares you! Some have gone beyond all this,
for they have provoked God by their open unbelief, and by their abomin
able speeches against himself, his Son, and his people. They have tried
to thrust their finger into the eye of God, they have spit in the face
of the Well-beloved, and persecuted him in the person of his people.
Yet the Lord has not killed them out of hand, as he might justly have
done. Have you not heard his sword stirring in its scabbard? It would
have leaped forth from its sheath if mercy had not thrust it back, and
pleaded, "O thou sword of the Lord, rest and be quiet!" It is only
because his compassions fail not that you are favored with the loving
invitations of the gospel. Only because of his infinite patience doth
grace still wrestle with human sin and unbelief. Let us each one cry
"Lord, and am I yet alive,
Not in torments, not in hell!
Still doth thy good Spirit strive
With the chief of sinners dwell?
Tell it unto sinners, tell,
I am, I am out of hell!"
Furthermore, remember the perfection of the character of God as the
moral Ruler of the Universe. He is the Judge of all, and he must do
right. Now, if a judge upon the bench were known to take delight in the
punishment of offenders, he ought to be removed at once, for it would
be clear that he was thoroughly unfit for his office. A man who would
take pleasure in hanging, or imprisoning, would be of the foul breed of
Judge Jeffreys, and other monsters, from whom I trust our bench is for
ever purged. But if I heard it said that a judge never pronounced the
sentence of death without tears, that when he came home from the court,
and remembered that some had been banished for life by the sentences
which he had been bound to deliver, he sat in a moody, unhappy state
all the evening, I should say, "Yes, that is the kind of person to be a
judge." Aversion to punishment is necessary to justice in a judge. Such
an one is God, who taketh no pleasure either in sin, or in the
punishment which is the consequence of sin; he hates both sin and its
consequence, and only comes at last to heavy blows with men when
everything else has failed. When the sinner must be condemned, or else
the foundations of society would be out of course, then he delivers the
terrible sentence, but even then it is with unfeigned reluctance, and
he cries, "How can I give thee up?" The Great Judge of all seems to
descend from the glory of his judgment-seat, and show his more familiar
face to you in the text, as in effect he cries, "I have judged, and I
have condemned, and I have punished; but, as I live, I find no pleasure
in all this, my pleasure comes when men turn unto me and live."
If any further thoughts were necessary to correct your misbelief, I
would mention the graciousness of his work in saving those who turn
from their evil ways. The care which the Most High has taken to produce
repentance, the alacrity with which he accepts it, and the abounding
love manifested to returning prodigals, are all evidences indisputable
that God finds no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but in their
salvation. To prevent the death of the wicked the Lord devised a plan
of salvation before all worlds; and those who accept that plan find
that the Lord has provided for them a Substitute in the person of his
own dear Son, who is indeed his own self, and that in his person God
himself has borne the penalty due to sin, that thus the law might be
solemnly honored, and the divine justice vindicated. The Lord has gone
up to the tree, and bled his life away thereon, that God might be just,
and yet the Justifier of him that believeth in Jesus: does not this
prove his delight in salvation? The Holy Spirit comes on purpose to
renew the heart, and take the stone away from it, that men may become
tender and penitentdoes not this show that God delights to save? The
whole resources of the Godhead go forth with spontaneous delight for
the salvation of those who turn from their sin. Yea, they go forth
before men turn, to turn them that they may be turned. God is even
found of them that sought him not, and he sends his grace to those who
cried not after it. As if God were indignant that such a charge should
be laid against him that he delighteth in the death of any, he
preferred to die himself upon the tree rather than let a world of
sinners sink to hell. To prove the desire of God that men should live,
his Son abode for thirty years and more on this poor earth as a man
among men, and his Holy Spirit has dwelt in men for all these
centuries, bearing all the provocations of an erring and ungrateful
people. God has proved himself in multitudes of ways to be not the
Destroyer, but the Preserver of men. "He that is our God is the God of
salvation." "Salvation belongeth unto the Lord."
Thus would I try to vindicate the ways of God to men. When men are to
be tried for their lives, if their friends are able to do so, they come
to them in prison, and say, "It is a very hopeful thing for you that it
is not Judge So-and-So, who is terribly severe; you are to be tried
before the kindest man on the bench." Many a prisoner has plucked up
courage at such news; and oh, poor sinner, you who dare not trust God,
let me chide you into hope by reminding you that Love sits embodied on
the throne of judgment this day; and that he who must and will condemn
you, if you turn not from your sins, nevertheless will find no pleasure
in that condemnation, but will be loth to make bare the axe of
execution. Will you not turn to him and live? Do not his compassions
beckon you to make a full surrender, and find grace in his sight?
II. But now, secondly, GOD FINDS NO ALTERNATIVE BUT THAT MEN MUST TURN
FROM THEIR WICKED WAYS, OR DIE. "I have no pleasure in the death of the
wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live." It is one or
the other: turn or burn. God, with all his love to men, cannot discover
any third course: men cannot keep their sins and yet be saved. The sin
must die or the sinner must die.
Be it known to you, first, that when God proclaims mercy to men upon
this condition, that they turn from their ways, this proclamation is
issued out of pure grace. As a matter of bare right, repentance does
not bring mercy with it. Does a murderer receive pardon because he
regrets his deed? Does a thief escape from prison because at last he
comes to be sorry that he was not honest? Repentance makes no available
amends for the evil which is done; the evil still remains, and the
punishment must be executed. It is of grace, then, that I am permitted
to say, "Turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways." It is because at the
back of it there is a great sacrifice; it is through an all-sufficient
atone ment that repentance becomes acceptable. The Son of God has bled
and died, and made expiation for sin; and now he is exalted on high, to
give repentance and remission of sins. To-day the word of the Lord is,
"Repent ye, and believe the gospel." "If we confess our sins, he is
faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all
unrighteousness." This is not according to the law, which gives no
space for repentance, but it is a pure matter of grace. God saves you,
not because of any merit in your turning, but because he will have
mercy on whom he will have mercy, and he has decreed to save all who
turn from the paths of evil.
Note, next, that if there be no repentance men must be punished, for on
any other theory there is an end of moral government. The worst thing
that could happen to a world of men would be for God to say "I retract
my law; I will neither reward virtue, nor punish iniquity; do as you
like." Then the earth would be a hell indeed. The greatest enemy to
civil government among men is the man who preaches universal
salvation,salvation apart from a change of heart and life. Such
teachers are a danger to national order, they remove the foundation of
the commonwealth. They practically say, "Do just as you like; it may
make a slight difference to you for a little while, but it will soon be
over, and villains and saints will share an equal heaven." Such talk is
damnable! I can say no less. If there is to be a government at all, it
is necessary that sin should not go unpunished; leniency to the
dishonest is cruelty to those whom they injure. To save the murderer is
to kill the innocent. It were an evil day for heaven and earth if it
could once be proven that God would reward the depraved in the same way
as the sanctified: then would the foundation be removed, and what would
the righteous do? A God who was not just would be a poor Ruler of the
universe.
Yes, my hearers, sin must be punished; you must turn from it or die,
because sin is its own punishment. When we talk to you of the fire that
never can be quenched, and the worm that dieth not, we are supposed to
mean those literal things, but indeed these are figures, figures
representing something more terrible than themselves: the fire is the
burning of a furious rebellion in the soul, and the worm is the torture
of a never-dying conscience. Sin is hell. Within the bowels of
disobedience there lieth a world of misery. God has so constituted us,
and rightly so, that we cannot long be evil and happy; we must, if we
go wrong, ultimately become wretched; and the more wrong we are, and
the longer we continue in that wrong, the more assuredly are we heaping
up sorrow for ourselves throughout eternity. Holiness and right produce
happiness, but iniquity and wrong must, by a necessity of nature which
never can be changed, produce tribulation and anguish. It must be so.
Even the omnipotence of God cannot make an impenitent sinner happy. You
must turn from sin, or turn to misery; you must either renounce your
sins, or else renounce all hope of a blissful eternity. You cannot be
married to Christ and heaven until you are divorced from sin and self.
I believe that every man's conscience bears witness to this if it be at
all honest. There are consciences of a very curious kind about at this
timeabortions, and not true consciences at all. I find men
deliberately acting upon crooked policy, and yet they talk of truth and
holiness. Yet every conscience that is not drunken with the mixed wine
of pride and unbelief, will tell a man that when he does evil he cannot
expect to be approved; that if he neglects to do good he cannot expect
to have the same reward as if he had done the good,that, in fact,
there must be, in the nature of things, a penally attached to crime.
Conscience says as much as that, and now God himself, who taketh no
pleasure in the death of the wicked, puts it to you,you must repent or
perish. If you go on in your evil ways, you must be lost. There must be
a turning from sin, or the Most High God can never look upon you with
favor. Do you hear this? Oh, that you would let it sink into your
heart, and work repentance in you!
III. This leads me on to the third point, which is a joyful one: GOD
FINDS PLEASURE IN MEN'S TURNING FROM SIN. Read the passage again:"As I
live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the
wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live." Among the
highest of the divine joys is the pleasure of seeing a sinner turn from
evil. God delights in those first thoughts which men have towards
himself, when being careless heretofore they on a sudden begin to
reflect upon their ways, and consider their condition before God. He
looks with pleasure upon you who have aforetime been wild and
thoughtless, who at last meditate upon Eternity, and weigh the future
of sin and judgment. When you listen to that inviting word, "Seek ye
the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near," God
is pleased to observe your attention. When you begin to feel, "I am
sorry for my sin; oh, that I had never committed it!" he hears your
sigh. When your heart is sick of sin, when you loathe all evil, and
feel that though you cannot get away from it, yet you would if you
could, then he looks down on you with pitying eye. When there is a new
will springing up in your heart, by his good grace,a will to obey and
believe, then also the Father smiles. When he hears within you a
moaning and a sighing after the Father's house and the Father's bosom;
you cannot see him, but he is behind the wall listening to you. His
hand is secretly putting your tears into his bottle, and his heart is
feeling compassion for you. "The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear
him, in those that hope in his mercy." Mark that last character: the
man has only a little hope, but the Lord taketh pleasure in him. When
yet the good work is only in the twilight, God is as pleased with it as
watchmen are pleased with the first beams of morning light, a, he is
more glad than they that watch for the morning. When at last you come
to prayer, and begin to cry, "God be merciful to me a sinner," God is
well pleased; for here he sees clear signs that you are coming to
yourself and to him. His Spirit saith, "Behold, he prayeth!" and he
takes this as a token for good. When you unfeignedly forsake sin God
sees you do it, and he is so glad that his holy angels spy out his joy.
I am sure that God watches the struggles of those who endeavor to
escape from old habits and evil ways. When you try to conquer vile
thoughts, when at the end of the day you sit down and cry over the
day's failures because you did not get as well through the day as you
hoped to do, the Lord observes your desires and your lamentations. Just
as a mother tenderly watches her child when it begins to walk, and
smiles as she sees it toddling from chair to chair, and puts out her
finger to help it, so doth God take pleasure in your early attempts
after holiness, your longings to overcome sin, your sighings and
cryings to be delivered from the bondage of corruption. God saith, "I
taught Ephraim to go, taking them by their arms," and in the same way
he is teaching you.
I will tell you what pleases him most of all, and that is when you come
to his dear Son, and say, "Lord, something tells me that there is no
hope for me, but I do not believe that voice. I read in thy word that
thou wilt cast out none that come unto thee, and lo, I come! I am the
biggest sinner that ever did come, but Lord, I believe thy promise; I
am as unworthy as the devil himself, but Lord, thou dost not ask for
worthiness, but only for childlike confidence. Cast me not awayI rest
in thee." "Without faith it is impossible to please God," but it gives
God a divine pleasure to see the first grain of mustard seed of faith
in a poor, turning sinner's heart. Oh, I wish you would think of this,
you that keep on condemning yourselves! When you write me those
letters, full of self-condemnation, you please me; and if you please
me, I am sure you much more please God, who is so much more tender than
ever I can be, though I would fain try and humbly imitate him. How I
wish I could bring you to trust my Lord this morning, and end those
cruel doubts and fears!
"Artful doubts and reasonings be
Nailed with Jesus to the tree."
God's great convincing argument is his dying, bleeding Son. Oh, ye
chief of sinners, turn to him, and God will have pleasure in your
turning! Do you not know that all these thoughts towards him are
breathed into you by his Spirit? All those regrets for sin, those
desires after holiness, and specially those trustings in Christ, those
hopings in his mercy, are all his work: they would never have been
found in your soul if the Spirit had not put them there. If I saw a
fair flower growing on a dunghill, I should conclude that a gardener
had been there some day or other, and had cast seed upon the heap. And
when I see your soul commencing to pray, and hope, and trust, I say to
myself, "God is there. The Holy Spirit has been at work there, or else
there would not have been even that feeble trusting, and that faint
hoping." Wherefore, be of good courage, you are drawing near to a
gracious God.
During the rest of your life, when you go on fighting with sin, and
when you consecrate yourself to Jesus, when you wash your Savior's feet
with your tears, and wipe them with the hairs of your head with the
Magdalen, or when you break your alabaster-box of myrrh, and pour it on
the Master's head with Mary, the Lord hath great pleasure in you for
Jesus' sake. He taketh no pleasure in the groans and cries of hell, but
in the repentance of sinners he hath joy. The fires of Gehenna give him
no delight, but penitents smiting on their breasts, and believers
beholding Christ with tearful eyes, are a royal spectacle to him. It
must be so, he swears it, and it must be true. Cease your quibbling,
and believe unto eternal life.
IV. Lastly, since he hath pleasure in men's turning to him, GOD
THEREFORE EXHORTS TO IT, AND ADDS AN ARGUMENT. "Turn ye, turn ye from
your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?" He perceives
his poor creature standing with his back to him, looking to idols,
looking to sinful pleasures, looking towards the city of destruction,
and what does God say to him? He says, "Turn!" It is a very plain
direction, is it not? "Turn," or "Right about face!" That is all. "I
thought," saith one, "I was to feel so much anguish and so much agony."
I should not wonder if you do feel it, but all that God says is,
"Turn." You now face the wrong way; "Turn," and face the right way.
That turning is true repentance. A changed life is of the essence of
repentance, and that must spring from a changed heart, from a changed
desire, from a changed will. God saith, "Turn ye." Oh, that you would
hear and obey!
Notice how he puts it in the present tense"Turn ye, turn ye," not
to-morrow, but now. Nobody will be saved to-morrow: all who are saved,
are saved to-day. "Now is the accepted time." "Turn ye." Oh, by the
infinite mercy of God, who will enable you to turn, I do pray you to
turn from every evil, from every self-confidence, unto God. No turning
but turning to God is worth having. If the Lord turn you, you will turn
to himself, and to confidence alone in him, and to his service and his
fear.
"Turn ye, turn ye." See, the Lord puts it twice. He must mean your good
by these repeated directions. Suppose my man-servant was crossing
yonder river, and I saw that he would soon be out of his depth, and so
in great danger; suppose I cried out to him, "Stop! stop! If you go
another inch you will be drowned. Turn back! Turn back!" Will anybody
dare to say, "Mr. Spurgeon would feel pleasure if that man were
drowned"? It would be a cruel cut. What a liar the man must be who
would hint such a thing when I am urging my servant to turn and save
his life! Would God plead with us to escape unless he honestly desired
that we should escape? I trow not. Every sinner may be sure that God
takes no pleasure in his death when he pleads with him in these
unrivalled words, "Turn ye, turn ye; why will ye die?" There is what
the old divines used to call an ingemination, an inward groaning, a
reduplication of pleading in these words, "Turn ye, turn ye." He pleads
each time with more of emphasis. Will you not hear?
Then he finishes up with asking men to find a reason why they should
die. There ought to be a weighty reason to induce a man to die. "Why
will ye die?" This is an unanswerable question in reference to death
eternal. Is there anything to be desired in eternal destruction from
the presence of the Lord, and the glory of his power? Can there be any
gain in losing your own soul? Can there be any profit in going away
into everlasting punishment? Can there possibly be anything to be
wished for and desired in being cast into hell, where their worm dieth
not, and their fire is not quenched. O souls, be not unreasonable! Do
not neglect this great salvation. It must be the most awful thing in
all the world to die in your sins; why do you choose it? Do you desire
shipwreck? Why hug that rocky shore, and tempt destruction? Will you
eat the poisoned dainties of sin because they are sugared with a little
present pleasure? In the end, the gall of bitterness will fill your
bowels. I am no flatterer: I dare not be, for I love you, and would
persuade you to turn unto the Lord. There is a flower which always
turns to the sun; oh, that you would in the same manner turn to God!
Why turn away from him? "WHY?" is a little word, but how much it takes
to answer its demands! WHY do you continue in sin? Why do you refuse to
believe your Savior? Why will you provoke God? WHY will you die? Turn
round and say, "Oh, God, I cannot bear to perish everlastingly, and
therefore I cannot endure to live in sin. May thy rich grace help me!"
Oh, that you would trust in the Lord Jesus! Repose in him, and in his
finished work, and all is well. Did I hear you say, "I will pray about
it"? Better trust at once. Pray as much as you like after you have
trusted, but what is the good of unbelieving prayers? "I will talk with
a godly man after the service." I charge you first trust in Jesus. Go
home alone, trusting in Jesus. "I should like to go into the
enquiry-room." I dare say you would, but we are not willing to pander
to popular superstition. We fear that in those rooms men are warmed
into a fictitious confidence. Very few of the supposed converts of
enquiry-rooms turn out well. Go to your God at once, even where you now
are. Cast yourself on Christ, now, at once; ere you stir an inch! In
God's name I charge you, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, for "he that
believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not
shall be damned."
PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMONEzekiel 33.
HYMNS FROM "OUR OWN HYMN BOOK"912, 558, 202.