Pride the Destroyer
(No. 2591)
A SERMON DELIVERED BY
C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, MAY
27, 1883.
"Behold the proud, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him;
but the just shall live by his faith." Habakkuk 2:4.
HABAKKUK had to prophesy to the people that God would eventually
deliver them out of the hand of the Chaldeans and send them better
times. But he warned them that although the vision would come and, as
far as God was concerned, it would not really tarry, yet they would
grow impatient under their suffering and they would say that the vision
did tarry. And so, indeed, it would seem to do while they were
suffering–and the Prophet here hints at the reason why God's merciful
deliverances may sometimes be delayed. The Lord is willing to give
mercy directly, for He delights not in judgment. If it were according
to wisdom, we would have nothing from God's hand but that which is
pleasant and sweet, for He would not cause any one of His creatures a
needless pain–and He is full of gentleness and tenderness and mercy.
The reason why the vision tarried in Habakkuk's day, and the mercy was
slow in coming, was that the trials of the people might act as a test
of their character. In order to separate the precious from the vile,
God used the winnowing fan of affliction, that the chaff might be blown
away and the pure wheat remain. Often, in national trials, the furnace
is heated exceedingly hot and the fire is blown upon with a fierce
blast in order that the gold may be divided from the dross. It is
always God's purpose to put a division between Israel and Egypt,
between him that fears the Lord and him that fears Him not. You and I
cannot make that division. In this world it is very dangerous work to
try to pull up the tares, for we are very apt to pull up the wheat,
also. When, at last, we shall haul our big net to shore, then may we
begin to separate the contents and put the good into vessels and cast
the bad away.
But now, if we were to try to sort the contents of the drag net, we
would probably throw away as many of the good as of the bad, and save
as many of the bad as of the good! We cannot do the separating work,
but God is constantly doing it and often, in times of trouble, trial
becomes a very searching test of men. Those who looked like true
Believers while all was smooth and bright, have given up their
confidence in God when trial has been fierce and long-protracted. This
is the patience of the saints, but, alas, this is often the impatience
of mere professors–and God thus makes men see what they really are!
They perceive what is in their hearts when they are exposed to
long-continued and severe affliction. See, then, one reason why
troubles come upon both the righteous and the wicked–that men's true
character may be discovered and that the secrets of their hearts may be
revealed.
It happened in this case, and it happens in a great many other
instances, that the fierce heat of the furnace of trouble separates men
into two classes. One class is composed of men who are high and lifted
up in heart. Our text says, "Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not
upright in him." Then there is another class, namely, the just. And of
these the text says, "The just shall live by his faith." My dear
Friends, when trial comes on us–as it surely will–may you and I be
able to bear it! May we prove to be men and women who can endure it and
if it is so, we shall live by faith! That will be our distinguishing
mark. But if any of us are proud and have lofty ideas concerning
ourselves, "the day comes, that shall burn as an oven; and all the
proud, yes, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble; and the day
that comes shall burn them up, says the Lord of Hosts." Let us bear
this great Truth of God in mind as we come to the direct consideration
of our text.
I. I shall speak first upon these words of the Lord to Habakkuk as
REVEALING A GREAT SIN. "His soul which is lifted up is not upright in
him." The great sin is the sin of pride, the lifting up of the soul in
rebellion against the Lord.
This sin of pride is often forgotten and many persons do not even think
it is a sin at all. Here is a man who says that he is absolutely
perfect. Does he know what the sin of pride really is? What prouder
being can there be than one who talks like that? "Oh, but," he says, "I
am humble." Is there any soul living that is so proud as he is who says
he is humble? Is not that the acme and climax of pride? Another says,
"I hate flattery." Did not one say to Julius Caesar that he hated
flatterers, "being then," as the world's poet says, "most flattered"?
Yes, assuredly, that soft silken voice that says, "You never give way
to pride, you are of a lowly spirit, you are never lifted up. In fact,
you hardly appreciate yourself highly enough and nobody else does
because you are so humble!" Why, that is the worst kind of pride! It
has only put on the sheepskin instead of coming out in its true wolfish
garb!
Pride, to begin with, I am afraid, may be set down as the sin of human
nature. If there is a sin that is universal, it is this. Where is it
notto be found? Hunt among the highest and loftiest in the world and
you wall find it there. And then go and search among the poorest and
the most miserable and you wall find it there. There may be as much
pride inside a beggar's rags as in a prince's robes and a harlot may be
as proud as a model of chastity. Pride is a strange creature–it never
objects to its lodgings. It will live comfortably enough in a palace
and it will live equally at its ease in a hovel. Is there any man in
whose heart pride does not lurk? If anyone held up his hand and said,
"I am one," I would answer, "That is Number One in the widest sweet of
the whole city of Self-Conceit," for, when we fancy that we have clean
escaped from pride, it is only because we have lost the sense of its
weight through being surrounded with it! A man who bears a bowl of
water feels its weight but if he goes right into the water, it will be
all over him, and yet he will not notice the burden of it. He who lives
in pride up to the neck–no, he who is over head and heels in pride is
the most likely to imagine that he is not proud at all!
Pride takes all manner of shapes. You and I, I daresay, have very
different forms of pride. Perhaps my pride does not hold any
relationship to your pride and your pride, of course, is a very right
sort of pride. "It is what I call a proper pride," says one. Yes, that
is your sort of pride. Mine, I admit, is a very improper one. I frankly
make that confession, I cannot and dare not think that it has any
propriety about it at all–it is a miserable, wretched affair! So is
yours, I think, and you would agree with me if you could but see it as
it really is. But pride takes all manner of shapes. Have you ever seen
it in the man of property? He is a very important individual. It may be
that his property is not very large but, still, considering the village
in which he lives, he is quite a big man–and on the vestry–why, he is
as big as an emperor! You and I do not, perhaps, think much of him, but
that does not matter to him, for in his own estimation he is a very
great man. Then there is a London merchant. If he has succeeded in
life, what a great man he is–how proud, how exclusive! How he looks
down upon his fellow men! How could you, being of an inferior grade,
venture into his pew and sit side by side with him? He carries his
pride even into the House of God! We have seen it there and mourned
over it, but it is easy enough for a man to become proud of his
possessions.
Another man, with no possessions, is proud of his bodily strength. He
is very strong. Let anybody wrestle with him and he shall see what a
Samson he is! And, oh, how vain-glorious he grows, and how proud–proud
of his strength of muscle and sinew and bone! Another man is proud of
his talent. If he has not acquired any wealth by it, yet he ought to
have done so. If the world has not yet recognized him as a genius, he
has recognized himself most distinctly! He is a very first-class man in
his own line of things. Listen to him as he boasts of what he has
learned! We have known others boast of their character. When we have
explained what "a sinner" means, they have been kind enough to say, in
a complimentary sort of way, "Yes, we are all sinners." But they did
not mean that they had really sinned at all. No, not they! They had a
fine, splendid, unworn righteousness that was "without spot, or
wrinkle, or any such thing." You know the good people I mean, always
able to glory that they have kept the Law of God from their youth up,
and have done what they ought to have done–that is a form that pride
very frequently takes.
Even in people who know the Lord, see what relics of pride there will
often be! Remember what Mr. Bunyan said on one occasion–after he had
done preaching, a Brother came to him and said, "You have preached an
admirable sermon." "Ah," said Bunyan, "you are too late! The devil told
me that before I got down the pulpit stairs." A good Brother prayed at
the Prayer Meeting very sweetly, very devoutly. And when he had
finished, there came a soft whisper in his ear, "You have quite
recovered that Prayer Meeting from its dullness–what a wonderful man
you are!" And when we have not ventured to do anything of the sort in
public, if we get five minutes' communion with God in secret prayer,
then up comes Satan, again, and says, "Oh, you are growing in Grace!
You are a wonderful Christian." If you cannot realize your Lord's
Presence and you are humbled and bowed to the dust because you have not
that enjoyment of God which you used to have, then Satan comes, and
says, "How tender of conscience you are! How jealous of yourself! How
watchful you have been!" And up go your topsails and all your flags of
pride are flying in the breeze as you think what a fine saint you are!
So, you see, it is as I said, pride takes many shapes.
Now, in all cases, pride is most unreasonable. There is never in a poor
sinner any reason why he should be proud. Suppose a man is wealthy?
Well, who gave that wealth to him? And having it, now, how much of it
can he carry away with him? And is wealth always a testimonial to the
character of its possessor? Is it not sometimes given to the very
basest of mankind? And though it is, in some cases, the reward of
honesty, of industry and of perseverance and self-denial, yet even then
it does not always bring comfort to a man's heart–and we can ask him,
"What have you that you have not received?" Of all forms of pride, this
pride of wealth is one of the most wicked! Suppose a man boasts of his
talent? For what has he to pride himself in that? Did he make his own
talent? Suppose that his skull happens to be a little bigger than his
neighbor's and that there are certain organs there more fully developed
than in others–did he create his own brain? Did he give himself his
own capacities? There is a great deal in our descent and in our birth
gifts, but, being gifts, these are not things for us to pride ourselves
upon–for them we must give all the glory to God, for certainly they
come from Him! And what if a man has a spotless character? Yet he who
is most honest to himself knows that there are, even within him, secret
things opposed to his God–and things to be repented of.
And what if we have Grace? O my Brothers and Sisters, the worst thing
in the world would be to be proud of our Grace, or of our Graces,
because these come to us as a bare act of charity! Shall the beggar be
proud because he is a bigger beggar than others? Will a man who is very
deeply in debt say, "I have reason to be more proud than you because I
owe ten times as much as you do"? Yet that is just the condition of
every man who has any Divine Grace–he owes it all to God–and he who
has the most Grace is the most in debt to his Lord! I think that the
more God's glories strike our eyes, the humbler we shall be. And the
more Grace we receive, the more we shall be like Peter when his boat
was full of fish and it began to sink–and he cried, under a sense of
his own unworthiness–"Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord."
Yes, as we get weighed down with mercy, we shall begin to sink in our
own esteem! There can never be any reasonableness in our dreaming that
there is in us any cause for pride.
And to close this part of my discourse, let me remind you that wherever
pride is found, it is always hateful to God. Why, pride is even hateful
to men! Men cannot bear a proud man and, therefore, a proud man who has
any sense left often sees that it is so, and he tries to affect manners
of modesty. He will seem to be humble when he really is not, if he has
the suspicion that all about him will dislike him if they know him to
be proud. But God cannot stand pride–it is a part of His daily
business to put down the proud. When He lifts up His hands, it is
either to bless the humble or else to abase the proud. "He has
scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. He has put down
the mighty from their seats and exalted them of low degree. He has
filled the hungry with good things and the rich he has sent away
empty." He intends that the pride of all human glory shall be stopped,
so He lifts His great battle-ax and crashes through the shield of the
mighty. He fits His arrow to the bow and finds out the joints of the
harness of the proud–and they fall before Him. God cannot endure them,
for pride is a stab at Deity–it is an attack upon the undivided Glory
of God. "My Glory will I not give to another." He would as soon give it
to graven images as to men! And He will not let either false gods or
proud men have it! It is to Himself, and to Himself, alone, that all
praise and honor and glory must come.
Thus much, then, about the great sin revealed in our text. Let us pause
a moment or two for silent prayer before we pass on to the next part of
our subject.
II. Now let us think how THIS GREAT SIN BETRAYS A SAD EVIL–"Behold the
proud, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him."
If he is a proud man, he is not an upright man. If he thinks highly of
himself, there is something out of the perpendicular. If a man says, "I
do not need to make confession of sin, I do not need to come to Christ
as a guilty sinner," then, Friend, I must tell you that you do not know
the truth If you knew certain things, truthfully, you would change your
tune. For instance, a man who says, "I have kept the Law," does not
know what the Law means. Perhaps he supposes that those ten great
Commandments only refuse him certain outward things–but he does not
know that they are all spiritual–that, for instance, if the
Commandment says, "You shall not commit adultery," it is not merely the
act of adultery that is forbidden, but every sin of the kind. Every
tendency to lewdness–every unchaste word or thought–for so Christ
explains it, "I say unto you, that whosoever looks on a woman to lust
after her has committed adultery with her already in his heart." This
makes the Law of God look very different from the mere casual reading
of it that many give.
If it says, "You shall not covet," any thought of a desire to gain that
which is my neighbor's, by unlawful means, in discontent with God's
Providence comes under that Law. So is it with all the
Commandments–they are spiritual, they are far-reaching and when a man
understands their true character, he cries–"O my God, I have, indeed,
broken Your holy Law! How could I have kept it? From the first moment
when I sinned, my fallen nature has incapacitated me from ever keeping
this thrice-holy Law of Yours."
If a man really knows the true character of the Law of God, it may be
that he does not know the truth about himself–does not know that he is
foolish–does not know that the very springs of his nature are
corrupt–does not know that out of the polluted fountain of his
unregenerate heart there can only come corrupt streams. When he really
begins to know himself as he is in the sight of God, then he cries,
"God be merciful to me a sinner." But not till then. Hence, our text
says, "His soul which is lifted up is not upright in him." That is, it
is not according to the Truth of God–he does not know the Truth, he
does not judge according to the Truth–he judges according to a false
standard.
This expression may also mean that he does not seek the Light of God.
You can often notice that if a man has a high opinion of himself, he is
extremely good and excellent and does not need to be saved by Grace. He
does not want to be told too much about himself. He likes to go to a
place of worship where they prophesy very smooth things and if he ever
strays in where there is very plain talk, he says that the preacher is
too personal. The Hindu thinks it is wicked to kill an insect, or to
take life of any kind–and that he will surely not enter into his happy
paradise if he does. When the missionary showed a Hindu, by means of a
microscope, how many living creatures there were in a single drop of
the water which was in a glass on the table, in order to convince him
of the impossibility of avoiding the destruction of life if he drank
the water, what did the Hindu do? Why, he smashed up the microscope!
That was his way of answering it! And so, sometimes, if the Truth of
God is put very plainly so that men cannot escape from the force of it,
not wishing to know the uncomfortable Truth, they turn upon their heels
and find fault with the preacher and refuse to hear any more from him!
Now, he that does not want to knew all the Truth of God is not upright,
for, as our Lord said to Nicodemus, "Everyone that does evil hates the
light, neither comes to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved."
But he that is upright in heart courts the light! He invites the
inspection, even, of God Himself, for he dreads above all things the
possibility of being self-deceived. O dear Friends, this pride, if we
have it, betrays its dire evil by a lack of uprightness in not desiring
the Light of God!
And, yet further, there is another form of this lack of uprightness. A
man whose soul is lifted up with pride has his whole religion warped so
that there is nothing upright about him. Have you ever heard him pray?
"God, I thank you that I am not as other men are." This is the sum and
substance of his prayer, for pride has warped it. If he praises God, it
is not as a sinner saved by Grace–he sings something about what he has
done and what he has become–and always the first point in his
conversation is, "See what I am! See what I am!" Pride warps him
everywhere, so that he cannot do a single action that is not affected
by it. If he gives alms to the poor, he has his penny in one hand, but
his other hand is holding to his mouth a trumpet so that he may blow it
at the corner of the street so that everybody may know how generous he
is! He spoils all that he does because his soul is lifted up with
pride–which warps his whole life.
I believe, dear Friends, that a heart of this kind will never stand the
test of the coming days. Have you ever noticed that when Paul quotes
this verse in the Epistle to the Hebrews, he makes a very significant
addition to it? He says, "The just shall live by faith: but if any man
draws back, My soul shall have no pleasure in him." That is a kind of
hint to us that when the heart of a man is lifted up with pride, in due
time he will draw back. I will tell you, dear Friends, what I have seen
many times. I have seen men, members of Christian Churches, undoubtedly
very earnest, very generous, indeed, all that you could wish them to
be. They have prospered in worldly affairs, but where are they now? One
of the severest tests that can be applied to any man is to let him be
made wealthy! Well might our Savior say, as the rich young man turned
away from Him, "How with much difficulty shall they that have riches
enter into the Kingdom of God." The true children of God can bear even
this test, but there are many professors who cannot. Wealth is a
refining pot that tests the sincerity of their profession. This is how
it acts. The man has grown too respectable to worship where he used to
meet with a few poor godly people–he must go to some place where there
is a higher class of society. It is true that there is no Gospel
preaching where he goes and that there is all the hypocrisy of
semi-Romanism, but the elite of the neighborhood go there and so must
he! If he happens to meet any of his old friends with whom he seemed to
be so glad to have communion in years past, he scarcely recognizes
them! He does not know them in the Lord. He has gone clean away from
them. Is not that often the case? And why is it so? Because the
gentleman always was a person of importance and now, having grown
wealthy, he is still more important! So he goes away from those who
would be his best friends. That is because his soul is not upright in
him.
I have also seen just the opposite of this man. I have seen persons
grow very poor after being in circumstances of comparative comfort.
Before they were poor, they seemed to be very earnest Christians, but,
after a while, when poverty had overtaken them, they did not like to
come among their old friends because their clothes were not quite as
new and their house was not on quite as good a street–and they were
going down in the world. Instead of clinging to Christ all the more.
Instead of following after the Lord and making sure of a heavenly
inheritance when the world was slipping away from them, they have
turned back and have renounced whatever semblance of faith they ever
possessed. And the reason is because their soul was lifted up with
pride and was not upright. They never were truly brought low and
humbled before God and so, when the testing time came, away they went!
Now, dear Friends, such a test as this will be applied to all of you.
You will either go up or go down. Or else, if you remain in the same
station of life, the test in your case will be time. You will grow
weary in the ways of God. You will want some fresh thing unless the
Lord has truly humbled you and brought you to live by faith in Him. But
if the Lord has worked effectually in you, by His Grace, then He may
make you as rich as He likes, or as poor as He likes, or let you live
as long as Methuselah if He likes, but you will stand fast to your
profession because the root of the matter is in you. God grant that it
may be so!
III. Thirdly, and very briefly, PRIDE OF HEART DISCOVERS IN MEN A
SERIOUS OPPOSITION. Let me read the whole of our text. "Behold the
proud, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but–butthe
just shall live by his faith." And the but, here, seems to imply that
as long as a man's soul is lifted up with pride, he will never truly
know anything about faith and never come to live by faith.
For, first, the gentleman is too great to live by faith He will not
even give himself time to consider what faith means! He is so busy in
the City. He has to look after such a number of things. He is so
important a person that he cannot trouble his head about faith. Teach a
Sunday school child, teach a servant girl, teach an old woman, teach a
laborer if you please, but as for himself–well, to tell the whole
truth, he does not care about religion. He says that he cannot bring
his mind down to such a thing as that! His notion is that he is
altogether too great a man to give himself to the consideration of this
matter. Now, these are the people that destroy their own souls because
they will not be candid enough to enquire and learn what the way of
salvation is–
"Were I so tall to reach the pole, And grasp the ocean with a span," I
would wish to know what God has to say to me. And if I could grow as
holy as the archangel, I would still delight to sit at Jesus' feet and
hear what He has to reveal to me. But there are some who are too big
for that kind of thing–they will never believe in Christ, for they are
too great, even, to consider what faith is!
And, next, there are some who are too wise to ever believe. They read
certain "high-class modern literature" and their minds have grown very
expansive. They know how to sort out that which is philosophical and
that which is not. They can judge their Creator–they are more
infallible than the Holy Spirit–they sit in trial upon Prophets and
Apostles–and upon the Lord Jesus Christ, Himself! They pick and choose
what they will believe and what they will reject. Such people do not
believe to the saving of the soul–of course they do not–for it is
essential to faith that you become as a little child. And until you do
so, you cannot have true faith in Christ.
There are some who are not so much burdened with worldly wisdom, but
they fancy that they are too good to be saved. I know that the notion
with some people is that salvation is only for very wicked people–for
those who have been to prison, those who have egregiously sinned
against the rules of society. Do you not know, my dear Hearer, that
there is the same way of salvation for you who have been amiable and
excellent and moral, as there is for the drunk and the thief? Do you
not know that there is only one gate to Heaven for the murderer, if he
is saved, and for you who have kept the Commandments from your youth
up? "You must be born again," is a necessity for the children of saints
as well as for the children of sinners! "You must be washed in the
precious blood," is as true for the very best of fallen humanity as for
the very worst! By these stern Truths of God, the axe is laid to the
very root of the tree of self-righteousness! Oh, that men did but think
of this! But they are so good–so very good–that they cannot imagine
that they are to be saved like the very chief of sinners! And so they
reject the only way of salvation.
And I have known some, too, who are now too "advanced" to continue to
live by faith. They do not want to come to Christ just as they did at
first–they are so now "advanced" that they stand on a different
footing from what they did. Well, I can only say to such that I believe
that this is nothing but pride of heart. As for myself, I will, by
God's Grace, never go one inch beyond the position of Jack the
Huckster–
"I'm a poor sinner, and nothing at all, But Jesus Christ is my
All-in-All." This is the only ground upon which I dare set my feet!
They always begin to slip and slide beneath me when I get beyond that.
Christ for me, first and last, Alpha and Omega, the Beginner and
Finisher of faith! I believe that every other ground of standing is a
quicksand that will swallow a man up. "The just shall live by his
faith" and if any are getting so proud that they are living by their
feelings, or living on their old experiences, I think that we may stand
in doubt of them and they have reason to stand in doubt of themselves!
There was one who used to say that he was not half so much afraid of
his sins as he was of what he conceived to be his good works, for his
sins had humbled him full often, but what he thought were his good
works had puffed him up and done him much more mischief. I am more
afraid of a lofty pride of self than of anything else under Heaven. He
that is down need fear no fall, but he that rises very high in his own
esteem is not far from destruction! "Pride goes before destruction, and
a haughty spirit before a fall."
IV. I close my discourse with this last point. Our text, after having
spoken against pride, DIRECTS US TO A VERY PLEASING CONTRAST–"The just
shall live by his faith."
There is a man with an upright heart, an honest tongue, a careful hand,
an obedient walk. He is a really just man. Are there such? There are
none that are perfectly just, but there are many who may be called just
in the Scriptural sense of the term. They walk before God and are
perfect, even as was said of Job, "That man was perfect and upright,
and one that feared God, and eschewed evil." Blessed be God, there are
tens of thousands of His people that are just men and women whom He has
taught to serve Him to do as they would be done by, seeking to do to
others as they would have others do to them! There are plenty of such.
It is a beautiful sight to see a really just man. May we live in such
company! May we die in such company!
Now, whenever you come to talk with these just men, you will find that
they are truly humble. They do not live upon their works. The more holy
a man is, generally the more he depreciates himself. You do not hear a
just man saying, "I am living before God by my alms, by my prayers, by
my repentance, by my fasting, by my Church attendance, by my Chapel
attendance." You never hear anything of the sort–a just man disclaims
his own righteousness, thinks nothing of it– and wraps himself up in
the righteousness of Christ, and says that he is "accepted in the
Beloved."
Our text says that this man "shall live by his faith." That is to say,
when trial comes and the proud man dies, the just man lives on. Where
is the man who had such a lofty idea of himself? Ah, where is he? He is
gone, but this man of faith lives on. You know the story of the two
martyrs. They had both witnessed a good confession and, at last, they
were laid by the heels in prison to wait for a few days and then to be
burnt. One of them said to his fellow, "I am so afraid lest, when I
come to the stake, the sharp pain should make a coward of me and I
should turn away, and deny my Savior." "Oh," replied the other, "I have
no fears about that! My faith in God is so firm that I am sure He will
help me through. I am confident in what I have believed. I shall die
like a man. I am not at all afraid of the fire." "Ah," said the first,
"I lie awake at night, for fire is a dreadful thing, and I wonder how I
shall act when I begin to burn. I do love the Lord, I know. And I do
trust Him. But if I turn aside, it will be an awful thing! I am so
afraid, for my flesh is very weak." The other answered, "I cannot bear
to hear you talk like that. Here I am, full of confidence and full of
faith. I never have any such feelings as you have. You are very
imperfect–I have gone far beyond you."
When they came to the stake, our poor tempted friend burned splendidly,
blessing and praising and magnifying the Lord! And the great,
self-confident boaster recanted–and saved his wretched life! His soul,
which was lifted up, was not upright in him. But the just man lived, in
the very best sense, by his faith, and triumphed even amidst the
flames! I shall not be amazed if many who have their topsails up, are
blown out of the water and into the water–and wrecked when the great
winds of temptation are out–while many who are creeping along, afraid
of the tempest, with nothing but bare poles, will outlive the storm!
It is not the man who is great in his own sight that is great in the
sight of God. It is he that is broken and contrite, little and weak and
trembling, and yet who believes in Jesus and casts himself upon the
great love of God in Christ who shall live. Yes, and he shall so live
that when he comes to die, heshiall die full of life and hie shall
enter into eternal life. I know that I am addressing some who say that
they are afraid to die and they think that they cannot be God's people
because of that fear. Do not distress yourself in that way, my dear
Friends! Perhaps you are not called to die just yet and you have,
therefore, not yet had Dying Grace given to you–but you will have it
when the time comes! A dear Friend of mine had been for many years in
great bondage because he thought that he was afraid to die. God brought
him out of that bondage in rather a singular manner. He happened to be
in a London printing office, one day, and, next door, a wholesale
chemist's took fire. There were a great many explosions and the place
was burning furiously. He was upstairs and others began running down to
make their escape.
My old friend was as cool as possible–he walked downstairs, he was in
no hurry and, though there was great danger and everybody thought that
the whole place and all that were in it would be burnt, he was quite
calm. He said that when he reached the street, he stood and looked at
the fire and said to himself, "Now, when I seem to be in danger of
death, I am perfectly calm and happy. So, when I really come to die,
that is how I shall be–I am sure that I shall, for I have tested and
proved it." And you timid, nervous people, have you not found out for
yourselves that if ever you get into an accident, you are often the
bravest people there? You feeble trembling ones seem strengthened up at
the moment and so shall it be when you come to die if you are Believers
in Jesus Christ! He that loved you will not leave you in your last
minutes! Would you leave your wife, would you leave your child, would
you leave your husband, if you saw any of these dear ones in the
agonies of death? No, if you were a thousand miles away, you would come
home to them to wipe the death sweat from their brows and moisten their
parched lips! And do you think that our blessed God will be absent when
we come to die? No. "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of
His saints." He will be there and Jesus will be there and the Holy
Spirit will be there–and so we who believe in Jesus shall die in
peace.
Remember how rapidly our lives are passing away. One after another,
from this congregation, goes into eternity every week. Do not go into
eternity without Christ, I beseech you! "When shall I go?" you ask. Ah,
that I cannot tell. You know how, all through the year, our friends
keep on going. There is not a week passes without it being said to me,
"So-and-So is gone." I ask, "Did I know him? Whereabouts did he sit?" I
look at the spot and I remember–"Yes, it was that gray-headed old man
in that seat over yonder." Or, "that young man with a wife and three or
four children." Yes, they are gone and if they were not saved, they are
gone where hope can never reach them, where they are past all
invitation, where they must forever wring their hands in anguish
because they would not have Heaven and Christ on Free-Grace terms.
"Well, dear Sir, we are going to think about these things." Are you?
Will you tell me when you are going to think about them? I would rather
that you stated a time, even if it were a year to come. It would be a
dangerous thing to put it off so long, would it not? But, oh, if you
keep your promise, I would rather that you said, "a year to come," than
that you should keep on, year after year, postponing your decision!
Remember that you who are unsaved need three things. First, you need
the pardon of sin–and it is scarcely necessary for me to repeat in
your ears that you can only get it by coming to Christ. You desire also
to be heard in prayer, your very heart sighs after that favor and you
know there is but one Throne of Grace and only one Being who can
present your petitions so that they shall be granted. And you also long
to have a sight of God, a comforting sight of Him as your reconciled
Father–and you know that you can never have that except through Jesus
Christ.
These three things are to be found in Christ and they are not to be
found anywhere else. If there is anyone here who wants Christ, I am so
glad if he knows who Christ is and what are the treasures that are
stored up in Him. It is a great thing to have this knowledge but, oh,
it will be a terrible thing, bringing far greater responsibilities and
involving sevenfold guilt, if you know where these things are and
whatthey are–and yet do not seek to possess them yourselves. I leave
with you the last words of my text, praying that they may describe
you–"The just shall live by his faith."