The Root That Bears Wormwood
DELIVERED ON SUNDAY MORNING, DECEMBER 2, 1866,
BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"Lest there should be among you a root that bears gall and wormwood."
Deuteronomy 29:18.
THE people of Israel, after all the wonderful things which God had done
for them, should have felt themselves bound forever to their father's
God. They had received the clearest possible proof that Jehovah alone
was the living and true God. How could they debase themselves to
worship graven images when they had seen such signs and wonders worked
by their great I AM? Surely idolatry after such a history as theirs
must have been sinful to the worst degree.
They were, however, in great danger from two or three circumstances
which in the chapter before us are set before them as a ground of
caution. "You know how you dwelt in the land of Egypt," is the first
caution. They had dwelt so long in the midst of the idolatrous
Egyptians that it would have been strange if they had not become
tinctured with the idolatrous spirit which was so powerful in the land
of Ham. Alas, Israel's hosts drank deep into Egypt's superstitions, and
not long had they been in the wilderness before they made a golden ox,
contemptuously called by Moses a golden calf, in imitation of the ox so
solemnly adored in Egypt.
Probably the mixed multitude never wholly ceased from idol-worship, for
we find it said in Amos, "Have you offered unto Me sacrifices and
offerings in the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel? And you
have borne the tabernacle of your Moloch and Chiun your images, the
star of your god, which you made to yourselves." The Egyptians were
infamous among all nations as almost indiscriminate worshippers of
innumerable objects. They not only worshipped beasts, comely in
proportion and useful to men, but they bowed down before the snake and
the crocodile. They worshipped the beetle that is engendered from filth
and the frog that comes up from the slime. "Oh, happy nation," says one
of the old satirists, "whose gods grow in their own gardens," for they
actually bowed down before onions and leeks, as though these were the
gods that made Heaven and earth!
Knowing, as we do, that depraved nature is so strongly inclined to
worship visible objects, we do not wonder that the contagion of
Egyptian idolatry infected the children of Israel. Remember again, that
in passing through the wilderness, all the people that Israel came in
contact with for forty years were idolaters. With the exception of
Moses' father-in-law, who may have been a priest of God, a spiritual
worshipper, it does not appear that there were any tribes on the face
of the earth that worshipped the Most High. When the children of Israel
passed by Moab or Edom, or when they came into contact with the
subjects of Sihon or Og, they found them all prostrate in the same
reverence of idols, bowing down before abominations–idols of wood and
silver and gold.
We are all too much affected by our surroundings. The imitative faculty
is very forcible, especially in a direction pleasing to our fallen
nature. And when these people found themselves to be singular and
alone, worshipping God whom they could not see, while their neighbors
practiced gorgeous rites and mystic ceremonies, it is no wonder that
they were strongly tempted to set up idols. Yet further, when they had
passed through the forty years in the wilderness, what kind of country
were they to enter into? Not a land in which there was a temple to
Jehovah–or where the inhabitants would all assist them in cultivating
the worship of the only true God–but a land that was full of idols!
Where every green hill was consecrated to a false deity. Where the
stones of the valley were piled up into a thousand altars. Where every
city had its own peculiar deity!
The country was full of temptations to allure them from allegiance to
the true God. Israel should have been faithful under every test, but he
who knows what is in man will perceive the need of the heavenly
caution, and of the warning of our text by which the Lord assured His
people that to rebel against Him would be to plant a root that bears
gall and wormwood.
Let us apply their history to ourselves. Remember the Egypt out of
which we have been redeemed by mighty Grace! Remember the sins which
once had the mastery over us! Do we wear no relics of our bondage? Is
it so easy to shake off old habits? Is there no hankering after the
flesh pots of worldly pleasure? I am sure we have to protest before the
Lord's people that we are in very great danger from our former habits,
and that the twitching of the old Adam are not things to be laughed at!
Would not our evil hearts soon lead us back to our old slavery if the
Grace of God did not prevent it?
Look, moreover, at the people among whom we dwell! Is this vain world a
friend to Divine Grace? Do you not, on the contrary, find it to be your
perpetual foe? Why, you cannot go out into your trade, or follow your
occupation–no, worse–you cannot even tarry at home without meeting
with temptations! This world does not worship the true God. It bows
down before gods of its own choosing. They may not be of wood or stone,
but they are, nonetheless, dangerous! Men say unto their lusts or to
their pleasures, to their persons, their intellects, their gains,
"These are our gods! These are the pursuits which we count worthy of
our immortal minds!"
Are not Believers tempted to follow the same ends and objects? Does not
our personal advantage frequently aim at the throne of our hearts? Do
we never find our losses, or our gains endeavoring to thrust Jehovah
from the rightful dominion of our souls? I am sure, Brothers and
Sisters, from the oldest to the youngest, we all feel we are in
peculiar danger from the people among whom we dwell. And will it be any
better in the future? Have we any reason to expect that the places to
which we shall journey between this and the hour of death will be any
less full of temptation? May we not expect that as it has been, so it
will be even till the end comes? May we not have to meet with
temptations even more severe than those which we have encountered? May
not the Providence of God call us into circumstances where we will pass
through severer tests, and our piety have to endure yet heavier trials?
It is probable it will be so.
Until we reach our home in Glory, we shall have need to be often warned
and put on our guard lest our evil hearts of unbelief should depart
from the living God, and we should become as the rest of mankind are–a
people that forget God–and that offer themselves unto strange lords
and follow their own devices. These were the Lord's reasons for
warning, and these are my motives, this day, for reminding you that sin
is an evil and ruinous thing, "a root that bears gall or hemlock, and
wormwood." Sin, in the text, is styled a root that produces bitterness.
This is our main thought this morning. If we have time we shall
institute the enquiry as to whether that root is in our hearts, and
then, thirdly, we shall show the way of deliverance from the root and
from its fruit.
I. SIN IS THE ROOT WHICH BEARS GALL AND WORMWOOD. That this was true in
the case of the Israelites is very manifest. Their history tells us the
whole generation which came up out of Egypt died in the wilderness
because of their sins. Their sin, then, was a root which bore to them
the poisonous hemlock, for they left a line of graves along their line
of march as a sad memorial of their iniquities–only Joshua and Caleb
ever entered into the promised land.
At terrible intervals their sins bore fearful fruit for them. Sometimes
the fiery serpents bit them. At other times the plague broke forth
among the people, or the earth opened her mouth and swallowed up the
rebellious. We find them put to rout because of their sin at Ai
although they had been victorious at Jericho, for Achan had hidden in
his camp the accursed thing which was a root that bore to his nation
wormwood and gall.
After Israel had driven out the heathenish nations they gave way to
many forms of idolatry–and their land was invaded and they were
enslaved or driven into holes and dens. Famine devastated the land and
pestilence laid it waste till the repenting people cried unto God in
the bitterness of their sorrows and He raised them up a Jephthah, or a
Gideon, a Samson or a Barak–but on each occasion the mother of their
sorrow was their sin–the cause of their lamentation was their turning
aside from their God.
Then came the days of the kings of Israel when the people for awhile
feared the Lord. But at length the heart of the people went aside to
the calves of Bethel and they were given over to Assyria and carried
away captive after being struck in battles innumerable and reduced to
be the lowest of nations. Then remember what became of Judah, which was
for a time faithful to God. The eyes of their king were put out and
themselves driven into cruel bondage far away from their much-loved
land, having before their captivity been subject to sieges and famine
so terrible that it is said that the woman who was tender and delicate
among them did eat her own children by reason of the terribleness of
the siege.
After the Lord had pardoned them and brought them back again and given
them a name once more among the nations, they revolted from Him
again–they smote His Only-Begotten and crucified the Lord of Glory!
And what did He do to them? It shall make both the ears of him that
hears it tingle to read the story of the siege of Jerusalem written by
one of themselves–Josephus. They were crucified till men lacked wood
on which to crucify them! They were sold as slaves till men would not
buy them at the price of one farthing each, for Jewish slaves had
become so common and were so despised! The plow-share was driven over
the very site of Jerusalem, and a mandate made that the Jew should
never look towards that city.
They were scattered and banished as they are unto this day. Truly the
whole house of Israel is God's witness at this day that sin against
Jehovah is a root that bears gall and wormwood. As it was in their case
we may rest assured it is in other cases, for God makes no exceptions
in His dealings. He is not a judge who punishes one sin and allows
another to go unpunished–He deals equal justice to all men. If He
spared not Israel, how shall He spare the Gentiles? If Jerusalem
escaped not, how shall London escape? If He gave up to the spoiler and
to the sword the seed of Abraham His friend, how shall He spare us in
the day of His visitation if we sin against Him?
Again, dear Friends, not only does the history of the Jews prove that
sin is a root of bitterness, but our judgment tells us that it is most
fitting it should be so. If sin were in the long run pleasurable, and
really produced advantage to man, it would be a very strange
arrangement in the Divine economy. The Judge of all the earth must do
right, but would it be right that sinning should be rewarded with
blessedness? If the root of sin, instead of bearing gall and wormwood,
dropped with honey and streamed with milk, where would be the holiness
of the great Governor who so ordained it?
I would even venture to put this to the depraved intellect of those men
who rail at Divine justice–I would ask them what they would have?
Would they have sin rewarded? Would they have virtue punished? If so,
would not the devil be the most fitting ruler of such a dispensation?
What sort of God could He be who should make holiness to bring forth
misery, and sin to be the perpetual spring of delight? If any one of
us, not absolutely mad, could be put into the position of the governor
of the world, so soon as we had made laws should we not at once decree
that the violation of law should involve punishment?
Why whenever savages become semi-civilized and form themselves into a
little state, one of the first things they do is, having made laws, to
lay down penalties for the breach of those laws! And men cannot form a
government without penal sanctions. I will defy men to do so! If they
will reward the breach of their laws and punish those who keep them, it
will not be long before a general revolt and universal mutiny will give
the law to the winds. It was right, then, and according to the natural
order of things, that rebellion against the Law of the great moral
Governor should, in the long run, if not at once, involve sorrow and
misery.
This Truth of God is continually being denied and yet is all but
self-evident. I believe this is the point of teaching which is just now
more assailed than any other, namely, the doctrine of the future
punishment of sin. I find it is become quite a popular thing to assert
that we who preach of Hell and everlasting punishment libel the
Character of God. It is constantly asserted that this doctrine is an
old worn-out dogma! And, therefore, we beg to bring it before you once
again as being, notwithstanding all the gainsayer may say, the Truth of
God.
Let no man deceive himself and think that sin will go unpunished! Let
no man, be he ever so specious and his words ever so flattering, lead
you to imagine that in the next world God will pass by iniquity, for,
as surely as this Book is His Word, sin is a most fearful evil, and the
wrath to come will be terrible–so terrible that the hardest language
ever used by the most vehement speaker falls infinitely short of what
the judgment of God will be when His wrath smokes against the sinner,
and His curse descends with full force upon the offender!
Sin is a root which has not always budded and blossomed in this life,
but which will bud and blossom and bring forth its fruit in the life to
come. And the fruit of sin will be more bitter than hemlock and
wormwood. I gather this, first, from my reason. Let an intelligent
person only think a minute, and I am sure he will be convinced that
there must be a terrible punishment for sin. Remember there are other
laws in the world besides moral laws. There are what is called by the
philosopher physical laws, that is to say, laws which concern matter
rather than mind. Now, if men break these laws, does any ill result
follow from the violation?
For instance, the law of attraction, or gravitation–that certain
bodies shall attract other bodies. Can that be infringed without risk?
Here is a man who says he does not believe in gravitation. He does not
believe, for instance, standing here on this lofty rock, that he shall
fall if he springs off into the air. He declares that he means to try
the issue with that antiquated old law, and he laughs at Sir Isaac
Newton, and everybody else. He says, "I am not to be bound by such a
bugbear as this law of gravitation! I am a freethinker and am not to be
led by the nose by your physical creeds."
We warn him, "You will break your neck if you do." He says, "Do you
mean to represent God to me as such a Being, that if I merely violate
one of His laws He will actually put me to pain or even kill me? Do not
tell me, I know better, and am not to be trammeled by the superstitions
of the dark ages." Yet let him say what he will, his leap will be fatal
and his life will pay the penalty of his rashness. If you rebel against
gravitation it will crush you up as a man would a beetle, or a fly–and
without a particle of pity–will avenge its insulted authority. See the
fool leap from the lofty crag into the air! Ah, unhappy wretch, there
is no escape for him!
Notwithstanding his religious belief that he would escape, we find him
a mangled corpse at the bottom. The physical laws of God do not stay
their action on account of the men who break them, but push on to their
purposed end, let the results be what they may. Take another case. It
is a law of nature that filthiness shall beget disease. Over yonder a
number of persons herd together in impure air. They never cleanse their
bodies, or wash their clothes. They leave heaps of filth to rot outside
the door. Drainage is neglected. Water is scant and poisonous. The
Sanitary Commissioner warns them– "My dear good people, if you do not
alter this, you will have the fever or the cholera."
"What? Do you believe," says a woman, "that God Almighty is so cruel
that He will take away this dear little child from my bosom just
because we do not happen to wash ourselves, but prefer to live in dirt
and drunkenness?" "Yes," says the Sanitary Commissioner, "whatever you
may think of it, that is the fact. Filth and vice will bring disease"
"Well," says some babbling freethinker, "it is a very shocking
doctrine! You slander God! I do not believe it!" Yet the Lord did
permit the plague a few weeks ago, right and left, to slay its
thousands. Who says it is a cruel decree that foul air should make men
sick? Nobody complains of the cruelty of God in His physical laws,
although if men set themselves against them there is no sort of pity
for them! The physical law goes on and stamps out all rebels against
its power.
Go to sea in a leaky ship and see if when the storm comes the sea does
not swallow you up without an atom of pity! Or stand under a tree when
lightning is abroad, and if the lightning strike that tree and you are
under it, see if the lightning will care for you. You have violated the
physical law–you may have done it ignorantly–but it has no pity! It
just smites with all its force. Now I say if this is a fact which
nobody can dispute, that the God of Nature is a terrible God, oh you
that worship the God of Nature and say you do not care for the God of
Revelation, I ask you what you make out of all this? I ask you whether
even Nature itself does not say to you, "If God so terribly avenges His
ordinary physical laws when they are broken, how much more surely will
He avenge His moral laws when men wantonly and wickedly throw
themselves in their way"?
Again, we are not left to this argument alone, for there is one out of
the Ten Commandments to which I can only allude which involves more
especially the bodies of men. Now, when a man offends against the one
Command, we shall see if God does really punish sin. We shall see in
the man's body whether or not sin does produce gall or wormwood. I
allude, of course, to the command, "You shall not commit adultery,"
which forbids all classes of lasciviousness and uncleanness. No sooner
is this Law broken in any case than straightway man receives the
recompense which is meet. The men or women who violate this precept
soon find that they have not only done wrong to God but wrong to
themselves.
Our hospitals and asylums could tell you into what a fearful state men
have brought themselves by sins of the flesh. States of body and mind
so terrible that the very phrases in which Scripture speaks of future
misery might, without exaggeration, be used in describing them! This is
rather the physician's business than mine, but if this were the fit
place and the fit time I could prove it–so that your very hair might
stand on end. God forbid that any of you should prove in yourselves the
misery which this sin brings even on earth!
Now, if the violation of this one Command which happens to touch the
body, does, beyond all doubt, make men smart for it. If this one set of
sins makes him feel that sin is as poison to the blood and the bones.
If such is the case with one Commandment, why not with the rest? And as
the other Commands, for the most part, do not seem to bring upon us a
punishment here, it is rational to believe that they will bring it upon
us in the next state. And as this is a state in which the body
evidently suffers from the breach of one Command, it is natural to
expect that in the next state the body and soul will suffer for the
breach of the other nine!
I believe that every sin creates disease in the soul. I believe that
every sinful thought, and word, and deed poisons our spiritual nature.
I believe that sin is to be dreaded not merely because God will smite
us, but because sin itself will plague us. If a man cuts himself he
expects to bleed. And if a man sins he is wounding his soul–and his
soul must bleed. If a man drinks poison, he must expect to have it
lying in the system if it does not kill him outright. And if a man
takes sin into his spirit it lies rankling within. This root will bear
hemlock and gall, if not in this life, yet in the life to come.
Still further, to bring out this argument. We have no reason to believe
that death will change the character of man at all. I have no reason to
believe that my dying, if I am a sinner, will make a saint of me. I
certainly can have no thought that if I die as a saint death will make
a sinner of me! A man might as well believe the one as the other, and
they are both irrational. Death says, "He that is filthy, let him be
filthy still. He that is holy, let him be holy still." Then, a man
dying as a sinner, when he gets into the next world, what will he do?
Why, he will sin as he did here–not in the same shape and way–but he
will in some way go on sinning. He will die a sinner, rise a sinner,
live a sinner, and forever live a sinner.
Now, if he forever lives as a sinner, he will continue to get worse and
worse in sin, for we all know that it is the nature of sin to grow
worse, and sin has a self-developing power within itself. If in the
other life the man goes on sinning worse and worse, and even in this
life we have many instances that sin brings misery, may we not
rationally conclude from the Bible that increasing sin in the next life
will bring forth increasing misery, which will be intolerable beyond
all conception? I tremble as I see the drift of this line of thought!
May you tremble, too, and fly to the Lord Jesus for pardon! Depend upon
it, as long as a man goes on sinning the Law will necessitate that he
shall be miserable. He is out of accord with the great moral forces,
and he must as surely suffer as another man would do who perished in
fighting with gravitation or any other physical law.
"Oh," cries one, "that is not the doctrine we kick against! We speak
against God's punishing sin!" But what if this should be the way in
which sin is punished? What if it is written, "Evil shall slay the
wicked." "You have destroyed yourself." If this is the way in which God
punishes sin, even you that sin are compelled to say that it is right.
Did anybody ever think it wrong that if a man tried to float upon a
stone he should drown? Everybody says, "Why does the fool attempt it?
It is a law of Nature that the stone should sink! Why does he kick
against it?" Nobody thinks it cruel that he should drown if he ties a
millstone to his neck and leaps into the sea. If a man thrusts his hand
in the fire, nobody thinks it cruel on God's part if that man's hand is
burned.
The natural effect of the violation of a Divine command is misery. Oh
that men would believe it, and cast out the root which produces
wormwood! But we are not, happily, left to our reason about it. We can
turn to the Book of God, and call up the witnesses. Ask Noah, as he
looks out of his ark, "Does sin bring bitterness?" And he points to the
floating carcasses of innumerable thousands that died because of sin.
Turn to Abraham. Does sin bear bitterness? He points to the smoke of
Sodom and Gomorrah that God destroyed because of their wickedness. Ask
Moses, and he reminds you of Korah, Dathan and Abiram, who were
swallowed up alive. Turn to Paul, and you do not find Paul speaking
with the honeyed phrases of these modern deceivers who would make
people believe that sin will not be punished!
He says, "He that despised Moses' Law died without mercy under two or
three witnesses. Of how much sorer punishment, suppose you, shall he be
thought worthy who has trod underfoot the Son of God, and has counted
the blood of the Covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy
thing, and has done despite unto the Spirit of Grace?" Listen to James
or Jude, or Peter, and you hear them speak of chains of darkness and
flaming fire. Hear John as he writes of the wrath of God and of the
winepress of it, out of which the blood flows up to the horse's
bridles! Let the Savior Himself speak to you. He cries, "These shall go
away into everlasting punishment." He is the author of those words,
"Where their worm dies not, and the fire is not quenched."
It is He who speaks of the outer darkness, where there is weeping and
wailing and gnashing of teeth! This Book is as opposite as light to
darkness to the mawkish softness of modern heretical divinity which
drivels against the just judgment of God! It tells you, (and oh that
you might hear it as God's own voice to you!)–it tells you not that
sin will end in pleasure and joy, but that the wrath of God will abide
upon you if you do not turn from sin! It tells you that the soul that
sins, it shall die. That God's curse is upon the wicked, and that
everlasting punishment is the portion of the impenitent. Dreadful as
that Truth of God is, it is clearly revealed, and let it be received
and trembled at!
Once again, whereas right reason shows it and Scripture confirms it, I
believe that conscience in every enlightened man asserts it. I read the
other day, in a lecture against this doctrine, that Augustine was the
author of the doctrine of eternal punishment. It was a great piece of
news, certainly! But we are further told that it was because he had
been a great sinner, and therefore he felt such horror of conscience on
account of sin that his mind was morbid and he fancied that he deserved
eternal punishment. Well, then, here I stand in the same position as
Augustine! Having been a great sinner, too, and because of my great
conviction of sin I also feel that sin deserves eternal punishment!
And, dear Friends, I do not believe the witness of Augustine is at all
weakened by his having had a clear sense of sin! On the contrary, I
accept him as all the better witness because, having known what sin
meant and having felt its weight in his own conscience, he was better
able to judge what sin deserved! It is strange that men should assert
that because the man felt a great horror of sin, therefore he misjudged
its desert. That would be the very reason why he should judge
correctly! And if the gentlemen who oppose this doctrine had any true
sense of sin themselves, they would soon change their present views.
When my heart was awakened to feel the guilt of sin, I never quarreled
with God upon the matter of punishment. I felt, "Let God do what He
will with me on account of sin, I deserve it all." I was compelled to
bow my head and not so much as lift my eyes to the place where He
dwelt. I could but simply say, "God be merciful to me a sinner." I had
no demurrer to plead in court against the Divine sentence. I assented
to it. But if there is a man before me who says that the wrath of God
is too heavy a punishment for his little sin, I ask him, if the sin is
little, why does he not give it up? If it is such a little pleasure to
you, why not renounce it?
A gentleman, a man of wealth who is now dead, as I one day walked with
him in his garden, took me by the buttonhole and said, "What an awful
thing, Sir, that I should fling my soul away for the sake of a little
worldly mirth when I know that I shall have to smart in Hell for it
forever!" He looked me through and through as he spoke to me, but after
we had prayed together, and I had laid before him the way of salvation,
I was pained to see that he had made his choice for the pleasures of
sin. When a man deliberately does that, what can you say but that he
must take his choice? If you know that Hell is so dreadful, and you
pretend that your sin is so little, why do you choose your sin? Why do
you not renounce it?
I will take you on your own footing. You say the punishment is too
severe for so small a pleasure. Then why do you take the pleasure? The
more terrible the punishment is, the more foolish is it on your part to
run the risk of it for the sake of such a paltry gain. Sinner, I charge
you by the terrors of Hell–do not buy sin at such a fearful price–but
rather say, "I cannot sell my soul so cheaply. I must have something
better than the gaiety of life to reward me for being cast away
forever." I put it yet again. The plan of salvation by Jesus Christ is
very clear and very plain. It is, "Trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, and
you shall be saved." Oftentimes our hearers say, "Oh it is so easy, so
very simple–nothing to do but just trust in Christ."
My dear Hearer, if it is so simple, why not receive it?–
"How they deserve the deepest Hell That slight these joys above! What
chains of vengeance must they feel That break these bonds of love!" If
to trust in Christ is so simple, how can you refuse to believe in Him?
Why will you live an unbeliever when God Himself has said, "He that
believes not shall be damned"? Oh, fly from unbelief, which is the root
that bears gall and wormwood!
II. I must be very brief on the other two heads. IS THERE SUCH A ROOT
AS THIS GROWING IN THE HEART OF ANY ONE OF US HERE? I am afraid there
is, because upon looking at the text it appears that some have this
root that will bear gall and wormwood in them who are not actually
gross outward sinners. They are described as those who forget God. The
verse from which the text is taken says of them, "whose heart turns
away this day from the Lord our God."
Is there no heart here that is turned away from God? Very personally do
I put this question to you all. Are you all followers of God? If your
heart does not love God, the non-loving of God is that root which will
bear for you the anguish of Hell. The non-loving of the Most High, even
though you never curse or swear, even though you do not break the
Sabbath is that root that will bear gall and wormwood. Next we read of
"men seeking after another God." Are you loving someone better than
God? Are you living for money–is that your great object? Are you
seeking fame? Whatever it is to which you give your whole life, that is
your god.
Is there no one here who is living for self? If so, though you may be
outwardly a most respectable people, if you are living for anything but
God, that root will bring forth gall and wormwood. Ah, my dear Hearers,
I feel as if my eyes would burst into weeping while I am talking to
you! My head aches, my heart is burning as I think how many there are
of you who are in this state! You are living for that which will bring
forth to you the wrath to come. Do think of this? If I tell you what is
not true reject it, but as God, my Master, has put it into my heart to
speak it to you, take warning!
Again, this root is in every man who disbelieves the penalty of sin.
The verse following the text speaks of one who said, "I shall have
peace though I walk after my own heart." Are you saying that? If so,
you have the evil root in your heart. There is no more sure sign of
reprobation than callousness and carelessness! And if you are saying
this morning, "Well, I will try it. I will have the pleasures of sin
and will run all risks," then you are the man. I do not say that the
root has blossomed yet, but you have it within, and as surely as God's
Word is true, if you die in such a state, you shall forever know that
this root produces nothing but gall and wormwood!
III. The last point was to be, HOW ARE WE TO GET RID OF IT? Is there a
possibility of being delivered from the gall and wormwood? There is. As
many as trust in Christ shall be rid of the gall and wormwood. How?
Shall it be poured on the ground so that you shall not drink it? No, it
must be drunk! All the bitter results of sin must be endured. Sin
produces Hell, and that Hell must be suffered!
But listen, Christ has drunk the gall and wormwood for every soul that
trusts Him! He has drunk the gall and wormwood for you, if you trust
Him now! Come and rest upon my Master and you shall find that there is
not a drop of gall nor wormwood left for you–for in the garden and on
the bloody tree Christ endured what you ought to have endured–He felt
the full results of sin in His own Person which otherwise you must have
felt. "Well," you say, "thank God for that! But how can I cut up the
root itself?"
In order to escape the punishment of sin you must be saved from sin
itself, and the way to it is this–you must deeply feel in your own
soul that sin is a bitter thing. If you do not feel and acknowledge
this you will never find mercy. My dear Hearer, if sin is a sweet
morsel in your mouth, it will be bitter in your heart forever! And as
long as you love sin you cannot love God. You must go to God and pray,
"Lord, tear these sins out of me–do not leave one–neither a little or
a great one." Mark me, you may talk what you will about believing in
Christ, but if you love sin you will suffer for sin! Now, lay bare your
heart before the Eternal One, and say, "O God, You see my sins, You see
the evil I did love, I hate it now, Lord, help me to overcome it! Let
me not be the victim of my sins–
'The dearest idol I have known, Whatever that idol is, Help me to tear
it from Your throne, And worship only You.'
"As for the past, wash me in the blood of Your dear Son. As for the
present, send Your Spirit down to write Your Law upon my heart."
I did want, this morning, to have pleaded with sinners. I had it in my
heart to have put before you the blessing and the curse, and then to
have said, "By God's Grace lay hold on eternal life, and let your sins
go! Trust Jesus, and let the pleasures of the world go." But if I
cannot plead with you, I will ask God the Holy Spirit to plead with
your consciences afterwards. Sin cannot bring you pleasure. Man, it
cannot profit you in the long run. You may get a little money or
pleasure now, but you will lose by it in the long run of eternity! If
your existence were only on earth, I believe your happiness would be
greatest by being a Christian–but this world is only the first step or
two in a race that never has an end.
May God the Holy Spirit influence your will that you may choose that
which will endure, and not that which will be buried in the tomb! Oh by
the frail character of life, by the certainty of death, by the judgment
of God, by His hatred of sin, by the flames that know no abatement
though briny tears forever flow, fly away to Christ! Oh may you fly to
Him now and find life in His death, healing in His wounds, and
everlasting mercy through His merits!