"Your Rowers Have Brought You Into Great Waters"
(No. 1933)
A SERMON INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, DECEMBER 12, 1886,
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON THURSDAY EVENING,
SEPTEMBER 10 1885.
"Your rowers have brought you into great waters." Ezekiel 27:26.
THIS was spoken by the Prophet concerning Tyre, that great mercantile
city where all the commerce of the East found its outlet towards the
West. Tyre, when the Chaldeans invaded Palestine, had greatly rejoiced
at the fall of Jerusalem. She said, "Aha, she is broken that was the
gates of the people: I shall be replenished now she is laid waste." It
was a cruel and selfish exultation. After a while the city in the sea
came to feel the weight of the great oppressor's arm, for thus said the
Lord, "I will bring upon Tyrus, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, a king
of kings, from the north. He shall set engines of war against your
walls and with his axes he shall break down your towers." For 13 years
the city endured a siege under Nebuchadnezzar and it was concerning
this calamity that the Prophet said, "Your rowers have brought you into
great waters" The merchant princes of Tyre had so managed the affairs
of the State that they brought the Tyrians into desperate straits. They
had incited them to stand out against the great king and they
discovered, in due time, that they were striving against a power too
strong for them. Their policy had been a mistake. Comparing Tyre to one
of its own galleys propelled with oars, the Prophet declares, "Your
rowers have brought you into great waters."
All the glories and the woes of Tyre are now over. "What city is like
Tyrus, like the destroyed in the midst of the sea?" That page of
history has long ago been turned over to give place to the rise and
fall of other cities and empires, but the prophetic expression is still
full of power. To many persons in our own day we may well cry with
Ezekiel, "Your rowers have brought you into great waters."
I. First and foremost, this is truly applicable to SINNERS WHO ARE
BEGINNING TO TASTE THE RESULT OF THEIR SINS–ungodly persons who have
chosen their own ways and followed their own devices–and now, at last,
are finding that the way of transgressors is hard. Sinners may go
unpunished for many a bright hour of the morning of life, but as the
day grows older, the shadows fall and their way is clouded over. I meet
with many who may be well assured that God will ultimately punish sin
because the first flakes of the endless fire shower have begun to fall
upon them and they cannot escape. They are now beginning to reap the
first ripe ears of that awful harvest whose sheaves of woe shall fill
their bosoms, world without end. In those who sin with the flesh, the
result of their vices is seen and felt to a horrible degree in their
own bodies. Many a man bears in his bones the sins of his youth. Around
us are many who already wish that they had never been born because of
the condition into which their wantonness has brought them. The sin
which at first seemed a dainty luxury, sweet to their palate, has now
developed into a corrosive poison in their heart, eating their flesh as
with fire and burning up their spirits. Lust was their pilot–the siren
of pleasure lured them on and now they are wrecks–breaking to pieces
on the rocks. Despondent, ashamed, haunted with nameless terrors,
afraid to hope, they dare neither live nor die. They are overcome with
alarm as they look forward, for if it is darkness behind and night
around, tenfold blackness lies before them by reason of their
transgression and their sins. O sinner spent with sin, "Your rowers
have brought you into great waters."
Certain transgressors are beginning to feel the result of wrong-doing
in their circumstances. They have brought themselves from wealth to
poverty by drunkenness, dishonesty, or vice. The owner of a fair estate
is compelled to herd with the lowest of the low in a filthy lodging. He
who was educated for a profession and is skilled in learned languages–
employs his superior knowledge to beg and cheat–and even then remains
in loathsome rags. Not even in this world does sin pay its servants
good wages! Drunkenness and idleness clothe a man with rags–these are
the livery of sin. Those godly men who spend their lives in the painful
business of seeking out the fallen often harrow our feelings with the
dread stories of those who are truly prodigals, not merely in parable,
but in literal fact, who have wasted their substance in riotous living
and now, if it were possible, would be glad to fill their belly with
the husks that swine eat and no man gives to them.
Many a broken-down sinner has, in this house, found his way back to the
Great Father. Oh, that it may be so during this service! Sorely tossed
about in sickness and in need, both of them the result of your sin, you
are in a sorry plight at this hour. "Your rowers have brought you into
great waters." You would not take Christ to be your Pilot in your
youth–you were too proud to accept your father's God, your mother's
Savior–you must have your own way and follow your own devices! And now
the desperate tugging of your passions have brought you into deep
waters, indeed. You said in your pride, "I will not be tied to my
mother's apron strings," but you are now a captive, fastened with bonds
of steel to one who will be no mother to you, but a destroyer! You gave
up your boat to pirate rowers and now look where they have brought you!
The waters about you are dark and tempestuous and no port is near. One
thing you can do, and I would have you do it–warn others lest they
come into your place of danger! With broken health and lost estate, at
least be humane–when you are most in your misery, call to yourself the
young who have not yet known your evil ways and charge them to shun
your course! If you cannot be an example, I would use you as a beacon.
"Though hand join in hand, yet shall not the wicked be unpunished"–and
you are a proof of the same. "Your rowers have brought you into great
waters."
Others who have not yet been afflicted by any outward Providence are
beginning to feel the sting of sin upon their conscience. This will, I
trust, be used for their good. I trust the Lord has a kind intent
towards them and is condemning them in the inward court of conscience
that they may not be judged and condemned with the godless world at the
Last Great Day. The Lord's eyes perceive many that once were at ease in
their iniquities who are now sorely troubled by their own reflections.
Like the troubled sea, they cannot rest. Their memories are constantly
casting up the mire and dirt of their former transgressions. There is
no peace for them, day or night. They know that they must die. They
have also heard of judgment to come–the blast of the trumpet of doom
is sounding in their ears and, therefore, they cannot sleep at night,
nor be at rest by day. A tempest is hurrying up. Black masses of clouds
hang overhead. Thunder mutters from afar and the lightning lights up
the sky. Sin is always before them. It casts ashes into their bread and
gall into their drink. Their merry comrades cannot make them out, for
they were once as wild as any. Men wonder why it is that for them there
seems to be no music in the lute, no pleasure in the bowl, no joy in
the dance. They know not the voice which cries to the troubled
one–"Your rowers have brought you into great waters."
O Soul, you have now come where your sins compass you about and shut
you in on every side! They seemed as if they were all forgotten, like
dead men, out of mind, but they have risen again and in their rising
you have fallen! As a man pursued by wolves in the steppes of Russia
seeks to escape from the hungry pack which hurry on so swiftly, so are
you trying to escape from your sins–but all in vain! You hear their
howls behind you as they chase you with untiring feet– what can you
do? The sins of 20 years ago are upon you! Fierce sins of your hot and
youthful blood which seemed so harmless then–they are demons now from
which you can not hide! What would you give to forget them? But they
will not be forgotten! The devourers are near you; their hot breath
comes upon you! Their fangs are in your flesh! They taste your blood!
Verily, you have made a poor business of life to become the prey of
such horrors! At a time of life when many a Christian man is in full
vigor of usefulness, you are worn out and near death–and near Hell!
Your sins are upon you. Even now they overtake you and what will you
do? O gallant boat of the silken sail and the painted hull, where are
you now? "Your rowers have brought you into great waters."
Listen to me, then, while I speak to you words which may seem harsh,
but they are all meant in love to you. Listen, I say, and take warning
from your present sorrows.
If the waters are great, today, what will they be before long? If now
you cannot bear the wages of sin, what will you do when they are paid
to you in full? "What will you do in the swelling of Jordan?" What will
you do when they wipe the clammy sweat from your brow and tell you that
a few more gasps will send you into eternity? O man, woman, however
great the waters are now, they are as nothing compared with what they
will be at the last! You are only running with the footmen now and yet
they weary you! What will you do when you contend with horses? When the
Lord shall walk
through the sea with His horses, through the heap of great waters–what
will become of you? Your case is lamentable. My heart weeps for you.
"Your rowers have brought you into great waters."
Learn, I pray you, this piece of timely wisdom. Your rowers have
brought you into no quiet waters. They have found you no harbors of
delight–shall they any longer be your rowers? Do this one thing to
your own soul if you have any sense left, or any pity for yourself–cry
out against those who are ruining you! Now say, "I will go no further
with these rowers. God helping me, the helm shall be reversed." If such
is your resolve and the great Pilot shall come to your help, you will
never drink again of the accursed cup and you will shun the company
which has lured you to your present wretchedness! Hear me while I cry
to you, "Escape for your life! Look not behind you!" for maybe you will
never have another hope of escaping–but you will, from this day on,
drift from bad to worse, till the worst of all shall come. "Your rowers
have brought you into great waters"–have no more to do with them! Oh
that the Spirit of the Lord may help you to break the oars and cast the
rowers into the sea!
Remember, also, that they have rowed you into the stormy waters, but
they cannot row you out of them. You can find no rest by continuing in
sin, neither can you save yourself from your present forlorn condition.
O man, cry mightily unto God! He will hear you! He has revealed a way
of deliverance for you in the Person of His dear Son–all your hope
lies there! Have you not heard of Jesus, who can still the wind and
bring your vessel into an instant calm? While there is life in you,
there is hope in Christ for you! You are not yet in torment–not yet in
Hell–still does His good Spirit strive, with the chief of sinners
dwell. Therefore, though the sun is gone down for this day, I pray you
suffer it not to rise again until you have committed your soul into the
hands of your Redeemer! In desperate jeopardy of eternal destruction,
cry unto the mighty God for succor and He will make bare His arm and
rescue you from your destructions! Despair not! There is a Savior, and
a great one, and He has come here to seek and to save that which was
lost! Trust in Him who is mighty to save. By the terror of your
destruction, I beseech you believe in the great salvation. Cry–
"Jesus, lover of my soul,
Let me to Your bosom fly,
While the nearer waters roll,
While the tempest still is high!
Hide me, O my Savior, hide,
Till the storm of life is past!
Safe into the ha ven guide
Oh receive my soul at last." I have spoken very feebly, but I pray the
Lord to bless it to every unconverted person within these walls.
II. And now, secondly, I think that I see another ship. It is not black
with the grime of the world. It resembles the gilded barge of a mighty
prince, but still, for all that, its rowers have brought it into great
waters. This represents THE
SELF-RIGHTEOUS BROUGHT INTO DISTRESS. Many men are fondly persuaded
that either they need no saving or
that they can save themselves. Either in whole or in part, their
natural goodness, or their benevolent actions, or their careful
attention to external religion will secure their safety. They suppose
that by going to hear the Gospel, by participating in sacraments, by
contributing towards Church work and the like, they will find
themselves borne securely towards the desired haven. This ship is
rarely built. It resembles that to which Ezekiel likens Tyre–"They
have made all your planks of fir trees from Senir: they have taken
cedars from Lebanon to make a mast for you. Of the oaks of Bashan have
they made your oars; they have made your benches of ivory inlaid in
boxwood, from the isles of Kittim. Of fine linen with embroidered work
from Egypt was your sail, that it might be to you for an ensign; blue
and purple from the isles of Elishah was your awning." There is no end
to the gallant show which self-righteousness can exhibit! No ship of
Tyre can excel it.
Yet to this glorious ship a trying voyage is appointed. Alas, my
Friend, your rowers have brought you into great waters. I would like
you to think of the difficult journey which lies before you. The
proposal is that you shall row yourself by your good works across yon
sea of sin to the Port of Glory. Before you enter upon a matter, it is
well to count the cost. Do you not know that if you are to be saved by
obedience to the Law of God, your obedience must be absolutely perfect?
If there is a breach of one single commandment, although all the others
should be scrupulously kept, yet the Law is broken and the course of it
descends. If you have a chain and you break one link, it is of no
further use. It is idle to say, "All the other links are strong." The
miner would not risk his life upon a chain with one dangerous link–and
the
strength of the whole chain must be measured, not by its strongest, but
by its weakest part! Do you think, my Friend, that you can perfectly
keep the Law of God? Can you do it as long as you live? I should like
you to think what great waters the rowers are proposing to take you
into if you are to win salvation by an obedience which shall never fail
or falter! You see from Holy Scripture that God gave His Son Jesus
Christ to die for us that we might be saved by His Grace. Do you
suppose that this gift of Jesus was a superfluity? There would have
been no need for that great offering on the part of our Lord Jesus
Christ if men can save themselves by their own merits! Calvary is a
blot upon the Character of Deity if salvation by self is possible! His
own Son put to death without a stern necessity for it were the grossest
charge that could be brought against the Great Father! You certainly
are attempting a very singular work if you are to perform that which
cost the glorious Son of God His life! Great waters, dear
Friend–waters too great for your frail vessel.
Look, Sirs, you who have been resting in your own righteousness, have
you never once sinned? Take even today to pieces–has no evil thought,
or wrong desire, or wanton imagination defiled its hours? Have you
never spoken a sinful, unkind, untruthful, or proud word? Do you claim
to have been absolutely perfect before your Maker from your childhood?
Surely, you must have a brow of brass to make such a boast! What does
He say to you? "There is not a just man upon earth, that does good, and
sins not." "All we like sheep have gone astray." "If we say that we
have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us." Verily,
my Friend, "Your rowers have brought you into great waters." If you are
to be saved by your works, look where you are! Any day you may slip and
stumble–and then what becomes of all your past life? For, "When the
righteous man turns away from his righteousness and commits iniquity,
all his righteousness that he has done shall not be mentioned: in his
trespass that he has trespassed, and in his sin that he has sinned, in
them shall he die." If this is your style of standing before God, it is
a poor standing, indeed! Can you ever be sure that you will be safe in
an hour's time? Come, my Friend, can you be sure that you have done
enough, felt enough, prayed enough, given enough alms and gone a
sufficient number of times to the Meeting House, or to the Church? Can
you be sure that it is well with you even now? And if your faith is in
a priest, can you be sure that he who baptized you and confirmed you
had the apostolic succession? Can you be sure that he that gave you the
sacrament was truly ordained? When you lie dying, a thousand questions
will haunt you! You will have to ask yourself about this, that and the
other–and on your present way of going to work you can never be sure!
The religion of self-righteousness never proposes such a thing as
security. It does not give the quiet of faith, much less the deep
repose of full assurance. "Your rowers have brought you into great
waters." Uncertainty follows uncertainty and the wind of fear tosses
the billows of doubt. You will have to slave your fingers to the bone
with incessant efforts and then never have done. Your life will be one
perpetual treadmill and you will never be an inch the higher. You might
as well attempt to sail across the Atlantic on a sere leaf of autumn as
hope to reach Heaven by your own works! You have no good works–you are
incapable of good works! Your motive is tainted and it pollutes all you
do. Self-salvation is your aim and, therefore, you are serving yourself
and not your God. The motive is the essence of the deed. Now, the grand
motive which makes virtue, virtue, is absent in the selfish heart. The
motive of love is necessary to acceptance with God and you know nothing
of it. As of now all your labor comes of a joyless servitude–it is
slave's work for a slave's wage–and the wage you will get, because you
are a sinner–will be no more than death when all is done. "Your rowers
have brought you into great waters."
I remember when I reached those same terrible seas. I used, as a youth,
to think, sometimes, that I was as good as other lads and, perhaps, I
was, for I had not fallen into the grosser vices. I fancied that if
anybody was saved by a moral life, I might be. But oh, when God lifted
the veil of my nature and I saw what my heart really was, I sang
another tune! I had been down into the cellar of my heart a great many
times in the dark and it seemed pretty fair, but when the Holy Spirit
opened the shutters and let in the light, what loathsome abominations I
saw there! My life, too, no longer appeared to be the goodly thing I
had imagined it. Ah, no, my comeliness was turned into corruption! Let
but a man get the Light of God streaming into His soul, convicting Him
of sin, of righteousness and of judgment to come–and all reliance upon
self, in any form, will seem to him to be the most hateful of crimes!
What crime is there that is more like the pride of Lucifer than the
pride of a wretched rebel who talks about meriting Heaven and finding
entrance among glorified spirits without washing his robes in the blood
of Jesus–under the pretence that they were never foul? Does he imagine
that he will be admitted to the courts of the Eternal King to sing his
own praises and thus insult the Lord? While oth-
ers come there through rich and free and Sovereign Grace and,
therefore, rapturously adore almighty love, is he to reach the blissful
shores to magnify his own excellence?
I tell you, Sir, that if you have put to sea in the boat of
self-righteousness, however strong the rowers who tug those three banks
of oars and make the vessel leap through the waves, the day shall come
when you will hear a voice across the waters crying, "Your rowers have
brought you into great waters: the east wind has broken you in the
midst of the seas." The voyage is too great for you! Shipwreck is sure!
May God give you Grace to shun the attempt! Flee from your own works to
Christ's work! Place your trust where God has placed His love, namely,
in the Lord Jesus! Then shall you have good works, indeed, but they
shall be the cargo which you carry, not the ship which carries you.
They shall then be grounded upon the motive of gratitude and not of
selfishness. And then shall real virtue be possible to you–virtue
based on love to God. When you are delivered from your sin and safe in
the righteousness of Christ, then will you say, as each Believer does
when his heart is warm with affection–
"Loved of my God, for Him again
With love intense I burn!
Chosen of Him before time began,
I choose Him in return."
Thus have we seen two gallant ships in grievous straits and we have
hearkened to counsels by which we may avoid their dangers. May God
bless my simple words!
III. But now, very briefly, there is a third case, THE ERRORIST IN HIS
DIFFICULTIES. This is a very common sight in these wayward times. I
might say to many a man who has ventured out to sea under the strong
impulse of curiosity, trusting to his own proud intellect, "Your rowers
have brought you into great waters." The only safe course for a
thoughtful man is to trust in God and to accept the Scriptures as
Infallible Truth of God. There is our anchor! Every mind needs a fixed
point–we must have Infallibility somewhere–my Infallible Guide is
Holy Scripture. I know of no other anchor. The Revelation of God to
man, in the Person of the Son of God, even Christ Jesus, is the one and
only hope of men. And the Word of the Lord in which we have the Divine
testimony to the appointed Savior is our oracle and court of appeal.
But there are men who cannot abide this and, first of all, I think that
they begin to get into great waters when they resolve to be guided by
their own judgment and their own intellect, without submitting to the
teachings of Christ. It is proud and dangerous work to set up to be
your own guide. You are undertaking a very large responsibility when
you refuse to sit at Jesus' feet and prefer to assume the teacher's
chair. If you will rely upon your own wisdom, wit and will, you choose
a highland road–rough, rugged and full of perils. You cast away the
possibility of that sweet peace which comes of reposing on superior
wisdom. You miss, in fact, that joy of faith, that sweet rest of mind
which is the reward of the lowly of heart. Simple trust in Christ is,
to me, the wellspring of comfort. To believe because the Lord speaks is
rest to my heart! I could not live except as I leave questions with God
and accept His Word instead of all reasoning.
O my wise and thoughtful Friend, do you know what will soon happen to
you? You will probably fall under the domination of another's
intellect–you will become the shadow of some greater man. The man who
will be guided by nobody is usually guided by someone more foolish or
more knavish than himself. I have seen both cases. I have seen a man of
superior abilities crouching at the feet of a semi-idiot who seemed, to
the other, to be a profound mystic! And I have also seen the deep,
designing man of brazen impudence towering above an abler man and
cowing him into submission. He swore that he would be independent and
to be so he cast off all old beliefs and fettered himself to foolish
lies. He would not stay at home with his father to partake of the
joyous heritage, for he longed for freedom. Alas, before long a master
sent him into his fields to feed swine. He could not believe the
simplicities of the Truth of God, but now he groans beneath the
monstrosities of superstition!–
"Hear the just law, the judgment of the skies! He that hates Truth
shall be the dupe of lies, And he that wiil be cheated to the last,
Delusion, strong as Hell, shall bind him fast."
The man has given up the old doctrine because it was difficult and has
accepted new doctrine which is 10 times more difficult! He would not be
credulous and now he is a hundred times more so. Creation staggered him
and he tries to believe in evolution! Faith in Jesus seemed hard, but
he must now accept Agnosticism. The difficulties of unbelief are 10
times greater than the difficulties of faith. We may require a great
stretch of faith to accept all that the Holy Spirit teaches, but once
believe in His faithful Word and you have found a way of life! If you
do not do this, you have continually to enlarge the gullet of your
credulity and remain forever receptive of mere wind which can never
fill the mind. Unbelief calls you to go from improbability to
impossibility, from extravagance to romance, from romance to raving! I
appeal to candid persons who have ventured from the moorings of faith
to sport upon the waves of modern speculation, whether they are not
conscious of a great loss? When faith evaporates, there is a speedy
departure of spiritual power. The new notions intoxicate, but they do
not sustain. The near approach to God is gone when the old faith in the
Atonement is shaken–and the enjoyment of hallowed communion ceases
when the din of perpetual controversy frightens away the dove of peace!
I have heard it remarked that the modern "apostles," when they preach,
often discourse very prettily–for they are clever men–but all sense
of enjoyment of what they preach is lacking. They are not, themselves,
feeding upon what they hand out. There is no beaming light upon their
faces as of men who are enamored by the doctrines they proclaim! Small
delight can their teachings cause them and you see that it is so. They
are not heralds arrayed to adorn a banquet, but surgeons gathered to an
operation! Well may they be without enjoyment, for there is nothing to
enjoy. Who smiles as he sits down to a meatless, marrowless bone? Who
rejoices as he lifts a shining cover which has nothing beneath it? In
the dogmas of modern thought, there is not enough mental meat to bait a
mousetrap! As to food for a soul, there is none of it– an ant would
starve on such small grain! No Atonement, no regeneration, no eternal
love, no Covenant–what is there worth thinking upon? "They have taken
away my Lord and I know not where they have laid Him."
They have taken away the light, the life, the love, the liberty of Free
Grace and they have given us nothing to replace them but pretty toys
which they, themselves, will break before many days are past. O Sirs,
it is all very fine to be amused in the heyday of our health with
"bubbles from the brunnen" of superior intellects, but times will come
when the soul will have to do business on great waters and then it will
need substantial help. When a man comes face to face with eternity, he
demands certainties about which his heart has no shadow of question.
I have lain by the hour together consciously looking into death in as
bitter suffering of body and mind as a man might well endure and I tell
you nothing will then satisfy the heart but the atoning Sacrifice!
Nothing will avail to clear the sky but a distinct view of Jesus as a
Substitute and a vicarious Sacrifice for human sin! Nothing cheers me
at such times but the Eternal Covenant, ordered in all things and sure;
promises founded upon the faithfulness of God; Grace given by the
Sovereignty of God to guilty and undeserving men! You may do with
lighter things, but I must have these and nothing less! Grace, with
Omnipotence and Immutability to back it, will bear my spirit up and
nothing else! But if you will let go the old Gospel. If you will go
from one new theory to another–after a short time you will come into
misery of the direst order! I have seen men give up, first of all, the
communion of saints. Then all belief in the Word of God. After that,
they have gone into the common pleasures of worldlings and so they have
drifted and drifted till, at length, the seat of the scorner, the song
of the drunkard, or the stews of the unchaste have afforded them
carrion suited to their taste. How many who only meant to go a little
from the old ways of the Truth of God have gone too far aside even for
themselves? Truly, my speculative Friend, "Your rowers have brought you
into great waters."
I am not intending to follow you. You are so wise that I am satisfied
to be a fool, because I would wish to be the reverse of what you are. I
am content to be weak, for your strong mind is bringing you small
profit. I would not, at any time, rest my soul's eternal hope upon a
theory, or upon the workings of my own brain. I need a firmer
foundation. On the Truths of God revealed in this Book, on the clear
and certain verities of Holy Scripture I dare risk my soul for time and
for eternity, without the shadow of a doubt! I would earnestly entreat
you to do the same, lest, by-and-by, your rowers bring you into great
waters!
Why, to me it seems very great waters to be brought into to be forced
to say that I know nothing! One walking with me observed, with some
emphasis, "I do not believe as you do. I am an Agnostic." "Oh," I said
to him "that is a Greek word, is it not? The Latin word, I think, is
ignoramus." He did not like it at all. Yet I only translated his
language from Greek to Latin! These are strange waters to get into,
when all your philosophy brings you is the confession that you know
nothing and the stolidity which enables you to glory in your ignorance!
As for those of us who rest in Jesus, we know and have believed
something, for we have been taught eternal truths by Him who cannot
lie! Our Master was not known to say, "It may be," or, "It may not be,"
but He had an authoritative style and testified, "Verily, verily, I say
unto you." Heaven and earth shall pass away, but not one jot or tittle
of what He has taught us shall cease to be the creed of our souls! We
feel safe in this assurance but should we quit it, we should expect,
soon, to find ourselves in troubled waters.
IV. Now I pass on to dwell for a moment upon another sight which is as
sad as any of the others–perhaps more sad.
Behold THE BACKSLIDER FILLED WITH HIS OWN WAYS. O wanderer from the
Lord your God, "Your rowers
have brought you into great waters." I have seen and talked with some
to whom this text has become an awful truth. There are some here,
tonight, who, if I brought them upon this platform and they had the
courage to speak, could unfold a tale of measureless misery which they
have brought upon themselves by departing from the Lord! Look at yonder
woman! She once rejoiced in the Gospel as one that finds great spoil.
It is 30 years ago, but at that time she knew the Truth of God and
loved it. She was the joy of the pastor who brought her to Christ, for
she was earnest, intense, devoted. There were years of gracious walking
and then there came a temptation. She grew cold in heart. She was poor.
She was infatuated. She turned aside–she was wretched and found
comfort in the glass. Drop the veil. It is many years ago since that
fall and she plunged on in suffering, misery and sin such as I will not
attempt to describe. She became a mere wreck! Death stared her in the
face. She returned to us and said, "Let me be taken into the Church
before I die, for I have never lost, after all, the life of God in my
soul but, oh, I stepped aside and from that day sorrow has pursued me.
Restore me to the Church, for I am, by Grace, restored to God." As you
looked at her, you said, "Poor weather-beaten boat! It was an ill day
for you when your rowers brought you into these great waters."
You know how it begins–first of all, that holy, joyful walk with God
is lost. You used to sing from morning to night for joy of heart, for,
like Enoch, you walked with God! Alas, that music came to a close. It
did not seem much– merely to lose rapturous enjoyment–but it was much
in itself and it meant more. Then there came a loss of relish for the
means of Grace. The services were long and the ministry grew dull. The
Prayer Meeting was not worth attending and weeknight services were too
much of a good thing. Secret prayer was neglected and the Bible was
unread. The forms of religion were kept up longer than the enjoyment of
it, but there was no life, no power in them. After that there came a
general fault-finding with Brothers and Sisters in Christ–a constant
quibbling at this and that. Nothing was good enough. The soul was
drifting and it fancied that the Church and the world were no longer
what they were, just as men in a boat fancy that the shore is moving.
How many endeavor to be blind to their own declensions by pretending to
see fault and falsehood in other people! Then there came a distaste for
Christian company–godly people were too commonplace and prosaic. The
love of something "brighter" called them away from solid conversation.
Occasionally they were found in places doubtfully virtuous and
unquestionably irreligious. Songs other than those of Zion began to be
relished and teachings not of the Bible were listened to.
All the while there was an inward unrest and there was a yearning of
the spirit for better things. The man felt, every now and then, that he
was losing sight of shore and floating into dangerous places. He was
uneasy as to where the currents would carry him and he did not feel
safe under his new pilot. Then on a black day there were rocks
ahead–rocks from which, in former years, his vessel had steered clear
with ease. And now a current and a wind drove the ship that way and
before he was well aware of it, the man was wrecked! To quit our
figure, the sin which the man once hated he now played with. He did not
mean to yield, but he gave way a little and soon became the slave of
appetite. He that sat at the sacramental table was now to be seen
intoxicated. She that would have communed only with believers in Christ
was now found in very dubious society.
At last it went further–it came to actual and open sin–and ruin
followed. I cannot tell how long that sinner may remain in his sin. How
long David continued impenitent I need not mention, but oh that he had
never fallen into it! Oh that he had never idled that day away upon his
bed so as only to rise at eventide to see a sight that led him to rush
headlong into foul transgression! O Brothers and Sisters, when you
begin to get a little away from Christ, you do not know how far you may
yet go, nor how soon you may commit the grossest crimes! There may be
some here, tonight, who once were preachers of the Gospel, or earnest
Sunday school teachers, or Christian women devoted to the cause of God,
but now, alas, they are separated from the fellowship of the Church,
aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, outcasts from the communion of
saints!
O Friend, "Your rowers have brought you into great waters." Oh that He
would come who owns your boat, who shed His blood for you! Oh that He
would step into your vessel and take the helm and turn you around,
tonight, by a
great stroke of His almighty Grace, and turn your head to the Port of
Peace! Do you ask, "Will He receive me again?" Listen to His voice! He
says to you, "Turn, O backsliding children, says the Lord; for I am
married unto you." Take with you words and come to Him at once, for He
is ready to receive you. Do not linger! But O backslider in heart,
before you become filled with your own ways, come home, come home and
say, "Return unto your rest, O my Soul." Remember that if you are a
child of God you will never be happy in sin! You are spoiled for the
world, the flesh and the devil. In the day when you were regenerated
there was put into you a vital principle which can never die nor be
content to dwell in the dead world. You will have to come back if,
indeed, you belong to the family–prodigal as you are, you are still a
child! Though you return with every bone broken, you will have to
return!
He that is married to you has not forgotten the marriage bond. Though
you have forsaken Him and defiled yourself with many lovers, yet it is
written, "He hates putting away." He cannot endure divorce! His
almighty love will win you back. He cannot and He will not give you up.
Read those memorable passages in Jeremiah and Ezekiel, where the Holy
Spirit uses that simile which I scarcely dare use tonight, where the
most defiled and corrupt of adulterous souls are still bid to come back
to their first husband because the marriage bond still holds good and
the Lord will neither let them go nor suffer them to continue in sin.
"Your rowers have brought you into great waters." Oh for a steersman to
guide you into port! Return, return! I leave my text and those to whom
it applies with the God of all Grace. May He bless you all, for
Christ's sake! Amen.