Nominal Christians–Real Infidels

Nominal Christians–Real Infidels
A SERMON DELIVERED ON SUNDAY MORNING, FEBRUARY 1, 1863, BY THE REV. C.
H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"If I say the truth, why do you not believe Me?" John 8:46.
As we meet this evening to commune at the Table of the Lord, it will
then be necessary for me to seek the edification of God's people. I
therefore think it best to occupy our time this morning with an
exhortation to those that are out of the way. May the Holy Spirit make
our words like arrows from the bow of a mighty man. May He graciously
direct them to the chosen hearts which He has ordained to bless, and
may this hallowed hour be a time of salvation to many among you.
Whatever may be lacking in the human instrument, I trust there will be
no absence of true affection and solemn earnestness. And O, may the
Holy Spirit use those infirmities under which I labor this morning to
magnify His own strength!
You know, dear Friends, there has been a great deal of talk lately
about the Infidelity, which like a whirlwind, shakes the Establishment.
We felt a very stiff breeze caused by certain, "Essays and Reviews,"
and before that could blow over, a perfect hurricane from the African
shore astonished many, and alarmed a few. Everybody agrees to censure
the inconsistency of a man who wears a miter and quarrels with Moses,
professes to be a minister of the Church and undermines her
foundations. Too much importance has been attached to the poor attempts
of the Arithmetical Unbeliever and what was in reality nothing more
than a storm in a teacup has been exaggerated until all the sea of
Christendom is tossed with tempest.
To my mind, there is a terrible enemy abroad far more worthy of our
steel than the recreant prelate and his Zulu teachers. Spare your
voices, O Watchmen of Zion, for a mightier enemy–and reserve your
swords for a sterner adversary of our Israel. Secret unbelief, as the
mother and foster parent of all open infidelity, requires to be watched
and wept over. Let us mourn over the professed unbelief of the age. But
there is an unbelief more gross than this, more dishonest, more
inconsistent, more widely spread, and more deceptive in its character!
It is an infidelity so impalpable that we cannot readily arrest it, and
drag it into the court of conscience!
It is so unreasonable that argument is out of place in contending with
it. This "pestilence which walks in darkness," broods frightfully over
our congregations, and smothers beneath its death-bearing wings not a
few of you, whose souls I would win for Christ. Into the battle with
this destroyer of souls I enter this day. Oh, may my Lord and Master
give me power to strike home. Solemnly I protest against that
dishonest, inconsistent infidelity of which some of you are the
victims. You tell me that you believe the Bible to be inspired of God.
No suspicions as to its Divine authority linger in your mind. You have
faith in the Gospel which we preach, that it is genuine, true, and
sound.
But here lies your inconsistency or dishonesty–you say it is true–but
you do not believe it! You admit that it came from God, but practically
you reject it! You will not deny that it is worthy of all
acceptation–it must be so if it came from God. You admit it deals with
all-important matters–and yet you practically say it is not worthy of
your attention, since many of you are still in disobedience to the
voice of love, neglecting the great salvation.
Before charging home upon your consciences, my Hearers, I feel impelled
to remark that many professors of religion deserve the rebuke of the
text, for they say they believe the Bible, but they do not act in
accordance with it. We have been boasting, in the language of
Chillingworth, that the Bible, and the Bible alone, is the religion of
Protestants–but the boast requires a little examination. Do we not
tolerate many things among Protestants which can never be vindicated
from Scripture?
You tell me that the Bible is your religion, and yet bring your infants
for Baptism! You sprinkle their brows, or sign their foreheads with a
cross. And where do you find your warrant for thus profaning an
ordinance which sets forth the burial of Believers with their Lord?
Tradition may lend a forced and lame support to baby sprinkling, but to
the Bible it is a novelty unknown. Moreover I ask you where comes
confirmation? Will anyone be bold enough to assert that there is
anything in God's Word like it?
Yes, and more–where do you find a State Establishment? Verily, not in
the New Testament, since our Lord has said, "My kingdom is not of this
world," and this unworldly Gospel is a standing protest against the
spiritual fornication which State religion involves. Everywhere, in all
sects, I see inventions of men arrogating the place of the Commandments
of God. Let us sweep our temples, and return unto the Word of the Lord.
Say not that you believe the Book, when you act as though it were not
true–when you advocate practices, and set up rites and ceremonies
unknown to Apostolic times, and Scriptural records.
Brethren, again I say it, our Churches require to be brought face to
face with the infallible Word. By this test try them all–they say the
thing is true–will they believe it? Will they practice it? Will they
abide by the standard? High professors, the love of this world is
enmity against God! You profess to love God, but you are as worldly, as
fond of fashion and its frivolities, as pleased with pomp and its
fooleries, as hungry for honor and its pretensions, as you can be. And
yet you say this Book is true!
Verily, by your acts you prove that you believe it not. I might draw up
today a dreadful bill of indictment against the visible Church of this
age. I might prove to a demonstration that it is not delivered from
this present evil world, according to the will of God, even the Father.
And that it teaches for doctrines the commandments of men–so that it
deserves to be met with the unanswerable question and faithful rebuke
of our Lord Jesus–"If I say the truth, why do you not believe Me?"
Although fidelity to my Lord required these few remarks, which are not
meant as an angry discovery of a Brother's faults, but as the faithful
wounds of a friend, I turn to the matter which has most to do with you,
the people of my charge. Having shown you the many giants' heads which
might be smitten by this smooth stone, taken out of the brook, I shall
now take aim at your hearts, O you who believe not on my Lord!
I. Unbelievers in Christ, MY TEXT SETS FORTH VERY PITHILY AND
PERTINENTLY YOUR INCONSISTENCY.
"If I say the truth, why do you not believe Me?" If you boldly meet me
by saying, "I am not converted, for I do not believe in the mission of
Christ," your position is a consistent, though a terrible one. If you
tell me you have suspicions about the inspiration of Scripture, and
therefore you do not believe in Christ, your position is certainly
dangerous, if it is not despicable. But when you tell me that you
believe Jesus Christ was sent from Heaven, and that His Gospel is the
revelation of God to man–and you are still at this day
unconverted–your position, besides its tremendous responsibility and
danger, is extraordinarily inconsistent, so inconsistent that an honest
man should blush to remain in it for an hour.
Were you rightly to weigh the matter you would say, "I will not, I will
not be thus a liar unto my soul any longer. I will not contradict
myself, but I will be consistent, and since the thing is true, I will
believe it."
Remember, first of all, that Jesus Christ has revealed to you your
need. He has told you in express words that you need regeneration.
"Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."
Enlarging upon the doctrine, He adds–"Except a man be born of water
and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of Heaven." He has
laid the new birth before you as an imperative necessity. You admit
that this is true. Your admission that this Book came from God is
clearly an assent to this teaching. Why, then, is it that you who have
never passed from death unto life?
Why do you remain contented without that Divine change, and are
satisfied with moral reformation or outward respectability, while the
Book assures you that these will never do? The Great Master assures you
that you must be converted. Hear His express words–"Except you are
converted and become as little children, you shall in no wise enter
into the kingdom of Heaven." This you allow to be correct, for it is in
the Book which you agree to reverence. Oh, Sinner, how then, can you be
at ease in an unconverted state? How is it that you can remain so
careless, when Heaven is barred against you because you are not
converted?
You cannot delude yourself with the thought that perhaps all will be
well with you, when Christ assures you it cannot be well with you
except you experience His converting Grace. Has He not told you, too,
in many a passage of prophetic and Apostolic Scripture, that you must
return unto the God from whom you have wandered, and leave your sins,
and give your heart to Him? What meant that gracious parable concerning
the prodigal? Did it not set you forth, you who have spent your living
with harlots, and are brought to the degradations of sin? Did He not
teach you that your only hope lies in quick return to your offended,
but loving Father in Heaven? "I will arise and go to my Father"–is not
this fit language for you?
The citizens of this country–what can they do for you? They send you
into their fields to feed swine, but you cannot fill your belly with
the husks which the swine eat. Does not Jesus, in that loving parable,
say affectionately to you, "Return unto your God"? Oh, if this is true,
and you say it is, then believe it–and sure I am your heart will yearn
towards your Father's house, and you will run towards your home at
once. Is it not true that we must abhor that which is evil and turn
with full purpose of heart unto the Lord? "True," you answer,
"certainly it is." Why then, I reply, do you not believe it, and act
upon the belief?
Dear Friends, if any physician, well-known and honored, should meet you
today on your way home, and if he should most affectionately and
solemnly inform you that you bear about in your person a dreadful
disease. Methinks if you should profess to believe his warning, and yet
you should seek no remedy for it, but remain totally unaffected by the
dreadful assurance, it might well be asked of you, "How can you say it
is true, for you evidently do not believe it?"
O my Hearers, as though Christ spoke to you by me, so I ask you this
question–How can you, as candid persons, how can you as honest men,
admit this Book to be true, when it tells you that your whole head is
sick, and your whole heart faint? When it warns you that, dying as you
now are, without a work of Divine Grace in you, you are lost to all
eternity–how can you, I say, admit these things to be true, and yet
prove by your apathy and carelessness that you do not believe them? May
God press that enquiry home upon you!
Our Lord Jesus Christ came not only to reveal your need, but also to
set forth His claims. The claims of Jesus of Nazareth are briefly
stated by Peter, "Repent and be converted, everyone of you, that your
sins may be blotted out when the times of refreshing shall come from
the presence of the Lord." He demands repentance–that is, a change of
mind–the changing of your mind with reference to sin, caring no more
for its pleasures, despising it and turning away from it. A change of
mind with regard to holiness–seeking your happiness in it. A change of
mind with regard to Christ Himself, so that you shall no longer look
upon Him as without form or comeliness, but as a most precious Savior,
such as you need.
Sinner, Christ demands of you that you should take your ornaments of
self-righteousness from you, and wrap yourself in the sackcloth of
humiliation, and cast the ashes of penitence upon your head, and cry,
"Unclean! Unclean! Unclean!" Moreover, He requires faith of you.
"Repent and believe the Gospel." "This is the commandment, that you
believe on Jesus Christ whom God has sent." The Jews said, "What shall
we do that we may do the work of God?" Christ said, "This is the work
of God, that you believe on Jesus Christ whom He has sent." He demands
that faith which will accept Him to be the sole cleanser from sin, and
to be the sole possessor, as He is the sole redeemer, of the heart.
Friend, you believe that no less a Person than the Son of God thus bids
you look unto Him and be saved. You believe that the Son of God was
nailed to the Cross, and that out of love to you He demands that you
forsake the sin which will destroy you. And He demands you believe in
His blood which will cleanse you. Does Jesus thus speak? Are these
demands the hard inventions of a tyrannical priesthood, or the mild and
tender claims of love? Is it a mere man who bids you believe and live,
or is it the Redeemer, "in whom dwells all the fullness of the Godhead
bodily," who commands you to believe and be baptized?
If the claim to faith is true and just, why do you not accede to it?
Why harden your hearts? Why stand out against incarnate love, pleading
and persuading you? Oh, strange inconsistency, to know the Savior's
Truth, but not to believe Him! Oh, shameful dishonesty, to grant the
validity of His claim, but to be careless concerning the discharge of
it! To grant the justness of the requirement, and refuse to accede to
it with your hearts is to write yourselves down as deceitful and
unrighteous. "If I say the truth, why do you not believe Me?"
Further, Christ came to provide the remedy for your soul. Christ did
not preach an impossible Gospel–one out of the reach of sinners. He
provided a real, ready, and available salvation. No, Beloved, He came
to preach glad tidings of great joy to men, a Gospel worthy of all
acceptation, in which even the vilest have a share. And this is
it–that God wills not the death of the sinner, but had rather that he
should turn unto Him and live. That, in order that mercy and justice
might both meet, Christ, God's own dear Son, was sacrificed on Calvary
for the ungodly. The Just for the unjust, that He might bring us to
God. And that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have
everlasting life.
This is the Gospel–a Gospel to be preached to every creature, from the
cold snows of Lapland to the balmy plains of the torrid zone–a Gospel
to be published among, every people wherever sinners are found–that
Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, even the very chief,
and that an act of faith in Him saves the soul. A simple trusting in
Him and the soul is delivered from all sin. My Friends, you profess
that this is true. O my Hearers, very few among you doubt that this
Gospel is Divine.
The most of you who sit in these seats Sunday after Sunday, never raise
any difficulties of that sort. You say, "Our minister has preached the
Gospel to us." But oh, if this is true, why do you not believe it? If
there is a remedy, a sure one, a God-appointed one, why do you not
receive it? O Sirs, this damnable inconsistency of yours will ruin your
souls, unless you repent of it. Deny it altogether, and I can
understand your position, though I weep over it. But say that it is
true, and yet reject it, and your folly is so glaring that it shall be
a theme for laughter in Hell, when fiends shall be your companions and
the eternal burnings your perpetual abode.
How can it be? You are hanging over the jaws of Hell, the flames flash
into your face! A strong hand that can save you is stretched out. You
refuse its grasp and will refuse it, still, unless it lays hold on you
by force. Perishing! The very medicine offered you which will cure you,
and you will not receive it although you know its healing virtue! You
do not believe it. There is infidelity in your heart, and before you
condemn open unbelievers, search your own hearts, for how are you
better than they? May not your sins be less excusable and your state
less hopeful than theirs?
Dear Friends. Our blessed Lord came also to reveal the freeness of His
Grace. Oh, what freeness was there in the Gospel when Christ preached
it! No cold theology His lips. Words did not hang like icicles there,
but out of His mouth there flowed rivers of living water. What can be
freer than this–"Come unto Me all you that labor and are heavy-laden
and I will give you rest"? Or what more wide than this–"If any man
thirst let him come unto Me and drink"? Or what more gracious than
this, by the lips of His servant John–"Whosoever will, let him come
and take of the water of life freely"? Oh, I need not repeat these
invitations! I shall rather remind you that you admit them to be true,
hearty, Divine invitations.
Why then, oh, why do you not believe them? You say, "Yes, it is freely
presented. I have not a doubt about that." Then why do you stand
shivering and refusing to lay hold on eternal life? Soul, if this
Gospel were hedged with thorns or guarded with bayonets I would
recommend you to fling yourself upon their very points to reach it. But
when the door is opened, and when Christ Himself, dressed in bleeding
love, woos you to come–how shall I make an excuse for you when you can
say it is true and yet you do not believe it? May God give you wisdom
and teach you reason–right reason.
Furthermore, Jesus Christ in His preaching gave a very clear
description of the danger of unregenerate souls. Hear how He puts
it–"Where their worm dies not and their fire is not quenched." Mark
how He speaks of the unprofitable servant–"Cast him into outer
darkness, there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." Observe how He
describes the goats on the left hand, these are the thundering accents
of the Judge of All–"Depart from me, you cursed, into everlasting
fire, prepared for the devil and his angels."
No preacher was ever so awfully explicit upon future punishment as
Jesus of Nazareth. No human ministry ever gave such graphic and
harrowing descriptions of Hell as Christ has given. You say you believe
the words of Jesus–you do not suspect a loving Savior of exaggeration,
do you? Oh, my Hearers, I ask you now, in the name of God–if it is
true, why do you not believe it? You do not believe it–that is clear
enough. Would you sit quietly in your seat this morning, young man, if
you really believed that within one instant you may be in Hell?
Old Man! Old in years, and old in sin–would you be as quiet in your
soul today as you are if you knew and believed that there is but a step
between you and the flames? Oh, all of you who can make merry while yet
you have no hope in Jesus, could it be so with you if you really
believed in the wrath of God which abides on you? So near the lake of
fire and yet so full of levity! Death and damnation at your doors, and
yet jesting and unconcerned! My soul is full of horror at your madness!
My heart is ready to burst with anguish at the ruin which will so soon
overtake you! What shall I say unto you? How shall I reason with
you?–Surely if the thunders of an angry God do not arouse you, you
will sleep yourselves into the lowest Hell.
Brethren, let me add, Christ has brought to light the hope of
immortality, eternal life and Heaven. What glowing pictures does the
Word of God give of the state of the blessed in the land of the
hereafter! What music streams from angels' harps! What joy irradiates
every celestial brow! What hallowed blessedness floats along the river
of the Water of Life in the midst of every street of the new Jerusalem!
You admire the poetry of the Book of God and marvel at its matchless
painting of scenes beyond the flood. You believe that Jesus has
revealed that which eye had not seen and ear had not heard. Then why do
you not believe it?
If you believed it you would seek after it, you would strive to enter
in at the strait gate. You would labor for the meat which perishes not.
The Spirit of God would lead you to prize the world to come. You would
tread this present fleeting world beneath your feet, and be looking
for, and hasting unto the glories which are yet to be revealed in those
who love the Lord. The sum of all this is the weighty enquiry of our
Lord Jesus. "If I say the truth why do you not believe Me?" If Christ
is no liar, if His Word is no fiction, how can you remain as you now
are–ungodly, unthinking, unconverted men and women? May the Holy
Spirit constrain you to give heed to this searching question.
II. YOU OFFER SOME DEFENSE OF YOUR INCONSISTENCY, BUT I ANSWER THAT
YOUR APOLOGIES
DO NOT MEET THE CASE.
I hear one say, "Sir, I do not feel myself entitled to come to Christ.
The Revelation of God is true, but I do not believe in Christ because I
do not feel any need that I should." I answer that this is no
excuse–this is rather a proof of guilt. You do not believe that which
Christ has told you concerning yourself. The Word of God informs you in
many places that your case is an awful and a lamentable one. If you
believed this, you would never have to complain that you did not feel
it. In matters relating to the body, we feel first, and then believe.
My hand smarts, and therefore I believe that it has been wounded. But
in things relating to the soul, you believe first, and feel afterwards.
A woman cannot feel grief on account of the loss of her child till she
believes she has lost it. A young man cannot feel joy at the
inheritance of a large estate till he believes he has inherited it. But
it is impossible for a loving mother to believe that her child is lost,
and not to weep, or for an ambitious young man to believe himself
suddenly made rich and not to rejoice. Now, if you really believed your
heart to be as deceitful as the Bible says it is. If you really
believed sin to be as dreadful a thing as God regards it to be, you
would necessarily feel repentance and conviction.
Alas, it is only when the Spirit of God gives you a real belief in
these things that you repent in earnest. The real root of your hardness
of heart lies in your not believing what you admit to be true. You say
the Bible is true, but you say what you do not mean. Oh, I would that
this inconsistency would strike you! You say it is true, but you cannot
believe it, or you would be at once aroused to anxious conviction.
But you make a second apology. "But, Sir, I do not see how faith can
save me." Here, again, there is no excuse, because the basis of your
doubt, after all, is this–you do not believe what Scripture reveals.
If you speak honestly, you really mean to say, "The testimony of the
Bible concerning salvation through faith is not true." Let me
affectionately remove this stumbling block, if it is ignorance and not
willful unbelief. You say you cannot see how faith can save you. Do you
not know that faith, in itself, does not save?
Faith saves by reason of that which it lays hold of. Christ stood in
the place of every man living that ever did or will believe on Him. He
took the sins of those persons and was punished for them. And those who
trust Him receive the effect of what He suffered. To say that faith
could save would be an unreasonable thing–but that the Object of
faith, the Divine suffering Savior can save–is no unreasonable
doctrine. Now, if you do really believe what Scripture tells you
concerning this, you cannot again raise this objection, that you do not
see how faith can save.
But you say you prefer works. But Scripture tells you, times without
number, that by the works of the law there shall no flesh be justified.
And it adds that all your righteousnesses are but as filthy rags. So
all hope in that quarter is destroyed. You admit that Scripture is
true, and yet you want to be saved by your works! This is to say that
black is white! This is to make God a liar, and yet, to make you bow,
and compliment Him as the God of Truth at the same time. Sinner, if you
believe the Bible, it is as clear as noonday that he that believes on
Him is not condemned, and that he that believes not is condemned
already, because he has not believed on the Son of God.
Perhaps you meet me by saying, that you have long thought that the good
things promised in the Gospel, simply and only to faith, are too good
to be true. That, conscious of being a lost sinner, and a very wretched
offender, you have not the presumption to believe that if you were to
trust Christ this very morning, all your sins would be forgiven. Well
Friend, come now, you talk like a humble man, but it is very likely you
are very proud. Let me get ahold of you by the button. What does all
this mean, my dear Friend, but just this–that you think very meanly of
God? I do not believe you think so meanly of yourself as you think you
do.
You think meanly of God! You think that He has but little mercy, at
least not so much mercy as you need, and so you limit the Holy One of
Israel. But I shall meet you on the ground of my text. You allow that
this Book is true–very well–has not the Lord declared, both by
instances, and by express words of promise, that though your sins are
as scarlet they shall be as wool? And though they are red like crimson
they shall be whiter than snow? However aggravated guilt may be, it can
damn no man that believes in Christ. I pray you read the Gospel aright.
You cannot then make the greatness of its Grace a ground of doubt. The
thing is great, but it is not too great for God. As high as the heavens
are above the earth so high are His ways above your ways, and His
thoughts above your thoughts.
But do I hear you answer that you are not quite sure that the promise
is made to you. Sinner, I must not lose patience with you, but I would
you would lose patience with yourself, for this is trifling. You say
the Bible is true. Sir, if you say it is true, you know that the very
object for which it was sent to you was that it might save you. What is
said in the twentieth chapter of the Gospel by John?–"These are
written that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, and that
believing you might have life through His name."
God did not send this Book to you, I am sure, to play with you. He sent
it that you might be saved. But how can you say the invitations do not
include you? "Whosoever will." Does that shut you out? The Gospel not
sent to you? Why, does it not say, "Go you into all the world and
preach the Gospel to every creature?" Are you not a creature? Can you
escape there? Soul, you know that, inasmuch as the Gospel is to be
preached to every creature, and inasmuch as you are condemned already
for not believing on the Son of God, therefore the Gospel must have
been sent to you.
You say you do not feel your need and you are not prepared. No
preparation was ever asked. "This He gives you–it is His Spirit's
rising beam." You say you do not feel this, and you do not feel that.
He never asked you to feel anything as a preparation for Him. All this
is the gift of His Divine Grace. You know we preach here every Sunday
to you a Gospel which meets you as you are, not as quickened sinners,
but as sinners! Not as convicted sinners, but as sinners–naked, poor
and helpless. You know we speak the Truth of God. Why do you not
believe us when we tell you that to you, even to you, is the Word of
this Gospel sent–for him that comes to Christ He will in no wise cast
out?
Ah, you will think about this, but the time has not yet come. I answer,
again, that you do not believe the Bible to be true. If you believed,
as the Bible describes, that life is short, and death is certain, and
eternity is near, and there is a dreadful Hell into which you will be
plunged, and a bright and glorious Heaven which you will lose, you
would cry out, "Lord, save me, or I perish!" As when the hand of the
angel hastened Lot from the burning city, so would a full conviction of
these things hasten you to the Cross for shelter.
Ah, I repeat what I commenced with, I would care but little for open
infidelity if this secret unbelief could be killed. You know why men
are infidels openly? It is because they want to find an excuse for
their inward infidelity. When men with some few grains of honesty, and
a little pride mingled with it, begin to reason with themselves, they
argue thus– "Now I love my sins too well to give them up. The Bible is
true, but it demands of me repentance, faith, and other things not at
all palatable. If I say the old Book is true and do not heed it, I
shall be inconsistent.
"I will at least show I have one virtue–I will be consistent. I will
deny the authority of the Scriptures, and then, though conscience may
prick me, yet before men I shall earn a reputation for daring
consistency, my actions and my words agreeing." Well, Sir, I like you
not for this, but I must say this, that we have seen some of the
greatest unbelievers converted to God in this House of Prayer, while
others remain unblest. We have seen many baptized into Christ who once
did not believe His Deity and who doubted the inspiration of Scripture!
But all the while there are some of you who say the Word is true, but
do not believe it, and I am almost ready to give you up. You are like
some persons we visit on their sick beds. They say, "Yes, Sir," "Yes,
Sir," to all we say, and they die and are damned with, "Yes, Sir," on
their tongue, but with "No, Sir" in their heart! This is what you are
doing. You say, "Yes, Sir," "Yes, Sir," "Yes, Sir," but you do not
repent, you do not believe. You live, and I fear some of you will die,
without God.
III. Again, I would aim at your consciences from another quarter.
Friend, Friend, be not offended with me while I tell you now a piece of
solemn Truth. In the forty-fifth verse Jesus gives the reason why some
did not believe on Him. It is a most unreasonable reason. It is
this–"Because I tell you the truth you believe Me not." Why, that
should be the very reason why they should believe Him!
Now, I fear some of you do not believe the Truth of God, simply because
it is the Truth of God. Some of you, my Hearers, hate the Truth of God.
You say, "That is too severe. It is not true." I would not be untrue
even with a good design, for I do not think we should tell a lie even
to save a soul. But it is true, solemnly true. Now I will tell one part
of the Truth as it is taught in Scripture–"Whatsoever a man sows, that
shall he also reap." Well now, that teaches that if you continue to sow
sin you will have to reap the result of it, and unless, through Divine
Grace you are led to give up your right-eye sins and to cut oft your
right-arm lusts, you will perish.
Now this is a Truth of God which you hate. That man who comes here on
Sundays and often has pangs of conscience, but is a drunkard still, a
secret drunkard still–he hates this Truth. Where shall I find that
other man who listens to the Word, yes, and often with tears, but he
has his midnight crime when he thinks no man sees him, and even now,
when I press harshly upon his vice, he likes it not. You that are here
this morning listening to me, and this afternoon will be busy with your
shops on God's own day, beware!
And you, too, that so trade in business that you no more dare to show
your books than you dare to look at the flames of Hell–you hate the
Truth of God. I am sure you do. You abhor the doctrine that all this
must be given up! You prove you do not like it, because you do not
practice it. Some of you will even say–"Ah, the preacher is
Puritanical– he is too severe–he cuts too close." No! Here it is, you
believe it not because it is the Truth of God.
The Pharisees, my Friends, hated God's truth deliberately. I think I
hear one of you say, "I do not do that. I may hate the Truth in the
sense you have explained, in rejecting it, and going on in my sins, but
I do not do it deliberately." Ah, but how long does it take to make an
action deliberate? I have preached to some of you nine years now–nine
years! And you are still what you were! Is not that deliberate? Some of
you have heard the Gospel forty years, and you are unregen-erate
still–and hate the Truth of God–and prove you do by living in sin! Is
not that deliberate?
And you, young Man, the other Sunday you were so impressed that you
felt as if you must yield to God that very day. You stood on those
steps under those pillars, and you said to your soul–"To be or not to
be, that is the question. A companion met you and asked you–asked you
before the impression had died away, to go with him to the haunt of
sin. And you stood and poised it in the balance thus–which shall it
be?
And you did deliberately choose your own damnation when you chose sin.
Take care, lest God shall say, "You have chosen your own delusions, and
I will give you up unto them and that forever." I lay this charge with
all the boldness of a Nathan at the door of some of you, that you have
chosen deliberately to despise the Truth of God.
But the Pharisees, you will tell me, scoffed at it. Yes, and I lay
that, too, at the door of some of you. There may be here the regular
scoffer, who mocks at everything sacred. With him I have little to do
this morning. He shall measure out his iniquities and receive vengeance
for them. But you who sit here Sunday after Sunday and hear appeals
which you reject–have Christ preached to you and will not look at
Him–have His sufferings set forth as we try to paint Him, dipping the
pencil in His own blood and yet He is nothing to you–do you not
despise Him?
I do not know any contempt that is more sorrowful to the man that is
smitten by it than the contempt of utter silence. Do we not say, "We
pass you by in silent contempt?" Thus you treat my Lord! We have
another expression–we say of some people that they are beneath our
contempt, and some of you have not enough esteem for my Master to treat
Him with open contempt. You think religion such a trifle, that it is
not worth your sneering at it. You so despise it, that you think it is
not worth your despising. Oh, is it so? Is it so? Then are you of your
father, the devil, and you do his works! May God bring you out of that
black family and translate you into the kingdom of His own dear Son.
IV. Having spoken feebly, but yet desiring the Master to make what I
have said mighty, I close by asking these questions:
If these things are true, why do you not believe them? Is there
anything to hinder you? Is the doctrine unreasonable? You say the Bible
is true. Now the Bible contains many things which are harder to believe
than that Jesus Christ died for the ungodly. If you can believe that
Jonah was in the whale's belly. If you can believe all the marvelous
miracles of Scripture, you cannot say that the doctrine of the Cross is
unreasonable. To believe that Christ stood as a Substitute, and that
through His substitution God can pardon sin, is no tax upon faith.
Nor can you tell me that the precept is intolerable. "His yoke is easy
and His burden is light." It is your sin that is intolerable, not the
precept. He only bids you give up that which will ruin you. He only
asks you to do that which will make you happy. But there is one answer
you will give. You will tell me you cannot believe. How do you know you
cannot?
"Well," says one, "I cannot believe without the Spirit of God." That is
true, but are you sure the Spirit of God is not with you? Let me ask
you whether you can now trust Jesus Christ. This is what I am about to
experiment upon.
Jesus Christ, who took the sin of men, declares that whoever will trust
Him to save them shall be saved. Now Christ is God, He is a mighty
Savior. He has suffered as Man, therefore He has all that is necessary
for the office. Do you think you can now trust Christ to save you? I
think I hear one say, "Yes, I could trust such a Savior as that." Then
you can do it, you see, and inasmuch as you can do it, the Spirit of
God is with you. Do not expect to see the Spirit of God! He is a great
mystery. You cannot know His operations except by their effects.
Faith is the effect of His secret operation. If you can now believe in
Christ, then doubtless the Spirit of God is with you, and I doubt not
the Spirit of God is often with you when you know it not. If you can
now believe, He is with you. Do I hear one say, "Well, I have often
thought I could trust Christ, but I thought if I could do it then it
was not the work of the Spirit of God, but the work of the creature."
No, verily, Beloved, there is no such thing as a simple trust in Christ
that comes of the creature. It is always the work of the Spirit of
God–and if you can trust in Christ you need not question about the
Spirit. The Spirit of God must be in you, or else your trust in Christ
would never have been there.
Only if now the thing seems right and reasonable to you, cast yourself
on Jesus, and you are saved! I might multiply words, but I might not,
perhaps, increase the force of the text, and therefore let me entreat
you who stand to the Scriptures as being true, and yet deny their
veracity by remaining unregenerate–let me entreat you to decide one
way or the other. Do be consistent. "How long halt you between two
opinions?" Say the Book is false, and then we shall know what you are,
and where you stand, and you yourselves will, probably, begin to be
alarmed at your position. Say the Book is false, and then you will be
openly numbered with the disciples and slaves of Hell. And it may be
your conscience will then begin to work.
But, oh, if you are not prepared to take that side, if Baal is not God,
and you will not serve him, then if God is God–and that is the only
other conclusion–serve Him. I bring you to that awful place where the
two roads meet–the right, the left–to Heaven, to Hell–to
righteousness, to sin–to God, to fiends! There you stand. I am glad to
have made you stand there. If it is a thing that needs consideration,
consider. Put your hand to your brow, now, and turn this matter over.
And I do trust that through the word which we have spoken to you, the
Spirit of God will work on your conscience and on your heart and you
will say, "For God! For Christ! For holiness! For everlasting life!"
But mark you, I had sooner you would say, "For the devil. For sin. For
Hell," than say nothing. For if you say nothing, you will go on and be
as careless and as indifferent as ever. But if you make this last
choice deliberately, it may be that then God will alarm your conscience
and stir your soul, so that you may see your danger and may fly to
Jesus.
May He bless you, now, and guide your heart into the way of Truth. And
to His name be glory forever. Amen.