A Leap Year Sermon

A Leap Year Sermon

(No. 2663)

INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, FEBRUARY 25, 1900.

DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING,
FEBRUARY 29, 1880.

"One born out of due time." 1 Corinthians 15:8.

PAUL thus describes himself. It was necessary that Paul, as an Apostle,
should have seen the Lord. He was not converted at the time of Christ's
Ascension, yet he was made an Apostle, for the Lord Jesus appeared to
him in the way, as he was going to Damascus, to persecute the saints of
God. When he looked upon himself as thus put in, as it were, at the end
of the Apostles, he spoke of himself in the most depreciating terms,
calling himself, "one born out of due time."

Those who are acquainted with the Greek tongue know what a despicable
term Paul here applied to himself–as though he was scarcely a man at
all. At any rate, as the very last of the family, "born out of due
time," and not only the last, but also the very least, for he says, "I
am the least of the Apostles, that am not meet to be called an Apostle,
because I persecuted the church of God." Scholars will know why I
cannot exactly explain the word which Paul uses, but rather keep to the
rendering of our translation, which, although it may not have the force
and full meaning of the Greek expression, is, perhaps, none the less
useful for public reading. "One born out of due time."

Paul thought very humbly of himself. He reckoned himself less than
nothing and put himself down at the very lowest estimate–and mentioned
that he was brought to Christ and made an Apostle when the time for
such a work was apparently over. Out of date altogether, beyond the
period when it might have been thought that another Apostle would be
called of God, there was Paul–found as "one born out of due time."

My subject tonight is, first, the singular time of Paul's spiritual
birth. There are many of God's true children who, like the Apostle,
were "born out of due time." When I have expatiated upon that fact, I
shall speak of the sure evidences of his spiritual birth and show you
that, although "born out of due time," he was born–and there were sure
evidences of his spiritual birth–which evidences, I trust, may be seen
in many of us, also!

I. First, then, let us think of THE SINGULAR TIME OF PAUL'S SPIRITUAL
BIRTH.

There are still some who, like the Apostle, are born to God "out of due
time." They are truly born again, regenerated, converted, at a most
unlikely season. There have been multitudes brought to Christ under
earnest sermons, when the appeals of faithful men have thrilled the
congregation and the Truth of God has been effectually carried home to
the hearts of many of the hearers. But there have also been times when
God's ministers have waxed faint, when the sermon has appeared to be
destitute of all force, when nobody has seemed to have felt the power
of the sermon and, apparently, the Truth of God has fallen quite flat!
Yet, on many such occasions there have been some sinners converted to
God when we would hardly have thought it to be possible!

Mr. Tennant, a famous American minister of Whitefield's time–one of
the most earnest and seraphic men who ever proclaimed the Gospel of
Jesus Christ–had a hearer who remained unmoved under many a score of
his most faithful sermons. Others were saved, but not this man. He
seemed unmoved and immovable, but it came to pass, on a certain Sab-

bath, that a very unusual thing happened. Mr. Tennant had prepared his
sermon with great care. It was what we are known to call a laborious
discourse into which he had put all the thought and all the pains
possible. But he had not been preaching long before his memory
completely failed him! His mind refused to work and, after floundering
about for a while, he was obliged to sit down in great confusion and
say that he could not preach to the people that day. The man I have
mentioned, who had never before been impressed under Mr. Tennant's
ministry, was that daycalled by Sovereign Grace as "one born out of due
time," for he was led to see that there was a spiritual and
supernatural force which had usually helped the pastor to preach–and
that when this Divine influence was withdrawn–he was as weak as other
men and could not speak with power as he had been accustomed to do!
This Truth of God, somehow or other–for human minds are strangely
constituted and things which have no effect upon certain people, very
greatly affect others who are present at the same time–this Truth, I
say, induced the man to think! And thinking, he was led to believe in
God, and to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ for the salvation of his
soul. He was, without doubt, one "born out of due time."

I would like to break down, as Mr. Tennant did, if some of you would be
born to God by that means! I would rather be dumb and win a soul for
Jesus, than speak with the tongues of men and of angels and yet men's
hearts should not be impressed by the Truth of God I proclaimed! How
often I have found that when I have gone home and sighed, and cried,
and groaned over a sermon in which I felt no liberty, but thought it
was an utter failure, it has afterwards been proved that, here one, and
there another, have come forward blessing and praising God for that
very testimony which seemed to me so faulty and feeble, but which the
Spirit of the Lord has savingly impressed upon them! So, still, there
are some who in this way are "born out of due time," through the Holy
Spirit's use, even, of the preacher's weakness and apparent failure!

Another illustration may be taken from the opposite side of the same
Truth. Some are converted when they seem, themselves, to be in a state
of mind in which they are the most unlikely to be impressible. I
remember being in Dr. John Campbell's house, one day, when he told me
that a minister was preaching at Whitefield's old Tabernacle in
Moorfields, one evening, when there were present, under very strange
circumstances, two young men who had fallen into dissipated habits and
who had made an appointment with each other for the commission of some
gross sin that very night. Had they committed what they had planned, it
may be that they would have plunged themselves into a career of vice
from which they might never have been extricated. They were passing by
the Moorfields Tabernacle, which some of you remember, and as they
needed to know the time at which they were to meet for this unholy
purpose, one of them said to the other, "Go in and check the
time–there is sure to be a clock in there." But the clock was not
fixed as it is here, at the back of the preacher, but the other way–so
the young man had to go some little distance further in than he
intended, in order to see the clock. If I remember rightly, the
preacher that night was Matthew Wilks, and he was just uttering some
quaint remark, something that arrested the young man's attention and
held him fast in the aisle. His companion waited outside for a time,
but it was cold, so he thought he had better go in and look at the
clock, himself, and fetch his friend out. He went in–the arrows of the
Lord pierced the heart of both of them! The second of those young men
was John Williams, the famous missionary and, at last, the martyr of
Erromanga! Thus they, also, were "born out of due time."

You would not have thought it possible that those men would become, as
they did, preachers of the Gospel, when they were, at that very time,
desperately set on the commission of a great sin against God and their
hearts were wholly given up to the pleasures and follies of this world!
But so it happened and our Lord still knows how to stop men as He
stopped Saul of Tarsus on the road to Damascus. He is the man who says
that he was "born out of due time" and he is a wonderful instance of
this method of Divine interposition. He has in his possession the
letters from the High Priest which will enable him to bind the saints
and carry them off to Jerusalem. He is riding towards Damascus and is
within sight of the city when, in the very midst of his high-handed
course of persecution, the Lord Jesus Christ, Himself, intervenes and
smites him down to the ground! Presently, Paul rises to pray and, in
his three days' blindness and fasting, to seek the Lord and then to
find Him, to the salvation of his soul and the joy of his spirit–and
thus to become an Apostle of that very Savior whom, in his ignorance,
he had been persecuting! After such a triumph of Divine Grace, let us
never despair of anysinner, however far he may have gone into sin!

You know how Paul, writing to Timothy, said of himself, "For this cause
I obtained mercy, that in me, first, Jesus Christ might show forth all
long-suffering for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on
Him to life everlasting." The God who blessed the broken sermon of Mr.
Tennant can bless our imperfect work in the pulpit, the Sunday

school, or anywhere else! And the God who saved such men as John
Williams and his companion, when they least thought of such a thing
happening, can also save some who have strayed in here, tonight, little
dreaming what designs of love God has toward them in bringing them at
this time under the sound of His Word!

I consider, next, that a convert may be described as one "born out of
due time" when he is brought to Christ after some great revival or
notable religious movement has come to an end. There are some of you
who attended the recent special services conducted here by Messrs.
Fullerton and Smith. What power there was in those hallowed gatherings!
Some of your neighbors wept under conviction of sin, but you did not.
Some of them came to Christ and are now rejoicing in Him, but you did
not come to Him. You were not even impressed during the meetings,
though, possibly, you wished to be. Or it may be that you began with a
desire after better things, but you ended in indifference. And now the
special services are all over and the good men who came among us to
preach and sing the Gospel are gone–and you have been saying to
yourselves, "The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not
saved." Ah, but our Lord has a blessed way of picking up the stragglers
behind the army! When the main body has marched on with sound of
trumpet, praising God, there are a few left behind–and the Lord Jesus
sometimes comes and picks them up! I do earnestly pray that some of you
may be thus picked up by Him just now, so that you may be able to say,
"We were not born for God when many others were, but, like Saul of
Tarsus, we were 'born out of due time.' But, blessed be God, we were
born again by the effectual working of His Spirit! We were brought to
Christ, to the praise of the glory of His Grace, and now we, also, have
become children of God by faith in Jesus Christ." Pray that it may be
so dear Friends! O you Christian people, bow your hearts before God and
ask that it may be so! Perhaps the very fact that those services are
over and that a gracious opportunity has gone may be impressed upon the
minds of some who were present during the meetings, but who were not
converted–and they may now seek the Savior and find Him to their
everlasting salvation and happiness!

The Lord can bless strange methods to the awakening of the ungodly.
When Puritanism seemed to be trodden under foot, in the reign of James
I, and the king issued the Book of Sports, and gave commandment that
every clergyman was to read from the pulpit, on Sunday, that it was the
royal will and pleasure that the young people should play at football,
cricket and other games and pastimes on the Lord's-Day afternoon, godly
ministers who really loved the Lord did not know what to do. One of
them thought, perhaps, it would be well to do as the king ordered and
to say something beside, so, when the Sunday came for reading the Book
of Sports to the people, he said, "I am commanded by the king and the
authorities to read to you the following document, but it grieves my
heart and conscience to have to read it. I know it is wicked, wrong,
shameful and abominable to desecrate the Sabbath as you are invited to
do, and I wonder what will become of my country when even from the
church, itself, Sabbath-breaking is recommended."

So, the good man spoke, to the relief of his own conscience and in hope
of awakening the consciences of others. It happened that there was in
the congregation, that day, a young man who had always been a
ringleader in the Sabbath sports–he was no sooner out of church, in
the morning, than he was on the village green, fast and furious in all
the amusements of the time. But, when he heard that Book of Sports
read, he said to himself, "well, I acted in that way on my own account
and it was wrong enough for me to do so, but now I say with the
minister, "What is to become of all the country if everybody is to be
as bad as I have been? What will happen to the nation if this kind of
thing is to go on?" The thought struck him so forcibly that he became,
first, a serious character, and then a true seeker after God–and
afterwards a genuine believer in the Lord Jesus Christ! So it came to
pass that when the devil thought he was going to have everything his
own way, that very day, this young man was born to God–truly, "born
out of due time."

I remember reading a very striking saying of Mr. Bunyan's. He said he
had good reason to believe that in the generation after him, there
would be many more saints than in the one of which he formed a part. He
said his belief was based upon the fact that wherever he went, he found
that there were so many great sinners that he hoped they would be
converted and become eminent servants of the Lord Jesus Christ. Well,
there was a blessed truth at the back of that hope of his, for, very
often, where sin has abounded, Grace does much more abound! And when
the Word of God seems to grow scarce and the candle of the Gospel burns
but dimly, we may pray and expect that even then some may be "born out
of due time" to the praise of the glory of that Grace which saves as it
wills–and often selects the very chief of sinners to be the subjects
of it's almighty power!

There have been some dear friends who may be said to have been "born
out of due time," for they have been converted to God after it seemed
impossible that they ever should be. I remember well reading of one who
imbibed skeptical

notions and became exceedingly furious against the preaching of the
Word. One day, in Edinburgh, he heard it said that a certain eminent
minister of the Gospel intended, if he met him, to speak with him about
his soul. Whereupon the man uttered some very strong expressions and,
among other wicked things, he said, "I shall never be converted unless
I lose my senses!" All who were acquainted with him and who knew how
desperately he was set against the Gospel, thought that his was,
indeed, a hopeless case. But, in the Infinite mercy of God, it turned
out to be quite the opposite! He began to suffer from great incoherence
of thought. His mind gradually wandered–when he was trying to speak,
he often spoke utter nonsense. He became unfit for business and had to
be put into the custody of someone who watched him as his keeper.
Reason was not actually gone, but it was reeling upon its throne, and
while he was in that sad state, the case of Nebuchadnezzar came to his
mind and he wondered whether God had given him up, altogether, on
account of what he had said–that he would never be converted while he
was in his senses. He turned his mind, all shipwrecked and battered as
it was, towards God, and out of the depths of his half-bewildered
spirit, he cried unto the Lord as Nebuchadnezzar did–and his mind
returned to him and he became a humble, gentle, holy believer in the
Lord Jesus Christ!

Do you not think, dear Friends, that he also was "one born out of due
time"? The time of salvation seemed utterly past so far as he was
concerned. He had made a covenant with death and a league with Hell. He
had cast off those ordinary beliefs which many men hold even though
they do not obey them–yet, notwithstanding all that, the surprising
Grace of God dealt with him after its own Sovereign manner and laid him
low, that it might bring him up again! I do not pray that such a thing
may happen to anybody here, but I do pray that God may bring you to
Christ somehow and if, in order to attain that end, you have to be
driven to the very gates of Hell–so long as you do not actually pass
through them–I will rejoice if, afterwards, you are led to flee to
Christ for refuge!

Another instance of "one born out of due time" occurs in the case of
one converted after the spiritual father is dead. We sometimes see
posthumous children, that is, those who are born after the father is
deceased, and there is generally much sorrow mingled with the thought
of such births, for the poor widow's heart is doubly troubled by the
extra care needed for the little stranger who arrives after the
bread-winner of the family is taken away. But if a man is the means of
bringing another to Christ after he, himself, is dead, there need be no
sorrow about that matter! There have been many, many instances in which
earnest Christian people have sought the conversion of their relatives
or friends. They have prayed for them, and wept over them, and pleaded
with them–but all their efforts have been unsuccessful. Yet, after
their death, the memory of their holy zeal has touched the conscience
of the one who would not yield, before, and brought him to Christ. I
wish, dear Friends, that your godly mother, who is in Heaven and who
died leaving her son unsaved, might seem to come to you just now. I ask
for no apparition, but that she may be consciously present to your mind
and that her dying words may ring in your ears, for perhaps the
remembrance of what she said may be blessed to you even now.

When I am taken away, I can but wish that any true and faithful word
that I have spoken may still continue to speak to you from my grave.
When good Mr. Payson died, he begged that his people might come and see
him, if they wished, before he was interred and those who did so, read
these words on his bosom, "Remember the word which I have spoken unto
you being yet present with you." It was thus his desire, you see, that
he should have posthumous spiritual chil-dren–that they should be born
to God even though they should seem to be "born out of due time." Ah,
you wives, who have been praying for your husbands these many years,
never give them up, because they may be brought to Christ when you,
yourselves, will be in Heaven! Mothers and fathers, never cease
pleading for your children, for they, too, may be brought to Jesus when
you are among the angels.

Up in one of the northern counties of England there was a woman, a
believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, whose prayer went up continually for
her husband, but he never entered the House of God–and despised her
for doing so. She was accustomed to go to her usual place of worship
alone, so far as any human companions were concerned, yet she was not
quite alone, for there was a dog that always went with her. This dog
curled himself up under the seat and lay quite still during the
service, and then walked home with his mistress. The first Sunday after
she was dead, the poor dog went off to the Meeting House as usual, and
curled himself up in his old place. He did the same the next Sunday,
and the husband, noticing the dog start out so regularly, was struck by
its action and wondered where the dog went, now that his mistress was
gone. So he thought he would go and see. The dog went before him to his
mistress's old seat and curled himself up. The man went in after the
dog and sat down in his wife's place–and God helped the minister, that
day, to show him that

his good works and self-righteousness in which he had always trusted,
would not be sufficient for his salvation. And the minister preached to
him the full salvation of Christ Jesus–and the man believed and lived.
Was not he, also, "born out of due time," for his wife's prayers for
him were a all over, and she was gone? Yet he was brought to Christ.

The subject is one upon which I might enlarge indefinitely, but I would
rather have you to supply further instances of similar blessing by
urging you to persevere in prayer, you who are seeking the salvation of
others.

Some have been "born out of due time" because they have been converted
to God in extreme old age. I would like to encourage any very aged
person who is here and still unsaved–and to drive away altogether the
notion that it is too late to seek the Lord! It is never too late as
long as life lasts and there is the power to repent of sin and to turn
to the Lord–

"While the lamp holds out to burn, The vilest sinner may return."

I will not quote cases, but I have a vivid recollection of a good many
persons who have been saved at the age of 70 or eighty. We have had
persons, past both of those periods, baptized upon profession of their
newly-found faith. The world's proverb says, "It is never too late to
mend," but Christ would tell you, if He were here in bodily Presence,
that it is never too late for Him to mend you, or rather, for Him to
make you anew, for that is the work He undertakes to do. It is never
too late for Him to stretch out His pierced hands and help the man who
is tottering on his staff, to become a babe in Christ! Yet, surely when
very old men are born again, they seem to be "born out of due time."

Many of you have not yet come to old age, yet if God should save you,
tonight, you would be as those who are "born out of due time," because
you are on the very brink of the grave. Consumption has laid its cruel
hand upon you and pulled down all your strength. In all probability you
will not be long in this world. You have come out, tonight, but you are
half-afraid that you have done wrong in coming in the state you are in,
with that terrible cough that you have–and you have not found the
Savior. O my dear young Friend, wherever you may be, it is a sad, sad
thing to be carrying about with you, your death-warrant, as you
certainly are doing, and yet to have no warrant to believe that when
you die, it will be well with you! Oh, I pray you, do not let Satan
tempt you with the idea that now, when sickness is upon you, there is
no hope for you!

Come to Jesus, however consumptive you look! Come to Jesus, young man,
with that chest that scarcely allows you to breathe! Come unto Him, for
He will not cast you away! I remember one, whom I met at Mentone, who
had gone there in the hope of lengthening his life, but that was quite
out of the question, for he was too far gone when he came. He had two
sisters who were sent for to come to him, for it was certain that he
could not live long. He himself was under deep concern of soul,
earnestly seeking the Lord, but he could not find Him. Day after day,
week after week, he had been getting worse and worse and showing all
the signs of his approaching departure, but he could not find peace
with God. At last, his sisters came from England. They arrived just in
time. They found him very anxious about his soul. That night they spoke
with him of Jesus and in the morning, early, when they woke, they went
to him and he was sitting up in bed, all pale and ghostlike. He said,
"Sisters, Christ has forgiven me!" And he fell back on his pillow and
he was gone Home. There was an end of his suffering and weakness here
below, but the consolation of that last word to them, and of the joy
that beamed from his poor eyes was enough to make them gladly commit
his body to the tomb. "Sisters, Christ has forgiven me!" Ah, he was,
indeed, "born out of due time"–born between the very jaws of death!
But death's jaws could not close upon him till he had received
forgiveness from his Savior. I beseech any of you who are in a similar
condition to his, do not put off seeking the Lord, but hasten to find
Him even now!

Once more, there are some who are "born out of due time" because they
are born all of a sudden. They suddenly come to Christ. They suddenly
find peace. They are suddenly saved. I wish that might happen to some
here tonight. There is no need of any set period for this all-important
matter! Time is no element in the matter. God can work conviction and
conversion in a single instant. You know that, sometimes, you see a
flash of lightning and then you wait several seconds before you hear
the thunder. But when a storm is right overhead, the flash and the slap
are simultaneous, and down comes the pouring rain at the same time!
And, in like manner, the Lord knows how to send a flash of conviction
and, at the same instant, to make His deep voice of mercy to be heard
in the soul–and to send the floods of Grace upon the spirit then and
there! Why should He not do so tonight for any of you who need these
blessings?

Now I will tell you the special reason why I chose this text. It is
because this is the 29th of February and it is a Sunday. There is a
large number of you who never saw a 29th of February on Sunday, before,
and there is a still larger number

who will never see the 29th of February on a Sunday, again. I suppose
it will be 28 years before that will occur again. So, this is a Sunday
thrown in, as it were. It is an odd kind of day, an extra day in the
calendar. If you ask our friends of the Greek Church, the Russians,
they will tell you that there is not such a day at all, for they keep
to the old system of reckoning time. This plan of putting in an odd day
every four years, to make our days square with the sun, is a very good
and proper one. Still, it is a kind of a day thrown in, and it seemed
to me that, if the Lord would convert some souls on this odd day in
this leap year, it would make the 29th of February, that came on a
Sunday, to be specially memorable! You will not forget it if it is the
day of your conversion! You will say to your children, it may be, 28
years hence, if you are alive, "Ah, I recollect when the 29th of
February last came on a Sunday–that was the day when I sought and
found the Lord! Mr. Spurgeon said that I was like the Apostle Paul,
'one born out of due time,' and so I was. Yet I was born in due time, I
know, according to the Covenant of Grace."

Oh that the Lord, in His Infinite mercy, having given us this special
day, would now give us a special blessing and bring many to Himself
this leap year! Oh, that all of you who are still unsaved, would make a
leap right out of the kingdom of darkness into the Kingdom of His dear
Son, His Holy Spirit enabling you so to do by a simple act of faith in
Jesus Christ! And you Christian people, pray for a special and unusual
blessing, a 29th of February blessing. Ask God to give it to us, in His
infinite mercy, that many and many a soul may be "born out of due time"
this very night!

Who shall it be? And where shall the work of repentance begin? Does not
somebody over there say, "Lord, let it be me"? There is said to be a
special opportunity of making proposals in leap year, but I can tell
you, if you make a proposal to come to Christ, that He has long ago set
His heart on you! You would never have thought of proposing to Him if
He had not first of all ordained to bring you to Himself! If you come
to Him, He will receive you and oh, in His great mercy, may the Holy
Spirit incline you to come to Him this 29th of February that falls upon
a Sunday!

II. Now I have only two or three minutes left for the second part of my
subject–THE SURE EVIDENCES OF PAUL'S SPIRITUAL BIRTH.

Though Paul was, in a spiritual sense, "born out of due time," he was
truly born again. And those persons who have been converted at singular
times and, under strange circumstances, have been really converted. How
do we know that Paul was born again and that he was called to be an
Apostle of Jesus Christ?

I answer, first, because he had seen the Lord. After mentioning those
who saw the risen Christ, he says, "Last of all He was seen of me,
also, as of one born out of due time." The first evidence that he was
an Apostle was that he had actually beheld the Lord. Now, in a
spiritual sense, one of the marks of a true Believer is that he has
seen the Lord. My dear Friend, if you have looked to Christ for
forgiveness, even though you have only looked to Him, tonight, and this
is an odd night–the 29th of February, yet, if you have, by faith, seen
Jesus on the Cross, and truly trusted Him, you are as much saved as the
man is who believed in Christ 50 years ago! Looking to Jesus is the
evidence that we are born again– and happy is everyone who can
truthfully say, concerning Christ, "He was seen of me, also."–

"Isaw One hanging on a tree, In agonies and blood."

I looked to Him. He looked on me and we were one forever. I trusted Him
and, therefore, I am saved. If you can say that from your heart and the
Holy Spirit bears witness that what you say is true, you need not raise
any question about your new birth! If you are trusting in Jesus, it is
well with your soul in time and to eternity!

The next evidence of his spiritual birth, which Paul gave, was that he
confessed his sin. Read the verse following our text. "For I am the
least of the Apostles, that am not meet to be called an Apostle,
because I persecuted the church of God." See how he confessed his sin
and forsook it? "He that covers his sins shall not prosper, but who
confesses and forsakes them shall have mercy." Are you, dear Friend,
willing, now, to confess your sin? Do you turn from it with loathing?
Do you desire, henceforth, to be delivered entirely from it? Well,
then, your repentance is another sure evidence that you are born again!
If you have seen Jesus taking your sin upon Himself and suffering its
dread penalty. If you have confessed your sin and, by faith, laid it
upon Him as your Sacrifice and Substitute, you are born again, though
you may have been, in a certain sense, "born out of due time."

Next, we are sure that Paul was really born again because he was
thoroughly converted. Never was there a greater change in any man than
there was in him! He never went back to his former life and he had no
hankering to return to it. With him, old things had passed away and all
things had become new–he was, indeed, a new creature in Christ Jesus!

I am sure he was converted, also, because he praised the Grace of God.
Read the 10th verse. "By the Grace of God I am what I am." Even when he
truthfully says, "I labored more abundantly than they all," he humbly
adds, "yet not I, but the Grace of God which was with me." It its a
sure sign of conversion when a man knows that he is saved by Grace,
alone, and does not attribute it to his own merit, or his own works,
but praises and adores the Sovereign Mercy and Grace of God. Have you
that evidence, dear Friend? Then you are born aright, even though "born
out of due time."

And, lastly, Paul proved that he was a true citizen of the New
Jerusalem because he became, of all men, most zealous for Christ,
zealous for the Gospel, zealous for the winning of souls. He seemed to
try to do all he could to undo the mischief he had worked in the days
of his unregeneracy and to work with both his hands and all his heart
to establish and extend the Kingdom which once he tried to overthrow. O
God, by Your great mercy, cause another Paul to be born in this House
of Prayer tonight! You can do it. Will You not bring to Yourself, by
the power of the Eternal Spirit, some wild, threatening, blustering,
blaspheming hater of Christ? Lay him at the dear feet of the Crucified
and cause him to look up and live!

Pray for this, dear Christian people. Pray for it tonight when you
reach your homes as well as now! And then we shall have special reason
to remember this 29th of February. Possibly, someone who will, in days
to come, stand on this very spot preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ,
will say to you, "Do you remember the 29th of February, 1880? Do you
remember the text, 'One born out of due time'?" I trust that some of
you will be here to hear him say, "I remember it better than any of you
do, for that was the night when I was born to God, glory be to His holy
name!" Now pray for it with all your hearts, for our Lord Jesus
Christ's sake. Amen.

EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: JOHN3:1-18.

If you were sent for to visit a dying man and you wished to select a
chapter which would set the Truth of God before him very briefly and
very clearly, you could not make a better choice than this 3rd Chapter
of the Gospel according to John. So, as we are all dying men and women,
let us read it with that same desire–and may the Holy Spirit apply it
to our hearts as we read it.

Verses 1, 2. There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler
of the Jews: the same came to Jesus by night That was better than not
coming at all. "Better late than never." Better come to Christ in the
dark than not come to Him at all.

2. And said unto Him, Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from
God: for no man can do these miracles that You do, except God be with
him. This was good reasoning on the part of Nicodemus. If he did not at
first go as far as he afterwards did, it argued well for him that he
went as far as he could. O you who are troubled with unbelief, believe
as much as you can, and then cry, "Lord, I believe, help You my
unbelief and, especially, help me to get rid of it." Confess to Christ
what you do believe, and He will add more to your belief.

3. Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto you,
Except a man be born again he cannot see the Kingdom of God. He cannot
understand what it is. He cannot know anything about it. He cannot see
it.

4. 5. Nicodemus said unto him, How can a man be born when he is old?
Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb and be born? Jesus
answered, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a man be born of water
and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God. If the
"water" mentioned here relates to Baptism–which I greatly
question–then, certainly, it shows the way of entrance for a Believer,
publicly, into the Kingdom of God. But if it relates to the purifying
power of the Spirit of God–as I believe it does–then it teaches us
that no man enters into the Kingdom of God and becomes a partaker of
its privileges–which is something more than merely seeing it–except
the Spirit of God shall be to him as water purifying him from sin. This
is the reason why a man cannot enter into the spiritualKingdom until he
is born again–born from above.

6. That which is born of the flesh is flesh. And "flesh and blood
cannot inherit the Kingdom of God." 6. And that which is born of the
Spirit is spirit And only the new creature, which is thus born, can, by
any possibility, understand or enter into the possession of the
spiritual things which belong to the Kingdom of God.

7, 8. Marvel not that I said unto you, You must be born again. The wind
blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound thereof, but cannot tell
from where it comes, and where it goes: so is everyone that is born of
the Spirit The Holy Spirit is mysterious, like the wind, and so is the
creature that is "born of the Spirit." The spiritual man often cannot
understand himself, he is so mysterious a being–how then shall he be
able to fully comprehend how that wondrous new life is created within
him? All we know is that he is a new creation, as much the work of
eternal power as our first creation.

9, 10. Nicodemus answered and said unto Him, How can these things be?
Jesus answered and said unto him, Are you a master of Israel, and know
not these things? ' 'These things" that lie at the very root of
everything? "Are you a Rabbi and do you not know this?" Alas, good
Master, there are still many Rabbis who do not understand this! Many
who have taken the highest degree the University can give them, yet do
not know in their own souls what it is to be born again!

11. Verily, verily, I say unto you, We speak what We know, and testify
what We have seen; and you receive not Our witness. Spiritual men
declare that there are spiritual things. They know them and have seen
them, and they have a right to be believed, for they are not liars.
They are honest men and speak what they know, yet, often, their witness
is not received. They need not be surprised at this, for it was the
same with their Master!

12. If I have told you earthly things, and you believe not, how shall
you believe, if I tell you of heavenly things? If these elementary
Truths of God about the new birth stagger you, what is the use of My
going on to anything higher? You would not understand it, or receive
it.

13. And no man has ascended up to Heaven, but He that came down from
Heaven, even the Son of Man which is in Heaven. He alone knows the
secrets of God who has been with God, who has come from God, and who is
still with God.

14-18. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so
must the Son of Man be lifted up: that whoever believes in Him should
not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that He
gave His only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not
perish, but have everlasting life. For Godsent not His Son into the
world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be
saved. He that believes on Him is not condemned: but he that believes
not is condemned already, because he has not believedin the name ofthe
only-begotten Son of God. God give us, even now, deliverance from
condemnation through faith in His dear Son–and prevent our being
condemned through our unbelief–for our Lord Jesus Christ's sake! Amen.