All Or None–or, Compromises Refused– a Sermon With Five Texts

All Or None–or, Compromises Refused– a Sermon With Five Texts

(No. 1830)

A SERMON INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, MARCH 29, 1885,

DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON NOVEMBER 25, 1883.

"There shall not an hoof be left behind." Exodus 10:26.

I SHALL have five texts–one of them a good one, the other four bad.
The first text is good. It is God's text.

That is God's text and the whole sermon will illustrate it by exposing
the compromises with which it was met. The other four are Pharaoh's
texts, or, if you like, the devil's, for that is exactly what the devil
says to men. Exodus 8:25– "Pharaoh called for Moses and for Aaron, and
said, Go you, sacrifice to your God in the land." That is his first
proposal. Then we find him saying, at the 28th verse, "I will let you
go, that you may sacrifice to the Lord your God in the wilderness; only
you shall not go very far away." That is the second of his compromises.
In the 10th chapter, at the 8th verse, you have the third. He said to
them, "Go, serve the Lord your God: but who are they that shall go?"
Adding, "Go now, you that are men, and serve the Lord." And Pharaoh's
fourth and last proposal is in the 24th verse of that same 10th
chapter– "Pharaoh called unto Moses, and said, Only let your flocks
and your herds be stayed."

Satan is very loath to give up his hold on men. He is quite as loath as
Pharaoh and he must be driven to it by force of arms–I mean by force
of Divine Grace–before he will let God's people go. Having once got
them under his power through the Fall, through their sin and through
their hardness of heart, he will not lose his subjects if he can help
it. He will put forth all his craft and all his strength, if possible,
to hold them in his accursed sway! Many of Satan's slaves altogether
disregard the voice of God. For them there are no Sabbaths, no Bibles,
no religion. Practically, they say, "Who is Jehovah that we should obey
His voice?" Now, when God means to save men–when the eternal purpose
so runs and the Divine determination is to be accomplished, He soon
puts an end to this. For some reason quite unknown to the man–it may
be quite unthought of by him–he feels uneasy. He is disturbed. He
thinks, one morning, that he will go up to a place of worship–not that
he cares much about it–but he thinks that he shall, perhaps, be a
little easier there. He takes his Bible–he begins to read a chapter. A
very striking passage comes before his eyes. He is not more easy, for
the text has fixed upon him. Like a barbed shaft it has stuck into his
soul and he cannot possibly draw it out. He is more troubled than ever!
He begins to enquire a little about the things of God–there is now
some outwardly respect to religion–the man is considerably changed.

But do not imagine that the work is accomplished! Our blessed Master
has to fight for every inch of ground which He wins in human hearts.
With the matchless artillery of His love, He drives the enemy back
farther and farther, till, at last, He conquers! But it is often a long
and slow process and, were He not possessed with infinite patience, He
would give it up. But where it is His resolve that a man shall come out
of the world and shall be saved, that resolve must and will be carried
into effect! And the man, though he is only brought so far that he
begins to think a little about Divine and eternal matters, he will have
to go a great deal farther than that.

You see him sitting under the Word of God and, perhaps, Satan now says,
"Well, you are a fine fellow! You are beginning to occupy a seat Sunday
after Sunday in the house of prayer. You have given up your evil habits
to a large extent. You are quite a different man. Now that you have
done something very pleasing to God, you may rest content with this."
And it is a very sad thing when men do rest content with such a paltry
hope as can have come out of poor performances

like these! But still, they will stop just there if they can, for Satan
does not mind where he makes men stop so long as they will stay under
the dominion of sin and refuse to come to Christ.

Now the Lord begins to deal with the man, perhaps, in a way of
affliction and trouble. His wife sickens. A child dies. He is, himself,
unhealthy–he fears he is about to die and his fancied righteousness
evaporates before his eyes and he thinks that now, surely, he must seek
after something better. Then will Satan come in and say, "There is time
enough! Do not be in too much of a hurry."

If the Lord drives a man from that, by the solemn movements of the
Spirit upon his soul, then the devil will say to him, "How do you know
that this is all true?" And he has not to go far before he finds
infidels to help his unbelief. I am sorry to say that he can find them
in the pulpit pretty plentifully, preaching their infidelities as
"advanced thought!" And so poor souls get bewildered and scarcely know
their right hand from their left! They begin, again, to relapse into a
condition of indifference and remain where they were.

Blessed be God, if He means to save such, He will, by push of pike and
point of bayonet, carry the day! They shall not rest where they are.
The right hand of the Lord is still stretched out and He will make the
Pharaoh of evil yet know that Jehovah is stronger than he! Grace is
mightier than nature and the eternal purpose more sure of fulfillment
than all the resolves of case-hardened consciences! And so, at last, it
comes to this–that the man is driven to yield to God and when he is
driven to that point Satan comes in, again, with his promises.

We are going to speak about these four compromises tonight. The first
compromise is found in the 8th chapter at the

25th verse.

"Sacrifice to your God in the land."

"Yes," says the devil, "you must be a Christian, that is evident. You
cannot hold out any longer, for you are too uneasy in your sins. You
will have to be a Christian." "But," he says, "stay in the world and be
a Christian. Remain where you are. 'Sacrifice to your God in the
land'"–by which he sometimes means this–live in sin and be a
Believer. Trust yourself with Christ and then indulge yourself in
whatever your heart desires. Do you not know that he is a Savior of
sinners? Therefore stay in your sin and yet trust in Him.

Oh, I charge you, by the living God, never be duped by such a
treacherous lie as this, for it is not possible that you can find any
rest or salvation while you live in sin! My dear Hearers, Christ came
to save us from our sins, but not in our sins! He has built a hospital
of mercy into which He receives the worst possible cases. All are
welcome, but He does not receive them that they may continue to be
sick! He heals them and make sound men of them. When the Lord Jesus
Christ takes hold upon a thief, the man is a thief no longer! His
inmost heart becomes honest. When the Lord meets with the harlot, He
blots out her iniquity and she is affected with deep repentance for her
crimes–and she turns to her Savior, desiring, from that time on, to
walk in purity all her days. It is impossible that you should serve God
and yet continue to indulge in knowing sin!

What a fool that man is who thinks that he may drink and be a
Christian! That he may cheat in his business and be a Christian! That
he may act like the ungodly world in all respects and yet be a
Christian! It cannot be. Mark Anthony yoked two lions together and
drove them through the streets of Rome–but he could never have yoked
together the lion of the Pit and the lion of the tribe named Judah!
There is a deadly hate between these two. The principle of good, if it
is yielded to, will destroy the mastery of evil. There cannot be a
compromise between them. No man can serve two masters. He may serve
two, but not two when each determines to be master! Satan will be
master if he can, and Christ will be master and, therefore, you cannot
serve the two! It must be one or the other.

If you are to have your sin forgiven you, you must leave your sin.
Remember that voice which came to Master John Bunyan when he was
playing tip cat on Elstow Green on Sunday morning? He thought that he
heard a voice say, "Will you leave your sins and go to Heaven, or will
you have your sins and go to Hell?" That problem is proposed to you if
you are unconverted and undecided. But as to the idea of keeping your
sins and going to Heaven, shut that out of the question, for it must
not, cannot and shall not be! It is a compromise proposed by Satan, but
the Lord will not have it.

Yes, but then Satan, retreating a little, says, "Well, now, of course I
did not mean that you were not to give up your grosser sins, but I mean
to tell you of something better. Love the world and live with
worldlings–and find your company and your joy among them–and yet be a
Christian. Surely you are not going to throw up everybody, are you? You
know you must not be singular. You must not make yourself altogether an
oddity! You have many merry companions–

stay with them. They do not, perhaps, do you much good, but you must
not be too particular and precise." So he says, "Continue in the world
and be a Christian!"

Shall I tell you God's Word about that? "If any man loves the world,
the love of the Father is not in him." That is short, though not sweet.
A man says, "Well, I shall be a Christian, but I shall find my chief
pleasure and my amusement where the world finds theirs." Will you? "I
shall be a Christian, but I shall hold with the hare and run with the
hounds. I shall be with the church on Sunday, but nobody shall know
that I am not the best worldling on the week-day. Can I not put my hymn
book in one pocket and a pack of cards in the other, and so go to
Heaven and stay friends with the world?" No, it is not possible. "Let
My people go, that they may serve Me," is God's Word. Not, "Let them
stay in the land and still serve you and serve Me, too." It cannot be!

"Know you not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God?"
That text is another sharp, drawn sword cutting to the quick and there
are professors who ought to feel it go to their very hearts, for they
are trying all that they possibly can to go as near as ever they can to
the border and yet to keep up a hope. What would you think of a man who
went as near as he could to burning his house down, just to test how
much fire it would stand? Or of one who cut himself with a knife to see
how deep he could go without mortally wounding himself? Or of another
who experimented as to how large a quantity of poison he could drink?
Why, these are extreme follies! But not so great as that of a man who
tries how much sin he may indulge in and yet be saved! I pray you, do
not attempt such perilous experiments. "Come you out from among them;
be you separate, and touch not the unclean thing." Shun with horror
Satan's old compromise–dream not that you can love the world and yet
have the love of the Father in you.

When the enemy cannot get on with that, he draws back a little and
cries, "That is very proper; you are hearing very faithful teaching
this time, but listen to me–you can live for yourself and be a
Christian! Do not go out into worldly company, but enjoy yourself at
home. You see, you need to have your own soul saved. Well, live for
that." This is only a subtler and uglier form of selfishness. It is
nothing better. "Look," says Satan, "I do not ask you to be profligate
with your money, be penurious with it–be very thrifty. Everybody will
pat you on the back and say, 'He is taking care of number one and he is
doing the right thing.' Come, now, and make a good thing of religion.
Believe in Jesus Christ, of course, in order that you, yourself, may be
saved, and then live all the rest of your life trying to hear sermons
that will feed you and read books that will comfort you–and become a
great man among religious folks."

Hateful advice! Do you not know, dear Friends, that the very essence of
Christianity is for a man to deny himself? Self can never properly be
the end-all and be-all of a man's existence. Self is to religion, in
fact, nothing but the flesh in a pretended spiritual form! If a man
lives to himself, he is under the dominion of an evil spirit just as
much as if he went out into open sin. So you must come out of that.
Selfishness will not do. You must love the Lord with all your heart,
and you must love your fellow men. There must be an obedience to that
command that you "love the Lord your God with all your heart, and your
neighbor as yourself," or else there is no coming out into safety. Thus
the first compromise will not hold at all.

Pushed back from the first compromise, Pharaoh proposes a second, and
this is found in the 28th verse of the 8th chapter–

"Only you shall not go very far away." Satan says, "Yes, I see your
conscience tells you that you must come out from the world and come out
from sin, but do not go very far away, for you may want to come back,
again. In the first place, do not make it public. Do not join a church.
Be like a rat behind the wainscot–never come out except it be at night
to get a mouthful of food. Do not commit yourself by being baptized and
joining the church–do not go so far as that! Just try, if you can, and
save yourself from the wrath to come by secret religion, but do not let
anyone know it. There really cannot be any need of actually saying, 'I
am a Christian.'"

My Friend, this is the very depth of Satan! When a soldier goes to the
barracks, if he is a child of God, he may say, "I shall not kneel down
to pray because they might throw a boot at me, as they generally do in
the barracks. I can keep my religion to myself." That man is wrong. But
if he boldly says, "I will fly my flag. I am a Christian and I will
never yield that point, come what may"–he will stand! The beginning of
yielding is like the letting out of water–no man knows to what a flood
it will come. This is what Satan would have with some of you, that you
may fall by little and little. Therefore defeat him–come out boldly!
Take up your cross and follow Jesus. "He that believes and is baptized
shall be saved."

The Tempter also says, "Do not be so very precise and exact. The
Puritan saints–well, people point the finger at them. You need not be
quite so particular." By which he means this–that you may sin as much
as you like so long as you do not violate propriety and that, after
all, you are not to obey God thoroughly, but only to obey Him when it
pleases you. This is flat rebellion against God! This will never do!

"Well," he says, "if you are to be so precise, yet do not be so
desperately earnest! There are some of those friends down there at the
Tabernacle who are always looking after the souls of others and trying
to proclaim Christ to everybody. You know they are a very dogmatic lot
and they are a great deal too pushy and fanatical. Do not go with
them." Just so. He means, stand and serve the Lord because you dare not
do any other, but never give Him your heart. Never throw your soul into
His cause. That is what Satan says–and do you think that such
traitorous service will save you? If Moses had thought that going a
little way into the wilderness would have saved Israel, he would have
let them go a little way into the wilderness and that would have been
the end of it. But Moses knew that nothing would do for God's Israel
but to go as far away as ever they could–and put a deep Red Sea
between them and Egypt! He knew that they were never to turn back, come
what might, and so Moses pushed for a going forth to a distance–as I
would, in God's name, push for full committal to Christ with everybody
who is tempted to a compromise.

"Oh, but," Satan will say, "be earnest, too. Yes, be earnest. Of course
that is right enough. And be precise in all your actions–but do not be
one of those people who are always praying in secret. You can keep an
open religious profession going without much private praying, without
heart-searching, without communion with God. These are tough things,"
he says, "to keep up. You will find it difficult to maintain the inward
life and preserve a clean heart and a right spirit. Let these go by
default and attend to externals–be busy and active–and that will do."
But it will not do, for unless the heart and soul are renewed by the
Spirit of God, it little matters what your externals may be. You have
failed before God unless your very soul is joined unto Him by a
perpetual covenant that shall never be forgotten.

What a blessing it is when a man can say, "I have done with these
compromises! I do not want to serve God and win favor with the world. I
do not want to go just a little way from the world. I pray God to
divide me from the world by an everlasting divorce, just as it was with
Paul when he said, 'The world is crucified unto me, and I unto the
world. From henceforth let no man trouble me; for I bear in my body the
marks of the Lord Jesus.'" Happy man who has come right out under
Divine guidance to seek the eternal Canaan! His is the path of safety
and acceptance! But they that temporize and parley with sin and Satan
will find mischief come out of it.

Pushed back from that, the enemy suggests another compromise in the
10th chapter, at the 8th and 11th verses–"Go, serve this Lord your
God: but who are they that shall go? Go now, you that are men, and
serve the Lord." Yes, that is his next point. "Yes," he says, "we see
what it has come to. You are driven, at last, to this–that you must be
an out-and-out Christian. But, now," he says, "do not worry your wife
with it; do not take it home." Or he says to the woman, "You are to
follow Christ. I see you must. You seem driven to that, but never say
anything to your husband about it." Was not that a pretty idea of
Pharaoh's–that all the men were to go and were to leave the women and
children to be his slaves? And that is just the idea of Satan. "You
have plenty to do to look after yourself–but your wife–well, leave
her to her own ways. Your husband–leave him to his irreligion."

Let us answer him thus–"As for me and my house, we will serve the
Lord." So said Joshua of old and so let every man here say! Remember
Paul's words to the Philippian jailer, "Believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ, and you shall be saved, and your house." Let us pray that we
may have the whole house for Christ! Up to your measure of influence
over your family, say within yourself, "My Lord, I will never rest
until I see all my family brought to Your dear feet. Lord, save my
wife: save my husband: save my father: save my brothers and sisters!
Bring these out of bondage!" You cannot be a Christian unless that is
your heartfelt desire. He that cares not for his own house is worse
than a heathen and a publican!

And then the children. "Oh," Pharaoh says, "leave the children!" Do you
not see he knew very well that if they did that, they would,
themselves, come back? What man among us would go away into the
wilderness and leave his wife and children in slavery? Should we not
want to come back to them? Should we not think that we heard their
cries? Should we not want to look into their dear faces again? Leave
them in slavery? Oh, that cannot be! And yet, let me sorrowfully say
that there are many professing Christians who seem as though they were,
themselves, determined to be the Lord's, but their children should
belong to Pharaoh and to the devil!

For instance, the boy is getting to be a certain age. Let him be sent
to a foreign school, and, preferably, a Roman Catholic school. Will
that be useful to his religion? Yet if he should turn out a Papist, his
foolish father will almost break his heart! It was all his own doing,
was it not? Well, the girls, of course, they must go into society–of
course they must, "go into society." And so everything is done to put
them into places of danger, where they will not likely be converted and
where, in all probability, they will become frivolous, vain and light.
Then a situation is looked for the boy. How often there is no question
about the employer being a Christian! Is it a business that the lad can
follow without injury to his morals? "No, it is a fine roaring trade,
and it is a cutting house, where he will pick it up in a smart way. Let
him go

there."

Yes, and if he goes to Hell? Alas, there are Christian men who do not
think of that! The children of some professors are offered up to the
Moloch of this world. We think it a horrible thing that the heathens
should offer their children in sacrifice to idols and yet many
professors put their children where, according to all likelihood, they
will be ruined. Do not let it be so! Do not let the devil entangle one
of you in that compromise, but say, "No, no, no! My house, God helping
me, shall be so conducted that I will not put temptation in my
children's way. I will not lead them into the paths of sin. If they
will go wrong, despite their father's exhortations and their mother's
tears, why, they must–but, at any rate, I will be clear of their
blood, for I will not put them into places where they would be led
astray."

I am sure there is a great deal of importance in this remark–and if it
cuts anybody very closely and he says, "I think you are very personal,"
that is exactly what I mean to be–the precise thing I am aiming at! I
desire to put this thing before every individual Christian, that all
may see the right and the wrong of it–so that they may resolve, "Our
women and our children shall go with us to worship God. They, as well
as ourselves, shall leave this Egypt, as far as God's Grace can help us
to accomplish it."

Now the devil is getting pushed into a corner. Here is the man's whole
house to go right for God and the man gives himself up to be a
Christian out and out! What now? "Well," says the enemy, in the 24th
verse of that 10th chapter–

Go you, serve the Lord; only let your flocks and your herds be stayed."
Just so. What does Moses say to that? "You must give us, also,
sacrifices and burnt-offerings, that we may sacrifice unto Jehovah our
God. Our cattle also shall go with us; there shall not a hoof be left
behind; for thereof must we take to serve the Lord our God; and we know
not with what we must serve the Lord until we come there." This was the
Divine policy of, "No surrender!" And I plead for it with you. Satan
says, "Do not use your property for God. Do not use your talents and
your abilities! Especially do not use your money for the Lord Jesus.
Keep that for yourself! You will need it one of these days, perhaps.
Keep it for your own enjoyment. Live to God in other things, but as to
that, live to yourself."

Now, a genuine Christian says, "When I gave myself to the Lord I gave
Him everything I had. From the crown of my head to the sole of my feet
I am the Lord's. He bids me provide things honest in the sight of all
men and care for my household–and so I shall, by His Grace. But yet I
am not my own, for I am bought with a price and, therefore, it becomes
me to feel that everything I have, or ever shall have, is a dedicated
thing and belongs to the Lord, that I may use it as His steward, not as
if it were mine, but at His discretion and at His bidding. I cannot
leave my substance to be the devil's. That must come with me and must
be all my Lord's, for His it is, even as I am."

The Christian takes the line which Moses indicated–"I do not know what
I may be required to give. I know that I am to sacrifice unto the Lord
my God, but I do not know how much. I cannot tell what may be the needs
of the poor, the needs of the Church, the needs of Christ's Church all
over the land. I do not know, but this I do know–that all that I have
stands at the surrender point. If my Redeemer wants it, He shall have
it. If Satan wants it, he shall not have a penny of it! If there is
anything that is asked of me that will not contribute to good
morals–that will not contribute to the promotion of that which is
right in the sight of God–I withhold it! But if there is anything that
is for Christ's Glory and for the good of men, then, as the Lord shall
help me, it shall be given freely and not be begrudged as if it were a
tax. It shall be my joy and my delight to devote all that I am and all
that I have to Him who bought me with His precious

blood."

Now, Brothers and Sisters, you that profess to be Christians, come,
stand right square out and acknowledge yourselves wholly and altogether
the Lord's–

"'Tis done! the great transaction's done; I am my Lord's, and He is
mine."

"My house is His and my all is His. Whether I live or die–whether I
work or suffer, all that I am and all that I have shall be forever my
Lord's." This is to enter into peace–this, indeed, is to be totally
delivered from the power of Satan! This is to be the Lord's free man
and what remains but with joyful footsteps to go onward toward Canaan,
shod with shoes of iron and brass, fed with heavenly bread, guarded by
the Lord, Himself, guided by His fiery-cloudy pillar, enjoying all
things in Him and finding Him in all things? This is to be a Christian
of the true order! The Lord make you so by faith in His dear Son! Amen
and Amen!
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