Heart Piercing

Heart Piercing

(No. 3094)

A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, MAY 28, 1908.

DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON THURSDAY EVENING,
NOVEMBER 12, 1874.

"Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said
unto Peter and to the rest of the Apostles, Men and brethren, what
shall we do?" Acts 2:37

[Another Sermon by Mr. Spurgeon upon the same text (together with verse
36,) is #2102, Volume 35–"PRICKED IN THEIR HEART]

I DARESAY you have seen collections of celebrated sermons which have
been chosen with more or less discretion. I suppose that the sermon of
Peter, on the day of Pentecost, was one of the most celebrated
discourses that was ever delivered, for it was the means of bringing
3,000 persons to conviction, to conversion, to profession of faith and
to union with the visible Church! Yet I do not believe that any library
collector would ever have put this sermon by Peter among the most
famous. It does not seem to me to be very eloquent–there is no climax
in it, nothing of that fashionable thing called a "peroration." It is
all plain speaking and hard hitting, very personal, very much to the
point, very full of clear Scriptural reasoning–but there is nothing at
all oratorical about it. It is just such a simple speech as you might
expect from a fisherman as Peter had been! I should think that Peter's
discourse was delivered calmly and deliberately. He was at a white heat
of earnestness and was altogether too earnest to lose his self-control.
His whole being was so thoroughly possessed by what he had to say that
he thought little of how he said it.

It was a very powerful sermon, but where did the power lie, do you
think? Well, instrumentally and speaking after the manner of men, I
think it lay partly in Peter's vivid realization of what he was saying.
He knew that his Lord and Savior had, with wicked hands, been crucified
and slain–and that He had risen from the grave and had gone back again
to Heaven. You could see, by his whole manner, that he was not talking
about myths and fancies, but about truths and things of which he knew
for certain. There is always a power about a man's message when his
hearers know that he who delivers it believes what he is saying and has
no latent doubts, no concealed skepticisms, but speaks what he knows
and testifies what he has seen.

The next secret of the power of Peter's discourse was, I think, that it
was full of Scripture. There is a quotation, first of one Psalm, and
then of another–David said this, and David said that–Peter's
superstructure of argument was built upon the solid rock of Holy
Scripture. Peter had a great mass before him that day needing to be
moved and I do not wonder that he got such good leverage with such a
fulcrum as he had. The more of Scripture, yes, of the very words of
Scripture that we can use in preaching, the better and, certainly, the
more of such thing as can begin with, "Thus says the Lord." Men will
not care about what we say, or, "Thus says Mr. Wesley," or, "Thus says
John Calvin"–it is, "Thus says the Lord" that will have power over
them! McCheyne says that you will generally notice that conversions are
worked rather by the preacher's text, or by some passage of Scripture
quoted by him, than by his sermon, "For," he adds, "it is God's Word,
not our comment upon God's Word, which is usually blessed to the
salvation of souls." I think it is so, though the rule is not without
many exceptions, and our Lord hints at that when He says, "Neither pray
I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on Me through
their word," as if the message of God-sent servants was not only God's
Word, but also theirword–and men were led to believe on Jesus through
hearing it.

But the real strength of Peter's sermon lay in this, that he had been
that very day baptized with the Holy Spirit and with fire. Sitting in
that upper room with the rest of the disciples, he had heard "the sound
from Heaven as of a rushing mighty wind" which "filled all the house
where they were sitting." And the "cloven tongues like as of fire" had
sat upon

Peter as well as upon the rest–and he, too, had been "filled with the
Holy Spirit," so that through him the Holy Spirit spoke. Therefore it
was that when he delivered that very simple sermon, his hearers were
pricked in their heart, and thousands of them cried out, "Men and
brethren, what shall we do?" Oh, that some such power might fall upon
this congregation this evening, especially upon the unconverted part of
it, that they might be "pricked in their heart" as Peter's hearers
were!

I. My subject is the pricking in the heart and my first observation is
that A SAVING IMPRESSION IS ALWAYS A PRICK IN THE HEART.

A prick in the heart is very painful. To be pricked anywhere is not a
thing to be desired, but a prick in the heart would not merely be
painful, but, in a natural and literal sense, it would be fatal. There
are a great many different kinds of impressions made by preachers upon
their hearers, but blessed is that preacher who makes a wound right in
their hearts!

A saving impression must be made in their heart, because all their
religion must begin there. A great many attempts have been made to make
men religious from the outside. Some have thought that a very low coat,
reaching almost to the ground, and a strange kind of hat–a biretta, I
think it is called–have a great deal of religion in them. It is
amazing how much religion is supposed to depend upon tailors and
hatters! But I fail to see how anybody's heart can be affected by the
cut of his coat, or the shape of his hat! Some try to affect a man by
the performance of certain ceremonies. They take him in his childhood
and "regenerate" him after their fashion. And later they "confirm" him
in something or other and external ceremonies of various kinds are
performed upon him. They remind one rather of Babylon than of
Jerusalem. But I have never heard of anyone being brought to Jesus
Christ in that way, or of any conscience being awakened, or any man
finding peace with God in that fashion!

Some have tried what could be done by advising abstinence from meats
and drinks. This is a very proper thing in its place and may lead to
useful results. But Christ's teaching is, "Not that which goes into the
mouth defiles a man, but that which comes out of the mouth that defiles
a man." It is the heart which must be affected! And nothing that comes
of man, or that can be manipulated by the human hand seems able to
touch that. "Rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the
Lord your God," is the demand even under the old Law of God–and one of
the first laws of pure spiritual religion is this–"God is a Spirit:
and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth."
"The Kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and
peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit." And, therefore, no impression can
be of any saving use to a man unless it reaches his heart.

Many of you, dear Friends, have made a profession of religion and you
are moral enough to be reckoned consistent with that profession and
attentive enough to outward religious duties to consider yourselves to
be all that you should be. But, oh, I do implore you never to be
satisfied with any religion which does not affect your heart, and with
no religious exercise which is not true heart-work. You might as well
be sitting in your own homes as be here without your hearts. It is no
more useful to sing a hymn than to sing a song unless you sing it with
the heart and so make melody to God. The heart, the heart, the heart,
the heart–that is the vital place! Out of it are the issues of life
and unless it is savingly affected, the whole life will still be
estranged from God!

If those who hear the Gospel are to be blessed by it, they must be
impressed and pricked in their heart because other impressions may even
be evil They may be forcible, yet they may be productive of no good
results. Another of Peter's discourses made a very singular impression
upon his hearers. If you turn to Acts 5:33 you will find these words,
"When they heard that, they were cut to the heart, and took counsel to
slay them." That time, you see, the wound went just as far as the
heart, but it stopped there–"they were cut to the heart." It was a
deep cut–to the heart, but not in the heart! And the consequence was
not that they cried out, "Men and brethren, what must we do?" but they,
"took counsel to slay them." Oftentimes if the Word is delivered
earnestly and with power, men cannot help feeling the force of it. But
what do they do after feeling it? They gnash their teeth for very rage,
or they try to besmear and bespatter the preacher and to ridicule or
misrepresent what he has said. If anything has pointedly come home to
them, they twist it into quite another form and say, "The preacher said
such-and-such," when he really said nothing of the kind! That is a way
of taking counsel to slay him–they dare not kill his body, but they
kill his reputation as far as they can. You may be deeply impressed by
a sermon so as to feel under it in a way which you will never forget
and yet, for all that, you may only be cut to the heart!

Yet I would rather that people were cut to the heart than not wounded
at all, because I hope that the sword of the Spirit will penetrate a
little further and really enter the heart. I have often been told this
sort of story–"I came to hear you preach, Sir, on such an occasion,
and I went away very angry. I could not bear the Doctrine that was
proclaimed and I went out hating the man who had talked in that
fashion. Yet I could not forget it. It rankled in my mind until, at
last, I began to think there was something in it. By-and-by, I saw that
it was true and then I said, 'What a fool I am to struggle against
it!'" I do not mind my hearers being angry with me because of my
preaching, for it is a good deal like fishing. If you have a good large
salmon at the end of the line, he will struggle and pull with all his
might–and thus he will swallow the hook all the more deeply and there
will be the less likelihood of his getting away. And an obstinate
resistance to the Gospel is sometimes an indication that the Gospel is
piercing and pricking the hearer–and making him snap at it as a
wounded beast tries to bite the spear which has been thrust into him
and which he cannot pull out. So, when a man is cut to the heart, I
hope that he will soon be cut in the heart, but if the sword of the
Spirit does not prick him in the heart, no permanent good will be
effected.

And further, supposing the impression made should be good in itself,
yet if the hearer is not pricked in the heart, the impression will be
only transient and we shall have to say to the man, as the Lord said to
Judah, "Your goodness is as a morning cloud, and as the early dew it
goes away." Or if the impression lasts a little longer, it will only
need enough of the fervent heat of the rising sun upon the blade which
has begun to spring up, but under which there is no depth of earth–and
in due season its verdure will vanish and it will perish. If it is not
real heart-work, it will not last. The reason why so many backslide is
that they built on the sand–there was no deep foundation-work. The
soul-saving work, the work which lasts, is that where God plows deeply
into the conscience and sows the good Seed of the Kingdom in the heart.
It is principle, not passion–full conviction, not merely a profession
of faith–that will endure unto the end. If the impression made does
not prick the heart, it will be only transient–and when it disappears,
evil will come of it, for perhaps the people who are most difficult to
be moved are those who have been impressed a great many times, yet not
saved. The first time you heard God's faithful servant preach, you felt
ready to weep yourself away under the power of the Truth of God which
he proclaimed, but now his voice has grown so familiar that even when
it is most pathetically earnest, you go to sleep under it! I have been
in a mill when there has been such a clatter of wheels that I could not
hear myself speak, yet the miller has told me that he was so used to
the noise that he could go to sleep in it. And there are persons who
have sat so long under a faithful minister that they have got used to
his message and do not feet its force as they did when first they heard
it. To use a common expression, they have become Gospel-hardened. And
this is a very serious state for any man to reach. May God save us from
that perilous condition by causing us to be pricked in the heart!

When the Truth pricks the hearers of it in the heart, the impression
becomes operative. In the case before us, if you read the narrative,
you will find that these men became earnest enquirers. They said to
Peter and to the rest of the Apostles, "Men and brethren–what must we
do?" Being told what to do, merely, "Repent and be baptized, everyone
of you," they did repent. There was a change of mind which was followed
by a corresponding change of life–and they were baptized–they obeyed
the command of Christ and made an open declaration of their faith in
Him in His own appointed way. Thus they were added to the Church, "and
they continued steadfastly in the Apostles' Doctrine and fellowship,
and in breaking of bread, and in prayers."

All this followed because they had been "pricked in their heart." It
was a sorrowful beginning, yet it was a good beginning, for it was
God's way of beginning the work of Grace in their souls. I wish that
all converts began in that way. Some seem to me to jump into religion
as if they were going into a bath–and then jump out of it again just
as quickly. I do not believe in the faith that is unaccompanied by
repentance. Some have spoken in disparagement of repentance by saying
"that the original word means nothing more than a change of mind." And
you might imagine that it was a very unimportant change of mind. But
their knowledge of Greek is not very deep and their experimental
knowledge of true religion would seem to be still more shallow. This
change of mind, I believe, was never better pictured than in that verse
of the children's hymn–

"Repentance is to leave The sin we loved before And show that we in
earnest grieve, By doing so no more."

A faith that has no tears in its eyes is a blind faith, for where there
is sight there will be weeping. Never did a soul look to Christ, whom
it had pierced, without weeping and mourning because of its sin. Faith
and repentance are twins–they are born together and they will live
together–and as long as a Christian is in this world both will be
needed. Rowland Hill used to say that the only thing that he would be
sorry to leave when he went to Heaven was that sweet, lovely, sorrowful
Grace of repentance–he supposed he could not repent in Heaven, but it
was such a sweet experience to keep on repenting that he would wish to
repent forever if such a thing might be.

II. Now, in the second place, let us notice WHAT TRUTHS GOD USES AS
DAGGERS TO PRICK SINNERS IN

THE HEART.

I have known some pricked in the heart merely by discovering that the
Gospel, the Bible, was really true. They have been skeptical–they have
perhaps been blasphemers but, all of a sudden, being honestly convinced
that the Bible was true, they have been broken down at once, just as
Saul of Tarsus was. He would not have persecuted Christ if he had
believed Him to be the Messiah, but he thought He was an impostor and,
therefore, honestly determined to put down His followers. He says
concerning himself, "I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in
unbelief." The moment the Lord Jesus called to him out of Heaven, and
said, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute Me?…I am Jesus who you
persecute," he was pricked in the heart and soon he became, as many
others have become, just as earnest in the defense of the Truth of God
as he had before, in his ignorance, been in opposition to it!

I have known others pierced in the heart by shame through some
particular sin. I will give you an instance in which that was the case.
A young man has been moral from his youth up. He has had much to thank
God for with regard to what he has been. He has never mixed with the
wanton or wicked world, yet there is always a danger as well as a
benefit in this state of things. This young man becomes self-righteous.
He thinks himself a great deal better than others. Perhaps he says that
he is a sinner because everybody says that out of a sort of compliment
to God, but he does not feel that he has ever done much that was wrong
and he wishes that other people were half as good as he thinks that he
is! But one day he commits a certain definite sin. I do not know
whether the young Brother is here, but he told me of a case ofjust this
kind. He said that when he was in the workshop one day, he upset the
oil can and an enquiry was made as to who had been so careless. He was
asked–and he said that he had not done it. And from his usual
character everybody believed his denial. "But," he said, "as I went
home that night, it came to my mind, 'You are a liar. You are a liar.'
I felt so mean," he said to me, "I never felt like that before. I had
always acted like a man and like a good man, I thought, but now I felt
that I had been a liar. When I got up in the morning, I did not like to
go among the other men in the workshop. I thought they would all look
at me and say, 'You are a liar.' I could not bear to think of it and a
sense that I had lied brought me down on my knees before God."

Now I do not say that I was glad that young man had told a lie, but I
did feel thankful that he had discovered what a liar his heart had been
all his life–for his heart had always been saying to him, "You are a
good fellow," yet he had not been so in reality! If there had not been
lies in his heart, that lie would not have come out of his mouth. If
there were rats under that floor, you might not know it was so until
one happened to pop his head up through a hole in the boards–yet he
only shows you what was there all the while! And so, sometimes some one
sin has crept up into the light to let a man see what always was
secretly in his soul–and that one sin has proved to be, in the hands
of God, a sharp sword which has cut right into his heart and convinced
him that he is a sinner in the sight of God.

In a great many other cases, God has used teaching concerning His Law
as the means of pricking sinners in the heart A man reads the Ten
Commandments and he says, "All these have I kept from my youth up." But
he is told, upon Christ's authority, that every Commandment contains
within itself a great deal more than appears on the surface, as, for
instance, "You shall not kill," is a Commandment which is broken by
anger. "He that hates his brother" so that he wishes that there were no
such person, is, in heart, the perpetrator of the crime of murder! Then
take the Command, "You shall not commit adultery." "Oh," says one, "I
never sinned in that way!" And some excellent woman says, "I could not
bear even to think of such a thing!" Yet there have been unchaste
desires, glances, thoughts, imaginations–and the Commandment covers
all those. I do not need to go into the details of each command–it
will suffice to sum all up as that "certain lawyer" did. "You shall
love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and
with all your strength, and with all your mind and your neighbor as
yourself." Did you ever do that? Has anyone among us come anywhere near
to doing that? When the Law of the Lord, in its wide sweep and wondrous
compass of all our thoughts

and imaginations and devices comes to be thoroughly understood by us,
then it is that God causes us to be pricked by its sharp point!

I have known some also pricked in the heart when they have discovered
that there is to be a judgment about everything that we have done–no,
more than that–about everything that we have said and everything that
we have thought–and that that judgment will be most solemn and its
sentence most severe. There will be pronounced, from the lips of God, a
sentence of condemnation upon the ungodly which will rest upon them
forever and ever, so that they shall abide in a living death in which
there shall be no gleam of light or joy, but all shall be a desolation
and a ruin, where misery shall lift up its doleful notes forever
proclaiming the Infinite Justice of God. Many have been "pricked in
their heart" when they have found that though some preachers make our
sin to be only a trifle, God's Word does not. Man may try to make the
penalty of sin seem small, but God's Word does not. God's scale of sin
and man's scale of sin differ very widely. God regards sin as a vast
evil requiring an Infinite Atonement, while some who profess to be His
servants treat it as quite an insignificant thing. I pray that the
Truth, as revealed in God's Word, may be applied with power to every
unwounded heart here, and that many may be "pricked in their heart,"
and caused to cry out, as they did after Peter's discourse on the day
of Pentecost, "Men and brethren, what must we do?"

On the other hand, a great many have been "pricked in their heart" by a
sense of the great goodness of God. They have said, "Has God been so
good, so kind, so tender to us and have we never loved Him or sought
His Glory?" And they have felt ashamed as they have thought of their
base ingratitude. There is one thing I often feel–I do not know
whether you feel as I do and I do not know whether I can quite make you
see what I mean–I often feel a great pity for God, I feel as if I
could weep tears of blood because God is so shamefully treated by His
own creatures. God Himself feels their ingratitude, for He says, "Hear,
O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the Lord has spoken, I have
nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against Me.
The ox knows his owner, and the donkey his master's crib; but Israel
does not know, My people do not consider." He feels that it is a hard
case that He should be treated thus, and when men feel that it is a
hard case, it is a proof that they have been "pricked in their heart."

But the chief instrument, I think, that God uses for pricking sinners
in their heart is the dying love of Jesus Christ Nothing wounds like
the Cross of Christ, just as nothing heals like the Cross. When we
discover that out of Infinite love and pity, Jesus came to this earth
and took upon Him our sins, our sorrows, our sicknesses and died in our
place upon Calvary's Cross, we say, "How can we stand out against One
who is so disinterested, so condescending and so kind?" Looking to Him
whom we have pierced by our sin, we are made to weep on account of it.
Are not your hearts, my fellow Christians, always most tender when you
get nearest the Cross? I am sure you agree with the poet who wrote–

"My sins, my sins, my Savior,

How sad on You they fall!

Seen through your gentle patience

I tenfold feel them all.

I know they are forgiven,

But still their pain to me

Is all the grief and anguish

They laid, my Lord, on Thee." Yes, a bleeding Savior makes men's hearts
bleed. When He is pieced, they also are pierced. Of one thing I am
sure, that nothing ever pierced my heart like the discovery of God's
boundless love in giving His well-beloved Son to die for me. I will put
it to any man here, even if he is living this day an ungodly life, even
if he has plunged into the very worst and most infamous of sins–if
tonight he could know that God had loved him from before the foundation
of the world–that long before the stars began to shine, electing love
had pitched on him to be its peculiar object–that Christ died
especially for him–that for him there was appointed pardon and
acceptance. And for him a crown already made in Heaven and a white robe
which would fit no one but himself, and a harp which no hand but his
could ever play, oh, I think he would loathe himself, and say, "I did
not know this, or else I would not have lived as I have lived. I did
not know that I was the favorite of Heaven. I did not know that I was
bought with the precious blood of Jesus! I did not know that God had
ordained me unto eternal life, else had I long ago fled into my
Father's arms and cried, 'I have sinned against Heaven, and before
You.'" O Spirit of the living God, make such a Revelation to some of
God's elect here now! Wound

thus their hearts and then lead them to the wounded Savior, and let
them know that whoever believes in Him was loved of God before time
began and shall be loved of God when time shall be no more!

III. Now I want to notice very briefly, in the third place, WHOSE HAND
USES THESE SHARP DAGGERS SO THAT SINNERS GET "PRICKED IN THEIR HEART."

Not Peter's, my Brothers and Sisters, nor mine, nor the hand of any
Gospel minister! It must be a more powerful hand than any of
these–even the hand of the Holy Spirit The fact is that He who wrote
these Truths in the Bible must Himself write them on men's hearts, or
else they will forever remain inoperative except to condemn! There is
One who knows all about the human heart–the Holy Spirit searches the
heart and tries the reins of the children of men–and He knows how to
apply the Truth of God so as to make it quick and powerful, and to
drive home to the heart that sword which, because He uses it, is called
"the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God." I pray that He may
take the Truth this very moment and use it thus. A sword hanging on the
wall does not wound anybody. Our daily prayer ought to be, "O almighty
Spirit, gird Your sword upon Your thigh and wield it in Your Omnipotent
might, that sinners may be 'pricked in their heart,' and so be brought
to repentance and salvation!"

One very comforting thought is that He who alone can pierce sinners'
hearts, is named "the Comforter." Catch at that, Sinner, catch at that!
He who wounds the heart is also the Comforter! He who kills is the
Quickener who makes alive! The Spirit who convicts is also the Spirit
who consoles! He has come to convince the world of sin, of
righteousness and ofjudgment, but it is also His office to take of the
things of Christ and reveal them unto us. Though one of His hands holds
a sharp dagger, the other hand bears the remedy with which to heal the
wound, for still is that saying true, "I kill, and I make alive; I
wound, and I heal." Only He who kills can make alive, but blessed be
God that the same Divine Spirit is both Wounder and Healer!

Therefore let us, who are the children of God, cry mightily unto the
Spirit and entreat Him to make the preaching of the Gospel, here and
everywhere else, to be like a sharp sword piercing the hearts of
sinners! How many preachers, nowadays, are using a sword without either
edge or point? I recollect hearing a sermon and before it was preached
there was a prayer offered that souls might be saved by it, yet I could
not see how any soul could have been saved by that sermon unless the
hearer had misunderstood what the preacher said and then, perhaps, he
might have been converted. Yet many people called it "a very fine
sermon." The man had put the sword of the Spirit into a splendid
scabbard decorated all the way up with gold and diamonds–and then he
waved it about and prayed the Lord to kill somebody with it! But the
Lord could not do it unless He acted directly contrary to His usual
method of working! He often uses our weakness and our infirmity to
glorify Himself, but He cannot do many mighty works with some
instrumentality. Brothers and Sisters, pray to God to send us the Holy
Spirit–that is what we need above everything else! Pray day and night
for this and believe and expect that God will grant your request. If
the preacher does not happen to be the man you like best to hear, say
to yourself, "God can use that man," and then pray, "O Lord, give him
Your Holy Spirit!" I remember that Mr. Matthew Wilkes once preached
from the text, "You are our Epistle written in our hearts…written not
with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God." He compared the
preacher to a pen and said that some pens needed mending now and then,
and that all pens, however good they were, must be dipped in the ink if
they were to do any writing at all. And he added, "You ought to pray
all the more for your preacher when he does not write well, 'Lord, dip
him in the ink! Give him more of the unction of the Holy Spirit and
then his word will have power over the hearts of

men!'"

IV. Our last enquiry must be, HOW CAN THESE PRICKS IN THE HEART BE
HEALED? You had the answer in the first hymn we sang tonight–

"When wounded sore the stricken soul Lies bleeding and unbound. One
hand only, a pierced hand, Can salve the sinner's wound. When sorrow
swells the laden breast, And tears of anguish flow, One heart only, a
broken heart Can feel the sinner's woe."

Is your heart bleeding? Then bring it to the bleeding heart of Jesus,
for that will stanch its wound! Does your brow ache? Then put it near
that brow which was crowned with thorns and its aching will soon be
gone. Are you sorely wounded? Then lay your wounds close to the wounds
of Jesus and they shall be healed.

This is the whole story. You are guilty and God must punish sin. He
cannot be a just God and yet not exact the penalty for sin. But Jesus
Christ came into the world to save sinners and He has stood as the
Substitute for His people, bearing their sins in His own body up to the
tree and on the tree. And there He endured the wrath of God against
sin, "being made a curse for us, for it is written, Cursed is every one
that hangs on a tree." You ask, "Did Christ bear my sins?" Let me ask
you–do you believe in Him? Do you trust Him as your Savior? Will you
confide your everlasting destiny into His dear hands? Will you abandon
your self-righteousness and will you rest in Jesus alone? Will you take
Jesus Christ, the Son of God, to be your soul's only confidence? If you
can truly say, "Ah, that I will, and glad will I be to have such a
Christ to trust in," then I can assure you that He did die for you–and
that your sins are pardoned and shall never be mentioned against you
any more forever! Go in peace, for you are justified by faith, and you
are dear to the heart of God. Remember that glorious declaration,
"There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ
Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." Go away
singing of Substitution–the richest word in all our language–Christ
standing in my place that I may stand in Christ's place! Christ on the
Cross for me, Christ in the grave for me and now I in Heaven where
Christ is, for God "has raised us up together and made us sit together
in heavenly places in Christ Jesus." I at the right hand of God,
beloved and honored because Christ has gone there to prepare a place
for me that where He is, there I may be also!

Yet, before you go, let me urge you, if you are trusting in Christ, to
confess your faith as the converts did on the day of Pentecost–

"Stand up! Stand up for Jesus!

The trumpet call obey!

Forth to the mighty conflict,

In this, His glorious day!

You that are men, now serve Him,

Against unnumbered foes

Your courage rise with danger

And strength to strength oppose." You who really love the Lord ought to
be ashamed to make any difficulty of confessing your faith in Him. I
remember, when I was a lad of fifteen, resolving that as a Believer in
Christ, I ought to join the Church in the place where I was then
living. I asked the deacon about it and he said that I must see the
pastor. I remember well going to see him on a Monday and receiving a
reply that he could not see me. I called again on Tuesday and Wednesday
and got an answer that he was busy and could not see me. But when I
made up my mind to do a thing, even in those days, I meant to do it. So
I managed to get to the door of his study and I said to him, "As I have
come three times to see you, Sir, and the Church Meeting is to be held
tomorrow evening, I will go to the Church Meeting and propose myself as
a member. I mean to be united to the visible Church of Christ. So if
you cannot see me, I will go to the members and ask them to receive
me."

When he saw how determined I was, he found time to see me directly, and
I was very soon admitted into the Church. Now, you will not have as
much trouble as I had, for you will find many Christians ready to
welcome you into our fellowship. It is no trouble at all compared with
what Christians found it in the olden times. I think I see, in the
early days of Christianity, a good old saint at one of the meetings
down in the catacombs, talking with a young man who says to him, "I
wish to be a follower of Christ." The old saint says, "I rejoice,
Brother, to give you the right hand, but do you know what it means to
be a follower of Christ?" "Well," he says, "I think I do." "Come with
me," says he, "and we will take a walk to the Coliseum." And in the
dead of night, while the moon is shining upon that vast amphitheatre,
the old man says to him, "Do you see there tens of thousands of seats?"
"Yes." "Well, if you do become a follower of Christ, it is very likely
that everyone of those seats will be filled with a cruel spectator who
will gaze upon you one of these days." "But, Brother, what would happen
to me then?" "Come with me," he says, "across this great arena. Do you
see those bones? They are the bones of some of the soldiers belonging
to the army that you wish to join. Now step across to this low arch.
Can you hear those growls?" "Yes, Brother, what animals are those?"
"Lions, tigers, and other savage beasts

from Africa and Gaul." "Why are they there, Brother?" "To tear the
Christians limb from limb when they shall be placed in the middle of
that amphitheatre. If you are with them, there will be tens of
thousands looking down upon you, eager for your death, and not one of
them will pity you. Are you prepared to follow Christ here?" I think I
can hear the young Christian hero, when he thoroughly appreciates the
risk, saying, "It will be hard for flesh and blood to die like that,
yet, by the Grace of God, I will never bow before an idol. My hope is
fixed on Jesus Christ who bled and died for me. Brother, put my name
down! Introduce me to the pastor of the Church and let me be immersed
into Christ, for His I am, and if I am called to die here, by His
Spirit's help I will not draw back! I will face the lions and die the
martyr's death, that I may wear the martyr's crown."

You young men and young women who have lately been converted here, are
not called to such a death as that. Will you shrink from the little
trials and petty persecutions of the present time? Are you afraid of
someone who will point the finger of scorn at you and say, "There goes
a Christian"? Then, what poor stuff you must be made of and how little
of the Spirit of God can be in you! You have grave need to question
whether you have been born-again, for if you are, indeed, the Lord's
own–if He has bought you with His blood–you will come forward and
say, "His I am, and I am not ashamed to admit it! No, but I even glory
in it."

The Lord bless you, dear Friends! If you have been wounded in heart,
may He heal you! And if you never have been thus wounded, may there be
such a wound produced in your heart right speedily that only the
pierced hand of Christ shall be able to salve–and to Him shall be the
Glory forever and ever! Amen.