Part 19
dreams of ambition. Now you are content to be a Christian and
satisfied to mix with poor people in holy service. You are quite
pleased at an opportunity of teaching in a Ragged School. Ah, but
there may come a moment when Satan will show you the kingdoms
of this world and he will say, "All these will I give you, if you will
fall down and worship me." And you may feel as if the service of
Christ was not, after all, very respectable. That you could do better
in the world. Find choicer company, enter more select society. But
drive, drive these carrion crows away my Brothers and Sisters–
there cannot be anything comparable in the world to the service of
God–there cannot be anything so worthy of your noblest manhood
as to be truly the disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ! When these
fowls come down upon the sacrifice, drive them away!
Another wretched sort of black crows, however, assails men more
frequently. They come in the form of the cares of life–the care of
getting bread, the hardness of labor. Many a man has said, "Well
now, I have many children and I work hard. And I am poor. Surely
I must not seek, first, the Kingdom of God and His righteousness."
And straightway he begins to neglect the assembling of himself
together with God's people. And then he thinks that he must spend
a part of the Sabbath in labor. And times that he used to spend in
prayer are given up to meaner employment. But oh, if ever a man
ought to cling to Christ more than at any other time, it is when he is
poor! You that are burdened with cares, you are the people who
need Christ most of all! If a man lived in a palace and had no Christ
to go to, I would call him a miserable being. But if you have to toil
without the comforts of this life, so much the more reason that you
should enjoy those eternal compensations which can help you to
bear up in your struggle. Oh, let not, I pray you, the cares of this
life take you from Christ! Live for Him! You cannot live without
Him–do not try it! The heavier your difficulties, the more Grace
you need. Cling all the more closely to your Lord when troubles
come. When the birds come down upon the sacrifice–those carking
cares, wearinesses and troubles of life–drive them away!
Perhaps I may be speaking to certain consecrated men and
women who have met with other horridly filthy fowls. Of course,
you never saw vultures in their native state. If you did see them
once, you would never want to see them again–they are such
loathsome creatures. But there will come to godly men, sometimes,
temptations to sin. The purest have been tempted to impurity. The
most devout have been tempted to blaspheme. Men full of integrity
have been tempted to dishonesty and the most truthful to falsehood.
We cannot tell what we may be tempted to do. But here is our one
business with these vultures–let as drive them away! You cannot
help birds flying over your heads in the air, but do not let them
alight and build their nests in your hair! Temptations will come, but
do not entertain them. Drive them away! Give the vultures the
quarter-staff–make these horrible creatures feel that you cannot and
will not permit them to take up a lodging anywhere near you!
Abram drove them away. He would have no parley with them. He
threw his staff at them, shouted at them, struck at them and drove
them away. God help us to do so with every foul temptation!
But there is a nasty, sleepy kind of vulture, called idleness–one of
the vultures that sit and sleep by the hour together–and I think I
have seen them around here, sometimes. This vulture comes to
some good men who say they belong to Christ, but that question we
must leave to their own consciences. It is a sleepy vulture and they
say, "we think we have labored long enough." They used to be in
the Sunday school when they were younger, but they are now
weary of such constant toil. They used to be very earnest in the
front rank, but now their position seems to be to sit in an arm-chair
and watch the battle and see how other people fight. I have been
slenderly cheered, lately, by a large number of Brothers and Sisters
who have greatly sympathized with me–and helped me to fight the
Lord's battles by bravely looking on.
They remind me of Mr. Gough's story of Betty and the bear. She
beat the bear with her broom with all her might–and her brave
husband, who had climbed a ladder into the loft–helped her grandly
by bidding her hit the bear harder and harder, while he looked on! I
hope I may yet receive worthier help than this! Let us all be up and
doing and take our full share of the warfare. I exhort you, if the
vulture of indolence comes your way, to drive it away! A nasty,
dirty creature it is, after all, if it makes a man of God who is
capable of Christian service to a high degree, sit still, fold his arms,
and say, "There is nothing more for me to do."
One vulture, too, that wants to be driven away, is that of
measuring yourselves with other people. Some judge that they do
all that is expected of them if they copy other people. Their guinea
is always put underneath somebody else's guinea. If they gave 10,
it would not be too much for them. But still, they are satisfied as
long as they do as well as other people. Let us get out of this! If we
are only going to be what other people are, we shall run great risks
of being unprofitable servants. "Comparing themselves among
themselves," says the Apostle, "they are not wise." I will neither
stand in another man's shoes at the Day of Judgment, nor tonight,
for, though I very frequently feel as though I were surer of any
other man's salvation than my own, yet at no time would I dare to
run the risk of changing with anyone, for I do know something
about myself, but I know nothing of any other man's heart! Let no
one make another man his measure and standard! I pray you not to
do so, for if you do, it will be a vulture that will defile your
sacrifice.
The man who can live most completely to God shall be the
happiest man even in this life. He whose heart's desire is only to
spend and be spent for Christ shall find that he will win a peaceful
state of heart–and this is a foreshadowing of Heaven. I mean not
that we should seek to win this poor and paltry world, which God
has purposely put under our feet, but I mean that the meek "inherit
the earth" in the highest and truest sense. He shall have the most of
real happiness who is willing to lose happiness and lose everything
so that he may win Christ and be found in Him, not having his own
righteousness, which is of the Law, but the righteousness which is
of God by faith. Therefore, when any of the ravenous fowls of evil
come down upon your life's sacrifice, drive them away!
III. And so I must close with only a few sentences upon this last
point–GUARD ALL THE SACRIFICES OF YOUR DEVOTION.
When the fowls come down upon your sacrifices of prayer, praise
and meditation, drive them away! Have you noticed that if all day
long there is not a knock at the door, there will be one if you retire
to pray? It is wise to do as the Savior says, "Enter into your closet
and when you have shut the door, pray to your Father that sees in
secret." That shutting of the door means that we are to seek secrecy
and to prevent interruption. A little boy, who was accustomed to
spend time every day in prayer, went up into a hayloft and when he
climbed into the hayloft, he always pulled the ladder up after him.
Someone asked him why he did so. He answered, "As there is no
door, I pull up the ladder."
Oh, that we could always, in some way, cut the connection
between our soul and the intruding things which lurk below! There
is a story told of me and of some person, I never knew who it was,
who desired to see me on a Saturday night when I had shut myself
up to make ready for the Sabbath. He was very great and important
and so the maid came to say that someone desired to see me. I bade
her say that it was my rule to see no one at that time. Then he was
more important and impressive, still, and said, "Tell Mr. Spurgeon
that a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ desires to see him
immediately." The frightened servant brought the message but the
sender gained little by it, for my answer was, "Tell him I am busy
with his Master and cannot see servants now." Sometimes you must
use strong measures. Did not our Lord tell His messengers, on one
occasion, to salute no man on the way? Courtesy must give place to
devotion! It is incumbent on you that you should be alone with
your Lord–and if intruders force an entrance–they must be sent
about their business.
Alas, if you send men and women away, evil birds will still not be
so dismissed. Wandering thoughts and inward troubles–how shall
these be chased away? That door must be well shut which keeps the
devil out. He comes in at the smallest opening, for he is a serpent,
and serpents get in where other creatures cannot. They have a
wriggling way with them. Satan will twist himself into us when we
hope we are beyond his reach. Drive him away, Brothers and
Sisters! He will go if you resist him. "Resist the devil and he will
flee from you." He will not stand fire if you are determined to have
a shot at him. As to vain thoughts which harass and distract you,
seriously determine that you will drive them away. All your
thoughts of sorrow, dismiss them at the Mercy Seat. As for all
business thoughts, do not entertain them. Say what Abraham said to
the servants, "Abide here while I go and worship God yonder." Tell
the world, "So far may you come, but no farther–I must, I will keep
my sacrifice of praise and prayer before the Lord."
Sir Thomas Abney had been accustomed to have family prayer at
a certain time. He was made Lord Mayor of London. His hour of
family prayer being sometime about the time of the banquet, he
begged to be excused for a little, for he had an urgent engagement
with a special Friend. He then went and called his family together
to meet with God in prayer. Do the same if even a banquet should
come down upon you–quit the table for the altar–and your guests
for your God. When our time for prayer draws near, if all the 12
Apostles were to preach in our street, we ought not to give up our
private prayer for the sake of hearing them all! When the birds
come down upon the sacrifice, drive them away, however fine they
may look! Drive off the golden eagles as well as the crows. This
will require great watchfulness. Cast yourselves upon the power of
the Holy Spirit. Only He can help us with our infirmities–much
more with our distractions. Let us cry to Him, that His Divine
overshadowing may be both shield and great reward to us while we
attempt to draw near to God in private worship!
Now, my dear Hearers, I will keep you no longer except to say
this–those of you who came here tonight to hear the Word, I pray
you do not go away without a blessing. Something or other has
happened, perhaps, to distract you–drive it away! The Sacrifice of
Christ is the thing you have to look to. Look unto the Lord Jesus
and be saved! And if anything comes between you and His atoning
death, drive it away! Come to Jesus! Why should it not be? It is the
last time the preacher will be here on Thursday nights for a little
while. Did he not ask for a closing and crowning blessing? It will
be realized to the fullest if you are saved tonight! You can be saved.
You shall be saved if you look to Jesus, the great Sin Offering!
Give yourselves up to the Savior now, upon the spot.
You that have believed in Jesus unto eternal life and have just
begun the Divine life, it will not be long before you are beset with
various temptations. Be prepared for those fowls, whose chief is
the prince of the power of the air, and labor to drive them away!
You think that since you are converted, it will be all plain sailing
now. You make a mistake–it is now that the battle begins! Be
prepared for conflict. I have no doubt Abram, being a sheik, carried
a good staff with him. Be ready with a staff, borrowed from the
good Shepherd, to drive away the temptations that are sure to assail
young Believers!
As for you dear old saints, you have offered your sacrifice and it
is towards evening. The sun is going down–do not be surprised if
you should feel a horror of great darkness, even at the last–but rest
assured that the Lord will come and cheer your darkness with the
vision of His Covenant Love. Drive those doubts away and those
fears of death! You are going Home! Do not be afraid. Jesus is
coming to meet you, therefore dismiss every fear! Stand by the
sacrifice all day! Stand by the sacrifice when night comes on, birds
or no birds! Stand by the sacrifice whether you see a vision of
Glory or not. Stand by the sacrifice till you behold the Lamb on His
Throne! One thing I have made up my mind to, whether I find
present joy or present sorrow, present commendation or present
censure–I will be faithful to my Lord and stand by the sacrifice
until I die with one hand upon this Book, and another upon the
horns of the altar! I would cry this night in the courts of the Lord's
House, in the presence of all His people, "Bind the sacrifice with
cords, even with cords to the altar." I will be a sacrifice for Jesus
because He is a Sacrifice for me! I count it all joy to preach Him
and His Cross if I may but win souls and be found in Him at the
last. The Lord bless you and be with you, my Brothers and Sisters,
for Christ's sake! PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE
SERMON–Genesis 15.HYMNS FROM "OUR OWN HYMN
BOOK"–377, 670, 879.TO THE CHURCH AT THE
TABERNACLE:BELOVED FRIENDS–I write you because my
heart prompts me to do so and because many of you desire it. We
have not been in hearty union for so many years without feeling a
living interest in each other. This should be more largely the fruit of
Church membership than it usually is. The idea of real brotherhood
should be more tenderly and more practically realized. Let us, each
one, labor after it and take a deep personal interest in our fellow
members, especially in those who are poor, or ill, or young, or
despondent, or under peculiar temptations and afflictions. Thus
should we make up among ourselves a sort of mutual pastorate and
should each gain as well as bestow a blessing.
Because there is so much of this brotherly concern among you, I
feel peace of heart while absent. But because there is not more of it,
I would stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance. We are all
the children of one Father and redeemed with the precious blood of
the same Savior. Let us, therefore, feel a natural instinct of unity
and, from the force of the inner life, cleave to each other in love.
We are likely to need more and more of that strength which comes
from perfect unity of heart. Attacks will be made upon us by the
forces of error and we must stand shoulder to shoulder, or rather
heart to heart, in the hour of conflict. May the Lord Himself, by His
Holy Spirit, enable us to do so!
My release from public service was greatly needed, for I have felt
great prostration since last I wrote you. By your loving prayers I
shall be strengthened and enabled to use my rest for laying in new
stores for future use. How much I desire that when I am again
among you it may be in the fullness of the blessing of the Gospel of
Peace! I desire to be remembered to each one as truly as if I could
grasp every hand and say, "God bless you," to each individual.
Yours in Christ Jesus,
November 17, 1887.
SPURGEON. P.S.–So far as this letter applies to all my readers, it
is for them–assuredly I include them all in every word of Christian
affection, for it is to this larger Church that I owe so much of
substantial help in the various Christian enterprises committed to
my charge.
Ge 15:16 • Filling Up the Measure of Iniquity
ERMON 3043
Filling Up The Measure Of Iniquity
"The iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full."
Genesis 15:16
THE Amorites had indulged in the most degrading sin. God had
observed this, but He did not at once execute vengeance upon
them. He had determined that, as a nation, they should be destroyed
and rooted out from under Heaven and that their land should be
given to the seed of Abraham. But He tells Abraham that his seed
must wait for it, for as yet the Amorites had not filled up the
measure of their iniquity. It would take more than 400 years, during
which time God's patience would wait while the Amorites
continued to heap sin upon sin, iniquity upon iniquity, until they
reached a certain point–and then God would bear with them no
longer. When the Lord uttered the words of our text, the Amorites
had not come up to that fatal point and, therefore, He did not at
once mete out their punishment to them, for the measure of iniquity
was not yet full.
It is a well-known Truth of God that God has great long-suffering,
but that there is a point beyond which even His long-suffering will
not go. It has been so in the great judgments of God in the world.
Before the days of Noah, men had revolted from God, but Noah
was sent to them as a preacher of righteousness. And he did preach
and the Spirit of God was with him. Yet, for all that, the
antediluvian world turned not from its sin and when the 120 years
had expired–but not till then–God opened the windows of Heaven
and down came the deluge which destroyed the whole race with the
exception of the eight souls who were preserved in the ark. Those
old-world sinners had had 120 years for repentance, and 120 years
of earnest, faithful warning from holy Noah–and not till all those
year's had expired did God's patience come to an end and His
judgments begin.
Remember also the case of the children of Israel in the
wilderness. They were a rebellious people–constantly revolting,
often murmuring–at one time setting up a golden calf in the place
of the one living and true God–yet the Lord had long patience with
them. His anger did sometimes wax hot against them, but Moses
came in between them as a mediator and God postponed the
punishment of His wayward people. But at last it seemed as though
He could bear withthem no longer, so He swore in His wrath,
"They shall not enter into My rest"–and their carcasses fell in the
wilderness till the track of Israel through the desert could be
marked by the graves of the unbelieving nation–and there were
funerals every day. It was this sad fact that caused Moses so
mournfully to sing, in the 90 th Psalm, "You carry them awayas
with a flood; they are as a sleep: in the morning they are like grass
which grows up. In the morning it flourishes, and grows up; in the
evening it is cut down, and withers. For we are consumed by Your
anger, and by Your wrath are we troubled. You have set our
iniquities before You, our secret sins in the light of Your
Countenance. For all our days are passed away in Your wrath: we
spend our years as a tale that is told. The days of our years are
threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they are
fourscore years, yet is their strength labor and sorrow; for it is soon
cut off, and we fly away. Who knows the power of Your anger?
Even according to Your fear, so is Your wrath. So teach us to
number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.
Return, O Lord, how long? And let it repent You concerning Your
servants. O satisfy us early with Your mercy; that we may rejoice
and be glad all our days. Make us glad according to the days
wherein You have afflicted us, and the years wherein we have seen
evil." Not a man of all that generation, save only Joshua, the son of
Nun, and Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, was permitted to enter the
promised land!
You will also at once call to mind the history of the two nations of
Israel and Judah in later years. They exceedingly provoked the
Lord and their land was, therefore, invaded by their enemies–and
many of the people and their rulers were carried into captivity. But
God did not cast off His people, nor expatriate them from their
highly-favored land till, by degrees, they had reached the climax of
rebellion and idolatry. Then He delivered the chosen nations into
the hands of their cruel adversaries. Israel was swept clean as a
man's threshing floor when he has purged it. And as for the tribes
of Judah and Benjamin, they ceased to dwell by the vine-covered
hills of their own dear land, for they were carried away into
captivity by the rivers of Babylon where they wept when they
remembered Zion. God is indeed long-suffering, but there is an
end, even to His long-suffering! The Jews in our Lord's day, and
especially the scribes and Pharisees, were so obstinate and perverse
that, at last, our Savior said to them, "Fill you up, then, the measure
of your fathers." He had borne long with them and He still pleaded
with them and wept over them–but at last, the nation as a nation,
was given up to blindness and hardness of heart! The beautiful city
of Jerusalem was destroyed and not one stone of the Temple was
left upon another.
I might, if it were necessary, say that a similar experience has
befallen all the great nations of the earth, for all of them have been
greatly sinful. The crimes of the Assyrian king and people brought
that mighty empire to an inglorious end. Babylon sank, not so
much beneath the power of the Medes and Persians as beneath the
sins of Belshazzar and his blasphemous princes and lords and
ladies! And the Persian Empire, in its turn, passed not away
because of Alexander's valor so much as because the Medes and
Persians were corrupt in the sight of the Lord. So was it with
Greece–her idolatries and her filthinesses brought upon her the ruin
which makes her at once the admiration of all lands for her artistic
beauty and the detestation of all lands for her festering corruption
and iniquity. As for the Roman Empire–who that reads the history
of her rise and fall but knows that long before the city of Rome
began to crumble and decay, her virtue had departed, her ancient
valor had declined, licentiousness had reached an awful pitch–and
then the Word of the Lord went forth that the iniquitous empire
should be swept away? I might give modern instances of the
working of the same Law, but I shall not. Certain is it that God has
long patience with the various nations and tribes of men that keep
on sinning against Him, but at last He utters that mysterious
prophetic sentence (Isa 34:5), "My sword shall be bathed in
Heaven." And then woe be unto the men or the nations whom He
smites, "for it is the day of the Lord's vengeance, and the year of
recompense for the controversy of Zion."
When we speak of this great Law of God as it operates on a large
scale among nations, many will admit the truth of it, but they are
not so willing to admit the truth of it so far as it concerns
themselves. I intend, therefore, to confine myself in this discourse
to the great principle of my text as it can be applied to individuals.
There is a fullness of the iniquity of every individual sinner in these
days, just as there was a fullness of the iniquity of the Amorites in
ancienttimes. And I will try to prove to you, first, that there is a
time when the measure of a sinner's iniquity is not yet
full.Secondly , that the measure of his iniquity is constantly being
filled. AndI want you all solemnly and seriously to consider the
question –What will happen then?
First, then, THERE IS A TIME WHEN THE MEASURE OF A
SINNER'S INIQUITY IS NOT YET FULL.
There is a measure for all iniquity and every iniquity is put into
that measure. Flatter not yourself, Sinner, with the false and foolish
notion that your sin is forgotten. You may possibly forget it, but
God never forgets. You may keep no record of your transgressions,
but God's recording angel does not fail to write in His Book of
Remembrance, and to engrave them as "with an iron pen and lead
in the rock forever," as Job said concerning the preservation of his
own words. All those sins of yours–the sins of your youth and of
your manhood–are registered in God's Book. You shut your eyes,
and–like the ostrich that has buried his head in the sand and,
therefore, thinks itself secure because it cannot see the danger that
threatens it–you delude yourself with the notion that because you
have forgotten your sins, they have ceased to be, but it is not so!
Though you should seek to hide your sins in a cleft among the
snow on the top of the Himalayas, Jehovah would speedily bring
them down from those lofty heights! And though you should
attempt to bury them in the depths of the Atlantic, God would bring
them up from the lowest ocean bed! Sin is an everlasting thing–
unless it is put away by God, Himself, for the Lord Jesus Christ's
sake–no grave in the world can hide it. No earthly sepulcher can
conceal it from the all-seeing eyes of Jehovah. If buried for a while,
there will be a resurrection of sin as well as of sinners–and what a
dread procession of sin, iniquity, unrighteousness and transgression
shall slowly march before your newly-awakened eyes, O
unrepentant and unforgiven sinner, when your iniquities shall rise
up in judgment against you to condemn you!
Thus I have reminded you that there is a measure for all iniquity,
but, happily, that measure is not yet full. That wasa very
remarkable vision that was seen by the Prophet Zechariah, "a
woman that sits in the midst of the ephah." And the angel said,
"This is wickedness. And he cast it into the midst of the Ephah," so
that evidently the measure had not been full. And it is still true that
there is a time when a sinner's measure of iniquity is "not yet full."
Let me, however, also remind you it is only God's infinite mercy
that permits a sinner to continue to live after he has committed
even one sin. There is no reason why, upon the basis of Infallible
Justice, a man should be allowed to sin up to a certain point. A
single sin is the transgression of the Law of God–it is high treason
against "the King eternal, immortal, invisible," and deserves to be
punished. However much or however little we may have sinned,
"every transgression and disobedience" ought to receive "a just
recompense of reward," as in the days of which Paul wrote to the
Hebrews. Apart from the Atoning Sacrifice of the Lord Jesus
Christ, there is not one sinner living in the whole world who could
stand before God! It is not justice, but boundless compassion and
infinite pity which put a measure to man's iniquity and allows him
to live on until he has reached that point–for sin is worthy of death
in every case, and in any degree–so says the Word of the Lord.
I must also remark that when we say that some sinners have not
filled their measure of iniquity, it must not beimagined that the
same measure of sin is to be filled up by every sinner. man has
filled his own measure, be it a large one or a small one, then will
God come to him in His wrath and punish him in His hot
displeasure. Some great offenders like Pharaoh and Judas fill up a
huge measure of transgression–some others, cut off in their earlier
days, spend a hot and hasty manhood in sin and go to their doom
before they have committed any notorious offenses against
mankind in general. The measures differ in size, but still in each
case it gets filled sooner or later. And then, woe, woe, woe unto the
man whose measure of iniquity is full! It is through God's long-
suffering that we are able to tell you this solemn Truth. I have
reminded you already that if it were not for His long-suffering
patience, there would not be such a point for sinners to reach, but
their first sin would the crushing, final, fatal blow from the hand of
Divine Justice! It is God's long-suffering that gives men space for
repentance, that presents to them, under the Gospel dispensation,
the proclamations of mercy that plead with them to turn from their
sins and to lay hold on Eternal Life.
Because of this, does anymore here wickedly say that as his
particular measure is not yet full, he may still go on in sin? Ah, my
Friend, you know not how small your measure may be, nor how
soon it may be full! But suppose it is a great measure which is to be
filled by you? Then the longer it is in getting filled, the heavier it
will be when it is filled and the more terrible will be your eternal
doom! Little comfort can any man ever derive from the fact that he
is permitted to live long in sin, for he will have to endure forever
the heavier punishment for the greater measure of guilt. Beware,
beware, beware, you who would draw the wrong kind of
consolation from the subject we are now considering, for there is
no consolation in it for the willfully wicked–only sorrow, fear and
trembling of heart! Here we sit or stand together in this House of
Prayer–some of us saved by the Sovereign Grace of God and
others, sitting side by side with us, only here because the measure
of their iniquity is not yet full! Here is one who is 40 years of age,
but his measure is not yet full–he shall live another year. Over there
is one who is 60 years of age, but his measure of iniquity is not yet
full–he shall yet see another decade of years. Yonder is one who is
70 and even his measure is not yet full, but it soon will be! Ah, and
how short is the span of human life even when it is longest! And as
I have already said, the heavier the sinner's measure that takes so
long to get filled, the more overwhelming shall be the punishment
that shall be meted out to such a sinner in the Great Day of account.
When I have such a solemn theme as this, my words cannot flow
freely from my lips. I wish that I could speak out the inmost
emotions of my heart without even using my tongue, for my words
fail to convey to you what I feel in the deepest recesses of my
being. O impenitent Sinner, it is so sad to think that you are only
sitting here because the measure of your iniquity is not yet full! If
there were half-a-dozen persons together in a room and one of them
was only there because the hour fixed for his execution had not yet
come, I think that you would not take any particular interest in the
other five individuals, whoever they might be, but all your thoughts
would center upon that one man of whom you would say to
yourself, sadly and sorrowfully, "He has been judged according to
the law of the land. The death-sentence has been pronounced upon
him and he is only spared because the clock has not yet struck and
the bell has not yet tolled for him to go out to execution." You
unbelievers are, according to God's Word, "condemned already"
because you have "not believed in the name of the only-begotten
Son of God." Christians, do you know that such condemned
persons are here and have you no heart of compassion for them?
Children of God, do you know that some of your own sons and
daughters are in this terrible position and yet have you no tears to
shed on their account? O Preacher, can you stand here and talk so
coldly upon such a theme as this when words of flame would be all
too cold to express the horror that should fill your soul in view of
such an assembly as this? Oh, that we had more tender hearts! For
then should we more deeply pity those poor sinning souls whose
iniquity is not yes full!
II. With a heavy heart I must turn to my second point, which is
that IN THE CASE OF EVERY UNCONVERTED SINNER, THE
MEASURE OF HIS INIQUITY IS CONSTANTLY BEING
FILLED.
Every sin that he commits helps to fill up the measure of his
iniquity and there is nothing that he can do without sin being mixed
with it. Solomon says that "the plowing of the wicked is sin." That
is to say even his common actions, in performing the ordinary
avocations of his daily life, bring sin upon him! Solomon also said,
"The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord," so that
even when he pretends to do that which is right in the case of a
Christian, he is still heaping up sin, filling up the measure of his
iniquity!
There are some persons who fill up their measure very quickly–
wanton, dissolute, depraved sinners, they seem as if they could not
heap up iniquity fast enough! They are so greedy that with both
hands they labor to fill up the measure. They run, as Peter says, "to
the excess with body and with the soul apparently determined to go
post haste toHell. And if anything can be found by which they can
quicken their speed to destruction, they seek it out and seem to
prize it. Is it not strange that it should be so? Yet, in London, and I
suppose it is the same elsewhere, anyone who walks along the
streets for a little while will soon see evidences of the fact that
there are many persons to whom the usual methods of going to
destruction seem to be all too slow. I trust that if there are any
young men here who are thus rapidly filling up their measure of
iniquity, they will stop and think. My Friend, your candle will burn
fast enough without your lighting it at both ends! You will ruin
yourself fast enough without needing to heap up sin upon sin by
becoming a drunkard and a gambler as well as profane and
unchaste! O man, why are you so diligent to be your own
destroyer?–
"Sinner, oh why so thoughtless grown?
Why in such dreadful haste to die?
Daring to leap to worlds unknown,
Heedless against your God to fly."
Perhaps among the sins that fill up a man's measure very quickly,
one of the chief is persecution of God's people. Aman will bear
many insults and even much injury to himself, but if you touch his
children, then the color comes into his face and he is swift to
avenge the wrong that has been done to them. So is it in the case of
God's children and their Father! He said to Zion in Babylon, "He
that touches you, touches the apple of My eye." If you want to be
damned out of hand, become a persecutor of the saints, for that is
the quickest way to Hell! When holy Wishart was chained to the
stake, he pointed to the cardinal who was gloating over the
spectacle and told him that God's wrath would shortly fall upon
him–and so it came to pass, for God avenges His own elect–and
sometimes does it very speedily. The sin of persecuting the Church
of God is one which, perhaps more than any other, helps to fill up
the measure of a sinner's iniquity!
Another sin of a similar character is that of attending Gospel
ordinances and yet despising them. The Lord will dealmore
leniently with those who are ignorant of the Gospel and have no
opportunity of hearing it, than He will deal with you to whom the
Gospel has long been familiar as a household word, yet in whom
familiarity with it has only bred contempt. Christ has been
knocking at the door of some of your hearts for many years. I can
personally bear witness that the message of salvation has come to
you in many forms and various ways. I have searched the Word of
God with the view of finding the most impressive texts–and I have
prayed to God to guide me to subjects which might savingly affect
you. These topics have often affected my own heart while I have
been preparing for the pulpit, yet, so far they have not affected your
hearts–or at least not sufficiently to lead you to faith in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Depend upon it, you sermonhearers are bringing a
curse upon yourselves by despising and refusing the blessing which
has so long been made known to you in vain! God may well say, "I
will not always send My servant to preach to those who judge
themselves unworthy of Everlasting Life. Why should I cast my
Gospel pearls before such swinish creatures? Why should I
continue to call to those who will not heed My voice?" Well may
He say, as He did of old, "Because I have called, and you refused; I
have stretched out My hand and no man regarded; but you have set
at naught all My counsel, and would none of My reproof; I also
will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear comes." It
is no small sin to have heard the Gospel and yet to they repented
not–"Woe unto you, Chorazin! Woe unto you, Bethsaida! For if the
mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and
Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes!
But I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at
the Day of Judgment, than for you."
It is another great help in filling up the measure of iniquity when
a man has had serious personal affliction, yet it hasnot softened, but
rather has hardened him. You, my Friend, were laid low a little
while ago. Was it a malignant fever, or some other dangerous
disease that you had? Your relatives said, "He cannot recover," and
you turned your face to the wall, in the bitterness of your spirit, for
you feared that you would die, and you knew that you were
unprepared to meet your God. You were glad enough if somebody
would pray with you then! And, after a fashion, you shuffled into
some sort of prayer of your own and you promised what you would
do if the Lord would spare your forfeited life . But whereare your
good resolutions now? There are some of you who used to be
Sabbath-breakers. And when you were likely to die, you said, "If
God will but spare me, the shop shall be closed on His holy day."
Yet you have opened it again though He spared you. You were a
drunkard up to the time of your great illness, but you said, "If God
will spare my life, I will never touch the intoxicating cup again."
God did spare your life, yet you are as conspicuous a slave of drink
as ever you were! And you have proved yourself to be a liar in the
sight of God! Young man, you got into a sad trouble once, but God,
by a very special Providential deliverance, helped you out of it and
you then said, "I will walk more guardedly for the future." Yet you
have gone back to the same sin, as the dog turns to his own vomit,
"and the sow that was washed, to her wallowing in the mire." But
God will not waste His pains on you much longer. A farmer plows
his field and if it brings forth no harvest, he may plow it again, but
he will not always go on plowing a field that is as barren as a rock.
[See Sermon #2977, Volume 52–PLOWING A ROCK–
Read/download the entire sermon, free of charge, at
http://www.spurgeongems.org.] A gardener may come to afig tree
and if it bears no fruit, he may prune it and dig about it, and
fertilize it, but he will not go on doing that year after year–he will
at last say, "Cut it down; why cumbers it the ground?" And it must
be so with you if you still remain impenitent after all God's
dealings with you! By refusing to heed God's warning message
which came to you in the chamber of affliction. By forgetting the
gentle pressure of God's hand of mercy which raised you up to
health and strength again, you are helping to fill up the measure of
your iniquity!
And let me further say that–and I know that my words will go
home to some here –when a man has been subject toconvictions–
whether those convictions may be set down to an alarmed
conscience, or to what I may call the secondary operations of God's
Holy Spirit, I will not say–but, when a man has been the subject of
convictions and has stifledthem, it greatly adds to the measure of
his guilt. The other night a young man was in the street and a
temptation was set before him–and he knew it to be a temptation.
He stood still a while and thought within himself, "I know that this
is a wrong thing for me to do. It would break my mother's heart if
she knew that I committed this sin. And as for my father, I could
never dare to look him in the face again if he knew that I had done
this and, besides, I am an attendant at a place of worship and know
that this is an evil thing–and that it might be my eternal ruin." Now,
after that young man had weighed the matter, if he had deliberately
chosen to commit that sin, there would have been ten times the
guilt in it than there might have been in the case of another who
was overtaken unawares by sudden temptation and had no time to
consider what was the right thing for him to do. In proportion to the
violence that a man has to do to himself in order to commit a
certain transgression, the measure of his guilt may be estimated.
I believe there are people here who, on many occasions, have sat
and trembled at the Word of the Lord–and have been softened in
spirit till they have wept in silence–and sometimes openly. And
they have whispered to themselves ,"We will really seek the great
change. We will cry to God for help that we may repent of sin and
believe in Jesus, as the preacher urges us." But on those steps
outside they have met with some worldly companion and, while
talking with him, all their good resolutions have melted away and
the sinner who seemed to be impressed remains a sinner still! The
one who appeared to be awakened a month ago is now a drunkard
and the conscience that was thought to be getting tender six months
ago, is fast becoming as hard as the nether millstone! These are
dreadful facts, but they all go to show that a man may be–even in
the House of Prayer, and under the means of Grace–continually
filling up the measure of his iniquity. These are terrible Truths of
God for me to have to preach, but it is necessary for them to be
told. May you all feel the force of them and may God thus drive
you to seek shelter in His Son who died upon the Cross of Calvary,
"the Just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God."
III. My third point is that THE MEASURE OF INIQUITY WILL
ONE DAY BE FULL.
It will take time to fill it, but it will be filled in due time and, at
the rate at which some men go in sinning, they will soon fill up the
measure of their transgression. The tares are green and God will not
have them cut down yet, for He lets even the tares ripen. He allows
even the poisonous fruit of evil to hang on the tree till it grows
mellow and then it drops with its own weight. But the tares will
ripen and the evil fruit will become mellow–and then will their end
come. And it will take time for you sinners to ripen in sin, but you
will ripen, and then you will be shaken from the tree and this
lifeshall know you no more.
I want you unconverted ones to think for a minute or two how
nearly full your measure probably is even now. Beginwith your
early childhood and think over your many acts of willful
disobedience and sin. I cannot trace your whole life, but let me
remind you of your early manhood. Is there nothing for you to be
ashamed of and nothing for you to repent of there? I am sure that
there are some here who cannot think of that period of life without
blushing for very shame. Then think of the later days of your riper
manhood. O Sirs, what heaps of sin are there! The measure of your
iniquity must be nearly full. Do not forget, too, that we are usually
very bad judges of our real state in the sight of God. The
probability is that the measure of our iniquity is a great deal more
full than we think it is. I hope none of you were ever bankrupts, but
if you ever were insolvent I expect that when you actually came to
look into your books, you found that you were much more deeply
in debt than you ever thought that you were! It is a common thing
for men who are in an unsound state in their business to fancy that
their position is better than a rigid examination proves it to be. And
I believe it is so in spiritual things with many of you. Take care,
take care! You suppose that only the bottom of the measure is full
as yet, but the recording angel sees that your iniquity is nearly up to
the top! It is a very mournful reflection, dear Friends, that there
may be some here–and that there probably are some here–who
have only to commit one more sin to fill up the measure of their
iniquity! One more lie and the measure is full! One more lascivious
song and it is full. One more act of theft, one more drunken bout
and it is full! I have known some people come here–and perhaps
some such are now here–who have had delirium tremens! It is a
wonder that they were not cast into Hell then–a marvel of mercy
thatthey were spared a little longer! But, the next time that happens
to you, Sir, it may be a delirium that will never have an end! The
next time you put that poison cup to your lips and dare to drink till
you are drunk, you will drink yourself into eternal damnation! O
beware , beware, BEWARE! It is not merely a man who speaks
thus to you–there is a warningVoice from Heaven which is
speaking to some people here through my lips. Stop, Sir, for if you
take only one step more you will be plunged in eternal ruin! Do
you ask what concern it is of mine whether you are lost or saved? It
is as much my concern as it would be if I could save your temporal
life if I saw you in danger! Much more would I desire to point out
to you the danger of your immortal soul that you may, by God's
Infinite Grace, be saved from spiritual and everlasting ruin!
All this while there is one very sad but most true reflection that I
must mention to you. It is this –while theunconverted are always
putting more sin into the measure, it is not in their power to take
out anything that is already in the measure. I can fill the ephah of
my transgression, but I cannot empty it, and I cannot even diminish
it. Somebody says to me, "Suppose, Sir, that I never sin again?"
Well, what then? Even if you get no further into debt, that will not
pay off the old score. "Then, Sir, what shall we do? Shall we stand
here and weep over our sins–will not our tears wash them away?"
No, though you shed a Niagara of penitential tears, there is no
power in them to blot out a single sin! "But what if we perform
many good works?" No, though you could fill an Atlantic with
your good works, you would not have washed out the crimson stain
of even one of your innumerable transgressions! No, you cannot
take one sin out of themeasure, though you can keep on putting in
sin upon sin upon sin–and so the measure is being filled and it will
soon be full.
IV. So I close by asking you–what then?
I was reading in the New Testament, the other night, and there
were half-a-dozen words that impressed me with peculiar force. I
think they are, on the whole, as dreadful as any words that were
ever spoken. I may venture to say that even the Scripture, itself,
contains no more terrible words than these which I am about to
quote to you, yet they were spoken by the Lord Jesus, Himself–the
loving, tender, gentle Jesus, who called the little children to Him.
They are recorded in the 8 th verse. And then, as though one
thunder-clap must follow another,they are repeated in the 24 th
verse. These are the words–"You shall die in your sins."Hear them
again–"If you believe not that I am He, you shall die in your sins."
I heard of a man who died in a ditch, but that is nothing compared
with dying in the ditch of your sins! I heard of one who fell down
dead in the street, but what is that compared with dying in sin?
Some die starved, but that is nothing to dying in sin! Near my
house, the other day, there was one who sat down to eat and some
coals from a fire flew out and caught her clothes on fire–the people
around her tore her clothes from her back, but she was so badly
burnt that she died–but the flames of sin are worse than coals of the
fire. "You shall die in your sins." I have no choice as to how or
where I shall die except in this one respect–that Imay never die in
sin, with iniquity like the fabled poison shirt killing its unhappy
wearer. He tried to tear it off and even tore away his flesh, but the
poison burnt into his bones–but it is worse than that to die in sin!
Man, you must die in your sins if you continue to live in them! You
cannot escape from the consequence of sin if you keep following in
the pursuit of sin. Work and you shall have your wages–and "the
wages of sin is death." Sow and you shall reap your harvest–and if
you sow to the flesh, you must and shall of the flesh reap
corruption! I pray God that none of you may ever know, in your
own persons, the full meaning of those awful words of the Savior,
"You shall die in your sins." If youbelieve not–"YOU SHALL DIE
IN YOUR SINS."
But I cannot send you away like this, although yonder clock has
struck the usual hour for closing the service. Thank God that no
clock has struck to forbid me to proclaim the tidings of mercy as
long as men are yet in this world. I told you that you could not take
any sin out of that measure and most truly did I speak, but let me
whisper in your ears that thereis One, the ever-blessed Son of God,
who can empty it! He can take the measure of your sin, just as it is,
and not merely take out a little, but He can take it all and put it on
His own shoulders and carry it right away, and hurl it into his own
sepulcher where it shall be buried so deep that even the eyes of
God, Himself, shall never see it again! "Oh, would to God," says
one, "that He would do that with my sins!" Sir, He will do it with
your sins, now, at this moment, if you believe on Him. "Believe on
Him?" says one, "I believe that He is the Son of God and the
Savior of men." Go further then, and trust Him as your own Savior.
Give up your sins! Give up your self-reliance and cast yourself into
those dear arms that were outstretched on the Cross that great
sinners might be folded in them and find eternal shelter there–
"There is life for a look at the Crucified One.
There is life at this moment for you,"
if you will but look to Him! May God's gracious Spirit enable
you to look away from self to His great substitutionary Sacrifice, to
the full Atonement He made, to the utmost ransom that He paid!
Close in with Christ and the measure of your iniquity shall be
emptied!
But remember that if Christ is not received, there is no other hope
of salvation. And what is more, after this night there may not even
be another proclamation of the way of salvation for some of you. I
do not know when I am more pained–when I have to go to visit
young men who are dying, perhaps of consumption and without
hope. It is dreadful work to try to set forth the Gospel to them. I
sometimes feel as if I must proclaim the Law, though they are so
sick and weak. And, sometimes, the mother stands beside the bed
and weeps, and says, "Ah, I have prayed for him many times, but,
oh, that I knew that he was saved!" Then she says to me, on the
stairs, "I could give him up, Sir, though I love the dear boy–I could
give him up without a sigh, but, oh, it breaks my heart to think that
he is dying without a Savior!" Yes, and every Christian ought to
feel the same, in his measure, about every sinner! It is a trying
thing to me, when I am walking in the street, to see an accident. I
feel as if my heart were in my mouth at once. If I were in a railway
accident and saw somebody killed, I do not think I would be able to
hold up my head for days. But, oh, to know that some of you are
losing your souls and that you are every day getting nearer and
nearer to your eternal doom! "Turn you, turn you, for why will you
die?"
I often wonder why some of you come to hear me as you do. It
puzzles me, for I see no reason why you should do so. I offer you
no amusement. I tell you no comical stories, but I seek to break
your hearts with the hammer of the Word of God! You come and
you go, yet you get no blessing as far as I can see. Are you content
to always have it so? If you are, I am not content! I am at least
responsible for faithfully warning you and honestly preaching to
you the great Gospel message, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
and you shall be saved." Every time I stand in this pulpit, there is
somebody here who never comes again–he cannot come again, for
he dies before the next Lord's-Day. So large is the congregation
here that I may almost say, speaking according to the laws of
probability, that it is almost certain that some one of us will have
gone the way of all flesh before this week is gone. Who will it be?
May God take the ripe and spare the green! May He take those who
are ready and spare those who are not ready! But, better still, may
He lead us all to trust in the Savior and then we shall all be ready
whenever the summons comes! May He do so, for His name's
sake! Amen. –Adapted from The C. H. Spurgeon Collection,
Version 1.0, Ages Software, 1.800.297.4307
PRAY THE HOLY SPIRIT WILL USE THIS SERMON
TO BRING MANY TO A SAVING KNOWLEDGE OF JESUS
CHRIST.
Ge 16:8-13 • God's Overtaking Mercy
ERMON 3525
God's Overtaking Mercy
"And He [the Angel of the Lord] said, Hagar, Sarah's maid,
where have you come from? And where will you go? And she said,
I flee from the face of my mistress Sarah."
Genesis 16:8
HAGAR had lived for many years in Abraham's family. This was
no small advantage. While all the rest of the world was in
heathendom, the Light of God shone brightly in Abraham's tent.
Not only was Abraham, himself, a worshipper of the Most High
God, but he commanded his household after him. We may rest
assured that there were family gatherings for devotion–that the
Patriarch took occasion, both by precept and example, to teach the
knowledge of the true God to all who were in his service. His was
the central spot of the Light of God in the world–and all around
him was the thick gloom of heathenism. Yet I do not find that
Hager, during the years she lived with Abraham, even when she
saw his faith in going forth from his kindred and his country, and
dwelling in tents in the promised land–I do not find that she,
herself, received any personal call from God, or had a word from
the Angel of Mercy to her own soul. And truly in this she is like
very many servants, yes, and sons and daughters, too, in godly
families who are surrounded by the Light of God, but yet see not–
who are where God speaks–and yet He has not spoken personally
to them. Who enjoy the means of Grace, but have never yet got the
Grace of the means–who are themselves strangers in the midst of
Israel, foreigners, though they dwell in the land, itself! Now it
would be a source of the greatest imaginable joy to many of us if
some of these should be called as Hagar was–should hear the voice
from Heaven and be enabled to make the double discovery which
she made, namely, that God saw her, and that she might come into
contact with God–might look to Him who had seen her!
At this time I shall first direct your attention to a very interesting
circumstance, namely–
THE SINGULAR SEASON CHOSEN BY GOD FOR THE
INTERPOSITION OF HIS MERCY. Let us dwell on that a
moment. God displays His Sovereignty in saving souls, both in the
souls whom He chooses to save, in the instrumentality He uses in
calling them, and in the conditions of mind in which He finds them
when He is pleased to look upon them in mercy.
Now Hagar at that time–at the time when the Angel called to her
seemed to be in somewhat an unlikely state to be visited of God.
She was, first of all, at that moment smarting under a sense of
wrong. She felt that Sarah had not treated her well and in all
probability Sarah had not. The Eastern mistress is often very
tyrannical towards her servants, and Hagar stood very much in the
position of a slave. We do not doubt but what the jealous wife had
been very severe–unjustly severe towards the woman. There she sat
by the well, feeling bitterness in her own soul, that in the house of
good people where she had expected better things, she had been
treated with injustice. It did not seem likely that the God of
Abraham would call her when her heart was seething like a pot
with indignation against the household where God was
worshipped! At the same time, as she turned the matter over and
her soul grew more and more bitter within her, I should not wonder
but what she felt she had brought a good deal of it upon herself.
She was but the servant and she had desired to play the mistress.
She had despised the mistress–no doubt spoken to her very
contemptuously–and now it had returned upon her and she was
made to suffer for her own pride. Her proud, fierce spirit, perhaps,
did not admit it, but yet she must have felt in her conscience that
much of what was wrong about her she had, notwithstanding,
brought upon herself. Now when a person is under such a feeling as
that, disturbed, tossed to and fro, vexed, distracted–it does not seem
a likely time for them to hear the voice of God speaking to their
souls!
Moreover, at that moment she was leaving all that was good. She
had turned her back upon the household, the chosen household–left
it, I will not say deliberately, but at any rate she had left it. She was
going down into Egypt–going "anywhere, anywhere out of the
world," so that she could but get away from the place where her
bondage had become irksome. She was going, she scarcely knew
where, but she probably did know that she was going into
heathendom, among heathen people. The best she could hope to
meet with was separation from God. She could not but feel that it
was black darkness which was before her and she was rushing
madly into it because her high spirit would not bend–would not
bow–would not yield before the majesty of the Most High. I think I
see her there, her eyes red with weeping, her spirit broken down
with the hunger of her journey, sitting a while and refreshed a
moment, and resolved not to stoop and never to go back–and then,
again, shuddering at the darkness that lay before her and afraid to
go on. It was in such a state as that that God met with her! To all
intents and purposes she was a friendless, outcast woman. She had
left the only tents where she could claim a shelter. She had gone
into the wilderness–no father, no mother, no brother, no sister to
care for her. She turned her back upon those who had any interest
in her and now she was left alone–alone, alone in a desert land
without an eye to pity or a hand to help! It was then, under those
peculiar circumstances of trial and of sin commingled, that God
met with her!
I have been wondering in my soul, when I turned over this text,
whether there would stray into this Tabernacle some kindred case,
and whether, though no angel spoke, yet the voice of man might be
tonight the voice of the Messenger of the Covenant to some poor
soul? I know you not by name, nor face, yet I know well your
feelings! It may be tonight you are sorely angry, greatly vexed,
smarting, wrathful! You have made up your mind to choose the
world and give up every semblance of that which is good. It may
be tonight that you have lost everything that makes earth worth
living in. You long for death–you would almost seek the place
where the lamps quiver on the dark river, for your spirit is
bitterness, itself, your lamp of hope is gone out! Oh, but it may be
that this is the night when God's mighty mercy is ordained to meet
with you–the very evening in which the Lord shall call out your
name and you shall feel that He knows you, your case, your
circumstances and that He has come to call you to Himself and you
never might have been called had not these extremities of yours
brought God to your rescue and to your salvation! I do not suppose
that there will be anyone whose case exactly resembles that of the
text, but it has sometimes happened that the turning point of human
life has been the point of great sorrow, great penury and distress of
mind on account of some gigantic fault, or it has been the time of
some dreadful alternative put before the soul in which it seemed as
though it must be God or devil that night–Heaven or Hell that
night–eternal joy or eternal misery that night! On some such
strange occasion as this in your mental history you have come here
tonight–may God, who is here, speak with you! A singular season
for mercy! Now, secondly, let us look at–
II. THE MODE OF MERCY, OR THE HOME QUESTIONS
WHICH THE ANGEL PUT TO HER.
She is sitting there by the well. It is in a desert. It may be a little
oasis on the road, but there is no one within sight, nor any
probability of any caravan passing that way. As she sits quite still,
she hears a voice, "Hagar." She starts, she looks up and there is a
brightness like the sun above her–it shines brighter than the sun at
noonday! She can scarcely bear the light, and she hears it again,
"Hagar, Sarah's maid." Whoever it is that is speaking knows who
she is, and what she is, and all about her. "Where have you come
from? And where will you go?" She is so startled–she has just been
thinking of the place from where she came–and that dismal
question had just been starting her mind. "Where will you go?" She
felt that there was no place for her to go. It was only a choice of
equal horror–she knew not where to go. Now remark this, that very
often the Gospel call comes to the sons of men not by a voice heard
by the ear, but through the ministry in the way of describing the
person's case with minute accuracy. It was the Savior's way of
doing it when He was on earth. The woman was by the well. The
Savior spoke to her. The words did not seem to take effect. He
turned the subject, and He said, "Go, call your husband and come
here." "I have no husband," she said. If she could blush, she
blushed then–"I have no husband." "You have said well, 'I have no
husband,' for you have had five husbands, and he whom you now
have is not your husband. In that you said truly." Then the shock
went to her very heart! She perceived that He who spoke was
something more than man. And when the Gospel fully preached
describes the sinner, paints him, photographs him, holds it before
him and makes him say, "Why, that is me–he speaks of me–it is
even me," then it is that the soul perceives what Hagar perceived–
that God saw her–and that she might look to God!
Now I shall not endeavor to make any picture of you, dear Hearer.
If I were to try it, I could not do it–it is only the come into the
condition in which you now are out of a godly parentage? Have
you got into London sin, but was there a time when you once knelt
at your mother's knee at eventide and repeated a gracious prayer?
Ah, you have spent many a day and many a night in the haunts of
sin! You were once a teacher in the Sabbath school–once a lover of
the Gospel (at least professedly so) which now you turn from and
abhor! "Where have you come from?" From old impressions that
have been forgotten? From an old profession that has been
disgraced? Were you once honorable, but now dishonorable–once a
servant of God, but now a servant at the devil's altar–a ringleader
in sin it may be, though once you were at Heaven's own gates?
"Where have you come from?" Remember from where you have
fallen, and repent! And "where will you go?" Oh, let me put the
question! You stand tonight just here, "Where will you go?"
Another sin tempts you tonight–will you commit it? I would gladly
stand with you, as the old Scythian did of old when his country was
about to be invaded by the foe. He drew a line before the chieftain
of the invading host, and said, "Cross that line, and there is war
forever! Stay there and there may be peace." I put a line before
your steps tonight! In the name of the everlasting God, I charge you
cease from that sin! Once more commit it and it may be that no
mercy's trumpet shall ever sound out a message of forgiveness to
you again! "Where will you go?" Oh, go not like a dog to your
vomit, like the sow that was washed to her wallowing! Go no
further, for "where will you go" in the future? A man who sins
today will sin worse tomorrow, and the next day even worse. Many
a young man, when he has commenced with what are called the
follies of London life, had no idea that he would end it debauched,