Chapter 74. The Fourteenth Argument: Manifesting the Exceeding Willingness of God to Be Reconciled t
Further, God's importunity is manifest in this: that he repeats himself and is not content with expressing himself just once. Instead, he does it again, and again, and again. He is persistent, as in Isaiah
55, verse 1. See how many times there is crying out in one verse: "Ho!
Everyone that thirsts, come ye; and he that has no money, come; and come," the third time—three times in one verse, God says, "Come" to sinners. And then in the third verse: "Incline your ear, and come unto me," says God, "and hear, and your souls shall live, and I will make an everlasting covenant with you." There is another promise:
"Even the sure mercies of David." So here, in one short Scripture, God says "Come" four times. Oh, how importunate is God with sinners!
God does not deal with us as we commonly deal with him. God seeks after sinners more earnestly than sinners seek after God. Consider how we seek God for mercy; we pray to God for mercy, but we are often content with praying once and seldom follow up on our prayers to see what becomes of them. But God, he cries to us to come, and if we do not come the first time, then he cries, "Come, come, and come," four times together. We are often inclined to think that if our petitions are repeated twice in prayer, it is mere tautology, but this shows the earnestness of the Spirit of God in it, and he is exceedingly willing.
Chapter 74.
The Fourteenth Argument: Manifesting the Exceeding Willingness of God to Be Reconciled to Sinners
Another evidence is this: when yet sinners do not come, still the Lord does not abandon them but appeals to the very consciences of sinners and deals with them that way; and that is very powerful. He deals with sinners in this manner to break their hearts. When, after all his arguments, they still do not come in, then the Lord appeals to their own consciences and pleads with them by appealing to their sense of right and wrong, asking why they should not come in and yield to him. This approach is very powerful in prevailing with sinners.
If you wish to prevail with anyone over a matter you desire to accomplish, what course do you take? Either you send for them or go to them and present the case to them, but they remain unmoved.
Then you bring powerful arguments to persuade them, yet they still do not move. Next, you take away all their objections, but still, this does not prevail. Then you importune them, and if that does not overcome them, what is the next step? You appeal to their own conscience, saying, "I appeal to your own conscience, whether I have not spoken justly. I leave it to your conscience, and let it judge in the presence of God." Often, this prevails more than all the arguments in the world. When you appeal to a man's own conscience, that he is dealing unfairly by not yielding, this approach frequently succeeds.
God does the same. He appeals to men's consciences. I will give you some Scripture for it. In Isaiah 43:26, "Put me in remembrance; let us plead together; declare thou, that thou mayest be justified."
"Come," says God, "let us hear what you can say; let us plead together. Declare it, say what you can, and see whether you or I are in the right. I will even be content to leave it to you (only let us plead and declare what we can)."
But that place seems even more complete than what you have in Jeremiah 2:3, where you find repeated expressions of God pleading with his people. In verse 9, and again at least three times in this chapter, the Lord says he will plead. In verse 23, he states,
"Wherefore will you plead with me?" and then in verse 35, "Behold, I will plead with thee," says God. But now, God pleads by appealing to the very consciences of men. You find this in Ezekiel 18:25: "Yet you say, 'The way of the Lord is not equal.' Hear now, O house of Israel,"
(as if he would say), "Conscience, answer: Is not my way equal? Will not your own consciences answer you that his ways are equal?"
The Lord is content to plead with his people, and the conclusion of his pleading is to leave it to their consciences, as if God would say this (as he often does): God comes by his Spirit in the ministry of his
Word. I appeal to you—has he not often done so?—and says, "Do you think, in your very consciences, that these ways in which you walk are right? And are my ways good? Is it fair that wretched, sinful creatures should take their liberty to continue in their ways all their days, indulging in the lusts of their own vain hearts, and now, when they can sin no more nor any longer, they should cry to God for mercy, and that he should pardon them and accept them into his favour? Is this fair? Is not the Lord infinitely more deserving of all the strength you have, even if it were ten thousand times more than it is, than you giving it up to your lusts and vanities? Conscience, speak: is not God most worthy of all? And what were you made for?
Was it merely to eat and drink and satisfy your flesh, indulging in your lusts here for a while? Do you think in your conscience that God intended no other purpose for you when he sent you into the world?"
You have been on your sickbeds and cried to God, promising him better obedience. Now, are your ways equal, to take your liberty to sin after God has delivered you, after he preserved your life when you
were at the brink of death, and when death was ready to hand you over to eternal misery? Do you think that this was God's intention in preserving your life, so you might have more time to sin against him, and spend the latter part of your strength dishonouring his Name?
Was this God's purpose in preserving your life? God might have struck you one blow more and sent you down to eternal misery.
Then, God would have had no more dishonour from you but instead would have had the glory of his justice upon you. Now, do you think that this was the reason God preserved you—to grant you more years, to allow you more time to sin against him?
This demonstrates God's willingness to be reconciled, that the Lord is thus pleading with you. And let me speak to everyone here who has felt God pleading in this way with them: know that the Lord, by this act, strives to bring you to be reconciled to him. This is nothing other than the striving of the Spirit of God himself with you, though perhaps you find this troublesome. Many men and women, when their consciences plead with them in this way, find it bothersome.
Oh, wretched man or woman, this work of conscience is nothing but God pleading with you to save your soul. You have resisted his Word preached to you, and now God reaches out to you in another way—by his Spirit striving in your conscience. He appeals to your own conscience so that you might be brought in and reconciled to him.
But when God has no mind to be reconciled, he says to Conscience, "Let him alone," and then the sinner continues with a hardened heart, feeling relieved that his conscience is quiet. Oh, no, no,
Conscience is quiet because God has stopped striving with you.