Chapter 80. Use 2 and 3
4. What Need Has God of You?
Though you should perish and die eternally, it would be no great matter to Him. God could still have His glory out of your eternal ruin. But, to that end—that He might break your hearts—He entreats and beseeches you. Oh, marvel at the riches of His grace, and give
Him the glory that is due unto Him. Begin to do now that which you will do for all eternity when you come into His glorious presence in Heaven.
Chapter 80 Use 2 and 3 Secondly, the more God manifests His grace, the more desperately wicked is the heart of man to stand out against God. Oh, wretched, cursed heart that can stand out against God; that can resist the offer of grace in the Gospel. I say, this is a cursed heart, to stand out against the offer of grace, even if it were no more than that. If it were only declared that Christ has come into the world to save sinners,
God expects that all those to whom Christ is revealed should come flocking to Him and cry out mightily to God for mercy in Christ. But when God not only offers His Son but also comes through the ministry of His Word and the work of His Spirit to draw your hearts to Him, and yet you still stand out against God, against all these gracious beginnings, drawings, and tender expressions of His love, then, oh, cursed, stubborn, hardened heart that would stand out against all these!
You cannot now plead, "Oh, the temptation was strong to draw my heart away from God to such and such sinful ways." Was temptation strong? Has any temptation ever drawn as alluringly as God has drawn you through His Gospel? It is impossible that the Devil and all the world could draw more alluringly to any sin than God draws you to Himself.
Oh, these entreaties of God, this gracious way toward sinners, will be the greatest aggravation of the sins of men that ever was or can be imagined. For now, just know this: the mercies of God, which will be the subject of the saints' rejoicing and the blessing of His name for all eternity, will be your greatest misery if you stand against them. That is a sad thought for any sinner—that the mercy which the saints will be eternally admiring and blessing God for will become your misery, your secret wound, and your greatest terror. That is the second point.
USE 3 Oh, rebuke your own wretched heart that has stood out against God for so long, all these days of your life. Certainly, the consideration of standing out against any command of God, when God comes to enlighten a man's conscience and the soul comes to understand with whom he has to deal, has a mighty power to break the heart of man.
When I come to see that I have stood against all those loving drawings, all those wooings of the Gospel, it is that which will rend your hearts. Rend your hearts and not your garments, for the Lord is merciful; this is not just a breaking of the heart but a rending of the heart when the grace of God is revealed to it.