Charles Spurgeon Collection: Spurgeon - C.H. - Sermons from Matthew: 44 MAT 22:5 Making Light of Christ
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Charles Spurgeon Collection: Spurgeon - C.H. - Sermons from Matthew: 44 MAT 22:5 Making Light of Christ
TOPIC: Spurgeon - C.H. - Sermons from Matthew (Other Topics in this Collection)
SUBJECT: 44 MAT 22:5 Making Light of Christ
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Making Light of Christ
August 17, 1856
by
C. H. SPURGEON
(1834-1892)
"They paid no attention and went off - one to his field, another to his
business." [Mat_22:5]
Man is not much changed since the days of Adam. In his bodily frame he
appears to be exactly similar, for skeletons many hundred years' old are the
exact counterparts of ours; and sure enough that which was recorded in
history as having been done by man centuries ago, might be written again, for
"there is nothing new under the sun." The same class of men is still to be
discovered (although, perhaps, differently dressed) as that which existed
ages long gone by. There are still men today who have the same disposition as
men in the Savior's day. "They paid no attention and went off - one to his
field, another to his business," making light of the glorious things of the
gospel.
I am certain I have many such characters here tonight, and I pray the Lord
that I may be enabled to discourse to them very solemnly and very clearly.
And I must ask all of you who understand the heavenly art of prayer, to pray
that God would be pleased to send home every thought into the breast where he
intends it to lodge, that it may bring forth the soft fruit of righteousness
in the salvation of many souls. "They paid no attention;" so do too many in
this day; and so will a large portion of my hearers tonight. I believe that
to pay no attention to Christ is a sin; and at all risks of being falsely
called legalist, or "free-willer," by those who consider themselves wiser
than what I have written, I will instruct you as such, for I hope I will
never belong to that class of Calvinists who do the devil's work by excusing
sinners in their sins.
In the first place, we shall have a few words with you, concerning "what it
is that the sinner pays no attention to; secondly, how it is that he pays no
attention; and thirdly, why it is that he pays no attention to it. Then a
general observation or two, and we will not weary you.
In the first place, WHAT IS IT THAT THE SINNER PAYS NO ATTENTION TO?
According to the parable, the person alluded to paid no attention to a
marriage banquet which a king had provided, with all kinds of delicacies, to
which they were freely invited, and from which they willfully stayed away
from. The spiritual meaning of this is easy to discover. Sinners who pay no
attention to Christ express their contempt of a glorious banquet which God
has provided at the marriage of His Son. This is solemn ground to tread upon.
Oh! for the teachings of the Holy Spirit.
Taking this parable as the basis of our remarks, we may observe, first, that
the sinner pays no attention to "the messenger who brings him the news that
the marriage supper is prepared." These men refused to come; they went-"One
to his field, another to his business," and so paid no attention to the
messenger; and every sinner who neglects the great salvation of Jesus Christ,
pays no attention to the gospel minister, which is a big insult in God's
estimation. It is never considered a small offense by our great nation, if
our ambassador is treated with indifference; and take it for a truth, it is
no light thing with God if you despise the ambassadors he sends to you. But
this is comparatively little; the ambassadors are men like yourselves, who
can well afford to be condemned, if that were all. In fact, we would be glad
to forgive you if it were in our power to do so, and if this were all your
guilt.
But these people "despised the feast." Some of them fancied that the fattened
cattle, and other provisions that would be on the table, would be no better
than what they had at home. They thought that the royal banquet would be no
big thing for which to give up their business for a day, or to renounce their
farming even for an hour. Oh! sinner, when you neglect the great salvation,
think about what you are despising; when you pay no attention to God's
gospel, you pay no attention to justification by faith; you pay no attention
to washing in the blood of Jesus; you pay no attention to the Holy Spirit;
you pay no attention to the road to heaven; and then you pay no attention to
faith, and hope, and love; you pay no attention to all the promises of the
eternal covenant, of all the glorious things that God has laid up for them
that love him, and of everything which he has revealed in his Word as being
the promised gift to those who come to him. It is a serious thing to pay no
attention to the gospel, for in that Word, God's gospel-good news, is summed
up in all that human nature can require, and all that even the saints in
bliss can receive. Oh! to despise the gospel of the blessed God, how mad! how
worse than folly! Despise the stars, and you are a fool; despise God's earth,
with its glorious mountains, with its flowing rivers, and its fair meadows,
and you art a maniac; but despise God's gospel, and you are ten thousand
maniacs in one. Pay no attention to that, and you are far more foolish than
he who sees no light in the sun, who beholds no fairness in the moon, and no
brilliancy in the starry sky. Trample, if you please, his lower works; but
oh! remember, when you pay no attention to the gospel, you are paying no
attention to the masterpiece of your great Creator-that which cost him more
than to create a myriad of worlds-the bloody purchase of our Savior's
agonies.
And, again, these people "paid no attention to the King's Son." In was his
marriage, and inasmuch as they stayed away, they dishonored the glorious One
in whose honor the supper was prepared. They slighted him whom his Father
loved. Oh! sinner, when you pay no attention to the gospel, you pay no
attention to Christ-that Christ before whom glorious celestial spirits bow
themselves-that Christ at whose feet the exalted archangel thinks it is
happiness to cast his crown; you pay no attention to him with whose praise
all of heaven rings; you pay no attention to him whom God makes much of, for
he has called him, "God over all, forever praised!" [Romans 9:5] Yes, it is a
solemn thing to pay no attention to Christ. Despise a prince, and you will
have little honor at the king's hand for it; but despise the Son of God, and
the Father will have vengeance on you for his slighted Son. Oh! my dear
friends, it seems to me to be a sin, not unpardonable, I know, but still most
heinous, that men should ever despise my blessed Lord Jesus Christ and treat
him with cruel scorn. Pay no attention to You, sweet Jesus! Oh! when I see
You with Your shirt of blood, wrestling in Gethsemane, I bow myself before
You, and I say, "O, Redeemer, bleeding for sin, can any sinner ever ignore
You?" When I behold him with a river of blood rolling down his shoulder,
beneath the cursed flogging of Pilate's whip, I ask, "Can a sinner refuse to
pay attention to such a Saviour as this?" And when I see him later, covered
with his blood, nailed to a cross, expiring in torture, shrieking, "Eli, Eli,
lama sabachthani," I ask myself, "Can anyone refuse to pay attention to
this?" Oh, if they do, then, indeed, it is a sin enough to damn them, if they
have no other sin-that they have lightly esteemed the Prince of Peace, who is
glorious and altogether lovely. Oh! my friend, if you pay no attention to
Christ, you have insulted the only one who can save you-the only one who can
carry you across the Jordan-the only one who can unbolt the gates of heaven,
and welcome you. Let no smooth talking preacher persuade you that this is not
a crime. O, sinner, think of your sin, if you pay no attention to him, then
you are paying no attention to the King's only Son.
And yet again, these people "also paid no attention to the King" who had
prepared the banquet, Oh! little do you know, O sinner, when you ignore the
gospel, you are insulting God. I have heard some say, "Sir, I do not believe
in Christ, but still I am sure I try to reverence God; I do not care about
the gospel, I do not wish to be washed in Jesus' blood, nor to be saved with
free grace; but I do not despise God; I am a very religious person!" No sir,
but you do insult the Almighty, inasmuch as you deny his Son. Despise a man's
offspring, and you have insulted the man himself; reject the one and only Son
of God, and you have rejected the eternal one himself. There is no such thing
as true religion apart from Christ; it is a lie and a falsehood, it is the
refuge of a man who is not brave enough to say he hates God, but it is only a
refuge of lies; for he who denies Christ in that act offends God, and shuts
heaven's gates against himself. There is no loving the Father except through
the Son; and there is no acceptable worship of the Father, except through the
Great High Priest the Mediator, Jesus Christ. Oh! my friend, remember you
have not merely despised the gospel, but you have despised the gospel's God.
In laughing at the doctrines of the Bible, you have laughed at God; in
scorning the truth of the gospel, you have scorned God himself, you have
shook your fist in the face of the Eternal; your blasphemy have not fallen on
the church, they have fallen on God himself. Oh! remember, you that mock the
message of Christ! Oh! remember, you that turn away from the ministry of
truth! God is a mighty one; how severely "can" he punish! God is a jealous
God; oh! how severely "will" he punish! Pay no attention to God, sinner? Why,
this above all things is a damning sin, and in committing it, it may be you
will one day sign your own death-warrant; for paying no attention to God, to
Christ, and to his holy gospel. You are destroying your own soul, and rushing
headfirst into hell. Oh! unhappy souls, most unhappy must you be, if you live
and die paying no attention to Christ, and preferring your farms and your
businesses to the treasures of the gospel.
Again, remember my poor, pitiable friend, that when you pay no attention to
all the things I have mentioned, "you are paying no attention to the
seriousness of eternity." The Man who pays no attention to the gospel pays no
attention to hell; he thinks its fires are not hot, and its flames not such
as Christ has described them; he pays no attention to the burning tears that
scald despairing cheeks forever; he pays no attention to the screams and
shrieks that must be the wretched songs and terrible music of perishing
souls. Oh! it is not wise to pay no attention to hell.
Consider again: you who pay no attention to heaven-that place to which the
blessed ones long to go, where glory reigns without a cloud, and bliss
without a sigh. You put the crown of everlasting life beneath your feet; you
tread the palm-branch of eternal peace beneath your unholy foot and you think
it not important to be saved, nor to be glorified. "Oh! poor soul, once you
are in hell, and when the iron key is turned forever in the lock of
inevitable destiny, you will find hell to be something easy to despise; and
when you have lost heaven and all its bliss, and can only hear the song of
the blessed, sounding faintly in the distance, increasing your misery by
contrast with their joy, then you will find it a very serious error to have
paid no attention to heaven. Every man who pays no attention to Christianity
pays no attention to these things. He misjudges the value of his own soul,
and the importance of its eternal state.
This is what men make light of, "Oh! sir," says one, "I never indulge in any
words hostile to God's truth, I never laugh at the minister, nor do I despise
the Sabbath." Stop, my friend, I will acquit thee of all that; and yet I will
solemnly lay to thy charge this great sin of making light of the gospel. Hear
me then!
II. HOW IS IT THAT MEN MAKE LIGHT OF IT?
In the first, it is making light of the gospel and of the whole of God's
glorious things, when men go to hear and yet do not attend. How many frequent
churches and chapels to indulge in a comfortable nap! Think what a fearful
insult that is to the King of heaven. Would they enter into Her Majesty's
palace, ask an audience, and then go to sleep before her face? And yet the
sin of sleeping in Her Majesty's presence, would not be so great, even
against her laws, as the sin of wilfully slumbering in God's sanctuary. How
many go to our houses of worship who do not sleep, but who sit with vacant
stare, listening as they would to a man would could not play a lively tune
upon a good instrument. What goeth in at one earth goeth out at another.
Whatever entereth the brain goeth out without ever affecting the heart. Ah,
my hearers, you are guilty of making light of God's gospel, when you sit
under a sermon without attending to it! Oh! what would lost souls give to the
hear another sermon! What would yonder dying wretch who is just now nearing
the grave, give for another Sabbath! And what will you give, one of these
days, when you shall be hard by Jordan's brink, that you might have one more
warning, and listen once more to the wooing voice of God's minister! We make
light of the gospel when we hear it, without solemn and awful attention to
it.
But some say they do attend. Well, it is possible to attend to the gospel,
and yet to make light of it. I have seen some men weep beneath a powerful
sermon; I have marked the tears chase each other-tears, blessed tell-tales of
emotions within. I have sometimes said to myself, it is marvellous to see
these people weep under some telling word from God, which is alarming them,
as if Sinai itself were thundering in their ears. But there is something more
marvellous than men's weeping under the word. It is the fact that they soon,
too soon, wipe all their tears away. But ah! my dear hearer, recollect that
if thou hearest of these things and shakest off a solemn impression, thou
art, in doing that, slighting God and making light of his truth; and take
heed how you do that, lest your own garments be red with the blood of your
soul, and it be said, "Oh, Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself."
But there are others who make light of it in a different fashion. They hear
the word and attend to it; but, alas! they attend to something else with it.
Oh! my hearer, thou makest light of Christ, if thou puttest him anywhere save
in the centre of thine heart. He who gives Christ a little of his affections,
makes light of Christ; for Christ will have the whole heart or none at all.
He who gives Christ a portion, and the world a portion, despises Christ, for
he seems to think that Christ does not deserve to have the whole. And
inasmuch as he says that, or thinks that, he hath mean and unholy thoughts of
Christ. Oh! carnal man, thou who art half religious, and half profane; thou
who art sometimes serious, but as often frivolous; sometimes apparently
pious, but yet so often unholy, thou makest light of Christ. And ye who weep
on the Sunday, and then go back to your sins on the Monday; ye who set the
world and its pleasures before Christ, ye think less of him than he deserves;
and what is that but to make light of him? Oh! I charge you, ask yourself, my
hearer this night, art not thou the man? dost thou not thou thyself make
light of Christ? The self-righteous man who sets himself up as a partner with
Christ in the matter of salvation, notwithstanding all his trumpery good
works, is such a ringleader among despisers, that I would gibbet him in the
very middle of them, and bid all like him tremble, lest they also be found
slighters of Jesus.
He makes light of Christ, again, who makes a profession of religion, and yet
does not live up to it. Ah! church members, ye want a great deal of sifting;
we have an immense quantity of chaff now mixed with the wheat; and sometimes
I think we have something worse than that. We have some in our churches that
are not so good as chaff, for they do not seem to have been near the wheat at
all; they are nothing better than tares. They have come into our churches,
just as they would into a trade-association, because they think it will
improve their business. It gives respectability to their name to take the
sacrament; it makes them esteemed to have been baptized, or to be a member of
a Christian church; and so they come in by shoals after the loaves and
fishes, but not after Jesus Christ. Ah! hypocrite, thou makest light of
Christ if thou thinkest that he is a stalkinghorse to get thee wealth. If
thou dreamest that thou art to saddle and bridle Christ, and ride to wealth
upon him, thou makest a grand mistake, for he was never meant to carry men
anywhere except to heaven. If you suppose that religion was intended to gild
your homes, to carpet your floors, and line your purses, you have greatly
erred. It was intended to be profitable to the soul; and he who thinks to use
religion to his own personal advantage thinks lightly of Christ: and at the
last day this crime shall be laid to his charge-that he has made light of
it;" and the King shall send his armies to cut him in pieces, among those who
have despised his Majesty, and would not obey his laws.
III. And now, in the third place, I will tell you WHY THEY MADE LIGHT OF IT.
They did so from different reasons.
Some of them made light of it because they were ignorant; they did not know
how good the feast was; they did not know how gracious the king was; they did
not know how fair the Prince was, or else they might have thought
differently. Now, there are many present to-night, I dare say, who think
lightly of the gospel, because they do not understand it. I have often heard
people laugh at religion; but ask them what it is, and they know no more
about religion than a horse, and worse than that, for they believe untruths
about it, and a horse does not do that. They laugh at it, simply because they
do not comprehend it; it is a thing beyond them. We have heard of a foolish
man who, whenever he heard a piece of Latin mentioned, laughed at it, because
he thought it was a joke, at any rate it was a very outlandish way of
talking-and so he laughed. So it is with many when they hear the gospel; they
do not know what it is, and so they laugh at it. "Oh!" they say, "the man is
mad." But why is he mad? Because you do not understand him. Are you so
conceited as to suppose that all wisdom and all learning must rest with you?
I would hint to you that the madness is on the other side. And though you may
say of him, "Much learning hath made thee mad;" we would reply, "It is quite
as easy to be made mad with none at all." And those who have none, and
especially those who have no knowledge of Christ, are the most likely to
despise him. Well did Watts say-
"His worth, if all the nations knew,
Sure, the whole earth would love him too."
Oh! dear friends, if you once knew what a blessed master Christ is, if you
once knew what a blessed thing the gospel is, if you could once be brought to
believe what a blessed God our God is, if you could only have one hour's
enjoyment such as the Christian experiences, if you could only have one
promise applied to your heart, you would never make light of the gospel
again. Oh! you say you do not like it! Why, you have never tried it? Should a
man despise the wine of which he has never sipped. It may be sweeter than he
dreams? Oh! taste and see that the Lord is good, and so sure as ever you
taste, you will see his goodness. I will venture to say, again, that there
are many who make light of the gospel, simply through ignorance; and if that
is so, I am somewhat in hopes that when they are a little enlightened by
sitting under the Word, the Lord may be pleased graciously to bring them to
himself; and then I know they will never make light of Christ again. Oh! do
not be ignorant, "for that the soul be without knowledge is not good." Seek
to know him whom to know aright is life eternal; and when you know him you
will never make light of him.
Other people make light of it because of pride. "What is the good," said one,
"of bringing me that invitation? Step into my house, my man, I will show you
a feast quite as good as any you can tell me of. Look here! there is good
cheer for you; my table is as well spread as any man's; begging his Majesty's
pardon, the King cannot give a better feast than I; and I do not see why I
should drag my bones about to get nothing better than I can get at home." So
he would not go, out of pride. And so with some of you. You want to be
washed! No, you were never filthy; were you? You need to be forgiven! Oh no!
you are rather too good for that. Why, you are so awfully pious in your own
conceit, that if it were all true, you would make even the angel Gabriel
blush to think of you. You do not think even an angel capable of holding a
candle to you. What! you seek for mercy? It is an insult to you. "Go and tell
the drunkard," you say, "go and fetch the harlot; but I am a respectable man;
I always go to church or chapel; I am a very good sort of fellow; I may
frolic now and then, but I make it up some other day; I am sometimes a little
slack, but then I rein the horses in, and make up the distance afterwards;
and I dare say I shall get to heaven as soon as anybody else. I am a very
good sort." Well, my friend, I do not wonder that you despise the gospel, for
the gospel just tells you that you are entirely lost. It tells you that your
very righteousness is full of sin. That, as for any hope of your being saved
by it, you might as well try to sail across the Atlantic on a sere leaf as
try to get to heaven by your righteousness. And as for it being a garment fit
to cover you, you might as well get a spider's web to go to court in, and
think it a dress fit to appear in before her Majesty. Ah! my hearer, I know
why thou despisest Christ; it is because of thy Satanic pride. May the Lord
pull the pride out of thee; for if he do not, it will be the faggot that
shall roast thy soul for ever. Take heed of pride; by pride fell the angels-
how can men, then, though the image of their Maker, hope to win by it? Shun
it, flee from it; for so sure as thou art proud, wilt thou incur the guilt of
making light of Christ.
Perhaps quite as many made light of the good news, because they did not
believe the messenger. "Oh!" said they, "stop a moment. What! a dinner to be
given away? I do not believe it. What! the young Prince going to be married?
Tell that to fools, we do not believe any such thing. What! we all invited?
We do not believe it; the story is incredible." The poor messenger went home
and told his Master that they would not believe him. That is just another
reason why many men make light of the gospel, because they do not believe it.
"What!" they say, "Jesus Christ died to wash men from their sins? We do not
believe it. What! A heaven. Who ever saw it? A hell! Who ever heard its
groans? What! Eternity. Who ever returned from that last hope of every
spirit. What! Blessedness in religion? We do not believe it-it is a moping,
miserable thing. What! Sweetness in the promises? No there is not; we believe
there is sweetness in the world, but we do not believe there is any in the
wells the Lord has digged." And so they despise the gospel, because they do
not believe it. But, I am sure, that when a man once believes it, he never
thinks lightly of it. Once let me have the solemn conviction in my heart by
the Holy Spirit, that if unsaved, there is a gaping gulf that shall devour
me; do you think I can go to rest till I have trembled from head to foot?
Once let me heartily believe that there is a heaven provided for those who
believe on Christ, do you think I could give sleep to my eyes, or slumber to
my eyelids, till I have wept because it is not mine? I believe not. But
damnable unbelief thrusts his hand into the mouth of an, and plucks up his
heart, and so destroys him, for it will not let him believe, and, therefore,
he cannot feel, because he believeth not. Oh! my friends, it is unbelief that
makes men think lightly of Christ; but unbelief will not do so by-and-bye.
There are no infidels in hell; they are all believers there. There are many
that were infidels here, but they are not so now; the flames are too hot to
make them doubt their existence. It is hard for a man, tormented in the
flame, to doubt the existence of the fire. It would be difficult for a man,
standing before the burning eyes of God, to doubt the existence of a God
after that. Ah! unbelievers, turn ye, or rather, may the Lord turn you from
your unbelief, for this makes you think lightly of Christ; and this is it
that is taking away your life, and destroying your souls.
Another set of people thought lightly of this feast because they were so
worldly; they had so much to do. I have heard of a rich merchant who was
waited on one day by a godly man, and when he stopped him, he said to him,
"Well, sir, what is the state of your soul?" "Soul!" he said, "bother you, I
have no time to take care of my soul; I have enough to do to take care of my
ships." About a week after, it so happened that he had to find time to die,
for God took him away. We fear he said to him, "Thou fool! this night thy
soul shall be required of thee; then whose shall those things be which thou
hast hoarded up for thyself?" Ye merchants of London, there are many of you
who read your ledgers more than your Bibles. Perhaps you must, but ye do not
read your Bibles at all, while ye read your ledgers every day. In America, it
is said, they worship the almighty dollar; I believe that in London many men
worship the almighty sovereign; they have the greatest possible respect for
an almighty bank note; that is the god which many men are always adoring. The
prayer-book they carry so religiously in their hands is their cash-book. Even
on Sunday, there is a gentleman over there, he does not think his foreman
knows it, but he was sitting in doors all this morning, because it was wet,
casting up his accounts; and now he comes here in the evening, because he is
a very pious man-extraordinarily so. He would shut the parks up on a Sunday,
he would-he would not let a soul get a breath of fresh air, because he is so
pious, but he himself may sit for half-a-day in the counting-house and yet
think it no sin. But many are too busy to think of these things. "Pray!" they
say, "I have no time for that; I have to pay. What! read the Bible? No I
cannot; I have to be looking over this thing and that thing, and seeing how
the markets go. I find time to read the Times, but I could not think of
reading the Bible." It will be marvellously unfortunate for some of you, that
you will find the lease of your lives rather shorter than you expected. If
you had taken a lease of your lives for eighty-eight years from this date,
you would be foolish enough, perhaps, to spend forty-four in sin. But
considering that you are a tenant at will, and liable to be turned out any
day, it is the height of folly, the very climax of absurdity, excelling all
that the fool, with his cap and bells, ever did, to be living just to gather
up the pelf of this world, and not for things to come. Worldliness is a demon
that hath wrung the neck of many souls; God grant that we may not perish
through our worldliness!
There is another class of people that I can only characterize in this way:
they are altogether thoughtless. If you ask them concerning religion, they
have no opinion at all about it. They do not positively detest it, they do
not mock at it; but they have not a thought about it. The fact of it is, they
intend thinking about it by-and-bye. Theirs is a kind of butterfly existence;
they are always moving about, never doing anything, neither for others or
themselves. And these are very amiable people, who are always ready to give a
guinea for a charity; they never refuse anybody, and they would give their
guinea all the same, whether it was for a cricket match or a church. Now, if
I were forced to go back to the world, and had to chose the character I would
wish to be, the last position I would wish to occupy would be that of the
thoughtless man. I believe thoughtless persons are in the most danger of
being lost of any class I know. I like, sometimes to get under the word a
thoroughly stout, stiff, hater of the gospel, for his heart is like a flint,
and when it is struck with the hammer of the gospel the flint goes to pieces
in a moment. But these thoughtless people have india-rubber hearts-you hit
them, and they give way; you strike them again, and they give way. If they
are sick, and you visit them, they say "yes." You talk to them about the
importance of religion; they say "yes." You talk to them about escaping from
hell and entering heaven, they say "Yes." You preach a sermon to them when
they are better, and remind them of the vows they made in their sickness; "it
is quite right, sir," they say. And they say the same whatever you may tell
them. They are always very polite to you; but whatever you say to them is put
aside. If you begin talking to them about drunkards; oh! they are not
drunkards; they may have accidently got drunk once, but that was a little
thing out of the usual way. And bring whatever sin you like to them, you may
hit them, and hit them, but it is no good, for they are not half so easily
broken (speaking after the manner of men) as the real stout-hearted hater of
the gospel. Why, there is a sailor comes rolling home from sea, swearing,
blaspheming, cursing; he comes into the house of God, and almost the first
word is applied by the Spirit for the breaking of Jack's heart. Another young
man says, "I know as much as any minister can tell me; for my own mother
taught me, and my old father used to read the Bible to me till, I believe, I
have got every bit of it in my head. I go to chapel out of respect to his
memory, but I really don't care at all about it; it is very good for old
people, it is quite right for old women, and those who are dying, and in time
of cholera. It is a very good thing, but I don't care anything about it just
now." Now, I tell you, careless people, most solemnly, that you are the very
devil's lifeguards; you are his reserve; he keeps you away from the battle,
he does not send you out like he does a blasphemer, for he fears that a shot
may haply light upon you, and you may be saved. But he says, "Stand by here,
and if you have to go out I will give you an inpenetrable coat of mail." The
arrows go rattling against you; they all hit you; but alas! there is not one
of them that penetrates your heart, for that is left elsewhere. You are only
an empty chrysalis, and when you come to God's house, and his word is
preached, you make light of it, because it is your habit to be thoughtless
about everything.
Very briefly I must touch another case, and then I must dismiss you. You may
make light of the gospel out of sheer presumption. They are like the foolish
man who goes on, and is punished; not like the prudent man, who "forseeth the
evil, and hideth himself." They go on; that step is safe-they take it; the
next step is safe-they take it; their foot hangs over a gulf of darkness; but
they will try one step, and as that is safe, they think they will try the
next; and as the last has been safe, and as for many years they have been
safe, they suppose they always shall be; and because they have not died yet,
they think they will never die. And so out of sheer presumption, thinking
"all men mortal but themselves," they go on making light of Christ. Tremble,
ye presumptuous, you will not always be able to do that.
And, lastly, I fear there are a great many who make light of Christ because
of the commonness of the gospel. It is preached everywhere, and that is why
you make light of it. You can hear it at the corner of every street; you can
read it in this widely circulated Bible; and because the gospel is so common,
therefore, you don't care for it. Ah! my dear friends, if there were only one
gospel minister in London that could tell you the truth; if there were only
one Bible in London, I believe you would be rushing to hear that Bible read;
and the man who had the message would have no sinecure of it, he would be
obliged to work from morning to night, to tell it out to you. But now,
because you have so many Bibles you forget to read them; because you have so
many tracts you pack up any article in them; because you have so many sermons
you do not think anything at all of them. But what is that? Dost thou think
the less of the sun because he scatters his beams abroad? Dost thou think the
less of bread because it is the food which God gives to all his children?
Dost thou think the less of water, when thou art thirsty, because every rill
will afford it to thee? No. If thou wert athirst after Christ, thou wouldst
love him all the better, because he is preached everywhere; and thou wouldst
not think lightly of him because of that.
"They made light of it." How many of my hearers to-night, I ask again, are
making light of Christ? Many of you are, no doubt. I will give you, then,
just one warning, and then farewell. Make light of Christ, sinner! let me
say, again, to thee, and thou wilt rue the day, when thou comest on thy
death-bed. It will go hard with thee when the bony monster has got the grip
of thee, and when he is bringing thee down to the river, to steep thee in the
lake of death. It will go hard with thee, when thy eye-strings break, and
when thy death-sweat stands upon the brow. Remember, last time thou hadst a
fever; ah! how thou didst shake. Remember, last night, how thou didst quake
in thy bed, when flash after flash of lightning came through thy window; and
how thou didst tremble when the deep-mouthed thunder spake out the voice of
God. Ah! sinner, thou wilt tremble worse then when thou shalt see death for
thyself, and when the bony rider, on his white horse, shall grasp his dart
and plunge it in thy bowels. It will go hard with thee if thou hast despised
Christ, and shalt die a despiser. See that flying angel? his wings are made
of flame, and in his hand he grasps a sharp two-edged sword. O angel,
wherefore dost thou wing thy speedy flight? "Hark!" says he, "this trump
shall tell you." And he puts a trumpet to his lips, and
"Blows a blast so loud and dread,
Ne'er were prophetic sounds so full of woe."
Look! the sheeted dead have started from their graves. Behold, the cloudy
chariot of wheeled along by cherub's hand. Mark! there upon the throne there
sits the King-the Prince. O angel, what in this terrible day must become of
the man that has thought lightly of Christ? See there, he unleashes his
sword. "This blade," says he, "shall find and pierce him through. This blade,
like a sickle, shall reap each tare from the wheat, and this strong arm shall
bind him up in his bundle to be burned; and this great arm of mine shall
grasp him, and hurl him down, down, down, where flames for ever burn, and
hell for ever howls." It will go hard with you then. Mark this man's word to-
night; go away and laugh at it; but remember, I say to you again, it will be
a solemn thing for you when Christ shall come to judgment, if you have made
light of him, and worse than all, if you should ever be locked up in the
caverns of despair, if you should ever hear it said, "Depart ye cursed," if
you should ever mingle your awful shrieks with the doleful howls of lost
myriads, if you should see the pit that is bottomless, and the gulf that has
walls of fire. It will be a fearful thing to find thyself in there, and to
know that thou canst ne'er get out again! Sinner, this night I preach the
gospel to thee. E'er thou goest, hear it, and believe it; may God grant thee
grace to receive it, so thou shalt be saved. "He that believeth and is
baptized, shall be saved. He that believeth not," so saith the Scripture,
"shall be damned." To believe, is to put your trust in Christ; to be
baptized, is to be plunged in water in the name of the Lord Jesus, as a
profession that you are already saved, and that you love Christ. "He that
believeth, and is baptized, shall be saved, and he that believeth not shall
be damned." O may you never know the meaning of that last word. Farewell!
Provided by:
Tony Capoccia
Bible Bulletin Board
Box 314
Columbus, NJ, USA 08022
Internet: hyperlink
Email: tony@biblebb.com