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TOPIC: Spurgeon - C.H. - God's Goodness Leading to Repentance (Other Topics in this Collection)
SUBJECT: Section 2 of 3
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I would like to take you by the hand, young man,..you who have been signally helped, perhaps, out of a difficulty in business, when it seemed as if you must fail. You have, since then, had many severe storms and trials to face, yet you have always been delivered out of them all, and now you have come into a channel where it is all smooth sailing. Is it not time for you to begin to consider your ways, and to turn unto the Lord? You were blessed with a happy marriage; your children are growing up around you, and whereas many others have had to bury their offspring, yours have all been spared to you. Do you not see how God has blessed you in all sorts of ways? Will you not, therefore, give him your heart? Will you not cast away from you the sin that he hates? Will you not turn unto him, trusting and loving Christ with all your heart, and mind, and soul, and strength? The goodness of God to you, coming in so many different forms and ways, should lead you to repentance.
Notice, dear friends, that the Lord does not drive you to repentance. Cain was driven away, as a fugitive and a vagabond, when he had killed his righteous brother Abel; Judas went and hanged himself, being driven by an anguish of remorse because of what he had done in betraying his Lord; but the sweetest and best repentance is that which comes, not by driving, but by drawing: "The goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance." It is a wretched spirit that needs to be continually flogged with the whip of a slave-holder; I hope I am addressing those who can be affected by other motives than those of dread. The good God, the gracious God, who has abounded in mercy and goodness so wonderfully to many of you,..should you not feel that something is drawing you towards him? At least, do him the justice to look at him as he reveals himself in Christ Jesus, and see if he is not worth serving,..if it is not meet and right that you should serve him. Having provided his Son to be the Saviour of sinners, is it not meet that you should turn unto him, and find eternal life through believing in him?
I have only given a brief outline of the many forms of God's goodness to many of us; but your experiences are so different that you must, each one, fill up his or her own. I know that you all have reason to bless God for some special goodness. We sang, just now,..
I am, I am out of hell;"..
II. Now, secondly, I will try to show you IN WHAT WAY THE GOODNESS OF GOD IS AN ARGUMENT FOR OUR REPENTANCE.
First, God has been so good to us, He cannot be a hard taskmaster. The ungodly man cannot truly say to God what the man in the parable said to his lord, "I feared thee, because thou art an austere man." How can God be austere when he has manifested all this goodness to you? Your house has been without prayer, yet you have had no fire to burn it down, no thieves to ransack it, no fever to invade it; you have lived for forty, fifty, sixty, or even seventy or eighty years without ever serving your Maker; yet you are surrounded with every earthly comfort; after all that, can you call God a hard task-master? No; it is proved beyond all question that God is good, and only good, and that he doeth good even to the unthankful and the evil. Well, then, what a shame it is that such a generous, magnanimous God as he is should be treated as the careless and indifferent treat him! When a man is simply a just man, that is well so far as it goes; but he may be hard and stern; but when a man is generous, forgiving, tender- hearted,..surely, the most coarse-minded among us would be unwilling to inflict pain upon such a heart as that! But the heart of God is more loving than that of any man who has ever lived; and more tender than ever any mother was with her child. He cannot bear that you should love evil instead of loving him. And after he has done all this for you of which I have been speaking, wherefore do you turn against him? Did I hear you make use of a blasphemous expression? For which of all the good things that he has done for you did you blaspheme his holy name? For sparing your life when you had that terrible fever; or for raising up your dear little child from the very brink of the grave? Do you neglect to worship the Lord, do you rail at his people, do you scoff at all religion, because of the many tokens of God's goodness that he has manifested toward you? Come, now, be a man; sink not below the level of a brute, for even a brute will render good for good. It is the devil who renders evil for good; yet you are sinking to his level if you continue in sin, and turn not unto God, who has dealt so kindly and so graciously with you.
The next reflection to help you to repentance is this. As God has dealt so kindly with you while you have been living in sin, then it is untrue, as you thought, that he is unwilling to forgive. There are many, who do not seek God's mercy, because they think it is not to be obtained by them, but that is one of the devil's lies. Why, man, as he has spared you so long, he must be willing to forgive you. There are some, who even dare to invoke their Maker's curse upon their own limbs and eyes; if any of you have ever done that, and yet the Lord has not done what you blasphemously asked him to do,..the reason for his forbearance must have been that he is full of longsuffering and gentleness. Turn to him, I pray you; and, with broken heart and contrite spirit, ask him to forgive you, and you shall see how quickly he will do it, for it is still true that "He is good: for his mercy endureth for ever." "He delighteth in mercy." "As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way, and live." The great goodness of God to rebellious sinners is proof positive that he is willing to bestow his forgiving mercy upon them as soon as they repent of their sin; so it should be a great inducement to them to turn unto him, and live.
The argument, however, will appear to be stronger still if, in reading our text: we lay the emphasis upon the personal pronoun: "The goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance." Now, dear friend, if God has taken the trouble to be specially good to you, in order to lead you to repentance, you may be certain that he would not have picked you out in this remarkable manner unless he had intended to welcome you if you do but come unto him. I will not point my finger at any particular person, nor will I intentionally direct a glance of my eye at any special individual; but I feel persuaded that there are some here who have been, in the providence of God, very signally favoured. If your life-story could be written, it would, perhaps, scarcely be believed; and as you look back upon difficulties and trials that you have been enabled to surmount, and upon the many blessings that have been showered upon you, it must sometimes seem to you almost like a dream. You cannot understand it; you say to yourself that you have been one of the darlings of destiny. If you have said that, do not talk any more about destiny, but think of what the apostle says in our text; "The goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance." I hope that thou art one of his elect,..chosen in Christ long before the foundation of the world, and that thou hast in thy heart heard him say to thee, by his Holy Spirit, though not in words audible to thine outward ear, "I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee." Think of John Newton, the godless sailor, reduced to the level of a slave on the coast of Africa; yet, after going from sin to sin, being spared to stand in the church of St. Mary Woolnoth, for many a year to preach the gospel of "free grace and dying love." So, the many fevers from which he suffered could not kill him, and his various shipwrecks could not drown him, for God had ordained that he must come home, find the Lord Jesus Christ as his Saviour, and be his faithful servant all the rest of his days. And you, my friend, who have long been roaming about the world, must come to that same Saviour if you really wish to be saved. You are like a besieged city; yet something more powerful than great guns is now ranged against you. The batteries of almighty love have come into the field. Providence after providence has surrounded you with the gracious artillery of divine mercy. You cannot escape; therefore, surrender to your best Friend! Surrender to your God! Surrender to holiness, and happiness, and everlasting life! God help you to do so, for the legitimate argument of undeserved goodness, given to the worst of men, is that it should lead them speedily to repentance and to eternal life. This personal pronoun is in the singular, so I pray thee, my brother, and thee, my sister, to take home to thine own heart the message of the text: "The goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance."