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TOPIC: Spurgeon - C.H. - God's Goodness Leading to Repentance (Other Topics in this Collection)
SUBJECT: Section 3 of 3
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Now I want, just for a minute or two, before I close, to address myself to those who have repented. Beloved friends, shall I tell you what your experience has been? I think I can, if I tell you what mine has been. First of all, when I really came to know the Lord Jesus Christ, I discovered that he loved sinners. Before I made that discovery, I thought he loved only the good and the righteous; but when I read his Word, I found that he came not to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance. I thought, for a long while, that he wanted my good works, and I had none to bring to him; but, as I read his Word, I found that he gave himself for our sins, not for our righteousnesses. Then I understood, as I read his Word, that whosoever believed in him should not be condemned. I believed in him, and I knew at once, from his Word, that I was not condemned,..that he had died for me,..that my sins were all pardoned. And, let me tell you, I never repented before as I repented then. It seemed to me,..if it was really true that he had forgiven me all my sin, and suffered and died that he might be able justly to forgive me,..that I must have been almost as bad as the devil himself to have sinned against him as I had done. Even while I rejoiced in being pardoned, I felt almost ashamed to look him in the face, and claim his mercy. To think that I should have sinned against such a Friend, who was so ready to forgive me all my guilt, made me ready to hide my head in the very dust. If he had bidden the thunders of his wrath to roll around me, I should not have been surprised; but when, instead of thunders, he gently said, "I love thee, and I forgive thee," then was my heart broken.
And wept to the praise of the mercy I'd found."
Then a voice whispered to me that, being pardoned, and justified, I was also adopted into the family of God, whereat I wondered, more than ever, how it could be that an heir of wrath should be able to say, "Abba, Father." As I understood this, I said, "Father, I did not know that thou wert my Father, or I would not have trespassed against thee, and gone away from thee as I have done." My voice was almost choked, my heart was full, and my tears freely flowed, as I grieved that I had so long offended my Father and my God. To make a long story short, I find myself, I thank his name, repenting more and more every day I live. I am more and more angry with myself to think I should not have kept my Father's commands in my mind, and served him with my whole heart.
I expect that, as I learn more of his goodness, it will always continue to lead me to repentance; and I trust, beloved brethren and sisters in Christ, you can bear me witness that I do but speak what is in your mind also. The dearer Christ is to us, the blacker is sin in our sight. The sweeter the love of God is to us, the more bitter is the thought of having so long sinned against it. The more you see, in these shoreless, bottomless deeps, what divine grace has done for you, and to you, the more you smite upon your breast, and cry, "How could I ever have sinned against the Lord as I have done; and how can I sin against him as I still continue to do?"
"Ah!" says one, "but mine is a very bad case, for I have had a relapse. I did think I was saved once, but I have been just as bad or even worse since then." Ah, but my Master delights to forgive his backsliding children! He has put this invitation in the Scriptures on purpose for you: "Turn, O backsliding children, saith the Lord; for I am married unto you." Again and again he saith, "Return! Return! Return! You, whom the Church, in God's name, has excommunicated, I yet invite you to return. It is an awful thing to lie under the ban of God's Church, for what is so done on earth is confirmed in heaven; but, though you lie under this ban, I yet invite you to return unto me, for I will receive you graciously, and love you freely."
"Ah!" says one, "but I do not feel my need of Christ as I could wish to feel it. I believe it in theory, but I do not feel it as I should." Well, be humbled about this; weep because you do not weep; be grieved to think that you should be so hard-hearted; but, oh! remember that Christ can cure hard hearts quite as well as sinful ones. Come just as you are. You have a real need of Christ, whether you feel it or not. It is not your sense of need, but your real need of Christ that must draw you to come to him. O ye who are sick,..and who is there among us who is not?..come to the great Physician, and be made whole! I would gladly move your souls if I could, but this is not in man's power. There have been times when I have been able to stir you through and through, as the waves of the sea are moved by the wind; but I know that when man only has done this, all the tempest has soon subsided, and you have gone your way, and have been as before; but, oh! if God shall own this poor and imperfect statement of most precious truth, then unto him shall be the glory. Payson says, "Looking back on my sermons, I often wonder that God should ever have blessed a soul through them;" and often do I think the same. I pray God to bless the message. Young man, what say you to haul down the black flag, and run up the blood-red cross to-night? You may yet be a minister of Christ, perhaps a missionary of the cross. In the name of Jesus of Nazareth, I bid you believe on him, and you shall live; and all of you who are gathered here, I command you, as well as beseech, implore, and entreat you, do not put away from you the gospel which is preached in your hearing. Trust Christ, and you shall live; if you will not do so, it may be that you will never again be exhorted to come to Christ. You may never again be told that he is willing and able to receive you. Oh, will ye again go your ways, and despise the Lord? Will ye go to your merchandise and to your trade, and neglect the salvation of your souls, and let them become still worse in this foul disease which ends in death and damnation? "Turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways, for why will ye die?" By that cross where hung the Son of God in mortal flesh, by those five wounds, and by the agonies he endured, I do implore you to look to him and live. As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so lift I up the Son of man to you now, ye sin-bitten sinners. Though ye feel not the venom, yet look! look! look! Sinner, look, and thou art saved! By the living God, whose splendours of grace I now proclaim, and whose splendours of wrath ye shall one day feel if ye reject his Son, look! look yonder, see the blood,..it flows for you, sinner! See the hands of Jesus, they are fast nailed to the tree! See his feet there, fastened by the nails as if they would stop there till you come to him! See that heart of his; how it streams with blood to wash away your many sins! O sinner, look and live! I cannot say more. God knows I cannot do more; I can only testify to you the gospel. If ye turn not at my message, I must be a swift witness against you at the day of judgment;..I must say it,..I must be a swift witness against you. Your blood is on your own heads! Christ is preached to you. Look and live! Believe and be saved! But reject him, and he that believeth not shall be damned; and I can only say "Amen" to that, if you reject so great a salvation.
Yet, I pray you, think not so much of the law as of the gospel, nor think so much of hell as of the Christ who has delivered his people from hell, nor so much of divine wrath as of God's goodness. It is a good God whom I have to set before you. I never so much wish to be eloquent as when I have to speak of him, and all his love to guilty sinners. What has he done to any of us but that which is good? Even if he has sorely smitten us, it has been in mercy that he has done it. Though you may have lain for weeks upon a sick-bed, it was meant to cure your souls of the fatal disease of sin. That limb was broken that your spirit might be healed. That loss of sight was sent that you might learn, by inward sight, to see the Lord Jesus as your Saviour. God is all goodness, and mercy, and love, and tenderness, and he has set his own dear Son before you, saying to you, "Believe in him, and ye shall be saved. ÔCome now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.'" Will you not turn unto him, and live? Eternal Spirit, turn them, and they shall be turned, for Jesus Christ's sake! Amen.
Taken From:
Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit
Vol. 49, No. 2857