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INSTRUCTION TO BE OBEYED
THE Scriptures speak plainly, and represent things as they really are. Perhaps there is no man that would acknowledge he despised God: yet does God lay that sin to the charge of all who question his retributive justice: “Wherefore doth the wicked contemn God, while he doth say in his heart, Thou wilt not require it [Note: Psa_10:13.]?” So none would confess that they “despise their own souls:” yet is that the real character of all who refuse the instruction which God sends to them by his written word, and by the ministration of his faithful servants. And this will appear, if we consider,
I. The need that every man has of divine instruction—
Much may be known to man from sensation and reflection: he may gather much from observation and experience, and the mere force of reasoning, without any revelation from heaven: but without divine instruction,
1. He can never know the extent of his wants—
[He cannot know his fall in Adam, or the depravity of his fallen nature, or his utter incapacity to restore himself to God’s favour. If told that “his carnal mind is enmity against God,” and that “without Christ he can do nothing,” and that God alone can give him either to will or to do any thing agreeable to the divine command, he would think it all a libel upon human nature. It is revelation alone that can give him any just views on these subjects — — —]
2. He can still less know how those wants are to be supplied—
[Who could ever have thought that God himself should become incarnate, and live and die for the express purpose of supplying the necessities of his fallen creatures? Who could ever have imagined that God’s righteousness should be imputed to man? and that the Spirit of the living God should ever dwell in man, for the purpose of revealing the Saviour to him, and of imparting to him the divine image? A man not instructed in these things can know nothing about them. They are all matters of pure revelation, and directly contrary to those methods of salvation which uninstructed man would have adopted for himself — — —]
3. He can never avail himself of those offers which God has made to him in the Gospel—
[In the Holy Scriptures are contained “exceeding great and precious promises,” yea, promises confirmed by an oath, and ratified by an everlasting covenant. These promises relate to every want of fallen man, and make over to him a supply of every want by the simple exercise of faith on the part of man. How can the unenlightened man obtain an interest in these? How is it possible for him to lay hold of them, and rest upon them, and plead them before God, when he has never been instructed in relation to them? — — — It is obvious, that without divine instruction he must for ever lie under the guilt and power of his sins, and endure the punishment due to his unrepented and unpardoned transgressions.]
What then must be,
II. The light in which he must be viewed, who refuses instruction?
We use by no means too strong an expression, if we say, “He despises his own soul.” For,
1. He grievously underrates its value—
[Who can estimate the value of an immortal soul, a soul capable of knowing, honouring, and enjoying, the Most High God: and actually assured of that honour, if only it obtain the knowledge of Christ, and repose all its confidence in him? But, to judge of its value aright, we must take into account the love that God has borne towards it, and the price which our adorable Lord and Saviour has paid for its redemption. Contemplate its nature and its capacity, its estimation by God, and its eternal destinies: and then say. Whether the man who refuses the instruction whereby he is to be made happy, does not altogether betray an ignorance of its true value? — — —]
2. He shamefully disregards its interests—
[Without an attention to the concerns of the soul, it is in vain to hope that it can ever be happy in the eternal world. The man that refuses divine instruction, does in reality inflict upon his soul the heaviest judgment that it can sustain in this life: he says, in fact, ‘Let me alone, that I may go on to increase my guilt, and “treasure up for myself wrath against the day of wrath.” ’ What would be thought of a man who should so trifle with his temporal interests? Would there be any term of reproach too harsh or too contemptuous whereby to designate so foolish a character? What, then, must we say of a man who so neglects the interests of his soul? — — —]
3. He casts it away for a thing of nought—
[Give to sensual gratifications all the importance you will, they are only as the small dust upon the balance when weighed against the soul. Yet for these does the man who refuses instruction sell his soul. Truly, if Esau “despised his birthright,” when he “sold it for a mess of pottage [Note: Gen_25:34.],” much more do they pour contempt upon their own souls, who, for any consideration whatever, abandon all reasonable hopes of heaven, and subject themselves to the infliction of everlasting misery in hell — — —]
Address—
1. Avail yourselves now of the opportunities that are afforded you—
[There has been declared unto you from time to time, so far as I have been enabled to declare it, “the whole counsel of God.” Think what improvement you have made of these instructions — — — and what will be your reflections in the eternal world, if you reject them [Note: Pro_5:12-13.] — — — Indeed, whilst disregarding the instructions given you, you greatly “wrong your own souls,” and act as persons that are “in love with death [Note: Pro_8:36.].” O that ye may be wise ere it be too late! For, “if they escaped not, who refused Moses who spake on earth, much more shall not ye escape, if ye turn away from him, even the Lord Jesus, who now speaketh to you from heaven [Note: Heb_12:25.].”]
2. “Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves [Note: Jam_1:22.]”—
[Instruction, if it abide in the understanding only, will be of no profit. To be really useful, it must descend into your hearts, and operate in your lives. Our blessed Lord’s warning upon this subject deserves your deepest attention. I would have you not only wise, but “wise unto salvation.” I would not that you should erect a house upon the sand; and that, after all your labour, it should fall upon your heads, and crush you; but rather, that you should build your house upon a rock, and find it able to shelter you from all the storms and tempests that ever can assault it [Note: Mat_7:24-27.]. This will shew that “you have real love to your soul [Note: Pro_19:8.];” and richly shall you “be recompensed at the resurrection of the just [Note: Pro_8:33-35.].”]