The Spurgeon Series 1857 & 1858. Charles H. Spurgeon

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СКАЧАТЬ of candour — not cheating the devil. But if God is God, and a man lives in sin, and talk about grace, then of what use is he? God himself will disown him. Ask him if this man has been of any use, and he replies, “No, of no use whatever.” The vine is of no use unless it brings forth fruit; and this man, making a profession, is worse than worthless, because he does not live up to it. My dear friends, I would not say an extravagant thing, but I will say this very coolly: — if any of you who make a profession of religion are deceiving others, by not living up to it, I do request you — and I say it advisedly — I do request you to give up your profession, unless God gives you grace to live up to it. Do not, I beseech you, halt between two opinions; if God is God serve him, and do it thoroughly; do not tell lies about it. If Baal is God, if he is a nice master, if you would like to serve him, and win his wages, serve him; but do not mix the two together; be one thing, or else the other. Renounce your profession, and serve the devil thoroughly, or else keep your profession, and serve God with all your heart — one thing, or else the other. I solemnly exhort you to choose which you will have, but never think that you can keep both; for “no man can serve two masters.” “You cannot serve God and mammon.”

      17. 4. And now let me close up by mentioning what is to become of this fruitless tree? We are told it is to be devoured in the fire. When an old vine is pulled off the wall, after having brought forth no fruit, what becomes of it? You know, there are a lot of weeds raked up in a corner of the garden, and the gardener, without taking any notice of it, just throws the vine on the heap of weeds, and it is burned up. If it were any other kind of tree he would at least reserve it for chopping up to make a fire within the master’s house, but this is such an ignominious thing, he throws it away in the corner, and burns it up with the weeds. If it was a stout old oak, it might have the funeral of the yule log, with honour in its burning, and brightness in its flame; but the fruitless vine is treated with contempt, and left to smoulder with the weeds, the refuse, and the rubbish. It is a miserable thing. Just so with professors; all men who do not love God must perish. But those who profess to love him, and do not, shall perish with singular ignominy. “They shall not come into the sepulchres of the kings.” Something like that ancient king, of whom it was said, “He shall be buried with the burial of an ass, drawn and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem.” The damnation of a professor will be the most horrible and ignominious sight that ever hell itself has seen! When Satan fell from heaven, with his black Satanic malice against God, there was a kind of grandeur in his devilry; there was an awful, terrific sublimity in his damnation; and when a great blasphemer and a hard swearer shall be sent at last to perdition, there shall be something of sublimity in it, because he has been consistent with his profession. But when a professor of religion finds himself in hell, it shall be the most miserable, contemptible, and yet terrible mode of damnation by which men were ever damned. I think I see honest blasphemers lifting themselves from their chains of fire, and hissing between their teeth at the minister who comes there, after having been a deceiver, — “Aha! aha! aha! are you here with us? You did warn us of our drunkenness, and tell us of our curse; ah! are you come into the drunkard’s hell yourself?” “Pshaw!” says another, “that is your strict Pharisee. Ah! I remember how he told me one night that I would perish, unless I made a profession of religion. Take that, sir!” and he spits upon him. “You are a loathsome thing. I perished; but I served my master well. You — you pretended to serve God, and yet you are a sneaking hypocrite!” Another says, yelling from the corner of the pit, “Let us have a Methodist hymn, sir; quote a promise from the Bible; tell us about election. Let us have a little of your fine preaching now.” And around hell there goes the hiss, and the “aha! aha! aha!” and the yell of spitefulness and scorn upon the man who professed to be a Christian, but became a castaway, because his heart was not right in the matter. I confess, I would dread above all things the unutterable hell of hells of hypocritical apostates, of men who stand in the ranks, profess to love God, prate of godliness, that sit in the pews and uphold Christianity, that take the sacrament, and speak about communion, that stand up to pray, and talk about being heard for their faith, who are all the while committing abominations, and under the cover of their profession are cheating the poor, robbing the fatherless, and doing all kinds of iniquity. I confess, I as much dread the excess of their damnation above the damnation of others, as I dread to be damned at all. It is as if in hell another hell had been made, to damn those who sin above others, to damn them after being damned — for hypocrites, for men who have been with us, and not of us; who professed to be Christ’s, and yet have been base deceivers after all. Oh! sirs, if you would not make your chains more heavy, if you would not stir the fire to a more furious heat, if you would not make your yells more hideous, quit your professions this night, if you are not worthy of them. Go out of this place, and send in your resignation to the church; or else, sirs, be honest, and bend your knee before God, and ask him to search you, and try you, and make you sincere and upright before him. Be one thing, or else the other; do not cloak yourselves in the robes of sanctity to hide the corruptions that all the while fester beneath. Stand out, bold, brave sinners; and do not be base, sneaking sinners that wear the masks of saints “How is the vine better than any other tree?” Without fruit it is worse than any other. It must perish more dolefully, more horribly than any other, if there is on it no fruit brought to perfection. Does not that shake us? Ah! it will shake you, very likely, that do not want the shaking; but the men that need arousing will keep just as they were. It will go into the hearts of some of you, like the cry, “Howl, Moab, howl, Moab!” but alas! Moab will not howl. You will weep for Kirhareseth, but Kirhareseth will not weep for herself. You will weep for your hypocritical friends; but they will rub their eyes, and say, “A strong sermon; but it has nothing to do with me.” And they will go out with cool presumption; sin with one hand, and take the sacramental cup with the other; sing the lascivious song one night, and then sing,

      “Jesus, lover of my soul,”

      the day after. Meet Christ here, and take the devil yonder, and bid him God speed in all his freaks of devilry. Ah! sirs, sirs, sirs, take heed, take heed, I beseech you, of this matter. Let us each search our hearts, lest we should have been deceived. And may God bring us to a right understanding in this matter, that we may be clear before him. “Search me, oh God, and know my ways; try me, and know my thoughts, and see if there is any wicked way in me; and lead me in the way everlasting.”

      18. And, now, I must not send you away until I have had a word with my friend in the aisle there. He says, “I like that, I like that; I am no professor, I am not; I am all right. No one can call me a hypocrite.” Well, my dear friend, I am very glad you are not, because you say you are no Christian. But let me tell you, you must not expect to be a great deal better off for that. Suppose two men are brought up before the Lord Mayor, and one says, “Your worship, I am an honest man and not guilty”; and he blushes that an imputation should be cast on his character. Well he is proven to be guilty, and gets committed to prison for three months. Up comes the other one and says, “Your worship, I am a guilty man; I always was a rogue, and I always shall be; I do not make any profession at all.” “I think I must give you six months,” says his worship, “for really I think you must be the more determined rascal of the two.” So if any of you say, “I do not make a profession, I shall be all right,” let me tell you, that to make a lying profession is a very fearful thing; but for you to think of getting off because you make no profession at all, is equally bad. Take heed you do not deceive yourselves; it must be the new heart and the right spirit with God, or else, profession or no profession, we must perish. Oh! that God would give us grace to go to our houses, and cry to him for mercy, and would help us to repent of our sins, and bring us to put our trust simply and wholly upon the Lord Jesus Christ! So should we be saved now, and saved for ever.

      Justification By Grace

      No. 126-3:153. A Sermon Delivered On Sunday Morning, April 5, 1857, By C. H. Spurgeon, At The Music Hall, Royal Surrey Gardens.

       Being justified freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. {Romans 3:24}

      1. The hill of comfort is the hill of Calvary; the house СКАЧАТЬ