The Spurgeon Series 1857 & 1858. Charles H. Spurgeon

can never satisfy,

      Give me Christ or else I die.”

      Sinner, you will never regret that choice, if God helps you to make it; you will find yourself a happy man here, and thrice happy throughout eternity.

      17. “But,” one says, “Sir, I intend to be religious, but I do not hold with your strictness.” I do not ask you to do so; I hope, however, you will hold with God’s strictness, and God’s strictness is ten thousand times greater than mine. You may say that I am puritanical in my preaching; God will be puritanical in judging in that great day. I may appear severe, but I can never be as severe as God will be. I may draw the harrow with sharp teeth across your conscience, but God shall drag harrows of eternal fire across you one day. I may speak thundering things! God will not speak them, but hurl them from his hands. Remember, men may laugh at hell, and say there is none; but they must reject their Bibles before they can believe the lie. Men’s consciences tell them that

      There is a dreadful hell,

      And everlasting pains;

      Where sinners must with demons dwell,

      In darkness, fire and chains.

      Sirs, will you keep your secret sins, and have eternal fire for them? Remember it is of no use, they must all be given up, or else you cannot be God’s child. You cannot by any means have both; it cannot be God and the world, it cannot be Christ and the devil; it must be one or the other. Oh! that God would give you grace to resign all; for what are they worth? They are your deceivers now, and will be your tormentors for ever. Oh! that your eyes were open to see the rottenness, the emptiness and trickery of iniquity. Oh! that God would turn you to himself. Oh! may God give you grace to cross the Rubicon of repentance at this very hour; to say, “Henceforth it is war to the knife with my sins; not one of them will I willingly keep, but down with them, down with them; Canaanite, Hittite, Jebusite, they shall all be driven out.”

      The dearest idol I have known,

      Whate’er that idol be;

      Help me to tear it from its throne,

      And worship only thee.

      “But oh! sir, I cannot do it, it would be like pulling my eyes out.” Indeed, but hear what Christ says: “It would be better for you to enter into life with one eye, than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire.” “But it would be like cutting my arm off.” Indeed, and it would be better for you to enter into life halt or maimed, than to be cast into hell fire for ever. Oh! when the sinner comes before God at last, do you think he will speak as he does now? God will reveal his secret sins: the sinner will not then say, “Lord, I thought my secret sins so sweet, I could not give them up.” I think I see how changed it will be then. “Sir,” you say now, “you are too strict”; will you say that when the eyes of the Almighty are glowering on you? You say now, “Sir you are too precise”; will you say that to God Almighty’s face? “Sir, I mean to keep such-and-such a sin.” Can you say it at God’s bar at last? You will not dare to do it then. Ah! when Christ comes a second time, there will be a marvellous change in the way men talk. I think I see him; there he sits upon his throne. Now, Caiaphas, come and condemn him now! Judas! come and kiss him now! What is holding you back now? Are you afraid of him? Now, Barabbas! go; see whether they will prefer you to Christ now. Swearer, now is your time; you have been a bold man; curse him to his face now. Now drunkard; stagger up to him now. Now infidel; tell him there is no Christ now — now that the world is lit with lightning and the earth is shaken with thunder until its solid pillars do bow themselves — tell God there is no God now; now laugh at the Bible; now scoff at the minister. Why men, what is the matter with you? Why, can you not do it? Ah! there you are; you have fled to the hills and to the rocks — “Rocks hide us! mountains fall on us; hide us from the face of him that sits on the throne.” Ah! where are your boasts now, your vauntings, and your glories? Alas! alas! for you, in that dread day of wonders.

      18. Secret sinner, what will then become of you? Go out of this place unmasked; go out to examine yourself, go out to bend your knee, go out to weep, go out to pray. God give you grace to believe! And oh, how sweet and pleasant the thought, that this day sinners have fled to Christ, and men have been born again to Jesus! Brethren, before I finish, I repeat the words at which so many have cavilled — it is now or never, it is turn or burn. Solemnly in God’s sight I say it; if it is not God’s truth I must answer for it in the great day of account. Your consciences tell you it is true. Take it home, and mock me if you will; this morning I am clear of your blood: if any do not seek God, but live in sin, I shall be clear of your blood in that day when the watchman shall have your souls demanded of him; oh, may God grant that you may be cleared in a blessed manner! When I went down these pulpit stairs a Sunday or two ago, a friend said to me words which have been in my mind ever since — “Sir, there are nine thousand people this day without excuse in the day of judgment.” It is true of you this morning. If you are damned, it will not be for lack of preaching to you, and it shall not be for lack of praying for you. God knows that if my heart could break by itself, it would, for your souls, for God is my witness, how earnestly I long for you in the heart of Christ Jesus. Oh, that he might touch your hearts and bring you to him! For death is a solemn thing, damnation is a horrible thing, to be without Christ is a dreadful thing, to be dead in sin is a terrible thing. May God lead you to view these things as they are, and save you, for his mercy’s sake! “He who believes and is baptised shall be saved.”

      Lord, search my soul, try every thought;

      Though my own heart accuse me not

      Of walking in a false disguise,

      I beg the trial of your eyes.

      Does secret mischief lurk within?

      Do I indulge some unknown sin?

      Oh turn my feet whene’er I stray,

      And lead me in your perfect way.

      {a} For the poem by Hood, GoTo Explorer “http://www.cs.rice.edu/~ssiyer/minstrels/poems/720.html”

      {b} Cairn: A pyramid of rough stones, raised for a memorial or mark of some kind. OED

      Lovest Thou Me?

      No. 117-3:81. A Sermon Delivered On Sunday Morning, By C. H. Spurgeon, At New Park Street Chapel, Southwark.

       Jesus says to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, “Do you love me more than these?” He says to him, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.” He says to him, “Feed my lambs.” He says to him again the second time, “Simon, son of Jonas, do you love me?” He says to him, “Yes, Lord you know that I love you.” He says to him, “Feed my sheep.” He says to him the third time, “Simon, son of Jonas, Do you love me?” Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” And he said to him, “Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.” Jesus says to him, “Feed my sheep.” {John 21:15-17}

      1. How very much was Christ the same before his crucifixion as he was after his resurrection! Although he had lain in the grave, and descended into the regions of the dead, and had retraced his steps to the land of the living, yet how marvellously similar he was in his manners and how unchanged in his disposition. His passion, his death, and his resurrection, could not alter his character as a man any more than they could affect his attributes as God. He is Jesus for ever the same. And when he appeared again to his disciples, he had cast aside none of his kind manners; he had not lost a particle of interest in their welfare; he addressed them just as tenderly as before, and called them his children and his friends. Concerning their temporal condition he was mindful, for he said, “Children, have you any meat?” And he was certainly quite as watchful over their spiritual state for after he had supplied their bodies by a rich draught from the sea, with fish (which possibly he had created for the occasion), he enquires after their souls’ health and prosperity, beginning with the one who might be supposed to have been in the most sickly condition, the one who had denied his Master