The Spurgeon Series 1857 & 1858. Charles H. Spurgeon

as well as in public; some among the poor as well as among the rich.

      11. And there are false professors to be found among men that doubt a great deal. They are always afraid they do not love Jesus, and always saying, “Ah, if I only know that I were his! —

      ’Tis a point I long to know;

      Oft it causes anxious thought.”

      Yes, and it ought to cause them anxious thought, too, if they are bringing forth no fruit, and giving no “diligence to make their galling and election sure.” Fruitless professors are to be found, on the other hand, among the confident men, who say, without a blush, “I know whom I have believed; I know I am a Christian, let who will doubt. I am sure and certain my sins cannot destroy me, and my righteousness cannot save me. I may do what I like; I know I am one of the Lord’s.” Ah! fruitless professor again; just as fruitless as the other man, who had all doubts and no faith, and did nothing for his Master.

      12. And then there is the fruitless professor, who, when he is asked to pray at the prayer meeting, never does so; and who neglects family prayer. We will not say anything about private devotion; no doubt he neglects that too: he is a fruitless one. Ah! but there may be another, who stands up and prays such an eloquent prayer for a quarter of an hour, perhaps, just as fruitless a professor as the silent one; with plenty of words, but no realities; many leaves, but no fruits, great gifts of utterance, but no gifts of consistency; able to talk well, but not to walk well; to speak piously, but not to walk humbly with his God, and serve him with gladness. I do not know your individual characters tonight; but I know enough of you to say that your position, however honourable in the church, and your character, however fair before men, is not enough to warrant any of you in concluding at once that you are not a fruitless professor. For fruitless professors are of every character and every rank, from the highest to the lowest, from the most talented to the most illiterate, from the richest to the poorest, from the most retiring to the most conspicuous. Fruitless professors there are in every part of the church.

      13. Now, shall I tell you who is a fruitless professor? The man who neglects private prayer, and does not walk with his God in public; that man whose conduct and conversation before God are hypocritical; who cheats in trade and robs in business, yet wraps it up, and comes out with a fair face, like the hypocrite with a widow’s house sticking in his throat, and says, “Lord, I thank you I am not as other men are!” There is a man for you, who brings forth no fruit to perfection. Another one is he who lives very morally and excellently, and depends upon his works and hopes to be saved by his righteousness: who comes before God, and asks for pardon, with a lie in his right hand, for he has brought his own self-righteousness with him. Such a man is a fruitless professor; he has brought forth no fruit. That man, again, is a fruitless professor who talks big words about high doctrine, and likes sound truth, but he does not like sound living: his pretensions are high but not his practice. He can bear to hear it said,

      “Once in Christ, in Christ for ever.”

      But as for himself he never was in Christ at all, for he neither loves nor serves his Master, but lives in sin that grace may abound. There is another fruitless vine for you.

      14. But why do I need to stop to single you out? May the Lord find you out tonight! There are many of you here, concerning whom the curse of Meroz might be uttered “Curse Meroz, said the angel of the Lord, curse bitterly its inhabitants; because they did not come to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord against the mighty.” Many of you are content to eat the fat and drink the sweet, and bring forth no fruit for God; nor do you serve him — lazy Issachars, crouching down like a strong ass between two burdens; neither speaking for Christ, nor praying for Christ, nor giving to Christ, nor living for Christ, but having a name to live, while you are dead; wrapping yourselves up in a profession, while you are not living for Christ, nor consecrating your being to him. Judge what I say; if you were put into the sieve this night, how many of you would come out clean in this matter? Are there not many high flying professors here, who fly high, but who do nothing; who can talk fast, but live as slowly as you like; who, perhaps, delight in hearing the truth, but who never practise the truth in serving their God, nor living to his honour? Such as you, sirs, are the most useless and worthless of all creatures in the world! For, like the vine, you would be honourable if you were fruitful; but without fruit, as the vine is despicable, so are you good for nothing but to be cast out and burned.

      15. 2. And now I come to the second question — Why is it that these men are fruitless, and must be cast away? The reason is, because they have no roots. Many, many professors have no roots; fine professors they are, beautiful to look at, but they have no roots whatever. Do not you remember your childish behaviour; when you had a little garden of your own when you plucked some flowers, and put them in the ground, and said that was your garden; and when you went the next day, and found that all the flowers were withered and dead? Such are many professors — pretty flowers, plucked off without roots; having no adherence to the soil, drawing no sap and no nourishment from it. And therefore that is why they die, and bring forth no fruit. You come to us, and say, “I wish to join the church.” We question you as far as we are able; you solemnly tell us that your hearts are right with God. We baptize you, receive you into our number; but then there was no root in many of you, and after a while you die; when the sun has risen with a burning heat you perish; or if you maintain a tolerably fair profession, yet there is never any fruit upon you, because you did not get the root first; you got the notion first, and then thought you would get the root afterwards. I do tremble for many young people in my church — I will not exclude my own church. They get an idea into their heads that they are converted: the work was not true, not genuine not real; it was an excitement; it was a stir in the conscience for awhile, and it will not last. But the worst of it is, that though it does not last, they last as professors. When they have been received into the church, they say, “I am sure enough!” Preach about them as long as you please, you cannot get at them. They are church members, they are baptized people, they have crossed the Rubicon; what more could they want? You can do little for them. I do tremble for these. For my most hard hearted hearers I weep before God; but for these people I need to have four eyes to weep with. For who can make an impression upon them, when they are firmly persuaded that they are right, and have had the seal of the church that they are right, though notwithstanding that they are deceiving themselves and others, and are still “in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity.” My young friends, I do not want to hinder any of you in joining a church; but I do say to you, make sure work of it before you make a profession. I would say to as many of you as love the Lord, come forward and unite with God’s people; but, I beseech you, do be sure, do “search your hearts and try your reins.” Many have thought themselves converted when they were not; hundreds of thousands have had an impression, a kind of conversion, not real, which for a while endured, but afterwards it passed away as a summer’s dream. It was only a little while ago that I had in my house a gentleman, an excellent man, and I believe a true child of God, who told me he had been brought seriously under the impression, on account of sin, through hearing a sermon of late. “But,” he said, “I was baptized in my childhood. When I was only young, there was a revival in our village, in New England. Mine was the hardest heart in the village; but I was found out at last. There was scarcely a boy or girl that did not join the church, and I was at last brought under deep conviction. I used to weep before God, and pray to him. I went to the minister and told him I was converted, deceived him, and was baptized.” And then he went on to tell me that he had dived into the blackest crimes, and gone far away, even from the profession of religion; that after going to College he had been struck off the church roll on account of wickedness, and that up to this time he had been an infidel, and had not so much as thought of the things of the kingdom. Take heed, many of you, that you do not get a sham religion. Many jump into godliness as they would into a bath; but they are very glad to jump out of it again, when they find the world pays them better. And there are many who will just come and say they are the Lord’s, and they think they are, but there is no root in them, and therefore by and by their impressions pass away. Oh! we have many fruitless professors in our midst, because they did not look well to their beginnings; they did not take heed at their starting point; they did not watch well the first dawn; they thought