A Sermon by C.H. Spurgeon
“The carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not
subject to the Law of God, neither indeed can be.”
Romans 8:7
This is a very solemn indictment which the Apostle Paul
here prefers against the carnal mind. He declares it to be enmity against God.
When we consider what man once was, only second to the angels, the companion of
God, who walked with Him in the garden of Eden in the cool of the day. When we
think of him as being made in the very image of his Creator, pure, spotless and
unblemished, we cannot but feel bitterly grieved to find such an accusation as
this preferred against us as a race, We may well hang our harps upon the
willows while we listen to the voice of Jehovah, solemnly speaking to His
rebellious creature:
“How are you fallen from Heaven, you son of the morning!”
“You seal up the sun, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You have been in
Eden, the garden of God. Every precious stone was your covering–the workmanship
of your tabrets and of your pipes was prepared in you in the day that you were
created. You are the anointed cherub that covers. And I have set you so–you
were upon the holy mountain of God. You have walked up and down in the midst of
the stones of fire. You were perfect in your ways from the day that you were
created, till iniquity was found in you and you sinned. Therefore I will cast
you as profane out of the mountain of God–and will destroy you, O covering
cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire.”
There is much to sadden us in a view of the ruins of our
race. As the Carthaginian who might tread the desolate site of his much-loved
city would shed many tears when he saw it laid in heaps by the Romans. Or as
the Jew, wandering through the deserted streets of Jerusalem, would lament that
the plowshare had marred the beauty and the glory of that city which was the
joy of the whole earth. So ought we to mourn for ourselves and our race when we
behold the ruins of that goodly structure which God has made–that creature,
matchless in symmetry, second only to angelic intellect. That mighty being,
man–when we behold how he is “fallen, fallen, fallen, from his high estate” and
lies in a mass of destruction.
A few years ago a star was seen blazing out with
considerable brilliance but soon disappeared. It has since been affirmed that
it was a world on fire, thousands of millions of miles from us and yet the rays
of the conflagration reached us. The noiseless messenger of light gave to the
distant dwellers on this globe the alarm of, “A world on fire!” But what is the
conflagration of a distant planet, what is the destruction of the mere material
of the most ponderous orb compared with this Fall of humanity, this wreck of
all that is holy and sacred in ourselves? To us, indeed, the things are
scarcely comparable, since we are deeply interested in one, though not in the
other.
The Fall of Adam was OUR fall. We fell in and with him.
We were equal sufferers. It is the ruin of our own house that we lament. It is
the destruction of our own city that we bemoan when we stand and see written in
lines too plain for us to mistake their meaning, “The carnal mind”–that very
self-same mind which was once holiness and has now become carnal–is enmity
against God.“ May God help me this morning to solemnly prefer this indictment
against you all! Oh, that the Holy Spirit may so convince us of sin that we may
unanimously plead "guilty” before God.
There is no difficulty in understanding my text–it needs
scarcely any explanation. We all know that the word “carnal” here signifies
fleshly. The old translators rendered the passage thus–“The mind of the flesh
is enmity against God.” That is to say, the natural mind–that soul which we
inherit from our fathers–that which was born within us when our bodies were
fashioned by God. The fleshly mind, the phronema sarkos, the lusts, the
passions of the soul. It is this which has gone astray from God and become enmity
against Him.
But before we enter upon a discussion of the doctrine of
the text, observe how strongly the Apostle expresses it. “The carnal mind,” He
says, “it is ENMITY against God.” He uses a noun and not an adjective. He does
not say it is opposed to God merely, but it is positive enmity. It is not
black, but blackness. It is not at enmity, but enmity itself. It is not
corrupt, but corruption. It is not rebellious, it is rebellion–it is not
wicked, it is wickedness itself. The heart, though it is deceitful, is positively
deceit. It is evil in the concrete, sin in the essence. It is the distillation,
the quintessence of all things that are vile. It is not envious against God, it
is envy. It is not at enmity, it is actual enmity.
Nor need we say a word to explain that it is “enmity
against God.” It does not charge manhood with an aversion merely to the
dominion, laws, or doctrines of Jehovah. It strikes a deeper and surer blow. It
does not strike man upon the head but it penetrates into his heart. It lays the
axe at the root of the tree and pronounces man “enmity against God.” Against
the Person of the Godhead, against the Deity, against the mighty Maker of this
World–not at enmity against His Bible or against His Gospel–though that is
true, but against God Himself. Against His essence, His existence and His
Person.
Let us, then, weigh the words of the text, for they are
solemn words. They are well put together by that master of eloquence, Paul.
They were, moreover, dictated by the Holy Spirit, who tells man how to speak
aright. May He help us to expound, as He has already given us the passage to
explain.
We shall be called upon to notice, this morning, first,
the truthfulness of this assertion. Secondly, the universality of the evil here
complained of. Thirdly, we will still further enter into the depths of the subject
and press it to your hearts, by showing the enormity of the evil. And after
that, should we have time, we will deduce one or two doctrines from the general
fact.
First, we are called upon to speak of the truthfulness of
this great statement, “the carnal mind is enmity against God.” It needs no
proof, for since it is written in God’s Word, we, as Christian men and women,
are bound to bow before it. The words of the Scriptures are words of infinite
wisdom and if reason cannot see the ground of a statement of Revelation, it is
bound, most reverently, to believe it, since we are well-assured even should it
be above our reason, that it cannot be contrary to it.
Here I find it written in the Scriptures, “the carnal
mind is enmity against God.” And that of itself is enough for me. But did I
need witnesses I would conjure up the nations of antiquity. I would unroll the
volume of ancient history, I would tell you of the awful deeds of mankind. It
may be I might move your souls to detestation if I spoke of the cruelty of this
race to itself, if I showed you how it made the world an Aceldama by its wars
and deluged it with blood by its fights and murders.
If I should recite the black list of vices in which whole
nations have indulged or even bring before you the characters of some of the
most eminent philosophers, I should blush to speak of them and you would refuse
to hear. Yes, it would be impossible for you, as refined inhabitants of a
civilized country, to endure the mention of the crimes that were committed by
those very men who now-a-days are held up as being paragons of perfection. I
fear if all the truth were written, we should rise up from reading the lives of
earth’s mighty heroes and proudest sages and would say at once of all of them,
“They are clean gone mad. They are altogether become unprofitable. There is
none that does good. No, not one.”
And did not that suffice, I would point you to the
delusions of the heathen. I would tell you of their priestcraft by which their
souls have been enthralled in superstition. I would drag their gods before you.
I would let you witness the horrid obscenities, the diabolical rites which are
to these besotted men most sacred things. Then after you had heard what the
natural religion of man is, I would ask what must his irreligion be? If this is
his devotion, what must be his impiety? If this is his ardent love of the
Godhead, what must his hatred thereof be? You would, I am sure, at once
confess, did you know what the race is, that the indictment is proven and that
the world must unreservedly and truthfully exclaim, “guilty.”
A further argument I might find in the fact that the best
of men have been always the most ready to confess their depravity. The holiest
men, the most free from impurity, have always felt it most. He whose garments
are the whitest will best perceive the spots upon them. He whose crown shines
the brightest will know when he has lost a jewel. He who gives the most light
to the world will always be able to discover his own darkness. The angels of
Heaven veil their faces. And the angels of God on earth, His chosen people,
must always veil their faces with humility when they think of what they were.
Hear David–he was none of those who boast of a holy
nature and a pure disposition. He says, “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity. And
in sin did my mother conceive me.” Hear all those holy men who have written in
the inspired volume and you shall find them all confessing that they were not
clean, no, not one. Yes, one of them even exclaimed, “O wretched man that I am;
who shall deliver me from the body of this death?”
And more, I will summon one other witness to the
truthfulness of this act who shall decide the question. It shall be your
conscience. Conscience, I will put you in the witness box and cross-examine you
this morning! Conscience, answer truly! Be not drugged with the opium of
self-security! Speak the truth! Did you ever hear the heart say, “I wish there
were no God?” Have not all men, at times, wished that our religion were not
true? Though they could not entirely rid their souls of the idea of the Godhead,
did they not wish that there might not be God? Have they not had the desire
that it might turn out that all these Divine realities were a delusion, a
farce?
“Yes,” says every man, “that has crossed my mind
sometimes. I have wished I might indulge in folly. I have wished there were no
laws to restrain me. I have wished, as the fool, that there were no God.” That
passage in the Psalms, “The fool has said in his heart, there is no God,” is
wrongly translated. It should be, “The fool has said in his heart, no God.” The
fool does not say in His heart there is no God, for he knows there is a God.
Rather he says, “No God–I don’t want any, I wish there were none.” And who
among us has not been so foolish as to desire that there were no God?
Now conscience, answer another question! You have
confessed that you have at times wished there were no God. Now, suppose a man
wished another dead, would not that show that he hated him? Yes, it would. And
so, my Friends, the wish that there were no God, proves that we dislike God.
When I wish such a man dead and rotting in his grave, when I desire that he
were non est, I must hate that man–otherwise I should not wish him to be
extinct. So that wish–and I do not think there has been a man in this world who
has not had it–proves that “the carnal mind is enmity against God.”
But, conscience, I have another question. Has not your
heart ever desired, since there is a God, that He were a little less holy, a
little less pure–so that those things which are now great crimes might be
regarded as venial offenses, as peccadilloes? Has your heart never said, “Would
to God these sins were not forbidden. Would that He would be merciful and pass
them by without an atonement! Would that He were not so severe, so rigorously
just, so sternly strict to His integrity.” Have you never said that, my Heart?
Conscience must reply, “you have.” Well, that wish to change God proves that
you are not in love with the God that now is, the God of Heaven and earth.
And though you may talk of natural religion and boast
that you do reverence the God of the green fields, the grassy meads, the
swelling flood, the rolling thunder, the azure sky, the starry night and the
great universe–though you love the poetic ideal of Deity, it is not the God of
Scripture–for you have wished to change His nature and in that have you proved
that you are at enmity with Him. But where do we go from here? You can bear
faithful witness if you would speak the truth that each person here has so
transgressed against God, so continually broken His laws, violated His Sabbath,
trampled on His statutes, despised His Gospel, that it is true, yes, most true,
that “the carnal mind is enmity against God.”
II. Now, secondly, we are called upon to notice the
universality of this evil. What a broad assertion it is! It is not a single
carnal mind, or a certain class of characters, but “the carnal mind.” It is an
unqualified statement, including every individual. Whatever mind may properly
be called carnal, not having been spiritualized by the power of God’s Holy
Spirit, is “enmity against God.”
Observe then, first of all, the universality of this as
to all persons. Every carnal mind in the world is at enmity against God. This
does not exclude even infants at the mother’s breast. We call them innocent and
so they are of actual transgression, but as the poet says, “Within the youngest
breast there lies a stone.” There is in the carnal mind of an infant, enmity
against God. It is not developed, but it lies there. Some say that children
learn sin by imitation. But no–take a child away, place it under the most pious
influences, let the very air it breathes be purified by piety–let it constantly
drink in draughts of holiness. Let it hear nothing but the voice of prayer and
praise. Let its ear be always kept in tune by notes of sacred song–and that
child, notwithstanding, may still become one of the grossest of transgressors.
And though placed apparently on the very road to Heaven, it shall, if not
directed by Divine grace, march downwards to the pit.
Oh, how true it is that some who have had the best of
parents have been the worst of sons–that many who have been trained up under
the most Holy auspices, in the midst of most favorable scenes of piety–have
nevertheless become loose and wanton! So it is not by imitation but it is by
nature that the child is evil! Grant me that the child is carnal and my text
says, “The carnal mind is enmity against God.” The young crocodile, I have
heard, when broken from the shell, will in a moment begin to put itself in a
posture of attack, opening its mouth as if it had been taught and trained.
We know that young lions when tamed and domesticated
still will have the wild nature of their fellows of the forest and were liberty
given them, would prey as fiercely as others. So with the child. You may bind
him with the green withes of education, you may do what you will with him–but
you cannot change his heart. That carnal mind shall still be at enmity against
God. And notwithstanding intellect, talent and all you may give to boot, it
shall be of the same sinful complexion as every other child, if not as
apparently evil, for, “the carnal mind is enmity against God.”
And if this applies to children, equally does it include
every class of men. There are some men that are born into this world master
spirits. They walk about it as giants, wrapped in mantles of light and glory. I
refer to the poets–men who stand aloft like Colossi–mightier than we, seeming
to be descended from celestial spheres. There are others of acute intellect,
who, searching into mysteries of science, discover things that have been hidden
from the creation of the world. Men of keen research and mighty erudition–and
yet of each of these–poet, philosopher, metaphysician and great discoverer–it
can be said, “The carnal mind is enmity against God.”
You may train him up, you may make his intellect almost
angelic, you may strengthen his soul until he shall take what are riddles to us
and unravel them with his fingers in a moment. You may make him so mighty that
he can grasp the iron secrets of the eternal hills and grind them to atoms in
his fist. You may give him an eye so keen that he can penetrate the deep
secrets of rocks and mountains. You may add a soul so potent that he may slay
the giant Sphinx that had for ages troubled the mightiest men of learning. Yet
when you have done all this, his mind shall be a depraved one and his carnal
heart shall still be in opposition to God. Yes, more, you shall bring him to
the house of prayer. You shall make him sit constantly under the clearest
preaching of the word where he shall hear the doctrines of grace in all their
purity, attended by a holy unction.
But if that holy unction does not rest upon him, all
shall be vain–he shall attend most regularly, but like the pious door of the
chapel that turns in and out, he shall still be the same–having an outside
superficial religion and his carnal mind shall still be at enmity against God.
Now, this is not my assertion, it is the declaration of God’s Word and you must
leave it if you do not believe it. But quarrel not with me, it is my Master’s
message and it is true of every one of you–men, women and children and myself,
too–that if we had not been regenerated and converted, if we have not
experienced a change of heart, our carnal mind is still at enmity against God.
Again, notice the universality of this at all times. The
carnal mind is at all times enmity against God. “Oh,” say some, “it may be true
that we are at times opposed to God, but surely we are not always so.” “There
are moments,” says one, “when I feel rebellious. At times my passions lead me
astray. But surely there are other favorable seasons when I really am Friendly
to God and offer true devotion. I have (continues the objector) stood upon the
mountaintop, until my whole soul has kindled with the scene below and my lips
have uttered the song of praise–
“These are Your glorious works, parent of good,
Almighty, shine this universal frame,
Thus wondrous fair–Yourself how wondrous then!”
Yes, but mark–what is true one day is not false another,
“the carnal mind is enmity against God” at all times. The wolf may sleep, but
it is a wolf still. The snake with its azure hues may slumber amid the flowers
and the child may stroke its slimy back, but it is a serpent still. It does not
change its nature, though it is dormant. The sea is the house of storms even
when it is glassy as a lake. The thunder is still the mighty rolling thunder
when it is so much aloft that we hear it not. And the heart, when we perceive
not its boiling, when it belches not forth its lava and sends not forth the hot
stones of its corruption, is still the same dread volcano. At all times, at all
hours, at every moment, (I speak this as God speaks it) if you are carnal, you
are each one of you enmity against God.
Another thought concerning the universality of this
statement. The whole of the mind is enmity against God. The text says, “The
carnal mind is enmity against God,” that is, the entire man, every part of
him–every power, every passion. It is a question often asked, “What part of man
was injured by the Fall?” Some think that the Fall was only felt by the
affections and that the intellect was unimpaired. This they argue from the
wisdom of man and the mighty discoveries he has made, such as the law of gravitation,
the steam engine and the sciences.
Now I consider these things as being a very mean display
of wisdom, compared with what is to come in the next hundred years–and very
small compared with what might have been, if man’s intellect had continued in
its pristine condition. I believe the Fall crushed man entirely. Albeit, when
it rolled like an avalanche upon the mighty temple of human nature some shafts
were still left undestroyed and amidst the ruins you find here and there a
flute, a pedestal, a cornice, a column not quite broken–yet the entire
structure fell and its most glorious relics are fallen ones, leveled in the
dust.
The whole of man is defaced. Look at our memory–is it not
true that the memory is fallen? I can recollect evil things far better than
those which savor of piety. I hear a ribald song–that same music of Hell shall
jar in my ear when gray hairs shall be upon my head. I hear a note of holy
praise–alas, it is forgotten! Memory grasps with an iron hand ill things, but
the good she holds with feeble fingers. She suffers the glorious timbers from
the forest of Lebanon to swim down the stream of oblivion, but she stops all
the dross that floats from the foul city of Sodom. She will retain evil, she
will lose good. Memory is fallen.
So are the affections. We love everything earthly better
than we ought. We soon fix our heart upon a creature but very seldom upon the
Creator. And when the heart is given to Jesus it is prone to wander. Look at
the imagination, too. Oh, how can the imagination revel when the body is in an
ill condition! Only give man something that shall well near intoxicate him.
Drug him with opium and how will his imagination dance with joy! Like a bird
uncaged, how will it mount with more than eagles' wings! He sees things he had
not dreamed of even in the shades of night. Why did not his imagination work
when his body was in a normal state–when it was healthy? Simply because it is
depraved. And until he had entered a foul element–until the body had begun to
quiver with a kind of intoxication–the fancy would not hold its carnival.
We have some splendid specimens of what men could write
when they have been under the accursed influence of ardent spirits. It is
because the mind is so depraved that it loves something which puts the body
into an abnormal condition. And here we have proof that the imagination itself
has gone astray. So with the judgment–I might prove how ill it decides. So
might I accuse the conscience and tell you how blind it is and how it winks at
the greatest follies. I might review all our powers and write upon the brow of
each one, “Traitor against Heaven! Traitor against God!” The whole “carnal mind
is enmity against God.”
Now, my Hearers, “the Bible alone is the religion of
Protestants”–but whenever I find a certain book much held in reverence by our
Episcopalian Brethren, entirely on my side, I always feel the greatest delight
in quoting from it. Do you know I am one of the best Churchmen in the world,
the very best, if you will judge me by the Articles and the very worst if you
measure me in any other way? Measure me by the Articles of the Church of
England and I will not stand second to any man under Heaven’s blue sky in preaching
the Gospel contained in them. For if there is an excellent epitome of the
Gospel, it is to be found in the Articles of the Church of England.
Let me show you that you have not been hearing strange
doctrine. Here is the 9 th Article, upon Original or Birth Sin.“Original Sin
stands not in the following of Adam (as the Pelagians do vainly talk) but it is
the fault and corruption of the nature of every man, that naturally is
engendered of the offspring of Adam. Whereby man is very far gone from original
righteousness and is of his own nature inclined to evil, so that the flesh
lusts always contrary to the spirit. And, therefore, in every person born into
this world, it deserves God’s wrath and damnation.
“And this infection of nature does remain, yes, in them
that are regenerated, whereby the lust of the flesh, called in the Greek,
phronema sarkos which some do expound the wisdom, some sensuality, some the
affection, some the desire, of the flesh, is not subject to the Law of God. And
although there is no condemnation for them that believe and are baptized, yet
the Apostle does confess that concupiscence and lust has of itself the nature
of sin.” I want nothing more. Will anyone who believes in the Prayer Book
dissent from the doctrine that “the carnal mind is enmity against God”?
III. I have said that I would endeavor, in the third
place, to show the great enormity of this guilt. I do fear, my Brethren, that
very often when we consider our state we think not so much of the guilt as of
the misery. I have sometimes read sermons upon the inclination of the sinner to
evil, in which it has been very powerfully proved and certainly the pride of
human nature has been well humbled and brought low. But one thing always
strikes me, if it is left out, as being a very great omission–the doctrine that
man is guilty in all these things. If His heart is against God, we ought to
tell him it is his sin. And if he cannot repent we ought to show him that sin
is the sole cause of his disability–that all his alienation from God is
sin–that as long as he keeps from God it is sin.
I fear many of us here must acknowledge that we do not
charge the sin of it to our own consciences. Yes, say we, we have many
corruptions. Oh, yes. But we sit down very contented. My Brethren we ought not
to do so. The having those corruptions is our crime which should be confessed
as an enormous evil. If I, as a minister of the Gospel, do not press home the
sin of the thing, I have missed what is the very virus of it. I have left out
the very essence if I have not shown that it is a crime. Now, “the carnal mind
is enmity against God.” What a sin it is! This will appear in two ways.
Consider the relation in which we stand to God and then remember what God is.
And after I have spoken of these two things, I hope you will see, indeed, that
it is a sin to be at enmity with God.
What is God to us? He is the Creator of the heavens and
the earth. He bears up the pillars of the universe, His breath perfumes the
flowers. His brush paints them. He is the Author of this fair creation. “We are
the sheep of His pasture, He has made us and not we ourselves.” He stands to us
in the relationship of a Maker and Creator and from that fact He claims to be
our King. He is our Legislator our Law-maker. And then, to make our crime still
worse and worse, He is the Ruler of Providence. For it is He who keeps us
daily.
He supplies our wants. He keeps the breath within our
nostrils. He bids the blood still pursue its course through the veins. He holds
us in life and prevents us from death. He stands before us, our Creator, our
King, our Sustainer, our Benefactor. And I ask, is it not a sin of enormous
magnitude–is it not high treason against the Emperor of Heaven–is it not an
awful sin, the depth of which we cannot fathom with the line of all our
judgment–that we, His creatures, dependent upon Him, should be at enmity with
God?
But the crime may be seen to be worse when we think of
what God is. Let me appeal personally to you in an interrogatory style for this
has weight with it. Sinner! Why are you at enmity with God? God is the God of
Love, He is kind to His creatures. He regards you with His love of benevolence.
This very day His sun has shone upon you. This day you have had food and
raiment and you have come up here in health and strength. Do you hate God
because He loves you? Is that the reason? Consider how many mercies you have
received at His hands all your lives long! You are born with a body not
deformed, you have had a tolerable share of health. You have been recovered
many times from sickness.
When lying at the gates of death His arm has held back
your soul from the last step to destruction. Do you hate God for all this? Do
you hate Him because He spared your life by His tender mercy? Behold His
goodness that He has spread before you! He might have sent you to Hell, but you
are here. Now, do you hate God for sparing you? Oh, why are you at enmity with
Him? My fellow Creature, do you not know that God sent His Son from His bosom,
hung Him on the tree and there suffered Him to die for sinners, the Just for
the unjust? And do you hate God for that?
Oh, Sinner, is this the cause of your enmity? Are you so
estranged that you give enmity for love? And when He surrounds you with favors,
girds you with mercies, encircles you with loving kindness, do you hate Him for
this? He might say as Jesus did to the Jews–“For which of these works do you
stone Me?” For which of these works do you hate God? If an earthly benefactor
fed you, would you hate him? Did he clothe you, would you abuse him to his
face? Did he give you talents, would you turn those powers against him? Oh,
speak! Would you forge the iron and strike the dagger into the heart of your
best Friend? Do you hate your mother who nursed you on her knee? Do you curse
your father who so wisely watched over you?
No, you say, we have some little gratitude towards
earthly relatives. Where are your hearts, then? Where are your hearts that you
can still despise God and be at enmity with Him? Oh, diabolical crime! Oh,
Satanic enormity! Oh, iniquity for which words fail in description! To hate the
All-lovely–to despise the essentially Good–to abhor the constantly Merciful–to
spurn the Ever-beneficent–to scorn the Kind, the Gracious One! Above all, to
hate the God who sent His Son to die for man! Ah, in that thought–“the carnal
mind is enmity against God”–there is something which may make us shake. For it
is a terrible sin to be at enmity with God. I would I could speak more
powerfully, but my Master alone can impress upon you the enormous evil of this
horrid state of heart.
IV. But there are one or two doctrines which we will try
to deduce from this. Is the carnal mind at “enmity against God?” Then salvation
cannot be by merit, it must be by grace. If we are at enmity with God, what
merit can we have? How can we deserve anything from the being we hate? Even if
we were pure as Adam, we could not have any merit. For I do not think Adam had
any desert before his Creator. When he had kept all his Master’s Law, he was
but an unprofitable servant. He had done no more than he ought to have done. He
had no surplus–no balance. But since we have become enemies how much less can
we hope to be saved by works!
Oh, no. The whole Bible tells us, from beginning to end,
that salvation is not by the works of the Law but by the deeds of grace. Martin
Luther declared that he constantly preached justification by faith alone,
“because,” he said, “the people would forget it–so that I was obliged almost to
knock my Bible against their heads, to send it into their hearts.” So it is
true we constantly forget that salvation is by grace alone. We always want to
be putting in some little scrap of our own virtue. We want to be doing
something. I remember a saying of old Matthew Wilkes–“Saved by your works!? You
might as well try to go to America in a paper boat!” Saved by your works!? It
is impossible! Oh no!
“The poor legalist is like a blind horse going round and
round the mill, or like the prisoner going up the treadmill and finding himself
no higher after all he has done. He has no solid confidence, no firm ground to
rest upon. He has not done enough–never enough.” Conscience always says, “this
is not perfection. It ought to have been better.” Salvation for enemies must be
by an ambassador–by an atonement–yes, by Christ.
Another doctrine we gather from this is the necessity of
an entire change of our nature. It is true that by birth we are at enmity with
God. How necessary then, it is that our nature should be changed. There are few
people who sincerely believe this. They think that if they cry, “Lord, have
mercy upon me,” when they lie a-dying, they shall go to Heaven directly. Let me
suppose an impossible case for a moment. Let me imagine a man entering Heaven
without a change of heart. He comes within the gates. He hears a sonnet. He
starts! It is to the praise of his Enemy. He sees a Throne and on it sits One
who is glorious. But it is his Enemy. He walks streets of gold, but those
streets belong to his Enemy. He sees hosts of angels. But those hosts are the
servants of his Enemy. He is in his Enemy’s house. For he is at enmity with
God.
He could not join the song, for he would not know the
tune. There he would stand–silent, motionless–till Christ should say, with a
voice louder than ten thousand thunders, “What are you doing here? Enemies at a
marriage banquet? Enemies in the children’s house? Enemies in Heaven? Get you
gone! Depart you cursed, into everlasting fire in Hell!” Oh, Sirs, if the
unregenerate man could enter Heaven, I mention once more the oft-repeated
saying of Whitfield, “he would be so unhappy in Heaven that he would ask God to
let him run down into Hell for shelter.” There must be a change, if you
consider the future state. For how can enemies to God ever sit down at the
banquet of the Lamb?
And to conclude, let me remind you–and it is in the text
after all–that this change must be worked by a power beyond your own. An enemy
may possibly make himself a Friend. But enmity cannot. If it is but an adjunct
of his nature to be an enemy he may change himself into a Friend. But if it is
the very essence of his existence to be enmity, positive enmity, enmity cannot
change itself. No, there must be something done more than we can accomplish.
This is just what is forgotten in these days. We must have more preaching of
the Holy Spirit if we are to have more conversion work.
I tell you, Sirs, if you change yourselves and make
yourselves better and better and better, a thousand times, you will never be
good enough for Heaven. Till God’s Spirit has laid His hand upon you. Till He
has renewed your heart–till He has purified your soul, till He has changed your
entire spirit and made you a new man–there can be no entering Heaven. How
seriously, then, should each stand and think. Here am I, a creature of a day, a
mortal born to die, but yet an immortal! At present I am at enmity with God.
What shall I do? Is it not my duty, as well as my happiness, to ask, whether
there is a way to be reconciled to God?
Oh, weary Slaves of sin, are not your ways the paths of
folly? Is it wisdom, O my fellow Creatures, is it wisdom to hate your Creator?
Is it wisdom to stand in opposition against Him? Is it prudent to despise the
riches of His grace? If it is wisdom, it is Hell’s wisdom. If it is wisdom, it
is a wisdom which is folly with God. Oh, may God grant that you may turn unto
Jesus with full purpose of heart! He is the Ambassador. He it is who can make
peace through His blood. And though you came in here an enemy, it is possible
you may go out through that door a Friend yet, if you can but look to Jesus
Christ, the brazen serpent which was lifted up.
And now, it may be, some of you are convinced of sin by
the Holy Spirit. I will now proclaim to you the way of salvation. “As Moses
lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted
up–that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.”
Behold, O trembling Penitent, the means of your deliverance! Turn your tearing
eye to yonder Mount of Calvary. I see the Victim of justice–the Sacrifice of
atonement for your transgression. View the Savior in His agonies, with streams
of blood purchasing your soul and with most intense agonies enduring your
punishment.
He died for you, if now you confess your guilt. O come,
you condemned one, self-condemned–turn your eye this way, for one look will
save. Sinner, you are bitten. Look! It is nothing but “Look!” It is simply
“Look!” If you can but look to Jesus you are safe. Hear the voice of the
Redeemer–“Look unto Me and be you saved.” Look! Look! Look! O guilty souls–
“Venture on Him, venture wholly,
Let no other trust intrude.
None but Jesus
Can do helpless sinners good.”
May my blessed Master help you to come to Him and draw
you to His Son, for Jesus' sake. Amen and Amen
