(Notes of an Address to Men on Genesis 25:27-34; Heb. 12:16,17; Mark 10:17-22; Philippians 3:4-8).
I SHOULD not wonder, dear friends, if you desired at the very start to know why you have been invited to such a meeting as this, and I will not keep you very long in doubt: we desire to win your souls for Christ.
When our Master was here, He said to some who followed Him, “I will make you fishers of men,” and that is what we are after, we want to get hold of men for Christ. We are deeply in earnest about this matter, because we know the devil is seeking men for hell. He desires to destroy their souls, that he might rob the Son of God of the glory of saving them. The world is seeking men; pleasure bids for men; lust seeks to drown men’s souls in perdition.
There are many voices calling to men today; there are many traps. It is because of this that we desire to win you for Christ. We have learned that there is no true joy apart from Jesus; that there is no salvation apart from Him; that your heart cannot be satisfied except in the Lord Jesus Christ.
I have turned to these scriptures, and in them I find three men brought before us, and these three men are representative of three classes in the world today. I would speak of them to you for a few moments, and of the things they despised. Each of them had things that he valued, and there were things which he despised.
Esau is a picture of a man of the world. Scripture tells us that he was “a cunning hunter, a man of the field.” Another scripture says, “The field is the world,” and I should like to read it like that: a cunning hunter, a man of the world. Have you not such all around you today? Indeed you have. I should not be at all surprised if some Esau had found his way into this hall tonight. You are a cunning hunter: a man of the world. You are a sharp fellow in business; there is no catching you napping when your interests are at stake; you know how to strike a bargain and turn over the money; you know how to make the thing go. In the race for wealth you will be abreast of any man living. Is not that you?
But there may be an Esau of another character here. You believe in pleasure. You don’t want to hoard up the gold; you believe in having a good time: a short life and a merry one, drinking long and deep draughts of this world’s sparkling cup of pleasure. I warn you tonight, there are dregs in this world’s cup of pleasure, and the dregs are smiting’s of conscience, bitter sorrow, and the end eternal thirst. You may go on for a certain time, hunt well, and have pleasure in the chase; but, friend, I will tell you a truth: the pleasure is only in the chase; you will find that the game is not worth the shot. The world’s best will not pay you for the trouble you had in pursuing it; and oh! if you have nothing beyond this world, how fearful it will be for you in the day that is to come!
But some men care nothing about wealth or pleasure: they are going in for fame. They want to make a name for themselves. But, dear friend, the name is but for time, and you have forgotten that you have a deathless soul that will live throughout the rolling ages of God’s eternity. Your soul will never die: the grave will not kill it; it will exist through the thundering’s of the great judgment day. It will exist throughout eternity, even if that eternity is a lost one for you. You might gain the fame of a Kitchener; it would not buy you a home amongst those mansions fair above the sky; nothing that you can gain in this world will buy that for you. And yet you seek things here; you are going after the passing trifles of this poor fleeting world, and you forget weightier matters. It is strange that men should be possessed by such folly as this.
I have met men who were wise in their day, who had all the world’s learning at their finger ends, who could tell the weight of the planets, and knew the secrets of nature; and yet, strange to say, they did not know, should they die, whether they would land in heaven or go down to hell. If you are one of these, I want to warn you tonight by the history of the man of whom I have read. Esau was a cunning hunter. See him: he starts out at early morn to go hunting in the field. He hunts the long day through and returns at night, dying with hunger. He would not have gone forth if he had not been hungry; he comes back dying with hunger. That is what men are doing today. They go forth in search of something to fill their hearts, and after the chase, they come back dying with hunger. They have not found that which they sought. Esau came back like that.
Jacob had sodden pottage; Esau sees the pottage and his soul longs for it. “Give me the pottage,” he says. Cunning as Esau was, he discovers that there was someone still more cunning than himself. Jacob says, as it were, “Not so fast, Esau: I should like to do a little business with you. I will give you the pottage if you will give me the birthright. Is that settled?” Esau says, “What good will the birthright do me? I am about to die, Jacob: you shall have the birthright.” And they strike hands. The thing is done. The birthright goes to Jacob, the pottage to Esau. “Thus Esau despised his birthright.” For one short moment’s pleasure, Esau sold his birthright; and, dear friends, Hebrews 12:16, 17 tells me that he sought a place of repentance. He would like to have gone back on it, but there was no going back on that bargain. Though he sought a place of repentance most earnestly, and with bitter tears, he failed to find it.
Friend, I beseech of you not to sell your birthright to the devil for a mess of pottage. The devil has got the pottage ready for you; he knows your tastes exactly, and he will give you what will suit you if only you give him your soul. But if you do, it is because you do not know the value of that soul of yours. But what is its value? let us weigh it. Put your soul in the scale, put all the gold of all the world in, all gems, all fame, glory, pleasure, bring everything that this world can afford, and put it into the scale: what is the result? Your soul outweighs it all. These things are but as the small dust of the balance when compared with your soul; it is a greater treasure than all these things put together. And yet you treat it as if it were a thing not worth a thought! You clothe and feed your body; if you are sick, you send for a doctor; but your soul does not receive a bit of attention from you. Why? Because your eyes are blinded; you are shortsighted, living for time and forgetting eternity. This is the way with thousands; they are living for this short span here and forgetting the boundless ages that stretch before them.
Man, turn tonight from that road of folly; get into God’s presence and see things as He sees them. Esau discovered his folly when it was too late. When will you find out your folly? If you refuse to come to Christ, if you reject the gospel, you will discover your folly in that dark day when death claims you as its victim, when death lays its hand upon you, twists the life out of you, and casts you into eternity; then you will discover your folly. In that day what would men give in exchange for their soul? But then the die will be cast; it will be too late. As the tree falls, so it will lie. Oh we beseech of you, value your soul as heaven values it; turn to God tonight, and see that that soul of yours is made safe.
Now the second man’s case is very different from Esau’s, but it is equally sad. The man in Mark 10 cared not much for this world; he was rather of a religious turn of mind. It seems to me he had given thought to his soul’s welfare. He had evidently been possessed by soul concern. He comes to Jesus and says, “Good Master, what must I do that I may inherit eternal life?” It is a wonderful thing to come into the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. You come into the presence of One who looks right through you, who knows all about your every thought. That this man discovered. He fancied himself very good; he imagined, I have no doubt, that he was just about as good a specimen of humanity as could be found; and he thought that if eternal life could be gained in any way by doings, he was the man that would obtain it. Jesus, knowing his thoughts as to his own goodness, says, “Why tallest thou me good? There is only one good, and that is God.” That shut out altogether that man from goodness.
The Lord was putting His finger upon the spot where that man was likely to fall, the thing that was likely to cost him his soul. He says, as it were, If God only is good, then you are not good.
But the man goes on to talk to the Lord, and we find that he boasts in having kept the commandments. The Lord says, “If you want to do something for the blessing, I will tell you what you must do.” This man says, “All these things have I kept from my youth.” It seems to me that these things were very precious to him; he valued these things that he had kept. People don’t keep that which is of no value. He had been storing up these good works, these things which he has been able to do and accomplish; he had been keeping these works of charity against the day of storm that was yet to come, and he imagined that they would be his shelter when the hurricane of God’s judgment blew. But oh! dear friends, what a delusion. At the first blast of the hurricane of God’s judgment, that shelter would come down. Great would be the fall of it, and it would leave him shelter less and guilty before the pitiless blast of God’s judgment and wrath against sin.
This man thought that what he had done would stand him in good stead in that day, and he can say to Jesus, “What lack I yet?” “One thing thou lackest;” and if you have not yet come to Christ, whatever your past has been, you lack one thing—Jesus Himself.
But we read that “Jesus looked upon him and loved him.” Why? Because he was such an excellent specimen of humanity? I do not believe it. I believe Jesus looked upon him and loved him for the same reason that he looks upon you and loves you: you are a poor, needy soul, and your very need draws out the compassion of His heart; He wants to save you. To him He said, “Go, sell all that thou halt and give to the poor; and come, follow me, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven.” He had to leave behind him all that in which he trusted, and come away to Christ. He could not find salvation in these things in which he boasted; it must be found alone in Jesus. Now is his opportunity. Surely he will embrace his chance: be will follow the Lord in the way the Lord marks out. No, he goes away very sad, because he had great possessions. He loved his possessions, and despised the Saviour. He went away very sad. I should think so, because he went away from the only One who could make him truly glad. If you turn away from Christ, you too will go away with sadness filling your breast, and that sadness will remain with you forever and ever. You cannot become acquainted with true joy unless you become acquainted with the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Lord turns to His disciples and says, “How hard it is for a rich man to be saved!” He said it with sadness of heart. But remember, there are many kinds of riches in this world. They do not always consist of £. s. d. They often consist of things that people fancy are good works. Many men today count these things—their prayer—saying, alms-giving, church and chapel going, as of value to them. They are sticking to these and despising the grace of God which comes to them through Christ. Are you doing it? Po you know what God says? “By the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight.” God’s book tells me that your righteousnesses are as filthy rags; you cannot gain salvation by your works. It is “not of works.” But you say, Was not the law given to enable us to reach heaven? It was not. If you read Romans 3, you will find that the law was given in order that “every mouth might be stopped, and all the world become guilty before God.” That you might have no doubt that you are a sinner in His sight, deserving nothing but His judgment, and then you will be ready to receive the blessing. For God has a blessing for you. God does not want you to perish. God loves you, man, and He would have you in yonder glory with Himself. He wants you to stand on the golden pavement, with palm in hand, and crown on brow, with the ransomed throng to sing forever the praises of the Lord Jesus Christ. He wants you to be happy throughout a golden eternity, and He wants to make you happy now. The jovial companions cannot make you truly happy: the song, the joke, and the cards cannot do it. God, and God alone, can fill your heart with joy, and that God desires to do.
How can He do it? you say. I will tell you. I read of Saul of Tarsus. He was a man who had trusted in his own goodness, and there were few men like him. He accomplished what other men had failed to accomplish, and in his day he was head and shoulders above his compeers. He had made rapid strides, and everybody in that ancient and religious city, Jerusalem, looked up to Saul of Tarsus. He was entrusted by the Pharisees with their most important missions. We find him one day starting for Damascus. What is he going to do? Filled with religious zeal, he desires to stamp out the name of Christ. Don’t imagine that every religious man has bowed to Christ. There are thousands of religious people on the earth today who hate Christ from the bottom of their hearts. There are thousands treading the broad road to eternal destruction shod in the shoes of a Christless profession. Saul the Pharisee was the most religious man of his day, and yet he hated the name of Christ, and wanted to stamp it out of the earth. It is mid-day. The sun is shining brightly in the heavens. Suddenly, Saul of Tarsus is struck down on the roadside, and there shines a light above the brightness of the noonday sun. The Lord has shone upon Saul, and a wonderful Voice reaches his ear from yonder glory. The light struck him down, and the Voice reached his heart.
He saw something better than the brightest and best thing of the earth, and heard a Voice that was so wonderful that it won his heart forever, and made him a slave of the One who spoke. Oh, that such a thing might take place in your heart! That the light might shine upon you, that you might find something brighter and better above the sun than can possibly be found beneath it Who is it that can thus fill your heart? JESUS, the One who shone upon Saul of Tarsus, and won his heart on the roadside just outside Damascus. Jesus, the One whom Saul persecuted, whom he despised. Jesus was the Exalted One, and Saul of Tarsus discovered that. What did he do? He says, “Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?” It meant that he had bowed his knee to Jesus. It meant, dear friends, that henceforward the Lord’s will was to dominate him.
Have you yet bowed the knee to Christ? You are going to. God has decreed that every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess Him Lord, to the glory of God the Father. He shall receive the homage of all mankind: your knee shall bow before Him. If you refuse to do it until the day of judgment, you will be damned for not doing it before, but still you will bow. Those who are saved and those who are lost—all shall bow.
A man in the West Indies said to me once, “I will never bow the knee to that Man!” Vain boast! for God has said that every knee shall bow. If you bow in time, how great will be the blessing you will receive! Saul of Tarsus could say of himself, I am the chief of sinners; but the chief of sinners got salvation. Thenceforward he proclaimed the name of the One who had saved him. He got Christ, salvation, heaven; God was his, and all the joys of God’s home belonged to him when he bowed to Christ. God is so delighted when a man bows before His blessed Son, that He will give that man the choicest gifts of heaven. There is nothing that God will withhold from the one who bows to Christ. If you bow to Christ, you will get your sins forgiven. Those sins that trouble you, that bar your way to heaven, that haunt you in the midnight hour; those sins will all be washed away by the precious blood when you trust in Jesus. From your guilty soul He will wash every trace of sin, and make you whiter than the snow on the mountain-tops; He will fit you for the courts of eternal glory, and then He will give you to see that you have something better than this world can give; so that you will be able, like Paul, to turn your back on its choicest treasures. He was wealthy, noble, religious and famous: he turns his back upon it all, counts it dung and dross that he might win Christ. The light of the glory had shone upon his pathway, and filled his heart with radiance and joy; he wanted not the gay trifles of this passing world, because he had got those blessed and eternal realities.
O friends, will you waste your time on the trifles of this world when heaven’s choicest gifts may be yours, when the Son of God can make you superior to all temptation, to the power of sin and of the devil, when you may stand with the redeemed on the glassy sea throughout God’s eternal day? Be not so mad in your folly, but turn to Christ tonight; believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.
Esau despised his birthright, and loved the passing things of this world; the rich ruler loved his own good works, the things he accounted al treasure, and despised Christ; Paul despised the world. He could say―
“Farewell, farewell, poor faithless world,
With all thy boasted store;
I’d not have joy where He had none,
Be rich where He was poor.”
His heart was set upon Christ; and in time and throughout all eternity, he will be a wondrous gainer. He lost nothing, no, the Lord will not be any man’s debtor. If you go in for Christ, you will lose nothing; you will gain a hundredfold more in the present time, and in the world to come life eternal. Blessings that no heart can conceive, joys that no tongue can tell—these will be yours if you turn to Christ.
“Reject Him not, O man!
He speaketh from above;
He offers thee Himself, and all
The fullness of His love.
Was ever love like His,
So boundless and so free?
Love for the sinfullest,
Love for thee.
Resist Him not, O man!
He lays His hand divine
Upon thy head in love, and says,
‘Let all my peace be thine!’
Was ever peace like His,
So boundless and so free?
Peace to the fearfullest,
Peace to thee!”
J. T. M.