MANY years ago there lived in America a very talented preacher, who for some years preached with much seeming earnestness and success that men must be born again. Perhaps our readers are not ignorant of this truth; but it does not follow that, because they know it to be a truth, they have received it as the truth of God. On this point too many, I fear, deceive their own souls.
Well, the preacher just mentioned was very much opposed for preaching this doctrine; the pride of man's heart does not like it. People prefer to think that they can be "educated up to God," as some impiously say. And so this preacher was disliked by many. One of these was a well-informed person, who for a long time had stopped away from the church where this minister preached. But one Sunday morning he thought he would go once more and hear him, just to see whether his preaching was more to his mind than it had formerly been.
Now, that morning the preacher's subject was "A New Creation in Christ Jesus, or Everlasting Condemnation"; and he sought to show that one or the other must be to all. Either one must become a new creature in Christ Jesus, or else there is no escape from the judgment that has been pronounced on the old Adam nature and standing to which all belong who are out of Christ.
The preacher's discourse seemed to be given with power, and not as a mere learned reasoning, and the question forced itself on his hearer's conscience in spite of his dislike: "How is it with myself? Does this man declare the real truth? If he does, what must be the certain consequence?”
This thought took such hold upon him that he could not forget it even after he had left the church. It followed him from day to day, amidst all his occupations or amusements, and his conscience could not rest. Wherever he went, or whatever he was doing, that solemn question rose up before him: "If this is truth, what will be the certain consequence?" and he became so unhappy at last that he resolved to go to the preacher himself, and ask him whether what he had preached was really the truth of God.
Calling on him one day, he told him, with much concern, that he had been one of his hearers on the occasion referred to; and added, "I confess to you that you have disturbed my peace of mind, and I cannot refrain from asking you solemnly before God, and upon your conscience, whether you can prove what you asserted, or whether it was an unfounded alarm.”
The preacher was not a little surprised, as might be supposed, at this style of address, and replied that what he had spoken was certainly the Word of God, and therefore infallible truth.
“What, then, is to become of us?" exclaimed the visitor and his last word "us" grated strangely on the preacher's ears; but, rallying his thoughts, he began to explain the way of salvation to the inquirer, and exhorted him very solemnly to repent and believe.
But his visitor seemed as though he had not heard a word of what was said to him. In the midst of a very suitable exhortation he broke in with increasing emotion, “If it he truth, sir, I beseech you, what are we to do?”
"We," thought the minister to himself, “what means this WE?" and for a moment he felt so confused and even alarmed that it cost him great effort to recover himself sufficiently to hide his feelings from his visitor, and to go on with his professional exhortations.
At last tears came into the eyes of the inquirer, and suddenly smiting his hands together, like one in despair, he exclaimed in accents which might have moved a heart of stone, "Sir, if it be truth, we are lost and undone.”
And now the conscience of the minister was roused. Conviction as to the truth of his own condition flashed across his mind. For years he had been preaching as a mere professional thing, a truth which he had never himself "believed with the heart"; and while he had preached to others he himself was no better than a castaway.
Trembling and astonished, as this conviction forced itself upon him, he stood for a moment speechless and overwhelmed. Then, in a voice broken by sobs, he exclaimed, "Friend, let us down on our knees, and cry to God.”
This they did at once, but I do not suppose they asked for that salvation which is so freely offered in the gospel of God's dear Son. That blessed gospel is "the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth,” not prayeth. (Rom. 1:1616For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. (Romans 1:16).) ROM 1:1616For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. (Romans 1:16) "Faith cometh by hearing" (or a report) not by prayer, "and hearing (or the report) by the word of God." (Rom. 10:1717So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. (Romans 10:17).) ROM 10:1717So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. (Romans 10:17) And both these men, but especially the preacher, had heard and known this word by the intellect for years; yet they had never received and believed it with the heart as they ought to have done; for "if we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater." (1 John 5:99If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater: for this is the witness of God which he hath testified of his Son. (1 John 5:9).) 1JO 5:99If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater: for this is the witness of God which he hath testified of his Son. (1 John 5:9) How much more, then, ought they to have believed God!
But they had not done so; and this it was that made their condition so dangerous, particularly the preacher's. He had mocked both God and man. For years he had exhorted others to do what he had never done himself; that is, believe God. He had urged them to accept salvation by the blood of Christ fully and freely held out to them in God's message of grace to ruined man, yet he had not himself accepted it.
All this, of course, he knew, and therefore had no need to pray for salvation; for it I were to offer you a little book or any other gift, you would hardly be so foolish as to beg and entreat me to give it to you. But when a man has been hearing or preaching the gospel over and over again till it has lost all meaning in his ears, he may well cry to God for power to believe what he has so long and so sinfully rejected.
Such a man has got himself into a state of soul which may be compared to a palsied limb. Now, you will understand that a man with a paralyzed leg would not think of asking a doctor for a leg; but he might ask him to try and do something that would give him power to move or make use of it.
Thus these two men fell upon their knees, and cried to God. Well they might; and while God has nowhere promised to hear the prayer of the ungodly and sinners, yet in His infinite grace He does, so to speak, go beyond even His own promises (which are only to those in Christ) to reach those who have put themselves, as these two men had done, in a place of peculiar peril.
The visitor then left the minister, and he shut himself up in his study alone with God.
What he passed through when the enormity of his sin was pressed on his conscience by the Spirit of God, nobody will ever know.
“See that ye refuse not Him that speaketh.
Thus, you see, his case was one of peculiar peril. And so is that of each one who hears the gospel and turns away from Him who speaketh from heaven by His Spirit through the word.
On the following Lord's Day, this minister was too unwell to preach; and I do not wonder at it. The same thing happened on the Sunday following; but on the third Sunday he made his appearance before his congregation, weak and pale from inward conflict, but with a new-horn joy manifested in his countenance such as none had ever seen there before.
God had glorified Himself. The preacher who for years had been proclaiming his own condemnation, and daily turning “away from Him that speaketh from heaven,” believing NOT the Son, but abiding under the wrath of God, stood up before all, a living witness of God's long-suffering and super abounding grace, and began his discourse by telling his audience that henceforth he was a new creature in Christ Jesus.
His case was a solemn and affecting instance of that all-important truth, “Ye must be horn again." All his knowledge, his eloquence, his religiousness, his preaching, had but increased his danger and deepened the dye of his iniquity. Short of new creation in Christ Jesus, all else was vain, or worse, for it increased his condemnation.
Outside "the door" (John 10:77Then said Jesus unto them again, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep. (John 10:7)) there is nothing but judgment; but this preacher could now testify that for the first time in his life he had passed through it.
If you have not done so, may God's grace lead you in.
J. L. K.