WILL you grant me your attention for a few moments while, with God’s help, I put before you some truths, which, though distinctly written in God’s Word, are so little read or heeded, that more than once lately I have been met with expressions of the most astonished incredulity in quoting verses containing such truths. And should my statements seem strange to you also, and thereby should you be inclined to doubt their veracity, I beg you to open a Bible and there prove that they are not my thoughts and opinions, but the truths of God, and that He has said, “The word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day” (John 12:4848He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day. (John 12:48)). And lest you should think I prophecy evil only, and write in condemnation of others to the exclusion of myself, I would have you understand that I, who write, was, only five summers back, deep in the world’s enjoyments, treading blindfold the road to destruction, but that now, through the Lord’s mercy, and without a single atom of merit to myself, I have a passport for heaven, and am as certain of an eternity of glory as you shall be, if you will but hear me out, and allow a gracious God to have His way with you―to clear you from every speck of sin and give you a title to eternal salivation, from which neither things present nor things to come shall be able to separate you.
And may I ask, first of all, Are you like most people, making the best of this world, one of the crowd that mechanically follows the tide of pleasure and fashion? “Why, of course, I’m not a hermit,” you say. Then you admit you are on good terms with the world, that you are “in society.” So I bring forward my first truth―and yet not mine, but God’s―you are “an enemy of God.”
“Oh, how can you say such a dreadful thing?” you exclaim. It is not I, reader, but God, the living God, who says it. Hear His own Word, “The friendship of the world is enmity with God” (James 4:44Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. (James 4:4)). And again, “Love not the world neither the things in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in Him” (1 John 2:1515Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. (1 John 2:15)). I know this will startle, perhaps it will offend you, but it is truth that comes from. One who judges righteous judgment, and on whose verdict hangs our eternal destiny, and when He speaks, who shall answer?
“But,” you say, “I have never done anything very wrong; I am not worse than others.” Ah, to imagine, because the multitude sides with you, you are out of danger, is a fatal mistake. “My thoughts are not as your thoughts, saith the Lord.” So He has written, and may He write on your memory with an eternal pen, “Broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there be that go in thereat” (Matt. 7:1313Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: (Matthew 7:13)). And “There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death” (Prov. 14:12; 16:2512There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. (Proverbs 14:12)
25There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. (Proverbs 16:25)), and when, for its vital importance, God twice utters the same warning note, surely we owe to ourselves our own destruction, if we take no heed.
“But I go to church, I say my prayers, and sometimes even take the Lord’s Supper.” And such replies bring before me others, who, in a coming day, shall knock at the then closed door of mercy and say, “We have eaten and drunk in thy presence... but he shall say, I tell you, I know you not whence ye are; depart from me all ye workers of iniquity.” (Luke 13:26, 2726Then shall ye begin to say, We have eaten and drunk in thy presence, and thou hast taught in our streets. 27But he shall say, I tell you, I know you not whence ye are; depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity. (Luke 13:26‑27).) You may do all these things and yet be taking sides against God, for if you are mixing this with the world’s pleasures, you are on its part, and “whosoever will be a friend,” a supporter or applauder, “of the world is the enemy of God” (James 4:44Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. (James 4:4)). You cannot serve two masters, and if you are following the dictates of him who leads captive so subtlely (and remember he comes now, not in his serpent form, but as an angel of light, 2 Corinthians 11:1414And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. (2 Corinthians 11:14)), then you cannot serve God, and you cannot be on His side who was “not of the world” (John 17:1414I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. (John 17:14)), and He says, “He that is not for me, is against me.” Oh, stop, and think, reader, where you are, against Christ and “the enemy of God.” May He awaken you to your position!
I know your heart will rise up in anger as you read, for it seems hard to be under God’s judgment when, perhaps, you have never done one evil thing in man’s account; but remember it is with God, not man, we have to do, and He judges not by the outward appearance, but by the heart, and listen where, with him, sins begins, “The thought of foolishness is SIN” (Pro. 24:99The thought of foolishness is sin: and the scorner is an abomination to men. (Proverbs 24:9)). And this root of sin is “bound” in our very innermost being, and if this foolishness only stands against us, which of us but is hopelessly guilty? Yes, reader, you and I, by nature and by practice, are indeed under sin, under condemnation; “condemned already” (John 3:1818He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. (John 3:18)) is the sentence of Him who can in no wise clear the guilty children of wrath, “having no hope and without God in the world” (Eph. 2:1212That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world: (Ephesians 2:12)).
You see our very nature is corrupt, for “the carnal mind” (i.e. the mind of our nature, the unconverted mind) “is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be” (Rom. 8:77Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. (Romans 8:7)). “We have all gone out of the way,” “we are all as an unclean thing,” and our very “righteousness’s are as filthy rags” (Isa. 64:66But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. (Isaiah 64:6)) before Him in whose sight the heavens are not clean; yes, every mouth is stopped, we are without excuse, “the whole world is guilty before God” (Rom. 3:1919Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. (Romans 3:19)). Lost sheep, indeed, are we, wandering on the dreary mountains in the “far country,” with only broken cisterns and husks, the unsatisfying husks of the world’s pleasures, to nourish souls made in the image of God. Oh, if men would only understand that Christ alone can fill the void, the unsatisfied something that in every unforgiven soul is hidden deep down in his heart; and He says, “If any man thirst let him come unto me and drink:” and “Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst.” Nothing else can satisfy, while He can
“Draw, and win, and fill completely,
Till the cup o’erflow the brim.”
“But why is the world an evil thing?” you ask. Because it is a vast system, built up to exclude God, where men are made happy without Him, where all practically says to Him, “Depart from us, for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways.” It was on this principle that Cain― the first worldly man acted—he “went out from the presence of the Lord,” and builded a city. He sought to make himself happy outside His presence, to forget Him; and soon we hear of man’s seeking out many inventions, and, with the aid of music’s pleasures no doubt, so lulling the voice of his unpurged conscience, that he began to forget that he had turned his face from God; and now his followers (those whose pleasures are planned outside His presence, who move daily in scenes where the mention of His name is an intrusion), ask, astonished, “Where’s the harm of going into the world?”
There is not harm only, there is danger, and that for eternity, for such are dead towards God, for “she that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth” (1 Tim. 5:66But she that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth. (1 Timothy 5:6)). Christless souls are led captive by Satan, who, because of his extensive reign is called “the god of this world,” “the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience” (Eph. 2:22Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: (Ephesians 2:2)); and are lost, for it is written, “if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost, in whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ should shine unto them” (2 Cor. 4:3, 43But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: 4In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. (2 Corinthians 4:3‑4)).
Dear pleasure-seeker, you are risking an eternity outside the Lord’s presence, for, if you will not have Him in life, do you not know you cannot have Him in death? But God so loved you that He sent His Son to save you, to turn you from the power of Satan―that power which draws you into the world―unto God. He knows you are in Satan’s snare, “taken captive of him at his will,” so Jesus came “to preach deliverance to the captives,” and if you only let Him draw you with His bands of love, if you only see His marvelous plan of redemption, He will save you, for He came “not to judge the world but to save the world,” to die, the Just One in the place of the unjust that he might bring us to God.
He will give you another nature, that second birth, without which God declares no man can enter His kingdom (John 2:3-53And when they wanted wine, the mother of Jesus saith unto him, They have no wine. 4Jesus saith unto her, Woman, what have I to do with thee? mine hour is not yet come. 5His mother saith unto the servants, Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it. (John 2:3‑5)), and it will give you new desires, new pleasures, so that you will turn of your own choosing from what before entranced you, will count it all loss for the excellency of knowing Him and tasting His love; and, believe me, it passes knowledge; it is so matchless, so immeasurable, that the heart is too small to hold it—it runs over. Oh, reader, only test it, for it is a reality, a true living thing that makes up ten thousand times for all earthly joys, and can give you, even here, to taste such rapture as has not entered into the heart of man, but which “God hath prepared for them that love Him.” Oh, just tell Him you know you are far from Him, that is all He wants― a bowing to His verdict―and He will sane you, and there will be joy over you in heaven (Luke 15:77I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance. (Luke 15:7)), and you will be His forever, “whom not having seen we love, in whom though now we see him not, yet believing, we rejoice with joy unspeakable” (1 Peter 1:88Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory: (1 Peter 1:8)).
But if you will not hear His voice today, if you will harden your heart, hear His sentence when He takes up His strange work―judgment: “Because I called and ye refused, I stretched out my hand and no man regarded, but ye have set at nought all my counsel and would none of my reproof I also will laugh at your calamity, I will mock when your fear cometh... When distress and anguish cometh upon you,” (Prov. 1:2424Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded; (Proverbs 1:24), &c.)
Oh, will you not trust Him? He stands at the door and knocks, and “now is the day of salvation.”
A. DE C.