by the Rev. CHARLES G. FINNEY
Jeremiah VI. 30--"Reprobate silver shall men call them,
because the Lord has rejected them."
These words were spoken
to a generation of Israelites with whom God had used every suitable means to
reclaim and save them; and who had withstood them all, and had remained
obstinate and unrepentant to the end.
God says to them, “O daughter of my people, clothe yourself with
sackcloth, and roll about in ashes!
Make mourning as for an only son, most bitter lamentation; for the
plunderer will suddenly come upon us.”
“I
have set you,” he says to the prophet, “as an assayer and a fortress among My
people, that you may know and test their way.
They are all stubborn rebels, walking as slanderers. They are bronze and iron, they are all
corrupters; the bellows blow fiercely, the lead is consumed by the fire; the smelter
refines in vain, for the wicked are not drawn off. People will call them rejected silver, because the Lord has
rejected them.” (Jer. 6:27-30) This is an excellent example of the use of
figurative language in the Bible as the best possible means to conveying
truth. The meaning of literal language
may vary. It may be understood
differently by different individuals, and change over a period of years. But figurative language always remains the
same, conveys the same ideas in all ages and to all nations. Here the people of Israel were compared to
metal that a refiner was trying to purify in the fire. The means that God had used to sanctify them
are compared to fire, and the refiner is represented as having raised his heat
to such a degree as to burn the bellows, and to consume the metal itself by the
intensity of the heat; and yet he could not succeed in separating the dross
from the silver. He then pronounces it
reprobate, or worthless silver, fit only to be thrown away. That is, the house of Israel was
incorrigible; and the more strenuously God pressed the means of their sanctification;
the more did their obstinacy and wickedness manifest itself. God therefore declared that men should call
them reprobate or wicked, and should understand and say that the Lord had
rejected them.
My goal today is to
discuss the doctrine of REPROBATION.
The following is the order that this subject shall be presented:
1. What is the doctrine
of reprobation?
2. What are not reasons
on which this doctrine is based?
3. What are the reasons
for this doctrine?
4. When are sinners
reprobated?
5. Why
the reprobate was created.
6. The reprobate is not
lost because he was reprobated.
7. The salvation of the
reprobate still depends on their own choice, and put within their own power.
8. The doctrine of
reprobation is just.
9. The doctrine of reprobation
is impartial.
10. The doctrine of
reprobation is benevolent.
11. Overall, reprobation
is the best thing that can be done for the universe.
12. How may we know who
are reprobates.
You will see that I must
really condense what I plan to say under each of these headings, and satisfy
myself with simply giving an outline of this important doctrine. The subject is so extensive, that in looking
over it, my mind has been at a loss to know what to leave out, rather than what
to say. It is like a gold mine, the
deeper you go the richer the vein.
1. What is the doctrine
of reprobation?
The term ‘reprobation’
signifies something worthless, good for nothing, rejected as useless. To reprobate something is to pronounce it
good for nothing, rejected, garbage.
The reprobates among mankind are those who will be lost, who will be
cast out from the presence of God and the glory of His power forever. Today, I’m not going to prove that any part
of mankind will be finally lost. I am
preaching to a congregation who believes that this is true. To attempt to prove this is therefore
unnecessary and irrelevant right now.
All I need to say is that those who will be finally rejected and lost
are the reprobates.
2. I will show what are
not reasons on which this doctrine is based.
In other words, what are not reasons why reprobates are lost.
a. Not because God has
any malicious ill will towards them.
His feelings are always entirely benevolent towards all his
creatures. He never feels evil, not
even towards the most wicked beings in the universe. He blames them, and feels grieved and indignant at their conduct,
but he is never malicious. The Bible
often represents God as being angry at the wicked. This is just. The Bible
means what it says. God is angry, but
his anger is not malicious. He has the
feelings of a good governor, who sees rebels arrayed against His government,
introducing disorder, and destroying public and private happiness. God feels a loving opposition to such
conduct, a holy indignation that is equal to His love of virtue and
happiness. His love for the public good
makes Him resolute and firm in executing the laws against them.
b. They are not
reprobated because the glory of God or the interest of the universe requires
their damnation even if they will repent.
Some believe that the reprobation and damnation of the wicked is
indispensable to the glory of God and the good of the universe. They believe that there is no other way that
God’s moral character can be displayed.
They believe that sin is a necessary means of the greatest good, and
that God decrees the sins, the wickedness, and the damnation of the finally
impenitent as the only means of developing before the universe the whole circle
of Divine attributes, and producing on the whole the greatest amount of
good. That as a result, God prefers the
existence of sin to its non-existence, rebellion to obedience, and the
damnation of some of mankind to the salvation of everybody. Now I see this as a dangerous error, which
is dishonorable to God, damaging to His government, and can easily stir up
rebellion against His throne. I do not
believe that sin is a necessary means of the greatest good, and I see that
punishment becomes necessary only when moral agents have not been, and will
never be obedient without witnessing the execution of the law. If all the subjects of God's government had
remained obedient, illustrating Divine justice by sending people to hell would
have been unnecessary. If, without
inflicting any penalties, every being created by God remained obedient, it
would have been to the infinite dishonor of God send any one to hell. The execution of the infinite penalty of
God's law is only warrantable and appears glorious in Him when all milder means
fail to obtain and perpetuate obedience.
I would ask, what good is developing the attribute of justice, unless it
is to gain respect for God's authority, and thus secure obedience? But if men were obedient without anybody
being sent to hell, certainly punishment would not be necessary.
God's glory requires that men should be
reprobated and damned simply in view of the fact that they would sin and
persist in rebellion; not that His glory requires their rebellion and
damnation, in preference to their obedience and salvation.
c. Men are not reprobated
because of any lack in the sufficiency of the atonement. That takes the atonement and represents it
as a simple commercial transaction; as if the Godhead had made a bargain, in
which the Son agreed to pay the Father so much suffering for so many sins
committed. Like the payment of a
promissory note, Christ pays God the exact amount of suffering that the guilty
owes. This is dangerous in many
respects.
First, it excludes the
idea of mercy from the government of God.
What grace or mercy is there in discharging an obligation when the debt
is paid? Furthermore, it gains nothing
if Christ had to suffer just as much as sinners would have suffered had they
been sent to hell; there would have been just as much suffering in the universe
as if every sinner received the penalty of the law. Some who have supported this idea of the atonement, to avoid the
inevitable conclusion, that if the debt was literally paid for everybody, then
everybody would be saved, have added that the atonement was only made for the
elect, and claim that the atonement does not provide for the non-elect. The non-elect are just as hopelessly lost as
the devils are. This represents God as
having sold the elect to his Son for a price, and leaving the rest to go to
hell without any chance for salvation.
Neither my Bible, nor my intellect, nor my conscience, nor my heart,
will for one moment accept that such a view of the atonement is true. The atonement is a transaction that makes it
possible for every sinner to receive salvation, but it is not calculated nor
designed to pay the debt of any sinner in such a way that it makes his
salvation an act of justice. It
provides for the salvation of all men; but by itself, it guarantees the
salvation of no man. If no one had been
saved, it would still have reflected infinite glory on the character of
God. The atonement displays, in the
most striking and impressive manner, God’s whole heart on the subject of His
law, its precepts, penalty, and the desert of sin. And if all men should reject it, it would still be glorious, and
throw radiance around the scepter of his justice that would light their
footsteps to the gates of hell.
3. Why are reprobates
rejected and lost?
Because they are
unwilling to be saved! They are
unwilling to be saved on the terms on which only God can consistently save
them. Ask sinners if they are willing
to be saved, and they will all say yes; and they will say this with perfect
sincerity, if they can be saved on their own terms. But when you reveal to them the terms of salvation that the
Gospel contains; when they are required to repent and believe the Gospel, to
forsake their sins, and give themselves up to the service of God, they will all
begin to make excuses. Now, to accept
these terms, one must heartily and practically consent to them. For them to say that they are willing to
accept salvation while they actually do not accept it is to lie. To be willing is to accept it; and the fact
that they do not heartily consent to, and embrace the terms of salvation, is an
absolute demonstration that they are unwilling. Yes, sinners, the only terms on which you can possibly be saved,
you reject. Is it not then an insult to
God for you to pretend that you are willing?
The only true reason that any of you are not Christians is that you are
unwilling. God does not make you
unwilling because you are a reprobate; but you are a reprobate because you are
unwilling.
But, do any of you object
and say, “why doesn’t God make us willing?
Is it not because he has made us reprobates, that he does not change our
hearts and make us willing?” No,
sinner, it is not because he has reprobated you; but because you are so
obstinate that he cannot wisely, and in consistency with the public good, do
those things necessary to convert you.
Here you are waiting for God to make you willing to go to heaven, while
you are diligently using your talents to get to hell. Yes, exerting more effort to get to hell, than you would use to
insure you salvation and invest your talents in the service of your God. You tempt God, and then turn round and ask
Him why He does not make you willing!
Now sinner, let me ask you, do you think you are a reprobate? If so, what has led the infinitely
benevolent God to reprobate you? There
must be some reason, what do you think it is?
Did you ever seriously ask yourself, “What is the reason that a wise and
infinitely benevolent God has never made me willing to accept salvation”?
It must be for one of the
following reasons. 1) God is a wicked,
evil being, and desires your damnation for its own sake. 2) He could not convert you even if He
thought it wise to do so. 3) You behave
in such a manner that, to His infinitely benevolent mind it appears unwise to
take such a course of action that would bring you to repentance.
Now, which of these do
you think it is? You will not probably
take the ground that He is wicked, and desires your damnation because he
delights in misery. You will probably not
take the ground that he could not convert even if He thought it was wise to do
so. The only reason left, then, is that
your heart, conduct, and stubbornness, are so abominable in His sight that
using any further means with you to try to secure your conversion would
actually do more harm than good to His Kingdom. I don’t have time tonight to argue the question whether you, as a
moral agent, could not resist any possible amount of moral influence that could
be brought to bear on you without interfering with your moral freedom. We’ll have to discuss that some other time.
The reason why God does
not make you willing is because He sees that it would be unwise for Him to do
so. This conclusion is based on two
facts, 1) God is infinitely benevolent, and 2) He does not actually make you willing. I do not believe that God would neglect to
do anything that He saw was wise and benevolent in the great matter of man's
salvation. Who can believe that He can
give His only begotten and well beloved Son to die for sinners, and then
neglect any wise and benevolent means for their salvation? No, sinner, if you are reprobate, it is
because God foresaw that you would do just as you are doing; that you would be
so wicked as to defeat all the efforts that He could wisely make for your
salvation. What a variety of means He
has used with you. At one time, He has
thrown you into the furnace of affliction; and when this has not softened you,
he has turned round and loaded you with favors. He has sent you His word, He has striven by His Spirit, He has
drawn you to the cross; he has tried to melt you by the groaning of Calvary,
and tried to drive you back from the way to death by rolling in your ears the
thunders of damnation. At one time,
clouds and darkness have been round about you; the heavens have thundered over
your head, Divine vengeance has hung out all around your horizon the portentous
clouds of coming wrath. At another
time, mercy has smiled on you from above like the noonday sun, breaking through
an ocean of storms. He urges every
motive; He lays heaven, earth, and hell under perpetual contributions for
considerations to move your stony heart.
But you deafen your ears, close your eyes, and harden your heart, and
say, “cause the holy one of Israel to cease from before me”. (Is. 30:11)
And what can we conclude from all this?
“How must all this end?
Reprobate silver shall men call them, because the Lord has rejected
them”. (Jer 6:30)
4. When are sinners
reprobated?
In respect to God,
sinners are reprobated from eternity.
But from our point of view, they are cast away when they become
worthless and good for nothing. God has
known from eternity how every event would turn out; how every sinner in the
universe would behave. This was always
present to His mind as much as it ever will be. And so, God’s decision on this must have existed from
eternity. As far as making up of His
own mind is concerned, He only needs to have all the evidence in the case, and
this He has always had. If, on judgment
day, God will have reason to reprobate them, and send them to hell, He has
always had good reason, and has always been of one mind on this subject. But as far as the reprobates themselves are
concerned, they become reprobates when they stubbornly, and finally refuse to
accept eternal life on the terms of the Gospel. The doctrine of reprobation is just like the doctrine of election
in this respect, it eternally exists in the mind of God. He has no new thoughts, nor new knowledge,
nor purposes, nor plans. But as far as
we are concerned, reprobation is just like election. It is conditional. This
is also true on every other subject; for example, man's life and death are all
fixed, and his days are numbered. God
has set the limits of man’s life here on earth, and he cannot go beyond those
limits. All the circumstances of his
life and death are settled; yet, who does not know that the time of every man's
death, as far as man is concerned, is completely uncertain. His days may be lengthened or shortened by
his own conduct. Years, and scores of
years, may be added to, or subtracted from his life, through the lifestyle that
he chooses to live and the choices that he makes. Just because it is settled in the mind of God does not affect the
uncertainty of our future. To us, the
future is just as uncertain as if neither God nor any being in the universe had
any foreknowledge of our lives. So
concerning our salvation or damnation; although God knows what the results will
be, still the future is to us just as uncertain and just as much depended on
our own voluntary agency, as if God knew nothing about it. The event that takes place today was long
before a certainty in the mind of God.
V. Why did God create the
reprobate?
If God knew beforehand
that so many would sin, and behave themselves so wickedly that He would have to
cast them away forever, did He not create them on purpose to damn them? I answer, no! He did not create them to damn them, but He created them for
other more important purposes. It is
true that He knew they would be damned, and created them in spite of this
knowledge. He did not create them
because of this, but in spite of it. He
had other more important reasons for their creation that He created them for
these beneficial reasons, and not for sending them to hell. So important were the reasons for their
creation that He proceeded, even though He knew of their frightful end. There are many wise and benevolent purposes
answered by the existence of reprobates that we can discern; and there are many
other reasons that will be revealed to us in the hereafter. In spite of their wicked intentions, God
makes use of them to do a great deal of good.
The devil himself has been an important agent in some of the most
glorious transactions in the universe.
But, no thanks to him! When he
put it into the heart of Judas to betray Christ, he clearly intended it for
evil, but God meant it and overruled it for good. Neither the devil nor Judas intended to glorify God or benefit
mankind; but they both wanted to kill the cornerstone of man's salvation. Wicked men are often at times indispensable
to the welfare of society. The
existence of reprobates is indispensable to the existence of the elect, for
they are often the parents of the elect; while they themselves are cast away
because of their rebellion, their children are often converted, sanctified, and
saved.
If the non-elect were
never created, the elect could never live.
In building up the kingdom of Christ, God often employs the hands of
wicked men. It is certainly not their
intention to build up the kingdom of God, but they lay such a train of events,
that in the pursuit of their selfish ends they are often instrumental in
promoting His kingdom.
There is a wicked man who
hates God and religion. He loves the
world and hoards lots of money for his children. He gives them the best education, preps them to shine in the
world, and doesn’t care how much damage they do to the cause of Christ. But God meets them by His Spirit, converts
and sanctifies them, and leads them to devote the hard earnings of their
ungodly father to building up and extending His holy kingdom, thus proving that
“the wealth of the wicked is laid up for the just”.
6. The reprobate is not
lost because they are reprobated. That
is, their reprobation is not the reason why they are lost. God does not condemn them because they are
reprobated, but because they are wicked.
Their own wicked behavior leads God to send them to hell, and not His
act in reprobating them. He reprobates
and punishes them for their sins, because, in spite of all He could wisely do
to reclaim them, they chose to remain in their sins. He always foresaw how wicked they would be, and always planned to
treat them accordingly.
7. The salvation or
damnation of the reprobate depends on their own choice. This is the sinner’s turning point. If you choose the way of life, you will be
saved; if you choose the way of sin, you will be damned.
Your creation as moral
agents, and making you the subjects of moral government, suspends your
salvation on your own choice, and makes salvation impossible for you in any
other way. If you are reprobated, it is
because, when the choice is given you, you make the wrong choice and stubbornly
persist in it. The reason why God
rejects you is because you reject Him.
He reprobates you, because you reprobate Him. He does it because you do it, and for no other reason. But will some object, and say the heathen
never had the offer of salvation; and the decree, therefore, concerning them,
must have nothing to do with their conduct?
I answer, “This is not true”.
God judges men according to the light they have. The apostle Paul says that those who sin
without law, shall also perish without law; and those who sin under the law,
shall be judged by the law. Those who
have only the light of nature, if they improve and obey that light, shall be
saved. But Paul affirms that the
heathen do not do this. He says that
they are unwilling to retain God in their knowledge, and that for this reason
they have changed the glory of the incorruptible God into the image of
corruptible men, beasts, and creeping things; so that they are without excuse.
They violate their own rules of action; they do what they know is wrong; their
thoughts meanwhile accusing or else excusing one another. They practice those things that they condemn
in others, and thus pass sentence on themselves; and for this they may be
justly reprobated.
8. Reprobation is just.
Is it not just in God to
let men make their own choices, especially when the highest possible motives
are held out to them as inducements to choose eternal life? What!
Is it not just to reprobate men when they obstinately refuse salvation,
when everything has been done that is consistent with infinite wisdom and
benevolence to save them? Shall not men
be willing to be either saved or lost?
What shall God do with you? You
are unwilling to be saved; then why should you object to others being
damned. If reprobation under these
circumstances is not just, I challenge you, sinner, to tell what is just.
9. Reprobation is
impartial.
It has always been found
convenient, by those who oppose the doctrine of election and reprobation, to
represent them as partial. By partial I
mean that some are elected and not others, that some are reprobated and not
others; in other words, that only a part of mankind are elected or reprobated;
I have no objections to the term. But
if partial means that there is undue favor towards one or a lack of favor to
the other, or that God reprobated some rather than others because of some
prejudice, or improper bias against them, or because of some dislike which he
felt towards them more than towards the elect, if this is what is meant by a
partial reprobation, I deny it, and maintain that reprobation is entirely
impartial. Reprobation is an impartial
act that takes into view all the circumstances of the case, and acts for the
general good without any undue bias in favor or against anyone. I have already tried to show the reasons for
reprobating sinners relate entirely to their own wickedness, and the public
interest. The public interest requires
their reprobation and damnation because they refuse to obey God.
X. Reprobation is
benevolent.
It was benevolence
(unselfish love) in God to create men, though He foresaw that they would sin
and become reprobate. If He foresaw
that overall, He could secure such an amount of virtue and happiness under the
influence of moral government, as to more than counterbalance the sin and
misery of those who would be lost, then certainly it was a dictate of
benevolence to create them. The
question was, whether moral beings should be created, and moral government
established, when it was foreseen that a great evil would be the incidental
consequence. Whether this would be
benevolent or not must turn on the question, whether a good might be secured
that would more than counterbalance the evil.
If the virtue and happiness that could be secured by the administration
of moral government would greatly out measure the incidental evils arising out
of a defection of a part of the subjects of this government, it is clear that a
truly benevolent mind would choose to establish the government, in spite of the
accompanying evils to the contrary.
Now, if those who are lost deserve their misery, and bring it on
themselves, by their own choice when they might have been saved, then certainly
there can be nothing inconsistent with justice or benevolence. God must have a moral government, or there
can be no such thing as holiness in the created universe. For holiness in a creature is nothing more
than a voluntary conformity to the government of God.
God views the loss of the
soul as a great evil, and He always will look on it that way. God would gladly avoid the loss of any soul,
if it was consistent with the wisest administration of His government. How
slanderous, injurious, and offensive to God it must be, then, to say that He
created sinners on purpose to damn them.
He pours forth all the tender yearnings of a father over those whom he
is obliged to destroy. “How can I give
you up, Ephraim? How can I hand you
over, Israel? How can I make you like
Admah? How shall I set you like
Zeboim? My heart churns within me. My sympathy is stirred.” (Hosea 11:8) Now, sinner, can you sit here and find it in your heart to accuse
the blessed God of a lack of benevolence.
“Serpents, brood of vipers! How
can you escape the condemnation of hell?”
(Matt. 23:33)
11. Overall, reprobation
is the best thing that can be done for the universe.
Since the penalty of the
law (although infinite), under the wisest possible administration of moral
government, could not secure universal obedience; and since many sinners will
not be reclaimed and saved by the Gospel, one of three things must be
done. Either moral government must be
given up, or the wicked must be annihilated, or they must be reprobated and
sent to hell. Now, we will not even
pretend that moral government should be given up. Annihilation would not be just, because it would not be a proper
punishment for sin. Now, since sinners
really deserve eternal death, and since their punishment may be of real value
to the universe in creating a respect for the authority of God, and thus
strengthening His government, it is clear that their reprobation and damnation
is for the general good, and it is making the best use of the wicked that can
be made.
12. How it may be known
who are reprobates.
It may be difficult for
us to determine with certainty who are reprobates in this world; but there are
so many examples of reprobation in the Bible, that by a sober and judicious
investigation, we may form a pretty accurate opinion, whether we or those
around us are reprobates or not.
1. One evidence of reprobation is a long life
of prosperity in sin. The psalmist says
it this way, “When the wicked spring up like grass, And when all the workers of
iniquity flourish, It is that they may be destroyed forever”. (Psalms 92:7) God often gives the wicked their portion in this world, and lets
them prosper and wax fat like a stalled ox, and then brings them forth to the
slaughter. “For the wicked are reserved
for the day of doom; they shall be brought out on the day of wrath.” (Job
21:30) When you see an individual
prospering in his sins over a long period of time, there is good reason to fear
that man is a reprobate.
2. Habitual avoidance of
God is a mark of reprobation. If men
are to be saved at all, it is through the sanctification of the Spirit, and
belief of the truth; and it is probably true, that not one in ten thousand of
those people who habitually avoid places where God presents his claims are
saved. Sometimes, I know, a tract, or the conversation or prayer of some
friend, may awaken an individual and lead him to the house of God; but, as a
general fact, if a man stays away from the means of grace, and neglects his
Bible, it is a fearful sign of reprobation, and that he will die in his
sins. He is voluntarily avoiding God,
and he does not neglect the means of grace because he was reprobated, but he
was reprobated because God foresaw that he would take this course. Suppose a pestilence was spreading that was
certain to prove fatal in every instance where the appropriate remedy was not
applied. Now, if you wanted to know who
among the sick were certain to die with this disease, if you found any among them
neglecting and despising the only appropriate remedy, you would know that they
were the people who were certain to die with the disease.
All this was known to God
as certainly beforehand as afterwards.
Now, if you want to know who are reprobates in this city, or in any city
or village, look at those who never go to church, the swearers, drinkers, and
whoremongers. Look at those young men
who drive around looking for prostitutes, or the boys and young men that you
may see gathering on Sunday in front of the local bar, or on street corners, with
cigarettes dangling from their lips, their bloated cheeks, and swollen
bloodshot eyes. Look throughout the
land, and see millions of young men who are utterly neglecting and despising
eternal salvation. O horrible! Poor dying young men, not one in a thousand
of them is likely to be saved; perhaps some of them came from a family of
prayer, where they used to kneel morning and evening around a family
altar. Now where are they? Where are they going? They are already within the sweep of that
mighty whirlpool, whose circling waters are drawing them nearer and nearer to
the roaring vortex. They dance, party,
gamble, and waste their time. They
ignore neither the voice that cries from heaven, nor the wail that comes up
from hell, but nearer and nearer, with accelerating speed, they circle round
and round until they are swallowed up and lost in the abyss of damnation.
3. Where people
completely lack the strivings of the Holy Spirit. I’m not talking about those who never heard the Gospel; but in
gospel lands, it is doubtful whether any, except those whom God has given up
on, live without experiencing some strivings of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, when we find that God has stopped
striving with someone, that soul has solemn and alarming evidence that God has
given up on him. God says, “Woe to them when I depart from them!” (Hos 9:12)
4. Where people have
passed through a revival, and are not converted, it affords evidence that they
are reprobates. Now this evidence is
not conclusive, but presumptive. But
this presumption grows stronger and stronger every time an individual passes
such a season without conversion. It is
common for people, in times of revival, to have lots of conviction and yet
grieve away the Holy Spirit. Perhaps
some of these people are here tonight, and perhaps dreaming away one more offer
of eternal salvation. If you have once
resisted the Holy Spirit until he is quenched, I have but little hope that
anything I can say will do you any good.
The great probability is that you will be lost.
5. Those who have grown
old in sin are probably reprobates. It
is a sad and alarming fact, that a vast majority of those who give their lives
to Christ are converted under twenty-five years of age. Look at the history of revivals, and see,
even in those that have manifested the greatest power, how so very few elderly
people have been converted. The men,
who are set on attaining some worldly object and determined to achieve their
worldly goals before they will attend to religion and yield to the claims of
the Maker expecting to be converted afterwards, are usually disappointed. Such a cold calculation stinks in the sight
of God. What! Take advantage of His forbearance, and say, that because He is
merciful you will venture to continue in sin until you have secured your
worldly goals and worn yourselves out in the service of the devil, and then
turn to your Maker with the jaded remnant of your abused mortality! Don’t expect God to set his seal of approval
on that kind of decision, and allow you to triumph saying that you served the
devil as long as you wanted to, and still managed to get into heaven.
You watch such a man as
he ages from twenty to thirty to forty and beyond, and the probability that he
will be converted diminishes every year.
Sinner, are you forty years old?
Now look over the list of conversions in the last move of God in year
area. How few among them were your age
when they committed their lives to Christ?
Perhaps some of you are fifty or sixty!
How difficult it is to find one person converted at your age. There may be one here, and perhaps one
there, but they are few and far between, like beacons on distant mountaintops,
sparsely scattered. There is just
enough of them to keep old sinners from total despair. Aged sinner, the chances are more than fifty
to one that you are a reprobate.
6.
Absence of chastisements is a sign of reprobation. God says in the epistle to the Hebrews, “My son, do not despise
the chastening of the Lord, nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him; for
whom the Lord loves He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives. If you endure chastening, God deals with you
as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten? But if you are without chastening, of which
all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons.” (Heb 12:5-8)
7. When men are chastened, and not reformed by
it, it is a mark of reprobation. A poet
once said, “When pain cannot bless, heaven abandons us in despair”. God says of such, “Why should you be
stricken again? You will revolt more
and more. The whole head is sick, and
the whole heart faints.” (Isaiah 1:5) When your afflictions are unsanctified, when
you harden yourselves under His stripes, why should He not leave you to fill up
the measure of your iniquity?
8. Embracing damnable heresies is another mark
of reprobation. Where people seem to be
given up to believe a lie, there is solemn reason for fearing that they are
among those whom God sends strong delusions, that they may believe a lie, and
be damned, because they do not believe the truth, but have pleasure in
unrighteousness.
Where you see people
giving themselves up to such delusions, the more certainly they believe them,
the greater reason we have for believing that they are reprobates. The truth is so plain, that with the Bible
in your hands, it is next to impossible to believe a fundamental heresy,
without being given up to the judicial curse of God. It is so hard to believe a lie, with the truth of the Bible
before you, that even the devil cannot do it.
If you therefore reject your Bible, and embrace a fundamental falsehood,
you are more stupid and blind than the devil is. When a man professes to believe a lie, almost the only hope of
his salvation that remains, is that he does not seriously believe that
lie. Sinner, beware how you trifle with
God's truth. How often have individuals
began to argue in favor of heresy for the sake of argument and because they
love to debate, until they finally believe their own lie and are lost forever!
REMARKS
1. The salvation of
reprobates is impossible only because they make it impossible by their own
wicked conduct.
2. God will turn the
damnation of the reprobate to something positive. In establishing His government, God foresaw that great evils
would be incidental to it. He saw that
multitudes would sin and persevere in rebellion until they were lost, in spite
of everything that would be done to save them.
Yet, He also foresaw that a vastly greater good would result from the
virtue and happiness of holy beings, and that He, could even turn the
punishment of the wicked into something positive. Here is an instance of the Divine economy turning everything into
good. I do not mean that the damnation
of the wicked results in a greater good than the good that would result from
their salvation if they would repent.
If their salvation could be secured by any means that would be
consistent with the highest good of the universe, it would be greatly preferred. But, since this cannot be, He will do the
best that the nature of the case allows.
When He cannot save them, God will, by their punishment, erect a
monument to His justice. He will lay
its foundation deep in hell, and build it up to heaven, that will be seen from
afar in the smoke of their torment that ascends up for ever and ever, it will
forever stand as an everlasting reminder of the hatefulness and desert of sin.
3. It is very wicked and
blasphemous to criticize God, when He has done the best that Infinite wisdom,
benevolence, and power could do. Who
should criticize? Surely not the elect;
they have no reason to complain. Shall
the reprobate complain, when He has forced God to choose between giving up His
government, or sending him to hell?
4. Reprobates are bound to praise God. Sinners, He has created and given you many
blessings and offers you eternal life; and will you refuse to praise Him?
5. God has every reason to complain about you,
sinner. Think about how much good you
could do! Look at how much good
individuals have often done! Now, of
all the good you might do, you rob God.
While eternity rolls its everlasting rounds, on how
many errands of love could you go, diffusing happiness throughout Jehovah's
empire? But you refuse to obey
Him. You are in league with hell, and
you prefer to scatter firebrands, arrows, and death, to destroy your own soul
and lead others to perdition with you.
You drive on in your career, and help to set in motion all the elements
of rebellion in earth and hell. Will
you complain about God? He has reason
to complain about you. He is the
injured party. He has created you, has
held you in His hand, and fanned your heaving lungs; and, in return, you have
breathed out your breath in rebellion, blasphemy, and contempt of God, and
compelled Him to pronounce you reprobate.
6. There is reason to
believe that there are many reprobates in the church. This is the probable history of many professing Christians. They had convictions of sin, but after a
while their distress, more or less, suddenly abated. If their distress had been considerable or if the Spirit left
them, their minds would naturally go toward the opposite extreme. But when their convictions left them, they
began to think that their lack of conviction might be an indication that they
have been converted. The thought that
they might be converted created a sensation of pleasure, and then they think
that this feeling of pleasure is evidence that they were converted, and their
confidence increases. As their
confidence increases, their joy at the thought of being saved also
increases. This selfish joy has been
the foundation on which they have built their hopes for eternity; and now you
see them in the church, transacting business on worldly principles, pleading
for sin, and finding a thousand excuses to conform to the world. They live on in sin, perhaps not openly
vicious, but they are negligent of their duty.
They are cold and formal reprobates, and go down to hell from the bosom
of the church.
7. Reprobates live to
fill up the measure of their iniquity.
The Bible informs us that
the Amorites were spared, not because there was any hope of their reformation,
but because their cup of iniquity was not yet full. Christ said to the Jews, “Fill up, then, the measure of your
fathers’ guilt,” and God said to Pharaoh, “Even for this same purpose I have
raised you up, that I might show My power in you, and that My name might be
declared in all the earth.” (Rom
9:17) (See Ex. 10:1) Oh, what a dreadful thought! Living to fill up the measure of your
sins! The cup of trembling and of wrath
is also filling up, which shall be soon poured out to you without mixture, when
there will be no one to deliver you.
Your long awaited judgment does not linger, and your damnation does not
slumber.
8. Saints should not envy
sinners.
The
Psalmist once had this trial. He said,
“Truly God is good to Israel, To such as are pure in heart. But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled;
My steps had nearly slipped. For I was
envious of the boastful, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. For there are no pangs in their death, but
their strength is firm. They are not in
trouble as other men, nor are they plagued like other men.” “ When I thought how to understand this, it
was too painful for me until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I
understood their end. Surely You set
them in slippery places; You cast them down to destruction. Oh, how they are brought to desolation, as in
a moment! They are utterly consumed
with terrors.” (Psalms 73:1-5,
16-19) How can a saint envy them,
standing on a slippery steep, with fiery billows rolling beneath them! Their feet will slide in due time. Christians, don't envy the wicked, though they
enjoy the wealth of the world; do not envy them; poor creatures! Their time is short, they have almost had
all their good things.
There are probably
individuals here to whom I have been preaching, that have not been in the least
benefited by anything I have said, or could say. You have set yourselves to oppose God, and have taken such an
attitude, that the truth never sinks into you to do you any good. Now, sinner, if you do this, and you go home
in this state of mind, tonight you will have additional evidence that God has
given you up, and that you are a reprobate.
Now, will you go away in your sins, under these circumstances? Don't talk about the doctrine of election or
reprobation as being in your way. No
man is ever reprobated for any other reason than that he is an obstinate
sinner.
Tonight, have you been
listening to this sermon to find something that you can stumble over? Be careful!
If you want to argue, you can always find plenty of opportunities. Sinners have stumbled over every other
doctrine of the Bible into hell, and so you may stumble over this.
What would you say if one
of you went home tonight and cut his throat, and said that he did it because
God foreknew that he would do it, and by creating Him with this foreknowledge,
planned that he should do it. Would
saying that excuse him? No! Neither does he have an excuse for walking
away from this house in his sins.
You only show that you
are determined to harden your hearts, resist God, and thus compel the holy Lord
God to reject you. No doctrine of the
Bible can save you if you persevere in sin, and no one can damn you, if you
repent and embrace the Gospel. The
blood of Christ flows freely. The
fountain is open. Sinner, what do you
say? Will you have eternal life? Will you have it now, or will you reject
it? Will you trample the law under
foot, and stumble over the Gospel to the depths of hell?