TRUSTING IN GOD'S MERCY
Also
appeared in the collection titled “Sermons on Gospel Themes”
By The Rev. CHARLES G. FINNEY
"I will trust in the mercy of God forever and
ever." Ps. 52:8.
Today, I will answer the following questions.
I. What is mercy?
II. What does it mean to trust in the mercy of the Lord forever?
III. What are the conditions on which we may safely trust in God's
mercy?
IV. What are the common mistakes made on this subject?
I. What is mercy?
1. Mercy as an attribute of God.
Mercy is not just goodness. Many
make this mistake because mercy is completely different than justice, and
justice naturally comes from goodness. Goodness may demand the exercise of justice. In fact, it often does. But to say that mercy demands the exercise
of justice is to use the word without thinking about what it means. Mercy asks that justice be set aside. Of course, the relationship between mercy
and goodness are very different and they have very different attributes.
2. Mercy is a disposition to pardon the guilty. Mercy sets aside the penalty of the law,
when that penalty has been incurred by transgression. Mercy is just the opposite of justice. Justice treats every individual according to what he deserves;
mercy treats the criminal very differently from how he deserves to be
treated. Unlike justice, what a person
deserves is never the rule by which mercy is guided.
3. Mercy is exercised only where there is guilt. Mercy always assumes guilt. Unless one deserves the penalty of the law, there can be no reason for mercy.
4. Mercy can be exercised no farther than one deserves punishment. It may continue to be exercised only as long as punishment is deserved, but no longer, only as far as ill desert goes, but no farther. If great punishment is deserved, great mercy can be shown; if endless punishment is due, then there is an opportunity for infinite mercy to be shown.
II. What does it mean to trust in the mercy of God?
1. There must be a conviction of guilt. No one can truly be said to trust in the mercy of God unless they have committed crimes and are aware of that fact. Justice protects the innocent, and they may safely appeal to justice for defense or redress. But for the guilty, nothing remains but to trust in mercy. Trusting in mercy always implies a deep, heartfelt conviction of personal guilt.
2. Trusting in mercy always implies that we have no hope for justice. If we expected justice, we would not look for mercy. The human heart is too proud to throw itself on mercy while it thinks that it deserves to receive God’s favor from justice. Not only that, to appeal to mercy when we could rightfully appeal to justice is never demanded either by God's law or the gospel, nor can it be in harmony with our relationship to God's government. In fact, it is impossible.
3. Trusting in mercy implies a proper understanding of what mercy is. Many fail on this point because they confuse mercy with mere goodness, or with grace, which is favor to the undeserving. Grace may be shown where there is no mercy. The term mercy is applied to the pardon of crime. We all know that God shows favor or grace, in the general sense, to all the wicked on earth. He makes His sun to shine on the evil and on the good, and sends His rain on the unjust as well as on the just. But to trust in this general favor shown to the wicked while on trial here is not trusting in the mercy of God. We never trust in mercy until we really understand that mercy is pardon for the crimes of the guilty.
4. Trusting in God's mercy implies a belief that God is
merciful. We could not trust Him if we
did not believe this. Believing that
God is merciful must always lie at the foundation of our trust in Him. Indeed so naturally does this belief beget
that out-going of our soul and resting on God that we call trust, that in the
New Testament sense it commonly includes both. Faith, or belief, includes
committing our heart to God, and a cordial trust in Him.
5. “Trusting in the mercy of God forever and ever” implies the
conviction that we deserve endless punishment.
Mercy is equal to the punishment that we deserve, and it cannot do any
more than that. It makes sense to rely
on the exercise of mercy for as long as we deserve punishment, but no
longer. A prisoner under a three years'
sentence in prison may ask for the exercise of mercy in the form of a pardon;
but he will not ask for a ten year pardon when he only needs a three year
pardon, or ask for a pardon after his three years' term has expired. This principle is perfectly obvious. As soon as the term of punishment ceases,
mercy, and our trust in it also ceases.
As long as the term of the punishment continues, our trust in the
exercise of mercy may also continue.
When therefore the Psalmist trusts in the mercy of God forever, he
renounces all hope of ever being received into favor on the condition of
justice.
6. Trusting in mercy implies that we stop making excuses. The moment you trust in mercy, you completely give up all your apologies and excuses at once; for every excuse suggests that we are trying to rely on God's justice. An excuse or apology is an appeal to justice; a plea designed to justify our conduct. Trusting in mercy forever implies that we have stopped making excuses forever.
When a man on trial before a civil court tries to justify himself and makes excuses, he appeals to justice; but if he goes before the court and pleads guilty, offering no justification or apology whatever, he throws himself at the mercy of the court. It sometimes happens that in the same trial, the accused party tries to do both. He first attempts to defend himself; but when he realizes that it isn’t working, he shifts his position, confesses that he is guilty of his crime, and admits that he deserves punishment, and throws himself at the mercy of the court. Perhaps he begs the court to commend him to the mercy of the executive who has the power to pardon.
Now, it is always understood that when a man pleads guilty he
stops making excuses, and appeals only to mercy. So, in any private matter with my neighbor, if I try to fully
justify myself, I have no plans to confess.
But if I am aware that I have done wrong to him, I freely confess my
wrong, and appeal to mercy. It is
impossible to truly confess that you are wrong when you are in a state of
self-justification.
The same is true in parental discipline. If your child sternly justifies himself, he makes no appeal to
mercy. But the moment he comes to you
in tears, hugs you, and says, “I am wrong”, he stops making excuses, and looks
to you for mercy. The same is true in
the government of God. Trusting in
mercy is a final giving up of all reliance on justice. You have no more excuses; you make no more
excuses.
III. What are the conditions on which we may confidently and securely
trust in the mercy of God forever?
1. Public justice must be satisfied. Its demands must be satisfied.
God is the great public magistrate, maintaining an infinitely
responsible relationship with the entire moral universe. He must be careful what He does.
Perhaps no measure of government is more delicate and difficult in
what may result than the exercise of mercy.
It is a very critical point.
There is the eminent danger of giving the impression that mercy tramples
down the law. The very thing that mercy
does is to set aside executing the penalty of the law; the danger is that this
may look like it sets aside the law itself.
The problem that God faces is, how can the law remain just as important
when the execution of its penalty has been completely withdrawn. This is always
a difficult and delicate matter.
In human governments, we often see great firmness exercised by the
magistrate. During the American
Revolution, Washington was earnestly encouraged to pardon André. This soldier was well known as an amiable,
lovely man; and his case excited a deep sympathy throughout the American
army. Many urgent petitions were made
to Washington in his behalf; but no, Washington could not yield. They pleaded with him to see André, in the
hope that a personal interview might touch his heart; but Washington refused to
see him. He dared not trust his own
feelings. He felt that this was a great crisis, and that a nation's welfare was
in peril. This was the reason behind
his stern unyielding decision. It was
not that he lacked compassion of soul.
Washington had a compassionate heart.
But under the circumstances, he knew too well that he must not allow
himself to yield to his tender sympathies. He dared not yield to these feelings,
and put the future of a birthing nation in danger.
Such cases have often occurred in human governments, when every
feeling of the soul is on the side of mercy and the temptation to be merciful
becomes very strong; but justice forbids the exercise of mercy.
This is often true in family government. The parent has an agonizing dilemma. He would rather bear twice the pain himself than to inflict it on
his son; but interests of perhaps infinite importance are at stake, and these
interests must not be put in jeopardy by indulging in his compassions.
Now if exercising mercy in such cases is difficult, how much more
difficult is it to exercise mercy in the government of God? Hence, the first condition of exercising
mercy is that something must be done to meet the demands of public
justice. The law must be upheld. No matter how much God desires to pardon, He
is too good to exercise mercy on any such conditions or under any such circumstances
that will impair the dignity of his law, provide a license to sin, and open the
very flood-gates of iniquity. God can
never do this. He knows He never ought
to.
On this point it only needs to be said at this time, that this
difficulty is completely removed by the atonement of Christ.
2. A second condition is that we repent. Certainly, no sinner has any reason to hope for mercy until he
repents. Will God pardon the sinner
while he is still rebellious?
Never! To do so would be most
unjust in God and most ruinous to the universe. It would be virtually saying that sin is so unimportant that God
does not care how wicked the sinner's heart is; He is ready to take the most
rebellious heart, un-humbled, to His own bosom. Before God can do this, He must cease to be holy.
3. We must confess our sins.
“He that confesses”, and he only, “shall find mercy.” Because of God’s relationship to the moral
universe, He cannot forgive without the sinner's confession. He must have the
sinner's testimony against himself, his support of God’s law and his obedience.
Suppose a man is convicted and sentenced to be hung. He petitions the governor for a pardon, but
is too proud to confess, at least in public.
“May it please your Honor,” he says, “between you and me, I am willing
to say that I committed that crime alleged against me, but you must not ask me
to make this confession before the world.
Please have some regard for my feelings and for the feelings of my many
respectable friends. Before the world,
therefore I will persist in denying my crime.
I trust however that you will seriously consider all the circumstances
and grant me a pardon.” “Pardon you,
infidel?” The governor would
respond. “Pardon you when you are
condemning the court and jury of being unjust, and claim the witnesses are
lying. Pardon you while you set
yourself against the whole administration of justice in this state? Never!
Never! You are too proud to take
your own place and appear as you really are; how can I trust you to be a good
citizen! How can I expect you to be
anything else than wicked?”
Please understand, then, that before we can trust in the mercy of
God, we must truly repent and make our confession as public as we have made our
crime.
Suppose again that a man is convicted and sues for pardon, but
will not confess at all. Oh, he says,
“I have no crimes to confess. I have
done nothing particularly wrong. The
reason why I act this way is that I have a desperately wicked heart. I cannot repent and never could. I don't know how it happens that I commit
murder so easily; it seems to be a part of my nature to kill my neighbor; I
can't help it. I am told that you are
very good, very merciful,” he says to the governor, “they even say that you are
love itself, and I believe it; you surely will grant me a pardon then, it will
be so easy for you--and it is so horrible for me to be hung. You know I have done only a little wrong,
and what I did was only because I could not help it; you certainly cannot insist
that I confess. What! Have me hung because I don't repent? You certainly are too kind to do that.”
“I won't thank you for your good opinion of me”, must be the
Judge’s reply; “the law will take its course; your path is to the gallows.”
See that sinner; hear him mock God in his prayer: “trust in the
mercy of God, for God is love.” Do you
repent?
“I don't know about repentance.
That is not the question. God is
love. God is too good to send men to
hell. How can anybody call themselves
Christian who thinks that a loving God would ever send any body to hell.” “Too good!”
You say, “too good!” So good
that God will forgive that sinner whether he repents or not? Too good to hold the reins of His government
firmly? Too good to secure the best
interests of his vast kingdom? Sinner,
the God you think of is a being of your own crazy imagination, not the God who
built the prison of despair for hardened sinners, not the God who rules the
universe by righteous law and rules our race on a gospel system which magnifies
that law and makes it honorable.
4. We must really make restitution as far as we are able. You may see the importance of this in the
case of a highway robber. He has robbed
a traveler of a hundred thousand dollars, and is sentenced to life in
prison. He petitions for pardon. He is very sorry for his crime and will make
any public confession that is asked of him, ever so public; but will he make
restitution? Not he. No, he needs that money himself. He will give up half of it, perhaps to the
government. All of a sudden, he becomes
very patriotic, ready to donate fifty thousand dollars for the public good,
ready to consecrate to some benevolent cause a splendid sum of money. But whose money? Where is justice for the man he has robbed? Wretch!
Donate to the public what you have torn from your neighbor and put it
into the treasury of the government!
No! Such a gift would burn right
through the vault! What would you think if the government would agree to such
an abomination? You would abhor their
inexcusable corruption.
See that man of the world.
His whole business career is an exercise in greed. He slyly thrusts his hands into his
neighbor's pockets and thus fills up his own.
His rule is to buy for less than it is worth and sell it for more than
it’s worth. He knows how to monopolize
and force prices to rise, and then sell his accumulated stocks. His mind is forever thinking about ways to
manage and make good bargains at the expense of others. But this man at last must prepare to meet
God. So, he turns to his money to make
it answer all things. He has a large
gift for God. Perhaps he will build a
church or send out a missionary; a large enough sum to buy a pardon for a life
about which his conscience is not very easy. Yes, he has a splendid bribe for
God. Ah, but will God take it? Never!
God burns with indignation at the thought. Does God want your guilt offering collected from all those people
you cheated and oppressed? Go and give
that money back to the suffering poor whose cries have gone up to God against
you. O shame on you to think to siphon
from your brother and give to God! Not
merely rob Peter to pay Paul, but rob man to pay God! The pardon of your soul is not bought so easily!
5. Another condition is that you really reform.
Suppose there is a serial killer in your neighborhood who has
become the terror of the entire region. He murders defenseless women and
children, burns down houses at night, and plunders and robs in daylight. Every day we hear more news of his
crimes. It makes our hair stand on
end. No one feels safe for even a
moment. He is an evil and bloody villain. Finally, he is arrested, and we all breathe
more easily. Peace is restored. But this murderer, after receiving the death
sentence, petitions for a pardon. He
shows no repentance whatever, and doesn’t even make a promise to reform and make
amends, yet the governor is willing to give him a free pardon. If he does issue that pardon, who will not
say, that the governor ought to be hung by the neck until he is dead. Dead!
But what does that sinner say?
“I trust,” he says, “in the great mercy of God. I have nothing to fear.” But does he reform? No!
What good can the mercy of God do him if he does not reform?
6. You must go all the way in justifying the law and its penalty.
Notice that convicted criminal.
He doesn't believe that the government has any right to take a life for
any crime; he completely denounces the justice of such a proceeding, and on
this ground, he insists that he must have a pardon. Will he get it? Will the
governor take a position that is clearly opposed to the very law and
constitution that he is sworn to uphold?
Will he crush the law to save one criminal, or even a thousand
criminals? Not if he has the spirit of
a ruler in his heart. That guilty man,
if he would receive mercy from the governor must admit that the law is
righteous and the penalty is just.
Otherwise, he arrays himself against the law and cannot be trusted in
the community.
Now listen to that sinner.
He has a lot to say against his judgment, and against the justice of
eternal punishment. He denounces the
laws of God as cruel and unrighteous.
Sinner, do you think that God can forgive you while you pursue such a
course? He would as soon repeal His law
and vacate his throne. You make it
impossible for God to forgive you.
7. No sinner can be a proper object of mercy who is not entirely
submissive to all those measures of the government that have brought him to
conviction.
Suppose a criminal should lie, saying that there had been a
conspiracy to waylay and arrest him; that witnesses had been bribed to give
false testimony; that the judge had charged the jury falsely, or that the jury
had given an unrighteous verdict; could he hope by such false allegations to
get a pardon? No! Such a man cannot be
trusted to maintain law and order in a community under any government, human or
divine.
But hear that sinner complain and argue. “Why,” he says, “why did God allow sin and temptation to enter
into this world at all? Why does God
let the sinner live at all to incur a doom so dreadful? And why does God block up the sinner's path
by his providence, and cut him down in his sins? Yet, this very sinner talks about trusting in God's mercy! Meanwhile, he is accusing God of being an
infinite tyrant and of seeking to crush the helpless, unfortunate sinner! What does his complaining mean? It is simply the uplifted voice of a guilty
rebel condemning his Maker for not doing good and showing mercy to his own
rebellious creatures. For it only needs
a moment's thought to see that all of God’s dealings are placed before a moral
agent to melt his heart by love. Yet,
against this the sinner murmurs, and pours out his complaints against God. Be
assured that unless you are willing to go all the way and justify everything
God does, He can never give you a pardon.
God cannot pardon a self-justifying rebel. The interests and well being of myriads of moral beings prevent
God from doing it. When you are willing
to justify God, and condemn yourself, you place yourself where mercy can reach
you, and then it surely will. Not before.
8. You must most wholeheartedly embrace the plan of
salvation. This plan is based on the assumption
that we deserve everlasting death and must be saved, by sovereign grace and
mercy. Nothing can save but mercy; mercy which meets the sinner in the dust,
prostrate, without an excuse or an apology, giving to God all the glory and
taking to himself all the guilt and shame.
There is hope for you, sinner, in embracing this plan with all your
heart.
IV. What are some of the mistakes that trap many?
1. Many really trust in justice and not in mercy. They say, “God is a just God. God will not be unjust to me. I will do the best I possibly can, and then
I can safely place myself in the hands of a just God.” True, God will not be unjust to you. You will never have to fear that. But how terrible would it be if God would be
perfectly just with you? How fearful it
would be, if you received no mercy? If
God does not show you infinite mercy, you are forever lost, as surely as you
are a sinner! Thus, trusting in God's
justice is a fatal rock. The sinner who can do it calmly has never seen God's
law and his own heart. The Psalmist did
not say, I trust in the justice of God forever and ever.”
2. Many profess to trust in the mercy of God without fulfilling
the only conditions in which mercy can be shown. They may believe in such trusting until they die--but no longer.
3. Sinners do not consider the fact that God cannot do away with
the need for them to fulfill these conditions.
He has no right to do so. These
conditions come from the very constitution of His government, from His very
nature, and must therefore be strictly fulfilled. God would rather send the whole race, yes, the whole universe to
hell, than dispense with their fulfillment.
If God were to set aside these conditions and forgive a sinner while
un-humbled, unrepentant, and unbelieving, he would upset his throne, convulse
the moral universe, and kindle another hell in his own heart.
4. Many are defeating their own salvation by
self-justification. Their own excuses
and accusations against God stand in the way of pardon. Since the world began, there has not been
one sinner that has found mercy in this state.
5. Many who pretend to trust in mercy, still claim that they are
being punished for their sins here on earth.
They hope for salvation through mercy, and yet they are punished for all
their sins in this life. Two more absurd and self-contradictory things were never
put together. Punished as much as they
deserve here, and yet saved through mercy?
Why don't they say it out loud that they shall be saved after death
through justice? Surely if they are
punished all they deserve as they go along, justice will ask no more after
death.
6. People who plead for mercy, according to the law, often rely on
justice. The deep conviction of sin and ill-desert does not sink into their
soul until they realize what mercy is, and feel that they can rely on nothing
else.
7. Some are covering up their sins, yet dream of going to
heaven. Do they think they can hide
those sins from the Omniscient Eye? Do
they think they can cover their sins and still “prosper,” in spite of God's
awful word?
8. We cannot reasonably ask for mercy beyond our acknowledged and
felt guilt, and those who believe that they can are terribly mistaken. Without a deep conviction of conscious
guilt, we cannot be honest and in earnest when we ask for mercy. Listen to that man pray who thinks sin is
not very serious and the punishment he deserves is small. “Oh Lord, I need some mercy, but only a
little since my sins have been few and small.
Because of this, Lord, exempt me from the brief and slight punishment I
might deserve from my few errors and mistakes.” Or hear that professing Christian pray: “O Lord, you know that I have already been punished for my sins
in this world. I have been battling
sickness, many aches and pains and financial losses. You know, Lord, that this has been more than enough to punish me
for all the sins I have committed. Now
therefore, I pray Lord, give me salvation through your great mercy.” How astonishing that sane men should believe
such nonsense! How can these professing
Christians pray at all? What should
they pray for? Not for pardon, for
based on their principles they should be exempted from punishment on the
grounds of justice, just like a criminal has who has served out his sentence in
prison. The only rational prayer that
can be made is that God will do them justice and let them off, since they have
already been punished enough. But why
should they pray for this? God can be
trusted to do justice without them praying for it. Now I know why so many so-called Christians do very little
praying. What do they have to pray
for? Their daily bread? That doesn’t seem to be a problem for most
people in this nation these days. But
praying for the mercy of God is not in their plans; for they suffer all they
deserve. What a pleasing delusion! It flatters human pride, but when you really
think about it, it is unreasonable, and downright damaging. Many who believe in restoration rather than
salvation takes substantially the same ground, only they leave a part of the
penalty to be worked out in purgatory, but they do claim salvation on the
ground of justice and not mercy. There
is no place for mercy in their system.
Every form of this system places God into inflexible robes of fearful
justice, yet these men say that they trust in the mercy of God! But what have they done with the
gospel? What have they done with
everything the Bible says about free pardon to the guilty? They have tossed it out of the Bible. And what have they given us instead? Only justice. They give us just enough justice to deal with sin in this world,
or at least with a few years of purgatory.
They turn sin into a trifle and government into a farce. God becomes a liar, and hell becomes an
imaginary creation of lunatics. What is
all this but the most deceptive blasphemy that ever came from hell?
If we only ask for a little mercy, we will get
nothing at all. This may seem strange,
but it is true. If we get anything, we
must ask for great blessings. Suppose a
man deserves to be hung, and yet asks only for one small favor; can he be forgiven? No.
He must confess all of his guilt in its full and awful form, and show
that he feels it in his very soul. So,
sinner, you must come and confess all your guilt as it is, or have no
mercy. Come and get down, low, lower,
infinitely low before God and receive mercy there. Hear that occasional churchgoer.
All he can say at first is, “I thank God for a thousand things.” But he begins to doubt whether this is quite
enough. Perhaps he needs a little more punishment than he has suffered in this
life; he sees a little more guilt, so he prays that God would let him off from
ten years of deserved punishment in hell.
And if he sees a little more guilt, he asks for a reprieve from fifteen
or twenty more years of punishment. If
truth flashes upon his soul and he sees his own heart and life in the light of
Jehovah's law, he gets down lower and lower, as low as he can, and pours out
his prayer that God would save him from that eternal hell which he
deserves. “Oh,” he cries out, “can God
forgive so great a sinner!” Yes, and
the more you humble yourself, and the more mercy you ask and feel that you
need, the more He will forgive you.
Only come down and take such a position that God can meet you. Remember the prodigal son, and that father
running, falling on his neck, weeping, welcoming, forgiving! Oh!
How that father's heart gushed with tenderness!
It is not the greatness of your sins, but it is the pride that is
in your heart that prevents your salvation.
It is not anything that you have done in your past life, but it is your
present state of mind that makes your salvation impossible. Think about this.
You don’t have to perform a certain number of good works to
persuade God to save you. He is doing
everything he can to persuade you to be saved.
You act as if it is almost impossible to move God to exercise mercy by
calling on Him and submitting to Him.
Oh, you do not see how His great heart beats with compassion and pours
His streams of mercy forth in all directions, pouring the river of the waters
of life at your very feet, creating such a pressure of appeal to your heart,
that you have to brace yourself against it, lest you should be persuaded to repent. Oh, do you see how God deeply desires to
persuade you, and break your heart in repentance, so He may bring you to the
place where He can touch you with his forgiving mercy, where He can come and
bless you without resigning His throne!
To deny that you deserve endless punishment is to make your
salvation utterly impossible. God can
never forgive you on this ground because you are trying to be saved on the
ground of justice. In trying to justify
yourself, you could not make your damnation any more certain than if you were
to murder every man you meet. You tie
up His hands of mercy and will not let Him pluck you from the jaws of
death. It is as if your house was on
fire, and you seize your loaded rifle to shoot down every man that comes with
his bucket to help you. You stand your
ground in the midst of the raging fire until you sink beneath the flames. Who can help you? What is that man doing who is trying to make his family believe
his own favorite false doctrines? It is
as if he would shoot his rifle at the very heart of Mercy every time she comes
in view. He seems determined to drive
off Mercy, and for this end, he uses all the energy of his own religious
beliefs, and throws himself into the citadel of his refuge of lies! Oh!
What a work of death is this!
Mercy shall not reach him or his family; so, he seems determined to keep
mercy far from Him. See how mercy bends
down from heaven, Jehovah smiles in love, weeps in pity, and bends down from
the clouds of heaven and holds out the pierced hand of the crucified One. But no!
He cries, “I don't deserve the punishment; away with the insult of a
pardon offered through mere mercy!”
What can be more fatal, more damning, more ruinous to his soul?
Can you now clearly see why everyone is not saved? It is not because God is not willing to save
everybody, but because they defeat every effort God makes to save them. They hide themselves behind every possible
refuge; resist every conviction of guilt, and repel every call of mercy.
What ails those young men?
What are they doing? Has God
come down, full of wrath and vengeance, that they should rally all their might
to oppose Him? Oh, no! He has only come in mercy, nothing
else. And yet, they are not fighting
His just retributions of vengeance but fighting against His mercy. If this were his awful arm of vengeance, you
would bow right down or break beneath its blow. But God's mercy comes in its soft whispers if you would only
realize it. It comes to win your heart,
and what are you doing? You band
yourselves together to resist its calls.
You invent a thousand excuses.
You run together to talk, and talk away all solemn thought. You run to some infidel or perhaps hide in
some church congregation where the Gospel is no longer preached, to find relief
for your uneasy conscience. Ah, sinner
this won’t do you any good. You run
away from God. Why? What's the matter? Is God pouring down the floods of his great wrath? No, no.
But Mercy has come, and desires to gather you under her outspread wings
where the storms of wrath can never come.
But no, the sinner pleads against it, rebels, runs, fights, repels the
angel of mercy, and spits out the waters of life. Sinner, this scene will end very soon. The time is short. Soon
God comes. Death shakes his dart. That young man is sick. Listen to him groan. “Are you going to die, my young friend? Are you ready?” “Oh, I don't know, I am in great pain. Oh! Oh! How can I live like this? Oh, how can I die? I can't attend to it now.
It’s too late, too late!”
Indeed, young man, your constant rebellion against God has made you
weak.
God's finger has touched you.
Oh, if I could only tell you some of the deathbed scenes which I have
witnessed. If I could make you see
them, and hear the deep wailings of unutterable agony as the soul quivered, shuddered,
and tried to shrink away into annihilation from the awful eye, and was swept
down swiftly to hell! Those are the
same men who ran away from mercy! Mercy
could not reach them, but death could.
Death seizes its victim. See, he
drags the frightened shrieking soul to the gateway of hell; how that soul
recoils and groans - what an unearthly groan - and he is gone! The sentence of execution has gone out and
there is no reprieve. That sinner would
not have mercy when he was able; now he cannot when he would. All is over now.
Dying sinner, you may just as well have mercy today as not. All your past sins present no obstacle at all if you only repent and take the offered pardon. Your God is reaching out to you with an offer of life. “As I live,” says the Lord, “I have no pleasure in your death. Turn! Turn! For why will you die?” Why will you reject such offered life? Why do you still persist in going your own way? Be astonished, O ye heavens! Indeed if there ever was anything that filled the universe with astonishment, it is the sinner's rejection of mercy. Angels were astonished when they saw the Son of God made flesh, and when they saw him nailed to a tree. How much more now are they more astonished to see the guilty sinner doomed to hell, yet refusing offered pardon! What do they see! That sinner putting off and still delaying and delaying until, until--what? Until the last curtain falls, and the great bell tolls, tolls, tolls the awful knell of the sinner's death eternal! Where is that sinner? Follow him. Down he goes, weeping, wailing, along the sides of the pit. He reaches his own final home. He is in 'his own place,' now and forevermore! Mercy followed him to the very edge of the precipice, and could follow him ho further. She has done her part.
What if a departed spirit from glory should come back to earth and speak to you for five minutes. Perhaps a relative, maybe even your mother, what would she say? Or perhaps a spirit from that world of despair, what would that departed spirit say? Oh, if such a one could speak of the awful realities of that eternal prison house, what would he say? Would he tell you that the preacher has been telling you lies? Would he say, don't be frightened by these made-up tales of horror? Oh, no, but he would say that the half has not been told to you and it never can be. Oh, how he would urge you with all his might, if he could, to flee from the wrath to come!