I charge you all to be agreed with God in this thing, that if any good
shall be done, any conversions shall occur, all the glory must be given
to him. Revivals have often been spoiled, either by persons boasting that
such-and-such a minister was the means of them, or else, as in the case
of the North of Ireland, by boasting that the work was done without
ministers. That revival, mark you, was stopped in its very midst and
seriously damaged by being made a kind of curiosity, and a thing to be
gazed at and to be wondered at by persons both at home and abroad.
God does not care to work for the honour of men, either of ministers or
of laymen, or of Churches either; and if we should say, “Ah! well, I
should like to see the presence of God with us that we may have many
conversions, and put it in the Magazine, and say, that is how things are
done at the Tabernacle,” why we should not have a blessing that way.
Crowns! crowns! crowns! but all for thy head Jesu! laurels and wreaths!
but none for man, all for him whose own right hand and whose holy
arm hath gotten him the victory. We must all be agreed on this point,
and I hope we are.
3. And now to conclude. LET US PUT AWAY ALL THOSE THINGS WHICH OFFEND OUR
GOD.
Before God appeared upon Mount Sinai, the children of Israel had to
cleanse themselves for three days. Before Israel could take possession of
the promised rest of Canaan, Joshua had to see to it that they were
purified by the rite of circumcision. Whenever God would visit his
people, he always demands of them some preparatory purging, that they
may be fit to behold his presence; for two cannot walk together, unless
that which would make them disagree be purged out. A few suggestions
then, as to whether there is anything in us with which God cannot
agree. Here I cannot preach to you indiscriminately, but put the task
into the hand of each man to preach to himself. In the days of the great
weeping, we read that every man wept apart and his wife apart, the son
apart, and the daughter apart, all the families apart. So it must be here.
Is there pride in me? Am I puffed up with my talent, my substance, my
character, my success? Lord purge this out of me, or else thou canst not
walk with me, for none shall ever say that God and the proud soul are
friends: he giveth grace to the humble; as for the proud, he knoweth
them afar off, and will not let them come near to him. Am I slothful?
do I waste hours which I might usefully employ? Have I the levity of the
butterfly, which flits from flower to flower, but drinks no honey from
any of them? or have I the industry of the bee, which, wherever it lights,
would find some sweet store for the hive? Lord, thou knowest my soul,
thou understandest me. Am I doing little where I might do much? Hast
thou had but little reaping for much sowing? Have I hid my talent in a
napkin? Have I spent that talent for myself, instead of spending it for
thee? Slothful souls cannot walk with God. “My Father worketh,” saith
Jesus, “and I work”; and you who stand in the market-place idle, may
stand there with the devil, but you cannot stand there with God. Let
every brother who is guilty of this, purge away his sloth.
Or am I guilty of worldliness. This is the crying sin of many in the
Christian Church. Do I put myself into association with men who
cannot by any possibility profit me? Am I seen where my Master would
not go? Do I love amusements which cannot afford me comfort when I
reflect upon them; and which I would never indulge in, if I thought that
Christ would come while I was at them? Am I worldly in spirit as to
fashion? Am I as showy, as volatile, as frivolous as men and women of
the world? If so, if I love the world, the love of the Father is not in me;
consequently he cannot walk with me, for we are not agreed.
Again, am I covetous? do I scrape and grind? is my first thought, not
how I can honour God, but how I can accumulate wealth? When I gain
wealth, do I forget to make use of it as a steward? If so, then God is not
agreed with me; I am a thief with his substance; I have set myself up for
a master instead of being a servant, and God will not walk with me till I
begin to feel that this is not my own, but his; and that I must use it in
his fear.
Again, am I of an angry spirit? Am I harsh towards my brethren? Do I
cherish envy towards those who are better than myself, or contempt
towards those who are worse off? If so, God cannot walk with me, for
he hates envy, and all contempt of the poor is abhorrent to him. Is there
any lust in me? Do I indulge the flesh? Am I fond of carnal indulgences
by which my soul suffers? If so, God will not walk with me; for
chambering, and wantonness, and gluttony, and drunkenness, separate
between a believer and his God: these things are not convenient to a
Christian. Before the great feast of unleavened bread, a Jewish parent
would sweep out every piece of leaven from his house; and so anxious
would he be, and so anxious is the Jew at the present day, that he take a
candle and sweeps out every cupboard, no matter though there may
have been no food put in there at any time, he is afraid lest by accident
a crumb may be somewhere concealed in the house; and so, from the
garret to the cellar, he clears the whole house through, to purge out the
old leaven. Let us do so. I cannot think you will do so as the effect of
such poor words as mine; but if my soul could speak to you, and God
blessed the utterance, you would. For my own part, I cry unto my
Master, that if there be anything that can make me more fit to be the
messenger of God to you and to the sons of men, however painful might
be the preparatory process, he would graciously be pleased not to spare
me of it. If by sickness, if by serious calamities, if by slander and
rebuke, more honour can be brought to him, then hail! and welcome!
all these things; they shall be my joy; and to receive them shall be
delight. I pray you, utter the same desire: “Lord, make me fit to be the
means of glorifying thee.”
“The dearest idol I have known,
Whate’er that idol be;
Help me to tear it from its throne,
And worship only thee.”
What! do you demur? Do you want for ever to go on in the old dead-
and-alive way in which the Churches are just now? Do you feel no
sacred passion stirring your breast to anguish for the present, and to
hope for the future? O ye cravens, who dread the battle, slink to your
beds; but ye who have your Master’s spirit in you, and would long to see
brighter and better days, lift up your heads with confidence in him who
will walk with us if we be agreed.
My text has a main bearing upon the unconverted: I think of preaching
from it this evening to those who are not agreed with God, and who
cannot walk with him. I pray that they may be reconciled unto God by
the death of his Son; and the most likely means to accomplish this, will
be by your earnest and fervent prayers. O Lord, hear and answer for
Jesus’ sake. Amen.
[Mr. Spurgeon's Sermon on "Baptismal Regeneration" has now reached
the 180th thousand; it is felt to be important that it should be still more
widely circulated, and friends are urged to make an earnest effort to
scatter it far and wide.]
“This article originally appeared here at Bible Bulletin Board.”
