Why Do Bad Things Happen? - Charles Spurgeon / Christian Audio Sermons

why do bad things happen this sermon was first preached on April 3rd in the year 1864 by charles haddon spurgeon the text for this morning comes from the book of 2nd samuel 2nd samuel 14 verses 29 to 31 2nd samuel chapter 14 verses 29 to 31 listen as I read Absalom sent for Joab in order to send him to the king but Joab refused to come to him so he said a second time but he refused to come then he said to his servants look Joe ABS field is next to mine and he has barley there go and set it on fire so Absalom servants set the field on fire then Joab did go to Absalom's house and he said to him why have your servants set my field on fire now I trust that you remember the historic background of these passages Absalom had fled from Jerusalem fearing David's anger and in time he was permitted to return but he was not admitted into the presence of the King sincerely desiring to be restored to his former post of honour and favor he begged Joab to come to him intending to ask him to act as a mediator between himself and the king Joab having lost much of his fondness for the young prince refused to come and though he was sent for repeatedly he refused to submit to Absalom's desire Absalom therefore thought of a most wicked but most effective plan bringing Joab into his presence he commanded his servants to sent Joab field of barley on fire this made Joab very angry and caused him to go to Absalom to ask him the question why have your servants that might field on fire this was all that Absalom wanted he wanted an interview with Joab and he did not care as to the method by which he obtained it the burning of the barley field brought Joab into his presence and Absalom's ends were accomplished now ignoring the sin of the deed we have here a picture of what is often done by our gracious God in his wisest and best plans God often sends for us not for his benefit but for ours he wants us to come near to him and receive a blessing from his hand but we are so foolish cold-hearted and wicked and we will not come knowing that we will not come by any other means God sends us a serious trial he sets our barley field on fire which he has a right to do seeing that our barley fields are far more his than they are ours in Absalom's case it was wrong in God's case he has a right to do what he pleases with his own God takes away from us our most choice pleasures on which we have set our heart and then we ask him why do you contend with me why am i struck with your rod what have I done to provoke your anger and thus we are brought into the presence of God and we receive blessings of infinitely more value than those temporary mercies which the Lord has taken from you will see then how I intend to use my text this morning as the pastor of this large church I am constantly brought into contact with all sorts of human sorrow frequently it is poverty poverty which is not brought on by laziness or wickedness but real poverty and a most distressing and afflicting poverty to because it visits those who have courageously fought the Battle of life and have struggled hard for years and yet in their old age scarcely know where their next meal will come from and are trusting in the promise your bread will be given to you and your water will be sure members of our church come to me sometimes as fast as they came to job bearing sad tidings concerning their lives one says to me sir I asked for your prayers for me God has been pleased to take away my wife with a stroke she now lies in the cold grave another cries out Oh sir my wife is very sick and the physician says that there is very little hope for her pray for her that she may be strengthened in the hour of her death and also for me that I may be unable to pray the Masters wisdom then comes another my son is very sick he is to undergo a painful operation pray that the surgeon's knife may not cause my son's death but that he may be unable to bear up under it and when I have sympathized with all these sad situations more suffering brothers and sisters will be waiting at the door how few families experience life without severe trials hardly a person escapes for any period of time without tribulation with an impartial hand sorrow knocks at the door of the palace and of the cottage why does all this happen the Lord we know does not willingly bring affliction or grief to the children of men without reason yet we wonder why he uses so many frowning servants and so often turns out his uh sure of the black rod why is this well perhaps I may be able to give an answer to this very important question and it may be that I can be as helpful to the afflicted as the jailer was to Paul and Silas when you wash their wounds I will use my text first of all in reference to believers and then with regard to the unconverted Oh for help from above first of all brothers and sisters let us apply the text with reference to believers in Christ let us apply the text with reference to believers in Christ my beloved brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ we cannot expect to avoid suffering if other men's barley fields are not burned ours will be if the father uses the rod nowhere else he will surely make his true children feel the sting of it as the Apostle Paul said and as our hymns declare it illegitimate children may escape the rod sunk in earthly vain delight but the true born child of God must not would not if he might your Saviour has you a double legacy he said in this world you will have trouble but in me you will have peace you enjoy the peace but you must not expect that you will escape without the privilege of the trouble all week must be threshed and God's threshing floor witnesses to the weight of the beating as much as any other gold must be tested in the fire and truly the Lord has a fire in Zion and his furnace in Jerusalem but you beloved have four very special comforts in all your trouble beloved you have four very special comforts in all your trouble first you have this sweet reflection that there is no curse in your cross you have this sweet reflection that there is no curse in your cross Christ was made a curse for us and we call his cross the accursed tree but truly since Jesus hung on it it is most blessed I may now say concerning the cross of affliction blessed is every man who is hung on this tree the cross may be very heavy especially while it is green and our shoulders unused to carrying it but remember though there may be a ton of sorrow in it there is not a single ounce of the curse in it god never punishes his children in the sense of avenging justice he chastens us as a father does his child but he never punishes his redeemed as a judge does a criminal it would be unjust to exact punishment from redeemed souls since Christ has been punished in their place how come the Lord punished twice for one offense if Christ took my sins and stood as my substitute then there is no wrath of God for me and though my cup may be bitter yet there cannot be a single drop of almighty wrath in it I may have to feel the sting but it will never be beneath the Avengers rod of Justice but under the parents rod of wisdom o Christians I'll sweep this out to be to you there was a time when you were under conviction of sin when you thought you would rot in a dungeon or burn at the stake most cheerfully if you could only get rid of this sense of God's wrath and will you now become impatient the wrath of God is the Thunderbolt which torments the soul and now that you are delivered from that tremendous peril you must not be overwhelmed with a few showers and storms which Providence sends your way a God of love and clicks our sorrows he is as good when he chastens as when he caresses there is no more wrath and his afflicting Providence's than in his abundant blessing God may seem unkind to unbelief but faith can always see love in his heart oh what a mercy that sinai has ceased the thunder lord let jesus say what he will so long as Moses is quieted forever strike father if you will now that you have heard the Savior's plea and justified our souls secondly we have another ground of comfort namely that your troubles are all allocated to you by divine wisdom and love we have another ground of comfort namely that our troubles are all allocated to us by divine wisdom in love as for their number it got a point that you have ten trials then there can never be eleven as far as the weight of your troubles he who weighs the mountains on the scales and the hills and a balance is careful to measure your trouble and you will not have an ounce more than his infinite wisdom sees fit it may seem at times that the devil has been turned loose on you but remember he is always as chained enemy he is always a chained enemy there is a tether to every trouble and he cannot ever stray beyond that tether Nebuchadnezzar may heat the furnace seven times hotter than usual but God's thermometer measures the exact degree of heat and the flame cannot rage beyond that even though a thousand Nebuchadnezzar's would command us with all their breath and fury that the flames may be hotter consider everything that you have to suffer has the appointment of divine wisdom ruled by love and you will rejoice in all your tribulation knowing that it will reveal to you the loving kindness and wisdom of your God you have a third comfort namely that under your cross you have had many special comforts that are refreshing tonics which God gives to six things which he never puts to the lips of those who are in health you have a third comfort namely that under your cross you have many special comforts that are like refreshing tonic which God gives 216th which he never puts to the lips of those who are in hell dark caverns never keep back the miners if they know that diamonds are to be found there you needn't fear suffering when you remember what riches it yields to your soul there is no hearing the nightingale without the night and there are some promises which only sing to us in trouble it is in the cellar of affliction that the good old wine of the kingdom is stored you will never see Christ's face so clearly as when all others turn their backs on you when you become confused and your suffering that human wisdom is at a loss to explain then will you see God's wisdom manifest and clear all the love visits which Christ pays to his people when they are in the prison of their trouble then he lays bare is very hard to them and comforts them as a mother does her child those who have made Jesus their bed enjoy sweet sleep suffering saints are generally the most flourishing saints and while they may be they are in the special care of Jesus if you want to find a man whose lips drop with pearls look for one who has been in the deep waters we seldom learn much except what is beaten into us by the rod in Christ schoolhouse under madam trouble God's binds Oh more to the pruning knife than to any other tool in the garden extra shoots are sad spoilers of the vine that even while we carry it the cross brings comfort for the present it is a deer deer cross completely draped with roses and dripping with sweet-smelling Merve Rutherford at times seemed to doubt which he loved best Christ or his cross that then good man that he was he only loved the cross for his Lord Satan humble souls counted a great honor to be thought worthy to suffer for Christ's sake if heaven has ever opened it all to the gaze of mortals the vision is granted only to those who dwell in the Patmos of need in trouble furnished Joy's globe quite as warmly as furnace flames sweet are the uses of adversity and sweet are its accompaniments when the Lord is with his people mid the gloom the vivid lightnings with increasing brightness play mid the thorns grow lovely flowers looking so beautiful and gay so in darkest dispensations does my faithful lord appear with his richest consolations to revive and chief but this is the point where my text brings me and everything I have already said is going astray from it you have this comfort that your trials work for your eternal good by bringing you nearer and nearer to your God your trials are working for your eternal good by bringing you nearer and nearer to your God this point will be illustrated by the narrative before us my dear friends in Christ Jesus our Heavenly Father often sends for us and we will not come our Heavenly Father often sends for us and we will not come he sends for us to exercise a more simple faith in him God sends for us to exercise a more simple faith in him we have believed and by faith we have passed from death to life but our faith sometimes staggers we have not yet attained Abraham's confidence in God we do not leave our worldly cares with him but like Martha we endure ourselves with our many acts of service we have the faith to hold on to little promises but often we are afraid to open our mouths wide even though God has promised to fill them he therefore calls to us come my child come and trust me the veil is removed enter into my presence and boldly approach the throne of my grace I am worthy of your fullest confidence cast all your cares on me come into the sunlight and clearly read your deed to heaven shake off the dust of your cares and put on your beautiful garment of faith but sadly though we are called with words of love to be blessed by this comforting grace we will not come at other times God calls us to closer communion with himself at other times he calls us into closer communion with himself we have been sitting on the doorstep of God's house and he commands us to come into the banqueting-hall and to eat with him but we declined the honor he has admitted us into the inner rooms but there are secret rooms not yet open to us he invites us to enter them but we hold back Jesus longs to have communion with his people it is a joy for a Christian to be with Christ but it is also a joy for Jesus to be with his people for it is written that he delights in mankind now one would think that all Christ had to do was to merely summon us with his finger and say to us come here and commune with me and we would fly as it were with wings on our feet but instead we cling to the dust of this world we are too busy we have too many cares and we forget to come though it is our beloved voice which calls to us frequently the call is to more fervent prayer frequently God calls us to more fervent prayer don't you feel in yourself at certain times and earnest longing for private prayer you have felt as if you could not rest until you have gone near to God and told him all of your needs and yet maybe you have quenched the Spirit in that respect and still have continued without drawing near to God every day the Lord commands his people to come to him and ask whatever they want and it will be given to them he has a benevolent God who sits on the mercy seat and he delights to give to his people the greatest desires of their hearts and yet shame on us we live without exercising this power of prayer and we missed the fullness of his blessing which would come out of that abundance of grace prevailing prayer with God hold brothers and sisters most of us are truly guilty of this the master calls for us to come to him and to pray and we will not come in addition God often calls us to a higher state of holiness God often calls us to a higher state of holiness from this pulpit I have a labor to stir you up to nobler attainments I have pleaded with you to no longer be satisfied with your nominal attainment but to press forward the things more sublime and heavenly haven't I cry to you beloved and commanded you to forget the steps you have already taken and to focus on the glorious path ahead of you I am persuaded there are Christians living lives of holiness well beyond that of ordinary Christians just as ordinary Christians live lives that are well beyond the lives of the wicked there are Heights which ordinary eyes have never seen much less scale oh there are nests among the stars for God's own Saints dwell and still many of us are content to go creeping along like worms in the dust oh that we would have the grace to cling to the clouds and climb into the pure blue sky of fellowship with Christ we do not serve God as we should we are as cold as ice when we should be like molten metal burning our way through all opposition we are like the barren Sahara Desert when we should be blooming like the Garden of the Lord we give to God pennies when he deserves dollars no rather he deserves our hearts blood to be coined in the service of his church and of his truth whoa we are nothing but poor lovers of our sweet Lord Jesus not fit to be his servants much less to be his bride if he had put us in the kitchen to be servants I fear we would be barely fit for the service and yet he has exalted us to be bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh married to him by a glorious marriage covenant Oh brothers and sisters God often calls us to higher degrees of holiness and yet we will not come now why is it that we permit our Lord to sin for us so often without going to you let your own heart give the reason in a humble confession of all your offenses home my brothers and sisters we never thought we could have been as bad as we are if an angel had told us that we would be so indifferent towards Christ we would have said as Xavier said to Elijah how could your servant a mere dog accomplish such a feat if any of us could have seen our own history written out by a prophet again we would have said no it can't be if Christ forgives me I must love him if he is pleased to make me his own brother or sister I must serve Him if I am the recipient of such splendid mercies I must do something commensurate with his gift and yet up until now we have been ungrateful unbelieving and even have refused to listen to his call or to come at his command he has said seek my face and our heart did not respond with Lord I will seek your peace because of all this because we will not listen to the gentle call of God there comes trouble just as there came the burning of the barley field of Joab because he would not come when the young Prince called him trouble comes in all sorts of shapes it matters little what form it comes in as long as it answers the purpose of making us obey the divine colon some Christians have their trial in the shape of sickness they drag around a diseased body all of their lines or they are suddenly cast on the bed of sickness and they toss back and forth night and day in pain and weariness yet some Christians have their trial in the shape of sickness they drag around a diseased body all their lives or they are suddenly cast on the bed of sickness and they tossed back and for night and day in pain and weariness this is God medicine and when God's children take it they should not think it is sent to kill them but rather to heal them a lot of the medicine which the physician gives out makes the person feel even more ill for a while he is worse with it than he would have been without it but if he is a smart physician he knows that this is the consequence of medicine and he is not at all alarmed by the pain of his patient for he expects that all of this will work for the good and seek out as it were the original disease in the same way when the Lord sends us painful sickness it will for a while perhaps make our former spiritual illnesses grow worse for sickness often causes impatience and murmuring against God but in due time our proud spirit will be broken and we will cry out for mercy just like a metal file removes rust so does sickness frequently remove our deadness apart the diamond undergoes many cuttings which causes its value to increase and so it is with the believer under the loving discipline of God I have heard it said of many ministers that they preach best after a time of sickness and that their preaching was so much improved that their congregations have hardly regretted all the pains their minister had to suffer when they discover how good and pool of substance his sermons have been since then my brothers and sisters if you will not come to God on your own then he will send you a sickbed that you may be carried on it to him if you will not come running he will make you come limping if you will not come when your eyes are bright and your body is full of health he will make you come when your eyes are dull and heavy and your body is sickly and sad but you will come and it's not by any other means sickness will be the black chariot in which you will ride losses too are frequently the means God uses to bring home his wandering sheep like fierce dogs they use fear to move The Wanderers back to the Shepherd yes losses too are frequently the mean God uses to bring on his wandering sheep like fierce dogs they use fear to move The Wanderers back to the Shepherd one cannot tame a lion if they are too well fed the lion must be brought down from their great strength and their stomachs must be a bit hungry and then they will submit through the tamers hand and we have often seen that the Christian is made obedient to the Lord's will by the loss of some of their wealth and easy living when rich and prosperous some who profess to be Christians become proud and begin to boast like David they both my mountain stands firm it will never be moved when the Christian is wealthy has a good reputation has good health and a happy family he too often admits mr. carnal security to peace at his table if he is a true child of God there is a rod being prepared for him wait a while and it may be that you will see his life melt away like a dream there goes a portion of his estate how soon the acres change hands there goes part of his business no profits will ever come to him again from that area a sudden unexpected loss occurs a customer refuses to pay their debts to him Oh how fast his losses come where will they end now as these embarrassments and frustrations come in one after another he begins to be distressed about them and he goes to his god o blessed ways that washed the man on the rock of salvation o blessed cords though they may cut the flesh they draw us to Jesus losses in business are often sanctified to enrich our souls if you will not come to the Lord in your days of wealth you will come to him in your days of poverty if God and His grace finds no other ways of making you honor him among men if you cannot honor him on the pinnacle of riches he will bring you down to the valley of poverty bereavements - oh what's sharp cuts of the rod we get with these my brothers and sisters bereaved must all what's sharp cuts of the rod we get with these my brothers and sisters we know how the Lord sanctifies these two the bringing of his people near to himself how glad we would be to remember that Christ himself once suffered bereavement as we have catechist the roman historian from the first century tells us that an amber ring was thought to be of no value among the romans until the emperor started to wear one and then right away an amber ring was held in high esteem bereavements might be looked on as very sad things but when we remember that jesus wept over his friend lazarus then we will see that they are choice jeweled and special favors from god christ wore this ring therefore I must not be ashamed to wear it many a mother has been called to live a holier life because of the death of her infant many a husband has been led to give his heart more to Christ by the death of his wife don't departed spirits like angels summon us up to heaven come come away they say this is not your place of rest I once lived in the same tree and thank sitting on the same branch but now I am taken from you now I rest in heaven come up here you who were once my loving spouse come up here for all the trees where you are building your nest or mark for the acts therefore come away now and live with me yes we must look on the fresh graves of our loved ones in this light and pray for the Lord to dig into our hearts with the funeral shovel and bury our sins just like we bury our departed ones trials your family and your children are another form of the burning barley field trials in your family and your children are another form of the burning barley field I don't know brothers and sisters but I think a living cross is much heavier to carry than a dead one I know some among you who have not lost your children I wish some of you had but they have lived to become your grief and sorrow ah young man it would have been better that your mother should have seen you perish during your birth and that you should have lived to disgrace your father's name and you grown man it would have been better that the funeral procession had gone winding through the streets carrying your corpse down to the grave then that you should live to blaspheme your mother's God and laugh at the Bible which is her treasure it would have been better that you had never been born and better for your parents too but dear friends even these trials our mentor draws nearer to Christ we must not make idols of our children and we dare not do it when we see how clearly God shows us that like ourselves they are by nature children of Wrath sharper than a Vipers tooth is an unthankful child but the venom has turned to medicine in God Pan God's birds would often remain in their nest but he fills their nest full of thorns and then up they fly and thing as the lark as they climb towards heaven you must look on all these family trials as invitations from God sweet pressure to make you seek his face many are afflicted in another way which is perhaps as bad as anything else by a deep depression of spirit they are always depressed and they don't know why many are afflicted in another way which is perhaps as bad as anything else by a deep depression of spirit they are always depressed they don't know why there are no stars in the night for them and the Sun gives no light in the day depression has claimed them for her own but even this I think is often the means of keeping some of them nearer to God and they would be you know there are some of our plants which grow best in damp moist places found under trees if the Sun were to shine on them they would die perhaps some Christian minds are of the same order too many sweets make children sick and bitter herbs are a good stimulant a veil is needed for some delicate complexions that's the sunshine too fiercely on them it may be these mourners need the veil of sorrow it is good that they have been afflicted even with this heavy depression of spirit because it keeps them near their God then there is that other affliction the hiding of God's face how hard to bear but oh how beneficial that other affliction the hiding of God's face how hard to bear but also beneficial if we will not stay near to our Lord he assured to hide his face from us you have seen a mother walking outside with her little child when it has just learned how to walk and as she goes through the street the little child sometimes runs away from his mother sometimes to the right and sometimes to the left and so the mother hides herself for a moment and the child looks around for the mother and begins to I and that out comes the mother what is the effect why the little child will not run away again will not run away from mother anymore it is sure to keep hold of her hand from now on in the same way when we start wandering from God he hides his face and then since we have a love for him we begin crying after him when he shows his face again we will cling to him more than ever therefore the Lord is plead to bless our troubles to us now Christian what about all this what about all of this why just this are you under any severe trouble now that I pray that you go to God as Joab went to Absalom why have your servant set my field on fire tell me what charges you have against me search me O God and know my heart test me and know my anxious thought see if there is any offensive way in me and lead me in the way everlasting make this a special time of humbling and heart searching so that every sin that easily entangles us to be driven out when you begin to feel the discipline of the Lord make it your practice to make a full confession of past sins and pray to be delivered from their power in the future or do you have no trial my friend do you have no trial then see if there is not something which may provoke God to send one and begin now to purge yourself from all filthiness of the flesh and of the Spirit by the Holy Spirit prevention is better than a cure and sometimes a timely searching of a heart may save many a heartache let us see to that end for we've been afflicted and is the affliction now over then let us say with David before I was afflicted I went astray but now I obey your word let us bless God for all that he has done saying it is good for me that I have been afflicted let us join together in one common hymn of praise for all the goodness and mercy which God has been pleased to show us in the sharp blows from his rod I have said enough I think to the Christian to explain the little picture before us God has burned your barley field dear friends now go to him and the closer you can approach to him and the more firmly you can cling to him the better for your souls health and comfort throughout your life in the end you and I will sing to the praise of our afflicting God now a few words to the unbeliever will form the second part of our sermon may God make them mighty to the sinner now just a few words to the unbeliever and that will form our second part of our sermon may God make them mighty to the sinner God has sent for you O unconverted man o unconverted woman God has often sent for you early in your childhood your mother's prayers sought to woo you to the Savior's love and your godly father's first instructions for like the many meshes of the net in which it was desired that you should be taken but you have broken through all these and I've lived to sin away all the early impressions and promises of God's Word since your childhood you have often been called under the preaching of the word our sermons have not all missed their targets but sometimes a clearer shot has made its way into your conscience has caused you to tremble the phazon the trembling soon gave way to your old sins up till now you have been cold but you refuse to come to God the hands of Mercy have been stretched out and you have not paid any attention to them you have had calls too from your Bible from Christian books from Christian friends holy zeal is not altogether dead and it shows itself by looking after your welfare young man your co-worker has sometimes spoken to you young woman your friends have wept over you there are some of you now present who have been called by the most loving of voices and our Sunday School classes men and women with deep love for the souls of those committed to them tender hearts and weeping I you have been wept over that you might come to Christ but still all the activity that has been employed has been up to this moment without effect you are a stranger to the God who made you and an enemy to Christ the Savior well let me tell you if these gentle ways will not cause you to come to the Lord then God will employ other means [Music] perhaps he has tried them already if not if he intends in the divine decree to save you then he will use stronger ways with you and if a word will not do he will come with a blow though he loves to try the power of the word first you to my Lyster unconverted and unsaved have had your trial you weep as well as Christians you may not weep for sin but your sin will make you weep you may detest repent because of its sorrow that you will not escape sorrow even if you escape repentance you have had your sickness don't you remember it when in the quiet of the night you heard the clock ticking on the wall ticking out as you thought your last few minutes and foretelling your doom don't you remember those weary days when you tossed from side to side and moved all around your sick bed to try to ease the pain but it really didn't help can you remember your vows which you live to break and your promises with which you lied to the eternal God you told him that Sunday worship would be your delight if you were just spared and also that the church and the people of God would be dear to you and you would seek his face but you have not done so you have broken your covenant and you have despised your promise made to God or have you had losses in business you began life well and with great hope but nothing has worked out well for you I'm not sorry for it for I remember it is of the wicked and the reprobate that it is written they have no struggles their bodies are healthy and strong they are free from the burdens common to men they are not plagued by human ills yes I am glad that you were plagued I would sooner see you with to heaven then coached to hell doubtless many live a life of ease and pleasure and suddenly are killed and sent to hell while others go sorrowing to eternal glory you have had losses but what are these but God's rough messengers to tell you that there is nothing beneath the sky worth living for to wean you from the breasts of the earth and calls you to look for some more substantial than worldly riches can ever give you and you to have lost friends haven't you may I recall those grades whose turf is freshly laid may I remind you of the children fair and beautiful in your eyes taken away from you despite your tears I remind you of the parent who died and went to be with Jesus or of the sweet young sister who withered like a lily because of tuberculosis will I bring these thoughts back to you I really don't wish to open these old wounds causing them to beat again but it is for your own good that I beg you to listen to their solemn voice for they say to you come to your God be reconciled to him I do not think you will ever come to Jesus unless the Holy Spirit will employ trials to bring you I find that the woman never found her lost coin until she swept the house the prodigal son never came back until he was hungry I only hope that these troubles may be blessed to you besides all of this you have had your depression of spirit if I am not mistaken I address some of you who are under such depressions now you don't know why it is but nothing is pleasant to you he went to the theatre last night he wished you hadn't gone it gave you no joy and yet you have enjoyed the theatre many times before you go out with your friends and sometimes going out with them to have a good time has become to you a very painful waste of time you have lost the zest of life and I'm not sorry for it if it causes you to look for a better life and trust in a world yet to come my prayer again I say this is the burning of your barley fields God has sent for you and you would not come and now he has sent messengers who are not so easily refused he has sent these with sterner and rougher words which speak to your flesh if your spirit will not listen well now unbeliever if God is sending these are you listening to them my friends if God has sent these have you listened to them unbeliever if God is sending these are you listening to them if God has sent these have you listened to them there are some of you of whom I have almost no hope for your salvation God can save you but I can't figure out how he will do it certainly the word does not seem likely to be blessed you have been called and pleaded with early and late in your life we have pleaded with you our hearts have yearned with tenderness for you but up to now it has all been in vain God knows I have been hammering away at this granite and it has not yielded yet I have struck hard at the flint and it is not broken some of you almost break the plow you are such hard rock that it seems in vain to plow on you as for all your troubles I don't see that they will likely do you any good for if you are struck again you will revolt more and more your whole head is sick already and your heart is faint you have been beaten till from the top of your head to the sole of your foot there is nothing but wounds bruises and putrefying sores your poor perhaps your drunkenness has made you so you have lost your wife perhaps your cruelty helped to kill her you have lost your children and you are left a penniless friendless helpless beggar and yet you will not turn to God what now is to be done with you Oh what will God do to you will he give up on you how can he give up on you how will he make you believe the heart of Mercy still yearns out to you return to God return to God God help you to return even now others of you have not suffered any of this in the past but are just now enduring a part of it let me beg you by the mercies of God and by the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ that you do not despise him who speaks to you God does not continue to send his messengers forever after he has labored with you for a time he will leave you in your sins and to face his eternal wrath patience does not last forever mercy has its day look the king runs up the white flag of peace and comfort today and he invites you to come to him tomorrow he may run up the red flag of warning if that red flag will not make you turn he will run up the black flag of execution and then there will be no hope beware the black flag is not run up yet the red flag is there now in trials and troubles which are God's warnings to you commanding you to open your heart that grace may enter but if the red flag fails the black flag must come perhaps it has come god help you with a broken heart to cry to him that you may be saved before the candle is blown out and the Sun is set and the night of the Dead come without the hope of another Sun rising on a blessed Resurrection what is the point of all this my point is this if right now some of my words could make you come to the king this morning I know it won't unless God the Holy Spirit compels you to do so I his irresistible power but if he would bless my words I would rejoice as one who finds great treasure why do you resist God if the Lord has chosen to give you eternal salvation then your resistance will be in vain and how you will hate yourself in later years to think that you resisted for so long and enduring all that pain and suffering why do you resist God's battering ram is too mighty for the walls of your resistance he will make them fall why do you stand against your God against him who loves you who has loved you with an everlasting love and redeemed you by the blood of Christ why stand against him who intends to set you free from the slavery of sin and to make you his rejoicing child whoa someone says if I thought there was such mercy as that I would yield my friend if you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ this will be evidence that such mercy is ordained for you oh that the Spirit of God would enable you enable you sinner to come just as you are and put your trust in Christ if you do so then it is certain that your name is written in the Lamb's Book of Life that you were chosen of God and are precious to him and that your head is one on which the crown of immortality it's a glitter forever oh that you would trust Christ the joy and peace it works in the present is worth more than money could ever buy but all the glory the overwhelming glory which will come after death will belong to those that trust in Jesus may God give you this morning the faith to cast your souls upon the finished work of Jesus his blood can cleanse his righteousness can cover his beauty can adorn his prayer can preserve his coming will glorify his heaven will make you blessed trust him God help you to trust him and he will have all the praise both now and forever amen and amen

Channel: Christian Sermons and Audio Books

Views: 110,463

Rating: 4.7881622 out of 5

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Id: 6Ha2OOGu5z4

Length: 60min 10sec (3610 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 20 2017