Sermon 1375. "Now Then, Do It"
(No. 1375)
DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, SEPTEMBER 23, 1877,
BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"You sought for David in times past to be king over you: now then, do it: for the Lord has spoken of David, saying, By thehand of My servant David I will save My people Israel out of the hand of the Philistines, and out of the hand of all theirenemies." 2 Samuel 3:17,18.
You know the circumstances under which these words were spoken. God had cast off Saul because he had not been faithful andHe had appointed David to be his successor, anointing him by the hand of Samuel. Yet when Saul was slain in battle, Israelseemed determined to choose her own king by selecting one of Saul's family-and under the leadership of Abner, the majorityof the tribes set up Ishbosheth, son of Jonathan, to be king. Then commenced a civil war between the two parties and we readthat the house of David waxed stronger and stronger, but the house of Saul grew weaker and weaker. In process of time Abner,the commander-in-chief and prime minister who was at the head of Saul's party, because it served his own purposes, changedhis mind and resolved that David should become king over the whole land.
Having so resolved, he began to persuade the tribes and argue with them on David's behalf. And the words of my text are apart of a very powerful argument which he used in order to induce them to give up the king of their own choosing and offerthe crown to the king whom God had appointed, even David. I need say but very little, however, about the circumstances ofthe case, for I am about to accommodate the words to quite another people and another king. I desire, in all sincerity ofheart, to approach those of you whose minds are ruled by evil desires and motives, all of which are alien sovereigns, hostileto the true King whom God has anointed-and to remind you, this morning, that you have, in times past, sought to have Jesusto be King over you.
Perhaps you have some desires towards Him lingering in your heart even now and, therefore, I have hope of you that you willgo further, and in all sincerity, submit yourselves to His dominion. It is time that you should go beyond mere desires andattain to something practical. In the words of Abner I would say to you, "Now then, do it." If worth desiring, it is worthperforming. "Now then, do it." There are the best of reasons why you should do it, for Jesus is God's appointed King, anointedby the Holy Spirit, by whom alone He will save you from your spiritual enemies. May God grant that His Word be successful,through His Divine Spirit, in establishing the Kingdom of Christ in many undecided hearts, this morning, and He shall havethe praise!
The text gives me the following run of thought. First, I would remind you of former impulses-"You sought for David in timespast to be king over you." Secondly, I would recommend decided action-"Now then, do it." And thirdly, I would reason witha forcible argument for, only changing names, I may read my text in this fashion, "The Lord has spoken of Jesus, saying, Bythe hand of My only begotten Son I will save My people Israel out of the hand of the powers of darkness, and out of the handof all their enemies."
I. First, then, my business this morning is to REMIND UNDECIDED PERSONS OF FORMER IMPULSES. I would personally address eachhesitating hearer and call up the memories of His life. You are not a Christian, but many times you have been upon the vergeof it, for you have even gone the length of seeking, after a fashion, to have Jesus for your King. Of course the characterand frequency of those impulses have varied greatly in different individuals. Each man has had his own amount of drawingsand inclinings towards God. I cannot so speak as to describe all at once and, therefore, I must go into particulars.
Many of you have been tutored in the ways and manners of the godly from your youth up. The very first song you heard yourmother sing, as she hushed you to sleep, was sweetened with the name of Jesus. Probably you cannot recollect a time when therewere not some holy agencies at work upon your heart. And you remember the effect they had upon
you, even at the very beginning, when as a child your little prayers at night grew fervent and you sobbed yourself to sleepwith grief for having done wrong. Often did your childish heart sigh after, "gentle Jesus," and long for His love. I thinkI see those tears upon your little cheeks even now, when you had lately heard the story of Jesus, or had been earnestly addressedconcerning death and judgment to come. When the sweetness and beauty of Christ and the happiness of Believers were set beforeyou in your youth, you often felt drawn to the Cross of Christ.
Nor was it in childhood, alone, for as you grew older there were agencies adapted for your growth prepared by infinite love.Some of you fell into the hands of sincere Christian men and women who did not cease to instruct you and to warn you. Andsometimes, as you must remember if you will but try to do so, you were like Agrippa of old, "almost persuaded to be a Christian."You promised, you resolved, you began even to pray, but, alas, your goodness was as the morning cloud, as the early dew andsoon passed away. But you do remember, don't you, that it was there? Since then, though you have been immersed in businesscares, you have not been altogether without some thoughts towards Jesus the Savior.
An earnest sermon has driven you home to your knees. Affliction has frequently compelled you solemnly to consider. The deathof others has made you pause and forced you to hopeful resolves. Can you count up the many times in which you have come toa dead halt and have raised the question, "Shall I go further or shall I turn?" Your soul has been half constrained to saywithin herself, "Things shall be altered. I will no longer be an ungrateful child to my good God, but I will arise and goto my Father." Why, there are some of you to whom continuance in rebellion must have been very difficult, for you have hadto stifle and almost to strangle conscience! If you do not see, it is because you have laid your fingers heavily upon youreyelids to keep out the light-if you have not heard, it has been because you have stopped your ears till they have becomedull of hearing.
The knock at your door by your Lord's pierced hand has been kept up year after year, almost incessantly, and even in the nightwatches you have been startled with it. He whose head is wet with dew and His locks with the drops of the night, has stoodthere these many weary months knocking, knocking, knocking! In boundless patience of love He still lingers and again liftsthat scarred hand to knock again in tender earnestness. You have been almost persuaded to rise from the couch of your slothto admit Him to your heart, but as yet you have not done so. You sought for David to be king over you in times past, someof you, but, alas, you have not crowned him yet.
There are others among you who have not been so highly favored with religious advantages. Some of you, perhaps, come of anungodly household and your bringing up has been apart from the things of God. I grieve to say that this is getting more frequentdaily, especially in our great cities. Children, nowadays, are not trained to the observance of the Sabbath as they were!Multitudes in this great city seldom tread the floor of God's House at all. Still, I can scarcely imagine that there is onepresent but who has, at times, enjoyed holy impulses, right convictions and pure desires. Conscience, though not enlightenedas we could have wished, has not been quite quit with you-you have felt uneasy in your unconverted state and you are uneasynow.
You have been forced, sometimes, to think, and when a man who is without God and without Christ begins to think, his thoughtsmust trouble him and, being troubled, he is likely to desire the way of peace. I cannot but believe that you who are thoughtfulhave sometimes had intense desires to be Christians. You have longed to be pardoned, renewed and sanctified. Would you notgive all that you have for a sure hope of Heaven? You know that occasionally, at least, pure aspirations have come over you-andI wish that I could, by any means, so revive your memories that you would all confess that you sought for Jesus in times pastto be King over you!
If you remember these things, I beg you, also, to consider that your responsibilities have been increased in proportion tothose impulses, for every time you have checked conscience, or have held yourself back when you were moved towards right,you have not only incurred a present sin, but you have rendered all your future life the more censurable! The more difficultit is to persevere in an evil course, the more intensely sinful that perseverance becomes! So that I must charge upon somehere present that every day in which they live without repentance and without faith is a day of aggravated iniquity, seeingthat they resist the Holy Spirit as did, also, their fathers!
You love darkness rather than light because your deeds are evil. None are so blamable for ignorance as those who refuse tolearn and none so guilty in their sins as those who resist better impulses and do violence to themselves in order to indulgetheir iniquities. The case varies, however, as we have already seen. These impulses have been usual in you at
certain times and these find a parallel in the case of Israel. The tribes desired David for king on certain occasions. Forinstance, whenever Saul was more than ordinarily oppressive, they sighed for the son of Jesse who was of a gentler mold. Wheneversin begins to be oppressive to a man, he has, for the present, some wish to escape from its tyranny. Sin is a very hard taskmaster,especially some forms of it.
Let a man pursue the sin of drunkenness and, "who has woe? Who has redness of eyes" like he does? Let a man follow the lustsof the flesh and his very body soon begins to smart beneath the lash of his despotic vices. Even now the earnest of sin'swage is something dreadful for a man to receive! Have you ever seen a spendthrift brought to beggary and rags? Do you wonderthat when his hungry belly accuses him, he promises better things and, in a measure, is sincere in his good resolves? Selfishness,itself, calls upon men to quit their evil ways which are ruining them body and soul! It is not at all amazing that so loudand near a voice should, for a time, be heard!
Some of you know well when it has been so, when your sin has lost its pleasurableness, when the beaded bubbles of frothy joyhave disappeared from the cup of sin and it has become stale and flat-then you have seen the hollowness of the world and cried,"I would gladly be a Christian!" These Israelites, perhaps, in their hearts sought for David to be king when they saw thejoy upon the face of David's men. His troops often had spoil to share and they always spoke well of their captain. And wheneverone of David's men was seen anywhere about Judah or Israel, the people said, "Those warriors have a goodly heritage in beingunder such a noble leader"-and they wished they had such a king, themselves!
I do not doubt but sometimes when you hear Christ preached in all His sweetness, your mouths begin to water after Him! "IsHe so good, is He so pleasant? Oh, that we knew Him!" And when you see Christians so happy and especially when you see themin times of trouble so cheerful and joyous under all their trials, I know you have had an inward wish that you knew theirsecret and could share their peace. Has not it been so? When you saw your mother die, did you not wish you had her Saviorto soften your pillow as He softened hers? When that dear little child of yours who loved the Savior sang of Jesus as shedeparted, you almost wished that you could die with her if you might as cheerfully meet the Lord! Well, those were times whenyou sought David to be king over you in days past.
I want, if I can, to bring them all up afresh. Perhaps if they would all revive at once and come again, God might bless themand make the united impulse strong enough, by His good Spirit, to carry you over the frontier into the Kingdom of Christ.The Israelites, no doubt, often wished that David had been king when they saw their enemies gradually encroaching upon theirterritory and threatening to subdue them. They sighed and said, "Oh, for an hour of David with his sling and his stone. Inthe name of the Lord he brought down the haughty Philistine. O that he were to the front again! Saul has fallen on the mountainsand Jonathan is slain upon his high places, and we, the people of the Lord, are trod down by the uncircumcised! Oh for theson of Jesse, once again, to lead our armies forth to successful war!"
Have you not, also, when you have seen the strength of your growing sins and contemplated the ruin which they will bring uponyou, longed for a Deliverer? When you have perceived what sin will surely bring upon you, by-and-by, in another world andhow, even now, it holds you in bondage, have you not wished for a Savior, yes, wished for the Christ of God to come and destroyyour sins and overthrow Satan and set you free? I am sure you must have had such wishes when sickness has made death appearto be approaching, when judgment has begun to be realized and the terrors of wrath to come! You thought of Jesus in timespast to be King over you. And have you not, also, like Israel, often longed for your true King that you might, at last, findrest?
The civil war must have inflicted much misery upon the nation and, therefore, the people wished the strife to be ended throughDavid's being made king. So, too, you wish that your heart were peaceful and quiet, for now you are ill at ease. You loveyour pleasurable sins, but you are not easy in them. The bed is shorter than a man can stretch himself upon and you know it!You wish that you enjoyed the solid peace, the confidence and satisfaction which Believers possess! But you know that youcannot have it apart from Christ and this reflection has sometimes made you seek Christ, after your fashion, though, alas,it has not lasted long enough to produce real allegiance to Him! I think it right to remind you of these past feelings. HowI wish they would come back and rise to practical results. May the Holy Spirit renew them in a deeper form than in the past,that you may, at once, with eagerness, go forth and salute your King-the King who wore a crown of thorns for your sake!
These seekings after David were sometimes vivid and strong with the Israelites and so, too, impulses with undecided peopleare occasionally very powerful. Though they do not actually lay hold on Eternal Life, they have strong desires to
do so. They go beyond empty wishes and seriously sigh for an interest in Jesus-and yet they pause there and go no further.The bud becomes a tiny fruit and then withers from the tree. I have known unconverted people to feel great terror at the thoughtof remaining unsaved. Under this influence they have gone to their knees and begun to pray. They have gone to their Biblesand begun to read. They have attended the House of God with great regularity and listened with very solemn attention-and theyhave even gone the length of mending their ways in many points!
They have begun to frequent Prayer Meetings and, for a while, it did seem as if Jesus would be King over them! Indeed, wehoped that they were already the servants of the Lord, but, alas, our hopes were disappointed-they turned back and walkedno more with us. Oftentimes the impulses which are put aside and stamped out by half-awakened men are exceedingly difficultto overcome. Some of you have had to exert yourselves fearfully to remain as you are. You have needed help of the world, theflesh and the devil to overpower the force which held you, for a while, in its grasp. Some men battle for damnation with agreater force than others strive after Eternal Life! The way of transgressors is sometimes hard, in this sense, that theyfind it difficult to continue as they are-they are so persecuted by the persuasions, warnings and entreaties of good men-andtheir conscience is so alarmed as to give them little or no rest.
Alas, their neck is as an iron sinew and they are set on mischief! And despite the inward calls which bid them seek Jesusfor their King, they turn a deaf ear to the most tender wooing and continue as they were-but not without an awful increaseof guilt. Listen to me, you who are described in the language I have used! Listen and learn wisdom! Nothing has come of allthe seekings of your youth and your later days. You sought for David in times past to be king over you, but nothing has comeof it! Nothing has come of it even to this day. You saw that religion was right-you did not argue to the contrary! You admittedall its reasons! You yielded your understanding so far that you would even defend the Truth of God against opponents!
But what of all that? To admit a thing to be right is but a small part of the matter, if you practically deny it by your indifference.You have wished that you were a Christian-you have wished it hundreds of times, but this, also, is vanity, if carried no further."If wishes were horses beggars would ride" and so, if wishes were Graces the careless would be saved. You know, too, thatyou went beyond wishing-you regretted that you were not already decided-you felt very much ashamed of yourself for havingresisted so long. If anybody had told you that you would be hesitating, now, you would not have believed it. Ten years ago,if anyone had said, "In ten years' time you will be sitting in the Tabernacle just as undecided as you used to be," you wouldhave replied with indignation, "Is your servant a dog? I shall never be so
foolish."
But it is even worse, for now you do not feel half so much as you once did. You were more impressible years ago than you arenow and, speaking after the manner of men, you are now far less likely to be saved. You know it is so and yet you did at thattime, after a fashion, pray and, after a sort, you were in earnest. But what of all that? Nothing has come of it! Will anythingever come of it? The Israelites might talk about making David king, but that would not crown him. They might meet togetherand say they wished it were so, but that would not do it. It might be generally admitted that he ought to be monarch and itmight even be earnestly hoped that one day he would be-but that would not do it- something more decided must be done.
And oh, am I not, indeed, hitting the very center of the target when I say of some of you that you have, scores of times,given up the whole question as a matter of argument? Yes, and your heart has submitted that it was wrong of you to continueas you are! And you have been moved with strong resolutions towards repentance and faith and yet you are the same as everand not one inch closer to salvation! You are still in darkness, still under the dominion of Satan, still the slave of sinand so, I fear, you will be in 10 more years! And so you will be to the end of life-and so forever and forever! May God grantthat my words may not be prophetic concerning any one of you, but that you may, this very day, be moved by the Eternal Spiritto take decided action through His Grace. "Now then, do it."
II. I therefore pass on to the second part, to RECOMMEND DECIDED ACTION. "You sought for David in times
past to be king over you, now then, do it." No longer stand thinking, questioning, hesitating, halting-but now then, do it!Do one thing or the other! If God is God, serve Him! If Baal is God or the devil is God, serve him. Do not sit down foreverin this absurd condition of believing a thing to be right and yet neglecting it-of feeling yourself to be in danger and notseeking to escape by the way which you admit to be safe and fitting! Come, now, to something like honest dealing with yourselfand with your Lord.
Note the business on hand-it is that Jesus should be King over you. It was necessary that David should become king, or elsehe could not rescue Israel from the Philistines and, in your case, Jesus must be King or He cannot be your Savior. Thousandsof people are quite willing to be saved by Christ, but when it comes to the first step, namely, that Jesus must be acceptedas Ruler, Lawgiver, Master, King and Lord, then they start back and reject Eternal Life-
"Yet know (nor of the terms complain),
Where Jesus comes, He comes to reign!
To reign, and with no partial sway-
Thoughts must be slain that disobey." The whole question of your being saved or lost will turn on this-if Jesus is not yourKing, then the devil will remain enthroned in your heart-and you will remain a lost soul! But if your heart will yield itselfup to the supreme authority of King Jesus, then the work of salvation has already commenced and Jesus will take care to purgeyour nature of all His enemies until you shall be an empire in which He, alone, shall reign in holiness and peace! Jesus mustbe king! What do you say, Sir, Madame-shall it be so? Do you hesitate about it? He must be your Lord and Master. His willmust be your will. His commands must be law to you and His example must, from now on, be the model of your life. Do you disagree,or will you yield at once?
Next, notice that if Christ is to be your King, it must be by your own act and deed. So says the text concerning King David-"Nowthen, do it." David would not be king over Israel unless Israel was willing that he should be king. And our Lord Jesus Christis no forced monarch over one single human heart-the promise is, "Your people shall be willing in the day of Your power."The Kingdom of Christ over men's hearts is a kingdom of love, not a kingdom of force! There must be the full assent and consentof the will to the reigning power of Christ in the soul or else He does not reign at all! What do you say-yes, or no? Areyou willing that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, should, from now on, rule and reign over your entire nature as your heart'ssupreme Lord?
That is the question! Let it be settled once and for all! You have sometimes sought to have it so, "now then, do it." Andhere is the point, if Jesus is to reign, the old king must go down! It is of no use trying to have Ishbosheth and David onthe throne at the same time. It is impossible to serve sin and to serve Christ! Favorite and constitutional sins must be relinquished.I know many persons who say that they are under concern of soul whose sincerity I more than question, because they continuein known sin-and yet they complain that they cannot find peace! How can they? If you meet with a person who drinks, on thesly, and is frequently half intoxicated. If you hear him say that he cannot find rest in Christ, do you wonder?
Do you not think that he is a hypocrite? How can men and women continually fuddle themselves with drink and yet hope to bechildren of God? Give up your abominable tippling! Do you think Christ is going to save sots and let them continue to makebeasts of themselves? To prate about being saved and in secret worship the bottle is clear lying and next door to blasphemy!Talk about having a Savior and continue to get drunk? I marvel that you do not perish like Ananias and Sapphira! Another manis carrying on his trade in a way which is dishonest and yet he whines and cants about not finding peace with God. Do nothis own words condemn him? What has he to do with peace? How can he continue in sin and yet be saved from sin? Oh, Sirs, benot deceived! Your sins and you must part or Jesus will have nothing to do with you!
Do you think so badly of my Lord as to dream that He will pander to your passions by giving you liberty to live in sin andyet go to Heaven? For shame! Has Christ come to play the lackey to your lusts and let you do the work of Satan and then receivethe wages of the godly? Oh no! There must be a clean sweep of the false to make room for the true! We must have no Ishboshethif David is to be king! Though you may not attain perfection, yet in your desires you must be perfect-you must, from yourheart, put away every single sin-no matter of what shape it may be or however pleasurable or painful it may appear. Off mustcome the right arms and out must go the right eyes! It were better for you to enter into life maimed and blind than that youshould perish in your transgressions. The main point, however, is to do it-really and at once make Christ Jesus your King!And to this end we must believe in Him or trust Him.
It is this trusting Jesus Christ which is the essential point, for out of it grows the repentance which renounces every falseway. When a man fully and honestly trusts Christ with his soul, he is enabled, from that time forward, to hate the sin whichhe once loved and so he wins the mastery over it. He finds a joy in submitting to the holy reign of Jesus because he has alreadytrusted Him and believes that he is saved. But, alas, many of you do not believe! Indeed you would not be
persuaded to believe though one rose from the dead! How many times have I spoken from this platform to some of you about thismatter? How many times have you wished and resolved and all that?
We have had enough of this trifling! This morning I would push you on to a decision and address you in these words-"Now then,do it! NOW THEN, DO IT!" You reply that you wish you could. Away with your wishes-"Now then, do it!" "But," you say-out withyour "buts!" DO IT! "But, Sir"-I say again, no more of your, "but, Sirs!" DO IT! DO IT, and DO IT NOW! The blessed and eternalSpirit who has brought you to this point, this morning, and who urges me to press this question upon you waits to help you.When your whole soul wills to do it, He will be with you and you will do it-and Christ shall be enthroned in your hearts toreign there forever!
I fear that many do not mean to do it, at any rate not just now. They will not say, "No," but they hesitate and that is muchthe same thing. O, my Friend, the day will come when God will take your hesitation for a final negative! I believe it oftenhappens to men that though they have not deliberately said, "No," yet having no heart for the Gospel and only trifling withGod by pretences, they mean to obey Him by-and-by. But He has, at last, taken the meaning of their delay and regarded it asfinal rejection and left them to themselves so that they have perished in their sin. I beseech you, delay no more, but, "nowthen, do it."
The sooner it is done the better. Until the deed is done, remember, you are undone! Till Christ is accepted by you as King.Till sin is hated and Jesus is trusted, you are under another king. Whatever you may think of it, the devil is your master!You say you do not like him, but he is your master and lord, for all that, since he leads you captive at his will. Till Jesusreigns in your heart, you are, also, in the utmost danger-in danger of death and eternal punishment! Let your breath go thewrong way, or let your heart cease beating just for a little-and you will be in Hell! My Friends, you will be in HELL! Youwho sought for Jesus in times past, you who felt those good desires, you, the beloved child of Christian parents, you theearnest hearer at the House of God, you who are fond of sermons, but are, I fear, sermon-hardened- you, even you-will sinkdown to Hell with all those privileges like millstones about your neck!
"Well, Sir, I will think about it." Under cover of that promise there lurks delay and that is exactly what I am afraid of.Do not so much think, as ACT. "Now then, do it." I beseech you to make serious and immediate business of it! Perhaps if itis not done at this moment, it never will be done. For all these long years nothing has been actually done- though so muchhas been proposed-and this mainly because of your perpetual delays. What has come of all your fine resolutions? What is thegood of a mere resolve? A man resolves that he will be industrious, but if he continues to lie on the bed of the sluggard,is he any more thrifty? A man is sick and resolves to take medicine, but leaves it untasted-is he benefited by his intention?A man resolves to go on a journey, but does not take the trouble to get into the public conveyance, or to use his limbs-whatprogress does he make? Does he not abide just where he was?
All this bears upon your case! You know it does! All this, while Jesus is being rejected! We do not sufficiently think ofthe dishonor done to Jesus by base delays. All the while that Israel did not accept David as king, David was being badly treated.He who fought the Philistines for them. He whose valor was Israel's right arm, whose band of men was the sword and shieldof the nation against the Philistines was being kept away from his rightful throne, his merits forgotten, his claims ignored.Soul, by refusing Him His Throne, you are treating Jesus badly! Your wavering between two opinions is setting Him in rivalrywith foul sin and a base world-and upon you daily guilt is coming-a guilt which grows thicker and blacker as time rolls on.
Think of your previous impulses and as you consider them, answer me this question-were they wrong? When, in your childhood,you felt such strong desires after Christ, were they not commendable desires? Why, then, do you not carry them out? If youwere wrong in stopping them, then why should you continue to act so unwisely? If they are returning now, why not heartilyentertain them? Remember, moreover, that though you had these holy impulses, they passed away. Have you any reason to hopethat they will continue with you now? Will they not, again, melt into thin air? Unless God, the almighty Spirit, at this timeshall lead you to take decided steps, you will resolve again today, and re-resolve, but continue, still, the same! Of allthings, the most pitiable sight, to my mind, is a man who has light enough to know he is wrong but not Grace enough to forsakethe evil!
It is terrible to see a soul under impulses which urge it towards the right and yet remaining a captive to that accursed freewill which enslaves it to the last degree. Alas, how many put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter and, therefore, will notcome to Christ that they might have life? Such is the state of man! Such is the state of some of you! May God have
mercy upon you for Christ's sake! It is mine, however, to return distinctly to the charge of my text and say, "Now then, doit." Oh, Sirs, I wish you would do as one did a little while ago. I was preaching and I said that if any man sincerely wentto God confessing his sin and just trusted Christ to save him-if He did not save him I wished he would write me a note tolet me know it, for I had been so accustomed to declare that He would not cast out any that came to Him that I should liketo know if I was laboring under an error.
There was one in my audience who went deliberately home and, kneeling at his bedside, he said, with all his heart, " I doconfess my guiltiness before You, O God, and I do now trust myself with Christ that He may save me. Lord, cast me not away,for I believe in Your Son." He found peace immediately and continued to feel the love of God shed abroad in his soul! Andhe, therefore, thought it right to tell me the good news. It greatly cheered me. Instead of being rejected, he was welcomedby the God of Mercy and found immediate acceptance in Christ Jesus! I remember to have said that if one believing soul wascast out by Christ and sent to Hell, I would engage to lie side by side with him in the quenchless fire forever and ever.
I repeat the pledge! If any of you perish repenting of your sin and trusting in Jesus, alone, I will perish with you! I willbe bondsman for God, this morning, that if any one of you will humble himself before the Lord and simply trust His Son whomyou accept to be your King and your Savior, He can no more reject you than He can cease to be, for so it is written, "Himthat comes to Me I will in no wise cast out." "Now then, do it." There is life in a look at the Crucified One! The Lord helpyou to look at the Crucified One at once! "Now then, do it." Dream not of believing tomorrow or next year-nor even in half-an-hour'stime-but cast your guilty soul on Christ at once! NOW THEN, DO IT! While the Spirit of God now pervades this assembly, yieldyourself to the silver scepter which is held in the pierced hand of the once crucified King and you shall live! Now then,do it!
III. Lastly, I have to REASON WITH STRONG ARGUMENTS. I will utter them rapidly, for time fails me. Here they are in a condensedform. You, dear Friend, need salvation! Sin has got the mastery over your nature and you need a powerful arm to set you freefrom it. Nor is it sin, alone, but punishment, also, which threatens you. Be you who you may, you are in danger of eternalwrath and you need to be saved from it! Now, it is evident that none can save you from eternal wrath but King Jesus. Willyou have Him for King?
Whether you will have Him or not, you must have a king. Every man in the world has a master of some kind. Some principle oranother has dominion over you and the worst tyrant a man can serve is himself. Self is the hardest and meanest of all despots!Seeing, then, that you must have a king, can you have a better king than King Jesus, who is Incarnate Love? Think of His Characterand of the love He has shown to men and tell me, could you have a better King? Have you not already had enough, my Friend,of your old king? What benefit have you had in the service of Satan? What advantage has sin been to you? What elevation ofmind, what delight of spirit have you found in the ways of transgression? The times past may suffice you to have worked thewill of the flesh. Down with Ishbosheth and let David reign!
Here is the point about the King whom we preach to you-God has chosen Him to be King and proclaimed it in His everlastingdecree! He has said-"You have to get My king upon My holy hill of Zion." Can man make a better choice than God has made? TheEternal Father has looked upon His Only Begotten and made Him to be King of kings and Lord of lords-will you not say, "Hosanna!Blessed is He that comes in the name of the Lord!" Will you not accept Him for your King, whom Jehovah, Himself, proclaimsas such? I want you to notice the promise of the text, for this commends the Lord Jesus to all who are wise in heart. It isthrough Him that God will deliver you from your enemies, even from all of them.
Philistia's giants feared David, who cried, "over Philistia will I triumph." Your sins, your sorrows, death, the devil-allthese, the Son of David overcomes for you. If He is accepted as King, you need fear no adversary, for He will guard you withHis great power and utterly confuse your enemies. Oh, Sirs, kiss the Son! With the kiss of homage accept the Prince of Peace!Crown Him with your heart's love. Bow at His dear feet and be content to yield the utmost loyalty to Him. May the blessedSpirit sweetly draw you while I am persuading you and may you now approach the Throne of the Prince of the House of Davidand be forever His joyful subjects!
Will you now turn to the 5th chapter of this second book of Samuel for one minute and see if we cannot all join in a reproductionof the scene which it describes. I wish and pray that the words of that passage may come true-"Then came
all the tribes of Israel to David unto Hebron and spoke, saying, Behold, we are your bone and your flesh. Also in time past,when Saul was king over us, you were he that led out and brought in Israel. And the Lord said to you, You shall feed My peopleIsrael, and you shall be a captain over Israel."
Many in this house will join with me in accepting our Lord Jesus, over again, to be our King, and I wish some of you who havenever yet accepted Him would unite with us. We shall be glad to see others of the tribes of Israel entering our ranks forthe first time, while we salute our King. May the blessed Spirit lead you to do so, while now I say, in the name of all Hispeople here present, "Glorious Lord Jesus, behold we are Your bone and Your flesh, and we delight to acknowledge the condescendingkinship! In time past, when sin and Satan ruled over us, You were still the lover of our souls and You did redeem us and makewar on our account. We bless You for the great love which You had to us, even when we were dead in sin. The Lord has saidto You, You shall feed My people, You shall be a Captain over Israel, and we gladly accept You as the Lord's Anointed. Feedus, O Shepherd of Israel! Lead us, O Captain of the host! Behold, we enlist beneath Your banner-be a Captain over us today,for we are Yours and Yours alone-and before the eyes of God, Your Father, we give ourselves up, spirit, soul and body, tobe Yours forever and ever! We are, from now on, not our own, for You have bought us with a price."
All this has long ago been done by many of us. We are only repeating the declaration which we have made hundreds of timesbefore. Oh that some of you poor souls would hear the voice which says-"Now then, do it." To give you words with which todo it, we will all sing the verse-
"'Tis done, the great transaction's done!
I am my Lord's, and He is mine!
He drew me, and I followed on,
Charmed to confess the voice Divine.'"
May the Lord bless you. Amen.