Sermon 1431. The Message from the Lord's Mouth

(No. 1431)

DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, SEPTEMBER 1, 1878,

BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"Son of man I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel: therefore hear the word from My mouth, and give them warningfrom Me." Ezekiel 3:17.

IN most places the seasons in the Church are the reverse of those of Nature. Our wintry season generally comes when our hearersare busy in the fields, or resting in their summer retreats. And our harvest time for the ingathering of souls comes to usin the winter when, during the long evenings, the people can come together and special meetings for prayer and exhortationcan be held. Just now, as the damp of autumn begins to fall and the days are sensibly shortening, we ought to take note ofthe signs of the times and begin sharpening our sickles for a plenteous harvest. The time when kings go forth to battle iscoming on and we must muster the host. The season when we can, with special ease, gather the people and hopefully labor fortheir conversion is now at our doors and it is well that we gird up our loins for it!

I feel deeply anxious, dear Friends, that every time these seasons come round, all Christians should be fully prepared forthem! I feel that we should make the best of every opportunity and use with thorough-heartedness, every hopeful occasion if,by any means, we may save some! Now is our time to use all our powers that we may be the means of bringing glory to our LordJesus Christ and of setting Him on high in hearts conquered by His love! We should all desire to take some part in this graciouswork! Of course there are and always will be, in the Christian Church, special watchmen- chosen men who are set apart by Godfor the warning of the people-whose one business it is to cry aloud and spare not, whether men will hear or whether they willnot!

Let us be thankful that the Lord gives us such men and let us beseech Him to multiply their number. We prayerfully expectto have our Ezekiels to whom the Lord shall say, "Son of man, I have made you a watchman." But still, Beloved, when the campis in imminent danger, every man should turn watchman! And though the special sentinels must keep their posts, walk theirbeats and must with double vigilance act as if everything depended upon them-yet all the rest of the host must also mountguard and aid in keeping the watches both by day and night. It seems to me, Brother, that if the Lord has opened your eyes,you have become a Seer. And when you have become a Seer and can see, you should also become a watchman and watch for the goodof the Church of God and for the salvation of souls!

If this country were invaded, which may God grant it never may be, we could not confine the defense to our professional soldiers.No, every man would grasp such a weapon as he could reach and use it vigorously to drive the intruder over our white cliffs!I might even venture to say every woman would do the same-and matrons would become Amazons! Dear are our hearths and homesand none of us would ask to be excused in the defense of our beloved isle! Even so in the work of the salvation of souls,every saved one longs to have a share! Can we let sinners perish? Can we permit our own kinsmen to go down into the Pit? No,not if our prayers, tears and earnest teaching can rescue them!

Jesus Christ, in mighty love has died to save sinners and He must be honored for His glorious deed of Grace-can we sufferHis name to be trailed in the mire? Shall He still be despised and rejected by human hearts? Shall even the members of ourown family refuse His gentle sway? No, not if our testimony may help to honor Him, nor if our earnest pleading may gain Hima throne in some human heart! We feel glad to think that Christ's battles are not such as require strength of muscle and bone,nor do they need great mental capacity. Even the appointed watchman is set only to warn the people-he has not to charm themwith eloquence, nor to electrify them with novelties of oratory! He is simply to warn them and the most plain language maysuffice for that!

Surely it is a grave mistake of the present period that men think their preachers are bound to be oratorical and poetical.Why is such startling ability to be flaunted if the object is to warn a sinner to flee from the wrath to come? I fear thatmy Brothers are forgetting their real errand and are laboring to dazzle those whom the Lord sent them to warn! If a

man is asleep and I have to wake him, I need not cultivate a fine tenor voice with which to sing him out of his slumbers!I have but to call with sufficient loudness and distinctness until he is startled. I am glad that you Christian people canall take a share in the service of your Master since that service is the warning of those around you! You will never deliversensational discourses and I am sure you need not regret the inability! But you can give men warning from God. You can warnchildren, your own children to begin with. You can warn your neighbors. You can warn those of your own rank and age. You canwarn all who come in your path, for that is simply to tell of danger and to recommend the way of escape. Brothers and Sisters,with but slender knowledge and stammering utterance, we can warn and we will!

I am going to address you, this morning, upon the supposition that all of you who are believers in Christ are panting to takea share in the necessary and earnest work of warning men, lest they come to destruction. May I not hope that this is the case?To me it seems as if there is nothing else worth living for! It cannot be worthwhile to linger in this land of sorrow andof toil unless God is to be glorified by us! Nothing but the accomplishment of His gracious purposes can compensate us forour exile from Heaven. No merely earthly object is worthy of an immortal spirit. If we could win the Indies-what is wealth?If we could compel the trumpet of fame to engross itself with our exploits-what is honor? There is nothing beneath the sunworth a man's lifting his hand for except the glory of God! And God is best glorified by the conversion of men.

You believe that, my Brothers and Sisters, and therefore you mean to have a share in it, if it is but the bringing of onepoor child to Christ! Therefore to you I speak with confidence, hoping that God may bless my words so that we may begin anew campaign right well prepared for it and so may achieve a greater success than any we have gained up to now! What are thequalifications for serving God by warning men? Ezekiel had them. What can we learn from the Lord's words to Ezekiel by whichwe may better serve our Lord and act as watchmen to those around us? Three things I shall speak of this morning. First, theears to be disciplined. Secondly, the tongue to be educated. Thirdly, a lesson in the text to be practiced. May the Holy Spiritbless the whole subject to us!

I. If we would be found really useful and serviceable for our Lord and Master, THE EARS ARE TO BE DISCIPLINED. Read the text."Son of man, I have made you a watchman unto the house of Israel: therefore hear the word from My mouth." To train the tongueyou must begin with the ear. It is well known that no man is fit to command who has not first learned to obey-and assuredlyno man is qualified to teach who has not, first of all, found pleasure in learning. You must be a disciple and sit at theMaster's feet before you can become an Apostle and go forth to speak in the Master's name. To acquire eloquence we must trainthe ears and especially to warn our fellow men we must, ourselves, hear the voice of warning.

The text says, "Hear the word from My mouth." What does this mean? I take it, first, that if we wish to be useful, our earsmust be disciplined to hear only God's Word. We must receive the Gospel as God's own Word and go forth to proclaim it as such.I have lately met pretty frequently with the following sentiment-it is one of the fungi of this enlightened age of advancedthought-"The call is every day more loud for teaching which shall not appeal to the authority of the Bible but to the decisionof the hearts and consciences of men! Our religious teachers should fall back upon the truth which men have gathered fromtheir inner consciousness and should support their instructions by argument's fetched from the experience of the thoughtfuland philosophical. It is too late in the day to be always referring to a book and attempting to prove certain statements bythe stereotyped utterances of an antiquated volume."

That is the favorite notion and those who believe in it may go on and dote and dream as much as they please! And those whothink their statements worth listening to may listen to them-they will, no doubt, greatly please themselves and they will,for awhile, amuse the little coteries who look up to them as little popes of a little party! They may even worship them aslittle gods, for surely the creator and maker of truth within himself falls not very short of deity! Brothers and Sisters,we can afford to let this plague of flies pass away-the nuisance is great, but it will not long endure! There will come anend of all this trifling. Man's imaginations and reasoning are wood, hay and stubble-and the Day comes which will consumethem!

Vainglorious mortals would supplant the Eternal Testimony with their maunderings, but this their way is their folly! Our assuranceis that the teaching which is needed for this age must come more and more distinctly from the Bible and must court daily testingby the Bible! Teachers, if they are to have power, must sustain everything with, "Thus says the Lord." Ours it is to standor fall by Revelation and to declare, "We do not care one single farthing about your

imaginary consciousness and the manufacturing of your dreams, your fancies and your whims! We declare to you that God hasspoken and that what He has said, you are bound to receive because the Lord has said it!" This stands instead of all arguments-"TheLord has said it."

Believe Him, for He cannot lie. We come to tell you of what we, ourselves, have received upon Divine authority and we demandthat you receive our testimony, not because it is ours, but because it is supported by Divine authority and is, in fact, theecho of the Divine Word! Only by this mode of utterance can we hope to succeed! On any other footing we court failure anddeserve it. Brother, do you say, "I desire to spread my religion because it is my own opinion"? You will never win anyoneon such terms! How can you expect it? Your warning of another man, apart from God's Truth, will be of no use to him, for youropinion is as good as his and his opinion is as good as yours! And neither is worth much!

Brother, do you say, "I regard my religion as my own views of things"? Ah, then your views of things and my views of thingsand everybody else's views of things are worth little enough-and there is no use in making a stir about them! Any opinionwhich bears your name at the bottom, or mine, might just as well not be written! What are our names? What are our views? No,Brother, if you would speak as to affect the heart and conscience and destiny of men, you must repeat what you have receivedfrom God's own mouth as God's own Word-there is a value about that, a permanence, a certainty and it goes forth with a suprememajesty, involving woe upon any who dare reject it! It is power!

If it is, indeed, the Word of God, woe unto you if you do not speak it faithfully! And woe unto your hearers if they receiveit not reverently! The very first thing, then, for us to remember, if we would be useful in warning men and saving souls,is that we feel the full conviction and impression that what we try to teach is God's own Word. "You shall hear the word fromMy mouth." We must feel it to be clothed with the imperial robe of Divine authority! We are not going to speak it becauseit is the doctrine authorized by the creed, nor because it is the doctrine of the community to which we belong, but becauseit is the sure Word of the living God! Here is power-power which hard hearts are forced to feel! Here is power before whicheven devils tremble! I guarantee you if you put God's Word down among 50,000 words of men, it shall be like a lion among aflock of sheep, tearing them in pieces and it will prove by its own natural force from where it comes and where it goes!

Secondly, if we would have our ears educated, we must not only receive the Word as Divine authority, but to know what God'sWord is. Beloved, there are many who are willing to begin winning souls who had better first commence learning Christ. "Goyou into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature" was spoken to men who had been, for some time, with Jesusand had learned of Him. For others who were to be called it was provided that after Baptism they should be taught-that indue season they, also, might go forth to instruct the nations. I like not that a man should become so much a learner thathe never wishes to speak and to teach others. But I like as little that a man should be so anxious to be a teacher that heruns before he is sent and tries to bring others to a Savior of whom he knows next to nothing!

Fill yourself, Brother, before you ask to be poured out, else there will not much come of your being poured out. Receive thebread and the fish from the Master, else you will have very little to distribute among the crowd. First of all get to knowwhat it is you have to say, or else how can you speak for God? If a messenger runs swiftly and is out of breath at the endof his journey and then says, "I have something to say for my master, but I know not what it is," he will be laughed at forhis pains. His swift running is of little consequence, seeing he had nothing to carry. He should have waited till he knewthe tidings which he had to bring. Brother, hear the Word from God's mouth and then deliver it in God's name!

What, then, shall we do? Let us study the Bible with diligence. Go to that fountain of the Truths of God, I pray you, andnever be satisfied with a secondhand version of it. Go to the fountainhead and drink where the streams have not been muddiedby human blundering. We desire to keep the Word of God pure, but we are conscious of infirmity-go to the undefiled well wherethere is no mixture of human error! Search the Inspired Book and desire to know everything which it teaches, for a littleerror may do much mischief to good teaching, like a fly in the pot of ointment. Even the omission of a Truth of God may injurea man's usefulness to a very great extent.

The Lord does not bless some Churches as we would expect them to be blessed because they are in grievous error upon certainpoints and, though He will bless that part of the testimony which is true, yet the other portion hinders. Probably one reasonwhy Christianity does not spread so rapidly just now as it once did is this-that it is so mixed up in

most denominations with human tradition and opinion-and because, also, there is so little willingness to examine doubtfulpoints to see whether or not they are according to the mind of God. The Church would be one with itself if it were one withthe Truth of God. It would be impossible that there should be so many divisions if we all held to the one Lord, one faith,one Baptism-but there are sad mixtures which are allowed to go on from year to year unchallenged- and if any man is honestenough to speak out, he is straightway charged with bigotry and uncharitableness! While these things are so, the blessingwill be restrained.

My dear Brother, if you would be eminently useful, let your mind bow before the doctrines of the Scripture! Seek to know allthat the Bible teaches, especially upon the main points of salvation, and yield yourself to the mind of Christ in all things.Desire to tell your fellow men just what the Lord tells you, no more and no less! And endeavor throughout your whole lifeto follow after the revealed Truth of God in its purity, rather than the dogmas of the fathers or the decrees of the sects.The Truth of God as it is in Jesus, pure and simple as we find it in the Word of God, should be our rule and guide. This willgreatly help us towards success. It does not seem a very practical remark, but it is so.

The Holy Spirit first gives the Truth of God to our understanding and then gives us Grace to impart it to others. Get yourears cleansed, thoroughly cleansed, to hear God's Word as God's Word and be determined to know thoroughly what God's Wordhas really taught and thus shall you be instructed to speak as God's mouth to men. The great thing, I believe, with a successfulwinner of souls is to hear God's Truth from God's own mouth. What do I mean by this? I mean that a second-hand message issure to be weakly delivered. A Brother repeats a story which somebody else has told to him! How cold it gets in passing fromhand to hand-he who first saw the fact told it with far more life and energy!

What you need to do, Brother, is to tell the message as God, Himself, has told it to you by His Holy Spirit. Look how Ezekielwas prepared to prophesy! He says, "The hand of the Lord was there upon me and He said unto me, Arise, go forth into the plain,and I will there talk with you." Yes, we must get alone with God and hear what He will speak, for only can we fitly be Hismouth to others! Do you want to know Christ's way of making men useful? Turn to Mark 3:13-15 and read, "He went up into a mountain and called unto him whom He would and they came unto Him. And He ordained 12, thatthey should be with Him and that He might send them forth to preach and to have power to heal sicknesses and to cast out devils."

Do you see the order? He calls them to Him-you must not dream of winning souls till you first come to Christ, yourself. Nextwe read, "That they might be with Him"-you cannot go and teach Christ, or bring others to Him unless you have first been withHim. Communion with Jesus is training for service! To abide with your Lord must be your college and your preparation classfor teaching others. After the fellowship comes the work-"That He might send them forth to preach and to have power." Theprocess requires that the man who is to have power for Christ must first be with Christ. He cannot work miracles till He hasdwelt with the great Miracle-Worker. "You shall hear the word from My mouth."

There lies the word in the Book. What infinite majesty is there! As I read each letter in that Book of God, I worship theeternal mind which dictated it! But oh, when a passage of Scripture leaps out of the Book and enters into my soul by the Divineflame of the Holy Spirit, how much more mighty it appears! When my inner ears hears God speak the text, what energy thereis about it! Sitting down with the Bible on my knee, I say to myself, "This is no common book which lies before me-there isInspiration here, not the inspiration of Milton or of Shakespeare, but Divine Inspiration-this is the language of the Eternalas truly so as though I now saw Sinai on a blaze and heard out of the thick darkness these accents ringing with trumpet tonesand with the deep thunder of, "Thus says the Lord."

When we thus consider, we are in a right mood to hear the Lord's Word and to speak it to others. We must acknowledge and feelthe majesty of the Gospel and be conscious of its power, or we shall not rightly warn men. Brothers, since this Book is God'sWord to your own souls, take care that you deliver it in deep reverence and holy awe to those whom you aim to instruct! Isit not the voice of God to you? When it speaks home to your heart, does it not move you as nothing else can do? I confessthat the words of Scripture thrill my soul as nothing else ever can-they bear me aloft or dash me down! They tear me in piecesor they build me up after an unrivalled fashion! The Words of God have more power over me than ever David's fingers had overhis harp! Is it not so with you? Well, you will speak to others with power in proportion as you continually feel the powerof the Word of God over your own heart and conscience.

This is very wonderful, this hearing the Truth of God newly spoken from the Lord's mouth. Some will not know what I mean,but others of you will. The Holy Spirit has a way of showing unto us the old texts in a new light and applying them with newforce-and this is what we greatly need. "You shall hear the word from My mouth." I would like you teachers, this afternoon,before you go to your classes, to go upstairs and say, "Good Master, let us hear what we have to tell the children. Let ushear it in our souls as from Yourself. We are going to warn and instruct and invite them-be pleased to show us how. Master,say the words to us! Make us hear Your voice and when we have heard Your message from Your own lips, we shall talk to thechildren in quite another style from that which is usual to us." Brothers and Sisters, in Spirit maintain your fellowshipwith the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ, and so will you warn souls with warm, loving admonitions which God will bless!Let us have done with second-hand messages! Speak as the oracles

of God!

Once more, to have our ears well tutored, we must feel the force of the Truth of God that we deliver. Ezekiel had to eat theroll. It must enter into himself before he could reveal its contents to the people. So we must feel the force and power ofthe Gospel before we can effectually declare it. Sin-are you going to talk about the evil of it? Do you know the evil of it,yourself? Get back to the place of repentance where you once wet the earth with your tears and talk to children or grown-uppeople about sin in that spirit! Pardon-are you going to speak about that? Do you know the sweetness of it? Go to the placewhere you first saw the flowing of the ever precious blood and feel, again, your load of guilt removed and you will speakof it most sweetly!

The power of the Holy Spirit-are you going to speak about that? Have you felt His quickening, enlightening, comforting andsanctifying influence? Then according as you have felt, you will be able to speak with effectiveness! It is poor work to preacha Christ you never knew! It is terrible to talk of bread you have never tasted; of living water you never drank and ofjoysyou never felt! The farmer that labors must first be a partaker of the fruits. Go home and ask the Lord to teach you, butdo not go on His errands till first you have sat at His feet, for unto those whom He has not taught, God says, "What haveyou to do that you should declare My statutes? First come and hear the word from My mouth and then give the people warningfrom Me."

I think I have said enough to show how the ears are to be disciplined.

II. Secondly, THE TONGUE IS TO BE EDUCATED. That is, indeed, the aim of the discipline of the ears. And to what end is thetongue educated? I answer, first, to be able to deliver an unpleasant message. Any man's tongue is swift in telling good things,at least it ought to be, or where else is humanity? We are glad enough to tell you glad tidings of good things, but he thatis to be useful must be willing to speak unpleasant things. Brothers and Sisters, are you ready when you meet with carelesspeople to tell them Truths of God that will be unpalatable to them! And when they are awakened, are you willing, in God'sname, to try and beat to pieces their refuges of lies-to tell them plainly of the mistakes that they are so fond of and pointthem to the only way of salvation?

You and I cannot be useful if we want to be sweet as honey in the mouths of men! God will never bless us if we wish to pleasemen so that they may think well of us. Are you willing to tell them what will break your own heart in the telling and breaktheirs in the hearing? If not, you are not fit to serve the Lord! You must be willing to go and speak for God though you willbe rejected! See the seventh verse, where God says, "They will not listen unto you, for they will not listen unto Me." Ifthey reject the Master, will they receive the servant? They took up stones to stone your own dear Lord and Master! And theyfinally took nails to fasten Him to the Cross! Do you think they will listen to you?

If God is to bless you, dear Friend, you must be willing to bear witness for Him even if none should ever believe a word yousay-because in so doing you will deliver your soul! Take good heed, all of you, to this danger of being guilty of the bloodof others. Have not some of you quite forgotten it? There is blood on your garments! Do you see the spots? Some of you whonever said a word for Christ to your own children, I say there are big drops of soul-blood on your garments! Soul-blood isworse than the blood of the body and you are smeared with it! Can't you see the spots? Wash them out, I pray you! Oh, yousay, it is of no use warning them-they would only laugh at you! But you would lose the blood stains if you did. Their bloodwould not be required at your hands and, therefore, if you want to be useful, be willing to do unpleasant duties in orderto feel, "I have warned them and cleared my soul."

Next, you need your tongue tutored to speak the Truth of God as having, yourself, heard it. You know there are several waysof speaking. I was trying to illustrate differences of speaking when addressing my students the other day. I

said, "Suppose you saw, by the look of my face, while I was sitting here, that I was in a terrible state of indignation whenI rose to address you? You would say, 'Now we shall have it! We can see by the look of him that he will drive at us.'" Justso, when a man preaches, or warns others-it ought to be in a living style which indicates that something is coming. The manshould be full of emotion, not moved by anger, but by a sacred passion which awakens him and makes the people feel that heis in awful earnest, carried out of himself, not delivering set phrases and words from his mouth outwards, but speaking fromhis inmost heart!

Now, if we were to meet with our Lord Jesus, Himself, and were then to speak of Him in the state of mind in which His Presenceleft us, what a style of speech that would be! I think I hear a mother who has been with Jesus talking to her girl. She says,"Dear child, there is such joy in loving Jesus that I pant for you to know it! He is so great and good that my dear littledaughter must not forget Him." I can imagine that a father has met with the Lord Jesus and felt God's Truth sent into hisown soul by the Holy Spirit-and I am sure that when he gets his boy, alone, he pleads with him in deep and tender earnestnesswhich commands the boy's ear and heart! He does not know what has happened to his father-he is so earnest and pleads so seriously-butthe secret reason is that the father has listened to the Lord, Himself, and is, himself, the echo of that voice!

Facts vividly brought before the mind greatly influence a speaker. A sinner seen as lost touches the heart. Jesus seen ascrucified affects the speech! If I were to stand up in the council of a certain town to urge them to look to their fire escapes,I should do it with tremendous vehemence if I had just come out of the midst of that shuddering crowd which saw a poor womanhanging out of the window in the midst of the flames for lack of proper apparatus to reach her! Any man, fresh from such asight, would plead with energy! His whole soul would burn as he thought of the poor perishing fellow creature in the midstof the fire! Would not yours? It is just so when you come fresh from talking with God-the Truth of God is vividly realized-anawe is upon you and holy zeal and sacred ardor inflame your breast!

If you dwell away from God you do not feel the value of the Gospel message, nor the weight of men's souls. The grandest ofall the Truths of God lose force when they cease to be realized facts-but their power returns when we come, again, under theiractual influence! When the voice of Jesus' love is still ringing in your ears, then with a deep awestruck solemnity your wholesoul is poured forth at your mouth and you speak as pleading with men that they would yield to God and accept His great salvation!

The tongue must speak when the ears are tingling with the message of the Lord! The tongue needs to be trained in the caseof each one of us to deliver the message as from God. I believe that God has given commission to every Christian who knowsthe Truth of God, to tell it, and that there is authority given to every man who has the living water within himself to letit flow out, for it is written, "Out of the midst of him shall flow rivers of living water." You see your calling, Brothers.You may not all be called to the work of prophesying as ministers are, but you are all called by some means to warn men ofthe wrath to come and lead them to Christ-and I want you to feel that God is at the back of you when you warn sinners.

You never pray for a soul; you never weep over a soul; you never drop one kernel of Divine Truth into a human ear; you neverutter one word of warning or expostulation but what God is with you in so doing. God will acknowledge His Truth, thereforenever be ashamed of it. Make your face like adamant if their hearts are like adamant-if they are not ashamed to sin, do notyou be ashamed to warn them! If they are not ashamed of their unbelief, be not you ashamed of your faith in the Divine Testimony!The hosts of Heaven are on your side, therefore be not dismayed! Your faith may hear the noise of the wings of the livingcreatures, the noise of the wheels and the noise of a great rushing, for all Heaven is astir when the watchman moves to warnthe people (Ezekiel 3:13). If God is at your back, speak boldly and do not let your testimony be silenced!

The Lord tells Ezekiel that the people would be a restraint to him and how often they are so. Non-success often ties the preacherup so that he can scarcely speak. "You, O Son of Man, behold they shall put bands upon you and shall bind you with them, andyou shall not go out among them." But what a grand verse is the twenty-seventh-"But when I speak with you, I will open yourmouth and you shall say unto them, Thus says the Lord God. He that hears, let him hear; and he that forbears, let him forbear:for they are a rebellious house." None can silence a mouth which God has opened! May we henceforth feel that now, betweenhere and Heaven, we have souls committed to our charge and that we will be clear of their blood!

Each one of you has his little plot of ground to sow. You must resolve that it shall not lie waste. You will be called homevery soon, my dear fellow workers, therefore work while it is day. I who have to lead you in this plowing may soon be calledaway. I feel it and I feel that the same is true of each one of us-therefore, since these poor souls are dying as well aswe are and they are sinking into Hell forever, let us be in earnest and may God help us to save them! Let us begin to weep,for weeping, perhaps, may be the fittest beginning of a higher life as it was the beginning of our natural life. Let us cryunto God! Let us watch for opportunities and as they come, let us avail ourselves of them, if by any means we may save some.We dare no longer fritter away life. Dare we? We dare not furnish a continuation of man's foolish history if, indeed, it istrue that "all the world is a stage and all the men and women merely players."

We do not believe that statement and if it is true we will alter it. Let us upset the stage, tear off the masks and trulylive. "Life is real, life is earnest," as we shall know at the Judgment Seat of God! How real will it look by the light ofthe Last Great Day! Come, let us ask to have ears and tongue trained and let us begin, now, to serve our Lord by warning ourfellow men!

III. I finish my sermon this morning by, in the third place, endeavoring to practice THE LESSON OF THE TEXT. I desire to speakto those of you who are unconverted and to speak as if I had just come from an interview with my Lord and Master, as I trustI have. I want to speak as if I had just heard Him say what I am going to repeat to you. Try and help me with your imaginationand may God give you faith!

I have to say to you, dear Friends now present, that whatever may be your natural excellence of character and whatever thereligiousness of your training, yet you must all of you be born again! You heard me say, "You must be born again," but I wantto say it as Jesus said it when, one evening, He was visited by a ruler of the Jews, a man of spotless character, of admirablereputation and of deep learning. Sitting alone with Him, our Lord treated Him with great kindness, but yet with solemn emphasis.He said, "You must be born again."

Yes, young Friend, there is much about you that is very admirable and you know a great deal of Divine Truth, but, "You mustbe born again." The Master would lay a strong tender emphasis upon the, "must." "You must be born again." Jesus would notdemand of us more than is absolutely necessary, nor say a syllable that would tend to shut a soul out of Heaven. If He says,"You must," why then we must! I want you to admit that necessity.

Next I desire to introduce you to Jesus sitting at the well with the woman of Samaria. You can see the smile upon His countenanceas He instructs her. I need you, now, to hear Him say these words-"God is a Spirit and they that worship Him must worshipHim in spirit and in truth." I should like to say to you, dear Friend, that all the outward forms of religion in the worldwill be of no value to you unless you are spiritual. You must have a spiritual mind and a spiritual nature through being bornagain-and then you must worship God in a spiritual way, for mere outward religion is nothing in His sight. I desire to warnyou as to that fact, but I would rather you should hear my Master say the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spiritand in truth, "for the Father seeks such to worship Him." You believe it, do you not? Oh, ask that the Spirit of God wouldteach you how to worship in spirit and in truth!

Now listen to my Master again. He is addressing the Jews and He uses these words. I give them accurately translated-"You searchthe Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life and they are they which testify of Me. And you will not come toMe that you might have life." I am glad that you read your Bibles, but how is it that you feel so easy when you have readyour chapter every day? Do you think you will get salvation by Bible reading? Alas, you are in error! You must go furtherthan that! You must go to Christ Jesus Himself! Oh, that you would, by an act of faith, come to Him this morning! Do you thinkthis Truth of God is hard? I hope you don't, for it is the teaching of Jesus and I have heard Him say it to my own soul. Youmust come to Jesus, Himself, or the Scriptures will do you no good! The Scriptures are a road sign pointing to Christ-it willnever do to sit down by the road sign-we must hasten on to find the Lord, Himself.

Listen to my Master once again. He says to the Jews, "If you believe not that I am He, you shall die in your sins." I know,now, you will say that I speak hard things! Perhaps I do, but not with a hard heart. Now, my Lord is always tender, neverman spoke like this Man and never man wept as He did when He had a hard thing to say. Hear, then, His declaration, "Exceptyou believe that I am He, you shall die in your sins." "Die in your sins"? Do you know what that means? To die in irons, todie in a ditch, to die on the gallows-these are nothing compared with dying in your sins!

I must tell you some other things which my Master says, because nowadays the fine new theologians do not like to have themspoken. I have heard Him speak them in my very soul and I must, therefore, warn you of them. He says there are tares growingamong the wheat and that the Day will come when the angels will "gather the tares in bundles to burn them." That is how Heputs the destiny of the ungodly! Hear how the modern theologians hiss between their teeth, "Dreadful language. These horribleexpressions are borrowed from Dante and Milton and the old writers."

No Dante, Milton, or the old writers had existed then, but Jesus Himself says, "The Son of man shall send forth His angelsand they shall gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; and shall cast them into a furnaceof fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth." Such will be the lot of some of you unless you repent! Though growingup among Christian people and hearing the Gospel-and looking very much like Christians-you will be separated from among thewheat to be cast into the fire! Some of you are rich and enjoy yourselves a great deal. I must tell you what Jesus said ofone who fared sumptuously every day but cared not for his soul.

He said, "The rich man, also, died and was buried. And in Hell he lifted up his eyes, being in torments, and sees Abrahamafar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he maydip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am tormented in this flame." My Lord, my sweet Lord-my dying,my bleeding Lord-the Man who receives sinners, it was thus He spoke! I would not speak less tenderly than He if I were able,but I want to assure you rich people who have your comforts in this life and yet are out of Christ, that this is what willhappen to you! Nor will this be for a time, but forever!

You will never be able to escape from torment, according to my Master's teaching, for He says there is a great gulf fixedso that they who would come from there cannot. I pray you, therefore, take warning, as I would give you warning from His mouth!The last thing that was ever seen of my Lord and Master upon earth was this. He stood on tiptoe on this world which had treatedHim so ill and around Him were gathered a few disciples. Just before He rose out of their sight He addressed them in lovingtones and said, "Go you into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature." They stood with their ears and eyes opento know how He would have them put the Gospel and He said, "He that believes and is baptized shall be saved. He that believesnot shall be damned."

Did He say that? Yes, just before the cloud received Him out of their sight, He said, "He that believes not shall be damned."It was He that said it! I should have liked to have seen how He looked when He thus spoke-the evident pain which crossed Hismind and showed itself in His eyes as He said in effect, "There will be some who will not believe, but you must tell themplainly, "He that believes not shall be damned." I do warn you of this, men and women, every one of you-if I am not a believerin Christ, I shall be damned! And if you are not believers you will be damned! I beseech you run not so dreadful a risk!

Trust yourselves with Jesus, right now, and you shall be saved, for it is He that says it, not I-"He that believes and isbaptized shall be saved." And again, "He that believes in Him has everlasting life." I do not think He meant me to try andput this in any pretty shape in order to amuse you with it and so I have not tried to do so. I have spoken to you His ownWord as best I know how. May He be pleased to weed out my frailties and throw them away, but may all that is His own livein your souls and mine unto eternal life! Amen.