LECTURE XVII - Regal Network

1、LECTURE XVIIFALSE COMFORTS FOR SINNERSHow then comfort ye me in vain, seeing in your answers there remainethfalsehood? - Job 21:34.Jobs three friends insisted that the afflictions which he suffered were sentas a punishment for his sins, and were evidence conclusive that he was ahypocrite, and not a

2、good man, as he professed to be. A lengthy argumentensued, in which Job referred to all past experience, to prove that men arenot dealt with in this way according to their character; that the distinctionis not observed in the allotments of Providence. His friends maintained theopposite, and intimate

3、d that this world is also a place of rewards andpunishments, in which men receive good or evil, according to their deeds.In this chapter, Job urges, by appealing to common sense and commonobservation and experience, that this cannot be true, because it is a matterof fact that the wicked are often pr

4、osperous in this world and throughoutlife, and hence he infers that their judgment and punishment must bereserved for a future state. The wicked is reserved to the day ofdestruction, and they shall be brought forth to the day of wrath (v. 30).And inasmuch as the friends who came to comfort him, bein

5、g in the darkon this fundamental point, had not been able to understand his case, and socould not afford him any comfort, but rather aggravated his grief, Jobinsisted upon it that he would still look to a future state for consolation.He rebuked them by exclaiming, in the bitterness of his soul:How t

6、hen comfort ye me in vain,seeing in your answers there remaineth falsehood?My present purpose is to make some remarks upon the various methodsemployed in comforting anxious sinners; and I design:I. To notice briefly the necessity and design of instructing anxioussinners.II. To show that anxious sinn

7、ers are always seeking comfort. Theirsupreme object, indeed, is to get comfort in their distress.III. To notice some of the false comforts often administered.I. INSTRUCTING ANXIOUS SINNERS.The very idea of anxiety implies some instruction. A sinner will not beanxious at all about his future state, u

8、nless he has light enough to knowthat he is a sinner, and that he is in danger of punishment and needsforgiveness. But men are to be converted, not by physical force, nor by achange wrought in their nature or constitution by creative power, but bythe truth, made effectual by the Holy Spirit. Convers

9、ion is yielding to thetruth. Therefore, the more the truth can be brought to bear on the mind,other things being equal, so much the more probable is it that theindividual will be converted. Unless the truth is brought to bear upon him,it is certain he will not be converted. If it be brought to bear,

10、 it is notabsolutely certain that it will be effectual, but the probability is inproportion to the extent to which the truth is brought to bear.The great design of dealing with an anxious sinner is to clear up all hisdifficulties and darkness, do away with all his errors, sap the foundation ofhis se

11、lf-righteous hopes, and sweep away every vestige of comfort that hecan find in himself. There is often much difficulty in all this, and muchinstruction is required. Sinners often cling with a death-grasp to their falsedependencies. The last place to which a sinner ever betakes himself forrelief is t

12、o Jesus Christ. Sinners had rather be saved in any other way inthe world. They had rather make any sacrifice, go to any expense, orendure any suffering, than just throw themselves as guilty and lost rebelsupon Christ alone for salvation. This is the very last way in which theyare ever willing to be

13、saved. It cuts up all their self-righteousness, andannihilates their pride and self-satisfaction so completely that they areexceedingly unwilling to adopt it. But it is as true in philosophy as it is infact, that this is, after all, the only way in which a sinner could find relief.If God should atte

14、mpt to relieve sinners and save them without humblingtheir pride and turning them from their sins, He could not do it.Now, the object of instructing an anxious sinner should be to bring hismind, by the shortest route, to the practical conclusion that there is, infact, no other way in which he can be

15、 relieved and saved, but to renouncehimself, and rest in Christ alone. To do this with effect requires great skill.It requires a thorough knowledge of the human heart, a clear understandingof the plan of salvation, and a precise and definite idea of the very thingthat a sinner MUST DO in order to be

16、 saved. The ability to impart suchinstruction effectually is one of the rarest qualifications in the ministry. Itis distressing to see how few ministers and how few professors of religionthere are who have in their own mind so distinct an idea of the thing to bedone, that they can go to an anxious s

17、inner and tell him exactly what hehas to do, and how to do it, and can show him clearly that there is nopossible way for him to be saved, but by doing that very thing which theytell him, and can make him feel the certainty that he must do it, and thatunless he does that very thing he will be lost.II

18、. ANXIOUS SINNERS ARE ALWAYS SEEKING COMFORT.Sinners often imagine they are seeking Jesus Christ, and seeking religion,but this is a mistake. No person ever sought religion, and yet remainedirreligious. What is religion? It is obeying God. Seeking religion is seekingto obey God. The soul that hunger

19、s and thirsts after righteousness is thesoul of a Christian. To say that a person can seek to obey God, and yetnot obey Him, is absurd; for, if he is seeking religion, he is not animpenitent sinner. To seek religion implies a willingness to obey God, anda willingness to obey God is religion. It is a

20、 contradiction to say that animpenitent sinner is seeking religion. It is the same as to say that he seeksand actually longs to obey God, and God will not let him; or that he longsto embrace Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ will not let him come. The factis, the anxious sinner is seeking a hope, he is

21、 seeking pardon, and comfort,and deliverance from hell. He is anxiously looking for some one to comforthim and make him feel better, without being obliged to conform to suchhumiliating conditions as those of the Gospel. And his anxiety and distresscontinue, only because he will not yield to these te

22、rms. Unfortunately,anxious sinners find comforters enough to their liking. Miserablecomforters they are, too, seeing in their answers there remainethfalsehood. No doubt, millions and millions are now in hell, because therewere those around them who gave them false comfort, who had so muchfalse pity,

23、 or were themselves so much in the dark, that they would not letsinners remain in anxiety till they had submitted their hearts to God, butadministered falsehood.III. WAYS IN WHICH FALSE COMFORT IS GIVEN.There is an endless variety of ways in which false comfort is given toanxious sinners. The more I

24、 observe the ways in which even good peopledeal with anxious sinners, the more I feel grieved at the endless falsehoodswith which they attempt to comfort their anxious friends, and thus, infact, deceive them and beguile them out of their salvation. It often remindsme of the manner in which people ac

25、t when any one is ill. Let any one ofyou be ill, with almost any disease in the world, and you will find thatevery person you meet with has a remedy for that disorder, a certain cure,a specific, a panacea; and you will find such a world of quackery all aroundyou that if you do not take care and SHUT

26、 IT ALL OUT, you willcertainly lose your life. A man must exercise his own judgment, for he willfind as many remedies as he has friends, and each one is tenacious of hisown medicine, and perhaps will think it hard if it is not taken. And nodoubt this miserable system of quackery kills a great many p

27、eople.This is true to no greater extent respecting the diseases of the body thanrespecting the diseases of the mind. People have their specifics and theirpanaceas, to comfort distressed souls; and whenever they begin to talkwith an anxious sinner, they will bring in their false comforts - so muchtha

28、t if he does not TAKE CARE, and mind the Word of God, he willinfallibly be deceived to his own destruction. I propose to mention a fewof the falsehoods that are often brought forward in attempting to comfortanxious sinners. Time would fail me even to name them all.The direct object of many persons i

29、s to comfort sinners; and they areoften so intent upon this that when they see their friends distressed, theypity them, they feel very compassionate: Oh, oh, I cannot bear to seethem so distressed, I must comfort them somehow; and so they try oneway, and another, and all to comfort them! Now, God de

30、sires they shouldbe comforted. He is benevolent, and has kind feelings, and His heart yearnsover them, when He sees them so distressed. But He sees that there isonly one way to give a sinner real comfort. He has more benevolence andcompassion than all men, and wishes to comfort them. But He has fixe

31、dthe terms, as unyielding as His Throne, on which He will give a sinnerrelief. He will not alter. He knows that nothing else will do the sinnereffectual good, for nothing can make him happy, until he repents of hissins and forsakes them, and turns to God. And therefore God will notyield. Our object

32、should be the same as that of God. We should feelcompassion and benevolence just as He does, and be as ready to givecomfort, but we should also be sure that it is of the right kind.Our prime object should be to induce the sinner to obey God. His comfortought to be, both with us and with himself, onl

33、y a secondary object; andwhile we are more anxious to relieve his distress than to have him cease toabuse and dishonor God, we are not likely, by our instructions, to do himany real good. This is a fundamental distinction in dealing with anxioussinners, but it is evidently overlooked by many, who se

34、em to have nohigher motives than sympathy or compassion for the sinner. If inpreaching the Gospel or instructing the anxious, we are not actuated by ahigh regard to the honor of God, and rise no higher than to desire to relievethe distressed; this is going no farther than a constitutional sympathy,

35、orcompassion, would carry us. The overlooking of this principle has oftenmisled professors of religion, and when they have heard others dealingfaithfully with anxious sinners, they have accused them of cruelty. I haveoften had professors bring anxious sinners to me, and beg me to comfortthem; and th

36、en, when I have probed the conscience of the sinner to thequick, they have shuddered, and sometimes taken his part. It is sometimesimpossible to deal effectually with young people who are anxious, in thepresence of their parents, because the parents have so much morecompassion for their children tha

37、n regard to the honor of God. This is aposition which is all wrong; and with such views and feelings you hadbetter hold your tongue than say anything to the anxious.1. One of the ways in which people give false comfort to distressedsinners is by asking them: What have you done? You are not so bad!Th

38、ey see them distressed and cry out: Why, what have you done? as ifthey had never done anything wicked, and had in reality no occasion tofeel distressed at all. A fashionable lady was spiritually awakened, and shewas going to see a minister, to converse with him, when she was met by afriend, who turn

39、ed her back, and drove off her anxiety by the cry: Whathave you done to make you feel so? I am sure you have never committedany sin that need make you feel so!I have often met with cases of this kind. A mother will tell her son, who isanxious, what an obedient child he has always been, how good and

40、howkind, and she begs him not to take on so. So a husband will tell his wife,or a wife her husband: How good you are! and say: Why, you are notso bad. You have been to hear that frightful minister, who frightenspeople, and you have got excited. Be comforted, for I am sure you havenot been bad enough

41、 to justify such distress. When the truth is, they havebeen a great deal worse than they think they have. No sinner ever has anidea of his sins greater than they really are. No sinner ever has an adequateidea of how great a sinner he is. It is not probable that any man could liveunder a full sight o

42、f his sins. God has, in mercy, spared all His creatures onearth that worst of sights, a naked human heart. The sinners guilt is muchmore deep and damning than he thinks, and his danger is much greater thanhe thinks it is; and if he should see his sins as they are, probably he wouldnot live one momen

43、t. True, a sinner may have false notions on the subject,which may create distress, but which have no foundation. He may think hehas committed the unpardonable sin, or that he has grieved away theSpirit, or sinned away his day of grace. But to tell the most moral andnaturally amiable person in the wo

44、rld that he is good enough, or that he isnot so bad as he thinks he is, is not giving him rational comfort, but isdeceiving him and ruining his soul. Let those who do it, beware.2. Others tell awakened sinners that conversion is a progressive work,and in this way ease their anxiety. When a man is di

45、stressed, because hesees himself to be such a sinner, and that unless he turns to God he will belost, it is a great relief to have some friend hold out the idea that he can getbetter by degrees, and that he is now coming on, little by little. They tellhim: You cannot expect to get along all at once;

46、 I do not believe in thesesudden conversions, you must wait and let it work; you have begun well,and, by and by, you will get comfort. All this is false as the bottomlesspit. The truth is, regeneration, or conversion, is not a progressive work.What is regeneration? What is it but the beginning of ob

47、edience to God?And is the beginning of a thing progressive? It is the first act of genuineobedience to God - the first voluntary action of the mind, that is whatGod approves, or that can be regarded as obedience to God. That isconversion. When persons talk about conversion as a progressive work, iti

48、s absurd. They show that they know just as much about regeneration orconversion as Nicodemus did. They know nothing about it as they oughtto know, and are no more fit to conduct an anxious meeting, or to advise orinstruct anxious sinners, than Nicodemus was.3. Another way in which anxious sinners ar

49、e deceived with false comfort isby being advised to dismiss the subject for the present. Men who aresupposed to be wise and good have assumed to be so much wiser thanGod, that when God is dealing with a sinner, by His Spirit, and isendeavoring to bring him to an immediate decision, they think God is

50、crowding too hard, and that it is necessary for them to interfere. They willadvise the person to take a ride, or to go into company, or engage inbusiness or do something that will relieve his mind a little, at least for thepresent. They might just as well say to God in plain words: O God,Thou art to

51、o hard, Thou goest too fast, Thou wilt make him crazy, or killhim; he cannot stand it, poor creature; if he be so pressed he will die. Justso they take sides against God, and practically tell the sinner himself:God will make you crazy if you do not dismiss the subject, and resist theSpirit, and driv

52、e Him away from your mind.Such advice, if it be truly conviction of sin that distresses the sinner, is, inno case, either safe or lawful. The strivings of the Spirit, to bring the sinnerto Christ, will never hurt him, nor drive him crazy. He may make himselfderanged by resisting; but it is blasphemo

53、us to think that the blessed,wise, and benevolent Spirit of God would ever act with so little care, as toderange and destroy the soul which He came to sanctify and save. Theproper course to take with a sinner, when the striving of the Spirit throwshim into distress, is, to instruct him, clear up his

54、 views, correct hismistakes, and make the way of salvation so plain, that he may see it rightbefore him. Not to dismiss the subject, but to fall in with the Spirit, andthus hush all those dreadful agonies which are produced by resisting theHoly Ghost. REMEMBER, if an awakened sinner should voluntari

55、lydismiss the subject once, probably he will never take it up again.4. Sometimes an awakened sinner is comforted by being told that religiondoes not consist in feeling bad. I once heard of a Doctor of Divinity givingan anxious sinner such counsel, when he was actually writhing under thearrows of the

56、 Almighty. Said he: Religion is cheerful, religion is notgloomy; do not be distressed, but dismiss your fears; be comforted, youshould not feel so bad, and such like miserable comforts, when, in fact,the man had infinite reason to be distressed, for he was resisting the HolyGhost, and was in danger of grieving Him away for ever.It is true, religion does