If Sinners Be Damned...

IF SINNERS BE DAMNED...

 

“If sinners be damned, at least let them leap to Hell over our dead bodies. And if they perish, let them perish with our arms wrapped about their knees, imploring them to stay. If Hell must be filled, let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let not one go unwarned and unprayed for.”

C. H. Spurgeon

Anyone who reads this blog knows that although I strongly believe in a free will theology my favorite preacher is Charles Spurgeon. And this quote from him should be the clarion call for Calvinist and free will alike. It sends chills up my spine since I fall very short of its exhortation. And this profound and penetrating call for evangelism comes from a Calvinist. And yet free will men like Rick Warren and Joel Osteen and Rob Bell prance all over the country selling a temporal gospel which soothes the conscience instead of bringing conviction.

In a few sentences Spurgeon has exposed the modern me/now gospel which comes in a variety of alluring flavors. Wrapped in the flag or materialism or promises of great health and prosperity, these fake gospels draw great crowds which thirst to get something rather than serve the Risen Christ. People do not flock to hear Warren and Osteen in order to light a fire in their souls for the plight of eternal souls. No, they come to be excited and blessed and to take in the atmosphere of celebrity. But do not be deceived, from the words of Spurgeon we have a template for which we must strive. Sinners must hear about Christ before it is too late. And the words of this man of God exhort us to a passion for sharing and preaching that reaches a level which substantiates the Scriptures and not our so often shallow doctrinal protestations.

When was the last time we wept in the Spirit for souls we know who are heading for an unfathomable eternity separated from Christ? Are we open to the Spirit’s leading if He would direct us to witness to someone which might cause us some discomfort or intimidation? Do not just read his words but ingest them into your spirit. Do our exertions really have teeth? So often in this moralistic climate the church castigates sinners rather than warn and pray for them. Legislation has become the gospel.

The worth of a vote has overshadowed the worth of a soul. And the church actively seeks to adjust the culture and improve our living conditions and create an atmosphere of economic prosperity, all of which does nothing for the gospel of Jesus Christ. Imagine a missionary arrives among the people he believes God has sent him. These people are idol worshipers and have no real moral compass. They engage in some bizarre sexual practices, they murder their neighbors, and they were very little clothing. Does the missionary begin to organize a movement to address those things? Does he sit around with other missionaries and castigate those tribal sinners? Does he listen to jungle radio as a Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh wanna be’s talk incessantly about how liberal and out of the mainstream these natives are?

That would be ridiculous you say? Well that is exactly what the church is doing today only these sinners are more worldly and sophisticated, but they are just as blind and just as lost. Even though the jungle fields are different than the urban fields the message of hope is still the same, the everlasting gospel. I feel the end is very near and any serious business done for Christ must be done quickly. If we are going to pray then we must pray now. If we are going to fast then we must fast now. If we are going to witness then we must witness now. If we are going to support missionaries then we must do it now. This is surely not the time to muse about things; this is the time to sacrifice and serve.

How many of us would give everything to have some of the years back once again? I know I surely would. As I look back with a more mature and convicting view I realize that I could have done so much more for the kingdom. But now I must make haste while the day is still here because the night is coming when no man can work. All of us owe our entire lives to Christ and these last days should be a living sacrifice for Him. If you have a spouse who shares your devotion to Christ than you are surely blessed above measure and you can reignite your passion for Him together. If you do not, like me, have that kind of bond, then we must be married to Christ in a way which gives us the strength we cannot receive from a spouse. It is difficult but He is worth it.

But think on this. In fact, do not just think on this but meditate upon it and let it marinate inside your heart until your heart is changed. God died for your sinful and rebellious soul. I said God died for YOU. Oh my, how can our eyes remain dry even while reading this unfathomable words? I do not deserve God’s love much less God coming and dying in my place. I am quite undone when I pause in this fast paced life enough to allow my heart and my mind to take in that glorious truth. God died for the horrible creature they call Rick Frueh. Oh my. I am filled with all kinds of emotion. Awe and gratitude, and love and wonder and brokenness and humility and bewilderment and joy and repentance and thanksgiving and indebtedness and unworthiness and reverence and amazement and worship and a mixture of them all fill my heart.

So if God loved me enough to die in my place, oh the mystery of that, then He must feel the same way for all souls unless He is a respecter of persons which He is not. And if God loves my neighbor just as does me, then what is He asking of me when the Scriptures exhort me to walk in His love and be an imitator of God Himself? I mean how should I feel about sinners if Christ died for me when I was still a sinner and in reality His very enemy? What is the Spirit speaking to us all? How far off have we strayed with all this earthly mess when in reality we have been called to love sinners and walk in His love as the days draw down? And look, dear ones, from the mouth of a Calvinist all we who boast of our free will credentials are rebuked and laid low. Yes, I am sorely rebuked by my better.

Souls, my fellow believers, the souls of mankind. I cannot help but recall the story of the two Moravian boys who had read of a slave colony in the Caribbean. The owner would not allow any preacher to come to his island because they might cause some upset and disruption and fill the slaves with false ideas. These two young boys corresponded with the owner and sold themselves to him as slaves. The arraignment was made and the price of their enslavement would only pay for their voyage from Germany to the Caribbean. And they had heard from the Spirit and they were willing to sacrifice their entire lives so they could reach these slaves with the gospel.

Of course their family and friends could hardly believe what they were doing and they considered it almost insane. Why oh why would someone so young throw away their future with such unwise fanaticism? And yet the day came when the ship was to embark on the transatlantic voyage. The two young men boarded the ship and went together along the ship’s rail to say goodbye once more to their loved ones. There was much weeping on the dock as it was assumed their families would never see them again. But the ship was turned loose from the dock and began to drift to the sea.

But as the two boys looked at their family and friends one of them hollered these words,

“May the Lamb that was slain receive the reward of His sufferings!!”

Pause just one moment. Think on that. Receive those words into your spirit. There is so much there in that one sentence combined with who said it and where they were going and why. There is so much there. It is foolishness to those without the Spirit but to those who have tasted the goodness of God through Christ Jesus those words shatter our soul. These young men were sacrificing their entire lives to reach souls while the western expression of following Christ serves as a self serving pursuit to get more and keep more and still retain some semblance of a religious shell. Who exactly are we kidding?

Spurgeon did not believe Christ died for everyone and yet he exhorts us to plead and pray with a zealousness as if people’s souls depended upon us. Away with all our free will smugness since we must be the pinnacle of hypocrisy! Read his words once more and add the words of those Moravian boys and then juxtapose our lives upon the razor sharpness of their open conviction and then where is our smugness? The family right across the street is dying in their sins while we live our selfish lives inside the convenient walls of a domestic and religious clique. “Let them perish with our arms wrapped about their knees, imploring them to stay,”, says the preacher. Fear and embarrassment and doctrinal contentment and a deep religious spirit have imprisoned us and made the gospel a religious relic rather than our very lives.

I hope we can all see the great need for a spiritual revival in our own hearts and lives. We need the Spirit to gives us a spirit of abandonment which walks in the desire and the atmosphere of the eternal and sees the temporal as a platform for sharing the gospel through word and deed. We need a sense of urgency once again. The suggestion that these are the last days must be more than some prophetic musings; it must be a catalyst for a devoted desperation to serve Christ in His whited fields.

Eph.5: ¹⁴ Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.

¹⁵ See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise,
¹⁶ Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.