A Call to the Unconverted to Turn and Live,

And accept of MERCY, while MERCY may be had;
as ever they will find MERCY, in the Day of their EXTREMITY
from the Living God.

Part 4

by Richard Baxter (1615-1691)

"Say to them, 'As I live,' says the Lord God, 'I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way, and live.  Turn, Turn from your evil ways!  For why should you die, O house of Israel ."  Ezekiel 33:11

 

Table of Contents

A Short Account About the Author

Preface by the Author

Sermon 1: The Certainty of Judgment Apart from Repentance

Sermon 2: The Earnestness of God's Offer of Forgiveness

Sermon 3:  God’s Condescension in His Offer of Forgiveness

Sermon 4:  Man’s Willfulness in His Own Damnation

 

Sermon 3
God’s Condescension
in His Offer of Forgiveness

Ezek. 33:11.  "Say to them: ‘As I live,’ says the Lord GOD, ‘I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways! For why should you die, O house of Israel?’"

IT has been explained, and proved, that God takes pleasure in man’s conversion and salvation, but not in their death or damnation. He would rather they would turn and live, than go on and die.  Of this fact he leaves man no pretense for doubt, because He has confirmed it to us by his oath: "As I live, says the Lord."  Furthermore, God is so earnest for the conversion of sinners that He repeats his commands and exhortations with pleadings: "Turn, turn from your evil ways ." Having already illustrated and applied each of these points, let us come to the next doctrine:

Doctrine 6. The Lord condescends to reason the case with unconverted sinners, and to ask them why they will die.  A strange argument it is, both as to the subject of the controversy, and as to those involved in the dispute.  (1) The issue or question put forth is, “Why will wicked men damn themselves?” Or, “Why will they die rather than turn?” What good reasons would they have for so doing?  And (2) The parties in dispute are God and man; the most holy God, and wicked, unconverted sinners. 

First, let us consider the dispute in question.  Is it not a strange thing which God raises here, that any human being would be willing to die and be damned, and especially that this would be the case of the wicked, and thus, of the greater part of the world?  You might say, this cannot be, for it is human nature to look out for one's own preservation, and the wicked are even more selfish than others, not less; therefore how can any man be willing to be damned?  To this I would suggest that, certainly, no one desires any evil for the sake of itself, but only follows after evil if it has some appearance of good.  No one would knowingly choose being eternally tormented. Misery, as such, is desired by no one!  Yet all things considered, it seems to be an unavoidable truth that the reason the wicked die and are damned is because they will die and be damned. This is true in several respects:

1.  It is true because they will follow the road that leads to hell, even though they are told by God and man where it leads, and where it ends; and though God has so often professed in His Word that if they stay on that road they will be condemned, and that they will not be saved unless they turn. "'There is no peace,' Says my God, 'for the wicked'" (Isaiah 48:22, 57:21).  "The way of peace they have not known, And there is no justice in their ways; They have made themselves crooked paths; Whoever takes that way shall not know peace" (Isaiah 59:8).  They have the Word and the oath of the living God to tell them that, if they will not turn, they will not enter into his rest.  And yet wicked they are, and wicked they will be, let God and man say what they will; fleshly they are, and fleshly they will be, worldlings they are, and worldlings they will be, though God has told them that “Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God" (James 4:4), and that "If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him" (1 John 2:15).  Consequently, though these people are not desirous of hell itself, and do not for its own sake love the pain which they must endure there, they are willing to be damned and to walk on the road to hell, and thus to love the certain cause of their torment.

Is not this the truth in your case, sinners? You don't want to burn in hell; but you will kindle the fire by your sins, and cast yourselves into it; you don't want to be tormented with demons for ever, but you will do that which will certainly guarantee it, despite all that can be said against it. It is just as if you would say, “I will drink this poison, but I will not die. I will cast myself head first from the top of a steeple, but I will not kill myself.  I will thrust this knife into my heart, but I will not take away my life. I will put this fire into the thatch of my house, but yet I will not burn it.”  So is it with wicked people; they will be wicked, and they will live after the flesh and the world, and yet they don't want to be damned. But do you not know that the means lead to the end, and that God by His righteous law has already concluded that you must repent or perish? 

He who will take poison may as well say plainly, “I will kill myself,” for it will prove no better in the end: Though perhaps he loved it for the sweetness of the sugar that was mixed with it, and could not be persuaded that it was poison, and that he might take it and do well enough, it is not his own conceits and confidence that will save his life. So, if you will be drunkards, or fornicators, or worldlings, or live after the flesh, you may as well say plainly, “We will be damned,” for so you will be unless you turn. Would you not rebuke the folly of a thief or murderer who says, “I will steal and kill, but I will not be hanged,” when he knows that, if he does the one, the judge in justice will see that the other is also done?  If he says, “I will steal and murder,” he may as well say plainly, “I will be hanged.”  So, if you will go on in a carnal life, you may as well say plainly, “We will go to hell.”

2. The wicked also show their willingness to die because they will not use those means that God has provided for their salvation. He who will not eat may as well say plainly that he will not live, unless he can tell how to live without food; he who will not leave on his journey may as well say plainly he will not get to his destination; he that falls into the water and will not come out or allow another to help him out, may as well say plainly that he will be drowned. Likewise, if you are carnal and ungodly, and will not be converted or use the means by which you should be converted, but think it more of a bother than is necessary, you may as well say plainly that you will be damned. For if you have found out a way to be saved without conversion, you have done that which was never done before.

3. Yet, this is not all, but the wicked are unwilling even to partake of salvation itself. Though they may have some desire for something which they call "heaven," yet heaven itself, understood as the Bible describes it, they do not desire; in fact, their hearts are quite against it. Heaven is a state of perfect holiness, and of continual love and praise to God and the wicked have no heart for this. Even the imperfect love, praise, and holiness which is attained here on earth they have no desire for, much less of that which is so much greater.  The joys of heaven are of so pure and spiritual a nature that the heart of the wicked cannot desire them.

So that by this time you may see why God implies that the wicked bring about their own destruction, for they will rather risk certain misery than be converted; and then, to quiet themselves in their sins, they will make themselves believe that they shall nevertheless escape.

Second, let us consider the parties involved in this dispute.   As strange as it is people should be such enemies to themselves that they would willfully cast away their own souls, so is it a matter of wonder that God should stoop so low as to plead His case with man, and that man should be so strangely blind and stubborn as to argue back and resist God, even when his own salvation is at stake!  No wonder they will not hear us who are mere men, when they will not hear the Lord himself, as when He says in Ezekiel 3:7 when He sent the prophet to the Israelites, "But the house of Israel will not listen to you, because they will not listen to Me; for all the house of Israel are impudent and hard-hearted."  No wonder they can plead against a minister or a godly neighbor, when they will plead against the Lord himself, even against the plainest passages of His Word, and think they have reason on their side!  When they wearied the Lord with their words, they said, “In what way have we wearied Him?” Mal. 2:17.  The priests who despised His name dared to ask, “In what way have we despised your name?” And when they polluted His altar and made the temple of the Lord contemptible, they dared to say, “In what way have we polluted you?” (Malachi 1:6-7).  But “Woe to him who strives with his Maker! Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth! Shall the clay say to him who forms it, ‘What are you making?’ Or shall your handiwork say, ‘He has no hands’?” Isaiah 45:9.

Question:  Why is it that God will reason His case with man?

Answer 1.  Because human beings, being reasonable creatures, are to be dealt with as such, and by reason to be persuaded and overcome.  God has therefore endowed them with reason, that they might use it for Him. One would think a reasonable creature should not go against the clearest and greatest reason in the world, when it is set before him.

Answer 2.  So that at least, people will see that God required nothing of them that was unreasonable, but that whatever hinders them from turning, God has all the right reason in the world on His side.  Therefore, they have good reason to obey Him, and no good reason  to disobey, and so even the damned will be forced to justify God, and confess that it was only reasonable that they should have turned to Him; and they will be forced to condemn themselves and confess that they had little reason to cast themselves away by neglecting His grace in the day He visited them.

Application

Look up your best and strongest reasons, sinners, if you will defend your position, for you see now with whom you must deal.  What do you say, unconverted, sensual sinner? Do you dare to venture into a dispute with God? Are you able to confound Him? Are you ready to list your arguments against Him?  God asks you, "Why will you die?" Are you prepared with a sufficient answer? Will you undertake to prove that God is mistaken, and that you are right? O what an undertaking is that!  Why, either He or you is mistaken, when He is for your conversion, and you are against it.

 He calls upon you to turn, and you will not; He asks you do it now, even while it is called today, and you delay, and think there is more time to think it over.  He says it must be a total change, and that you must be holy, and new creatures, and born again; and you think less may be sufficient, just enough to patch up the old man, without becoming new. Who is in the right now? God or you?  God calls on you to turn, and to live a holy life, and you will not:  at least, by seeing your disobedient lives, it appears you will not. If you are willing, why don't you do it? Why have you not done it all this while?  Your wills have the control of your lives, and thus we may certainly conclude, when we do not see you turn, that you are unwilling to turn. And, why will you not? Can you give any reason for it that is worthy to be called a reason?
I, who am nothing but a worm, and of a shallow capacity, challenge the wisest of you all to reason the case with me, while I plead my Maker’s cause.  And I need not be discouraged, when I know I plead the cause that God pleads, and contend for Him who will have it His way in the end.  If I had nothing but the following two general grounds against you, I am convinced that you have no good reason on your side:

1.  No reason that is against the God of truth and reason can be a good one.  What is contrary to the sun cannot be called "light." No creature has any knowledge that isn't from God, and therefore none can be wiser than God. It is a fatal presumption for the highest angel to consider himself equal with his Creator. If that is the case, what is it for a lump of dirt, an ignorant sot, who doesn't even know himself, or his own soul, who knows only little about the things which he sees, to set himself against the wisdom of the Lord? It is one of the fullest discoveries of the horrible wickedness of carnal men, that so silly a mole dares to contradict his Maker, and call in question the Word of God; that those people in our churches who are so ignorant they cannot give us a reasonable answer concerning the very principles of religion, are yet so wise in their own conceit, that they dare question the plainest truths of God, and contradict them and argue against them, and will believe God's truths no farther than what agrees with their foolish wisdom!

2. Because I know God must be right, I know the case man argues against Him is so shallow and offensive that no one can have reason for holding to it.  Is it possible that a man will seek out any lowly reason to break his master’s laws and argue to dishonor the Lord of glory and to abuse the Lord that bought him? Is it possible that one can have any good reason to damn his own immortal soul?  Mark the Lord’s question: “Turn, turn, for why should you die?” Is eternal death a thing to be desired? Are you in love with hell? What reason do you have willfully to perish? If you think you have reason to sin, should you not remember that “the wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23), and think whether you have any reason to undo yourselves, body and soul, for ever?  You should ask not only whether you love the snake, but whether you love the sting! 

It is sorry enough for a man to cast away his everlasting happiness, and to sin against God without giving good reason for it; but the more anyone pleads for it, the more irrational he shows himself to be. If you had kingdom offered you for every sin you commit, or you could by every sin obtain the highest thing on earth that your flesh desires, it would be an easy thing to persuade you with reasons to commit it. If it were to please your greatest or dearest friends, or to save your own lives, or to escape the greatest earthly misery, it would be a simple task to convince someone to commit one sin.  If a right hand or a right eye would hinder your eternal salvation, it would not be unreasonable to cast it away, rather than to go to hell to save it, for there is no saving a part when you lose the whole. So great are the matters of eternity, that nothing in this world can compare with them, whether life, or crowns, or kingdoms.  A person can have no good reason to cross his ultimate end.  Heaven is such a thing that if you lose it, nothing can make up the loss: and hell is such a thing that if you suffer it, nothing can remove your misery, or give you ease and comfort. And therefore nothing can be a valuable consideration to excuse you for neglecting your own salvation; for, as our Savior said, "For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?" (Mark 8:36).

O friends, if you only knew what matters we are now speaking to you of! The saints in heaven have very different thoughts than those on earth. If the devil could come to one of those who now live in the sight and love of God, and offer them a cup of ale, or a whore, or merry company, or sport to entice them away from God and glory, how do you think they would entertain the motion?  Or if he should offer them to be kings of the earth, do you think this would entice them down from heaven? O, with what hatred and holy scorn they would hate and reject the very offer! And why should not you also, who have had heaven offered to you, do the same, if only you had the faith to see it? There is not a soul in hell who doesn't know by this time that it was an irrational exchange to let heaven go for mere fleshly pleasure, and that there is no mirth, pleasure, worldly riches, honor, or the good will and word of men that will quench hell fire or save him who has lost his soul. O if you had heard, if you had seen what I believe and know to be true from the Word of God, you would say there can be no good reason for a man to damn his soul.  Dare you sleep quietly another night, before you resolve to turn and live?

If you see someone put his hand in the fire until it burns off, you will marvel at it; but even this may be done for good reason, as Bishop Cranmer did when he burnt off his hand over his lapse of faith in submitting to Popery. If you see someone cut off a leg or arm, it is a sad sight, but this is also something one may have a good reason to do, since many a person has done so to save his life. If you see someone give his body to be burned to ashes, and to be tormented with racks, and refuse deliverance when it is offered, that is a hard case, but even this person may have good reason, and many martyrs have done so, "who through faith subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, became valiant in battle, turned to flight the armies of the aliens.  Women received their dead raised to life again. And others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection.  Still others had trial of mockings and scourgings, yes, and of chains and imprisonment"  (Hebrews 11:33-36).  All of these things may under certain conditions be "reasonable."  But for one to forsake the Lord who made Him, and to run into the fire of hell, when he is told of it, and entreated to turn that he may be saved, is a thing that can have no reason in the world, to justify or excuse it. For heaven will pay for the loss of anything we lose to gain it; but nothing can pay for the loss of heaven.

I beg you now, let this word come nearer to your hearts. As you are convinced that you have no reason to destroy yourselves, tell me what reason have you to refuse to turn, and live to God? What reason does the worst worldling, drunkard or careless sinner of you all have to not be as holy as anyone you know, and to be as careful for your soul as any other? Will hell not be as hot to you as to others?  Are your own souls not as dear to you as theirs is to them?  Does God not have as much authority over you as He does over them? Why then will all of you not become a sanctified people as well as they?

O my friends, God brings the matter down to the very principles of nature, and shows that you have no more reason to be ungodly than you have to damn your own souls! If you will still not understand and turn, it seems you are in a desperate case.  And now, either you have reason for what you do, or you do not, and if not, will you now go against reason itself?  Will you do that which you have no reasons for?  If you think you have, produce them, and make the best of your matter! Reason the case a little with me, your fellow-creature, which should be far easier than to reason the case with God. Tell me, man, woman, here before the Lord, as if you were to die this very hour, why you not should resolve to turn this very day, before you stir from the place you are now in? What reason do you have to deny, or to delay?  Do you have any reason that satisfies your own conscience for it? Or any that you would dare to own up to and plead at the bar of God? If you have, let us hear them, bring them forth, and make them good.

But, alas! What poor stuff, what nonsense instead of reasons do we daily hear from the ungodly! If it were not necessary, I would be ashamed to name them, but here I will do so:

Objection 1.  "If none shall be saved except those who are converted and sanctified in the ways you talk of, then heaven would be empty!"

Answer.   What? It seems you think that God does not know, or else He is not to be believed!  Do not measure everyone by yourselves; God has thousands and millions of his sanctified ones, though they are few in comparison to the world, as Christ himself has told us, and thus it seems wise to make use of this truth which Christ teaches you: "Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it.  Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it" (Matthew 7:13-14).  On the other hand, Christ says to His sanctified ones, “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom” (Luke 12:32).

Objection 2.  "I am sure if people like me go to hell, we shall have plenty of company."

Answer.  And will that be of any comfort to you? Or do you think you may not have company enough in heaven? Will you be damned because you fear lack of company? Or do you not believe that God will execute his threatnings, because there will be so many who are guilty? All these are silly, unreasonable conceits.

Objection 3. "But all men are sinners, even the best of us."

Answer.  But all are not unconverted sinners. The godly do not live in gross sins; in fact, their very weaknesses are their grief and burden, which they daily long, and pray, and strive to be rid of. Sin does not have dominion over them.

Objection 4.  "I do not see any professors who are any better than others; they are ambitious, and oppressive, and as covetous as any."

Answer.  Whatever hypocrites are, it is not so with those who are sanctified. God has thousands and tens of thousands who are otherwise.  Though the malicious world accuses them of things which have never entered into their hearts and which they can never prove. And often they charge them with heart-sins, which no one can see but God, because they can't charge them with any wickedness they aren't guilty of themselves.

Objection 5.  "But I am not a whoremonger, or a drunkard, or an oppressor, and so why would you call me to be converted?"

Answer.  You speak as if you were not born in the flesh, and had not lived according to the flesh, as well as others! Is it not as great a sin as any of these for a man to have an earthly mind, and to love the world above God, and to have an unbelieving heart that has never been humbled?  No, let me tell you even more:  that many people who avoid disgraceful sins are as glued to the world, and as much slaves to the flesh, and as strange to God, and as alienated from heaven in their civilized discourse, as others are in their more shameful and notorious sins.
Objection 6.  "But I don't mean anybody any harm, or do any harm.  Why then should God condemn me?"

Answer.  Is it not "harm" to neglect the Lord who made you, and the work for which you came into the world, and to prefer the creation more than the Creator of it, and to neglect the grace that is daily offered you?  It is the depth of your sinfulness to be insensible of it! The dead do not feel that they are dead, but if suddenly you were made alive, you would see more wrong in thyself, and marvel at yourself for making such light of it.

Objection 7.  "I think you make men insane under the pretence of converting them.  It racks the brains of sinful people, to think so much on matters too high for them."

Answer 1.  Can you be more insane than you are already?  Or at least, can there be a more dangerous madness than to neglect your everlasting welfare, and willfully undo yourselves?

Answer 2. A person is never well in his wits until he is converted; he never knows God, or sin, or Christ, or the world, or himself, or what his proper business is on earth, until he is converted.  The scripture say that the wicked are "unreasonable men” (2 Thessalonians 3:2), and that "the wisdom of the world is foolishness with God” (1 Corinthians 1:20 and Luke 15:17.  It is said of the prodigal son, “when he came to himself,” he resolved to return.  It is a strange world, when people will disobey God, and run to hell for fear of being out of their wits.

Answer 3.  What is in the work Christ calls you to that would drive a man out of his wits? Is it the loving of God, and calling upon Him, and comfortably thinking of the glory to come, and the forsaking of our sins, and loving one another, and delighting ourselves in the service of God? Are these things that should make a man insane?

Answer 4.  When you say that these matters are too high for you, you accuse God of wrongdoing for giving us his word, and commanding us to meditate on it day and night. Are the thoughts that we are made for, and which we live for, too high for us to meddle with? This is plainly to make us inhuman, and to make animals of us, as if we should meddle with no higher matters than those that belong to flesh and earth. If heaven is too high for you to think on and plan for, it will be too high for you ever to possess.

Answer 5. If God sometimes allows weak-headed people to be distracted by thoughts of eternal things, even though they misunderstand them and proceed without a guide, then of the two, I would rather be this one, than one of the mad unconverted world, who consider earthly distractions to be their wisdom.

Objection 8. "I don't think God cares so much what people think, or speak, or do, as to make so great a matter of it."

Answer.  It seems, then, that you take the Word of God to be false, and if so, then what will you believe?  If you don't believe the Scriptures, use your own reason: for you see that God thinks so highly of us that He condescends to make us, and to preserve us, and uphold us each day, and to provide for us.  Think of it in human terms:  Will anyone buy a clock or watch, and look at it every day, and not care whether it runs true or false? Surely, if you do not believe that the eye of God is observing your hearts and lives, can you then believe or expect Him to relieve you when troubles come?  If God has cared as little for you as you imagine, you would never have lived until now, for a hundred diseases would have competed as to which should be the first to destroy you, and the devils would have haunted you, and taken you away alive, as the big fish devour the smaller one, and as ravenous animals devour others. You cannot think God made man for no purpose or use; and, if He made him for any, surely it was for Himself. And do you think He does not care whether his purposes are accomplished, and whether we do the work that we are made for?

Indeed, by this atheistic objection, you make God to have made and upheld the entire world in vain. For, what are all other lower creatures for, but for man? What does the earth do except to bear and nourish us? The animals serve us with their labors and lives, and so do other things in the world. And after God has made so glorious a place, and set man to dwell in it, and made everything to be man's servants, does He now expect nothing from him, or care how he thinks, or speaks, or lives? This is most unreasonable.

Objection 9. "It would be a better world if people did not make such a fuss about religion."

Answer 1. It has always been our tendency to praise the times that are past. That world that you speak of also thought it was a better world in their forefathers’ days, and so did they of their forefathers. This is an old custom, because we all feel the evil of our own times, but we do not see as clearly that which was before us.

Answer 2. Perhaps you speak as you think: those who love the world think the world is at its best when it is agreeable to their minds, and when they have the most mirth and worldly pleasure. And I don't doubt that the devil, as well as you, would say that it was a better world in less Christian times, for then he had more service and less disturbance. But the world is at the best when God is most loved, regarded, and obeyed. And how else would you know when the world is good or bad, but by this?

Objection 10.  "There are so many ways and religions that we don't know which to be of, and therefore we will stay as we are."

Answer.  Because there are many religions, will you stay in a way that you may be sure is wrong? None are farther out of the way than worldly, fleshly, unconverted sinners; for not only are they in error in their opinions, but in the very scope and drift of their lives. If you were going on a journey that your life depended on, would you stop or turn again, because you came to some side roads, or because you saw some travelers go one way, and some another way, and some perhaps break over the road barrier, and some miss the way completely?  Or would you not rather be more careful to ask what is the right way?

Objection 11.  "I do not see that it goes any better with those who are so godly than with others; they are as poor, and in as much trouble as others."

Answer.  True, and perhaps even more so, when God deems it fitting. But the godly do not consider earthly prosperity to be their wages.  They have laid up their treasure and hopes in another world, or else they are not true Christians.  The less they have, the more is laid up in heaven, and they are content to wait till then.

Objection 12.  "When you have said all that you can, I am resolved to hope well and trust in God, and do as well as I can, and not make so much fuss."

Answer 1.  Is it doing as well as you can when you will not turn to God, but your heart is against His holy and diligent service?  That may be as well as you desire it, but that is to your misery.

Answer 2.  My desire is that you should hope and trust in God: But what is it that you would hope for?  Is it to be saved, if you turn and be sanctified? For this you have God’s promise, and therefore I beg you to hope for it, and do not give up hope. But if you hope to be saved without conversion and a holy life, this is not to hope in God, but in Satan, or yourselves, for God has given you no such promise, but has told you the opposite.  It is Satan and self-love that has made you such promises, and raised you to such hopes. 

If questions like these are all you have to say against conversion and a holy life, your all is nothing, and worse than nothing.  And if questions like these are sufficient reasons to persuade you to forsake God, and cast yourselves into hell, may the Lord deliver you from such reasons, and from such blind understandings, and from such senseless hardened hearts!  Do you dare to use even one of those reasons at the judgment bar of God?  Do you think it will serve your purposes then to say, “Lord, I didn't turn, because I had so much to do in the world, or because I didn't like the lives of some who profess to be Christians; or because I saw people of so many opinions?”  Oh, how quickly will the light of that day bring to shame such reasons as these!  Did you have the world to look after? Let the world which you served now pay you your wages, and save you if it can! Didn't you have a better world to consider first? And were you not commanded to seek first God’s kingdom and righteousness, and that if you did, then other things should be given to you? (Matthew 6:33).  And were you not told that “godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come” (1 Timothy 4:8)? 

Did the sins of the professing Christians hinder you? You should have learned your lessons more thoroughly, and learned by their sins to beware, and been more careful, and not more careless. It was the Scripture, and not their lives, that was your rule. Did the many opinions of this world hinder you?  But the Scripture, which was your rule, taught you only one way, and that was the right way.  If you had followed even that part of it which was clear and unmistakable, you would not have fallen. Will not such responses as these make you silent when you stand in God's presence? If these will not, God has others that will, as when He asks the man at the feast, "Friend, how did you come in here without a wedding garment " (Matthew 22:12).  That is, what are you doing in my church among professing Christians without a holy heart and life? And what answer did the man make? Why, the text says he was speechless; he had nothing to say. The clearness of the case, and the Majesty of God, will then easily stop the mouths of the most confident of you, though now you will make good your case, be it ever so bad, and will not be put down by anything we can say to you. 

I know already that no reason you can give me now will do you any good at last, when your case must be opened before the Lord and all the world.  Indeed, I don't think your own consciences are even satisfied with your reasons, for if they were, it seems you wouldn't have even tried to repent.  What do you say, unconverted sinners?  Do you have any good reasons to give as to why you should not turn now, and with all your hearts? Or will you go to hell despite reason itself? Think about what you do in time, for it will soon be too late to think about it.  Can you find any fault with God, or his work, or his wages? Is he a bad master? Is the devil, whom you serve, a better one? Or is the flesh a better one? Is there any harm in a holy life, or is a life of worldliness and ungodliness better? Do you think within your consciences that it would do you any harm to be converted and live a holy life? What harm can it do you? Is it harm to you to have the spirit of Christ within you, and to have a cleansed purified Heart? If it is bad to be holy, then why does God say, “Be holy, for I am holy” (1 Peter 1:15-16, Leviticus20:7)?  Is it evil to be like God? Is it not said that "God made man in His own image?” Why, this holiness is nothing more than His image, the image Adam lost, and that Christ by His Word and Spirit would restore to you, as he does to all that He will save.

Tell me truly, as before the Lord, though you are unwilling live a holy life, would you not rather die as one of those who do so than as one of those who do not? If you were to die this day, would you not rather die as a converted man than as an unconverted? As a holy and heavenly man than as a carnal earthily man? And would you not say with Balaam in Numbers 23:10, "Let me die the death of the righteous, And let my end be like his"?  And why will you not now be of the mind that you will be of then? First or last you must come to this, either to be converted or to wish you had been when it is too late. But what is it that you are afraid of losing if you turn? Is it your friends? You will merely exchange them for others: God will be your friend, and Christ, and the Spirit, will be your friend, and every Christian will be your friend. You will gain one friend who will stand you in better stead than all the friends in the world could have done. The friends you lose would have enticed you into hell, but could not have delivered you from it; but the Friend you gain will save you from hell, and bring you to His own eternal rest.

Is it your pleasure you are afraid of losing? You think you will never have a happy day again once you are converted. Alas! To think you would think it is a greater pleasure to live in foolish sports and amusements, and please your flesh, than to live in the believing thoughts of glory, and in the love of God, and in righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit (Romans 14:17), all of which accompany the state of grace!  If it would be a greater pleasure for you to think of your lands and inheritance than it is for a child to play childish games, why shouldn't it be a greater joy for you to think of the kingdom of heaven being yours than of all the riches or pleasures of the world? As it is merely foolish childishness that makes children delight in toys which they would not leave for all your land, so it is but foolish worldliness, and fleshliness and wickedness, that make you delight so much in your houses, and lands, and food and drink, and ease, and honor, that you will not part with them for heavenly delights.

But what will you do for pleasure when these are gone? Do you not think of that? When your pleasures end in horror, and go out like a stinking snuff, the pleasures of the saints are then at their best. I myself, in my present thoughts of the love of Christ and in my anticipation of that blessed approaching day, have had only a little taste of the heavenly pleasures; but I have taken too much my fill of earthily pleasures, so that if I am partial, it is on your side.  Yet I must profess from that little experience that there is no comparison.  There is more joy to be had in one day in the state of holiness, than in a whole life of sinful pleasures. I would “rather be a door-keeper in the house of God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness” (Psalm 84:10). “A day in his courts is better than a thousand any where else” (Psalm 84:13).

The mirth of the wicked is like the laughter of a madman, who knows not his own misery, and therefore Solomon says in Ecclesiastes 2:2, "I said of laughter—'Madness!'; and of mirth, 'What does it accomplish?'"; and in Ecclesiastes 7:2-6 he says, "Better to go to the house of mourning Than to go to the house of feasting, For that is the end of all men; And the living will take it to heart.  Sorrow is better than laughter, For by a sad countenance the heart is made better.  The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, But the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.  It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise Than for a man to hear the song of fools.  For like the crackling of thorns under a pot, So is the laughter of the fool. This also is vanity."  

Indeed, all the pleasure of fleshly things is but like the scratching of a man that has an itch; it is his disease that makes him desire it.  Your loudest laughter is like that of a man who is tickled; he laughs when he has no cause of joy.  Similarly, it is your itching, carnal unsanctified nature that makes a holy life seem grievous to you, and a course of sensuality, which does not satisfy, seem more delightful. If you will just turn, the Holy Spirit will give you another nature and inclination, and then it will be more pleasant for you to be rid of your sin than it is now to keep it, and you will then say that you did not know what a fulfilled life was until now, and that it was never well with you until God and holiness became your delight.

Question.  Why is it that people are so unreasonable in matters of salvation, even while they are sensible in other matters?  What makes them so resistant to being converted that so many arguments are needed to make so simple a case – and even all that will not do, but most will still live and die unconverted?

Answer. To name them only in a few words, the causes are these:

1.  People are naturally in love with the world and their flesh, and their nature is as much an enmity to God and godliness as the nature of a serpent is to a man: And when all we can say goes against the habitual inclination of their natures, it is no surprise when our words cannot prevail with them.

2. They are in darkness, and do not know the very things they are hearing. Like one who was born blind, and hears someone speak strongly in favor of the light: what will hearing do unless he sees it? They do not know what God is, or the power of the cross of Christ, or the spirit of holiness, or what it is to live in love by faith.  They do not know the certainty, and suitableness, and excellence of the heavenly inheritance. They do not know what conversion and a holy mind and conversation are, even when they hear of them. They are in a mist of ignorance. They are lost and bewildered in sin, like a man who has lost himself in the night, and does not know where he is or how to come to himself again until the daylight recovers him.

3. They are willfully confident that they do not need conversion but some partial reform, and that they are on the way to heaven already, and are converted when in truth they are not. And, if you meet someone who is quite out of the right way, you may fervently call on him to turn back again, but he will not believe that he is out of the way.

4. They are slaves to their own flesh, and drowned in the world, which they rely on to make provision for their flesh. Their lusts, and passions, and appetites have distracted them and gotten such control over them that they cannot muster the strength to deny them, or consider any other alternative.  So that the drunkard says, “I love a cup of good drink, and I cannot do without it.” The glutton says, “I love good cheer, and I cannot do without.” The fornicator says, “I love to have my lust fulfilled, and I cannot abstain.” And the gamester loves to have his sports, and he cannot stay away.  Thus, they have become captivated slaves to their flesh, and their very willfulness has become an impotency; and what they don't desire to do, they say they cannot do. And the worldly man is so taken up with earthly things, that he has neither the heart, nor mind, nor time, for heavenly things; and as in Pharaoh’s dream in Genesis chapter 41, when “The lean cattle ate up the fat ones,” so this lean and barren earth eats up all the thoughts of Heaven.

5. Some are so carried away by their evil companions that they develop cynical thoughts of a godly life by repeatedly hearing their friends speak against it.  Furthermore, they think they may take the same risks the others are taking, and so they hold on in their sinful ways; and when one is cut off and cast into hell, and another snatched away from among them to the same condemnation, it doesn't daunt them much, because they do not see where their friends have gone. Poor wretches!  They hold on in their ungodliness, for they don't know that their companions are now lamenting it in torments!  In Luke 16, the rich man in hell desired for someone to warn his five brothers, lest they should come to his place of torment. It was as if he knew their minds and lives, and knew that they were coming to where he was with little thought that he was already there.  Alas, they would not even have believed one who would have told them so! 

I remember a passage that a gentleman told me he saw upon a bridge over the Severn River.  A man was once driving a flock of fat lambs, and when something met them and hindered their passage, one of the lambs leaped on the wall of the bridge, and as his legs slipped from under him, he fell into the stream.  The rest, upon seeing him, leaped over the bridge one after the other, and almost all were drowned.  It seems those that were behind did not know what was become of them that were gone before, but were merely following their companions; but, as soon as they were over the wall, and falling headlong, their doom was sealed. Even so it is with unconverted, carnal people. One dies by them, and drops into hell, and another follows the same way; and yet they will continue to follow them because they do not know or consider where they are gone. Oh but when death has opened their understanding, and they see what is on the other side of the wall, even in another world; then what would they give to be where they were!

6. Moreover, they have a subtle, malicious enemy, the devil, whom they cannot see, and who plays his game in the dark; and it is his principal business to hinder their conversion and keep them where they are, by persuading them not to believe the Scriptures, or not to trouble their minds with these matters; or by persuading them to think ill of a godly life, or to think it is much ado about a small matter, and that they may be saved without conversion, and without all this stir; and that God is so merciful that He will not damn anyone such as they, or at least, that they may stay a little longer, and take their pleasure, and follow the world a little longer, and then let it go, and repent afterwards.  And by such deluding lies as these, the devil keeps most people in his captivity, and leads them to his misery.

These, and many similar impediments, keep so many thousands unconverted, even though God has done so much, and Christ has suffered so much, and ministers have said so much for their conversion.  Even when their reasons are silenced and they are not able to answer the Lord who calls after them, “Turn, turn, for why should you die?”, yet it all comes to nothing with the greatest part of them; and they leave us no more to do, after all, but to sit down, and lament their willful misery.