by the Rev. CHARLES G. FINNEY
Jeremiah VI. 30--"Reprobate silver shall men call them,
because the Lord has rejected them."
These words were spoken to
a generation of Israelites with whom God had used every suitable means to
reclaim and save them; and who had withstood everything that the Lord had done,
and had remained stubborn, unyielding, and unrepentant to the end. God says to them, “O daughter of my people,
clothe yourself with sackcloth, and roll about in ashes! Make mourning as for an only son, most
bitter lamentation; for the plunderer will suddenly come upon us.”
“I
have set you,” he says to the prophet, “as an assayer and a fortress among My
people, that you may know and test their way.
They are all stubborn rebels, walking as slanderers. They are bronze and iron, they are all
corrupters; the bellows blow fiercely, the lead is consumed by the fire; the
smelter refines in vain, for the wicked are not drawn off. People will call them rejected silver,
because the Lord has rejected them.”
(Jer. 6:27-30) This is an
excellent example of the use of figurative language in the Bible as the best
possible means to convey truth. The
literal meaning of certain words may vary.
It may be understood differently by different individuals, and change
over a period of years. But figurative
language always remains the same.
Figurative language conveys the same ideas throughout all ages and to
all nations. Here the people of Israel
were compared to metal that a refiner was trying to purify in the fire. The means that God used to sanctify them, is
compared to fire, and the refiner is represented as having raised his heat to
such a degree as to burn the bellows, and to consume the metal itself by the
intensity of the heat; and yet he could not succeed in separating the dross
from the silver. He then pronounces
that piece of silver reprobate, or worthless silver, fit only to be thrown
away. That is, the house of Israel was
incorrigible; and the more strenuously God tried to purify and sanctify them;
the more did their unyielding stubbornness and wickedness manifest itself. God therefore declared that men should call
them reprobate or wicked, and would understand and say that the Lord had
rejected them.
My goal today is to
discuss the doctrine of REPROBATION.
The following is the order that this subject shall be presented:
1. What is the doctrine
of reprobation?
2. What are not reasons
on which this doctrine is based?
3. What are the reasons
for this doctrine?
4. When are sinners
reprobated?
5. Why
the reprobate was created.
6. The reprobate is not
lost because he was reprobated.
7. The salvation of the
reprobate still depends on their own choice, and put within their own power.
8. The doctrine of
reprobation is just.
9. The doctrine of
reprobation is impartial.
10. The doctrine of
reprobation is loving and unselfish.
11. Overall, reprobation
is the best thing that can be done for the universe.
12. How may we know who
are reprobates.
You can see that I must
really condense what I plan to say under each of these headings, and satisfy
myself with simply giving you an outline of this important doctrine. This subject is so extensive, that in looking
over it, my mind has been at a loss to know what to leave out, rather than what
to say. It is like a gold mine, the
deeper you go the richer the vein.
1. What is the doctrine
of reprobation?
The word ‘reprobation’
means something worthless, good for nothing, rejected as useless. To reprobate something is to pronounce it
good for nothing, rejected, garbage.
The reprobates among mankind are those who will be lost, who will be
cast out from the presence of God and the glory of His power forever. Today, I’m not going to prove that any part
of the human race will be eternally lost.
I am preaching to a congregation who believes that this is true. To attempt to prove this is therefore
unnecessary and irrelevant right now.
All I need to say is that those who will finally be rejected and lost
are the reprobates.
2. I will now show you
what are not reasons that this doctrine is based on. In other words, what are not reasons why reprobates are lost.
a. Not because God has
any malicious ill will towards them.
God’s feelings are always completely unselfish towards all His
creatures. He never feels evil, not
even towards the most wicked beings in the universe. He blames them, and feels grieved and indignant at their conduct,
but God is never malicious. The Bible
often represents God as being angry at the wicked. This is just. The Bible
means what it says. God is angry, but
his anger is not a malicious anger. God
has the feelings of a good governor, who sees rebels arrayed against His
government, introducing disorder, and destroying public and private
happiness. God feels a loving
opposition to such conduct. He feels a
holy indignation that is equal to His love of virtue and happiness. His love for the public good makes Him
resolute and firm in executing the laws against those who rebel against His
government.
b. They are not
reprobated because the glory of God or the interest of the universe requires
their damnation even if they will repent.
Some believe that the reprobation and damnation of the wicked is
indispensable to the glory of God and the good of the universe. They believe that there is no other way that
God’s moral character can be displayed.
They believe that sin is a necessary means of the greatest good, and
that God decrees the sins, the wickedness, and the damnation of the finally
impenitent as the only means of developing before the universe the whole circle
of Divine attributes, and producing on the whole the greatest amount of
good. That as a result, God prefers the
existence of sin to its non-existence, rebellion to obedience, and that he
prefers the damnation of some of our human race to the salvation of
everybody. Now I see this as a
dangerous error, which is dishonorable to God, damaging to His government, and
can easily stir up rebellion against His throne. I do not believe that sin is a necessary means of the greatest
good, and I see that punishment becomes necessary only when moral agents have
not been, and will never be obedient without experiencing the penalty of the
law executed upon him. If all the
subjects of God's government had remained obedient, illustrating Divine justice
by sending people to hell would have been unnecessary. If, without inflicting any penalties, every
being created by God remained obedient, it would have been to the infinite
dishonor of God to send any one to hell.
The execution of the infinite penalty of God's law is only warrantable
and appears glorious in Him when all milder means fail to obtain and perpetuate
obedience. Let me ask you, what good is
developing the attribute of justice, unless it is to gain respect for God's
authority, and thus secure obedience?
But, if people were obedient without anybody being sent to hell,
certainly punishment would not be necessary.
God’s glory requires that
people should be reprobated and damned simply in view of the fact that they
would sin and persist in rebellion in preference to their obedience and
salvation; and not that His glory requires their rebellion and damnation.
c. People are not
reprobated because of any lack in the sufficiency of the atonement. Saying that, takes the atonement and
represents it as some kind of simple commercial transaction; as if the Godhead
had made a bargain, in which the Son agreed to pay the Father so much suffering
for so many sins committed. They view
the atonement like they view the payment of a promissory note. They believe that Christ pays God the exact
amount of suffering that the guilty owes.
This is dangerous in many respects.
First, viewing the
atonement like it was the payment of a promissory note excludes the idea of
mercy from the government of God. What
grace or mercy is there in discharging an obligation when the debt is
paid? Furthermore, it gains nothing if
Christ had to suffer just as much as sinners would have suffered had they been
sent to hell. There would have been
just as much suffering in the universe as if every sinner received the penalty
of the law. Some who have supported
this idea of the atonement, to avoid the inevitable conclusion that, if the
debt was literally paid for everybody, then everybody would be saved, have
added that the atonement was only made for the elect, and they claim that the
atonement does not provide for the non-elect.
The non-elect are just as hopelessly lost as the devils are. This represents God as having sold the elect
to his Son for a price, and leaving the rest to go to hell without any chance
for salvation. Neither my Bible, nor my
intellect, nor my conscience, nor my heart, will for one moment accept that this
twisted view of the atonement is true.
The atonement is a transaction that makes it possible for every sinner
to receive salvation, but it is not calculated nor designed to pay the debt of
any sinner in such a way that it makes his salvation an act of justice. What Christ did in dying to pay the penalty
of our sins provides for the salvation of the whole human race; but all by
itself, it guarantees the salvation of no one.
If no one had been saved, Christ’s atonement would still have reflected
infinite glory on the character of God.
The atonement displays, in the most striking and impressive manner,
God’s whole heart on the subject of His law, its precepts, its penalty, and the
desert of sin. And if all men should
reject it, it would still be glorious, and throw radiance around the scepter of
His justice that would light their footsteps to the gates of hell.
3. Why are reprobates
rejected and lost?
Because they are
unwilling to be saved!
They are unwilling to be saved on the terms on which only God can
consistently save them. Ask sinners if
they are willing to be saved, and they will all say yes; and they will
sincerely say yes, if they can be saved on their own terms. But when you reveal to them the terms of
salvation that the Gospel contains; when they are required to repent and
believe the Gospel, to forsake their sins, and give themselves up to the
service of God, they will all begin to make excuses. Now, to accept God’s terms, one must heartily and practically
consent to them. Sinners are lying when
they say that they are willing to accept salvation but they really do not
accept it. To be willing is to accept
it; and the fact that they do not heartily consent to, and embrace the terms of
salvation, is an absolute demonstration that they are unwilling. Yes, sinners, the only terms on which you
can possibly be saved, you reject.
Isn’t it an insult to God for you to pretend that you are willing? The only true reason that any of you here
today are not Christians is that you are unwilling. God does not make you unwilling because you are a reprobate; but
you are a reprobate because you are unwilling.
But, do any of you object
and say, “why doesn’t God make us willing?
Isn’t it because He has made us reprobates, that He does not change our
hearts and make us willing?” No,
sinner, it is not because he has reprobated you; but because you are so
obstinate that He cannot wisely, and in consistency with the public good, do
those things necessary to convert you.
Right now, you are waiting for God to make you willing to go to heaven,
while you are diligently using your talents to get to hell. Yes, you are exerting more effort to get to
hell, than you would use to insure your salvation and invest your talents in
the service of your God. You tempt God,
and then turn round and ask Him why He does not make you willing! Now sinner, let me ask you, do you think you
are a reprobate? If so, what has led
the infinitely unselfish and loving God to reprobate you? There must be some reason. What do you think it is? Did you ever seriously ask yourself, “What
is the reason that a wise and infinitely loving God has never made me willing
to accept salvation”?
It must be for one of the
following reasons. 1) God is a wicked,
evil being, and desires your damnation for its own sake. 2) He could not convert you even if He
thought it wise to do so. 3) You behave
in such a manner that, to His infinitely benevolent mind it appears unwise to
take such a course of action that would bring you to repentance.
Now, which of these three
things do you think it is? You will not
probably take the ground that He is wicked, and He desires your damnation
because He delights in misery. You will
probably not take the ground that he could not convert you even if He thought
that it was wise to do so. The only
reason left, then, is that your heart, your conduct, and your stubbornness, are
so abominable in His sight that using any further means with you to try to
secure your conversion would actually do more harm than good to His
Kingdom. I don’t have time tonight to
argue the question whether you, as a moral agent, could not resist any possible
amount of moral influence that could be brought to bear on you without interfering
with your moral freedom. We’ll have to
discuss that some other time.
The reason why God does
not make you willing is because He sees that it would be unwise for Him to do
so. This conclusion is based on two
facts, 1) God is infinitely loving and unselfish, and 2) God does not actually
make you willing. I do not believe that
God would neglect to do anything that He saw was wise and unselfish in the
great matter of man's salvation. Who
can believe that He can give His only begotten and well beloved Son to die for
sinners, and then neglect any wise and unselfish means for their
salvation? No, sinner, if you are
reprobate, it is because God foresaw that you would do just as you are doing;
that you would be so wicked that you would defeat all the efforts that God
could wisely make for your salvation.
He has used a variety of means with you. At one time, He has thrown you into the furnace of affliction;
and when this has not softened you, He has turned around and loaded you with
favors. He has sent you His word, He
has striven by His Spirit, He has drawn you to the cross; He has tried to melt
you by the groaning of Calvary, and tried to drive you back from the way
towards death by rolling in your ears the thunders of damnation. At one time, clouds and darkness have been
round about you; the heavens have thundered over your head, Divine vengeance
has hung out all around your horizon the portentous clouds of coming
wrath. At another time, mercy has
smiled on you from above like the noonday sun, breaking through an ocean of
storms. He urges every motive; He lays
heaven, earth, and hell under perpetual contributions for considerations to
move your stony heart. But you deafen
your ears, close your eyes, and harden your heart, and say, “cause the holy one
of Israel to cease from before me”.
(Is. 30:11) And what can we
conclude from all of this? “How must
all this end? Reprobate silver shall
men call them, because the Lord has rejected them”. (Jer 6:30)
4. When are sinners
reprobated?
In respect to God,
sinners are reprobated from eternity.
But from our point of view, they are cast away when they become
worthless and good for nothing. God has
known from eternity past how every event would turn out; how every sinner in
the universe would behave. This was
always present to His mind as much as it ever will be. And so, God’s decision on this must have
existed from eternity past. As far as
making up His own mind is concerned, He only needs to have all the evidence in
the case, and this He has always had.
If, on judgment day, God has good reason to reprobate them, and send
them to hell, He has always had good reason, and has always been of one mind on
this subject. But as far as the
reprobates themselves are concerned, they become reprobates when they
stubbornly, and finally refuse to accept eternal life on the terms of the
Gospel. The doctrine of reprobation is
just like the doctrine of election in this respect, it eternally exists in the
mind of God. God has no new thoughts,
nor new knowledge, nor purposes, nor plans.
But as far as we are concerned, reprobation is just like election. It is conditional. This is also true on every other subject; for example, our life
and death are all fixed, and our days are numbered. God has set the limits of our life here on earth, and we cannot
go beyond those limits. All the
circumstances of our life and death are settled; yet, who does not know that
the time of our death, as far as we are concerned, is completely uncertain. Our days may be lengthened or shortened by
our own conduct. Years, and scores of
years, may be added to, or subtracted from our life, through the lifestyle that
we choose to live and the choices that we make. Just because it is settled in God’s mind, that does not affect
the uncertainty of our future. To us,
our future is just as uncertain as if neither God nor any being in the universe
had any foreknowledge of our lives. So
concerning our salvation or damnation; although God knows what the results will
be, still the future is to us just as uncertain and just as much dependent on
our own voluntary agency, as if God knew nothing about it. The events that takes place today was a
certainty in the mind of God long before we even existed.
V. Why did God create the
reprobate?
If God knew beforehand
that so many people would sin, and behave themselves so wickedly that He would
have to cast them away forever, did He create them on purpose so He could damn
them? I answer, no! He did not create them to damn them, but He
created them for other more important purposes. It is true that He knew they would be damned, and He created them
in spite of this knowledge. He did not
create them because of this, but in spite of it. He had other more important reasons for their creation, and God
created them for these beneficial reasons, and not for sending them to
hell. So important were the reasons for
their creation that God proceeded, even though He knew about their frightful
end. There are many wise and loving
purposes answered by the existence of reprobates that we can discern; and there
are many other reasons that will be revealed to us in the hereafter. In spite of their wicked intentions, God
makes use of them to do a great deal of good.
The devil himself has been an important agent in some of the most
glorious transactions in the universe.
But, no thanks to him! When he
put it into the heart of Judas to betray Christ, Judas clearly intended it for
evil, but God meant it and overruled it for good. Neither the devil nor Judas intended to glorify God or benefit
humanity; but they both wanted to kill the cornerstone of our salvation. Wicked men are sometimes indispensable to
the welfare of society. The existence
of reprobates is indispensable to the existence of the elect, for they are
often the parents of the elect; while they themselves are cast away because of
their rebellion, their children are often converted, sanctified, and saved.
If the non-elect were
never created, the elect could never live.
In building up the kingdom of Christ, God often employs the hands of
wicked men. It is certainly not their
intention to build up the kingdom of God, but they lay such a train of events,
that in the pursuit of their selfish ends they are often instrumental in
promoting His kingdom.
Look at that wicked man
who hates God and religion. He loves
the world and hoards lots of money for his children. He gives them the best education, preps them to shine in the
world, and doesn’t care how much damage they do to the cause of Christ. But God meets them by His Spirit, converts
and sanctifies them, and leads them to devote the hard earnings of their
ungodly father to building up and extending His holy kingdom, thus proving that
“the wealth of the wicked is laid up for the just”.
6. The reprobate is not
lost because they are reprobated. That
is, their reprobation is not the reason why they are lost. God does not condemn them because they are
reprobated, but because they are wicked.
Their own wicked behavior leads God to send them to hell, and not His
act in reprobating them. He reprobates
and punishes them for their sins, because, in spite of all He could wisely do
to reclaim them, they chose to remain in their sins. He always foresaw how wicked they would be, and always planned to
treat them accordingly.
7. The salvation or
damnation of the reprobate depends on their own choice. This is the sinner’s turning point. If you choose the way of life, you will be
saved; if you choose the way of sin, you will be damned.
Your creation as moral
agents, and making you the subjects of moral government, suspends your
salvation on your own choice, and makes salvation impossible for you in any
other way. If you are reprobated, it is
because, when the choice is given you, you make the wrong choice and you
stubbornly persist in it. The reason
why God rejects you is because you reject Him.
He reprobates you, because you reprobate Him. He does it because you do it, and for no other reason. But some will object, and say the heathen
never had the offer of salvation; and the decree, therefore, concerning them,
must have nothing to do with their conduct.
I answer, “This is not true”.
God judges men according to the light they have. The apostle Paul says that those who sin
without law, shall also perish without law; and those who sin under the law,
shall be judged by the law. Those who
have only the light of nature, if they improve and obey that light, shall be
saved. But Paul affirms that the
heathen do not do this. He says that
they are unwilling to retain God in their knowledge, and that for this reason
they have changed the glory of the incorruptible God into the image of
corruptible men, beasts, and creeping things; so that they are without excuse.
They violate their own rules of action; they do what they know is wrong; their
thoughts meanwhile accusing or else excusing one another. They practice those things that they condemn
in others, and thus pass sentence on themselves; and for this they may be
justly reprobated.
8. Reprobation is just.
Isn’t God just to let men
make their own choices, especially when the highest possible motives are held
out to them as inducements to choose eternal life? What! Isn’t it just to
reprobate men when they obstinately refuse salvation, when everything has been
done that is consistent with infinite wisdom and unselfish love to save
them? Shall not people be willing to
either be saved or lost? What shall God
do with you? If you are unwilling to be
saved; then why should you object to others being damned? If reprobation under these circumstances is
not just, I challenge you, sinner, to tell me, what is just.
9. Reprobation is
impartial.
Those who oppose the
doctrine of election and reprobation have always found it convenient to
represent these doctrines as partial.
If, by partial, they mean that some are elected and not others, that
some are reprobated and not others; in other words, that only a part of mankind
are elected or reprobated; I have no objections to what they say. But if partial means that there is undue
favor towards one doctrine or a lack of favor to the other doctrine, or that
God reprobated some rather than others because of some prejudice, or because of
some improper prejudice against them, or because of some dislike which he felt
towards them more than towards the elect.
If this is what they mean by a partial reprobation, I deny it, and
maintain that reprobation is entirely impartial. Reprobation is an impartial act that takes into view all the
circumstances of the case, and acts for the general good without any undue bias
in favor or against anyone. I have
already tried to show that the reasons for reprobating sinners relate entirely
to their own wickedness, and the public interest. The public interest requires their reprobation and damnation
because they refuse to obey God.
X. Reprobation is an act
of unselfish love.
It was unselfish love in
God to create men, even though He foresaw that they would sin and become
reprobate. If God foresaw that overall,
He could secure such an amount of virtue and happiness under the influence of
moral government, as to more than counterbalance the sin and misery of those
who would be lost, then certainly it was a dictate of God’s unselfish love to
create them. The question was, whether
moral beings should be created, and moral government established, when it was
foreseen that a great evil would be the incidental consequence. Whether this would be unselfish love or not
must turn on the question, whether a good might be secured that would more than
counterbalance the evil. If the virtue
and happiness that could be secured by the administration of moral government
would greatly out measure the incidental evils arising out of a defection of a
part of the subjects of this government, it is clear that a truly unselfish and
loving mind would choose to establish the government, in spite of the
accompanying evils to the contrary.
Now, if the lost deserve their misery, and bring it on themselves by
their own choice when they could have been saved, then certainly there is
nothing here that is inconsistent with justice or true love. God must have a moral government, or there
can be no such thing as holiness in the created universe. For holiness in a creature is nothing more
than a voluntary conformity to the government of God.
God views the loss of the
soul as a great evil, and He always will look on it that way. God would gladly avoid the loss of any soul,
if it is consistent with the wisest administration of His government. How
slanderous, injurious, and offensive to God it must be, then, to say that He
created sinners on purpose to damn them.
God pours forth all the tender yearnings of a father over those whom he
is obliged to destroy. “How can I give
you up, Ephraim? How can I hand you
over, Israel? How can I make you like
Admah? How shall I set you like
Zeboim? My heart churns within me. My sympathy is stirred.” (Hosea 11:8) Now, sinner, can you sit here and find it in your heart to accuse
the blessed God of a lack of love.
“Serpents, brood of vipers! How
can you escape the condemnation of hell?”
(Matt. 23:33)
11. Overall, reprobation
is the best thing that can be done for the universe.
Since the penalty of the
law (although infinite), under the wisest possible administration of moral
government, could not secure universal obedience; and since many sinners will
not be reclaimed and saved by the Gospel, one of three things must be
done. Either God must abandon His moral
government, or the wicked must be annihilated, or they must be reprobated and
sent to hell. Now, we will not even
pretend that moral government should be given up. Annihilation would not be just, because it would not be a proper
punishment for sin. Now, since sinners
really deserve eternal death, and since their punishment may be of real value
to the universe in creating a respect for the authority of God, and thus
strengthening His government, it is clear that their reprobation and damnation
is for the general good, and it is making the best use of the wicked that can
be made.
12. How it may be known
who are reprobates.
It may be difficult for
us to determine with certainty who are reprobates in this world; but there are
so many examples of reprobation in the Bible, that by soberly and judiciously
investigating the scriptures, we may form a pretty accurate opinion, whether we
or those around us are reprobates or not.
1. One evidence of reprobation is a long life
of prosperity in sin. The psalmist says
it this way, “When the wicked spring up like grass, And when all the workers of
iniquity flourish, It is that they may be destroyed forever”. (Psalms 92:7) God often gives the wicked their portion in this world, and lets
them prosper and grow fat like a stalled ox, and then brings them forth to the
slaughter. “For the wicked are reserved
for the day of doom; they shall be brought out on the day of wrath.” (Job
21:30) When you see an individual
prospering in his sins over a long period of time, there is good reason to fear
that man is a reprobate.
2. Habitual avoidance of
God is a mark of reprobation. If people
are to be saved at all, it is through the sanctification of the Spirit, and
belief of the truth; and it is probably true, that not one in ten thousand of
those people who habitually avoid places where God presents His claims are
saved. Sometimes, I know, a tract, or the conversation or prayer of some
friend, may awaken an individual and lead him to the house of God; but, as a
general fact, if a person stays away from the means of grace, and neglects his
Bible, it is a fearful sign of reprobation, and that he will die in his
sins. That person is voluntarily
avoiding God, and he does not neglect the means of grace because he was
reprobated, but he was reprobated because God foresaw that he would take this
course of action. Suppose a pestilence
was spreading that was certain to prove fatal in every situation where the
appropriate remedy was not applied.
Now, if you wanted to know who among the sick were certain to die with
this disease, if you found any among them neglecting and despising the only
appropriate remedy, you would know that they were the people who were certain
to die with the disease.
God knew all this as
certainly beforehand as afterwards.
Now, if you want to know who are reprobates in this city, or in any city
or village, look at those who never go to church, the swearers, drinkers, and
perverts. Look at those young men who
drive around looking for prostitutes, or the boys and young men that you may
see gathering on Sunday in front of the local bar, or on street corners, with
cigarettes dangling from their lips, their bloated cheeks, and swollen
bloodshot eyes. Look throughout the
land, and see millions of young men who are completely neglecting and despising
eternal salvation. O horrible! Poor dying young men, not one in a thousand
of them will likely be saved; perhaps some of them came from a family of
prayer, where they used to kneel morning and evening around a family
altar. Now where are they? Where are they going? They are already within the sweep of that
mighty whirlpool, whose circling waters are drawing them nearer and nearer to
the roaring vortex. They dance, party,
gamble, and waste their time. They
ignore the voice that cries from heaven, and the wail that comes up from hell,
but nearer and nearer, with accelerating speed, they circle round and round
until they are swallowed up and lost in the abyss of damnation.
3. Those people who
completely lack the strivings of the Holy Spirit are probably reprobates. I’m not talking about those who never heard
the Gospel; but in gospel lands, it is doubtful whether any, except those whom
God has given up on, live without experiencing some strivings of the Holy
Spirit. Therefore, when we find that
God has stopped striving with someone, that soul has solemn and alarming
evidence that God has given up on him. God says, “Woe to them when I depart
from them!” (Hos 9:12)
4. Where people have
passed through a revival, and are not converted, it provides evidence that they
are reprobates. Now this evidence is
not conclusive, but presumptive evidence.
But this presumption grows stronger and stronger every time an
individual passes such a season without conversion. It is common for people, in times of revival, to have lots of
conviction and yet grieve away the Holy Spirit. Perhaps some of these people are here tonight, and perhaps you
are dreaming away one more offer of eternal salvation. If you have once resisted the Holy Spirit
until he is quenched, I have little hope that anything I can say will do you
any good. There is a very good chance
that you will be lost.
5. Those who have grown
old in sin are probably reprobates. It
is a sad and an alarming fact, that a vast majority of those who give their
lives to Christ are converted under twenty-five years of age. Look at the history of revivals, and see,
even in those that have manifested the greatest power, how so very few elderly
people have been converted. The men,
who are set on attaining some worldly object and determined to achieve their
worldly goals before they will attend to religion and yield to the claims of
the Maker expecting to be converted afterwards, are usually disappointed. Such a cold calculation stinks in the sight
of God. What! Take advantage of His forbearance, and say, that because He is
merciful you will venture to continue in sin until you have secured your
worldly goals and worn yourselves out in the service of the devil, and then
turn to your Maker with the jaded remnant of your abused mortality! Don’t expect God to set His seal of approval
on that kind of decision. Don’t expect
God to allow you to triumph saying that you served the devil as long as you
wanted to, and still managed to get into heaven.
If you watch that kind of
person as he ages from twenty to thirty to forty and beyond, the probability
that he will be converted diminishes every year. Sinner, are you forty years old?
Now look over the list of conversions in the last move of God in year
area. How many among them were your age
when they committed their lives to Christ?
Few, if any! Perhaps some of you
are fifty or sixty! How difficult it is
to find one person converted at your age.
There may be one here, and perhaps one there, but they are few and far
between, like beacons on distant mountaintops, sparsely scattered. There are just enough of them to keep old
sinners from total despair. Elderly
sinner, the chances are more than fifty to one that you are a reprobate.
6.
Absence of chastisements is a sign of reprobation. God says in the epistle to the Hebrews, “My son, do not despise
the chastening of the Lord, nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him; for
whom the Lord loves He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives. If you endure chastening, God deals with you
as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten? But if you are without chastening, of which
all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons.” (Heb 12:5-8)
7. When men are chastened, and not reformed by
it, that is a mark of reprobation. A
poet once said, “When pain cannot bless, heaven abandons us in despair”. God says of such, “Why should you be
stricken again? You will revolt more
and more. The whole head is sick, and
the whole heart faints.” (Isaiah 1:5) When your afflictions are unsanctified, when
you harden yourselves under His stripes, why should He not leave you to fill up
the measure of your iniquity?
8. Embracing damnable heresies is another mark
of reprobation. Where people seem to be
willingly believing lies, there is solemn reason for fearing that they are
among those whom God sends strong delusions, that they may believe a lie, and
be damned, because they will not believe the truth, but have pleasure in
unrighteousness.
Anytime you see people
committing themselves up to such delusions, the more certainly they believe
them, the greater reason we have for believing that they are reprobates. The truth is so plain, that with the Bible
in your hands, it is next to impossible to believe a fundamental heresy,
without being turned over to the judicial curse of God. It is so hard to believe a lie, with the
truth of the Bible before you, that even the devil cannot do it. Therefore, if you reject your Bible, and
embrace a fundamental falsehood, you are more stupid and blind than the devil
is. When a man professes to believe a
lie, almost the only hope of his salvation that remains, is that he does not
seriously believe that lie. Sinner,
beware how you trifle with God’s truth.
Often, individuals began to argue in favor of heresy for the sake of
argument and because they love to debate, until they finally believe their own
lie and are lost forever!
REMARKS
1. The salvation of
reprobates is impossible only because they make it impossible by their own wicked
conduct.
2. God will turn the
damnation of the reprobate to something positive. In establishing His government, God foresaw that great evils
would be incidental to it. He saw that
multitudes would sin and persevere in rebellion until they were lost, in spite
of everything that God could do to save them.
Yet, He also foresaw that a vastly greater good would result from the
virtue and happiness of holy beings, and that He could even turn the punishment
of the wicked into something positive.
Here is an example of the Divine economy turning everything into
good. I do not mean that the damnation
of the wicked results in a greater good than the good that would result from
their salvation if they would repent.
If their salvation could be secured by any means that would be
consistent with the highest good of the universe, God would greatly prefer
their salvation. But, since this cannot
happen, God will do the best that the nature of the situation allows. When He cannot save them, God will, by their
punishment, erect a monument to His justice.
He will lay its foundation deep in hell, and build it up to heaven, that
will be seen from afar in the smoke of their torment that ascends up for ever
and ever. It will forever stand as an
everlasting reminder of the hatefulness and desert of sin.
3. It is very wicked and
blasphemous to criticize God, when He has done the best that Infinite wisdom,
unselfish love, and power could do. Who
should criticize? Surely not the elect;
they have no reason to complain. Shall
the reprobate complain, when that reprobate has forced God to choose between
giving up His government, or sending him to hell?
4. Reprobates are required to praise God. Sinners, God has created and given you many
blessings and offers you eternal life; and will you refuse to praise Him for
all that He has tried to do for you?
5. God has every reason to complain about you,
sinner. Think about how much good you
could do! Look at how much good
individuals have often done! Now, of
all the good you might do, you rob God.
While eternity rolls its everlasting rounds, on how many errands of love
could you go on, diffusing happiness throughout Jehovah's empire? But you refuse to obey Him. You are in league with hell, and you prefer
to scatter firebrands, arrows, and death, to destroy your own soul and lead
others to perdition with you. You drive
on in your career, and help to set in motion all the elements of rebellion in
earth and hell. Will you complain about
God? He has reason to complain about you. He is the injured party. He has created you, has held you in His
hand, and fanned your heaving lungs; and, in return, you have breathed out your
breath in rebellion, blasphemy, and contempt for God, and compelled Him to
pronounce you reprobate.
6. There is reason to
believe that there are many reprobates in the church. This is the probable history of many professing Christians. They had convictions of sin, but after a
while their distress, more or less, suddenly faded away. If their distress had been considerable or
if the Spirit left them, their minds would naturally go toward the opposite
extreme. But when their convictions
left them, they began to think that their lack of conviction might be an indication
that they have been converted. The
thought that they might be converted created a sensation of pleasure, and then
they think that this feeling of pleasure is evidence that they were converted,
and their confidence increases. As
their confidence increases, their joy at the thought of being saved also
increases. This selfish joy has been
the foundation that they have built their hopes for eternity on; and now you
see them in the church, transacting business on worldly principles, defending
certain sins, and finding a thousand excuses to conform to the world. They live on in sin, perhaps not openly
vicious, but they are negligent of their duty.
They are cold and formal reprobates, and they go down to hell from the
very heart of the church.
7. Reprobates live to
fill up the measure of their iniquity.
The Bible informs us that
the Amorites were spared, not because there was any hope of their reformation,
but because their cup of iniquity was not yet full. Christ said to the Jews, “Fill up, then, the measure of your
fathers’ guilt,” and God said to Pharaoh, “Even for this same purpose I have
raised you up, that I might show My power in you, and that My name might be
declared in all the earth.” (Rom
9:17) (See Ex. 10:1) Oh, what a dreadful thought! Living your life simply to fill up the measure
of your sins! The cup of trembling and
of wrath is also filling up, which shall be soon poured out to you without
mixture, when there will be no one to deliver you. Your long awaited judgment does not linger, and your damnation
does not slumber.
8. Saints should not envy
sinners.
The
Psalmist once had this experience. He
said, “Truly God is good to Israel, To such as are pure in heart. But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled;
My steps had nearly slipped. For I was
envious of the boastful, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. For there are no pangs in their death, but
their strength is firm. They are not in
trouble as other men, nor are they plagued like other men.” “ When I thought how to understand this, it
was too painful for me until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I
understood their end. Surely You set
them in slippery places; You cast them down to destruction. Oh, how they are brought to desolation, as
in a moment! They are utterly consumed
with terrors.” (Psalms 73:1-5,
16-19) How can a saint envy sinners,
who are standing on a slippery slope, with fiery billows rolling beneath
them! Their feet will slide in due
time. Christians, don't envy the
wicked, although they enjoy the wealth of the world; do not envy them; poor
creatures! Their time is short; they
have already had almost all the good things that they will ever have.
There are probably
individuals here that I have been preaching to, that have not benefited in the
least by anything I have said, or could say.
The life you are committed to is opposed to God, and you have taken such
an attitude, that the truth never sinks into you to do you any good. Now, sinner, if you do this, and you go home
in this state of mind, tonight you will have additional evidence that God has
given you up, and that you are a reprobate.
Now, will you go away in your sins, under these circumstances? Don’t say that the doctrine of election or
reprobation is in your way. No one is
ever reprobated for any other reason than that he is an obstinate sinner.
Tonight, have you been
listening to this sermon to find something that you can stumble over? Be careful!
If you want to argue, you can always find plenty of opportunities. Sinners have stumbled over every other
doctrine of the Bible into hell, and so you may stumble over this.
What would you say if one
of you went home tonight and cut your throat, and you said that you did it
because God foreknew that you would do it, and by creating you with this
foreknowledge, God planned that you should do it. Would saying that excuse you?
No! Neither does anyone have an
excuse for walking away from this house in his sins.
You only show that you
are determined to harden your hearts, resist God, and thus compel the holy Lord
God to reject you. No doctrine of the
Bible can save you if you persevere in sin, and no one can damn you, if you
repent and embrace the Gospel. The
blood of Christ flows freely. The
fountain is open. Sinner, what do you
say? Will you have eternal life? Will you have it now, or will you reject
it? Will you trample the law under
foot, and stumble over the Gospel into the depths of hell?