Christ’s Greatest Trophy (2)

I entreat every man of common sense who reads this paper, to take heed that he does not fall into this mistake.

Look at the history of men in the Bible, and see how often these notions I have been speaking of are contradicted. Mark well how many proofs there are that two men may have the same light offered them, and only one use it; and that no one has a right to take liberties with God’s mercy, and presume he will be able to repent just when he likes.

Look at Saul and David. They lived about the same time; they rose from the same rank in life; they were called to the same position in the world; they enjoyed the ministry of the same prophet, Samuel; they reigned the same number of years!—Yet one was saved, and the other lost.

Look at Sergius Paulus and Gallio. They were both Roman governors; they were both wise and prudent men in their generation; they both heard the Apostle Paul preach! But one believed and was baptised—the other “cared for none of those things.” (Acts xviii. 17.)

Look at the world around you. See what is going on continually under your eyes. Two sisters will often attend the same ministry, listen to the same truths, hear the same sermons; and yet only one shall be converted unto God, while the other remains totally unmoved. Two friends often read the same religious book: one is so moved by it, that he gives up all for Christ; the other sees nothing at all in it, and continues the same as before. Hundreds have read Doddridge’s Rise and Progress without profit: with Wilberforce it was one of the beginnings of spiritual life. Thousands have read Wilberforce’s Practical View of Christianity and laid it down again unaltered: from the time Legh Richmond read it he became another man. No man has any warrant for saying, “Salvation is in my own power.”

I do not pretend to explain these things. I only put them before you as great facts; and I ask you to consider them well.

You must not misunderstand me. I do not want to discourage you. I say these things in all affection, to give you warning of danger. I do not say them to drive you back from heaven.—I say them rather to draw you on, and bring you to Christ, while He can be found.

I want you to beware of presumption. Do not abuse God’s mercy and compassion. Do not continue in sin, I beseech you, and think you can repent, and believe, and be saved, just when you like, when you please, when you will, and when you choose. I would always set before you an open door. I would always say, “While there is life there is hope.” But if you would be wise, put nothing off that concerns your soul.

I want you to beware of letting slip good thoughts and godly convictions, if you have them. Cherish them and nourish them, lest you lose them for ever. Make the most of them, lest they take to themselves wings and flee away. Have you an inclination to begin praying? Put it in practice at once. Have you an idea of beginning really to serve Christ? Set about it at once. Are you enjoying any spiritual light? See that you live up to your light. Trifle not with opportunities, lest the day come when you will want to use them, and not be able. Linger not, lest you become wise too late.

You may say, perhaps, “It is never too late to repent.” I answer—”That is right enough: but late repentance is seldom true. And I say further, you cannot be certain if you put off repenting, you will repent at all.”

You may say, “Why should I be afraid?—the penitent thief was saved.” I answer—“That is true: but look again at the passage which tells you that the other thief was lost.”

III. The third lesson we are meant to learn from these verses Is this: The Spirit always leads saved souls in one way.

This is a point that deserves particular attention, and is often overlooked. Men look at the broad fact that the penitent thief was saved when he was dying, and they look no further.

They do not consider the evidences this thief left behind him. They do not observe the abundant proof he gave of the work of the Spirit in his heart. And these proofs I wish to trace out. I wish to show you that the Spirit always works in one way, and that—whether He converts a man in an hour, as He did the penitent thief, or whether by slow degrees, as He does others—the steps by which He leads souls to heaven are always the same.

Let me try to make this clear to everyone who reads this paper, I want to put you on your guard. I want you to shake off the common notion that there is some easy, royal road to heaven from a dying bed. I want you thoroughly to understand, that every saved soul goes through the same experience, and that the leading principles of the penitent thief’s religion were just the same as those of the oldest saint that ever lived.

(a) See then, for one thing, how strong was the faith of this man.

He called Jesus “Lord.” He declared his belief that He would have a “kingdom.” He believed that He was able to give him eternal life and glory, and in this belief prayed to Him. He maintained His innocence of all the charges brought against Him. “This Man.” said he, he hath done nothing amiss.” Others perhaps may have thought the Lord innocent—none said so openly but this poor dying man.

And when did all this happen? It happened when the whole nation had denied Christ—shouting, “Crucify Him, crucify Him: we have no king but Caesar,”—when the chief priests and Pharisees had condemned and found Him “guilty of death,”—when even His own disciples had forsaken Him and fled—when He was hanging, faint, bleeding, and dying on the cross, numbered with transgressors, and accounted accursed. This was the hour when the thief believed in Christ, and prayed to Him I Surely such faith was never seen since the world began.4444   “I know not that since the creation of the world there ever was a more remarkable and striking example of faith.”—Calvin/s Commentary on the Gospels.
   “A great faith that can see the sun under so thick a cloud; that can discover a Christ, a Saviour, under such a poor, scorned, despised, crucified Jesus, and call Him Lord.
   “A great faith that could see Christ’s kingdom through His cross, and grave, and death, and when there was so little sign of a kingdom, and pray to be remembered In that kingdom.”—Lightfoot. Sermon. 1684.
   “The penitent thief was the first confessor of Christ’s heavenly kingdom—the first martyr who bore testimony to the holiness of His sufferings—and the first apologist for His oppressed innocence.”—Quesnel on the Gospel.
   “Probably there are few saints in glory who ever honoured Christ more illustriously than this dying sinner.”—Doddridge.
   “Is this the voice of a thief or a disciple? Give me leave, O Saviour, to borrow Thine own words, ‘Verily I have not found so great faith, no not in Israel.’ He saw Thee hanging miserably by him, and yet styles Thee Lord. He saw Thee dying, and yet talks of Thy kingdom. He felt himself dying, yet talks of a future remembrance, O faith, stronger than death, which can look beyond the cross at a crown; beyond dissolution at a remembrance of life and glory! Which of Thine eleven were heard to speak so gracious a word to Thee in these Thy last pangs?”—Bishop Hall.

The disciples had seen mighty signs and miracles. They had seen the dead raised with a word—and lepers healed with a touch —the blind receiving sight—the dumb made to speak—the lame made to walk. They had seen thousands fed with a few loaves and fishes. They had seen their Master walking on the water as on dry land. They had all of them heard Him speak as no man ever spake, and hold out promises of good things yet to come. They had some of them had a foretaste of His glory in the mount of transfiguration. Doubtless their faith was “the gift of God,” but still they had much to help it.

The dying thief saw none of the things I have mentioned. He only saw our Lord in agony, and in weakness, in suffering, and in pain. He saw Him undergoing a dishonourable punishment; deserted, mocked, despised, blasphemed. He saw Him rejected by all the great, and wise, and noble of His own people—His strength dried up like a potsherd, His life drawing nigh to the grave. (Ps. xxii. 15; lxxxviii. 3.) He saw no sceptre, no royal crown, no outward dominion, no glory, no majesty, no power, no signs of might. And yet the dying thief believed, and looked forward to Christ’s kingdom.

Would you know if you have the Spirit? Then mark the question I put to you this day.—Where is your faith in Christ?

(b) See, for another thing, what a right sense of sin the thief had. He says to his companion, “We receive the due reward of our deeds.” He acknowledges his own ungodliness, and the justice of his punishment. He makes no attempt to justify himself, or excuse his wickedness. He speaks like a man humbled and self-abased by the remembrance of past iniquities. This is what all God’s children feel. They are ready to allow they are poor, hell-deserving sinners. They can say with their hearts as well as with their lips, “We have left undone the things that we ought to have done, and we have done those things that we ought not to have done, and there is no health in us.”

Would you know if you have the Spirit? Then mark my question.—Do you feel your sins?

(c) See, for another thing, what brotherly love the thief showed 190to his companion. He tried to stop his railing and blaspheming, and bring him to a better mind. “Dost not thou fear God,” he says, “seeing thou art in the same condemnation?” There is no surer mark of grace than this I Grace shakes a man out of his selfishness, and makes him feel for the souls of others. When the Samaritan woman was converted, she left her water-pot, and ran to the city, saying, “Come, see a man that told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?” (John iv. 28, 29.) When Saul was converted, immediately he went to the synagogue at Damascus and testified to his brethren of Israel that “Christ was the Son of God.” (Acts ix. 20.) Would you know if you have the Spirit? Then where is your charity and love to souls?

In one word, you see in the penitent thief a finished work of the Holy Ghost. Every part of the believer’s character may be traced in him. Short as his life was after conversion, he found time to leave abundant evidence that he was a child of God. His faith, his prayer, his humility, his brotherly love, are unmistakable witnesses of the reality of his repentance. He was not a penitent in name only, but in deed and m truth.

Let no man therefore think, because the penitent thief was saved, that men can be saved without leaving any evidence of the Spirit’s work. Let such an one consider well what evidences this man left behind, and take care.

It is mournful to hear what people sometimes say about what they call deathbed evidences. It is perfectly fearful to observe how little satisfies some persons, and how easily they can persuade themselves that their friends have gone to heaven. They will tell you when their relative is dead and gone, that “he made such a beautiful prayer one day—or that he talked so well—or that he was so sorry for his old ways and intended to live so differently if he got better—or that he craved nothing in this world—or that he liked people to read to him, and pray with him.” And because they have this to go upon, they seem to have a comfortable hope that he is saved! Christ may never have been named—the way of salvation may never have been in the least mentioned. But it matters not; there was a little talk of religion, and so they are content!

Now I have no desire to hurt the feelings of anyone who reads this paper, but I must and will speak plainly upon this subject.

Once for all, let me say, that as a general rule, nothing is so unsatisfactory as deathbed evidences. The things that men say, and the feelings they express when sick and frightened, are little to be depended on. Often, too often, they are the result of fear, and do not spring from the ground of the heart. Often, too often, they are things said by rote; caught from the lips of ministers and anxious 191friends, but evidently not felt. And nothing can prove all this more clearly than the well-known fact, that the great majority of persons who make promises of amendment on a sick bed, and then for the first time talk about religion, if they recover, go back to sin and the world.