Sermons on Biblical CharactersChappell, Clovis Gillham
Religion
Sermons on Biblical Characters
Chappell, Clovis Gillham
Bible -- Biography; Sermons, American -- 20th century
Not only was the guilt of Manasseh intensified by the fact that he had
a saintly father. It was intensified further by the fact that he was
repeatedly warned. Though he turned his back on God and though he gave
himself up to a perfect orgy of wrong doing, God did not forget him and
did not give him up. He sent to him messenger after messenger to bring
home his guilt and to invite him back to the pardon and peace of his
Father's presence. But seemingly the more he was warned the deeper he
plunged into sin.
And you who are in sin, you are even more guilty than he, because to
you God has sent warning after warning, rebuke after rebuke. God has
given you calls and invitations without number. He has called you
through your conscience. He has called you through your wretchedness
and restlessness and hunger of heart. He has called you through your
longing for usefulness. He has called you through your sorrow and your
pain and your losses. He has called you through ten thousand mercies.
Oh, believe me, our need to-night is not so much for more light as it
is for courage to live up to the light we have.
Not only was Manasseh guilty because he sinned in spite of the help of
a godly father and in spite of repeated warnings. His guilt was
deepened yet more because he knew that he did not sin alone. When he
went away from God he carried a kingdom with him. The reign of
Hezekiah had been a righteous reign. With the coming of Manasseh to
the throne there was a violent reaction, akin to that that followed
upon the restoration of Charles II to the throne of England. You know
how that when Charles came to the throne the court life was changed
into a brothel. Charles lived in open and notorious adultery, and the
rottenness of the throne led to the rottenness of the kingdom. Such
was the case here. Manasseh not only fell but he drew a kingdom after
him.
It is profoundly true that no man ever sins alone. Your influence will
not be so wide as that of Manasseh, yet however obscure your life may
be this is true, that it will set in motion influences that will
literally outlast the world. I have control over my own action before
it is done, but after it is done I seek to control it in vain. If it
is a fiendish act it laughs its devilish and derisive laughter in my
face and says, "Control me if you can."
Now, there came a time when this great sinner began to pay the penalty
for his sin. Retribution slipped in by the guards at the door one day
and took the king rudely by the shoulder. It shook him and shook him
so roughly that his crown fell from his head and his sceptre dropped
from his hand. Then it dragged him from his throne and dressed him in
chains and sent him a captive into a foreign country.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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