Baptists -- Sermons; Sermons, English -- 19th century
Lastly, I would say to you who are being ploughed and are agitated about
your souls, Go at once to the next stage of believing. Oh! if people did
but know how simple a thing believing is, surely they would believe.
Alas, they do not know it, and it becomes all the more difficult to them
because in itself it is so easy. The difficulty of believing lies in
there being no difficulty in it. "If the prophet had bid thee do some
great thing, wouldst thou not have done it?" Oh, yes, you would have
done it, and you would have thought it easy too; but when he simply
says, "Wash, and be clean," there is a difficulty with pride and self.
If you can truly say that you are willing to abase your pride, and do
anything which the Lord bids you, then I pray you understand that there
is no further preparation required, and believe in Jesus at once. May
the Holy Spirit make you sick of self, and ready to accept the gospel.
The word is nigh thee, let it be believed; it is in thy mouth, let it be
swallowed down; it is in thy heart, let it be trusted. With your heart
believe in Jesus, and with your mouth make confession of him, and you
shall be saved. A main part of faith lies in the giving up of all other
confidences. O give up at once every false hope. I tried once to show
what faith was by quoting Dr. Watts's lines:
"A guilty, weak, and helpless worm,
On thy kind arms I fall.
Be thou my strength, and righteousness,
My Jesus and my all."
I tried to represent faith as falling into Christ's arms, and I thought
I made it so plain that the wayfaring man could not err therein. When I
had finished preaching, a young man came to me and said, "But, sir, I
cannot fall upon Christ's arms." I replied at once, "Tumble into them
anyhow; faint away into Christ's arms, or die into Christ's arms, so
long as you get there." Many talk of what they can do and what they
cannot do, and I fear they miss the vital point. Faith is leaving off
can-ing and cannot-ing, and leaving it all to Christ, for _he_ can do
all things, though you can do nothing. "Doth the ploughman plough all
day to sow?" No, he makes progress, and goes from ploughing to sowing.
Go, and do thou likewise; sow unto the Spirit the precious seed of faith
in Christ, and the Lord will give thee a joyous harvest.
PLOUGHING THE ROCK.
"Shall horses run upon the rock? will one plough there with oxen?"--AMOS
6:12.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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