Who are the people that come to Christ?”
There are, therefore, three sorts of people that come to God through Christ. First, Men newly awakened. Second, men turned away from backsliding. Third, The sincere and upright man.
Of the newly awakened coming to Christ.
First, Men newly awakened. By awakened, I mean awakened thoroughly. So awakened as to be made to see themselves, what they are; the world, what it is; the law, what it is; hell, what it is; death, what it is; Christ, what he is; and God, what he is; and also what judgment is.
A man who will come to God by Christ aright must, before he comes, have competent knowledge of things of this kind.
1. He must know himself—what a wretched and miserable sinner he is—before he will take one step forward to his coming to God through Christ. This is plain from a great many scriptures, such as the parable of the prodigal (Luke 15), that of the three thousand (Acts 2), that of the jailer (Acts 16), and many more. The whole family has no need for a physician. They were not the sound and whole, but the lame and diseased that came to him to be cured of their infirmities; and it is not the righteous, but the sinners that do well know themselves to be such, that come to God by Christ.
It is not in the power of all the men on earth to make one man come to God by Christ, because it is not in their power to make men see their state by nature. And what should a man come to God for if he can live in the world without him? Reason says so, experience says so, and the Scripture bears witness that it is the truth. It is a sight of who I am that must unroot me, shake my soul, and make me leave my present rest. No man comes to God by Christ but he that knows himself and what sin hath done to him; that is the first. (Job 21:7-15)
2. As he must know himself and what a wretch he is, so he must know the world and what an empty thing it is. Cain did see himself, but saw not the emptiness of this world; therefore, instead of going to God by Christ, he went to the world, and there did take up to his dying day. (Gen 4:16) The world is a great snare to the soul, even to the souls of awakened sinners, because of its big looks and the fair promises that it makes to those that will please entertain it. It will also make as though it could do as much to quiet the spirit as either a sermon, Bible, or preacher. Yeah, and it has its followers ready at its heels continually to blow its applause abroad, saying, ‘Who will show us any [other] good?’ (Psa 4:6) and though ‘this their way is their folly: yet their posterity approve their sayings.’ (Psa 49:13) So that unless a man, under some awakenings, sees the emptiness of the world, he will take up in the good things thereof, and not come to God by Christ. Many there be now in hell that can seal to this for truth. It was the world that awakened Cain, awakened Judas, awakened Demas. Yea, Balaam, though he had some kind of visions of God, yet was kept by the world from coming to him aright. See with what earnestness the young man in the gospel came to Jesus Christ, and that for eternal life. He ran to him, he kneeled down to him, and asked, and that before a multitude, ‘Good master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?’ (Mark 10:17-24) And yet when he was told he could not come, the world soon stepped betwixt that life and him, and persuaded him to take up in itself; and so, for aught we know, he never looked after life more.
Four things in the world have a tendency to lull an awakened man asleep if God also makes him not afraid of the world.
(1.) There is the bustle and cumber of the world, that will call a man off from looking after the salvation of his soul. This is intimated by the parable of the thorny ground. (Luke 8:14) Worldly cumber is a devilish thing; it will hurry a man from his bed without prayer; to a sermon, and from it again, without prayer; it will choke prayer, it will choke the Word, it will choke convictions, it will choke the soul, and cause that awakening shall be to no saving purpose.
(2.) There is the friendship of this world, to which, if a man is not mortified, there is no coming for him to God by Christ. And a man can never be mortified by it unless he shall see the emptiness and vanity of it. Whosoever makes himself a friend of this world is the enemy of God. And how, then, can he come to him by Christ? (James 4:4)
No comments:
Post a Comment