Dwight Moody hits upon several important points in this sermon excerpt
dealing with some excuses people have to put off salvation -- a gift from
God. Excuses, for there are no _reasons_ to avoid salvation.
May God bless,
Carl
my website -- http://www.nettally.com/saints/
my blog -- http://www.anniemayhem.com/cgi-bin/wordpress/
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Popular Excuses To Avoid Salvation
by D L Moody
Some people are always making excuses for not doing their duty, and
especially for not coming to Christ. If I asked you to come to Christ, you
would be ready to give some excuse for not accepting the invitation. I
never
saw an unsaved man in my life but had some excuse - never! and if you
don't
have one ready, Satan will be right by you to help you to make one. He is
good at that sort of thing. That has been his occupation the last six
thousand years - helping men to make excuses.
"And they all with one consent began to make excuse." (Luke 14:18)
Just bear in mind, these men were invited to a feast, and not to funeral.
They were not invited to go to prison. They were not invited to a
hospital,
or to a madhouse; but they were invited to feast. Now, when a man prepares
a
feast, there is a great rush to see who will get the best seats; but when
God prepares His feast, the chairs would all be empty, if His disciples
did
not go out to compel people to come in. No sooner did the King send out
His
invitations than the excuses began to rain in. "And they all, with one
consent, began to make excuse."
All at it, and always at it. Did you ever stop to think, my friends, what
would take place if God should take every man at his own word who wants to
be excused? If He were to say, "I will excuse you" and with the next
breath
take them all out of the world? If every one in this audience should be
taken at his word, who makes excuses in this respect, and if God should
say,
"Cut him down, let him cumber the ground no longer, hew him down," (Luke
13:7) there would be a very terrible state of things in London. If every
man
in London, and every woman who wanted to be excused, and is saying so, -
if
God should take them at their word, and say, "I will excuse you," oh! my
friends, there would be a great many shops not opened tomorrow.
The public-houses [bars], for instance, would be closed; for I never saw a
publican [bar-keeper] in my life, but what wanted to be excused. He knows
he
cannot go on with his hellish traffic, if he accepts this invitation. He
would have to stop that at once. Many of your cabmen [taxi drivers] do not
want to come to the feast, because they would have to stop their business
on
the Sabbath. There would be a great many of your princely merchants that
would be gone. They do not want to accept the invitation, because they
think, if they do, they cannot make money so fast. They are carrying on
some
business which would then have to be stopped, because they accepted this
invitation. There would be a very sad state of things taking place. Those
that were left would have to be busy burying the dead. It would be a very
solemn time, if God should take men at their word, and just excuse them.
You
let some terrible disease lay hold of a man, and half his excuses are gone
at once.
Every kind of excuse is given; but that man does not live who can give a
good excuse.
Let any man get an invitation from Queen Victoria to go down to Windsor
Castle, to some banquet; and there is not a man but would consider it a
great honor to receive such an invitation. But only think of the
invitation
that I bring tonight! It comes from the King of kings. The marriage supper
of the Lamb is going to take place, and God wants every man in this
assembly
to be present. I cannot speak for the rest of you; but if I know my own
heart, I would be rather torn limb from limb - I would rather have my
heart
torn out of me - than be absent from that marriage supper. I have missed a
good many appointments in my time, but, by the grace of God, I mean to
make
sure of keeping that one.
These men all began to say, "I pray thee have me excused." Let us take up
that first man's excuse. What was it? He had bought some ground, and he
must
needs go and see it. Why did he not, if he were a good business man, go
and
look at the ground before he bought it? It was not going to make the
ground
any better for him to go and look at it. He had not made a partial bargain
and might withdraw. He was not afraid that some one might step in ahead of
him and get the ground from him, and so he would lose it: it was not
anything of this kind; but he had bought the ground, and must needs go and
see it. It is a strange time to go and see ground, just at supper time. I
think the ground would have looked all the better after he had been to the
feast. But the fact is, my friends, he did not believe it was a feast; and
that is the trouble to-day. Men do not believe the Gospel is a feast.
The second man is approached by the messenger, who says, "My lord has made
a
great feast, and he wants to have you come to it." "Take back to your lord
the message, that I cannot be there. I have bought five yoke of oxen [for
plowing], and I have got to go and prove [test] them." Why did not he
prove
his oxen before he bought them? That is the time to prove oxen; but now he
has bought them, let them stand in the stall. The trade is already closed;
the bargain is already made; the oxen are bought. They are his, and now he
can go and prove them at any time. A queer time to prove oxen, at supper
time! He had better have proved them in the morning, and so have been
ready
to go to the feast in the evening.
The third man had married a wife, and therefore he could not come. Why not
take his wife along with him? A young bride likes to go to a feast - no
one
better. He might have taken her: and if she was not willing, then let her
stay at home. You smile, you laugh at this, but you can see plainly what
these excuses were. They were simply falsehoods, just manufactured to ease
their consciences.
That boy down in the audience sees how absurd these excuses were; for the
fact was, they did not want to go to the feast; and it would have been a
good deal more honest for them to have said; "I don't want to go to your
lord's feast, and I will not go."
Now, I would just like to take up some of the popular excuses of the
present
day. I do not doubt but there are hundreds of you who say to-night, "If I
could accept that invitation, Mr. Moody, I would like to be a Christian;
but, sir, I have tried, and I find it is a very hard thing." Well, now let
us look at that excuse. Do you mean to say that God is a hard Master? Do
you
say it is a hard thing to serve God? and do you say that Satan is an easy
master, and that it is easier to serve him than God? Is it honest, - is it
true? If it is, then I must confess that I have not read my Bible right;
because I read it this way: - "The way of the transgressor is hard."
(Prov.
13:15)
If you doubt it, young men, look at the convicts in that prison; right in
the bloom of manhood; right in the prime of life. He has been there for
ten
years, and must remain there for ten years more, - twenty years taken out
of
his life, and the thought that when he comes out of that miserable cell,
be
comes out a branded convict! Do you think that man will tell you "the way
of
the transgressor has been easy"?
Go and ask the poor drunkard, - the man who is bound hand and foot, and is
a
slave to the infernal cup, and is hastening on to a drunkard's grave and
to
a drunkard's hell, - ask him if he has found the way of the transgressor
easy, and the devil an easy master. Go ask the libertine - go ask that
gambler - go ask the most abandoned man you have got in London, - ask them
all, if they have found the devil an easy master.
Suppose we were to take the most faithful follower of the devil, and put
him
into the witness-stand, and let him testify; do you think the most
faithful
follower of the devil would tell you that he is an easy master? Why, there
is not a young man here but knows in his heart the devil is a hard master.
The best way to settle this question is to find out by the testimony of
those that have served both masters. I do not think any man has a right to
judge until he has served both masters. If I heard a man condemn a master,
I
should be very apt to ask if he had served him; and if he had not, he
could
not very well testify. I am speaking to many to-night who have served both
masters. Many of you have served Christ; and many of you, before you were
brought into the fold of Christ, served the devil. I would like to ask the
young men here to-night that are Christ's, - that have served Christ, - I
would like to ask you, who have been brought into the kingdom of God and
found Christ, - is Jesus a hard Master? [Loud cries of No.] I thought you
would say no. I knew you would. I never heard a man say, "I have served
Christ for five years, or more, and found Him a very hard Master." You
never
will say that.
One of the greatest lies that has come out of the pit of hell is, that
Christ is a hard Master. It is a lie, and has been so from the foundation
of
the world. Oh, young man, I beg of you, do not believe the devil when he
says that God is a hard Master. It is false, my friends; and to-night let
me
brand that excuse as one of the devil's own lies, that lie has been
retailing up and down the earth for six thousand years.
Look how poor Adam suffered, because he believed the devil's lies! Look at
poor Judas! Did he find the devil an easy master? See him throwing down
the
thirty pieces of silver! (Matt. 27:5) Why, he got so tired of the devil's
service that he hanged himself twenty-four hours after he entered it.
Then there is another very popular excuse. I can imagine a good many would
say; "Well, Mr. Moody, the fact is, I want to be saved." Of course you do!
You would not be coming here at this time - at some inconvenience, many of
you - if you did not want to be saved. But you say, "The fact is, Mr.
Moody,
I don't know that I am elected. If I thought I was elected I would come. I
know that I cannot come unless I am elected and I really want to come very
much, but I don't know that I am one of the elect." Now, I have heard that
till I have got sick and tired of it. I want to say to every unconverted
man
in this hall to-night that you have no more to do with the doctrine of
election than you have with the government of China. I am not saying this
in
haste; I weigh well my words. I say that no unconverted man has anything
to
do with the doctrine of election. You have to do with the word whosoever.
Now, the invitation is, "Whosoever will, let him come to this feast."
(Rev.
22:17)
To-night, my friends, let me say that you are invited, every one of you;
and
if you don't come, it will be because you won't, not because God does not
want you, or has not given you the power to come. With the invitation
there
comes the power. Christ said to the withered man, "Stretch out thy hand."
(Mark 3:5) The man might have said that he had not the power; but with the
invitation there came the power. And so it is here.
Suppose I walked up the street to-night, and I stepped up to the door of
this Camberwell Hall to go in, and a man stopped me, and I said to him,
"Why
not let me in?" "Where's your ticket? " "I have got none." "But no one is
admitted without a ticket." "Then I cannot go in, I suppose?" "No; it is
for
a certain class - those that have got tickets." I go along farther - up to
the Exeter Hall and there is an anniversary meeting of some society. I
step
in, and a policeman pushes me back. I say, "I want to go in"; and he says,
"You cannot go in here unless you have got a ticket. None but members can
be
admitted to-night." I do not happen to be a member of the society, and I
cannot go in. I go an along a little farther, and come to another meeting;
and there, perhaps, they are Quakers. The policeman stops me, and says,
"Nobody admitted but Quakers." I am not a Quaker, and cannot go in.
Farther
on I find a soldiers' meeting. I cannot go in because I am not a soldier,
and none but soldiers are admitted. But I go farther on, for I find
written
up in great big letters, "Whosoever will, let him come in." In I go: that
means me. Now God has headed His invitation with whosoever, in great
burning
letters; and if you will go in, God will receive you to-night. He wants
you
to come this hour - this very minute.
"Whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely." I have an idea
that the Lord Jesus Christ saw how men were going to stumble over that
doctrine of election; for, after He had been back in heaven for thirty or
forty years, and John was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day, in the Isle of
Patmos, Jesus came to him and said, "John, write this," and he wrote.
Again
He said; "John, before you close the book, put in this - The Spirit and
the
Bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is
athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely."
(Rev. 22:17) That for ever has settled in my mind, the doctrine of
election.
Another excuse is: "I can't understand the Bible." Men are giving that as
the reason why they do not accept the invitation to be at the marriage
supper of the Lamb. Now, I want to say I never met a skeptic or infidel
who
had read the Bible through. I heard a man say the other day to another
man,
" Have you read such a book?" "Yes." "What is your opinion of it?" "Well,
I
only read it through once, and I would not like to give my opinion without
reading it more carefully." But men can give their opinion about God's
Book
without reading it. They read a chapter here and there, and say, "Oh, the
Book is so dark and mysterious!" and because they cannot understand it by
reading a few chapters, they condemn the whole of it. The Word of God
tells
us plainly that the natural man cannot understand spiritual things. It is
a
spiritual book, and speaks of spiritual things; and a man must be born of
the Spirit before he can understand the Bible. What seems very dark and
mysterious to you now will all be light and clear when ye are born of the
Spirit.
You say, "If that is so, how am I to understand how to be saved?" I will
tell you. When God puts salvation before a sinner, He puts it so plain
that
a man who runs can read, and a wayfaring man, though a fool, need not err
therein. There are a great many things in the Book which are dark and
mysterious; but when it comes to the plan of salvation, God has put it so
plain that that little girl ten years old can understand it, if she will.
You understand what it is to come. "Come unto me, all ye that labour."
(Matt. 11:28) You know what it is to take a gift. "He came unto His own,
and
His own received Him not. But as many as received Him, to them gave He
power
to become the sons of God." (John 1:11-12) "The wages of sin is death, but
the gift of God is eternal life." (Rom. 6:23) You know what it is to
believe
in a man. Well, "believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be
saved."
(Acts 16:31) You know what it is to put trust and confidence in a man.
Now,
put your trust and confidence in the living God, and you are saved. You
are
saved by casting yourself unreservedly upon the Lord Jesus Christ.
When God puts salvation before a man, He puts it so plain and simple that
if
he is willing to come as a little child, he can come.
Suppose I should send my little boy, five years old, to school to-morrow
morning, and when he came home I should say, "Can you read, write, spell?
Do
you understand all about arithmetic, geometry, algebra?" The little fellow
would look, at me, and say, "Why, Papa, why do you talk that way? I have
been trying all day to learn the A B C." Supposing I replied "If you have
not finished your education you need not go to the school any more," -
what
would you say? You would say; "Moody has gone mad." Well, there is about
as
much sense in that as in the way that infidels talk about the Bible. They
take it up, read a chapter, and say "Oh, it is so dark and mysterious, we
cannot understand it."
This blessed Book is given to be a lamp to our feet and a light to our
path
(Psa. 119:105) to guide the way to those eternal mansions (John 14:2). It
never was given to keep men out of the kingdom of God. That is the devil's
work - trying to make you believe the Word of God is not true. I tell you
the only way we can overcome the enemy of our souls is by the written Word
of God; and the devil knows that, and so he comes up, and says - "it is
full
of lies; it is dark and mysterious; it contradicts itself: don't you
believe
it." He knows the moment a man goes to the Word of God and believes it, he
finds liberty to his soul, and gets beyond Satan's reach; he gets a weapon
in his hand with which to conquer the devil; he overcomes the enemy of his
salvation.
The devil does not want you to find that out, and whispers this lie; and
you
believe it rather than the Word of God. Young man, your mother is right:
the
Bible is true, and you had better accept it.
Keep this in mind: you will never stand up before the bar of God, and say,
the Bible kept you out of the kingdom. It may sound very well here, now;
you
may be satisfied to give that for an excuse down here, to-night; but you
will not be satisfied to give it in the Courts of Heaven; - you will not
stand up in the great Judgment Day and say the Bible kept you out of the
kingdom.
Then there is another class. Some people say "I haven't any doubt about
the
Word of God; but the fact is, there are some men in the Church who are
hypocrites; therefore I don't purpose to go into the Church." I am not
asking you to come into the Church - not but what I believe in churches -
but I am asking you to the marriage supper of the Lamb; I am inviting you
to
this feast; we will talk about the Church by-and-by.
We want you to come to Christ first; then we will talk to you about the
Church. But you say; "Here are some hypocrites." So there are; and I can
imagine you saying; "Oh yes - there is a man up here in one of the
churches
that cheated me out of £5 a few years ago; you are not going to catch me
in
the company of such hypocrites," Well, my friend, if you want to get out
of
the company of hypocrites, you had better get out of the world as quick as
you can. One of the twelve apostles turned out to be a hypocrite; and
there
is no doubt there will be hypocrites in the Church to the end of time. But
"what is that to thee?" says Christ to Peter: "follow thou Me." We do not
ask you to follow hypocrites, we ask you to follow Christ; we do not ask
you
to believe in hypocrites, we ask you to believe in Christ.
Another thing - if you want to get out of the company of hypocrites you
had
better make haste and come to Christ. There will be no hypocrites at the
marriage supper of the Lamb; they will all be in hell, and you will be
there
with them if you do not make haste and come to Christ. That excuse would
sound strange, would it not? We very often hear men give it down here, but
it would sound very strange before Jehovah - a man saying, "I know You
invited me to be at the marriage supper of Your Son, but I did not accept
it
because I knew, there were some hypocrites that professed the Gospel."
There is another class who say; "I know there are hypocrites, but they
don't
have any influence over me." If I could go to the door as you go out
to-night, and take you by the hand and say, "My friend, why not accept of
the invitation to-night?" If you would say, "I pray to be excused
to-night;
I have not time. I have got some very pressing business to-morrow morning
to
attend to, and I have to go home to bed as quick as possible, to get my
night's rest. You will have to excuse me." And the mothers here would say,
"I have to go home and put the children to bed; you really must excuse
me";-
"very pressing business";- "no time." Thousands of men in London say they
have not time. Thanks be to God! it don't take time: it takes decision.
But what have you done with all the time God has given you? Your locks
[hair] are turning grey, your eye is growing dim, and that temple of your
body is coming down: what have you done with all those years? Is it true
you
have not time? What did you do with the three hundred and sixty-five days
last year? No time? - what have you done with it all? Have not you had
time
to accept of this invitation? Why, men spend fifteen or twenty years to
get
an education, that they may go out to earn a living for this frail body
that
is soon to be eaten up with worms; or five years to learn a trade, that
they
may earn a living; and yet they have not five minutes to seek their souls'
salvation!
You "have no time." Is it true? You know it is a lie; and if you go out
to-night unsaved, it will not be because you have not time, but because
you
won't accept the invitation. God says, "Seek first the kingdom of God."
(Matt. 6:33) That is the first thing to do. Supposing you do not get so
much
money to-morrow, and get Christ, is not that worth more than money? Better
for a man to be sure of salvation than to have the wealth of the world
rolled to his feet!
But there is another excuse coming up from some one in the gallery. A man
says, "My heart is so hard." Well, that is just the very reason you ought
to
come. If you had not a hard heart you would not need a Savior. Can you
soften your heart? Can you break your heart? Did not God invite the
hard-hearted? Did not Christ come to seek and to save that which was lost?
It is just because men's hearts are hard that they need a Savior. That is
no
excuse at all. God invites you, and you won't stand tip and tell the Great
King you did not accept His the invitation because you had a hard heart.
He
invites "whosoever"; and you can come along with your hard heart.
In the North there was a minister talking to a man in the inquiry room. He
said, " My heart is so hard, it seems as if it was chained; and I cannot
come." "Ah!", said the minister, "Come to Christ, chain and all"; and he
just came to Christ, and Christ snapped the fetters, and set him free
right
there. If you are bound hand and foot by Satan, that is the work of God to
break the fetters; you cannot break them. Thanks be to God! He can break
the
fetters and set the captive souls free to-night. I do not care how hard
the
heart is: the Lord can save to the uttermost; He bids you come just as you
are. Oh, this old excuse - "I am so bad!"; Away with it! Paul said he was
the "chief" of sinners; and if the chief has obtained mercy there is hope
for everybody else.
The devil makes us believe that we are good enough without salvation, if
he
can; and if he cannot make us believe that, he says, "You are so bad the
Lord won't have you"; and so he tries to make people believe, because they
are so bad, Christ won't have anything to do with them. God invites you to
come just as you are. I know a great many people want to come, but they
are
trying to get better and to get ready to come. Now mark you, my friend,
the
Lord invites you to come just as you are; and if you could make yourself
better, you would not be any more acceptable to Him.
Do not put these filthy rags of self-righteousness about you. God will
strip
every rag from you when you come to Him, and He will clothe you with
glorious garments. When our [civil] war was going on, we would sometimes
go
to the recruiting office and see a man come in with a silk hat, broadcloth
coat, calfskin boots - his suit might be worth $100; and another man would
come in whose clothes were not worth a pound; but they both had to strip,
and put on the uniform of the country. And so when we go into Christ's
vineyard we must put on the livery of heaven, and be stripped of every rag
of our own. However bad you are, come just as you are, and the Lord will
receive you.
Some say; "I would like to become a Christian; but I have a prejudice
against these special meetings, and against Americans, and against a
layman
too. If it was a regular minister, if it was our regular minister, I would
accept the invitation." If that is your difficulty, I can help you out of
that. You can just get up, and go out of the hall, and run right over to
your minister, and have a talk with him; your minister would be most glad
to
see and talk and pray with you. And if you say do not want to be converted
in a special meeting, there are regular meetings in all the churches
throughout London.
But if you say There is a great awakening here in London," and you do not
want to be converted in that way; then jump into a train, and go to some
town where there is no revival. We can find you some place where there is
no
revival, and some church where there is not much of the revival spirit. If
you really want to go, don't give that for an excuse. How wise the devil
is!
When the Church is cold, and everything is dead, men say, " Oh, well, if
there was only some life in the Church I might become a Christian, - if we
could only just have a wave from heaven." Then when the wave does come,
they
say, " Oh no; we are afraid of excitement, and afraid of these special
meetings. We are afraid there will be something done that won't be just in
accordance with our ideas of propriety." - My friend, it is God who is
working. He prepares the way.
There is another class here who say: "I would like to come, but then I do
not feel." That is, I think, the very worst excuse, and the most common
excuse we have. I wish sometimes the word could be abolished, - feel!
feel!
You go into the inquiry room. "Well, Mr. Moody, I do not feel this and
that." Why, supposing my friend, Mr. Stone [organizer of the meeting]
should
invite me to go to his house to-morrow to dinner, and I say to Mr. Stone,
"I
should like to go very much, but I don't know that I feel right." "Well",
he
says, "what do you mean? Do you mean you don't want to go to my house?"
"Oh
no, I want to go." (That is what men say: "Oh yes, we want to be saved.")
"What do you mean, Mr. Moody? Do you mean that you do not know you will be
well to-morrow? Do you think you will be sick?" "I expect to be well
to-morrow, if I live." "Well, what do you mean by feeling?" "Well, I do
not
know just how I'll feel. I would like very much to go to your house to
dinner tomorrow, but I don't know that I will feel just right." "I don't
understand you, Mr. Moody - I am not talking about feeling; I invite you
to
come to my house to dinner." "Well, I would like to come very much, but
the
fact is, I do not know how I will feel to-morrow."
I can imagine my friend saying, "What has come over Moody? I think the
fellow has gone mad. I asked him to my house to dinner, and he says he
would
like to come, but he does not know that he will feel right; he talked
about
feeling all the time." Of course you would say be has gone mad. But that
is
the way people talk now. You speak to them about coming to the kingdom of
God, and they say; "I do not know that I feel just right." Away with your
feelings. God is above feeling. We cannot control our feelings? If I
could,
I would feel good all the time - never catch me feeling bad at anything! I
am sure if I could control my feelings I never would have any bad
feelings;
I would always have good feelings.
Bear in mind, Satan may change our feelings fifty times a day, but he
cannot
change the Word of God; and what we want is to build our hopes of the
kingdom of heaven upon the Word of God. When a poor sinner is coming up
out
of the pit, and just ready to get his feet upon the Rock of Ages, the
devil
sticks out a plank of feeling and says; "Get on that"; and when he puts
his
feet on that, down he goes again.
Take one of these texts - "Verily, I say unto you, he that hearest my word
and believeth on Him that sent me hath everlasting life, and shall not
come
into condemnation, but is passed from death into life." (John 5:24) My
friend, that is worth more than all the feelings that you can have in a
whole lifetime. I would a thousand times rather stand on that verse than
on
the best frame of feeling. I took my stand there twenty years ago. The
dark
waves of hell have come dashing up against me; the waves of persecution
have
surged around me doubts, fears, and unbelief have assailed me; but I have
been able to stand right there. It is a sure footing for eternity. It was
true eighteen hundred years ago, and it is true to-night. That Rock is
higher than my feeling. What we want is to get our feet upon the Rock, and
then the Lord will put a new song into our mouths.
There is another class, who say they cannot believe. Not long ago, a man
said to me; "I cannot believe." I said "Who?" "Well, I cannot believe." I
said, "Who"' He stammered and stuttered, and I said; " Who cannot you
believe, - God?" "Oh yes, I believe God. I cannot believe myself," "Well,
you do not want to believe yourself. Your heart is deceitful above all
things, and desperately wicked (Jer. 17:9). Put no confidence in the
flesh.
Don't believe yourself; call yourself a liar, and let God be true. Believe
in God, and say as Job said; 'Though He slay me I will trust Him.'(Job
13:15)"
Some men seem to talk as if it was a great misfortune that they do not
believe. Bear in mind, it is the damning sin of the world. "When He, the
Comforter, is come, He will reprove the world of sin, and of
righteousness,
and of judgment: of sin, because they believe not on me." That is the sin
of
the world - "because they believe not on me." Why, that is the very root
of
sin - the very tree, and all the fruit! This is the tree that brings forth
this bad fruit - it is the tree of unbelief.
I wish I had time to go on with these excuses; for they are as numerous as
the hairs on our heads. But if I could go on and exhaust them all, the
devil
would help to make more. You can just take them, tie them up in one
bundle,
and mark them lies - the whole of them. Not one of them is true. If your
excuse is a good one, if it will stand the light of eternity; do not give
it
up for anything I have said. Hold it firm, take it to the bar of God, and
tell it out to Him. But if you have an excuse that won't stand the
piercing
eye of God, I beg of you, as a friend, give it up - let your excuses go.
Let
them go to the four winds of heaven, and accept of the invitation now. It
is
a very easy thing for a man to excuse himself into hell, but he cannot
excuse himself out.
Dare you make light of the invitation? Suppose you should just write out
an
excuse to the King of Heaven: "While sitting in the Camberwell Hall, July
10th, 1875, I received a very pressing invitation from one of Your
messengers to be present at the marriage supper of Your only-begotten Son.
I
pray Thee have me excused." Would you come up and sign that? Would you
take
your pen and put your name down to that excuse? I can imagine you saying,
you would let your right hand forget its cunning, and your tongue cleave
to
the roof of your mouth first. I doubt whether there is a man in this room
who could be made to sign this excuse: but what will you do? Many of you
will get up and go out of this hall, making light of the preacher,
laughing
at everything you have heard, paying no attention to the invitation. I beg
of you, do not make light of this invitation. It is a loving God that
invites you; but God is not to be mocked. Go, play with the forked
lightning, trifle with any pestilence, any disease, rather than with God.
God is not to be trifled with.
Just let me write out another reply "To the King of Heaven. While sitting
in
the Camberwell Hall, July 10th, 1875, I received a pressing invitation
from
one of Your servants to be present at the marriage supper of Your
only-begotten Son. I hasten to reply, By the grace of God I will be
present." Who will sign that? (Many replies of "I will!" "I will!") Who
will
set to their seal to-night that God is true? Be wise to-night and accept
of
the invitation. Make up your mind now: do not go away till the question of
eternity is settled.
Excerpted from a sermon preached by Dwight L. Moody, July 10th, 1875 at
the
Camberwell Hall, London, England
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