Tomorrow May Be Too Late
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“Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near.” Isaiah 55:6.
I have learned that when anyone becomes in earnest about his soul’s salvation and he begins to seek God, it does not take long for an anxious sinner to meet an anxious Saviour. “Ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:13). Those who seek for Him with all their hearts, find Christ.
I am tired and sick of half-heartedness. I don’t like a half-hearted man. I don’t care for anyone to love me halfheartedly. And the Lord won’t have it. If we are going to seek for Him and find Him, we must do it with all our hearts.
I believe the reason why so few find Christ is that they do not search for Him with all their hearts; they are not terribly in earnest about their souls’ salvation.
Everything God has done proves that He is in earnest about the salvation of men’s souls. He has proved it by giving His only Son to die for us. The Son of God was in earnest when He died. What is Calvary but a proof of that? And the Lord wants us to be in earnest when it comes to this great question of the soul’s salvation. I never saw men seeking Him with all their hearts but they soon found Him.
It was quite refreshing one night to find in the inquiry room a young man who thought he was not worth saving, he was so vile and wicked. There was hope for him because he was so desperately in earnest about his soul. He thought he was worthless. He had a sight of himself in God’s looking glass and had a very poor opinion of himself.
One can always tell when a man is a great way from God for he is always talking about himself, and how good he is. But the moment he sees God by the eye of faith, he is down on his knees, and, like Job, he cries, “Behold, I am vile.” All his goodness flees away.
The Lord Is Near Us Now
If I read my Bible correctly, the man who preaches the Gospel will not tell me to seek Christ tomorrow or an hour hence, but now. He is near to every one of us this minute to save.
If the world would just come to God for salvation and be in earnest about it, all would find the Son of God right at the door of their hearts.
More Precious Than Precious Jewels
How earnest you would all become! You would not get very much of my sermon for thinking of the diamond. I do not believe the police could get you out of this hall. The idea of finding a diamond worth $100,000! If I could only find it, it would lift me out of poverty at once, and I would be independent for the rest of my days! Oh, how soon everybody would become terribly in earnest!
I would to God I could get men to seek for Christ in the same way. I have something worth more than a diamond to offer you. Is not salvation eternal life worth more than all the diamonds in the world?
Hellfire Necessitates a Holy Fire
What we want you to do is not to shout “amen” and clap your hands. The deepest and quietest waters very often run swiftest. We want you to go right to work; there will be a chance for you to shout by and by. Go and speak to your neighbor and tell him of Christ and Heaven. You need not go far before you will find someone passing down to the darkness of eternal death. Haste to his rescue!
What we want to see is people really wishing to become Christians, those who are in dead earnest about it. The idea of hearing one say in answer to the question, “Do you want to become a Christian?” “Well, I would not mind”!
My friend, you will never get into the kingdom of God until you change your language. Men should be crying from the depths of their hearts, “I want to be saved!”
On the day of Pentecost the cry was, “Men and brethren, what shall we do?” These people were in earnest, and three thousand found Christ when they sought with all their hearts.
When men seek Christ as they do wealth, they will soon find Him. To be sure, the world will raise a cry that they are excited. Let cotton go up ten or fifteen percent before tomorrow morning, and you will see how quickly the merchants will get excited! And the papers won’t cry it down either. They say it is healthy excitement; commerce is getting on.
But when you begin to get excited about your soul and are in earnest, then they raise the cry, “Oh, they are getting excited; most unhealthy state of things.” Yet they don’t talk nor write about men hastening down to death by the thousands.
There is the poor drunkard look at him! Hear the piercing cry going up to Heaven? Yet the church of God slumbers and sleeps. Here and there is an inquirer, yet they go into the inquiry room as if they were half asleep. When will men seek for Christ as they seek for wealth, or as they seek for honor?
As I have said, if life is in danger, how terribly in earnest people become. That is right; there is no doubt about that. But why should not they be as much in earnest about their souls’ salvation? Why should not every man and woman wake up and seek the Lord with all their hearts? Then, the Lord says, you shall find Him.
Seek Christ Earnestly
Will there ever be a better time?
There is a young man. My friend, is it not the best time for you to seek the kingdom of God? Seek the Lord; you can find Him now. Can you say that you will find Him tomorrow? Young man, you know not what tomorrow may bring forth. Do you know that every time the clock ticks, a soul passes away? Is not this the best time for you to seek the kingdom of God? My boy, the Lord wants you. Seek first the kingdom of God, and seek Him while He may be found.
Multitudes Can Be Saved!
In a year and a half or two years, more than half a million souls were brought in. Men said it was false excitement, wildfire, and it would pass away. But, my friend, it was grace preceding judgment.
Little did we know that our nation was soon to be baptized in blood, and that we would soon hear the tramp of a million men, that hundreds and thousands of our young men the flower of our nation would soon be lying in a soldier’s grave. But, my friend, it was God calling His people in. He was preparing our nation for a terrible struggle.
Supposing you could win the world; what would you do with it? Would it be worth as much as Christ? Let everything else be laid aside, and make up your mind that you will not rest until you have sought and found the Lord Jesus. I never knew anyone to make up his mind to seek Him but that he soon found Him.
At Dublin a young man found Christ. He went home and lived so godly and so Christlike a life that two of his brothers could not understand what had wrought the change in him.
They left Dublin and followed us to Sheffield, and there found Christ. They were in earnest.
But, thanks be to God, Christ can be found now. I firmly believe every reader can find Christ now, if you will seek for Him with all your heart. He says, “Call upon me.”
Christ Turns No One Away
This Is Your Opportunity Now
It was a good thing Zacchaeus called or rather the Lord called him; but when the Lord called, he came.
May the Lord call you, and may you respond: “Lord, here am I; You have called, and I come.” Do you believe the Lord will call a poor sinner and then cast him out? No! His Word stands forever: “Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out” (John 6:37).
I was glad when that man I told you of said he felt as if he were too bad. Men are pretty near the kingdom of God when they do not see anything good in themselves.
At the Fulton Street prayer meeting a man came in, and this was his story. He had a mother who prayed for him he was a wild, reckless prodigal. Some time after his mother’s death he began to be troubled. He thought he ought to get into new company and leave his old companions, so he said he would go and join a secret society.
He thought he would join the Odd Fellows. They made inquiry about him, and when they found he was a drunken sailor, they blackballed him. They would not have him.
He went to the Freemasons. He had nobody to recommend him. When they inquired and found there was no good in his character, they blackballed him. They didn’t want him.
One day someone handed him a little notice in the street about the prayer meeting. He went. He heard that Christ had come to save sinners. He believed Him; he took Him at His word; and, in reporting the matter, he said he “came to Christ without a character, and Christ hadn’t blackballed him.”
My friend, that is Christ’s way. Are you without a character, with nobody to say a good word for you? I bring you good news. Call on the Son of God, and He will hear you.
Let us be in earnest about the salvation of our children and friends. Warn that young lady. Yes, Mother, speak to that daughter. Father, speak to that child. Wife, speak to your unconverted husband. Husband, speak to your unconverted wife. Do not let anyone say, “Nobody cares for my soul.” I never saw parents burdened for their children but that the children soon became anxious to be saved.
What Are You Going to Do?
Ask your minister, “Had I better seek the kingdom of God now?” What will he tell you? “By all means, don’t put it off another minute.”
Ask your godly, praying mother, “Is it best to seek the kingdom of God now?” Will she say, “Put it off one week, or a month”? There is not a Christian mother in this land who would say that. I doubt if there is even an unconverted mother whose advice would be to put off becoming a Christian.
Ask that praying sister of yours, that praying brother, any friend you have, whether it is not the very best thing you can do. And then cry to Heaven and ask Him who is sitting at the right hand of God, and who loves you more than your father or your mother or anyone on earth who loves you so much that He gave Himself for you ask Him what He will have you do, and hear His voice from the throne, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God.”
And then shout down to the infernal regions, and ask those down there. What will they say? ïSend someone to my father’s house, for I have five brethren, that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place.’
Heaven, earth and Hell unite in this one thing: “Seek ye first the kingdom of God.” Don’t put it off. Call upon Him while He is near. And if you call upon Him in earnest, He will hear that call.
You May Call Too Late
My friend, it is not too late now, but it may be at twelve o’clock tonight. I cannot find any place in the Bible where it says you may call tomorrow. I am not justified in saying that. “Behold, NOW is the accepted time; behold, NOW is the day of salvation.”
Those men of Jerusalem, what a golden opportunity they had with Christ in their midst! We see the Son of God weeping over Jerusalem, His heart bursting with grief for the city as He cried, ‘O Jerusalem, Jerusalem! Thou that stonest the prophets, how often would I have gathered thee as a hen gathereth her brood, but ye would not.’
He could look down forty years and see Titus coming with his army and besieging that city. They called upon God then, but it was too late, and eleven hundred thousand people perished.