Allow me to apply this subject to your hearts!
(Charles Simeon, LISTEN to Audio! Download Audio)
“In spite of all this, they kept on sinning;
in spite of His wonders, they did not believe.
So He ended their days in futility,
and their years in terror!” Psalm 78:32-33
The state of Israel in the wilderness was one continued contest between God and them:
God endeavoring, by both His mercies and judgments, to reclaim them from their evil ways.
And Israel determinately persisting in one continued series of murmurings and rebellions against Him.
Yet neither God’s mercies nor God’s judgments could prevail upon them to yield themselves sincerely unto Him.
The mercies which God had given to them were innumerable.
The judgments which He inflicted upon them were most dreadful.
Yet “in spite of all this, they kept on sinning!”
These verses are pre-eminently instructive. They serve as a mirror to show us what is actually passing in our own hearts!
The mirthful, the worldly, the sensual, the profane–all follow their respective courses as much as ever; equally unallured by Divine mercies, and unawed by Divine judgments.
Nor have all the wonders of redeeming love, though so fully and faithfully proclaimed–wrought any proportionate change in us!
A parallel to the Jews will be found in the state of professing Christians at this day. Our guilt resembles theirs. Let me ask:
Are not their sins of murmuring and unbelief as prevalent among ourselves, as ever they were in the days of Israel?
Are not we loaded with benefits, even as the Jews were?
Our temporal mercies, public, social and personal–have been equal to any that have been given to any people under Heaven. But what shall I say of our spiritual mercies? Truly, if a preached Gospel is the greatest of all mercies–then we have indeed abundant reason to acknowledge the transcendent goodness of God to us.
But where do we find hearts today, which are duly sensible of God’s tender mercies to themselves?
Where do we find people today, who are rendering to Him the honor due unto His name?
Who among us is in the daily habit . . .
of acknowledging God in everything,
and of committing everything to His disposal,
and of living only to His glory?
If instead of living with Heaven ever in our view, and proceeding towards that as our desired rest, we are mainly occupied with the things of time and sense–then are we really any better than the Jews of old? In many ways, the aggravations of our guilt are far greater!
We have sinned against greater light than they.
What did they know of the mind of God, in comparison with us? The most ignorant person in the midst of us, is better informed than they; and, consequently, our violations of duty are proportionately more heinous in the sight of God.
We have sinned, too, against richer mercies than they.
What is their redemption fromEgypt–in comparison with that redemption which has been given to us from sin and damnation?
Their redemption was by power only; but who can estimate the price that has been paid for us–even “the precious blood of Christ, as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot!”
They indeed ate manna, and drank water from the rock.
But we have Christ Himself, who is the true bread from Heaven; and we have the Holy Spirit, whom Christ pours out abundantly upon us, for the refreshing of our thirsty souls.
They had the guidance of the pillar and the cloud.
But we have the Word of God, which is both “a light to our feet in general, and a lantern to our paths,” for our direction and preservation, every step we take!
We have sinned, also, against stronger inducements than they.
To them was promised the enjoyment of the land of Canaan, as a land flowing with milk and honey; and the loss of it was threatened as the punishment of disobedience.
But Heaven and Hell are set before us–even Heaven with all its glory; and Hell with all its inconceivable terrors, as the recompense of impenitence and unbelief.
Say, then, whether the guilt of Israel can be compared with ours? And whether, while we are ready to cast reflections on the Jews of old as a race of unparalleled impiety, we have not reason to acknowledge ourselves their equals–or rather their superiors in iniquity!
Allow me to apply this subject to your hearts!
Reader! What is your state before God at this time?
How are you spending your life?
Are you following the Lord fully?
Do you really live . . .
in dependence on God,
in communion with Him,
in devotedness to Him?
Your heads possibly may be instructed in these things, but your hearts and lives are unchanged!
Reader! What will your eternal state very shortly be?
O! Could we but follow the spirits of departed men into the eternal world, as we follow their bodies to the grave–what scenes would we behold!
In some happy cases, we would behold them seated on thrones of glory, and crowned with immortal bliss!
But in how many cases would we see them hurled from the tribunal of God into the bottomless abyss of Hell, and cast forever into the lake that burns with fire and brimstone–sad monuments of their folly, and objects of God’s everlasting wrath and indignation!
This is a dire reality! This is an event that is taking place every moment; and in the space of another day, may be realized by you!
There is a world to come–a world in which we shall reap in its full extent, the fruit of our unbelieving and sinful conduct!
I beg you, do not despise your mercies, as the Israelites did in the wilderness, and as thousands around us do today!
