Sermon

by Rev. J. Colquhoun, Glendale, Skye.

Preached in St Jude’s Church, Glasgow, on 24th November 1968.
(Taken down by a hearer)

“Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth; and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes: but know thou, that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment.

“Therefore remove sorrow from thy heart, and put away evil from thy flesh: for childhood and youth are vanity.” Ecclesiastes 11: 9, 10.

We see that in this book of Ecclesiastes there is a great deal brought before us that is instructive to all classes of people, but in an especial manner to the young, for they are to meet with many troubles and trials in the world. We often think, on looking back on our own lives, that we met with many a thing that we never expected to meet with in our young days; many things that we never heard of then are well-known today; and we will often be reasoning from that, that if we have met with, and we have seen such changes in our own lifetime, what will the rising generation see? For we have seen much that was certainly not to our comfort, and if things go on in the way they are going, the rising generation have a very black outlook before them. And you find in this book of Ecclesiastes that much is given to direct the young as to how they should act in the world. Much is given them by way of warning them of the snares and pitfalls which they have to meet with. It would be well indeed for the young to make themselves acquainted with the Book of Ecclesiastes and also with the Book of Proverbs, for they would find much there to instruct them. Very often we see young men and young women going out into the world, leaving their parental home and the restraint which is to be found there. Some of these we had the sad experience of seeing going from worse to worse as the years went on. Others again are kept, and we believe it is chiefly through the restraint that was put upon them in their young days, and their acquaintance with the letter of God’s Word, and we would desire that they would have more than an acquaintance with the letter of God’s Word—that that Word should find a place in their hearts that would bring forth fruit that would be to the glory of God, and to their own good for time and eternity.

But without taking up further time by way of introduction, we will just come to the words that have been read as the basis of a few remarks, and from these words I shall endeavour, as enabled, to notice three things in particular. First of all I shall notice something concerning the licence that seems to be given to the young here. “Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth; and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes”—as if there was a licence given here. But it is given by way of sarcasm. You will find in some parts of the Word of God that the Holy Spirit has condescended to show the folly of man by sarcasm. You will find it, for instance, in the 44th chapter of the Prophecy of Isaiah where we have the most extraordinary peice of sarcasm that may be found in the whole compass of literature concerning the folly of making a graven image, and of bowing down to it. Part of it is used as an idol to worship, part of it is used for baking bread and roasting meat, and part for a man to warm himself with it. Is there a greater folly than that a man should do these things, and that he has not the sense to say, Here is folly indeed! Well, the sarcasm used here shows what is to happen, and that leads me in the second place to notice something concerning the warning that is here given—”but know thou, that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment”—and thirdly,—”Therefore remove sorrow from thy heart, and put away evil from thy flesh: for childhood and youth are vanity”.

Now a little first of all, concerning the licence that seems to be given here, as if a licence was given to the young man, or for that matter to the young woman, “Rejoice, O young man in thy youth”, and so on. Now it is true concerning the young that this is something that they are bent upon. Our “desperately wicked” and deceitful hearts chafe at any restraint that may be used upon us, and instead of going in the way which that restraint pointed out, we go in the very opposite way. There is a clear instance of that in the case of the children of Israel. You find God saying to them, “Thou shalt have no other gods before Me”, and we know the history of the children of Israel from the time that they came into the land of Canaan till they were dispersed because of their rejection of the Messiah, and especially up to the time when they were carried away captive to Babylon. You will find in their whole history an awful proneness to idolatry in spite of what the Lord had said to them—”Thou shalt have no other gods before Me”. Now, that very thing is in your heart, and in my heart. The Lord is warning us concerning the consequences of sin, and concerning the wages of sin. It is not at all in a light way that the Lord in His Word says that “the wages of sin is death”. You have only to pur-

sue your way in sin by despising the law of God and transgressing it, and by rejecting the glorious overtures of the Gospel, and continue in it to the end, and you will reap “the wages of sin” which is death, even a three-fold death—death temporal, death spiritual, and death eternal. Now I am mentioning that by way of pointing out that the young are very ready to throw off any restraints laid upon them. Many a young man and many a young woman have been saying to themselves, “Oh, when I will get away from my parents, when I will get into the world, I will have my fling. I will do as I like myself. My parents were too old-fashioned, they were too narrow”, and so on. “I want to see the world, and I want to go as deep as I possibly can in the world”. That has been the language of many a young man and many a young woman who sadly came to grief before they left this world, and who were a disgrace to themselves and to the parents who brought them up, and who tried to bring them up in the way that they should. Now that is a warning to others that however they may be prone in their hearts to forsake the good old ways of their parents, yet they should consider that these good ways are better than the ways in which they are going, and they should remember the advice given in the first chapter of the Book of Proverbs, “My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not”. “Consent thou not.” Now the time of youth is the time of strength of body. Young men and young women also are ready to rejoice in their youth because they have strength of body. They do not know much about the troubles of the world, and they do not know much about afflictions in their own bodies compared with those who are advanced in years. They have strength of body. Now in connection with that very point, let me ask you this question. Where have you got that strength of body from? It was from the Lord. The Lord gave you strength in your body. He gave you soundness of health, and soundness of mind. And a further question is this. What the Lord has given you as far as the strength of your body is concerned, should you use it in the service of the devil? And it is a question that I should like to leave with my young friends here this evening, and if I know anything, I am leaving that question with them in love to their souls. Now we should not rejoice in our strength of body, thinking this is going to last always. We often see an aged man or an aged woman bent with the weight of years tottering on a stick. They were one day as strong and as lively as you are tonight, and if the Lord will spare you, you may come to the same state of body before you leave this world. That strength of body ought to be used for something other than the service of sin.

Now again the time of youth is the time when people are very

free from care. I remember well when we were young that as long as we got enough food and some clothing to put on, and things of that nature, we had very little care, or perhaps no care at all. We accepted things as though they were to come always to us, and as if this state of things was always to continue. Ah, friends, we cared nothing as long as we got temporal mercies. Did we ever think of the great need we have, and had at the time, of spiritual mercies? Did we ever feel our need of being fed by that “true bread” that “came down from heaven” of which, we are assured, that if any man eat thereof, he shall never die? Did we ever think of the need we had of that “robe of righteousness” which Christ has to give to those who close in with Him on His own terms? These things were of no concern to us, and they are sitting here before me this evening, and the same thing may be said concerning them. They have no care and no thought concerning these things. It is just a life of “eat, drink, and be merry”, and as for death, it is going to be a long way off. That is something that the young are very ready to forget about—that they shall die. But if you look at the graveyards round about Glasgow here, there are many bodies there who were younger when they were taken away than perhaps the youngest child in this house this evening, so that the young should have a care, and care as to whether or not they are prepared for death. Job could say, “I know that thou wilt bring me to death, and to the house appointed for all living”. Oh, would that poor, young sinners who are in my hearing this evening had that impressed upon their minds, and impressed upon their hearts, and that they would act accordingly. How well it would be for the young to consider these things! But, ah! friends, that is not the case. The time of youth is the time when young men and young women are not expecting “the evil days” that are before them. In this very Book and the last chapter, it speaks about these “evil days” and it exhorts the young to “remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth” before “the evil days” come, and “the years draw nigh when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them”. “The evil days are coming to you, young man and young woman, and you know not how soon that may be. There are others and they had what the world calls “evil days” but it was blessed to them, and it would be well if the young men and young women in my hearing this evening would begin to ask the Lord to make use of them soul and body. If there are “evil days”, so far as afflictions are concerned, and if these “evil days” are before them they should seek that the Lord through His Spirit would put them in the position of saying with the Apostle, “Our light affliction, which is for a

moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory”.

The time of youth is not the time when men are expecting “the evil days”. But he goes on to say, “And let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth”. What cheer has your own heart or my heart as we are by nature? What cheer has it to give us? What is the character of our hearts? Well, turn to the Word of God, and you will see there the character that the Holy Spirit has given of the heart of man. “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked”. Go back to the Book of Genesis, and you will find the testimony that the Lord Himself has given of man and of his heart. “Every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” Now, viewing the character of the heart in that way, what cheer has that heart to give you, or to give me? Are we not rather in need of pleading with the Lord as the Psalmist, “Create a clean heart, Lord, renew a right spirit within me”. And they are here this evening, and they know very well the desperate wickedness of their hearts, and many a time it sends them to a “throne of grace” in secret to plead with the Lord that He would create in them “a clean heart” and that He would “renew a right spirit” within them. But ah! friend, you of whom that is not true, those of you who are not troubled with their desperately wicked and deceitful hearts, what cheer has your heart to give you? The heart of man promises him a long life in this world. “I am but young. I have a long time to live in this world; I will think on these things later on”. Ah! well, we read of another man who was listening to the Apostle Paul, and he said to the Apostle, “When I have a convenient season, I will call for thee”. But we do not read that he got that “convenient season”. He had opportunities of meeting the Apostle several times after that, but he never found any of these times “a convenient season” to hear the Apostle in connection with the matters concerning which he was reasoning. And that is the way with many an one under the Gospel. You sit here Sabbath after Sabbath, you may come to the prayer-meeting, you may have had many opportunities of hearing the Word of God read, and perhaps you are reading that Word yourself, but have you made these opportunities “a convenient season” to seek the Lord? That “desperately wicked” and deceitful heart of yours has been telling you that you have a long time to live in the world and that you will think of these things when you get older. Well, apart from everything else, when you get older it will be true concerning your body that it will not be so smart as it was, neither will your mind be as alert as it was, and many a failing comes on both body and mind. Your conduct may be summed

up like this: you gave the health of your body and of your mind to the service of the devil, and you are now proposing to give the rag of your life to God. That is what it amounts to if you are putting off the consideration of these things that I have been speaking about to a more “convenient season”. Your heart is cheering you in this way, that you have a long time to consider these things.

Now further, what has the heart to give you anyway, when you consider what the nature of your heart is, and what the Word of God tells us is the nature of the heart. Is there any love to God in the heart of the natural man? Verily, no. Love to God in the heart of man is the fruit of the work of the Holy Spirit in the soul, and where the Holy Spirit does not work in the soul, or has not begun the “good work” in the soul, there can be no love to God, but on the contrary, there will be hatred to God, and hatred to everything by which He reveals Himself—hatred to the Word of God, hatred to God’s people. There is enmity in the heart of man, and that because man is ruled by “the carnal mind” of which we read that it “is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be”. This is the principle that is ruling in the heart of the natural man, the principle that we generally call “the carnal mind”, and it hates God, and it hates everything by which God reveals Himself. That is what that heart has to give you to cheer you—something that manifests hatred to God and hatred to every thing by which God reveals Himself. If you hate God, it must be true of you that you hate your fellow-creatures also. “Oh,” you will say, “there is not a man in the world that I hate. I do not hate anyone, and that cannot be laid to my charge.” What kind of example do you set them in the world? I leave that question with yourself, and let your conscience answer that question. What kind of example do you set them in the world? Let me particularise. What kind of example do you set them so far as your duty to seek the Lord for your own soul is concerned? “Oh, I never thought on these things. I cannot say that I am seeking the Lord.” Well, if not, you are strengthening others in that rebellion against God, and in going on in the ways where God is ignored, so that you are a bad example to your fellow-creatures, and if God will have mercy on your soul it will be a bitter thing for you that you have been setting such a bad example to your fellow-creatures. It flashes across my mind what was told concerning that eminent man of God, John Newton, who was a minister down in England. As you know, those of you who have read his life, he was a very wild person in the days of his ignorance, going on in sin, and it seems that, among other things, imbibed atheistical views. There was a young man out in Africa with him to whom he had imparted

these views, and he brought him on in the same way as himself. After the change came over John Newton, he went all the way to Africa to get in touch with this young man to try to prove to him that what he had been teaching him was false, and detrimental to the soul of the young man. But just the day before John Newton arrived at the place, that young man had gone to eternity, and gone to eternity with these views that John Newton had taught him, and as long as he was in the world, John Newton never forgave himself for the bad example that he gave to this man. To my mind, it is a very, very solemn matter, and it ought to be a very solemn matter to your mind also, if the life that you live in this world is a life that does not put God before you, and you have not made choice of “that good part” which would never be taken from you.

Now, he goes further, and speaks about walking “in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes”. Now again, let us take the Bible, and what does the Bible teach us about the sight of one’s eyes. Well, it speaks about a certain class of people and it is said of them that “there is no fear of God before their eyes”. That is the sight of their eyes. “There is no fear of God before their eyes”. They have no place for God, no place for seriousness, no place for anything that would be to the glory of God and to their own good, and they show clearly by that that they have no fear of sin. Whereas it is true of those who “have passed from death into life” that they fear sin as they fear nothing else, those who walk in the sight of their eyes have no fear of sin, and the “fear of God” is not “before their eyes”. Ah, but the Word of God also speaks to us concerning the sight of the eyes, and it speaks of a certain class of people and says of them that their eyes are “full of adultery” and they cannot cease from sinning. Their eyes are “full of adultery”. You do not need, my dear young man and my dear young woman to engage actively in the sin of uncleanness. There is enough in the sight of your eyes, and see how the very eyes act as a channel to cause the passions to be inflamed, and how if God’s mercy will not prevent it, you will be led into the sin of uncleanness. You have “eyes full of adultery” in common with the rest of the human race.

Now, further, it is true concerning people that their eyes are full of covetousness. They go on desiring that which does not belong to them. You speak about the amount of crime that is in the city of Glasgow and other cities today, and even throughout the country. What is at the bottom of it? It is covetousness, coveting that which does not belong to you, and you will get it if you can; it does not matter what the means are by which you will try to get it so long as you can get a hold of it. Ah, well, that is just the natural

man. In some, common grace acts as a restraint upon them. With others, that seems to have been taken away. Again, concerning “the sight of thine eyes”, the eyes are that with which they ought to see. Now, the Lord has been good to us in that way, in giving us sight in our eyes. Many are born blind that never had that. But we have our literal eyesight and yet we may be very blind as to the consequences of our actions in the world, and when a man walks in the sight of his eyes and has nothing in view but to enrich himself or to lead his fellow-creatures astray, is it not the case that he is blind to the consequences of what he does? He is blind to the sorrow that he may cause to others, blind to the grief that he may cause his parents or to the parents of those who are led astray by him, and blind to the consequences of his rash actions. That is what poor sinners are through walking in the sight of their eyes. They are blind to the consequences of their actions.

But that leads me in the second place to notice something concerning the warning that is given, and that warning is, “But know thou, that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment”. “Know thou, that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment”. Are you here and you have been hearing many a time about the judgment seat of Christ? I have no qualms in believing that you are often hearing concerning the judgment seat of Christ, and hearing about the solemn appearance that you will have there if you will appear in a Christless condition. Now, that ought to impress upon your mind the solemnity of the fact that there is to be a day of judgment. There is a day of judgment, and God has appointed that day. Oh! friend, it is a solemn matter to consider the judgment seat of Christ. When it is brought before us in the Word of God, ought it not to impress us with awe? Ought not the 20th chapter of the Book of Revelation impress us with awe when John the Divine says, “And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from Whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books”. Ought not that to impress yourself and myself with awe? Ought it not to cause us to have very serious thoughts that we as individuals must stand at the judgment seat of Christ, and that God has appointed that day? He is not to allow sinners to go on for ever in their wickedness at all. He has appointed a day of death for every sinner in this building this evening. He has appointed a day in which they are to die and when that day comes, not all the medicine in the world, not all the means that may be used

to relieve pain, or that are often used to continue “the breath of life”, will avail anything when God has appointed that you are to die. Now, friends, “it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment”, and the Holy Spirit in the words of our text brings that clearly before us. “But know thou, that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment”. “God will bring thee into judgment”, and Who is it that is to be Judge? It is Christ. What! Christ the Judge at the final judgment! What a solemn thought! What a solemn thought for Christ-rejectors in St Jude’s, and a solemn thought for everyone here tonight! Christ is to be the Judge, and if we have despised Christ, if He is to us “as a root out of a dry ground” without “form nor comeliness”, what a solemn thought it is that we are to appear at His judgment seat to give our final account. That One who is stretching out His hands in mercy, extending overtures of mercy to us for many a day and for many a year in the world, and Who has declared clearly that His will is that sinners should repent, and that He has no delight in our death, is to be our judge. As we have it in the Book of the Prophet Ezekiel, “Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?” And why, my dear fellow-sinner, should you die the eternal death? Is God’s provision in Christ not enough for you? Is it not suitable for you? Is it not sufficient for you? Is it not freely offered to you, “without money and without price”, and yet you would rather serve the devil and die the eternal death than close in with Christ as your own personal Saviour and your only hope for eternity. Well, whether you will close in with Him tonight or not, whether you will turn from your evil ways or not, this is a sure thing—God will bring you to judgment. He will bring you to judgment, and Christ Himself will be the Judge.

There is a truth that says, “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” Yes, friend, He will give you according to your doings in the flesh. If you have closed in through the work of the Holy Spirit with Christ as your own personal Saviour and your only hope, you will hear that wonderful invitation, “Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world”; but if you continue a rejector of Christ and a despiser of His overtures of mercy, if you continue to walk, as we have it here, “in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes”, and if you continue thus till you close your eyes in death, you will hear the dread sentence, “Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels”.

Ah! my dear fellow-sinner, think seriously and solemnly about these things. Do not let them in at one ear and out at the other, but plead with the Lord that He would impress these things upon your heart, and that He would give you no rest until you would find that sweet rest that Christ is offering to those who come unto Him.

But, remember this further, as to this judgment—it is the final account that you will have to render on that day; the final account, and a judgment from which there is no appeal. You find often, if you watch the papers, people brought before the judges of this country, and if they are not satisfied and their lawyers are not satisfied with the sentence that has been passed upon their client, they have the right of appeal until they go to the highest court, and you find them availing themselves of that right on many an occasion, and you will sometimes see the judgment against which the appeal was made, reversed. But there is not such a thing with the judgment seat of which we here speak. “Know thou, that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment”. There is no appeal from the judgment. No. It is a final judgment passed by the greatest Judge that ever passed sentence, or will pass sentence in this world. “None else is Judge but God”, and it is to His bar that you and I must go at last, and that is what we are warned about here. “Know thou, that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment.” And what is it that will be found at that judgment? We will be judged about all things that we have done in the body. Yes. We will be judged as to our attitude towards the law of God. “Oh, but I have been a right, orderly person since I was a child. No one can say a word against my character, or point a finger at anything that I have ever done. I have done nothing against my fellow-creatures, and in that way nothing can be laid to my charge.” Ah, your fellow-creatures might not be able to lay anything to your charge, but does that mean that things are right between God and your soul? That is the question. That is the matter that should exercise the minds of every one of us here this evening. Has God anything to lay to our charge? Yes, friend, He has. We have been transgressing His holy law ever since we had a being, transgressing it by our actions in the world at times, and by our words, but more especially transgressing the holy law of God in our thoughts and in the intents of our hearts. Well, examine these thoughts even for an hour of your existence in this world, and I think if you examine them seriously and impartially, that you will find many a reason why God should condemn you eternally because of the thoughts and intents of your heart. You have been despising His law, transgressing that law, and there is no love

to that law in your heart. You could not say with the Psalmist, “O how love I Thy law! It is my study all the day.” Oh, no. Conscience condemns you, you have no love to the law of the Lord.

Let us take another aspect of it—your attitude towards the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, have you not been despising that Gospel, and is it not the case that that is even a greater sin than transgressing the law of God? For we read, “He that despised Moses’ law died without mercy under two or three witnesses: of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?” Have you not been guilty of these things times without number? Has not Christ been treated by you “as a root out of a dry ground without form nor comeliness?” Oh, consider this, my dear fellow sinner.

“Consider this, and be afraid,
ye that forget the Lord,
Lest I in pieces tear you all,
when none can help afford.”

The Gospel is rejected. But in a court of law, no person is condemned without witnesses, and no judge will pass a judgment that is to the detriment of those who are brought before him, unless there are witnesses. In this matter of the final judgment, are there witnesses, my friends? Yes, there are plenty of witnesses. Who are they? Ah, there is the Bible, for one. That is a witness against you, and it is a sad, sad thing that you will find the Bible a witness against you at last. I remember reading concerning an eminent man that he left this on record—that there were three things that he would not like to be against him, the Bible, his own conscience, and the prayers of good people. These were three things that he would not like to be against him. Well, the Bible will be a witness against the Godless sinner at the judgment seat of Christ. Will the Bible be a witness against you on that day? Can the Bible testify at the judgment seat of Christ that it was possible for you to read it, but that you never read it, and that you never considered what its sacred pages contained? Ah, yes, there are many houses, many families, many individuals, and though the Bible may be in their homes (and we are afraid there are many houses today where it is not at all) where it is not used. As Rev. John MacRae, popularly known as ‘Big MacRae’ used to put it, that there was many a house where the Bible lay unused, so much so that you could write ‘eternal damnation’ with your finger on the dust that was on the

cover of it. Now friend, if that is the way that you keep the Bible, if that is the way that the Bible is lying in your house and not used, God will write your eternal damnation, and that can never be revoked throughout the eternal ages of eternity, and the Bible will be a witness against you at the judgment seat of Christ.

The heavens and the earth will be witnesses against you on that day. The heavens and the earth, before they flee away, will testify that you heard the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, that it was proclaimed in your ears, by which you heard its gracious warnings and invitations. Yes, my friend, the heavens and the earth can testify as witnesses against you that day that you heard the Gospel, and that you shut your hearts against it. The ambassadors of Christ will be witnesses against you that day. They can testify on the day of judgment that many a time they went out with the Gospel, and that often the words of the Apostle were ringing in your ears. “We are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God”. The ambassadors of Christ can testify against you that they sounded in your ears the Gospel and that you took no notice of it, that you walked in your own sinful ways, despising Christ and despising His mercy, in spite of the repeated warnings that were given you, that you shut your ears against the invitations of the Gospel, and hardened your heart. Well, I leave one truth with you in connection with that: “He that being often reprov’d hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy”. And I leave that with you, my friend.

Now there are other witnesses. There is the sinner’s own conscience. We used to hear it often said from this pulpit, “Never forget that a man has a conscience”. If that is true as it undoubtedly is, you may think that you can drug your conscience here tonight by paying little or no attention to what is in weakness and infirmity brought before you. You may have been very successful in that, but remember this—that that conscience which you are drugging tonight will awaken one day, and it will be as the worm that dieth not in your bosom throughout the endless ages of eternity. I warn you of it, my dear fellow-sinner, and I hope I am doing it in love to your soul. God will bring everything to judgment on that day, things that were hid from your fellow-creatures will be exposed on that day, things that you yourself had forgotten that you ever committed will be revealed then, for nothing that was ever put in the memory will ever go out of it. It will come to light on that day. Rest assured of this, though you may think very little of these things tonight, they will meet you some day. I remember once a student coming into this church many years ago,

and listening to a minister whose preaching was eminently blessed to the conviction and conversion of souls, and that student after he left the service was asked, “What did you think of the sermon?” “Oh,” he said, “it was nothing but the common and the obvious.” Well, you may be thinking here tonight you are just listening to the common and to the obvious, but friend, it is a matter of life or death to you, whether you will take it that way tonight or not. It is a matter of life or death if what we are in feebleness and infirmity endeavouring to bring before you here tonight, is the truth of God, as I have no doubt it is, and as your conscience will testify that it is. If you close in with Christ, it will be a matter of life, eternal life, for you, for it is written, “Whoso findeth Me findeth life, and shall obtain favour of the Lord”. But if you reject it, if you despise it, then eternal death will be your portion if you continue in the ways of sin, so that it is a matter of life or death to you what we are endeavouring to bring before you tonight. But one thing we can say, in common with others who are “ambassadors for Christ” is, that we shall be clear of your blood when we all come along with an assembled universe to stand before that judgment seat we are bringing before you.

But, thirdly, there is an advice tendered here. “Therefore remove sorrow from thy heart, and put away evil from thy flesh: for childhood and youth are vanity.” Sorrow! Now that in a way might be taken in a literal sense. Sin brings sorrow with it, and you will find very often that where sin is indulged in, suitable punishment for sin is visited on the sinner’s body. I heard the late Rev. Neil Cameron in this pulpit say that it was his considered opinion of the rich man in the parable that it was with his tongue that he sinned most. “Perhaps,” he said, “for all we know, he was deriding the Lord’s people.” But he said he believed that it was with his tongue that he was sinning most, and the Lord visited him in a lost eternity with the punishment of his prevailing sin. Well, bodily afflictions follow sin often, and certain afflictions follow the nature of the sin committed. So take you good care. You are not going to escape if the Lord comes out against you in judgment for your sins. The Word of God says, “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting”.

But there is a sorrow in the soul also. We find two kinds of sorrow brought before us in the Word of God. There was the sorrow that Judas had. That was not saving repentance at all. It was remorse, and what was the end of it? Judas went out of this world

by his own hand. His conscience could not bear the torments with which he was visited, but that only landed him in eternal misery. But there is a “godly sorrow” for sin, and those who are given that sorrow are not left always to mourn. Oh, no. They may mourn the most of the time they are in this world, they may have a great deal of what the Psalmist speaks of when he says,

“Thou tears of sorrow giv’st to them
instead of bread to eat;
Yea, tears instead of drink thou giv’st
to them in measure great.
Thou makest us a strife unto
our neighbours round about;
Our enemies among themselves
at us do laugh and flout.”

They may have plenty of that going through this world. Ah, but friends, it is not with this world alone that they have to do. They are to go to eternity. Will they have sorrow there? No. The persecution that they had in this world will cease, for “there the wicked cease from troubling; and there the weary be at rest”. Those who have plenty of sorrow because of following Christ in this world will have a “joy unspeakable and full of glory”. I quoted that truth already, “Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory”. And oh! friend, when it comes to the experience of that “eternal weight of glory”, what a joy there must be with it! They will be in the presence of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, Israel’s Triune God, world without end, and when God is speaking to us in this text, He is exhorting us to remove from sorrow, and from evil, and exhorting us to close in with Christ as He is freely offered in the Gospel.

But the advice tendered here is a gracious advice. God purposes to be gracious to the sinner, and to show him something that is infinitely greater and infinitely better than the joys of this world. What are the joys of this world? You have your share of them yourself friend, young friend. What are the joys of this world? Oh, they are but short-lived. They will not last very long. No, friend, they will not last very long, even though they should last three score years and ten, or although they should last fourscore years. What is that, in comparison, or I should say, in contrast, to eternity? What are the joys of this world? What are they in the light of the weeping and the wailing and the gnashing of teeth that the Christless sinner has throughout eternity? What are the joys of this world? They are vanishing things. But there is a joy that will continue for ever and ever, and that joy you are invited in the Gos-

pel to become a partaker of, and not only so, but you are assured in God’s Word that He will receive every sinner that comes to Him, and that He will not reject any. For does He not say, “All that the Father giveth Me shall come to me; and him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out”. May He bless His Word.