Refusal

I will be firmly persuaded that any soul here who is not saved has heard sufficient to walk out of the doors of this auditorium, knowing Christ as your Savior. I'm going to read a brief passage of Scripture and make a few comments upon it, and then the meeting will be over. I want to read in Proverbs chapter 1, likely one of the most solemn passages of the Word of God, one of them.

Proverbs chapter 1, and we will read verse 24. Because I have called, and ye refused. I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded.

But you have sought at not all my counsel, and would none of my reproach. I also will laugh at your calamity, I will mock when your fear cometh. When your fear cometh as desolation, your destruction cometh as a whirlwind, when distress and anguish cometh upon you.

Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer. They shall seek me early, but they shall not find me. For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the Lord.

There are some passages of Scripture that are most solemn, and I take it that what I have read is one of those passages of Scripture. I don't want to take away from what you have already been hearing. You've been hearing about the finished work of Christ on the cross, and what that should mean to you.

I want you to think here just for a moment as we close this meeting, of what God has done. The statement here is, I have called. There is no one here tonight who would ever be able to accuse God of not calling.

You've heard the testimony of a number of men who have a moment in their life when they responded to the call of God. There was a moment in their life when that response was that they had trusted Christ. They are certain tonight that they are on the way to heaven.

Let me ask you tonight, in the depths of your soul, where is your eternal destiny? Are you confident tonight that you're on the way to heaven? Without that confidence in your soul, on the way to eternal punishment for your sin. God says here, I have called. I'm certain that you have heard the call of God.

And if you have been conscious and awake to what has been said up until this moment of time. If you were listening to those tell how they got saved. Or to my brother as he presented the person of the Lord Jesus Christ to us.

If you were listening, God was calling. Calling at this moment, and likely not for the first time in your experience. Likely in a series of gospel meetings you have heard the voice of God.

Perhaps alone in your bedroom at night, before you close your eyes, aware that you need to be saved. And God has been calling. You picked up a gospel paper and you read it and pondered the words that are recorded.

God has been calling. God calls patiently. We are told in our Bible that he's long suffering in his call.

Not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. We can say with confidence in our soul tonight. That the God who is calling sinners calls you to repentance.

Calls you to acknowledge the fact of your sin tonight and of your need. And calls you to the attention of the Lord Jesus Christ who suffered upon the cross for you. God calls.

He says, I have called. But then we have to read these solemn words, ye have refused. What a more solemn moment to sit in a meeting and to be a little concerned about your soul.

And to realize that God is speaking to you. And yet to refuse that call. To refuse Christ.

And to leave a gospel meeting in your sins. When you've had the opportunity to be saved. You've heard tonight of the sufferings of the Lord Jesus on the cross.

There came a moment when Pilate brought the Savior out before a crowd that wanted to have him crucified. And Pilate did that with the words, behold the man. I want you to behold the man again for a moment tonight.

As he stands before that angry crowd. You have been hearing what Pilate had ordered to be done. That scourging.

And the purpose of that scourging was to degrade a man. Until in appearance he would lose even the appearance of humanity. But that scourge was a ruthless weapon.

You have been hearing of the awful results of that scourge. And as he stands before the Lord Jesus Christ before that multitude that day. Crowned with a crown of thorns.

Torn and bleeding. Not only the back. But that scourge would come around the front of the body.

And Pilate stands the Savior crowned with thorns before that crowd. Purple robe. Scourged.

Thinking perhaps that there would be a degree of sympathy for this man. But they demanded that he be crucified. And they led him away to the place called Calvary.

You have been hearing about how he was lifted up upon that cross. Between his own heavens and his own earth that he had created. And can I quote the words of the hymn writer tonight as a question to you.

Why was he there? Why was Calvary so essential in the purposes of God? Why would a holy God in heaven send his son to this earth? And in John chapter 3 we are told not only that God loved the world. But we are told that he loved his son. And the son that he loved he sent from heaven to this earth.

Knowing that after a very short time. 33 years of life upon this earth. That his son, the son of God would be crucified at the place called Calvary.

So again the question, why was he there? Why was he lifted up upon that cross as a bearer of sin? Why was Calvary so essential? Why would God look upon his son upon that cross? And then in those solemn hours of darkness. The eyes of men could not see. There were dealings between the son on the cross and a holy God in heaven.

When the wrath of God was poured out upon the Lord Jesus Christ. The stripes that I referred to in Isaiah chapter 53 with his stripes were healed. They are not the stripes of the Roman scourge.

They are the stripes of the wrath of God. For those three solemn hours came upon the Lord Jesus Christ. When he cried from the depth of his soul.

Why has thou forsaken me? So the question, why was he there? In just a moment as you rise to leave this auditorium. There must be in your soul that question, why was he there? And if there are those here who are not saved, younger people, others. As a bearer of sin.

If on Jesus my guilt was not laid. That's what you've been hearing about tonight. Of a moment in the experience of some.

When they discovered that the stripes of God's wrath came upon the Lord Jesus Christ. Because of their sin. And when it became real and precious to them.

It was for me. It's all for me. Love of God so great so free.

God calls. And he's calling you tonight. But God's patience will weary someday.

God's long suffering will come to an end. He tells us here. Words that are far beyond my comprehension.

I will laugh at your calamity. I will mock when your fear cometh. When souls that have squandered salvation.

Squandered the opportunity to be saved. Wasted the time. And the opportunities when God has called them over and over again.

And God's patience will come to an end. When he has presented his Son to you as Savior. And you have rejected him.

Then these solemn words. You have refused. You have rejected.

And God says. I will laugh at your calamity. Lose your soul.

Find yourself in hell. Suffering like that rich man. In Luke chapter 16.

To realize that you have refused. That God had called you. God had dealt with you.

You had heard the Gospel. You had an opportunity to be saved. God called.

And you refused. I think one of the most solemn moments that some of us who have preached the Gospel ever experience. Is when we are asked to speak in a funeral.

Over the body of a person. Who left no hope that they were saved. I know that a person can get saved in the closing moments of their life.

The thief did. But you can't be guaranteed that. And to stand with weeping loved ones.

Many of them on the way to heaven. And to know that the person that we are burying. That's just the body.

That the soul has gone out into a Christless eternity. God says I've called. You have refused.

There are solemn consequences to refuse the call of God. To reject Christ. And when life is over.

To lose your soul. And to realize that you had the opportunity. But you refused.

God says I will laugh at your calamity. I will mock when your fear cometh. Those are solemn words.

I'm not going to go any further than to read what God says tonight. About a soul who takes that step into God's eternity with no Christ and no Savior. And life is so uncertain.

We do not know what a day may bring forth. None of us have any guaranteed certainty that we're going to be here on this earth tomorrow morning. It will be eternity.

God calls. Will you refuse again? Will you reject the Savior who suffered for you and died for you? That you might know your sins forgiven. That you might know for certain that you will not be in hell.

I'm going to give over to Him in just a moment. I made the statement that I'm not trying to outrun the clock tonight. The meeting's over.

And as you sit in this meeting, you're not sitting here without receiving or rejecting Christ. You'll neither receive Him or reject Him. There's no middle ground here.

We're going to sing the hymn that we already have sung. Many a soul has been saved by singing that beautiful hymn. One man that I know very well sat in a meeting just like this.

His name is Mr. Dubé, a French name from Welland, Ontario. That man sat in a meeting like this at the close of the meeting when the hymn was given out just as I am without one plea, but that Thy blood was shed for me. And in Mr. Dubé's thinking that night, he had listened to the Gospel.

He knew that he was a sinner. He knew that he deserved to be in hell. He realized that he was lost.

He had no hope as that hymn was given out initially. Until sometime during the singing of that hymn, Mr. Dubé said to God, I come. That night, in the singing of the beautiful words of Just As I Am, came to Christ for his sins forgiven.

You never get away with what we were singing just a few moments ago. Because if Mr. Dubé was in this audience and I gave out the hymn, and if I said we're going to sing a couple of verses of the hymn, I would be probably corrected. He would stand publicly and announce we'll sing the whole hymn.

Because that hymn meant so much to him. O Lamb of God, I come. As we sing this hymn tonight, we'll close in prayer first.

But as we sing this hymn tonight, may there be some soul or souls here and in the language of the hymn, the language of your soul will be, I come. That's what the Lord Jesus said. Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden.

And I will give you rest. We'll pray.