I have a message from God unto you.
Judges 3:20
"CAN there be a person here present to whom God has never sent a message?
Possibly the question may startle you.
The very thought of the great invisible God sending such a message seems to you strange and unlikely.
To me it is far more surprising that anyone should imagine He has never done so!
Is He your Creator?
And has He who made you launched you forth on the tempestuous sea of life to drift in solitude without compass or guide?
We know that He has made you immortal—is it possible that
during that short life which is a preface to eternity, upon which that never ending period depends—is it possible that He has left you without any sort of communication?
Does it seem likely?
You call Him, "Father," because He is the Author of your being—can He be your Father and yet have no concern for your well-being—never have spoken to you, never have sent a message from His great Throne to your hearts?
--Surely the soul has ceased to listen to God, to acknowledge His messages, or to reply to them!
There is some one special Book in Scripture which was prepared specially for you.
There is an arrow there that was intended for your heart—some oil and wine fitted to relieve your pain and heal your wounds!
.....that Book says, "I have a message from God for you."
--Shall I chide the indifference which neglects the Book? Shall I rebuke the levity which had rather turn to a novel, or to any frivolous magazine, than to this momentous volume which appeals to you as with the voice of God?
The angel of Time might surely write with his finger upon the dust of your Bibles the sentence of your condemnation!
--Some of them have come to you in golden type—their words have been sweet as honey. I will call them bountiful Providences.
--Other messengers have come to you draped in black.
Their garments have been torn, sack-cloth has been about their loins, and ashes on their heads.
--Another dark messenger has come to you. Death has bereaved you of friends and comrades.
uttered, "Dust to dust, ashes to ashes," each of those thundering morsels said, "I have a message from God for you!"
Walk the cemetery and while every grave tells of our common mortality, how some graves speak to us of the precarious tenure by which our frail life is held!
--Oh, how many men here have been rebuked and rebuked, times without number, but still they go on in their old sins?
Take heed, take heed, men, for if you refuse God when He speaks by His servants, and by His Providence and by your friends, He will one day speak to you by a bony preacher who will deliver his message so that you must hear him!
-*-You know from where my text comes? "Ehud said, 'I have a message from God for you.'" It was a dagger which found its way to Eglon's heart—and he fell dead! So shall Death deliver his message to you."
Charles Spurgeon
Judges 3:20
"CAN there be a person here present to whom God has never sent a message?
Possibly the question may startle you.
The very thought of the great invisible God sending such a message seems to you strange and unlikely.
To me it is far more surprising that anyone should imagine He has never done so!
Is He your Creator?
And has He who made you launched you forth on the tempestuous sea of life to drift in solitude without compass or guide?
We know that He has made you immortal—is it possible that
Does it seem likely?
You call Him, "Father," because He is the Author of your being—can He be your Father and yet have no concern for your well-being—never have spoken to you, never have sent a message from His great Throne to your hearts?
It cannot be that God has left the world—it must be that the world has left God!
--It is not possible that God has ceased to speak to the soul. --Surely the soul has ceased to listen to God, to acknowledge His messages, or to reply to them!
There is some one special Book in Scripture which was prepared specially for you.
There is an arrow there that was intended for your heart—some oil and wine fitted to relieve your pain and heal your wounds!
.....that Book says, "I have a message from God for you."
--Shall I chide the indifference which neglects the Book? Shall I rebuke the levity which had rather turn to a novel, or to any frivolous magazine, than to this momentous volume which appeals to you as with the voice of God?
The angel of Time might surely write with his finger upon the dust of your Bibles the sentence of your condemnation!
--Some of them have come to you in golden type—their words have been sweet as honey. I will call them bountiful Providences.
--Other messengers have come to you draped in black.
Their garments have been torn, sack-cloth has been about their loins, and ashes on their heads.
--Another dark messenger has come to you. Death has bereaved you of friends and comrades.
Do not you recollect the time when you heard the bell toll for a near relative, and when you stood over the open grave?
Ah, then, when the dust fell upon the coffin lid, and the words were
Walk the cemetery and while every grave tells of our common mortality, how some graves speak to us of the precarious tenure by which our frail life is held!
--Oh, how many men here have been rebuked and rebuked, times without number, but still they go on in their old sins?
Take heed, take heed, men, for if you refuse God when He speaks by His servants, and by His Providence and by your friends, He will one day speak to you by a bony preacher who will deliver his message so that you must hear him! -*-You know from where my text comes? "Ehud said, 'I have a message from God for you.'" It was a dagger which found its way to Eglon's heart—and he fell dead! So shall Death deliver his message to you."
Charles Spurgeon
