This brings us now to conclude with the PUNISHMENT. “You shall see it with your eyes, but shall not eat of it.” Listen unbelievers! you have heard this morning your sin, now listen to your doom: “You shall see it with your eyes, but shall not eat of it.” It is so often with God’s own saints. When they are unbelieving, they see the mercy with their eyes, but do not eat it. Now, there is grain in this land of Egypt; but there are some of God’s saints who come here on Sunday, and say, “I do not know whether the Lord will be with me or not.” Some of them say, “Well, the gospel is preached, but I do not know whether it will be successful.” They are always doubting and fearing. Listen to them when they get out of the chapel. “Well, did you get a good meal this morning?” “Nothing for me.” Of course not. You could see it with your eyes, but did not eat it, because you had no faith. If you had come up with faith, you would have had a morsel. I have found Christians, who have grown so very critical, that if the whole portion of the meat they are to have, in due season, is not cut up exactly into square pieces, and put upon some choice dish of porcelain, they cannot eat it. Then they ought to go without; and they will have to go without, until they are brought to their appetites. They will have some affliction, which will act like quinine upon them: they will be made to eat by means of bitters in their mouths; they will be put in prison for a day or two until their appetite returns, and then they will be glad to eat the most ordinary food, off the most common platter, or no platter at all. But the real reason why God’s people do not feed under a gospel ministry, is, because they have no faith. If you believed, if you only heard one promise, that would be enough; if you only heard one good thing from the pulpit, here would be food for your soul, for it is not the quantity we hear, but the quantity we believe, that does us good — it is that which we receive into our hearts with true and lively faith, that is for our profit.
18. But, let me apply this chiefly to the unconverted. They often see great works of God done with their eyes, but they do not eat of it. A crowd of people have come here this morning to see with their eyes, but I doubt whether all of them eat. Men cannot eat with their eyes, for if they could, most would be well fed. And, spiritually, people cannot feed simply with their ears, nor simply with looking at the preacher; and so we find the majority of our congregations come just to see; “Ah, let us hear what this babbler would say, this reed shaken in the wind.” But they have no faith; they come, and they see, and see, and see, and never eat. There is someone in the front there, who gets converted; and someone down below, who is called by sovereign grace; some poor sinner is weeping under a sense of his blood guiltiness; another is crying for mercy to God: and another is saying, “Have mercy upon me, a sinner.” A great work is going on in this chapel, but some of you do not know anything about it; you have no work going on in your hearts, and why? Because you think it is impossible; you think God is not at work. He has not promised to work for you who do not honour him. Unbelief makes you sit here in times of revival and of the outpouring of God’s grace, unmoved, uncalled, unsaved.
19. But, sirs, the worst fulfilment of this doom is to come! Good George Whitfield sometimes used to lift up both his hands and shout, as I wish I could shout, but my voice fails me. “The wrath to come! the wrath to come!” It is not the wrath now you have to fear, but the wrath to come; and there shall be a doom to come, when “you shall see it with your eyes, but shall not eat of it.” I think I see the last great day. The last hour of time has struck. I heard the bell toll its death knell — time was, eternity is ushered in; the sea is boiling; the waves are lit up with supernatural splendour. I see a rainbow — a flying cloud, and on it there is a throne, and on that throne sits one like the Son of Man. I know him. In his hand he holds a pair of balances; just before him are the books, — the book of life, the book of death, the book of remembrance. I see his splendour, and I rejoice in it; I behold his pompous appearance, and I smile with gladness that he is come to be “admired by all his saints.” But there stands a throng of miserable wretches, crouching in horror to conceal themselves, and yet looking, for their eyes must look on him whom they have pierced; but when they look they cry, “Hide me from the face.” What face? “Rocks, hide me from the face.” What face? “The face of Jesus, the man who died, but now is come in judgment.” But you cannot be hidden from his face; you must see it with your eyes: but you will not sit on the right hand, dressed in robes of grandeur; and when the triumphal procession of Jesus in the clouds shall come, you shall not march in it; you shall see it, but you shall not be there. Oh! I think I see him now, the mighty Saviour in his chariot, riding on the rainbow to heaven. See how his mighty chargers make the sky rattle while he drives them up heaven’s hill. A train of saints clothed in white follows behind him, and at his chariot wheels he drags the devil, death, and hell. Listen, how they clap their hands. Listen, how they shout. “You have ascended up on high; you have led captivity captive.” Listen, how they chant the chorus, “Hallelujah, the Lord God omnipotent reigns.” See the splendour of their appearance; see the crown upon their brows; see their snow white garments; see the rapture of their countenances; hear how their song swells up to heaven while the Eternal joins in it, saying, “I will rejoice over them with joy, I will rejoice over them with singing, for I have betrothed you to me in everlasting lovingkindness.” But where are you all the while? You can see them up there but where are you? Looking at it with your eyes, but you cannot eat of it. The marriage banquet is spread; the good old wines of eternity are broached; they sit down to the feast of the king; but there are you, miserable, and famishing, and you cannot eat of it. Oh! how you wring your hands. Might you have only one morsel from the table — might you be only dogs beneath the table. You shall be a dog in hell, but not a dog in heaven.
20. But to conclude. I think I see you in some place in hell, tied to a rock, the vulture of remorse gnawing your heart; and up there is Lazarus in Abraham’s bosom. You lift up your eyes and you see who it is. “That is the poor man who lay on my dunghill, and the dogs licked his sores; there he is in heaven, while I am cast down. Lazarus — yes, it is Lazarus; and I who was rich in the world of time am here in hell. Father Abraham, send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, to cool my tongue.” But no! it cannot be; it cannot be. And while you lie there, if there is one thing in hell worse than another, it will be seeing the saints in heaven. Oh, to think of seeing my mother in heaven while I am cast out! Oh, sinner, only think, to see your brother in heaven — he who was rocked in the very same cradle, and played beneath the same roof — yet you are cast out. And, husband, there is your wife in heaven, and you are among the damned. And father! do you see your child is before the throne; and you! accursed of God and accursed of man, are in hell. Oh, the hell of hells will be to see our friends in heaven, and ourselves lost. I beseech you, my hearers, by the death of Christ — by his agony and bloody sweat — by his cross and passion — by all that is holy — by all that is sacred in heaven and earth — by all that is solemn in time or eternity — by all that is horrible in hell, or glorious in heaven — by that awful thought, “for ever,” — I beseech you lay these things to heart, and remember that if you are damned, it will be unbelief that damns you. If you are lost, it will be because you did not believe on Christ; and if you perish, this shall be the bitterest drop of gall — that you did not trust in the Saviour.
The Personality of the Holy Spirit
No. 4-1:25. A Sermon Delivered On Sunday Morning, January 21, 1855, By C. H. Spurgeon, At New Park Street Chapel, Southwark.
And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever: even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it does not does see him, neither knows him: but you know him for he dwells with you, and shall be in you. {John 14:16,17}
1. You will be surprised to hear me announce that I do not intend this morning to say anything about the Holy Spirit as the Comforter. I propose to reserve that for a special sermon this evening. In this discourse I shall endeavour to explain and enforce certain other doctrines which I believe are plainly taught in this text and which I hope God the Holy Spirit may make profitable to our souls. Old John Newton once said that there were some books which he could not read, they were good and sound enough; but, he said, “they are books of halfpence; — you have to take so much in quantity before you have any value; there
