Gospel Despisers Passed by, and the Heathen Taken

Edward Griffin (1770—1837)
 

Matthew 8:11-12

"I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of Heaven. But the children of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."

This was originally spoken with reference to the rejection of the Jews, (who by profession and dedication had constituted the visible kingdom of God,) and the calling of the Gentiles. The occasion was this: When Jesus, at a certain time, entered into Capernaum, a centurion, (a Roman officer who commanded a band of a hundred soldiers,) who was himself a Gentile, came to him and entreated him to heal his servant. And when Jesus promised to go with him the centurion replied, "Lord, I am not worthy that you should come under my roof, but only speak the word and my servant shall be healed;" and subjoined what imported that diseases were Christ's servants to go at his command and to come at his bidding. When Jesus heard this "he marveled, and said to them that followed: Truly I say unto you, I have not found such great faith, no not in Israel." There is a stronger confidence in me in this Gentile centurion, than I have found in the whole Jewish nation.

These frequent instances of Gentile faith were tokens that the time was approaching when the Gospel and the sanctifying Spirit would be extended to the heathen. And the occurrence of such a remarkable instance was a fit occasion, not only to allude to that approaching event, but to introduce another which in the purpose of God was coupled with it, namely, the rejection of the Jews. As our Savior said to the chief priests and elders on another occasion, "The kingdom of God shall be taken from you and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof;" so here "I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of Heaven. But the children of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."

It has been a principle of the divine administration to take from men the Gospel which they have long and egregiously abused. This was exemplified in the remarkable instance to which our text alludes. The Jews had been a nation brought up among prophets and Scriptures and divine ordinances. They had abused these privileges by continuing in unbelief. God had shown himself long-suffering towards them. But when the point was reached beyond which endurance could not be carried, he stripped them of all their distinctions, burnt down their temple and cities, banished them from the land given to Abraham, abandoned them to unbelief, ignorance, and vice, and altogether took his kingdom from them!

This was exemplified also in the case of the seven churches of Asia. They had been planted and watered by the labors of the apostles. They were flourishing and exemplary and greatly beloved. But before the apostolic age had run out, most of them began to decline in piety; which drew from the risen Savior those messages of reproof and warning contained in the second and third chapters of Revelation.

To the Ephesian church he said, "Remember from whence you are fallen and repent and do the first works; or else I will come unto you quickly and will remove your candlestick out of its place."

To the church of Pergamos he said, (in reference to a part who had run into error and were tolerated by the rest,) "Repent, or else I will come unto you quickly and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth." An equally severe threatening was directed against a part of the church of Thyatira.

To the church in Sardis he said, "If—you shall not watch, I will come on you as a thief, and you shall not know what hour I will come upon you."

To the church in Laodicea he said, "Because you are lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will spue you out of my mouth."

Only the churches of Smyrna and Philadelphia were commended. And what now is the state of those seven churches and their cities? "Ephesus," says one, "is now venerable for nothing but the ruins of palaces, temples and amphitheaters. The town is merely a miserable village, the habitation of herdsmen and farmers, living in low and mean huts, sheltered from extremities of weather by mighty masses of ruinous walls. All the inhabitants amount not to above forty or fifty families of Turks, without one Christian family among them." Pergamos "is now an inconsiderable place, thinly inhabited." At Thyatira "there now dwell about four or five thousand Turks, in a good air and soil, but amidst multitudes of ancient ruins, and in a condition sufficiently wretched." At Sardis "there still remain some vestiges of Christianity. But since the place fell into the hands of the Saracens and Turks, it has gradually dwindled; and nothing now remains but a tolerable inn, some cottages for shepherds, and heaps of old ruins." "Laodicea is not only unchurched, but is a mere desert, with some ruins scarcely sufficient to mark that ever such a city was in the place."

Philadelphia and Smyrna, which were so commended in the Revelation, alone retain any considerable respectability. Philadelphia "was very considerable when the Turks took possession of it." It is now "the home of a Greek bishop," and "contains about two thousand Christians and twenty-five places of public worship," though it is "meanly built and thinly inhabited. Many parts of the ancient walls remain, but with large chasms." Smyrna alone, so highly praised by the risen Savior, remains a flourishing city. It contains "about 130,000" inhabitants; of whom "about 70,000 are Turks; 10,000 Jews" and 50,000 Christians. It is a well built city and carries on an extensive commerce with all the world.

Thus five of the seven churches, (the same that were reproved in the Revelation for their abuse of Christian privileges,) have all been brought to ruin or to a state of great degradation, and the whole have been given into the hands, first of the Saracens, and then of the Turks. Indeed this has been the case with the whole Greek church, except its northern limb which lies in the Russian empire. All the rest, for the abuse of the Gospel, has been overrun by the Saracens and Turks, abandoned by the Spirit, debased by oppression, and left in the grossest ignorance and vice! This is the case with all the churches mentioned in the New Testament except that of Rome. What an awful lesson to the abusers of the Gospel!

It is a remarkable and very solemn circumstance, that the time when the kingdom of God was taken from the Jews, was when it was carried to the heathen. God would not leave himself without a kingdom on earth, and therefore he would not call the Jewish nation to a final and decisive account for the abuse of their privileges, until he was prepared to adopt another people; according to the principle involved in the sentence against the Jews, "The kingdom of God shall be taken from you and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof." These two events being coupled together in the predictions, every instance of Gentile faith in the time of our Savior's ministry, was an alarming sign of the approaching rejection of the Jews.

Nor was that the only instance in which God had decreed to make his judgments on Gospel despisers to synchronize with the call of the heathen. Such a concurrence of dates was to happen in the age which has now opened, so far at least as respects the arraignment of the Romish church. The Catholic world has for ages grossly abused the Gospel. They have reduced it to a system of state policy and of gross superstition, to render it an engine to govern the multitude and to gratify the ambition and avarice of their spiritual lords. Never since the days of the Pharisees has the Gospel been so arrantly perverted. To illustrate the human heart and his own patience, God resolved to bear with their increasing corruptions for 1260 years. But the time to remove their candlestick out of its place was fixed. And it was fixed to the time when the Gospel should be generally carried to the heathen.

"And I saw another angel fly in the midst of Heaven, having the everlasting Gospel to preach unto those who dwell on the earth, and to every nation and kindred and tongue and people; saying with a loud voice: Fear God and give glory to him, for the hour of his judgment has come. And there followed another angel saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen." By Babylon here the whole Protestant world understand Rome, including the entire Catholic church and the civil governments which support it. The judgment is set forth in so close a connection with the evangelizing of the heathen, that the thorough entrance on missionary exertions becomes an infallible sign of its approach. Indeed both events have begun, and began the same year.

In 1792 the first missionary society in the modern series was formed, and the same year the blood began to flow in Catholic countries, which continued for more than twenty years, and went far towards breaking down the power of that church. Whatever intermissions may take place, it will continue to flow until the whole civil and ecclesiastical structure of those nations is completely subverted.

Long ago God took from them in a great measure his Spirit, and now he will take from them the form of their church and of their government. This is the judgment to be inflicted on a hundred million who bear the Christian name, comprehending something like one half of Christendom; and this is the age in which the destruction was to be announced by missions to the heathen. Is not this a solemn age? The going forth of missionaries and the calling in of the heathen, are a public token that the time is at hand when nearly one half of the Christian world, for their abuse of the Gospel, are to be completely unchurched, and to lose the whole structure of their ecclesiastical and civil state.

Is it not time for Gospel abusers in Protestant countries to tremble? One general feature of the present age is, that while with one hand God gathers in the heathen, with the other hand he will strip and dash those miserable men who have long slighted their birthright.

Is this justice to be confined to Catholic countries? He wishes in this age to make a display of himself on earth as being such a God: must he necessarily confine his displays to countries under the influence of the church of Rome? He will indeed hold up those countries to the view of the whole world, and make his dealings with them to be seen and understood by all enlightened nations to the end of time; but will he not pursue the same course, in a greater or less degree, with sinners of the Protestant faith?

I hope it will not be found necessary at this late day to break up any of our orthodox churches. And yet such facts have occurred, even in our own land, within a century. They occurred after the great revival of religion in the days of Whitefield. But even if such facts are not to be repeated, may we not expect that the influences of the Spirit and the higher blessings of the Gospel will be taken from many individuals who have long abused their privileges?

May we not expect that this will happen to many of our baptized children? This brings us to the very point of distress. How many of our dear youth who have been consecrated to God and nurtured in the lap of piety, and over whose unhappy state many a parental tear has flowed, still remain doltish in sin and carried away with the world! They come to the house of God and hear, but nothing which they hear affects their hearts. They come to the domestic altar, but half of the time their hearts, with the fool's eyes, are in the ends of the earth. They repeat their prayers in secret; (surely children who have been devoted to God cannot neglect the forms of prayer:) they repeat their prayers in secret, but it is only with their lips, while their hearts are far from God. They read the Bible, but it is to them a sealed book, and they have no realizing sense that what they read is the word of God. They pay a decent respect to the Sabbath: (surely baptized children cannot profane the Sabbath by rambling the fields or reading newspapers, or by worldly conversation,) they pay a decent respect to the Sabbath, but they have no relish for the proper employments of the day, and are often ready to say, "What a weariness is it!" They see the supper of the Lord set forth, but their seats are empty at the table. They see other children brought in the arms of their parents to baptism, but it is with no deep impression of their own baptismal obligations. The Spirit of God has called them, but this sacred influence is rejected. They have heard that a Savior died for them, but they are penetrated with no love or gratitude to Christ. Their heavenly Father heaps daily and hourly mercies upon them, but they never once sincerely thank him. They have committed millions of sins, each of which deserves eternal fire, and yet they never repented of one! They carry about in their bosoms, hearts of enmity against God, and yet they are no more concerned than though they had nothing there but love. They lie under a sentence of eternal death, and yet they can dance along the road of life with as much glee as if they were going to Heaven! Though Heaven threatens and calls and invites, their whole concern is after the world. All their joy lies there, and all their trouble springs thence. Their hearts are doltish and hard and full of unbelief—and they are growing harder every day.

Formerly, when they attended funerals or heard awakening sermons, they would tremble; but now they can see and hear with comparative indifference. All this time the privileges which they thus abuse are marked with the price of blood. All this time they are surrounded with advantages which not one child in a hundred ever enjoyed. And have we no reason to tremble for them? Have we no reason to fear that God, wearied out with their obstinacy, will withdraw his influence from them altogether and carry it to heathen children? Have we not special reason to fear this in reference to those who were once awakened and have gone back? Why should we not fear and tremble?

We see the children of other Christians, and even of some of the best of men, living and dying without religion, and even becoming profligates. There were the wicked children of Noah, of Job, of Abraham, of Aaron, of Eli, of Samuel, of David, of Hezekiah, of Josiah, and of many eminent Christians and Christian ministers in modern times. There is no certainty in respect to any that they will be saved because they have pious parents and have been dedicated to God. But on the contrary, we have great reason to fear that in many instances, for their long abuse of privileges, the Spirit will be taken from them and given to the children of the heathen. The Spirit of God ordinarily moves so far in a line with nature, that what nature would seem most likely to produce, more generally takes place under his influence.

Now to pagan children the Gospel is new, and on that account more affecting. Its wonders break upon them and arrest their attention to many things which are passed over by children accustomed to them. Their hearts moreover have not been hardened by listening to its sound without regarding it. On these accounts the Gospel, according to the course of nature, is more likely to take strong hold of pagan children than of those who have grown up in unbelief under its light. And the Spirit, moving in a line with nature, is more likely to make it effectual to their hearts when the way is suitably prepared.

Something of this may be the meaning of those words, "Woe unto you, Chorazin—for if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago:" and "if the mighty works which have been done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day."

All this is said without reference to the abandonment of Gospel despisers by a judicial sentence. But this also is to be reckoned upon. In many instances the resistance of the Holy Spirit becomes the unpardonable sin. On all these accounts it may be calculated that heathen children are more likely to be brought in by Christian preachers, than some of those who have long resisted the calls of the Gospel, the tears of parents, and the prayers of the Church.

And so it will happen that "many shall come from the east and west and shall sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of Heaven, but the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness." Many of the poor Indian children will be gathered in, while many of the children of the covenant will be cast out. The squalid sons of the southern islands, the sable sucklings of Ethiopia and India, will sing hosannas to the Son of David in the high courts of Heaven, while many of the children of our prayers will be cast out into outer darkness.

Ah, when they shall look up and see the children of the forest enjoying the bliss of Heaven while they are cast out, there will indeed be "weeping and gnashing of teeth!" When they shall look up and see their pious parents in Heaven, and find themselves confined to the society of devils—ah, will there not be "weeping and gnashing of teeth?" When they shall look up and see that father who used to bend over them with so much solemnity when he warned and entreated them, and that mother so full of tenderness and love when she took them aside for prayer, ah, with what agony will they cast themselves on the fiery pavement and tear their eyes and curse their folly and wish ten thousand times that they had never been born.

O my dear children, you have done something to send the Gospel to the poor Indians, and the children of those heathen are coming in: is it that they may take your place in Heaven, and you be cast out? There is a sound from the forest, as though God was about to carry his kingdom to another people: is it that it may be taken from you? Are the hopes which we have all had about the heathen to end in this? Have you been laboring only to bring forward a company of pagan children to receive the blessing which you have rejected? to take your place in the covenant and in Heaven and to thrust you out? After all your animation and hopes for those poor pagan babes, and after all that you have done for them—are you never to go in with them? Are you to see them take away your forfeited birthright? I rejoice that they are coming in even if you are cast out.

But why, my dear children, need you lose your birthright to favor them? There is enough for both them and you. We naturally feel most for you, and we cannot bear to see the kingdom of God taken from you to be given to strangers. Let the strangers have it, but have it also yourselves. Detain it among you. Set it up in your hearts. Hasten to improve that Gospel which is about to take its flight to the wilderness. Hasten to submit to that Spirit who is about to stretch his wings towards the prairies of the setting sun. Hasten to benefit from your privileges before they are taken from you and transplanted into the forests of the west.

All this I have addressed to baptized children, who are emphatically "the children of the kingdom." But what shall I say to those, who, whether baptized or not, have grown up to manhood under the sound of the Gospel without improving it? who have been hardening against God and his calls for twenty, thirty, forty, or fifty years? Tired out with your long and obstinate abuse of privileges, God seems now about to try an experiment upon another people. What will be the effect on your condition time must determine. But if it shall prove that you are to be stripped and abandoned at the same moment that the Gospel is carried to the heathen, it will be only analogous to the two instances which have been referred to:

one, the treatment of God's ancient people and of the early Christian churches;

the other, the predicted dispensations of the present day.

Wherein do you essentially differ from the ancient Jews, who had long enjoyed the privileges of the Gospel but had never brought forth fruit? And wherein do you essentially differ from those who have adopted the Romish faith? They have had the Scriptures in their hands, but have never improved them; so have you. They have brought forth nothing but sin under all the lights of the Gospel; so have you. They are God's enemies, and so are you. Indeed your light has transcended theirs, and your guilt on this account is increased. Why then may not God strip and abandon you when he carries his kingdom to the heathen, as well as Jews and Catholics? Have you not reason to fear it?

Every account of a new mission established—every account of the conversion of a pagan—may well fill you with alarm. Perhaps it is your funeral knell, announcing your eternal death! Every such account should set in broad letters before you that awful sentence, "The kingdom of God shall be taken from you and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof."

This is a new source of fear. You knew that you had cause to fear when you looked to Hell. You may have learned that you had cause to fear when you looked to Calvary—that you might hear from that awful spot a voice saying, "If they do these things in a green tree, what shall be done in the dry?"

But never perhaps before did you understand that you had reason to fear when you heard of the conversion of the heathen. Never perhaps before did you understand that this mighty movement on earth was as the knell of death to you. Dangers and threatenings are starting up from quarters where you least expected them. But the truth is that the whole universe is full of dangers for Gospel despisers. There are trains of causes secretly working your ruin in ten thousand circumstances where you never dreamed of their existing. Could the covering be taken off from all these latent dangers, you would see a sword pointed at your heart from every quarter of the universe! There is no safety anywhere for an enemy of God, for an abuser of the Gospel, for a wretch that can trample under foot a Savior's blood. The heavens are ready to shower down vengeance; the earth on which you tread is stored with magazines of wrath; the blessings sent on others are full of curses for you; and even the conversion of the heathen has in it a voice of thunder which may well break the slumbers of the grave. Up before the kingdom is altogether taken from you. Prostrate yourselves in haste before the Author of a long abused Gospel—before the God who has spoken in it unheard—before the Savior whom it has reported to you in vain. Kneel down in the dust before the God of all your privileges!

What mean you to remain still erect? Is your heart of stone and is your brow of adamant? But that heart shall melt in the day that he shall deal with you, and that brow, hard as it is, shall be scarred with thunder.

Before the kingdom is quite departed, I will once more try the Gospel upon you. On that throne sits a pardoning God, bending over you with all the compassion of a Father, and, with a voice sweeter than an angel's harp, inviting you to his loving arms. On that cross hung your bleeding Lord, when he sunk under the burden of your sins and died to save your lives. His languishing eyes fix on Mary and then on you. Over the pollutions of your sepulcher hovers the heavenly Dove, offering to brood the stagnant mass into life. Every energy of the Sacred Three stands ready to aid you. Every compassion is prepared to receive you. All Heaven says, Come. All the Church on earth says, Come. Come, for all things are ready. Come with all your guilt upon you and receive "without money and without price." In no way can you so gratify the compassions of a God; in no way can you so much gladden the heart that bled for you on the point of the spear; in no way can you waken up so animated a jubilee in Heaven.

I have made the trial: and now if you again reject the Gospel, and the kingdom from this moment departs, all Heaven and earth will say, Your blood be upon your own head! Amen.