What Will You Say When He Shall Punish You?

Edward Griffin (1770—1837)
 

Jeremiah 13:21
"What will you say when He shall punish you?"

The time had come when God was about to call the Jewish nation to an awful account. While the storm of war was gathering in the north, and had almost rolled itself to their door, the distressed prophet was sent to say to them, "Thus says the Lord, Behold I will fill all the inhabitants of this land with drunkenness, and I will dash them one against another, even the fathers and the sons together. I will not pity nor spare nor have mercy." This holy man, who was disciplined to grief from his infancy, whose tones seemed always those of a breaking heart, set himself to mourn over them and entreat them. "Hear you and give ear; be not proud, for the Lord has spoken. But if you will not hear it, my soul shall weep in secret places for your pride; and my eye shall weep sore and run down with tears."

He then puts this penetrating question: "What will you say when He shall punish you?" After all he turns away discouraged, and cries, "Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots? Then may you also do good that are accustomed to do evil."

The same question may be put to sinners in every age and place. God has solemnly declared that he will punish the wicked with everlasting destruction. And when he shall summon you to his bar, and explain the grounds of his conduct, and with the approbation of every conscience in the universe banish you to your eternal prison—what will you then say, poor, ruined sinner? What reason can you offer why sentence should not be executed upon you? What can you allege against the justice of your doom? To this question I must insist on an unwavering answer. And to enable you to meet it with clearness and precision, I will:

I. Lead you to reflect on that change of circumstances which will be favorable to a correct judgment.

II. Examine the several pleas which may be supposed then to offer themselves to your thoughts.

I. I will lead you to reflect on that change of circumstances which will be favorable to a correct judgment.

All that infidelity which now blinds your minds, will then be done away. You will then clearly see that there is a God, as you now see that your parents and children exist. You will see that God was your Creator, Proprietor, and Master, who put you into his world and supported you in it that you might labor for him; that he put you under law and commanded you to serve him; that all your sins and all the idolatry of living to yourselves were a gross contempt of his authority.

When "the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll" "and the elements shall melt with fervent heat," then you will see the omnipotent majesty of that God against whom you dared to rebel! When the Son of God shall descend with his innumerable retinue, and arraign the worlds before his bar, and the destiny of all creatures shall tremble on his lips; then will you see the dignity of him who descended to the manger and the sepulcher; then will you see the infinite evil which sins wrought on Calvary, and the amazing exhibition there made of their horrid deformity.

When "the books" shall be "opened" which contain an account of all your talents, a record of all your sins, an explanation of all the dealings of God with you, a justification of all his requirements, of all his dispensations—the books, in short, which shall make a full "revelation of the righteous judgment of God;" then will you see that you have sinned against a God of infinite rectitude as well as infinite majesty; and that your sins were unspeakably more numerous, as well as more aggravated, than you ever supposed.

When eternity shall be laid open to your view, in all the glories of Heaven and in all the horrors of Hell; when, looking through the universe, you shall see the infinite and eternal interests which the law of God was appointed to protect, and against which your sins have waged an eternal war; when you shall thus see the infinite malignity of your sin, its raging hostility against the whole creation, its deadly struggle against God's throne, the happiness, the life of God, against the unspeakable blessedness and glory of unnumbered minds then just beginning their eternal progression; when you shall thus see yourselves to be implacable conspirators against all that is blessed and glorious in the universe—then will you form a correct judgment of your ill deserts! There will be no unbelief, no doltishness then. All things will be real, amazing, overwhelming! No object to divert attention, none to excite false hopes, no chance to cover yourselves with hollow excuses. Your minds will be strung up to the highest action; your thoughts will dart through eternity. Everything will burst upon you marked with eternity and infinity! In everything you will have a personal interest, deeper than the soul of man can now conceive. Who can describe the emotions of that day?

II. Let us now examine the several pleas which may be supposed to offer themselves to your thoughts.

Will you say that you meant no evil, or no evil great enough to deserve eternal damnation? But it will appear that your selfish heart: followed your idols to the neglect of God; did not love God, but was opposed to his holy character and precepts, and had in it a preparation to hate him with all the malignity of a fiend as soon as your interest should be sufficiently assailed. It will appear that your unbelief gave the lie to his word; that your disingenuous heart refused to thank him for all his infinite mercies; that you excluded the universe from your affections, and followed, as well in your placid as in your turbulent hours, wherever your own apparent interest led the way; that you made yourself your god!

Will you say that your sins have done no great evil, as God was present to prevent their effects? This goes to deny the right of God to punish any sin, and sweeps away at once every vestige of a moral government. What sin is there in the universe which he does not limit, and out of which he does not educe good? And if he makes "the wrath of man" to "praise" him and restrains the remainder, is he therefore deprived of the right of punishing, when it is partly by that very punishment that "the wrath of man" is made to "praise" him?

If an enemy discharges a pistol at your chest, and opens an abscess which saves your life, is he the less criminal on that account? But your sins have wrought immeasurable evils. They caused the death of the Son of God. They have perhaps contributed to plunge many into Hell.

Will you say that you sinned but a little while, and that there is no proportion between temporary transgression and eternal punishment? Tell me another thing. How long must a man commit murder, to deserve to lose forever his natural life? Cannot a person entail on others lasting misery by a momentary act? By the midnight torch, can he not in one hour cast a family naked upon the world for life? And if the wickedness of an hour can fix lasting misery, on whom should that misery fall rather than on the culprit himself?

Sin has applied its torch to the kingdom and throne of God, and sought to destroy in one hour an infinite and endless good: and shall its punishment be limited by the time taken up in sinning? or shall it be measured by the duration of the good sought to be destroyed?

Will you say that you sinned in a finite nature, and cannot deserve an infinite punishment? But you sinned against an infinite God—you sought to destroy an infinite good! And while your punishment, in every stage of it, is finite in degree, to comport with your finite nature—it ought to be infinite in duration, to comport with the dignity of the Being and the worth of the good you sought to destroy!

Will you plead that you were no worse than others? And what of that? Can the rebellion of others justify yours? Did God force you to go with the multitude to do evil? Did not his law insulate you and bind its authority upon you as an individual? The obligation was not a company concern; and the failure of others ought not to have produced a failure in you. What is Judas the better for the sin of Cain or of Satan?

Will you say that you were beset with strong temptations? But the temptations were purposely appointed for the trial of your obedience. They were an experiment to test the temper of your heart. Without a temptation it could not have appeared by any outward act whether you loved God or idols most. Temptations did not make your heart what it was; they only brought it out to view. Had your heart been right with God, they would have made no more impression upon it than they did upon our Savior in the wilderness. Your own depravity gave them all their power.

Will you say, in vindication of your errors of doctrine, that others, wiser than you, betrayed you into them? But what right had you to believe fallible men when you had the word of God in your hands? In whom did God command you to trust, in himself or in blinded worms? But you say, they interpreted Scripture for you and made you think that their errors were supported by the Bible. Yes, had your heart been in love with truth, that truth lay so plain on the sacred page, that, with diligent attention to the Scriptures, it could not have been mistaken under any disguise.

Will you plead that you had many good desires and did many good actions? And what of that? Will the good actions of a murderer exempt him from execution? Will the payment of a new debt extinguish the old score? Was there anything more than was due for the time being in any of your good desires or works? But what if it shall appear that in God's account, you never had a good desire nor performed a good action? What if it shall appear that all your desires were selfish, or at best the motions of natural and neutral affections, and that all your actions had no higher character, being prompted by no higher motives? What if it shall appear that your "plowing" was "sin," and that your very "sacrifices" were "an abomination to the Lord?" All this will appear against every unregenerate man!

Will you say that you did not know God? But "the heavens" declared "the glory of God, and the firmament" showed "his handy work." God stood expressed before you in all his works, but more gloriously in his word. Why then did you not know him? Because you believed not, and "the God of this world" had "blinded" your "minds." But did you never read that "he who believes not shall be damned?"

Will you say that the Holy Spirit never strove with you? What then made you so often solemn in your childhood? What forced you into the secret corner to pray? What, in maturer years, pressed you with eternal realities when you stood by the grave of a departed friend, or sat under a soul-searching sermon? Was it less the Spirit of God because he wrought by means? By means he generally works. Ah, had you listened to his voice, had you cherished his suggestions—you would not have been in this awful condition now.

Will you say that Christians and ministers did not warn you? Do not sat that again. We are witnesses that they have often wept over you and pleaded in your ears with a bleeding heart: but nothing could move the dead. You know not how many tears they have shed for you in secret. But you would neither weep nor hear. O if they could have prevailed, how eagerly would they have snatched you from destruction! But they could not prevail, and you have come to this.

Will you come out at last and boldly charge the blame upon God? Will you say that you received your evil nature from him—that he gave you passions and appetites which betrayed you? Here I cannot hold my peace. Is infinite rectitude to be thus assailed? All as false as perdition. "This only have I found, that God has made man upright—but they have sought out many sinful inventions." In his great bounty he gave you appetites, that you might relish creature good. But did the power of relishing, bind you to turn the creatures into idols? This was because you loved not God. Passions he gave you, but not such passions as would lead you astray. These sprang up from the selfishness of your hearts. Supreme regard to your own gratification changed:
every relish into an ungovernable appetite,
every desire into a domineering passion,
everything loved into an idol!

Whatever in your nature was more infirm than creatures necessarily possess, grew out of your supreme self-love. That, and not God, was the cause of all—and for that, you alone were to blame.

Will you plead:
that you could not love God,
that you could not repent and believe,
that you could not change your own heart?

All this is saying that you had a heart so desperately wicked that it would yield to no motives! But in such a temper lay your whole guilt. It could lie no where else. Your words and actions were no further sinful than as they were dictated by such a wicked heart. Separate from the heart, they had no moral nature.

If the wickedness of your heart is excused, then all sin is excused.

If this is not worthy of punishment, then nothing is worthy.

If this is not an evil deserving of God's displeasure, then there is no moral evil, there can be none, and no creature can possibly be formed capable of sinning.

If then God may not punish you for the evil temper of your heart, he can no longer exercise a moral government in His universe.

Will you say that you were excluded by God's foreknowledge and decree? But pray, if God foresaw that you would reject the Gospel, how did that compel you to reject the Gospel? He foresaw that you would do it freely and of your own accord—and you did it as freely as though it had not been foreknown. And as to a decree, he never decreed to compel you to reject the Gospel; he only decreed to let you alone.

If he may not punish those whose wickedness he foresaw, and whom he determined to leave to themselves, he must either cease to foreknow or foredetermine, and thus cease to be God, or renounce all right to punish, and thus give up his moral government.

Will you say, It is hard for a creature to be brought into existence without his own consent, and then be made eternally miserable? "Nay but, O man, who are you that replies against God? Shall the thing formed say to him who formed it: Why have you made me thus?" If God may not create intelligent beings without their consent, he may not create them at all. And if he cannot punish the wicked after he has created them—then he cannot exercise a moral government over his world. All those pleas which go to deny the right of God to maintain a moral government over his creation, must be false, presumptuous, and at open war with him.

Will you say: Why did he allow me to sin? But was God obliged to fix and proclaim the principle that no creature should ever be allowed to sin? Had there been no sin there could have been no punishment; and if no punishment, the penalty of the law could never have been executed. If God had given out that the penalty of the law was never to be executed, the penalty would have been annihilated and the law turned into mere advice, and the whole machinery of a moral government would have been dissolved!

Or take the subject in another view. Was God obliged to forego all the illustrations of his character, and all the increased happiness of the universe, which have resulted from the existence of sin? Had not the great Proprietor of all things the best right to determine how far to restrain, and how far to leave his own creatures? Cannot infinite wisdom judge as well as you? "Nay but, O man, who are you that replies against God!"

Will you say that there is no need of so much severity; that God could have made the universe happy without your destruction? Have you an eye that can look through eternity and infinity and judge better than God? Can you teach him what is necessary for the public good? He has settled it, with all his infinite wisdom and benevolence, that your destruction was necessary to the general happiness. Until you become wiser than God, and have detected him in a mistake, never use that plea again.

Abandoning all these horrible charges, will you at last cast yourselves down and say: I cannot bear it? Ah, you should have thought of this in season, when you were going on unconcerned in sin, and turning a deaf ear to all the warnings and entreaties of God; when all Heaven and earth could not rouse you to a serious thought. Poor soul, I know you cannot bear it: and why did you not think of this before? But if you cannot bear it, neither can God bear to give up the order of the universe for you. He once pitied you and labored to save you, by means which have filled all Heaven with astonishment and the Church on earth with tears. But now "he who made" you "will not have mercy on" you, "and he who formed" you "will show" you "no favor."

What more will you say? I insist again on an unwavering answer. Come, bring up your mind to a point and tell me: What more will you say? Ah, you will be "speechless." "Every mouth will be stopped, and all the world will become guilty before God." You will clearly see that you deserve nothing better than eternal fire and everlasting contempt. And when you see things in this light, what mountains of guilt will crush you down. If you had committed murder and felt that you deserved to die, what an amazing pressure of guilt would sink you to the earth. What then when you feel in your inmost soul that you deserve everlasting burnings? Ah, it will be an awful day. No language nor imagination can reach the tremendous reality. Why will you not think of it in season? Why will you not fall down at the feet of Christ and cast your poor, sinking souls on him? On him was laid the weight of all your guilt, if you will but flee to him with a bleeding and believing heart!

Come. "Why will" you "die?" Why need you die? There is plenty of "balm in Gilead," "without money and without price." Why will you not make it your own? After all the terrible views we have taken, there is no need that you should perish. You are reprieved for a season that a full and free offer of pardon might be made to you. It is most sincerely made. With all your tremendous guilt, you shall be as welcome to mercy as the least sinner on earth. There is no malice in God. There was pity enough in him to send his only begotten Son to die for you. He is in earnest in making you the offer. It is not merely made to others in your hearing: he means you. There is nothing in the way of his receiving you—nothing in the law, nothing in your guilt—if you will only return. Come, for "all things are ready!" God is ready; Christ is ready; the Holy Spirit is ready. Angels, and "the spirits of just men made perfect," stand ready to catch the joy and circulate it through all Heaven. Are you ready? O come to Jesus!