Turn or Burn by Charles Haddon Spurgeon

 

                                   Preface

For more than a century, Charles Haddon Spurgeon's sermons have been 

consistently recognized, and their usefulness and impact have continued to 

the present day, even in the outdated English of the author's own day.  

 

Why then should expositions already so successful and of such stature and 

proven usefulness require adaptation, revision, rewrite or even editing?

The answer is obvious.  To increase its usefulness to today's reader, the 

language in which it was originally written needs updating.

Though his sermons have served other generations well, just as they came 

from the pen of the author in the nineteenth century, they still could be 

lost to present and future generations, simply because, to them, the 

language is neither readily nor fully understandable.

My goal, however, has not been to reduce the original writing to the 

vernacular of our day.  It is designed primarily for you who desire to read 

and study comfortably and at ease in the language of our time.  Only 

obviously archaic terminology and passages obscured by expressions not 

totally familiar in our day have been revised.  However, neither Spurgeon's 

meaning nor intent have been tampered with.

                                                  Tony Capoccia

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture references are taken from the HOLY 

BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION (C) 1978 by the New York Bible Society, used 

by permission of Zondervan Bible Publishers.

"NASB" indicates the Scripture text is taken from the New American Standard 

Bible, used by permission of the Lockman Foundation, a corporation not for 

profit, La Habra, California. 

                                Turn or Burn

                 (Turn from your sins or Burn for your sins)

                                    by

                    Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892)

"If a man does not repent, He will sharpen his sword; He has bent His bow and 

made it ready."--Psalm 7:12 (NASB)  

"If the sinner does not turn from his wicked ways, God will sharpen His 

sword."  So, then, God has a sword, and He will punish man on account of his 

sins.  This evil generation has labored to take away from God the sword of 

His justice; they have endeavored to prove to themselves that God will

"clear the guilty," and will by no means "punish evil, disobedience, and 

sin."  Two hundred years ago the predominant subject of the pulpit was one of 

terror; it was like Mount Sinai, it thundered out the dreadful wrath of God, 

and from the lips of a Baxter or a Bunyan, you heard the most fearful 

sermons, full to the brim with warnings of judgment to come.  

Perhaps some of the Puritan fathers may have gone too far, and have given too 

great a prominence to the terror of the Lord in their ministry; but the age 

in which we live has tried to forget those terrors altogether, and if we dare 

to tell men that God will punish them for their sins, we are then accused of 

trying to frighten them into religion, and if we faithfully and honestly tell 

our listeners that sin will bring certain judgment, it is said that we are 

attempting to scare them into goodness.  Now we don't care what men mockingly 

accuse us of; we feel it is our duty, when men sin, to tell them that they 

will be punished; and so long as the world will not give up its sin, we feel 

we must not cease our warnings.  But the cry of the age is, that God is 

merciful, that God is love.  Yes, who said He wasn't?  

But remember it is equally true, God is just, severely and inflexibly just!  

He would not be God, if He were not just; He could not be merciful if He were 

not just, for punishment of the wicked is demanded by the highest mercy to 

the rest of mankind.  Rest assured, however, that He is just, and that the 

words I am about to read you from God's word are true: "The wicked return to 

the grave, all the nations that forget God;"  "God is a righteous judge, a 

God who expresses His wrath every day;"  "If a man does not repent, He will 

sharpen His sword; He has bent His bow and made it ready.  He has also 

prepared for Himself deadly weapons; He makes His arrows fiery shafts" 

(NASB).  

Because this is a wicked age, it will not accept the idea of a real hell; and 

because it is hypocritical, it will speak of hell, but only with fictitious 

punishment.  This doctrine is so prevalent as to make even the ministers of 

the gospel flinch from their duty in declaring the day of wrath.  How few 

there are who will solemnly tell us of the judgment to come.  They preach of 

God's love and mercy, as they ought to do, and as God has commanded them; but 

what good is it to preach mercy unless they preach also the doom of the 

wicked?  And how shall we hope to carry out the primary purpose of preaching 

unless we warn men that if they "Don't repent of their sin, God will sharpen 

His sword in judgment?"

I fear that in too many places the doctrine of future punishment is rejected, 

and laughed at as a fantasy and a fire-breathing monster of our imagination; 

but the day will come when it shall be known to be a reality.  Ahab scoffed 

at the prophet Micaiah, when he said he (Ahab) would never come back alive; 

the men of Noah's generation laughed at the foolish old man (as they thought 

him), who urged them take heed, for the world would soon be drowned; but when 

they were climbing to the treetops, and the floods were following them, did 

they then say that Noah's prophecy was untrue?  And when the arrow was 

sticking in the heart of Ahab, and he said to his chariot driver, "Wheel 

around and get me out of the fighting.  I've been wounded," did he then think 

that Micaiah had spoke an untruth?  And so it is now.  

You tell us that we speak lies, when we warn you of judgment to come; but in 

that day when your trouble shall fall on you, and when destruction shall 

overwhelm you, will you say we were liars then?  Will you then turn around 

and scoff, and say we did not speak the truth?  Rather my hearers the highest 

honor will be given to him who was the most faithful in warning men 

concerning the wrath of God.  I have often trembled at the thought, that, 

here I am standing before you, and constantly engaged in the work of the 

ministry, and what if, when I die, I should be found unfaithful to your 

souls, how sorrowful will be our meeting in the world of spirits?  It would 

be a dreadful thing if you were able to say to me in the world to come, "Sir, 

you flattered us; you did not tell us of the solemnities of eternity; you did 

not rightly dwell upon the awful wrath of God; you spoke to us feebly and 

weakly, you were somewhat afraid of us; you knew we could not bear to hear of 

eternal torment, and therefore you kept it back and never mentioned it!"  

Why, I believe that if you were able you would look me in the face and curse 

me through all of eternity, if that would have been my conduct.  But, by 

God's help, it shall never be.  

Come what may, when I die, I shall, with God's help, be able to say "I am 

innocent of the blood of all men."  So far as I know God's truth, I will 

endeavor to speak it; and though criticism and censure be poured on my head a 

hundred times, I will welcome it, if I may but be faithful to this unstable 

generation, faithful to God, and faithful to my own conscience.  Let me, 

then, endeavor, and, by God's help, I will do it as solemnly and as tenderly 

as I can, to proclaim to you that have not yet repented, most affectionately 

reminding you of your future doom, if you should die without repenting of 

your sins.  "If a man does not repent, He will sharpen His sword."

         

In the first place, "what is the repenting here mean?"  In the second place, 

let us dwell on the "necessity there is for men's repenting, otherwise God 

will punish them;" and then, thirdly, let me remind you of the "means whereby 

men can be turned from the error of their ways, and the weakness and frailty 

of their nature amended by the power of divine grace."

         

I. In the first place, my listeners, let me endeavor to explain to you the 

NATURE OF THE REPENTING.  It says, "If a man does not repent, He will sharpen 

His sword."

To begin, then: the repenting here meant is genuine, not artificial--not that 

which stops with a bunch of promises and vows, but that which deals with the 

real acts of life.  Possibly one of you will say, this morning, "Look, I 

will turn to God; from this time forward I will not sin, but I will endeavor 

to walk in holiness; my vices shall be abandoned, my evil will be thrown the 

winds, and I will turn to God with a sincere heart;" but, maybe tomorrow you 

will have forgotten this; you will weep a tear or two under the preaching of 

God's word, but by tomorrow every tear shall have been dried, and you will 

utterly forget that you ever came to church at all.  

How many of us are like men who see their faces in a mirror, and walk away 

and forget what we looked like!  Yes, my friends, it is not your promise of 

repentance that can save you; it is not your vow, it is not your solemn 

declaration, it is not the tear that is dried more easily than the dew-drop 

by the sun; it is not the momentary emotion of the heart, which constitutes a 

real turning to God.  There must be a true and actual abandonment of sin, and 

a turning to righteousness in real act and deed in every day life.  Do you 

say you are sorry, and repent, and yet go on from day to day, just as you 

always have before?  Will you now bow your heads, and say, "Lord, I repent," 

and in a little while commit the same acts of sin again?  If you do, your 

repentance is worse than nothing, and will make your punishment even more 

sure; for he that makes a promise to his Maker, and does not keep his 

promise, has committed another sin, in that he has attempted to deceive the 

Almighty, and lie to the God that made him.  Repentance, to be true, to be 

evangelical, must be a repentance which really affects our outward behavior.

Next, repentance to be true "must be total."  How many will say, "Lord, I 

will give up this sin and the this other one; but there are certain favorite 

lusts which I must hang on to."  O friends, in God's name let me tell you, it 

is not the giving up of one sin, nor fifty sins, which is true repentance; it 

is the serious giving up of every sin.  If you conceal one of these accursed 

vipers in your heart, then your repentance is nothing but a fake.  If you 

indulge in only one lust, and give up every other, then that one lust, like 

one leak in a ship, will sink your soul.  It is not sufficient just to give 

up your outward sins; it is not enough just to give up the most wicked sin of 

your daily life; it is all or nothing which God demands "Repent" He says; and 

when he commands you to repent, He means, repent of all your sins, otherwise 

He never can accept your repentance as being real and genuine.  The truly 

repentant person hates all of their sins, not just certain ones.  He says, 

"Cover yourself with the finest gold, O sin, I will still hate you!  Yes, 

cover yourself with pleasure, make yourself flashy, like the snake with its 

turquoise scales--I still hate you, for I know your venom, and I run from 

you, even when you come to me in the most illusive clothing."  All sin must 

be given up, or else you will never have Christ; all evil must be renounced, 

or else the gates of heaven must be locked to keep you out forever.   Let us, 

remember, then, that for repentance to be sincere, it must be total 

repentance.

Again: when God says, "If a man does not repent, He will sharpen His sword,"   

He means "urgent" repentance.  You say, when we are nearing the end of our 

mortal life, and when we are entering the borders of the thick darkness of 

the future state, then we will change our ways.  But my dear listeners, do 

not delude yourselves.  Few have ever changed after a long life of sin.  

"Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots?"  If so, let 

him that is accustomed to doing evil learn to do well.  Put no faith in the 

repentance which you promised yourselves that you would declare on your death 

beds.  There are ten thousand arguments against one, that if you do not 

repent in health, you will never repent in sickness.  

Too many have promised themselves a quiet time before they leave the world, 

when they could turn their face to the wall and confess their sins; but how 

few have found that time of silence!  Don't men drop dead in the 

streets--yes, even in the church pew?  Don't they die at their places of 

employment?  And when death is gradual, it offers only a feeble time for 

repentance.  Many a Christian has said on his death bed, "O! if I had to now 

seek my God; if I had to now cry to Him for mercy, what would become of me? 

The pain of death is enough, without the agony of repentance.  It is enough 

to have the body tortured with the often pains of death, without having the 

soul torn with sorrow."  Sinners!  God said, "Today, if you hear my voice, do 

not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of 

testing in the desert, where your fathers tested and tried me."

When God the Holy Spirit convinces men of sin, they will never talk of 

delays.  You may never have another day to repent in.  Therefore, says the 

voice of wisdom, "repent now."  The Jewish rabbis said, "Let every man repent 

one day before he dies; and since he may die tomorrow, let him take heed to 

turn from his evil ways today."  Even so we say, immediate repentance is that 

which God demands, for He has never promised you that you will have any other 

hour to repent in, except the one that you now have. 

Furthermore; the repentance described here as being absolutely necessary is a 

sincere repentance.  It is not a phony tear; it is not hanging out the banner 

of grief, while you have frivolity in your hearts; it is not having a bright 

light within, and closing all the blinds on the windows by a pretended 

repentance.  It is the putting out the party candles in the heart; it is 

sorrow of soul, which is true repentance.  A man may renounce every outward 

sin, and yet not really repent.  True repentance, is a turning of the heart, 

as well as of the life; it is the giving up of the whole soul to God, to be 

His forever and ever; it is a renunciation of the sins of the heart, as well 

as the corruptions of the life.  

Yes! dear listeners, let none of us dream that we have repented when we have 

only made a false and make believe repentance; let none of us take that to be 

the work of the Spirit which is only the work of poor human nature; let us 

not dream that we have turned to God in true salvation, when, perhaps, we 

have only turned to ourselves.  And let us not think that it is enough to 

have turned from one vice to another, or from vice to virtue; let us remember 

it must be a turning of the whole soul, so that the old man is made new in 

Christ Jesus; otherwise we have not answered the requirements of the text--we 

have not turned to God.

And lastly on this point, this repentance must be "perpetual."  It is not my 

turning to God today that will be a proof that I am a true convert; it is the 

forsaking of my sin throughout my entire life, until I am laid in the grave. 

You need not dream that to be moral for a week will be proof that you are 

saved; it is a continuous rejection of evil.  The change which God works is 

neither a momentary nor a superficial change; not a simple cutting of the top 

of a weed, but a complete eradication of it; not the sweeping away of the 

dust of one day, but the taking away of that which is the cause of the 

defilement.  In olden times, when rich and generous kings came into their 

cities they made the fountains run with milk and wine; but the fountain was 

not therefore a fountain of milk and wine forever; tomorrow it will run with 

water as before.  

So today you may go home and pretend to pray; you may today be serious, 

tomorrow you may be honest, and the next day you may pretend to be devout; 

but if you return, as Scripture says it, "A dog returns to its vomit," and, 

"A sow that is washed goes back to her wallowing in the mud," your repentance 

will but sink you deeper into hell, instead of being a proof of divine grace 

in your hearts.

It is very hard to distinguish between legal repentance and evangelical 

repentance; however, there are certain marks by which they may be 

distinguished, and at the risk of tiring you, we will just notice one or two 

of them; and may God grant that you may find them in your own souls!  Legal 

repentance is a fear of damning; evangelical repentance is a fear of sinning.

  

Legal repentance makes us fear the wrath of God; evangelical repentance makes 

us fear the cause of that wrath--sin.  When a man repents with that grace of 

repentance which God the Spirit works in him, he repents not of the 

punishment which is to follow the deed, but of the deed itself; and he feels 

that even if there were no pit of Hell for the wicked; if there were no ever-

gnawing worm of torment, and no everlasting fire, he would still hate sin.  

It is such repentance as this which every one of you must have, or else you 

will be lost.  It must be a hatred of sin.  Do not suppose that because when 

it is your time to die that you will be afraid of eternal torment, therefore 

that will be repentance.  Every thief is afraid of the prison; but he will 

steal tomorrow if you set him free.  Most men who have committed murder 

tremble at the sight of the electric chair, but they would murder again if 

they were allowed to live.  It is not the hatred of the punishment that is 

repentance; it is the hatred of the sin itself.  Do you feel that you have 

such a repentance as that?  If not, these thundering words must be preached 

to you again--"If a man does not repent, He will sharpen His Sword" (NASB).

But one more point.  When a man is possessed of true and evangelical 

repentance, I mean the gospel repentance which saves the soul-he not only 

hates sin for its own sake, but despises it so extremely and utterly that he 

feels that no repentance, of his own can help to wash it out; and he 

acknowledges that it is only by an act of sovereign grace that his sins can 

be washed away.  Now, if any of you suppose that you repent of your sins and 

yet imagine that by a life of holy living you can blot them out; if you 

suppose that by walking uprightly in the future you can obliterate your past 

sins, you have not yet truly repented; for true repentance, makes a man feel 

that 

                         Could his zeal no rest know,

                         Could his tears forever flow,

                         All for sin could not atone;

                         Christ must save, and Christ alone.

         

And if your sin is so killed in you that you hate it as a corrupt and 

abominable thing, and you would bury it out of your sight, and feel that it 

could never be buried, unless Christ Himself shall dig the grave, then you 

have repented of sin.  We must humbly confess that we deserve God's wrath, 

and that we cannot prevent it by any works of our own; and we must put our 

trust solely and entirely in the blood and accomplishments of Jesus Christ.  

If you have not repented in this way, again we shout in the words of David, 

"If a man does not repent, He will sharpen His sword."  

II.  And now the second point: it is even a more terrible one to dwell upon, 

and if I went by my own feelings I would not even mention it; but we must not 

consider our feelings in the work of the ministry, any more than we should if 

we were physicians of men's bodies.  We must sometimes use the knife, when we 

feel that they would die without it.  We must frequently make sharp gashes 

into men's consciences, in the hope that the Holy Spirit will bring them to 

life.  We declare, then, that there is a NECESSITY that God should sharpen 

His sword and punish men, if they will not "turn" from their sins.  Earnest 

Baxter used to say, "Sinner! turn or burn; it is your only alternative; TURN, 

or BURN!"  And it is true.  I think I can show you why men must "turn" from 

their sins, or else they will "burn" for their sins.

         

1.  First, we cannot expect that the God of the Bible would allow sin to go 

unpunished.  Some may imagine it; they may dream their intellects into a 

state intoxication, so as to fantasize a God apart from justice; but no man 

who has any common sense, can imagine a God without justice.  You cannot 

conceive of a good king or of a good government that could exist without 

Justice, much less of God, the Judge and King of all the earth, without 

justice in His heart.  To imagine Him all love, and no justice, would be to 

make Him less than God.  He would not be capable of ruling this world if He 

had not justice in His heart.  There is in man a natural perception of the 

fact, that if God exists, He must be just; and I can cannot imagine that you 

can believe in a God, without believing also in the punishment of sin.  It 

would be difficult to imagine Him elevated high above His creatures, seeing 

all their disobedience, and yet looking with the same composure upon the good 

and upon the evil; you cannot imagine Him giving the same reward of praise to 

the wicked and to the righteous.  The idea of God, assumes justice; and when 

you say the word "justice" it would be the same as saying the word "God."

2.  But to imagine that there will be no punishment for sin, and that man 

can be saved without repentance, is to deny all the Scriptures.  What! are 

the records of divine history nothing?  And if they be true, then God must 

have God changed drastically, if He no longer punishes sin?  What! did He 

once rebuke Eden, and drive our parents out of that happy garden, on 

account of a little theft, as man would class it?  Did He drown the world 

with water and inundate creation with the floods that He had buried in the 

heart of the earth?  And will He not punish sin?

Let the burning fire which fell on Sodom testify to you that God is just; 

let the open mouth of the earth which swallowed up Korah, Dathan, and 

Abiram, warn you that He will not spare the guilty; let the mighty works of 

God which He did in the Red Sea, the wonders which He brought on Pharaoh, 

and the miraculous destruction which he brought on Sennacherib, tell you 

that God is just.  And would it be out of place for me to mention in the 

same argument th judgments of God even in our own age; but have there never 

been such?  This world is not the dungeon where God punishes sin, but still 

there are instances in which we cannot but believe that He actually did 

avenge it.  I do not believe that every accident is a judgment; I am far 

from believing that the death of men and women in a burning theater 

building is a punishment upon them for their sin, since the same thing has 

occurred in divine service, to our perpetual sorrow.  

I believe judgment is reserved for the next world; I could not account for 

providence, if I believed that God punishes here, "Those eighteen who died 

when the tower in Siloam fell on them--do you think they were more guilty 

than all the others living in Jerusalem?  I tell you, no!"  It has injured 

religion for men to say, for instance, that because a boat capsized and the 

people in it were drowned on the Lord's Day that it was a judgment on those 

persons.  We assuredly believe that it was sinful to spend the day in 

pleasure rather than being with God's people in fellowship in the church, 

but we deny, that it was a punishment from God.  God usually reserves His  

punishment for a future state; but yet, we say, there have been a few 

instances in which we cannot but believe that men and women have been 

punished for their sins in this life through God's providence.  

I remember one which I hesitate to relate to you.  I saw the wretched 

creature myself.  He had dared to call down on his head the most awful 

curses that man could utter.  In his rage and fury he said that he wished 

his head were twisted on one side, that his eyes were put out, and that his 

jaws were locked: a moment afterward the lash of his whip--with which he 

had been cruelly treating his horse--entered his eye, brought on first 

inflammation, and then lock-jaw, and when I saw him he was just in the very 

position in which he had asked to be placed, for his head was twisted 

around, his eyesight was gone, and he could not speak except through his 

closed teeth.  

You will remember a similar instance happening at Davizes, where a woman 

declared that she had paid the price of a sack of grain, when in fact she 

had the money hidden in her hand, and she immediately fell down dead on the 

spot.  Some of these may have been singular coincidences; but I am not so 

naive as to suppose that they were brought about by chance, I think the 

will of the Lord was in it.  I believe they were some faint indications 

that God was just, and that although the full shower of His wrath does not 

fall on men in this life, He does pour a drop or two on them, to let us see 

how He will one day punish the world for its sin.

3.  But why do I have to bring these arguments to you, my listeners?  Your 

own consciences will tell you that God must punish sin.  You may laugh at me, 

and say that you have no such "belief."  I did not say you had, but I said 

that your conscience tells you so, and conscience has more power over men 

than what they think to be their belief.  As John Bunyan said, "Mr. 

Conscience had a very loud voice, and though Mr. Understanding shut himself 

up in a dark room where he could not see, yet he used to thunder out so 

loudly in the streets, that Mr. Understanding used to shake in his house 

through what Mr. Conscience said."  And it is true so often.  You say in your 

understanding, "I cannot believe God will punish sin;" but you know He will.  

You don't want to confess your secret fears because to do so would be to give 

up what you have so often most bravely asserted.  But because you assert it 

with such boasting and high-sounding words, I think you don't really believe 

it, for if you did, you would not need to look so big while saying it.  I 

know this, that when you are sick or hurt that you cry out for mercy.  I 

know that when you are dying you will believe in a hell.  Conscience makes 

cowards of us all, and makes us believe, even when we say we don't, that God 

must punish sin.

              

Let me tell you a story; I have told it before, but it is a striking one, and 

sets out in a true light how easily men will be brought in times of danger to 

believe in a God, and a God of justice too, though they have denied Him 

before.  In the backwoods of Canada there lived a good minister, who one 

evening went out to meditate, as Isaac did, in the fields.  He soon found 

himself on the borders of a forest, which he entered, and walked along a path 

which had been walked on before him; meditating, and still meditating, until 

at last the shadows of twilight gathered around him, and he began to think 

how might have to spend the night in the forest.  He trembled at the idea of 

remaining there, with the poor shelter of a tree that he would be compelled 

to climb.  

All of a sudden he saw a light in the distance, among the trees, and thinking 

that it might be from the window of some cottage where he would find a 

hospitable retreat, he hurried to it, and, to his surprise saw a space 

cleared, and trees laid down to make a platform, and upon it a speaker 

addressing a multitude.  He thought to himself, "I have stumbled on a crowd 

of people, who in this dark forest have assembled to worship God, and some 

minister is preaching to them, at this late hour of the evening, concerning 

the kingdom of God, and His righteousness;" but to his surprise and horror, 

when he came nearer, he found a young speaking loudly against God, daring the 

Almighty to do His worst upon him, speaking terrible things in anger against 

the justice of the Most High, and venturing most bold and awful assertions 

concerning his own disbelief in a future state.  

It was altogether a extraordinary scene; it was lighted up by a fire of pine-

knots which cast a glare here and there, while the thick darkness in other 

places still reigned.  The people were intent on listening to the speaker, 

and when he sat down thunders of applause were given to him; each one seeming 

to emulate the other in his praise.  The minister thought to himself, "I must

not let this pass; I must rise and speak; the honor of my God and His cause 

demands it."  But he was afraid to speak, for he did not know what to say, 

having come there suddenly; but he would have spoken anyway, had not 

something else occurred.  A man of middle age, robust and strong, rose, and 

leaning on his staff, he said: "My friends, I have a word to speak to you 

tonight.  I am not about to refute any of the arguments of the speaker; I 

shall not criticize his style; I shall say nothing concerning what I believe 

to be the blasphemies he has uttered; but I shall simply relate to you a 

fact, and after I have done that you shall draw your own conclusions."

"Yesterday I walked by the side of the river over there; I saw on its waters a 

young man in a boat.  The boat was out of control; it was going fast toward 

the rapids; he could not use the oars, and I saw that he was not capable of 

bringing the boat to the shore.  I saw that young man wring his hands in 

agony; in a little while he gave up the attempt to save his life, kneeled 

down and cried with a desperate sincerity, 'O God! save my soul!  If my  

body can't be saved, save my soul.'  I heard him confess that he had been a 

blasphemer; I heard him vow that if his life were spared he would never be 

such again; I heard implore the mercy of heaven for Jesus Christ's sake, and 

earnestly plead that he might be washed in His blood.  These arms saved that 

young man from the river, I dove in, brought the boat to shore, and saved his 

life.  That same young man has just now addressed you, and cursed his Maker.  

What do you say, Sirs?"

The speaker sat down.  You may guess what a shudder ran through the young man 

himself, and how the audience in one moment changed their mind, and saw that 

after all, while it was a fine thing to brag and boast against Almighty God 

on dry land, and when danger was distant, it was not quite so grand to think 

ill of Him when near the verge of the grave.  We believe there is enough 

conscience in every man to convince him that God must punish him for his sin; 

therefore we think that our text will awaken an echo in every heart.--"If a 

man does not repent, He will sharpen His sword" (NASB).

I am tired of this terrible work of endeavoring to show you that God must 

punish sin; let me just speak a few of the declarations of His holy word, and 

then let me tell you how repentance is "obtained."  O, sirs, you may think 

that the fire of hell is indeed a fiction, and that the flames of the pit 

that lies beneath the earth's surface are but someone's dreams; but if you 

are believers in the Bible you must believe that hell is real.  Did not our 

Master say: "Where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched?" 

You say it is metaphorical fire.  But what did He mean by this: "Be afraid of 

the one who can destroy both soul and body in hell."  Is it not written, that 

there is reserved for the devil and his angels dreadful torment?  And do you 

not know that our Master said: "They will go away to eternal punishment;" 

"Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire, prepared for the 

devil and his angels?"  "Yes," you say, "but it is not philosophical to 

believe that there is a hell; it does not match with reason to believe there 

is."  However, I would like to act as if there were, even if there is no such 

place; for as a poor and pious man once said to a person who did not believe 

in hell, "Sir, I like to have two strings to my bow.  If there should be no 

hell then I shall be as well off as you will be; but if there should be a 

hell then it will be terrible for you."  But why do I need to say "if?"  You 

know there is.  

There is not a man who has been born and educated in this land whose 

conscience does not know that the existence of hell is a reality.  All I need 

to do is to press upon your anxious consideration this thought: Do you feel 

that you are a fit subject for heaven now?  Do you feel that God has changed 

your heart and renewed your nature?  If not, I beg you lay hold of the 

thought, that unless you are born again then all that can be dreadful in the 

torments of the future world must inevitably be yours.  Dear listener, apply 

it to yourself, not to your fellow men, but to your own conscience, and may 

God Almighty make use of it to bring you to repentance.

         

III.  Now, briefly, what are the MEANS of repentance?  Most seriously I say, 

I do not believe any man, in himself, can repent with evangelical repentance.  

You ask me then for what purpose was the sermon I have just endeavored to 

preach, proving the necessity of repentance?  Allow me to make the sermon of 

some purpose, under God, by its conclusion.  

Sinner!  You are so desperately set on sin, that I have no hope that you will  

ever turn from it of yourself.  But, listen!  He who died on Calvary is 

exalted on high "to give repentance and forgiveness of sin."  Do you this 

morning feel that you are a sinner?  If so, ask Christ to give you 

repentance, for He can work repentance in your heart by His Spirit, though 

you can't work it there yourself.  Is your heart like iron?  He can put it 

into the furnace of his love and make it melt.  Is your soul like a very hard 

rock?  His grace is able to dissolve it, like the ice is melted before the 

sun.  He can make you repent, though you can't make yourself repent.  If you 

feel your need of repentance, I will not now say to you "repent," for I 

believe there are certain acts that must precede a sense of repentance.  I 

advise you to go to your homes, and if you feel that you have sinned, and yet 

cannot sufficiently repent of your sin, bow your knees before God and confess 

your sins; tell Him you cannot repent as you should; tell Him your heart is 

hardened; tell Him it is cold as ice.  You "can" do that if God has made you 

feel your need of a Savior.  Then if it should be laid on your heart to 

endeavor to seek after repentance, I will tell you the best way to find it.  

Spend an hour first in trying to remember your sins; and when conviction has 

gotten a firm hold on you, then spend another hour--where?  At Calvary, my 

listener.  Sit down and read that chapter which contains the history and 

mystery of the God that loved and died; sit down and think you see that 

glorious Man, with blood dripping from His hands, and His feet gushing rivers 

of blood; and if that does not make you repent, with the help of God's 

Spirit, then I know of nothing that can.  An old preacher once said: "If you 

feel that you do not love God, love Him till you feel you do; if you think 

you cannot believe, believe Him till you feel you believe."  Many a man says 

he cannot repent while he is repenting.  Keep on with that repentance, till 

you feel you have repented.  Only acknowledge your sins; confess your 

guiltiness; admit that He would be just if He should destroy you; and say 

this, solemnly,

                        My faith lay its hand

                        On that dear head of yours,

                        While, like a penitent, I stand,

                        And there confess my sin.

         

O! what would I give if one of my listener should be blessed by God to go 

home, and repent!  If I had worlds to buy one of your souls, I would readily 

give them, if I might but bring one of you to Christ.  I shall never forget 

the hour when God's mercy first looked on me.  It was in a place very 

different from this, among a despised people, in an insignificant little 

chapel of a peculiar sect.  I went there bowed down with guilt, laden with 

sins.  The minister walked up the pulpit stairs, opened his Bible, and read 

that precious text: "Turn to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth; for 

I am God, and there is no other;" and, as I thought, fixing his eyes on me, 

before he began to preach to others, he said: "Young man! Turn! Turn! Turn! 

You are one of the ends of the earth; you feel you are; you know your need of 

a Savior; you are trembling because you think He will never save you.  He 

says this morning 'Turn!'"  

O how my soul was shaken within me then!  What! I thought, does that man know 

me, and all about me?  He seemed as if he did.  And it made me "look!"  Well, 

I thought, lost or saved, I will try; sink or swim, I will run the risk of 

it; and in that moment by His grace I turned to Jesus, and though desponding, 

downcast, and ready to despair, and feeling that I would rather die than live 

as I had lived, at that very moment it seemed as if a new heaven had had its 

birth within my conscience.  I went home, no longer cast down; those who saw 

me, noticing the change, asked me why I was so glad, and I told them I had 

believed in Jesus, and that it was written, "Therefore, there is now no 

condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus 

the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death."  O! 

if one such person like I was should be here this morning.  Where are you, 

you chief of sinners, you vilest of the vile?  My dear listener, you have 

never been in church perhaps these last twenty years; but here you are 

covered with your sins, the blackest and vilest of all!  Hear God's Word.  

"Come now, let us reason together, though your sins are like scarlet, they 

shall be as white as snow; though they are as red as crimson, they shall be 

like wool."  And all this for Jesus' sake; all this for His blood's sake!  

"Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved;" for His word and mandate  

is: "Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not 

believe will be condemned."

             Sinner, TURN from your sins or BURN for your sins! 

                   

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