A Call to the Unconverted to Turn and Live,

And accept of MERCY, while MERCY may be had;
as ever they will find MERCY, in the Day of their EXTREMITY
from the Living God.

Part 3

by Richard Baxter (1615-1691)

"Say to them, 'As I live,' says the Lord God, 'I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way, and live.  Turn, Turn from your evil ways!  For why should you die, O house of Israel ."  Ezekiel 33:11

 

Table of Contents

A Short Account About the Author

Preface by the Author

Sermon 1: The Certainty of Judgment Apart from Repentance

Sermon 2: The Earnestness of God's Offer of Forgiveness

Sermon 3:  God’s Condescension in His Offer of Forgiveness

Sermon 4:  Man’s Willfulness in His Own Damnation

 

Sermon 2
The Earnestness of God’s Offer of Forgiveness

Ezek. 33:11.  "Say to them: ‘As I live,’ says the Lord GOD, ‘I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways! For why should you die, O house of Israel?’"

A TRUE description of those who are in a converted state has already been given to you; the change which conversion makes in the soul has also been described; and the request is most earnestly repeated to you, so that you might impartially and thoroughly consider your condition.  Please do not rest satisfied, until you know whether you are indeed converted!  But perhaps you will now say, what if we should find ourselves yet unconverted, what shall we do then?—This question leads me to my second doctrine, which I hope will answer that question. 

Doctrine 2. It is the promise of God that the wicked shall live, if they will just turn; sincerely and thoroughly turn.

The Lord tells us here what He takes pleasure in:  that the wicked would turn and live. Heaven is as sure to the converted as hell is to the unconverted. "Turn and live" is as certain a truth as "turn, or die."  God was not under any obligation to provide for us a Savior, nor to open for us a door of hope, nor to call us to repent and turn after we had already cast ourselves away by sin; but He has freely done so to magnify His mercy. Sinners, not one of you shall have reason to go home and say that I preach despair to you. Is it we who are shutting up the door of mercy against you, or is it you who would shut it up against yourselves?  Are we telling you that God will have no mercy on you, even if you turn and be sanctified?  When did you ever hear a preacher say that there is no hope for you, though you repent and be converted? No, it is the opposite that we proclaim from the Lord, that whoever is born again, and by faith and repentance becomes a new creature, shall certainly be saved.  And so far are we from persuading you to despair of this, that we persuade you not to make any doubt of it!

It is life, not death, that is the first part of our message to you.  Our commission is to offer salvation, certain salvation, speedy, glorious, and everlasting salvation, to every one of you: to the poorest beggar as well as the greatest Lord; to the worst of you, even to drunkards, swearers, worldlings, thieves, and despisers and reproachers of the holy way of salvation. We are commanded by the Lord our master to offer you a pardon for everything past, if you will but now at last return and live.  We are commanded to beg and plead with you to accept the offer, to tell you what preparations are made by Christ, what mercy and patience await you, what thoughts of kindness God has towards you, and how happy, how certainly and unspeakably happy, you may be, if you will just turn and live. 

On the other hand, we have indeed also a message of wrath and death, yes, even of a two-fold wrath and death; but neither of them is our principal message.  But we must tell you of the wrath that is on you already, and the death that you are born under, for your breaking of God's Law, and that it is you who have brought this death upon yourselves.   We tell you also of another death, a second death, and the torments which will fall on those who will not be converted, a misery which then will have no remedy.  But our telling you of your misery is not merely to make you miserable, but to drive you to seek for God's mercy, and to provoke you to seek the grace of the Redeemer. And we tell you nothing but the truth, which you must know, for who will seek for a doctor who does not know that he is sick? But, as this is true, and must be told you, so it is but the last and saddest part of our message.

Indeed, we are first to offer you mercy if you will turn; and it is only those who will not turn, or hear the voice of mercy, to whom we must foretell damnation. Will you not cast away your transgressions, delay no longer, and come away at the call of Christ, and be converted, and become new creatures?  If so, we have not a word of damning wrath or death to speak against you.  I do here in the name of the Lord of life, proclaim to you, all who hear me today, even to the greatest and the oldest sinner, that you may have mercy and salvation, if you will but turn. There is mercy in God, there is sufficiency in the satisfaction of Christ, the promise is free, and full, and universal; you may have life, if you will but turn!

But with that said, remember, if you love your souls, what "turning" the scripture speaks of. It is not to mend the old house, but to pull down all, and build anew on Christ, the rock and sure foundation. It is not to mend somewhat in a carnal course of life, but to mortify the flesh, and live after the spirit. It is not to serve the flesh and the world, in a more reformed way, without any scandalous disgraceful sins, and with a certain kind of "religiousness."  It is to change your master, and your works, and your purposes, and to set your face the opposite way, and dedicate yourselves and all you have to God. This is the change that must be made, if you will live.
If you ask, Where is your commission for this offer? Why, in addition to my text, I find it in a hundred texts of scripture, of which I will show you just a few: 

You see, then, that we are commanded to offer life to you all, and to tell you from God, that if you will turn, you may live.  Here you may safely trust your souls; for the love of God is the fountain of this offer (John 3:16), and the blood of the Son of God has purchased it.  The faithfulness and truth of God are engaged to make the promise good; miracles have sealed up the truth of it; preachers are sent into the world to proclaim it; the sacred ordinances of baptism and communion are instituted for the solemn delivery of the mercy offered to those that will accept it; and the Spirit of God opens the heart to receive it and is the down payment of the full possession.  Indeed, the truth of this message is past controversy: that the worst of you all, and every one of you, if you will only be converted, may be saved.

On the other hand, if you believe that you shall be saved without conversion, then you believe a falsehood; and, if I preach that to you, I preach a lie.  To believe this is to not believe God, but to believe the devil and your own deceitful hearts.  God has his promise of life, and the devil has his promise of life. God’s promise is, “return and live”; the devil’s promise is, “you shall live, whether you turn or not.”  The word of God, as I have shown you, is, “Unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:3); "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God" (John 3:3); “Without holiness no one shall see the Lord” (Hebrews 12:14). 

The devil’s word is, “you may be saved without being born again and converted; you may do well enough without being holy; God is only frightening you; He really is more merciful than to actually do as He says; He will be better to you than his Word.”  And, alas!  The greater part of the world believes this word of the devil before the word of God.  It is today just as when our sin and misery came into the world when God said to our first parents, “if ye eat you shall die," and the devil contradicted him and said, “You shall not die, if you just cry, 'God have mercy' afterwards, and give up your acts of sin when you can no longer practice it.” And this is the word that the world believes.  O heinous wickedness, to believe the devil before God!

And yet it is even worse, when they blasphemously claim to believe and trust in God, and to say they believe in Him for salvation, when they believe the word of God is a lie, and put God in the shape of Satan, who was a liar from the beginning.  Where did ever God say, that the unregenerate, unconverted, unsanctified, shall be saved?  Show such a word in Scripture. I challenge you, if you can. Why, this is the devil’s word, and to believe it is to believe the devil, and commit the sin of presumption!  And do you call this a believing and trusting God? There is everything in the word of God to comfort and strengthen the hearts of the sanctified: but not a word to strengthen the hands of wickedness, nor to give men the least hope of being saved, though they have never been sanctified.

But, if you will turn, and come into the way of mercy, the mercy of the Lord is ready to entertain you. Then, when you have turned, you may trust God for salvation boldly; for He is engaged by his word to save you. He will be a father to none but his children, and he will save none but those that forsake the world, the devil, and the flesh, and come into his family to be members of his Son, and have communion with his saints. But, if they will not come in, it is the fault of their own selves. His doors are open, he keeps none back. He never sent such a message as this to any of you, “It was now too late; I will not receive you though you are converted.”  Indeed, He might have done so, and done no wrong, but He did not, and He does not to this day.  He is still ready to receive you, if you are sincerely and with all your heart ready to turn.  And the fullness of this truth will appear more in the two following doctrines, to which I will proceed before I make any farther application of this.

Doctrine 3.  God takes pleasure in man’s conversion and salvation, but not in their death or damnation.  He would rather that they would turn and live, than go on and die.

Consider now the following propositions.  We say of God that the simple will, or love of God, is towards all that is naturally or morally good according to the nature and degree of its goodness. And so He has pleasure in the conversion and salvation of all, although that will never come to pass.  But God, as ruler and law-giver of the world, has a practical will for their salvation so as to prepare for them a free deed of the gift of Christ and life, and an act of amnesty for all their sin, if they will not unthankfully reject it, and He commands His messengers to offer this gift to all the world, and persuade them to accept it. And so He does all that, as a lawgiver or promiser, for their salvation.

But yet, as Lawgiver, He resolves that they who will not turn shall die, and, as Judge, when their day of grace is past, he will execute that decree.  So that, though he genuinely desires the conversion of those who will never be converted, He does not do so as absolute Lord, as a thing which He determines shall certainly come to pass or that He would engage all his power to accomplish. It is in the power of a prince to set a guard upon a murderer, to see that he shall not murder and be hanged.  But, if with good reason he refrains from this, and instead sends to his subjects to warn and entreat them not to be murderers, he may well say that he would not have them murder and be hanged.  He takes no pleasure in it, but rather that they forbear and live.  The king may well say to all the murderers and felons in the land, “I have no pleasure in your death, but rather that you would obey my laws and live: But if you will not, I have resolved for all this, that you shall die.”  And the judge may truly say to the thief or murderer, “I have no delight in your death: I would rather that you had kept the law and saved your life: but seeing you have not, I must condemn you, or else I would be unjust.”

So, though God has no pleasure in your damnation, He therefore calls upon you to return and live; yet He also must carry out a demonstration of His own justice, and execute His own laws; and therefore He has fully resolved that if you will not be converted, you shall be condemned.  Here is a hard truth:  for if God were so much against the death of the wicked that He resolved to do all He could do to hinder it, then no one would be condemned.  But whereas Christ tells us that few will be saved, we are warned that, though God is so against your damnation that He will teach you and warn you, and set before you life and death, and offer you your choice, and command His ministers to entreat you not to damn yourselves, but accept His mercy, if you refuse His entreaties, you are without excuse if you perish. If after all His efforts, you still will not be converted, he professes to you that He is resolved on your damnation, and has commanded us to say to you in his name, (Ezekiel 33:18), “O wicked man, you will surely die!” And Christ Himself has also sworn it over and over, with “Unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:3), and "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God" (John 3:3).  Without conversion, It is in vain to hope for Christ's Kingdom, and in vain to dream that God is willing for it, for it is a thing that cannot be.

In a word, you see then the meaning of the text, that God, the great law giver of the world, doth take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn and live; Though as a Judge, He delights in justice and in manifesting His hatred of sin, and thus is resolved that none shall live but those who turn, He does not delight in the misery which those who do not turn have brought upon themselves, as is indicated in the following passages of Scripture:

1. The very gracious nature of God, proclaimed, Exod. 34:6 and 20:6, and frequently elsewhere, may assure you of this, that he has no pleasure in your death.

2. If God had more pleasure in your death than in your conversion and life, He would not have so frequently commanded you in His Word to turn; He would not have made you such promises of life, if you would only turn; and He would not have reasoned with you with so many reasons. The nature of His gospel proves the point.
3.  His commission to the ministers of the gospel also fully proves it. If God had taken more pleasure in your damnation than in thy conversion and salvation, He would never have charged us to offer you mercy, and to teach you the way of life, both publicly and privately; and to entreat you to turn and live, and to acquaint you with your sins, and foretell you of your danger, and to do all we can possibly do for your conversion, and to continue patiently so doing, though you should hate or abuse us for our pains. Would God have done this, and appointed His ordinances for your good, if He had taken pleasure in your death?

4. It is proved also by the course of His providence. If God had rather you were damned than converted and saved, He would not reinforce His word with his works, and entice you to Himself with His daily kindnesses, and give you all the mercies of this life, which are His means to lead you to repentance (Romans 2:4).  He would not bring you so often under his rod to force you to your wits. He would not set so many examples before your eyes, or wait on you so patiently as He does, from day to day, and year to year.

These are not signs of one that takes pleasure in your death.  If this had been His delight, how easily could he have had you long ago in hell? How often before this could He have caught you away in the midst of your sins, at the very moment you had a curse or a lie in your mouth, in the midst of your ignorance, and pride, and sensuality? When you were last in your drunkenness, or last mocking the ways of God, how easily could He have stopped your breath, and tamed you with his plagues, and made you sober in another world where the fire is not quenched?  Alas! how small a matter is it for the Almighty to rule the tongue of the profanest blasphemer, and tie the hands of the most malicious persecutor, or calm the fury of the bitterest of His enemies, and make them know that they are but worms? If He should frown upon you, you would drop into your grave. If He gave commission to one of his angels to go and destroy ten thousand sinners, how quickly would it be done.

How easily can He lay you upon the bed of languishing, and make you lie agonizing there in pain, and make you eat the words of reproach which you have spoken against His people, his Word, His worship, and His holy ways, and make you to beg the prayers of those whom you despised in your presumption! How easily can He lay your flesh under pains and groans, and make it too weak to hold your soul, and make it more loathsome than the dung of the earth!  That flesh, which now must have what it loves, and must not be denied even though God be denied, and must be gratified with food, drink, and clothes, whatever God says to the contrary, how quickly would the frowns of God consume it?

When you were passionately defending your sin, and quarrelling with them that would have drawn you from it, and showing your arrogance against those who tried to reprove you, and chasing the works of darkness, how easily could God have snatched you away in a moment, and set you before his dreadful Majesty, where you would see ten thousand times ten thousand glorious angels waiting on his throne, and have called you there to plead your case, and asked you, “Now what do you have to say against your Creator, His truth, His servants, or His holy ways? Now plead your case, and make the best of it that you can. Now what can you say in excuse of your sins? Now give account of your worldliness and fleshly life, of your time, of all the mercies you have had!” O, how your stubborn heart would have melted, and your proud looks be taken down, and your countenance turned pale, and your stout words changed into speechless silence, or dreadful cries, if God had merely set you at His bar, and pleaded His own cause with you, which on earth you have so maliciously pleaded against! How easily could He at any time say to your guilty soul, “Come away, and live in that flesh no more,” and it cannot resist! A word of His mouth would take the poise out of your present life, and then all your parts and powers would stand still.  And, if He said unto yiou, “Live no longer, or live in hell,” you could not disobey.

But God has not yet done any of this, but has mercifully upheld you, and given you that breath which you have breathed out against him, and given those mercies which you have sacrificed to thy flesh, and afforded you those provisions which you spent to satisfy your greedy throat; He gave you every minute of that time which you wasted in idleness, or drunkenness, or worldliness: and does not all of His patience and mercy show that He did not desire your damnation? Can the candle burn without the oil? Can your houses stand without the earth to bear them? You could as well live one hour without the support of God! And why did He support thy life so long, if not to see when you would consider the folly of your ways, and turn and live. Will anyone purposely put weapons into his enemy’s hands to resist him, or give light  to a murderer who is killing his children, or assist an idle servant who plays or sleeps away his time of employment? Surely it is to see whether you will at last return and live, that God has for so long waited on you.

5. It is farther proved, by the suffering of His Son, that God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked. Would He have ransomed them from death at so dear a rate? Would He have astonished angels and men by His condescension? Would God have dwelt in flesh, and have come in the form of a servant, and have assumed humanity into one person with the Godhead? And would Christ have lived a life of suffering, and died a cursed death for sinners, if He had rather taken pleasure in their death? Suppose you saw Him so busy in preaching and healing of them, such as you find him in Mark 3:21, or so long in fasting as in Matthew chapter 4, or all night in prayer, as in Luke 6:12, or praying with the drops of blood trickling from him instead of sweat, as in Luke 22:44, or suffering a cursed death upon the cross, and pouring out His soul as a sacrifice for our sins.  Would you have thought these the signs of one that delighted in the death of the wicked?

And do not think to excuse yourself by saying that it was done only for His elect; for it was your sin, and the sin of all the world, that lay upon our Redeemer; and His sacrifice and satisfaction is sufficient for all, and the fruits of it are offered to one as well as another: but it is true, that it was never the intent of His mind to pardon and save any who would not by faith and repentance be converted. If you had seen and heard Him weeping and bemoaning the state of disobedient, impenitent people, as in Luke 14:41-42, or complaining of their stubbornness, as in Matthew 23:37 when He cried, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!"  Or, if you had seen and heard Him on the cross praying for his persecutors, “Father, forgive them, for they do know not what they are doing,” would you have suspected that He had delighted in the death of the wicked, even of those that perish by their willful unbelief? When God has so loved, (not only loved, but so loved) the world, as to give His only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him, by an effectual faith, should not perish, but have everlasting life; I think he has hereby proved, against the malice of men and devils, that He takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but would rather that they would turn and live.

6. Take the Word of Him who best knows His own mind, if nothing else will satisfy you, or at least believe His oath.

But this leads me the fourth doctrine:

Doctrine 4. The Lord has confirmed to us by His oath, that he has no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that he would turn and live.  By this, He leaves man no valid reason to question the truth of it.

If you dare question His word, I hope you do not dare question His oath. As Christ has solemnly protested that the unregenerate and unconverted cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 18:3, John 3:3), so God has sworn that His pleasure is not in their death, but in their conversion and life. This truth is given in Hebrews 6:13, 16-18: 

For when God made a promise to Abraham, because He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself…For men indeed swear by the greater, and an oath for confirmation is for them an end of all dispute.  Thus God, determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath, that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us.  This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast…

Application

I plead with you, if you are an unconverted sinner hearing these words, that you would ponder a little on the doctrines I have preached, and consider awhile who it is that takes pleasure in your sin and damnation! Certainly it is not God.  He has sworn, for His part, that He takes no pleasure in it, so you dare not say that you drink, and swear, and neglect holy duties, and quench the motion of the Spirit, to please God! To say that is to reproach the prince, and break his laws, and seek his death, and say you did all this to please him.

Who is it then that takes pleasure in your sin and death? Certainly none who bear the image of God, for they must be like-minded to him. God knows it is no pleasure to your faithful teachers to see you serve your deadly enemy, and madly risk your eternal condition, and willfully run into the flames of hell. It is no pleasure to them to see in your souls such blindness, hard-heartedness, carelessness and presumption, such willfulness in evil, such unteachableness and stiffness against the ways of life and peace. They know these are marks of death, and of the wrath of God, and they know from the Word of God what will be the end of them who evidence them; and therefore it is no more a pleasure to them than it would be for a tender physician to see the plague-marks break out upon his patient. Alas! To foresee your everlasting torments, and know not how to prevent them! To see how near you are to hell, and be unable to make you believe it, and consider it! To see how easily, how certainly you might escape that judgment, if we knew but how to make you willing! How favorable you are for everlasting salvation, if you would only turn make it the care and business of your lives! But you will not do it.

If our lives lay on it, we cannot persuade you to it.  We study day and night to consider what to say to you, that may convince you and persuade you, and yet it is undone.  We lay before you the Word of God, and show you the very chapter and verse where it is written, that you cannot be saved unless you are converted, and yet we leave most of you as we find you.  We hope you will believe the Word of God, though you will not believe us, and that you will regard it when we show you the plain Scripture for it. But we hope in vain, and labor in vain, as to seeing any saving change upon your hearts. And do you think that this is a pleasant thing to us?  Often in secret prayer we complain to God with sad hearts, “Alas! Lord, we have spoken to them in your name, but they barely hear us; we have told them what you commanded us tell them concerning the danger of an unconverted state, but they do not believe us; we have told them that you hast protested that 'there is no peace to the wicked' (Isaiah 48: 22 and 57:21).  But the worst of them all will scarcely believe that they are wicked.  We have shown them in your Word where you have said, 'For if you live according to the flesh you will die' (Rom. 8:13), and they often say they will believe in you, when in fact they will not believe you; they say they will trust in you, when they give no credit to your Word; and they say that they have hope in God, when in fact their hope is only that the threatenings of your Word are not really true. 

Though we show them where you have said that when a wicked man dies, all his hopes perish, yet we cannot pry them from their deceitful hopes (Proverbs 11:7).  We tell them what a contemptible, unprofitable thing sin is, but they love it, and therefore will not leave it.  We tell them how dear a price they pay for this pleasure, and that they must pay for it in everlasting torment; and still they bless themselves, and will not believe it; but will do as the most do.  And because God is merciful and does not judge them immediately, they will not believe him, but will risk their souls, come of it what will. We tell them how ready the Lord is to receive them; and this just makes them delay their repentance and be bolder in their sin. 

Some of them say they intend to repent, but they are still the same; or some say they have repented already, while yet they are not converted from their sins. We exhort them, we beg of them, we offer them our help, but we cannot prevail with them:  they that were drunkards are drunkards still; and they that were voluptuous flesh-pleasing wretches are such still; and they that were in love with the world are worldlings still; and they that were ignorant, and proud, and self-conceited, are so still.  Few of them will see and confess their sin, and fewer will forsake it, for they prefer to comfort themselves that all are sinners, as if there were no difference between a converted sinner and an unconverted.

Some of them will not come near us when we are willing to instruct them, but think they have enough already, and do not need our instruction; and some of them will give us the hearing, and then do whatever they wish; and most of them are like dead men who cannot feel; so that, when we tell them of matters of everlasting consequence, we cannot get a word of it to their hearts. If we do not obey them and humor them by telling them what they want to hear, and by giving them the Lord’s Supper, and by doing all that they would have us to do, however much those things are against the word of God, they will hate us, and berate us.  

They would have us disobey God, and damn our own souls to please them, and yet they will not turn and save their own souls to please God!  They are wiser in their own eyes than all their teachers; they rage and are confident in their own way, and, plead with them as we will, we cannot change them.  We see them ready to drop into hell, and we cannot help it; we know that if they would honestly and thoroughly turn they might be saved, but we cannot persuade them.  If we would beg it of them on our knees, we cannot persuade them to it; if we would beg it of them with tears, we cannot persuade them; and what more can we do?”

These are the secret complaints and moans that many a poor minister is likely to make. And do you think that he has any pleasure in this? Is it a pleasure to him to see you go on in sin, and have no power to stop you? To see you so miserable, and cannot so much as make you sensible of it?  To see you merry, when you may be only an hour out of hell? To think what you must suffer forever, because you will not turn? To think what an everlasting life of glory you willfully despise and cast away? What sadder thing could you bring to his heart? What more could you possibly devise to grieve him more?

Who is it then that you pleasure by your sin and death? It is none of your understanding godly friends. Alas, it is the grief of their souls to foresee your misery; and they often lament for you, though you give them little or no thanks for it, and though you do not have the hearts to lament yourselves.  Who is it, then, who takes pleasure in your sin? It is none but the three great enemies of God, whom you are now turned falsely to serve:

1. The devil indeed takes pleasure in your sin and death, for this is the very purpose of all his temptations. For this, he watches night and day: you cannot devise to please him better than to go on in sin.  How glad he is when he sees you going into the barroom, or when he hears you curse, or swear, or be verbally abusive, or commit other wicked sins!   How glad he is when he hears you mock the minister who would draw you from your sin, and help to save you! These are his delight!

2. Other wicked people are also delighted in it; for it is agreeable to their sinful nature.

3. Your own flesh is also the enemy.  I know you do not purposely please the devil, even when you do please him; and you do not intend to please other wicked people, even though you do please them; but your own flesh you willingly please, even though it is your greatest and most dangerous enemy. It is the flesh that wants to be pampered, that demands to be pleased in food, and drink, and clothing; that demands to be pleased in the company you keep, and pleased in the applause and respect of the world, and pleased in sports, and lusts, and idleness: this is the gulf that devours all. This is the very god that you serve, for, the scripture says of such, "their god is their belly" (Philippians 3:19).

But please bear with me as I ask you some challenging questions which should be considered by anyone who has the ability to reason, and who believes he has a soul to save or lose, before going any further in the pleasures of sin: 

Question 1:  Should your flesh be pleased before your Maker? Will you displease the Lord, and displease your teachers, and your godly friends, and all to please your sinful appetites, or sensual desires? Is God not worthy to be the ruler of your flesh? If He shall not rule it, he will not save it; you cannot in reason expect that He should!

Question 2:  Your flesh is pleased with your sin; but is your conscience pleased? Does it not move within you and tell you sometimes that all is not well, and that your case is not as safe as you make it to be?  Shouldn't your soul and conscience be pleased before your corruptible flesh?

Question 3:  Is not your flesh hastening its own destruction also? It loves the bait, but does it love the hook? It loves the strong drink and sweet morsels; it loves its ease, and sport, and merriment; it loves to be rich, and well spoken of by other people, and to be somebody in the world: but does it love the curse of God? Does it love to stand trembling before His bar, and to be judged with everlasting fire? Does it love to be tormented with the fallen angels for ever?  Take it all together: for there is no separating sin and hell, but only by faith and true conversion; if you will keep one, you must have the other. If death and hell are pleasant to you, no wonder then if you go on in sin; but, if they are not (as I am sure they are not), then regardless of how pleasant sin is, is it worth the loss of eternal life?  Is a little drink, or ease, or the good word of sinners, or the riches of this world to be valued above the joys of heaven? Or are they worth the sufferings of eternal fire?

Consider again that the Lord here swears that He has no pleasure in your death, but rather that you would turn and live.  But if you will still go on and die rather than turn, remember that it was not to please God that you did it; it was to please the world, and to please yourselves. And, if people will damn themselves to please themselves, and go to endless torments for a few sinful delights, and do have not the wit, the heart, or the grace, to listen to God or people who would reclaim them, what remedy? They must take what they get by it, and repent when it is too late!

Before I proceed any further in the application, I will come to the next doctrine, which expands upon what I have already spoken, and is the application of the former doctrine:

Doctrine 5:  God is so earnest for the conversion of sinners, that He fervently repeats His commands and exhortations: “Turn, turn, for  why will you die?”

Is there an unconverted sinner who hears these vehement words of God? Is there a man or woman in this assembly who is still a stranger to the renewing, sanctifying work of the Holy Ghost? Hear then the voice of your Maker, and turn to Him by Christ without delay. Would you like to know the will of God? Why this is His will, that you immediately turn. Shall the living God send so earnest a message to his creatures, and should they not obey? Listen then, all you that who are still drawing another breath; the Lord, who gave you your breath and being, has sent a message to you from heaven, and this is his message: “Turn ye, turn ye, why will ye die?”  He who has ears to hear, let him hear. Shall the voice of the eternal Majesty be neglected? If He merely sends terrible thunder, you are afraid. But His Word is even more powerful, for it concerns your everlasting life or death!  Here is both a command and an exhortation:  it is as if He had said to you, “I charge you, upon the allegiance that you owe to me, your Creator and Redeemer, that you renounce the flesh, the world, and the devil, and turn to me that you may live. I condescend to ask you that if you love or fear Him who made you; if you love your own life, even your everlasting life, Turn and live!  If you would escape eternal misery, “Turn, turn, for why should you die?” And is there a heart in man, in any reasonable creature, that can even one time refuse such a message, such a command, such an exhortation as this? O what a fearful thing, then, is the heart of man! 

Consider then, all who love yourselves, and all who regard the salvation of your own souls!  Here is the most joyful message that ever was sent to the ears of man: “Turn, turn, for why will you die?” You are not yet shut up under desperation. Here is mercy offered you; turn, and you shall have it. O with what joyful hearts you should receive these tidings! I know this is not the first time that you have heard it; but how have you regarded it, or how do you regard it now? Hear, all you careless sinners, the Word of the Lord! Hear, all you lovers of the world, you sensual flesh-pleasers; you gluttons, and drunkards, and whoremongers, and swearers; you railers and backbiters, and slanderers and liars: “Turn, turn, For why should you die?”  Hear, all you who are void of the love of God, whose hearts are not toward Him or taken up with the hopes of glory, but focused more on your earthly prosperity and pleasures than by the joys of heaven; all you that are religious only a little now and then, and give God no more than your flesh can spare; who have not denied your carnal selves, and forsaken all you have for Christ, in the estimation and grounded resolution of your souls, but have something in the world so dear to you that you cannot spare it for Christ, if He required it, but will rather risk His displeasure than forsake it: “Turn, turn, for why should you die?”  If you never heard it, or observed it before, remember that you were told it from the word of God this day, that if you will but turn, you may live; and if you will not turn, you shall surely die.

What now will you do, friends? What is your resolution? Will you turn, or will you not?  Do not hesitate any longer between two opinions: If the Lord is God, follow Him; or if your flesh is God, then serve it still. If heaven is better than earth and fleshly pleasures, come away then, and seek a better country, and “lay up your treasure where rust and moths do not corrupt, and thieves cannot break through and steal," and be awakened at last with all your might to seek "the kingdom that cannot be moved" (Hebrews 12:28), and employ your lives on a higher design, and turn the stream of your cares and labors another way than you have formerly done. But, if earth is better than heaven, or will do more for you, or last you longer, then keep it, and make your best of it, and follow it still.

Are you resolved what to do? If you are not, I will set a few more moving considerations before you, to see if your reason will make you resolve.

1.  Consider first what preparations mercy has made for your salvation, and what a pity it is that anyone should be damned after all this.  There was a time when the flaming sword was in the way, and the curse of God’s law would have kept you back if you had been ever so willing to turn to God.  The time was when you, and all the friends you have in the world, could never have procured for yourself the pardon of your past sins, though you had lamented and reformed from them. But Christ has removed this impediment by the ransom of His blood! The time was when God was wholly unreconciled with man, as being not satisfied for the violation of His law: but now He is so far satisfied and reconciled that he has made you a free act of amnesty, and a free offer of Christ and life, and offered it to you, and pleaded with you to accept it; and it may be yours, if you will have it: “For God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation” (2 Corinthians 5:18-19). 

Sinners, we too are commanded to deliver this message to you all, as saying from the Lord, “Come, for all things are ready,” (Luke 14:17).  Are all things now ready, and yet are you still unready? God is ready to entertain you, and pardon all that you have done against Him, if you will but come. As long as you have sinned, as willfully as you have sinned, He is ready to cast all behind His back, if you will but come. Though you have been prodigals, and run away from God the Father, He is ready even to meet you, and embrace you in his arms, and rejoice in your conversion, if you will but turn.  Even the earthly worldling and swinish drunkard will find God ready to bid them welcome, if they will but come. Does not this move your heart within you? 

O sinner, if you have a heart of flesh in you, and not one of stone, it seems to me that this should melt it! Shall the infinite Majesty of Heaven even wait for your returning, and be ready to receive you who has abused him, and neglected Him so long? Shall God, who could at any time satisfy His justice in your damnation, delight in your conversion, and yet does it not melt your heart within you, and are you not yet ready to come in? Have you less reason to be ready to come than God has to invite you and welcome you? 

But, that is not all: Christ has done His part on the cross, and made such way for you to the Father, that on His account you may be welcome if you will come. And yet are you not ready?  A pardon is already expressly granted and offered you in the gospel. And yet are you not ready?  The ministers of the gospel are ready to assist you, they are ready to pray for you, and yet are you not ready?  All who fear God around you are ready to rejoice in your conversion, and to receive you into the communion of saints, and to give you the right hand of fellowship, even if you had been ever so scandalous, if you would just be converted in your heart and come in.  Are all these ready to receive you, and yet you are not ready to come in?

Indeed, heaven itself is ready!  The Lord will receive you into the glory of his saints, as vile a soul as you have been.  If you would just be cleansed, you may have a place before His throne; His angels would be ready to usher your soul to the place of joy, if you would only with a sincere, repentant heart come in. Is God ready, is the sacrifice of Christ ready, is the promise ready, is the pardon ready?  Are ministers and the people of God ready, are heaven itself and angels ready, and all these just waiting for your conversion, and yet you are not ready? What?  Not ready to live, when you have been dead so long? Not ready to come to a right understanding, as the prodigal who "came to himself" (Luke 15:17), even when you have been out of your right mind for so long? Not ready to be saved, even when you are ready to be condemned?  Not ready to lay hold of Christ, who would deliver you, even when you are ready to drown and sink into damnation?  Not ready to be saved from hell, even when you are ready to be cast without remedy into it? 

Alas, man!  Do you know what you are doing? If you die unconverted, there is no doubt that you face your damnation, and even now you are not sure to live another hour, and yet are you not ready to turn and to come in? O miserable wretch! Have you not served the flesh and the devil long enough? Yet still you have not had enough of sin? Is sin so good to you, or so profitable for you?  Do you truly know what sin is, that you would still have more of it?  Haven't you had so many calls, and so many mercies, and so many trials, and so many examples? Haven't you seen so many laid in the grave, and yet are you not ready to let go of your sins, and come to Christ? What?  After so many convictions, and movings of conscience; after so many purposes and promises, are you not yet ready to turn and live?  O, that thy eyes and thy heart were opened to know how fair an offer is now made to you, and what a joyful message we are sent to preach, to ask you come, for "all things are ready"!

2. Consider also, what calls you have had to turn and live – how many, how loud, how earnest, how dreadful, and yet what encouraging, joyful calls.  For the one doing the inviting is God himself.  He who commands heaven and earth, commands you to turn – immediately, and without delay, to turn.  He commands the sun to run its course, and to rise upon you every morning, and though it is so glorious a creation, and many times bigger than the earth, yet it obeys him and does not fail one minute of its appointed time. He commands all the planets and orbs of heaven, and they obey.  He commands the sea to ebb and flow, and the whole creation to keep its course, and all obey Him. The angels of heaven obey His will, when he sends them to minister to such silly worms as we on earth (Hebrews 1:14).  And yet, if He merely commands a sinner to turn, he will not obey Him, for he thinks himself wiser than God, and he argues and pleads the cause of sin, and will not obey.  If the Lord Almighty says the word, the heavens and everything in them obey him; but if He calls a drunkard out of an alehouse, he will not obey; or if he call a worldly fleshly sinner to deny himself; and deny the flesh, and set his heart on a better inheritance, he will not obey him!

If you had any love in you, you would know His voice and say, “Oh this is my father’s call!  How can I find it in my heart to disobey?  Christ's sheep "know and hear His voice, and they follow Him, and He gives them eternal life” (John 10:4).  If you had any spiritual life and sense in you, at least you would say, “This call is the dreadful voice of God, and who dares disobey?”  For the prophet Amos says, “The lion has roared, who will not fear?” (Amos 3:8).  God is not a man, that you should dally and play with Him!  Remember what he said to Paul at his conversion: “It is hard for you to kick against the goads” (Acts 9:5). Will you still go and despise His word, and resist His Spirit, and stop your ears against his call? Who is it who will have the worst of this? Do you know whom you disobey and contend with, and what you are doing? It would be a far wiser and easier task for you to contend with the thorns, and walk on them with your bare feet, and beat them with your bare hands, or to put your head into the burning fire. "Do not be deceived, God will not be mocked” (Galatians 6:7).  Whoever else may be mocked, God will not: you had better play with the fire in your thatch than with the fire of his burning wrath: “For our God is a consuming fire” (Hebrews 12:29)!

O how poor a match you are for God! “It is a fearful thing to fall into His hands” (Hebrews 10:31).  And therefore it is a fearful thing to contend with Him, or to resist Him. As you love your souls, take heed what you do. What will you say when He begins to plead His case against you in His wrath? What will you do if he takes you once in hand? Will you strive against His judgment, as now you do against His grace? Yes, it is true that the Lord says, “Fury is not in me” (Isaiah 27:4, 6):  that is, I do not delight in destroying you; I do it, as it were. unwillingly.  But yet, “Who would set the briars and thorns against me in battle? I would go through them, I would burn them together. Oh let him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me, and he shall make peace with me!”  It is an unequal combat for the briars and stubble to make war with the fire!  And thus you see who it is who calls you, that should be moved to hear this call, and turn.  Consider also, by what instruments, and how often, and how earnestly, he does it:

1. Every page in the blessed book of God has a voice that calls unto you, "Turn and live; turn, or you will die!"  How can you open it, and read a page, or hear a chapter, and not perceive that God commands you to turn?

2. It is the voice of every sermon you hear, for what else is the scope and drift of all of them but to call, and persuade, and entreat you to turn?

3. It is the voice of many a moving of the Spirit, which secretly repeats these words again, and urges you to turn.

4. It is sometimes the voice of your own conscience. Are you not sometimes convinced that all is not well with you? And does not your conscience often call you to turn, and tell you that you must be a new man, and take a new course?

5. It is the voice of the gracious examples of godly people. When you see them live a heavenly life, and flee from the sin which is your delight, this really calls on you to turn.

6. It is the voice of all the works of God, for they also are God’s books, that teach you this lesson by showing you His greatness, and wisdom, and goodness, and calling you to observe them, and admire the Creator, as is said in Psalm 19:1-2:  "The heavens declare the glory of God; And the firmament shows His handiwork.  Day unto day utters speech, And night unto night reveals knowledge."  Every time the sun rises upon you, it really calls you to turn; as if it should say, “What do I travel and compass the world for, if not to declare to humanity the glory of their Maker? 

And do I still find you doing the work of sin, and sleeping out your life in negligence?" "Awake, you who sleep, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give you light” (Ephesians 5:14). "And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed.  The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light.  Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy.  But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts." (Romans 13:11-14). 

7. It is the voice of every mercy you possess. If you could only hear and understand them, they all cry out unto you, "Turn!"  Why does the earth bear you, if not to seek and serve the Lord? Why does it afford you its fruits, if not to serve Him? Why does the air afford you breath, if not to serve him? Why do all the creatures serve you with their labors and their lives, if not that you might serve their Lord and yours? Why does He give you time, and health, and strength, if not to serve Him? Why do you have food and drink, and clothing, if not for His service? Do you have anything which you have not received? And, if you did receive them, is it not reasonable that you should think from whom, and to what end and purpose you received them?  Did you never cry to Him for help in your distress? And did you not then understand that it was your duty to turn and serve Him if He would rescue you? He has done his part, and spared you still longer, and tried you another and another year; and yet still you do not turn?

Perhaps you know the parable of the unfruitful fig tree in Luke 13:6-9.  When the Lord had said, “Cut it down; why does it use up the ground?,”  He was asked to try it one year longer, and then if it did not prove fruitful, to cut it down. Christ himself makes the application twice, in verses 3 and 5: “Unless you repent you will all likewise perish.” How many years has God looked for the fruits of love and holiness from you, and has found none, and yet He has spared you. How many times, by your willful ignorance, carelessness, and disobedience, have you provoked His justice and caused Him to say, “Cut him down; why does he use up the ground?”, and yet mercy has prevailed, and patience has awaited the fatal blow until this day.

If you had the understanding of a rational creature within you, you would know that all this calls you to turn. “Do you think … that you will escape the judgment of God?  Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?  But in accordance with your hardness and your impenitent heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who will render to each one according to his deeds" (Romans 2:3-6).
8. It is the voice of every trial and affliction to call you to turn without delay. Sickness and pain cry "Turn!"; poverty, and loss of friends, and every evidence of His chastising rod cry "Turn!"; and yet will you not hearken to the call? These have come near you and made you feel, they have made you groan, and still they can not make you turn?

9. The very frame of your nature and being pleads for your return. Why do you have reason, if not to rule your flesh, and to serve your Lord? Why do you have an understanding soul, if not to learn and know His will and do it? Why do you have a heart within you that can love, and fear, and desire, if not that you should fear him, and love him, and desire Him?

10. Perhaps your own dedications, by promise to the Lord, call upon you to turn and serve Him. Perhaps you have bound yourself to Him by baptism, and renounced the world, the flesh, and the devil, and have confirmed this by your profession of Christianity, and renewed it by participation in His sacraments, and in times of affliction.  And will you promise and vow, and never perform, and not turn to God?
Put all of these together, now, and see what should be the issue. The holy Scripture calls upon you to turn; the ministers of Christ call upon you to turn; the Spirit cries "turn"; your conscience cries "turn"; the godly, by their persuasions and example, cry "turn"; the whole world and all the creatures in it that are presented to your consideration, cry "turn"; the patience of God that you experienced unto this day, cries "turn"; all the mercies which you received cry "turn"; the rod of God’s chastisement cries "turn"; your reason and your very nature pleads your turning; and so do all your promises to God; and yet you have not resolved to turn?

11. Moreover, poor sinner! Did you ever consider upon what terms you stand all this time with Him who calls on you to turn? You are His own, and owe Him yourself and all you have, and may He not command His own? You are His absolute servant, and should serve no other master! You stand at His mercy, and your life is in His hand; and He has resolved to save you upon no other terms; you have many malicious spiritual enemies, who would be glad if God were to forsake you and leave them alone with you, and leave you to their will; how quickly would they deal with you in another manner? And you cannot be delivered from them except by turning to God. You are fallen under His wrath by your sin already; and you do not know how long His patience will wait. Perhaps this is the last year; perhaps the last day; His sword is even at your heart while His Word is in your ear; and if you do not turn, you are a dead and undone man. If only your eyes were open to see where you stand, even upon the brink of hell, and to see how many thousands are there already who did not turn, you would see that it is time to turn.

Well, friends, look within yourselves now, and tell me how your hearts are affected with those offers from the Lord! You hear what is His desire, that He does not delight in your death; He calls to you, "Turn, turn!"  It is a fearful sign if all this does not move you, or if it only half moves you, and much more fearful if it makes you more careless in your sin, because you hear of the mercifulness of God! The working of the medicine will partly tell us whether there is any hope of the cure. O, what glad tidings would it be to those who are now in hell, if they now had such a message from God! What a joyful word would it be to hear this, "Turn and live."  What a welcome word would it be to you, when you have felt that wrath of God for only an hour!  Or, if after a thousand or ten thousand years of torment you could hear such a word from God, "Turn and live"; and yet will you neglect it, and allow us preachers to return without you?

Behold, sinners, we are sent here as the messengers of the Lord, to set before you life and death. What do you say? Which of them will you choose? Christ stands before you with heaven in the one hand, and hell in the other, and offers you your choice; which will you choose?  “The voice of the Lord makes the rocks to tremble” (Psalm 26), and is it nothing to hear Him threaten you, if you will not turn? Do you not understand and feel His voice saying,“Turn, turn, for why should you die?”  Why, it is the voice of love, of infinite love, of your best and kindest friend, and can you still neglect it?  It is the voice of pity and compassion.  The Lord sees where you are going better than you can, which makes Him call after you, “Turn, turn!”  He sees what will become of you if you do not turn. He thinks within Himself, “Ah this poor sinner will cast himself into endless torments if he do not turn, for then I must deal with him in justice according to my righteous law”; and therefore He calls after you, "Turn, turn, O sinner!"  If you only knew a thousandth part of what God knows, the danger that is near you, and the misery that you are running into, we ministers would have no more need to call after you to turn!

Furthermore, this voice that calls to you is the same that one that has prevailed with thousands already, and called to heaven all who are now there, not one of whom would wish now, for a thousand worlds, that they had made light of it, and not turned to God!  Consider what they who turned at God's call are now in possession of!  Now they know the call to turn was the voice of love, and that it meant no more harm than their salvation. And, if you will now obey the same call, you shall come to the same happiness. There are millions who must forever lament that they refused to turn, but there is never a soul in heaven that is sorry that they are converted.

Well, friends, are you yet resolved to turn, or are you not? Do I need to say any more to you? What will you do? Will you turn or not? Speak, man, speak, woman, in your heart to God, even if you do not speak out to me; speak, lest God take your silence for denial; speak quickly, lest He never again make you a similar offer. Speak resolvedly, and not waveringly, for He will have no indifferent ones to be his followers. Say in your heart now, without any more delay, even before you stir from where you are, “By the grace of God I am resolved immediately to turn. And because I know my own inadequacy and inability, I am resolved to wait on God for His grace, and to follow him in his ways, and forsake my former courses and companions, and give up myself to the guidance of the Lord.”

My friends, you are not shut up in the darkness of heathenism, or in the desperation of the damned.  Life is before you; and you may have it on reasonable terms, if you will; without cost, if you will accept it. The way of God lies plain before you; the church is open to you; you may have Christ, and pardon, and holiness, if you desire it. What do you say? Will you, or will you not? If you say no, or say nothing, and still go on, God is witness, and this congregation is witness, and your own consciences are witnesses, how fair an offer you had this day. Remember, you might have had Christ, but you would not have Him. Remember, when you have lost your opportunity, that you might have had eternal life as well as others, but would not have it – and all because you would not turn.