Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 1101
“Lo, all these things works God oftentimes with man, To bring back his soul from thepit, to be enlightened with the light of the living.” Job 33:29,30.
SOME people are wonderfully enamored of anything that is old. An old coin, an old picture, an old book, or even a piece of antique rubbish they will almost worship. The jingle of a rusty medal is music to them, and “auld nick-nackets” are as precious as diamonds. It is wonderful what a little mold and a few worm-holes will do in the way of increasing values! I confess I do not very greatly share in the feeling, at least it is no craze of mine but, nevertheless, all things being equal, antiquity has its charms. Old, old stories of the days far past, when time was young, have a special interest. They are as windows which permit us to gaze down the dim aisles of ages long gone by—we look through them with mingled curiosity and awe.
I am about, this morning, to speak to you concerning an old conversion. We shall rehearse an ancient story of the renewal and salvation of a soul. In our day we meet with professors who cry down everything of the present and cry up everything of the former days, which they call the good old times. Such persons talk much about old-fashioned conversions and hold in great admiration the lives of Believers of the old school. I shall, this morning, introduce you to an old-fashioned conversion and explain the way in which men were brought to God not only hundreds, but thousands of years ago. I suppose that Elihu delivered this description of conversion about the time of Moses, or at the period when Israel was in Egypt, for almost general consent appropriates one of those dates to the Book of Job.
The record we shall read this morning, and study carefully, refers to the very, very oldest of times. Let this fact give additional interest to our meditation—and if it does I am sure that we shall not lack for earnest attention, for the subject is of great intrinsic value. Kindly keep your Bibles open. We have already read the chapter, but it will be necessary to refer to it verse by verse.
I. The matter in hand is to compare an old-fashioned conversion with those of the present time. And the first note we shall strike is this—it is quite certain from the description given in this 33rd chapter of Job that THE SUBJECTS OF CONVERSION WERE SIMILAR and men in the far gone ages were precisely like men in these times. The passage tells us nothing about the stature of men’s’ bodies, but as far as they were concerned spiritually the photograph which Elihu took is the portrait of many of those who are brought to Jesus now.
Reading the passage over, we find that men in those times needed converting, for they were deaf to God’s voice (verse 14). They were obstinate in evil purposes (verse 17) and puffed up with pride. They needed chastening to arouse them to thought and required sore distress to make them cry out for mercy (verses 19-22). They were very slow to say, “I have sinned,” and were not at all inclined to prayer. Nothing but sharp discipline could bring them to their senses and even then they needed to be born-again. Men in those days were sinful and yet proud—sinful self and righteous self were both in power—it was one part of conversion to withdraw them from their purposes of sin and another part of their conversion to “hide pride” from them.
Though they were sinful, they thought that they were righteous, and though they were condemned by the Law of God they still entertained the fond hope that they should, by their own merits, obtain the favor of the Most High. They were then, as they are now, poor as poverty and yet proud of their wealth. They were Publicans in sin, and yet Pharisees in boasting. It appears that in those days God was accustomed to speak to men and to be disregarded by them. We are told that God spoke “once, yes, twice,” and men perceived Him not. Their presumptuous slumbers were too deep to be broken by the call of love. Samuel said, “Here am I, for You did call me,” but they slept on in defiance of the Lord.
O, how frequently does the Lord speak now to deaf ears! He calls and men refuse. He stretches out His hands and men do not regard Him. But they are desperately set upon their sins and sod in carnal security, therefore they do despite to His Grace and ruin their own souls! In those ancient times, when a man was converted, the Lord Himself must turn him—Omnipotence itself was necessary to divide man from his folly. God’s speaking to the ear was not enough unless He followed it up with a powerful application to the heart. Man was too far gone to be healed by remedies less than Divine—he was utterly past hope unless Almighty love would come to the rescue!
Verily, the case is the same at this day and each man repeats his fellow. As the fish still bites at the bait, as the bird still flies into the snare, as the beast is still taken in the pit, so is man still the dupe of his sins and only the Lord can save him! Salvation was only worked by the gracious influences of God’s Spirit in the days of Job—and it is only so accomplished at this present hour! Men were lost then as now! Men thought they were not lost then, and they are equally conceited now! Into the house of the Divine Physician the same class of persons enter as were welcomed and healed by Him ages ago. He has the same blind eyes and deaf ears to open—hearts still require to be transformed from stone to flesh—and leprosies to be exchanged for health by His Sovereign touch.