Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 3160
Therefore (as the Holy Spirit says) “today if you will hear His voice, harden not your hearts.” Hebrews 3:7.
THE Holy Spirit says, “Today.” There is a great talk about yesterday. There are some who will have it that there are none like the days that are past—“the good old times.” There are some who glory in what they did years ago. Their work was done yesterday. They have long ago retired from the business of life, but still they are accustomed to indulge in the recollections of what they did in days gone by. Yesterday is also dwelt upon in lamentation and even in despair. Yesterday! Alas, opportunities are past. “The harvest is past, and the summer is ended, and we are not saved.” Yesterday we lived in sin. Yesterday we rejected Christ. Yesterday we stifled conscience and, therefore, despair says that it is now all over. Time is gone. Closed forever are the gates of Mercy—the death warrant is signed—the gallows are erected for the execution.
Now it is noteworthy that the Holy Spirit, neither that we may take comfort in it, nor despair about it, said not, “yesterday”—He said, “Today.” He points us not to the past—(we shall have to look at that and weep over it, or bless God for it either with repentance or gratitude)—He points us not to the time of the Flood but to today. A very large proportion of mankind, you will find, delight in dwelling upon the word, “tomorrow.” Oh what will they not do tomorrow! Sin shall be rejected tomorrow! The Savior shall be sought tomorrow! Clasped in the arms of faith, they will exult in the peace of Christ tomorrow! They will pray tomorrow! They will serve God tomorrow! Alas, of all the nets of Satan as a fowler for the souls of men, perhaps there is none in which he took in more that in this big net of procrastination. “I will—I will,” and there it ends! “I go, Sir,” and he went not. To resolve and re-resolve, and then to die—the same is the melancholy history of thousands of hearers who bid fair for Heaven a thousand times and yet will never enter there!
Tomorrow! Oh, you cursed word, tomorrow! How has man made you cursed! I find you not in the almanac of the wise—you are only in the calendar of fools. Tomorrow! There is no such thing except in dreamland, for when that comes which we call tomorrow it will be today—and still forever, today, today, today. There is no time but that which is. Time was, is not—and time to come is not!
Today is the only time we have. Happily for us, the Holy Spirit says, “TODAY IF YOU WILL HEAR HIS VOICE.” Never do I find Him saying, “tomorrow.” His servants have often been repulsed by men like Felix who have said, “Go your way for this time. When I have a more convenient season I will send for you.” And never did any Apostle say, “Repent tomorrow, or wait for some convenient season to believe.” The constant testimony of the Holy Spirit with regard to the one single part of time—which I have shown, indeed, to be all time, is—“Today if you will hear His voice, harden not your hearts.”
Now I am trying to speak, tonight, not as though I were preaching at all. But I need to talk to you Christians, first, and then to you unconverted people very seriously—and may God the Spirit speak through the words.
I. First to you that love the Lord, or profess to do so—Christian people I have to say to you tonight—THE HOLY SPIRIT SAYS, “TODAY.” That is to say, that it is essential to duty that we attend to it at once. Every command of Christ bears date today. If a thing is right, it should be done at once. If it is wrong, stop it immediately! Whatever you are bound to do, you are bound to do now. There may be some duties of a later date, but for the present, that which is the duty, is the duty now. There is an immediateness about the calls of Christ. What He bids you do, you must not delay to
do. The Holy Spirit says, ” Today.” And I would say this with regard to everything. Do you love the Lord? Have you ever professed His name? Then the Holy Spirit says, ” Today.” Hesitate not to take up His Cross at once and follow Him—the Cross of Him who was nailed to the Cross for you! The Cross of Him who, by His precious blood, has made you not your own, but His! Confess Him before men. Has He not said, “He that denies Me before men, him will I deny before My Father who is in Heaven”? Confess with your mouth, if you have believed with your heart.
It is the immediate duty of the Believer to be baptized. “As soon as you believe in Christ you may.” ” Today,” says the Holy Spirit. Having united yourself to the people of God, then whatever, according to your position and calling, is incumbent upon you, do it! Are you a young Christian—warm, fervent in spirit—and do your seniors call you impudent and dampen your ardor? Listen not to them! Go and do what is in your heart! I would give nothing for a man’s zeal if that zeal does not make him sometimes indiscreet. Imprudence, so far from being a sin, is often an index of the possession of the highest Grace. No, David, imprudent as you are, take the smooth stones from the brook. Wait not till you have become a king or a gray-headed monarch about to resign the crown to Solomon. While you are ruddy and a youth, hesitate not! The Holy Spirit says, “Today.” Or are you called in middle life? Your sun has already spent half its day. Is it suggested to you that you should seek your children’s conversion? Plead at once that your little ones, so long neglected, may now be saved. The Holy Spirit says to you, parent, father, mother—“Today.” Have you come into the midst of a multitude of workers of which you are the master seeking their good? Seek it today! Have you in your heart the intention to serve God when you have amassed so much wealth? What? Shall God be second? Shall mammon take the first place and Jehovah be put in the background? No! Let your gold come in second or not at all. Let your God come in now! The Holy Spirit says, “Today.” “But there are urgent things pressing.” If you can claim that they are duties, God forbid that I should bid you neglect them! But if they are covetous and lustful, put them aside and now, in the prime of your life, while yet the marrow is in your bones and your eyes are not dim, give to God what He claims of you TODAY!