A Repentant Heart by George Whitfield. This sermon was originally preached sometime in the mid-1700s.

The text for this morning comes from the Book of Luke, Luke chapter 13, verse 3. Unless you repent, you too will all perish.

When we consider how monstrous and infuriating our offenses are in the sight of a just and holy God, that they bring down His wrath on our heads and cause us to live under His indignation, we clearly ought to be deterred from evil, or at least be caused to repent of our sins and not to commit them again.

But man is so thoughtless of an eternal state and has so little concern of the welfare of his immortal soul that he can sin without any thought that he must give an account of his actions in the day of judgment. Sometimes men and women do reflect on their behavior, and although this reflection does not drive them to true repentance, they may, for a short time, refrain from falling into some gross sins which they had lately committed. But then, when the temptation comes again with power, they are carried away with the lust. And thus they go on promising and resolving, and yet break both their resolutions and their promises almost as fast as they have made them. This is highly offensive to God. It is mocking Him.

My friends, When the grace to truly repent is given to us, then we will turn completely to God. And let me beg you to repent of your sins, for the time is fast approaching when you will neither have the time nor the call from God to repent. There is no opportunity to repent in the grave.

But don't be afraid, for God often receives the greatest sinner by his mercy through the merits of Jesus Christ. This magnifies the riches of his free grace and should be an encouragement for you who are great and notorious sinners, an encouragement to repent, for he will have mercy on you if you come to him through Christ. The Apostle Paul was an excellent example of this. He speaks of himself as the chief of sinners, and he declares how God showed mercy to him. Christ loves to show mercy to sinners, and if you repent, he will have mercy on you.

Now, because there is no word that is more misunderstood than the word repentance, I will today endeavor, one, to show you the nature of repentance, two, Show you the several parts and causes of repentance. Three, give some reasons why repentance is necessary for salvation. And lastly, to exhort all of you, no matter who you are, to strive after repentance.

First, repentance as to its nature is the carnal and corrupt character of men and women being changed into a renewed and sanctified character. Repentance, as to its nature, is the carnal and corrupt character of men and women being changed into a renewed and sanctified character. A man that has truly repented is truly regenerated. It is a different word for one and the same thing. The motley mixture of the beast and the devil is gone. There is, as it were, a new creation formed in your hearts. If your repentance is true, you are renewed throughout, both in your soul and your body. Your understandings are enlightened with the knowledge of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. And your wills, which were stubborn, obstinate, and which hated everything good, are obedient and conformable to the will of God.

Indeed, the deist, that is, those who believe in a God who created the universe and then abandoned it, assuming no control over life, exerting no influence over natural phenomena, and giving no supernatural revelation, these deists tell us that man has a free will to do good, to love God, and to repent whenever he wants to. But indeed, there is no free will in any of you, except the free will to sin. Know your free will leads you so far that you would, if possible, pull God from His throne. This may perhaps offend the Pharisees, but it is the truth in Christ which I speak, I do not lie. Every one of you by your own natural will hates God.

But when you are turned to the Lord by evangelical repentance, then your will is changed. Then your consciences, now hardened and numb, will be stimulated and awakened. Then your hard hearts will be melted, and your disobedient disposition will be crucified. Thus, by that repentance, the whole soul will be changed. you will have new inclinations, new desires, and new habits. We are so vile by nature that it requires a great change to be made in us in order to retrieve us from this state of sin. And therefore, as we consider our dreadful state, we should seriously plead with God to change our condition. And such a change implies true repentance.

Therefore, my friends, consider how hateful your ways are to God while you continue in sin, how abominable you are to Him when you run into evil. You cannot be said to be Christians while you are hating Christ and His people. True repentance will entirely change you. The bias of your souls will be changed. Then and then only will you delight in God. in Christ, in his law, and in his people. You will then believe that there is such a thing as inward feeling, though now you may regard it only as madness and enthusiasm. Then you will not be ashamed of becoming fools for Christ's sake. You will not care if you are being scoffed at. When the enemies of the cross point their fingers at you and cry out, here comes another one of his followers. You will not be dismayed. No, your soul will hate such mockeries. The ways of Christ and his people will be your whole delight.

It is the nature of such repentance to cause change, and the greatest change possible will be in the soul. Thus you see what repentance implies in its own nature. It denotes an abhorrence of all evil and a forsaking of it.

Secondly, I will now show you the various parts of repentance and the causes of it. The various parts of repentance are sorrow, hatred, and the entire forsaking of sin. Our sorrow and grief for sin must not spring merely from the fear of wrath. For if that is our only reason for our sorrow and grief, then it proceeds strictly from self-love and not from any love towards God. And if love towards God is not the chief motive of your repentance, then your repentance is in vain and not to be considered to be true.

Many in our day think that they're crying God forgive me, or Lord have mercy on me, or I am sorry for it. They think this is repentance, and that God will count it as such, but indeed they are mistaken. It is not the drawing near to God with our lips, while our hearts are far from him, which he regards.

Repentance is not something that we turn on and off, No, it is one continued act of our lives. For as we daily commit sin, so we need a daily repentance before God to obtain forgiveness for those sins we commit. It is not simply confessing that you are a sinner. It is not simply being aware that your condition is sad and deplorable.

No, as long as you continue in your sins, Your concern and effort should be to get your heart thoroughly convicted, so that you may feel yourself to be lost and condemned creatures. For Christ came to save the lost, and if you are unable to groan under the weight and burden of your sins, then Christ will relieve you of your burden and give you rest.

And until you are aware of your misery and of your lost condition, you are a servant to sin and to your lust, under the bondage and command of Satan, doing his drudgery. You are under the curse of God and accountable to his judgment. Consider how dreadful your state will be at the time of your death and after the day of judgment, when you will be subjected to such miseries which the ear has never heard, Neither can the heart conceive, and that for all of eternity, if you die without repenting of your sins.

But I hope better things for you, my friends, though I speak the way I do. I hope for the things which accompany salvation. Go to God in prayer and be serious with Him, that by His Spirit He would convince you of your natural miserable condition and make you truly aware of it. Oh, be humbled. Be humbled. I beg you, be humbled over your sins. Having spent so many years in sinning, you must be concerned to spend some hours in mourning and sorrowing over those sins and be humbled before God.

Look back at your lives. Remember your sins, as many as you possibly can. The sins of your youth, as well as those of your adult life. See how you have departed from a gracious Father and wandered in the way of wickedness, in which you have lost the favor of God, the comforts of His Spirit, and the peace of your own consciences. Then go and beg forgiveness from the Lord through the blood of the Lamb. for the evil you have committed and for the good you have omitted.

Consider likewise the absolute wickedness of your sins. See how infuriating your sinful actions were before a holy God. How you have abused the patience of God, which should have led you to repentance. And when you find that your heart is still hard, then beg God to soften it. Strongly cry out to him, and He will take away your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.

Resolve to leave all your sinful lusts and pleasures, renounce, forsake, and abhor your old sinful course of life, and serve God in holiness and righteousness all the remaining days of your life. If you grieve over and regret past sins, but you don't forsake them, then your repentance is in vain. You are just mocking God and deceiving your own soul. You must put off the old man with his evil deeds before you can put on the new man, Christ Jesus.

You, therefore, you who have been blasphemers and cursers, you who have been prostitutes and drunkards, you who have been thieves and robbers, You who have up until now followed the sinful pleasures and amusements of life, let me plead with you, by the mercies of God in Christ Jesus, that you would no longer continue in that, but that you would forsake your evil ways and turn to the Lord, for he waits to be gracious to you. He is ready. He is willing to pardon you of all your sins. But do not expect Christ to pardon you of sin when you still indulge in it, and will not stop from yielding to its temptations. But if you will be persuaded to abstain from evil and choose the good, to return to the Lord and repent of your wickedness, then he has promised he will abundantly pardon you. He will heal your backslidings and will love you without restraint. Resolve now this very day to be done with your sins forever. Let your old ways and you be separated. You must make your mind up to leave your life of sin. For there can be no true repentance without a resolution to forsake it. Make a decision for Christ. Make a decision against the devil and his works.

and go on fighting the Lord's battles against the devil and his emissaries. Attack him in the strongest holds he has. Fight him as men, as Christians, and you will soon find him to be a coward. Resist him and he will fly away from you. Decide by grace to do this and your repentance is hath done, but be careful. Be careful that you do not base your resolutions on your own strength, but in the strength of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the way, He is the truth, He is the life. Without His assistance you can do nothing, but through His grace strengthening you, you will be enabled to do all things. And the always willing Christ will be there to help you.

And what can all the men of the world do to you when Christ is for you. You will not regard what they say against you, for you will have the testimony of a good conscience. Resolve to cast yourself at the feet of Christ in subjection to Him, and throw yourself into the arms of Christ to receive salvation from Him. Consider, my dear friends, the many invitations He has given you to come to Him, to be saved by Him, God has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. Oh, let me prevail with you above all things to make a choice of the Lord Jesus Christ. Resign yourselves to Him. Take Him. Oh, take Him. Take Him on His own terms. And whoever you are, no matter how great a sinner you have been, In the name of the great God, I offer Jesus Christ to you. If you value your life and soul, then do not refuse him, but stir yourself up to accept the Lord Jesus. Take him completely as he is, for he will give himself completely to you. But if you don't take him completely, then you will not receive him at all. Jesus Christ must be your whole wisdom. Jesus Christ must be your whole righteousness. Jesus Christ must be your whole justification or He will never be your eternal redemption.

Even though you have been ever so wicked and immoral, yet if you will abandon your sins and turn to the Lord Jesus Christ, then He will be given to you and all your sins will be freely forgiven. Oh, why will you neglect the great work of your repentance? Do not delay one day longer. Do it today, even now. Take that Christ who is freely offered to you.

Now, I will tell you the causes of repentance. The causes of repentance. The first cause of repentance is God. It is God. God is the author of repentance. We are born of God. God has given us birth. Even God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is He that stirs us up to will and to do His own good pleasure. Another cause of repentance is God's free grace. God's free grace. God's free grace comes from the riches of his free grace. My friends, the reason why we have not been thrown into hell long ago is simply because of the compassions of the Lord that do not fail. They are new every morning and fresh every evening. Sometimes the instruments of grace are very unlikely. A poor despised minister where a member of Jesus Christ may, by the power of God, be made an instrument in the hands of God of bringing you to true evangelical repentance. And this may be done to show that the power is not in men, but that it is entirely owing to the good pleasure of God. And if there has been any good done among any of you by preaching the word as I trust there has, Though it was preached in a field, if God has met and possessed us and blessed His word, though preached by an enthusiastic babbler, a boy, a madman, I do rejoice. Yes, and will rejoice. Let foes say what they will, I will rejoice.

Now thirdly, the reasons why repentance is necessary for salvation And these reasons, my friends, are plainly revealed to us in the Word of God. Listen. The soul that does not repent and turn to the Lord will die in its sins, and its blood will be on its own head. It is necessary, since we have sinned, that we must repent. For a holy God could not, nor ever can, or will admit anyone that is unholy into his presence.

This is the beginning of grace in the soul. There must be a change in heart and life before there can be a dwelling with a holy God. You cannot love sin and God too. You cannot love God and money. No unclean person can stand in the presence of God It is contrary to the holiness of His nature. There is an absolute difference between the holy nature of God and the unholy nature of carnal and unregenerate men. What communication can there be between a sinless God and creatures full of sin? Between a pure God and impure creatures?

If you were to be admitted into heaven with your present attitude, in your unrepentant condition, heaven itself would be a hell to you. The songs of the angels would be offensive and intolerable to you. Therefore, your attitude and spirit must be changed. You must be holy as God is. He must be your God here, and you must be His people, or you will never dwell together for all eternity.

If you hate the ways of God and cannot spend an hour in His service here on earth, then how will you be able for all of eternity to sing praises to Him that sits on the throne and to the Lamb forever? And this is to be the occupation, my friends, the occupation of all those who are admitted into this glorious place where neither sin nor the sinner is admitted, where no scoffer can ever come without repentance from his evil ways, a turning to God and a cleaving to him.

This must be done before anyone can be admitted into the glorious city of God, which is prepared for everyone that loves the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity and truth. Therefore, repent of your sins, all of your sins. Oh, my dear friends, it makes my blood run cold in thinking that any of you should not be admitted into that glorious city above. Oh, if it was in my power, I would place all of you. Yes, you, my scoffing friends, and the greatest enemy I have on earth, I would gladly place at the right hand of Jesus. But this I cannot do.

However, I advise and exhort you with all love and tenderness to make Jesus your refuge. Fly to him for relief. Jesus died to save sinners just like you. He is full of compassion. And if you go to him as poor, lost, wicked sinners, Jesus will give you his spirit. You will live and reign and reign and live. You will love and live and live in love with this Jesus for all eternity.

Now, fourthly, I exhort all of you, no matter who you are, educated or uneducated, rich or poor, one with another, to repent of all your sins and turn to the Lord. And I will speak to each one of you For you have either repented or you have not. You are either believers in Christ Jesus or you are unbelievers. And first, to those of you who have never truly repented of your sins and who have never truly forsaken your lust, do not be offended if I am very frank with you. For it is love, love to your souls that compels me to speak. I will lay before you your danger and the misery to which you are exposed while you remain unrepentant in your sin. And oh, that this may be the means of making you fly to Christ for pardon and forgiveness.

While your sins are not repented of, you are in the danger of death. And if you should die, you will perish forever. There is no hope for anyone who lives and dies in their sins. They will live with demons and the damned spirits of men and women for all eternity. How do we know we will live much longer? We are not even sure of safely returning to our homes this very day. How can you then be at ease and enjoy pleasure while your sins are not forgiven? As sure as ever, the word of God is true. If you die in that condition, you are shut out of all hope and mercy forever and will pass into ceaseless and endless misery.

What is all your pleasures and entertainments worth? They last only for a moment. They are of no worth. And surely it must be gross folly to eagerly pursue those sinful lusts and pleasures which war against the soul, which tend to harden the heart and keep us from coming to the Lord Jesus. Indeed, these destroy our peace here and without repentance will eternally destroy our peace after this life. Oh, the folly and madness of this sensual world. Surely, if there was nothing in sin but the present slavery, it would keep the sincere spirit from it. But when we sin, we do the devil's work. And if we do that, we will receive his wages, which is eternal death and condemnation.

Oh, consider this, my guilty friends, you that think it is no sin to swear, you that think it is no sin to be immoral, to drink, or to scoff and jeer at the people of God. Consider how your voices will then be changed. You will weep and wail at your own earthly lives of madness and folly that brought you to so much woe and distress. Then you will grieve and regret your own dreadful condition, but it will be of no use. For he that is not your merciful Savior will then become your inescapable judge. Today it is easy to plead with him, and he will listen. But after your death, all your tears and prayers will be in vain. For God has allotted to every man and woman a day of grace, a time of repentance, which if they do not respond to, but rather neglect and despise this mercy, then they cannot be saved.

Consider, therefore, while you are going on in your life of sin and unrighteousness, I beg you, my friends, to think of the consequence of squandering your precious times. Your souls are worth being concerned over.

For if you can enjoy all the pleasures and entertainments of this life, at your death you must leave all of them. That will put an end to all your worldly concerns. And won't it be very deplorable To have your good things here, all your earthly, sensual, devilish pleasures, which you have been so much taken up with, all come to an end.

And the very remembrance of how trivial a concern you had for eternal things will gnaw at your very soul forever. Your wealth and dignity in this life will not help you. You cannot carry any of it into the other world. Then the reflection of your lack of charity to the poor and the ways and schemes that you use to obtain your earthly wealth will be a very hell to you.

Today, right now, you are enjoying the means of grace, listening to the preaching of the Word and prayer. For God has sent his ministers out into the fields and the highways to invite, to woo you to come in, but they are boring to you. You would rather be enjoying your pleasures.

Before long, my friends, the preaching will be over and you will no longer be troubled with it. But then you would give 10,000 worlds for one moment of that merciful time of grace which you have abused. Then you will cry out for a drop of that precious blood, which now you trample under your feet. Then you will wish for one more offer of mercy, for Christ and his free grace to be offered to you again.

But your crying will be in vain. For since you would not repent here, God will not give you an opportunity to repent after your death. If you would not come when Jesus called you, He will not come as your Savior after your death. You will be in a dreadful condition, and astonishment will possess your souls.

Then all your lies and promises, your scoffs and jeers at the people of God, all your filthy and unclean thoughts and actions, your wasted time at dances and parties, at the theater, your spending whole evenings playing cards, shooting dice, and your frequenting of taverns and bars, your worldliness, covetousness, and your lack of love to others will be brought at once to your remembrance, and all will be charged to your guilty soul.

And how can you bear the thoughts of these things? Indeed, I am full of compassion towards you to think that this should be the coming doom of any one of you who now hear me. These are truths, though awful ones, my friends. These are the truths of the gospel.

And if there was not a necessity for speaking like this, I would willingly avoid it. For it is not a pleasing subject to me any more than it is to you. But it is my duty, my duty to show you the dreadful consequences of continuing in sin. I am only acting out the part of a skillful surgeon that searches a wound before he heals it. I would show you your danger first. That deliverance may be more readily accepted by you

Consider that no matter how you are striving to hide your sins, in the Day of Judgment there will be a full discovery of every one of them. The hidden things on that day will be brought to light, and after all your sins have been revealed to the whole world, then you must depart into the everlasting fire of hell, which will not be extinguished night and day. It will be without intermission, without end.

Oh, my friends, what stupidity and senselessness has possessed your hearts that you are not frightened from your sins? The fear of Nebuchadnezzar's fiery furnace made men do anything to avoid it. And will not an everlasting fire make men and women, make you do anything to avoid it? Oh, that this would awaken and cause you to humble yourselves for your sins and to beg forgiveness for them that you might find mercy in the Lord Jesus.

Do not go away. Do not let the devil hurry you away before the sermon is over, but stay and you will have a Jesus offered to you who has made full satisfaction for all your sins. Let me beg you to cast away your transgressions, to strive against sin, to watch against it, and to beg power and strength from Christ to keep down the power of those lusts that hurry you on in your sinful ways.

But if you will not do any of these things, if you are resolved to keep on sinning, then you must expect eternal death to be the consequence. You must expect to be seized with horror and trembling, with horror and amazement, to hear the dreadful sentence of condemnation pronounced against you. And then you will run and call on the mountains to fall on you, to hide you from the Lord and from the fierce anger of his wrath.

If you now had a heart to turn from your sins to the living God, by true and genuine repentance and to pray to him for mercy in and through the merits of Jesus Christ, then there would be hope. But at the day of judgment, your prayers and tears will be meaningless. They will be of no help to you. In that day, the judge will not listen to you, just as you would not listen to him when he called to you. but despised both him and his ministers and would not leave your sins. Therefore, on that day, he will not listen to you despite all your cries and tears.

For God himself has said, since you have rejected me when I called and did not give heed when I stretched out my hand, since you ignored all my advice and would not accept my rebuke, I in turn will laugh at your disaster. I will mock when calamity overtakes you, when calamity overtakes you like a storm, when disaster sweeps over you like a whirlwind, when distress and trouble overwhelm you. Then you will call to me, but I will not answer. You will look for me, but you will not find me.

Now you may call all these warnings foolishness, but in that great day of judgment, if you do not repent of your sins here, you will find by woeful experience that your own ways were indeed foolishness. But may God help you to repent now. Seek after the Lord while he is to be found. Call on him while he is near and you will find mercy. Repent this hour. and Christ will joyfully receive you.

What do you say? Must I go to my master and tell him that you will not come to him and will not listen to any of his warnings? No, do not send me on such an unhappy errand. I cannot. I will not tell him any such thing. I would rather tell him you are willing to repent and to be converted to become new men and women and take up a new course of life, this is the only wise resolution you can make.

Let me tell my master that you will come and you will wait on him, for if you do not, it will be your ruin both now and for all of eternity. You will at your death wish you had lived the life of the righteous, that you might have died his death

Be advised then, consider what is before you, Christ and the world, holiness and sin, life and death. Choose now for yourselves, let your choice be made immediately and let that choice be your dying choice.

If you do not want to die in your sins, If you do not want to die as a drunkard, to die as an adulterer, to die as a blasphemer in a scoffer, then do not live out this day in the dreadful condition you are in.

Some of you may say that you do not have the power, you do not have the strength, but haven't you been able to do whatever you wanted with your own power? Haven't you as much power to go hear a sermon as to go to the theater or to a dance or to a party. You have as much power to read the Bible as to read novels and romances. And you can associate as well with the godly as with the wicked and the ungodly.

This is nothing but an idle excuse, my friends, to continue in your sins. And if you will just read the Bible, listen to sermons and pray, then Christ has promised he will give you strength.

While Peter was preaching, the Holy Spirit came on all that heard the word. Your duty then is simply to listen to the word of God. Jesus Christ will give you strength. He will put his Spirit within you and you will find him to be your wisdom, your righteousness, your sanctification, and your redemption.

Go and see what a gracious, a kind and loving master he is. He will be a help to you in all your burdens. And if the burden of sin is on your soul, go to him as weary and heavy laden and he will give you rest. Do not say that your sins are too many and too great to expect to find mercy. No, if they are ever so many or ever so great, The blood of the Lord Jesus Christ will cleanse you from all sins.

God's grace, my friends, is free, rich, and sovereign. Manasseh was a great sinner and yet he was forgiven. Zacchaeus was far away from God and went out to see Christ with no other purpose but to satisfy his curiosity. And yet, Jesus met him. and brought salvation to his house.

Manasseh was an idolater and a murderer, yet he received mercy. Zacchaeus was an oppressor and an extortioner who had acquired his riches by fraud and deceit and by grinding the faces of the poor. So did Matthew, yet they found mercy.

Have you been blasphemers and persecutors of the saints and servants of God? So was the apostle Paul, yet he received mercy. Have you been nothing but a common prostitute, a filthy and immoral person? So was Mary Magdalene, and yet she received mercy. Have you been a thief? The thief on the cross found mercy.

I despair of none of you, no matter how vile and wicked you have been, I say I despair of none of you, especially when God has had mercy on such a wretch as I am. Remember the poor tax collector, how he found favor with God when the proud, self-conceited religious Pharisee, who puffed up with his own righteousness, was rejected? And if you will go to Jesus, as the poor tax collector did, under a sense of your own unworthiness, you will find favor as he did.

There is virtue enough in the blood of Jesus to forgive greater sinners than he has yet forgiven. Then do not be discouraged, my friends, but come to Jesus, and you will find him ready to help you in all your distresses, to lead you into all truth, to bring you from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God.

Do not let the devil deceive you by telling you that when you become a Christian that all your delights and pleasures will be over. No, Christianity never deprives you of all pleasure. In fact, it is an inlet to unspeakable delights, unique to everyone who is truly regenerated

The new birth is the very beginning of a life of peace and comfort, and the greatest pleasures are to be found in the ways of holiness. Solomon, who had experienced all the other pleasures, yet said of the way of godliness that all her ways are pleasant ways and all her paths are peace.

Surely then, my friends, do not let the devil deceive you. It is all he wants. That is his goal. To make religion appear to be gloomy and miserable. But let him say what he will. Do not listen to him. Do not pay any attention to him. For he always was and always will be a liar.

What words, what appeals can I use to make you come to the Lord Jesus Christ? The little love I have experienced since I have been brought from sin to God is so great that I would never go back to that unsaved state for ten thousand worlds, and what I have felt is but little to what I hope to feel.

But that little love which I have experienced is a sufficient buoy against all the storms and tempests of this boisterous world. And let men and devils do their worst, I rejoice in the Lord Jesus Yes, and I will rejoice. And oh, if you repent and come to Jesus, I would rejoice on account of you too. And we would rejoice together throughout all eternity when we finally passed onto the other side of the grave.

Oh, come to Jesus. The arms of Jesus Christ will embrace you. He will wash away all your sins in his blood and will love you completely. Come, I beg you to come to Jesus Christ. Oh, that my words would pierce your very soul. Oh, that Jesus Christ was formed in you. Oh, that you would turn to the Lord Jesus Christ, that he might have mercy on you. I would speak all day long. Yes, I would speak until I could speak no more so that I might be a means to bring you to Christ.

Let the Lord Jesus enter your souls and you will find peace, which the world can either give nor take away. There is mercy for the greatest sinner among you. Go to the Lord as sinners, helpless and lost without his mercy. And then you will find comfort in your souls and be admitted among those who will sing praises to the Lord throughout all eternity.

Now, my friends, Let me speak a word of exhortation to those of you who are already Christians, those of you who are born again, those of you who belong to God, to whom grace has been given to repent of your sins and who are cleansed from their guilt and are thankful to God for his mercies towards you. Oh, my brothers and sisters, admire the grace of God and bless his name forever.

Are you made alive in Christ Jesus? Is the life of God begun in your souls and do you not have evidence of such a change? Be thankful for His unspeakable mercy to you. Never forget to speak of His mercy. And as your life was formerly devoted to sin and to the pleasures of the world, let it now be spent completely in the ways of God and embrace every opportunity of doing and receiving good.

Whatever opportunity you have, do it vigorously, do it quickly, and do not defer it. If you see someone hurrying on to destruction, use the utmost of your efforts to stop him in his course. Show him the need he has of repentance, and that without it he is lost forever. Do not worry about the fact that he may despise you, Still go ahead and show him his danger.

And if your friends mock and despise you, do not let that discourage you. Hold on, hold out to the end so that you will have an indestructible crown which will never fade away. Let the love that Jesus gives to you also keep you humble. Do not be high-minded. Keep close to the Lord. Observe all the commands which the Lord Jesus has given in his word.

Oh, consider the reasons you have to be thankful to the Lord Jesus Christ for giving you that repentance that you yourself needed, a repentance which works by love. Now you will find more pleasure in walking with God one hour than in your whole life of your former carnal delights and all the pleasures of sin. Oh, the joy you feel in your own souls, which all the men and women of the world and all the devils in hell, though they were to combine together, could not destroy.

Then do not fear their wrath or hatred, for we must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God. A few more days, a few more weeks, or a few more years, And then you will be beyond the reach of Satan and his demons. You will be in the heavenly Jerusalem, where there is all harmony and love. There is all joy and delight. There the weary soul is at rest.

Now, today we have many enemies, but at death they are all lost. Our enemies cannot follow us beyond the grave. And this is a great encouragement for us not to regard the scoffs and jeers of the men and women of this world.

Oh, let the love of Jesus be in your thoughts continually. It was his dying that brought you life. It was his crucifixion that paid the satisfaction for your sins. His death, burial and resurrection that completed the work. And he is now in heaven. interceding for you at the right hand of His Father?

And can you do too much for the Lord Jesus Christ, who has done so much for you? His love to you is immeasurable. Oh, the height, the depth, the length and the breadth of His love that brought the King of glory from His throne to die for such rebels as we are, when we had acted so unkindly against Him and deserved nothing but eternal damnation.

He came down and took our nature upon Himself. He was made flesh and lived among us. He was put to death on our account. He paid our ransom. Surely this should make us rejoice in Him and not to do as many do and as we ourselves have done too often to crucify this Jesus afresh.

Let us do all we can, my friends, all we can to honor Him. Come, come, every one of you. Come and look at Christ stretched out for you. See his hands and feet nailed to the cross. Oh, come, come, my friends, and nail your sins there, too. Come, come and see his side pierced. There is a fountain open for sin and for uncleanness. Oh, wash, wash in the fountain and be clean. Come, come and see His head crowned with thorns and all for you.

Can you think of a panting, bleeding, dying Jesus and not be filled with pity towards Him? He underwent all of this for you. Come to Him by faith. Lay hold of Him. There is mercy for every soul that will come to Him. Then do not delay. Fly into the arms of this Jesus and you will be made clean in His blood.

O unbelievers, my unbelieving friends, what will I have to say to make you come to Jesus? I have shown you the dreadful consequence of not repenting of your sins. And if after all I have said, you are resolved to persist, your blood will be required on your own heads. but I hope better things of you and things that accompany salvation.

Let me beg you to seriously pray for the grace of repentance. I may never see your faces again, but on the day of judgment I will meet you. There you will either bless God that you would move towards repentance or else this sermon, though preached in a field, will be like an instant witness against you.

Repent, repent therefore, my dear friends, as John the Baptist and our blessed Redeemer himself earnestly exhorted, and turn from your evil ways, and the Lord will have mercy on you. Show them, O Father, show them where they have offended you, make them see their own vileness, and that they are lost and hopeless without true repentance, And Father, give them that repentance, we beg of you, that they may turn from their sin to you, the living and true God.

These things and whatever else you see needful for us, Father, we beg that you would bestow on us on account of what the dear Lord Jesus Christ has done and suffered. To whom with yourself and the Holy Spirit three persons, and one God, be given, as is most due, all power, glory, might, majesty, and dominion, now and forevermore. Amen.