Inviting the Unconverted to Christ — Ernest C. Reisinger

Dr. Gray, gentlemen, we're at the bottom of the barrel, almost there. There's been a lot of contrast in this conference, from Anglican to Baptist and many other contrasts, but today, at the end, we're coming to the end, this is the contrast of contrasts.

Dr. Packer, I think one of the world's best theologians, and now we're down to the carpenters. However, I think it's quite appropriate to be something like this, at least, to be in true Puritan style.

I often read of John Owen being in Bunyan's audiences, and then I'd read that, how Owen would come to his audience, I thought, I wonder how John Bunyan felt, and I never realized that I'd have an opportunity to find out.

Inviting the Unconverted to Christ

Today, I want to sort of try to keep within the papers are not my speed. Now, I've got some friends here that if they'd be gamblers, they're Christians, so they don't gamble, they're betting that I'll stop and preach.

But the boss told me not to preach, but to stay to the paper. Not in those words, but first, I'll plan to stay within the framework of the theme for these afternoon sessions, namely evangelism, but more particularly evangelism in Puritan and today's practices.

Then, specifically, I'll try to stay within my assigned part of that theme, and that is inviting the unconverted to Christ and directing the awakened to faith and assurance. Now, my purpose will be to deal with the principles, I hope you hear this, with the principles of evangelism in this particular area, and not the personalities in evangelism.

And so I hope when we come to the question period, there's no doubt in my mind that you'll be able to connect some of these principles to persons. However, in the discussion period that follows, I trust that you'll keep to my idea, and that is to stay to the principles of evangelism and not the personalities in evangelism.

We have no personalities in mind other than we associate them to these things. Now, how do I plan to approach this? Well, four things. One, I plan to give some quotation from the great Puritans, and from some men whose heart later burned with the same Puritan and biblical evangelism.

I will not be giving many quotes of today's practices for two reasons. One, because of time. Two, because I think many of us are painfully aware of them, and they need not be quoted. Secondly, I plan to point out some of the pronounced differences, and I hope you listen carefully as I read their Inviting Men to Christ, and you make some applications in your own mind.

But I plan to try to point out some of the pronounced differences, namely of four. I want to appeal to the Scriptures also to show that the historical Puritan practices were more loyal to the Word of God and also more doctrinal and theological in their foundation.

And fourth, I plan to mention what appears to me to be clearly the apparent difference between the two practices. First, I'd like to quote Dr. Packer already mentioned this morning, William Guthrie. And I think I should say a word about him.

He was one of the holiest and most noble of the experimental divines of Scotland. He was born in the year 1620, later a student of Samuel Rutherford. He was licensed in 1642 by his presbytery with high approbation.

And he and his little book, The Christian's Great Interest, that I will be quoting from, were both highly esteemed by many of his illustrious contemporaries. One, Mr. Matthew Crawford, a fellow minister, said, he was one of the greatest practical preachers of Scotland.

And Dr. John Owen, Dr. Packer already mentioned the quote and thought that Dr. Owen was a little reckless in his statement, but I have to give it again. Dr. Owen, on one occasion, drawing a little gilded-edged copy of this treatise from his pocket, said, I quote, the author, I take it, to have been one of the greatest divines that ever wrote.

Referring to the little book, Owen said, Now, a carpenter had to look that up in Webster, and Webster said, that's a book carried as a constant companion, or go with me. I guess the Latin would be go with me.

Owen went on to say, I have written, and this is the quote that Dr. Packer gave you this morning, I have written several folios, but there's more divinity in it than them all. It's recorded in the memoirs of the great Dr. Chalmers.

Quote, I am on the eve of finishing Guthrie, which I think is the best book I have ever read. And I might add my personal testimony to that. For 1967, if I was going to be marooned on an island and could only have four books, this would be one.

Of course, the Westminster Confession would be the other. And Spunion's Pilgrim's Progress, and of course, the Bible. You can get a pretty good theological education from those four books. Now, the first part, or the second part of this book, the whole second part of it, little kids, is called How to Attain a Saving Interest in Christ.

William Guthrie on Receiving Christ by Faith

Let us see how this noble divine invited the unconverted to Christ. He did not begin with God loves you and has a plan for your life and point out all the benefits that would accrue to you and how nice it would be if you would accept this poor little weak, pathetic Jesus standing outside your heart's door.

And wouldn't it be nice if great be you, pretty little, pleased with sugar, I might let him in. No, he didn't begin that way. He began with God in Genesis, with Adam, with Adam's sin, man's condition because of sin, God's purpose and intent to save men by Christ Jesus.

He said, quote, the Lord did most freely from everlasting purpose and intent to save men by Christ Jesus and the covenant of grace in which he intended reconciliation with the elect through Christ Jesus, God and man, born of a woman in due time to make this agreement effectual.

That's how he began inviting the sinners to Christ. He explained what receiving was in this second half, what believing was. He was very strong and clear to point out that it's a duty to close with Christ, not an option.

And he used such text as 1 John 3 .23 to enforce his argument. This is his commandment that you believe on the name of his son, Christ Jesus. Not as though he were trying to get votes for Christ or something like that.

He made it as a command to believe. He did not try to high pressure men into a deciding they knew not what. He gave them information. That's been brought up several times in the Constance, the importance of information.

We'll touch on it a bit later. He warned them against trying to do this duty without consideration, that is, without counting the cost. He encouraged them to consider the facts and that was involved in coming to Christ.

Hear him. Men must not rashly, inconsiderately, and ignorantly rush in upon this matter, saying that they approve of the way of saving sinners and that they will acquiesce and rest in him for safety. He said often men deceive themselves here and do imagine they have done the thing.

Imagine they have done the thing. In the second chapter of the second half, he points out some of the properties, what he calls properties and native consequences of true believing. One, believing in Christ must be personal.

Two, this duty must be cordial and hearty. The matter must not swim only in the head or understanding, but it must be in the heart. The man must not only be persuaded that Christ is the way, but affectionately persuaded of it, loving, liking, and having complacency in it, that is, resting in it.

Three, another property or qualification of true believing, as it goes out after Christ, he said it must be rational. Quote, by this I mean that a man should move toward God and Christ in knowledge and understanding, taking up God's way of saving sinners like Christ as the scripture holds him out, not fancying a Christ to himself.

Otherwise, in the gospel speech of him, I mean also that a man must, in calmness of spirit, as it were, in cold blood, imposing with Christ, not simply a fit of affection which soon vanishes. Note the emphasis on calmness of spirit, in cold blood, not in a simple fit of affection.

This is the very opposite to a climate that's all geared to a moment of decision under a highly emotional atmosphere. Gunther, he points out that this faith must be personal, cordially, hearty, rational, and resolutely, and he gives a whole paragraph on how resolute a man must be about coming to Christ.

He said, quote, there is a confident guard upon the free grace of God in the gospel, held out through Christ Jesus, so that ignorant, senseless, profane men cannot with any shadow of reason pretend to an interest in it.

It is, it is true, believing in Christ and closing with him as a perfect savior seems easy. And every godless man says that he believes in him, but they deceive themselves since their soul has never cordially, rationally, resolutely gone out after Christ.

Joseph Alleine and the Necessity of Repentance

The next great Puritan I want to mention, and there will be some overlap today in some of this, not that I parroted after Dr. Packer. You may hear some of Dr. Packer in this paper, but it won't be in that flowing Oxford English, but you may hear some of him because I read his books.

So don't be alarmed if you hear him. But the next great Puritan that I want to mention is one that Mr. Martin mentioned, Joseph Eileen. He was described as greedy for souls. They say, well, Calvinists aren't evangelistic.

I read where he was described as greedy for souls. Joseph Eileen was born in 1634. He sat at the feet of such giants as Dr. Owen and Dr. Thomas Goodwin at Oxford University. Eileen was one of that brave and godly company of 2 ,000 men that Dr. Packer talked about this morning who were cast from their pulpit by that infamous act of uniformity.

But even then he would not be silent and stop preaching and was thrown into prison for a year for preaching, for a year only to be taken again after a year for preaching in a private home on Psalm 147.

I refer to his book, and I'm sorry we don't have enough back on the bookstand. We couldn't talk about it this week, but I refer to his book, Alarms of the Unconvergent, Positivity, the greatest thing on conversion that I've read.

And I'm sorry you may order it, but we don't have it. A book that influenced this same book influenced George Whitefield while he was still a student at Oxford. One of the books that Spurgeon turned to when he was under conviction of sin.

Spurgeon records how when he was a child, his mother would often read a piece of Eileen's alarm to them as they sat around the fire on a Sunday evening. And he said when he was brought under deep conviction of sin, he said it was to this old book that he turned.

He says, I remember, he writes, when I used to wake in the morning, the first thing I took up was Eileen's alarm or back this call to the unconverted. All those books I read and devoured them. And with his heart burning with the same cured and fire divinity, Spurgeon was prepared to follow in the steps of Eileen and Whitefield.

It's the sixth chapter of this little treatise that I want to refer to this afternoon. And the chapter title is, Directing the Unconverted to Christ. All preachers hear me today, hear some of these directions.

If you don't have the book and you don't have a dollar, give me your name on a piece of paper, I'll send it to you. Just for this chapter, 16 directions for directing the unconverted to Christ. Now I'm not going to read all 16 or anything like that, but just want to give you a few statements from some of these directions to show how he directed the unconverted to Christ.

Quote, and this is a quote before he starts the 16 directions, here's a little quote. Men and brethren, though you carry the symptoms of death on your face, yet I have a prescription that will cure you infallibly.

Follow these directions, and if you do not win heaven, I will be content to lose it. Here then, O sinner, and if ever you would be converted and saved, take heed to the following counsel. Number one, sit it down with yourself as an undoubted proof that it is impossible for you to get to heaven in this, your unconverted state.

Two, labor to get a sore sight of your, a sore, lively sense and feeling of your sin. And then he tells them how to do it, and why it's necessary. He said, quote, till men are weary and heavy laden, and pricked at the heart, and quite sick of sin, they will not come to Christ for a cure, nor sincerely inquire, what must I do?

They must see themselves as dead before they will come to Christ, that they may live. And under the same head, he says, meditate on the number of your sins. Jesus' heart failed him when he thought on this, and he considered that he had more sins in the head of his head, and he cried out, all for the volitude of thy tender mercy.

He says, meditate on the aggravations of your sins, as they are the grand enemies of the God of your life, and the life of your soul. In a word, he said, they are the public enemies of all mankind. Meditate on the desert of your sins, he said.

It cries to heaven, it calls for vengeance. Its due wages is death and damnation. It brings the curse of God on the soul and body. He says, meditate on the deformity of your sins. It is black as hell.

The very image and the likeness of the devil upon the soul. He said, above all other sins consider two. One, the sin of your heart. He said, it is little purpose to lop off the branches while the root of corruption remains untouched.

Two, the particular evil that you are most addicted to. For out of all this aggravation, find in all these aggravations, and set your heart upon all God's threats against it. The fifth direction, I've skipped a couple.

The fifth direction, he says, renounce all your sins. Notice, as Mr. Martin pointed out, the emphasis on repentance. He says, renounce all of your sins. If you yield yourself to practice of any sin, you are undone.

In vain do you hope for life in Christ, except you depart from iniquity. Forsake your sins, or you cannot find mercy. You cannot be married to Christ, except you be divorced from sin. Give up the traitor, or you'll have no peace with heaven.

Keep not Delilah on your lap. You must part with your sins, or with your soul. Spare but one sin, and God will not spare you. Your sins must die, for you must die for them. If you allow one sin, though but a little, a secret one, though you may plead necessity and have a hundred shifts and excuses for it, the life of your soul must go for the life of that sin.

And will it not be dearly bought? That's putting the emphasis on repentance. And he goes on to say, poor sinner, you have fallen off from God, and have engaged his power and wrath against you. You know, ye know, that his commandments and grace, he offers to be your God again in Christ.

He told sinners that all the love God had for them was in Christ. The love God had for sinners in Christ. You've got to get to Christ, sinner. O sinner, here is the most blessed news that ever came to the sons of men.

The Lord will be your God, if you will but close with him in his excellency. Will you have his mercy, his grace, the sin-pardoning God to be your God? Oh yes, says the sinner, otherwise I am done, I'm undone.

Ah, but he further tells you, I am a holy and sin-hating God. If you will be owned as one of my people, you must be holy. Holy in heart, holy in life. You must put away all your iniquities. Be they ever so dear, ever so natural, ever so necessary to the maintaining of your worldly interests.

Unless you will be at enmity with sin, I cannot be your God. Ah, he tells you, sinner, again he tells you, sinner, I am the sovereign Lord. If you will have me for your God, you must give me supremacy.

None of that business of trusting Jesus as your personal savior, whatever that is, and then some big convenient day when it pleases you, you make him Lord. No, he said at the outset, you must give me supremacy.

You must not make me second to sin or any worldly interest. If you will be my people, I must have the rule over you. You must not live at your pleasure. You will come, will you come under my yoke, he asked the sinner?

Will you come under my yoke? Will you bow to my government? Will you submit to my discipline, to my word, to my rod? Sinner, what do you say to this? Seventh direction, I've skipped again. He said, accept the Lord Jesus in all of his offices as yours.

Upon these terms Christ may be had. Will you have Christ in all his relations to be yours? Your king, your priest, your prophet, will you have him and bear his cross? Do you not take, do not take Christ without consideration?

Notice that again. Do not take Christ without consideration, but sit down and count the cost. Will you lay all in his feet? Like our Lord, Eileen made the way narrow at the outset. The twelfth direction, now I've skipped several.

The twelfth direction, he points out the necessity of attending to the means. Hear him again, quote. Attend conscientiously upon the word as the means appointed for your conversion. Attend, I say, not customarily, but conscientiously with this desire, desire and hope and expectation that you will be converted by it.

Come to every sermon you hear with this thought. Now he's talking to the unconverted. Come to every stall you hear with this thought. Oh, I hope God will come in. I hope this day may be the time, this may be the man by whom God will bring me home.

Again, we see the essence of on-the-spot decisionism or salesmanship. Recently, and I do give a couple quotes of recently, I read in a manual called Counselor's Training Course, and this ties into what Dr. Packard said this morning about this quick on-the-spot business.

The Danger of Quick Decisionism

But I read, and I have it with me in case you don't believe it, I read in the Counseling Training Course for a leading evangelistic effort at the New York World's Fair, I read the following, it says, Remember, many people are ready to accept Christ.

They do not need to be convinced, but just show how. In most cases, this presentation should not take more than 30 minutes. Avoid worriness. That's a quote. And that's not a fly-by-night thing either.

The 15th direction. She said, directing the unconverted to Christ, she says, Forsake evil company. Forbear the occasion of sin. You will never return from sin till you decline and forego the temptation of sin.

I never expect your conversion from sin, said Eileen, unless you are brought to some sense of self-denial as to flee from the occasion. If you will be nibbling at the bait and playing at the brink and tampering with the snare, your soul will surely be taken.

John Newton on Coming to Christ

So much for Eileen. May I quote another Puritan that we all love and sing his hymns, John Newton, the great preacher and hymn writer. I took this from a sermon entitled, Coming to Christ, very apropos for my part of this assignment, based on the text, Matthew 11, 28.

He says,. The gospel of Christ can be truly esteemed and understood by none but weary and heavy-laden souls, not this cynic that can say with a smile on his face. The gospel of Christ can be truly esteemed and understood by none but weary and heavy-laden souls who have felt their misery by nature and have tried and are tired of the drudgery of sin and have seen the curse of a broken law pursuing them like the avenger of blood.

Notice the effort not to comfort before their conviction or not to comfort before their concern. Surely that Puritan believes that they must see their pollution before they would desire Christ's protection.

They must be disturbed by their sin before they'll ever want deliverance from it by the Savior. In the same sermon under one of the titles, or one of the four he spoke, What is it to come to Christ? He said the following,.

It certainly implies more than mere bodily coming to his presence. He was surrounded, speaking of our Lord, he was surrounded and even followed by a multitude who never came to him in the sense of his invitation to touch while standing around him.

He complained, Ye will not come to me that ye might have life. John 5 .41. From one of Bunyan's sermons, and a sermon, quite a long sermon, I don't know how he ever preached these sermons, but it's a sermon on the text of John 6 .37 called Come and Welcome to Jesus Christ.

John Bunyan on the Meaning of Coming to Christ

And under one of the heads of this sermon entitled What is it to come to Christ? Bunyan said, quote, This word, welcome, must be understood spiritually, not carnally, for many come to him carnally and bodily that had no saving advantage by him.

Multitudes did thus come to him in the days of his flesh. Yea, enumerable come to me. This coming, says Bunyan then, this coming then, intended in the text, is to be understood of the coming of the minds to him, even the moving of the heart towards him, for it is from a sound sense and an absolute want that the man has of him for justification and salvation.

And I found a footnote in the same sermon, quote, it wasn't by Bunyan, it was somebody, just a footnote, it says this, quote, To come to Christ in its proper sense is to receive him as he's offered to us in the word, to believe on him as a substitute, as a suitable, excuse me, a suitable and all-sufficient savior, to submit to his government, that's in coming to him, to submit to his government, both in suffering and doing his will with all lowness of mind and humility, and thus by the powerful operation of the Holy Spirit upon the soul.

Robert Murray M'Cheyne on Conviction and Faith

Another, I suppose we wouldn't call him a Puritan, but he had the Puritan, same stream of convicted soul and the same stream of divine truth. Another dear, one of those dear men that we hold up in esteem and long to emulate, every preacher ought to want to emulate him anyhow, Robert Mary McShane, the book's on the book table, I found in that copy out there, six letters, now don't forget we're talking about directing before I was converted to Christ, and I say, well how did they do it?

Well I found six letters, says McShane, all to a soul seeking Jesus. That's what, all six letters were to some soul seeking Jesus, and by the context of the letter, it's obvious that it was a girl student in poor health.

I want a quote just from a few of those letters in answering this question, how did they do it? Just a few quotes from some of the letters, there were six letters all together. Letter one he said, seek to know your corruption.

Did you ever hear anything like that in our counseling? Seek to know your corruption. Do you think you have been convicted of sin? This is the Holy Spirit's work, and His first work upon the soul. All pray for deep discoveries of your real state by nature and practice.

The world will say you are an innocent and harmless girl. Do not believe them. The world is a liar. Pray to see yourself exactly as God sees you. Pray to know the worth of your soul. Letter two, seeking the righteousness of Christ.

Quote Robert Mary McShane, I pray that the Holy Spirit may sweetly and silently open your heart to relish the way of salvation through the blood and obedience of Emmanuel. In your nature, in your past life, in your breaking the holy law, in your contempt and neglect of Jesus, in your indwelling sin, God can see nothing but what He condemns.

Your tears will not wash out your sin. They do nothing but weep in hell, but that does not justify them. Your right view of the gospel will not justify you. You must be covered with a spotless righteousness.

Letter three, joy and bleeding. There is a text, he said in the letter, there is a text in Romans 15, 13, which expresses all my desire for you. The God of hope, and then he quotes the text, the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing that you may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost.

The God of hope, He must open your heart to attend to the things that are spoken. The God of hope must open your heart to attend to the things that are spoken. The truths that are presented to you will not convert your heart.

The God of hope must breathe upon your heart and water it often. Then see how He gives you joy and peace in believing. He goes on in that same letter. He says, when Jesus revealed Himself to you, as He did to Thomas, when Jesus revealed Himself to Thomas, Thomas cried out with joy, my Lord and my God.

And then he said, if Jesus reveals Himself to you in all of the glory of His person, and the completeness of His work, and the freeness of His love, you too will be filled with joy, appropriating joyful faith, and will cry, my Lord and my God.

It is difficult to explain what believing is, he said. I suppose it's impossible. But when Jesus unveils His matchless beauty and gives you a sweet glimpse of His matchless face that was buffeted and sped upon, then the soul joyfully clings to Him.

This is believing. This is joy and peace in believing. The truest, purest joy flows from a discovery of Jesus Christ. He's the hidden treasure that gives such joy to the finder. Do you think you have found that treasure?

Touching question, he said. Touching question. If not, you are poor indeed. But how much joy may you have in Christ? So much for McShane. Now for the second half of my title, which I hardly should say a word after Dr. Packer's message this morning.

It almost seems, what's that big word, anticlimactic. But let me go on because I have to do this to get to the last part. So it'll be a little, maybe come out, I say, not with that beautiful Oxford English, but more in a carpenter fashion.

David Brainerd and the Sovereignty of Conversion

I'd like to give a few quotes from the Puritans in connection with the Shirk. First, let us see a great missionary in a situation that will show us something that seems almost totally lost in our generation.

And before I read this excerpt from his diary, I want to ask you, my dear esteemed preacher friends and fellow laborers in the gospel, what most preachers, evangelists, and personal workers would do in this situation.

I'm going to quote from David Brainerd's diary, July 2, 1745, when he was about to leave the Indians at Cross Week Sun. Remember my question, what would happen in our day? What would happen to your church?

Quote, when I parted from them, one told me with many tears that she wished God would change her heart. Another, that she wanted to find Christ. And an old man who'd been one of their chiefs wept bitterly with concern for his soul.

I then promised them to return as speedily as my health and business elsewhere would permit, and felt not a little concern that parting, said Brainerd, lest the good impressions then apparent upon numbers of them might decline and wear off when the means cease.

Yet I could not but hope that he who I trusted had begun a good work in them, and who I knew did not stand in need of means to carry on, would maintain and promote it. He believed in a sovereign God that not only made salvation possible, but actually saved.

Please notice, just in that little quote, he did not decision them, he did not give them assurance. And I say as a layman, my dear brethren, a proper understanding of our responsibility in the area of assurance would save many, many false professions, not all, but many.

And it would save many false notions about salvation, and many false ideas about invitation. May I quote from his diary again, referring to his own experience of salvation, David Rayner, quote,. Thus, scores of times, I vainly imagined myself humbled and prepared for saving mercy.

And while I was in this distressed, bewildered, and tumultuous state of mind, the corruption of my heart was especially irritated by the following things. And he names four, elaborates them, I'm only going to name three, and talk about one.

His heart was especially irritated at the following things. One, the strictness of the divine law. Two, that faith alone was the condition of salvation. Flesh doesn't like that. But the third one, the one I want to call your attention to, this is another thing that irritated his heart.

That I could not find out what faith was. That I could not find out what faith was, or what it was, to believe and come to Christ. I read the calls of Christ to the weary and heavy laden, but could find no way that he directed them to come in.

I thought I would gladly come if I knew how, though the path of duty be ever so difficult. I read Mr. Stoddard's Guide to Christ, and my heart arose against the author, for though he told me my very heart, all along under conviction, and seemed to be very beneficial to me in his directions, yet here he failed.

Here he failed. He did not tell me anything that I could do that would bring me to Christ, but left me, as it were, with a great gulf between, without any directions to get through. For I was not yet effectually and experimentally taught that there could be no way prescribed whereby a natural man could of his own strength obtain that which is supernatural and which the highest angel cannot give, let alone a preacher.

That's how he dealt with his seeking soul. It was later Stoddard's Guide to Christ that was the means used in the hands of God to his conversion. May I again turn to that beloved of all Christians and my faithful saint, John Bunyan.

Evangelism in The Pilgrim's Progress

John Bunyan's evangelism in dealing with an awakened sinner, I think, is one of the best examples of Puritans directing men to faith and assurance that I know. Let him speak for himself. But remember, here is an awakened sinner under deep conviction.

You haven't even seen anybody like this, let alone know how to counsel them. Under deep conviction, crying out, What must I do to be saved? Well, I'll look into that some. Note well how the evangelist deals with the seeking sinner.

I'm quoting now from Silver's Progress. Now, I saw upon a time when he was walking in the field that he was reading in his book and greatly distressed in his mind. And as he read, he burst out as he had done before, crying, What shall I do to be saved?

I saw also that he looked this way and that way, as if he would run, and yet he stood still, because I perceived he could not tell which way to go. I looked then, and I saw a man named Evangelist, study Bunyan, I saw a man named Evangelist coming to him, who asked, Wherefore dost thou cry?

He answered, Sir, I perceive by the book in my hand that I am condemned to die, and after that to come to judgment. And I find that I am not willing to do the first, or prepared to do the second. Then said Evangelist, Why are you not willing to die, since this life is attended with so many evils?

The man answered, Because I fear that this burden upon my back will sink me lower than the grave, and I shall fall into hell. And, sir, if I be not fit to go to prison, I am not fit to go to judgment, and from thence to execution, and the thoughts of these things make me cry.

Then said Evangelist, If this be thy condition, why standest thou still? And he answered, Because I know not whither to go. And he gave me a parchment roll, and therein was written, Flee from the wrath to come.

The man therefore read it, and looked upon Evangelist very carefully, said, Whither shall I fly? Then said Evangelist, pointing his finger over a very wide field, Do you see yonder wicked gate? And that's W-I-C-K-E-T.

This man said, No. Then said the other, Do you see yonder shining light? God had put a little light in his path. Do you see yonder shining light? He said, I think I do. Then said Evangelist, Keep that light in your eye, and go up directly thereto, so shalt thou see the gate at which when thou knockest it shall be opened, and thou shalt be told what to do.

No false comfort. But directions, a quote by Spurgeon, from Iain Mary's book, the forgotten Spurgeon, to the sinner, he said, Go home alone, he would say, trusting in Jesus. Then Spurgeon spoke to the sinner, I would like to go into the inquiry room.

I dare say you would, but we will not pander to your popular superstition. We fear that in those rooms, hear this, we fear that in those rooms men are warmed into fictitious confidence. Very few of the supposed converts of inquiry rooms turn out well.

Go to your God at once, even where you are now. Cast yourself upon Christ, now at once, stir not an inch. This amazing, the reoccurring warning in many of his later sermons were something like this, quote,.

And inquiry rooms were just then beginning. They're only about 120 years old, so don't think you're very historic. They were only beginning. And if Spurgeon saw this as the beginning, this is what he said, the reoccurring warnings at the end of his life.

He said, quote, God has not appointed salvation by inquiry rooms. For the most part, a wounded conscience, like a wounded stag, delights to be alone, that it may bleed in secret. A few more quotes and connections with assurance.

Assurance, Doubt, and the Westminster Confession

Quote now from the last source that I want to use today on that particular thing, and then this is the end of the quotes, and we'll try to point out some of the differences. But I quote now from that confession, the mother of all confessions.

And incidentally, on this point, it's exactly like the old Baptist confession of 1689, later called the Philadelphia Confession. I quote from the Westminster Confession of Faith, what was referred to this morning in chapter 18, under assurance of grace and salvation.

And let me highly commend it to every man to study. And also G .I. Williamson's comments on it, or Hodges' comments on this great section. But I quote from, not the whole section, but just one part of the third paragraph.

We've had it today. This infallible assurance does not so belong to the essence of faith, but many, but many, but a true believer may wait long and conflict with many difficulties before he be a partaker of it.

He may, not necessarily, he may wait long and conflict with many difficulties before he be a partaker of it. And for my purpose just now, the words that I want to refer to are these. That a true believer may wait long and conflict with many difficulties before he be a partaker of it.