Left to their doom
Broad and encouraging as are the promises of Divine grace, if we forget the darker facts of life we shall be deluded into a false security; for nothing could be more unreasonable than to suppose that the mercy of God takes no account of moral considerations. Legally our sovereign is vested with an unfettered right of pardoning every criminal, but principles of justice and public order put great restraints upon the exercise of such a right. Bald representations of prayer as a means for securing immediate deliverance from trouble, and especially as a sure door of escape from the consequences of sin, are as false as they are shallow. It is most important that we should know under what circumstances God will reject the prayer of his troubled children and leave them to their doom.
I. AN OBSTINATE REJECTION OF GOD'S INVITATIONS AND COUNSELS. No word is here said of the great mass of the heathen world, who have never heard the full declaration of God's will. Clearly it is implied that such men do not come under the same condemnation as that of the persons immediately referred to. For the special accusation is based on the rejection of the overtures of grace, which must have been known to have been refused. The guilt of this rejection may be measured in two directions.
1. By the character of the Divine voice.
2. By the character of the rejection itself.
II. A CRY FOR DELIVERANCE FROM TROUBLE WITHOUT REPENTANCE OF SIN. The simple ingratitude of sin would be no barrier to the full exercise of God's pardon in Christ if it were hated and repented of, for "he is able to save to the uttermost," etc. But without repentance the smallest sin cannot be forgiven. And repentance is not the mere feeling of distress at the consequence of sin—every sane and sentient being would have that feeling; nor is it a mere regret that the wrong thing was done now its horrible fruits are ripening. It must be a hearty abhorrence of the wickedness itself, and a genuine desire to do nothing of the kind in the future. The dying sinner who is appalled at his future prospects, and shrieks for deliverance from the powers of hell, will not be heard, but will be left to his fate, and most reasonably so, if he has experienced no moral change, and feels no compunctions of conscience, but would do all his vile deeds over again if only he could ensure himself against the just penalties of them.
III. AN ATTEMPT TO ESCAPE FROM THE INEVITABLE. The earthly consequences of sin are many of them fixed immutably by laws of nature. Prayer will not heal the shattered constitution of the drunkard, nor restore the squandered fortune of the spendthrift, nor recover the lost reputation of the thief. No doubt many spiritual consequences of sin are also inevitable, and, though God may pardon the sinner, he will take vengeance on his devices. But when there is true penitence and trust in the mercy of God, the incidence of the calamity is shifted, though the calamity itself is not altered, so that it comes as wholesome chastisement, and is then not laughed at by the Divine wisdom, but graciously overruled for the discipline of the penitent.