The Entreaty of the Holy Ghost

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Hebrews 3:7-8

Why (as the Holy Ghost said, To day if you will hear his voice,…

I. THE SPECIAL VOICE OF THE HOLY GHOST.

1. How does the Holy Ghost thus speak?

(1) He saith this first, in the Scriptures. Every command of Scripture calls for immediate obedience.

(2) Further, while the Holy Ghost speaks in Scripture on this wise, He speaks in the same manner in the hearts of His people, for he is a living and active agent.

(3) The like is also true when the Holy Ghost speaks in the awakened.

(4) Once more, the Holy Ghost speaks thus by His deeds as well as by His words. We have a common proverb that actions speak more loudly than words. Now the acts of the Holy Spirit in the leading of many to the Saviour are so many practical invitations, encouragements, and commands to others.

2. But why so urgent, blessed Spirit, why so urgent? It is because the Holy Ghost is in sympathy with God; in sympathy with the Father who longs to press the prodigal to his bosom; in sympathy with the Son who is watching to see of the travail of His soul.

II. A SPECIAL DUTY. "Hear His voice" — that is, hear it obediently, eager to do what he bids you, as he enables you. Do not hear and forget. Retain the truth in your memories, and, better still, practise it in your lives.

1. Hear ye the Lord when He instructs you. How often are men's ears stopped up with the wax of prejudice, so that they are dull of hearing. They have made up their minds as to what the gospel ought to be, and will not hear what it is.

2. But the Lord does more than instruct you, He commands; for let men say what they will, the Gospel to be preached to the ungodly is not merely warnings and teachings, it has its solemn, positive commands.

3. But the Lord does more than command, He graciously invites; with tenderness He bids sinners to His banquet of mercy. Shall His love be slighted, and His bounty treated with scorn?

4. But the Lord does more than invite, He adds His promises. Oh do not count yourselves unworthy of them.

5. The Lord also threatens, as well as entreats. He declares that the despisers shall wonder and perish. If Christ be rejected, eternal wrath is certain.

III. A SPECIAL TIME EMPHASISED.

1. To-day, that is while God speaks. Oh, if we were as we should be, the moment God said "Seek ye My face," we should reply, "Thy face, Lord, will I seek": as soon as the invitations of mercy were heard there would be an echo in our souls to them. Hear God to-day, for to-day He speaks.

2. The apostle says in the next chapter, "To-day — after so long a time." I see that some of you have bald heads, or grey hairs lie thick upon them. Is it not long enough to have provoked your God these sixty years? "To-day," that is, especially while the Holy Ghost is leading others to hear and to find mercy; to-day, while the showers are falling, receive ye the drops of grace; to-day, while there are prayers offered up for you; to-day, lest the preaching of the Word of God should come to be a matter of routine, and the preacher himself, discouraged, should lose all zeal for your soul; to-day, while everything is peculiarly propitious, hear ye the voice of God. While the wind blows, hoist the sail; while God is abroad on errands of love, go forth to meet Him.

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