Godliness | Page 9

is not right with God! That is the
test. If Simon had been converted, his heart would have been right with
God and he would not have supposed the Holy Ghost could have been
bought for money. And Paul added, "For I perceive that thou art still in
the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity." And what further did
he say to him? "Therefore, at once believe"? No; he did not. "Therefore,
repent, and pray God, if, perhaps, the thought of thine heart may be
forgiven thee." Repent first! and then believe, and get this wickedness
forgiven, and so we get a double lesson in the same passage. This
Simon was the only person we have any record of, as believing, where
there is not in the passage itself, taken with the context, a reasonable
and rational evidence, that these preparatory steps of conviction and
repentance, were taken before the teaching of faith, or the exercise and
confession of faith. Simon had this faith of the head, but not of the
heart, and, therefore, it ended in defeat and despair.
Some have written me this week that they had believed. They had been
persuaded into a profession of faith, but no fruits followed. Ah! it was
not the faith of the heart: it was the faith of the head--like that of
Simon's--and it left you worse than it found you, and you have been
groping and grovelling, ever since. But do not think that was real faith,
and that therefore real faith has failed, but be encouraged to begin again,
and repent. Try the real thing, for Satan always gets up a counterfeit.
Therefore, don't go down in despair because the wrong kind of faith did
not succeed. That shall not make the real faith of God of none
effect--God forbid!
Look at one or two other cases--the three thousand in a day. Surely this
is a scriptural illustration. Surely no one will call that anti-Gospel or
legal. What was the first work Peter did? He drove the knife of God's
convincing truth into their hearts, and made them cry out. He awoke
them to the truth of their almost lost and damned condition, till they
said, "What must we do to be saved?" They were so concerned, they
were so pricked in their hearts, their eyes were so opened to the terrible

consequences of their sin, that they cried aloud before the vast
multitude, "Men and brethren, what must we do to be saved?" He
convinced them of sin, and thus followed the order of God.
Again, the eunuch is often quoted as an illustration of faith; but what
state of mind was he in? Was he a careless, unconvicted sinner? There
he was--an Ethiopian, a heathen; but where had he been? To Jerusalem,
to worship the true and living God, in the best way he knew, and as far
as he understood; and then, what was he doing when Philip found him?
He was not content with the mere worship of the temple, whistling a
worldly tune on his way back. He was searching the Scriptures. He was
honestly seeking after God, and the Holy Ghost always knows where
such souls are; and He said to Philip, "Go, join thyself to that chariot:
there is a man seeking after Me; there is a man whose heart is honestly
set on finding Me. Go and preach Christ, and tell him to believe." That
man would have sacrificed, or done, or lost anything, for salvation, and,
as soon as Philip expounded the way of faith, he received it, of course,
as all such souls will.
Saul, on his way to Damascus, is another instance. Jesus Christ was the
preacher there, and surely, He could not be mistaken. His philosophy
was sound. Where did He begin? What did He say to Saul? He saw
there an honest-hearted man. Saul was sincere, so far as he understood,
and if, in any case, there needed to be the immediate reception of Christ
by faith, it was in his. But the Lord Jesus Christ did not say one word
about faith. "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?"--tearing the
bandages of deception off his eyes, and letting him see the wickedness
of his conduct. When Saul said, "Who art Thou, Lord?" He repeated the
accusation. He did not come in with the oil of comfort; He did not
plaster the wound up, and make it whole in a moment; but He said, "I
am Jesus of Nazareth, whom thou persecutest." He ran the knife in
again, and opened Paul's eyes wider, and his wounds wider, too, and
sent him bleeding on to Damascus, where he was three days before he
got the healing. He had to send for a poor human instrument, and