Charles Spurgeon tells of a girl who was near death. This girl approached her pastor asking him to preach at her funeral. She spoke to him of her father, who was an unbeliever and who had never accepted a single invitation from her to come to church.
“Pastor, you will bury me, won’t you?” she asked. “My father will have to come to my funeral and hear you speak, and you will speak the Gospel. Please speak it clearly, I have prayer for him for a long time. I know God will save him.”
According to Spurgeon, the father came to her funeral and was converted. This young girl was happy to die knowing her death might be the cause of her father’s conversion.
Another exclamation of Spurgeon is worth citing tonight.
“If sinners be damned, at least let them leap to hell over our dead bodies. And if they perish, let them perish with our arms wrapped about their knees, imploring them to stay. If hell must be filled, let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let not one go unwarned and unprayed for.”
~ C. H. Spurgeon: “The Wailing of Risca” (Sermon No. 349; Delivered on Sabbath Morning, December 9th, 1860, at Exeter Hall, Strand)
Now, I know it is far easier to cut off difficult relationships, even family members, who are Gospel hardened. I’ve been trying to navigate this for nearly 25 years as a Christian.
Do you know something of this kind of love?
There aren’t many tests of our spiritual state better than simply considering our missionary and evangelistic zeal. This is a great indicator of our spiritual health, dividing those who are intellectually driven from those who have a vital union with the Lord Jesus Christ.
Oh God, works these things in us. Unite our hearts with the compassionate and loving heart of our Lord. As my grandfather so often prayed, and I commend this prayer to you, “Lord, help me to love sinners like Jesus did.”