Redeemed, but not yet
regenerate
'I
have much people in this city.'—Acts 18:10
This should be a great encouragement to try
to do good, since God has among the vilest
of the vile, the most reprobate, the most
debauched and drunken, an elect people who
must be saved. When you take the Word to
them, you do so because God has ordained you
to be the messenger of life to their souls,
and they must receive it, for so the decree
of predestination runs. They are as much
redeemed by blood as the saints before the
eternal throne. They are Christ's property,
and yet perhaps they are lovers of the
ale-house, and haters of holiness; but if
Jesus Christ purchased them He will have
them. God is not unfaithful to forget the
price which His Son has paid. He will not
suffer His substitution to be in any case an
ineffectual, dead thing.
Tens of thousands of
redeemed ones are not regenerated yet, but
regenerated they must be; and this is our
comfort when we go forth to them with the
quickening Word of God.
Nay, more, these ungodly ones are prayed for
by Christ before the throne. 'Neither pray I
for these alone,' saith the great
Intercessor, 'but for them also which shall
believe on Me through their word.' Poor,
ignorant souls, they know nothing about
prayer for themselves, but Jesus prays for
them. Their names are on His breastplate,
and ere long they must bow their stubborn
knee, breathing the penitential sigh before
the throne of grace. 'The time of figs is
not yet.' The predestinated moment has not
struck; but, when it comes, they shall obey,
for God will have His own; they must, for
the Spirit is not to be withstood when He
cometh forth with fulness of power—they must
become the willing servants of the living
God. 'My people shall be willing in the day
of my power.' 'He shall justify many.' 'He
shall see of the travail of His soul.' 'I
will divide him a portion with the great,
and He shall divide the spoil with the
strong.'
- Charles H. Spurgeon,
Morning & Evening (December 4)
