Indifference is a destructive force that blinds people to spiritual realities and leads to ruin, as illustrated by the prophetic lament of Jeremiah in Lamentations 1:12. The sermon argues that this apathy, characterized by a lack of concern and a spectator mentality, mirrors the indifference of those who passed by Christ's suffering on the cross. Examples from scripture, such as Jonah's sleep during a storm and Felix's procrastination, highlight the dangers of spiritual insensibility, while a modern anecdote of a fatal accident underscores the public's casual disregard for tragedy. The core lesson is that such indifference, particularly towards the sacrifice of Jesus, carries eternal consequences, urging listeners to awaken from their spiritual slumber and actively respond to the gospel.
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kind of impressed with that anniversary deal. I've got a couple from Shiloh City. That's something for me to look forward to or forget. That wedding anniversary I'm talking about. I presume I'll forget it. Well, it's a joy to be here. I'm always happy to come through the Piedmont section. I never do so without hearing good news. The lady came up to me this morning. She said, well, you don't know me, but when you were on Ashborough Street having a series of meetings, you tied in to our electricity.
She said, I didn't go over to hear you right next door when I sat in the kitchen window in here. And she said, after you closed the meeting, went over to the tabernacle, I took my children over there. Mrs. Cummings, she said, all five of us are safe. So we have never known these little links of the past that sometimes are forged into quite a lengthy chain. Shall we turn in our Bibles to an Armitation One Twelfth. Lamentation One Twelfth. Is it nothing to you, O ye, that pass by?
Behold and see, if there be any sorrow, like unto my sorrow, wherewith the Lord, with the Lord hath done unto me, wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger, from above half he sent tired into my bones, and it prevailed against me. Chapter three, nineteen, twenty. Remembering my affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall, my soul hath them still remembrance and is humble in me. And I want to refer to a text in Peter, First Peter, chapter one and verse ten.
Of which salvation the prophets have inquired and served diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you, searching after what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow. I want to speak on this subject this morning, a very serious solemn subject, and I'm going to read a piece of poetry that I ran across, to more or less give you the subject.
I am more powerful than the combined armies of the world. I have destroyed more than all the rulers of time. I am more deadly than bullets and have wrecked more homes than the mightiest of siege guns. I steal in the United States alone. over three hundred billion every year. I spare no one than find my victims among the rich and the poor alike, young and old, strong and weak. Widows and orphans know me. I loom up to such proportions that I cast my shadow over every field of labor, from the turning of the grindstone to the moving of every trade.
I massacre thousands upon thousands of wage earners every year. I lurk in unseen places and do most of my work silently. You are warned against me, but heed me not. I am relentless. I am everywhere, in the home, on the streets, in the factory, at railroad crossings on the sea. I bring sickness, degradation, death, and yet few seek to avoid me. I destroy, crush me. I give nothing, but take all.
I am your worst enemy. Who am I? Indifference. I don't know a text that brings it out any more than the one I read in Lamentation. Is it nothing to you or me that pass by, but who will see if there be any song like unto my song, wherewith the Lord has afflicted me, in the day of his fierce anger? Last night I took Webster's dictionary and tried to find out what he has to say relative to indifference, carelessness. He says that neutrality, impartiality, insensibility, apathy, unconcerned, a kind of agnosticism, a remarkable law so on, the sage of the sixth century before Christ.
He said any person who in the commotion or the Republic remain neutral what an indifferent spectator of the contending parties should be condemned to perpetual banishment. And this was remarkable. He says in different tissue in anatomy, tissue in a primitive condition not yet having developed into any characteristic form, retardant, embryonic, connection. That's indifference.
Possibly if I were to call you by name and say you're guilty of these things, you'd be offended. And yet the tragedy is the majority of people are, guilty of indifference, or being a spectator to something and not going to become involved. Time and time again, you see in the newspaper or hear it over the news, someone is being wrong, this or another, and bystanders look on, indifference. They don't want to be involved. And that's the sad thing today when it comes to Christianity.
Indifference. indifference as to the condition of the American home, and the cause of that indifference, neglect of spiritual things, the consequences of that indifference, that carelessness, more decline, more delinquency, decay, and doom. During the war, possibly you remember the incident when Singapore, that Greek impregnable British bastion in the Malayan Peninsula, highlight was at its peak that night.
Even the guards involved unquietly but silently the Jats crept down the peninsula, and that great bastion fell, shocking the world. Why? Indifference. you might trace Pearl Harbor to indifference on the part of someone. This awful word indifference. Remember Jonah, here is Jonah, and he's in the sleep of indifference. He slept, and a great storm was raging.
All the seamen were in jeopardy. Yet Jonah slept, asleep, of indifference. The sailors had to awaken them off, shake them out of his indifference and apathy. Why is this storm upon us? Yes, how many today are sleeping? The sleep of indifference, tearlessness. Think of the case of feelings. What did Felix do? Here is Paul and Paul is reasoning. of righteousness, temperance, and judgment of God.
Felix says, when I have a convenient sheath, I'll call for you. Also the case of Galileo, the deputy of Achio, and he may bring in a man by the name of Sassanides, Sassanides, and he was the ruler of the synagogue. and they beat this man before this man, Galeo, and it says Galeo cared for none of these things. In Luke, Matthew twenty-two, you have a case of a marriage of the king's son, and it happened to be God's son.
The invitation is sent out to come, but the Bible tells us that one went to his father, another to his merchandise. They made light of it. Making a living was more important than the marriage of the King's son. Indifference, the shrug of the shoulder so what? This is the age in which we live. The age of indifference. How shall we escape if we neglect it, so great a salvation of our lives.
Our nation, like all nations, is dreading atomic warfare because of the deadly fallout that would take place following such an attack, radioactive. but there's a more deadly peril settling down upon the American sea, your horrors, your heart, and even very after fall. And that's the deadly peril of indifference. For I will, let peace, faith be merry, for all will we die.
That's what they do today. Lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God. They're not concerned about that which is most important in life. Spiritual things, spiritual remedies. The material is all people are concerned about. A number of years ago when I was visiting in Florida, I visited in the home of They had a nursing home there operated by Mr. Hardy, Wesley Hardy. The young couple lived in that home. They didn't have any children. They loved each other.
He was secretary of a big department store and also secretary of big shopping center. He and his wife, he used to come home for his dinner and his wife would walk back with him to his office about two blocks. And when he went in with a kiss, she walked back. One day she was crossing the street right in front of the old town. A speeding automobile hit her, threw her into the air.
She came down. there she lay the pool of her own blood until the ambulance was called. When the ambulance was called and hastened, it was only four or five blocks away, the hospital, Mr. Harding fooled the husband and said, you better hurry home. Your wife is very sick. Oh, no, it couldn't be. I just said goodbye to a few minutes. That goes off my way. You'd better go to the hospital. I'll meet you there.
But he did. When this man was given the sad news, said Bobby, his wife, was dead. Her body married practically by the impact. That poor fellow couldn't contain the all went out of his mind. Couldn't believe it. Two days later, I went by this morning to see it. Oh, Brother West, let me take you to the spot. He took me to the spot, the clustering, and there was a big dark spot on the grave.
That's her blood. He said, I can't cross this street. I'll never cross this street. I'll go around the block. He said, that's not his safety for me. And he stood there, and he sobbed. There's a car nearby. He said, look at it. They don't stop. They don't slow down. He couldn't understand the indifference of the public. to such a sacred spot that took his government from. Oh, I've said the reason is they don't know.
They don't know. That's why they don't stop. They're not interested. And that's when this text came into my mind. The Lord Jesus said, and he says it prophetically, How sad, is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? Behold and see if there be any sorrow like unto my soul, wherewith the Lord have afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger. You say, I can't understand a man remembering something like that, so long its sentiment, its path.
The Lord Jesus remembered, remembering by an affliction the worm within the gall, my soul hath it still in remembrance. Jesus Christ remembers kind. And we'll look at scars through an eternity that will remind us of kind. Every Sunday morning, Christians come together in certain places, to remember a sacred spot where a loved one's blood was shed. We'll never forget it.
Jesus Christ remembered. We know that Jeremiah didn't experience this that we've been reading. He didn't know anything about this. Neither did David know anything about What He gave utterance to in Psalm twenty-two, My God, my God, why is thou forsaken me? Why are thou so far from helping me? They pierced my hands, my feet. Old Testament prophets gave expression to experiences, or that is, the experience of someone else.
Very didn't you go through it. And that's why I read you that text in peace, the Spirit of God, put in the very mouth of David, centuries before the very language that the Lord Jesus uttered on the cross. And the same to Jeremiah. Jeremiah is speaking prophetically when he says, Is it nothing to you? All these have passed by. See, it is any song, like unto my song, wherewith the Lord have afflicted me in the day of its fierce anger.
When was that day of its fierce anger? It was when Jesus Christ hung upon the cross from about have he sent fire into my womb. The lady I referred to, her death was an accident. But the death of Christ was no accident. It was but as if I desired, he volunteered I. Volunteered. He laid on his life for you. He laid on his life for me. As he hangs on her cross, she looks at those walking up and down, in front of the cross.
They are shaping their head. They are saying, if you beat Christ, come down from the cross. But we will believe. Yes, men and women today, you are indifferent. You talk to them about the sufferings of Christ, about salvation. They shape their head. Not interested. not interesting. What about you? Is it nothing to you? Absolutely nothing that God sent His Son into this world to die upon the cross, to save you, to put away your sins, to keep you from going to heaven, that you might go to heaven and be risen and likened forever?
Is it nothing to you? Not one tiny little thing. Is it nothing to you? All we look past by. Behold and see if there be any sorrow, like unto my soul. Can you think of anyone's sorrow, equal or comparable to the sufferings of Jesus Christ his soul? that sorrow that was so deep, so undeserved, and yet so effective, the sufferings of Christ.
Oh, what sorrows were His. Sorrows of the minds, sorrows of the souls. God visited him. He laid upon him all other iniquities. He made to meet upon him the iniquities of us all. God punished his only son. He knew it indifferent. You are not interested to shrug them the shoulders of us all.
How can you be indifferent? How can you be unconcerned? How can you get into the current of this wicked, materialistic world, whose philosophy is, let's eat, drink, be merry, for tomorrow we'll die. Let's make the best of the present. You're not concerned. But what happened is every nineteen hundred years ago. People will go to the Holy Land from all over the world, see a place where Jesus died.
I wonder how many entered into the reality. I wonder how many have gotten saved standing. Why was this blood shed? Is it just curiosity? Is it just detour? What's the message? The Lord Jesus, I think, could speak to heaven, from heaven to those multitudes that grows the whole of earth. Is it nothing to you? With your trembling feet and your lightness of heart, Is it nothing to you or me that passed by?
Don't you realize what happened here? Don't you realize who died here and why he died? I haven't forgotten, he says. Remembering my affliction, my misery, the world, the God, my soul have extremely remembered and is humbled within me. Oh, the indifference of the human heart today. What are you going to do about the Lord Jesus Christ this morning in the light of this prophetic and prophetic expression of grief over indifference, the indifference of human hearts?
God punishing him, for my sin. Don't you give him a thought? Don't you owe him a tear when he suffered for you? Passing by no time to think, to inquire, to seek, to accept. But one man lying in the ditch in a priest passed by. on the other side. Just another case of banditry. A Levite comes along.
Another look. Just another victim. Casualties. Banditry. The past while the other side. People today are just very different about the cross of Jesus Christ. just a thought that stops for a moment and rushes off. We don't start to think who died here, nineteen hundred years old, and why? For whom? These are questions.
In this, all the indifference of human heart. Millions of people, likely all over the world, are sitting, listening to something about the Bible, about the person of Christ. Soon as we end, they said at the end, they hurry home, they turn on the now, what's on TV. The impression didn't last long. indifference. As I reflect back upon the Carolinas many years ago, people would come and hear the gospel.
They had time to hear it today. It would seem they had time today. They'd come and hear the gospel and tell me the story when it was home they couldn't sleep. They couldn't sleep the second night. They couldn't sleep the third night. They couldn't sleep until they finally accepted Christ and dropped teeth. Not much of that today. People were thinking then, thinking about eternal narratives, thinking about our precious soul that needs to be saved.
thinking about where will they spend each other. There is no time to think. Very different. You may get through life without Christ. You'll find it often hard to get through death and eternity without death. You don't think about those things, but you will. It will nothing through you, all you need to pass by. The Holy See of the Bermuda saw the likened of my sword, which was done unto me.
With the word, how you sleep are your sins. People go my boundary too busy making money. having a good time, learning their future. Because of the same difference to Christ, you have already messed up your parish. Is that right? Are you going to fill it in a mess? Or are you going to need a chance? Is it nothing to you? wagged in the hands as they did in front of the cross.
What the Lord Jesus wants is for you to nod to your head. No, say no. But nod to your head with an acknowledgement that he was timed for you and you're going to accept him. And you're going to accept him now. What about this one thing? Is it nothing to you, Mother? Is it nothing to you, Father? The sufferings of Christ, and the glories that are in the fall.
To these much commies and treating the ruler of your pleasure, brethren, to come into your heart the resource linger until Christ himself comes in to stay. And all those are saved. All indifference and difference. Even Christians are guilty of indifference. Indifference to their responsibility. Indifference to the fact that many of them are going to end and they're going to stay there.
They're going to suffer there forever. You can't take the horrors out of heaven. You can't take the joys out of heaven. These are facts. God wants you to face up to these facts this morning. There's nothing to it. Not a thing. How many of us could sing that hymn, Mears I sped from the vanity and pride, knowing not my Lord was crucified, caring not what it was for me he died at Calvary.
Would you like to change that next verse? Now I give to Jesus, let it Now I gladly own as my King, nor my lustre sold an omniscient of character. Say goodbye to indifference, carelessness, unconcerned, destructive of attitudes, dreading war. Realize what happened at character. That's the most secret place in the universe of God, of all the coming eternity, all the glory to God and the blessings of men.
Those saved by grace will revolve around Canada. The Son of God will have the scars of his hands and feet inside, to forever remind him of that place where his blood was shed, it's left a scar that will never be erased. The spot on that pavement was long since gone is likely covered over with another layer of black. You can't erase the precious blood of Christ.
It's there. And you've got to face it. What will you do with Jesus? What will your answer be? Suddenly your soul will be asking, What will he do with me? Is it nothing to you or ye that pass by? We will even see if there be any sorrow like unto my soul. No sorrow comes over this. Oh, this morning, you were ready to come to Christ, except for you here and now, as you're saved.
Oh, you're saved. Brother Wilson, I'll think about it. I know I should do something about it. And I'd like to get saved. Do you mean it? Would you like to get saved, greatly saved, know all your sins forgiven, possess this moment everlasting life, the assurance you'll never perish, you'll be with the light twice forever? You say, yes. I'd like to know of it. Would you like to know it now? Well, that's another thing.
Suddenly I'd like to know what about now. But now I give to Jesus the earthly. Now I'll gladly do as might. Now my raptured soul can only sing a tenderly. What will you do, the Lord Jesus Christ? This miller will be the crossroads or the forks. It's one way. But the Bible says no man can serve two masters. He either has to love him or hate him.
There's no neutrality here. What is your effort? Still one of indifference, unconcerned, or one of so charit, a real desire to come to know Christ. come to the moon now. It's one thing you'll never forget. People come to me constantly. And frankly, we'll preach in the gospel. And recall the time when it happened.
I've never had one that comes in this world. I'm sorry you came around here. I'm sorry you're pleased with God. I'm so old that I got saved. You've never heard one say that. I've heard some say, I wish I'd have got saved sooner. For any joy is always associated with preaching Christ. Wouldn't you like to know him this morning? You may be sure as to have a ticket without money, without price. Shall we pray? Our Father in heaven, in the name of the Lord Jesus, we come into thy presence.
How we thank thee for thy son, thy holy son. We thank you for coming. We trust this morning that our Holy Spirit will awaken many women to that injustice. and their carelessness, their lethargy, even at Gnosticism, a woe-farmer, may eternally be impressed upon their eyeballs and their hearts, bringing them to a decision for Christ. We ask of them as worthy and precious Mary.