The Hound of Heaven

There is a poem called The Hound of Heaven. It was written by the English poet Francis Thompson and it first appeared in 1893. It is one of the most loved and possibly one of the most difficult Christian poems to read and appreciate.

The following explanation will help the reader of this poem. The name is strange. It startles one at first.

It is so bold, so new, so fearless. It does not attract, rather the reverse. But when one reads the poem, this strangeness disappears.

The meaning is understood as the hound follows the hare, never ceasing in its running, ever drawing nearer in the chase. With unhurried and impetuous pace, so does God follow the fleeing soul by his divine grace. Divine grace follows after, unwearily follows ever after, till the soul feels its pressure, forcing it to turn to him in that never-ending pursuit.

Listen, friends. Was that not so with you and your coming to Christ? We love him because he first loved us. Is that not so? Did not the hound of heaven chase you down the back alleys of your rebellious heart? Did not the hound of heaven stay hot on your trail till at last it caught you? Did not the Holy Spirit woo you and win you by opening your understanding to the gospel and showing you revealed Christ in all his loveliness? I am thankful that the hound of heaven never gave up in his pursuit of me.

But we must face something today, and we must face it squarely and head on. People are going to hell all around us, and hell's a-popping. As the devil knows his time is short, so his activity is increased in the world.

Our nation is in a moral tailspin, and society unravels all around us, as evil is called good and good evil. And here is the issue that must be faced today, and it involves salvation and this hound of heaven. The issue is this.

For a person to be saved, the gospel has to be interpreted and applied by the Holy Spirit. Now, either you believe that or not, you see, friends, the majority of the churches in America today will feed you a gospel that men can accept and believe and lay hold of apart from the Holy Spirit. And hell is filling up with church members every day who've entered the church without a supernatural work of grace upon their heart.

They became Christians apart from the work of the Holy Spirit because they believe the text or a fact about the gospel. I'm afraid there are a great number of church members who believe on the fact of the death of Christ, but they do not believe on the Christ who died. The hound of heaven was never hot on their trail.

They were never awakened to their lost condition or convicted of sin. They just made a textual decision to become a Christian based on a scripture. Maybe they agreed with John 316.

They wanted to avoid hell and go to heaven. So they joined the church, but they never were born from above and washed in the blood. Now you start preaching that you start preaching.

You can't get to heaven unless you're born from above. You'll have a fight on your hands. The good deacons will be waiting for you on the steps of the platform when you're done and they'll escort you out of the church and kick you on out with their feet because today's gospel declares all you have to do to become a Christian is to get up out of your chair, come forward and make it public and repeat a prayer, answer a few questions, and you are on your way to heaven.

But where oh where is the hound of heaven in the church in America today? Where is the convicting presence of God in our sanctuaries? Where is the God consciousness in our sanctuaries? Where is the power in the pulpit from a God called man who is under the discipline of the Holy Spirit with an anointing from on high? I fear many of the people in our churches in the land have never truly been born again. They remain unconverted church members because they've never been subjects of divine grace. The hound of heaven never chased them or convicted them.

They just made themselves Christians. But when you study the words of Jesus in the Gospels, there must be a supernatural work from above in a person's life for them to come to Christ. Listen to the words of Jesus from the Gospel of John in chapter three.

Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, ye must be born again.

The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone born of the Spirit. If anybody's going to get saved today, it's because of the agency of the Holy Spirit interpreting and applying the Gospel to a man's heart.

It's the Holy Spirit who awakens a person to their lost condition, shows them their need of a savior, and convicts of sin. Do you believe that, friends? It's the Holy Spirit who woos and follows a person like a hound to heaven, out on your trail. But a lot of folks got the job done without the need of the Spirit of God.

They just chose to follow Jesus, like the Jews of health spa or gym. They joined it because it was the best thing for them. But Jesus speaks of this wind that blows where it wishes.

Listen, friends, I can preach to you all day. I can preach to you all night long, but I'm but a weak wind. I can labor with all my might and ministry and never awaken one's soul.

But if the Spirit of God will blow, if that hound of heaven goes to work, that's the only way you're going to get saved under my preaching. I don't want to grow a big church by making my own converts by preaching an easy belief gospel. I'd rather be faithful to the gospel of the Son of God and warn you of your danger of dying in your sins and dropping down into hell.

But listen, friends, only the Holy Spirit can take what I say and apply it to your hearts. But many today just don't believe that. From time to time, I will slip into a new church and observe what's going on from the pulpit to the pew.

I hear many feel good messages on the Christian life and many pastors make it awful easy to walk them out to become a Christian and join their church. They'll tell you that to become a Christian, it's up to you. It's something you decide to do.

All you've got to do is come forward and accept this Jesus into your heart and answer a few questions and you can join the church. But there was a time in the American church not so long ago that they would not accept you into their membership unless you provided credible evidence of regeneration. There was a time in the church in America when they actually believed the words of Jesus who said, no man can come to me except the father which has sent me draw him and I will raise him up at the last day.

But the majority opinion in the church in America today lines up against the words of Christ. The church in America believes that God's done his part. Now it's up to you to do your part.

If you're going to get saved, it's up to you. You make the choice. Come forward and take this Jesus now.

And people walk that aisle and take a Jesus they know nothing about and swallow that brand of evangelism and they join the church. They're faithful in attendance and they feel they're doing good with their lives by having a little religion and they live and die and work and drop into hell. There was no hound from heaven active in their lives.

The Holy Spirit acts like a hound from heaven, hot on your trail, wooing you, turning you, chasing you down with conviction. Think of your own life, friend, how you came to Christ. Did not the hound of heaven pursue you? And that's the title of my message tonight.

The Hound of Heaven. Listen, friends, I believe our biggest crime in America today is we have taken salvation out of the hands of God and placed it in the hands of man. But if you're going to come to Christ and get into God's kingdom, you have to be born again through a work of regeneration.

And only the spirit of God can perform that. Do you believe that this is a serious issue? It will split a church right down the middle, a split of denomination right down the middle. But I must be honest with you and say that if you were not born of the spirit, you are a child of the devil, even if you are the chairman of the deacons.

I can look at my own life and I vividly recall instances time and time again where the hound of heaven was hot on my trail, wooing me, turning me, convicting me, loving me. The hound of heaven breathed his hot breath on my rebellious neck time and time a day, time and time again until one day he caught up with me. And when he did, he performed a work so supernatural, so permanent in my heart.

He wrought in me a new disposition, a disposition for holiness so I can follow my master in faith and obedience and fall as I may at times. That disposition for holiness is stronger than any lust, stronger than anything else in my life because it comes from above. I'm born from above.

How about you? Listen, friends, the corrupt nature is the flesh from our natural birth, but we need a new nature, which is spirit. And that comes from the second birth. This is what Jesus was talking about when he said, so is everyone that is born of the spirit.

I know I'm born of the spirit and my sins are washed in his blood. But there was a time when it wasn't so. There was a time when I made myself a Christian.

I tried to be a Christian apart from the spirit of God. I swallowed the gospel. I was fed and it was a diluted gospel and it didn't do the trick.

Oh, it got me into the church and I served the best I could. I could answer the two questions from evangelism explosion. Did you know if I died right now, would I go to heaven? And what would I tell God when I got there? I had the answers down pat.

I knew a answer to a few questions, but I didn't possess Christ and he didn't possess me. I was an unconverted church member for years. But one day that hand to heaven finally caught up with me and divine grace changed my heart.

And I can say like the apostle Paul, I am an object of mercy, but for years I made myself a Christian. But the diluted gospel of our day has no saving power because the Holy Spirit is absent from the work. Did you ever wonder why nobody's ever tugging on your cold sleeve today saying, well, what must I do to be saved? Why there isn't anybody crying out in the sanctuary? I'm undone.

I'm lost, lost, lost. It's because of the withdrawn presence of God in the American church through the remedial judgments of an offended creator. We've grieved God away.

We've grieved the Holy Spirit from our sanctuaries with all our worldly entertainments and bathroom humor and joke telling and man centered gospel that God is so far away from the American church. All a person can do today is save himself and then join the church. But where, well, where is that hand to heaven breathing down the centers back today? Where's conviction of sin in our churches? We don't even give the Holy Spirit room to operate anymore because we quit preaching the gospel years ago, somewhere down the line.

We forgot that as handlers of the word of God, we must faithfully present the full counsel of God so the Holy Spirit can actually operate on a person's heart. Charles Fanny used an example I like. He spoke of the old grist mill that operated by the force of water upon two millstones.

There was the top stone and the bottom stone. And these two millstones are laid atop the other. And as they turn, they grind the weed into flour.

Well, old Fanny said that the bottom stone was the law of God written on the heart of man, which is his conscience as seen in Romans two 15. And the top stone is the preached law of God thundered about the ears of the hearer. And when this occurs, then the Holy Spirit can go to work.

He can operate by grinding upon the heart and conviction of sin. But in our churches today that are soaked with a brand of evangelism that just doesn't get the job done, you won't be sitting next to a sinner whose heart is being ground upon by the convicting spirit of God because we've grieved him away. Our brand of evangelism doesn't give the Holy Spirit opportunity to rot upon an old sinner anymore.

Few are crying out, what must I do to be saved? That blessed hound of heaven is off in other countries operating on sinners he can get to. That hound is hot on the trail down in the bush of Africa. That hound is hot on the trail in the underground church in China.

But we need him back in New York City and in your city and mine because nobody's going to get saved apart from the Holy Spirit's activity. Oh, we can fill our churches on our own because we've got plenty of manpower and money and that's all you need today to operate a successful church in America and everybody can go to hell together doing a little good in the name of God. But it's high time in this country and in the pulpits of the land that we preachers start preaching the gospel in its purity and proper order where we do like old Fanny says and preach the law once again.

A thunder in the ears of lost men and women, lost boys and girls until they see Mount Sinai all together on a smoke and feel that hot breath of the hound of heaven hot on their trail until they're awakened by the Spirit of God to their lost condition, convicted by the Spirit of God of their sins and converted by the Spirit of God through the supernatural act of regeneration upon the heart and a new disposition of holiness is implanted within that will allow an old sinner to now live for Christ and serve him faithfully and obediently in a Christ-hating world. I remember reading about a minister in Scotland about 200 years ago. He faithfully served God in his country parish for 20 years without seeing one conversion.

Then one day that old hound of heaven showed up in his congregation and there was a little stir. That heavenly wind began to blow and people started crying out, what must I do to be saved? And more people came to Christ in that Scottish man's parish in one month than they had in all those previous 20 years. It was because the Holy Spirit was interpreting and applying the preached word to the heart of man.

They were awakened to their lost condition. They saw their wicked hearts for what they were. They saw revealed Christ and they heard his voice.

It came in with majesty and power and they got saved. The hound of heaven must come back again to our churches in the land if there's going to be any life there at all and if there's going to be a true work of converting grace upon a sinner's heart. I don't know about you friend, but I'm thankful that the hound of heaven in the person of the Holy Spirit never gave up on me.

But the gospel of our day will let you make yourself a Christian without any help from God. This is a serious matter and eternity hangs into balance. Oh for that day that the hound of heaven comes back to the churches in America for the day when there's a God consciousness in our sanctuaries once again where people are bowed under under the awful solemnity of a holy God.

George Whitefield's message to the church in America in 1740 was you must be born again. Whitefield preached that a sinner needed a work of grace upon the heart. He knew there had to be the life of God in the soul of man that you had to be born again.

And the message that the church in America so desperately needs to hear at this desperate hour is this, you must be born again.