Sight For Those Who See Not

Sight For Those Who See Not

(No. 1798)

A SERMON DELIVERED ON THURSDAY EVENING, AUGUST 14, 1884,

BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"And Jesus said, For judgment I have come into this world, that they
which see not might see and that they which see might be made blind."
John 9:39.

THE great Day of Judgment is not as yet. God, in infinite
long-suffering, waits to be gracious, giving men space wherein to
repent and to be reconciled to Him. Jesus has come into the world for
judgment, but not for that last and eternally unchangeable judgment
which awaits us all. That hour and that advent will arrive–we have the
declaration of God's Word for it. Read in Matthew 25–"When the Son of
Man shall come in His glory and all the holy angels with Him, then
shall He sit upon the throne of His Glory: and before Him shall be
gathered all nations: and He shall separate them, one from another, as
a shepherd divides His sheep from the goats." There is no question as
to this sure fact–even if many more centuries should pass away, the
dread assize will be held in due season.

"The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count
slackness." He is full of tenderness and long-suffering and, therefore,
He tarries, but the vision will come, it will not tarry. Settle this in
your minds and live as in the presence of that august tribunal. Though
the Day of Judgment is not at this hour, yet our Lord Jesus is now
carrying on a form of judgment in the world. "His fan is in His hand
and He will thoroughly purge His floor." He sits as a refiner
separating ever and anon his silver from the dross. His Cross has
revealed the thoughts of many hearts and His Gospel is
everywhere–acting as a discoverer, as a separator and as a test by
which men may judge themselves, if they will. It is a very happy
circumstance when a man is willing to accept the Lord's judgment, day
by day, permitting the Law of God, itself, to judge him, before the
Lawgiver ascends to the tribunal.

Happy are those people toward whom a present judgment is being
exercised, of whom Paul says, "But when we are judged, we are chastened
of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world." Saints
are now judged by a fatherly discipline, that they may not be judged,
hereafter, by a judicial condemnation. Our Lord's great design in
coming into the world is the salvation of men. "God sent not His Son
into the world to condemn the world, but that the world, through Him,
might be saved." But, in order to that salvation, it is necessary that
men should know the truth about themselves and should take up a
truthful position before God–for God will not endure a lie–and
neither will He save men upon false grounds. He will deal with all His
creatures according to His Truth. If He condemns them, it will be
because equity requires it. And if He saves them, it will be because He
has found a way by which mercy and truth are met together.

So, then, everywhere throughout the world, wherever Christ comes–comes
by His Gospel and the consequences of it–a judgment is going on. Men
are set before the Judgment Seat of their Savior–they are tested,
tried, made manifest and declared. Light no sooner comes into the world
than it begins to judge the darkness. Scarcely had it been known to be
darkness if the light had not revealed the contrast. Where the Gospel
comes, some hearts receive it at once and are judged to be "honest and
good ground"–men who are willing to accept the Gospel come to the
Light of God that their deeds may be made manifest that they are worked
in God. Other hearts at once hate the Truth, for they are the children
of darkness and, therefore, "they love darkness rather than light
because their deeds are evil." You see, then, how without its being the
main intention of Christ's coming into the world, it yet becomes a
secondary effect and, so far, an incidental purpose of His coming that
His very appearance among the sons of men should judge them!

In this glass they see their own countenances and discover their spots.
By this plummet line they test their own uprightness and see how far
they lean towards evil. Under the sign of the Gospel, the Lord has set
up a public weigh-house.

Do you not see the great scales?–they are correct to a hair! Come here
and test yourselves. Even in this banqueting house of love, Truth marks
her own and sets her brand on counterfeits! God has a fire of trial in
Zion and a furnace of test in Jerusalem. At this hour I pray that the
Gospel may have a dividing effect in this house. Observe with care that
wherever Jesus Christ comes, the most decided effects follow. "I have
come that they which see not might see and that they which see might be
made blind." Neither to the right nor to the wrong is Christ
indifferent. Whoever you may be, if you hear the Gospel at any time, it
must have some effect upon you. It will either be to your soul, "a
savor of life unto life," or else, "a savor of death unto death." It
will be antidote or poison–curing or killing–softening the conscience
or searing it. It will either make you see, or else, because you fancy
that you see, its very brightness will make you blind, like Saul of
Tarsus, who cried, "I could not see for the glory of that light."

You cannot be indifferent to the Gospel if you become a hearer of it.
"I have come," said Christ–that fact none of you can escape–"for
judgment I have come" and that judgment must take place in your mind
and conscience whether you will it or not! This coming and judgment
have a wonderfully marked and decided effect. It is not that of a
little improvement or of slight alteration–it is the turning of things
upside down so that, "they which see not might see, and that they which
see might be made blind." It is a very violent change–from light to
darkness or darkness to light! In either case it is an absolute
reversal of your condition.

Now, the Gospel will do just that for you! If you live without it, it
will make you die. If you feel that you are dead without it, it will
make you live. "He has put down the mighty from their seats and exalted
them of low degree. He has filled the hungry with good things and the
rich He has sent away empty." Learn, therefore, that there will always
be some effect upon the human mind wherever Christ comes–and that this
effect will be a very decided one–changing all their conditions as
much as if the laws of Nature were reversed! The Lord's approach to a
soul will lift it into the Light of God more and more gloriously–or
else it will plunge it into deeper darkness, deeper responsibility,
deeper guilt and, consequently, deeper woe!

Well may we justify that faithful preacher of the Word who, in the
middle of his sermon, suddenly stopped and cried, "Woe is me! What am I
doing? I am preaching Christ to you and, while I hope some of you are
receiving Him, and so I am leading you toward Heaven, many others of
you are rejecting Him–and thus I am increasing your responsibility and
your guilt! Thus I am doing evil instead of good to you! Woe is me!"
God help His poor servant–I have often felt the sweet preaching of the
Gospel to be bitter work. I do not wonder that dark thoughts come over
the earnest preacher! I wish his hearers would partake with him in his
anxieties. May we unite in deep concern, tonight–I will pray for God's
blessing upon every one of you–and you pray earnestly that no word of
mine may be unprofitable to you. When preacher and hearer draw the same
way, the chariot wheels move to music–and that music is salvation!
Come, Spirit of the living God, and make it so!

Now, I want to take you immediately to the text and I shall dwell upon
two points of it if there should be time. If not, I shall keep to only
one. The first is enough to begin with–CHRIST HAS COME THAT THOSE WHO
SEE NOT MAY SEE.

It is a very wonderful thing about the Gospel that it is meant for
people who think themselves most unsuited for it and most undeserving
of it–it is a sight for those who see not! An anxious friend gave me,
the other day, a description of himself which was enough to make a man
stand aghast to hear it. With many sighs and tears, he described to me
the condition of a man lost by nature and by practice–and unable to
help himself in the least degree. When he had completed his story–I
let him finish it and touch it up with a few extra strokes of black–I
took him by the hand and said, "I am sure that you are one of those
whom Christ came into the world to save. You have given me the most
accurate description, possible, of one of God's elect when awakened to
see his state by nature before the Most Holy God. You are one of those
for whom the Gospel was intended."

I spoke boldly, for I felt that I was only stating the Truth of God.
Since Jesus Christ came into the world to open men's eyes, I know that
He did not come to open the eyes of some of those around me, for they
have bright eyes which smile on me, while I am now speaking, and seem
to say–"No oculist is needed here!" I cast my eyes all round the place
and I see nothing for the great Opener-of-Eyes to do till I pause at
yonder pew, for there sits a blind man. There are one or two here,
tonight, whose natural eyes have, for many years, been sealed in
darkness–and I say of them, if Jesus Christ

has come to open anybody's eyes, He has come to open the eyes of the
blind! It must be so! Infirmity and disability are necessary
preparations for the receipt of the blessing of sight.

Suppose I heard that Jesus had come to make lame men leap like a
rabbit? Well, I should look round and say that He did not come for that
young girl–she can skip like a gazelle and run like a fawn! He did not
come for that young man– I saw him on his bicycle just now, flying
over the ground as swiftly as a swallow skims the stream! Neither did
the Healer of the Lame come for that strong Brother over there, to whom
a quick, long walk is quite a pleasure. But just now there limped down
yonder aisle a lame man on his crutches. Did you not hear his heavy
movement? Well, if Jesus Christ came to heal lameness, that is the kind
of person that He had His eyes upon! When I hear of charity breakfasts
being distributed, I never imagine, for a moment, that the select
assembly that will be gathered to discuss a meal of porridge and bread
will consist of members of the Houses of Lords and Commons, or of the
royal family!

I do not suppose that one of those honorable confraternities will be
present at a festival with beggars unless they should take a fancy to
be lookers-on. If I went to a charity breakfast and saw some of the
peerage there with basins and spoons, instead of stars and garters, I
would say, "Go away! You are not the people that ought to be here! You
have no right at this entertainment. The richer and the more
respectable you are, the less right you have to be sitting at a meal
that was meant for the poorest of the poor." Now turn the parable
around. If you are blinded in your spiritual sight, Christ came to open
your eyes! If you are lame so that you cannot run to Him, Christ came
that He might restore you! If you are as poor as spiritual poverty can
make you. No, poorer than that–as poor as sin can make you–and if you
are as unable to help yourselves as the dead in the grave, then I
remember that great Truth of God, "When we were yet without strength,
in due time Christ died for the ungodly."

It sounds curious, does it not? But it is so. "Christ died for our
sins," not for our virtues! It is not your efficiencies, but your
deficiencies which entitle you to the Lord Jesus! It is not your
wealth, but your need! It is not what you have, but what you have not!
It is not what you can boast of, but what you mourn over, that
qualifies you to receive the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ! He came
on purpose that those that see not might see. O blind eyes, I have good
news for you! O souls that sit in darkness and in the valley of the
shadow of death, my feet are beautiful, tonight, for I bring you glad
tidings of exceeding joy–light for the blind, gladness for the
despairing, Divine Grace for the guilty!

Now I want you to consider the blind man of whom we were reading in the
narrative just now as a sort of model blind man–the kind of blind man
that Jesus Christ delights to look upon–and to whom He rejoices to
give sight. This blind man knew that he was blind. He never had a doubt
about that. He had never seen a ray of light and yet he believed that
he was blind–not quite so easy a matter as some of you may think, for
I have met with thousands of blind men who laugh at the idea of sight
because they have had no experience of it! And they refuse to believe
more than they can understand or feel. This sightless beggar had to be
told that there was such a thing as sight, but being so told, he
believed it and all his later experience went to confirm the unhappy
fact. Under a full persuasion that it was so, he had taken up the
proper position for a poor, blind man–he sat by the wayside and begged
for alms.

Now, the man whom Christ delights to bless is the man who knows his
right place and is willing to occupy it. He does not conceal his
blindness and talk as if he carried a telescope about with him and
communed all night with the stars. Many of you unconverted people are a
deal too high–you will have to come down a good many notches before
you will be in your true places! You are so excellent, are you not? And
so intelligent, and so humble, and so well-meaning and so everything
that you ought to be! To you, salvation will never come! The spirit of
peace will never dwell in a nest which reeks of pride! In your own
false judgment you are within an inch of being perfect, whereas the
Lord knows that you are not half that distance from Hell if His justice
were to be let loose upon you! You dream fine dreams in your fond
conceit of yourselves, fancying that you have kept the Law of God from
your youth up and that you are abundantly religious, excellent,
admirable–and all that you ought to be! As long as you think thus
highly of yourselves, the blessing is hindered and kept away. You are
not of the kind that Jesus came to bless.

He said, Himself, "I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to
repentance." Perhaps someone here is saying, "I do not understand it. I
cannot get at this Gospel–I scarcely know my own condition. I am
unhappy, I know. I am not right, I know, but I cannot describe myself,
or see myself aright. As to this faith of which I hear so much and this
atoning blood which seems so mighty to cleanse, I seem as if I cannot
perceive it or comprehend it. Alas, I am so blind!" You speak the
truth, my dear Friend, and therein you are like the blind man in the
Gospel! I pray that as Jesus healed him, so

He will heal you–and I pray with strong confidence, too, for my Lord
has certain fixed ways–and when He meets with certain cases, He acts
after the same method with them. Jesus is not arbitrary, but He has a
way of procedure from which He does not deviate, so that, when He meets
such a case as yours, He does the same with each instance of it, to the
praise and glory of His name! Take up a blind beggar's position,
tonight, and sit down and cry for light and healing and you shall
certainly have them.

This blind man not only believed that he was blind and knew it, but he
had a sincere desire to be enlightened. It was no grief to him that
Jesus had come that he might see. It was an intense joy to hear that
Jesus had opened the eyes of other blind men and though he may have
feared that his case was one quite out of the catalog–for since the
world began, it was not heard that any man had opened the eyes of one
that was born blind–yet he was pleased to find that Jesus Christ had
stopped and looked upon him and was placing clay upon his eyes! He felt
a gladness and an alacrity about his heart when he was bid to go to
Siloam and wash–his whole manhood went with the Savior's act and
deed–he gave himself up to the surgery of the Christ with the full
consent of his being.

Now, are you hungering after Christ? Oh, Soul, if you know your need of
Him and have a strong desire after Him, the heavenly work is begun! If
there is within your spirit a burning longing to be reconciled to God
by the death of His Son, your cure is already half-worked! Some of you
have written me letters, lately, which show the actions of your
heart–these are blind movements, enough, but they all grope after
light! Poor souls that you are, what hope I have for you! Specially for
him who, with broken heart, has begged our prayers these many months
and yet has not come out to light and liberty! I am so glad to see the
strength, vehemence and agony of your desires. Your unbelief grieves
me, but your eagerness charms me. Would God you would trust my Lord
Jesus Christ and rest in Him! Still, I am glad to think that you cannot
rest without Him. I am glad that you cannot be quiet till He quiets
you. No pillow will ever ease your head but my Lord's bosom. No hand
but His can ever staunch your bleeding wounds. I am glad that it is so,
for such a sinner as you are is well described by Hart–

"A sinner is a sacred thing; The Holy Spirit has made Him so." The
Spirit of God has set apart the blind soul to be a monument of the
Illuminator's skill! He has made the lost soul to be the choice
standing place whereon Christ may set His feet and display all the
splendor of His love!

This man is, again, a model to every other blind man because he was
very obedient. As soon as the Lord said to him, "Go, wash," he went.
There was no question with him about Siloam–he had no Abana or Pharpar
which he preferred to that pool. He was fully submissive. He stood
still, you know, and let the Master put the clay on his eyes. It did
not look like an operation that could do him any good, but he believed
that Jesus was a Prophet, and so he waited and let Him do whatever He
pleased with him. How glad I am when I can see a poor soul offering a
full surrender to Jesus! Some of you heard, last Monday night, about
the sweetness of yielding yourselves up to Jesus–how I wish you might
now feel it! You will be a great deal more passive than active, in the
matter of your conversion. He will give you quickness of foot after He
has once given you life–but, in the inception of life, the first thing
is just to acknowledge your death and to be willing to receive life
altogether from Him in His own way!

That is a good word in the Prophet, "Oh Lord, you are the Potter and we
are the clay." Now, what can the clay do to help the potter? Nothing!
It must only be pliable–it must yield to his hands. The clay must not
be stiff, hard and unwilling to be molded, or it will be set aside. O
be submissive to the saving hands! When you are brought into such a
state of heart that you are willing to be anything or nothing so that
you may be saved, dear Soul, you are near unto the kingdom! If you can
say, "I would give my life to be saved, or if the Lord refuses anything
at my hands, I will gladly consent to be nothing if He will but save
me," then you are on the doorstep of Grace! I would so completely yield
myself up to Christ as to feel what He would have me feel and nothing
more–to be what He would have me be–and to do what He would have me
do and nothing beyond.

If you are thus submissive, I tell you to take heart of hope! The
Spirit of God is at work with you! You are very near to Christ. Believe
on Him! Trust in Him and live, for He has come on purpose that they
that see not might see! Catch at that sacred purpose of amazing Grace
and let your despair fly away. This is our first remark–this blind man
becomes our model.

And now, notice next that when he sees, this kind of man acknowledges
that he does see. He has been so thoroughly convinced of his blindness
that, when he gets his sight, he acknowledges it with glad surprise. To
him, the newly-given light is such a gift that he is overjoyed with it,
and gladly cries, "Now I see!" Some people do not know whether they are
converted or not. I hope that they are saved, but such people are not
generally of very much use. We have to spend our time and strength in
taking care of them, comforting them and enabling them to rise above
sheer despair. But the man that has been totally blind and has known
it–when he gets sight, he is equally sure that he sees! You cannot
make such a man doubt the greatness and truthfulness of the change! He
comes out and says, "One thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I
see!" I delight in clear, sharp-cut conversions! I do not condemn those
dear friends who come into light by slow degrees. Far, far, far from
it! I delight in them, too! But still, for usefulness in testimony and
for decision of character, there is nothing like a conversion which is
like life from the dead–and like turning from darkness to light–and
from the power of Satan unto God!

The old-fashioned convert is the man for me! He knows something and
holds fast by what he knows! His is experimental knowledge and you
cannot beat it out of him! I like to think of some of you utterly blind
people who cannot help yourselves at all, for, when you receive the
Light of God, you will know it and you will not hesitate to come out
and say so! In your case the poor preacher will not be robbed of his
wages, as he often is when he saves a soul by God's Grace but never
hears of it. Neither will the Gospel be deprived of its witnesses, nor
the Church be despoiled of her helpers, nor the Lord be robbed of the
revenue of Glory which is His due! We expect from you blind folks grand
testimonies for Jesus when once the Lord causes you to see!

Again, when the blind man's eyes were opened, he began to defend the
Man that opened his eyes. He did it well, too. He said, "Herein is a
marvelous thing, that you know not from where He is, and yet He has
opened my eyes." On he went with arguments which confounded scribe and
Pharisee! When the Lord takes a big blind sinner, washes him and opens
his eyes, then the man will not have Christ spoken against! He will
speak up for His Lord and Master–he cannot help it. You will not find
him dumb, as some professors are. Why, some of your genteel Christians
do not speak for Christ above once every six months–and then it would
be better for you to have held your tongues, for you speak so
half-heartedly! Here is a man with an open mouth and he speaks right
from his heart under the guidance of the Spirit of God. He is not
ashamed to acknowledge what the Lord has done for him. We need many
recruits of this sort.

The Church at the present day needs men and women who are so thoroughly
and certainly converted that when they speak about Christ, they speak
positively and with a power which none can deny or resist! I think I
hear a poor, darkened, desolate one crying out, "Oh, Sir, if the Lord
were to save me, I would not be ashamed to acknowledge it! If He should
ever bring me in among His people, I will tell them all about it! I
will tell the very devils in Hell what Sovereign Grace has done for
me!" Oh, my poor Brother, you are Christ's man! You are the kind of man
He delights to bless! You poor, devil-dragged sinners, who are almost
at your wits' ends and would even take away your own lives if it were
not a most horrible sin–you are the very ones upon whom the Lord, in
mercy, looks tonight, for He said, Himself, "The Spirit of the Lord is
upon Me because He has anointed Me to preach the Gospel to the poor. He
has sent Me to heal the broken-hearted; to preach deliverance to the
captives and recover sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that
are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord."

Only trust yourselves in His dear hands and believe that He can, and
that He will save you, and you shall be saved! And then I know that you
will acknowledge His name, defend His Truth, glory in His Cross and
live to His praise. Those who see not shall be made to see–and then
the Lord Jesus shall be the Lord of their hearts, the Master of their
lives and the Beloved of their souls!

The best thing about this man was that when his eyes were opened, he
wished to know more–and when Jesus Christ spoke to him, saying, "Do
you believe on the Son of God?" He asked, "Who is He, Lord, that I
might believe on Him?" When He found that the Son of God was the same
Divine One who had opened his eyes, then we read that at once he
worshipped Him. Notice that at the end of the 38th verse–"And he
worshipped Him." He was no Unitarian! In the man who spoke with him, he
saw the Son of God, and he reverently adored Him. If our Lord Jesus had
not been God, He would have told the man to rise and He would have torn
His garments in horror at the bare idea of receiving Divine worship–
instead of which, our Lord instanced this as a proof that the man's
eyes were opened and immediately said that He had come for that very
purpose–that those that did not see might see.

Friends, if you have not seen Jesus of Nazareth to be "very God of very
God," you have seen nothing! You cannot be right in the rest unless you
think rightly of Him. Until you get to know that Jesus is both Lord and
Christ, exalted on high to give repentance and forgiveness of sin, you
still need that there should fall from your eyes, as it were,
scales–for the eternal Light of God has not come to you. He that once
receives the true Light from God will know the Lord Jesus, not as a
delegated God, or a glorified man, but as God over all, blessed
forever! He will have a God to save him and nobody else, for who could
save us but the Almighty? I would not trust the tenth part of my soul
with 10,000 Gabriels! And I could not repose it anywhere but in Him
that is able to save to the uttermost–even that same God without whom
was not anything made that was made.

Thus I have shown you how this model blind man is the very man to whom
the Lord Jesus will give sight because the results that follow are
glorifying to Christ. Are you such a person? Then be comforted!

But how is it that such blind men come clearly to see? The reason is
Sovereign Grace, but still there are other reasons. First, there is no
conceit in them to hinder Christ. It is not our littleness that hinders
Christ–it is our bigness. It is not our weakness that hinders
Christ–it is our strength. It is not our darkness that hinders
Christ–it is our supposed light that holds back His hands. It is
easier to save us from our sins than from our righteousnesses! Our
self-righteousness is that hideous boa constrictor which seems to coil
itself round and round our spirit and to crush out of us all the life
that would receive the Gospel of the Grace of God. He that thinks that
he knows, will never learn. He that is blind and thinks that he sees,
will remain contented in the darkness all his life. Now, dear Friends,
if you are in the state that you know that you are in the dark–a
darkness that may be felt. If it seems to cling to you, so that you
cannot get rid of it. If you seem unable, even, to obtain a ray of
light, then you are just in the right state to receive the eternal
Light from the Lord Jesus Christ!

The next reason is that such people as this always refuse to speculate.
They want certainties. When a man feels his own blindness and spiritual
death, if you discuss before him the fine new nothings of modern
theology, he says, "I do not want them! They are of no consequence to
me–there is no comfort in them for a lost soul." A poor thief was
converted some little time ago and he was taken to hear a certain
preacher who is exceedingly broad in his views. When the reclaimed
thief came out, he said to a friend that took him, "If what that man
said was true, it would be a fine thing for me, for I could have my
full swing and yet get off easy. But I know that it is a lie and,
therefore, I do not want to have anything more to do with him or his
doctrine. A sinner like I deserves to be damned forever and it is no
use for anybody to tell me the contrary! Therefore I need a Christ that
can save me from eternal damnation. If this man's Christ only saves men
from the little bit of damnation that he has preached, he is no good to
me."

That was a very sensible observation. We, also, need a Savior from
eternal damnation and we do not care for those little saviors from a
little Hell which are nowadays so much cried up. We have a lot of sham
sinners about and we have a number of ministers who preach a sham
savior, a sham salvation–and the sham sinners like to have it so. But
if Christ once deals with you–pulls you down to the last course and
digs your foundations up–then you will want a Christ that will begin
with you upon no terms but those of Free Grace! And you will want a
power that will work the whole miracle of salvation for you from
beginning to end! If you are, yourselves, utterly without strength,
that makes you reachable by the strength of Grace! When a man gives up
his pretty speculations and just sticks to the old teaching from the
Divine Word, he wants a great Savior to save him from a great Hell, for
he feels himself to be one who has been a great sinner and greatly
deserves the infinite wrath of God! If your salvation should be too big
for you, that will be a great deal better than getting one that will be
too small for you. But, if you think that the salvation of Jesus is too
great for you, it shows that you are not the man for whom it is meant.
Our fear is that you are one of those that see but will be made blind.
If you feel your blindness and cry out to God about it, you are the man
for whom the sight-giving Savior died.

Again, people who are thoroughly blind are the kind of people who are
glad to lean on God. A man that can see a little does not need to
borrow guidance from outside. He says, "No, no! I do not need it." Take
a homely illustration from myself–I used to be very backward in using
spectacles, for some time, because I could almost see without them, and
I did not wish to be an old gentleman too soon. But now that I cannot
read my notes at all without wearing spectacles, I put them on without
a moment's hesitation–and I do not care whether you think me old or
not! So when a man comes to feel thoroughly guilty, he does not mind
depending upon God! If you sinners think that you can do a little
without God, or can do with just a little help from God, why, then, you
will keep away from the Lord Jesus. But when you come

to this–"I will perish if Christ is not everything to me"–why, then
you will have Him, for He never refused a soul that came to Him in that
style!

You may have heard the story of the Negro slave and his master who were
both under conviction of sin at the same time. Almost the next evening
the slave found joy and peace through believing–but his master was
months under conviction. So he said to his slave, one day, "Sam, you
know we were both pricked to the heart at that meeting and here are
you, rejoicing in Christ, and I am still doubting and despairing. What
can be the reason of it?" The slave said, "Why, you see, Massa, Jesus
Christ come along and bring a fine robe of glorious righteousness, and
say to Sambo, 'Here is a robe for you!' I look at myself and see Sam
all rags from head to foot, and I take the robe, and puts it on
directly, so glad to have it! Jesus say same thing to Massa, but Massa
say, 'My coat is very respectable. I think I can make it last a little
longer. Massa patch up the hole in the elbow and mend the skirt a
little, and he go on with it. Massa's coat too good. If his coat were
all in rags, like Sam's, he would not wait, but he would, this very
day, take the glorious robe of righteousness."

That is the whole truth of the matter. Some of you are not poor enough
to be made rich by Christ! A man said to me the other day, "Sir, I
despair of myself." "Give me your hand," I said. "You are on the right
road, but I want you to go a little further. I want you to feel that
you are too great a fool even to despair of yourself!" When you cry, "I
cannot feel my own folly as I should," then I think your folly will be
ended. I like to hear a man cry, "I feel unhappy because I cannot feel.
I am grieved to think that I cannot grieve. I am in an agony because I
cannot get into an agony." You are getting right, my Brother! You are
the sort of man that God will bless. Now look away from yourself, agony
and all, and just trust in Jesus Christ, who is able to save to the
uttermost them that come unto God by Him! Admit your blindness and you
shall find the Light of God come streaming into your eyes! Because you
are content and willing to lean wholly upon God, the Lord will guide
you into peace and joy. What a mercy it is when we are brought to our
last resort and are compelled to hide in Jesus because we have no other
shelter!–

" 'Tis perfect poverty alone

That sets the soul at large.

While we can call one mite our own,

We get no full discharge.

But let our debts be what they may,

However great or small,

As soon as we have nought to pay,

Our Lord forgives us all."

Once more, our Lord Jesus Christ delights to work in those who are
thoroughly blind in order to give them sight– it is high pleasure–His
royal recreation! I know that a true man is never so glad as when he
has helped those who need help. The plague and worry of this London
life, to some of us, is that so many apply to us for help who ought
never to be helped at all except by the policeman and the jailer. They
cringe, fawn and make up lying stories. And when we say, "We will call
upon you to see if it is true," they ask in mighty indignation, "Do you
think I am a liar? Don't you believe what I say?" I have had to answer,
"No, I do not believe a word of it, or you would gladly give your
address that we might enquire into your statements." They do not want
to be enquired into–that is their horror–for it spoils their game.
They want to get money without work and they thirst for an opportunity
to get drunk at other people's expense! A true man does not like to
work among cants and cheats of this kind–it makes him sick and angry.
Yet many a man has been well pleased to go down to the worst place in
"horrible London" and to do good to those who are really poor and
helpless. One does not like giving to impostors, but where there is
real need, the generous heart is pleased to afford aid.

Now, you poor Soul. You are no imposter. Yours is real need. You can
say, "A poor beggar? Ah, that I am! Does the Lord want to enquire about
me? Search me, O Lord! Try me and know my heart. I know that You will
see no righteousness in me. There is nothing in me upon which I can
depend. I am, indeed, a helpless miserable wretch unless Your infinite
mercy comes to me." Jesus Christ rejoices to work among such as you
are! He likes blessing the truly needy! What a joy there is in that
great heart of His when He can save souls on the borders of Hell–when
He can stretch out His hand and snatch them like brands from the fire!
He knows that you will love Him as much as that woman did who had much
forgiven and, therefore, stood and washed His feet with her tears and
wiped them with the hairs of her head! He takes delight in you that
cannot take any delight in yourselves. To you that are dried up and
barren, He will bring living water! He will open rivers in high places
for the thirsty ones and fountains in the midst of the desert for them
that faint.

I have felt a wonderful satisfaction in feeding a poor half-starved dog
that had no master and nothing to eat. How he has looked up with
pleasure in my face when he has been fed to the full! Depend upon it,
the Lord Jesus Christ will take delight in feeding a poor hungry
sinner. You feel like a poor dog, do you not? Then Jesus cares for you!
He does not care about kings and princes and those great people whose
grandeur dazzles beholders, but He cares about poor sinners! If you are
nothing, Christ loves you and He will be everything to you. If you will
but come to Him, just as you are, with no plea of any kind except your
urgent need and your dread of the wrath of God, you may come and be
sure of a welcome!

One said to me this week, "I am afraid to come to God, for I believe
that I am only driven to Him by the mean motive of fear." "Ah," I
replied, "it was the devil who told you that because in the 11th of
Hebrews, among the first of the great heroes of faith we read that
Noah, being moved with fear, built an ark for the saving of his house."
Fear is not a mean motive–it is a very proper motive for a guilty man
to feel! Where else can such poor sinners as we are begin, except with
selfish fear? Do not judge yourself about that! The prodigal went home
because he was hungry, yet his father did not refuse him admittance. As
to its being mean to fear, it would be meaner, still, to defy your God!
You ought not to say, "It is too mean a motive." Why, what but a mean
motive can be expected from such a mean wretch as you are?

A boy has been rebelling against his father and he has left his home in
high passion, swearing that he will never go back. His father sends him
a letter, and says, "Return. Everything is forgiven–only confess your
fault and I will restore you to the family and treat you as lovingly as
ever." The boy reads this letter and he says, "It is very kind of my
father; I think I will go home." But a wicked companion says, "Then you
are going to eat humble pie. It will be very mean of you after all you
have said about fighting this matter through. Are you going to knuckle
under to your father?" Why, it is the very devil tempting the boy, is
it not? And so it was the devil who whispered to my friend that it
would be mean to turn to the Lord through fear. Fear is a blessed
thing–"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom"–even slavish
fear of God is a great deal better thing than presumption!

Oh, you poor blind one, look to Christ and live! I was about to say,
"You dead ones, come!" And I do say it, for God says it–"Awake, you
that sleep, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give you light."
"What is the use of talking thus to dead people?" asks one. My dear
Friends, I do not suppose that it would be of any use for you to do so,
because, you see, you were never sent on such an errand! But I am as
much sent to preach to the dry bones, tonight, as Ezekiel was when he
stood in the valley and said, "You dry bones, hear the Word of the
Lord." In the name of the eternal God, I say, "You guilty sinners, fly
to Christ, and live!" Come along with you, you who are the very worst
in your own esteem–you who are all but in Hell! The Lord says, "Look
unto Me and be you saved, all the ends of the earth, for I am God, and
there is none else." He will not cast you away, but He will receive you
now! God grant that you may come, for Jesus' sake. Amen.