DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, MARCH 21, 1880,
BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"A great multitude, when they had heard what great things He did, came
unto Him." Mark 3:8.
THE opposition of the great ones of the earth did not, after all,
hinder the cause of Christ. The Pharisees, who were the leaders of
religious thought, combined with the Herodians, who were the court
party, to destroy Jesus, but at the very moment when their wrath had
reached its highest pitch the crowd about the Savior's Person was
greater than ever. Let us not, therefore, dear Friends, be at all
dismayed if great men and learned men and nominally religious men,
should oppose the simple Gospel of Christ! All the world is not bound
up in a Pharisee's phylactery, nor held in chains by a philosopher's
new fancy. If some will not have our Savior, others will–God's eternal
purpose will stand and the kingdom of His Anointed shall come.
If our Lord Jesus is rejected by the great, nevertheless the common
people hear Him gladly. To the poor, the Gospel is preached and it is
His joy and His delight that out of them He still gathers a company
who, though poor in this world, are rich in faith and give glory to
God. I would have you, Beloved, count upon opposition and regard it as
a token of coming blessings. Dread not the black cloud, it does but
prognosticate a shower. March may howl and bluster and April may dampen
all things with its rains, but the May flowers and the autumn's harvest
of varied fruits will come and come by this very means. Go on and serve
your God in the serenity of holy confidence and you shall live to see
that the hand of the Lord is not to be turned back, though the kings of
the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together.
Those who came to Christ in such great multitudes did not all come from
right motives and I shall not assume that they did. Some came from idle
curiosity, no doubt. Others came to listen to what He had to say, but
were not prepared to believe in Him. We know that many came to be fed
with loaves and fishes, swayed by the most mercenary motives. Still, in
the case now under notice, large numbers came to Jesus because they had
heard of the great things which He did, hoping that He would do
something of the same kind for them, for multitudes of those who came
were sick folk, plague-smitten, stricken with disease and they came
thinking that by touching Him they might be delivered from all their
sufferings. This gift they gained and glorified the name of the Lord!
I shall not, therefore, stay to divide out the characters which made up
the crowd, but remind you that we must never expect that all who come
to hear the Gospel will receive it. Just as Jesus went up into the
mountain and there called out to Himself whom He would, so does He form
His Church, which is an assembly of called-out ones whom the Sovereign
Lord selects from the congregation of hearers that they may become a
Church of Believers. The process of selection and separation is always
going on and the great heap which lies on the threshing floor is being
daily winnowed to divide the golden grain from the worthless chaff.
For our present purpose, only, we shall just now view those who
literally came to Christ as the types of those who come spiritually.
Many, I trust, who are present at this time will come to Jesus for the
same reason that these people came, namely, because they have heard of
the great things which have been done by Him. So to our work at once.
Three things are before us. The first is the attraction–"They had
heard what great things He did." Secondly, the gathering–"They came
unto Him." And thirdly, the context furnishes us with this–the result
of the attraction and the gathering. We find it written, "He had healed
many; insomuch that they pressed upon Him for to touch Him, as many as
had plagues."
I. Here is the ATTRACTION–"They had heard what great things He did."
My dear Hearers, the case of these people is parallel with your own!
There must be very few of you here but what have not heard of the great
things which Jesus Christ has done. Let us note, first, that these
people had heard with somewhat of a believing ear. Stories floated
about concerning one who had healed blindness, palsy, leprosy and they
accepted the statements as facts. A lame man told how
he had been made to leap like a rabbit and a blind man declared that
his eyes had been opened–and as these wonders passed from mouth to
mouth these people believed them to be true.
I know that even those of you who are not converted yet, believe what
is recorded in these four Gospels concerning the miracles that Jesus
worked. You are persuaded that the records are authentic. You believe
that the Lord Jesus did heal the sick and that He did even raise the
dead and cast out devils. You also accept the grand Gospel statement
that He is able to save unto the uttermost those that come unto God by
Him. Believing so much as that, you ought to believe a good deal more
and I pray the Holy Spirit, now, to lead you to that farther faith. If
you have come as far as that, the most reasonable thing to do is to go
to Him with your own case and trust Him to heal you!
I am persuaded that I may go very far with many here present in a
statement of their beliefs. You believe that Jesus Christ has done
great spiritual wonders for multitudes. You have been told of great
sinners whose hard hearts have been softened, whose characters have
been changed, whose lives have been renewed, whose sins have been
forgiven! You have met with such, have you not? The deed of Grace was
performed upon your own brother, perhaps, or upon some intimate friend,
or some person of public notoriety. You know many such cases and you
believe them to be genuine wonders of Divine Grace. You do not think
that conversion is all a delusion–you have not reached that degree of
unbelief. Indeed, instead of unbelief, you are filled with ardent
admiration and feel a measure of desire to be saved yourself–and while
sitting in this house you have often said, "Yes, I believe it is so. Oh
that the mighty Grace of God would renew me and that I could touch the
hem of the Savior's garment that He might save even me."
Believing so much as you do, you ought, in all reason, to believe more.
I mean you should go on to trust Him who has worked these great things
and place your own case in His hands and leave it there. This is the
legitimate course to pursue. A man believes a certain medicine to have
worked great cures and he knows that he, himself, is sick of the
disease which it is meant to heal. Why, it seems as if no one needs to
say, "The next step is that you should try that medicine upon
yourself." Yet it grieves me that so many of you do not proceed to this
saving point, but linger on the borders of faith. You see the river of
the Water of Life and wish to drink, for you are sure that it would
quench your thirst and yet you are in danger of perishing in sight of
the flowing stream! O, Holy Spirit, remove the madness of sin and teach
men true wisdom!
The many who came to Jesus felt themselves drawn because they had heard
of the great things which He had done and believed them. They
proceeded, however, to the second step which I have already indicated,
for they drew from what they had heard, an argument of hope. They said,
"Has He done these great things to others? Why should He not work the
same gracious miracles upon us?" The palsied man said, "He that was
sick as I am has been recovered! Surely, if I could get near to Jesus
and could catch His eye, He would restore me." The blind said, "He
healed one like myself–oh, if I could but sit where He passes by I
would cry, 'You Son of David, have mercy on me,' and He would open my
eyes, too."
They could not be, at once, sure that He would heal them, for that He
works a cure in one is not, in itself, a proof that He will work upon
another–but they were further informed that He delighted in mercy and
that He was gentle and gracious and easily entreated and, therefore,
they concluded that if such an One had power to work such beneficent
miracles and evidently had a will to work them, they had but to come to
Him and they would be partakers of His healing power! O that my
unconverted hearers would act reasonably at this time and draw the same
conclusion!
I pray you, dear Friends, see how sensible these people were that you
may imitate them! To me it seems as plain as the working out of a
proposition in mathematics. Jesus has saved such as I am, therefore He
can save me. To believe in Him is as reasonable an act as to eat that
which is good when you know it is good and know that you need it! Or to
drink that which quenches thirst, when you perceive that it is suitable
for that purpose and that you are in need of drink. O that your hearts
would say–Jesus Christ has worked great deeds of Grace! He is
evidently willing to work more–let me, then, come to Him and trust
myself in His hands! If this is a time of cool, collected thought and
the Holy Spirit works in us wisdom, it will again happen that, "A great
multitude, when they had heard of the great things which Jesus did,
came unto Him."
One more step should be mentioned. No doubt these persons were partly
urged to come to Him by their own sad condition. Some of them were full
of pain through bodily plagues and others suffered poverty and
wretchedness through being blind, crippled, lame, or withered and they
were anxious to be delivered from their infirmity and the poverty which
came of it. Being convinced that their cases were similar to those
which had been healed by Christ, they felt an eager de-
sire to see what He could do for them. Now, I know that I may call my
hearers to Christ till I lose my voice, but none will come but those
who feel that they need Him. But, my dear unconverted Hearers, you need
Him whether you know it or not!
There is a disease upon you which has already brought you down to
spiritual death and will bring you down to Hell before long. The most
moral of you; the most amiable of you, unless Jesus shall look upon you
in love, is carrying about within himself a plague of the heart which
will be your eternal ruin! Jesus must save you, or you are lost! There
is no hope for any man among you except it comes from Him. Do you know
this? If so, come at once to the Savior! Do you not know it? Then
believe it to be so, for so it is and let the conviction lead you to
seek His face. But remember, these people did not only come because
they were sick, or because they felt they were sick, for they had long
known and felt their sicknesses and had remained at home. Or they had
resorted to other physicians, or to Bethesda's pool, or to some other
famous fountain. They came to Jesus because, knowing and feeling their
need, they also perceived that Jesus was able to meet their case.
Come, then, to Christ, O my sin-stricken Hearers, because, be your
condition what it may, He can meet it! Are you troubled with hardness
of heart? By His Spirit He can take away the heart of stone and give
you a heart of flesh! Is your difficulty unbelief? You cannot see the
Truth of God, but the Lord Jesus can open the eyes of him that was born
blind! Is it a case of lack of power? Is your hand withered? The Lord
can bid the withered hand be stretched out and it shall be done! It is
not possible that there should be any moral or spiritual disease about
any one of you that will baffle the power of my great Lord and Master!
If you do but come to Him, He can and will make you every whit whole.
He has already dealt with cases like yours, as bad as yours, as
desperate as yours–in the record of His cures there are instances
parallel to your own and some which even surpass them in difficulty.
Depend on it, He is able to do, again, what He has already done, for He
is the same yesterday, today and forever!
His arm is not shortened that He cannot save! He can reach as far as
sin can go and draw back those whom Satan has driven to the Pit's
mouth. Now, be reasonable and act upon this fact. May the Spirit of God
lead you in the way of understanding and then you will say, today, "I,
also, will join that multitude who, having heard of the great things
which Jesus did, came to Him." God grant it may be so! Yes, He will
grant it, for His Word shall not return unto Him void.
II. Secondly, I shall ask you to think of THE GATHERING. We have seen
the attraction, now let us see what it drew together. "They came unto
Him." Observe, then, that hearing did not content them. I wish I could
say this of all my hearers. These people heard the story of what Christ
had done and I should not wonder but what they said, "It is good news!
Say it in our ears a second time." They were told that He had opened
the eyes of a blind man and a blind man who heard it, cried out,
"Gladsome tidings! Tell me that again." I should not wonder if that
blind man went many times to the house of the person who reported the
cure and said, "Tell me again of this matter."
The woman, too, who was sick with internal disease, said, "You told us
of one that was healed. Tell us of that marvel again." Yes, but what
would you have thought if they had kept on, week after week, saying,
"Tell us that story! Tell us that story!" and then had gone home and
said, "We feel so much better! We feel comforted by hearing this good
news"? What fools they would have been to have been satisfied with a
mere report of other people's cures without going to the great
Physician to obtain healing for themselves! Did you not sing the other
day–
"Tell me the story often, For I forget so soon, The early dew of
morning Has passed away at noon"?
Why should you be told that tale so often? Will you never draw the
inference that Jesus is able to save you and will you never go to Him
for yourselves? I am afraid that some of you are getting satisfied with
coming to the Tabernacle and that you are beginning to think, "There is
hope for me. I always hear the Word of God. I am a regular hearer of
the Gospel of Jesus."
Yes, but that is not it. Those who are hearers, only, are not blessed
in the deed. A hungry man hears that there is bread given away to the
poor and he says, "Tell me where the food is given and on what terms
and I will hasten to get it, for I am famished." Do you think the poor
starving wretch will stop here a week and be refreshed by merely
hearing about bread? Not he! He will die if he does that. He may,
perhaps, ask again for information and say, "Tell me once more! Give me
plain directions where to go and I will hasten to be fed as others have
been," but he will not expect to fill
his empty stomach with merely hearing the news! He is not so stupid as
that! I am compelled to feel that some of you are very short of sense
when you are dealing with your souls. Why, some of you might almost
sing–
"Tell me the same old story, Though you ha ve cause to fear That I
shall miss of Glory, And die with Grace so near."
O that this fooling would come to an end! Think me not harsh, I am but
honest! It is fooling and nothing better, to go on hearing the Word of
God and refusing to obey its call. May God's Grace lead you to come to
Jesus at once. O do not be hearers only! Turn your faces Christward and
accept His great salvation!
Observe, next, that these people did not wait until Jesus came to them.
That we are to wait till Jesus comes to us is a common error–a sort of
orthodox wickedness, a rebellious unbelief dressed out as humble
submissiveness. I have known this preached–that we are to wait at the
pool of the ordinances, in the hope that one of these days the angel
may trouble the pool and we shall step in. Those who talk so are not,
as a rule, the most successful of soul-winners and that fact reminds me
of a story I have heard of a Scotchman who had attended the ministry of
an Episcopal minister for some years. At last Donald forsook the
Episcopal Church and when he was missed, the pastor came to him. "Why
don't you come to the church, Donald?" "Because I want to be saved and
I get no good with you."
"Ah," said the bishop, "you should wait at the pool." "I have been
waiting at the pool a long time," said Donald, "a very long while and
no good has come of it." "But, Donald, you know the man who waited was
healed at last." "Ah, well, Sir, but he had some encouragement, for he
saw some step in before him, but all these years that I have waited at
your pool I have never seen one step in yet and therefore I will wait
no longer." Donald was right–no man can afford to run so terrible a
risk as to remain in disobedience in the bare hope of some unpromised
salvation. The Gospel narrative does not teach us to wait at the pool!
I want to call particular attention to that fact.
See the crowd lying around the pool of Bethesda? What did Jesus do when
He came walking along that morning through the five porches? Listen,
you sick folk, still waiting at the pool! Does He say, "Wait
patiently"? Not a word of it! But, singling out a man who was among the
most despairing, He said, "Rise, take up your bed and walk." That is
the Gospel! It is a Divine command to believe and live! Our Lord comes
here at this moment by His Gospel and He does not say to you, "Wait,
wait, wait," but, "Behold, now is the accepted time! Now is the day of
salvation!" Believe in Jesus now, for He that believes in Him has
everlasting life! Look to Him and be saved! The Gospel which is
preached in your ears is a voice from Jesus, Himself, attended by His
own Divine power and if you feel it to be such, you will obey it and
you shall find salvation now and wait no longer! These people did not
wait till Jesus journeyed into their own regions, but when they heard
what great things He did, they went to Him! May you be led of the
Spirit to do the same.
Note, again, that these people did not stop at His disciples. Satan
tries to keep men from Christ by pointing them to ministers,
evangelists, or other eminent Believers. Persons are impressed under a
sermon and they say, "I should like to speak with some Christian man."
That is very good, but after all it is not the thing which is commanded
by the Gospel. You are to believe in the Master and it will not suffice
to speak to the servants. "But I would like to go into the enquiry
room," says one. Very well, I do not condemn that action, but the best
enquiry room for a seeking sinner is his own bedchamber, where he seeks
the Lord at once, with no one between him and his Redeemer. Why, if you
could pick out the most earnest and thoughtful divines that ever lived
and you could have 12 of them locked up at home so that you might go
and talk to them all day and all night long, it would not be worth one
bad farthing to you and it might even be an injury to you if it kept
you from going straight to Jesus Christ!
There is no salvation in men! And ministers must not be mistaken for
priests. I shake off the thought of being a priest as Paul shook off
the viper from his hand! I have often said I would sooner be called
devil, than "priest" if by that word is meant that I have any
priesthood beyond that which belongs to all my fellow Christians, or
any power to forgive sin, or to impart Grace. My ministry is for the
extolling of Jesus and not for the magnifying of myself and my
Brothers! I dare not say, "Behold the priesthood! Behold the Church!
Behold the sacraments!" My one business is to cry, "Behold the Lamb of
God!" I point you away from all ministries to Jesus Christ, the
Minister of the New Covenant, who alone can save your souls!
These people were wise in not staying with the disciples, for they
could not meet their varied needs. They did not rest in the society of
the virgin mother, nor in that of Peter, or James, or John–they
hastened at once to the Lord Jesus Himself to touch His blessed Person
for themselves. In this I would have you all imitate them. O that you
would–
"Steal away steal away to Jesus,
Steal away home
For Jesus waits to save you."
Go to no one else but Jesus, for the great things that He did and not
the poor things that such worms as we are can ever do, should raise
hope in your bosoms! Observe, again, that these people who came to
Jesus in such crowds must have left their businesses. I do not know
what became of their farms, their olive gardens, their cattle, their
shops, but they certainly left them to journey to Jesus. We do not
commend any man for neglecting his business and daily calling, but I
will say this, that when a man's soul is not saved he cannot be blamed
if he neglects everything till it is!
That woman who came out in the morning with her water pot to draw water
from the well was doing a very useful and proper action, for I dare say
those at home needed water to drink. But after she had heard Christ
speak, it is written, "The woman left her water pot." Some of those at
home may have said, "Where is the water, mistress?" But she would
reply, "I have not thought of the poor water pot. Come, see a Man that
told me all things that I ever did! Is not this the Christ?" Ah, if you
leave your water pots to find Christ, you may very well be excused! O
working man in soul trouble, if you are out with a cart and the horse
should stand still in the street while you breathe a prayer for
salvation, who could blame you? If the engine paused while the stoker
cried for mercy, or the shuttle lingered while the weaver begged for
pardon, would there not be a justifiable excuse?
If the shop shutters were kept up for an hour later than usual while
the tradesman sought the Savior, yes, if the business of the
Senate-house stood still and all the commerce of a nation stopped while
but one soul sought Christ, it were worth while! For what human
business can equal the salvation of the souls of men? Elections occupy
men's thoughts just now, but what are all these compared with making
your calling and election sure? You are candidates for Heaven and there
is more importance in eternal election than in all other elections
under Heaven, for when everything else shall have passed away, this
must endure! See to the one thing necessary, with Mary, even if you do
for a while neglect what Martha thinks to be the urgent demands of the
household! Let your first care be for your soul, "For what shall it
profit a man if he gains the whole world and lose his own soul?"
Many of these people, too, came from a great distance. Some came from
the south, from Judea. Others came from the north, from Tyre and Sidon.
Some from across the river Jordan. Others from the hills of Edom. Rough
roads and deep rivers could not keep those back who resolved to come to
Christ. O Souls, if you need Christ, let nothing hinder you! If there
were seven Hells between a soul and Christ it were worth while for it
to force its way through all their fires to get at Him–for when you
get at Him there is salvation and eternal life! Rest not, I pray you,
till over all impediments you have forced a way. There is a plenitude
of mercy about our Lord Jesus which will well reward you for pressing
towards Him. Oh, get to my Master, however far off you may be, for the
sight of Him will well repay the weary journey!
I delight to see the holy ingenuity of anxious minds when they are
eager to find the Savior–they will do anything to obtain salvation! I
remember that years ago, when Bibles were not so common as they are
now, a very, very poor man who was impressed with his need of Christ,
longed to read the Word of God and, therefore, he went to a shop to ask
the price of a second-hand Bible–the cheapest, the oldest they had on
hand. "Ah," said he, as he shook his head, "I have not money enough to
buy it, but I will take great care of it if you will lend it to me from
Saturday night till Monday morning. You won't miss the sale of it and I
may read a part of it." As soon as He gained the friendly loan he gave
himself up to the precious book till the moment he had to return it and
so sought to find Christ!
Ah, you have Bibles, some of you half-a-dozen of them, but you never
look at them! The dust on the unread books condemns you! You take no
trouble to reach the Savior! God save you from this carelessness and
may you resolve to come to Jesus whoever may oppose. Be eager to listen
to His Gospel, though you may have far to go to hear it and may be
roughly squeezed in the crowd. When you hear the Gospel, cry to the
Lord God for His blessing upon it! Though dark thoughts may gather and
Satan may try to thrust you back, be not removed from your purpose.
Make a push for Heaven and holiness! Never does the Lord work in any
man a firm resolution to find the Savior and yet allow him to perish.
One thing I want to call very particular attention to is this–these
poor people came to Jesus with all their ailments about them. I know
they did, because we read that they pressed upon Him to touch Him and
He made them whole. Now, suppose they had said, "We will not come till
we are recovered," then, of course, they needed not to come at all and
our Lord would have been a superfluity to them! But no–he that was
blind came blind, he who was lame hobbled as best he could and he who
was palsied came shaking and trembling–but they came! The poor people
who had all sorts of dire complaints, even those who had devils in
them, came just as they were! That is the point to which I would bring
every man here who has not come to Christ–you are to come just as you
are!
Are you a drunk? You have to give up the drink, but you must come to
Him as you are to help you to give it up! Have you lived in uncleanness
of life? Come and trust in Christ, unclean as you are–trust Him to
make you pure! Have you been dishonest? Come to Him as dishonest, that
He may make you honest! Do not attempt to make yourself fit for
salvation, for it is clear that no one is so fit for saving as the
lost–no one so fit for washing as the foul, no one so fit for healing
as the sick! Come to the Savior! Come just as you are. Catch the spirit
of the hymn–
"Come needy and guilty,
Come loathsome and bare!
You can't come too filthy–
Come just as you are."
If you think that it is necessary to begin the work yourself, what is
that but to insinuate that the Lord Jesus cannot do anything till you
have started the work? Would you have it to be supposed that He is not
quite up to the mark and needs help from you? Is He so poor a Savior
that He is nothing till you enable Him to work? Think not so, but come
along! You have heard what great things He has done–come, then, to Him
even now–that the same great things may be worked in you!
III. I will not say much upon the third point which is THE RESULT. Of
all that came to our Lord, multitudes though they were, not one was
ever repulsed–no, not one! Since the world began has one soul been
driven away from the Savior's door? Oh, tell it in Gath! Publish it in
the streets of Askelon if ever Christ shall be found casting out a
sinner, for then may the adversary justly rejoice over the defeat of
the Gospel! Let it ring down the corridors of Hell and let every devil
dance for joy as he hears that Christ has broken His promise and is
untrue to His character whenever you hear of one who comes to Him whom
He casts out! I challenge all time! I challenge Heaven and earth and
Hell to bring a case in which my Lord and Master ever cast out a soul
that put its trust in Him. It cannot be!
As none were repulsed, so all were healed! And even so all who now
believe in Christ are healed of sin and its plagues! "Ah," say
objectors, "you preach faith as the way of salvation." We confess the
charge and glory in it, since it is most true that it does save men.
"But you ought to bid people do good works in order to salvation." See
here, good Sir, if the people who believe in Jesus do not perform good
works and if this faith does not make them moral, honest, sober, holy
people, then we grant your point! But who shall assert that the
doctrine of faith is other than purifying and sanctifying when we can
bring multitudes of proofs that this very preaching up of faith and not
of works is the most effective cause of virtue and holiness?
Those who cry "Works, works, works," have generally but a scant supply
of such wares! Remember the age of Laud and his popish preaching? Who
were the followers of that theology but the libidinous cavaliers? Those
who preached salvation by Grace–who were they but the godliest men in
the nation, the Puritans, against whom no man could bring any charge
except that they were too sternly good and kept the Sabbath too
precisely and walked before God with too much gravity? I wish the same
fault could be found with us all! If that is vile, we propose to be
viler still–
"Talk we of morals, oh, You bleeding Lamb! The grand morality is love
of You." How can this Divine morality of love be worked in us unless
the Lord Jesus, by His Holy Spirit, bestows upon us a heart to trust
Him and to take Him and Him, alone, to be our salvation?
One thing I cannot help mentioning and that is, as everyone that came
to Christ was healed, it followed that the attraction grew. Say there
had been 500 healed–then when the people came and a hundred more were
benefited there were 600 to draw. And the next day, if there were a
hundred more healed, there were 700 to attract others! Now, there never
was a time since the world began when there were so many reasons for a
sinner's coming to Christ as there are this morning! Just think of it.
Every soul whom the Lord has saved is another argument that He is able
to save you! In reasoning
philosophically, if we find a fact, we put it down. But we do not dare
to draw any inference from it because an isolated fact cannot prove a
general rule. When we get two or three dozen facts, we say, "The common
inference from all these is such-and-such," and a rule is proven.
Suppose we could collect two or three hundreds of such facts, then we
are really sure! Now, for 1,800 years and more our Lord Jesus Christ
has gone on saving sinners! And He has saved more sinners at this
moment than ever before. Still they are coming! Still they are coming
and still He is saving them and every one of these is an arguments that
you should come! O my dear Hearer, where are you–the man whom God
means to bless under this sermon? Come at once and say, "I, too, will
trust Him with my soul, for He has power to save me." Then shall
another be added to the long roll of His wonderful cures! The Lord
grant it may be so and His shall be the praise!
I desire now to spend a few minutes in real, hard, earnest work, in
which may God the Holy Spirit help me while I plead with those who have
never come to Jesus, that they should come to Him at once. My dear
Hearer, if you have often heard about what Christ has done and yet have
never come to Him, yourself, that He might work a similar work of love
in you, I pray you not be hindered any longer. First, come because His
very name invites you–Jesus, a Savior! You are sinful, but He has
forgiveness. Come to Him! You will be well met–a sinner and a Savior!
Can two more congruous things come together?
His name is Christ, too–that is, Anointed. Now, God has anointed Him
with power to save and commissioned Him to save and He must and will
discharge His high office by saving those who come to Him. It is His
business to save and you may be sure that He wears no empty title and
makes no vain pretense of being what He is not. Come along, then! Come
along to Him who is a real Savior for real sinners. He is a Savior
commissioned of God–commit your soul's business to His care. I say the
name He bears rings out like a silver bell and this is its note, "Come
and welcome! Come and welcome to Jesus Christ!" Our Lord's power should
also encourage you to come to Him. Of that I have already spoken.
Nothing has ever baffled Him yet. Stormy winds and raging waves obey
Him! The very devils flee before Him. Come along with you. He is mighty
to save. Therefore come and hang the whole weight of your souls upon
Him.
Next, let His Character allure you. There was never such a mass of love
as Jesus is! He speaks no harsh words to coming sinners–He gives them
mercy liberally and upbraids not. Has He not said, "I will receive them
graciously and love them freely"? Oh, come to Jesus! I am not calling
you to Moses with the broken fragments of the Law at His feet
thundering in indignation! I invite you to Jesus with His pierced hands
and open side entreating souls to come to Him. Come to Jesus because
God has made it His Glory to pardon sinners! Constantine had a son whom
he much loved and he wished the nation to honor him and so while his
son was yet a child he caused him to sign pardons and charters, so that
all gracious acts of the king bore the prince's signature. The Prince
Emmanuel signs and seals Divine pardons for the chief of sinners! And
the great God in Heaven loves that His Son should give pardon to
sinners, for it endears Him to men and brings Him honor. Since it will
honor Him to save you, come to Him and be not afraid.
Again, let me remind you of the preparations that are made for saving
sinners. Christ has died to save them! He shed His blood to save them
and do you think He will have these preparations wasted? I smiled last
night at a little incident in my own home. Three of our friends had
been writing hard for me all day and my wife, expecting them to tea,
had spread the table bountifully and adorned it with choice flowers. I
came into the room and said, "They cannot stop to tea, for there is a
meeting at the Orphanage and they say they must hurry off." I confess I
felt sorry as I looked at the table and all its adornments. My own good
wife replied, "No, no. They cannot go. They must have their tea. I
cannot spread a table like this and nobody come and eat. Go out and
fetch in those highwaymen who want to run off! Compel them to come in."
I fetched them in and they were by no means loath to sit down and
partake!
It would have been a great disappointment to the kind hostess if no one
had eaten what she had provided. This is a homely story, but it sets
forth the need there is that our Lord's provisions of Grace should be
used. He has spread a table and He will have sinners come and feed at
it. What did the king say who made a wedding feast for his son? "Go out
quickly into the highways and hedges and compel them to come in." Thus
the wedding was furnished with guests. Strange guests they were and yet
they furnished the feast with guests! They were odd bits of furniture,
but they were necessary! A wedding with a feast and nobody to eat it
would be a dishonor to the king, so guests were necessary furniture. Oh
you that are furthest off from God, my Master's mercy needs your misery
that He may relieve it! He needs your emptiness that He may impart His
fullness and Grace for Grace!
One thing more I have to say. I cannot tell if it will have power with
anybody present, but I hope it may. I wish you would come to Jesus even
for His servant's sake. If I were a sculptor fashioning a statue I
should feel that every stroke I took made a permanent impression, so
that if I only worked a little upon the hard stone I should make some
progress and my work would remain. Alas, my labor is not thus abiding
in reference to some of you. I do my best each Sunday, but I am not
much the gainer, for you seem to be statues of ice and the six weekdays
melt away my one day's work! It is weary work to labor thus in vain! A
painter takes his brush and though he may be executing a very difficult
portrait, yet every stroke and each tint and touch of color denotes
progress.
Alas, I seem as if I wrote on the sand with some of you! The week's
tide obliterates the Sabbath's marks! Am I always to weave in the
pulpit that which is undone at home? You do not know how sadly we
sometimes say to our Master, "Who has believed our report and to whom
is the arm of the Lord revealed?" We would give anything to see our
hearers converted, that our Master might have honor and we are sad when
men come not at our call! If we see no souls brought to the Redeemer's
feet, we are ready to lie down and die.
I read the other day of an old minister who had been some 20 years
without a conversion, as far as he knew and yet he was a really earnest
man. At last, having much prayed over it, he announced that he should
preach no more in that place, but resign his charge and the reason he
gave them with many tears was, "I am doing no good among you. There are
no souls saved and perhaps if another minister filled my place you
might listen to his appeals. At any rate, I will not stand in the way
of one who might be more useful and so I bid you farewell." As he went
out an old woman named Sarah said, "O, Sir, you cannot go, for you were
the means of leading me to Christ some three or four years ago." "You,"
he said, "Sarah, I thought you were one who did not care for my
ministry." "Oh, Sir," she said, "it has been my meat and my drink."
"Woman," he said, "why did you not tell me as much before? My heart has
been breaking for you." In the course of the week 20 or 30 came in to
testify that they had sought and found the Savior through his ministry.
All he could do was to say, "Bless the Lord, I'll not leave my post.
But why did you not tell me of it before? O the sleepless nights I
might have missed if you had but told me."
Some of you may have been saved and yet you have never confessed the
blessed fact! I ask you, whether you do well and kindly by His servant
thus to rob him of his wages and keep back comforting news from his
burdened heart! However, that may pass. You who have not sought and
have not found my Lord–what message shall I take home, this morning,
to my Master when I go upstairs to speak with Him alone? Shall I tell
Him you will not believe on Him? I set Him before you once again as
able to save you–will you again refuse Him? Or shall the message be
that you will trust in Him for salvation? God grant that you may give a
wise reply for Jesus Christ's sake. Amen.
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Following the Risen Christ