Good Cheer for Christians
A Sermon
(No. 846)
delivered on Lord's-Day Morning, December 20, 1868, by
C. H. SPURGEON,
at the [51]Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington.
"And in this mountain shall the Lord of hosts make unto all people a
feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things
full of marrow, of wines on the lees well-refined.'"
Isaiah 25:6.
WE have nearly arrived at the great merry-making season of the year. On
Christmas Day we shall find all the world in England enjoying
themselves with all the good cheer which they can afford. Servants of
God, you who have the largest share in the Person of Him who was born
at Bethlehem, I invite you to the best of all Christmas fare–to nobler
food than makes the table groan–bread from Heaven, food for your
spirit! Behold how rich and how abundant are the provisions which God
has made for the high festival which He would have His servants keep,
not now and then, but all the days of their lives!
God, in the verse before us, has been pleased to describe the
provisions of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Although many other
interpretations have been suggested for this verse, they are all stale
and utterly unworthy of such expressions as those before us. When we
behold the Person of our Lord Jesus Christ, whose flesh is meat,
indeed, and whose blood is drink, indeed–when we see Him offered up
upon the chosen mountain–we then discover a fullness of meaning in
these gracious words of sacred hospitality, "The Lord shall make a
feast of fat things, of fat things full of marrow."
Our Lord Himself was very fond of describing His Gospel under the same
image as that which is here employed. He spoke of the marriage supper
of the king, who said, "My oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all
things are ready." And it did not seem as if He could even complete the
beauty of the parable of the prodigal son without the killing of the
fat calf and feasting and music and dancing! As a festival on earth is
looked forward to and looked back upon as an oasis and a desert of
time, so the Gospel of Jesus Christ is to the soul its sweet release
from bondage and distress–its mirth and joy!
Upon this subject we intend to speak this morning, hoping to be helped
by the great Master of the feast. Our first head will be the feast. The
second will be the banqueting hall in this mountain. The third will be
the Host–"The Lord shall make a feast." And the fourth head shall be
the guests–He shall make it "unto all people."
I. First, then, we have to consider THE FEAST. It is described as
consisting of viands of the best, no, of the best of the best! They are
fat things, but they are also fat things full of marrow. Wines are
provided of the most delicious and invigorating kind–wines on the
lees, which retain their aroma, their strength, and their flavor–but
these are most ancient and rare, having been so long kept that they
have become well-refined. By long standing they have purified and
clarified themselves–and brought themselves to the highest degree of
brightness and excellence. The best of the best God has provided in the
Gospel for the sons of men!
Let us attentively survey the blessings of the Gospel and observe that
they are fat things, and fat things full of marrow. One of the first
Gospel blessings is that of complete justification. A sinner, though
guilty in himself, no sooner believes in Jesus than all his sins are
pardoned! The righteousness of Christ becomes his righteousness, and he
is accepted in the Beloved. Now, this is a delicious dish, indeed! Here
is something for the soul to feed upon! To think that I, though a
deeply guilty sinner, am absolved of God and set free from the bondage
of the Law! To think that I, though once an heir of wrath, am now as
accepted before God as Adam was when he walked in the Garden without a
sin! No, more accepted, still, for the Divine righteousness of Christ
belongs to me, and I stand complete in Him–beloved in the Beloved–and
accepted in Him, too!
Beloved, this is such a precious Truth of God, that when the soul feeds
on it, it experiences a quiet peace–a deep and heavenly calm to be
found nowhere on earth! This is a kind of honey which never sours–to
be assured by the Word of God and by the witness of the Holy Spirit
within you–that you are reconciled and brought near by the blood and
the righteousness of Jesus Christ. This is a choice mercy! This is a
fat thing, indeed! But this is not all, it is a fat thing full of
marrow! There is an inner lusciousness in it when you reach the heart
and soul of the matter, transcendent in richness! Remember that this
righteousness, this acceptance, this justification becomes ours in a
perfectly legal way–one against which Satan, himself, cannot raise an
objection–for our Substitute has paid our debt, therefore we are
righteously discharged. Christ has fulfilled the Law, and made it
honorable for us. Therefore are we justly accepted and Beloved.
Here is marrow, indeed, when we perceive the truth and reality of the
Substitution of Jesus, and grasp with heart and soul the fact of our
great Surety standing in our place at the bar of justice that we might
stand in His place–in the place of honor and love! What bliss it is to
cry with the Apostle, "Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's
elect? It is God that justifies. Who is he that condemns? It is Christ
that died, yes, rather that is risen again, who is even at the right
hand of God, who also makes intercession for us." Come here, all you
whose spiritual tastes are purified by Divine Grace, and feed upon this
choice provision which shall be sweet to your taste, sweeter, also,
than honey and the honeycomb!
Meditate upon a second blessing of the Covenant of Grace, namely, that
of adoption. It is plainly revealed to us that as many as have believed
in Christ Jesus unto the salvation of their souls, they are the sons of
God. "Beloved, now we are the sons of God." Here, indeed, is a fat
thing! What? Shall a worm of the dust become a child of God? A rebel be
adopted into the heavenly family? A condemned criminal not only
forgiven, but actually made a child of God? Wonder of wonders! "Behold
what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be
called the children of God!" "To which of the kings and princes of this
earth did He ever say, You are My Son"?
He has not spoken, thus, to the great ones and to the mighty, but God
has chosen the base things of this world and things that are despised,
yes, and things that are not, and made these to be of the seed royal!
The wise and prudent are passed over, but babes receive the revelation
of His love. Lord, why me? What am I and what is my father's house that
you should speak of making me Your child? This gloriously fat thing is
also "full of marrow." There is an inner richness in adoption, for, "if
children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ; if so
that we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified together."
Well does the Apostle remind us that if children, then heirs, for we
are thus assured of our blessed heritage. "All things are yours.
Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death,
or things present or things to come, all are yours. And you are
Christ's; and Christ is God's." "He that spared not His own Son, but
delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not, with Him, also freely
give us all things?" Here are royal dainties of which the Word has said
most truly, "They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of
Your house."
Passing on from the blessing of adoption, let us remember that every
child of God is the object of eternal love without beginning and
without end. This is one of the fat things full of marrow. Is it so,
that I, a believer in Jesus, unworthy as I am, am the object of the
eternal love of God? What transport lies in that thought! Long before
the Lord began to create the world He had thought of me! Long before
Adam fell or Christ was born and the angels sung their first choral
over Bethlehem's miracle, the eyes and the heart of God were towards
His elect people! He never began to love them–they were always "a
people near unto Him."
Is it not so written, "I have loved you with an everlasting love,
therefore, with loving kindness have I drawn you"? Some kick at the
doctrine of election, but they are ill advised since they labor to
overturn one of the noblest dishes of the feast! They would dam up one
of the coolest streams that flow from Lebanon! They would cover over
with rubbish one of the richest veins of golden ore that make the
people of God rich! This doctrine of a love that has no commencement is
the best wine of our Beloved, and "that goes down sweetly, causing the
lips of them that are asleep to speak." How joyously does the heart
exult and leap for very joy when this Truth of God is brought home by
the witness of the Spirit of God! Then the soul is satisfied with favor
and full with the blessing of the Lord!
Equally delightful is the corresponding reflection that this love which
had no beginning shall have no end. He is a God that changes not. "The
gifts and calling of God are without repentance." When He has once set
His heart of love upon a man, He never turns away from doing him good.
He says by the mouth of His servant the Prophet, that He hates putting
away. Though we sin against Him often, and provoke Him to jealousy,
yet, as the waters of Noah, so is His Covenant to us. For as the waters
of Noah shall no more go over the earth, so He swears that He will not
be angry with us nor rebuke us.
"The mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed, but My kindness
shall not depart from you, neither shall the Covenant of My peace be
removed, says the Lord that has mercy on you." "I am the Lord, I change
not, therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed." "Can a woman forget
her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of
her womb? Yes, they may forget, yet will I not forget you. Behold, I
have engraved you upon the palms of My hands; your walls are
continually before Me."
Why, Beloved, this, indeed, is a fat thing! And I may add that it is
full of marrow when you remember that not merely has the Lord thought
of you from everlasting, but loved you. Oh, the depth of that word,
"love," as it applies to the Infinite Jehovah, whose name, whose
Essence, whose Nature is love! He has loved you with all the immutable
intensity of His heart–never more and never less–loved you so much
that He gave His only begotten Son for you! He has loved you so well
that nothing could content Him but making you to be conformed into the
image of His dear Son, and causing you to partake of His glory that you
may be with Him where He is! Come, feed on this, you heirs of eternal
life, for here are fat things full of marrow!
We should not, Beloved, have completed this list if we had omitted one
precious doctrine which needs a refined taste, perhaps, but which, when
a man has once learned to feed on it, seems to him to be best of all–I
mean the great Truth of union to Christ. We are plainly taught in the
Word of God that as many as have believed are one with Christ–they are
married to Him–there is a conjugal union based upon mutual affection.
The union is closer, still, for there is a vital union between Christ
and His saints. They are in Him as the branches are in the vine. They
are members of the body of which He is the Head. They are one with
Jesus in such a true and real sense that with Him they died, with Him
they have been buried, with Him they are risen, with Him they are
raised up together and made to sit together in heavenly places.
There is an indissoluble union between Christ and all His people: "I in
them and they in Me." Thus the union may be described–Christ is in His
people the hope of Glory, and they are dead and their life is hid with
Christ in God. This is a union of the most wonderful kind, which
figures may faintly set forth, but which it were impossible for
language completely to explain. Oneness to Jesus is one of the fat
things full of marrow. For if it is so, indeed, that we are one with
Christ–then because He lives we must live also! Because He was
punished for sin, we also have borne the wrath of God in Him. Because
He was justified by His Resurrection, we also are justified in Him.
Because He is rewarded and forever sits down at His Father's right
hand, we, also, have obtained the inheritance in Him–and by faith
grasp it now, and enjoy its earnest.
Oh, can it be that this aching head already has a right to a celestial
crown? That this palpitating heart has a claim to the rest which
remains for the people of God? That these weary feet have a title to
tread the sacred halls of the New Jerusalem? It is so, for if we are
one with Christ, then all He has belongs to us, and it is but a matter
of time and of gracious arrangement when we shall come into the full
enjoyment! Truly, in meditation upon this topic, we may, each of us,
exclaim, "My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness, and my
mouth shall praise You with joyful lips."
I cannot bring forth all the courses of my Lord's banquet. One serving
man cannot bear before you the riches of such a surpassing feast! But I
would remind you of one more, and that is the doctrine of Resurrection
and Everlasting Life. This poor world dimly guessed at the immortality
of the soul, but it knew nothing of the resurrection of the body–the
Gospel of Jesus has brought life and immortality to light and Jesus
Himself has declared to us that he that believes in Him shall never
die. "He that believes in Me, though he were dead, yet should he live."
Jesus is the Resurrection and the Life! Not the soul only, but the body
also shall partake of immortality, for the trumpet shall sound and the
dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed! We expect
to die, but we are assured of living again. If the Lord comes not, we
know that our bodies shall see corruption. But here is our comfort– we
dread no annihilation–that dark shadow never crosses our spirits! We
dread no Hell, no "purgatory," no judgment–Christ has perfected
forever them that are set apart–none can condemn whom He absolves. The
saints shall judge the angels, and sit with their Lord in the day of
the great assize!
To us the coming of Christ will be a day of joy and of rejoicing–we
shall be caught up together with Him. His reign shall be our reign, His
glory our glory! Comfort one another with these words, and as you see
your Brothers and Sisters departing one by one from among you, sorrow
not as those that are without hope, but say unto each other, "They are
not lost, but they have gone before us," for, "blessed are the dead
which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yes, says the Spirit, that they
may rest from their labors, and their works do follow them." Here are
fat things full of marrow, for ours is a glorious hope and full of
immortality!
Our expected immortality is not that of mere existence, it is not the
barren privilege of life without bliss, existence without happiness–it
is full of glory! "We shall be like He when we shall see Him as He is."
We shall be with God, at whose right hand there is fullness of joy and
pleasures forevermore! He shall make us to drink of the river of His
pleasures! Songs and everlasting joy shall be upon our heads, and
sorrow and sighing shall flee away!–
"Oh, for the no more weeping,
Within that land of love!
The endless joy of keeping
The bridal feast above!
Oh, for the hour of seeing
My Savior face to face!
The hope of ever being
In that sweet meeting place."
Thus I have set before you a few of the fat things full of marrow which
the King of kings has set before His guests at the wedding feast of His
love.
Changing the run of the thought, and yet really keeping to the same
subject, let me now bring before you the goblets of wine. "Wines on the
lees–wines on the lees well-refined." These we shall consider as
symbolizing the joys of the Gospel. What are these? I can only speak of
those which I have, myself, been permitted to sip. One of the dearest
joys of the Christian life is a sense of perfect peace with God. Oh, I
tell you when one is quiet for awhile, and the din and noise of
business is out of one's ears, it is one of the most delicious things
in all the world to meditate upon God and to feel He is no enemy to me,
and I am no enemy to Him!
It is beyond comparison, to feel I love Him! If there is anything that
I can do to serve Him, I will do it. If there is any suffering which
would honor Him, if He would give me the strength to endure it, it
should be my happiness though it caused me to die a martyr's death a
thousand times. If I could but honor my God, my Father, and my Friend,
all should be acceptable to me! There is nothing between the Lord and
me by way of difference or alienation. I am brought near through the
blood of His dear and only begotten Son. He is my God, my Father, and
my All. And I am His child!
Some of us have tried the imaginary happiness of laughter–we have
mixed with the giddy throng and tasted the wines of the house of carnal
merriment–but our honest experience is that one single draught from
the cup of salvation is worth rivers of worldly mirth–
"Solid joys and lasting pleasures
Only Zion's children know."
A quiet heart, resting in the love of God, dwelling in perfect peace,
has a royalty about it which cannot, for a moment, be matched by the
fleeting joys of this world! Our joy sometimes flashes with a brighter
light, but even then it is not less pure and safe. You may look upon
this wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup, when it moves
itself aright, for there is no woe, no redness of the eyes reserved for
those who drink even to inebriation of this sacred wine! This sacred
exhilaration is caused by a sense of security.
A child of God, when he has looked well to his Redeemer and seen the
merit of the precious blood, and the power of the never-ceasing plea,
feels himself safe, perfectly safe. I do not understand the child of
God reading his Bible and yet being afraid of being cast into Hell. I
can understand that the fear may cross his mind lest, after all, he
should prove a castaway–but as he approaches, once again to the foot
of the Cross and looks up to Jesus, he feels that it cannot be. None
were ever cast away who stood at the foot of the Cross! It is written,
"Him that comes to me I will in no wise cast out." A child of God, with
no hope but what he finds in Christ, has no cause to think his eternal
state to be insecure! All are safe who are in Christ, even as all were
safe who were in Noah's ark. No flood, no storm could hurt the man of
whom it was said, "The Lord shut him in."
The Lord has shut in all His people in Christ, and they are eternally
safe in Christ! When the spirit knows that, "there is, therefore, now
no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus," then is it
replenished with delight. When one feels that live or die, work or
suffer, all is well, how free from care is the heart! How Divinely
joyful to know that if one should lose all his earthly substance, the
Lord will provide! That if one should be tempted, tempted greatly, yet
with the temptation the way of escape shall be made! Here is assurance
rich with consolation! When one feels that all is safe, all safe
eternally, for life or death all secured, I tell you that this is wine
on the lees–wine on the lees well-refined–and he who wins a draught
need not envy the angels their celestial banquets!
This joy of ours will sometimes rise to an elevation yet more sublime
when it is caused by communion with God. Believers, while engaged in
prayer and praise, in service and in suffering, are enabled by the Holy
Spirit to hold high converse with their Lord. Do not imagine that
Abraham's speech with God was an unusual privilege. The father of the
faithful did but enjoy what all the faithful ones participate in
according to the Divine Grace given them. We tell God our
griefs–discoursing upon our sorrows not in fiction, but declaring them
in real conversation as when a man speaks with his neighbor–meanwhile
the Lord's Spirit whispers to us with the still small voice of the
promise such words as calm our minds and guide our feet.
Yes, and when our Beloved takes us into the banqueting house of real
conscious fellowship with Himself and waves the love-banner over us,
our holy joy is as much superior to all merely human mirth as the
heavens are above the earth! Then do we speak and sing with sacred
zest, and feel as if we could weep for very joy of heart, for our
Beloved is ours and we are His! His left hand is under our head and His
right hand does embrace us, and our only fear is lest anything should
grieve our Beloved and cause Him to withdraw Himself from us–for it is
Heaven on earth, and the fair foretaste of Heaven above to see His
face, to taste His love. Communion with Christ is as the wine on the
lees well-refined.
We will place on the table one more goblet of which you may drink as
much as you will. We have provided for us the pleasures of hope, a hope
most sure and steadfast, most bright and glorious–the hope that what
we know today shall be outdone by what we shall know tomorrow–the hope
that by-and-by what we now see, as in a glass darkly, shall be seen
face to face. We shall say, in Heaven, as the Queen of Sheba did in
Jerusalem, "The half has not been told us." We are looking forward to a
speedy day when we shall be unburdened of this creaking tabernacle–and
being absent from the body shall be present with the Lord!
Our hope of future bliss is elevated and confident. Oh, the vision of
His face! Oh, the sight of Jesus in His exaltation! Oh, the kiss of His
lips–the words, "Well done, good and faithful servant," from that dear
mouth and then forever to lie in His bosom! Begone, you cares! Begone,
you sorrows! If Heaven is so near, you shall not molest us. The inn may
be a rough and poverty-stricken one, but we are only travelers, not
tenants upon lease. This is not our place of resting! We are on our
journey Home! Beloved, in the prospect of the quiet resting places in
the land which flows with milk and honey, you have wines on the lees
well-refined!
If we were not limited to time this morning, as, alas, we are, I should
have reminded you that these joys of the Believer are ancient in their
origin, for that is shown in the text. Old wines are intended by "wines
well-refined." They have stood long on the lees, have drawn out all the
virtue from them and have been cleared of all the coarser material. In
the East, wine will be improved by keeping even more than the wines of
the West! And even so the mercies of God are the sweeter to our
meditations because of their antiquity. From old eternity–before ever
the earth was–the Covenant engagements of everlasting love have been
resting like wines on the lees, and today they bring to us the utmost
riches of all the attributes of God!
I should also have reminded you of the fatness of their excellence,
because the wine on the lees holds its flavor and retains its aroma.
And there is a fullness and richness about the blessings of Divine
Grace which endears them to our hearts. The joys of Grace are not
fantastical emotions, or transient flashes of a meteoric
excitement–they are based on substantial Truths of God–they are
reasonable, fit, and proper. They belong not to the superficial and
frothy emotions of mere feeling, but are deep, solemn, earnest motions
justified by the clearest judgment. Our bliss is not of the foam and
the surge–it dwells in the innermost caverns of our heart.
I would also remind you of their refined nature. No sin is mingled with
the joys of the Gospel and the delights of communion–they are
well-refined. Gospel joys are elevating–they make men like angels! As
in the Gospel, God comes down to men, so by the Gospel men go up to
God! I might also have shown you how absolutely peerless are the
provisions of Divine Grace. There is no feast like that of the Gospel,
no meat like the flesh of Jesus, no drink like His blood, no joys like
that which crowns the Gospel feast!
II. I can say no more. The table is before you and now we must pass on
with great brevity to notice THE BANQUETING HALL. "In this mountain."
There is a reference here to three things–the same symbol bearing
three interpretations. First, literally, the mountain upon which
Jerusalem is built. I do not doubt that the reference is here to the
hill of the Lord upon which Jerusalem stood. The great transaction
which was fulfilled at Jerusalem upon Calvary has made to all nations a
great feast. It was there where that center Cross bore upon it One who
joined earth and Heaven in mysterious union. It was there where amidst
thick darkness the Son of God was made a curse for men. It was there
where sorrow culminated and joy was consummated.
On that very mountain where Jews and Gentiles met together, and with
clamorous wrath cried, "Let Him be crucified," it was there in the
giving up of the Only-Begotten, whose flesh is meat, indeed, and whose
blood is drink, indeed, that the Lord made a feast of things.
Everything I have spoken of this morning is found in Christ! He is the
Resurrection and the Life–in Him we are justified, adopted, and made
secure. Every drop of joy we drink streams from His flowing veins.
A second meaning is the Church. Frequently Jerusalem is used as the
symbol of the Church of God, and it is within the pale of the Church
that the great feast of the Lord is made unto all nations. I am, in the
truest sense, a very sound churchman. I am, indeed, a high churchman–a
most determined stickler for the Church. I do not believe in salvation
outside of the pale of the Church. I believe that the salvation of God
is confined to the Church, and to the Church alone. "But," says one,
"what Church?"
Yes! That's the question! God forbid I should mean by that either the
Baptist Church, or the Independent Church, or the Episcopalian Church,
or the Presbyterian, or any other–I mean the Church of Jesus
Christ–the company of God's chosen, the fellowship of the
blood-bought, the family of Believers! Be they where they may, for them
is provided the feast of fat things! Whatever outward and visible
Church they may have associated themselves with, they shall drink of
the wines on the lees well-refined. But the feast is only to be found
where they are found who put their trust in Jesus. There is but one
Church in Heaven and earth–composed of men called by the Holy Spirit,
and made to live anew by His quickening power–and it is through the
ministry of this Church that an abundant feast is spread for all
nations–a feast to which the nations are summoned by chosen herald,
whom God calls to proclaim the good news of salvation by Jesus Christ!
But, Brothers and Sisters, the mountain sometimes means the Church of
God exalted to its latter-day glory. This mountain is to be exalted
above the hills and all nations shall flow unto it. This text will have
its grandest fulfillment in the day of the appearing of our Lord and
Savior Jesus Christ. Then shall the glory of the Gospel be unveiled
more clearly than at this present time. Men shall have a fuller
perception of the glory of the Lord, and a deeper enjoyment of His
Grace while happiness and peace shall reign with unmolested quiet. Soon
shall come the golden age, which has been so long foretold, for which
we cry with unceasing expectation! The Lord send it speedily, and His
be the praise!
III. Thirdly, let us think of THE HOST of the feast. "In this mountain
shall the Lord of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things."
Mark well the Truth of God that in the Gospel banquet there is not a
single dish brought by man. The Lord makes it, and He makes it all. I
know some would like to bring a little with them to the
banquet–something, at least, by way of trimming and adornment–so that
they might have a share of the honor. But it must not be! The Lord of
hosts makes the feast and He will not even permit the guests to bring
their own wedding garments–they must stop at the door and put on the
robe which the Lord has provided, for salvation is all Divine Grace
from first to last, and all of Him who is wondrous in working, and who
does all things according to the counsels of His will.
Out of all the precious Truths of God which I spoke of at the beginning
of this sermon, there is not one which comes from any source but a
Divine one! And of all the joys which I tried feebly to picture there
is not one which takes its rise from earth's springs–they all flow
from the Eternal Fount. The Lord makes the feast, and, observe, He does
it, too, as Lord of hosts, as a Sovereign, as a Ruler doing as He wills
among the sons of men–preparing what He wills for the good of His
creatures–and constraining whom He wills to come to the marriage
feast. The Lord provides sovereignly as Lord of hosts, and
all-sufficiently as Jehovah.
It needed the all-sufficiency of God to provide a feast for hungry
sinners. No other than the infinite "I AM" could provide a feast
substantial enough to supply the needs of immortal spirits–but HE has
done it, and you may guess of the value of the viands by the nature of
our Entertainer. If God spread the feast it is not to be despised. If
the Lord has put forth all the Omnipotence of His eternal power and
Godhead in preparing the banquet for the multitude of the sons of men,
then depend upon it, it is a banquet worthy of Him! It is one to which
we may come with confidence, for it must be such a banquet as our souls
require, and such as the world never saw before.
O my Soul, rejoice in your God and King! If He provides the feast, let
Him have all the glory of it. "Not unto us, not unto us, but unto Your
name give glory." O King immortal, eternal, invisible, you fed Your
children in the wilderness with manna which dropped from Heaven, and
with water that flowed out of the flinty rock, and they gave thanks
unto Your name! But now You fill us with nobler food. They did eat
manna and are dead–but we live on the immortal Bread, even Jesus, and
therefore we can never die! They drank of the water which flowed from
the rock, and yet they thirsted again. But we shall never thirst, but
forever abide near to Yourself, while the Lamb that is in the midst of
the Throne shall feed us, and lead us unto living fountains of water!
Therefore, blessed be Your name, yes, a thousand times blessed be Your
name, O Most High! Let all Heaven say, "Amen," to the praises of our
hearts, and let the multitude of Your children here on earth, for whom
this feast is spread, laud and magnify and bless Your name from the
rising of the sun unto the going down of the same.
IV. Lastly, a word or two upon THE GUESTS. The Lord has made this
banquet, "for all people." What a precious word this is! "For all
people." Then this includes not merely the chosen people, the Jews,
whose were the oracles, but it encompasses the poor uncircumcised
Gentiles who, by Jesus, are brought near! The barbarian is invited to
this feast! The Scythian is not rejected. The polished Greek finds an
open door! The hardy Roman shall meet with an equal welcome! Caesar's
household, if they come, shall receive a portion, and so shall the
beggar's kin!
Blessed be God for that word, "unto all people," for it permits
missionary enterprise in every land! However degraded a race may be, we
have here provision made for it. This feast of fat things is made as
much for the Sudra as for the Brahmin! The Gospel is as much to be
preached to the degraded Bushman as to the civilized Chinese. Dwell on
that word, "all people," and you will see it includes the rich–for
there is a feast of fat things for them such as their gold could never
buy! And it includes the poor, for they, being rich in faith, shall
have fellowship with God! "All people." This takes in the man of
enlarged intelligence and extensive knowledge–but it equally
encompasses the illiterate man who cannot read.
The Lord makes this feast "for all people." For you old people. If you
come to Jesus you shall find that He is suitable for you. For you young
men and maidens, and you little children–if you put your trust in
God's appointed Savior there shall be much joy and happiness for you.
"For all people"! I think, if I were now seeking and had not laid hold
on Christ, this word, "all people," would be a great comfort to me
because it gives hope to all who desire to come! None have ever been
rejected of all who have ever come to Christ and asked for mercy. It is
still true, "Him that comes to Me I will in no wise cast out."
Some very odd people have come to Him. Some very wicked people, some
very hardened people. And the door was never closed in anyone's face.
Why should Jesus begin hard dealings with you? He cannot, because He
cannot change! If He says, "Him that comes to Me I will in no wise cast
out," be one of the "hims" that come, and He cannot cast you out! There
is another thought, namely, that between the covers of the Bible there
is no mention made of one person who may not come. There is no
description given of a person who is forbidden to trust Christ. I
should like you to look the Bible through, you who dream that Jesus
will reject you, and find where it is said, "Such a one I will reject.
Such a one I will refuse."
When you find such a rejecting clause, then you will have a right to be
unbelieving–but till you do, I beseech you do not needlessly torment
yourself! Why needlessly sow doubts and fears? There will be enough of
them without your making them for yourself. Do not limit what the Lord
does not limit. I know He has an elect people. I rejoice in it–I hope
you will rejoice in it, too, one day! And I know that His people have
this marrow and fatness provided for them and for them, alone–but
still, this does not at all conflict with the other precious Truth of
God that whoever believes in the Son of God has everlasting life!
If you believe in Jesus Christ, all these things are yours! Come, poor
Trembler, the silver trumpet sounds, and this is the note it rings,
"Come and welcome! Come and welcome! Come and welcome!" The harsher
trumpet of the Law, which waxed exceedingly loud and long at Sinai had
this for its note, "Set bounds about the mount–let none touch it lest
they die." But the trumpet for Calvary sounds with the opposite note!
It is, "Come and welcome! Come and welcome, Sinner, come! Come as you
are! Come as sinful as you are, hardened as you are, careless as you
think you are–and having no good thing whatever, come to your God in
Christ!"
O may you come to Him who gave His Son to bleed in the sinner's
place–and casting yourself on what Christ has done, may you resolve,
"If I perish, I will trust in Him. If I am cast away, I will rely on
Him." You shall not perish, but for you there shall be the feast of fat
things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well-refined! The Lord
bless you very richly, for His name's sake. Amen.
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Joyful Transformations
A Sermon