One Lost Sheep
DELIVERED ON LORD' S-DAY MORNING, APRIL 28, 1889,
BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"How think you? If a man has an hundred sheep and one of them is gone
astray, does he not lea ve the ninety and nine and go into the
mountains and seek that which is gone astray? And if he should find it,
verily I say unto you, he rejoices more of that sheep, than of the
ninety and nine which went not astray." Matthew 18:12,13.
THIS passage occurs in a discourse of our Savior against despising one
of those little ones that believe in Him. He foretells a dreadful doom
for those who, in their contempt for the little ones, cause them to
stumble. And He forbids that contempt by a variety of forcible
arguments upon which we cannot now dwell. There is a tendency, apparent
at this present time, to think little of the conversion of individuals
and to look upon the work of the Holy Spirit upon each separate person
as much too slow a business for this progressive age.
We hear grand theories of a theocracy of a kind unknown to Holy
Scripture–a semi-political dominion of the Lord over masses wherein
the individuals are unregenerate. We listen to great swelling words
about the uplifting of nations and the advancement of the race. But
these lofty ideas do not produce facts, nor have they any moral power.
Our "cultured" teachers are weary of the humdrum work of bringing
individual souls into light. They want to do it wholesale, by a far
more rapid process than that of personal salvation. They are tired of
the units–their great minds dwell upon "the solidarity of the race."
I am bold to assert that if ever we despise the method of individual
conversion we shall get into an unsound order of business altogether
and find ourselves wrecked upon the rocks of hypocrisy. Even in those
right glorious times when the Gospel shall have the freest course, when
it shall run the most quickly and be the most extensively glorified,
its progress will still be after the former manner of the conviction,
conversion and sanctification of individuals. Individuals who shall
each one believe and be baptized according to the Word of the Lord.
I fear lest in any of you there should be even the least measure of
despising the one lost sheep because of the large and philosophical
methods which are now so loudly advocated. I would not have you
exchange the gold of individual Christianity for the base metal of
Christian Socialism. If the wanderers are to be brought in, in vast
numbers, as I pray they may be, yet must it be accomplished by the
bringing of them in one by one. To attempt national regeneration
without personal regeneration is to dream of erecting a house without
separate bricks. In the vain attempt to work in the gross, we may miss
the practical result which would have followed working in detail. Let
us settle it in our minds that we cannot do better than obey the
example of our Lord Jesus given us in the text and go after the one
sheep which has gone astray.
Our text warns us that we are not to despise one person, even on
account of evil character. The first temptation is to despise one
because he is only one. The next is to despise one because that one is
so little. The next and perhaps the most dangerous form of the
temptation, is to despise one because that one has gone astray. The
individual is not in the right path. He is not obeying the Law, nor
reflecting credit on the Church but doing much that vexes the spiritual
and grieves the holy. But we are not, therefore, to despise him. Read
the eleventh verse–"The Son of man is come to save that which was
lost."
In the Greek, the word "lost" is a very strong word–we may read it,
"that which is destroyed." It does not mean "that which is
nonexistent," as you can clearly see. But that which is destroyed as to
usefulness to the shepherd, as to happiness to itself, and as to
working out the intent for which it was created. It means any that are
so effectually destroyed by sin that their existence is a greater
calamity than their nonexistence. But even if they are now dead in
trespasses and sins, and even offensive in character–must we not
despise them. The Son of Man did not despise such, since, "He has come
to seek and to save that which was lost."
Many a soul that has been so destroyed as to be lost to itself, lost to
God, lost to his people, lost to anything like hope and holiness, the
Lord Jesus Christ has saved by His gracious power. He values each one.
This is the lesson which I would teach this morning to the utmost of my
power. May the Holy Spirit teach it also.
In considering the words of our Lord which are now before us, I beg you
to notice, first, that the Lord Jesus herein shows peculiar interest in
one lost soul. Secondly, He puts forth special exertion for the rescue
of this lost one. And thirdly He displays a special rejoicing when the
lost one is restored. When we have thought of all this, we shall then
observe, fourthly, that He sets us a very striking example–herein
teaching us to care for each soul destroyed by sin. I. First, then, in
the words before us, OUR SAVIOR SHOWS PECULIAR INTEREST IN ONE LOST
SOUL. Note in the commencement, that for the sake of those lost ones,
our Lord assumes a special Character. The eleventh verse puts it, "The
Son of Man is come to save that which was lost." He was not originally
known as "the Son of Man," but as "the Son of God." Before all worlds,
He dwelt in the bosom of the Father and "thought it not robbery to be
equal with God." But in order to redeem men, the Son of the Highest
became "the Son of Man." He was born of the Virgin and by birth
inherited the innocent infirmities of our nature and bore the
sufferings incident to those infirmities. Then did He also take upon
Himself our sin and its penalty and therefore died upon the Cross.
He was in all points made like unto His Brethren. He could not be the
Shepherd of men without becoming like they were and therefore the Word
condescended to be made flesh. Behold the stupendous miracle of
incarnation! Nothing can excel this marvel–Immanuel, God with us!
"Being found in fashion as a Man, He became obedient unto death, even
the death of the Cross." O lost One, conscious of your loss, take heart
today when the name of Jesus is named in your hearing. He is God but He
is Man–and as God and Man He saves His people from their sins.
Next to this, to show how Jesus values one lost soul, He makes a very
wonderful descent. "The Son of Man is come." He was always known as
"The Coming One." But as to the salvation of the lost He has actually
come. For judgment He is "the Coming One" still. But for salvation we
rejoice that our Savior has already come. Quitting the assemblies of
the perfect, He has been here as the Friend of publicans and sinners.
From being the Lord of angels, He has stooped to be "a Man of Sorrows
and acquainted with grief." Yes, He has come. And not in vain. Those
who preached the coming Savior had such a joyous message to deliver
that their feet were beautiful upon the mountains and their voices were
as heavenly music.
But as for us who preach that He has come, and coming He has finished
the work which He undertook to perform– surely ours is the choicest of
messages. Our Lord Jesus has completed the atoning sacrifice and the
justifying righteousness by which lost men are saved–happy is the
preacher of such tidings and blessed are your ears that hear them! The
Good Shepherd has performed all that is necessary for the salvation of
the flock which His Father has given into his Hands. Beloved, let us
take heart. Lost as we are, Christ has come to save us. He has come to
the place of our ruin and woe. His coming and seeking will not be in
vain. Brothers and Sisters, how greatly ought we to value the souls of
men when Jesus, for their sake, becomes Man and comes into this sinful
world among our guilty race that He may work the salvation of the lost!
Note here that He does this for those that are still straying. I have
marked, in looking at the Greek text, that it is written, "He seeks
that which goes astray." The Shepherd seeks while the sheep
strays–seeks it because it strays and needs seeking. Full many of the
Lord's redeemed are even now going astray and even now is the Shepherd
going after them. The Savior seeks those who are even now sinning. That
He should have a love to those who are repenting I can well understand.
But that He should care for those who are willfully going astray is far
more gracious. Jesus seeks those whose backs are towards Him, who are
going further and further away from the fold. Herein is Divine Grace
most free, most full, most sovereign.
Indeed, it is so. Though you harden yourself against the Lord, though
you refuse to turn at His rebuke, yet if you are His redeemed, His eyes
of love mark you. In all your willful wanderings He follows you. He
sees you, He seeks you! Oh that you may yield, by His Grace, and find
that He saves you! O you that are now in the flock, think of the love
of Christ to you when you were outside the fold. When you had no wish
to return. When, seeing Him pursuing you, you only ran faster to escape
His almighty love! Let us sing together–
"Determined to save, He watched over my path, When, Satan's blind
slave, I sported with death."
Notwithstanding all my rebellion and all my willful transgression, He
still loved me with His heart and pursued me with His Word. Oh, how we
ought to love sinners, since Jesus loved us and died for us while we
were yet sinners! We must care for drunkards while they still pass
round the cup. Swearers even while we hear them swear. And profligates
while we mourn to see them polluting our midnight streets. We must not
wait till we see some better thing in them, but feel an intense
interest for them as what they are–straying and lost. When the sheep
is torn with the thorns of the waste places and is sick and worn to
skin and bones with long wanderings and hunger, we must seek its
restoration–though we see in it no desire to submit itself to the
Shepherd's care and rule. Such was our Savior's love to us–such must
be our love to lost ones.
The Shepherd takes a peculiar interest in the lost–not only as now
straying–but as having already gone very far away. Carefully consider
these words–"If he should find it." That "if tells its own tale.
The sheep had become so terribly lost that it was not likely to be
found again–it had wandered into so dense a thicket, or strayed into
so wild a region that it seemed scarcely within the bounds of hope that
it would ever be discovered and brought back. We do not often meet with
an "if" in reference to the work of Christ. But here is one–"If he
should find it." This does not show weakness in the Shepherd but the
desperate danger of the sheep. I have often heard it said by those who
come to confess Christ and to acknowledge His love to them, that they
are struck with wonder that they, above all others, should be doing any
such thing. When we sit at the Lord's Table the feast is very
wonderful. But the greatest wonder is the guest, when I am there. How
humbly do we each one sing–
"Why was I made to hear Your voice, And enter where there's room, When
thousands make a wretched choice, And rather starve than come?" But it
is so. The Good Shepherd is today seeking many whose salvation seems
highly improbable if not utterly impossible. Herein is love that He
should go after those whose finding is by no means a certainty, nor
even a probability! Very improbable, almost impossible, is the task He
undertakes! Yet in such He takes a deep interest.
Moreover, those toward whom our Lord has these thoughts of love have
often sinned so as to have brought themselves into the deadliest
danger. "For the Son of Man is come to save that which was lost."
Saving implies ruin, peril, jeopardy–yes, destruction already in a
measure present. Are not many now playing with the fire of Hell? What
is that unquenchable fire, but sin, in its nature and results? Men are
trifling on the brink of eternal woe–"Their foot shall slide in due
time." Playing with edged tools is nothing in danger compared with
sporting with your lusts. And many are doing so.
Yet, despite their danger, Jesus seeks them. Do you see those sheep
heedlessly feeding near the den of the wolf? In a little while the
monster will devour them. They are far away from home and rest and
safety. They have no desire to return. But they are resolved to roam
yet further from the fold. The Lord Jesus comes after such desperately
deluded ones. Until you pass the iron gate the Gospel will invite you
to return. If you are but one inch this side of Hell, love will pursue
you and mercy will follow you. Our glorious David, while a lamb still
lives, is able to rescue it from the jaws of the lion and the paws of
the bear. Though, like Jonah, a soul may have descended into the deeps
and may lie out of all human reach, yet a word from Jesus can bring it
up from the lowest pit. Glory be to the blessed name of the Almighty
Savior, He is able to save to the uttermost–His power to save the lost
is such that none are too vile for His salvation!
If we rightly consider the parable before us, we shall see that He
takes a special interest in these stray sheep because they are His own.
This man did not go after wild beasts, nor after other men's sheep. But
he had a hundred sheep of his own and when he had counted them, he
missed one. The hireling, whose own the sheep are not, would have said,
"We have nearly the hundred–we need not be particular about an odd
one." But these hundred sheep belonged to the Shepherd Himself. They
were His own by choice, by inheritance, by Divine gift, by glorious
capture and by costly purchase. He could not accept ninety and nine for
a hundred. "None of them is lost," says He. "Those that You gave Me, I
have kept, and none of them is lost but the son of perdition. That the
Scripture might be fulfilled."
Jesus could not endure to report a loss upon the flock handed over to
Him of the Father. Ninety-nine is not a hundred, and the Savior will
not consider it such. For well He knows that, "it is not the will of
your Father which is in Heaven, that one of these little ones should
perish." Dear Friends, since Jesus takes such an interest even in one
stray soul, you must not think it little that you should be called to
care for a single soul. Do not think that a little congregation of
forty or fifty is too few to be worthy of your best efforts. Should
your class, through various circumstances, get down to a very small
number, do not, therefore, give it up.
No, no! Value one soul more than a world's purchase. The full company
of the redeemed is far from being made up as yet and the Lord has much
people in this city not yet brought to His feet. Therefore, never dream
of ceasing your labors. Rest not till the hour shall come–
"When all the chosen race Shall meet around the Throne; Shall bless the
conduct of His Grace, And make His glories known."
II. Secondly, may the Spirit of God help me while I remind you that OUR
LORD PUT FORTH SPECIAL
EXERTION TO SAVE ONE SOLITARY INDIVIDUAL.
Observe in the parable–for it is a parable, though briefly told–that
we see the Shepherd leaving happier cares. He felt himself at home with
His attached and faithful flock. They had not gone astray and they
gathered about Him and He fed them and took pleasure in them. There is
always a great deal to do with sheep–they have many diseases, many
weaknesses, many needs. But when you have an attached, affectionate
flock about you, you feel at home with them. So the Great Shepherd
describes Himself as leaving the ninety and nine, His choice flock–the
sheep that had fellowship with Him and He with them.
Yes, he leaves those in whom He could take pleasure to seek one that
gave Him pain. I will not dwell upon how He left the Paradise above and
all the joy of His Father's house and came to this bleak world. But I
pray you remember that He did so. It was a wonderful descent when He
came from beyond the stars to dwell on this beclouded globe to redeem
the sons of men. But, remember, He still continually comes by His
Spirit. His errands of mercy are perpetual. The Spirit of God moves His
ministers who are Christ's representatives, to forego the feeding of
the gathered flock and to seek, in their discourses, the salvation of
the wandering ones in whose character and behavior there is nothing to
cheer.
My Master's heart is full of care for all that love Him. He wears their
names engraved on the jewels of His breastplate. But yet His heart is
always going forth afar–after those who have not yet been brought to
Him. And after those who once were in His fold but have gone aside and
quit the flock. He leaves the happy and the holy and gives His best
thoughts to the lost.
Our Lord goes out to seek these. It is not merely a sending forth of
thought–it is a marching forth of power. His Divine Grace is going
forth, I trust, this day beyond the company whom He has called by His
Grace, to those other sheep who are not yet of His fold, whom also He
must bring in. He would not have His Church expend all her care on the
flock which He has led into her green pastures but He would have her go
after those who are not yet in her blest society.
According to the text, the Shepherd goes into the mountains–among
difficulties and dangers. He will do and dare for the saving of the
lost–no hardships can daunt His mighty love. You know through what
dark ravines He passed in saving men. You have heard what climbing He
had after proud souls and what condescension for despairing ones. A
sheep in the East is more light of foot than our sheep. It will leap
like a gazelle and climb the mountains like a chamois. And so are
sinners very swift in transgression and very daring in presumption.
They leap in their iniquities where the children of God would shudder
to follow them even in thought. They make nothing of leaps of profanity
which would curdle the blood of him that has been taught the fear of
God at the feet of Jesus Christ.
Yet the Lord Jesus went after these desperadoes. What difficulties He
conquered, what sufferings He endured, what mountains He leaped
over–that He might seek and save! O Brethren, the same heart is in Him
still–He goes forth continually in the preaching of the Word. With
many a sigh and many a groan on the part of His chosen ministers, He
goes among the mountains to seek that which has gone astray. I pray
that He may accept the effort of His unworthy servant this day and
bring some lost one home by means of this sermon.
To show His exertion for the lost, our Lord describes Himself as
seeking with persevering diligence. He looks this way but sees nothing.
He shades His eyes with His hand and looks steadily! He thought He saw
His sheep. There is surely
a living object upon the hillside! He gazes intently. No, it does not
stir–it is a white rock! Possibly the lost sheep is in yonder gully!
It is a long way to go but He is so intent on His purpose that He is
soon there. But the sheep is not to be seen. Where can it be? He
travels on with swift foot, for He does not know what may become of His
sheep while He delays. Every now and then He stops–He thinks He hears
a bleating. Surely it is the voice of His sheep! He is mistaken. His
love makes His ear the father of sounds which are not sounds at all. He
has neither seen nor heard it these long hours.
But He will continue seeking till He finds it. The concentrated
omniscience of Christ is set upon a soul that goes astray, looking
after it in all its evil desires and evil emotions–watching the growth
of anything that looks like repentance–and observing with sorrow the
hardening of its heart. This is what our Lord is doing for those
redeemed with His blood, who as yet have not been carried back to the
fold. He puts forth a gracious exertion of eye and mind as well as of
foot and hand towards His wandering sheep.
At the last He saves–completely saves. He has not come to make the
salvation of His people possible. But to save them. He has not come to
put them in the way of saving themselves but to save them. He has not
come to half-save them. But to save them altogether. When my Lord comes
forth in the majesty of His Sovereign Grace to save a soul, He achieves
His purpose, despite sin and death and Hell. The wolf may grind his
teeth but the Shepherd is the wolfs Master. The sheep itself may, for a
long time, have wandered and at the last may struggle against Him. But
He grips its feet and throws the creature on His shoulders and bears it
home. For He is resolved to save it. The sheep is glad to be so borne,
for with a touch the Shepherd molds its will to His more perfect will.
His Grace is the triumphant energy by which the lost one is restored.
The salvation of a single soul is a mass of miracles. I have heard of a
fire which consumed the shop of a jeweler and a number of costly
treasures of gold and silver and precious stones were found among the
ruins, caked into a conglomerate of riches. What a salvage! Such is the
salvation of a single man–it is a mass of priceless mercies melted
into one inestimable ingot–dedicated to the praise of the glory of His
Grace who makes us to be "accepted in the Beloved" and "saved in the
Lord with an everlasting salvation." When I think of the energy which
is put forth by the Lord to save a single lost soul I feel stirred in
my heart and I desire that your hearts should be stirred also–that we
may put forth all our strength to go and find the Lord's lost ones. Let
us co-operate with Him in His great labor of seeking that which is
lost, Oh, that the Holy Spirit may put such a spirit within us and keep
it there!
III. I am compelled to pass onward somewhat hurriedly. Notice, in the
third place, that our Lord FEELS A
SPECIAL REJOICING AT THE RECOVERY OF A WANDERING SHEEP. Do not make a
mistake here. Do not
suppose that our Lord loves the one soul that has wandered more than
the ninety and nine who have been preserved by His Grace from going
astray. Oh, no! He thinks ninety-nine times more of ninety-nine than of
one. For His sheep are each one equally precious to Him. We must not
suppose that He looks upon any one soul of His redeemed with a
tenderness ninety-nine times greater than He gives to another.
But you will see the meaning of the passage by an illustration from
your own experience. You have a family and you love all your children
alike. But little Johnny is very ill. He has a fever and is likely to
die–now you think more of him than of all the rest. He recovers and
you bring him downstairs in your arms and just then he is the dearest
child of the whole company. Not that he is really more valued than his
brothers and sisters, but the fact that he has been so ill and was
likely to die has brought him more before your mind and caused you more
anxiety. Therefore you have more joy in him because of his recovery.
The great deeps of Christ's love are the same to all His flock, but on
the surface there is sometimes a holy storm of joy when any one of them
has been newly restored after wandering. Learn the occasion of this
demonstrative joy. The wandering one has caused great sorrow. We were
all grieved that our Brother should become a gross backslider–that
such an earnest Christian as he seemed to be–should disgrace his
profession. Our Lord is still more grieved than we are. When the erring
one comes back we feel a new joy in him. In proportion to the sorrow
felt over the wanderer is the joy manifested when he is restored.
Moreover, great apprehensions were aroused. We feared that he was not
the Lord's and that he would go back unto perdition. We trembled for
him. That black dread is all over now–the sheep is safe–the doubtful
one is saved and restored to the fold. In proportion to the weight of
the apprehension is the intensity of the relief.
The Shepherd had exercised, also, great labor over the lost one. He
went up among the mountains to find His sheep. But now His labor is
fully rewarded, for He has found His lost sheep. He remembers no more
His travel and travail for joy that the sheep is safe. Besides, in this
newly-restored one, there are marks of salvation which cause joy. He
has been torn with the briars but he is resting now. See how he lies
down in the tender grass! He was weary and worn and almost dead with
his wanderings. But now, how happy he is in the presence of his
Shepherd! How closely he keeps to his Shepherd's footsteps! All this
goes to make the shepherd glad!
The Shepherd rejoices when He brings back the lost sheep because He
makes that rescue an occasion and opportunity for having a special gala
day. He wishes all His sheep to learn His delight in them all by seeing
His delight in one. I know it is so in the Church. I bless the Lord
when He keeps the feet of His saints–I bless Him every day for
preserving Grace. But when some grievous wanderer is restored–then we
bless Him more emphatically. Then we have music and dancing. The elder
Brother wonders what these overflowing joys can mean–but everybody
else can see good reason for special mirth when the lost one is found.
Shepherds and their flocks cannot have holiday every day. But when a
lost one has been recovered, they feel such mutual delight in each
other and such a common delight in the saving of the lost that they
seize upon the occasion for rejoicing. I want you all to recognize
that. If you love the Church of Christ you are bound to keep a feast
day when fallen ones are raised up. And that you may hold that
festival, you are bound to put out all your strength to bring in the
lost one.
IV. Now we come to the tug-of-war, that is, to look upon our Divine
Shepherd as HE SETS US A STRIKING
EXAMPLE.
We may view this text as our personal missionary warrant. Today we are
called upon to think of missions. And as I think it idle to preach
about missions in a big high-flying style. I have purposed to say
something commonplace but practical. Brethren, we are all of us to be
missionaries for Christ and the text presents a warrant for each one to
work earnestly as a soul-winner.
What shall we do, then, to imitate our Lord? The answer is–Let us go
after one soul. I cannot make a selection for you this morning, but I
entreat all who are workers together with God to go after the ones.
There is a kind of knack in speaking to individuals–everybody does not
possess it. But every Believer should labor to acquire it. Seek the
souls of men one by one. It is far easier work to me to speak to you
all than it would be to take each one and speak to him personally of
his soul. And yet such speaking to you one by one might be more
successful than this sermon to you in the mass. I entreat you–as the
great Shepherd goes after one, do not think you will demean yourself by
going after one poor man, or woman, or child. But do it now.
Listen again–let that one be somebody that is quite out of the way.
Try and think of one who has grievously gone astray. It may be there is
one such in your family, or you meet with one such in the course of
trade. Think carefully of that one soul and reflect upon its sin and
danger. You would like to pick out a hopeful case, in order that you
might feel sure of success. Take another course this time–seek the one
which is going astray and seems hopeless. Follow your Lord's example
and go after one who is the least likely to be found. Will you try this
plan? If you do not, you will be quitting the way of your Lord.
"I have a class and a work," one says. Yes. I want you for a little
while to leave the ninety and nine. I pray that you may feel called to
look after some one greatly depraved person, or some utterly neglected
child. Keep up your ninety-and-nine class, if you possibly can, but at
all hazards, go after the one. Make an unusual effort–go out of your
way. Let ordinary service be placed second for the time being. It will
be a healthy change for you and perhaps, a great relief. Perhaps you
will come back and do more good with the ninety and nine after you have
been away a little while with the straying one. You are getting a
little moldy. And you are just a wee tired of the monotony of your
work.
Every Sunday the same girls, or the same boys and the same form of
lesson. Well, cut the whole concern for a little and go after the one
sheep that has gone astray. "You are giving us odd advice, Mr.
Spurgeon." If it is not in my text, then do not follow it. But if it is
in our dear Master's words, I trust you will carry it out bravely. When
you go after that ONE, have all your wits about you. Go and seek–and
that you cannot do unless you are alert. Follow up the straying one.
Did you say that you would wait till he called at your house? Is that
your notion of seeking lost sheep? Is that the
way of sportsmen in the autumn? Do they sit in the drawing room till
the pheasants fly by the window? That would be poor sport–
"O come, let us go and find them, In the paths of death they roam."
Go after them, for so our Shepherd did. He braved the mountain's
slippery side. I do not suppose the Shepherd had any greater love for
mountain tracks than you have. But up the rough tracks He climbed, for
the sheep's sake. Go after sinners into their poverty and wretchedness,
until you find them.
Here is one thing to cheer you. If you should win such a soul as that,
you will have more joy, a great deal more than in saving those for whom
you regularly labor–more joy over that lost one than over the ninety
and nine hopeful ones. It will be such a support to your faith, such a
boost for your joy, such a bright light to your labor to have won such
a guilty one. I should not wonder but what you will talk about it for
many a day and it will be a source of strength to you when things are
not quite as you would desire. Such converts are our crown of
rejoicing. May I especially recommend that you make a trial of this
extra sheep-seeking? If you do not succeed you will have done no harm.
For you will have copied your Lord and Master. But you will succeed,
for He is with you, and His Spirit works through you.
I would remind you that even under the old Law, you would be bound to
do this thing. Turn to the twenty-third chapter of Exodus and read the
fourth and fifth verses. "If you meet your enemy's ox or his ass going
astray, you shall surely bring it back to him again. If you see the ass
of him that hates you lying under his burden and would forbear to help
him, you shall surely help with him." You are bound to do good even to
your enemy. Will you not serve your best friend? If your enemy's ox or
ass needed to be taken back to him, you are bound to do it. How much
more when the sheep belongs to Him whom you love with all your heart!
Prove your love to Jesus by laboring to take Him back His strays!
Turn to the twenty-second of Deuteronomy, first to fourth verses, and
there you will find another bit of the Law. "You shall not see your
brother's ox or his sheep go astray and hide yourself from them: you
shall in any case bring them again unto your brother." Oh, will you not
bring in the stray sheep of your greater Brother, "the First-born among
many Brethren"? "And if your brother is not near unto you, or if you
know him not, then you shall bring it unto your own house and it shall
be with you until your brother seeks after it and you shall restore it
to him again."
If you cannot get a soul to Christ, at any rate get it to yourself. If
you cannot lead it immediately to conversion, show it some hospitality
within your own doors by ministering such comfort as you can. Do what
you can to cheer the poor heart till Christ comes after it. "You shall
not see your brother's ass or his ox fall down by the way and hide
yourself from them: you shall surely help him to lift them up again."
How easy it is to hide ourselves! That is the expression used by
Moses–"you shall not hide yourself from them." When you know that
people are very wicked, the usual plan is to wish them well but keep
out of their way. Prudence makes you hide yourself from them. The whole
street may swarm with harlots, but then you have gone to bed and the
door is shut. What has their sin to do with you? There are many drunken
men about. But you do not drink to excess–what has their drinking to
do with you? That is what is meant by hiding ourselves from them. How
easily that can be done!
Take an illustration which is worth the telling. A vessel, the other
day, was crossing the Atlantic and it fell in with that disabled
emigrant ship, The Danmark. Suppose the captain had kept on his course.
He might have looked another way and resolved not to be detained. He
might have argued, "I am bound to do the best for my owners. It will
hinder me greatly if I go pottering about after this vessel. I had
better go by and not see it. Or make haste to port and send out
help."
It could have been done and nobody would have been the wiser, for the
ship would have gone down soon. The captain of that vessel was a man of
a nobler breed. He did not hide himself, nor turn the blind eye towards
the vessel in distress. But what did the captain do? All honor to him,
he came near and took the ship in tow. This was not all–he found that
she could not keep afloat and he resolved to take those hundreds of
emigrants on board his own ship. But he could not carry them and his
cargo, too. What then?
The decision was greatly to his honor. Overboard goes the cargo! God's
blessing rest on the man! Into the sea went the freight, and the
passengers were taken on board and carried to the nearest port. He
could have easily hidden himself, could he not? So can you, you
Christian people, as you call yourselves. Can you go through this world
and always have a blind eye to the case of lost sinners? Can you come
in and out of this Tabernacle and never speak to the strangers who
throng these aisles? Will you let them go to Hell unwarned and
uninstructed? Can you hide yourselves from them? How dare you call
yourselves Christians! How will you answer for it at last? Brothers,
Sisters–let us shake off this inhuman indifference and deny ourselves
rest, ease, credit–that we may save poor sinking souls. Overboard with
cargo cheerfully that you may, in the power of the Holy Spirit, save
souls from death.
Once more–this text is the great missionary warrant for all the Church
of God. We are to go, as the Savior did, to seek and to save that which
was lost. And we are to do this not on account of the numbers of the
heathen but for one of them. I grant you there is a great power in the
argument of numbers–so many hundreds of millions in China–so many
hundreds of millions in India. But if there were only one person left
unsaved in any part of the world it would be worth while for the entire
Christian Church to go after that one person! For He who is greater
than the Church, as the Bridegroom is greater than the bride, quit
Heaven–yes and quit the sweet society of His own Beloved that He might
go after the ONE that had gone astray.
Do not care, therefore, about numbers–save the smallest tribes. Have
an eye to the hamlets in England. I believe that the scattered cottages
of our land are in a worse condition than the villages. Care for the
ones. Your Lord did so, and here is your warrant for doing the like.
Next, notice that we ought never to be moved by the supposed
superiority of a race. I have heard it said that it would be far better
to try and convert the superior races than to consider the more
degraded. Is it not better to bring in the educated Brahmins than the
wild hill-tribes? "What a fine sort of people these are, these
philosophical Hindus! If we could win them they would be worth
converting!" That is not at all according to the mind of Christ. The
Shepherd sought a lost sheep and when He had found it, it was no great
spoil for Him for it was so worn out as to be nothing but a destroyed
sheep. Yet He went after that one poor animal. Let us feel that the
degraded Africans, the dwarfs of the woods, the cannibals of New Guinea
and all such are to be sought quite as much as more advanced races.
They are men. That is enough.
Once more–the motive for missionary enterprise must never be the
excellence of the character of the individuals. The shepherd did not go
after the sheep because it never went astray nor because it was
docile–but because it did go astray and was not docile. The sin of men
is their claim upon the Church of God. The more sin, the more reason
for Divine Grace. Oh that the Church would feel it to be her duty, if
not to go to the most degraded first, yet not to leave them to the
last! Where you seem least likely to succeed, there go at once–for
there you will find room for faith. And where there is room for faith,
and faith fills the room, God will send a blessing.
Dear friends, as you cannot, all of you, go abroad to the
heathen–though some of you ought to do so–I ask you to do what you
can do. Contribute to the collection which is for the support of
mission work. Here is a small opportunity. And if you do not avail
yourselves of it, you are not likely to do the greater thing to which I
have invited you. The Lord bless you! Amen.