What Jesus Would Do
(No. 2630)
A SERMON INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, JULY 9, 1899.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, APRIL
16, 1882.
"How often would I have gathered your children together, even as a hen
gathers her chickens under her wings, and you would not!" Matthew
23:37.
THE theologians have met each other around this text as on a field of
battle. They have contended, controverted and dragged the text about as
if it were a wild beast which they would tear limb from limb. And yet,
if you will look through the letter of it, and come to its inner
spirit, you will see that it is not strange that Jesus should have
uttered it. It would have been much more marvelous if he had not spoken
thus, and it would have been a terrible crux in all theology if we had
read here, "I never would have gathered your children together even if
they had been willing to be gathered." That would have been a thing
hard to be understood, indeed! And it would have presented a greater
difficulty than any which can be found in our text.
I have long been content to take God's Word just as I find it and when,
at any time, I have been accused of contradicting myself through
keeping to my text, I have always felt perfectly safe about that
matter. The last thing I care about is being consistent with myself!
Why should I be anxious about that? I would rather be consistent with
Christ 50 times over, or be consistent with the Word of God! But as to
being forever consistent with oneself, it might turn out that one was
consistently wrong, consistently narrow-minded and consistently
unwilling to believe what God would teach. So we will take the text
just as we find it and it seems to say to me that if Jerusalem was not
saved–if her children were not gathered together in safety as a brood
of chickens is gathered beneath the hen–if Christ did not gather them
and protect them, it was not because there was any unwillingness on His
part. There was always a willingness in His heart to bless Jerusalem
and, therefore, He could truly say, "How often would I have gathered
your children together, even as a hen gathers her chickens under her
wings!" From this utterance of our Lord, I learn that if any man is not
saved, the cause of his non-salvation does not lie in any lack of
graciousness or want of willingness on the part of God! They who dare
to say that it does, venture very far, and are very audacious in their
assertions. This text says the very opposite–and so far as it is
applicable to the sons of men in general, it declares that God wills
not the death of any, but desires that they should turn unto Him and
live.
The next Truth of God that I learn from this passage is that if
Jerusalem perished–as it didperish in a most awful manner–it was
because it would not be saved. It was often invited, persuaded,
exhorted, warned and threatened. Prophet succeeded Prophet. Tribulation
followed tribulation. The rod of God came as well as the Word of God,
but Jerusalem was exceedingly wicked and its people were
stiff-necked–they would not have the blessing with which prophetic
hands dripped! And even when Christ, Himself, came, the loveliest and
the lowliest, the most tender and the truest, bringing to them love and
mercy without stint–and when He spoke as never man spoke, in notes of
warning, yet wooing love–they still would not listen to Him. But they
took Him and, with wicked hands, they crucified Him! It was their own
rebellious will that ruined them. They would not come to Him that they
might have life. There is where the guilt lies and, when sinners go to
Hell it is because they will to go there! When they are condemned by
the Judge who must do right, it is because they willedto pursue the sin
which entailed condemnation! If they have not obtained mercy, their
ruin shall lie at the door of their own wicked will! This shall be the
thunder which shall pursue them through all the caverns of
Hell–"You would not! You would not! You would not! On your own head
must the guilt of your condemnation fall! You would not have eternal
life–you willfully put it from you and refused it!"
Now, there, or somewhere about there–I do not quite know where–there
is a great doctrinal difficulty, but I do not think you or I need go
fishing for it. If there is a bone in the meat, I do not ask to have it
put on my plate. And if there is a bone in this text, let any dog that
likes have it! As for us, there is the meat on which our soul may feed,
the Truth that God lays at man's own door the guilt of his destruction!
And Christ puts it thus, "I would, but you would not." I have, at this
time, the pleasant task laid upon me of pointing out to you that what
Christ would have done for the Jews, but which they would not accept, I
am sure He would have done for us. No, I will go further and say that I
am sure He is willing to do it for us right now! And so, remembering
the past a little, I want you to dwell still more upon the present and
to notice that, at this moment, Jesus is willing to gather us–to
gather the children of this city together–as a hen gathers her
chickens under her wings! Oh, I trust I may not have to say, "And you
would not," but may the sweet Spirit of God be here to move the
untoward and wicked wills of men till it shall be said, "Christ is
willing to gather you, and you are willing to be gathered." When those
two things come together, great blessing must result! I have read what
astronomers have said about what would happen if two planets were in
conjunction. I know nothing about that matter, but this I doknow–when
these two thingscome into conjunction–when Christ would, and we
would–there will be blessed times for us, peaceful days of which we
have never dreamed! May the Spirit of God make it to be so even now!
Now coming to the text, let us consider, first, what Jesus would do.
Secondly, how He would do it And thirdly, when He would do it
I. First, WHAT JESUS WOULD DO. "How often would I have gathered your
children together, even as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings!"
What does this mean? It is a very simple, homely, beautiful, touching
simile–the hen gathering her chickens under her wings. And it means,
first, that Jesus would make you feel quite safe. Look, there is the
shadow of a hawk! The bird of prey is poised up yonder and the shadow
is seen upon the ground. Or the mother hen, looking up, notices the
destroyer and, in a moment, she gives a cluck of alarm and so calls
together her little family. And in a few seconds they are all safe
beneath her sheltering feathers–her wings become their efficient
shield. Now, our Lord Jesus Christ would do just that with us. He would
make us quite safe–take us out of the broad road of danger and then
compass us about with the wings of His power so that we might not only
be safe, but also feel quite safe.
I suppose nothing feels safer than a little chick beneath the hen. That
tiny creature has no gauge and measure of strength beyond its own
weakness, so it reckons its mother to be incalculably strong and feels
perfectly safe when it can hide its head within her breast feathers.
Ah, but there are some of you who do not feel safe. You have never felt
secure. Death is truly the king of terrors to you. You do not like to
hear people talk about it and if you are ill, how quickly you send for
the doctor–not because you have the symptoms of any very serious
illness, but because you are afraid to die! Why, there are some of you
so afraid that you hardly like to be left in a room in the dark–and
you would scarcely dare to go upstairs without a candle! You are not
afraid from mere natural timidity, but because you know that there is
something that follows death for which you are not prepared! Things are
out of order between you and God, and you know it. So the fall of a
leaf, or the scratching of a mouse would disturb your mind, for you
know that you are not in a state of safety.
You could not bear to be at sea in a storm. The thought of shipwreck
would have about it not only the natural terror which is inseparable
from such an alarming event, but also the dread that the waves of fire
might succeed the waves of the ocean! You are not safe even in your
highest joys–a skeleton sits at the feast, for your pleasures are
transient and you know it. When, easygoing man as you are, you have
your greatest delight in earthly things, you are still conscious that
there is a worm in the very center of the sweetest fruit and you are
afraid of the consequences of eating it. Oh, but Jesus would have you
spared from all this anxiety! He would have you covered so completely
that you would not have known fear! He would have you brought into the
enjoyment of that "perfect love" which "casts out fear: because fear
has torment." He would have you made to be among the blessed ones of
whom it is written, "He shall cover you with His feathers and under His
wings shall you trust. His truth shall be your shield and buckler." And
He is willing that this should be the case–that you, poor trembler,
should come to Him, now, and feel no longer in jeopardy, but be safe
forever!
That hymn with which we commenced the service–
"Jesus, lover of my soul"–
is an exact reflex of what Christ is willing to bestow upon all who
come to Him. He is willing to clasp to His bosom all who flee to Him
for refuge. He is willing to take into the haven of perfect security
the tempest-tossed vessel. He is willing to hide, as in the cleft of
the rook, the sin and Satan-haunted spirit! It is so, dear Friends! I
know it is so, for I have proved it! Look into the eyes, into the heart
and into the wounds of Jesus, and you will know that there is no
unwillingness in Him to give perfect safety to the souls that trust
Him! He would make them to be in safety, "even as a hen gathers her
chickens under her wings."
But now I will go a step further and say that Jesus would also make
them feel perfectly happy Chicks under a hen are not only the picture
of safety, but they are the very emblem of happiness. Did you ever
disturb them a little? If so, did you not notice the sweet little
noises they made–the very sound of perfect contentment! If you have
ever watched them as they stand, there, huddled together, you must have
seen that it is their little paradise! They could not have been happier
in the Garden of Eden than they are there, they are so blest. Beneath
their mother's wings they have all that they can desire and, during the
whole night, let it be what it may–let it blow cold, or warm–there
they are perfectly safe and happy. Her heart is beating above them and
her breast is yielding the warmth of life to keep them glad.
I feel sure that I am addressing people who are not happy. The common
idea of happiness that many persons have is a very strange one. When
our London friends have a day's holiday, their notion of enjoying a
rest often amuses me. They pack themselves away, as tightly as they
can, inside and outside a van, or an omnibus, or a carriage–and then
they go as far as they can till the weary horse can scarcely move to
bring them home! And, all the while, to give rest to their ears and to
their hearts, somebody blows a trumpet in a fashion that evokes very
little music, and they riot all the day as if they were mad and disport
themselves as if London consisted of one huge Bethlehem Hospital–and
that is what they call happiness!
My view of happiness would be to get as far as I could away from them,
and to do the very reverse of what they are doing! These people talk
about "the place to spend a happy day," "the way to be happy" and so
on, but was ever a poor word so trailed in the dust as that word,
"happy," is in such a connection as that? But, oh, a peaceful,
contented mind that rests in God! A soul whose wishes are all fulfilled
and whose very life-breath is jubilant praise or else submissive
prayer–that is what I call happiness! The man who knows that all is
right with him for eternity, one who drinks from the eternal fountain
the joys which belong not to the brute beast, nor even to the man who
is without a God–I call him the happy man! And, oh, how happy some of
you would be if you came to Christ as the chicks come to the hen! Oh,
how happy Christ would make you! Wretched woman over yonder, this very
night you may be happy! Giant Despair has marked you for his own, you
say. Then I challenge Giant Despair and call him a liar! If you believe
in Christ, you shall find that He has redeemed you with His blood.
Trust Him and He will set you free at once–and in Him you shall be as
happy as the days are long at the longest and you shall know what true
joy means–emphatic joy–"the joy of the Lord," "the peace of God which
passes all understanding!"
I remind you of that other hymn we sang just now–
"Take salvation, Take it now, and happy be"–
not only safe, but happy! And safe and happy forever! I remember how I
was enticed to Christ when I heard the Doctrine of the Final
Perseverance of Saints preached. I had heard a great deal about that
kind of salvation which consists of being saved today and lost,
tomorrow, and I never cared a button for it–neither would I go across
the street to listen to it now! But I heard a salvation preached which
really saves a man–saves him eternally–and I felt that if I could get
a grip of thatsalvation, I would be the happiest individual in the
world! By God's Grace I did grip it and I found it truthful and fact,
for Christ does save–saves effectually and eternally–all them that
put their trust in Him. And even now, for the unsafe and for the
unhappy, Christ is waiting and willing that they may be both safe and
happy in Him!
But there is more bliss, even, than that, for Christ makes them part of
a blessed company. He says in our text, "How often would I have
gathered your children together, even as a hen gathers her chickens
under her wings!" It is not a hen with one chick to which our Savior
alludes! I suppose that the one chick might be happy, but the best
happiness in the world is always enjoyed in holy company. Christ gives
the idea of a Church as His notion of happiness–not one member only,
but a body of members! Not one lone sheep, but a flock! So here he
says, "How often would I have gathered your children together!" Am I
addressing some lonely person? You have been in London a long time and
you have found out that there is no place so lonely as this great
London is. I suppose that in the desert of Sahara, you might find a
friend, although in Cheapside you could not. Nobody seems to know
anybody here–that is to say, unless he has something to give away–and
then the number of cousins that a man has is something amazing! But if
you need anything, nobody knows you and even your so-called friends
forsake you! Perhaps somebody has come to the Tabernacle for a good
while and yet has been quite lonely. I am very sorry that it should
ever be and I know that there are some earnest souls here that try to
speak to strangers. But, oh, dear Friends, my Master would not have you
lonely! He would gather you with the rest of His children, "even as a
hen gathers her chickens under her wings." He would bring you to know a
few burdened spirits like yourself. He would bring you to know some
others that have been set free, as He will set you free! And He would
lead you to have fellowship here with one, and there with another, till
you would say with good Dr. Watts–
"In such society as this
My weary soul would rest–
The man that dwells where Jesus is,
Must be forever blessed!"
You would find that your joys would be multiplied by being shared with
your kindred in Christ who, on the other hand, would make you partakers
of their joy and would delight to do so! Oh, that you would come to
Christ, for then you would have the happiness of Christian fellowship!
It seems to me that there is also another thought in the text, that is,
Jesus would make us know His love. When the hen gathers her chickens
under her wings, there is not only safety, happiness and congenial
society, but there is also a consciousness of great love. The poor
little chickens do not understand much about it–they do not know what
relationship the hen bears to them, but shedoes. Yet they feel that she
loves them by the way she picks up every little grain for them and by
the way she calls them together so anxiously, and covers them so
carefully. It is a truly blessed experience to know a great love–the
love that is equal to our own–that blessed marriage love renders life
supremely happy where it is purely enjoyed. But how much more blessed
is it to have a love infinitely superiorto your own and yet to know
that it is all yours and that whatever there is in that loving One is
all for you! Every chick may feel sure that whatever the great bird can
do, it will all be done for the little bird that cowers beneath its
wings. In fact, the chicks are lost in the hen– look how she covers
them! That is what Jesus does to me and to you, if we are truly in
Him–He covers us up and hides us from all our enemies. They cannot see
us, for we are lost in our Lord and yet we are most sweetly found, and
put beyond the possibility of being lost! All that Jesus is belongs to
me, and to you, dear Sister, and to you, dear Brother. All Christ is
mine, and all Christ is yours! And as the hen gives herself up to her
chick and takes the chick, as it were, wholly to herself so that they
become one, so does the blessed Christ give Himself wholly to His
people–He takes His people wholly up into Himself, so that they are
truly one! Oh, that you all had this great blessing! And if you are
waiting and anxious and desirous to have it, He is willing to give it,
for so He says in the text, "How often would I have gathered your
children together, even as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings!"
That is what Jesus would do.
II. Now, very briefly, let us consider HOW HE WOULD DO IT.
He would do it, first, by calling you to come to Him. That is how the
hen gathers her chicks around her, by calling them to her. Christ's
call is often given by the preaching of the Gospel and I am truly glad
when I can be His call-boy and pass on the message from Him. How I wish
these lips had language conformable to the blessed call which He allows
me to deliver in His name! He bids me tell you, who labor and are heavy
laden, to come to Him, to come to Him, now, and He will give you rest.
He says, "Ho, every one that thirsts, come to the waters, and he that
has no money; come, buy, and eat; yes, come, buy wine and milk without
money and without price." He bids me expressly say that he that comes
to Him, He will in no wise cast out. And I am glad that before He
closed the Book of the Revelation, He put in this gracious message,
"Whoever will, let him take the Water of Life freely." That is how He
would gather you by His call–is it not a sweet and gracious one? If
you are His child, you will know it and come to Him, even as the chick
knows the mother's call and runs to her. There is a pigeon not far from
the hen, but it does not come at her call. There is a duck in the
farmyard, but it does not come to her. Ah, but the chicks do! And this
is how the Lord discerns His elect and redeemed people–that gracious
call of His is understood by those who secretly belong to Him and who,
therefore, respond to His call. He Himself said, "All that the Father
gives Me shall come to Me; and he that comes to Me, I will in no wise
cast out."
How would Jesus gather you to Him? Well, He would gather you, next, by
your coming at His call The hen gives a call and then the chicks run to
her. What do they bring with them when they come? Do they pick up gold
and silver, or bring diamonds in their mouths to pay their way to their
mother's bosom? No, not they! All they do is to run to her, just as
they are! Can you see them? The mother hen has called them and away
they go! They bring her nothing and she asks nothing of them. It is for
the hen to give to the chick–not for the chick to give to the hen! And
so, poor Sinner, all you have to do is to come and trust Jesus. Run to
Him! What shall you bring Him? Bring Him nothing but your need of
everything that He can give you! Shall you bring Him a broken heart?
Yes, if you have one, but if you have not, come to Him and ask Him to
give you a broken heart. Remember that verse of Hart's–
"Come, you needy, come and welcome,
God's free bounty glorify!
True belief and true repentance,
Every Grace that brings us nigh,
Withoutmoney,
Come to Jesus Christ and buy!"
So, then, this is Christ's way of gathering sinners to Himself. First,
He gives the call, and then they come to Him in obedience to it.
The next part of the gathering is the enclosure of His wing by which He
interposes between us and harm. The hen gathers her chicks to her by
brooding over them, making herself like a wall round about them, her
feathers being their soft nestling-place. So Jesus gathers us to Him by
brooding over us. He puts Himself between us and justice. You know when
He did it and how He suffered in doing it. He puts Himself between us
and God, for He is the Mediator, the Inter-poser, the Daysman acting on
our behalf. Oh, how sweet it is when, conscious of guilt and sin, we,
nevertheless, can realize the sweetness of that promise which I have
already quoted to you, "He shall cover you with His feathers, and under
His wings shall you trust." He shall Himself be your pavilion! He shall
hide you from the righteous wrath of God and put your sin away by
taking it upon Himself! That is the way we are gathered under the
interposing Mediator.
How does He gather us? You have it all before you now–He calls us, and
we come to Him and we hide beneath Him and cry–
"Cover my defenseless head With the shadow of Your wings."
That is how we are gathered to Him–may the Lord thus graciously gather
us all!
III. Our last remark, concerning our being gathered to Christ, is to be
WHEN HE WOULD DO IT. The text says, "How often would I have gathered
your children together!" I will not go into an account of the many
times in which Jesus, in His infinite love, would have gathered the
children of Jerusalem to Himself, but I should like to mention some
times when, I think, He would have gathered some of you.
He would have gathered you, first, when you were literally children. I
mean especially those of you who had early advantages. When you went to
bed, after mother had spoken to you about–
"Gentle Jesus, meek and mild," and given you the "good-night" kiss, you
would often lie awake and turn the subject over in your mind till the
tears coursed down your little cheeks and you sobbed yourself asleep. I
think Jesus would have gathered you then. Do not some of us recall,
when we were boys, when we spoke to an elder brother, or, maybe, to a
younger brother, and we two reasoned with one another about these
things– and prayed in our boyish fashion–and yet in a few days had
forgotten it all? I think Jesus would have gathered us to Him then.
In looking back over my own life, there seems to me to have been times
when the Lord came very near my childish spirit and touched me, if not
with Divine Life, yet with something very near akin to it, for there
were many earnest desires after holiness, bitter feelings of repentance
and mighty yearnings after the Christ of whom I knew so little, but for
whom I longed so much! Ah, my aged Friend, am I describing your case?
It is a long while since you were a boy, but you might almost wish you
could be a child again to feel as you once felt! Ah, good woman, it is
many a day since mother ran her fingers through your curls and said
that she hoped you would love her Savior! And you do not feel, now, as
you felt then. Those were certainly times when Jesus would have
gathered you to Himself.
Since then, I daresay many of you have had times of serious impression
and quiet thoughtfulness. You do not know why it was, but you suddenly
felt unusually thoughtful. It may be that you have been in the midst of
gaiety and you have felt that it was all hollow. You could not bear it,
so you got away and went upstairs, or into the garden, or you have even
walked the street as if nobody else were there but yourself. And you
have thought, and thought, and thought, again, and you have almost been
persuaded–but you have said to the Heavenly message, "Go your way for
this time. It is not yet convenient for me to receive you." Do you
think it will ever be convenient? Or is God to wait your convenience
and play the lackey at your door till your supreme will shall deign to
listen to His merciful requests? Ah, how often–how often would Jesus,
thus, by these solemn impressions, have gathered unto Himself some who
are here present!
It may be that I am coming a little more closely home to some when I
remind them that they have had periods of severe illness. At such times
you have lain in bed and listened to the tick of the clock on the bed
table and you have looked into eternity–and it has appeared very grim
and dark to you. And you have then sought the prayers of good men and
you have vowed that if you ever recovered, there should be no more
wasted years, Ah, then Christ would have gathered you to Himself and
the shadow of His sheltering wings darkened your sick-chamber! But you
would not yield and you escaped from Him, again, and yet again.
I think I may truthfully add that in this Tabernacle, sometimes, when
God has helped the preacher, there have been moments when you have been
brought to the very brink of salvation–and you have almost gone in.
You have had to put pressure upon your conscience to keep out of the
Pool of Mercy! You have had to resist the Holy Spirit. Oh, but it is a
dreadful thing when a man has done despite to the Spirit of God and
made himself an antagonist of that blessed Spirit, whom to resist is
perilous, for it is of Him that we read that there is a sin which is
unto death–and there is a sin against the Holy Spirit which shall
never be forgiven! I trust that none of you have yet committed that
sin! But mind what you are doing–mind what you are doing, for you are
in a most dangerous position! Somewhere in that region where you now
are lies the sin which ensures damnation! I charge you, Sirs, whatever
sin you commit, resist not the Holy Spirit, for, if you do, it may be
that it shall be said, "My Spirit shall no longer strive with that
man." And then, ah, then–I drop the curtain and say no more, for it is
too terrible to think of.
Oh, how I wish that this might be the time when Jesus would securely
cover you as the hen covers her chicks! Do you really desire this
blessing? I know you would not desire it if He did not desire it. If
there is a spark of desire towards Christ in your heart, there is a
whole flaming furnace of desire in Christ's heart towards you! You
never get the best of Him–long before you have gone half a boat's
length, you shall find Jesus Christ infinitely faster than you are! No
sinner can ever say that he stopped for Christ, or waited for Jesus. I
more willing than Christ? Never! A sinner more anxious for pardon than
Christ is willing to pardon him? Never! There was never seen and there
never shall be seen, beneath the cape of Heaven, a soul more hungry
after Christ than Christ is hungry after that soul! Long before the
woman of Samaria said to Christ, "Give me a drink," Christ had said to
her, "Give Me a drink." He was the more thirsty of the two, even when
He had made her thirsty! And He was thirsty after her soul long before
she was thirsty after the Water of Life!
O poor, guilty Sinner, do not doubt your welcome to Jesus! The gate of
salvation is flung wide open! The door is taken completely off the
hinges. "All things are ready, come!" Your Savior waits for you. The
Father waits for you. No, He does more–He comes to meet you! I see Him
running! Is it true that I see youcoming? Then what a spectacle is now
before me! I see you coming with feeble footsteps and I see Him running
faster than the angels fly! I see the Father falling on the neck of the
prodigal. I see Him kiss him and delight in him and cover him as if it
were the hen that covered her chick! I see Him delighting in deeds and
tokens of infinite love. "Bring forth the best robe and put it on him!
And put a ring on his finger and shoes on his feet, and bring here the
fatted calf, and kill it and let us eat and be merry; for this, my son,
was dead, and is alive again! He was lost, and is found!"
"Ring the bells of Heaven!" There is joy tonight, for a sinner has
found his Savior and God has found His child! God bless you, dear
Friends, for Christ's sake! Amen.
EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: LUKE 13:18-34.
Verse 18. Then said He, Unto what is the kingdom of God like? And unto
what shall I resemble it? For men learn much by resemblances and the
things which are seen are frequently helpful to us in seeking to set
forth the things which are not seen. Knowing that God is One in all
that He has done, we are often able to learn from one part of His works
to understand another. What, then, is God's Kingdom like? Is it like a
mighty army marching with banners and trumpets? No. Is it like the
raging sea, rolling onwards and sweeping everything before it? Not
so–at least it is not so visibly.
19. It is like a grain of mustard seed. You can hardly see it. You can,
however, taste it. Try it and you shall find it pungent enough, but it
is so small that you may easily pass it by. "It is like a grain of
mustard seed."
19. Which a man took and cast into his garden. I t must be sown in
prepared soil, but there is "a man" who knows how to cast it so that it
shall fall where it will live and where it will grow.
19. And it grew, and grew into a great tree; and the fowls of the air
lodged in the branches of it ' 'The fowls of the air" that might once
have eaten it, "lodged in the branches of it." See, in this parable, an
illustration of the growth of the Kingdom of God, the vitality of the
Truth of God, the energy with which, from a small beginning, God's
Kingdom advances to a great ending! Have you this mustard seed in your
heart? It may seem a very little thing even to yourself. Others may
scarcely perceive it, yet, but leave it alone and it will grow. Yet it
will not grow without watering. Seeds may lie long in the ground, but
they will not sprout until the rain has fallen to moisten the earth.
Pray God to send showers of blessing upon your soul, tonight, so that,
even if you have no more than a grain of mustard seed in your heart, it
may begin to grow!
Is the grain of mustard seed sending up its shoot above the ground?
Then pray God that it may grow yet more till it shall not only be
visible, but shall be so prominent that it must be seen–that those who
once hated it will be compelled to see it–and to wonder at it as they
behold the birds of the air coming and lodging in its branches! I pray
that in many hearts, here, the Grace of God may not long continue to be
a small thing, but that it may advance to tree-like stature till you
shall yield comfort to fifties and hundreds–and many of you shall be
like some of the trees in this great city and its suburbs. Did you ever
notice them, at nightfall, when all the sparrows of the street come and
lodge in the branches and merrily twitter before they go to sleep?
There are some Christians like those trees–they have hearts so big and
they do for Christ's service so much, that they harbor hundreds of poor
little birds of the air that otherwise would hardly know where to go
for shelter. God make us such Christians that we shall be a blessing to
multitudes all around us!
20, 21. And again He said, Unto what shall I liken the Kingdom of God?
It is like leaven which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal,
till the whole was leavened. Some expositors think that this is a
picture of the kingdom of the devil, but it does not say so. If our
Lord had meant to represent the power of evil, He would have given us
some intimation of that kind, but He has given us none. He means to
describe exactly what He had described before, for He says, "Unto what
shall I liken the Kingdom of God?" The leaven is buried, as it
were–"hid in three measures of meal." It is lost, covered up. Leave it
alone. By the force that is within itself, it begins to work its way in
the meal and it leavens all around it until, at last, the whole three
measures of meal are permeated by it and made to feel and acknowledge
its power. So is it with the Grace of God where it is placed within a
human heart–and so is it with the Kingdom of God wherever its
influence is exerted among the sons of men!
22, 23. And He went through the cities and villages, teaching, and
journeying toward Jerusalem. Then said one unto Him, Lord, are there
few that are saved?Oh, that question! Have you ever asked it? Have you
ever heard it asked? And there are some people who are very pleased
when the answer is, "Yes, very few, indeed, will be saved–and they all
go to Salem, or Zoar, or Rehoboth, or little Bethel." There are some
who are not quite certain whether all who go even therewill be
saved–they seem to delight to cut and pare down to the very lowest the
number of those who will be saved. With such a spirit as that, I trust
we do not sympathize for a moment! Certainly, our Lord does not! Listen
to His reply to the question, "Lord, are there few that are saved?"
23, 24. AndHe said unto them, Strive to enter in at the strait gate;
for many, Isay unto you, willseek to enter in, and shall not be able.
For your own part, take it for granted that there will be so few that
will enter that you will have to push to get through the gate–"Strive
to enter in at the narrow gate." If you are not narrow in your own
mind–and it is a pity that you should be–yet remember that the gate
into Heaven is narrow–and make up your mind that there is no getting
through it except with many a push and many a squeeze.
25, 26. When once the Master of the house is risen up, and has shut the
door, and you begin to stand outside, and to knock at the door, saying,
Lord, Lord, open unto us; and He shall answer and say unto you, I know
not who you are: then shall you begin to say, We have eaten and drunk
in Your Presence, and You have taught in our streets. See, there are
some men who will not think of going to Heaven till it is too late! And
then, when they get to Heaven's gate and find it shut, they will begin
to plead for admittance though they pleaded not for it before! When
they might have had the blessing, they would not have it. And when they
cannothave it, then they grow earnest in crying for it.
27, 28. But He shall say, I tell you, I know not who you are; depart
from Me, all you workers of iniquity. There shall be weeping and
gnashing of teeth, when you shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob,
and all the Prophets, in the Kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust
out. Ejected, violently driven away, as those who are abhorrent in
God's sight because you despised His mercy!
29-34. And they shall come from the east, and from the west, and from
the north, and from the south, and shall sit down in the Kingdom of
God. And, behold, there are last which shall be first, and there are
first which shall be last. The same day there came certain of the
Pharisees, saying unto Him, Get out, and depart from here, for Herod
will kill You. And He said unto them, Go and tell that fox, Behold, I
cast out devils, and I do cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I
shall be perfected. Nevertheless I must walk today, and tomorrow, and
the day following: for it cannot be that a Prophet perish outside of
Jerusalem. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which kills the Prophets, and stones
them that are sent unto you; how often would I have gathered your
children together, as a hen does gather her brood under her wings, and
you would not! What a terrible contrast! "I would…and you would not."
May the Lord Jesus never have to say that to any of us!