Good News for the Lost

A SERMON DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, MARCH 9, 1873,

BY REV. C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"For the Son of Man is come to seek and to sa ve that which was lost."
Luke 19:10.

THE promises of God are like stars, there is not one of them but has in
its turn guided tempest-tossed souls to their desired haven. But as
among the stars which stud the midnight sky there are constellations
which above all others attract the mariner's gaze and are helpful to
the steersman, so there are certain passages in Scripture which have
not only directed a few wise men to Jesus, but have been guiding stars
to myriads of simple minds who have, through their help, found the port
of peace. I could mention a number of texts this morning which I might
compare to the pointers of the Great Bear or to the Southern Cross
because they have directly pointed the penitent eye to Jesus, the Pole
Star, and by looking to Him, sinners have found "the way, the truth,
and the life."

This text is one of the notable stars, or rather, its words form a
wonderful constellation of Divine love, a very Pleiades of mercy. The
words and syllables seem to glisten to my eyes with a supernal
splendor. I bless God for every letter of this thrice blessed
text–"The Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost."
But as stars are of small service when the sky is all beclouded, or the
air dense with fog, so it may be even such a bright Gospel light as our
text will not yield comfort to souls surrounded with the clinging mists
of doubts and fears. In such times mariners cry for fair weather and
ask that they may be able to see the stars again.

So let us pray the Holy Spirit to sweep away, with His Divine wind, the
clouds of our unbelief and enable each earnest eye in the light of God
to see the light of peace. O that many awakened minds may find pardon
and eternal life in the Savior this morning! God grant that in answer
to the prayers now silently breathed by many, the blessing of salvation
may come to this House.

I. There are four things I shall try to set forth this morning for the
comfort of seeking sinners. The first is this–I would have all anxious
hearts consider HOW THE OBJECTS OF MERCY ARE HERE DESCRIBED–"The Son
of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost." I feel
inexpressibly grateful for this description–"that which was lost!"
There cannot be a case so bad as not to be comprehended in this word,
"lost." I am quite unable to imagine the condition of any man of woman
born so miserable as not to be contained within the circumference of
these four letters–

"lost."

The man may have gone to a perfect extravagance of vice. He may have
ruined himself body and soul. He may be upon the very verge of Hell and
feel as if he were slipping into the pit–but this word descends to the
lowest depth of his misery, for he is "lost." Here and there upon our
iron-bound coasts there are harbors of refuge, but, unfortunately, some
of them are only available for large vessels at certain times of the
tide. At high-water, a vessel of large tonnage may enter them and find
security, but if the tide runs out strongly, even though the harbor is
there, there is not enough water to enable vessels of great weight to
enter.

Behold, my text is a harbor of refuge available at all tides and even
at the lowest ebb the biggest ships of heaviest tonnage may enter here!
No matter, though the sinner should need a fathomless ocean of mercy to
boat in, there is depth enough for him here! If the wind is blowing
horribly this morning and the storms are out, and all the fiends out
with the storms, yet, if the tempest-tossed soul can but make sail for
this Divine Harbor–there is no sandbar at the mouth, no shallow water
in the channel–there is no fear of its being able to enter! This
harbor's mouth is exceedingly deep in mercy, for the text speaks of,
"that which was lost." Souls lost through sin and folly are sought and
saved by the Son of Man.

Let us consider how men are lost. We know, first, that they are lost by
nature. However much men may rebel against the doctrine, it is a truth
of Inspiration that we are lost even when we are born, and that the
word, "lost," has to do, not

only with those who have gone into sin grossly and wickedly, but even
with all mankind. Did you ever notice the other place where this text
occurs? It is in the 18th chapter of Matthew and the 11th verse, and it
occurs there in a very significant relationship. Let me read you the
words. Christ is speaking about little children, and He says, "Take
heed that you despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you,
That in Heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father
which is in Heaven. For the Son of Man is come to save that which was
lost."

The Lord had placed a little child in the midst of the disciples and
had declared that they must be converted and become as little children.
And yet He uttered these words in that connection. From that passage it
is clear that, by nature, little children are lost and they owe their
salvation to the Lord Jesus, when God is pleased to carry them to
Heaven in infancy. Jesus is come to seek and to save those who are lost
by nature–and it is most certain that no man now perishes through
Adam's sin, only, and no man is cast into Hell because of natural
depravity alone–his own personal sin and unbelief cast him there.

A far more terrible matter for us, practically, is this, that we are,
apart from Divine Grace, lost by our own actions. Our nature has
revealed itself in our character. Our inward inclinations have
developed themselves in our conduct and we have lost ourselves by our
own acts and deeds. We have erred and strayed from God's ways willfully
and wickedly like lost sheep–and now the word, "lost," belongs to us
by our own overt acts, as well as through Adam's Fall. And in addition
to that, we are lost because our actual sin and our natural depravity
have co-worked to produce in us an inability to restore ourselves from
our fallen condition. We are not only wanderers, but we have no will to
come home– we are prodigal sons, but we never say, "I will arise, and
go to my Father," until the Grace of God puts it into our hearts to do
so. We are like sheep which wander and wander and wander, but will
never, by any chance, return unless the Good Shepherd of souls shall
seek us.

If this world of ours could suddenly be left to itself, could forget
the centripetal force which holds it in alliance with the sun and could
set out upon a fearful journey into the darkness of far-off space–if
it should travel so far away that no longer could a single beam of
light reach it from the sun and it were altogether in darkness–it is
quite certain that it could never find the sun again, for who could
light a candle upon the earth wherewith we might search for the sun?
The sun can only be seen by its own light. Where upon earth would be
found the bands and cords with which to draw us back to the sun? The
world could only be drawn by an influence from the sun itself–the
central orb must give the motive power.

So, when a soul wanders from God, it has no light in it with which to
see God and no force in it to draw God to itself. God must enlighten
and draw the soul to Him. So that, in this three-fold sense, we are
lost by nature, by practice, and by an utter inability to find out our
God and to return to Him. Yet, terrible as this lost estate is, "The
Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost." In
addition to this, we are all lost by the condemnation which our sin has
brought upon us. We are sometimes told by inaccurate talkers that we
are in a state of probation. My Brothers and Sisters, nothing can be
more unscriptural than such a statement! We have long ago been proved
and found wanting. Our probation is over. We are now, if unrenewed, in
a state of condemnation!

The trial is not now pending–it is over and we are condemned, already,
for our sins. The fearful sentence of condemnation hangs over every man
here who has not believed in the Lord Jesus. The sinner is lost in that
sense. It is but a matter of time and that time in God's hands–and the
condemned man will be taken out to execution–and the punishment of
Divine wrath will fall upon his guilty head. We are lost because we are
under legal sentence and are unable to escape from it. We cannot make
atonement to God for the wrong we have done, nor avoid His righteous
jurisdiction. No mortifications of the body, no lamentations of the
spirit, can wipe out a single sin–

"Could my tears forever flow; Could my zeal no respite know: All for
sin could not atone, Christ must save, and Christ, alone." So that,
being before the bar of God regarded as condemned criminals,
unregenerate men are lost, indeed.

More than this, there are certain persons in the world who are lost in
a more apparent sense than others are–I mean that they are lost to
society, to respect and perhaps to decency. That was the case with
Zacchaeus, in connection with whom our text was spoken. I do not know
what may have been his parentage. Possibly he was born of most
reputable folk, but he showed a vicious mind and he turned aside from
the good old paths. He loved low company and despised his

father's seriousness. There was great grief in that household on his
account. Zacchaeus was lost to his parents–they had hoped he would
have been a credit to their name–but instead he was a dishonor. They
trusted that he would be the staff of their old age, but now he was a
scourge to them.

They scarcely dared to whisper his name in any company, for he had
joined with the men of Belial and mingled with the lewdest sort in the
city. And by-and-by, as men go from bad to worse, Zacchaeus had taken
up with the low and infamous trade of a tax-gatherer. He so pushed his
way in it by his sharpness and hardness of heart that he became chief
of the odious band of the extortionate oppressors of the people. The
Pharisees, of course, never looked at him–they passed him by as though
he were a dog–while the ordinary people of Jericho, when he was out of
hearing, cursed him. Had he not exacted upon one–had he not oppressed
another? His very name had a ban set upon it. He was lost to society.

But the Son of Man sought him and saved him, lost as he was! Society,
to this day, has its rules, by the breach of which persons become
outcasts. These rules are, some of them, commendable, but others are
arbitrary, one-sided, cruel and hypocritical. We have sometimes heard
men of the world ridicule what they are pleased to call the cant of the
Church, but we take leave to say that there is no cant so desperately
canting as the cant of the world. There occurred, not long ago, an
instance of the world's relentless cruelty to those whom it is
fashionable to brand with dishonor. A person who had, perhaps, fallen
into sin in her earlier days, was restored to a respectable
position–she was received in society among the noblest, but all of a
sudden, dastardly lips revealed a secret–and a sin committed far back
was raked up against her. From that day the world put away the woman,
never asking her if she had repented, or taking her after-conduct into
consideration.

The world is so pure and chaste and immaculate, that it shut out the
erring one as if she had been a leper. Though itself reeking with
foulest abominations, society feigns a virtuousness pure as the lily
and chaste as the snow. The world is cold, hard, cruel towards a
certain class of offenders. It receives into its embraces men who are,
every inch of them, unclean–but a betrayed, deceived, broken-hearted
woman the world shakes off as if she were a viper. This is the society
which boasts its gallantry! This is the just, fair-dealing world! It
caresses its noble rakes, but casts off the most penitent among the
betrayed. Ah, hypocritical, canting world! Ah, hollow, lying world, to
pretend to a virtue which you do not know! Rail not at the
inconsistencies of religious men while your own are so glaring! Cruel
tyrant, learn mercy and do justice before you become a judge of the
servants of the Lord!

Now, the Son of man is come to seek and to save those whom the world
puts outside its camp. The world says, "No." "Shame on her." "We will
not speak to her." But Christ Jesus says, "I have come to pardon her,
and to restore her, and she shall love Me much because much has been
forgiven her!" There are other cases in which men, by their crimes,
most justly place themselves outside the pale of society and for the
preservation of order they are separated from the company of honest
men. Now even these should have a door of hope left to them and a way
of return. The cry, too often is, "Down with him! Down with him! He has
sinned against his fellow men. Put him aside! What do we care what
becomes of him?"

But the Son of Man who is infinitely pure and holy, who has a genuine
horror of sin so that He really hates it and loathes it, yet does not
loathe sinners, but has come to seek and to save them! The sweep of
Divine compassion is not limited by the customs of mankind! The
boundaries of Jesus' love are not to be fixed by Pharisaical
self-righteousness! "The Son of Man is come to seek and to save that
which was lost." Putting all that we have said into a few words, we
would thus speak–I may be addressing persons here who feel that they
have broken God's Laws, perhaps by no means publicly or in any of the
grosser vices, but they have broken the Laws of God.

They may feel that they have and are sorrowing in their hearts because
of it. They fear, also, that they have sinned in such a way that it
cannot be possible for them to be forgiven. At the same time the
hardness of their hearts astounds them–they feel themselves to be
altogether bad and that no good thing dwells within them. They,
therefore, despair of being saved. Beloved Friends, "The Son of Man is
come to seek and to save that which was lost." Does not the description
suit you? Are you not among the lost? Well then, you are among such as
Jesus Christ came to save! And if perchance there should be one here
who has fallen into the grosser vices, someone who has sullied his name
and degraded himself to the very lowest degree, I am bound not to
restrict the text and I do not desire to do so–"The Son of Man is come
to seek and to save that which was lost."

O you lost ones! O you ruined and destroyed ones! The Son of Man is
come to seek and to save you! The Greek word here used for lost is a
form of that word which has, by certain modern discoverers, been
translated, "annihilated," with a

view to buttressing their unscriptural theory of the annihilation of
the wicked. It is one of those instances in which the absurdity of such
an interpretation ought to be evident even to themselves! The Son of
Man has not come to seek and to save that which is annihilated–that
would be rank nonsense! But the word is very forcible and signifies a
destruction very terrible, a ruin of the most solemn kind. To be lost
is to be fallen altogether, to be destroyed as to all good, to be
utterly undone, yet the Lord Jesus Christ is come to seek and to save
such as are in this wretched plight!

Why, this text sounds to me like the ringing of joyful Sunday bells
which sometimes mariners have heard at sea! Ships are sometimes
surrounded with a dense fog and the mariners know not whether they are
near the land or on the wide ocean–they lie becalmed with no stir in
the air, no stir in the sea–the ship is like a lost thing without
power of motion or knowledge of her whereabouts. And then suddenly the
mariners have heard bells ringing on the blessed Sunday and as the
silver sounds have pierced the gloomy mist the mariners have known that
they were somewhere near Old England's happy shores!

My text rings out most sweetly through the fogs of your soul's despair
and doubt and I trust the glad message– "The Son of Man is come to
seek and to save that which was lost"–will reach you!

II. Now, let us turn to another point. There is very much of
consolation in our text for the guilty, in the second place, if they
notice HOW THE SAVIOR IS HERE DESCRIBED, "The Son of Man is come to
seek and to save that which was lost." As the Son of Man He is come.
And here note, first of all, His Deity. You say, "Deity, how is that?
The text says 'the Son of Man.'" Yes, and that is the point upon which
I ground my remark. No Prophet or Apostle needed to call himself by way
of distinction the son of man. It would be ridiculous for any one of us
to speak of himself emphatically as the son of man–it would be an
affectation of condescension supremely absurd.

Therefore, when we hear our Lord particularly and especially calling
Himself by this name, we are compelled to think of it as contrasted
with His higher Nature and we see a deep condescension in His choosing
to be called the Son of Man, when He might have been called the Son of
God. O my Soul, He who is come to save you, is so plainly God that He
sees reason to remind you that He is also the Son of Man, lest you
should doubt it! No angel's arm is stretched out for your help, but the
arm of Him who created all worlds!

In speaking of Himself as the Son of Man, our Lord shows us that He has
come to us in a condescending Character. Not in flames of fire has
Jesus descended from Heaven. Not in His chariot of wrath, girt with the
sword of vengeance, does Jehovah Jesus come to men. He is come upon His
errand of mercy as One who has lain upon a woman's breast, who has
known weakness, suffering and need. He is come as One who knows, by
personal experience, the lowliness of your estate. Oh, Sinner, is it
not joy to know that the Son of God has come to save you as the Son of
Man? "The Son of Man"–that describes also the tenderness of His
Character.

A man can sympathize with a man. Jesus, the tender-hearted One, was
full of sympathy and in loving gentleness He is come to save sinners.
He is no stern Rhadamanthus, no judge of severe countenance, no Draco
with bloody edicts, but Jesus, the Man of Sorrows and the acquaintance
of grief. It is as your Brother, touched with a feeling of your
infirmities, that Jesus comes to you. He has, moreover, come in His
mediatorial Character, for, "There is one Mediator between God and man,
the Man Christ Jesus." He can put His hand upon you, and, at the same
time, lay His hand upon God. He who bridges the gulf between the misery
of fallen manhood and the eternal dignity of the unsullied God is come
to save the lost! What a joy is this!

Our Lord is come in His representative Character, for He calls Himself
the Son of Man, as if to note that He is Man for men, the
representative Man, the Son of Man. He is come as the Covenant
Substitute, representing Man. He has suffered in our place, died in our
place, paid our debts in our place, risen in our place, and gone to
Heaven as our Forerunner! It is the Son of Man who, in all things, has
acted for men, who is, "come to seek and to save that which was lost."
Now, it seems to me, dear Friends, if the Spirit of God would only help
poor troubled hearts to see it, that the wording of this part of my
text, though very simple, is full of the richest consolation.

Soul, what an attractive Savior have you to deal with! God is a
consuming fire–you cannot, O guilty one, go to Him–but Jesus is your
Brother, your Friend. He is the Friend of Sinners who received them and
ate with them. And He it is, great as He is, who is "come to seek and
to save that which was lost." I tell you what I would have you do. Go
to Him without fear or trembling before yon sun goes down and ends this
day of mercy. Go and tell Him you have broken

the Father's Laws–tell Him that you are lost and you need to be saved.
Tell Him that He is a Man, and appeal to His manly heart and to His
brotherly sympathies.

Pour out your broken heart at His feet–let your soul flow over in His
Presence–and I tell you He cannot cast you away! Though your prayers
are feeble as the spark in the flax, He will not quench them! And
though your heart is bruised like a reed, He will not break it! May the
Holy Spirit bless you with a desire to go to God through Jesus Christ.
And may He encourage you to do so by showing that Jesus is meek and
lowly of heart, gentle, and tender, and full of pity.

III. I pass on to our third point and that, also, is full of comfort,
though I will only touch upon it. You that seek salvation should
joyfully observe HOW OUR LORD'S PAST ACTION IS DESCRIBED–"The Son of
Man is come." Note, not, "shall come," but, "IS come." His coming is a
fact accomplished. We could not have said this before the days of
Bethlehem's wondrous birth. We would have had to say the Son of Man
"will come," and then you would have needed extraordinary faith to
believe that the Son of God would become the Son of Man to save you.
But He "is come." That part of the salvation of a sinner which is yet
to be done is not at all so hard to be believed as that which the Lord
has already accomplished.

That Jesus Christ, after being Incarnate, and after having suffered for
sin, should pardon sinners for whom He has died does not seem to me to
be extraordinary–the extraordinary matter lies in this, that He should
come from Heaven, that He should be born in Bethlehem, that He should
tarry here on earth, that He should go up to the Cross and down to the
grave and bear and suffer in the sinner's place–yet, our Lord has done
all that. The greatest part of the work He has accomplished! Your
salvation, if you believe in Jesus, is comparatively an easy matter–He
has but to apply that which is already prepared and hand over to your
faith that which He has laid by in store.

The state of the case since Jesus has come may be illustrated
thus–Certain of our fellow countrymen were the prisoners of the
Emperor Theodore, in Abyssinia, and I will suppose myself among them as
a captive. I hear that the British Parliament is stirring in the
direction of an expedition for my deliverance and I feel some kind of
comfort, but I am very anxious, for I know that amidst party strifes in
the House of Commons many good measures are shipwrecked. Days and
months pass wearily on, but at last I hear that Sir Robert Napier has
landed with a delivering army. Now my heart leaps for joy! I am shut up
within the walls of Hagdala but in my dungeon I hear the sound of the
British bugle and I know that the deliverer is come! Now I am full of
confidence and am sure of liberty! If the general is already come, my
rescue is certain!

Mark well, then, O you prisoners of hope, that Jesus is come! Do you
not hear it? The Gospel bugle is sounding! Blessed are the people who
know the joyful sound! The Captain of our salvation is come! He is at
our dungeon gates! He has come to our rescue! He is come! He is come!
Jesus has come and by His Holy Spirit He is still here! And we may
depend upon it, that if He has actually come to the work, He means to
go through with it, for He never draws back His hand. When He said He
would save men, it was certain He would do so. And now He has come to
do it, it is more than certain!

Behold the Lord of Glory has disrobed Himself for work. He has hung up
His royal robes and put on a workman's garb, a human toiler's garments!
He means work, stern, persevering work. He has cast His azure mantle
across the sky and come down here to the city of David robed in mortal
clay to wear the garment without seam. O, Sirs, He means to do His
Father's business! He is in real earnest, be sure of that–He has come
to do it and means to accomplish His design of love. Besides, He is not
like a foolish one who comes to His work and leaves His tools behind
Him–Jesus would not come unprepared! The Son of Man is an infinitely
wise Savior and you may depend upon it, having come with His Father's
consent and anointed with the Holy Spirit, He is come with everything
that is needed to accomplish His purpose.

He is come to do a work which He can do and will do, and in which He
will not be baffled though all the powers of earth and Hell should
contend with Him. "The Son of Man is come to seek and to save that
which was lost." My heart rejoices as I feel how sure it is that the
lost ones will be saved. If we had heard the sons of the morning sing
in solemn symphony, "God Himself has come to scatter the primeval
darkness, to bring order out of chaos, and to create life in the earth
which lies without form and void," we should have felt certain of the
result! If God had come to create, He would create–and it would have
been no matter of surprise to us to have seen the round earth glowing
in the morning light, verdant with new-born vegetation and populous
with variety of life.

We are sure that what God comes to do He will do. In the night when
Israel was pursued by the Egyptians and overtaken at the sea, even at
the Red Sea, it was a sign of victory when the Lord came to deliver His
people. The pillar of cloud went to the rear, turning its black side on
the foe and its bright side on the chosen. God was come to smite
Pharaoh and to rebuke the proud tyrant! And oh, you might be sure He
would do it–failure was out of the question. When, next morning, the
placid deep swept over the angry armies and all was peace where Pharaoh
and his hosts had raged so furiously–and instead of the shouts of
men-at-arms–were heard the sweet voices of damsels, singing, "Sing
unto the Lord, for He has triumphed gloriously," it was but natural it
should be so, for if God came to avenge His Israel! Who could stand
before Him?

The Son of Man is come to save. Rejoice, you heavens, and be glad, O
earth! He will do all His pleasure! Neither earth nor Hell can stand
against Him! Seeking, He will save! Yes, He will save that which is
lost! All glory be unto His name!

IV. The last point is to be this–there is much of deepest comfort in
THE DESCRIPTION WHICH IS HERE

GIVEN OF OUR LORD'S WORK. He is come "to seek and to save." The
enterprise is one, but has two branches. I would have you first notice
what our Lord has not come to do. He has not come to aid those who, in
their own esteem, are almost as good as they ought to be, to become a
little better and so to enter Heaven by their own efforts. I believe
that such is the general persuasion of mankind. If they were to put
their beliefs into plain English their notion is as nearly as possible
what I have said. According to them you are to attend a place of
worship regularly, say prayers, give to the poor and be as good as ever
you can. And then, inasmuch as there will be a little bit in which you
will be lacking, you are to trust to Jesus Christ to make up the rest.

Now, mark my word, this is a gross and fatal delusion! There is not
between the two covers of this Bible one single word of hope held out
to any man who believes in that manner–no, but there is the solemn
utterance that Christ has not come to save people of that sort at all,
for thus it is written–"The whole have no need of a physician, but
they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to
repentance." As many as are of the works of the Law are under the
curse. If any of you are very good people and have no sins. If you have
done no wrong and are nearly as good as you ought to be. If you only
need just to say a little about the blood of Christ, Christ has not
come to save such as you are– He has "come to seek and to save that
which was lost." If you are not lost you have no part nor lot in this
matter!

Moreover, the Lord Jesus has not come to aid us in self-sufficient
endeavors to save ourselves. I wonder how Christian people can sing
that verse–

"A charge to keep I have,

A God to glorify;

A never-dying soul to save,

And fit it for the sky."

It might suit a Jew at the foot of Sinai, but a Christian should have
none of it! If we have to save our own souls it is all over with us.
What? Can we fit our souls for the sky? We, save our own souls? Why,
this is the clean opposite of the Gospel of Jesus Christ! The theory of
some is that there is much natural goodness in men and they have only
to work it out and gradually improve themselves into a state of Grace.
No, Sir, you are on the wrong tack. Do you know what is the very first
ceremony of the Christian religion?

"Yes," you say, "Baptism." So it is. And what is Baptism? "Buried with
Christ in Baptism." Who are buried, then? Living people? No! Dead
people. The very first lesson of the Gospel, after believing in Christ,
is that you are, before the Law, dead, through having been crucified
with Christ, and therefore you must be buried. There is no improving
your old nature, mending it up and beautifying it into perfection–the
thing is hopeless, and it must die and be buried! The Scripture does
not say, "You must be improved." "You must be born-again"–that is
quite another thing. You must be made new creatures in Christ Jesus.
"Old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." A new
creation is needed–not an improvement of the old creature.

What does the Apostle say?–"The carnal mind is enmity against God, and
is not reconciled to God, neither, indeed, can be." There he ends
it–"Neither, indeed, can be." It is all over with the flesh, for
corruption has seized upon it. This the Believer accepts as fact,
"because," says the Apostle, "we thus judge, that if One died for all,
then all died." The death of Jesus, as a punishment for sin, was our
death and we died in Him so that we now live as new men, and risen men,
and not as though the old life had been improved into something better!
The old nature is put into the place of death and

then the man receives life in Christ–that is how we are saved–not by
improving ourselves into something better, but by being newly created
by the Divine power of the Holy Spirit.

"Very discouraging," says one. Yes! And such discouragement is much
needed now-a-days. If I saw a man trying to climb to the top of a
mountain by a path which was quite impassable and full of dangers, I
should be his true friend if I discouraged him from dashing himself to
pieces. The way to Heaven is not by our own works. You who think that
you can climb to Heaven by the way of Sinai should look to the flames
that Moses saw–and sink and tremble, and despair! There is no road to
God by the way of Sinai! There, at Calvary, is the way–all crimson
with the Savior's blood. Salvation is ours through His atoning
Sacrifice–"For the Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which
was lost."

Now, having cleared away the rubbish, let us come to the Truth of God.
Jesus is come to seek the lost. He did that personally. There was a
lost woman at Samaria and Jesus said He must go through Samaria. There
was a lost man at Jericho and Jesus said He must abide in that man's
house. What He did personally He now does under the dispensation of the
Holy Spirit, in His Providence. Sometimes Providence takes away a
child, lays a man on a bed of sickness, deprives him of his wealth–and
all these trials are intended to bring him to Jesus. It is Jesus
seeking him. It is an odd thing, my Friend, that you should be here
this morning–you did not reckon upon being here. Strange circumstances
brought you.

Suppose the Lord means to save you this morning? Then the Providence
which brought you to this spot is Jesus seeking you. As our Lord seeks
souls by His Providence He also seeks them by the Word. It is very
wonderful how the Word of God will come home to people. It is a part of
every preacher's business, who is sent of God, so to preach that
persons in the congregation may perceive that he speaks of them. What
remarkable things have happened in our ministry and in the ministries
of all who are sent of God.

Why, they speak to people as if they knew them! Though they never saw
them before, they tell their case and picture their state. God guides
His servants and gives them words that they never thought of till the
time came to utter them, so that on the spur of the moment they pick
out the character as well as if they had known the man from childhood!
Thus Jesus seeks the sinner. If there is anything in this sermon which
suits your case, dear Friend, do not talk about what relation it may
have to anybody else, but be sure Jesus is seeking you! Are you a lost
one? Have you come here in such a condition of heart that you cannot
deny your lost state? Jesus is seeking you!

Look how the Lord saved Zacchaeus. It seemed an odd thing that when the
Lord was under the tree, He should look up and say, "Zacchaeus, make
haste and come down." But Jesus does the same thing, still, in the
preaching of the Gospel. He applies the Word with power to individual
consciences and makes men perceive that He speaks of them. God has a
message of love to their souls and they are compelled to hear it–they
cannot shut their ears to it–they must receive it for the Spirit of
God comes with it and sends it home with power to their soul. That is
Jesus seeking sinners. And whom Jesus seeks He saves.

There is the second part of it–"To seek and to save." And how is the
saving done? That is done, first of all, by the complete pardon of all
the sinner's sins. The very instant that a man trusts Christ with all
his heart, the past is blotted out as if it had never existed–all the
sins he has ever committed in thought, in word, in deed, however
crimson in color, go at once–they are sunk as in the sea, never to be
found again. And this is done upon this one solitary condition–that
the sinner believe in Jesus! And even that is not a condition, for He
that bade him believe enables him to believe and gives him the faith
which saves his soul!

Then the sinner is saved in another way. From the moment that a person
believes in Jesus his nature becomes different from what it was
before–he receives a new heart–another influence takes possession of
him. Another love engrosses him. When a man is absorbed by some
master-passion, what a different man he becomes! The passion for wealth
will work marvels! We have known idle persons become very diligent and
profuse voluptuaries become even self-denying and mortifying to their
flesh in their ambition to acquire riches. Now, God gives us another
passion–the passion of gratitude to Christ, and love to the God that
saved us–and that becomes a master-principle and rules the entire man.

He who loved self now loves God and lives for Him. And is that change
possible to the most degraded? Yes, possible with God. If a man has
committed every crime in the whole catalog of villainy and his heart
has become hard as the nether millstone–and his disposition altogether
base, mean, groveling, sensual and devilish–the Spirit of God can turn
that man, in a single moment, into a lover of that which is true and
right and just! He can break his heart

concerning the past, make him angry with himself for having lived as he
has done and can passionately inflame him with the desire to be
perfectly holy!

And that passion within the man can carry him on until he loves his
fellow creatures as himself and makes great sacrifices for them–and
all for the sake of Jesus, that blessed, crucified Son of Man, who came
"to seek and to save that which was lost." We do not preach that Christ
forgives men and then lets them live as before. But we assert that the
moment He gives the pardon of sin, He gives the new nature, too. The
Gospel hospital is not merely a place where lepers are harbored, but
where lepers are healed– "The Son of Man is come to seek and to save
that which was lost."

Brothers and Sisters, let us cry to Jesus this morning to save us! I
will put myself down among the lost by nature and by practice. If there
is no one else here that is lost by nature, I am such, and I bless my
Lord that He is "come to seek and to save" me, a lost man. Brothers and
Sisters, some of you have known His love for many years. Did you not
come at first to Him as lost ones? And will you not confess, this
morning, that were it not for His infinite mercy you would still be as
lost as ever? What a mercy it is to know we are lost and to trust to
Christ who saves the lost! What a blessing to be among the dead who
died in Christ, whose life is a new life in Him–"for you are dead, and
your life is hid with Christ in God."

Martin Luther speaks in his book on Galatians of cutting the devil's
head off with his own sword–"There," says Martin to the devil, "you
say I am a great sinner. I thank you for that, for Jesus Christ came
into the world to save sinners, and so I feel He came to save me." And
if the devil says to any one of you this morning, "You are lost
altogether," off with his head, my Brother, my Sister–with his own
sword, and this very day rejoice that "the Son of Man is come to seek
and to save that which was lost."

Is there anyone here who is not lost? Anyone in this congregation who
does not need saving? Well, then, I cannot say, in God's name, a single
word of consolation to you. You are rich and increased in goods and
have need of nothing, so you say. But this is what the Lord says to
you–"He has put down the mighty from their seat, and He has exalted
them of low degree: He has filled the hungry with good things, and the
rich He has sent empty away." That is the only Gospel for you! But
every poor, heavy-laden, troubled heart–and every soul that feels
itself to be lost by nature has this gracious word–"The Son of Man is
come to seek and to gave that which was lost."

The last word is this–Let us who are saved seek the lost ones. Jesus
did it. O follower of Jesus, do likewise! Is there any work that you
could undertake among the worst of people? Undertake it! Never be
ashamed of mingling with the poorest of the poor and the vilest of the
vile, for Christ's sake. I always feel intense satisfaction at the
remembrance of such useful members of our Church as Brother Orsman,
engaged as he is from day to day in the very worst part of London, in
Golden Lane, seeking that which is lost.

I hope there are many here imitating him. I know there are some. There
is room for many more laborers in that department to seek those that
are lost–pre-eminently lost. You need not, however, go to Golden Lane,
or Seven Dials–there are plenty of lost people around you–lost people
who come to the Tabernacle, lost people who go to Church and lost
people who go nowhere on Sunday. Go and seek them! If you are saved
yourself, I beseech you by the blood that bought you, by the Christ who
loved you, and by the Christ whom you love, go out this very day to
seek and to save that which was lost! Amen and Amen.

PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE, SERMON–Luke 19:1-27.
__________________________________________________________________

An Old-Fashioned Conversion