Clearing the Road to Heaven

DELIVERED BY

C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"Gather out the stones." Isaiah 62:10.

"GATHER out the stones"–that is to say, out of the King's highway.
Clear the road. Make room for coming sinners. Take away all stumbling
blocks. Make the Gospel plain and simple and come to the help of those
who find hindrances and impediments in their progress to the Savior.
Such stones are there and Satan tries to increase their number. The
Lord's servants must gather them out. That is my object. I do not
intend to attempt anything beyond that. I shall only try, with great
simplicity of thought and speech, to deal with those things which
prevent sinners from getting to Christ, for perhaps while we are trying
to do this the Eternal Spirit may bring them to Jesus and they may find
salvation on the spot. To that end let all who are already saved cry
mightily to the Lord for His saving health and consoling Grace.

Beloved Friends, when poor souls are coming to Jesus they are
generally, themselves, their own worst enemies. They have a singular
ingenuity in finding out reasons why they should not be saved. A
strange infatuation seems to possess them so that they ransack Heaven,
earth and Hell to find discouragements. They become inventive of
difficulties where difficulties are not and often the pastor, whose
business it is to look after the little ones, finds himself,
notwithstanding his former experience with persons of like character,
utterly bewildered. He is often put to a nonplus with the strange and
novel difficulties which awakened sinners will imagine and the reasons
which they invent why they should not believe in Jesus Christ.

One would hardly think that the human mind could twist itself into such
knots. So many sinners, so many new arguments–for each one has a logic
of his own by which he labors to prove the impossibility of his own
salvation. Upon consideration, this will not appear very remarkable,
for they have long been living in sin and it is no wonder that when
they begin to see aright they should be bewildered with fear. Who would
not be full of fear if all of a sudden he saw Hell opening right under
his feet? They have been eating nothing lately but unsatisfying husks
which may nourish swine, but cannot support men. No wonder that they
are very weak and scarcely can stagger towards the Father's house! Poor
souls, their hearts are in their mouths, for they cannot tell what is
to come next–only a dreadful sound is in their ears, as of the
destroying angel pursuing them with vengeance!

They know that God is angry with them and they do not yet understand
His great love to penitent sinners. And so they are like men in an
upper chamber who start up in the night when a cry of fire is
raised–they know not which way to turn. Or I may compare them to
mariners in great jeopardy at sea, when they reel to and fro, and
stagger like a drunken man and are at their wit's end. I wonder not, I
say, that they refuse the comforts which we offer them, for it is one
of the effects and symptoms of great sickness that the patient refuses
all manner of meat–he has lost his appetite–he is too ill to eat and
his soul draws near unto the gates of death.

Moreover, in addition to fear and weakness, seeking sinners are
generally the prey to severe assaults of the great enemy of souls. When
Satan sees a soul coming to Christ, he hastens to aggravate that
sinner's doubts and fears. He raises a double tempest in his spirit. It
is "now or never" with the devil–he perceives that if he does not tear
poor souls in pieces, now, and drive them to utter desperation–they
will soon be in Christ's fold where he will never be able to touch them
again. They are just escaping from the old slaveholder's hand and if he
does not bring them back and chain them up with fresh irons he will
lose his captives, for they will follow the Morning Star and enter the
land of Liberty where his whip cannot reach them. Therefore he uses
double craft and cruelty to oppress and puzzle poor seeking sinners.
They are in a state of mind in which they are ready to believe anything
which he will tell them, and therefore, upon this string the
arch-deceiver plays right horribly.

What with a troubled conscience and with Satan, it is no wonder that
the seeking sinner falls into a maze and scarcely knows which way to
turn! He sees no ground for hope, but a thousand reasons for despair!
It is therefore a holy and necessary work to endeavor to remove some of
the stumbling blocks out of the poor beginner's way. When I have
attempted this good work, I shall do far better still, for I shall
point the coming sinner to Him who in His own Person has effectually
removed every real stumbling block, so that there is nothing, now, that
can keep a sinner from his God, if that sinner is but ready to repent
and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.

I. First, then, by way of LIFTING SOME OF THE STONES OUT OF THE ROAD,
let us begin with a very old and very common difficulty–I refer to the
doctrine of Election. Many will say, "Perhaps I am not one of God's
chosen. It may be that my name is not written in the Lamb's Book of
Life." Unbelief hammers away at this! It is a favorite topic with
doubters. And think not, my dear Friends, that I am about to attempt an
explanation of the mysteries of predestination, or mean to deny the
doctrine of Election for an instant! I believe the doctrine of Election
to be as certainly true as the doctrine of the existence of God!

I am not about to attempt to clear up the metaphysical difficulties
which could be suggested, world without end, by a subtle thinker. Those
I leave to others and I wish them joy in their task. If I were to
venture upon such a labor I should only be like Sisyphus who rolled a
stone uphill which always rolled down again. The difficulties about
free agency and predestination have existed, do exist and will exist to
the world's end–yes, and through eternity, too. Both facts are, to my
mind, certain, but where they meet none knows but God, Himself. Here is
the way John Bunyan met the difficulty in his, "Grace Abounding," which
book I earnestly recommend to every tempted soul. In that
autobiography, which he entitles, "Grace Abounding," he says that he
was perplexed for many days together over the doctrine, till at last
this thought came into his mind–Search in the Book of God and see
whether ever there was a sinner that trusted in Jesus who was refused.

So the good man set to work and read the Book through from the first of
Genesis to the last of Revelation, but he could not find an instance of
a sinner that ever did come to Christ that was rejected because he was
not elect. And the snare was broken, and he said, "I will go, even I.
He will not reject me." There is a practical, common sense way out of
the difficulty. I know not any better way of practically treating the
matter, than of saying, "I will go to Jesus because He bids me and
because He has said, 'Him that comes to Me I will in no wise cast out.'
If I go to Him and He casts me out, then He has broken His promise. But
that He can never do, so now I venture to rest upon His blood and leave
my soul's salvation in His hands."

In other matters you act so–when you are ill you do not know whether
you are ordained to get well, but you send for the doctor. You cannot
tell whether you are predestinated to be rich, but you endeavor to make
money. You do not know whether you will live through the day, but you
work to provide yourself with bread. Thus common sense cuts the knot
which mere theory can never untie. Leave the subtleties of argument
alone and act as sensible men. Go to Jesus and try whether He will
reject you and you will be saved. Another difficulty which is very
common is a deep sense of sin. In some persons, conviction of sin and
terror concerning the wrath to come arise out of the recollection of
one glaring sin. I have known persons more troubled about one atrocious
offense than about all the transgressions of the rest of their lives!
The one great blot has appeared to stare them in the face both day and
night and to burn its way into their souls.

In others, however, it is the whole series of their iniquities, the
indefinite but most crushing weight of a life of careless unbelief.
They could not count their sins, they know that, and they do not try to
do so. But all their sins together surround them like raging waves of
the sea, or a pack of hungry wolves howling for their prey, or the
dense clouds and fierce winds of a gathering tempest hastening to
overwhelm a half-shipwrecked vessel. They can hardly conceive that
salvation is possible in their case. Gave me your hand, my Brother, and
let me say to you, Do you think Christ died on the Cross for nothing?
There must have been some great reason for His being put to such a
cruel and shameful death! That reason was great sin. If there had not
been great sin there would not have been need of a great Savior. Know
assuredly that the Savior is greater than your sin and His merit is
greater than your guilt–

"If all the sins that men have done,

In will, in word, in thought, in deed,

Since worlds were made, or time begun,

Were laid on one poor sinner's head,

The stream of Jesus 'precious blood,

Applied, removes the dreadful load."

If the blackest sinner outside the gates of Hell would believe in
Jesus, in that moment all his sins would cease to be, for there is, and
there must be an infinite efficacy in the blood of such an One as Jesus
Christ, who "counted it not robbery to be equal with God." Does the Son
of God smart beneath the lash of Justice? Then, Beloved, that
substitutionary suffering must have a merit in it which it is not in
your power or mine to measure. Does sin trouble you? Then remember that
it is written, "All manner of sin and of blasphemy shall be forgiven
unto men." Remember, this, again, "The blood of Jesus Christ, His Son,
cleanses us from all sin." And hear, yet again, this Word, "Come now,
and let us reason together: though your sins are as scarlet, they shall
be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be as
wool."

Do you know, I feel right happy to have to talk to you about this, and
yet I feel a dart going through me lest I should not speak of it as I
ought to do, for, oh, I would that poor troubled sinners would see that
sin need not deter them from coming to a reconciled God! The blood of
Jesus Christ has already removed from before the Throne of Justice all
the transgressions of all those who come and rest in Jesus! If you
believe in the Savior sent of God, your sin is already gone and you are
accepted in the Beloved!

Another stone in the road, in the case of some, is a fear that the day
of Grace has passed. Probably there may only be one or two in this
place who have ever fallen under that trouble, but those one or two are
precious and I must seek them. Read again Bunyan's, "Grace Abounding,"
and you will find him recording that he said to himself, "Oh, that I
had given my heart to God seven years ago, but now it is certainly too
late." And then he remembered that there had been a large addition to
the little Baptist Church at Bedford and he said to himself, "Now God
has saved all the people He means to save in Bedford, and as for the
poor tinker, He will never save him. My day of Grace is over." I do not
quite know where that notion of, "a day of Grace," came from. I am not
quite sure about the truth of that doctrine and if it means that any
man who repents and believes will find it too late in this life, I deny
it altogether!

But without controversy I will tell you one thing for certain–there
never was a sinner that believed in Jesus who believed in Him too late
for salvation! There never was a man in this world who cried to God for
mercy through the blood of Jesus and who had for his answer, "Your day
of Grace is past." No such thing! How dare I say, how dare any man say
that a fellow creature's day of Grace is past? When the thief's hands
were nailed to the cross and the cross was lifted up, and he hung
bleeding there, soon to die, and to be devoured by the carrion crows,
it did look as if his day of Grace were past and yet his day of Glory
had dawned! For the Savior said, "Today shall you be with Me in
Paradise." The Lord's Grace can come to a man at any time and at any
hour! It is never too late to believe in Jesus!

Dear Heart, it is not too late for you. Do not believe the suggestion
of Satan, but come, and welcome! Mercy's gate is not shut. Mr. Bunyan
escaped from that temptation by this excellent method–he read the
Scriptures diligently, and he came upon that verse, (you remember
hearing our friends, the Jubilee Singers, sing it), "Yet there is
room!" "Oh!" thought he, "then my day of Grace is not past." "Yet there
is room." Lay hold on that, I pray you–you who think your time of hope
is over. "Yet there is room."–

"Don't stay away, Brothers, don't stay away. For the angel says There's
room enough in Heaven for you."

Let not the demon of unbelief tempt you to limit God's mercy and set
bounds to His power! Come and learn the infinite compassion of your
gracious God!

Here and there I have met with persons who have stumbled at a very
terrible stone in the road. It may never have occurred to some of you
and I hope it never may, but it is this–they have a tendency to
blasphemous thoughts. The more earnest a man is about religion the more
likely he is to meet with this peculiar temptation, especially if there
is some bodily disease about him. I should never have believed it if I
had not experienced it–what intolerably wicked, atheistic and profane
thoughts will come into the minds of pure-minded people–against their
will and without their consent– to their utter horror and dismay! I
can remember as a child hearing a man swear. I think it was the first
time in my life I had heard such profanity and I felt as if I had been
cut by a whip. It was the only word of blasphemy I think that had ever
passed my ears, then, and yet, when I was under conviction of sin,
seeking the Lord, thoughts that I dare not even think

of, now, would thrust themselves upon me when I tried to get alone in
prayer. And I rose astonished, as though I was scared from my knees.

When I attempted to cry for mercy there would be sure to come some
hideous sentence which I had never heard from anyone else, and
certainly thought I could never have invented in my heart, which would
well near drive me from the Mercy Seat. Well, now, Beloved, it may be
you cannot grapple with these thoughts, and I would advise you not to
try. I believe they are works of Satan who is darting his thoughts into
your soul in a secret manner. They are not thoughts of yours. They
should lead you to go and tell Jesus Christ about it, but they should
not drive you to despair. Tell the Lord that these thoughts, if they
are yours, are hateful to you and pray Him to remove them. If they are
not yours, but come from Satan, ask Jesus to rebuke the evil spirit
that you may have a little peace. And I will tell you another thing. If
these thoughts are yours and you are guilty of them, do Christ the
honor to believe that He can pardon even these, and throw yourself,
with all the defilement of your thoughts, black as you are, right down
at His feet and He will save you notwithstanding all.

A little sinner can, as it were, only give to Christ little glory by
trusting Him. But, if you feel yourself the greatest of sinners, give
Jesus the great glory of believing that His precious blood can cleanse
you–that He is able to save to the uttermost them that come unto God
by Him! O Soul, let these blasphemous thoughts drive you to Jesus, and
the devil will find that they do not answer his purpose and will cease
to assail you with them. Stand at the foot of the Cross, and resolve
never to depart from it, and Satan will depart from you. Another stone
which frequently stumbles others is the need, or rather the absence, of
anything like a horrible thought, or a terror, or an alarm. I have
known some who have believed in Jesus Christ as soon as ever Christ has
been preached to them and, consequently, they have found joy with but
little difficulty. And then, a little while afterwards they have said,
"this cannot be real conversion because I did not suffer the terrors
and distresses which some others have experienced."

There is a numerous class to whom we have preached Christ who have
replied to all encouragements, "Oh, but we don't feel the terrors of
the Lord. We are not plunged in despair. We are not haunted with
horrible forebodings and therefore we are not in the right road, and
cannot expect to be saved." Oh, my dear Friend, if you are allowed to
come to Jesus without being so molested by the Evil One, do not fret
about that, but rather rejoice! If you have not those horrors, be
thankful you don't! Be thankful to God that He brought you to Christ
without your first having run into all excess of outward sin and wicked
unbelief. Repentance of sin is necessary, but to doubt the mercy of God
and to run into despair are not necessary–are even injurious and
sinful.

Do you think that Christ needs the devil to prepare you for Him?
Unbelief cannot conduce to salvation! If you do not happen to be hunted
about by the hell hounds of remorse and despondency, you quite as much
need the Good Shepherd and are quite as welcome to Him. There is no
need to go round by Hell's gate to get to Heaven! Trust in Jesus just
as you are and you are saved. Those who have those dreadful thoughts
would be glad enough to be rid of them–do not you be asking for
needless vexations–but come to Jesus. Rest in His atoning blood just
as you are and He will give you all that is necessary to fit you for
His kingdom.

There are some, again, who are troubled because they think they have a
lack of sensibility with regard to their sins. They argue thus–"I
understand that whoever believes in Jesus shall be saved, but I must
feel my sinfulness. I hear you, Sir, describe sometimes the deep
contrition and brokenness of spirit which many have felt and I fear I
have not felt anything of the kind. May I hope that Jesus is able to
save me notwithstanding my insensibility?" Our answer to that is that a
broken heart is a gift of God's Grace–it is not a ground or reason why
Jesus Christ should save you–but it is a part of salvation. A man is
saved by having his heart broken and being led to cast himself upon
Jesus–and if you have not yet received this part of salvation, your
business is to come to Jesus for it–not to stay away till you get it
of yourself and then come to Christ with your feelings as a
recommendation.

If you were to come to Jesus and say, "Lord, I have broken my heart
down to the right state. Now I will believe that You can save me," I
think He would say to you, "If you have done so much, go and do the
rest. If you can make yourself fit for Grace, go and make yourself fit
for Glory." No, but if you have not a broken heart, come to Jesus
Christ for it–

"True belief and true repentance, Every Grace that brings you near,
Withoutmoney

Come to Jesus Christ and buy."

You have not to do something for yourself and then look to Jesus for
the rest. Shame upon you for thinking of such a thing! To melt your
heart in the furnace of love is a Divine work and Christ must do it.
Come, you stony-hearted Sinner, come with the flint and the granite
still within you. Come, though you cannot feel, and believe that Christ
can make you feel. Come, you who have been annealed like steel in the
furnace of transgression and familiarity with sin. Come to Him, for He
is able to give you a heart of flesh and take away your heart of stone.
I am fully persuaded that those who mourn their need of feeling are the
most feeling people in the world, but I will not dwell upon that truth.
It is the greatest mistake for us to imagine that we are to make
ourselves feel something and then Christ will save us. Feelings of
contrition are as much His work as is the Atonement for the remission
of sins. Christ is Alpha as well as Omega in salvation. You must begin
with Him–and go on with Him, and end with Him if end there ever can
be.

Now I hear another say, "Ah, but the stone in my road is that I cannot
believe. I have not the faith I need to have." Well, beloved Seeker,
perhaps you have made a mistake about your faith. Do you think that you
need to believe with full assurance before you can be saved? If so,
listen. The smallest grain of saving faith will save a man. To embrace
Christ in your arms like Simeon is a grand act for a full-grown saint,
but to touch the hem of His garment is as surely saving as to embrace
His Person. If you have faith but as a grain of mustard seed, God will
recognize that faith and make it grow– and that faith will save you.
It is not quantity, but quality that the Lord looks at. Do you believe
in Jesus Christ? That is the point. For, remember, the whole of your
salvation rests not on your believing, but on the merits of Jesus
Christ!

Some sinners look too much to their own faith and not enough to the
Object of their faith. Now, it is the Object of faith we should look
to, and if we did, our faith would grow. You may look at faith till you
think you have none. But, on the other hand, you may look at Christ
till you feel you cannot help believing in Him. How many a time in my
little vestry behind there have I charged this Truth of God home upon
those who have said they could not believe. I have said, "What cannot
you believe? Cannot you believe God? Is He a liar?" "Ah!" say I to
these enquirers, "suppose you said to me when I told you something, 'I
can't believe you,' should I not at once say, 'Why not? What do you
know of my character which leads you to think that I am untruthful?' "

And they say at once, "Oh, Sir, I should not say that to you. I should
feel sure if you told me that you knew a thing to be true that it was
so. I would believe you." "Well, then," I have said, "how dare you tell
me you cannot believe Jesus Christ and cannot believe God the Eternal
One! What reason on earth can there be why you should not believe God
is speaking the Truth and believe what Jesus Christ says? We will not
have it that you cannot believe." Awakened, quickened Sinner! At the
same moment that God gave you spiritual life to feel that you were a
sinner, He gave you the principle in which dwells power to believe in
Jesus Christ, the sinner's Savior! And we charge you to exercise that
power and to cast yourself, once and for all, upon the finished
Sacrifice of Christ the Lord!

Again, we have heard persons say, "But I do not think I can be saved
because I am not like So-and-So." Well, who is this So-and-So? "Why, my
dear grandmother, who died so triumphantly." Ah, and you are a little
babe and you expect to be like your grandmother? You are only just born
into the heavenly life and yet you expect to know and to do all that an
old experienced Christian would know and do? I am sure that no man who
has planted an apple tree in his garden goes the next autumn and
expects a crop of apples as if the trees had been in his orchard for 20
years. Besides, the Lord is not looking for fruit on you in order to
recommend you to His mercy, nor ought you to be looking for it. Your
fruit must grow on another tree, on that tree where the Savior
died–from Him is your fruit found! You be content to have nothing good
in yourself, and to be nothing good, but to take all your good from
Jesus Christ!

"Ah," says one, "but you don't know how bad I am." No, nor yet do you.
You are 10 times worse than you think you are. Yes, you are a thousand
times worse than you think you are! You are so bad that you are good
for nothing! You are neither fit for the land nor yet for the
dunghill–but it is good-for-nothing people that Jesus Christ came to
save! Not the worthy, the excellent, the valuable, but those that are
humble in their own eyes–those who think themselves nothing and feel
they never can be anything unless a miracle is worked for them. These
are they whom the Lord loves to look upon. "He has put down the mighty
from their seat, but He has exalted them of low degree. He has filled
the hungry with good things and the rich He has sent away empty." This
is the way He always deals with men. The worse you feel yourself to be,
the more you need God's mercy and the more likely you are to get it.
Come and lay hold on Eternal Life by a simple faith in Jesus Christ.
May the Spirit of God lead you to do so!

I will only speak once more about these difficulties. "Oh!" says one,
"but I never have any joy and peace. And I hear those who are saved say
they are so happy and so glad." Ah, there is the door of the house of
mercy wide open, and you are outside in the frost and snow. Inside that
house–(there, can't you see through that window pane?)–there are
happy children sitting round a fire and they are singing merrily as
they eat their evening meal. And you stand out in the cold, and you
murmur, "How can I ever enter? I am so cold. I am shivering in this
winter's blast. They are so happy in there. How can I be one of the
family and yet stand shivering here?"

Now, you need not ask that question. There is the door and it stands
wide open. When Christ's hands were nailed, He set that door wide open
and the devil cannot shut it. And if you enter in you shall have the
same joy as those who are sheltered within. But if you stand outside
and expect to get the warmth enjoyed by those within–and hope to sing
their cheerful song in the cold–you are greatly mistaken. You shall
receive the joy when you exercise the faith! Oh, believe in Jesus, or,
in other words, trust in Him! That is the Grace which enters in by the
door and participates in the blessings of mercy. Trust in Him wholly,
solely, entirely and in Him, alone, and, "being justified by faith,"
you shall "have peace with God through Jesus Christ our Lord." The Lord
grant it and He shall have the praise!

One of our friends at the Prayer Meeting prayed that I might give God's
people, this morning, a thick slice such as he gave his hungry
children. Now that was a very quaint and suggestive prayer, and I
sometimes try to act up to it. But tonight I have been trying to cut a
thin slice because I have sometime heard of schools where the slice was
too thick for the children's mouths. And therefore I have tried to cut
mine thin, that if there is a babe here, he might be able to feed, too.
I would even crumb down the subject and mix it with the milk of the
Word that it might suit those who cannot feed upon strong meat as yet.
My anxious prayer is that the Holy Spirit may help the weaklings to
feed and be glad!

II. But I said that in the second part I would do better than remove
the stones, and so I will, for I will POINT YOU TO HIM WHO IS "THE WAY,
THE TRUTH, AND THE LIFE" who has already cleared the stumbling blocks
out of the road! Traveler to Heaven, Pilgrim of the night, cast your
eyes upon the Captain of our salvation, even Jesus Christ of Nazareth,
the Son of God, and see how He has cast up the highway in the desert
and prepared a path through the wilderness! Looking unto Him, the
crooked will grow straight and the rough places plain. And you shall
see the salvation of God!

Let me ask you to look at Him, first, as He was on earth, the Son of
Man. In order that men should be saved, it was necessary that God,
Himself, should take into union with His Godhead the nature of the
poor, feeble creature called man. Now, I must confess that had I never
known by Revelation that the mysterious, Divine, Omnipotent Spirit who
made all things, did actually alight upon this earth and take to
Himself a body of flesh and blood–had I never known it by Revelation,
I could never have imagined it possible! It would never have crossed my
mind! But now I do know it, and am sure of it, and it still utterly
astounds me! The angels, when they saw God in human flesh, wondered,
(it is a mystery that He was seen of angels), and they have never left
off wondering since.

Sinner, in order that you might be saved, God must dwell here in human
flesh! He has been here! He has been here! He has been here! The fact
is as certain as it is strange! He nursed on a woman's breast at
Bethlehem. He was swaddled as other babes have been. God has been with
us! As Man He worked in a carpenter's shop! He has been here! He ate
and drank among men and slept and suffered as men do! He has been here!
God has become Man to save sinners! Is anything impossible after that?
It was necessary that Jesus Christ should abide here for a while,
should work miracles of love. We read some of them just now in the
lesson of the evening. He healed the sick. He opened blind eyes. He
raised the dead. Yes, the Savior has been here and raised the dead! Can
He not raise you? He has not lost His power. If anything, He is
greater, now, in Heaven than He was here below.

Can He not open those eyes of yours and those ears of yours, and
unloose that stammering tongue of yours and make your lameness to
depart till you leap like a hart? Yes, He can do it, can do it tonight!
And from that pew, though you came into it heavy-laden, you will, I
hope, go out like one who is ready to dance for ecstasy, because you
will cry, "The Lord Jesus has saved me, even me!" I say that Christ
Incarnate and Christ working on earth are two grand sights, or they are
two phases of the same glorious sight–and they take away the stones
out of a sinner's pathway! But ah, Beloved, I want you, most of all, to
give the eyes of your heart to the strangest sight of all. It was
necessary, before you could be saved, that in the Person of Man, the
Son of God should die!

I can conceive Him living on earth, but who shall conceive Him dying?
God was in Christ as He died upon the accursed tree! He who spread the
heavens and made the earth, and piled the mountains–He was here, here
in the form of man–and the soldiers came and seized Him in the garden
as though He had been a thief! And they took Him away to Pilate's Hall
and there they scourged Him! There they spit in His face! There they
crowned Him with a crown of thorns and then condemned Him to bear His
Cross. They hounded Him–Him, the Eternal God, I say, in human flesh!
They hounded Him along Jerusalem's streets, then flung Him down upon
His back upon the transverse wood and drove cruel nails through His
blessed and tender hands and feet!

Then they lifted up the Cross and dashed it into its socket in the
earth till all His bones were dislocated and He cried, "I am poured out
like water: all My bones are out of joint." It was He who but a little
while before had heard the songs of angels and at whose feet the
seraphim and cherubim adored. He, on that bloody tree, was fastened and
lifted up. And there He died in infinite agonies–it is not possible to
describe them, for none know their terror. God forsook Him! His Father
turned away His face and in the bitterness of His anguish He cried, "My
God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" Thus on the tree He died and in
that death He took the punishment due on account of the sin of all who
shall believe on Him. He suffered in their place an equivalent for all
that they would have had to suffer had they been cast into the pit of
Hell.

This being done, salvation is not only possible, but it is achieved!
Believe in it, Sinner! What stone remains, now that Jesus has died? God
has made Atonement–the eternal God, Himself, has put away human sin!
Why do you doubt? Come, I say, hasten to the Cross! Gaze upon this
wondrous spectacle of Divine Love–and as you gaze you shall live– for
"there is life in a look" at Jesus–life for everyone who rests in Him!
But I want you to see a lovelier sight than this. The other is Divinely
encouraging, but this is more encouraging, still. Look there! Look
there! There is the sepulcher where He lay! They took Him from the
Cross. They wrapped Him in spices and fine linen, and they laid Him
there. Look there! Christ is not there, the tomb is empty! There is the
napkin. There are the grave clothes, but He is not there! Where

is He?

Why, He has come forth in the full glory of Resurrection and is saying
to the women, "Touch Me not, for I am not yet ascended." He died for
human guilt, but He lives, again, for the justification of His people!
Why does He live? It is because no human guilt remains to keep Him as a
hostage in the grave! All the guilt which He took upon Himself, He has
put away. He has buried it–it is gone! It went from us when He
died–it has gone from Him now that He has risen! The risen Lord has
"finished transgression, made an end of sin and brought in everlasting
righteousness." Who would not believe in a risen Christ? If God has set
my Surety free, I am sure that I am clear! If Christ laid as a Hostage
for my sins in the cold prison of Joseph of Arimathea's tomb, I bless
Him for it. But when I see Him set free, I bless Him yet more, for I
know that my sins are gone! There remains no wreck or relic of them–

"Covered is my unrighteousness, From condemnation I am free,"

for Christ has risen from the dead! O, Sinner, I pray God to lead you
sweetly to read the mystery of the Resurrection and to give you peace
tonight.

But this is not all. Now lift up your eyes away from the garden, to the
top of Olivet, and away from the top of Olivet, for, lo, He mounts the
skies! His disciples gaze and as they gaze, He ascends. He rises higher
and higher, till a cloud receives Him out of their sight. But though
that cloud has come between us, faith's eyes can pierce it, and we can
see the angels meeting Him on the way–

"They brought His chariot from on high

To bear Him to His Throne,

Clapped their triumphant wings, and cried,

'The glorious work is done!'

'Hail! Prince,' they cry, 'forever hail,

Whose unexampled love

Moved You to quit these glorious realms,

And royalties above.' "

Don't you hear their song as they approach the golden gates of the New
Jerusalem? They sing, "Lift up your heads, O you gates, and be you
lifted up, you everlasting doors, that the King of Glory may come in!"
Can you hear the watchers

from above the gate as they challenge the cavalcade, "Who is the King
of Glory?" Can you hear, yet again, the song of those who answer, "Lift
up your heads, O you gates, and be you lifted up, you everlasting
doors, that the King of Glory may come in!"

He enters! His Father receives Him. "Well done," He says, "well done."
He sits at His Father's right hand, for His life-work is finished. No
more Sacrifice is needed! No other will ever be offered! But while He
sits there, mark what He does–He intercedes. He pleads! He pleads! And
for whom does He plead? For sinners bought with His blood! He pleads
for all that come to God by Him–for you, if now you trust Him. You
blackest sinner out of Hell–He pleads for you, if you trust Him!
Utterly lost, ruined, condemned, dissolute, debauched as you may have
been, yes, all but damned–but if you will trust Him, there is Infinite
Mercy in His heart and in His plea there is Infinite Power! Oh, that I
knew how to preach the Gospel! Oh, for a great trumpet to blow such a
blast that every ear should hear it!

Oh, will you reject Christ? I pray you may not! At your peril you will
do it! If I were called, at this moment, from this pulpit to the bar of
God, I could dare to say that I have tried to tell you all the
comforting Truths that I know about my Master. If I could weep you to
the Savior, I would do it! If my arms about your necks would bring you
to His feet, I would be glad, my Brothers and Sisters, to try the
affectionate embrace! But what more can a mortal do? Do you reject my
Master, or will you receive Him? I would do as the Roman ambassadors
did to the eastern king, when they made a ring in the sand, and said,
"Pass that ring, and you proclaim war, or you make peace. You must
stand and decide within that circle."

I draw such a circle around you tonight and say, "Do not stir from that
pew till Christ or sin, Heaven or Hell, faith or unbelief, is chosen by
you." And may the Holy Spirit help you to such a gracious decision that
you may say, "I will believe! Lord, help my unbelief! I cast myself
now, whether I am saved or lost, upon the finished work of the risen
Lord." The Lord grant it, for Jesus' sake. Amen!

PORTIONS OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON–Mark 5:25-34; 7:24-30;
10:46-52.
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The Seed Upon Stony Ground