All Comers To Christ Welcomed

All Comers To Christ Welcomed

(No. 2349)

A SERMON INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S DAY, FEBRUARY 25, 1894.

DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING,
NOVEMBER 17, 1889.

"Him that comes to Me I will in no wise cast out." John 6:37.

EOD CHRIST will not die in vain. His Father gave Him a certain number
to be the reward of His soul travail and He will have every one of
them, as He said, "All that the Father gives Me shall come to Me."
Almighty Grace shall sweetly constrain them all to come. My father
recently gave me some letters which I wrote to him when I began to
preach. They are almost boyish epistles, but, in reading through them,
again, I noticed in one of them this expression, "How I long to see
thousands of men saved, but my great comfort is that some will be
saved, must be saved, shall be saved, for it is written, 'All that the
Father gives Me shall come to Me.'"

The question for each of you to ask is, "Do I belong in that number?" I
am going to preach with the view of helping you to find out whether you
belong to that, "all," whom the Father gave to Christ–the "all" who
shall come to Him. We can use the second part of the verse to help us
to understand the first. "Him that comes to Me I will in no wise cast
out," will explain our Savior's previous Words, "All that the Father
gives Me shall come to Me."

I shall have no time for any further preface. I must at once get to my
subject and try to put everything in a condensed form. Kindly give heed
to the word, think about it, pray over it–and may God the Holy Spirit
apply it to all your hearts!

I. First, notice in the text THE NECESSITY OF CHARACTER–"Him that
comes to Me." If you want to be saved, you must come to Christ. There
is no other way of salvation under Heaven but coming to Christ. Go
wherever else you will, you will be disappointed and lost–it is only
by coming to Him that you can by any possibility have eternal life!

What is it to come to Christ? Well, it implies leaving all other
confidences. To come to anybody is to leave everybody else. To come to
Christ is to leave everything else–to leave every other hope, every
other trust. Are you trusting to your own works? Are you trusting to a
priest? Are you trusting to the merits of the Virgin Mary, or the
saints and angels in Heaven? Are you trusting to anything but the Lord
Jesus Christ? If so, leave it, and have done with it! Come away from
every other reliance and trust to Christ Crucified, for this is the
only way of salvation, as Peter said to the rulers and elders of
Israel, "Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none
other name under Heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved."–

"To Jesus bleeding on the tree, Turn you your eye, your heart," and
come to Him at once and your soul shall live forever!

To come to Jesus means, in brief, trusting Him. He is a Savior–that is
His business–come to Him and trust Him to save you. If you could save
yourself, you would not need a Savior, and now that Christ has set up
to be a Savior, let Him do the business. He will. Come and lay all your
needs at His feet and trust Him. Resolve that, if lost, you will be
lost trusting alone in Jesus, and that can never be! Tie up all your
hopes into one bundle and put that bundle upon Christ. Let Him be all
your salvation, all your desire and you will be surely saved!

I have sometimes tried to explain to you what the life of faith is
like. It is very much like a man walking on a tight rope. The Believer
is told that he shall not fall, He trusts in God that he shall not, but
every now and then he says, "What a way it is down there if I did
fall!" I have often had this experience. I have gone up an invisible
staircase–I could not see the next step, but when I put my foot down
on it, I found that it was solid granite. I could not see the next step
and it seemed as

if I should plunge into an abyss. Yet have I gone on upward, steadily,
one step at a time, never able to see farther into absolute darkness,
as it seemed, and yet always with a light just where the light was
needed.

When I used to hold a candle for my father, in the evening, when he was
sawing wood out in the yard, he used to say, "Boy, hold the candle
where I am sawing, don't look over there." And I have often thought to
myself, when I wanted to see something in the middle of next week, or
next year, that the Lord seemed to say to me, "Hold your candle on the
piece of work which you have to do today–and if you can see that, be
satisfied, for that is all the light you need just now." Suppose that
you could see into next week? It would be a great mercy if you lost
your sight a while, for a far-seeing gaze into care and trouble is no
gain! "Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof"–as sufficient unto
the day will be the good thereof.

But the Lord does train His people for the skies by testing their faith
in the matter of His daily care of them. Often a man's reliance upon
God for the supply of his earthly needs proves that he has trusted the
Lord for the weightier affairs relating to his soul's salvation. Do not
draw a line between the temporal and the spiritual and say, "God will
go just so far–and I must not take such and such a thing to Him in
prayer." I remember hearing of a certain good man, of whom one said,
"Why, he is a very curious man–he prayed about a key the other day!"
Why not pray about a key? Why not pray about a pin? Sometimes it may be
as important to pray about a pin as to pray about a kingdom! Little
things are often the linchpins of great events. Take care that you
bring everything to God in faith and prayer. "Be careful for nothing;
but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your
requests be made known unto God."

I have turned aside from my subject for a minute, but let us now think,
again, of this matter of coming to Christ. To come to Jesus not only
implies leaving all other confidences and trusting Christ, it also
means following Him. If you trust Him, you must obey Him. If you leave
your soul in His hands, you must take Him to be your Master, and your
Lord, as well as your Savior. Christ has come to save you from sin, not
in sin. He will, therefore, help you to leave your sin, whatever it is.
He will give you the victory over it! He will make you holy. He will
help you to do whatever you should do in the sight of God. He is able
to save unto the uttermost them who come unto God by Him–but you must
come to Him if you would be saved by Him.

To put together all I have said–you must quit every other hope; you
must take Jesus to be your sole confidence–and then you must be
obedient to His command and take Him to be your Master and Lord. Will
you do that? If not, I have nothing to say to you except this–He that
believes not in Him will perish without hope! If you will not have
God's remedy for your soul malady, the only remedy that there is, there
remains for you nothing but blackness and dismal darkness forever and
ever for you!

II. But, now, secondly, while there is this necessity of character,
notice, also, THE UNIVERSALITY OF PER-SONS–"Him that comes to Me I
will in no wise cast out."

Granted that he comes to Christ, that is all that is needed. Does
someone say, "Sir, I am a very obscure person. Nobody knows me. My name
was never in the papers and never will be. I am a nobody"? Well, if Mr.
Nobody comes to Christ, He will not cast him out! Come along, you
unknown person, you anonymous individual, you that everybody but Christ
forgets! If even you come to Jesus, He will not cast you out.

Another says, "I am so very odd." Do not say much about that, for I am
odd, too. But, dear Friends, however odd we are, though we may be
thought very eccentric and some may even consider us a little touched
in the head, yet, nevertheless, for all that, Jesus says, "Him that
comes to Me I will in no wise cast out." Come along with you, Mr.
Oddman! You shall not be lost for lack of brains, nor even for having
too many–though that is not a very common misfortune! If you will but
come to Christ, though you have no talent, though you are but poor and
will never make much headway in the world, Jesus says, "Him that comes
to Me I will in no wise cast out."

"Ah," says a third friend, "I do not mind about being obscure, or being
eccentric, but it is the greatness of my sin that keeps me back from
Christ." Let us read the text again–"Him that comes to Me I will in no
wise cast out." If he had been guilty of seven murders and all the
whoredoms and adulteries that ever defiled mortal man! If impossible
sins could be charged against him–yet if he came to Christ, mark you,
if he came to Christ–the promise of Jesus would be fulfilled even in
his case, "Him that comes to Me I will in no wise cast out."

"But," says another, "I am completely worn out. I am good for nothing.
I have spent all my days and years in sin. I have come to the very end
of the chapter, I am not worth anybody's having." Come along with you,
you derelict of life! Jesus

says, "Him that comes to Me, I will in no wise cast out." You have to
walk with two sticks, do you? Never mind, come to Jesus! You are so
feeble that you wonder that you are alive at your advanced age? My Lord
will receive you if you are a hundred years of age–there have been
many cases in which persons have been brought to Christ even after that
age! There are some very remarkable instances of that fact on record.
Christ says, "Him that comes to Me I will in no wise cast out." If he
were as old as Methuselah, if he did but come to Christ, he would not
be cast out!

"Alas," says one, "I am in a worse case than even that aged friend, for
beside being old, I have resisted the Spirit of God! I have been many
years troubled in my conscience, but I have tried to cover it all up. I
have stifled every godly thought." Yes, yes, and it is a very sad
thing, too. But for all that, if you come to Christ, if you can even
make a dash for salvation and come to Jesus, He cannot cast you out!

Perhaps One friend says, "I am afraid that I have committed the
unpardonable sin." If you come to Christ, you have not, I know–for him
that comes to Him, Jesus will in no wise cast out! He cannot,
therefore, you have not committed the unpardonable sin. Come along with
you, man, and if you are blacker than all the rest of the sinners in
the world, so much the more glorious shall be the Grace of God when it
shall have proved its power by washing you whiter than snow in the
precious blood of Jesus!

"Ah," says one, "you do not know me, Sir." No, dear Friend, I do not.
But, perhaps, one of these days I may have that pleasure. "It will not
be any pleasure to you, Sir, for I am an apostate. I used to be a
professor of religion, but I have given it all up, and I have gone back
to the world, willfully and wickedly doing all manner of evil things."
Ah, well, if you can but come to Christ, though there were seven
apostasies piled, one upon another, still His promise stands true, "Him
that comes to Me I will in no wise cast out." Whatever the past, or
whatever the present, backslider, return to Christ, for He stands to
His solemn promise, and there are no exceptions mentioned in my
text–"Him that comes to Me I will in no wise cast out."

"Well, Sir," cries another, "I should like to come to Christ, but I do
not feel fit to come." Then, come all unfit, just as you are! Jesus
says, "Him that comes to Me I will in no wise cast out." If I were
awakened in the middle of the night by a cry of, "Fire!" and I saw that
someone was at the window with a ladder, I do not think that I would
stay in bed, and say, "I have not my black necktie on," or, "I have not
my best waistcoat on." I would not speak in that way at all! I would be
out of the window as quickly as ever I could, and down the ladder! Why
do you talk about your fitness, fitness, fitness? I have heard of a
cavalier, who lost his life because he stopped to curl his hair when
Cromwell's soldiers were after him. Some of you may laugh at the man's
foolishness, but that is all that your talk about fitness is! What is
all your fitness but the curling of your hair when you are in imminent
danger of losing your soul? Your fitness is nothing to Christ. Remember
what we sang at the beginning of the service–

"Let not conscience make you linger,

Nor of fitness fondly dream!

All the fitness He requires

Is to feel your need of him!

This He gives you

'Tis the Spirit's rising beam!"

Come to Christ just as you are–foul, vile, careless, godless,
Christless! Come now, even now, for Jesus said, "Him that comes to Me I
will in no wise cast out."

Is there not a glorious width about my text? "Him that comes to Me I
will in no wise cast out." What, "him," is this? It is, "him that
comes!" What, "him that comes"? Any "him that comes" in all the world!
If he comes to Christ, he shall not be cast out! A red man, or a black
man, or a white man, or a yellow man, or a copper-colored man–whatever
he is, if he comes to Jesus, he shall in no wise be cast out!

When you mean to put a thing broadly, it is always best to state it and
leave it. Do not go into details! The Savior does not. Some years ago
there was a man, a kind, loving husband, who wished to leave to his
wife all his property. Whatever he had, he intended her to have it all,
as she ought. So he put down in his will, "I leave to my beloved wife,
Elizabeth, all that I have." That was all right. Then he went on to
describe in detail what he was leaving her, and he wrote, "All my
freehold and personal estate." The most of his property happened to be
leasehold, so the wife did not get it because her husband gave a
detailed description! It was in the detail that the property slipped
away from the good woman.

Now, there is no detail at all here–"Him that comes." That means that
every man, woman and child beneath the broad heavens, who will but come
and trust in Christ, shall in no wise be cast out! I thank God that
there is no allusion to any particular character, in order especially
to say, "People of that character shall be received," for then the
characters left out might be supposed to be excluded. But the text
clearly means that every soul that comes to Christ shall be received by

Him!

III. The flight of time hurries me on! I therefore beg you to listen
earnestly while I speak to you, in the third place,

about THE UNMISTAKEABLENESS OF THE PROMISE–"Him that comes to Me I
will in no wise"–that is, for no

reason, under no circumstances, at no time, under no conditions
whatever–"I will in no wise cast out." And which means, being
interpreted, "I will receive him, I will save him, I will bless him."

Then if you, my dear Friend, come to Christ, how could the Lord cast
you out? How could He do it in consistency with His truthfulness?
Imagine my Lord Jesus making this declaration and giving it to us as an
inspired Scripture, "Him that comes to Me I will in no wise cast out,"
and yet casting out somebody, even that unknown somebody up in the
corner! Why, it would be a lie! It would be a gross lie! I pray you,
blaspheme not my Lord, the truthful Christ, by supposing that He could
be guilty of such conduct as that! He could do as He liked about whom
He would receive until He made the promise–but after He had pledged
His word, He bound Himself by the veracity of His Nature to keep it
and, as long as Christ is the truthful Christ, He must receive every
soul that comes to Him.

But let me also ask you, suppose that you came to Jesus and He cast you
out, with what hands could He do it? "With His own hands," you answer.
What? Christ coming forward to cast out a sinner who has come to Him? I
ask again, with what hands could He do it? Would He do it with those
pierced hands that still bear the marks of the nails? The Crucified
rejecting a sinner? Ah, no, He has no hand with which to do such a
cruel work as that, for He has given both His hands to be nailed to the
tree for guilty men! He has neither hand, nor foot, nor heart with
which to reject sinners, for all these have been pierced in His death
for them! Therefore He cannot cast them out if they come to Him.

Let me ask you another question, What profit would it be to Christ if
He did cast you out? If my dear Lord, with the crown of thorns, the
pierced side and the wounded hands, were to cast you away, what glory
would it bring to Him? If He cast you into Hell, you who have come to
Him, what happiness would that bring to Him? If He were to cast you
away, you who have sought His face, you who trust His love and His
blood, by what conceivable method could that ever render Him the
happier or the greater? It cannot be!

What would such a supposition involve? Imagine for a moment that Jesus
did cast away one who came to Him. If it were ascertained that one soul
came to Christ and yet He had cast him away, what would happen? Why,
there are thousands of us who would never preach again! For one, I
would have done with the business. If my Lord can cast away a sinner
who comes to Him, I cannot, with a clear conscience, go and preach from
His Words, "Him that comes to Me I will in no wise cast out." Moreover,
I should feel that if He failed in one promise, He might fail in
others! I could not go and preach a possible but doubtful Gospel! I
must have, "shalls," and, "wills," from the eternal Throne of God–but
if it is not so, our preaching is in vain–and your faith is also in
vain.

See what would follow if one soul came to Christ and Christ cast him
out. All the saints would lose their confidence in Him. If a man breaks
his promise once, it is of no use for him to say, "Well, I am generally
truthful." You have caught him false to his word, once, and you will
not trust Him again, will you? No! And if our dear Lord, whose every
Word is Truth, could break one of His promises only once, He would not
be trusted by His people any more–and His Church would lose the faith
that is her very life.

Ah, me, and then they would hear of it up in Heaven. And one soul that
came to Christ, and was cast away, would stop the music of the harps of
Heaven, would dim the luster of the Glory Land, and take away its joy,
for it would be whispered among the glorified, "Jesus has broken His
promise! He cast away a praying, believing soul! He may break His
promise to us–He may drive us out of Heaven!" When they began to
praise Him, this one act of His would make a lump come in their throats
and they would be unable to sing. They would be thinking of that poor
soul that trusted Him and was cast away– how could they sing, "Unto
Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood," if
they had to add–"But He did not wash all that came to Him, though He
promised that He would"?

I do not even like to talk of all that the supposition would involve!
It is something so dreadful to me, for they would hear of it in
Hell–and they would tell it to one another and an awful glee would
take possession of the fiendish hearts of

the devil and all his companions! And they would say, "The Christ is
not true to His Word! The boasted Savior rejected one who came to Him.
He used to receive even harlots–He even let one wash His feet with her
tears! And publicans and sinners came and gathered about Him and He
spoke to them in tones of love. But here is one–well, he was too vile
for the Savior to bless! He was too far gone, Jesus could not restore
him! Christ could not cleanse him. He could save little sinners, but
not great ones! He could save sinners eighteen hundred years ago. Oh,
He made a fine show of them, but His power is now exhausted! He cannot
save a sinner now!" Oh, in the halls of Hell, what jests and ridicule
would be poured upon that dear name and, I had almost said, justly, if
Christ cast out one who came to Him! But, Beloved, that can never be!
It is as sure as God's oath, as certain as Jehovah's Being that he who
comes to Christ shall in no wise be cast out! I gladly bear my own
witness before this assembled throng that–

"I came to Jesus as I was Weary and worn, and sad. I found in Him a
resting place, And He has made me glad."

Come, each one of you, and prove the text to be true in your own
experience, for the Lord Jesus Christ's sake! Amen.

EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: Psalm 89:1-37; John 6:22-40.

Psalm 89. Maschil of Ethan the Ezrahite. That is to say, an instructive
Psalm, written by or for one Ethan, one of the great singers of David's
day. He sings of the Covenant, the Covenant with David, ordered in all
things and sure. There is no higher theme for song than the Covenant of
God's Grace. One marvels that it has not more often been sung by those
who are the gifted children of poesy.

Verse 1. I will sing of the mercies of the LORD forever. Another
subject might wear out, but this glorious topic will never be
exhausted! Here is a theme which we can sing of in eternity as well as
in time. Let others choose what subject they may, "I will sing of the
mercies of Jehovah forever."

1. With my mouth will I make known Your faithfulness to all
generations. God's faithfulness is the mercy of His mercy! It is the
center point of His goodness that His goodness endures forever. We are
not only to sing, we are to teach. The Psalmist says, "With my mouth
will I make known Your faithfulness to all generations." In telling his
own experience, narrating what he had observed, as well as what he had
proved of God's faithfulness to His promise and His Covenant, he would
do this so that following generations should know about it. We are the
schoolmasters of the ages to come–I mean, saints who have experienced
the mercy and the faithfulness of God. We ought to make known Jehovah's
faithfulness to all generations that are yet to come.

2. For I have said, Mercy shall be built up forever. What a
building–Mercy! God's mercy is to be built up forever.

2. Your faithfulness shall You establish in the very heavens. Like the
great arch you see in the firmament on high, un-buttressed and
unpillared, yet it stands fast. So shall God's faithfulness be built
up, settled and established in the very heavens. And now God speaks–

3. I have made a Covenant with My chosen, I have sworn unto David My
servant. Well might the Psalmist say, in the second verse, "I have
said," when God in the third verse says, "I have sworn." It is ours to
say, but it is God's to say with such tremendous solemnity that doubt
cannot be tolerated! "I have made a Covenant with My chosen," King
David, who is, however, but the type of his greater Son, our Lord Jesus
Christ, the heir of the dynasty of David. With Him is this Covenant
made forever.

4. Your seed will I establish forever, and build up your throne to all
generations. Selah. Whatever may happen in the world, David's Seed is
always reigning. Whatever kings may lose their crowns, King Jesus will
never lose the many crowns that are on His head! God has sworn
it–"Your seed will I establish forever, and build up your throne to
all generations." Then comes the word, "Selah." Rest. Meditate. And
truly, here is enough to rest and meditate upon for many a day, if we
went no farther into the Psalm!

5. And the heavens shall praise Your wonder, O LORD: Your faithfulness,
also, in the congregation of the saints. The Psalmist meant to praise
God at such a rate that the sun, moon and stars should hear his song,
while angels and the host re-

deemed by blood should learn to praise God better than ever. "Your
faithfulness also in the congregation of the saints"– one saint begins
to sing of God's faithfulness and the others take it up–for God is not
faithful to one, only, but to all His people. This is a subject which,
when once started, will produce an echo in every Believer's heart.

6. 7. For who in the Heaven can be compared unto the LORD? Who among
the lions of the mighty can be likened unto the LORD? God is greatly to
be feared in the assembly of the saints. The holiest are always the
most reverent. There is no fear of God in the assembly of the sinners,
but, "He is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints."

7. And to be had in reverence of all them that are about Him. The
nearer they came to Him, the more is their awe of Him! The greater
their love, the deeper is their humility. God will not have those about
Him who are flippant and irreverent! He is "to be had in reverence of
all them that are about Him."

8. O LORD God of Hosts, who is a strong LORD like unto You? Or to Your
faithfulness round about You? Note how the Psalmist harps upon that one
string–"faithfulness." Ah, dear Friends, there are times when this is
the sweetest note in the whole scale! "Your faithfulness"–we have a
God who never forgets His promises, but keeps them to the moment–a God
who never changes! We have a God who never turns away from His Word.
"Your faithfulness." Oh, what a blessed virtue is this in God! Let us
praise Him for it forever. "Your faithfulness round about You"–as if
the Lord never went outside the ring of faithfulness, never did
anything that broke His promises, or that made any of His children to
doubt. And it is even so!

9. You rule the raging of the sea: when the waves thereof rise, You
still them. Are you now in a storm, my Brother? My Sister, are you now
tempest-tossed? Listen to this Word of God and remember the Lord High
Admiral of the fleet on the Lake of Galilee and how, after He had been
asleep for awhile, He arose and rebuked the winds and the waves! "You
rule the raging of the sea: when the waves thereof rise, You still
them."

10. You have broken Rahab in pieces, as one that is slain; You have
scattered Your enemies with Your strong arm. Rahab was Egypt. The word
means, "strong," "mighty," "proud"–all of which were the
characteristics of Egypt–which God broke in pieces at the Red Sea.
Pharaoh was the greatest of monarchs at the time, but, oh, how soon he
had to yield when God's right arm was bared for war!

11. The heavens are Yours, the earth also is Yours: as for the world
and the fullness thereof, You have founded them. Sometimes we are
tempted to think that the earth cannot be God's–all over the globe man
is the master. He claims everything. If men could map out the heavens,
we would have owners for every single twinkling star and, if they could
have their way, we would have to buy our light by measure, and our
sunshine by weight. But, "the earth is the Lord's, and the fullness
thereof." And the heavens are also His.

12. The north and the south You have created them: Tabor and Hermon.
East and West, as well as North and South– 12. Shall rejoice in Your
name. There is not a place where God is not to be found! All the points
of the compass are

compassed by God. You cannot go where the Lord's love reigns not, nor
where Providence will not follow you.

13-15. You have a mighty arm: strong is Your hand, and high is Your
right hand. Justice and judgment are the habitation of Your Throne:
mercy and truth shall go before Your face. Blessed is the people that
know the joyful sound. There are some who hear it and yet are not
blessed. Blessed are they who "know" it, know its peculiar accent, know
its inward power, know its Omnipotence, know its unchangeableness, know
it by having tried it and proved it and rested in it! "Blessed is the
people that know the joyful sound."

15. They shall walk, O LORD, in the light of Your Countenance. It is
all the light they need. Let God but smile, it makes their day! If
every candle were blown out, yet the favor of God would make life
bright enough for them.

16. In Your name shall they rejoice all the day: and in Your
righteousness shall they be exalted. Even in God's righteousness! Until
we know the Lord, we are afraid of His righteousness, but when we come
to know Him, His righteousness, which once frowned upon us, becomes our
Heaven! "God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love."
God is not unrighteous to cast away a soul that puts its trust in
Christ. God is one with His people. When we rejoice all the day in His
name, we are exalted in His righteousness.

17-19. For You are the glory of their strength: and in Your favor our
horn shall be exalted. For the LORD is our defense; and the Holy One of
Israel is our King. Then You spoke in Vision to Your holy one, and
said, I have laid help upon one that is mighty; I have exalted one
chosen out of the people. This is David first, but it is Christ high
above David. One of ourselves,

the carpenter's Son, yet has God made Him to be the Head over all
things for His Church–"I have exalted one chosen out of the people."

20, 21. I have found David, My servant, with My holy oil have I
anointed him: with whom My hand shall be established: My arm, also,
shall strengthen him. The full power of God is with Christ. That same
arm that bears up the earth's huge pillars and spreads the heavens
abroad, is engaged on behalf of the cause and Kingdom of the Son of
David.

22. The enemy shall not exact upon Him; nor the son of wickedness
afflict Him. He had enough of that when He was upon the earth, but it
is all over now. He has gone into His Glory and the enemy cannot touch
Him.

23. And I will beat down His foes before His face and plague them that
hate Him. This is the portion of all haters of Christ. God will,
somehow or other, in the order of His Providence, bring the evil home
to them. If they will not have God's Son, they shall not have His
mercy–they shall, sooner or later, be beaten down before His face.

24. 25. But My faithfulness and My mercy shall be with Him: and in My
name shall His horn be exalted. I will set His hand also in the sea,
and His right hand in the rivers. He shall reign "from sea to sea, and
from the river unto the ends of the earth." We may go on to fight for
Him, for His triumph is sure!

26. 27. He shall cry unto Me, You are My Father, My God, and the rock
of my salvation. Also I will make Him My firstborn, higher than the
kings of the earth. So He is! First-born among men, first-born of
kings, His Throne is loftier than the most imperial power on the earth.
Blessed be His name! Let us adore Him tonight and here, in the midst of
His people, let us crown Him Lord of All!

28-36. My mercy will I keep for him forevermore, and My Covenant shall
standfast with him. His seed also will I make to endure forever, and
his throne as the days of Heaven. If his children forsake My Law, and
walk not in My judgments; if they break My statutes, and keep not My
Commandments; then will I visit their transgression with the rod, and
their iniquity with stripes. Nevertheless My loving kindness will I not
utterly take from them, nor suffer My faithfulness to fail. My Covenant
will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of My lips. Once
have I sworn by My holiness that I will not lie unto David. His seed
shall endure forever, and his throne as the sun before Me. The Son of
David is still King in the midst of the true Israel. Still Jesus reigns
and on and on, forever and forever, great David's greater Son shall be
King of Kings, and Lord of Lords!

37. It shall be established forever as the moon, and as a faithful
witness in Heaven. Selah. Now let us read a passage from the New
Testament showing how the Lord Jesus dealt with the crowds that came to
Him.

John 6:22-26. The day following, when the people which stood on the
other side of the sea saw that there was no other boat there, save that
one whereunto His disciples were entered, and that Jesus went not with
His disciples into the boat, but that His disciples were gone away
alone; (howbeit there came other boats from Tiberius near unto the
place where they did eat bread, after that the Lord had given thanks)
when the people therefore saw that Jesus was not there neither His
disciples, they also took shipping and came to Capernaum, seeking for
Jesus. And when they had found Him on the other side of the sea, they
said unto Him, Rabbi, when did You comer here? Jesus answered them and
said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, You seek Me not because you saw
the miracles, but because you did eat of the loaves, and were filled.
Mixed motives bring multitudes together. How true our Master was! How
outspoken! He never tried to win a disciple by holding back the
truth–and often He spoke very plainly, indeed, as on this
occasion–"You seek Me not because you saw the miracles, but because
you did eat of the loaves, and were filled."

27. Labor not for the meat which perishes, but for that meat which
endures unto everlasting life, which the Son of Man shall give unto
you: for Him has God the Father sealed. He seemed to say to them, "Do
not come to Me for bread and fish. I have given you that. Come for
something better. Come to Me for spiritual food–food for your
souls–food for eternity!" It is with that objective that we should go
to the House of God–not to listen to this preacher or that–but to
hear the Word of God, that we may live thereby.

28. Then said they unto Him, What shall we do, that we might work the
works of God? "What are the best works that we can do? What are the
most acceptable?" I wonder what they expected Christ to say? I am sure
they did not look for the answer that they received.

29. Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that
you believe on Him whom He has sent. The greatest, the best, the most
acceptable work in all the world is that you come and trust Christ!
This saves you–nothing else will do so. "This is the work of God, that
you believe on Him whom He has sent."

30, 31. They said therefore unto Him, What sign do You show, then, that
we may see and believe You? What do You work? Our fathers did eat manna
in the desert; as it is written, He gave them bread from Heaven to eat.
See how they came round to the old subject, again–bread to eat? The
Lord Jesus Christ may point them to something higher and better, but
their carnal minds always return to that congenial topic–something to
eat. Their stomach was lord of their heart!

32. Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses
gave you not that bread from Heaven; but My Father gives you the true
Bread from Heaven. "That which will really feed you and feed you for
all eternity." Moses could not give the people that bread–only the
Father can give "the true Bread from Heaven."

33. For the Bread of God is He which comes down from Heaven and gives
life unto the world. "The Bread of God is He." What a strange
expression, yet what a true one! The Bread of Heaven is Christ,
Himself! You must come and take Him to yourself and trust Him for your
salvation–and in that way feed upon Him, or you can never have the
heavenly Bread which both gives life and sustains life.

34-39. Then said they unto Him, Lord, evermore give us this bread. And
Jesus said unto them, I am the Bread of life. He that comes to Me shall
never hunger; and He that believes on Me shall never thirst. But I said
unto you, That you also have seen Me and believe not. All that the
Father gives Me shall come to Me, and him that comes to Me I will in no
wise cast out. For I came down from Heaven, not to do My own will, but
the will of Him that sent Me. And this is the Father's will which has
sent Me, that of all which He has given Me, I should lose nothing, but
should raise it up again at the last day. See how the salvation of
Christ reaches right to the end of all things? You and I may die, but
though we lie a while in the grave, the salvation of Christ will
preserve us, to raise us up, again, at the Last Day! There shall not be
a bone nor a piece of a bone, of a true Believer, left in the enemies'
land. All Israel and all that belongs to Israel shall come out of this
Egypt, through the blood of the Lamb–not a hoof shall be left behind.

40. And this is the will of Him that sent Me that everyone which sees
the Son, and believes on Him, may have everlasting life: and I will
raise him up at the Last Day. May all of us see the Son and believe on
Him, that we may have everlasting life, and that He may raise us up at
the Last Day, for His dear name's sake! Amen.