A Free Grace Promise

A Free Grace Promise

A Sermon

(No. 2082)

Intended for Reading on Lord's-day, May 5th, 1888.

Delivered by

C. H. SPURGEON,

At the [4]Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington,

On Thursday Evening, October 11th, 1888.

"And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of
the Lord shall be delivered."'Joel 2:32.

VENGEANCE was in full career. The armies of divine justice had been
called forth for war: "They shall run like mighty men; they shall climb
the wall like men of war." They had invaded and devastated the land,
and turned the land from being like the garden of Eden into a desolate
wilderness. All faces gathered blackness: the people were "much pained"
The sun itself was dim, the moon was dark, and the stars withdrew
themselves: the earth quaked, and the heavens trembled. At such a
dreadful time, when we might least have expected it, between the peals
of thunder and the flashes of lightning, was heard this gentle word,
"It shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the
Lord shall be delivered." Let us carefully read the passage: "And I
will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and
pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon
into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the Lord come. And
it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the
Lord shall be delivered." In the worst times that can ever happen,
there is still salvation for men. When day turns to night, and life
becomes death, and the staff of life is broken, and the hope of man has
fled, there still remains in God, in the person of his dear Son,
deliverance to all those who will call upon the name of the Lord. We do
not know what is to happen: reading the roll of the future, we prophesy
dark things; but still this light shall always shine between the rifts
of the cloud-wrack: "Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall
be delivered."

This passage was selected by the apostle at Pentecost to be set in its
place as a sort of morning star of gospel times. When the Spirit was
poured out upon the servants and the handmaids, and sons and daughters
began to prophesy, it was clear that the wondrous time had come, which
had been foretold so long before. Then Peter, as he preached his
memorable sermon, told the people, "Whosoever shall call on the name of
the Lord shall be saved"; thus giving a fuller and yet more evangelical
meaning to the word "delivered." "Whosoever shall call on the name of
the Lord shall be delivered" from sin, death and hell'shall, in fact,
be so delivered as to be, in divine language, "saved"'saved from the
guilt, the penalty, the power of sin, saved from the wrath to come.
These gospel times are still the happy days in which "whosoever shall
call on the name of the Lord shall be saved." In the Year of Grace we
have reached a day and an hour in which "whosoever shall call on the
name of the Lord shall be saved." To you at this moment is this
salvation sent. The dispensation of immediate acceptance proclaimed at
Pentecost has never ceased: its fulness of blessing has grown rather
than diminshed. The sacred promise stands in all its certainty,
fulness, and freeness: it has lost none of all its breadth and length:
"Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved."

I have nothing to do to-night but to tell you over again the old, old
story of infinite mercy come to meet infinite sin'of free grace come to
lead free will into a better line of things'of God himself appearing to
undo man's ruin wrought by man, and to lift him up by a great
deliverance. May the Holy Spirit graciously aid me while I shall talk
to you very simply, thus:'

I. First, THERE IS SOMETHING ALWAYS WANTED. That something is
deliverance, or "salvation." It is always wanted. It is the requisite
of man, wherever man is found. As long as there are men on the face of
the earth, there will always be a need of salvation. I could wish that
some of you had the instructive schooling which I received last
Tuesday, when I was sitting to see enquirers. I had a very happy time
in seeing a very large number of persons who had joyfully put their
trust in Christ; but among them were some who could not trust'poor
hearts, conscious of sin, though they did not think they were. These
seemed bound hand and foot, shut up in the prison of despair, and
darkened in heart. I tell you, I felt dismayed as they baffled me: I
felt a fool as they refused to be comforted. I could do nothing for
them so far as argument and persuasion were concerned. I could pray
with them: I could also set them praying, and they did pray: but they
were cases in which, unless the arm of God were revealed, I was as
powerless with them as when a man stands weeping over the body of his
dead wife, and would restore her to life even at the cost of his own
life, and yet he could produce neither hearing nor motion. Dear
friends, while we mingle only with those who are saved, we forget how
much need there is still of a divine salvation. If we could go through
London, into its dens and slums, we should think very differently of
human need from what we do when we simply come from our own quiet
domestic circle, and step into our pew and hear a sermon. The world is
still sick and dying. The world is still corrupting and rotting. The
world is a ship in which the water is rising fast, and the vessel is
going down into the deep of destruction. God's salvation is wanted as
much to-day as when the spirit preached it in Noah's day to the spirits
in prison. God must step in, and bring deliverance, or there remains no
hope.

Some want deliverance from present trouble. If you are in this need
to-night through very sore distress, I invite you to take my text as
your guide, and believe that "whosoever shall call on the name of the
Lord shall be delivered." Depend upon it, in any form of distress,
physical, mental, or whatever it may be, prayer is wonderfully
available. "Call upon me," says God, "in the day of trouble: I will
deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me." If you are so down at the
heel that your foot is on the bare pavement; if you have come to this
place in bodily sickness, and feel as if you should die on the seat in
which you sit; if there be no physician to help you, and no friend to
stretch out a generous hand, call upon God, I beseech you. You have
come to the end of men; you are now at the beginning of God. See
whether your Maker will forget you. See whether the great, generous
heart of God does not still beat tenderly towards the sorrowful and the
afflicted. If I saw you lying wounded on a battle-field, bleeding to
death, I would say, "Call upon God." If I knew that you had not a house
to go to, but must walk these streets all night, I would say,
"Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered." I
will take the text in the broadest sense, and bid you, nay, command
you, to test your good and gracious God in the day of your calamity.

This is true whenever you come into a position of deep personal
distress, even though it should not be of a physical kind. When you do
not know how to act, but are bewildered and at your wits' end, when
wave of trouble has followed wave of trouble till you are like the
sailor in the storm who reels to and fro, and staggers like a drunken
man; if now you cannot help yourself, because your spirit sinks and
your mind fails, call upon God, call upon God, call upon God! Lost
child in the wood, with the night fog thickening about you, ready to
lie down and die, call upon your Father! Call upon God, thou distracted
one; for "Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be
delivered." In the last great day when all secrets are known, it will
seem ridiculous that ever persons took to writing tales and romances;
for the real stories of what God has done for those who cry to him are
infinitely more surprising. If men and women could but tell in simple,
natural language how God has come to their rescue in the hour of
imminent distress, they would set the harps of heaven a-ringing with
new melodies, and the hearts of saints on earth a-glowing with new love
to God for his wonderful kindness to the children of men. Oh that men
would praise the Lord for his goodness! Oh that we could abundantly
utter the memory of his great goodness to ourselves in the night of our
weeping!

The text holds good concerning deliverance from future troubles. What
is to happen in the amazing future we do not know. Some try to startle
and alarm you with prophecies of what will soon happen; concerning whom
I would warn you to be well upon your guard. Take small heed of what
they say. Whatever is to happen according to the Word of God'if the sun
shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood'if God shall show
great wonders in the heavens, and the earth, blood and fire, and
pillars of smoke, yet remember that though you will then assuredly want
deliverance, deliverance will still be near at hand. The text seems put
in a startling connection in order to advise us that when the worst and
most terrible convulsions shall occur, "Whosoever shall call on the
name of the Lord shall be saved." The star Wormwood may fall, but we
shall be saved if we call upon the name of the Lord. Plagues may be
poured out, trumpets may sound, and judgments may follow one another as
quickly as the plagues of Egypt, but "Whosoever shall call on the name
of the Lord shall be saved." When the need of deliverance shall
apparently increase, the abundance of salvation shall increase with it.
Fear not the direst of all wars, the bitterest of all famines, the
deadliest of all plagues; for still, if we call upon the Lord, he is
pledged to deliver us. This word of promise meets the most terrible of
possibilities with a sure salvation.

Yes, and when you come to die, when to you the sun has turned into
darkness, and the moon into blood, this text ensures deliverance in the
last dread hour. Call upon the name of the Lord, and you shall be
saved. Amid the pains of death, and the gloom of departure, you shall
enjoy a glorious visitation, which shall turn darkness into light, and
sorrow into joy. When you wake up amid the realities of the eternal
future there will be nothing for you to dread in resurrection, or in
judgment, or in the yawning mouth of hell. If you have called upon the
name of the Lord, you shall still be delivered. Though the unpardoned
are thrust down to the depth of woe, and the righteous scarcely are
saved, yet you who have called upon the name of the Lord must be
delivered. Stands the promise firm, whatever may be hidden in the great
roll of the future; God cannot deny himself, he will deliver those who
call upon his name.

What is wanted, then, is salvation; and I do think, beloved brethren,
that you and I who preach the Word, and long to save souls, must very
often go over this grand old truth about salvation to the guilty,
deliverance to all who call upon the name of the Lord. Sometimes we
talk to friends about the higher life, about attaining to very high
degrees of sanctity; and all this is very proper and very good; but
still the great fundamental truth is, "Whosoever shall call on the name
of the Lord shall be saved." We urge our friends to be sound in
doctrine, and to know what they do know, and to understand the revealed
will of God; and very proper is this also; but still, first and
foremost, this is the elementary, all-important truth'"Whosoever shall
call on the name of the Lord shall be saved." To this old foundation
truth we come back for comfort. I sometimes rejoice in God, and joy in
the God of my salvation, and spread my wings and mount up into
communion with the heavenlies; but still there are other seasons when I
hide my head in darkness, and then I am very glad of such a broad,
gracious promise as this, "Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord
shall be saved." I find that my sweetest, happiest, safest state, is
just as a poor, guilty, helpless sinner, to call upon the name of the
Lord, and take mercy at his hands as one who deserves nothing but his
wrath, while I dare hang the weight of my soul on such a sure promise
as this, "Whosoever shall can on the name of the Lord shall be saved."
Get where you may, however high your experience; be what you may,
however great your usefulness, you will always want to come back to the
same ground upon which the poorest and weakest of hearts must stand,
and claim to be saved by almighty grace, through simply calling upon
the name of the Lord.

Thus have I said enough upon what is always wanted'this deliverance,
this salvation.

II. Now, secondly, let us attentively observe THE WAY IN WHICH THIS
DELIVERANCE IS TO BE HAD. Help us, blessed Spirit, in this our
meditation. It is to be had, according to the text, by calling upon the
name of the Lord.

Is not the most obvious sense of this language, prayer? Are we not
brought to the Lord by a prayer which trusts in God'by a prayer which
asks God to give the deliverance that is needed, and expects to have it
from the Lord, as a gift of grace ? It amounts to much the same thing
as that other word, "Believe and live"; for how shall they call on him
of whom they have not heard? And if they have heard, yet vain is their
calling if they have not believed as well as heard. But to "call on the
name of the Lord," is briefly to pray a believing prayer; to cry to God
for his help, and to leave yourself in his hands. This is very simple,
is it not? There is no cumbersome machinery here, nothing complex and
mysterious. No priestly help is wanted, except the help of that great
High Priest, who intercedes for us within the veil. A poor, broken
heart pours its distress into the ear of God, and calls upon him to
fullfil his promise of help in the time of need'that is all. Thank God,
nothing more is mentioned in our text. The promise is'"Whosoever shall
call on the name of the Lord shall be saved."

What a suitable way of salvation it is to those who feel that they can
do nothing! Ah, dear hearts! if we had to preach to them a very
difficult and elaborate salvation, they would perish. They have not the
mind, some of them, to follow our directions if they were at all
intricate; and they have not enough hope to venture upon anything that
looks at all difficult. But if it be true that "Whosoever shall call on
the name of the Lord shall be saved," this method is simple and
available, and they catch at it. He can pray to God who can do nothing
else. Thank God, he need not want to do anything else; for if he can
call for help, he gets deliverance, and, in that deliverance, he gets
all that he will ever want between this place and heaven. He has called
upon the name of the Lord, and all that is deficient in him will be
supplied for time and for eternity. He will be delivered, not only now,
but throughout all the future of his life, until he sees the face of
God in glory everlasting.

The text, however, contains within it a measure of specific
instruction: the prayer must be to the true God. "Whosoever shall call
on the name of Jehovah shall be saved." There is something distinctive
here; for one would call on Baal, another would call on Ashtaroth, and
a fourth on Moloch; but these would not be saved. The promise is
special: "Whosoever shall call on the name of Jehovah shall be saved."
You know that triune name, "Father, Son, and Holy Ghost "'call upon it.
You know how the name of Jehovah is set forth most conspicuously in the
person of the Lord Jesus'call upon him. Call upon the true God. Call
upon no idol, call on no Virgin Mary, no saint, dead or living. Call on
no image. Call on no impression of your mind! Call upon the living
God'call upon him who reveals himself in the Bible'call upon him who
manifests himself in the person of his dear Son; for whosoever shall
call upon this God shall be saved. You may call upon the idols, but
these will not hear you: "Ears have they, but they hear not. Eyes have
they, but they see not." You may not call upon men, for they are all
sinners like yourselves. Priests cannot help their most zealous
admirers; but, "Whosoever shall call on the name of Jehovah shall be
saved." Mind, then, it is not the mere repetition of a prayer as a sort
of charm, or a piece of religious witchcraft, but you must make a
direct address to God, an appeal to the Most High to help you in your
time of need. In presenting true prayer to the true God you shall be
delivered.

Moreover, the prayer should be intelligently presented. We read,
"Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord." Now, by the word "name"
we understand the person, the character of the Lord. The more, then,
you know about the Lord, and the better you know his name, the more
intelligently will you call upon that name. If you know his power, you
will call upon that power to help you. If you know his mercy, you will
call upon him in his grace to save you. If you know his wisdom, you
feel that he knows your difficulties, and can help you through them. If
you understand his immutability, you will call upon him, as the same
God who has saved other sinners, to come and save you. It will be well,
therefore, for you to study the Scriptures much, and to pray the Lord
to manifest himself to you that you may know him; since, in proportion
to your acquaintance with him, will you with greater confidence be able
to call upon his name. But, little as you may know, call on him
according to the little you do know. Cast yourself upon him, whether
your trouble to-night be external or internal; but especially if it be
internal, if it be the trouble of sin, if it be the burden of guilt, if
it be a load of horror and fear because of wrath to come, call upon the
name of the Lord, for you shall be delivered. There stands his promise.
It is not, "He may be delivered," but he "shall be." Note well the
everlasting "shall" of God'irrevocable, unalterable, unquestionable,
irresistible. His promise stands eternally the same. Hath he said, and
shall he not do it? "Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall
be saved."

This way of salvation, by calling upon the name of the Lord, glorifies
God. He asks nothing of you but that you ask everything of him. You are
the beggar, and he is the benefactor. You are in the trouble, and he is
the Deliverer. All you have to do is to trust him, and beg of him. This
is easy enough. This puts the matter into the hands of the Lord, and
takes it out of your hands. Do you not like the plan? Put it in
practice immediately! It will prove itself gloriously effectual.

Dear friends, I speak to some whom I know to be now present, who are
under severe trial. You dare not look up. You seem to be given up; at
any rate you have given yourself up; and yet, I pray you, call upon the
name of the Lord. You cannot perish praying; no one has ever done so.
If you could perish praying, you would be a new wonder in the universe.
A praying soul in hell is an utter impossibility. A man calling on God
and rejected of God!'the supposition is not to be endured. "Whosoever
shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved." God himself must
lie, he must quit his nature, forfeit his claim to mercy, destroy his
character of love, if he were to let a poor sinner call upon his name,
and yet refuse to hear him. There will come a day, but that is not
now'there will come a day in the next state when he will say, "I
called, but ye refused" ; but it is not so now. While there is life
there is hope. "To-day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your
heart," but call upon God at once; for this warrant of grace runneth
through all the regions of mortality, "Whosoever shall call on the name
of the Lord shall be saved."

I recollect a time when, if I had heard a sermon on this subject,
putting it plainly to me, I should have leaped into comfort and light
in a single moment. Is it not such a time with you? I thought, I must
do something, I must be something, I must in some way prepare myself
for the mercy of God. I did not know that a calling upon God, a
trusting myself in his hand, an invocation of his sacred name, would
bring me to Christ, the Saviour. But so it stands, and happy, indeed,
was I when I found it out. Heaven is given away. Salvation may be had
for the asking. I hope that many a captive heart here will at once leap
to loose his chains, and cry, "It is even so. If God has said it, it
must be true. There it is in his own Word. I have called upon him, and
I must be delivered."

III. Now I come to notice, in the third place, THE PEOPLE TO WHOM THIS
PROMISE AND THIS DELIVERANCE WILL BE GIVEN. "Whosoever shall call upon
the name of the Lord shall be delivered."

According to the connection, the people had been greatly afflicted'
afflicted beyond all precedent, afflicted to the very brink of despair;
but the Lord said, "Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall
be saved." Go down to the hospital. You may select, if you please, the
hospital which deals with the effects of vice. In that house of misery
you may stand at each bed and say, "Whosoever shall call on the name of
the Lord shall be saved." You may then hasten every door of every cell,
yes, even at the grating of the condemned cell, if there lie men and
women there given up to death, and you may with safety say to each one,
"Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be delivered."

I know what the Pharisees will say'"If you preach this, men will go on
in sin." It has always been so, that the great mercy of God has been
turned by some into a reason for continuing in sin; but God (and this
is the wonder of it) has never restricted his mercy because of that. It
must have been a terrible provocation of Almighty grace when men have
perverted his mercy into an excuse for sin, but the Lord has never even
taken the edges off from his mercy because men have misused it: he has
still made it stand out bright and clear: "Whosoever shall call upon
the name of the Lord shall be saved." Still he cries, "Turn and live."
"Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts:
and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and
to our God, for he will abundantly pardon." Undimmed is that brave sun
that shineth on the foulest dunghills of vice. Trust Christ, and live.
Call upon the name of the Lord, and you shall be pardoned; yea, you
shall be rescued from the bondage of your sin, and be made a new
creature, a child of God, a member of the family of his grace. The most
afflicted, and the most afflicted by sin, are met with by this gracious
promise, "Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved."

Yes, but there were some, according to Joel, who had the Spirit of God
poured out upon them. What about them? Were they saved by that ? Oh no!
Those who had the Spirit of God so that they dreamed dreams and saw
visions, yet had to come to the palace of mercy by this same gate of
believing prayer'"Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be
saved." Ah, poor souls! you say, to yourselves, "if we were deacons of
churches, if we were pastors, oh, then we should be saved!" You do not
know anything about it: church officers are no more saved by their
office than you are by being without office. We owe nothing to our
official position in this matter of salvation: in fact, we may owe our
damnation to our official standing unless we look well to our ways. We
have no preference over you plain folks. I do assure you, I am quite
happy to take your hand, whoever you may be, and come to Christ on the
same footing as yourself.

"Nothing in my hand I bring,

Simply to thy cross I cling."

Often, when I have been cheering up a poor sinner, and urging him to
believe in Christ, I have thought, "Well, if he will not drink this cup
of comfort, I will even drink it up myself." I assure you, I need it as
much as those to whom I carry it. I have been as big a sinner as any of
you, and therefore I take the promise to myself. The divine cordial
shall not be lost: I will accept it. I came to Jesus as I was, weary,
and worn, and faint, and sick, and full of sin, and I trusted him on my
own account, and found peace'peace on the same ground as my text sets
before all of you. If I drink of this consolation, you may drink it
too. The miracle of this cup is that fifty may drink, and yet it is
just as full as ever. There is no restriction in the word "Whosoever."
You maidens that have the Spirit of God upon you, and you old men that
dream, it is neither the Spirit of God nor the dreaming that will save
you; but your calling on the sacred name. It is, "whosoever shall call
on the name of the Lord shall be saved."

Also, there were some upon whom the Spirit of God did not fall. They
did not speak with tongues, nor prophesy the future, nor work miracles;
but though they did none of these marvels, yet it stood true to
them'"Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved."
What though no supernatural gift was bestowed, though they saw no
vision and could not speak with tongues, they called upon the name of
the Lord, and they were saved. There is the same way of salvation for
the little as well as for the great, for the poorest and most obscure
as well as for those that are strong in faith, and lead the hosts of
God to the battle.

But some were terribly afraid. I should think that a good many must
have been sadly alarmed when there were in the earth blood and fire and
pillars of smoke, the sun turned into darkness and the moon into blood:
but, afraid as they were, if they called upon the name of the Lord,
they were delivered. Now, Mrs. Much-afraid, what do you say to that?
Mr. Ready-to-halt, did I hear your crutches sounding in the aisle just
now, or was it an umbrella? Never mind, if you call upon the name of
the Lord, you shall be saved. You that are so feeble in mind, so weak,
so wounded that you hardly dare to trust, still it is written for your
sakes also, "Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be
saved."

"Ah!" says another, "but I am worse than that. I have no good feelings.
I would give all that I have to own a broken heart. I wish I could even
feel despair, but I am hard as a stone." I have been told that
sorrowful story many times, and it almost always happens that those who
most mourn their want of feeling are those who feel most acutely. Their
hearts are like hell-hardened steel, so they say; but it is not true.
But if it were true, "Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord
shall be saved." Do you think that the Lord wants you to give yourself
a new heart first, and that then he will save you? My dear soul, you
are saved when you have a new heart, and you do not want him to save
you then, since you are saved. "Oh, but I must get good feelings!" Must
you? Where are you going for them? Are you to rake the dunghill of your
depraved nature to find good feelings there? Come without any good
feeling. Come just as you are. Come, you that are like a frozen
iceberg, that have nothing about you whatever, but that which chills
and repels; come and call upon the name of the Lord, and you shall be
saved. "Wonders of grace to God belong." It is not a small gospel that
he has sent us to preach to small sinners, but ours is a great gospel
for great sinners. "Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall
be saved."

"Ah, well!" says one, "I cannot think it is meant for me, for I am
nobody." Nobody, are you there? I have a great love for nobodies. I am
worried with somebodies, and the worst somebody in the world is my own
somebody. How I wish I could always turn my own somebody out, and keep
company with none but nobodies! Then I should make Jesus everybody.
Nobody, where are you? You are the very person that I am sent to look
after. If there is nothing of you, there shall be all the more of
Christ. If you are not only empty, but cracked and broken; if you are
done for, destroyed, ruined, utterly crushed and broken, to you is this
word of salvation sent:'"Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord
shall be saved."

I have set the gate wide open. If it were the wrong track, all the
sheep would go through; but as it is the right road, I may set the gate
open as long as I will, but yet the sheep will shun it, unless thou,
Great Shepherd, shall go around the field to-night, and lead them in.
Take up in thine own arms some sheep that thou hast purchased long ago
with thy dear heart's blood'take him upon thy gracious shoulders,
rejoicing as thou doest it, and place him within the field where the
good pasture grows.

IV. I want you to dwell for a minute upon THE BLESSING ITSELF.
"Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered." I
need not say much about it because I have already expounded it. It is a
very good rule, when a man makes you a promise, to understand it in the
narrowest sense. It is fair to him that you should do so. Let him
interpret it liberally, if he pleases; but he is actually bound to give
you no more than the bare terms of his promise will imply.

Now, it is a rule which all God's people may well practise, always to
understand God's promises in the largest possible sense. If the words
will bear a bigger construction than at the first sight they naturally
suggest to you, you may put the larger construction upon them. "He is
able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or even think."
God never draws a line in his promise, that he may go barely up to it;
but it is with the great God as it was with his dear Son, who, though
he was sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, yet spent the
greater part of his time in Galilee, which was called, "Galilee of the
Gentiles"; and went to the very verge of Canaan to find out a
Canaanitish woman, that he might give her a blessing. Thou mayest put
the biggest and most liberal sense, then, on such a text as this, for
Peter did so. The New Testament is wont to give a broader sense to Old
Testament words; and it does so most rightly, for God loves us to treat
his words with the breadth of faith.

Come, then, if you are the subject of the judgments of God; if you
believe that God's hand has visited you on account of sin, call upon
him, and he will deliver you both from the judgment, and from the guilt
that brought the judgment'from the sin, and from that which follows the
sin. He will help you to escape. Try him now, I pray you.

And if your case should be different: if you are a child of God and you
are in trouble, and that trouble eats into your spirit, and causes you
daily wear of spirit and tear of heart'call upon the Lord. He can take
away from you the fret and the trouble too. "Whosoever shall call on
the name of the Lord shall be delivered." You may have to bear the
trouble, but it shall be so transformed as to be rather a blessing than
an evil, and you shall fall in love with your cross, since the nature
of it has been changed.

If sin be the great cause of your present trouble, and that sin has
brought you into bondage to evil habits, if you have been a drunkard
and do not know how to learn sobriety, if you have been unchaste and
have become entangled in vicious connections; call upon God, and he can
break you away from the sin, and set you free from all its
entanglements. He can cut you loose to-night with the great sword of
his grace, and make you a free man. I tell you that, though you should
be like a poor sheep between the jaws of a lion, ready to be devoured
immediately by the monster, God can come and pluck you out from between
the lion's jaws. The prey shall be taken from the mighty, and the
lawful captive shall be delivered. Only call upon the name of the Lord!
Call upon the name of the Lord, and you shall be delivered.

Yes, and I repeat what I said just now. If you have come under the
power of disease, if you are near to die, if already death has written
his name legibly upon your body, and you are afraid of death and hell;
yet call upon the name of the Lord, and you shall be delivered at this
last moment. Even now, when the pit gapes wide for you, and like Korah,
Dathan, and Abiram, you are ready to go down alive into it, call upon
the name of the Lord and you shall be delivered.

If I were telling you what I had made up, or hammered out of my own
brain, I could not expect you to believe me; but, as this Book is
inspired, and as Joel spoke in the name of God, and as the apostles
spoke in the name of Jehovah, this is the very truth of the God that
made the heavens and the earth. "Whosoever shall call on the name of
the Lord shall be delivered."

V. In conclusion, I must remind you of one mournful thought. Let me
warn you OF THE SADLY COMMON NEGLECT OF THIS BLESSING. You would think
that everybody would call upon the name of the Lord; but read the text,
"For in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the Lord
hath said." It shall be there as the Lord hath said. Will they not have
it then? Notice! "And in the remnant whom the Lord shall call." It
seems to shrivel me up altogether, that word "remnant." What! Will they
not come ? Are they madmen? Will they not come? No, only a remnant; and
even that remnant will not call upon the name of the Lord until first
God calls them by his grace. This is almost as great a wonder as the
love which so graciously invites them. Could even devils behave worse?
If they were invited to call upon God, and be saved, would they refuse?

Unhappy business! The way is plain, but "few there be that find it."
After all the preaching, and all the invitation, and the illimitable
breadth of the promise, yet all that are saved are contained "in the
remnant whom the Lord shall call." Is not our text a generous
invitation; the setting open of the door, yea, the lifting of the door
from off its hinges, that it never might be shut? And yet "broad is the
gate, and wide is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there
be that go in thereat." There they come, streams of them, hurrying
impatiently, rushing down to death and hell'yes, eagerly panting,
hurrying, dashing against one another to descend to that awful gulf
from which there is no return! No missionaries are wanted, no ministers
are needed to plead with men to go to hell. No books of persuasion are
wanted to urge them to rush onward to eternal ruin. They hurry to be
lost: they are eager to be destroyed. As when the wild bisons of the
prairie hasten onward in their madness, until they come to a great
gulf, and then rush down headlong, a cataract of life leaping to death,
so is it with the sons of men! They choose their own delusions, and
covet their own damnations, and that without end. This is all that
sovereign mercy rescues after all'a remnant, and that remnant only
because the arm of the Lord is revealed, and a miraculous power exerted
upon their wills. This is the misery of it, that the guilty are not
willing to be parted from their sins. They will not seek that which
alone is their life, their joy, their salvation. They prefer hell to
heaven, sin to holiness. Never spake the Master a word which
observation more clearly proves than when he said, "Ye will not come to
me, that ye might have life." You will attend your chapels, but you
will not call on the Lord. Jesus cries, "Ye search the scriptures; for
in them ye think ye have eternal life, and they are they which testify
of me; but ye will not come to me, that ye might have life." You will
do anything rather than come to Jesus. You stop short of calling upon
him. O my dear hearers, do not let it be so with you! Many of you are
saved; I beseech you intercede for those who are not saved. Oh, that
the unconverted among you may be moved to pray. Before you leave this
place, breathe an earnest prayer to God, saying, "God be merciful to me
a sinner. Lord, I need to be saved. Save me. I call upon thy name."
Join with me in prayer at this moment, I entreat you. Join with me
while I put words into your mouths, and speak them on your
behalf'"Lord, I am guilty. I deserve thy wrath. Lord I cannot save
myself. Lord, I would have a new heart and a right spirit, but what can
I do? Lord, I can do nothing, come and work in me to will and to do of
thy good pleasure.

"Thou alone hast power, I know,

To save a wretch like me;

To whom, or whither should I go

If I should turn from thee?"

But I now do from my very soul call upon thy name. Trembling, yet
believing, I cast myself wholly upon thee, O Lord. I trust the blood
and righteousness of thy dear Son; I trust thy mercy, and thy love, and
thy power, as they are revealed in him. I dare to lay hold upon this
word of thine, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall
be saved. Lord, save me to-night, for Jesus' sake. Amen."

PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON'JOEL 2:11-32.

HYMNS FROM "OUR OWN HYMN-BOOK"'282, 544, 275.