Christ’s Prayer for Believers

Christ's Prayer for Believers

(No. 3133)

A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 1909.

DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT UNICORN YARD CHAPEL, SOUTHWARK, ON
WEDNESDAY EVENING, AUGUST 29, 1855,

[ON BEHALF OF THE GOSPEL MINISTERS' RELIEF SOCIETY.]

"Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also who shall believe on
Me through their word." John 17:20.

IN the very opening of this subject one feels inexpressibly delighted
to see the wondrous love of our Savior towards His people. He here
promises that He will intercede for each of them before His Father's
Throne and He declares that this intercession also rises for those who
are yet uncalled, unconverted and unregenerated! Mark the depth of His
affection– He spends all His time in continually interceding for His
people. I marvel at the condescension of Jesus Christ, that His
people's names are always on His lips. When we consider that
notwithstanding all His exceeding Grace and affection towards them,
they transgress and rebel, it appears amazing that He should mention
their names, or that He should regard their persons! But when we
remember that, day by day, in that land where there is no night, He who
stands before His Father's Throne bears perpetually on His breast their
names deeply cut in the precious jewels and stones of the breastplate,
and always with outspread hands, pleads for them, we cannot but admire
His love for them and feel a deep veneration for that Divine Grace
which makes Him declare, "For Zion's sake will I not hold My peace and
for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest until the righteousness thereof
goes forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that
burns."

You must also note here the peculiar knowledge which our Savior, Jesus
Christ, has of all His people, as well as His particular love for them,
for He says He prays for those who are yet uncalled. Now, none of us
who have faith in God, none of those called and led to believe in
Jesus, are unknown to Him. He knows His redeemed as well in one
condition as another. He knows which of two drunks shall turn and
become one of His family. There are none so sunk in the depths of sin
and wickedness that if they are His by the Covenant of His Grace, do
not even now share in His intercession! He knows His Beloved when there
is no visible mark by which to know them. He discerns His sheep when,
to other people, they seem like wolves or goats. He recognizes His
family when they are black as the tents of Kedar and He knows they
shall be fair as the curtains of Solomon! He knows His children when
they do not know themselves to be His, when they fancy they are lost
beyond rescue, or when they foolishly conceive that they can save
themselves. Yes, and when all hope fails them–when it seems that the
Lord does not know them and the Gospel does not know them–when no
Christian knows them and the minister can give them no comfort–Christ
knows them even then, for it is still written, "I pray for them: I pray
not for the world, but for those whom You have given Me out of the
world; those who have not yet believed; but who shall believe through
the word of those who are already called."

Another thought before we pass to the subject, for we need to suggest a
few of these thoughts just to start with, as they are in the text. The
other thought is this–mark how Jesus loves all His people with the
same affection. He could not pray for those few who, in His lifetime,
had believed on Him without suddenly (to speak after the manner of
men), recollecting that these were but a handful and, therefore, He
stirs Himself up and says, "My Father, neither pray I for these, alone,
but also for them who shall believe on Me through their word"–as much
as to say, "These are not My special favorites because they are
converted so early. I do not love these better than others. I pray also
for those who shall yet be called. I pray as much for one of My people
as for another." It is well said by the Apostle Paul, "there is no
difference." And verily, Beloved, there is no difference in the
affection of God towards His children! There is an elect out

of the elect, I will acknowledge, as to gifts and standing and as to
the labor they may accomplish in this world–but there is no election
out of the elect as for a deeper extent of love! They are all loved
alike! They are all written in the same book of eternal love and life.
They were all purchased with the same precious blood of the Savior. One
was not purchased with His foot, another with His hand, but all with
His very heart's blood. They are all justified with the same
righteousness, all sanctified by the same Spirit and they shall all
enter the same Heaven! They are all saved by the same Grace, loved by
the same love, heirs of the same inheritance–and Jesus Christ puts
them all together when He says, "Neither pray I for these alone, but
for them, also, who shall believe on Me through their word."

I. Let us now proceed to the text. The first thing we learn from it is
this, that GOD LOVES HIS PEOPLE BEFORE THEY BELIEVE ON HIM.

Jesus Christ would never pray for those whom He did not love. He is no
hypocrite in His prayers. Some people are. Many prayers are not worth
buying. Indeed, they are not worth taking gratis–they are not prayers
at all! I have heard some pray for their Brothers in the ministry and
at the same time they do not act with them, or for them. We have seen
many bow the knee in prayer for such-and-such a person and when they
rise, their knees are unbent, but their hands are raised to strike the
very person for whom they were praying! We have too many hypocritical
prayers that are good for nothing! We might roll many into a parcel and
nobody would pick them up in the streets–they are worse than useless,
they are absolutely wicked! For a man to bend his knees and utter the
hypocritical language of affection before God which he never feels in
his heart is little short of blaspheming God! We must have very light
thoughts of God when we try to deceive Him with such prayers as these.
But Jesus Christ never prayed a deceitful prayer. If He intercedes for
any, He loves them. If He pleads for any, He has chosen them. If He
asks His Father that they may be blessed, we are sure that He asks it
from His heart. Christ's prayers all come from His inmost soul. You
never hear Him mentioning anyone's name before the Throne of God whom
He does not really love with an eternal affection. Hence, then, if
Jesus Christ prayed for His people before they were called and before
they believed–and if His intercession implies love–He must have loved
His people before they believed on Him.

This will very easily appear to you to be a Doctrine of Truth if we
consider the Scriptures at large. Some men will talk against it as a
wonderfully wicked Doctrine. I refer to those who believe in creature
merit and who imagine that we are "made children of God" by some act of
our own. But I think no sincere and earnest student of Scripture will
ever believe that God commences to love His people when they begin to
love Him! Such a thought would be utterly inconsistent with the Nature
of God. Do you not know that God is an eternal, self-existent Being,
that to say He loves now, is, in fact, to say He always did love, since
with God there is no past and can be no future? What we call past,
present and future, He wraps up in one eternal NOW. And if you say that
He loves you now, you thereby say that He loved you yesterday, He loved
you in the past eternity and He will love you forever–for nowwith God
is past, present and future! Those who talk of God's beginning to love
His people know not "what they say, nor whereof they affirm." They
might speak of man beginning to love. They might speak of angels
beginning to love. But of God we never can since He, without beginning,
had a deathless love in His heart. He has an affection which has no
source except in Himself. He could not begin, for He is without
beginning of years and without end of days! From everlasting to
everlasting He is God–and from everlasting to everlasting His mercies
extend to His people.

That is an argument, I think, that none can answer–that God loved His
wandering people not only because Christ intercedes for uncalled ones,
but because, from the very Nature of God, He must have loved them
forever if He loves them at all. But we do not need this proof that God
loved His people before they believed. Go to Calvary and you shall see
the greatest proof. Did my Savior die for me because I believed on Him?
No! I was not then in existence. I was not even formed, "and curiously
worked in the lowest parts of the earth." Could the Savior, then, have
died because I had faith when I was not in existence? Could that have
been the origin of the Savior's love towards me? Oh, no! My Savior died
for me long before I believed!

"But," you say, "He foresaw that you would have faith and, therefore,
He loved you." What did He foresee about my faith? Did He foresee that
I would get that faith, myself, and that I would believe on Him of
myself? No, my Friends, Christ could not foresee that because no
Christian will ever say that faith came of itself without the gift and
without the assistance of the Holy Spirit! I have met with a great
many, and talked about the matter, but I never knew one who could put
his hand on his heart and say, "I believed in Jesus without the
assistance of the Holy Spirit." I have seen many dying men and asked
them this question, and never did I meet with such an one. God foresaw
that He would give you faith and

therefore loved you–is not that absolutely absurd? It is as much as to
say, I foresee I shall give a beggar a shilling when I go out of this
place and, therefore, because I foresee that gift, I love him, or you
foresee that you will give something tonight towards the Society for
the Relief of Faithful Gospel Ministers and, therefore, you will then
love God's ministers because you foresee you will give them something!
My gift is not the cause of my benevolence, but my benevolence is the
cause of my giving it! God does not love His people because they have
faith–He loved them long before. Faith is the gift of God. Does my
natural father love me because he fed me and because he clothed me? No,
he clothed and fed me because he loved me–but his love was prior to
his gift. His gifts did not draw his love to me because he loved me
beforehe gave them. And if any man says, "God loves me because I can do
this or that for Him," he talks nonsense! God cannot love me because of
what He has given me Himself. You may say, "He loves me because I love
Him," but God gave you that love! God does not love you because you are
so holy–you are holy because God loves you! And your holiness is God's
gift.

In the very beginning, when this great universe lay in the mind of God
like unborn forests in the acorn cup–long before the echoes waked the
solitudes, before the mountains were brought forth and long before the
light flashed through the sky–God loved His chosen creatures! Before
there were creatures, when the ether was not fanned by the angel's
wings. When space itself had not an existence. When there was nothing
save God alone–even then, in that loneliness of Deity, and in that
deep quiet and profundity–His heart moved with love for His chosen.
Their names were written on His heart and then were they dear to His
soul! Jesus loved His people before the foundation of the world, even
from eternity. He purchased me with His blood. He let His heart run out
in one deep gaping wound for me long before I loved Him! Yes, when He
first came to me, did I not spurn Him? When He knocked at the door and
asked for entrance, did I not drive Him away and do despite to His
Grace? Ah, I can remember that I full often did–until at last, by His
effectual Grace, He said, "I must, I will come in"–and then He turned
my heart and made me love Him! But even until now I would have resisted
Him had it not been for His Grace. Well, then, since He purchased me
when I was dead in sins, does it not follow as a necessary and logical
consequence that He must have loved me? And therefore, the Savior said,
"Neither pray I for these, alone, but for them also who shall believe
on Me through their word."

II. The second thing we learn from the text is THE USE OF A GOSPEL
MINISTRY.

Captious and quibbling persons will object, "You say that God loves His
people and, therefore, they will be saved. Then what is the good of
your preaching?" What is the good of your preaching? When I say that
God loves a multitude that no man can number, a countless host of the
race of men, do you ask me what is the good of preaching? What is the
good of preaching? To fetch these diamonds of the Lord out of the
dunghill, to go down to the depths, as the diver does, to fetch up
God's pearls from the place where they are lying! What is the good of
preaching? To cut down the good corn and gather it into the garner.
What is the good of preaching To fetch out God's elect from the ruins
of the Fall and make then stand on the Rock, Christ Jesus, and see
their standing sure! Ah, you who ask what is the good of preaching
because God has ordained some to salvation, we ask you whether it would
not be a most foolish thing to say, because there is to be a harvest,
what is the good of sowing? There is to be a harvest, what is the use
of reaping? The very reason why we sow and reap is because we feel
assured there is to be a harvest! And if, indeed, I believed there was
not a number who must be saved, I could not go into a pulpit again!
Only once make me think that no one is certain to be saved and I will
not care to preach! But now I know that a countless number must be
saved, I am confident that Christ, "shall see His Seed, He shall
prolong His days." I know that if there is much to dispirit me in my
ministry and I see but little of its effects, yet He shall keep all
whom the Father has given Him–and this makes me preach! I come into
this Chapel tonight with the assurance that God has some child of His
in this place–not yet called–and I feel confident that He will call
someone by the use of the ministry, so why not by me? I know there are
not a few souls whom God has given me through my ministry, not only
hundreds, but thousands. I have seen some hundreds of those who profess
to have been brought to God through my preaching at Park Street and
elsewhere, and with that confidence I must go on. I know that Jesus
must have a "Seed." His people must increase and it is the very purpose
of the ministry to seek them out and bring them into God's fold. Our
Savior tells us the use of the ministry is that they may "believe on Me
through their word."

There is one peculiarity about this. Christ says, "They shall believe
on Me through their word." Have you ever heard people call out about
running after men? They say, "You are all running after such-and-such a
man." What then, would you have them run after–a woman? You say, "The
people go after one particular man." Whom else shall they go after?
Some persons say, "We went to such-and-such a place and the people
there love their minister too much." That would be

very dreadful, but it is not so. As for ministers being in danger of
being ruined by too much love, it very seldom falls to their lot! Very
generally they get quite as many kicks as anything else–and if they do
get too much love in any particular place, they get too much of the
reverse somewhere else. If we get a little sweet, somebody else is sure
to put in much that is bitter. Is it not singular that Christ should
say, "They shall believe on Me through their word?" Now, do God's
people believe on Christ through the word of the ministry? We know that
our faith does not rest on the word of man, but on the Word of God. We
do not rest on any man, yet it is through "their" word–that is,
through the word of the Apostles–and through the word of every
faithful minister!

I take it that the Gospel is the minister's own word when he speaks
from experience. What is in the Bible is God's Word. What God speaks to
me by experience becomes my word as well as God's. And it is then
"their" word when ministers come into the pulpit with God's Word in
their hearts. I think a minister is not only called to preach what he
finds in the Bible–the mere naked Doctrines–but what he has
experienced in his own heart, what he has tasted, felt and handled. If
he does this, he will be greatly in danger of being called an egotist.
Very likely he will use too many, "I's." Well, he cannot preach John
Smith's experience, or anybody else's experience–he can only preach
his own–so then he will have to say, "I." But if he does not preach
experimentally what he has felt, it will not be through his word! When
we speak that which we know and testify that which we have seen and
felt–if we say we know the Savior will pardon sinners because He has
pardoned us–then it is not only God's Word, but it is also our word!
If I say to a child of God, "Go, and cast your burden on the Lord and
you will find relief, for I have done so," then it is not only God's
Word, but my word.

When he has proved the Savior's Word by experience, then it becomes the
minister's word, as also when he has it manifested to him by the Holy
Spirit. Some people say that these manifestations are all nonsense. I
have heard many object to applied texts. Such men do not understand
much about the real law of piety, or else they would see texts
manifested to them at one time which they had never seen before. I know
many of my ministering Brothers who now testify that they have
sometimes taken a text and tried to break it. They have smitten it with
a sledgehammer, but they could not get an atom off it. And they have
had to throw it aside. But another time, my Friends, when that same
text comes before us, though it seemed hard as granite when we took it
up in our hands before, it now crumbles and breaks in pieces! Why?
Because God's Holy Spirit shines upon it, now, and He did not do so
before! And we might have continued hitting it till we broke the head
off our hammer and not a scrap would have come off it–but the Holy
Spirit's manifestation revealed the text–and most texts are to be
learned so! It is not often by sitting down in deep thought that we get
at the meaning–it is by leaving it until, in some hallowed hour of
high spiritual communion, we get into the very secret chamber where the
meaning of the text lies! In some solemn moment we dive down into the
very depths where the meaning of the text is hidden. God teaches us the
meaning and then it becomes our word! It is ours by application and we
believe, my Brothers and Sisters, that sinners will be converted to
God, not only by preaching the Gospel we find in the Bible, but by
preaching the Gospel we find in our hearts, "known and read of all
men"!

Let us then come into our pulpits with this determination (I speak to
my Brothers in the ministry), that by the help of God we will bring our
own experience to bear upon it. We will sometimes talk of ourselves and
not be ashamed of it, for whatever the Lord our God says unto us, not
only in His Word, but by experience, and by His Spirit, that will we
speak to the people.

These two points I have mentioned–first, God loves His people before
they have faith. And, secondly, the ministry has its use in bringing
men to faith by "their word."

III. Now, thirdly, notwithstanding this, GOD IS SUPERIOR TO THE
MINISTRY AND DOES NOT REQUIRE IT. If He chose, He could do without His
ministers.

I have told you that ministers are necessary, in the present state of
things, to bring men to the Lord Jesus Christ, that they may have faith
in Him. But when I said they were necessary, I spoke as men speak. With
God, ministers are not necessary. He could do without them. I thought
today, as I walked along, "God could do without me." I thought of many
men who are preaching and I thought, "God could do without them–take
them all away and God could do without them." I thought of some members
of my Church, very dear to me, who seem to be pillars of it, and I
thought, "What could I do without them?" And then the thought came
across my mind, "God could do without them." The people of God would
still be saved just as well without them, if God so pleased! God is
enough in Himself, without the addition of any one of His preachers.
When He made angels, it was not because He needed them. He could have

accomplished His will without the wings of a flaming seraph and without
the voice of a glorious cherub. When He made the stars, it was not
because He needed them. He was Light, Himself, without the light of
sun, moon, or stars. When He made man, it was not because He needed
man–it was because He would make him–and for no other reason. There
was no necessity for it. He would be the same eternal God were all His
creatures dead. And if He were to blot out those lines of wisdom and
Grace written in the universe, He would be just as glorious and great
as ever! And God can do without His servants in the Gospel
ministry–but this being a dispensation of means, He is not a God
acting without means.

God does notdo without them, though He could if He would. God elected
His people without ministers. He did not need any ministers to help Him
in that. He redeemed His people without ministers. What great Divine
could have helped Christ to redeem His people? Yes, more, He can, if He
pleases, call His people without ministers, for we know how some have
become the subjects of Grace by the reading of the Word, without the
assistance of the ministry! And some in the Sunday school have received
the words of eternal life. This should make our pride subside at once.
I know it is a great honor and should comfort us much to know that God
is making use of us–but He could, if He pleased, well enough
accomplish His ends and purposes without you and without me! If
tomorrow we were laid in our coffins and if our people should go out
weeping because their pastors were dead, God has other men whom He
could raise up. Or if He did not choose to raise other men up, He could
attain His ends without us. And possibly there is a time coming when
Gospel ministers shall not be needed–when men shall need no man to say
to his brother, "Know the Lord," for all shall know Him, from the least
even to the greatest! There are happy days coming "when the earth shall
be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea."
When there shall be no need of the messengers upon the mountains to
publish the glad tidings of salvation. When the sunshine of the Lord
shall supplant our poor farthing rushlight and when Jesus shall "come
in His Glory, and all His holy angels with Him." And we shall have too
much to do to stand and admire Him without standing up to preach to men
concerning Him who is present in their midst!

IV. But then, our fourth point is that GOD WILL NEVER DO WITHOUT HIS
MINISTERS AS LONG AS THIS

DISPENSATION LASTS because Jesus Christ said, "Neither pray I for these
alone, but for them, also, who shall believe on Me through their word."
Hence it follows that there always will be, as long as this
dispensation lasts, a people who are to be gathered and ministers to
gather them in. As long as there are unsaved and unconverted persons
who are the elect of God, there will be some ministers to preach to
them. As long as there are those who are under conviction of sin, He
will have some who will proclaim the message of pardon. Christ says in
the text, "Neither pray I for these, alone, but for them, also, who
shall believe on Him through their word."

Someone may object, and say, "Yes, but 'their word' signifies the word
of the Apostles." Then another might ask, "Are you the successors of
the Apostles?" There has been a vast deal of fudge in these days about
"the successors of the Apostles." We have people who pretend to be the
successors of the Apostles. There are the Roman Catholics. But, I
think, if Peter and Paul were to come and see those who claim to be
their successors, they would think there was a mighty difference
between themselves and them! By way of parable, suppose the Virgin
Mary, Peter and Paul should come one Sunday and go to a certain
cathedral? Well, when they entered, the Virgin would hear them singing
together to her honor, and praise, and glory. She would nudge Peter and
say, "What are these people doing? They are worshipping me! My Son said
to me, 'Woman, what have I to do with you?' He never worshipped me! Let
us get out of this place." But they stay a little longer and they hear
one of them say that the Apostle Peter was the Head of the Church–and
his successor, the Pope, was therefore the Head. Peter nudges the
Virgin Mary and says, "What a lie that is! I was never Head of the
Church at all! Did I not fall into sin? I, the Head of the Church? A
pretty Head I was!" Soon afterwards, Paul hears them preaching
justification by works. "Let's go," he says, "there is no Gospel here!
I preached justification by faith without works, and they are preaching
justification by works!" And so, upon that, they all three of them
leave! By-and-by, they come to a place where they hear the people
singing, "Glory, honor, praise and power be unto the Lamb that sits
upon the Throne!" And they hear them speak of those who were "kept by
the power of God through faith unto salvation." "Ah," says Peter, "this
is the right place, and here I will stay."

Those are the successors of the Apostles who are like the Apostles! Are
those the successors of the Apostles who take our money from us by
force to pay for their religion? Are those the successors of the
Apostles who go to Brother So-and-So's house and take away his table
and his spoon, and his candlestick, to pay rates for a religion in
which he does not believe? I have never read about a church-tax in
Corinth, or about the Apostle Paul seizing some property of someone in

Jerusalem! Such men successors of the Apostles? They may be in
godliness, for holy men are sometimes very much mistaken, but I say
again, those who are like the Apostles are their successors–not men
who are ashamed to speak to anybody else because they think they are
above them–not those who cannot speak plain words! Have we not some
ministers, to understand, whom you need to take a dictionary always to
Chapel with you? Do you call them the successors of the Apostles? Your
judgments answer, "No." A downright honest man who speaks what can be
understood, who declares God's Gospel in unmeasured terms, as God would
have him speak it–He is a successor of the Apostles! And it is through
"their"word (the Apostles' word, and the word of the successors of the
Apostles), that men are to be saved! Successors of the Apostles! I am
as much a successor of the Apostles as the Bishop of Bath, the Bishop
of London, or the bishop of anywhere else–and perhaps more so. We are
all bishops who are called of God, ordained by the Most High! We trace
our ordination to the hands of the Almighty who has put His hands on
our head! There will always be successors of the Apostles! The
Christian ministry shall never cease till the last period of time!
Never has there been a spiritual night so dark as that there have been
no stars to illuminate it–never a sky so clouded that the sun could
not shine through it. There always have been some lights and, until the
last hour, there always shall be some who are girded with the strength
of the Omnipotent and made strong in the almighty God, Jehovah, who
shall testify their word, which is, after all, God's Word, that thereby
men shall be saved!

Now, my dear Brothers and Sisters, having directed your attention to
the fact that we are quite sure God will always have a ministry, and
always use it–and since a ministry, under God, is necessary, though He
could do without them, what should we do for them? I will tell you what
some people say–starve them. I do not say it is so here, or with my
people, but it is so in many country villages. Unfortunately, there are
many farmers who could afford to give much to the cause of God, who,
while their servant Betty sits in the gallery and pays her shilling a
quarter for her pew, the master only pays a shilling a quarter, too.
But Christ's ministers give themselves to the work because they feel
they must preach–and they would rather preach on dry bread than be
silent!

We have formed this Society just to help them. I can assure you if any
one of our dear friends stood in the position I have occupied for a
single year, when you come to cast up your income, if you felt any
benevolence, you would have very little left–indeed, you would have
nothing left if you listened to the claims made upon you!

Now, one other thought. If God sends ministers into the world to preach
His Gospel, how ill does it become us to hurt them! "He that touches
you, touches the apple of His eye." I have always felt very careful
about touching a child of God. You know that there is nothing that puts
a man so much on his mettle as to touch his children. I have seen a
father calm and placid and very gentle–someone has touched his
children–the father flashed into his face at once! Do what you
like–touch his property, or his house and he may be vexed–but touch
his child and then his fury comes up at once! He cannot stand that. Oh,
my Friends, a heavy responsibility rests on the heads of some, even of
God's people, if you view it in that light! Touch God's people? Touch
God's chosen? Touch God's favorites? Touch God's darlings? Oh, let us
take heed! We had better allow one to pass who professes to be a child
of God, and is not, than that we should treat harshly or unkindly any
of these who really are His! And I think if there is any difference in
the case of Gospel ministers, this has a special force. We should,
above all, seek not to injure their character by spreading evil reports
against them. They will have enough of that from the wicked world! We
had need be tender of them and plant a hedge around them to protect
them in every way. They are the standard-bearers of Christendom and if
the standard-bearer falls, what a disgrace it brings on everything! We
ought to stand by them, pray for them, plead with God for them that He
will hold up their hands.

I have been talking about the Gospel ministry. What is it to do? Is it
to bring men to faith in Christ? Now I am tonight to attempt to do it
before I leave this place! Yes, and by Gods help, so I will.

Now, a word or two very briefly to two or three characters. First,
there is a man sitting here tonight who says he is "no worse than
others" and who believes he shall enter Heaven as well as any other
person. He says, "I do not see why any man should set himself above
me." My mission from Heaven is, under the Holy Spirit, to knock your
works down and bring you to faith in Jesus Christ! Remember that it is
written in Scripture, "By the works of the law shall no flesh be
justified." You cannot get to Heaven by your works! You might as well
seek to mount the stars on a tread wheel as to go to Heaven by works,
for as you get up a step, you will always come down as low as before!
If you cannot be perfect, God will not save you by works. If you could
truly say, "I never committed a sin in all my life and never had a
wicked thought, and never shall have," possiblyyou then might be saved
by works. But since that is impossible, if you trust in the law and

hang yourself upon it, you shall find it will break by your weight. You
stand on a sandy foundation and when the wind blows and the storm
rises, you will be led to see it is a refuge of lies–that your
confidence was ill founded, that your works were bad at the bottom,
after all, and that though you fancied you were righteous, you were
deceiving yourself and others–and must suffer the sentence of the
wicked!

Someone among you may say, "I know that I am a very great sinner, but
then I intend to reform. I shall turn to Christ and then I shall be
saved." You intend to reform, do you? So did the damned in Hell once!
You intend to reform? So doubtless did Judas when he went and cast down
the money in the Temple! But instead of his reformation being good, he
went out and hanged himself. You intend to reform? Your intention is
like a bubble blown by the mouth of a child, who shall soon be broken
in the air! You intend to reform? Your reformation is like the smoke of
a chimney which the wind shall sweep away. Suppose you do reform and
you really get better? You think Jesus Christ will save you and so you
will get to Heaven between the two? Have you never heard the old
proverb, "Between two stools he came to the ground?" Verily, I tell
you, that if you trust in two things, you will be lost! Works cannot
help you. Any man who trusts so much as a single hair's breadth to his
works is a lost soul! He who trusts to the least atom of works, though
it is so small that he cannot discern it, will be lost! It must be–

"Nothing in my hand I bring,

Simply to Your Cross I cling"– or else a man must be lost! For it is
no use his trusting partly in works, and partly to the Savior. You must
feel, "I am quite stripped of everything."

I love to find those who have not got anything good at all about them.
Some like to find something good in men before they preach to them, but
I like to find men who think there is nothing good in them–and then to
preach God's Sovereign Mercy to them. You who have any good of your
own, throw it away! You who have nothing, come to Christ! I advise you
who think you are good, not to say you are so when you are before God.
If you were in a hospital and needed to be attended to, what would you
do? Would you write over your bed, or tell your doctor you were not so
bad, after all? You would be rather inclined to appear worse than you
really were! See if you can describe yourself worse than you really
are. You may say, "That is wicked advice." No, it is not, because I am
quite sure you cannot do it. Go and write bad characters against
yourselves tonight. I speak to you who know this is true–not to you
who are deceiving yourselves with your own righteousness. You who now
feel your need of a Savior, exaggerate that feeling before God, if it
is possible. He who felt himself the most guilty of all sinners said,
"This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ
Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief."

If there is anyone here tonight who thinks himself, "the chief of
sinners," I have called him and God has called him! I wish he would act
like a man I once saw in the County Court, when I was sitting there. He
said, "Make way! Make way! His Honor has called me." And He elbowed his
way up, because the judge had called him! God says, "Come now, and let
us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are as scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they
shall be as wool." Say, "Stand back, for God calls me and I will come!"
Sinner, it is Jesus you must rely on, and it is not yourself. It is
nothing that you have, or can have–it is nothing that you do, or can
do–you can be saved by Jesus Christ alone. Have faith in Him and rely
on the Savior. Do you feel your need of a Savior? Then come and cast
yourself upon Him! Leave off being anythingand let Christ be
everything! Leave off doing, and let Him do! Say–

"A guilty, weak, and helpless worm,

On Christ's kind arms I fall!

He is my strength and righteousness,

My Jesus and my all."

If any are awakened tonight by my words, I have not done it, nor has
the sinner done it–but to God's praise be it spoken! And to His name
be all the glory!