Freedom At Once and Forever

Freedom At Once and Forever

(No. 2371)

A SERMON INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, JULY 29, 1894.

DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, MAY
13, 1888

"To proclaim liberty to the captives." Isaiah 61:1.

I DO not know whether you generally read the daily newspaper. I think
we might get up a "Society for the Suppression of Useless Knowledge." A
great deal that appears in the newspapers amounts only to that–and
much time is wasted reading the paper. But sometimes we get a gem among
the news and, to my mind, there was a gem contained in a Reuter's
telegram, from Rio Janeiro, May 10th–"The Brazilian Chamber of
Deputies has voted the immediate and unconditional abolition of slavery
in Brazil." My heart rejoiced as I read that paragraph! I hope it does
not mean that this vote can be defeated in some other Chamber, or the
abolition can be prevented by some other power. But if it means that
slavery is to be immediately and unconditionally abolished in Brazil, I
call upon you all to thank God and rejoice in His name! Wherever
slavery exists, it is an awful curse, and the abolition of it is an
unspeakable blessing. All free men should praise God and especially
those whom Christ has made free, for they are, "free indeed."

I am not going to preach about the slavery in Brazil and yet the
message about its abolition will be a great part of my theme. There is
another slavery, a slavery into which we were born, a slavery in which
we have lived and, alas, a slavery under which some of us still smart.
And Jesus Christ has come, as the Great Liberator, "to proclaim liberty
to the captives." There is no question about that emancipation! It is
not a Chamber of Deputies which has voted it and it is not a thing
which may be thrown out by another parliamentary body. Jesus Christ,
the King of Kings, and Lord of Lords, has, Himself, come with Divine
authority–authority never to be questioned or disputed–to proclaim
liberty from the slavery of sin!

When there was a royal proclamation to be made in the olden times, they
used to employ men to go with trumpets through the streets of the city
and to the villages and towns in the country, to summon the people to
the market cross, to hear the king's message. That is what I am here
for tonight–to sound the Gospel trumpet as best I can, and to make
this proclamation–"O yes, O yes, in the name of the great King of
Kings, there is liberty for the bond slaves of Satan, deliverance for
those who are under captivity to sin." I am going to proclaim that good
news with all my might and with joyful earnestness to tell the slaves
of sin and Satan that there is liberty for them through the Great
Emancipator, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!

I. I shall begin by describing THE NATURE OF THIS LIBERTY. Let me turn
to my newspaper paragraph again– "The Brazilian Chamber of Deputies
has voted the immediate and unconditional abolition of slavery in
Brazil."

So the proclamation which I have to make, tonight, concerns immediate
liberation. You have been the slave of sin long enough! You need not be
sin's slave any longer. Christ has not come to work out for you a
deliverance which will take hours, days, weeks, or months to
complete–He has come to knock your fetters off with a single stroke
and to set you free at once! If His gracious power is manifested in
this assembly, the former slave of sin will go out of the Tabernacle
door free–not half-free, with one or two of his fetters broken–there
shall be for him immediate liberty! It does not take any time to work
in the human heart the great change which is called regeneration. There
may be a great many things going before it and coming after it which
take up much time, but to pass from death to life is the work of an
instant! It must be so. If a man is dead and he is made alive, there
can be no interval between the state of death and the state of life.
There must be a second in which the transition takes place. When a
blind man's eyes are opened, it may be that he does not see for some
time very clearly, but there is an instant in which the first beam of
light enters the eyes and falls

upon the retina, and in which the eyes become conscious of the power of
light. So, in a moment, while I am speaking, the Lord can save you! In
an instant, you slaves of sin and Satan, He can make you free! It is
the immediate abolition of slavery that I have to proclaim to you!

I believe that, in Brazil, they have been trying a system of
apprenticeship. It was the Emperor's intention–and God bless that
Emperor–he thought that all slaves should be free, but he thought that
a little time ought to be taken to prepare them for liberty, to educate
them up to the state in which they could act as free men. So they were
apprenticed and liberation came gradually to certain of them after a
period of servitude. But this act of the Deputies, if it is really
carried, is for immediate abolition and no apprenticeship. Now, I do
not want any of you to be apprenticed, as it were, and to wait awhile
before you get free! I know that, with regard to the slavery of
drunkenness, men think that they will drink a little less, and a little
less, and gradually give it up. Do not drink any at all! Have done with
it right now–you ought not to need to have any apprenticeship to the
evil thing! So is it with the lusts of the flesh–men suppose that they
can gradually subjugate their passions and lift themselves out of that
slavery. No, dear Sirs, it must be done at a stroke! And it will be if
it is really done! You shall be immediately and on the spot set free!

That poor creature who had left his father's house and went into a far
country and reduced himself to such poverty that he was feeding
swine–degrading work for a Jew to perform–how did he get back to his
father? He said, "I will arise and go to my father. And he arose and
went to his father." If he had stopped. If he had reasoned with his
master. If he had said, "You must set me to feed sheep and not pigs."
If he had asked for an increase of wages, he would have remained in the
far country. He never gave his old master ten minutes' notice, but he
ran to his father straight away. That is the only way to be saved–to
run for it–just as Lot fled out of Sodom! There must be no hesitation,
no staying, but an immediate, determined resolve to quit the dominions
of sin and to fly to the shelter of God's Grace! O great King of Kings,
may it be immediate liberation to many here, tonight, without any sort
of apprenticeship! May they come to Christ and at once find liberty!

There is a notion abroad that you cannot be sure that you are saved
till you come to die. Is that the Gospel? Am I to proclaim liberty only
to men who are about to die? I will preach no such Gospel! I come to
proclaim, in my Master's name, immediate abolition, instantaneous
pardon, a present change of heart, the breaking of the chain and
setting the captive free at once! Do not believe that you are to go
through all your life only hoping and fearing, doubting and hesitating.
That is like the old Popish doctrine! But good, true, Protestant, Bible
doctrine is, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be
saved." "He that believes on the Son has everlasting life." The moment
you believe, you have it! You have passed from death unto life, and
shall never come into condemnation! I am glad that I have to proclaim
the immediate abolition of slavery to all who trust Christ. However
badly I may tell it, it is such good news that any here who feel their
slavery–and long to be set free–will leap to hear the glad tidings.

But, in the next place, if I look at my paper, again, I find that it
says, "The Brazilian Chamber of Deputies has voted the immediate and
unconditional abolition of slavery in Brazil." I like that word,
"unconditional." It demands no payment! It does not say, "You must
bring so much and then you shall be set free." No, if the slave has not
a penny. If he is utterly bankrupt, he is set free by the decree of the
Chamber. And likewise, there is no payment for Gospel liberty! You are
bid to come and take the Free Grace of God, "without money and without
price." You could not bring sufficient anything to pay for salvation,
even if God were willing to sell it! It cost the Savior His life–you
cannot have anything to match with that wondrous redemption money! That
which only Christ could buy, and buy with His blood, you certainly
cannot purchase with any merits of your own, even if God allowed you to
do so! Come then, and take this liberty–it is unconditional, that is,
without payment!

Unconditional also means that it is given without any promises on the
slave's part. It might have been made a condition that he should be set
free provided that he did so much at certain times, or if he promised
this, and promised that. But no, this liberation in Brazil is
unconditional. The man is free in the largest sense of the word–there
is no mortgage upon him to be paid off, by and by–he is wholly,
absolutely and unconditionally free. What a Gospel this is that we
preach! It sets poor sinners free without an, "if," or a, "but," asking
nothing of them, giving everything to them! Even the requirements of
Grace are the gifts of Grace. If you are bid to repent, your repentance
is given to you by Him who is exalted on high to give it! Faith is
asked of you, but even faith is a gift of God and the work of the
Spirit of God! Salva-

tion is unconditionally given to those whom God has chosen, who have
proven their choice by hearing the Word with faith and accepting it
unconditionally.

It took me a long time to get hold of this Truth of God. I kept
thinking that I must do something, or that I would have to suffer
something. I thought that I would be driven to despair, or be made to
agonize and so forth. God knows that I had enough of that experience,
but I always kept thinking that my hope lay there. Oh, what a mercy it
is to catch the meaning of this word, "unconditional!" Whatever you may
be or may not be, Jesus Christ comes to set poor sinners free! And when
they believe on Him, they are set free without any condition. You see a
horse in a meadow, sometimes, with a halter on. It is easy work to
catch him. Ah, but God does not turn us out into a meadow with a halter
on! He takes the halter off when He sets us at liberty and the devil,
himself, cannot catch us again! The Lord takes the fetters off the one
whom He makes to be His child. He does not leave him with a long chain
on one of his legs, and say, "You are free, all but that." Oh no, it is
unconditional emancipation! Who is there who will refuse to accept
deliverance from slavery which is immediate and unconditional?

But I notice, next, in my newspaper, here, that, "the Chamber of
Deputies voted the immediate and unconditional abolition of
slavery"–that is to say, that there is not to be any more slavery in
Brazil. Slavery actually ceases to exist there! You cannot find a
slave. Not only are slaves free, but slavery, itself, is abolished! Oh,
is not this a wonderful fact? Sin is one great slavery, but Christ
comes and pardons it and He so pardons it that sin, itself, ceases to
be! "In those days, and in that time, says the Lord, the iniquity of
Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be none." Part of the work
of the Messiah, as revealed to Daniel, was, "To make an end of sins."
Well, if He makes an end of sins, there's an end of them, is there not?
Jesus comes to drown our sins in the depths of the sea, to blot them
out as a cloud is blotted out, so that they actually and absolutely
cease to exist! He has come to remove from us the penalty and the guilt
of sin so entirely that there is an abolition of the slavery of sin
which is immediate and unconditional.

Then the Lord Jesus Christ also comes to abolish the power of sin. He
takes away from us our slavery to our passions, our lusts, our
infirmities, our constitutional temperaments. "Oh," says one, "I am
glad to hear that! Do you mean to say that the Lord Jesus Christ can
set me free from the power of sin?" Yes, I do mean to say that, and He
can do it immediately! He can do it now, while you are sitting in that
seat. If you have come in here fond of strong drink, the Grace of God
can make you go out hating the very sight of it! If you have come in
here proud, the Grace of God can make you go away broken-hearted and
humble! If you have come in here lascivious, the Grace of God can take
out of your soul the impurity and make you love that which is sweet,
and pure, and holy!

"Well," says one, "I do not believe in such amazing changes." I did not
say that you did, but if you had ever felt them, you would believe in
them! Some of us have experienced these changes and there are many,
now, in Heaven, who were once among the foulest of the foul! But the
Lord Jesus came and set them free from the power of their corrupt
na-tures–and they became holy people, a people who were examples to
others–and that same Lord Jesus Christ can give you immediate,
unconditional deliverance from the power of sin!

I will tell you another thing. There is one power that sin has over us,
and that is a feeling full of dread. Conscience co-operates with it
and, sometimes, very properly so. But these slaves in Brazil, when they
are set free, will not have to come up once a month to have their backs
made bare and to receive 20 lashes apiece. Oh, dear, no! It is
unconditional abolition of slavery they are to have. And when the Lord
sets His people free from the guilt and power of sin, He delivers them
from the lash of sin, takes away the spirit of bondage and gives them
the spirit of liberty! They were afraid of God, before, but now they
come to Him, crying, "Abba, Father," entering into His presence with
joy and delight! It is wonderful how soon this unholy dread, this
slavish fear, is cast out of the heart. Immediate and unconditional
abolition of slavery means the removal, not only of sin, but also of
the guilt, the penalty, the dread and the bondage which come of sin! We
have to proclaim that emancipation tonight!

These slaves in Brazil, if they are, indeed, set free, will not be
slaves again. The decree of the Deputies is not that they are to be set
free for six years, but forever! I hope that Brazil will be like our
own country in this respect. You know how Cowper sang–

"Slaves cannot breathe in England. If their lungs Receive our air, that
moment they are free! They touch our country and their shackles fall!"

Well, so it is in the Kingdom of Grace–there will be no going back to
slavery if Christ once sets you free. "If the Son shall make you free,
you shall be free, indeed"–and free forever!

The slaves in Brazil, if they are set free, will be emancipated
lawfully–they will not have stolen their liberty. No, if anybody were
to speak to one of these emancipated slaves, and say, "You have no
right to be free," he would answer, "I have! I am authorized to be free
by the highest authority–the rulers of the land have made me a free
man." Oh, Beloved, if we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, we are set
free from the law of sin and death by the highest possible authority!
The Law of God, Himself, has set us free! Justice demands our freedom,
and mercy secures it. So, you see that it is immediate and
unconditional abolition of slavery that we have to proclaim by the
preaching of the Gospel!

And listen once more. This proclamation is universal throughout all
Brazil. Some slaves are very black, but nowadays some slaves are nearly
white. I have heard of a good many who were in slavery and who had not
a discernible tint of black about them–and yet they were slaves. Well,
there is liberty for the whitest and for the blackest, too! I do not
know whether you are whites or blacks–it may be that you are very
black, that you have gone very far into sin–but there is liberty even
for you! It may be that you are not so very black–you are a brown sort
of sinner, neither very good nor very bad. Or it may be that you are
nearly white. Well, well, the same Christ gives liberty to all who put
their trust in

Him!

Some of these slaves in Brazil are probably very young. Perhaps some of
them were only born a day or two ago, but they are now free. O you
young children, boys and girls, young men, young women–you cannot be
free too soon! You cannot obtain the liberty with which Christ makes
His people free too early in your lives! A young slave is a dreadful
sight. It is sad to think that while he is yet so young, he should have
lost his liberty. God set you young slaves free! But if there is a man
in Brazil who is a hundred years old and he is a slave, this
proclamation makes him free. Even so, if you have lived a long while in
sin, Jesus is able to set you free from it! He can take away your old
habits! The Ethiopian cannot change his skin, nor the leopard his
spots, but Christ can wash Ethiopian sinners white and He can change
leopard sinners so as to make them gentle as fawns! Do not doubt
Christ's power because of your age! You are neither too young nor too
old to have the liberty that He gives to all who trust Him!

Slaves in Brazil were generally born slaves and you, also, were born
slaves. But the Lord Jesus Christ can deliver you from the mischief
worked by Adam and set the home-born slaves at liberty from original
sin! Some become slaves willingly. I do not suppose that many do so,
literally, but we have, all of us, willingly bowed our necks to the
yoke of sin. This is the worst part of the slavery, that it is the
slavery of our wills. We have willed to sin and we have taken pleasure
in it, but, Beloved, even if it is so, Christ is able to set us free!
Perhaps some men swore to their masters that they would never leave
them, that they always would be with them as their slaves. But this
decree of the Deputies has set them free. There may be somebody here–I
hope there is not–but there may be a man, here, who has sold himself
to the devil. There may be some woman, here, who has given herself up,
body and soul, to work iniquity. But even if it is so, the Lord can
say, "Your Covenant with death shall be disannulled and your agreement
with Hell shall not stand." You never were your own, so you could not
give yourself to Satan! You are released from all your rash promises
and your wicked oaths! You cannot be bound by any covenant that you
have made with the devil and with sin! Come and be free, for thus says
the Lord, there is immediate, unconditional emancipation for all such
as desire to be delivered from sin and to have the liberty wherewith
Christ makes His people free!

II. Now, secondly, and very briefly, I am going to speak upon THE
METHOD OF LIBERATION. I have described the nature of the liberty, now
let me tell you the method of liberation.

It is not thus in Brazil, but what I am going to speak about has to do
with the Kingdom of God's Grace. Listen and learn! This is the method
of liberation. First, Heaven provided a Ransom. When our slaves in
Jamaica were set free, it was a glorious act, and you remember that the
English nation paid many millions of pounds to the owners of the
slaves. There has been a Ransom paid for the sons of men–Jesus Christ
bore on the tree the Ransom for me, and for you, also, if you believe
in Him. This is the basis of our liberty, that Christ has bought us
with a price and set us free!

The next thing is that Sovereign Grace proclaims the blood-bought
sinner free. God, from His Throne, declares that those for whom Christ
has died shall live, that those whom He has bought shall be His in that
day when He makes up His jewels. God, the all-glorious Jehovah,
proclaims the blood-bought sinner free, and free he is!

But, next, Almighty Grace secures the believing one's emancipation.
Grace comes to the soul and finds it a captive. But Grace resolves that
it shall be free. At first the sinner does not care for freedom–he
hugs his chains like the Israelites did in Egypt, when they cried, "Let
us alone, that we may serve the Egyptians." God will not have it so! He
turns the heart of the Egyptians against Israel and they oppress the
Israelites–and make them hate their bondage. Oh, it is a blessed thing
when God begins to make you feel uneasy in your slavery! Some of you
have got on very well under the dominion of the devil up till now, but
you are beginning to fret a little–you do not enjoy sin as you used to
do. You have been gathering in part of the wages of sin, which is
death. Some receive these wages in their bodies, others receive them in
their minds when they begin to feel despondency and despair creeping
over them. The prospect of death is unpleasant to you. Sin begins to be
a burden hard to bear. I am glad of it! The greatest, hardest work of
Grace is to make the slave of sin willing to be set free. Grace is
doing that and, having gone so far that it has made you hate your
chains and long for liberty, it will bring you out of captivity!

You may be a long time before you see the outer gate of the prison and
escape from the house of bondage, but you shall see it. If you see it,
tonight, I pray the living God to help you run through that open gate
and to be free tonight– tonight–for I cannot help desiring that my
subject, the immediate abolition of slavery, may come home with saving
power to some heart! Oh, you young men, and lads of fifteen, I remember
when I came into a House of Prayer–a very small one it was–and sat
under the gallery with all my fetters on. But then I wanted to be free!
I longed to be set at liberty and when I heard that blessed message,
"Look unto Me, and be you saved, all the ends of the earth," I
looked–and I tell you it was my surprise, and it is still my
surprise–that my fetters were all gone in a moment! They seemed to be
of iron, and of iron they were, but they melted as the morning frost
melts in the sun when the beams of the Grace of God, in the glorified
and exalted Savior, came streaming in upon my soul! I was free in a
moment! It was immediate, unconditional abolition of slavery! Grace had
done it! Grace had done it! O Lord, let Your Grace do the same for
others now!

Often, when I come in at the door and my eyes fall on this vast
congregation, I feel a tremor go through me to think that I should have
to speak to you all and be, in some measure, accountable for your
future state. Unless I preach the Gospel faithfully and with all my
heart, your blood will be required at my hands. Do not wonder,
therefore, that when I am weak and sick, I feel my head swim when I
stand up to speak to you, and my heart is often faint within me. But I
do have this joy at the back of it all–God does set many sinners free
in this place! Some people reported that I was mourning that there were
no conversions. Brothers and Sisters, if you were all to be converted
tonight, I should mourn for the myriads outside! That is true, but I
praise the Lord for the many who are converted here. When I came last
Tuesday to see converts, I had 21 whom I was able to propose to the
Church–and it will be the same next Tuesday, I do not doubt. God is
saving souls! I am not preaching in vain. I am not despondent about
that matter–liberty is given to the captives and there will be liberty
for some of them tonight! I wonder who it will be? Some of you young
women over yonder, I trust. Some who have dropped in here, tonight, for
the first time. Oh, may this first opportunity of your hearing the Word
in this place be the time of beginning a new life which shall never
end–a life of holiness, a life of peace with God!

This, then, is how sinners are liberated. Christ pays the ransom price,
the Father declares them free, the Grace of God secures their liberty
and, further, if they are once made free, then a righteous Law protects
them. The masters in Brazil cannot get back their slaves. There is an
old villain who used to flog his slave. He said that he had the right
to beat his own as much as he liked. But when once the Negro is free,
he dare not touch him. He would like to get him back, again, but what
would the black man do if his master tried to make him a slave again?
Why, he would appeal to the law! And so will we! If Christ has made us
free, we will appeal to the Law of God! We will go to the High Court of
Justice and say to the Judge of All, "Lord, You have made me free. Will
You not preserve to me my liberty?" It is God that justifies! Who is he
that condemns? Who can make him a slave whom God declares to be free?
Oh, that you might all know this liberty and enjoy it! God grant it to
you, for our Lord Jesus Christ's sake!

III. I finish with the third point, which is this–THE PERSONS WHO
OBTAIN THIS LIBERTY. I will say only a

very little upon this head, but I am hoping that many here will be able
to say, "I belong to that lot, the persons who obtain this liberty."

First, they were once slaves. These Brazilian Deputies cannot set a man
free if he is not a slave. The Grace of God cannot heal a man who is
not sick. God Almighty cannot make a man alive who is not dead. It is
essential to us that we be in slavery, or else we cannot be liberated!
Come now, what do you say about this? Does anyone answer, "I was born
free,

and was never in bondage to any man. I am as good as my neighbors, yes,
and better than most of them"? I have nothing to say to you. "They that
are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick." There
is no Christ for you who have no sin! There is no salvation for you who
never dreaded condemnation! How could there be? Does Christ come to
give clothes to those who are already well clad? Does He come to feed
those who are already feasted, or to enrich those who are increased in
goods and have need of nothing? Not He! He comes to preach repentance
to the sinner and pardon to the guilty. You must be a slave, or there
is no freedom for you!

And, as far as my piece of paper is concerned, the slaves who are set
free must be slaves in Brazil, that is, for the time being, slaves
under the reign of Grace. If they are not in Brazil, the Brazilian
Deputies cannot set them free. And you must come into the Kingdom of
Christ if you would be emancipated! O you slaves, you must come under
the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ! You must be willing, from this
time on, to call Him King, to obey Him and to abide by His laws. You
must come to Him just as you are, quit your life of sin and love Him!
And love His holiness and seek to serve Him! If you come under the
dominion of the Lord Jesus Christ, then there is absolutely proclaimed
to you, tonight, immediate, unconditional abolition of slavery! God
grant that you may obtain this priceless Gift!

And, once more, this emancipation is for all who will accept it
unconditionally. Now, one would think that when the freedom is to be
given unconditionally, everybody would say, "That suits me. If there
are no conditions, I am sure that I do not want any, for if there were
conditions, I might not be able to comply with them." But I find that
every man will have conditions. One says, "Yes, yes, I would like to be
saved, but then I do not want to give up my sins." Do you not? Then you
must remain a slave! "Well," says another, "I would like to give up
most of my sins, but there is one which I could not give up. The fact
is, I have to make my living through it–I cannot give that up." You
must either remain a slave, or you must come to be unconditionally set
free!

"But I do not wish to be set free by Grace," says a third, "I would
like to do something towards my salvation." I know you would. You would
like to have some of the honor of it, but it will never be written up,
"Christ and Company, Saviors, Limited." It would be very "limited," I
am sure, if it were so! You must have all Christ, or no Christ! Christ
must save you from the A to the Z of the alphabet, or else you will
never be sacred at all! Will you surrender unconditionally, since God
gives His Grace unconditionally? Away with all terms and conditions!
Come as you are. Come now. Come immediately! Come unconditionally and
you shall be saved! The Lord grant you Grace to yield to His mercy and
to yield at once!

"What shall I do?" asks one. "I think I will go home and pray." Well,
you may do so, if you like, but the Gospel message is, "Believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved." Still, do pray, for God does
hear prayer. That is a wonderful story that came to us lately. You may
have seen it, perhaps, in the paper. There was picked up, on the shore
of Western Australia, (I forget the town for the moment), an albatross.
It was dead on the beach and on the bird's neck was a card tied with a
string. The man who picked up the card took it to someone in authority,
for on it was written, "Thirteen of us sailors cast away on the
Crozets." These are a number of rocky islands in the far south of the
Indian Ocean. The ship in which these men had sailed had been wrecked
and they were left with a certain quantity of biscuits on the Crozet
Islands. I do not know how they caught the albatross, but it shows the
genius of man and the love of life, for they managed to catch this
great strong-winged bird and fastened the card about his neck. And he
must have taken a flight of nearly 2,000 miles, and have fallen down on
the shore with the shipwrecked mariners' message!

The French Government dispatched a man-of-war to the Crozets–and so
did the English Government. These poor fellows had not only sent
tidings by the albatross, but they had also gathered a great pile of
stones, and put a flag on the top, to attract the attention of any who
might pass that way. Nothing has been seen of them, for they did not
wait long enough–they put out to sea in the two boats in which they
reached the islands and they have never been heard of since, so far as
I know–but see what efforts they made! They piled the stones to
attract the attention of passing sailors and they hung the card about
the neck of the albatross. Why, there did not seem one chance in a
thousand that the bird would ever go to a shore where that message
would be read, yet the men did what they could!

Now, I exhort you, if you are dying and perishing, do anything that you
can that may bring you relief! Send a petition up to Heaven. Though it
may seem as if you hung your prayer upon a poor bird's neck, send it
flying! Pile up the stones with the flag on the top–your groans, cries
and tears–that you may attract attention to your desperate state! Yet
you are not, after all, driven to such bare chances as these! You may
pray as much as you like, but the Gospel message

is, "Believe, and live." Bear the royal proclamation and ask for
nothing more! There is redemption–the ransom price is paid–the slave
is free! Believe it. Accept it. Act upon it–go forth and prove it to
be true! Oh, that some soul would do that tonight! Believe that God has
provided for your emancipation and accept the liberty Christ has
purchased! Why should you quarrel with it?

I know that sinners try to find reasons why they should not be saved.
If there is a person in prison, tonight, condemned to be hanged, and if
I were to go to him, and say, "I have every reason to know that your
life will be spared," I do not believe that he would sit down and try
to prove to me that it could not be! I do not think that he would
attempt to argue that he should be hanged! At any rate, I would not
talk that way, myself, if it were my case. As far as ever my logic
would carry me, I would try to argue my neck out of the hangman's
noose, not into it! O poor Soul, do not argue yourself into Hell! Do
not argue against Divine Mercy! As we sang just now–

"Take salvation

Take it now, and happy be."

Say to yourself and say to your God, "I believe it! I accept it! I will
go my way made free by Sovereign Grace and I will act as a free man
should, to the praise of my great Master and to the glory of His
Grace." The Lord bless you, dear Friends, for Jesus Christ's sake!
Amen.

EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: Luke 4:14-32.

Verse 14. And Jesus returned, in the power of the Spirit, into Galilee.
Ah, dear Brothers and Sisters, if our Lord Jesus needed "the power of
the Spirit," how much more do you and I need it! We have no power of
our own, but He was the Son of God. He was a Divine Teacher and yet,
when He went to His work, it was, "in the power of the Spirit." Tarry,
Brothers and Sisters, till you have that power–it is of no use for you
to go without it.

14, 15. And there went out a fame of Him through all the region round
about. And He taught in their synagogues, being glorified of all. There
was a wondrous power about His teaching–"Never man spoke like this
man." Perhaps His hearers did not understand what the power was, but
they glorified the new Teacher who had come into their midst!

16. And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. It is always
a difficult thing for a young man to begin preaching in his own native
town. A Prophet is not without honor except in his own country, yet
Jesus, "came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up."

16. And, as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath
Day, and stood up to read. It was the custom to read parts of Holy Writ
in the synagogue and then to say a few words by way of exposition–and
this the Savior did.

17. And there was delivered unto Him the book of the Prophet Isaiah.
And when He had opened the book, that is, unrolled the parchment
containing Isaiah's prophecy–

17. He found the place where it was written. You will find the passage
in the 61st Chapter of Isaiah.

18, 19. The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me
to preach the Gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the
broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering
of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to
preach the acceptable year of the Lord. There He stopped–it was all of
the passage that, then, seemed suitable.

20. And He closed the book, and He gave it again to the minister, and
sat down. In those days, the preacher sat down, and those who listened
stood up, I daresay that practice tended to keep the hearers awake and
it was all the easier for the speaker! Well might the Savior sit down,
weighted as He was with a burden of holy instruction that He was about
to impart to the people, or, perhaps, sitting down as if Himself at
rest, He appeared the more ready to give rest to them.

20. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened
on Him. The young Nazarene, who had left them for a while, and had come
home, again, was the center of His fellow-townsmen's attention.

21. And He began to say unto them, This day is this Scripture fulfilled
in your ears. He thus declared that He was the anointed Messiah.

22. And all bore Him witness and wondered at the gracious word which
proceeded out of His mouth. They did not, at first, ridicule or deny
what Jesus said–His doctrine was pleasing and comforting–and they
were ready to accept it.

22. And they said, Is not this Joseph's son? Now they began to
question–"Is not this the son of the carpenter?"

23. And He said unto them, You will surely say unto Me the proverb,
Physician, heal yourself: whatever we have heard done in Capernaum, do
also here in Your country. "You have been doing great things over
yonder at Capernaum, do the same at Nazareth. You should not leave Your
own native town without working miracles here." Now there was an
opportunity for Jesus to ingratiate Himself with the people and win
their good word. If He would only perform miracles among them, He would
be highly exalted in their esteem.

24. 25. And He said, Verily I say unto you, No Prophet is accepted in
His own country. But I tell you of a truth, many widows were in Israel
in the day, of Elijah, when the Heaven was shut up three years and six
months, when great famine was throughout all the land. Many husbands
died, and many widows in Israel were left desolate in those terrible
days of trial.

26. But unto none of them was Elijah sent, save unto Zarephath, a city
of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow. This was as much as to say,
"It is not because I lived here that I shall work miracles in this
place. There were many widows round about Elijah, but he was not sent
to one of them. He was sent to a widow in Zarephath, a city of Sidon, a
heathen woman in another country." Mark the Sovereignty of God! He
bestows His mercy where He wills, according to His declaration to
Moses, "I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show
mercy on whom I will show mercy." We dare not ask God why He does this,
"for He gives not account of any of His matters." He acts wisely, but
He acts according to the good pleasure of His own will.

27. And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Elisha the Prophet;
and none of them was cleansed, saving Naaman; the Syrian. He, too, was
a heathen from a distant country. Healing came to him, but to none of
the lepers of Israel. God will do as He pleases with His own mercy and
Grace. The question that He asks is, "Is it not lawful for Me to do
what I will with My own? "This doctrine of Divine Sovereignty was not
according to the taste of these people–they did not like it–and some
of you, I fear, do not like it. They grew very angry. They began to
gnash their teeth and to say, "This young Man must be silenced! We will
not listen to such doctrine as this from Him."

28. And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were
filled with wrath. They did not mind hearing the first part of His
teaching, but now that He exalts the Sovereignty of God, and lays the
sinner low, He speaks too plainly for them–"They were filled with
wrath."

29. 30. And rose up, and thrust Him out of the city, and led Him unto
the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast
Him down headlong. But He, passing through the midst of them, went His
way. They could not destroy Him at that time. His work was not done and
He was immortal till it was fully accomplished.

31, 32. And came down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and taught them
on the Sabbath Day. And they were astonished at His doctrine: for His
word was with power. God grant that His Word may be with power tonight!
Amen.