The Last Message for the Year
The Last Message for the Year
(No. 3230)
A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, DECEMBER 29, 1910.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING,
DECEMBER 28, 1873.
"All that the Father gives Me shall come to Me; and him that comes to
Me I will in no wise cast out.
John 6:37.
[Mr. Spurgeon preached many Sermons upon this verse. Among those
already published are #1762, Volume 30–HIGH DOCTRINE AND BROAD
DOCTRINE; #2349, Volume 40–ALL COMERS TO CHRIST WELCOMED; #2954,
Volume 51–THE BIG GATES WIDE OPEN and #3000, Volume 52–NUMBER
3000–OR, COME AND WELCOME.]
WE have come to the last Sabbath evening and the last public Sabbath
service of another year. With some of us it may be our last Sabbath on
earth and our last public Sabbath service in this life. It becomes us,
then, to fix our thoughts upon solemn and weighty themes–those which
are of the utmost importance to us–and those which most closely
concern our eternal destiny. I pray that the Holy Spirit may cause the
deepest possible seriousness to rest upon this whole assembly and that
He may very specially guide me to speak as I ought upon the familiar
but most weighty words that I trust He has moved me to select once
again for your very earnest consideration tonight.
I have preached many times upon this text but, on this occasion, I am
going to speak briefly upon three topics that it suggests to me. The
first is that there is only one way of salvation–"All that the Father
gives Me shall come to Me." "Him that comes to Me." This topic will
teach us the exclusiveness of Divine Grace. Secondly, this way will be
used by some–"All that the Father gives Me shall come to Me." This
teaches us the Omnipotence of Divine Grace. Thirdly, all who come by
this way shall be saved–"him that comes to Me I will in no wise cast
out." This teaches us the fullness and freeness of Divine Grace.
I. First, then, we learn from our text THE EXCLUSIVENESS OF DIVINE
GRACE–THERE IS ONLY ONE WAY OF SALVATION "All that the Father gives Me
shall come to Me" "Him that comes to Me"
To come to Jesus is the one and only way of salvation. If there could
have been any other way, this one would never have been opened. It is
not conceivable that God would have given His only-begotten and
well-beloved Son to die upon the Cross of Calvary in order to save
sinners if there had been any other way of saving them that would have
been as consistent with the principles of Infallible Justice. If men
could have entered into everlasting life without passing along the path
stained and consecrated by the blood of Jesus, surely that blood would
never have been "shed for many for the remission of sins." The very
fact that this new and living way has been opened proves that there is
no other, for God would never have provided it unless it had been
absolutely necessary. That this is the only way of salvation is again
and again emphasized in Scripture with a sacred intolerance which none
ought to mistake! Writing to the Corinthians, under the Inspiration of
the Holy Spirit, Paul says, "Other foundation can no man lay than that
is laid, which is Jesus Christ." And to Timothy, his own son in the
faith, he writes, "There is one God and one Mediator between God and
men, the Man Christ Jesus." And the Lord Jesus Christ, Himself, who had
a more loving heart than ever beat in any merely human being's breast,
most solemnly said, in almost His last words on earth, "He that
believes and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believes not shall
be damned."
So there is no other way of salvation and sinners are most faithfully
warned that however pleasant and attractive any other ways may appear
to be, the end of those ways is death and "everlasting destruction from
the Presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power." When Jesus
said, "I am the Way," He clearly intended to exclude all other ways, so
beware lest you perish in any one of them! Be not like the foolish and
wicked people of Jeremiah's day to whom the Lord
said, "Stand you in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where
is the good way and walk therein, and you shall find rest for your
souls." But, alas, they said, "We will not walk therein." Be you not
like unto them!
But what is this exclusive way of salvation? In our text it is twice
described as coming to Christ. But what is meant by that expression? It
does not mean any mere locomotion, any moving of the body from one
place to another. There were many who came to Christ in that sense
while He was upon the earth–they thronged around Him and pressed upon
Him–but the mere proximity of their bodies to Christ did not bring
salvation to them, for many of them turned away and walked no more with
Him when His heart-searching teaching was too faithful for them. Well,
then, what does coming to Christ readily mean?
Coming to Christ means, first, turning away from all confidence in
ourselves or in others and trusting alone in Jesus. In order to come to
a certain person, you must turn away from another person who is in a
different direction, so if you want to be saved, you must come right
away from trusting in yourselves–you must cease to have any confidence
in anything that you have ever done, or ever hope to do–you must not
place any reliance upon the alms you have bestowed upon the poor, the
prayers you have presented to God, the services you have attended, or
anything of your own! You must utterly abhor all hope of salvation from
yourself, even as Paul did when, after recounting the things in which
he had formerly trusted, he wrote, "But what things were gain to me,
those I counted loss for Christ. Yes, doubtless, and I count all things
but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord,
for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and do count them but
dung, that I may win Christ, and be found in Him, not having my own
righteousness, which is of the Law, but that which is through the faith
of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith."
If you are resolved to come to Christ, you must also give up all trust
in others as a means of salvation. If you have up to now been placing
any reliance upon your godly ancestry, your Christian father and
mother, or if you have been depending upon your close connection with
good people. If you have trusted to a man who calls himself a priest.
If you have put any dependence upon what he can do towards your
salvation–I pray you to cast away all such confidence, and dependence,
for if you do not, you cannot come to Christ! If you have been relying
upon any rite, or ceremony, or "sacrament" relating to water or bread
and wine, any "priestly" performance, or posture, or ritual, or
anything apart from the Lord Jesus Christ, I implore you to abandon all
those soul-destroying delusions, for no one of them nor all of them
combined will help you into the one and only way of salvation!
For, observe, that the text speaks–and it is the Lord Jesus Christ who
speaks through the text–of coming to a Person–"All that the Father
gives ME shall come to ME; and him that comes to ME I will no wise cast
out." Note how personal the text is both concerning the one coming and
the One to whom he is to come–"Hm that comes to ME." That is the long
and the short of the whole matter–its Alpha and Omega, its beginning
and its end–there must be a personal coming to the personal Christ! It
will not suffice for you to come to Christ's Doctrine–you must, of
course, believe what He taught–but believing His teaching will not
save you unless you come to HIM. It will not be enough merely to come
to Christ's precepts and to try to practice them–an utterly impossible
task for you to perform in your own unaided strength! You must first
come to Christ and then, trusting in Him for salvation, His gracious
Spirit will take of the things of Christ and show them to you, and
teach and enable you to walk in His ways and to obey His precepts.
Does someone ask, "Who and what is He to whom I am to come?" Listen.
The Eternal Son of the Eternal Father– He who has made the heavens and
the earth and all things that are, whose almighty Word fashioned this
round globe and sent it spinning on its wondrous course around the
sun–the Creator and Lord of all the angelic host before whom cherubim
and seraphim bow down in reverent adoration–this great King of kings
and Lord of lords, in His amazing love and wondrous condescension,
"made Himself of no reputation and took upon Him the form of a Servant,
and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a
Man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death
of the Cross." It is to Him that you are to come! You are to believe in
Him as the Incarnate God, equally and just as truly Son of Man and Son
of God! And then, (and this is the crux of your faith, your faith in
the Cross–that "Cross" in which Paul gloried–not a cross of wood, or
stone, or ivory before which people idolatrously prostrate
themselves–but the Doctrine of the Cross, which is today as great an
"offence" as it was in Paul's day), you must believe that God laid upon
His Incarnate and Immaculate Son, the sins of all His people whom He
had given to Him from all eternity! And you must believe that He even
took pleasure in bruising Him because of the wondrous results that were
to follow and
flow from His atoning Sacrifice on the Cross! Do you think I am
speaking too strongly? Remember the words of the inspired Prophet
Isaiah–"All we, like sheep, have gone astray; we have turned, every
one, to his own way, and the Lord has laid on Him (made to meet on Him)
the iniquity of us all…It pleased the Lord to bruise Him. He has put
Him to grief: when You shall make His soul an offering for sin, He
shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of the
Lord shall prosper in His hand." If you, my Brother or Sister, rely
upon this great expiatory Sacrifice and believe that when Christ died
upon the Cross, He died as your Substitute and Representative, you are
saved! You have entered the one and only way of salvation!
But be assured of this, if you reject the Incarnate God. If you will
not trust in Him. If you will not come to Him that you may have life,
there is no other way of salvation and there will never be any other!
Never forget that this same Jesus, who was taken up into Heaven, shall
so come again in like manner as He went up into Heaven–and "when He
shall come to be glorified in His saints, and to be admired in all them
that believe," there will be others to whom His Second Advent will
bring nothing but dismay and terror, for then, "the Lord Jesus shall be
revealed from Heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire taking
vengeance on them that know not God, and they that know not the Gospel
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall be punished with everlasting
destruction from the Presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His
power." It will be utterly in vain for you to cry, then, to the
mountains and the rocks, "Fall on us, and hide us from the face of Him
that sits on the Throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great
day of His wrath is come and who shall be able to stand?"
II. Now, secondly, we learn from our text THE OMNIPOTENCE OF DIVINE
GRACE–SOME WILL USE THIS ONE AND ONLY WAY OF SALVATION. "All that the
Father gives Me shall come to Me"
So first, there are some who were given to Christ. We believe that it
is clearly revealed in the Scriptures that long before this earth was
created, the Lord looked forward upon the race of human beings that He
intended to live upon it, and that out of them He chose unto Himself a
people whom He gave to His Son to be the reward of the suffering He
would endure on their behalf. Peter wrote to the elect strangers, "You
are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar
people that you should show forth the praises of Him who has called you
out of darkness into His marvelous light." And Paul wrote to Timothy,
"The foundation of God stands sure, having this seal, The Lord knows
them that are His." We do not know them, but He knows everyone of them
and He counts them as His own peculiar treasure! "They shall be Mine,
says the Lord of Hosts, in that day when I make up My jewels." These
people have been given to Christ by His Father. Again and again, in
that great intercessory prayer of His, He spoke of this Truth of God!
In fact, the prayer begins with an emphatic declaration of it–"Father,
the hour is come; glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You;
as You have given Him power over all flesh, that He should give eternal
life to as many as You have given Him."
In our text Christ says that these people shall come to Him. "All that
the Father gives Me shall come to Me." There is no question about
whether they will come, or will not come–Christ says that they "shall
come" to Him. "But," asks someone, "will God force them to come to
Christ against their will?" Oh, no–He has a gracious way of making
them willing in the day of His power. By His Spirit's Divine teaching,
He will instruct them, illuminate them, persuade them, compel them so
that everyone of those who were given to Christ will come to Him. "But
they are blind," says another. The Lord says, "I will bring the blind
by a way that they know not." "But they are very obstinate." The Lord
says, "I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness and speak
comfortably unto her." "But they are dead." Yes, that is true, but the
Lord quickens those who are dead in trespasses and sins. Without
violating our wills and leaving us to still act as free agents
responsible for our own actions, He makes us willing to yield ourselves
up to Christ–body, soul and spirit–to be forever His!
Why does Christ tell us this? I think He does it partly to comfort His
ministers. Oh, it is heart-breaking work to keep on preaching Christ to
sinners who will not come to Him, holding up Christ before eyes that
see no beauty in Him, praising Him to ears that are not charmed with
the music of His name! So our Master says to us, "My servants, you
shall not labor in vain, nor spend your strength for nothing. 'All that
the Father gives Me shall come to Me.' If all those who were first
invited to the great Gospel feast make excuses for not coming, others
will accept My invitation and the feast shall be fully furnished with
guests. If scribes and Pharisees still reject Me, publicans and harlots
will be only too glad to come to
Me and I will cast out none who come. So still go on, My servants,
publishing the glad tiding of salvation, for all that My Father gave Me
must and shall come to Me."
I think Christ also speaks thus as a rebuff to those who seem to
imagine that Christ's work will be a failure if they do not come to
Him! You know how many talk, nowadays, about the Gospel being
old-fashioned, worn out and not adapted to this enlightened age! Oh,
yes, Sir, I know what you think and how you talk! But are you foolish
enough to suppose that Christ's great Sacrifice on Calvary will prove
to have been offered in vain just because you refuse to trust to it? Oh
no, "He shall see of the travail of His soul and shall be satisfied."
Here is a poor silly fly drowning in a glass of water. He might as well
imagine that his dying struggles would convulse all the empires of the
earth as an atheist might think that he can demolish the whole system
of Christianity by the nonsensical whimsies that he harbors in his
stupid brain! I tell you, Man, that you cannot frustrate the eternal
purposes of God, or rob His Son of a single grain of His Glory! What if
you will not come to Christ? He never expected that you would come, so
He will not be surprised or disappointed! But if you will not come to
Him, others will. If you will not enlist in the army of the Cross and
join the innumerable hosts that rally round His blood-stained banner,
others will, and the great Son of David will never lack brave soldiers
who will do and dare for Him more than even David's mighty men did for
their royal leader! Voltaire said that he lived in the twilight of
Christianity, but if so, it was the twilight of the morning, not of the
evening! Julian the apostate vowed that he would put down the Nazarene,
but his dying cry was, "O Galilean, You have conquered!" Yes, and so He
always will–and they who oppose and reject Him will find that the
stone which the builders refused will become the cornerstone in the
great Temple of His Church–and also a stone of stumbling and a rock of
offense to those who reject Him! Woe be unto those upon whom that Stone
shall fall, for it will grind them to powder!
I think that Jesus also intended these words, "All that the Father
gives Me shall come to Me," to be a cause for jubilation in the hearts
of His people. We often feel very sad concerning the times in which we
live and there is more than enough to make us sigh and cry because of
the abominations and iniquities in the world and, alas, because of the
many evils in the professing church! But those who love the Lord and
seek to serve Him are not left without many consolations and
compensations. The purposes of God shall all be fulfilled! There shall
not be one soul the less in Heaven notwithstanding all that Romanism,
Ritualism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Mohammedanism and every other ism
may do! Christ shall not be robbed of the reward of His soul-travail by
anything that infidelity can do! Satan may rage and roar, and all his
legions may come up from the bottomless Pit and league themselves with
wicked men to overthrow the Church of God, but founded upon the Rock,
"the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it." The kings and rulers
of the earth may take counsel together against the Lord and against His
Anointed, but "He that sits in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall
have them in derision." And when the history of this poor little planet
is finished, it shall be found that Christ was speaking nothing but the
truth when He said, "All that the Father gives Me shall come to Me."
III. Now I come to the last and perhaps the sweetest part of the whole
discourse, which is to be concerning THE
FULLNESS AND FREENESS OF DIVINE GRACE–ALL WHO COME BY THIS ONE WAY
SHALL BE SAVED!
"Him that comes to Me, I will in no wise cast out.
This means that everyone who comes to Christ shall certainly be saved,
for, if Christ will not cast him out, nobody else can do so! As soon as
ever he comes to Christ, he is accepted (not repelled) by Christ! And
being accepted by Christ, he is saved with an everlasting
salvation–and there is no power on earth or in Hell that can ever make
him into an unsaved man after Christ has saved him!
"But," says someone, "suppose he comes to Christ and then finds that he
is not one of those who were given to Christ by His Father?" You must
not suppose what never can be true, for there never was a sinner yet
who came to Christ who was not first given to Christ! All who come to
Christ are Divinely drawn to Him and no one is drawn to Him without
having been from all eternity given to Him–so there is nothing in our
friend's supposition that ought to be a stumbling block in the way of
any seeking sinner here! I am quite certain that God has an elect
people, for He tells me so in His Word. And I am equally certain that
everyone who comes to Christ shall be saved, for that also is His own
declaration in the Scriptures! When people ask me how I reconcile these
two Truths of God, I usually say that there is no need to reconcile
them, for they have never yet quarreled with one another! Both are true
and both relate to the same persons, for those who come to Christ are
those who were from eternity given to Christ by His Father!
Jesus Christ still says to us, "Him that comes to Me I will in no wise
cast out." "But, Lord," objects someone, "this man's life has been an
outrageously bad one! Will You accept him if he comes to You?" "Oh,
yes! 'Him that comes to Me I will in no wise cast out.'" "But, Lord, he
has been an habitual drunk and he has also been a great blasphemer."
Well, suppose you were obliged to add that he has been an adulterer, a
liar, a thief, a perjurer, or even a murderer? Jesus Christ would still
say, "'Him that comes to Me I will in no wise cast out.' Whatever his
past character may have been, if he truly repents of his sin and trusts
in My atoning blood to cleanse him from all his guilt, his sins and
iniquities shall be remembered against him no more, forever." If I had
the biggest, blackest sinner in the whole world here, I would say to
him or to her, "My dear Friend, if you will here and now trust in the
Lord Jesus Christ, the one and only Savior of sinners, I can assure
you, on the authority of God, Himself, that 'though your sins are as
scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though your sins are red like
crimson, they shall be as wool.' And that your sins, which are many,
are all forgiven! And then, like the woman in the city who was a
notorious public sinner, you will love Christ much because you have
been forgiven much."
"Ah," says some poor sinner here, "but I do not feel that I have
repented enough. I do not feel that my heart is tender enough. I do not
feel that I have wept enough over my many offenses." Stop a moment,
Friend. If you have your Bible open, or if not, listen while I read the
text again–"All that the Father gives Me shall come to Me; and him
that comes to me I will in no wise cast out." Is there anything in
Christ's words about how much you are to feel Is there anything at all
about your feelings Not a word! Not even a syllable! If you but come to
Christ, which means if you but trust Him, if you rely upon His finished
work, if you truthfully say, as we often sing–
"Ido believe, I will believe,
That Jesus died for me!
That on the Cross He shed His blood
From sin to set me free"–
then that glorious "Gospel in miniature"–as Martin Luther called it,
applies to you as well as to every other sinner who believes in
Jesus–"God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son,
that whoever believes in Him s hould not perish, but have everlasting
life." There is nothing in that verse about feelings–everything
depends upon faith! And then when you have believed in Jesus, right
feelings will be given to you by God's good Spirit. Gratitude, love,
joy, hope, peace, courage, long-suffering, gentleness, meekness,
temperance and every other "fruit of the Spirit" will spring from the
blessed root-Grace of faith in Jesus! And so you shall have yet further
confirmation of the fact that you are saved for the Lord's own test is,
"By their fruits you shall know them."
Possibly there is someone here, on this last Sabbath night of another
year, who is saying to himself, "I hardly know why I came into this
building tonight, for I have been everything that I ought not to have
been–and nothing that I ought to have been." But, Friend, do you
desire to begin a new life even before the new year dawns on you? Are
you willing to leave your sins? Do you long to be a holy man? In a
word, is it the one wish of your heart that you may be saved? Then I
refer you, also, to my text and remind you that the Lord Jesus Christ
said, "him that comes to me I will in no wise cast out." There is
nothing there to shut out the most irreligious man if he will but come
to Christ! You say that you are an odd man–well, I have often said and
others have said that I am an odd man–a lot that cannot be put in any
catalog! You are self-condemned and so was I before I came to Christ.
You feel that you are, as George Whitefield used to say, one of the
devil's castaways–so bad that even Satan, himself, would not claim
you! Why, you and I ought to shake hands, for that is just how I felt
when that poor local preacher pointed to me and said, "Look, young man,
look! Jesus Christ says to you, "Look unto Me and be you saved, all the
ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else." I did look,
and was saved by the same Gospel I preach to you! And as this is the
last Sabbath night in another year, and as it may be the last Gospel
invitation you will ever have the opportunity of hearing, I repeat to
you the very last invitations recorded in the Word of God, "The Spirit
and the bride say, Come, and let him that hears say, Come. And let him
that is thirsty come. And whoever will, let him take the water of life
freely." This agrees with John 3:16 which I have already quoted to you,
and it also agrees with Christ's words in our text, "Him that comes to
Me." John Bunyan said that meant any "him" in all the world–"I will in
no wise cast out"–that is, for no reason, for no conceivable motive,
for no possible cause will Christ cast out one who comes to Him by
faith! "Him that comes to Me I will in no wise cast out" is a grand old
An-
glo-Saxon expression that sweeps round the man who comes to Christ and
guards him like a sword of fire protecting him from every possibility
of being cast out by Christ!
What do you say, My Hearers, to all this? I have pleaded with some of
you hundreds of times and now, in this, my last Sabbath message for the
year, I ask you once again–Will you come to Christ? When will you
come? Tomorrow? That means never, for tomorrow never comes. By-and-by?
That means that you do not intend to come to Christ at all! The text is
in the present tense, "him that comes to me," for, "now is the accepted
time. Behold, now is the day of salvation." Trust in Jesus now, Sinner!
Trust your soul to Him as you trust your money to your banker and your
body to your doctor! "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be
saved." Oh, that the Holy Spirit may enable you to say, at this moment,
"This is a sinner's salvation and, as I am a sinner, it exactly suits
my case! I accept it, My Lord, praising and blessing You that I, a
poor, foul, lost, condemned sinner coming to You, am saved–saved now
and saved forever! Glory be unto Your holy name! Amen!"
EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: LUKE 11:1-26.
1. Andit came topass, that as He waspraying in a certain place, when He
ceased, one ofHis disciples said unto Him, Lord, teach us to pray, as
John also taught his disciples. It seemed to this disciple as if he did
not know how to pray after he had heard Christ pray. The prayer of
Jesus was so infinitely above anything that he had ever reached that he
said, "Lord, teach us to pray." And as if he felt that he needed a
precedent for asking such hallowed instruction, he said, "Teach us to
pray, as John also taught his disciples." We must all feel that if we
are to pray aright, we must be taught of God, by his Holy Spirit. We
are full of infirmities and if there is any time when our infirmities
are felt most, it is when we engage in prayer, but "the Spirit also
helps our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we
ought." Let us, then, breathe this prayer to our great Teacher, "Lord,
teach us to pray."
2. And He said to them, When you pray, say, Our Father which are in
Heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done, as
in Heaven, so in earth. When we come to God in prayer, we are apt to
think first of our own necessities, but if we came aright, in the
spirit of sonship, truly saying, "Our Father who are in Heaven," we
should begin our prayer like this, "'Hallowed be Your name.' May all
men honor, reverence, and adore Your holy name. 'Your kingdom come.' We
are not satisfied that You should be anything less than King! Our
heart's desire is, 'Reign, gracious God over us and over all men.'
'Your will be done, as in Heaven, so in earth.' 'Your will be done,'
rather than ours." Now comes a prayer for ourselves–
3. Give us day by day our daily bread."Give us, O Lord, what we really
need–not that which would be a luxury, but that which is a necessity.
'Give us,' according as we shall need it day by day, what we shall then
actually need–'our daily bread.'" We are not warranted in asking much
more than this in temporal matters. They are all comprehended in this
petition as far as they are necessary, but God has not given us carte
blanche to ask for wealth, or honor, or any such dangerous things.
There is no harm in asking for bread–and He will give us that.
4. And forgive us our sins.We also need to pray this prayer. I do not
think that our Savior ever anticipated a time when His disciples on
earth would not need to pray, "Forgive us our sins."
4. For we also forgive everyone that is indebted to us. And lead us not
into temptation. "Lord, do not try us and test us more than is
absolutely necessary, for we are so apt to fall! 'Lead us not into
temptation,' but if we must be tempted"–
4. Deliver us from evil."If some good end is to be answered by our
being thus tested, then let it be so, but, O Lord, 'deliver us from
evil,' and especially from the Evil One–do not allow us to fall into
his hands in the hour of temptation."
5, 6. And He said to them, Which of you shall have a friend, and shall
go unto him at midnight, and say unto him, Friend, lendme three loaves;
for a friend of mine in his journey is come to me, andIhave nothing to
set before him. This man was in a sad plight–his friend was faint and
hungry and he was willing enough to entertain him, but he had "nothing
to set before him." So he acts very wisely–he goes to a friend, and
asks him to lend him three loaves.
7. And he from within shall answer and say, Trouble me not: the door is
now shut and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give to
you. If the man outside keeps on knocking. If he will not go away
without the bread he wants for his friend, what will happen?
8. I say unto you, Though he will not rise and give to him, because he
is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him
as many as he needs. See the power of importunate prayer? And you,
Beloved, can have all that you really need for yourselves or others if
you will only ask for it in the right way. If, summoning every faculty
of your being, you resolve to plead, and plead, and plead yet again and
again, and never take, "No," for an answer, your heart's desire shall
be granted!
9. And I say unto you, ask, andit shall be given you. But if asking
does not seem to prevail with God– 9. Seek, and you shall find. And
if, for a while, you do not find, come closer in–
9. Knock, andit shall be opened unto you. There are different methods
of praying and each one has its special adaptation to the state in
which you may be–so use that method to which the Holy Spirit guides
you–so use all methods until you prevail.
10, 11. For everyone that asks receives, and he that seeks finds; and
to him that knocks it shall be opened. If a son shall ask bread of any
of you that is a father, will he give him a stone?There were many
stones in those days that were in appearance wonderfully like the bread
which they used in the East, but would any father mock his son by
giving him one of those stones to break his teeth, instead of bread
that he could eat? Never!
11-13. Or ifhe asks for a fish, willhe for a fish give him a serpent?
Orifhe shallaskfor an egg, willhe offer him a scorpion? If you, then,
being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much
more shall your heavenly
Father give the Holy Spirit to them that asks Him? [See Sermon #959,
Volume 16–RIGHT REPLIES TO RIGHT REQUESTS.] If you have the Holy
Spirit, you virtually have all good gifts, for the Spirit is the
earnest of God's Love, the pledge of joys to come! And He brings with
Him all things that are necessary and good for you!
14. And He was casting out a devil, and it was dumb.So that this poor
man could not obey the Savior's teaching. He could not pray, for he was
under the influence of a dumb devil. How many of that sort there are
still in the world! They cannot speak with God, they have never learned
to pray, for they are possessed by a dumb devil!
14. And it came to pass, when the devil was gone out, the dumb spoke;
and the people wondered. When the devil is driven out of men by Christ,
they soon begin to pray. The little sentence, "Behold, he prays," was
the indication of a new birth in Saul of Tarsus. The Lord grant that
some here who have been possessed by a dumb spirit, may be graciously
led to pray! Remember, dear Friend, that God will hear your prayer the
first time you call upon Him–and there is a text which says, "Before
they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will
hear."
15. But some of them said, He casts out devils through Beelzebub, the
chief of the devils. They could not have uttered a fouler lie than
this! And if people thus slandered the Lord Jesus Christ, we need not
be surprised if they speak ill of us!
16. And others, tempting Him, sought of Him a sign from Heaven.Yet they
had a very striking one in the dumb devil being cast out of the man!
What clearer sign than that could they have?
17. 18. But He, knowing their thoughts, said to them, Every kingdom
divided against itself is brought to desolation; and a house divided
against a house fails. If Satan also is divided against himself how
shall his kingdom stand? Because you say that I cast out devils through
Beelzebub.If Satan cast out Satan, his kingdom would soon come to an
end! Note how calmly the Savior met these mockers and quibblers. There
is no trace of anger in His words–they said the worst thing they could
say about Him and His work and yet, in the coolest manner possible, He
closes their mouths in the silence of shame. God grant us Grace to be
calm and strong even when we are most furiously assailed! It is when we
are in a hurry and fret that we grow weak.
19-23. And if I, by Beelzebub, cast out devils, by whom do your sons
cast them out? Therefore shall they be your judges. But if I, with the
finger of God, cast out devils, no doubt the Kingdom of God is come
upon you. When a strong man armed keeps his palace, his goods are in
peace: but when a stronger than he shall come upon him, and overcome
him, he takes from him all his armor wherein he trusted, and divides
his spoils. He that is not with Me is against Me: and he that gathers
not with Me, scatters.Christ had made no compact with the powers of
darkness! He was not casting the demons out with the devil's aid–it
was absurd to think that He was! He was fighting them and casting them
out by His own Divine, Omnipotent energy. Now comes a very striking
parable–
24. When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man–Satan does,
sometimes, go out of men entirely of his own accord without being
turned out. He goes out for a walk, meaning to go back again. Many a
man has left off being a drunk, or left off being lascivious–for a
time–"when the unclean spirit is gone out of a man"–
24. He walks through dry places, seeking rest; and finding none, he
says, I will return unto my house–You see that he still calls it
hishouse. He has gone out for a walk, but he has taken the keys of his
house with him. Some people sign the pledge and give up being drunks
for a time, but if the devil is still their master, he has only gone
away for a while, and he will come back again before long. If he goes
out of his own accord, he will come back when he pleases–"I will
return unto my house"–
24, 26. From where I came out. And when he comes, he finds it swept and
garnishe. The man has become quite a decent sort of fellow! He has
given up his bad ways and is a respectable member of society. The house
is swept and garnished, but it is the devil's house all the same!
26. Then goes he, and takes to him even other spirits more wicked than
himself, and they enter in, and dwell there: and the last state of that
man is worse than the first [See Sermon #613, Volume 11–"the strong
one driven out by a stronger one."] There are, alas, many who have only
a sham conversion, a conversion which lasts but a very little while.
The devil was not cast out of them, but he went out of his own accord.
But where Christ has come–the One who is far stronger than the
devil–to cast him out of his house, the devil will never be allowed to
come back again, Christ will take care of that! Having won the victory
and taken the house, he will keep it by force of arms. But beware, I
pray you, of a "conversion" without Christ! Beware of a "reformation"
in which the devil, himself, is a co-worker with you, for it will come
to something worse in the end! Let me read the verse again–"Then goes
he, and takes to him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and
they enter in, and dwell there; and the last state of that man is worse
than the first." He becomes a worse man than ever because once he
promised to be better, but only promised it in his own strength, which
was utter weakness!