Untitled Sermon

A SERMON DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, JULY 16, 1876,

BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"And it came to pass, as Peter passed throughout all quarters, he came
down, also, to the saints which dwelt at Lydda. And there he found a
certain man named Aeneas, which had kept his bed eight years, and was
sick of the palsy. And Peter said unto him, Aeneas, Jesus Christ makes
you whole: arise, and make your bed. And he arose immediately. And all
that dwelt in Lydda and Saron saw him, and turned to the Lord." Acts
9:32-35.

Upon the occasion of the regular hearers vacating their seats to allow
strangers to fill the house.

I MAY not hope that I shall see you all again, and so, as I have the
opportunity of only preaching one sermon to you, I must make it as full
as I can of the essence of the Gospel, from beginning to end. We have
heard of a chaplain who preached in a jail, who selected a subject
which he divided into two heads. The first part was the sinner's
disease. This he took for his topic on one Sabbath and closed the
sermon by saying that he would preach upon the sinner's remedy upon the
following Sunday. Now, there were several of the prisoners hanged on
Monday, according to the custom of the bad old times, so that they did
not hear that part of the discourse which it was most necessary for
them to hear.

It would have been well to have told out the great news of salvation at
once to men so near their end. And I think that in every sermon, if the
preacher confines himself to one subject, and leaves out essential
Gospel Truths under the notion that he will preach salvation by Jesus
another day, he is very unwise, for some of his congregation may be
dead and gone–alas, some of them lost–before he will have the
opportunity of coming to the grand and all-important point, namely, the
way of salvation!

By the Grace of God we will not fall into that evil tonight! We will
try to shoot at the very center of our target and preach the plan of
salvation as completely as we can. And may God grant that His blessing
may rest on it, the Holy Spirit working with it. I shall only preach
this one sermon to some of you. You will, therefore, have the greater
patience with me as I shall not inflict myself upon you again. But, if
we are to have only one communication with each other, let us come to
real practical business and waste no time. A good deal of
sermon-hearing is mere trifling–let us come to matter-of-fact
preaching and hearing at this time!

I am afraid that some sermon preaching is playing, too–fine words and
oratorical fireworks–but no agony for souls. We mean business tonight!
My heart will not be satisfied unless many of you who came in here
without Christ shall go down those steps saved by His atoning blood!
Bitter will be my disappointment if many do not lay hold of Jesus and
realize in their own souls, Peter's words, "Jesus Christ makes you
whole." I have faith in the great Physician that many of you will go
away whole tonight though you were sin-sick when you came into this
House of Prayer. Much supplication has gone up to Heaven for this and
the Lord hears prayer–therefore do I reckon that miracles of healing
will surely be worked in this house on this occasion!

To the point, then! Peter came to Lydda and found one who bore the
classic name of Aeneas. He was no mighty warrior, however, but a poor
paralyzed man who had been confined to his bed for eight long years.
Touched with a sight of the man's feebleness, Peter felt the impulse of
the Spirit upon him and, looking at him as he lay there, he said,
"Aeneas, Jesus Christ makes you whole: arise, and make your bed."
Touched by the same Spirit who inspired the Apostle, the man believed
the message–believed that Christ had healed him–at once rose and made
his bed and in an instant was perfectly restored!

Now let us hear something about this man. We are not to hear Virgil
sing, "arms and the man," but we are to let Luke tell us of the man and
his Savior.

I. In the first place, then, it is very clear that THE MAN WAS TRULY
SICK. Had he not been really sick, the incident before us would have
been all a fake–a feint and a pretence from beginning to end–but he
was hopelessly infirm. He had been anxiously watched by his friends for
eight years and was so completely palsied that during all those years
he had not left his bed, which had grown hard as a stone beneath him.
Now, as there is no room for a great cure unless there is a great
sickness, so there is no room for God's great Grace unless there is
great sin! Jesus Christ did not come into the world to save sham
sinners, but real sinners–neither did He descend from Heaven to seek
those who are not diseased with sin, for the whole have no need of a
physician–but He has come to seek those who are deeply diseased and to
give them real healing.

This man's sickness was no imaginary ill, for he could not move. His
hands and feet were quite paralyzed. If in any limb there was a measure
of motion, it was only a tremulous quiver, which rather indicated
growing weakness than remaining force. He was bereaved of all strength.
Are you such by nature, my Friend, in a spiritual sense? Certainly you
are so–but have you found it out? Has the Spirit of God made you feel
that you can do nothing aright apart from Him and that you are
altogether ruined and palsied unless Jesus Christ saves you? If so, do
not despair because you feel how terribly your soul is smitten!

But, on the contrary, say to yourself, "Here is room for mercy in me.
If ever a soul needed healing, I do. Here is space for Divine power to
operate in me, for if ever a soul was weak and palsied, I am just that
soul." Be cheered with the hope that God will make your infirmity a
platform upon which He will display His power! The man had been
paralyzed eight years. The length of its endurance is a terrible
element in a disease. Perhaps yours is no eight years' malady, but 28,
or 38, or 48, or 78–perhaps 88 years you have been in bondage! Well,
blessed be God, the number of years in which we have lived in sin
cannot prevent the mercy of God in Christ Jesus from making us whole!
You have a very long bill to discharge, while another friend has but a
short one and owes comparatively little–but it is just as easy for the
creditor to write, "paid," at the bottom of the large bill as the
smaller one.

And now that our Lord Jesus Christ has made full Atonement, it is as
easy for God to pardon the iniquities of 80 years as the sins of the
child of eight. Be not despairing, then, Jesus Christ can make such as
you are whole, even though your heart and your understanding have been
long paralyzed with sin. The man's disease was one which was then
reckoned to be, and probably is now, entirely incurable. Who can
restore a palsied man? Aeneas could not restore himself and no merely
human physician had skill to do anything for him. Dear Hearer, has the
Spirit of God made you feel that your soul's wound is incurable? Is
your heart sick? Is your understanding darkened? Do you feel your whole
nature to have become paralyzed with sin and there is no physician?

Ah, I know there is none among men, for there is no balm in Gilead,
there is no physician there! There never was, or else the daughter of
my people would have been healed of her hurt long ago. There is no soul
physician except at Calvary! No balm but in the Savior's wounds! If you
feel that you are incurably soul-sick and the case is desperate unless
Infinite Mercy shall interpose, then I am glad that you are here
tonight. I am glad that there is such a one as Aeneas present! Do you
know that the most delightful task in the world is to preach to those
who consciously need the Savior? Mr. Whitfield used to say that he
could wish to preach all day and all night long to those who really
knew that they needed Christ.

We are bound to preach to everybody, for our Master said, "preach the
Gospel to every creature" under Heaven. But, oh, when we can get at a
knot of hungry souls, it is easy and pleasant work to feed them with
the Bread of Heaven! And when hearts are thirsty, it is sweet work to
hand out the Living Water, for they are all eager to take it! You know,
the great difficulty is that you can bring a horse to the water, but
you cannot make him drink if he is not thirsty–and so you may set
Jesus Christ before men, but if they do not feel their need of Him they
will not have Him. You may preach in tones of thunder, or plead with
accents of intense affection, but you cannot stir them to desire the
Grace which is in Christ Jesus unless they feel their need of it.

Oh, I am happy tonight–thrice happy–if anywhere in this house there
is an Aeneas who is sick and knows that he is sick! Who knows his
disease to be incurable, laments that he is palsied and can do nothing
and longs to be healed by Divine power, he is the man who will welcome
the glad news of the Gospel of Free Grace! The man was really sick and
so are you, my Hearer! Your sins are great, your sinfulness of nature
is grievous and your case is beyond reach of human

skill.

II. In the second place, THIS MAN, AENEAS, KNEW SOMETHING ABOUT JESUS
because, otherwise, when

Peter said, "Jesus Christ makes you whole," Aeneas might have earnestly
enquired what he meant, and could not intelligently have acted upon
what he could not comprehend. He could not have believed what Peter
said because he would not have understood his meaning. Mere words,
unless they appeal to the understanding, cannot be useful. They must
convey light as well as sound, or they cannot breed faith. When Peter
said, "Aeneas, Jesus Christ makes you whole," I have no doubt that
Aeneas remembered what he had heard about Jesus Christ and His wondrous
life and death.

Now, lest there should be one in this congregation who does not know
Jesus Christ, and does not understand how it is that He is able to heal
sin-sick souls, let us briefly tell the old, old story over again.
"Jesus Christ," translated into English, means, "Savior anointed." Who
is He? He is the Son of the Highest, very God of very God! And when we
were lost in sin, He who is called the Son of God, laid aside His most
Divine array and came here to be dressed like ourselves in this poor
flesh and blood! In the manger He lay as an infant, and on a woman's
breast He hung a feeble Babe. The God who stretched forth the heavens
like a tent to dwell in and dug the deep foundations of the earth, came
down to earth to take upon Himself our nature and to be born of a
woman!

Oh, matchless stoop of unbounded condescension that the Infinite should
be an Infant and the Eternal God should conceal Himself within the form
of a Babe! This marvel was performed that we might be saved! Being
here, the Lord of angels lived some 30 years or so among men. He spent
the earliest part of His life as a carpenter's son, obedient to His
father and He was, throughout the whole of His earthly sojourn obedient
to His Father, God. Inasmuch as we had no righteousness, for we had
broken the Law, He was here to make a righteousness for us and He did
so. But there was also needed an atonement, for we had sinned, and
God's judgment demanded that there should be punishment for sin.

Jesus stepped in as the Surety and the Substitute for the guilty sons
of men! He bared His back to the lash of Justice and opened His breast
to her lance, and died that sinners might live! The Just for the
unjust, He died that He might bring us to God–

"He bore, that we might never bear, His Father's righteous ire."

Now, when He had thus lived and died, they placed His body in the tomb,
but He rose again on the third day and He is yet alive! And by this
Man, Christ Jesus, who is risen from the dead, is preached unto the
nations the remission of sins. For after 40 days this same Jesus, who
had been dead and buried, rose into the heavens in the presence of His
disciples, ascending till a cloud concealed Him from their sight. And
He now sits at the right hand of God, even the Father, pleading, there,
the merit of His blood, making intercession for sinners that they may
be reconciled to God.

Now, Beloved, this is the story that we have to tell you, with the
addition that this same Jesus is coming again to judge the quick and
the dead, for He is Lord of all! He is, at this hour, the Mediator
appointed by the infinitely glorious Jehovah, having power over all
flesh that He may give eternal life to as many as Jehovah has given Him
and this we beseech you to consider, lest when He comes as a Judge you
should be condemned at His bar. Aeneas had heard, more or less, of
these great facts. The story of the Incarnate God had come to his ears
by some means or other, and Aeneas understood that though Jesus Christ
was not in the room, and there was only Peter and a few friends there,
and though Jesus Christ was not on earth, but was gone to Heaven, yet
His power on earth was the same as ever it was.

He knew that Jesus could work miracles from Heaven as well as when He
was here below. He understood that He who healed the palsy when He was
here, could heal the palsy now that He has risen to His Throne. And so
Aeneas believed in Jesus Christ from what he had heard, simply trusting
in Him for healing. By means of that faith Aeneas was made whole! I
will very earnestly dwell on that point for a second or two. I am
persuaded that in this congregation all of you know the story of Jesus
Christ Crucified. You have heard it on the Sabbath from the pulpit.
Your children sing it when they come home from Sunday school.

You have a Bible in every house, and you read the "old, old story" in
the plain but sublime language of our own noble version. But, oh, if
you have heard it and know it, how is it that you have not drawn from
it the same inference that this poor paralyzed man did? How is it that
you have no faith? Jesus lives! He sits on Zion's hill! He still
receives poor sinners! Jesus lives "exalted on high to be a Prince and
a Savior, to give repentance unto Israel and remission of sins." He can
heal you, now, and save you, now, as well as if you met Him in the
street, or saw Him standing at your door knocking for admittance. I
would to God that this inference were drawn by you all!

III. We have got this far–the man was sick and the man knew something
about Christ. And now came the most important point of all–THE MAN
BELIEVED ON THE LORD JESUS. Peter said to him, "Aeneas, Jesus Christ
makes you whole." The man did not believe in Peter as the healer, for
you notice Peter does not say anything about himself. Peter does not
say, "As the head of the Church, I, by power delegated to me, make you
whole." There is no allusion to any such claim! Peter preached too
clear a Gospel for that! That is the purest Gospel which has the least
of man in it and the most of Christ. I charge you, men and women, do
not listen to that teaching which sets the priest in front of the
Savior, or even by the side of the Savior, for it is false and ruinous!

Your forefathers, Englishmen–your forefathers bled and died that they
might never submit to that vile superstition which is being now
propagated by a considerable party in the Established Church of this
once Protestant land! No man beneath the sky has more power to save
your soul than you have yourself! And if any presumptuous priest tells
you that he has, do not believe him, but despise his claims! An old
woman asks me to cross her hand with a sixpence and says that she will
tell my fortune. I am not such a fool! And if another person dressed in
robes, which are not quite so becoming to him as a red cloak is to an
old woman, tells me that he can regenerate my child, or forgive my
sins, I treat him with the same contempt and pity as that with which I
treat the wicked hag! I believe in neither the one imposter nor the
other!

If ever you are saved you must be saved by Jesus Christ, alone, through
your own personal belief in Him–certainly not by the intervention of
any man, or set of men–hail they from whatever Church they will! May
God send the Pope and the priesthood and all their detestable deceits
down in this land, forever, and may His Christ be exalted! As this man
had no faith in any supposed power coming from Peter, much less had he
any faith in himself, neither did he look within himself for hope. He
did not say to Peter, "But I do not feel strength enough to get well."
Neither did he say, "I think I feel power enough to shake off this
palsy."

He said neither the one nor the other! Peter's message took him off
from himself. It was, "Aeneas, JESUS CHRIST makes you whole! It is not
that you have stamina in your constitution and rallying points about
your bodily system. No, Aeneas, you are paralyzed. You can do nothing.
But Jesus Christ makes you whole." That was what the man had to believe
and it is very much what you, also, my dear Hearer, must believe. With
his faith Aeneas had the desires which showed that it was not mere
speculation, but solid practical believing. He anxiously wished to be
made whole. Oh, that sinners anxiously wished to be saved! Oh, that
yonder angry man wished to be cured of his bad temper! Oh, that yonder
covetous man wished to be cured of his avarice! Oh, that yonder lustful
man wished to be cured of his uncleanness! Oh, that yon drunk wished to
be cured of his excess! Oh, that men really wanted to get rid of their
sins!

But no. I never heard of men reckoning a cancer to be a jewel, but
there are many men who look upon their sins as if they were gems which
they keep as hidden treasures so that they will sooner lose Heaven than
part with their lustful pleasures! Aeneas wanted to be made whole and
was ready to believe, when Peter spoke to him about Jesus Christ. And
what did Aeneas believe? He believed–and may you believe the
same!–first, that Jesus could heal him, could heal him, Aeneas. John
Brown, do you believe that Jesus Christ can cure you? I do not care,
John, what your faith is about your wife's case–it is about yourself
that you need faith! Jesus Christ is able to save you–you, Aeneas.
You, John Brown. You, Thomas. You, Sarah. You, Mary. He is able to save
YOU. Can you grip that, and reply, "Yes, He is able to save ME"?

And Aeneas believed that Jesus Christ was able to save him then and
there, just as he was. He had not taken a course in medicine. He had
not been under hypnotism to strengthen his nerves and sinews and
prepare him to be cured, but he believed that Jesus Christ could save
him without any preparation, just as he was, then! Immediately with a
present salvation! When you think what Christ is and what He has done,
it ought not to be difficult to believe this. But truly, God's power
must be revealed before your soul will believe this unto salvation. Yet
it is true that Jesus Christ can heal and can heal at once. Whatever
the sin is, he can cure it.

I mentioned a whole set of sins just now. The scarlet fever of pride,
the loathsome leprosy of lust, the shivering ague of unbelief, the
paralysis of avarice–He can heal all with a word, instantaneously,
forever, completely, right now! Yes, Sinner, He can heal you NOW.
Aeneas believed that. He believed and, as he believed, Jesus made him
whole! Oh, I wish I could, tonight so preach the Gospel that my Lord
and Master would lead many unbelievers to believe in Him! O Holy
Spirit, work with the Word! Sinner, do you need forgiveness? Christ has
worked it out! Every sin that you have done

shall be forgiven you for His name's sake if you trust Jesus to do it.
Do you see your sins like a great army pursuing you? Do you think they
will swallow you up? Jesus Christ, if you believe in Him, will make an
end of them all!

You have read in Exodus how Pharaoh and his hosts pursued the tribes of
Israel and the people were terribly alarmed. But early in the morning
they were no more afraid, for Miriam took her timbrel and the daughters
of Israel went forth with her in dance and they sang, "Sing unto the
Lord, for He has triumphed gloriously. The horse and his rider has He
thrown into the sea." One of the most magnificent notes in that
marvelous song was this. "The depths have covered them: there is not
one of them left." The damsels took up the refrain, and sang, "Not one,
not one, not one! The depths have covered them: there is not one of
them left."

Now, if you believe in Jesus, the whole army of your sins shall sink
beneath the sea of His blood and your soul shall sing, "The depths have
covered them: there is not one of them left!" Such shall be your song
tonight, if you are enabled to believe in Jesus Christ, God's crucified
Son. But do not think that we preach about the pardon of past sins
only, because if a man could get his past sins pardoned and go on as he
did before, it would be so much the worse for him. Pardon of sin,
without deliverance from its power, would be rather a curse than a
blessing! But wherever sin is pardoned, God breaks the neck of its
power in the soul.

Mind you, we do not tell you that Jesus Christ will forgive the past
and then leave you to live the same life as be-fore–but we tell you
this–whatever the sin is that is now a disease to you, Jesus Christ
can heal you of it! He can save you from the habit and power of evil
doing and thinking. I will not attempt to go into details. There are
people coming into the tabernacle on ordinary occasions and so I dare
say there may be tonight. How often has there come in a man to whom I
might say, "Put out your tongue, Sir. Ah, I see red spots, and black
spots, for you are a liar and a swearer." Can my Master heal such a
diseased tongue as that? Yes, trust Him tonight and He will make you
truthful and purge you from your profanity!

But here is another I dare not describe. Look at him! He has lived an
unchaste life and strong are his passions! He says, "Can I ever be
recovered from my vile desires?" Oh, Sir, my Lord can lay His hand on
that hot heart of yours and cool it down to a sweet sobriety of
chastity! And you, fallen woman, do not think that you are beyond His
powers! He shows Himself mighty to save such as "the woman that was a
sinner." Ah, if you are a slave to vile sins, Jesus can give perfect
freedom from vicious habits. You, young man, there, you know that you
have fallen into many sins which you dare not mention–they coil about
your heart and poison your life like serpents writhing within your
conscience.

My Lord can take them all out of the soul and deliver you from the
results of their fiery venom. Yes, He can make you into a new creature
and cause you to be born-again! He can make you love the things which
you once hated and hate the things which you once loved! He can turn
the current of your thoughts in quite another way. You see Niagara
leaping down its awful height and you say, "Who can stop this?" Yes,
indeed, who can stop it? My Master can! If He speaks to the Niagara of
your lusts and says, "Cease your raging!" they will cease at once! Yes,
if He bids the waters of desire leap up instead of down, you shall be
as full of love to Christ as once you were full of love to sin!

He made the sun to stand still and caused the moon to pause upon the
hill of Gibeah and He can do all things. Spoke He not the world out of
nothing? And can He not create new hearts and right spirits in the
souls of men who have been far off from Him by wicked works? He can do
so and, blessed be His name, He will! The world of your mind is as much
beneath His control as that of matter. If you believe, O man, to you I
may say as Peter did to Aeneas, "Jesus Christ makes you whole."

IV. Well, now, let us pass on to notice, next, that the MAN WAS MADE
WHOLE. There was no counterfeit about it. He was made whole and made
whole then and there! Just fancy, for a minute, what would have been
the result if he had not been made whole. What dishonor it would have
been to Peter! Peter said, "Aeneas, Jesus Christ makes you whole"– but
there lies Aeneas as palsied as before! Everybody would say, "Peter is
a false witness." Well now, I will not say that the preacher of the
Gospel must see souls saved or else he is a false witness. I will not
say that, but I will say that if ever my ministry, under God, does not
save souls, I will give it up! For it seems to me that if we do not
bring souls to Christ we preachers are just good for nothing.

What are we, if we do not turn many to righteousness? We are reapers
who never reap, soldiers who never win a battle, fishermen who take no
fish and lights which enlighten no one! These are sad but true
comparisons. Do I address any unsuccessful minister? I would not speak
harshly to him, but I would speak very severely to myself if I were in
his case. I

remember the dream of a minister. He thought that he was in Hell and,
being there, he was dreadfully distressed and cried out, "Is this the
place where I am to be forever? I am a minister." A grim voice replied,
"No, it is lower down for unfaithful ministers, much lower down than
this." And then he awoke. Ah, and if we do not agonize till souls are
brought to Christ, we shall have to agonize to all eternity!

I am persuaded of it–we must have men saved, or else we shall be like
Peter would have been if he had said, "Jesus Christ makes you whole,"
and the man had not been made whole–we shall be dishonored witnesses.
What dishonor would have been brought upon the name of Jesus if the man
had not been made whole! Suppose, my dear fellow Sinner, you were to
believe in Jesus Christ and yet were not saved–what then? Oh, I do not
like to suppose it, for it is almost a blasphemy to imagine it! But
yet, consider it for a moment. Believe in Jesus and not be saved? Then
He has broken His word, or lost His power to save, either of which we
are unwilling to tolerate for a minute! If you believe in Jesus Christ,
as surely as you live, Jesus Christ has saved you!

I will tell you one thing–if you believe in Jesus Christ and you are
damned, I will be damned with you! Come! I will risk my soul on that as
surely as you will risk yours, for if the Lord Jesus Christ ever loses
a soul that trusts Him, He will lose mine! But He never will, He never
can–

"His honor is engaged to save

The meanest of His sheep.

All that His heavenly Father ga ve,

His hands securely keep."

Rest in Him and you shall be saved, else were His name dishonored! And
suppose that, like Aeneas, you trusted Christ– if you were not saved,
what then? Why, then the Gospel would not be true! Shut up those
Churches, close those Chapels, banish those ministers, burn those
Bibles–there is no truth in any of them if a soul can believe in Jesus
and yet not be saved!

The Gospel is a lie and a counterfeit, if it is true that any poor
sinner can put his trust in Jesus and not be healed of his sins, for
thus said the Lord of old, "Him that comes to Me I will in no wise cast
out." This is His last word to His Church, "Go you into all the world
and preach the Gospel to every creature: he that believes and is
baptized shall be saved; he that believes not shall be damned." If men
believing are not saved from the power of sin, then the Gospel is not
true and we are sent on a fool's errand! But they are saved, blessed be
the name of God, and the Gospel is the Truth of God itself!

Oh, my dear Hearer, gladly would I urge you to put your trust in Jesus
Christ tonight, by the experience which I and other Believers have
enjoyed. Some of us have relied on the name of the Redeemer and He has
saved us. We shall never forget the day, some of us, when we left off
self-righteousness and believed in Christ to the salvation of our
souls. The marvel was done in a minute, but the change was so great
that we can never explain it, or cease to bless the Lord for it–

"Happy day! Happy day! When Jesus washed my sins a way." I remember the
morning when salvation came to me as I sat in a little Primitive
Methodist chapel under the gallery and the preacher said, "That young
man looks unhappy." He added, "Young man, you will never find peace
except you look to Christ!" And he called out to me, "Look!" With a
voice of thunder he shouted, "Young man, look! Look now!"

I did look, I turned the eye of faith to Jesus at once! My burden
disappeared and my soul was merry as a bird let loose from her cage,
even as it is now as often as I remember the blessed salvation of Jesus
Christ! We speak what we know. Ours is no hearsay or second-hand
testimony. We speak what we have felt and tasted and handled, and our
anxiety is that you may know and feel the same! Remember, my dear
Hearer, that the way to use the Gospel is to put it to yourselves like
this. What is your name? I said, "John Brown," just now, did I not?
Suppose it is John Brown, then. Well, the Gospel says, "He that
believes on the Lord Jesus Christ has everlasting life."

Then it means, "If John Brown believes on Jesus he has everlasting
life." "He that believes and is baptized shall be saved." "Then I, John
Brown, believing and being baptized, shall be saved." Lay hold of it in
that way. Perhaps you say, "But may I put my name to a promise and
appropriate it in that fashion?" Yes, you may, because there is nothing
in the Bible to say that your name was left out from the list of those
to whom the promise is made! If I were a beggar in the streets and were
very hungry and I heard that there was a gentleman who was giving a
good meal away and that he had advertised that any beggar might come, I
do not think I should say, "Well, my name is not down on his list." I
should go

immediately unless I found that he inserted an excluding clause,
"Charles Spurgeon shall not have any of the food I distribute," but not
till then.

Until I read in black and white that he excluded me I should run the
risk and get in with the other hungry folk. Until he shuts me out, I
would go. It should be his deed and not mine that kept me from the
feast. Sometimes you say, "But I am not fit to go to Christ." The
fittest way to go to Christ is to go just as you are! What is the best
clothes to wear when you go begging? I remember a long time ago, when I
lived not far from here, in the extremeness of my greenness, I gave a
man who begged at the door a pair of patent leather boots. He put them
on and expressed great gratitude. But I met him afterwards, and I was
not at all surprised to find that he had pulled them off. They were not
at all the style of things to go about begging in.

People would look at him and say, "What? You needing shoes while
wearing those handsome boots? Your tale won't do." A beggar succeeds a
deal better barefoot than in fine shoes! Rags are the dress of beggars!
When you go and beg for mercy at the hand of God, do not put on those
pretty righteousnesses of yours, but go with all your sin and misery,
and emptiness and wretchedness, and say, "Lord, here I am. You have
said that Christ is able to save to the uttermost them that come unto
You by Him. I am a soul that needs saving to the uttermost and here I
am. I have come. Lord, save me."

Now, summing all up. This is what you have to do, Sinner, in order to
be saved tonight. Simply believe in Jesus Christ. I saw a young woman
from America in the vestry some little time ago who came in great
concern of soul to know the way of salvation. And I said to her, "Can't
you see it? If you trust Christ, you are saved." I quoted the
Scriptures which teach this great Truth of God and made them plain to
her, until the Holy Spirit opened her eyes! Light came on her face in a
moment and she said, "I do see it! I trust Christ with all my heart!
And I am to believe that I am saved because I trust Jesus and He has
promised to save Believers?" "Yes," I replied, "you are getting on the
Rock, now."

"I feel," she said, "a deep peace beginning in my soul, but I cannot
understand how it can be, for my grandfather belonged to the old school
Presbyterians and he told me he was six years before he could get
peace. He had to be put into a lunatic asylum, for he was so
miserable." Ah, yes, I have no doubt such cases have happened. Some
will go 17,000 miles round about merely to go across a street, but
there is no need for it. There it is–"The word is near you, on your
lips and in your heart. If with your heart you will believe in the Lord
Jesus Christ, and with your mouth make confession of Him, you shall be
saved."

There is nothing to be done, there is nothing to be felt! There is
nothing to be brought. No preparation is needed. Come just as you are
and trust Christ to save you and this night you shall be saved! God's
honor and Christ's Word are pledged to it!

V. This is the last thing. WHEN AENEAS WAS HEALED HE ACTED IN
CONFORMITY THEREWITH. "Peter

said unto him, Aeneas, Jesus Christ makes you whole: arise, and make
your bed." He did so. He rose directly and made his bed. Now, if any of
you say, tonight, "I have believed in Jesus," remember you are bound to
prove it. How prove it? Why, if you have believed in Jesus, you are
made whole and you are to go home and show people how whole you are.
This man was palsied and had been lying there prostrate eight years. He
could never make his bed, but he proved he was healed by making his bed
for himself!

Perhaps there is a man here who, when he has entered his house, has
generally opened the door with an oath. If there is such a person here,
and Christ saves you–He will wash your mouth out for you. You will
have done with profane language forever! Your wife will be surprised,
when you go home, to hear how differently you talk. Perhaps you have
been used to mix with rough companions in your work and you have talked
as they have done. If Jesus Christ has made you whole, there is an end
to all filthy speaking. Now you will talk graciously, sweetly, cleanly,
profitably. In years gone by you were angry and passionate. If Jesus
Christ has made you whole, you will be as tender as a lamb. You will
find the old lion lifting his head and giving an occasional roar and a
shake of his mane, but then he will be chained by the restraints of
Grace, while the meek and gentle lamb of the new nature will feed in
pastures wide and green!

Ah, if the Lord has saved you, the drunk's ale bench will have no more
of you, for you will need better company than the seats of scoffers can
afford you. If the Lord saves you, you will want to do something for
Him, to show your grateful love. I know this very night you will long
to tell your children and tell your friends, that Jesus Christ has made
you whole. John Bunyan says that when he was made whole, he wanted to
tell the crows on the plowed land about it. I do not

wonder that he did. Tell anybody, tell everybody, "Jesus Christ has
saved me." It is a sensation, the like of which no man can imagine, if
he has not felt it, to be made a new creature right away, in a moment!

That surprises all who see it and as people like to tell news–strange
news–so does a new-born man long to go and tell others, "I have been
born-again–I have found the Savior!" Now, mark, you will have to prove
that this is so by an honest, upright, consistent, holy life–not,
however, by being merely sternly honest. If Christ has saved you, He
will save you from being selfish. You will love your fellow men. You
will desire to do them good. You will endeavor to help the poor. You
will try to instruct the ignorant. He who truly becomes a Christian
becomes, in that very day, a practical philanthropist. No man is a true
Christian who is not Christ-like–who can live for himself alone, to
hoard money or to make himself great. The true Christian lives for
others. In a word, he lives for Christ. If Christ has healed you,
gentle compassion will saturate your soul from this time forth and
forever! O Master, You who did heal men's bodies in the days of Your
flesh, heal men's hearts tonight, we pray You!

Still this word more. Somebody says, "Oh, I wish I had Christ!" Soul,
why not have Him at once? "Oh, but I am not fit." You never will be
fit! You cannot be fit, except in the sense in which you are fit even
now. What is fitness for washing? Why, being dirty! What is fitness for
alms? Why, being in distress! What is fitness for a doctor? Why, being
ill! This is all the fitness that a man needs for trusting in Christ to
save him! Christ's mercy is to be had for nothing! Bribe or purchase is
out of the question!

I have heard of a woman whose child was in a fever and needed grapes.
There was a prince who lived near, in whose hothouse there were some of
the rarest grapes that had ever been grown. She scraped together the
little money she could earn and went to the gardener and offered to buy
a bunch of the royal fruit. Of course he repulsed her and said they
were not to be sold. Did she imagine that the prince grew grapes to
sell like a market gardener? And he sent her on her way, much grieved.
She came again. She came several times, for a mother's importunity is
great. But no offer of hers would be accepted.

At last the princess heard of it and wished to see the woman. And when
she came, the princess said, "The prince does not sell the fruit of his
garden," but, snipping off a bunch of grapes and dropping them into a
little bag, she said, "He is always ready to give it away to the poor."
Now, here is the rich cluster of Gospel salvation from the true Vine!
My Lord will not sell it, but He is always ready to give it away to all
who humbly ask for it! If you want it, come and take it and take it now
by believing in Jesus! The Lord bless you for Christ's sake. Amen.

PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON–Isaiah 55. HYMNS FROM "OUR OWN
HYMN BOOK"–100 (VER. I); 982, 992.
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Why the Heavenly Robes are White