The Revised Version is, in some places, though not in many, better than the Authorized Version. Our text is one of the few instances in which there is an improvement: “And as Jesus returned, the multitude welcomed him; for they were all waiting for him.”

We have already noted, in our reading, that our Lord had gone where he was not welcomed. He went across the Sea of Galilee to the country of the Gadarenes, and there he met with an ill reception, and was even entreated by the people to depart out of their coasts. Yet, although Jesus knew beforehand the treatment he would receive there, he went. He did not stay there long, but he remained long enough to effect a grand purpose of grace. Upon his landing on that inhospitable shore, a poor creature, held in captivity by a legion of demons, was set free; and, that done, the Master yielded to the unwise, ungracious, unkind request of the Gadarenes, and went his way back across the sea.

The Lord Jesus Christ may still come to a family that does not want him, does not wish to have him. A man of God may pass that way, and tarry for a night. The gospel itself may be carried to people in a certain quarter, and they may hear it, though they have no wish to do so. Well, if this is your feeling, my hearers, do not be burdened with what you consider the great calamity of Christ coming near to you, do not be disturbed by the fear that you will be forced to be saved against your will. The Lord Jesus Christ will not stay where he is not wanted; as he bade his apostles, when they were persecuted in one city, to flee to another, so he does himself. If he is not received here, he will go away elsewhere. Yet I do trust that, at least, he will not leave your family,-that he will not leave your ungodly neighbourhood,-until he has won from it some trophy of his grace,-until he has taken “one of a city, and two of a family,” to “bring you to Zion.” He still delights to gather to himself unruly ones whom he will tame, unclothed ones whom he will robe in the garments of righteousness, and demon-possessed ones whom he will cause to sit at his feet, as the Gadara demoniac did when he was restored to his right mind. I have seen this happen again and again, and it has been a blessed thing for those whom Christ has thus rescued and saved; and he has gone away, at the request of those who did not wish for him, yet he has not gone till he has left behind him a witness to his power, who has continued, after his departure, to tell what the Lord has done for him. Thus, a tree has been planted, which Satan could not pluck up; and a light has been kindled, which all the powers of darkness could not blow out. Yet, alas! there are still some who do not want Christ, and who treat him so ill that he goes away from them, as he returned from the coasts of Gadara.

But now look at the other side of the narrative, and learn from it that, while some will not receive Christ, there are others who are anxious that he should come to them. When Jesus took ship, and crossed over to the other side of the sea, “the multitude welcomed him; for they were all waiting for him.” Minister of Christ, servant of the Lord, if you are rejected in one place, you shall be received in another. If, to-day, you have to shake off the dust of your feet against impenitent hearers, it may be that, to-morrow, you shall find some whose hearts the Lord has opened, who will gladly receive your message, and who will come to Christ, and find salvation in him. What a mercy it is that all ground is not stony ground! There is some “honest and good ground” yet. It is not everywhere that the door is shut, so that God’s servants cannot enter; but, in many places, an abundant entrance is made by the power of the Holy Spirit, and God’s servants are able to step in. Wherever Christ is welcomed, there we may expect to see his power displayed. As we read the chapter, we saw that it was so in this instance. The people waited; the people welcomed; and then Christ put forth his power until the people wondered. If we are at this time waiting for Christ, and if we now welcome Christ, we shall, by-and-by, become a wondering assembly, marvelling at what the grace of God has done among us.

I am going to divide my subject in this way. First, here is a beautiful sight: “They were all waiting for him.” Secondly, here is a sure arrival: “Jesus returned.” The people were all waiting for him, so he came to them. And, thirdly, here is a hearty welcome: “The multitude welcomed him; for they were all waiting for him.”

First, then, here is a beautiful sight: “They were all waiting for him.” I shall try to show you this beautiful sight in four pictures.

I think that it is a very beautiful sight, first, to see a waiting assembly, when all the people have come together,-not to hear fine music, or merely to listen to the voice of a man, but anxious to meet with God, desirous to feel the power of Jesus Christ. Happy preacher who has to address such an audience! Happy audience that has been brought into such a condition! “They were all waiting for him.” Just for a minute or two, look at our ordinary congregations, and see if our text is true concerning them. Alas! the people are not all waiting for Jesus, for they have not all assembled at the hour of worship. A few come in time, and take their seats; but it is not so with others. I am not speaking of you, my hearers, for I exempt you from this description. You would not get in if you came late, so you do not generally attempt it; but you know how it is ordinarily in many places. Here they come,-a detachment of late-comers, stamping up the aisle, interrupting the first prayer. Others come straggling in all through the reading of the Scriptures. God’s Word seems so contemptible in their esteem that they tramp up the aisle as if it were some unimportant book that was being read. Then comes the singing, and some join in it heartily; but others do not even know what hymn it is, for they have only just arrived; and I have known some friends, in certain places, come so late that the minister had almost done his sermon, and they were just in time to go home with the congregation. This ought not to be the case anywhere, and is not the case where all are waiting for Jesus. I like the thought of the good woman who said that she never went to a service late, for it was part of her religion not to disturb the worship of other people; I wish many more agreed with her. Oh, how much loss of spirituality, how much loss of blessing, has come by that straggling in one by one, instead of all being assembled, waiting for the Saviour with such due respect to his holy name that they would not think of being behind time! He who goes to see an earthly king is surely punctual; he would sooner wait an hour in the ante-room than keep the monarch waiting a moment. But what shall I say of those who seem as if it were a painful operation to join in the worship of God, and so postpone that operation to the last possible moment? That was a beautiful night in the house of Cornelius the centurion, when he had fetched in all his kinsmen and near friends before Peter arrived, so that he could say to the apostle, “Now therefore are we all here present before God, to hear all things that are commanded thee of God.” They were all there all ready; all waiting; all prepared to hear, and all glad to hear. The more of such congregations there are, the more will the Spirit of God work, the more numerous will be the converts, and the more will Christ’s kingdom spread among men. I say all this because I know that there are many people from other places who are worshipping with us, and I know also from observation how many there are who look upon the house of God as a place into which they may stray at any time they please. Let it not be so with you, dear friends, wherever you worship; but let it be said of you whenever Christ comes to the congregation, “They are all waiting for him.”

A second picture, more beautiful still, is to see a church waiting for the Lord Jesus Christ,-a prayerful congregation met together to seek a revival of religion through the more manifest presence of the Lord Jesus Christ in their midst. I wish that all the members of churches that are in a declining state would say to themselves, “This state of things will never do; we cannot endure this dulness and deadness.” Or, if the whole church will not say it, it would be a great mercy if some dozen or score of faithful men and women would meet together, and say, “We cannot bear to have these Sabbath services and week-night meetings without any converts; month after month passing, and no additions to the church, no power apparently with the Word.” I would not wish them to meet together to censure, to criticise, or to pour out their common complaints, but I would have them gather distinctly to wait upon the Lord in prayer, pleading his promise, “Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.” I think I see such an assembly as that, all earnestly pleading with the Lord, all surrounding the mercy-seat, laying hold of strong arguments from the Word, and pleading them before God. I watch them as they have separated, and gone home; they are still praying, and they will meet together again at the first opportunity; and, with more tears and greater urgency, they will present the same earnest cry, “Return unto us, O Lord Jesus! ‘Return, we beseech thee, O God of hosts: look down from heaven, and behold, and visit this vine; and the vineyard which thy right hand hath planted, and the branch that thou madest strong for thyself.’ O Shepherd of Israel, the drought has been long, the pastures are dry, the very earth is parched; we entreat thee to fill the clouds with rain, and water us with grace, and make our barrenness to depart, and the desert to rejoice and blossom as the rose.” In imagination, I see these people coming together week after week,-frequently pleading alone, and then pleading in company, making the mercy-seat at the family altar to echo the same cry; and then, after they have prayed, they are all waiting, men and women and children, saying, “When will Jesus come?” They are hoping that there will be better preaching, and that their fellow church-members and especially that they themselves may be more spiritual; they are looking about the congregation to see whether there are any tokens of converts or anxious souls; they are all on the alert, expecting an answer to their prayers, and therefore waiting for that answer, and ready, as soon as God sends the fruit, to gather it from the tree, and store it up. Ah, brothers and sisters, we shall see greater things than these if we once get into that blessed condition, so that it can be said of us, “They were all waiting for him.” If we have such prayer-meetings as that to-morrow,-which is our day of special prayer in connection with the College Conference,-what a day of prayer it will be,-all with one accord in one place crying for the blessing! We might expect to have another Pentecost to make our hearts leap within us with gratitude and praise to God. “They were all waiting for him,”-oh, what a lovely sight,-lovely in the eyes of angels, and of the angels’ Master, to see his people all waiting for him!

Now for the third beautiful picture; and that is, a seeking sinner waiting for Christ in confession and prayer. He is upstairs in the quiet of his own room; no one but God sees him, for he has taken care to shut the door. He is kneeling at his bed-side; he says little, but he weeps much. He cannot utter many words, but his heart is breaking with his longing desire after Christ. He confesses his unworthiness; he knows that, if Jesus of Nazareth passes by, and lets him still remain in darkness, he deserves it. He bows his head low before the Lord, and cries, “I have sinned.” After a while, he begins to plead the promise, “Thou hast said, ‘Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.’ Lord, I come to thee; I am waiting for thee; come thou to me!” Mark his struggling faith. He says, “Lord, teach me how to believe, and let me know what it is to trust thee! Fain would I do so; I hope I do. ‘Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief!’ ” Still more fervently he cries, “Lord, give me rest! Lord, come and take away the burden of my sin! Lord, I beseech thee, shine upon me! Now, for weeks, I have cried to thee; when wilt thou come unto me? Lord, these many months have I bowed at thy cross-foot, and I have tried to look-up; but, as yet, I see no light. Possibly, it is my ignorance that hides thee from mine eyes; mayhap, it is my unbelief; perhaps, it is some sin I am still harbouring. If so, Lord,-

“ ‘The dearest idol I have known,

Whate’er that idol be,

Help me to tear it from thy throne,

And worship only thee.’ ”

I said it was a beautiful sight that I was going to describe to you, and so it is; yet there are in such a scene sighs, and groans, and tears, and sobs; and men who love the pleasures of the world flee from it. But angels stand gazing, with their finger on their lip; and when, at last, they break the silence, the holy ones whisper one to another, “Behold, he prayeth;” and then their next word is, “Let us up and away to tell the bright spirits before the throne, for this man that prays is not far from the kingdom; and we must bid them rejoice with us over one sinner that repenteth.” Oh, that there may be many such among us! These will be precious gems in the crown of King Jesus. While many a boastful professor shall be passed by, this humble seeker, who is waiting for Christ, shall have his name recorded on the tablets of the Redeemer’s heart.

Now one more picture, that of a departing saint, longing for home,-such a picture as you will make, I hope, dear friend, by-and-by,-such a picture as I hope to make when my turn shall come. The battle is fought, and the victory is won for ever. The man is propped up in his bed with pillows, for life is fast ebbing, and strength is failing him. You can hear him say, in short broken sentences, “I have waited.… I have waited.… I have waited for thy salvation, O Lord! ‘I wait for the Lord, my soul doth wait; and on his Word do I hope.’ Why are his chariots so long in coming?” His friends step very softly across the room; it is so quiet and still that you can hear the clock tick. He is waiting,-waiting for his Lord; while in his inmost soul he is singing,-

“ ‘My heart is with him on his throne,

And ill can brook delay;

Each moment listening for the voice,

“Rise up, and come away.” ’ ”

He has closed his eyes; he is gone. It is all over in this world; he has entered into his rest. Thus Jesus comes to those that wait for him.

I would begin to wait for him now, dear brother, while yet in health and strength. Wait and watch for the glorious appearing of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, which is the joy and hope of his whole Church. Wait and watch for the rended heaven, for the descent on Olivet on that day when he, who was seen to go up into heaven, shall so come in like manner as he went up into heaven. And if you fall asleep ere that wish of yours shall be fulfilled, yet this shall be your joy,-that you were among those who watched and waited for your Lord, and you shall enter into his joy.

Thus have I set before you the picture in four panels which my mind’s eye sees in the last words of our text: “They were all waiting for him.”

Now let us turn to the second point, a sure arrival: “Jesus returned.” Men never wait in vain for Christ; if they are truly waiting for him, he will come to them. How do we know this?

Well, we infer it, first, from the fact that his Spirit is there already. Brethren, are you waiting for Christ? Who but the blessed Spirit of God made you wait? There was a time when you would have been like the Gadarenes, and would have asked him to depart from you; but now those longings, those pinings, those faintings, those swoonings, are all proofs of his Spirit’s work within you. Where his Spirit is, there Christ will surely be; indeed, he is there by his Spirit. He never set a soul hungering without intending to feed it with the Bread of life. He never made a spirit thirst without meaning to fill it with the Water of life. Be thou sure that, if thou art waiting for him, he will come to thee, for his Spirit is already with thee.

Next, we know that he will come, because his heart is there. If ever there is a heart that wants Christ, Christ wants that heart. If you have only one grain of desire towards Christ, Christ has a mountain of desire towards you. There never was a sinner yet who had the start of Christ; and if there is one who is waiting for Christ, he is there already. I tell thee, my waiting brother or sister, Christ looks upon thee with the deepest sympathy. He knows all thy desires; he even finds music in thy groans; he bottles up thy tears, for he sees beauty in every sorrowful drop that distils from thine eyes. Be thou of good courage; for, if thou desirest him, he also desires thee; and where Christ’s heart is, he himself will be before long. If his Spirit is working within thee, and his heart is already with thee, he will surely come to thee.

I know also that he will come, because his work is there. I expect to find you, to-morrow morning, dear brother, where your work is. My sisters, I expect to find you in the house where your work is. Where, then, is Christ’s work but in longing, anxious, breaking hearts? What does Christ do? According to the psalmist, beside all his other work, he does two things: “He telleth the number of the stars; he calleth them all by their names.” And, wonder of wonders, at the same moment, “he healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds.” Our Lord Jesus is just as much at home in binding up wounds as he is in guiding stars; these two works are equally pleasing to him; nay, the latter is the choicer work of the two. So then, if you are waiting for him, he will surely come to you, for his business lies your way, he has work to do in you.

This is not all. He has given us his promise that he will come. “They that seek me early shall find me.” That is a promise which refers to the young. but it refers to the old, too; if they are seeking him with such earnest longing that they seek him early in the morning, or seek him at once, they shall surely find him: “for every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.” These are our Lord’s own words, so he will not let you wait for him in vain, you may depend upon that. His promise tells you so.

Beside that, there is an experience which many of us have had, which we would like to tell you for your encouragement. It is Christ’s custom to come to waiting souls. I can speak for many brethren and sisters here, as well as for myself, when I say that “I sought the Lord, and he heard me.” “This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him.” I was so foolish when I was seeking the Saviour that, for a long time, I said to myself, “The Lord Jesus will hear my brother; he will hear my sister; he will be gracious to my father and my mother, but not to me.” The devil said, “Your name is not on the roll of Christ’s redeemed ones.” How did he know? He had never read it. How could I tell? I had never seen it. When any man says to me, “Suppose I am not elect,” I usually answer, “Suppose you are; and suppose both you and I leave off supposing, and go to work upon certainty instead of supposition. Is not that a wise thing to do? Now, Christ has said, ‘Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.’ Will not the wisest thing for us to do be to go and see whether he will cast us out?” And, dear friends, if he does cast any one of you out, I should like you to let me know of it, for I have gone up and down the land, these many years, telling everybody that Christ never did cast a sinner out, and I do not wish to say what is not true. If he does cast out one who comes to him, I shall have to amend my testimony; at least, I shall have to stop at home, and hold my tongue, if you can tell me, assuredly, that you went to Christ, and he cast you out. Sirs, I tell you that there is not, even among the damned in hell, a single one who dares to say that he sought the Lord, and the Lord would not be found of him. There never shall be one among lost spirits, who shall dare to say, “I trusted in Christ, and he did not save me. I sought him, but he would not look upon me.” It cannot be so; come along with you, then, I pray you, and end all questions and supposings by humbly casting yourself down at Jesus’ feet; and trusting in him, you shall not die, but shall live for ever and ever.

Thus have I spoken upon a sure arrival,-Christ will come to those who wait for him.

Now, lastly, those who have waited for Christ are sure to give him a hearty welcome when he does come. I know that for certain, because many things will lead them to do so.

First, their fears; you know that, at the time mentioned in our text, the people came down to the shore of the Sea of Galilee, and waited, and watched, and looked everywhere for Christ. He was gone; he who had fed them was gone; he who had healed their sick was gone. They said one to another, “Which way did he go?” And the answer was, “He sailed across the sea, and there was a storm at night, and he has not come back.” They may have said, “Perhaps he never will come back;” and some of the Galileans may have sadly added, “Alas! we did not treat him well when he was here; we did not honour and reverence him as we ought to have done; and now, possibly, we shall never see him again.” Among them was that poor woman with the issue of blood, and she would say, “Ah! if he does not come back, then I cannot be healed. I have not a penny left to spend upon another doctor; and if I had, I should probably only get worse instead of better.” There was Jairus also, the ruler of the synagogue; and he was asking, “Where is the great Prophet? Do you think he will come back? My dear little girl, my only daughter, is getting worse and worse; I fear she is dying. Would God he were back, for he might heal her! If he does not return soon, she will be dead before he comes; and then what shall I do?” Then there was the poor paralyzed man, who had four friends who promised that they would get him to Christ somehow or other; even if they had to pull the roof off the house, they meant to take him to Jesus. As he lay there, he seemed to say, “Ah, me! I have my bearers willing to carry me into his presence, but perhaps he never will come back, perhaps he has gone away altogether.” Now, whenever that fear comes into a man’s mind, through long waiting for Jesus, till he says, “Perhaps he will not come; perhaps he will never smile upon me; perhaps he will never hear my prayer;”-when Jesus does appear, how gladly he is welcomed! From many a heart and lip goes up the cry, “He comes! He comes! ‘Hosannah! Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.’ ” Among the waiting ones who are sure to welcome Christ when he comes, are those who have been troubled by fears concerning his absence.

Then, besides, their hopes made them welcome him when he did come. The poor woman with the issue of blood said, “If he does come, perhaps I may be healed; so I hope he will return.” And Jairus cried, “Oh, if he will but come in time, my dear child may yet be spared to me!” And the poor paralytic said, “If he will but come,-if I may but hear the music of his footfall, and listen to the charm of that dear voice, and look into those loving eyes, I may yet be restored;” so, when Jesus did return, the hopes of those who had been waiting for him caused their hearts to dance within them, and made them give him such a hearty welcome. Ten thousand million welcomes are due to the Saviour who breeds such bright hopes within our spirits. Oh, if he comes to you, my friend, how welcome he will be! How gladly will you receive him! If any of you have no fears and no hopes concerning Christ, God have mercy on you! But such as have the fears and the hopes of which I have been speaking will be sure to welcome the coming Christ.

In addition to hopes and fears, there were many other things that made these people welcome Jesus. For instance, their prayers. When a man has long prayed for Christ, he will at last say, with the psalmist, “My soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning: I say, more than they that watch for the morning.” And this kind of prayer creates within the spirit such a thirst that, when the fresh waters of Christ’s presence flow, then does the man welcome him with unbounded joy.

And their faith, too, helped them to welcome Christ when he returned. When a man is truly trusting Christ, and yet has no sensible realization of his presence;-when a man is really reposing upon Christ, and yet does not, at the time, feel the comfort of full assurance,-when at last Christ comes to him, and fully reveals himself in all his preciousness and beauty, how heartily does such a man welcome his Lord and Saviour!

And their love, also, helped these people to welcome Christ; and O my soul, what joy it is to thee to get into Christ’s company now that thou hast learned to love him! My brothers, this is our heaven below, is it not? In all the vehemence of our love, which burns like coals of juniper, the presence of Christ is most welcome to us. Oh, for but one glimpse of his eyes, for he has ravished our heart! Oh, but to hear the tinkling of the bells upon our High Priest’s garments, though the sound be soft and low! Oh, to listen to but one word of his! If he will but whisper, “Thou art mine,” it will lift our heart up almost to heaven itself, and fill it with a foretaste of the bliss of glory. I know that it is so with you, beloved. In proportion as you trust him, and love him, will be the heartiness with which you will welcome him when he comes to you.

In closing my discourse, let me say that, if we are prepared thus to welcome Christ, he is sure to come to us. There never was a man yet who stood waiting to welcome Jesus, but Jesus was already on the way to him. Shall I tell thee how thou mayest sooner bring him to thee than by any other means in all the world? Expose thy wounds and sores before him, unveil thy poverty and wretchedness before him, and challenge his promise to heal and save just such sinners as thou art. Never try, in order to attract Christ to thee, to make thyself appear better than thou art; that is poor policy, and is sure to fail. If I were a wounded soldier on the battle-field, I think that I should try to appear quite as bad as I really was, so that the surgeon might attend to me at once. Certainly, it would be very foolish for a man, who is sick, well-nigh unto death, to say to the doctor, “Let me alone for a while; I can wait a little longer.” No, rather let him cry, “O sir, I must be attended to at once, or I fear that it may be too late! I am so ill that, unless I am speedily cared for, death will claim me for its own.” Well, now, act in this fashion with regard to Christ. Go to him, poor sinner; tell him how bad you have been; you cannot aggravate or exaggerate your sin. Just lay it all open before him, and say, “My Lord, my sins are the mouths that shall plead with thy love; my misery is the eloquence that shall entreat; thy mercy. I die if thou dost not in pity look upon me, and forgive me. I have no other hope but in thyself; I cast myself upon thee, lost or saved, I will trust in thee. At the cross-foot I will perish, if I must perish anywhere.” Ring the bells of heaven, for that soul is saved! Glory to God in the highest! On earth there is peace between that soul and its Maker, for it is trusting in the Redeemer, and none ever perish who trust in him. The Lord thus bless you, dear friends, for Christ’s sake! Amen.

Hymns from “Our Own Hymn Book”-792, 766, 646.

Exposition by C. H. Spurgeon

luke 8:26-56

Verses 26, 27. And they arrived at the country of the Gadarenes, which is over against Galilee. And when he went forth to land, there met him out of the city a certain man, which had devils long time, and ware no clothes, neither abode in any house, but in the tombs.

To what a frightful state of wretchedness this poor creature was reduced by Satanic power! Yet he is only a picture of the state of mind into which many are brought through sin. They seem as if they could not live with their fellow-men; they have grown so mad through sin, so utterly beyond restraint, that they can scarcely be endured in ordinary society. Yet, as Christ healed this man, so he is equal to the cure of the worst case of spiritual and moral disease that may be brought before him.

28. When he saw Jesus, he cried out, and fell down before him, and with a loud voice said, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God most high? I beseech thee, torment me not.

See, the devil can make men pray against themselves; and this is what they do in common profane swearing when they imprecate all manner of curses upon their eyes and limbs. Ah, me! To what mischief and folly and misery can Satan drive his willing dupes!

29. (For he had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. For oftentimes it had caught him; and he was kept bound with chains and in fetters; and he brake the bands, and was driven of the devil into the wilderness.)

Such cases have we often seen,-young men who have been rescued from a course of vice, and who have been for a season helped towards virtue; but they have broken loose again. There was no holding them in; they had not learned self-restraint, and no one else could restrain them.

30, 31. And Jesus asked him, saying. What is thy name? And he said, Legion: because many devils were entered into him. And they besought him that he would not command them to go out into the deep.

So, you see, dear friends, that devils can pray: “They besought him that he would not command them to go out into the deep;” that is, to their place of torment in he (Illegable). They would sooner go to the bottom of the sea than go to their own dreadful home; and, if we are half as wise as devils are, we shall dread beyond all things to be driven there. May God grant that no soul among us may ever lift up his eyes in torment, and find himself in that awful deep!

32, 33. And there was there an herd of many swine feeding on the mountain: and they besought him that he would suffer them to enter into them. And he suffered them. Then went the devils out of the man, and entered into the swine: and the herd ran violently down a steep place into the lake, and were choked.

Our proverb says, “They run hard whom the devil drives;” and when once he begins to drive men or swine, there is no end to their running till they are choked in the deep. Woe unto that man, then, who yields himself up to the tyrant master! Oh, seek the grace that will enable you to fling him off, never to come under his dread sway again! Better still, pray the blessed Prince of Peace to cast out the black prince of hell, and himself to rule over your spirit, soul, and body.

34. When they that fed them saw what was done, they fled, and went and told it in the city and in the country.

Sometimes, Christ wrought cures which were scarcely mentioned; but here,-and I only remember a second miracle at all like to it,-that of the withering of the barren fig-tree,-he wrought a miracle of judgment, and it caused a great stir and much talk. I have heard of bells at sea, that only ring out in the roughest storms. Here is one that was heard when softer tones would not have been heeded: “They fled, and went and told it in the city and in the country.”

35. Then they went out to see what was done; and came to Jesus, and found the man, out of whom the devils were departed, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed, and in his right mind: and they were afraid.

There was some clothing work done that day. I know not who provided the garments; but here was some real practical Christianity exhibited, not only by the Master in healing the demoniac, but by the friends who found clothing for this poor man. You do well, my sisters, who set yourselves to help to clothe the poor. God grant that all of them may not only be clothed, but also be led to sit at the feet of Jesus!

36, 37. They also which saw it told them by what means he that was possessed of the devils was healed. Then the whole multitude of the country of the Gadarenes round about besought him to depart from them;

Surely, this legion of demons must have had the same effect on them as on the poor man when Christ first came to him. These foolish people took up the same cry as the poor demoniac: “The whole multitude besought him to depart from them.” Christ sometimes hears this kind of prayer. There is many a man who has entreated that his conscience might not be troubled any more, and it never has been troubled again. But what an awful prayer for any people to pray! “The whole multitude of the country of the Gadarenes round about besought him to depart from them.”

37-39. For they were taken with great fear: and he went up into the ship, and returned back again. Now the man out of whom the devils were departed besought him that he might be with him: but Jesus sent him away, saying, Return to thine own house, and shew how great things God hath done unto thee. And he went his way, and published throughout the whole city how great things Jesus had done unto him.

Sometimes, it is better to be spreading the good news of the gospel than to be sitting at Jesus’ feet. It is best when we can do both; but, sometimes, the practical duty of serving our fellow-men must take the first place. Happy are they who give themselves to this work, telling to others what God has done for them!

40-46. And it came to pass, that, when Jesus was returned, the people gladly received him: for they were all waiting for him. And, behold, there came a man named Jairus, and he was a ruler of the synagogue: and he fell down at Jesus’ feet, and besought him that he would come into his house; for he had one only daughter, about twelve years of age, and she lay a dying. But as he went the people thronged him. And a woman having an issue of blood twelve years, which had spent all her living upon physicians, neither could be healed of any, came behind him, and touched the border of his garment: and immediately her issue of blood stanched. And Jesus said, Who touched me? When all denied, Peter and they that were with him said, Master, the multitude throng thee and press thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me? And Jesus said, Somebody hath touched me; for I perceive that virtue is gone out of me.

Here are we to-night, dear friends, a great crowd; and what multitudes of professed worshippers of God there are in many places! They seem to throng the Saviour; but, ah, how few do really touch him so as to derive healing virtue from him! This humble, simple touch of faith is something above and beyond all the pressure of professed zeal and ardour. This touch Christ recognizes at once, but all the pressing and the squeezing of the crowd goes for nothing.

47. And when the woman saw that she was not hid, she came trembling, and falling down before him, she declared unto him before all the people for what cause she had touched him, and how she was healed immediately.

Here is a second confessor. First, there was a man healed; now, here is a woman healed. Both sexes may now hear from them what Christ can do. If they will not believe, oh, then, their unbelief is sad indeed!

48, 49. And he said unto her, Daughter, be of good comfort: thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace. While he yet spake, there cometh one from the ruler of the synagogue’s house, saying to him, Thy daughter is dead; trouble not the Master.

As if such a suppliant really did trouble him! Still, if you have been praying long, and your case appears to be hopeless, despair will whisper, “Trouble not the Master.” But Christ is never troubled by our prayer; it is our want of prayer that troubles him. Even after the worst has come to the worst, we shall never trouble him if we continue our prayers. But if, on any account, we cease from them, then indeed is his heart grieved.

50. But when Jesus heard it, he answered him, saying, Fear not: believe only, and she shall be made whole.

“If she is actually dead, she shall be raised to life again.”

51. And when he came into the house, he suffered no man to go in, save Peter, and James, and John, and the father and the mother of the maiden.

For Christ does not make a parade of his miracles. He loves to do his work quietly; and they that make a great noise must mind that they do not get put out when Christ is about to work a cure.

52-55. And all wept, and bewailed her: but he said, Weep not; she is not dead, but sleepeth. And they laughed him to scorn, knowing that she was dead. And he put them all out, and took her by the hand, and called, saying, Maid, arise. And her spirit came again, and she arose straightway: and he commanded to give her meat.

Young saints want feeding as soon as they are converted. The conversion may be by miracle, but they will need to be fed by ordinary means. Be ready, dear people of God, with your milk for those who are but newly born: “He commanded to give her meat.”

56. And her parents were astonished; but he charged them that they should tell no man what was done.

For Jesus did not wish, at least at that time, to have the story of his miracles blazed abroad. Of him the prophet had long before written: “He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street. A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench.”

“The Offence of the Cross”

A Sermon

Intended for Reading on Lord’s-day, October 30th, 1898,

delivered by

C. H. Spurgeon,

at new park street chapel, southwark,

On a Lord’s-day Evening in the year 1856

“And I, brethren, if I yet preach circumcision, why do I yet suffer persecution? then is the offence of the cross ceased.”-Gal. 5:11.

The religion of Jesus is the most peaceful, mild, and benevolent religion ¦which was ever promulgated. When we compare it with any set of dogmas invented by men, there is not one of them that can stand the least comparison with it for gentleness, mildness, and love. As for the religion of Mahomet, it is the religion of the vulture; but the religion of Jesus is that of the dove,-all is mercy, all is mild; it is, like its Founder, an embodiment of pure benevolence, grace, and truth.

And yet, strange to say, gentle as the gospel is, and inoffensive as its professors have always proved themselves to be, when they have acted rightly,-not resisting evil, but submitting to it, whatever it might be,-yet there has never been anything which has caused more disturbance in the world than the Christian religion. It is not a sword, and yet it has brought war into the world; it is not a fire, and yet it has consumed many old institutions, and has burned much that men thought would last for ever; it is the gospel of peace, and yet it has parted the dearest friends, and caused direst feuds and confusions everywhere. Though in itself it is all gentleness, yet it seems as if the standard of the dove were the standard of battle, and as if raising up the peaceful cross had been the signal for war, like the blood-red fiery cross, which of old they passed through Scotland, to summon the clans to battle. Strange, yet strangely true is it, that the cross of Christ has always been an offence, and that it has provoked the fiercest battles and the sternest strifes which men have ever had with their fellow-men.

In considering our text, I shall, first, discourse to you a little concerning what “the offence of the cross” is; secondly, as to how men show their offence against the cross; thirdly, I shall have a little to say to those who are offended at the cross, to show them their folly; and, lastly, I shall conclude by an inference or two, for the special benefit of Christian ministers, and the Church at large.

Let us enquire, first, Wherein does “the offence of the cross” consist?

Our limits forbid any attempt to be elaborate, and we commence by saying that “the offence of the cross” lies, first, in the way in which it deals with all human wisdom. The philosopher puts his glass to his eye, looks at the cross, and then says, “I cannot see anything so very wonderful in it,-even with this splendid glass of mine,-more than can be seen by that poor, humble peasant; I do not care about such a system of religion as that; any simpleton can understand the cross.” So he passes by, and merely sneers at it. The man who loves controversy comes to the gospel, and finds that there is in it pure dogmatism. Such things are said to be true, and sinners must believe them, or else be damned. “I shall not do so,” says he; “I shall not yield implicit faith to the gospel; I like disputing upon points of doctrine; I like controverting them; I shall not listen to your preacher who says, ‘This is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing else but the truth.’ I will not hear the man who speaks thus authoritatively; I like men who will give me margin enough to doubt, who let me believe what I like, and no more; I prefer to use my reason and common sense.” When you come to talk with him about the religion which says, “Believe that, or else be lost; believe that, or else be shut out of the pale of salvation;” he turns on his heel, and says, “I will not believe any such thing.” And when he asks what it is he is to believe, he professes himself to be wiser even than the Word of God. “What!” says he, “believe in the atonement? I can’t; it is contrary to my common sense. Believe the doctrine of election? Why, it shocks my humanity! Believe in the total depravity of human nature, and the impossibility of being saved without being born again? Why, I cannot receive such teaching for a single moment. It is contrary to all that the schoolmen ever taught, and different from what any philosopher ever would have invented; so I shall not receive it.” And he turns away with an anathema against the cross. He cannot bear it because of its great simplicity. If he could describe it as being so wonderful that he could by no means make the common people comprehend it, and that it was only because of his gigantic intellect that he was able to understand it himself, he would not mind accepting it; but as it is so plain and simple, he turns away from it in disgust. He cannot bear the gospel of the cross; it has not worldly wisdom enough in it for him; and he either does not know or he forgets that the knowledge of Christ crucified is the most excellent of all the sciences, and that never is reason so glorified as when it humbly sits down under the shadow of the cross.

But there is something in the cross of Christ which hurts men’s pride even more than this, and that is, it is opposed to all their notions of human ability. The man who is relying for salvation on his own strength, does not like the doctrine of the cross. If anyone preaches a gospel which tells the sinner that he has power to save himself, if he preaches a gospel which says that, Christ having died to put all men in a salvable condition, they have only to exercise the power they have, and they will be able to deliver themselves,-if a man thus preaches something which exalts the skill and strength of the creature, he will never offend his unregenerate hearers. But if he once begins to cast the sinner down in the dust, and to teach what Christ himself taught, “No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him;” and that, in the Scriptures, all men are declared to be “dead in trespasses and sins;” then the proud sinner will turn away, and say, “I am not going to be so insulted, to have all my powers levelled to the ground! Am I to be made into a mere machine, or into a piece of clay, and to lie passive in the Potter’s hands? I will not submit to such an indignity.” If the minister will give him a little to do himself, and let him sacrifice a little to his own idol, he will drink down the false doctrine as the ox drinketh down water; but since we tell him he is powerless, like the poor bleeding man when the Samaritan met Him, he says, “I will have nothing to do with you.”

And the cross offends men yet again, because it goes clean contrary to their ideas of human merit. There is not a soul in all the world that, by nature, loves to be stripped of all merit. No! the last thing a man dikes to part with is his righteousness. I have known poor sinners stand on Sinai’s top until their knees knocked together, yet they have clung to their self-righteousness even there. I have known men stand where God’s earthquakes were shaking the ground under their feet, and the thunder and lightning were playing above their heads; yet they still held fast their self-righteousness. It is a hard thing to get that away from men. You know how Bunyan says that,, when Great-heart slew Giant Despair, the giant “had, as they say, as many lives as a cat;” and I am sure that self-righteousness has many more lives than that; it is the hardest thing in the world to kill. You may cut the evil weed self-righteousness up; but when you think you have got to the last root of it, it will be shooting up again before you can sharpen your knife to cut it up once more. This evil thing is bred in man’s nature. When you preach against it, see how men will roar at you; they cannot bear that doctrine.

I sometimes receive letters from persons who say, “We should not wonder if all your congregation were to live in sin, because you are always preaching against man’s righteousness, and inviting poor sinners to come to Christ by simple faith, and be saved by grace alone.” I daresay they would not wonder if such a thing were to happen; but I should wonder if my people, as a whole, did live in sin, and I bless God that I have no cause to wonder about that matter, for a holier people you will not find this side heaven than those who receive into their hearts the doctrine of Christ’s imputed righteousness. This I will say of them, that grace hath wrought in them good fruits; that they do walk in the fear of the Lord, in love to one another, and in the practice of uprightness and godliness. But men of the world cannot bear this teaching, because it makes nothing of the merits of which they think so much. Tell men that they are very good sort of folk; they will like to hear that. Give people a good conceit of themselves, and they will like to listen to you; but that self-conceit is the ruin of tens of thousands. I am sure it is only when we begin to say,-

“I’m a poor sinner, and nothing at all,

But Jesus Christ is my All-in-all,”-

that we are saved. But as long as we are content with ourselves in our natural sinful condition, there is not the slightest hope for us. So, you see, this is “the offence of the cross,” that we do not let men trust in their own merits.

But there is another offence, which is a very sore one, and the world has never forgiven the cross that “offence” yet, it will not recognize any distinctions between mankind. The cross makes moral and immoral persons go to heaven by the same road; the cross makes rich and poor enter heaven by the same door; the cross makes the philosopher and peasant walk on the same highway of holiness; the cross procures the same crown for the poor creature with one talent that the man with ten talents shall receive. Hence, the wise man saith, “What! am I to be saved by the same cross which saves a man who does not know his letters?” Your fine lady asks, “Am I to be saved in the same fashion as my servant-girl?” The gentleman says, “Am I to be saved the same way as that chimney-sweep?” And he who boasts of his self-righteousness cries, “What! am I to jostle against a harlot, to elbow a drunkard on the road to heaven? Then, I will not go to heaven at all.” Then, sir, you will be lost. There are no two roads to heaven; it is the same road for everyone who does go there; and hence, the cross has always been offensive to men of mark and might,-few kings and queens have ever bent humbly before it. Men have covered up the cross with some fine decoration, and they have said that they loved it; but it was not the cross they cared for, it was the meretricious ornament. If it had been the simple cross, they would have dragged it through the streets, as Mahomet’s people did with the cross at Jerusalem.

This brings me now to tell you, in the second place, how persons show their offence against the cross of Christ.

In olden times, they did it by burning, torturing, and tormenting Christians, making them suffer all kinds of indescribable agonies. But that method did not answer, so the devil adopts other measures now. He found that the more he oppressed them, like Israel in Egypt, the more they multiplied; so now he acts in another fashion. How does he do it? Not exactly by open perseeution; but “the offence of the cross” shows itself, sometimes, by private persecution. You do not all of you hear of the persecution that is going on with regard to the Lord’s people. Every now and then, things of this sort come to my notice, though you may not know of them. How many drunken husbands there are who persecute their wives almost incessantly because they will cleave fast to God! How many a young man, how many a young woman is there, who is called to suffer persecution from father and mother and sister and brother, for Christ’s sake. Persecution is not over yet; it works slyly, and comes not out openly before the world. It comes not out into Smithfield, as it did of old, though there may be many a house in the neighbourhood of Smithfield that reeks with it. It comes not out in an honest garb, but watches for its prey in a covert way. It is not the lion, but the prowling jackal, though it is as wild and as ravenous as ever. And when persecution does not display itself in positive acts, it operates by means of jeers and scoffs, and by the shrug of the shoulder; and, let me say, more men have been ruined by this practice than by the direst slanders. Men who shrug their shoulders generally do a deal of mischief, though they may not know it. When, sitting at table, I have mentioned a person’s name, and someone has shrugged his shoulders, and said, “Oh!” the man’s character was half gone. If the person had anything to say against the other, why could he not say it right out, and not leave us in the dark to surmise all manner of iniquities? Another man will say, “I don’t wish to persecute you; you can go to chapel as often as you like;” yet there is on his face the cold sneer, and on his lip the cruel jest or slander; every idle rumour is circulated, and everything that can be invented against the minister of the gospel and against Christian people,-all still showing that there is now, as there was in the days of the apostles, an “offence of the cross.”

But I will tell you what is the favourite plan nowadays; it is not to oppose the cross, but to wind round the cross, and try to get the cross to alter its shape a little. Men who hate the doctrines of the cross, say, “We, too, preach the gospel.” They alter it; they misshape it; they make it “another gospel, which is not another.” Let others say, if they will, that yea and nay can meet together; that fire and water can kiss each other; that Christ and Belial can be twins: the true minister of Jesus Christ cannot do that. Truth is truth; and whatever is the opposite of it cannot be truth. Truth is one, and that which opposes it must certainly be error and falsehood. But it is the fashion to try to blend the two things together. Look at very many of the churches; they say that they hold the truth. Look at their articles; there are all the five points of Calvinism. And if you ask the ministers whether they believe the doctrine of election? “Certainly,” they reply. If you ask them whether they believe all the great cardinal truths of the gospel; they say, “Oh, yes, certainly we believe them; but we do not think they ought to be preached to the common people.” Ah, sirs! you have a fine notion of yourselves, if you do not think that “the common people” are as good as you are, and that they can receive the doctrines of grace as well as you can. “Oh! but those doctrines are dangerous; they drive the people to Antinomianism.” They say this; but when we write to them, they reply, “Oh, we are as sound as you are!” Yes; but it is one thing to be sound, and another thing to preach sound truth. I never will believe a man to be better than what he preaches; if a man does not proclaim “the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth,” we like him none the better, but ten times worse, because he says that he believes it. We would rather he did not believe it at all than that he should conceal his real sentiments. Such men, who hide the truth, prove that they are as much offended with the cross as if they openly tried to refute its doctrines. God send us the day when the pure, unadulterated doctrines of the grace of God, which is in Christ Jesus, shall be proclaimed in every chapel, and heard in every street, and received by every professed Christian!

Now I come, in the third place, to say something to those who are offended at the cross.

First, let me say that it is very foolish of a man who does not believe the gospel to oppose those who do. If a man does not himself love the gospel, he might let alone other people that do. You have often heard the old fable of the dog in the manger, but here is something worse, here is the dog out of the manger; he does not even lie on the hay himself, and yet he barks at those that come to feed upon it. He does not love the gospel; and because others do, he hates them. Why, surely, what you do not want yourselves, you might let other people have in quietness! You need not oppose them for carrying away what you count worthless rubbish. Why should you be so offended, and endeavour to make a stand against the truth, since you cannot, in your present condition, get anything out of it, and you may burn your fingers for your pains?

Then, next, how foolish it is to be offended at the cross, seeing that you cannot stop its progress! He who should place himself before Juggernaut’s car to be crushed, would be as wise as you who are opposing the gospel. If it be true, recollect that “truth is mighty, and must prevail.” Who are you to attempt to stand against it? You will be crushed; but let me tell you that, when the car goes over you, the wheel will not be raised even an inch by your size. For what are you? A tiny gnat, a creeping worm, which that wheel will crush to less than nothing, and not leave you even a name as having been an opponent of the gospel. There have been men who have stood up, and said, “We will stop the chariot of Christ.” Thousands have looked at them, and have been afraid. Their trumpets have blown loud and long, and some poor Christians have said, “Stand aside! Here comes a man who will stop the chariot of the Lord Jesus.” At one time, it was Tom Paine; then it was Robert Owen; but what became of them? Did the chariot stop for them? No; it went on just as if there had never been a Tom Paine or a Robert Owen on the earth. Let all the infidels in the world know assuredly that the gospel will win its way, whatever they may do. Poor creatures! their efforts to oppose it are not worthy of our notice; and we need not fear that they can stop the truth. As well might a gnat think to quench the sun. Go, tiny insect, and do it, if thou canst. Thou wilt only burn thy wings, and die. As well might a fly think it could drink the ocean dry. Drink the ocean, if thou canst; more likely, thou wilt sink in it, and so it will drink thee. Ye who despise and oppose the gospel; what can ye do? It cometh on “conquering and to conquer.” I always think that, the more enemies the gospel has, the more it will advance. As the old warrior said, “The more enemies there are, the more there are to be killed, the more there are to be taken prisoners, and the more there are to run away.” Double your hosts, ye opposers! Come on against us with a still mightier power! Rage yet more loudly! Slander us yet more foully! Do what ye can, victory is ours, for it is predestinated. The massive column of Divine Predestination standeth firm, and on its top there are the eagle wings betokening victory for every believer, and for the whole Church of Christ. God’s truth must and shall conquer; wherefore, then, dost thou, foolish creature, hope to oppose the gospel because it offends thee? The stone, cut out without hands, cannot be broken by thee; but if it falleth upon thee, it will grind thee to powder.

But another thought, and I have done with this part of my subject. O man! if thou hatest the gospel, let me say to thee solemnly how doubly foolish thou art to be offended with Christ, who is the only One who can save thee! As well might the drowning man be offended with the rope which is cast to him, and which is the only means of his escape; as well might the dying patient be offended with the cup of medicine which is put to his lips, and which alone can save his body from death; as well might the man whose house is burning be offended with the fireman who roughly puts the fire-escape against his window,-as that thou shouldst be offended with Christ. Offended with him who would snatch thee as “a brand from the burning”? Offended with him who alone can quench for thee the fire of hell? Offended with him whose blood alone can wash thee white, and give thee a place with him in glory everlasting? Offended with him? Then thou art mad indeed. Not Bedlam itself can produce a maniac more foolish than thou art.

Ah, ye despisers, ye shall wonder and perish! You are offended with the gospel because it says that you have not any merit; but you have not any, then why are you offended? You are offended at the gospel because it does not ask anything of you in order that you may be saved; yet, if it did demand anything of you as a condition of your salvation, you would be lost. It is just the gospel for you; it is made on purpose; it fits your condition; it is adapted to your case;-and yet you are offended with it! Oh, how can you be so foolish? Did you ever hear of a man who was offended with a coach that was carrying him, because it had wheels? Why should you be offended with the gospel chariot because it could not advance except on the wheels of free grace? What! you are offended with the gospel because it lays you low? Don’t you know that it is the very best place for you? The devil would have you very high if he could; but that would be only that he might ruin you. My dear friends, I beseech you, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ himself, do think why you are offended with the gospel. I know it goes against your prejudices; when you first hear it, you do not love it; but, remember, it is your only hope of salvation. Are you offended with that which alone can save you? Offended with that which can put a crown on your head, a palm-branch in your hand, and give you bliss for ever? Then, methinks, when you sink to hell, you will look up to heaven, and say, “Ah, Christ! I was offended with thee, and now I see that thou wast the only Saviour. I hated thy name, of which it is written, ‘At the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow.’ I hated that Saviour who was the only Saviour to redeem sinners from sin.”

The first is this, If the cross of Christ is an offence, and always was an offence, what is the reason why so many professed Christians go on so easily from January to December, and never have any trouble about it? Old John Berridge said, “If you do not preach the gospel, you may sleep soundly enough; but if you do preach, it faithfully, you will hardly have a sound place in your skin, for you will soon have enemies enough assailing you.” How is it that we never hear of any slander against a great many ministers? Everything goes easily and comfortably with them; nobody is ever offended with their preaching, but people go out of their chapel doors, and say, “What a nice sermon! It was just the thing for everybody, and nobody could be offended.” They do not preach the gospel fully, or they would be sure to offend some people. Suppose that somebody says to me, “Do you know that Mrs. So-and-so was fearfully offended with your last sermon?” That is no trouble to me if I know that I have preached the truth. A celebrated preacher was once told that he had pleased all his hearers. “Ah!” said he, “there is another sermon lost.” The most effective sermons are those which make opposers of the gospel bite their lips, and gnash their teeth. “That preaching is worth little,” Rowland Hill used to say, “that cannot make the devil roar. He preaches but very little truth who does not set the old lion roaring against him.” Depend upon it, Satan does not like the gospel any better than he did, and the world does not like the gospel any better than it did; and if there is not, nowadays, so much persecution and hatred as there used to be, it is because men do not proclaim the plain, simple truth as their forefathers did. People go to hear nice velvet-tongued preachers; they like the minister to prophesy smooth things unto them. “I won’t go to hear Mr. So-and-so,” says one, “for he will be sure to offend me.” Now what is the reason for this? It is because he preaches the whole gospel, the pure truth of God. But do men imagine that we want to offend them? Nay, God knows, the hard things we often say cause us more pain than they cause to our hearers. But it is a good thing when we care little for the opinion of men, and when we have learnt to live above the world. Once let ministers faithfully proclaim the plain, simple gospel, and we shall soon hear the laughter, and scorn, and jeers. It was an ill day when the sons of God made affinity with the daughters of men; and it will be an ill day for the Church of Christ when the world speaks well of it, and everybody commends it. The sect that is most spoken against is usually the sect where Christ most dwelleth; but the sect that is lapped in plenty, and dandled on the knees of honour, is usually the most corrupt. Preach the gospel boldly, steadfastly, steadily, strongly, out-and-out, and you will not be long without hearing something about “the offence of the cross.”

My last remark is this. O my brethren, how much reason have we to bless and extol our gracious God, if the cross of Christ is not an offence to us! I hope many here can unite with me in saying that there is nothing in the Bible that offends us, and there is nothing in the gospel that offends us now. If there is anything you do not understand, you do not hate it; if it seems dark and mysterious, you do not reject it, but you are willing to learn all you can about it. Ah, my God! if all I have ever preached be false, I stand prepared to disown it when thou shalt teach me better; if all I have ever learnt be a mistake, and I have not learnt it of thee, I will not be ashamed to recant it in that hour when thou shalt thyself teach me, and show me my error. We are not ashamed to bring ourselves wholly into the mould of Scripture, to take it just as it stands, to believe it, and to receive it; and if you are in that state, mark you, you are saved, for no man can say that he accepts the gospel wholly, loves it all, and receives it in his heart, and can yet be a stranger to it. I have heard preachers ignorantly talk about “natural” love to the gospel; there cannot be such a thing. I heard someone say that there was a “natural” love to Christ; it is all rubbish. Nature cannot beget a love to Christ, nor love to any good thing; that must come of God, for all love is from him. There is nothing good in us by nature. Every conviction must, in some way or other, come from the Holy Spirit. Even if it is a temporary one, it must be traced to him, if it is good. Oh, let us adore, and exalt, and magnify the mighty grace that has made us love the gospel! For I am sure, with some of us, there was a time when we hated it as much as any people in all the world ever did. Old John Newton used to say, “You who are called Calvinists,-though you are not merely Calvinists, but the old, legitimate successors of Christ,-you ought above all men to be very gentle with your opponents, for, recollect, according to your own principles, they cannot learn truth unless they are taught of God; and if you have been taught of God, you ought to bless his name; and if they have not, you should not be angry with them, but pray to God to give them a better education.” Do not let us make any extra “offence of the cross” by our own ill-humour, but let us show our love to the cross by loving and trying to bless those who have been offended with it.

Ah! poor sinner, what sayest thou? Art thou offended with the cross? No, thou art not, for it is there that thou wishest to lose thy sins. Dost thou desire this moment to come to Christ? Thou sayest, “I have no offence against Christ. Oh, that I knew where I might find him! I would come even to his seat.” Well, if thou wantest Christ, Christ wanteth thee; if thou desirest Christ, Christ desireth thee. Tea, more; if thou hast one spark of desire after Christ, Christ hath a whole burning mountain of desire after thee. He loveth thee better than thou canst ever love him. Rest assured that thou art not first with God. If thou art seeking Jesus, he hath first sought thee. Come, then, thou destitute, weary, lost, helpless, ruined, chief of sinners; come, put thy trust in his blood and his perfect righteousness, and thou wilt go on thy way rejoicing in Christ, set free from sin, delivered from iniquity, rendered as safe, though not as happy, as the very angels that now sing high hosannas before the throne of the Most High!

Exposition by C. H. Spurgeon

galatians 1

Verse 1. Paul, an apostle, (not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised him from the dead;)-

Paul begins this Epistle by stating his commission as an apostle. In Galatia, he had been subjected to the great sorrow of having his apostle-ship called in question. Does he, therefore, give up his claim to the office, and retire from the work? No, not for a moment; but he begins his letter to the Galatians by declaring himself to be “an apostle, not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ.” His enemies had said, “Paul was never one of the Saviour’s twelve apostles; he is not like those who were trained and educated by Christ himself. No doubt he has borrowed his doctrine from them, and he is only a retailer of other men’s goods.” “No, no,” says Paul, “I am an apostle as truly as any other of the twelve; ‘not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised him from the dead;’ ”-

2. And all the brethren which are with me, unto the churches of Galatia:-

Paul ever loved to associate others with him in his Christian service. He was not one who wanted to ride the high horse, and to keep himself aloof from his brethren in Christ. He frequently mentions the true-hearted men who were with him, even though they were far inferior to him in talent and also in grace. He often joins with himself such men as Timothy and Silvanus, and here he puts in “all the brethren which are with me, unto the churches of Galatia”:-

3. Grace be to you and peace from God the Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ,-

It is the genius of the gospel to wish well to others. Hence Paul begins the actual Epistle with a benediction: “Grace be to you and peace.” Dear friends, may you all have a fulness of these two good things! Grace rightly comes first, and peace afterwards. Peace before grace would be perilous; nay more, it would be ruinous. But may you always have enough of grace to lead you on to a deep and joyful peace! The two things go together very delightfully,-grace and peace,-and it is the best of grace, and the best of peace, since they come “from God the Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ,”-

4. Who gave himself for our sins,-

There is the doctrine of the atonement, which Paul always brings into his preaching and writing as soon as he can: “Who gave himself for our sins.” Well does Luther say, “Christ never gave himself for our righteousness; but he gave himself for our sins, because there was no other way of saving us except by a sacrifice for sin.” The substitutionary character of Christ’s death is always to be noticed: “Who gave himself for our sins,”-

4, 5. That he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father: to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

Our Lord Jesus Christ himself puts away our sin in order that we may rise out of it, and may become a pure and holy people, delivered from this present evil world, and brought into obedience to the will of God.

Now we come to quite another topic.

6. I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel:

The Galatians were a very fickle people. Some have said that they were a colony from Gaul,-Gaulatians,-and that they partook somewhat of the fickleness which is attributed to the character of the Gaul. I know not how true that may be; but, certainly, they seem very soon to have left the gospel, to have adulterated it, and to have fallen into Ritualism, into Sacramentarianism, into salvation by works, and all the errors into which people usually fall when they go away from the gospel.

7. Which, is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ.

“Another gospel: which is not another;” for there are not two gospels, any more than there are two gods. There is one only message from God, full of good news to men; and if you turn away from that, you turn away to a falsehood, to that which will bring you trouble, to that which will pervert you, and lead you astray.

8. But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him he accursed.

Paul is no fanatic, no raving enthusiast; yet he cannot endure the notion of a false gospel. In his solemn anathema, he includes himself, and all the brethren with him, yea, and the very angels of God if they “preach any other gospel.” “Let him be acoursed,” saith be, and so he is.

9. As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.

The modern style of speaking is, “Let us fraternize with him; he is a man of original thought. Surely, you would not bind all men down to one mode of speech. Perhaps, if he has made mistakes, you will bring him round to your way of thinking by receiving him kindly into your fellowship.” “No, no;” says Paul, “As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.”

10. For do I now persuade men, or God t or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.

He would not be the servant of Christ if he pleased men. Those whom we try to please, are our masters. If a man tries to please the populace, or to please the refined few, these are his masters, and he will be their slave; but if he tries to please his God, then is he a free man indeed.

11, 12. But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man. For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Paul foresaw what would be said about him in the after ages; and truly, to this day, the fiercest attack upon Christianity is always made upon the teaching of the apostle Paul. The men who creep in unawares among us talk glibly about having great reverence for Christ, but none for Paul. Yet Paul is Christ’s apostle; Paul speaks only what was personally revealed to him by the Lord himself; and he is in everything to be accepted as speaking by divine revelation.

13, 14. For ye have heard of my conversation in time past in the Jews’ religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted the church of God, and wasted it: and profited in the Jews’ religion above many my equals in mine own nation, being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my fathers.

He was an out-and-out Jew. He never took up anything without going through with it thoroughly; so, while he believed in Judaism, he did believe it. He was no hypocrite, no pretender, so he fought for it tooth and nail. This was the man who afterwards preached the Christianity he had received from Christ. Evidently he did not borrow it from his parents, for they had taught him quite differently. His religion was not the product of his training; but it came to him from God,-to him who seemed to be the most unlikely person in the whole land ever to receive it.

15, 16. But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb, and called me by his grace, to reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the heathen; immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood:

He felt divinely called to preach the gospel. Christ revealed himself to him on the way to Damascus. As soon as he was converted, he did not wait for anybody to ordain him, or to teach him further, but he says, “I conferred not with flesh and blood.”

17. Neither went I up to Jerusalem to them which were apostles before me, but I went into Arabia,-

What he did there, we do not know; but probably he had a time of quiet meditation and prayer, all alone: “I went into Arabia.” The best thing we can do, sometimes, is to get away from the voices of men, and listen only to the voice of God: “I went into Arabia,”-

17. And returned again unto Damascus.

To bear witness for Christ in the very city where he had gone to persecute the saints.

18. Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter, and abode with him fifteen days.

That is, “after three years,” which showed that he did not go there to receive any commission from Peter. He had been for three years working for his Lord and Master before he ever saw the face of an apostle.

19. But other of the apostles saw I none, save James the Lord’s brother.

He had an interview with the apostle James. He was probably the chief minister of the church at Jerusalem, so Paul went and bad a conversation with him.

20. Now the things which I write unto you, behold, before God, I lie not.

“I did not derive my knowledge of Christ from any one of these holy men, therefore I am not an imitator of any other apostle. I was sent out by Christ himself, and instructed by him by revelation, so I am an apostle of Christ as much as any of them.”

21, 22. Afterwards I came into the regions of Syria and Cilicia; and was unknown by face unto the churches of Judæa which were in Christ:

They did not know him; it is evident that he had not been there to be taught by them, or else they would have recognized their illustrious pupil.

23, 24. But they had heard only, That he which persecuted us in times past now preacheth the faith which once he destroyed. And they glorified God in me.

Brothers and sisters, may you and I so live that Christian people may glorify God in us! May they often wonder at the mighty grace which has wrought such a change in us; and as they see us zealous and fervent, may they marvel at the amazing, grace of God which has brought us to be so consecrated to Christ!