“Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light.”-Colossians 1:12.

My real text is not in the Bible; it is one of those Christian proverbs, which are not inspired in words, but the spirit of which is inspired, “Heaven is a prepared place for a prepared people.” You have often heard that sentence; it is familiar in your mouths as household words, and well it may be.

Yet I shall have two texts from the Scriptures; the first will be our Saviour’s words to his disciples, “I go to prepare a place for you,” from which we learn that “Heaven is a prepared place;” and the second will be Paul’s words to the Colossians, “Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light,” from which we learn that there is a prepared people, a people made meet to be partakers of the inheritance which Christ has gone to prepare for them.

I am not going to have any further preface, but I will begin at once to speak upon the preparation or heaven: “I go to prepare a place for you.”

It is many months since I began to turn this sentence over; I think I might truly say that, for several years, I have thought of it, and thought of it again, and thought of it yet again,-that our Lord Jesus Christ, before returning to heaven, should say to his disciples, “I go to prepare a place for you.” Is there any difficulty about this passage? Yes, it is very difficult to explain; indeed, I do not think that we really can know here all that Christ meant when he uttered these words. A father said to his children, when the summer sun had waxed hot, “I shall go to the seaside to-day, to prepare a place for you.” His little child asked, “What does father mean when he says that he will prepare a place for us?” And his mother answered, “My child, I cannot tell you all that your father means, but you will see when you get there; and, now, it must be enough for you that, although you do not know what father will have to do at the seaside in preparing a place for you, he knows what he is going to do.” And, dear friends, there is this consolation for us that, even if we can hardly guess what it is that Christ can find to do to prepare heaven for us, he knows what is wanted, and he knows how to do it; and that is infinitely better than our knowing, because, even if we knew what was needed, we could not do it. But, with Christ, to know and to do are two things that run parallel. He knows that there are certain preparations to be made, he knows what those preparations must be, and he is equal to the task of making them; he has not gone upon an errand which he cannot fulfil; and when we get to heaven, we shall know-perhaps it may take us a long while to find it all out,-but we shall know and discover throughout eternity what he meant when he said, “I go to prepare a place for you.”

I do not profess to be able to explain our Lord’s words, but I am going simply to make a few remarks upon them; and, first, I ask you to notice that heaven is already prepared for Christ’s people. Christ has told us that, when he comes in his glory, he will say to those on his right hand, “Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” So, there is an inheritance which the Father has already prepared for the people whom he gave to his Son, and this inheritance is reserved for them. But if it was prepared from the foundation of the world, how can it be said to be prepared by Christ? The explanation probably is, that it was prepared in the eternal purpose of the Father,-prepared by wise forethought,-arranged for,-predestinated,-prepared in that sense,-it was provided, in the eternal arrangements of Jehovah, that there should be a suitable place for his people to dwell in for ever. He made the pavilion of the sun, and he gave the stars their appointed positions; would he forget to prepare a place for his people? He gave to angels their places, and even to fallen spirits he has appointed a prison-house; so he would not forget, when he was arranging the entire universe, that a place would be needed for the twice-born, the heirs of grace, the members of the mystical body of Christ Jesus, his brethren who were to be made like unto him. Therefore, in purpose, and plan, and decree, long ere God had laid the foundations of this poor world, and the morning stars had sung together over creation’s six days’ work accomplished, he had prepared a place for his people; it was not actually prepared, but it was in the purpose and plan of the eternal mind, and therefore might be regarded as already done.

Our Lord Jesus Christ has gone to heaven, he says, that he may prepare a place for his servants, and we may be helped to form some idea of what he means by this expression if we just think a little about it. And, first, I am sure that must be a very great and glorious place which needs Christ to prepare it. If we do not know all that he means, we can get at least this much out of his declaration. He spake this world into being. It was not; but he said, “Be,” and it was at once made. Then he spake it into order, into light, into life, into beauty. He had but to speak, and what he willed was done. But now that he is preparing a place for his people, he has gone to heaven on purpose to do it. He used to stand still here on earth, and work miracles; but this was a miracle that he could not perform while he was here. He had to go back to his home above in order to prepare a place for his people. What sort of place, then, must it be that needs Christ himself to prepare it? He might have said, “Angels, garnish a mansion for my beloved.” He might have spoken to the firstborn sons of light, and said, “Pile a temple of jewels for my chosen.” But, no, he leaves not the work to them; but he says, “I go to prepare a place for you.”

Brethren, he will do it well, for he knows all about us. He knows what will give us the most happiness,-and what will best develop all our spiritual faculties for ever. He loves us, too, so well that, as the preparing is left to him, I know that he will prepare us nothing second-rate, nothing that could possibly be excelled. We shall have the best of the best, and much of it; we shall have all that even his great heart can give us. Nothing will be stinted; for, as he is preparing it, it will be a right royal and divine preparation. If, when the prodigal came back to his father, there was the preparation of the fatted calf, and the music and dancing, and the gold ring and the best robe, what will be the preparation when we do not come home as prodigals, but as the bride prepared for her husband, or as the beloved children, without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing, coming home to the Father who shall see his own image in us, and rejoice over us with singing? It is a grand place that Christ prepares, I wot, for never was there another such a lordly host as he is. It is a mansion of delights, I ween, that he prepares, for never was there another architect with thought so magnificent as his, and never were other hands so skilled at quarrying living stones, and putting them one upon another, as his hands have ever been. This thought ought to cheer us much; it must be something very wonderful that Christ prepares as a fit place for his people.

And methinks I may add to this, that it must be something very sweet when it is prepared. If you go to a friend’s house, and just fall in with the ordinary proceedings of the family, you are very comfortable, and you are glad not to disarrange anything; but if, when you arrive, you see that everything has been done on an extra scale to prepare for your coming, you feel still more grateful. It has often happened to an honoured guest that he could not help observing that he was not being treated as his friends lived every day of the week, and all the year round. That guest-chamber had evidently been newly furnished, and everything that was possible had been thought of to do him honour. If you were treated thus as a guest, there was pleasure for you in the fact that so much had been prepared for you. Did your husband ever take you to a new house, and point out to you how he had purchased everything that he thought would please you? Had that little room been furnished specially for you, and did he anticipate your tastes, provide this little thing and that that he knew you would like? Well, it was not merely that you enjoyed the things themselves, but they all seemed to you so much sweeter because they had been prepared for you by your beloved. And when you get to heaven, you will be astonished to see this and that and the other joy, that was prepared for you, because Christ thought of you, and provided just what you would most appreciate. You will be no stranger there, beloved; you will say, “There has been here a hand that helped me when I was in distress; there has been here, I know, an eye that saw me when I was wandering far from God; there has been, in this place, a heart that cared for me,-that selfsame heart that loved me, and that bled for me down below upon the cross. It is my Saviour who has prepared this place for me.”

I do not know whether I can convey to you all my thoughts upon this theme, but it does seem to me so pleasant to think that we are going to a place where we shall not be the first travellers through the country; but where a Pioneer has gone before us,-the best of pioneers, who went before us with this one object in his mind, that he might get all ready, and prepare the place for us. Methinks, brethren, that those who will be there before us will say, when we arrive there, “We are glad you have come, for everything has been prepared for you.” It would be an eternal sorrow in heaven if the saints should miss their way, and perish, as some croakingly tell us; for, then, what about the preparations for their reception? They would all have been made in vain;-harps prepared, which no fingers would ever play, and crowns which no heads would ever wear. I do not believe it; I have never dreamed that such a thing could happen. I feel certain that he, who prepared the place for the people, will prepare the people for the place; and that, if he gets all ready for them, he means to bring them home that they may enjoy the things which he hath laid up for them that love him.

I know that I am not explaining the preparation of heaven, yet I hope I am drawing some comfortable thoughts out of the subject. If Christ is preparing heaven, then it will be what our Scotch friends call “a bonny place;” and if it be prepared for us, when we get there, it will exactly fit us, it will be the very heaven we wanted,-a better heaven than we ever dreamed of,-a better heaven than we ever pictured even when our imagination took its loftiest flights,-the heaven of God, and yet a heaven exactly suited to such happy creatures as we then shall be.

Now, however, let us try to come a little closer to the subject, and attempt to explain our Lord’s words. Jesus Christ has gone to prepare a place for his people; does not this refer, if we keep it to its strict meaning, to the ultimate place of God’s people? You see, Christ mentions a place, not a state; and he speaks of going to it, and coming back from it: “I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself.” Christ is speaking of himself in his full manhood, without any figurative meaning to his words. He meant that he was going, with all his human nature on him, away from this world; and that he was going to prepare a place for us, intending to come again, with all that glorified human nature about him, to receive us unto himself. This does not mean his spiritual coming in death; nor any kind of spiritual coming, as to its first meaning, at any rate. I am persuaded that the clear run of the words involves our Lord’s coming, in his second advent, when he will come to receive, not you or me as individuals who, one by one, will enter into rest, but to receive his whole Church into the place which he shall then have prepared for her. After the resurrection, you must remember, we shall need a place to live in,-a literal, material place of abode, for this body of ours will be alive as well as our spirit, and it will need a world to live in, a new heaven and a new earth.

I am not going to enter into any speculations about the matter, but it seems to me clear enough, in this text, that Christ is preparing a place somewhere-not for disembodied spirits, for they are already before the throne of God perfectly blest,-but for the entire manhood of his people, when spirit, soul, and body shall be again united, and the complete man shall receive the adoption, to wit, the redemption of the body, and the whole manhood of every believer shall be perfected in the glory of Christ. I do not know what better world, in many respects, there could be than this, so far as material nature is concerned; it is so full of the beauty and loveliness that God pours upon it on every side; it is a wonderful world,-

“Where every prospect pleases,

And only man is vile;”-

but I could not reconcile myself to the idea that this world would be heaven. No; my thoughts rise far above the loftiest hills, the most flowery meads, the rolling ocean, and the flowing rivers. Earth has not space enough to be our heaven. She has too narrow a bound, and she is too coarse a thing, bright gem though she is, for perfected manhood to possess throughout eternity. It will do well enough for the thousand years of glory, if it shall literally be that we shall reign with Christ upon it during the millennial age; but it is a drossy thing, and if it ever is to be the scene of the new heavens and the new earth, it must first pass through the fire. The very smell of sin is upon it; and God will not use this globe as a vessel unto honour until he has purified it with fire as once he did with water; and then, mayhap, it may serve for this higher purpose; but I scarcely think it will. Even now, Jesus is preparing, and has gone away on purpose to prepare, a place for us; and he will come again, “with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God,” and he will catch his people away, and will bear them to the eternal home where their felicity shall know no end. That is what I suppose to be the meaning of our Lord’s words.

“But,” perhaps you say to me, “what do you mean by what you have been saying?” I reply,-I do not know to the full; I can but dimly guess at the meaning of what my Lord has said,-that he is doing something so glorious for all his people that, perhaps, if I did know it, I might not be allowed to tell you; for there are some things which, when a man knows them, it is not lawful for him to utter. Did not Paul see a great deal when he was caught up into Paradise? Yet he has told us very little about it; for there was a finger laid upon his lip, that bade him know it for himself, but not to tell it to others. “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him;” and though he has “revealed them unto us by his Spirit,” even the Spirit who searcheth the deep things of God, yet is it not possible for us to tell all that has been revealed to us.

It strikes me that there is some little light to be obtained concerning this preparation of heaven by Christ, if I leave the direct and literal meaning of the words, and think of the future state as a whole rather than in detail. Do you not think, dear friends, that our Lord Jesus Christ prepares heaven for his people by going there? I mean this. Supposing you were to be lifted up to a state which was looked upon as heavenly, but that Jesus was not there, it would be no heaven to you. But wherever I may go, when I do go, if Jesus is already there, I do not care where it is. Wherever he is, shall be my heaven; for, as I said in the reading, that is our very first and last thought about heaven, to be with Christ where he is. To be with Christ is far better than to be anywhere else. Well, then, the first thing that Christ had to do, in order to prepare heaven for his people, was to go to heaven, for that made it heaven. Then were heaven’s lamps kindled; then did heaven’s heralds ring out their supernal melodies; then did the whole of the New Jerusalem seem to be ablaze with a glory brighter than the sun, for “the Lamb is the light thereof.” When he comes there, then all is bliss. Do you not see, beloved, that he has prepared heaven by going there? His being there will make it heaven for you, so you need not begin asking what else there will be in heaven. There will be all manner of rare delights to spiritual men, but the chief of them all will be that Jesus is there. As Rowland Hill used to sing, so may you and I comfort ourselves with this thought,-

“And this I do find,-we two are so joined-

He’ll not be in glory, and leave me behind.”

If I may but be where he is, that shall be heaven to me.

But another reflection is this,-that our Lord Jesus Christ has prepared heaven for his people by the merit of his atonement. Thus hath he opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers. He rent the veil, and made a way into the holiest of all for all who trust him; but, in addition to that, he perfumed heaven with the fragrance of his sacrifice. If heaven be the place of the Godhead, as we know it is, we could not have stood there without the Mediator. If heaven be the throne of the great King, we could not have stood there without the cloud of perfumed incense from Christ’s meritorious death and righteousness ever rising up before that throne. But, now, heaven is a safe place for the saints to enter. Now may they tread that sea of glass, like as of fire; and know that it is glass, and that no fire from it will consume them. Now will they be able to come up near to God, and not be afraid. I quote again a passage that often leaps to my lips,-a text of Scripture which is often shamefully misused: “Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?” Why, none of us could so dwell unless Christ had changed us by his grace; but now we may do so. What is the Scriptural answer to those questions, “Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?” What saith the Scripture? Listen: “He that walketh righteously, and speaketh uprightly; he that despiseth the gain of oppressions, that shaketh his hands from holding of bribes, that stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes from seeing evil; he shall dwell on high: his place of defence shall be the munitions of rocks: bread shall be given him; his waters shall be sure. Thine eyes shall see the King in his beauty: they shall behold the land that is very far off.” This is the man who shall dwell there. With God, who is a consuming fire, we, like the holy children in the burning, fiery furnace, shall find it safe to dwell, and find it bliss to dwell, because Christ is there. But there would have been no heaven, in the presence of God, for any man that lives, after sin had once come into the world, if Jesus had not gone there as the high priest of old went up to the blazing throne whereon the shekinah shone, and sprinkled it with blood out of the basin, and then waved the censer to and fro till the thick smoke hid the cherubim, and, for a while resting, spake with God. Even so, has Christ gone within the veil, and sprinkled his own atoning blood upon his Father’s throne, and then waved aloft the censer full of the incense of his mercy; and now it is safe for us to have access with boldness to the throne of glory as well as to the throne of grace. Thus hath he prepared a place for us.

Another meaning, I think, is allowable, namely, that Christ has prepared heaven for us by appearing there in his glory. I said that his very presence made heaven, but now I add that his glory there makes heaven yet more glorious. How does Christ describe the heavenly state? “Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory.” It will be their bliss, then, to see his glory; but there would have been no glory for them to see if he had not gone there in his glory. But, now, his presence there, in all his majesty and splendour, makes heaven still more glorious. Oh, how I long to see him in his glory! Long to see him, did I say? I would part with all the joys of time and sense to gaze upon him seated upon his throne. Oh! what will it be to see him? You have seen how painters have failed when they have tried to depict him. The bravest artist may well tremble, and the brightest colours fade, when anyone tries to paint him even in his humiliation. There is no other face so marred as his face was; but what will it be in heaven when it is marred no more? No tear in his eye! No spittle running down his cheeks! No giving of his face to them that pluck out the hair; but, oh, the glory of manhood perfected, and allied with Deity! “The King in his beauty!” Why, methinks, to see him but for a minute, if we never saw him again, might furnish us with an eternity of bliss; but we shall gaze upon him, in his glory, day without night, never fainting, or flagging, or tiring, but delighting for ever to behold him smile, for evermore to call him ours, and to see him still before us. He has gone to heaven, then, in his glory; and, surely, that is preparing a place for us!

Besides that, we cannot tell what arrangements had to be made, in order to prepare a place of eternal blessedness for the Lord’s redeemed. Certain it is that, in the economy of the universe, everything has its place. Men have discovered, as you know, what they call evolution. They think that one thing grows out of another, because, long before they were born, everybody with half an eye could see that one thing fitted into another; and as one step rises above another step by a beautiful gradation, so do the created things of God. Not that they grow out of each other any more than the stones of a staircase grow out of one another; they rise above each other, but they were so made from the first by the skill and wisdom of God. That a dewdrop should be precisely of the size and shape that it is, is necessary to the perfection of the universe. That there should be insects born in such a month to fertilize the flowers that bloom in that month, and others to suck the sweetness of those flowers, is all necessary. God has arranged everything, from the little to the great, with perfect skill. There is a place for everything with God, and everything in its place. It was a question where to put man. He had a place once. When God created this world, he made a pyramid, and set man upon the very top of it, giving him dominion over all the works of his hands; but then man fell. Now, it is more difficult to restore than it is at first to place. Often and often, you must have found that, when a thing has gone awry, it has cost you more trouble to set it right than if it had to be made de novo. Where, then, was the place for man to be? O matchless love, O sacred wisdom, that provided that man’s place should be where Christ’s place was and is! Lo, he who came down from heaven, and who also was in heaven, has gone back to heaven. He carried manhood with him; and, in so doing, one with him his Church has found her place. His union to the Godhead has found a place for his Church at the right hand of God, even the Father, where Christ sitteth; and all is as it should be.

As I have already told you, I do not know much about this matter; but I should not wonder if there has been going on, ever since Christ went up to heaven, a putting things straight,-getting this race of creatures into its proper place, and that other race, and the other race; so that, when we get to heaven, nobody will say, “You have got my place.” Not even Gabriel will say to me, “Why, what business have you here? You have got my place.” No, no; you shall have a place of your own, beloved; and all the members of Christ’s Church shall find a place prepared which no one else shall be able to claim, for nobody shall be dispossessed or put out of his rightful position.

It struck me, as I turned this subject over in my mind, that our Lord Jesus Christ knew that there was a place to be prepared for each one of his people. It may be-I cannot tell,-that, in some part of the society of heaven, one spirit will be happier than it might have been in another part. You know that, even though you love all the brethren, you cannot help feeling most at home with some of them. Our blessed Lord and Master had no sinful favouritism, yet he did love twelve men better than all the rest of his disciples; and out of the twelve he loved three, whom he introduced into mysteries from which he excluded the other nine; and even out of the three, there was one, you know, who was “that disciple whom Jesus loved.” Now, everybody here has his likings; I do not know if we shall carry anything of that spirit to heaven. If we do, Christ has so prepared a place for us that you shall be nearest, in your position and occupation, to those who would contribute most to your happiness. You shall be where you can most honour God, and most enjoy God. You would be glad enough to be anywhere,-would you not?-with the very least of the saints in heaven if there be any degrees of glory among their thrones, or at his feet, so long as you might see Christ’s face. But, depend upon it, if there be any association-any more intimate connection-between some saints than among others, Jesus Christ will so beautifully arrange it that we shall all be in the happiest places. If you were to give a dinner-party, and you had a number of friends there, you would like to pick the seats for them. You would say, “Now, there is So-and-so, I know that he would like to sit next to So-and-so;” and you would try so to arrange it. Well, in that grand wedding feast above, our Saviour has so prepared a place for us that he will find us each the right position. I was talking, this afternoon, with one whom I very dearly love, and she said to me, “I hope my place in heaven will not be far off yours:” and I replied, “Well, I trust so, too; but we are not married or given in marriage there.” Such ties and such relationships must end, as far as they are after the flesh; but we know that there have been bonds of spirit that may still continue. I sometimes think that, if I could have any choice as to those I should live near in heaven, I should like to live in the region of such queer folk as Rowland Hill and John Berridge. I think I should get on best with them, for we could talk together of the way wherein God led us; and of how he brought souls to Christ by us, though some said that we were a deal too merry when we were down below, and that the people laughed when they listened to us, and some spoke as if that were a great sin. We will make them laugh up yonder, I warrant you; as we tell again the wonders of redeeming love, and of the grace of God, their mouths shall be filled with laughter, and their tongues with singing; and then,-

“Loudest of the crowd I’ll sing.

While heaven’s resounding mansions ring

With shouts of sovereign grace;”

and I expect each of you, who love the Lord, will say the same.

I have no time for the other part of the sermon. You must come again to hear about the prepared people. But let me just say this to you,-The place is prepared, are you prepared for it? Dost thou believe on the Lord Jesus Christ? If so, your preparation has begun. Dost thou love the Lord, and love his people? If so, thy preparation is going on. Dost thou hate sin, and dost thou pant after holiness? If so, thy preparation is progressing. Art thou nothing at all, and is Jesus Christ thine All-in-all? Then thou art almost ready; and may the Lord keep thee in that condition; and before long, swing up the gates of pearl, and let thee in to the prepared place! May the Lord bring us all safely there, for Jesus’ sake! Amen.

Expositions by C. H. Spurgeon

JOHN 14:1-12; and COLOSSIANS 1:1-19.

John 14 Verse 1. Let not your heart be troubled:

This is one of those verses that you may read as slowly as you like, and spell out every letter, and find honey in it all.

1. Ye believe in God, believe also in me.

As Jews, they had already known and seen the power of God. They were now to rise to the faith of Christians, and to believe in Jesus their Saviour. Even though they should see him die, they were not to doubt him: “Ye believe in God, believe also in me.”

2. In my Father’s house are many mansions:

So there is room for many, there are homes for many, there is wealth for many: “In my Father’s house are many mansions:”

2. If it were not so, I would have told you.

The Saviour seems to say to his disciples, “I keep nothing back from you; had there been some sorrowful fact to be revealed to you, I would at length have told you of it.”

2. I go to prepare a place for you.

“There must be a heaven, for I am going there myself, and I am going on purpose to make it ready for you.”

3. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.

That is the first and simplest idea of heaven, to be with Christ; and I think it is the last and sublimest idea of heaven, too,-to be with Christ: “that where I am, there ye may be also.”

4, 5. And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know. Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way?

The apostles blundered, and lost themselves in the words of their Master, instead of entering into the spirit of what he said; so we must not wonder if we often do the same. Unless we wait upon God to be instructed by his Spirit, even the plainest passages of Scripture may be obscure to us.

6, 7. Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him.

Jesus had been talking about the many mansions, and now he talks about the Father. Is the Father, then, the same as heaven? Ay, indeed; to come to the Father is to come to perfect blessedness, to know the fulness of his eternal love, and to enjoy it in face-to-face communion;-this is heaven. What higher bliss can we desire?

8, 9. Philip saith unto him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us. Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?

Do we, then, see the Father when we see Christ? And is the Father’s presence heaven? Then, Christ is heaven; and to be with him is heaven. It is even so. He is the way to heaven, the truth of heaven, the life of heaven. He is heaven’s everything.

“His track I see, and I’ll pursue

The narrow way, till him I view;”-

and when I view him, shall I not have seen the Father, and have entered into the Father’s rest?

10-12. Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you, I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works. Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works’ sake. Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.

In consequence of Christ’s going to the Father, and the Spirit of God descending upon Christ’s disciples, they are enabled to outdo their Master in some forms of holy service. For instance, some of them brought more to the faith than Christ himself had done during his lifetime, and so realized the fulfilment of this promise, “The works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.”

Colossians 1 Verses 1-14. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timotheus our brother, to the saints and faithful brethren in Christ which are at Colosse: Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love which ye have to all the saints, for the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, whereof ye heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel; which is come unto you, as it is in all the world; and bringeth forth fruit, as it doth also in you, since the day ye heard of it, and knew the grace of God in truth: as ye also learned of Epaphras our dear fellowservant, who is for you a faithful minister of Christ; who also declared unto us your love in the Spirit. For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness; giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins:

As we read these words, we cannot help noticing how positively the apostle speaks. There are no “hope so’s,” “trust so’s,” and “ifs,” and “buts”; but it is all, “it is so,” and “it is so.” And, beloved brethren, concerning eternal matters, nothing but certainties will suffice for us. Allow uncertainties about your estates if you will, but we must have positive assurance concerning eternal things; and nothing short of this ought to content our spirits. Can we all say, as we listen to these words, “God hath delivered us from the power of darkness; he hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son, in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins”?

15. Who is the image of the invisible God,-

Admire this delightful passage, in which the apostle seems to burn and glow while he describes his Lord and Master: “who is the image of the invisible God,”-

15-19. The firstborn of every creature: for by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: and he is before all things, and by him all things consist. And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence. For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell.

Blessed be his glorious name! Amen.

Hymns from “Our Own Hymn Book”-875, 852, 866.

THE DOOR

A Sermon

Intended for Reading on Lord’s-day, November 10th, 1901, delivered by

C. H. SPURGEON

at the metropolitan tabernacle, newington,

On Lord’s-day Evening, June 15th, 1879.

“I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.”-John 10:9.

How very condescendingly the Lord Jesus Christ sets himself forth! The noblest figures of speech are not too lofty to describe his merits. If we could speak with the tongues of poets and of angels, we could not adequately represent his loveliness; and though the writers of the Scriptures, inspired by the Holy Ghost, have used language which exceeds all other in majesty and beauty, even they are not able to tell all the excellence of the glory of Christ Jesus our Lord.

Yet, beloved friends, when he speaks of himself, he is pleased to use no lofty imagery, no far-fetched metaphors; but he talks of himself one day as water, and another day as bread; and here he deigns to call himself a door. The illustration is exceedingly simple; who is there that will not understand it? He means that, as by passing through a door we enter into a house, so by passing through Christ Jesus, by faith, we enter into eternal life, and enter into the true Church, and ultimately shall enter into heaven.

“I am the door.” This metaphor is not only simple, but it is wonderfully commonplace. The dealers in profundities will not like this expression. The gentlemen who must have something new-something very striking-will hardly admire this kind of talk; but, then, our Lord does not court their admiration. His object is not to win the applause of the wise and the poetical, but to win the souls of the poor and the needy, to bring to them eternal life; so he uses what I may call a child’s figure, a common-place figure, “I am the door.”

He has selected this emblem, I should think, partly that it may often come before our notice. You will not go out of this place without seeing a door; you will not get into your own house without seeing a door; and when you are inside, you will not get into your parlour without seeing a door; and when you go up to bed, you must pass through the door. When you rise, to-morrow morning, and start to go out to your work, you will have to open a door,-two doors probably; and, when you reach your work, there is pretty sure to be another door to be entered. Doors meet your gaze almost everywhere, so our Lord Jesus Christ seems to say to you, “I will meet you wherever you are; anywhere and everywhere, I will speak with you, and plead with you. I will make the door of every room in your house, and the door of every cupboard, too, to preach a little sermon to you, as you shall be reminded by it that ‘I am the door.’ ” I am sure our Lord Jesus Christ does not want his ministers to deliver magnificent orations, spread-eagle sermons, with long and elaborate sentences in them. He wants them just to come and talk as he talked, in all simplicity, so that the very poorest and most illiterate of their hearers may understand their meaning, embrace the truth they proclaim, and find everlasting life in him of whom they speak. So shall I try to do at this time, keeping the style of my discourse congruous with the text.

We will begin by noticing first, the door; secondly, the users of it: “By me if any man enter in;” and, thirdly, the privileges of each of these users: “He shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.”

First, then, concerning the door.

“I am the door,” says Jesus; and the first thought that strikes us is, the necessity of it. Here is the house of mercy; and, inside, there is washing for the filthy, healing for the sick, food for the hungry, clothing for the naked; but suppose there had been no door to the house, what would it have availed us? Suppose there had been only windows, through which we could look in, and see the provision prepared there, and that we could hear the songs of those who were permitted to partake of it, but there was no door by which we could enter in; all the mercy of God would have been a tantalizing of our hunger in such a case as that. The house of mercy, without a door, would have been a house of misery to us. Look at this picture, if your eye can perceive it,-the city that lieth foursquare, that mighty city, whose pinnacles tower on high so loftily that the height is as great as the breadth, and the breadth is the same as the length; her very foundations are of precious stones, and her twelve gates are priceless pearls? Can your eye gaze, even for a moment, on that brilliance that outshines the sun? And can you hear the sound of harpers harping with their harps within that city whose streets are of pure gold? But suppose there was no door there, and that our spirits had to go flying, with awful beating of weary wing, round, and round, and round that solid wall, but never finding a gate where we could enter? What hope would there be for a soul shut out from the city of the perfect, the home of the blessed, because there was no door of entrance? Yet there would not have been any door if it had not been for Christ. Our sins had, as it were, walled up God, and shut him in; and walled us up, and shut us out. There would have been for us no going in to God, nor any coming out from God to us, had it not been for Christ, the Mediator, through whom we draw near to God because, in him, God has drawn near to us. See, then, the necessity for this door; and, blessed be his holy name, see how Christ meets this necessity. We needed a door by which we could get to God, and Jesus says, “I am the door.”

Next, observe the singularity of it: “I am the door.” Is there no other entrance, then, into the divine mercy? Is there no other entrance into the true Church? Is there no other entrance into the eternal blessedness of heaven except by him? No; there is no other, for he says, “I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved.” But suppose a man will not enter by this door; may he not climb up some other way? If he should attempt to do so, he would be a thief and a robber, and God would know how to deal with him. He may think himself a bold man, and a cunning man, and a man to be praised, for he has tried to enter into eternal life and glory by a way of his own; but God calls him a thief and a robber, and out he must go to the prison-house where such evildoers abound.

No; there is only one door, you may search the whole realm of nature, and you shall never discover another. Not by self-sufficiency, nor self-righteousness, nor priests, nor rites and ceremonies; not by anything of the will of the flesh, or of the will of man, can you obtain admission there.

“Could our zeal no respite know,

Could our tears for ever flow,”-

“there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” Believe in Jesus, put your trust in him, and you are saved; but, unless you come to him in that way, there is only one sentence for you: “He that believeth not shall be damned.” There is no hope of salvation by any other means; our Lord Jesus Christ has himself said “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.” So that there is singularity in the way by which God has supplied our necessity, and therefore Christ said, “I am the door.”

But, to my mind, the chief point in my text is personality. If we come to the Lord Jesus, and say to him, “O Lord, thou canst teach us how to get to heaven; wilt thou be pleased to tell us how we can enter the house of mercy, and the Church of God, and the kingdom of glory at the last?” he answers, “I am the way; I am the door.” What dost thou mean, great Master? Tell us, what is the door? “I am the door.” But, surely, Lord, thou meanest that, by copying and imitating thee, we shall enter in? He shakes his head, and says, “Not so; I am the door.” But, surely, thou meanest that, by attending to certain rites which thou hast ordained, we shall enter? My brethren, he said not so, he simply said, “I am the door.” But does not Christ mean that, by being orthodox, and believing certain doctrines which he has taught us, and which are identified with himself, we shall thereby enter into life, and be saved? He does not say so; he says, “I am the door.” But is not baptism the door? No, for he says, “I am the door.” But is not the Lord’s supper the door? No, for he says, “I am the door.” But, surely, holy living must be the way into the kingdom of heaven? No, it is not; for Jesus says, “I am the door.” Jesus himself, personally, is the way into his kingdom; there is no door into his sheepfold except himself,-his own person; so we must just come, and believe in himself, and trust in himself, for he is the door.

Would not some of the so-called “priests” lock us out of the fold if they had the keys? Thank God, they have neither the key nor the charge of the door; for whosoever believeth in Jesus, to whatsoever church he belongs outwardly, or if he belongs to no visible church at all, if he does but come to God by Christ, he is saved, for Christ is the door; and nothing else is the way of entrance,-neither this opinion, nor that external doing, nor such-and-such works, nor such-and-such feelings; but Christ himself, and Christ alone. The incarnate God-our substitutionary sacrifice, who rose again from the dead for our justification, who ascended up to the Majesty on high, whose prevalent plea is ever being presented on his people’s behalf, and who is coming back again by-and-by,-he it is who is the door, and only by him can we enter the true Church on earth, and the “Church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven.”

Notice, dear friends, in the fourth place, over this door the word suitability. Jesus says, “I am the door.” You know that every door has two sides to it, and so has Christ. Our side of this door is his humanity. Oh, how freely and how gladly we may come to Christ! I think that, if any of us had seen Christ when he was here on earth, we should have felt no desire to get away from him, but we should have been delighted to draw near to him. If, in this place, just now, a little child could see Jesus Christ as he was in the days of his flesh, I am sure that the boy or girl would soon have his or her hand in Jesus Christ’s hand, for he was so sweet, and loving, and tender, that the children gladly ran to him. So that is our side of the door, Christ’s gentle manhood; but what is God’s side of the door? It is the full splendour of Christ’s Godhead, “for in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.” So, our side of the door is Christ’s gentle loving manhood; but what is God’s side of the door? It is the full splendour of Christ’s Godhead, and we can only come to the Father through him whose name is Emmanuel, “God with us.”

And what do I see over that door but his own blood sprinkled, so that we may be quite sure of being accepted with God, for has not the Lord said to us, as he did to Israel in Egypt, “when I see the blood, I will pass over you”? Therefore, the door is Christ Jesus; so let me put the truth very plainly, and say that, if any of you wish to be saved, it must be by coming to God through Christ Jesus. You cannot be saved in any other fashion or way; but you will certainly be saved if you come to God by Christ Jesus. He is the door, and he is an open door, and a door available for you if you will but enter in by him; may his blessed Spirit sweetly incline you to do so! Then all the rich promises of this text shall be yours; you shall be saved, and you shall go in and out, and find pasture.

What is the main purpose of a door? It is to give admission to the house. There are some persons who stand and look at the door, or perhaps praise it, saying, “What a fine door that is!” Yet they do not go in through it; and I have known people, who liked to hear Christ extolled, yet they did not yield themselves to him. They said, “That was a rich gospel sermon,” but they did not trust the Christ who was preached. They looked at the door; that was all.

There are others who occasionally knock at the door. They tell me that they have often prayed to God, but that they have never been heard. Well, it is wise to knock at this door, but is not enough to knock, for the text does not say, “By me if any man knock, he shall be saved;” but, “by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved.”

I have known some persons, who have sat down on the step of this door; some of you have been sitting there a long time. You have been hearing the gospel, and you have listened to it with some degree of attention. So far, so good; but if you do nothing more, you are simply sitting down on the door-step. Now, doors were not made for us to sit on the door-step. Little children frequently do that at your houses, do they not? You often wish they did not; yet there they will sit, and play. But that is not the purpose for which the door was intended. A door is made for us to pass through it, not for us to sit down in front of it. If a man stands and admires your door, or if he knocks at your door, and yet still sits on your doorstep, he is not making the right use of the door. According to our text, the proper way to use a door is to enter in by it; and that is the right way to use Christ, to enter in by him.

There are some, who do not do that, but they very jealously guard the door. They stand like sentinels outside the door; they are true Protestants, and their blood is on fire at the very thought of the Pope. They like to read books that bully everybody who does not agree with them. Only let a heretic come near; they are orthodox enough to knock him down directly. They are protecting the door, but they do not go through it. I have marvelled to find some men downright bigots in defence of the gospel which they have never received themselves; they would not allow anybody to say a word against it on any account whatever. They are righteously indignant at error, yet they have never been saved by the truth. I should not like to be a hungry man set to guard a loaf of bread, to have to walk up and down, like a soldier with bayonet fixed, and all the while to be dying by starvation, my bones starting through my skin, yet never eating a crumb; taking care that no Zulu ever came near the bread, shooting anybody who approached it, but never getting a morsel to eat myself. There are numbers of people who are doing just that; they are simply sentinels at the door, remaining outside all the while. But the proper use of the door of salvation is to enter in by it, so our Lord Jesus says in our text.

Note, particularly, the description given of those who use the door: “By me if any man enter in.” Christ does not say, “By me if any king or prince should enter in.” No, thank God, he says, “If any man enter in,”-any man from the slums, any man from the abode of poverty or vice,-“he shall be saved.” Christ does not say, “If any highly intelligent person is able to understand the plan of salvation, he shall be saved.” It is not difficult to understand, for it is only like going through a door, and anybody knows how to do that. You coal-heavers, who have strayed in here, and you squires from the country, who have your pockets well lined, and you poor people who have your pockets empty, you who have good characters, and you who would do better if you were to lose your present characters, for they are no good to you, my text is so broad in its comprehension that it shuts none of you out: “By me if any man enter in, he shall be saved.”

I want to call your special attention to this point, for, evidently, this entering in is irrespective of character, because a man can go through a door whether he is the biggest thief that lives, or the most honest man in the world. He does not need to be a good fellow to go through a door; and when Christ says, “any man,” he means the sinner who deserves the deepest hell. It means me; it means you, my friends, who are in the same condition as I was in when I came to Jesus: “By me if any man enter in, he shall be saved.” Perhaps someone says, “Do you mean to tell me that men are to go to heaven without being holy?” I tell you no such thing; but I say that they are to come to Christ without being holy. They trust in Christ, and then he makes them fit to go to heaven; but, at their first coming to him, there is no fitness required. You are to come just as you are,-downright bad, through and through,-and just pass through this door.

Going through a door is a very simple action; it may be performed by an idiot, or by a baby who can but just toddle. That is faith,-passing from this side of Christ to the other side,-passing from where I am, in myself, to be reconciled with God by trusting in Jesus Christ. Passing through a door is not a long operation; it can be done in the twinkling of an eye, and so can a man be saved in the twinkling of an eye. Passing through a door is not a difficult operation if the door is open; and coming to Christ is not a difficult operation. I will tell you when it is difficult; that is, when a man has an enormous load of what he calls “good works” upon his back. I have seen people in that condition, they could not get through the door at all; they had such a mountain of good works that they could not get through the doorway; a truss of hay was nothing to the load they carried; they could not pass through the strait gate. The man who gets to Christ most quickly is the one who is utterly stripped of everything of his own.

Some people cannot get through this door because they carry their heads too high. I believe that he who is bowed down to the dust, on his hands and knees, is the man who gets in most easily. He who is nothing, he who is nobody, he who is undeserving, ill-deserving, hell-deserving, he who has no hope apart from Christ, is the man who most quickly finds hope in Christ. Righteous self is very hard to get rid of, but that is the great difficulty of passing through this door.

You see, then, that character is not set down as a fitness for Christ, neither is feeling to be set down as a preparation for coming to Christ. Christ wants nothing to prepare a sinner for him. That poor man, who was wounded, and left half-dead on the road to Jericho, would have been in a still worse plight if the Samaritan had said to him, “Now, my good man, I am willing to help you, but you are hardly fit to be helped. I am afraid you do not feel your wounds sufficiently; I am afraid you are not sensible enough of the bruises you have received; I am afraid that, at the present moment, you are scarcely awakened to your danger; you seem to me to be half stupefied by that crack you had on your head; so I must leave you, I am afraid, until you are able to feel a little more, and to be better prepared for me to help you.” He did nothing of the sort; but he just brought out his oil and wine, and he rent his coat, and took a piece of rag to bind up the wounds, and lifted the poor fellow up, and set him on his own beast, and took him to the inn. Now, our Lord Jesus Christ is far better than that good Samaritan, but he acts on the same principle. He comes to the sinner just where he is, and he does not want him to feel this or feel that, or be this or be that, or do this or do that; but just to trust him, to rest in him, and in him alone, and he will pour in the oil and the wine, and heal the sin-sick soul. Feeling or not feeling, if thou wilt pass through that door, thou shalt be saved. If thou believest in the Lord Jesus Christ, thou art not condemned; and, therefore, thou art saved.

So now I leave that point, only praying the Lord to make it very plain to all who have heard it. It may seem, to some of you, to be the plainest thing in the world, for you have heard it so often; but I tell you, beloved, that the poor trembling sinner needs to hear this over, and over, and over again; for, although it is put in the plainest Saxon that can be discovered, he will not understand it till the Holy Ghost opens his understanding. They still think there is something to do, like that old German Lutheran woman, who said, “I do not understand this; my minister asked me a hundred questions before he thought I was converted; and, as for me, I was groaning and crying for many years before I dared believe in Jesus Christ.” That is just the way with many; they will do anything except trust Jesus there and then; yet the gospel-the true simple gospel is, “Christ is all; trust him, and be saved.” He is Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. “The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all;” therefore, trust him, trust him, trust him, trust him, and, there and then, salvation is yours. “I am the door: by me if any man enter in,”-that is all he has to do,-“he shall be saved.”

Now, very briefly, I want to speak of the privileges of those who use this door aright.

The first privilege of the right users of it is, salvation. Those who have entered in by Christ the door are saved. He says, “By me if any man enter in, he shall be saved;”-saved from the guilt of sin, saved also from the power of sin. He shall be saved from being what he has been in the past; he shall be so saved as to enter into holiness, and so saved as to enter into heaven. What a grand salvation that is!

“Oh!” says one, “I could believe in Christ if I felt that I was saved.” Never put the cart before the horse; that is reversing the proper order of things. Trust in Christ, and then you are saved. Go through the door of which I have been speaking to you. “Oh! but I wish I felt that I was saved.” Go through the door, man, for our Lord Jesus says, “By me if any man enter in, he shall be saved.” There is no text that says, “If any man shall wait outside the door, he shall be saved.” There is no encouragement given to people to say, “We will sit and wait till the angel troubles the pool;” but the command of Christ is, “Rise, take up thy bed, and walk.” The message of the gospel is, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.” A gospel that tells sinners to wait is not the gospel that our Lord Jesus Christ blesses; his word is, “Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.” “By me if any man enter in, he shall be saved.”

And what follows this salvation? The next privilege is, liberty: “he shall go in and out.” We do not come to Christ to be shut up in a prison; we shall go in and out. There is no such liberty as you who believe in Jesus have;-liberty to go to your bed at night, and to feel that it does not matter whether you wake up here or not;-liberty to go out into the world, and feel that losses and crosses cannot happen to you without your Father’s permission, and that you will have grace to bear them; liberty to go wherever you please on the errands of God, always protected by his almighty power. Do not imagine that walking with God, as Enoch did, means a narrow and confined life. He only has true largeness of heart who has God dwelling in his heart.

Then notice the further privilege that is included in this liberty; that is, liberty of access: “he shall go in.” He who goes through the door-that is, believes in Christ,-shall go in to God in prayer, to pour out his heart before the Lord. He shall go in to the Church to have fellowship with all the saints. He shall go in to that secret of the Lord which is with them that fear him; and, one day, he shall go into the innermost heaven, into that blessed circle where God reveals his love in the highest degree: “he shall go in.”

And he shall have liberty of egress, as well as liberty of access; for, after he has been with God in private, he shall go out, and-

“Tell to sinners round

What a dear Saviour he has found.”

He shall go out to bear his cross with joy, and to lift up his Captain’s banner with confidence. He shall go out farther and farther afield, learning more of the things of Christ, discovering more and more how great are the estates of God, which cannot be enclosed within a ring fence, but which exceed all space, and can only be compared with eternity and infinity.

Then there is added the privilege of nourishment: “and shall find pasture.” Whatever his heart needs to live upon, to fill it, to sustain it, to comfort it, to make it grow, to develop it, to perfect it, he shall find it all in Christ Jesus his Lord and Saviour. When a soul comes to Christ, and receives life, it does not receive a life that will ever die; for Jesus, who is our life, is also the bread of life, and we live upon him, and feed upon him, and so our life endures until, in its full expansion, we enter into our eternal inheritance before the throne of God.

These, then, are the privileges of those who enter in by Christ the door,-salvation, liberty, access, egress, and nourishment for the soul. Who will have all these things by entering the door? Sometimes, when I have preached the gospel with all my might, I go away home, and think to myself, “Oh! I am grieved for those people who will not lay hold upon Christ, I could cry my heart out over them.” But, at other times, I feel that I must take God’s side of the matter, and say, “Well, if they will not have salvation,-if his Son has been torn from his own bosom, and put to death to save men, and yet they despise him,-if God writes his message of love in letters of blood, the blood of his own well-beloved Son, and still men refuse to accept it,-then, their blood be upon their own head.” If Jehovah stoops right down from heaven, and says, “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool,”-if he goes out of his way, as it were, to plead with sinners, by his mighty love, and by the precious blood of Christ, his Son, I sometimes think that, if they will not come to him then, I am more inclined to blame them than to pity them. If they will not see what God sets before them, and they are then struck blind, who can blame the justice of God? Surely, they deserve the deepest hell who refuse and reject the Christ of God.

Suppose that a man was standing at your door, and that he said he was starving, and that you pointed to the door, and bade him enter. But he says, “Yes, I see the door.” “Well, then, enter it, and you shall have food.” “No,” he says, “I am very hungry, but I am afraid I do not feel my hunger enough to entitle me to go in.” You say, “My dear fellow, enter in.” “But,-but,-but,-I-I-I-;” he keeps on saying; and you reply, “My dear fellow, do you see the door?” “Yes,” he says. “Well, then, enter in.” He says that he is ready to faint, that he feels so sick, he wants medicine. You answer, “Everything is inside that door, and the one condition is, ‘Enter in.’ ” “Oh, dear!” he cries, “I am worse than I thought I was; I am covered all over with a foul disease; I dare not go in.” Still you say to him, “Enter in; everything is ready, come along with you; do not wait outside any longer.” “But I cannot climb over the top of the roof.” “I did not ask you to do so; I said, ‘Come in by the door.’ ” “But I cannot dig through the cellar, and come up that way.” “I did not ask you to do anything of the kind; come in by the door.”

Is not that what the apostle meant in the chapter we read? “Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down from above:) or, Who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.) But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach; that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.” “But I thought-I thought”-the man still says, “that, to get such great mercy as to be fed, and to be clothed, and to be healed,-I thought that there would be something for me to do, some performance for me to go through.” You say to him, “My dear man, I have told you, over and over and over again, that everything depends upon your just entering in by that door. Will you do it?” He comes right up to the door, he looks through the doorway, it is wide enough for him to pass through, and there is all that he needs to be had just the other side of that door. He says, “I am almost persuaded to enter, I am very near the kingdom.” But you exclaim, “My dear fellow, you will perish, near as you are, if you do not take one step more, over the threshold, into the house. Receive what is provided, and all will be well with you; but if you will not enter, you must perish.” I think I hear somebody say, “Then, I will do it! I will trust Christ, whether I may or may not.” You are a saved man if you only did it while I was speaking the word, for there was never a soul that said, “Christ shall be All-in-all to me,” but Christ really was All-in-all to that soul. May the Holy Spirit bring many of you to that blessed decision! So, God shall be glorified, and you shall share his joy for ever and ever. Amen.

Exposition by C. H. Spurgeon

ROMANS 10

Verse 1. Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved.

No curse falls from his lips, though they had persecuted him without mercy, hunted him from city to city, and gnashed their teeth at the very mention of his name. Yet he has no desire for them but their salvation; he utters no malediction against them, but the prayer goes up from his very heart, “that they might be saved.” Let that be your worst wish for any living man. Whatever he may do to you, let this be your heart’s desire and prayer for him, that he may be saved.

2, 3. For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.

There are many, in these days also, who are exactly in this condition. They are very zealous; they are full of piety of a certain kind, but it is with the view of setting up a righteousness of their own. Oh! that God would save them from this false way! For there is no acceptable righteousness but the righteousness which is of God in Christ Jesus; and the more intensely they labour after the false righteousness, the more bitter will be their disappointment at the last. Man can only be truly righteous in God’s way; he will never be so in his own.

4. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.

He has put the law away so far as his own people are concerned; and, by that act, he has removed the possibility of self-righteousness, since we are no longer under the law. Though there can come no condemnation to us by it, there certainly can come no righteousness by it. Even Christ’s own people can never have any righteousness which cometh by the law; they must look to Christ, and find in him alone all that can be demanded by the law, “for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.”

5. For Moses-

The Holy Spirit wisely directed the apostle to quote from Moses, for he was the lawgiver, and was looked upon by the Jews as the great representative of the law.

5-8. Describeth the righteousness which is of the law, That the man which doeth those things shall live by them. But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise, Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down from above:) or, Who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.) But what saith it? The word is nigh thee,-

Not up yonder, nor down there; neither in the heights nor in the abyss: “The word is nigh thee,”-

8-10. Even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach; that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

To trust the risen Saviour, to put your soul into his hands, and then to confess your faith by publicly declaring that you are on his side,-these are the things which he demands of us in order to our salvation, and these he enables us to render. Are there any believers here who have never confessed Christ? Let them question themselves how far they can be said to be true disciples of him who demands that, where there is faith, confession of it should be made. If thou believest in Jesus, look at this Scripture, and feel ashamed of thyself if thou hast been ashamed to own him as thy Saviour; for is not the promise this,-that, “if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved”?

11. For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.

Shall not be ashamed of having done so, and shall not be ashamed of having missed the blessing which was promised, for he shall surely receive what God says shall follow his faith and confession.

12. For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek:

In this matter of salvation there is no difference between them.

12. For the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him.

Jews or Gentiles, they must come to Christ, and come to him by the same simple way of trusting him; and if they do so, they shall be saved.

13-15. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? and how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!

See, then, what an honour God has put upon the testimony of his Word; and be not slow, my dear friends, to tell abroad his glorious gospel. The apostle does not merely mean preaching from the pulpit, but preaching anyhow, making known the gospel by any means. It is in that way that bearing comes; from hearing comes faith; and from faith comes salvation. Who, then, would not tell out the glad news which God uses to the salvation of immortal souls?

16-18. But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Esaias saith, Lord, who hath believed our report? So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. But I say, Have they not heard?

Is that the reason why many do not believe,-because they have not heard the gospel? Well, it is not the reason in the case of anybody here present, for I suppose all of you have heard the gospel,-probably have often heard it.

18, 19. Yes verily, their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world. But I say, Did not Israel know?

Ah! that they did; the gospel was sounded in their ears in a hundred ways, yet they rejected it.

19-21. First Moses saith, I will provoke you to jealousy by them that are no people, and by a foolish nation I will anger you. But Esaias is very bold, and saith, I was found of them that sought me not; I was made manifest unto them that asked not after me. But to Israel he saith, All day long I have stretched forth my hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people.

God grant that we may not be like them! Amen.

Hymns from “Our Own Hymn Book”-550, 538, 552.