C. H. SPURGEON,

at the metropolitan tabernacle, newington.

“For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.”-Luke 19:10.*

We have now considered six of the glorious achievements of our divine Lord and Saviour, and it is time to conclude the series.† How shall we crown the edifice? The best wine should be kept unto the last, but where shall we find it? The choice is wide, but amid so many wonders which shall we select? What shall be the seventh great work concerning which we shall extol him? Many marvels suggested themselves to me, and each one was, assuredly, worthy to occupy the place; but as I could not take all, I resolved to close with one of the simplest and most practical. His saving sinners seemed to me to be practically the chief of all his works, for it was for this purpose that the rest of his achievements were attempted and performed. Had it not been for the salvation of men, I know not that we had ever known our Lord as the Destroyer of death or the Overcomer of Satan; and, certainly, if he had not saved the lost, I am unable to perceive what glory there would have been in the overcoming of the world, or in the creation of all things new. The salvation of men was the prize of his life’s race; for this he girded up his loins, and distanced every adversary. The salvation of the lost was “the joy which was set before him,” for the sake of which he “endured the cross, despising the shame.”

Although it seems, at first sight, that in selecting our present topic we have descended from the transcendent glories of our Champion to more common things, it is not indeed so. The victories of our Lord which are written in the Book of the wars of the Lord, when he led captivity captive and robbed death of his sting, may strike us as more astounding, but yet in very truth this is the summing-up of his great works; this is the issue, the flower, and crown of all. “The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost,” is a sentence as majestic as prophet ever penned when in fullest inspiration he extolled the Prince of Peace.

When he was here among men, he could use the present tense, and say “is come.” That was an improvement upon what prophets had to say, for they only spoke of him as the coming One,-as one who, in the fulness of time, would be manifested. The promise was amazing, but what shall I say of the actual performance when the Word made flesh could say, “The Son of man is come”? To us, to-day, the coming of Christ to seek and to save the lost is an accomplished fact, a matter of history, most sure and certain. And what a fact it is! You have often thought of it, but have you ever worked your mind into the very heart of it,-that God has actually visited this world in human form,-that he before whom angels bow has actually been here, in fashion like ourselves, feeding the hungry crowds of Palestine, healing their sick, and raising their dead? I know not what may be the peculiar boast of other planets, but this poor star cannot be excelled, for on this world the Creator has stood. This earth has been trodden by the feet of God, and yet it was not crushed beneath the mighty burden, because he deigned to link his Deity with our humanity. The incarnation is a wonder of wonders, but it does not belong to the realm of imagination, or even of expectation, for it has actually been beheld by mortal eyes. We claim your faith for a fact which has really taken place. If we asked you by faith to expect a marvel yet to come, we trust the Spirit of God would enable you so to do, that, like Abraham, you might foresee the blessing and be glad. But the miracle of miracles has been wrought. The Son of the Highest has been here. From Bethlehem to Calvary he has traversed life’s pilgrimage. Thirty years or more yonder canopy of sky hung above the head of Deity in human form. O wondrous joy! Say rather, O matchless hive of perfect sweets, for a thousand joys lie close compacted in the word “Immanuel”-God with us!

“Welcome to our wondering sigh

Eternity within a span!

Summer in winter! day in night!

Heaven in earth! and God in man!

Great Little One, whose glorious birth

Lifts earth to heaven, stoops heaven to earth.”

Our Lord had come upon his sacred mission as soon as he was really the Son of man, for aforetime he was known only as the Son of God. Others had borne the name of “son of man”, but none deserved it so well as he. Ezekiel, for reasons which we need not now stay to consider, is called “son of man” a very large number of times. Perhaps, like John in Christ’s own day, Ezekiel had much of the spirit and character which were manifest in our Lord, and so the name was the more suitable to him. Certainly he had Christ’s eagle eye, and Christ’s spiritual nature, and was filled with light and knowledge, and so, as if to remind him that he who is like his Lord in excellence must also have fellowship with him in lowliness, he is again and again reminded that he is still “the son of man.”

When our Lord came into this world, he seemed to select that title of “Son of man” for himself, and make it his own special name; and worthily so, for other men are the sons of this man or that, but his is no restricted humanity, it is manhood of the universal type. Jesus is not born into the race of the Jews so much as into the human family. He is not to be claimed for any age, place, or nationality; he is “the Son of man.” And this, I say, is how he comes to man; so that, as long as Christ is the Son of man, we may still say of him that he comes to seek and to save the lost. I know that, in person, he has gone back to heaven; I know that the cloud has received him out of our sight; but the very taking upon himself of our humanity was a coming down to seek and save the lost, and as he has not laid that humanity aside, he is still with men, continuing to seek and to save; even to this day “he is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.” So that, if I treat the text as if Jesus were among us still, I shall not err, for he is here in the sense of seeking the same end, though it is by his Spirit and by his servants rather than by his own bodily presence. He has said, “Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world,” and that saying is found in connection with the agency which he has established for seeking and saving lost men, by making men disciples and teaching them the way of life. As long as this dispensation lasts, it will still be true that the great Saviour and Friend of man has come among us, and is seeking and saving the lost.

Now, secondly, let us see his main intent in coming here below: “The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.” The intent breaks itself up into two points, the persons-the lost; and the purpose-the seeking and the saving of them.

Christ’s main intent in coming here bore upon the lost. Proud men do not like us to preach this truth. It was but yesterday that I saw it alleged against Christianity that it discourages virtue and patronizes the guilty. They say that we ministers lift the sinful into the most prominent place, and give them the preference above the moral and excellent in our preaching. This is a soft impeachment to which, in a better sense than is intended by those who bring it, we are glad to plead guilty. We may well be excused if our preaching seeks the lost, for these are the persons whom our Lord has come to seek and to save. The main stress and intent of the incarnation of God in the person of Christ lies with the guilty, the fallen, the unworthy, the lost. His errand of mercy has nothing to do with those who are good and righteous in themselves, if such there be; but it has to do with sinners, real sinners, guilty not of nominal but of actual sins, and who have gone so far therein as to be lost. Wherefore cavil ye at this? Why should he come to seek and to save that which is not lost? Should the Shepherd seek the sheep which has not gone astray? Answer me. Wherefore should he come to be the Physician of those who are not sick? Should he light a candle, and sweep the house to look for pieces of silver which are not lost, but lie bright and untarnished in his hand? To what purpose would this be? Would you have him paint the lily and gild refined gold? Would you make him a mere busybody, offering superfluous aid? With those who think themselves pure, what hath the cleansing blood of Jesus to do? Is a Saviour a needless person, and was his work a needless business? It must be so if it be intended for those who do not need it.

Who need a Saviour most? Answer ye this. Should not mercy exercise itself where there is most need for it? This world is like a battlefield, over which the fierce hurricane of conflict has swept, and the surgeons have come to deal with those who lie upon its plains. To whom shall they go first? Shall they not turn first to those who are most terribly wounded, and who are bleeding almost to the death? Will you quarrel with us if we declare that the first to be taken to the hospital should be those who are in direst need? Will you be angry if we say that the liniment is for the wounded, that the bandages are for the broken limbs, and that the medicine is for the sick? A strange quarrel this would be. If ever it should begin, a fool must begin it, for no wise man would ever raise the question. Blessed Christ of God, we will not cavil because thou also comest in thy mercy to those who need thee most, even to the lost.

And who, think you, will love him best, and so reward him best if he comes to them? The proud Pharisee in his perfection of imaginary holiness,-will he value the Christ who tells him that he comes to wash away his sin? He turns upon his heel with scorn. What sin has he to wash away? The self-satisfied moralist who dares to say, “All these commands I have kept from my youth up: what lack I yet?”-is he likely to become a disciple of the Great Teacher whose first lessons are, “Ye must be born again,” and “Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven”? The fact is, that Jesus has no form nor comeliness to those who have a beauty of their own. Christ gets most love where he pardons most sin; and the sweetest obedience to his command is rendered by those who once were most disobedient, but who are gently led beneath his sway by the force of grateful love. Yon sterile hills of fancied holiness yield him no harvest, and therefore he leaves them to their own boastfulness; but, meanwhile, he scatters plenteous grain amongst the lowlands where the ground is broken and lies ready for the seed. He preaches pardon to those who know that they have sinned, and confess the same; but those who have no sin have no Saviour.

But after all, dear friends, if Jesus did direct his mission of salvation to the lost, to whom else could he have come? For, truth to say, there are none but the lost on the face of this whole earth. The proudest Pharisee is but a sinner, and all the more a sinner for his pride; and the moralist who thinks himself so clean is filthy in the sight of God. Though he labours to conceal the spots, the self-righteous man is a leper, and will for ever remain so unless Jesus cleanses him. It is a thrice-blessed fact that Christ came to save the lost, for such are we all; and had he not made lost ones the object of his searching and saving, there would have been no hope for us.

What is meant by “the lost”? Well, “lost” is a dreadful word. I should need much time to explain it; but if the Spirit of God, like a flash of light, shall enter into your heart, and show you what you are by nature, you will accept that word “lost” as descriptive of your condition, and understand it better than a thousand words of mine could enable you to do. Lost by the fall; lost by inheriting a depraved nature; lost by your own acts and deeds; lost by a thousand omissions of duty, and lost by countless deeds of overt transgression; lost by habits of sin; lost by tendencies and inclinations which have gathered strength and dragged you downward into deeper and yet deeper darkness and iniquity; lost by inclinations which never turn of themselves to that which is right, but which resolutely refuse divine mercy and infinite love. We are lost wilfully and willingly; lost perversely and utterly; but still lost of our own accord, which is the worst kind of being lost that possibly can be. We are lost to God, who has lost our heart’s love, and lost our confidence, and lost our obedience; lost to the church, which we cannot serve; lost to truth, which we will not see; lost to right, whose cause we do not uphold; lost to heaven, into whose sacred precincts we can never come; lost-so lost that unless almighty mercy shall intervene, we shall be cast into the pit that is bottomless to sink for ever. “Lost! Lost! Lost!” The very word seems to me to be the knell of an impenitent soul. “Lost! Lost! Lost!” I hear the dismal tolling! A soul’s funeral is being celebrated! Endless death has befallen an immortal being! It comes up as a dreadful wail from far beyond the boundaries of life and hope, forth from those dreary regions of death and darkness where spirits dwell who would not have Christ to reign over them. “Lost! Lost! Lost!” Ah me, that ever these ears should hear that doleful sound! Better a whole world on fire than a soul lost! Better every star quenched and yon skies a wreck than a single soul to be lost!

Now, it is for souls that soon will be in that worst of all conditions, and are already preparing for it, that Jesus came here seeking and saving. What joy is this! In proportion as the grief was heavy, the joy is great. If souls can be delivered from going down into such a state, it is a feat worthy of God himself. Glory be to his holy name!

Now note the purpose,-he “came to seek and to save that which was lost.” Ah, this is a truth worth preaching,-this doctrine that Jesus Christ came to seek and to save sinners. Some people tell me that he came “to make men salvable,”-to put all men into such a condition that it is possible that they may be saved. I believe that men may be saved, but I see no very great wonder in the fact. It does not stir my blood, or incite me to dance for joy. I do not know that it makes even the slightest impression upon me. I can go to sleep, and I am sure I shall not wake up in the night, and long to get up at once to preach such poor news as that Jesus came to make men salvable. I would not have become a minister to preach so meagre a gospel; but that our Lord came to save men, that is substantial and satisfying news, far exceeding the other. To make men salvable is a skeleton, bones and skin; but to save them is a living blessing. To make men salvable is a farthing blessing, but to save them is wealth untold.

They say also that Jesus came into the world to let men be saved if they will. I am glad of that. It is true and good. I believe that every truly willing soul may be saved, yea, such an one is in a measure saved already. If there be a sincere will towards salvation,-understand, towards true salvation,-that very will indicates that a great change has commenced within the man; and I rejoice that it is written, “Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.” But now just read our text as if it ran thus,-“The Son of man is come that whoever wills to be saved may be saved.” The sense is good, but very feeble! How is the wine mixed with water! But, oh, what flavour, what essence, what marrow, what fatness there is in this, “The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost”! This is the gospel, and the other is but a part of the good news. Again, read the text another way, “The Son of man is come to help men to save themselves.” This will not do at all. It is something like helping men to march who have no legs, or helping blind men to judge colours, or helping dead men to make themselves alive. Help to those who can do nothing at all is a miserable mockery. No, we cannot have our Bibles altered that way; we will let the text stand as it is, in all its fulness of grace.

Nor is it even possible for us to cut down our text to this, “The Son of man is come to save those who seek him.” If it ran so, I would bless God for ever for it; for it would be a glorious gospel text even then. There are Scriptures which teach that doctrine, and it is a blessed truth for which to be supremely grateful; but my text goes very much further, for it says, “The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.” I met with a question and answer the other day, “Where did the Samaritan woman find the Saviour? She found him at the well.” I do not cavil at that mode of expression; but, mark you, that is not how I should ask the question. I should rather enquire, “Where did the Saviour find the woman?” For, surely, she was not seeking him; I see no indication that she had any such idea in her mind. She was looking after water from the well; and if she had found that, she would have gone home satisfied. No, those are the finders, surely, who are the seekers; and so it must be that Christ found the woman, for he was looking after her. While I bless my Lord that he will save you if you seek him, I am more thankful still that there are men and women whom he will seek as well as save; nay, that there never was a soul saved yet but Christ sought it first. He is the Author as well as the Finisher of faith. He is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the ending of the work of grace. Let his name be praised for it. The text must stand as it is, and we will adore the length and breadth, the height and depth of the love which has made it true. Successful seeking and complete saving belong to the Son of man: some of us have experienced both. Oh, that all of us might yet do so!

Now we pass on, thirdly, to notice a double difficulty.

We see Christ’s errand; and we at once perceive that he has come to deal with people who are lost in two senses, and in each sense a miracle of grace is needed for their deliverance. They are so lost that they need saving, but they are also so lost that they need seeking. Persons may be so lost on land or on sea as to need saving and not seeking; but we were spiritually lost, so as to need both saving and seeking too.

I heard, a little while ago, of a party of friends who went to the lakes of Cumberland, and endeavoured to climb the Langdale Pikes. One of the company found the labour of the ascent too wearisome, and so resolved that he would go back to the little inn from which they started. Being a wiser man than some, in his own esteem, he did not take the winding path by which they had ascended. He thought he would go straight down, for he could see the house just below, and fancied he should pitch upon it all of a sudden, and show the mountaineers that a straight line is the nearest road. Well, after descending and descending, leaping many a rugged place, he found himself at last on a ledge from, which he could go neither up nor down. After many vain attempts, he saw that he was a prisoner. In a state of wild terror, he took off his garments, and tore them into shreds to make a line, and tying the pieces together he let them down, but he found that they reached nowhere at all in the great and apparently unfathomable abyss which yawned below him. So he began to call aloud; but no answer came from the surrounding hills beyond the echo of his own voice. He shouted by the half-hour together, but there was no answer, neither was there anyone within sight. His horror nearly drove him out of his wits. At last, to his intense joy, he saw a figure move in the plain below, and he began to shout again. Happily it was a woman, who, hearing his voice, stopped, and as he called again, she came nearer, and called out, “Keep where you are. Do not stir an inch. Keep where you are.” He was lost, but he no longer needed seeking, for some friendly shepherds soon saw where he was. All he wanted was saving; and so the mountaineers descended with a rope, as they were wont to do when rescuing lost sheep, and soon brought him out of danger. He was lost, but he did not want seeking; they could see where he was.

A month or two ago, you must have noticed in the papers an advertisement for a gentleman who had left Wastwater some days before to go over the hills, and had not been heard of since. His friends had to seek him that, if still alive, he might be saved; and there were those who traversed hill and moor to discover him; but they were unable to save him, because they could not find him. If they could have found out where he was, I do not doubt that, had he been in the most imminent peril, the bold hill-men would have risked their lives to rescue him; but, alas, he was never found or saved: his lifeless corpse was the only discovery which was ultimately made. This last is the true image of our deplorable condition; we are by nature lost, so that nothing but seeking and saving together will be of any service to us.

Let us see how our Lord accomplished the saving. That has been done, completely done. My dear friends, you and I were lost in the sense of having broken the law of God, and having incurred his anger; but Jesus came, and took the sin of men upon himself, and as their Surety and their Substitute he bore the wrath of God, so that God can henceforth be just, and yet the Justifier of him that believeth in Jesus. I would like to die talking of this blessed doctrine of substitution, and I intend, by divine grace, to live proclaiming it, for it is the keystone of the gospel. Jesus Christ did literally take upon himself the transgression and iniquity of his people, and was made a curse for them, seeing that they had fallen under the wrath of God; and now every soul that believeth in Jesus is saved because Jesus has taken away the penalty and the curse due to sin. In this let us rejoice.

Christ has also saved us from the power of Satan. The Seed of the woman has bruised the serpent’s head, so that Satan’s power is broken. Jesus has, by his almighty power, set us free from hell’s horrible yoke by vanquishing the prince of darkness, and has, moreover, saved us from the power of death, so that to believers it shall not be death to die. Christ has saved us from sin and all its consequences by his most precious death and resurrection.

“See God descending in the human frame,

The Offended suffering in the offender’s name:

All thy misdeeds to him imputed see,

And all his righteousness devolved on thee.”

Our Lord’s saving work is in this sense finished, but there is always going on in the world his seeking work, and I want you to think of it.

He can save us, blessed be his name. He has nothing more to do in order to save any soul that trusts him. But we have wandered very far away, and are hidden in the wilds of the far country. We are very hungry, and though there is bread enough and to spare, what is the use of it while we are lost to the home in which it is so freely distributed? We are very ragged; there is the best robe, and it is ready to be put on us; but what is the good of it while we are so far away? There are the music and the dancing to make us glad and to cheer us, but what is the use of them while we still tarry among the swine? Here, then, is the great difficulty. Our Lord must find us out, follow our wanderings, and, treating us like lost sheep, he must bear us back upon his shoulders rejoicing.

Many need seeking because they are lost in bad company. Evil companions gather around men, and keep them away from hearing the gospel by which men are saved. There is no place to be lost in like a great city. When a man wants to escape the police, he does not run to a little village, he hides away in a thickly populated town. So this London has many hiding places where sinners get out of the gospel’s way. They lose themselves in the great crowd, and are held captives by the slavish customs of the evil society into which they are absorbed. If they do but relent for a moment, some worldling plucks them by the sleeve, and says, “Let us be merry while we may. Why are you so melancholy?” Satan carefully sets a watch upon his younger servants to prevent their escaping from his hands. These pickets labour earnestly to prevent the man from hearing the good news of salvation lest he should be converted. Sinners therefore need seeking out from among the society in which they are imbedded; they need as much seeking after as the pearls of the Arabian Gulf.

The Lord Jesus Christ, in seeking men, has to deal with deep-seated prejudices. Many refuse to hear the gospel; they would travel many miles to escape its warning message. Some are too wise, or too rich to have the gospel preached to them. Pity the poor rich! The poor man has many missionaries and evangelists seeking him out, but who goes after the great ones? Some come from the East to worship, but who comes from the West? Many more will find their way to heaven out of the back slums than ever will come out of the great mansions and palaces. Jesus must seek his elect among the rich under great disadvantages, but blessed be his name he does seek them.

See how vices and depraved habits hold the mass of the poorer classes. What a seeking out is needed among working-men, for many of them are besotted with drunkenness! Look at the large part of London on the Lord’s day; what have the working population been doing? They have been reading the Sunday newspaper, and loafing about the house in their shirt-sleeves, and waiting at the posts of the doors,-not of wisdom, but of the drink shop. They have been thirsting, but not after righteousness. Bacchus still remaineth the god of this city, and multitudes are lost among the beer barrels and the spirit casks. In such pursuits men waste the blessed Sabbath hours. How shall they be sought out? Yet the Lord Jesus is doing it by his Holy Spirit.

Alas, through their ill ways men’s ears are stopped, and their eyes are blinded, and their hearts hardened, so that the messengers of mercy have need of great patience. It would be easy work to save men if they could but be made willing to receive the gospel, but they will not even hear it. When you do get them for a Sabbath-day beneath the sound of a faithful ministry, how they struggle against it! They want seeking out fifty times over. You bring them right up to the light, and flash it upon their eyes, but they wilfully and deliberately close their eyelids to it. You set before them life and death, and plead with them even unto tears that they would lay hold on eternal life; but they choose their own delusions. So long and so patiently must they be sought that this seeking work as much reveals the gracious heart of Jesus as did the saving work which he fulfilled upon the bloody tree.

Notice how he is daily accomplishing his search of love. Every day, beloved, Jesus Christ is seeking men’s ears. Would you believe it? He has to go about with wondrous wisdom even to get a hearing. They do not want to know the love message of their God. “God so loved the world,”-they know all about that, and do not want to hear any more. There is an infinite sacrifice for sin; they turn on their heel at such stale news. They would rather read an article in an infidel Review or a paragraph in the Police News. They want to know no more of spiritual matters. The Lord Jesus, in order to get at their ears, cries aloud by many earnest voices. Thank God, he has ministers yet alive who mean to be heard, and will not be put off with denials. Even the din of this noisy world cannot drown their testimony. Cry aloud, my brother; cry aloud and spare not; for, cry as you may, you will not cry too loudly, for man will not hear if he can help it. Our Lord, to win men’s ears, must use a variety of voices, musical or rough, as his wisdom judges best. Sometimes he gains an audience by an odd voice whose quaintness wins attention. He will reach men when he means to save them.

That was an odd voice, surely the oddest I ever heard of, which came a little time ago in an Italian town to one of God’s elect ones there. He was so depraved that he actually fell to worshipping the devil rather than God. It chanced, one day, that a rumour went through the city that a Protestant was coming there to preach. The priest, alarmed for his religion, told the people from the altar that Protestants worshipped the devil, and he charged them not to go near the meeting-room. The news, as you may judge, excited no horror in the devil-worshipper’s mind. “Ay,” thought he, “then I shall meet with brethren,” and so he went to hear our beloved missionary who is now labouring in Rome. Nothing else would have drawn the poor wretch to hear the good word, but this lie of the priest’s was overruled to that end. He went and heard, not of the devil, but of the devil’s Conqueror, and before long was found at Jesu’s feet, a sinner saved.

I have known my Lord, when his ministers have failed, take out an arrow from his quiver, and fix upon it a message, and put it to his bow, and shoot it right into a man’s bosom till it wounded him; and as it wounded him, and he lay moaning upon his bed, the message has been conned, and felt, and accepted. I mean, that many a man in sickness has been brought to hear the message of salvation. Often losses and crosses have brought men to Jesus’s feet. Jesus seeks them so. When Absalom could not get an interview with Joab, he said, “Go and set his barley-field on fire.” Then Joab came down to Absalom, and said, “Wherefore have thy servants set my field on fire?” The Lord sometimes sends losses of property to men who will not otherwise hear him, and at last their ears are gained. Whom he seeketh he in due time findeth.

Well, after my Lord has sought men’s ears, he next seeks their desires. He will have them long for a Saviour, and this is not an easy thing to accomplish; but he has a way of showing men their sins, and then they wish for mercy. He shows them at other times the great joy of the Christian life, and then they wish to enter into the like delight. I pray that, at this hour, he may lead some of you to consider the danger you are in while you are yet unconverted, that so you may begin to desire Christ, and in this way may be sought and found by him.

Then he seeks their faith. He seeks that they may come and trust him; and he has ways of bringing them to this, for he shows them the suitability of his salvation, and the fulness and the freeness of it; and when he has exhibited himself as the sinners’ Saviour, and such a Saviour as they want, then do they come and put their trust in him. Then has he found them, and saved them.

He seeks their hearts, for it is their hearts that he has lost. And oh, how sweetly does Christ, by the Holy Spirit, win men’s affections, and hold them fast! I shall never forget how he won mine; how first he gained my ear, and then my desires, so that I wished to have him for my Lord; and then he taught me to trust him, and when I had trusted him, and found that I was saved, then I loved him, and I love him still. So, dear hearer, if Jesus Christ shall find you, you will become his loving follower for ever. I have been praying that he would bring this message under the notice of those whom he means to bless. I have asked him to let me sow good soil. I hope that, among those who read these pages, there will be many whom the Lord Jesus has specially redeemed with his most precious blood, and I trust that he will appear at once to them, and say to each one of them, “I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.” May the eternal Spirit open your ears to hear the still small voice of love! By grace omnipotent may you be made to yield to the Lord with the cheerful consent of your conquered wills, and accept that glorious grace which will bring you to praise the seeking and saving Saviour in heaven! Amen.

Exposition by C. H. Spurgeon

JEREMIAH 31:29-37

(Concluded from Sermon No. 3,308, page 312.)

29, 30. In those days they shall say no more, The fathers have eaten a sour grape, and the children’s teeth are set on edge. But every one shall die for his own iniquity: every man that eateth the sour grape, his teeth shall be set on edge.

God was going to deal with the Israelites individually, personally; and that is how he will deal with us.

31. Behold,

Here is something worth beholding; read this great promise with tears in your eyes:-

31-33. The days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the Lord: but this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts;* and will be their God, and they shall be my people.

It is all wills and shalls; it is all covenant life;-no longer the law graven upon the tables of stone, but the law written on the heart;-no more the Lord’s command without man’s power and will to obey it; but God will renew our nature, and change our disposition, so that we shall love to do what once we loathed, and shall loathe the sins that we once loved. What a wonderful mass of mercies is included in the covenant of grace!

34. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know me,-

“All thy children shall be taught of the Lord.” All believers, whatever else they may not know, do know their Lord: “they shall all know me,”-

34. From the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord:

How will they learn to know the Lord? Well, it will be in a very wonderful way;-

34. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.†

Let me read that again, and may some poor wandering children of God hear the promise, and be glad that it applies to them: “I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”

35-37. Thus saith the Lord, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar; The Lord of hosts is his name: if those ordinances depart from before me, saith the Lord, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me for ever. Thus saith the Lord; If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, saith the Lord.

PROMPT OBEDIENCE

A Sermon

Published on Thursday, July 11th, 1912,

delivered by

C. H. SPURGEON,

at the metropolitan tabernacle, newington,

On Thursday Evening, May 17th, 1866.

“As soon as they hear of me, they shall obey me: the strangers shall submit themselves unto me.”-Psalm 18:44.

There is no doubt that we have David speaking to us in this Psalm, but it is equally certain that we must not limit it to David. Paul quoted verses 2 and 49 as applying to David’s Lord, and we shall not be wrong in following his example with regard to our text.

I am going to make several observations upon the text, and the first is that it tells us the Saviour’s claims upon the hearts of men. He claims that they should obey him, and submit themselves unto him. The great practical end of the gospel is to bring the human heart into obedience to Christ, and to make the stubborn will own allegiance to his sway.

Now, in this matter very great mistakes are made by men. Some think it is sufficient to go to a place of worship, and to hear or repeat solemn words. This is a good thing to do, of course; but if all ends there, the purpose of the gospel is not subserved. Such people will find, to their cost, that it is not the mere hearers of the Word, but the doers of it, who are blessed. We still need the message that the apostle James wrote long ago, “If any be a hearer of the Word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: for he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.” It is the wayside hearers who simply hear the Word, but neither understanding nor receiving it, they derive no benefit from it. Let none of us be numbered amongst them, nor amongst those who merely repeat certain forms of words without feeling the force and power of them in their hearts.

Others think it is enough if they carefully attend to the gospel. If they do that, they seem to imagine that this is all that can be expected of them. This also is good as far as it goes; we have not a word to say against it, but much to say in its favour. But, my dear hearer, if you pay never so much outward attention to the Word, unless you submit your soul and spirit to its dominion, you cannot possibly expect to receive benefit from it. You are in the position of one who pays much attention to his physician’s prescription, who spells out the Latin words, notes the quantities of the various drugs that are to be compounded, but who never gets a chemist to make up the prescription, or if he does go as far as that, never tastes the medicine. Such a man will never be cured of his malady in that way, nor will you be cured of your soul-sickness unless you actually take the remedy which the great Physician has so graciously prescribed. You may carefully note all the bakers’ shops that you pass on your way home to-night, you may correctly calculate the quantity of bread that would be required for your family, and you may accurately estimate what it would cost, yet your household will not be fed unless you actually purchase the bread, and give to each one a portion in due season; and your soul will not be fed unless you really partake of the Bread of life.

What Christ requires of you who hear his Word is that you should obey him, and submit yourselves unto him. How are you to do this? The apostle John writes, “This is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment.” This is Christ’s claim upon us, that we should trust him,-trust him as our Saviour, trust him as our Lord and Master, trust him so as to obey him in all that he has commanded us. If we do this, we shall find that his commandments are not grievous, and that obedience to them will yield to us the peaceable fruits of righteousness. He says to thee, sinner, “Give up all other confidences, and come and trust in me. If thou wouldst be saved, do not merely hear me say to thee, ‘Look unto me,’ but really look unto me, believe in me, trust me, forsake all thy false refuges, leave those Babel-buildings of thine own devices, and come to the sure Rock whereon a soul may safely build for time and for eternity.” When you hear this command of Christ, give heed to it, obey him, and submit yourself to him.

Then, if obedience to that command be truly rendered, there will follow obedience to all the Saviour’s commands. No man is really saved unless he is in his heart obedient to Christ. I do not say that you will be perfect, but you will desire to be so. I do not say that you will not be tempted to sin until you die, but there will be no sin that you will love, there will be no sin from which you will not long to be delivered. Your spirit will cheerfully bend down its neck to wear the collar of sacred service; and, as far as your inner and spiritual man is concerned, you will cry mightily unto God against the very thought of sin, and pray that you may walk in holiness and in the fear of the Lord all the days of your life.

If any of you have thought that trusting Christ does not involve obeying him, you have made a great mistake. They do very wrong who cry up believing in Christ, and yet depreciate obedience to him, for obeying is believing in another form, and springs out of believing. Neither may anyone say, “I will obey one command of Christ, but I will not obey another.” The very principle of trustful obedience lies in your not making any choice as to which commands you will obey. A soldier asks no questions and makes no demur when he receives his orders; his captain bids him go, and he goes; or come, and he comes; he never says, “I will go thus far in obedience, but no farther.” So must it be with you if you enlist under the banner of the Captain of our salvation; your obedience must be whole-hearted and complete. If to-night you are the Lord’s, you must say to him out of the very depths of your soul, “Show me, my Master, what thou wouldst have me do. Thou hast bidden me trust thee, and I do trust thee, and out of that trust springs a reverent desire to submit absolutely to thy holy will. Help me, by thy gracious Spirit, to obey thee in everything; and from this time forth, O blessed Saviour, reign thou as the undisputed Lord of my whole life!”

We see, then, what the claim of Christ upon the hearts of men really is, and we who preach the gospel must never rest satisfied until our hearers really submit themselves unto him. It brings tears to our eyes as we recall how earnestly they often listen to our message, and how they even compliment us upon our faithfulness in delivering it; how they will be obedient to a part of it, and yet be disobedient to the rest, for they will not obey Christ, and submit themselves unto him. Oh, that they had more submissive hearts, but neither you nor I can give them such hearts. We can proclaim the truth in their hearing, and we can weep before the Lord if they do not receive it; but the power to save them lies not in human hands, and we must look up to the almighty Saviour, and trust that he will bless the message which we have delivered in his name.

The second inference which we draw from the text is that, in order to render obedience to Christ, there is no need of a long probation: “As soon as they hear of me, they shall obey me: the strangers shall submit themselves unto me.”

It seems that some, as soon as they heard of Christ, yielded themselves up to him. It used to be a very common notion, and the idea still prevails in some churches, that in order to have faith in Christ there must be long preparatory exercises. Many of the Puritans, excellent as they were, made a mistake in this matter. They felt afraid to say to a sinner, when they found him just as a sinner, “Believe on Christ,” but they thought it was necessary that he should first undergo a certain amount of law-working and conviction-ploughing, and then they might come in with the preaching of the gospel. I owe much myself to Doddridge’s “Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul,” and I used to recommend it to others, but I do not do so now. That book does show the way of salvation, but it is done in a roundabout fashion, very different from the simple gospel plan, “Believe and live,” “Look and be saved.” It is true that many do have the experiences which Doddridge describes, but that is no proof that they need have them. It is probable that most Christians do go through that Slough of Despond which Bunyan so graphically describes, but it is not absolutely necessary that any one of them should go through it. “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life,” whether he has been in the Slough of Despond or not.

If it were necessary, I could pick out scores of the members of this church, whose conversion is beyond question, and who have been faithful followers of Christ for years, yet their faith in Christ came all of a sudden. The gospel just knocked at the door of their hearts, and entered at once; nay, in many cases, it seemed to enter without knocking. Think of Saul of Tarsus, “breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord,” yet suddenly arrested near Damascus, and crying out to that very Jesus whom he was persecuting, “Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?” Think of the jailor at Philippi, a rough heathen man who was about to commit suicide, almost immediately crying out, “What must I do to be saved?” and very soon afterwards baptized, “believing in God with all his house.” Think of the thief on the cross, joining with his fellow-malefactor in reviling at Christ, yet presently praying, “Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom,” and receiving the cheering answer from Christ, “To-day shalt thou be with me in paradise.” These were sudden conversions, which were wrought without that long and painful preparation which has been so cried up in some of our churches that it has become a great hindrance to many. We must put nothing before the cross of Christ, his great atoning sacrifice is the one object to which we must direct the sinner’s gaze. Genuine evangelical repentance runs in double harness with faith, and they should never be separated. To suppose that we are to go through a sort of quarantine before we can be admitted into the harbour of salvation is a very serious mistake. Our text flatly contradicts this idea, for it says, “As soon as they hear of me, they shall obey me.”

“There is life for a look at the Crucified One.”

There is life for a look, even though the heart should be as hard as the nether millstone; there is life for a look, even though as yet the character has undergone no change; there is life for a look, even though you cannot see any signs of grace.

“There is life for a look at the Crucified One.”

Jesus Christ does not look for anything in you except sin and need, but finds in himself both the source of mercy and the means by which that mercy may come to the very chief of sinners. May the Holy Spirit make it very clear to you that there is no necessity for you to wait a long while before the blessing of salvation may be given to you, but that you may have it this very moment. The pool at Bethesda was only efficacious for the healing of the first one who stepped into the water after it had been troubled by the angel, so that the afflicted might wait there for years, and still remain unhealed; but the pool which Christ filled with his precious blood always has efficacy in it, so that whosoever steppeth in, though he may not have been waiting by the pool for even a minute, though it may be the first time he ever heard of the precious blood of Christ, if he trusts in the finished work of God’s dear Son, he shall be immediately saved.

A third remark which I think may be fairly based upon the text is this,-in some cases, the message of salvation wins a very speedy victory.

It was very remarkable that three thousand persons should have believed on Christ after Peter’s sermon on the day of Pentecost. We scarcely seem to expect, nowadays, to see three thousand souls converted, baptized, and added to the church in a single day; but when the gospel was first proclaimed, converts were gathered very rapidly. It seemed as though a great pile of dry wood had been accumulated, and it only needed a torch to set it aflame at once. In the time of the Reformation, so rapidly was the gospel spread that men said that the writings of Luther were borne on the wings of angels, and so many of all classes believed the truth that hallelujahs arose from the ploughman in the field and the servants in the kitchen as well as from the lords and ladies of the land. “The Lord gave the word: great was the company of those that published it;” and greater still the multitude of those that received it. When Whitefield preached to great crowds of people who had never heard the gospel before, it was like ploughing virgin soil; the truth appealed to them with all the force of novelty, and also with the conviction that it was exactly suited to their case, so that they received it with sudden joy, and thousands were converted.

Many persons come to this Tabernacle who have never previously listened to the gospel, and it often happens that the very first sermon they hear is blessed to them. Last Tuesday, when I saw some thirty-three candidates for baptism, one or two of them said that they had never been to any place of worship until they came here. Curiosity had prompted them to come, and they were surprised to find that the preacher seemed to know all about them, for his message exactly suited their case. They received the Word suddenly, but so mightily did it affect them that they would not give it up, for it had come to them “in demonstration of the Spirit and of power.” There is no place where I feel so happy or so much at home in preaching as on this familiar spot, with your eyes fixed upon me, and your hearts drinking in the truth; but, for the winning of souls in great numbers, give me a congregation that has never heard the gospel. If I were a fisherman, and were asked where I would prefer to fish, I would answer, “Where nobody else has ever been to fish.” So, if a preacher of the gospel might pick his place, he might well say, “Let me preach where the people have never yet heard the gospel.” If we can get among certain classes of society, high or low, to whom the gospel is a novelty, I feel persuaded that the grand prophecy of the text shall be gloriously fulfilled in their midst: “As soon as they hear of me, they shall obey me: the strangers shall submit themselves unto me.” Let us expect this blessed result of our labours, and be constantly in earnest breaking up fresh soil, and casting the gospel net into waters that have never yet been fished. Oh, that some who are here for the first time to-night may obey Christ as soon as they hear of him! He came into the world to save sinners; he took upon himself our flesh, and took upon himself our sins, and suffered for our sins, “the Just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God.” If we trust in him who bore our sins in his own body on the tree, that trust brings us salvation, and it works in us peace and joy, gratitude and love, and helps us to serve the Lord with reverence and holy fear.

Now we advance to a fourth point, which is that strangers also will yield themselves to Christ.

The point to which I want now to call your very special attention is not so much the suddenness of the conversion as the condition of the people who, according to our text, shall submit themselves unto Christ. There are some who, in the fullest sense of the term, are “aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world.” Some of you, who regularly attend a place of worship, are “aliens” in the sense in which Paul used the word; you are like the mixed multitude that came up with the children of Israel out of Egypt; though you are not part of “the commonwealth of Israel” spiritually, you are at present externally mingled with the true Israelites, the believing children of Abraham. But there are many others who are in a very definite way “strangers.” The Sabbath bell brings no Sabbath music to them. They may rest on Sunday, but their rest consists in simply lolling about in their shirt-sleeves, and reading the Sunday newspaper; they never think of going into a place of worship unless it is for a wedding, or a funeral, or what they call “a christening.” There are thousands in this so-called Christian land who have never looked inside a Bible, and know absolutely nothing of its contents. I have no doubt that there are to be found in London thousands of persons who, if they were asked what is meant by the atonement, would reply that they had never heard of such a thing; and as to the simple doctrine of trusting for salvation to the merits of the Lord Jesus Christ, there could not be a greater piece of news to many of our fellow-citizens than this.

Well now, these people whom I have been describing are indeed strangers to Christ, yet he says, in our text, “the strangers shall submit themselves unto me.” They do not know him, but “the Lord knoweth them that are his;” and I trust that, amongst these strangers, there are many whom the Lord has foreknown from all eternity, who shall in due time hear his voice, and follow him, rejoicing in that eternal life which is the portion of his sheep. In the very heart of the apostate Church of Rome God may have some of his elect, and I have no doubt that he has; I pray that his Spirit may soon bring them forth into the light. Among those who are besotted with superstition, and among those who have given themselves up to work with both hands in the way of carnal confidence, God may have his chosen ones; and if he has, he will surely fetch them out. Never despair concerning the Church of God. The greatest blasphemer may yet become the boldest preacher of the gospel. He who hates Christ most to-day may love him most to-morrow, and he will do so if the grace of God takes possession of him. It is not merely in the house of prayer that God has his elect; they may be to-night in the alehouse, or in the theatre, or in worse places still, but the Spirit of God can find them wherever they are. Jesus Christ, the good Shepherd, not only takes care of the ninety and nine that are safely sheltered in the fold, but he goes out to seek and to find the one sheep that is lost. Even though all hell’s hosts may have surrounded the poor wanderer, the prey shall be taken from the mighty, and the lawful captive shall be delivered.

Are you a stranger, dear friend? Are you a stranger to the gospel, a stranger to grace, a stranger to your God? Are you a stranger to the bended knee and the throne of grace? Are you a stranger to this blessed Bible and to the hope of heaven which it so clearly reveals? “Oh, yes!” you say, “I am indeed a stranger, and there is no hope for me!” But listen to the text, friend: “the strangers shall submit themselves unto me.” Give good heed to other gracious messages in this most precious Book. “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.” The heart of everlasting love is moved with pity towards you, and God himself speaks through a man’s voice as he cries to you from heaven, “Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else.” “As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways, for why will ye die?” Surely, if there are any of these strangers here to-night, they ought to be constrained to yield to Christ by the prophecy of the text, “the strangers shall submit themselves unto me.”

Now I come to my fifth remark, which is that, our text being true, it should greatly encourage those of us who are working for Christ.

Dear brethren and sisters, I am devoutly thankful to God that so many of you are watching for souls, and not only so, but that you are winners of souls. It was but little that you could do, dear friend, but you saw a stranger here, and you spoke kindly to him, perhaps you gave him a tract, certainly you prayed for him, and God blessed your efforts, and the stranger yielded himself to Christ. You have sometimes visited a neighbour in time of sickness, and have dropped a word in season for Christ, and you did well, for that kindly action was the means of winning a soul for the Saviour. So let the past cheer you, and let the text encourage you still to persevere in such holy service. Possibly you know some persons who never go to a place of worship, and who are quite ignorant of the gospel. Do not think of them as unlikely to be blessed; on the contrary, believe that they are the very persons who are the most likely to be influenced for good when once they are brought under the sound of the gospel. There are, alas! many who have so long heard the Word preached that they have become gospel-hardened, the truth has become to them a savour of death unto death instead of a savour of life unto life. But it is not so with these people of whom I am speaking; they are not gospel-hardened, so be hopeful about them, go and seek them out, bring them to hear the gospel, and then pray that they may be among the strangers who shall submit themselves unto Christ.

If I had bread to give away, I should not be in a hurry to take it to those who had refused it again and again; but if I knew where there was a colony of hungry folk, who had not tasted food for days, methinks it would be amongst them that I should be made welcome. The place to take the gospel is not where the light has long been shining, and men have closed their eyes to it, but down the dark court and alley where they have not before had the light, and consequently have not had the opportunity of rejecting it. Take the gospel there, and it may be that, the very first time you do so, souls will be converted. If not, go again and again; keep on sowing the good seed of the kingdom, believing that ancient promise, “They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.”

If one should spend one’s whole life for God, and win only one soul by the most earnest and devoted efforts, it would be a rich reward to see that one star shining for ever in the firmament of heaven, to see that one gem glistening for ever in the diadem of Christ, to see that one sheep feeding for ever in the pastures of eternal life. It strikes me that it will help to make heaven even more heavenly to us when God has blessed us to the bringing of other souls to share our bliss in glory. Some of us will not be amongst strangers when we have passed through the gates of pearl. We have spiritual children there already for whom we have travailed in birth until Christ was formed in them; and whatever may be the fate of all earthly relationships, our spiritual relationships will abide for ever. How blessed it will be to be welcomed there by those whom we have begotten through the gospel, and with what joy we shall present them to our God as we humbly yet gratefully say, “Here am I, Father, and the children whom thou hast given me”!

My last remark is a sad one; it has been uppermost in my mind all the while I have been speaking upon the other points; and it is this, that albeit there are some who obey as soon as they hear the gospel, and others who once were strangers who willingly yield themselves unto Christ, yet it is painfully evident that there are some who do just the opposite.

As for hearing the Word, there are some of you who are always hearing it, you scarcely ever miss an opportunity of hearing it. Thickly as the leaves in autumn fall from the trees will the remembrances of gospel ministrations come back to you, but they are all as faded and as worthless to you now as are those dead leaves themselves. Some of you will never be lost for want of hearing the gospel; what would others give if they could only hear what you have heard? Some of you have heard the story of the cross from your early childhood; the softest and sweetest of all lips, your mother’s, told it to you as long ago as you can remember. Then you heard it again and again from the lips of the earnest Sunday-school teacher in whose class you sat so long. Some of you heard it from a loving wife or from a fond husband. You heard the gospel preached by a godly minister now in glory; and last of all you have heard it from me also, and I can add that you have heard it preached very plainly; for, whatever my faults may be, clouding the gospel or hiding its meaning is not one of them. Yes, you have heard the gospel all these years, and while others have believed it, and have been saved, you appear to be no nearer doing so than when first you heard it; and I tremble lest those solemn words of the Lord Jesus Christ should be true concerning you, “Verily I say unto you, That the publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you.” Remember how the Saviour upbraided the cities wherein most of his mighty works were done, because “they repented not,” and beware lest their doom should also be yours.

Our text says, “The strangers shall submit themselves unto me,” but you have not submitted yourselves unto Christ. The great sinners, the very chief of sinners, have yielded themselves up to the sway of Christ, but you have not done so. This is not because you do not understand the way of salvation, for you know clearly what the gospel is, and what it requires. With some of you it is not because of want of feeling, for you have felt a great deal, you have been the subjects of all sorts of impressions. Your thoughts have often been like a case of knives cutting into your inmost spirit, or like a nest of adders stinging your soul. Friend, it has come to this pass with you; mere hearing of the Word is of no service to you, even the bare remembrance of it is of no avail, you must either yield to Christ or you must perish. There must be no more tarrying, delaying, dilly-dallying. You are lingering on the very brink of the precipice, and you must either fall over or be saved by clutching at the garments of the Saviour who stands close beside you. O soul, is it not a mercy that you are pushed to this extremity? Is it not a blessing that you are brought to this emergency, that you must either yield yourself to Christ or die as his enemy? Oh, submit yourself to him! Your hand trembles, but stretch it out, and touch the hem of his garment. You cannot save yourself, but he can save you. Look unto him, for again I remind you that-

“There is life for a look at the Crucified One.”

When the brazen serpent was lifted up in the wilderness, there was no need for the serpent-bitten Israelites to come up close to the pole on which it was suspended; all they had to do was to look, and as many as looked, lived. That is what you have to do; look to Jesus, look and live; give the faith-look at him who died upon the cross as the sinner’s Substitute and Surety, and as soon as you look, you shall live, and live for ever. There is no need for you to uncover your wounds to show where the serpent has bitten you, there is no need for you to wait until the venom of the serpent reveals its deadly character more than it has already done; but look at once, lest you should tarry until you are unable to look.

Let me ask you a most solemn question,-Does the Son of God himself bleed and die for sinners, and is not that all that is required to put away your guilt? Is Jehovah himself satisfied with the sufferings of his well-beloved Son, and are you not satisfied? Has Christ woven the spotless and perfect robe of righteousness in which sinners may stand unabased before the great white throne, and are you seeking to add to it some of the filthy rags of your own righteousness? O soul, think not that you can share the work and the glory of salvation with the almighty Saviour! Yoke a gnat with an archangel if you will, but never think of linking yourself with Christ in order to complete the great work of salvation. Oh, no! in that matter it must be none but Jesus, for-

“None but Jesus

Can do helpless sinners good.”

I wish I could put the truth so plainly that you could not help seeing it, yet I know that the Holy Spirit must open your eyes or you will never see it however clearly it is set before you. I pray him to do it, and to do it now, and so to fulfil those two glorious “shalls” in my text: “As soon as they hear of me, they shall obey me: the strangers shall submit themselves unto me.” This is my comfort,-he who gave this promise and prophecy in its fullest and deepest meaning will certainly fulfil it. Blessed Master, make these potent “shalls” true in our midst to-night! Many have heard of thee, give them the grace to obey thee! There are strangers here, may they submit themselves unto thee, and so be no longer strangers, “but fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God”! So may it be, for Jesus’ sake! Amen.

Exposition by C. H. Spurgeon

MATTHEW 9:1-17

Verses 1, 2. And he entered into a ship, and passed over, and came into his own city. And, behold, they brought to him a man sick of the palsy, lying on a bed: and Jesus seeing their faith said unto the sick of the palsy; Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee.*

Our Lord dealt first with the greater evil, for sin is worse than even such a dreadful disease as the palsy. Forgiveness of sin is an even greater mercy than the healing of sickness.

3-7. And, behold, certain of the scribes said within themselves, This man blasphemeth. And Jesus knowing their thoughts said, Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts? for whether is easier, to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and walk? but that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (then saith he to the sick of the palsy,) Arise, take up thy bed, and go unto thine house. And he arose, and departed to his house.

Jesus first proved his divinity by reading the secret thoughts of the cavilling scribes, and then gave a further evidence of it by working this very notable miracle.

8, 9. But when the multitudes saw it, they marvelled, and glorified God, which had given such power unto men. And as Jesus passed forth from thence, he saw a man, named Matthew, sitting at the receipt of custom: and he saith unto him, Follow me. And he arose, and followed him.†

This was another notable miracle, and equally set forth the power of divine grace.

10, 11. And it came to pass, as Jesus sat at meat in the house, behold, many publicans and sinners came and sat down with him and his disciples. And when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto his disciples, Why eateth your Master with publicans and sinners?

He was more at home with publicans and sinners than with scribes and Pharisees, and they were more likely to welcome him as their Lord and Saviour.

12, 13. But when Jesus heard that, he said unto them, They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.

If he had come to call the righteous, where would he have found them? His call was not likely to be heeded by the self-righteous, but sinners heard it with joy, and so were made righteous by him.

14. Then came to him the disciples of John, saying, Why do we and the Pharisees fast oft, but thy disciples fast not?

We must not suppose that, because a thing is proper for ourselves, it must therefore be binding upon everybody else. It might be fit and right that the disciples of John should fast often, their circumstances might require it; but it might be quite wrong for the disciples of Christ to fast, as they might be in very different circumstances.

15. And Jesus said unto them, Can the children of the bridechamber mourn, as long as the bridegroom is with them?

Could Christ’s disciples fast while Christ fed them with heavenly food? While his presence was to them like heaven begun below, it would have been inconsistent for them to be mourning and fasting.

15. But the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken from them, and then shall they fast.

And nobody would say that they were turncoats if, when their circumstances had so greatly altered, they acted in harmony with their changed circumstances. The disciples could not mourn while Christ was with them; can you, believer, fast while Christ is with you? It cannot be; but when he has gone from you, then you will sorrow fast enough. So we must neither judge others by ourselves, nor judge ourselves at one time by what we were at some other time.

16. No man putteth a piece of new cloth unto an old garment, for that which is put in to fill it up taketh from the garment,-

When it shrinks,-

16. And the rent is made worse.

There must be a fitness about things; do not impose fasting upon a joyful heart, or the singing of joyful hymns upon a sad spirit.

17. Neither do men put new wine into old bottles: else the bottles break, and the wine runneth out, and the bottles perish: but they put new wine into new bottles, and both are preserved.

Do not expect from a young beginner that which would be unsuitable to him, even though it should be most comely and seemly in an aged Christian; And do not expect to see in an aged Christian all the vigour and alertness of spirit that you look for in ardent souls in all the fervour of their first love to Christ. Let us mind the relations of things.