Chapter 8
The plan of salvation is simply declared: Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved (Acts 16:31). For you who have violated all the precepts of God and have scorned His mercy and provoked His vengeance, there is still mercy proclaimed, because whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved (Romans 10:13). This is a faithful saying and worthy of acceptation by all, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am first (1 Timothy 1:15). All that the Father gives me shall come to me, and he that comes to me I will in no wise cast out (John 6:37), for he is able also to save to the uttermost those that come unto God by him, seeing he ever lives to make intercession for them (Hebrews 7:25).
All that God asks of you is that you will simply look at His bleeding, dying Son and trust your souls in the hands of Him whose name alone can save from death and hell. Is it not a remarkable thing that the proclamation of this gospel does not receive the unanimous acceptance of all? One would think that as soon as it was preached that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life (John 3:15), everyone would cast away his sins and iniquities, lay hold of Jesus Christ, and look to His cross alone. But such is the desperate evil of our nature and the destructive depravity of our character that this message is despised, the invitation to the gospel feast is rejected, and there are many who are enemies of God by wicked works. They are enemies to the God who preaches Christ. They are enemies to Him who sent His Son to give His life a ransom for many. It is strange that it should be this way, yet nevertheless it is a fact. This is why there is the need for the command to compel them to come in (Luke 14:23).
You might not be wealthy, but this is no barrier to the kingdom of heaven, because God has not exempted from His grace those who have little food and who do not have nice clothes. In fact, if there is any distinction made, the distinction is on your side and for your benefit: unto you is this word of saving health sent (Acts 13:26). And the poor have the gospel preached to them (Matthew 11:5). You have no faith, no integrity, no good works, no grace, and worst of all, you have no hope. Come and be welcomed at the marriage feast of His love. Whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely (Revelation 22:17).
You are not only poor, but you are impaired. There was a time when you thought you could work out your own salvation without God’s help, when you could perform good works, attend to ceremonies, and get to heaven by yourselves, but now you are incapacitated. The sword of the law has cut off your hands, and you can no longer work. You say with bitter sorrow:
“The best performance of my hands,
Dares not appear before Thy throne.”3
3 From Isaac Watts’ hymn “I Boast No More.”
You have lost all power to obey the law. You feel that even when you want to do good, evil is present with you (Romans 7:21). You are wounded. You have given up, as an abandoned hope, all attempts to save yourself, because you are incapacitated and your arms are gone. But you are worse off than that, for if you could not work your way to heaven, you could still walk your way there along the road by faith; but you are maimed in the feet as well as in the hands. You feel that you cannot believe, that you cannot repent, that you cannot obey the conditions of the gospel. You feel that you are utterly powerless in every respect to do anything that can be pleasing to God. I stand before you to lift up the blood-stained banner of the cross: Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved; and to you I cry, Whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely.
There is yet another class. You are double-minded. You are swaying between two opinions. Sometimes you are seriously inclined, and at another time worldly pleasures call you away. What little progress you do make in Christianity is weak. You have a little strength, but it is so little that you only make painful progress. The word of this salvation is sent to you, also. Even though you waver between two opinions, the Master sends you this message: How long shall ye halt between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him (1 Kings 18:21). Consider your ways (Haggai 1:7). Set thine house in order, for thou shalt die and not live (Isaiah 38:1). Because I will do this, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel (Amos 4:12). Hesitate no longer, but make the decision to side with God and His truth.
There is another group of people – the blind. You cannot see yourselves, you think yourselves good when you are full of evil, and you exchange bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter, darkness for light and light for darkness. Woe unto those that call evil good and good evil; that put darkness for light and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! (Isaiah 5:20). You blind souls who cannot see your lost condition, who do not believe that sin is really as sinful as it is, and who will not be persuaded to think that God is a just and righteous God, to you I am sent. To you, too, who cannot see the Savior, who see no beauty in Him that you should desire Him (Isaiah 53:2), who see no excellence in virtue, no joy in Christianity, no happiness in serving God, no delight in being His children, to you, also, I speak.
Go out into the highways and hedges and compel them to come in that my house may be filled (Luke 14:23). Here we bring in all classes and conditions of people: the businessman upon his horse in the highway, the woman trudging about her business, and the thief robbing the unsuspecting traveler. All of these are in the highway, and they are all to be compelled to come in. There, away in the hedges, lie some poor souls whose refuges of lies are swept away and who seek to find some little shelter for their weary heads. This is the universal command – compel them to come in.
Philip Melanchthon said it well: “Old Adam is too strong for young Melanchthon.” It would be as futile for a little child to try to force Sampson to do something against his will as it would be for me to try to lead a sinner to the cross of Christ in the flesh. I see the great mountain of human depravity and dull indifference, but by faith I cry, Who art thou, O great mountain before Zerubbabel? Thou shalt be reduced to a plain (Zechariah 4:7).
Unconverted, unreconciled, unregenerate men and women, I must compel you to come in! Permit me, first of all, to confront you in the highways of sin and again tell you my duty. The king of heaven sends a gracious invitation to you. He says, For I do not desire the death of him that dies, said the Lord GOD; therefore turn yourselves, and ye shall live (Ezekiel 18:32). Then come, shall the LORD say, and we shall be even; if your sins were as scarlet, they shall be made as white as snow; if they were red like crimson, they shall become as wool (Isaiah 1:18). Let me tell you what the king has done for you. He knew your guilt, and He foresaw that you would ruin yourself. He knew that His justice would demand your blood, and in order to escape this difficulty and that His justice might have what it required that you might still be saved, Jesus Christ died.
Will you glance at this picture for just a moment? You see a man on His knees in the garden of Gethsemane sweating drops of blood. Next, you see that sorrowful sufferer tied to a pillar and lashed with terrible scourges until His shoulder bones are seen like white islands in the midst of a sea of blood. Then, you see the same man hanging on the cross with hands extended and His feet nailed firm, dying, groaning, bleeding. You hear Him say, It is finished (John 19:30). Jesus Christ of Nazareth has done all of this in order that God might consistently, with His justice, pardon sin. The message to you is this: Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved (Acts 16:31). That is, trust Him, renounce your works and your ways, and set your heart on this man alone, who gave Himself for sinners.
Do you turn away? You tell me it means nothing to you, that you cannot listen to it now, but you will listen to me some other time. You must go your way now and tend to your farm and merchandise. Stop! I was not told to merely tell you and then go about my business. No. I am told to compel you to come in. Permit me to say – and to this God is my witness – that I am deeply sincere in my desire that you would comply with this command of God.
Do you ignore it? Do you still refuse it? Then I must change my tone for a minute. I will not just tell you the message and invite you as I do with all sincerity; I will go further. Sinner, in God’s name, I command you to repent and believe. Do you ask me where I get my authority? I am an ambassador of heaven. I command you to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, not on my own authority, but on the authority of Him who said, Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believes and is baptized shall be saved, but he that believes not shall be condemned (Mark 16:15-16).
Do you turn away and say you will not listen to the authority of God? Then I will change my tone again. Let me tell you from my own soul what I know of Him. I, too, once despised Him. He knocked at the door of my heart, and I refused to open it. He came to me, times without number, morning by morning and night by night. He examined my conscience and spoke to me by His Spirit. When at last the thunders of the law prevailed in my conscience, I thought that Christ was cruel and unkind. Oh, I can never forgive myself that I thought so badly of Him; but what a loving reception I had when I went to Him. I thought He would strike me down, but His hand was not clenched in anger, but was opened wide in mercy. I fully thought that His eyes would dart lightning flashes of wrath upon me. Instead, they were full of tears. He fell upon my neck and kissed me. He took off my rags, clothed me with His righteousness, and caused my soul to sing aloud for joy, while in the house of my heart and in the house of His church there was music and dancing, because His son whom He had lost was found, and he who was dead was made alive.
I exhort you, then, to look to Jesus Christ and to be made glad. Sinner, you will never regret it. You will have no desire to go back to your state of condemnation. You will go out of Egypt and into the Promised Land, and you will find it flowing with milk and honey. You will find the trials of Christian life heavy, but grace will make them light. As for the joys and delights of being a child of God, if I lie, you will accuse me with it in days to come. If you will taste and see that the Lord is good (Psalm 34:8), I believe that you will find that He is not only good, but better than human lips could ever describe.
I do not know what arguments to use with you. I appeal to your own self-interests. Would it not be better for you to be reconciled to the God of heaven than to be His enemy? What are you gaining by opposing God? Are you happier because you are His enemy? Answer, pleasure seeker. Have you found delights in that cup? Answer me, self-righteous man. Have you found rest for the sole of your foot in all your works? Oh, you who go about to establish your own righteousness, I ask you to let your conscience speak. Have you found it to be a happy path? Ah, my friend, Why do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which does not satisfy? Hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness (Isaiah 55:2).
I exhort you by everything that is sacred and solemn, by everything that is important and eternal, flee for your lives, do not look behind you, do not stay in all the plain (see Genesis 19:17), do not stay until you have proved and found a share in the blood of Jesus Christ, that blood which cleanses us from all sin (1 John 1:7). Are you still cold and indifferent? Will the blind man refuse to allow me to lead him to the feast? Will not the weak man refuse to allow me to walk side-by-side with him? Must I use some stronger words? Must I use some other compulsion to compel you to come in?
From the grey-headed elderly person down to the child of tender age, if you do not lay hold on Christ, your blood will be on your own head. If there is power in man to bring his fellow man (as there is when we are helped by the Holy Spirit), that power will be exercised. I urge you to stop and consider. Do you know who it is you are rejecting? You are rejecting Christ, your only Savior. For no one can lay another foundation than that laid, which is Jesus the Christ (1 Corinthians 3:11). Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men in which we can be saved (Acts 4:12).
I cannot bear that you would reject Jesus, because I know what you are missing. The day is coming when you will want a Savior. It will not be long before the weary months will have ended and your strength begins to decline. Your pulse will fail you, your strength will depart, and you and the grim monster, death, must face each other. What will you do in the swelling of Jordan without a Savior? Deathbeds are fearful things without the Lord Jesus Christ. It is a fearful thing to die in any way. Even he who has the best hope and the most triumphant faith finds that death is not something to laugh at.
It can be a fearful and intimidating thing to pass from the seen to the unseen, from the mortal to the immortal, from time to eternity, and you will find it hard to go through the iron gates of death without the sweet wings of angels to carry you to the portals of the skies. It will be a difficult thing to die without Christ. I cannot help thinking of you. I can imagine you near death, and I picture myself standing at your bedside, hearing your cries, knowing you are dying without hope. I cannot bear the thought that I am standing by your coffin now, looking into your clay-cold face and saying, “This man despised Christ and neglected the great salvation.” I think about what bitter tears I will weep if I think that I have neglected to do all that I could to help you, and how those eyes closed in death will seem to blame me and say, “You were not serious with me. You amused me and preached to me, but you did not plead with me. You did not know what Paul meant when he said, Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did exhort you by us; we beseech you in Christ’s name, be ye reconciled to God” (2 Corinthians 5:20).
I picture myself standing at the throne of God. As the Lord lives, the day of judgment is coming. Do you believe that? You are not an infidel, so your conscience will not permit you to doubt the Scripture. Perhaps you may have pretended to do so, but you cannot. You feel there must be a day when God will judge the world in righteousness. I can picture you standing in the midst of that crowd, and the eye of God is focused on you. It seems to you that He is not looking anywhere else, but only at you. He summons you before Him, reads your sins, and says, Depart from me, ye cursed, into eternal fire, prepared for the devil and his angels (Matthew 25:41). I cannot bear to think of you in that position. It seems like every hair on my head will stand on end to think of anyone being damned.
Since I must stand before my Judge in the end, I feel that I will not make full proof of my ministry unless I beg with many tears that you would be saved, that you would look to Jesus Christ and receive His glorious salvation. Does this not help? Are all our pleadings lost upon you? Do you turn a deaf ear?
Then again, I change my tone. Sinner, I have pleaded with you as a man pleads with his friend. If it was for my own life, I could not speak more passionately than I speak concerning yours. Therefore, if you ignore these pleas, I have something else – I must warn you of what is to come. You will not always have such warnings as these. A day is coming when the voice of every gospel minister will be hushed, at least for you, because your ear will be cold in death. There will be no more threatening. Instead, it will be the fulfilment of the threatening. There will be no promise, no proclamations of pardon and of mercy, and no blood that brings peace. Instead, you will be in the land where the preaching of the gospel is forbidden, because it would be futile.
I instruct you, then, to listen to this voice that now addresses your conscience. If not, God will speak to you in His wrath and say to you in His fiery displeasure, Because I have called and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no one responded; for because ye have disregarded all my counsel and rejected my reproof: I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear comes upon you (Proverbs 1:24-26).
Sinner, I warn you again. It is only a short time before you may have to hear these warnings. Come, let the promise of judgment influence you. I do not threaten to alarm you without cause, but I hope that telling you what will surely happen may drive you to the place where God has prepared the feast of the gospel. Have I exhausted all that I can say? No, I will come to you again. Tell me what it is that keeps you from Christ.
I hear someone say, “It is because I feel that I’m too guilty.”
That cannot be, my friend; that cannot be.
“But, sir, I am the chief of sinners.”
Friend, you are not. The chief of sinners died and went to heaven many years ago. His name was Saul of Tarsus, afterwards called Paul the apostle. He was the chief of sinners. I know he spoke the truth.
“No,” you still say, “I am too vile.”
You cannot be worse than the chief of sinners. You must be at least second worst. Even supposing you are the worst now alive, you are second worst, because he was chief. But suppose you are the worst; isn’t that the very reason you should come to Christ? The worse a person is, the more reason he should go to the hospital or physician. The poorer you are, the more reason you should accept the charity of another. Christ does not want any merits of yours. He gives freely. The worse you are, the more welcome you are.
Let me ask you a question. Do you think you will ever get better by stopping your sinful ways while you are apart from Christ? If so, you still know very little about the way of salvation. No, the longer you stay away, the worse you will grow. Your hope will grow weaker. Your despair will become stronger. The nail with which Satan has fastened you down will be more firmly clenched, and you will be less hopeful than ever. Come, I urge you. There is nothing to be gained by delay, but by delay everything may be lost.
“But,” cries another, “I feel that I cannot believe.”
My friend, you never will believe if you look first at your believing. Remember, I don’t invite you to faith, but I invite you to Christ.
You ask, “What is the difference?”
Just this. If you first of all say, “I want to believe a certain thing,” you never do it. Your first inquiry must be, “What is this thing that I am to believe?” Faith will come as the consequence of that search. Our first business doesn’t have to do with faith, but with Christ. Come, I beg you, to Calvary’s mount and see the cross. Behold the Son of God, He who made the heavens and the earth, dying for your sins. Look to Him. Is there not power in Him to save? Look at His face so full of compassion. Is there not love in His heart to prove that He is willing to save? O sinner, the sight of Christ will help you to believe. Do not believe first and then go to Christ, or your faith will be a worthless thing. Go to Christ without any faith, and cast yourself upon Him, sink or swim.
I hear another cry, “Sir, you do not know how often I have been invited and how long I have rejected the Lord.” I do not know, and I do not want to know. All I know is that my Master has sent me to compel you to come in; so come along with me now. You may have rejected a thousand invitations; don’t make this the thousandth-and-one. You have been up to the house of God, and you have only been gospel-hardened.
I cannot let you continue on in such empty excuses as that. If you have lived so many years disregarding Christ, there are so many reasons why you should not disregard Him now. Did I hear you whisper that this was not a convenient time? Then what must I say to you? When will that convenient time come? Will it come when you are in hell? Will that time be convenient? Will it come when you are on your deathbed? Will it come then? Or when the burning sweat is scalding your brow, or when the cold clammy sweat is there – will those be convenient times? Will it be a convenient time when you are filled with pain and you are on the borders of the tomb?
I have no authority to ask you to come to Christ tomorrow. The invitation is, Today if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation (Hebrews 3:15), for the Spirit says Then come, shall the LORD say, and we shall be even; if your sins were as scarlet, they shall be made as white as snow; if they were red like crimson, they shall become as wool (Isaiah 1:18). Why would you put it off?
It may be the last warning you will ever have. You may never again have such an earnest discourse addressed to you. You may not be pleaded with as I plead with you now. You may go away, and God may say, He is given over to idols; leave him (Hosea 4:17). He will throw the reins upon your neck, and then your course will be certain, but it will be certain damnation and swift destruction.
Is it all in vain? Will you not come to Christ now? Then what more can I do? I have only one more thing I can try, and I will try that. I am permitted to weep for you. I can pray for you. You can scorn my attempts if you like. You can laugh at the preacher and call him overzealous if you desire. He will not rebuke you. He will not bring an accusation against you to the great Judge. Your offence, as far as he is concerned, is forgiven before it is committed; but remember that the message you are rejecting is a message from One who loves you, and it is given to you by the voice of another who loves you. You may play your soul away with the devil, and you may think that this is a matter of no importance, but there is at least one who is serious about your soul. I’ll say again that when words fail us, we can give tears, because words and tears are the arms with which gospel ministers compel people to come in.
I heard just the other day about a young man whose father’s hope was that he would be brought to Christ. He became acquainted, however, with an unbeliever, and now he neglects his business and lives in a daily course of sin. I saw his father’s poor pale face. I did not ask him to tell me the story himself, because I felt like it would bring up sorrow and open a wound. I fear, sometimes, that a good man’s gray hairs may be brought with sorrow to the grave.
Young men, you do not pray for yourselves, but your mothers wrestle in prayer for you. You will not think of your own souls, but your father’s anxiety is exercised for you. I have been at prayer meetings where I have heard children of God pray there, and they could not have prayed with more earnestness and more intensity of anguish for their lost children than if they had been seeking their own soul’s salvation. Is it not strange that we would be ready to move heaven and earth for your salvation, and yet you still have no thought for your own soul and no regard for eternal things?