Sermon 599. The Certainty And Freeness Of Divine Grace

DELIVERED ON SUNDAY MORNING, NOVEMBER 13, 1864, BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"All that the Father gives Me shall come to Me; and him that comes to Me I will in no wise cast out."

John 6:37.

LET it be forevermore remembered that the words of Jesus Christ are full of Truth and Grace. And that in each of these twosentences, whether we perceive the fact or not, there is the surest Truth and the freest Grace. There will be some who fromthe peculiarity of their minds, will prize most thefirst sentence. They will say, as they read these words, "All that the Father gives Me shall come to Me"-why, here is highdoctrine! Here is the security of the Covenant, the purpose of God effectually carried out! Here is the Truth of God whichwe love and the Grace in whichwe glory."

Other Brethren, overlooking the first sentence lest it should raise questions too hard to be answered, will rather grasp atthe second sentence, "Him that comes to Me I will in no wise cast out." "Why," they say, "here is universality of description!Here is a freeness of invitation! Here is agracious overflow of liberality-this is good free Gospel, indeed!" And they will therefore fall to proclaiming the secondsentence to the neglect of the first.

But, Brothers and Sisters, let us not sin by setting one Scripture against another, or attempting to divide the living childof Revelation. It is one and it is alike glorious in all its parts. You who love to hear the Gospel preached to sinners donot be afraid of the doctrines of Sovereign Grace!And you who love Sovereign Grace but cannot well hear doctrine too high for your taste, do not be afraid of the free invitationsof the Gospel and the wide door which Jesus opens for needy sinners in many passages of Scripture!

Let us receive all Truth and let us be willing to learn every lesson which the Lord has written, remembering that if we cannotas yet reconcile Truths of God, there is the promise-"What I do you know not now; but you shall know hereafter." If we couldknow everything, we would be gods! Beingmortals, some things must be unknown to us. Let us know our ignorance and despair of becoming infallible and thus we shallbe in the path to true wisdom! But, if we boast of our wisdom, we shall be on the high road to great folly.

Let us consider the text carefully. And as it divides into two branches, let us view them one by one. Here we have Grace andTruth triumphant in specialty. And, secondly, we have Grace and Truth triumphant in liberality. May God help us to handlethese so that much instruction may flow from them.

I. In the first sentence, we have GRACE TRIUMPHANT IN SPECIALTY-

"All that the Father gives Me shall come to Me." I would bring out the meaning of this passage by a few observations.

1. You perceive here that the Lord Jesus leads us up to the original position of all things-for since a people were givento Him by the Father, it is clear that they must first have been in the Father's hands. All men, then, are naturally, fromthe beginning, in the hands of the Father. Andso it should be, for He has fashioned them all and made them for His pleasure. God, absolutely considered, created all thingsand His kingdom rules over all. Having a right to make laws, to issue rewards, or to threaten with punishments at His ownpleasure, Jehovah sits upon HisThrone, judging rightly. The elect were specially in the hands of the Father for He had chosen them.

The choice is ever described as being with the Father-"I thank You, O Father, Lord of Heaven and earth, because You have hidthese things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in Your sight."They belong to the Father, then, asCreator, as Governor and as the source and fountain of election. How often do Believers forget the part which the Fatherhas in their salvation. And yet He is the basis and prompter of it all. Remember, Beloved, that He who first of all choseyou was no other than our Father who isin Heaven. And though our Lord Jesus Christ undertook your cause, yet it was because the Father, first of all, out of Hisgreat love, gave you to His Son. Forget not the Father's Grace and cease not to sing of His love-

"'Twas with an everlasting love That God His o wn elect embraced Before He made the worlds above, Or earth on her huge columnsplaced. Long before the sun's refulgent ray Primeval shades of darkness drove, They on His sacred bosom lay, Loved with aneverlasting love."

2. The Savior then proceeds to inform us of a great transaction. He says that the Father gave His people to the Son and putthem into the hands of Christ-the God-man Mediator. As Jesus is God, these people always were His own. But as Mediator, Hereceived them from the hands of the Father.Here was the Father's condescension in noticing us at all and in bestowing us upon the Son-here was the Son's infinite mercyand compassion, in accepting such poor souls as we are at the Father's hands and counting us to be His precious jewels, Hispeculiar portion. Thepersons referred to as being given by the Father are not all men, although, it is true that the Father has delivered allthings into Jesus' hands and He has power over all flesh.

We must always interpret one passage of Scripture by another. And the thirty-ninth verse of this chapter very clearly interpretsthe thirty-seventh-"And this is the Father's will which has sent Me, that of all which He has given me I should lose nothing,but should raise it up again at thelast day." The given ones, it is clear, are by appointment delivered from being lost and appointed to a glorious resurrectionwhich is not true of any but the chosen. In the tenth chapter we find the same explained thus in the twenty-seventh verse-"Mysheep hear My voice and Iknow them, and they follow Me: and I give unto them eternal life. And they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluckthem out of My hands. My Father, which gave them to Me, is greater than all. And no man is able to pluck them out of my Father'shands."

And if this should not explain the matter sufficiently, we have it again in our Lord's prayer in the seventeenth chapter,sixth verse-"I have manifested Your name unto the men which You gave me out of the world: Yours they were and You gave themto Me, and they have kept Your word." So yousee that the persons given were His own sheep. They are brought to know the voice of the Good Shepherd and to follow Him.They are in His hands and there they are safely kept beyond all fear of harm. Jesus manifests the Father's name unto themand they learn to keep the Father'sword.

This does not respect any gift of all men which the Father has made to the Son-though in a certain sense all men have beengiven to Christ in order that they may be the unconscious instruments of His Glory, though not saved by His redemption. Theyare, even as His enemies, compelled to do Hispleasure, though they shall never be lifted up to the adoption of children, nor to the dignity of being Brethren of theLord.

We see, then, that there was a certain period when the eternal God gave into the hands of the Mediator a multitude which noman can number, whom He had chosen from among men to be His choice and peculiar treasure. The text speaks in the present tense.But then the thirty-eighth verse speaks in thepast tense. And the passages we have been reading to you all have it in the past-therefore understand that the gift of theelect to Christ was performed in the past-before the skies were stretched abroad or the mountains lifted their heads to theclouds God had given apeople to Christ.

But the deed may well be said to be performed in the present, since with God there is no time and what He did yesterday, Hedoes today, and will do forever. Moreover, in a certain sense Christ does receive from His Father's hand His people in timeas well as in eternity-the Father giving byeffectual calling in time, the very people whom once He gave in secret Covenant in eternity. We are, by the words of ourtext, admitted into one of the secrets of the Divine council chamber and rejoice as we perceive that the chosen ones belongingto the Father were transferred byHim into the hands of the Mediator.

3. Further proceeding, Jesus assures us that this transaction in eternity involves a certain change in time. "All that theFather gives Me shall come to Me." They may be living in sin and they may continue so to do twenty, thirty, forty, fifty,sixty, seventy years-but before their time shallcome to die, they shall be brought to Christ! To come to Christ signifies to turn from sin and to trust Christ. Coming toChrist is a leaving of all false confidences, a renouncing of all love of sin and a looking to Jesus as the solitary pillarof our confidence and hope.

Now every soul whom God the Father gave to Jesus must do this and this is the token by which the secretly chosen are known-theyopenly choose Christ because the Father has secretly chosen them. You can never know your election by any other means. Thatyou are not one of His sheep will beproved by your continuance in unbelief. But if humbly and hopefully you come to Jesus and make Him all your salvation andyour desire, let no doctrine of election alarm or keep you back-you are one of His, for this is the seal which He sets uponHis sheep. In due time theyhear His voice, are led by Him into the green pastures of Grace, follow Him through life and are brought by Him at lastto the hilltops of Glory!-

"There is a period known to God, When all His sheep, redeemed by blood, Shall leave the hateful ways of sin, Turn to the fold and enter in. At peace with Hell, with God at war, In sin's dark maze they wander far, Indulge their lusts and still go on As far from God as sheep can run. But see how Heaven's indulgent care Attends their wanderings here and there Still hard at heel wherever they stray, With pricking thorns to hedge their way. Glory to God, they never shall rove Beyond the limits of His love. Fenced with Jehovah'sshallsand wills, Firm as the everlasting hills The appointed time rolls on apace, Not to propose, but call by Grace, To change the heart, renew the will, And turn the feet to Zion's hill."

4. Observe, yet further, that in the words of our text, Jesus hints at a power possessed by Him to constrain the wanderersto return. He says, "All that the Father gives Me shall come to Me." Oh, the power and majesty which rest in the words "shallcome." He does not say they have power to come. Hedoes not say they may come if they will, but they "shall come." There is no, "if," no "but," no "perhaps," no conditionwhatsoever! It is put down as an unconditional and absolute purpose of God and will of Christ that all whom the Father gaveto Him shall come. "Well," says one,"but does Christ force any man to be saved?" I answer "No," in the sense in which the question is asked. No man was evertaken to Heaven by the ears or dragged there by the hair of his head! But, at the same time, the Lord Jesus does, by His messengers,His Word, and His Spirit,sweetly and graciously compel men to come in that they may eat of His marriage-supper.

And this He does, mark you, not by any violation of the free will or free agency of man! God never treats man as though hewere a brute. He does not drag him with cart ropes-He treats men as men. And when He binds them with cords, they are the cordsof love and the bands of a man. I mayexercise power over another's will and yet that other man's will may be perfectly free because the constraint is exercisedin a manner accordant with the laws of the human mind. If I show a man that a certain line of action is much for his advantage,he feels bound to follow it, buthe is perfectly free in so doing. If man's will were subdued or chained by some physical process-if man's heart should,for instance, be taken from him and be turned round by a manual operation-that would be altogether inconsistent with humanfreedom, or indeed, withhuman nature.

And yet I think some few people imagine that we mean this when we talk of constraining influence and Divine Grace! We meannothing of the kind! We mean that Jehovah Jesus knows how, by irresistible arguments addressed to the understanding-by mightyreasons appealing to the affections and bythe mysterious influence of His Holy Spirit operating upon all the powers and passions of the soul-to subdue the whole man,that whereas it was once rebellious it becomes obedient! Whereas it stood stoutly against the Most High, it throws down theweapons of its rebellion andcries, "I yield! I yield! Subdued by Sovereign love and by the enlightenment which You have bestowed upon me, I yield myselfto Your will!"

The weapons are not carnal, but mighty, through God, to the pulling down of strongholds. They are the invincible artilleryof the love of Christ and the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God! Of this teaching no Arminian should complain whenhe remembers the strong expressions used inWesley's hymns! Let me quote an instance-

"O my God, what must I do? You alone the way can show. You can save me in this hour, I have neither will nor power! God, if over all You are Greater than my sinful heart, All Your power on me be shown, Take away the heart of stone. Take away my darling sin, Make me willing to be clean. Make me willing to receive All Your goodness waits to give! Force me, Lord, with all to part, Tear these idols from my heart! Now Your love almighty show, Make even me a creature new. Jesus, mighty to renew, Work in me to will and do. Turn my nature's rapid tide, Stem the torrent of my pride! Stop the whirlwind of my will, Speak and bid the sun standstill. Now Your love almighty show, Make even me a creature new. Arm of God, Your strength put on, Bow the heavens and come down! All my unbelief overthrow, Lay the aspiring mountain low! Conquer Your worst foe in me, Get Yourself the victory! Save the vilest of the race, Force me to be saved by Grace."

There is an influence put forth by the Holy Spirit which makes men willing in the day of God's power. And every soul thatis numbered in the Covenant of Grace shall. Let the devil do his worst and let the human will do its utmost and let temptationsstrain themselves to the last degree ofintensity-they shall, I say, in obedience to Divine decree, be brought to the foot of the Cross, to cry, "What must I doto be saved?"

5. And to conclude our remarks upon this first sentence, the Savior declares that there is no exception to this rule of Grace.He says, "All that the Father gives Me shall come to Me." Not some of them, but all! Not all but one or two, but every one!Each one in particular and the wholecollectively. It will be found when the archangel's trumpet shall ring through earth and Heaven, that every soul whom Godordained to eternal life has attained that eternal life to God's praise and honor! And when the census shall be read of allthe children of the living God, notone of the blood-bought and blood-washed shall be absent-they shall all come to Christ in Heaven as they all come to Christon earth.

Now, albeit that some stumble at this doctrine, here is the greatest possible comfort to the preacher of the Word. Day afterday we proclaim our Master's Truth and yet to a great extent we have to cry-"Who has believed our report? And to whom is thearm of the Lord revealed?" So many arestony-hearted. So many resist the invitations of the Gospel. So many turn a deaf ear to the warnings of almighty mercy-whatthen? Have we sown in vain? Have we labored for nothing? No, verily, in no way! The purpose of God is certainly fulfilledin every jot and tittle and theMaster's will is definitely and in every point accomplished!

Therefore we labor with no broken heart and we preach with no coward spirit in this matter. You, O proud and haughty sinners,may resist Him. But if you will not come, others shall-you are bid to come to the wedding. And if you will not come, the highwaysand the hedges shall find Him guests.His table shall not be empty. Think not that the blood of Christ shall be shed in vain! You may count it an unholy thing,but there are myriads who shall be washed in it and who shall rejoice in its power to cleanse. You may put from you the kingdomof Heaven and count yourselvesunworthy of it-if it is a "savor of death unto death" to you-yet it shall be a "savor of life unto life" to others!

The great plans of Sovereign mercy shall not be thwarted by the enmity of man! Jehovah shall yet in the end get the victory.All ages shall crown His head with fresh honors when they see how, despite all the enmity of the human heart- its treacheryand its hardness-that His purpose didstand and He did all His pleasure and displayed the bounty of His Grace as He would, according to the good pleasure of Hisown will.

You will see, then, that this first sentence, if we understand it at all, involves, first, the doctrine of election-thereare some whom the Father gave to Christ. It involves, next, the doctrine of effectual calling-those who are given must andshall come-however stoutly they mayset themselves against it, they shall be brought out of darkness into God's marvelous light, And it also teaches us, andhere I leave the first sentence, the indispensable necessity of faith-for even those who are given to Christ are not savedexcept they come to Jesus. Eventhey must come, for there is no other way to Heaven but by the Door, Christ Jesus.

I must not expect, whoever I may be, that I shall be saved by my morality! I must not reckon to enter Heaven by my integrityor my generosity! All that the Father gives to our Redeemer must come to Him. Therefore none can come to Heaven except theycome to Christ. And it becomes indispensablyrequisite for princes and for peasants, for sages and for savages, for the polite and for the uneducated, for the most virtuousand the most vile to come just as they are and accept the mercy of God which is freely presented to them in the Person ofChrist Jesus. And, mark, by thisshall those be known whom God has chosen-that they do willingly and joyfully accept Christ Jesus and come to Him with simpleand unfeigned faith, resting upon Him as all their salvation and all their desire!

Some of you do not like this doctrine. Well, I cannot help that. I find it in the Scriptures and I preach it. There is thetext-to me it means nothing if it does not mean what I have now stated. It is as plain and expressive as the Saxon languageemployed in it could possibly make it. Do notkick at the doctrine because you do not like it! If it is taught in Scripture, like it or not like it, receive it. Perhapshowever, it does some people good to grow angry over a doctrine for they would never think of it at all if they did not! Andwhile this doctrine, like an arrowin a wound, rankles and frets them, it nevertheless is the means of making them consider spiritual things and so they arebrought to Jesus.

I believe this is one of the virtues of this doctrine-that it excites people's prejudices and they grow vexed. But since theycannot get rid of it, it follows them-they dream of it, they argue about it-and at last there is a joint in the harness throughwhich the good Word of theGospel cuts its way and they come to receive Christ in the fullness and plenitude of His mercy.

II. In the second sentence we have GRACE TRIUMPHANT IN ITS LIBERALITY-"Him that comes to Me I will in no wise cast out."

1. Please observe the liberality of the character-it is "him that comes"-there is no description given whatever, except, "himthat comes." It means the rich man, the poor man, the great man, the obscure man, the moral man, the debauchee, those whohave sunken into the worst of crimesand those who have mounted to the best of virtues. Those who are next akin to devils and those who seem, by the correctnessof their lives to be somewhat like angels are all included- "him, him"! "Him that comes!" "What him?" says John Bunyan. "Why,"says he, answering his ownquestion, "any him in all the world that comes to Christ shall be in no wise cast out."

"Him that comes." To come, as I have explained before, is to leave something and to go to something. There is motion. We leaveall other grounds of trust and we take Christ to be our solitary hope. We come to His blood to be washed, to His righteousnessto be cleansed, to His wounds to be healed,to His life for life eternal and to His death for the death of our sins. We come to Jesus for everything! And the promiseis that any man who comes, whoever he may be, shall find that he is not cast out. "But suppose," says one, "that the poorcondemned wretch should come who hascommitted a foul and cruel murder?" Well, if he comes, he shall not be cast out!

If in addition to murder, or without murder, he should have been guilty of uncleanness impossible to describe- suppose heto have wallowed in it year after year and to have brought himself to such a state that he is scarcely fit to be touched witha pair of tongs! Suppose he to be such anoutcast that he is only fit to be swept into some back corner in Hell. Well, what then? If he comes to Christ, he shallnot be cast out! I like to put it in such a light that he who deems himself to have gone furthest into sin may yet see thatthis text sets a door wide open wherebyhe may come for mercy!

It says, "him that comes," and this shuts out no comer. John Newton was a blasphemer of so gross a kind that even the sailorsin the vessel in a storm said that they should never get to port with such a sinner as John Newton on board! But he came toChrist and was not cast out! He lived to preachthe Word of God! John Bunyan was so foul a blasphemer that even a woman of the street, who passed him by and heard him swear,said that he was enough to corrupt the whole parish. And he was astonished that a woman of so bad a character should so rebukehim!

John Bunyan came to Jesus and he was not cast out! He lived to have the honor of suffering for his Master and to be the winnerof multitudes of souls. Saul of Tarsus had stained himself with the blood of saints! He was a very wolf after Christ's sheep!He was not satisfied with worrying them in hisown land, so he obtained power to persecute them in Damascus. But when he fell upon his face and cried for mercy he wasnot cast out! Manasseh was blood-red with the murder of God's Prophets. It is said that he cut the Prophet Isaiah in two witha saw. And yet, when out of the lowdungeon he cried for mercy, he was not cast out!

So that any kind of "him," though he may have been a persecutor even unto blood-though he may have been exceedingly mad againstGod till he could not speak without blasphemies against the name of Christ-though he hated everything which is good and despisedeverything held precious bybelieving men and women-yet if he comes to Christ, he shall not be cast out! Every man, woman and child in this Tabernaclethis morning is included in such a word as this, if he comes to Christ! That is the point-if you come to Christ, no matterwhat your past charactermay have been, nor yet what your present feelings may be, "him that comes to Me I will in no wise cast out." I thank Godfor so generous a liberality as that!

2. Then the next point of liberality is in the coming. Please notice it. "Him that comes to Me." Here is no adjective to qualifyit-here is no adverb to set out the manner. It is, "him that comes to Me." That is the point, "to Me." We must come to Jesusas crucified and bearing our sin. Wemust come to Christ as pleading before the Throne of God and see the acceptance of our prayers there. It is not coming toBaptism! It is not coming to the Lord's Supper! It is not coming to the Church. It is not coming to worship-it is coming toChrist! "Him that comes to Me."

Take heed that you do not come elsewhere-for if you rest short of anything but Christ-you rest short of the promise. But,O Soul, if you build on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. If you touch the hem of His garment. If you lookout of self entirely to Him-thenrest assured of this-there is no other qualification to your coming but that you come to HIM!

Some come to Christ at once. The very first time they hear the Gospel, they lay hold of it and are saved. They are not castout. Some are months in coming-they go from strength to strength in this matter and their faith is a thing of long growth.Well, they shall not be cast out! Some comerunning! Some come walking! Some come creeping on all fours! Some have to get others to carry them, as that man did whowas borne of four! But so long as they do but come, He does not cast them out! Some feel as if all their bones were brokenand they can only writhe into HisPresence, as it were, wriggle themselves to the Mercy Seat all full of aches, pains, woes, doubts, fears, whispers, distrusts,bad habits and sins. But if they do but come, they shall not be cast out!

One man comes with a long prayer. Another comes with nothing but two words. One comes with many tears. Another could not sheda tear if it would save his soul, but he groans. Another can scarcely groan, but his heart feels as if it would burst. Onehas intense conviction, another has very little ofit. One is shaken over Hell's mouth, another is attracted by the beauties of the Savior. One has to be thundered at as fromthe top of Sinai, another is but beckoned and His willing heart runs to Calvary. But, however you come, Sinner, He will notcast you out if you come toHim-that is the point!

Do not waste time questioning what your experience is, or raising the point of how you came or when you came- for here itstands, "him that comes to Me"-not him that comes in this way, or that way, but, "him that comes to Me"!

Oh, the liberality of this precious verse! It shuts me in, it does not shut you out poor Sinner-"him that comes to Me I willin no wise cast out."

3. Observe the liberality of the time. "Him that comes." It does not say when. He may be seventy-if he comes he is not castout! He may be but seven-and, thank God there have been many boys and girls who have come even at that age-but He will notcast them out! Your candle may belittle more than a snuff, but He will not quench it. Or it may be but newly lit-He will accept either. The full-blown roseor the flower in the bud shall alike be received by His gracious hand!

Some came to Jesus when He was on earth-He did not cast them out. A long file of sinners saved by Grace has been streamingup from the Cross to the Throne ever since then and not one of them has ever been rejected! We have fallen upon 1864, andthe year is almost spent, yet, think not that wehave come to the dregs of Christ's mercy! Do not imagine that, because time grows old, Christ's love grows decrepit! Ah,no! He will not cast us out in 1864 any more than He did the thief who looked to Him upon the Cross and found mercy that day!What a blessed thing it is thatthere is no limit as to time!

I was remarking to myself the other day that the most of the conversions which occur in our place of worship are among newpeople-persons who come in once or twice and perhaps before they have heard a dozen sermons God blesses them. While thosewho have been hearing us for seven or eightyears are not converted in anything like the same proportion. It is a very sad reflection, but still I couple with it thisthought-"Well, if they have not come yet, still it is not too late. If they have been invited to come for seven, eight, nine,ten, twenty years-andoh, there are some of you who have heard the Gospel ever since you were children-yet it does not say that you shall be shutout because you come so late, but, "him that comes"!

You may have turned a deaf ear until you are now growing gray. You may have despised Christ times without number-He waitedto be gracious-with outstretched arms He bade His minister woo you to come to Him, but you would not come! But still, if now,by Grace, you are led to come, He willnot cast you out! At the last moment of life, if you come, He will not cast you out. And now this morning-God make it anauspicious hour to you-come and try Him this hour, it is just twenty minutes past noon, but you will find if you come thatHe will not cast you out,for the gates of the City of Mercy are never shut!

4. Further, notice that there is no limit as to the duration of the promise. I mean, He does not merely say, "I will not castyou out when you have come," but, "I will NEVER cast you out." The original reads, "I will not, not cast you out," or, "Iwill never, never cast you out." The text meansthat Christ will not at first reject a Believer. And that as He will not do it at first, so He will not to the last. IfI come to Christ today, He will accept me. And He accepts me in that act forever-He will never cast me out!

Suppose the Believer sins after coming? "If any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous."Suppose that Believers backslide? "I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely: for My anger is turned away fromhim." But Believers may fall under temptation. "Godis faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able. But will, with the temptation, also make a wayto escape, that you may be able to bear it." But the Believer may fall into sin as David did! Yes, but He will "Purge themwith hyssop and they shall be clean.He will wash them and they shall be whiter than snow,"

From all their iniquities will He cleanse them-

"Once in Christ, in Christ forever, Nothing from His love can sever," and that doctrine this text teaches most expressly-"himthat comes to Me I will never, never cast out." He will never suffer one who has once been grasped in His hands to be wrestedfrom them! No member of Christ's body canever be cut off, or else Christ would be mutilated. No sheep of His flock shall ever be torn by the lion-He will rend thelion and, as David did, He will take the lamb out of the jaws of the lion and out of the paws of the bear. "I give unto Mysheep," says He, "eternal life.And they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My hands."

What do you say to this, Sinner? Is not this a precious mercy-that if you come to Christ you do not come to One who will treatyou well a month or two and then send you packing about your business, but will receive you and make you His child and youshall abide forever, no longer receivingthe spirit of bondage again to fear, but the spirit of adoption whereby you shall cry, Abba, Father? Oh, the Grace of thispassage! Would I had an angel's tongue to set it forth!

5. Still we have not exhausted it. Something of the liberality of this passage is to be found in its certainty. "Him thatcomes to me I will in no wise cast out." It is not a hope as to whether Christ will accept you-it is a CERTAINITY! Oh, ifthere were only half a shadow of a hope that theLord Jesus would have mercy upon such a poor worm as I am, would I not go into His Presence hoping against hope? If it werea case of sink or swim, yet, since I could lose nothing by trusting Him, I would gladly do it, as the hymn puts it-

"I can but perish if I go! I am resolved to try! For if I stay away, I know I must forever die."

But, dear Friends, we must not put it in that way, or at least, only for the sake of bringing out a thought-for there is no"but" about it-you cannot perish if you go! O, try at once and you will find that him that comes in no wise can be cast out!We sometimes sing-

"Venture on Him, venture wholly, Let no other trust intrude," but there is no venture in the case-it is an absolute certainty.Merchants will often speculate at a high figure. But there is no speculation here. We drink the medicine which the physiciangives us in the hope that it maycure-but this will cure-here is water that will quench your thirst! Here is a balm that will heal your wounds-"him thatcomes" He will receive-"He will in no wise cast out."

What a hammer that word "no wise" is with which to smash your fears to pieces. "Perhaps," says one, "He will reject me becauseI do not repent enough"-"in no wise." "Perhaps He will reject me because I have been so long coming"-"in no wise." "But Hewill reject me because I do not prayaright"-"in no wise." You cannot mention any shape or form of a fear which this does not slay upon the spot-"I will in nowise cast out." I say again, I wish I had an angel's tongue to put the liberality of this before you. The devil, I know, willbe suggesting twentyreasons why you should not come-let this one reason why you should come be enough to answer all of his-that Jesus says,"I will in no wise cast out him that comes."

6. I must conclude by observing that there is great liberality in the text, if you notice its personality. Reading over thisverse carefully I observed that in the first sentence, where everything was special, Jesus used a large word and He said,"All that the Father gives Me shall come." But inthe second sentence, which is general, He uses a little word, a word which can mean only one and He says "him." There isa personality here-"him that comes." It does not say they that come, but "him that comes." Why? Why, because sinners wantpersonal comfort! They needsomething that will suit their case. Do you see, Sinner, He does not take men in the lump, but He picks you out as if youwere the only sinner in the world! He says to you, "him that comes to Me I will in no wise cast out"!

Had he put it in the plural, you might say, "Ah, but He did not think of me." But now He has put it so that it just fits yourcase. This is no medicine in the bottle of which many may drink, but here is a glass set for you! It is not a cordial whichmay be passed round the table, but it is put atyour place! Drink and be satisfied-"him that comes." Lord, does "him" mean me?" Yes, it means you, if you will come. Comenow! Put your trust in Jesus. What do you say? I hope the Spirit is speaking to you in these words of mine! And if He speaksto you as I speak to you, thenshall it be well with you. Sinner, come!

There is a dying Savior! He died in the place of sinners. In the place of what sinners? Why, of all sinners who trust Him.Will you trust Him? Is it a hard thing to trust God to save you? To trust God who became man and so proved His love to you?To trust Him? "Why," says one, "that is simpleenough," but that is all the plan of salvation. When I am preaching from such a text as this I feel as if I have no scopefor metaphors and figures and illustrations-I do not need any-because this saving Truth of God must always he proclaimed asplainly as possible! Andthen if souls are saved by it, it is not the excellency of words, but the Truth itself which shall get the honor.

Now, do you see it, Soul? If you do, I am content-if you trust Christ to save you, you shall not be cast out! You have cometo Him! Your coming to Him proves that the Father gave you to Him! You are saved! You are one of His chosen! You shall neverbe cast out! Your Heaven is secure! Youshall sit at the right hand of God and sing the new song, as surely as they do now, who, white-robed, are hymning the Redeemer'spraise! This is not an affair of months and weeks, is it? It does not need a moment-to look, is the work of an instant. Butthe moment that faith isexercised, perfect pardon is given! There is no sin in God's book against a soul that trusts Christ and there never canbe-

"There's pardon for transgressions past, It matters not how black their cast! And, O my Soul, with wonder view, For sins to come, here's pardon too."

What? Are there none who will accept this? Are there none here who say, "I will trust my soul in Jesus' hands"? What? Willyou build on your own righteousness? Ah, Fools! To pile up the sand which the next tide must sweep away! What? Do you despisethe mercy of my God? Will you turn away from thebleeding wounds of His own dear Son? What? Is forgiveness not worth your having? Is God's free mercy a thing to be scoffedat? O Heavens, hear and be astonished! O Earth, hear and be amazed! God sends the Gospel unto men, but they refuse it! ThatGospel says unto them, "Come now andlet us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they arered like crimson, they shall be as wool."

But though God calls, they refuse and will have none of His Words! May His mighty Spirit come and make a difference in someof you and bring you now to the foot of the Savior's Cross to look up! Do nothing else but look up! And looking there youshall never perish, but have eternal life! May theMaster bless these words, feeble of themselves and only mighty because of the Truth they convey, for Jesus' sake. Amen.