Grosey's Messages

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you,5 who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.6 In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials,7 so that the tested genuineness of your faith---more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire---may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.8 Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory,9 obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

εἰς κληρονομίαν ἄφθαρτον καὶ ἀμίαντον καὶ ἀμάραντον, τετηρημένην ἐν οὐρανοῖς εἰς ὑμᾶς

to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you

An echo . Matthew 6:19-21  Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal,20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Standing there that day, Peter listened intently to that great word about the robes of office that moths cannot corrupt, about the swords of power that rust cannot defile, and about the shining hoard that thieves cannot steal. And, long afterwards, the three sets of treasure were obviously running in his mind when he himself wrote to these scattered and persecuted Christians concerning the inheritance that is incorruptible, because no moth can corrupt it; undefilable, because no rust can defile it; and inalienable, because no thieves can steal it. And, to that vivid memory of the old days in which he companied with Jesus, we owe our text.

This sentence about the deathless inheritance is like a lovely casket containing three flashing jewels. Those three jewels are three very beautiful words-aphtharton, amianton, amranton. One is inclined to pick them up and finger them fondly

(I) Aphtharton-incorruptible.

imperishable. So many inheritances vanish away before they are obtained.

We hear much nowadays of the fifth columnists-the enemy within. In actual fact most of our deadliest enemies are within. In every hair of my head, ~ every pore of my skin, in every drop of my blood, there swarm millions of secret agents, working day and night to compass the disintegration and decay of my entire body. Every nerve and tissue and sinew and vein is corruptible. 'What shadows We are and what shadows we pursue! ' exclaimed Edmund Burke as, on his electioneering platform at Bristol, he received news that his opponent had suddenly died.

But aphtharton! This inheritance is flawless; and, what is more, incapable of developing a flaw, The exquisite word occurs in other connections. In that noble passage to which we resort for consolation at every burial service, we are assured that the dead shalI be raised incorruptible. Who can imagine the most microscopic particle of corruptibility in the radiant body of the risen Saviour? Who can imagine the most infinitesimal atom of corruptibility in the glorified bodies of His risen people?

The second occasion on which this fascinating word occurs is in this very chapter. We are born again, Peter declares, not of corruptible seed, but of incwruptible. Is it conceivable that that which is born of God, born of the Spirit, born of the Word which liveth and abideth for ever, can have within its divine structure any element of corruptibility? 'You have an inheritance,' Peter assures these harassed and hunted Christians, 'you have an inheritance as incorruptible as the resurrection body, as incorruptible as the new and divine life that regeneration brings!'

(2) Amianton-undefiIable! Not only undefiled but incapable of defilement! It was the name of a precious stone to which nothing unclean could adhere. Dust would not settle on it. Filth automatically fell from it. The breath would not cloud it. It was like those snow-white flowers that flourish in the English coal-mines: although the grime and the dust are blowing about them all the time, not a single speck settles upon their lovely petals. It reminds  us of that great saying of Jesus: Satan cometh but hath nothing in Me. Like this deathless inheritance of ours, He was undefilable.

(3) amaranton-

These inscriptions will fade away, but not this inheritance in Christ. It will not be like a faded rose. It is unwithering. It was said of the amaranth that, in any atmosphere, however stifling, it would indefinitely preserve its dewy freshness. Other flowers might droop and wilt and fade, but the amaranth retained its pristine beauty.

So there you have these three words of grace in which Peter describes the celestial inheritance to which these fugitives are the heirs. Aphtharton: amianton: umaranton! It is incorruptible, indestructible, and imperishable as to its substance; it is stainless, untarnishable, and undefilable as to its purity; it is fadeless, unwithering, and unshrivelling as to its beauty.

 

I said that Peter was standing on that grassy hillside listening with all his ears to his Lord's arresting words about the mothproof robes and the rustless swords and the treasures that no thieves can steal. But John was there, too. And, long afterwards, whilst Peter echoed the utterance of his Lord in stately prose, John, wrote of the dazzling imagery in his Apocalypse The Revelation. For John's walls of jasper and streets of gold and gates of pearl are, beyond the shadow of a doubt, the very things of which Jesus spoke on the Mount, the very things of which Peter wrote to his persecuted refugees. Robes, says Jesus, that no moth can corrupt; swords that no rust can defile; wealth that no thieves can steal!     

An inheritance, says Peter, uncorrupted and incorruptible; unsoiled and undefilable; inalienable and inviolable!

Walls, says John, that have in their composition no germ of crumbling decay-walls of jasper.' Streets that, unlike the grandest of earthly streets, can never be defiled by material or moral mirestreets of gold! Gates of immaculate purity and impregnable strength, gates that neither Goths nor Huns nor Vandals can storm--gates of pearl!

Law grace reading James 4:1-17

Bible reading:  Matthew 7: 6-12    

Do not give dogs what is holy, and do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you.

7 "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.8 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.9 Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone?10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent?11 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!

12 "So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.

 

Benediction  Ephesians 3:20, 21  Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us,21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

 

A. Ask: Desire

B. Seek: Discernment and Direction

C. Knock: Determination

D. Discover

God Is Good

God Is Wise

God Is Love

 

Coming out from last week.  We focussed on the positive focus for our lives, seeing the Glory of God.

Seeing the grace of God in Christ,  Seeing the goodnss of God worked out in our lives.  Our focus is not to be on material things. They are of less importance, but not unimportant to God.

What is of mot importance is the recognition of all we have in Christ, and how this contributes to the kingdom of God.

Remember  Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things wil be added unto you.

But as this is so, we still have our urgent needs that arise in our hearts.  These urgent needs may have to do with daily bread, food,  finances, security etc.  And these things the Lord promises to look after. If we look to His interests first, He will look after ours.

I have always found this to be true.

The consequence is that as we trust in Him, we will bring all our needs to Him. 

That will be the focus of our lives.

And that is the confidence the Lord Jesus wishes us to have.

Matthew 7: 7 "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.8 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.9 Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone?10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent?11 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!

 

There is an increasing intensity described here: Ask Seek Knock!  Anxieties cause us stress.

God wants us to approach Him as our Father!  It is about communication.

ASK   IT'S ABOUT YOUR DESIRES

Ask and express desire to God. "What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them." (Mark 11:24) God wants you to tell Him your desires—not just the big ones;; the little ones. Can you think of anything that's big to God? God is interested in you so much that the very hairs of your head are numbered. (Matthew 10:30;; Luke 12:7) There's not a sparrow that falls but what God attends the funeral. (Matthew 10:29;; Luke 12:6) So, you can ask Him. Don't get the idea that you can ask God for spiritual things but you cannot ask Him for material things, you can ask Him for sacred things but not for secular things. Can you ever imagine the Lord Jesus Christ dividing His life between the sacred and the secular? When you're saved, every day is a holy day, every place is a sacred place. And, if you want something, ask God for it.

 

SEEK   IT'S ABOUT DIRECTION  

But, sometimes we ask and we don't receive. What do we do then? We seek so we can find. So, the next factor is what I want to call "the direction factor": seek, and expect direction from God.

Now, if you don't have the desire of your heart, and you ask God for something and you don't get it, you have to ask yourself, "Well, why didn't I get it? Why didn't God do for me what I asked Him to do? Well, maybe I was asking for the wrong thing." James said, "Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss." (James 4:3) God

is too good to give us the wrong thing;; and so, we pray until God directs us. We expect direction from God.

The Apostle Paul, who was a better Christian than anybody in this building, had a thorn in the flesh, and he asked God to remove his thorn. God didn't do it immediately. He prayed once—one session of prayer—and God didn't answer his prayer. He prayed another session of prayer, and God didn't answer his prayer. He prayed the third time, and God did not answer his prayer. But, God gave him an answer, but God did not answer and give him what he asked for (that the thorn would be removed). God said, "Paul, I've got a better plan for you. I'm going to give you extraordinary power. I'm going to let my strength rest upon you." Paul said, "Well, praise the Lord!" He didn't say, "What can't be cured must be endured." He said, "It will be enjoyed." He said, "I take pleasure in what God has done for me." (2 Corinthians 12:7– 9) Why, you see, Paul was seeking. He wanted God's will on a matter. He wanted God's best not Paul's best. He needed direction.  He needed Discernment.

Some years ago  a dear friend, former lecturer in Greek for theological colleges in Western Australia, was diagnosed with lung cancer.

Ken Panton was about 60 ish.  He asked me to come pray with him  on the Monday before he had a further MRI on the Tuesday.

Already his oncologist had said there was no hope, and he'd be gone before the month was out.   It is rare for an oncologist to be that blunt.

We met to pray. Not that he get well. But that we might discern God's will in the matter of the cancer.  We prayed for half a day.  Then we had lunch.  We put it together. What do we think the Lord wanted?

Amazingly we came to the conclusion that God wanted him around a bit longer to care for his two year old grandson Kenneth, who had no one else to care for him.

We then prayed very shortly for healing.  He went  in the next day to Dr Ackerman.  "What are you doing?"

Ken said, I met with my pastor to pray.

"well I don't believe in prayer, but you better keep doing it. It has worked! Your 3 cm tumours have shrunk to less than a tenth of a millimeter."

We discerned God wanted Ken to be around for another two years. It was two years later that a different form of cancer quickly took Ken home to glory.

Sometimes God's answers are not what we expect.

Now, you may be sincere in your prayer, but God may not be wanting to give you that exact thing that you're asking God for because He has something better for you.

KNOCK  IT'S ABOUT DETERMINATION

So, when you pray, remember the desire factor: you ask and express your desire to God.     Then Seek Direction from God. Then keep on keeping on.

Now, He says, "Ask…seek, and…knock," (Matthew 7:7) and these are in the present tense, meaning, "Keep on asking. Keep on seeking. Keep on knocking. Don't pray and then quit." Luke 18:1: "And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint." (Luke 18:1)

Now, this scripture that I gave you from Matthew chapter 7, this promise is repeated

in Luke chapter 11 with a great illustration. So, you might want to turn to Luke 11:5–10 And he said to them, "Which of you who has a friend will go to him at midnight and say to him, 'Friend, lend me three loaves,6 for a friend of mine has arrived on a journey, and I have nothing to set before him';7 and he will answer from within, 'Do not bother me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed. I cannot get up and give you anything'?8 I tell you, though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his impudence he will rise and give him whatever he needs.9 And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.10 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.11 What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent;12 or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion?13 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!"

 

Jesus told the story of a widow. She didn't have anybody to stand up for her. And, somebody had cheated her financially, and she didn't have anything to live on apart from that. So, she went to the judge and said, "Judge, I want you to rectify this matter."

The judge said, "Go away. I'm not interested in this." Jesus said the judge didn't fear God or man. The woman came again and said to Mr. Judge, "You need to help me. I don't have any other help." The judge said, "I'm not interested in you. Go away." But, she kept coming over and over and over again. And, Jesus said, "Finally, the judge said, 'Lest this woman weary me, I'm going to adjudicate her case in the right way.'"

(Luke 18:1–6) Now, was Jesus saying that God is like an unjust judge? No. Again, what He is saying is there is a principle of persistence. It works in the world. It works in the neighborhood, and it works in the kingdom of heaven. We have to persist with God.

There was a story in the Bible about a woman who was a Canaanite woman. The Bible calls her a Syrophoenician woman. She had a daughter that was demon-­ possessed. She heard that Jesus was in the neighborhood. She thought this was her opportunity. She comes to Jesus, falls down in front of Him, and says, "Lord, have mercy upon my daughter. She's possessed with a devil." You know what Jesus said to her? "Look, I haven't come to you Canaanites. I've come to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Do you think that I'm going to take the children's bread and give it to dogs?"

You would think the woman would say, "Well, some Messiah He is! Some loving man He is! I've never been treated so rudely in my life!" You'd think she'd turn and go away. But you know what she said? She said, "You're right, Lord. That's what I am. I'm a Gentile dog." But, she said, "Lord, even the dogs get the crumbs that fall from the table, and I am under your table. And, if I'm a dog, I'm your dog, and I'm under your table." Jesus' heart broke. Now, He wasn't being cruel to that woman;; He was trying to teach her to persist in prayer. And, He said, "O woman, great is [your] faith." (Matthew 15:28)

He was showing to them all that for this woman faith was real.

And, that woman had her prayer answered and her darling daughter delivered from demons. (Matthew 15:21–28;; Mark 7:24–30)

Jacob was out at night seeking peace, seeking meaning to life, and the Bible says that an angel of the Lord pounced him. Now, can you imagine being asleep out in the wilderness and getting pounced by an angel? This angel, the angel of the Lord, was really the angel Jehovah, which was Jesus, a preincarnate Jesus. And, the Bible says that they wrestled all night. Now, can you imagine a man wrestling with an angel—the angel of Jehovah? And, the angel says to Jacob, "Let me go." (Genesis 32:26)  He could get away any time he wanted to. That fight was fixed. And, Jacob said, "I will not let thee go, [until you] bless me." (Genesis 32:26) And, the Lord says,

"Oh, that's great. You prevailed with God. I'm going to give you a new name, "Israel," because you have become a prince to prevail with God." (Genesis 32:24–30) Sometimes you have to ask. Sometimes you have to seek. Sometimes you have to knock and keep on knocking because God does business with those that mean business. Your answer may be direct.

Your answer may be different.

Your answer may be delayed.

1 Kings chapter 18, Elijah has prayed, and he shut up heaven. And, it would not rain on the earth for a number of years. And then, God tells Elijah, "You go tell Ahab that it's going to rain." (1 Kings 18:1) Now, I'm going to pick up the reading here—you can turn to it if you want to—in 1 Kings chapter 18, beginning in verse 41: "And Elijah"—he's an Old Testament prophet—"said to Ahab"—he's an Old Testament king—"Get up, eat and drink;; for there is a sound of abundance of rain"—by the way, it had not rained a drop when he said this. Not a drop—"So Ahab went up to eat and drink. And Elijah went up to the top of Carmel"— that's a mountain. I've been on top of Mount Carmel.

And Elijah went up to the top of Carmel; and he cast himself down upon the earth, and put his face between his knees, And said to his servant, Go up now, look toward the sea. And he went up, and looked, and said, There is nothing. And he said, Go again seven times"—now, here is a man who already knows. He's been told of God that it was going to rain. But, he prays once, twice, thrice, four times, five times, six times, seven times—"And it came to pass at the seventh time, that he said, Behold, there ariseth a little cloud out of the sea, like a man's hand. And he said, Go up, say unto Ahab, Prepare thy chariot, and get thee down that the rain stop thee not." (1 Kings 18:41–44)

 

Are we a praying church?" Ask yourself this question: "Am I a praying Christian?" You see, the Church is nothing but a composition of all of us. So, ask yourself this question: "Am I a praying Christian?"

"Ask…seek…knock." (Matthew 7:7) Rivet those three words in your mind. Etch them upon your heart: "Ask…seek…knock." (Matthew 7:7) Ask—that speaks of desire. Seek—that speaks of direction. Knock—that speaks of determination.

Prayerlessness is not only a missed opportunity;; it's a sin. Samuel said, "God forbid

that I should sin against the LORD in ceasing to pray for you." (1 Samuel 12:23) The

Desire.        Psalm 37:3  Trust in the LORD, and do good; Dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness. 4 Delight yourself also in the LORD, And He shall give you the desires of your heart. 5 Commit your way to the LORD, Trust also in Him,  And He shall bring it to pass.

Ask.  You are not going anywhere until you ask.

James 1:4:1-10 Yet you do not have because you do not ask.3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.4 Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God?

 

9 Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone?10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent?11 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!"   (Matthew 7:8–11) Now, why can we be so assured that God's going to answer our prayers?

God Is Good    Because God is good. Notice the logic of Jesus: "If evil men—if evil men—will take care of their children, how much more shall a good God answer the prayers of His children?" (Matthew 7:11)

God Is Wise      And, not only is God good, but God is wise. God is not going to give you something that would harm you. God's not going to give you stones if we ask for bread. And, thank God, He's not going to give us stones if we ask for stones. He's going to give us what we want. God is wise.

God Is Love       And, God is love. He calls Him "Our Father which [is] in heaven." (Matthew 6:9;; Luke 11:2).

 

13                   Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, "Who are these, clothed in white robes, and from where have they come?"14 I said to him, "Sir, you know." And he said to me, "These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

15                   "Therefore they are before the throne of God,

                             and serve him day and night in his temple;

                             and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence.

16                   They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore;

                             the sun shall not strike them,

                             nor any scorching heat.

17                   For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd,

                             and he will guide them to springs of living water,

              and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes."

 

Instead of waiting until you get sick and worn out before you speak the praise of Christ, while your heart is happiest, and your step is lightest, and your fortunes smile, and your pathway blossoms, and the overarching heavens drop upon you their benediction, speak the praises of Jesus.

The old Greek orators, when they saw their audiences inattentive and slumbering, had one word with which they would rouse them up to the greatest enthusiasm. In the midst of their orations, they would stop and cry out " Marathon !" and the people's enthusiasm would be unbounded. My hearers, though you may have been borne down with sin, and though trouble, and trials, and temptation may have come upon you, and you feel hardly like looking up, methinks there is one grand, royal, imperial word that ought to rouse your soul to infinite rejoicing, and that word is "Jesus!"

Jesus, who wiped away their tears ; Jesus, who stood by them when all else failed; Jesus, in whose name their marriage was consecrated, and whose resurrection has poured light upon the graves of their departed. "Do you know me?" said the wife to her aged husband who! was dying, his mind already having gone out. He said "No." And the son said, "Father, do you know me?" He said "No." The daughter said, "Father, do you know me?" He said "No." The minister of the Gospel standing by, said, "Do you know Jesus?" "Oh yes," he said, " I know him, ' chief among ten thousand, | the one altogether lovely!' " Blessed the Bible in which spectacled old age reads the promise, "I will never leave you, never forsake you !" Blessed the staff on which the worn-out pilgrim totters on toward the welcome of his Redeemer ! Blessed the hymn-book in which the faltering tongue and the failing eyes find Jesus, the old man's song! When my mother had been put away for the resurrection, we, the children, came to the old homestead, and each one wanted to take away a memento of her who had loved us so long, and loved us so well. I think I took away the best of all the mementoes; it was the old-fashioned, round-glass spectacles, through which she used to read her Bible, and I put them on, but they were too old for me, and I could not see across the room. But through them I could see back to childhood, and forward to the hills of heaven, where the ankles that were stiff with age have become limber again, and the spirit, with restored eye-sight, stands in rapt exultation, crying, " This is heaven !"

What shall we preach? What shall we read? Let it be Jesus, every body says; let it be Jesus. We must have one more song to-night. What shall it be, children? Aged men and women, what shall it be?' Young men and maidens, what shall it be? If you dared to break the silence, there would come up thousands of quick and jubilant voices, crying out, "Let it be Jesus! Jesus! Jesus!"

conqueror. Oh ! is there any song more appropriate for a Sabbath night than this song of Jesus? Let the passers- by in the street hear it, let the angels of God carry it amidst the thrones. Sound it out through the darkness

, Christ is the everlasting song. The very best singers sometimes get tired; the strongest throats sometimes get weary, and many who sang very sweetly do not sing now ; but I hope by the grace of God we will, after a while, go up and sing the praises of Christ where we will never be weary. You know there are some songs that are especially appropriate for the home circle. They stir the soul, they start the tears, they turn the heart in on itself, and keep sounding after the tune has stopped, like some cathedral-bell which, long after the tap of the brazen tongue has ceased, keeps throbbing on the air. Well, it will be a home song in heaven;

I wonder—Will you sing that song? Will I sing it? Not unless our sins are pardoned, and we learn now to sing the praise of Christ, will we ever sing it there. But oh, the grander scene when they shall come from the East, and from the West, and from the North, and from the South, "a great multitude that no man can number," into the temple of the skies, host beyond host, rank beyond rank, gallery above gallery, and Jesus shall stand before that great host to conduct the harmony, with his wounded hands and his wounded foot ! Like the voice of many waters, like the voice of mighty thunderings, they shall cry, "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive blessings, and riches, and honor, and glory, and power, world without end. Amen and Amen !" Oh, if my ear shall hear no other sweet sounds, may I hear that! If I join no other glad assemblage, may I join that.

 

"I saw One hanging on a tree,   In agony and blood,

Who fixed his languid eyes on me, As near his cross I stood.

' Oh, never till my latest breath  Will I forget that look

He seemed to charge me with his death, Though not a word he spoke.

And that is all for you ! Ob, can you not love him? Come around this laver, old and young. It is so burnished, you can see your sins; and so deep, you can wash them all away. Oh mourner, here bathe your bruised soul; and, sick one, here cool your hot temples in this laver. Peace! Do not- cry any more, dear soul! Pardon for all thy sins, comfort for all thy afflictions. The black cloud that hung thundering over Sinai has floated above Calvary, and burst into the shower of a Saviour's tears.

 

A picture of Waterloo a good while after the battle had passed, and the grass had grown all over the field. There was a dismounted cannon, and a lamb had come up from the pasture and lay sleeping in the mouth of that cannon. So the artist had represented it—a most suggestive thing. Then I thought how the war between God and the soul had ended ; and instead of the announcement, " The wages of sin is death," there came the words, " My peace I give unto thee ;" and amidst the batteries of the law that had once quaked with the fiery hail of death, I beheld the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world.

"I went to Jesus as I was,        Weary, and worn, and sad : •

I found in him a resting-place,     And he has made me glad."

"Jesus, lover of my soul,  Let me to thy bosom fly,

While the billows near me roll, While the tempest still is high.

Hide me, oh, my Saviour ! hide Till the storm of life is past,

My friends, be quick. You have no time to waste. Be quick, the days of your life are going. Be quick, the hour of your death is coming. Be quick, the time of grace has almost closed with some of you ; perhaps it may be closed with some of you to-night. Be quick, lest some paralysis seize upon you, just carried out, or you have no more time only time to say as he did, putting his hand upon his heart, "Oh! oh!" and you be gone!

May God Almighty forbid that any of you, my brethren or sisters, act the part of Felix and Drusilla, and put away this great subject. If you are going to be saved ever, why not begin to-night? Throw down your sins and take the Lord's pardon. Christ has been tramping after you many a day.

An Indian and a white man became Christians. The Indian, almost as soon as he heard the Gospel, believed and was saved ; but the white man struggled on in darkness for a long while before he found light. After their peace in Christ, the white man said to the Indian, " Why was it that I was kept so long in the darkness, and you. immediately found peace ?" The Indian replied, "I will tell you. A prince comes along, and he offers you a coat. You look at your coat, and you say, ' My coat is good enough,' and you refuse his offer ; but the prince comes along and he offers me the coat, and I look at my old blanket and I throw that away, and take his offer. Yon, sir," continued the Indian, "are clinging to your own righteousness, you think you are good enough, and you keep your own righteousness ; but I have nothing, nothing, and so when Jesus offers me pardon and peace, I simply take it." My hearer, why not now throw away the worn-out blanket of your sin and take the robe of a Saviour's righteousness—a robe so white, so fair, so lustrous, that no launderer on earth can whiten it? Oh, Shepherd, bring home the lost sheep ! Oh, Father,  give a welcoming kiss to the prodigal ! Oh, friend of Lazarus, to-night break down the door of the sepulchre, and say to all these dead souls as by irresistible fiat, "LIVE!  LIVE!"

"Jesus, lover of my soul, Let me to thy bosom fly,

While the billows near me roll, While the tempest still is high.

Hide me, oh, my Saviour ! hide Till the storm of life is past,

Safe into the haven guide; Oh, receive my soul at last."

 

 

How was it that so many thousands came to Jesus?  Because those men did nothing else but invite them to come.

They spent their lifetime uttering invitations, and they did not mince matters either ? Where did John Bunyan's pilgrim start from ? Did he start from some easy, quiet, cozy place ? No ; if you have read John Bunyan's " Pilgrim's Progress.~ you know where he started from, and that was the City of Destruction, where every sinner starts from. Do you know what Livingstone, the Scotch minister, was preaching about in Scotland when three hundred souls, under one sermon, came to Christ ? He was preaching about the human heart as unclean, and hard, and stony. Do you know what George Whitefield was preaching about in his first sermon, when fifteen souls saw the salvation of God? It was this : "Ye must be born again." Do you know what is the last subject he ever preached upon ? " Flee the wrath to come." Oh ! that the Lord God would come into our pulpits, and prayer-meetings, and Christian circles, and bring us from our fine rhetoric and profound metaphysics, and our elegant hair-splitting, to the old-fashioned well of Gospel Invitation.

 

CHRIST is everything in the great plan of Redemption-

We are slaves ; Christ gives deliverance to the captive.

We are thirsty ; Christ is the river of salvation to slake our thirst.

We are hungry ; Jesus says, " I am the bread of life."

We are tossed on a sea of troubles ; Jesus comes over it, saying, " It is I, be not afraid."

We are in darkness; Jesus says, "I am the bright and the morning-star."

We are sick ; Jesus is the balm of Gilead.

We are dead ; hear the shrouds rend and the grave hillocks heave as he cries, " I am the resurrection and the life ;

he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall live."

We want justification ; " Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ."

We want to exercise faith ; " Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved."

I want to get from under condemnation ; " There is now, therefore, no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus." The cross—He carried it. The flames of hell—He suffered them. The shame—He endured it. The crown—He won it. Heights of heaven sing it, and worlds of light to worlds of light all round the heavens cry, " Glory, glory!"

"Christ is my Hope, my Strength and Guide; For me He bled, and groaned and died :

He is my Sun to give me light, He is my soul's supreme delight.

My Saviour, Brother, and my friend;  On Him alone I now depend."

 

How many thorns he hath plucked out of human agony ! Oh ! He knows too well what it is to carry a cross, not to help us carry ours. He knows too well what it is to climb the mountain, not to help us up the steep.

" Christ is my king to rule and bless       And all my trouble to redress ;

He's my salvation and my all,         Whate'er on earth shall me befall."

 

" I know that my Redeemer lives,      What comfort this sweet sentence gives !

He lives, He lives, who once was dead.     He lives, my ever-living Head !

" He lives to grant me daily breath.        He lives, and I shall conquer death.

He lives, my mansion to prepare,        He lives, to bring me safely there.

" He lives, all giory tc His name,          He lives, my Jesus still the same ',

Oh, the sweet joy this sentence gives,   I know that my Redeemer lives ! "