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SUBJECT: 28 JOH 11:22 Even Now
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Even Now
by
C. H. SPURGEON
1834-1892
February 8th, 1891
"Even now."-- Joh_11:22
I hope that there are a great many persons here who are interested in
the souls of those around them. We shall certainly never exercise faith
concerning those for whose salvation we have no care. I trust, also,
that we are diligent in looking after individuals, especially those who
are amongst our own family and friends. This is what Martha did; her
whole care was for her brother. It is often easier to have faith that
Christ can save sinners in general, than to believe that he can come
into our own home, and save some particular member of our
household. But, oh, the joy when this comes to pass; when we are able
to kneel beside some of our loved ones, and rejoice with them in being
made alive by the power of the Holy Ghost! We cannot expect to have
this privilege, however, unless like Martha we send our prayers to
Jesus, and go to meet him, and tell him of our need. In the presence of
Christ it seems very natural to trust him even at the worst extremity. It
is when we are at our wits' end that he delights to help us. When our
hopes seem to be buried, then it is that God can give a resurrection.
When our Isaac is on the altar, then the heavens are opened, and the
voice of the Eternal is heard. Art thou giving way to despair
concerning thy dear friend? Art thou beginning to doubt thy Saviour,
and to complain of his delay? Be sure that Jesus will come at the right
time, though he must be the judge of which is the best time for him to
appear.
Martha had a fine faith. If we all had such an honest belief in Christ as
she had, many a man, who now lies dead in his sins, would, ere long,
hear that voice which would call him forth from his tomb, and restore
him unto his friends. Martha's faith had to do with a dreadful case.
Her brother was dead, and had been buried, but her faith still lived;
and in spite of all things which went against her, she believed in
Christ, and looked to him for help in her extremity. Her faith went to
the very edge of the gulf, and she said, "But I know, that even now,
whatever thou wilt ask of God, God will give it to thee."
Still, Martha had not so much faith as she thought she had. But a few
hours after she had confessed her confidence in the power of the Lord
Jesus, or perhaps it was only a few minutes, she stood at the grave of
her brother, and evidently doubted the wisdom of him she professed to
trust. She objected to the stone being removed; and, strong in the
admitted facts of the case, she urged her reason and said, "Lord, by
this time he stinketh." Well, but, Martha, you said, not very long ago,
"I know that even now Christ can interpose." Yes, she said it, and she
believed it in the way in which most of us believe; but when her faith
was sharply tried by a matter of fact, she did not appear to have had all
the faith she professed. I suspect this also is true of most of us. We
often fancy our confidence in Christ is much stronger than it really is.
I think I have told you of my old friend, Will Richardson, who said,
when he was seventy-five years of age, that it was a very curious thing,
that all the winter through, he had thought he should like to be a-
harvesting, or out in the hay-field, because he felt so strong. He
imagined that he could so as much as any of the youngsters. "But," he
said, "do you know, Mr. Spurgeon, when the summer comes, I do not
get through the haymaking; and when the autumn comes, I find I have
not sufficient strength for reaping?" So it often is in spiritual things.
When we are not called upon to bear the trouble, we feel wonderfully
strong; but when the trial comes, very much of our boasted faith is
gone in smoke. Take heed that ye examine well your faith; let it be
true and real, for you will need it all.
However, Christ did not take Martha at her worst, but at her best.
When our Lord says, "According to your faith be it unto you," he does
not mean "According to your faith in its ebb," but "According to your
faith in its flood." He reads the thermometer at its at its highest point,
not at its lowest; not even taking the "mean temperature" of our trust.
He gives us credit for our quickest pace; not counting our slowest, nor
seeking to discover our average speed in this matter of faith. Christ did
for Martha all she could have asked or believed; her brother did rise
again, and he was restored to her, and to his friends. In thy case, too,
O thou trembling, timorous believer, the Lord Jesus will take thee at
thy best, and he will do for thee great things, seeing that thou desirest
to believe greatly, and that thy prayer is, "Lord, I believe; help thou
mine unbelief!"
The point upon which Martha chiefly rested, when she expressed her
faith, was the power of Christ in intercession with his Father. "I
know," said she, "that, even now, whatsoever thou wilt ask of God,
God will give it thee." Since the omnipotence of God could be claimed,
she felt no anxiety as to the greatness of the request. "Whatsoever" was
asked could easily be gained, if it was only asked by him who never
was denied. Beloved in the Lord, our Christ is still alive, and he is still
pleading. Beloved in the Lord, our Christ is still alive, and he is still
pleading. Can you believe, even now, that whatever he shall ask of
God, God will give it him, and give it you for his dear Son's sake?
What an anchorage is the intercession of Christ! "He is able also to
save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever
liveth to make intercession for them." Here is a grand pillar to rest the
weight of our souls upon: "He ever liveth to make intercession for
them." Surely, we may have great faith in him who never wearies, and
who never fails; who lives, indeed, for no other purpose than to plead
for those who trust in his dying love, and in his living power. "Who is
he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea, rather, that is risen
again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh
intercession for us." Fall back upon the intercessory power of Christ in
every time of need, and you will find comfort that will never fail you.
It is a grand thing to have faith for the present, not bemoaning the
past, nor dreaming of some future faith which we hope may yet be
ours. The present hour is the only time we really possess. The past is
gone beyond recall. If it has been filled with faith in God, we can no
more live on that faith now than we can live to-day on this bread we
ate last week. If, on the contrary, the past has been marred by our
unbelief, that is no reason why this moment should not witness a
grand triumph of trust in the faithful Saviour. Let us not excuse our
present lack of faith by the thought of some future blessing. No
confidence which we may learn to put in Christ, in the days to come,
can atone for our present unbelief. If we ever mean to trust him, why
should we not do so now, since he is as worthy of our belief now as he
will ever be, and since what we miss now we miss beyond recall.
"The present, the present, is all thou hast
For thy sure possessing,
Like the patriarch's angel, hold it fast,
Till it gives its blessing."
In this verse, "I know, that even now, whatsoever thou wilt ask of God,
God will give it to thee," I want to fix your attention only on the two
words, "Even now." We have just sung--
"Pass me not, O tender Saviour,
Let me love and cling to thee;
I am longing for thy favour;
When thou comest, call for me:
Even me."
Our hymn was "Even me." The sermon is to be "Even now." If you
have been singing "Even me," and so applying the truth to your own
case, say also, with an energy of heart that will take no denial, "Even
now," and listen with earnest expectation to that gospel which is
always in the present tense: "While it is said, To-day if ye will hear his
voice, harden not your heart, as in the provocation." Remember, too,
that this is not only the preacher's word, for the Holy Ghost saith, "To-
day": "Even now."
I shall use these words, first, in reference to those who are concerned
about the souls of others, as Martha was about her dead brother.
Believe that Christ can save even now. Then I shall speak to you who
are somewhat concerned about your own souls. You believe, perhaps,
that Christ can save. I want you to be persuaded that he can save you
even now; that is to say, at this exact hour and minute, going by the
clock, while you hear these words, even now, Christ can forgive; even
now, Christ can save; even now, Christ can bless.
I. First, CAN WE BELIEVE THIS WITH REFERENCE TO OTHERS? If you are in the
same position as Martha, I can bring out several points of likeness which
should encourage you to persevere. You, mother, have prayer for your boy;
you, father, have pleaded for your girl; you, dear wife, have been much in
prayer for your husband; you beloved teacher, have frequently brought your
class before God; and yet there is a bad case pressing upon your mind, and
your heart is heavy about some dear one, whose condition seems hopeless. I
want you to believe that now, even now, Christ can grant your prayer, and
save that soul; that now, even now, he can give you such a blessing
that the past delay shall be more than recompensed to you.
There is one, for instance, in whom we are deeply interested, and we
can say that the case has cost great sorrow. So Martha could have said
of Lazarus. "Blessed master", she might have said, "my brother took
the fever"--(for I should think it was a fever that he had)--"and I
watched him; I brought cold water from the well, and I laved his
burning brow; I was by his bedside all night. I never took off my
clothes. Nobody knows how my heart was wrung with anguish as I
saw the hot beaded drops upon his brow, and tried to moisten his
parched tongue and lips. I sorrowed as though I was about to die
myself; but in spite of all that, I believe even now that thou canst help
me; even now." Alas! There are many griefs in the world like this. A
mother says, "Nobody knows what I have suffered through that son of
mine. I shall die of a broken heart because of his conduct." "No one
can tell," says the father, "what grief that daughter of mine has caused
me. I have sometimes wished that she had never been born." There
have been many, many such stories told into my ear, in which a
beloved one has been the cause of anguish and agony untold to
gracious, loving hearts. To those so sorely troubled I now speak. Can
you believe that even now the living Intercessor is "mighty to save"? It
may be that you are at this moment trembling on the verge of the
blessing you so long have sought. God give you faith to grasp it "even
now"!
With other persons we are met with a fresh difficulty. The case has
already disappointed us. That is how some of you have found it, is it
not? "Yes," you say, "I have prayed long for a dear friend, and I
believed, some time ago, that my prayer was heard, and that there was
a change for the better; indeed, there was an apparent change; but it
came to nothing." You are just like Martha. She kept saying to herself,
"Christ will come. Brother is very ill, but Jesus will come before he
dies; I know he will. It cannot be that he will stay away much longer;
and when he comes, Lazarus will soon be well." Day after day, Mary
and she sent their messenger to look toward the Jordan, to see if Jesus
was not coming. But he did not come. It must have been a terrible
disappointment to both these sisters; enough to stagger the strongest
faith that had ever had in the sympathy of Christ. But Martha got the
better of it, and she said, "Even now, though disappointed so bitterly, I
believe that thou canst so whatsoever thou wilt." Learn from Martha,
my discouraged brother. You thought that your friend was converted,
but he wanted to go back again; you thought that there was a real work
of grace upon his heart, but it turned out to be a mere disappointment,
and disappeared, like the mist of the sun. But can you not believe over
the head of your disappointment, and say, "I believe even now, even
now"? Blessed shall your faith be, if it gets so far.
Perhaps further difficulties have met us. We have attempted to help
someone, and the case has proved our helplessness. "Ah, yes," says
one, "that exactly describes me. I never felt so helpless in my life. I
have done all that I can do, and it amounts to nothing. I have been
careful in my example. I have been prayerful in my words. I have been
very patient and longsuffering. I have tried to induce my beloved one
to go and listen to the gospel here and there. I have put holy books in
his way, and all the while, I have seized opportunities to plead with
him, often with tears in my eyes, and I can do nothing! I am dead
beat." Yes, that is just where Martha got to; she had done everything
and nothing seemed to be of the least use. None of the medicines she
applied seemed to soothe the sufferer. She had gone down to the
village, perhaps to the home of Simon the leper, who was a friend of
hers, and he possibly advise some new remedies; but nothing seemed
to make the least difference. Her brother grew worse and worse, until
she saw that, though she had nursed him back to health the last time
he had been ill, she was now utterly powerless. Then he died. Yet,
even though things had gone as far as that, she had faith in Christ. In
like manner, your case is beyond your skill; but you cannot believe
that, even now, the end of nature will be the beginning of grace; can
you not even now feel that you shall find that word true, "He shall not
fail"? Christ never did fail yet, and he never will. When all the doctors
give a patient up, the Great Physician can step in and heal. Can you
believe concerning your friend "even now"?
But perhaps you are in a worse plight still. The case has been given
up. I think I hear one kind, gracious soul, whose hope has been
crushed, say, "Well, sir, that is just what we have come to about my
boy. We held a little family meeting, and said we must get him to go
away to Australia, if we can. If he will only go to America, or
somewhere abroad, it will be a relief to have him out of our sight. He
keeps coming home intoxicated, and gets brought before the
magistrates. He is a disgrace to us. He is a shame to the name he bears.
We have given him up." Martha had come to this. She had given her
brother up, and had actually buried him; yet she believed in the power
of Christ. Ah, there are many people that are buried alive! I do not
know that such a thing ever happens in the cemetery; but I know it
happens in our streets and homes. Many are buried morally, and given
up by us before God gives them up. And, somehow, it is often the
given-up people that God delights to bless. Can you believe that even
now, even now, prayer can be heard, that even now the Holy Ghost can
change the nature, and that even now Christ can save the soul?
Believest thou this? I shall rejoice if thou canst, and thou too shalt
rejoice ere long.
But there is still a lower depth. Here is one who is much concerned
about an individual, and the case is loathsome. "Though we loved him
once," he says, "his character has now become such that it is
pestilential to the family. He leads others astray. We cannot think of
what he has done without the very memory of his life spreading a taint
over our conscience, and over our mind." There are persons alive in
the world, who are just masses of living putridity. There may be such
here. I should be glad if a word I said could reach them. It is a
shocking thing that there are men and women, made in the image of
God, with talents and ability, with capacity and conscience, who,
nevertheless, seem to live for nothing else but to indulge their
licentious passions, and to lead others into vices which else they had
never known. There must come an awful day of reckoning to such
when the Christ of God shall sit upon the throne, and shall weigh
before all men the secret doings of libertines, of debauched men, and
depraved women. If any of you have such a one related to you, can you
believe that even now Christ can raise that one? Yours is just the same
sort of case as Martha had. She could have said, "Brother is buried;
worse than that, he stinketh." She did not like to say that of dear
Lazarus, her own brother, but she could not help saying it. And there
are some men of whom we are compelled to say, no matter how much
our love seeks to shield them, that their character stinks. But can you
still believe that, even now, there is hope that God can intervene, and
that grace can save? Why, my dear friend, you and I know that it is so!
I do believe it; we must all believe it. If it comes to a case very near
and dear to you, and you begin to be a little bit staggered, recollect
what you used to be yourselves--not openly so depraved, perhaps, but
inwardly, quite the same, and take hope for these foul men and women
from the remembrance of what you were: "and such were some of you;
but ye are washed." When John Newton used to preach at St. Mary
Woolnoth, he always believed in the possibility of the salvation of the
worst of his hearers; for he had been himself one of the vilest of the
vile. When he was very old, and they said, "Dear Mr. Newton, you are
too old to preach; you had better not go into the pulpit now," he said,
"What! Shall the old African blasphemer, who has been saved by
grace, leave off preaching the gospel while there is a breath in his
body? Never." I think while there is breath in the body of some of us,
we must go on telling the gospel; for, if it saved us, it can saved the
worst of sinners. We are bound to believe that even now Christ can
save even the most horrible and the most vile.
"His blood can make the foulest clean,
His blood availed for me."
Perhaps there is even a more desperate difficulty still with reference to
someone whom we would fain see living for God. The case is beyond
our reach. "Yes," that brother quickly answers, "now you have come to
my trouble. I do not even know where my boy is; he ran away, and we
have not heard from him for years. How can I help him?" Why, believe
that "even now" Christ can speak to him, and save him! He can send
his grace where we can send our love. The great difficulty which lies
like a stone at the door of the sepulchre will not prevent him speaking
the life-giving word. He has all forces at his command, and when he
says the word, the stone shall be rolled away, and the son, that is lost
shall be found; the dead shall be made alive again. Though you cannot
reach your son, or your daughter, Christ can meet with them. "the
Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither does his ear
heavy, that it cannot hear." Though your prodigal boy or your
wandering girl be at the end of the earth, Christ can reach them, and
save them. "Have faith in God." "Even now" Christ can aid you.
"Faith, mighty faith, the promise sees,
And looks to God alone,
Laughs at impossibilities,
And says, 'It shall be done.'"
I know there are some Christian people who have drifted into the
terribly wicked state of giving up their relatives as hopeless. There was
a brother here, who is now in heaven, a good, earnest Christian man,
whose son had treated him very shockingly indeed, and the father,
justly indignant, felt it right to give his son up. He had often tried to
help him, but the young man was so scandalous a scapegrace that I did
not wonder that the old man turned him away. But one night, as I was
preaching here, I spoke in something like the same way in which I
have spoken now; and the next morning the old man's arm was about
his child's neck. He could not help himself; he felt he must go and find
his son out, and seek again to reclaim him. It seemed to have been the
appointed time for that boy's salvation, for it pleased God that within a
few months that son died, and he passed away with a good hope,
through grace, that he had been brought to his Saviour's feet by his
father's love. If any of you have a very bad son, go after him, seeking,
until by the grace of God, you shall find him. And you that have
grown hopeless about your relatives, you must try not to give them up.
If other people cast them off, you must not, for they are allied to you by
the ties of blood. Seek them out. You are the best person in the world
to seek them, and the most likely to find them, if you can believe that
even now, when the worst has come to the worst, "even now,"
almighty grace can step in, and save the lost soul.
Oh, that some here may have faith to claim at this moment the
salvation of their friends! May desire be wrought into expectancy, and
hope become certainty! Like Jacob at Jabbok, my we lay hold of God,
saying, "I will not let thee go, except thou bless me." To such faith the
Lord will give a quick response. He that will not be denied shall not be
denied. My friend, Hudson Taylor, who has done such a wonderful
work for China, is an instance of this. Brought up in a godly home, he,
as a young man, tried to imitate the lives of his parents, and failing in
his own strength to make himself better, he swung to the other
extreme, and began to entertain skeptical notions. One day, when his
mother was from home, a great yearning after her boy possessed her,
and she went up to her room to plead with God that "even now" he
would save him. If I remember aright, she said that she would not
leave the room until she had the assurance that her boy would be
brought to Christ. At length her faith triumphed, and she rose quite
certain that all was well, and that "even now" her son was saved. What
was he doing at that time? Having half an hour to spare, he wandered
into his father's library, and aimlessly took down one book after
another to find some short and interesting passage to divert his mind.
He could not find what he wanted in any of the books, so, seeing a
narrative tract, he took it up with the intention of reading the story,
and putting it down where the sermon part of it began. As he read, he
came to the words "the finished work of Christ", and almost at the
very moment in which his mother, who was miles away, claimed his
soul of God, light came into his heart. He saw that it was by the
finished work of Christ that he was to be saved; and kneeling in his
father's library, he sought and found the life of God. Some days
afterwards, when his mother returned, he said to her, "I have some
news to tell you." "Oh, I know what it is!" she answered, smiling,
"You have given yourself to God." "Who told you?" he asked in
astonishment. "God told me," she said, and together they praised him,
who, at the same moment, gave faith to the mother, and the life to the
son, and who has since made him such a blessing to the world. It was
the mother's faith, claiming the blessing "even now", that did it. I tell
you this remarkable incident that many others may be stirred up to the
same immediate and importunate desire for the salvation of their
children and relatives. There are some things we must always pray for
with submission as to whether it is the will of God to bestow them
upon us: but for the salvation of men and women we may ask without
fear. God delights to save and to bless; and when the faith is given to
us to expect an immediate answer to such a prayer, thrice happy we
are. Seek such faith even now, I beseech you, "even now."
II. But, in the second place, I want to speak very earnestly to any here
who are concerned about their own souls. Jesus came to save you "even
now." CAN WE BELIEVE THIS FOR OURSELVES? Can you expect
the Lord, even while you hear these words, to speak to you the word of
power, and bring you forth from your sleep of sin?
For some of you, the time is late, very late; yet it is not too late. You
are getting into years, my friend. I want you to believe that even now
Christ can save you. I often notice the number of old people who come
to the Tabernacle. I am glad to see the aged saints; but amongst so
many elderly people, no doubt, there are some unsaved sinners, whose
grey hairs are not a crown of glory, but a fool's cap. But, however old
you are, though you are sixty, seventy, eighty or even ninety years of
age, yet "even now" Christ can give you life. Blessed be God for that!
But it is not altogether the years that trouble you; it is you sins. As I
have already said, if you have gone to the very extremity of sin, you
may believe that, after all those years of wandering, the arms of free
grace are still open to receive you "even now." There is an old proverb,
"It is never too late to mend." It is ever too late for us to mend
ourselves, but it is never too late for Christ to mend us. Christ can
make us new, and it is never too late for him to do it. If you come to
him, and trust him, he will receive you "even now."
By the longsuffering of God, there is a time left to you, in which you
may turn to him. What a thousand mercies it is that "even now" is a
time of mercy to you: it might have been the moment of you
everlasting doom! You have been in accidents; you have been within
an inch of the grave many times; you have been ill, seriously ill; you
have been well-nigh given up for dead; and here you are yet alive, but
still an enemy to God! Plucked by his hand from the fire and flood,
and, mayhap, from battle; delivered from fever and cholera, and still
ungrateful, still rebelling, still spending the life that grace has lent you
in resisting the love of God! Long years ago you should have believed
in Christ, but the text is "even now." Do not begin to say, "I believe
that God could have saved me years ago;" there is no faith in that. Do
not meet my earnest plea, by saying, "I believe that God can save me
under such-and-such conditions." Believe that he can save you now, up
in the top gallery there, just as you are. You came in here careless and
thoughtless; yet, even now, he can save you. Away yonder, quite a man
of the world, free and easy, destitute of all religious inclinations
though you may be, he can save you even now. O God, strike many a
man down, as thou did Saul of Tarsus, and change their hearts by
thine own supreme love, as thou canst do it, even now, on the very
spot where they sit or stand.
But though God waits to be gracious to you, though you have yet time
to repent, remember, it is but a time, therefore seize it. Your
opportunity will not last for ever. I believe that even now God can
save; but if you reject Christ, there will come a time when salvation
will be impossible. On earth, as long as a man desires to be saved, he
may be saved: while there is life there is hope. I believe that, if a man's
breath were going from his body, if he could then look to Christ, he
would live. But--
"There are no acts of pardon passed
In the cold grave, to which we haste;
But darkness, death, and long despair,
Reign in eternal silence there."
Do not venture on that last leap without Christ; but even now, ere the
clock strikes another time, fly to Jesus. Trust him "even now."
It is a time of hope. Even now, there is still every opportunity and
every preparation for the sinner's salvation. "Behold, now is the
accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation." Shall I give you
some reasons for believing that "even now" is a time of hope? There
are many good arguments which may be brought forward, in order to
banish the thought of despair.
First, the gospel is still preached. The old-fashioned gospel is not dead
yet. There are a great many who would like to muzzle the mouths of
God's ministers; but they never will. The old gospel will live when
they are dead; and, because it is still preached to you, you may believe
and live. What is the old gospel? It is that, seeing you are helpless to
save yourself, or bring yourself back to God, Christ came to restore
you; that he took those sins of yours, which were enough to sink you to
hell, and bore them on the cross, that he might bring you to heaven. If
you will but trust him, even now, he will deliver you from the curse of
the law; for it is written, "He that believeth on him is not condemned."
If you will trust him, even now, he will give you a life of blessedness,
which will never end; for again it is written, "He that believeth on the
Son hath everlasting life." Because that gospel is preached, there is
hope for you. When there is no hope, there will be no presentation of
the gospel. God must, by an edict, suspend the preaching of the gospel
ere he can suspend the fulfillment of the gospel promise to every soul
that believeth. Since there is a gospel, take it; take it now, even now.
God help you to do so!
In the second place, I know there is hope now, "even now"; forthe
Christ still lives. He rose from the dead, no more to die, and he is as
strong as ever. "I am he that liveth and was dead." He saith, "an
behold, I am alive for evermore. Amen." These words were spoken to
the Apostle John, and when he saw him, he said that "His head and his
hairs were white like wool, as white as snow;" but when the spouse
saw him, she said, "His locks are busy, and black as a raven." Yet both
saw truly. John's vision of the white hair was to show that Christ is the
ancient of days; but the view of the spouse was to show his everlasting
youth, his unceasing strength and power to save. If there is any
difference in him, Christ is to-day more mighty to save than he was
when Martha saw him. He had not then completed the work of
salvation, but he has perfectly accomplished it now; and therefore
there is hope for everyone who trusts in him. My Lord has gone up
yonder where a prayer will find him, with the keys of death and hell
jingling at his girdle, and with the omnipotence of God in his right
hand. If you believe on him, by his "eternal power and Godhead" he
will save you, and save you even now, on the spot, before you leave
this house.
Moreover, I know that this is a time of hope, in the next place, because
the precious blood still has power. All salvation is through the blood
of the Lamb. Still--
"There is a fountain filled with blood,
Drawn from Immanuel's veins;"
and still, "even now,"--
"Sinners, plunged beneath the flood,
Lose all their guilty stains."
The endless efficacy of the atoning sacrifice is the reason why you may
come and believe in Jesus, "even now." If that blood had diminished in
its force, I should not dare to speak as I do; but I can, "even now," say
with confidence,--
"Dear dying Lamb, thy precious blood
Shall never lose its power,
Till all the ransomed church of God
Be saved to sin no more."
How many have already entered into glory by the blood of the Lamb!
When a man comes to die, nothing else will do for him but this: our
own works are a poor staff for us when we pass through the river. All
those who are now in the land of light have but one confidence, and
but one song: they stand upon the merit of Jesus Christ, and they
praise the Lamb who was slain, by whose blood they have been
cleansed and sanctified. There is no other way of salvation but that.
"Even now: that blood has virtue to take away your sin. Christ is a
sufficient Saviour, because his death has unexhausted power. Believe
that he can save you "even now."
Again, I would remind you that "even now" is a time of hope to you
because the Spirit still can renew. He is yet at work, regenerating and
sanctifying. He came down at Pentecost to dwell with his people, and
has never gone back again. He is still in the church. Sometimes we
feel his mighty power more than oat other times, but he is always at
work. Oh, you that do not know anything about the power of the Holy
Ghost, let me tell you that this is the most wonderful phenomenon that
can ever be observed! Those of us, who have seen and known his
mighty energy, can bear testimony to it. In my retirement, at Menton,
during the last few weeks, if you had seen me, you would have found
me sitting every morning, at half-past nine o'clock, at my little table,
with my Bible, just reading a chapter, and offering prayer, my family
prayer with the little group of forty to fifty friends, who gathered for
that morning act of worship. There they met, and the Spirit of God
was manifestly moving among them, converting, cheering,
comforting. It was because of no effort of mine; it was simply the
Word, attended by the Spirit of God, binding us together, and binding
us all to Christ. And here, in this house, for seven-and-thirty years,
have I in all simply preached this old-fashioned gospel. I have just
kept to that one theme; content to know nothing else amongst men;
and where are they that preached new gospels? They have been like
the mist upon the mountain's brow. They came, and they have gone.
And so it will always be with those who preach anything but the Word
of God; for nothing will abide but the mount itself, the everlasting
truth of the gospel to which the Holy Ghost bears witness. That same
Holy Ghost is able to give you a new heart "even now", to make you a
new creature in Christ Jesus at this moment. Believest thou this?
Once more. I know that "even now" Christ can save you, and I pray
you to believe it, for the Father is still waiting to receive returning
prodigals. Still, as of old, the door is open, and the best robe hangs in
the hall, ready to be put upon the shoulders of the son who comes back
from the far country, even though he returns reeking with the odour of
the swine-trough. How longingly the Father looks along the road, to
see whether at length some of you are turning homeward! Ah! did you
but know the joy that awaits those who come, and the feast which
would load the welcoming table, you would "even now" say, "I will
arise and go to my Father." You should have returned long ago; but
blessed be his love, which "even now" waits to clasp you to his heart!
Last of all, faith is but the work of a moment. Believe and live. Thou
hast nothing to do; thou needest no preparations: come as thou art,
without a single plea, but that he bids thee to come. Come now, "even
now." If Christ were far away, the time that is left to some of you
might be too short to reach him; if there were many things which first
of all you had to do, your life might close before they were half done; if
faith had to grow strong before it received salvation, you might be in
the place of eternal despair before your faith had time to be more than
a mere mustard seed. But Christ is not far away; he is in our midst, he
is by your side. You have nothing to do before you trust him, he has
done it all; and, however weak your faith, if it but comes in contact
with Christ, it will convey you to instant blessing. "Even now" you
may be saved for ever; for--
"The moment a sinner believes,
And trusts in his crucified God,
His pardon at one he receives,
Redemption in full, through his blood."
Surely all these are sufficient reasons why "even now" is a time of
hope to you; may it also be a time of blessing! It shall be so if thou wilt
but at this instant cast thyself on Christ. He says to thee that, if thou
wilt but believe, thou shalt see the glory of God. Martha saw that
glory. Thou shalt see it too if thou hast like precious faith.
I long that God would give me some souls to-night, on this first
occasion when I have met an evening congregation since my return
from the sunny South. I desire earnestly that he would set the bells of
heaven ringing because sinners have returned, and heirs of glory have
been born into the family of grace. I stirred you up to pray this
morning. Pray mightily that this word to-night, simple but pointed,
may be blessed to many.
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