My intention is rather to utilise than to expound the text.
I. The first counsel is--GIVE UP.
1. With some of you it is imperative that you give up your prejudices. So have you mis-estimated true religion, that you have been accustomed to denounce it as cant, and to declaim the professors of it as hypocrites. Give up this blind bias, and give the Gospel a fair hearing. Should it turn out to be an imposture, you will at least be the better able to expose its fictions, after having studied its facts; but should it happen to be genuine and true, how ill will it be for you if you continue to despise it!
2. Give up in like manner your selfrighteousness.
3. Give up your sins. You cannot be saved from their consequence if you cling to their company.
4. Give up delays.
5. I might well say to some, give up quibbling. You have never yet come to the point with your own conscience. You have always been so deft at finding out knots and raising questions. What is the good of it? If you are never saved till you get every problem solved, you will never be saved at all. If a vessel were breaking in pieces on yonder shore, and the rocket apparatus had fired a rope into the middle of the vessel, would you not think the crew to be insane if they said to one another, “We do not understand how it is that the rocket apparatus manages this”? Oh but they just twist the rope round the mast, get a holdfast, and begin to swing themselves ashore.
6. Give up, you troubled ones; give up despondency; give up the thought that there is no hope; give up the suspicion that Jesus cannot forgive.
II. KEEP NOT BACK.
1. Keep not back from attending the means of grace.
2. When you do attend the house of the Lord, keep not back from a simple obedience of the Gospel.
3. When you have looked to Christ, keep not back from the mercyseat. You will begin to pray, perhaps, and find yourself stammering and trembling, but keep not back. Your old sins will half choke you in the recollection of them, but keep not back. If anybody saw you trying to pray they would say, “What you, you old wretch, you trying to pray!” Oh! but keep not back. ‘Tis mercy calls you; come and pray.
4. When you have really trusted in Christ, and have learned to pray, then Keep not back from coming forward and making a profession of your faith in Jesus. Be prompt, if you would be precise in serving the Lord. “I made haste,” said David, “and delayed not to keep Thy commandments.”
5. To those who are saved, and have avowed their conversion, let me say, Keep not back from the Lord’s service. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Bring My sons from far
The Church encouraged and exhorted
These words were spoken with the view of encouraging the Church: “Fear not; for I am with thee: I will bring thy seed from the east,” etc. The Lord loves His Church, and He loves to see her full of courage and confidence. He intends that His cause and kingdom shall prosper in the world. God has leisure.
I. THE LORD HAS CHILDREN FAR AWAY. “Bring My sons from far, and My daughters from the ends of the earth”
1. Some are far away in the matter of locality. They are not dwelling where the Gospel is preached; some of them are where roads have not as yet been made, and the commerce of civilisation has not come.
2. He also has many sons and daughters who are far off in a worse sense than this; they are far off as to character, as opposed to God as darkness is to light.
3. There are some who are far off in another sense; it is not so much character that puts them far off from God, as their not being in the way of hearing the Gospel. The kingdom of God has come nigh to most of you. But there are great numbers of persons, even in our own land, who are not in the way of hearing the Gospel. It happens, sometimes, that the more unlikely ones are the first to be converted.
4. The Lord Jesus Christ saves by His grace some who are far off in their own apprehension. It is not really true that they have been more sinful than others, but they think they have. So you see that the Lord has children who are far off from Him in several senses. What does a father or a mother do when the son is a long way off? Why, they like to hear all they can about him; especially, they love to hear from him,--to get a letter or a message from their boy himself. Well, now, our Heavenly Father watches over all His poor wandering children.
II. THE LORD IS BRINGING HOME SOME OF THESE FAR-OFF ONES. In our text He gives this command, “Bring My sons from far.” To whom is this command spoken? I think we shall be right if we say that it is spoken much in the same way in which the Lord said, “Let there be light,” “and there was light.” His fiat did the deed. So God says, “Bring My sons from far,” and therefore we may be sure that they will be brought to Him.
1. Providence obeys this command. Everything that happens in the mysterious movements of Providence is operating for the bringing in of His chosen. The world is all scaffolding; the Church of Christ is the true building. The like is true on a small scale. All manner of afflictions that come to men are sent to touch their conscience, and to bring them back to God.
2. This seems to me to be a charge given to all God’s people, as well as to providence, “‘Bring My sons from far.’ You know Me; you love Me; so, look after My wandering children.”
3. But this command would be of no force unless my text were a fiat. In consistency with this command, the Holy Spirit goes forth, in ways known to Himself, and He brings God’s sons from far, and His daughters from the ends of the earth.
III. THIS IS SAID FOR THE ENCOURAGEMENT OF GOD’S CHURCH.
1. This command has a very intimate connection with Christ’s Church. Our text says, “Bring My sons and My daughters”; but the 5 th verse says, “I will bring thy seed.” Then, saved souls are the seed of the Church as well as the sons and daughters of God. God puts a wonderful honour upon human instrumentality.
2. The Church of Christ has a further interest in these far-off sons and daughters from the fact that not only are they her seed, but they are coming home to her. They will help to strengthen the true Church of God.
3. These far-off ones, who are being brought home, will greatly help us when they do come. Read the 7 th verse: “Even every one that is called by My name: for I have created him for My glory.” That is the kind of converts that we want, those who are created for God’s glory. “But,” say some of the older friends, “these young converts are so imprudent.” Bless them! The Lord increase their imprudence, for that is one of the grandest things in the world when it is sanctified. It was most imprudent, on the part of the Apostle Paul, to go into those cities where he was stoned, and dragged out, and left for dead. It was most imprudent of him to lose all his reputation and his standing among men simply that he might preach Jesus Christ and Him crucified. “But, sir,” say the objectors, “these young people, who are coming into the Church, do not know much.” For the matter of that, we do not know much either, so we cannot keep them out on that ground. “But they have zeal without knowledge.” Yes, and it is quite possible to have knowledge without zeal. Both of those things are bad when alone; but if you have the knowledge, and they bring the zeal, you have only to trade with them a little in the way of barter to your mutual benefit. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
