IV. Sinners are desired to come in.
They not only have leave to come in, but they are desired by the Master of the house to come in. Arise then, ye worst of sinners, the “Master calleth you.” Ye are called, not to a funeral, but a feast; not to a prison, but to the guest-chamber, where he may entertain you with all the delicacies of heaven. If ye were not desired, why would he send his servants to compel you to come in? and will ye refuse when ye are desired? Consider, I pray you, (1) It ill becomes you, vile worms, to refuse his call. I am sure he might be far happier in himself, though you and I both were where, in strict justice, we should be, in the bottomless pit. He needs none of us. What are we that he should be pleased to trouble himself about us, whether we sink or swim! The angels adore him, his Father honours him, and vile wretches, whom he desires to come in, have the face to refuse him whom the Father heareth always. (2) There are many as good as you, whom he never desired to come in. He does not call you because he has none other to call, who might fill his house. He might remove this gospel from you, and send it into the dark places of the earth, and compel the pagans to come in. Should he do it, it is very likely his offers would be better entertained amongst them than amongst us. Some divide the world into thirty parts, and find that nineteen of these are possessed by pagans, six of them by Jews, Turks and Saracens, and only five by Christians; and of these five parts Christian, many are Antichristian, lying yet under the darkness of Popery. And has the Lord chosen us out from among so many, to give us the invitation to come in, and shall we refuse? Lastly, How will ye look him in the face, when ye appear before his tribunal, if ye will not come in now at his desire? How will ye look back on rejected love? What will ye do when he comes in wrath to you, that will not come to him now, upon his call?
Objection. But some will say, Is it possible that he calls me, even vile and wretched me? Answer. We have general invitations clogged with no conditions, free offers made to all that will come, Isaiah 55:1; Rev. 22:17. And the Lord expressly shows, that no vileness nor unworthiness shall stop any that will come, Isaiah 1:18; Jer. 3:1. and what would ye have more? We are sent this day, in our Master’s name, to compel you all to come in, be your case what it will. And if that would persuade you, we should come to you, one by one, and tell you. that it is you, and you, and you, that Christ calls to come in. But if ye believe our doctrine from the word concerning the misery of your natural state, without hearing your name and surname in particular, why would ye require more in the doctrine concerning the remedy?
V. Sinners must come in.
Compel them to come in. Sirs, ye not only may come, but ye must come, even the worst of you. Ye are not only desired to come in, but ye must not abide without. Consider,
First, “This is his commandment, that ye believe,” 1 John 3:23.
Ye are peremptorily commanded to come in. God is peremptory with you, and so must we be peremptory with you too. Therefore I tell you, ye must come; and I charge you in his name to come in, and not disobey his peremptory command. Lay your hands to your hearts then, and see what ye will do; whether ye will still abide without, and obey the devil, and your doubts, fears, and jealousies of Christ, or come in upon God’s command. Have ye any regard to the authority of God? have ye any respect at all to his command, then give a peremptory answer, within your own breasts, just now, whether ye will come in or not. Are ye peremptory that ye will not come, like those sullen desperate sinners, Jer. 2:25, “No, I have loved strangers, and after them will I go?” Oh! will ye harden yourselves against the Lord, will ye stretch out your hand against God, and strengthen yourselves against the Almighty? For Christ’s sake, for your soul’s sake, recall that word.
Secondly, But if ye dare not be peremptory that ye will not come, then be peremptory ye will come; for your coming is so commanded, that it will admit of no excuse.
Those that were first bidden to this supper, they would not come, but they sent their excuses; but were their excuses sustained? no; God would not take them off their hand, but passeth a peremptory sentence against them, verse 24. “None of those men which were bidden, shall taste of my supper.” We dare admit no excuses in this matter, bring them from whence ye will, whether from the heaven above you, the hell within you, or the world about you; whether from God’s greatness, your own vileness, or world’s encumbrances. Whatever your case be, ye are commanded of God to come; and his commands are not to be disputed, but obeyed. Wherefore, if ye will not be peremptory that ye will come, we must report to our Lord that ye will not come.
Thirdly, This duty is so peremptorily commanded, that ye must come, and come presently; it admits of no delay.
“Today if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts.” “Now is the accepted time.” We dare not allow you a day, nay nor an hour, to think of it, whether ye will come or not; lest the next day, or the next hour, ye be cast into hell, or a hell be cast into you, for refusing the offer made to you this moment, which is gone before I can name it. Wherefore delay no longer; but this moment open the everlasting doors, that the King of glory may come in.
Fourthly, This is the duty God has commanded you: John 6:29.
“This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.” Ye can do the Lord no great pleasure than to come in. Would ye exalt him this day? then come on his call, Hosea 11:7; would ye put the crown on Christ’s head? would ye make it a “day of the gladness of his heart”? then come in, Song of Solomon 3:11. It is a great ease for full breasts to the sucked; the breasts of mercy and love are full; come, starving sinner, do him the pleasure to suck the breasts of his consolations. This is the great comprehensive duty: If ye do this, ye do all; if ye do not this, ye do nothing. What mean ye to be nibbling at the works of God, neglecting this, which is the work. Ye are keeping your windows closed in the daylight, and setting up a candle here and there, within your house; yet there are terrible dark corners within the house still; open your windows, I beseech you, and let in the sun, “the sun of righteousness,” and that will be instead of all, and better than all. Would ye, all at once, be wise, righteous, and holy? then come in to Christ, 1 Cor. 1:30. Ye that can do nothing, come to Christ, and so ye shall do all, Philip. 4:13. Would ye honour God? would ye honour his law? then come to Christ. But if ye come not to Christ, do what ye will, ye do nothing. Should ye henceforth keep all the ten commandments, but neglect this, all you do would get a black note of condemnation from heaven written on it. Remember, I pray you, that “he that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father,” John 5:23. All your other duties are but cyphers without this; and multiply them as ye will, the sum in all will be but nought, if this duty do not stand upon their head.
Lastly, It is a duty commanded, with certification of God’s eternal displeasure and wrath against those that will not come: Mark 16:16.
“He that believeth not shall be damned.” Psal. 2:12. “Kiss the Son lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way.” And therefore I, as an ambassador for Christ, do, in his name, command and charge you, and every one of you, to come in, under the pain of God’s displeasure, under the pain of vengeance, even the Mediator’s vengeance; certifying, that if ye will not come, our Lord Jesus will come out of heaven against you, and ye shall be “slain before him,” Luke 19:27. To be slain, and die before Christ, who died to save sinners, is a thousand deaths in one; it is a hell upon a hell. But those “that obey not the gospel or our Lord Jesus Christ shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord,” even that Lord whose gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ shall be punished with everlasting to confine his presence to heaven, and only allow those that now despise and slight him the favour of being punished from the absence of the Lord; ah! would he but make their destruction come to them at some distance, would he dart the arrows of his wrath into them from afar: nay, but he will have a throne of justice in hell, that they may be punished “from the presence of the Lord,” who while in the world fed from his presence on a throne of grace in the gospel. O consider in time what ye do: no fire will burn so violently as that which breaks forth from the altar; no flame of wrath will pierce into a damned soul, like that which is blown up by the breath of a slighted Mediator.
VI. and Lastly, Sinners shall come in.
Compel them to come in. Leaving secret things to the Lord, I must tell you, sinners, Christ will not want as many as will fill his house. And struggle as long as ye will, in ye shall come. His house shall be filled. The Mediator has bought the furniture of his house too dear to want any of it, and to leave so much empty room in it. I hope there are some here that are the purchase of blood, which men and devils shall not get kept back from Christ. His Father has engaged by covenant, that his house shall be filled, Psal. 22:30. “They shall come.” See Isaiah 53:10, 11. Nay, is not Christ’s hand at the hearts of some just now? Do not some of you find a moving of the iron gate of your hearts, towards an opening of it to Christ? Have you not felt something within working to compel you to come in? Are not some almost in already? Thrust forward; there is no safety till ye be not only almost, but altogether Christians.
Come in to Christ then, ye old people, that are bowing down to meet the grave. Ye have delayed long, delay no more. Though it is very rare, yet it sometimes falls out, that a man is born when he is old, Joel 2:28. Come in, ye of middle age. Are ye out of Christ in your best estate? Surely then your best state is a bad state, a miserable state. Ye are busy providing for your families, but what are ye doing for your souls? Ye are laying up for old age, which, it may be, you will never see: what are ye laying up for eternity? Come in, ye young people; ye are too old to be out of Christ. Do not think religion is only for the hoary head, the wrinkled brows, and hollow eyes; there are more with green heads than with grey hairs in the grave. Therefore come in, and delay not. The older ye grow putting off the work of religion, your hearts will grow the harder to work upon. Come in, ye profane wretches, that are far from righteousness: come, ye hypocritical professors, that are not far from the kingdom of God: come, ye trembling souls, that are hard at it, and yet dare not come in. O why will ye not come in? I think it must be either because ye will not, or because ye dare not. I fear there are some amongst us that will not come in; they have no mind to quit their lusts, they must follow their old courses, cost what it will; they see no beauty in Christ for which he is to be desired. I shall say little more to such. If ye be resolute for sin, hell, and death, and that no Christ, no heaven, no hell, shall keep you back from the broad way; who can stop you? But be it known unto you, and be it recorded in the black book of your consciences, which shall be opened at the day of judgment, that salvation was in your offer this day, that we endeavoured to compel you to come into Christ, but ye would not; and that therefore your blood shall be on your own heads.
As to you that dare not come in, why dare ye not, after all ye have heard? are ye afraid to come in on Christ’s call? dare ye not embrace his invitation? dare ye not obey the great command of God?
Objection. But my sins are innumerable, and most heinous; can there be any room for me? dare such a vile and unworthy wretch as I come in? Answer, If your sins were each of them as big as a mountain, were as numerous as the sand of the sea; yet the blood of Christ, being the blood of the Son of God, is able to purge them away, 1 John 1:7. Lay over all your guilt and unworthiness on him who is altogether lovely: sooner shall the rocks sink under the weight of a bird lighting down upon them, than that blood shall fail you. Remember none are compelled to come in, none are called, but the vile and unworthy, Matth. 9:13. Should your disease keep you from the physician? dare ye not come to the fountain to wash, because ye are unclean? for whom is the fountain opened, but for unclean sinners? The gospel-supper, though a costly one indeed, was provided for none but those that were unworthy of a drop of water, and far more, unworthy of Christ’s blood. Be assured, beloved, the question betwixt Christ and you is not, Whether or not Christ will stoop so low as to wash such a foul soul in his own blood? that is a question determined already, Isaiah 1:18; Zech. 13:1. But the question that remains to be decided, is, Whether or not, after Christ has stooped so low as to be willing to do that, the vile unworthy creature will give him the affront of stooping in vain? What say ye to that question? Ye have affronted the law of God; will ye affront the Son of God too, refusing his offer? If vileness and unworthiness could have kept sinners out from Christ, never one of Adam’s sons had come in. Did not Christ find all the fair ones that are now in glory, lying in their blood? are there any now walking in white, but those who were washed in the blood of the Lamb? turn over the Bible, look into the history of ages that are past, see if ye can find any one that died at his door, who could not be admitted because he was so vile, wretched and unworthy.
Objection. But there was never a case like mine. Answer. There have been very bad cases in Christ’s land, which he has cured; and never did the cure of any case put in his hand misgive. What think ye of Mary Magdalene’s case, out of whom he cast seven devils? Mark 16:9. Was not Paul’s case, who was a blasphemer and a persecutor, and yet found mercy, a case that may be compared with your’s? 1 Tim. 1:15. Sure I am, the workings of sovereign grace upon him were designed to encourage the worst of sinners to come in, verse 16. Manasseh, though he had the benefit of a religious education by his godly father, was an horrid idolator, a consulter with the devil, 2 Chron. 33:6. a bloody murderer, 2 Kings 21:16; yet he came in, and was received graciously, 2 Chron. 33:12, 13. And what do you think of the case of Adam, who at once murdered all his children, ruined the souls of all mankind, and sinned against greater light than ever ye could do? But let us yield it to you this once, that never one’s case was like yours: and let us add to it, and never shall one be like it hereafter, it is so very bad: then I think ye have, as the penitent thief on the cross had, an occasion of glorifying our great Redeemer peculiar to yourself, wherein none of the vessels of glory have shared, or shall share with you. Come in then, thou whose case is a marrowless case, whose case has no parallel; you have the advantage of an occasion to honour Christ with the cure of a case so desperate, that the like of it was never in his hands before. “Remember not the former things, neither consider the things of old,” Isaiah 43:18; come in to Christ with your new case, “and, behold,” says our Lord, “I will do a new thing,” verse 19. His blood has not yet gone as far as it can go. Grudge him not a new jewel in his crown of grace, that will shine brighter than any yet put into it. Come in then, and take the place appointed for the chief of sinners, deepest in the debt of free grace, if it be yet empty. I assure you, they that have come in already think it is not, but that they themselves have filled it up. If it be indeed as thou sayest, then they are mistaken; come you in, and you shall get it.
Objection. But, alas! I cannot believe, I cannot come in to Christ. Answer. To clear your way in this matter; see that ye set yourselves to come in to Christ in a promise. Christ is held forth to sinners in the promises of the gospel, Isaiah 55, 1; John 6:37; Rev. 3:20; and chap 22:17. If ye would come to his seat, come to the promises. he is in the still small voice; ye will find the babe wrapped up in these swaddling clothes. They that overlook the promise, and try to believe and come in to Christ, go the wrong way to work: that is like a woman’s consenting to marry a man, of whose consent to take her she has no declaration. But the gospel-promise is a contract sent down from heaven, signed already with the Bridegroom’s hand: do ye take and read it over, sign it, by your hearts consenting thereto; and then Christ is yours, and ye are his. But close with Christ in the promise as a free promise, as indeed it is. Isaiah 55:1; Rev. 22:17. Many bar the doors of the gospel-promise with bars of their own making, and then they cry out and complain that they cannot enter in by them. O! say some, if I had so much love, repentance, and brokenness of heart, then I could believe. But I advise you to believe, that ye may get these things, Zech. 12:10; Acts 5:31. Now, though the promise be written in the Bible only, it is as surely Christ’s consent to be yours as if ye had a voice from heaven for it, yea and more surely. But you will say, I dare not meddle with the promise. Answer. Then meddle not with Christ, but perish: for there is no meddling with him, but in the gospel-promise. But why is a drowning man so fearful, that he dare not catch hold of a cord, even a silver cord, thrown in to save him to land? Nay, beloved, be not so foolish: though the promise be, in your eyes, like Moses’ rod, turned into a serpent: yet take hold of it by the tail, and it will become a rod in your hand. Hos. 11:10.
“The children shall tremble from the west;” as the Israelites trembled after Saul, that is, followed him trembling, 1 Sam. 13:7. So then Christ’s bride may sign the contract with a trembling hand, love her Lord with a trembling heart and follow him with trembling legs. And O that all of you would say, though it were with a trembling voice, “Behold, we come unto thee; for thou art the Lord our God.” If so, ye would not be in vain compelled to come in.