I tell you, many will come from east and west and sit and sit at table
with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven,
while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness;
there men will weep and gnash their teeth.Matt:8v11-12
Look again at my text, and you will see where these people come from. They are to "come from the east and the west." The Jews said they would all come from Israel, every one of them, every man, woman and child, that there would not be one in heaven who was not a Jew. And the pharisees thought that, if they were not all pharisees, they could not be saved. But Jesus Christ said, there will be many, that will come from the east and the west. There will be a multitude from that far off land called China, for God is going to do a great work there, and we hope that the gospel will yet be victorious in that land. there will be a multitude from this western land of Britain, from the western land beyond the atlantic ocean in America, and from the south in Australia, and from the north in Canada, Siberia and Russia
From the uttermost parts of the earth there will come many to sit down in the kingdom of heaven. But I do not think that this text is to be understood so much geographically as spiritually. When it says " many shall come from the east and from the west," I do not think the reference is to nations only, but to different kinds of people. Does not " the east and the west " signify those who are the very farthest away from religion?, yet many of them will be saved and get to heaven. There is a class of people who will always be looked upon as hopeless. I have heard many times a man or a woman say about someone " he can't be saved, he is too depraved. What is he good for? when asked to go to church, he went and got drunk on Saturday night. What would be the good of trying to reason with him? There is no hope for him. He is a hardened person. See what he has done all these years. What good would it be to speak to him?"
Now hear this, you who think others are worse than you, you who condemn others, whereas often times you are just as guilty. Jesus Christ says, "many will come from the east and the west." There will be many in heaven who were once drunkards. I believe, among that blood-bought throng, there will be many who staggered in and out of bars half their lives, but, by the power of divine grace, they were able to throw the drink glass to the ground. They renounced the frenzy of intoxication, ran from it, and turned to serve God. There will be many prostitutes, some of the most abandoned will be found in heaven. You remember the story Whitefield told, that there would be some in heaven who were " the devil's cast-a-ways;" some who the devil did not hardly think good enough for him, yet whom Christ will save. Lady Huntington chided Whitefield that such language was not quite proper. But just then the door bell rang and Whitefield went downstairs to answer it, when he came back he said " Your ladyship, what do you think a poor woman had to say to me just now? She was a depraved woman, and she said " Oh Mr. Whitefield, when you were preaching, you said that Christ would take in the devil's cast-a-ways, and I am one of them." And that was the means of her salvation."
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