MANY SHALL COME. pt:1

I tell you, many will come from east and west 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 shall weep and gnash their teeth.Matt:8v11-12.

Oh! I love God's "wills" and "shalls" there is nothing like them. If a man says "shall"what good is it? "I will" says a man, and he never performs, "I shall" says he, then he breaks his promise. But it is never that way with God's "shalls."If He says "shall," the thing shall be done, when He says "will," then it will be. Now here He has said, "many will come." The devil says, "they will not come," but "they will come." Their sins say "you cannot come," God says "you will come." You, yourselves say, "we will not come," God says "you will come." Yes! there are some here who are laughing at salvation, who can scoff at Christ and mock the gospel, but I tell you some of you will yet come.

"What!" you say, " can God make me become a christian?" I tell you yes, for herein lies the power of the gospel. It does not ask for your consent, but it gets it. It does not ask " will you recieve it?" but it makes you willing in the day of God's power. It does not violate your will, but it makes you willing. It shows you it's value, and then you fall in love with it, and immediately you run after it to make it yours. Many have said "we will not have anything to do with religion," then they get converted. I have heard of a man who once went to church only to hear the singing, and as soon as the minister began to preach, he put his fingers in his ears and refused to listen. But then a small insect landed on his face, so that he was obliged to take one finger from his ear to brush it away. Just then the minister said, "he that hath ears to hear, let him hear." The man listened, and God met with him at that moment and converted his soul. He went out a new man. A changed person. He who came in to laugh, left to find a quiet place to pray, he who came in to mock went out to bend his knee in repentance, he who entered to spend an idle hour, went home to spend an hour in devotion to his God. The sinner became a saint. Who knows but that we might have some like that in here tonight. The gospel does not want your consent, it gets it. It knocks the hostility against God out of your heart. You say " I do not want to be saved," Christ says you shall be. He turns your will around, and then you cry " Lord save, lest I perish."- " Ah " heaven might exclaim "I knew that I would make you say that," and then He rejoices over you because He has changed your will and made you willing in the day of His power.

GOD'S PROMISES

Holy scripture is wonderfully full and abiding in it's inner sense. It is a springing well, whereat you may draw and draw again, for as you draw it springs up forever new and fresh. It is a well of water springing up everlastingly. The fulfillment of a divine promise is not the exhaustion of it. When a man gives you a promise, and he keeps it, there is the end of the matter, but it is not so with God. When He keeps His word to the full He has but begun, He is prepared to keep it, and keep it, and keep it for ever and ever. What would you say of a man who had wheat upon his barn floor, and threshed it until he had beaten out the last golden grain, but the next day he went and threshed again and brought back as much as the day before, and the day after, again taking his flail, he went to the same threshing, and again brought back his measure as full as at the first, and so on for all the days of the year? Would it not seem to you as a fairy tale? It would certainly be a surprising miracle. But what should we say if throughout a long life, this miracle could be prolonged? Yet we have continued to thresh God's promises ever since faith was first given us, and we have carried away our full portion every day. What shall we say of the glorious fact that the saints of all the ages, from the first day until now have done the very same, or of that equal truth, that as long as there is a needy soul upon earth, there will be upon the threshing floor of the promises of God the same abundance of the finest of the wheat as when the first man filled his measure and returned rejoicing?
The children of God have used His promises under all sorts of circumstances, and have derived the utmost comfort from them. As God rests in His love, so may we rest in it, and as He joys over us with singing, so may we break forth into joyous psalms to the God of our salvation.