Compel Them to Come In II | Behold Your God Podcast

Welcome to the Behold Your God podcast. I'm Teddy James, content producer for Media Grazie. And for last week and this week and then one more week, we're outside of John's office.

Again.

I promise we will be back soon. This week again, we're talking with Jeremy Walker. If you missed last week's episode, let me encourage you to do a few things just to introduce this episode to you. Jeremy is the pastor of Maiden Bower Baptist Church.

He is the host and narrator of a few films, Through the Eyes of Spurgeon. He's contributor to Weight of Majesty, to Puritan, to Media Grazie's latest project on the church. He's also the host of the Word in Season podcast.

Jeremy, first off, before we even get into the context of the podcast, thanks again for coming on and talking with us.

Thanks.

It's a pleasure to be with you again.

Spurgeon's Sermon and the Call to Compel Sinners

So what we started last week was a sermon by Charles Spurgeon. And we ended with kind of Spurgeon's first two addresses, compel them to come in, where he explains, here's what I'm about to do. And then he explains, here's what I'm going to do and who I'm doing it to.

He said, I'm going to compel you to come in and I'm doing it to strangers of the gospel, strangers to the gospel. Now Jeremy, before we recorded this episode, you and I were having a conversation that we really wanted to bring up that you do not need to be a pastor.

You do not need to be a podcast guy in order to do this. This command is not for specific Christians. This command, compel them to come in, is for every believer.

The context of the whole sermon is this parable that the Lord Jesus told in Luke's gospel, chapter 14. He was sitting down to eat. He was telling people about the kingdom of heaven. And somebody said, blessed is he who shall eat bread in the kingdom of God.

The one who is going to feast in the presence of God, under the favor of God, under the rule of God. And Christ then tells a parable to explain the importance of understanding the blessing, the true and lasting happiness that this man is referring to.

And he speaks of a king who sends out his servants to bring people into a great feast. And those servants give all kinds of excuses. They're just not interested. They turn their backs upon the invitation.

And so the king sends his servants out again. And he says, now, this time I want you to go to Spurgeon's categories, the poor and the maimed and the halt and the blind, and I want you to bring them in.

And then the servants say that there's still room. By this stage, it seems as if the servants have caught something of their master's spirit. They understand that he wants to see people coming in to enjoy the blessing that he has for them.

And so they say there is still space. And that's where he sends them out into the highways and the byways. And although Christ isn't speaking directly here to his disciples, I think there is something of this gospel heart of God that is revealed here.

It is God in Christ who is the one who is sending out his servants. He's saying, come in, come in. And when people refuse or reject, Christ is determined to have a people who are enjoying these blessings and are sitting under the rule of God and glorifying him for his so great salvation.

And so while Spurgeon in the sermon labors under the weight of his own sense of being an ambassador of Christ as a preacher of the gospel in that more formal sense, there's certainly something here for all of us to catch something of the appetite of Christ for the glory of God in the tasting and seeing that he is good so that whether or not we're ever standing in the pulpit and declaring this good news in the way that Spurgeon does, or if perhaps we're sitting down with a family member or a friend or a colleague, our desire should be Godlike and Christlike.

We should want people to come in. And in that sense, all of us should feel both the privilege and the responsibility of calling others and compelling others to come into the kingdom of God. And one of the things that we mentioned briefly beforehand was that Spurgeon doesn't just directly address unbelievers in his sermons.

He also equips God's people as to how they should then bring the gospel to others. And there's another wonderful sermon, and perhaps we could have done that very easily as well. It was preached just before Christmas when most of Spurgeon's congregation who were in London, many of them would have been working men and women who would have had just a few days, maybe even a day or two to go back to their families.

Now, think in terms of the period, think of Charles Dickens, think of a Christmas carol. Think of these very poor and needy people. And most of them almost have no time off. They're working typically six day weeks that they don't have much in the way of holiday and they've got a chance to go home.

And so Spurgeon preaches to them just before they leave from the Gadarene Demoniac, the man who had the legion of devils cast out of him by the Lord Christ. And at the end of that episode, the man is saying to Christ, I want to go with you.

And the Lord Jesus says, no, you go home and you tell them what great things the Lord has done for you and how he has had compassion upon you. And Spurgeon is equipping God's people to go home and to communicate to their families, some of whom would be unconverted, the mercies that God has shown to them in saving them from their sins.

So maybe we'll do one of those lively readings of that sermon at some point as a counterpoint, not a contrast, but to see on the one hand, yes, this is what it's like to speak to unbelievers. And we're to do that as God's people.

And then these are the encouragements. This is the substance again. These are the things that we need to understand. These are the spiritual realities that need to grip our souls so that when we're speaking to others, there's spiritual forcefulness in that that comes both from our earnestness in dealing with their souls and our communication of God's truth to them.

Yeah, absolutely. And when that gets when we do put that reading up, we will definitely let you know and and put links down below this episode if you're listening in the podcast or if you're watching this on YouTube so that you'll be sure to get that.

Because I'm Jeremy, do you do you have another title of that sermon in case someone just wants to look it up?

So the the sermon, the sermon that we're talking about was preached on the Sabbath morning, December the 21st, 1856, and it's simply called Going Home, a Christmas sermon. Well, there we go.

So we'll make sure that we put the text for that. And again, audio for that when it comes up. Speaking of that, I don't think I mentioned this in the introduction, but the sermon that we are particularly talking about, Jeremy has done a lively reading of it.

It is sermonic in the reading, but it's it's such a good reading. And it's one thing to read Spurgeon or to read a sermon in your head, read it silently and you're really reflecting on it. And there's a lot of great value in that.

But there is something else, because remember, sermons are written to be read aloud, to be heard. And so we also have the audio of Jeremy reading it. And so one, it's it is an incredibly helpful thing to hear someone convey this sermon who's already gripped by these realities.

But in addition to that, to hear it done with a British accent helps a lot, Jeremy.

Yeah, well, there's some interesting stories told about Spurgeon's accent. He was typically despised as being a country bumpkin, despite his prodigious intellect. People thought he was he was just this this goon from the from the backwaters.

And there are some indications and you hear stories on both sides, but there are some who would suggest that Spurgeon kept a fairly broad Essex accent to the end of his days. And his his wife also, when she first saw him, she just thought he was some hick from from who knows where she was appalled by his appearance and by his general demeanor.

She yeah, she did. She was not overly impressed when she first set eyes upon the man who was to become her.

Husband. Oh, that's amazing. Look, and it gives hope to country bumpkins in the backwoods of Mississippi, too. So there's great hope. Well, in the sermon, Spurgeon goes into some different spiritual classes and in the, you know, in the time we have remaining in the podcast, I'd like us to really go through those and hopefully we'll get through them.

But honestly, we may not. And that's OK. We'll we'll pick it up in the next episode. But the first the first class now again. There's a lot of honesty in this sermon and there's a lot of boldness and there's a lot you had mentioned in the last episode that you could see how after someone sits in this sermon, they might hate Spurgeon after it's finished.

As believers, as those who are compelling strangers to the gospel to come in, we have to be willing to allow people to be offended by the gospel. So before we even get into the spiritual classes, I want you to be aware there are people who will be offended by this, but allow the gospel to be the only offense someone can take.

There's a way that we can discuss the gospel in that their offense is aimed toward us because we present it in a way that's angry or just why don't you get this? But there's another way that we present in which the gospel is the only offense that can be taken.

And Spurgeon is a great example of that in the sermon. So, Jeremy, tell us about the first spiritual class here where Spurgeon says that there are people listening to his sermon who are spiritually poor.

The Spiritually Poor and the Need for Grace

Sure. So remember that we said in the first episode that we're now dealing with, if you like, categories within this overall group of people who Spurgeon has described as strangers to the truth as it is in Jesus.

People who don't truly know Christ as Savior. And he's now identifying by means of these four different categories in the text, the different kinds of circumstance, the spiritual issues that these people are dealing with.

And he talks, first of all, drawing again the language of Luke chapter 14 to those who are poor. Now, he gives one little aside, as it were, to begin with, which is that this is certainly a gospel for those who are economically or financially poor.

Perhaps worth remembering that Victorian society would be quite significantly aware of those kinds of divisions. There's a well ingrained status system that in some cases would mean that poor and working class people might have been easily dismissed.

And Spurgeon is preaching to the whole spectrum of society. And he's insisting upon the fact that no economic status or lack of it qualifies you or disqualifies you with regard to the grace of God. It's just not about whether or not you're rich enough or poor enough or whatever it may be.

But if you are poor as a church mouse, we say sometimes here, then this gospel is still for you. You're not cut off or pushed out by anything that's in your external circumstances. But he says, actually, I'm speaking to those of you who are spiritually poor.

You have no faith, he says. You have no virtue. You have no good grace, good work. You have no grace. And what is poverty worse still? You have no hope. So he's identifying, first of all, people who are absolutely lacking everything that might be considered meritorious with regard to God.

They are beggars at the throne of grace. They're not bringing anything but their need. They're coming. Spurgeon wants people to understand, then, that not only are they desperately poor, perhaps in economic terms, but they might be incredibly rich and incredibly high up in society, but they are still clothed in rags, spiritually speaking.

And again, now he's pressing home this truth. You may think that you are rich, but you need to understand that spiritually speaking, by nature, you are desperately poor. And until you face that fact, you won't be ready to come to Jesus Christ.

Yeah. And I mean, you can just immediately, being the very first spiritual class that Spurgeon points to, you can see how people would start squirming in their seats from those who are who are very wealthy.

I mean, you've got some people who are in London, they're middle, upper class. And here they are being told, no, you're spiritually poor.

And then you say, you're not good people who need a little help. You're sinners who are dead in trespasses and sins.

Yeah, absolutely. And it also shows you, OK, look, the rest of the sermon. He just gets very real and very honest with people. And he's so bold in this sermon. I love it.

Well, I think we have to remember, and you've already alluded to this, he loves people enough to be willing to be hated for the sake of their souls. He is. I mean, when we come to some of the pleading and he starts threatening later on, he's quite explicit about that.

If I could threaten anybody as tenderly and lovingly as he does, you know, what just comes out here repeatedly? He's not he's not sort of wagging the you terribly poor people. What's wrong with you? No, you need to face the fact that this is what you are by nature.

And it's actually for this very reason that I have good news for you.

Yeah. And also he is exposing this lie that people tend to believe, right, that I am spiritually rich, that I am rich enough to to take care of myself.

Yeah. Look at everything I am. Look at everything I do. Look at the places I go. Look at the people I know. I mean, I've got plenty to offer to God. Spurgeon says, no, I'm talking to you because you need to understand not just how I see you, but how how God sees you.

God sends me to you because you are spiritually poor. And though you may not like to face that fact, it nevertheless is the reality.

Yeah. And unless you think, well, OK, well, I'm poor, but at least I'm only poor. No, Spurgeon goes further. You're not just poor. You're also maimed. What does he mean by that?

The Maimed, the Halt, and the Blind

Yeah, I see you again and you are you're crippled. You see, and he again, he's very good at this in terms of his the vividness of his imagery. He is Bunyan-esque in this way. So he's he's got this this image of somebody who's perhaps had lost an arm.

Maybe they've been born without an arm or they've lost it in some kind of accident. Again, remember that he's in an environment where there are very few, if any, health and safety regulations. There are probably people who are maimed in the congregation.

They're the victims of industrial accidents or just the hardships of life in the Victorian period. And he describes them now as those whom the sword of the law has cut off your hands and you can work no longer.

So these are people who are starting perhaps to have some kind of awareness of the fact that they cannot make a contribution to their salvation. They've perhaps tried to do something that is pleasing to God.

But when the law of God has been brought to bear upon their souls, they have realized, and he quotes the hymn, the best performance of my hands does not appear, dares not appear before your throne. I've got nothing to bring to you.

I've got nothing to offer. I have lost all power to obey the law and I'm therefore giving up all attempts to save myself. I cannot work for God. I cannot walk to God. I have nothing that I can offer. And Spurgeon again, and you feel the emphasis.

It's there in the original. Remember, he's editing this sermon for publication and there are lines, words he's underlining and making sure that goes in italics. Now, before you, am I to lift up the bloodstained banner of the cross?

To you, am I to preach this gospel? This is good news for you. You can't do anything to save yourself. But this good news that I've already told you about, this saving Christ, he is for you. So you come in your hopelessness and in your helplessness.

You cast yourself upon this savior, Jesus of Nazareth, and he will deliver you.

Remember, the reason that we're going through this sermon is not just to say, here's a great sermon by Spurgeon, go, go listen to it and go read it. Although we do encourage you to do that. But it is also so that you can identify and you can draw these principles out when you are going home, when you are going to see family over Thanksgiving or over Christmas, over New Year's.

There are loved ones that we all have that are saying, oh, I can come to Christ or I can stand before God because I've been a good person or because I've done this, because I've done that. And Spurgeon is saying very clearly and very vividly, you have no merit on your own to stand before God on the judgment day.

So identify, if you want a principle of how do we present the gospel to loved ones, this is a really big one. We identify the self-righteousness. We identify when someone is believing that they have something that they have built or they have done or they have said or they have accomplished that they can bring to God on the judgment day and say, look, God, I have this.

There's nothing. We have nothing. We bring nothing to our salvation, but the sin we need to be saved from.

I think it's important to remember that Spurgeon is a theologian in the school of the Puritans. And so he is preaching what the Puritans would have called a discriminating sermon. Now, not discriminatory, but discriminating.

He is distinguishing between different kinds of people. And what you said, TJ, so helpful for us because some of the people we deal with will be in this, I'm fine, I'm rich spiritually. And Spurgeon would remind us, no, remember what they really are.

Without Christ, they are spiritually destitute. But then there may be some, perhaps we deal with somebody or we sit down next to somebody after the meal and we're chatting with them. And as we dig a little deeper, it becomes clear that they've tried to be good to use the kind of language.

And yet they still don't feel any peace. Ah, we say now this is this is the maimed person. This is the person who who realizes that no matter how hard they've tried, what they have offered to God just isn't isn't good enough because we are sinners and that I've tried and I've tried and I've tried.

And the problem isn't with the standard of God. The problem is that what I bring is is is worthless. It's broken, that I'm maimed, that the law has cut off my hands and it's made me realize that I am not good enough for God by my own merits.

So he also goes on, in addition to those who are maimed, to talk about those who are halt. These are the limpers, the stumblers. Now, Spurgeon kind of takes this. Remember, he's he's just hitting his straps now.

He's just preaching away. The way he handles this, it's a little bit word association, but he dives back into the the time when Elijah challenged the people of Israel with regard to following a false God.

And they were halting between two opinions. Now, halting in the text means somebody who's limping. But Spurgeon kind of brings it all together. And he says, now, you're you're limping along. You're a limping brother.

To you also is this word of salvation sent. Why are you hanging between these two opinions? Why are you kind of stumbling along? Why don't you go entirely to Christ? You've you know the truth. Perhaps you've been brought up in church.

You've heard the good news. You you know about Christ. But there's a pull in the world. You still love the pleasures of the flesh. You still enjoy the the applause of people. You still want to have a great reputation.

Now, he says, don't don't get caught between Christ on the one hand and the world on the other. If you're stuck between these two, then I want you to understand that you need to leave sin behind you. And I want to compel you now to come to Jesus Christ.

Stop hanging about, as it were, and run to Christ Jesus.

The next one that he goes into, the next spiritual class that Spurgeon has is the spiritually blind.

Yeah. And again, you've mentioned the honesty with which he deals with people. He says, now, some of you can't see and you can't see at least two things. First thing you can't see is yourself. And the second thing you can't see is your Christ.

You don't understand just how desperately needy you are. You cannot and will not accept it. And therefore, you cannot see and understand the preciousness of Jesus Christ to sinners like us. So he's he's saying, you know, that no matter who or what you are, wherever you may be.

And he builds it up and talks about going then into the highways and the hedges. He said from the Lord upon his horse to the woman going about a business to the thief waiting and lying in wait for the traveler.

Wherever you are, you know, however far you've gone, whatever you don't see and don't understand, this Christ is for you and you must come to him.

Yeah, absolutely. And so and again, we do just want to say. That we all know someone who is spiritually poor, who is poor and maimed, who is taught, who is blind and having these categories. Well, Jeremy, let me just get you.

I mean, as as a as a pastor, you have I'm sure you're you're able to see these categories. But for someone who is just beginning to think through these things, how can they identify, OK, here's a spiritual category.

I understand that. And so because of I understand the category, now I know how I need to approach you and how I need to bring the gospel to you. How do we identify categories like that?

I think you begin by loving people and listening to them. You know, this isn't Spurgeon, as we said, he goes off at a gallop. He says, I'm in a hurry and I need to deal with your souls. For most of us, we don't have the privilege of being given that platform.

We don't have people just waiting to hear what we're going to say. So I think for us, it's important that we show affection to people. We engage with them. We ask them questions. We listen to their answers.

Not.

It's easy, I think, sometimes just to fall into general conversation and to allow ourselves to be deflected. But if we're pursuing their souls as we listen, as we learn, perhaps there'll be those those clues that sort of bubble up.

Perhaps you talk to them about the last sermon they heard if they're a churchgoer or you might speak to them about how they truly perceive themselves or whether or not perhaps the conversation that you had last time you got together about about the Lord God, if they thought any more about what it means for them to stand before him.

And so it's Spurgeon has to deal with these various classes as it were across the board in the course of a sermon, because he's got hundreds and thousands of people in front of him. But for us, perhaps dealing with the ones and the twos, maybe our own children, maybe other family members, friends, we might need to say, OK, now, I think I understand what kind of situation I'm dealing with and I'm going to bring the balm of the gospel to you because Christ is a physician for your soul.

And what's so helpful at this point, as Spurgeon finishes this first of his two main sections, is he says, I know that I can't do this. It's not just my force of personality. It's not just my charisma.

It's not just my eloquence, my strength of argument that I am pleading with you. I'm compelling you, but not on my own authority and not in my own strength. You are by nature too strong for me to drag you out of death into life.

But I am an emissary of the God of heaven. And by his spirit, I can speak to you and the Holy Spirit can make you to see though you're blind and can give you feet with which to run to Christ Jesus and can pour upon you spiritual riches.

And I'm actually trusting him to accomplish his purposes by means of the words that I speak.

Who were the Puritans? Is the reputation deserved? And is there anything they had that you and I might need?

Are you interested in knowing the Bible? Are you interested in knowing Christ? Do you want someone to attend to the care of your soul? Then you're going to want to get to know the Puritans.

To learn more about Puritan, all of life to the glory of God, visit media gratia dot org or click the link in the description below. It is such a sweet reminder when we think that it is not all dependent upon us.

It is not within our works. It's not within our strength to move people from death into life. But we do work knowing that we serve a good, kind, merciful, faithful king. And he will work his glory. And so we, when you approach your loved ones and you see these categories and you share the gospel, do so knowing that you have the help from heaven, you have the spirit, you have the word, and you have God who will glorify himself as we like to do.

One, before I get to the prayer this week, I do want to remind you the text and the audio of the sermon that we're focusing on will be linked in the description below. It'll be at media gratia dot org.

Let me encourage you go and read or listen to that sermon. If you did so last week, let me encourage you to do it again this week. It is that good. This week's prayer is again from Charles Spurgeon. Our father, we are very weak.

Worst of all, we are very wicked if left to ourselves and soon fall as prey to the enemy, therefore help us. We confess that sometimes in prayer, when we are nearest to you, at that very time, some evil thought comes in, some wicked desire.

Oh, what poor simpletons we are. Lord, help us. We feel as if we could now come closer to you still and hide under the shadow of your wings. We wish to be lost in God.