Message of Invitation and Consolation to Sinners

Driving home: That coming to Christ means that movement of the soul which takes place when a man or woman feeling his sins and finding out that he cannot save himself, hears of Christ, applies to Christ, trusts in Christ, lays hold up…

Martin quotes a servant of God and Professor Murray to provide a comprehensive definition of 'coming to Christ' as self-commitment and trust in Christ for salvation, clarifying the meaning of the central verb.

This is the will of my Father, that everyone that beholdeth the Son and believeth on him. So when our Lord said, him that cometh unto me, he is simply using this verb of action to describe the activity of saving faith. There's a beautiful and simple definition or description of this. One of God's servants has said, That coming to Christ means that movement of the soul which takes place when a man or woman feeling his sins and finding out that he cannot save himself, hears of Christ, applies to Christ, trusts in Christ, lays hold upon Christ, and leans all his weight on Christ for salvation. Wh...

8:41 - 9:43 Read in full sermon

The point: The object to which you are to come is the Lord Jesus, but not a Jesus concocted out of your own thinking, but the Jesus set forth in the Gospels in the complete uniqueness of His person.

The analogy of a leper cast out of the camp illustrates the sinner's feeling of being unclean and cut off, highlighting the need for a Savior who is not only mighty but also near and sympathetic in His humanity.

there's the identity of this unique person, the one who is mighty, to say, the one spoken of in Psalm 24 in verse 8, Who is the Lord of glory? And the answer, come back, the Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. Oh, as you think of the power of sin within your own life, as you think of the enormity of your guilt, you know that your need is to have one who is more than man, who has more virtue and more merit than man can ever have, who has more power than man can possess to break the chains that bind you. The object to which the Lord invites you is himself, in the uniqueness of his...

14:33 - 16:01 Read in full sermon

The point: Do you tonight see a suitableness in the sufferings of Christ, suitable to care for your sin? Do you see in this one mighty to save, one who's able to loose the bonds of your own sin? Then he says, come.

The analogy of eating food and its assimilation into the body explains what it means to 'eat Christ's flesh and drink His blood' – a real, vital participation in Christ crucified, where His work becomes fused with one's very life.

What does that mean? It says, I must have an interest in, a participation in Jesus Christ crucified, that is just as real as the participation my body has with the food that I eat. I take it to myself. I assimilate it until it becomes a very part of my fingers, my hands, my eyes, my hair, my nails, my skin, my bone, my brain tissue, until what I eat is absorbed into the totality, totality of my being.

18:40 - 19:10 Read in full sermon

The point: You must come personally and individually; Mom and Pop, family, or preacher cannot come for you.

Martin quotes Charles Spurgeon's sermon on 'I am the bread of life' to emphasize the personal and individual nature of coming to Christ, likening it to laying hands on a sacrifice and claiming Christ as one's own Savior.

Charles Spurgeon, that great preacher to sinners, in preaching on a passage in the 6th of John, I am the bread of life, said some words that fit so beautifully into the text that we're considering tonight. Listen to them. Emphasizing this as one of his sub-points, trust him for yourself, Spurgeon says, that's the point. The hinge of the whole business.

27:55 - 28:20 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin stresses that the sinner must come personally and individually, not by proxy, and illustrates this with Spurgeon's analogy of eating bread. He argues that this coming must…

Spurgeon's analogy of eating stolen bread illustrates that once Christ is taken into the soul, He cannot be taken away, even if one feels they had no right to Him, reinforcing the certainty of possession.

Oh, but says one, suppose he's not mine. What if I were to take him to myself without warrant? Suppose such a thing for one moment. Yet he would be yours.

29:14 - 29:24 Read in full sermon

The point: You must come heartily and unreservedly, not drawing near with the lips while the heart is far from Him.

Spurgeon's analogy of a thief eating bread further reinforces the idea that once Christ is received, He is truly yours, and no one can dispossess you of Him, emphasizing the security of salvation.

For he has said, him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out. You may summon a poor man before the magistrate and say, he is a thief for he stole bread from my counter. You may put him in prison for the theft, though I hope you would not if hunger drove him to it. But you cannot get your bread away from him if he's eaten it.

29:53 - 30:12 Read in full sermon

The point: If God has wounded you enough so that you know there's no healing in yourself, He says, come.

Martin uses the example of the Pharisee in the temple to illustrate how some people's deep conviction can become a subtle form of self-righteousness, leading them to despise those who came to Christ with less emotional display.

If God gave some of you a deeper measure of conscious conviction, it might seal you in a state of self-righteousness. I've heard some people who, by the way, they gave their testimony. You know what they were saying? Remember that Pharisee went up to the temple and said, I thank thee I'm not as other men.

38:21 - 38:37 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: This section presents the 'cream of the text,' assuring the coming sinner of a certain welcome: they will be received and, even more wonderfully, they will be kept. Martin…

The analogy of saying 'you will never, never find a shut door' to a guest illustrates how Christ's double negative ('I will in no wise cast out') makes His promise of welcome even stronger and more certain than a simple positive statement.

It's as though our Lord says, him that cometh unto me, I will not, I say I will not, cast him out. He gives a double negative. Now, the strongest way to make a positive statement is make a double negative. You say, may I come to your house?

41:34 - 41:49 Read in full sermon