THE DAY OF REST. Buying Without Money A Sermon by C. H. Spurgeon.

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 194, 12 March 1887, Page 8 (Supplement)

THE DAY OF REST. Buying Without Money A Sermon by C. H. Spurgeon.

Ho that hath no money ; come ye, buy, and cat. -Isaiah lv. 1. In handling (his text we shall notice, first, the description of thy buyer, "He that hath no money j" secondly, the selection of this particular buyer - why is he invited beyond all others ? Thirdly the invitation to purchase, "Uome, buy, and eat j" and fourthly, we ehall add the assurance that i this gospel market is no deception, for these things are really to be had. I. First, then, here is a description of the buyer. I believe he is here thie morning. 1 hope he will recognise his own portrait, though it is by no means a flattering one. It istruth itself, a photograph taken by the sunlight of Heaven. It is the portrait of a poor, penniless, brokendown creature, reduced to the extremity of want; here it h, " He that hath no money." His fancied stock of natural innocence is spent. At first he thought himself to be pure as the newly-fallen enow, foi getting the question— How can he be clean that is born of a woman ? They told him that he waa a member of Christ, a child of God, and an inheritor" of the kingdom of Heaven," while he was yet a babe ; and thus hs was led to think that he had started life's business with a respectable stook in trade. He knows better now ;he has seen the fancied goodness melt away like the mist, of the morning. He has gone like the prodigal, into the far country, and there he baa wasted his substance till not a groat remains. If he pearchea himself through aud through he cannot find a relic of innocence ; the whole head is sick and the whole heart faint — from the sole of the foot cv on to the head he is all wounds, and bruises, and putrefying sores. There is no health in him. Innocence is utterly gone, if it waa es^er there He thought that ho had accumulated cooie little savings of good works ; but his imaginary righteousness turns out to be counterfeit. Had he not been honest ? had he not been sober ? had he not attended a place of worship and repeated forms of prayer ? Did not all this make up a little fortune of righteousness ? He thought so, but then ho was ignorant and deluded. He knows better now, for be has found that all his righteousness is base metal. He could not pass a penny's worth of ib in the shop of his own conscience, much less in the market of heaven. Ho knows that it would at once be detected and nai'edto thecounter. He finds that hi 3 silver is white metal of the basest sort, and that hi* gold is a sham. He has not the face to offor it anywhere ; yea, he is so :.fraid of being seized by justice as a joiner that, like a wise man, he has h.dden his sham righteousness in the earth, and has run away from it. He is now more afraid of hi 3 righteousness than of his unrighteousness. He would think it just aa possibie for him to be saved by cursing and swearing as by the merit of his own works. Hia good works are in ill odour with his conscience, for he eees them ro be defiled within and without with sin. A rottenness is in the bones of his righteousness, and thus he is without merit of any sort. See his poverty. Hia original stork is gone, and all his savings have melted away ! He « in a ptill worso plight, for he is also too poor to get anything. The procuring power is gone; for he has "no money." Now that he has come into his sober seDses he would repent, bub he cannot find a tender heart : he would believe, but he cannot find faith. He has no money, that is to say no thing wherewith he can procure those good things which are necessary unto salvation and eternal life. He sees them all hefore him like many a poor man w ho walks the streets of London andseaa ju?t what he wants behind the ghd3 oi the shop window ; but he putshh hand into hia pocket ani despairingly passes on, for he his no money. Aa without, money nothing is to be bought in theworld'3 mart, so ia this poor man afraid that no blessing of grac* can evor be his because he has no good thin£ to offer, no righteousness to give in exchange. If God would sell him even a punnyvorth of righteousness he has not tha yenny to buy it with; and if the Lord would pardon all his sins for one sixpenny worth of holiness, ho had not 30 much as that to offer — he has no money. Moreover, his stock with which to trade i 3 gone. Money inakos money, and he that ha 3 a little to begin with may soon have more ; but this man, having no stock to start with, cannot hops to be rich towards God in at Jby himaelf, He cannob open the smal'est shop or soil tha most trifling wares, for he has no money to start with. Even the poorest will buy a few matches and hawk them about the etreete ; but this poor creatuiv has "no money," aud cannot even invest a twopence in goods He has no power oven to think aright, much less to act aright, so aa to become plaa^ing to God ; he is a3 much without strength aa without meiit. Not only is he without gocd, but bo appears to himself to bo without powor to get good. Ho is a broken trader wbocannos again try his tortune, for ho has "no money. He is worse than a common boprgar, for ho does not even know how to bog — " Wo know not what ive should pray for v,3 we ought.' 1 He needs even to be taught how to be£. What a paa 3 to como to ! '■No money !"' Then ho cannot pay hia old debts. His ems rite up before him, but ho cmnot make amends for them. What a Ion;;; tile h needed to hold the record of his dubca ; it must bo deop a* ths bjttoinleas pit a;.d high as heaven. Ho owes ten thou sand tcjiontp, uod haa " nothing to pay." He hs>? not a stiver, he has no money whatever. Jle ij reduced to bankruptcy, and cannot p »y a farthing in the pound. Moroove % , he cannot meet hia prosont expenses. Poor man, he must Hye. He must eat the bread of heaven, and he must drink of the water of life ; but he has nothing with which to procure these good things. Hia soul hungereth, yea, even faiutaih after the mercy of God, but he has no price with which to procure it. This day ho woul ( pluck biaeyosout tobeploaaing with God ; but he has nothing to offer which the Lord could accept He is reduced to such beggary that, like the prodigal, ho cries, u I perish with hunger," Ha cannot face the future. Ho hardly dares to think of it ; and yet the thought of it will come in. He remembers the needs which will fcurround him on a dying bed, and the torrible demands of the resurrection raornig when the ringing trump ehall introduce him to the dread Assize, and he shall Etard before his God to render his account. He knows that he cannot answer Him for one am of a thousand. Ho dreads the thought of the world to come ! He haa nothing with which to meet the demands of the eternal future. He has '• no money," nothing that will pass current in the day 'of judgment. He is brought to the last stage of spiritual destitution ; poverty has come upon him like an armed man. ThU is a terrible plight to be in ; yet I wish that overy sinner Jhere might be reduced to |it ; for when he is so reduced aud brought low grace will come ia, and the tide will turn. „ 11. Now a minute or twojupon the second point— the selection of the buyer. It ia a strange (choice, and it leads to a singular

invitation—" Ho that hatn no,money4come Buy, and eat," , Well, first, these need mercy most. Oh,' poor souls, whetii the Lord Jesus looks on you He does not' look on what you have, but at what you have not. He does ndt look at your excellences, hue at your necessities, He is not looking out for man's fulness, but for man's emptiness". The Lord Jesus never gave Himself for our righteousness, but "He gave himself for our sins," Salvation is by grace, and it ie presented to those who are lost, for they are the people whom it will suit. How should those who are not lost value salvation ? I say that God selects the most povertystricken first, because this character moat needs his pitying love. The greatness of your necessity is that which gives you a first call from the God of all grage. Not merit but demerit; not desert of reward, but desert; of wrath is the qualification for j mercy. Again, this character is chosen because he is such a one as will exhibit in his own person the power of Divine grace. If the Lord Jesus Christ takes one that is wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked, and if He satisfies ail his necessities by being rich for his'wretchedness, comfort for his misery, wealth for his poverty, eyes for his blindness, and raiment for his nakedness, then all the world will see what a great Saviour He is, and how wonderfully His salvation meets the necessities of the case If you and'l were only little sinnors, I do not see how Christ c u;d be anything but a little Saviour to us ; and ! if He only met our smaller wants, a email supply would suffice. Ah, friends, itpleased the Father chat io Him should all fulness dwell, and He wills that this fulness should be seen. When he takes a man whose needs are a? large aa the sea, whose wants are as many as the sands on the shore, whose danger is as deep as the bottomless pit, and whose sin is black as Tophet's midnight ; and when he makes that man Into a child of God and an heir of heaven, ab, than all intelligences are amazed, and cry out, " What a Saviour is this. What precious blood is this. What; a fulness this must be which satisfies such immeasurable wants." As it is one end of Christ's work to glorify Divine grace, 4 therefore he calls firat upon i hose who have the moat need, for In them His grace will be moac displayed. HI I have now, iv the third place, to notice the invitation. The man who has no I money is to come, buy, and eat. It looks ! odd to tell a penniless man to come and buy, does ifc not '! And yet, what other word could be used ? Come and buy has a meaning of its own not to bo otherwise expressed. In buying there are three or four stages. and the first is desiring to have the thing exhibited. The man who buys has first the wish that the property in the article should be vested in himself. Will you not desire that Christ, that forgiveness, that eternal life, that salvation should become yours? Do you not long for the Lord to grant ifc to yoa ? Men in tho streets, as I have said before, cry, "Buy, buy," because buying means business. They are not unwilling that people should stop and look at their goods ; they even ask them to walk in and look for themselves : but they aim at finding buyers, and not gazers. If a man were to come into the shop and turn over all the goods, and never purchase anything, the tradesman would begin to cry, '' Buy, buy," with quite another accent, for he does not want a crowd to look at him, at him, but he wants people to buy of him. Come and buy. Let ua do business this morning for God and for our own souls. Do not waste the precious niark9t-day of tho Sabbath. People come and go, and hear sermons, and road books, and all for a sort of amusement. They do not come to downright business with ,the Lord See how they select striking sentences ard cull sparkling and delightful extracts, and tako notes of telling anecdotes ; but all thia is comparatively wasting time. "Come buy ! Buy ! Buy !" Do you mean bufcinoss ? Then come and buy. Do not stand buck ritering by the year together. Come to terais.make an end of hesitation. If you have ( no dosiro you a ill not buy, " Come, buy and eat." Oh tint the Spirit may work in you that strong desire without which no man will ever buy. Alas, thoro are thousands [ who aie always diecus&ing knotty points, not because they have a wish to understand the gospel, but because they do not ciro to coma to aeriou3 dealings. Perhaps you have read the story of a governor of one of tha American States, who called at an hotel where there was a coloured waiter, who was woll-kaown to hold Calvaniatic opinions, and was, therefore, made the butb for many a jeat. Sj tho governor said to him, "Sam, you do not leilly believe that doctrino of election, do you?" "Deed I do, sah," said he " Well, then," replied ths governor, "tell me whether I am elect or no*-." "Sah," said the negro, " I did not know you were j a candidate, and I know nothing about a man's being elected if ho has nob pub up for it/ Now, that ia common fense. It ida bu?ineo3-like way of answaringan absurd question. Certain paop'.a who are not even candidates! ior heaven v,ill yet shelter themselves behind wroug ideas of predestination — playing with the blessings of grace instead of desiring them. Have you not seen a man with a pack stand aL a door trying to sail a few trinkets to a servant ? Ho does not mind half an hour's talk about his good 3, but when at last he finds that the maid does not mean buying, sco how he shuts up his boxes, folds up hi 3 packages, and indignuutly takes him3elf off, saying by his gesturoa, " I wish I had not wasted so much time over you." It is just so with earnest preachers ; thay grow eick at heart when they see that men will not coma to business. They cry, ''Who hath believed our report," and are anxious to carry their heavonly burden to another people. Oh, that you would hunger and thirst aftor Christ and his salvation. The next thing in a purchase U that, when tho term 3 are carved out, the buyer appropriates the goods to himself. It I buy a thing it is mine, and I take it into my possession. You do not see a man buy a thing and then leave it behind him for the seller to do what he likes wish it. la the things of God you are to appropriate the blessing to yourself. Put out the hand of faith and say " Here is Christ for a sinner ; I am a sinner, and I take Chi is t to be my Saviour. Here is washing for the filthy. I am filthy, and I wash. Here is a robe of righteousness for the naked. lam naked, and I take the raiment to be mine." Make Chjrisb your own, and He has made you His own. Take the Lord by an appropriating act of faith to be yours for ever, and the bargain is struck. But the text says a little more than that : it says, " Buy and eat ;'' as much as to aay, make it yours in the ino&t complete sense. If a man buys a loal of bread it is his ; but if he eats it, then all the lawyers in the world cannot dispute him out of it— he has it by pnssession which ia not only nine points of the law, but all the law. When a poor eoul hath confidence enough to take Christ and to live upon Him as his own. saying, *' This Chriat id able to save me 1 I take Him into me and lam saved ;" why the devil himself cannot unsave you . What is to divide him from Christ? There is the bath, and I wash therein and am clean. What then? Who can obliterate tho hot that I have washed ? The righteousness of Christ is bestowed upon me, and put

on by me. Who can tear off that glorious dres.B? Christ fed upon Js ours beyond all question. No method of possession i« more sure and safe than that of eating what you; have bought. Feed, then, on Christ, tjbe . bread of Heaven, and though you bo /in , yourself the poorest of the poor, yet He is < yours for ever and ever. IV. I conclude now by saying a few things by way of assurance, to show that this is ali real and true, and not makebelieve. Every needy, thirsty soul may, have this day all the Grace of God. Oh*, may the Spirit of God make him willing, jhe shall have all the blessings of the covenantof grace to be bis own for ever- and ever. This is no sham there is an honest offer made to everyone who is conscious of soulpoverty. For, first, it in not God's way to mock men. He hath himself declared, "I said not unto the seed of Jacob seek ye my face in vain." God has not said one thing in one place and another in another to contradict himself, fie has not id the Scriptures bidden men come to Him with, tne promise that He will nob cast them ont, all the while meaning of some of them that He ■ will cast them out. No, there are no exceptions made in the promises of God , to empty sinners who come to Him. You must not dream of exceptions which do not exist. Jesus says, " Him that cometh< to me X will in no wise cast out," and this includes all who come. Come to the Lord Jesus 'Christ, my friend, and he will welcome you He never did reject one, and he never will. He will not fini pleaeure in tantalising you. He is too good, too true, to become a deceiver even to a poor lonely seeker. His word of promise to you is true and real ; every word is full of meaning, sweeter meaning than you dream of. Grace shall be had by you at once if you will but take it " without money and without price." Men mock men, but God never deludes We may say of Himj " Thy word ia truth " There is no adequate price that we could bring to God for Hia mercy, How could there be ? Would it be mercy if ifc could bebought ? Grace if without price, because it h priceless. You can buy gold if you will. There ia come medium of exchange for the purpose of every finite thing : %ut what medium of exchange could there bo for the purchase of infinite blessings ? Hugh k,eap3 of puch things as the native Africans cail money would be of no value to us, and what eelf -righteous men call merit, is utterly despicable to God. Is there any comparison between a man's giving all his wealth and the possession of eternal glory 1 No compareion can be instituted between metab and spiritual joys. As you cannot bring any price, I do pray you believe that God is honest when he declares that He will give you pardon of sin and all the bleesings of His grace of God without money and without price. You cannot have them otherwise. Do believe that He means you to receive them by grace. Remember that Jesus must be meant for sinners, for if sinners had not existed there never would have been a Saviour. When the Lord Jesus Christ same to save He muat have known that there was no sphere for his operations except among sinners^ honce He entered on his office with the view of saving dinners. If a doctor conesto town, and there is nobody ill, and it is cevtain that nobody ever will be ill, he had better drive off somewhere else ; he will do most business whero there is most sickneee, When Christ Jeeus became a soul- physician He had His eye on tha spiritually sick, and on them alone. They are the patients who make up His practice, and they only. Ifj. then, thou art sick even unto death, put thy cisc into the handa of Christ, for He will heal th.cc Besides that JChrist ia all. Men have no notion what Christ is when they talk of getting rea-ly for Christ, or brining somethin? to Him. What wonld you bring to Ouriet? Everything ia in Chri3t, and therefore you cannot bring anything to Him, " Oh, but," say you, "I must come with a broken heart." I tell you no ; you must come for a broken heart. " Oh, but I ™ust come with a senee of need." J rdl you that a true sense of ueed is this work in you. True repentance and a seuso of need spring from His grace, and you must get them from Him without money and without price. •' Ah, but I must be something." Say, rather you must be nothing. We cannot drill this into men's brains ; nay i? we were to use steampower to work upon the mind, we could not got thia thought fixed in their proud heartf, Thoy will cliug to merit, they must bs something, feel tcmathing, $ay oorn6fching, do something. Oufcof ths way with your some: things Subside into nof"hi :£ne 3 The Spirit of God brooded of old ovor chaos, <-o rbit or.ier was clearly Bis work ; ami when tha mind seems to ba all chnos and darkness thon the Spirit of Gcd is sure to *rork. and the Lord's voice is heaid s^viug, " L^fc there bo light." Go to the Lord just as yju are. You will never be batter— you may bo worse. Go now juat a* you e.ro, to Jesus, and buy and eafc without; mcae^, means, or merit.