Day Twenty Nine

It is noted with both sorrow and a certain holy triumph that the adherents of the Muslim faith grew restless toward the conclusion of the message, when all they heard proclaimed was the singular fact of Jesus dying upon the Cross. Their hearts recoiled, for they desired not to hear the secret sins of their own souls drawn out into the light of the open day; nor, indeed, could they abide the offense of hearing a mere prophet declared to be the very Saviour of perishing sinners. We recall the words of that mighty evangelist, Whitefield, who testified: "I was honored to have rotten eggs and pieces of a dead cat thrown at me as I preached Christ." Though I have suffered some measure of resistance and the sharp word of threat before, alas, I have not yet been granted such a glorious distinction. The Lord God Almighty hath, in His boundless and mysterious grace, often brought me to the very brink of that bitter cup, yet hath He not commanded me to drink it down. But the soul rests in this conviction: I shall not escape the necessary affliction of the faithful witness. My time for that honor will surely come.

Though my spirit sought to avoid the preaching upon this tumultuous spot, yet was the necessity made clear, and it was inevitable. The concourse of people was far greater than its custom, being but a few days removed from the turning of the New Year. Despite the multitude of fears and the easy counsel of excuses that clamored within my breast, God graciously prevailed.

I was not, it seems clear, sent by the Almighty to preach the Gospel unto the vast multitude of the irritated and annoyed—those who showed their contempt by sounding their horns to drown out the sacred Word—but rather to the precious few who listened patiently and intently, whose hearts the Spirit had prepared. Even so did our Blessed Lord teach: He came not for the self-righteous, but for sinners. If any state can be described as a precondition to approaching Christ, it is this: one must first be a sinner—a soul who doth humbly confess his deep need and his transgression. Only such afflicted souls may truly approach the Master; good people, in their presumption, cannot. Christ did not shed His precious blood for the self-satisfied, but for the sinners who knew their plight. He came for the sick, not the healthy. His holy call is for those who desperately need a Savior, not for those who imagine they can get by alone in their own vain strength.

“Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”

Luke 5:31-32

Heaven is full of immoral sinners who repented and looked to Christ's finished work on the cross for salvation. Hell is full of good and moral people who look to their own goodness to save themselves.

If you own yourself to be a great sinner, I implore you, to flee to Christ. He is a great Savior.