Here in London there is no society that would have such a man as John
Bunyan once was in their company; yet the Lord saved him, and welcomed
him into His kingdom. Here is some poor miserable drunkard cast out by
his father and mother, and deserted by all his friends, but the Lord
has received him. I have known some of the most miserable outcasts
that were ever seen, cast out and despised by everybody, and yet the
Lord has received them. Take Him then at His word to-day, and accept
His invitation, "Him that cometh to Me I will in nowise cast out."
But you say I must just get rid of my sins first, and then I will come
to Him. Why, that's just like a man dying of the scarlet fever saying,
"Oh, I'll wait till I get rid of the fever before I send for a
doctor!" Why, it is just because you are a sinner, and cannot get rid
of your sins, that you need a Saviour. If I was dying for want of
bread, it would be just as reasonable for me to say, "When I have got
rid of this hunger, then I will begin to eat." It is because I am
hungry that I need to eat, and it is because we are sinners that we
need Christ. It is because a man is sick that he needs a physician,
and Christ is the Physician of the soul.
3. In Luke v. we read of the leper coming to Christ, and the Lord said
unto him,
"I WILL: BE THOU CLEAN."
And immediately the leprosy left him. That's another _I will_ I want
to call your attention to. Now, if there is any man or woman here full
of the leprosy of sin, if you will but go to the Master and tell all
your case to Him, He will speak to you as He did to that poor leper,
and say, "I will: be thou clean," and the leprosy of your sins will
flee away from you. It is the Lord, and the Lord alone, that can
forgive sins. There is His word, just look it right over, "I will: be
thou clean," and then put that with the other verse, "Him that cometh
to Me I will in nowise cast out."