2 Kings 7:3-8 And there were four leprous men at the entering in of the gate: and they said one to another, Why sit we here until we die?… "Why sit we here until we die?" That is a plain question that these poor wretched people put to themselves, and after failing to find an answer, to confirm them in their sitting still, they rose up and went forward, and in doing So there came upon them abundant relief and blessing. I trust the vision I have had concerning some of you, whom I have invited to come to this gospel service, has come to pass. My brother, my sister, I invited you to God's house, and you have come. You have not been in place of worship for a long time, and I am glad to see you here. You have come in here in a sort of despairing mood. You can't say you have come here expecting to be blessed. You have said, something like the leprous men, "Well, well, my life has got more and more weary since I kept, away from the churches and the preachers. Certainly since I became an outcast." (and you cast yourself out) "I have become darker and darker and more and more wretched." And when you got my invitation you said, "Well, I will go once more to the church, for it can't be worse for me." The grand thing is to get done with our sitting still. That is the killing thing — doing nothing. Young and old, rich and poor, let the days and months and years come and go, and sit. still doing nothing for their, souls. The grey hairs, are gathering fast on some of you, and you are not a bit further forward; but a little older, and a little heavier, and a little more damned than you were some time ago. "Why sit we here until we die?" Why, there is power enough in that thought to begin a great revival of church-going and a great revival of salvation all over London, throughout its whole circumference. "Why sit we here until we die?" And no one of the four could get any better answer than that they had sat still long enough. Now the Gospel, the glad tidings coming out of this is, that when the soul begins to awaken out of its benumbed, dumb state of dark despair, and deplores its starving condition; when it says, "It is time I made a shift, for life is slipping away, and my leprosy is not diminishing, my death is getting more deadly every year I live," the true state and condition is realised, and the soul being convinced that there is no hope in sitting still, is determined to arise, to flee for refuge to the only hope in the Gospel. The lepers said, "We will go into the camp of the Syrians." They expected death, but when they came to the camp a wonderful thing had happened. I think I see these four wretched lepers approaching; I see them arrive at the edge of the camp, expecting the challenge of the Syrian guard. But, lo! no guard was there. Everything was most unnaturally quiet, and in they slipped, and as they moved in farther and farther and saw no one, their courage grew, and they realised that they were in a deserted camp, surrounded with food and plenty, the spoils of the departed host. Now, don't you see in this the Gospel story? The sinner, when convinced of his lost, ruined, guilty state, has with this conviction a wrong idea and impression of God and salvation. He has the notion — the mistaken notion — that God is full of anger and wrath, and that in coming to Him he will be destroyed. Just like the lepers, they thought the Syrians would kill them. But, us it turned out to the lepers, instead of finding enemies and death, they found food, and all they needed; so, instead of the sinner being smitten with God's justice, God's mercy is revealed to him; and instead of death, he receives the gift of eternal life. That's the English of it; the Gospel of it. These poor starving leprous men came to the Syrian camp, upon the provision of a hundred thousand men, shall I say? Ear more than that. So come to Christ, and there is more in Him, far more than you and I and a million of us could possibly need. "My grace is sufficient for you." Dear me! Surely the great ocean is big enough for a sprat like you, isn't it? And that "My grace" is sufficient for thee individually. Try — ay, trust! And I am not minimising your sin or mine. But I am magnifying "the grace of God that bringeth salvation unto man." (J. M'Neill.) Parallel Verses KJV: And there were four leprous men at the entering in of the gate: and they said one to another, Why sit we here until we die? |
    |