NO. 1757<\/b><\/p>\n
A SERMON PREACHED ON LORDS-DAY AFTERNOON, DECEMBER 16TH, 1883,<\/b><\/p>\n
BY C. H. SPURGEON,<\/i><\/p>\n
AT MENTONE, BEFORE THE COMMUNION, TO A SMALL COMPANY OF BELIEVERS.<\/b><\/p>\n
\u201cI was a stranger, and ye took me in.\u201d \u2014 Matthew 25:35.<\/i><\/p>\n
\u201cBut as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.\u201d \u2014 John 1:12.<\/i><\/p>\n
I Lately received a New Year\u2019s card, which suggested to me the topic on which I am about to speak to you. The designer of the card has, with holy insight, seen the relation of the two texts to each other, and rendered both of them eminently suggestive by placing them together. There is freshness in the thought that, by receiving Jesus as a stranger, our believing hospitality works in us a divine capacity and we thereby receive power to become the sons of God. The connection suggested between the two inspired words is really existent, and by no means strained or fanciful, as you will see by reading the context of the passage in John: \u201cHe was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.\u201d So he was a stranger in the world which he himself had made. \u201cHe came unto his own, and his own received him not.\u201d So he was a stranger among the people whom he had set apart for his own by many deeds of mercy. \u201cBut as many as received him,\u201d \u2014 that is to say, gave entertainment to this blessed stranger \u2014 \u201dto them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.\u201d I thought that this might prove to be a suitable and salutary passage to discourse upon at the beginning of a New Year, for this is a season of hospitality, and some among our friends will think it well to commence a New Year by saying to the Lord Jesus, \u201cCome in, thou blessed of the Lord; wherefore standest thou without?\u201d This divine stranger has knocked at many doors, till his head is wet with dew, and his locks with the drops of the night; and now I trust there are some who will rise up and open unto him, so that at the end of the year they may say with Job, \u201cThe stranger did not lodge in the street: but I opened my doors to the traveler.\u201d Verily, in so doing, you will not only entertain angels unawares; but you will be receiving the Lord of angels. The day in which you receive him shall be the beginning of years to you; it shall be the first of a series of years, which, whether they be few or many, shall be each one in the best sense happy.<\/p>\n
I would say a few words, first, about the stranger taken in<\/i>; and then, about the stranger making strangers into sons<\/i>.<\/p>\n
\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014<\/p>\n
I. <\/b>The Stranger Taken In: this is a simile given to us by our Lord himself: a royal metaphor presented to us from his own throne. Note that the passage begins, \u201cI was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink;\u201d these are two good works which prove faith in Jesus and love to him, and therefore they are accepted, recorded, and rewarded, but it is a distinct and memorable growth when it comes to, \u201cI was a stranger, and ye took me in.\u201d House-room is a larger gift than refreshment at the door. It is good believingly to do anything for Christ, however small, but it is a much better thing to give entertainment to Jesus within our souls, admitting him into our minds and hearts. We have not come to the full of what our Lord has a right to expect of us till, having given from our stores to him, by benefiting his poor and aiding his cause, we deliberately open the doors of our entire being to him, and instal him in our souls as an honored guest. We must not be satisfied with giving him cups of cold water, or morsels of bread, but we must \u201cconstrain him, saying Abide with us.\u201d Our hearts must be Bethanies, where, like Mary, and Martha, and Lazarus, we give our Master gladsome welcome: houses of Obed-edom, where the ark of the Lord may dwell in peace. Our prayer must be that of Abraham, \u201cMy Lord, if now I have found favor in thy sight, pass not away, I pray thee, from thy servant.\u201d<\/p>\n
The uppermost word of our text is stranger<\/i>, and its light casts a hue of strangeness over the whole passage. Here are three strange things. The first is, that the Lord Jesus should be a stranger here below<\/i>. Is it not a strange thing that \u201che was in the world, and the world was made by him,\u201d and yet he was a stranger in it? Yet is it not a whit more strange than true; for when he was born there was no room for him in the inn. Inns had open doors for ordinary strangers, but not for him; for he was a greater stranger than any around him. It was Bethlehem of David, the seat of the ancient family to which he belonged; but alas! he had become \u201ca stranger unto his brethren, and an alien unto his mother\u2019s children,\u201d and no door was opened unto him. Soon there was no safe room for him in the village itself, for Herod the king sought the young child\u2019s life, and he must flee into Egypt, to be a stranger in a strange land, and worse than a stranger \u2014 an exile and a fugitive from the land whereof by birthright he was king. On his return, and on his public appearing, there was still no room for him among the mass of the people. He came to his own Israel, to whom prophets had revealed him, and types had set him forth; but they would have none of him. \u201cHe was despised and rejected of men.\u201d He was the man \u201cwhom men abhorred;\u201d whom they so much detested that they cried, \u201cAway with him! Crucify him! Crucify him!\u201d Yea, the world so little knew him that they must needs hang up the Lord of glory on a cross, and put \u201cthe Holy One and the Just\u201d to a felon\u2019s death. Jew and Gentile alike conspired to prove how truly he was a stranger; the Jew said, \u201cAs for this fellow, we know not from whence he is;\u201d and the Roman asked him, \u201cWhence art thou?\u201d Now, that Christ should be such a stranger was indeed a sadly singular thing, and yet we need not wonder, for how should a wicked, selfish world know Jesus or receive him? The Lord\u2019s own had been forewarned of this in ancient type, for long before the Lord appeared in the flesh he had shown himself as a stranger to the faithful. He came in angelic form to Abraham, and thus we read the story: \u201cAnd he lift up his eyes and looked, and, lo, three men stood by him: and when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself toward the ground. And said, My Lord, if now I have found favor in thy sight, pass not away, I pray thee, from thy servant: Let a little water, I pray you, be fetched, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree: and I will fetch a morsel of bread, and comfort ye your hearts.\u201d The Lord, who stands out in the center of the three, was a stranger, and the father of the faithful entertained him, in type of what all the faithful of every age will do. This is he of whom Jeremiah said, \u201cO the hope of Israel, the Savior thereof in time of trouble, why shouldest thou be as a stranger in the land, and as a wayfaring man that turneth aside to tarry for a night?\u201d Yet with this fair warning it still remains sadly singular that, coming on an errand of mercy, our Lord should find so scant a welcome; should be so little known, so seldom recognized, so harshly entreated. Truly as Egypt made Israel to serve with rigour, so have we made this patient stranger to serve with our sins, and wearied him with our iniquities. The Son of man had not where to lay his head. Luke says the barbarians showed Paul and his friends no little kindness: but men were worse than barbarians to their Savior. Shall the servant be better treated than his Master, or the disciple than his Lord? \u201cBehold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another strange thing is that we should be able to receive the Lord Jesus as a stranger<\/i>. He has gone into the glory, and will he ever say of us, \u201cI was a stranger, and ye took me in\u201d? Yes, he will say so, if we render to him that spiritual hospitality of which he here speaks. This can be done in several ways.<\/p>\n
Brethren and sisters in Christ, for such I trust you are, we can receive Christ as a stranger when believers are few and despised in any place. We may sojourn where worldliness abounds and religion is at a discount, and it may need some courage to avow our faith in Jesus. Then have we an opportunity of winning the approving word, \u201cI was a stranger, and ye took me in.\u201d There is a sure proof of love in receiving our Lord as a stranger. If the Queen desired again to visit Mentone, every villa would be gladly placed at her disposal; but were she driven from her empire, and reduced to be a poor stranger, hospitality to her would be a greater test of loyalty than it is to-day. When Jesus is in low esteem in any place, and he sometimes is so, let us be all the more bold to avow our allegiance to him. I fear that many professors take their color from their company, and are hail-fellows with the irreligious and the unbelieving. These cry \u201cHosanna\u201d with the multitude of the Lords admirers, but in heart they have no love to the Son of God. Our loyalty to Christ must never be a matter of latitude and longitude; we must love him in every land, honor him when the many disregard him, and we must speak of him when all forget him.<\/p>\n
Again, we have the Lord\u2019s own warrant for saying that if we show brotherly kindness to a poor saint we entertain the Lord himself. If we see Christian in want, or despised, and ridiculed; and we say, \u201cYou are my brother; it matters not what garb you wear, the name of Christ is named on you, and I suffer with you. I will relieve your wants and share your reproach,\u201d then the glorious Lord himself will say to us at the last, \u201cInasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.\u201d It does seem passing strange, though I thus speak, that you and I should be still able to entertain our Lord, and yet it is so. We do not wonder that the righteous with a humble truthfulness exclaim, \u201cLord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in?\u201d Neither are we ourselves free from admiring surprise. We also cry, \u201cWill God in very deed dwell with men upon the earth? Will he accept hospitality at our hands?\u201d It is even so.<\/p>\n
Again, we may entertain the stranger Christ by holding fast his faithful word when the doctrines taught by himself and his apostles are in ill repute. Nowadays the truth which God has revealed seems of less account with men than their own thoughts and dreams, and they who still believe Christ\u2019s faithful word shall have it said of them, \u201cI was a stranger, and ye took me in.\u201d When you see revealed truth, as it were, wandering about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented, and no man saith a good word for it, then is the hour come to avow it because it is Christ\u2019s truth, and to prove your fidelity by counting the reproach of Christ greater riches than all the treasures of Egypt. Oh! scorn on those who only believe what everybody else believes, just because they must be in the swim with the majority. These are but dead fish borne of the current, and they will be washed away to a shameful end. If living fish swim against the stream, so do living Christians pursue Christ\u2019s truth against the set and current of the times, defying alike the ignorance and the culture of the age. It is the believer\u2019s honor, the chivalry of a Christian, to be the steadfast friend of truth when all other men have forsaken it.<\/p>\n
So, also, when Christ\u2019s precepts are disregarded, his day forgotten, and his worship neglected, we can come in, and take up our cross, and follow him, and so receive him as a stranger. To be sure, some will say, \u201cThose people are fanatical Methodists, or straitlaced Presbyterians;\u201d but what of that? It matters nothing to us what the world think of us, for we are crucified to it and it to us. If our Lord has laid down a rule, it is ours to follow it, and find rest unto our souls in so doing; ay, and a special rest in doing it, when by so doing we are securing that blessed sentence, \u201cI was a stranger, and ye took me in.\u201d Death itself for his sake would be a small matter if thereby we secured that priceless word.<\/p>\n
Once more, that spiritual life, which is the innermost receiving of Christ; that new life, which no man knows but he that has received it; that quickening of the Spirit, which makes the Christian as much superior to ordinary men as men are above dumb, driven cattle \u2014 if we receive that blessed gift, then shall we with emphasis be entertaining our Lord as a stranger. Profession is abundant, but the secret life is rare. The name to live is everywhere, but where is the life fully seen? To be rather than to talk, to enjoy rather than to pretend, to have Christ truly within \u2014 this is not every man\u2019s attainment, but those who have it are among the God-like ones, the true sons of God.<\/p>\n
A third strange thing is the fact that Jesus will deign to dwell in our hearts<\/i>. Such a one as Jesus in such a one as I am! The King of glory in a sinner\u2019s bosom! This is a miracle of grace: yet the manner of it is simple enough. A humble, repenting faith opens the door, and Jesus enters the heart at once. Love shuts to the door with the hand of penitence, and holy watchfulness keeps out intruders. Thus is the promise made good, \u201cIf any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.\u201d Meditation, contemplation, prayer, praise, and daily obedience, keep the house in order for the Lord; and then follows the consecration of our entire nature to his use as a temple; the dedication of spirit, soul, and body, and all their powers, as holy vessels of the sanctuary; the writing of \u201cHoliness unto the Lord\u201d upon all that is about us, till our every-day garments become vestments, our meals sacraments, our life a ministry, and ourselves priests unto the Most High. Oh, the supreme condescension of this indwelling! He never dwelt in angel, but he resides in a contrite spirit. There is a world of meaning in the Redeemer\u2019s words, \u201cI in them.\u201d May we know them as Paul translates them, \u201cChrist in you, the hope of glory.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014<\/p>\n
II. <\/b>A few words must suffice upon The Stranger Making Stagers Into Sons. \u201cAs many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.\u201d Yes, beloved, the moment Christ is received into our hearts by faith we are no more strangers and foreigners, but of the household of God; for the Lord adopts us<\/i> and puts us among the children. It is a splendid act of divine grace, that he should take us who were heirs of wrath, and make us heirs of God, joint-heirs with Jesus Christ. Such honor have all the saints, even all that believe on his name.<\/p>\n
There is more to follow: the designation of sons brings with it a birth<\/i> into the actual condition of sons: the privilege brings with it the power, the name is backed up and warranted by the nature: for the Spirit of God enters into us when Christ comes, and causes us to be born again. To be adopted without being born again would be a lame blessing, but when we are both adopted and regenerated then have we the fullness of sonship, and the grace is made perfect towards us. \u201cExcept a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God\u201d; but this mysterious birth, which comes with the reception of Christ, makes us free, not only of the kingdom of God, but of the house and the heart of God.<\/p>\n
Forget not that when the Lord Jesus enters our hearts, there springs up between us and him a living, loving, lasting union<\/i>, and this seals our sonship: for as we become one with the Son we must be sons also. Jesus puts it, \u201cMy Father and your Father.\u201d It is the Spirit of his Son in our hearts by which we cry, \u201cAbba, Father.\u201d \u201cHe that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.\u201d We are unto the Father even as Jesus is, as he says \u201cthou hast loved them as thou hast loved me.\u201d Thus you see that in receiving Jesus we receive, as the Revised Version puts it, \u201cthe right to become the sons of God.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yet once more: the practical reception of Jesus into the life becomes a proof to ourselves and others that we are the sons of God, for it creates in a likeness to God<\/i> which is apparent and unquestionable. For look you, although Jehovah, our God, be incomprehensible and infinite, and his glory is inconceivable in its splendor, yet this fact we know of him, that in his bosom lies his Son, with whom he is always well-pleased. Look ye, when we receive Jesus into our bosom, as one with us, and when our joy and delight are in him, we do in that matter become like to the Father. Having thus with the Father the same object of love and delight, we are brought into fellowship with him, and begin to walk in the light, as he is in the light. A small window will let in the great sun; much more will Jesus, as the blessed meeting-place between our souls and God, let in the life, light, and love of God into our souls, making us like to God.<\/p>\n
Moreover, having received Jesus, as a stranger, we feel a tenderness henceforth towards all strangers, for we see in their condition some resemblance to our own. We have love to all who like ourselves are strangers with God, and sojourners, as all our fathers were, and thus again we are made like to God, of whom it is written, \u201cThe Lord preserveth the strangers.\u201d Our God is \u201ckind unto the unthankful and to the evil.\u201d Our Lord Jesus therefore bade us be the children of our Father which is in heaven, \u201cFor he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.\u201d By becoming doers of good, we are known as children of the good God. \u201cBlessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.\u201d A man is a son of God when he lives beyond himself by a thoughtful care for others; when his soul is not confined within the narrow circle of his own ribs, but goes abroad to bless those around him however unworthy they may be. True children of God never see a lost one without seeking to save him, never hear of misery without longing to bestow comfort. \u201cYe know the heart of a stranger,\u201d said the Lord to Israel; and so do we, for we were once captives ourselves, and even now our choicest Friend is still a stranger, for whose sake we love all suffering men. When Christ is in us we search out opportunities of bringing prodigals, strangers, and outcasts to the great Father\u2019s house. Our love goes out to all mankind, and our hand is closed against none: if it be so we are made like to God, as little children are like their father. Oh! sweet result of entertaining the Son of God by faith: he dwells in us, and we gaze upon him in holy fellowship; so that \u201cwe all with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image, from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.\u201d \u201cLove is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.\u201d May we daily feel the power of Jesus within our hearts, transforming our whole character, and making us to be more and more manifestly the children of God. When our Lord asks concerning us, \u201cWhat manner of men were they?\u201d may even his enemies and ours be compelled to answer, \u201cAs thou art, so were they: each one resembled the children of a king.\u201d Then shall Jesus be admired in all them that believe, for men shall see in the children the divine stranger\u2019s handiwork.<\/p>\n
THE PASTOR\u2019S LIFE WRAPPED UP WITH HIS PEOPLE\u2019S STEADFASTNESS.<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
NO. 1757 A SERMON PREACHED ON LORDS-DAY AFTERNOON, DECEMBER 16TH, 1883, BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT MENTONE, BEFORE THE COMMUNION, TO A SMALL COMPANY OF BELIEVERS. \u201cI was a stranger, and ye took me in.\u201d \u2014 Matthew 25:35. \u201cBut as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, … Continue reading “THE NEW YEAR\u2019S GUEST.”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3095","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3095","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3095"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3095\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}