Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 687
Delivered on Sunday Morning, April 22, 1866, by C. H. Spurgeon, at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington
“Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us? Then said I, Here am I! Send me.” Isaiah 6:8.
God’s great remedy for man’s ruin of man is the sacrifice of His dear Son. He proclaims to the sons of men that only by the Atonement of Jesus can they be reconciled unto Himself. In order that this remedy should be of any avail to any man he must receive it by faith—for without faith men perish even under the Gospel dispensation. There is at the present moment great lack of men to tell out the story of the Cross of Jesus Christ and many considerations press that lack upon our hearts. Think how many voices all mingle into this one—“Who will go for Us?” Listen to the wounds of Jesus as they plaintively cry, “How shall we be rewarded? How shall the precious drops of blood be made available to redeem the souls of men unless loving lips shall go for us to claim by right those who have been redeemed by blood?”
The blood of Jesus cries like Abel’s blood from the ground, “Whom shall I send?” and His wounds repeat the question, “Who will go for us?” Does not the purpose of the Eternal Father also join with solemn voice in this demand? The Lord has decreed a multitude unto eternal life. He has purposed, with a purpose which cannot be changed or frustrated, that a multitude whom no man can number shall be the reward of the Savior’s travail. But how can these decrees be fulfilled except by the sending forth of the Gospel, for it is through the Gospel, and through the Gospel alone, that salvation can come to the sons of men!
I think I hear the awful voice of the purpose mingling with the piercing cry of the Cross appealing to us to declare the Word of Life. I see the handwriting of old Eternity bound in one volume with the crimson writing of Calvary, and both together write out most legibly the pressing question—“Who shall go for us to bring home the elect and redeemed ones? The very sins of men, horrible as they are to think upon, may be made an argument for proclaiming the Gospel! Oh the cruel and ravenous sins which destroy the sons of men and rend their choicest joy in pieces!
When I see monstrous lusts defiling the temple of God, and many gods and many lords usurping the Throne of the Almighty, I can hear the loud cry, “Who will go for Us?” Do not perishing souls suggest to us the question of the text? Men are going down to the grave perishing for lack of knowledge! The tomb engulfs them, eternity swallows them up, and in the dark they die without a glimmer of hope! No candle of the Lord ever shines upon their faces. By these perishing souls we implore you this morning to feel that heralds of the Cross are needed—needed lest these souls be ruined everlastingly! Needed that they may be lifted up from the dunghill of their corruption and made to sit among princes redeemed by Christ Jesus! The cry wells into a wail of mighty pathetic pleading—all time echoes it and all eternity prolongs it—while Heaven, earth, and Hell give weight to the chorus.
Beloved, there are two forms of missionary enterprise conducted by two classes of agents. I so divide them merely for the occasion—they are really not divided by any rigid boundary. The first is the agency of those specially dedicated to the ministry of the Word who give themselves wholly to it—who are able, by the generous effort of the Christian Church, or by their own means—to set their whole time apart for the great work of teaching the Truth of God. As there are but few in this assembly who can do this, I shall not translate my text in its reference to ministers although it has a loud voice to such.
I shall rather refer to another and equally useful form of agency, namely, the Christian Church as a whole—the Believers who, while following their secular avocations, are heralds for Christ and missionaries for the Cross. Such are wanted here. Such are needed in our colonies. Such might find ample room in the great world of heathendom! Men and women, who, if they did not stand up beneath the tree to address the assembled throng, would preach in the workshop!
Who, if they did not teach the hundreds, would at the fireside instruct the twos and threes. We want both sorts of laborers, but I may do more good on this present occasion by stirring up this second sort.
You may all be teachers of Christ in another sense. You can all give yourself to the work of God in your own calling and promote your Master’s glory perseveringly in your daily avocations. I lift up an earnest cry in God’s name for consecrated men and women, who, not needing to wait till the Church’s hands can support them, shall support themselves with their own hands and yet minister for Christ Jesus wherever Providence may have cast their lot. The person wanted, as described in the questions, “Whom shall I send? Who will go for Us?” The person wanted is viewed from two points. He has a character bearing two aspects. The person wanted has a Divine side—“Whom shall I send?” Then he has a human aspect—“Who will go for Us?”