Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 1931
“And it shall come to pass that whoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the Lord has said, and in the remnant whom the Lord shall call.” Joel 2:32.
I THOUGHT within myself, “What shall be the topic for the last sermon before I depart to my quiet resting place?” Perhaps my sermons for the last day of this long stretch of work may be my last, altogether, for life is very frail. When I hear of first one and then another in strong health being suddenly taken away, I am made to know the uncertainty of life in my own case. It were wiser to trust a spider’s web than the life of man! Brothers and Sisters, we live on the brink of eternity and had need behave ourselves as men who will soon face its realities. We may have to do so far sooner than we think. So I said within myself, “Shall I feed the flock of God in the rich pastures of choice promise?” Truly it would have been well to have done so, but then I thought of the stray sheep—must I not go after them? The 99 are not in the wilderness and, therefore, I shall not be leaving them in any danger. They are well folded and the Chief Shepherd will not forget them. God has given them to have life in themselves and the green pastures are with them in plenty—they can afford to be left alone better than the perishing ones. But as for the wandering ones, can I leave them among the wilds and wolves? I have tried to bring them to the great Bishop and Shepherd of souls, but they have not yet returned—how can I forget them? How can I endure to think of their being lost forever?
So I thought I would go out once more after the lost ones hoping that the Lord would help me to find them, even now, and bring them to Himself! I earnestly ask your prayers that a very simple Gospel address may be blessed by God to the immediate conversion of those among us who have long halted and are hesitating even unto this day. I could not have chosen for such a purpose a more suitable text—it is one of the broadest declarations of Gospel doctrine that can be found in Holy Scripture.
I shall handle it in the plainest manner. In a book of practical surgery, you do not look for figures of speech—all is plain as a pikestaff—such will my sermon be. I hand out the Bread of Heaven and you do not expect poetry from a bakery!
When the Apostle Peter was preaching what I may call the inauguration sermon of the evangelical era, he could do no better than go to Joel for his text. See the second chapter of the Acts of the Apostles. He explained the wonders of the Pentecost by a reference to this prophetic passage. When Paul, in his famous Epistle to the Romans, would set out the Gospel in all its plainness, he could not do better than quote in his 10th chapter, at the 13th verse, this same text—“For whoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” If Apostles found this passage so suitable for the expression and confirmation of their Gospel message, what can I do but follow their wise example? How greatly do I hope that a blessing will rest upon all here present while I preach upon this precious portion of Scripture—even as a blessing rested upon the motley crowd in Jerusalem when Peter spoke to them! The same Spirit is with us and His sacred power is not in the least diminished. Why should He not convert 3,000 now, as He did on that occasion? If there is a failure, it will not arise from Him, but from ourselves.
Look at the connection of our text in Joel and you will find that it is preceded by terrible warnings—“I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the coming of the Lord.” Nor is this all! This broad Gospel statement is followed by words of equal dread. “Let the heathen be wakened, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat: for there will I sit to judge all the heathen round about. Put you in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe: come, get you down; for the press is full, the fats overflow; for their wickedness is great. The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their shining.” It was true of the Prophets as of the Apostles that, knowing the terrors of the Lord, they persuaded men. They were not ashamed to use fear as a powerful motive with mankind. By the Prophet Joel, the diamond of our text is placed in a black setting and its brilliance is thereby enhanced. As a lamp is all the more valued when the night is dark, so is the Gospel all the more precious when men see their misery without it! To remove from men’s minds the salutary fear of punishment for sin is to draw up the floodgates of iniquity. He who does this is a traitor to society. If men are not warned of the anger of God against iniquity, they will take license to riot in evil.