Divine Yearning: The Call to Embrace God's Protection

This verse shows also that the ruin of men lies with themselves Christ puts it very plainly I would but she would not how often would I have gathered thy children together and ye would not that is a truth about which I hope we have never had any question we hold tenaciously that salvation is all of Grace but we also believe with equal firmness that the ruin of man is entirely the result of his own sin it is the will of God that saves it is the will of man that dams. [00:02:17]

The Practical part of theology is that which is most important for us to understand any man may get himself into a Terri Labyrinth who thinks continually of the sovereignty of God alone and he may equally get into deeps that are likely to drown him if he meditates only on the Free Will of man the best thing is to take what God reveals to you and to believe that if God's word leads me to the right I go there if it leads me to the left I go there if it makes me stand still I stand still. [00:03:21]

The great destroyer of man is the will of man I do not believe that Man's Free Will has ever saved a soul but Man's Free Will has been the ruin of multitudes ye would not is still the solemn accusation of Christ against guilty men did he not say it another time ye will not come unto me that you might have life the human will is desperately set against God and is The Great Devourer and destroyer of thousands of Good Intentions and emotions which never come to anything permanent because the will is acting in opposition to that which is right and true. [00:04:31]

Those of you who have been gathered unto Christ know first that by this wonderful gatherer you have been gathered into Happy associations the chickens beneath the wings of the hen look very happy all crowded together what a sweet little family party they are how they hide themselves away in great contentment and Chirp their little note of joy you dear friends who have never been converted find very noisy Fellowship I afraid in this world you do not get much companionship that helps you blesses you gives you rest of mind but if you had been gathered to the Lord's Christ you would have found that there are many sweetnesses in this life in being beneath the wings of the most high. [00:06:00]

He who comes to Christ finds father and mother and sister and brother he finds many dear and kind friends who are themselves connected with Christ and who therefore love those who are join to him amongst the greatest happinesses of my life certainly I put down Christian fellowship and I think that many who have come from the country to London have for a long time missed much of this Fellowship till at last they have fallen in with Christian people and they have found themselves happy again oh lonely sinner You Who Come in and out of this place and say nobody seems to care about me if you will come to Christ and join with the church which is gathered beneath his wings you will soon find Happy Fellowship. [00:06:54]

The hen is to her little chick's NE next a cover of safety there is a hawk in the sky the motherb bird can see it though the chickens cannot she gives her peculiar cluck of warning and quickly they come and hide beneath her wings the hawk will not hurt them now beneath her wings they are secure this is what God is to those who come to him by Jesus Christ he is The Giver of safety he he shall cover thee with his feathers and under his wings shalt thou trust his truth shall be thy shield and buckler even the attraction of thy old sins or the danger of future Temptations Thou shalt be preserved from all these perils when thou comest to Christ and thus hidest away under him. [00:07:43]

There is a deep sweet comfort about hiding yourself away in God for when troubles come wave upon wave blessed is the man who who has a God to give him mercy upon Mercy when Affliction comes or bereavement comes when loss of property comes when sickness comes in your own body there is nothing wanted but your God 10,000 Things apart from him cannot satisfy you or give you comfort there let them all go but if God be yours and you hide away under his wings you are as happy in him as the chickens are beneath the hen. [00:10:22]

The emblem used by our Lord is a far more instructive figure than I have time to explain when the Lord gather Sinners to himself then it is that they find in him all that the chicks find in the hen and infinitely more now notice secondly what God does to gather men they are straying and wandering about but he gathers them according to the text Jesus says how often would I have gathered thy children together how did God gather those of us who have come to him he gathers us first by making himself known to us when we come to understand who he is and what he is and know something of his love and tenderness and greatness then we come to him ignorance keeps us away from him but to know God and his son Jesus Christ is eternal life. [00:12:54]

These are the chords of love with which the spirit of God draws men to Christ he makes Christ known to us he shows us Christ in the Grandeur of his Divine and human nature Christ in the humiliation of his sufferings Christ in the glory of his resurrection Christ in the love of his heart in the power of his arm in the efficacy of his plea in the virtue of his blood and as we learn these sacred lessons we say that is the Christ for me that is the god for me and thus we are gathered unto him. [00:13:45]

But God gathers many to himself by the cuse of his servants you see that of old He Sent His prophets now he sends his ministers if God does not send us to you brethren we shall never gather you if we come to you in our own name we shall come in vain but if the Lord has sent us then he will bless us and our message will be made to you a means of gathering you to Christ I would much rather cease to preach than be allowed to go on preaching but never to gather souls to God I can truly say that I have no wish to say a pretty thing or turn a period or utter a nice figure of speech I want to win your souls to slay your sin to do practical work for God with each man each woman each child who shall come into this Tabernacle and I ask the prayers of God's people that it may be so it is thus that God gathers men to himself by the message which which he gives to them through his servants. [00:14:48]

One more way in which God gathers men is by continuing still to have patience with them and sending the same message to them I am always afraid that you who hear me constantly will get to feel we have heard him so long and so often that he cannot say anything fresh why did I not use to shake you when you first heard me and compel you to shed many tears in the early days of your coming to this house and now well you can hear it all without a Tremor you are like the blacksmith's dog that goes to sleep while the Sparks are flying from the Anvil down in souk at the place where they make the big boilers a man has to get inside to hold the hammer while they are riveting there is an awful noise the first time that a man goes in he feels that he cannot stand it and that he will die he loses his hearing it is such a terrible din but they tell me that after a while some have been known even to go to sleep while the men have been hammering so it is in hearing the gospel men grow hardened and that which was at one time a very powerful call seems to be at the last no call at all yet still here you are and your hair is getting gray here you are you have long past the prime of life here you are you were in a shipwreck once or you had an accident or you caught the fever but you did not die and here you are God still speaks to you not saying go but come come Christ has not yet said to you depart ye cursed but he still cries come unto me all ye that labor into heavy laden and I will give you rest this is how God calls and how he gathers Men by the pertinacity of his infinite compassion in still inviting them to come unto him that they may obtain eternal life. [00:19:39]

What will become of men who are not gathered to Christ what will become of men of whom it continues to be said ye would not the text suggests to us two ways of answering the question What Becomes of chicks that do not come to the shelter of the hen's Wings What Becomes of chicks that are not gathered to the hen well the hawk devours some and the cold nips others they miss the warmth and comfort that they might have had that is something if there were no herea I should like to be a Christian if I had to die like a dog the joy I find in Christ would make me wish to be his follower you are losers in this world if you love not God you are losers of peace and comfort and strength and hope even now but what will be your loss Hereafter with no Wing to cover you when the destroying Angel is abroad no feathers beneath which you may hide when the dread Thunderbolts of Justice shall be launched one after another from God's right hand you have no shelter and consequently no safety he that hath made his Refuge God shall find a most secure Abode but he who is not that Refuge shall be among the great multitude who will call to the rocks and the mountains to fall on them to hide them from the face of him that sth upon the throne and from the wroth of the Lamb. [00:26:14]