OTHERS TO BE GATHERED – Charles Spurgeon
Others to Be Gathered
“The Lord God, which gathers the outcasts of Israel, says, Yet will I gather others to Him, beside those that are gathered unto Him.” — Isaiah 56:8
God’s work now is one of gathering. There was a time when it was scattering. Man built the Tower of Babel, which was intended to be the center of unity, the armory of power, and the seat of dominion. From there, some mighty Nimrod might sway his scepter over the entire human race. But the Lord would not have it so. Infinite wisdom baffled finite ambition. Man’s center is not God’s center, and therefore He confounded their language and scattered them into nations, by which the whole earth has been inhabited.
Now, the Lord is gathering together in one the children of God, scattered abroad. His Son, Jesus Christ, has descended and dwelt among us, working out our redemption. Now exalted in the highest heavens, He is God’s appointed center for His people. As Jacob said of old, “Unto Him shall the gathering of the people be.” The Lord has made Him “stand for an ensign of the people. To Him shall the Gentiles seek, and His rest shall be glorious.” The great promise spoken by the mouth of Isaiah is to be fulfilled under the gospel dispensation: “I will gather all nations and tongues, and they shall come and see My glory.”
Jesus has made both Jew and Gentile one, breaking down every wall of partition, so that there is neither barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free, but Christ is all and in all. The power and grace of God continually draw men from all nations, kindreds, and tongues to the common hope: the atonement made by the death of our Lord Jesus. They are drawn to the common service under the one and only Lord of whom it is written, “One is your Master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren.” This ingathering process is going on every day by the testimony of the word and is to be continued until the end of time. I trust it will be carried on in our midst today.
May the Lord place the magnet among us and draw all hearts, made ready to feel its influence, towards the loadstone of Jesus’ love. It is my earnest hope that some who have never thought of being gathered to Christ may find themselves drawn toward Him today. May the mystic current of divine grace carry many of you away with its gentle force and bear you first to Jesus, who is Israel’s Prince, and then to His church, which is the true Israel of God.
I. The Instances of Gathering
Under our first head, we shall notice a point of considerable encouragement to those who seek the Lord. Note well the instances mentioned—instances of gathering by the hand of the Lord, who is described as “The Lord God, which gathers the outcasts of Israel.” Outcasts have been gathered, and this is the token that others shall be gathered.
I suppose Isaiah first alludes to the banished who had been carried away captive to Babylon and to all parts of the East. They were restored to their land at different times. The Israelites had been subject to many captivities. One tyrant after another invaded their country and carried them far away. But the Lord promised to gather them together, and He did. The names of Ezra, Nehemiah, and others remind us of the returning home of various contingents of God’s host. These groups marched through deserts, passed through hostile nations, and eventually reached the city of their God. These restorations were very marvelous, as even kings who knew not God were used by Him to accomplish His designs. As He said of Cyrus, “I have raised him up in righteousness, and I will direct all his ways: he shall build My city, and he shall let My captives go, not for price nor reward,” says the Lord of Hosts.
Now, God who brought His people out of Babylon can bring men out of sin. He who loosed captives from bondage can liberate spirits from despair. He who made the mighty tyrant relax his grip can cause Satan to loosen his hold. And He who led His people through paths they knew not, until they came back to their land, can lead the poor, seeking sinner through the devious paths of doubt and fear and bring them to rest in Jesus Christ. Let Israelites returning from Babylon preach the gospel to us this morning. Let them proclaim the word of hope: “If we who were carried captive far off from Zion are brought back, so also will the Lord devise means that His banished be not expelled from Him.”
But I prefer to use the text in reference to our divine Lord and Master, seeing that to Him shall the gathering of the people be. When He was here, He gathered the outcasts of Israel by His ministry. Look at the group around Him and mark carefully those who press nearest to Him. Notice not the scribes and Pharisees, who would gladly entrap Him in His speech, but those who stand quietly, listen eagerly, weep freely, and whose hearts are deeply touched.
Who are these? It is written, “Then drew near unto Him all the publicans and sinners, to hear Him.” His enemies said it in scorn, but we tell it to His honor: “This man receives sinners and eats with them.” Throughout His ministry in the Holy Land, He sought “the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” Not merely silly, defenseless sheep, but lost sheep—wanderers in sin. “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.” His eye was always most ready to spy out the fallen, and His glance was always kindest for those who were most erring. “The whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”
O blessed Master, “holy, harmless, undefiled and separate from sinners,” the sinners came to You, and coming to You, found You to be Jesus, the sinner’s friend. Moreover, our Lord did not merely gather outcasts to His ministry, but He gathered them by forgiving their sins. This brought them nearer still and held them there. You know who it was that washed His feet with tears and wiped them with the hairs of her head—the woman whose memorial shall never die out of the church. She loved Him much because much had been forgiven her. She was a sinner, a city sinner, a shameful sinner, but she came to Him for cleansing, and it was granted her.
I should not wonder if she had heard Him tell about the lost piece of money, the lost sheep, and the lost son. Perhaps the way in which Jesus spoke touched her heart and made her long to be sought and found. With her much sin, she came to Him who had much grace, and her black sins were blotted out by His dear love. Henceforth, she, above all women, loved Him, for much had been forgiven her.
I suppose she was but a specimen of many others who clung to Him, because in Him they had found what an awakened heart needs above everything else—namely, forgiveness for transgression. At this present moment, in Jesus’ name, I would set that woman before you and say, as He did, “See you this woman?” Then learn that as Jesus received her, so also will He receive you if you come to Him, for He has said it, and He cannot lie: “Him that comes unto Me I will in no wise cast out.” Come unto Him, then, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and He will give you rest. Let the one poor outcast, who wept at His feet, set the example and imitate her at once.
You know how in the pursuit of game, men use decoys to attract birds? I would use this woman as a decoy this morning. If there are others like her, guilty of the same sin, let them come to Jesus for pardon as she did. Others should come, who may not be guilty of the same form of evil but feel equally condemned in the sight of the Lord. If consciousness of guilt humbles you to that poor woman’s level, come and accept her Savior.
Jesus gathers together the outcasts of Israel. Dear hearts, why should He not gather you? Why should not the glance of love that fell on the sinner of old fall upon you? Why should not you also feel the same love and exhibit it in acts of penitence and deeds of humility? Jesus is ready to have His feet washed again by such as you.
II. The Promise Uttered
I now pass on to my second point: the promise uttered. “The Lord God which gathers the outcasts of Israel says, Yet will I gather others to Him, beside those that are gathered unto Him.” It is evident that this promise is very wide. It means, in the first place, that the Gentiles should be called to know the Lord. “Yet will I gather others to Him.” Not other Jews, but those others whom they called “Gentile dogs.”
It was a bright day when the centurion of Caesarea sent men to Joppa and received a visit from Peter, and was baptized by him. Fair also was the day when the Ethiopian eunuch was baptized by Philip. Then the Lord was “gathering others unto Him.” How strange it must have seemed at first to the apostles, who were all Jews, and very strongly Jewish, especially Peter, to see the Gentiles gathered. One marvels that Paul was not narrower in heart, considering his birth and education, but he had vanquished his old notions and gloried in being the apostle of the Gentiles.
It is delightful to think of men of different colors coming to Christ, proving the unity of our race. What would the twelve apostles have thought if they could have foreseen that the gospel they preached would bind in one brotherhood all races of men? Jesus has gathered not merely Romans, Greeks, and Jews, but also the descendants of those barbarous peoples living in the white-cliffed island beyond Gaul, now called Britain. He has gathered those savage people to Him.
Now, it is pleasing to see the Red Indian bowing with the pale-face at Jesus’ name, to see China, once hermetically sealed, now open to the gospel, and Japan inviting our missionaries to instruct her. We see the dwellers in the South Seas and the black races of Africa stretching out their hands to God. Strange and uncouth in appearance and tongue are many of the tribes of mankind, but they shall be gathered just as surely as the more civilized. There remains scarcely any nation from which the Lord has not gathered some to His church.
III. The Facts Which Sustain Our Faith
We believe the promise, whether or not there are facts to back it up. God’s Word is sure. But there are facts that sustain our faith in this promise. The first is the perpetuity of the gospel. The good news is still preached among us. We are bid to go into the world and preach the gospel to every creature. If all God’s people were already saved, our Master would have said, “There are no more to be gathered in.”
Suppose when the King came in to see the guests, every seat at the banquet was full. He would not say, “Go out into the highways and hedges and compel them to come in.” But because our commission still runs, “Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature,” we know there are still souls to be saved.
The second fact is that the blood of atonement has not lost its power. The fountain is still open, and there are more to be washed. There are more to be healed, for the Balm of Gilead is still set before us. There are more to be liberated, for the redemption price has not exhausted its value.
Our Lord Jesus has redeemed a great multitude, and His precious blood is of such infinite value that we know beyond all doubt that there are many more to be gathered into His church. The blood of the Lamb has not lost its power, and He will gather others besides those already gathered unto Him.
My Brethren, Can Your Eyes Look Beyond the Firmament and See the Invisible?
My brethren, can your eyes look beyond the firmament and see the invisible? If so, mark that hard by the blazing throne of the Eternal, there stands a man who is more than a man—
“Adoring saints around Him stand,
And thrones and powers before Him fall!
The God shines gracious through the Man,
And sheds sweet glories on them all.”
But how is this glorious One occupied? He is making intercession and pleading for His redeemed. “He is able, therefore, to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever lives to make intercession for them.” As long as there is an intercessor at the throne of God, there must be more sinners to be saved. If all were brought in, He would cease His pleading. But while there is still a soul ignorant or out of the way, the great High Priest will continue to urge His suit before the Eternal Majesty. More souls must be brought in, for Jesus lives to plead for that end.
Nor is this all, for we are sure that these purposes of grace are not yet fully accomplished because the Spirit of God is still with us. He abides in the church, and He has come to convict men of sin. There must be more souls to be convicted. He has come to quicken men and abides here, and therefore there must be more dead sinners to be quickened, or else His mission would be ended. There must be more to whom the things of Christ are to be revealed, or else the Spirit would not linger here as our illuminator. The Spirit has not gone away. In many of us, He abides, and we feel His power. The presence of the Spirit is a sure token that the promise is not spent. It is still full of meaning, and others must yet be gathered beside those that are gathered unto Him.
Nor is this all. The glory and majesty of the gospel—or rather, the greatness of the glory of God in the gospel—demands that many more should be gathered than have yet been enfolded in the church. At the largest computation, the Christian church of the present day is a poor minority of mankind, and we do not believe it to be consistent with the majestic purposes of grace that at the winding up of affairs there should be a handful of saved ones against an awful multitude of the lost. No, in all things, Jesus shall have the pre-eminence, and He will have it in this also, that His saved ones shall exceed the lost. This is our hope and confidence. Multitudes, multitudes, multitudes beyond all conception are yet to be brought to Messiah’s feet. They shall fly as a cloud, they shall hasten as doves to their dovecotes, they shall advance in strength like waves of the sea, and they shall cover the earth, being as the sand on the seashore, innumerable.
One other argument I put last, though it is not as strong as it might be. It may seem to be an anticlimax to finish with the weakest reason, but then it is one that needs to be made stronger, and because I want each believer here to strengthen it, I place it last, that it may not be forgotten. I know there must be many more souls to be gathered in, because of the longings of the saints. They are not satisfied unless they see conversions. They are anxious to hear the cry of penitents. I wish they had far stronger longings and more intense anxieties. I know some Christians who are far too comfortable—inhumanly insensible, I call it, though even their own children are not converted. True saints are hungry and thirsty after souls. Till men are saved, they cannot rest.
No, it has come to be with some of us far more than a longing or a thirsting; it has sharpened and deepened into the very pangs of birth for souls. Many saints travail for souls, their hearts are in anguish until Christ is formed in others, the hope of glory. Beloved, you know that when Zion travails, she brings forth children. This, therefore, is a token for good—there are more souls to be gathered, for God must hear prayer, and many are praying. Do not His elect cry day and night unto Him? Will He not hear them? Are there not multitudes of ministers, teachers, and all sorts of workers hunting for souls with heavenly ardor, and giving God no rest day nor night till He brings in the outcasts? There must, therefore, be many more souls to be gathered.
One thing I know, the church needs more conversions. We never prosper as a church unless we have a fresh stream of young blood running into us. Mark an old church with no converts, and see how diseased it is. It generally sours down into a crotchety, ill-tempered, bigoted little clique of very little use in the world, needing rather a pair of crutches with which to totter about its own floor than a sword with which to fight the foe. The church needs young blood in its veins. Our strength for holding the faith may lie in experienced saints, but our zeal for propagating it must be found in the young. We greatly need new converts added to us, and therefore, because we need it and we feel confident that our God will supply all our need, we feel sure that He will increase us with men as with a flock.
To keep His church alive and vigorous, He will lay hold upon Sauls and make Pauls of them. May this church be set on fire by the burning love of new-born souls. Though we have enjoyed a constant increase for nearly 25 years, may the Lord give us a far larger addition. It is His promise, let us plead it. Others besides those that have been gathered unto Him we will ask Him to give us, and just in proportion, my beloved brethren, as you and I begin to trouble about this, groan about it, pray about it, and cry about it, the Lord will fulfill His gracious promise, and others shall be gathered beside those that are gathered to Him.
IV. The Conduct Consistent with This Promise
I finish, therefore, with the fourth head, which is the conduct consistent with this promise. Let us view this question with reference to God’s people. I have already touched upon that topic. The conduct congruous to the promise is to believe it, and then to pray about it. Let us at once get together in little knots of twos and threes and seek to have the word fulfilled. This very afternoon, enter into your chambers alone, or gather your families and hold little prayer meetings with them. Remember this promise and speak with the Lord concerning it.
Perhaps you have not noticed its gracious utterances before, but now that it has come under your eye, be sure you make use of it. If a man finds that a check has been lying by him for a good while, and he comes upon it while turning over his letters, what will he do tomorrow morning? Why, he will go and get it cashed. Now, here is one of my Master’s bills which you have not yet turned into actual money. Go and take it to the Lord. Take it today, for the bank of heaven is open at this moment—when is it closed? Go and get the word fulfilled unto you by praying, “Lord, You have said, ‘Yet will I gather others that have not been gathered,’” therefore fulfill this word unto Your servant.”
Having done this, you will have lifted up your hands to the Lord, and you cannot go back. If you pray, you must work, for prayer without endeavor is hypocrisy. The next thing after prayer is to go and gather in the others by speaking to them concerning Jesus and the way of salvation by faith in His precious blood. Go and use the grand gospel means, and then, because God has promised it, expect to see others gathered. Do not be thunderstruck when you hear of many being converted on a certain Sunday through your speaking of Jesus Christ. Expect it—wonder that it does not happen more often, and be on the lookout for coming souls. Look out for them this morning. My Master has gathered some while I have been speaking; I feel sure of it.
These new converts will feel quite lonely before long unless you speak to them. They are like little children that are just born, and they need tender nursing. Find them out and nurse them for the Lord, and He will give you your wages. Try and speak a word of encouragement to those who, for the first time, are found hovering near the gospel. Do not drive them away, but cheer them on.
“Oh, but I am afraid I shall not find them.” If you speak so, you will not find them, but if you are hopeful and believing, you will find them fast enough, for they abound in these parts. Has not the Lord said that He will gather? Then be sure He will. You have asked Him to fulfill His word, have you not? Then He will do it beyond all doubt. Find out the hopeful ones, hear their troubles, and help them in their difficulties.
I am anxious that now, and for many months to come, all of you who are in Christ should be dwelling hourly on this word, and be continually saying, “Where are these others?” The Lord said, “Yet will I gather others to Him, beside those that are gathered.” Where are these others? Perhaps at this time they have not come to this Tabernacle at all—they may be at some other house of prayer. Bless the Lord when other churches have their full share of increase, and souls are gathered into their ranks.
But perhaps those whom the Lord will gather in are not at this time in any place of worship. Go and find them in their homes and haunts. There are others to be gathered—look after the others. The first question of a saved man should be, “What can I do for my Lord?” And the next should be, “What can I do for others?” The more he knows Christ and the greater his love and the higher his enjoyment, the more should he cry, “Where are the others? What can I do for the others?”
I am sure if you were all starving and ready to perish with famine, and I were to come with a good store of bread and call out half-a-dozen of you, and give you a good meal in the vestry, as soon as ever you had been fed, you would cry, “Pray think of others. Thousands out there are starving, even as we were. Pray give us bread for them as well as for ourselves.” How pleased you would be, each one, to go out and say, “There is a meal for all of you. There is no stint, you may eat to the full—come along.” If they rejected your message, you would feel very grieved and you would plead with them—“Look at us, we have been fed. Do not die here, but come and be fed also.” Someone would reply, “It is not good meat,” and you would answer, “Taste and see.” If one of you had a wife and she was hungry, but would not believe you, and come to the feast, you would plead with her even unto tears, and fear that she was insane. If you had children that would not come, and were dying with hunger, I think I know how their mothers would weep over them. How they would seek with loving entreaties to turn them from their infatuation and be induced to feed upon the bread so lovingly provided. We would not let them die if love could persuade them to be wise.
The case is much the same spiritually. Let us show the same earnestness. As to what conduct is consistent with this text on the part of those who have not yet been gathered, it will be clear that they should be encouraged to hope. If I were a thief, and I read of the dying thief who rejoiced to see the fountain of atoning blood in his day, I would rejoice too, and say, “If one thief was cleansed, why not another? Why not I? In the Bible are cases of very great sinners who nevertheless were washed from all their sins. I am like them in their sins, why should not I be as they were? More outcasts have to be gathered, then why not I among them? What should shut me out? I will go and try.”
In earthly things, men seek promotion even when the hope is small. In the case of a vacancy in the Civil Service, I have heard of 800 applying for one job. This was a poor chance and yet many go in for it. But here we know that others are to be gathered, and those others—not ones nor twos but thousands—why, then, should not a seeking soul put in for it? There never was one that did seek the Lord by faith who was refused. Never a single soul! He who comes to Jesus by a simple faith has never yet been refused. Come, my friend! Come now to Jesus! If He should cast you away, you will be number one upon the black list. We will place you here in the Tabernacle in a conspicuous seat and we will show you as the first sinner that our Lord Jesus could not save. See, we will say, “Here is the first man that came to Jesus and Jesus rejected him.”
I shall alter all my preaching, for when I preach, I shall say, “Jesus will in no wise cast out any that come to Him, except one, and that one man sits in the Tabernacle.” I shall tell them, when I am preaching at Leeds during this week, that Jesus Christ receives all sinners except one man who was cast out at the Tabernacle last Sunday. I guarantee you I will make your name ring round the world. The saints shall know it in heaven and the devils will soon know it in hell, and they will triumph over the defeated Savior.
Why, man, you would be the first proof that God was not true, that Christ was not gracious, and His blood is not omnipotent. Shall this ever be? You know better. Come along and try the Savior now! Rejected you shall never be. Oh that you would, this morning, yield to the gentle drawing of His almighty love. May you, dear brothers and sisters, be among those who shall say, “It is true, it is true that He gathers other outcasts, for He has gathered me into His fold and I bless His sovereign grace, His irresistible love, and will bless Him forever and ever.” Amen.