100. Oh Many A Pull Hath My Heart Had With Satan For That Blessed Sixth Of John.

C ‘Oh! Many A Pull Hath My Heart Had With Satan For That Blessed Sixth Of John.’ THE name of ‘Satan’ was not a profane jest to John Bunyan. Satan was as real and as terrible and as diabolical to John Bunyan as he was to Adam and Eve, and to Job, and to Joshua the high priest, and to Luther in the Wartburg, and to our Lord in the Wilderness. John Bunyan was little child enough to take literally and truly all that he read in his Bible. He downright believed every syllable that he read in his Bible. And then with his great eyes of genius and of grace he actually saw and felt and acted upon every syllable that he read in his Bible.

‘If ever Satan and I did strive for any word of God in all my life, it was for this good word of Christ; Satan at one end of it, and I at the other end. Oh, what work we did make! It was for this in John, I say, that we did tug and strive. He pulled and I pulled. But, God be praised, I got the better of him.’ The old serpent, you see, was as real and he was as diabolical to John Bunyan in Bedford as he was to Adam and Eve in Eden, and to the second Adam in the Wilderness. But to come to some particulars: ‘We two, Satan and I, had the most terrible pull for the natural force of every syllable in that blessed sixth of John’: so our autobiographer tells us in another paragraph. Now, since all that was so, and since all that has been written by Bunyan for our learning, let us go back to Bedford to-night, so as to be present at that trial of strength between the prince of darkness and John Bunyan, that poor and oppressed servant of Jesus Christ. And as we look on we shall lay up some lessons as to how we also must play the man when we are in the same arena, and are in the same death agony with the same enemy.

Take, then, ‘the natural force,’ as Bunyan calls it, of this syllable ‘him’ in that blessed sixth of John — ‘him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out.’ Now there are times when I cannot enter on my text till I have seen what Mr. Spurgeon has to say upon it. And I felt just in that way about this supreme text of tonight. And accordingly I sent up two or three postage stamps to Messrs. Passmore and Alabaster in London and they sent me down by return three sermons by Mr. Spurgeon on this blessed sixth of John. And I read those three sermons with salvation and with thankfulness in my heart, as I always read Spurgeon’s sermons, and as multitudes of men and women have read them all the world over. None of us preachers nowadays can hold the candle to Spurgeon. I suppose after John Wesley, and perhaps William Booth, Charles Spurgeon will have the most names of saved sinners read out to his everlasting honour on that day when every minister’s work shall be revealed. Well I will give you an example of the way in which that great preacher brings out ‘the natural force’ of this syllable ‘him’ in this blessed text now open before us.‘Him,’ says Spurgeon,

‘means the rich man, the poor man, the great and famous man, and the small and obscure man, the moral man, the debauchee, the man who has sunk into the worst of sins, the man who has climbed to the highest of virtues, him who is next of kin to the devil, and him who is next of kin to the archangel. The sixth of John,’ continues Spurgeon, ‘is one of the most gracious and generous texts in the whole Word of God. I cannot tell what kind of men may be in this house to-night,’ he said; ‘but if burglars are here, and if dynamite men are here, him that cometh to Christ this night, He will in no wise be cast out.’

[As I copy these divine lines out of Spurgeon’s Gospel, I read in the papers that even Orchard professes to have been awakened and converted. That is to say, he also, who is the horror of the whole world, has had a pull with Satan for this blessed sixth of John, and has not been cast out.] But let Spurgeon proceed with ourselves. ‘If amidst this great congregation there should be some men here whose characters I had better not begin to describe; yet if they come to Christ He will not say one word of upbraiding to them, but will welcome them with open arms. Be your past what it may: wrapped up as it may be in such a mystery of iniquity that nobody would believe it about you; nevertheless you come, and all your sins will be cast into the depths of the sea. Any ‘him’ in all the world, let that man come, and it will never be asked where he comes from. Come he from a slum, or from a shebeen, or from a gambling hell, or from a brothel, or from the hulks, and if he is cast out he will be the first. Powerful as that is, it is only one of a thousand illustrations of the way in which Spurgeon in his day pulled so many sinners out of Satan’s clutches.

But, then, with all that, your sins may have been such that nothing that Bunyan or Spurgeon ever preached comes at all near your awful case, as you now see it to be. Satan who tempted you to those awful sins now turns round on you and accuses you of those very sins, as his diabolical habit is to do; and you cannot deny or extenuate his accursed accusations. Your sins are such, he tells you to your face, that they were not anticipated, and consequently were not provided for, in the one great atonement for sin. The blood of Christ, Satan says he feels sure, was never shed for such horrible sins as yours. I defy you in all your vaunted New Testament, he says, to point out a single sinner to match you among all the saved. I can understand David being saved, says Satan, and Peter, and Paul, aye, and even Judas Iscariot himself, had he come back to Christ; but none of them all, no nor all of them taken together, ever sinned against God such scarlet sins as yours. Now, like John Bunyan, you must silence Satan and your own accusing conscience with this same blessed sixth of John. And you must silence him in this way. Admit at once, and quite frankly, that all he says about you is quite true. For the worst he has said is less than the simple truth. Tell him that your past sins are no news to you; no, nor to your Saviour. Tell him that if you are to die the second death, as you so richly deserve to do, you will die on Christ’s doorstep. And if Christ shuts His door of mercy against you for ever, so be it: that is only as it should be. Only, God helping you, if you are to be cast out for ever, it will not be for want of a broken heart for ever for your unpardonable past. ‘Holy peevish Satan!’ cried Luther to the great accuser on a similar occasion;‘He, to whom I look in my sin, is able to save to the uttermost: which uttermost Martin Luther is.’ Borrow you that from Luther, and apply it to yourself. And always mix that with this blessed sixth of John.

Then again, Satan almost sophisticated Bunyan out of his soul by the way he worked upon the Saviour’s words — ‘him that cometh to Me.’

‘“Had you been born in Galilee or in Judea you could easily have come to Christ,” Satan admitted. “But the Son of God is not going about Bedford, as He was wont to go about Jerusalem. The times are wholly changed since He invited those contemporaneous men to come to Him. He is now exalted far above all heavens. He is now surrounded and encircled by His glorified saints and by His elect angels. And how can a contemptible creature like you venture near such exalted majesty as His? The thing is preposterous! You have a Bible: open it and read about Job. Oh, cried that eminent saint, that I knew where I might find Him! That I might come to His seat! Behold, I go forward, but He is not there. And backward, but I cannot perceive Him. On the left hand, where He doth work, but I cannot behold Him: He hideth Himself on the right hand that I cannot see Him. Read that chapter every night before bedtime,” said Satan, “and content yourself with your lot. Go to church twice a Sabbath if you choose. You can even join Mr. Gifford’s young communicants’ class if he will admit you; but put going up to heaven to pray to Christ, put that out of your foolish head.” Thus was I tossed between the devil and my own ignorance, till I could not tell what to do or what to say. Then again, when I would do my best to go to Christ in spite of Satan and his false reasonings, he would set on me with this: “Was I elected, or no? And what if my day of grace was over and gone?” One night, as I sat by the fire and mused on election and predestination, Satan took up my New Testament and opened it at this passage in the ninth of the Romans and bade me read it. And I read this: “It is neither in him that willeth, nor in him that runneth, but in God that sheweth mercy.” With this Scripture I could not tell what to do. I evidently saw that unless the great God of His infinite grace and bounty, had voluntarily chosen me to be a vessel of mercy, though I should desire and long and labour until my heart did break, no good could come of it. Therefore this would still stick with me— how can you tell that you are elected? And what if you are not? How then? But when I had been long vexed with this fear, these words one day broke in on my mind: “Compel them to come in, that My house may be filled; for yet there is room.” These words, yet there is room, were sweet words to me. For, truly, I thought that by them I saw that there was place enough for me also in heaven. This I then verily believed. And one other day this great word came in upon me: “I will cleanse their blood that I have not cleansed, for the Lord dwelleth in Zion.” These words I thought were sent to encourage me still to wait upon God, and they signified to me that if I were not already, yet the time might come when I might in truth be converted to Christ.’

Now, who can tell, but among so many, there may be some man here tonight who is being sophisticated by Satan in this same way concerning his coming to Christ. Well let that man remember this: John Bunyan did not need to be born in Jerusalem in order to go to Christ and be welcomed by Him, and no more do you. At the same time you will find great guidance, and great encouragement, by reading continually about Jerusalem and Samaria, because Christ is the same; aye, and much better to-day. The Father draws sinners much better to-day to Christ than He did then. Indeed, that is the Father drawing your heart to Christ His Son at this evening hour. And, always remember this: Coming to Christ, whatever Satan may say, does not necessitate any change of time or of place on your part. Just where you now sit; just where you now dwell at home; Christ says to you individually and urgently, Come thou to Me from condemnation to justification. Come thou to Me from all thy guilt to all My Father’s forgiveness and Mine. Come thou to Me from thy fearful looking for of judgment, to that peace with God which passes all understanding. Leave all your election, and all your predestination, and all your final perseverance to their proper time and place, and come you even now to Christ, and come just as you are. These are the true and proper Scriptures for you: ‘Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord; though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.’ And this: ‘Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.’ And this blessed sixth of John: ‘Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out.’ And then such psalms and hymns and spiritual songs as these:

Come unto Me, ye weary, And I will give you rest.

Come, ye souls by sin afflicted.

Come, ye sinners, poor and wretched, Weak and wounded, sick and sore.

Come, take by faith the body of your Lord, And drink the blood of Christ for you outpoured.

Read these Scriptures, and chant these psalms and hymns and spiritual songs without ceasing, and Satan will flee from you to try his sophistications on less well-taught and less believing sinners.

And, then,

‘“Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out.” O the comfort that I had from that word “in no wise”! For it is as much as to say, by no means, for no thing, and at no time, will I cast you out. But Satan would greatly labour to pull this promise from me by telling me that Christ did not mean me, but sinners of a lower rank, and who had not done as I had done. But I should answer him again: O but Satan, there is no exception here: it is him, any him: it is him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out. And this I well remember, that Satan never did so much as put this question to me — Do you come aright? And I think the reason was, because he thought that I knew full well what coming aright was. For I saw that to come aright was to come just as I was, a vile and an ungodly sinner, and to cast myself at Christ’s feet, condemning myself for all my sin.’ And now to all that I will only add this to you: Beginning to come to-night keep always coming, never missing one single night, no not one single hour, all your days. In his ‘Supersensual Life,’ Jacob Behmen says to his disciple who has asked him,

‘How shall I be able to live aright amid all the temptation and tribulation of my circumstances?’ ‘If thou dost once every hour throw thyself by faith beyond all creatures and into the abysmal mercy of God, into the sufferings of Christ, and into the fellowship of His intercession, then thou shalt receive power from above to rule over the devil, and death, and hell itself.’ And again:

‘O thou of little faith, if thy heart could but break itself off every half hour from all creatures, and plunge itself into that where no creature is or can be, presently you would be penetrated with the splendour of the divine glory, and would taste a sweetness that no tongue can express.’ And I shall wind up with this out of our own Scottish Analecta:

‘Mr. James Durham, of Powrie Castle, when he was on his deathbed, was under a great darkness as to his interest in Christ, and he said to Mr. Carstairs, “Brother, for all that I have preached and written, there is but one promise to which I can now dare to grip; tell me if I am safe to lay the whole weight of my salvation upon that promise. The only Scripture promise I can remember, or can get a good hold of, is this: Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out.” “Sir,” said Mr. Carstairs to him, “you may depend upon that promise, though you had a thousand salvations to hazard.”’