A Cross of Love

There are many invitations in the gospel for poor sinners to come to Christ for pardon of sin. The gospel is for the hungry, the weary, and the thirsty. Let me ask you, friend, are you hungry for God? Are you weary of your sins? Are you thirsty for Christ? Then what is it that keeps you from coming to Christ? Perhaps you feel you are too big of a sinner to come.

Let me tell you a story. There was an artist who wanted a model for the prodigal son. He looked high and low for the right man, which he felt he could paint for the portrait.

He even went into prisons looking for the right subject but had no luck. One day while the artist was out walking down the street, he saw a homeless man that fit the bill perfectly, and the artist asked him if he would be willing to sit for his portrait. The homeless man said he would if he were paid for it, and he wanted some money in advance.

At the appointed time, when the artist was sitting in his studio, the man came in, but he was so cleaned up and dressed up the artist did not know him. And told him he had no appointment with him. The beggar replied, I thought if I was going to sit for my portrait, I'd get a shave and a new suit of clothes.

The artist said no, you won't do. I wanted you just as you were. When you go to Christ, friend, just go as you are, with all your rags and your filth and your rotten sins, and he will receive you.

I don't care how bad you are or how wickedly you have done. You can be the biggest sinner in this town tonight, bad and as corrupt as you are, and polluted by every unspeakable sin. Yet the Lord Jesus Christ will receive you, if you will just come, just come as you are.

Christ's reception of sinners is for all who will come. Jesus said in Matthew 11, 28, Come unto me, all ye that labor, and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. This invitation from Christ is for you to come, come to him, and he will welcome you, because it is a time of grace where Christ wants to pardon and receive sinners.

Jesus is willing now for you to come to him, and he has a pure gospel promise to all who will come. Him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out. All are invited to come to Christ.

His reception of sinners is to welcome all who come. Why not accept of the invitation now, why delay? There is a great danger in delay. Someone in a burning building would be foolish to delay.

Getting out as quickly as possible, you must get out of that danger immediately before the whole thing comes down in burn and rubble and ruin. To delay is dangerous. My Bible has a warning to the person whom God is dealing with and who delays coming to Christ for salvation.

He that being often reproved, hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy, that means destroyed, sent to hell, without the only remedy for sin in the person of Christ Jesus. I get choked up talking about it, friend. Why do you delay coming to Christ? He will receive you if you will only come.

Perhaps you are content in your financial security, and you see no need to come to Christ now. You feel no danger, but my Bible says, he that trusteth in his riches shall fall. You have no guarantee, friend, of being in this world tomorrow, for you may be taken suddenly out of it tonight.

My Bible says, boast not thyself of tomorrow, for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth. Tomorrow may be filled with tragedy, and you will lose your convictions to come to Christ because of the distraction. The question of eternity must be settled by you, because you may suddenly be taken out of this world and thrust into another world, one you are quite unprepared for.

Your business should be of great urgency, to press into the kingdom of God and get safely into heaven. Your mission should be one, and that should be to come to Christ now, and repent of your sins, and own him as your Lord and Savior. You must get under his blood for forgiveness of sins.

A coming day of judgment awaits all men, and hell is a place of agony and miseries, where the damned suffer night and day in torments and flames. It is Christ that invites you to come to him. Jesus invites you to come.

If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. What is that, friend, but an invitation to come to him, whose arms are open wide, ready to receive every single sinner that is thirsty for him. No one is turned away.

Oh, everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the waters. Listen to Christ's reception of sinners through the gospel, please, to come to him and believe on him. I am the bread of life.

He that cometh to me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. My Bible declares, friend, that God is love. Listen to the freeness of God's love to you.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. Christ's reception of sinners is a broad welcome sign, to come to him and he will receive you. You do not need to clean yourself up before you come, but only come to him.

All are invited, from the richest to the poorest, to come if they will. Christ doesn't wash a sinner first of his sins before he loves him. No, friend, he loves him first, then washes him.

My Bible says, unto him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood, he loved us first, then washed us clean and took our sins away. Why did Christ die on a cross? Why did he hang and suffer there? Why did he shed his precious blood on that cruel, ignoble cross? My Bible says, out of love to my soul, he has taken all my sins and cast them behind his back, because he loved me. He became a curse for me, because he loved me.

Does not my Bible say so? I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. Yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.

And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. It was love that kept him on that cross, so I could have forgiveness of sin. And it was God's love that gave his only Son for me.

What marvelous love, friends! If you will just come to Christ, friend, he will forgive and receive you. The cross to Christ is a cross of love. He shed his blood out of love, and he laid down his life out of love.

In John's gospel he tells us so. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Jesus is the friend of sinners.

He came down here so we can go up there. He came to seek and to save that which was lost. He invites you now, friend, to lay your sin burden down at his cross and come to him.

Jesus invites poor sinners to come to him. The duty required is to come. Is there any reason why you should not become one of Christ's followers? It is Christ who invites you.

Accept his invitation and come. Come if you will. And if you come, he will receive you.

I like what the Bible commentator Matthew Henry said about Christ's reception of sinners because it's so true. He said, Christ was born in an inn. An inn receives all commerce, and so does Christ.

He hangs out the banner of love for his sign, and whoever comes to him, he will in no wise cast out. Only unlike other inns, he welcomes those without money and without price. I close this gospel message, friend, with an invitation.

Come to Christ. Come to his cross of love. Look unto me and be ye saved.

All the ends of the earth. For I am God and there is none else. Come, friend, as an empty-handed beggar, seeking mercy.

Come as you are and believe on him. Let us pray.