Next, be very grateful that you are in this position of grace. You might have
been in the drink-shop, you might have been speaking infidelity, you might
have been in prison, you might have been in hell. But “thou art now the
blessed of the Lord.” Wherefore, praise the Lord, whose mercy endureth for
ever. If you do not lift up your voice, yet lift up your heart, and bless
him for the grace which hath made you to differ from other people.
Again, tell others about it. If “thou art now the blessed of the Lord,”
communicate to others the sacred secret that has been the means of bringing
such joy to thee. Are we earnest enough about the souls of others? Christian
men and women, do you love your fellow-creatures, or do you not? How few
there are of us who make it our business to be constantly telling out the
sweet story of Jesus and his love! I read, the other day, of a chaplain in
the Northern army in the lamentable war in the United States, who, while he
lay wounded on the battle-field, heard a man, not far off, utter an oath.
Though he himself was so badly wounded that he could not stand, yet he
wished to reach the swearer to speak a gospel message to him, and he
though, “I can get to him if I roll over.” So, though bleeding profusely
himself, he kept rolling over and over till he got to the side of the poor
blasphemer, and on the lone battle-field he preached to him Jesus. Some of
the other men came along, and he said to them, “Can you carry me? I fear
that I am dying, but I do not want to be taken off the field. I should like
you, if you would, to carry me from one dying man to another, all the night
long, that I might tell them of a Saviour.” What a splendid deed was this!
A bleeding man talking to those who were full of sin about a Saviour’s
bleeding wounds! Oh, you who have no wound, who can walk, and possess all
the faculties to fit you for the service, how often you miss opportunities
and refuse to speak of Jesus! “Thou art now the blessed of the Lord,” and
at this moment I would have you think that the blessed Lord lays his
pierced hand on thee saying, “Go and tell others what I have done for
thee.” Never cease to tell the divine tale, as opportunity is given, until thy
voice is lost in death; then thy spirit shall begin to utter the story in
the loftier sphere.
You are coming to the Lord’s table, and I invite you, beloved, to come here
with much love. Do not come with doubts and fears, with a cold or lukewarm
heart. Remember “Thou art now the blessed of the Lord.” Come, eat his flesh,
and drink his blood. There, on the table, thou wilt see nothing but the embers
of his flesh and blood; but if thou believest, Christ will feed thee
spiritually upon himself, and as thou dost eat that bread of heaven, and
drink that wine of life, thou mayest well hear a voice saying, “Thou art
now the blessed of the Lord.”
Well do I remember the time when I would have given away my eyes to be as
a dog under the table, to have eaten only the crumbs which fell, as others
feasted, and now for forty-and-one years to-day I have sat as a child at the
table, blessed be his name!
As I told our friends this morning, this day is an anniversary of peculiar
interest to me. Forty-and-one years ago I went down into the river, and was
baptized into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.
“Yet have been upheld till now:
Who could hold me up but thou?”
May you, each of you, as you come to the table, hear a voice saying in your
heart, “Now a believer; now justified; now quickened; now regenerate; now in
Christ; now dear to the heart of God. `Thou art now the blessed of the Lord.’”
Oh, that some who came in here without the blessing would get it before they
go! He that believeth in Jesus hath all the blessing which Jesus can give to
him; forgiveness for the past; grace for the present; and glory for the
future. “Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed,” is
the word of the Lord to thee, thou doubter. He was made a curse for thee,
that he might redeem thee from the curse of the broken law, for it is
written, “Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree.” He hung on a tree
for guilty man. Believe thou in him, and as thou believest, eternal joys
shall come streaming down into thy dry and desolate heart, and it shall be
said to thee, “Thou art now the blessed of the Lord.” You shall be blessed
now, and blessed for evermore! God grant it, for our Lord Jesus Christ’s
sake! Amen.
“This article originally appeared here at Bible Bulletin Board.”
