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hands touched the leper. His feelings moved out in
compassion to the woman at Sychar’s well. He touched the
dead body and raised it to life—what a manifestation of God,
such as had never been seen in this scene before. God
appearing in the Person of His own Son in grace in order to
reach man and to give him light as to what His heart was.
Men had never known fully what the heart of God was until
Jesus came. There had been men like Abraham, like David
and Moses, who had some impression of it, but it was never
manifest in fullness till Jesus came. He came here, God’s Son,
come of woman, not an angelic being but come of woman,
One who could enter into the feelings of the hearts of men,
into the burdens of sin and sorrow that distress the human
heart. He could draw near to you tonight. O, beloved hearers,
do you know how near Jesus can come to you? He would not
be distant, He would not come to you patronisingly. He would
come to you in all the sympathy and feeling of His heart, just to
where you are tonight in your heart, in your soul. Oh, the
nearness of Jesus! My heart rejoices when I think of that. If He
had come as an angel, how different it would have been, but
He came in flesh and blood, He took a body that He might die
on the cross. Beloved hearers, let me speak to you of the
great facts of the gospel. Jesus died, the most momentous
happening in human history. Why did He die? Why did the Son
of God die? Why did the One who was spotless, a pleasure to
His Father—why did He die? O, beloved hearers, He died for
you. He died as the Sin-bearer. He died as the One who bore
the judgment of God in order that that judgment might not rest
upon you.
O, beloved hearer, let me appeal to you again. Do you know
the Saviour? Do you know that One who would come near to
you tonight? He died on the cross for you, a Substitute, if you
accept by faith His blessed work; it is for you He died—a
wondrous fact! I can say that He died for me, and I can say for
you He died, if by faith you accept that precious work of His.