LOST ONES AND FOUND ONES
[p. 484] LOST ONES AND FOUND ONES
2 Corinthians 4:3; Luke 19:9,10; 1 Corinthians 1:18; Isaiah 46:13
In my remarks I wish first to speak about lost people; then about saved people; then where the salvation is which the saved ones enjoy (for enjoyment is part of christianity), and that enjoyment, or the means of it, will be a little beyond the accredited religions of this world, for it affords true joy.
Now I spoke of lost people, and there are two classes of lost ones; the first class, not to be saved, and they never will be; then there are the lost that will be saved. I hope there are none of the first class here. This may be a puzzle to some of us. I am not saying that the first class are elected to be lost, but they do not get saved, “But if also our gospel is veiled, it is veiled in those that are lost”, 2 Corinthians 4:3.
As to the Corinthians the facts show that they must have had extraordinary times. Gospel meetings are not the least enjoyable of our meetings, especially if Paul preached, or Silvanus, or Timotheus. There may have been three preachings at one time there in different places, for they all preached the Son of God; it was a threefold testimony. “But when God ... was pleased to reveal his Son in me, that I may announce him as glad tidings among the nations”, Galatians 1:15,16. So we are all pupils in that way. What freshness there would be about Timotheus or Silvanus in preaching to the Corinthians!
The Lord had said, “I have much people in this city”, Acts 18:10. Nowadays the census might tell us the number of inhabitants there, but the Lord had said that He had much people in this city.
In Luke 15 the woman took the candle and searched diligently for the lost piece of silver, and the very best searching would be through Paul’s [p. 485] preaching. They were not yet saved, but they were His, and these three men were seeking them, Paul, Silvanus and Timotheus, and the Corinthians were being saved. The Lord said, “I have much people” here. Paul stayed a long time, one year and six months, in that city to get the “much people” God had there. He preached the “Son of God”. So Paul could say, “For we are a sweet odour of Christ to God, in the saved and in those that perish”, 2 Corinthians 2:15. Paul’s was the best gospel preached under heaven! But, alas! there is that class who perish. God forbid that there are any here tonight. Yet if any go out of this room unmoved by the gospel we might think of you as lost, as we read in 2 Corinthians 4:3, “But if also our gospel is veiled, it is veiled in those that are lost”. You may think that you have hope as long as you live, and that is the truth indeed; yet the truth brings things to light, and solemnly, too. Do I belong to that class? God might use that thought of being lost to reach your conscience, to make sure that you are not in the class of being lost for ever, so that you might be saved. That is what we desire tonight. People are so shallow now, and trivial. I hear a young man or a young woman, a boy or a girl, saying, ‘I will wait until I am out of school!’ The thought may elude you then! If it does, and you are not saved, “The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved” Jeremiah 8:20, then you are among the lost! The prophet is speaking to you in this verse. The devil has his way with you. The devil blinds the eyes of the unsaved; he is especially concerned in regard to your eyes. The eyes are very delicate members; the oculist tries to save the eyes, but the devil blinds their eyes: “He has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, that they may not see with their eyes, and understand with their heart and be converted, and I should heal them”, John 12:40.
[p. 486] So it becomes manifest that you are lost. ‘While there is life there is hope’ is not altogether true. You would not preach to Judas after he had betrayed Jesus, nor should I preach to the antichrist! It is a terrible thing to say, but it is the truth, and shallowness is one of the features of professed christianity. John says in Revelation 22:11, “Let the filthy make himself filthy still”. If I am filthy, if I have a radio or a pipe, God says, ‘Keep on with them’; the time comes when He says that. It says also in Revelation 22:11, “Let him that does unrighteously do unrighteously still”; that is one who is a thief, or one who does not pay his debts, the Spirit of God speaks severely of such. Is there anyone here saying, ‘I do not think that is the truth’? But it is most solemn, and intended to wake us up. God forbid there should be anyone like that here. Do not deceive yourself, for it is the truth. Paul says that if there is anyone from whom the gospel is hidden, the devil is doing that, that is, if you are not saved. But another person, who may be beside you, is a believer in the gospel, and I hope I hear him saying, ‘I will not put it off’; he is thus “a sweet odour of Christ to God” 2 Corinthians 2:15, for he is separated to God, and his soul bows to the truth.
Now I go on to what is said of a man who was lost but may be saved, that is Zacchaeus. The Lord says, “The Son of man has come to seek and to save that which is lost”, Luke 19:10. The Lord was speaking of what belonged to Him, and the Lord was seeking him. The Lord has much people in this city of Chicago, like the people at Corinth who received Paul’s preaching, but think of being one of those shown to Paul in the vision, think of being known before God as a saved person! The woman is sweeping the house to find you! What a joyous time they had at Corinth, what wonderful opportunities, the woman sweeping the house and finding the lost piece of silver! Matthew says they are hard to find. The “if” in Matthew 18:13 is very solemn, it says, “If it should come to pass that he find it”. Matthew 18:13. There is no trifling with the Shepherd’s service, for there is a possibility of the Shepherd not finding you; you are off in the theatre or in the gambling house; but “If ... he find it”: so do not get out of the radius of the sun’s shining, keep within the radius of the truth; do not fail to be at the gospel meeting. The Shepherd may come to your father’s house, and perhaps you, a boy of fourteen, are not there. Where are you? Your parents may not know where you are. These large cities are like dark forests. You are in the atmosphere of great darkness, of sin and iniquity; you cannot expect the Lord to go there, though He may go there! But keep in the light. Remember “If ... he find it”; there should be no ‘if’ on your side; be sure! You are in the way of it here in this room. The Lord is sure to be here, and surrounded, as you are, by sympathetic feelings, too, in the brethren. So He finds the sheep, and “He lays it upon his own shoulders, rejoicing; and being come to the house, calls together the friends and the neighbours, saying to them, Rejoice with me, for I have found my lost sheep”, Luke 15:5,6. The longest psalm, Psalm 119, fits in with these scriptures; it says in the last verse, “I have gone astray like a lost sheep: seek thy servant” Psalm 119:176.
God loves to have you put in your bills. “As children of obedience”, Peter says (1 Peter 1:14). Paul says, “Honour thy father and thy mother, which is the first commandment with a promise”, Ephesians 6:2. So you can put in your bill; it has a promise; it is in the way of things; God values it, and honours that bill! Do you feel that you are a lost sheep still? God says that is good that you feel it; God finds you; the Shepherd finds the sheep, and there is “joy in heaven for one repenting sinner”, Luke 15:7. Perhaps we have omitted too much of it, for He says, “Rejoice with me” Luke 15:6; all of us love to rejoice when one is brought home amongst the brethren. Zacchaeus is one of them,
[p. 488] lost for the moment, yet he is found; the Lord says of him, “He also is a son of Abraham”, not ‘shall be’ but “is”; yes, a mere tax-gatherer! In Luke 13 there is “a woman having a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and she was bent together and wholly unable to lift her head up”, yet the Lord says of her, “Who is a daughter of Abraham” Luke 13:11,16. Wake up, young people, the thing is for you! A young man said to me that he had heard people say, ‘I am heir to a great fortune’, and he did not think it was true! But if there is anyone here who is saved, a son or daughter of Abraham, you are heir to a great estate. It is yours! Each person has something distinctive; you are heir to an immense estate. If you are not in the good of it, you have not accepted Christ. And for those who accept Christ, they have the Holy Spirit as the earnest of their inheritance: “God, who also has sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts”, 2 Corinthians 1:21,22. We have the Spirit to draw upon in this waiting time. He is here, with us and in us. The Lord says, “Inasmuch as he also is a son of Abraham”, not ‘going to be’ but “is”; Zacchaeus said, “If I have taken anything from any man by false accusation, I return him fourfold”, Luke 19:8. Was he a son of Abraham then? Yes; in a false position, yes, and still lost, but he belongs to God. So the Lord speaks of His own property, “I have much people in this city”. Acts 18:10.
You hear the gospel; Paul says, “My glad tidings”, Romans 16:25. There was no preacher like him, except the Lord; he could say, “I ... have fully preached the glad tidings of the Christ”, Romans 15:19. So these Corinthians were saved through the preaching, and they had received the earnest of the Spirit in their hearts, and you, as sealed by “the Holy Spirit of promise” Ephesians 1:13, in thus receiving Christ as now presented to you as the One who came to seek the lost, you find you are heir to this great estate. After you are endowed with the earnest you will have plenty to live [p. 489] on; you will be an honest working-man. A christian’s face is bright; the presence of the Spirit implies that. So Zacchaeus has marks of that. “He sought to see Jesus who he was”. Some read of Napoleon, or other great men, their lives, acts and so on, but Zacchaeus “sought to see Jesus who he was”. The Lord came into his house, and He says, “To-day salvation is come to this house, inasmuch as he also is a son of Abraham; for the Son of man has come to seek and to save that which is lost”, Luke 19:9,10. He is a son of Abraham, not lost now, never again to be so, but saved. So Paul says, “To us that are saved”, 1 Corinthians 1:18. What is a saved person like? There are plenty who would like to be saved, but Paul speaks of those who are saved. Look at Paul, and Silvanus, and Timotheus, and Peter, and many women! Peter says, “Look on us”, Acts 3:4. If you are exercised the Lord would say to you, “Come and see”, John 1:39 as if to say, ‘You cannot get up to heaven, but just come and see’. A saved person is not quarrelsome and ambitious, but satisfied. “The trees of Jehovah are satisfied”, Psalm 104:16. His face shines; he is what he presents to others.
“To those that are called ... Christ God’s power and God’s wisdom”, 1 Corinthians 1:24. Are you ashamed of the cross? Some young ones go to school and hide the light, but “the reproach of the Christ” is “greater riches than the treasures of Egypt”, Hebrews 11:26. The “word of the cross” 1 Corinthians 1:18 saves us; it is “Christ God’s power and God’s wisdom”. 1 Corinthians 1:24.
In Isaiah 46:13 the Spirit of God says, “I will give salvation in Zion, and unto Israel my glory”. Isaiah 46:13. Think of that word ‘Zion’! God says, “[p. 490] Here will I dwell, for I have desired it”, Psalm 132:14. It is most necessary to open your hearts to God; He would dwell there: “I have desired it”. It is not heaven; literally Zion is a mountain, and a small one, too, but it is what God selects. It is the hearts of people; they are “vessels of mercy”, Romans 9:23. God has got into their hearts;
“Here will I dwell, for I have desired it”. Ephesians 2:19 says, “So then ye are no longer strangers and foreigners, but ye are fellow-citizens of the saints, and of the household of God”. Salvation is there, and the place is there, “in Christ”, Ephesians 1:3. The salvation of God is fixedly in Christ, where love is!
Some have no home and say, ‘Nobody loves me!’ All heaven is open for you. Over one sinner that repents there is joy in heaven, now and presently on earth, too; that is Zion. God wants them there also. “For Jehovah hath chosen Zion; he hath desired it for his dwelling”, Psalm 132:13. Joy unspeakable is your portion, which increases as it goes on. Think of the lavishness of the giving where God dwells! May we think more of it! Do not put it off! Make it a settled matter before you close your eyes tonight!