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[0:00] Let us turn now to the Old Testament passage we read in the prophecy of Isaiah chapter 55 and the first verse Isaiah chapter 55 O everyone that thirsteth from ye to the waters and he that hath no money come ye by and eat ye by and buy and buy and milk without money and without price therefore do ye spend money by that which is not dread and your labour on that which satisfieth not ask them diligently unto me and eat ye that which is good and let your soul delight itself in fastness there is a very real connection between the three chapters we have here towards the end of this prophecy chapter 53, 54 and 55 of Isaiah as you know chapter 53 presents to us a very clear prophetic where in the sufferings and the exaltation of the Lord Jesus Christ the servant of Jehovah who was to come chapter 54 gives us a very beautiful picture of the peace and the blessedness of the church that Jesus Christ died to save a picture of the people of God the believer who live by faith in the Lord and chapter 55 may they present to us as the invitation is addressed to all and sundry all who are out with the church all who are cut off from the life and the favour of God to avail themselves of the blessings that God has provided for them in

[2:18] Christ Jesus it is in effect this verse we've heard the first two verses of the chapter a call that comes from God himself from heaven above to all who are in this world to pause for a moment and to take stock of the situation and to respond in faith to the call that comes from him inviting them to receive the blessings of salvation through faith in Christ and in presenting this a call in addressing the youth and these verses one can but feebly reiterate what God himself is saying to us all when considering the words if you would like to look at two or three things first of all the describes that we have here in a symbolic language the describes that we have of the gospel itself there are various ways by which it is described which is spoken of as water spoken of as wine and milk it is spoken of as that of as that which is good and as that which delights the heart and then we have a description secondly of those who are invited everyone at thirsts everyone who has no money and everyone who spends money for that which is not bread and to labour for that which is which does not satisfy and then finally we have the invitation itself addressed very simply come to the water come buy and eat buy wine and milk without money and without price and delight yourself in factors and so on these three things are a description of the gospel a description of those invited and the invitation is addressed to them first of all a description here of the gospel now you know that very often the bible speaks to us in symbolical terms of the about the blessings of the gospel of christ or the blessing of god's provision for our lost word in christ jesus and here we have one such example with which the bible abounds it speaks the gospel here is in terms of water wine milk that which is good and that which is fat first of all the description we have here of it with reference to the water now you and I know tonight how essential water is to ourselves and to the world in which we live water is absolutely indispensable for every single one of us we couldn't live without water it is necessary for life it sustains animal life and plant life some of you no doubt in the past few weeks have you been busy maybe watering your gardens because the plants that you have there have by the very appearance shown to you how dependent they are on water now what

[6:26] God means when he presents to us the gospel in a symbol like this it presents himself as the source of blessing in terms of water or water what God is saying to us is this that you and I need God that we need the blessings that he has to bestow upon us put it another way he tells us that we cannot live without him and of course there are many people who would deny that but if you listen for example to the acts of the Lord Jesus when he was in the world you will find that he said exactly the same thing you remember at the great feast that you have recorded the account of which you have recorded in John chapter 7 at the end of that great feast Jesus stood up on the last day and said then you know

[7:26] I'm first let him come unto me and drink now there at end Jesus was making the same point that the people of his generation needed himself God through Isaiah was saying to Israel in his day in Isaiah's day you need God Jesus was saying to the people of his day you need me Jesus was God and the Bible every time you open it and thumb your way through its pages says to each one of us you need God and this is the way in which the gospel is in the first place here then as something which is indispensable something that you and I need and the other thing about this this the word is in a plural water this speaks to us of the abundance of the blessing with which

[8:33] God blesses people the plurality of blessings that God has at his disposal for us all the Bible puts it like this that there is no situation that confronts us in this life with which God is not able to deal no matter how you may read your needs tonight no matter how you may see your condition there is such fullness with God such abundance of blessings that God is able to draw near to you and able to help you and it speaks to us of something else such is the nature of this blessing that here is our world that never runs thine some worlds do some sources of water dry up some sources of manishment dry up but this one never does God has been blessing people since the day that he blessed the first person in this world

[9:36] I don't know how old the world is but there there have been many people in the history of this world who have claimed that God has blessed them and God did bless them there are many people in his church night who have been blessed by God many have partaken of the abundance that he has to bestow upon people and those other lives have been enriched by what he has given God himself has not been impoverished in any way God is the same tonight as he was yesterday and there is an abundance of blessing and of life with God and there is a third thing that the water speaks to us of and very often this is the first of it in the Bible it speaks to us of the freeness of the blessing of God a writer last century speaking about a text such as this spoke about something that had begun in our day and we know about it certainly in our day water rates every time we get our rates notice from the council there is a reference on that notice about the water rate there is a charge made even for the water that you drink no matter how free it is it is very very cheap in this land but still you have to pay so much for it if you get it supplied to your home as most homes do now and there are certain areas in the land some of you may go on holiday to places like that where a glass of water is pretty expensive but we don't know about that in this part of the world it's so free there is hardly anything more free to eat than a glass of water you will have too much difficulty in acquiring one and this is something else that the Bible speaks to us of when it speaks of the blessing of

[11:35] God it is a blessing that is freely bestowed upon all who come to receive it the word the word the New Testament uses for this is one of the great New Testament words it's the word grace it means that God freely bestows without as you see later on without any payment of any price from you he freely presses at your disposal all the blessings that are stored up in himself and that he is able to communicate to you so there you are now here's something that you need here's something that is sufficient to meet all your needs and here is something that is offered to you freely by God he invites you tonight to the gospel in that way the waters of life and then he speaks of it here as well as wine by wine and milk without money and without

[12:44] Christ wine now in the Bible as we sang in Psalm 4 here tonight wine doesn't have the same doesn't suggest that in America in that day it wouldn't have the same connotation as has in our day and in this part of the world particularly as you know in the East wine was used as freely with their meals as we use water and it was that which is associated with gladness of heart this is the suggestion that it conveys to us as you read about it in the Bible it gladness the heart so that the psalmist thinking about what God meant to him said wine has given me more gladness in my heart than wine ever gave me and this is what the gospel does there are many people who don't believe this a lot of people find this terribly difficult to understand how God or Christ in and through the gospel can gladden any heart well you ask the Christians here tonight and this is what they'll tell you that no experience that they've ever had in life can be compared with the experience that they had when the Lord blessed them when the

[14:08] Lord made himself known to them it's the most blessed moment they've ever had and the most blessed moments in this world are those moments when they get in close contact and touch and fellowship with the Lord in the gospel this is not surprising because after all God said of his own son the Lord Jesus Christ while he was in this world this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased as though he was saying there is nothing that gladdens my heart more than my own son and this is what a Christian would say of the Lord Jesus Christ his saviour he brings gladness contentment satisfaction into his life the Lord gladdens the church so it is with the blessings of the gospel and there's our third symbol here the symbol of milk now if wine was associated with gladness or satisfaction milk was assuredly associated with nourishment you know that this was one of the scripture was given of the promised land the land of Canaan it was a land flowing with wine and honey or wine and milk there was so much in the land to gladden their heart and there was so much in the land to nourish their lives now I grant you that there are things in the world tonight wine in itself which will in many instances gladden or warm a person's heart but it certainly won't nourish his life there are many people to not dying in hospital because they over the years have taken so much wine they became so attached with it couldn't break off from it instead of nourishing their lives instead of nourishing their life it destroyed their life but you see the gospel isn't like that the gospel gladdens the heart the blessings of the gospel enrich a person's life and they also nourish a person's heart not only do they gladden but they satisfy and they nourish that is why some people and isn't it strange you know when a person is newly converted so strange how often this happens they look forward to meeting other people around the gospel they look forward to getting together they look forward to getting out of church the Lord's day can't come quick enough the prayer meeting can't come soon enough they're desperate together why?

[17:06] because they're hungry and thirsting after that which nourishes their heart the gospel in this presentation meets their needs fills their mind fills their soul there's nourishment in it for them wine and milk and then he goes on to speak of the that which is good eat that which is good now of course this goes without saying anything which gladdens your heart and everything which nourishes your life is good anyway it is good in itself remember this is what Jesus said about Mary remember what he said to Martha when she found fault with Mary for sitting at Jesus feet getting up and getting busy in the kitchen and helping her to serve the meal remember what he said to Martha Martha Martha he said you're encumbered you've taken up with the things of this life but Mary has chosen that good part which I'll not be taken from and now we know what that good thing was sitting at the feet of Jesus fellowship with the Lord there is nothing better in the world than this it is the best thing you could have to have the

[18:19] Lord Jesus Christ in your own life good because it is fitted to meet the needs good because of the source from which this comes it comes from God and nothing comes from God but what is good every good and every perfect gift comes from the father of lights within is no variable is no shadow caused by turning it's good because of its source it's good because of its nature God communicates himself there is no greater good in the world than God himself you may have good things tonight I don't doubt that but you see my friend the greatest good of all is the being who gave you being and the one from whom every good gift that you have tonight comes and don't surely you're not taken up so much with his gifts that you're losing sight of himself because God is better than all his gifts it is good because God communicates himself and you couldn't have anything better tonight in your life than God himself in the blessing of salvation eat that which is good and finally let your soul delight itself in fatness this is the word that speaks to us of the riches of this feast of good things it is a feast of fat things these blessings of the gospel are so rich so numerous that they enrich the life think of one aspect of the blessing of

[20:07] God just one aspect to show to you how rich it is the aspect of his love the love of God which passes all understanding in its height in its breadth in its length and depth the love of God is so vast it can't be measured it is so rich that you couldn't even hope to describe it and do you know this it is so rich in its nature the love of God that the church throughout the ages of eternity will speak about it and will never exhaust the riches of this love never never fathom its depth never explain fully its magnitude its very vastness that is how rich it is that your soul delight itself in fathness now then that's the way in which the gospel the blessings of the gospel are described for us in this chapter now we pass on secondly to consider those who are invited to come to this feast and also to say of them everyone that fisheth he that hath no money he that spends his money for that which is not bread and he that labors for that which satisfies now this is a wonderful description of this lost world and you know there isn't a personless church tonight left out of this invitation not a soul we are all invited because we all fall into these categories one way or another now then let us look at first of all whole everyone at thirst now what do you make of this some of you will know that

[22:30] Dr. Billy Graham is a holding a crusade in certain areas in England at the moment and on one of his visits to Britain quite a long time ago Billy Graham was asked what he thought of the religious situation in the United Kingdom now I don't know if he was asked that question this time or what his answer was but I do remember the answer that he gave on this occasion when he was asked what he thought of the state of affairs in Britain and he thought that the state of affairs was quite good because I find especially this is in London that people are looking for God now I would like to think that Dr. Graham was correct but I find it very difficult to accept the correctness of a statement people are looking for something yes but I don't think the majority of people know what they're looking for they're thirsting for something

[23:51] I wonder if you and I could discuss this just for a little here just now profitably yes I speak to you in the quietness of this hour here tonight just for a minute or two thirsting but far who are the one that thirsteth well I know that there are people for example here tonight who are thirsting for God I know that there are people who want the Lord Jesus Christ there are people there are people here tonight who have the Lord in their lives and in their hearts but they want more of it they're not satisfied with what they have so they say to the psalmist my soul thirsts for God the living God when shall I come near into his when shall I approach near to his countenance I thirst for God said the psalmist there are people like that and I know that there are people in church tonight who are looking for God and they can't say that they found there are people who are wanting to be saved and they can't say that they are saved they're looking for a saviour but they haven't got the saviour they would love to say oh the church in the old testament my beloved is mine they would love to say it but they're afraid to say it but they want to say it and they're thirsting for the saviour that's the kind of person

[25:18] I was speaking about earlier the kind of person who wants to get into Christian fellowship and the kind of person who wants to come to the prayer meeting the kind of person who looks forward to the sabbath services because they know that other people have found the Lord in these means and they want the same experience as these people had they're looking for the Lord but they can't say if they have found him yet they're thirsting for what they don't have one person is thirsty for more of what he has another person is thirsty for what he doesn't yet have but that doesn't exhaust this definition oh everyone that thirsteth there are some people in church night who don't want more of God they don't have him there are some people in church night who don't want God at all they haven't been stirred up to a sense of their need they don't they want something but it's not God why are they here well it's not that they might be converted I doubt very much if that kind of person went down his knees or her knees before they left the house night and said

[26:21] God I'm going to church tonight again if I haven't been converted convert me tonight I doubt very much if you said that Lord I don't know the saviour but I doubt if you said before he came out Lord I would like to find him tonight in this church on Kennan Street but yet you're thirsting for something you don't know what it is you're looking for satisfaction in life you try various means and various avenues you try different company you go to different places you try this and you try that and tonight maybe I had a little bit of satisfaction yesterday last night Friday but tonight back to square one perhaps even worse more dissatisfied than you've ever been and you don't know what a Jesus is going to meet your needs and yet you could never say that you're searching for God now you wouldn't say are you here that you're thirsty for God because I don't believe you are and yet you're thirsty what does it mean what does this mean everyone that's thirsty do you know what it means it speaks of a passion he's in a state of need without knowing what his needs are in a state of want without knowing what he's wanting destitute without knowing that is destitute and that's what I meant when I said that this invitation that there is to everybody must judge night everyone isn't a Christian everyone isn't thirsty for Christ everyone isn't wanting God but if you're not like that you are in a state of need destitute for example of righteousness of holiness destitute of knowledge of God of wisdom you see this is what sin has done to our lost world when I was before he sinned he was perfectly holy and righteous and good and wise and he served God and he loved God and he abhorred God and he sinned and he lost all that that he had he stopped being holy he stopped being wise he stopped being good he stopped loving God he stopped seeking God to run away from us he stopped delighting in God he stopped obeying God and that's the passion in a state of need in a state of thirst in a state of destitution and in that condition trying to meet his needs and failing miserably to meet his needs and God knows it and God sees them and he says look you who are thirsting

[28:59] I've got the answer to your problem I can meet your needs come unto me and drink that's it so you see the invitation and places everyone is here tonight whether you have God or not if you have him you need more of him if you don't have him then you need him you certainly need him and you'll find him and we're here tonight not wanting God and not caring less indifferent to your spiritual condition and my friend remember this you're in a state of need thirsting and God knows it and God speaks to you and says to you come unto me and understand what he says of you you have no money you see this is the evidence of being in a state of need the evidence of it as I said earlier there are lots of people who are in a state of need but they don't realize that they are in this state of need but this is the proof of a person who's destitute you know a person who's destitute is not street tonight there might not be many of them in this well so society of ours but I'm sure that there are some tonight they have nothing and they would say to you look I'm destitute

[30:28] I'm nothing I'll be in all that you know there's the evidence I don't have a penny in my pocket I've got no money and this is the proof of the state of need you know it's amazing I think I said this before it's amazing how difficult people find it to accept this spiritually that there are absolutely nothing in the presence of God with which to earn or to buy salvation nothing some of you may think that some of us thought that we could pray our way to heaven perhaps if we prayed long enough God would answer us on the and what was that hope based on just based on on our belief that our prayers would save us there are no doubt people who come to church and who believe that they will continue like that and they die like that well God is bound to cast aside long glance at what they were doing after I awake in the church so and so didn't God will save me in the place of my church

[31:30] I've got a Bible I'll read it there are many people who want to know to have a Bible don't bother opening it but at least I'll open every night before I sleep surely God is bound to notice this but you see my father what I'm trying to say to you there's nothing wrong with reading the Bible nothing wrong with coming to church don't get me wrong nothing wrong with praying but the point is that these aren't riches that you possess that are unable to buy salvation you've got nothing with which to buy salvation nothing do you want proof of it?

[32:03] well if you care to listen this is it I don't know how old you may be and I don't know how many servants you've heard in your life no idea but I know this no matter how much you've heard how much you've seen or perhaps even right your ability to believe tonight isn't any more than it was twenty years ago it isn't there at all you can't do it you can't save yourself living proof there you are living proof sitting in that pew tonight you're not saved oh I know why you're not saved the only person who could save you is God you never asked God to save you perhaps you're living trying to save yourself and that's evidence of your destitution you've got no ability to save yourself no money all you have is sin if you're to open your pockets and turn them out open your hands back up anything the only thing you have in the presence of your God tonight is the sin that fills your life and that won't save you you've got nothing in other words and that's what God here is saying oh everyone that thirsteth oh everyone that thirsteth no money and yet here's a contradiction seeming contradiction everyone that spends money for that which is not bad now how can you speak if on the other hand

[33:33] God says that you have no money and then God says I speak to you as someone who is spending money on that which is not bad how can that be but I'll explain it to you you have nothing with which to buy salvation and yet the strange thing and the disheartening thing and the alarming thing is that God has given you some things but you're spending them in the wrong way you see God has given you some gifts and some possessions that you're not using in the right way what God has given you is this the point of the things that he's given you these are very simple things you know it doesn't take a great mind to speak about a verse like this time he's given you time he's given you opportunities he's given you privileges he's given you health he's given you a home he's given you a family he's given you friends he's given you all these comforts in life he's given you a mind he's given you an understanding he's given you a knowledge some knowledge he's given you the Bible

[34:58] He's given you the means of grace. He has sent the gospel to you over the years. These are things with which God has enriched your life and you could call them money. But what have you done with it? Well you've taken this money and you're spending it on something which isn't bread. You see God is the bread of life.

[35:17] And all that God has given you, God asks you to give to himself. To spend as it were on him. Son, daughter, give me your life. Give me everything you have.

[35:30] Or you know the way the short of cat exhibit that we children here tonight know it. What is the chief end of man? Man's chief end is to glorify God and enjoy him.

[35:41] This is what we're supposed to do with all the things that God has given to us. Use them to get to know him. Lord, here's my time. I want to use it on thee.

[35:52] Here's my money. Take what belongs to thee. Here's my life. Consecrate it to thyself. My home. My family. All these opportunities. The Bible. I'm leaving you to get to know thee.

[36:07] The church. I'm coming there to get to know thee. You see? But what do people do with these things? Well, they spend them on themselves. They spend them without any reference to God at all.

[36:18] They don't bother with him. They don't get to know him. They don't come to know them through these things. And they've never yet bent to me and said, Lord, I bless thee for these things that thou hast given to me. I bless thee for them.

[36:31] Have you ever done that with them? Oh, no. You've held them to yourself. Kept them close to your chest, haven't you? Oh, my friend, I challenge you tonight to ask what you've done with that that God has given you.

[36:45] Is it too much for you to respond to the challenge? This is the way you're living your life. You're spending your money, spending all these things on things other than God.

[36:59] And your life isn't being enriched one bit. And then finally there's this, and your labor on that which doesn't satisfy. You're working away. You know, this is a, this, this, this is a terribly pathetic picture of a person.

[37:16] You think about a person working from eight to five. I'm going to use five days a week and he comes home laboring away there eight to five and no matter what he's doing, he isn't being satisfied.

[37:35] He's getting no enjoyment. You know, what would you call it today? Job satisfaction, is it? Well, here's a picture for you. Here's a person who's working away day after day.

[37:46] Year after year after year. What tragedy. What a way to spend your life. There's nothing in it for you.

[37:56] Well, you know, this is the image that God uses to present to us the picture of an unconverted person. He's spending his labor, spending his labor, working away, doing this, doing that, trying this, trying that.

[38:09] And with the passing years, satisfaction getting further and further and further away. You know, there are people in this church tonight.

[38:23] My heart goes out to them. 60, 70, 80 years of age. Unconverted. Hard as brick.

[38:37] Nothing penetrates. And after all they've tried in life. A vast distance tonight between them and God.

[38:49] No satisfaction. You, my friend, you, my young friend here tonight. Don't let that happen to you. Don't let it happen to you. If you see, there is nothing more pathetic.

[39:01] And you know this. There is no more difficulty dealing with when it comes to presenting the gospel than a hardened sinner. After years and years and years of a life without faith in Christ.

[39:17] It's pathetic. Well, this is the picture of them. And yet, such is the nature of God's grace and God's goodness that he calls all such. And in a word just in conclusion, the invitation is addressed to all such.

[39:32] Ho! Everyone in that condition, come ye to the water. Bow and eat and delight yourself in fatness.

[39:45] Ho! You know the meaning of the word ho here is to just stop. Stop. It's a picture of... If you know what an open air market is, if you're an open air market down there in Cromwell, you're on a Saturday afternoon in the town teeming with people.

[39:57] And someone stood up at a table, a barrow and a sted, shouting to all the people who are passing. Stop! I'm through the wood. I would be a bit surprised if everyone stopped. Just to hear what this fellow was saying.

[40:09] Well, that's what God is saying here. He's saying to you in the gospel for a minute here in his church night. Well, wait a minute. Just give attention to this just for a few minutes.

[40:21] Maybe since you get in, your mind's been wandering all over the place. Perhaps you're going to run the world a few times. Well, just for a few minutes. Wait. Think about what God is saying to you.

[40:32] Stop. What's he saying to you? Well, you know this. He begins by using the most simple word you've ever heard in your life. Come.

[40:43] Now, every minister preaching the gospel, in a sense, finds it difficult to preach it. Do you know why? Because the gospel itself is so simple that no matter how often he tries to preach it, he'll never make it as simple as it actually is.

[41:01] I know that the name of the transaction, there's nothing simple about that. But the way in which it is presented to men and women, it's so simple. So simple.

[41:12] John Slavel, one of the great Puritan preachers, maintained that the devil was never more busy than he was at the elbow of the minister in the study.

[41:25] As he was preparing his sermons. And perhaps, walking away, getting him to become so intricate and so complicated in the presentation that he hides the very simplicity of the gospel itself.

[41:37] It's a great danger. And you know, I could stand here tonight till midnight and speak about the invitation of the gospel and I'll never make it as simple as this word makes it. Come.

[41:47] Do you know that it is used over 600 times in the Bible? God's saying to people, come. And it means two things. And that's all I'm going to say about it.

[42:00] Two things. You know, if you were standing at that door up there just now and I said to you, come. Come here. There were two things that you were doing. You were leaving the spot that, let us assume that you would respond.

[42:13] You were leaving the spot that you were standing at and you were coming to a place that you hadn't been in before. That's exactly what the gospel means when God asks you to respond.

[42:25] He asks you to do two things. And you'll never be a believer without doing this. You've got to leave a life of sin or a life of service to sin. And you've got to come to God and give your life to him.

[42:38] No, I can't make it any simpler than that. And why spend more time on it? Leave your sin. The word in the New Testament used for this word. Repentance. I know it's difficult.

[42:50] But the promise is never easy. Never is. Never was. And never will be. It means tearing yourself away from the life that you have hitherto lived and coming in a life of commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ.

[43:05] That's it. Come. Buy. Wine and milk without money and without price. And you say to me, no.

[43:17] Here's one of the contradictions in the Bible. Well, it's not. It's quite simple. You buy money. You buy wine and milk. Without money and without price.

[43:27] You say, how is that possible? Can you buy without money? Well, in a sense you can. When it comes to the gospel. You see, it's all of grace. And therefore, you can't do anything that's going to merit these blessings in your life.

[43:45] If God is going to bless you tonight, he will bless you purely and simply because of his grace. That's the first thing. But there's something else here. There's a transaction to be entered into when you buy something.

[43:59] There's a transaction involved. You're getting what wasn't used before. And someone is parting with what was his before.

[44:10] You can just shop downtown. And you buy something. And you take it with you. In your bag. That wasn't used before. It's used now. And before it became used, it belonged to the shop.

[44:21] But now, it's used by right of party. It's not theirs. It's used. You paid for it. And this is what happens in salvation. You can't earn it on the one hand.

[44:32] You can't buy it. And yet, on the other, it becomes used. God makes it over to you. He gives it to you. But at the same time, God isn't impoverished.

[44:43] This is the wonder about God's grace. He's giving grace to so many people tonight. But his grace remains the same. He doesn't lose anything in giving you. But you gain.

[44:54] And this is the wonder of salvation. The way in which it enriches a person's life. You accept this. God makes it over to you. And it becomes used.

[45:05] And the believer then goes along the road. He says, as the psalmist said, This God is now my God. And he will guide me even unto death. Is he used now?

[45:17] And the other thing that I said here is this. Eat that which is good. This is, again, the way the Bible speaks of the work of faith or the attitude.

[45:30] of faith, rather. You know what the, some of the evangelists put like this. There are three things in the Bible that, three words in which the Bible speaks of faith. The eye that looks, the hand that receives, and the mouth that eats.

[45:43] Open thy mouth wide to me, God said to the Old Testament church, and I will fill it. This is faith. God comes to you in the presence of the gospel. And you receive them just as you receive your food.

[45:54] You eat them. The trouble of so many of you is this. God is coming near you in the gospel. He's standing beside you, but you're not taking it. Ah, my friend, what you take, what he offers.

[46:07] And then finally, let your soul delight itself in fatness. What a feast you'd have tonight. How much God offers you. You need this.

[46:19] While you come, you take your fill. Don't be afraid. Don't hold back. I know that there are people saying to you, and there are some voices saying to you, even though as I speak to you, well, what does so-and-so think?

[46:30] Never you mind about what so-and-so think. Look at the feast you're going to have. Look at what's going to make me into your life. What are your workmates going to say to you tomorrow morning? What are you going to say if I go to school?

[46:41] And there, Christ has become my Savior and my friend. What then? While never you mind, you leave these things in his hand. He'll look after you as he's looked after everyone who ever came before you.

[46:52] You just feast yourself on what he offers you tonight. Blessings of salvation, forgiveness in all its fullness. The blessing of his love and his favor and his presence.

[47:04] You need that, don't you? And you want that. Well, here it is. You take it. God offers it. And you just have fulfilled. Because all things are ready.

[47:18] And I will say this to you. The only thing that stands between you tonight and receiving this rich provision is your own unwillingness to come.

[47:30] Ah, my friend, you come. And you avail yourself. Of these blessings. There was a preacher in England in the last century who preached on this text one night in the open air in the city of Manchester.

[47:51] Alexander McLaren. And he told, he put it like this, I'm sure he said that if in the local paper tomorrow morning there was an advert saying that if people came to a certain place in Manchester at a certain hour tomorrow night, they would get a treasure, each one of them, for themselves.

[48:18] I'm sure he said that there was an advert like that. That there would be a queue at that place tomorrow night. And yet he said, this is the way he applied it, here in the gospel, God offers the greatest treasure this world has ever known.

[48:36] The riches of his grace he offers himself. And there's no queue waiting for this blessing. Part of the difficulty lies just there and coming for it.

[48:50] You're alone. You don't have to push your way through a crowd to receive this blessing. It comes tonight solely to yourself.

[49:02] Solely to you. As an individual. And let God speak to you, my friend, as an individual. Never mind your family, your friends, your classmates, your workmates.

[49:15] Just put them out of your mind for this one minute while he says to you, Stop. And consider for a moment. Would this enrich your life?

[49:31] Of course it would. Well then, what stops you from taking it? Let us pray. O Lord our God, we pray for grace that we might come to love thee and come to serve thee.

[49:52] Come to honour thee and come to receive thee. Open our hearts that that blessing may become ours and that we with thy people may rejoice in thy salvation.

[50:10] Part us tonight with thy blessing. Forgive our sins in connection with holy things. And undertake for us this evening for thy name's sake.

[50:21]  Amen.