WITHOUT money and without price, are the blessed terms of God’s invitation to poor sinners; for to sinners, unsaved, and unconverted, is this passage in Isaiah 4 addressed. If you see your need of a Saviour, and are afraid to come to God by reason of your sins, let me tell you this passage from God’s Word applies to you. How blessed, then, to find God inviting you; listen to the invitation: “Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money, and without price.”
These are God’s terms, and He wants you to accept them. The world does not offer such an invitation; it does not invite you to buy without money; on the contrary it offers nothing without it. But here is God offering, asking, beseeching, imploring you to come to Christ; to come and be, saved; to come to Him, and receive life, and joy, and peace; to receive forgiveness of your sins, through the precious blood of Christ, shed on the cross nearly 1900 years ago.
Oh! reader, think of it. God invites you to come. Ere the day of grace closes, He asks you to be a sharer in the blessedness of the work accomplished by His Son on the cross. God addresses the invitation personally to you. He says, “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool” (Isa. 1:1818Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. (Isaiah 1:18)).
Are they not blessed words? Yes, indeed they are; and so simple, that a little child could understand them. And when God says, “Come,” are you going to refuse? Do you say, God does not mean it for me; He cannot mean me? Listen to this verse, “This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (1 Tim. 1:1515This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief. (1 Timothy 1:15)).
It was not religious people, or charitable people, or people who thought themselves very good, and did not need a Saviour, that Christ came to save. No; He came into the world to save sinners, and this is the basis of God’s invitation to you; on the ground of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross, God invites poor sinners to come and be saved. God can now, through the work of His own blessed Son, be “the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus” (Rom. 3:2626To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. (Romans 3:26)).
These are the grounds of God’s salvation, the salvation He offers to you through the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ; take your stand on that, there is no other. “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:1212Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. (Acts 4:12)).
Let us now look at what it cost Christ to accomplish this way of salvation for a poor sinner. It cost Him His precious life. Ere you or I could be fitted for God’s holy presence, Christ had to go through that terrible death on the cross. Before a poor sinner could be with Christ in the glory, He had to endure that shameful treatment at the hands of man. Read the 27th chapter of Matthew, begin at the 33d verse; “And when they were come unto a place called Golgotha, that is to say, A place of a skull, they gave him vinegar to drink mingled with gall: and when he had tasted thereof, he would not drink. And they crucified him, and parted his garments, casting lots: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, “They parted my garments among them, and upon my vesture did they cast lots.” This is what it cost Jesus. The blessed Son of God went through all this, that you, and I, and countless thousands of ransomed souls, might be saved from death and judgment, and be made heirs of God and joint-heirs with Himself. Vinegar and gall were given to Him; God offers you wine and milk, ―expressions of joy and peace.
Reader, whoever you are, and whatever your position in this world, ―whether young or old, rich or poor, high or low, ―if you are still unsaved, still unconverted, listen to God’s word, and accept His salvation. Read it again. “Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that bath no money; come ye, buy and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money, and without price.”
On the cross Christ was forsaken by God. Not only was He forsaken by His own, as the Word tells us, “They all forsook him and fled,” but He was forsaken by God. Read the 46th verse of Matthew 27, “And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabacthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why halt thou forsaken me “He cried to God, and was unanswered; not unheard, but unanswered. It was the moment of God’s judgment of sin, in the person of His own blessed Son; when He “made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” (2 Cor. 5:2121For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. (2 Corinthians 5:21)). God’s holy, spotless, blessed Son, bore the judgment of God upon sin; and now God can send out that blessed invitation to the vilest, as well as to the most respectable sinner, and say to such an one, “Come, come to Me, My Son has done the work, and cleared away everything that could hinder Me from blessing you.”
Oh, blessed Saviour Thou it was who finished the work necessary for the salvation of a soul, and glorified God thereby.
“Jehovah lifted up His rod,
Oh! Christ, it fell on Thee;
Thou avast forsaken of Thy God,
No distance now for me;
Thy blood beneath that rod has flowed,
Thy bruising healeth me.”
Surely these are comforting words, enough to fill the soul with peace, and the heart with joy.
May God enable you, my reader, to see His measure of yourself, as well as of everybody else, summed up in three simple words, “All have sinned.” But God in His mercy has provided a Saviour, and wants you to accept Him; He offers salvation, and wants you to receive it. His Word proclaims, in the plainest language, “Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.”
This is pure grace, undeserved gift from God’s boundless love, to every poor sinner that comes to Him through His Son, “the one Mediator between God and man.” Although He states your condition, He shows you the way of escape; “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.”
But it is not forgiveness of sins (great and blessed as that surely is) alone, that I want to press on you, so much as Christ. If you have Him, you have forgiveness of sins, you have life, you have peace, you have everything; and if you have not Him, you have nothing. You are, in the language of Scripture, “without hope, and without God in the world.” You belong to a world that crucified Him. By nature, and by practice, you are at a distance from God. Oh! let it not be said to you, “Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded; but ye have set at naught all my counsel, and would none of my reproof: I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh” (Prov. 1:24-2624Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded; 25But ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof: 26I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh; (Proverbs 1:24‑26)). Oh, reader, these are solemn words, and worthy of your consideration; the day is coming for the fulfillment of them.
The second Epistle to the Thessalonians tells us of the judgment of those who received not the love of the truth that they might be saved, as well as of those who believed not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness. You may make excuses now, but you will have none then. You will be unable to say then, that you did not hear God’s call; for He is calling you now, and inviting you, and wanting to save and bless you, and unite you to His Son. Ere that terrible judgment conies on a guilty world, ―a world that is guilty of the death of the Son of God, ―God is waiting to be gracious to you, poor, wretched, vile sinner though you be; yes, He is waiting in grace, and bearing with the world that crucified His Son. Will you then accept God’s offer of mercy? or will you still go on with the world, over which judgment hangs, though grace lingers? The choice rests with yourself, and sooner or later will have to be decided.
God’s Word puts things very plainly. Read John 3:3636He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him. (John 3:36), “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.”
And again, in the 5th chapter, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.” This shows what it is to have Christ, and what it is to be without Him. To believe in Him, is to have everlasting life; to be without Him, is to have the wrath of God abiding on you; and as God’s Word so plainly states your condition as an unsaved sinner in God’s sight, surely it only magnifies the grace that points you to the only way of escape, namely, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.” And just as certainly as Pilate put it to the multitude to decide whether he should release unto them Barabbas or Jesus, so surely does God inquire of you in your day, which is to be the object of your choice, ―the world, or Christ and on the answer depends your eternal destiny,—everlasting happiness, or eternal woe. And although it is not in your power now, nor in the world’s power again, to condemn God’s blessed Son to be crucified, yet God does certainly put the question to you individually, a question that you will have to answer sooner or later, “What think ye of Christ? “May God in His mercy give you to decide for Christ.
H. M. S.