Hope for Lost Sinners, November 18
Hope for Lost Sinners, November 18
Jesus answering said unto them, They that are whole need not a physician; but they that are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Luke 5:31, 32.
Sinners were the special objects of the mission of Christ—sinners of every race and clime.... All are dear to Him because they are the purchase of His blood. The home missions are to receive decided attention. Let every sinner within our households and within our own neighborhoods be sought for. Let personal efforts be bestowed upon them. The cases that seem the most hopeless are to be labored for the most earnestly, in faith and hope and earnest prayer....
Those upon whom Satan exercises his power the most decidedly are the ones who awaken the sympathy of the Saviour’s great heart of love. He is ever having the ones gathered into the fold to go out into the wilderness to seek and rescue the lost sheep. He feels the tenderest love for those who are entrapped through the deceiving power of Satan. And when the lost sheep are indeed found by Jesus, what joy and rejoicing there is in the whole universe of heaven....
His voice is heard in tones of yearning tenderness, entreaty, and love! “Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near: let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon” (Isaiah 55:6, 7)....
Mortal man cannot read the heart of man, and is often misled by outward shallow appearances. But He who can read the hearts of men as an open book never misjudges.... He knows the atmosphere surrounding each soul. He knows how many and fierce are the struggles of the human soul to overcome the natural hereditary tendencies and the sins which have become common through habit of repetition.
He says, He is mine; I have bought him with human agony and blood. Long have I borne with his manners, his uncourteous, ungrateful behavior toward Me, yet I forbear to cut him down, hoping, through my living colaborers, to bring him to repentance, that I might heal him, and wash and cleanse him in My own blood. [330]