The Gatherings

The LORD doth build up Jerusalem: He gathereth together the outcasts of Israel. – Psalm 147:2

The Lord Jesus has several ways of gathering together the outcasts. He gathers them to hear the Gospel. Preach Jesus Christ and they will come! Both outcast saints and outcast sinners will come to hear the charming sound of His blessed name! They cannot help it. Nothing draws like Jesus Christ! Jesus Christ next gathers them to Himself. The parable of the wedding feast is repeated again, “Go out into the highways and hedges and compel them to come in, that My house may be filled.” “Bring in here the poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and the blind.” In this sort, the Lord Jesus Christ gathers multitudes where He is faithfully preached. He gathers all sorts of characters and especially the odds and ends of society—the despised of men and the despised of themselves. He gathers them to Himself.

And oh, what a blessed gathering place that is where there is cleansing for their filthiness, health for their disease, clothing for their nakedness and all-sufficient supplies for their abundant necessities! He gathers them to Himself—which is to gather them to God—to gather them to blessedness and peace through reconciliation with the Father. “To Him shall the gathering of the people be.”

When He has done that, He gathers them into the Divine family. He takes the outcasts and makes them children of God—heirs with Himself. From the dunghill He lifts them and sets them among princes! He takes them from the swine trough and puts the ring on their fingers and the shoes on their feet—and they sit down at the Father’s table to feast and to be glad! Jesus Christ, as the good Shepherd, gathers the lost sheep, the lame, the halt, the diseased and feeds them. He makes them to lie down and restores their souls and, finally, He leads them to the rich pastures of the Glory Land. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1302.cfm

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