All Comers to Christ Welcome

Charles H. Spurgeon (1834-1892)

“All that the Father giveth me shall come to me;
and him that cometh to me I will in
no wise cast out.”—John 6:37

C
hrist will not die in vain. His Father gave him a certain number to be the reward
of His soul travail, and He will have every one of them, as He said, “All that the
Father giveth me shall come to me.” Almighty grace shall sweetly constrain them
all to come. My father recently gave me some letters that I wrote to him when I began to
preach. They are almost boyish epistles; but, in reading through them again, I noticed in
one of them this expression: “How I long to see thousands of men saved; but my great
comfort is that some will be saved, must be saved, shall be saved, for it is written, ‘All
that the Father giveth me shall come to me.’”
The question for each of you to ask is, “Do I belong to that number?” I am going to
preach with the view of helping you to find out whether you belong to that “all” whom
the Father gave to Christ, the “all” who shall come to Him. We can use the second part
of the verse to help us to understand the first. “Him that cometh to me I will in no wise
cast out,” will explain our Saviour’s previous words, “All that the Father giveth me shall
come to me.”
I shall have no time for any further preface; I must at once get to my subject, and
try to put everything in a condensed form. Kindly give heed to the Word, think about it,
pray over it; and may God the Holy Ghost apply it to all your hearts!

I. The Necessity of Character

First, notice in the text the necessity of character: “Him that cometh to me.” If you
want to be saved, you must come to Christ. There is no other way of salvation under
heaven but coming to Christ. Go wherever else you will, you must be disappointed and
lost; it is only by coming to Him that you can by any possibility have eternal life.
What is it to come to Christ? Well, it implies leaving all other confidences. To
come to anybody is to leave everybody else. To come to Christ is to leave everything else,
to leave every other hope, every other trust. Are you trusting to your own works? Are you
trusting to a priest? Are you trusting to the merits of the Virgin Mary, or the saints and
angels in heaven? Are you trusting to anything but the Lord Jesus Christ? If so, leave it,
and have done with it. Come away from every other reliance, and trust to Christ
crucified, for this is the only way of salvation, as Peter said to the rulers and elders of

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Israel, “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under
heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Act 4:12).
“To Jesus bleeding on the tree,
Turn thou thine eye, thine heart,”
and come to Him at once, and thy soul shall live forever.
To come to Jesus means, in brief, trusting Him. He is a Saviour; that is His
business. Come you to Him and trust Him to save you. If you could save yourself you
would not need a Saviour; and, now that Christ has set up to be a Saviour, let Him do
the business. He will! Come, and lay all your needs at His feet, and trust Him. Resolve
that, if lost, you will be lost trusting alone in Jesus; and that can never be. Tie up all your
hopes into one bundle, and put that bundle upon Christ. Let Him be all thy salvation and
all thy desire, and so thou shalt be surely saved.
I have sometimes tried to explain to you what the life of faith is like. It is very
much like a man walking on a tightrope. The believer is told that he shall not fall. He
trusts in God that he shall not, but every now and then he says, “What a way it is down
there if I did fall!” I have often had this experience: I have gone up an invisible
staircase—I could not see the next step—but, when I put my foot down on it, I found
that it was solid granite. I could not see the next stair, and it seemed as if I should
plunge into an abyss—yet have I gone on upward, steadily, one step at a time, never able
to see farther into absolute darkness, as it seemed, and yet always with a light just where
the light was wanted.
When I used to hold a candle to my father, of an evening, when he was sawing
wood out in the yard, he used to say, “Boy, do hold the candle where I am sawing; don’t
look over there.” And I have often thought to myself, when I wanted to see something in
the middle of next week, or next year, that the Lord seemed to say to me, “Hold your
candle on the piece of work which you have to do today; and, if you can see that, be
satisfied, for that is all the light you want just now.” Suppose that you could see into
next week, it would be a great mercy if you lost your sight a while, for a far-seeing gaze
into care and trouble is no gain. “Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof” (Mat 6:34),
as sufficient unto the day will be the good thereof.
But the Lord does train His people for the skies by testing their faith in the matter
of His daily care of them. Often, a man’s reliance upon God for the supply of his earthly
wants proves that he has trusted the Lord for the weightier affairs relating to his soul’s
salvation. Do not draw a line between the temporal and the spiritual, and say, “God will
go just so far, but I must not take such and such a thing to Him in prayer.” I remember
hearing of a certain good man, of whom one said, “Why, he is a very curious man; he
prayed about a key the other day!” Why not pray about a key? Why not pray about a pin?
Sometimes it may be as important to pray about a pin as to pray about a kingdom. Little
things are often the linchpins of great events. Take care that you bring everything to
God in faith and prayer. “Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and
supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God” (Phi 4:6).

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 I have turned aside from my subject for a minute, but let us now think again of this
matter of coming to Christ. To come to Jesus, not only implies leaving all other
confidences and trusting Christ, it also means following Him. If you trust Him, you must
obey Him. If you leave your soul in His hands, you must take Him to be your Master and
your Lord, as well as your Saviour. Christ has come to save you from sin, not in sin. He
will therefore help you to leave your sin, whatever it is. He will give you the victory over
it; He will make you holy. He will help you to do whatever you should do in the sight of
God. He is able to save unto the uttermost them that come unto God by Him (Heb 7:25);
but you must come to Him if you would be saved by Him.
To put together all I have said, you must quit every other hope. You must take
Jesus to be your sole confidence, and then you must be obedient to His command and
take Him to be your Master and Lord. Will you do that? If not, I have nothing to say to
you except this: he that believeth not in Him will perish without hope. If you will not
have God’s remedy for your soul malady, the only remedy that there is, there remaineth
for you nothing but blackness and dismal darkness forever and ever.

II. Universality of Persons

But, now, secondly, while there is this necessity of character, notice also the
universality of persons. “Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.” Granted that
he comes to Christ, that is all that is needed. Does some one say, “Sir, I am a very
obscure person. Nobody knows me; my name was never in the papers, and never will be.
I am a nobody”? Well, if Mr. Nobody comes to Christ, He will not cast him out! Come
along, you unknown person, you anonymous individual, you that everybody but Christ
forgets! If even you come to Jesus, He will not cast you out.
Another says, “I am so very odd.” Do not say much about that, for I am odd too.
But, dear friends, however odd we are, though we may be thought very eccentric, and
some may even consider us a little touched in the head, yet, nevertheless, for all that,
Jesus says, “Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.” Come along with you, Mr.
Oddman! You shall not be lost for want of brains, nor yet for having too many, though
that is not a very common misfortune. If you will but come to Christ, though you have
no talent, though you are but poor and will never make much headway in the world,
Jesus says, “Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.”
“Ah!” says a third friend, “I do not mind about being obscure or being eccentric,
but it is the greatness of my sin that keeps me back from Christ.” Let us read the text
again: “Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.” If he had been guilty of seven
murders and all the whoredoms and adulteries that ever defiled mortal man, if
impossible sins could be charged against him, yet if he came to Christ—mark you, if he
came to Christ—the promise of Jesus would be fulfilled even in his case. “Him that
cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.”
“But,” says another, “I am completely worn out; I am good for nothing. I have
spent all my days and years in sin. I have come to the very end of the chapter, I am not

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worth anybody’s having.” Come along with you, you fag-end1 of life! Jesus says, “Him
that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out.” You have to walk with two sticks, do you?
Never mind, come you to Jesus. You are so feeble that you wonder that you are alive at
your advanced age. My Lord will receive you if you are a hundred years of age; there have
been many cases in which persons have been brought to Christ even after that age.
There are some very remarkable instances of that fact on record. Christ says, “Him that
cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.” If he were as old as Methuselah (Gen 5:25), if he
did but come to Christ, he should not be cast out.
“Alas!” says one, “I am in a worse case than even that aged friend, for beside being
old, I have resisted the Spirit of God. I have been many years troubled in my conscience;
but I have tried to cover it all up. I have stifled every godly thought.” Yes, yes, and it is a
very sad thing, too. But for all that, if you come to Christ—if you can even make a dash
for salvation and come to Jesus—He cannot cast you out.
One friend perhaps says, “I am afraid that I have committed the unpardonable sin.”
If you come to Christ, you have not—I know, for him that cometh to Him Jesus will in
no wise cast out. He cannot therefore have committed the unpardonable sin. Come
along with you, man, and if you are blacker than all the rest of the sinners in the world,
so much the more glorious shall be the grace of God when it shall have proved its power
by washing you whiter than snow in the precious blood of Jesus.
“Ah!” says one, “you do not know me, sir.” No, dear friend, I do not; but, perhaps,
one of these days I may have that pleasure. “It will not be any pleasure to you, sir, for I
am an apostate. I used to be a professor of religion; but I have given it all up, and I have
gone back to the world, willfully and wickedly doing all manner of evil things.” Ah! well,
if you can but come to Christ, though there were seven apostasies piled one upon
another, still His promise stands true, “Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast
out.” Whatever the past, or whatever the present, backslider, return to Christ, for He
standeth to His plighted Word, and there are no exceptions mentioned in my text: “Him
that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.”
“Well, sir,” cries another, “I should like to come to Christ; but I do not feel fit to
come.” Then, come all unfit, just as you are. Jesus says, “Him that cometh to me I will in
no wise cast out.” If I were woke up in the middle of the night by a cry of “Fire!” and I
saw that someone was at the window with a fire-escape, I do not think that I should keep
in bed and say, “I have not my black necktie on,” or, “I have not my best waistcoat on.” I
should not speak in that way at all. I would be out of the window as quickly as ever I
could, and down the fire-escape. Why do you talk about your fitness, fitness, fitness? I
have heard of a cavalier,2 who lost his life because he stopped to curl his hair when
Cromwell’s3 soldiers were after him. Some of you may laugh at the man’s foolishness,

1
fag-end – the last and worst part of anything.

2
cavalier – an upperclass gentlemen associated with the royal court.

3
Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658) – leader of the parliamentary soldiers in the English civil war against Charles I.

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but that is all that your talk about fitness is. What is all your fitness but the curling of
your hair when you are in imminent danger of losing your soul? Your fitness is nothing
to Christ. Remember what we sang at the beginning of the service:
“Let not conscience make you linger,
Nor of fitness fondly dream;
All the fitness he requireth,
Is to feel your need of him:
This he gives you;
‘Tis the spirit’s rising beam.”
Come to Christ just as you are: foul, vile, careless, godless, Christless. Come now,
even now, for Jesus said, “Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.”
Is there not a glorious width about my text: “Him that cometh to me I will in no
wise cast out.” What him is this? It is him that cometh. What him that cometh? Any him
that cometh in all the world. If he comes to Christ, he shall not be cast out. A red man,
or a black man, or a white man, or a yellow man, or a copper-colored man—whatever he
is, if he comes to Jesus, he shall in no wise be cast out!
When you mean to put a thing broadly, it is always best to state it, and leave it. Do
not go into details; the Saviour does not. Some years ago, there was a man, a kind,
loving husband, who wished to leave to his wife all his property. Whatever he had, he
intended her to have it all, as she ought. So he put down in his will, “I leave to my
beloved wife, Elizabeth, all that I have.” That was all right. Then he went on to describe
in detail what he was leaving her, and he wrote, “All my freehold and personal estate.”
The most of his property happened to be leasehold, so the wife did not get it because her
husband gave a detailed description—it was in the detail that the property slipped away
from the good woman. Now, there is no detail at all here: “Him that cometh.” That
means that every man, and woman, and child, beneath the broad heavens, who will but
come and trust in Christ, shall in no wise be cast out. I thank God that there is no
allusion to any particular character, in order specially to say, “People of that character
shall be received,” for then the characters left out might be supposed to be excluded; but
the text clearly means that every soul that comes to Christ shall be received by Him.

III. The Unmistakeableness of the Promise

The flight of time hurries me on; therefore, I beg you to listen earnestly while I
speak to you, in the third place, about the unmistakeableness of the promise. “Him that
cometh to me I will in no wise”—that is, for no reason, under no circumstances, at no
time, under no conditions whatever—“I will in no wise cast out,” which means, being
interpreted, “I will receive him; I will save him; I will bless him.”
Then if you, my dear friend, come to Christ, how could the Lord cast you out? How
could He do it in consistency with His truthfulness? Imagine my Lord Jesus making this
declaration and giving it to us as an inspired Scripture, “Him that cometh to me I will in
no wise cast out,” and yet casting out somebody, even that unknown somebody up in the
corner. Why, it would be a lie; it would be an acted lie! I pray you, blaspheme not my

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Lord, the truthful Christ, by supposing that He could be guilty of such conduct as that.
He could do as He likes about whom He would receive until He made the promise; but
after He had pledged His word, He bound Himself by the veracity of His nature to keep
it; and, as long as Christ is the truthful Christ, He must receive every soul that comes to
Him.
But let me also ask you, suppose that you came to Jesus, and He cast you out, with
what hands could He do it? “With His own hands,” you answer. What! Christ coming
forward to cast out a sinner who has come to Him? I ask again, with what hands could
He do it? Would He do it with those pierced hands that still bear the marks of the nails?
The Crucified rejecting a sinner? Ah, no! He hath no hand with which to do such a cruel
work as that, for He has given both His hands to be nailed to the tree for guilty men. He
hath neither hand, nor foot, nor heart with which to reject sinners, for all these have
been pierced in His death for them; therefore He cannot cast them out if they come to
Him.
Let me ask you another question, What profit would it be to Christ if He did cast
you out? If my dear Lord, of the thorny crown, and the pierced side, and the wounded
hands, were to cast you away, what glory would it bring to Him? If He cast you into hell,
you who have come to Him, what happiness would that bring to Him? If He were to cast
you away, you who have sought His face, you who trust His love and His blood, by what
conceivable method could that ever render Him the happier or the greater? It cannot be!
What would such a supposition involve? Imagine for a moment that Jesus did cast
away one who came to Him. If it were ascertained that one soul came to Christ, and yet
He had cast him away, what would happen? Why, there are thousands of us who would
never preach again! For one, I would have done with the business. If my Lord can cast
away a sinner who comes to Him, I cannot, with a clear conscience, go and preach from
His words, “Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.” Moreover, I should feel
that, if He failed in one promise, He might fail in the others. I could not go and preach a
possible but doubtful gospel. I must have “shalls” and “wills” from the eternal throne of
God; and, if it is not so, our preaching is in vain, and your faith is also vain (1Co 15:14).
See what would follow if one soul came to Christ and Christ cast him out. All the
saints would lose their confidence in Him. If a man breaks his promise once, it is of no
use for him to say, “Well, I am generally truthful.” You have caught him false to his word
once, and you will not trust him again. Will you? No. And if our dear Lord, whose every
word is truth and verity, could break one of His promises only once, He would not be
trusted by His people any more, and His Church would lose the faith that is her very life.
Ah, me! And then they would hear of it up in heaven; and one soul that came to
Christ, and was cast away, would stop the music of the harps of heaven, would dim the
lustre of the glory-land and take away its joy, for it would be whispered among the
glorified, “Jesus has broken His promise. He cast away a praying, believing soul; He may
break His promise to us, He may drive us out of heaven.” When they begin to praise
Him, this one act of His would make a lump come in their throats, and they would be
unable to sing. They would be thinking of that poor soul that trtusted Him and was cast

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away; so how could they sing, “Unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in
His own blood,” if they had to add, “But He did not wash all that came to Him, though
He promised that He would”?
I do not like even to talk of all that the supposition would involve. It is something
so dreadful to me, for they would hear of it in hell, and they would tell it to one another,
and an awful glee would take possession of the fiendish hearts of the devil and all his
companions, and they would say, “The Christ is not true to His word; the boasted
Saviour rejected one who came to Him. He used to receive even harlots, and He let one
wash His feet with her tears (Luk 7:38); and publicans and sinners came and gathered
about him, and he spoke to them in tones of love (Mat 9:10); but here is one—well, he
was too vile for the Saviour to bless. He was too far gone, Jesus could not restore him,
Christ could not cleanse him. He could save little sinners, but not great ones. He could
save sinners eighteen hundred years ago—oh, He made a fine show of them—but His
power is exhausted now; He cannot save a sinner now.” Oh, in the halls of Hades, what
jests and ridicule would be poured upon that dear name, and, I had almost said, justly, if
Christ cast out one who came to Him! But, beloved, that can never be; it is as sure as
God’s oath, as certain as Jehovah’s being, that he who comes to Christ shall in no wise be
cast out. I gladly bear my own witness before this assembled throng that—
“I came to Jesus as I was,
Weary, and worn, and sad:
I found in Him a resting-place,
And He has made me glad.”
Come, each one of you, and prove the text to be true in your own experience, for
the Lord Jesus Christ’s sake! Amen. 


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