"THE LAST LEAF!"
Written and preached by David P. Nolte




ROMANS 5:1-10

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The essence of God's love is manifest in the giving of His Son Who, in turn, gave up His life for the salvation of all who would believe. There was no obligation on His part, save the self-imposed one of love, that prompted such sacrificial giving. God simply saw our deplorable and pitiful condition and intervened on our behalf! Paul notes that this kind of giving is uncommon: "Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die" Romans 5:7. Paul does not preclude entirely the idea that one may die for another, but usually it is only for someone deemed worthy that the sacrifice will be made. I want to talk to you today about love that sacrifices and love that saves sinful, unworthy people. To illustrate Christ's action of love, I want to tell the story by O. Henry entitled "The Last Leaf!"  It is a story of sacrificial love.  Living at the top of a dilapidated 3-story tenement lived Sue, nicknamed "Sudie," and Joanna, nicknamed "Johnsy," two neophyte artists bound together by mutual need, a common love of art, and similar culinary tastes. Sue was robust, Joanna fragile, a wisp of a woman. On a wintry, wet, snowy november morning, a cold, unseen stranger came calling; Mr. Pneumonia smote Johnsy and put her on a bed of critical illness. The doctor gave her a scant 1 in 10 chance of survival which he'd elevate to 50/50 if she had a will to live. But there she lay, sick and dying. Her story in a real way parallels ours.

1. MANKIND HAS BEEN SMITTEN BY A COLD, INVISIBLE STRANGER: SIN!
1. VERSES 6-10 say we were "helpless, ungodly, sinners, enemies of God," and Paul implies that in that condition we were separated from God and needed reconciliation! The word: "helpless" means "enfeebled, impotent, without strength, sick!"
2. Without Christ, it is the common lot of man to be sin-sick and dying.
3. The Bible paints no pretty picture of the condition of man in his lost, alienated condition:
1. Genesis 6:5 "Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually."
2. Jeremiah 17:9 "The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; who can understand it?"
3. Isaiah 1:4-6 "Alas, sinful nation, people weighed down with iniquity, offspring of evildoers, sons who act corruptly! They have abandoned the Lord, they have despised the Holy One of Israel, they have turned away from Him. Where will you be stricken again, as you continue in your rebellion? The whole head is sick, and the whole heart is faint. From the sole of the foot even to the head there is nothing sound in it, only bruises, welts, and raw wounds, not pressed out or bandaged, nor softened with oil."
4. Unsaved man is plagued with moral leprosy, spiritual cancer, terminal heart disease. The symptoms of this sin sickness are everywhere! Listen to the songs, watch the news, read the papers, keep your eyes open!
1. Sexual immorality and perversions are all around us.  Deviant lifestyles are accepted and even promoted as normal..
2. Loss of integrity: corruption, dishonesty, cheating, lying are common ways of life.
3. Religious errors: occultism, Satanism, witchcraft, the new age movement abound.
4. Stress on individual rights and freedom with no regard for personal responsibilities make people blind to the needs of others.
5. Violence for its own sake and for control of others makes the world dangerous and hostile.
6. Drunkenness, drug abuse, gambling and other addictive behaviors keep many in bondage.
7. So smitten, man has not 1 chance in infinity of surviving on his own!

Johnsy lay sick and dying. When the doctor left Johnsy, Sue checked on her frail friend whose scant form barely made a ripple in the blankets. With eyes wide open, Johnsy stared out the window and counted backward: "12." and later "11." and then "10." --- "9." --- "8, 7," almost simultaneously. Sue looked out the window and saw nothing but a withered and scraggly old ivy vine on the wall 20 feet away. "6."  "What is it, Johnsy?"  "Leaves on the ivy; there are 5 left; when the last leaf falls, I will go, too!" There she lay, weak, helpless, giving in, convinced that when the last leaf fell she'd die. She was hopeless and resigned.

2. SOMETIMES LIFE IS LIKE THAT, A STUDY IN HOPELESSNESS AND RESIGNATION:
1. One day falls after another in monotonous, dreary, mundane, tedium. Like falling leaves: "12 --- 11 --- 10."  We seem to be waiting for the last leaf to fall.
2. We, too, are prone to throw in the towel, to give up, to quit. We are, as Paul said, "helpless!" We are like others of whom we read in the Bible:
1. Moses, Elijah, Job and Jonah all wanted God just to end their struggles in death.
2. Each of them, from their particular set of pressures said, "Enough! Just let me die!"
3. Depression, despair, hopelessness, resignation are the themes of many a life. For a good many, obviously, death seems better than life.
1. It is true that, "It is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment," Hebrews 9:27 .
2. It is also true that our business is not death but life! Paul says, Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men, but as wise, making the most of your time, because the days are evil"Ephesians 5:15, 16.
4. At best, we are all terminal, temporal, the last leaf falls quickly, so we must make most of our brief time:
1. Job 7:6 "my days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle, and come to an end without hope."
2. Psalms 39:5 "behold, thou hast made my days as handbreadths, and my lifetime as nothing in thy sight, surely every man at his best is a mere breath."
3. Psalms 103:15, 16 "as for man, his days are like grass; as a flower of the field, so he flourishes. When the wind has passed over it, it is no more; and its place acknowledges it no longer."
4. James 4:14 "yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away."
5. While we realize our lives are brief, our job is living! But, like Johnsy, many wait for the last leaf to fall!

Living downstairs from Sue and Johnsy was a crotchety old grouch named Behrman. A failure at art, he persisted in claiming that he would one day paint his masterpiece, but he'd never even begun. He was fierce and unfriendly, his one redeeming trait was that he saw himself in the role of guardian and protector of the two young artists who lived above him. When he learned of Johnsy's sickness and her loss of will to live, he looked in on her and left. It was a brutally cold night, wet, snowy and windy. Johnsy slept through, fitfully, and in the morning demanded that the curtain be raised -- the vine was down to one lone leaf, green at the stem, but yellowed, ragged and dying. "It is the last one;" she observed. "I thought it would fall in the night; it will fall today and I shall die at the same time." But it held on through the day and on the next morning, the curtain was raised to reveal that one lone leaf, still in its place, bravely hanging on. As Johnsy studied it she said, "I've been a bad girl, Sudie; something has made that last leaf stay there to show me how wicked I was to want to die." The next day, Sue spoke softly to the revived Johnsy: "I have something to tell you; Mr. Behrman died of pneumonia today. He was ill only two days. The janitor found him in his room downstairs helpless; his clothing was wet and they found a lantern and ladder in his room. Look out the window, Johnsy, at the last leaf -- didn't you wonder why it never fluttered or moved in the wind? It's Mr. Behrman's masterpiece -- he painted it there the night the last leaf fell." The story touches our emotions; but I'll tell you something infinitely more moving, more meaningful, more lasting; more wonderful: 

3. THERE IS HOPE AND HEALING: JESUS GAVE HIS LIFE TO SAVE ALL OF US!
1. Verses 6-10: Christ died for the ungodly; he died for sinners; he justified us; he reconciled us; he saved us.
2. Jesus came to bring soul healing!  There is hope!  There is a Savior!
1. "The LORD builds up Jerusalem; He gathers the outcasts of Israel. He heals the brokenhearted, And binds up their wounds. Psalms 147:2-3.
2. "For I will restore you to health And I will heal you of your wounds,' declares the LORD, ..." Jeremiah 30:17.
3. "But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed." Isaiah 53:5.
4. "He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed." 1 Peter 2:24.
3. But please carefully notice this:
1. We don't deserve it, we just need it! We can't earn it, He just gives it! Ephesians 2:8-9: "For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not as a result of works, that no one should boast."
2. We can't pay for it, we must receive it! John 1:12, 13: "But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." How do we receive it? Not by asking Jesus into our hearts! Not by praying a sinner's prayer! But by following the pattern of New Testament conversions:
1. Believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and the Only Savior.
2. Repent of your sins. Turn away from them. Forsake them. Give them up.
3. Confess Jesus Christ before witnesses and never be ashamed of Him.
4. Be buried in the water of baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
5. Continue to live a faithful life of service and obedience.
6. That's the New Testament activity of faith; that's the New Testament manner of receiving Jesus Christ. To demand more is to demand too much; to demand less is to demand too little; to demand something else is to deviate from the New Testament pattern and norm.
4. We can't get there some other way, we must come through Jesus and we must come in His way!
1. Acts 4:12: "And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men, by which we must be saved."
2. John 14:6: "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me."
3. He has come to us with an offer of grace and mercy we'd best not refuse!

As Mr. Behrman faced the freezing weather to paint that last leaf, so Jesus loved you so much He braved the cold hostility of a rebellious world to secure for you the hope of eternal life. Don't let His efforts be in vain. Look out the window; the last leaf has not fallen; it's His masterpiece of grace, painted in His blood for your salvation! Come to Him, out of what troubles you; He'll give you peace! Come to Him, out of what is slowly killing you, He'll give you life! Come to Him, out of what separates you from the Father, He'll give you grace! Come to Him out of your sin and He'll give you forgiveness.  Come to Him!  He's waiting just for you to come!