which nothing else can remove.
He that is a black sinner--he is the kind of man that Jesus
Christ came to make white. A gospel preacher on one occasion
preached a sermon from, "Now also the axe is laid to the root of
the trees," and he delivered such a sermon that one of his
hearers said to him, "One would have thought that you had been
preaching to criminals. Your sermon ought to have been delivered
in the county jail." "Oh, no," said the good man, "if I were
preaching in the county jail, I should not preach from that text,
there I should preach 'This is a faithful saying, and worthy of
all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save
sinners.'" Just so. The law is for the self-righteous, to humble
their pride: the gospel is for the lost, to remove their despair.
If you are not lost, what do you want with a Saviour? Should
the shepherd go after those who never went astray? Why should the
woman sweep her house for the bits of money that were never out
of her purse? No, the medicine is for the diseased; the
quickening is for the dead; the pardon is for the guilty;
liberation is for those who are bound: the opening of eyes is for
those who are blind. How can the Saviour, and His death upon the
cross, and the gospel of pardon, be accounted for, unless it be
upon the supposition that men are guilty and worthy of
condemnation? The sinner is the gospel's reason for existence.
You, my friend, to whom this word now comes, if you are
undeserving, ill-deserving, hell-deserving, you are the sort of
man for whom the gospel is ordained, and arranged, and
proclaimed. God justifieth the ungodly.
I would like to make this very plain. I hope that I have
done so already; but still, plain as it is, it is only the Lord
that can make a man see it. It does at first seem most amazing to
an awakened man that salvation should really be for him as a lost
and guilty one. He thinks that it must be for him as a penitent
man, forgetting that his penitence is a part of his salvation.
"Oh," says he, "but I must be this and that,"--all of which is
true, for he shall be this and that as the result of salvation;
but salvation comes to him before he has any of the results of
salvation. It comes to him, in fact, while he deserves only this
bare, beggarly, base, abominable description, "ungodly." That is
all he is when God's gospel comes to justify him.
May I, therefore, urge upon any who have no good thing about
them--who fear that they have not even a good feeling, or
anything whatever that can recommend them to God--that they will
firmly believe that our gracious God is able and willing to take
them without anything to recommend them, and to forgive them
spontaneously, not because they are good, but because He is good.
Does He not make His sun to shine on the evil as well as on the
good? Does He not give fruitful seasons, and send the rain and
the sunshine in their time upon the most ungodly nations? Ay,
even Sodom had its sun, and Gomorrah had its dew. Oh friend, the
great grace of God surpasses my conception and your conception,
and I would have you think worthily of it! As high as the heavens
are above the earth; so high are God's thoughts above our
thoughts. He can abundantly pardon. Jesus Christ came into the
world to save sinners: forgiveness is for the guilty.
Do not attempt to touch yourself up and make yourself
something other than you really are; but come as you are to Him
who justifies the ungodly. A great artist some short time ago had
painted a part of the corporation of the city in which he lived,
and he wanted, for historic purposes, to include in his picture
certain characters well known in the town. A crossing-sweeper,
unkempt, ragged, filthy, was known to everybody, and there was a
suitable place for him in the picture. The artist said to this
ragged and rugged individual, "I will pay you well if you will
come down to my studio and let me take your likeness." He came
round in the morning, but he was soon sent about his business;
for he had washed his face, and combed his hair, and donned a
respectable suit of clothes. He was needed as a beggar, and was
not invited in any other capacity. Even so, the gospel will
receive you into its halls if you come as a sinner, not
otherwise. Wait not for reformation, but come at once for
salvation. God justifieth the ungodly, and that takes you up
where you now are: it meets you in your worst estate.
Come in your deshabille. I mean, come to your heavenly
Father in all your sin and sinfulness. Come to Jesus just as you
are, leprous, filthy, naked, neither fit to live nor fit to die.
Come, you that are the very sweepings of creation; come, though
you hardly dare to hope for anything but death. Come, though
despair is brooding over you, pressing upon your bosom like a
horrible nightmare. Come and ask the Lord to justify another
ungodly one. Why should He not? Come for this great mercy of God
is meant for such as you are. I put it in the language of the
text, and I cannot put it more strongly: the Lord God Himself
takes to Himself this gracious title, "Him that justifieth the
ungodly." He makes just, and causes to be treated as just, those
who by nature are ungodly. Is not that a wonderful word for you?
Reader, do not delay till you have well considered this matter.