or else they will still be bad. But, Lord, though I have nothing to bring, and nothing to say for myself, I do say this: I have heard that you have come into the world to save sinners — oh Lord, save me!
I the chief of sinners am.
I confess I do not feel this as I ought, I do not mourn it as I ought; I have no repentance to recommend me; no, Lord, I have no faith to recommend me either, for I do not believe your promise as I ought; but oh! I cling to this text. Lord, you have said you will not do it for my sake. I thank you that you have said that. You could not do it for my sake, for I have no reason why you should. Lord, I claim your gracious promise. ‘Be merciful to me, a sinner.’ ” Ah! you good people, this doctrine does not suit some of you; it is too humbling, is it not? You who have faithfully attended your churches regularly, and been to meetings so piously, you who never broke the Sabbath, or never swore an oath, or did anything wrong, this does not suit you. You say it will do very well to preach to prostitutes, and drunkards, and swearers, but it will not suit such good people as we are. Ah! well, this is your text — “I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” You are “whole” — you are; you “do not need a physician, but those who are sick.” Go your way. Christ did not came to save such as you are. You think you can save yourselves. Do it, and perish in the attempt. But I feel that the same gospel that suits a prostitute suits me, and that that free grace which saved Saul of Tarsus must save me, or else I can never be saved. Come, let us all go together. We are all guilty — some more, some less, but all hopelessly guilty. Let us go together to the footstool of his mercy, and though we dare not look up, let us lie there in the dust, and sigh out again, “Lord have mercy upon us for whom Jesus died.”
Just as I am, without one plea,
But that your blood was shed for me,
And that you bid me come to thee,
Oh Lamb of God, I come, I come.
Sinner, come now; come now, I beseech you; I entreat you, come now. Oh Spirit of the living God, draw them now! Let these feeble weak words be the means of drawing souls to Christ. Will you reject my Master again? Will you go out of this house hardened once more? You may never again have such feelings as those which are aroused in your soul. Come, now, receive his mercy; now bend your willing necks to his yoke; and then I know you shall go away to taste his faithful love, and at last to sing in heaven the song of the redeemed — “To him who loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, to him be glory, for ever. Amen.”
Oh you great eternal Jesus,
High and mighty Prince of Peace,
How your wonders shine resplendent,
In the wonders of your grace:
Your rich gospel scorns conditions,
Breathes salvation free as air;
Only breathes triumphant mercy,
Baffling guilt, and all despair.
Oh the grandeur of the gospel,
How it sounds the cleansing blood;
Shows the compassion of a Saviour,
Shows the tender heart of God.
Only treats of love eternal,
Swells the all abounding grace,
Nothing knows but life and pardon,
Full redemption, endless peace.
{a} Upas Tree: is an evergreen tree native to southeastern Asia, from India and Sri Lanka east to southern China, the Philippines and Fiji; closely related species also occur in eastern Africa. It produces a highly poisonous latex, known in Java as “Upas,” from the Javanese word for “poison.” See Explore “http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upas”
Grain In Egypt
No. 234-5:73. A Sermon Delivered On Sunday Morning, January 16, 1859, By C. H. Spurgeon, At The Music Hall, Royal Surrey Gardens.
Now when Jacob saw that there was grain in Egypt, Jacob said to his sons, “Why do you look at one another?” And he said, “Behold, I have heard that there is grain in Egypt: go down there, and buy for us from there; that we may live, and not die.” {Genesis 42:1,2}
1. God in his wisdom has so made the outward world, that it is a strange and wonderful picture of the inner world. Nature has an analogy with grace. The wonders that God does in the heart of man, each of them finds a parallel, a picture, a metaphor, an illustration, in the wonders which God performs in providence. It is the duty of the minister always to look for these analogies. Our Saviour did so. He is the model preacher: his preaching was made up of parables, pictures from the outer world, accommodated to teach great and mighty truths. And so is man’s mind constituted that we can always see a thing better through a picture than any other way. If you tell a man a simple truth, he does not see it nearly so well as if you explained it to him with an illustration. If I should attempt to describe the flight of a soul from sin to Christ, you would not see it one half so readily as if I should picture John Bunyan’s pilgrim running out of the city of Destruction, with his fingers in his ears, and hastening with all his might to the wicket gate. There is something tangible in a picture, a something which our poor flesh and blood can lay hold of; and therefore the mind, grasping through the flesh and the blood, is able to understand the idea, and to apply it. Hence the necessity and usefulness of the minister always endeavouring to illustrate his sermon, and to make his discourse as much as possible like the parables of Jesus Christ.
2. Now, there are very few minds that can make parables. The fact is, I only know of one good allegory in the English language, and that is, the “Pilgrim’s Progress.” Parables, pictures, and analogies are not as easy as some think; most men can understand them, but few can create them. Happy for us who are ministers of Christ, we have no great trouble about this matter; we do not have to make parables; they already are made for us. I believe that Old Testament history has for one of its purposes the furnishing of the Christian minister with illustrations; so that a truth which I find in the New Testament in its naked form taught to me as a doctrine, I find in the Old Testament cast into a parable. And so would we use this most excellent ancient book, the Old Testament, as an illustration of the New, and as a means of explaining to our minds the truth that is taught to us in a more doctrinal form in the New Testament.
3. What, then, do we see in these two verses of the forty-second chapter of Genesis? We have here a picture of man’s lost estate, he is in a severe soul devouring famine. We discover here man’s hope. His hope lies in that Joseph whom he does not know, who has gone before him and provided all things necessary, that his needs may be supplied. And we have here practical advice, which was preeminently wise on the part of Jacob to his sons in his situation, and which, being interpreted, is also the wisest advice to you and to me. Seeing that there is mercy for sinners, and that Jesus our brother has gone before us to provide for us an all sufficient redemption, “why do we sit here and look at one another?” There is mercy in the heart of God, there is salvation in Christ; “Go down there, and buy for us from there; that we may live, and not die.”
4. Three things, then, this morning: first, a pitiful plight; secondly, good news; and thirdly, excellent advice.
5. I. First, A PITIFUL PLIGHT. These sons
