The friend of sinners

‘He was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.’ Isaiah 53:12

Suggested Further Reading: John 7:37–52

Trust Christ and you are saved. Outside in the street there is a drinking-fountain. When you get there, if you are thirsty go to it; you will find no policeman there to send you away. No one will cry, ‘You must not drink because you do not wear a satin dress.’ ‘You must not drink because you wear a corduroy jacket.’ No, go and drink; and when you have hold of the ladle and are putting it to your lips, if there should come a doubt—‘I do not feel my thirst enough,’ still take a drink whether you do or not. So I say to you, Jesus Christ stands like a great flowing fountain in the corners of the street, and he invites every thirsty soul to come and drink. You need not stop and say, ‘Am I thirsty enough? Am I dirty enough?’ You do need it whether you think you do or not. Come as you are. Every fitness is legality; every preparation is a lie; every getting ready for Christ is coming the wrong way. You are only making yourselves worse while you think you are making yourselves better. You are like a boy at school who has made a little blot, and he gets out his knife to scratch it out, and makes it ten times worse than before. Leave the blots alone. Come as you are. If you are the dirtiest soul out of hell, trust Christ, and that act of trust shall make you clean. This seems a simple thing, and yet it is the hardest thing in the world to bring you to it; so hard a thing that all the preachers that ever preached cannot make a man believe in Christ.

For meditation: Those who take their spiritual thirst to the living God (Isaiah 55:1; John 7:37; Revelation 22:17) know where to drink in the future (Psalm 42:2; 63:1; 143:6) and never need to try to satisfy that thirst anywhere else (John 4:14–15; 6:35).

Sermon no. 458
29 June (1862)