“Christ died for the ungodly.”-Romans 5:6.

“God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”-Romans 5:8.

“This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.”-1 Timothy 1:15.

Last Thursday evening, with considerable difficulty, I stood here to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, and I handled one of the simplest imaginable texts, full of nothing but the very plainest elements of the gospel. Within a very few minutes I had a harvest for the sermon. The congregation was slender, for you know how ill a night it was, and how little you expected that your pastor would be able to preach, but three souls came forward uninvited to acknowledge that they had found peace with God. How many more there were I do not know, but these three sought out the brethren, and bore a good and hearty confession to the blessed fact that for the first time in their lives they had understood the plan of salvation. Now, it seemed to me that if a plain gospel theme was so promptly profitable, I had better keep to the like subjects. If a farmer finds that a certain seed has paid him so well that he never had a better crop before, then he will keep to that seed, and sow more of it. Those processes of husbandry which have been successful should be persevered in, and even used upon a larger scale. So this morning I shall just preach the A B C of the gospel, the first rudiments of the art of salvation, and I thank God this will be no new thing to me. May God the Holy Spirit, in answer to your prayers, grant us a reward this morning after the same proportion as last Thursday, and, if so, our heart will be exceeding glad.

Out of a very great number I have selected the four texts which I have read just to set forth the truth that the mission of our Lord related to sinners. What did Christ come into the world for? For whom did he come? These are questions of the greatest importance, and they are clearly answered in Scripture. When the children of Israel first found manna outside the camp they said to one another, “Manna?” or, what is it? for they wist not what it was. There it lay, a small round thing, as small as the hoar frost upon the ground. No doubt they looked at it and rubbed it in their hands, and smelt it, but how glad they were when Moses said, “This is the bread which the Lord has given you to eat.” They were not long before they put the good news to the test, for each man gathered his omer full and took it home, and prepared it according to his liking. Now, concerning the gospel, there are many who might call out “Manna?” for they know not what it is. Very frequently, too they make a mistake as to its bearings and its objects, dreaming that it is a kind of improved law, or an easier system of salvation by works; and hence they err also in their idea of the persons for whom it is designed. They imagine that surely the blessings of salvation must be meant for deserving persons, and Christ must be the Redeemer of the meritorious. On the principle of “good for the good” they infer that grace is for the excellent and Christ for the virtuous. Hence it is a most useful thing for us continually to be reminding men what the gospel is, and for whom it is sent into the world; for, though the great mass of you know full well, and do not need to be told, yet there are multitudes around us who persist in grave mistakes, and need to be instructed over and over again in the very simplest of the doctrines of grace. There is less need for laborious explanations of profound mysteries than for simple explanations of plain truths. Many men need only a simple latchkey to lift the latch and open the door of faith, and such a key I hope God’s infinite mercy may put into their hands this morning. Our business is to show that the gospel is intended for sinners, that it has an eye to guilty persons; that it is not sent into the world as a reward for the good and for the excellent, or for those who think they have any measure of fitness or preparation for the divine favour; but that it is intended for law breakers, for the undeserving, for the the ungodly, for those who have gone astray like lost sheep, or left their father’s house like the prodigal. Christ died to save sinners, and he justifieth the ungodly. The truth is plain enough in the Word, but since the human heart kicks against it we will the more earnestly insist upon it.

First!, even a superficial glance at our Lord’s mission suffices to show that his work was for the sinful. For, dear brethren, the descent of the Son of God into this world as a Saviour implied that men needed to be delivered from a great evil by a divine hand. The coming of a Saviour who should by his death provide pardon for human sin supposed men to be greatly guilty, and to be incapable of procuring pardon by any doings of their own. You would never have seen a Saviour if there had not been a fall. Eden’s withering was a necessary preface to Gethsemane’s groaning. You would never have heard of a cross and a bleeding Saviour on it if you had not first heard of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and of a disobedient hand which plucked the forbidden fruit. If the mission of our Lord did not refer to the guilty it was an unnecessary errand altogether, so far as we can see. What justifies the incarnation except man’s ruin? What explains our Lord’s suffering life but man’s guilt? Above all, what explains his death and the cloud under which he died but human sin? “All we like sheep have gone astray, and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all”-that is the answer to an otherwise unanswerable riddle.

If we give a glance at the covenant under which our Lord came we soon perceive that its bearing is towards guilty men. The blessing of the covenant of works has to do with men who are innocent, and to them it promises great blessings. If there had been salvation by works it would have been by the law, for the law is upright and just and good; but the new covenant evidently deals with sinners, for it does not speak of the reward of merit, but it freely promises, “I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.” If there had been no sins and iniquities, and no unrighteousness, then there had been no need of the covenant of grace, of which Christ is the messenger and the ambassador. The slightest glimpse at our Lord’s official character as the Adam of a new covenant should suffice to convince us that his errand is to guilty men. Moses comes to show how the holy should behave, but Jesus comes to reveal how the unholy may be cleansed.

Whenever we hear the mission of Christ spoken of it is described as one of mercy and of grace. In the redemption which is in Christ Jesus it is always the mercy of God that is extolled-according to his mercy he saved us. He for Christ’s sake, according to his abundant mercy, forgiveth us our trespasses. “The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth by Jesus Christ.” “The grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many.” The apostle Paul, who most fully expoundeth the gospel, makes grace to be the one word upon which he rings the changes: “where sin abounded grace did much more abound.” “By grace are ye saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.” “Grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life, by Jesus Christ our Lord.” But, brethren, mercy implies sinfulness: there can be no mercy extended to the just, for justice itself secures every good thing to them. Grace, too, can only be for offenders. What grace is wanted by those who have kept the law, and deserved well at Jehovah’s hands? To them eternal life would be a matter of debt, a fairly earned reward; but when you talk of grace you at once shut out merit and introduce another principle. Mercy can only be exercised where there is sin, and grace cannot be manifested except to the undeserving. This is plain enough, and yet the whole tenor of some men’s religion is based on another theory.

The fact is, when we begin to study the gospel of the grace of God we see that it turns its face always towards sin, even as a physician looks towards disease, or as charity looks towards distress. The gospel issues its invitations; but what are the invitations? Are they not addressed to those who are burdened with a load of sin, and labouring to escape from its consequences? It invites every creature because every creature has its needs, but it specially says “Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts.” It invites the man who has no money, or, in other words, no merit. It calls to those who are needy, and thirsty, and poor, and naked, and all these are but used as figures of states produced by sin. The very gifts of the gospel imply sin; life is for the dead, sight is for the blind, liberty is for the captives, cleansing is for the filthy, absolution is for the sinful. No gospel blessing is proposed as a reward, and no invitation is issued to those who claim the blessings of grace as a matter of right; men are invited to come and receive them freely according to the grace of God. And what are the commands of the gospel? Repent. But who repenteth save a sinner? Believe. But believing is not according to the law; the law speaks only of doing. Believing has to do with sinners, and with the method of salvation by grace.

The gospel representations of itself usually look sinnerward. The great king who makes a feast finds not a guest to sit at the table among those who were naturally expected to come, but from the highways and hedges men are compelled to come in. If the gospel describes itself as a feast it is a great feast for the blind, the halt, and the lame; if it describes itself as a fountain it is a fountain opened for sin and for uncleanness. Everywhere, in all that it does and says and provides to men, the gospel proves itself to be the sinner’s friend. The motto of its Founder and Lord still is “this man receiveth sinners.” The gospel is an hospital for the sick, none but the guilty will ever accept its benefits; it is medicine for the diseased, the whole and the self-righteous will never relish its saving draughts. Those who imagine that they have some excellence before God will never care to be saved by sovereign grace. The gospel, I say, looks sinnerward. That way and that way only doth it cast its blessings.

And brethren, ye know that the gospel has always found its greatest trophies amongst the most sinful: it enlists its best soldiers not only from amongst the guilty but from amongst the most guilty. “Simon,” said our Lord, “I have somewhat to say unto thee-A certain man had two debtors, the one owed him five hundred pence, and the other fifty, and when they had nothing to pay he frankly forgave them both. Tell me therefore, which of them will love him most?” The gospel goes upon the principle that he who has had much forgiven the same loveth much, and so its gracious Lord delights to seek out the most guilty and to manifest himself to them with abundant and overflowing love, saying “I have blotted out thy sins like a cloud, and like a thick cloud thy transgressions.” Among great transgressors it finds its warmest lovers when once it has saved them, from these it receives the heartiest welcome and in them it obtains the most enthusiastic adherents. Great sinners when saved crown free grace with its most illustrious diadems. Well may we be sure that it has its eye towards sinners, since it is amongst the chief of sinners that it finds its highest glory.

There is one other reflection which also lies very near the surface, namely, that if the gospel do not look towards sinners, to whom else could it look? There seems to have been a revival lately of the old cavilling spirit, so that proud Pharisees constantly tell us that the preaching of justification by faith is overdone, and that we are leading people to think less of morality by preaching up the grace of God. This oft refuted objection is coming forth again, because Protestantism is losing its sap and soul. The very force and backbone of the Reformers’ teaching was that great doctrine of grace, that salvation is not of works but of the grace of God alone; and because men are getting away from the Reformation, and drifting into Romanism, they are casting into the background this grand truth of justification by faith alone, and pretending to be afraid of it. But O, knaves and fools that most men are upon this matter! I put to all such this one question-To whom, sirs, would the gospel look if not towards sinners, for what are you but sinners? You who talk about morality being injured, about holiness being ignored, what have you to do with either? The people who usually urge these objections, as a rule, had better be quiet on such topics. In general these fierce defenders of morality and holiness are exceedingly lax, while believers in the grace of God are frequently charged with Puritanism and rigidity. He who stands out most to speak against the doctrines of grace is frequently the man who needs grace most, while the very man who cries down good works as a ground of trust is just the person whose life is carefully directed by the statutes of the Lord. Know ye, O men, that there lives not on the face of the earth a man upon whom God can look with pleasure if he consider that man on the ground of his law. “They are all gone out of the way, they are altogether become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no not one,”-not one heart is sound and right before God by nature, not one life is pure and clean when the Lord comes to examine it with his all-searching eye. We are shut up in the same prison as all guilty: if not alike guilty, yet guilty according to the proportion of our light and knowledge, and each one justly condemned, for we have erred in heart and have not loved the Lord. To whom, then, could the gospel look if it did not cast its eyes sinnerward? For whom else could the Saviour have died? Who is there in the world for whom the benefits of grace could be designed?

Secondly, the more closely we look the more clear this fact becomes, for, brethren, the work of salvation was certainly not performed for any one of us who are saved on account of any goodness in us. If there be any goodness in us it was out there by the grace of God, and it certainly was not there when first the bowels of Jehovah’s love began to move towards us. If you take the first ensign of salvation that was actually visible on earth, namely, the coming of Christ, we are told concerning it that “when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” So that our redemption, my brother, was effected before we were born. This was the fruit of the Father’s great love “wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins.” There was nothing in us going before which could have merited that redemption, indeed the very idea of meriting the death of Jesus is absurd and blasphemous. Yes, and when we were living in sin and loving it, there were preparations made for our salvation; divine love was busy on our behalf when we were busy in rebellion. The gospel was brought near to us, earnest hearts were set a-praying for us, the text was written which would convert us; and as I have already said, the blood was spilt which cleanses us, and the Spirit of God was given, who should renew us. All this was done while as yet we had no breathings of soul after God. Is not that a wonderful passage in Ezekiel, where the Lord passed by and saw the helpless infant cast out in the open field while it was yet unswaddled and unwashed, but was foul and polluted in its own blood? He says that it was a time of love, and yet it was a time of pollution and loathing. He did not love the chosen babe because it was well washed and fitly clad, but he loved it when it was foul and naked. Let every believing heart admire the freeness and compassion of divine love.

“He saw me ruin’d in the fall,

Yet loved me, notwithstanding all;

He saved me from my lost estate,

His loving-kindness, oh, how great!”

When thy heart was hard, when thy neck was obstinate, when thou wouldst not repent nor yield to him but rebelled yet more and more, he loved thee, even thee, with supreme affection. Why such grace? Why indeed, but because his nature is full of goodness and he delighteth in mercy. Is not mercy seen to be evidently extended towards the sinful and not exerted because of some goodness moving thereto?

Look a little closer still. What did our Lord come into the world to do? Here is the answer. “He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.” He came that he might be a sin-bearer: and do you think he came to bear only the little, trifling sins of the best sort of men, if such sins there be? Do you suppose that he is a little Saviour, who came to save us from little offences? Beloved, it is Jehovah’s darling Son that comes to earth and bears the load of sin, a load which, when he bears it, he finds to be no fictitious burden, for it forces from him the bloody sweat. So heavy is that load that he bows his head to the grave, and even unto death, beneath it. That stupendous load which lay on Christ was the heap of our sins; and hence as we look into the subject we perceive that the gospel must have to do with sinners. No sin! Then is the cross a mistake. No sin! Then the lama sabachthani was a just complaint against unnecessary cruelty. No sin! Then, O Redeemer, what are those glories which we have so eagerly ascribed to thee? How canst thou put away sin which does not exist? The existence of great sin is implied in the coming of Christ, and that coming was occasioned and rendered necessary by sin, against which Jesus comes as our Deliverer. He declares that he has opened a fountain, filled with the blood of his own veins. But what for? A cleansing fountain implies filth. It must be, sinner, that somewhere or other there are filthy people, or else there had not been such an amazing fountain as this, filled from the heart of Christ. If thou be guilty thou art one who needs the fountain, and it is opened for thee. Come thou with all thy sin and foulness about thee and wash this morning, and be clean.

“Twas for sinners that he suffer’d

Agonies unspeakable;

Canst thou doubt thou art a sinner?

If thou canst-then hope farewell.

“But, believing what is written-

‘All are guilty’-‘dead in sin,’