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The clipping this text was read from
The clipping this text was read from

He that is a scarlet 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 1 were preaching in the county jail, I should not preach from that text. There 1 should preach This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptations, 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 your 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 justified! the ungodly.

I would like to make this very plain.

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