An Appeal To Sinners

Spurgeon takes the Pharisees' contemptuous accusation — "This man receives sinners" — and turns it into a glorious declaration, arguing that Christ receives sinners specifically and exclusively: not the self-righteous who don't think they need him, but those who genuinely know themselves to be lost, guilty, and helpless, since only such people can truly repent, trust Christ, and bring glory to his saving power. He piles up encouragements for the burdened sinner to come: Christ has promised never to cast out anyone who comes, no one in history has ever sincerely sought mercy and been turned away, Christ proved his desire to save sinners by coming from heaven and shedding his own blood, and even the feeling of being a sinner is itself a gift from God that signals he is already drawing that person to himself. He closes with a bold exhortation — stop trying to make yourself better before coming, stop waiting until you understand every theological question, stop letting the devil use your own sinfulness as a reason to stay away — and instead come to Christ exactly as you are, with nothing but your sin, trusting his promise that he receives sinners.Sermon delivered by Charles Spurgeon on September 14th, 1856.