The Underlying Gospel for the Dying Year

The Underlying Gospel for the Dying Year

(No. 2341)

INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, DECEMBER 31, 1893.

DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING,
OCTOBER 20, 1889.

"For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the
ungodly." Romans 5:6.

BELOVED Friends, whatever the condition of a child of God is, he is not
without hope. A believer in the Lord Jesus Christ may be very sorely
tried. His afflictions may be multiplied and they may be very keen,
but, even in that condition, he has hope. It is not possible for him to
be forsaken of God–his God must help him. If the worst comes to the
worst, and he is altogether forsaken of men and sees no way of escape
out of his tremendous difficulties, still, his God must help him. He
has no right whatever to be afraid!

The argument of our text is this–since the Lord Jesus Christ saved us
when we were ungodly and came to our rescue when we were without
strength–we can never be in a worse condition than that! And if He,
then, did the best thing possible for us, namely, died for us, there is
nothing which He will not do. In fact, He will give us all things and
He will do all things for us, so as to keep us safely and bear us
through. The argument is that, looking back, we see the great love of
God to us in the gift of His dear Son for us when there was nothing
good in us–when we were ungodly, when we had no power to produce
anything good–for we were without strength. At such a time, even at
such a time, Christ came on wings of love and up to the bloody tree He
went–and laid down His life for our deliverance! We, therefore, feel
confident that He will not leave us, now, and that He will not keep
back anything from us whatever we may need. He has committed Himself to
the work of our eternal salvation and He will not be balked of it. He
has already done too much for us to ever run back from His purpose and,
in our worst estate, if we are in that condition, tonight, we may still
confidently appeal to Him and rest quite sure that He will bring us up
even to the heights ofjoy and safety! That is the drift of the text and
of the sermon tonight.

There are three grand points of consolation suggested by the text. The
first lies in this one line, "Christ died for the ungodly" The second
lies in this sentence, Christ died for us "when we were yet without
strength." And there is a rich vein of comfort in the third statement,
that Christ died for us "in due time." "In due time Christ died for the
ungodly." Time is often a very important element when one is in
trouble. In the nick of time Christ came for our deliverance–and so He
will again.

I. The first point of consolation in our text is this–if any child of
God, here, is in sore dismay and bowed down by reason of trouble,
fancying that God will leave him–let him first meditate on this word,
"CHRIST DIED FOR THE UNGODLY."

I should like to have this sentence put up at the corner of every
street, "Christ died for the ungodly." I am afraid that it would cause
a great many observations to be made. Some would kick at it very
heavily, but there are others who would leap very joyfully at the sight
of it. "Christ died for the ungodly." Does it mean what it says? The
common notion, not expressed in so many words, but harbored in many
minds, is that Christ died for the godly–that Christ died for good
people–but the text says, "Christ died for the ungodly." "This is a
faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came
into the world to save sinners." I say again that the current notion,
unexpressed but still believed, is that Christ came into the world to
save saints. This is not true. He came into the world to save sinners,
or, to come back to the very words of the text, "Christ died for the
ungodly."

I remember reading of a young woman who had long been in great distress
of conscience. She found comfort from an utterance of Mr. Moody Stuart
in prayer, when he quoted these words of my text, "Christ died for the
ungodly." She had

never caught at that idea before–she had always been trying to see
something good in herself and she thought that if she could spy out
some good thing in herself, then she would know that Christ died for
her! It was like a new revelation when she really understood that Jesus
Christ came into the world to save sinners and that He "died for the
ungodly."

Now this must be true, for Scripture puts it so plainly, "Christ died
for the ungodly." It must be true for, in the first place, there was
nobody else to die for but the ungodly! In this same Epistle, Paul says
that all mankind, both Jews and Gentiles, are under sin. As it is
written, "There is none righteous, no, not one: there is none that
understands, there is none that seeks after God. They are all gone out
of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that
does good, no, not one." So he sums us all up with his sweeping
condemnation, "None righteous, no, not one." And so, if Christ had died
for anybody, He must have died for the ungodly, since the whole human
race has degenerated into that condition! And that is the state by
nature of every man that is born of woman. Some are openly ungodly.
Many are religiously ungodly, a very dangerous, because very deceitful,
condition–having the form of godliness, but denying the power thereof.
This first point is clear, then–Christ must have died for the ungodly
since there was nobody else for whom to die.

And, next, only the ungodly needed that He should die for them. If you
are godly, if you are good, if you have perfectly kept the Law of God,
what have you to do with Christ? You are already saved! In fact, you
are not lost, and so you do not need any saving. If you have kept all
the Commandments from your youth up, you may well say, "What do I
lack?" If you are so good that you could hardly be better and have a
most respectable robe of righteousness of your own in which to appear
before God, I ask again, What have you to do with Christ? Why should He
die for a man who has not any sins that need washing away? O you
self-righteous, look to the sparks of your own fire, for Christ will
kindle no fire for you! O you who believe your own characters to be all
that they should be, and who rest your hope on that fallacy, I say
again, why should Christ come to be a Physician to those who are not
sick? Why should He come to give alms to those who are not poor? Why
should He lay down His life to bear the sins of those who have no sins?
"Christ died for the ungodly" because nobody but the ungodly needed
that He should die for them.

There is one point that we must mark, Christ did die for the ungodly.
His form of death was just that which the ungodly deserved–He died by
sentence of the Law of God. He died nailed to the Cross–He died the
death of a felon with a thief on either side of Him. He died in the
dark, crying, "My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me?" He died, not
as One who had, Himself, sinned, but He died as sinners have to die,
for He took upon Himself the sins of the ungodly. And being found
standing in their place, He felt the scourge of God that should have
fallen upon the ungodly. Scourge, did I say? He felt the sword of God
that would have slain the ungodly, as it is written, "Awake, O sword,
against My Shepherd, and against the Man that is My Fellow, says the
Lord of Hosts." Christ really died for the ungodly. They tell us that
He died to confirm His testimony, in which respect His death is no
better than the death of any martyr who dies to confirm His testimony!
But the text says, "Christ died for the ungodly." They say that He died
as the completion of His life, which many a good man has done and,
therein, the Cross has no pre-eminence. But the text says, "Christ died
for the ungodly" and we shall stand to it that this is true. "Who His
own self bore our sins in His own body on the tree." "The chastisement
of our peace was upon Him, and with His stripes we are healed." They
turn around and say, "That is your theory of the Atonement." I beg your
pardon–it is the Atonement. It is not a theory at all and there is no
other Atonement but the Substitution of Christ in the place of the
ungodly! He died, the Just for the unjust, that He might bring us to
God. This is the true and only Doctrine of Atonement–and he that
receives it shall find comfort by it–but he that rejects it does so at
peril of his own soul. "Christ died for the ungodly." I cannot speak
plainer words than Paul, Inspired by the Holy Spirit, has written!
There let them stand, "Christ died for the ungodly."

Now then, I want you, who are the people of God, to pick up the
argument out of this Truth of God. If Christ did this crowning act of
dying for the ungodly, do you think that He will ever cast away the man
who has peace with God? Read the first verse, again, "Therefore being
justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus
Christ." Now, if He died for you when you had no peace with God, when,
in fact, you had no God at all–when you were ungodly, that is, not
under the influence of God–when you were enemies to God by wicked
works. If Christ died for you, then, will He not save you now? If you
feel within your heart, tonight, a sweet reconciliation to God, your
heavenly Father, then, whatever your trouble is, do not believe that
God can leave you! Whatever the deep depression of your spirit,

do not imagine that He can forsake you! He that died for you as ungodly
will certainly save you, now that you have peace with God through Him.

More than that, when you have read those words in the first verse, "We
have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ," go on to the second
verse, "By whom, also, we have access by faith." Why, you are one of
those who can go to God when you will and speak with Him as a man
speaks with his friend! By faith you are permitted to come to God in
prayer, in praise and to walk with God in the Light as He is in the
Light! Come, Beloved, if Christ died for you when you were dead, when
you were ungodly, will He, can He leave you, now that He has given you
access to the Father by Himself? You come in and out of His house like
a home-born son–and if He loved you so as to die for you when you were
a stranger to God–do you think that He will leave you, now that you
have access to God through Him?

Go on a little farther and you find it written, "and rejoice in hope of
the Glory of God." A little while ago, you know, you had no hope of
Glory–you had no expectation of ever getting to Heaven. Poor soul that
you were, your glory was your shame! Your glory was worldly pleasure
and worldly gain. But now you "rejoice in hope of the Glory of God."
God has given you that good hope through Grace! Sometimes, when it is
fine weather with you, you climb to the top of Mount Clear and, looking
toward the Celestial City, you can almost see the light of it.
Sometimes, when the wind blows the right way, you have heard some stray
notes from the harps of angels–and you have wished yourself among
them! Some of you know that the hope of Heaven has often burned within
your heart–well, then, Beloved, if the Lord has given you that hope,
can He disappoint it? If Christ died for you when you had no hope, when
you did not want a hope, when you were ungodly–think of the weight of
this argument to you who rejoice in hope of the Glory of God! It is
mightier than a thousand Nasmyth hammers, for it smashes every doubt to
shivers! He that died for the ungodly will certainly save those who
have a good hope of Heaven!

Once more. You are, at this time, so far from being ungodly that the
love of God is shed abroad in your heart by the Holy Spirit which is
given to you. You know that it is so–you feel that God loves you. If
you do not feel it, tonight, you have felt it. You have realized the
love of God in your heart, as though a bottle of perfume of roses had
been broken and the perfume had filled all your spirit. You have said
to yourself, "Jesus loves me." You have been over-joyed with that
thought and you have also said, "I know that I love Him." You have felt
the goings forth of your spirit like the melting of the ice in the
springtime. Every little brook that had been frozen up within your
nature has leapt in gracious liberty beneath the sunlight of Divine
Love. Well now, do you think that the Lord has taught you to love
Him–and has shown you that He loves you–and will yet forsake you?

You say, "O Sir, you do not know what my trial is!" No, I do not, but
your heavenly Father does, and if He loved you when you were ungodly,
will He cast you away, now that He has shed His love abroad in your
heart? "Oh, but I have lost the very staff of bread! I do not know how
I am to get a living." No, but you have the living God to depend upon
and, after giving His Son to save you, He will surely give you bread!
He will not let you famish. "Ah, but, my dear Sir, the beloved of my
heart is laid low! There is, in the cemetery, the dearest object of my
affection." Is it really so? I thought that He left the dead some time
ago. I thought that the dearest object of your affection had gone up to
the right hand of the Father! Is it not so? "Ah, that is not what I
mean, Sir! I mean that I have lost one whom I fondly loved." I know
that you have, but do you think that the Lord has turned against you
because He has permitted this trial to come upon you? How can He ever
desert those for whom He died? And if He died for them when they were
ungodly, will He not live for them, now that He has shed His love
abroad in their hearts by the Holy Spirit?

I cannot work this out for you. I want you to go home and work it out
for yourselves. If any of you are cast down, here is the first well of
comfort at which you may drink full draughts of Divine
consolation–"Christ died for the ungodly." Then He must help those who
are trusting in Him.

II. Now we come to a second well, to see whether we can draw waters of
comfort out of it, also. According to our text, CHRIST DIED FOR US,
"WHEN WE WERE YET WITHOUT STRENGTH."

I must only say a word or two, here, because the time will not allow me
to enlarge. First, we were naturally in a lost condition through the
Fall, when we were born into this world, and we lived in it for years,
"without strength" to do that which was right. When we began to wake up
a little to thoughts of God and Divine things, we heard the Truth of
God preached, but we were still without power of access even to the
Gospel. We were told to repent, but our hard heart would yield no
waters of repentance. We were told to believe in Christ–the preacher
might as well have commanded the dead

to rise out of their graves! Christ was set before us in all His
beauty, yet our blindness was such that we could not appreciate His
loveliness. The Bread of Life was put on the table before us, but such
was our obstinacy that we would not believe it to be bread and we would
not eat of it. We were "without strength."

And further on, when the will came and the Lord began, by His Grace, to
work upon us, we had a will to repent, we had a will to believe and we
had a will to come to Christ–yet we were without the Graces which are
now our strength. I remember well the time when I had to say, "To will
is present with me, but how to perform that which is good, I find not."
"I would, but cannot repent. I would, but cannot believe." A rock was
in the heart–a stone was laid over the mouth of the well of
consolation! We were "without strength." But when we were in that sad
state, without one of the Graces which are now our strength, without
one of those holy fruits of the Spirit which are now the source of our
consolation–even then, "when we were yet without strength," Christ
died for us! When every sinew was snapped, every bone broken, every
power gone, life, itself, evaporated–for we were dead in trespasses
and sins–even then Christ died for us! Well now, Brothers and Sisters,
this is true–do you believe it? I want you to get the argument out of
this Truth of God, for it is this–if the Lord Jesus loved us enough to
die for us when we had no strength whatever, then He will certainly
save us now that He has given us strength!

Just look and see what kind of strength He has given us. According to
the context, He has given us peace. What strength is theirs who have
peace with God! I can do all things when I know that God is on my side.
Well, has He given me the strength that comes out of confidence in Him,
perfect reconciliation with Him–and will He now let me be destroyed by
the enemy? It cannot be!

In addition to peace, He has given us access to Himself. What a
strength there is in being able to go to God in prayer! By faith we can
go to God whenever we are in need! And am I able to go to my heavenly
Father and tell Him all my trouble and cast my burden upon Him–and did
His dear Son die for me when I was without strength and will He leave
me, now that I can go to Him in prayer? O Beloved, it is impossible! I
cannot imagine His turning against us.

Moreover, according to the third verse, He has now given us patience.
We have had a deal of trouble, but it has worked patience. The Lord
knows that at one time you had no patience at all. You used to, like a
bullock unaccustomed to the yoke, kick every time He struck you, but
now you often hold your tongue and quietly endure His chastening rod.
Patience is a great strength to a man, or a woman–if you can be
patient, you are strong. Well now, if Christ loved you so as to buy you
with His blood when you were impatient, has He given you this strength
to be patient under His hand, and do you think that He will destroy
you?

And, in addition to patience, He has given you a good deal of
experience. I speak to ever so many of God's people, here, who are
experienced Christians. You have gone up hill and down dale, you have
tried and proved the faithfulness of God–you have known by experience
your own weakness and your own folly–but you also know God's
faithfulness and God's strength. Do you think that the Lord has given
you all this experience and then that He means to play the fool with
you? Do you think that He gives and takes away, again, like little
children in their play? What? Has He put you through all these paces
and drilled you in this style and is He now going to drum you out of
the army? No, no! Believe nothing of the kind! He that has given you
patience and experience will keep you to the end.

And then, in addition to that, He has given you hope, for patience
works experience and experience, hope. A hope that makes not ashamed.
Has God really given you a hope? "Oh! "says one, "it is sometimes a
very poor hope." Yes, but is it hope in Christ? Do you hope in His
mercy? Then remember this text, "The Lord takes pleasure in them that
fear Him, in those that hope in His mercy." The smallest hope, if it
comes from God, tremble as it may, is better than the proudest
presumption that ever came from self-righteousness! If the Lord Jesus
has given you a hope in His blood, a hope in His intercession, a hope
in His eternal faithfulness, ah, believe me, if He loved you when you
had no hope, He will never cast you away, now that you have a hope that
He has, Himself, given you!

Only once more upon this point. We read in the fifth verse of the "Holy
Spirit which is given unto us." Now listen. If, when we were yet
without strength, Christ died for us, will He not save us, now that He
has given us the Holy Spirit? Think of it, Christian! The Holy Spirit
has come to live in you! Poor and despised, or illiterate and unknown,
yet within you dwells the Spirit of God! That body of yours is a
temple–that is God's Word, not mine–"Know you not that your body is
the temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you?" Well now, if Christ
bought you with His blood when you were no

temple, but were a defiled place–I know not to what vile thing to
compare you–will He let you be broken down, now that He has made you a
temple and the Holy Spirit has come to dwell in you?

I know that I must be speaking to somebody, tonight, in great trouble.
I am sure that I am. I have it upon my soul that I am addressing some
true child of God who is at his wits' end, driven to the utmost
extremity of sorrow. Dear Friend, believe in your God! Let not a doubt
come in about Him. The Son of God died for you upon the Cross when you
were ungodly and without strength–and He cannot, must not, shall not
be suspected of any wish to cast you off, or of any possibility of
change in His love to you. My Brothers and Sisters, I would say to you,
in your trouble, tonight, what Hopeful said to Christian when He was in
the Death River and cried out, "I sink in deep waters." Hopeful said to
him, "Be of good cheer, my Brother, I feel the bottom, and it is good."
So I feel the bottom, tonight, my Brother, my Sister, even if you do
not–it is a good bottom and you will never be swept away from it if
you are trusting in Jesus! He that brought you into the water, if He
makes the tide rise up to your chin, will teach you to swim! When you
cannot walk any further, you shall find waters to swim in and there is
no water so deep that the child of God can drown in it! You may go as
low as the grave, but you will never go any lower. "Underneath are the
everlasting arms." There is always One who is ready to catch you when
you are at your very worst as to circumstances and trials. Therefore,
be of good cheer! Magnify God in the fire and rest assured that He who
gave Himself up to die for you, will never lose you, but will keep you
even to the end.

Now I come to the last point, which is also full of consolation. I
think that I heard someone heave a deep sigh and say, "Ah! It may be as
you say, it may be all true, and I trust that it is, but I am in such
trouble that if I do not get help directly, I shall be done for. I
have, to cry, 'Make haste, O God, make haste for my help!' I need a God
who can do what David's God did when 'He rode upon a cherub and did
fly: yes, He did fly upon the wings of the wind.'" That is the kind of
God that you need, yes, and that is the kind of God that you have! He
will come flying to your deliverance, as I will now try to show you.

III. Here is the third well of consolation, CHRIST DIED FOR US IN DUE
TIME–"In due time Christ died for the ungodly."

I cannot tell you how much marrow I have found in this bone, "In due
time Christ died for the ungodly." The teaching of this verse seems to
be something like this. It means, first, that Christ died for us when
justice required His death. Suppose that I owe a debt? I am thankful
that I do not, but suppose that I did owe a very heavy debt and that it
had to be paid, say, on Tuesday morning. And there is a friend who has
undertaken to pay it for me. The bill is due at 12 o'clock and he says
that he will pay it for me. Now suppose that my friend goes in on
Wednesday morning and pays the amount. It is very good of him, but
still, you see, I lose my reputation for discharging my liabilities "in
due time." I did not meet the bill on Tuesday at twelve. True, there
are only 24 hours lost, but still, I am not the man that I was in the
trade I fol-low–I have been a defaulter. Now, I like to think of this
fact, that I, a poor sinner, over head and ears in debt to God's
Justice, have not only paid Him through my great Surety, but I have
paid Him to the minute! "In due time" my Surety came and discharged my
debt for me! "In due time Christ died for the ungodly."

This verse also means that Christ died in due time as to every
Believer. In God's Book of Remembrance there is no claim for late
payment or delay against any believing sinner. There is no note, there,
saying, "This sinner's Surety died late." No, but when Justice demanded
the debt, Justice received full payment from those dear hands that were
nailed to the Cross for me. "In due time Christ died for the ungodly."
It was the time appointed in the eternal decree. It was the time
arranged in the everlasting counsels of Grace–and Christ was there to
the tick of the clock. He went up to the Cross on the day when it was
agreed that He would finish transgression and make an end of sin–and
bring in everlasting righteousness! He made Atonement–He died for the
ungodly, "in due time."

Well, now, do you see what I am driving at? You need help, you say, you
need deliverance. Very well. The greatest help that you ever needed was
for someone to stand and be a Daysman for you–and to pay your debts to
Infinite Justice and your Lord did it–and did it in the nick of time!
"In due time." Will He not, therefore, deliver you in due time?

Besides, He has given you patience–"Tribulation works patience." He
will help you before you have done with your patience. "I cannot hold
out much longer," says one. You shall not have any need to hold out
much longer! The Lord is on the way to deliver you and before your
stock of Grace-worked patience shall quite have run out, He will come
to you!

Read the next word–"And patience, experience." Your experience, as
long as ever it will profit you, will be painful. But when it is no
longer an experience that will do you good, it will not be painful.
Remember how Paul writes in this same Epistle, "We know that all things
work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the
called according to His purpose." And if He has called you, He will let
you suffer as long as the experience of the suffering will work for
your good, but no longer! In due time He will bring you out of that
trying experience.

And He will bring you out before your hope gets to be ashamed. Read
those words again–"And experience, hope: and hope makes not ashamed."
The Lord will not let your trouble go so far that you will have to say,
"I was deceived; I must give up being a Christian." God will not leave
you in the hour of need. He will help you in due time, before your
expiring hope quite gives up the ghost. Be of good courage about that!

And He will come and help you while your love yet remains. Did I not
hear you say, "Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him. He may flog
me; but I am still His child, and I love Him, and I will kiss His hand,
and His rod, too"? Well, well, if that is your language, He must come
to help You in due time! He must deliver you before that love is driven
out of your heart.

Yes, and let me say that while you are now without strength, He who
died for you while you were without strength in the fullest sense, will
come and help you. I thank God, tonight, as I have done many a time
before, for being brought into great straits. Sometimes it has been
very plain sailing for years. I remember once saying to myself, "Well,
in former days, in the great needs for the College and the Orphanage, I
have experienced wonderful miracles of deliverance. Then I seemed to
step, like a giant, from the top of one mountain to another, right over
the valleys! And now I go along the valleys gently and simply." I have
half wished to see another lofty mountain and another yawning chasm
open, that I might see what God would do–and I have had them! During
the last two years, though I have said little about them, I have had
many a crevasse open up before me. The ice has seemed to split asunder
and I have looked down into the blue depths. But I have gone on just as
steadily and God, in His mercy, has made the way just as easy as if my
path had all been as smooth as a lawn after the garden roller had been
over it! It is a glorious thing to have a big trouble, a great Atlantic
billow that takes you off your feet and sweeps you right out to
sea–and lets you sink down into the depths, into old ocean's lowest
caverns, till you get to the foundations of the mountains–and there
see God and then come up again to tell what a great God He is and how
graciously He delivers His people! He will deliver you, He must deliver
you! The argument of the text is this, "In due time Christ died for the
ungodly," therefore, in due time He must help the godly.

Now I finish with two observations. First, the Gospel of sinners is the
comfort of saints. If ever you saints need a bit of real comfort, you
must just go to God as sinners. I do not think that there is anything
better or wiser, whenever you really need to be solidly cheered, than
to begin, again, where you began at first. When the devil says to me,
"You are no saint," I say to him, "Nor are you, either." "Ah!" he says,
"You are a deceiver," and I reply, "And so are you." "Ah!" he says,
"But you are mistaken, your experience has been a delusion, you are no
child of God." "What am I, then? Tell me, if you know so much about
me." "You are a sinner," he says. "All right, Satan! I thank you for
that word, for Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners." So I
begin again–and if you begin again like that, you will very often find
that this is a short cut to comfort. If it comes to a question between
the devil and you whether you are a saint or not, you will have a hard
battle to fight, let me tell you.

One of you may say, "I know that I am a saint." Well, well, well, "let
another man praise you, and not your own mouth; a stranger, and not
your own lips." "Oh, but I know," says one. Very well, go on knowing
it, but if the devil once gets you in the sieve in which he had Peter,
I question whether you will know your head from your heels! Under a
strong temptation you will very soon begin, almost, to doubt your own
existence! Instead of arguing the question of your saintship with
Satan, who is an old lawyer and knows many things that you do not know,
you had better say, "Whether I am a saint or not, I am not going to
dispute. But I am a sinner and Jesus Christ came into the world to save
sinners."

Believer, when you were a boy, you used to drink at a certain old well.
How cold the water was, how refreshing! When you feel very thirsty and
the pumps are dry, go back to the old well, and got a draught of the
Living Water there. I find that I have to do that every now and then.
While I thank God for present enjoyments and sweet experiences of
communion with Himself, I like to go back to the old well, and just
drink as I drank at the first. I remember how I did drink the first
time from that well, "Look unto Me, and be you saved, all you ends of
the earth." I think I drank so much that time that I was like behemoth
who trusts that he can draw up Jordan into his mouth! There was much in
that text, but

there was none too much for me, and I seemed to drink it all in. I
recommend you to do the same–take a great draught of the Grace of God,
tonight, thirsty child of God! Stoop down, with your mouth right over
the well, for the Living Water comes springing straight up to your
lips! And then drink as a cow drinks in the summertime, all that you
can take in–and go on your way rejoicing!

The Gospel of sinners is the comfort of saints! That is one
observation, and the other is this–the comfort of saints is the Gospel
of sinners, for, if the Lord has done great things for any one of His
people, what reason is there, poor Sinner, why He should not do the
same for you? If the Lord Jesus Christ has loved John Smith, why should
He not love Mary Smith. And if the Lord Jesus Christ has saved Tom
Jones, why should He not save Harry Jones? I mean that since He does
not love because of any worthiness in us, but simply because He wills
to love us, as it is written, "I will have mercy on whom I will have
mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion," then
you may come, you guilty ones, to this Sovereign Dispenser of
undeserved mercy and touch the silver scepter of His Grace and be saved
tonight!

May His sweet Spirit bring you! Do not let any of us raise a question
about whether we are saints or sinners, but let us all come
together–let us come en masse to the Cross! Let the whole of us now
fly to Calvary and stand and look up to Him, the eternal Son of God,
bleeding and dying on the Cross! And let us all believe, now, that He
can, that He will, that He does save, no, that He has saved our souls.
God grant us Grace to do it, for His dear name's sake! Amen.

EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: ROMANS5.

Verse 1. Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God–It
is a matter of present possession and present enjoyment. Whatever
tribulation there may be in the world, "we have peace with God."
Blessed be God for that glorious fact! We may not have peace with all
men, though we would seek to have that, but, "we have peace with God."

1, 2. Through our Lord Jesus Christ: by whom, also, we have access by
faith into this Grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the
Glory of God. So we ascend this golden ladder, from faith to peace,
from peace to access with God, and from this to joy by the way of hope.
Happy people, who know this blessed way of climbing out of the sorrows
of the present into the Glory that shall be revealed!

3. And not only so, but we glory in tribulations, also. Present trials
even become subjects for thanksgiving. Surely, they have lost their
sting when patience accepts them and faith rejoices in them.

3-5. Knowing that tribulation works patience; and patience experience,
and experience hope: and hope makes not ashamed; because the love of
God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given unto
us. Like a sweet perfume which enters every room and fills every nook
and cranny in the house, so does the delightful love of God fill the
entire soul when, by the Holy Spirit, it is shed abroad in the heart.
Beloved, may you feel that blessed influence this evening! This next
verse may help us to love God and to feel the love of God shed abroad
in our hearts.

6. For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for
the ungodly. He did not regard us as saints, but as actually ungodly
when He died for our redemption! It was not man's righteousness that
brought Christ from Heaven, but man's sin and the infinite pity of God.

7. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die. Though he were as
just as Aristides, though he were renowned for justice, nobody would
die for him. There is no such attraction in the virtue as would win
anyone's love so as to die for the man who displays it.

7. Yet perhaps for a good man some would even dare to die. For a
benevolent, large-hearted, kindly-disposed man, some might dare to die.
Such a thing is not likely, but it is possible.

8. But God commends His love toward us, in that while we were yet
sinners, Christ died for us. We were without any attraction, without
any righteousness, without any goodness, yet Christ loved us! Out of
the graciousness of His own heart He loved us, according to that text,
"I will love them freely."

9. Much more, then. See how the Apostle, when he had uttered a great
Truth of God, proceeds to say something greater, still. Just before, he
had written, "And not only so," and now he says, "Much more, then."

9. Being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath
through Him. If Christ died for us when we were sinners, will He not
save us now that He has made us saints? If, when we were condemned, He
redeemed us, will He not preserve us, now that we are justified? This
is a strong plea for the final perseverance and ultimate salvation of
all Believers.

10. 11. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the
death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His
life. And not only so. The Apostle is again up on the wings–he cannot
fly high enough to describe all Christ's work. "And not only so,"

11. But we, also, joy in God–That is a delightful experience, joying
in God, Himself–in the very Character and Person of God! So perfectly
reconciled are we that not only do we rejoice in God's gifts, and in
His mercy, but we swim in a sea of delight in God, Himself–"We, also,
joy in God"–

11. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the
Atonement. Now comes an admonition.

12. Therefore, as by one man, sin entered into the world, and death by
sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.
Sinned, that is, in the first man.

13. 14. (For until the Law, sin was in the world, but sin is not
imputed when there is no Law. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to
Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of
Adam's transgression, who is the figure of Him that was to come. I
suppose that Paul refers even to little children who "had not sinned
after the similitude of Adam's transgression," and yet died as the
result of Adam's sin.

15-20. But not as the offense, so also is the free gift. For if through
the offense of one many are dead, much more the Grace of God, and the
gift by Grace, which is by one Man, Jesus Christ, has abounded unto
many. And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift: for the
judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many
offenses unto justification. For if by one man's offense death reigned
by one: much more they which receive abundance of Grace and of the gift
of righteousness shall reign in life by One, Jesus Christ). Therefore
as by the offense of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation;
even so by the righteousness of One, the free gift came upon all men
unto Justification of life. For as by one man's disobedience many were
made sinners, so by the obedience of One shall many be made righteous.
Moreover the Law entered, that the offense might abound. Just as,
sometimes, a physician may give a medicine which causes the disease to
be more fully developed in order to its ultimate cure, so does the Law
of God make a discovery of our sin to us. And it also excites us to
greater sin, by reason of the enmity of our nature which is opposed to
the Law of God, and becomes the more active the more clearly the Law is
known, even as Paul says, further on in this Epistle, "I had not known
lust, except the Law had said, You shall not covet."

20, 21. But where sin abounded, Grace did much more abound: that as sin
has reigned unto death, even so might Grace reign through righteousness
unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. Blessed be His holy name!
Amen.