This Man Receives Sinners!

by Dwight L. Moody

The kings and princes of this world, when they issue invitations, call round them the rich, the mighty and powerful, the honorable and the wise; but the Lord, when He was on earth, called round Him the vilest of the vile. 

“This man,” they said, “receives sinners, and eats with them.” Luke 15:2 
Publicans, sinners, and prostitutes pressed into the kingdom of God in His days. 

Here in London there is no society that would have such a man as John Bunyan once was in their company; yet the Lord saved him, and welcomed him into His kingdom. Here is some poor miserable drunkard cast out by his father and mother, and deserted by all his friends, but the Lord has received him. I have known some of the most miserable outcasts that were ever seen, cast out and despised by everybody, and yet the Lord has received them. Take Him then at His word to-day, and accept His invitation, “Him that comes to Me I will not cast out.

But you say I must just get rid of my sins first, and then I will come to Him. Why, that’s just like a man dying of the scarlet fever saying, “Oh, I’ll wait till I get rid of the fever before I send for a doctor!” Why, it is just because you are a sinner, and cannot get rid of your sins, that you need a Saviour. If I was dying for want of bread, it would be just as reasonable for me to say, “When I have got rid of this hunger, then I will begin to eat.” It is because I am hungry that I need to eat, and it is because we are sinners that we need Christ. It is because a man is sick that he needs a physician, and Christ is the Physician of the soul.