I am afraid that he is a hopeless case. By Charles Spurgeon

1 Timothy 1 verse 15

Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the worst.

I thank God that most of the people in this church are actively engaged in soul winning. Brethren, when you go out to evangelize this afternoon, launch into the deep and let down your nets for a catch. Let not this day pass over your heads until you have lovingly sought to introduce to the Savior someone who has been a stranger to Him. Do not allow any thoughts about the character of the person you are brought in contact with to dampen your ardor.

Do you say of some especially vile sinner? I am afraid that he is a hopeless case. My dear brother, look unto the rock from whence you were hewn and to the hole of the pit from whence you were dug. Where is that sinner? I will tell you. He is exactly where the whole human race is by nature. What kind of a sinner is he? If you turn to Romans 3, you will see the photograph of the man you are intending to evangelize. 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. That poor sinner is just where all other lost sinners are. He is without any goodness. The imagination of the thoughts of his heart are evil, only evil, and that continually. There is nothing in the individual that you are sent to this afternoon that is at all unusual. He is just in the same fallen state where our father Adam left him. was born in the same corruption, and there is the same evil in his heart, no more, no less.

And therefore you must go to him with this upon your mind. Recollect, too, that the lost sinner is where you once were. You look down and see him in a horrible pit. It looks a long way down, and the pit is full of mud and mire and filth. He is not deeper down than you once were. At least the sinner who is further gone than I was must be an extraordinary one. Though not in outward actions, yet in my inward soul I was as far from God as a man could be who is not actually in hell. And yet His grace has saved me. Since the Lord saved me, I never despair of anyone's salvation. I think there are some of you who in past times were given to horrible vices and sins, and yet the Lord saved you. I am sure when you go out to talk to sinners that are now what you once were, you may very well feel, the Lord who saved me can save them. The gospel that came with power to my soul can come with power to their souls, and therefore I will go to them remembering the hole of the pit from whence I was dug and feel encouraged concerning them.

Remember again that that poor sinner whose soul you are going to seek this afternoon is where the best and brightest of the saints once were. Peter was there, Paul was there, they were all under the same condemnation. By nature they were all heirs of wrath, such as those sinners are, who you will shortly talk to. In all the glorious company of the apostles, the noble army of the martyrs, and the goodly fellowship of the prophets, there was never one who was not born in sin and at enmity with God. All alike needed the omnipotent Christ to put forth His strength, or else none of them could have ever been saved.

Recollect that the sinner you are going to speak with this afternoon, perhaps a drunkard in the street, is today, where those that are in heaven once were. Their robes are pure white, for they washed them in the blood of the Lamb. They are now without fault, but they were once under condemnation. There is nothing to prevent the Lord from taking the drunkard, the blasphemer, the adulterer, yes, and the murderer, and washing them in the fountain that is open for sin and impurity, and robing them in the immaculate garment of Christ's perfect righteousness, and taking their place among the heavenly host at the right hand of the eternal throne.

so be encouraged. And if you ever despair of any, then look to the rock from whence you were hewn, and the hole of the pit from whence you were dug.

" Of all the saints that ever were saved, there was nothing in their human nature, physical or mental, that aided their salvation. Absolutely nothing. Some of them were more moral than others, but still their whole head was sick and their whole heart was faint. They were all lost, utterly lost, utterly undone, hastening down the broad way that leads to eternal destruction. It was the work of the Holy Spirit that saved them in every case, and of the Spirit alone.

On the other hand, in no soul has there ever been found any atrocious evil which has been able to defeat the Spirit of God when He has put forth His omnipotence. It is impossible to conceive of anything or anyone that can resist the Spirit of God when He operates on the heart with saving purpose and with power. His ordinary ministrations are always resisted, and effectually too. But when He puts forth His might to quicken the dead sinner, in that regenerating operation He works omnipotently, and none are able to stand against Him.

In the case of every soul that was ever saved, God's motive was to magnify His sovereign grace. He saved the man, not because he deserved it, not because it would be any advantage to God to save him, but simply because He delights in mercy and He has put it on record. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.

In what seems to be a hopeless case to us, there is the same omnipotence of divine grace, which the Spirit can put forth to effectually save him. And when the man is deeply sunk in sin, it will glorify the mercy of God all the more, to save such a one as him. Therefore, I would rather expect that a particularly vile man be saved than a more moral man. I would go with confidence to the chief of sinners, preach to him the Savior, Christ the Lord, and bid him look to him, and I would hope that God would bless that word to him, even though he had become so soaked in sin and so vile in corruption.