The Spurgeon Series 1859 & 1860. Charles H. Spurgeon

salvation with him, that he may be feared. The fountain is filled to the brim; the granaries are full of the good old grain of the kingdom. There is no reason why we should perish. By sure, infallible, and certain witness, we are told upon the very oath of God himself, that there is salvation for the sons of men. But Jacob did not know how much grain there was in Egypt. He said there was grain, but he did not know how much. Now, today, we are something like Jacob. There is mercy with God; we do not know, any of us, how much. “Oh,” one sinner says, “I am such a hungry soul, that all the granaries of Egypt would not be enough for me.” Ah, but, poor soul, God is all that you could want, even though you should want an infinite supply. The sixty-six in the family of Jacob would make a heavy draw upon the granaries of any nation; but yet, so abundant were the storehouses in every city, that we do not read that Joseph missed all that he gave them. So it is with you. Your necessities are immense, but nothing equal to the supply. Your soul requires great mercy, but you will no more exhaust the mercy of God than the taking a cup full of water out of the sea would exhaust its fulness. High above the summits of your mountain sins the stars of grace are shining.

      13. There is another thing which would have surprised Jacob. Jacob knew there was grain in Egypt, but did not know who had the keeping of it. If he had known that, he would have said, “My sons, go down at once to Egypt, do not be at all afraid, your brother is lord of Egypt, and all the grain belongs to him.” Indeed, I can readily imagine that he would have gone himself immediately. And Simeon and the rest though they might feel a little abashed, when they thought of the unkindness that they had shown to their brother, when they began to feel a little hungry, if they had known all about Joseph, would have said, “We do not need fear to go and submit ourselves to him, for we know he has a gracious and loving heart, and would never let his poor brothers die of hunger.” Sinner, the mercies of God are under no lock and key except those over which Christ has the power. The granaries of heaven’s mercy have no steward to keep them except Christ. He is exalted on high to give repentance and remission of sins. And the keys of grace are swinging on the belt of your own brother; he who died for you, he who loved you so much, that he loved you better than he did himself. He has the keys of grace, and will you fear to go? Will you tremble to go to these rich stores of mercy when they are in the hands of a loving, tender, and ever gracious Lord? No, this is good news, that all the grace is in the hands of Jesus.

      14. There is yet another thing which the sons of Jacob knew nothing about. When they went to Egypt, they went in hope. If they knew there was grain, they were not sure they would get it. But when you and I go to Christ, we are invited guests. Suppose now you should have it in your heart to invite some of the poorest people of London to your house; you give to each of them an invitation, and they come to the door, perhaps they are half ashamed to come in, and want to steal around the back way; but if they should meet you, they are not at all abashed, they say, “Sir, I was not afraid to come, because you sent me an invitation. If it had not been for that, although I might have known your generosity, although I might have known you could afford to help me, I would not have dared to come if you had not sent me an invitation.” Now Joseph had sent no invitation to his brothers; but Jesus has sent an invitation to you. To each of you who are perishing sinners he has said, “Whoever will, let him come and take of the water of life freely.” He has said himself, “He who comes to me I will in no wise cast out.” He has sent his messengers and bidden them cry, “Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters, and he who has no money; come, buy, and eat, yes, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.” Now, sinner, you need never be afraid to go where you are invited. Christ Jesus invites; he invites the hungry, he invites the weary. Such are you — both hungry and weary. He invites the heavy laden — such are you. Come and welcome, then. You need not go without hope, you have the invitation and the promise. Why then do you look at one another? Arise and come to Christ; arise and come to his cross. May he now prove in you his power to save!

      15. But one other remark, and I will be finished with this second point. The sons of Jacob were in one respect better off than you are apparently, for they had money with which to buy. Jacob was not a poor man in respect to wealth, although he had now become exceedingly poor from lack of bread. His sons had money to take with them. Glittering bars of gold they thought must surely attract the notice of the ruler of Egypt. You have no money, nothing to bring to Christ, nothing to offer him. You offered him something once, but he rejected all you offered him as being spurious coin, imitations, counterfeits, and good for nothing. And now utterly stripped, hopeless, penniless, you say you are afraid to go to Christ because you have nothing of your own. Let me assure you that you are never in so fit a condition to go to Christ as when you have nowhere else to go to, and have nothing of your own. But you reply, “I should like at least to feel my need more.” That would be something of your own — you must go to Christ with nothing. “But I wish I could believe more.” That would be something of your own. You want to get your own faith to bring to Christ. No; you must go to Christ just as you are. “But sir, I must reform myself before I can believe that Christ will have mercy upon me.” Your fancied reformation would make you unfit for grace, rather than prepare you for it. Reformation before grace is frequently a step backward instead of forward. That reformation may confirm you in self-righteousness, but it cannot bring you to Christ. Go as you are. At a hospital, the best recommendation is sickness. He who is a little sick needs some help to get him there, but let me be run over in the street, and nearly dead, and I need nothing to recommend me to the hospital — the door flies open, and I am immediately brought in. So a condition of your lost and ruined state is the only recommendation you need in going to Christ. Just now a lot of people want to bestow their charity, and they do not know how to find the lowest class of the poor; they want to lay hold of those whose beds are made of straw; they desire to gain knowledge of those low lodging places of the very poor, which are worse than the places that beasts inhabit. These are the men they want to find; and the greater the poverty the more recommendation. So in your case. Your woes plead with God. Your wants, your misery, your helplessness, your ill deserts, these are the orators that move the heart of God towards you, but nothing else. Come just as you are, with nothing in your hand, to Jesus Christ, who is Lord over the land of mercy, and will not send you away empty.

      16. III. Thus I have discussed the good news as well as the pitiful plight. I come now to the third part, which is GOOD ADVICE. Jacob asks, “Why do you look at one another?” And he said, “Behold, I have heard that there is grain in Egypt: go down there, and buy for us from there; that we may live, and not die.” This is very practical advice. I wish people would act the same with religion as they do in temporal affairs. Jacob’s sons did not say, “Well, that is very good news; I believe it,” and then sit still and die. No, they went immediately to the place where the good news told them that they could get grain. So should it be in matters of religion. We should not be content merely to hear the tidings, but we should never be satisfied until by divine grace we have availed ourselves of them, and have found mercy in Christ. Some ministers do in fact tell poor awakened sinners to be inactive; they say to them something like this — “You must wait, you must wait until Christ comes to you.” They will even dissuade the woman who had an issue of blood, from pushing through the crowd to lay hold upon the hem of the Redeemer’s garment. They would bid the man who is crying aloud by the wayside to hold his tongue; to sit still quietly until Christ should turn and look upon him. They cannot endure that Christ Jesus should invite men to his feast, much less that the servants of the Lord should endeavour to compel them to come in. They excuse the sinner and even dare to teach that the rejection of Christ by the sinner, is no sin at all. Now, as in the sight of God, I do fear such men are guilty of the blood of souls. I would not stand in the position of a man who talks like that for all the stars twice reckoned up in gold. I cannot understand that; I cannot understand that when my Master said, “Do not labour for the food which perishes, but for that food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give to you: because God the Father has set his seal on him,” that I am to tell a sinner to sit still. When the angel said, “Escape for your life; do not look behind you; do not stay at all in the plain; but flee to the mountain, lest you be consumed,” am I to go to Sodom, and say to Lot, “Stay here until the Lord brings you out?” Why, we know, for a certainty, that salvation is the Lord’s work, and the Lord’s work alone; but we equally know for a certainty, that when the Lord works,