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Sinners are all around us living in their sins. Some of these wandering ones are in great misery every day, as the result of their sins; and all, whether suffering or not, are robbing God of glory, and Christ of reward. Moreover, sinners are dying; every hour hurries a company of them into eternity.

I. WHO ARE TO TEACH TRANSGRESSORS THAT THEY MAY BE CONVERTED UNTO GOD? The reply is easy.

1. Pardoned sinners, go and publish the story of what God's grace has done for you. You are the men, and none others in the world, who can tell it to advantage. Tell it with the hope that your fellow-men will hear it and live.

2. While, however, all pardoned sinners ought to do this, we should remember that we are fittest for the doing of it when we are full of the joy of God's salvation. Notice the prayer — "Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation. Then will I teach transgressors Thy ways." While we believe in the joy of the Lord we shall not come to sinners with "ifs" and "buts," but with a faith which will, by God's grace, help them also to believe.

3. To prepare us to win souls, we must have the Holy Spirit resting upon us, for the text says, "Uphold me with Thy free Spirit." O, pray for a revival in your own souls. Beseech the Holy Spirit to come upon you.

4. If we would bear good testimony for God to the conversion of souls, we must by the Spirit of God be upheld in consistency of life, "Uphold me with Thy free Spirit." If you are inconsistent in your own daily lives, how can you hope to be useful to others? "Actions speak louder than words." If we speak to men upon the evil of sin, and yet indulge in it, what can they infer from our conduct?

II. WHAT THE BELIEVER OUGHT TO AIM AT IN HIS WORK WITH SOULS.

1. Our great aim is conversion — the conversion of transgressors. Their conversion; not reformation merely. It is a good thing to improve a man by reforming him; he is all the better for being sober, honest and industrious. Let us help them if we can, but it is a side issue; our business is a more radical one, the laying of the axe to the root of the tree by the change of the nature. Our object is more lasting; we have to do with immortal souls and their eternal future. Be content with nothing short of the conversion of men. But it must be their conversion to God. "Sinners shall be converted unto Thee."

2. This work is to be accomplished by teaching. "Then will I teach," etc. All the earnestness possible should go with the teaching, but there must be sound doctrine, real instruction, solemn truth made known; for it is by such means that sinners will be converted to God.

3. The most important teaching is that which dwells upon the Lord's ways — God's way of punishing sin, God's way of forgiving sin, God's way of mercy through a sacrifice, God's way of pardon through faith in Jesus; God's ways of wounding, and healing; God's ways of sending forth the Eternal Spirit, and working as He wills among the sons of men, neither waiting for man nor tarrying for the sons of men.

III. WHY WE SHOULD SEEK THE CONVERSION OF SINNERS.

1. Because it will save us from many ills. I believe that the not seeking to win souls brings many spiritual maladies upon Christians. For our own sakes, lest the canker get into our gold, and the rust into our silver, use it for doing good; yea, by all means, seek the souls of men for God. Some evil will befall you if you keep the Gospel to yourselves.

2. It will greatly add to your joy. Who does not like to be the hearer of good news? The pleasant tale of redeeming grace and dying love, the pleasant story of a Saviour who came from heaven to earth, to lift us up from earth to heaven, the story of our own conversion, the story of God's goodness since our conversion — why, it must be delightful to tell it. And when you have spoken for Jesus, if you succeed in converting a sinner to God, then comes the pleasure. We will get out of these selfish motives into something higher.

3. Unless you tell abroad the Gospel, how will you prove the sincerity of your prayers? "Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven." How can it be, if you never try to speak a word for Jesus, and never seek to bring new subjects into His kingdom? Our prayers — what can they be but hypocritical, if they are not supported by your actions?

4. Again, what proof is there of the sincerity of your love to Christy "Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou Me?" Do you answer, "Yea, Lord; Thou knowest that I love Thee"? Here, then, is the proof which He demands — "Feed My sheep. Feed My lambs. Distribute unto others the heavenly food which you receive from Me. What I tell you in the ear that speak ye upon the housetops." Abundantly yield to your Lord this proof of your affection.

IV. HOW, THEN, ARE WE TO TEACH TRANSGRESSORS GOD'S WAYS, that sinners may be converted unto God? I would say to you, "Wait upon the Lord, for direction." But one of the directions you need not wait for is this, "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might." Some of you who could not speak, at least not to many, can assist those who do.

( C. H. Spurgeon.)

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KJV: Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion: build thou the walls of Jerusalem.

WEB: Do well in your good pleasure to Zion. Build the walls of Jerusalem.