will be saved from being a drunkard; but if he determines still to make
himself intoxicated, he is not saved from it, and he has not truly
believed in Jesus. A liar can by faith be saved from falsehood, but
then he leaves off lying, and is careful to speak the truth. Anyone can
see with half an eye that he cannot be saved from being a liar, and
yet go on in his old style of deceit and untruthfulness. A person who
is at enmity with another will be saved from that feeling of enmity
by believing in the Lord Jesus; but if he vows that he will still
cherish the feeling of hate, it is clear that he is not saved from
it, and equally clear that he has not believed in the Lord Jesus unto
salvation. The great matter is to be delivered from the love of sin:
this is the sure effect of trust in the Saviour; but if this effect is
so far from being desired that it is even refused, all talk of trusting
in the Saviour for salvation is an idle tale. A man goes to the
shipping-office, and asks if he can be taken to America. He is assured
that a ship is just ready, and that he has only to go on board, and he
will soon reach New York. "But," says he, "I want to stop at home in
England, and mind my shop all the time I am crossing the Atlantic."
The agent thinks he is talking to a madman, and tells him to go about
his business, and not waste his time by playing the fool. To pretend
to trust Christ to save you from sin while you are still determined to
continue in it, is making a mock of Christ. I pray my reader not to be
guilty of such profanity. Let him not dream that the holy Jesus will be
the patron of iniquity.
[Illustration]
Do you see the tree in my picture? The ivy has grown all over it, and
is strangling it, sucking out its life, and killing it. Can that tree
be saved? The gardener thinks it can be. He is willing to do his best.
But before he begins to use his axe and his knife, he is told that he
must not cut away the ivy. "Ah! then," he says, "it is impossible. It
is the ivy which is killing the tree, and if you want the tree saved,
you cannot save the ivy. If you trust me to preserve the tree, you must
let me get the deadly climber away from it." Is not that common sense?
Certainly it is. You do not trust the tree to the gardener unless you
trust him to cut away that which is deadly to it. If the sinner will
keep his sin, he must die in it; if he is willing to be rescued from
his sin, the Lord Jesus is able to do it, and will do it if he commits
his case to his care.
What, then, is your darling sin? Is it any gross wrong-doing? Then very
shame should make you cease from it. Is it love of the world, or fear
of men, or longing for evil gains? Surely, none of these things should
reconcile you to living in enmity with God, and beneath his frown. Is
it a human love, which is eating like a canker into the heart? Can any
creature rival the Lord Jesus? Is it not idolatry to allow any earthly
thing to compare for one instant with the Lord God? "Well," saith one,
"for me to give up the particular sin by which I am held captive, would
be to my serious injury in business, would ruin my prospects, and
lessen my usefulness in many ways." If it be so, you have your case met
by the words of the Lord Jesus, who bids you to pluck out your eye,
and cut off your hand or foot, and cast it from you, rather than be
cast into hell. It is better to enter into life with one eye, with the
poorest prospects, than to keep all your hopes, and be out of Christ.
Better be a lame believer than a leaping sinner. Better be in the rear
rank for life in the army of Christ than lead the van and be a chief
officer under the command of Satan. If you win Christ, it will little
matter what you lose. No doubt many have had to suffer that which has
maimed and lamed them for this life; but if they have entered thereby
into eternal life, they have been great gainers.
It comes to this, my friend, as it did with John Bunyan; a voice now
speaks to you, and says--
WILT THOU KEEP THY SIN AND GO TO HELL?
OR
LEAVE THY SIN AND GO TO HEAVEN?
The point should be decided before you quit the spot. In the name
of God, I ask you, Which shall it be--Christ and salvation, or the
favourite sin and damnation? There is no middle course. Waiting or
refusing to decide will practically be a sure decision for the evil
one. He that stands questioning whether he will be honest or not, is
already out of the straight line: he that does not know whether he
wishes to be cleansed from sin gives evidence of a foul heart.
If you are anxious to give up every evil way, our Lord Jesus will
enable you to do so at once. His grace has already changed the
direction of your desires: in fact, your heart is renewed. Therefore,
rest on him to strengthen you to battle with temptations as they arise,
and to fulfil the Lord's commands from day to day. The Lord Jesus is
great at making the lame man to leap like a hart, and in enabling those
who are sick of the palsy to take up their bed and walk. He will make
you able to conquer the evil habit. He will even cast the devil out of
you. Yes, if you had seven devils, he could drive them out at once;
there is no limit to his power to cleanse and sanctify. Now that you
are willing to be made whole, the great difficulty is removed. He that
has set the will right can arrange all your other powers, and make them
move to his praise. You would not have earnestly desired to quit all
sin if he had not secretly inclined you in that direction. If you now
trust him, it will be clear that he has begun a good work in you, and
we feel assured that he will carry it on.
[Illustration]
ON RAISING QUESTIONS.
In these days, a simple, childlike faith is very rare; but the usual
thing is to believe nothing, and question everything. Doubts are as
plentiful as blackberries, and all hands and lips are stained with
them. To me it seems very strange that men should hunt up difficulties
as to their own salvation. If I were doomed to die, and I had a hint of
mercy, I am sure I should not set my wits to work to find out reasons
why I should not be pardoned. I could leave my enemies to do that: I
should be on the look-out in a very different direction. If I were
drowning, I should sooner catch at a straw than push a life-belt away
from me. To reason against one's own life is a sort of constructive
suicide of which only a drunken man would be guilty. To argue against
your only hope is like a foolish man sitting on a bough, and chopping
it away so as to let himself down. Who but an idiot would do that?
Yet many appear to be special pleaders for their own ruin. They hunt
the Bible through for threatening texts; and when they have done with
that, they turn to reason, and philosophy, and scepticism, in order to
shut the door in their own faces. Surely this is poor employment for a
sensible man.
[Illustration]
Many nowadays who cannot quite get away from religious thought, are
able to stave off the inconvenient pressure of conscience by quibbling
over the great truths of revelation. Great mysteries are in the Book
of God of necessity; for how can the infinite God so speak that all his
thoughts can be grasped by finite man? But it is the height of folly
to get discussing these deep things, and to leave plain, soul-saving
truths in abeyance. It reminds one of the two philosophers who debated
about food, and went away empty from the table, while the common
countryman in the corner asked no question, but used his knife and fork
with great diligence, and went on his way rejoicing. Thousands are now
happy in the Lord through receiving the gospel like little children;
while others, who can always see difficulties, or invent them, are as
far off as ever from any comfortable hope of salvation. I know many
very decent people who seem to have resolved never to come to Christ
till they can understand how the doctrine of election is consistent
with the free invitations of the gospel. I might just as well determine
never to eat a morsel of bread till it has been explained to me how it
is that God keeps me alive, and yet I must eat to live. The fact is,
that we most of us _know_ quite enough already, and the real want with
us is not light in the head, but truth in the heart; not help over
difficulties, but grace to make us hate sin and seek reconciliation.
[Illustration]
Here let me add a warning against tampering with the Word of God.
No habit can be more ruinous to the soul. It is cool, contemptuous
impertinence to sit down and correct your Maker, and it tends to make
the heart harder than the nether millstone. We remember one who used
a penknife on his Bible, and it was not long before he had given up
all his former beliefs. The spirit of reverence is healthy, but the
impertinence of criticizing the inspired Word is destructive of all
proper feeling towards God.
If ever a man does feel his need of a Saviour after treating Scripture
with a proud, critical spirit, he is very apt to find his conscience
standing in the way, and hindering him from comfort by reminding
him of ill-treatment of the sacred Word. It comes hard to him to
draw consolation out of passages of the Bible which he has treated
cavalierly, or even set aside altogether, as unworthy of consideration.
In his distress the sacred texts seem to laugh at his calamity. When
the time of need comes, the wells which he stopped with stones yield no
water for his thirst. Beware, when you despise a Scripture, lest you
cast away the only friend that can help you in the hour of agony.
[Illustration]
A certain German duke was accustomed to call upon his servant to read a
chapter of the Bible to him every morning. When anything did not square
with his judgment he would sternly cry, "Hans, strike that out." At
length Hans was a long time before he began to read. He fumbled over
the Book, till his master called out, "Hans, why do you not read?" Then
Hans answered, "Sir, there is hardly anything left. It is all struck
out!" One day his master's objections had run one way, and another
day they had taken another turn, and another set of passages had been
blotted, till nothing was left to instruct or comfort him. Let us not,
by carping criticism, destroy our own mercies. We may yet need those
promises which appear needless; and those portions of Holy Writ which
have been most assailed by sceptics may yet prove essential to our very
life: wherefore let us guard the priceless treasure of the Bible, and
determine never to resign a single line of it.
What have we to do with recondite questions while our souls are in
peril? The way to escape from sin is plain enough. The wayfaring man,
though a fool, shall not err therein. God has not mocked us with a
salvation which we cannot understand. BELIEVE AND LIVE is a command
which a babe may comprehend and obey.
Doubt no more, but now believe;
Question not, but just receive.
Artful doubts and reasonings be
Nailed with Jesus to the tree.
Instead of cavilling at Scripture, the man who is led of the Spirit of
God will close in with the Lord Jesus at once. Seeing that thousands of
decent, common-sense people--people, too, of the best character--are
trusting their all with Jesus, he will do the same, and have done with
further delays. Then has he begun a life worth living, and he may have
done with further fear. He may at once advance to that higher and
better way of living, which grows out of love to Jesus, the Saviour.
Why should not the reader do so at once? Oh that he would!
[Illustration]
A Newark, New Jersey, butcher received a letter from his old home in
Germany, notifying that he had, by the death of a relative, fallen
heir to a considerable amount of money. He was cutting up a pig at the
time. After reading the letter, he hastily tore off his dirty apron,
and did not stop to see the pork cut up into sausages, but left the
shop to make preparations for going home to Germany. Do you blame him,
or would you have had him stop in Newark with his block and his cleaver?
See here the operation of faith. The butcher believed what was told
him, and acted on it at once. Sensible fellow, too!
God has sent his messages to man, telling him the good news of
salvation. When a man believes the good news to be true, he accepts the
blessing announced to him, and hastens to lay hold upon it. If he truly
believes, he will at once take Christ, with all he has to bestow, turn
from his present evil ways, and set out for the Heavenly City, where
the full blessing is to be enjoyed. He cannot be holy too soon, or too
early quit the ways of sin. If a man could really see what sin is, he
would flee from it as from a deadly serpent, and rejoice to be freed
from it by Christ Jesus.
[Illustration]
WITHOUT FAITH NO SALVATION.
Some think it hard that there should be nothing for them but ruin if
they will not believe in Jesus Christ; but if you will think for a
minute you will see that it is just and reasonable. I suppose there is
no way for a man to keep his strength up except by eating. If you were
to say, "I will not eat again, I despise such animalism," you might go
to Madeira, or travel in all lands (supposing you lived long enough!),
but you would most certainly find that no climate and no exercise would
avail to keep you alive if you refused food. Would you then complain,
"It is a hard thing that I should die because I do not believe in
eating"? It is not an unjust thing that if you are so foolish as not
to eat, you must die. It is precisely so with believing. "Believe, and
thou art saved." If thou wilt not believe, it is no hard thing that
thou shouldst be lost. It would be strange indeed if it were not to be
the case.
A man who is thirsty stands before a fountain. "No," he says, "I
will never touch a drop of moisture as long as I live. Cannot I get
my thirst quenched in my own way?" We tell him, no; he must drink
or die. He says, "I will never drink; but it is a hard thing that I
must therefore die. It is a bigoted, cruel thing to tell me so." He
is wrong. His thirst is the inevitable result of neglecting a law of
nature. You, too, must believe or die; why refuse to obey the command?
Drink, man, drink! Take Christ and live. There is the way of salvation,
and to enter you must trust Christ; but there is nothing hard in the
fact that you must perish if you will not trust the Saviour. Here is
a man out at sea; he has a chart, and that chart, if well studied,
will, with the help of the compass, guide him to his journey's end.
The pole-star gleams out amidst the cloud-rifts, and that, too, will
help him. "No," says he, "I will have nothing to do with your stars; I
do not believe in the North Pole. I shall not attend to that little
thing inside the box; one needle is as good as another needle. I have
no faith in your chart, and I will have nothing to do with it. The art
of navigation is only a lot of nonsense, got up by people on purpose
to make money, and I will not be gulled by it." The man never reaches
port, and he says it is a very hard thing--a very hard thing. I do not
think so. Some of you say, "I am not going to read the Scriptures; I am
not going to listen to your talk about Jesus Christ: I do not believe
in such things." Then Jesus says, "He that believeth not shall be
damned." "That's very hard," say you. But it is not so. It is not more
hard than the fact that if you reject the compass and the pole-star you
will not reach your port. There is no help for it; it must be so.
You say you will have nothing to do with Jesus and his blood, and you
pooh-pooh all religion. You will find it hard to laugh these matters
down when you come to die, when the clammy sweat must be wiped from
your brow, and your heart beats against your ribs as if it wanted to
leap out and fly away from God. O soul! you will find then, that those
Sundays, and those services, and this old Book, are something more and
better than you thought they were, and you will wonder that you were so
simple as to neglect any true help to salvation. Above all, what woe it
will be to have neglected Christ, that Pole-star which alone can guide
the mariner to the haven of rest!
Where do you live?
You live, perhaps, on the other side of the river, and you have to
cross a bridge before you can get home. You have been so silly as to
nurse the notion that you do not believe in bridges, nor in boats, nor
in the existence of such a thing as water. You say, "I am not going
over any of your bridges, and I shall not get into any of your boats. I
do not believe that there is a river, or that there is any such stuff
as water." You are going home, and soon you come to the old bridge; but
you will not cross it. Yonder is a boat; but you are determined that
you will not get into it. There is the river, and you resolve that you
will not cross it in the usual way; and yet you think it is very hard
that you cannot get home. Surely something has destroyed your reasoning
powers, for you would not think it so hard if you were in your senses.
If a man will not do the thing that is necessary to a certain end,
how can he expect to gain that end? You have taken poison, and the
physician brings an antidote, and says, "Take it quickly, or you will
die; but if you take it quickly, I will guarantee that the poison
will be neutralized." But you say, "No, doctor, I do not believe in
antidotes. Let everything take its course; let every tub stand on its
own bottom; I will have nothing to do with your remedy. Besides, I do
not believe that there is any remedy for the poison I have taken; and,
what is more, I don't care whether there is or not."
Well, sir, you will die; and when the coroner's inquest is held on
your body, the verdict will be, 'Served him right!' So will it be with
you if, having heard the gospel of Jesus Christ, you say, "I am too
much of an advanced man to have anything to do with that old-fashioned
notion of substitution. I shall not attend to the preacher's talk about
sacrifice and blood-shedding." Then, when you perish, the verdict given
by your conscience, which will sit upon the King's quest at last, will
run thus, "_Suicide: he destroyed his own soul_." So says the old
Book--"O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself!" Reader, I implore thee,
do not so.
[Illustration]
TO THOSE WHO HAVE BELIEVED.
Friends, if now you have begun to trust the Lord, trust him out and
out. Let your faith be the most real and practical thing in your
whole life. Don't trust the Lord in mere sentiment about a few great
spiritual things; but trust him for everything, for ever, both for time
and eternity, for body and for soul. See how the Lord hangeth the world
upon nothing but his own word! It has neither prop nor pillar. Yon
great arch of heaven stands without a buttress or a wooden centre. The
Lord can and will bear all the strain that faith can ever put upon him.
The greatest troubles are easy to his power, and the darkest mysteries
are clear to his wisdom. Trust God up to the hilt. Lean, and lean
hard; yes, lean all your weight, and every other weight upon the Mighty
God of Jacob.
[Illustration]
The future you can safely leave with the Lord, who ever liveth and
never changeth. The past is now in your Saviour's hand, and you shall
never be condemned for it, whatever it may have been, for the Lord has
cast your iniquities into the midst of the sea. Believe at this moment
in your present privileges. YOU ARE SAVED. If you are a believer in the
Lord Jesus, you have passed from death unto life, and YOU ARE SAVED.
In the old slave days a lady brought her black servant on board an
English ship, and she laughingly said to the Captain, "I suppose if I
and Aunt Chloe were to go to England she would be free?" "Madam," said
the Captain, "she is _now_ free. The moment she came on board a British
vessel she was free." When the negro woman knew this, she did not leave
the ship--not she. It was not _the hope of liberty_ that made her
bold, but _the fact of liberty_. So you are not now merely hoping for
eternal life, but "_He that believeth in him hath everlasting life_."
Accept this as a fact revealed in the sacred Word, and begin to rejoice
accordingly. Do not reason about it, or call it in question; believe
it, and leap for joy.
I want my reader, upon believing in the Lord Jesus, to believe for
_eternal_ salvation. Do not be content with the notion that you can
receive a new birth which will die out, a heavenly life which will
expire, a pardon which will be recalled. The Lord Jesus gives to his
sheep _eternal_ life, and do not be at rest until you have it. Now, if
it be eternal, how can it die out? Be saved out and out, for eternity.
There is "a living and incorruptible seed, which liveth and abideth
for ever"; do not be put off with a temporary change, a sort of grace
which will only bloom to fade. You are now starting on the railway
of grace--_take a ticket all the way through_. I have no commission
to preach to you salvation for a time: the gospel I am bidden to set
before you is, "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved." He
shall be saved from sin, from going back to sin, from turning aside to
the broad road. May the Holy Spirit lead you to believe for nothing
less than that. "Do you mean," says one, "that I am to believe if
I once trust Christ I shall be saved whatever sin I may choose to
commit?" I have never said anything of the kind. I have described true
salvation as a thorough change of heart of so radical a kind that it
will alter your tastes and desires; and I say that if you have such a
change wrought in you by the Holy Spirit, it will be permanent; for the
Lord's work is not like the cheap work of the present day, which soon
goes to pieces. Trust the Lord to keep you, however long you may live,
and however much you may be tempted; and "according to your faith, so
be it unto you." Believe in Jesus for _everlasting_ life.
Oh, that you may also trust the Lord for all the sufferings of this
present time! In the world you will have tribulation; learn by faith to
know that all things work together for good, and then submit yourself
to the Lord's will. Look at the sheep when it is being shorn. If it
lies quite still, the shears will not hurt it; if it struggles, or
even shrinks, it may be pricked. Submit yourselves under the hand of
God, and affliction will lose its sharpness. Self-will and repining
cause us a hundred times more grief than our afflictions themselves.
So believe your Lord as to be certain that his will must be far better
than yours, and therefore you not only submit to it, but even rejoice
in it.
[Illustration]
Trust the Lord Jesus in the matter of _sanctification_. Certain friends
appear to think that the Lord Jesus cannot sanctify them wholly,
spirit, soul, and body. Hence they willingly give way to such and such
sins under the notion that there is no help for it, but that they must
pay tribute to the devil as long as they live in that particular form.
Do not basely bow your neck in bondage to any sin, but strike hard
for liberty. Be it anger, or unbelief, or sloth, or any other form of
iniquity, we are able, by divine grace, to drive out the Canaanite,
and, what is more, we must drive him out. No virtue is impossible to
him that believeth in Jesus, and no sin need have victory over him.
Indeed, it is written, "Sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye
are not under the law, but under grace." Believe for high degrees
of joy in the Lord, and likeness to Jesus, and advance to take full
possession of these precious things; for as thou believest, so shall it
be unto thee. "All things are possible to him that believeth"; and he
who is the chief of sinners may yet be not a whit behind the greatest
of saints.
Often realize the joy of heaven. This is grand faith; and yet it is
no more than we ought to have. Within a very short time the man who
believes in the Lord Jesus shall be with him where he is. This head
will wear a crown; these eyes shall see the King in his beauty; these
ears shall hear his own dear voice; this soul shall be in glory; and
this poor body shall be raised from the dead and joined in incorruption
to the perfected soul! Glory, glory, glory! And so near, so sure. Let
us at once rehearse the music and anticipate the bliss!