OBJECTS: A Block with the Word "My Sins" Painted
on It, Another Block with the Words "Jesus"
Marked on It=
This lesson illustrates the truth that our sins were laid on Jesus.
He bore them in his own body on the tree. This is the old Bible
doctrine that Christ took our place on the cross, and took upon
himself the penalty that our sins had brought on our souls. "This is
Jesus, King of the Jews," Pilate caused to be written and nailed over
the cross. We take down the superscription and in its place put up
another which reads, "He died for me," and under this line write our
own name. This is how we illustrate this truth. Place in the hollow
of your hand the block marked "Sin." Cause the block to be painted
black, because sin is a deadly thing. "The wages of sin is death." It
is the mark of death. As you hold the sin block in your hand you say:
"Sin is now on me. I must bear my own sins." Bunyan was right,
according to the Scriptures, when he made Pilgrim carry a burden. It
was a heavy load, and Pilgrim exclaimed, "Who shall deliver me?" He
felt his sin was on him, and it was a burden too heavy for him to
carry. "Who will help?" Send out the S.O.S. call, which being
translated in the terms of the gospel means, "Save, oh save!" "Shall
we hide it or try to forget it?" Suiting your action to your words
you place the block in your pocket, and you think since it is hidden
it has been taken away. But the angels saw you hide it. God's great
eye is fixed on it. It won't sink out of sight. Sin is a sticky
thing. It hangs around.
An old sailor, who in his young days had been a smuggler, and had
been in prison for the offense, said: "One day there was a revenue
cutter heading straight for us, and we had on board a cargo of
tobacco. Well, if we were caught we knew every man of us would go to
jail, the ship would be sunk, and the tobacco confiscated. So we
pitched the stuff overboard as fast as we could. When this was done,
the captain sent up the cabin-boy to report the approach of the
cutter. In an instant he was down-stairs again, his face as white as
a sheet, and gasping for breath. 'What is it,' said the captain. 'The
tobacco is overboard, but it won't sink!' said the boy. Yes, there
was the tobacco floating all around the ship, proclaiming our guilt."
No, sin won't sink. It won't stay hid. We cannot be separated from
our sins in that way.
Take it out of the pocket and say: "The almighty eye of the Great
Father can see the contents of our pockets and discover the
hiding-place of our sins." Hold the block in the hand and say: "Still
the sin is on me. What shall I do to be saved? It will sink me into
the darkness of the next world, I shall be lost forever."
A little girl was anxious for the conversion of her dear father. He
accompanied her to the revival meeting, but when she asked him to
give his heart to Jesus, he said, "Not now, some other day." This
caused the little girl to cry herself to sleep that night, and in her
sleep she had a dream. This was the dream. She seemed to see a throng
of angels coming in through the window, and passing into her father's
room. This alarmed her greatly, for she thought they had come after
her father, and remembering he had rejected Jesus the night before,
she knew he was not ready to go, so she followed them and looked into
the room. They all had gathered around her father's bed and had been
trying to lift him up in their arms, and having failed she overheard
one angel say: "He is too heavy for the angels. We cannot take him to
heaven, for his sin is on him, and all the angels in the skies could
not lift him." This startled the little girl, so she awoke from her
dream. The next day she told her father the dream and said, "The
angels said that you 'are too heavy for the angels.'" This thought
caused the father to think--"to heavy for the angels"--and this
thought brought him to Jesus, and he got rid of the sin on him. This
is how he did it. It was the same way that Pilgrim got rid of his
burden. He knelt at the foot of the Cross with a broken, penitent
heart, and the burden of his sin rolled away.
Now take the block of sin, lay it on the larger block painted red and
marked "Jesus," and say, "I now by faith lay my sins on Jesus, and
they are all taken away, and taken away to stay." "He hath laid on
him the iniquity of us all."
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