Salvation is infinitely the most momentous subject that can engage the
thoughts of men. It embraces a knowledge of God on the one hand and a
knowledge of man on the other. It is a pleasing thought that as the
knowledge of God is unfolded to the mind, a knowledge of man's own
sinful and lost condition flows in along with it; so that the very
same light which enables him to perceive the love and goodness and
truth and holiness of God imparts to him at the same time a view of
his own sinful state. He is led to see and feel in himself a spiritual
condition which is the very opposite of that which he discovers in God
his Creator, Preserver and bountiful Benefactor.
The Bible tells us that "in the beginning God made man upright," that
he created him in his own image, after his own likeness, and pronounced
him, with all else that he had made, "_very good_." But how is man
now? What is his moral and spiritual condition? I appeal to the heart
experience of every one in this house for an answer. Brother, there is
no charge on the part of the church against you. The church has never
at any time preferred a charge against you. You are loved and held in
high esteem by all the brethren and sisters. The laws of your land
have never brought an accusation against you. You have, in the most
minute particulars, been "a law-abiding citizen." More than all this,
you labor to do all the good you can, by feeding and clothing the
poor; by helping to keep up the church, and by aiding in the spread of
the Gospel. You also help your neighborhood, county and State by
paying all your dues and by voluntary contributions of money or labor
to public improvements, education and whatever else may be for the
general good, as necessity may demand.
But, with all these excellencies in your character and life in full
view, I ask you, as in the presence of God: Do you feel in your
_heart_ that you are a _good_ man? Would you be willing for the world
and the church to know every thought and imagination and desire that
enters your heart and passes through your mind in the short space of
one day of your life? Do you feel that all within is fit for the eye
of God? I know, or _think_ I know, just what is in your mind, and your
answer is in words like these: "I do not feel that I am good. It is
only by constant watchfulness, by looking to Jesus in his Word, and by
reading his Word with prayer, in connection with my attendance upon
the ordinances of his house, that I am enabled to walk in the path I
go, and lead the life I do.
"'He LEADETH me: HE leadeth me:
By his own hand he leadeth me.'
"His promise, 'Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the
world,' sustains my hope and assures me that 'he will never leave me,
nor forsake me.' Thus, God being my helper, I do all the good I can,
and shun the evil. In this way 'I labor, whether at home or absent, to
be well-pleasing to him; and work out my own salvation with fear and
trembling;' feeling, however, at the same time, a blessed assurance
that it is God who worketh in me both to will and to do the things
that are pleasing in his sight."
Brethren, this is salvation. It is the sum of "the things which many
prophets and wise men desired to see, and saw them not; and to hear,
and heard them not." But let us look at the divine forces, brother,
that have wrought in you this wonderful change from a life of
_self-love_, into which you were born by nature, to a life of divine
love, joyful, holy, heavenly love to God and your brother, into which
you have been born by the Spirit.
Peter tells us something about this in the chapter read. He here says:
"Ye were REDEEMED, not with corruptible things, with silver or gold,
from your vain manner of life handed down from your fathers; but with
the precious blood, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot,
even the blood of Christ.... Ye have purified your souls in your
obedience to the truth; ... having been begotten [or born] again, ...
through the word of God, which liveth and abideth."
He now introduces the contrast between man's natural birth and his
spiritual birth: "That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that
which is born of the Spirit is spirit;" and he says:
"All flesh is as grass,
And all the glory thereof as the flower of grass.
The grass withereth, and the flower falleth."
"Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return," is the doom of flesh
and blood sealed to every mortal as a consequence of sin. No wonder
the grave is sad and lonely to the contemplation of those who have no
hope of aught of life or love beyond it. It is sad to think how many
have no higher claim to life and happiness than mere fleshly, bodily
existence. But our Lord hath "brought life and immortality to light,"
and
"The good Spirit of the Lord
Reveals a heaven to come;
The beams of glory in his Word
Allure and guide us home."
"Beloved, now are we the children of God, and it is not yet made
manifest what we shall be;" but we know that we have the promise of
"an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not
away."
Brethren, this inheritance which Peter talks of--what do you think
about it? Is it something extraneous to the man, something outside of
him? Or is it something intrinsic to the man in his renewed state,
something internal, something inside of him? I, for one, believe that
man's eternal and blissful inheritance, which Peter and John and Paul
describe in such glowing terms, is in the man himself, in his
adaptation to the bliss-inspiring garniture of heaven. It is "Christ
in him the hope of glory."
This exalted and blissful state of man redeemed is what Peter calls
his "_inheritance which is incorruptible_." Think of it, Brethren. No
more sin to bewail; no more sickness to suffer; no more death to
dread! It is also "_undefiled_." No more "filthiness of the flesh;"
"neither idolatry, nor adultery, nor whatsoever loveth and maketh a
lie." And "_that fadeth not away_." The luster of the eye; the bloom
of the cheek; the facial expressions of beauty and love, purity and
truth, know nothing of decay in the amaranthine bowers of spotless
purity.
We often wonder about heaven. But I will tell you, Brethren, what I
believe about it. I do believe in my very soul that every Christian
man, after the death of his body, finds himself in the very heaven he
takes with him from this world; and that every man's heaven is the
LOVE and the TRUTH that abound in his mind and heart. If his heart is
filled with _love_ to God and to his brother, and his mind stored with
the _truth_ of God as revealed in his Son Jesus Christ, that man's
heaven is _in_ him. Do you remember, Brethren, that when Jesus was on
earth he said that he was also at the same time in heaven? Now let me
show you this. He says to Nicodemus: "No man hath ascended to heaven,
but he that came down from heaven, _even the Son of man_ WHICH IS IN
HEAVEN." John 3:13.
And right here a difficulty confronts us which we must try to settle.
Did not Elijah ascend to heaven? How about Moses? These two redeemed
saints were both of them in heaven at the very time our Lord said this
to Nicodemus. Very shortly after this conversation they made their
appearance, not only to Jesus, but to Peter and James and John on
the holy mount in glory. How had they gotten there? I will tell you
just what I think our Lord meant. He meant to teach that stupid,
_materialistic_ Nicodemus that people do not go to heaven by merely
ascending, like as one would ascend or go up from a lower room in a
building to a higher one. He meant to teach him that heaven must be in
the man, inwrought into his character and life. This follows in
perfect harmony with what he had just before told him about the new
birth and a change of heart. "That which is born of the flesh is
flesh," and nothing more. But Paul says: "Ye are not in the flesh, but
in the spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you." Elijah
had not _really ascended_. The Lord just took him up as he had taken
Enoch many years before. He was in heaven whilst on earth, just as
Jesus was. The only change he underwent in his departure from this
world was a change in the relations of his state. While here his
_state_ was a _heavenly_ state, but surrounded by earthly things.
After his departure from earth his _state_ was the same; but his
surroundings were heavenly, and he could feel at home.