_THE TWO CLASSES_.
"Two men went up into the temple to pray."--Luke xvii. 10.
I now want to speak of two classes: First, those who do not feel
their need of a Saviour who have not been convinced of sin by the
Spirit; and Second, those who are convinced of sin and cry, "What
must I do to be saved?"
All inquirers can be ranged under two heads: they have either the
spirit of the Pharisee, or the spirit of the publican. If a man
having the spirit of the Pharisee comes into an after-meeting, I know
of no better portion of Scripture to meet his case than Romans iii.
10: "As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: there is
none that understandeth; there is none that seeketh after God." Paul
is here speaking of the natural man. "They are all gone out of the
way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth
good, no, not one." And in the 17th verse and those which follow, we
have "And the way of peace have they not known; there is no fear of
God before their eyes. Now we know what things soever the law saith,
it saith to them who are under the law; that every mouth may be
stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God."
Then observe the last clause of verse 22: "For there is no
difference; for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God."
Not part of the human family--but _all_--"have sinned, and come short
of the glory of God." Another verse which has been very much used to
convict men of their sin is 1 John i. 8: "If we say that we have no
sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us."
I remember that on one occasion we were holding meetings in an
eastern city of forty thousand inhabitants; and a lady came and asked
us to pray for her husband, whom she purposed bringing into the after
meeting. I have traveled a good deal and met many pharisaical men;
but this man was so clad in self-righteousness that you could not get
the point of the needle of conviction in anywhere. I said to his
wife: "I am glad to see your faith; but we cannot get near him; he is
the most self-righteous man I ever saw." She said: "You must! My
heart will break if these meetings end without his conversion." She
persisted in bringing him; and I got almost tired of the sight of
him.
But towards the close of our meetings of thirty days, he came up to
me and put his trembling hand on my shoulder. The place in which the
meetings were held was rather cold, and there was an adjoining room
in which only the gas had been lighted; and he said to me, "Can't you
come in here for a few minutes?" I thought that he was shaking from
cold, and I did not particularly wish to go where it was colder. But
he said: "I am the worst man in the State of Vermont. I want you to
pray for me." I thought he had committed a murder, or some other
awful crime; and I asked: "Is there any one sin that particularly
troubles you?" And he said: "My whole life has been a sin. I have
been a conceited, self-righteous Pharisee. I want you to pray for
me." He was under deep conviction. Man could not have produced this
result; but the Spirit had. About two o'clock in the morning light
broke in upon his soul: and he went up and down the business street
of the city and told what God had done for him; and has been a most
active Christian ever since.
There are four other passages in dealing with inquirers, which were
used by Christ Himself. "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a
man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." (John iii. 3.)
In Luke xiii. 3, we read: "Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise
perish."
In Matthew xviii., when the disciples came to Jesus to know who was
to be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven, we are told that He took
a little child and set him in the midst and said, "Verily I say unto
you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall
not enter the kingdom of heaven" (xviii. 1-3).
There is another important "Except" in Matthew v. 20: "Except your
righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and
Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter the kingdom of heaven."
A man must be made meet before he will want to go into the kingdom of
God. I would rather go into the kingdom with the younger brother than
stay outside with the elder. Heaven would be hell to such an one. An
elder brother who could not rejoice at his younger brother's return
would not be "fit" for the kingdom of God. It is a solemn thing to
contemplate; but the curtain drops and leaves him outside, and the
younger brother within. To him the language of the Saviour under
other circumstances seems appropriate: "Verily I say unto you, That
the publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you"
(Matt. xxi. 31).
A lady once came to me and wanted a favor for her daughter. She said:
"You must remember I do not sympathize with you in your doctrine." I
asked: "What is your trouble?" She said: "I think your abuse of the
elder brother is horrible. I think he is a noble character." I said
that I was willing to hear her defend him; but that it was a solemn
thing to take up such a position; and that the elder brother needed
to be converted as much as the younger. When people talk of being
moral it is well to get them to take a good look at the old man
pleading with his boy who would not go in.
But we will pass on now to the other class with which we have to
deal. It is composed of those who are convinced of sin and from whom
the cry comes as from the Philippian jailer, "What must I do to be
saved?" To those who utter this penitential cry there is no necessity
to administer the law. It is well to bring them straight to the
Scripture: "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be
saved." (Acts xvi. 31). Many will meet you with a scowl and say, "I
don't know what it is to believe;" and though it is the law of heaven
that they must believe, in order to be saved--yet they ask for
something besides that. We are to tell them what, and where, and how,
to believe.
In John iii. 35 and 36 we read: "The Father loveth the Son, and hath
given all things into His hand. He that believeth on the Son hath
everlasting life; and he that believeth not the Son shall not see
life; but the wrath of God abideth on him."
Now this looks reasonable. Man lost life by unbelief--by not
believing God's word; and we got life back again by believing--by
taking God at His word. In other words we get up where Adam fell
down. He stumbled and fell over the stone of unbelief; and we are
lifted up and stand upright by believing. When people say they cannot
believe, show them chapter and verse, and hold them right to this one
thing: "Has God ever broken His promise for these six thousand
years?" The devil and men have been trying all the time and have not
succeeded in showing that He has broken a single promise; and there
would be a jubilee in hell to-day if one word that He has spoken
could be broken. If a man says that he cannot believe it is well to
press him on that one thing.
I can believe God better to-day than I can my own heart. "The heart
is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know
it?" (Jer. xxii. 9). I can believe God better than I can myself. If
you want to know the way of Life, believe that Jesus Christ is a
personal Saviour; cut away from all doctrines and creeds, and come
right to the heart of the Son of God. If you have been feeding on dry
doctrine there is not much growth on that kind of food. Doctrines are
to the soul what the streets which lead to the house of a friend who
has invited me to dinner are to the body. They will lead me there if
I take the right one; but if I remain in the streets my hunger will
never be satisfied. Feeding on doctrines is like trying to live on
dry husks; and lean indeed must the soul remain which partakes not of
the Bread sent down from heaven.
Some ask: "How am I to get my heart warmed?" It is by believing. You
do not get power to love and serve God until you believe.
The apostle John says "If we receive the witness of men, the witness
of God is greater: for this is the witness of God which He hath
testified of His Son. He that believeth on the Son of God hath the
witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made Him a liar;
because he believeth not the record that God gave of His Son. And
this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this
life is in His Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath
not the Son of God hath not life" (1 John v. 9).
Human affairs would come to a standstill if we did not take the
testimony of men. How should we get on in the ordinary intercourse of
life, and how would commerce get on, if we disregarded men's
testimony? Things social and commercial would come to a dead-lock
within forty-eight hours! This is the drift of the apostle's argument
here. "If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is
greater." God has borne witness to Jesus Christ. And if man can
believe his fellow men who are frequently telling untruths and whom
we are constantly finding unfaithful, why should we not take God at
His word and believe His testimony?
Faith is a belief in testimony. It is not a leap in the dark, as some
tell us. That would be no faith at all. God does not ask any man to
believe without giving him something to believe. You might as well
ask a man to see without eyes; to hear without ears; and to walk
without feet--as to bid him believe without giving him something to
believe.
When I started for California I procured a guide-book. This told me,
that after leaving the State of Illinois, I should cross the
Mississippi, and then the Missouri; get into Nebraska; then over the
Rocky Mountains to the Mormon settlement at Salt Lake City, and by
the way of the Sierra Nevada into San Francisco. I found the guide
book all right as I went along; and I should have been a miserable
sceptic if, having proved it to be correct three-fourths of the way,
I had said that I would not believe it for the remainder of the
journey.
Suppose a man, in directing me to the Post Office, gives me ten
landmarks; and that, in my progress there, I find nine of them to be
as he told me; I should have good reason to believe that I was coming
to the Post Office.
And if, by believing, I get a new life, and a hope, a peace, a joy,
and a rest to my soul, that I never had before; if I get self-control,
and find that I have a power to resist evil and to do good,
I have pretty good proof that I am in the right road to the "city
which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God." And if
things have taken place, and are now taking place, as recorded in
God's Word, I have good reason to conclude that what yet remains will
be fulfilled. And yet people talk of doubting. There can be no true
faith where there is fear. Faith is to take God at His word,
unconditionally. There cannot be true peace where there is fear.
"Perfect love casteth out fear." How wretched a wife would be if she
doubted her husband! and how miserable a mother would feel if after
her boy had gone away from home she had reason, from his neglect, to
question that son's devotion! True love never has a doubt.
There are three things indispensable to faith--knowledge, assent, and
appropriation.
We must know God. "And this is life eternal, that they might _know_
Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent" (John
xvii. 3). Then we must not only give our assent to what we know; but
we must lay hold of the truth. If a man simply give his assent to the
plan of salvation, it will not save him: he must accept Christ as his
Saviour. He must receive and appropriate Him.
Some say they cannot tell how a man's life can be affected by his
belief. But let some one cry out that some building in which we
happen to be sitting, is on fire; and see how soon we should act on
our belief and get out. We are all the time influenced by what we
believe. We cannot help it. And let a man believe the record that God
has given of Christ, and it will very quickly affect his whole life.
Take John v. 24. There is enough truth in that one verse for every
soul to rest upon for salvation. It does not admit the shadow of a
doubt. "Verily, verily"--which means truly, truly--"I say unto you,
He that heareth My word, and believeth on Him that sent Me,
hath--_hath_--everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation;
but is passed from death unto life."
Now if a person really hears the word of Jesus and believes with the
heart on God who sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world, and
lays hold of and appropriates this great salvation, there is no fear
of judgment. He will not be looking forward with dread to the Great
White Throne; for we read in 1 John iv. 17: "Herein is our love made
perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as
He is, so are we in this world."
If we believe, there is for us no condemnation, no judgment. That is
behind us, and passed; and we shall have boldness in the day of
judgment.
I remember reading of a man who was on trial for his life. He had
friends with influence; and they procured a pardon for him from the
king on condition that he was to go through the trial, and be
condemned. He went into court with the pardon in his pocket. The
feeling ran very high against him, and the judge said that the court
was shocked that he was so much unconcerned. But, when the sentence
was pronounced, he pulled out the pardon, presented it, and walked
out a free man. He has been pardoned; and so have we. Then let death
come, we have nought to fear. All the grave-diggers in the world
cannot dig a grave large enough and deep enough to hold eternal life;
all the coffin makers in the world cannot make a coffin large enough
and tight enough to hold eternal life. Death has had his hand on
Christ once, but never again.
Jesus said: "I am the Resurrection, and the Life: he that believeth
in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth
and believeth in Me shall never die" (John xi. 25, 26). And in the
Apocalypse we read that the risen Saviour said to John, "I am He that
liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore" (Rev i.
18). Death cannot touch Him again.
We get life by believing. In fact we get more than Adam lost; for the
redeemed child of God is heir to a richer and more glorious
inheritance than Adam in Paradise could ever have conceived; yea, and
that inheritance endures forever--it is inalienable.
I would much rather have my life hid with Christ in God than have
lived in Paradise; for Adam might have sinned and fallen after being
there ten thousand years. But the believer is safer, if these things
become real to him. Let us make them a fact, and not a fiction. God
has said it; and that is enough. Let us trust Him even where we
cannot trace Him. Let the same confidence animate us that was in
little Maggie as related in the following simple but touching
incident which I read in the _Bible Treasury_:--
"I had been absent from home for some days, and was wondering, as I
again draw near the homestead, if my little Maggie, just able to sit
alone, would remember me. To test her memory, I stationed myself
where I could see her, but could not be seen by her, and called her
name in the familiar tone, 'Maggie!' She dropped her playthings,
glanced around the room, and then looked down upon her toys. Again I
repeated her name, 'Maggie!' when she once more surveyed the room;
but, not seeing her _father's_ face, she looked very sad, and slowly
resumed her employment. Once more I called, 'Maggie!' when, dropping
her playthings, and bursting into tears, she stretched out her arms
in the direction whence the sound proceeded, knowing that, though she
could not see him, her father _must be there_, for she knew his
voice."
Now, we have power to see and to hear, and we have power to believe.
It is all folly for the inquirers to take the ground that they cannot
believe. They can, if they will. But the trouble with most people is
that they have connected feeling with believing. Now Feeling has
nothing whatever to do with Believing. The Bible does not say--He
that feeleth, or he that feeleth and believeth, hath everlasting
life. Nothing of the kind. I cannot control my feelings. If I could,
I should never feel ill, or have a headache or toothache. I should be
well all the while. But I can believe God; and if we get our feet on
that rock, let doubts and fears come and the waves surge around us,
the anchor will hold.
Some people are all the time looking at their faith. Faith is the
hand that takes the blessing. I heard this illustration of a beggar.
Suppose you were to meet a man in the street whom you had known for
years as being accustomed to beg; and you offered him some money, and
he were to say to you: "I thank you; I don't want your money: I am
not a beggar." "How is that?" "Last night a man put a thousand
dollars into my hands." "He did! How did you know it was good money?"
"I took it to the bank and deposited it and have got a bank book."
"How did you get this gift?" "I asked for alms; and after the
gentleman talked with me he took out a thousand dollars in money and
put it in my hand." "How do you know that he put it in the right
hand?" "What do I care about which hand; so that I have got the
money." Many people are always thinking whether the faith by which
they lay hold of Christ is the right kind--but what is far more
essential is to see that we have the right kind of Christ.
Faith is the eye of the soul; and who would ever think of taking out
an eye to see if it were the right kind so long as the sight was
perfect? It is not my taste, but it is what I taste, that satisfies
my appetite. So, dear friends, it is taking God at His Word that is
the means of our salvation. The truth cannot be made too simple.
There is a man living in the city of New York who has a home on the
Hudson River. His daughter and her family went to spend the winter
with him: and in the course of the season the scarlet fever broke
out. One little girl was put in quarantine, to be kept separate from
the rest. Every morning the old grandfather used to go and bid his
grandchild, "Goodbye," before going to his business. On one of these
occasions the little thing took the old man by the hand, and, leading
him to a corner of the room, without saying a word she pointed to the
floor where she had arranged some small crackers so they would spell
out, "Grandpa, I want a box of paints." He said nothing. On his
return home he hung up his overcoat and went to the room as usual:
when his little grandchild, without looking to see if her wish had
been complied with, took him into the same corner, where he saw
spelled out in the same way, "Grandpa, I thank you for the box of
paints." The old man would not have missed gratifying the child for
anything. That was faith.
Faith is taking God at His Word; and those people who want some token
are always getting into trouble. We want to come to this: God says
it--let us believe it.
But some say, Faith is the gift of God. So is the air; but you have
to breathe it. So is bread; but you have to eat it. So is water; but
you have to drink it. Some are wanting a miraculous kind of feeling.
That is not faith. "Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word
of God" (Rom. x. 17). That is whence faith comes. It is not for me to
sit down and wait for faith to come stealing over me with a strange
sensation; but it is for me to take God at His Word. And you cannot
believe, unless you have something to believe. So take the Word as it
is written, and appropriate it, and lay hold of it.
In John vi. 47, 48 we read: "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that
believeth on Me hath everlasting life. I am that Bread of life."
There is the bread right at hand. Partake of it. I might have
thousands of loaves within my home, and as many hungry men in
waiting. They might assent to the fact that the bread was there; but
unless they each took a loaf and commenced eating, their hunger would
not be satisfied. So Christ is the Bread of heaven; and as the body
feeds on natural food, so the soul must feed on Christ.
If a drowning man sees a rope thrown out to rescue him he must lay
hold of it; and in order to do so he must let go everything else. If
a man is sick he must take the medicine--for simply looking at it
will not cure him. A knowledge of Christ will not help the inquirer,
unless he believes in Him, and takes hold of Him, as his only hope.
The bitten Israelites might have believed that the serpent was lifted
up; but unless they had looked they would not have lived (Num. xxi.
6-9).
I believe that a certain line of steamers will convey me across the
ocean, because I have tried it: but this will not help another man
who may want to go, unless he acts upon my knowledge. So a knowledge
of Christ does not help us unless we act upon it. That is what it is
to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. It is to act on what we believe.
As a man steps on board a steamer to cross the Atlantic, so we must
take Christ and make a commitment of our souls to Him; and He has
promised to keep all who put their trust in Him. To believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ, is simply to take Him at His word.