X. CONDITIONS OF BEING SAVED
"What must I do to be
saved?"-Acts xvi. 30.
I BRING forward this subject today not because it is new to many
in this congregation, but because it is greatly needed. I am happy to know that
the great inquiry of our text is beginning to be deeply and extensively
agitated in this community, and under these circumstances it is the first duty
of a Christian pastor to answer it, fully and plainly.
The circumstances which gave occasion to the words of the text
were briefly these. Paul and Silas had gone to Philippi to preach the Gospel.
Their preaching excited great opposition and tumult; they were arrested and
thrown into prison, and the jailer was charged to keep them safely. At midnight
they were praying and singing praises -- God came down- the earth quaked and
the prison rocked -- its doors burst open, and their chains fell off; the
jailer sprang up affrighted, and, supposing his prisoners had fled, was about
to take his own life, when Paul cried out, "Do thyself no harm; we are all
here. "He then called for a light, and sprang in and came trembling, and
fell down before Paul and Silas, and brought them out and said, "Sirs,
what must I do to be saved?"
This is briefly the history of our text; and I improve it now,
by showing;
I. What sinners must not do to be saved; and
II. What they must do.
I. What sinners must
not do to be saved;
It has now come to be necessary and very important to tell men
what they must not do in order to be saved. When the Gospel was first preached,
Satan had not introduced as many delusions to mislead men as he has now. It was
then enough to give, as Paul did, the simple and direct answer, telling men only
what they must at once do. But this seems to be not enough now. So many
delusions and perversions have bewildered and darkened the minds of men that
they need often a great deal of instruction to lead them back to those simple
views of the subject which prevailed at first. Hence the importance of showing
what sinners must not do, if they intend to be saved.
1. They must not imagine that they have nothing to do. In
Paul's time nobody seems to have thought of this. Then the doctrine of
Universalism was not much developed. Men had not begun to dream that they
should be saved without doing anything. They had not learned that sinners have
nothing to do to be saved. If this idea, so current of late, had been rife at
Philippi, the question of our text would not have been asked. No trembling
sinner would have cried out, What must I do to be saved?
If men imagine they have nothing to do, they are never likely to
be saved. It is not in the nature of falsehood and lies to save men's souls,
and surely nothing is more false than this notion. Men know they have
something to do to be saved. Why, then, do they pretend that all men will
be saved whether they do their duty, or constantly refuse to do it? The very
idea is preposterous, and is entertained only by the most palpable outrage upon
common sense and an enlightened conscience.
2. You should not mistake what you have to do. The duty required
of sinners is very simple, and would be easily understood were it not for the
false ideas that prevail as to what religion is, and as to the exact things
which God requires as conditions of salvation. On these points erroneous
opinions prevail to a most alarming extent. Hence the danger of mistake. Beware
lest you be deceived in a matter of so vital moment.
3. Do not say or imagine that you cannot do what God requires.
On the contrary, always assume that you can. If you assume that you cannot,
this very assumption will be fatal to your salvation.
4. Do not procrastinate. As you ever intend or hope to be
saved, you must set your face like a flint against this most pernicious
delusion. Probably no other mode of evading present duty has ever prevailed so
extensively as this, or has destroyed so many souls. Almost all men in Gospel
lands intend to prepare for death -- intend to repent and become religious
before they die. Even Universalists expect to become religious at some time --
perhaps after death -- perhaps after being purified from their sins by
purgatorial fires; but somehow they expect to become holy, for they know
they must before they can see God and enjoy His presence. But you will observe,
they put this matter of becoming holy off to the most distant time possible.
Feeling a strong dislike to it now, they flatter themselves that God will take
care that it shall be done up duly in the next world, how much soever they may
frustrate His efforts to do it in this. So long as it remains in their power to
choose whether to become holy or not, they improve the time to enjoy sin; and
leave it with God to make them holy in the next world -- if they can't prevent
it there! Consistency is a jewel!
And all those who put off being religious now in the cherished
delusion of becoming so in some future time, whether in this world or the next,
are acting out this same inconsistency. You fondly hope that will occur
which you are now doing your utmost to prevent.
So sinners by myriads press their way down to hell under this
delusion. They often, when premed with the claims of God, will even name the
time when they will repent. It may be very near -- perhaps as soon as they get
home from the meeting, or as soon as the sermon is over; or it may be more
remote, as, for example, when they have finished their education, or become
settled in life, or have made a little more property, or get ready to abandon
some business of questionable morality; but no matter whether the time set be
near or remote, the delusion is fatal -- the thought of procrastination is
murder to the soul. Ah, such sinners are little aware that Satan himself has
poured out his spirit upon them and is leading them whithersoever he will. He
little cares whether they put off for a longer time or a shorter. If he can
persuade them to a long delay, he likes it well; if only to a short one, he
feels quite sure he can renew the delay and get another extension -- so it
answers his purpose fully in the end.
Now mark, sinner, if you ever mean to be saved you must resist
and grieve away this spirit of Satan. You must cease to procrastinate. You can
never be converted so long as you operate only in the way of delaying and
promising yourself that you will become religious at some future time. Did you
ever bring anything to pass in your temporal business by procrastination? Did
procrastination ever begin, prosecute, and accomplish any important business?
Suppose you have some business of vast consequence, involving
your character, or your whole estate, or your life, to be transacted in
Cleveland, but you do not know precisely how soon it must be done. It may be
done with safety now, and with greater facility now than ever hereafter; but it
might possibly be done although you should delay a little time, but every
moment's delay involves an absolute uncertainty of your being able to do it at
all. You do not know but a single hour's delay will make yon too late. Now in
these circumstances what would a man of sense and discretion do? Would be not
be awake and up in an instant?
Would be sleep on a
matter of such moment, involving such risks and uncertainties? No. You know
that the risk of a hundred dollars, pending on such conditions, would stir the
warm blood of any man of business, and you could not tempt him to delay an
hour. O, he would say, this is the great business to which I must attend, and
everything else must give way. But suppose he should act as a sinner does about
repentance, and promise himself that tomorrow will be as this day and much more
abundant -- and do nothing today, nor tomorrow, nor the next month, nor the
next year -- would you not think him beside himself? Would you expect his
business to be done, his money to be secured, his interests to be promoted?
So the sinner accomplishes nothing but his own ruin so long as
he procrastinates. Until he says, "Now is my time -- today I will do all
my duty" -- he is only playing the fool and laying up his wages
accordingly. O, it is infinite madness to defer a matter of such vast interest
and of such perilous uncertainty!
5. If you would be saved you must not wait for God to do what
He commands you to do. God will surely do all that He can for your
salvation. All that the nature of the case allows of His doing, He either has
done or stands ready to do as soon as your position and course will allow Him
to do it. Long before you were born He anticipated your wants as a sinner, and
began on the most liberal scale to make provision for them. He gave His Son to
die for you, thus doing all that need be done by way of an atonement. Of a long
time past He has been shaping His providence so as to give you the requisite
knowledge of duty has sent you His Word and Spirit. Indeed, He has given
you the highest possible evidence that He will be energetic and prompt on His
part -- as one in earnest for your salvation. You know this. What sinner
in this house fears lest God should be negligent on His part in the matter of
his salvation? Not one. No, many of you are not a little annoyed that God
should press you so earnestly and be so energetic in the work of securing your
salvation. And now can you quiet your conscience with the excuse of waiting for
God to do your duty?
The fact is, there are things for you to do which God can not do
for you. Those things which He has enjoined and revealed as the conditions of
your salvation, He cannot and will not do Himself. If He could have done them
Himself, He would not have asked you to do them. Every sinner ought to consider
this. God requires of you repentance and faith because it is naturally
impossible that any one else but you should do them. They are your own personal
matters -- the voluntary exercises of your own mind; and no other being in
heaven, earth, or hell, can do these things for you in your stead. As far as
substitution was naturally possible, God has introduced it, as in the case of
the atonement. He has never hesitated to march up to meet and to bear all the
self-denials which the work of salvation has involved.
6. If you mean to be saved, you must not wait for God to do
anything whatever. There is nothing to be waited for. God has either done
all on His part already, or if anything more remains, He is ready and waiting
this moment for you to do your duty that He may impart all needful grace.
7. Do not flee to any refuge of lies. Lies cannot save
you. It is truth, not lies, that alone can save. I have often wondered how men
could suppose that Universalism could save any man.
Men must be sanctified by the truth. There is no plainer teaching in the Bible than
this, and no Bible doctrine is better sustained by reason and the nature of the
case.
Now does Universalism sanctify anybody? Universalists say you
must be punished for your sins, and that thus they will be put away -- as if
the fires of purgatory would thoroughly consume all sin, and bring out the
sinner pure. Is this being sanctified by the truth? You might as well
hope to be saved by eating liquid fire! You might as well expect fire to purify
your soul from sin in this world, as in the next! Why not?
It is amazing that men should hope to be sanctified and saved by
this great error, or, indeed, by any error whatever. God says you must be
sanctified by the truth. Suppose you could believe this delusion, would
it make you holy? Do you believe that it would make you humble,
heavenly-minded, sin-hating, benevolent? Can you believe any such thing? Be
assured that Satan is, only the father of lies, and he cannot save you -- in
fact, he would not if he could; he intends his lies not to save you, but to
destroy your very soul, and nothing could be more adapted to its purpose. Lies
are only the natural poison of the soul. You take them at your peril!
8. Don't seek for any self-indulgent method of salvation.
The great effort among sinners has always been to be saved in some way of
self-indulgence. They are slow to admit that self-denial is indispensable --
that total, unqualified self-denial is the condition of being saved. I
warn you against supposing that you can be saved in some easy, self-pleasingway. Men ought to know, and always assume, that it is naturally indispensable
for selfishness to be utterly put away and its demands resisted and put down.
I often ask -- Does the system of salvation which I preach so
perfectly chime with the intuitions of my reason that I know from within myself
that this Gospel is the thing I need? Does it in all its parts and relations
meet the demands of my intelligence? Are its requisitions obviously just and
right? Does its prescribed conditions of salvation obviously befit man's moral
position before God, and his moral relations to the government of God?
To these and similar questions I am constrained to answer in the
affirmative. The longer I live the more fully I see that the Gospel system is
the only one that can alike meet the demands of the human intelligence, and
supply the wants of man's sinning, depraved heart. The duties enjoined upon the
sinner are just those things which I know must in the nature of the case be the
conditions of salvation. Why, then, should any sinner think of being saved on
any other conditions? Why desire it even if it were ever so practicable?
9. Don't imagine you will ever have a more favourable time.
Impenitent sinners are prone to imagine that just now is by no means so
convenient a season as may be expected hereafter. So they put off in hope of a
better time. They think perhaps that they shall have more conviction, and fewer
obstacles, and less hindrances. So thought Felix. He did not intend to forego
salvation, any more than you do; but he was very busy just then -- had certain
ends to be secured which seemed peculiarly pressing, and so he begged to be
excused on the promise of very faithful attention to the subject at the
expected convenient season. But did the convenient season ever come? Never. Nor
does it ever come to those who in like manner resist God's solemn call, and
grieve away His Spirit. Thousands are now waiting in the pains of hell who said
just as he did, "Go thy way for this time, when I have a convenient season
I will call for thee." Oh, sinner, when will your convenient season
come I Are you aware that no season will ever be "convenient" for
you, unless God calls up your attention earnestly and solemnly to the subject?
And can you expect Him to do this at the time of your choice, when you scorn
His call at the time of His choice? Have you not heard Him say, "Because I
have called, and ye refused, I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded,
but ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof; I also
will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh. When your fear
cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind, when distress
and anguish cometh upon you; then shall they call upon me, but I will not
answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me." O, sinner,
that will be a fearful and a final doom! And the myriad voices of God's
universe will say, amen.
10. Do not suppose that you will find another time as good,
and one in which you can just as well repent as now. Many are ready to
suppose that though there may be no better time for themselves, there will at
least be one as good. Vain delusion! Sinner, you already owe ten
thousand talents, and will you find it just as easy to be forgiven this debt
while you are showing that you don't care how much and how long you augment it?
In a case like this, where everything turns upon your securing the good-will of
your creditor, do you hope to gain it by positively insulting him to his face?
Or take another view of the case. Your heart you know must one
day relent for sin, or you are forever damned. You know also that each
successive sin increases the hardness of your heart, and makes it a more
difficult matter to repent. How, then, can you reasonably hope that a future
time will be equally favourable for your repentance? When you have hardened
your neck like an iron sinew, and made your heart like an adamant stone, can
you hope that repentance will yet be as easy to you as ever?
You know, sinner, that God requires you to break off from your
sins now. But you look up into His face and say to Him, "Lord, it
is just as well to stop abusing Thee at some future convenient time. Lord, if I
can only be saved at last, I shall think it all my gain to go on insulting and
abusing Thee as long as it will possibly answer. And since Thou art so very
compassionate and long-suffering, I think I may venture on in sin and rebellion
against Thee yet these many months and years longer. Lord, don't hurry me -- do
let me have my way; let me abase Thee if Thou pleasest, and spit in Thy face --
all will be just as well if I only repent in season so as finally to be saved.
I know, indeed, that Thou art entreating me to repent now, but I much prefer to
wait a, season, and it will be just as well to repent at some future
time."
And now do you suppose that God will set His seal to this --
that He will say, "You are right, sinner, I set my seal of approbation
upon your course -- it is well that you take so just views of your duty to your
Maker and your Father; go on; your course will ensure your salvation." Do
you expect such a response from God as this?
11. If you ever expect to be saved, don't wait to see what
others will do or say. I was lately astonished to find that a young lady
here under conviction was in great trouble about what a beloved brother would
think of her if she should give her heart to God. She knew her duty; but he was
impenitent, and how could she know what he would think if she should repent
now! It amounts to this. She would come before God and say, "O Thou great
God, I know I ought to repent, but I can't; for I don't know as my brother will
like it. I know that he too is a sinner, and must repent or lose his soul, but
I am much more afraid of his frown than I am of Thine, and I care more for his
approbation than I do for Thine, and consequently, I dare not repent till he does!
"How shocking is this! Strange that on such a subject men will ever ask
"What will others say of me?" Are you amenable to God? What, then,
have others to say about your duty to Him? God requires you and them also to
repent, and why don't you do it at once?
Not long since, as I was preaching abroad, one of the principal
men of the city came to the meeting for inquiry, apparently much convicted and
in great distress for his soul. But being a man of high political standing, and
supposing himself to be very dependent upon his friends, he insisted that he
must consult them, and have a regard for their feelings in this matter. I could
not possibly beat him off from this ground, although I spent three hours in the
effort. He seemed almost ready to repent -- I thought he certainly would; but
he slipped away, relapsed by a perpetual backsliding, and I expect will be
found at last among the lost in perdition. Would you not expect such a result
if he tore himself away under such an excuse as that?
O, sinner, you must not care what others say of you -- let them
say what they please. Remember, the question is between your own soul and God,
and "He that is wise shall be wise for himself, and he that scorneth, he
alone shall bear it." You must die for yourself, and for yourself must
appear before God in judgment! Go, young woman, ask your brother, "Can you
answer for me when I come to the judgment? Can you pledge yourself that you can
stand in my stead and answer for me there?" Now until you have reason to believe
that he can, it is wise for you to disregard his opinions if they stand at all
in your way. Whoever interposes any objection to your immediate repentance,
fail not to ask him -- Can you shield my soul in the judgment? If I can be
assured that you can and will, I will make you my Saviour; but if not, then I
must attend to my own salvation, and leave you to attend to Yours.
I never shall forget the scene which occurred while my own mind
was turning upon this great point. Seeking a retired place for prayer, I went
into a deep grove, found a perfectly secluded spot behind some large logs, and
knelt down. All suddenly, a leaf rustled and I sprang, for somebody must be
coming and I shall be seen here at prayer. I had not been aware that I cared
what others said of me, but looking back upon my exercises of mind here, I
could see that I did care infinitely too much what others thought of me.
Closing my eyes again for prayer, I heard a rustling leaf again,
and then the thought came over me like a wave of the sea, "I am ashamed of
confessing my sin!" What! thought I, ashamed of being found speaking with
God! O, how ashamed I felt of this shame! I can never describe the strong and
overpowering impression which this thought made on my mind. I cried aloud at
the very top of my voice, for I felt that though all the men on earth and all
the devils in hell were present to hear and see me I would not shrink and would
not cease to cry unto God; for what is it to me if others see me seeking the
face of my God and Saviour? I am hastening to the judgment: there I
shall not be ashamed to have the Judge my friend. There I shall not be
ashamed to have sought His face and His pardon here. There will be no
shrinking away from the gaze of the universe. O, if sinners at the judgment
could shrink away, how gladly would they; but they cannot! Nor can they stand
there in each other's places to answer for each other's sins. That young woman,
can she say then -- O, my brother, you must answer for me; for to please you, I
rejected Christ and lost my soul? That brother is himself a guilty rebel,
confounded, and agonized, and quailing before the awful Judge, and how can he
befriend you in such an awful hour! Fear not his displeasure now, but rather
warn him while you can, to escape for his life ere the wrath of the Lord wax
hot against him, and there be no remedy.
12. If you would be saved, you must not indulge prejudices
against either God, or His ministers, or against Christians, or against
anything religious.
There are some persons of peculiar temperament who are greatly
in danger of losing their souls because they are tempted to strong prejudices.
Once committed either in favour of or against any persons or things they are
exceedingly apt to become so fixed as never more to be really honest. And when
these persons or things in regard to which they become committed, are so
connected with religion, that their prejudices stand arrayed against their
fulfilling the great conditions of salvation, the effect can be nothing else
than ruinous. For it is naturally indispensable to salvation that you should be
entirely honest. Your soul must act before God in the open sincerity of truth,
or you cannot be converted.
I have known persons in revivals to remain a long time under
great conviction, without submitting themselves to God, and by careful inquiry
I have found them wholly hedged in by their prejudices, and yet so blind to
this fact that they would not admit that they had any prejudice at all. In my
observation of convicted sinners, I have found this among the most common
obstacles in the way of the salvation of souls. Men become committed against
religion, and remaining in this state it is naturally impossible that they
should repent. God will not humour your prejudices, or lower His prescribed
conditions of salvation to accommodate your feelings.
Again, you must. give up all hostile feelings in cases where you
have been really injured. Sometimes I have seen persons evidently shut out from
the kingdom of heaven, because having been really injured, they would not
forgive and forget, but maintained such a spirit of resistance and revenge,
that they could not, in the nature of the case, repent of the sin toward God,
nor could God forgive them. Of course they lost heaven. I have heard men say,
"I cannot forgive -- I will not forgive -- I have been injured, and I
never will forgive that wrong." Now mark: you must not hold on to such
feelings; if you do, you cannot be saved.
Again, you must not suffer yourself to be stumbled by the
prejudices of others. I have often been struck with the state of things in
families, where the parents or older persons had prejudices against the
minister, and have wondered why those parents were not more wise than to lay
stumbling-blocks before their children to ruin their souls. This is often the
true reason why children are not converted. Their minds are turned against the
Gospel, by being turned against those from whom they hear it preached. I would
rather have persons come into my family, and curse and swear before my
children, than to have them speak against those who preach to them the Gospel.
Therefore I say to all parents -- take care what you say, if you would not shut
the gate of heaven against your children!
Again, do not allow yourself to take some fixed position, and
then suffer the stand you have taken to debar you from doing any obvious duty.
Persons sometimes allow themselves to be committed against taking what is
called "the anxious seat;" and consequently they refuse to go forward
under circumstances when it is obviously proper that they should, and where
their refusal to do so, places them in an attitude unfavourable, and perhaps
fatal to their conversion. Let every sinner beware of this!
Again, do not hold on to anything about which you have any doubt
of its lawfulness or propriety. Cases often occur in which persons are not
fully satisfied that a thing is wrong, and yet are not satisfied that it is
right. Now in cases of this sort it should not be enough to say, "such and
such Christians do so;" you ought to have better reasons than this for
your course of conduct. If you ever expect to be saved, you must abandon all
practices which you even suspect to be wrong. This principle seems to be
involved in the passage, "He that doubteth is damned if he eat; for
whatsoever is not of faith is sin." To do that which is of doubtful
propriety is to allow yourself to tamper with the divine authority, and cannot
fail to break down in your mind that solemn dread of sinning which, if you would
ever be saved, you must carefully cherish.
Again, if you would be saved, do not look at professors and wait
for them to become engaged as they should be in the great work of God. If they
are not what they ought to be, let them alone. Let them bear their own awful
responsibility. It often happens that convicted sinners compare themselves with
professed Christians, and excuse themselves for delaying their duty, because
professed Christians are delaying theirs. Sinners must not do this if they
would ever be saved. It is very probable that you will always find guilty
professors enough to stumble over into hell if you will allow yourself to do
so.
But on the other hand, many professors may not be nearly so bad
as you suppose, and you must not be censorious, putting the worst constructions
upon their conduct. You have other work to do than this. Let them stand or fall
to their own master. Unless you abandon the practice of picking flaws in the
conduct of professed Christians, it is utterly impossible that you should be
saved.
Again, do not depend upon professors -- on their prayers or
influence in any way. I have known children hang a long time upon the prayers
of their parents, putting those prayers in the place of Jesus Christ, or at
least in the place of their own present efforts to do their duty. Now this
course pleases Satan entirely. He would ask nothing more to make sure of you.
Therefore, depend on no prayers -- not even those of the holiest Christians on
earth. The matter of your conversion lies between yourself and God alone, as
really as if you were the only sinner in all the world, or as if there were no
other beings in the universe but yourself and your God.
Do not seek for any apology or excuse whatever. I dwell
upon this and urge it the more because I so often find persons resting on some
excuse without being themselves aware of it. In conversation with them upon
their spiritual state, I see this and say, "There you are resting on that
excuse." "Am I?" say they, "I did not know it."
Do not seek for stumbling-blocks. Sinners, a little disturbed in
their stupidity, begin to cast about for stumbling-blocks for self-vindication.
All at once they become wide awake to the faults of professors, as if they had
to bear the care of all the churches. The real fact is, they are all engaged to
find something to which they can take exception, so that they can thereby blunt
the keen edge of truth upon their own consciences. This never helps along their
own salvation.
Do not tempt the forbearance of God. If you do, you are in the
utmost danger of being given over forever. Do not presume that you may go on
yet longer in your sins, and still find the gate of mercy. This presumption has
paved the way for the ruin of many souls.
Do not despair of salvation and settle down in unbelief, saying,
"There is no mercy for me." You must not despair in any such sense as
to shut yourself out from the kingdom. You may well despair of being saved
without Christ and without repentance; but you are bound to believe the Gospel;
and to do this is to believe the glad tidings that Jesus Christ has come to
save sinners, even the chief, and that "Him that cometh to Him He will in
no wise cast out." You have no right to disbelieve this, and act as if
there were no truth in it.
You must not wait for more conviction. Why do you need any more?
You know your guilt and know your present duty. Nothing can be more
preposterous, therefore, than to wait for more conviction. If you did not know
that you are a sinner, or that you are guilty for sin, there might be some
fitness in seeking for conviction of the truth on these points.
Do not wait for more or for different feelings. Sinners are
often saying, "I must feel differently before I can come to Christ,"
or, "I must have more feeling." As if this were the great thing which
God requires of them. In this they are altogether mistaken.
Do not wait to be better prepared. While you wait you are
growing worse and worse, and are fast rendering your salvation impossible.
Don't wait for God to change your heart. Why should you wait for
Him to do what Heo His command?
Don't try to recommend yourself to God by prayers or tears or by
anything else whatsoever. Do you suppose your prayers lay God under any
obligation to forgive you? Suppose you owed a man five hundred talents, and
should go a hundred times a week and beg him to remit to you this debt; and
then should enter your prayers in account against your creditor, as so much
claim against him. Suppose you should pursue this course till you had canceled
the debt, as you suppose -- could you hope to prove anything by this course
except that you were mad? And yet sinners seem to suppose that their many
prayers and tears lay the Lord under real obligation to them to forgive them.
Never rely on. anything else whatever than Jesus Christ, and Him
crucified. It is preposterous for you to hope, as many do, to make some
propitiation by your own sufferings. In my early experience I thought I could
not expect to be converted at once, but must be bowed down a long time. I said
to myself, "God will not pity me till I feel worse than I do now. I can't
expect Him to forgive me till I feel a greater agony of soul than this."
Not even if I could have gone on augmenting my sufferings till they equalled
the miseries of hell, it could not have changed God. The fact is, God does not
ask of you that you should suffer. Your sufferings cannot in the nature of the
case avail for atonement. Why, therefore, should you attempt to thrust aside
the system of God's providing, and thrust in one of your own?
There is another view of the case. The thing God demands of you
is that you should bow your stubborn will to Him. Just as a child in the
attitude of disobedience, and required to submit, might fall to weeping and
groaning, and to every expression of agony, and might even torture himself, in
hope of moving the pity of his father, but all the time refuses to submit to
parental authority. He would be very glad to put his own sufferings in the
place of the submission demanded. This is what the sinner is doing. He would
fain put his own sufferings in the place of submission to God, and move the
pity of the Lord so much that He would recede from the hard condition of
repentance and submission.
If you would be saved you must not listen at all to those who
pity you, and who impliedly take your part against God, and try to make you
think you are not so bad as you are. I once knew a woman who, after a long
season of distressing conviction, fell into great despair; her health sank, and
she seemed about to die. All this time she found no relief, but seemed only to
wax worse and worse, sinking down in stem and awful despair. Her friends,
instead of dealing plainly and faithfully with her, and probing her guilty
heart to the bottom, had taken the course of pitying her, and almost complained
of the Lord that He would not have compassion on the poor agonized, dying
woman. At length, as she seemed in the last stages of life -- so weak as to be
scarcely able to speak in a low voice, there happened in a minister who better
understood how to deal with convicted sinners. The woman's friends cautioned
him to deal very carefully with her, as she was in a dreadful state and greatly
to be pitied; but he judged it best to deal with her very faithfully. As he
approached her bed-side, she raised her faint voice and begged for a little
water. "Unless you repent, you will soon be," said he, "where
there is not a drop of water to cool your tongue." "O," she
cried, "must I go down to hell?" "Yes, you must, and you
will, soon, unless you repent and submit to God. Why don't you repent and
submit immediately?" "O," she replied, "it is an awful
thing to go to hell!" "Yes, and for that very reason Christ has
provided an atonement through Jesus Christ, but you won't accept it. He
brings the cup of salvation to your lips, and you thrust it away. Why will you
do this? Why will you persist in being an enemy of God and scorn His offered
salvation, when you might become His friend and have salvation if you
would?"
This was the strain of their conversation, and its result was,
that the woman saw her guilt and her duty, and turning to the Lord, found
pardon and peace.
Therefore I say, if your conscience convicts you of sin, don't
let anybody take your part against God. Your wound needs not a plaster, but a probe.
Don't fear the probe; it is the only thing that can save you. Don't seek to
hide your guilt, or veil your eyes from seeing it, nor be afraid to know the
worst, for you must know the very worst, and the sooner you know it the better.
I warn you, don't look after some physician to give you an opiate, for you
don't need it. Shun, as you would. death itself, all those who would speak to
you smooth things and prophesy deceits. They would surely ruin your soul.
Again, do not suppose that if you become a Christian, it will
interfere with any of the necessary or appropriate duties of life, or with
anything whatever to which you ought to attend. No; religion never
interferes with any real duty. So far is this from being the case, that in fact
a proper attention to your various duties is indispensable to your being
religious. You cannot serve God without.
Moreover, if you would be saved you must not give heed to
anything that ld be saved. No consideration thrown in your way should be
allowed to have the weight of a straw or a feather. Jesus Christ has
illustrated and enforced this by several parables, especially in the one which
compares the kingdom of heaven to "a merchant-man seeking goodly pearls,
who when he had found one pearl of great price went and sold all that he had
and bought it." In another parable, the kingdom of heaven is said to be
"like treasure hid in a field, which, when a man hath found, he hideth,
and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath and buyeth that
field." Thus forcibly are men taught that they must be ready to make any
sacrifice whatever which may be requisite in order to gain the kingdom of
heaven.
Again, you must not seek religion selfishly. You must not
make your own salvation or happiness the supreme end. Beware, for if you make
this your supreme end you will get a false hope, and will probably glide along
down the pathway of the hypocrite into the deepest hell.
II. What sinners
must do to be saved.
1. You must understand what you have to do. It is of the
utmost importance that you should see this clearly. You need to know that you
must return to God, and to understand what this means. The difficulty between
yourself and God is that you have stolen yourself and run away from His
service. You belong of right to God. He created you for Himself, and hence had
a perfectly righteous claim to the homage of your heart, and the service of
your life. But you, instead of living to meet His claims, have run away -- have
deserted from God's service, and have lived to please yourself. Now your duty
is to return and restore yourself to God.
2. You must return and confess your sins to God. You must
confess that you have been all wrong, and that God has been all right. Go before
the Lord and lay open the depth of your guilt. Tell Him you deserve just as
much damnation as He has threatened.
These confessions are naturally indispensable to your being
forgiven. In accordance with this the Lord says, "If then their
uncircumcised hearts be humbled, and they then accept of the punishment of
their iniquity, then will I remember my covenant." Then God can forgive.
But so long as you controvert this point, and will not concede that God is
right, or admit that you are wrong, He can never forgive you.
You must moreover confess to man if you have injured any one.
And is it not a fact that you have injured some, and perhaps many of your
fellow-men? Have you not slandered your neighbour and said things which you
have no right to say? Have you not in some instances, which you could call to
mind if you would, lied to them, or about them, or covered up or perverted the
truth; and have you not been willing that others should have false impressions
of you or of your conduct? If so, you must renounce all such iniquity, for
"He that covereth his sins shall not prosper; while he that confesseth and
forsaketh them shall find mercy." And, furthermore, you must not only
confess your sins to God and to the men you have injured, but you must also make
restitution. You have not taken the position of a penitent before, God and
man until you have done this also.
God cannot treat you as a penitent until you have done it.
I do not mean by this that God cannot forgive you until you have
carried into effect your purpose of restitution by finishing the outward act,
for sometimes it may demand time, and may in some cases be itself impossible to
you. But the purpose must be sincere and thorough before you can be forgiven of
God.
3. You must renounce yourself. In this is implied,
(1.) That you renounce your own righteousness, forever
discarding the very idea of having any righteousness in yourself.
(2.) That you forever relinquish the idea of having done any
good which ought to commend you to God, or be ever thought of as a ground
of your justification.
(3.) That you renounce your own will, and be ever ready
to say not in word only, but in heart, "Thy will be done, on earth as it
is in heaven." You must consent most heartily that God's will shall be
your supreme law.
(4.) That you renounce your own way and let God have His
own way in everything. Never suffer yourself to fret and be rasped by anything
whatever; for since God's agency extends to all events, you ought to recognize
His hand in all things; and of course to fret at anything whatever is to fret
against God who has at least permitted that thing to occur as it does.
So long, therefore, as you suffer yourself to fret, you are not right with God.
You must become before God as a little child, subdued and trustful at His feet.
Let the weather be fair or foul, consent that God should have His way. Let all
things go well with you, or as men call it, ill; yet let God do His pleasure,
and let it be your part to submit in perfect resignation. Until you take this
ground you cannot be saved.
4. You must come to Christ. You must accept of Christ
really and fully as your Saviour. Renouncing all thought of depending on
anything you have done or can do, you must accept of Christ as your atoning
sacrifice, and as your ever-living Mediator before God. Without the least
qualification or reserve you must place yourself under His wing as your
Saviour.
5. You must seek supremely to please Christ, and not
yourself. It is naturally impossible that you should be saved until you
come into this attitude of mind -- until you are so well pleased with Christ in
all respects as to find your pleasure in doing His. It is in the nature of
things impossible that you should be happy in any other state of mind, or
unhappy in this. For, His pleasure is infinitely good and right. When,
therefore, His good pleasure becomes your good pleasure, and your will
harmonizes entirely with His, then you will be happy for the same reason that
He is happy, and you cannot fail of being happy any more than Jesus Christ can.
And this becoming supremely happy in God's will is essentially the idea of
salvation. In this state of mind you are saved. Out of it you cannot be.
It has often struck my mind with great force, that many
professors of religion are deplorably and utterly mistaken on this point. Their
real feeling is that Christ's service is an iron collar -- an insufferably hard
yoke. Hence, they labour exceedingly to throw off some of this burden. They try
to make it out that Christ does not require much, if any, self-denial -- much,
if any, deviation from the course of worldliness and sin. O, if they could only
get the standard of Christian duty quite down to a level with the fashions and
customs of this world! How much easier then to live a Christian life and wear
Christ's yoke!
But taking Christ's yoke as it really is, it becomes in their
view an iron collar. Doing the will of Christ, instead of their own, is a hard
business. Now if doing Christ's will is religion, (and who can doubt
it?) then they only need enough of it; and in their state of mind they
will be supremely wretched. Let me ask those who groan under the idea that they
must be religious -- who deem it awful hard -- but they must -- how much
religion of this kind would it take to make hell? Surely not much! When it
gives you no joy to do God's pleasure, and yet you are shut up to the doing of
His pleasure is the only way to be saved, and are thereby perpetually dragooned
into the doing of what you hate, as the only means of escaping hell, would not
this be itself a hell? Can you not see that in this state of mind you are not
saved and cannot be?
To be saved you must come into a state of mind in which you will
ask no higher joy than to do God's pleasure. This alone will be forever enough
to fill your cup to overflowing.
You must have all confidence in Christ, or you cannot so
saved. You must absolutely believe in Him -- believe all His words of
promise. They were given you to be believed, and unless you believe them they
can do you no good at all. So far from helping you without you exercise faith
in them, they will only aggravate your guilt for unbelief. God would be
believed when He speaks in love to lost sinners. He gave them these
"exceeding great and precious promises, that they, by faith in them, might
escape the corruption that is in the world through lust." But thousands of
professors of religion know not how to use these promises, and as to them or
any profitable use they make, the promises might as well have been
written on the sands of the sea.
Sinners, too, will go down to hell in unbroken masses, unless
they believe and take hold of God by faith in His promise. O, His awful wrath
is out against them! And He says, "I would go through them, I would burn
them up together; or let him take hold of My strength, that he may make
peace with Me, and he shall make peace with Me." Yes, let him stir up
himself and take hold of My arm, strong to save, and then he may make peace
with Me. Do you ask how take hold? By faith. Yes, by faith; believe His
words and take hold; take hold of His strong arm and swing right out
over hell, and don't be afraid any more than if there were no hell.
But you say -- I do believe, and yet I am not saved. No, you
don't believe. A woman said to me, "I believe, I know I do, and yet here I
am in my sins." No, said 1, you don't. Have you as much confidence in God
as you would have in me if I had promised you a dollar? Do you ever pray to
God? And, if so, do you come with any such confidence as you would have if you
came to me to ask for a promised dollar? Oh, until you have as much faith in
God as this, aye and more -- until you have more confidence in God than you
would have in ten thousand men, your faith does not honour God, and you cannot
hope to please Him. You must say -- Let God be true though every man be a
liar."
But you say, "O, I am a sinner, and how can I believe? I
know you are a sinner, and so are all men to whom God has given these promises.
"O, but I am a great sinner!" Well, "It is a faithful
saying and worthy of all acceptation, that Jesus Christ came into the world to
save sinners, of whom," Paul says, "I am the chief" So you need
not despair.
7. You must forsake all that you have, or you cannot be
Christ's disciple. There must be absolute and total self-denial.
By this I do not mean that you are never to eat again, or never
again to clothe yourself, or never more enjoy the society of your friends --
no, not this; but that you should cease entirely from using any of these
enjoyments selfishly. You must no longer think to own yourself: your time, your
possessions, or anything you have ever called your own. All these things you
must hold as God's, not yours. In this sense you are to forsake all that you
have, namely, in the sense of laying all upon God's altar to be devoted
supremely and only to His service. When you come back to God for pardon and
salvation, come with all you have to lay all at his feet. Come with your body,
to offer it as a living sacrifice upon His altar. Come with your soul and all
its powers, and yield them in willing consecration to your God and Saviour.
Come, bring them all along -- everything, body, soul, intellect, imagination,
acquirements -- all, without reserve. Do you say -- Must I bring them all? Yes,
all -- absolutely ALL; do not keep back anything -- don't sin against your own
soul, like Ananias and Sapphira, by keeping back a part, but renounce your own
claim to everything, and recognize God's right to all. Say -- Lord, these
things are not mine. I had stolen them, but they were never mine. They were
always Thine; I'll have them no longer. Lord, these things are all Thine,
henceforth and forever. Now, what wilt Thou have me to do? I have no business
of my own to do -- I am wholly at Thy disposal. Lord, what work hast Thou for
me to do?
In this spirit you must renounce the world, the flesh, and
Satan. Your fellowship is henceforth to be with Christ, and not with those
objects. You are to live for Christ, and not for the world, the flesh, or the
devil.
8. You must believe the record God hath given of His Son. He
that believes not does not receive the record -- does not set to his seal that
God is true. "This is the record that God has given us eternal life, and
this life is in His Son." The condition of your having it is that you
believe the record, and of course that you act accordingly. Suppose here is a
poor man living at your next door, and the mail brings him a letter stating
that a rich man has died in England, leaving him 100,000 pounds sterling, and
the cashier of a neighbouring bank writes him that he has received the amount
on deposit for him, and holds it subject to his order. Well, the poor man says,
I can't believe the record. I can't believe there ever was any such rich man; I
can't believe there is 100,000 pounds for me. So he must live and die as poor
as Lazarus, because he won't believe the record.
Now, mark; this is just the case with the unbelieving sinner.
God has given you eternal life, and it waits your order; but you don't get it
because you will not believe, and therefore will not make out the order, and
present in due form the application.
Ah, but you say, I must have some feeling before I can believe
-- how can I believe till I have the feeling? So the poor man might say -- How
can I believe that the 100,000 pounds is mine; I have not got a farthing of it
now; I am as poor as ever. Yes, you are poor because you will not believe. If
you would believe, you might go and buy out every store in this country. Still
you cry, I am as poor as ever. I can't believe it; see my poor worn clothes --
I was never more ragged in my life; I have not a particle of the feeling and
the comforts of a rich man. So the sinner can't believe till he gets the inward
experience! He must wait to have some of the feeling of a saved sinner before
he can believe the record and take hold of the salvation! Preposterous enough!
So the poor man must wait to get his new clothes and fine house before he can
believe his documents and draw for his money. Of course he dooms himself to
everlasting poverty, although mountains of gold were all his own.
Now, sinner, you must understand this. Why should you be lost
when eternal life is bought and offered you by the last will and testament of
the Lord Jesus Christ? Will you not believe the record and draw for the amount
at once! Do for mercy's sake understand this and not lose heaven by your own
folly!
I must conclude by saying, that if you would be saved you must
accept a prepared salvation, one already prepared and full, and present.
You must be willing to give up all your sins, and be saved from them, all,
now and henceforth! Until you consent to this, you cannot be saved at all.
Many would be willing to be saved in heaven, if they might hold on to some sins
while on earth -- or rather they think they would Eke heaven on such
terms. But the fact is, they would as much dislike a pure heart and a holy life
in heaven as they do on earth, and they deceive themselves utterly in supposing
that they are ready or even willing to go to such a heaven as God has prepared
for His people. No, there can be no heaven except for those who accept a
salvation from all sin in this world. They must take the Gospel
as a system which holds no compromise with sin -- which contemplates full
deliverance from sin even now, and makes provision accordingly. Any other
gospel is not the true one, and to accept of Christ's Gospel in any other sense
is not to accept it all. Its first and its last condition is swarn and
eternal renunciation of all sin.
REMARKS
1. Paul did not give the same answer to this question which a
consistent Universalist would give. The latter would say, You are to be saved
by being first punished according to your sin. All men must expect to be
punished all that their sins deserve. But Paul did not answer thus. Miserable
comforter had he been if he had answered after this sort: "You must all be
punished according to the letter of the law you have broken." This could
scarcely have been called gospel.
Nor again did Paul give the Universalist's answer and say,
"Do not concern yourself about this matter of being saved, all men are
sure enough of being saved without any particular anxiety about it." Not
so Paul; no -- he understood and did not forbear to express the necessity of
believing on the Lord Jesus Christ as the condition of being saved.
2. Take care that you do not sin willfully after saying
understood the truth concerning the way of salvation. Your danger of this is
great precisely in proportion as you see your duty clearly. The most terrible
damnation must fall on the head of those who "knew their duty, but who did
it not." When, therefore, you are told plainly and truly what your duty
is, be on your guard lest you let salvation slip out of your hands. It may
never come so near your reach again.
3. Do not wait, even to go home, before you obey God. Make up
your mind now, at once, to close in with the offers of salvation. Why not? Are
they not most reasonable?
4. Let your mind act upon this great proposal and embrace it
just as you would any other important proposition. God lays the proposition
before you; you hear it explained, and you understand it; now the next and only
remaining step is -- to embrace it with all your heart. just as any
other great question (we may suppose it a question of life or death) might come
before a community -- the case be fully stated, the conditions explained, and
then the issue is made. Will you subscribe? Will you engage to meet
these conditions? Do you heartily embrace the proposition? Now all this would
be intelligible.
Just so, now, in the case of the sinner. You understand the
proposition. You know the conditions of salvation. You understand the contract
into which you are to enter with your God and Saviour. You covenant to give
your all to God -- to lay yourself upon His altar to be used up there just as
He pleases to use you. And now the only remaining question is, Will you
consent to this at once? Will you go for full and everlasting consecration with
all your heart?
5. The jailer made no excuse. When he knew his duty, in a moment
he yielded. Paul told him what to do, and he did it. Possibly he might have
heard something about Paul's preaching before this night; but probably not
much. But now he fears for his life. How often have I been struck with this
case! There was a dark-minded heathen. He had heard, we must suppose, a great
deal of slang about these apostles; but notwithstanding all, he came to them
for truth; hearing, he is convinced, and being convinced, he yields at once.
Paul uttered a single sentence -- he received it, embraced it, and it is done.
Now you, sinner, know and admit all this truth, and yet infinitely
strange as it is, you will not, in a moment, believe and embrace it with all
your heart. O, will not Sodom and Gomorrah rise up against you in the judgment
and condemn you! That heathen jailer -- how could you bear to see him on that
dread day, and stand rebuked by his example there!
6. It is remarkable that Paul said nothing about the jailer's
needing any help in order to believe and repent. He did not even mention the
work of the Spirit, or allude to the jailer's need of it. But it should be noticed
that Paul gave the jailer just those directions which would most effectually
secure the Spirit's aid and promote his action.
7. The jailer seems to have made no delay at all, waiting for no
future or better time; but as soon as the conditions are before him be yields
and embraces; no sooner is the proposition made than he seizes upon it in a
moment.
I was once preaching in a village in New York, and there sat
before me a lawyer who had been greatly offended with the Gospel. But that day
I noticed he sat with fixed eye and open mouth, leaned forward as if he would
seize each word as it came. I was explaining and simplifying the Gospel, and
when I came to state just how the Gospel is offered to men, he said to me
afterwards: I snatched at it -- I put out my hand, (suiting the action to the
thought), and seized it -- and it became mine.
So in my own case while in the woods praying, after I had burst
away from the fear of man, and began to give scope to my feelings, this passage
fell upon me, "Ye shall seek for Me and find Me when ye shall search for
Me with all your heart." For the first time in the world I found that I believed
a passage in the Bible. I had supposed that I believed before, but surely never
before as I now did. Now, said I to myself, "This is the word of the
everlasting God. My God, I take Thee at Thy word. Thou sayest I shall find Thee
when I search for Thee with all my heart, and now, Lord, I do search for Thee,
I know, with all my heart." And true enough, I did find the Lord. Never in
all my life was I more certain of anything than I was then that I had found the
Lord.
This is the very idea of His promises -- they were made to be
believed -- to be laid hold of as God's own words, and acted upon as if
they actually meant just what they say. When God says, "Look unto Me and
be ye saved," He would have us look unto Him as if He really had salvation
in His hands to give, and withal a heart to give it. The true spirit of faith
is well expressed by the Psalmist, "When Thou saidst, `Seek ye my face,'
my heart replied -- 'Thy face, Lord, will I seek." This is the way -- let
your heart at once respond to the blessed words of invitation and of promise.
Ah, but you say, I am not a Christian. And you never will be
till you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ as your Saviour. If you never become
a Christian, the reason will be because you do not and will not believe the
Gospel and embrace it with all your heart.
The promises were made to be believed, and belong to an one who
will believe them. They reach forth their precious words to all, and whoever
will, may take them as his own. Now will you believe that the Father has given
you eternal life? This is the fact declared; will you believe it?
You have now been told what you must not do and what you must do
to be saved; are you pre pared to act? Do you say, I am ready to
renounce my own pleasure, and henceforth seek no other pleasure than to please
God? Can you forego everything else for the sake of this?
Sinner, do you want to please God, or would you choose to please
yourself? Are you willing now to please God and to begin by believing on the
Lord Jesus Christ unto salvation? Will you be as simple-hearted as the jailer
was? And act as promptly?
I demand your decision now. I dare not have you go home first,
lest you get to talking about something else, and let slip these words of life
and this precious opportunity to grasp an offered salvation. And whom do you
suppose I am now addressing? Every impenitent sinner in this house -- every
one. I call heaven and earth to record that I have set the Gospel before
you today. Will you take it? Is it not reasonable for you to decide at
once? Are you ready, now, to say before high heaven and before this
congregation, "I will renounce myself and yield to God! I am the Lord's,
and let all men and angels bear me witness -- I am forevermore the Lord's."
Sinner, the infinite God waits for your consent!