06. Can We Make Christ's Sacrifice Meaningless?

6 -- CAN WE MAKE CHRIST’S SACRIFICE MEANINGLESS?

I have mentioned to you the tremendous price that Christ and God have paid for our redemption. It took heaven’s treasure to reach to the deepest depth of man’s spiritual need. The question I have for you now is this: "Can that tremendous price be rendered meaningless by our failure to share it with others?" I’m sure this is a thought-provoking question, and it ought to shock us to our very depths for I believe that the entire price paid for our salvation is meaningless if we fail to tell the world about it. Of what value would the discovery of a cure for cancer be if it were never applied to the sad and painful condition of those who suffer from cancer? Suppose Madam Curie had spent her long hours and tedious labor in discovering radium only to find that no one was interested in propagating her discovery? Of what importance would the discovery of the New World have been if Columbus had never returned to the Old World to declare his discovery? I believe that all of God’s efforts to reach a perishing world would be without rhyme or reason if all of that cost were buried in the tomb outside Jerusalem. This message of Christ’s sacrifice must be told if it is to accomplish the purpose that God intends it to accomplish.

I believe this is the reason that Christ stressed this to His disciples; this is why He insisted that they go and teach all nations. He knew that His efforts depended upon the cooperation of those to whom the message was given. Why go through the agonies of the cross? Why bleed and die if those for whom He was to die are never told of His death? There are countless thousands that are yet waiting to hear of the Saviour’s great sacrifice paid upon Calvary. Even though we have had the Gospel for around twenty centuries we have somehow failed to proclaim its provisions to the ends of the earth as we should have.

Yes, Christ wanted the news of His death to be made known. He did not give them some local assignment; He did not tell them to go just to their own locality and tell their loved ones that the sacrificial lamb had been slain as an atonement for sin. Jesus Christ gave the most wide-sweeping and world-encore passing commission ever given to men. He wanted the price paid to be known in the remotest regions of the earth. Wherever man made his habitation, there the Gospel was to go. His commission and command was to begin in Jerusalem and from there they were to spread out into the regions of Judea and from there into Samaria and then they were to fan out into the entire world, even to the uttermost parts of the earth. No organization could have given a more world-encompassing assignment than this one given to Christ’s followers. The world has developed and invented many gods, but none of their gods can meet the desperate needs of their hearts. We alone have the God the world needs to know about. We also have the knowledge of the God who meets the challenge of sin and the challenge of corrupt, fallen nature. In the early days of Egypt, they had many gods; they worshipped a number of different creatures such as bugs or animals; the Ammonites had Molech and the Romans had Venus and others, yet there is no hope offered in such worship. All these religions can do is deepen their darkness and multiply the grief they are already suffering. I think of people in Egypt going out to the tombs of the dead to weep and wail, trying to make contact with the departed. O! The despair that fills their sorrowing cry! Somehow they felt that they could find peace through their contact with the world of departed spirits. When you look at the heathen, you get an object lesson of the devil’s religion. One of the strongest impressions that the missionary receives is that of the look of woe and despair upon the faces of the unevangelized. You can watch them on their march from the cradle to the grave and witness their tragic condition as they go there without hope and without God. All of their false religions seem to bear some similar characteristics. They all promote the same kind of idolatry regardless of what name might be attached to it. In India, you have the caste system that holds the people in the chains of poverty and ignorance; you have Buddhism which tells them to comfort their hearts by ignoring their misery. Then again, there is Mohammedanism which is little more than a concentration of lust and lies offering nothing whatsoever to break the fetters of sin. There is not a god among the multiplied millions of heathen gods that can have an ounce of compassion upon them; all of their gods are totally destitute of providing the slightest ray of hope for the multitudes of their followers. I repeat again for emphasis, "We have the God that they need to know about."

Someone may ask, Brother Glenn, can they not be saved without our taking the Gospel to them? Is there not some means that could be employed to meet their tragic condition? Well, I would suggest to you that we might as well say that darkness is better than light; we might as well turn off the light in our own country, close our Bibles and cease singing our glorious Gospel songs. No, my friend, there is no way that they can be saved if we fail to take to them the Gospel. They must have the light taken to them in the same measure that it was taken to us. The same truth that was necessary to transform your life is needed to transform theirs.

I wonder just how we would feel if it were a question of the need of our own children! Would we question whether or not they need the Gospel taken to them? Would we be willing to allow them to stumble on in their darkness without a church service, a prayer meeting, or a Sunday School session? We somehow feel the tremendous importance of having our own churches, our own revivals, our own camp meetings, yet we wonder if the heathen can get along without the same glorious truth being shared with them. Certainly any thought of their being saved without the Gospel ought to be abandoned, and we ought to get on with the task of reaching them for Christ.

Think of the wonderful change the Gospel makes in the life of the individual. The same change that comes into a life in our country comes in the life of those saved in other countries. They experience the same relief of conscience and the same joy of salvation. Yes, and in some cases, they pass through strong persecutions. I think of one young man who had been beaten, poisoned, and cast out because he had turned his life over to Jesus Christ. This young man held steady and remained true through it all refusing to back down or turn back to a false, heathen religion that could do nothing for the need of his immortal soul. Each time that we are privileged to witness the transformation of a heathen individual to Christ, we are reminded of the fact that His sacrifice and the price He paid is not without meaning or purpose. Each soul converted gives fresh meaning to all the sufferings, agonies, and sacrifices of Jesus Christ. Thank God, we need not allow His sacrifice to pass into a condition of meaningless effort. We can share this glorious Gospel with the world He asked us to share it with.

Surely they should have at least one opportunity to hear what you and I have heard so often. Can we deny them the privilege of knowing of God’s great plan of salvation? Can we withhold anything from the Lord that He might ask us to surrender to Him? If you are a child of God today, there is nothing you possess that you can rightfully withhold if the Master asks you to surrender it to His service. I suppose if God or Christ had withheld something we might be able to do the same; if Jesus hadn’t given a one hundred-percent commitment to the task of paying the penalty for our transgressions, we might use that as an excuse to do a little less than our best, but such is not the case. God and Christ have done all that can be done and now it is up to you and all Christendom to do the part that is yours to do.

I ask you, can we afford to allow them to go on in their darkness? Can we quiet our conscience while they remain bound in the fetters and chains of heathen superstition? We dare not allow this to take place; we must shoulder our responsibility in this regard. I pray that God will challenge your heart in regard to your part in making Christ known to a lost and perishing world. Will you not ask God what He would have you to do, and I’m sure if you ask Him this, He will tell you something that you can do. I have prayed that God would speak to your heart as you read this message and I believe that He has spoken and awaits your response to His voice. Souls perish while you remain in a condition of indecision. Join us right now in a covenant of concern for a world that so desperately needs the light of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Jesus paid the full price for our redemption; let us pay the full price in seeing that others have the story of redemption given to them.

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