10 Chap 6 Excuses
CHAPTER VI.
EXCUSES.
1 Kings 18:21.-How long halt ye between two opinions?
Isaiah 1:18.-Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord : though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool
’THE Scriptures give us a most delightful view of the Supreme Being. They represent him as providing salvation, offering it to us, and when we refuse to accept it, condescending to reason the matter with us. When we hesitate, he says, " How long halt ye ?" and when we would excuse ourselves, and cavil or ,object, he says, " Come now, and let us reason together." In the progress of this work, you have seen your exposure on account of sin; what has been done to save you; the nature of the salvation provided, and its free offer. You have ’ been led, it may be, to feel your need of it, and to ask what you must do to be saved. The way of life has been pointed out to you; you have been told, how to enter it ; and you are now debating with yourself whether you shall enter into it. You are halting between two opinions ; and Jehevah says to you, " Come now, and let us reason together." But why do you hesitate ? Why halt between two opinions ? Is it not an easy question to decide ? You cannot hesitate because you have any doubts of what is duty; for you know you ought at once to close with Christ and seek the salvation of your soul. You cannot hesitate because you know not what is your interest; for your own beet good requires you without delay to turn unto the Lord. And there is surely difference enough between heaven and hell, salvation and perdition, eternal life and eternal death, to render a moment’s hesitation alike unnecessary and inexcusable. You are a poor, miserable, condemned sinner. Jesus has died that you might live. You are directed to the way of salvation ; you have taken some steps toward it;- you stand at its very entrance; and the question which agitates your mind, and which you are about to decide, is, Shall I enter? Shall I close with Christ? Shall I believe and be Saved? O think of your situation ! Awakened, alarmed, yet pausing at heaven’s gate, and debating with yourself whether you shall secure the salvation of your soul-whether you will " make your calling and election sure !" 2 Peter 1:10. Why hesitate ? Do you think God is so merciful that he will not punish you, even if you do not embrace Christ ? True, God is merciful.
He is good, he is benevolent, he is long-suffering, he is very pitiful and of tender mercy. 2 Peter 3:9, James 5:11. On all these points the Scriptures are full and explicit. They declare that Jehovah is the Lord God, merciful and gracious; and that his mercy endures for ever. Exodus 34:6; Exodus 34:7. Psalms 113:1-4. But they are equally explicit in teaching that he is just. And justice is not inconsistent with mercy. A being perfect in, all his attributes, must punish the guilty as well as reward the innocent. To treat the innocent and the guilty alike, would be to confound the distinction between right and wrong, and destroy all the motives to virtue. It is true the righteous are not innocent, they belong to a fallen race; but they are treated as innocent for the sake of Him who in -their stead answered the demands of justice, being united to him by faith. Christ himself was innocent. " He did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth." 1 Peter 2:22. He suffered for the guilty. Our sins were laid on him ; he bore their punishment. Isaiah 53:6. And this was consistent with justice, because he was voluntary in assuming our place. He laid down his life for us, as he himself declares-" No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself." John 10:17-18. Yet he was delivered up by the Father, who " made him who knew no sin to be sin for us." Romans 8:32. 2 Corinthians 5:21. And if God spared not his own Son, think you that he will spare the sinner who rejects him? Do you doubt whether God is just? View the agony of Jesus in the garden, and his sufferings on the cross. There, in characters which angels and men may read, it -is ’written, God is just ! Do you doubt whether God will punish sinners? Hear the dying Saviour himself exclaim-" My God, my God, why hest thou forsaken me ?" Matthew 27:46. That which the Saviour then suffered from the hidings of his Father’s face, was no doubt somewhat of the nature of what the damned suffer in hell ; and there on the cross, in that hour of the power of darkness, when the Son of God expired, it was written, not only in Hebrew, and Greek, and Latin, but in all the languages of the earth, and the universe may read it, God will punish sinners! He will by no means clear the guilty. Exodus 34:7. Do you doubt whether God will punish you if you reject his Son? Reader, it is written, " He that hath the Son, hath life ; and he that hath not the Son of God, hath not life." 1 John 5:12. Sooner might Judas escape than you, if you believe not in Jesus. Judas went to his own place, and you must go there too, if you enter not into the way of life. Acts 1:25. God is merciful ; but the only way in which he can show mercy to you, is through Jesus Christ, by whom his justice has been satisfied. Believe in Jesus, and you shall live, "through God’s abounding grace ;" reject Jesus and in your own person you must bear the wrath of God for ever, and be for ever satisfying, by your own sufferings, the justice of God. Nor can his justice be thus fully satisfied while eternity endures. It will ever be crying out for vengeance on you for the rejection of the Son of God, when he was freely offered to you.
"Repent, the voice celestial cries, Nor longer dare delay : The wretch that scorns the mandate dies, And meets a fiery day.
Bow, ere the awful trumpet sound, And call you to his bar : For mercy knows the appointed bound, And turns to vengeance there."
" But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth?" Malachi 3:2. " See that ye refuse not him that speaketh: for if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven." Hebrews 12:25. Do you hesitate because you have some faint hope that God will save all men, whether they believe in. Christ or not? After what has been said, I need not tarry long in answering this excuse. If God will certainly save all men, then what exposure is there from which you need to be saved? If all are to be saved, then where is the need of anxiety about your soul? It is certainly very strange that the thousands on the day of Pentecost cried out, " Men and brethren, what shall we do?" if the Apostles preached the doctrine of universal salvation! Acts 2:37. It is certainly very strange that the Scriptures should insist so much upon the necessity of faith and repentance, and give such clear and vivid representations of future punishment, and of the eternity of that punishment, if all are to be saved at all events! Have all the sinners who have died in their sins gone to heaven-the thieves, the murderers, the adulterers? Revelation 22:15. Were the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah swept to heaven in a shower of fire and brimstone; and the old world carried thither by the flood which destroyed them? Did Judas go direct to heaven when, after betraying his Master, he went and hanged himself, and failing headlong, he burst asunder in the midst, and all his bowels gushed out? Has he not gone to his own place-to hell? Matthew 27:5. Acts 1:18, Acts 1:25. And if but one has perished, then Universalism is untrue; and may not all perish who die without faith in Christ? Such are the teachings of Scripture; for " he that believeth not shall be damned ; and he that believeth not the Son, shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him." Mark 16:16. John 3:36. Of all the delusions of the devil with which corrupt man ever suffered himself to be deceived, none is more contrary to the express declarations and the whole tenor of the word of God, none is more unscriptural, nor more absurd, than this same doctrine of universal salvation ! It is a damnable error, a doctrine of the devil : its author is the father of lies. Genesis 3:4. John 8:44. 1 Timothy 4:1. It dishonours God’s character; represents sin as a trifle ; and encourages transgression. It cuts off every motive to virtue, to amendment and reformation. If, dear reader, you are really convinced of sin by the Spirit of. God, you cannot, for such a reason, hesitate long about entering the path to heaven. If you see your sins in their true light, as violalations of God’s law, which is holy, just, and good, (Romans 7:12,) you must see that they deserve his wrath and curse for ever, and that you, on account of them, deserve his everlasting displeasure. Sin is an infinite evil, because committed against an infinite God, and it deserves an infinite punishment.
True conviction implies correct views of sin; and correct views of sin are inconsistent with the belief that all men shall be saved ; for all men have not faith, and without faith no one cat, be saved. Many die without faith ; and they who thus die are lost. This will be your doom, if you enter not into the way of life! For the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power.- 2 Thessalonians 3:2. Hebrews 11:6. Mark 16:16. John 8:21. 2 Thessalonians 1:7-10. Do you hesitate about closing with Christ because you have yet some hope of being saved by your works? But if this be the way to heaven, then why did Jesus die? Why do we need a Saviour, if our works can save us? And if salvation be of works, then where is grace? It is excluded. Christ died in vain, if salvation be of works; and then, too, there is no grace in our salvation. But " by grace are ye saved," saith Paul. Ephesians 2:8. " Now to him that worketh, is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness." Hence the same apostle declares that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ. Galatians 2:16. And it is written, " By the deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be justified." Romans 3:20. Such being the plain declarations of Scripture, how can you hesitate to close with Christ, in the vain hope that your works will save you? Such a hope is a spider’s web. It will leave your soul defenceless in the day of God’s anger. Or are you trying to make yourself better before you go to Jesus? Remember, If you tarry till you’re better, You will never come at all : Not the righteous-.
Sinners Jesus came to call." A sick man, ready to expire, trying, to make himself better before applying to the physician ! A venomous disease is preying upon you ; there is but one Physician who can heal you ; and to him you will not apply ! You must first hazard the dangerous experiment of trying to cure yourself; or you must at least try to make yourself a little better before you apply to the great Physician! O, you are upon a perilous experiment I Make yourself better you never can. Your case is growing worse ; your sins are increasing ; you are grieving the Spirit and slighting the Saviour who died for you! Could you make yourself better, you might save yourself. Then why did the Saviour die ? Why was a Saviour provided? He came to save sinners; and to save them from their sins. In all your sins, and with them all pressing upon you, go to him, and cry, Lord, save me, I perish ; Jesus, save me, or I die Matthew 8:25. Or do you feel yourself so great a sinner that you cannot be’ forgiven? Have you tried every expedient in the hope of finding relief, and are you now ready to despair? One expedient you have not tried! That is faith in Jesus; and that is the only way of peace. And do you hesitate to apply to him because your sins are so many and so great ? Why the very design for which he came into the world was to save just such sinners as you! Do your sins
"surpass The power and glory of his grace ?" Do they exceed his boundless merits, his unsearchable riches, his infinite sacrifice, his everlasting righteousness? He is an all-sufficient Saviour. "All power is his in heaven and in earth." Matthew 28:18. " He is able to save unto the uttermost." Hebrews 7:25. " His blood cleanseth from all sin." 1 John 1:7. He invites all to come unto him, and promises them rest. Matthew 11:28-30. He invites you; and were your sins ten thousand times as great as they are, the fountain which Christ bath opened for sin and for uncleanness, is sufficient to wash them all away. Zechariah 13:1. " Yea, though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as. snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool." Isaiah 1:18. How many poor miserable sinners have found salvation in Christ And if you will but embrace him by faith, you too shall rejoice in his forgiving love. O, then no longer halt between two opinions; no longer hesitate and ’delay; but now behold the Lamb of God with the eye of faith-look-believe -and live!
"No longer now delay, Nor vain excuses frame;
Christ bids you come to-day, Though poor, and blind, and lame :
All things are ready-sinner, come ! For every trembling soul there ’s room."