Romans 8

Romans 8:28

HELPFUL RESULTS FROM AN UNHOLY WAR Romans 8:28 Preached shortly after the World War closed. I AM to speak to you this evening on “Helpful Results from an Unholy War.” I would gladly lay emphasis upon both features of this theme. The great Apostle put the question once, “Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound”? and answered it, “God forbid”. In that statement he enunciated a perfectly righteous principle; and I would have no man interpret me to mean that the war through which we passed, 1914-1918, was in any measure justified by the good things that grew out of it. By the profoundest conviction I am in perfect accord with what the Grand Duke Michal of Russia said upon this subject: “War is devilish!” In accord also with the comment of another upon the Grand Duke’s statement: “No words can describe the awful sufferings and agonies of this man-made hell of war. Any one who wants to see war anywhere, so that we can sell goods at higher prices, certainly has the mind of the devil, and is not very likely to be at peace with himself. The soldiers who have seen real war are the least anxious for it.

We ought to take the emphasis off of the “glory” of war and place it where it belongs. It is hellish!” If the world was ever weary and sick of one sight it is that of human bloodshed by human hands—a wholesale murder created by international complications and unbridled national ambitions. Let no auditor tonight imagine that I am here to defend war; in the language of the Apostle, “God forbid!” And yet, that certain temporal benefits accrue from this cannot be questioned. It is only another illustration of our text: “All things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose.”I want to present these benefits under three suggestions: Temporal, Moral, and Spiritual. The most evident effect of the war was felt in the prosperity brought to the common people. The world was a wreck. Destruction and maiming were both on every side; and yet, in consequence of that common disaster, human labor, for both the mind and the muscle has been greatly enhanced. The reconstruction necessities were so enormous that no able-bodied man waited and watched for employment. Even the maimed and halt were occupied and able to earn salaries that the very strongest had found it difficult to secure only a few years since. The strikes and social disorders of Old World countries, Canada and the United States, are not the hopeless, helpless expression of man’s inhumanity to man and of sordid social conditions that they were a few years since.

I lived in Chicago thirty-five years ago and saw something of the great strikes that characterized and cursed that city at that time. One’s sympathies were drawn out to the laborer; his income was so small, his social and home conditions were so unhappy; his outlook so clouded; the very spirit was crushed and one did not wonder at his sullen rebellion.

The strikes and social disturbances of the present time represent altogether another phase of life. They speak the conscious strength of organized labor; they even represent a practical demand upon the man of wealth, for a fair, if not an equal division; they voice not servants and slaves, but conscious rulers. Democracy has triumphed to such an extent that we are in veritable danger from the common man who is fast becoming the crowned man; and whose new power is not always employed with conscience and discretion. In the South a few days since I found the white people living in constant anxiety over the race question. The colored man of the South is not only a free man, but ambitious to be a master; and in those sections where he is superior in numbers, the alarm of the whites has good occasion.But in spite of the growth of Socialism, the dangers attendant upon triumphant democracy, the general condition of the people now is marvelously improved over that of times past. Better an occasional revolution than white slaves and black slaves, living in sordid poverty and serving without prospect.

Temporal prosperity is one of the blessings growing out of a bad war. Even in those countries most sorely torn by shot and shell, reconstruction is coming rapidly because laborers are scarce and salaries are high, and markets are active, and few men are idle.Again, It has put power into the hands of the people.

The potentates of earth have perished from their thrones. In Germany alone 278 titled men were reduced by war to civilian rank. Almost every other country has been relieved of the taxing burden of ornamental crowns and oppressive thrones. The Republic and the Democracy—these are triumphant. We do not believe the old Latin phrase involves the truth—“Vox populi: vox Dei”; but we are confident that the people have a right to rebel against oppressive kings and inherited thrones. When from Florence the Medici rulers were expelled, and the chief burden of framing a new constitution fell upon the great minister Savonarola, he introduced his reformation by the appeal of Scripture, “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God”. And when he came to establish a Republic, he rested it in three or four simple principles:Fear God. Prefer the weal of the Republic to thine own. Recognize a general amnesty. Have a Grand Council after the pattern of Venice but without a doge, (or chief). There is one thing in this arrangement to which I call your attention. You would expect from Savonarola the first principle—“Fear God.” You are not surprised to have them given the fundamental thing, “seeking the Kingdom of God”; but his loyalty to human government is fully revealed in his demand that the people prefer the weal of the Republic to their own. That is the essence of patriotism; and wherever the people have that spirit, “My country first; my personal interest second,” the country is safe in the people’s hands. We have had a vast deal to say about making “the world safe for democracy”, but there is something further needed, and that is making democracy safe for the world, by bringing the people to look beyond their own personal ambitions to the public weal. If it were not for selfishness, thrones and crowns would not have been such curses. If selfishness lives in the Republic or dominates the Democracy, then democracy will not be safe for the world.

This war has put the power into the people’s hands. We must wait now and see how they will exercise it. If its prostitution occurs, then oppression, hardship, suffering, such as now curses Russia, will characterize it. Whether the people prefer the weal of the democracy to their own, will determine the question of blessing or curse.Greater yet will be theMORAL that will come in consequence of the World War. Let me make mention of a few of these:The war has struck the legalized saloon a stunning blow. To be sure it will not die easy. Its final struggle will be great enough to persuade many men that it is more alive than ever. The chicken with its head off flies faster and flutters louder, and shows more convulsive action than it ever did when its head was in place, and its neck vertebra unbroken; but they are the reflex actions of the dying just the same. One day when Jesus Christ came from the Mount of Transfiguration, He found at its base a boy possessed with an evil spirit.

He commanded the demon to come out of him. The boy fell, frothed at the mouth; great muscular convulsions shook his frame; his appearance for a brief space of time was worse than it had ever been before, and the superficial man might have said it were better to have left the demon undisturbed.

But that judgment would have been superficial indeed. It was the day of doom; the devil was going out; the boy was being delivered. These paroxisms would be followed by peace; and the mental derangement to which he had been long subjected would give place to a splendid equilibrium of mind.It is so with the dying convulsions of the liquor traffic. We may expect orgies, expect convulsions shaking the entire land. But they are death throes nevertheless; and if we ever had cause to sing the Te Deum in connection with the Prohibition movement, we will have better occasion a few years hence.Again, this war has shown God’s judgment on the social vice. From time immemorial, the very assembly of men for battle has given dangerous supremacy to this sin; but never before have men studied its effects as now, and given to their scientific investigation the publicity that has now come.

The magazines and newspapers have dared to report the physical incapacity of thousands afflicted with the most dreaded of all human diseases, the sufferings consequent of sin that has beggared hell for description. The public has read these reports, they have conveyed their own warning, and the social vice has been shown to be, not a mere violation of a code which men in their selfish ambitions have built up; but rather a law, which God in His wisdom declared, and in His awful judgments now defends.

The Scriptures say, “The wages of sin is death”, and the social vice has illustrated that a million times; and the war has made the illustration potent through its publicity.Yet again, The war has shamed cowardice and exalted courage. This is a moral blessing. No man lives and is sane and debates whether courage is a moral virtue. Henry Van Dyke holds high place in modern literature. In one of his sermons he says: “Courage is an honorable virtue. Men have always loved and praised it. It lends a glory and a splendor to the life in which it dwells, lifts it up and ennobles it, and crowns it with light. The world delights in heroism, even in its rudest forms and lowest manifestations. * * A brave, frank, manly foe is infinitely better than a false, weak, timorous friend.

The literature of the courageous has always been immensely popular, and the history of the brave is written in letters of gold. It is this that men have loved to read in the strange, confused annals of war —deeds of self-forgetful daring which leap from the smoke and clamor of battle, and shine in the sudden making of splendid names.” The boy on the burning deck, refusing to disobey his father’s commands even in the face of death; brave Lady Douglas defending her king from assassin; Leonidas at Thermopylae, and Horatius at the bridge, and the Six Hundred at Balaklava; Old Cranmer bathing his hands in fire at the martyr’s stake; young Stephen praying fearlessly for his murderers; Florence Nightingale facing fever in Crimean hospitals; Father Damien braving leprosy in the Islands of the Sea; young men and maidens, old men and matrons, fighting, suffering, achieving, resisting, enduring, daring, living, and dying—it’s the spark of heroism that kindles their names into the blaze of light, for everywhere and always courage is an honorable virtue.”“Courage, the highest gift, that scorns to bend To mean devices for a sordid end; Courage, an independent spark from Heaven’s throne, By which the soul stands raised, triumphant, high, alone; The spring of all true acts is seated here, As falsehoods draw their sordid birth from fear.” It is doubtful if anything has ever come into human history that produces so much courage, and physical courage of so high an order, as characterized the World War. One of the most informing articles appearing in a leading magazine was entitled, “The New Death”, and the author contended that men were dying in a new way, dying with a smile upon their faces, dying with willingness in their hearts, dying because they believed it were better to die than to let wrongs live.” That was courage; and that came out of that awful carnage of world war.But more important still are what men would callS RESULTS Of these there are a multitude one would like to name, and upon these he would like to dwell at length, for they are worthy; but perhaps out of the great company of such results that would naturally claim attention, I may be pardoned if I choose three, and spend the remaining portion of our time upon them.It has put into the church a new conviction of duty. And I think this is true whether you speak of the church as a local body, or use the phrase in a larger sense—the church at large. One thing is certain in the lurid light of the world of flame; the church was not satisfied with what she saw of her own deeds and doings. I think throughout the whole earth there was a feeling that if the Church had done its whole duty the war would not have come, a conviction that in withholding our funds from home and foreign missions, and our sons and our daughters from sacrificial service and living selfishly, we had made possible a combination of an old and a new heathenism—a heathenism that poorly recognized God, a heathenism that permitted false personal and national pride, a heathenism that paved the way for human butchery, and sought to cloak the crime with Christian terms. The Church is now doing penance, and is putting up larger sums for Gospel preaching than it has ever pledged since it had its birth; laying emphasis upon social service in the hope of thereby straightening the world.While some of us believe that many false notes are being sounded, and that failure will attend them every one, we are also convinced that the new conviction of duty coming to the Church of God is bound to accrue to the advantages of Christianity. More will not only be attempted, but more will be accomplished than before the war; and so far as atonement can be made for an indolent past, many churches are making it.

Carter Glass, Secretary of the Treasury at Washington, in a communication addressed to American pastors said, “When real service for the upbuilding and betterment of the nation and community is needed we naturally look to the churches of the country for their loyal assistance and cooperation. During the war they held true to their faith and justified the confidence as being instruments upon which the Government could rely for assistance in all the activities necessary to the successful prosecution of a just and righteous war.

In peace time the needs of the nation and the community are as great, and should be as inspiring to the churches as are the war-time needs. Many of the things that we do under the pressure of war are equally necessary and valuable in times of peace, but it sometimes happens that it needs the shock and force of war to bring these to our attention.” Perhaps that is exactly what has occurred. The very shake of war wakened sleeping men and dozing women and the appeals of duty are now receiving attention. Let us hope that the effort will not be spasmodic, but sincere and sustained.The second spiritual result is to be found in the clear failure of new theology. A bloodless gospel converted Germany into a bloody people; and wherever it has been preached in every portion of the world, the product has been the same. Bring men to believe in new theology, based as it is upon the evolution hypothesis, and they will set themselves to the task of producing the super-man, and trying to put the supremacy of the world into his potent hands.

That is exactly what took place, and that falsehood brought the war into existence. If England and America can learn anything by a bitter experience, they ought to learn the danger of adopting Rationalism, and then confusing it with the Christian religion.

Cardinal O’Connell, speaking on President Eliot’s “Twentieth Century Religion”, sagely said: “Millions are growing up without even an intelligent knowledge of God, of Christ, of religion, of spiritual life. The press, the stage, the street are flooded with living proofs of a spiritual decadence which can bring only social and national ruin. The play, the magazine, the ball room, all give evidence of an ever-increasing disregard of even the rudiments of common decency, of dress, of deportment, of conversation and of conduct. Little by little the bars have been lowered letting out the few influences which held society in restraint, and letting in a very flood of folly, of insatiate greed for amusement of any and every kind, until what even a few years ago would make a decent woman blush to see in others, has become so common that even decent women now accept it as matter of fact for themselves and their daughters. We need be neither prude nor Puritan to see and to realize that something is passing in the heart and the mind of the women of today which is leaving them hard and unwomanly, and that year by year this transformation goes on, until, if it continues, there will be neither home nor family nor normal womanly nature left. If this is the new woman, then God spare us from any further developments of such an abnormal creature.

Thank God, the woman who is true to her faith is not easily influenced by these modern fads of a new paganism. She has her standards and she stands by them unchanged.

And what, in the last analysis, is the cause of all this moral degeneracy evident on all sides? Why it is simply the natural result of the decay of even the external semblance of Christianity.“If the Bible is nothing but a bit of oriental poetry, if faith is only superstition, if, as again and again we have been told by some of the intellectuals, miracles and magic are all the same, and God is an electric current, then what wonder that the churches are empty, and what wonder that men refuse to think any more of God, or of religion or of moral law.“The leaders of this false and crude intellectualism have lost all that is best in life. They have killed the heart in men, because they themselves have no heart. What do they know of real life— they who have never for a single day lived among the poor, the laborer, the struggling artisan—they whose whole existence has been spent among chemical formulas or in the prim sedateness of a university board meeting where an error in grammar is a mortal sin and where a soft voice passes for conviction and principle? Why, this is all sham! How can men who know nothing of hearts, nothing of feeling, nothing of the trials of poverty, of affliction, whose whole creed is a conceited notion of their own importance, and whose life is a sort of flawless cycle, know anything of real life, of real need, moral and spiritual; in fact, what can they know of real men?“If they would confine themselves to chemistry we should have some respect for their opinions.

But when they invent a new religion each year—a thing which is as old as error and has nothing of religion in it, they simply make themselves ridiculous. Let them all drop the fads and frills of a false social and moral standard of life and get down to the hearts of men and things.

We are tired to death of theories which never solve anything and only breed confusion. The world is being talked to death with a new sociology and a new religion and a new system of pedagogy at the end of every public dinner. Amid all this riot of talk who can really think? It is thought, not talk, that is most wanted and most needed. It is consideration of old and eternal truths, truth eternal and immutable, that will bring back to those even outside the church respect for Christian principles and Christian ideals.”Finally, the late war justified the Saviour’s sacrificial atonement. At the very time when men are putting forth books calling the doctrine of salvation by “shed blood” “foolish and futile”, the world had demonstrated that salvation could not be had after another manner.

If an uninspired ruler in Jesus’ day was sufficiently illumined to say, “It was expedient that one man should die for the people”, for the salvation of our nation it was expedient that many men die; for the saving of England it was expedient that millions should die; and for the life of France it was expedient that many more die. “Without shedding of blood” the people would have perished. We applaud their heroism; we approve the principle upon which they proceeded.

How strange, then, that we should object when God adopts the same method for the salvation of the world, and puts His own Son into the deadly breach to perish that we might not be slaughtered by sin; for, “He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:21).It is doubtful if any illustration of this truth is more potent than the bronze statue of Nathan Hale, near the Post Office in New York, with its inscription, “I regret that I have but one life to give for my country!” That is the Gospel! Isaiah anticipated it before it was visualized, and wrote: “He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to His own way; and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:5-6).

Romans 8:30

“I DON’T KNOW THAT I AM OF THE ELECT” Romans 8:30 ago in a special meeting I found a young lady student under deep conviction of sin. She rose for prayers on two or three consecutive mornings. She remained to talk and gave every evidence of the deepest sense of sin, but after some days the shadows seemed to be still resting upon her soul and she would not say she had accepted Jesus as Saviour.At last I urged her to tell me what was in the way. I said, “Are you willing to give up the world?” “Yes”, she was! I said, “Have you cast yourself upon the Lord, begging for His forgiveness?” She replied in the affirmative. I said, “Have you looked to this promise, ‘Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out’?” She answered, “I have”. “What, then, is your difficulty?” “Well”, she said, in a hesitating manner, “I don’t know that I am of the elect”.

When I asked, “Where did you get the idea that some were elected to salvation and some were not so elected?” I learned that she had been brought up in the midst of people who were not only hyper-Calvinists but possibly Fatalists, and that she was more familiar with this night’s text than with any other in all the Word of God. Three days after that she had come out into the perfect light and her face was as radiant as her spirit had been gloomy. Her testimonies in the meetings were joyfully made and her influence was exerted that others might be saved.Now I propose to take up her excuse tonight, for it is probably the very same that some here have been wont to present.“Whom He did predestinate, them He also called: and whom He called, them He also justified: and whom He justified, them He also glorified. “What shall we then say to these things? If God he for us, who can he against us”? (Romans 8:30-31). Three things suggested by this thirtieth verse I want to emphasize:LISTEN, AND GOD WILL CALL YOU The impression that prevails with some people that God only calls a few of His favorites is also absolutely false. Isaiah, speaking for God, said, “Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters”. And God, by the mouth of the same Prophet, cries, “Look unto Me, and he ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else” (Isaiah 45:22).The Gospel is God’s call to salvation. When Paul was at Antioch preaching to those people, after having reviewed for them some of the Old Testament prophecy touching the Christ to come, he showed how they had been fulfilled in the appearance of the Son of Man; and then he said, “Men and brethren, children of the stock of Abraham, and whosoever among you feareth God, to you is the word of this salvation sent” (Acts 13:26). And the same Apostle, writing his Epistle to the Romans, said, “For I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek” (Romans 1:16); and in the same Epistle (Romans 3:22-23), speaking of the righteousness which came by Jesus Christ, Paul taught that between Jew and Greek “there is no difference: for all have sinned; and come short of the glory of God”.No man ever hears the Gospel, no matter who he is and to what stock he belongs, but God is calling to him. Perhaps you have read how Katherine Booth went to Paris and hired a fashionable ballroom not far from the Grand Opera and began to preach the Gospel in the simplest, plainest and most pungent way.

The room was crowded with grand gentlemen and elegant ladies who came in opera dress, carrying gold eye-glasses and wearing glittering diamonds, and maintaining the bearing of Parisian society folks; and this painted, powdered crowd filled every available seat. When Mrs.

Booth knelt to pray they were surprised at her attitude and the power of her petition; and when she began to speak on the subject, “Has God left Paris?” they listened with amazed wonder, turning their glasses upon her as they were wont to do with their theatrical stars. But very shortly a solemn hush fell over the audience; the straightforward words of the speaker were accomplishing wonders. Fans were folded, glasses were forgotten, social airs put aside, and a longing for a better life could be seen in many of the faces upon which she looked. Some were unable to restrain their tears and others sobbed on account of their sins. There in that wicked city of Paris, God, by His Gospel, was calling the people who had put Him out of their minds and had entertained little purpose of ever making their peace with Him.One evidence of the inspiration of God’s Word is in the fact that when it is faithfully spoken men feel that through it God is calling them to repentance and reformation. “To you is the word of this salvation sent” (Acts 13:26).Conviction is the Spirit’s call. When Christ was departing this world He said, “If I depart, I will send Him (the Comforter—the Spirit) unto you.

And when He is come, He will reprove the world of sin * * Of sin, because they believe not on Me” (John 16:7-9). When John was about to finish the sacred canon God said unto him, “Write * * The Spirit and the bride say, Come” you may be sure when you are convicted of sin that it is the Spirit’s call.There is no more eloquent call that can ever come to you, and no call you will better understand.

I know right well that the sound of my voice in asking you to be reconciled is not to be compared with that still small voice with which the Spirit speaks, showing you that you are the sinner and that Jesus is your only Saviour, saying, “Accept Him and live”.Dr. George F. Pentecost told how a poor little ragged Scotch girl came to him when he was preaching one night in Aberdeen. As he looked upon her he thought she was a little beggar; and so she was, but it was not silver and gold she sought. Speaking to her he said, “Lassie, what do you want?” Standing on her tiptoes she beckoned him, and as he bent down his ear, she whispered into it, “I want to get saved”. He was surprised and startled at the intensity of her utterance.

He said to her, “You want to get saved!” “Aye Sir, I do.” “Lassie, why do you want to get saved?” Again on her tiptoes, she whispered in his ear, “Because I am a sinner”.He took her by the hand and led her to one side away from the people who were standing near. When alone he said, “How do you know you are a sinner?

Who told you so?” “God says so in the Book; and then, I feel it right here”, she said as she laid her little hand on her breast, smiting herself as did the publican when he cried, “God be merciful to me a sinner”. “Well”, said Dr. Pentecost, “do you think I can save you?” Up to this time she had spoken in whispers, but in answer to that question her eyes flashed fire, and she said, “No! No! man, you cannot save me. No man can save a sinner; but Jesus can save me.” God’s Spirit had spoken to her heart and she knew her call. And you know yours if the Holy Ghost is calling you, for when He is come He convicts of sin; “of sin, because they believe not on Me (Christ)”.The promises are Christ’s call. There will be thousands in Heaven, if not millions, who made their peace with God, their “calling and election sure” by putting faith in the words, “All that the Father giveth Me shall come to Me; and him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out” (John 6:37).

And every other promise of salvation made by the Son of God is His call to the sinner.Mr. Moody once said, “Suppose I am taking a walk and come near to a great hall, and speaking to the policeman, ask, ‘Who are invited to this meeting?’ ‘Those who have tickets’, he replies. ‘I have no ticket, so I say it is not for me.’ I walk on further and I read over the door, ‘This is only for those belonging to the Society.’ Of course I cannot go in.

Yet a little distance, and a large public building, a club. ‘Only members admitted’, I read on the door. It is not for me either and I go further still and come to another building and over the door is written, ‘Whosoever will, let him come in.’ And, it is for me this time. ‘Whosoever’, that means me and in I go.’ Christ put it just like that, “Whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life”. “Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely”. “Yes,” but some one says, “there is another side to that. Christ said, ‘No man can come unto Me, except the Father which sent Me draw him’ ”, and Mr. Moody replies, “Well, I say, Christ is drawing men, ‘I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me’. That is according to the Word.”And I want to know tonight if He is not drawing you unto Himself. Listen! Hear what Christ says and understand that you are called unto salvation.Every sinner having heard the promises of the Son of God has a right to say:“I hear Thy welcome voice That calls me, Lord, to Thee, For cleansing in that precious Blood, That flowed on Calvary. “Though coming weak and vile, Thou dost my strength assure; Thou dost my vileness fully cleanse, Till spotless all, and pure. “ ’Tis Jesus calls me on To perfect faith and love, To perfect hope and peace and trust, For earth and heaven above. “All hail! atoning Blood! All hail! redeeming grace! All hail! the gift of Christ, our Lord, Our Strength and Righteousness. “I am coming, Lord! Coming now to Thee! Wash me, cleanse me in the Blood That flowed on Calvary!” ACCEPT CHRIST AND GOD WILL JUSTIFY YOU “Moreover, whom He did predestinate, them He also called: and whom He called, them He also justified” (Romans 8:30). That passage must be interpreted in the light of other Scripture. Not every one that is called will be justified. Twice Christ taught us this thing. In Matthew 20:16 He said, “The last shall be first, and the first last: for many be called, but few chosen”. And again in the twenty-second of Matthew, speaking of the parable of the marriage of the king’s son, He tells us that“when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment: “And he saith unto him, Friend, how earnest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless. “Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. “For many are called, but few are chosen” (Matthew 22:11). God’s proffers are universal. How; any one can be troubled over the question whether they belong to the elect or not, in the face of what God has said in His Word, I do not understand.“God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life”. It is written of Jesus Christ, “He is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world”. And, as Mr. Moody said, speaking to this excuse: The Lord Jesus seems to have seen how men were going to stumble over this doctrine of predestination, so after He had been thirty or forty years in Heaven, He came down and spoke to John one Lord’s Day in Patmos, and He told John some things He wanted him to write to the churches, and as John kept on writing until he came near to the end, Jesus said, “Now, John, before you close the Book put in this, ‘The Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come’ But there will be some that are deaf, and they cannot hear, so add, ‘Let him that is athirst come’; but put it still broader John, Whosoever will, let him take the Water of Life freely’” The Book was sealed, as it were, with that.

It is the last invitation in the Bible “Whosoever will”. And He meant it or He would not have closed His canon with it.The soul’s election depends upon the soul’s choice.

Thou, my friend, art the only person who can settle this question of election. It is not settled in Heaven; it is settled on earth. It is not settled of the Lord; it is settled by man. If the poor publican had never said, “God be merciful to me a sinner”, God would never have been able to declare that He went down to his house justified. If the dying thief had not cried, “Lord, remember me when Thou comest into Thy Kingdom”, the Son of God would never have said, “Today shalt thou be with Me in paradise”. It was when Peter said, “Lord, save me”, that Christ immediately put forth His hand and lifted him up. The promise is that when you come to Him He will not cast you out. It is His to save.

It is yours to come.I often think of that story told of Senator Vance of North Carolina, who used to be a favorite in the Senate, and who had a broad strip of Calvinism in him.Going along the road in Buncomb County one day he overtook a venerable colored man with whom he thought to have a little fun. “Well, Uncle”, said the Governor, “are you going to church?” “No, sah; not edzatly. I’m gwine back from church.” “You are a Baptist, I reckon, aren’t you?” “No, sir, I ain’t no Baptist! De mos of the brederan and sisteren about heah has ben unde de watah.” “Methodist, then?” “No, Sah, I aint no Mefodis nudder.” “Campbellite?” “No, sah, I can’t errogate to myself the Camelite way of thinkin.” “Well, what in the name of common sense are you then?” rejoined the Governor. “De fac am, Boss”, said the old man, “my ole massa was a herald of de cross in de Presbweterian church, and I was fotched up in dat faith.” “What, you don’t mean it? That is my church. And do you believe in all the Presbyterian creed?” “Yes, dat I does.” “Do you believe in the doctrine of predestination?” “I don’t know dat I recognize de name, sah.” “Why, do you believe if a man is elected to be saved he will be saved; and if he is elected to be lost, he will be lost?” “Oh, yes, Boss, I believe dat. It’s Gospel talk, dat is.” “Well now, take my case.

Do you believe I am elected to be saved?”The old man hesitated a moment as if trying to think out a respectful answer. Then he shook his head dubiously. “Come, now”, said the Governor, “answer me straight.

Do you think I am elected to be saved?”“Well, I’ll tell you what it is Mars Zeb. I’s been libben in dis heah worl nigh onto sixty years and I nebber yet heerd ob a man’s being ‘lected widout he was a candidate.” And the old colored man’s theology was Biblical. Every candidate for holy living will be chosen for Heaven. Every man who accepts Jesus Christ as Saviour will be accepted by Christ. Every soul that surrenders itself to the Son of God will be saved.Your justification will follow the acceptance.“Whom He called, them He also justified”. “Therefore by the deeds of the Law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight”. “Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the Law: for by the works of the Law shall no flesh be justified”. “For if righteousness come by the Law, then Christ is dead in vain”. “Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the Law— “Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ”. Some people are wont to tell us that if a man does the best he knows God will justify him at the last, but the author of “The Plan of Salvation” has shown the fallacy of that argument by an illustration.He tells us that when the English army under Harold, and the Normans under William the Conqueror, were set in array for the fearful conflict which decided the fate of the two armies, and the political destinies of Great Britain, William, perceiving that he could not by a fair attack move the solid columns of the English ranks, had recourse to a false movement in order to gain the victory. He gave orders that one flank of his army should feign to be flying from the field in disorder. The officers of the English army, believing the falsehood, pursued them and were cut off. The second false movement was equally successful, and by these the fortunes of the day were determined. The English did the best they knew and yet they acted upon a falsehood, and the consequence was the destruction of a great part of their army and the establishment of the Norman power in Britain. To suppose that one is to be justified by doing the best he knows is to accept the devil’s philosophy by which he deceives and destroys men. When you know the truth, “the truth shall make you free”. “Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this Man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins: and by Him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the, Law of Moses” (Acts 13:38-39).THE WILL BE “Whom He justified, them He also glorified”. That glory is begun here below. Paul speaks of this glory which is “Christ in you the hope of glory”.Dr. Foss tells of a good woman who lived in the city of Brooklyn, who knew the grace of God in its richness, but who was enduring great affliction in her body. “But”, he says, “her room was always an open gate to Heaven.” One day he had a message from her that she was in trouble and wished to see him. He went as soon as possible and when he inquired what the trouble was, she answered, “I cannot pray any more. As soon as I begin, my prayers are all turned into Hallelujahs. I would have esteemed it a privilege if God had permitted me to spend my remaining days in praying for my friends, but every time I open my mouth it is to shout His praise.” Blessed experience! Glory begun below.Some Modernists have held to scorn a song, the refrain of which runs, “That will be glory for me”, and suggested that such a selfish conception of the sight of Christ’s face and the experience of Heaven reveal sinfulness rather than saintliness, but all such spokesmen have misinterpreted the meaning of the hymn, as the words indicate:“When all my labors and trials are o’er, And I am safe on the beautiful shore, Just to be near the dear Lord I adore, Will thro’ the ages be glory for me. “When, by the gift of His infinite grace, I am accorded in Heaven a place, Just to be there and to look on His face, Will thro’ the ages be glory for me. “Friends will be there I have loved long ago; Joy like a river around me will flow; Yet, just a smile from my Saviour, I know, Will thro’ the ages be glory for me.” The word “glory” here is not used in the sense of exaltation or honor, but rather in the thought of joy and rejoicing; and yet, who doubts that in that joy and rejoicing, as well as in the completed character of the scene, glorification is perfected?