Safety,
Certainty, and Enjoyment
"WHICH
CLASS ARE YOU TRAVELLING?"
±±±
What an
oft-repeated question! Let me put it to you; for traveling you most
certainly are, travelling from time into eternity; and who knows how very, very
near you may be at this moment to the GREAT TERMINUS?
Let me ask you then, in all kindness,
"Which class are you travelling?" There are but three. Let
me describe them that you may put yourself to the test as in the presence of
"Him with whom we have to do."
1st Class - Those who are saved
and know it.
2nd
Class - Those who are not sure of salvation, but anxious to be so.
3rd
Class - Those who are not only unsaved, but totally indifferent about it.
Again I repeat my question, "Which class
are you travelling?" Oh, the madness of indifference, when eternal
issues are at stake! A man came rushing into the railway station and, while
scarcely able to gasp for breath, took his seat in one of the carriages just on
the point of starting.
"You've run it fine," said a
fellow-passenger. "Yes," replied he, breathing heavily after every
two or three words, "but I've saved four hours, and that's well worth
running for."
"Saved four hours!" I
couldn't help repeating to myself; "four hours" well worth that
earnest struggle! What of Eternity? What of Eternity? Yet are there not
thousands of shrewd, far-seeing men to-day, who look sharply enough after their
own interests in life, but who seem stone-blind to the Eternity before
them? Spite of the infinite love of God to helpless rebels, revealed at
Calvary; spite of His pronounced hatred of sin; in spite of the known brevity
of man's history here; in spite of the terrors of judgment after death, and of
the solemn probability of waking up at last with the unbearable remorse of
being on Hell's side of a "fixed" gulf, man hurries on to the bitter
end; as careless as if there were no God, no death, no judgment, no heaven, no
Hell! If the reader of these pages be such an one, may God this very
moment have mercy upon you, and while you read these lines, open your eyes to
your most perilous position, standing as you may be on the slippery brink of an
endless woe!
Oh, friend, believe it or not, your case is
truly desperate! Put off the thought of eternity no longer. Remember,
that procrastination is like him who deceives you by it, not only a
"thief," but a "murderer." There is much truth in the
Spanish proverb which says, "The road of 'By-and-by' leads to the town of
'Never.'" I beseech you, therefore, to travel that road no longer.
"Behold, NOW is the accepted time; behold, NOW is the day of salvation"
(2 Corinthians 6:2).
"But," says one, "I am not
indifferent as to the welfare of my soul. My deep trouble lies wrapped up
in another word –
UNCERTAINTY.
I am among the second-class passengers you
speak of."
Well, both indifference and uncertainty are
the offspring of one parent - unbelief. The first results from unbelief
as to the sin and ruin of man, the other from unbelief as to God's sovereign
remedy for man. It is especially for souls desiring before God to be
fully and unmistakably SURE of their salvation that these pages are written. I
can in a great measure understand your deep soul-trouble, and am assured that
the more you are in earnest about this all-important matter, the greater will
be your thirst, until you know for certain that you are really and eternally
saved. "For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole
world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his
soul?" (Mark 8:36,37). The only son of a devoted father is at
sea. News comes that his ship has been wrecked on some foreign
shore. Who can tell the anguish of suspense in that father's heart until,
upon the most reliable authority, he is assured that his boy is safe and sound?
Or, again, you are far from home. The
night is dark and wintry, and your way is totally unknown. Standing at a
point where two roads diverge, you ask a passer-by the way to the town you
desire to reach, and he tells you he thinks that such and such a way is the
right one, and hopes you will be all right if you take it. Would
"thinks", and "hopes," and "maybes" satisfy
you? Surely not. You must have certainty about it, or every step
you take will increase your anxiety. What wonder, then, that men have
sometimes neither been able to eat nor sleep when the eternal safety of the
soul has been trembling in the balance!
“To loose your wealth is much,
To loose your health is more,
To loose your soul is such a loss
As no man can restore.”
Now, there
are three things I desire, by the Holy Spirit's help, to make clear to you;
and, to put them into Scripture language, they are these:
THE WAY
OF SALVATION. Acts 16:17
THE KNOWLEDGE OF SALVATION. Luke 1:77
THE JOY OF SALVATION. Psalm 51:12
We shall,
I think, see that, though intimately connected, they each stand upon a separate
basis; so that it is quite possible for a soul to know the way of salvation
without having the certain knowledge that he himself is saved; or, again, to
know that he is saved, without possessing at all times the joy that ought to
accompany that knowledge.
First,
then, let me speak briefly of
THE WAY OF
SALVATION
Please
open your Bible, and read carefully the 13th verse of the 13th chapter of
Exodus; there you find these words from the lips of Jehovah: "Every
firstling of an ass thou shalt redeem with a lamb; and if thou wilt not redeem
it, then thou shalt break his neck: and all the firstborn of man among thy
children shalt thou redeem."
Now come back with me in thought to a
supposed scene of 3,000 years ago. Two men (a priest of God and a poor
Israelite) stand in earnest conversation. Let us stand by, with their
permission, and listen. The gestures of each bespeak deep earnestness
about some matter of importance and it is not difficult to see that the subject
of conversation is a little ass that stands trembling beside them.
"I am come to know," says the poor
Israelite, "if there cannot be a merciful exception made in my favour this
once. This feeble little thing is the firstling of my ass, and though I
know full well what the law of God says about it, I am hoping that mercy will
be shown, and the ass's life spared. I am but a poor man in Israel, and can
ill afford to lose the colt."
"But," answers the priest firmly,
"the law of the Lord is plain and unmistakable: 'EVERY firstling of an ass
thou shalt redeem with a lamb; and if thou wilt not redeem it, then thou shalt
break his neck.' Where is the lamb?
"Ah, sir, no lamb do I possess!"
"Then go, purchase one, and return, or
the ass's neck must surely be broken. The lamb must die, or the ass must
die."
"Alas! then all my hopes are
crushed, " he cries, "for I am far too poor to buy a lamb."
While this conversation proceeds, a third
person joins them, and after hearing the poor man's tale of sorrow, he turns to
him, and says kindly, "Be of good cheer, I can meet your need," And
thus he proceeds: "We have in our house, on the hill-top yonder, one
little lamb, brought up at our very hearthstone, which is 'without spot or
blemish.' It has never once strayed from home, and stands (and rightly
so) in highest favour with all that are in the house. This lamb will I
fetch." And away he hastens up the hill. Presently you see him gently
leading the fair little creature down the slope, and very soon both lamb and
ass are standing side by side.
Then the lamb is bound the altar, its blood
is shed, and the fire consumes it.
The
righteous priest now turns to the poor man, and says, "You can freely take
your little colt in safety; no broken neck for it now. The lamb had died
in the ass's stead, and consequently the ass goes righteously free.
Thanks to your friend."
Now, poor troubled soul, can't you see in
this, God's own picture of a sinner's salvation? His claims as to your
sin demanded "a broken neck", that is, righteous judgment upon your
guilty head; the only alternative being the death of a divinely-approved substitute.
Now you
could not find the provision to meet your case; but in the person of His
beloved Son, God Himself provided the Lamb. "Behold the Lamb of God, which
taketh away the sin of the world" (John 1:29).
Onward to Calvary He went, "as a lamb to
the slaughter," (Isaiah 53:7) and there and then He "once suffered
for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God" (1 Peter
3:18). He "was delivered for our offenses, and was raised again for
our justification" (Romans 4:25). So that God does not abate one jot
of His righteous, holy claims against sin when He justifies (i.e., clears from
all charge of guilt) the ungodly sinner who believes in Jesus (Romans
3:26). Blessed be God for such a saviour, such a salvation!
"Dost thou believe on the Son of
God?"
"Well," you reply, "I have, as
a condemned sinner, found in Him one that I can safely trust. I do
believe in Him."
Then I can tell you that the full value of
His sacrifice and death, as God estimates it, He makes as good to you as though
you had accomplished it all yourself.
Oh, what a
wondrous way of salvation is this! Is it not great, and grand, and Godlike,
worthy of God Himself - the gratification of His own heart of love, the glory
of His precious Son, and the salvation of a sinner, all bound up
together? What a bundle of grace and glory! Blessed be the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has so ordered it that His own beloved Son
should do all the work, and get all the praise, and that you and I, poor,
guilty things, believing on Him, should not only get the blessing, but enjoy
the blissful company of the Blessed for ever and ever. "O magnify
the Lord with me, and let us exalt His name together" (Psalm 34:3).
But perhaps your eager inquiry may be, "How is it that
since I do really distrust self and self-work, and wholly rely upon Christ and
Christ's work, that I have not the full certainty of my salvation?" You
say, "If my feelings warrant my saying that I am saved one day, they are
pretty sure to blight every hope the next and I am left like a ship
storm-tossed, without any anchorage whatever." Ah! there lies your
mistake. Did you ever hear of a captain trying to find anchorage by
fastening his anchor inside the ship? Never. Always outside.
It may be that you are quite clear that it is
Christ's death alone that gives SAFETY; but you think that it is what you feel
that gives you certainty.
Now,
again, take your Bible, for I wish you to see from God's Word how He gives a
man THE KNOWLEDGE OF SALVATION
Before you turn to the verse which I shall
ask you very carefully to look at, which speaks of how a believer is to know
that he has eternal life, let me quote it in the distorted way in which man's
imagination often puts it. "These happy feelings have I given unto
you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have
eternal life." Now open your Bible, and while you compare this with
God's blessed and unchanging Word, may He give you from your very heart to say
with David, "I hate vain thoughts: but Thy law do I love" (Psalm
119:113). The verse just misquoted is found in 1 John 5:13,
"These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son
of God; that ye may KNOW that ye HAVE eternal life."
How did the firstborn sons of the thousands
of Israel know for certain that they were safe the night of Passover and of
Egypt's judgment?
Let us pay
a visit to two of their houses, and hear what they have to say.
We have in the first house we enter that they
are all shivering with fear and suspense.
"What
is the secret of all this paleness and trembling?" We enquire, and the
firstborn son informs us that the angel of death is coming round the land, and
that he is not quite certain how matters will stand with him at that solemn
moment,
"When
the destroying angel has passed our house," says he, "and the
night of judgment is over, I shall then know that I am safe; but I can't see
how I can be quite sure of it until then. I hear they ARE sure of
salvation next door, but we think it VERY PRESUMPTUOUS. All I can do is
to spend the long, dreary night HOPING for the best."
“Well,” we inquire, "has the God of
Israel not provided a way of safety for His people?"
"True," he replies, "and we
have availed ourselves of that way of escape. The blood of the spotless
and unblemished first-year lamb has been duly sprinkled with the bunch of
hyssop on the lintel and two side-posts, but still we are not fully assured of
shelter."
Let us now leave these doubting, troubled
ones, and enter next door.
What a
striking contrast meets our eye at once! Peace rests on every
countenance. There they stand, with girded loins, and staff in hand,
feeding on the roasted lamb.
"What can be the meaning of all this
tranquillity on such a solemn night as this?"
"Ah," say they all, "we are
only waiting for Jehovah's marching orders, and then we shall bid a last
farewell to the taskmaster's cruel lash and all the drudgery of Egypt!"
"But hold! Do you forget that this
is the night of Egypt's judgment?"
"Right well we know it; but our
firstborn son is safe. The blood has been sprinkled according to the wish of
our God."
"But so it has been next door," we
reply, "but they are all unhappy, because all uncertain of safety."
"Ah!" firmly responds the
firstborn, "BUT WE HAVE MORE THAN THE SPRINKLED BLOOD: WE HAVE THE
UNERRING WORD OF GOD ABOUT IT. God has said: 'When I see the blood, I
will pass over you' (Exodus 12:13). God rests satisfied with the blood
outside, and we rest satisfied with His Word inside."
The sprinkled blood makes us SAFE.
The spoken
Word makes us SURE.
Could anything
make us more safe than the sprinkled blood, or more sure that His spoken
Word? Nothing, NOTHING.
Now, let
me ask you a question. "Which of these two houses, think you, was
the safer?"
Do you say
No. 2, where all were so peaceful? Nay, then, you are wrong.
Both are
safe alike.
Their
safety depends upon what God thinks about the blood outside, and not upon the
state of their feelings inside.
If you would be sure of your own blessing,
listen not to the unstable testimony of inward emotions, but to the infallible
witness of the Word of God.
"Verily,
verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on Me hath everlasting life"
(John 6:47).
Let me give you a simple illustration from
everyday life. A certain farmer in the country, not having sufficient
grass for his cattle, applies for a nice piece of pasture land which he hears
is to be let near his own house. For some time he gets no answer from the
landlord. One day a neighbour comes in, and says, "I feel quite sure
you will get that field. Don't you recollect how that last Christmas he
sent you a special present of game, and that he gave you a kind nod of
recognition the other day when he drove past in the carriage?" And
with such like words the farmer's mind is filled with sanguine hopes.
Next day another neighbour meets him, and in
course of conversation he says, "I'm afraid you will stand no chance
whatever of getting that grass-field. Mr. _____ has applied for it, and
you cannot but be aware what a favourite he is with the Squire - occasionally
visits him," and so on. And the poor farmer's bright hopes are
dashed to the ground and burst like soap-bubbles. One day he is hoping,
the next day full of perplexing doubts.
Presently the postman calls, and the farmer's
heart beats fast as he breaks the seal of the letter, for he sees by the
handwriting that it is from the Squire himself. See his countenance
change from anxious suspense to undisguised joy as he reads and rereads that
letter.
"It's a settled thing now,"
exclaims he to his wife. No more doubts and fears about it;
"hopes" and "ifs" are things of the past. "The Squire
says the field is mine as long as I require it, on the most easy terms, and that's
enough for me. I care for no man's opinion now. His word settles
all!"
How many a poor soul is in a like condition
to that of the poor, troubled farmer - tossed and perplexed by the opinions of
men, or the thoughts and feelings of his own treacherous heart; and it is only
upon receiving the Word of God, that certainty takes the place of doubts and
peradventures. When God speaks there must be certainty, whether He
pronounces the damnation of the unbeliever, or the salvation of the believer.
"For ever, O Lord, Thy word is settled
in heaven" (Psalm 119:89); and to the simple-hearted believer HIS WORD
SETTLES ALL.
"Hath he said, and shall He not do it?
or hath He spoken, and shall He not make it good?" (Numbers 23:19).
I need no
other argument
I want no
other plea.
It is
enough that Jesus died,
And that
He died for me.
The
believer can add –
“And that
God says so”
"But how many I be sure that I have the
right kind of faith?"
Well,
there can be but one answer to that question. "Have you placed your
confidence in the right person, in the blessed Son of God?"
It is not question of the amount of your
faith, but of the trustworthiness of the person you repose your confidence
in. One man takes hold of Christ, as it were, with a drowning man's grip.
Another but touches the hem of His garment; but the sinner who does the former
is not a bit safer than the one who does the latter. They have both made the
same discovery, namely, that while all of self is totally untrustworthy, they
may safely confide in Christ, calmly rely on His Word, and confidently rest in
the eternal efficacy of His finished work. That is what is meant by
believing on Him. "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on Me
hath everlasting life" (John 6:47).
Make sure of it then, that your confidence is
not reposed in your works of amendments, your religious observances, your pious
feelings when under religious influences, your moral training from childhood,
and the like. You may have the strongest faith in any or all of these,
and perish everlastingly. Don't deceive yourself by any "fair show
in the flesh." The feeblest faith in Christ eternally saves, while
the strongest faith in aught beside is but the offspring of a deceived heart - but
the leafy twigs of your enemy's arranging over the pitfall of eternal
perdition.
God, in the gospel, simply introduces to you
the Lord Jesus Christ, and says: "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am
well pleased (Matthew 3:17)." "You may," He says, "with
all confidence trust His heart, though you cannot with impunity trust your
own."
Blessed,
thrice blessed, Lord Jesus, who would not trust Thee, and praise Thy Name?
"I do really believe on Him," said
a sad-looking soul to me one day, "but yet, when asked if I am saved, I
don't like to say 'yes', for fear I should be telling a lie." This young
woman was a butcher's daughter in small town in the Midlands. It happened
to be a market-day, and her father had not then returned from market. So I said,
"Now suppose when your father comes home you ask him how many sheep he
bought today, and he answers 'ten'. After a while a man comes to the
shop, and says, 'How many sheep did your father buy today?' and you reply, 'I
don't like to say, for fear I should be telling a lie." "But,"
said the mother (who was standing by at the time), with righteous indignation,
"that would be making your father the liar."
Now, don't you see that this well-meaning
young woman was virtually making Christ out to be a liar, saying, "I do
believe on the Son of God, and He says I have everlasting life, but I don't
like to say I have it, lest I should be telling a lie." What daring
presumption!
"But," says another, "how may
I be sure that I really do believe? I have tried often enough to believe,
and looked within to see if I had got it, but the more I look at my faith, the
less I seem to have."
Ah, friend, you are looking in the wrong
direction to find that out, and your trying to believe but plainly shows that
you are on the wrong track.
Let me give you another
illustration to explain what I want to convey to you.
You are sitting at your quiet fireside one
evening, when a man comes in and tells you that the station-master has been
killed that night on the railway.
Now it so
happens that this man had long borne the character in the place for being a
very dishonest man, and the most daring, notorious liar in the
neighborhood.
Do you
believe, or even try to believe, that man?
"Of course not," you exclaim.
"Pray, why?"
"Oh, I know him too well for that!"
"But tell me how you know that you don't
believe him. Is it by looking within at your faith or feelings?"
"No," you reply, "I think of the
man that brings me the message."
Presently a neighbor drops in, and says,
"The station-master has been run over by a goods train tonight, and killed
upon the spot." After he has left, I hear you cautiously say, "Well,
I partly believe it now; for to my recollection this man only once in his life
deceived me, though I have known him from boyhood."
But again I ask, "Is it by looking at
your faith this time that you know you partly believe it?"
"No," you repeat, "I am
thinking of the character of my informant."
Well, this man has scarcely left your room
before a third person enters and brings you the same sad news as the
first. But this time you say, "NOW, John, I believe it. Since
YOU tell me, I can believe it."
Again I
press my question (which is, remember) but the re-echo of your own), "How
do you KNOW that you so confidently believe your friend John?"
"Because of who and what John is,"
you reply. "He never has deceived me, and I don't think he ever
will."
Well, then, just in the same way, I know that
I believe the Gospel because of the One who brings me the news.
"If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater: for this
is the witness of God which He hath testified of His Son. He that
believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that BELIEVETH NOT
GOD HATH MADE HIM A LIAR: because he believeth not the record that God gave of
His Son" (1 John 5:9,10). "Abraham believed God, and it was counted
unto him for
righteousness" (Romans 4:3).
And anxious soul once said to a servant of
Christ, "Oh, sir, I can't believe!" To which the servant wisely and
quietly made reply, “Indeed, WHO is it that you can't believe?" This broke
the spell. He had been looking at faith as an indescribable something he
must feel within himself in order to be sure he was all right for Heaven;
whereas faith ever looks outside to a living Person, and His finished work, and
quietly listens to the testimony of a faithful God about both.
It is the outside look that brings the inside
peace. When a man turns his face towards the sun his own shadow is behind
him. You cannot look at self and a glorified Christ in Heaven at the same
moment.
Thus we have seen that the blessed Person of
God's Son wins my confidence. His FINISHED WORK makes me eternally
safe. GOD'S WORD about those who believe on Him makes me unalterably
sure. I find in Christ and His work the way of salvation, and in the Word
of God the knowledge of salvation.
"But, if saved," you may say,
"how is it that I have such a fluctuating experience, so often losing all
my joy and comfort, and getting as wretched and downcast as I was before my
conversion?" Well, this brings us to our third point;
THE JOY OF
SALVATION
You will find, in the teaching of Scripture,
that while you are saved by Christ's work and assured by God's Word, you are
maintained in comfort and joy by the Holy Ghost, who has come to indwell every
true believer.
Now you must bear in mind that every saved
one has still "the flesh" within him, that is, the evil nature he was
born with and which, perhaps, showed itself while still a helpless infant on
his mother's lap. The Holy Ghost in the believer resists the flesh and is
grieved by every activity of it, in motive, word or deed. When he is
walking "worthy of the Lord," the Holy Ghost will be producing in his
soul His blessed fruits - "love, joy, peace ..." (see Galatians
5:22). When he is walking in a carnal, worldly way the Spirit is grieved,
and these fruits are wanting in greater or less measure.
Let me put it thus for you who do believe on
God's Son:
Christ's Work and your salvation stand or
fall together
Your Walk
and your enjoyment stand or fall together
When
Christ's work breaks down (and, blessed by God, it never, never will), your
salvation will break down with it. When your walk breaks down (and be
watchful, for it may), your enjoyment will break down with it.
Thus it is said of the early disciples (Acts
9:31), that they were "walking in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort
of the Holy Ghost."
And again
in Acts 13:52: "And the disciples were filled with joy, and with the Holy
Ghost."
My
spiritual joy will be in proportion to the spiritual character of my walk after
I am saved.
Now do you see your mistake? You have
been mixing up enjoyment and your safety, two widely-different things.
When, through self-indulgence, loss of temper, worldliness, etc., you grieved
the Holy Spirit, and lost your joy, you thought your safety was
undermined. But again I repeat it –
Your safety hangs upon Christ's work FOR you.
Your assurance
upon God's Word TO you.
Your enjoyment
upon not grieving the Holy Spirit IN you.
When, as a believer, you do anything to
grieve the Holy Spirit of God, your communion with the Father and the Son is,
for the time, practically suspended; and it is only when you judge yourself,
and confess your sins, that the joy of communion is restored.
Your child has been guilty of some
misdemeanour. He shows upon his countenance the evident mark that
something is wrong with him. Half-an-hour before this he was enjoying a
walk with you round the garden, admiring what you admired, enjoying what you
enjoyed. In other words, he was in communion with you; his feelings and
sympathies were in common with yours.
But now all this is changed, and as a naughty,
disobedient child he stands in the corner, the very picture of misery.
Upon
penitent confession of his wrong-doing you have assured him of forgiveness; but
his pride and selfwill keep him sobbing there.
Where is now the joy of half-an-hour
ago? All gone. Why? Because communion between you and him has been
interrupted.
What is become of the relationship that
existed between you and your son half-an-hour ago? Is that gone
too? Is that severed or interrupted? Surely not.
His relationship depends upon his birth.
His communion
upon his behaviour.
But presently he comes out of the corner with
broken will and broken heart confessing the whole thing from first to last, so
that you see he hates the disobedience and naughtiness as much as you do, and
you take him in your arms and cover him with kisses. His joy is restored
because communion is restored.
When David sinned so grievously in the matter
of Uriah's wife, he did not say, "Restore unto me Thy salvation," but
"Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation" (Psalm 51:12).
But to carry our illustration a little
farther. Supposing while your child is in the corner there should be a
cry of "house on fire" throughout your dwelling, what would become of
him then? Left in the corner to be consumed with the burning, falling house?
Impossible!
Very
probably he would be the very first person you would carry out. Ah, yes,
you know right well that the love of relationship is one thing, and the joy of
communion quite another.
Now, when the believer sins, communion for
the time is interrupted, and joy is lost until, with a broken heart, he comes
to the Father and confesses his sins.
Then,
taking God at His Word, he knows he is again forgiven; for His Word plainly
declares that "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive
us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9).
Oh, then, fellow-believer, ever bear in mind
these two things: There is nothing so strong as the link of relationship;
and nothing so tender as the link of communion.
All the combined power and counsel of earth
and Hell cannot sever the former, while an impure motive or an idle word will
snap the latter.
If you are troubled
with a cloudy half-hour, get low before God, consider your ways. And when
the thief that has robbed you of your joy has been detected, drag him at once
to the light, confess your sin to God your Father, and judge yourself most unsparingly
for the unwatchful careless state of soul that allowed the thief to enter
unchallenged.
But never,
never, NEVER, confound your safety with your joy.
Don't imagine, however, that the judgment of
God falls a whit more leniently on the believer's sin than on the unbeliever's.
He has not two ways of dealing judicially with sin, and He could no more pass
by the believer's sin without judging it, than He could pass by the sins of a
rejecter of His precious Son. But there is this great difference between the
two, namely, that the believer's sins were all known to God, and all laid upon
His own provided Lamb when He hung upon the cross at Calvary, and that there
and then, once and for ever, the great "criminal question" of his
guilt was raised and settled, judgment falling upon the blessed Substitute in
the believer's stead, "who His own self bare our sins in His own body on
the tree" (1 Peter 2:24).
The Christ-rejecter must bear his own sins in
his own person in the lake of fire for ever. But, when a genuine believer
fails, the "criminal question" of sin cannot be raised against him,
the Judge Himself having settled that once for all on the cross; but the
communion question is raised within him by the Holy Ghost as often as he
grieves the Spirit.
Allow me, in conclusion, to give you another
illustration. It is a beautiful moonlight night. The moon is at full, and
shining in more than ordinary silver brightness. A man is gazing intently
down a deep, still well, where he sees the moon reflected, and thus remarks to
a friendly bystander, "How beautifully fair and round she is
tonight! How quietly and majestically she rides along!" He has
just finished speaking when suddenly his friend drops a small pebble into the
well, and he now exclaims, "Why, the moon is all broken to pieces, and the
fragments are shaken together in the greatest disorder!"
"What gross absurdity!" is
the astonished rejoinder of his companion. "Look up, man! the
moon hasn't changed one jot or tittle. It is the condition of the well
that reflects the moon that has changed."
Apply the simple figure yourself. Your
heart is the well. When there is no allowance of evil the blessed Spirit of God
takes of the glories and preciousness of Christ, and reveals them to you for
your comfort and joy. But the moment a wrong motive is cherished in the
heart, or an idle word escapes the lips unjudged, the Holy Ghost begins to
disturb the well, your happy experiences are smashed to pieces, and you are all
restless and disturbed within, until in brokenness of spirit before God you
confess your sin (the disturbing thing) and thus get restored once more
to the calm, sweet joy of communion.
But when your heart is thus all unrest, need
I ask, Has Christ's work changed? No, no. Then your salvation is
not altered.
Has God's
Word changed? Surely not. Then the certainty of your salvation has
received no shock.
Then, what
has changed? Why, the action of the Holy Ghost in you has changed, and
instead of taking of the glories of Christ, and filling your heart with the
sense of His worthiness, He is grieved at having to turn aside from this
delightful office to fill you with the sense of your sin and
unworthiness.
He takes
from you your present comfort and joy until you judge and resist the evil thing
that He judges and resists. When this is done communion with God is again
restored.
The Lord make us to be increasingly jealous
over ourselves lest we grieve "the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are
sealed unto the day of redemption" (Ephesians 4:30).
However
weak your faith may be, rest assured of this, that the blessed One who has won
your confidence will never change.
"Jesus
Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and FOR EVER" (Hebrews 13:8).
The work
He has accomplished will never change.
"Whatsoever
God doeth, it shall be FOR EVER: nothing can be put to it, nor any thing taken
from it" (Ecclesiastes 3:13).
The word
He has spoken will never change.
"The
grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: But the word of the Lord
endureth FOR EVER" (1 Peter 1:24,25).
Thus the
object of my trust, the foundation of my safety, and the ground of my
certainly, are alike ETERNALLY UNALTERABLE.
My love is
oft-times low.
My joy
still ebbs and flows;
But peace
with Him remains the same,
No change
Jehovah knows.
I change,
He changes not;
God’s
Christ can never die;
His love,
not mine, the resting-place,
His truth,
not mine, the tie.
Once more, let me ask, "WHICH CLASS ARE
YOU TRAVELLING?" Turn your heart to God, I pray you, and answer that
question to Him.
"Let
God be true, and every man a liar" (Romans 3:4).
"He
that hath received His testimony hath set to his seal that God is true"
(John 3:33).
May the joyful assurance of possessing this
"great salvation" be yours, now and "till He come."
-by George Cutting
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