A NUMBER of people were attending some Bible readings in a city far from their home, and some with round trip tickets had decided to remain a few days longer. Just before the closing hymn was sung on the last evening someone learned that a certain series of tickets expired at such a time that the holders of those tickets must hurry to the station and take the train home immediately after the meeting closed. Not knowing that there were two time limits, depending’ on the price paid, a thoughtful man quickly spread the word to the whole group from the one city.
Those who had not made plans to go home were startled and in dismay, for there was no time then for packing suitcases. If you have seen the way the conductor examines the ticket, you know there is no hope of using one which does not exactly conform to his company’s regulations. After a few moments of wondering how the error could have come about and what to do, one person looked at his ticket and found there was no cause for alarm: the terms were as he had thought them to be.
You have heard many times that we need a ticket to heaven, and that in this case there is only one which will take us there. You have been asked again and again to make sure you have the right ticket. But still, are you sure? Often little girls and boys and grown people, too, carry tickets which read like this—If I am GOOD I shall go to heaven when I die.
Will this ticket take you to heaven? Ah, no! God is more particular than the conductor. In His Word He has said, “There is none that doeth good, no not one.” Rom. 3:2323For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; (Romans 3:23).
You doubtless know also about the father who drove a nail into a block of wood for each time he found his little son doing something naughty. At the end of the year the block was thick with nails and the little boy was troubled until his father offered to pull them out. Looking at the block when the nails were drawn, he burst into tears; for, although his father had taken away the nails lie could not remove the marks.
Nothing but the blood of Jesus can wash away our sins and make us as clean as if we had never sinned—remove the marks and make us fit for God’s presence. If your ticket says anything about “being good,” or “doing the best you can,” it is of no use on your journey to heaven.
Another child may have the ticket which reads: Mother and father are saved, so I shall be able to slip in with them.
To you who depend on this ticket God says,
Lot was one of God’s people, and in His great love and grace, God saved him out of the judgment of the wicked city of Sodom; he was brought out, with his wife and two daughters, by the angels before the fire and brimstone came down from heaven to destroy it. But his wife looked back at the city under judgment, and she was turned into a pillar of salt. Do you not see, little reader, she was walking with her husband; and, no doubt, thought she was as safe as he, and yet she was lost. No, that ticket will not do. “Remember Lot’s wife.”
There is a ticket which will carry every traveler right into the Father’s home, right to the Father’s heart.
“In that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
Yes, dear reader, God loved us. Knowing we could never pay the fare, He spared His Son to come into this world to die on that cruel cross, and there to bear the judgment of our sin-stained hearts, that we might have a way into His presence. The way into heaven is free, for Jesus paid the fare.
If the train conductor finds a person on the train without a ticket, he compels him to pay his fare or puts him off the train, and none escapes his notice. Just so, you will never get to heaven without the ticket God requires—and He offers it to you free. Take it just now, and say from your heart.
“In that, while I was a sinner, Christ died for me.”
“There is life in a look at the crucified One,
There is life at this moment for thee,
Then look, sinner, look unto Him and be saved,
Unto Him who was nailed to the tree.”
“Jesus paid the fare;” have you your ticket?
ML-03/17/1935