THERE is no doubt whatever that both the writer and the reader of these lines is a sinner in the sight of God. The Bible declares with no uncertain sound that “all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:2323For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; (Romans 3:23)); and every one knows that this is an undeniable fact. Yes, reader, our consciences tell us that this is the case. We are sinners every one: I have sinned; you have sinned.
Further, God cannot look at sin. God must judge sin.
There is not a man that will allow himself a moment’s serious thought but must admit that a holy God and sin cannot abide together. When Adam sinned, he was driven from the Garden of Eden. But before ever God drove him from the garden, Adam’s own conscience made him try to hide from God. Since that day when sin entered into the world, every man possesses a conscience.
Some years ago a man turned in one Sunday night to a hall where the writer was preaching in London. The next day the preacher started for Aberdeen, and a few days afterwards an urgent message came from a man dying in the Brompton Hospital, saying that he must see the preacher he had heard on Sunday night, for there was “something on his conscience that nobody knew but God,” and he could not die happy until he had told some one.
What this was I never heard, for the man died. He had broken a blood-vessel on the Monday, and was taken to the hospital, where very soon he passed into eternity.
Oh, what a terrible burden is sin — unforgiven sin!
Reader, are your sins forgiven? If all your sins are not forgiven before you die, they will every one of them rise up against you in the day of judgment. What an awakening will that be for many who have lived lives of sin, and have died without Christ.
“Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Cor. 6:9, 109Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, 10Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. (1 Corinthians 6:9‑10)).
Oh, may God open the eyes of every unsaved reader of these pages before the great and terrible day of reckoning comes; for then it will be too late!
Does the reader ask,
How can sins be forgiven?
There is but one answer — it is God’s own answer; He tells us that the one and only way of forgiveness is “for Christ’s sake.” Read Eph. 4:32,32And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you. (Ephesians 4:32) “God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.”
The New Testament is full of this most blessed theme. The Lord Jesus Christ took the guilty sinner’s place at Calvary. There He took upon His own spotless Person the sins of all who believe — He bore them on the tree.
Such was the holiness of a sin-hating God that He hid His face from Jesus as He hung there as the sinner’s substitute. That bitter cry of anguish was wrung from His holy soul, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” (Psa. 22:11<<To the chief Musician upon Aijeleth Shahar, A Psalm of David.>> My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring? (Psalm 22:1)).
There at the cross all God’s nature has been glorified — His majesty has been vindicated; His justice has been satisfied, and He now offers to every and any sinner who repents and believes the gospel, a present, a perfect, and an eternal forgiveness.
Reader, will you despise this grace? Will you refuse to accept forgiveness on God’s terms? Will you put it off a little longer?
Some years ago I was passing down a street in the business part of Valparaiso. A young man ran breathless down the street, and seeing me cried, “Come; come quick!” I followed him into an office on the ground floor of a large building, and there was startled to see a young man lying on the sofa as white as a sheet, and blood pouring from his mouth. Another gasp and all was over. “Oh, do something for him!” cried his friend. But the poor lad was gone beyond the reach of human help. He, too, had burst a blood-vessel.
Reader, this is not the only form of sudden death. Remember the Chicago fire, and its hecatomb of victims, all in the prime of life. You, too, may be called suddenly into eternity:
Are your sins forgiven?