THREE of us entered into a railway train and sat together. As soon as we entered, one gentleman said to another, “Do you confess you are a sinner?”
“Of course I do, I am not any different from other people. I suppose we are all sinners.”
“Very true; but do you know that you are a lost sinner?”
“What do you mean by that?”
“A lost sinner is one who is unsaved, living without hope and without God in the world, and utterly unable to save himself.”
“It is evident you do not know me.” “Why so?”
“Because, if you did, you would not speak to me in that way.”
“Indeed!”
“No, sir, I am not as bad as you think. I am a sinner, I admit; but not as bad as many I see about me; I am far better than some of my neighbors.”
“How do you make that out?”
“Why, I always go to church; I send my children to Sunday-school; I subscribe for and read a religious periodical every month.”
“And do you imagine that any one of, or all these things will avail before God for your salvation?”
“I don’t know about that, still I am not such a very bad man.”
Listen to what the Word of God says,
“There is no difference, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” God declares that salvation by works is impossible, that if we rest on what we are, or what we do, we are lost forever. He has closed up the way of works, and no man can henceforth open it up. But He has opened another Way, —through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, whom He hath set forth a propitiation through faith in His blood, that He might be just and the Justifier of him who believes in Jesus. Do you understand?”
He said, “I am not the lost sinner you make me out to be.”
Just then the train stopped at a station, I suspected that this man was on the wrong train, as I had heard him name the place where he was going. I said,
“Are you in the right train?” “Yes, sir, quite sure.”
Putting my head out of the window, I said, “Conductor, is this train for S.?”
“No, sir; change immediately.”
The man at once rose to depart and I said, “You mistook your train, and you have mistaken the way of salvation. Be warned, and believe what God says in His Word.”
Are any of my readers on the wrong train? If they are, see your mistake while grace lingers, for there is no other wav of salvation but through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. God tells us this over and over again in His Word.
ML 04/10/1927