One evening I met an elderly man with a mason's tools slung over his shoulder. He stopped me with these words: "I say, sir; it's hard work, this I've in hand."
I said, "What is hard work?"
"Why, traveling about from place to place, seeking work and finding none."
After we had talked a while I said to him, "Your present condition is just like that of a soul without Christ—ever seeking rest and finding none. Away from Him there is no rest or peace; but it is blessed to know that He said, 'Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.' "
"Well, sir, I'm not a drinking and swearing man, I can assure ye."
"I didn't say you were, but do you expect to be saved simply because you don't drink and swear?"
"Well, no," he admitted.
"How do you expect to be saved?"
"By praying to Christ."
"You cannot be saved simply because you pray to Christ," I replied, "right though it is to pray. Our salvation depends upon what Christ has done. His merit saves. There is no merit in prayer."
He looked perplexed and, after a short pause, said, "I read my Bible."
"Reading your Bible will not save you any more than abstaining from swearing, or merely praying, will. These things, good as they are in their proper place, will not cleanse our souls from one single sin only `the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin,' Christ alone can save us."
Unwilling to be thus robbed of the thought that he could do something to merit salvation, he said, "I never lies down at night, sir, without saying this prayer: 'O Lord, keep me and all mankind this night, Amen.' "
"Does it do you any good?" I asked.
"Well, it's better than nothing."
"Does it give you peace of conscience after you have said it?"
"No," he said thoughtfully. "After repeating it can you say, 'Well, if God calls me before morning I shall wake up in glory'?"
"No, sir I can't."
"My friend," I said, "your good deeds, your reading, and your praying cannot give you peace of conscience peace with God. Nothing but faith in what God has said in His Word can give you those."
Turning to Romans 5:11Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: (Romans 5:1), I read these words, "Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ."
"You may remember," I continued, "that when the jailor at Philippi cried, 'Sirs, what must I do to be saved?' the answer was, `Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.' "
"Yes, sir I do remember—and I do believe too!"
It may be that you, like this old man, have a lurking thought in your heart that there is something you can do for God, that you can make yourself more acceptable to Him by reading the Bible, or by praying, and so you may be expecting salvation as much from your own efforts as from the Lord Jesus.
These things will not save you; you must be willing to be saved on the ground of the blood Christ shed for sinners on the cross— and on that alone.