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Echoes of Grace–2015–January
Shocked By His Own Words
No Christians in Hell
He bought his ticket, and took his seat in the train. No sooner had the train started, than two men began a serious conversation about the Bible. “Oh, no!” thought the young man, “I’m not going to stay here!”
So as soon as the train stopped, he jumped out and got into another compartment with some old ladies. To his dismay he found that the topic of their conversation was the coming of the Lord Jesus. He was greatly annoyed, but they soon reached the next station and he could see the boat he planned to take waiting at the dock. He saw, going on board, a number of laughing young men and women.
The Captain looked up with a laugh and said, “To hell!”
“At last,” he thought, “I have found what I want.” But as soon as the boat left the dock he found that it was a Christian school excursion. Gloomily he wandered downstairs to the dining room, where he saw the Captain sitting, writing.“Good morning, Captain,” he said. “Where can I go to get rid of these cursed Christians?”
The Captain looked up with a laugh and said, “To hell!”
Sudden Shock
In sudden shock the two men stared at each other, realizing the truth. There would be no Christians in hell―but―they themselves were not Christians! As the meaning of the Captain’s joking answer dawned on them, they both recognized their danger of going to that awful place. God used it to turn them both to seek Him. Now they are both Christians!
“Seek ye the Lord while He may be found, call ye upon Him while He is near: let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon” (Isaiah 55:6-7).
Adapted from His Riches.
I Wish I Had Someone To Love Me Like That–Color Tract
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We live in a world where people use someone else for their own personal pleasure. When that pleasure is gone, they move on to someone else. A colleague of mine always used to nervously straighten up and apply her make-up before going home to her husband. She feared him leaving her — again — and wanted to pass his inspection. It wasn’t enough; he moved out for another woman. Have you felt that pain of rejection from a parent, friend or spouse? Do you have to hide part of who you are to be acceptable to others?
It doesn’t have to be that way.
Late one August afternoon, 75-year-old Dorothy finally got her one chance of the day to water-ski and gracefully rose out of the water on her first try while her husband Marvin steered the boat.
Only a few years later, Marvin walked very slowly with a walker or cane. Dorothy slumped her weary, medicated body in her chair, her white head bobbing sleepily while a high-pitched, rodent-repelling whining noise filled their ears.
A tragedy of old age? Hardly! Yes, it’s sad to see someone you love suffering. The Bible tells us, “The whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now” (Romans 8:22). That’s the horrible effect of our sin and disobedience to God. But there’s more to Marvin and Dorothy’s story than that — and more to ours too. A caregiver, watching Marvin sitting day after day by his wife’s side, hearing him call her “honey,” and watching him painfully walk over to serve her every need, said, “I wish I had someone to love me like that!” Who wouldn’t crave a love that keeps on flowing our way when we have nothing to give back?
We do have someone who loves us like that!
Marvin learned to love his wife from his Saviour Jesus Christ. “God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). We’ve all done many acts of disobedience to God. One, just one, “little” lie deserves punishment by a righteous God who hates sin, and “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). But God loved us when there was nothing in us to attract His love. Marvin said, not that he was living a tragedy, but that God was using his situation as part of His plan to show a love that flows from God to people like us who don’t deserve it. “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). Will you receive, as Marvin has, the only Saviour of sinners like yourself ?
An Atheist Stumbles on a Child
The Man Who Had Nothing
William Hone was an atheist lecturer who traveled around the country speaking against the teachings of God’s holy Word. One day he was taking a walk in the country and lost his way. He came upon a poor, tumble-down cottage, in front of which a little girl was reading a book. After getting directions to his road, he picked up the book the child was reading. To his surprise he found it was a copy of the New Testament. Throwing it on the ground, he said to the girl, “You foolish little thing, how is it that you read such stupid books as this?”
The child looked at him in shocked surprise, and cried, “Oh, please don’t talk that way about my Book. My mother is sick in bed, and this book is our only comfort.”
All I do is take away people’s hopes. No God, no Christ, no heaven, no hell.
Reality Opens a Heart
The simple words spoken by the girl set William Hone thinking. “Those poor, simple people,” he said to himself, “are in trouble; the mother sick, the child young, and yet they have found something real in that Book; they have got something on which to live and die. What could I give them that would be a comfort now, or a support in death? All I do is take away people’s hopes. No God, no Christ, no heaven, no hell. And what have I for myself but nothing, instead of something real?”
William Hone began to study the Book, and was saved with an everlasting salvation. It became his greatest joy to tell to others what great things God had done for him. On the flyleaf of his Bible he wrote the following words:
“The proudest heart that ever beat
Has been subdued in me.”
Have you carefully read and thought about God’s Word, the Bible? Do you take time when alone to see in it what God’s thoughts of sin and salvation are? He loves you, and He wants to save you and to satisfy your heart forever.
“I am come that they might have life and that they have it more abundantly” (John 10:10).
Adapted from His Riches.
Storm Warning!–Color Tract
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One evening, many years ago, before the days of radio, Captain Oldrey and the crew of his ship, the Hyacinth, were sailing toward Barbados, a tropical island on the eastern edge of the Caribbean Sea. Before retiring for the evening, he spent a little time on deck simply admiring the beauty of the evening. He remarked to one of his crew that it was the finest weather he had seen in that climate.
The horizon was perfectly clear — not a cloud in the sky. There was nothing visible above deck to suggest that the weather might soon change.
The Warning
Going below to his cabin, the captain relaxed on his couch. A minute or two later, glancing at a barometer hanging nearby, he noticed that the mercury appeared to be falling.
Ordinarily, he wouldn’t have thought of looking at the barometer while resting. He rubbed his eyes, imagining he was deceived. Still the mercury appeared to fall. He got up and walked over to the instrument and discovered that the mercury was indeed visibly falling.
He went back on deck, but the weather was as lovely as before. Returning to his cabin, he shook the barometer, but the descent still continued. Such a rapid and unusual fall convinced him that something serious was about to happen.
Going back on deck, he told his crew of his discovery. They protested that with a sea and a sky so clear and so beautiful no storm was coming.
The Response
But Captain Oldrey firmly disagreed. The falling barometer indicated a storm, and it was his urgent duty to prepare for one. He ordered everything to be made secure, the topsails to be struck, and the deck to be cleared.
Night fell with the crew still working to make the ship gale-ready. Captain Oldrey didn’t relax until all preparation for the worst was done to his satisfaction. An hour or two elapsed, and his mind was at rest knowing that his ship was as ready as possible for whatever might come.
The Storm
Suddenly the storm struck and reached its peak almost at once. The wind blew so furiously that the sea could not rise into waves but became one vast plain of foam, on which the ship was rapidly driven before the wind. By God’s mercy, the ship and all on board survived the storm.
The Ultimate Storm
God’s Word, the Bible, is like a barometer which warns of a coming storm. That storm of God’s wrath and judgment is soon going to fall on this world.
Scoffers scoff and mockers mock! They say, “Where is the promise of His coming?” (2 Peter 3:4). To them the sky is clear — there see no storm coming. They think that all will go on as it has gone on. They have no fear. They close their eyes to the knowledge of the many upheavals which this earth has already experienced. They do not recognize the witness of the flood which once overwhelmed this world. They harden their hearts, and, in their folly, they go on — deceiving others and being deceived.
But God’s barometer gives us a plain warning. Hear its solemn declaration: “Because there is wrath, beware lest He take thee away with His stroke” (Job 36:18).
Now is your time to escape. Now is your only time to prepare. Tomorrow may be too late.
“Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God” (1 Peter 5:6).
“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:31).
“Whoso putteth His trust in the Lord shall be safe” (Proverbs 29:25).
“How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation?” (Hebrews 2:3).
It Is Finished–Large Print Tract
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It Is Finished
“It is finished” were the dying words of our truest, best and dearest Friend. The dying words of loved ones are long remembered and are not easily forgotten; when Christ uttered this triumphant cry He was in the act of giving up His soul as an offering for sin.
What was finished? His life of shame, of suffering and sorrow was ended. He had been “despised and rejected of men.” Many times He was weary, hungry and thirsty! That is all over. “For your sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty might be rich.”
The Lord Jesus appeared to “put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself” (Hebrews 9:26). When He died at Calvary a full and perfect atonement for sin was accomplished. Christ “poured out His soul unto death.” He “bare our sins in His own body on the tree.” The ransom has been paid. The penalty has been met. Peace has been made. The law’s demands have been fully met. God is fully satisfied with Christ’s finished work, and He desires that we should be satisfied with that which satisfies Him.
“Christ did His part and left us to do ours,” say some. In what part of Scripture is it stated that Christ did “His part” of the work of atonement? It was on account of our sins that He suffered and bled and died. If, then, God is eternally satisfied with what Christ did for you, what is left unfinished for you to do?
Don’t insult God by bringing your prayers, works, vows, tears, good resolutions or happy feelings to supplement the work of His beloved Son. Can you add to a “finished” work? Salvation has been purchased at an infinite cost; and is now offered to you as a free gift.
“Then said they to Him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God? Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent” (John 6:28-29).
If A Man Does the Best He Can–Large Print Tract
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If A Man Does the Best He Can
“And is that the only way by which a man can get to heaven?”
“I believe so, and don’t you think it’s a good way?”
“Well, let’s see if it could ever work. How many times have you used profane language since you spoke to me?”
“Oh well, I have got into the habit of swearing, but I mean to give it up.”
“And is that the only sin you are guilty of?”
“Oh, no; I am not one of those people who pretend to be perfect.”
“Then you have not done the best you could. If that is the only way of getting to heaven, you have not the slightest chance of ever being there!”
The sailor had no more to say.
But do you expect to be saved by “doing your best”? This is not God’s way of salvation. What is the use of saying, “If a man does the best he can,” when God’s Word emphatically tells us that no one has ever done so? God says, “They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one” (Psalm 14:3).
You know well that you have done what you should not have done many, many times. You “don’t pretend to be perfect,” but one sin is enough to condemn you! “Whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all” (James 2:10).
The “best” that you can do is to admit that you are a helpless, guilty sinner, unable to do a single good deed to merit God’s forgiveness. When you see yourself as a sinner, you will be anxious to learn what the Lord Jesus Christ did to save you; when you see that everything was fully done by Him, you will stop talking about your “doing” and rest instead on what He has done.
Remember— “Christ died for our sins” and “the blood of Jesus Christ His [God’s] Son cleanseth us from all sin” (1 Cor. 15:3; 1 John 1:7).
How to Have a Happy New Year–Large Print Tract
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How to Have a Happy New Year
When we think of the angel’s message of “on earth peace, good will toward men” we must remember one outstanding fact: when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, although the heavenly host proclaimed Him as the “Saviour, which is Christ the Lord,” there was found “no room” for Him at His birth, and when He grew to manhood He was still not wanted. He Himself said: “The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man hath not where to lay His head” (Matthew 8:20).
Isaiah in his prophecy concerning the Lord Jesus said: “He is despised and rejected of men.” On earth He was hated, reviled and crucified. The world still says in effect, “We will not have this man to reign over us” (Luke 19:14).
How can there be peace on earth when the Prince of peace has been cast out? Instead, bloodshed, misery and poverty are prevalent. Vice and crime are increasing, and man, like “the fool” referred to in the book of Proverbs would say, “No God”! Man was created to be upright and to glorify God, but almost immediately he disobeyed Him and sinned.
God is holy, and His holiness demands that He must punish sin. But “God is love,” and that love desires to bless His creature, man. Because of this great and blessed fact the Lord Jesus Christ, who is truly God, came down to earth that He might be the Saviour of sinful men and women. He died on Calvary’s cross that He might bear the punishment that was due to our sins. Scripture says, “Christ died for our sins” (1 Corinthians 15:3). He died, “the Just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God” (1 Peter 3:18).
This is a troubled world, a world that knows no peace. As a wise man has said, “On earth there’s a kingless throne, and in heaven a throneless King. Until that throneless King is on that kingless throne, there can be no peace on earth.”
But every individual can have real peace—peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Each one can face the New Year without dread or fear. How? Turn to God from your sinful condition. Repent of your rebellion toward Him, and believe that Christ died to cleanse you from all sin.
“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).
“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:31).
That is God’s way to peace and happiness throughout the year.
How Do You Clean House?–Large Print Tract
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How Do You Clean House?
We smile, but those who live in precisely such houses should not throw stones.
I don’t mean to say that we clean house in just this way, (though it is possible to find houses where there may be four or five layers of wallpaper, one over the other). What I do mean is the way many of us clean house in our own souls.
How we shrink from facing the dirt—the sin—within us! It seems so much easier to whitewash ourselves just as we are. So the whitewash is made up, a smooth blend of morality and respectability and self-righteousness, and it leaves the soul outwardly a fine bright white. But scratch it anywhere and—ugh! the black underneath!
Someday, in the white light of the holiness of God, all this whitewash will peel off and such soul-rooms will be seen to be pitch black—nothing but black—and black forever.
When God says, “Wash ye, make you clean” (Isaiah 1:16), He does not mean a little cosmetic polishing up of outward appearances nor a little more socially acceptable behavior. God desires “truth in the inward parts,” but, “who can say, I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin?” (Proverbs 20:9).
David, the writer of the Psalms, knew the only way to be cleansed from his sins. He prayed: “Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Thy loving-kindness: according to the multitude of Thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin…. Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow…. Create in me a clean heart, O God” (Psalm 51:1-2,7,10).
Cleansed from sin—whiter than snow—a clean heart—no whitewash there! Cleansed from sin—how?
There is only one way: “The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin” (1 John 1:7).
It is only through faith in His blood that was shed on Calvary’s cross that we can be washed and clean and fit for the presence of God. No effort of our own can make us so, but believing and receiving His cleansing makes us “clean every whit.”
“Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool” (Isaiah 1:18).
His Last Ride–Large Print Tract
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His Last Ride
“It’s a 5-speed,” I told him. “That’s no good at all,” he said. “Throw it in the garbage.”
I wasn’t surprised at his reply because it was well known in our office how much this man liked bicycles. He had a very expensive bike and kept it in perfect condition. “I have two chains,” he told me. “I leave one in oil while I use the other one. That way the next chain is already oiled when I need it.
This man rode his bicycle to work every day and had a special jacket with warm cloth on the front and a light mesh on the back. This kept him warm when he was going down a hill and the light mesh on the back made sure that he didn’t get too hot going up a hill. He had a catalog of bike parts which he often looked at and always ordered the most expensive ones.
One day I went by his desk and saw that he wasn’t looking at his catalog but at a Bible calendar. “Those verses on the calendar are from the Bible,” I told him.
“It doesn’t make any difference to me where it comes from,” he said. “It doesn’t interest me at all.”
Sadly, he wouldn’t let me say any more to him about the Bible. Not long after this he went on a holiday in Europe. He had told me how much nicer it was to bike than to go by car or train because he got to really see the countryside. I am sorry to tell you that I never saw that man again. While he was biking through Europe, he died of a heart attack and never finished his holiday.
He had prepared his bicycle with great care for his holiday, but as far as I know, he made no preparations to meet God.
Are you like this man? Perhaps it is not bikes that interest you, but are you spending all your time thinking about and planning for the things in this world that you enjoy? Have you considered that you also must some day leave it all behind and go to meet God? The Bible says, “Prepare to meet thy God” (Amos 4:12). The only way to be ready to meet God is to have your sins washed away in the blood of the Lord Jesus. “The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin” (1 John 1:7).
God’s Word tells us that one man said, “I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.” God said to him, “Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?” (Luke 12:19-20).
“Be ye therefore ready also: for the Son of Man [the Lord Jesus] cometh at an hour when ye think not” (Luke 12:40).