Everybody hopes to go to heaven; no one expects to be in hell. How they are going to get to heaven is another thing; the most general thought is this: ―
When asked, “Do you want to be saved?” the answer is, “Of course I do, everyone wants to be saved.”
“How are you going to be saved? Upon what ground do you expect to get to heaven?”
“Oh, well, I suppose we must do our best, and look to the Almighty for mercy.”
Such, I repeat, is the general thought, looking to the Almighty for mercy on the ground of having done their best; and perhaps, dear reader, you are one of this class.
Well now, suppose I dress you in the best suit of good works you could possibly make for yourself, and put you in the presence of that holy, holy Lord God, whose eye can search into the very deepest recesses of your heart. Would you be at ease? Would it suit you to be there, exposed to His gaze?
Do you think the prodigal in Luke 15 would have liked to have sat down in his father’s house with the clothes (or rather rags) he wore among the swine? What is more, do you think his father would have allowed him to sit down ― yea, even come in to the house in that filthy state? Never! He must be fit not only for the house, but for his father’s eye. So with sinners; there must not only be fitness for heaven, but there must be fitness for the eye of God.
“Oh, but,” you say, “you are not going to compare me with that profligate son, surely? I have not gone into excesses like that, and that is not a man’s best, but his worst.”
Very well, I will dress you out in your best. Now, reader, see if this fits you. You are respectable, moral, and religious; a Church member, a regular communicant, a Sunday-school teacher, a tract distributor; your life before men has been such that no one who knows you (however they may have watched you) can lay one single wrong to your charge; your life before your fellows has been blameless. Like the young ruler in Luke 18, you can say when the law is presented to you, “All these things have I kept from my youth up;” but, like him, you have never seen the spirituality of the law.
Now there is the best suit I can think of just now to dress you in. If you know any other good thing, you are welcome to put it on. But wait now, come, be honest with yourself. Are you conscious of ever having had one wrong thought? Do you really love God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind, and your neighbor as yourself? (Luke 10:2727And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as thyself. (Luke 10:27).) Why, take today, has God been in all your thoughts? Were you thinking of your business, your family, your pleasure, your rest? If you were, then God was not in your thoughts at that moment.
“But, surely, people must look after their business?”
Of course, they must, but then you are going to heaven by doing your best; and you see God wants perfection, and you have not got it.
“Oh, well, if you come so close as that, of course we cannot think of God with all our mind.”
Then stop! there is an awful rent in your suit. True, the eye of man does not see it, but there it is, you see it, you acknowledge it. One sin is enough to send you to hell forever. And God sees it, and if it were not that you are darkness, and in darkness, you would see far more rents―in fact, you would see that your beautiful suit was filthy rags altogether.
Now we will just bring the light (the word of God) to bear upon it, and trust the Lord to reveal to you something you have hitherto not seen.
“All our righteousnesses (not wickednesses) are as filthy rags” (Isa. 54:66For the Lord hath called thee as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, and a wife of youth, when thou wast refused, saith thy God. (Isaiah 54:6)). This is the very best you can do, says God. Had He said your wicked ways, you would have assented to it at once; but it is your righteousness, your almsgiving, your prayer-saying, your psalm or hymn-singing, your moral blameless life―all, all, is as filthy rags. God wants perfection, and you have not got it to give Him. He has pronounced His judgment as to your very best. It is not what I think, or some one else says; it is God’s word.
Now would you like to stand before Him clothed in what men would call a nice suit and envy your having it, but what God calls filthy rags? Ah! does that make you tremble? No wonder! unclean, a leper, covered with filthy rags (self-righteousnesses). What could God do with you in heaven? What sort of a place would it be if you got there? What! put a leper in heaven? Have filthy rags in heaven? Never! You would be seized by mighty hands and hurled from the battlements of heaven, down, down to hell.
“But God is very merciful.”
True, He is, but He is just as well, and all the time you are talking about His mercy you are refusing it.
What would you think of the Prodigal, if when the father is holding out the best robe to put on his shoulders, he were to push past into the house, saying, “Oh, my father is very merciful; he surely won’t turn me out?”
“Ah,” you would say at once, “the fellow was mad to try to enter the house in his rags, when his father was holding out the best robe to clothe him.”
So it is with you. You are despising the righteousness of God which He is waiting to put upon you. It is “unto all, and upon all them that believe” (Rom. 3:2222Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: (Romans 3:22)); and you are trying to push your way into heaven clothed in your own rags. God is such a loving, kind, gracious God, that He gave His only begotten Son, and when that Spotless One was on the cross, our sins were laid on Him, and that holy God hid His face from the One He loved. Why? Because of sin. Ah, yes, God hid His face from Jesus, that it might beam forth in love on you forever. God was so holy that He must turn away from Jesus when He was on the cross, making atonement for our sins. And now, having been glorified about the question of sin, He will not―yea, He is so righteous, He cannot ―condemn the poor sinner who trusts that Jesus whom He has raised from the dead, but will clothe him with the best robe, the righteousness of His own providing, and fit him for His presence forever, and all for nothing.
Now, if you want to be saved, you must be saved in God’s own way, and God’s own time, which is “for nothing,” and “now.” And if you will not submit to be saved in God’s way, you must be damned in your own way. “He that believeth not shall be damned” (Mark 16:1616He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned. (Mark 16:16)).
Oh, sinner, come to Jesus―come now. Do not push on into hell. Satan is deceiving you; he wants your soul, and when he gets it, he will turn round and laugh at you for your folly. Remember, that clothed in the best robe which God has Himself provided, and which He offers to you for nothing, you are sure to land in glory; but clothed in your own rags, you are sure to land in the lake of fire.
Oh, do think of it ― to be shut out from God, from heaven, from your friends who are saved, from everything that is good. And to be shut in with the devil in the lake of fire, with those who are eternally lost, and everything that is wicked. Oh, turn, do not burn; turn to Jesus. Do trust Him. Although in heaven, He still speaks to you, and says, “Come unto me, all ye that labor (that is you, who are doing your best) and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:2828Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. (Matthew 11:28)). And perhaps as you read this paper you feel a desire to be saved, you are just, wishing you were sure that you had the best robe. Ah, it is Jesus; He is speaking to your heart. Satan never gave you those desires. Now, do listen to Jesus, and do not let Him turn away and say, “I would, but ye would not. I knocked at their door, but they would not let me in. I spoke to them, but they turned a deaf ear. I besought them to have eternal life, but they had no heart for it. The best robe was offered them, but they did not want it, they preferred their own rags.”
Oh, sinner, what love to come so close to you! What long-suffering grace to bear with you so long! Ah, you had better believe on Him now. You have no time to lose. See, He waits to be gracious unto you. But He will not always wait. How slow He is to leave you. Throw yourself into His loving arms. Believe and live. He says, “He that believeth on me hath everlasting life” (John 6:4747Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life. (John 6:47)). He does not tell you to do anything. No, He has done it all. “It is finished,” the robe is made. Submit yourself to be clothed with the righteousness of God, and do not go about any longer trying to establish your own, by doing the best you can (Rom. 10:33For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. (Romans 10:3)). Be like the prodigal clothed with the best robe by his father. His part was to stand still and let his father put it on: ― yea, thankful to get it. Do you likewise. Leave your own rags, and let God clothe you with His best robe. “To him that worketh not, but believeth, his faith is counted for righteousness” (Rom. 4:55But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. (Romans 4:5)).
W. E.