"I don't like that kind of preaching at all," said one of the congregation at the close of the meeting. "Why, what's wrong with it?" he was asked.
"Oh, well, the fault it has is this: that address tonight was in two parts. The first part of it was addressed to some kind of persons the preacher called saints. The last half, he spoke of some notoriously bad kind of folks he called sinners. There was nothing for the likes of me at all."
Poor man! What kind of person was he, at that? He refused—indeed could not "go the length" of saying he was saved, and a saint. On the other hand, he would not have owned he was a sinner, already lost, and on his way to hell.
No wonder there was nothing for him, for God's Book tells of only two classes of people as being in this world. There are those whose souls are saved, and their sins forgiven. They are among the "few" on the narrow way that leads to heaven. They have known this happy destiny ever since they were "born again." That was the moment they entered the "straight gate," the portal to the way to heaven.
Others spoken of in God's Book are just "like other folk," and some of them "better than others." These are traveling on the "broad road." God says its end is destruction—the lake of fire. This road, being broad, is very commodious; so that people of different tastes don't need to come near one another unless they like. The religious man who "says his prayers," and takes the "Sacrament," may walk comfortably on the pavement side of it. The drunken wretch, who swears and fights drags himself along in the mud. But the road is one; and both clean and dirty sides of it have the same end—the lake of fire—the company of the devil and the damned.
Friend, which road are you traveling? Are you at this moment a "saint," or are you still a lost "sinner"? God knows, and He knows your present destiny just as surely.
Who is the "saint"? God's Word says: "Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered." Psalm 32:11<<A Psalm of David, Maschil.>> Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. (Psalm 32:1). This is the result of believing on Jesus as the all-sufficient Savior, and thus becoming a child of God. Is it strange that God then calls His child, a "partaker of the heavenly calling," a "saint"?
What a mighty transition! Though born in sins and conceived in iniquity, as every child of Adam is, God, in His marvelous grace and mercy, has opened the way through the death of His beloved Son for every lost soul to leave the sinners' estate and enter the heavenly destiny of the saint.
Are you "saint" or "sinner"-saved or lost?