EVERY person if not saved is lost. It is not essential to be unnecessarily wicked in order to be lost. A veteran preacher of the gospel had taken as his text, “What must I do to be saved?” and after the sermon, a young man tried his skeptic hand on him with this witty question, “What must I do to be lost?" “Go on as you are," was the sharp, stern response.
Yes, thousands have only to go on as they are to be lost forever.
It is not necessary to feel lost in order to be lost.
Many a playful child feels very happy as it wanders whither it knows not, but by and by the little wanderer finds out that it is lost, and then begins to weep. No one will dispute that when the child is aroused to know its lost state it stands a better chance of being brought home, than when it laughs and dances; for its tears appeal to the kindliness of the passer by. But the child was lost before it felt it was lost. The way to know whether you are lost is to believe God's word. We feel lost when we believe that what God says about our being lost is true.
The gracious Savior, when describing God's love to sinners and the sinner's state, speaks of a lost sheep, a lost piece of silver, and a lost son. (Luke 15.)
The sheep strays because to wander is its nature, herein is seen the senselessness of the sinner; “All we like sheep have gone astray" (Isa. 53:66All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. (Isaiah 53:6)), and like sheep do not know the way to return, for "the way of peace have they not known" (Rom. 3:1717And the way of peace have they not known: (Romans 3:17)).
The lost piece of silver illustrates the insensibility of the sinner, who feels neither his state towards God, nor his preciousness in the eye of God,—" dead in sins" (Eph. 2:11And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; (Ephesians 2:1)), shows us our awful state, and our deadness to our state of death.
The lost son evidences the deep, determined will of the sinner, who gets as far away from God as he can do; and when lost we are enemies to God by wicked works (Col. 1:2121And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled (Colossians 1:21)).
The sinner is altogether lost.
The Savior did not come to seek and to save those who were half lost. It is just the way to remain lost forever to refuse to believe you are altogether lost now. If you hold to it that there is something in you by which you may yet recover yourself, you do not trust in Christ as your Savior. When a sinner believes God's word that he is wholly lost, then he really wants to be saved; he cries " Lord, save me, or I perish."
What must I do to be saved?
This is the most important question an unsaved man can ask. It was the earnest cry of the heathen jailor of Philippi, who had thrust Paul and Silas into the inner prison, and had made their feet fast in the stocks. (Acts 16.) These noble servants of God were in a horrible Roman dungeon at midnight. Their backs were bleeding with unlawfully given stripes, but their hearts were full of joy in God, and they began to pray and to sing praises. God answered their prayers; an earthquake shook their prison and opened all its doors, and all the prisoners' chains were loosed!
Yes! God gives salvation and liberty, no dungeons, no bonds, no darkness for His people! Oh! no, but joy and peace and glory.
This work of God terrified the jailor, and calling for a light he sprang into the dungeon where Paul and Silas were, and cried, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved”? And they answered, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house." And he believed with all his house and rejoiced in God.
God says to each one who longs for salvation, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved," and what God says is true, and all who believe are saved.
Almost.
Poor young wife! we can see her still, though fully twenty years have elapsed since she uttered these words upon her dying bed—" Almost forgiven."
Her young husband stood beside her bed weeping, and various sorrowing friends were in the room. Neither he nor she had shown any care about their souls, until this sad dying hour, when we were called in to see her.
After speaking very gently, for she was nearly gone, and whispering such sweet texts as these, “Unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood." (Rev. 1:55And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, (Revelation 1:5)), "The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin” (1 John 1:77But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. (1 John 1:7)), we asked how it was with her in the light of a speedy entrance into God's presence.
“Almost forgiven," were her words.
A few hours later she had passed away out of time into eternity.
God knows whether she was forgiven, for almost means not quite, and not quite means not at all.
Almost saved, is not saved. We are either saved or lost.
A man was in great anxiety to board a steamer; he rushed down the steps to the landing stage, and just as he was about to cross the movable bridge was dragged back, and with one foot upon the steamer, he fell into the water and was lost. That man is a picture of many who delay seeking salvation till it is too late—yes, of many who flatter themselves they are partly saved, and therefore more safe than when they were lost out and out.
Reformation is not salvation.
Reformation is a very good thing no doubt for us all. For whether men or women, we all might be better than we are—less proud, less mean, more honest, truthful, kind, and the like. But reformation is not salvation, though true salvation ever produces true reformation. If a man say he is saved and continues living a life away from God, we know that man by his fruits. An evil tree cannot bring forth good fruit.
Allowing the desired reformation to have taken place, and the former drunkard to be sober, the former thief to be honest, still that is not salvation.
Let us suppose a man on board an Atlantic liner, and a third-class passenger. As the voyage proceeds the third-class becomes a first-class passenger, but the liner, like the London, founders in a storm. The passenger is none the less lost whether he is first or third class. So the reformed sinner must perish unless he be saved out of the world and be brought to God in Christ.
Religion is not salvation!
Religion, if it be of God, is all-important, but to be religious is not of necessity to be saved. The Scribes and Pharisees were the most strict of religious people, yet they hated Christ, who said to them, the publicans and the harlots would enter the kingdom before them. Papists or Protestants, we all alike need salvation. The salvation we alike need is “God’s salvation ' (Acts 28:2828Be it known therefore unto you, that the salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles, and that they will hear it. (Acts 28:28)), and that is “the common salvation “(Jude 33Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. (Jude 3)). If the pope is to be saved, or if the African in Central Africa is to be saved, he must be saved by Christ, and through Christ, or he will never be saved. And this is true of both the writer and reader of these lines.
The Christian religion cannot save a man. The Christian's Savior alone saves. Religious feelings do not save us, though such as are saved have true religious feeling; prayer does not save us, though the truly saved man prays; good works do not save us, though the saved man does good works; Christ saves, and Christ alone!