THEY are making a huge mistake who think that the gospel is going to convert the world, and gradually to bring in the millennium! Such was never God’s intention in sending it. Nay, if it be “the power of God unto salvation,” as it certainly is, we are expressly told that it is so to “every one that believeth” (see Rom. 1:1616For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. (Romans 1:16)), and not another soul derives the least saving benefit from it. Its blessings are received by faith and that alone; and painfully certain it is that, up to this day, few, alas, amid the countless crowds who have been privileged to hear its charming story, and have been therein pointed to Calvary and a sinner’s Saviour, have truly believed it, or owned its saving power. The very lands where it went forth from apostolic lips are in absolute darkness now; and therefore the prospect of a millennium through its means are poor. But, mark, “the coming of the Lord draweth nigh,” though today the world is as far from conversion as ever-despite all the praiseworthy efforts of preachers, evangelists, and missionaries―and far more responsible!
Then is Christianity “played out”? Is its object defeated? Impossible! God’s objects can never fail.
Then what was His object in sending the gospel? It was, first and foremost, to make Himself known in the deep love of His heart to those who had hopelessly sinned against Him; and second, to open a door of escape, through faith in a dead and risen Christ, for any, whether Jew or Gentile, who will but repent of his sins and believe in Him.
Stop and ask yourself, dear reader, whether you have repented of your own sins, and believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. Get the personal matter settled calmly and divinely, and then you will see that the gospel is sent for your own conscious salvation, and not for some general reformation which should only affect the minds of men. The individual and personal salvation of the soul is its second, but very important object. We have a type of this in the ark of Noah. Then the earth was filled with wickedness, and God, in His hatred of sin, counseled its destruction by water.
The ark bore a double testimony: first, the coming judgment of the then world; and second, a way of escape for those who believed. The reformation of that world was, in no sense, its object, nor did it propose to avert the deluge of waters. Its witness was very different; though, doubtless, the wise men of the day discredited its testimony.
Yet, see the faithful old patriarch going down to the thoroughfare, may we say night by night, when the toil of building was over for the day, to announce a message of righteousness and coming judgment. Little heed was paid, but God had warned him, and he believed the warning. He could but point to the ship as the evidence of his faith. On that vessel he would surmount the deluge and reach the renewed earth beyond. But the deluge had to come first.
Ah! they may have ridiculed his earnestness, and gone on with their eating, drinking, buying and selling, as though Noah had never preached a warning word or built an ark of safety; but, none-the-less, the flood came and destroyed them all―yes, all save Noah and his household-and dear, awfully dear, they had to pay for their crass indifference. That, however, is an old story now; yes, some five thousand years old; but remember that sometimes history repeats itself, and the willful ignorance that repudiates the judgment of water will certainly be dissipated by the coming judgment of fire. People shall not always be in the dark.
It is another huge mistake not to find refuge in Him, greater far than any other. To be wrong on a point of prophetic doctrine may be serious, but to be wrong as to the salvation of the soul is terrible beyond expression. Better a thousand times to be thus ignorant, than to be “without Christ, to have no hope, and to be without God in the world.”
Oh! my reader, make no mistake here. If there is one point on which you should be infallibly clear, it is your own salvation. You have eternity to face. You must give account to God.
You have sinned. Your case is hopeless in your own hands. Christ, in His gracious death, is the only ark of safety. His blood is all-cleansing. You are welcome now and as you are, but only today. Tomorrow the Lord may come, and then will be seen the closed door, and salvation past forever.
Take one step out of self into Christ. Then live for Him.
“Here we find the dawn of heaven
While upon the Lamb we gaze;
See our trespasses forgiven,
And our songs of triumph raise.”
J. W. S.