As a boy I “helped out” for a little while in a blacksmith shop. School was out, and it was summertime. With a metal roof, the shop was sometimes very hot, so it was decided to whitewash the roof to try to deflect some of the heat. This job fell to me, and how happy I was to get on that roof with a pail of whitewash and a big brush! Before I went up I was warned several times to look out for the skylight, but I was too excited to listen.
Once on the roof, I splashed away happily for about two yards. Then - crash! - I had stepped on the skylight. Falling, I stuck tight. My arms extended far enough on each side to stop my fall, though with broken glass in both of them. Below me was machinery and sheets of iron standing on end, on which I would land if I went down.
In the mercy of God, someone came to my rescue. A big blacksmith caught me by the feet - but I did not trust that way of being saved! I felt sure I would either fall backwards or forwards, if I let go, so I hung on until I felt his big hands grip me around the waist. Then I knew that he could hold me, and I let go. At that very moment I was saved.
Do you see the lesson in this? To stay where you are, in your sins, means destruction sooner or later. A partial salvation is no salvation at all. To let Christ save you by His omnipotent power is your only hope.
Later I was hired as an engine cleaner on the railroad. My work was in the roundhouse, and very conspicuous were the notices posted inside and outside the roundhouse to the effect that any unauthorized person moving an engine would be instantly fired. This meant also that that man could not be employed again on any part of the company’s lines.
One day it occurred to me that there was an opportunity to make a little money faster than the other cleaners by moving the engine I was working on. We cleaned engines by piece work, and by moving it just a little bit I could finish my job faster. I knew how to start the engine, so I got on the floor plate and pulled the lever over. Steam and noise came roaring around me, and the wheels began to turn.
I had started the engine - but I did not know how to stop it! I was scared out of my wits, paralyzed with fright. Through the mercy of God, a man jumped on the plate and turned first one handle and then another, and I was saved from a dangerous accident. That was the end of my job with the railroad!
It was my own fault: The signs were plain enough, but I thought I could get away with ignoring them “just a little bit.” Isn’t that like Adam’s disobedience? He doubtless thought that it was a little thing to eat the forbidden fruit in the garden of Eden, but by that one act, sin, sickness, misery and death came into the world. Had not the Lord Jesus Christ come into our terrible plight to offer Himself a willing sacrifice for sin - to become the Way back to the Creator-we should all be steadily and surely passing on to eternal doom.
The time came in my life when I was overwhelmed with a sense of sin and guilt in the sight of God and a desire to live a better life. I struggled for a long time to live a godly life, but at last was convinced that I was such a sinner that I could never please God. I could not live in peace; I did not dare to die.
I was utterly miserable. I cried to God in my distress, but not until I gave up all my ideas of reform- not until I learned my own helplessness - did I find any relief. When I came just as I was, without one plea other than that the blood of the Lord Jesus was shed for me, depending absolutely and only upon Him, then my heavy burden rolled away. “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)).
At last by faith I saw the Lord Jesus as my Redeemer, and my heart was filled with heavenly peace. I could sing glory, honor, praise and power be to His blessed name. For over twenty years I have known what it is to be a sinner saved by grace, and I know that no other life on earth can compare with it.
The third deliverance was the greatest of all!