“WOULD YOU LIKE TO BE SAVED?"
"Indeed, I would."
"And would you like to be saved in God's way?" "Oh, yes! But I can scarcely see how any poor sinner like me can know that here."
"Well, I wish to place before you a sure road to Heaven for the unholiest of us all, and show you how, by simply believing God, we may know that we are saved."
"I read my Bible, and I am sure I believe every word in it."
"I know there are few who doubt there is a God or the leading doctrines of the Bible. But, by the help of the Spirit of God, I would try to tell you some plain truths which you may not know, or about which you may have wrong notions—truths about God's relation to you yourself, personally and individually, and about your seeing, receiving, and taking for yourself God's salvation."
"Do you know that GOD loves you?"
"Ah, yes," you say, "He loves us all."
"Quite true. But sit down and ask yourself again, `Do I believe that God loves ME?' To convince you of it, He says in His Bible—and one word is enough from Him—`God so loved the world,' and you are part of that world."
But now you say, "If. God so loves me, He will be merciful to me, a poor, struggling, failing sinner, if I do the best I can, and He will overlook my many sins."
Now, this is a point upon which you need to be set right. His name is LOVE, but He is as just as He is merciful; as true as. He is gracious, and thus "can by no means clear the guilty." He can overlook nothing. You know that Jesus Christ, God Himself manifest in the flesh, came into our position, our place, under our sin, and died a great many years ago. He had no sin of His own, but put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. Now, God says that He so loved us that He gave us Jesus, and all that we have to do is to believe in Him. Of course, you believe that He came and died, but did you ever believe that God gave Him to you? "Ah!" you say, "I wish I could feel that." But God does not ask you to feel it. He states what He has given to you and asks you to believe Him. "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son," whether you believe it or not. When you accept God's gift, you believe in Him.
Jesus Himself told us this when on earth, and surely He did not mean to deceive us. He was speaking about the bitten Israelites in the wilderness. They were all bitten, and a serpent of brass was put upon a pole, and every one that looked at the serpent lived. This serpent was given to the Israelites whether they looked or not. Supposing that one Israelite had said, "I wish I could feel that the serpent is for me," what would you have said? "Are you bitten?" That is all you need. Are you a guilty sinner? Then you have a right, to believe that Jesus is yours. This is the simplicity of the Gospel, which has stumbled many great men and which seems so foolish to the wise of this world.
People, when they are ill or think they are about to die, try to pray, leave off bad habits, be good, and do the best they can. Yet, though all these are very proper things to do, they will never save anybody. Supposing these bitten Israelites instead of looking had begun to put on poultices, and had gotten ointments, dressings, and mixtures to counteract the bites. That would have been very sensible, men would say, but God said, "'LOOK! Do as I tell you. Look to that serpent on the pole." So God's Gospel is, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved."
But you may say, "I am no worse than my neighbors. If I am lost, many will run a bad chance; there are many worse than I am. I only hope in God's mercy." Now, this is all a delusion. One sin will damn any man forever. Sin brought God's Son from Heaven to become man and die. It is true many are worse than you and that they will have a bad chance. That is the very reason I write this for you and for all, because most people are going to Hell just now and do not know it. I did not make the calculation. Jesus Christ, who cannot tell a lie, said that there were two roads, a wide and a narrow; that most people go in the wide one, and few go in the narrow one; that the wide one ended in endless misery, and the narrow one in endless happiness. You have only one chance, which is to believe God, who says that one sin will send you to Hell. You have committed at least one sin. Now accept Christ as your own and only Saviour.
But the great deceiver of the world, the devil, who tries to do all he can against God's truth, if he finds that you believe yourself to be no worse than other people and that you still have a chance, will take another and opposite course. The devil's statements are like the time of a bad watch, either too fast or too slow. He tells you that you are either too bad or not bad enough. Now Jesus Christ came to seek and to save the lost. Paul, a man who said of himself that he was the chief of sinners, is now in Heaven. The blackest, vilest, most debased, most debauched, polluted, filthy, unclean, hardhearted, evil-tempered, lying, covetous, thieving, murderous, gray-haired sinner that ever tottered on this side of the grave, is reached by Him who hung between two thieves for sin. God says it; that is all. We cannot understand it except that He chose to do it, and now He tells us. His voice, dear sinner, is still deeper than you, "Come unto me." A thief that had reviled Christ after the hand of death was on him, is in Paradise, we know. Why not you? And why not be saved now? If not now, it may be never.
I once met a poor woman in south England. I began to speak to her about Heaven and Jesus. She did not understand me. I asked her if she had ever heard of Jesus. She said, "No." (Most lamentable in this so-called Christian land.) I told her that up above those skies Jesus dwelt, and He had so loved us 'that He had descended from Heaven and had become a man. There was a condemned criminal lying waiting execution not far from where we were, and everyone was speaking about him. I said to her, "You have heard about the man that is to be hanged."
"Ah, yes."
"Suppose, as he lay in the jail the night before the execution a knock was heard at the door, and a gentleman walked in, sit down, and said,
" 'You have broken the laws.'
" 'Yes, yes,', the convict would cry.
" 'You have been condemned.'
" 'Yes, yes, justly too.'
" 'You are to be hanged.'
" 'Yes, tomorrow.'
" "I am the Queen's son; I have come from Windsor at Her Majesty's desire, and this is what I am to do: I will take that prison garment which you have on and sit in your place, and you will take my clothes and sit in my place.' The convict in astonishment exchanges garments. He wonders if he is dreaming. The. prince sits down in the convict's garments. The morning comes; the executioner walks in; he passes the convict; he takes the prince dressed in the condemned man's garments and leads him out. He is hanged by the neck till dead, and the man that was condemned walks out free through the opened prison doors." The poor woman was astonished at this picture of what Christ had done for the sinner. Defective in many points, still the story impressed on -her the great truth of putting the good and innocent one in place of the bad and guilty man.
"Now," I said, "the God that created you and me tells us of His Son in this Book. Can you read?"
"No," she said.
' "You will believe what I read from God's Word, this Book, the Bible, that God has written for us? `Christ hath . . . once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God. (1 Pet. 3:1818For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: (1 Peter 3:18).)"When we were yet without strength, . . . Christ died for the ungodly.' While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. (Rom. 5:6-86For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. 7For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. 8But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:6‑8).)' " She gazed in wonder—she knew she was a sinner.
"Will you believe God," I continued, "that He loved you and gave you His Son, the glorious Prince of princes, who once died, but is now alive again?"
She looked amazed, and trembling said, "May I?"
"Not only have I authority to tell you that you may, but God has commanded you to do it, and you will never please God half so much, although you toiled and wept and prayed for a million years, as by obeying His voice and taking His gift."
This is the substance of our conversation, though because of the lapse of time I may have forgotten some details and put in others. It seemed to be used by God, for the woman professed at once to believe on Jesus, and to believe God, and that in Him she had everlasting life. I saw her next evening, and she had a calm joy in her soul; she was longing to hear about that glorious Prince who had been sent to die the convict's death, to preach "liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound." She resolved to begin to learn to read, so that she might know the truth for herself from the Word of God.
But you may say, "I am not so bad as she. I can read. I know all about Jesus. I have always believed." Yes, you have always believed about Jesus, but have you believed that He is yours? You have always believed that He is the Saviour of sinners, but have you believed that He is yours? If you have not, you are still condemned and still unsaved. In all affection, I would earnestly entreat you, before you read another line, to lay down this book, and take God at His word, never heeding what you feel, nor whatsoever your heart may say (it is a liar). Believe God, that He so loved you (put in your name) that He gave Jesus to you (put in your name). That is faith. You see you have not always believed that Jesus is yours. As I have said, and will repeat again, you have not to feel He is yours. If you believe Him, then all your sin is forever gone. You are justified from all things. Your sins are cast into the depths of the sea. You can never come into condemnation. You are as sure of Heaven as if, you were there, for God has said it.
Certainly your wicked heart within you is not gone. I have often met with poor, distressed souls who were unable to make out how people could know they were saved, thinking that if they were saved they should never have any sin in them. God says, if people (that is, saved people) say they have no sin they deceive themselves. All the difference lies in this, having sin IN me, and sin ON me. I once tried to put the way to be saved before a little girl who wished to know about it, and I think it showed her the Gospel to the saving of her soul.
"How many people were crucified on Calvary?" "Three," she replied. "Two thieves, and Jesus between."
"Were both the thieves equally bad?"
"Yes, they suffered justly." .
"Did both die alike?"
"No."
"What made the difference?"
"One believed on Jesus, the other did not."
"Now what about sin with regard to these three?
The one thief that did not look to Jesus, had he sin IN him?"
"Had he sin ON him?"
"Yes."
"And Jesus, had He sin IN Him?"
She thought a little, but she answered rightly, "No."
(He was holy and harmless; no speck ever defiled
Him; He could touch lepers and still be clean.)
"Had He sin ON Him?"
"Yes."
"His own?"
"No."
"The thief that looked to Jesus, had he sin Di him after he looked?"
"Yes."
"Had he sin ON Him?"
"No."
This Cross still divides the world. We are all sinners, as were both the thieves. On one side are saved sinners, on the other, unsaved sinners. On the one side are those who believe God that Jesus is theirs; on the other, those who do not. On the one side are those who have sin IN them, but no sin ON them, because they have 'left it on the spotless Sin-bearer; on the other, those who have sin both IN them and ON them. And all the people in the world die as those two thieves did. None ever died, or ever will die, without sin IN him. The name of each man when he dies will be sinner. The name of each of the two thieves was thief to the very last breath, but one died a saved thief, the other died an unsaved thief. The one set of men die saved sinners, the other unsaved sinners. The one die with sin ON them, sinking them down to an awful Hell; the other die with no sin ON them, and are forever with the Lord.
"Now, will you be saved?"
"How can I?"
"Simply Look."
"But I have often tried to look, and I have often tried to bring before my mind a picture of Jesus hanging on the Cross for me."
"Now, this is not the way at all; a vision of Christ on the Cross, or a dream, or a thought, is not what God gives. Suppose I was laid on my deathbed tonight, and, as I lay, the devil came to me and told me that I was not saved. Suppose I said to him, 'Some time ago I had a vision of Christ hanging on the cross for me.'
" `Ah!' he would say, 'that was a delusion I brought before your eyes to deceive you.'
" 'Well, but I dreamed one night that Jesus came close to me, and said, "Thou art mine." '
" 'It was all a delusion.'
" 'I had a thought one day; it just flashed across me all at once that I was saved.'
" 'Only a delusion.'
"And I could not answer the accusing deceiver. But I will tell you what will put him to flight. I take my Bible and say, 'God says that He gave me Jesus.'
" 'How do you know that Jesus is for you?'
" 'Because GOD SAYS that He so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.'
" 'But do you think that so great a sinner as you can be saved by simply believing Jesus is yours?'
" 'Yes, for God says, "He that believeth on the Son HATH everlasting life." '
"And the devil could say nothing, for it is written, `They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony.' You see, I would never dare to bring before him what I felt or what ideas had crossed my mind, but simply and solely what God. says. This is looking—this is seeing Jesus in the Word of God."
"Will you not be WASHED in His blood, and be made forever clean?"
"But how can I? What do you mean by His blood? I have often heard about it and have often tried, while lying on my bed, to bring before my eyes the sight of His blood flowing from His wounded hands and feet and from His pierced side."
"Now this is another mistake. Blood is a figure for life taken. Seeing the blood means believing God about the death of His Son instead of your death, being satisfied with Christ's death in the place of yours. This is being washed in the blood. You see no real blood, nor vision, nor picture of blood, but in that blessed Book of God you read, 'He was wounded for our [faith says my] transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.' Isa. 53:55But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. (Isaiah 53:5). This is seeing the blood."
"Will you COME to Jesus?"
"But how can I? I have read in the Bible that He said, 'Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest,' and I have often wished I had been on earth when He was here. I wish I had seen Him pass my door; I would have watched Him, and would have run to Him and touched His garment. But He is in Heaven, and how can I come to Him?"
"Now God has most beautifully explained this; for we do not need to go up to Heaven (Rom. 10:66But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise, Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down from above:) (Romans 10:6)) to bring Him down, nor to go to the grave to bring Him up. He is risen and gone to Heaven, and He has left His WORD, in which alone He can now be found.
This Word may be in your hands and in your memory, that Word which the Holy Ghost has written, and is now urging you to believe, which tells you that God so loved you as to give you Jesus. In that Word He is asking you to believe that He is yours. This is 'coming to Jesus.' Now that He is in Heaven, His Spirit and His Word—His Word from His lips and His Spirit in, through, and with the Word—are all that are left. Will these not satisfy? Have you ever thought that if you saw your name written in the heavens or on the seashore, and you knew that it had been traced by God's finger, you would then believe that you were saved? Do you think God will make another and special revelation for you? No, 'no, you must just take salvation as all the rest of us poor sinners have taken it, by believing the one Book."
"But don't I need to wait God's time?"
"God has only one time—that is, today. I read of tomorrow in the Bible. Pharaoh wished the frogs taken from him, but tomorrow. Tomorrow is man's time. Now, today is God's time. If you came to a stream, would you sit down and say, 'I will wait till it flows past, and when it is dry, then I will cross'? Men are not such fools. God is waiting on you. He is calling you. He is beseeching you, and this is His one request: 'Take my Son whom I have given.' He cries to every accountable and rational soul in this world, `Will you have Him?"
"Oh, if I could feel a something in me telling me that Christ was mine, I would believe it."
"Quite wrong again. It is believing something out-
side of you, trusting Him who is at God's right hand, and resting on His sure, eternal Word."
You will not throw this aside, will you, and say,. "I like it," or "I do not like it"? The poor saved sinner who writes to you cannot save you, nor can any man. Tell God what you are to do; tell God that He loves you; tell God that you trust Him; tell God that you believe Him; tell God that He has given you Jesus; tell God that you believe that also; tell God that He laid all your sins upon Jesus; tell God that you believe they were on Him, and therefore are not on you; tell God you have gone astray, but that you believe that your iniquity was laid on Jesus. Thank God for a finished salvation in Christ. Tell Him how well pleased He is with Jesus instead of you; tell Him that you are
A poor sinner and nothing at all,
But Jesus Christ is your all in all.
May God Himself show you, for His name's sake His simple Gospel of Christ for you. A beloved brother said, when coming out of the darkness of self, "It is the simplicity that stumbles me. It is news too good to be true." Yes, if man were in it, but it is not too good to be true when we consider with what a God we have to do. You see, God can overlook nothing. He can FORGIVE anything. He can by no means clear the guilty. He can take us out of the guilty Adam-standing, and put us into a new, a resurrection Christ-standing. He can save to the uttermost the blackest, vilest sinner that accepts (simply accepts) His gift, Jesus. Will you receive Him? You may be in poverty, in nakedness, and in misery, but God presents you with Jesus. He might have created a world for every one of us, but that would have been nothing compared with what He has given—JESUS. You may have a hard fight here to make ends meet, but having Jesus it will be all the Hell you will ever be in. You may have every comfort and be altogether moral and good as far as man can judge, upright and religious, but without Jesus this will be all the Heaven you will ever have. Religiousness; goodness, kindness, beneficence, uprightness, and amiability will not save you. Acceptance of God's gift alone will save you.
Now what is it to be, ere we part, perhaps never to converse again forever—God's simple Gospel for the meanest, poorest, weakest capacity, so that even a fool may embrace it, or man's ways, follies, pleasures, religion, and world? Jesus is offered to all. Some will accept Him, and some will refuse. You make God a liar if you do not accept. You make yourself a liar, and God true, if you accept Him. Some may know all about Christ, the Gift of God presented to them, and yet not know Him. " 'Tis eternal life to know Him." By not receiving Him, they trample under foot the blood of the life-giving Prince. Others receive Him and thank God for Him and are saved.
May the blessed Spirit, who witnesses to Jesus, open the eyes of every reader to see Him, incline every fellow-sinner to believe God and accept His gift.
Call your heart a liar, and believe the record of the only living and true God.
Would You Like to be Saved?
Nothing, Lord, I bring before Thee,
Nothing that can meet Thy face;
But in Jesus I adore Thee,
For the riches of Thy Grace,
Jesus came in love from Heaven,
By the Father's love was given,
From that death He now has risen,
Which He died for me.
Jesus died for the sinner,
Jesus died for the sinner,
Jesus died for the sinner,
Jesus died for me.
"Come to me," Thy lips have spoken;
As I am, O Lord, I come;
All Thy laws I oft have broken,
From Thy side afar did roam.
Boundless love hast Thou been showing,
Settling every just demand;
Jesus as my own I'm knowing,
Thus obey Thy great command.
This the work that stands forever,
All my works are useless dross;
Jesus mine! yes, nought can sever
Me from Him of Calvary's cross.
Precious blood of Him, forsaken
On that cross, in wrath, by God,
Cleanses me; His life was taken,
When made sin for me He stood.
"Look to me," He said, Who's risen,
Jesus Christ my Saviour Lord;
Mortal eye can't enter Heaven,
But I see Thee in Thy Word.
Trust Him, claim Him, O believe Him,
All was done thy trust to gain;
On Him rest, and now receive Him,
And with Him forever reign.