The whole world is lost through sin, and all of mankind has become guilty before God. There is none righteous, no, not one. For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God, including you. All that I could say would fall far short about your sinful condition in the sight of God. No matter where you stand in the ranks and eyes of moral men, you are still a lost, condemned soul as long as you are without real, living faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Religious professions and outward forms of godliness will not help save you.
You must have a better righteousness than your own, for you are a lost sinner. God is just, and it is inevitable that your sins must be punished. You have sinned all throughout your life, and therefore you are under God's condemnation, unless you are trusting in Christ Jesus. Many strive hard to make their old sinful nature better, but it is all in vain. Ye must be born again, you must be regenerated within by the Holy Ghost, only the Spirit of God can do this work, religion and your best efforts are useless. You must be born from above. You must have internal life from the eternal God. You must first see yourself as a lost, ruined sinner, and then you must put your heart's trust in Jesus Christ, He is the sinner's Sin-Bearer and Savior.
Your death is certain; it is inevitable that you must face your Maker. Time is eating away at your life and it is hurrying you to your grave. Time like a sheriff is escorting you to the bar of divine justice where you will give account of yourself to God. The sun will not stand still for you; day after day, time is carrying you to the cemetery and out into Eternity. Every tick of the clock is the sound of the footsteps of Death approaching you. The rider upon the pale horse is pursuing you, and his stallion is gaining speed. It is a scriptural fact that Christ died for your sins personally. The Bible says, "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners,” and you're a sinner; you sense and understand that you are a sinner; you know that you're guilty. Christ died to save sinners; and it is true that you are a sinner.
You may practice morality, and that's fine; you may attend religious ceremonies and you have a right to do so; you may endeavor to do better, but since you are a sinner condemned in the sight of God, you can never be pardoned apart from the blood of Christ; and you can never be purified apart from the purifying operations of the Holy Ghost. A room in your house may seem clean, but when you throw back the curtains on the windows, and the sunlight shines in, it reveals dust floating in the air, and all the filth in so many places. The Holy Ghost must first come and throw open the curtains of your heart, and when His Light (the word of God) shines into your sin-defiled heart *Psalm 119:130*, and you will begin to sense your danger, dirty thoughts and sinful ways.
Here is the Gospel in a few short syllables: Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world. The Lamb speaks of a sacrifice. Jesus Christ, God in human flesh, the divinely-appointed sacrifice for human guilt, came to earth and stood in the place and stead of all sinners. God the Father sent Him and accepted Him as the substitutionary sacrifice for all human sin. Jesus was put to death so that you may not be put to death. Christ Jesus was put into your place, your sins were laid upon Him; and sin, like anything else, cannot be in two places at one time. If you trust in Christ, all your sin will be laid upon Christ, you will have no sins left upon you. Your sins will become Christ's burden, He will take it away from you forever.
On the Cross, Jesus endured all the punishment that was due to your sinful soul. If you trust to His precious blood alone, your sins will be put away, they will cease to be, and not exist any longer. God will forget your sins forever. Christ takes your sins absolutely out of existence. As far as the east is from the west, God removes your transgressions from you; your sins are gone, past all recall. God will cast them into the depths of the deepest sea, your sin debts are all gone forever, your iniquities will be eternally expunged and erased from God's record books. ALL your indebtedness to God will be transferred to Christ, and all of Christ's merits, riches and grace will be transferred to your soul. This is what Christ will do for any sinner who will truly trust in Him. Christ died for sinners, and Christ will save all sinners who will trust Him alone.
A small group of children in Sunday School were shown the map of Jerusalem. And as the teacher was talking, one of the little girls spoke up and said, "Where is Calvary?" Ah! That is the question you need to ask, "Where is Calvary?" This is where you must turn you eye, there, between two thieves, the Savior died. If you will really look to HIM alone, you are saved, then whatever else you do not know, you know enough to save your soul, you have life eternal.
Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, suffered the anguish of physical death by crucifixion and the agony of the wrath of God in spiritual death that you might not suffer the pangs of Hell and wrath eternal which is due to your sins. There is no other way of salvation under heaven but this. God's justice must be executed, He will by no means clear the guilty, but God laid upon Christ the full punishment that was due to your sins and mine, and smote Him as though He had been the actual transgressor, and now, turning around to you, God tells you that, if you will simply trust in Jesus alone, the merits and riches of His great atoning sacrifice shall be imputed to you freely, and you shall live eternally in glory because Jesus died upon Calvary and rose from the dead for you.
So, if you would have your sins forgiven and blotted out forever, you must look by faith to that sinless blood sacrifice which was offered for your soul on Calvary's Cross. The Lamb of God is the one and only sacrifice that God has appointed and ordained for human sin. God appointed the Lord Jesus Christ to die as the Substitute for sinners. The Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all, it pleased the Lord to bruise Him, God put Him to grief. God cannot reject the sinner that trusts in Christ's atoning sacrifice. Christ's Atonement is sufficient to save you. God is well-pleased only with the atoning sacrifice of His Son, and surely your most troubled conscience will be equally satisfied with it. God is content with what Christ has done on your behalf and is willing to freely pardon you, if you will only stop trusting your own righteousness, and simply submit to and receive Christ's Righteousness as your protection and satisfaction before God at the Judgment to come. The gate of God's grace is set very wide open for you. Simply trust in Christ, whom God has set forth to be the Substitute and Propitiation for human sin, and you shall be eternally saved, immediately saved.
This is God’s plan of Reconciliation: — all men everywhere by nature are lost and condemned, for there is no difference between the Jew and the Gentile, they are all under condemnation, because they have violated God’s divine Law (James 2:10). Jesus came into the world to seek and to save that which was lost. The eternal God took upon Himself human flesh. Here on earth JESUS lived for thirty-three years in poverty, obscurity, sorrow and persecution, until at last He was betrayed, condemned as a criminal and crucified. Jesus laid down His life for His enemies. In His death, He bore the whole burden of human sin; God laid upon JESUS the iniquity of all, and on the Cross, Jesus suffered what sinners ought to have suffered. What God’s justice should have inflicted upon us for our sins, God inflicted upon Christ; God laid our sins and the whole weight of divine wrath due to our sins upon Jesus; and now whosoever will come to God by the way of the Cross may come; whosoever will hide himself in the wounds of Jesus shall be free from the arrows of God's vengeance.
A man once put out some crumbs on a window ledge for birds - one robin came, the crumbs were there, he wanted them, he picked up the crumbs, he ate them, and the crumbs were his. If you want the Bread of Life and God's mercy, there is mercy available now within your reach, come and take it from the hand of Jesus. The next day, the same robin brought one of his friends with him to the window ledge, so his friend could enjoy the crumbs with him. If you partake of Christ (The Bread of Life), you will soon invite others to come to Jesus. The old proverb goes like this, “He that would go to heaven alone, shall never go there at all.”
Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: He that believeth in Christ is not condemned. Look unto Me and be ye saved, all ye ends of the earth - these are the cries from the Cross of Calvary, and a true voice it is, and whosoever heedeth it shall find eternal life. Full Reconciliation by the sinless, Precious Blood of God, by the substitutionary sacrifice of the infinite Son of God. O sinner friend, full and free forgiveness of your sins is only obtainable through Faith in the atoning blood of Jesus! There is mercy, grace, pardon, and Heaven, for as many as believe in Jesus, the great Substitute for sinners; there is no other mode of salvation under heaven.
Behold! This means to look with all your heart, to believe and trust on the Lord Jesus Christ, trust to Him alone as your Savior and nothing else at all, accept God's word concerning Him, and rely upon Him to save you. This is God's way of salvation. Stop looking at yourself. If you are cold, you don't go out and look at the snow for warmth. If you are very poor, you don't fix your eye on your empty pocket. If your leg is broken, you don't stare at it and wish for it to be healed. You must seek warmth, riches, and healing outside of yourself. Give up looking at yourself and Behold the Lamb of God. Come to Christ for a new heart, and He will make you all over again.
Look by childlike Faith to the bloody sacrifice that Christ made for sinners on Calvary's cross. If you look anywhere else for salvation, you will never find Him. O dear sinner, look away from everything else to Christ alone. None but Jesus, none but Jesus, can do helpless sinners good. All trust that is put in religion - such as christening, baptism, confirmations, sacraments, ceremonies, priests, popes, relics - these are altogether a lie. Look to the living God, Christ Jesus, alone and you shall be eternally saved.
You don't have to understand all about the Bible and its many doctrines to be saved. A lifeboat came to a sinking ship. The man on the sinking ship began to ask, "How many planks are in this lifeboat, what kind of oars does it have, what is your name and qualifications, where was this boat built, how many nuts and bolts are holding it together, what guarantees do I have that this boat can save me?" The driver of the lifeboat said, "You fool, you are in danger of drowning, get into the lifeboat at once, or we must leave you here to perish!"
A really hungry man will not question where the bread that is set before him was grown, ground, or baked. He has an appetite, so he just eats the bread, and his hunger is satisfied. You must do the same thing with the Gospel, feed upon it, receive and believe Jesus died and rose again from the dead for lost sinners, simply put your trust in Jesus Christ now. By Faith swallow Him down into your hungry soul. Drink the sweet wine of the Divine Substitute into your inward parts. Let Him nourish, satisfy, and delight your needy soul.
You feel that you are a sinner. You are conscious that you have rebelled against God. You need the Saviour’s blood to be applied to your conscience. If you feel your lost estate, come to Christ, come and welcome, for He will never cast you away. Poor sinner, believe on Christ now! Look to Christ alone, and find free mercy. Christ is a greater Savior, than you are a sinner. Fix your heart's eye on the Bleeding Lamb of God right now and on nothing else - trust only His precious blood. Embrace Him! Cleave to Him! Oh! Trust Him now, before death and destruction overtake you; and remember, once you are in Christ, you are safe forever and ever - and remember everlasting life lasts forever.
The Gospel says simply, “Believe!” But men will not understand. They think there is to be something so mysterious about believing. They can’t make out what it is; but they choose to wait for a feeling, and then believe. Well, you will wait till doomsday; for if you do not believe the simple gospel, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,” God will not work signs and wonders to please your foolish desires. Your position is simply this — you're a sinner, lost, ruined; you cannot help yourself. The Scripture says, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” Your immediate business, your urgent duty is to cast yourself on that simple promise, and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, believe that He came into the world to save sinners just like you.
