Snippets of Truth 2

The Gospel is so precious a thing that it cost the Lord Jesus Christ Himself His own blood.  You have absolutely nothing to offer God that can satisfy His divine justice. What? Do you imagine that you can buy the forgiveness of sin with a few of your measly works?  God Himself became a sinless Jewish man; He bled and died for your sins, to bring you free pardon and eternal life.  Do you think that your baptism, gifts of money, or moral reformation can help you obtain the unpurchasable gift of God?

Faith is a simple belief of God's promises - what God says and what God promises. Faith's practical outcome is a reliance upon the very words of the Almighty. "Thus saith the Lord" is the only license of Faith. So what is Faith? It is trust, and whosoever trusteth to Christ's Atoning Blood is saved on the spot.  Faith is like leaning on a rail with all your weight, and if the rail gives way, down you will go. That is like Faith in Christ. Lean completely on Him, lean on Him with all your weight: lean hard; have no other confidence, throw yourself implicitly on Him. It is not saving Faith to put one foot on Christ, and then to put the other foot on your works. To rest both feet solidly on Christ, now that is Bible Faith. The Faith of Christ is the free gift of God only to those sinners who call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ in truth.

Do you believe in Jesus Christ? that is the point; for, remember, the whole of your Salvation rests not on your believing, but on the merits of Jesus Christ. Some sinners look too much to their own faith, and not enough to the object of faith - Christ Jesus' Atoning Blood. It is the object of faith we must look to, not our own ability to believe.  Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. To believe is to trust, and whosoever trusts in the Christ's atoning blood is saved instantly and forever.

Salvation must be by Faith, because a man cannot be altogether changed in an instant by his own works. If works had any changing power - which they do not, for the fruit cannot change the root.  No amount of blueberries could ever turn a briar bush into an blueberry bush.  Many a sinner has been desiring a change of his nature within for years, which he could find in one moment if he would only believe in Jesus.

The sin nature that is within you, when it hears the commandment, immediately resolves to break it. There is a strangely wicked propensity in your evil nature, for there are many things which you should not care for otherwise, which you lust after at once, as soon as you realize they are forbidden. Have you ever noticed, even in regard to human law, that when a thing is prohibited, sinners will long after that very forbidden thing?

Have you tasted the free forgiveness of sins from the hand of Jesus Christ? Have you ever felt the burden of sin and pined for mercy?  Have you gone with your burden of sin and guilt to the foot of the Cross? Has the the Lord Jesus Christ ever said to you, Thy sins are forgiven thee?  Do you believe in the free forgiveness of sins through faith in the Blood of God manifest in the flesh?  Is divine justice satisfied concerning your soul?  God's words still declare that Jesus is able to save to the uttermost them that come unto God by Him? Have your sins ever been laid on the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world?  Have you trusted Him as suffering in your place, to make atonement for your guilt?

Why will you be God's enemy when you cannot win the battle? Have you ever wondered how God puts up with you from day to day?  Would you rather dishonor and insult God rather than receive free Salvation through Jesus Christ?  Do you not know how much you grieve the Spirit of God, and how sadly you dishonor Jesus by rejecting Him?  Will you be content to acknowledge you have nothing good in yourself, and to be nothing good, but to take all your good from Jesus Christ? For how many years have you lived without attending to your soul's eternal needs? Have you loved your neighbor as yourself? Of course not.

Do you see those gray hairs on your head, are they not wintry reminders that your life in drawing to an end?  Do you not note those decaying teeth, those trembling knees, that bad back, and wrinkled brow? Do not these remind you that your winter is coming on quickly? Have you made provision for Eternity? Will you be driven forever away from God at the Judgment where there shall be no hope for your soul for all Eternity?  Have you prepared to enter the world to come?

The Divine Law of God will only make you despair of being saved by your good works, and make you feel that you can do nothing right apart from Jesus. You are forced by the Law to cry out, "Why, I cannot do anything right. I have tried and failed; I have tried again and again and have failed. I thought I was going to improve myself into a Christian, but I seem to be getting worse every day. I thought surely the Law would have smiled on me and said, 'That is well done,' but when I have done my best I am still condemned, I can find no peace under the Law." You never will have any peace with God until you come to Christ Jesus.

Do you say that you will die like a dog?  Would you like me to speak to you as I would a dog? Would you like me to treat you as a dog?  I think not. If you are only a dog or less, why should you not be treated as such? Can you in your heart of hearts really believe that the cemetery, the casket, and the undertaker's shovel will be the last of you?  You do not believe that: you cannot believe that. You may try to persuade yourself that the terrors of Judgment to come and the Lake of Fire are only mere fears of a religious imagination and superstitious conscience; but there is something deep within you, an irrepressible consciousness of immortality, which tells you that you will live on long after death.

For which of God's mercies towards you are you His enemy? Are you His enemy because He keeps your soul in life, or because he has raised you up from a sick bed? Or are you His enemy because He gives you your bread and water from day to day? Or are you His enemy because He has sent you His own Son and the Gospel?

Have you never been taken over by dirty thoughts which you long to be rid of? Have you not put your hand to your head and wished you could stop thinking?  Have you never envied a young innocent boy who swings upon a gate, runs through his yard, scares the birds, eats candy, and is as happy as a king?

Go and try your best to be your own saviour, but as long as Christ Jesus is alive on the throne of Heaven, He will need no help of yours. Jesus must save your soul from top to bottom, or not at all.  He must be Alpha and Omega to your soul, and if you try to put your hand upon His work, and think in any way that you can help Him, you have dishonored His holy name, and He will have nothing to do with you. Seek not Christ's living Salvation amongst the sepulchres of outward formality, moral reformation, and superficial religiousness.  Stop looking for something good in human nature.

Do you frequently think of Christ, just as you often think of those you love? And do you naturally think of Christ just as you naturally think of food without being reminded of it, seeing you have to live upon the food, and therefore inward appetite makes it impossible for you to forget? Do you think of Christ throughout the day? Is your inward nature so changed that Christ has become your friend, and therefore you delight in Him; He has become your soul's food, and therefore you inevitably long for Him, and must do so because of the new appetites and cravings which the Holy Spirit has implanted within your nature?

Do you feel in your soul a desire to honor the Lord Jesus? Do you love to hear the Lamb of God extolled? Can you say that you hate everything which robs Jesus of His glory?  Do you feel in your soul a love toward lost men for Jesus' sake? Can you forgive lost men when they do you wrong, and then pray for your enemies?  Does your heart all the day long go up to God in silent cries and secret groans?  Do you speak to God out of your inmost soul in prayer while you are at work?