A MESSAGE FOR YOU
A MESSAGE FOR YOU
“I have a message from God unto thee”
Between the British and Spanish territories at Gibraltar there is a quarter of a mile of land which belongs to neither, and is called ‘neutral ground’. It is to be feared that many people think there is a wide piece of ‘neutral ground’ between those who are saved and those who are lost. They dare not say that they are saved, and they will not admit that they are lost. So the devil — old arch-deceiver that he is — cheats them alike out of the blessings of the believer and the opportunities of the sinner.
With all the earnestness of which I am capable, I warn you against this delusion. There is no middle class;
NO NEUTRAL GROUND
Sovereigns are either good or bad, and souls are either saved or lost.
You may be able to say that you are as good as, or better than, most of your neighbours; and it is perhaps your opinion that if you do not get to heaven many others will stand a poor chance. That may be true, but there is an awful possibility that you may find yourself shut out along with them. Suppose that a recruiting sergeant came to your town to enlist soldiers for the Life Guards. Twenty young men apply to be enlisted, and while they are waiting for the sergeant to bring his measuring standard, they begin to measure themselves by one another. One finds he is half-an-inch taller than another. ‘I have a better chance than you’, he says. He measures himself with another, and finds that he is an inch taller. ‘Well’, says he, ‘if I don’t pass, you will stand a poor chance’. He goes on until he finds that he is the tallest man in the company. Then the sergeant comes in and sets up his standard, and the tallest man steps briskly up to it. ‘Pass on’, says the sergeant, ‘you are too little’. He was taller than all the others, but he was not up to the standard, and was rejected as a Life Guardsman just as much as the shortest man in the company.
In the third chapter of Romans we read these solemn words, “there is no difference; for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God”; and in the same chapter “all the world” is pronounced “guilty before God”. Whatever you are before men, or in comparison with others, you are
“GUILTY BEFORE GOD”.
You have been weighed in the balance and found wanting. You are not up to the standard.
I have spoken to some hundreds of people about salvation, and I never but once met with a man who was bold enough to say that he had never committed any sins. I did not believe him at the time, and I have since heard that he has been in prison for attempting to murder his wife. Now, how many sins do you suppose it would take to keep a man out of heaven? How many sins did Adam and Eve commit before they were driven out of the garden of Eden? Only one. If ONE SIN made them unfit to dwell in the earthly paradise, do you not think that one sin would make a man unfit for the heavenly paradise? “There shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth”, Revelation 21: 27. You must be whiter than snow or never enter there.
I dare say that you do not FEEL LOST. You are not conscious of being unusually wicked, and you expect to be all right at the last. Let me remind you that it is with GOD you have to do, and His estimate of you [p. 3] is a true one, for God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all. You may deceive others, and, what is worse, may deceive yourself, but you cannot deceive God. Hence the
FIRST STEP TO BLESSING
is to learn what you are in God’s sight, and to accept His estimate of yourself rather than your own. The first utterance of God in creation was “Let there be light”, and in the new creation of a soul this is the first act of grace. A dirty man in the dark may think he is clean; so a sinner whose conscience has not been enlightened may be satisfied with himself. But when God says, “Let there be light”, a Job cries out, “I am vile”; and Isaiah groans, “Woe is me”; Simon the fisherman confesses, “I am a sinful man, O Lord”; and one like Saul of Tarsus can only call himself “chief of sinners”.
In the opening verses of Romans 5 we have a fourfold description of those for whom Christ died —- “When we were yet WITHOUT STRENGTH”.
- “In due time Christ died for the UNGODLY”.
- “While we were yet SINNERS, Christ died for us”.
- “When we were ENEMIES, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son”.
How wonderfully do “GRACE AND TRUTH” shine together in this scripture! Here the foul disease and the certain remedy are seen together. Guilt is fully discovered, but it is in the light of grace. Sin appears in connection with love that puts it away. And if our true character is painted in its darkest colours, it is that we may know the riches of the grace that seeks our blessing in spite of it all. Do not, then, I beseech you, imitate the Pharisees who rejected the counsel of God against themselves, and refused to take the guilty sinner’s place before God. For if the light of God’s grace does not find you out and expose you in your true character now, depend upon it the light of God’s judgment will find you out by-and-by. Be honest with your own soul and with God, and take home to yourself the solemn truth that you are ‘without strength’, ‘ungodly’, ‘a sinner’, and ‘an enemy’ needing to be reconciled to God.
If you refuse to accept this four-fold description as being true of yourself, you thereby shut yourself out from the saving value of Christ’s death. It was for those who could by no means save, or help to save, themselves that Christ died; it was for ungodly sinners, yea, for those who were enemies to God in their mind, that He gave His life; and if you are not such a one you have neither part nor lot in the blessings which flow from His death. A lifeboat is for the drowning, a physician is for the sick, and a SAVIOUR IS FOR LOST SINNERS.
Do not make a mistake. You may be decent and moral in your life, fair and upright in your dealings with your fellow men, a good husband, a dutiful wife, an obedient child, or a faithful servant, and yet be UNSAVED. You may attend church, chapel, or mission-room, with the greatest regularity, and yet be among the many who are on the broad road. You may even be a communicant, a church member, a liberal giver to charitable and religious causes, a Sunday-school teacher, or a preacher, and at the same time be a lost sinner on the way to death and eternal judgment.
Blame not that honesty of speech which warns you in plain terms of your danger. It is far better to be disturbed from your carnal security in this world than to be damned in the next. Think of
ETERNITY.
The day speeds on when all that men call great and grand will crumble into the dust: the earth also,
[p. 5] and the works that are therein, shall be burned up, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat. At that day you will either be seated in glory or appear before the great white throne to be judged according to your works — either inside the pearly-gated city, whose light is the Lamb, or outside, lighted along the dark road to judgment by the crimson torch of a burning world. You must spend ETERNITY either with God and the Lamb and the myriads of the redeemed, or with the devil and the demons and all the damned in the lake of fire.
And, remember, it will THEN be too late to escape. There will be no Bible to cast its blessed light upon a pathway of safety; no gospel message will ring forth; no evangelists will offer pardon; there will be no Christ to save, and no blood to cleanse. Thank God! it is not yet too late, but do not trifle with present grace. Let me recall the loss of the vessel called the ‘Central America’. She was in a bad state, had sprung a leak and was going down, and she therefore hoisted a signal of distress. A ship came close to her, the captain of which asked through the trumpet, ‘What is amiss?’ ‘We are in bad repair, and are going down: lie by till morning’, was the answer. But the captain on board the rescue ship said, ‘Let me take your passengers on board now’. ‘Lie by till morning’, was the message which came back. Once again the captain cried, ‘You had better let me take your passengers on board now’. ‘Lie by till morning’, was the reply which sounded through the trumpet. About an hour and a half after, the lights were missing, and though no sound was heard, she and all on board had gone down to the fathomless abyss. Unconverted friend, do not say, ‘Lie by till morning’. Now is the accepted time. Today you may enter into life; tomorrow the door may be shut.