Posted on 01/21/2005 6:34:28 AM PST by P-Marlowe
Jesus Christ is calling you ...
Dwight Lyman Moody's Last Sermon in London. Preached in Camberwell Hall, Sunday Evening, July 11th, 1875.
Suppose you do not want to hear a sermon (on this last night) so much as you want to know how to be saved. I want, if I can, to answer that question, "What must I do to be saved?" There is no question that can come before us in this world that is so important; and I think that there is not a man in this audience to-night who does not feel interested in it.
I heard a man, when he was going out the other night, saying: "I do not believe in sudden conversion. I do not believe what the preacher said to-night, that a man could come in here a sinner, and go out a Christian." Now, I want to say that I do not believe in any other conversion. I do not believe that there ever has been a conversion in the world that was not instantaneous, and I want you to mark this: not but what many cannot tell the day nor the hour when they were converted. I will admit that: they may not know the time; but that does not change the great fact that there was a time when they passed from death unto life; that there was a time when they were born [ABCOG: begotten] into the kingdom of God. There must have been a minute when their name was written in the Book of Life. There must have been a time when they were ere lost, and a time when they were saved; but we may not be conscious when the change takes place. I believe the conversion of some is like the rising of the sun, and of others like the flashing of a meteor. But both are instantaneous, really, in the sight of God. There must be a time when life begins to rise; when the dead soul begins to live.
Now, this evening I want to take up some of the Bible illustrations. In the first place, there is the ark. There was a minute when Noah was outside of the ark, and another minute when he was inside. And, bear in mind, it was the ark that saved Noah: it was not his righteousness; it was not his feelings; it was not his tears; it was not his prayers. It was the ark that saved him. If he had tried to make an ark of his feelings, or of his prayers, or of his life, he would have been swept away: he would have been drowned with the rest. But, you see, it was the ark that saved him.
When I was in Manchester, I went into the gallery one Sunday night to have a talk with a few inquirers; and while I was talking, a business man came in, and took his seat on the outskirts of the audience. I think, at first, he had come merely to criticize, and that he was a little skeptical. At last I saw he was in tears. I turned to him, and said, " My friend, what is your difficulty?" "Well," he said, "Mr. Moody, the fact is, I cannot tell." I said, "Do you believe you are a sinner?" He said, "Yes; I know that." I said, "Christ is able to save you"; and I used one illustration after another, but he did not see it. At last I thought of the ark, and I said: "Was it Noah's feelings that saved him? Was it Noah's righteousness that saved him, or was it the ark?" "I see it, now," said he; "I see it." He got up and shook hands with me, and said: "Good-night: I must go. I have to go away by the train to-night; but I was determined to be saved before I went. I see it now."
A few days after, he came and touched me on the shoulder, and said, "Do you know me? " I said, "I know your face, but do not remember where I have seen you." He said, "Do you not remember the illustration of the ark? I said, " Yes." "It has been all light ever since," said he. "I understand it now. Christ is the Ark; He saves me; and I must get inside Him." When I went down to Manchester again, and talked to the young friends there, I found he was the brightest light among them.
Let me take another illustration. There was the blood in Goshen. God says, "When I see the blood I will pass over you." Now He does not say, "When I see Moses' feelings, or the feelings of the people, I will pass over you"; or, "When I see you praying and weeping, I will pass over you"; but, "When I see the blood I will pass over you." It was the blood that saved them, not their righteousness. And a little child by that blood in Goshen was just as safe as Moses or Aaron or Joshua or Caleb. It was the blood that saved them. Look! there is the Jew taking the hyssop. He dips it in the blood, and strikes it on the doorpost. One minute it is not there: the next it is there. The moment the blood is there they are saved. God says, "When I see the blood I will pass over you." Some people say, "If I were only as good as that minister I should feel so safe" or, "If I were only as good as that mother in Israel who has been praying fifty years for the poor and unfortunate, should I not feel very safe? " My friends, if you are behind the blood, you are as safe as any man or woman who has been praying for fifty years. It is not their righteousness and good works that are going to save them. They never saved any one. God says, "When I see the blood I will pass over you." [ABCOG: Moody understands "pass over" to mean "bypass". It can also mean "hover over to protect"] And when I am sheltered behind the blood, then I am saved; and if I am not sheltered behind the blood, I am not saved. That was instantaneous, was not it? God says, "When I see the blood, it shall be a token, and I will not enter." Death came down and passed over Egypt; and where the blood was on the doorpost he passed by; but where the blood could not be found, in he went and took the victim away. The great palaces could not keep out death; wealth and position could not keep out death. He went and took the Crown Prince of Egypt; he took the richest and the poorest, the highest and the lowest. Death makes no distinction, except a man is behind the blood.
My friends, be wise to-night, and get behind the blood. The blood has been shed. The blood is on the mercy-seat; and while it is there you can be saved. God is imputing to His Son your trespasses and sins. He says, "I will look at the blood on the mercy-seat." Press in, my friends; make haste and get in tonight; for the Master of the house will rise up by-and-by and shut to the door, and then there will be no hope.
Take another case. When Israel went over Jordan, God told Joshua to have six cities of refuge; three on each side of Jordan. They were to be built on a hill, where they could be seen at a great distance, and the gates were to be kept open day and night. All obstacles were to be kept out of the way, the highway was to be kept in repair, the bridges and everything in good condition, so that nothing should hinder a poor man flying to the city of refuge. If a man killed another in those days, it was considered a great disgrace if the nearest relative did not take vengeance. "An eye for an eye, and a booth for a tooth." If a man killed another, the next kinsman was bound to put him to death. But if he could escape to a city of refuge he was tried, and if it was found he had not intentionally killed the man, he might live.
Now for my illustration. Suppose I have killed a man. I am out away in the woods working, and my axe slips out of my hand, and kills the man working with me. I know that his kinsman, his brother, is not far away. The news will soon reach him that I have killed his brother. What shall I do? I start for the city of refuge, over there away on the hill, ten miles off. I run - and we are told that in those days there used to be signposts with the word " Refuge," written in great red letters, so that a man might read as he ran; he need not stop. I have been told that there was a finger pointing towards the city, and a man who could not read might see the hand. A man does not have to learn to read before he can be saved. I see that hand; it is pointing to the city of refuge. The gate is wide open, but it is ten miles away. I leap over the highway. I do not look behind, to the right hand or to the left. I do not listen to this man or to that man, but, like John Bunyan, I put my fingers in my ears. The avenger has drawn his sword, and is on my track. I leap over into the highway; and, pretty soon, I can hear him behind me, Away I go, over that bridge, across that stream, up that mountain, along that valley, - but I can hear him coming nearer and nearer. There is the watchman; I can see him on the wall of the city. He gives notice to the inhabitants that a refugee is coming. I see the citizens on the wall of the city watching, and when I get near I hear them calling, "Run, run! Escape, escape! He is very near you! Run! escape!" I press on; leap through the gate of the city; and at last I am safe. One minute I am outside, and the next I am inside. One minute I am exposed to that sword; it may come down upon me at any minute: the next minute I am safe. Do I feel any difference? I feel I am behind the walls: that is the difference. It is a fact. There I am. The avenger can come up to the gates of the city, but he cannot come in. He cannot lay his sword upon me. The law of the land shields me now. I am under the protection of that city; I have saved my life; but I had no time for lingering.
A great many of you are trying to get into the city of refuge, and there are enemies trying to stop you, But do not listen to them. Your friends tell you to escape. Make haste! Delay not for a single moment!
In our country, before the war, when we had slavery, the slaves used to keep their eye on the north star. If a slave escaped to the Northern States, his old master could come and take him back into slavery. But there was another flag on American soil, and if they could only get under that flag they were for ever free. It is called the Union Jack. If they could only get as far north as Canada they were free; therefore they kept looking towards the north star. But they knew if they only got into the Northern States, there might be some one ready to take them back. So it is with every poor sinner who wants to come to Christ. Many men do all they can to hinder him; others will cheer him on. Let us help every man towards the north star. A man has escaped: perhaps he swims across the Mississippi river, or crosses the Ohio river in a little canoe. The master hears of it, and he takes his hounds and sets them on his track, and begins to hunt him down. The slave hears the hounds; and he knows that his master is coming to take him back to slavery. The line is a mile or two away. He escapes as fast as he can. He runs with all his might for the frontier, over hedges and ditches and rivers; away he goes for Canada. By-and-by he comes in sight of Canada. He can see that flag floating in front of him; and he knows that if he can only cross the line before his master and the hounds overtake him, he will be free for ever.
How the poor black man runs! leaping and bounding along; and at last, with one bound, he goes over the line. He is free! One minute he is a slave; the next minute he is a free man, under the flag of Queen Victoria, the British flag! (cheers [ABCOG: by British crowd]) - don't cheer, my friends, but come to Christ - and your laws say that no man under that flag shall be a slave. One minute he is a slave; the next minute he is a free man. One minute it is possible for his old master to drag him back; the next minute he shouts, "Free!"
If Christ tells us that we are free, we are free. My friends, Christ is calling to-night. Get out of the devil's territory as quick as you can. No slave in the Southern States had so hard a master as yours, nor so mean a master as Satan. Take my advice tonight, and escape for the liberty of your soul.
I can imagine some of you saying "I do not see how a man is really going to be converted all at once." Let me give you another illustration. Look down there. There are two soldiers. Now, if you bring those soldiers up to this platform, and ask them how they became soldiers, they will tell you this - that one moment they were citizens, and the next minute soldiers. What was it that made them soldiers? It was when they took the Queen's shilling. The moment they received that shilling they ceased to be citizens, and they became soldiers. Before they received that shilling they could go where they pleased; the next minute they came under the government and under the regulations of the army, and they must go where Queen Victoria sends them. They did not have to wait for the uniform. The minute they received the shilling they became soldiers. What made them soldiers? Receiving the shilling. What makes a man a Christian? Receiving Christ. "He came unto His own, and His own received Him not: but as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God."
Now, the gift of God is eternal life. Who will have the gift to-night? When I was down in Manchester I asked that question, and a man shouted in the meeting, "I will! " Who will have it now? Is not there some man here in London, as there was in Manchester, who will say that he will have the gift? Is it not a wonder to have to plead with so many to take the gift? "The wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life." Who will have the gift now? (Many responses of "I will"; "I will.")
I can imagine one man down there who says "How about repentance? How about getting into the ark or the city of refuge before repentance?" My friend, let me ask you what is repentance? It is right-about-face! I think these soldiers understand that expression. Some one has said that every one is born with his back to God, and that conversion turns him right round. If you want to be converted, and want to repent, I will tell you what you should do. Just get out of Satan's service, and get into the Lord's. Leave your old friends, and unite yourself with God's people.
In a few days, if nothing happens, I expect to go to Liverpool. If, when I am in the train, my friend Mr. Shipton says, "Moody, you are going in the wrong train, - that train is going to Edinburgh" - I should say, "Mr. Shipton, you have made a great mistake; somebody told me the train was going to Liverpool. You are wrong, Mr. Shipton; I am sure you are wrong." Then Mr. Shipton would say, "Moody, I have lived here forty years, and I know all about the trains. He must have been very ignorant or very vicious who told you that train goes to Liverpool." Mr. Shipton at last convinces me, and I get out of that train and get into the one going to Liverpool.
Repentance is getting out of one train and getting into the other. You are in the wrong train; you are in the broad path that takes you down to the pit of hell. Get out of it to-night. Right-about-face! Who will turn his feet towards God? "Turn ye, for why will ye die?" In the Old Testament the word is "turn." In the New Testament the word is "repent." "Turn ye, for why will ye die, O house of Israel?" God does not want any man in this audience to perish, but He wants all to be saved. You can be saved now if you will.
There is another illustration I wish I had time to dwell upon and that is about looking. There is that serpent in the wilderness. "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man also be lifted up, that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." Look here! Just give me your attention for a few minutes. "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ." How long does it take a man to believe? Or, if you will, how long does it take a man to look? Some people say they believe in educating people to be Christians. How long do you educate children to look? You hear the mother say, "Look," and the little child looks. It does not take a child three months to learn to look. Look and live! You need not go to college to learn how to look. There is not a child here but knows how to look. Christ says, "Look unto me; for I am [ABCOG: the way to] God, and there is none else."
There is the brazen serpent on the pole. God says to the children of Israel, who are dying of the bite of the fiery serpents - "Look, and live!"
Now, there is nothing in looking at a piece of brass which can cure the bite of a serpent. It is God who cures it, and the looking is the condition. It is obedience; and that is what God will have.
One moment the poor sufferer is dying; the next there comes a thrill of life through his veins, and he lives: he is well. My friends, look to Christ, and not to yourselves. That is what is the matter with a great many sinners; instead of looking to Christ, they are looking at the bite.
It is not looking to the wound; it is looking to the remedy. Christ is the remedy of sin. What you want is to look from the wound to the remedy - to Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith. Who will look tonight, and live? Turn your eye to Calvary; believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved.
1) Believe,
2) repent of your sins,
3) confess that Jesus Christ is the Son of the living God,
4) and be baptized for the remission of your sins.
You left that off.
If God promises to do x if a man will do y and when a man then does x and God does not do y, then what is God?
That wasn't my list.
If man does x it is because God, the prime mover, did w. To say otherwise is rob God of His power and glory.
I agree that you need faith first, but that doesn't mean that faith alone leads to salvation. The Bible does not teach faith alone. If you try to take repentance, confession, and baptism out of the mix, you are disregarding clear Biblical teaching.
I am assuming you meant this as a response to me, since I am the one who listed these things on here initially. I totally agree, God does reveal Himself through His Word.
Romans 10:17 "So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God."
Cornelius was saved before he was baptized (Acts 10:44-48)
Faith alone, given to man by His grace.
Like Lazarus, we live again to repent only after God regenerates our dead hearts.
I gave you the KJV, marlowe. And you rewrite Scripture.
As God wills.
There is nothing in the New Testament text that implies that Cornelius was saved before he was baptized. I do realize that he received the give of the Holy Spirit and was able to speak in tongues, but the Bible makes it clear that this was in order to show those of Jewish descent that were with them that God could indeed work through Gentiles as well as Jews. Just as the reception of the Holy Spirit by the apostles on Pentecost showed the Jews that God was working through them. The ones there with Peter realized that Cornelius and his family were welcome by God, and agreed they should be baptized, and Peter commanded them to do so.
If the Jews were commanded to be baptized for the remission of their sins at Pentecost (Acts 2:38), and God is not respecter of persons (Acts 10:34), then baptism for Cornelius and his family was also for the remission of sins when it was commanded by Peter (Acts 10:48).
The Bible does not teach faith alone.
The Bible does teach that "confession is made unto salvation" (Romans 10:10). How can we be saved before confession if confession is made unto, or towards, salvation?
The Bible also teaches that we are baptized "for the remission of sins" (Acts 2:38). How can we be saved before baptism if it is for, or towards, the remission of our sins?
Water baptism came after he was saved.
Water baptism is a sign one is saved and has nothing to do with New Testament salvation as stated by Peter himself (1Pet.3:21), who states water baptism is a figure of salvation.
Was Noah now saved from the flood? It does not seem so, God gives him more commandments to follow
Gen 6:13 Then God said to Noah, " The end of all flesh has come before Me; for the earth is filled with violence because of them; and behold, I am about to destroy them with the earth. 14 "Make for yourself an ark of gopher wood; you shall make the ark with rooms, and shall cover it inside and out with pitch. 15 "This is how you shall make it: the length of the ark three hundred cubits, its breadth fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits. 16 "You shall make a window for the ark, and finish it to a cubit from the top; and set the door of the ark in the side of it; you shall make it with lower, second, and third decks.
God has really piled on to Noah now. Just having favor was not enough, now he has to build an ark. Noah can not build it he way he wants to either. god gave him very specific instructions about the construction. BUT, Noah is still not saved from the flood. His Faith has to be followed through. Gen6:22 Thus Noah did; according to all that God had commanded him, so he did.
Gen7:1 Then the LORD said to Noah, "Enter the ark, you and all your household, for you {alone} I have seen {to be} righteous before Me in this time.
Noah must be saved now, God said he is righteous. Maybe some think he should have stopped there, but Noha did not, he followed through with more commands.
Gen 7:5 Noah did according to all that the LORD had commanded him Gen7:7 Then Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons' wives with him entered the ark because of the water of the flood Gen 7:23 Thus He blotted out every living thing that was upon the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping things and to birds of the sky, and they were blotted out from the earth; and only Noah was left, together with those that were with him in the ark.
So Noah had to keep following through wiht what God wanted in order to attain salvation. God REVEALED Himself, not enough, Noah Beleived, not enough, began building the Ark, (compare to repent & confess), then Noah had to enter the ark to be saved (baptism)
It was not just one thing that God commanded that saved Noah, he had to follow through with all of it. I Peter3:18 For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit; 19 in which also He went and made proclamation to the spirits now in prison, 20 who once were disobedient, when the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah, during the construction of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through the water. 21 Corresponding to that, baptism now saves you--
The Bible is filled with statements where God says he will do Y if man does X, and the onus is on man to perform. God does not do the things he commands man to do, nor does God do those things that men do that God forbids him to do. To say otherwise is to make men mere pre-programmed robots and make God into the author of sin. To me that diminishes God's glory and makes him into nothing short of a cosmic puppeteer.
"The Baptism of the Holy Spirit" that you speak of is only recorded twice in the New Testament: at Pentecost and with Cornelius. Water baptism, which is the baptism that is mentioned in all 10 conversion stories in Acts, is the baptism that is commanded by Jesus himself (Mark 16:16). It is also the baptism commanded by the apostles (Acts 2:38).
As for what Peter says in 1 Peter 3, you are missing the point. He is saying that the water itself doesn't save us. That is true. By being baptized, a penitent sinner is doing as God commanded him, and having their sins washed away. (Acts 22:16)
The Baptism that occured with Cornelius (minus the speaking in tongues) happens now everytime one believes in Christ.
He is placed by the Holy Spirit into Union with Christ (1Cor.12)
Water baptism, which is the baptism that is mentioned in all 10 conversion stories in Acts, is the baptism that is commanded by Jesus himself (Mark 16:16).
Mark 16 is not speaking of water baptism, it is speaking of spirit baptism.
The last verse states nothing about not getting baptized leading to one being damned, only disbelief.
When one believes in Christ, then one is baptized by the Holy Spirit and saved.
It is also the baptism commanded by the apostles (Acts 2:38).
And Peter never preached that Gospel again.
That was the Kingdom gospel, not the Gospel of the grace of God for this dispensation (1Cor.15:3-5)
Peter says in 1Pet (well after Acts 2) that Baptism is simply a figure.
A 'figure' is a representation of something else.
That figure is the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ and when one goes under the water he is showing the world that he has become identifed with Christ.
The water does nothing to his sins, which have already been forgiven because of his earlier faith.
As for what Peter says in 1 Peter 3, you are missing the point. He is saying that the water itself doesn't save us. That is true. By being baptized, a penitent sinner is doing as God commanded him, and having their sins washed away. (Acts 22:16)
Acts 22:16 is referring back to when Paul was saved and Ananias was still referring to the Gospel preached by John the Baptist.
That Gospel had changed as noted by Paul in Acts 19:3-5.
Now, why would these men have to be baptized again if the first baptism washed away their sins and saved them?
These men were saved, but had not entered into the church through the baptism of the Holy Spirit and so had to be re-baptized as being identified with the work of the Resurrected Christ.
Today, in the church age, we preach the gospel of the grace of God and spirit baptism is what places into union with the Body of Christ and Christ Himself.
Water baptism does nothing to anyone sins since they have been forgiven before one enters the water as a saved man.
The only people noted to have been immersed prior to John the Baptist were the antediluvians, and on another thread it was noted that the general consensus around here is that those people were NOT saved (although I hold out hope that many of them repented as the water approached nose level).
It should also be noted that Moses' biggest miracle was in preventing the "baptism" of the Israelites as they crossed the red sea.
So if Baptism is a requirement for salvation, then most, if not all, of the old testament patriarchs are out of luck.
But wait, isn't there a sect that does baptism for the dead?
I am choosing not to continue to go back and forth on this issue. I have tried to let the Bible speak for itself, but you have inserted outside doctrine into your understanding of the Bible and it has caused you to see things that are not there. There is one Gospel, and it was preached to those at Pentecost, and Cornelius, and it is still being preached today by those who cling to the Bible as their only source of doctrine. God bless.
??? Find a Jew, and ask them what a "mikve" is.
Baptism is a Greek name for a Jewish ritual, prescribed over and over again in the Law.
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