SUNDAY 02/28/2021

Good morning! I'm so glad you came by. I know that a lot of our good FReepers know and love the Lord Jesus Christ, but they are unable to get out and attend your local church services. Some enjoy visiting and listening to YouTube church services, and some just prefer to read. This thread seeks to meet the need of those folks. So, I hope you'll enjoy today's messages from preachers, many of whom are with the Lord after having served God richly all their lives.

SIN AND THE SAVIOUR

"For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Romans 6:23).

Sin. S-I-N. Just a little, three-letter word, yet within those three letters we have comprehended all the sorrow and grief of the world and the reason for all the suffering, pain, heartache, disease and death from the beginning of human history until now. Until there was sin, there were no death and pain and tears. And when sin is finally put away forever, it is written:

"And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away” (Revelation 21:4).

Sin is an extremely unpopular subject in these days when men tell us that we are slowly evolving into a better and better race and that ultimately, we will conquer disease and finally even death. But the Word of the Lord tells us that "the wages of sin is death," and as long as there is sin in the world there will be suffering and death. Pain, disease, trouble and sorrow, sickness and death are only symptoms. The real disease is sin, and until the cause is removed, the symptoms will never disappear.

The Bible, therefore, is the only authoritative and reliable textbook; for man throughout all his history has never yet been able to give a satisfactory answer as to where death came fRomans What is the cause of all this grief and pain? Why do men get old? Why do we not always stay young? Why do our bodies deteriorate after a few brief years return to the dust from whence they came? Only the Bible tells us the story in the words of our text.

THE WAGES OF SIN IS DEATH

To understand the true nature of sin, therefore, we are entirely confined to the revelation of Scripture, and we shall stick very closely to it.

To understand the awfulness of sin and to explain the severe penalty (death) pronounced upon it, we must first recognize the nature of God. The awfulness of sin stems from the holiness of God.

God is so holy, so righteous and perfect in all His attributes of justice and righteousness and holiness that He cannot condone the smallest sin. He cannot overlook the least transgression or iniquity. To do so, be it ever so little, would prove Him unrighteous and imperfect in all His holiness.

But the holiness and the righteousness of God are absolute terms, and therefore cannot admit of the least flaw or sin. Since this holy God has said, “The soul that sinneth, it shall die,” and again, “The wages of sin is death,” God must punish even the smallest sin by death or prove Himself untrue and unfaithful to His word.

This is what makes sin awful. It is committed against God, a holy and a righteous God, who will in no wise clear the guilty.

SIN . . . NOT SINS

God therefore says the “wages of sin is death.” One single sin is enough to condemn a man or woman eternally in the sight of God, for God is infinite in His holiness; therefore, sin against an infinite Being calls for infinite punishment.

In the record of the first human transgression as given in the account of the Fall in Genesis, we are told that God said to Adam, the first man:

“For in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die” (Genesis 2:17).

And that one sin, eating once of the forbidden tree, was sufficient to call forth the infinite judgment of God. Though many sins were committed by Adam afterwards, this one and only first sin was sufficient to call down the judgment pronounced in the words, “in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.”

THREE ASPECTS OF SIN

In Scripture we have several words used to describe sin, such as sin, iniquity, transgression, evil, etc. The words in Hebrew and Greek give us a most comprehensive picture of sin as God sees it.

Though we would not weary you with these Hebrew and Greek words, we must mention the six most prominent ones to give you an idea of what sin is according to Scripture. There are many sincere people who think that sin is an evil act such as immorality or theft or murder or lying. While this is all true, it covers only a fraction of the Bible picture of sin. Sin is not so much an act as an attitude. Too many people believe that because they do not curse or steal or get drunk or live in definite acts of immorality that they are not guilty of sin. But the Bible goes much deeper. In Bible terms these acts are but the result of the real sin which is in the heart.

Before a man steals, he covets, and covetousness is the real sin. The stealing is but the natural fruit and result, the outward expression of the sin of lust.

The same is true of murder. To murder your fellowman is not the real sin. The real sin is hate, and the murder is the result of that hatred, so that the Bible says, “Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer” (1 John 3:15). That makes murderers out of a lot of folks who would seriously resent being called murderers, but that is what the Bible says. The same is true of immoral acts. Before these acts are committed, there is lust; and lust is the real sin, whether or not it is ever translated into action. This is the Bible picture of sin.

SIN IN THE OLD TESTAMENT

Among the several words used in the Old and the New Testament for sin, there are three Hebrew and three Greek words that seem to sum up the whole Bible picture of sin as God sees it, and these three words agree with one another. The three words to denote sin in the Old Testament are:

Chata—missing the mark, Avan—crookedness, and Pesha—transgression.

The three corresponding words in the New Testament are:

Hamartano—a missing of the mark, Parabis—transgression, and Adikia—perverseness or crookedness.

In these words we have God’s revelation concerning the true nature of sin, and we shall see that

this · involves far more than the actual committing of sin.

Let us first examine the three. aspects in a little more detail. First, we have the word chata in the Hebrew and the word hamartano in the Greek, and they mean the missing of the mark.

Now it makes no difference how far a man may miss the mark as long as he misses it. We have a saying: ''An inch is as good as a mile." To miss the mark by a hairbreadth is missing the mark.

When I shot at a crow in my backyard and missed him by a split hair, I missed him as completely as though I had been shooting in the opposite direction. I have missed the mark.

Now God has put up a mark in the Old Testament That mark was the law. Israel was delivered from Egypt's bondage by grace, but they were not satisfied by grace. They wanted to do something themselves to have a part in making themselves worthy of God's favor and blessings.

And so God gave them the law, the perfect expression of His holy and perfect will. And so God, in essence, says, ''You think you can be perfect; you think you can meet My standards by your own works. Well, here is My standard."

He gave them the perfect Law of God written on tables of stone, and said, "Do this and live." But the least infraction of the law was missing the mark and was sin. They did not have to break all the commandments or even most of them. If they missed one by a hair, they were guilty before God. James tells us:

"For-whosoever- shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. "-Jas. 2: 10.

The Negative Side of Sin

This missing of the mark is the negative aspect of sin. It is failing to do that which is commanded, and because all have sinned and failed, all are condemned by the law of God.

We need to emphasize this aspect of sin in these days of false holiness when men think they are perfect just because they do not commit outward overt acts of sm. Just because they do not steal and lie and murder and live immoral lives, they think they are without sin.

But this first definition of sin throws quite a different light on the subject If you have failed to do all that is required, you are guilty. If you have had one unclean thought, if you have spoken when you should be silent, if you have been silent when you should have spoken, if you have failed to help someone when he needed, you ate-guilty.

If for one second in your life you have not loved God above all and your neighbor as yourself, you are guilty. If you have not loved your enemies (for God also commanded this), then you are guilty.

The Law Condemns

You see, then, that the Law was never given to save a man. It was given to condemn us that we might flee to God for grace and mercy. No Adam's son ever can keep the law of God. Yea, moreover, God never expected that a depraved sinner, born and conceived in sin, would ever keep the Law. He gave it only that men might see how far they come short of God's perfect standard, how far they missed the mark, and flee to Him for mercy.

"For by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified” (Galatians 2:16).

"By the law is the knowledge of sin" (Romans 3:20) but not salvation from sin. For the "law worketh wrath" (Romans 4:15).

In the New Testament

Now the Law, of course, was fulfilled in Christ; so, after the cross, God gives us another standard whereby to measure ourselves.

Until the children of Israel came out of Egypt, there was no Law of Moses. They were under the law of conscience. In the giving of the Law, we have an added revelation of God's standard which conscience alone could not give. But after Calvary, God gave a still clearer revelation in the Person of Christ.

The standard of perfection now is not only the Law but the Person of the Son of God. He is the divine standard of divine perfection. Failure to measure up to the standards of perfection found in Christ is to miss the mark and makes you a sinner.

Until you are as perfect and flawless and sinless in thought and act and word as Jesus was, you still miss the mark, and so the New Testament word for sin, hamartano, emphasizes once more this much disregarded aspect of sin. For this reason Paul sums up the definition of sin in Romans 3:22,23:

"For there is no difference: For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God."

Paul says that sin is coming short of the glory of God. And none else but the Lord Jesus Christ · Himself is the "glory of God."

To come short of the perfection of Jesus Christ is missing the mark. Dare anyone stand before this standard of God and claim, "I am as perfect and holy in thought and word and deed as the blessed Son of God"?

That, my friend, is God's first definition of sin—missing the mark and coming short of the glory of God. Before God can save you, you must acknowledge this estimate of yourself as the true and correct one. Until you are willing to do this, God cannot save you, for He died for sinners, not good folks.

"This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief" (1 Timothy 1:15).

All Have Sinned

Let me repeat that you cannot be saved unless you are a sinner. Jesus said, "They that are whole need not a physician; but they that are sick" (Luke 5:31), and again, "I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance" (vs. 32).

I have dwelt at length on this aspect of sin because, so few realize this definition of Scripture concerning coming short and missing the mark. There are left the two other words describing sin from another angle: the word meaning "crookedness" and the word translated "transgression." The word avon in the Hebrew and the word adikia in the Greek both emphasize in a different way the same nature of sin.

God has -made a straight line.

First, He revealed it in the law and then later gave it to us in the Person of Christ. To deviate in the minutest detail from this straight line, to depart from it one iota, to step aside from this straight line of God's perfect standard is to make the line crooked, so you have again missed the mark.

The line need not be badly twisted with many curves and defections; all you need to do is make one little deviation from the straight course, and you are guilty. You are a sinner, and you need a Saviour. That is what Paul refers to when he says, "All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23), and "There is none righteous, no, not one" (vs. 10), and "There is none that doeth good" (vs. 12).

The Positive Angle

In addition to these two words in the Hebrew and the Greek, there is another word translated "transgression" which gives us the positive aspect of sin. We do not have time to take it up thoroughly in this message, but to be sure, while sin is a transgression of the law positively, to miss the mark is to sin as surely as to transgress the law.

But now comes the personal question. Do you realize from what we have covered that you are a sinner? Will you acknowledge that according to God's standard you are a sinner and under the sentence of God?

He said, "The wages of sin is death" –the (“wages of sin"; not sins, but sin. If you have failed but once, you are guilty. The sin of Adam, transmitted to the race, was taken care of on the cross, but how about your personal coming short? Your only hope is to measure yourself by God's standard.

According to the standards of men and morals and the standards of the church, you may be blameless and yet be lost. Before men, even in your own home, no one may be able to lay upon you a finger of accusation; but unless you have measured yourself by God's standard and confessed that you have missed the mark, you are as surely lost as though you had been the worst sinner in the world. Paul learned this. Listen to him:

"If any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more: Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee; Concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ” (Philippians 3:4-7).

Yet this moral, law-abiding, religious zealot, when he measured himself by God's perfect standard, had to cry out, 'I am the chief of sinners' (I Timothy 1:15).

Ah, friend, face the issue; admit you have missed the mark and flee to Christ. Christ died for sinners—only for sinners. Come as a sinner, cast away your filthy self-righteous rags of religion and accept salvation through the righteousness of Christ.

>>>>>

In this very informative sermon "Sin and the Saviour," Dr. M. R. DeHaan has explained clearly from the Bible God's view of sin, and we have seen that it is certainly far different from man's view! Since God is the final Judge, it is only His view that counts for eternity.

Since God is perfectly holy, even one deviation from His way is an offense to His nature. Therefore, one who refuses to be cleansed from his sin will not be allowed to pollute God's environment by being with Him in Heaven.

God's love is as perfect as His holiness, however, and He will not simply let all perish without providing the help they need.

That is why Jesus came to die on the cross—God's holiness had to punish all sin; God's love bore all that punishment in the Person of His own sinless Son. So while "the wages of sin is death . . . the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Romans 6:23).

If you will, by faith, receive Christ as your Saviour and trust His work on the cross and resurrection from the dead instead of trusting your own works or goodness, God will give you eternal life as a free gift—paid for by Jesus! Will vou do it now?

- Dr. M. R. De Haan

BEHOLDING THE CROSS

“And the people stood beholding” (Luke 23:35).

Never, never again will men on earth witness a similar sight. Jesus Christ, incarnate Deity, is about to die the death of the cross. Hanging on those nails willingly and unresistingly is the Son of the omnipotent God. Myriads of angels, invisible but real, surround that cross ready to deliver Him, but they are never called upon. Speaking of His atoning death for the sins of mankind, Jesus had said that the Son of Man must be lifted up. Now He is hanging on that prophesied cross while the people stand beholding.

What did they behold as they stood there? What is the meaning of that cross? We know that the voluntary death of the Son of God had significance far beyond the understanding of those actual witnesses. Certainly, they did not comprehend the meaning of what they were beholding.

There are still some among us who have failed to see the meaning of Christ’s death. To some it was merely another martyrdom. Jesus, they said, died for His convictions as Socrates and many others before and after Him have died.

Others actually go to the length of saying His death was a mistake on His part. When Dr. Wilbur Smith was in London, he went to hear Leslie Weatherhead of City Temple. Pointing to a large, illuminated cross in the auditorium, the preacher said, “Do not tell me that was the will of God. Jesus was put to death by wicked hands, and wicked hands never can do the will of God. Such an idea is nonsense.”

The whole Bible, however, declares that the death of Christ at the hands of wicked men was predetermined before the foundation of the world as part of the divine plan for human redemption. When men like Weatherhead and others repudiate the atoning death of Christ, they enter the ranks of the deceived and the deceiving. They come to believe that the Bible doctrine of the atonement is, as he says, “nonsense,” or, as Paul puts it, “foolishness”:

“For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God” [I Corinthians 1:18].

“The people stood beholding.”

Let us stand with them, but not in the feeble, glowworm light of human wisdom; let us stand before this cross in the full-orbed light of God’s Word and see if we can behold more than the original eyewitnesses saw concerning its meaning.

For one thing, the cross was a revelation of

I. Sin at Its Worst

This thing called sin—who can define it? The catechism tells us, “Sin is any want of conformity unto, or transgression of, the law of God.” Sin is all of that and more. Sin is really man’s opposition to the will of God; sin is rebellion against the rule of God; sin is a blow struck in the face of God. Sin, if it had its way, would dethrone God and cast Him out of His own universe.

Does that sound too strong? Listen to King David in Psalm 2 as he predicts the death of Christ:

“Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us” (Psalm 2:1-3).

Here we are told that wicked men would conspire at the cross against Jehovah and His anointed Son. Sin wants no part of God and His Christ. It is in the very nature of sin to hate holiness, goodness and truth; and when Jesus Christ, who was goodness and truth incarnate, stood before them, they sought to cast Him out.

We make light of sin today, but sin is no light thing. When you see a child in a tantrum and its elders standing amused at the sight, you might think sin is a trifle. But sin is a deadly thing, sin is a destructive and murderous thing, and to understand its true nature, you just need to stand at the cross.

Here is the pure and holy Son of God who had gone about doing good. He gave sight to the blind, healed the sick, cleansed the leper, blessed little children and even raised the dead. And they—the religious. people of that day—take this blessed Man and nail Him by the hands and feet to a terrible cross. He had placed His finger upon their sin, He had exposed their hypocrisy, and this was their answer—not “God be merciful to me a sinner,” but, “Away with him, crucify him.” That, my friends, is sin at its worst.

Go with me to the dancing saloons of Hollywood or Broadway; listen to the seductive music; see the seminude bodies of beautiful women; hear the musical clink of the wineglass. That is sin in patent leather slippers and wearing a cutaway coat.

But step with me to the brow of Golgotha’s hill; behold that central cross; see the face of this blessed Man covered with human spit; see the jagged crown of mockery pressed down on His white temples; see the lifeblood trickling from His torn hands and feet. Even while this innocent and divine victim prays for them, they hurl their jeers and derision in His face. That is sin in its working clothes, sin as it really is. Assuredly the cross reveals sin at its worst.

Now if a man murders his father, they call that patricide. If he murders his mother, that is matricide. If it is his brothers; that is fratricide. If he murders himself, that is suicide. But when at Calvary “the people stood beholding . . . they were witnessing the crime of the ages, the murder of God—that is deicide!

The murder of God! Think of it. For that in the final analysis is what sin in its intent and in its
very nature aims at—the banishment of God from the very life He created and from the heart He died to redeem. Confronted with the incarnate Word, the natural man says, “We will not have this man to reign over us.” Faced with the written Word, they deny its truth and turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them.

This thing called sin is in every human being born into this world. And since it was the sin of the race that nailed Christ to the cross, therefore the sin in your heart and mine, my friend, links us with the murderers of Jesus. Thus we share the guilt of the Saviour’s death.

Not the Jewish rabble, not the Sanhedrin, not the Roman soldiers nailed Him to that cross. Christ’s death was a voluntary death. The Bible says, “Christ died for our sins” (I Corinthians 15:3). It was, therefore, your sins and my sins that impaled Him on that tree.

I saw that as a lad one day, and it melted my willful young heart and led to my conversion:

A man named John Newton saw it, and beholding the cross changed his life. Describing it he said:

I saw One hanging on a tree
In agony and blood;
He fixed His languid eyes on me
As near His cross I stood.

Sure, never, till my latest breath
Can I forget that look;
It seemed to charge me with His death,
Though not a word He spoke.

My conscience felt and owned the guilt
And plunged me in despair;
I saw my sins His blood had spilt
And helped to nail Him there.

A second look He gave which said,
“I freely all forgive.
This blood is for thy ransom paid;
I die that thou mayest live.”

Yes, Jesus Christ, the God-Man, was nailed to that cross by your sins as well as mine. Let me ask you in all earnestness: What are you going to do about it?

When we turn from man’s part at the cross to God’s part, we behold also

II. Love at Its Best

Why do not the legions of angels fly to deliver Christ from His murderers? Because God the Father never sent them on that mission and God the Son never called them to His side. It was for this purpose Christ had come into the world. The purpose of the manger was the cross.

When Jesus appeared before the world at His baptism, John the Baptist cried, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). He meant that Jesus had come as the sacrificial Lamb to die for the remission of our sins. When He was buried in Jordan and raised again, He was setting forth in the figure of baptism what He had come to do. It would be by His death, burial and resurrection that mankind would be saved. The sacrificial lamb was God’s own Son, freely offered by the Father as proof of His love for mankind.

We read, “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends”; but here is Christ dying for His enemies! Here is Christ praying for His murderers! Has this world ever seen the like? Can you think of anything more sensational than that? We have it in God’s Word that “Christ died for the ungodly.” Nothing in this world can parallel such love. Such love is infinite; it is incomprehensible. It is the love of God, and the love of God at its best.

But this divine love was not manifested by the mere physical suffering of Christ. The man who surveys that wondrous cross and sees only His bodily suffering has never understood the true meaning of Calvary. The soul-suffering of Christ was far beyond the mere physical agony of crucifixion, terrible though that was.

Never let us forget that the only begotten Son was God as well as man. He had to be. For as He hung there bearing the sins of all mankind, the suffering and penalty due to us all fell in one terrible stroke upon His sinless soul. Hanging there on that cross, Jesus took upon Himself the responsibility before God for all the sin and wickedness and guilt of mankind. The Bible clearly states in Isaiah 53:6, “The LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.” It tells us that God “hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin” (2 Corinthians 5:21). And because of His perfect union with divine holiness, Jesus was infinitely more sensitive in His conscience toward sin than any sinful man could ever be. And for this Sinless One to become identified with all the direful horror, all the accumulated abomination and the filth committed by men from the beginning of time, produced in Him such agony of soul that in Gethsemane, as He anticipated the death of the cross, the human body in which He dwelt almost broke asunder, and “his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground” (Luke 22:44).

No mere man could have borne this infinite load. My sins, without yours, were enough to have killed Him; and yours, without mine. So the victim of Calvary had to be a divine victim, capable of bearing an infinite burden of penalty due to our sins.

Dear unsaved man or woman, are you not gripped with the marvel, the majesty, the infinite nobility and grandeur of this act of God in giving His Son to die for you? Can you think of anything more calculated to melt our hard hearts and move our stubborn wills than the love of the cross? That cross is God’s final appeal, His most moving appeal to your heart to win your love, your penitence, your devotion in return.

Let me ask you, and it is no idle question: What is to be your personal response to the appeal of God’s love at its best?

But again, beholding the cross we see

Ill. God’s Justice at Its Surest

Although sin may be appraised as a light thing by men, with God it is always the damning, blasting, blighting thing that it really is.

God hates sin with an infinite loathing and is therefore compelled, both by the demands of His own holy nature and His holy law, to pour wrath upon those who commit sin. God is of purer eyes than to look on sin with the slightest degree of tolerance.

It is not so with men. We have become so used to sin, even in its worst manifestations, that we have ceased to react against it as we ought.

As one has said:

Vice is a monster of such frightful mien
As to be hated needs but to be seen;
But seen too oft, familiar with her face,
We first endure, then pity, then embrace.

It is never so with our infinitely holy God. His righteousness demands that sin be judged and punished. If God were to leave sin unpunished, He would become the aide and abettor of man in his continuance in sin. He would cease to be a good and holy God. Hence, we read, “The wages of sin is death,” even eternal death; and again, “The soul that sinneth, it shall die.”

Sin left unpunished would bring moral disorder and spiritual chaos throughout the universe. So a righteous God must deal out justice upon all who have sinned. He must not deviate from pure justice, from sure justice, no matter who is the sinner or what the circumstances.

And this we behold at the cross. Here we see God, the Judge of the universe, dealing with sin. All the sin of the race is concentrated upon one Man, and that Man hangs between Heaven and earth. Since the wages of sin is death, He deserves to die.

But wait! That Prisoner is the Judge’s own Son. That Man on trial, taking my place and yours and therefore identified with our sin, is the only begotten Son of God. Is there to be no relenting on the part of the divine Father toward His own beloved Son? Has the Judge no eye to pity, no desire to spare? Surely if ever God might be inclined to deal leniently with sin, it will be here.

And the answer comes back in that cry of anguish from the cross, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” And hanging there on the nails of the cross, as the wrath of God His Father fell upon Him and broke His great heart, Jesus died. God, with sure and inexorable and incorruptible justice, had spared not His own Son.

My friends. we hear an enormous deal today about the love of God, the mercy, the patience, the tenderness of God—and God is air of these. But is there no other side to God than His love and mercy? The man who says so, or inwardly thinks so, had better take another look at Calvary, had better ponder the evident fact of the sure justice of God as it deals the death stroke to the Son of His love.

In the light of that cross, what are we to say about the philosophy of the man on the street who argues that God is too kind to send men to Hell because of their sin? When Jesus Christ took the place of the sinner, God struck Him dead! How, then, can any unbeliever think he can escape the righteous judgment of God? If God spared not His own Son, how do you think He would spare anyone else who stands before Him after a lifetime of unpardoned sin? As certainly as God’s justice smote His own dear Son taking our place on Golgotha, so certainly will judgment fall upon the head of every man or woman who rejects God’s Son as substitute and Saviour. As the cross reveals God’s love, it also displays His inexorable justice.

Lastly, beholding the cross we see

IV. The Reality of Hell at Its Plainest

See how at Calvary the cross sets forth the awful fact of sin and also the wondrous love of God in providing a way of salvation. Through a simple, humble faith in the atoning death of Christ, men receive forgiveness of sins, and a new way of life is made possible through the regenerating power of God when we receive Christ as Saviour.

To receive this salvation, we must first acknowledge before God our sinfulness: Jesus said, “Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish” (Luke 13:3). Paul said, “God . . . now commandeth all men every where to repent” (Acts 17:30). Repentance and faith in the atoning death of Christ are God’s simple conditions for receiving His wonderful gift of salvation.

But here is the clash between man’s will and God’s will. The world’s great problem is that so few have a sense of the guilt of sin and of sin’s affront to a holy God; or, if they are conscious of sin and their need of forgiveness, their pride keeps them from acknowledging their need.

But for any man or woman to evade the fact of sin is utterly unrealistic. To deny that there is something in our human nature that keeps us from loving what God loves and from hating what God hates, is to reveal our willful spiritual blindness and to prove the very thing we deny. Not only so, but to ignore the wonderful news that the penalty of sin has been removed forever from a believing sinner through the atoning death of Christ is to despise the greatest news of all history. For such unbelief and ingratitude there is no forgiveness.

Dear unsaved friend, I am not preaching this sermon just for the sake of preaching, but that the
purpose of the cross might be fulfilled in your salvation. You can never be saved without beholding the cross. Here at Calvary is the one and only place where God can meet you in mercy. If you are ever to be saved, it will have to be here.

I am not trying in this message to explain eternal punishment, for I cannot. Our poor words cannot describe its awfulness. Over and over again Jesus Christ declared there was a place called Hell. If He said so, you would be wise to believe it. And if you believe the holy Son of God speaks truth, then you will have to admit that if you live and die without the Christ of the cross as your Saviour, there is something terrible awaiting you after death. As we behold that cross, we behold the fact of sin, the reality and awfulness of Hell, as well as the love of Christ who died to save us from it.

Let me repeat that Calvary’s cross is God’s dramatic warning to the world of the reality of Hell. Ask yourself, Did Christ suffer the agony of the cross to save us from nothing? Clearly there must be something real, something terrible, from which He died to save us.

My unsaved friend, I make no apology for trying to move you by fear into accepting Christ as your Saviour. You fear other dangers, don’t you? Why would you not fear meeting an affronted God who did all He could do to save you and with whom you would have nothing to do? People today are living in fear of a nuclear bomb that would bring them sudden death. What is sudden physical death compared with the awful, unending second death of the man or woman who lives and dies without Christ? I tell you that every unsaved man, if he were in his senses, would rightly tremble every minute of his life over the possibility of spending eternity in the Hell from which a loving Saviour tried to save him.

I have had men say to me, “Well, if we go to Hell, we’ll have plenty of company.” How easily deceived some men can be! When the Iroquois Theater in Chicago burned, 602 people died in the searing flames. Tell me, was it any comfort to any of them that they could hear the screams of hundreds around them who, like themselves, were dying in the flames?

In the light of that cross and of what God suffered to save you from perdition, consider this word from one of America’s greatest soul-winning preachers:

Here is one of the simplest and plainest axioms of human duty. If there is a God, He ought to be loved. If this God made us, body and soul, mind and spirit, then we are His, and not to love Him would be hideous rebellion. If this eternal God who made us also loves us, daily keeps us alive and pours out blessings on every hand out of His mercy, then not to love God is the greatest ingratitude, inexcusable and criminal. And, last of all, if the love of this eternal God and Creator is so great toward us that He would give His only begotten Son to die for us and give us His Word to tell us about it and send us His pleading Holy Spirit to seek us, then for a man not to love God would mean that he is so criminally debased and wicked that only the eternal. torment of a damned soul would be his proper reward.

Do you tell me, my unsaved friend, that these words are too blunt? That is not the question. The question for you to settle is, Are they true? Beholding that cross and seeing God’s hatred of sin, can you fail to see how inevitable punishment for sin will be for those who refuse the salvation Christ bought with His blood?

Believe me when I tell you, that preacher is not your friend who soft-pedals the terrible fact of Hell. He is your friend who warns you frankly, and even bluntly, if only to get your attention to what lies ahead of you.

One night a man living near one of the Grand Trunk Railway lines noticed that a landslide had occurred causing an obstruction on the track. He saw that he had no time to go back to the station to raise an alarm, for he could already hear the roar of the oncoming train. He started up the track with a lantern to meet it, but as he ran, he fell, and his lantern went out. As a last resort, he stood on the embankment and, as the train approached, hurled his lantern with all his might at the engineer’s cab. The engineer heard the lantern smash against the side of the cab, and he took the warning and stopped his train just a few yards from the disaster.

I take this frank warning of Hell and throw it like a broken lantern at the feet of every unsaved person reading this message. I beg of you to stop and consider in the light of the cross the latter end of those who despise it, of those who are actually unmoved by the death of God on their behalf. By the blood of God’s Son shed for you, by the sure justice of God that will reach you and recompense you for every sin not covered by that precious blood, by the certainty of coming judgment and the eternal duration of that place called Hell, I entreat you to humble your heart before God and be saved.

Gipsy Smith tells this story of how when his father was a boy, a band of gypsies, fifty or more of them, had picked a field of hops in Kent on the south of England. They had finished one field and were crossing to a field on the other side of the River Medway. They mounted the wagons, men, women and children, and away the horses started with the gypsies singing to the workers in the fields as they passed along.

As they turned a bend in the road, they saw the old wooden bridge over which they had to pass. The river was in flood, with the water flowing over the roadway. When the women saw the flood, they screamed. The two horses, startled by the screams, plunged forward out of control; and before the driver could stop them, they had dashed onto the bridge. Down it went, and in a moment, they were all thrown into the raging current.

A brave young gypsy seized one of the horses drifting down and watched for one who was dear to him—his mother. At last he reached her side and tried to hold her above water. The drowning woman, however, seized hold of him in such a way that he had to loosen her grip. She slipped from his grasp and went down in the swirling waters. On the day of the funeral, there were thirty-nine gypsies buried, and people gathered from all over the district to pay a tribute of respect and sympathy to the mourners..

This young lad, in the middle of the burial service, dropped on his knees to the side of the long trench that contained the thirty-nine coffins and, looking down on the one that contained the body of his mother, cried, “O Mother, I tried to save you! I did all that I could do to save you, but you wouldn’t let me! You wouldn’t let me!”

O man, O woman, unsaved friend, you must, and you will one day meet this glorious, divine Person who still bears in His body the marks of His crucifixion—a nail print in each hand, a nail print in each foot, a spear wound in His side. He is coming one day—it may be soon-to take to Himself those who loved Him because of those wounds; but He is also coming to avenge that cross and to charge it as a crime of murder against all who despised those wounds and refused
Him allegiance. And if you live and die without Christ in your heart, He will stand before you at the judgment throne, and those wounds will bear witness against you. He will hold up before you and His Father His pierced hands as proof of His efforts to save you. He will address His Father on the throne and say, “Father, I offered this man My love and forgiveness, but he despised it. I bore these five terrible wounds for him. I gave My very life to save him. Father, I did all that a man or even God could do to save him, but he wouldn’t let Me.”

From an earnest heart I pray, may God forbid. Dear man or woman, for your soul’s sake, do not linger longer. For you, eternity depends on this flying hour, this present moment of opportunity. You have been beholding the cross. You can see that God has nothing in His heart for you but love. You have nothing to commend you to God except your need. Kneel before Him, confess your need of a Saviour and, by a simple act of faith, receive Him into your heart. Then you can rise to your feet and go on your way believing you are forgiven and made a child of God. For, “as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name” (John 1:12).

- John Linton (1888-1965)

“NOT ASHAMED OF THE GOSPEL”

“For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek” (Romans 1:16).

The letter to the Romans was written by Paul in anticipation of his intended visit to Rome. This very familiar verse epitomizes all that the apostle intends to declare when his long-looked-for visit should take place.

This epistle was written at Corinth, one of the most remarkable scenes of Paul’s ministerial success. There his message had been signally blessed. Wherever Paul had gone, he had claimed the triumph of the Gospel. Everywhere he had left transformed believers in Christ. Now scanning the horizon for new worlds to conquer for Christ and longing for fresh heights to scale, he turns his eyes toward Rome. After surveying the field he says, “I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also.” Rome represented a new call and a fresh challenge.

The little company of believers to whom he is writing fades from view for a moment, and he thinks primarily of Rome, the great world center. When he thinks of the character and quality of life of Rome, he is for a moment shocked, repulsed. Will there be victory at Rome as at other cities? Can there be conquests also in Rome?

Rome was the seat of the worldwide empire. It was the fountainhead of superstition. Here pomp and power held sway and lent their aid to the errors which deluded and the vices which destroyed the bodies and souls of men. Here they reveled in the corruptions which contaminated the whole of the civilized world.

Rome was at the pinnacle of unrivalled grandeur. The name itself was the sign and symbol of magnificence and power. Here were gathered the noble, the wealthy, the distinguished. Also all the debased, the superstitious and the grotesque found a welcome and resting place in Rome. She smiled a welcome to every falsehood which begged admittance at her gates. As a consequence, though the center of learning arid culture, she was at the same time the cesspool of sin. Rome was a moral sewer in which festered the wickedness of a world.

Paul knew that Rome would be antagonistic to him, to his message and to his Master. He thinks of all the wrath that would be piled upon him. He thinks of the scorn and the abuse. Indeed, the preaching of the cross would be foolishness to them.

Then when he thinks of the Gospel which he heralds, his cheek is free from blush. Yes! Even Rome must yield to the dynamic of the divine message. Paul takes stock of both sides in the opposing forces and then shouts in victory, “As much as in me is” –to the limit of my resources, though I die in the doing of it, though they throw my body to the lions, though they burn me at the stake– “as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also. For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth” (vss. 15, 16).

What was the reason for the apostolic confidence? What was the ground of his fearlessness? Why was Paul not ashamed of the Gospel? And why need we never be?

There are several reasons suggested in our text.

I. He Was Not Ashamed Because of Its Efficacy

It was and is “power.” The word that Paul uses means “dynamite.”

The Gospel is not just an explanation; it is a Heaven-sent explosive. It is not dope; it is dynamite. It isn’t anesthetic; it is atomic. The Christian message is not just a philosophy, but a revolutionary, transforming force.

The Gospel had been amazingly and personally powerful in Paul’s own life. He had made a spiritual experiment and glorious discovery. Paul’s enthusiasm for Jesus Christ and the Gospel is one of the most perplexing problems of history. Previously he had been an avowed and enthusiastic enemy of every follower of Christ. His hatred was not merely passive. He was so alarmed at the spread of this new heresy that the heat of his anger boiled over to a persecuting fury. He breathed out “threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord” (Acts 9:1).

He looked on with savage joy while Stephen, the first Christian martyr, was stoned into the glories of a kingdom which Paul had then no eye of faith to discern.

To lessen the bigotry, quench the fury, and turn the tide of such a mind, and to do it suddenly, some great power must have been brought into play. The power which could turn Paul completely around must be supernatural power. He was now prepared to lose friends, fame and fortune for the sake of the Saviour. He could glory in reproach and suffering for Christ’s sake. He had become so filled with a new devotion, so separated unto the Gospel as to entirely renounce the world which he had known and loved.

Knowing that the power of the Gospel had been efficacious in his own experience, Paul need not be ashamed. He had seen that power in Stephen as he had stood and watched that saint stoned to death. He knew the power was real, vital and truly transforming. It must and would work even in Rome.

The apostle was not ashamed, and we must never be ashamed. It did and will work in Rome or Reno, Toronto or Timbuktu, New York or Yokohama. The Gospel has power to touch and transform. It works and makes men wonder. Millions can say with the man whom Christ miraculously healed during His earthly ministry, “One thing I know, that, whereas I was, blind, now I see” (John 9:25).

The Gospel works, saves and wonderfully transforms. It is efficacious.

It’s real; it’s real;
Oh! I know it’s real.
Praise God, the doubts are settled,
For I know, I know it’s real.

II. He Was Not Ashamed Because of Its Divinity

“It is the power of God,’’ not the power of man. The Gospel presents Christ, the Son of God. God is the Fountainhead of this saving stream of grace which flows to a world of lost men and women.

Rome was filled with many religions. Each had a human founder; not one bore the divine imprint. After they had said everything about their religions, they must write beneath them: “TO THE UNKNOWN GOD” (Acts 17:23).

The apostle knew that the Gospel was the message of and about the Master; he knew God was its Author. This was the sure foundation of his confidence, and it is the sure ground of ours. We preach Christ, and Christ is God.

“Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?” (John 14:9).

The Gospel is not a human concoction; it is of divine origination. Our business is not to prepare, propound or proclaim some uncertain human theories. Paul did not and we do not propose a manufactured salvation. It is our privilege and responsibility to tell forth the good news of salvation in Christ Jesus just as God gave it to us.

In First Corinthians 11:23, Paul says something which applies, first, to the Lord’s Supper but could be said with equal emphasis of the preaching of the Gospel: “For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you.”

John the apostle says:

“But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name” (John 20:31).

“And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent” (John 17:3).

The divinity of the Gospel’s origin is manifested in the fact that it does divine work. In the Gospel the power of God Almighty is employed to quicken. Man, dead.by nature, now lives. We need never be ashamed of the Gospel, because of the glorious fact that it is of God, because of its divinity.

Ill. He Was Not Ashamed Because of Its Impartiality

In the text he says that “it is the power of God . . . to every one that believeth.” There are some great words in the Bible. One of the greatest is “whosoever.” We hear this word, or its equivalent, again and again. No one is left out. God is no respecter of persons.

The Scriptures use all-embracing terms. One of the most wonderful things about the Gospel is its universality. It is global. God’s love and grace know no limits. They are for all kinds and colors, for every hut and every hamlet. It is for you, for me and for that other fellow. The old hymn has it right:

When the Lord said “whosoever,” He included me.

The king on his throne, the pauper in his hovel, and all between are taken care of in this all-embracing “every one.” The prophet anticipating the Gospel stands on life’s highway and calls aloud for all to hear,

“Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price” (Isaiah 55:1).

Coming to the New Testament, we find its most familiar verse:

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish. but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).

You can’t take the Gospel to the wrong place. You can’t preach it to the wrong man. It comes from One, but it is for all.

“For therefore we both labour and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men. specially of those that believe” (1 Timothy 4:10).

The Saviour is still all-powerful. If the Devil is in you, Christ can cast him out. Every poor creature, beguiled by life’s gilt or besmirched in life’s butter, can be saved by the grace of God through Jesus Christ.

Again we say that the Gospel is impartial. Every man finds in Him all he needs. And when a man does see the Saviour, whether he be a prince or a pauper, a gypsy in his frail tent or a king on his fabulous throne, a panhandler or a prime minister, he suddenly becomes transformed and begins to sing:

Thou, O Christ, art all I need;
More than all in Thee I find,

What an uncompromising, universal, transforming Gospel this is which reaches to the lowest level or brings a man down from dizzy heights of fame, bringing people together, all one in Christ. When we get to Glory, there will be bronzed inhabitants from the lands of long grass, burning sands and equatorial heats. There will be pale people too from the lands of everlasting snows. There will be men and women, old and young, rich and poor, the educated and the illiterate. All will unite in an eternal anthem of praise to the Lamb that was slain.

“Whosoever heareth,” shout, shout the sound!
Spread the blessed tidings all the world around.
Tell the joyful news wherever man is found,
“Whosoever will may come.”

IV. He Was Not Ashamed Because of Its Simplicity

“It is the power of God . . . to every one that believeth.” The only condition is faith in Christ; only believe and live. In the verse following our text, Paul says that in the Gospel “is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.” Simple faith is the key which unlocks the door to Heaven. It is faith which spans the gulf.

In Hebrews 11;6 we read;

“But without faith it is impossible to please him. “

It does not say it is hard or difficult—it says it is “impossible.”

That same verse continues and says,

“For he that cometh to God must believe that he is. and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.”

“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, test any man should boast” (Ephesians 2:8, 9).

We return again to that most familiar text, John 3:16, which has been called “the Gospel in a nutshell,” and read these words:

“Whosoever believeth in him should not perish.” Later in John’s Gospel we read:

“Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life” (John 5:24).

I will not work to save my soul,
For that my lord hath done;
But I will work like any slave
For love of His dear Son.

The root of almost every heresy from which the church of God has ever suffered has been the
effort of man to earn rather than receive salvation. It is humbling to have to owe everything to the mercy of God. We are all anxious to do something to help Him save us. God says, “Take what I have done.’’ The Gospel is not try, but simply trust.

Frank Boreham tells how some years ago Ebenezer Wooton, an earnest but eccentric evangelist,
was conducting a series of summer services on the village green at Lidford Brook, England.

The last meeting had been held. The crowd was melting slowly away, and the evangelist was engaged in taking down the tent. All at once a young fellow approached and asked casually rather than earnestly, “Mr. Wooton, what must I do to be saved?”

The preacher took the measure of this man. “Too late!” he said, in a matter-of-fact manner, glancing up just for a moment from the somewhat stubborn tent peg. “Too late!”

The young fellow was startled.

“Oh, don’t say that, Mr. Wooton,” he pleaded, a new note coming into his voice. “Surely it isn’t too late just because the meetings are over.”

‘’Yes, my friend,” exclaimed the evangelist. dropping the cord in his hand, straightening himself up and looking right into the face of his questioner. “It’s too late! You wanted to know what you must do to be saved. I tell you that you are hundreds of years too late. The work of salvation is done, completed, finished. It was finished on the cross. Jesus said so with His last breath. What more do you want?”

Then and there the wonderful truth swept in upon the young man’s soul, the truth of a finished
Salvation, and he put his trust in the finished work of Christ and found peace.

Dr. Sevin Heden, in recounting his travels in Tibet, speaks of coming to a holy mountain. Around this mountain trudged weary pilgrims from the remote parts of Asia. When asked why they were doing this, the reply was that they hoped to find salvation.

Another traveler in the same region speaks of observing near a monastery a hole in a wall near the ground. Placed near it was a platter with some food. Presently, a shriveled, gaunt hand was seen to be thrust through the wall, and the food was taken.

“Who lives down there?” asked the travelers.

“Oh, a very holy man!” was the reply.

“How long has he been in that dungeon?”

“Twenty-five years,” was the answer.

“Has he ever been out in that time?”

“No.”

“Will he ever come out?”

“Not until he is carried out a dead man.”

That illustrates the universal heresy, the perennial error that men can earn their salvation, pay
for it, do something to merit it.

The Gospel says, “The gift of God is eternal life.”

We believe in a doctor when we put our enfeebled and sick frame in his hands. We believe in a banker when we place our money in his bank. We believe in a ship when we go on board and set sail. We believe in a lawyer when we trust him to argue our case. We believe in Jesus Christ when we put our helpless case in His pierced hands, wounded at Calvary, and entirely trust Him to do for us what we can never do for ourselves—save us from sin. I have done it. Will you? Will you not say:

My faith looks up to Thee,
Thou lamb of Calvary,
Saviour divine?
Now hear me while I pray;
Take all my guilt away;
Oh, let me from this day
Be wholly Thine.

“For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek” (Romans 1:16).

Be Saved Today.

- Walter Hughes

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Now that you have read this great piece on the Gospel by Walter Hughes, won’t you turn from your unbelief and come to Christ right now? Place your trust in Him to forgive your sin and save your soul.

If so, perhaps you’ll leave a comment for those that are praying for you tonight.

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