I desire to enter my solemn protest against the modern notions which prevail on this solemn subject. I protest against the opinion which many now maintain, that any are saved by Christ excepting those who believe. There is much vague talk in some quarters about the Fatherhood of God and the love of God, as if we who are called “Evangelical” denied these glorious truths. We do not deny them at all: we hold them as strongly as any. We give place to no man in this matter. But we utterly deny that God is the spiritual Father of any excepting those who are His children by faith in Christ Jesus. We utterly deny that men have a right to take comfort in God’s love, except they believe on Him through whom that love has been manifested, even His dear Son. The atoning blood of the Son of God is the grand exhibition of God’s love towards sinners. The sinner who desires to be saved, must have personal dealings with Him who shed that blood. By personal faith he must wash in it; by personal faith he must drink of it; by personal faith he must put in his own claim to all its blessings: without this faith there can be no salvation.
Reader, would you know the main objects that we ministers have in view in our preaching? We preach that you may believe. Faith is the thing that we desire to see produced in your souls; faith is the thing that, once produced, we desire to see growing. We rejoice to see you coming regularly to hear the Gospel; we rejoice to see an orderly, well-behaved congregation of worshippers: but faith, faith, faith,—is the grand result which we long to see in your souls. Without faith we cannot feel comfortable about you; without faith you are in imminent danger of hell. According to your faith will be the strength of your Christianity; according to the degree of your faith will be the increase of your peace and hope, and the closeness of your walk with God. Reader, you will not wonder that there is nothing we care for so much as your believing.
I hasten to bring my remarks to a conclusion. I have tried to show you five things, and have endeavoured to set them before you in plain language
(1) I have told you that you have many sins. (2) I have told you that it is of the utmost importance to have these sins cleansed away. (3). I have told you that you cannot cleanse away your own sins. (4) I have told you that the blood of Christ cleanseth from all sin. (5) I have told you that faith only is needful, but absolutely needful, to give you any interest in Christ’s blood; I have told you what I am firmly persuaded is God’s own truth,—the truth on which I desire myself to live and die. I pray God that the Holy Ghost may apply this truth with mighty power to many souls.
Reader, I will wind up all this subject by three words of parting application. Our years are passing quickly away. The night cometh, when no man can work. Yet a little time and our place in another world will be settled to all eternity. A few more years, and we shall be either in heaven or in hell. Surely this fact alone ought to set us thinking. Bear with me while I try to turn your thoughts in a profitable direction; bear with me while, as a friend and brother, I try to talk to you about your soul.
1. My first word of application shall be a question. I address it to all into whose hands this tract may fall, without distinction or exception. It is a question which concerns deeply every man, woman, and child in the world, whatever be their rank or station; it is the question which forms the title of this tract
“Where are your sins?”
Reader, remember, I do not ask you what you call yourself in religion; I do not ask you where you go,—or whom you hear,—or to what party you belong,—or what are your peculiar opinions about Church or Dissent. I leave such matters alone. I am weary to see the enormous waste of time of which multitudes are yearly guilty in respect to these matters: I am for the realities and substance of Christianity; I want to fix your attention on the things which will look important in the hour of death and at the last day. And I say boldly, that one of the first questions which demand your notice, is the question of my tract:—“Where are your sins?”
I am not asking what you intend, or mean, or hope, or resolve to aim at, at some future time; I leave all that to children and fools. To-morrow is the devil’s day, but today is God’s. And here, as in God’s sight, this very day, while you are reading my tract, I ask you to find an answer to my question: “Where are your sins?”
Reader, I ask you to mark what I am going to say. I say it calmly, deliberately, advisedly, and with consideration: I tell you that at this moment there are only two places in which your sins can be, and I defy the wisdom of the world to find out a third. Either your sins are UPON YOURSELF, unpardoned, unforgiven, uncleansed, unwashed away,—sinking you daily nearer to hell! Or else your sins are UPON CHRIST, taken away, forgiven, pardoned, blotted out and cleansed away by Christ’s precious blood! I am utterly unable to see any third place in which a man’s sins can possibly be; I am utterly unable to discover any third alternative. Forgiven or unforgiven,—pardoned or not pardoned,—cleansed away or not cleansed,—this, according to the Bible, is the exact position of every one’s sins. Reader, how is it with you? “Where are your sins?”
I do pray you to lay this question to heart, and never to rest till you can give it an answer; I do entreat you to examine your own state,—to prove your own spiritual condition,—and to find out how matters stand between you and God. Let the time past suffice for trifling and indecision about your soul.
“This article originally appeared here at Bible Bulletin Board.”
