Mr. R.—To deliver us from the power of darkness and the bottomless pit, and set us upon the throne of glory. It is salvation from death and hell, and curse and ruin. But that is only the half of it. It is salvation to God, and light, and glory, and honor, and immortality; and from earth to heaven.
Mr. M.—If the friends here do not come and get this salvation, what will be the true reason?
Mr. R.—Either they are fond of some sin which they do not intend to give up, or they do not believe they are in a lost condition, and under the curse of God, and therefore do not feel their need of Him who “came to seek and to save that which was lost.” Or they do not believe God’s promises. I have sometimes asked a man, “Good friend, are you saved!” “Well, no, I am not saved.” “Are you lost?” “Oh, God forbid! I am not lost.” “Where are you, then, if you are neither saved nor lost?” May God wake us up to the fact that we are all in one state or the other!
Mr. M.—What if any of them should fall into sin after they have come to Christ?
Mr. R.—God has provided for the sins of His people, committed after they come to Christ, as surely as for their sins committed before they came to Him. Christ “ever liveth to make intercession for all that come unto God by Him.” “If we say that we have no sin we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” . . . . For, “if any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And He is the propitiation for our sins.” He will take care of our sinful, tried and tempted selves, if we trust ourselves to Him.
Mr. M.—Is it not said that if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, “there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins?”
Mr. R.—Yes. Paul wrote it in his Epistle to the Hebrews. Some of them were trifling with the blood of Christ, reverting to the types and shadows of the Levitical Law, and trusting to a fulfilled ritual for salvation. He is not referring to ordinary acts of sin. By sinning willfully he means, as he explains it, a “treading under foot the Son of God,” and a total and final apostatizing from Christ. Those who reject or neglect Him will find no other sacrifice for sin remaining. Before Christ came the Jewish ceremonies were shadows of the good things to come; but Christ was the substance of them. But now that he has come to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself, there is no other sacrifice for sin remaining for those who reject Him. God will send no other Saviour, and no further atonement; no second “fountain shall be opened for sin and uncleanness.” There remains, therefore, nothing for the rejector of salvation by Christ, but “a fearful looking-for of judgment.”
Mr. M.—There are some who say they do not know that they have the right kind of faith.
Mr. R.—God does not ask us if we have the right kind of faith. He tells us the right thing to believe, and the right faith is to believe the right thing, even what God has told us and promised us. If I told you, Mr. Moody, that I had found a hymn-book last night you would believe me, would you not? (Mr. Moody: Yes.) Suppose I said it was the valuable one you lost the other night, you would believe me also just the same. There is no difference in the kind of faith; the difference is in the thing believed. When the Son of God tells me that He died for sinners, that is a fact for my faith to lay hold of: the faith itself is not some thing to be considered. I do not look at my hand, when I take a gift, and wonder what sort of a hand it is. I look at the gift.
Mr. M.—What about those people who say their hearts are so hard, and they have no love to Christ?