05 Chap 1 Salvation Implies Exposure
CHAPTER 1.
SALVATION IMPLIES ExPOSURE,
Isaiah 52:7.-How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth !
WE love the bearer of good tidings. We welcome him for the sake of his message. And we prize the message in proportion to its value. So should we in the concerns of the soul and the things of God. We should greet the bearers of the gospel message. That message, though variously described, may be summed up in a single word-the sweetest word that ever met the ear of mortal man-salvation ! "How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that .... publisheth salvation !" Isaiah 52:7.
" Salvation ! let the echo fly The spacious earth around;
While all the armies of the sky Conspire to raise the sound."
Salvation! Reader, let me spend a serious hour with you upon this theme. The subject is important. No other can equal it in importance. It is the most momentous theme to which the mind of man can be turned. It relates to the body and to the soul, to time and to eternity, to God and man, to heaven and hell. It is a question of weal or woe, of happiness or misery, and that through an endless duration. As it relates to you, it is whether you shall be saved or lost ; whether you shall soar and sing with angels, or sink and suffer with ruined spirits. It is a question, too, which concerns yourself and involves your own individual interests for both worlds, the present and the future. No evasion of the subject can diminish its importance, nor separate from it your own personal concern. In comparison with it, what is this world with all its pleasures, its riches, its honours ? Nothing, and less than nothing ! Go, count the stars, and they are suns, the centres of innumerable worlds. Were all these worlds one solid mass of gold-one diamond gem-it would be nothing in comparison with salvation. And shall not this subject receive a moment’s attention ? Will you not pause and consider it? O stop and think I Read this little book as for your life ; welcome it as the bearer of glad tidings; and let your prayer ascend to God for mercy. Cry for his Spirit to impress the truth upon your heart This subject is interesting. It should be interesting to you, because your own immortal destiny Is involved in it; and that which so intimately concerns yourself should enlist your whole attention, and absorb all your powers in its study and contemplation. Besides, this subject, connected as it is with the character and glory of God, places the great Jehovah before us in the most endearing light, and gives a clearer view of his perfections than can anywhere else be found. We see in it " the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." 2 Corinthians 4:6. It unfolds the plan of redemption, " the mystery of godliness," into which even the angels desire to look. 1 Timothy 3:16. 1 Peter 1:12. It speaks too of the glories of heaven, and sets life, eternal life, before us as the prize which we are to seek, the crown for which we are to strive. If there be one subject which, more than any other, claims the attention of man; if there be one theme which ’challenges an interest above every other, it is salvation: the very subject which now invites your serious and prayerful thought; -the very theme which this volume introduces to your notice, beseeching you to heed the message which it brings.
Salvation implies’exposure. It implies sin and danger from which we need to be saved. Were there no exposure, there would he no need of salvation ; and indeed there could be no salvation. Hence it is written, " The son of man came to seek and to save that which was lost." Luke 19:10. Man is lost, and therefore needs to be saved ; exposed, and therefore needs deliverance. Man was created holy, in the image of God. " So God created man in his own image: in the image of God created he him." Genesis 1:27. This image, as we learn from the Apostle, where he speaks of the renovation of our nature, and the consequent reformation of our life, consisted in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness. Thus it is written, " And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him." Colossians 3:10. And, " That ye put off, concerning the former conversation, the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts ; and be renewed in the spirit of your mind; and that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness." Ephesians 4:22--24. It is useless to speculate about what might have been our condition if Adam had not sinned. The sad fact is recorded that he did sin; he fell from " the estate wherein he was created," and by his fall lost the image of God in which he was made, and involved himself and his posterity in guilt and ruin.
We are sinners, by nature sinful ; for " that which is born of the flesh, is flesh." John 3:6. " We are estranged from the womb ; we go astray as soon as we are born." Psalms 58:3. Our understandings are darkened, as it is written, " Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart." Ephesians 4:18. Our affections are corrupted ; our wills enslaved. " The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it ; but wounds, and bruises, and putrefying sores." Isaiah 1:5-6. " We are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags." Isa. lxiv. 6. We are by nature children of wrath and enemies of God, for " the carnal mind is enmity against him." Ephesians 2:3. Romans 8:7. We are averse to that which is good, and seek pleasure in that which is " earthly, sensual, devilish." James 3:15.
"Look how we grovel here below, Fond of these trifling toys: Our souls can neither fly nor go, To reach eternal joys." The fall of Adam ruined the race. " He begat, a son in his own likeness." Genesis 5:3. Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean ? not one." Job 14:4. To the natural corruption of our hearts, we have added the actual transgressions of our lives. We were born in sin, and we have lived in sin. Psalms 51:5. "Communion with God is lost; we are under his wrath and curse, and so are liable to all the miseries of this life, to death itself, and to the pains of hell for ever." Deep and deadly are the stains of guilt: So far are we fallen from our original righteousness, that we take pleasure in our iniquities, "and roll sin as a sweet morsel under our tongues." Wickedness is sweet in our mouth. Job 20:12-13. " How abominable and ,filthy is man, which drinketh iniquity like water !" Job 15:16. Hear the testimony of the great Apostle: " We have proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin ; as it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one : there is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God: They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable : there is none that doeth good, no, not one. Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit ; the poison of asps is under their lips : whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in their ways : and the way of peace have they not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes." Romans 3:9-18. This is a dark picture ; but in the first chapter of Romans we have one still darker, which is thus concluded-and this is the climax in the description of man’s native character-" Who, knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that de them." Romans 1:18-32.
Thus it appears that man now is far from righteousness., His Maker’s image is lost; and Jehovah saith by the prophet, " Hearken unto me, ye stout-hearted, that are far from righteousness." Isaiah 46:12. Men are far from righteousness as sinners. This charge includes the whole race. All are guilty before God. You are guilty. The law convicts you as a transgressor, and thunders out its curses against you. You are a criminal. Because of your sins, original and actual, in thought, word, and deed, in heart and life, you are far, O! how far, from innocency. As condemned by the law for their transgressions, men are far from righteousness. " By the law is the knowledge of sin." Romans 3:20. The law detects and discovers sin, as well as reveals its nature. Romans 7:7. And the law knows no mercy. It condemns for sin, for the first sin, for the least sin. " He that offends in one point is guilty of all." James 2:10.- Galatians 3:10. " I was alive without the law once," saith Paul, " but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died." Romans 7:9. The law slays the vain hopes of the self-righteous. It thunders terror in the ear of guilt; it condemns ; it cries for blood. Hence it is written, " He that believeth not, is condemned already." John 3:18. Sinners are far from righteousness because they are far from justification. Justification is the reverse of condemnation. And as they are condemned, they of course are not justified. They are as far from justification as they are deep in condemnation. Nor are they in. the way to be justified. They are unwilling to be justified in God’s way. " For they, being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God." Romans 10:3. They are vainly hoping to get to heaven in a way of their own. And when invited to the gospel-feast, they all with one consent begin to make excuse. Luke 14:17-20. How many are their excuses! How ingenious are they in devising pleas by which to justify their neglect of the great salvation, their indifference to the things of God, and the concerns of the soul, and of another world ! Yes, reader, how many have been your excuses ! How well you remember them! How clearly you recollect with what frivolous pleas you dismissed your serious impressions in former days, and grieved away from your soul the Spirit of the Lord! And even now, by what means do you justify yourself in the rejection of Christ !
I need not repeat these excuses, nor dwell upon them. You know them perfectly ; and your conscience, as a faithful monitor, brings them full to your view, and convicts you of guilt in thus deferring the most important of all concerns. You see in these excuses, and in the disposition which makes them, that you are far from righteousness. Were you innocent, would you wish to be excused when invited to the Saviour? Were your heart right, would you be content to live-could you live-" without hope and without God in the world ?" Ephesians 2:12. Would religious duties be, as they now are, your aversion? What is now the testimony of your life, but that you are in the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity? Acts 8:23. " Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these, adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revelings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God." Galatians 5:19-21.
Hence men are exposed to the wrath of God. It is the testimony of Scripture that " God is angry with the wicked every day." Psalms 7:11. He declares, " ye have kindled a fire in mine anger, which shall burn for ever." Jeremiah 7:4. And again, " a fire is kindled in mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest hell." Deuteronomy 32:22. God is not moved with anger as we are. He hath neither bodily parts, nor human passions. His anger is his aversion-the opposition of his nature-to that which is evil, and his determination to punish it. His is not the anger of man ; it is the anger of God. It is indignation against sin. He is immutably opposed to sin; and from the very holiness of his nature, he must and will punish the transgressor. He abhors evil. He cannot look upon sin. It is the abominable thing that he hates. Jeremiah 44:4. He will visit it with merited punishment; for " he is of purer eyes than to behold evil, and Cannot look on iniquity." Habakkuk 1:13. The sinner may expect to feel his vengeance. He is exposed to. "the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God." Revelation 19:15. " What then shall he do when God riseth up? and when he visiteth, what shall he answer him?" Job 31:14. A day is coming when " upon the wicked God shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and , a horrible tempest : this shall be the portion of their cup." Psalms 6:6. For it is written, " The hand of the Lord shall be known towards his servants, and his indignation toward his enemies. For behold, the Lord will come with fire, and with his chariots like a whirlwind, to render his anger with fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire." Isaiah 66:14-15. " The Lord will take vengeance on his adversaries, and he reserveth wrath for his enemies." Nahum 1:2. " It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God ; for our God is a consuming fire." Hebrews 10:31; Hebrews 12:29. " Who can stand before his indignation? and who can abide in the fierceness of his anger? his fury is poured out like fire." Nahum 1:6. " The expectation of the wicked is wrath."Proverbs 11:23. " Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger .... and he shall destroy the sinners." Isaiah 13:9. The wicked are called children of wrath. Ephesians 2:3. They are said to " treasure up unto themselves wrath against the day of wrath," Romans 2:5; and the Saviour declares that unbelievers have " the wrath of God abiding on them." John 3:36. God’s wrath is compared to a whirlwind, which destroys every thing before it. Thus it is written," Ile shall take them away as with a whirlwind, both living, and in his wrath." Psalms 58:9-11. Their destruction shall come as a whirlwind. Proverbs 1:27. " And he shall also blow upon them, and they shall wither, and the whirlwind shall take them away as stubble." Isaiah 40:24. " Behold, a whirlwind of the Lord is gone forth in fury, even a grievous whirlwind: it shall fall grievously upon the head of the wicked. The anger of the Lord shall not return, until he have executed, and till he have performed the thoughts of his heart: in the latter days ye shall consider it perfectly." Jeremiah 23:19; Jeremiah 23:20; Jeremiah 30:23. " Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy ? are we stronger than he ?" 1 Corinthians 10:22. And yet by our sins we have provoked him. He is angry with us. Think of an angry God! He can dash you to pieces in a moment. " He looketh on the earth, and it trembleth: he toucheth the hills, and they smoke." Psalms 104:32. " He taketh up the isles as a very little thing; he sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; yea, all nations before him are as nothing; and they are counted to him less than nothing, and vanity." Isaiah 40:15-23. Nor can you hide from his presence. His eye is ever upon you. Flee to the ends of the earth, and still he is near. Make your bed in hell, and he is there. Psalms 139:7-12. You are ever beneath the eye and exposed to the wrath of an angry God!
Men are also exposed to the reproaches of conscience. It has been made a question whether heaven is a place; and some who deny that it is, and would have heaven everywhere, are equally anxious to have hell nowhere. Some imagine they should be happy, could they but persuade themselves that there is no hell-a system of belief, according to which we Should fear the sexton more than the murderer; for if hell means nothing more than the grave, then we are taught to fear, not the man who kills us, but the man by whom we are buried! Matthew 10:28. But conscience would remain, even if there were no hell. This is inseparable from the sinner’s self. It will go with him where he goes, and remain with hint where he remains. While he continues unre. newed and unforgiven, as he must for ever if he die unpardoned, it will follow him with reproaches and make him miserable. In this world it may be quieted ; it may be lulled to sleep ; it may be seared : but it is not dead, it only sleepeth ; the time will come when it will awake, and then it will bite like a serpent and sting like an adder. Proverbs 23:32. The reproaches of others we may endure, but who can bear the reproaches of himself, and that for ever ? To be self-condemned is to be miserable.
Reader, conscience is a part of yourself. You cannot divest yourself of it. It reproves you for your sins ; and though it may be hushed and seared, there are times when it will speak, and when its voice must be heard. And however you may silence or evade its reproofs in this world, they cannot be silenced nor evaded in the world to come. A guilty conscience must be the torment of the wicked wherever they are ; and it will make a hell of any place. Conscience is " a bosom friend, or a bosom fury." It is- "a living scorpion to the deathless soul" of the wicked -the undying worm that will ever gnaw upon their hearts-upon your heart ! Mark 9:44-48. As sinners are now under the wrath.of God, condemned by his law, and in a state of enmity with him ; so are they now subject to the checks, reproofs, and reproaches of conscience. But as the wrath of God is yet wrath to come-punishment yet to be inflicted-reserved for another state of being ; so the reproaches of conscience, the remorse it will occasion, the despair it will inflict, are yet to come.
It is evil which impends, and from which there is no escape, but by timely repentance. Conscience may sleep here, but it will be awake in the future world. , It will bring up to view the scenes through which the sinner has passed in this probationary state. It will recall the Sabbath, the sanctuary, and the means of grace possessed and abused; the Bible with its precious invitations neglected ; the grieving of the Spirit ; the rejection of the Saviour; and one terrific sound will ever ring in the ear of the lost-O sinner, thou hast destroyed thyself! Hosea 13:9. Even now thy conscience condemns thee, reader; "and if thy heart condemn thee, God is greater than thy heart, and knoweth all things." 1 John 3:20. The man who had not on a wedding-garment, was speechless because condemned by his own conscience ; and so wilt thou be when arraigned before the bar of God. Matthew 13:11-13. " Then shall the wicked say to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him That sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb : for the great day of his wrath is come, and who shall ’be able to stand?" Revelation 6:16-17. Hence you are exposed to the miseries of hell. Death will not terminate your existence.
" ’Tis not the whole of life to live, Nor all of death to die."
You must live for ever. There is a hell; and to it you, as a sinner, are exposed. Its miseries are dreadful ; their duration eternaL There the wrath of God is poured out with. out mixture upon the wicked. There con. science stings the soul with remorse. There the devil and his angels torment the lost. There are wailing and gnashing of teeth. Matthew 13:42. O what untold horrors reign in the prison of despair Every sense of the body, and every power of the soul, is an avenue of pain; and there is no end, and no relief, to the miseries of that gloomy world. The soul once lost, is lost for ever. "These shall go away into everlasting punishment." Matthew 25:46. " The smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever." Revelation 14:11. This is the second death: the wages of sin. Revelation 20:14. Romans 6:23. It is the curse, the penalty of God’s law, which is incurred by every transgressor; as it is written, " Cursed is every, one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them." Galatians 3:10. Who hath fulfilled the law in all things? Not one. Who then is not liable to the curse ? And if death overtakes you in your sins, what becomes of your hopes, and where is your soul ? Lost-lost for ever-doomed to the miseries of hell ! Who can dwell with the devouring fire ? who can dwell with everlasting burnings Isaiah 33:14. Think of the rich man begging for a single drop of water, and receiving for answer that he had received all his good things, and must now be tormented for ever ! Luk 16::24-25. Think that his case may be your own, if you slight this message of salvation; and 0 awake to your danger, and flee from, wrath to come! Matthew 3:7.
Such, then, is the exposure which salvation implies, and from which it proposes to rescue us. Such reader, is your condition, such your state. You are fallen, sinful, far from righteousness, exposed to the wrath of God, to the reproaches of conscience, to the curse of the law, and to the miseries of hell. What a fearful state is this to be in! Dying thus, you are undone. You are then a prisoner of despair; and hope can never beam on you. From this discussion we may infer the need of salvation. We stand in perishing need of it; in so much need, that, without it, we must perish; without it we must die in our sins, and can never be admitted to the Saviour’s presence in peace. John 8:21. We need salvation to.deliver us from danger. Tidings of the way of deliverance must be good tidings-" good tidings of good." Would we but open our eyes to our exposure, we must feel our need of deliverance, Look around you, reader; see the dangers which environ you; see the wrath of God impending; the flames of hell gathering at your feet; the pit enlarging for your reception ; guilt accumulating; the heart hardening ; life wearing away ; the day of death hastening; yourself standing on the brink of the grave and the borders of the pit ; judgment lingering not, damnation slumbering not, 2 Peter 2:3; and tell me if you do not need salvation-need it to deliver you from peril-to bring you up out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set your feet upon a rock, and establish your goings, and put a new song in your mouth, even praise unto our God ? Psalms 40:2-3. Yes, you need salvation to rescue you from danger. And you need it to renovate your nature. Your, heart is depraved, and you must have a new heart and a right spirit, or go down to endless woe. The Saviour has said, " Ye must be born again." John 3:7. The corruption of your nature renders a change of heart necessary. You must experience the washing of regeneration, and the renewing of the Holy Ghost. Titus 3:5. Jesus "gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works." Titus 2:14. You are impure. You need to be purified, sanctified, and cleansed. The old man must be ,put off, and the new man put on. The Lord has promised to give a new heart, and to put his Spirit within us, Ezekiel 36:25-27; and to this end you need salvation, that you may be born of the Spirit, and become a new creature in Christ Jesus. 2 Corinthians 5:17.
You need salvation to justify you before God, and make you righteous in his sight. You are now far from righteousness, stained with guilt, in a state of condemnation. The law has demands which you have never met, and never can meet. It cries out for vengeance on you. You are a condemned criminal. Not’ only do you need a renovation of heart, but a justifying righteousness. The salvation offered you brings near an all-sufficient righteousness; and you need it, that you may be acquitted, be accounted righteous, and be presented without spot before the throne of God. O sinner ! were deliverance proclaimed to captives bound in prison, with what joy would they welcome the good tidings! And will not you welcome the message which speaks of deliverance from wrath, and which offers to you the liberty of the sons of God ? " If the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed." John 8:36.
You need salvation to prepare you for heaven. You are now unprepared. You feel unprepared. With all your guilt upon you, you are not fit for the presence and the praise of God with the pure spirits above. You are not ready for the summons of death ; not ready for the trials of the judgment ; not ready for the joys of heaven. Those joys are holy joys, but you are not holy. Those joys flow from God’s presence, but you are not prepared to welcome and delight in his presence. Your heart must first be made new; your sins must first be washed away ; you must first be clothed with the Redeemer’s righteousness, and partake of the sanctification of his Spirit. The same mind must be in you which was in Christ Jesus ; for " if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his." Php 2:5. Romans 8:9. And how can you ever be prepared for the mansions of rest, if you reject salvation, refuse to embrace the Lord Jesus Christ, and resist and grieve his Spirit ?
You need salvation, not only to take away your sins and fit you for heaven, but to take you there, and make you’ blessed for ever. Salvation begins here in the renovation of our nature and the pardon of sin ; it is completed in heaven, where we are made perfectly happy and blessed for evermore.
If we are not saved from sin here, we shall not be saved in heaven hereafter. Yet heaven is what you desire, heaven is what you hope for; but heaven you can never reach if you reject this salvation. To reach heaven you need salvation. There is no heaven without it. Then embrace it. Welcome the message and obey it ; and let it be the language of your heart, " How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace ; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation ; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth !"