THERE is nothing so refreshing, to those who know the love of God, as to witness the work of the Holy Ghost in bringing a poor sinner to God. Those thus privileged can only exclaim, Even so. Hallelujah!
To portray the character and pursuit of one just saved by grace through faith may not be profitable, except to say that the Holy Spirit so deeply convicted of sin as to exclude every ray of hope.
The signally condemning sin was that of having repeatedly resisted the monitions of the Holy Spirit, and hence the question, Is there pardon for me? Can there be pardon for one who has despised the love of God? the personal love of the man Christ Jesus? the virtue of Jesus’ precious blood, and the love of the Holy Spirit? ―all these despised, how can I be saved?
It pleased God to give deliverance through faith in the word: “Deliver him from going down to the pit; I have found a ransom.” A deliverance not to be forgotten; yea, deliverance from the condemnation of sin, with all its tremendous consequences, unto the simple, yet entire, reliance on the God of all grace, to keep and guide unto His eternal kingdom and glory.
The writer cannot express the joy he realized in witnessing the wondrous change, whose joy is deepened by the knowledge that “there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth.”
Believers, rejoice! give glory to God! sing hallelujah! hallelujah! to God and to the Lamb!
Unsaved sinners, consider; your sins are unpardoned; the righteous wrath and indignation of God abideth on you. What can deliver you?
It may be that the Holy Spirit has witnessed against your sins, has reminded you of the love of God, of the perfect work of the Lord Jesus, has told you of eternal life and glory, and to this very moment all have been unheeded. Take heed! Man’s wrath may be appeased, his standard is imperfect; but God’s wrath cannot be appeased, it must be satisfied. “Without shedding of blood is no remission.” God’s holiness must be fully honored, His righteousness fully satisfied. Would you give the fruit of your own body for the sins of your soul? this could not atone, the wrath could not thereby be averted. He alone could find a ransom. Consider well the purity, perfection, and preciousness of God’s ransom. For a good man some might even dare to die (as a proof of intense love); but “God commended His love to us in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” So pure and perfect is His love, that nothing less than a perfect, spotless, victim, found only in His beloved Son, could pay the ransom. “He who knew no sin became sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.”
I would that you, beloved reader, saw sin as God sees it, and believed the intensity of wrath treasured up against the day of wrath for sinners who die in their sins.
The happy recipient of grace before alluded to would join me in beseeching you, in Christ’s stead, to be reconciled to God―to see your sins laid on Jesus, His spotless Lamb. Did you know the yearnings of a believer’s heart over you, your heart might soften, your pent-up tears steal softly down your cheek; but, above all, did you realize the yearnings, entreating’s, beseeching’s of God, of Jesus, and the Holy Spirit in that word, “Why will ye die?” methinks that your heart, though as an adamant stone, must exclaim with the poet―
“Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all.”
Beloved reader, receive these entreaties—flee from the wrath to come! Now is the accepted time―now is the day of salvation! Today, if ye will hear His voice, harden not your heart. To you He says, “Deliver him from going down into the pit, I have found a ransom.”
May God, the Holy Ghost, engrave this truth upon your soul, to your present and abiding profit, to the joy of angels and the glory of the eternal three in one. Amen.