“HOW Shall we escape if we neglect so GREAT SALVATION!”
A MAN is dying of some deadly disease, the best possible medical advice is procured, the only medicine known to cure such a disease is prescribed and placed alongside of the patient; he does not refuse to take it, but he neglects to do so, and dies, and thus has to pay the penalty of his folly. Whose fault is it?
A house is on fire, the inmates of the burning building are aroused, a fire-escape ladder is wheeled to one of the windows where escape is possible; a man is seen looking out of the window, he does not refuse the ladder, but he neglects it, and as the floor beneath him gives way, he falls with it into the flames below and is burned to a cinder. Who is to blame?
A man has fallen overboard, he is unable to swim a stroke, a lifebuoy is thrown to him and falls within his reach; he refuses it, thinking he is able to swim to the ship from which he has fallen; he neglects the only means whereby he could be saved from a watery grave, and is drowned. Where does the fault lie?
And you are a dying sinner, and God’s remedy is salvation. You are not in a burning building, but you are exposed to the everlasting flames of the lake of fire, and God’s way of escape for you is salvation. You are overboard, struggling and sinking in the surging sea of death; but God has a lifebuoy for you, and that is His salvation. Now, do you receive it or refuse it?
“I do neither,” you reply; then you are guilty of neglect; and God’s question to such is, “How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?” You may say, as many are saying today, “But I am not wicked; I am not such a sinner as many around me; I have been baptized and confirmed, and am a regular and devout communicant at the place I usually attend.”
All this may be quite true of you, and yet you may be a neglecter of salvation all the time. God does not say, How shall we escape if we “break the Sabbath,” get drunk, steal, tell lies, and don’t go to “a place of worship.” No! We may be most moral, may go to “church” or chapel or meeting, and be a member of one of such places, and still be neglecting “so great salvation.”
The great sin in this day of widespread profession is NEGLECT. Neglect is the God and Christ and Holy Ghost dishonoring sin, the heaven-forfeiting, hell-filling, and soul-damning sin of this privileged moment in which we are living. And whilst you remain in this guilty state of indifference and neglect, there is no way of escape. You may look forward and behind you, on the right and on the left of you, but the words NO ESCAPE will stare you in the face; and most certainly there is no way of escape in ETERNITY, for there is no blood in hell! no Savior pleads with souls there! and no salvation is offered there!
But, thank God, NOW there is a way of escape. Oh, flee to the outstretched arms of Jesus! flee to the rich mercy of God! flee to the great love of God! flee to the exceeding riches of God’s grace! There is a way of escape now from sin, death, and judgment. Oh, avail yourselves of it without another moment’s delay, by accepting the “so great salvation” of God.
But it is not only that men are neglecters, it is what is neglected, “so great salvation,” that makes them so guilty and responsible.
Why is it called “so great salvation”? Because it saves me from my sins, from myself, from Satan, from the world, and from the lake of fire. It saves me to be a child of God, a member of Christ’s body, a temple of the Holy Ghost, an heir of God, and a joint-heir with Christ. Think of the incomparable, unpardonable guilt of neglecting such a salvation, But it is called “so great salvation” because it is Christ Himself.
When the patriarch Simeon held the holy child Jesus in his arms, looking at Him adoringly and confidingly, he exultingly exclaimed, “Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word: for mine eyes have seen THY SALVATION” (Luke 2:29, 3029Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word: 30For mine eyes have seen thy salvation, (Luke 2:29‑30)); and when Jesus walked into Zacchaeus’ house (Luke 19:99And Jesus said unto him, This day is salvation come to this house, forsomuch as he also is a son of Abraham. (Luke 19:9)) He did so saying, “This day is SALVATION come to this house.”
JESUS is the salvation of God, and to neglect Jesus is to be guilty of neglecting the “so great salvation” of God; and what possible way of escape can there be for those who do it? “Neither is there salvation in any other; for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.” (Acts 4:1212Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. (Acts 4:12).)
But you ask, “How am I to receive Him?” In John 1:12, 1312But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: 13Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. (John 1:12‑13) it says, “As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, to them who BELIEVE on His name; which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.”
You may have neglected Him in youth, manhood, and old age. You may have neglected Him in health and sickness, in poverty and plenty. You may have neglected Him long weeks, months, and years.
Oh, do so no longer! receive Him now in all the love of His heart, in all the efficaciousness of His blood, in all the power of His arm, in all His finished work, and in all the glories of His adorable and matchless person. Yea, receive Him just where you are, just as you are, and just now, by simply believing on Him, and you will at once and forever be in the possession of God’s “so great salvation.”
AT the close of a gospel fleeting in a town in Worcestershire, I observed a young woman retiring from the meeting, with a look of great distress upon her face. As she was passing me, I spoke to her about her soul, and inquired the cause of her sadness, when she told me that she was anxious to be saved but could not see her way clear.
I asked her if she had been anxious any length of time—if she believed she was a poor, lost, helpless, and hell-deserving sinner; and with tears in her eyes she answered: “Yes!”
I then asked her what she was doing to get relief. She informed me that she was doing the best she could, and asking the Lord to forgive her.
“But,” I replied, “Christ has done a complete and sufficient work upon the cross, and then said, IT IS FINISHED and has also borne the sins of all who believe in Him; and has put them away forever.”
She assured me that she believed all this, but that it brought her no happiness.
I then turned to 1 Peter 2:2424Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed. (1 Peter 2:24), where it says, “Who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree;” and endeavored to show her from this Scripture that Christ had all our sins upon Him on the tree; that if He had not then, He never would, for He would never be there again; that He then put them all away with His blood; and that if He did not then, He never would, as He could not again shed His blood, having shed it when He was down in this sin-stained and guilty world. I then asked her: “Do you believe that Christ had all our sins upon Him when He was on the tree?”
“Yes, I believe He had.”
“Do you believe that He put them all away with His precious blood before He left the tree?”
“Yes, I believe He did.”
“Do you believe that He was buried, and rose again without them, according to the Scriptures?”
“Scripture says so, and I believe it is true.”
“Do you believe that He is in heaven, and has been for more than eighteen hundred years without them there?”
She answered, with all her heart, “Yes.”
“Well now, does not that make you happy?” I asked.
“No,” she answered.
I saw she was an honest soul, and for a moment could not understand her difficulty. At last I asked her the question at the head of this paper, “Have you ever thanked Him?”
She cordially owned she had not, and at once saw the secret of her unhappiness.
I advised her to do so without delay, assuring her that the Lord would make her happy..
The next evening she was at the meeting again.
At the close she came to me, and with a bright and happy face said: “I have thanked Him for what He did for me on the cross, and He has made me so happy.” Months have rolled away since this dear young woman believed in the Lord and His work—since she confessed it to Him, and thanked Him for it; still she is rejoicing in the knowledge that her body is a temple of the Holy Ghost (1 Cor. 6:1919What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? (1 Corinthians 6:19)); that she is a member of Christ’s body, of His flesh, and of His bones (Eph. 5:3030For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. (Ephesians 5:30)); and that she has been converted to wait for God’s Son from heaven. (1 Thess. 1:1010And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come. (1 Thessalonians 1:10).)
How is it with the reader of these pages? Are your sins all gone? If not, you cannot go to heaven with them; for heaven is the home of holiness, whilst hell is the abode of sin. “The blood of Jesus Christ, His Son cleanseth us from all sin.”
Trust it, dear soul, and I shall meet you in heaven.