JM
Puritan Board Doctor
You must come to Christ, not to religion, not to your works, not to some imaginary priest, not to a soul-winner, not to the church, not to the ordinances, not to the doctrine. These things will all leave you empty and thirsty. You must come to Christ himself. You must come to that personal, living Redeemer, who his own self bore our sins in his own body on the tree. The bleeding, dying, risen Son of God is the only Star of Hope for perishing sinners, the only Sun of Righteousness with healing in His wings. Oh, may God give you grace to come and drink!
Interesting sermon to read . Or listen here.
Four Questions
If these things, so commonly and so universally embraced, believed, and taught throughout the religious world (by Baptists and Papists — Charismatics and Non-charismatics — Protestants and Pentecostals — Fundamentalists and Liberals — Russellites and Campbellites — Mormons and Methodists), are true, — if God loves all men without exception, — if God wills the salvation of all men without exception, — if Christ died to redeem all men without exception, — if the Holy Spirit calls all men without exception…
1. What does the love of God have to do with anyone’s salvation? —– Absolutely nothing!
If God loves all men alike, it must be concluded that when you tell me that God loves me, you have told me nothing. The love of God is totally insignificant and absolutely meaningless. If that is the case, if God loves all men, then there is no distinction between God’s love for the saved and his love for the lost. He loves people who are suffering His wrath in hell just as fully as he does those who are glorified in heaven! Either that, or God’s love is mutable, changeable, and fickle, like man’s!
There is no power in the love of God to save and keep his own. His love really doesn’t matter. It is nothing but a helpless, frustrated, defeated passion in the heart of poor God! — There is no comfort in the love of God. How can anyone derive even the slightest comfort from a love that is helpless and useless? — And there is no motivation in the love of God. If God’s love for me is the same as his love for Judas, Pharaoh, and Cain, why should I love, serve, and seek to honor Him? Indeed, if the difference between me and those who are damned is me, God ought to serve me! He ought to praise me! Which is exactly what Arminian, freewill, works religion demands. Such religion is what the Holy Spirit calls “a show of wisdom in will worship” (Colossians 2:23).
2. If the Lord God wills the salvation of all and some are not saved, as is the case, what does the will of God have to do with anyone’s salvation? — Absolutely nothing!
If that were the case, God’s will would be just as irrelevant and meaningless as yours or mine. But that is not the case. He declares, “I will do all my pleasure!” — “Our God is in the heavens. He hath done whatsoever he hath pleased!” — “Whatsoever the Lord pleased, that did he in heaven, and in earth, in the sea, and in all deep places!”
3. If the Lord Jesus Christ shed his blood for all alike, if he died to redeem and save all men and some go to hell anyway, what does the blood of Christ have to do with anyone’s salvation? — Absolutely nothing!
If, as is universally asserted, Christ died to save all men and some are not saved, then that blasphemous absurdity must follow that Christ died in vain for some, his blood was a meaningless waste, He suffered and died for nothing, His death really has nothing at all to do with anyone’s salvation! Horrid blasphemies these are; but they are inescapable conclusions that must be made, if we entertain the notion that Christ died for the multitudes who are in hell.
If Christ died for all men without exception, if He shed His blood to save the entire human race, then the shedding of his blood was an atonement that does not atone, a redemption that does not redeem, a ransom that does not ransom, a deliverance that does not deliver, a sin-offering that does not satisfy, and a propitiation that does not propitiate, an utterly useless waste!
4. If God the Holy Spirit is gracious alike to all, if He calls all alike, if His power is exercised upon all alike for the saving of their souls, and some yet perish in unbelief under the wrath of God and are forever lost, — what does the power, grace, and call of the Holy Spirit have to do with anyone’s salvation? — Absolutely nothing!
