If thou dost now trust Christ fall before him and say, “Savior, God, deliver me. By thy life and by thy death, by thy griefs and passion, by thy resurrection and thy pleading at thy Father’s throne, deliver me. I trust thee to deliver me, I cast myself upon thee!”
If you do this you are saved-you are saved now-you have no sin in God’s book- every sin is blotted out, and therefore being justified by faith, you shall have peace with God through Jesus Christ our Lord. But you reply, “My sins are very great.” Yes, but however great thy sin, it matters not. The same hand which can receipt a little bill can receipt a great one-it takes no more, when the money is paid. Now, Christ has paid all the debts of those that trust him, and he can readily forgive you. “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.”
“Yes, but,” saith another, “it is my propensity to sin that I am afraid of. How shall I ever break the neck of my corruptions?” You will never do it, but he will. Do you not remember that when they pierced his side there flowed blood-that was for pardon; and there flowed water-what was that for? That was for cleansing. He will be of sin the double cure. Is it some sin or some lust that you would conquer, or an angry disposition? Take it to him; those vipers die at the sight of Christ. There is no form of sinfulness to which you are habituated which Christ cannot, remove. You must give it up, remember, there is no going to heaven and keeping your sins, you must give them all up; but then you are not to give them up in your own strength. You shall receive a strength, which shall make you more than a man: you shall be a man with God living in you, for the Holy Ghost dwelleth in us, we are temples of God. When God dwells in the temple he can purge out great deal which we cannot purge out, and make us clean though otherwise we must have remained impure.
“Still,” says another, “I have such a want of tenderness this morning. I have not thought about these things, I have lived a careless giddy life; must I not give some week or month or two to the consideration of these things, and then come to Christ? Must I not go home and humble myself before God, and then believe and love?” My dear hearer, do what thou wilt after trusting, but trusting is the immediate remedy this morning. Now is the accepted time: now is the day of salvation.
From a sermon entitled "Seeing is not Believing, but Believing is Seeing," delivered July 1, 1866. Image by netlancer2006 under Creative Commons License.
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