The Blessings the Gospel brings to us Now

… And I'm going to read it where I've opened my Bible, some verses out of that letter which the Apostle Paul wrote to the Roman Christians, I suppose somewhere about Amidon in I60, here we are, 1960. I shan't be far adrift, because I'm not a great person for dates, I know it isn't 1960 of course, but I'm not quite sure about the date, but if we put it roughly at Amidon in I60, 19 centuries ago, I'm going to read you some words that were written to believers in the great city of Rome, which at that time dominated the whole world. Now I'm only going to read certain verses I'm going to pick up, I'm going to begin by reading some towards the end of chapter 4, where the Apostle Paul is reminding those to whom he wrote about the story of Abraham, that remarkable man who was accounted righteous, which is another way of saying, justified before God by reason of his faith. It says in verse 20 of chapter 4 about this man Abraham, he staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief. What God promised was very great, and humanly speaking very unlikely. He might have staggered, oh I can't accept that, but he didn't. He did not stagger through unbelief, he was strong in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully persuaded that what God had promised, he was able also to perform, and therefore it was imputed That's a word some of us might not understand, it simply means in more ordinary language reckoned. It was imputed or reckoned to him for righteousness. Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed or reckoned to him, righteousness that is, but for us also To whom it shall be imputed or reckoned if we believe. But we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered from our offenses and was raised again for our justification, therefore, chapter 5 opens, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ By whom also we have access by faith into this great well in which we stand and rejoice in the hope of the glory of God Now I'm going to ask you to look a few verses further down, where it says in verse 8, God commended his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us, much more than being now justified by his blood We shall be saved from wrath through him, for if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life, and not only so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ By whom we have now received the atonement, if you have a reference Bible like I have, and look at that little note in the margin, it says, or reconciliation, and that no doubt is the right word We've been reconciled, and rejoicing in God through our Lord Jesus Christ by whom we have now received the reconciliation Now once more at the end of chapter 6, he tells us there in verse 20, when, remember they were Christians he was writing to, when you were the servants of sin, you were free from righteousness What fruit had you then in those things, whereof you are now ashamed, for the end of those things is death, but now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, instead of being servants to sin, you see You have your fruit and a hole in it, and then everlasting life, for the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord Now some of you may be thinking, now what made the good man read all those verses, what does he want to talk about, well I'll tell you, I want to talk to you about the wonderful blessing that the gospel brings to everybody who receives it, N-O-W Anybody can tell me it's spelled N-O-W, because you know some people have the idea that religion is really what we gospel preachers are at, we say to people, now look here, we want you to chuck over God all these things that you like, all the vice and all the sin and all the laughing about and all the having as you say a jolly good time in this world, though it's rather a nuisance to other people And we say look here, I think it's a rather kingly boy kind of expression, oh we'll give you some pie in the sky, have you ever heard that? We always dangle before your eyes a lovely thing far away, rather you know unsubstantial, one of the easier days you will have a jolly good time if you throw it all overboard now And they say no, I'm going in for a jolly time, I don't care, I'll have my sleep, in this world I don't quite believe in all this talk about having a good time one of these days up in the sky Some of you might say yes, I remember singing a hymn, I was taken to a gospel meeting where they sang a hymn, and the hymn started something like this, there is a man that is fairer than day, and the chorus was in the sweet, thy and thy we shall meet in the home of our Lord They say that's it you creatures, you want to get us away from having a jolly sweet time, rather sinful perhaps but still very sweet, in this world by dangling before our eyes the idea that if we drop it we shall have a sweet thy and thy My friends I'm going to talk to you about a sweet now and now, now I'm a Christian, the beginning of last May I passed the 70th anniversary of the day when, as I've read, I turned in faith to the Lord Jesus Christ I believed God and his word, I saw how the mighty son of God had stooped into this sinful world and he himself offered the great sacrifice for sin which is available for the putting away of sin of all those who believe in him And there entered into my heart the knowledge that now I was justified, I read this three times, perhaps I didn't emphasize it sufficiently, I'll do it, being now justified by his blood, we'll talk in a moment of what that really means, but it's now And through the Lord Jesus we Christians, you too, you haven't been converted as long as I, I dare say, I could claim to be the oldest Christian in this meeting, I'm getting a pretty old man now, the folks show me I don't look like it But 70 years ago, about the first week in May, my poor soul, troubled about my sins, entered into the knowledge of peace with God because I was cleared, I was justified in this three day prison But not only that, now we and I, and you who believe, receive the reconciliation, that's another thing we need, we'll talk about that in a moment, and then as he says, look, and once he said to these Roman Christians, you were the servants, I think he uses a word there that really might be translated, slaves, you were the slaves of sin But what happened? Why now, not when you get to heaven, though of course it will be true when you get there, if you do, now, set free, emancipated, just as about, what was it, 1838, the British Parliament passed the Act and spent 20 millions, I think it was, compensation and emancipated all the slaves in the West Indies They were set free, they were emancipated, they passed from under the domination of their old masters, they were free men and women, but what else, says the apostle to these Roman believers, now you've been set free from sin, you've been emancipated, and you've become servants to God And the end of that is wonderful, oh yes, we'll talk a little bit about the end, but I feel it's been on my heart, when Mr. Schell here asked me a certain time ago to come down once more and give a little talk here, yes, that's what I've got to talk about, but between now and now, if you don't mind my coiling expression, the wonderful thing that the gospel brings to those who believe it, now First of all, I would say to any of you, some of you perhaps haven't thought much about these things, do you realise you need to be set right in the presence of God, you need to be justified Now some of you might say, well I don't go to church very much and chapel and all that kind of thing, it's one of those terms that you religious folk use, now what does it mean? Well it means to be put into right relations with God, cleared from every accusation that might lie against you in its holy presence We haven't got the word in English, I've often wished that we had, we have to talk about being justified, may I coil a word, it isn't in the dictionary I think, you need to be rightified, put right You know when I was a young fellow I remember somebody hanging forth in the open air saying to people, men and women, you have a God to meet, you have sins to account for, you have an eternity to spend Well anybody who knows the truth of those three propositions instantly says then, I ought to be put right with God You know friends do anything in the day when I'm afraid the criminals are getting the rest of it aren't they? I was in a house over the last evening where they had one of those TV things and there was something on, I don't know I didn't see much but I heard somebody say they're going to show crime doesn't pay, I heard those words last night Personally I contradict that flat, it does pay, it provides excitement, it's adventure, you scoop in, you can blow up the safe and get 25,000 pounds and if there's only 5 men on the job probably there's a mastermind behind who takes back 10,000, well at least 3,000 each for a night's work isn't that pretty good isn't it? Well you say you'll get caught, well you may but most of you don't and if you do, well they're not hard on you are they? I spent just a few years in prison, it's all quite comfortable I'm told in prison, I've only once been in a prison, I wasn't a prisoner I tell you, I was taken by a dear fellow, a lawyer whom I knew very early as a Christian man to the prison in Edinburgh, he had the right to have a kind of gospel service to the prisoners and we talked to the prisoners, I did at least on that one occasion I think, I'm hesitating whether I went twice but anyhow I went twice Yes, well it all seemed fairly comfortable, I read a poem that was said to be composed by a prisoner some years ago which he expatiated in verse, I don't know how comfortable they were however there were poor people on the London embankments shivering in a frosty night and here he said we were all nicely warmed and they hadn't got enough to eat and we didn't get quite what we needed, it wasn't very pleasant and so it went on setting forth these quite the nice and active page of things you might find if you went to prison and it ended up by saying so, to the British public health whom all our care relieves and while they treat us as they do, they'll never want for me, well if you laugh as I did I'm afraid when I read it Oh yes, crime doesn't pay, you go and ask the criminal he finds himself unfortunately, until you die and then you'll be gone, my friend nobody is going to get away with it, I learned that when I was a youngster I'm serious, nobody knew but I knew and God knew and there was an hour coming when I got to meet God and my friend what was true for me in those early days is what a mercy it was God reached me when I was but a boy really a youth, yes you've got to meet God and nobody is going to get away with it ultimately I think the divine judgment will fall if there is any differentiation, fall more heavily upon those who sinned with a high hand and did humanly speaking get away with it, well they did, they're like the rich man in hell of whom Jesus spoke when they're dead Oh every one of you my dear friend, my heart ought to be, I can see it's in some measure aching, I think any of you I'm saying unjustified, not cleared from your guilt, you may be, how by our Lord Jesus Christ, by his sacrificial death, the judgment that we deserve on account of sin he undertook to bear it He was the mighty one who offered, I'm going to use the bible word, this sacrifice, a propitiation, a meeting of the divine claims against sin and there is this justification, this putting right which is the present effect of the gospel for every one that believes Oh I'd like to say to every one of you, if you haven't got the knowledge of it yet my friend, I give yourself no rest until you have, it may be yours, you may now justify it in virtue of the blood of Christ I often tell the story, I think I must have done it here before now, but not everybody was here the last time I spoke, I tell the story of the lady who was a great pioneer many years ago, nearly a century I should think amongst the poor little deaf and dumb folk She had a little deaf and dumb boy and she spent a lot of trouble trying to teach him this and that, there was not much done for the deaf and dumb in those days, she was a nice Christian lady and little Willie I think we'll call him, I forget his name, was a very intelligent child and one day she was trying to put the story into gospel and she showed him a picture There were the three crosses on the central cross of Jesus of Nazareth, the king of the Jews as Pilate put it, and then in the background was pictures of a great multitude of people, there were masses of people stood afar off beholding these things and she tried to say to him, it's got all on her finger, you know that finger, talk now Willie, that's Jesus on the central cross and he's dying, he's dying fast, he's dying for men, look at all these people in the background, isn't that what she said, he's dying and all these might be saved, and you know she was perhaps surprised but I dare say a little bit thrilled when the little chap showed how intelligent he was, though he was deaf and dumb, on his little fingers he said, but lady, Jesus is only one and all these are many, many, many, many, how can one die for many, a supposer isn't it, I believe the good lady lifted her heart to God for a moment said now Lord guide me how I put it, it occurred to her at once what to do, she put out her hand, there was a bunch of rather faded roses in her bowl you know, on the table and as she touched the first rose, not the leaves, the rose petals, they all crumbled as they do, you know as they are getting past so she touched several of them, collapsed all their petals, there was a puffy little heap, and then she spent some minutes rubbing them up, carrying them up into little dirty little kind of black pellets, I suppose she must have made hundreds of these, and she scattered them all over the place and the little chap watched with his big eyes, what on earth did she do, but she went on doing it, when she'd done it, she took off her golden wedding ring, she put it down there and she said now Willie, which will you have, oh look how many, many, many, many, and this is only one, you know he didn't take ten minutes to make up his mind which to have, he plopped at once, what for, of course the golden ring, oh but she said Willie this is only one but he said on his little fingers again, lady, lady, one, yes one, go, many, nothing, the golden sainter, the mighty son of God, the man, the mighty creator, who will enter human life, and said I will be the sainter, on behalf of you Willie, my dear friend when you've got one who's not by eternity and infinity, there's no proportion at all, it's millions of the human race and thousands of millions, he outweighs them all, the son of God has, he has become a sinner, he was delivered says the apostle, I'm doing that for our offences, I put that in the figure and I had to say yes, oh wonder of wonders, Jesus the mighty creator, the son of God has come down and he's been delivered on my offences amongst millions more of course, but my offences raised again for my justification, my rightification, my clearance from every charge, the account had been paid in the precious blood of Christ, may I know that, indeed you may, N-O-W-E now, well I've known it for 70 years, so I'm not ashamed of talking about it my friends, no, do you know it, oh my heart, things as old as you, we want you to know it, to begin with of course you have to be conscious that you need it, you have to face fairly and squarely your life, sins, some of them public, some of them private, some of them never known by anybody, but all need to be cleared in virtue of the death and resurrection of Christ, and when we preach the gospel we tell you they may be, yet we believe, if we turn in faith to Christ, appealing as it were our faith and confidence, not on ourselves, but on him, that justification is ours, it will be yours, if in faithful faith you mustn't be a humbugger hypocrite, you mustn't pretend to be what you're not, you'll have to come in honesty of soul and say Lord Jesus I am but a sinner, a sinner, a sinner, I may not have done outrageous things, I may not have been subject to police and county court, sins or no, not like the other fellow who wrote me a year ago about a little book that he'd read, I had the privilege of getting out, and many have been blessed by it, he said I want to tell you what a blessing your little book's been to me, when I was ten years old I was such a little rotter, I was sent to an approved school, when I came out I wasn't any better, so they sent me to the brothel, when I came out I wasn't any better, and I'd been living a life of petty crime, known to the police, in prison, I tried the jailbird, and now I'm 22, only 22, 12 years, approved school, brothel, jailbird, my face is now crying, I'm sad, the old life is dead, I'm starting a new life altogether, I said praise God when I heard that, I said by the grace of God he's doing today exactly what he did for me, and what he has done all through the centuries, what he did for the man who wrote the letter, the apostle Paul, and for the Romans, and for me, and I hope for you. If we believe, but that isn't all, you see sin not only puts us at the high court of heaven, and sin puts every one of us in the prisoners or the criminals dock, we have to stand in the high court of heaven, we need to be cleared from all our sins, that is to be justified. I discovered, I had discovered when I was converted, there was something wrong in my own heart, the fact of the matter is in my unconverted days I didn't want God. Why not? Well, the Bible word, that's the word we do use, is alienated. For you Christians know it occurs in the first chapter of Paul's letter to the Colossians, he says now you who were alienated in your mind by wicked works, God has justified, has reconciled. To be reconciled is to be brought to God in such fashion that instead of God being a kind of terror to us, someone we wanted to avoid, we find our joy in him, we are reconciled, the alienation, the disinclination to have anything to do with God, it vanishes. Wonderful blessing that is, isn't it? M-O-W. Now, if you Christians know that, I can look at you and I know that is so, you see that praise of God, that is so. I go into a London street, there's that man, he's a big, he's a very, you see, he's a prosperous man, he's got everything he needs. And I say, sir, I want you to come with me to a prayer meeting. A prayer meeting, my dear boy, if you'd ask me to go to the theatre, or the cinema, or perhaps even the public house, sir, do you know that first class hotel where you get a wonderful champagne? That's the kind of thing I understand prayer meetings to be, a prayer meeting in life. No, of course he has. He's alienated. He doesn't want God. And if I went down into the slum, where those devoted men of the London City Mission go, and I would cry my pain for men and women down there in the set pool of vice and sin, the thought of God is a terror to them. They don't want God. They run away from Him. You see, it's the old thing, immediately sin came in, you Christians know it, in the very beginning of Genesis. What happened with Adam and his wife? Were they prepared to have intercourse with God as they did yesterday? No. They ran away. They hid behind the trees of the garden. They were frightened. What had happened? They were alienated. A lot of bleach had come in, in their thoughts, between themselves and God. That's what the doctrine was. We're all like that in our unconverted days. It isn't only when you get to heaven, it's now. We Christians find our joy in God, in our Lord Jesus, in His things, in His service. We are brought to God. Our whole outlook is changed. I want to tell you, if any of you have not known this, if you turned to the Savior, that's what you'd find. Your whole outlook is delivered. The man I know in London, who was about 20 years ago, they boasted him in the evening paper as one of the four greatest bridge players in the world. He was selected to play the great Americans at Ted Bridges about, oh it's more than 30 years ago I think, but about 1932. It was top press news in the evening paper. He was a rich, he was quite a Monte Carlo, a little bit of gambling, but his great idea was playing cards. Well, what a change. Next Saturday, I kind of hope it's a more politically assertive evening in South London, and I expect he'll be there. The great converted card player. Oh, he's found other things. His whole outlook is changed. He's brought to God. The old gambling and all the rest of it and the card playing have left him. He's reconciled. Oh yes, it's a real thing, my friend. It's just a real thing to talk about in a practical way. We're not theorizing. This is not airy-fairy notions. These are very real things. And we want every one of you to experience it yourself, that you are really brought to God. You are reconciled. You find your joy in him. And the old loves and fascinations, they drop off, and that brings me to my third sentiment. Where the apostle wrote to me, now, he said, you know what you were. He reminds him of their past. When you were the servants, the slaves of sin, you were free from rights. You were not under the domination of righteousness. You weren't being ruled by righteousness, which is the will of God. You were being ruled by sin. Do you believe that? Oh, I don't think I am. I'll admit it in the case of the drunkards, yes. Very well, there's that poor chap. We don't often see them as we used to. Rolling down the street, plenty of drinking going on and getting drunk, but they do it more privately. And once that gets hold of a man, you know, it's a real thing. Slavery. There are plenty of other things, too. All kinds of drug taking. Men fall under and they become enslaved. We can see that. But when it's a question of our demeanour and our temper and our anger and our words and our lusts and passions, it isn't quite so public. It isn't quite so clear. But it's there. Enslaved by sin. Sin is enslaved. When I talked to the boys and girls before now and tried to talk on this, I said, you know, clearly, did you ever go down when your good mother was perhaps making something in the kitchen in the summertime and it was very hot? At least we do sometimes in the hot summer. And there was, I don't know if you see it now, hanging perhaps from the electric thing there, a strip of sticky stuff. What for? What can it deserve? Now, you know, I could imagine a... You allow me to imagine, don't you? If there was an old fly and they were able to talk to a young fly, I could imagine the old fly saying, I would tell my dear little fly, whatever you do, don't you touch that thing. And the little fly would say, holy crap. If they had sense of smell, I don't know. It smells. It looks so nice. It smells so nice. I would like to get a sip of it. Oh, it's most alluring, yes. But you can do it. Well, my poor little fly bolted and waited. You've been in the kitchen perhaps, haven't you? There was a girl, perhaps I don't know now in my old age, all of a sudden there was a little... Oh, and ah, that little fly, he thought it must have a suck. He put out his little tongue, and it stings. Well, you see, then it's got some legs. It's a push-up. Yes, it's got thin double legs and very thick. If you came back in half an hour, you'd find the poor little thing just about dead, perhaps just moving a little bit. It's all sticky all over. The fact is, you can't touch that without being enslaved by it. Now, that's like sin. Sin is the sticky thing. Now, am I talking my own notions? I'll tell you what our Saviour said. Verily, verily, he said, you read it in the eighth chapter of John's Gospel, verily, verily, which means truly, truly, or if you like, so to put it, most emphatically, I say to you this. Whoever commits sin is the slave of sin. Whoever touches the sticky thing called sin is caught and enslaved by it. Well, it says, poor you were enslaved by sin. What happens now? Oh, but now you'll be made free, not from the presence of sin, but the old slavery is broken. Praise God, that is so. We Christians know it. These are wonderful things, my friends, wonderful things. I'm nearly at the end of my little talk to you, but I do long that every one of you may know this through your pen. It's just gone ten past eight now. I have a few more minutes. Oh, we do long that you may, every one of you, know this, for it's a very real thing. What the Gospel does for the one who believes it, N-O-W. Now, it will put you in right relations with God so that you are justified. It will win you to know God, to love and adore him, so that instead of being afraid of God and ever seeking to get away, you will find your joy. And does your joy in him know that he will be to you in the Lord Jesus Christ? You will be recognized. And thirdly, the power of sin, the slavery of sin in your life will be broken. You won't be perfect. You won't be free from the possibility of having a tumble and a fall in some connection, but you'll no longer be dominated and enslaved by the old ruts and patterns of sin. All that may be gone now, but, careful, there is the future and I'm not going to decry it. Remember, you're not going to live forever. Life, as I look back over my years, dear me, dear me, how they've kept away, it seems only so sweet yet to me. Like that year and years ago, life passes swiftly and when we get on and old, we look back and we realize how brief life is. And then we enter eternity. Look, I read this in your hearing, so I'm going to close by reminding you of it. God commended love to all those who marveled against sinners. Christ died for us. And as a consequence of that, we are now justified, made right by his blood. But then, much more than that having taken place, look, we shall be. Now that's future, isn't it? I know enough grammar and you know enough grammar, so you know when we get shan, we're looking on into the future. We are now justified, but as a result of the future, we shall be saved from war. Yes, I should be, well, I should be a criminal. If I hid from you, my friends, here tonight, the hour is coming when the wrath of God is going to be shorn on sin. Now that's the future. That's why we talk about the sweet die and die, because they're the very awful die and die. If men and women, boys and girls, are not cleared from the guilt of their sins, they'll have to face the wrath of God. Yes, they'll have to stand before the judgment. They'll have to face the penalty. They'll be then in a condition when no change is possible. When that verse that comes in the last chapter of the Bible will be true in their case, which says, He that is holy beyond the grave is holy still. He that is filthy is filthy still. Well, can't you claim it? No. No, the moment for change. This is the world of change. I hear people sometimes say, oh, what a world of change this is. And I say, well, thank God it is. Because if it wasn't, there'd be no salvation for me or for you. If it wasn't possible for grace to come in and mightily change our lives. Yes. But when we step out of this world into what to many of the unknown, the hour of change is over. As the truth falls, if I may adapt an old textbook figure, so it's going to lie. If you fall wrongly, if you die out of Christ, unreconciled, in your heart, enmity against God and with guilt upon you, you have to face the wrath of God. Now I say that with sorrow in my heart, but I know it's true. And I should be very wrong if I hid it from you, if I tried to make you believe it doesn't matter after all, because it does matter after all. And we want every one of you to be in right relations with God. We want you to be able to say, well, look now, I have trusted in the Saviour. I have committed my life to Him. I am under His authority now as my Lord as well as my Saviour. And I am justified. I am recognized. I am emancipated from the old life of slavery to Him. And when the wrath of God does burst on this poor world, which is richly deserving it, I should be saved from it. Yes, all these things are not going to go on forever. The world is piling up the awful story of its iniquity and sin. And the moment is coming when God will intervene. It was a French scientist, I believe, nearly a hundred years ago who foresaw these discoveries that have been made in the last quarter of a century in the earth. And he said something like this. He said, they will come when men will discover these atomic secrets of the universe. And when they do, I think God will say, gentlemen, it is enough. And I shall step into it. Now that's what a French scientist said. I don't quote that use of scripture because it wasn't. But I can't help thinking there was a great deal of truth in it. Men execute wrath upon these others and do all kinds of evil things. The moment is coming when God will deal the absolute wrath of men, which nobody can challenge. And when that day comes, if you are converted, if you are a Christian, you will be saved from any wrath that will fall on the earth and upon sinners. And that will be through the gracious atoning sacrifice of our blessed Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, my friends, I've been trying to tell you about the things the gospel does for those who believe it now and what it will do when the hour of wrath breaks for the earth. And let me beseech you, if you have never yet got on your knees in the presence of God, confessing your sinnership, your need, taking your soul on Christ, the mighty Son of God, who stooped to do the work. The work that he has done, I'm going to ask you to do it, to do it tonight. I'm told that a very good motto for a lot of good businessmen, they have it in their offices, is very simple, do it now. Now, one of the secrets of business is this, if not shut all well, that will do for a while, or next week, then you forget all about it. No, no, do it now. A very successful businessman had that hanging up in his offices, he would always look at it, if it meant death, then do it now. Very good advice, I'd like to pass it on to you. Oh, my friend, see that now, you get right with God, through that which the Lord Jesus has done, when he died on the cross and shed his blood and rose from the dead, with the power of indestructible life, you may be saved. See to it that in simple faith you take him as your saviour and your master, and salvation will be yours. Now, we'll find a little hymn which is 189 in our book, and this is the language of faith, I'd like to think that some of you who have never yet really said it, well, you say it as you sing these words. This is what I have said for a great many words. What have I said? I've said, thy work, not mine, O Christ, who speaks gladness to this heart, it tells me all is done. It bids my fear depart, to whom, say thee, who can alone for sin atone? Lord, shall I flee? And so he goes on the next verse, thy wound, not mine, thy death, not mine, O Christ. It's the language of one who, as I think I may simply put it, is in faith, taking everything in the presence of God on the atoning sacrifice of Christ. Now, we'll keep our seats till we sing this 189. It bids my fear depart, to whom, say thee, who can alone for sin atone? Lord, shall I flee? Thy wound, not mine, O Christ, tell me who I'm to bear. Oh, my, my, not mine, God take the love of me. …