II

SALVATION FROM SIN

"Thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins."-Matt. 1:21.

"HOU shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins." To the

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Jews such a salvation was a sore disappointment. They wanted to be saved from their Roman enemies. They wanted their earthly kingdom to be universal and their power established throughout the earth, and when they spoke of restoring the kingdom to Israel they meant that. But when the angel announced the coming of Jesus he clearly defined in what respect Jesus was to be a Saviour; that he was not to save the Jews from the Roman dominion, that he did not come as a reformer of politics, that was not his mission, but he came to save his people from their sins. It was to be a salvation from sin, and that is the cardinal idea of the mission of the Lord Jesus Christ.

He came to seek and to save that which was lost, that which was spiritually lost, that which was lost in sin, and so he received sinners and ate with them, and so it is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save

sinners. It startled and shocked the proprieties of Jewish social life and offended the national pride to behold publicans and sinners, and "gentile dogs becoming the recipients of this salvation. It took a miracle from heaven (and as I think, one of the most astounding miracles ever wrought), to lead Peter, the inspired Apostle, to understand that the salvation of God would come to Cornelius. Peter said, "Not so, Lord; not so, Lord." And God says, "What I have cleansed, that call not common or unclean." Which means that God in his sovereignty, and not man in his ignorance and partiality, selects the men to be saved.

One has advanced far who is willing to bow to the divine will as to fields of labor, adjusts himself to the indications of providence and lets the Lord save whom he will save, and heartily welcomes whomsoever God does save. Over and over again does God demonstrate that he is sovereign; that he selects the objects of salvation; and that he does not allow his earthly ministers to prescribe the method of his work. One of the most notable things in connection with the life of the Apostle Paul, was his consuming desire to preach the gospel to his own people, and the emphatic protest of God against it. "They will not hear you. I do not send you to them. Go and preach where I send you, and then I will bless your work."

I am sure that unconsciously (for I know we must be unconscious when it is done) we in the same way

prescribe God's work and seek to direct the channels of his mercy, and as a proof that we had prescribed, we feel a keen sense of disappointment if it does not go just where we said for it to go. Now, let us disabuse our minds of error. Let us submit to the will of God as to whom his Spirit shall touch today. For myself I stand in profound ignorance. I know not the particular persons in this audience whom God's Spirit will this day impress. I have quit thinking in that direction. But I believe some, body here will be touched with the power of God's Spirit. And I have been led to this, submission to leave it all to him, and to hold myself in readiness to welcome anyone whom his Holy Spirit may lead to Christ.

I look over this sea of faces, representing many varieties and degrees of alienation from God in thought and life. Absolutely without partiality, I say to one and all, whoever you are, sinful as you may be, in whatsoever social or financial grade you stand, man or woman, boy or girl, rich or poor, great or small, whoever will this day in your heart seek God and look to one who can save from sin, God will comfort you, your soul will be saved. I want his Spirit to overspread this house. I want him to penetrate and permeate the souls of all, so that just as you are to-day, without any other preparation than your mere presence here and submission to him, your desire for salvation from your sins may be at once attained. I do not promise that you shall be saved

from financial ruin. I do not promise that any physical cure or miracle shall be wrought. I do not promise that you shall by any transaction of to-day be advanced to political preferment. I speak to one point, absolutely but one, that if you wish to be saved from your sins you may be saved from your sins. Though the fire is already burning you, though the pangs of hell have already taken hold of you, though the smell of the fire of eternal torment is already on you, the right hand of Omnipotent Grace can pluck you from the flame and quench its heat, and hold you up and say, "Is not this a brand plucked from the burning?"

I would that your minds would come to a specific point; that the object of religious services, the reason of coming here to-day, is not to see people, not to be entertained by hearing any man, but to be delivered from your sins. And if you do not seek deliverance from your sins, so far as you are concerned, this meeting to-day is a failure. If you love your sins, if you purpose to hold on to them, then you will be filled with your own devices and must, according to a law of nature as well as of revelation, eat the fruit of your own doings. That law is irrevocable. Its consequences are unavoidable, and like an inexorable and invincible conqueror, the consequences come to you; if you retain your sins you die in your sins; if you retain your sins you must pay the penalty of sin; and the wages of sin is death, eternal death.

There has been devised no plan, God's mercy has looked to the devising of no plan of saving you in your sins. Do you mark that? I say there is no such thing as salvation in sin, but the essence of salvation is salvation from sin. Nor do I hold out the hope to any person here, that to-day, your salvation can be completed. Do you mark that? It may be completed thus far, that you may to-day be delivered from the condemnation of the law. You may today be acquitted, justified, through the merits of Jesus Christ, and you may to-day have put within you a spirit and principle of eternal life. What, then, does salvation mean? Now, let us get the thought clearly before us. First of all, it is salvation from sin, from sin, not in it. The part of it that is instantaneously attainable is deliverance from the penalty of sin and the putting within us a spiritual nature. That is instantaneous. I say that justification and regeneration may come in a moment, but deliverance from the corruption of our evil nature is not instantaneous.

Sanctification, or the making us personally holy in soul and spirit, cannot come this side of death, nor the redemption of your body this side of the resurrection, and salvation is not complete until you are wholly sanctified, body, soul and spirit. So long as a war goes on in you, the law of your members warring against the law of your mind and tending to bring you into captivity, just that long, of course, the victory is not complete. When the victory is