and cause all that hear to recognize the message not as his, but as
thine."
He read as his text Acts xvi. 30: "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?"
He briefly recited the arrest, imprisonment, and release of Paul and
Silas. "The salvation for which the jailer cried out was not deliverance
from the dangers of the earthquake, nor from the displeasure of the Roman
governor. This was the bitter cry of a soul sinking under a load of guilt
and trembling at the thought of God's impending wrath. Some of you can
appreciate his feelings and his fears. Your sins against God and Christ
and the Holy Spirit have risen up before you; they stare you in the face;
they condemn you. You feel your guilt--not a light and trifling fault, but
guilt deep and dark, such as creatures made in the image of God incur by
rebellion against the blessed and holy Creator. The Holy Spirit has
recited the divine law in your ears. Your consciences have heard that
voice and echoed its condemnation. You desire to escape that divine
displeasure; you desire to have the fires of guilt that burn in your
consciences quenched. You cry out, 'Men and brethren, what shall we do?'
The answer must be drawn from many parts of the Holy Scriptures.
"Understand, in the first place, that you are not to be saved by searching
out some plan of salvation for yourselves. Ask for the old paths. 'He that
entereth not by the door, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a
thief and a robber.' 'Other foundation can no man lay than that is laid.'
'There is but one name given under heaven among men by which we must be
saved.'
"Understand also that it is useless to attempt to save yourselves by
making yourselves righteous. You have tried, I doubt not, to make
yourselves better. Perhaps you have resolved that you would not come to
Christ till you can present yourselves in some degree worthy of his care.
Have you succeeded in getting rid of your sins? Can you blot out your past
sins? Can you erase the record which stands written in the book of
remembrance on high? The law of God written in this Bible condemns you;
God condemns you; you are condemned already for not believing in the name
of God's only begotten Son, the Lord Jesus from heaven. Can you change
that condemnation by your feeble, fickle resolutions to reform? 'Can the
Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do
good that are accustomed to do evil.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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