Sermons on Biblical CharactersChappell, Clovis Gillham
Religion
Sermons on Biblical Characters
Chappell, Clovis Gillham
Bible -- Biography; Sermons, American -- 20th century
And you too must realize that, otherwise it will do you no good to
realize the fact that you are a sinner. It is not enough to know
yourself lost. You must also believe that you may be saved. It is not
enough to realize that you are weak: you must believe that is possible
for you to be strong. You must believe that even a fluctuating Simon
can be made into a rock. You must believe in the power of God to
remake men, otherwise for you the question is only a question of black
despair.
This question implies, in the fourth place, a willingness to be saved.
"What must I do to be saved?" This man is not asking this question to
gather material for a future argument. He is no speculator. He is no
trifler. He is not even asking it because he is intellectually
curious. He is not simply asking that he may know the conditions of
salvation. He is asking with the earnest purpose in his heart to meet
those conditions.
This question implies, in the fifth place, that while salvation is a
possibility for you, you must do something in order to obtain it.
"What must I do to be saved?" What sort of an answer would you expect
to a question like that? What did the apostle say? Did he say, "Do
nothing. Let the matter alone. Forget it. Drift?" That is what many
of us are doing. No, sir, he said nothing of the kind. He told this
man to do something. And this man knew, as you and I know, that if we
are ever saved we have got to do something in order to get saved.
I say every one of us knows that, and yet too few of us act as if it
were really true. We seem to think that salvation is something that we
are going to stumble upon by accident. We seem to think it is
something that we are going to receive with absolutely no effort on our
own part. We act as if we thought it might be slipped into our pockets
while we sleep or dropped into our coffins when we die. Ask the
question intelligently, heart,--"What must I do to be saved?" Then you
will realize that you must do something.
This question implies, in the first place, that the conditions of
salvation are not optional, that it is not up to you and it is not up
to me to decide just what we will do in order to be saved. You can
accept salvation or you can refuse it. You can meet the conditions or
you can refuse to meet them. But one thing you cannot do. You cannot
decide upon the terms upon which you will surrender. If you are saved
at all you must surrender unconditionally.
So the question is, "What _must_ I do to be saved?" It is not, What is
the expedient thing or what is the respectable thing or what is the
popular thing to do in order to find salvation? The conditions are not
of your choosing and they are not of mine. God has made them and you
and I dare not change them. Therefore, if you are ever saved there is
not something simply that you ought to do, but there is something that
you absolutely must do.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account