Sermons on Biblical CharactersChappell, Clovis Gillham
Religion
Sermons on Biblical Characters
Chappell, Clovis Gillham
Bible -- Biography; Sermons, American -- 20th century
Last of all, this question implies that salvation is an individual
matter. "What must _I_ do?" It is not a question of what must God do.
He has made full provision for the salvation of the whole world. It is
not what must the Church do. It is not what must the preacher do. It
is not what must this man that is beside me and this man that is behind
me or in front of me do. The question comes to my own heart--"What
must _I_ do?"
"What must I do to be saved?" You must do something, but there are
many things that we are doing that will not save us. If you expect to
be saved, in the first place, do not depend on your own goodness. "All
your righteousnesses are but as filthy rags." Do not count on your own
decency. No man was ever saved that way. I challenge you to find one
single one. I was holding a meeting some years ago and I met a young
fellow who told me he was good enough without Jesus Christ. Of course
he was not saved. A man who says that virtually tells Christ that He
has misunderstood his case altogether and that Calvary was a wasted
tragedy so far as he himself is personally concerned.
Neither will you be saved trusting in the other man's badness. I know
what some of you are saying to yourselves as I preach. You are telling
yourselves one of the oldest lies that was ever told. You are saying,
"I would be a Christian but there are so many hypocrites in the
Church." How many men give that as a reason, but it is no man's
reason. And I never knew one man to be saved by it. Believe me, the
shortcomings and the sins of my brother are mighty poor things to
depend on for my own personal salvation.
Again, you will not be saved by seeking an easy way. You will never
win by catering to your own pride and cowardice. I was conducting a
revival in a Texas city some years ago. At the close of one of the
services a young lady came forward to shake hands with the preacher.
As she did so she said, "I am going to become a Christian." I
congratulated her upon her decision, but she answered, "Oh, I do not
mean right now. I mean I am going to be very soon."
"You see," she continued, "it is like this: I am going in a few days to
visit some of my relatives that live way back in the country. There is
going to be a revival nearby. It will be easy for me to make the
decision there because nobody knows me. But here it is different.
Everybody knows me here and I simply haven't the courage to come out
and take an open stand for Jesus Christ." She went into the country as
she planned but she was not saved. Of course not. Nobody ever found
salvation by catering to his own cowardice and pride and seeking an
easy way.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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