There is in all persons a certain knowledge of good and evil; such and such things they
say are good, and such and such things are evil. But perhaps no two persons have
exactly the same standard either of good or evil. What people do is set up such a
standard of good as they themselves can meet, and such a standard of evil as shall just
exclude themselves, and include others. For instance, the drunkard thinks there is no
great harm in drinking, but would consider it a great sin to steal. The covetous man,
who is every day perhaps practicing some cheating or deception in his business,
satisfies himself by thinking, "It is necessary and customary to do so in business, and at
all events I do not get drunk or curse and swear as others do." The upright, moral man
looks around and pities the open sinners that he sees, but he never considers how many
an evil thought, how many a sinful desire he may have had in his heart, unknown to
others. Thus each congratulates himself upon his not having done some certain evil,
and compares himself with someone else who has committed the sin which he thinks he
has managed to avoid.

All this proves that men do not judge themselves by one fixed standard of right and
wrong, but just take that which suits themselves and condemns others. But there is a
standard with which all will be compared and according to which all will be judged.
This is God’s righteousness, and all who fall short of it will be eternally condemned.
When a person begins to find that it is not by comparing himself with others that he is
to judge, but by comparing himself with God, then his conscience begins to be
awakened to think of sin as before God, and then he finds himself guilty and ruined. He
will no longer attempt to justify himself by trying to find out some one that is worse
than himself, but he will be anxious to know whether it is possible that God, before
whom he knows himself condemned, can pardon or forgive him.

Now the scribes and Pharisees, mentioned in the eighth chapter of John, were very
moral and religious people, and were greatly shocked and indignant when they found
out a wretched woman taken in open sin. Justice and the law of Moses, thought they,
demanded that such a sinner as she should die. It comforts and quiets the depraved
heart of man if he can only find a person worse than himself; he thinks the greater sin
of another excuses himself. While accusing and blaming another he forgets his own evil
and thus rejoices in iniquity.

But this is not all. For not only do men thus glory and exult in the fall and ruin of
another, but they cannot bear to see or think of God exhibiting grace. Grace_which
means the full and free forgiveness of every sin without God demanding or expecting
anything from the one forgiven_is a principle so opposed to all man’s thoughts and
ways that he dislikes it. Man does not himself deal in this way, and does not like to
think of God doing so. It is very humbling to be obliged to own that we are dependent
upon grace entirely for salvation, and that nothing we have done and nothing we can do
in the future can make us fit for God’s presence.

It is true that the sentence against the woman was just, the proof of her guilt was
undoubted, and the law was clear; but who was to execute the law? How wise was the
answer given by Jesus:"He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at
her." If not one of them could say, "I am without sin," there was not one of them who
was not under the same sentence as the woman, that is, death, for "the wages of sin is
death" (Romans 6:23).

Here, then, was a strange situation_the accused and her accusers alike involved in the
same ruin_criminals all. Think of it_you and all the world are guilty before God. It is
not what is your amount of sin, in man’s account, but can you say you are "without
sin" before God? If not, then death is your sentence. "The soul that sinneth, it shall
die" (Ezek. 18:4). And in this sad condition what have you done? Perhaps the same as
the scribes and Pharisees did when they were convicted by their own conscience_they
left the presence of the only One who can pronounce the forgiveness.

"And Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst." She was alone with
One who had the power of life and death. Everything rested on His word. What would
He say? Man had not dared to cast the stone; now what would God do? "Neither do I
condemn thee; go, and sin no more."

Such is still the gracious message to the ruined sinner pronounced by the very Judge
Himself. But it is only to the ruined sinner, standing consciously convicted before the
Judge, that it is spoken. The righteous Pharisees heard it not. They were indeed
convicted, but they would not confess their sin nor put themselves in the same
condemnation with the wretched woman. And so it is still. If you desire to have God’s
full and free pardon, you must first take your place as a guilty sinner. It will not do to
try to get better first before you come to Him. You must be brought to Him by your
very sins, to stand in the very place of condemnation, and before the very Person who
has the power to condemn.

Note that the Lord gave the woman no conditional pardon. He did not say, "Neither
will I condemn you if you will not sin any more." No, He gives her full and complete
forgiveness first, and that, He knew, would enable her to avoid the sin in the future.
The more I see and know my own sin, the more I shall value that precious blood by
which it is put away; and the more anxious shall I be not to grieve the heart of Him
who, in His own love, has provided such a wonderful sacrifice on account of my sins.
Hence, the deeper I know my own guilt, the more secure will be my peace, for the
greater will be my value of the blood through which peace has been made.

May you know the peace and joy of having all your sins forgiven through faith in the
blood of Jesus, and the consequent victory over the power of those very sins by which
you have been led captive.

The incident in Ishmael’s life which we are going to study occurred when he was in his
teens (Genesis 21). Ishmael was about fourteen when Isaac was born. Children were
weaned at a later age in those days than in modern times, so Ishmael was probably
about sixteen at the time of the feast given in celebration of Isaac’s weaning (Gen.
21:8).

In Gen. 21:9 we read that Sarah saw Ishmael mocking. He was evidently making fun of
or teasing Isaac. As a result, the next day Ishmael and his mother, Hagar, were sent out
into the desert with meager supplies of food and water. Both Ishmael and Hagar would
have perished in the desert; but God had promised Abraham that Ishmael would be the
father of a great nation, so He provided them with water.

What is the lesson for us in this account of Ishmael? Isaac is often thought of as a type
of Christ and Abraham as a type of the Father. Ishmael reminds us of those who mock,
make fun of, or reject the claims of Christ upon them. When Ishmael mocked Isaac,
Isaac was a helpless child, but he was to inherit Abraham’s wealth and prestige. Christ
is not now exercising His power and authority over the earth, but He will judge men in
a coming day and only those who have trusted in Him will be His co-heirs (Rom.
8:17). Any who go into eternity mocking will have no place in the Father’s house, but
will be cast into hell, a "desert" worse than any here on earth, with no relief from
suffering, no sudden rescue as God provided Ishmael.

Young people, are any of you mocking? Have you rejected or made light of the earnest
pleas of godly parents or other Christians to turn to Christ and accept Him as your
Saviour? Consider Ishmael’s fate and remember that if you do not accept Christ in this
life, you will spend eternity cast out from God’s presence with no hope of ever being
received into a place of blessing.

When we speak of the eternal security of the believer, what do we mean? We mean that
once a poor sinner has been regenerated by the Word and the Spirit of God, once he
has received a new life and a new nature, has been made partaker of the divine nature,
once he has been justified from every charge before the throne of God, it is absolutely
impossible that that man should ever again be a lost soul. The Lord Jesus speaks of His
own in John 10:27-30:"My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow
Me:and I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any
man pluck them out of My hand. My Father, which gave them Me, is greater than all;
and no man is able to pluck them out of My Father’s hand. I and My Father are one."

In connection with this, the following question is often asked:"Suppose a man who
professed to be saved, who for a number of years was an active Christian worker, turns
his back on it all, returns to the world, and utterly repudiates Christianity and now
denies totally the gospel he once professed. How does that square with your doctrine of
the eternal security of the believer?" That does not touch the matter at all. The apostle
John tells us how we are to understand a case like that:"They went out from us, but
they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued
with us:but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of
us" (1 John 2:19). That is, it is possible to make a Christian profession, to observe
Christian ordinances, to teach and to preach, and yet never be born again.

When we say that the believer in the Lord Jesus is eternally secure, we base it upon a
number of lines of scriptural testimony. In the first place, we rest it upon the perfection
of Christ’s one offering upon the cross. Those who deny the doctrine of the eternal
security of the believer do not realize that in so doing they are putting a slight upon the
finished work of Christ. They are reducing the sacrifice of Christ practically to the
level of the offerings of bulls and goats in the Old Testament dispensation, which
sacrifices could never take away sin but simply covered sin for the time being.

When one puts his trust in the Lord Jesus, not only are all his sins up to the day of his
conversion forgiven, but all his sins are put away for eternity.

A lady came to me one day and said, "I can quite understand that Christ died for the
sins I committed up to the night of my conversion, but do you mean to tell me that
Christ died for my future sins?"

I replied, "How many of your sins were in the past when Christ died on the cross?"

She looked puzzled for a moment, and then the light broke in, and she said, "How
foolish I have been! Of course they were ^all future when Jesus died for me."

In the second place, we base the doctrine of the eternal security of the believer upon the
perseverance and omnipotent power of the Holy Spirit of God. The apostle Paul writes

to the Philippian saints, "Being confident of this very thing, that He which hath begun a
good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ" (Phil. 1:6). Do you see
that? Who began the good work in you if you are a believer in the Lord Jesus? The
Holy Spirit of God. It was He who convicted you of sin, it was He who led you to put
your trust in Christ, it was He who through the Word gave you the witness that you
were saved, it is He who has been conforming you to Christ since you first trusted the
Lord Jesus. Having thus taken you up in grace, the Holy Spirit has a definite purpose in
view. He is going eventually to conform you fully to the image of the Lord Jesus
Christ, and He never begins a work that He does not intend to finish.

In the third place, we base the doctrine of the eternal security of the believer upon the
fact of the new creation. "So if any one be in Christ, there is a new creation; the old
things have passed away; behold all things have become new" (2 Cor. 5:17 JND). Each
one of us was born into the world a member of the old creation of which Adam was the
head, and every child of Adam’s race comes into the world lost and under sentence of
death. But now see what has happened. Our Lord Jesus Christ came into the world and
He was the sinless One. He saw men lost and under the sentence of death, and at the
cross He went down into death, down to where man was, and came up in grace from
death. But He did not come up alone, for God has quickened us together with Christ,
so that all who believe in Him are brought up from that place of death. So just as
formerly we were made partakers of Adam’s race, so now we are made partakers of a
new creation. We formerly were lost because the head of the old creation failed and we
went down with him. But now, as believers, we can never be lost unless the Head of
the new creation falls. But thank God He remains on the throne where God Himself has
put Him, in token of His perfect satisfaction in the work He accomplished.

In the last place, we rest the truth of the doctrine of the eternal security of the believer
upon the fact that the believer is the present possessor of eternal Me. Adam’s life was
forfeitable life:he lost his life because of sin. Eternal life is non-forfeitable life;
otherwise, it would not be eternal. Everlasting Me is Me that lasts forever, and we
have it now. "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth My Word, and believeth
on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but
is passed from death unto life" (John 5:24; read also John 3:14-16, 36).

People say, "If you preach this doctrine of the eternal security of the believer, men will
say, ‘Well, then it doesn’t make any difference what I do, I will get to heaven anyway.’
"It makes a tremendous difference what you do. If you do not behave yourself, if you
have no desire to do what is right according to God’s Word, it shows that you may not
be a real Christian. I know that a real Christian may fail, but the difference can be seen
in Peter and Judas. Peter failed, and failed terribly, but he was genuine, and one look
from Jesus sent him out weeping bitterly; his heart was broken to think that he had so
dishonored his Lord. But Judas companied with the Lord over three years, and was a
devil all the time (John 6:70); he was a thief, and was seeking his own interest. At last
remorse overtook him, not genuine repentance, and what was the result? He went and
hanged himself. He was never a child of God. There is a great difference between a

true, born again Christian and a false professor.

One often hears the complaint, "Oh, we seldom have a conversion." If the reason is
asked, the answer is often, "Well, we have a preacher every Lord’s day, and the
testimony seems faithful enough; but, as far as we know, souls are not led to confess
and own the Lord Jesus as their Saviour through the preaching." The blame is thus
thrown on the preacher, as if he were the only one responsible in the matter.

But is this so? Are we not all responsible in measure? Will this shirking of individual
responsibility do for God? I believe not. Surely He will call to account each one who is
indifferent to the well-being of precious souls. There is a manifest neglect of gospel
services and a condition of lethargy concerning the prosperity of the Word creeping
into the assemblies of the saints in many places. Some Christians are but rarely seen at
the gospel services. The weekly prayer meetings are not attended as regularly as they
might be. Business matters which might often be postponed are scheduled for prayer
meeting night, giving the individual a "good excuse" for absenting himself.

Oh! that our hearts could rise up more fully to the contemplation of God’s own love
toward the ungodly in giving His own Son to die for them (Rom. 5:8). I think we
would thus be stirred up to increased diligence in seeking to help in the work of soul-
winning.

But some one might ask, "What can I do? I cannot preach. I do not feel qualified for
the work." Perhaps not. Still there is much work to be done besides preaching the
gospel. We can seek to bring our friends and neighbors to the gospel services so that
they may hear the words of life. Again, a tract may be given by the way, or a word
spoken to some weary heart, which may result in eternal blessing for the soul and bring
glory to the name of the Lord Jesus. Thus every Christian may be used in some way, if
not in the same way, in proclaiming the message of salvation to all, through Christ.

Then, further, if Christians are desirous of witnessing blessing at the gospel preaching
(and who are not?), there should be an understanding and perfect agreement among
them as to what they need. It is absolutely necessary that there should be unity of
purpose and desire as well as united effort. Thus having a definite object before them
they can come together for presenting their requests to God (Matt. 18:19).

In Acts 1:14 we have an example of this unanimity as to a definite want seen in
practice. We read, "These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication,
with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brethren." Again, "They
were all with one accord in one place" (Acts 2:1). Thus were they, brethren and sisters
as well, united in prayer for blessing, and together in waiting for the fulfilment of the
Father’s promise_the gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:4). See also Acts 4:31, 32.

Let us seek then to imitate this example, showing by our repeated supplications our felt
need and dependence upon God. And by our continued waiting, may we show our trust

in our Father, and faith in His infallible Word of promise.

The apostles of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ were specially charged to preach
"repentance and remission of sins" (Luke 24:47). Some of us are apt to overlook the
first part of this commission in our eagerness to get to the second. This is a most
serious mistake. It is our truest wisdom to keep close to the actual terms in which our
blessed Lord delivered His charge to His earliest heralds. Do we give sufficient
prominence to the first part of the commission? Do we preach repentance?

Our Lord preached repentance (Mark 1:14-15) and He commanded His apostles to
preach it; and they did so constantly (Acts 2:38; 3:19; 17:30,31; 20:21; 26:20). With
the example of our Lord and His apostles before us, may we not ask whether there is
not a serious defect in much of our modern preaching? Do we preach repentance as we
ought? No doubt it is very important to preach the gospel of the grace of God in all its
fulness, clearness, and power. But if we do not preach repentance, we will seriously
damage our testimony and the souls of our hearers. What would we say if we saw a
farmer scattering seed on a hard road? We would pronounce him out of his mind. The
plow must do its work. The ground must be broken up before the seed is sown; and we
may rest assured that, as in the kingdom of nature, so in the kingdom of grace_the
plowing must precede the sowing. The ground must be duly prepared for the seed, or
the operation will prove altogether defective. Let the gospel be preached as God has
given it to us in His Word.

What is this repentance which occupies such a prominent place in the preaching of our
Lord and His apostles? We are not aware of any formal definition of the subject
furnished by the Holy Spirit. However, the more we study the Word in reference to
this great question, the more deeply we feel convinced that true repentance involves the
solemn judgment of ourselves, our condition, and our ways in the presence of God;
and, further, that this judgment is not a transient feeling, but an abiding condition, not
an exercise to be gone through as a sort of title to the remission of sins, but the deep
and settled habit of the soul, giving seriousness, tenderness, and profound humility
which shall characterize our entire lives.

We greatly deplore the light, superficial style of much of our modern preaching. It
sometimes seems as if the sinner were led to suppose that he is conferring a great honor
upon God in accepting salvation at His hands. This type of preaching produces levity,
self-indulgence, worldliness, and foolishness. Sin is not felt to be the dreadful thing it is
in the sight of God. Self is not judged. The world is not given up. The gospel that is
preached is what may be called "salvation made easy" to the flesh. People are offered a
salvation which leaves self and the world unjudged and those who profess to be saved
by this gospel often exhibit a great lack of seriousness in their Christian lives.*

(* Perhaps this reminds us of some modern evangelism which says, in effect, "Accept
Christ and enjoy good fellowship"; "accept Christ and play better football"; or "accept
Christ and solve all your problems."_Ed.)

Man must take his true place before God, and that is the place of self-judgment,
contrition of heart, real sorrow for sin, and true confession. It is here the gospel meets
him. The fulness of God ever waits on an empty vessel, and a truly repentant soul is
the empty vessel into which all the fulness and grace of God can flow in saving power.
The Holy Spirit will make the sinner feel and own his real condition. It is He alone who
can do so; but He uses preaching to this end. By preaching, He brings the Word of God
to bear upon the conscience. The Word is His hammer wherewith He breaks the rock
in pieces; it is His plowshare wherewith He breaks up the fallow ground. He makes the
furrow and then casts in the incorruptible seed to germinate and bear fruit to the glory
of God.

Let us be careful that we do not draw from these remarks that there is anything
meritorious in the sinner’s repentance. This would be to miss the point completely.
Repentance is not a good work whereby the sinner merits the favor of God. True
repentance is the discovery and hearty confession of our utter ruin and guilt. It is the
finding out that my whole life has been a lie, and I myself am a liar. This is serious
work. There is no flippancy or levity when a soul is brought to this. A repentant soul in
the presence of God is a solemn reality.

May we more solemnly, earnestly, and constantly call upon men "to repent and turn to
God." Let us preach "repentance" as well as "remission of sins."

(From “The Great Commission” in Miscellaneous Writings, Vol. 4.)

"But Christ being come an High Priest of good things to come . . ." (Heb. 9:11). The
good things to come are the good things of Christianity of which Christ is the Minister,
the things which we are now enjoying by faith.

But that does not exhaust the meaning of this expression. These things are also future.
We speak of being in the sanctuary as to our nearness and access to God; but actually,
as to the body, we are in the wilderness, subject to the changes and trials of the weary
way. The good things in their full manifestation are yet to come. They have been
brought to us by Christ, and the Holy Spirit has made them real to faith; but our
portion, our good things, are still to come. We have known the blessedness of sins
forgiven and peace with God, but there are still good things to come. We have known
the grace of Christ, have experienced it in many a trying circumstance. He has been
with us in the hour of bereavement, in trial, in disappointments. In everything that
would try the soul, Christ has been sufficient, and His High Priestly sympathy and
succor all that we required. But there are more good things to come.

How much the future has before us! This year which we have just entered_what is
hidden in its womb for us? We know not what a day may bring forth. But we do know
this, that there are good things to come in the future. The good things of Christ will be
sufficient for us for the rest of our lives.

Now contrast, for a moment, those "good things to come" with that awful word of
judgment, "the wrath to come."

Years of God’s patience, years of mercy despised, years of warning unheeded are
treasuring up wrath against the day of wrath. Ah, dear friends, that place of wrath, in
outer darkness, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth, is no temporary
banishment, no purifying fire. It is not a place from which a person will one day
emerge a wiser man, ready now to accept the finished work of Christ. Time has closed,
the day of grace is eternally past, and throughout eternity it will be still WRATH TO
COME. As you think of it, should it not fill the heart with yearning, with longing for
the salvation of souls? Should it not make us instant in season, out of season? Daily we
meet men who are going on to the wrath to come, and we are going on to the good
things to come. Shall we not, knowing the terror of the Lord, persuade men? Shall we
not entreat them, yea, shall we not go out and compel them to come in?

We trust it may not be deemed out of place if we venture to offer a word of counsel
and encouragement to all who have been and are engaged in the blessed work of
preaching the gospel of the grace of God. We are, in some measure, aware of the
difficulties and discouragements which attend upon the path of every evangelist,
whatever may be his sphere of labor or measure of gift; and it is our heart’s desire to
hold up the hands and cheer the hearts of all who may be in danger of falling under the
depressing power of these things. We increasingly feel the immense importance of an
earnest, fervent gospel testimony everywhere; and we dread exceedingly any falling off
therein. We are imperatively called to "do the work of an evangelist," and not to be
moved from that work by any arguments or considerations whatsoever.

Let none imagine that in writing thus we mean to detract in the smallest degree from
the value of teaching, lecturing, or exhortation. Nothing is further from our thoughts.
"These ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone" (Matt. 23:23). We
mean not to compare the work of the evangelist with that of the teacher, or to exalt the
former at the expense of the latter. Each has its own proper place, its own distinctive
interest and importance.

But is there not a danger, on the other hand, of the evangelist abandoning his own
precious work in order to give himself to the work of teaching and lecturing? Is there
not a danger of the evangelist becoming merged in the teacher? We fear there is; and it
is under the influence of this very fear that we pen these few lines. We observe, with
deep concern, some who were once known among us as earnest and eminently
successful evangelists, now almost wholly abandoning their work and becoming
teachers and lecturers.

This is most deplorable. We really want evangelists. A true evangelist is almost as great
a rarity as a true pastor. Alas! how rare are both! The two are closely connected. The
evangelist gathers the sheep; the pastor feeds and cares for them. The work of each lies
very near the heart of Christ_ the Divine Evangelist and Pastor; but it is with the
former we have now more immediately to do_to encourage him in his work, and to
warn him against the temptation to turn aside from it. We cannot afford to lose a single
ambassador just now, or to have a single preacher silent. We are perfectly aware of the
fact that there is in some quarters a strong tendency to throw cold water upon the work
of evangelization. There is a sad lack of sympathy with the preacher of the gospel, and
of active cooperation with him in his work.

Our blessed Lord was an untiring preacher of the gospel, and all who are filled with
His mind and spirit will take a lively interest in the work of all those who are seeking in
their feeble measure to do the same. This interest will be evinced, not only by earnest
prayer for the divine blessing upon the work, but also by diligent and persevering
efforts to get souls under the sound of the gospel.

This is the way to help the evangelist, and this way lies open to every member of the
Church of God_man, woman, or child. All can thus help forward the glorious work of
evangelization. If each member of the assembly were to work diligently and prayerfully
in this way, how different would it be with the Lord’s servants who are seeking to
make known the unsearchable riches of Christ.

Do we really believe in hell? No doubt we hold proper Biblical doctrines concerning
hell. But do we really believe hell is terrible, hell is eternal, and thousands of people
around us are doomed to spend eternity there? Have we ever had an insight into what it
will be like to spend eternity in the blackness of darkness, completely separated from
God and from all light and all love?

It is rather ironic that the sects which claim that there is no hell (for example, the
Jehovah’s Witnesses, the Mormons, and the Seventh-Day Adventists) are extremely
active in evangelism, while many people who hold all the right doctrines seem content
to let men go on to hell, since they make little or no effort to change the course of the
unconverted.

We must have compassion on the lost. Where are the "weeping prophets" or "weeping
preachers" for whom the thought of men and women in hell is so terrible that they will
cry to God for the souls of the lost? We must rid ourselves of complacency. We must
overcome inertia, fear, self-indulgence, or whatever is holding us back from telling to
all we can their frightful danger.

We must pray. We must wrestle in prayer, for we are in conflict with a determined and
desperate enemy. Satan knows his time is running out as well as time for lost men. He
is using every possible weapon to ensnare men’s minds. Whereas in so-called Christian
societies he may previously have worked mainly as an "angel of light," he is revealing
his true nature in the present day_the power of darkness. Men and women are yielding
to his blandishments as never before. We must lay hold of the promise given in Gen.
3:15 that the seed of the woman [Christ] shall bruise Satan’s head. We must ask the
Lord to prevent Satan’s influence over those to whom we bring the gospel, for He it
was who triumphed over the powers of darkness at the cross (Col. 2:15).

If we really believe in hell, let us act as if we believed. Proper doctrine without love,
compassion, and action is a cold, useless thing, as offensive to God as to the world.