Is not salvation offered to them?

Posted : 23 Aug, 2013 02:14 AM

Psalm 119:155 Salvation is far from the wicked; for they seek not Your statutes.





How striking the contrast!-how awfully destitute the condition!

They have no one to consider their affliction-no one to deliver

them-no one to plead their cause. Indeed, all the misery that

an immortal soul is capable of enduring throughout eternity is

included in this sentence-Salvation is far from the wicked. The

full picture of it is drawn by our Lord Himself, "The rich man

died, and was buried; and in hell he lifted up his eyes, being in

torments, and sees Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his

bosom." The present enjoyment of salvation is far from the

wicked. "There is no peace, says my God, to the wicked."

Their common employments are "sin." Their "sacrifice is an

abomination." Their life is "without Christ, having no hope, and

without God in the world." But who can tell the curse of

eternity, with this salvation far from them? To be eternally shut

out from God-from heaven! To be eternally shut in with the

enemies of God, and the heirs of hell! Fellow-Christians-look

from what you have escaped-what you were, when "you were

sometimes afar off,"-what you would have been now and

forever, had you not "in Christ Jesus been made near by the

blood of Christ:" and then "if you hold your peace, the stones

will immediately cry out" against you.

But whence this inexpressibly awful condition of the wicked?

Is not salvation offered to them? Are they shut out from hope,

and sternly refused an interest in the covenant? Oh! no! it is

their own doing, or rather their own undoing. Would they but

seek the ways of God, they might plead for deliverance; yes,

they might have a prevailing Advocate to plead their cause,

and deliver them. But now salvation is far from them, because

"they are far from God's law." It does not fly from them; but

they fly from it. Every act is a stride of mind, more or less

vigorous in departure from God. No-such is their pride, that

"they will not even seek His statutes." They "desire not the

knowledge of His ways." They say to God-"Depart from us;" God, therefore, will say to them, "Depart from me." They say

to Christ, "We will not have this man to reign over us;" He will

say of them, "Those My enemies, that would not I should reign

over them, bring here, and slay them before me." It is not then

so much God that punishes them, as those who punish

themselves. Their own sin-the necessity of the case-punishes

them. They "will not come to Christ, that they might have life:"

"so that they are without excuse"-die they must.

But who are the wicked? Alas! this is a melancholy question,

as involving within its sphere so much that passes for

amiable, virtuous, and lovely, in the estimation of the world.

Not to speak of those, whose name is broadly written upon

their foreheads; it includes "all that forget God," however

blameless their moral character, or their external Christian

profession. It is determined upon immutable authority-it is the

decree of our eternal Judge-"If any man have not the Spirit of

Christ, he is none of His;" and if none of His, then it follows in

unavoidable consequence, that salvation is far from him.

Oh! could we but persuade such of their awful state. Oh! could

we awake them from their death-like, deadly sleep-slumbering

on the brink of ruin! on the borders of hell! But they are closed

up in their own self-esteem, or in the favorable comparison

drawn between themselves and many around them; forgetting

that the rule, by which they will be judged, is not the world's

standard of moral rectitude, but the statutes of a holy, heart searching God; forgetting too, that all may be decency

without, while all is corruption within. Let them test their hearts

by an honest and prayerful scrutiny of the statutes; and while

they must confess themselves guilty before God, a sense of

danger would awaken the hearty cry for salvation which would

not then be far from them. For "the Lord is near unto all them

that call upon Him, to all that call upon Him in truth. He will

fulfill the desire of them that fear Him; He also will hear their

cry, and-will save them."

O You Almighty Spirit, whose power is alone able to "turn the

hearts of the disobedient to the wisdom of the just," "raise up

Your power, and come among us;" "rend the heavens, and

come down;" rend the hearts of sinners, of the ungodly, the

moral, the naturally amiable, the self-righteous. "Fill their faces

with shame, that they may seek Your name, O Lord."

by

Charles Bridges

Post Reply