Faith and Acceptance
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As your conscience has been quickened by the Holy Spirit, you have seen
something of the evil of sin, of its power, its guilt, its woe; and you
look
upon it with abhorrence. You feel that sin has separated you from God,
that
you are in bondage to the power of evil. The more you struggle to escape,
the more you realize your helplessness. Your motives are impure; your
heart
is unclean. You see that your life has been filled with selfishness and
sin.
You long to be forgiven, to be cleansed, to be set free. Harmony with God,
likeness to Him--what can you do to obtain it?
It is peace that you need--Heaven's forgiveness and peace and love in the
soul. Money cannot buy it, intellect cannot procure it, wisdom cannot
attain
to it; you can never hope, by your own efforts, to secure it. But God
offers
it to you as a gift, "without money and without price." Isaiah 55:1. It is
yours if you will but reach out your hand and grasp it. The Lord says,
"Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though
they
be red like crimson, they shall be as wool." Isaiah 1:18. "A new heart
also
will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you." Ezekiel 36:26.
You have confessed your sins, and in heart put them away. You have
resolved
to give yourself to God. Now go to Him, and ask that He will wash away
your
sins and give you a new heart. Then
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believe that He does this because He has promised. This is the lesson
which
Jesus taught while He was on earth, that the gift which God promises us,
we
must believe we do receive, and it is ours. Jesus healed the people of
their
diseases when they had faith in His power; He helped them in the things
which they could see, thus inspiring them with confidence in Him
concerning
things which they could not see--leading them to believe in His power to
forgive sins. This He plainly stated in the healing of the man sick with
palsy: "That ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to
forgive
sins, (then saith He to the sick of the palsy,) Arise, take up thy bed,
and
go unto thine house." Matthew 9:6. So also John the evangelist says,
speaking of the miracles of Christ, "These are written, that ye might
believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye
might have life through His name." John 20:31.
From the simple Bible account of how Jesus healed the sick, we may learn
something about how to believe in Him for the forgiveness of sins. Let us
turn to the story of the paralytic at Bethesda. The poor sufferer was
helpless; he had not used his limbs for thirty-eight years. Yet Jesus bade
him, "Rise, take up thy bed, and walk." The sick man might have said,
"Lord,
if Thou wilt make me whole, I will obey Thy word." But, no, he believed
Christ's word, believed that he was made whole, and he made the effort at
once; he willed to walk, and he did walk. He acted on the word of Christ,
and God gave the power. He was made whole.
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In like manner you are a sinner. You cannot atone for your past sins; you
cannot change your heart and make yourself holy. But God promises to do
all
this for you through Christ. You believe that promise. You confess your
sins
and give yourself to God. You will to serve Him. Just as surely as you do
this, God will fulfill His word to you. If you believe the
promise,--believe
that you are forgiven and cleansed,--God supplies the fact; you are made
whole, just as Christ gave the paralytic power to walk when the man
believed
that he was healed. It is so if you believe it.
Do not wait to feel that you are made whole, but say, "I believe it; it is
so, not because I feel it, but because God has promised."
Jesus says, "What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye
receive them, and ye shall have them." Mark 11:24. There is a condition to
this promise--that we pray according to the will of God. But it is the
will
of God to cleanse us from sin, to make us His children, and to enable us
to
live a holy life. So we may ask for these blessings, and believe that we
receive them, and thank God that we have received them. It is our
privilege
to go to Jesus and be cleansed, and to stand before the law without shame
or
remorse. "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in
Christ
Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." Romans 8:1.
Henceforth you are not your own; you are bought with a price. "Ye were not
redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold;... but with the
precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and
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without spot." 1 Peter 1:18, 19. Through this simple act of believing God,
the Holy Spirit has begotten a new life in your heart. You are as a child
born into the family of God, and He loves you as He loves His Son.
Now that you have given yourself to Jesus, do not draw back, do not take
yourself away from Him, but day by day say, "I am Christ's; I have given
myself to Him;" and ask Him to give you His Spirit and keep you by His
grace. As it is by giving yourself to God, and believing Him, that you
become His child, so you are to live in Him. The apostle says, "As ye have
therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him." Colossians
2:6.
Some seem to feel that they must be on probation, and must prove to the
Lord
that they are reformed, before they can claim His blessing. But they may
claim the blessing of God even now. They must have His grace, the Spirit
of
Christ, to help their infirmities, or they cannot resist evil. Jesus loves
to have us come to Him just as we are, sinful, helpless, dependent. We may
come with all our weakness, our folly, our sinfulness, and fall at His
feet
in penitence. It is His glory to encircle us in the arms of His love and
to
bind up our wounds, to cleanse us from all impurity.
Here is where thousands fail; they do not believe that Jesus pardons them
personally, individually. They do not take God at His word. It is the
privilege of all who comply with the conditions to know for themselves
that
pardon is freely extended for every sin. Put away the suspicion that God's
promises are not meant for you. They are for every
53
repentant transgressor. Strength and grace have been provided through
Christ
to be brought by ministering angels to every believing soul. None are so
sinful that they cannot find strength, purity, and righteousness in Jesus,
who died for them. He is waiting to strip them of their garments stained
and
polluted with sin, and to put upon them the white robes of righteousness;
He
bids them live and not die.
God does not deal with us as finite men deal with one another. His
thoughts
are thoughts of mercy, love, and tenderest compassion. He says, "Let the
wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him
return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for
He will abundantly pardon." "I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy
transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins." Isaiah 55:7; 44:22.
"I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord God:
wherefore turn yourselves, and live ye." Ezekiel 18:32. Satan is ready to
steal away the blessed assurances of God. He desires to take every glimmer
of hope and every ray of light from the soul; but you must not permit him
to
do this. Do not give ear to the tempter, but say, "Jesus has died that I
might live. He loves me, and wills not that I should perish. I have a
compassionate heavenly Father; and although I have abused His love, though
the blessings He has given me have been squandered, I will arise, and go
to
my Father, and say, 'I have sinned against heaven, and before Thee, and am
no more worthy to be called Thy son: make me as one of Thy hired
servants.'"
The parable tells you how
54
the wanderer will be received: "When he was yet a great way off, his
father
saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed
him."
Luke 15:18-20.
But even this parable, tender and touching as it is, comes short of
expressing the infinite compassion of the heavenly Father. The Lord
declares
by His prophet, "I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore
with
loving-kindness have I drawn thee." Jeremiah 31:3. While the sinner is yet
far from the Father's house, wasting his substance in a strange country,
the
Father's heart is yearning over him; and every longing awakened in the
soul
to return to God is but the tender pleading of His Spirit, wooing,
entreating, drawing the wanderer to his Father's heart of love.
With the rich promises of the Bible before you, can you give place to
doubt?
Can you believe that when the poor sinner longs to return, longs to
forsake
his sins, the Lord sternly withholds him from coming to His feet in
repentance? Away with such thoughts! Nothing can hurt your own soul more
than to entertain such a conception of our heavenly Father. He hates sin,
but He loves the sinner, and He gave Himself in the person of Christ, that
all who would might be saved and have eternal blessedness in the kingdom
of
glory. What stronger or more tender language could have been employed than
He has chosen in which to express His love toward us? He declares, "Can a
woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the
son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee." Isaiah
49:15.
Look up, you that are doubting and trembling;
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for Jesus lives to make intercession for us. Thank God for the gift of His
dear Son and pray that He may not have died for you in vain. The Spirit
invites you today. Come with your whole heart to Jesus, and you may claim
His blessing.
As you read the promises, remember they are the expression of unutterable
love and pity. The great heart of Infinite Love is drawn toward the sinner
with boundless compassion. "We have redemption through His blood, the
forgiveness of sins." Ephesians 1:7. Yes, only believe that God is your
helper. He wants to restore His moral image in man. As you draw near to
Him
with confession and repentance, He will draw near to you with mercy and
forgiveness.
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