SALVATION TO THE UTTERMOST
\n\u201cThis is the resting place, let the weary rest; and this is the place of repose\u201d\u2014
\n\u201cHe is able also to save them to the uttermost.\u201d\u00a0Hebrews 7:25
\nWhat, to many, would all the other \u201cthree score and ten palm-trees\u201d avail, if they had not this one to rush to for shelter?
\nThe pressing, urgent question with thousands of anxious souls\u2014overwhelmed with the weight of aggravated transgression, is this, \u201cCan the God-Man-Redeemer be a Savior for us? A shelter for others, can these Palms afford sure refuge for the guiltiest?\u201d It is the old controversy that Satan has with not a few, whom he first goads on to presumption, and then, when entangled in his meshes, he seeks to drive to despair. Many such has that relentless guard shut up in the deepest dungeons of \u201cDoubting Castle\u201d\u2014gloomy cells, where the sunlight is forbidden to enter\u2014and rung over them the knell of extinguished hope. The crushing thought of personal unworthiness\u2014the memories of guilty bygone years, rise up before them like avenging angels.
\nWhat! this Savior and this salvation for me\u2014it cannot be! I have plunged madly into sin\u2014not, like others, because I have never been warned\u2014never counseled\u2014never known the tenderness of a mother\u2019s prayers, nor the sanctity of a father\u2019s entreaties, nor the privileges of a hallowed home. I have been oblivious of all these. Even now, I seem to listen (though in years long gone by), to voices which I have lived basely to scorn\u2014to counsels I have trampled on\u2014the retrospect all the sadder by the reflection that the lips which spoke them are hushed in the grave\u2014and the arms that of old caressed me, as on Sabbath night I knelt by the beloved knee, are decaying in the tomb! What! Christ receive me, with all that diary of a misspent, godless, defiant life unveiled to His omniscient eye!\u2014deeds of depravity\u2014outbursts of fiery passion\u2014malignant purposes of revenge; my own bark sunk\u2014and worse it may be than this, miserable wrecks, for which I am guiltily responsible, strewing the shores. Mine is not, as it is with many, a mere upper layer of iniquity; but it is deposit on deposit\u2014strata piled on strata\u2014the mournful consolidation of a life of sin. Ten thousand echoes ring \u201clost!\u201d along the dreary corridors of the past. \u201cSurely my way is hidden from the Lord; my cause is disregarded by my God!\u201d There may be room and welcome for every weary traveler at Elim and its grove, except for me!
\nNo, not so! As aggravated as your case is, it is never hopeless; you cannot hear your spiritual death-knell tolled, so long as you can read the golden letters which head this meditation\u2014\u201dAble to save completely.\u201d You may have been a sinner to the uttermost. You may have gone the sickening round of all life\u2019s follies\u2014run riot of its whole enchanted circle\u2014O Israel, you may have destroyed yourself\u2014there may not be one redeeming feature in your case\u2014not one apparent gleaning left for the grape-gatherer. You may be a stripped, defenseless, degenerate vine\u2014fit only for the axe and the cumberer\u2019s doom. But hear the words of God\u2014\u201dIn Me is your help.\u201d \u201cI know the thoughts which I think towards you\u2014thoughts of peace and not of evil!\u201d
\nIt is told of Bilney, in the time of the Reformation, that on obtaining Erasmus\u2019 translation of the Greek Testament, he hurried away with it and shut himself up in his room in Cambridge. On opening its pages, his eye caught the words\u2014\u201dThis is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptance, that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.\u201d He laid down the book, and meditated on the astonishing declaration. \u201cWhat! Paul \u2018the chief of sinners,\u2019 and yet Paul is sure of being saved!\u201d He read the verse again and again, exclaiming, \u201cOh assertion of Paul, how sweet are you to my soul!\u201d
\nDowncast Pilgrim, in the dreariest of moral deserts! if, with true and sincere penitence of heart, you plead for pardon, \u201cwith the Lord there is unfailing love, and with Him is full redemption\u201d (Ps. 130:7). What a wondrous utterance is that\u2014a lustrous jewel sparkling in a dark setting\u2014found in the 18th verse of the opening chapter of Isaiah\u2019s prophecy! One would have supposed, after the dreadful indictment contained in the preceding verses, that any hope of forgiveness must be closed against the rebellious race\u2014\u201dThe people laden with iniquity.\u201d But, all at once, the tolling of the funereal bell ceases; and the joyful chime that has borne hope and comfort in many an hour of spiritual desolation falls upon the ear\u2014\u201dCome now, and let us reason together, says the Lord\u2014Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.\u201d
\nOr, take another declaration of similar import: \u201cI, even I, am He that blots out your transgressions, for My own sake, and will not remember your sins.\u201d \u201cI\u2014even I\u201d\u2014the very Being you have most deeply injured\u2014whose Spirit you have grieved\u2014I, the Almighty Creditor, am ready to grant and sign a full discharge\u2014\u201dWhoever comes to Me, I will never drive away.\u201d The Stronger than the strong man armed, sounds the silver trumpet of jubilee, \u201cHe has sent Me to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound,\u201d and blessed have been the millions who have heard that joyful sound! \u201cHow useless it is,\u201d says an earnest thinker lately lost to the world, and who knew from deep-felt experience the truth of his own words\u2014\u201dHow useless it is to tell the desponding, or those distressed by consciousness of guilt, of any remedy but a Savior\u2019s blood. It is here that the true test and proof of the Gospel lies. It is light to the blind, strength to the weary, and consolation for the brokenhearted.\u201d
\n\u201cAll in weakness, all in sorrow,\u2028Savior God! I Thee implore;\u2028Lifting up the sad petition\u2028You have often heard before,\u2028In the former days of darkness,\u2028In despairing times of yore.
\n\u201cFor a present help in trouble,\u2028You have never ceased to be;\u2028Since, at first, a weeping sinner\u2028Fell before You trustingly;\u2028And Your voice is ever sounding,\u2028Come, you weary ones, to Me!\u201d
\n\u201cFor I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 John MacDuff.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
SALVATION TO THE UTTERMOST \u201cThis is the resting place, let the weary rest; and this is the place of repose\u201d\u2014 \u201cHe is able also to save them to the uttermost.\u201d\u00a0Hebrews 7:25 What, to many, would all the other \u201cthree score and ten palm-trees\u201d avail, if they had not this one to rush to for shelter? […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54,61,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2892","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-author-john-macduff","category-believers-assurance","category-total-depravity"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2892","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2892"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2892\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2893,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2892\/revisions\/2893"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2892"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2892"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2892"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}