LET US HAVE PEACE WITH GOD

Dr. W. A. Criswell

Romans 5:1

8-1-54    7:30 p.m.

Now in your Bible we turn to the fifth chapter of the Book of Romans; the fifth chapter of the Book of Romans.  And the sermon tonight is the first verse; the whole sentence is contained in two verses, so we will read the whole sentence:  “Therefore”—and the “therefore” refers to the chapters that have gone before; Paul has been proving a great spiritual revelation, “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God” [Romans 5:1-2].

“Therefore being justified by faith” [Romans 5:1]:  the preceding chapters, chapter 1, chapter 2, chapter 3, chapter 4 [Revelation 1-4], Paul has been proving that we all are sinners and that we cannot in our own righteousness justify ourselves; that no man by the deed of the law could ever be saved.  Paul has been proving in those previous chapters that however good we are, we are never good enough; however holy we are, never holy enough; however acceptable we are, never acceptable enough.  There is always in us, always the element of mistake, of shortcoming, of dereliction, of sin, of debt; we never quite attain the full measure of the stature of God.  We’re never perfect enough; however we might aspire or labor or work toward that goal of holiness and perfection, we never attain it.  All of us come short; all of us are in debt; all of us are in sin [Romans 3:23].  But, says Paul, we are not saved by our efforts to be holy or our works to be good; we are not dependent upon those for justification before God.  For God, seeing us in our weakness, our humanity, our sinfulness, the Lord sent into this world a mediator, a sacrifice, an atoning Savior to take our place, to be for us sanctification, and justification, and atonement, to pay the price for the penalty of our sin [Romans 3:21-26].  And he says that’s the only way that any man who has ever been saved has been saved [Romans 3:29-30].  And he takes for example Abraham, who was the founder of the Hebrew nation, and he was called of God to be the father of the chosen people [Romans 4:16].  In the fourth chapter, how was Abraham saved?  By his works?  No; for his works were not righteous, and they were not acceptable to God.  How was he saved then?  Paul, quoting from the Book of Genesis, “What saith the Scriptures? Abraham believed God, and his faith was counted for righteousness” [Romans 4:3, Genesis 15:6].  Abraham was saved by faith.  Abraham was saved by casting himself upon the mercies of God.  Abraham was saved like all of God’s children are saved:  they are saved by grace [Romans 4:16], by mercy, by forgiveness, by the tender kindness of God.  “Therefore,” says Paul, “therefore we being justified by faith” [Romans 5:1], just speaking closing the previous chapter, “Jesus, who was delivered for our offenses, and was raised again for our justification [Romans 4:25], Jesus our Savior, now we are justified by faith in Him”; all of that, I say, was in these preceding chapters [Romans 1-4].

Now the fifth chapter begins in a different way.  He’s talking now, “Being justified,” seeing that, receiving that, believing that, “Now being justified by faith,” you have the translation here, “we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” [Romans 5:1].  Well, that’s all right, that’s a good translation of the Textus Receptus; that’s exactly what it is.  “Therefore being saved by faith, being saved by grace through faith, being justified by faith, declared righteous, acceptable to God by trusting God for it, being justified by faith, we have peace with God” [Romans 5:1].  Now that word translated “we have peace” is one of those words that these Greek learned scholars for I don’t know how many years they’ve been discussing.  Is that Greek word there echomen, or is it echōmen?  Isn’t that a funny thing?

Did you know the Roman Empire one time was divided over a Greek iota; and they went to war, and they tore up the church, and they tore up the Roman Empire over a Greek iota.  Did you know that?  In the day of Arius and Athanasius, one of them said, “Jesus is homoousios,” the other one said, “He is homoiousios” a little Greek iota in there.  A discussion over the essence of Jesus:  was He one in essence with God, or was He of a substance like the Father?  Well, that controversy, I say, tore up the Roman Empire.

These scholars look at this text here, “Therefore being justified by faith, echomen,” omicron, echomen; or is it an omega?  Both of them are o’s.  Is it an omega, an “o”?  Or is it an omicron “o”?  If it is an omicron, “We have peace with God,” then you translated it right:  it’s an active linear indicative.  “Being justified by faith, we have peace with God” [Romans 5:1], an indicative.  But if it’s an omega, it’s an active volitive subjunctive:  “Therefore being justified by faith, let us have peace with God; let us have peace with God” [Roman 5:1].  Well, how do you think it is?  I think it’s an [omega].  I think the manuscript evidence shows without doubt that the true text here is, “Therefore being justified by faith, let us have peace with God.”  That is, let’s enjoy our religion now; having settled this thing of salvation, having settled this thing of being saved, let us rejoice in that salvation [Romans 5:2].

Same thing you’ll find over there in the twenty-first chapter of the Book of Matthew, where Jesus telling the parable of the wicked husbandman, the man who let out his vineyard and went away; and when he sent for fruit from the vineyard, why, they took one of the servants and beat him, and they took another servant and killed him, and the lord said, “I will send my son, and they will reverence my son.”  So the lord sent his son into the vineyard, and they said, “This is the heir; let us, –ōmen, “let us,” volitive subjunctive, “let us kill him, and let us seize, let us take hold of the inheritance” [Matthew 21:33-38].  That volative subjunctive is here:  “Therefore being justified by faith, let us have peace with God” [Romans 5:1].  Let’s enjoy our religion.  Like the ninth chapter of the Book of Acts:  “Then the church enjoyed peace” [Acts 9:31].

That’s what Paul is writing here, and he has a meaning in it, has a purpose in it.  Being justified by faith, being saved, being Christian, being acceptable to God through the Lord, being justified by faith, now let’s enjoy our religion [Romans 5:1].  Let’s settle this thing about our conversion, and in quietness and in peace and in thanksgiving to God.  But, “We have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice and are glad in hope of the glory of God” [Romans 5:2].

Now may I apply that to us?  I don’t know how many of us, I don’t know how many of us, and it distressed me out at the camp—you don’t, I was down there at the front listening to our children as they came talking to me upon the appeal of the preacher Thursday night.  A great group of those children came and they took my hand, and some of them were weeping, and they were saying to me—I mean a host of them were saying to me, “I’ve been baptized, and I belong to the church, but I don’t know whether I’m saved or not.  I don’t know whether I’m a child of God or not.  I don’t know whether I’ve been born again or not.”  And that bothers me.  It troubles me no end.  These children, oh, we’re so careful with them, and try to be so earnestly responsible to God for their souls.  And you know I am.  I have them go through a little period of teaching with their parents, and their Sunday school teacher, and don’t baptize them at first.  We do everything we can; and then stand out there at the camp at the front of the service, and when the preacher has done his message, listen to those children come down and say to me, “Pastor, you baptized me, and I’m a member of the church, but I don’t know whether I’m saved or not.  I don’t know whether I’m born again or not.”

And you listen to the invitation of these big revival meetings, and practically all, practically all of the people who go down and stand in front of those rostrums, they go down on this kind of an appeal:  “I don’t know whether I’m born again, I don’t know whether I’m saved or not, I don’t know whether I’m a Christian or not, and I have come down here for assurance, for assurance!”  And I look at the throng and the throng and the throng.  Some of my own people go down there and stand there, “I don’t have assurance.  I don’t know whether I’m saved.  I don’t know whether I’m converted.  I don’t know whether I’ve been born again.  And I’m troubled and I’m miserable.”  And you are troubled and you are in misery.  That’s what Paul is talking about, and the thing I’m going to preach about here tonight.  In the fifth chapter of the Book of Romans, “Therefore being justified by faith, let us have peace with God” [Romans 5:1].  We’re not to live in misery and in anxiety and in agony, wondering, “Have I truly been born again?”  It’s a terrible way to live.  It’s an awful state in which to find ourselves.

That thing was true in the Bible again and again.  In the sixth chapter of the Book of Hebrews, this is the thing that the—whoever he is, I think it was Apollos—this is the thing Apollos is writing to that little church: “Therefore leaving the first principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on to maturity: not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God, of the doctrine of baptism and all the rest” [Hebrews 6:1-2].  That thing back there about repenting, and about faith, and being born again, and being baptized, he calls those rudimentary principles; he calls them “first principles” [Hebrews 5:12].  And we ought to get over them, and beyond them, and go on to maturity, to being stalwart Christians.  But you can’t, you can’t, as long as you live back there in the awful dilemma, “Am I saved or am I lost?  Am I justified or am I condemned?  Am I dead in Christ, or am I alive in Him?  How is it with me?  How is it with me?”

And I tell you underneath that thing is everywhere, it’s everywhere.  You can go through this church and through this Sunday school and up and down these aisles and ask our people, “Do you have great assurance?  Do you know that you know?”  And so many will equivocate, “Preacher, I’ve tried, I’ve tried.  I went down the aisle, I was baptized, I have tried since.  But as for honestly knowing, I don’t know, I don’t know.  I’m in doubt.  Sometimes I think I am, and sometimes I think I’m not.”  And it’s a miserable way to live, I say!  And it is an affront to God, and it makes for poor religion.

That’s the reason Paul starts off here in the fifth chapter of the Book of Romans, “Therefore being justified by faith, echōmen,” a volitive subjunctive, “let us have, let us seize, let us seize, let us hold, let us have peace with God; let us enjoy our religion through Jesus Christ, by whom we have access by faith into this grace, wherein we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God”’ [Romans 5:1-2].

Now how is it that a man has peace with God?  How do you settle that question?  How do you get out of that limbo drawn by the doubts and questionings that nearly rends your soul?  How do you do it?  This is the way we do it:  “Being justified by faith, therefore being justified by faith!” [Romans 5:1]. You do it by trusting Jesus; and that’s all you can do, I don’t care how else you try.  It’s done by trusting Jesus [1 Timothy 1:12; Acts 16:30-31].  There’s nothing else. There’s not any other way! [John 14:6; Acts 4:10-12].  It’s done by trusting Jesus [2 Timothy 1:12; Acts 16:30-31].

“Preacher, I don’t believe that.  I don’t believe that.  I tell you, I believe you’ve got to trust Jesus and do some good works.”  Then you’ll be in misery all the days of your life.  How do you know whether your works are good enough or not?  Or you done them enough or not? Or that you haven’t done something?  How do you know ever that you could ever get to heaven if it’s trust in Jesus and something else you’ve got to do?  You might not do it, or having done it, you might not have done it right, or enough, or far enough, or good enough.  You’re going to be in misery and in agony all of your life.

“Being justified by faith” [Romans 5:1], it comes by trusting Jesus [2 Timothy 1:12; Acts 16:30-31].  And that’s the sum of it, that’s the whole of it; that’s the middle of it, the beginning of it, the end of it, that’s all of it:  “Being justified by faith, by trusting Jesus.”  You can come down that aisle forty dozen times, and it will always be the same way:  trusting the Lord Jesus.  There’s nothing you can add, nothing.  And it’s an eternal salvation:  it’s never taken away [John 10:27-30].

The soul that on Jesus hath leaned for repose,

I’ll never, no never desert to its foes;

That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake,

I’ll never, no never, no never forsake.

What more can He say than to you He hath said,

You, who for refuge to Jesus have fled?

[“How Firm a Foundation,” John Rippon]

All of it is in the Word, all of it.  It’s in trusting Jesus.  We’re saved by looking to Jesus, by trusting in Jesus [John 3:14-16].

And we’re wholly saved, all of saved, trusting the Lord Jesus.  I’m not partly saved and partly lost; there’s no such thing.  A man is never partly dead and partly alive:  he’s either dead or he’s alive.  We’re never partly justified and partly condemned.  We are either condemned or we are justified.  There’s no third state before God.  I’m either lost or I’m saved, one or the other.  I’m either condemned or I’m justified, one or the other.  I’m in Christ or I’m out of Christ.  Just like you are in this world:  you’re either alive or you’re dead in this world, one or the other, one or the other.

Now you may be sick, you may be half-dead; but if you are still alive, you’re alive.  I don’t care how sick you are and how low you are; to be dead is to be dead, and to be alive is to be alive.  And there’s one or the other.  And it’s the same way in God:  I’m either saved or I’m lost; I’m justified or I’m condemned; and I’m one or the other.

“Preacher, how do you get to be justified by faith, wholly one or the other?”  We are justified by trusting Jesus, looking to Jesus, looking to Jesus, trusting the Lord Jesus, depending on the Lord Jesus.  “Well, I don’t know whether I depend upon Him enough.”  You don’t even need qualify it with “enough.”  “But I don’t know whether I’ve had enough faith.”  You don’t need to qualify it with “enough” faith.  Your faith may be bold and vigorous, or your faith may be weak and timorous and apologetic.  It’s not what kind of faith:  if you trust Jesus, whatever kind of a trust, that’s it, that’s it.

Could I illustrate that?  The Lord God said, “on such and such night, My death angel passeth over.  And any man who will sprinkle the lintel and the doorposts with blood, if he will get under the blood, in that house, My angel will pass over.  But when the angel passes over and scrutinizes the lintel and the door posts, the front of the house, if the blood is not sprinkled on the lintel and the door posts, death will visit that house; death will come into that home” [Exodus 12:7, 12-13, 23].

And I can imagine that night, can’t you?  In an awful solemn hush, in that awesome hour, those families in those homes could almost hear the rustle of the wings of that dreaded angel as he passed over the houses in the land of Egypt and scrutinized the lintel and the doorposts.

On the inside of that house, under the blood, I can imagine all kinds of people, can’t you?  Some of them shallow, some of them profound, some of them with great faith, some of them with little faith, some of them with great questioning, some of them in doubt and in dread, some of them in perfect peace trusting in the Lord.  But if they were under the blood, if they were in that house, if they had enough faith to walk in the door that was sprinkled by the blood, the death angel passed over, and there was life in that house [Exodus 12:22-23].

That’s the same thing in this congregation here tonight.  There are some of you with tremendous faith.  There are some of you with a little faith.  There are some of you with questioning.  There are some of you that have no doubts at all.  There are some of you that in dread and in fear wonder.  There are some of you who have perfect peace.  But if you’re under the blood, if you’re trusting Jesus, if you’re in Christ, if you’ve taken Him as your Savior, you’re saved!  And you’re saved forever and forever! [John 10:27-30].  And Paul says here, “Therefore being justified by faith, let us rest in peace, let us have peace with God, let us enjoy our religion, let us be glad in Him” [Romans 5:1-2].

Now I want to preach about that tonight.  That’s my introduction.  You people better pray for me, too.  I tell you, I’m preaching myself to death.  But there’s so much here to say, how do you say it?  How do you say it?  I want to preach about that.

The work of Christ for us is a finished and completed work.  The work of redemption, the work of our salvation is a final and a completed, eternally completed, work.  It’s done.  It’s done!  When the Lord Jesus died on the cross, He said, “It is finished.  It is finished” [John 19:30].   When the Lord Jesus prayed in the high priestly prayer of the seventeenth chapter of the Book of John, He said to God His Father, “I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do” [John 17:4].  What is finished?  The work of redemption, the work of atonement, the work of salvation, it is done!  It’s finished forever and ever. Christ did it! [John 19:16-30].  It’s a great historical fact; it happened two thousand years ago [Matthew 27:32-50].

Now, the work of the Spirit in me is never finished.  The Holy Spirit could never say, “It is finished”; only Christ could say that [John 19:30].  The work of the Spirit in me, on the inside of me, the fruit of the Spirit is love [Galatians 5:2], and I want to, my, my, I want to love some of the people that I don’t love.  Lord, help me to do it.  Help me to do it.

Do you know some people that you just look at them and bite a nail?  Do you know some like that?  Well, you need to grow a little bit.  You ought to love them, God’s Book says, love them.  Did you hear that?  You ought to quit some of your meanness then, and do better, do better.  Yes sir.  “The fruit of the Spirit is love, love; and joy, joy” [Galatians 5:22].  Why, I see him some and he’s down in the mouth, and I say, “What’s the matter?”  He’ll say, “We had a poor offering yesterday, and I can’t meet the payment on the debt.”

“Well brother, get over that!  Next Sunday we’ll have twice as much, if you have a little faith.  You need to grow a little bit.”  Joy.  Joy.  Peace, peace, peace, out there where you are, quit that fussing and fighting where you are with your wife, and some of you fellows around here, cut that out!  Grow!  Peace.  Longsuffering, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, meekness [Galatians 5:22-23].  My, my, reckon the Holy Spirit will ever get done with us, reckon He will?  Why, as long as you live, there’s a work of the Holy Spirit in you, in you.  The work of the Holy Spirit is never done with us!  No matter how good we are, we ought to be better, we ought to be better, and the Holy Spirit works in us [Galatians 5:22-23]; but the work of Christ in us forever and eternally done and complete [John 19:30].  No man adds to that; no man takes away from that.

You’re not saved by the Holy Spirit:  the Holy Spirit cannot cancel sin; the Holy Spirit does not cancel sin.  What cancels sin is the blood atonement of Jesus Christ [Romans 5:11], God’s Son; “And the blood of Jesus, God’s Son, cleanseth us from all sin” [1 John 1:7].  “This is My blood of the new covenant, shed for the remission of sins” [Matthew 26:28].  We are saved by the cross of Jesus; we are saved by the atonement of Christ [Ephesians 1:7].  We are saved by His cross, by His sacrifice, by His death on the tree [1 Peter 2:4]; and we are justified, declared righteous, by trusting in that final finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ [1 Corinthians 15:1-4].  And it’s done forever.  It’s done forever.

You can’t trust Jesus’ atonement and say, “But I’ll add to it this and that and that.  I’ve got to trust Jesus and be baptized.  I must trust Jesus and keep the commandments.  I must trust Jesus and,” no!  There’s not any “and.”  You’re saved by trusting Jesus, and Jesus alone [2 Timothy 1:12; Acts 16:30-31].

Nicodemus, Jesus said to him, “You must be born again” [John 3:3, 7].  Nicodemus says, “How does a man get to be born again?” [John 3:4].  And the Lord replied, “This is the way, this is the way that a man is saved, that a man becomes a child of God:  as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up [John 3:14-15]; that whosoever trusts in Him, looks to Him, looking to Jesus, saved by looking to Jesus, washed in the blood of the Lamb [Revelation 1:5], looking to Jesus, saved by the atoning grace of God in Christ Jesus” [John 3:1-18].  Jesus never said to Nicodemus, “Get yourself born again.”  You can’t do it!  I’d just like for somebody to say, “I got myself born the first time.”  You’d be an inanity walking around here.  You didn’t choose your mama, you didn’t choose your papa, you didn’t have anything to do with that.  You weren’t even there.  And for you to say, “I had something to do with my being born the first time,” is ludicrous and funny.”  And for you to say, “I got myself born the second time” is equally inanity and ludicrousness.  You never got yourself born the second time any more than you got yourself born the first time.

Nicodemus said, “Master, can a man who is old go back into his mother’s womb and be born again?” [John 3:4].  And Jesus said, “Nicodemus, no, no, no.”  Well, how is it that a man’s born again?  As the serpent was lifted up in the wilderness [Numbers 21:8-9], so the Son of Man lifted up, that whosoever trusts in Him, looks to Him [John 3:14-15], looks to Him, “I am born again, I have become a child of God through the atoning grace of God’s Son on the cross”; looking to Jesus, looking to Jesus [John 3:16].  Then the Spirit, oh, the works of the Spirit:  repentance; He brings good works, He brings fruit, He brings increasing faith, He brings everything of joy and wondrous gifts from glory and God in heaven [Galatians 5:22-23].  But I am saved, I am born again by looking to Jesus, by looking to Jesus [Acts 16:30-31; 2 Timothy 1:12].

Man, when I look at myself, I’m miserable!  I’m miserable.  I could never, I could never repent enough; I could never believe enough; I could never trust enough; I could never be good enough; I could never cry enough.  When I look to myself, I’m miserable. I don’t know whether I’d ever make it or not.  When I look at others, I’m miserable:  they can’t help me.  And when I look at doctrines, and creeds, and systems, and ordinances, and baptisms, and churches, I’m still undone and miserable!  Looking to Jesus I have peace.  Being justified by faith, we have, let’s have peace with God, settling it forever, forever and forever in the Lord Jesus [Romans 5:1-2].

Did you know, I think of Simon Peter as so many times typical of us.  Jesus walking on the water in the middle of the night, Simon Peter there with the disciples; Jesus says, “It is I; be not afraid, be not afraid” [Matthew 14:25-27].  And Simon Peter says, “Lord, if it is Thou, bid me come unto Thee on the water.”  And the Lord said, “Why, come, come” [Matthew 14:28-29].  Don’t ever think that you affront God or insult God with any kind of a tremendous faith. Anything you’ve got faith enough to try or to do, go do it!  See what God does; He will honor it.  “Simon Peter, if you want to walk on the water to Me, then get out of the boat and come to Me on the water.”  And Simon Peter had enough faith, enough trust in Jesus to climb over the side of the boat; and he was walking to Jesus on the water.  Not even wading in the water, brother, his feet were dry.  He was walking on the water, going to the Lord Jesus.  And while he was in the midst of the sea, he took his eyes off of the Lord, off of Jesus, and he began to look at the winds and the waves, and he was filled with fear; and he began to sink, and cried, “Lord, save me!”  And Jesus walked over where he was, and lifted him up.  “Oh, Simon, why?  Why?  Why do you doubt?  Why look at the wind?  Why look at the waves?  Simon, why didn’t you look at Me?” [Matthew 14:30-31].  As long as he looked at Jesus, he walked on the water.  As long as he looked at Jesus, there was peace, there was tranquility, there was faith; in the wind and the storm he walked on the water, looking to Jesus.  When he turned his face away, he was filled with terror and fear, and began to sink [Matthew 14:30-31].

You are that way, and I.  As long as we look to Jesus, everything is all right.  As long as we’re centered in the Lord Jesus, there is peace and tranquility.  As long as we’re trusting in Him, He is all right—I may not be all right—He is all right.  I may be full of doubts and fears; He never hesitates.  My feet may tremble; the Rock on which we stand never moves, looking to Jesus, looking to Jesus.  We have our peace in Him, not in me, not in others, not in the church, not in this world, not in man, not in creeds, systems, doctrines, baptisms, deeds, works. We have our peace in the Lord Jesus Christ.  “Being justified by faith, let us have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” [Romans 5:1]; looking to Him, looking to Him, looking to Jesus, looking to Jesus.  He is our all in all.

I’m going to quit.

He is our all in all. “Of Him, of Him, are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us”—the Lord God has made Christ for us, He has made Christ for us—”our wisdom, our righteousness, our sanctification, our redemption:  that, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord” [1 Corinthians 1:30-31].  “Of Him, are ye in Christ? who of God is made unto us our wisdom” [1 Corinthians 1:30].  Sit at His feet, enroll in His school; He is our wisdom.  He will teach us [Matthew 11:29].  He is our righteousness [1 Corinthians 1:30].  I despair of my own; He is our righteousness; He is made of God unto us our sanctification:  what we hope to be and shall be, worked out through His gracious beneficent, benevolent hand.  And our redemption, I have settled that thing; it’s in Him.  He of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and our redemption [1 Corinthians 1:30].  Our purchase price, He paid it [1 Peter 1:18-19].  Our salvation, in His hands.  Our todays and our tomorrows, our future, our present, all we have and are, ever hope to be, all of it in Christ Jesus, looking to Him, looking to Him; He, our all in all.  Christ Jesus; justified, trusting in Him; saved, trusting Him; kept, trusting Him; dying, trusting Him; looking to glory, trusting Him:  He, our all and our all.  “And being justified by faith, we have peace with God” [Romans 5:1].

I entered once a home of care,

And penury and want were there,

But joy and peace withal;

I asked the aged mother whence

Her helpless widowhood’s defense;

She answered, “Christ is all.”

I saw the martyr at the stake,

The flames could not his courage shake,

Nor death his soul appall;

I asked him whence his strength was giv’n;

He looked triumphantly to Heav’n,

And answered, “Christ is all.”

I stood beside the dying bed,

Where lay a child with aching head,

Waiting Jesus’ call;

I saw him smile, ‘twas sweet as May;

And as his spirit passed away,

He whispered, “Christ is all.”

[“Christ is All,” W. A. Williams]

And that’s enough.

What more do I want?  My sorry works like dirty rags, shall I lay them at His feet?  My poor obediences, shall I lay them at His feet?  Whatever I could do, should I lay that at His feet?  Or should I come in the righteousness, and the wisdom, and the sanctification, and the redemption of Jesus Christ [1 Corinthians 1:30], and plead His goodness, and His mercy, and His grace?  What shall I do?  What shall I do?  What shall I do to be saved?  What shall I do?

This shall I do:  I shall plead the grace [Ephesians 2:8], and the mercy [Titus 3:5], and the wisdom, and the sanctification, and the redemption, and the forgiveness of God in Christ Jesus [Ephesians 1:7-9; 1 Corinthians 1:30].  I shall plead Him, trusting, believing in Him [Acts 16:30].  That’s it.  That’s it.  That’s it:  the way to be saved and to go on rejoicing in what Christ has done for us [Romans 5:1-2].

All right, Billy, let’s sing that song, “Just When I Need Him Most,” number 300, number 300,

Just when I need Him most, Jesus is near…

Just when I need Him most, Jesus is near. . .

[William C. Poole]

And while we sing the song, somebody you come down that aisle, give the preacher your hand: “Preacher, tonight, tonight I give my heart in trust to the Lord Jesus [Romans 10:9-13].  It may be a feeble trust, it may be a humble faith, but preacher, such as I can and such as I am able, I do commit the care of my soul and my eternity, I give it to the Lord Jesus.  Not that I understand, but He understands.  Not that I am able, but He is able.  Not that I can do it, but He can do it.  I am trusting Jesus; looking to Jesus [2 Timothy 1:12].  I’ve got enough faith to take it to Jesus; and I’ll do it, preacher, I’ll do it tonight” [Ephesians 2:8].  Would you come and stand by me?  “Preacher, I give you my hand; I give my heart in trust to God, and here I come.”  Somebody you, into the fellowship of His church, a family, or just one, as the Lord shall make appeal, while we sing the song, would you come?  Would you make it now, while we stand and while we sing?