Saved and Kept
George Asbury McLaughlin
Chapter 3: Abandonment of Sin
Every one who really wants to be a Christian has to face a very important question at the very start. This question is whether he wants to be a Bible Christian or merely a church member, like many around him. He will find church members by the thousands but not so many real Christians.
There are two kinds of church members today. One kind are like the captains of small fishing smacks who used to sail by landmarks along the coast of Maine. They were ignorant of the rules of navigation and so had to keep in sight of the shore and steer by that. There are many in the church who are sailing by landmarks. They do as other people do and say and think as other people.
But there is another kind of Christians who go by the Chart - the Bible. They go by the rules of spiritual navigation. They want to know what God requires and when they know that, they do it, no matter whether any one else does or not. Which will you be? It does not pay either for this world or the other to get any thing except a Bible salvation. God has made all the arrangements for you to be a real Christian and if you so desire, no one can keep you from so being. But if you simply desire to be a church member, you may be that and make your bed in Hell at last. If you only want to be a formal church member, it will do you no good to read this book, for this book is not written for that purpose.
The first step towards being a Christian and being saved is called in Bible terms, REPENTANCE. We shall not attempt to use any theological terms or statements, but state the matter simply.
Some years ago we were traveling in the Eastern part of the United States, one dark night. The conductor came along to take up the tickets. As he paused, across the aisle from us, we heard him say to two ladies, "Why you should have gotten off at Lawrence. You are going way down East."
The night was dark. The country was a strange one. They were in dismay and like the jailer said, "'What must we do?" This is just what every awakened soul feels like saying as he sees that he is lost.
The reply was, "There is another train coming along very soon in the opposite direction. You can get off and take that at the next station."
They did so. That was repentance. This incident well illustrates true and false repentance.
1) Repentance is more than change of mind. Some would have us believe, that is all there is to true repentance. These ladies had changed their minds as to the road as soon as the conductor told them they were wrong. Up to this time they felt that they were all right. But when proper authority announced that they were wrong they were in dismay. They changed their minds as to the way they were in. But after that they felt badly. They were on the wrong road just as much after they felt bad about it, as before. So when a man sees his condition in the light of God's Spirit, he is no more on the right road than he was before, but he now realizes it. The Holy Spirit is the conductor to tell us when we are wrong, if he can only get our attention so that we hear. He is faithful to tell us just where we are, if we will listen.
This is what the prodigal did. When he was among the swine he "came to himself." He changed his mind. But repentance is all this and more. Judas repented as far as acknowledging and throwing down the thirty pieces of silver. He changed his mind but that was not the whole of repentance. The ladies on the train saw that they were wrong, but they were still going down East, and might have continued right on.
The prodigal did more than change his mind. He got up and left the whole company of swine and started for home. The ladies got off the wrong train and took the one that carried them back to the proper destination. This was repentance. We have known of men who have changed their minds as to the truth of Christianity and accepted it as the true religion, who did not repent and get real salvation. Sometimes we hear an experience told something like this, "There came a day when I accepted the truth and stood up and joined the church." The person might have done all that and not have repented at all. To change our mind but not our lives is only to keep on the wrong train and farther away from God and heaven.
Men may have correct creeds and argue for them and not do any repenting. While repentance is a change of mind. This is only the beginning of repentance.
2) Repentance is more than sorrow for sin. The ladies in the train felt sorry to think that they were going down East, but this did not stop the train, nor cause them to get off. They might have cried all night and yet they would have continued going down East. You may feel badly to think you are on the way to Hell but tears will not get you off the train. You may shed enough tears to make a flood but that flood will never bear you on its bosom to heaven.
Judas was sorry that he betrayed his Lord, but he went to his "own place" just the same. With all his sorrow Jesus said, "It were better for that man if he had never been born."
There are many in the penitentiary who are sorry they committed the crime, that brought them there, but if they were out of prison and had the opportunity to commit it again and were sure they would not be found out they would do it again. "Judge," said the criminal, "if I had felt before I did it, as I do now I would not have done it." He simply felt bad that he was caught in his crime.
We would by no means imply that tears are out of place. Usually they are a good sign when a person is seeking pardon. The man who has defied the law of God and has been living for self, instead of for God and heaven ought to feel badly. If he does not, he is not genuinely penitent. We do not say that he will necessarily shed tears, but he will sorrow to think that he has rebelled against the good God; his sins will be a source of sorrow to him. He would blot out the part if he could. And yet he may have a very tender set of feelings and not fully repent. It is a sad case when people go as far as this and even weep over sin but keep right along as before. With them tears are only salt water and they soon evaporate.
3) Repentance is more than the discovery of the evil of sin. The ladies in the cars made the discovery that they were wrong and in a serious dilemma. But still they were going down East until they got off the train. They could have sat there and realized and discussed their sad condition but that would have done no good. A full realization of the case did not save them from it. They must get off the train. The sinner may have a full realization of his lost condition and the awful nature of sin and yet be no better, if he remains there. He will see how heinous is sin in the sight of God and the awful nature of the consequences of sin but that will not save him.
Solomon says, "Fools make a mock of sin." Some see their sins but jest about it. But the man who truly repents feels all this and more. He has a determination to quit sins. He has done wrong towards the God who loves him. David said, "Against thee and thee only have I sinned." And yet repentance is not complete even with this deep sense of sin.
4) Repentance is more than confession of sin. To be sure confession of sin is a part of repentance, but a man may confess his sad condition and yet continue a sinner.
The ladies we referred to might have informed every one on the train that they were going down East and that alone would not have helped the matter, although it might have helped to get information and advice as to how to get light, yet of itself alone it would have amounted to but little. The prodigal confessed his sad condition when he said, "I perish with hunger." He would
Pharaoh confessed ten times, "I have sinned," but kept on sinning. This was not repentance. Balaam said, "I have sinned," but he did not repent. Saul, the disobedient king, said, "I have sinned," but he died a sinner. Judas said, "I have sinned," but he died a guilty suicide just the same.
5) Repentance is more than restitution. It is all that and more. Zacchaeus said, "If I have taken anything from any man by false accusation, I restore unto him fourfold." God gave as one of the requirements of reconciliation with him under the old dispensation, that the wicked must "restore the pledge." We must make every thing right as far as we can with our fellow-beings.
A man on the border of our country became convicted of sin. He not only changed his mind, and felt godly sorrow for his sin but he went to the authorities and said, "I have wronged the United States government of a large sum of money. The house I live in was bought by the money I gained by smuggling. I can not longer live in a house that is not mine." He turned the house over to the government and all that he had and went to prison. After a time an appeal was made by influential men to the President of the United States and the President said, "Such a man as that is a safe man to turn loose," and he set him free.
There are many who have sought salvation and have never found it, just because they were not willing to make things right with their fellow-men. Jesus said, "If thou bring thy gift to the altar and rememberest that thy brother hath aught against thee; leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way. First be reconciled with thy brother and then come and offer thy gift." Repentance must be first towards God and then towards men.
But some one says, "What if I am not able to restore or repair the injury that I have done?" Then do the best you can under the circumstances. If you are unable to make restoration show at least willingness. Do not let this be an excuse for not doing the best you can. If the friend will then not be reconciled, you have done all that you can, and God will bless it. It is better to stand unfavorably with men than with God.
He has the power to destroy or save and men have not. Do as the prodigal did. He had squandered all. He could do nothing but confess to his father.
6) But we may do all this and yet repentance may not be complete. One thing more remains (we have already mentioned it) and that is abandonment of sin. The command of the word of God is, "Let the wicked forsake his way," and lest the moral man might have an opportunity to excuse himself, by saying, "I am not wicked, I have defrauded no one. I have kept the commandments," God goes on to say, "and the unrighteous man his thoughts." There is a thought life that goes on in the soul that may be very far away from God that needs abandonment. The purposes and motives may be in rebellion against God.
This abandonment of sin is to be total. "Break off your sins by righteousness," is the command. Not taper them off; nor leave off one today and another tomorrow, etc., but break them short off. "Cease to do evil," is the divine command. If the gates of a city are ever so well defended with one exception, the enemy can get in just as well as if there were no defense. We must abandon all sin or fail entirely in our repentance. This is the reason so many have failed.
We have known of men who came to God, asking him to save them from one sin who felt competent to save themselves from all the rest. We have for instance known men to seek God to save them from the appetite of strong drink, who seemed to suppose that was all they needed to be saved from. Hence they did not quit sins that were just as bad in the sight of God as drinking. They only reformed from one sin and that for a short time usually. Repentance is more than reformation.
The ladies might have commenced to walk towards the rear of the train and although going that way in one sense they were still going down East. So is it with mere reformation. It is not getting off the train but trying to stay on with our faces pointed the other way. Repentance gets off the wrong train and gets onto the right train and goes the other way.