need to pray with fervor and dedi cation, “Jesus, keep me near the cross.” A soldier goes out to fight our battles for us, and we greatly applaud his courage for taking our place. Someone comes forward to save a poor debtor and we look upon his substitution as a wonderful act of love. A mother may give herself for her son and the tenderness of it breaks our hearts. To become a substitutionary Redeemer, dying in our place, is the truth of the salva tion Christ offers. Jesus became our substitute, doing for us what we couldn’t do for ourselves. On our part it requires humility, confession of sin, and a request by faith. This is where many people in this sophisti cated modern age can’t grasp God’s truth. They don’t want a religion which gets under their skin. They want a religion which will leave their inner life alone, covering them with a thin veneer of respectability. Go to a church where the Gospel is being preached, and the Bible is opened to the people. If it cuts you to your heart, look up into the face of God and confess, “I need that. I see what’s wrong with me. I want my life corrected by the Holy Spirit.” Don’t go to church simply as a “duty,” or as the prestige place to go. We must have the preaching of the Bible. We must be careful that we don’t become so sophisticated and filled with such a coating of respecta bility that we bypass the only true message of the Gospel. God help the minister, who preaches anything less. We need to preach the gospel of Christ, as the early church pro claimed it. It’s disastrous if we seek comfort of mind and heart, if we’re not first concerned with moral cleans ing by Jesus Christ. We must not bypass the painful place of confes sion of sin, coming to Jesus Christ as Saviour. God help us to really live for and preach the unsearchable riches of Christ Jesus! This will al ways disturb people when it’s truly 21
“Amen, amen!” You see, this is all the Saviour’s asking: A sincere “Amen” of the trusting heart. Why don’t you believe in Christ, trusting Him as Saviour? This is the only thing that will bring you to heaven and everlasting life. Why go on treading the w i n e p r e s s alone? There’s no use trying to evade the Lord. One of these days, if Christ doesn’t disturb you enough in this life to accept Him as your Redeem er and Saviour, you’re going to be greatly disturbed. You will have to stand before Him, the Judge of all the earth. Christ wants to do some thing for you if you’ll only allow Him to. It will be the gladdest day of your life when you yield yourself to Him. of our Saviour. In this study I refer you to Acts 28:31. These early be lievers were preaching the kingdom of God, teaching those things con cerning the Lord Jesus Christ. This was in the afterglow of His resur rection. The Apostles had only one story to tell. It was the message of what God had done for man through His wonderful Son. The early Chris tians believed that the age of ful fillment, foretold by the prophets, had dawned at last. Such conviction gave power to the early church. When the church separates itself from its original source of power, it always endangers its very life. The cross was nev'er absent from the early Christians’ preaching. Paul de clared, “I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” These faithful servants stayed close to the source of Christian faith. This is what we need to do today. If we lack personal spiritual power we should know where to get it. We C hapter E ight O ne OF the most inexhaustible subjects in all the world is that
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