Spurgeon: October PM
* 10/05/PM
"He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved."
--Mark 16:16
Mr. MacDonald asked the inhabitants of the island of St.
Kilda how a man must be saved. An old man replied, "We shall be
saved if we repent, and forsake our sins, and turn to God."
"Yes," said a middle-aged female, "and with a true heart too."
"Ay," rejoined a third, "and with prayer"; and, added a fourth,
"It must be the prayer of the heart." "And we must be diligent
too," said a fifth, "in keeping the commandments." Thus, each
having contributed his mite, feeling that a very decent creed
had been made up, they all looked and listened for the
preacher's approbation, but they had aroused his deepest pity.
The carnal mind always maps out for itself a way in which self
can work and become great, but the Lord's way is quite the
reverse. Believing and being baptized are no matters of merit to
be gloried in--they are so simple that boasting is excluded, and
free grace bears the palm. It may be that the reader is
unsaved--what is the reason? Do you think the way of salvation
as laid down in the text to be dubious? How can that be when God
has pledged His own word for its certainty? Do you think it too
easy? Why, then, do you not attend to it? Its ease leaves those
without excuse who neglect it. To believe is simply to trust, to
depend, to rely upon Christ Jesus. To be baptized is to submit
to the ordinance which our Lord fulfilled at Jordan, to which
the converted ones submitted at Pentecost, to which the jailer
yielded obedience the very night of his conversion. The outward
sign saves not, but it sets forth to us our death, burial, and
resurrection with Jesus, and, like the Lord's Supper, is not to
be neglected. Reader, do you believe in Jesus? Then, dear
friend, dismiss your fears, you shall be saved. Are you still an
unbeliever, then remember there is but one door, and if you will
not enter by it you will perish in your sins.