FAITH AND

ACCEPTANCE

July 16, 2021

As your conscience has been quickened by the Holy Spirit, you have seen
something of the evil of sin, of its power, its guilt, its woe; and you look upon
it with abhorrence. You feel that sin has separated you from God, that you are
in bondage to the power of evil. The more you struggle to escape, the more
you realize your helplessness. Your motives are impure; your heart is unclean.
You see that your life has been filled with selfishness and sin. You long to be
forgiven, to be cleansed, to be set free. Harmony with God, likeness to Him—
what can you do to obtain it?

It is peace that you need—Heaven's forgiveness and peace

and love in the soul. Money cannot buy it, intellect cannot
procure it, wisdom cannot attain to it; you can never hope,
by your own efforts, to secure it. But God offers it to you as a
How To Believe
gift, "without money and without price." Isaiah 55:1. It is
yours if you will but reach out your hand and grasp it. The According To His Will
Lord says, "Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as Claim The Blessing Now
white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall
be as wool." Isaiah 1:18. "A new heart also will I give you, How He Deals With us
and a new spirit will I put within you." Ezekiel 36:26. No Excuse For Doubt
 HOW TO BELIEVE
Jesus saith unto him, Rise, take up thy bed, and
walk. (John 5:8 KJV)

From the simple Bible account of how Jesus healed the sick, we may
learn something about how to believe in Him for the forgiveness of
sins. Let us turn to the story of the paralytic at Bethesda. The poor
sufferer was helpless; he had not used his limbs for thirty-eight years.
Yet Jesus bade him, "Rise, take up thy bed, and walk." The sick man
might have said, "Lord, if Thou wilt make me whole, I will obey Thy
word." But, no, he believed Christ's word, believed that he was made
whole, and he made the effort at once; he willed to walk, and he did
walk. He acted on the word of Christ, and God gave the power. He was
made whole. [p. 51]
In like manner you are a sinner. You cannot atone for your past sins; you cannot change your heart and make
yourself holy. But God promises to do all this for you through Christ. You believe that promise. You confess your
sins and give yourself to God. You will to serve Him. Just as surely as you do this, God will fulfill His word to
you. If you believe the promise,—believe that you are forgiven and cleansed,—God supplies the fact; you are
made whole, just as Christ gave the paralytic power to walk when the man believed that he was healed. It is so if
you believe
Do not wait it.
to feel that you are made whole, but say, "I believe it; it is so, not because I feel it, but because God has
promised."
 ACCORDING TO HIS WILL
“Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe
that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.” (Mark 11:24 KJV)
There is a condition to this promise—that we pray according to the will of
God. But it is the will of God to cleanse us from sin, to make us His children,
and to enable us to live a holy life. So we may ask for these blessings, and
believe that we receive them, and thank God that we have received them. It is
our privilege to go to Jesus and be cleansed, and to stand before the law
without shame or remorse. "There is therefore now no condemnation to them
which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit."
Romans 8:1.you are not your own; you are bought with a price. "Ye were not
Henceforth
redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold;... but with the precious
blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and [p. 52] without spot." 1 Peter
1:18, 19. Through this simple act of believing God, the Holy Spirit has begotten
a new life in your heart. You are as a child born into the family of God, and He
loves you as He loves His Son.

Now that you have given yourself to Jesus, do not draw back, do not take yourself away from Him, but day by day say,
"I am Christ's; I have given myself to Him;" and ask Him to give you His Spirit and keep you by His grace. As it is by
giving yourself to God, and believing Him, that you become His child, so you are to live in Him. The apostle says, "As
ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him." Colossians 2:6.
 CLAIM THE BLESSINGS NOW
“Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto
the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.”
(Isaiah 55:7 KJV)
Some seem to feel that they must be on probation, and must prove to the Lord that they are reformed, before they can
claim His blessing. But they may claim the blessing of God even now. They must have His grace, the Spirit of Christ, to
help their infirmities, or they cannot resist evil. Jesus loves to have us come to Him just as we are, sinful, helpless,
dependent. We may come with all our weakness, our folly, our sinfulness, and fall at His feet in penitence. It is His glory
to encircle us in the arms of His love and to bind up our wounds, to cleanse us from all impurity.
Here is where thousands fail; they do not believe that Jesus pardons them personally, individually. They do not take God
at His word. It is the privilege of all who comply with the conditions to know for themselves that pardon is freely
extended for every sin. Put away the suspicion that God's promises are not meant for you. They are for every [p. 53]
repentant transgressor. Strength and grace have been provided through Christ to be brought by ministering angels to
every believing soul. None are so sinful that they cannot find strength, purity, and righteousness in Jesus, who died for
them. He is waiting to strip them of their garments stained and polluted with sin, and to put upon them the white robes
of righteousness; He bids them live and not die.
God does not deal with us as finite men deal with one another. His thoughts are thoughts of mercy, love, and tenderest
compassion. He says, "Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the
Lord, and He will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon." "I have blotted out, as a thick
cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins." Isaiah 55:7; 44:22.
 HOW HE DEALS WITH US
For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord GOD: wherefore
turn yourselves, and live ye. (Ezekiel 18:32 KJV)

Satan is ready to steal away the blessed assurances of God. He desires to take every glimmer of
hope and every ray of light from the soul; but you must not permit him to do this. Do not give
ear to the tempter, but say, "Jesus has died that I might live. He loves me, and wills not that I
should perish. I have a compassionate heavenly Father; and although I have abused His love,
though the blessings He has given me have been squandered, I will arise, and go to my Father,
and say, 'I have sinned against heaven, and before Thee, and am no more worthy to be called
Thy son: make me as one of Thy hired servants.'" The parable tells you how [p. 54] the
wanderer will be received: "When he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had
compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him." Luke 15:18-20.

But even this parable, tender and touching as it is, comes short of expressing the infinite
compassion of the heavenly Father. The Lord declares by His prophet, "I have loved thee
with an everlasting love: therefore with loving-kindness have I drawn thee." Jeremiah 31:3.
While the sinner is yet far from the Father's house, wasting his substance in a strange
country, the Father's heart is yearning over him; and every longing awakened in the soul to
return to God is but the tender pleading of His Spirit, wooing, entreating, drawing the
wanderer to his Father's heart of love.
 NO EXCUSE FOR DOUBT Look up, you that are doubting and trembling;
[p. 55] for Jesus lives to make intercession for
“In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness us. Thank God for the gift of His dear Son and
of sins, according to the riches of his grace;” pray that He may not have died for you in vain.
(Ephesians 1:7 KJV) The Spirit invites you today. Come with your
With the rich promises of the Bible before you, can you give place to whole heart to Jesus, and you may claim His
doubt? Can you believe that when the poor sinner longs to return, longs to blessing.
forsake his sins, the Lord sternly withholds him from coming to His feet in As you read the promises, remember they are
repentance? Away with such thoughts! Nothing can hurt your own soul the expression of unutterable love and pity. The
more than to entertain such a conception of our heavenly Father. He hates great heart of Infinite Love is drawn toward the
sin, but He loves the sinner, and He gave Himself in the person of Christ, sinner with boundless compassion. "We have
that all who would might be saved and have eternal blessedness in the redemption through His blood, the forgiveness
kingdom of glory. What stronger or more tender language could have been of sins." Ephesians 1:7. Yes, only believe that
employed than He has chosen in which to express His love toward us? He God is your helper. He wants to restore His
declares, "Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have moral image in man. As you draw near to Him
compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not with confession and repentance, He will draw
forget thee." Isaiah 49:15. near to you with mercy and forgiveness.
One is “complete trust or confidence in
someone or something.” Then there is the
religious side of faith: “Strong belief in God or
in the doctrines of a religion, based on
spiritual apprehension rather than truth.”
Acceptance is about receiving or consenting to
receive something being offered.
You have confessed your sins and put them
away in heart. You have resolved to give
yourself to God. Now ask Him to wash away
your sins and give you a new heart. Then
believe that He does this because He has
promised.