"The Word That Assures" | by John Walbran, Evangelist

“The Word That Assures.” 

By JOHN WALBRAN, EVANGELIST, BELFAST. 

EVANGELISTIC Services were being held in the North of Ireland in a barn that was kindly lent by a well-to-do religious farmer. The farmer was a regular attender at the meetings, and as the work went on, and men and women professed to experience the great change, he became more and more interested. Again and again he was spoken to personally about his soul’s salvation, for though a “religious” man, he did not profess to be “born again.” “I wish I could see it,” he said more than once, “for though I am persuaded that salvation by faith is Scriptural, it’s all a mystery to me.” 

One night the preacher spoke on the twelfth chapter of Exodus, dwelling first on the judgment of God on the unbelieving, of which the judgment of the first-born in Egypt was but a type. The three following passages were grouped together: “He that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him” (John 3. 36); “He that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the Name of the only begotten Son of God” (John 3. 18); “He that believeth not shall be damned” (Mark 15. 16). 

For the first time in his life the farmer woke up to the realization of the terrible fact that he stood convicted by God as an unbeliever, and that sooner or later, if he were not “converted,” he would be eternally lost. 

The evangelist, having dwelt on the sinner’s guilt and danger, spoke of God’s way of saving the first-born of Israel. Turning to the New Testament he showed that sinners were now sheltered from God’s righteous judgment against sin by hiding in Christ, the “Rock of Ages.” Then he pointed out that while the sprinkled blood on the lintels and door posts secured the safety of Israel’s first-born from the death stroke of the destroying angel, the Word of Jehovah, “When I see the blood I will pass over you,” afforded assurance of safety. By the “precious blood of Christ” the sinner is saved from coming wrath and judgment; and by the spoken word of God he is assured that he will never “perish,” or “come into condemnation” on account of his numerous and aggravated sins (John 5. 24). 

As the servant of Christ explained and expounded these precious facts the light of the glorious Gospel of God entered the farmer’s soul. “Oh, I see! I see!” he said to himself, “it’s the blood that secures, and the Word that assures.” Then he believed that the Lord Jesus died for him, and bore sin’s penalty, and he had the Word of God for it that he was “converted,” “saved,” and justified. 

Some time after this the evangelist stood by the farmer’s death bed. “Now that you are about to pass into eternity,” he said, “tell me what you are resting on.” Reminding him of the address in the barn, he replied, “I’m going into eternity resting on the blood of the Lamb of God and upon the Word of God.” See to it that you are secured from coming wrath by the sin-cleansing Blood.

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Excerpted from the book The Unsolved Problem: True Stories of Grace and Truth (London: Pickering & Inglis, 1924), edited by Alexander Marshall.