The Three Hour Sermon on God, Sin and Salvation

I tell you, my dear friends, there is a place called hell in the future world, where all the transgressors of the law of God shall be sent in punishment for their sins. This is an eternal truth and eternal fact.

I know there are many people, perhaps even among you tonight, who say: " Oh, I do not believe that there is any such place as hell in the future world. That simply exists in the imagination of certain religious people. Such teachings are simply used for moral purposes, for discouraging evil and encouraging good. No intelligent man nowadays believes in such things as hell and heaven in the future life. That is the old-fashioned way of thinking."

Very well, if you do not believe in the existence of the future world I will not force that belief upon you. Belief can not be forced on any man by any means. But please be assured of this, that whether you believe it or not, the fact of the existence of the future world will not be affected by your belief or unbelief. Man's belief or unbelief has nothing to do with the existence of hell. You may believe or disbelieve anything you please, but that does not change the fact. The sun which sets in the West this evening will surely rise tomorrow morning in the East. This is fact. The fact you know can not be changed by your opinion. You may dispute and deny other people's opinions as much as you please, but you can not deny the facts. A fact is indisputable. The existence of the future world is fact. You can not make or unmake it by your simple belief or unbelief. Hell and heaven will rise before you when your soul sinks below the horizon of this earthly life, just as surely as the sun will rise tomorrow morning in the eastern sky.

Be careful, then, lest when you die you be thrown into hell, the existence of which you denied in your ignorance.

Do you think that any country can be well governed without having a hell in it? Do you think our beloved country would be in such a state of peace and prosperity if she had no hell within her limits? What, then, is this hell of our country? Why, prisons are the hell of a country. Every one who has broken the law of the state shall be thrown into this hell. You know the breaking of the law of the country is not a light thing, such as a fault or a mistake which can be easily corrected. No, breaking a law of the state is rebellion against the sovereignty of the country. So it deserves the just recompense of being thrown into prison. And because we have such places as prisons in our country we can enjoy our present state of peace and safety.

Suppose we had no prisons in our country. Every one could do just as he pleased. He could kill, he could steal, or burn down other people's houses, and yet he could not be arrested or punished for his misconduct because there would be no police to arrest him and no prison to confine him in. What would be the condition of such a lawless country? Do you think we could live in peace and safety even a single day in such a country? No, no, if there is no hell in the country the whole country will become hell itself, and no one would want to live in such a country.

Just so, when you go to the next world, you will surely find a hell in that country. Every one who has violated the laws of that Kingdom in this world shall be thrown into prison in the next world. So that the Kingdom of Heaven shall not be troubled by those evil doers, and all the people of the Kingdom shall live in peace and happiness for ever. All sinners must be punished by eternal suffering.

Now this is the second fundamental truth of Christianity.

NOW we come to the third point, the last but the most important of all. This is the heart of Christianity.

I hope you will be patient a little longer and listen to me attentively because this is the most difficult part of all and I will try to explain it as clearly as I can. You have seen that the first was on God and the second on sin, and now the third is on salvation.

Salvation is the saving of man from sin and its punishment. How can men be saved? By the vicarious sacrifice of Christ upon the cross. There is no other way of salvation. Every man must be saved by believing in the power of the cross of Christ. Therefore, the doctrine of atonement through the sacrifice of Christ upon the cross is the most important doctrine of all. If you can not fully understand this central truth of Christianity you can never understand what Christianity is.

Christianity is not a mere collection of moral teachings like the works of Confucius and Mencius. It is not a mere code of ethics. It is the way of salvation. And that way does not merely lie in following the Christ as many people think, but it lies in his blood shed upon the cross. This is the very point in the Christian religion where people are apt to make a mistake. They think men are to be saved by becoming good through the teachings of Christ. They think that if they read the Bible, study its teachings and keep its commandments they will reform their character and become good and righteous men and will then be saved. In fact they think that they can be saved by their own good works through the teachings of the Bible.

But this is a great mistake. We are not to be saved by becoming good men. We must be saved in order to become good men. Good men are not going to be saved but saved men are going to become good.

We must first of all be saved by believing in the saving power of the cross of Christ, then we will be made good men by following the teachings of Christ. Salvation must come first and then it will be easy to become good. The cross first and after that the teaching.

Teachings are like nourishing food. They are very good and necessary to keep up the health of the body. But nourishing food can not take the place of medicine. Do not depend on nourishing food alone for the cure of the sick. When people get sick they call, first of all, a physician, and take medicine. And then they take nourishing food to keep them in health.

Just so, sinners are spiritually sick men. To be saved from this spiritual sickness they must send for the spiritual physician and take his saving medicine, which is belief in the cross of Christ. Then after that they will take and greatly relish his nourishing food which is the teachings and commandments of Christ.

That no one can be saved from the consequences of sin by the mere following of moral and religious teachings is very clear. In moral and religious teachings themselves there is no power to save a man from the consequences of sin. He may repent of his sin and correct his conduct as best he can, yet he can by no means undo the wrong committed against another.

Take a case in the criminal court. For example, if I kill a man tonight I shall be at once arrested and sent to a court to be tried by judges. And if I am found guilty I shall be sentenced to death. I must die for taking another man's life. That is the penalty of my offence. I must pay it myself. And now when I am put into prison to await execution I find a Bible in the prison and reading it I find the teachings of Christ about murder. I repent of my conduct and determine to correct it. " Oh," I say, " I have done wrong, I will never do it again. I will correct my conduct and will surely become a good man hereafter."

Now I appeal to the judge to pardon my offence because I have truly repented and really intend to reform my life hereafter.

Do you think the judge will pardon me because of my true repentance. Will he say, "All right, if you really repent of your sin and truly intend to reform your character, I will pardon your offence. Now go in peace to your home."

No, my friends, after the judge has once pronounced sentence of death he can by no means revoke it on such a ground as that. No matter how truly you repent of your past conduct and how sincerely you intend to reform your character hereafter, if you have already killed a man you can never undo that act of murder. You will be a murderer forever. You can never change it you can never get rid of the stain. This evil deed can never be undone. So you see, crime must receive its deserved punishment.

However, if you ask me, is there absolutely no way of saving a murderer's life, I say yes, there was in the olden time one way of saving such a murderer's life. That was by Migawari a substitute. An innocent person taking on himself the offence of the criminal and dying in his stead. For instance, in case I murdered a man and am sentenced to death, my friend offers to take my punishment and die in my place this is Migawari. Of course in the present time we have no such provision in our criminal law. No Migawari is allowed. But in the old days we had frequent cases of this substitution.

For example, the son died in his father's place, the servant died for his master, the friend for his friend, and so on. When a father was sentenced to death for a crime his son stepped in and said to the judge, " It was not my father who committed this offence, it was I, so please sentence me to death in his stead." Thus the son died in the father's stead and the father was saved. The son redeemed the father's life.

Is not that the strongest proof of a son's affection for his father? Can any one have greater love than this to lay down his life for another?

In the old days of feudalism we had frequent cases of faithful retainers dying in the lord's stead, thus redeeming their master's life with their own. This is regarded as the highest expression of loyalty to a master. These are the best examples of the two fundamental virtues of our national morality, namely, loyalty and filial piety.

Christ also said, " Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friend."

Yes, Migawari is the noblest virtue of mankind. No man can go farther than that.

Now if you look at the cross of Christ from this viewpoint you can easily understand the meaning of salvation of men through the cross of Christ. The death of Christ is the Migar wari of all mankind. He died in our stead.

As I told you before, we have all sinned. Sinners must be punished. Sin once committed can not be wiped out. It must receive its due recompense. Though you may repent of your past conduct ever so deeply and try to reform your character, your mere repentance and reformation of character can never wipe out your sin. That sin cleaves to you forever and claims its just recompense. Therefore, the only way of being saved from the consequences of your sin is by Migawari which is substitution. Some one must die in your stead. Some one must atone for your sin. Otherwise you can never be saved.

But no human being can do this for another. All men are sinners. Sinners can not save sinners. Sages or saints, they can not atone for the sins of another.

Confucius was one of the greatest sages that this world has ever produced, and he has left us many wise sayings and useful precepts. But as he was human he was also a sinner before God as we all are. So even Confucius could not atone for our sins. And even in his teachings he has refrained from speaking too freely about heaven and the future life. Because he was human and his knowledge was limited to this world.

I think Confucius was quite right and quite honest in refraining from talking about things which he did not know with certainty.

But here you might ask again: How could one man, even Christ, perform this Migawari and be a substitute for all mankind for all ages? Is it not quite unthinkable that one man could take away all the sins of all mankind from the beginning of the world unto its very end?

But listen! Christ is not a mere man. He is not merely the greatest of all sages. He is not merely the greatest of all saints. He is not simply the greatest and best man that this world has ever seen. Some people want to consider Christ as the highest type of humanity. But they are tremendously mistaken. Christ is more than man, more even than the greatest and highest man in the world. Christ is the only begotten Son of God. In fact Christ is God.

" In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. All things were made through Him; and without Him was not anything made that was made."

This whole universe was created by and through Christ. So you see the Bible teaches that Christ is very God. And this very God of heaven and earth came down to this earth which He had made and became a man and dwelt among men, in order to save men from their sins. And He taught us the truth about God and about heaven and the future life. Because He being God knows all about these things.

"No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him."

No human being can teach the whole truth about God; none but the only begotten Son of the Father.

You see now there is an infinite distance between this Son of God who knows everything in heaven and earth, and these great sages of the ancient world who refrained from talking about the unknown things of heaven. Indeed, such a difference as that between heaven and earth.

Christ not only taught us the truth about God. He also lived the very life of God upon the earth and He died the very death of sinners upon the cross. As He is God, of course there was no sin found in him. He knew no sin himself. Yet He took upon himself all our sins and was made a substitute for us and died in our place and stead. And of course He can be made the substitute for all mankind because He is Almighty God, and Almighty God must be greater than this little insignificant world of human beings. Therefore He was able to make full restitution for the sins of all mankind for all ages.

And now, as Christ has died in our stead upon the cross, we are made free from sin, just as in my last illustration of a friend's dying in my stead I was made free from the guilt of murder.

So now, all those who believe in Christ and accept His vicarious sacrifice upon the cross, will be made free from all sins and COHM- quently from all penalties of sin. Our sins are now forgiven. They are atoned for by His death upon the cross.

So now by trusting in the. efficiency of Christ's atoning sacrifice, we are saved from going to hell as the punishment for sin committed in this world, and instead of going to hell we are entitled to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven and there enjoy eternal bliss.