All Christians and sinners should understand that the whole plan is complete. They should understand that the whole of Christ—his character, his work, his atoning death, and his ever-living intercession—belongs to each and every person and simply needs to be accepted. There is a full ocean of it. There it is. You can just as well take it as not. You are invited and urged to drink, and to drink abundantly! This ocean supplies all your need. As the Scriptures say, "He is of God made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption." (1 Corinthians 1:30) What do you need? Wisdom? Here it is. Righteousness? Here it is. Sanctification? Here you have it. It is all in Christ. Can you possibly think of anything needful for your salvation, moral purity, or your usefulness that is not here in Christ? Nothing. All is provided here.

But salvation, to be real and available, must be salvation from sin. A religion that does not break the power of sin is a lie. If it does not drive out selfishness and lust, and if it does not bring about love to God and man, joy, peace, and the fruit of the Spirit, it is false and worthless. It can be of no use. That which does not bring about in us the spirit of heaven and make us godly, no matter where it comes from, or by what deception it is defended, is a lie, and if it is fled to as a refuge, it is a refuge of lies. If it does not produce a heavenly mind, expel a worldly mind, and detach us from the love of the world, it is a lie. If it does not produce in us the love required in the Scriptures, genuine love and worship of God and also love for His people—if it does not produce all those states of mind that fit the soul for heaven, then it completely fails of its purpose.

Few preachers in any age have surpassed Charles Finney in clear and well-defined views of conscience and of man’s moral convictions. Not many have distinguished the true from the false more closely or have been more skillful in putting their points clearly and prudently. Therefore, these sermons under God were full of spiritual power.

About the Author

One of the men most greatly used by God during America’s Second Great Awakening was Charles Grandison Finney. He was born in Warren, Connecticut, on August 29, 1792, and died in Oberlin, Ohio, on August 16, 1875. Charles Finney was married three times. He married Lydia Root Andrews in 1824, with whom he had six children. After Lydia died in 1847, Charles married Elizabeth Ford Atkinson, who died in 1863. In 1865, he married Rebecca Allen Rayl, who outlived him, dying in 1907. All three of Finney’s wives travelled with him as he preached. Finney was a devoted pastor, evangelist, revivalist, and abolitionist.