3 The Tay Bridge Disaster

‎However, the message wouldnt go through because the telegraph line which ran along ‎the bridge had been broken. Thinking something terrible must have happened, the station ‎master put on his foul weather gear and took a lantern and went out into the night to see for himself.

The wind was so fierce that at times he had to crawl on the bridge to avoid being ‎blown off. He went a long distance before he made a shocking discovery. The entire ‎mid section of the Tay Bridge had disappeared. Carefully he crawled to the edge of the ‎last standing section and held his lantern over it and peered into the darkness below. ‎Somewhere down there was the train with all the people on board but all he could see ‎was the black wind-driven waves.

Seventy-five people perished on the train when the Tay Bridge collapsed. Multitudes ‎of people in todays world are in danger of perishing because they havent believed on ‎the Lord Jesus Christ.

A powerful steam engine pulled the train to the disaster on the bridge. What is the ‎driving force that is keeping so many people from hearing the gospel and believing on the ‎Lord Jesus? The answer isnt particular views of science, or false religions, or faulty ‎philosophies. Those are more like cars that are being pulled along than the driving force ‎itself. I will tell you what this driving force is. Deep down in the heart of man, in the ‎heart which is the well-spring of all his actions, he has been afflicted with a terrible ‎malady. A dreadful disease called sin has entered has entered his heart and makes him ‎rebel against his Maker.‎

Sin which takes many shapes and forms is pulling men away from God and away from ‎hearing the message of his grace. It is the awful force in the heart driving him away from ‎God into the darkness of eternal night.

In the Bible the word sin sometimes refers to acts of disobedience to Gods will. ‎Other times the word sin refers to the nature of enmity in the heart of man that ‎produces those acts of disobedience. The source is more terrible by far than any acts it ‎produces. Each one of us has committed acts of sin and is guilty before God. All have ‎sinned and come short of the glory of God. And each one of us has a sinful nature. The ‎heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked: who can know it.

The Tay Bridge Disaster 4

Not withstanding all this, God loves us, and sent his Son to be our Savior. The Father ‎sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. What does each man or woman need to do ‎because of the terrible problem of sin? They need to repent. God is not willing that any ‎should perish but that all should come to repentance. To repent means to pass the same ‎judgment on yourself that God has already passed on you. In his perfect knowledge and ‎understanding, He sees you as a ruined, lost, and undone sinner, completely unable to ‎save yourself. You must see yourself this way too. This is what true repentance means. ‎True repentance always leads to faith in The Lord Jesus for salvation. Jesus Christ alone ‎is the Great Physician that can heal the sin-sick soul. He is the Savior for mankind. There ‎is no other place or person in the entire universe to look for help for the problem of sin.

Jesus Christ is the Savior of sinners, because at the cross he was made the supreme ‎sacrifice for sins. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our ‎iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him: and with his stripes we are ‎healed. When a sinner comes to the Lord Jesus, their transgressions and iniquities are ‎gone forever, because the Lord Jesus paid the ultimate price of death for them. Through ‎the great work on the cross, sinners can find peace and healing. The peace he gives is ‎deep and lasting. No other peace in the world compares to it. Peace I leave with you, ‎the Savior said, my peace I give unto you: not as the world gives, give I unto you. The ‎healing of soul begins the moment a person trusts him for the forgiveness of sins and ‎continues until they are taken up into heaven where never again will they experience a ‎thought or wish unholy. Their hearts, completely healed, will be able to experience the ‎joys of heaven which earthly words can only begin to describe. These joys they knew in ‎part on earth but in heaven they will know them in a wonderful fullness. Wont you come ‎to the Great Physician of the human soul so that such a bright and happy eternity will be ‎yours?

The train passed on and perished in the darkness that night. Dont let yourself ‎continue to be driven by sin until you perish into everlasting darkness but come to him ‎who said, I am the light of the world: he that follows me shall not walk in darkness, but ‎shall have the light of life. Come while there is yet time.‎