Sermon #13561 Miscellaneous Notes
Title: WHAT DOES IT TAKE
TO SAVE A SINNER?
Text: 1 Peter 4:18
Subject: Salvation
Date: Tuesday Night –
Tape # V-42b
Introduction:
I hope
never to look upon the salvation of my soul with anything less than utter
astonishment. I am astonished that the Lord God would save any vile sinner, that he would condescend to take into union with his
holy, august majesty such things as he finds in the dung-heap of fallen
humanity.
As I
look over this congregation, while there are many things in each of you that I
admire as a man, I know enough about each of you to be astonished that the Lord
would save you.
But
when I think of God saving me, I am utterly overwhelmed by his amazing grace. I
take my place before him in the dust, as the very chief of sinners, because I
know by painful, bitter experience that is what I am.
“I was lost and undone, without God or His Son,
When he reached down His hand for
me.”
People
sometimes ask me, “Do you believe in miracles?” I answer, “No. I believe in
God, that God with whom all things are possible, that God with whom miracles
are an every day occurrence. You ask, ‘Do I believe in miracles?’ I am a
miracle!”
“It took a miracle to hang the world in place.
It took a miracle to put the stars in space;
But when He saved my soul, cleansed and made me whole,
It took a miracle of love and grace!”
Most people seem to think
that it is a very easy thing to be saved, that faith in the Lord Jesus Christ
is very simple. There is no sense
of astonishment, awe, and amazement among religious people with regard to
salvation because the salvation they think they have is really no big deal.
There is nothing amazing about the grace most people talk about.
Traveling back and forth, up and
down this country for the past thirty years, I have met a lot of people, most of them have been very religious people. Most
of the people I preach to are very sure they are saved. Most of them never
disturb themselves by questioning the matter. They have walked down a church
aisle, knelt at an “altar”, and said “the sinner’s
prayer.”
·
Some Because Of
Tragedy
·
Some Because Of
Fear
·
Some Because Of
Pressure - Peer Pressure - Emotional Pressure - Psychological Pressure, Etc.
They did what the preacher told
them to do. They said “the sinner’s prayer.” They said, “In believe in Jesus.”
I know many who had this experience, even as small children. They are confident
they are saved, because they followed what is called “the simple plan of
salvation.”
Some of you have had that same
experience. You profess that you are saved, because you walked that church
aisle, said that “sinner’s prayer,” and felt that unexplainable feeling of
relief when it was all over. You were talked into a profession of faith by a
slick “soul winner.” And you never question the reality of that profession.
Perhaps you do sometimes question it; but you suppress those questions, fearing
that they are satanic temptations.
Now
hear me well. Salvation is not an easy thing. It is not a simple thing
for a sinner to exercise faith in Christ. In fact, faith in Christ is,
with men, an absolute impossibility. Faith in Christ is the gift and operation
of God in us. It is not something conjured up by man’s imaginary free will, or
religious excitement. No one has ever been saved by walking a church aisle,
kneeling at an altar, or reciting “the sinner’s prayer.” If you are still
clinging to such a profession as the basis of your hope before God, I urge you
to give it up. Renounce it at once. It is a satanic delusion.
Proposition: My friend, It is not an easy thing to be saved.
I know
that in this day of mass-evangelism, easy believism, and decisional salvation,
the statement I have just made will not be popular, nor will it be quickly
received. Some of you may even become angry at hearing it. But hear it you
must. It is not an easy thing to be saved. Let’s see if the Word of God will
back me up in that statement. It is not an easy thing to be saved.
·
Matthew 19:25-26
- The Rich Young Ruler
·
Luke
If
saving faith is no more than saying a prayer, making a decision, walking an
aisle, or believing in the death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus
Christ (the historical facts), why did Judas perish? Why was Simon Magus lost?
Why did Demas die? Why was Diotriphes destroyed?
True saving faith in the Lord
Jesus Christ is such a rare thing that our Lord himself asked, “When the Son
of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?” (Lk. 18:8). The way of
truth and holiness is so plain that “wayfaring men, though fools, shall not
err therein.” Yet, because of the sin and hardness of our hearts, it is no
easy thing for us to enter into that way, and no easy thing for us to continue
in the way until we reach our everlasting home in glory.
Now,
look at 1 Peter
NOTE:
The word “scarcely” is a very poor
translation. Peter is not suggesting that God’s elect barely get into heaven,
or that we shall enter in with fear, trembling, and hesitancy. God’s saints
shall be ushered into heaven in a blaze of glory, triumphant and victorious by
his grace! The word “scarcely” would better be translated, “with
difficulty.” Peter’s meaning is this: “If the righteous are saved with
great difficulty, what shall become of the ungodly and unbelieving?”
In
the light of this text, I want to raise and answer one question in this
message. The title of my message is this: -- What does it take to save a sinner? I have nothing
new, deep, or profound to say to you tonight. But what I have
to say ought to fill your heart with gratitude, praise, worship, and
devotion. Searching the Scriptures, I have found seven things which are
absolutely indispensable in the salvation of a sinner.
·
If you would be
saved, give me your attention. Here are seven things which ought to give you
hope and encourage you to seek the Lord.
·
If you are one of
God’s ransomed ones, give me your attention. Here are seven things which ought
to fill your heart with utter, unceasing amazement, praise, and gratitude
before God.
I. The salvation of a sinner requires ELECTION AND
PREDESTINATION. It takes a work of God’s sovereign, eternal, electing
love and predestination (Eph. 1:3-6).
Salvation
has to begin with someone’s choice. The whole world says it begins and ends
with man’s choice. The Bible declares that it begins and ends with God’s
choice. Election is God’s free, sovereign, eternal choice of his people in
Christ unto salvation. Predestination is God’s wise, gracious, orderly
arrangement of all things from eternity, by which he secured the salvation of
his elect.
Ephesians 1:3-6 "Blessed be
the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all
spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: (4) According
as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy and without blame before him in love: (5) Having predestinated
us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the
good pleasure of his will, (6) To the praise of the glory of his grace,
wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved."
II.
The salvation of a sinner requires Blood Atonement. It takes a work of effectual, blood
redemption, the satisfaction of divine justice by an infinitely meritorious
Substitute – The Lord Jesus Christ (Rom.
“Without
shedding of blood is no remission.” God almighty cannot and will not save
anyone, election and predestination notwithstanding, without blood atonement.
There is no other way whereby he can be both “a just God and a Savior.” The
Son of God came into this world as our Substitute because there was no other
way for God to save his people.
Romans 3:24-26 "Being justified freely by his grace through the
redemption that is in Christ Jesus: (25) Whom God hath set forth to
be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness
for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;
(26) To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he
might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus."
Galatians
Galatians
III.
The salvation of a
sinner requires DIVINE PROVIDENCE. It takes all the work of God’s
wise, adorable, universal providence (Rom.
Romans 8:28-39 "And we know that all things work together for good to
them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
(29) For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed
to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
(30) Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he
called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.
(31) What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us,
who can be against us? (32) He that spared not his own
Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely
give us all things? (33) Who shall lay any thing to the charge of
God's elect? It is God that justifieth. (34) Who
is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea
rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right
hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. (35) Who shall
separate us from the love of Christ? shall
tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or
peril, or sword? (36) As it is written, For thy
sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the
slaughter. (37) Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors
through him that loved us. (38) For I am persuaded, that neither death,
nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor
things to come, (39) Nor height, nor depth, nor
any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is
in Christ Jesus our Lord."
Romans 11:33-36 "O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and
knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his
judgments, and his ways past finding out! (34) For who hath known the
mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor?
(35) Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him
again? (36) For of him, and through him, and to him, are all
things: to whom be glory for ever.
Amen."
Ephesians 1:11-12 "In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being
predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the
counsel of his own will: (12) That we should be to the praise of his
glory, who first trusted in Christ."
IV.
The salvation of a
sinner requires A WORK OF GOD’S IRRESISTIBLE GRACE. It takes the
infallible, irresistible grace and power of God the Holy Spirit in regeneration
and effectual calling, by which chosen, redeemed sinners are raised from the
dead and given faith in Christ (Eph. 1:17-20; Ps. 65:4).
The
work of God the Holy Spirit is as necessary to the salvation his people as
election, redemption, and providence.
By
election and predestination, we were marked out for grace and the path by which
God’s saving grace must come into our hearts was fixed.
In
redemption, Christ met all the demands of God’s law and justice, removed our
sins, and opened the way for grace to come.
In
providence, God our Savior sovereignly manipulates all the affairs of the
universe to bring his elect to the appointed time and place at which he will be
gracious to them, and prepares them to be the willing recipients of his grace.
In
regeneration, effectual calling, and conversion, God the Holy Spirit performs
the work and operation of his grace in our hearts, making chosen, redeemed
sinners willing in the day of his irresistible power to trust Christ.
Psalms 65:4 "Blessed is the man whom thou choosest, and
causest to approach unto thee, that he may dwell in thy courts: we shall
be satisfied with the goodness of thy house, even of thy holy
temple."
Psalms 110:3 "Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy
power, in the beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning: thou hast the
dew of thy youth."
Ephesians
1:17-20 "That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the
Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the
knowledge of him: (18) The eyes of your understanding being enlightened;
that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of
the glory of his inheritance in the saints, (19) And what is
the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe,
according to the working of his mighty power, (20) Which he wrought in
Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right
hand in the heavenly places."
Salvation
requires faith in Christ, not a free will, work of man, but a mighty operation
of grace. You must believe on Christ if you would be saved; but you cannot
believe unless you are saved. “He that believeth on the Son of God hath everlasting life!” Faith
in Christ is not the cause of the new birth. It is the result, the fruit, and
the evidence of it.
Ephesians 2:1-5 "And you hath
he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins: (2) Wherein in
time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the
prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of
disobedience: (3) Among whom also we all had our conversation in times
past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the
mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. (4) But
God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, (5) Even
when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye
are saved.)"
V.
The salvation of a sinner requires, because God has so
ordained it, THE PREACHING OF THE GOSPEL. It takes a man sent
from God with the gospel of your salvation (John 1:6-8; Eph.
I
do not suggest for a moment that God could not save his elect without the
instrumentality of gospel preaching. God almighty could regenerate sinners and
cause his elect to believe on his Son by the buzzing of a gnat, or without any
instrumentality at all, were that his purpose. But I am saying that the
instrumentality of gospel preaching is absolutely necessary to the salvation of
God’s elect “because it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save
them that believe.”
John 1:6-8 "There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.
(7) The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light,
that all men through him might believe. (8) He was not
that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light."
Ephesians
When
the appointed time of love comes, when the time comes when a chosen, redeemed
sinner must be saved, God will send a gospel preacher to him and send him to a
gospel preacher, if he has to turn the world upside down to do it (Isa.
43:1-7).
Isaiah 43:1-7 "But now
thus saith the LORD that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O
Israel, Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy
name; thou art mine. (2) When thou passest through the waters, I will
be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when
thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the
flame kindle upon thee. (3) For I am the LORD thy God, the Holy
One of Israel, thy Saviour: I gave
Illustrations:
Publius at Melita (Acts 28)
The Young Man At
The Clock
VI.
The salvation of a
sinner requires THE PRESERVATION OF GRACE. It takes a work of
immutable grace, preserving the called in life and grace, causing them to
persevere in faith, keeping them unto the end (Phil. 1:6).
It
takes the same grace to keep us saved as it does to save us. We are “kept by
the power of God.” And, blessed be our God, we are promised that we shall
be kept forever by the power of his grace. Our Savior says, “I give unto
them ETERNAL LIFE and they shall NEVER PERISH!”
Philippians 1:6 "Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath
begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus
Christ:"
Hear
me now, my brothers, my sisters in Christ. – Though
you are weak, Christ is strong. Though you are unstable as water, God is
faithful. Though you are tempted, he has made a way of escape for you. Though
you sin, his blood cleanses us from all sin. He will forgive. Though you fall,
he will raise you up. Our God declares, “I will depart from them.”
Though we change, he changes not. Though our love for him varies greatly, his
love for us never varies.
“The Lord has promised good to me. His Word my hope secures.
He will my strength and
portion be As long as life endures.
And when this heart and
flesh shall fail, And mortal life shall cease,
I shall possess within
the veil A life of joy and peace!”
VII.
The salvation of a
sinner requires THE RESURRECTION OF THE BODY. It takes a work of
resurrection glory, by which these bodies sown in corruption shall put on
incorruption, mortality shall put on immortality, and God’s elect shall enter
into that eternal state of bliss called “the glorious liberty of the sons of
God” (1 Thess. 4:13-18).
Romans 8:17-21 "And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and
joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may
be also glorified together. (18) For I reckon that the sufferings of
this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory
which shall be revealed in us. (19) For the earnest expectation of the
creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. (20) For the
creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who
hath subjected the same in hope, (21) Because the creature itself
also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious
liberty of the children of God."
1 Corinthians
15:51-58 "Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep,
but we shall all be changed, (52) In a moment, in the twinkling of an
eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be
raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. (53) For this corruptible
must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.
(54) So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this
mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be
brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.
(55) O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy
victory? (56) The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is
the law. (57) But thanks be to
God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. (58) Therefore,
my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work
of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the
Lord."
Illustration: The Robin’s Eggs
Application:
Let
me say just three things, and I am done.
1.
“Salvation is of the Lord!”
2 Timothy 1:9-10 "Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy
calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and
grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began, (10) But
is now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath
abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the
gospel:"
2.
This salvation, in its entirety, is found in the Lord
Jesus Christ alone (1 Cor.
1 Corinthians
1:30-31 "But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made
unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: (31) That,
according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord."
3. Since this great salvation is by grace alone, in Christ
alone, without anything you do, then there is no reason why you should not be
saved, too.
AMEN.
1 See Misc. Sermon #1460. Substantially the same message, preached at Danville on Sunday Morning (6/24/01), Rescue, CA (6/30/00), Rocky Mount, VA (10/10/99), Rock Creek Baptist Church (8/14/00), Almont, MI (7/27/00) Ross, OH 8/6/01)