Salvation
Message Given March 29, 2009
Audio version
Ephesians 2:1 And you hath he quickened, who were dead in
trespasses and sins
Eph 2:2 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:
Eph 2:3 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.
Eph 2:4 But God, who is rich in mercy,
for his great love wherewith he loved us,
Eph 2:5 Even when we were dead in
sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, by (grace ye are saved;)
Eph
2:6 And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places
in Christ Jesus:
Eph 2:7 That in the ages to come he might show the
exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.
Eph 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves:
it is the gift of God:
Eph 2:9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.
Eph 2:10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works,
which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
God’s will
is for all of us to walk in His righteousness and that good works follow us. The
bible makes it clear good works alone cannot save us apart from faith in Jesus
Christ but once the blood of Jesus cleanses us from sin, good works will surely
follow. We bring forth the fruit that is evident in one who has partaken in the
holiness of God.
Notice that verse one said that before Christ, we are
dead in trespasses and sins. We are lost, on the way to a burning hell without
God and without hope. There is none that does good, no not one of us. We were
hopeless, in despair, our sins separating us from a Holy Just God. There was
nothing we could possibly do to save ourselves from the mess we were in.
We walked according to the prince and power of the air who is Satan himself;
we were in bondage the same as if chains were covering us from head to toe.
There was no escape. Satan could laugh at us and mock and do all he can to keep
us from obtaining salvation and help from God.
While we were in this
state of a lost condition, we were loved by that Holy God that created us. He
saw us in our sin and gave to us a way out. God wants us to have eternal life
and live forever. He wants us to be free and stay free. It is not His will that
any should perish.
Yet the law of God declares that the soul that sins,
it shall die. Death of course means eternal death in hell for all natural men
and women suffer physical death. The soul that sins shall be eternally separated
from God in a place called hell.
This was our state before God send
Jesus Christ His own Son to save us.
The law says the penalty for sin is
death. Someone had to die. Someone had to die though that didn’t die for His own
sins. Someone had to die that had not sinned but alas, there is not one in the
entire earth that was without sin. All were born with Adam’s nature. Adam
allowed sin to come into the world when He disobeyed God’s commandment. God
doesn’t make commandments for us to ignore that think that He is a good God and
will not carry out the penalty. What kind of laws would we have if there was no
penalty and that we could go ahead and break the laws of our land knowing there
was no penalty.
There is a penalty and that is why we are careful not to
go over the speed limit, pay our taxes, and abide by the law. We know there is a
penalty if we do not.
There is a penalty for disobeying the law of God
and that is death and eternal separation from God. So why are we separated from
God? Because sin separates us from God. God and sin cannot mix.
So how
do we reverse this? How do we get rid of the sin that is separating us from a
holy God? We can’t. There is no way. Only a sinless man that lives upon the
earth and then dies without committing one single sin can possibly reverse the
curse put upon us by the fall of Adam. If there was only one that curse can be
reversed. However, there was never one man that could ever do that. So then God
had to become a man and do it for us.
God became flesh and dwell among
us. God sent His Son which was the same as sending Himself. Jesus was with God
and was God from the beginning. The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are all
God that has existed eternally with no beginning and no end. This perfect Son of
God came into human flesh and became the man that could live until adulthood and
die without once committing a sin.
John 1:1 In the beginning was the
Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
John 1:2 The same was
in the beginning with God.
John 1:3 All things were made by him; and without
him was not any thing made that was made.
John 1:4 In him was life; and the
life was the light of men.
Since the penalty for sin is death, when
Jesus died, He died not deserving to die because He had no sin.
That way
all who simple believe in Him, can have the curse of eternal death removed from
them and they can be “Born Again” by the spirit of God.
When Nicodemus
asked Jesus how can a man when he is old re-enter his mother's womb and be born
again Jesus told him in John 3 ; 5-7 that he must be born of water and the
spirit to enter God's kingdom, and to marvel not when he said Ye must be born
again.
We have to be born by the spirit to be saved from sin and enter
eternal life. It is something that is done by the spirit of God. We cannot do
this by being baptized in water, doing good deeds, partaking of sacraments,
going to church, joining the church, or any other earthly thing we can think of.
Being saved from sin is only something that God can do. The spirit of God comes
into our lives and we become children of God. He has to do it. We have to allow
it, we have to believe it but He has to do the saving.
The spirit of God
comes into our lives and we are changed by the power of the Holy Spirit. Christ
comes into us by the power of the Holy Spirit. I’m not talking here of the
baptism of the Holy Spirit that gives us power for service but the baptism of
the spirit that makes us part of the body of Christ and causes us to have
eternal life. We receive the spirit when we come to Christ and He cleanses us
from sin, there is no doubt about that because without the spirit of God we do
not belong to Him.
This salvation is for men, children and women:
You know that God doesn’t leave out women.
Lets turn to John chapter
4
John 4:1 When therefore the Lord knew how the Pharisees had heard that
Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John,
John 4:2 (Though Jesus
himself baptized not, but his disciples,)
John 4:3 He left Judea, and
departed again into Galilee.
John 4:4 And he must needs go through Samaria.
John 4:5 Then cometh he to a city of Samaria, which is called Sychar, near
to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph.
John 4:6 Now
Jacob's well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat
thus on the well: and it was about the sixth hour.
John 4:7 There cometh a
woman of Samaria to draw water: Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink.
John
4:8 (For his disciples were gone away unto the city to buy meat.)
John 4:9
Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew,
askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings
with the Samaritans.
Joh 4:10 Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou
knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink;
thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.
Joh 4:11 The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the
well is deep: from whence then hast thou that living water?
Joh 4:12 Art
thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof
himself, and his children, and his cattle?
Joh 4:13 Jesus answered and said
unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again:
Joh 4:14 But
whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but
the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up
into everlasting life.
Joh 4:15 The woman saith unto him, Sir, give me this
water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw.
Joh 4:16 Jesus saith
unto her, Go, call thy husband, and come hither.
Joh 4:17 The woman answered
and said, I have no husband. Jesus said unto her, Thou hast well said, I have no
husband:
Joh 4:18 For thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast
is not thy husband: in that saidst thou truly.
Joh 4:19 The woman saith unto
him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet.
Joh 4:20 Our fathers worshiped
in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to
worship.
Joh 4:21 Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh,
when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the
Father.
Joh 4:22 Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for
salvation is of the Jews.
Joh 4:23 But the hour cometh, and now is, when the
true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father
seeketh such to worship him.
Joh 4:24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship
him must worship him in spirit and in truth.
Joh 4:25 The woman saith unto
him, I know that Messiah cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, he
will tell us all things.
Joh 4:26 Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto
thee am he.
Jesus took the time out of His busy schedule to see this one
woman. I believe He send His disciples to town on purpose so that He could save
this one lone woman. Of course we know that this woman in turn quickly went to
the men in town and shared what she had learned to the men, but I believe God
would have saved this one, even if no one else had believed.
From
Nicodemus we learned of the New birth, now we hear the same salvation called the
living water. Remember Jesus said we must be born of water and of the spirit.
The living water is another name for being born again of the spirit. It takes
the Spirit of God entering into our lives to make us right with God.
First of all the blood of Jesus has to cover our sins and then the Holy Spirit
brings us the new birth.
In the Old Testament it says without the
shedding of blood there is no remission of sins. Abel knew that when He offered
a sacrifice that pointed to the one to come that would die for sins. All Old
Testament sacrifices pointed to the one that was to come to die for sins and
make the way for us to be cleansed from sin.
Remember Jesus didn’t come
to save us in our sins but He came to save us from our sins. Why would He die
such a horrible death and shed His blood just so we can claim salvation and
return to the sin He saves us from?
He saves us from sin and then covers
us with His righteousness, gives us the living water of the Holy Spirit and we
are born again by the same spirit so that we become new creatures in Christ
Jesus. Sin is bondage, slavery, misery. He came to get us out of the stuff that
is separating us from God. Saving faith gets us out of sin and reunites us with
God the Father. Remember sin is separating us from God. Jesus came to redeem us
back to God and take away our sin.
Now we become His workmanship. Now we
are a new creation made for good works. We don’t do good works to be saved, we
do good works because we are saved.
Romans 10: 9
That if thou shalt
confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in
thine heart that
God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
We cannot confess
Jesus with our mouth and not believe in our hearts to be saved. We can’t believe
in our hearts and not confess with our mouths and be saved.
To believe
in Jesus means to believe that He died for our sins, believe that He rose from
the dead and believe that He meant it when He said, “Go and sin no more.”
To believe in something means to partake of, to become part of, to accept.
Joh 7:38 He that believeth on me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his
belly shall flow rivers of living water.
Joh 14:23 Jesus answered and
said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love
him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.
Joh 1:12
But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God,
even to them that believe on his name:
Joh 1:13 Which were born, not of
blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
Joh 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son,
that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Joh 3:17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but
that the world through him might be saved.
Joh 3:18 He that believeth on him
is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he
hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
So why am
I preaching the gospel this morning?
Because we tend to forget the
basics. We tend to forget the simple message of the gospel that saves the soul
from eternal death. We need to be constantly reminded of the price that was paid
for our salvation and the seriousness it is not to depart from this way of
eternal life.
We need to be reminded of these things just in case
someone should ask us what must they do to be saved.
What would we
answer them?
Would we say, go to church?
Would we say, be a good person?
Would we say, I’m not sure?
It wouldn’t hurt us to read and study the
words about salvation so that in case someone asks us, we can point them to the
gospel of Jesus Christ.
It is God’s greatest gift.
Dorna J Chambers