S. The Words of Salvation

THE WORDS OF SALVATION Dr. W. A. Criswell Acts 20:21 02-21-54 b In the twentieth chapter of the Book of Acts, and the title of the sermon tonight is THE WORDS OF SALVATION. There are two and you find them in Acts 20:21. Paul-in describing his ministries in the city of Ephesus, which was most effective of all of the ministries of the great missionary-Paul, in describing it said, "I have taught ye publicly, and from house to house, testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks"-those two words-“metanoian toward God, and pistin toward our Lord Jesus Christ" [Acts 20:20-21]-translated, "testifying to the Jews and to the Greeks, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ." You find those two same words used in the description of the ministry of the Lord Jesus-“and Jesus came preaching, saying, Repent ye, and believe the gospel”; “the time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel" [Mark 1:14-15]. Repentance and faith-the words of salvation.

Now, in the providences of life, words lose their edge; they lose their meaning; they lose their connotation. By much repetition, by much saying, by much repeating, they become redundant and meaningless and worn out. For example, there is not a schoolboy here that has not read of the storming of the fields in the French Revolution. In those days, an aristocracy oppressed the people, and they had three great words-"Liberty, Equality and Fraternity." That was the cry of those three words you remember when they stormed the Bastille. They overthrew the aristocracy and the kingdom of France, and they set up a Republic. Those were fighting words in those days. And I would like to see some body today get enthusiastic about “Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity.” They were much used; and they went to war over them; but today their much repetition through the years since has caused the words to lose their cutting edge, and they mean practically nothing to us today. And nobody is going out here to fight for those three words.

There is another thing that happens to words. They become twisted and misinterpreted and they lose their original significance. For example, the word baptizo-anglicized "baptized." That was just a plain, ordinary Greek word that a housewife used. When she washed her dishes, she stuck them in the water and baptized them-just an ordinary Greek word. When you wash your feet, you put your feet in a bowl or a pan or a stone jar-that was a Jewish ceremonial-and you baptized your foot; you stuck it in the water. It was just an ordinary Greek word used every day. But, as time went on the Greek word baptizo, which meant to "submerge, to dip"; why it was pulled out and it was given a sacramental meaning-until now “baptize” is an entrance into the kingdom of God in most of the face of the world. It has a priestly connotation, and it means an entrance into glory-baptize. I can show you an instance of that today that to me is horrifying. For thousands of years, "democracy," "people’s government," and "peace," have meant a certain thing. Through the ages, ever since the Greeks used those words to refer to the democracy of the Athenians. And by day and by night, over radio in all of their publications, the Soviet government- both in the orbit of Russia and in Red China-use those words "peace" and "people’s government" and "democracy" in an abominable and unspeakable way blaring out over the radio; publishing it out in all of their releases. "Peace" was a terrible peace and all of the time preparing for war. What you can do for words. Words twisted about of their connotation and they may mean something different altogether.

Now, I want to say the same thing about this thing of becoming a Christian and being saved. The words of salvation-"repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ." When those words were used from the lips of Jesus, from the lips of the Apostle Paul, they are plain, simple words and any body could understand them. Any body could follow them. Any body could respond to them. They were plain, simple, ordinary words. How to become a Christian and how to become saved. And I want you to know today, brother, it is a devious theological process, this thing of explaining the entrance into the kingdom of God. Why, you have to go to the seminary and get a theological degree for a man to stand up and adequately explain to other fellow how to be saved. And we have invested it with all kinds of mysterious things. "Brother, don’t you go down that aisle. Don’t you give that preacher your hand. Man, there are some mysterious things about becoming a Christian. And you do not understand them and you had better see first what you are doing before you get into all of that holy ecclesiasticism." And my soul, and my life, we so clutter it up with our hold on theology and our speaking and our sermons and sermons and sermons until a man is lost beneath the redundancy of the very words we use when we call a man to simple repentance and to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ-the words of salvation.

Now for a moment, I want you to look at those words as they are used in the Bible. First "repentance," the word "repentance"; what does that mean? -repentance? When a man repents, what does he do and what happens to him when he repents? What is a thing that a man does when he repents? All right. I said it is just an ordinary word, used in every day language, and it had one meaning. Now, you listen to it. It was taken out of the Bible. Jesus said, "The men of Nineveh shall rise in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and, behold, a greater than Jonah is here" [Mat 12:41]. There is that word. "They repented at the preaching of Jonah." Well, you turn back here to the third chapter of Jonah, you will find out what those people did and that is repentance. Here is what they did. Jonah came into the city of Nineveh after a three day’s journey and he began to say, "Yet forty days and the Nineveh will be destroyed" [Jon 3:4]. Forty more days to live; forty more days to get right with God; forty more days and God shall destroy and overthrow Nineveh. Well, the king heard it. And the king’s horsemen heard it. And the man on the street heard it. And the wife in the house heard it. And every body heard it. It spread like wildfire. And the king, instead of saying, "Ha"; instead of passing it by, the king stopped and he heeded, and he took off his robes, and he stepped down out of his robes, and he put sackcloth on, and he sat in ashes and he caused the decree to be published throughout the city-that every man would turn from his ways and look to God and maybe God would be merciful and save the city. And the Lord repented. That is what the Lord says here. "And the Lord repented himself."

Well, I thought repentance was "mourn for sin." Oh, oh, oh; there is nothing in it. There is nothing in it to be mourned. There is my word against you lugubriously. I do not know of a better word to describe it. I held a revival meeting one time and it was out there in Kentucky, and they had this inane, senseless, silly, crazy doctrine that before a man could be saved, he had to mourn over his sins for a certain period of time; and they call that "true repentance"-true repentance. Well, I am just talking to you out of the Book. It says here, "and God repented him"; and God repented Him, and He did not do it. He did not destroy Nineveh because Nineveh had repented-Nineveh repented. And whatever that was, that was repentance.

All right, look at it once again, just once again. Now, you look at this. This is from the Word of the Lord Jesus-"What think ye?" said the Lord, "A certain man has two sons; and he came to the first, and said, Son, go work today at my business [vineyard]. And he answered and said, I will not” [Mat 21:28-29]. -Yeah, sit down there with the department. Sit down there. He said this morning, we are all going to sit down over there, all of us together. Well, he has got offspring sitting way up in the balcony; that is it- "What think ye?" That is what the Lord is talking about-“What think ye?” That is what He is talking about-What do you think about that? A certain man had two sons; and he came to the first and said, Go work today in my vineyard.

He answered and said, I will not: but afterward he repented, and went.

-There is that word again; “but afterward he repented, and went”- And he came to the second, and said likewise. And he said, Yes, sir, I will go: but did not go.

Now, which one of them did the father’s will? They said, the first,-the one who repented-Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily I say unto you, That the publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you. For John came unto you in the way of righteousness, and ye believed Him not: but the publicans and the harlots believed him: and ye, when you had seen it, repented not afterward, that ye might believe him [Mat 21:28-32].

Now, that is repentance. This boy said, "I will not do it," and then he came and said, "Yes, sir, I will." Now, that is repentance; that is repentance.

All right, may I apply it to us? May I apply it to us? Here is a fellow-"I was a pacifist; I was a pacifist. I did not believe in arms for the defense of my country, but I have changed my mind. I am not a pacifist any longer, I believe in defending our country." That is repentance; that is repentance. "I used to be a pacifist, but I am not a pacifist any more. I have changed my mind. I have turned around." All right, take another one. Here is a fellow, and I am talking about people I know who said these things to me, "I used to be a wimp. I used to believe in legalizing liquor. I used to believe in doing it on every corner. But I have changed my mind. I am against it now. I have turned around." That is repentance; that is repentance. I can think of another man-"I used to be a gambler." And he said, "One day I saw a ragged boy, underfed and undernourished going to school with a little bitty lunch basket in his hand, and nothing in that basket for him to eat." He said, "The night before, I had gambled with that boy’s father and I had won every thing that the father had." And he says, "When I saw that boy, ragged and hungry, going to school with that little bitty lunch basket in his hand," he said, "I said I will never gamble again; never again. That is repentance; I have changed my mind. I have turned around. I am going to do something else." That is repentance. Coach, here is a boy going to Texas University. He comes to see you. He says, "Listen, coach, I am not going to Texas University. I am going to SMU, and play on that Baptist [*] team out there at SMU." That is repentance. Yes, sir. "I have changed my mind." Turn him around. I have turned him around.

Now a man such as Paul would describe that here in the twentieth chapter of the Book of Acts. He pled with them “repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.” Now, let us take it back to his day what would that mean when Paul uses there? Well, this is what it would mean. There would stand up in the congregation in the middle of the church at Ephesus and one man would say, "I used daily to go up to the great temple of Diana. And I used to bow down and worship at the shrine of Diana. But today, I am bowing a knee to the Lord Jesus Christ. I have changed." That is repentance. "I have changed. I have turned around to the Lord." All right, take another fellow. You know, all of those people were idol worshipers in the days of Paul. There were many, many learned intellectuals, and they were mostly atheists. They were Greek intellectuals. They were Greek scholars. They were learned people-very learned. And some of them were sophists. And they went around and talked about Greek learning-cultural developments, oratory and rhetoric. And they were called sophists and they were everywhere. I can see a sophist standing up in the middle of that congregation there in Ephesus and saying, "I used to be an atheist-used to be an atheist. I used to go all over the country teaching sophistry to the people, using those philosophical terms and passages that the Greeks so greatly loved. I am not a sophist any more and I am not a Greek philosopher any more. I do not believe it any more. I am a humble believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. I have changed that. I have turned around."

Now, let us apply it to us. Let us apply it to us today. Here is a little boy. Here is Jesse, fooling around this church for a generation-just once in a while drop in; just once in a while he would drop in; just once in a while in his life here. Just once in a while he would drop in. I went down there to the plant to see him, and I cornered him where the machinery was-a great big wheel going round and round. I talked to him a little while. I got him to go into the little office and I sat down by his side and I talked to him about the Lord, and about putting his life in the church, and about being here, and about coming and about raising up those children-five of them now, in the love and nurture of the Lord. And there was a day, he came down the aisle and took me by the hand and said, "Preacher, here I am. I have decided for the Lord and the church and I want to be baptized." That is repentance: Here I am. I have been passing it by. I have been passing it by. I have been going down the way. I am allowing other things to come in and interfere, but preacher, from now on, count me in. I am with you. Here I am, and here I come. Heretofore, I have been saying no to my wife, and no to the preacher, and no to the appeal. I have been out there on the outside. I am not going to be out there any more. Preacher, here I am. Here I am and here is my hand." That is repentance and turning around. Turning around; turning around; turning around-a great change. And he comes up and gives a commitment. And in the things you love, and in the things which you give your energy for your faith. "I am turning around, Preacher; heretofore, I have passed it by, but here I am coming to you and walking by your side." That is the faith.

All right, now we need to go to the second word-“repentance toward God, and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ." All right, we have that word faith now. Repentance is a turning to God-the world? No, sir; its cause? No, sir, not any more. Looking to God; facing toward God; I have been out there, but not any more. I have been enmeshed in it; not any more. I have been serving the devil; not any more. I have been walking his way, not any more. "I am facing up to God. Now I am walking toward Him. I have turned around. I am in His church. I am with His people." That is repentance-looking to God. And what is that thing “trust Me"? "Repentance toward, God, and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ." Faith, now what is that? We have a whole chapter illustrated. Here in the eleventh chapter of the Book of Hebrews, "By faith Noah-by faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen of yet, moved with fear, and prepared an ark for the saving of his house" [Heb 11:7]. Why it was a hundred and twenty years before the flood came, when God said to Noah He was going to destroy the world by water. Do you know what Noah did? For one hundred and twenty years-for a hundred and twenty years, he was hammering and sawing. He and his three boys began to build an ark a thousand miles away from any water big enough to float it. Now, that is faith. The skies were clear. The day was fine. And the neighbors all laughed at Noah. But God said one hundred and twenty years and the world will be destroyed by flood-by water. And Noah believed God. That is faith. Noah believed God. The next verse, "By faith Abraham" [Heb 11:8]-and then you have a long discussion of the faith of the Abraham-what it is to trust in God. Look at Him. God came to Abraham and said to him, "Abraham, I am going to give you a country." And Abraham said, "Where is that country?" And God said, "I am not going to tell you. I am not going to tell you; you just go out and I will direct you, Abraham." And Abraham got up and left, and he did not know where he was going-he did not know where he was going. And when he got there, he never owned a piece of it. In his old age, he bought a cave in which to bury Sarah, his wife. That is the only thing that he had. But God said, "I will give it to you and your family for ever." And he left, not knowing whither he went-just trusting God. And then he gives a second instance there in the twelfth verse-eleventh and twelfth verses. God said to Abraham, "Out of thy loins, out of the womb of Sarah, you are going to have a boy. And in him will all of the families of the world be blessed." Old Abraham got to be a hundred years old, and Sarah his wife got to be ninety years old. Did you ever see a woman ninety years old have a baby? In-you never did, nor did any body else-nor did anybody else. And one day, Abraham complained to God and said, "You promised me to this child. I am a hundred years old. My wife is ninety years old and there’s no child born yet." And you know what God did? God took Abraham out under the stars of the sky and said, "You look at the firmament. Can you number the stars?" And Abraham said, "No, I cannot count them all." And God said, "So shall thy seed be.” You are going to have a child, born out of the womb of Sarah, your wife. And that child will be the father of a nation who can number like the stars of the sky. [Gen 15:1-5]. And Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness [Gen 15:6]. He trusted in the Lord-faith.

All right, here is one other. When the boy, in the eleventh chapter of the Book of Hebrews. God came to Abraham and said, "You take this boy-about thirteen years old-and you offer him up as a sacrifice to Me." So Abraham took the boy, Isaac-"laugher," and the joy and the heart and home and family. He took the little boy Isaac. On Mount Moriah he bound the boy, laid him as a sacrifice-as an offering for God. And here is what the Book says: "Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead" [Heb 11:19]. God said, "In this boy-in this boy, shall thy seed and thy name and thy generations be called." And when Abraham lifted up that knife to plunge it into the boy at God’s command, the Bible says Abraham believed that God would raise the boy from the dead. If he did it, God would raise him from the dead. That is faith. That is faith-just trusting God for it; just trusting God for it. Look to God for it. Just believing in God-that is faith. That is faith.

Now, in a feeble, poor way, may I apply that to my soul. I am going to take myself. There is no need for me to be up here talking to you about faith. If I haven’t exercised it myself, I ought not to speak of it. Trusting God for it; trusting God for it. As a young fellow, when I was out there where I was preaching out there; where I was preaching at the Pecan Grove Baptist Church. I was seventeen years old when I first went out there to preach-seventeen years old. And I stayed there-I was called soon after that-I stayed there until I went away to the Southern Seminary in Kentucky. And as I was out there, I got down there on my knees one day. I got down on my knees, and I said something to God. This is what I said, "Lord, when I stand up to preach, help me Lord to preach with just an open book in my hand. That is all. No manuscript and no notes; just stand up there and preach. Lord, you help me." It scared me to death-scared me to death. Well, what if you forget? What if you forget? What if it goes out of your mind? What do you do? I preach at these evangelistic conferences, any number-I could not tell you the number of preachers that come around and say to me-once in a while I quote poetry by the yard in those addresses, those special addresses, and go through any number of things-and they come around and say to me, "Where do you put all of that? We have looked and there is no manuscript any where? They sit in the balcony and there are no notes any where. How did you do that? How do you do that?" It scared me to death when I started out. You realize I have been preaching to you for ten solid years, almost-it is like but a few months. Now every Sunday morning, every Sunday night, and you have never seen me yet stand up here with a manuscript or any notes. You never are going to either. You are not going to. And I stand up here with this book in my hand-and I study hard as I prepare this message-and I stand up here and I preach and I try not to duplicate what I have said and what I have done. I try to have a new message every Sunday morning and every Sunday night. I have settled that back there on my knees. "Dear God, I am going to trust You for it. Let my mind think when I stand up; that it will be clear, and that I won’t stumble or stagger or forget. And I am depending on You, Lord, I am trusting You for it." That has been twenty-five years ago-something like that. And the Lord has never failed me one time. Not one time. I have never yet forgotten. Once in a while, I may stagger and stumble and hesitate, mostly because my mind works a lot faster than my mouth is able to talk. But the Lord has never let me down. He never has. He never has.

All right, another thing-just trusting God for it. Every once in a while, I go out and hold a revival meeting. Now, I am a pastor and not an evangelist; and I cannot stay at a church but just about one Sunday. So I build toward one great appeal on that one Sunday. And our people, we pray and we work for that one great appeal on Sunday. Did you ever think what if nobody came? What if nobody responded? Why, you never saw such a colossal failure-such a washout in your life. You pray and work toward that hour on Sunday and what if nobody came? What if nobody came?