Salvation through the Word

Turn your Bibles, please, to Matthew chapter 22 and verse number 29. The 29th verse in the 22nd chapter of Matthew's Gospel, please. Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God.

John's Gospel, please, chapter 10. John chapter 10 and verse 35. 35th verse, 10th chapter, the Gospel of John, please.

If he called them gods unto whom the word of God came, and here's the particular phrase that I wanted, and the Scripture cannot be broken. The Book of Acts, please, chapter 17 and verse number 2. Acts 17 and 2. And Paul, as his manner was, went unto them, and three Sabbath days reasoned with them out of the Scriptures. John's Gospel, chapter 3. Three more verses, please.

John chapter 3. Words of Nicodemus. Words told to Nicodemus. Verse number 3. Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, or truly, truly, or it must be so, it must be so, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

Verse 7. Marvel not that I said unto thee, ye, you and I, must be born again. The Book of Acts, please. Chapter 4 and verse number 12.

Verse 12 of chapter 4 of the Book of Acts, please. Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none other name given among men whereby we must be saved. Chapter 16.

A jail scene, Paul and Silas, and a tremendous question asked. Chapter 16 and verse number 30. And he brought them out and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, thou shalt be saved in thy house.

And they spake unto him the word of the Lord and to all that were in his house. Now we know the Lord will bless the reading of the word of God. What's the greatest tragedy in life? There are many tragedies in life, many difficulties in life, many circumstances that occur in the journey of life, and we say what a terrible tragedy.

I want to suggest that the greatest tragedy of all tragedies in the journey of life is to leave this scene without the Lord Jesus as your Savior and to end up in the awful place called hell. And the reason it's a tragedy is it need not be. There is not one sinner that the Lord cannot save, and there is not one sinner that the Lord does not want to save.

And so I'm excited this afternoon for a few moments' time to be able to open the word of God, and we attempt to tell you from the word of God. I've not come to tell you what I think. I've not come... Others have told me what to tell you, but we want to open the unerring unword of God to find out from God himself how we can be right with God, to find out from God himself how we can be saved and how we can be cleansed and how we can have pardon, and at the end of life's journey, to forever be with the Lord.

Matthew 22, we read, ye do err. You know not the Scriptures. There are many that you and I know that err, that are not in Christ.

It's not well with their soul, and heaven's not their home. And the entrance of the word of God will give light, and the entrance of the word of God will show us what's right and show us what's wrong and point to us that we are born with a piercing, pulsing problem, and that's the problem of sin. We might want to say somebody else is sinned, but until we're going to address it ourselves, I have sinned, and I need a Savior.

We're far, far from the kingdom. We read in John's gospel that the Scripture cannot be broken. The word of God, the unerring, unalterable word of God will never change.

And what God is looking for in anyone's life, before they come to know him, whom to know is life eternal, he's looking for a broken-hearted sinner that longs to have the chains of sin snapped and longs to have peace and pardon through the Lord Jesus Christ. I was driving on I-5, and that interstate wouldn't mean much to many here, but it goes along the coast from California all the way up to Canada. And I was just above the Seattle area when all of a sudden I watched the southbound lanes coming to a close.

I watched the truck with the blinking sign, incident ahead, and I'm heading north. And miles up, I could see them coming quickly and coming to a halt and coming to a halt and coming to a halt, and I said rather smugly, I know something you don't know. The road's closed.

You're not getting through. Thankfully, it wasn't an incident for a shooting, but it was an incident that a man lost the load, and it was all over the interstate. And as you were traveling along in the journey of life, maybe I know something you don't know, that you will never make heaven without your sins forgiven.

It doesn't matter what you think. It doesn't matter what you do. It doesn't matter what you try.

It doesn't matter how you turn over a new leaf. It doesn't matter whether you try religion, christening, baptism, you label it. The Word of God tells us there's only one Savior, there's only one way, and there's only one mediator, and that alone is the Lord Jesus Christ.

Did you ever wonder what it's like after one dies? I've often wondered what it would be like to leave this scene for the great eternity and to have one's eyes opened in the first moments of hell and realize I missed it, realize I neglected it, and become one over the many, many that could say, if only. I would pray that this afternoon there would not be anyone in this audience that will ever be an if only. I want to mention, if you want salvation, you're going to have to go after it.

Ye shall find me when ye shall search for me with all your heart. And the unerring, unalterable Word of God is clear and plain, O earth, earth, earth, hear the Word of the Lord. When I thumb into the book of Numbers, it says God is not a man that he should lie, neither the Son of Man that he should repent.

Hath he not spoken, and shall he not do it? Hath he not spoken, and shall he not make it good? God is attempting in love and kindness and tenderness to remind you, dear sinner friend, in the gathering this afternoon, you have a need. No man on earth can meet that need. No system or sect can meet that need.

No university or doctor or professor can meet that need. You have a need of the forgiveness of sins. But some people say, I don't think I really need my sins forgiven.

Some people tell me, I really don't think I'm that bad. I'll quote a little of the Word of God. Romans chapter 3 says, All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

There is none righteous, no, not one. We are all as an unclean thing and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. Your problem is your sin.

And until you're willing to address, I need my sins forgiven and I need a Savior, you'll never make heaven at the end of life's journey. In the land of Saskatchewan in February, I found it was exceedingly cold. It was 39 below, 40 below and 40 below are both temperatures the same.

And so I realized visiting would be creating a situation called frostbite. So I decided what I would do is visit all the shops and all. One of the men I got to know, we stopped at the restaurant that his wife had and he says, come on in, I'll buy you a coffee.

And there was another man there and another man there and then there's another farm worker there and so he invited them all to sit down. So I said to the one man sitting next to me, he's been in the country from 10 years and the land of Africa and I says, sir, can you tell me how to get to heaven? He said, that's a good question. So he went on and on and he says, I think this would work.

I says, I wanna tell you something, sir. With what you have told me this afternoon at this table, if you die tonight, you're going to be in hell and you need a Savior. Now that would be blunt, but I'm used to working with construction workers and I'm used to working with oil rig workers and so it didn't fuzzle him in any way, shape or form, the blunt message.

Could I tell you very graciously this afternoon and lovingly, that if you leave this scene without Christ as your Savior, you will never be in heaven and ultimately the awful place called hell. When I was in high school, we had the road called Park Avenue and Yonkers and we'd go all the way to New York City and I would walk home from school sometimes and wipe the tears before I turned the corner to go home. I had a good home.

Mom and dad weren't saved. Mom and dad weren't interested. Mom and dad were heading to hell.

I know that's blunt, I know that's bold, but I know it's biblical and God in grace and kindness has provided a way that we be not banished from his presence, a way that the chains of sin can be snapped, a way that we can have peace and pardon and a way that we can have forgiveness and it all focuses around the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm thankful for the clarity of the Word of God. You don't need a high education to grasp it.

You don't even need to be able to read to grasp it and so when I thumb it to John chapter 3, I find a must. When I thumb over into the book of Acts chapter 4, I find another must. And when I find myself over in the book of Acts chapter 16, I find another must.

And the Spirit of God is penned of the words of the Lord Jesus. You must be born again. Except a man or a woman be born again, they cannot see the kingdom of God.

What does it mean to be born again? Well, it means to be saved, but how can a person be born again? How can you and I as sinners be right with God? How can you and I come to know Him, whom to know as life eternal? Salvation is not anything you do or anything you plan to do. The focal point of salvation alone is what the Lord Jesus did on the cross at Calvary, that He gave Himself. He laid down His life.

He bore our sins in His own body on the tree. If you're resting in a religion, you've got a piercing, pulsing problem. If you're resting in what you've done, you've got a problem.

I remember a young fellow in the Tacoma area, stayed behind after meetings, visited with him and his wife. And I says, how did you get saved? Well, he says, I was an alcoholic and I got rid of it. That's great, but that's not salvation.

And then he says, we men, we went to this big Tacoma dome and we renewed our vows of our marriage. I says, that's tremendous. But I says, how did you get saved? I says, I'll be blunt.

You sound like a drowning man clinging on anything that has nothing. Called me up the next day. He says, I took the morning off.

Will you stop by? He says, I'm not saved. Until you find out you are not saved, you will not get saved. And until you find out that your problem is your sin, you will not long to have a Savior and you will not long to have the chains of sin snapped and you will not long to have peace and pardon.

I read with him. And I says, I want you to read Isaiah 53 and ponder it and go over it. Why was he on the cross? Who was the Lord Jesus on the cross for? And what was accomplished on the cross? You know, he called me up three days later.

I'm in Eastern Oregon. He says, John, I got saved and I didn't even have to read the whole chapter. How did that happen? He says, I found out he was wounded for my transgressions.

And he says, if he was wounded for my transgressions, my sins are all forgiven. Salvation is an illumination from the God of heaven to a lost, perishing sinner. What the Lord Jesus did on the cross at Calvary.

My wife's in the audience and she'll tell me I'm terrible for dates and embarrassingly on names. So I couldn't tell you the date I was saved. It was a Friday night.

And it was in the fall of the year, 1959. And it was a little 107 Colgate Avenue bungalow, a 50 by 100 lot. You farmers have a bigger garden than that.

And in that little back room, there was a lad laying down crying, one moment going to hell and the next moment going to heaven because he found out that the Lord Jesus paid for his sins and he trusted him. Have you ever found out as a sinner? That the Lord Jesus paid for your sins? And because he what he did, you're free, you're pardoned. And your name is written in the Lamb's book of life.

When we film over into the book of Acts chapter 4 and verse 12, neither is there salvation in any other. You don't know if you have apple orchards here or not, but if you go up in the mountain country in the West, there's oodles of them. And you know what they do? They prop the branches up because the fruit's so heavy, they're going to break off before they pick them.

God wants to come along and take away any prop that you have until you come to know the Lord Jesus as your Savior. Neither is there salvation in any other. The Lord Jesus is the only one that saves.

The Lord Jesus is that one we've heard through the conference weekend who suffered and bled and died, laid down his life, the just one for you and I, the unjust. And hallelujah, what a Savior up from the grave he arose. And if Christ be not raised, our faith is in vain.

If you want salvation, look away to Calvary. If you want salvation, ponder why, tell me, why was he there? Jesus, the helper, the healer, the friend, why, tell me, why was he there? And when you find out that he paid for your sins, you will go free and you will have your title clear to the mansions above. In the 16th chapter of Acts, it's a jail scene.

I've been in a lot of jails through the years, not for what I did, but to bring the gospel. This is a unique scene. It's a jailer.

He's got a tremendous question. Everyone in this meeting tonight that's saved would love to have their neighbor ask them that question and their workmate and their friend, what must I do to be saved? What must I do to have my sins forgiven? What must I do so that I can be in heaven? What would you tell them? I remember one time a person said they got saved and the assembly told me they got saved and they're thinking hallelujah and I said, I'm going to visit them. So I visited with Mr. Van Wettering.

He's with the Lord now. And I didn't want to put any words in their mouth. So I says, what would you do if somebody was on the street and was hit by a car and they were dying, how would you tell them to get to heaven? Oh, she says, that actually happened when I was a young girl.

And she says, my mother called for the priest and I think that would be a really good thing to do. I found out she didn't have a clue about salvation. I hope you realize that salvation is through the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Not a religion, not a preacher, not a pastor, not a rabbi. Salvation focuses on he himself laid down his life, the just one for you and I, the unjust that we might be wrought nigh unto God. Look unto me, all the ends of the earth, and be ye saved, for I am God and there is none else.

The piercing, pulsing question that was asked by the jailer, what must I do to be saved? He said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved in thy house and I never like to stop there. And he spake unto them the word of the Lord. He would have told them about Calvary.

He would have told them that the Lord Jesus was wounded for his sins, bruised for his iniquities. He would have told them, Mr. Jailer, the Lord Jesus paid for your sins. He would have told them, Mr. Jailer, he shed his precious blood and he laid down his life that you might have life and you might have it more abundantly.

And the man got saved in the jail and he brought him home to his family and it was bubbling from ear to ear. We listened yesterday about Luke 24, seven things that were opened and we come to the last of the ones that were opened. The Lord opened their understanding and I label that salvation.

God wants to come along in your life and do a work that man cannot do in any way, shape or form. He not only wants to open your understanding that you need to be saved, but he wants to open your eyes and open your understanding that at that cruel Roman cross he paid for my sins and I go free. He was the holy one, the spotless one and he laid down his life that I might have life and I might have it more abundantly.

I ask a little question at the close of the meeting. The clock goes all so fast. What have you done with the Lord Jesus Christ? Just know about him, been awakened, you need a savior and never moved any further.

Or has it been that time when by God's grace you've passed from death unto life and you can say wonder of wonder, marvel of marvels. He loved me and he gave himself for me and I go free. Let's pray.

Father, we bow before thee this afternoon to thank thee for thy wonderful, marvelous grace, to thank thee for the display of love there at the place called Calvary when thy well-beloved son laid down his life, shed his own precious blood, pay all that was needed that we as guilty sinners can be saved and we're praying, Lord, for those in the gathering this afternoon that are not in Christ. They might be awakened by thee, a burden of sin, a desire to know him whom to know is life eternal and thou would speak and thou would save for thy honor and glory. Preserve us as we travel homeward and guide through the evening.

Now we ask in the Lord Jesus' name. Amen.