What it means to be saved

I'd like to read again, please, in the Gospel of John, John's Gospel, Chapter 3. We believe that most Christians, most people who believe the Bible, would tell us that John 3 is to them the greatest chapter in all of Scripture. I'm going to read three sections in John's Gospel, Chapter 3, and I'm reading about another rich man. I didn't know, of course, what Mr. Oliver was going to preach tonight, so I didn't try to fit my message with his, but read verse 1 of John 3, if you will.

There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. The same came to Jesus by night and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God, for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him. Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb and be born? Jesus answered, Verily, verily, or it is true, it is true, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.

Verse 14, And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. 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. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved.

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. Verse 35, The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hand. He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life.

And he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. I'm very thankful for what Mr. Oliver has preached tonight. Salvation is a personal link between a sinner and the Savior.

There is a time when that link is forged. There is a moment in a person's experience when they are actually linked to the Savior. So what I'm going to tell you about are seven expressions that are found in John 3 that describe what we've just heard, being saved.

The first one, of course, is in verse 6 and it's in verse 7. To be born again. To be born of the Spirit, verse 6 says. To be born again, verse 7 says.

Verse 15 tells us that salvation is a look to Christ, looking to the Savior. Verse 16 tells us that it is to have everlasting life. Verse 17 uses a beautiful word that is found many, many times in the New Testament.

You've heard it already tonight. Saved. How blessed a word saved is.

That the world through him, verse 17 says, might be saved. Verse 18 tells us of those who will never be punished for their sins. The language, not condemned.

And finally, verse 36 tells us about believing on the Son. I'm quite amazed that in a chapter like this there should be seven distinct expressions used and they really all have this meaning. A sinner coming to the Savior.

Now, the need of the new birth, the Lord Jesus taught so plainly. Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus said, can I again go back to the process of natural birth? The Lord Jesus said, that which is born of the flesh is flesh.

That's very solemn. For every one of us here tonight, we would not be here, we would not be drawing breath if we had not had that first birth. And that first birth that brought us into this world, that gave us life that fitted us to live in this world, that first birth, please understand me, that first birth was wrong.

Oh, I don't mean it was wrong that you were born. I don't mean it's wrong that you have life, that you're here tonight. No, I don't mean that at all.

I mean, that first birth was a birth in sin. I suppose there may be very few people who would say that David, the king of Israel, is not one of the greatest men who ever lived. I suppose every person in America can quote at least some of Psalm 23, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.

But the man who wrote those beautiful words said, behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. Now that's what I meant when I said that first birth was wrong. It was a birth in sin.

I was born a sinner. I came into this world of a fallen race of humanity, and I'm a sinner, and I've learned it. In all the years I've lived, I've learned more and more what it means to be a sinner before a holy God.

If you think that we're standing up here tonight to tell you how much better we are than you, please friend, that is not what we are doing at all. We are telling you that we are only sinners, only sinners, saved by the grace of God. Only sinners who did not deserve to be in heaven at all.

In fact, I discovered before I was saved that I deserved to be in hell. But oh, the mercy and grace of God. Thank God for that second birth.

I can go back to an exact moment, yes, in an instant of time. A particular place, a particular time, an exact moment when I was born again. When as a guilty sinner, I trusted the Savior.

I wasn't thinking about being born again at that moment. In fact, I wasn't thinking about anything but Christ on the cross, that he hung there. He was nailed.

He was thorn-crowned. His body bathed in blood. He was suffering in agony.

And here's what I found out. He was suffering for me. He was suffering for my sins.

That's what I was thinking about at that very moment I was born of God. I had a new birth into God's family. Have you had it? When? Where did it happen? Oh, you say, well, we don't all have just that kind of experience that is climatic like that, that takes place in a moment.

It's not really. Everybody has that kind of experience. They don't.

Everybody that's born again has a time when they were born again. You see, I tell a very simple story. Forgive me for this.

For those of you who've heard me tell this, I'm sure you won't really blame me because it's one of the best illustrations I know. We were preaching away in Northern Ontario. It's what they call bush country.

And if you were there, I think you'd understand why they call it bush country. It's wild. There are very few people live there.

Enough so that we were having meetings. And what's more, we were getting our building full of people every night. But it wasn't a very large building.

In fact, it was a mobile hall, a mobile home that we had taken the partitions out of and turned into a place that people could meet, could gather to hear the gospel. When we were preaching in this particular place, one night, seven people came. We had never seen them before.

And after the meeting was over, they said, we want to ask if you will come to our village and have meetings like this. They told us where they lived in a place called Kynot. And they were so sincere and asked us so, so humbly.

And before we even thought very much about it, we said, well, we would love to come. And we kind of gave them our promise that we would do the best we could to come there. Trouble is, we hadn't looked at the road.

And there was a bigger trouble than the bad road. There was a river that ran down through that part of the country, a wild river. It is called the White River and it is well named.

For most of its length, it is White Rapids. That river crossed that road. Of course, there was a bridge.

But the bridge was an old iron bridge that was rusted and decayed. And on the end of the bridge, there was a sign that said load limit three tons. And we had promised these people that we would take this mobile haul up that road and cross that bridge and go to that village of Kynot to have meetings.

How were we ever going to get it there? There was no other way. That was the only road. So we talked to people and they said, oh, don't worry about it.

It's all right. That bridge is a lot stronger than it looks. Well, that wasn't too assuring.

And some people looked at it as if they thought we were out of our minds to even suggest. Our building, our truck weighed 11 tons. The bridge said load limit three tons.

And that was stretching it. And so finally we went to the highway department because we certainly wouldn't be a good testimony if we broke the law. So we went to the highway commission, as they call it, up there and we said, we've got 11 tons and we want to haul it over the Kynot bridge.

They said, it's all right with us. That didn't really assure us very much. And so one day we met a man, Duncan McCauley was his name.

Duncan said, did the highway department tell you why they gave you permission? We said, no. Well, he said they haul a 20 ton load over that bridge regularly. Oh, well, you see now we believed about the bridge.

Do you understand that up to that time we had grave doubts. In fact, I wouldn't have risked it at all. We weren't on the other side yet, were we? We hadn't gotten to Kynot yet.

We just believed about the bridge. That's why I use that illustration. Are there people here tonight and you believe about Christ? You believe he's the Savior, the only Savior? That he takes people to heaven who trust him? You could believe all that and not be saved yourself.

At two o'clock on a Wednesday afternoon with a Bell telephone truck helping us, we pulled that load across that bridge. We trusted the bridge at that moment. Friend, I believed about Christ all my life, but I wasn't saved until the moment I trusted him.

Except the man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. I couldn't possibly speak on all these expressions tonight, so what I'm going to do very simply is go to the last one. Because I think in this last verse of John three, all the other six expressions are combined.

You notice it says he that believeth on the sun hath everlasting life. And then there's a great contrast. He that believeth not the sun shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him.

Now, I believe this verse is one of the greatest verses in the Bible. I believe that for sinners it's an awakening verse. Let me tell you what I mean.

This is a verse where you can locate yourself because there are only two classes in this verse. Two kinds of people. In the first class are people who have believed on the sun and they have everlasting life.

The second class are people who have not believed on the sun and God's wrath is abiding on them. The wrath of God abides upon them. Which class are you in? It's a wonderful thing to be able to locate yourself.

I was thinking this afternoon of a dear man who lived here in Jackson. He was one of our most renowned medical doctors. He was an internist.

He was a man of great skill, great diagnostic ability, and we owe a great debt to that dear man. For in the case of Mr. and Mrs. McBain, in both of them, he discovered early cancer that was treatable, that could be operated on, and actually under God they owed their life for the next 20 to 25 years to the skill of that doctor. But when it came to diagnosing his own case, he totally failed.

I was with him one day and he was coughing. He said, don't mind me, I just have this little cough. If that had been one of his patients coughing, it would have been a different story.

But he just dismissed it. You know what was wrong? His lungs were full of cancer. He called me on the phone on a Saturday night.

He said, I've been reading the Bible. And he said, this amazed me. He said, I've read from beginning to end once and I'm starting a second time.

I had often spoken to him. In fact, I cannot take any credit for having preached to Dr. Taylor because normally he would raise the subject. And so many, many times in our conversations he began it.

And I had many opportunities to tell him about the Savior. And that night on the telephone he said, I'm dying and I'm not ready. He had never been able to diagnose his own problem.

He was just a sinner and he needed the Savior. I'm so thankful to tell you that he called me again within a few days to tell me that he had trusted Christ. He wanted me to preach the Gospel at his funeral.

Friend, have you rightly diagnosed your own case? How tragic to make a mistake about your soul and where you will be forever and forever. There are two classes. This world is divided into those two classes.

Oh, I know we have all kinds of categories. We have religious, irreligious, non-religious. We have every kind of a denomination and system you could think of.

But friend, in God's reckoning there are two kinds of people. There are those who have everlasting life and there are those who are perishing. There are those who have trusted Christ as their own Savior and there are those who have no Christ, no Savior, no salvation and no hope of heaven.

Where are you tonight? You can be in the first class. Because you see, this is not only a verse that awakens sinners. This is a verse that answers seekers.

If there was a person here tonight who was seeking salvation, oh friend, this is so simple, it is so clear, it is so plain. You see, verse 35 says the Father loves the Son. I believe that.

Did I ever see God loving His Son? No. It says that He gave everything into the hand of His Son. Did I see God giving creation into the hand of Christ? Giving life to Him that He would be the life giver to all who ever have life.

Did I see God do that? No. But I believe it. That's believing God.

That's how you believe the Word of God. He that believeth on the Son. He that trusts in the Son.

Now I made a great mistake when I was unsaved. I thought I had to have the right kind of faith. And I supposed it was some very, very deep, genuine, heartfelt, something that surged up within me, some great well of belief that would rise up and then I would say, well, now I really believe.

Do you know it isn't the right kind of faith that saves? Do you know what it is? It's faith in the right person. Oftentimes people tell us, I have faith. Well, my friend, it isn't faith that saves.

It's Christ who saves. And the only way you can be saved is to have faith in Him and in Him only. Great tragedy that there are many people who say they are trusting Christ, but actually when it comes right down to it, it's Christ and.

Christ and their works. Christ and their prayers. Christ and their good living.

Christ and their giving. Christ and their rituals or ceremonies, religious things. No.

It is not Christ and. It's He that believeth on the Son. Only Him.

Only Christ. And it is not, as so many think, how they believe. I was in a gathering one night years ago and the dear man said, Mr. Crawford, you men preach the gospel all the time, but you never tell people how to believe.

I said to him, sir, do you know why we don't tell people how to believe? Because we don't know what to tell them. There isn't any answer to that. It's not how you believe, it's who you believe.

That's all the difference. How you believe, that would make salvation dependent on what you do. Who you believe, that makes salvation dependent on Christ.

I tried in my unsaved days to believe to make it true. I thought if I can believe this, then it will be true. That was entirely wrong.

You don't believe it to make it true. You know why I believe in the Lord Jesus? Because it is true that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son to Calvary to suffer, to bleed, to die, to give His life, to give Himself, to give His all, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. I don't believe that to make it true.

I believe it because it is true, blessedly true. And he that believeth on the Son thinks He has, feels He has. No, he that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life.

I hope these illustrations are like windows. That's what they're intended to be because I've been thinking while I've been speaking about a dear lady in a house in Canada. I had never met her.

She had never met us. She had never heard of us. And that day when we went into that little home, we found a woman who was longing to have assurance of eternal life.

She was longing to be saved. She had no one to tell her. What a delight it is to meet a person like that.

You know, I was looking around the walls as we usually do when we go into a home or we're strangers and I noticed that the curtains on the walls on the windows looked like they were just fresh and new. They didn't even look like they'd just been laundered. They looked like they were absolutely new.

And so I said to the dear lady, those are beautiful curtains. Yes, she said, they're new. And so as we got into the Word of God I read John 3 and 36 to her.

He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life. And I said to her, now I don't know how these curtains happened to be new just today and just how you managed to get them, but what if you wanted to buy curtains for the house and you said to your husband can I use the money from the eggs to buy curtains? And he said, sure, that's fine. She said, how did you know that? And I said, well, I really didn't, but I'm just guessing.

Well, she said, that's exactly what happened in our home. She said we have only a few hens and she said it took quite a while to get enough money for the curtains. So I said, what if you put the money in the bank? And your husband said to you one day, do you have enough money for the curtains? What would you do? Would you go down to the bank and ask them to put the money in your hand so you can feel it and count it? Oh no, she said, I would just go by the book.

Yes, just by the book. And I turned her eyes to John 3 and 36. And I said, my dear lady, the reason I know I have eternal life is because I'm just going by the book.

He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life. I can't tell you the joy we had that day, but that dear woman got hold of that for herself in that very moment. I have God's word for it.

This is God's book. This is true. And he says, he that believeth on the Son hath possesses everlasting life.

Well, how tragic to miss that assurance, to miss Christ and to discover that you're in the last part of the verse. He that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him. Shall we pray? Our Father, we give thanks for the Gospel.

Thank Thee for its plainness. And we thank Thee, Lord, for its power. And we thank Thee for its personal claim upon every heart, upon every individual here tonight.

We humbly pray that Thy word might reach hearts, that it might be a personal message from God to each one of us. And Lord, for those who need assurance, for those who need that blessed confidence of knowing Christ personally, that Thy word might have the same effect upon them as it had on that dear man Zacchaeus under the tree. God grant that they too might come just to trust the Savior for themselves.

Part us with Thy blessing. Bless the coming meetings of the Lord Terry's. Remember in mercy tonight every need as it's known to Thyself.

We commend ourselves to Thee now and give our thanks in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.