Way of Salvation 1985

I'd like to begin by reading from Isaiah chapter 30, verse 18 through part of 21. Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you. Therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you.

For the Lord is a God of justice, that is, he's fair. Blessed are all those who wait for him. Yea, all people in Zion who dwell at Jerusalem, you shall weep no more.

He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry. When he hears it, he will answer you. And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your teacher will not hide himself anymore.

But your eyes shall see your teacher, and your ears shall hear a word behind you saying, this is the way, walk in it. Here we have the promise of a relationship with God, which is so clear that he absolutely guides us in the way he wants us to go. Therefore, your teacher will not hide himself anymore, but your eyes shall see your teacher, and your ears shall hear a word behind you saying, this is the way, walk in it.

He makes me to lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul.

He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness. He leads me. He's my shepherd.

As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. To be saved, to be born again, to be filled with life from God in simplest terms is to be led by God through this world, day in and day out, guided by him to know that we're being guided. Salvation in simplest terms is simply to have eyes that see our teacher, and ears that hear that word behind us saying, this is the way, walk in it.

In its earliest days on this earth, the kingdom of God was not called Christianity, it was called the way. And we can see this as we skim through the book of Acts, and I'm not going to hit all the passages, but just to remind us of how that was a very common term in apostolic days, reading from Acts chapter 9, but Saul, breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. Acts 16, 16, as we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners much gain by soothsaying.

She followed Paul and us crying, these men are servants of the most high God who proclaim to you the way of salvation. And even though, you know, later he cast the demon out of this woman, this passage is included to show, as it was the case with Jesus, time and again, people who were possessed would come up with the truth about who he was, and Jesus would have to stay still. And then, jumping over into Acts chapter 9, 19, verse 8, Paul entered the synagogue and for three months spoke boldly, arguing and pleading about the kingdom of God.

But when some were stubborn and disbelieved, speaking evil of the way before the congregation, he withdrew from them, taking the disciples with him. In verse 23 of 19, about that time there rose no little stir concerning the way. It was called the way because for these people salvation was not a thing that you get.

Now I got it. I prayed the sinner's prayer, I received salvation, now I got it. But for these people, and it was clearly understood then, salvation was a walk, it was a life to be saved, just to be walking in the way, following the way.

Now granted, there is always a starting point, you know, there is a time when you receive salvation, there's a door that you go through to get on this way, there's a point in time when you begin, just as there was a point in time and space where this life was released into the world, to our Lord's death, his resurrection, the outpouring of his spirit, now the life is here. So there is a point where it begins in the world, there's a point where it begins in our lives, and should there be anybody in this gathering right now who hasn't come to that point yet, you've come to it now. That door is open and you can walk through today.

But once we've walked through the door, salvation then becomes following the way. Every hour of every day, all the time, salvation is then having eyes that see our teacher, ears that hear that word behind us saying, this is the way, walk in it, and walking in it, in the power of the Holy Spirit. But for many of us, the pressures and the conflicts and the disappointments and the confusion and the frustrations of our day-in-and-day-out living have been allowed to obscure this for us.

And so our eyes don't see the teacher clearly, and our ears don't hear that word behind us saying, this is the way, walk in it. Our hearts are divided, and sometimes, as we all know, they become sullied and sick and evil and unclean, and our hope begins to disintegrate. And sometimes we allow, you know, the joy of our salvation to just go, we don't have it.

Salvation being following Him on the way. There are some of us, perhaps here right now, who of us hasn't experienced this at some time, who having once tasted that guidance, know what it's like to be guided, have reached the point where we almost despair of ever knowing it again. You know, we say to ourselves, that's part of my past, I don't know that I'll ever get back to that because I got too many things pressing me, too many things are going wrong.

Oh yes, I know that Paul and Barnabas were guided on their missionary journeys, and Philip was guided to the Ethiopian unit, and Cornelius and Lydia and the Philippian jailor and countless others had guidance. Ah, but they lived in an age which was different. They didn't experience the pressures that I have to go through.

But that's certainly not true. Life isn't any different. There are, of course, there's more talk of technology and this and that, but basically life is the same.

They have pressures and dangers too. What we need to see, all of us have to get refreshed in this, is that salvation paid by the blood of the Lamb brought down into our midst today by the power of the Holy Spirit is to be guided by God right through all this trouble into peace on this earth in our hearts. Salvation is to be lifted out of our paralysis and set moving on that way again.

Salvation is to have eyes that see our teacher, ears that hear that word behind us saying, this is the way, walk in it. And we can have that salvation today afresh. Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you.

Therefore He exalts Himself to show mercy to you. For the Lord is the God of justice. Blessed are all those who wait for Him.

Yea, all people in Zion who dwell in Jerusalem, you shall weep no more. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry. When He hears it, He will answer you.

He'll surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry. When you cry, He'll answer. In other words, all you have to do is ask.

All you have to do is say, guide me, Lord. Now, there are many other prayers we can pray, you know, but they're secondary, you know, like change my circumstances or enlighten my enemies, help them to see what He's doing to me. But underneath all that, I need to first of all be praying, guide me, Lord.

Show me. Show me. Just show me.

Guide me in your way. Brother Rex Andrews, who wrote Mercy Studies that we have over in the book room and that we've used in the past, and many of us keep going back to it, reading again and again. It's a big, thick mimeograph book called What the Bible Teaches About Mercy.

Tells us again, he died about 10 years ago in a ripe old age, but he tells us in this book that after 24 years of preaching and teaching, he went off the deep end and stumbled into a season of terrible darkness and sin and confusion. And that thing went on, that period of despair and darkness went on for him for about seven years. And just when he was despairing of life itself, somehow he found his way to Psalm 119.

And he took this psalm, which is the longest psalm in the Bible. It's got a section for every letter of the Hebrew alphabet. And he began to say that thing out loud.

He began to pray it like a prayer. And the thrust, the cry of Psalm 119 is guide me, Lord, in your way. And it says this same thing over and over a hundred different ways.

Guide me, Lord, in your way. And as Rex began to pray this Psalm 119, asking for guidance, his eyes began once again to see his teacher and his ears began to hear the word behind him say, this is the way, walk in it. And he rose from the dead and came into an experience of the mercy of God, such as he had never known in all those earlier 24 years.

And though the Lord gives you the bread of adversity in the water of affliction, yet your teacher will not hide himself anymore. But your eyes shall see your teacher and your ears shall hear a word behind you saying, this is the way, walk in it. Now that's a promise, clear promise.

You ask your father for bread, you don't get a stone. And if you ask for this kind of guidance, that's exactly what you get. From John chapter 14, verse one, Jesus is speaking.

Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God. Believe also in me.

Believe, be certain. In my father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And when I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to myself that where I am there, you may be also.

And where I'm going, you know, and the way, you know, Thomas says to him, Lord, we don't know where you're going. How can we know the way? Jesus said to him, I am the way. I am the way.

I am the way out of your sin. I am the way out of your confusion. I am the way out of your bondage.

I am the way into the presence of the father. I'm the way into life, freedom, power, unspeakable. I am the teacher whom your eyes shall see.

I am that word behind you saying this is the way, walking it. I will instruct you and teach you in the way that you shall go. I will guide you with my eye.

Into fellowship with each other, deeper than you've ever known. And into a ministry out there in the world, more powerful than you've ever experienced. I am the way.

Jesus is the way four times over. He is the way out of sin. He is the way into the presence of the father.

He is the way into fellowship with each other. And he is the way into an effective ministry out there in the world. First of all, he's the way out of sin.

I am the light of the world. He who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. Your sins are forgiven.

Go in peace, be of good cheer. Your sins are forgiven. Behold the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

And for those people then, and for us now, that's not just words, that's life, that's power. He brings us out of our bondages. And if we came with him today, weighed down with trauma, despair, burdened down with guilt, locked into habits we haven't been able to get out of, he's the way out.

Now, today, he's the way out. Let me lead you and I'll take you out. He is the way into the presence of the father.

Hebrews 10, 19. Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way which he opened for us through the curtain that is through his flesh, let us draw near with a true heart. He's the way through that veil.

He's broken it open and we can find our way into the presence of God if we will. He wants to take us through the veil of his own death and resurrection that tore away the barrier and bring us, if we'll follow him, into the presence of God before the mercy seat this morning so that we can lift up our hearts together and worship him and praise him and adore him and prostrate ourselves before him and be filled with his life. He is the way into fellowship with each other.

We all agree. Something we all need to learn much more about. As in one body we have many members and all the members don't have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ and individually members one of another.

And this is certainly true among us. The only thing we have in common is Jesus. We don't have anything else in common here.

We don't have anything else. We're not from the same background. We're not from the same culture.

We're not from the same economic levels, education, whatever. We don't have anything in common. The only thing we have in common is Jesus.

And this is a tremendous blessing because we can't kid ourselves. We can't have anything else to hold us together. All we have is Jesus.

But what we need to do now is let Jesus bring us into fellowship with each other, real fellowship with each other, far beyond where we are now. If we walk in the light, if he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his son, cleanses us from all sin. He's the way into fellowship, and he has things to teach us if we'll let him lead us, and he's going to bring us into that kind of fellowship richer and deeper than we've ever known.

Here's a couple that have been married for 20 years. There's still so much to learn. It was a touching thing, thinking about a couple that was married for much less time.

John and Lois Church are somewhere else right now, and they told us that yesterday, but they came back from working on the streets yesterday. They were over in the new center talking to people about Jesus, and it was a gorgeous thing. They've just been married a few years, and Lois said, what a precious time we've had during our break.

You know, she and John would go someplace and have a Coke or something, and we got to know each other. We got to see what the Lord is doing in each other's lives, and tears were welling up in both of them. They were being drawn into fellowship with one another by Jesus.

That's what he wants to do with all of us together, and he will if we let him lead us. Finally, he is the way into an effective ministry out there in the world. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.

Go, make disciples of all nations. Here they are, all nations, right around this building, baptizing them, teaching them, and lo, I am with you all the days, even to the end of the age. I am with you because I'm the way.

I'm with you. I am the way. I will empower you.

I will anoint you. I will protect you. I will sustain you.

I will refresh you. I'll do everything you need. Just walk with me.

One day, Jesus stopped a man at the pool of Bethesda who was somehow trying to get his body down to the water, and he said to him, do you want to be healed? The man had been sick 38 years, and here's this man, stranger, coming up and saying, do you want to be healed? Today, Jesus says to us, do you want to be guided? If I show you the way, will you follow it? Will you trust me to make you lie down in clean pastures, lead you beside the still waters, restore your soul? Will you follow me in the paths of righteousness? Will you follow me out of your sin, beginning today? Will you follow me into the presence of God, right now? Will you follow me into fellowship with each other, this hour? Will you follow me into an effective work, work that I've prepared for you out there in the world? Yea, O people in Zion, body of Christ, who dwell at Jerusalem, you shall weep no more. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry. When he hears it, he will answer you.

And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your teacher will not hide himself anymore. But your eyes shall see your teacher, and your ears shall hear a word behind you saying, this is the way, walk in it. Let's just wait upon the Lord and think about that in silence for a minute.