Of Utmost Concern Sermon I: The Salvation Of Unbelievers Series

OF UTMOST CONCERN TO MATURE BELIEVERS: THE SALVATION OF UNBELIEVERS

Former pastor of the First Baptist Church of Jonesboro, Charles Carter, told about being confronted by an unbeliever who engaged him in conversation about his preaching “Salvation is found only in Jesus Christ - for there is no other name given to men by which we must be saved.”

The challenger presented his arguments in favor of ways other than Jesus Christ, based on his opinion that a God of love would never send a soul to hell.

Carter reiterated key points: All have sinned and need to be saved . . . God so loved us that He gave His Son to die for our sins . . . If we admit that we are sinners, repent, and by faith accept Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, we will be saved and go to heaven. Furthermore:

God does not want anyone to go to hell. Therefore, because of His great love, God gave His only begotten Son . . . To reject God’s gift of salvation is to send oneself to hell. Finally:

We both have a right to disagree, but think of your argument versus mine this way:

If, after all has been said and done, you are right . . . neither of us has anything to worry about. However, if I am right . . . you have everything to worry about.

After his long and arduous search for meaning in life, Solomon concluded that the Lord God is awesome and to be feared . . . but He is awfully good to those who trust and obey Him.

As we concluded our study of Solomon’s arguments which he employed to demonstrate the futility of seeking fulfillment in life apart from God, my challenge was: Be concerned about unbelievers who deny the sovereignty of God . . . defy God’s commands . . . disavow God’s Way of salvation. As for all of you:

Paul said it best, writing to the Corinthians: “You yourselves are our letter, written in our hearts, known and read by everybody.” To you we say: Your love of, fear of, obedience to the Lord is well known . . . Yes, we are concerned about your well-being . . . we are not, however, worried about your salvation. Each of you can say, “I know whom I have believed and am persuaded . . .”

In times like these, however, everyone needs a Savior; therefore, pray for a great spiritual awakening that stirs the hearts of unbelievers - turning them from sin unto salvation - also pray for professing Christians – who need to go back to the Bible for a renewal of Christian faith and practice. Regeneration the unsaved need! Renewal the saved need!

There are folks – among the saved as well as the unsaved - who do not like the hard sayings of Jesus, and therefore modify them to suit personal preference for a gentler approach to dealing with hardened sinners - but to no avail!

When the matter of “life or death” is on the line, someone whose presence commands attention and whose power to change broken lives for God and for good is evident, must step forward and speak the truth in love - tell it like it is!

Comes Jesus of Nazareth, on His way to the Cross, having been in the public eye long enough to be seen as a threat by religious leaders because of the crowds that followed him - to witness His miraculous healings of mind, body and soul!

His enemies - who wanted no part of a peasant carpenter from Nazareth going all over the place, proclaiming liberation from sin, preaching the arrival of God’s Kingdom, healing the sick, pronouncing judgment on those who reject Him as Savior – set the stage for Jesus tell it like it is – Matthew 12:22-32 . . .

In this passage . . . Jesus confirmed His identity as “the Christ” who had come to fulfill the prophecy of Isaiah -“The blind receive sight, the lame walk, lepers cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead raised, the poor told the good news” (Matthew 11:4-6) . Then, Jesus was given the chance by his enemies to set them straight, to speak the truth in love.

Everywhere Jesus went, people “went out to see him”. . . Crowds gathered to hear Him. Very soon they began to laud Him as “One sent from God”.

Spies were dispatched by high-ranking officials to see what He was up to - to observe what Jesus did and said, then report back to the authorities.

All the hullabaloo eventually came to a climactic confrontation on the first day of the Week of Passover when Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey. Crowds lined the streets, and they chanted: “Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the King of Israel!”