The Plain English Guide To Salvation
Text: Acts 16:30-31
Introduction: A few years ago the Plain English Campaign ran a national survey that found that some people would rather have a grander job title than a pay rise. This might seem astonishing, but upgrading job titles has apparently become more and more popular as employers try to keep their staff happy.
Here are some examples.
• Space consultant (estate agent)
• Ambient replenishment controllers (shelf stackers)
• Revenue Protection Officer (ticket inspector)
• Foot health gain facilitator (chiropodist)
• Head of Verbal Communications (secretary)
• Technical horticultural maintenance officer (gardener)
• Flueologist (chimney sweep)
• Dispatch services facilitator (post room worker)
• Regional head of services, infrastructure and procurement (caretaker)
• Knowledge navigator (teacher)
I suppose these grand titles appeal to human pride. But it is no just in the world of secular employment that men make things sound grander than they really are, but even in the things of God. I remember when I was training for ministry I was studying systematic theology, which in itself simply means a methodical study of the nature of God, I was introduced to such wonderful terms that, at first, appeared a little bit intimidating. Terms such as pneumatology, which is the study of the Holy Spirit, and anthropology, the study of the nature of man. I read about soteriology, which believe it not, is the study of the doctrine of salvation. There is something in human nature that always wants to make simple things complicated. So from now on, when people ask me what my occupation is, I will no longer say “pastor”, but tell them I am a soteriological communicator!
All joking aside, as much as I enjoy broadening my vocabulary and playing with words, sometimes, some situations are so serious that the simplest form of words is called for. For example, if someone ran through the door of our church tonight and cried out, “There is an exothermic oxidation of a combustible substance resulting in rapid, persistent chemical change which is releasing heat and light, accompanied by flame.” We might wonder what the problem is. But if they just should “fire!” we would evacuate the building swiftly! You see, some situations are so pressing that we needed the simplest form of communication to express their urgency.
Now that is how it is with the matter of salvation. You see, everyone of us has an eternal soul, and as the name suggests that means there is a part of us that was made to last forever; and that soul, the inner person, is going to spend eternity either in heaven with God, our cast off from heaven, in hell without God. That’s the truth, plain and simple. Now most people want to go to heaven when they die, but most people don’t know how and that’s because man and religion has complicated something that would be best kept plain and simple.
For example, some people say, “Well I will do the best I can.” But what if your best is not good enough? And how can you know how well you are doing? Some will say I have not murdered anyone, so I am doing OK. Is that it? If you don’t actually kill someone you go to heaven? And if that is so, where does Jesus fit in?
Other people say, I will go to church. Fair enough, but how do you know you are going to the right church? And how do you know they have the right rituals? Some churches baptise by immersion, as we do, and some sprinkle and pour. Some baptise adults and others christen infants, and some don’t even baptise at all! Well you want to get it right don’t you? I mean what happens if you are not properly baptised by the right church. “Well”, some will say, “the main thing is that you are sincere.”
So now its not church or religion that matters, but sincerity. So what about the sincere atheist? He doesn’t believe in God at all, in fact, as atheism has become increasingly fashionable many sincere atheists have become very vitriolic in lampooning God and those who believe in God. Are they going to heaven? And hat those who sincerely believe in God. Does it matter which God they sincerely believe in? Three years ago Islamic extremists, sincerely holding to their belief in Allah killed 52 people in central London with a series of suicide bombings. This they did believing in Allah, sincerely. So if sincerity gets you into heaven, and if just believing in any God gets you there those guys are there. You see how difficult all this is becomes? How we complicate it.
Yet, when Jesus came bringing the message of salvation with Him, He didn’t choose men with brilliant minds to be His disciples. He chose simple men, fishermen, tax collectors, and ordinary people, described by academia as, ”ignorant and unlearned” men to carry His message into the world. The Bible says that when He spoke, the “common people heard Him gladly.” That should tell us something about the message. You see it was never supposed to be complex and difficult, it was always intended to be plain and simple. So let me simply state it for you.
• The Plain Truth Is You Are A Sinner
• The Plain Truth Is That Sin Must Be Punished
• The Plain Truth Is Jesus Took Your Penalty
• The Plain Truth Is That By Believing On Him You May Be Pardoned.
Now lets think about each of these thoughts or a moment
I. The Plain Truth Is You Are A Sinner
A. The Bible plainly teaches, “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” (Rom 3:23)
1. “All”, means you, me, and everyone around us.
2. Now a lot of people ant to make this difficult – they want to grade sin, and categorise sinners.
a. Some theologians talk about mortal sin and venial sin, in other words some sins result in eternal death, but others are not so grave, and do not matter so much to God.
3, But the Bible never uses those terms nor speaks of sin in that way. In Scripture sin is sin, and sinners are sinners.
4. And that means you and I are sinners.
B. No we are always tempted then to compare ourselves to other sinners.
1. “I’m not so bad as… “
2. But the Bible says “we comparing ourselves by ourselves are not wise.”
3. In other words we are judging ourselves by a flawed standard.
a. Illus: Interview w/ Roy Walker of ‘Catchphrase’. Used to N.I hammer throwing champion, and he told of an 100m track in Belfast, which English athletes loved, because they thought it was a fast track, and when they ran there they could reduce their times. However, there was a good reason for that. The track was actually only 95 metres long so they were judging their performance by a standard that fell short.
b. If you say, I am not a murderer, robber, rapist etc… that is not much of a standard.
c. It falls short of the standard God has set, and the standard He has set is His glory, and His glory is revealed in a Person, Jesus Christ.
d. In other words to meet God’s demand for righteous living, and to no longer be considered a “sinner” by Him you would have to live a life as good as or even better than the life Jesus lived.
e. It can’t be done. Do you know why? Because Jesus was without sin, but you and I are born sinners.
f. In other words we aren’t sinners because we sin, we sin because we are sinners.
C. Now listen to God’s plain truth on this matter.
1. “There is no man that sinneth not.” (1Kings 8:46)
2. “In thy sight shall no man living be justified.” (Psalm 143:2)
3. “Who can say, I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin?” (Prov 20:9)
4. “For there is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not.” (Eccles 7:20)
5. Jesus said, “If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?” (Luke 11:13)
6. “There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.” (Rom 3:10-12)
7. “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” (1John 1:8)
D. So there it is straight from God’s Word, in simple terms, the plain truth is that you are a sinner.
II. The Plain Truth Is That Sin Must Be Punished
A. Let me clear about this. I don’t want you to misunderstand it because your eternal soul depends upon it: the penalty of sin is simply stated in one word, “death”.
1. “The wages of sin is death” (Rom 6:23)
2. And experience of death is threefold.
B. There is PHYSICAL death.
1. Physical death is the separation of the eternal soul from the body.
2. God told our first parents, “But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” (Gen 2:17), and after they did just that, He told them, “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.” (Gen 3;19)
3. So we come to Genesis 5, and what do we find, we find that generation after generation died – see Gen 5:5ff – and so it has been from then ‘til now.
4. So every time we meander up that sad road to the graveyard we are reminded that the penalty of sin is death.
C. There is SPIRITUAL death.
1. Spiritual death is the separation of the soul from God.
2. When does this happen? Well, it has happened already.
3. You see men are born spiritually dead.
a. “The wicked are estranged (separated from God) from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies.” (Psa 58:3)
b. “But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.” (Isa 59:3)
c. See Ephesians 2:1-5
4. Did you ever wonder how it is that some people are so enthralled with God, with the knowledge, with the Word of God, that they read the Bible because they get so much out of it, that the go to church not just for weddings and funerals, but for fellowship, to study and pray with others – why don’t you feel like they do? Why is God so far from your thoughts most of the time? Why is there no sense of his presence in your life? Why is there such little desire to go to church most of the time? Because, you are spiritually dead. That’s the plain truth.
5. Sin has separated you from God spiritually.
D. There is ETERNAL death.
1.Eternal death is the natural conclusion of spiritual death. If you lived apart from God in this life, you will also live separated from Him in the life to come.
2. So, this is the eternal separation of the soul from God, this is to be cast away in the righteousness of God to a place of eternal punishment.
3. You say, ”God loves me and will never allow that to happen to me.”
a. God loves you, that’s true, but is it true that His love prevents His holiness from penalising sinners?
4. Listen now to the plain truth:
a. “Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.” (Matt 25:41)
b. “These shall go away into everlasting punishment.” (Matt 25:46)
c. “Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power.” (2Thess 1:9)
5. The plain truth is that you are a sinner and that sin must be punished.
III. The Plain Truth Is Jesus Took Your Penalty
A. Scripture says, “For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.” (Rom 5:6) and “God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” (Rom 5:8)
1. Now, let’s think about this in the simplest possible terms.
2. Jesus never sinned; in fact, He never even had the ability to sin.
a. You see, Jesus was virgin born, and without complicating matters too much let me quickly explain that sin nature is passed through male lineage –so God by passed a man – not just to make Christmas interesting, but actually to avoid the contamination by sin, so Jesus was born without sin, and lived without sin, having no capacity to sin.
b. The Bible says of Him, He "did no sin" (1Pet. 2:22), "in Him is no sin" (1John 3:5), He "knew no sin" (2Cor. 5:21), He was, "without sin" (Heb. 4:15). He was "holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners" (Heb. 7:26).
B. So Jesus never sinned, therefore He should not have suffered the penalty of sin, death, but Jesus died. How come?
1. He died for us.
2. He took our penalty.
3. He paid the price of our sin, and in so doing He proved that God loved us and cares about us.
C. Now theologians call this the vicarious death of Christ.
1. See, there we go complicating it again.
2. Vicarious is another one of those intimidating words, but it simply means “substitutionary”
3. What does this mean for you and me? It means Christ suffered the penalty of our sins so we don’t have to.
4. However, we need to understand there is a distinct difference between believing Christ simply died for your sin and believing He died as your substitute.
a. Illus: Imagine for a moment a man who had broken the law. He now owes a penalty or fine to the court. Another man comes and states he will pay the fine for the guilty. He pays the fine, and the guilty is released. This is what Christ has done for us, right? Not completely, if you understand the vicarious death of Christ.
b. In the above example, the second man comes and pays the fine of the first, allowing the guilty to go free. However, the second man did not become a substitute for the first. If he had, he would have sat in front of the judgment seat and have been declared guilty. The substitute becomes the offender and bears the punishment, as if he had committed the offence.
5. So when the Bible says “Christ died for us” it doesn’t just mean He did us a service, it means He became our substitute, took our sin and wrong, took our guilt upon Himself and bore our penalty
6. So the plain truth is The plain truth is that you are a sinner, that sin must be punished and that Jesus took your punishment.
IV. The Plain Truth Is That By Believing On Him You May Be Pardoned.
A. The Philippian jailor, who had been listening to the praises and prayers of Paul and Silas all night, asked a pertinent question of them in our opening text:
1. He said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”
2. In other words, “How can I know my sins are forgiven, how can I be sure of heaven, how can I be free from guilt, how can I secure the salvation of my eternal soul?”
3. And the answer came back: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.”
4. As simple as that.
a. No mention of religion, church, ceremonies or rituals.
b. No sprinkling, pouring or immersing required.
c. No effort on man’s part, no keeping commandments, doing charitable works or showing special benevolence.
d. Just a simple act of faith… “Believe”
e. “For by grace are ye saved through faith.” (Eph 2:8)
B. Now let’s clear something up – it’s not just believing in Jesus, just believing He exists, or accepting that He died, was buried and rose again the third day, that saves, but trusting in Him.
1. You see, there are three kinds of faith, there is historical faith is which believe in the existence of someone. For example, I believe in Julius Caesar. I accept he was a real person who existed 2000 years ago and came to Britain in 55 B.C. But what does that faith do for me. Not much.
2. Then there is intellectual faith, which is to believe what has been said is true. A lot of people believe what the Bible says to be true, but that is as far as it goes. They are not Christians, and it is often said that such people will miss heaven by 18 inches, the distance between the head and the heart.
3. But then there is a trusting faith, where a person not only believes what is said to be true, but also acts upon it. This is the kind of faith people exercise on their wedding day. They are placing their trust in the commitment of their spouse for life.
4. And it is this third kind of faith that Paul speaks of when he tells this man to believe on Jesus. He is telling him to exercise trusting faith, to depend absolutely upon Jesus, for salvation.
Conclusion: So there you have it: the gospel in plain English. No gobbledygook, no complex theories, just plain truth. The plain truth is you are a sinner, that sin must be punished, that Jesus took your place and was penalty, and that by trusting in Him as your Saviour you will be saved, and go to heaven for sure.
Illus: A man fell off a cliff, but managed to grab a tree limb on his way down. “Is anyone up there?” he cried out. “I am here, I am the Lord, do you believe me?” the voice said. “Yes, Lord I believe, I really believe, but I can’t hang on much longer.” “If you really believe you will be alright, I will save you, just let go of the branch.” The man paused for a moment then said, “is there anyone else up there?”
I wonder this evening are you clinging to some branch instead of just believeing in Jesus?
Have you ever asked God to forgive you and trusted in Jesus to save you? I did ask, "Do you believe in God?" nor even, "Do you believe what the Bible says about the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ?" I ask rather, "Have you ever seen yourself as God sees you, a sinner, lost and condemned? Have you ever asked Him to forgive you and save you placing your trust only in Him?
If you have not, could I ask you to do that tonight, even right now, as we close our service in prayer?
