SALVATION BY GRACE
Eph. 2:8-9
“It is by grace that you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God. and not from works, so no man should boast."
Jn. 15:16
“You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, that you may bear much fruit.”
A young soldier, returning home from war, called his parents when he reached the United States. He said, “Mom and Dad, I have a friend with me who needs a place to stay for awhile.
His face was blown away, and he is blind and has no ears. Is it alright if I bring him home with me for a few months?
The parents hesitated a little, and suggested he might do better in a hospital or special home. The next day, their son, who made the call, was found dead, hanging from the ceiling in his hotel room. The reason was obvious. His face was blown away and he had no ears.
God see us as ungodly and morally and spiritually ugly and gives us salvation Grace means an extravagant gift. It has been defined as something we need but do not deserve. Justice gives us what we do deserve and mercy and grace give a home with God for all eternity, something we. do not deserve.
THE GIFT OF CALVARY
Rom. 5:8
“God demonstrates His love for us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
In the heart and character of God, for us to be forgiven there must be a sacrifice made for us. He says, “Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. Jesus knew this from his OT Bible and said his “blood was shed for many, for the forgiveness of sins (Mt. 26).
There is no way we can make God come down and nothing we can do to earn it or deserve it. I’m not sure, but I might suffer and die for you. But never in a million years would I give you one of my daughters to strip naked, to be beaten so that she would not look uman (Isa. 52) and be hung on a cross.
Sins like ours tortured and murdered Jesus. We do what is best for us like Pilate; we have made fun of people like the crow around the cross. In Acts 2:36, two months after Jesus was crucified, Peter told a crowd, many of whom did not even know about death – you crucified Him. Hebrews 6 tells people leaving the church that they are “crucifying Jesus all over again,” (6:6)
Jesus died for the ungodly, those like us who hated, tortured and killed him (Acts 2:36 / Heb. 6:6). We, who murdered Jesus are given the gift of His forgiving mercy. His Father (God) put Him into our hands Son; if that isn’t lavish, loving grace to the undeserving, I don’t know what is.
THE GIFT OF CONVERSION
2 Cor. 7:10
“Godly (God given) sorrow produces repentance leads to salvation”
Repentance and faith are God given. Ephesians 2:8 says faith is God’s gift. So is repentance. The term “godly” sorrow cannot mean the sorrow of a godly person because before salvation we anything but godly. Even the good things we do are “filthy rags” if we think they will get us to heaven. Hebrews six says God “leads us to repentance”.
1. God Comes to us
Rom. 3 :11.
“No man seeks God at any time / The Son of Man has come to seek and save that which is lost.”
God came to Adam and Eve when they were naked, ashamed and afraid. We say people are “seeking for God” when in reality we are seeking everything but God. When I was young I was interested in girl, football and cars. Adrian Rogers says a sinner nor more looks for God than a mouse looks for a cat.
God has an avenue of approach to every human heart. For Luther it was a bolt of lightning; for T.B. Matson my ethics professor it was the fear of hell; for me it was the desire to have a loving home.
It can be the birth of a baby or the death of a baby. Harry Lauder, the Scottish humorist said when his son died, “For me it was alcohol, suicide or God and I chose God.”
2. God Enlightens Us
1 Cor. 1:18ff
“The natural man does not understand the things of God; it is pure nonsense to him
Spurgeon says the unconverted man can no more understand the gospel than a horse can understand astronomy. He says we are dead, and dead to the fact we are dead; and we are blind and blind to the fact we are blind.
A pastor friend told me he did not do much pre-marital counseling because when a couple comes to a Pastor smitten by love, they are deaf, dumb, blind and stupid. That is how God finds us to be.
3. God Convicts Us
John 15:8
“The Spirit will come and show the people of this world the truth about sin, about righteousness, and the judgment.”
When the words of the Gospel begin to take on meaning, the Spirit personalizes it. We know God does not just punish wrongdoing, he will punish my wrongdoing. On the good side, Jesus didn’t just die for sinners he died for me. God doesn’t welcom those who turn to Him he will welcome me if I turn to him. We sing,
It me! Its me O Lord
Standing in the need of prayer
It not my brother or my sister Lord
Its me standing in the need of prayer
A child TV star had improper sexual relations with her rock star father from her early teens. On day in her twenties she put a stop to it by waking in and saying, “Daddy, you and I are going to hell for what we have been doing.”
THE GIFT OF FREEDOM
Mt. 11:28
“Whosoever wants to, let him come / Come unto Me (Jesus) all of you who labor and are burdened down.”
Acts 2:38 / 40
“Repent- Save yourselves from this crooked generation.”
Rev. 3:20
“Behold I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him.”
God brings us to the door of salvation and all we have to do is accept it. That is one thing He could, but has chosen not to do. Dr. Criswell said he stands and knocks patiently at the door of the human heart but does not go in unvited.
To say “no” to God hurts us. It gives us pain in this life and hell in the next. But it also hurts God.
One Bible word for the unsaved is “lost”. In Luke 15 Jesus tells of a woman who lost her money and a shepherd who lost a sheep and both searches for what they lost.
Finally he told of a father whose son left and it seems that he looked down the road every day for his son to come back because when he did the father ran to meet him.
The Bible says God does not want anyone to perish in hell. He wants everyone to repent (). We do not go to hell because God does not love us; does no want us in heaven or because Jesus did not die for us. First John says he is the atoning sacrifice for the sins of those of us who are saved, but also for the whole world.
We go there not because we choose hell but because we choose a self centered or self righteous way of life that leads there. We don’t go there because we are sinners, but because we choose not to receive Jesus’ sacrifice.
Judas did not go hell for betraying Jesus he went there because he went to the wrong tree, Instead of hanging himself he should have gone to Calvary for forgiveness.
Calvinists disagree with this final point. They say if we have to give Jesus our lives to change in repentance- this is works. It is a large and tremendous commitment we do for salvation.
Those of us who have made the choice do not see it that way. We see our repentance and faith as a drowning man reaching out for a rope thrown to him. We know our salvation, from start to finish, is the work of God. We would no more try to go into the presence of a holy God saying, let me in because I repented and believed, than we would try to lie face down on the surface of the sun and live.
A man wants his son to go to college but the boy wants to get a job after High School and buy a new car. The dad knows if he pesters him, he will drive him away from college.
So he gets his son’s football coach, who the boy admires, to talk about the value of college. He gets his friends, male and female, to do the same. Near the end of school, he has his wife tell their son, she and his father had decided to give him the new car he wanted, if he goes to college. But she added, “But son, its your decision.”
One day the boy comes in and says, “Mom and dad, I have decided to go to college.” It was all they could do to act surprised.
When one man was asked what he did to become a Christian, he said, “I ran and Jesus caught me”
Every child of God coming to Christ sees this verse over the door, “Come to me all of you who are burdened down.” When we get into salvation and look back at the door, we see above it, “You have not chosen me; I have chosen you.” You say that doesn’t make sense. It does to us.
2. With Our Call
Acts 2:40-41
“And Peter said, ‘Save yourselves from this crooked generation / and all those who accepted his message were baptized.
”
Acts 26:19
Paul said of his conversion,
“I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision.”
When the seriousness and hopelessness of our condition hits us God shines the spotlight on us and tells us to choose salvation- to commit to Him our sins to forgive and our lives to change and control forever. At that moment we are born again, forgive of every sin, past present and future and our name is recorded in heaven.
Note: There are two groups who deny that deciding and committing to live for Christ (repentance) is essential for salvation.
First are those who make repentance a nothing but a mental change - believing we are sinners; believing salvation is at the cross and commit our sins to be forgiven. They say the Lordship verses where Jesus tells us to take up our crosses and told the Ruler to give up his money have nothing to do with salvation. They are about making Jesus Lord, something every believer should so.
This is not biblical. Jesus, calling people of his day to repent said the people of Nineveh repented when Jonah preached. But the term repentance is not in Jonah. What is there is, “They turned from their wicked ways (Google “The Lordship Debate” and see our chapter on conversion.)
The others or course are Calvinists who say God’s invitation to repent and believe are irresistible to those God chose to be saved before they were born. We cannot say “no”. Even our decision comes from Him. (See the next chapter).
The believers doctrine of “election” is:
God votes for us
The devil votes against us, and
We cast the deciding vote.
