The Road to Salvation
by Pastor James May
I know that for most of us this message is going to be so much repetition. But God has impressed upon me strongly that this is message He wants to give to you so I will do my best to obey the Lord and give this message to you.
Even though the majority of people who come to church have already walked this path and have come to the know Jesus Christ as their Savior, Lord and King, I believe that it will do us good to hear again what the Word of God says is the right path to obtaining salvation.
In our day, there are so many different opinions on what it takes to be saved. On one end of the spectrum we have those who are ultra liberal who believe that no matter how you live, or what you believe; when it’s all over, every man, woman and child will be saved because God is a God of love, mercy and grace and he will not punish anyone forever in a literal lake of fire.
On the other end, we have the ultra legalists whose opinion states that before we can be saved we must not only obey the Word of God but we must also take on the impossible burden of obeying all the laws of men that are put forth by evangelists, pastors, teachers and others who claim to have a special revelation from God concerning what it takes to be “holy”. Their “plan of salvation” would exclude everyone who does not adhere to their strict way of life.
Somewhere between these two vastly different opinions is the truth. It matters not what the opinion of man is concerning salvation. The only thing that matters is what is said in God’s Word. God established the plan of salvation; not man. Any attempt that we may make to alter God’s plan is nothing more than perversion, disobedience and sinful.
Let’s look at the ultra liberal opinion first. If their opinion was the truth, then why do we need a Savior at all? Why did Jesus come and die on the cross and then rise again from the dead? Why do we bother to come to church and hear the gospel preached? If all men are going to be saved in the end, no matter what we do, then what difference does it make what we believe or what we do?
This “plan of salvation” is no plan at all. It is simply a way to justify their total rejection of God and to justify their self-indulgence to live any way that they want to.
My Bible does not give me that plan of salvation at all. In fact, the Word of God states that we cannot live like the world, act like the world, or even desire to be a part of worldly pleasures and still make Heaven our home.
2 Corinthians 6:16-18, "And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty."
In Matthew 6:24 Jesus said, "No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon."
1 John 2:15-16, "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world."
Now we all know that we cannot claim to love the Lord and love the world at the same time. This world is an enemy of God. If we love the world then we are an enemy of God as well and I don’t believe anyone who remains in love with this world with all its rebellion and sin will ever enter Heaven’s gates.
Besides all of this there are some very specific scriptures that tell us just who will not inherit eternal life nor enter into Heaven. Here is the list:
Part of the list is found in 1 Corinthians 6:9-10, "Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God."
More are found in Galatians 5:19-21, "Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God."
This is by no means a comprehensive list of the types of things that will keep people out of Heaven but I think it proves to us that the ultra liberal point of view is absolutely wrong. Not everyone will go to Heaven and be saved. Only those who follow the path that God has determined for salvation will be saved.
Now let’s look at the ultra legalist opinion for a moment. The ultra legalist would begin by giving you the plan of salvation that God has already established but they won’t stop there because, in their mind, salvation just has to be harder to obtain than what God says.
They begin by establishing added requirements and making more laws that govern where you can go, what you can wear, what you can eat, drink or read. The problem with establishing any “Law” that we must obey to be saved is two-fold.
First, there is the problem of finding just how much law is enough. Where is the dividing line in the rules in regulations that absolutely determines whether we are saved or not? You can’t find one because there is none. And why is that so?
No place of absolute righteousness can be found in obeying any set of laws because there is no power in the law to save us. When we come under law, any law, whether of God or of man, there is never a place where law can make you innocent. It can only point out where you are wrong, and place you under condemnation.
When you break the law of the land by speeding beyond the limits set by the legislature of our state, you are guilty. If you are caught you will be fined. But just because you aren’t caught doesn’t mean you aren’t guilty of being a lawbreaker. The law says that you are guilty and whether the court sentences you or not doesn’t matter, you are still guilty. The laws of the state do not have a provision to forgive you, only to punish you. The speeding law cannot say, “well you broke my statutes but that’s okay. You are such a special person and I love you so much that the provisions of my statute won’t be applied to you.” Don’t you see that the law, any law, whether it’s the laws of the Bible, the laws of the state, or the laws of the church and its preachers, does not have the power to save you, only to condemn.
Matthew 23:4-6, "For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers. But all their works they do for to be seen of men: they make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the borders of their garments, And love the uppermost rooms at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues,"
Jesus accused the Pharisees of making laws that were impossible to keep. They would create laws, rules and regulations that forced everyone to live under their rule, but the Pharisees couldn’t even fulfill their own laws and neither could anyone else. They only did this as a matter of pride to attempt to prove their own “holiness”. Jesus say through their self-righteous, holier than thou attitude, and he called them white washed graves full of dead men’s bones. They appeared holy and righteous on the outside but they were still dying in their sin because their laws could not save them.
Paul tells us what the whole purpose of laws are, either of men or of God. They are there to tell us where we went wrong and that’s all they can do.
Galatians 3:24, "Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith."
Paul knew that law could not save. Salvation was by faith alone through the Spirit of the Lord through God’s plan and by no other means.
Galatians 3:2-3, "This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?"
Since both the ultra liberal and the ultra legalist opinions on the plan of salvation are both obviously wrong, then what exactly is the plan of salvation?
The only way to know the real road to salvation is to look into the Word of God and determine how salvation comes according to what the Bible says and then ignore anything and anyone who would add to or take away from God’s plan.
Let us quickly examine what God has established as the road to salvation in his own Word.
First, before we can find the right road, we must learn and recognize that all men are in need of walking this road. Anyone who does not come to God according to His plan will be lost. God has set the road in place and there is only one road. There are not many paths that lead to Heaven; there is one and only one.
Romans 3:23, "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;"
From the instant that Adam and Even sinned in the Garden of Eden, rebellion and sin has entered into every human heart from the moment of conception.
Every one of us, including that innocent looking little cherub, held in its mother’s arms that has just been born into this world, the child who steals a cookie from the cookie jar, the adolescent who rides his bicycles through the neighbors flower bed, the teenager who sneaks out of the house at night to meet a friend, the adult who cheats on his income tax or steals time on the job, the retired people who often sit idle while they could still be working for the Lord, and those who are nearing the end of their lives and still have not surrendered their life to Christ, are all sinners in need of a Savior. We enter this life as sinners and we will leave this life as sinners, destined for the very pits of hell, unless we find and follow God’s road to salvation.
That’s the second step on God’s road to salvation; after realizing that we have all sinned, then we must realize that the penalty for all sin, even one little white lie, is eternal death.
Romans 6:23, "For the wages of sin is death…"
Thank God that the road doesn’t stop there. That’s where the road ended for the first 4000 years of man’s existence. From Adam to the coming of Jesus, the end of the road was, “for the wages of sin is death.” True, many prophets and people from ancient times are now in Heaven but none of them, save two, Enoch and Elijah, ever saw Heaven until Jesus died on the Cross. God is a sovereign God and I have to leave the purpose of those two men going to Heaven before the crucifixion and resurrection in God’s hand. I believe that these two men will be the final two great witnesses spoken of in Revelation but that’s a sermon for another time and place.
God had his road to salvation laid out long before he ever created man and breathed life into him.
Matthew 25:34, "Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:"
The next step in the road to salvation is also found in Romans 6:23, “…but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
This step takes us to the cross of Christ. We know we are guilty, we know we deserve death, but now we are shown the open door to Heaven. That door leads through the cross. Easter is coming in a few weeks and we will celebrate that day in honor of the fact that God opened the door to salvation through his only begotten Son, Jesus Christ.
The most well known verses in the Bible are found in John 3:16-18, "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."
These verses are the most memorized and most celebrated because this is where we find the open gate to the road to salvation. Jesus is that Gate. He is the only way, the only entrance and there is no other.
Jesus said in John 10:1, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber."
Anyone who tries to make a way into Heaven without going through Jesus, confessing him as Lord, repenting of their sin, and going by way of the cross and the blood of Jesus is a thief and a robber. We have already seen that no thieves or robbers will enter Heaven.
So now that we know that the only way to salvation is through Jesus Christ, what is the final step on the road to salvation?
The final steps are found in Romans 10:9-13, "That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved."
There it is – the final step! Accepting and believing in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior!
But how is that acceptance completed and what does it mean to believe in Jesus?
Here are the steps involved in confessing and believing unto salvation!
BELIEVE that Jesus Christ died for your sins, and rose from the dead.
CONFESS that you are a sinner and need His forgiveness.
REPENT of your sin, making a decision to turn away from your old ways and to walk according to the ways of righteousness
RECEIVE His forgiveness
ACCEPT His free gift of eternal life
That’s all there is to the road to salvation. Anything added after that is not a part of salvation. Yes there is a lot more to receive from the Lord. Yes there is a lot more to learn. Yes there are many things that God will continually teach us about how we should live and what we should do to be in His perfect will. But all of those things are subsequent to being saved. They have nothing to do with the plan of salvation. Once we begin to walk on this road of salvation, then all of these other things will come in God’s time.
Some teach that you must be baptized in water to be saved. Baptism is an important step in your walk along the road of salvation, but baptism doesn’t mean anything until you have repented of your sin and accepted Jesus as your Savior. Baptism is a symbol that you have already buried the old sinful nature and that you are risen again a new man, identifying with Jesus Christ in the power of the resurrection. It’s a public confession of an inward change that has already happened.
Some teach that you must be filled with the baptism in the Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking in other tongues in order to be saved. That’s not right either. Those who were filled with the Holy Ghost were already saved before the Baptism came. It wasn’t what saved them. The blood of Jesus had already cleansed their sin and they were already walking the road of salvation before the Holy Ghost fell on the Day of Pentecost.
Acts 2:38-41 are often quoted in justifying this teaching but lets read what these verses say. "Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call. And with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves from this untoward generation. Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls."
Peter told them to walk the same road to salvation that we have preached to you this morning. He told them to repent of their sin, confess the Lord Jesus as being the Son of God who died and rose again, being baptized in his blood that washes their sin away, and then receive the gift of the Holy Ghost which is eternal life.
These verses do not say that they are to be baptized in water for the remission of sin, but in the name of Jesus Christ believing in the power of His blood to cleanse them.
These verses do not say that ye shall receive the baptism in the Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking in other tongues, but that you shall receive that gift that comes by the presence of the Holy Ghost in your heart. When Jesus moves in, the Spirit of God fills your heart and you are saved. The baptism in the Holy Ghost can only come after you are saved.
It is true that some people receive the baptism in the Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking in other tongues at the same time that they are saved but not everyone does. Some people are saved for years before they receive this baptism. Likewise, some people are saved for a while before they identify with Christ in water baptism.
God’s Road to Salvation is a simple road to follow. Jesus paid a great price so that the door could be opened for you and I. He said that whosoever wanted to could come. He made the way easy to find. Let’s not make it complicated! Let’s not put limits on whosoever will! Let’s know and follow and teach the plan of salvation and the road to salvation that Jesus taught and that the Word of God teaches and forget the plan that men have laid.
Some of you, like myself, have had to dig into God’s Word and find the real road to salvation because you were taught so many things, burdened with so many extra requirements, and even in some cases, taught some very wrong doctrines.
I thank God for those of you who have found Jesus, the gate, the only Way, the only Truth, the only Life. Only through Jesus will we ever enter Heaven.
I wonder if there are those who are confused right now? I wonder how many have been laden down with burdens that they thought had to be carried before they could be saved. Too many preachers have laid burdens of man-made laws upon the shoulders of others and yet they, like the Pharisees, cannot carry their own burdens. They make laws for others to follow and then break that law themselves.
Legalism and set of rules and regulations can’t save you and you can’t find the road to salvation by traveling any path that you want to either. The only Road to Salvation leads you to the Cross of Christ and once you pass through Jesus the road ahead is opened to you.
Living a life that is separated unto the Lord; walking in paths of righteousness; baptism in water; receiving the baptism in the Holy Ghost; learning and obeying the Word of God; and walking in the perfect will of God are all a result of that initial step of salvation, but none of those things can come until salvation comes first. We must begin by entering the gate, then continue to walk on the Road of Salvation before we can see and understand the signs that God posts on the road to give us the directions to take in life.
