WHY I CHOSE SALVATION
By Pastor Jim May
I don’t remember exactly how old I was when I first began to understand that I was a sinner in need of a Savior. I can remember as far back as maybe the age of 5 or 6 years old when I would go to church, sit in the Sunday School classes and hear Sis. Wallace, or Bill Tarver, and others who were faithful servants, working with kids and teens, trying to instill within them the Word of God. Their whole objective, as well as ours, was focused upon one all-important goal – to help kids find salvation through Jesus Christ and teach them to be committed and faithful Christians.
As I sat in those classes week after week, sometimes I remember that they weren’t too exciting, and sometimes they were really boring. While the Word of God is alive and exciting, how we present it, and represent it, has a lot to do with how well the message is received. That’s why I believe so much in preparation time. As a rule of thumb, I am convinced that it takes a minimum of double the preparation time compared to the preparation time for a class or sermon to be effective.
Teachers, those students in your class only hear you, at best, two hours a week. In that 2 hours you have to make a powerful impact upon their hearts and lives that they will never forget. An impact that will overcome the 168 hours that make up the rest of the week, that they spend in front of the TV, playing computer games and listening to the fighting, murdering and killing that is everywhere you turn.
I know the Word of God will not return void and that God, the Holy Ghost, will impress it upon those who will hear, but God wants you to do your part too. If your class is an hour long and you spend 10 minutes after you get to church getting prepared, or 30 minutes at home just before you leave for church, then you aren’t teaching, you’re babysitting and playing around with the souls of those kids and God will require an answer for your lack of preparing.
Pastor, and I’m speaking to myself here too, if you aren’t spending time in prayer, fasting and studying for at least two hours or more before every service, you’re doing your flock a great injustice. I know that God can impress upon me a message in a moment of time and that, through the anointing of the Holy Ghost, I can sometimes preach a message that will impact your lives greatly without preparing in advance, or can I? You see; if you haven’t spent time in prayer and studying the Word before, I don’t believe that God will send that kind of anointing.
Those kinds of sermons are few and far between. No matter whether you are an evangelist, pastor or a teacher, there must be time for preparation if the message is going to have a proper impact.
When I think of when that moment of salvation came for me, I’m pretty certain that it happened sometime between the ages of 8 and 10. I do remember when I was filled with the Holy Ghost – I was 12 years old, kneeling between the first and second pew of a little Pentecostal church.
How many of you can remember the day and circumstances when you first received salvation? When was the very first time that you confessed Jesus as Lord, asked Him to come into your heart, and gave your life to Him? Can you remember when you were filled with the Holy Ghost?
The day, the hour, the circumstances are all important, but the most important thing is that it happened. One day you woke up living in sin, wandering about in a world filled with darkness and death – and before that day ended you were gloriously saved, born again by the Spirit of God, washed in the Blood of the Lamb, and given eternal life and the light of God came on in your heart and life. What a glorious day that was!
But why did you get saved? What brought you to that place where you decided that it had to happen?
Too often, in our day, there are a lot of people in the church who don’t even know if they are saved or not. They don’t know what salvation is because they haven’t been taught the Word of God. They don’t know why they are even going to church other than it feels good to go, their conscience is appeased for a while, and they can claim to be a Christian, and somehow, through sacrifice and suffering, they will make it to heaven.
I want to tell you that all the sacrifice and suffering you can do won’t save you. And I would further say that if you don’t know whether you are saved or not, and wonder if you will really go to Heaven when this life is over, you had better find and altar and don’t leave until you know that salvation has come.
Then I want you to know that salvation doesn’t come by feelings. You don’t have to feel saved to be saved. In fact, there are many times when you won’t feel saved, because that’s part of your walk by faith in God’s Word. There will be times when you think that God has left you to fend for yourself. That too, is part of the walk by faith, and not by sight.
Salvation comes through one way only – through believing upon the Lord Jesus Christ as the Son of God who died for you and arose from the dead by His own power, confessing Him as the Lord of your life, and then giving your heart to Him without reservation.
Romans 10:9, "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."
There is no magic prayer to pray, no recited words that matter – it’s all about you giving your heart and life to Jesus, believing in what He has done for you and confessing that belief with your mouth to God and man. God works on what He sees in the heart, and what that heart really believes and desires.
But why do you want salvation? What is it that grabs you by the heart and shakes you into reality and makes you realize that you have to make a decision about Jesus?
Turn with me over to the Book of Luke, chapter 16, and let me show you what brought me to the point of salvation. There was something that kept being pressed home to my mind that I couldn’t forget, even as a kid. There was something that I couldn’t stop thinking about and worrying about; something that was terrifying and that I had to escape from.
Luke 16:19-28, "There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day: And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate, full of sores, And desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table: moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried; And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame. But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented. And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence. Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to my father’s house: For I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment."
This story is one that has a powerful impact on anyone and everyone who will hear what it is saying. Don’t just skim over the words and move on. Stop, look and listen!
If you came to a railroad track, and the lights were flashing, and bars were down, and you could hear the horn, or the whistle, of the train, and there was that big light just a few feet away, you would be a fool to not obey the warning signs.
This passage of scripture is that set of warning signs to me! Every time I read it I can hear the bells ringing in my soul, see the lights flashing from the pages of God’s Word and I can hear screams of those souls that are in hell right now.
I can hear their screams saying, “Please God, help me – but they know that God no longer hears their cry and that no help will come – ever – for eternity.”
I can see the warnings of God’s light in His Word saying – “Take heed! Stop, Look at what I have to say, Listen with your heart, soul and spirit - Don’t cross this line!”
From the very first time I heard this story, there was never a doubt in my mind that the rich man is a real man who is right now burning in the Lake of Fire. There was never a doubt in my mind that Lazarus is a real man either. It’s not a fairy tale, a parable, or a story made up to scare people – IT’S GOD TELLING US THE TRUTH OF TWO PEOPLE WHO LIVED DIFFERENTLY, DIED DIFFERENTLY, AND ENDED UP IN TWO VERY DIFFERENT PLACES FOR ETERNITY.
The whole world must be given this message! The lesson that it carries is not a game to be toyed with. It’s a message that carries eternal consequences for each and every one of us.
Here’s a rich man – rich by the world’s standards – but bankrupt, broken, blind and naked when judged by God’s Word.
He had all the comforts, pleasures and lifestyle that money could buy in his day. He had finest home, the best furniture, and finest feasts of whatever food that his flesh desired at every meal, the best name brand clothes on the market, and was able to travel the world, as his whim would strike him. No doubt he was a multi-millionaire by today’s standards. His money talked and whatever he wanted was his. There was no limit to his desires. That’s what the scripture means when it says that he “fared sumptuously every day”.
But what he needed most, his money couldn’t buy, for it has no price in the wealth of this world. He didn’t have peace, he didn’t have joy, he didn’t have true love, he didn’t have mercy, he didn’t have grace, and he certainly didn’t have salvation for his eternal soul.
One moment he was riding in his brand new chariot, wearing his golden robes, nibbling on a bunch of grapes, sipping his fine wine, admiring his estate as he rode along – and suddenly, without warning, in an instant, he was burning in the Lake of Fire!
As he writhed in pain and agony, his tongue was on fire – but it wasn’t the fire of a red hot pepper – it was the fire of judgment in the form similar to that of molten lava that attempted to burn his very soul, but would not consume him. He was engulfed in the flames, burning, dying, agonizing, overwhelmed by fear and darkness, alone, separated from all that is good and holy, but there was one thing he could see, and it only added to his pain.
HE COULD SEE INTO THE PARADISE THAT GOD HAD PREPARED FOR THOSE WHO ARE SAVED!
The Rich Man saw Lazarus in Paradise. Paradise at that time was a “compartment” or “division” of the underworld that had been set aside and made into a place of rest and peace, with all the righteous joys that men could desire. It was a place where all the souls of those who believed God and trusted Him for their deliverance, would go, prior to the coming of the Messiah. That place no longer exists. After the crucifixion, Jesus emptied Paradise taking all those souls to Heaven with him. Perhaps that “compartment” has been included into the Lake of Fire now. Hell is continuously growing larger to accept those who will go there.
Isaiah 5:14, "Therefore hell hath enlarged herself, and opened her mouth without measure: and their glory, and their multitude, and their pomp, and he that rejoiceth, shall descend into it."
The Rich Man, from the very flames of hell, could look up and see what he had missed and how that Lazarus was being given every blessing that God could give. The life that Lazarus had now was far and above anything that the Rich Man could have imagined.
He knew this Lazarus – he had seen him every day as he passed through the gates of his estate. But he chose to ignore the sufferings of humanity, the needs of the sick and poor, and went on his merry way to enjoy the fruits of his on life.
I know that this speaks of those who ignore the needs of humanity for a savior, for provision for the body and for the meeting of their needs by those who have much to give but refuse to give, but I want to let you see it in a little different light today.
Think of it in this fashion – every day that Rich Man left his house, passing into the gates of sin into the world. Everyday, as he left his home, he had to face a decision. There was a choice to make. I believe that every one of us faces those choices each day, and how we choose will determine our eternal destination.
What was that choice, that decision that the Rich Man had to make? What could Lazarus stand for?
The Holy Spirit began to speak to me as I wrote this message saying this, “Lazarus at the gate, is that man who is wretched, poor and useless to the world, but rich in the things of God.” In other words, Lazarus, to that Rich Man, and to you and I, is that other “man” that we could be, depending upon what we decide to do about serving the Lord.
You see, Lazarus was a man who had very little of this world’s wealth. He didn’t live a grand lifestyle, he was sometimes hungry for the things of the flesh, but many of those wants went unfulfilled, he was counted as useless to the world, unable or unwilling to be a part of the mainstream of society that was around him. He seemed but a beggar, uneducated, but uncompromising in his commitment to God, not willing to steal, murder or be unethical to get what he wanted and needed.
To the world, Christianity seems to be a religion of the uneducated beggar, one who refuses to be a part of what is happening in the world, but someone who has his or her eyes set on something that isn’t visible.
Each of us, in our own way, must look upon Lazarus every day. We must decide each day, whether we will choose the path of this world, to be rich in the eyes of the world – or to the poor in the eyes of the world, but rich in the eyes of God. We must decide whether our treasure will be here or in Heaven. We must decide whether the pleasures of sin for a season in this life are worth the flames of Hell for eternity, or to set our affections on things above and suffer the loss of many of this world’s pleasures to gain eternal joy. It all depends upon what we really see and what we want most.
That’s what I saw, what I heard in Sunday School, and what I heard from the preacher week after week, when I was still young. From that day to this, I have never forgotten that comparison, and I pray that I never will.
Why did I choose to be saved? Why did you choose to be saved? It was because I don’t want to know that Rich Man anymore than I do right now! I don’t want to go where he is, meet him face to face, and confess that I didn’t heed the warning signs!
I chose to be saved; chose to believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ as my Savior, Lord and King; chose to give Him my life without reservation; chose to allow him to live in my heart; and give it all to Him because I don’t want to burn in the Lake of Fire.
It wasn’t because I loved the Lord at first. It was out of fear of that fire that I chose to believe and be saved.
The love that I have for Jesus only came after I accepted Him and began to build a relationship with Him, walking with Jesus through all the storms, troubles and good times of life. I only learned to truly love Him by serving Him and allowing Him to life in me.
I believe that if we preach about Hell and make it hot! If I can just put the fear of Hell into the hearts of men; if I can just tell them that unless they accept Jesus as their Savior, that’s where they will be for next ‘500 quadrillion years and beyond’, for eternity; and then tell them that they can spend eternity in Heaven instead just by being saved by the Blood of Jesus, then more of them will make the right choice to follow Jesus.
(For the non-mathematically minded – quadrillion is an adjective that means 10 to the 15th power) That is a mighty long time.
The Rich Man is there now; has been for thousands of years already; and he’s never coming out of that tormenting fire. Don’t go there with him. You don’t have to go there, but you will if you don’t do something about it. Every man, woman and child is destined to go to those flames by default, because of the sin of Adam and of their own heart.
The only way to escape that destiny is by hearing the Word of God, heeding the warning signs, and accepting the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord.
Jesus can and will give you a better life, an abundant life, in this world, but whether this life is better or not, will only matter for a short time of about 70 - 80 years or a little more. It’s where you will spend those 500 quadrillion years that really matters.
Why did I get saved? Why should you get saved? Why should we be faithful, committed and uncompromising with the world – because we want to go to Heaven to be with Jesus and live in joy and peace forever, instead of burning, suffering and being tormented in the flames of Hell with the Rich Man. That’s Why!
Choose Life – Choose to follow Jesus!
