The word “save” can mean many different things:
• To set aside money for later use, often adding to the sum periodically. (She’s saving for a new computer.)
• To avoid wasting something or using something unnecessarily. (He took a shortcut to save time.)
• To set something aside, keep something back, or protect something so that it can be used later. (He saved some of the pie for tomorrow.)
• To reduce or limit the expense of something. (Extra insulation helps to save on fuel.)
• To collect as many items of a particular kind as possible, usually in order to do something with them later. (She saves old jars for when she makes jelly.)
• To make it possible for somebody to be spared from a situation or activity. (It will save me from having to decide.)
• To treat something carefully or stop using it in order to keep it from being used up or worn out. (Turn the radio off to save the batteries.)
• To store a copy of a data file on a storage medium such as a hard drive or disk.
• To prevent a goal from being scored by an opponent.
• In baseball, to maintain the lead in completing a game started by another pitcher.
• To rescue somebody or something from harm or danger. (The entire crew was saved.)
• To free somebody from the consequences of sin (Source: Encarta Dictionary).
I. Why Do I Need to Be Saved?
A. Because I was born a SINNER
1. What is sin?
Sin is DISOBEDIENCE to God’s moral law. I can sin by doing, saying, or thinking anything that is against God’s rules.
[Pic: SinTarget]
The most frequently used word for sin in the Bible “to miss the mark.”
2. Where did sin come from?
Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7
3. How does the sin of Adam affect me?
a. I am GUILTY before God because of Adam’s sin.
“…sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned” (Rom. 5:12).
When Paul writes that “all sinned,” he’s not talking about our individual sins, he means that when Adam sinned the entire human race became guilty of sin.
Is this fair? Should I be guilty because of a sin committed thousands of years ago? If you read the rest of the verses in Romans 5, you’ll discover that everyone can be made righteous (innocent) because of one man’s obedience (because of Jesus Christ’s death on the cross). If you think it’s unfair that Adam’s sin makes you guilty, you should also think it’s unfair that Christ’s obedience can make you innocent.
b. I have a SINFUL NATURE because of Adam’s sin.
There were two brothers, well known around town for their crooked business dealings and underworld connections. They were as mean and cold-blooded as you could imagine. One day one of the brothers died, and the surviving brother wanted to give his dead brother a funeral fit for a king. He called the funeral home and made the arrangements, then he called the town’s minister and made him an offer, as they say, he couldn’t refuse. He said, “I’ll give you $30,000 to put that new roof on the church if, in eulogizing my brother, you call him a saint.”
The minister agreed. The whole town turned out for the funeral, and the minister began: “The man you see in the coffin was a vile individual. He was a liar, a thief, a deceiver, a manipulator, a reprobate, and a hedonist. He destroyed the fortunes, careers, and lives of countless people in this city, some of whom are here today. This man did every dirty, rotten thing you can think of. But compared to his brother, he was a saint” (Nelson’s Complete Book of Stories, Illustrations & Quotes, p. 759).
The Bible says that everyone is born a sinner. That includes you and that includes me. We all have a sinful nature that we inherited from Adam.
“Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me” (Ps. 51:5). One of the first words children learn in “mine.” Children are naturally selfish.
“Even from birth the wicked go astray; from the womb they are wayward and speak lies” (Ps. 58:3).
“There is no one who does not sin” (1 Kings 8:46).
“All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23). No one here today could jump across the Halifax Harbour, no matter how hard you tried. It’s impossible. And none of us are capable of living a perfect life. We all fall short.
“The Scripture declares that the whole world is a prisoner of sin” (Gal. 3:22).
“We all stumble in many ways” (James 3:2).
B. Because sin’s ultimate punishment is HELL
Did you know that there’s actually a town in Michigan called Hell? [Pic: Hell, Michigan] Hell was first settled in 1838 by George Reeves and his family. In 1841, when the State of Michigan came by and asked George what he wanted to name his town, he replies, “Call it hell for all I care, everyone else does” (Source: Hell, Michigan’s website, www.hell2u.com/ hell_history.htm). Obviously, the Bible talks about a different hell.
1. What is hell?
Romans 6:23 says, “The wages of sin is death.” In the Bible, there are three kinds of death:
• SPIRITUAL Death: Separation of the spirit from God.
God warned Adam and Eve, “You must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die” (Gen. 2:17). Because of Adam and Eve’s sin, we are all born into this world spiritually disconnected from God.
Paul wrote to the Ephesians, “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins” (Eph. 2:1). He later says that they were once “without God” (v. 12). They were separated from God. Spiritually, they were dead.
• PHYSICAL Death: Separation of the spirit from the body.
• ETERNAL Death: Eternal separation from God in hell.
The apostle John was once given a vision of the final judgment. He describes this vision in Revelation 20: “The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what they had done. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire” (vv 13-15).
When North Carolina evangelist Vance Havner was beginning his ministry, he pastored a country church where a farmer didn’t like his sermons he preached on hell. The man said, “Preach about the meek and lowly Jesus.” “That’s where I got my information about hell,” replied Havner (Nelson’s Complete Book of Stories, Illustrations & Quotes, p. 431).
It may surprise you to learn that the person in the Bible who spoke the most often (and in the most graphic terms) about hell, was not one of the fiery Old Testament prophets, or John the Baptist, but Jesus Himself. Why? Because He loves people, and He doesn’t want anyone to go there. And that’s the same reason why I’m giving this message today.
When speaking of hell, Jesus usually used the Hebrew word “Gehenna.” The valley of Gehenna is a valley located on the southern side of Jerusalem. During the reign of some of Israel’s wicked kings, an altar to the Canaanite god, Molech, was built in the valley. The people would bring theirs babies to throw into the fires there as a horrible sacrifice to Molech.
Later, during the reign of the godly king Josiah, the altars to Molech were destroyed, and the valley was filled with garbage and refuse and the corpses of the wicked. It became a vast burning garbage dump. The fire is said to have never gone out.
“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels’” (Matt. 25:41).
“They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matt. 13:42).
“They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord” (1 Thess. 1:9).
Hell is an eternal place of conscious suffering and the destiny of all those who do not receive God’s salvation.
2. Why does sin need to be punished?
You may say, “I thought the God of the Bible was a God of love?” How could He send people to hell?
The primary reason why God punishes sin is that GOD’S RIGHTEOUSNESS demands it.
“‘I am the LORD, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight,’ declares the LORD” (Jer. 9:24).
“God presented [Christ] as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished—he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus” (Rom. 3:25).
Why do I need to be saved? Because I was born a sinner and sin’s ultimate punishment is hell.
II. How Can I Be Saved?
A. By ADMITTING that I am a sinner.
“If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:8-9).
B. By BELIEVING that Jesus Christ died from my sins and rose from the grave.
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him” (John 3:16-17).
“We all like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isa. 53:6).
“Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).
It was February 1941, Auschwitz, Poland. Maximilian Kolbe was a Franciscan priest put in the infamous death camp for helping Jews escape Nazi terrorism. Months went by and in desperation an escape took place. The camp rule was enforced. Ten people would be rounded up randomly and herded into a cell where they would die of starvation and exposure as a lesson against future escape attempts.
Names were called. A Polish Jew Frandishek Gasovnachek was called. He cried, “Wait, I have a wife and children!” Kolbe stepped forward and said, “I will take his place.” Kolbe was marched into the cell with nine others where he managed to live until August 14.
This story was chronicled on an NBC news special several years ago. Gasovnachek, by this time 82, was shown telling this story with tears streaming down his cheeks. A camera followed him around his little white house to a marble monument carefully tended with flowers. The inscription read:
IN MEMORY OF MAXIMILIAN KOLBE
HE DIED IN MY PLACE
Every day Gasovnachek lived since 1941, he lived with the knowledge, “I live because someone died for me.” Every year on August 14 he traveled to Auschwitz in memory of Kolbe. Jesus said, “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). That’s what Christ did for us. He laid down his life for me. He laid down his life for you.
C. By CALLING to God for salvation.
God will always hear a prayer for salvation.
“Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” (Rom. 10:13).
These are the ABC’s of salvation: Admit, Believe, and Call.
“The wages of sin is death BUT the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 6:23).
USA Today had a front-page article about those who escaped the World Trade Center on September 11. After interviewing over 300 survivors and family members of victims, the newspaper concluded that in the South tower those who didn’t delay but immediately ran for safety were the ones who survived. Those who delayed were the ones who perished. Salvation is much the same. Those who delay and put off receiving God’s gift of eternal life often wait until it’s too late.
[Pic: What Does It Mean to Be “Saved”?]
If you have not been saved, it’s as if you are at this moment desperately hanging onto a rope as your body dangles a thousand feet from the ground. The rope is starting to tear. Soon it will be just a thread and you will fall to your death. Suddenly, a voice calls out to you. It’s Jesus. He says, “I will save you…but there is one condition.” Your heart sinks. You know you can’t meet conditions. You can feel your hand slipping. You know that there is nothing you can do for Jesus!
“My requirement,” He says, “is that you trust in Me.” His hand reaches out to yours. Will you take it? Will you trust Him? Will you be saved?
Don’t delay. Today receive salvation. Admit your sin, believe that Jesus died for you and rose again, and call out to God to save you.
If you would like to receive God’s gift of salvation today, would you please repeat this prayer after me:
Jesus, I admit to You that I am a sinner.
I believe that you died on the cross for my sin
And rose again to save me.
Today I give my life to You.
Please save me.
Thank You.
Amen.
