The Saved of God

Roy Blizzard III © 2014

 

Text: I Timothy 2:1-4

2:1) I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; 2) For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. 3) For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; 4) Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.

If it were possible to summarize the entire purpose of God through his word in just one sentence, a likely choice would be the statement of Jesus in Luke 19:10;

10) For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.

If we could capture the whole theme of God’s Holy Word in just one word that word would have to be Salvation. The most difficult word of the entire Bible seems to be this word Saved! I mean difficult because it has been abused horribly by the interpretation of men concerning God’s commands. It has lost its power and its meaning by the weakening influence of ungodly men’s opinions. We have almost become afraid to use the word Saved. We ask, of what faith or affiliation or church membership someone is, but this is not the question God wants us to ask. God wants to know if you are saved!

The issue is not are you a good citizen; a loyal father; a faithful wife, or an obedient child? It is not a matter of good standing, fine reputation, or church attendance alone. Neither is it a matter of much giving or many acts of righteous service or even the matter of believing some particular creed and participating in certain church ordinances such as baptism. The issue with God is Are You Saved?

Now someone is going to ask, “Saved from what, sin?” Are we going to respond positively with, “Yes, Sin”? If God made anything plain, it is the knowledge of what is sin. Sin dug the great gulf that was fixed between God and man. It is sin that built every hospital, every prison, and every coffin, dug every grave, and broke every heart – including our Savior’s.

It is sin that started every war, taught us how to hate and created every bit of jealousy and selfishness. It is sin that has divided every broken home and slit so many churches. You can dress it up and make it look beautiful and enticing, as Satan is a master at that, but it still kills just as dead, for sin is the transgression of God’s laws.

But God’s word cries out, “Salvation to All”, even before the birth of Jesus. The Angel announced to Mary that, “Thou shalt call his name Jesus because he will save his people from their Sins.” If there be no salvation from sin then Jesus died for a mistake cause, Paul’s suffering was foolishness and the 3,000 on the day of Pentecost were all deceived when they submitted to Baptism. If there is no forgiveness of sin then the church is built upon a fraud and the message of the church is built upon an untruth. But, thanks be to God we read that there was foolishness in the life of Paul, but it was, “God’s good pleasure through the Foolishness of Preaching to save them that believe.” We also find the church was built for a certainty, upon the Rock, Jesus the Messiah. The household of God is built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets and with Jesus himself being the chief Cornerstone. Ephesians 2:20 “For another foundation can no man lay than that which is laid which is Jesus Christ.” I Corinthians 3:11

And God is not willing that any should perish, but that all would have everlasting life. It is here that we come to the question, “Who is the person whom God saves?” Jesus himself gave us the answer. “I came to seek and to save the lost.” God saves the sinner who is lost. Jesus tells us in a different place a different way, “They that are whole have no need of a physician, but they that are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but the sinners to repentance.” Mark 2:17

God saves the sinner. To be saved of God we must recognize our own condition and admit that we are in a state of being called “Lostness”. The great commission is to preach the Gospel to sinful people and even today the only people who need the Gospel today are sinful people. But, if you think you are without sin then you really need nothing because you are perfect. You do not need the Gospel, the church, or Jesus. This means you are the only living person who ever lived that can by-pass the cross upon which Jesus died. No, you say. You know this can’t be true, for the Gospel is not for the sinless for there is no one who is sinless apart from Jesus, and he is the living Gospel.

We know very well the words of Paul’s letter to the Romans, “There are none righteous, no not one. All have sinned and fell short of the Glory of God.” John’s words in his first letter also tell us the truth, “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we say we have not sinned we make him to be a liar and his word is not in us.”

And we also have something else to consider, God saves only that person who wants to be redeemed. Now this will exclude 3 classes of people from consideration in regards divine redemption. Redemption through the Gospel plan does not apply to babes who have not reached the age of accountability, for in their sinless state they have no need of obedience to the Gospel as they have not transgressed God’s Law.

A second group is those who do not possess the mental capabilities necessary for the understanding of divine Law. God will not hold us responsible for that which a person is incapable of knowing.

The third class of people excluded from the Gospel consideration is those who are unconcerned about Jesus and life eternal, they are the lost. The Gospel is only for men and women who cry out to God as did David, “My sin is ever before me.” It is for the people who will pray, “be merciful to me a sinner.” Only when a person possesses the desire to have their sin removed and be made clean through the blood of Jesus, it is only then that the Gospel of Jesus is ready for him.

Let me say here that Jesus saves the man who will cooperate in his own salvation. Ephesians 2:8 says plainly that, “By grace are you saved, it is the gift of God.” But it also states that the Grace is applied through Faith – Faithfulness, and there is no Faith without obedience. There are many, I’m certain. Who know they are sinners and have a desire to be saved, but they do not want to cooperate in the matter. They have become excuse makers.

In Luke 14 there is the story of those who made excuses as to why they could not attend the great feast, one bought a piece of ground and had to attend to it, one had 5 yoke of oxen to attend to, and another had a new wife. I don’t think they were telling the truth about why they didn’t want to attend the feast; they were just evading the question. I’m sure they would not have minded being saved, but they refused to cooperate by giving themselves over to Jesus.

WE have become too much like this. Instead of desiring to be saved from our sins, we want to be saved In Our Sins! A man may say for example, “My job prevents me from becoming a believer and/or Christian.” Certainly it is true that we must work to live, but what good will the job do a person when he is six foot under? The main point is that if a man were as Faithful to God as they are to their job and other interests, the world would have been won to the Lord long ago. This means that there is something more important even than our daily bread! Some will glibly exclaim, “We have to eat, we have to live.” No you don’t. You don’t even have to sleep tonight, for you may die anytime!

The most important thing in this world is our obedience to Jesus. How this needs to be taught to our children and to the world. God please give us more homes, churches, schools and school teachers, colleges and professors who will teach our children and the world something other than the failures of the worldly doctrines.

There are people who need the Gospel who feel they are good enough as they are. They may become very proud as they see no need to come to Christ. They think that they are too good to be “lost”, when in reality, he is too good to be saved; for Jesus can’t save the “self-righteous”.

Then too there are some who will not surrender to Jesus because they feel it will cost them something; and they couldn’t be more right. It will cost them everything they own, to be on their own. The kingdom of Jesus does cost something, it will cost you everything you are and have or Jesus’ kingdom will mean nothing to you.

It is a tragedy that we have been taught to give to God like we pay the milkman or paperboy. God is our Father and our creator, not the handyman, Mr. Fix it. God knows how much we love him and the church by what we give back to him. Do we just give a bit of coin to God because that is what we have been told to do or do we give everything to God because we truly love God? We don’t give to God to meet earthly bills, but to meet our earthly responsibility as believers and members in Jesus’ Kingdom. Our sin and our souls cost God all the best that he had, it cost him the life of his only begotten Jesus. What does the Kingdom and the Church cost you?

As we close we must remember that God saves the man that believes in Him. As the Philippian jailer was told in Acts 16, “Believe on the Lord Jesus and thou shalt be saved.” But is this enough? If so, what do we do with the words of God in Acts 17, “God commanded all men everywhere to repent.” Or how about the words of Jesus in Luke 13:3, “Repent or Perish.” And if this were sufficient why did Paul write for God to say in Romans 10:10, “For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto Salvation.” As Phillip asked the eunuch in Acts 8, “If thou believest with all thine heart thou mayest.” And the eunuch confessed.

And if this actually completes our submission to God, why is it that in every case in the Bible God mandates that the believer be Baptized for the remission or washing away of one’s sins? It is evident that no one of these acts alone is sufficient before God or else he would be the author of confusion and a respecter of persons. The Word of God is filled with scriptures which state we are saved by Grace, Faith, Calling upon the name of the Lord, Believing, Repenting, Baptism, by enduring Faithfulness. Romans 8:24 even states we are saved by Hope!

We as believers should know that it is not by any one of these alone, but by the combination of all by the rightly dividing the Word of Truth and by a harmonious obedience of all God’s Word to the best of our individual ability.

So why not start today by coming just as you are and doing the things still left undone! Christ will meet you where you’re at. We need to make that commitment to Jesus and become the Saved of God. Remember, the Saved of God are those who do his Will. We need to become God’s Will Doers! Yes God, we will do what you’d have us to do.

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