03.06. Salvation

SALVATION

I preached one morning on the subject of salvation. At the close of the service I heard a man ask a lady how she liked the message. She replied, "He did very well, but he did not cover his subject." She was correct. I did not cover it then, and I do not expect to cover it now. In fact, I never expect to cover it completely. Salvation is too big a subject to cover in any one sermon or in any number of sermons.

Although we have no hope of exhausting our theme or covering our subject in this message, there are three things regarding salvation which we would like to submit for your consideration:

(1) it is universal in its extent; (2) it is present in its application; (3) it is eternal in its duration.

1. Universal In Extent

It is universal in its extent. I believe that when Christ died, He died not for a chosen few, a small number or a select crowd, but that all who would come to Him might be saved. Of this fact the Bible abounds in proof. Hear Jesus saying in John 3:16 : "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." Paul says in Romans 1:16 : "I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth." The book of Hebrews tells that "he [tasted] death for every man"; the Apostle Peter declares, "The Lord is not ... willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." Salvation is universal in its extent.

Helpless Man

It has been well said, "When man sinned he fell away from God and a gulf intervened as bottomless as hell and as black as midnight, and throughout those yawning depths devils howled and demons hissed, while thunders rolled and lightnings flashed, and no genius of man could bridge it and no contrivance of man could cross it and hell held high carnival over man’s lost condition. But in the midst of their glee Jesus Christ left His home in glory and came to this world, and at the cost of His life flung a bridge across that hitherto impassable gulf, and called it salvation, and announced to the world that ’I am come that [ye] might have life, and . . . have it more abundantly.’ And for nearly two thousand years poor old sin-cursed and sin-wreckedhumanity has been staggering across salvation’s bridge into the arms of a loving God and finding that though their ’sins be as scarlet,’ He will make them ’white as snow,’ and ’though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.’

O the love that drew salvation’s plan!

O the grace that brought it down to man!

O the mighty gulf that God did span At Calvary!

All Invited

There are many things which are not universal, and many things which all of us will never be able to have. We cannot all be millionaires, but the salvation of the Lord maketh rich, and we can all have that. We may never be able to climb to the lofty tops of the great mountains and gaze upon the grandeur of this world, but we can all climb to the mountain peaks of full salvation and behold the beauty of the Lord and inquire in His temple; for salvation is universal. When the great and mighty of this earth make a feast, they may not invite their neighbors or tell the man across the street, but they will send invitations across the town and across the country and across the ocean and invite their chosen few and their select crowds to partake of the feasts they have prepared; but when God had provided the feast of salvation He sent out an invitation, saying, "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price." To make sure that no one was slighted, He said to His servants, "Go ye therefore into the highways, and as many as ye shall find, bid to the marriage." He said, "Pay no attention to their nationality; do not notice their tattered garments. No matter how poor they may be or how low in sin, be sure to tell them I said that they should come."

Then, to make us all feel welcome, He broadened His invitation and said, "The Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely."

Hope for All

Salvation is universal in its extent, and there is not a walk of life, nor a class or race of people into which the King of kings has not made His way and snatched some of them as brands from the burning and by the power of salvation changed them into ambassadors of heaven.

Go among the rich, and regardless of the difficulties in the way, salvation has reached many of them. We love to think of such men as John Wanamaker, Charles N. Crittenton and H. J. Heinz, who used their wealth for the Lord. Go to the poor, and regardless of their poverty, there is salvation for them. One of the utterances which fell from the lips of Jesus was: "The poor have the gospel preached to them." This is one table from which none has ever been turned away hungry.

Go to the colleges and universities of our land, where the wise men are eating of the fruit of the tree of knowledge, and no matter how learned they are, there is salvation for them. Some of the wisest men of earth have placed their all at the feet of Jesus and accepted salvation on the simple terms of the Gospel. Mr. Gladstone said of the sixty great men with whom he was personally acquainted, ’ ’Fifty-seven of them are Christians.’ ’Consider the prisons of our country where men are caged and guarded like lions, herded like cattle, shut out of society and wanted by no one, and there is salvation for them. Some of the brightest lights the Christian world has ever known came from behind prison bars.

We have heard it said that the Negro does not have a soul. But can anyone who has been in the Southland and seen their black faces shine under the power and glory of God doubt for one moment that the same Christ who gave His life for the white man died that the black man might be saved? The black race has produced such Christian characters and soul-winners as Booker T. Washington, C. A. Tindley, John Jasper, Amanda Smith, George Washington Carver and many others. It was a Negro who wrote that wonderful song:

There’s nothing between my soul and my Saviour, Naught of this world’s delusive dreams I have renounced all sinful pleasure, Jesus is mine, there’s nothing between.

It was Charles P. Jones, the colored song writer of the South, who wrote:

There is no one in the world like Jesus, He’s the treasure of my soul, When in trouble He dispels my sorrow, When I’m sick He makes me whole.

Oh, I love to tell the merits of my Saviour Every soul I can to win.

Oh! I love to tell the story of His power, How He saves and keeps from sin.

If you doubt the universality of salvation, go to the heathen lands and see the inroads which Christianity has made. Go to China and see men turning from idols to God; go to Japan and see men turning from Buddha to Christ; go to India where men threw their children to the crocodiles and see them now as they place them before the feet of Him who said, "Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of heaven." Go to the islands of the sea, among the cannibals, and see them as they cease to feed upon human flesh and begin to feast upon that flesh which is meat indeed. Then you will begin to understand what Jesus meant when He said, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature." Why this "go"? I’ll tell you why. Jesus died not for a chosen few, but for every man "from Greenland’s icy mountains to India’s coral strand," and "from the great river to the ends of the earth." Salvation is universal!

2. Present In Its Application

Salvation is present in its application. We do not need help for yesterday. Yesterday is gone. It will never return, and the very best you and I can hope for concerning yesterday is mercy and forgiveness. We do not need help for tomorrow. it may never come. But, oh, if I know anything about the needs of humanity, and if I know anything about your heart and mine, what we need issomething that will help us today. Thank God, salvation will do that. Titus 2:11-12 says: "The grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this PRESENT world." If you could come to Christ today and accept salvation, and it failed to stop one sin or break one habit, and you derived no benefits from it whatever until the hour you died, it would still be worth more than all this world. But, thank God, a man does not have to wait until he dies to reap its benefits; it becomes effective as soon as he believes it.

Most insurance policies pay their dividends at death, but this is one that begins paying the moment you take it out. Notice the present application in the following passages of Scripture. John 8:32 says, "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." If you are not free, you do not have the truth. In Romans 8:1-2 we read, "There is therefore NOW no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death." Romans 6:22 tells us: "But NOW being made free from sin -- not after a while, but NOW], and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life."

Immediate Results The drunkard in the prison today is not drinking, the gambler is not gambling, and the thief is not stealing, but they are not free; they are in bondage. If released the drunkard will drink at the first opportunity, the gambler will gamble and the thief will steal. But if salvation comes into their lives, the drunkard will pass a dozen saloons in one block and never look in, the gambler will brush the cards aside and bet no more and the thief will become known for his honesty.

I have seen a drunkard who had not drawn a sober breath for months come to an altar of prayer and in five minutes find salvation and walk out sober, never to touch liquor again. I have seen a thief come, and go away an honest man; a liar come, and go away truthful; and I have seen a blasphemer come and find this salvation and go away with a "new song in [his] mouth, even praises unto our God."

Down in the human heart, Crushed by the tempter, Feelings lie buried that grace can restore Touched by a loving heart, Wakened by kindness, Chords that are broken will vibrate once more. A Help in Trouble Not only is salvation present in its application in regard to our sins, but David says, "The salvation of the righteous is of the Lord: he is their strength in the time of trouble." It also has a present application in trouble. A friend of ours in the South told us that when her only little girl passed away, she threw herself across the bed, and it seemed as if her heart would break.

Stretching her hands to God, she said, "O Lord, if you ever helped, help me now." A voice seemed to say, "Daughter, underneath are the everlasting arms"; and that little mother followed her child tothe city of the dead and shouted while the clods fell on the coffin lid. Why? Because salvation is a strength in time of trouble. And when fate sweeps away your job and all you have, and there is no money in the bank and little to eat, when rent is due, credit gone and loved ones are ill, you can sing with Isaac Watts:

I’m glad salvation’s free, I’m glad salvation’s free, Salvation’s free for you and me, I’m glad salvation’s free.

Mother

I was reared by an old-fashioned mother, and she dearly loved to sing. She was not a trained singer, but you could understand every word she said. She loved the old songs, and although I never heard her sing in public, she sang all day long as she went about her work. Our home was very poor and many times there was no money for pressing needs. Often we children grieved her heart either by our waywardness or by our neglecting to write. She was growing old and the burdens were heavy upon her shoulders. I did not realize it then, for I was godless and unsaved. But I can hear her now as I used to hear her then, and I am beginning to understand the thoughts of her heart as she sang: In every condition, in sickness in health, In poverty’s vale or abounding in wealth, At home or abroad, on the land on the sea, As thy days may demand shall thy strength ever be.

There was one other stanza about which I wondered. I could not understand it then, but now, after many years of trying to live for God and finding that the Devil tries to contest every inch of ground, and also finding how near Jesus is to His own, I know what mother meant when she sang: The soul that on Jesus doth lean for repose, I will not, I will not desert to his foes, That soul, tho’ all hell should endeavor to shake, I’ll never, no never, no never forsake!

3. Eternal In Its Duration

Salvation is eternal in its duration; it never grows threadbare or wears out. The world is hungry. In this all of us are alike. Man is an eternal being, and there is an eternal longing in every human heart, and an eternal salvation is required to satisfy the eternal longing of the soul. That there is pleasure in the world we do not deny. We know there is pleasure in the dance, in the card party, in the theater. But if you indulge in such pleasures, after all is over and you make your way to your home and pillow your tired head, there is an aching emptiness in your heart which the pleasures of the world cannot satisfy.

Hungry Hearts

Mark Twain was perhaps the greatest humorist of his or any other age, yet it is said "that while he laughed with the world, his lonely spirit struggled with the sadness of human life and sought to find the key." Beneath the laughter was a hungry soul that fun could not satisfy.

Charlie Chaplain, the world’s greatest comedian, recently said, "I am oppressed at times with what the world calls ’world weariness’; I then feel a total stranger to life, as though I were upon the wrong star, and I am disgusted with the character that circumstances has forced me to create, and dissatisfied with the matter that limitations have forced upon my will." What does this mean? Simply this: in spite of his two-million-dollar home in Hollywood, in spite of the fact that he is the fun god of the world and, in spite of his wealth, in the breast of Charlie Chaplain there is an eternal longing -- as there is in the heart of every other man -- that pleasure and money cannot satisfy. The greatest chasms of earth are to be found not in the regions of mountains and deserts, but in the heart of humanity. You cannot fill the human heart. If you could throw all the mountains of the earth into the human heart, they would not fill it. If you were to put into it New York, London, Paris and the other great cities of the world, they would sink from view. If you threw into this heart-chasm money, power and pleasure, and upon that all the isms and false religions of the world, they would never fill nor satisfy it. Yet with all its vastness it can be filled. What will fill it? No genius of science nor knowledge of man, but the Salvation of Jesus Christ. When salvation comes into the heart of man it goes to the deepest depths, it rises to the highest heights, it reaches the farthest outposts, it fills every nook, every crevice and every cranny of the human heart. The aching emptiness is gone, and the soul begins to sing:

I’m satisfied with Jesus here, He’s everything to me"; His wondrous love has filled my heart, From sin He’s set me free. A great preacher, at the close of a sermon which he preached one night in a Midwestern city, was approached by a very intelligent young woman, a university graduate, who asked him if he had considered Christian Science. He told her that he had not, and did not care to do so. She replied that since she had come and listened to him he should permit her to tell what Christian Science had done for her. He answered, "Very well, what has Christian Science done for you?"

She told him three or four physical and mental benefits she had received, the different outlook it had given her on life and other advantages. When she had finished he said, "What else has it done for you?" She answered, "I believe that is all." The preacher said, "Jesus Christ and salvation have done for me what you say Christian Science has done for you -- and then some. She looked up and said, "What do you mean by ’then some’?" He answered, "Christ has given me the consciousness that my sins are forgiven and that I know God." As the tears came into the eyes of the young woman she took a step forward and said, "Oh, brother, that is what I want!" You may receive some help and find some truth in the isms of the world, but if you want your sins forgiven and that eternallonging in your heart satisfied, you will have to get the salvation of Jesus Christ which is eternal in its duration.

Salvation, since it is eternal in its duration, goes with us not only through life but through death. It does not stop at the banks of the river, but crosses over. Paul realized that Nero’s axe might sever his head, but not his salvation. He declared triumphantly, "Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord . . . shall give me at that day." David realized this truth when he said, "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death." He knew that in salvation he had something that would not leave him in the darkness but, being eternal, would take him through into the sunlight on the other side.

John Newton in that wonderful old song "Amazing Grace," emphasizes the three phases of salvation. In the first stanza he sings of the depths to which it goes -- it is universal in its extent; in the second he sings of its power to preserve in this life -- it is present in its application; in the last he sings of its scope in the world to come -- it is eternal in its duration.

Amazing grace! how sweet the sound, That sav’d a wretch like me!

I once was lost, but now am found, Was blind, but now I see.

Through many dangers, toils and snares, I have already come;

’Tis grace hath bro’t me safe thus far, And grace will lead me home. When we’ve been there ten thousand years, Bright shining as the sun, We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise Than when we first begun.

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