He came not to destroy but to save

We'll turn please to the gospel of Luke in chapter 9. Luke in chapter 9. I'd like to read together verse number 56. Luke 9 56. For the Son of Man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save.

For the Son of Man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save. The Lord have blessed to us the reading of his word and what we've listened to already today. This is a tremendously simple statement really when it comes to the words in it that's speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ the Son of Man, and we've been reminded of the definition of that phrase the Son of Man already today.

The man who is everything that God intended the man to be. He came not to destroy men's lives, but to save. And that word destroy if you follow it through the New Testament is the very same word as perish in John 3 16.

It's the very same word as lost in Luke 19 and 10. And so what the Lord Jesus is teaching very simply is this that he has not come to destroy men's lives, but to save, to deliver them, to rescue them, and to find them. There is one other time that he talks about he didn't come to destroy, and that is in Matthew chapter 5 verse number 17.

It is a different word, but the verse is this, think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets. I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. There it means speaking that he didn't come to throw it down.

It doesn't mean to perish, but it means to throw it down. He didn't come to to take away anything from the law or from the prophets, but he came to fulfill them. And that he did in his lifetime as the Son of Man.

Absolutely everything that God expected a man to be. The Lord Jesus in his life always honored the Father. He honored God.

He always loved his neighbor as himself. He did everything and fulfilled the law of God that you and I could never do. And that's part of what it means to to be destroyed.

As you and I, we can bring no glory to God in our sins. There is nothing that we can do to bring pleasure to God in our sin, and we are we are really destroyed already. And the Son of Man did not come to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved.

I don't know about you, maybe this is weird, but sometimes I I take a stroll in the cemeteries in different places. Maybe the only time you go is if if you have to walk across the yard of a cemetery. But I like to go and I like to look at the old headstones.

You can learn a lot about a village. You can learn a lot about a family. You can you can learn their their their heritage in a sense.

But what I look for is the the different things that are written on on those on those tombstones. Sometimes you might see one where it says a loving mother, grandmother, sister. And you'll learn that that person was a family oriented person and that their family loved them.

And they they acknowledged the love of that person to them and they loved them back and and that might be what's on there. Or there might be forever with the Lord. Or there might be a poem and if you go to Arlington Cemetery out in Washington State, you'll find there of a dear missionary, Bethany Cruzie Beckett.

20 some years old and there's a lovely tribute to her on a bench. That the Lord took her home early. It was his time.

But just in her early 20s. And then you might go to some and there's one in every cemetery and there there's the there's the unopened can of beer and the party instruments. But I would like to ask you tonight very solemnly.

You've been reminded of death already and being as grass and the flower of grass fades away. What would your husband or your wife, what would your parents put on there for your tombstone? I've often thought about that. I think I'm going to leave the choice up to my wife if I go first.

It seems a little bit conceited to maybe leave your last message, but what would be on yours? You see when you walk through a cemetery you have to understand that all of those people are in one of two places. Every single one of them is either in hell or they're or they're in heaven or they're in hell. And there is no in between and the Lord Jesus says to strive to enter into straight gate.

For wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction and many there be which go in there at. For straight is the gate and narrow is the way that leads to life and few there be that find it. Sometimes there's little memorials there.

The most recent one brought to my attention this past week was it was from a wife. Her husband had passed. It was very interesting.

It said this, If love could have saved you, you would have lived forever. And that just gives me the chills. The woman didn't really understand the depths of the spiritual meaning of that phrase.

It was it was really just her heart reaching out with all of the love in her heart toward her husband. And she would if love could he was loved so much that if her love could have saved him he would have lived forever. And it caused me to think of the love of God and maybe that little memorial.

Likely the man, for I know the family. Likely the man never found the Savior and it was so fitting. If love could have saved you, you'd have lived forever.

I thought of a man named Cain and you remember Cain. And there Cain brought an offering in Genesis chapter 4 to God and it wasn't accepted because it didn't have the fat. It wasn't an animal.

It didn't have the blood and God wasn't satisfied with Cain's offering. And Cain was wroth and it was written all over his face for his countenance changed and and God says why are you angry? Why is your countenance fallen? And Cain wouldn't answer the question. He wouldn't acknowledge God.

What a sign of disrespect and God says to Cain if you do well, won't you be accepted? In other words, if you bring a sacrifice, you'll be accepted as well. And you see the love of God and display to Cain giving him a yet another opportunity. But Cain, he wouldn't repent and maybe a fitting thing for Cain's tombstone would be this.

He went out from the presence of the Lord. Because that's what the Bible gives him. He went out.

He went out from the presence of the Lord and the New Testament says woe unto them that have gone in the way of Cain. And Cain chose his own way and he did his own thing and he went out. Cain's not in heaven tonight.

He's not in paradise tonight. If love could have saved him. God reached out in love to Cain.

Offered an opportunity to repent. Offered an opportunity to be accepted by God, but he refused. He refused.

And then my mind went to another man. And that was a rich man in Luke 16. And you know this story so well.

That that man was fared sumptuously. He fared sumptuously every day and at his gate was laid a Christian. Did you ever notice that? That God was kind to the rich man and every day there was a beggar, a poor man named Lazarus, but he was a believer.

For when he died he went to paradise and God was kind to that rich man and that poor man was laid there. Just desiring to have the crumbs that fell from his table. And they both died.

And in lifetime they were separated by a gate and in eternity they were separated by a gate. A gulf. And that rich man, when he opened up his eyes, what does it say of him? In hell he lifted up his eyes.

But you just remember with Cain as he went out from the presence of the Lord, the Son of Man has not come to destroy men's lives, but to save. And when you think of the rich man as he lifted up his eyes in that awful place, you remember Luke 9.56. The Son of Man has not come to destroy men's lives, but to save. And God moved in love and grace to that man and put a Christian at his gate.

Maybe there's a Christian in your life. Looking at the crowd, there's more than one Christian in your life. But the rich man wouldn't repent either.

And upon his tombstone, I can imagine likely there's stones weren't the same as ours. But if it was today, it might be one of them great big giant ones. Maybe it had a whole life story of him.

But you could sum it up in two words. In hell. In hell.

And all the prosperity of this life and all the things that he enjoyed in this life meant absolutely nothing in eternity. And the man that he saw across the great gulf, the poor beggar, he was poor in this lifetime, but he was rich for eternity. And it wasn't so for the rich man.

But the Son of Man has not come to destroy men's lives, but to save. And then one more came to mind. If love could have saved him, he would have lived forever.

That was a man named Judas. And Judas was such a privileged man, wasn't he? He would watch the Lord Jesus and the miracles and the signs that would have proved that he was the Son of God. And he would have watched the power, and he would have experienced the love and the grace and the compassion of the Savior to those that he'd come in contact with.

And all those that had need, he healed them all. He healed them. And maybe that's why you're in your sins yet tonight, is that you just want to be saved.

It has not yet become a need. There's a great difference, you know. To want to be saved someday and need to be saved tonight.

And there he would go and he would betray the Lord Jesus. You know, the Lord Jesus said, he that dips with me in the sop is the one that betrayed him. I think if I was there to hear that and I was among them, I would have sat on my hands to make sure that it wasn't me.

And they ask, is it I? Is it I? It's almost as if in love the Lord Jesus is speaking another time to Judas. But he misses it. And the Lord Jesus makes this statement, the Son of Man is going as is written of him.

It's God's will and God's plan that he goes to the cross, but woe unto that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed. Then notice the last sentence, good for that man if he'd never been born. Good for that man, that woman.

And as you walk down the aisles in the rows of the cemetery, as a Christian, don't you wonder? Did you ever wonder where are they? In Judas's, the scriptures would put over him the words of the Savior. Good for that man. If he had never been born, the Son of Man has not come to destroy men's lives, but to save.

But to save. You think of a man who was nailed upon the cross, a cross beside the Lord Jesus. What would be on his tombstone? Today thou shalt be with me in paradise.

You see, the reason men's lives are destroyed is because of their sin. That is the problem this evening. It is the sin of man.

It is your sin, your personal sin, is your personal problem. And oftentimes men and women and boys and girls and they think about eternity. And if the chart was here, they would look on the on this side way down in the far corner and they would see a place called the lake of fire and they would worry about that as if that was the problem.

And there'd be a black spot right in the middle and you know that well, and that place says hell and they think that that hell is the problem. And there's a death pillar. It's a long black pillar that crosses every road.

And it says death on it, for it's appointed unto man once to die and after this to judgment. And people look at death as the problem. Friend, your problem tonight is not the lake of fire.

It is not even death. It is not the coming of the Lord. The problem tonight is your sins.

It's your sins. It is your sins that have already separated you from God in this lifetime and sins will separate for eternity. Sin is the problem.

For those of you that are saved, there is no concern about the lake of fire any longer, is there? There is no fear of death for Paul says to die is gain. The coming of the Lord no longer strikes terror into our heart or into our soul because we'll be left behind. We're looking forward to it.

So then what is it that men need to be saved from? If it's not the lake of fire, if it's not death, if it's not the Lord's coming, it is our sin. Our sin. And the Son of Man has not come to destroy men's life, but to save, to rescue.

Could I ask you a question just now? What has the Lord Jesus Christ ever done for your sins? How is it that he could ever save you, friend? How is it that he could ever save you from your sin? What has he ever done? I remember the night that I was saved. Absolutely miserable. And I was reading my Bible and nothing was there and I disclosed my Bible and it come to my mind I must have missed my opportunity for I rejected the Lord for 17 years.

I flopped my Bible up on my dresser and the thought come to me, Brandon, you're just going to have to go to hell. I had tracts there and I scooped them up in a little pile and I was going to put them up there because I thought if I'm going to go to hell, I might as well get some sleep. And that tract on top was upside down and there was a verse of scripture.

It said this, not by works of righteousness, which we have done. And I thought about what I was reading and it said not by works of righteousness, and you know, really that's what I was doing. I was trying to read my Bible to be saved.

I was trying to, I was trying to figure it out. I was trying to put the pieces of the puzzle together. It was all about me.

And then it said this, not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us. And that word saved is in the past tense. And I thought what could he have ever done to save me? Because I knew I wasn't saved.

How can it be in the past tense as though it was already finished? It dawned on my darkened soul that that's why Christ died. He died for my sins. And when he had already died 2,000 years ago, what has he done for yours? Where has he done it? How is it that the Son of Man has not come to destroy men's lives, but to save? And he came from the heights of glory to the cross of Calvary, and his mission wasn't to destroy men's lives, but it was to save.

And there he suffered the judgment of God for sin. And you'll remember how that they cried out to Pilate that they would release Barabbas, but destroy Jesus. But he came not to destroy man's lives, but he come to save.

And he came not only to reveal God to man, to reveal who God is and what God is like, for he did that perfectly as the Son of God. And he is the Son of Man, and he is everything that God expected a man to be. And he goes to the cross of Calvary without sin.

Holy, harmless, and undefiled. And what takes place is the Lord lays on him the iniquity of us all, and he bears our sin in his own body on the tree, so that you might be saved, so that you could be saved. Because he came to seek and to save that which is lost.

And that word lost is the same word as the word destroy in our text. The Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which is lost. That which has gone astray, that which is perishing.

You see, friend, tonight it's not a matter of if you'll be separated from God in eternity. If you die in your sins, it's just a matter of when. You're lost.

And there at the cross, he suffered for sin. He paid the full price of sin. He paid the debt.

The great ransom price or great required price for our sin, he paid it because he didn't come to destroy. And people wonder why this world is in such a disarray, and why is in such a mess, and you know the answer. It's because of sin.

But the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which is lost. He came not to destroy, but to save. And friend, if you're ever going to be in heaven, it'll be because Christ has done everything that needed to take place for your redemption, for your forgiveness.

That he took your place as a substitute at the cross of Calvary. An accepted sacrifice. One in whom God is well-pleased in his life and well-pleased in his death, fully satisfied.

And you must be fully satisfied where God has found rest. It is a marvelous plan of salvation that he came to die for the guilty. To bear our sin in his own body on the tree.

And I was appreciating afresh today, thinking of him and his humanity. That the last place that my sins were seen on this earth, were on him. Were on him.

And he died, and he was buried, and he rose again, and he ascended back into heaven. And those sins that God of mine, that God laid on him, the very ones that he bore in his own body on the tree, they're not on him any longer. For there's no sin in God's heaven.

Where did they go? I don't know. They're gone. Dear man was saved in meetings back home in Ontario.

And Ike will remember. Dear Bob, he come to the tent. The first night he snuck through the cornfield and waited the crick to get there, because he didn't want anybody to see him come.

Because he asked what the tent was all about. And the lady at the gas station, she said, don't go there. Them people are weird.

Bob said, I had to check it out. So he sneaks over, and after the meeting he says, well, you guys are just normal people after all. And he kept coming.

One night on the way out, Bob, have you ever been saved? He said, yes, I was saved in the meeting last night. He didn't say too much about it. The next night he'd come out, and I said, Bob, are you saved? He said, I told you last night I was saved.

Put it in your own words, Bob. He said, let me put it like this to you. He said, I live in the little village of Ontario of 400 people.

And every Tuesday, Dan and Paul come with the, they're the city workers, and they pick up the garbage of the whole city. But he says, it doesn't do me any good until they pick up my garbage and they take it away. He said, that's what Christ did with my sins.

It didn't do him any good until he found out it was for him. The Son of Man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save. Friend, if you died tonight, what do they engrave on your memorial? If love could have saved me to live forever? You see, the love of God is on full display tonight.

It's on full display as we look at the cross of Calvary where God commended his love toward us and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. But you refuse to turn and you go your own way. You never repent.

There'll be no salvation. Trust him tonight. Come to know whom to know is life eternal, the one who come to save your soul, to save you from your sins, to give you eternal life and a home in heaven.

The Son of Man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save. Are you saved? We'll pray. Father, as we come to the close of a day in thy courts, we give thanks.

And our Father, there's been much to process throughout today. But our Father, we pray as we consider this gospel meeting that as we go our own way to our own places, Father, that it might resonate, that it might lodge in the heart and the conscience of some unsaved soul and their sins in this meeting, that they are just like grass and all of their weakness and all their frailty and that that grass will soon wither and fade away. And our Father, we wonder where will they be? Our Father, we pray that we might consider as well the Lord Jesus and what he's accomplished at Calvary to divine satisfaction where he offered himself without spot to thee.

Oh, Father, we're thankful that he came to save us. And so, Father, we look to thee for blessing tonight and we leave it with thee, acknowledging thy mercy another time. And our Father, we pray that this would be the night that there be rejoicing in the presence of the angels of heaven over a sinner that would repent.

Take us home in safety, we ask, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.