God likes to use superlatives. God did not just give us salvation; He gave us "so great" a salvation! Not just plain, ordinary vanilla-flavored, run-of-the-mill salvation, but "so great a salvation." A salvation that is beyond our comprehension.
Hebrews 2:3 reads:
KJV - "How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation?"
NASB - "how will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?"
NIV - " how shall we escape if we ignore so great a salvation?"
2. past - "I was saved from the penalty of sin" - justification
3. present - "I am being saved from the power of sin" - sanctification
4. future - "I will be saved from the presence of sin" - glorification
1. FAST.
The moment you call upon the Lord you become saved. Salvation is instantaneous.
A. Rom. 10:13, "for 'Whoever
will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.'” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who wishes take the water of life without
cost."
B. Isaiah 55:1, "“Ho! Every one who thirsts, come to the waters; And you who have no money
come, buy and eat. Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost.
3. FORGIVENESS
God must punish sin. God cannot simply declare a guilty person
righteous. Sin must be punished; justice
must be met and its demands satisfied.
If God does not satisfy the demands of justice, then God is unjust.I would like to present seven verses that clearly state that God must punish sin; if not, He is unjust.
1. Ex. 23:7, "for I will not acquit the guilty."
2. Nahum 1:3 - "And the Lord will by no means leave the guilty unpunished."
3. Romans 1:18 - "18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and
unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness,"
4. Psalm 7:11 (KJV) - "God judgeth the righteous, and God is angry with the wicked every
day."
5. Ps. 5:5 - "The boastful shall not stand before Your eyes; You hate all who do iniquity."
6. Prov. 17:15 - "He who justifies the wicked and he who condemns the righteous, Both of
them alike are an abomination to the Lord."
7. Prov. 24:24 - He who says to the wicked, “You are righteous,” Peoples will curse him,
nations will abhor him.
This point must be made clear and be fully
understood. God cannot simply ignore or
overlook sin. He must punish and judge
sin in order to be just.
And because I am a sinner, God must punish
me because of my sin. If He does not
punish me for my sin, He is unjust.But there is good news. Even though I am a terrible sinner, instead of judging me, God forgave me.
Romans 4:5 - "but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly."
How does God justify, forgive and declare me righteous? By the cross. Without the cross there can be no forgiveness, no justification and no salvation.
But it is not the cross that provides forgiveness; it is the Christ on the cross.
At the cross justice is met and its demands fulfilled; therefore, it is by the cross God can provide forgiveness.
Many people hold two mistaken ideas regarding forgiveness.
1. God will simply forgive us. We don’t have to do anything. God will simply overlook and ignore my sin; or turn a blind eye. This cannot be. God must judge sin; He cannot overlook it.
2.
God will forgive without repentance.
There must be repentance in order to receive forgiveness. Christ taught that if your brother sins
against you and says he is sorry, you must forgive him. Yes, you must forgive if he truly and
genuinely repents.
Let me
illustrate. Let say I punch you in the
face and I say "I am sorry."
So you forgive me. Then I punch
you again and I say "I am sorry."
So you forgive me again. Again, I
punch you again and I say "I am sorry." So you forgive me again and again. This happen repeatedly, seven, eight, nine or
ten times: I punch you over and over
again, and you forgive me each time. So
I am forgiven? No. It appears that my repentance was insincere. Therefore, the forgiveness was not possible.
The Pharisees came to John the Baptist to be
baptized. But John the Baptist refused
to baptize them. Why? Their repentance was not genuine. So, John the Baptist said to them that they must
first bear fruit in keeping with their repentance (Matt. 3:8). In other words, they could not be forgiven
and baptized until they truly repented and showed proof of repentance. At the same time, God forgives us is we
repent genuinely. There must be sorrow
accompanied by repentance; for 2 Cor. 7:9 says, "but that you were
made sorrowful to the point of repentance." John the Baptist would not baptize the Pharisees until they truly
repented (John MacArthur).
B. Here is a frightening statistic taken from 4,100 respondents.
Nineteen out of twenty who were saved, did so before they reached the age of twenty-five;
After twenty-five, only one in 10,000;
After thirty-five, only one in 50,000;
After forty-five, only one in 200,000;
After fifty-five, only one in 300,000;
After sixty-five, only one in 500,000;
After seventy-five, only one in 700,000.
C. Procrastination is from the devil. A story was told about a council meeting with Satan and his demons. The subject was how to prevent sinners from coming to Christ. One demon replied, "I will convince them there is no heaven." The suggestion was rejected. Another angel said, "I will convince them there is no judgment." Again the suggestion was rejected. A third angel said, "I will convince them to postpone their decision." That won the approval of the whole council. The devil wants you to postpone and procrastinate your decision in receiving the Lord Jesus as your Savior. And if you keep postponing, you will never come to Jesus and receive salvation.
.So
what are the steps needed to receive this "so great a salvation?"
A. You must be a sinner;B. You must be aware of your sin;
C. You must of your sin
Acts 17:30, " God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent;"
D. You must receive Jesus as Lord and Savior
Rom. 10:9-10, " 9 that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your
heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart a person
believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in
salvation."
CONCLUSION:
Four years after the Titanic went down, a young Scotchman
rose up in a meeting in Hamilton, Canada and gave a testimony. He said "I am a survivor of the Titanic.
When I was drifting alone on a plank of
wood on that awful night, the tide brought Mr. John Harper of Glasgow, who was also
clinging on a piece of wreck, near me. `Man,' he said, `are you saved?' 'No,' I said, `I am not.' He replied, 'Believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ, and thou shalt be saved.' The
waves bore him away; but, strange to say, they brought him back again. He asked me a second time. 'Are you saved
now?' `No,' I said, 'I cannot honestly say that I am.' He said again, `Believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ, and thou shalt be saved.' Shortly
afterwards, he went down, and there, alone in the night, and with two miles of
water under me, I believed. I am John
Harper's last convert."Like those who were aboard that ship, none of them knew that day would be their last. Neither do you know which day will be your last.
All to Him I owe,
Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow."
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