Salvation Made Plain
INTRODUCTORY WORDS
We are using the story of Nicodemus as the basis of our message for today. However, we are planning to bring out some very vital considerations which no one portion of Scripture would supply. Therefore, we will go from Scripture to Scripture for much of our discussion. We wish to present to you a brief story of Nicodemus.
1. The description of man's best. Nicodemus was one of Israel's teachers. That he summed up the very highest ideals of Judaism, we have no doubt. He was reckoned as a Pharisee, and as a Pharisee of the Pharisees. He was one of those who made broad his phylacteries, who made large the borders of his garments. He was a man against whom there were no charges, and he stood clean in the sight of men. As a religionist he was a recognized authority and power. In this world there are many such men, and there always have been. There was Saul of Tarsus. He himself said that concerning the Law he was blameless. He came from the strictest sect of the Pharisees. He had high ideals. His ambition was, beyond a doubt, to become a member of the Sanhedrin, and a leader among his people, Israel. The rich young ruler was another New Testament character whose morals were unimpeachable. He came running to Jesus inquiring how he might enter the Kingdom of Heaven. The Lord referred him to the ten Commandments, and he replied, "All these have I kept from my youth up." The rich young ruler was beyond any doubt a high type of young manhood. The Lord, looking on him, loved him. There are many men today who are of the same class, men who serve everything that is worth while in family life, in the state, and in the commercial world, who do not stoop to the mean methods of dishonesty and injustice. These men may even go farther and give honor unto the God of Heaven. They will say that they are interested in everything that is good and righteous. They will help the churches with their contributions.
While they confess no faith in Christ, yet they believe the church has a high moral mission among men, and they stand for general world betterment no matter from what source it comes. Their own innate goodness and honor is their only hope of Heaven. If you would ask me if they will be saved as they now are, I would answer, "Absolutely no!" The reason, we will discuss under our next point.
2. Man's best is short of God's righteousness. When men compare themselves among themselves they stand forth to good advantage, but when these same men compare themselves to the righteousness of God, they are miserably short. Thus it is the Bible says, "All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God."
When we think of God we think of Him as dwelling in light, unapproachable. We can even now hear the angelic hosts saying, "Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of Hosts." Men are sinners. By nature they are fallen, corrupt, and full of darkness.
3. Job, an example. The three false friends of Job continually condemned him, alleging he was a sinner. Their position was that the basis of approach to God was an unimpeachable integrity. This, they claimed, Job lacked. God hid His face from His servant, said they, because His servant was vile and unjust. All of this appears very good on its face, but God's estimate of Job was that there was none like him in all the earth. He was "a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and eschewed evil." Thus Job stands not as his three false friends insinuated, a base and corrupt personage, but before God as the very best product of Adam's race. However, even Job's righteousness fell short of the righteousness of God, and when Job, who had constantly maintained his integrity, saw the Lord face to face, he said, "Behold, I am vile," and he added, "I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes."
I. THE STANDARD OF FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD (Hebrews 12:14-16)
Our verse says: "Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord."
1. Social standards among men. All men put up a barrier between themselves and other men, or groups of men. In order to pass that barrier, and enter into the comradeship of others, there are certain prerequisites.
There are social standards, which are set by various groups according to their own social attainments. To enter into the upper "four hundred" there are things demanded which would not be demanded in what we might term "the lower four hundred." Every city, village, and hamlet in the United States has its own social cliques, perhaps unconsciously, but nevertheless effectively. They put up a wall of financial, social, or political idealisms to which one must measure up in order to enter in.
There are financial standards. The men who handle the great monetary problems of the nations of the world would deem it far beneath their dignity to receive into their monetary councils men who are altogether beneath their own capabilities. The president of the United States, if he is selecting men to advise with him on how to save the nation from its depression, will seek only such men as will measure up to the economic standards which he sets up. Musicians have their standards; poets have their standards, as do painters and sculptors, and others.
2. Spiritual standards with God. God cannot receive into His fellowship or presence the unclean. Men feel that fellowship with one. beneath their class drags them down, and puts a shadow upon their own attainments. The pure cannot associate intimately with the impure, the learned with the ignorant, the exalted with the humble. God cannot associate the just with the unjust, the holy with the unholy, the clean with the unclean. If God lowered the standards of entrance into Heaven He would mar the beauty, the glory, the blessedness of that wonderful sphere. God has said concerning His holy city that the unclean shall in no way enter therein.
II. GOD'S ATTITUDE TO A FAILURE (Jeremiah 18:4)
Our verse describes the potter who was making a vessel upon his wheel. "And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it."
1. The attitude of men toward their own failures. The artist is standing at a distance looking at a picture which he has painted. As he looks at it he finds that it is beneath the usual standard of his work. He will not dare to let that picture go out as the product of his brush because it would drag down his good name and ruin his reputation. He throws the painting aside.
The poet who has just penned a sonnet reads it over. He sees that its whole conception, the dignity, and beauty of its message, has been marred. Perhaps, the rhythm is out of order; perhaps the meter is faulty, or more likely the beauty of thought is lacking. The poet will not place this failure among the gems which he has written. He casts it aside.
The mechanic has sought to place an invention upon the market. He had many dreams of its possibilities. When, however, he tried it out it failed to work; thus he threw it aside.
2. God's attitude to a failure. God created man in His own image, and He said of His work, "It is good." However, man failed. Man sold out to Satan. God, therefore, entered into the garden of Eden, saying, "Where art thou?" He asked, "What hast thou done?" Then He pronounced the curse, and drove man out of the garden. God could not receive that failure into His own fellowship. Neither could He send forth that man who had failed as a representative of His Divine glory.
As we look at the corrupted earth we see the judgment of the flood. As we look at a corrupted nation, even Israel, we find a nation cast off and wandering among men. As we look at a corrupted church we hear Christ saying that it shall be broken off.
III. THE DISTINCTION OF GOD'S CRY AND MAN'S (Psalms 9:13-17)
We spoke of the work of the artist, the mechanic, and the poet. The work all falls beneath the dignity and glory of the supreme work of God. The artist created with his fingers a wonderful picture; the sculptor has a marvelous dream of a marble creation, and the poet of fascinating rhythm. Their work is mechanical or materialistic. Lifeless is the work of their brain and brawn.
God, on the other hand, created a man with life, man with a will, with power of choice, power to love or to hate, power to do good or evil. Therefore the class of God's creation is far beyond that of man.
When man sinned the very highest and climactic work of the Almighty came into disrepute. This wreckage caused God's Name to be defamed among all the nations of the earth. One thing God could not do He could not receive into His abiding approval and blessing His spoiled workmanship. There was only one thing left to do, and that has just been discussed. God was compelled in the nature of the case to cast aside His own creation. It is for this cause that God said, "The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God." In the Book of Revelation we read that the unbelieving, the sorcerers, the whoremongers, the murderers, the idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie shall be put out of the City. They shall find their lot in the lake of fire with the beast and the false prophet.
IV. GOD'S DESIRE TO RESTORE THE WORK OF HIS HANDS (2 Peter 3:9)
When the potter saw that his vessel was marred, he made it again. The artist, the sculptor, the poet, the mechanic, any man and every man will restore the work of his fingers if he can do it. That which is cast aside is that which is hopelessly a failure.
Man had no power to rescue himself. He could not lift himself above himself, nor make a new self upon the wreckage of the old self. The corrupt tree cannot bring forth good fruit; the bitter fountain cannot give good water. The leopard cannot change his spots, nor the Ethiopian his skin.
The proposition which confronted God was how He could be just, and yet justify the ungodly. He who says that God does not love the sinner is wrong. He does not love the sinner's sin, but He so loved the sinner that He gave Christ to die.
We can almost now hear the plaintive voice of God as He cried concerning disobedient and wayward Ephraim: "How shall I give thee up, Ephraim?" God yearned for Adam and Eve as soon as they had sinned, and told them how they might be saved.
God has commanded us, today, to carry the Gospel of His redemptive work to every creature. He is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to a saving-knowledge of the truth. To us the story of God's great love surpasses understanding.
God so loved the world that He sent His only begotten Son. God was in Christ reconciling men unto Himself. Never think of God as a tyrant with a whip ruthlessly driving" His marred creation to hell. To be sure, if His work cannot be renewed, restored, redeemed, He will, in the nature of the case, be forced to cast His creative work off forever. This, however, He will not do until, with all patience, He has endeavored again and again to save the lost.
V. GOD'S REDEMPTIVE PLAN (John 3:16)
Some one has called this verse the Gospel in a nutshell. It is a marvelous verse. It shows how God, loving the world, gave His Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish. When we go to the manger in Bethlehem, and we see the infant, Christ, we see the great purpose and plan of God before the world was, coming to maturity.
That Babe in the manger is grace operating. It is mercy active. In that Babe's little body was incarnate God, God made flesh and dwelling among us, God the holy and the sinless.
As we pass from the manger to the baptismal scene where Christ, now thirty years of age, is baptized, we behold the same creative plan in progress. From the Heavens the Father speaks, saying, "This is My beloved Son."
As we stand by the Cross and see the same Son of God dying, we see God's purpose of redemption reaching its climactic conclusion.
God was seeking to save the lost. However, in His purpose He had to satisfy the offended God. He had to sustain His own holiness and justice, removing every obstacle to man's redemption. When Christ cried on the Cross, "It is finished," He meant that the basis of man's redemption was a completed task.
As we stand at the empty tomb we see God putting on the great assuring confirmation of His redemptive grace. The resurrection of Christ gives us an acclaimed Christ, a satisfied Father. From that day on God hath made the message of His redemptive Gospel a potent and powerful message, by the resurrection of Christ from the dead.
VI. GOD'S ONE DEMAND OF THE SINNER (John 1:12-13)
The sacrifice of the Saviour had completed God's work of redemption so far as salvation from the power of death and hell was concerned. Christ's ascension has assured to the sinner the power of a new life. Christ's coming again will bring the resurrection of the body and the glorious consummation of God's redemptive plan.
However, before the sinner can be saved there are other things which must be accomplished. "He that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a Rewarder of them that diligently seek Him." Jesus is a Saviour in possibility to all men, but in actuality only to those who believe.
God says, "As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His Name." The saved soul is saved only on the accomplishment of God in Christ upon the Cross, but he is saved upon the basis of his own faith.
There is, however, besides faith, another contingency, and that is confession. In Romans 10:1-21 we read, "With the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation." We do not mean that a person cannot be saved by grace through faith alone and apart from confession. What we do mean is the saved soul will confess.
The Word of God says, "He that doeth truth cometh to the Light, that his deeds may be made manifest." One thing we will need to remember, and that is that saving faith is a living, active, obedient faith. We are saved by grace, through faith apart from works, but we are saved by a faith that works.
VII. MAN'S GREATEST SIN (John 16:8)
We have passed down the line having discussed God's standard of fellowship; God's attitude to a failure; God's creation not a machine; God's desire to save; God's redemptive plan; and God's one demand upon the sinner.
Now we come to the most startling thing of all. Our key text tells us that when the Spirit is come He will reprove men of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment to come. "Of sin, because they believe not on Me." Man's greatest sin is the rejection of a Saviour. It is not his sins that damn him, because the Father in Christ has made full atonement for sin; and He suffered for our sins, the Just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God.
The question now before the man of the world is the "Son" question, not the "sin" question. As to the sin question, he needs no preaching. He knows he is a sinner. As to the Son question that is another matter. The whole Gospel of the Book of John is written that we might believe that Jesus is Christ, the Son of God, and that believing we might have life through His Name.
He who wants to be saved will find no other door to Heaven than Christ Jesus. Christ is the Way, the Truth, and the life. He is the Bread of Life; He is the Water of Life; He is the Resurrection, and the Life.
We ask once more the question we asked in the beginning of this study: "What think ye of Christ?" All men are sinners. The lost sinner is the man who has Christ under his feet. The saved sinner is the man who opens his heart and accepts Christ as Saviour and Lord.
AN ILLUSTRATION
SALVATION MADE PLAIN
"Salvation Offered. A missionary sat in the midst of a little circle of South Sea Islanders. He read to them the third chapter of John's Gospel. Presently he came to the verse, 'God so loved the world,' etc. One of his hearers started from his seat and exclaimed: 'What sounds were those I heard?' The missionary repeated the verse. The native again rose up from his seat, and earnestly asked his instructor: 'Is that true? Can it be true that God so loved the world? God's own Son came to die that man might not die? Is it true?' The missionary assured him that it was the very message he had come so far to deliver, and that they were happy who would receive it. The man burst into tears, and turned from the little company into the bushes to think alone over the wonderful news.