NR 3/10/13 DESIGN FOR LIFE
How Do People Get Saved
I am going to read a series of verses that include the words saved and salvation. Salvation is the theme of the whole Bible. There is only one reason why Jesus left heaven and came to earth, and that is to provide the gift of God, eternal life. He came to seek and to save the lost. Salvation is the reason for the Bible, the reason for church, the most important topic or decision anyone will every make.Without personal salvation, nothing else matters in a person’s life.
I have not printed the text of these verses in your notes, only the references so you can look at them again later. I am not going to preach on them, but I share them so you can see the large number of verses that talk about this theme. These are only some of the verses we could read at this time.
Then, we are going to look at how someone is saved.
See the salvation of the Lord
Exodus 14:10-14 NKJV
10 And when Pharaoh drew near, the children of Israel lifted their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians marched after them. So they were very afraid, and the children of Israel cried out to the LORD.
11 Then they said to Moses, “Because there were no graves in Egypt, have you taken us away to die in the wilderness? Why have you so dealt with us, to bring us up out of Egypt? 12 Is this not the word that we told you in Egypt, saying, ‘Let us alone that we may serve the Egyptians?’ For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than that we should die in the wilderness.”
13 And Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD, which He will accomplish for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall see again no more forever. 14 The LORD will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace.”
The song of Moses after Israel crossed the Red Sea.
Exodus 15:1-2 NKJV
1 Then Moses and the children of Israel sang this song to the LORD, and spoke, saying: “I will sing to the LORD, For He has triumphed gloriously! The horse and its rider He has thrown into the sea! 2 The LORD is my strength and song, And He has become my salvation; He is my God, and I will praise Him; My father’s God, and I will exalt Him.”
The story of the rich young ruler who came to Jesus. He walked away sad.
Matthew 19:25 NKJV
25 When His disciples heard it, they were greatly astonished, saying, “Who then can be saved?”
Zacharias Prophecies of John’s Ministry
Luke 1:77 NKJV
77 To give knowledge of salvation to His people By the remission of their sins,
Simeon’s prophecy of Jesus
Luke 2:29-32 NKJV
29 “Lord, now You are letting Your servant depart in peace, According to Your word; 30 For my eyes have seen Your salvation 31 Which You have prepared before the face of all peoples, 32 A light to bring revelation to the Gentiles, And the glory of Your people Israel.”
The ministry of John the Baptist
Luke 3:6 NKJV
6 And all flesh shall see the salvation of God.
A parable of Jesus
Luke 8:11-12 NKJV
11 “Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God. 12 Those by the wayside are the ones who hear; then the devil comes and takes away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved.”
Jesus with Zacchaeus
Luke 19:9-10 NKJV
9 And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because he also is a son of Abraham; 10 for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”
The verse that is often forgotten when verse 16 is quoted.
John 3:17 NKJV
17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
Jesus is the Good Shepherd
John 10:9 NKJV
9 I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.
Peter’s sermon on the Day of Pentecost
Acts 2:21 NKJV
21 And it shall come to pass That whoever calls on the name of the LORD Shall be saved.
Peter and John’s defense after they were arrested for healing a man
Acts 4:12 NKJV
12 Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved."
The words of a demon-possessed girl about Paul and Silas
Acts 16:16-17 NKJV
16 Now it happened, as we went to prayer, that a certain slave girl possessed with a spirit of divination met us, who brought her masters much profit by fortune-telling. 17 This girl followed Paul and us, and cried out, saying, “These men are the servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to us the way of salvation.”
The Philippian Jailer
Acts 16:30 NKJV
30 And he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”
The proclamation of Paul
Romans 1:16 NKJV
16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.
A simple explanation of how to be saved
Romans 10:9-10,13 NKJV
9 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
13 For “whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved.”
Paul’s declaration of salvation
1 Corinthians 1:18 NKJV
18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
From Timothy’s life
II Timothy 3:14-15 NKJV
14 But you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them, 15 and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.
The effect of saving grace
Titus 2:11-14 NKJV
11 For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, 12 teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, 13 looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, 14 who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works.
Don’t neglect salvation
Hebrews 2:3 NKJV
3 how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed to us by those who heard Him,
The Greatness of Jesus’ Sacrifice
Hebrews 9:28 NKJV
28 so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation.
Contend for the Faith
Jude 1:3 NKJV
3 Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.
Heaven Rejoices
Revelation 19:1 NKJV
1 After these things I heard a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying, “Alleluia! Salvation and glory and honor and power belong to the Lord our God!”
We are a few weeks from Easter. Easter is the culmination of Christ’s mission on earth. The resurrection completes His work. During the Easter season many people think about Jesus and are more open to think about Him and talk about salvation. With that in mind, today we are looking at how people get saved.
Let me start by reading a:
Story from Ron Auch, pastor and author.
I did not grow up in a godly home. We went to church as children but by the time I was 12, I was no longer going and my parents did not make me go either. By the time I had gotten saved, I hadn’t been in church for over 11 years.
My cousin lived in the eastern part of South Dakota on a farm. I loved visiting him because it was fun as a kid to be on the farm, plus I loved being with him, he was older than me which meant he was cool. When I was in Junior High School (middle school), my parent’s talked my cousin’s family into leaving the farm and moving to Rapid City. They were not making a living on the farm they were renting, and so they moved to the big city to find work (Rapid City wasn’t really a big city but it seemed like it in South Dakota).
I don’t remember all the details, but I do remember that there was no work to be found except as bartenders in a night club. My cousin and I would often go there after school just to hang out. I thought it was cool. Actually, it wasn’t, a bar is not a good place to just hang out even if your Aunt and Uncle manage the place.
About 15 years later, God moved in our family and we all got saved in 1973. Making a long story short, we all decided we needed to be saved, so we chose a Sunday to go to the local Assembly of God church because we knew the pastor gave altar calls and that we needed to be saved. This was all connected to the death of my grandfather and how he found Christ just prior to his dying. When the pastor gave the call, my mom, my dad, and I went to the altar and gave our lives to Christ. My brother Barry, who was sick that day, came the following week and gave his life to Christ. Two weeks later my youngest brother Darryl got saved finally.
We were all very excited but we were also faced with another challenge. My bartender Aunt and Uncle had become hopeless alcoholics. They had lost their jobs and literally everything else, they were homeless, so we brought them into our home. At this time, both of them were dying from the disease. They would both just lie in their beds they didn’t have enough strength to get up. Finally my Aunt got so bad that she had to go to the hospital- she never returned. I remember my mom going to visit her one day and we all knew she was about to die. I told my mom that she should not come home until Aunt Mildred accepted the Lord as her Savior. I was a new, dumb, and innocent Christian that thought it shouldn’t be very hard to lead a dying person to Christ. My mom went with her assignment and came home successful. She led her own sister to the Lord as her very first convert. My Aunt died a week later at 42 years of age.
Before she died, we talked to our dying Uncle about Christ and he at least allowed us to pray with him. God miraculously healed him. His condition was considered, by the doctors, worse than my Aunt, but he ended up the one who lived, because Jesus had mercy on him. I don’t want to get into a discussion as to why he lived and my Aunt didn’t, but I have a theory. My Aunt accepted Christ as her Savior. There was no need for her to stay here. My Uncle never did take his salvation serious. Twenty years later he died. Prior to that he went back drinking however, never did suffer from the liver problems that God healed him from. I believe today, the reason my Uncle was healed and not my Aunt, is because God was doing all He could to bring him to repentance before he died. He let him live longer to give him every chance to get saved, but he never did come. To the best of our knowledge, he died without Christ.
Ron Auch e mail March 1 2013
A person does not get saved because anyone forces them to receive Jesus. We can’t do that.
They don’t get saved because God makes them repent. He gave us a free will.
They don’t get saved because they hear the best preachers in the world. Many people have listened to Billy Graham preach awesome sermons and walked away lost in their sins.
How does a person get saved?
**Salvation is received by grace, not earned by our good works.
Ephesians 2:8-9 NKJV
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God,9 not of works, lest anyone should boast.
Any person who says “I will be good enough” or “I already am good enough” will never be saved. People are not saved because they were baptized as a baby, or belong to a church, or teach a church class. All must come to a place of taking a step of faith to receive Jesus as Savior.
**The Father Draws
John 6:44 NKJV
44 No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day.
The father draws. The Heavenly Father draws lost people to personal salvation in Jesus through the work of the Holy Spirit. Lost people need their mind and heart opened to the truth of God. While they are in their lost state they must see their need of salvation. You can talk with people and they simply don’t see any need of change, or that they even can change.
We need to be praying for people, that our Heavenly Father will draw them in.
In the cooperative nature of God, The Holy Spirit convinces the conscience of lost people of the presence of sin in their lives and their need for God.
We see that cooperation in the words of Jesus.
John 12:32 NLT
32 And when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to myself.
God’s invitation, His desire to save, goes out to all. People have a free will and can reject God’s call. It is vitally important to respond to God’s call. It is dangerous to resist God’s voice because we cannot bring ourselves to him on our own. We must respond to God’s grace and call.
**The Holy Spirit convicts, convinces.
John 16:8 NKJV
8 And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment:
The Holy Spirit “convicts the world.” This means to expose, refute and convince.
The Holy Spirit exposes sin and unbelief to wake a person up to their guilt and need for repentance and forgiveness. Conviction also helps them understand the horrible eternal results of rejecting Jesus and remaining in a sinful lifestyle.
The conviction of the Spirit brings a person to a place of decision regarding salvation. God’s purpose of conviction is to bring a person to true repentance.
The convincing of the Spirit helps a person believe that Jesus is the Son of God reveals that a personal relationship with God cannot be because of own good works. We then can will want to live by God’s standards and overcome an ungodly life.
The Holy Spirit also helps people understand judgment. He helps them understand God’s present and future judgment of the world. So many people don’t believe God will judge them, since they are basically a good person.
**New Birth Comes From God
John 1:11-13 NKJV
11 He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. 12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: 13 who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
God initiated salvation, the gift He gives to all who receive it. People are responsible to believe. There must be a continual act of believing. The verb form of believe in this verse is describing an ongoing action and shows the need for perseverance - putting faith into practice by continual trust and reliance on God. Salvation is not simply a prayer, “Jesus come into my heart”.
People need the Lord.
They cannot afford to resist.
Eternity depends on their response.
LIFE APPLICATION: The Next Step
DESIGN FOR LIFE
What are the key points of this message?
How can we apply this message?
