I invite your attention this
morning to the Book of Acts, the 16th chapter. I'll read two
verses of Scripture, Acts 16, 30 and 31. It says, The jailer
brought them out and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And Paul said, Believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. Now, there's no doubt that the
greatest word in the Bible is the word God. The word God has
no rival. It contains all things, the eternal
trinity, creation, and the creator, God. God is love, God is truth,
God is holy. Let his name be spoken with reverence
and fear. The scripture says holy and reverend
is his name. The greatest word in the Bible,
the word with no rival, is the word God. I believe also, there's
no doubt, that the blackest word in the Bible is the word sin. Sin brought death. Sin brought
separation from God. Sin destroyed creation. All that
is good and holy comes from God. Every good and perfect gift cometh
from God. And all that is bad, all that
is evil, all that is dark and corrupt is the result of sin. Yes, the blackest word in the
scriptures is the word sin. And I believe the saddest word.
The saddest word in the Bible is the word depart. As it's used
in Matthew chapter 7, when our Lord said, many shall say unto
me in that day, Lord, have we not done many wonderful works?
Have we not cast out devils? Have we not even preached in
your name? But I shall say unto them, depart
from me. I never knew you. I tell you,
in your most fearsome dream, in your most horrible nightmare,
in your wildest imagination, You cannot think of any word
that is more dreadful, more horrible, and more hopeless than to hear
Christ say, depart from me. I never knew you. And I believe the most precious
word in the Bible is the word Jesus Christ. Peter said, to
you who believe, he is precious. The most precious word, the sweetest
word in the scriptures is the word Jesus Christ. When the great
preacher Charles Haddon Spurgeon was only 18 years of age, he
wrote this poem. It's a beautiful poem. Listen
to it. What the hand is to the lute, what breath is to the flute,
what fragrance is to the smell, what the spring is to the well,
what the flower is to the bee, that's Jesus Christ to me. what
the mother is to the child, what the compass in pathless wow,
what is oil to trouble wave, what the ransom to the slave,
what is water to the sea, that is Jesus Christ to me. Yes, the
most powerful and blessed and greatest word in the book is
the word God, and the blackest Darkest word in the book is the
word sin and the saddest word that a ear can ever hear Is the
word depart from me and the most precious and sweetest word in
this book is Jesus Christ But I believe the happiest word The
happiest word in all the Bible is the word saved It's used twice
in my text The Philippian jailer said, sirs, what must I do to
be saved? And Paul said, believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. I believe that's the
happiest word that a human ear can hear and a human heart can
experience. To be saved is to be forgiven
of all sin. The scripture says the blood
of Jesus Christ, God's son, cleanseth us, purifieth us, from all sin,
in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of all sin. To be saved is to be forgiven
of all sin, past, present, and future. My friends, to be saved
is to have peace with God, to have peace with God Almighty.
Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God. Our Lord Jesus Christ said, you
come to me and I'll give you rest. Rest for the weary soul. peace for the troubled heart.
To be saved is to be free from the curse of the law. The scripture
says in Galatians chapter 4 that Christ hath redeemed us from
the curse of the law, from condemnation, from the curse, yes, even from
the covenant of the law. We've been freed from the law. And then to be saved is to be
free from all judgment. There is therefore now no judgment. No judgment in the present and
no judgment in the future to them who are in Christ Jesus,
who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit. To be saved
is to have eternal life. This is the record God has given
to us who believe in Christ. Eternal life. And this life is
in His Son. Eternal life in Christ Jesus. To be saved is to have indwelling
us the spirit of the living God. If any man have not the Spirit
of Christ, he's none of his." The happiest word, the most joyful
sound that human ear can hear or human heart can experience
is the word S-A-V-E-D, saved. The Son of Man has come to seek
and to save that which was lost. Paul said, this is a faithful
saying. It's worthy of acceptation by all men. that Jesus Christ
came into this world. He came into this world. The
Son of God visited this world to save sinners, of whom I am
the chief. In considering this word, save,
today, I want us to look at four passages of Scripture. And I'm
going to deal with each of these Scriptures one at a time, and
I want you to listen very carefully as I speak from each one of these
verses. And I'll give you all of them. so you can be thinking
about them. The first one is found in 1 Peter
4, 18, in which the Apostle Peter wrote, and if the righteous scarcely
be saved. Now the word scarcely there means
with difficulty, so we're talking about being saved with difficulty. If the righteous scarcely be
saved, where shall the ungodly, where shall the sinner appear? If the righteous, not righteous
in themselves, But in Christ, if they are scarcely saved, where
shall the ungodly and the sinner appear? And then there's a verse
in Luke 7.50, the Lord Jesus Christ said to a certain woman,
Thy faith hath saved thee. How does faith save? What is
the faith that saves? Go in peace, thy faith hath saved
thee. And then in Romans 8.24, Paul
said, We are saved by hope were saved by hope. And then
in Matthew 16.25, listen to this one, the Master said, For whosoever
shall save his life will lose it, and whosoever shall lose
his life for my sake shall save it. Now let's look at these four
scriptures now in reference to the term S-A-B-E-D. That's the
title of this message. I say it's the happiest most
joyful word that human ear can hear. S-A-B-E-D. Saved. Saved by his power divine. Saved
by his love divine. S-A-B-E-D. Now, first of all,
in 1 Peter 4, 18, and there's a lot of people have read this
scripture and had a lot of trouble with it. I believe I can help
you with it. Now listen to the scripture again,
and I entitled this first point, Saved with Difficulty. Saved,
forgiven, justified, sanctified, redeemed, delivered from all
condemnation, judgment, saved, S-A-B-E-D, and all that the word
encompasses, saved with difficulty. Now listen to the scripture.
If the righteous, and we're not talking about men righteous in
themselves, because we know no man is righteous in himself.
The scripture says there's none righteous, no not one, there's
none that doeth good, No, not one. None righteous. These people
he's talking about here are not righteous in themselves. Our
Lord said, I didn't come to call the righteous, but sinners to
repentance. So they're not righteous in themselves,
but they're righteous in Christ. Their holiness, their righteousness
is the righteousness of another. It's the righteousness and holiness
of Christ. So if the righteous, those who
have righteousness by imputation, and those who have righteousness
through union with Christ, if they scarcely, scarcely be saved,
if they scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and sinner
appear? Now, the word scarcely here does
not mean that there's any uncertainty about the salvation of his sheep.
It doesn't mean that at all. We are complete in Christ. There
is no uncertainty about the salvation of our Lord's sheep, not the
least bit. He is able to save to the uttermost them that come
to God by him. He is able to keep that which
I've committed to him against that day. He is able to raise
our vile bodies and make them like his glorious body. He is
able to present us before his Father unreprovable, unblameable,
without sin. So there is no lack in the sufficiency
and the efficacy of Christ's atonement on behalf of his sheep.
That's not what he's saying here. If they scarcely be saved, meaning
that there's any uncertainty about their salvation. And then
the word scarcely does not mean that the sheep shall barely make
it to heaven. I've heard preachers preach that.
It says here, if the righteous scarcely be saved, that means
we'll barely make it in by the skin of our teeth. That's not
what that means at all. Not at all. Because a full influence,
a full influence into the presence of God is provided for us in
Jesus Christ. As our Lord, we will sweep in
the glory, sweep in the glory, fully arrayed, clothed in His
blessed righteousness. Well, you say, Preacher, what
does the word mean? Read it again. Listen to it again. And if the
righteous, and I've already established, they're not righteous in themselves,
When God looks upon our hearts and our lives and our natures
and our attitudes, oh, how evil, how wicked, how corrupt they
are. We're not righteous in ourselves. We're righteous in Christ. No
man who claims to be righteous is righteous. No man who claims
to be holy is holy. Our claim to holiness and our
claim to righteousness is that of Christ, his holiness and his
righteousness. But if the righteous scarcely
be saved, You know what that means? It means with difficulty. If our salvation is accomplished
with difficulty, with difficulty. And you know why it's accomplished
with difficulty? Because in the redemption of
a soul, in the redemption of a sinner, there's some great
obstacles to be overcome. There's a law to be honored.
The matchless, immutable, infinite law of God. There's a law to
be honored. There's a justice, a precise and strict justice
which must be satisfied. There's a great and mighty work
of redemption to be performed. In fact, that law which is to
be honored, and that justice which is to be satisfied, and
that redemptive work which is so great, so great. When our Lord spoke of it, he
said it's impossible with men. It's impossible with men. It's
only possible with God. Well, you say, what's so difficult?
If the righteous be saved with difficulty, what's the difficulty? Number one, the difficulty lay
with God. The difficulty lay with God.
Paul asked the question, Job asked the question, anybody that
knows anything about God and about sin and about men and about
the law and about holiness asked this question, how can God be
just and justify the ungodliness? How can God's perfect law be
honored? How can God's unchangeable justice
be satisfied? How can the sinner die and yet
live? That's the difficulty we're talking
about. God gave a law, a spotless perfect law that will be obeyed. God's justice speaks of punishment,
severe, strict, Well, how can that law be honored and that
justice and that punishment, that strict punishment, how can
that debt be paid? How can it be? Man can't pay.
The answer is Christ. The answer is Christ. As a man,
he met every need of the sinner and conquered every enemy of
the sinner in perfect obedience, in a perfect righteousness, and
in a sacrificial death. That's the difficulty. If the
righteous be saved with difficulty, Difficulty lay with God. God
must be appeased. God must be satisfied. God's
law must be honored. God's justice must be satisfied.
All of these things must be done. That's what makes it difficult.
And then another thing. The difficulty not only lay with
God, but with the sinner. But with the sinner. Our Lord
said, you will not come to me. The sinner won't come. God may
invite, but the sinner won't respond. God may call, but the
sinner won't answer. God Almighty may extend his hand,
but the sinner won't take it. You will not come to me that
you might have life. Men are lovers of pleasure more
than lovers of God. Men love darkness rather than
light. The difficulty of this thing
of salvation is not only with God, but it's with the sinner.
It's with the sinner. He must be born again. He can't
born himself. He can't give life to himself.
We can't give life to one another. John wrote in John chapter 1,
as many as received him, to them gave he the privilege, the right,
the power to become sons of God, even to them that believe on
his name, which are born, not of the will of man, not of the
will of the flesh, but of God. This is a supernatural birth.
This is a regeneration. This is a recreation. This is
a quickening from a dead state. And it's impossible with men.
It's difficult. Only God can do it. Only God
can do it. We must be not only born again,
we must be made willing. We must be brought to love that
which we hate. And we must be brought to hate
that which we love. And Christ has to be formed within
us. As Paul said to the church at
Galatia, I travail to Christ be formed in you. If the righteous
be saved with difficulty, If God's law must be honored, and
God's justice must be satisfied, and God's holiness must be met,
and the sinner won't come, he will not come, he loves darkness
and hates light, he loves death and hates life, he loves evil
and hates holiness, he will not respond, he will not answer,
he will not call, he will not pray, he will not come to God,
then God must do it. Salvations of the Lord. It's
a mighty, quickening, regenerating, awakening miracle of God's grace. It took a miracle, the hymn writer
said, to put the stars in place. It took a miracle to hang the
world in space. But when He saved my soul, when
He cleansed and made me whole, it took a miracle of love and
grace. You see what Peter's saying?
If the righteous, made righteous by His obedience, made holy by
his powerful regenerating work. If the righteous be saved with
difficulty, with only the work of God, by only the power of
God, where, where shall the fellow that trusts in his works, the
fellow that trusts in his church membership, the fellow that rests
in his baptism, the fellow or woman that rests in their experience
or their decision or their merit, where shall they appear? Oh,
where shall they appear? If the only way to appear in
God's presence is in Christ, where are you going to appear,
who do not have Christ? You see what he's saying? Saved
with difficulty. It takes a miracle to save a
sinner. All right, second in Luke 7,
verse 50. And the Lord Jesus said to a
woman, your faith has saved you. Go in peace, saved by faith.
This is one of the most touching stories in the Bible. Evidently,
there was a woman of the streets who had heard our Lord preach,
and she'd been moved by his message. She'd been moved by his gospel. And she heard that he was going
to have supper in the home of a Pharisee, a religious fellow,
real, moral, religious leader of the Jews. So after he got
in the hall where they were having the supper and was reclining
with the people around the table, of course the Pharisee was sitting
up there in his uppermost seat in his pride and in his self-righteousness
and in his holier-than-thou attitude. And our Lord was reclining down
here, and when he came into the man's house, he told him later,
he said, you didn't give me any oil for my head, you didn't wash
my feet, you didn't greet me with a kiss. But he sat up there
in his seat, the uppermost seat, and our Lord reclined down here
with the people. This woman, who was a woman of the streets,
who was a harlot, I suppose, she slipped in. And she knelt
at his feet. And she began to cry. She began
to weep. She bathed her, bathed his feet
with tears. And then she un-plaited her hair
and began to dry the master's feet with the hair of her head.
And then she began to kiss his feet. And finally she anointed
those precious feet with a precious, valuable ointment. And that's
when our Lord Jesus Christ turned to her and he said, Woman, go
in peace. Thy faith hath saved thee." The
woman's faith was in Christ. Christ was her object of faith.
Her tears fell on Him. Her hair was a towel for His
feet. Her kisses were rained upon Him. The object of her faith was Christ
Jesus. And we see in this woman's conduct
and behavior, we see a description of faith. First of all, faith
looks to Christ. It doesn't look to a doctrine.
It doesn't look to an experience. It doesn't look to a law, it
looks to a person. This woman came to Christ. Salvation
is Christ. Salvation is not only in Christ,
it is Christ. She came to Him. It's like Simeon
said when he looked at the child Jesus. He lifted his eyes to
heaven and he said, Lord, now let your servant depart in peace.
Mine eyes have seen thy salvation. Mine eyes have seen thy salvation.
He didn't see the cross. He didn't see the work of Christ
by the sea of Galilee. He didn't see the resurrection.
But he saw the person, Christ Jesus. Abraham believed God. The song says, turn your eyes
on Jesus. Look full in his wonderful face
and the things of this world will grow strangely dim in the
light of his glory and his grace. Salvation's in Christ. This woman
came to him and faith not only looks to Christ, but faith grieves
over sin. She wept. Oh, how she wept, as
she remembered her sins, she wept. Like David, this woman
felt, my sins are ever before me. And then faith is humble. She fell at his feet. There was
no pride there. She fell at his feet. She kissed
his feet. Can you think of that? She bathed
his feet with tears. She dried his feet with the hair
of her head. Her faith not only was humble,
but it was loving. She kissed his feet. And that, the Lord Jesus turned
to her and he said, your faith has saved you. Go in peace. Go
in peace. Go in peace. You know, our Lord
said that to someone else. He said that to a man. The same
words. He said to blind Bartimaeus,
your faith has saved you. And yet their experiences are
totally different. The woman's faith acted like
a woman. She showed tender love and affection. The man's faith acted like a
man. He shouted and screamed and cried out, Lord, thou son
of David, have mercy on me. Totally different experience.
The woman didn't speak a word. Not one word. The silence of
a broken, tender heart. The man couldn't be shut up.
They tried to quiet him down, and he wouldn't shut up. He couldn't
be silenced. He kept crying, Jesus, our son
of David, have mercy on me. The woman wept much. We read
nothing of Bartimaeus weeping. He did a lot of begging, but
he didn't do any weeping. The woman's faith gave. She gave
of herself. She gave of her ointment. She
gave of her kisses. She gave of her tears. Bartimaeus
gave nothing. He took. He took Christ's mercy. You see what I'm saying? Our
Lord said to a woman who wept, who was silent, who never spoke
a word, who kissed his feet, who guided them with the hair
of her head. He said, your faith has saved you. There was a man
who screamed and cried and begged and couldn't be silenced, wouldn't
be still, kept crying out, thou son of David, don't pass me by,
have mercy on me. Turned to him and said, your
faith has made you whole. Both of them, though, wait a
minute, both of them had the same object, Christ. Don't miss
Christ. Experiences may differ, but faith
is the same. It's Christ. I beg of you, don't
miss Christ. Don't become so involved and
embroiled in your experiences and in your religion and these
things that you miss the Redeemer. Because if you do, you're going
to hear him say, Depart, I never knew you. Here's another verse,
Romans 8, 24, Saved by hope. Hope? We're saved by hope. Now
the world uses that word hope constantly as a wish or desire
to say, I hope it rains. Somebody else says, I hope it
doesn't rain. Somebody else says, I hope he gets well. And someone
else says, well, I hope the frost doesn't kill the fruit trees.
But that's not what he's saying here. We're saved by a hope,
a hope, a hope, or a wish, or a desire. True hope, saved by
hope, is based on reason. True hope is always based on
a reason. Hope has a reason. Hope has expectation,
or it's not hope at all. When Paul says we're saved by
hope, he means we hope to be forgiven. We hope to be resurrected. We hope to be like Christ. We
hope to reign with Christ. But he means we expect these
blessings. We hope to be saved means we
expect to be saved for we've got good reason to believe and
expect to be saved. Didn't Peter say for us to be
always ready to give an answer to every man who asks us the
reason for our hope? The what? The reason for our
hope. You know the reason for my hope?
Not on anything I've ever said, done, or given. The reason for
my hope, number one, is the Word of God. He that believeth on
the Son hath everlasting life. That's what God said, I believe.
Also, my hope is based on the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. He
who knew no sin was made sin for us. that we might be made
the righteousness of God in him. He was wounded for our transgressions,
bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace was
laid on him by his stripes we're healed. My hope is based thirdly,
reason, on his resurrection. He said because I live, you'll
live. Because there's an empty grave
in Jerusalem, there'll be an empty grave in Ashland someday.
Because he lives, I live. So our hope is a desire, but
it's a desire that is based on a good reason and a good foundation,
and then last of all, saved by losing. Whosoever shall save
his life will lose it. Whosoever shall lose his life
for my sake shall find it. I'll just tell you a story and
I'll quit. A great old missionary labored faithfully in the service
of Christ on a foreign island. He buried his wife and three
sons on that island. Finally, he retired and came
home alone. And he made this comment, If I had my life to
live over again, I'd walk the same path I'd trust the same
Savior, I'd weep the same tears, I'd visit the same grave, and
I'd preach the same gospel for all that I've lost on earth is
gain and glory. Lose your life? Find it. Save
your life from reproach and persecution and the offense of the cross?
Lose it. Lose it.