"So great salvation"

   We are living in a day of apostasy!   The funda-
mental truths of God's Word are not being emphasized.
The trumpet of modern day Christianity is giving forth
an uncertain sound.   In this uncertain age when men's
hearts are failing them for fear, we need a sure word, an
anchor of the soul.   We need to turn again to the
simplicity of God's Word and find there the certainty
that brings assurance and peace.
   Do you feel a need in your heart?   Has religion
been as dry husks in your mouth?   Are you searching for
a satisfaction you have never found?   Underneath it all,
does doubt, fear and guilt continually tug at your very
being?   What do you really know about your personal
relationship with God?   Will you, right now, determine to
let God speak to you . . . directly to you from His Word?
Are you willing to put aside all personal ideas, past
opinions, preconceived notions, etc. and let God speak?
   It will be our purpose to point you to God's Word and
God's Word only.   This you can believe.   Here is a
certainty.

SALVATION!   This is a much used and little understood
word.   The theme of salvation soars through the entire
Bible.   It is the central theme.   Everything else is
secondary.   Modern day Christianity, in its pride and
intellect, pictures itself as having progressed beyond a
need for salvation.   Deep in the individual heart we know
different.   The Bible knows different.   God's Word speaks
of a "great salvation[.]"

"How shall we escape, if we neglect so great
salvation
; which at the first began to be
spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us
by them that heard him;"
--Hebrews 2:3.

GREAT SALVATION.   This is the wonderful song of the
Bible.   GREAT SALVATION.   The prophets, poets and
historians of the Old Testament proclaimed this
salvation.   GREAT SALVATION.   This was the thrilling
message of Christ.   Listen to His words:

"For the Son of man is come to seek and to
save
that which was lost."
--Luke 19:10

GREAT SALVATION.   The New Testament writers join
in the same chorus.   Listen to the words of Paul:

"For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ:
for it is the power of God unto salva-
tion
to everyone that believeth;"
--Romans
1:16.

GREAT SALVATION.   The Apostle Peter proclaimed
the same message.

"Receiving the end of your faith, even the sal-
vation of your souls
."
--I Peter 1:9

GREAT SALVATION.   The salvation of souls!   This is
God's Word.   This is His message.   Hear ye Him.   Our
sophisticated age scoffs.   Man's wisdom makes him too
proud to hear.   In sophistication, pride and wisdom, this
age has produced many religions.   Conflicting claims
and confusing cults are on every hand.   In the midst of
all this chaos, God's message of a great salvation
remains unchanged.   Let us hear Him.   Let us turn from
everything else and determine to hear what God says
about this great salvation.   After all, if this is the central
theme of the Bible, it has to be the most important thing
in your life.

Saved or Lost?

The Bible truths concerning salvation are expressed in the
simplest terms.   Man has tried to make it complicated, but
the message itself remains simple . . . all may understand.
The Bible speaks of two classes of people, those who are
saved and those who are lost.

"For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ, in
them that are saved, and in them that
perish
:"
--II Corinthians 2:15.

Please remember . . . this is God's Word.   Look at it again.   It
speaks of two classes of people, "them that are saved" and
"them that perish[.]"   Saved or lost?   We do not hear this kind
of language in our modern day religion.   We have been led
into thinking that everyone is eventually going to Heaven.
We make a joke of Hell.   Despite the attitude of popular
religion, however, it still remains a fact of God's Word that
there are those who are lost and those who are saved.   This
fact is stated many times in God's Word.

"For the preaching of the cross is to them that
perish
foolishness; but unto us which are
saved
it is the power of God."
--I Corinthians 1:18

Again notice the language of God's Word to you.   It speaks of
just two classes of people, "them that perish" and "us which
are saved[.]"
  Nothing complicated.   Nothing hard to under-
stand.   This is God's simple statement of fact that is repeated
many times.

"He that believeth on him is not condemned:
but he that believeth not is condemned al-
ready..."
--John 3:18.

"not condemned" . . . "is condemned[.]"   Which are you?   No
greater thought can occupy your mind.   No greater concern
can fill your heart.   Listen again to God's Word.

"And shall come forth; they that have done good,
unto the resurrection of life; and they that
have done evil, unto the resurrection of dam-
nation
."
--John 5:29

"resurrection of life" or "resurrection of damnation."
There are just these two so it must be one or the other.   Saved
or lost?   Condemned or not condemned?   Life or damnation?
What is your answer?   This is not merely a philosophy of life
or a man-made creed.   In all its simplicity and purity, this is
God's Word.   This is what you face.   Do you have an
assurance or is there nothing but cold doubt and uncertainty
that grips your heart?

One of the great blessings that God has given us is the
privilege of coming directly to God's Word for ourselves.   It
is an extremely easy thing to be confused by the conflicting
claims of today's multitude of religions.   How wonderful to
turn to the sure Word of God.   Who is lost?   Who is
condemned?   The Bible speaks plainly.   Are you willing to
accept the Bible description that is given to you?

"As it is written, There is none righteous,
no, not one:"
--Romans 3:10.

"There is none righteous[.]"   The Bible states this fact many
times.   We like to think of ourselves as pretty good, or, at
least not so bad.   God says that none of us are good, none of us
are righteous.   Somehow, in our heart, all of us know this is
the truth.   Listen to the Scriptures.

2

"Now we know that what things soever the law
saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that
every mouth may be stopped, and all the
world may become guilty before God
."
--
Romans 3:19

"guilty before God."   We hear much today about a "guilt
complex."
  In a very real sense, we all have experienced this
feeling.   A vague uneasiness about our relationship with God.
A feeling of need to appease God for our wrong doing.   We all
are aware of being "guilty before God."   Hear God's Word.

"For all have sinned, and come short of the
glory of God;"
--Romans 3:23.

This is the fact we find so hard to face.   "all have sinned[.]"
There are no exceptions.   This means me and it means you.
This is the diagnosis given by God.   All have sinned and all
are guilty before God.   Somehow we find ourselves resenting
this picture of ourselves as guilty sinners, yet, we know it is
true.   God speaks again.

"Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world,
and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men,
for that all have sinned:"
--Romans 5:12.

Again the same statement . . . "all have sinned[.]"   Here we
face our greatest difficulty.   Everything in us seems to rebel
at the idea of facing the fact that we are guilty sinners.   We
want to look at our goodness, but God reminds us of our sin.
Before we can ever approach God we must accept God's
diagnosis of our condition.   It is necessary to acknowledge
our sin and our guilt.   What are the results of being a guilty
sinner?

Sin separates us from God!
"But your iniquities have separated be-
tween you and your God
, and your sins have
hid his face from you, that he will not hear."
--
Isaiah 59:2

Read it again.   God says our sins separate us from Him.   Sin
hides God's face from the sinner.   The Bible speaks of this as
being alienated from God.   (Ephesians 4:18; Colossians
1:21).
--
"Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:" (Ephesians 4:18).
"And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled" (Colossians 1:21).

Listen to what the Bible says about God.

"Thou are of purer eyes than to behold evil, and
canst not look on iniquity:"
--Habakkuk
1:13.

God cannot tolerate sin.   He will not look on sin.   This means
God is separated from each sinner.   We have already
discovered that God says, "There is none righteous, no, not
one[.]"
  Now listen to God's Word.

"Know ye not that the unrighteous shall
not inherit the kingdom of God
?"
--I
Corinthians 6:9.

God says that we are unrighteous and that as such we cannot
inherit the kingdom of God.   We are guilty sinners, separated
from God and shut out of the kingdom of God.   The Bible
speaks of those away from God as lost and condemned.   Let
us think again of what God has said to us.   We have seen that
salvation is the central theme of the Bible.   The Bible only
speaks of two classes of people . . . saved and lost.   The lost
sinner is separated from God and cannot inherit the
kingdom of God.   To be saved means to be eternally saved and to
be lost means eternally lost.   We have been deceived into
thinking of this life and neglecting eternity.   Again, God's
Word speaks.

"And these shall go away into everlasting
punishment
: but the righteous into life eter-
nal
."
--Matthew 25:46

3

The Bible says that the lost "go away into everlasting
punishment"
and the saved "into life eternal."   These facts
are not to be debated.   They must be faced because they are
God's Word.   What is your eternal destiny?   Do you know?

"He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting
life
: and he that believeth not the Son shall not
see life; but the wrath of God abideth on
him
."
--John 3:36

"everlasting life" or "the wrath of God[?]"   These are the
eternal realities we face.   The Bible uses such terms as
"eternal damnation" (Mark 3:29) and "everlasting
destruction"
(II Thess. 1:9) to describe the eternal state of
those who die lost.

Go to: Part 2.

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