Faith and Acceptance: The Keys to Salvation

SPEAKER 01 : 0:01

Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Monday, December 15th. We’re all born into a world broken by sin, helpless, unable to free ourselves from its grip. But there’s good news. Salvation is a gift freely offered to anyone who believes. Join us as we explore the God who cares enough to rescue us and discover the hope, love, and grace that can set you free.

SPEAKER 02 : 0:27

What is the loftiest, highest, the most pinnacle of all truth in the scripture? And here’s what that truth is. That holy God so loved mankind that he sent Jesus Christ, his son, to die a substitutionary death on the cross, thereby paying the sin debt of of all mankind in full and making it possible for us to be like Him. So I want to say it again. There is no higher thought in existence than that. That holy God so loved man that He sent Jesus Christ, His Son, to die a substitutionary death on the cross paying our sin debt in full and making it possible for us to become like Him. Now, the key word in understanding everything in this Bible that has to do with redemption is the word substitution. So I want you to say it with me. Substitution. So Jesus Christ’s death was a substitutionary death. So why do we say substitutionary death? And this is why it’s so important. Because there has never been a person There never will be a person. No one has ever lived, ever will live, who is without sin. It was man in his absolute, total, helpless condition. brought about the love of god the coming of the lord jesus christ and the sacrificial substitutionary atoning death of jesus christ to pay our sin debt in full there is the core and the heart of this bible wrapped up in one statement from beginning to end god holy god so loved sinful man that he sent jesus christ his son to die a substitutionary death at Calvary in order that our sin debt may be paid in full and that you and I could be made like God. Now, my friend, if that doesn’t motivate you to love the Lord Jesus Christ, to want to serve Him, to give to Him, to be what He wants you to be, maybe you have never been saved. No one has given to us the lofty ideas of God that Jesus did, nor to bring him down to where we are, that he cares for us day by day, moment by moment, living in this earth. God’s redemptive plan, his plan to rescue you and me, the scripture says he provided that before the foundation of the world. Now, let’s look again, if you will, in Hebrews chapter 1, verse 3, because this is the way he did it. He says in verse three, In the latter part of that verse, when he had made purification of sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high. Now, what is he referring to in that passage? Simply this, that in the Old Testament, and I want you to follow me with some verses in a moment. In the Old Testament, the priest would offer sacrifice for sin. The high priest would go in once a year into the Holy of Holies and offer sacrifice, listen, for his sins and the sins of the whole nation of Israel. Well, when you read this passage and it says that he sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high, what is he referring to here? Well, I want you to go in with Hebrews and let me show you something very important. Go to Hebrews chapter 10, first of all, remembering now that the whole book of Hebrews now begins with the idea that Jesus Christ is our great high priest. He’s the one who goes to the father in your behalf and my behalf as our intercessor. In chapter 10, look, if you will, In verse nine, then he said, behold, I’ve come to do thy will. He takes away the first note to establish the second covenant. Then he says, by this will, we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ. Now what’s the next phrase? Once for all. And look at this, verse 11. And every priest, except Christ, stands what? Daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. They were a foreshadowing, something symbolical of that which was to come. But he having offered what? One sacrifice for sins. What’s the next phrase? For all time sat down at the right hand of God. So that this act of Jesus Christ was a one-time act, and it assumed the sin debt of all mankind, wherever man may be, no matter what the situation, the circumstance, it took care of all of it. Now, I want you to look, if you will, in verse 14. He says, for by one offering, he has perfected. That is, he has completed. Look at that. For by one offering, he has perfected or completed. For how long? For all time, those who are being made holy. That’s what sanctified means here. Being made holy. You see, every single one of us who is a believer, we are being made holy by the Holy Spirit. That is, when we’re convicted of our sin, that’s the Spirit of God bringing us back into a right relationship with Christ so that being made holy is a continuing process. Now, notice how many times he says here, once for all, for all time, once for all. Now, I want you to go back, if you will, to let’s look in chapter 7 of Hebrews. And look at this. Verse 27 says of Hebrews chapter 7, He says, speaking of Christ, who does not need daily, like those high priests, to offer up sacrifices. He doesn’t need to do that. First for his own sins, because he wasn’t a sinner, and then for the sins of the people. Because this he did, what? Once for all, when he offered up what? Himself. The priests who were sinners had to make sacrifices for themselves. They did it continually on an ongoing basis. Jesus did not have to atone for his own sin because he was not a sinner. He did it once and not many times, okay? Over to chapter 9, and look, if you will, in verse 11. But when Christ appeared as the high priest of the good things to come, he entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation, and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through his what? his own blood, he entered the holy place, what? Once for all, having obtained what? Eternal redemption. And all through this passage, here’s what he says. He says, look, the priest did it over and over and over and over again. He says, Jesus did it once. Now I’ll show you something else that’s real interesting here. Go back, if you will, to Hebrews 7, 25. Listen to what he says. Hence also, he is able to save forever those who draw near to God through him since he always lives to do what? To make intercession for us. Okay. Chapter 10, back to verse 12. He says he’s living to make intercession for us. That is, Jesus Christ is involved in your life and mine now. But he, verse 12, but he having offered one sacrifice, what was that sacrifice? Himself. For sins for all time. What did he do? He sat down. Now why did he sit down? He was finished. He sat down. Now look, the priest, the Bible says, went in daily, continuously. Do you realize that in the tabernacle, in the temple, there was no chair for the priest to sit in? Because what they did, they didn’t go and just sit down and contemplate on God. The tabernacle and the temple, when they went to the holy place, they were in there ministering to God in behalf of the people. The Bible says that Jesus offered one sacrifice one time, and where was it? At the cross. And when he did it, he sat down. Where did he sit down? Right hand of the Father. Your redemption, look at this, your redemption was paid for in one brief moment in all of eternity past and in all of eternity future in the death of Jesus Christ which God rigged up and executed before you and I were ever born. God did it. He gets all the glory and all the praise and all the honor and we give him praise and honor and glory and say hallelujah to this God who has loved us enough to save us before we ever even knew what was going on. Now, I want you to notice something else in this passage or here in this message, and that is… not only did his rescue plan require that one person executed that is the Lord Jesus Christ it’s also around him but I was to see that this rescue plan this rescue operation is both listen it is both final and it is continuous now let me explain that how can it be final and continuous well it’s final in the fact that when you receive the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Savior that is you trusted him as your Savior it was a final once and for all act listen When he says that Jesus Christ died once and for all, one time, it was a one-time act. He didn’t have to die but one time. How many times do you have to get saved? How many times are you born again? Let’s put it like that. Now, let me say this to all of you folks out there who don’t believe in eternal security. You say, well, I… If you sin against God, down you go. Well, let me ask you a question. What did Jesus die for? The sin debt, your total sin debt, past, present, and future. So, listen, if I can be lost because of my behavior, then my behavior had to be involved in my being saved. My behavior was not involved in my being saved. That’s the grace of God. That’s a gift, not behavior. It wasn’t any work that I performed. It was the grace of God. Foreknown, elected, predestined before the foundation of the world. It wasn’t work. It was the grace of God. Now, So that you and I have been eternally saved. We belong to God. We are His children. A once and for all act. Now, Jesus’ death was once and for all. My salvation experience was once and for all. Now, listen carefully. There are a lot of people who are saved who went about it exactly like you and I go about it. They don’t think they’re saved. You know why? Because they’ve been taught that if you sin after you’re saved, you’re lost. You’ve got to get saved all over again. Now, here’s what I really want to say. Listen carefully. Just because you think you’re lost does not mean you’re lost. Now, I want to be very careful how I say that. Are you listening? If you have trusted Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, and you have believed that when He died on the cross, He paid your sin debt in full, and you accepted Him by faith as your personal Savior, you are saved. Your name written before the foundation of the world in the Lamb’s Book of Life, you’re a child of God. You are kept by the power of God, not your behavior. But a person can be misled, and there’s a lot of misleading theology floating around, and part of it is that you can be saved today and lost tomorrow. Now, just because you feel lost and just because you think you’re lost because somebody told you you were lost doesn’t mean you’re lost. And there are going to be some people who get to heaven who are totally surprised. The tragedy is there are going to be some folks who don’t get there who are horribly surprised. Because they’re dead set on getting to heaven on their works, and there’s no way. I couldn’t preach enough sermons if I lived a million years. If 50 million people got saved, wouldn’t get me one step closer to heaven. I’d get there the same way the 9-year-old boy gets there and the 85-year-old man, by the grace of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, who chose us in Him before the foundation of the world. So our salvation is to settle this. You haven’t got to settle in one event. So if you can think about the moment you were converted and the cross, the moment Jesus Christ died and paid your sin debt, two, listen, two of the greatest moments in your life and mine. In fact, they’re the two pivotal moments in our life that he did for me what I could not ever do for myself. And then when I came along and responded to what he did for me, changed my eternal destiny. Now, we said this is, listen, his rescue plan is final and it’s continuous. Well, it’s final because of what he did and because of how he responded. How is it continuous? Here’s the way it’s continuous. And here’s another expression of how God cares for us. He didn’t leave anything undone. You see, Jesus said to his apostles, he said, I’m going away, but I’m not going to leave you as orphans. I’m not going to leave you by yourself. You know why? Because he knew that they were going to blow it. They were going to fail. He’d already seen enough of that because he foreknew that ahead of time. But he could look around, look at that crowd and think, oh, Father. And that’s why he prayed for them so intently in the 17th chapter of John, which is the Lord’s Prayer. He knew that, listen, they were human, just men. They’d be tempted and tried and failed. He said, I’m not going to leave you by yourself. You can’t do it. This is why God’s rescue plan is not only final, but it’s continuous. Because here’s what happens. The Bible says, when you were saved, the Holy Spirit came to indwell you. What’s he there for? A lot of things. But you see, this is why his rescue plan is continuous. Every single time you attempted… The Spirit of God is there to rescue you from that temptation. Every time you are tested, the Spirit of God is there to rescue in that testing. Every time you are persecuted, the Spirit of God is there to rescue in that persecution. Every time you are filled with fear and overcome with discouragement and get despondent and down, the Spirit of God is there to rescue you and to lift you up. and to remind you of who you are in Christ and who He is in you and what you have in Him. The rescue operation goes on and on and on, day by day, month after month, year after year, until Jesus calls us home. Listen, He didn’t just write your name in the Lamb’s Book of Life before the foundation of the world and say, do the best you can. But He died and said, listen, I don’t want you doing your best. Your best will never measure up. I am going to come. He says, I’m coming to you. I’ll be in you and with you and upon you through the Holy Spirit. He’s called the Comforter. He’s going, listen, He’s going to keep the rescue plan going. And so no matter what you face, the same God who wrote your name in the Lamb’s Book of Life before the foundation of the world and executed the crucifixion of His own Son and gave you grace is the same one who takes every single step before you get out of the bed, He’s there. When you get in the bed at night, He’s there. And He’s with you all through the night, all through the day. Every single thing you do, He’s right there to rescue you if you’ll let Him do it. That’s how loving and caring God is. Now, which brings me to the final point, and that is this, that in God’s rescue plan of mankind, man does have a responsibility. For example, let’s say that you’re in a muddy, fast-flowing, deep river, and you’ve already been down twice, and you’ve come up for the third time, and I throw you a life preserver. Will you be saved from drowning because I threw you the life preserver? No. No. When will you be saved from drowning? When I throw you the life preserver and you have enough faith to believe that if I throw it to you, that I’m going to pull the rope and pull you in. And secondly, that you take the initiative to reach out and take it. Jesus Christ is God’s eternal life preserver for all mankind. And what is required of God delivering you out of the stream of life that is destroying you and will one day ultimately sweep you away into a Christless, endless eternity separated from God? First of all, you must be willing to confess your helplessness to save yourself and acknowledge that you need Christ. Secondly, You must be willing to accept that His death at Calvary paid your sin debt in full and be willing by faith to receive Him personally as your Savior. The moment you do that, you are saved, rescued, liberated, free to become the person God wants you to be. But my friend, I can throw you a life preserver all day long if you don’t reach out and take it. It’s of no value. You see, the Bible says that he died for the sins of the world. That doesn’t mean everybody’s going to be saved. Only those who are willing to reach out and say, in my helpless, sinful condition, I need you, dear God, and I receive Jesus Christ as my personal Savior. You realize that what we just talked about is what God was up to in eternity past? And the whole Old Testament was God working out this rescue plan. And that what happened at Calvary, back on 2,000 years ago, was God executing the plan. And that ever since then, you know what He’s been doing? Reaching out to mankind, pleading with them to, listen, take hold of the life preserver. The eternal life preserver who is Jesus Christ. Now do you understand why your good works won’t work? And that God’s redemptive plan was because… Man’s works won’t work. And the only thing that now will work is God’s plan. And he worked it at the cross in his own son so that you can be free from the power of sin and live for him. Now, I want to ask you a question. Do you know, can you put your finger on time? When you can look back and say, at that point in my life, I trusted Jesus Christ as my personal Savior. I’m asking you, has there ever been a time when you can say, at that point in my life, I accepted Jesus Christ as my personal Savior? And I know that I’m saved. You don’t have to understand everything I’ve said to be saved. But this is absolutely essential. You must understand your helpless condition. You must understand that Jesus paid for your sin at the cross. And you must accept Him by faith as your personal Savior. Not on any merits of your own, but simply by the grace of God. And if you’re willing to do that, He’ll change your entire destiny. And all you have to do is to reach out by faith and take Him. And you will never be the same again.

SPEAKER 01 : 19:11

Thank you for listening to today’s podcast titled, The God Who Cares Enough to Rescue. For more inspirational messages like this one, visit our online 24-7 station. And if you’d like to know more about Charles Stanley or In Touch Ministries, stop by intouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.