BLJ: We will spend a few days talking about salvation. Let me blunt. I am convinced that many people attending church are not saved. They go to church because of the social benefits and friendships they make. Yet, they lack the deep commitment to Jesus Christ. As we study a work by Rev. Kenneth Fay, search your soul. Are you saved?
THE MOMENT OF SALVATION
Luke 18:10-14 Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. 11 The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. 12 I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess. 13 And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner. 14 I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.
At a definite moment you were born into the world. Your parents taught you annually to celebrate the event. And who could forget that day when his wedding bells chimed? It is yet fondly cherished in your memory. One couple was married aboard an airliner by a clergyman at the moment in which the great ship was passing over their city. Another couple and their minister donned deep-sea diver's suits and were lowered off-shore to some thirty feet below the surface. There, speaking through built-in intercoms and surrounded by fish and coral, they exchanged vows. People have been married in strange places, but whether you were married in city cathedral or country chapel, indoors or out of doors, on land or sea, your wedding day is memorable to you. Yours may not have been as dramatic as another's, but the ties are just as strong and the event itself as well remembered. Should it then be thought incredible that one should remember the GREATEST EVENT of his entire lifetime-the day he was born again and passed from death unto life? Do you not remember that great event?
The evangelists of early Methodism were known as the "now preachers" because they offered salvation "on the spot." So did Christ and the apostles. Immediately after Zacchaeus pledged to make full restitution for all his wrongs, Jesus said to him, "THIS DAY is salvation come to this house." (St. Luke 19:9). Blind Bartimaeus begged of Jesus that he might receive his sight. Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus (Mark 10:52). Having been instructed as to how to be saved, the Ethiopian eunuch believed and was saved then and there. This all occurred as a single dramatic episode (Acts 8:26-39). When one of the malefactors, dying with Jesus on Calvary, acknowledged his need and asked the Savior for mercy, Jesus answered, "TODAY shalt thou be with me in paradise" (St. Luke 23:43). Repeatedly St. Paul told of that day on the Damascus road when he "saw a light," "heard a voice" and had a personal rendezvous with Christ which changed his life. Nor can anyone who has thus met Jesus forget that glorious moment of encounter when "old things are passed away" and "all things become new" (2 Corinthians 5:17). When is that moment realized? H. L. Cox, the hymn writer expressed it this way:
"So I prayed to God in earnest,
And not caring what folk said,
I was hungry for the blessing;
My poor soul it must be fed.
Then at last by faith I touched Him,
And like sparks from smitten steel,
Just so quick salvation reached me.
Oh, Bless God, I know it's real!"
The moment you touch Jesus by contrition and godly sorrow for sin, the moment you approach Jesus with open confession of guilt, the moment you implore forgiveness in faith and obedience--at THAT VERY MOMENT you will know the joy of saving grace and the reality of His acceptance. Salvation will not necessarily make you a theologian over night, if at all, but from that moment you will know you are born again. You may not be able to satisfy every skeptic or doubter, but with the millions who have found Christ in His saving power you can sing:
"I remember the time, I can tell you the place,
When the Lord came in and saved me by His grace.
I cannot tell you HOW, but I can tell you now.
That Jesus saves me, I know He saves me!"
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