Imagine a ship filled with people crossing the Atlantic. In the middle of the ocean the captain announces that the ship is sinking and that everyone must leave the big, towering ship and get into the little lifeboats being lowered over the sides of the boat into the swelling ocean.
a. One person doesn’t believe the Captain that the ship is sinking, “it doesn’t look like it is” so he stays on board.
i. Will he be saved when the ship sinks? Why Not?
b. Another person doesn’t hear the call to abandon ship. He stays on board.
i. Will he be saved when the ship sinks? Why Not?
c. Another looks at the little boats and thinks, “that will never protect me from this ocean, I’m staying on this big thing, it seems safer.”
i. Will his faith in the ship save him? Why Not?
d. Suppose another man knows about the lifeboat and believes it will save his life, but his handicapped wife can’t get into the boat so he chooses not to get aboard.
i. Will his love for his wife save him? Why Not?
e. Others believe the captain, so they get into the boats.
i. They are saved by faith. However, it is not really their faith that saves them—no matter how much they have.
ii. It is the boat that saves them, their faith, their trust in it and what the captain has told them has simply been the vehicle that has caused them to get into the lifeboats.
f. Saving faith trusts Christ, and Christ saves.
5. This morning God is saying to us, “trust me enough to step off of the big ship of your self-run life.”