The most important decision that any of us has ever made, or will ever make in our lifetime, is to accept Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and Savior, and to receive salvation.
God never wanted to have to send His Son to die for us, but He knew it was the only way. The Bible tells us in Jon 3:16-17, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved.”
Jesus Himself said in John 3:3 – “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God.”
God’s plan of salvation is very simple, but the Bible tells us in Matthew 7:13-14 – “Enter ye in at the straight gate:, for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.”
I wonder, is there a sadder message in the whole Bible than this one? Jesus has told us that “few there be that find it.” I suspect that 80 or 90% of all the people in the world today are lost and without Jesus.
As I have shared with you before, I had the privilege of helping raise 5 natural children, 4 girls and one boy, and 2 foster children, a girl and a boy.
Attending church was never an option for my children. It was mandatory, and through the years, one by one, they all came to know and accept Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior.
The more that they learned, the more questions they asked, and often times they would ask point blank “Daddy, do you think Mr. Jones has ever been saved? What about Mrs. Williams daddy? What about Mr. Morrison next door daddy?”
I would ask them what prompted their questions and here is what they would say. “Well daddy, Mr. Jones claims to be a Christian but he never attends church. Mrs. Williams says she believes in God but sure does seem to have a pretty bad drinking problem! Mr. Morrison is a Deacon in the Baptist Church but he sure does curse a lot and my friend says that he is having an affair with her mother! Daddy, are they going to get to Heaven despite the way they act?
Out of the mouths of babes come some of life’s toughest questions. Now I couldn’t answer those questions then and I can’t answer them now, nor can you. You and I do not truly know if a person is saved or not, but sometimes we can get a pretty good idea. However, you and I see only the outward appearance of the person while God sees the inward appearance, so only God knows for sure.
What we do know is that the Bible teaches us very clearly that after a person has received salvation through Jesus that a change should take place in their lives. There should be visible evidence of their salvation!
As the Apostle Paul told us in II Corinthians 5:17 – “Therefore, if any man be in Christ, He is a new creature: old things are passed away, behold, all things become new.”
This morning, let’s examine for a few minutes some examples from God’s Word of the changes that took place in some people after they experienced salvation. We want to look at what they were, what they became, how their lives were changed forever, and how God used them in service to Him.
I believe, but more importantly the Bible teaches, that there should be some evidence of salvation. A murderer should lose his desire to kill. A thief should lose his desire to steal. A drunkard should lose his desire to drink, and a person who has been living in sin should desire to give up his sinful ways. Old things should pass away and all things should become new!
The Apostle Paul had a personal experience and a mighty change took place in him. In I Timothy 1:15 Paul referred to himself as the “chief of sinners.”
Paul had been a vile, despicable and repulsive human being. His one and only desire in life prior to being saved had been to wipe out and slaughter all Christians. It hadn’t mattered to him whether they were man or woman, adult or child. He wanted them all to be bound with ropes and chains, and taken as prisoners to Jerusalem. Why you ask? Simple answer, because they had chosen to believe Jesus’ message of salvation.
Then one day while on the road to Damascus, Paul’s life was changed forever. A bright light shone on him from Heaven, perhaps much like the light that had shone one day on a manger in Bethlehem.
A thunderous voice boomed from Heaven above. It was the voice of Jesus Christ. Acts 9:4 tells us that the Lord said to Paul, “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?” Prior to his conversion Paul had been known as Saul.
Paul was visibly shaken by these words he heard. His knees trembled and his body shook. The light from above blinded his eyes. He fell to his knees and replied to the Lord “What wilt thou have me to do?”
The Lord commanded him to arise and go to the city, and there he would be told what to do. Without sight, Paul was taken by the hand and led to Damascus. Once there he neither ate nor drank for 3 days. After the three days had passed, a man named Annanias visited Paul. I need to mention here that Annanias did not like Paul at all. He had no use for him! He knew of Paul’s history of persecuting Christians and he absolutely did not want to help him in any way at all. However, God had instructed Annanias what to do and Annanias had obeyed God.
Annanias placed his hands upon Paul’s eyes and his sight was restored to him. Then and there, at the lowest point in Paul’s life, having been helpless and blind, Paul accepted salvation through Jesus Christ.
Soon after that Paul was baptized. Baptism doesn’t save anyone, only Jesus does that, but baptism is an outward sign of an inward change in one’s life. Through his baptism Paul was telling all that he had accepted Jesus Christ as his personal Lord and Savior.
He became a new creature in Christ. Old things were passed away, and behold, all things became new. Paul then went on to become, perhaps, the greatest of all the apostles.
Paul spent the remainder of his life evangelistically proclaiming the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ to the gentiles. Paul was not always well received. Many still feared him from the person he used to be, but he courageously spread God’s word without compromise.
Paul had first surrendered his life to the Lord. Secondly, he preached Christ. Thirdly, he became an ambassador for Christ. There was daily evidence in the life of Paul that old things were passed away and that all things had become new.
Let’s look at another example found in the Book of Luke, Chapter 19, verses 1-9. Here we find one of Mr. Toms favorite Bible stories. We read of a man named Zaccheus.
Zaccheus was a tax collector. He was a very wealthy man, but also a very despised man. He had cheated many people and demanded that they pay more taxes than they rightfully should have had to pay. No one liked Zaccheus. As a matter of fact, he was probably the most unpopular man in the crowd that day that Jesus was passing through Jericho.
I’m sure that Zaccheus had heard the stories about Jesus and the many miracles that He had performed. He was curious and he wanted to get a glimpse of this man called Jesus.
Now the Bible tells us that Zaccheus was a very short man. There was a very large crowd that day, all having come to see Jesus. Zaccheus could not see so he got an idea. He climbed up a sycamore tree and there sat on a limb where he could clearly see Jesus as He passed through.
As Jesus walked by he looked up in that sycamore tree and he saw Zaccheus sitting there. Jesus not only saw the outward appearance of Zaccheus, but he also saw the inward appearance and He knew the desires of his heart. Jesus said to him, “Zaccheus, make haste and come down for today I must abide at thy house.” Hurry Zaccheus, get down from that tree. Today I’m coming to your home.
The Bible tells us that he did make haste. He hurried down from that tree and joyfully received Jesus into his home. More importantly, that day he also received Jesus into his heart as Savior and Lord.
Zaccheus had accepted Jesus Christ and had become a new man. His heart was changed so much that the very first thing he wanted to do was to give half of all that he owned to the poor. Secondly, knowing that he had taken away from some persons falsely, he wanted to restore to them four fold. If he had taxed them $10 too much he wanted to give them $40 back, four times as much! Simply for him to give back the same amount he had falsely taken was not enough.
Zaccheus was a changed man. He no longer wanted to cheat people or to steal from them. He no longer had a high regard for his possessions of his great wealth. They became unimportant to him. Zaccheus had joyfully accepted Jesus into his heart and he immediately repented of his unrighteous life. Old things were passed away, behold, all things became new.
How different this story is from that of the rich young ruler, found in the 19th chapter of Matthew, beginning with verse 16. (Read 16-22).
There was no way that this rich young ruler was going to give up his many earthly possessions. He was disappointed in what Jesus told him. His possessions and wealth were the most important things in life to him. He refused to give them up and in the process turned his back on Jesus and salvation.
Jesus demands that He be the number one thing, the most important thing in our lives. He is to be more important to us then any possession or any person we have in our life.
Once Zaccheus had accepted Jesus into his life he no longer had the desire or need to be wealthy in material things for he was now rich in spiritual things. The rich young ruler did not accept Jesus and all things in his life remained the same.
The Bible tells us in John, chapter 4, about the Samaritan woman at the well. Jesus was a Jew and the Jewish people would have no dealings with the Samaritans. Therefore, it was expected of Jesus that he have no dealings with them either.
And so it happened one day when Jesus was weary and tired from His long trip from Judea, that He came upon a woman who was drawing from a well. Jesus asked her for a drink of water from that well.
The woman was stunned to even be spoken to by a Jew and she asked Him why he would even speak to a Samaritan. The Lord explained to her that if she knew the gift of God, salvation, and if she would ask him for a drink, that he would give her living water and that she would never thirst again.
He went on to explain to her that water from the well that she was drawing from would only temporarily cure the thirst.
Jesus went on to tell her much about herself, things that he should not have known. He told her that she had had 5 husbands, and now was living with a 6th man that was not her husband.
The woman marveled at the things that he revealed to her. Jesus had revealed Himself to her and she believed him to be the Christ, the Messiah called Christ that she had heard had come.
That day the Samaritan woman accepted salvation through the Lord. This five times married woman, living in adultery with yet a 6th man, became a changed woman. She left her water pot and hurried back to her home and witnessed to all that would listen.
The Bible teaches us that many were saved because of this woman. This lowly Samaritan woman’s life was changed forever. She went about testifying and witnessing for Jesus. Old things were passed away and behold, all things became new. Her feet now walked in the Lord’s service, she witnessed for Christ, and she had a testimony that led people to Christ.
The final story that I will share with you this morning is my favorite of them all. Found in the Book of Acts, Chapter 16, beginning with verse 25, this is yet another story of what happens when a person truly receives salvation through Jesus Christ.
Paul and Silas had been in the city of Philippi. There they had cast out the demons in a woman that was a soothsayer, a fortuneteller. The demon-possessed woman had earned a great deal of money for her masters by her fortune telling.
When the demons were cast out she no longer was able to continue her fortune telling. Enraged, her masters caught Paul and Silas and brought them before the magistrates, accusing them of causing much trouble in that city by what they taught and what they did.
The multitudes rose up against them. The magistrates tore off their clothes and ordered that Paul and Silas be beaten, whipped and cast into prison.
Paul and Silas, having been beaten and whipped, were cast into prison and placed in the custody of the jailor. The jailor knew, according to the law of that day, that he must not allow them to escape. If they escaped it could, and probably would, cost him his own life.
He placed them in the innermost part of that prison. He had them bound in chains and their feet shackled. No way were these two going to escape.
The jailor then went to his own quarters, his room, where he would get some sleep. Surely he was feeling secure that the prisoners would not escape.
The Bible tells us that at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God. Can you just imagine what YOU would be doing and thinking? I doubt many of us would be rejoicing and singing at midnight while bound and shackled, having been beaten and whipped, and now in prison.
Suddenly at the midnight hour the foundations of the prison were shaken. All the doors to all the cells were opened and every prisoner’s bonds and shackles were loosened.
The jailor awakened and saw all the prison doors opened. He was sure that all the prisoners had escaped and he drew out his sword and was going to take his own life.
But Paul in a loud voice cried out “Do thyself no harm for we are all here.” The jailor in disbelief came running and fell down before Paul and Silas. He had realized that the God of Paul and Silas must be real, and he asked them – “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” Paul and Silas answered “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.
The jailor accepted Jesus’ gift of salvation that night and he became a new man. No longer did he want to beat and to whip prisoners. He tended to their whip marks, washed them, and was baptized.
He then took them to his house and he fed them. His entire family heard the story and accepted Christ that day. They all became new believers in the Lord. Old things were passed away and behold, all things became new.
Yes church, if you are a born again Christian, having accepted salvation through the blood of Jesus Christ, there should be evidence of that in your life today.
How do others see you throughout the week? Have they noticed the changes in your life that have taken place? Have old things passed away? Have all things become new?
As Roger and Dora come to lead us in a song of invitation, let all of us examine our hearts and our lives. If you’ve slipped back into your old ways of living, don’t hesitate; renew your covenant with the Lord today. If you’ve never accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior of your life, I plead with you to do that today. Tomorrow may never come.
If you feel the calling of the Holy Spirit to become a member of Mountain View Union Church, do not hesitate, come today and join us. We need you here, and more importantly, God needs you. The harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few. Please come as we sing.
