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[0:00] now we ask prayerfully that you would reveal yourself through your word. That you would speak to us. That you would open our eyes.

[0:15] That you would clear our minds. And that we would see Jesus. And we would see him in his beauty. And that we would love him.

[0:28] For he loves us. For Jesus' sake, amen. Isaiah 45. Isaiah 45 and verse 22.

[0:44] Turn to me and be saved. All ends of the earth. For I am God and there is no other. Turn to me. All ends of the earth.

[0:55] For I am God and there is no other. I once knew a man this is quite a few years ago.

[1:07] I once knew a man who spent years going to church wanting to be saved. He attended church every Sunday as he had been brought up to do.

[1:23] He had Christian friends. He brought up his own family to go to church and go to Sunday school. He did all the right things that you would expect of somebody who was a believer.

[1:37] but he wasn't. And his wife got saved but he didn't. And eventually on his deathbed a few weeks before he passed away from cancer at the age of 45 he was saved and he was converted and he was born again.

[2:06] And he asked his wife one question when that happened. He said why didn't you tell me it was so simple? Why didn't you tell me it was so easy to be saved?

[2:25] We can make getting saved or the idea of being saved we can make that more difficult more complex than it actually is because what the Bible says about being saved is really fairly simple fairly straightforward.

[2:43] And we can talk about being saved salvation we can talk about it in ways that make it seem more complex more difficult than it actually is.

[2:56] We can talk about it in our own if we know if we understand some of what's going on we can talk about it in ways that make us sound as if we are experts but it makes the whole process the whole thing seem more complex.

[3:18] I taught computing for 30 years in maths and computing is just wall to wall door to door with jargon and it was pretty soon in that I realised I could actually make myself sound as if I knew what I was talking about just by using the right words.

[3:41] yes that's a batch processing thing and you know we serially process this and all of the you know jargon it we can as Christians we can fall into the trap of using terms and words that are perfectly fine that we find in the Bible but if we're talking to people who don't know that who don't understand all of this hinterland of terms and meanings and words all we're doing is showing them that we don't really fully understand what it is we're talking about.

[4:22] They're all fine words born again redeemed saved converted but if we're not sure about what they exactly mean then they can be confusing now tonight this is the last of our communion services so tonight we've celebrated the death of Christ we've commemorated the death of Christ tonight we are going to consider salvation plain and simple because I'd like you to be able to say that at least once from me I'm sure you get it regularly as well but at least once from me that you heard a simple clear message that you understand no a simple clear message about salvation that you understand that anyone could understand and we're going to hang it on this verse here in

[5:31] Isaiah 45 turn to me and be saved all ends of the earth for I am God and there's no one else we need to be clear about what we're speaking about what does salvation mean what does it mean to you well it means to be safe it's from the same root word as being safe it's being safe from harm it's basically being rescued and that's when we are saved we've been rescued by Jesus that's that's what we're saying we've been rescued from what from God's hatred of sin in hell and it's it's we're speaking specifically about our soul and that's another thing what is a soul s-u-l-e what do we mean by a soul well a soul is you you are a soul

[6:36] Genesis chapter 2 when God made Adam he breathed into his nostrils and Adam became a living soul he didn't become a living body he didn't become a living being he became a living soul c.s.

[6:54] Lewis says you are a soul you have a body we are living souls our body is basically an envelope that holds our soul and when you get a letter through the post you have an envelope and its contents what is more important is it the envelope or is it the contents it's the contents obviously so the soul is the part of us that is important when we're talking about being saved not so much the body we have we live in an age where fitness and running and all of these things which the attraction as you can probably tell I have saved an absolute fortune by driving past a gym regularly I went running once I was telling Colin this last night

[7:54] I went running once in 1985 when I was teaching in Perth and it was a miracle because I managed to squeeze a whole lifetime's worth of running into one Thursday morning at half past seven I never needed to go running again our soul being saved is what we're talking about here our soul is the part of us that lasts forever so if your soul is safe then it's something eternal it's something that can't fade it's something that can't wear out it's something that cannot be taken from us we can't even give it away we can't go well that's enough of that I'm going to be a pirate now get rid of the salvation job done we can't do that so we're going to answer tonight from this verse four questions about being saved who saves who can be saved how difficult is being saved and how secure is it we were looking at security this morning how secure in it so four questions who saves who can be saved how difficult is it and how secure is it so and all the answers are in that verse so I'm not doing anything fantastic here

[9:24] I'm basically pointing you at this verse and saying there's the answer so first question who saves God says turn to me and be saved all the ends of the earth for I am God and there is no other that's pretty clear isn't it that's pretty stark pretty black and white we don't save ourselves we don't polish up our act we don't straighten up and fly right and God goes well do you know that they would make a great addition to my collection of saved human beings of good people we don't do that the only way to heaven the only cure for sin the only way to escape hell the only way to get God is God he saves he saves how does he save how does he do it well he has a rescue plan and it's a rescue plan that involves

[10:29] Jesus whose death we were remembering this morning Jesus is the cornerstone of God's plan and always has been since the garden of Eden Jesus has been the cornerstone of God's plan to save people like you and me to save souls and Jesus himself in John chapter 14 verse 6 says I am the way and the truth and the life Jesus is the way to God Jesus is the way to heaven Jesus is the truth about God he's God revealed people aren't saved now people aren't saved because they're free church people aren't saved just because they've been baptized or because they're good people who are living good lives and they deserve to be saved that's not why people are saved and these things are fine and good in their own way in their own place but on their own they can't save your soul coming to church and sitting in church for an hour on a

[11:39] Sunday does not make you a Christian any more than me going and standing in my garden shed makes me a lawnmower you you you you saved because you believe and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ salvation being saved only comes from God doesn't come from doing good things doesn't come from living a good life thinking that well God will see me and you know I'm a good person he'll recognize how good I am and you know we'll be fine we'll be fine salvation only comes through Jesus Christ those of us of a certain age we remember a up and coming hip group beat combo called the Beatles and in the

[12:40] Beatles there was a man called Ringo Starr and John Lennon when he was asked if Ringo Starr was the best drummer in the world John Lennon said he's not even the best drummer in the Beatles but he was the drummer of the Beatles and some years ago maybe eight nine ten years ago when he turned 70 he was interviewed for the press and he was asked what's changed as you got older what's changed how do you see things now what's your perception on life how have things changed and he said well he said I believe in God I see God I get God but I don't understand Jesus I don't see the need for Jesus now that's only one side of the picture it's incomplete because

[13:43] Jesus is the way to God salvation only comes from God through Jesus we're saved because we believe and we trust in no one and no thing except Jesus Christ because we know Jesus because we love Jesus because we trust Jesus with our life and more importantly with our death because of what he did at the cross you know the song my hope is built on nothing less than Jesus blood and righteousness I dare not trust the sweetest frame but wholly lean on Jesus name on Christ the solid rock I stand all other ground is sinking sand all other ground everything else is sinking sand are you saved let's get personal here are you saved this evening are you are you believing are you trusting in Jesus Christ if not do you want to be if if you don't want to be what are you doing in here this is the most dangerous place for somebody who doesn't want to be saved to be because

[14:49] God has promised to be where his people gather together and he promised to be here with blessing and the greatest blessing that you can have is for him to save your soul so are you saved do you want to be saved and if your answer is no why on earth not why on earth not are you trying to save yourselves are you thinking this is a job I can do myself this is something that I can do I can better myself I can improve myself I can make myself saveable stop trying to do what's already been done because Jesus has done it all trust Jesus by faith trust that what he did is good enough and he will save you he's done everything that's necessary and all that you need to do is to trust and believe and to lean on

[15:54] Jesus for your salvation there's only one way to God there's only one way to be saved there's only one way to get to heaven and his name is Jesus there's no other way he is the way act 16 tells us to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and we will be saved that's it Jesus is the only way to be saved so who saves God saves through Jesus who can be saved look look look to me all ends of the earth what makes God's plan of salvation what makes God's plan to save people such a great plan is that it is available to every single human being that ever was ever will be that is on the planet at the moment it is freely available to one and all all you ends of the earth turn to me and you will be saved

[16:57] John 3 16 John 3 16 tells us God loved the world in this way that he gave his only son that whoever believed in him whoever believed in him there's no limit on that word that the first 250 million who believed on him would be saved no absolutely not whoever and the last thing that Jesus says at the end of the at the end of the Bible Revelation 22 is whoever will whoever wants to let him come it's not just for some people it's not just for a few people it's not just for good people it's for whoever any man any woman any boy any girl can be saved because when Jesus died for sin at the cross he died for your sin have I broken something he died for your sin

[18:12] Hebrews 2 9 tells us that he tasted death for everyone so all of that potential is sitting there waiting for you to tap into it by believing in him and the cross proves that he loves you that he loves you Romans 5 8 tells us that he put his great love on display in that while we were still sinners Christ Jesus died for us for you not not once we turned over a new leaf straightened up improved things had more people liking us but while we were still sinners while we were still marching to Satan's tune wearing Satan's uniform Christ died for us for you for me it doesn't matter how bad our life has been the things we have in our past the skeletons in our closet the things that we're glad that the people sitting beside us in here tonight don't know about us

[19:12] God can save you too whoever there's no qualification to that there's no limit on that the secret of God's plan of salvation is that you can have as much God as much Jesus as you want because when we move towards him he runs towards us you know the story of the prodigal son and the son goes away and he just parties his inheritance away ends up in a pigsty comes home stinking other pigs covered in all sorts of lovely stuff and he works out a plan that he's going to go home and he's going to tell the old man no I'm not worthy to be your son but I'll come home and be a servant and as soon as the old man sees that sheep that he loves coming over the hill what does the old man do he runs and he wraps himself around his son and the son doesn't get the chance to talk about the plan that he has for serving his father because his father dresses him in his own clothes and gives him shoes and he starts to look like his father and he's parked back in the family read that closely and see where the father says

[20:52] I told you so he won't find it he won't find it the boy comes home and he finds love he gets the whole love of his father he gets more love than he anticipated when we come to Christ we get the whole love of Christ and he wraps himself around us and he doesn't let us go Steve McQueen again those of us of a certain age we like Steve McQueen's movies and he was a successful actor in the 60s and 70s a bad boy who'd done good but he felt his life was empty he was a pleasure seeker and he felt his life had no meaning and a little while before he died he died of cancer and a little while before he died he ended up going to a Billy Graham crusade and at that crusade he was saved but he still struggled with the idea that somebody like him who had a very checkered past he struggled with the idea that

[22:02] God would simply hand salvation would simply save somebody like him like him and he struggled with that to the end of his days now according to what I've read when he passed when he passed away when he died the age of 50 he had found his hope in the bible because when he died he was apparently found with his bible open at titus chapter 1 and titus chapter 1 verse 2 says this in hope of eternal life which God who cannot lie promised before the world began because it's God's promise that he will give eternal life I give them eternal life they will never perish no one can snatch them out of my hand it's God's gift it's what he gives us that's what we were looking at this morning no matter what your past's been like no matter what burden what shame you're carrying you too can hope for God's promise of eternal life and please please please don't be tempted to think that being saved won't work for you that it'll work for other people it's great for other people but it's no won't work for me don't please don't think that if you look to Jesus by faith that's what he says here look to me if you look to

[23:27] Jesus by faith he will save your soul it's not for good people being saved is not for good people it's not a medal that you get for living a good life and crossing the finishing line and an angel hands you a badge to say well done eternal life you qualified here you go what did Jesus say Matthew chapter 9 I didn't come to call the righteous I came to call sinners to repentance I didn't come for good people I came for people who needed to be saved it's a gift salvation for guilty people it's a gift for the guilty not a reward for the righteous nobody will be able to say well you know I tried to believe I tried to believe in Jesus I tried really really hard but he wouldn't have me he wouldn't save me no if you really want to be saved you will be saved

[24:34] Romans chapter 10 whoever calls there's that word again whoever no limit no capacity to that word whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved so who can say who saves God who can be saved whoever how difficult is it look at verse 22 again how difficult is being saved what does it say there turn to me look to me trust in me there it is that's it don't it doesn't say look to me and I'll see if you're living right I'll see if you can go a couple of weeks without being a bad boy or a bad girl and then I'll think about it and I'll get back to you he doesn't say that look to me and be saved doesn't say turn over a new leaf promise to never sin again before I save you you need to do that before I save you he doesn't say that it's just look to me it's that simple and yet that difficult it's a simple look of faith it's a simple look of commitment it's a simple thing but there's so much tied up in it it's turning away from sin and it's turning to

[26:01] God if we look to God if we look at God we're not looking at anything or everything else we're simply looking at God it's that simple and yet that profound that look that simple look that's powerful enough to save you and it goes back to an episode in the Old Testament in Numbers chapter 21 where we're told that the Lord sent poisonous snakes into the Jewish camp and they bit the people and many Israelites died and the people then came to Moses and said we sinned when we complained against the Lord and against you pray that the Lord will take the snakes away from us so Moses prayed and the Lord said it and lived so Moses made a bronze snake and raised it on a pole and then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake they lived you go to the doctor and you get a nasty bite and the doctor says to you well

[27:06] I want you to look at this and you'll be fine how would you feel about that what would you think about that but here's the thing for sin that's the cure for the disease that infects all of us from the moment that we are born it's the cure is to look to Jesus Bob Dylan once said I was blinded by the devil born already ruined stone cold dead as I stepped out of the room but by his grace I have been saved by the blood of the lamb salvation can seem too good to be true we live in a cynical age where if a thing seems too good to be true then it obviously is too good to be true can it really be that simple that looking to

[28:08] Jesus that trusting in Jesus that that is enough to save us did God really say that well Paul says in 1 Corinthians chapter 15 for I deliver to you as of first importance what I also received Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures he was buried he rose again the third day in accordance with the scriptures God said it he's been saying it since Genesis 3 15 that somebody is going to come to crush the head of the serpent and then Paul again in Romans 10 if you confess with your mouth and believe in your heart that God raised Jesus from the dead you will be saved see being saved isn't about your ability to change or my ability to change and it's not about your big faith it's about simply looking to Jesus by faith now believe it or not we have all done this before we did it with our parents when we were young when we depended on them for everything they would come to us in the cot and our first reaction was hands up take me lift me hold me warm me feed me clean me we looked to our parents for everything we loved our parents so why is it so difficult for us to do that now and anyone can turn to

[29:38] Jesus young old middle aged you can turn rich poor you can turn good people bad people you can turn anybody can turn to Jesus speaking of bad people Saul of Tarsus I saw somebody once write down that Saul of Tarsus who wasted the church persecuted the church who was involved in conspiracy to torture and persecute and kill Christians entered heaven to the cheers of those whom he persecuted that's how grace works his past was no impediment to the heaven that he experienced with Christ but here's the thing nobody else can do it for you nobody else can save you only Jesus so have you turned to Jesus if not why not why on earth not because you hear it better than

[30:45] I can present it you hear it here every Sunday you hear the gospel so why aren't you doing anything about it if you haven't turned to Jesus so will you will you how secure is this and be saved be cause and effect action and consequence remember being saved is to be saved from all harm and danger your soul saved your soul safe from all harm and danger of hell that's what it is because if you are not saved then you are under a death penalty an eternal death penalty for sin we are treasonous if you are not saved if you don't believe in Jesus then you're a traitor you are committing treason against the high king and the penalty for treason is death and against the high king the death penalty is served in hell without end when you turn to Jesus you're saved from that eternal death penalty and as you grow in

[32:05] Jesus you're kept safe daily from the power of sin and ultimately in heaven you will be saved from the presence of sin and some people think that being saved means that any slip ups any mistakes anything that we get wrong and we get things wrong any of that puts us back on the road to hell thank you very much but you're not good enough for me if that's what you think then you're not reading your bible properly look at the great characters of the bible story moses now we're told that moses was a meek man the bible tells us that oh yeah murdered a man with his bare hands he was that meek god tells him to go and speak to a rock to get water out and he whacks the rock in temper with a stick he had such a temper he was a murderer because of his temper that's why he was on the run for 40 years for his life abraham was a liar he told the king that his wife was his sister to save his own skin because he thought the king would want his wife and that he'd just be dispatched david committed adultery covered it up with murder simon peter denied jesus went back to his own way you know when he goes back and he comes to the after denying jesus he says i'm going fishing that's him going back to his own life that's him losing dependence on jesus i need to put food on the table i need to do this i'm up back and that's why jesus calls him simon when he meets him on the beach all deeply flawed human beings all heroes of the faith all used by god it's god who made them great not the people themselves see when we mess up when we sin and we do it every day even the best of us does it every day here's the secret here's the key we've got a man on the inside we've got somebody working for us for free if we believe in him jesus christ our advocate at the court of the father he is the lamb of god who takes away our sin he forgives all our sin there's chastisment for sin but there's forgiveness that overflows and that cleans and cleanses being saved through jesus means being safe forever from the dangers from the penalties of sin even though we sin new afresh every day and we need our feet washed by christ every day we are once saved always saved that verse we had this morning i give them eternal life they will never perish no one can snatch them no one can take them away from me there's the security that you have in christ in a world that's falling apart before our very eyes supposing you're at the shore you're at the beach and you see someone drowning a hundred meters out and you swim out and you drag them to the shore now you would have to do it because i can't swim i'm from an island which is a small piece of land surrounded in all 360 degrees by water but like many many islanders i don't swim can't swim stay

[36:05] to the bottom yes but i can't float so you'd have to do the saving and that's fine by me quite happy for you to go in and you swim out and you get you can save yourself are they safe no they're not they're still in danger very much in danger that's not how jesus operates when he saves our souls he does it totally completely permanently and eternally doesn't leave us a bit to do he does it all so that if you are truly saved if you are truly believing and truly trusting in Jesus Christ there is no way you can mess up your salvation because it's jesus who saves not you is that too good to be true does that sound too good to be true are you sitting there thinking nah the verse we had this morning john 10 28 i give them eternal life they will never perish no one can snatch them out of my hand when

[37:21]  Jesus saves your soul your soul stays saved forever wouldn't you like this kind of salvation this kind of security this peace when you lay your head down at night on a pillow everything is taken care of peace between you and god every sin forgiven a home waiting in heaven for you when you leave this world all of this and more is yours if you look if you turn to Jesus by faith i sound a bit like a salesman don't i well yes because that's what i'm doing i'm trying to sell you an insurance policy that will pay out through all eternity maybe you've looked at everything else in life maybe you've tried everything else in life why not look to Jesus what would you think about somebody who was drowning fell into the clive was in the middle of the clive was going down for the third time and you went to throw them a life belt and they refused it no no no no no i'm fine honest what would you think about that what would you think about somebody who was poisoned and wouldn't want the antidote no no it's fine i'll sweat it out it'll be okay yes arsenic i know but it'll be fine what would you think about that in your head the word i-d-i-o-t would probably fall so what would you think about somebody who's unsaved who refuses the only way to be saved if you turn if you look to jesus if you trust in jesus you will be saved that's straightforward salvation lord we thank you for your word and we confess the complexities that we force onto your word that are of our making and not your making we ask this evening lord that any of us in here who have not yet looked to jesus and been saved would have the strength the desire the longing to do so because whoever looks to you whoever comes to you whoever wants to be saved you will never send them away help us to know that and understand that and to long for the love of christ for jesus sake amen