Buxton | 03/05/26 | Salvation Through Jesus | Harry Thompson

Buxton 

Podcast: https://www.buzzsprout.com/354059/episodes/19191044-buxton-03-05-26-salvation-through-jesus-harry-thompson.mp3

Harry continued our series looking at the fundementals of church life, focusing on our salvation being through Jesus alone. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Well, I think about you have a lot of stories. I mean we've already had quite a few. Some of the players people play play have an indication of him. There's stories behind. We've all got our own stories. There's so many stories out there, there's novels, there's plays, there's epics from decades and centuries ago. And there's so many things on TV and in the movies of stories. And one of the most popular forms of story is the risky story. And sometimes it's a story of the moment issue. Someone falls off the edge of a clip or is hanging up by their fingernails, or the inspector on the board and they come soon and they're a rescue journey, and the left holding on the place wondering how long the name. The hero doesn't have time to carefully waiver the risks involved. He or she has to act right now, or it'll be too late. And the instinctive cry of the person in trouble is help. Then there's a more careful, well-planned rescues, such as when somebody's been kidnapped or a tunnel has collapsed in a mine, and the rescuers have to plan everything meticulously, otherwise, a bad situation could turn even worse. One of the main themes of the Bible is individuals, groups of people, or the nation of Israel calling on God to Savior, and his response. Usually the personal people didn't know how God would do it, but they just knew that he was their only hope and were amazed when God did above and beyond what they were expecting. On an individual level, King David is one who immediately comes to mind. In many of his Psalms, he's crying out to the Lord as a save. David was chased like a wanted criminal by the jealous King Saul. One time he even pretended to be mad so that the king of Area that he was taking refuge in wouldn't consider him a threat. He frequently cried out to the Lord. In Psalm 39, we read, Hear my prayer, O Lord. Listen to my cries for help. Don't ignore my tears. Psalm 38, do not abandon me, O Lord. Do not stand at a distance, my God. Come quickly to help me, O Lord, my Savior. And David also acknowledged the Lord's answers to those cries in the past and trusted him for answers to the latest challenges he was facing. The Lord is my rock, my fortress, and my savior. My God is my rock in whom I find protection. He is my shield, the power that saves me and my place of safety. I called on the Lord, who is worthy of praise, and he saved me from my enemies. He reached out from heaven and rescued me. He drew me out of deep waters. And then in Psalm 40, I waited patiently for the Lord. He tempted me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud of mire. He set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Of course, the biggest rescue story in the Old Testament was God's deliverance of the nation of Israel from their captivity in Egypt and leading them into the promised land. This story was an essential part of the Israelites' worship of God, and quite rightly so, because it shaped their history. Here's what God told Moses in Exodus 6. Therefore, say to the Lord, sorry, therefore, say to the people of Israel, I am the Lord. I will free you from your oppression, and will rescue you from your slavery in Egypt. I will redeem you with a powerful arm and great acts of judgment. I will claim you as my own people, and I will be your God. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God, who has freed you from your oppression in Egypt. I will bring you into the land I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I will give it to you as your very own possession. I am the Lord. Then in the New Testament we find many stories of Jesus saving people from sickness, demonic oppression, and other situations. One of these great stories was in Jesus had sent the disciples across the Sea of Galilee in a boat while he went up into the hills to pray. And we read in Matthew 14. Meanwhile, the disciples were in trouble far away from land, where a strong wind had risen, and they were fighting heavy waves. About three o'clock in the morning, Jesus came toward them, walking on the water. When the disciples saw him walking on the water, they were terrified. In their fear, they cried out, It's a ghost. But Jesus spoke at once. Don't be afraid, he said, Take courage, I am here. Then Peter called to him, Lord, if it's ready, you tell me to come to you, walking on the water. Yes, come, Jesus said. So Peter went over the side of the boat and walked on the water towards Jesus. But when he saw the strong wind in the waves, he was terrified and began to sink. Save me, Lord, he cried. Jesus immediately reached out and grabbed him. You have so little faith, Jesus said. Why did you doubt me? When they climb back into the boat, the wind stopped. Then the disciples worshiped him. You really are the Son of God, they exclaimed. So we see the Israelites, David, Peter, the disciples, they all at various times cried out, Lord, save us. But even in the Old Testament, we see hints that it's not just personal or national problems who need to be delivered from. David realized that it was not enough just to be rescued from life's problems. So what do we need to be saved from? David says in Psalm 38, I confess my iniquity, I am troubled by my sin. In Psalm 40, for troubles surround me, too many to count, my sins pile up so high, I can't see my way out. Yeah, I remember the hairs on my head. I've lost all courage. Please, Lord, rescue me. Come quickly, Lord, and help me. And then in Psalm 51, be gracious to me, O God. According to your faithful love, according to your abundant compassion, blot out my rebellion. Completely wash away my guilt and cleanse me from my sin. For I'm conscious of my rebellion, my sin is always before me. Against you, you alone I have sinned and done this evil in your sight. So you are right when you pass sentence. You are blameless when you judge. God creates a clean heart for me and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not banish me from your presence, or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore the joy of your salvation to me and sustain me by giving me a willing spirit. So that looks up the issue of why do we need to be saved? David realized he needed God to deal with what was essentially rebellion and attitudes that led him to do wrong things, that warranted God's judgment, and then created a barrier to work his fellowship with God, and then he couldn't sort the issue out by himself. Jesus told us here to love the Lord our God with all our heart and soul and mind and strength, and our neighbour as our souls. But none of us can live up to that. And Paul tells us in Romans 3, all have sinned fall short of the glory of God. And in Romans 6, for the wages of sin is death. So we're in quite a predicament. We were made in God's image, made to live in relationship with God. But like Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, we're trying to live our lives on our own terms. That may mean living in a way that could generally be regarded as bad or selfish. But it may even include living our lives to please a parent or to live up to other people's expectations of us, or just be a good person rather than walking through life with God at the center, being in relationship with Him. So after Sabbath verses in the Bible occur immediately after Adam and Eve to survey God in the garden. Then the man and his wife heard the sounds of the Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze. And they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. So the Lord God called out to the man and said to him, Where are you? Of course, God knew exactly where they were. But the question was for Adam and Eve. And it's for us too. But how can we possibly restore that relationship with God? The answer is that we can't. The good news is that even in the Garden of Eden, God had in mind the restoration of that relationship. This is a rescue plan that goes back to the start of time. God spoke in veiled terms talking to Satan, the servant. And I will cause hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head and you will strike his heel. So there, in a sort of very veiled way that only became apparent later, God was saying that Jesus would one day strike the head of Satan and cause his complete defeat, but he would do that at a cost because the Satan would strike his heel. Jesus would be crucified. So how can we be saved? Well, right at the start of the New Testament, we read that an angel bringing God's message to Joseph in a dream about the miraculous birth of a son to his fiancee Mary. The angel said, Do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. For the child within her was conceived by the Holy Spirit. And she will have a son and be able to name him Jesus. For he will save his people from their sins. The name Yeshua, which is the Hebrew for Jesus, means Yahweh that saves your born. Yahweh is salvation. So Jesus' very name means salvation. When the angel announced Jesus' birth to the shepherds, the message again was, I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today, in the time of David, a savior has been born. He is the Messiah, the Lord. A few days later in the temple, there was a godly old man called Simeon. And he was promised by God that he wouldn't die before he had seen the Messiah. And he took Jesus in his arms and praised God, saying, Sovereign Lord, as you promised, you may now dismiss your servants in peace. For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you prepared in the sight of all nations. A light for revelation to the Gentiles and the glory of the people of Israel. And it's striking in all these messages that God makes no reference to overthrowing the Roman occupiers, which is what all the Jews were longing for. But we can have no doubt that the purpose of Jesus coming to earth was to bring salvation. In his gospel, John puts it like this. For this is how God loved the world. He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent his son into the world, not to judge the world, but to save the world through him. But the cost of his salvation was unimaginably huge. In the Garden of Gethsemane facing betrayal, torture, and death. Though he was the only completely pure, innocent person that ever lived, and had fulfilled all God's laws totally. Jesus begged God, My Father, if it's possible, let this cup of suffering be taken away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine. He suffered a terrifyingly painful death, but in addition, he bore the weight of God's judgment on the world's sins throughout history. In his agony, he cried out, My God, my God, why have you abandoned me? Isaiah 53, speaking prophetically hundreds of years before, tells us why. Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering. Yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray. Each of us is turned to our own way, and the Lord is laid on him the iniquity of us all. Read in 1 Peter 2, verse 24, he himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live for righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. And in 2 Corinthians 5, verse 21, God made him who had no sin to be sinned for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. The questions that have been asked by many, like the Philippian JO who asked Paul and Silas, what must I do to be saved? As a whole, religion assumes that I had to do something to be saved, to earn God's favor. The wonder of the gospel is that the answer is nothing. Salvation is entirely a gift of God's grace. But God does not force it on us. We each have to accept God's gracious, unbelievably kind gift. His offer of salvation through Jesus by virtue of his death on the cross in our place. And so wonderful that so many of us have. In John 1, we read, yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God. Children born not of natural descent nor of human decision or of human's will, but born of God. That's what being born again is all about. You can become a member of God's family. We can be one of his children. Jesus' resurrection from the dead proved that he had conquered sin and death. What a glorious victory Jesus wanted by the heart. When we look at the blessings that flow from Jesus' death and resurrection, we are saved by grace as a gift. God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can't take credit for this as a gift from God. You can know forgiveness, be born again, have a fresh start, and be reconciled to God. In 2 Corinthians, a version by J.D. Phillips who read. For if someone is in Christ, they become a new person altogether. The past is finished and gone. Everything has become fresh and new. All this is God's due, for he has reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ. And he has made us agents of the reconciliation. God was in Christ, personally reconciling the world to himself, not counting the sins against him, and has commissioned us with a message of reconciliation. We do not face any condemnation. Romans 8, verse 1. So there is now no condemnation to those who belong to Jesus. But if you wonder, we can experience God's love. Romans 5, verse 5. And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love. The evangelist D.L. Rudy, after years of preaching, heard a young man talk on John 3.16. And he says, I never understood up to that time that God loved us so much. His heart of mine began to thaw out, and I could not keep back from tears. It was like news from a far country. I just drank it in. And we can experience that too. Then we can be made clean and full of the Holy Spirit. We need to repent, to experience sorrow and regret for our past, but it is the love of God that is behind the need for repentance. We need to be forgiven. Not only when we first say it, but continue. In 1 John 1 verse 9, we read: if we make it our habit to confess our sins, in his faithful righteousness, he forgives us for those sins and cleanses us from all unrighteousness. Then God can clothe us in his robes of righteousness, fill us with the Holy Spirit, and we can enjoy a continual relationship with our loving Father, who through Jesus' death has made all this possible. And there are so many more blessings that I haven't got time to go through them all, but it is peace with God, a living hope, a plan for our lives, an eternity in heaven, with God's visible presence to look forward to, with new bodies and an end to all suffering. Isn't that a wonderful news? Hallelujah, what a saint. And so wonderful that we can now share a communion together and can celebrate what Jesus has done for us. Father, thank you for the Lord.