The Key Steps to Becoming a Christian part 1. The Way of Salvation

[Music] well welcome and my subject is the normal Christian birth how to begin the Christian life how to be born again how to become a Christian how to enter the kingdom so that's my subject but let me begin by talking about Jesus because he's the one that's called us together all together Jesus has about 250 names and titles and a good devotional exercise is to write them all out to find them first and then to write them out but fashion dictates that they come and go and I noticed that some of his names and titles are popular at one time and not another and I have noticed recently that one of his titles is not so prominent as it used to be and it's a pity because it's one of his best it's the word Savior don't know if you found it but I don't hear people talking about the Savior as much as they used to because that's what he came to do he came to save people and I want to talk about saving and salvation in this first talk before we get down to the nitty-gritty of how to get into it and how to get started his name means God saves G and the first two letters of the word Jehovah all God and s us is part of salvation so the name he was given means God saves in fact in the village where we my wife and I used to live we had a postman in charge of the local post office and local store and his name was god save mr. god saved the postman but that's exactly what Jesus means God saves and in Hebrew his name is Yeshua because the Jay is pronounced like a why and it's the same as the name Joshua there's a book in the Old Testament with his title and that's the same word exactly it's the same meaning God saves but what does he say this from that's the most important question we can ask Jesus was not born to save us from our fears or to save us from our boredom or to save us from our hangups though he can do all those things but that's not the main reason he came he came to save us to save us from what hell well yes that's a bonus thrown in but it's not the main reason he didn't get the name Jesus because he would save his people from their futures he came to save his people from their sins all of them and until you've got rid of all your sins you're not saved not fully anyway so we're beginning to get a different feel of the word saved and salvation in World War two when I was a boy the word I remember most is the word Salvage it's the same as the word salvation and we saved all our paper so it could be salvaged and made into new paper we saved our pots and pans because aluminium could be built into Spitfires and we wanted to build Spitfires in those days and so the word Salvage was very popular that's gone right out now I never hear the word now but I hear the word recycling same word and you know what recycling is all about it's to take rubbish that is no use to us now and to make something useful out of it that's what Salvage means that's what recycling means and that's what salvation means there's a tiny book in the New Testament called Philemon but it's a letter to Philemon by Paul about a runaway slave called Onesimus and the word on a Simba's means useful and this slave had run away from his master and was no use to his owner anymore and Paul is sending him back to be useful again he actually says that in the letter I think you'll find him useful now and that's what salvation is it's to make us not rubbish but useful again to God and until that happens you're not saved you're not salvaged you're not recycled because these words tell us that you're saved to something not just from something now the word hell as Jesus used it stands for a huge rubbish dump outside Jerusalem on the south side and all the rubbish of that city was thrown into this deep dark Valley where the Sun never reaches the bottom but all the rubbish did and the gate of Jerusalem on that side is called the dung gay which tells you what they did with all their sewage there were no flush systems in those days so you took all your rubbish a new dirt and anything you didn't want and you threw it outside the city into this deep Kevin and it was called Gehenna all the Valley of Hinnom and that's what Jesus used for his picture of Hell and it's a sobering picture when I first went to Israel didn't think how long ago that is it was still a rubbish Valley and there was blue smoke coming up from it and when I looked down into it and so all the rubbish being burned I was looking into what Jesus referred to as a picture of Hell hell is God's rubbish dump where he throws people who are no use to him who have perished now and we UNMISS understand that word if we think it means that there cease to exist if you've got a perished hot water bottle or a parish tire it looks like a tire it looks like a hot-water bottle but it's no use because it's perished that's what the word parish means in the Bible it doesn't mean to cease to exist it means to become useless for the purpose for which you were made and therefore God throws you away have you noticed you never place rubbish in the bin you always throw it and in the bible nobody is sent to hell they are all thrown into hell and that's the most horrible thing that can happen to a human being and that is to be thrown away as useless to God what a terrible destiny but that's the destiny of so many people who are perishing they don't know it they don't realize it but they're heading for God's rubbish dump when God says you know used to me now I can't use you for what I made you for and so I'm throwing you away now salvation or Salvage or recycling is to be saved from that and made useful to God again so that he can say now I can fulfil my plans for you now that puts a whole new light on it doesn't it it is therefore a process that takes time it takes a lot of time to take rubbish and turn it into something useful again and therefore salvation is not something that happens in a moment it happens over time it takes time and that's a very important insight and that's going to affect our thinking about how you begin to be saved and in fact it's more true to the Bible to say not I was saved 20 years ago we had seven people saved last Sunday night in church we should rather say I began to be saved 20 years ago oh we had seven people on Sunday not in the church who began to be saved that's why it's called in the Bible the way of salvation and the way means a road a journey and it's a process that will take some people years and it's only complete when every bit of sin is out of your life and no longer spoiling you for God and no longer making you useless God and when we look into the New Testament teaching of salvation you find there are three parts to it I will give you the technical theological names which are rather horrible I don't like big names or especially what's called Latin English I prefer Saxon English with its short words and picturesque words but here are the three Latin names for those three phases of the process justification sanctification glorification and those three together make up salvation and salvation is not complete until you've got all three unfortunately the Protestant Reformation started by Martin Luther so concentrated on justification that people have come to think that's all of salvation and that if you've been justified you're saved and that's a very big error because it's forgotten what you're being saved for or rather - in fact the new testament says he is able to save to the uttermost and the way most people read that is from the gutter most but it doesn't mean that it means to the uttermost he is able to complete what has begun in you and he's got his eye on that future of what you and I will be when the process of Salvage Salvage or recycling is complete I'm looking forward to being saved aren't you or do you think you were already no salvation in the New Testament or save the is in three tenses past present and future you have been saved you are being saved and you will be saved and guess which of those tenses is the most common in the New Testament the answer is the future not the past or the present the emphasis of Scripture is on your future salvation and the completion of the process when you will be totally free from sin and God can say now I can use you for what I intended when I made you now just go back to those three tenses past present future I have been saved I am being saved and I will be saved those correspond to three deliverances for you three things in which you are set free first justification is to be set free from the penalty of sin sanctification is to be set free from the power of sin and Laura fication is to be set free from the presence of sin that's what we're all heading for what we're looking forward to so you're looking at someone now who's not saved yet but as the Bible would say I'm on the way and it talks about the way of salvation and how to get onto the way how to keep on it and what happens to those who get off it but we'll look at that later so have I said enough to show you that salvation is a process it's not an instantaneous thing it's not a thing that's complete yet but Trey's got his started you're looking at me now and you're looking and part of me that isn't saved yet because salvation includes a new body and I'm in a no body and it tells me every day that it needs to be saved I've got cancer in me in my skull in my back bone and a number of other parts in my skeleton and there are plenty of other things growing lis wrong with me we don't get younger did you know we're going to have a new body like Jesus body and he's 33 fancy being 33 again when you're 86 you really look forward to that because a 33 year the height of your powers physically mentally spiritually and we shall be at our best again did you think that I'd be tottering around heaven with a stick did you think there's old age pensioners in heaven just hanging on to life by the fingertips think again we're going to be salvaged and this old body of mine will one day be salvaged and set free from all that's wrong with it hallelujah for that you can whisper hallelujah here by the way I know it's the church but you can if you're really excited and looking forward to having a new body I said ma'am can I approach all this from another angle for many people salvation is a vertical line between the unsaved and the saved and you cross this line in an instant with just one step and you're through that is not the New Testament concept of salvation but it's the one that most people are working with today even evangelist and they draw this very strong vertical line between those going to hell those going to happen those who are unsaved and those who are saved and that is what has made people use the word saved entirely in the past tense I was saved but that's only one of the tenses we should be using I am being saved and I will be saved for those of you who have doubts about whether the New Testament really does have that future aspect of salvation in mind let's just go through one or two texts or verses there's one in Romans chapter 13 verse 11 if you're taking notes which says this our salvation is nearer than when we first believed now I've never heard a preacher preached on that text for obvious reasons but how does that fit into your thinking your salvation is nearer than when you first believed that's future or take another verse from Hebrews this time a bruise chapter 9 verse 28 which says that Jesus is returning one day not to deal with sin he did that on his first visit of course not to deal with sin but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him there's a thought in other words salvation will come when Jesus comes that's the future of salvation take another example 1 Peter chapter 1 this five and you can look all these up you for yourself when Peter talks about a Salvation ready to be revealed at the last time as salvation reserved in heaven for you a Salvation that depends on Jesus coming back and bringing it to us it's all there in 1 Peter 1 so we have these three things Charles Wesley wrote an amazing em ones and here's one verse in it a charge to keep I have a God to glorify and never dying soul to save and fitted for the sky now there's a charge for you it's not just to get people over the line it's to fit them for the sky and that's why the New Testament talks about the way that was the first name for Christianity the way and there's a church in America called a church on the way its pastor has written a chorus which you will all know which I've forgotten for the moment what's the name of the past yes he brought majesty worship His Majesty sorry count here sorry you can all tell me when you have a comfortable speaking I'm very impressed with that named Church on the way I didn't realize at first why it was called it I assumed it was : out of humility were not the church that's arrived were the church on the way but in fact the street outside is called away and and they were simply called the church on the way for that reason I was so disappointed I thought every church is the church on the way I'm on the way I'm not saved yet but I'm on the way and I'm trembling on the way and that's the assurance I have not that I'm perfect not that I've arrived but I'm on the way and one day I will be perfect my wife finds that brother difficult but she knows me too well but one day you and I will be perfect well on the weight of that everybody you meet will tell you no one's perfect well we can always say where one person was and we can also add and I'm on the way to be imperfect that's what salvation is that's what cell Salvage means that's what recycling is and to be on the way of salvation is the important thing in your life and to be heading for this amazing future when you will be without fault without weakness you will be perfect as Jesus wasn't is perfect and you will be in his likeness because you should see in his ears now one of the books apart from the Bible that makes this so clear though which allows very few people of rent today was by a man called John Bunyan and in prison for the Lord in Bedford he had a dream and that book or the dream was put into a book his most famous book the pilgrims progress how many of you have read that oh well that is encouraging every Christian ought to because in the most amazing way he sees Christianity as a long road from where he was to where he's going to be and all the problems that come as he travels along the road and all their delights that come and as you read that book you read yourself you can see yourself on that road walking with him and even right at the end someone turns aside from that road and Bunyan wrote this amazing sentence and I saw there was a way to hell at the gates of heaven and this way I saw this poor friend go off down a side road even when they were within sight of the heavenly City it's an amazing book pilgrims progress I have a friend who rather Norton had announced it as the progress of a pilgrims Bunyan I got the interest of his audience oh it didn't help now we're talking about the first steps on the road how do you get started how do we get others started because one of the sand features is that when you're trying to get someone else started on the road you tend to put unto them the way you started which may or may not have been the best way and we all tend to do that I can give you an illustration of that from a very apt source don't take this in the wrong way I have the greatest respect for Billy Graham who has been one of the greatest evangelists of all time but he has made this same mistake when he wrote his autobiography which is that thick I read it with real interest to see how much power baptism played in his salvation to my surprise I found he'd been baptized three times once as a baby in a Presbyterian Church once in Florida on one somewhere else I forget where when I was in Florida they said to me would you like to see where Billy Graham was baptized I said oh yes and we went to a Riverside there was no monument no plaque no nothing but my friend pointed to the waters and that was where Billy Graham was baptized and I said it's very interesting to me to see where he was baptized but I want to know why he was and it was because he'd applied to join a Baptist Church in Florida and they said you can't join unless you're baptized okay he said okay you can baptize me and that was the second time it'd been baptized the third time was when he applied to join another Baptist Church which was so strict that they would only accept into membership someone they had baptized themselves which is very naughty but he said fine however get baptized again so I can join you in other words for him baptism was a church issue it was a church membership subject it was not part of salvation and therefore when you wrote a book called born-again the whole book never mentions baptism and he never mentioned it in his preaching he never told anybody to be baptized and that was because he got saved without any reference to being baptized it was all a church issue and so for the rest of his ministry he left it to the individual and to the church and if I asked you do you need to be baptized to be saved I wonder what you would say let me take a vote on it those who would say you don't need to be baptized to be saved pop your hand up don't be embarrassed from behind them 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 and now those of you who think you do need to be baptized to be saved that's about the same number so we're equally divided I hope by the end of these talks you will all have the same answer to that question so we don't want to load unto other people the way we've been saved we want to get them into the kingdom the way the New Testament did it the way the Apostles did it so that we're not doing it simply the way we did it and we need to be defended ourselves against that so let's turn to the New Testament how did they get born again what was done for them what steps did they take and I'm going to teach you that the four basic steps they all took to get on the way of salvation and this was just a beginning of course and those four basic steps I remember by the word rubber and I cut out the two E's and the consonants read RB BR and these are the first four steps on the way of salvation that I've been able to find in the New Testament and they are repent believe be baptized and receive but there's a little more to it than that the Trinity is involved from the very beginning repent towards God the Father believe in the Lord Jesus be baptized in water and receive the Holy Spirit you see found the son and spirit are there and the baptism is in the name of Father Son and spirit when you are properly initiated into the way of salvation you already have a personal relationship with Father Son and Holy Spirit and so many questions have not had that kind of birth to tell you the truth it took me 17 years to get those four things sorted out in my life it needed been 17 years if those who knew me when I first began to struggle on the way if they had guided me rightly I could have had them in 17 days or even 17 hours it would push it to make it 17 minutes and the trouble is too many people have been helped to start the way at the end of a meeting and before the bus comes detain them home and in just a few minutes they can't be helped through those four steps at least they could be told there are four steps that has been my approach to it when there's been pressure of time I'm getting a peasant's started I've said I can help you with the first step but there are three more steps you need to take at the very beginning and if you really mean business with the Lord you'll find it he will lead you to those four steps but you can't in 17 minutes take people through those four steps and so many people are rushed through the initial stages now let's go to the New Testament where do I get those four things wrong first of all let me say let's use the New Testament language unfortunately we fall into the habit of using what are called euphemisms which means using other words and we think with many the same thing but we may not let me give you an example how do you talk about a person beginning their Christian life do you tell them to ask Jesus into their heart do you ask them to make a commitment to him do you ask him to let Jesus take over their lives what you saying now none of those things will you find in the New Testament and yet we all use them we've fallen into the habit of using euphemisms of using other phrases the Apostles never told people to give themselves to Jesus or even and this will have to explain later to him they never told people to receive Jesus and the word receivers never applied to Jesus in the New Testament except when he was on earth and people did receive him they let him into their home's gave him lunch and that is always said to be receiving him physically it was welcoming him into their homes but after Jesus ascended to heaven they never used that phrase again they always said believe in Jesus and receive the holy spirit and we've bundled that all together into this phrase receive Jesus and never mention the Holy Spirit to be one not at the beginning you see how important languages and if we're going to talk about the way of salvation as the New Testament knows we need to help people into the stated steps that are first taken on the way the other thing I want to say is we've got to build not never on one text our understanding of how you begin because if you do that you will inevitably miss out on some of those four vital steps for example it says in acts 16 believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved and if you take that text by itself you will only tell people believe and you will be saved you will say nothing about the Holy Spirit you will say nothing about baptism and more serious you will say nothing about repentance and then as we shall see in the second talk is the most serious omission from evangelism today the word repent doesn't usually come into a Christians life until later on when they suddenly realize and it should have started before they took any further steps we shall see it's the very first step you take into the kingdom of God on earth the very first step is always repent and believe but I'll come to that I've started on my second talk already so where are we going to look in the New Testament to find about those first steps well the first thing I must say is this the Gospels are too early to give you an adequate answer they come as a shock to you but you see the Gospels were written at least the first three Matthew Mark and Luke were written before Jesus or they were written after but they were written about his life before his death and before his resurrection and before his ascension and therefore faith could not be what it later became faith in the resurrection the death and the Ascension of Jesus comes later and so you don't find the four steps together in the first three Gospels you don't find repentance in the fourth gospel that may never have struck you but there's not one word repent in the fourth gospel because it was written to people who were already Christians it is therefore assuming they've already repented but in the other three Gospels you find all four things mentioned but never together there are texts about repentance there are texts about baptism there are texts about faith in Jesus there are texts about receiving the Holy Spirit with the warning that nobody could receive the holy s--t then he was not yet given because Jesus was not yet glorified so the Gospels even though they mentioned all four steps separately never put them together they are all written too early before Christ had died and risen and ascended the epistles were all written too late for us because they're all written to those already in the kingdom to those already on the way to those who've started so you don't find there's one place in the epistles of the letters that's Hebrews six that does say all four things together but it says we don't want to start you all over again that's the beginning of things that's for a spiritual baby you should know all that but in fact that's what happens in all the letters they all look back to these four things in retrospect they are looking back to their initiation when Paul talks about baptism he says don't you know that when you were baptized this is what happened then again he says how did you receive the Holy Spirit he keeps looking back to these four steps sometimes one sometimes another but he never spells it out well now if the Gospels are written too early and the epistles are written too late what are we left with the book of back and here we have the Apostles on location we have the Apostles doing it we have the Apostles telling people how to get started and this is where we find the best teaching on this subject and I should be referring to Acts a great deal during all the talks the very first mention in acts 2 the very first preaching the very first evangelism the first time people are told to start 3 of the 4 things I mentioned when Peter preached he preached so powerfully that they believed what he said and they said what should we do and he said repent be baptized every one of you and you'll receive the Holy Spirit the only one he didn't mention was believe why didn't he mention that for the simple reason and when some of these is what shall we do they really believe what you've been telling them about Jesus so Peter assumed they are already believing in the Lord Jesus and they want to know what to do about them so what it does is to tell them about the other three things he said you need to repent you need to be baptized and you need to receive the Holy Spirit there we have right at the beginning of the book of Acts the beginning of the Christian life 3 out of the 4 steps that I mentioned and the fourth is assumed you tend to a later example in Samaria persecution broke out in it spread the Christians and it sometimes takes persecution did send people out and they came to Samaria had a great mission in Samaria the people repented the people believed you know settlers the people were baptized in water and there was great joy in the city now I'm afraid most of us today would say that was a very successful mission but there's something missing none of them received the Holy Spirit they had all repentant whole city had all been believed in jeans they'd all been baptized in water and they were all full of joy and most people would say that was a Great Crusade and forget about anything else but it simply says but there was something missing none of them received the Holy Spirit and as soon as word got out that that had happened Peter and John went straight down to Samaria as fast as they cordon to pray for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit and they did and there was around the naughty man called Simon a bit of a magician and he loved tricks and when he saw that they were filmed the spirit when the Apostles laid hands on them he said oh I must have that trick what's the sequined sell it to me and Peter said to him your money perish with you or to put it in crude modern language to hell with you and your money you need to repent and it's that's gone down in history as a crime of trying to buy your way into God's grace it's called simony after the first man who did it but the point I want to make sure is this what was the reaction of the Christians and the Apostles in particular when one of those four things was missing and that was to go immediately and put it right and say you haven't got properly starving and you must have all four things the average motorcar in Britain runs on four cylinders minders and four sparking plugs and when you've got an engine running on all four it runs well and you can go far and fast if you're only running on three you can still go but as soon as you come to a steep hill the car begins to falter you can actually go forward on two out of four cylinders if you've got a strong wind behind you and you're going downhill one you've had it and I found out fairly early in my ministry then there are Christians trying to run along the way of salvation who are only firing on three out of four or two out of four or 104 when I was a pastor I gave every Monday evening to counseling and anybody could come and see me on them in the evening and know that get half an hour of my time and in that way I was able to counsel hundreds of people I think I did more good on the Monday night and I didn't on Sunday but that was my habit and so I counseled hundreds of Christians with problems and I discovered then this amazing fact that in many cases not all but in many cases their problems went back to the way they've done to their conversion and after a bit of a man a woman came with a problem to me I said don't talk about the problem for a moment tell me how you began tell me about your conversion and I listened carefully to see if they had all those four things and invariably at least one even two and in rare cases three out of four things were not there and so I used to say let's go back and put your first steps right and you know what when we did that the problem either disappeared altogether all they said I think I could deal with our problem myself now they'd got off on the wrong foot or to put it in another way that had a bad Midwife who didn't tell them those four things didn't make sure they started firing on a four cylinder that's four led me to write the book the normal Christian birth that's why I'm giving you these thoughts because I thought so many questions began without the four basic steps so I found them in the book of Acts I found them in acts 19 where Paul asked an amazing question he came to Ephesus and he found some disciples that's what they were called and he asked them this question did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed and that alone would tell us that it's possible to believe in Jesus and not receive the Holy Spirit and he discovered they never even heard about the Holy Spirit and their faith was not in Jesus they'd been baptized according to John the Baptist baptism which was good for repentance but no more and so again Paul said we must make up the other three things so he baptized them into Jesus into his death and resurrection and then he laid hands on them and prayed and they received the Holy Spirit there again is this pattern when somebody lacks those four things make them up as quickly as you can so that they're firing on all four cylinders and then they can go far and fast so there are tens that's the new testament and that's how they initiated people into the Christian life that's how they got them started there are two reasons I'm telling you all this one in because I hope that you will convert other people and if you do please tell them about the four things they need don't base their start on one on two of the Telamon bundle form my wife and I had a and great time once in a camp of well over a thousand young people on Christmas only because it was in the southern hemisphere and not the north we've been frozen and a thousand people would gather in a big wool shed where they used to clip the sheep and we had hay bales from them to sit on and I would preach to them every morning wonderful of June day and I preached on the kingdom every day and then Molly Thursday or Friday which day was it the Lord said to me you've told about the kingdom but you haven't told them how to get into it I said sorry Lord we'll put that right and so on Friday morning I said to them I've told you what the kingdom is like if you want to get into it come back to the wool shed at 4 o'clock afternoon and I'll tell you how to get in well the afternoon was perfect blue sky and they all went swimming in the Pacific Ocean and I thought that's the end of it the way nobody in the room said there were five great big muscular men who what do you call the lifeguards thank you five wonderfully and men will of God and they were lined along the beach while thousand young people were swimming and one of the lifeguards went to the next one and said would you look after my part of the beach I want to go to David Paulson meeting and fall and the second lifeguard said but I want to go to him so they went to the third he wanted to go they went to the fourth and the fifth they all wanted to come and they didn't know what to do they had to look after the swimmers and so they got together in a hobble and they said Lord we don't mean you know I know how to pray but can you get mr. David's meeting and they opened their eyes and looked out to the bay and they saw sharks coming into the bay they could see the fins in the water so I got a thousand young people of the beating that's the secret of getting people to meet him you just need sharks to chase them in now then I said I promise to tell you how to stop life in the kingdom and I said there are four things you need to know and I'll help you with the first this afternoon but you'll have to seek help from others for the other three because the camp ends tonight and so I majored on repentance now many of those young people were in street gangs in the main town in New Zealand [Music] many of them had oval tattoos on the knuckles they had outlawed Tortuga on the throne and I told them how to repent the exciting thing was that long afterwards after the camp was toes down and I got reports of what was happening to the young people who had followed through and taken the other steps I even bumped into one gang in the main street of the biggest city there and in flank I remember vividly they walk right past me and one of them said you're not speaking to us then I looked round and there was the lad with the worst tattoos of them all and they were fading from his skin you could only just seen them one parent came up terms and what have you done to our son someone you mean what have I done he's keeping his bedroom tidy she was almost angry but she was certainly surprised now that has been my method to tell people about all four spell it out and to help them with the very first if you've only got a limited amount of time but tell them to go on and seek the others so I'm hoping you will be used to convert other Bheema if you are either take the time to help and through all four or tell them the first and get them started and the other thing is counselling and of course the worst thing you can do I think gets to give them the sinner's prayer [Music] that's a little prayer that's gone around the world Lord Jesus I'm sorry for my sins will you please come into my life and help me amen you can say it in 30 seconds the one thing he won't have done is helped with repentance it won't have got them baptized but many questions have started with the sinner's prayer and to them we need to urge them to get all form basing snaps and then they come to run the race along the road the way of salvation

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Keywords: David Pawson, Becoming a Christian, Key Steps, Salvation, The Way

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Length: 61min 12sec (3672 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 12 2018