Sermon
The Gate That Leads To Life
March 9, 2003
Pastor Donald Sheley

You will notice today that you have two sets of notes. You say, Pastor, boy, this is going to be a long sermon -- sixteen pages of notes, and we can't even get through two in 30 minutes. Here's what happened. A week ago I prepared this sermon to be preach last Sunday and I tweaked my back so I was resting all day. These notes that already been printed so I was going to use those, but you know God changes our hearts sometimes as pastors. When I walked into the office Monday morning one of the lovely ladies there she said, Pastor, we went visiting and we were telling some of our relatives about our lives that have now been changed, and we told them that we were saved. And they said, saved from what?. She said, I stood there and I realized it didn't have an adequate answer.

And God said to my heart maybe we are equally insufficient in our own knowledge of some of the phrases that we use as Christians. They're strange phrases to non-Christian, and when we tell them we are saved, and they ask us, what do you mean by that? I believe we should have a good answer. And so today I want to take from the text that we were going to preach from in John chapter 10. I want you to pick up your white notes and in that passage we were going to talk from, and are going to talk from, is chapter 10 verse 9 of John's gospel.

Jesus said, I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. Now it's interesting when we study the gospel of John he doesn't use the word frequently, I think only three occasions. Because when he speaks of being saved he uses other words and primarily the phrase "eternal life", but in this particular setting, Jesus said, everyone who comes through Me will be saved. So let's proceed. And what I've done is most of these pages are filled almost entirely with scripture today. I wanted to give you a scriptural answer so you can tell people what it means to be saved.

When Jesus used these words what did He have in mind when He talked about being saved? Saved from what? Saved for what purpose? Saved by what means? Saved by whom?

Question No. 1. Saved from what? The answer -- we are saved from the effects of sin. Now what is sin? Sin is any failure to conform to the moral law of God in act, in attitude, or in nature. The history of the human race as presented in Scripture is primarily a history of man in a state of sin and rebellion against God, and of God's plan of redemption to bring man back to Himself.

In the very first pages of the Bible, we are told that "The Lord saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time." Jeremiah, the prophet, gets a little more specific. He says, "The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure." There's another version of the Scripture which says, the heart is desperately wicked.

Now Paul in his letter to the Romans went to two of the Old Testament Psalms and he put together a description. He paints for us the effects of sin on our human nature. He said, There is none righteous, no, not one; there is none who understands; there is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside; they have together become unprofitable; there is none who does good, no, not one. Their throat is an open tomb; with their tongues they have practiced deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips; whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood; destruction and misery are in their ways; and the way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes."

That's Paul's description of what sin has done to God's great masterpiece, the human being. Now in the Bible, the teaching about sin begins with the story of the fall of humanity recorded in Genesis 3. What is significant about the Genesis account is that the consequence of Adam and Eve's sin is described as death--not mere imperfection or a weakening of one's innate capacity to do good, but death: God said, "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die."

Most Bible readers recognize that God's warning was not merely about physical death (though it was that) but included spiritual death as well. Paul writes to the Ephesians and he says, "And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others."

Now man is dead in his relationship with God. Prior to regeneration, or salvation, or being saved, a sinner has all the passive properties belonging to a corpse. Like a spiritual corpse, he is unable to make a single move toward God, think a right thought about God, or even respond to God, unless God first brings this spiritually dead corpse to life.

According to our Bible, to be a sinner is not merely to be morally imperfect or to be unable to achieve one's full potential without God. It is rather a description of human beings in an utterly ruined state, a state in which we might all have been left to perish, and justly so. Man is not equally bad, nor as bad as he could be, nor is he entirely destitute of virtue, but since the fall, man is actuated by wrong principles, he is wholly unable to love God and to do anything that would merit salvation or God's mercy and forgiveness.

So now the verses that we've read thus far; sin has marred us, Satan took something that God created to be beautiful and it ruins us; it makes us the objects of God's wrath and we're sinners. It changes something beautiful into something ugly.

Let me illustrate. Leonardo da Vinci as you know was the great painter of the great masterpiece The Last Supper. And as he was painting that great masterpiece he wanted to find faces who would somehow depict the person that he was putting on the canvas. So when he comes to the person of Christ he looks all over Rome. He goes to the great cathedrals. He walks the streets and finally one day he goes to a service in one of the great cathedral of the Rome. And sitting up there in the choir is a choirboy. His face shines; there was purity; something marked his face, and so Leonardo da Vinci waited until the service was over. He found that choirboy and he said, I would like to invite you to come to my studio tomorrow because I would like to paint your picture. His name was Pietri Bandinelli.

The next morning Pietri was at Leonardo da Vinci's studio. Leonardo took his face and he brushed that into the canvas on the face of Jesus. Years went by. As he would paint those various faces of the disciples, he comes to the last face that he must paint; he must paint the face of Judas. So what he does, he starts walking the streets of Rome because what he wants is a face that's been hardened and distorted by sin. And at last he found a beggar on the streets of Rome with a face so villainous he shuddered when he looked at him. He walked up to the beggar and he said, sir, I'd like to paint your picture, and I'd like for you to come to my studio tomorrow.

The next morning that beggar was at Leonardo da Vinci's studio, and Leonardo starts painting the face of Judas. When he has finished his painting, he turns to the man and says, I'm sorry but I didn't get your name, Sir. And the beggar said, I am Pietri Bandinelli. Years ago, Sir, I sat here and modeled Christ. How does sin affect the life?

Another great painter was Rembrandt. Rembrandt as a young man had great ideals and he loved God. He took a mirror and decided he was going to paint his own portrait. So he painted Rembrandt the young idealist. After he painted that picture he said it aside, and decided to live his life in abandonment from God and all the debaucheries of sin. Years later, the story goes, having been untrue to himself and God he lost faith in others. In middle age we see the artist shrunken, a rag around his throat, weakness in his chin and the mark of the beast upon his brow, the eyes heavy and dull without vision and beauty. And Rembrandt painted the second picture of a man who now sin had ruined his life. The effects of sin? God made us for very high purposes, but when sin takes over it'll destroy us.

Back to our notes. Down in the middle of page 2: Another way to speak of our spiritual state is to say that men and women are enslaved to sin, so that they cannot escape from it. Peter wrote, "a man is a slave to whatever has mastered him."

What has mastered us? The Bible tells us that our enemy is the world, the flesh, and the devil. And with that in mind, Paul seems to write in the Ephesians 2 passage, although he does not use the word slave, but he suggests very strongly that in our natural state we are in bondage to each one of these three. We are enslaved to the world because we follow "the ways of this world." We think as the world thinks, without regard for our relationship to God and regard to our final destiny; and because we think as the world thinks, we also act as the world acts.

We are enslaved to the flesh because our natural desire is to [gratify]...the cravings of our sinful nature and [follow] its desires and thoughts. We want what we want, regardless of God's law or the effect that it would have on other people.

Jesus said, Everyone who sins is a slave of sin. What's the effect of sin? It has made us slaves to the very thing that destroys us. We are enslaved to the devil because, just as we follow the ways of this world, so also we follow "the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient." We are Satan's playthings, and never so much as when we are unaware of his presence. Paul wrote to Timothy that sinners were taken "captive" by Satan "to do his will."

Before we are saved, we've lost fellowship with God, we are spiritually dead, and as Paul says that we are held captive by Satan. But the worst thing about our sinful condition, apart from God's grace in Jesus Christ, is that we are objects of God's wrath. Now most people can hardly take this seriously. They do not take wrath seriously because they do not take sin seriously.

But if sin is as bad as the Bible declares it to be, nothing is more reasonable than that the wrath of a holy God should rise against it. John 3:36, "He who believes in the Son has everlasting life, and he who does not believe in the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him." Now look at what Paul said to the Thessalonians, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on all those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. These shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord.

So, what are the effects of sin upon human nature, our nature? Sin brings death, spiritual death, and man lost that place of intimate fellowship with our Creator God. Sin gave us a heart that is at enmity with God. For the Bible says, the carnal mind is enmity against God; for its is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. Sin made us enemies of God. Sin brought us into slavery and the sinner has Satan as his master. Sin has made us the objects of God's wrath.

Just a minute pastor, you don't hear much of that today. Oh I agree. But what we have done is just read the Scriptures. And I maintain folks that the reason why most people don't appreciate their salvation, is because they've not grasped the truth of what they have been saved from. And I think there is a lightness with regards to the whole subject of sin, and because of that you have a shallow conviction that most Christians have. Because to realize what we've been saved from makes us to appreciate our salvation.

Now I said we lost fellowship with God, and I use an illustration, folks, that I think is so true. When Adam and Eve sinned in the garden something drastically happened. Prior to that God's spirit indwelt within him, because Adam and Eve had the ability to communicate with divinity. God would come down in the cool of the evening and He would talk with them. But, when God took Adam and Eve to the garden's edge and said, you must go. I think something drastically happened. I think God reached into man and took out his spirit. And that's why there's that hollow, empty, yearning something within us. We know we were made for higher purposes than what we've experienced. We were made to honor God and He placed us here, and the only way His spirit ever comes to dwell within us again is when we receive Jesus Christ into our heart. And now we were brought back into fellowship with Him.

One of the most tragic effects of sin is that the sinner doesn't have fellowship with God, and can't, in the sinful condition. Back to our notes.

Thus, to be saved means that our relationship with God has been drastically changed. He is not longer our enemy, but He is now our wonderful Heavenly Father. We are no longer living a life in rebellion to God's ways and His will, but our hearts find great joy and peace in doing what pleases God.

The Bible says that, therefore, if anyone is in Christ, that's been saved, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. And we are no longer slaves of sin.

Look at what Paul writes in Romans, But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness...but now, having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness and the end, everlasting life.

Question -- by what means does God save us? Well, here's Paul's answer: For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.

John 3:16, For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes 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.

Paul writes to the Thessalonians Christians and says, For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ.

Peter preaches in the book of Acts and says, Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.

And the writer to Hebrews sums it all up when he says, so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many (that's on Calvary); and unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time without sin unto salvation.

So what's the means of our salvation? We are saved when we place our trust in Jesus Christ as our personal Savior and we us repent of our sins. We respond to the call of the gospel which is the power of God unto salvation. In addition to the knowledge of the facts of the gospel and the approval of those facts, in order to be saved, I must personally decide to depend on Jesus Christ to save me. Saving faith is trust in Jesus Christ as a living person for forgiveness of sin and for eternal life.

Because of time would you turn to Page 6; you can read the rest of the notes. We've covered the subject in this sense, we know what we're saved from. We are saved from sin's bondage. We are brought back into fellowship with God. We have a new nature because we are a new creation in Christ Jesus. We've been saved from the effects of sin. We've been saved through the death of Jesus Christ who went to the cross and died in our stead.

You say, well Pastor, just give me a minute. Why did He have to go to that cross? Why was the cross so important?

God laid down a law in the early moments of man's history where He said without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin. You say, Pastor why did God put that law down? I don't know. All I know he is this: when Adam and Eve sinned and God came down in the garden, God had every right to strike them both dead because they had violated God's law. But here's where God's mercy comes into play. God didn't strike Adam and Eve dead. He went out into the garden and slew an innocent animal. That animal died as the substitute, and God took the skins of that animal to clothe the nakedness of man.

Thus there was the shedding of the blood in the substitute so that man's sin could be covered. That's why we have all of the sacrifices throughout the Old Testament. It was the shedding of blood that covered the sins of man. Because something had to die to cover sin. When Jesus came, His death on the cross ended all sacrifices. His sacrifice was the sacrifice for the sins of all the world, for your sins and mine. That's why He had to die on a cross. That ended the sacrifices.

You say, now I know what I've been saved from, I know how I've been saved, but why am I saved? Why does God save us? Look at the top of Page 6. He has delivered us from the power of darkness and He has conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, and the forgiveness of sins. The first thing that happens when we put our trust in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, in a very spiritual and wonderful way He transfers out of Satan's kingdom of darkness and He makes us inhabitants of His eternal kingdom, the kingdom of God.

Paul uses an interesting word when he says, He conveyed us. And I've listed for you 4 meanings. Notice number 1.

(1) It meant a transference from darkness to light.

(2) It meant a transference from slavery to freedom.

(3) It meant a transference from condemnation to forgiveness.

(4) It meant a transference from the power of Satan to the power of God.

Look at what Paul writes in Ephesians. I'm on page 7 now. But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved) and raised us up together and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us. Now that is a phenomenal statement. But Paul says it's going to take God all of eternity to demonstrate His marvelous kindness to us. That much kindness -- and all eternity to do it.

He saved us for we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works. Why did He save us? To transfer us out of Satan's kingdom, place within us a new creation so we could live as Christians godly and righteously in the world we have.

Peter says there's another reason. That you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. So the purpose for which Christ saves us is to transfer us out of the kingdom of Satan and darkness into the marvelous light to live godly lives in this world. And He saves us so that we might proclaim His praises. And He saves us, one of these days, so we can spend eternity in His presence.

Now we understand salvation, and I'd like for all of you to bow your head. Maybe you're here today, and you say, Pastor, I've heard that phrase over and again. I didn't understand it thoroughly. I'm in church today just because my heart is reaching out. I really can't say why am here. I only know I wanted to be here. And now I understand. I understand what it means to be saved. It means I put my trust in Jesus Christ who died in my stead as my substitute, and when I trust Him, He transfers me from the kingdom of darkness into His eternal kingdom, and that's what I want.

You just raise your hand to God and you say, God, that's exactly what I want in my life today. Dear Jesus, I open my heart today and I want You to be my personal Savior. I want to be saved. I'm a sinner and I acknowledge that, but I want to change and turn from my sin. And I want to live as a godly person, and I want You, dear Jesus, to be my Savior. So I open my heart and by Your precious Holy Spirit I want You to come and live inside of me. I want You as my Savior. Thank you for hearing my prayer, and may in the days to come I experience the joy of Your presence and Your fellowship. Thank you dear Jesus.

Lord Jesus, You've listened to the prayers of many of the folks who join with us today. We've taken the phrase that is often stated by Christians and so infrequently explained. We understand now. You've opened our hearts and I pray that Your precious Holy Spirit will do a of marvelous work of grace in the hearts of all the folks. And now as we go may Your peace, may Your benediction, and may Your grace be upon us all, in Christ's name. Amen. Thank you all for coming.