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WHAT IS SALVATION?
Tabernacle Sermon by Reb. Len G. firoughton
Stenograhically reported for The Golden Age.—Copyright applied for.
Text: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and
thou shalt be saved.”
DO not believe that we could consider
a subject of more real vital interest
than this one. Mr. G ads one, the
greatest statesman that England ever
pioduced, was once asked the questi n,
“What do you consider to be the great
est question today before the world?”
The questioner, of couise, expected the
answer to be concerning some great
I
question of state. Mr. Gladstone, however, hesi
tated but a moment, and then answered: “Gen
tlemen, I will say to you what I believe to be
true. There is but one great question, and that
is the question of salvation.”
Jesus Christ our Lord, a greater than Gladstone,
God Himself manifested in human flesh, said some
thing like that, only stronger. Listen: “What
shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole
world and lose his own soul, or what will a man
give in exchange for his soul?” meaning that sal
vation to the individual is greater than all else
in the world.
So to you brethren and sisters in Chiist who are
engaged in the work of supporting the church and
. trying to help it forward, 1 feel like saying this
word of encouragement. You are engaged in the
greatest work that ever had its beginning in the
heart of God —the work of salvation —and to the
humblest and to the youngest enlisted in the army
of the Lord Jesus, let me comfort you with this
thought. You are engaged in the greatest work
that ever God launched, the work of salvation; for
it is the one thing that God has benr every energy
of His divine nature to,' in order that it may be
successful.
Sometimes we are disposed to get discouraged
when we do not find ourselves properly appreciated,
but, oh, may God help ns to see that if we are
faithful in our little place in upholding the church
and extending the salvation of God, we are in
the greatest work that ever mortal ma.i consid
ered or God thought out.
WHAT IS SALVATION?
I saw a picture the other day that made a great
impression upon me as I thought of this subject.
The picture was of a great lake, and on that lake
was a boat; a great storm was raging, and the boat
was beginning to sink. A hand was coming down
from above which stayed the storm and saved the
boat and the crew. On one side of the lake was
a great big letter S and on the other side was a
big letter N.
Salvation is all that is expressed by that pic
ture. Salvation is the reaching down of tieH nd
and taking hold of that which is lost and saving
it. Salvation is therefore the biggest word in the
English language, and it is the biggest work that
man can possibly engage in, and he who enlists
in it with his heart and his soul and bis money is
in the biggest .thing in the world.
But even this does not give us a proper idea of
salvation. What is salvation? It is not church
membership. Church membership is good. Church
membership is divine, and let me say I do not be
lieve that any man can be a Christian and wilfully
refuse toi connect himself with the Church of
Jesus Christ. I hope that I can make t' is vry
emphatic, for there are many men and women to
day who are professors of religion, who believe
in Christ, and have taken their stand for Him
in open confession, but who somehow are holding
themselves away from church membership. I say
again, while the church does not save, and while,
perhaps, many are in the church with an erroneous
idea of its force and power, at the same time, if
there is one who wilfully, knowingly, purposely
stays out of the Church of Christ, I cannot be
lieve that he is a Christian. To be a Chiist an
means to follow Christ, and He is the founder of
the church, and no man can follow Jesus and turn
The Golden Age for June 27, 120?.
his back upon the thing that Jesus saw fit to es
tablish.
WHERE MORALITY AND CONSCIENCE FAIL.
But even if a man has church membership it does
not argue that he has salvation. Church member
ship, whether obtained by baptism or confirmation,
is not salvation. Neither does salvation consist
merely in possessing a moral character. Salva
tion is not simply being like Jesus. One might
be entirely moral and still not know salvation.
The rich young ruler was so moral as to keep
every ope of the commandments, but he went
away from Christ not knowing wfliat salvation
meant, and, so far as the records go, he never
did know.
Salvation is not an easy conscience. One’s con
science may become so seared as to become perfect
ly satisfied with any sort of sinful conduct. The
Hindoo woman has a perfectly good conscience
when she throws her child into the crocodile’s
mouth. She has been taught that it is right for
her to do that, but you know’, and I know’, that it
is murder, and yet for conscience sake she does it.
Conscience, my brother, is nothing in the world
but a creature of education. There are things
that you do that other people would not think of
doing, and things that other people do that you
would not think of doing, and yet both are try
ing to do right, but both are relying on their con
science.
There is but one infallible source of right and that
is the Word of God. There is but one infallible
source of day and that is the sun, and he who pins
his faith to a time-piece that is never regulated by
the sun will find himself living day for night and
night for day. In order for the timepiece to be
perfect, it must be kept regulated by the one in
fallible source of time, the sun.
A man’s conscience is a good thing to consult,
provided he does not depend on his conscience to
the neglect of everything else. He who lives ac
cording to the dictates of his conscience, without
stopping to straighten out his conscience by the
only infallible source of right, will soon find him
self living right for wrong and wrong for right
with perfect impunity.
THE DEFINITION AND THE PROCESS.
Salvation is found in the text: “Believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.”
Somebody says, “What is it to believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ?” I believe that there is more
in it than the average man sees.
There are two expressions that w’e want to
consider in the text, for upon these two expressions
the whole secret hangs. First, let us consider the
expression, “Believe on.” This is a very differ
ent expression from “Believe in.” It means vast
ly’ more. Every man in this country believes in
Christ. Even the Jew believes in Christ. I was
recently in conversation with a rabbi, and I said to
him, “What do you think of Jesus, anyhow?” “I
think,” said he, “that he was a great man. I be
lieve in him as a man. I believe that he was one
of the greatest characters that the world ever pro
duced. He w’as kind and wise and philanthropic;
he w’as a good man, a great man, but I d > not be
lieve that he was the Saviour.”
That is the difference between the Jew and the
Christian in so far as religion is concerned.
Bob Ingersoll believed in Christ. These are his
words: “They tell me to believe in Jesus Christ
and I am a saved man. Then I am a saved man,
though I deny that there is a God. I have studiid
the life of Christ, and have never found a single
solitary fault in his life. He w’as an upright, per
fect man. I am bound to be’ieve in Him.”
But Bib Ingersoll believed in Ch ist as He be
lieved in George Washington or any other of the
great characters of this world. Lots of people be
lieve in Christ, but they are not saved. That is
not salvation.
science.
THE DISTINCTION DRAWN.
When the jailor came to the apostle Paul beg
ging to know the way to be saved, the apostle
said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. ’ He did
not tell him to believe in H.m.
You say that is a distinction without a differ
ence. No it is not. Let me make it clearer by
illustration.
1 stood one night at ten o’clock watching the
ship in which I was to cross the Atlantic for the
first time. I looked at it and thought about it, and
walked up and down the deck and took in her
size and the magnitude of her machinery, I
stepped up to a sailor and said, “I declare it is
a risky thing to get on that thing and go out in
to the ocean without knowing what you are to en
counter.”
“If you had crossed the ocean on her as many
times as I have you wouldn’t be afraid,” he ans
wered.
That helped me. I believed in the ship before:
1 knew how much tonnage she carried and how
many passengers; I knew' how old she was, and
the method of her construction; I had perfect
confidence in the crew, from the captain down to
the sailor, and from the sailor down to the stoker
in the bottom of the vessel; but that did not get
me aboard, nor carry me across.
As I stood there that night I had perfect confi
dence in that ship; I believed in her, but until I
let my belief that I had in her as the result of in
vestigation and inquiry and thought crystallize it
self in me to the extent that I reached down and
got my hand-grips and walked up the gang-plank
to the ship, I never believed on her. When I
committed myself to her and had broken down all
the ties that h 'ld me to this land of ours, then I
believed on instead of in her.
COMMIT ALL TO HIM.
What is salvation? “Believe on Jesus Christ.”
That is to say, let your faith in Him, the result of
your reading, the result of your hearing, the re
sult of your thinking, the result of all
that you have heard and seen, let that
crystallize itself to the extent that you commit
yourself to Him, and depend on Him, and then you
are saved. To every unsaved person w’ho is think
ing of the question of salvation, I come to you as
suring you this is the only way to be saved. You
know enough about Jesus, you believe in Him,
you love Him perhaps. Oh, may God help you to
commit yourself to Him; to stop depending upon
yourself and your friends and your church, your
conscience and character, and depend altogether
and absolutely upon the saving power of Jesus
Christ.
But I think that in order that w’e may have a
thorough and comprehensive understanding as to
the meaning of this “Believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ,” we must study the next phrase, “The
Lord Jesus Christ.” That word Lord needs to be
studied. What does it mean? My brethren, it
means a great deal more than the average Chris
tian has ever thought about.
The word Lord means Divine Sovereign. A Di
vine Sovereign is a Divine Master, or Ruler, or
Czar. A Divine Sovereign is a Supreme Ruler
over our lives. Believe on the Divine Sovereign
Jesus Christ, the one to whom you acknowledge
imperial authority over your whole life and con
duct. That is what it means.
And whenever Jesus is our Divine Sovereign,
Master absolute of our lives, we must assume His
attitude toward everything. Nothing short of that
can make Him our Master.
PROPER ATTITUDES.
Let us look at several attitudes of Jesus, which
we must make our own if we acknowledge Him as
Master. First, let us consider His attitude with
respect to His Father. His attitude toward His
Father is revealed to us by Himself. “My meat,”
said He, “is to do the will of Him that sent me.”
