Saints And Sinners Will Stand Before The Savior

Introduction

I. The Saint Must Be Right To Be Ready

A. We Should Be Separated

Ephesians 5:11, "And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them."

Note 1 Thessalonians 5:23, "And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ."

James 1:27, "Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world."

The following is a good definition of Christian separation, "We are not to be isolated but insulated," said Vance Havner, "moving in the midst of evil but untouched by it." Separation is contact without contamination. Jesus was "holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners" (Heb. 7:26), yet He was "a friend of tax collectors and sinners" (Luke 7:34). Vance Havner.

B. We Should Be Serving

Colossians 1:9-10, "For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God;"

Read 1 Corinthians 15:58, "Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord."

C. We Should Be Filled With The Spirit

Galatians 5:16, "This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh." Ephesians 5:18, "And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit;"

II. The Sinner Must Be Redeemed To Be Ready

A. The Lost Person Must First Realize Their Spiritual Want

Luke 5:31-32, "And Jesus answering said unto them, They that are whole need not a physician; but they that are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance."

Romans 3:10, 12 "As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one."

B. The Lost Person Cannot Gain God's Favor By Good Works

Isaiah 64:6a, "But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags..."

Titus 3:5a, "Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us..."

One might wonder why God would make such a statement as this concerning man's righteous deeds. Why wouldn't He be pleased with acts of righteousness, even from a lost person? The fact is, what issues forth from a corrupt source is itself corrupt, no matter how good it may look on the outside. That is not to say that a lost person's good works serve no purpose. They certainly can't hurt. But as far as his gaining favor with God by his good deeds, they are of no value whatsoever.

It's a lot like the story a missionary once told concerning some of the things he had experienced on the field in Mexico.

The Mexican Christians are very appreciative of the missionaries who have come to give the gospel. Whenever the Man of God comes to visit one of their homes, they try to give of their best in hospitality.

One day, while visiting with a very poor Mexican family, the lady of the house wished to feed the missionary something. But all she had was one egg, which she boiled for the preacher. Being in a remote area, water was rather scarce, so she had used what she had available to boil the egg. As she began to peel the shell from the egg, she noticed that the dirt from her hands was getting all  over it. She decided that the preacher could not eat a dirty egg, but she had no water left with which to wash it. So she popped the egg into her mouth whole, so as to clean the dirt from it with her own saliva. It was then presented to the missionary to eat, which he did, by the way. The woman was trying to give the best that she had; but she did not realize that what comes from a contaminated source, is itself contaminated. Source Unknown.

The belief that salvation can be earned by good works is prevalent in society today, as the following poll revealed, "[According to a recent poll] 88% of Catholics and a majority of Presbyterian and Methodist evangelizers [those who actively try to share their "faith"] believe that "if people are generally good, or do enough good things for others during their lives, they will earn a place in heaven." National & International Religion Report, 8-23-93.

C. The Lost Person Must Realize That Salvation Comes Only One Way

John 14:6, "Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me."

Luke 13:3, "I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish."

Romans 10:9-10, 13, "That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved."

Forgiveness of one's sins and eternal salvation come only by faith in the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ on Calvary. One great old preacher explains as follows, A.B. Simpson is reported to have said that the gospel, "Tells rebellious men that God is reconciled, that justice is satisfied, that sin has been atoned for, that the judgment of the guilty may be revoked, the condemnation of the sinner cancelled, the curse of the Law blotted out, the gates of hell closed, the portals of heaven opened wide, the power of sin subdued, the guilty conscience healed, the broken heart comforted, the sorrow and misery of the Fall undone." M. Cocoris, Evangelism, A Biblical Approach, Moody, 1984, p. 29.