Why Salvation Is Personal
I remember times when I was in grade school, or especially in middle school, when we’d have an assignment: “Tonight for your homework, I want you to go home and read chapter three — we’ll say, for the sake of discussion.” And you’d come back the next day, the next class, and sit down, and the teacher would say, “All right, books under your desk — we’re going to have an oral quiz on chapter three from last night.” And you forgot.
What you want to do is just try to disappear. You can see the teacher — and I guess after a while they know the ones who are trying to hide — and they pick them out of the crowd and say, “You,” and give you the question. All of a sudden, you might be in a class of thirty — in university, maybe a class of three hundred — but it’s just you and the teacher. Just you and the instructor.
We don’t like being singled out like that. We don’t want to be under the spotlight, singled out amongst the crowd.
Well, I’d like to tell you tonight — I want you to take this personally. God’s salvation, the message of the gospel, is infinitely personal, because tonight this message, the gospel, is all about you and God and no one else. We’re under His magnifying glass, if you will. He knows everything about you. He knows everything about me.
But He loves me anyway.
That’s what’s so amazing about God’s salvation. That’s what’s so amazing about the gospel: it’s a God who loves me even though He knows everything about me. He singles us out. We may try to hide from God — the old saying is, you can run but you can’t hide — and no matter how far we try to go, how far we try to disappear from God, we cannot do it. He knows all things. That’s why in Psalm 139 we read words like this: whether it’s dark or it’s bright, He sees us exactly the same way.
It’s Because of You
God singles us out. And I want you to think about this truth as well — the Lord Jesus wants to single you out. There are claims that He has on you — and we’ll look at that another night, Lord willing — but it’s because of you, it’s because of me, that He went to that cross. And He holds you, and He holds me, responsible. He holds us responsible for what happened at the cross of Calvary.
So going back to our first text — this dear woman, she comes to Jacob’s well in Samaria. The Lord Jesus knew she would be there, and so He went out of His way — by Himself, later on with the disciples — but He made His way about twenty-five miles out of His way, because He was interested in just one person.
Imagine that. Imagine this truth: if you were the only person, man or woman, living on God’s earth, the Lord Jesus would have had to come and suffer everything He suffered in order to redeem you, in order to save you.
What Does It Mean to Be Saved?
You’ve heard the word “saved” a few times this evening, and I want you to stop for a minute, because maybe some of you are thinking, “What does that mean — saved?” It’s a word we use all the time. It’s a word often found in our Bibles. But what does it mean to me today?
To be saved infers there’s danger. And you’ve been hearing about the subject of sin, of which every one of us is guilty. Every one of us has sinned against God.
If you don’t mind, let me do this. Raise your hand if you’ve ever told a lie. I can’t tell if everyone’s raising their hand or not, but I’m assuming yes. So I’m speaking to a whole room full of liars, right? Isn’t that what you’re saying? And I’m saying: do you realize that just one lie disqualifies you from God’s heaven forever? You’ve admitted it yourself — you raised your hand — and disqualified yourself from the presence of God, because He is absolutely righteous and holy.
Jesus Knew Everything About the Woman at the Well
So there comes this woman with her water pot to the well, and there’s a man sitting there. She doesn’t know him. She’s never seen him. She’s never met him. He knows all about her, even though physically they haven’t met before. And He says, “Give me a drink of water.”
He’s a Jew. She’s a Samaritan. And she’s thinking, saying, “We’re not supposed to talk here. We’re not supposed to be talking with each other.” He says, “Whoever drinks of this well has to keep coming back, because they get thirsty again. But I have water to give you, and those who drink of the water I will give will never thirst again.” And she says, “Well, give me that water so I don’t have to keep doing this every day.”
Living Water That Satisfies
He was speaking in the spiritual realm — about something that satisfies. We’ve heard of a world that’s broken, a world that is falling apart day after day, and people are still looking for something to satisfy them. And there’s not one thing in this world that can satisfy anyone. You can have fun, you can be happy for a little while, and then it goes away. The truth is, there’s nothing out there that satisfies except the Person — the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. “The water I will give you will satisfy you.”
Go Call Your Husband
And so she goes back into the city and says something to the men there. She says, “Come, see a Man who told me all things that I ever did.” There He is, at the well, sitting with her, talking with her, and she’s listening to what He is saying. If He had told her everything she had ever done, they might still be there.
She understood this, because He said to her, “Go, call your husband.” God has a way of putting His finger right on the problem, and it hurts very often.
You know what was wonderful about this dear woman? And I hope there are people like this in this room tonight — the woman was honest. Are you honest with yourself before God?
She said, “I don’t have a husband.” He said — this man she’d never met — “You’re right. You’ve had five husbands, and now you’re living with a man who isn’t even your husband.” Imagine a total stranger telling you intimate details about your own life. And she realizes: this man knows everything about me. Everything. There’s nothing that escapes his knowledge of me.
My dear friend, there is nothing that escapes the eye of God. He knows what we say, what we think, and what we do. We can’t hide from God at all — ever. And there’s not a thing we can do to get rid of that problem of our sin — my sin, and yours. Why does it bother us? Why do we feel so guilty? You see, God puts that in our hearts intentionally. He wants us to understand.
Why Sin Separates Us From God
In the Garden of Eden, how many sins did it take before God put them out? Just one. It wasn’t a big one, as we might describe it — all they did was take a piece of fruit, and God had said, “Don’t do that.” It’s like the little boy: “Don’t you touch those cookies.” He comes back a little later with chocolate all over his face. “Did you take a cookie?” “No, mommy.” The evidence is there.
It just took one sin for God to banish them from the garden. And no sin will ever enter into heaven. And we can’t do anything to erase even one sin. Here’s what Hebrews chapter nine says: without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness. You can be baptized a hundred times, and do you know what will happen? You’ll get wet a hundred times, but it won’t do a thing for your sin. You could pray for the next hundred years — it doesn’t do a thing for your sin — because without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins.
So what’s the big deal about sin, anyway? The big deal is that sin keeps us separated from God. We’re separated from God.
So what we’ve read in John chapter four is like a mirror — and we’ve all used mirrors, probably all of us have used one today. Really, those three words she said to the men in the city are this mirror: she knew some of it; He knew all of it. He wanted her to get hold of the truth.
The Mirror of God’s Word
So why do we look in a mirror? Well, we want to see what we can’t naturally see — like a man who doesn’t know how he looks but needed a mirror for sure. He might not have felt it, he obviously didn’t know it was there, but it was there anyway. He needed a cleansing. But in order to find that out about himself, he had to look in a mirror. And that’s what God’s word does. The word of God is like a mirror.
Some people say, “I try to keep the Ten Commandments.” God gave the law not to make us right, but to show us we’re wrong. The law condemns us. You drive out on the highway and it says a hundred — it’s a suggestion, anyway — and if you’re pulled over by the police, and they say you were going a hundred and forty kilometres an hour, that sign is the law. It shows you what you have done. It shows you that you’ve broken God’s law. The breaking of God’s law is called sin, and we have all sinned against God.
Facing the Truth About Sin
So I wonder if tonight you’re willing — honestly, openly willing — to face the truth we’ve been hearing about, God’s truth about yourself. Well, here’s what God says. The book of Jeremiah says the heart is deceitful above all things, it’s desperately wicked, it’s beyond cure in and of itself. “Who can know it? Who can understand it?” And it says, “I, the LORD, search the heart” — even though we don’t see it.
Sometimes I’ve talked to people and they say, “Well, I don’t feel like I’m a bad person.” Well, it doesn’t matter how you feel. Doesn’t matter how I feel. It doesn’t matter if we agree with God or not — it doesn’t change the truth. What God has said is true, and it will never, ever change.
And so what He wants us to do is face the truth, look in the mirror, and acknowledge that what God says about me is true — and what God says about you is true as well. And He says this: we’ve all sinned and come short of the glory of God. It’s all about what He says, and He wants us to understand that very truth.
The Great White Throne Judgment
The day is coming — we read about this at the end of our Bibles, Revelation chapter twenty. It’s called the great white throne judgment. And at the end of that chapter, we read these words: “And the books were opened.” What books? Well, I believe this book will be there — the Bible, the word of God that we have in our hands. And then there will be another book, and it will have your name on it, if — God forbid — you’re ever there. And it’s a permanent record, and in it is every sin you’ve ever committed. He doesn’t miss any. That book will be opened.
And even though some people think they’re a good person, the word of God says — the Lord Jesus says — that there is no one good except God Himself, God alone. So in my permanent record — remember having that in school? It followed me from one year to the next; I couldn’t get away from my permanent record. It followed me. The teacher coming up knew all about me.
God’s permanent record is absolutely one hundred percent accurate, and every sin, every thought, every word, every action — we are going to be judged according to what’s in the books. There will never enter into it — Revelation 21:27 — anything that defiles. No sin will ever be in heaven. Otherwise, heaven would be just like earth: corrupted, ruined by sin.
The Gift of Eternal Life
But the Lord said this to her as well, early in the chapter. He said, “If you only knew” — would you take those words for yourself tonight? “If you only knew the gift God has for you, and who you were speaking to, you would ask Me. You just ask Me — I would give you.”
God is in the business of giving us something. He says to this woman, “I would give you living water.” We already heard that verse quoted from Romans 6:23: the wages of sin — the consequence of sin — is death. But the gift, the free gift of God, is what? Eternal life.
He says, “I want to give it to you.” I have kids, I have grandkids, and when I say, “Papa has a gift for you,” their eyes get wide, they get all excited, they hold their hands out, and as soon as I hold it out to them, what do they do? They take it, and it’s theirs. You say, “Yeah, that’s what happens to everyone, right?” But what about this gift — the best gift of all? The gift of God is eternal life. He says, “I want to give it to you.”
Is there someone here simple enough to just accept what God is offering as a free gift? Imagine if there was a gift for you — a gift you needed — and that gift was free, even though to the One who purchased it, it was infinitely expensive. Couldn’t put a price tag on it. It’s something you need, but in order for you to have it, to say “it’s mine,” you’ve got to take it.
You see, it’s God’s salvation. That’s simple. I’m so glad, because the little six-year-old boy took it.
Stop Trying, Start Trusting
You say, “Well, I’ve got to do something to get to heaven, don’t I?” Go ahead, try — or maybe you’ve been trying. One man said to a preacher one time, when he was asked, he said, “I’ve been trying for twenty-five years.” The preacher said, “Why don’t you quit trying and just trust? Just trust. Just accept what God is offering.”
How God Proved His Love
The Son of God who loved me was our second passage. He loved me. He told me He loved me, and He gave Himself for me. It’s a mystery. And you say, “Why is it a mystery?” Because I don’t know why He loves me. I don’t know why. I’m a sinner by birth, a sinner by practice — why would He ever love me? He does. He loves you, too. You say, “You don’t know what I’ve done.” You’re right — I don’t want to know. But He does. He says, “I love you.”
The apostle Paul killed Christians. “The Son of God, who loved me” — and you know how He proved it? He gave Himself. He gave Himself for me. That’s the proof. “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes” — trusts, relies on Him — “will never perish, will never face the judgment of God, but rather they will receive” eternal life.
We know what love feels like. It feels good, for the most part. It’s wonderful to know that you are loved. And God showed us how much He loved us. The scriptures tell us this: “This is how God showed His love — He sent His only Son into the world, to give us life through Him.” The Father sent the Son. A couple of verses later: the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world. And Romans chapter eight tells us this: He did not even spare His own Son.
“This Much”
Above my desk, in my office study at home, I have a text hanging above my desk, and it says this:
I asked Jesus, “How much do you love me?”
He said, “This much” — stretched out His arms, and He died.
“Greater love has no one than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”
When Love Wasn’t Enough to Save
September 1990, in a town called Butler, Pennsylvania — an event took place about thirty miles from where we live. There was a woman who owned six Rottweilers, all of them over a hundred pounds each. She had a little niece named Jamie, and Jamie had been there many, many times. Jamie’s cousin, little Steven, was two years old.
They went out into that back area, that fenced area where all the dogs were, and for whatever reason, one of those dogs went for little Steven — grabbed him by the head. She couldn’t hold on to him. When he grabbed that little boy out of Jamie’s arms, the other five joined. You can only imagine the damage they did to a two-year-old boy.
Jamie did something — she jumped right on top of the pile of dogs, tried to protect her little cousin. She wanted to save him. She loved him, but she couldn’t save him.
He did live. There was a fire company going by; they brought their trucks and hoses. There was a medical helicopter flying overhead; they brought it down. He was taken immediately to a trauma centre in Pittsburgh, and they did a number of things that had been experimental, and they worked. Little Steven survived.
You see, love wasn’t enough.
My Saviour loved me — was able to save me — but it cost Him His life. If He were here, hanging on a cross right now, would you walk by that cross? Look at Him with mockery, look at Him with disdain — or would you look at Him with great sorrow and realize: He shouldn’t be there. He’s sinless. I should be there. He loved me and gave Himself.
I Was Saved by Somebody
The final passage we read: when God our Saviour revealed His kindness and love, He saved us. The truth is, sometimes we hear that little phrase, “I got saved.” I often hear that phrase — but I didn’t get saved; I was saved by somebody.
Imagine if it was something like this — imagine if this was you, and you’re in the water, and you’re going down, and you cry for help, because there’s nothing you can do. What do you need? What you need is a Saviour. And you need Him right here, and you need Him right now — someone who is able, someone who’s strong enough to reach down into that water and rescue you.
Like we were hearing this morning, about Peter going down in the water, in the dark of the storm — he was going down, and the Lord Jesus was walking on the water, and he said, “Lord, save me.” Shortest prayer in the Bible — three words — and immediately He reached out His arm and caught him.
Christ Jesus Came to Save Sinners
I trust that in looking at these verses together, you would understand that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Are you a sinner? You say, “I’ve done some things I shouldn’t have done.” No — are you a sinner? It says He came to save sinners, and if you qualify, then He came to save you. That’s what He wants to do. He was manifested, He was revealed, to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. And the scriptures tell us — Isaiah chapter fifty-three — the LORD laid on Him the iniquity, the punishment, the guilt of us all, so that that permanent record could be wiped clean. That’s what He did.
So, very simply, as I close: my ticket to heaven is these four words — I mentioned it this morning — they’re really simple, you could all read them and say them. I hope they’re true for you, though: Jesus died…
