SALVATION

W. McKillop

Luke 19: 9, 10; Isaiah 12: 3; 26: 1; Psalm 132: 16

The thought of salvation appears in these passages. This is quite understandable by those who know God, because He is the Saviour God. Indeed the apostle Paul speaks of Him as “our Saviour God”. I desire that every person of responsible age here would be able to join in saying “our Saviour God”. God values the fact that some of us can say “our Saviour God”, but in the greatness of His mercy and grace He is thinking of all men. It says, “... our Saviour God, who desires that all men should be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth”, 1 Timothy 2: 4. God, as a Saviour God, is thinking of these two things in regard of all men.

First, that they should be saved and second, that they should come to the knowledge of the truth. It never was the divine thought that persons should be saved from their sins but then fail to come to the knowledge of the truth. Morally there is little value in knowing that your sins are forgiven unless you progress in the knowledge of the truth. Knowing that your sins are forgiven is not a matter to be regarded lightly, but it is possible to say that your sins are forgiven and then to go on in your pathway indistinguishable from persons who are lost.

Hence the importance of coming to the knowledge of the truth. God has that in mind for all men, that all men should be saved, saved from Satan’s power. We have to remember that the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving. God would save all men from that. Think of your being darkened as to God by the god of this world and eventually standing before the great white throne and being consigned to the lake of fire. It is very solemn to think that the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving. Although God is approaching all men with a view to saving them and bringing them to a knowledge of the truth, those who are blinded by the god of this world are among the lost. There is hardly a more solemn matter to think of than that there is a class of persons that scripture calls the “lost”. They will never be saved, they are the “lost”. There is scarcely a more terrible word in Scripture to describe persons. But God is approaching all men that they might be saved, that they might know salvation, and come to a knowledge of the truth.

Satan’s great weapon from the time that the serpent entered the garden in Genesis 3 has been to exploit man’s ignorance of God. The serpent said, “Is it even so, that God has said ...?” He did not deny what God had said, but he raised the question in their minds, “Is it even so, that God has said ...?” I suppose one form it takes today is that men say a God of love could not consign persons to eternal judgment. The truth is if He were not a God of love He would not; but because He is a God of love He must act in accord with His own nature for His love is a holy love. There would be no righteousness in God to overlook wickedness in man. Nor did He, for the cross of Christ shows that God brought the whole issue of good and evil to a crux there. In the cross of Christ, He demonstrated in His judgment of sin in the Sin-bearer that He is righteous and holy. But He also demonstrated in that perfect sacrifice offered for sin that He is a God of love and He has come out to all men that they might be saved. The apostle says he was “not ashamed of the glad tidings; for it is God’s power to salvation”, Romans 1: 16. God desires that all men should be saved and the glad tidings are His power to salvation.

The glad tidings bring home to the conscience of every repentant sinner that he is a sinner and worthy only of judgment. But they bring home to him, too, that God in His love has provided a righteous sacrifice for him, and on the principle of faith he will prove that the glad tidings are God’s power to salvation. So the apostle says, “God’s power to salvation, to every one that believes”. In Luke the Lord Jesus, the Salvation of God, came to the house of Zacchaeus and said to him, “Today salvation is come to this house”. The Lord has come into this preaching to say to someone here today, Salvation is come to your house. I do not pretend to know the circumstances of every household here but the Lord knows. He has come into this preaching to say to somebody, “Today salvation is come to this house”.

All of us who have households then, I think would rightly say. Is it my house? Maybe somebody here could not leave with a more cheering word in his heart than that the Lord has said to him, “Today salvation is come to this house”. He is thinking about you in regard of your house and He is saying that you are a son of Abraham, you are in the line of faith. If you travel back home in the faith that He has said something to you, you will find that salvation has come to your house. It never was God’s thought that only Zacchaeus should be saved in his house, the Lord never limited it to that. He said he is a son of Abraham, but “salvation is come to this house”. And so I commend that word to you.

The passage in Isaiah 12 on salvation involves that we come in touch with a system of joy. “In that day”, it says, “... with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation”. The woman in John 4 found a well of salvation as she met Jesus at Sychar’s well. It was not the well of salvation, but she found a well of salvation in the One who said, “thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water” (John 4: 10). These wells of salvation involve living water. John 4 is that the water becomes in the recipient a well of water springing up into eternal life. But here there is a great system of wells of salvation.

When the children of Israel came out of Egypt, they came to Elim where were twelve wells and seventy palm trees (Exodus 15: 27). As coming to this preaching, we have come in touch with a system of wells out of which we can draw the waters of salvation with joy. You can look round this room and you can see persons who embody the thought of a well of salvation.

They are free of the power of Satan, they are free of the power of the world, they are free of the power of the flesh, and they provide something that affords salvation as you come in contact with them. In John 7 the Lord said of him that came to Him and believed on Him, “out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water” (John 7: 38). That is a wider thought for the individual than John 4. It is not only what is within the person but what flows out of him. But there is a divine system, “the wells of salvation”, and it is within the reach of persons who want to avail themselves of it, “with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation”. How wonderful to be in touch with the divine system, which is working subjectively in the saints, and find that you can draw water and do so with joy. It is not the water of Egypt; that river was turned to blood, pointing to moral death. There is no problem with this water, it is an expansive spiritual system in the souls of persons available to us. We can draw water out of it. You never need to be an unsatisfied person when you are in proximity to the divine system of these wells of salvation. How wonderful of God to put within our reach, in the Spirit, in persons, something that provides lasting satisfaction.

Isaiah 26 presents another point of view involving salvation. “In that day shall this song be sung in the land of Judah”. The land of Judah is the area of divine sovereignty. God has sovereignly taken us up and, in a typical sense, He has placed us in the land of Judah, His sovereign selection. Judah represents where the service of God is carried on. David was of the tribe of Judah, he represents the acme of moral excellence in the Old Testament. The surpassing excellence of the humanity of Jesus characterises that land. The Lord has come in relation to the sovereignty of God and His action in this preaching is in that connection. This song is a mutual one, it is sung in the land of Judah. It is sung where persons appreciate the sovereignty of God. And what are they singing? “We have a strong city”. Have you ever thought of the assembly in that light? You might Say, Well, I do not think my locality is like that. But you want to have the divine viewpoint about the city. “We have a strong city”, that is the assembly. The song goes on, “salvation doth he”, that is God, “appoint for walls and bulwarks”. Almost ninety years ago now in Chicago, Mr. Taylor ministered that salvation is in the assembly, not meaning that you do not need salvation from your sins through faith in the blood of Christ, but meaning that the Spirit of God has established an area down here, consequent upon the glorification of Christ, where you can be saved from the world. The walls are salvation, “salvation doth he appoint for walls and bulwarks”. How protected we are as we come into this strong city! God has made its walls and bulwarks salvation. We often say the wall points to separation which is quite right, but the wall also embodies the thought of salvation. If you are separated from something, it also means that you are saved from it. What we mainly need to be saved from in our day is the working of the religious mind and will of man that gives verbal assent to the truth in part, and then he proceeds to do his own will. This city involves that we are saved from that. That is wonderful salvation. Someone who is in this strong city and singing this song and appreciating the sovereignty of God in putting him in it could never one day get up and say, I am leaving all this, I am not going on with it. That would be morally unthinkable to any one who appreciates the strong city. I would encourage us to be determined spiritually that we are going to stay in this strong city and sing this song until the Lord comes. It is the best occupation we could have.

I referred to Psalm 132 because God is thinking about His priests, persons who are acting for Him, persons who are thinking about His rights, and persons who are thinking about His own portion. Mr. Ray wrote me a letter saying his great exercise is that we should be more and more concerned about what is for God, about a portion for God. That is the great concern of the priests.

If you look at priestly function, as spoken about by Moses, you will see that it is principally Godward. Priesthood has a bearing on persons, as it says in Hebrews, who are ignorant and erring. Priestliness would take into account the need of those persons and help them. But the main point about the priest is that he is thinking about what is for God and the only thing really that a priest would present to God is Christ. No priest clothed with salvation would bring anything to God that was other than Christ. In a certain sense you see a priest clothed with salvation in Abel who offered the firstlings of his flock. Christendom is bringing what is abhorrent to God. The product of the flesh, whether it be educated or theologically trained is abhorrent to God. The priest clothed with salvation is free of all that and he is bringing only one thing to God for His pleasure, and that is Christ. David said, “Let thy priests be clothed with righteousness” (Psalm 132: 9). God has done that in the glad tidings. He has clothed us with righteousness, with Christ. In answering David’s prayer, God says, “I will clothe her priests with salvation”. Not only righteousness, that is foundational, but salvation, which really would mean that we are free of every feature of the first man, we are motivated by the Holy Spirit, and as ministering to God we are bringing Christ in all His preciousness and all His excellencies to God. The offerings suggest variety as to the excellencies of Christ and His preciousness to God. Priests clothed with salvation would be exploring that in their own experience that they might bring it to God. So he says, “and her saints shall shout aloud for joy”, it is a shout of triumph. You can see how salvation flows from one thing to another.

Salvation in the house, wells of salvation, a strong city whose bulwarks are salvation, and priests clothed with salvation. May God bless the word.

Preaching at Adelaide
3 April 1994