WHAT MUST I DO

Acts 4:12; John 3:14,15; Acts 16:30,31; John 4:23,24

These scriptures that I have read all contain the word “must”. In the glad tidings we have to do with what is essential, with what must be done. First of all, you must be saved. You might say ‘Why? What do I have to be saved from? I am quite a good person’; or, ‘I am quite young, I have not really done anything wrong. What is it I have to be saved from?’ Well, dear friend, we are all sinners without exception, including everyone here tonight. I can say that without pointing a finger at anyone, because the scripture says it, “all have sinned”, Rom.3:23. So we are all sinners. Do you know what a sinner is? It is someone who is disobedient, someone who has disobeyed God, someone who has done their own will and not God’s will. We are all sinners. None of us is any different.

But, dear friend, God’s love is towards you. He made you. He is the Creator God and He wants you for Himself. We spoke about worshippers at the end of the reading; the glad tidings are preached to secure worshippers for God and He wants you to worship Him. It does not mean that you must be able to say eloquent things; He just wants your heart to go out towards Him, because of who He is and because of what He has done. God is your Creator, and He has provided a Redeemer. But we must be saved, because God will not go on indefinitely with sin, or with sinners. A day is coming when He will judge persons righteously. He has the right to do so because He is a holy, righteous and sin-hating God; let us not have any doubts about that. You might say, God is love. Yes, that is true. That is why the preaching is going out tonight. If God only executed His judgment, where would we be? We would be banished from His presence forever; we would be utterly consumed. But God is love and He is offering you salvation tonight. You need salvation, because if you do not have it, you are lost for eternity. I hope no one here is in that position. I do not want to frighten anyone, but these are essential matters. There is nothing that you will ever have in your life that is more important than salvation, because it is in relation to your soul, which never dies. You might say, ‘I will just do what I like in my life and then when I die, it will all be finished’. No! It tells us in the scripture that it is the portion of men once to die. Is that the end? No – after death, there is judgment (Heb.9:27). So it is a solemn matter, but it is also a joyful matter that salvation is being preached. God is offering you a way for your sins to be removed from His sight forever, and for you to be able to be in His presence. That is where He wants you; if you are going to be a worshipper, you will have to be in His presence. If you are a sinner with your sins not dealt with, you cannot be in God’s presence, but He wants you there, so He has provided a Saviour. God does not expect man to do anything. We could do nothing anyway; as a sinner I can do nothing but sin.

So salvation is in none other. Who is it in? Is it some politician, or impressive person of this world? No, dear friend, it is in the Lord Jesus Christ. I wonder if you know the Lord Jesus. I wonder if you realise that salvation is in Him, and in Him alone. “And salvation is in none other, for neither is there another name under heaven which is given among men by which we must be saved”. You must be saved. It is not something to trifle with, it is not something to keep an open mind about, and to decide later. You might not get the chance. Decide tonight for Jesus. Let Him into your life, let Him into your heart. You will never be the same again. You will never regret it, your salvation for eternity will be secure, and you will have peace with God. Would you not like that? God is offering it to you tonight, and He is offering it absolutely free. Someone else has paid the price, so that you have to pay nothing; you have nothing to pay with anyway.

That is why I read in John 3, because it says there, “as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, thus must the Son of man be lifted up”. There could be no other way, dear friend. Your sins have to be accounted for. God cannot just ignore them, He cannot just pass them by. That would not be righteous of Him, and He is righteous. But someone else has borne the penalty for them. Can you say that? Can you say that I know my sins are gone from the sight of God because someone else has borne the penalty for them? Can you say that in faith? I trust you can. This is how it was accomplished; “as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness”. Do you remember when the children of Israel were in the wilderness and spoke against God, fiery serpents started to bite the people; persons were affected by it. That is like us, we are affected by sin; it is like a poison that is in us. The people could do nothing for themselves. But God brings in the answer; He told Moses to make a serpent of brass. So Moses made a serpent of brass, like the serpents that had bitten them, and lifted it up on a pole (Num.21:4-9). That speaks of One who was made sin for us. What a serious thing, what a solemn matter. I have spoken of all men sinning, but there was a sinless One; His name is Jesus. He was made sin. Like the serpent lifted up in the wilderness, He was lifted up for all to see on the cross. How awful a matter it was for the sinless, perfect Lord Jesus to be made sin. But He was, and that is how God can offer you salvation tonight. Everyone that looked at that serpent of brass lived, though he had been bitten by a serpent. That is what God is doing in the glad tidings tonight; He is presenting His Saviour, the Lord Jesus, for you to see with the eyes of faith. You cannot see Him actually, because He is no longer here, but He is presented to you by God as a Saviour, for your acceptance by faith.

“And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, thus must the Son of man be lifted up”. Do you know what this world did to the Lord Jesus, the sinless One? They put Him on a cross and they lifted Him up. He did not deserve it. He did not deserve death. That penalty did not apply to Him. “For the wages of sin is death” (Rom.6:23) could not apply to the Lord Jesus, the perfect sinless One, always pleasing to the Father. Yet God in his love caused that One to be made sin. Why? Because of anything that He had done? Never; not possible! But I can say by faith that He was there for me. He suffered on that cross at Calvary, suffered excruciating pain, a real matter felt by a real Man. He was God Himself but it was a real Man who died. He tasted death. Think of that. Let it affect your heart that God has chosen this way to offer you salvation. Not by some act of power, not by some way whereby we can try to improve ourselves to be fit for God’s presence. He has chosen a better way; He has provided of His very best. He has provided His own Son, the Lord Jesus. Do you have faith in Him? Do you believe that He hung there on that cross for you? Think of Him suffering at the hand of God as He bore God’s condemnation in relation to sin. Do you believe that He died there for you? Do you believe that He shed his precious blood for you? It is for you, and it is presented for you to accept by faith.

I read the passage in Acts 16 because there it stresses the need for believing. The Lord Jesus was unrighteously crucified by wicked men. Evil was expressed in what they did. That same root of evil is in my heart. But He died and His blood was shed, and because of that, the sinner who puts his faith in the blood of Jesus can say that his sins are cleared before God. They are removed from God’s sight. You do not have to feel guilty any more. It is a horrible feeling to be guilty. You know you have done something wrong. Maybe no one else knows about it yet, but you feel guilty and it troubles you. But that guilt can be removed completely because of the blood of Jesus. God is satisfied with it. God is satisfied with Him, and with what He did on the cross at Calvary. But you have to take action; you have to do something about it. The jailor asked, “Sirs, what must I do that I may be saved? And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus and thou shalt be saved”. That is wonderfully simple, is it not? God is not asking you to do something great. There is nothing that you could do which could ever satisfy God anyway in relation to your sins. We read recently of the man in Matthew 19, “And lo, one coming up said to him, Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may have life eternal?” v.16. You do not have anything to do. The work has been done. All you have to do is repent towards God and believe on the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved. Not only for time, but for eternity; we are dealing with eternal matters.

I feel the burden of what is imperative in the glad tidings. Do not trifle with it. You might say, ‘It is just another Lord’s day afternoon, just another gospel preaching’. Dear friend, where is your soul in relation to God? God sees everything; He sees you and He knows where you are. There is nothing that is secret to Him. He may see that someone here is still a sinner, someone who is not yet a saved sinner, but He wants you to believe. He is presenting His Son in love and grace to you that you might accept Him by faith. Then the Lord Jesus went into the grave, out of sight for three days and three nights. That was an essential matter too. But He was raised – resurrection is a reality. Jesus rose again, and not only that, He ascended into heaven to the Father’s right hand. Think of the Father’s delight in Him. Jesus is there tonight and He is appealing to you. You might say, ‘I have heard many different preachers speaking’. But it is the Lord Jesus who is speaking to you and He is appealing to you to accept Him as your Saviour.

I read in John 4 because persons who have accepted the Lord Jesus as their Saviour, who accept that He died for them, are the kind of people that God is looking for as worshippers. How are you going to worship God? Is it going to be in your strength, something that you do in your own ability? No; it has to be in spirit and truth, “they who worship him must worship him in spirit and truth”. The Holy Spirit is essential for that. Do you know who the Holy Spirit is? He is God Himself, and He is available to every believer in the Lord Jesus. It is wonderful if you have believed in the Lord Jesus, have put your faith in Him, because that means your salvation is secure. Nothing can change that; you can have peace, and you do not have to feel guilty anymore. But there is more. God desires that we might not only know that our sins are forgiven and have peace with Him, but that we should be in His presence. He wants us free and happy to be there, and responsive to Him. His love is so great that it must have an answer. Is He going to have an answer in your heart? That is what worship is; the response of a heart which has been affected by the greatness of the One that becomes its object. So God becomes the believer’s object of worship. You might say, ‘I am just a poor sinner’. Yes, you may be a sinner saved by grace, but you are fitted for glory, you are ready to be a worshipper. It is amazing how quickly the Lord Jesus goes on to the matter of worship with this woman. The matter of receiving the Holy Spirit is essential. Once you are a believer in the Lord Jesus, you may find things difficult in the world. Persons may think of you differently once you believe in Jesus. Maybe you have mentioned His name at school. Perhaps you tell people that you believe on Him, and it causes them to think differently about you. Maybe they do not like you as much as before. The Holy Spirit will help you and give you power. There are powers at work in the world today and they are of Satan; they are against the believer. But the Holy Spirit is greater than all of those powers, and He is available to you. Dear friend, the Holy Spirit and His power is wonderful, and it is available to the believer who asks and who is obedient.

May we realise that God is looking for worshippers. First, we must be saved. In order for us to be saved there must have been a price paid, and it was paid; the Son of man must be lifted up, and He was lifted up. He died, and He settled the matter of sin and sins for ever for God. But you must believe it; you have to do it yourself, no one else can do it for you. No matter how much your parents love you, they cannot do it for you. You have to have a real and definite transaction with the Lord Jesus. Just get down on your knees, and tell Him that you are a sinner and you want Him to save you. Believe that He died for you and that He shed His blood for you. You will be saved and saved forever, and then, with the Holy Spirit in you, you can become a worshipper.

May it be so for His name’s sake.

Gospel preaching Glasgow

14 April 2013

J. Speirs