"BY WHICH ALSO YE ARE SAVED"
“BY WHICH ALSO YE ARE SAVED”
1 Corinthians 15:2; Ephesians 2:8,9; 1 Peter 3:18-22; 1 Corinthians 3:11-15; Psalm 80:19
The object in reading these four scriptures is to bring before our hearts some of the vast range of things that God uses for our salvation. The apostle states that “God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ.” What is in mind for His beloved people is that they should be saved. I think I could say truly that I have never felt more, both for myself and my brethren, the urgent need of salvation. If it was not that God is our Saviour God the present situation would be overwhelming, whether we think of it in relation to the nations — the dreadful flood of hatred and war that is sweeping through this world, engulfing mankind and our need to be saved from being swept into its current — or whether we think of the steadily lowering moral standards that are accompanying the war almost everywhere, which also threaten to engulf the people of God, or whether we think of the approaching tide of deception that would deceive all if possible. We are drawing near to the appearing of one whose coming is with all “signs and lying wonders and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness.” Every character of deception will then be active. Then we are facing the dreadful apostasy against Christ, amounting to treading under foot the Son of God. How solemn a description by the Holy Spirit of the turning away from Christ that is taking place today. It is equivalent to treading Christ under the feet. Then there is the manifest evidence of Satanic power that would destroy what God has recovered in our day. I believe Satan is using his last effort to overwhelm, to corrupt, to destroy, what has been recovered to the truth of the assembly and Christ’s place in it.
With these thoughts in one’s mind and heart, what God uses for our salvation came before me. First of all salvation depends on God. He is the Saviour God. There could be no salvation for His people if He were not God our Saviour. I commend to every heart the breaking up of the glories of God so that we may look at them. When we think of God as God, we think of One who is supreme, who is absolute, who is far beyond the conception of the creature, but God is pleased to make known rays of His glory so that we may know Him and delight in Him. One of these glories is that He is a Saviour God. He is also “the blessed God,” He is “the eternal God,” He is “the Almighty God,” He is “the most high God,” all these are rays of His glory for us to worship Him in the light of. The apostle says to Timothy, “God our Saviour,” meaning that all salvation has its origin, and begins, with God. Salvation comes to us through Christ our Saviour. Is there a heart that does not move at the thought of the Saviour, our Saviour? In one of Mr. Darby’s writings, we find that as he ponders the deep things of God he breaks out “good and precious Saviour.” What a name! But I wanted to say a few words tonight as to what God uses for our salvation. Not that I can cover all, for He uses a vast range of things. Grace is one element that saves. Then I would say a word as to faith saving, I would also like to point out that baptism saves, water saves, which refers to baptism. Then I would point out that there is the thought of being saved through fire, and finally and greatest of all, we are saved as we are restored and the face of Christ shines upon us. It says in Psalm 80, “Turn us again, O God, and cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved.” The greatest possible enjoyment of salvation is in the shining of the face of Christ.
I want to concentrate on these five headings. The first is grace. We are saved by grace. In the light of the overwhelming character of evil that is coming in I would like to call attention to this word that grace saves. It says in Titus, “the grace: of God which carries with it salvation.” What I apprehend grace to be is supply. Grace is known in what God makes available. The law demands, but grace supplies and grace saves. I am not speaking of the question of forgiveness of sins at the moment; I am speaking of the principle of grace saving. If you can bring in supply you will bring in salvation. If you bring in demand you really play into the hands of the enemy. God’s way of saving is by grace. He has brought in the greatest vessel of grace, Christ — “full of grace and truth.” It says too, “For of his fulness we all have received, and grace upon grace.” I would like to convey to our hearts some sense of the supply that is in Christ, for it is as apprehending, and coming into touch with, the supply that we are saved. As it says “Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy.” We may have supply for any time of need. In the blessed Person of Christ, in whom dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily, there is a supply for every situation that ever arises amongst God’s people, and all we have to do is to tap the supply. If we get in touch with the supply then we are saved. That is how God has acted towards us and it is a principle that is always true. What is needed amongst the people of God, what is needed in this city, and in every subdivision, is supply. Mere criticism does not supply anything except a door to the enemy. Another has said “grace works by what it brings, not by what it finds.” The situation can be saved in every gathering if brothers and sisters will move on the line of grace, bringing in supply. Not that the supply originates with them, but as of the body every one of us is to be a joint of supply. In the Head is the supply, but every brother and sister is to be a channel to carry the supply from Christ to the body. If I am not on that line I may easily be doing the devil’s work. The word of the destroyer, Apollyon, stands in contrast to salvation. Satan is destroying and God is saving, and He saves by grace. He brings in supply in Christ. Let us not think any position is hopeless if we will turn to the source of supply, the Head of the body, the assembly, from whom the body draws through joints of supply. I put it to everyone in this room: Is my influence one of supply, or is it one of demand? Is it marked by criticism or disputing, or am I bringing in something positive? Anyone can pull down, but you can only build up with supply, and there is a source of supply in Christ, the Vessel of grace. “Of his fulness we all have received and grace upon grace.” That is, there is supply for every season. Whatever the season is, there is supply for that season. Scripture says “To every thing there is a season,” Ecclesiastes 3: 1, and there is help available for every season at the throne of grace. The Lord help us to bring in this element of grace. God uses it for salvation.
I would now like to say a word about being saved by faith. Faith is that, with light in my soul, I see the vessel of grace. In the gospel of Luke the Lord is the great Vessel of grace and four times in that gospel I think it says “thy faith has saved (or healed) thee.” Faith saves us still. Faith operates to lay hold of what is in Christ, whatever the need may be. In one case it was a woman in the city who was a sinner. In spite of all her sins, which were many, she touched the source of supply and Lord said to her “Thy faith has saved thee.” In another case it was the leper with all the dreadful result of sin working in his being. He was the one of the ten that came back to give thanks. The Lord says to him “thy faith has made thee well.” Faith saves from sins, faith saves from leprosy. Another case is the woman with the issue of blood, in all her weakness and helplessness, she touched the border of his garment. She drew from the vessel of grace and the Lord says to her “thy faith hath made thee whole.” Contact with and faith in Christ saves. The last case I remember is the blind man. The Lord says to him, “What wilt thou that I shall do unto thee?” And he said, “Lord, that I may receive my sight,” and the Lord says, “thy faith hath saved thee.” If we are not saved practically from our sins, from activity of sin, from the helplessness natural to all, and from the darkness that so often enshrouds, it is because faith is not operating. Faith in Christ gives access to the grace that saves. I commend this to everyone in difficulties: living faith in Christ, the blessed Head of the assembly, will save us. Give up faith and we make shipwreck.
I would like now to say a word as to baptism saving us. I speak of this feelingly as looking into the faces of many young men and women here. I would bring this under your notice, baptism saves. Those of us who are a little older can tell you by experience that baptism saves us. The apostle Peter refers to Noah, one of eight; “Wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.” The water that overwhelmed the corrupt and violent world of that day was salvation to those eight souls. So also the water of the Red Sea saved Israel. They never saw their enemies again. The apostle Peter says baptism saves us. The Lord indeed gives the root of this in the gospel of Mark, “He that believeth and is baptised shall be saved.” Many Christians reverse that passage and read it, “He that believeth and is saved shall be baptised.” But the Lord does not say that, nor Peter, but “He that believeth and is baptised shall be saved.” Not saved for heaven, we do not want salvation in heaven, there are no enemies there. God is in heaven and Christ is in heaven. We want salvation here in this world. Baptism looks upon us as in this world. The god and the leader of this world is the devil. He is the one who is worshipped and leads the world. I am not referring to governments, I am referring to the great moral system of this world marked only by lust and pride. How can we be saved from it? By being baptised. What does that mean? It is a matter of reckoning, as Romans 6 says. In our minds we take up the position of being buried. In yonder cemetery, Rookwood, the power of this world, its lust and its pride, its literature, its pleasures, its money, has absolutely no meaning. Not one buried there can ever again be influenced by the world. Baptism means that, in my mind, I take up that position. That is salvation. Young people will understand I am not speaking of what is of the earth, our food, our clothes and physical creation. I am speaking of the vast system of this world. If we reckon, according to the truth of baptism, to be buried by baptism, we will be saved from the world. Our enemies can have no power over us, any more than they can have over those buried at Rookwood. The lust of the flesh, or the eye, or the pride of life do not appeal to one person in Rookwood. These evil principles have no power there because all in that place are buried. This is a matter to reach in our minds. Baptism saves us. As we face the rising tide of wickedness in this world we shall need to know more about baptism, recognising that we are dead to sin and alive to God through Jesus Christ. “Buried with him by baptism unto death.” Be assured that baptism saves. As the true meaning of it is accepted, it has wonderful power to save us from the world. The Lord help us to be true to it.
I would now pass on to being saved through the fire. This is a very solemn word. The fire is going to “try every man’s work of what sort it is.” It is well for us to line ourselves up alongside this word. The fire of God’s holiness that operates eternally — our God being a consuming fire — is going to test every man and all his, work that he has brought to the house of God. The apostle has a building in mind: “I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon. For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.” “Let every man take heed how he buildeth.” The fire is brought to bear on the gold, the silver, the precious stones, but they remain what they are. The fire is brought bear upon the wood, the grass, the straw, and they disappear. “If any man’s work shall be burned he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.” He must go through the fire himself so that nothing comes out but a personality that is of God, all else having disappeared. This principle of fire is a saving principle. It says “everyone shall be salted with fire.” What for? To check the working of corruption. Fire is connected with the thought of salt, it is what God uses to salt us. The holy judgment of God, and what He is in His holiness must salt every one of us if we are to be saved. Every sacrifice is to be salted with salt and every one of us salted with fire so that corrupting things and their activities so natural to us are nullified in the salt of the fire. Let each ask himself: Am I bringing gold into the building — that which is of God and for His glory? Does what I am doing contribute to God’s glory? If it is so it will stand the fire. Am I bringing in silver? Am I contributing to that which maintains the absolute authority of the Lord over us, as having bought us? That will stand. Am I bringing precious stones? It does not say what they are here but other scriptures help us as to that. Revelation 21 says “the first foundation was jasper,” that which is crystal, transparent. It goes under the fire of God and remains. It is a feature of God, “God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.” The fire is going to remove everything that is not transparent with us. Let us accept this now. Wrong motives secretly held, wrong feelings, secret resentments, are all to be burned up by the fire. Let us be salted with fire now and not wait until the day when we must face the fire of God’s holiness.
The second stone is sapphire, the colour of heaven. That stone will never be destroyed by the fire. It represents subjection: “Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.” Bring in subjection to the Lord, to God, to one another; the fire will not burn up the sapphire. I do not proceed, but every precious stone will stand the fire. Let us all see that we are bringing in the manifold graces of Christ.
The wood might be cedar, or oak, but in this connection it represents what is only of man however honourable in the eyes of men. There will not be a trace of the wood when the fire tests it.
Grass! Man in his own pettiness is the grass. When the fire touches the grass what is left? Stubble or straw represents what is dead and therefore worthless. How quickly will fire remove stubble. When such things have marked our work all that will remain is the person. I only call attention to that: his works are burnt, yet he is saved, but so as through the fire. He himself is to go through the fire of what God is in His holiness, before he is available to the divine system.
I pass on now to this magnificent word in Psalm 80 “turn us again.” Three times it is spoken. Salvation is connected with turning again. Where should any of us be if we had not been turned again, and how many times the precious grace of God has turned us again, or “restored” as it says in the New Translation. The shepherd activities of Christ are ever towards us to restore us. How often we go the wrong way, but the Lord is ever active in His grace to “turn us again.” I beg everyone not to resist His appeals to turn again from the path you are on with your back to Christ. That is what it amounts to. “Turn us again, O Lord God of hosts, cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved.” I do not think we are fully enjoying salvation unless the face of Christ shines on us. What do we see as we turn again? Another glimpse of His blessed face. Why go the wrong way and lose the shining of His face? As we turn again we are saved in the power of that shining. And we shall need it, dear brethren. There is a word that is coming into use in the world and that is “glamour.” There is an awful glamour abroad and men are boasting in it. A shining that is not real. People are living in the glamour that originates with the devil. Salvation is in “the effulgence of His glory.” The lustre, the brightness, the shining in the face of Jesus of what God is, will save us from the glamour of this world. We need to turn again. There is a beautiful word that says, “Return unto me, and I will return unto you.” As we give up our own wills and turn again then God will turn round and shine upon us.
So that three times in three connections each full of instruction in this wonderful Psalm it says, “Turn us again, O Lord God of hosts, cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved.” The only salvation in our day from the glamour of this world is the shining of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, as the poet says —
“What has stripped the seeming beauty,
From the idols of the earth?
Not the sense of right or duty,
But the sight of peerless worth.
’Tis the look that melted Peter,
’Tis the face that Stephen saw,
’Tis that heart that wept with Mary,
Can alone from idols draw...
Draw, and win, and fill completely,
Till the cup o’erflow the brim;
What have we to do with idols,
Who have companied with Him?”
I am sure that, if this war is allowed to come to an end, there will be a period of glamour such as never has been, and our salvation will be as we see the face of Christ, constantly turning again to see it.
There is much more, dear brethren, that God uses for our salvation. We are saved by confession, “with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” We are saved by keeping in company with the people of God. “I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.” If you stay at home, murmuring and grumbling, you are on the road to be lost; keep with the sheep, if you would be saved. I beg none of you to stay away from the people of God. “If anyone enter in by me, he shall be saved.”
I trust it is clear that God is our Saviour God, and He has a vast range of things through which He saves us, if we on our side are prepared to turn to Him and draw from the great fountain that is in Christ.