The First Step

In touch, the teaching ministry of Dr. Charles Stanley. Next on In Touch, the first step. Do you remember the first time your first child took their first step? Oh, you called your friends and your family and you just said it's wonderful. It's just so awesome that they've taken their first step and it was all just beautiful. And next thing you knew, something wrong. They were in everything. They went to this and to that. So your whole attitude changed. But that's all right. There was the beginning of a whole new life of them. And there's the beginning of a whole new life for those who take another first step. Because there are many people who believe this. They believe that if I believe there's a God that somehow in some way everything's gonna be all right and when I die, I'm going to heaven or I'm going somewhere. Nothing could be further from the truth. Just because a person believes there is a God has nothing to do. I could believe there are many things that have no effect upon me at all. Just because I believe there is a God has nothing to do with having a personal relationship with that God. And if all you know is it and believe that there is one and you don't have a personal relationship with him,

then you're in trouble. And the title of this message is the first step. And if you turn to the 16th chapter of Acts, just give you a little background of what's happening here. Paul and Silas are on their second missionary journey. And so they got thrown in jail. They're thrown in jail, their feet were in the stocks and they had been beaten with rods. Now we think beaten with a whip would be something but beaten with rods and it was against the law to beat any Roman citizen with rods and put them in jail without some real, true, real reason to do so. So as a result, the scripture says in verse 25 of the 16th chapter. But about midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns of praise to God and the prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there came a great earthquake so that the foundation of the prison house was shaken and immediately all the doors were open and everyone's chains were unfastened. Just think about that. When the jailer awoke and saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped because that was the wrong law. In other words, they gave you an authority and a position and you didn't fulfill it, you'd had it. And so Paul cried out with the loud voice saying, "Do yourself no harm, for we are all here."

And he called for the lights and rushed in trembling with fear. He fell down before Paul and Silas. And after he brought them out, he said, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" Not a lot of stuff about his, their God and this other. They said, "Believe in the Lord Jesus "and you will be saved, you and your whole household." And they spoke the word of the Lord to him together with all who were in the house. He took them that very hour of the night, washed their wounds immediately. He was baptized, he and his whole household. And he brought them out into his house and set food before them and rejoiced greatly, having believed in God with his whole household. But the most important statement that whole series is this. He said, "What must I do to be saved?" And they said, "Believe, watch this, not in Jesus, "but believe in the Lord Jesus and you'll be saved "and your household." And so when I look at that passage and see how simple it seemed to be and think about how people think about God and salvation, whatever it might be, I ask you a question. If somebody said to you, "Now, tell me exactly "what you mean by salvation." What would you say? What do you mean by salvation? Well, probably you'd have a pretty good answer,

but I wanna give you a very simple answer because this is a simple statement, it's all true. And all you have to do is to say, salvation is the work of God's grace. By, listen, by which he does what? He pardons our sins and distows upon us what they give to eternal life. That's what salvation's all about. It's the work of God's grace. God's grace is what his unmerited, undeserved favor and love for us. As a result of that, by which he pardons us, forgives us of our sins and distows upon us. We don't work for it, distows upon us the gift of eternal life. So if somebody asks you what is salvation, that's a simple definition, but it clarifies everything. The grace of God is his unmerited, undeserved favor. And so many people feel like it. They know there's a God, I believe there's a God, then they're saved, but absolutely they're not. So I want to talk about a couple of things primarily. And the first one is this, is our spiritual condition before salvation. If you ask the average person how they're doing, they'd probably say, "Well, I'm not too bad." And what they would do and what they will do is they will talk about other people or other things or circumstances and situations and say, "You know what, I'm as good as that.

I know some church members that do this and do that. And I'm as good as they are. So I'm not worried about going to heaven because I don't do any bad things. Nothing can be further from the truth because all of that is based on what you believe that God thinks about your conduct, your work, your attitudes, your this and your that. And when he says by grace, that means unmerited, undeserved, love for us. God does not save us on the basis of how much you do, who you are, what you have. He saves us on the basis of a personal relationship with Jesus Christ the Lord. No matter what else you believe, you cannot deny that truth. And you cannot expect to be saved on the basis of anything that you do. And I'll give you an example of that in just a moment. So if somebody says, "Well, what kind of life are you living?" And let's say, for example, that you're not a Christian. So I'm gonna give you a few scriptures here, beginning in Ephesians chapter two. Look at that for a moment. And Paul is just saying to the Ephesians, this is what we were before we were saved because it's true of all of us. So if you have never trust that Christ is your savior, made that commitment of your life. And if you're honest, you will agree with these scriptures.

Listen to this, chapter two, verse one. And you were dead and your trespasses and sins. There are three deaths. There's physical death that most all of us will probably experience at some point. There is spiritual death. That is, we're dead to the things of God. And there's eternal death when a person is eternal, is separated from God and spends eternity in hell. So look at this. Here's what he's saying. He says, in this passage. And you were dead and your trespasses and sins in which you formally walked. Not now, because they've been saved. You've formally walked. Now watch this also. When he uses the word walk here, he means this was a lifestyle. This was an ongoing thing with you. This is the way you lived. You lived and trespasses and sins doing your own thing. According to the course of this world, look at the course of the world you and I live in. According to the prints of the power of the air, which is Satan, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them, watch this. Among them, we too all formerly lived.

That is, all of us who believe us. This is where we used to live. In the lust of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind. And we're by nature, children of wrath, even as the rest. He says, before you saved, this is where you lived. And somebody says, well, I don't think I was that bad. Yes, you were. In fact, you were worse than this. Listen to what he says, formally you lived in the lust of your flesh. That is, you followed the normal human desires apart from God that every person has. Every person has that old sin nature within them. And we all allowed Satan to work in our lives so that we just wanted to do what we wanted to do. And he says, but God being rich in mercy, because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions. He made us alive, together with Christ, by grace you've been saved. He says, look, salvation is, in other words, God took you when you were living in sin. And many of you, for example, who were saved later on in life, you look back in your life, and you think, oh God, I don't know why you saved me because he loves you. And all of us have lived in the transgressions of the laws of God. We've lived according to those lustful thoughts within us,

and lust doesn't mean necessarily just sex, but lust for money, lust for recognition, lust for this, that, and so forth. And so that's the way the world lives. You look around you, we live in that kind of world. Then in Isaiah 59, here's what he says. He says, our sins, watch this carefully. Our sins separate us from God. Now watch this. If you've never trusted Jesus Christ as your savior, you don't have any personal relationship with him. You may have a mental relationship, well, I know he's out there and so forth, but you don't have a personal relationship with him. The Bible says sin separates us. And, for example, if you don't even claim to be a Christian, you know in your heart of what sin does. It makes you feel guilty. You have all kinds of feelings, but it has separated you from God. We all come into this world sinning against Him, and that's why salvation is what? Is the pardon of our sins and the bestowal upon us of eternal life? And so then, of course, in Romans 6, 23, you probably know that. He says, "The wages of sin is death." It is physical death, spiritual death, eternal death. But when Christ comes into our life, what happens? There's no longer spiritual death

and no longer eternal death, physical death, yes. Then, of course, in Hebrews 9, 27, here's what He says. He says, "It is appointed unto man and women." Listen, once to die and after this, the judgment. And, for example, in the seventh chapter of Matthew, he says, many will say in that day, did not not prophesy and cast out devils and all these things. It's interesting Jesus didn't just say anybody, but He took the people who would be most recognized as surely you're going to heaven. And He said of them because they rejected Him. He said, "But when you stand before the Lord God, "He will say, 'I never knew you.'" It has nothing to do with your position, your ability to speak and do all of these things that it has to do only with the grace of God. So, when a person says, well, where am I if I have never trusted Jesus as my Savior, I feel pretty safe, you're not safe. I can tell you where you are. You are dead spiritually in your trespasses, violating the laws of God. Dead in your trespasses and sin, and you have absolutely no hope of eternal life until you have a personal relationship with Almighty God through His Son, Jesus Christ. That is the simple, clear teaching of the Word of God. And no matter what somebody tells you, they have to deny the Bible in order to believe what they believe.

Not by works of righteousness, he says. Not by works of righteousness, which we've done, but according to his mercy, he saves us. So, turn to Titus, and I want you to listen to this passage beginning in verse three. He says, here's where we were. For we also once were foolish ourselves. Disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hating, and hating one another. But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, watch this. He saved us not on the basis of our deeds, period. Which means there is nothing within us that brought about salvation. He says nothing we've done in our righteousness, but according to his mercy, by the washing of regeneration of the cleansing of it and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out upon us, listen, which through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that now being justified by his grace declared, righteous by his grace, unmerited favor and love, we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. So that the Bible is very clear, that there is absolutely no salvation apart from relationship to God through his son, Jesus Christ, we'll explain that in a moment. But the truth is where we are, transgressions, disobeying God, he's described in these passages,

how people are living. Look around you today. How people living, they have all kind of prejudices, they have all kind of ways of disobeying God that you and I grew up, we didn't even know about those ways. The world is living in sin, and you look around you just in our society. What has happened to us in the last 20 years, for example? Watch this, what the word of God says is sin, what you and I grew up believing this is sin, today they say no, that's not sinning and longer, it's gonna be okay for everybody. So listen, if there is no Bible, there is no compass. If there is no compass, you're wayward, you're going here, you're going there, no one would attempt to cross the ocean without a compass. And we are living in a world where people's morals are changing, their attitudes are changing, and one of the reason is because they have decided that the word of God just doesn't work anymore, and therefore this is what I believe. What you have to ask is this, what will be the moral compass in your life? If it is not the Bible, what is it? And listen to this, would you be willing to live and die by that compass that you have, which says that you had excluded the Bible from your life? And I can tell you what that is. They've just been described, disobedience, lust of the flesh, and you name it.

If the Bible isn't your compass, you have no true, genuine compass to live by. And so no matter what you hear people say about, well, here's what I'll believe about God and this religion, that religion doesn't make any difference. If this isn't your compass, then you have a major problem, because one of these days you're going to stand before God, one of these days you're going to die. And because there is physical death, spiritual death, eternal death, physical death, we probably will experience that. Notice I said probably Jesus could come. Spiritual death, dead in trespasses and violating the law of God. So he says this is where we are. So what is God's provision for that? And here's God's provision. And that is God's provision, let me say first of all, is motivated by love. And let's go, if you will, to Romans 5, verse 5, and hope does not disappoint because the love of God has been poured out, not sipped out, poured out. The love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who indwelled us, who's given to us. For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. We were helpless to save ourselves. For one will hardly die for righteous men, though perhaps for a good man, someone would dare even die. But God demonstrates his own love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more than having now been justified, it means to be declared righteous, by his blood as a result of the cross, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through him. For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his son, much more having been reconciled, brought back into relationship with him, we shall be saved by his life. Not only this, but we also exalt our rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation, brought back into relationship with him. How could he do that? Because if he just forgave us, then he would have violated his own law. The soul that sinned that shall die and all of us have sinned, how can God rightfully forgive us? And here's the way he does, the only way he does, and the only hope of salvation. God, in the person of Jesus Christ, came into this world for the primary purpose of dying through our sins, and in so doing, he came into the world also to show us who God is and what he's like. God sent him into the world, his only begotten son, for the primary purpose of doing what? Of dying on the cross, shedding his blood, his blood is a toning blood. That is, it's blood that pays our sin dead in full, but now watch this. When he came into the world to die on the cross, God placed upon Jesus, all the sins of all mankind, all the way back to Adam and Eve. And Jesus had to be God, because if it had been anybody else, they could only have died for their own sin. But Jesus was sinless. He was the perfect Son of God, the perfect Lamb. Who is the only person who gave his life? First of all, who was sinless, who gave his life sacrificially as a substitute, being accounted all sufficient in the eyes of God for your sins? Nobody and nothing but Jesus. This is why we say, Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father but by me." You say, "Well, isn't that sort of prideful?" No, it is truthful. It all goes back to the cross. For example, if you take all the teachings of the cross out of the New Testament, there wouldn't be much left. What do you have? What man can do? And just look around you. You ask people where you work, where you live, your friends, your family. Are you going to heaven? Well, someone will say, "I don't know." Well, that's a good answer, because then you can say, "Well, going, I believe I'm going, I know I'm going. If they back off you, that means they're so guilty already that they can't stand to hear it. They don't even want to hear it.

So let's talk about you. Have you ever been saved? So I'm going to talk about Harry in a moment, but what I want you to see, I want you to see primarily here, why God forgives us of our sins. It's a full letter word, L-O-V-E, He loves us. And listen, if He made it our works, some people, in other words, what works? Would one thing be good for this person, not for that person? We can't even all do the same thing. You have nothing but confusion if you don't have the blood of Jesus. And so when we see what He says about our sinfulness and about the fact of His death, He says we've all sinned and come short of the glory of God. We certainly would agree with that. And that the wages of sin is death. And so when He does come into our life, what happens? It transforms us. We're not the same person we used to be. For example, Paul put it this way, he says, "Therefore, if any person is in Christ, have that relationship." And I'm going to talk about how in just a second, if any person has that relationship, he says, "Old things pass away, behold things become new." What happens? There is a difference. When a person's life is transformed by the Lord Jesus Christ, it's a different kind of life. You're going to walk different, you're going to sound different, you're going to look different in ways, I don't mean how you dress necessary, but some people need to change their dress, no doubt about that. But for example, in Ephesians, this first chapter, go back there for a moment, verse 13, he says, "In Him that is in Christ, that is, you have a relationship with Him now." Also, after listening to the message of truth, and what is that message? The gospel of your salvation.

Everything also believed you were sealed in Him with a Holy Spirit of promise. Who, that is the Holy Spirit, who is given as a pledge, this is a pledge from God, of our inheritance, what we will receive, with a view to the redemption of God's own possession to the praise of His glory. Now, think about this for a moment. Being in sin, disobedience to God lost, separated from God. The adequate and only adequate substitute, acceptable to God, the death of His Son. He's the only one who was sinless. So here's what happened. When He died, He opened the door to the world to be saved, because He paid as sin did in full, because He was the perfect Son of God. And so salvation, as we said, is a gift from God. And now, how does that work in a person's life? So we said, "Well, you have to believe in Him." So I want to put a couple of other definitions up here for a moment. Saving faith, watch this. Saving faith is trust in Jesus as a living person, the Son of God, for the forgiveness of sins and for eternal life with God is trusting in Jesus. So when a person says, "I want Jesus Christ as my Savior," then what I must do is I must be willing to ask Him to forgive me of my sins and place my trust in Him as the Lord and the Son of God who went to the cross and paid my sin did in full by being crucified. I'm willing to believe that He, because of what He's done for me and God's acceptance of that, I'm willing to believe that He saves me, and the moment I do, the Holy Spirit, as He says, comes in and seals us as the child of God. So you say, "Well, what am I supposed to do?" Saving faith is a place my trust in Jesus. Not Jesus is some idea, but the person of Jesus Christ who went to the cross died on the cross for our sins. I placed my trust in Him. Now, repentance is a heartfelt sorrowful sin.

I'm ashamed, I'm sorry for what I've done, a renouncing of it. I don't want that anymore in my life, a sincere commitment to forsake it and walk in obedience to Christ. Now listen very carefully. That is the confession of genuine repentance. Let me tell you what that means, what it doesn't mean. that if I sin again, I'm gonna be lost, that's not what it means. If you repent of your sin, what are you saying? You're saying, Lord, I'm sorry for what's in my life. I don't want this in my life. It doesn't fit who I am and will be as a child of God. I'm renouncing that. Does that mean that you won't commit anymore sin? No, because, listen, because the lifestyle that we have had, whatever it might be, and as a young kid, for example, I didn't have much of any of that in my life, but God, if we repent of our sin, He accepts that, and so what? I may have to repent of it more than once. Salvation is I'm accepting Him as the Lord of my life, and that means He's in charge. But in my weakness, in my frailty, Lord, God forgive me, God, He won't, Lord, I said, I will never do that again. We've all been there. It doesn't mean you've lost your salvation. It means that your weakness and your frailty, and that old sinful nature inside of us at times, it surfaces, so what do we do? We ask God to forgive us, watch this carefully.

We ask God to forgive us and cleanse us on the basis of what He did at the cross. So where does repentance fit in all this? Does it mean that you get saved by repentance? No, you're saved by the grace of God, but repentance is a part of the recognition of Jesus Christ as the Lord and Master of my life. Somebody says, well, can I just go ahead and sin all I want to and be saved? I've met people like that, a lot of folks like that. And you know what? I've never met one that I knew close enough that did not deeply regret walking away from God. Can a person walk away from God in sin, living in sin? Yes, they can. Does that mean that they're lost? No, it doesn't. But here's what it does mean. God's awesome hand of judgment will come upon them. You see, that's what grace is all about, His love. He's gracious in His love, but He is also demanding righteousness and holiness in all of our lives. And so I would say to you today, can you look back at some point in your life where you can say, I know that at that point in my life, I place my faith in Jesus Christ. You say, well, I didn't understand it all then. Well, neither did I. But here's what happened. I did what I did.

I fully understood. That is, I was a sinner and God had saved me. And maybe today, for the first time in your life, you've understood why Jesus had to die. You see, the only way Jesus can justify you as a child of God is having died as a sacrifice for your sins. And so we are saved by His grace and goodness, love and mercy. And I would encourage you, if you've never trusted Him, as your Savior, say, God, I'm ashamed of the life that I've lived. I've claimed to be something I'm not. I'm asking you to forgive me and to cleanse me. I do acknowledge you as the Lord and Savior of my life. God, I just wanted you to clean me up and make me one of your children. Let me just say this to you. You don't have to beg Him. When you come to Him sincerely, He will answer the petition of your heart. And that's my prayer for you. Father, how grateful we are that you didn't give us a list of do's and don'ts. You just gave us one statement. Faith in the sacrificial, all sufficient, a toning death of your Son on the cross. And the surrender of our life to Him is the Lord and Master. Thank you, thank you, thank you. And I pray that every person who hears this, who has never been saved, who has depended on something within themselves to realize,

there is no hope apart from the sacrificial, all sufficient, death of Jesus Christ, the substitutionary one who took place in Jesus' name. Amen. [MUSIC] (upbeat music)