WHITBY FREE PRESS, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 19,-1984, PAGE l1 The Church Speaks w Sponsored by the WHITBY MINISTERIAL ASSOCIATION Ail need salvation By THE REV. DR. RONALD E. BAXTER PASTOR FAITH BAPTIST CHURCH The year Jesus was crucified, one of His apostles made a startling announcement to the religious elite of theday. After stating that Christ was alive, that God raised Him from the dead, Peter declared, "Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved." (Acts 4:12). What a tremendous claim about Jesus Christ! Now immediately we are confronted by several fundamental truths, One of them is that ALL NEED SALVATION Peter talked about being "saved", about receiving "salvation". He was unashamed of the. language. It was not foreign to his thinking or strange to his vocabulary. Peter believed that all men need to be saved. In this he was in keeping with the plan and pur- pose of Christ in coming to this world. One day He spoke to a man called Zachaeus. This man was a sinner, and everyone knew it. When Jesus came in contact with him many of the people of the day were amazed that he would even speak to such a sinner. But our Lord said, "The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost." Jesus believed in people getting saved! Now the Bible teaches us that all men need to be saved. "All we like sheep have gone astray, we have urned everyone to his own way", is the teaching of the Bible. Some may be puffed up with their own righteousness, feeling that whilst others might need to be saved, they certainly do not, but the Bible says, "There is no difference, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God." You may be a "good" sinner or a "bad" sinner; a self-righteous sinner, or an unrighteous sinner; a church going inner, or a non churched sinner; a right side of the tracks sinner, or a wrong side of the tracks sinner; but be assured of this basic fact, you are a sinner! You see the fact if "there is not a just man upon earth that doeth good and sinneth not" (Eccl. 7:20). very last one of us has broken God's law. Every last one of us is condemned by that law, for "the ages of sin is death". Hence every last one of us eeds salvation. A man once said to me when I was trying to ex- lain these things to him, "But Pastor Baxter, I've ever been lost. I'm not a sinner.". Poor man, he idn't realize that until a person admits that he is ost, that he is a sinner there is no hope of salvation. esus said, "Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise rish", and we can get no higher authority than hrist! Every one of us needs tobe saved, or there s no heaven for us. But then when Peter stood up and said, "Neither s there salvation in any other, for there is none ther name under heaven given among men hereby we must be saved," he was also telling the ple that there is only one way to be saved. Only if person comes through the Lord Jesus Christ as his nly means of salvation, can he be saved. Notice that the way is not the church! There are any sincere people who feel that by attending hurch, they are made fit for heaven. Others feel at the church has power to dispense salvation, as e local drug store can dispense medicine. Still ore feel that somehow only if their name is on the oll of the church will God accept them in heaven. But nothing could be farther from the truth. The church in the Bible was never a means of salvation, t was always a means of growth. Peter did not men- ion the church as a means of salvation, he said that Christ alone could give it. Further Peter did not state that baptism is the neans of salvation. How mnany sincere people there- ~re who pin their hopes of salvation upon baptism. ['hey have their babies baptized, as though omething magical would happen by this. Some ~hurches even teach that without such baptismn, children who die in their infancy do not go to heaven. But Peter did not mention baptism as having anything to do with saving a person. He stated that salvation comes directly from Christ! Again Peter did not believe that there was some intermediary who could somehow mediate between Christ and the sinner. I remember listening to a missionary from Africa saying that she had wat- ched as people would take a stick and put it on a lit- tle hill and seek to pray to God through it. All of us would think this pathetic, superstitious and foolish, but how many there are in 'Christian Canada who kneel down before images and seek to pray through saints or Mary! Peter makes it abundantly clear that if we are to receive forgiveness at all, it must be through Christ alone and there is "none other name" by which we might be saved. In this he agrees with the Apostle Paul who said, "There is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus" (I Tim. 2:5). The only way that any person can get salvation is to come repentantly directly to Christ. Jesus says, "Him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out". To say that we may not receive salvation if we come directly to Christ, rather than through church, bap- tism, saints of whatever is to cast a slurr upon the name of Christ. Our Saviour is more than willing to listen to any poor sinner who comes honestly to Him. The Bible says, "God our Saviour will have all men to be saved, and to come to a knowledge of the truth". (I Tim. 2:4). All of us need to be saved - there is no doubt about that. All who will leave their sins and come to Christ confessing their sins and accepting Him alone as their salvation can be saved. The big question now is, will you come for that salvation? LET'S SEEYOU DO IT... OUJDOORS! PRicip4$ b ~