Salvation: What Does God Want For Me? – Part 1

Well, I’ve got a little bit of a curveball for you this morning.

We’ve got a three-part series beginning this morning.

On something that is so radically important that most churches don’t even think to talk about it.

What Does God Want for Your Life?

We want to ask the question: what is God’s plan for your life?

What is God’s will for your life?

What does God want for your life?

Specifically, I’m not talking about “Does God want me to be a dentist or a plumber or a politician or a circus performer?”

I’m not talking about “Does God want me to marry into this family versus that family?”

“Does He want me to buy a house versus renting?”

“Does He want me to live in the country versus the city?”

All of those things are good and important.

But that is not what I’m talking about.

99% of that stuff falls into the realm of preference.

What do you want?

Okay, chase after that.

That’s what God wants.

I’m talking about the question: what is God’s will and desire and purpose and goal for your life on a much bigger and grander and vaster level?

What is the one big thing God wants for you and from you in exactly the same way that He wants it for and from absolutely everyone who has ever lived and will ever live?

What is the capital P “Plan” and capital P “Purpose” that God has for your life as a human being living on planet Earth?

And there are so many things that we could talk about as we answer that question.

But when we take a massive step back and open up God’s Word, there are basically three things that it boils down to.

God wants three things for you.

And He wants three things from you.

And absolutely every other thing in your life flows out from these three things.

We’re going to talk about the first one today.

We’re going to talk about the second one two weeks from now.

And we’re going to talk about the third one four weeks from now.

That’s just the funny way that our church calendar has fallen between this event and that event and so forth.

This morning, we want to talk about the ground floor that absolutely everything else is built on top of.

We want to talk about something that is so vitally important that you cannot afford to miss this.

You cannot afford not to grasp this.

You cannot afford to ignore this.

For some of you, the things that I am going to say this morning are going to radically change your life.

And for some of you, the things that I’m going to say this morning are going to seem painstakingly obvious to the point that you’re going to feel like you wasted your time coming here because, quote-unquote, “you have heard all this before.”

But listen—you, maybe especially you—do not tune this out.

Because this is just as important for you if you have been a Christian for 45 years as it is if you have been a Christian for exactly five minutes—or if you have walked into this church this morning, and you are literally not a Christian, not a follower of Jesus, not one of God’s people.

I have exactly one point, really, this morning, and that is that God wants to save you.

This is the first of those three big things that God wants for you and from you.

We are not talking about number two or number three today.

We are going to spend our whole time together this morning plumbing the depths of this really shocking and really glorious reality: that God wants to save you.

God Wants to Save You

Do you know what I’m talking about when I say that?

This might seem obvious to the point that it feels like it’s pointless to even bring it up, but the truth is that this is the key to understanding almost everything else in God’s word.

If you can wrap your head around this one, central truth about the God we serve and worship, pretty much everything else starts to fall into place.

The metaphor Jesus uses to describe God is that God is like a shepherd who has 100 sheep, and one of them wanders away.

He’s wandering towards the wolves.

He’s wandering toward the edge of the cliff.

He’s wandering toward destruction.

If it’s not clear in that metaphor—you are the sheep that’s wandering toward the cliff.

You are headed for condemnation from a just and righteous and holy King and Judge.

And yet, He says God is like that shepherd who ties up his 99 sheep, goes out and spends all night searching far and wide, every corner of the Earth, to find that lost sheep.

And when He does, He fights off the wolves.

He lays waste to the predators.

He protects them from themselves.

And He throws them over His shoulder, and He brings them back to the fold.

And then He calls all His friends and throws a party.

He says, “My sheep was lost, but now it is found.”

Jesus says God is like that:

“I tell you that even so there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents, than over ninety-nine righteous people who need no repentance.”

—Luke 15:7, WEB

He says there is celebration in heaven every time one sinner repents.

Every time one lost person is found.

Every time one rebel is redeemed.

Listen—salvation is not some kind of trick where Jesus tricked God into forgiving you by going to the cross.

No.

Jesus went to the cross because God wants to save you.

Confusion About Salvation

And yet, we have got a problem.

Our problem is that even though we live in a country that is majority Christian, and we live in the Bible Belt—where there is a church on every street corner, even in the boondocks where there aren’t any streets—and even almost everyone we know has been raised in church at least on some level, the truth is that most people do not understand THIS.

A few months ago, something happened that cut me really deep.

I was talking to a friend of mine.

This is a guy that I’ve known for a pretty long time.

And he was telling me some great news.

He was like, “Man, a guy came up to me and he shared the gospel with me. He said, ‘You know, if you died tonight, do you know for sure if you would go to heaven?’”

And I was like, “No, I’m not sure. I hope I would go to heaven.”

And then he talked to me for a really long time and led me to faith, so now I’m saved.

I was like, “Dude, you’ve been a Christian for years, and you didn’t know whether you were going to heaven?”

“That was still a question mark for you all this time? You haven’t been sure if you were saved or not?”

“You haven’t been sure if you were really redeemed or not?”

“You haven’t been sure if you really belonged to Jesus or not?”

I was floored.

How did we get here?

It’s actually very simple: Our culture—both outside and inside the church—has confused a lot of people about what it means to be saved.

And the result is that for some of us, you have grown up thinking, “I’m a Christian because I’m an American.”

“I’m a Christian because I’m a southerner.”

“I’m a Christian because I’m a conservative.”

“I’m a Christian because I’m a Republican.”

“I’m a Christian because my family always said a prayer before every meal.”

“I’m a Christian because I grew up going to Vacation Bible School.”

“I’m a Christian because I grew up back in the 60s, and they used to read Bible verses in the classroom, and they used to pray before lessons.”

And at the same time for some of us, you’ve grown up thinking that the beginning, middle, and end of what it means to be a Christian is:

I walk down the aisle, and somehow that magically saves me.

And then I repeat some words after the preacher, saying the sinner’s prayer, and somehow that magically saves me.

And then I get to go to heaven instead of going to hell.

And at the same time for some of us, you have grown up thinking salvation is something that God will give you if you’re good enough, smart enough, wise enough, generous enough, obedient enough—if you come to church enough, tithe enough, serve enough, go on enough mission trips.

That you have to rack up enough salvation points to win Gpd’s favor so He’ll save you—and so you are literally not sure WHERE you will go if you die tonight.

The Gospel Must Be Clear

And because that is true, I want to be as clear as I can possibly be.

So long as I am the pastor at Mount Zion Baptist Church—which, if I get my way, will be literally until I die—this will not and cannot be a church where the gospel is obscured.

This cannot be a church where the gospel is unclear.

This cannot be a church where God’s glorious work to redeem you and restore you through the cross, by grace, through faith, isn’t crystal clear in the minds of every single person who walks in the door.

By the time you walk out the door, there should be absolutely no question about the gloriously good news that God wants to save you.

And that God has made the ultimate sacrifice to save you.

Has poured Himself out to save you.

Has come down from heaven and gone to the cross to save you.

And that if you reach out and take hold of that salvation that He is holding out to you right now, you will be saved.

If it kills me, I feel compelled to purge the unbiblical, superstitious definition of salvation from our minds and our hearts.

And replace it with the beautiful biblical message of the cross that redeems and restores us.

And so we want to spend the rest of this morning being as clear and explicit as we possibly can about what it means to be saved and how to be saved.

So I want to start with that question that my friend got asked that he couldn’t answer after years of being a Christian—years of being in church.

And I want to make absolutely sure that if somebody asked you that question tonight at a restaurant you’re having dinner at, you could answer it with zero hesitation.

If You Died Tonight, Could You Be Sure You Would Go to Heaven?

If you were to die tonight, can you be sure you would go to heaven?

Here’s the answer: If you are not a follower of Jesus, the answer is no.

If you have not been redeemed by the blood of Jesus on the cross, the answer is no.

If you haven’t placed your faith in Jesus, the answer is no.

I’m going to define what those terms mean in just a second.

But let’s be super honest here—you probably don’t need me to define those terms to know whether or not that applies to you.

Right?

Here’s why the answer is no for so many of the people that I meet.

The President of the United States is not hanging out with ISIS fighters.

Right?

He’s not hanging out with the insurrectionists against the United States.

Why?

It’s because you don’t dine with your enemies.

Right?

The prophet Isaiah declares to the Israelites who rebelled against the Lord:

“But your iniquities have separated you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.”

—Isaiah 59:2, WEB

Rebels cannot enter the palace of the King.

You know what I’m talking about?

It says that our sin is not just breaking some arbitrary rule.

Sin does not just mean that you made a mistake.

Sin is cosmic rebellion.

Sin is cosmic mutiny against the King of the universe.

God created us good.

He created us perfect.

He created us holy.

And He created the world to be good.

He designed the world to be just, righteous, beautiful, joyful.

And yet Adam and Eve rebelled against His kingship when they took that fruit.

Right?

It wasn’t just about an unauthorized snack time.

That was an act of rebellion against the King.

And in the same way today, when we turn away from the goodness God called us to, and instead, we pursue the things God has forbidden us, prohibited us from, we are rebelling against Him.

Every sin we commit is an act of rebellion.

Our sin makes us enemies of God’s Kingdom, and it makes us enemies of the King.

Listen—because of your sin, you are treated as an enemy of King Jesus, no different from the devil and his angels.

And that means what?

That means it does not matter if you were born in America.

It does not matter if you come from a Christian family.

It does not matter if you grew up going to a Christian school.

It does not matter what any of these things are on paper—because in practice, your sin has separated you from God and has made you His enemy.

The Gloriously Good News of the Cross

But here’s the thing: Into the horrifically bad news of our sin, God’s word speaks the gloriously good news of the cross.

Romans 5 says:

“For while we were yet weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man. Yet perhaps for a righteous person someone would even dare to die. But God commends his own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

“Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we will be saved from God’s wrath through him. For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we will be saved by his life.”

—Romans 5:6–10, WEB

Listen to that!

God’s Word says that God looked down and He saw us in our sin.

He saw us in our rebellion.

He saw us in our condemnation.

He saw that we were headed for hell.

And He said, “No.”

He said, “I am not going to destroy them. I am not going to abandon them. I am not going to give them what they deserve.”

He said, “I am going to save them.”

While we were still enemies.

While we were still helpless.

Powerless to save ourselves.

Completely unable to do anything to help ourselves, to make ourselves good enough, to make ourselves worthy, to undo the damage of our cosmic rebellion.

While we were still helplessly condemned, saved us through the cross.

What Happened on the Cross?

Now, WAIT.

What does that actually mean?

How does Jesus save us through the cross?

I’m glad you asked.

Here’s what happened.

Colossians 2 says:

“Having wiped out the handwriting in ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, he has taken it out of the way, nailing it to the cross.”

—Colossians 2:14, WEB

On the cross, Jesus took your sin.

Jesus took the wages of your sin.

He took the debt of your sin.

He took the penalty of your sin.

He took the punishment of your sin.

He took the condemnation from your sin.

Jesus took the righteous wrath of God toward your sin onto His own shoulders.

So your sin was punished in Jesus—not in you.

Every sin you have ever committed—every bad thing you have ever done, every failure you have ever failed—has been fully forgiven, freely forgiven, and forever forgiven on the cross in Jesus Christ.

And at exactly the same time, every sin you will ever commit has been fully and freely and forever forgiven through Jesus.

God is not going to put it back on you.

He is not going to take that forgiveness away.

That debt is not going to come back to your doorstep.

Because it wasn’t just thrown away.

You throw something away—you can get it back out of the trash, right?

It wasn’t just forgotten about.

You forget something—you might remember it again later.

It was paid.

Your sin has been paid for by the blood of Jesus on the cross.

The way that God’s Word describes this is that through Jesus, your sin has been blotted out.

Your sin has been wiped away.

Your sin has been carried as far as the east is from the west from you.

The Debt Has Been Paid

What it always makes me think of is back when I was in Oklahoma.

I had a friend who was in an unbelievably dire strait.

She had a bunch of unexpected bills hit all at once.

And you know—college students don’t just have a ton of money to begin with.

And so her electricity was turned off.

And she had absolutely no realistic way of getting the money that she needed to be able to get it turned back on.

And so a whole bunch of us banded together.

We put our money together.

We went to the office.

And we gave them four digits worth of money to get the power turned back on.

We paid her debt for her.

And that means that the power company cannot turn it back off.

That means that the power company cannot take it back from her.

Because it isn’t just that the power company decided to give her back her power out of the kindness of their heart.

It’s that the power company was paid.

That’s not a perfect analogy, because God is not like the power company.

Because the power company just forced a 19-year-old to try to live in a 108-degree apartment for a week when she couldn’t make the payment.

Because she had to fix a car.

Because she had to go to work so she could make money.

So that she could pay the power company.

They just waited until some friends got some money together for her.

But God does not.

God pays the debt Himself.

He pays the debt for us.

The God that you rebelled against came down from heaven, went to the cross, and was brutally, mercilessly, horrifically tortured and killed in the most excruciating way possible so that your debt could be paid.

And the result is that TODAY when God looks at you, He does not look at you as a terrible sinner who is just lucky to be in His presence.

He looks at you as if you are perfect.

He looks at you as if you are righteous.

He looks at you as if you are perfectly holy.

God treats you as if you lived the same kind of perfect, sinless, beautiful life that Jesus lived.

You Surrender to What King Jesus Has Done for You

So the question is this: How do you make that happen for you?

How do you get your sin put onto the shoulders of Jesus?

How do you get your sin washed away on the cross?

How do you get your sin blotted out by His sacrifice?

The answer is super simple: You don’t do anything.

You surrender to what King Jesus has done for you.

I’m going to say that again.

You don’t do anything.

You surrender to what King Jesus has done for you.

That’s the short version of what Paul is saying in Ephesians chapter 2, one of the most famous verses in all of God’s Word:

“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, that no one would boast.”

—Ephesians 2:8–9, WEB

How do you get that forgiveness that Jesus purchased for you on the cross?

You accept the gift.

How do you accept that gift?

You just come to Jesus in faith and repentance.

I love the way Jesus puts this in the Gospel of John:

“All those whom the Father gives me will come to me. He who comes to me I will in no way throw out.”

—John 6:37, WEB

How do you receive that salvation that He bought through the cross?

You come to Him.

And He will not cast you out.

Listen really carefully right now: If you come to Jesus in faith and repentance—submit to Him as your King, worship Him as your God, throw yourself on His mercy as your Savior—then all of the forgiveness that Jesus bought for you through the cross comes rushing out of the floodgates and washes you clean.

I don’t think you can put it any clearer than Paul does in Romans 8:1:

“There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who don’t walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.”

—Romans 8:1, WEB

I’m going to be really repetitive here, because I want to make absolutely sure that we understand this.

Listen—if you come to Jesus in faith and repentance, His blood washes you clean.

His blood wipes away your sin.

His blood blots out your transgressions.

His blood pays your debt.

It’s gone.

It’s over.

It’s done.

There is nothing left for you.

If you surrender to King Jesus, then He washes you in His blood.

If you surrender to King Jesus, you will be clean.

If you surrender to King Jesus, you will be saved.

If you surrender to King Jesus, you will not taste death.

If you surrender to King Jesus, you will not be condemned.

If you surrender to King Jesus, you will not experience God’s wrath.

Because there is no wrath for you.

Period.

All of it has been spent on Jesus—and it is gone.

Do you understand what I’m saying?

To the Christians in the Room

And that means two different things for two different types of people.

First, I want to talk to the Christians in the room.

If you someone who has been following Jesus, you believe Jesus is who He says He is, you’ve given your life to Jesus, you’ve surrendered to Jesus—then I’m talking to you right now.

Are you ready?

Listen: Stop worrying about whether you’re saved.

Listen—if you have come to Jesus in faith and repentance, if you’ve surrendered to the salvation that He’s bought for you on the cross, you are saved.

Stop wondering about it.

Salvation is not magic. Don’t be superstitious about it.

Salvation is not a machine where you put in a token and you get salvation out.

If you come to Jesus, you’re saved.

It does not matter that you didn’t fully understand it when you first became a Christian.

You’re not saved by understanding Jesus.

You’re saved by Jesus.

It does not matter that you had some misconceptions about some things when you first became a Christian.

You’re not saved by fully understanding the cross.

You’re saved by the cross.

It doesn’t matter that you used to believe some things that were wrong.

Maybe when you first became a Christian, you were in a really sketchy church or a really sketchy denomination.

Doesn’t matter.

You’re not saved by understanding God’s grace perfectly.

You’re saved by God’s grace.

You imperfectly come to Him, and He will not cast you out.

You imperfectly put your sin on the table, and He will not cast you out.

You imperfectly put your faith in Him, and He will not cast you out.

You imperfectly come in repentance, and He will not cast you out.

You imperfectly submit to Him, and He will not cast you out.

You imperfectly worship Him, and He will not cast you out.

You imperfectly throw yourself on His mercy, and He will not cast you out.

Period.

You couldn’t damn yourself if you tried now.

Because you belong to Jesus now.

And that means that He holds you safely in His hand. He says:

“I give eternal life to them. They will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.”

—John 10:28, WEB

The devil can’t pluck you from His hand.

And you’re not as strong as the devil, so you REALLY can’t pluck yourself from His hand.

And that means that if you drive home this afternoon, and a log truck does a Final Destination 2 thing and crushes you under its weight and you die before lunchtime, you will wake up with Jesus in heaven.

To Everyone Else

But now, I want to talk to everybody else.

If you’re in the room right now and you are not a follower of Jesus, I’m talking to you now.

Maybe you’ve spent your life running from Him. Maybe even actively opposing Him. Maybe you’ve done everything you can to keep the Lord on the other side of your fence.

Maybe you came in here today just to shut somebody in your family up.

Maybe you got tricked into coming here.

Your friend was like, “Hey, want to get some breakfast?”

And you were like, “Yeah!”

And then they drove you here to this church.

And then they handed you a bagel.

And they were like, “Here, it’s some breakfast.”

Whatever it is, you walked in this room a rebel against your God and King.

But you weren’t really the one who brought you here.

The Spirit brought you here.

Because God wants to save you.

If that’s you, listen: Right now the Spirit is working in your heart.

The Spirit is convicting you.

Right now the Spirit is breaking down your resistance.

The Spirit is pushing against the walls you’ve built up around your heart.

He is taking a jackhammer to the stone that’s grown up around your heart.

He’s taking a flamethrower to the ice that’s grown up around your heart.

He is throwing Himself into drawing you—away from your rebellion, away from your running, away from your resistance.

To instead draw you to the foot of the cross.

To surrender to God’s grace and be saved.

Listen to me.

Stop fighting it.

Jesus says in the Gospel of John:

“I am the good shepherd. I know my own, and I’m known by my own.”

“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.”

—John 10:14, 27, WEB

Are you hearing the voice of the Shepherd?

Follow it to the cross.

Come to Jesus—with your sin, with your baggage, with your flaws, with your failures, with your shame—and give it to Him.

Let Him nail it to the cross.

And be saved.

You don’t have to walk down this aisle.

You can—I would love it if you did—but you don’t have to.

You don’t have to repeat a prayer after me.

We can do that if it’s helpful for you, but there’s nothing magic about it.

All you have to do right now is stop running.

Say to the Lord, “I’m Yours.”

And what I want you to do is—I want you to come find me in the back and tell me, “I just gave my life to Jesus.”

And we can talk through all of what that means and what your next steps are together.