God's Simple Plan of Salvation
By Ford Porter
________________________________________
My friend: I am asking you the most important question of your life. Your joy or your sorrow for all eternity depends upon your answer. The question is: Are you saved? It is not a question of how good you are, nor if you are a church member, but are you saved? Are you sure you will go to Heaven when you die?
God says in order to go to Heaven, you must be born again. In John 3:7, Jesus said to Nicodemus, "Ye must be born again."
In the Bible, God gives us the plan of how to be born again which means to be saved. His plan is simple! You can be saved today. How?
First, my friend, you must realise you are a sinner. "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23).
Because you are a sinner, you are condemned to die. "For the wages [payment] of sin is death" (Romans 6:23). This includes eternal separation from God in Hell.
"... it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment" (Hebrews 9:27).
But God loved you so much he gave his only begotten Son, Jesus, to bear your sin and die in your place. "For he hath made him [Jesus, who knew no sin] to be sin for us ... that we might be made the righteousness of God in him" (2 Corinthians 5:21).
Jesus had to shed his blood and die. "For the life of the flesh is in the blood" (Leviticus 17:11) "... without shedding of blood is no remission [pardon]" (Hebrews 9:22).
"But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8).
Although we cannot understand how, God said my sins and your sins were laid upon Jesus and he died in our place. He became our substitute. It is true. God cannot lie.
My friend, "God ... now commandeth all men every where to repent" (Acts 17:30).
This repentance is a change of mind that agrees with God that one is a sinner, and also agrees with what Jesus did for us on the cross.
In Acts 16:30-31, the Philippian jailer asked Paul and Silas: "... Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved... ."
Simply believe on him as the one who bore your sin, died in your place, was buried, and whom God resurrected.
His resurrection powerfully assures that the believer can claim everlasting life when Jesus is received as Saviour.
"But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name" (John 1:12).
"For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved" (Romans 10:13).
Whosoever includes you. Shall be saved means not maybe, nor can, but shall be saved.
Surely, you realise you are a sinner. Right now, wherever you are, repenting, lift your heart to God in prayer.
In Luke 18:13, a sinner prayed: "God be merciful to me a sinner."
Just pray:
"Oh, God, I know I am a sinner. I believe Jesus was my substitute when he died on the cross. I believe his shed blood, death, burial, and resurrection were for me. I now receive him as my Saviour. I thank you for the forgiveness of my sins, the gift of salvation and everlasting life, because of your merciful grace. Amen."
Just take God at his word and claim his salvation by faith. Believe, and you will be saved. No church, no lodge, no good works can save you. Remember, God does the saving. All of it!
God's simple plan of salvation is: You are a sinner. Therefore, unless you believe on Jesus who died in your place, you will spend eternity in Hell. If you believe on him as your crucified, buried, and risen Saviour, you receive forgiveness for all of your sins and his gift of eternal salvation by faith.
You say, "Surely, it cannot be that simple." Yes, that simple! It is scriptural. It is God's plan. My friend, believe on Jesus and receive him as Saviour today.
If his plan is not perfectly clear, read this tract over and over, without laying it down until you understand it. Your soul is worth more than all the world.
"For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" (Mark 8:36).
Be sure you are saved. If you lose your soul, you miss Heaven and lose all. Please! Let God save you this very moment.
God's power will save you, keep you saved and enable you to live a victorious Christian life. "There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it" (1 Corinthians 10:13).
Do not trust your feelings. They change. Stand on God's promises. They never change. After you are saved, there are three things to practise daily for spiritual growth: Pray you talk to God. Read your Bible God talks to you. Witness you talk for God.
You should be baptised in obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ, as a public testimony of your salvation, and then unite with a Bible-believing church without delay. "Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord ..." (2 Timothy 1:8).
"Whosoever therefore shall confess [testify of] me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven" (Matthew 10:32).
Additional Helpful Verses
• John 3:16, 1 Peter 2:24
• Isaiah 53:6, James 1:15, Romans 10:9-10
• Ephesians 2:8-9, Proverbs 27:1
• 1 Corinthians 15:3-4, John 10:27-31, 1 John 5:13
If you are saved through reading this tract, send us word so we may rejoice with you.
• Ye must be born again - John 3:7
• “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23).
• “For the wages [payment] of sin is death" (Romans 6:23).
• "... it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment" (Hebrews 9:27).
• For he hath made him [Jesus, who knew no sin] to be sin for us ... that we might be made the righteousness of God in him" (2 Corinthians 5:21).
• “…without shedding of blood is no remission [pardon]" (Hebrews 9:22).
• “For the life of the flesh is in the blood" (Leviticus 17:11)
• "But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8).
• “God ... now commandeth all men everywhere to repent" (Acts 17:30).
• Acts 16:30-31, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved... “
• “But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name" (John 1:12).
• "For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved" (Romans 10:13).
• "God be merciful to me a sinner." - Luke 18:13,
• "For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" (Mark 8:36).
2nd point: Verse 3 - 7: "Join with me in suffering, like a good soldier of Christ Jesus. 4 No one serving as a soldier gets entangled in civilian affairs, but rather tries to please his commanding officer. 5 Similarly, anyone who competes as an athlete does not receive the victor’s crown except by competing according to the rules. 6 The hardworking farmer should be the first to receive a share of the crops. 7 Reflect on what I am saying, for the Lord will give you insight into all this."
Paul is asking to reflect on what all he is saying because the Lord will give insight into all this. He asks Timothy to be strong in the first verse, and the moment you take a stand, you will immediately face suffering and persecution. So, he tells Timothy to endure suffering like a soldier. What wonderful examples he gives - soldier, athlete and farmer. All three categories are hard working people - people who have a purpose - people who are never ashamed of what they are doing - people who never compromise on standards. We need to think more about these three categories of people and mediate why Paul compared with these three...
3rd point: Verse 9 "...God’s word is not chained..."
What a beautiful verse 'God's word is not chained' - though the messenger is chained, the message is never chained. Paul is imprisoned and writing this letter from the dungeon. He knows for sure that this time he will not come out and he is about to die... but still he is encouraging Timothy and telling him about the importance of the Word of God. We need to be encouraged that God's word is established in Heavens and not a word of it will fail. This verse encourages us to read the Word more and more...
4th point - v13 "if we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot disown himself."
Here we see the character of God... though we are faithless, he remains faithful and he cannot disown himself. There is a tremendous truth in the statement. Once, Israelites murmured against the Lord and they worshiped the Golden Calf and they proclaimed it as their deliverer... the Lord became angry on the children of Israel... but he again controlled himself and brought them to the promised land... though they were unfaithful and murmuring all the time, God never forgot his promise to his children. How comforting this word is...
5th point - v 15 "Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.'
I like the words ' do your best to present yourself to God as one approved'.
If we have an interview or any important meeting, how much time we spend to present ourselves in our best possible way. We tend to do all that we can do to be approved. How much more we need to prepare so that we can get approval from God. We also need to strive to be our best before the Lord - in secret and in public.
6th point: v 19 “Everyone who confesses the name of the Lord must turn away from wickedness.”
This is also a good foundational verse for young people... it tells us that if we confess the name of the Lord, we need to turn away from wickedness... in Prov 8:13 it says that the fear of the Lord is to hate evil... if we want to be His children, we need to hate wickedness like anything.. not just dislike, but hate wickedness.
7th point: v 20 - 21 - various vessels
Here Paul explains about different vessels in a house and how they are being used - some for glory and some for mundane activities... if we are clean and holy, God will use us for nice purposes, if we are unholy and unclean, we will be used for some normal purpose.
Imagine, do we use the 'chetta dabba' where we normally throw all the dust to serve anything good? Do we keep unclean plates to guests? Do we ourselves take any unclean vessel to cook? The answer is no. Then how do we think that God can use unclean vessels for His glory... he who sees the heart of every man, knows whether we are clean or unclean.... so let us cleanse ourselves everyday... and be useful for him.
8th point: v 22" Flee the evil desires of youth and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart."
This is a very clear and straight forward verse in the Bible. It says 'flee the evil desires of youth'. In another instance, it says 'resist the devil and he will flee from you' but here he is asking us to flee... point to be noted here is that no one can escape the youthful desires...it is a snare...we need to be on guard and run if we face any such temptation... I read in a book sometime ago, that we need to be prepared with the answers for every kind of temptation and we need to practice telling no... because in that moment, we cannot say no because our flesh and our carnal desires will pull towards the sin... better to be careful in this area. In the same verse he says that there are some with a pure heart... we need to join with them and be careful. The company we keep also determines how we react to things.... if we are in the company of people who sin a lot, sin then does not look big, it looks like fun and joy, but if we are in the company of holy people, even a small sin looks very dangerous... so we need to be careful here.
9th point: v 24 - And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful.
Very good verses are found in this chapter of how every believer should be. We need to be kind to everyone and not at all quarrelsome. How nice the world would be if all the christians follow this verse.
10th point: v 16 "Avoid godless chatter, because those who indulge in it will become more and more ungodly"
Very profound statement, those who indulge in godless chatter will become more and more ungodly. How true it is, everything starts with a few words...
I think I have written a lot, but 2nd chapter contains many more wonderful and profound truths ...
