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WHAT A SAVIOR! #20
HEY! GET INTO THE BOAT!
There comes a time in a mother’s life when she can’t
use the soft tone of voice. You prefer diplomacy; you want to give your
kids their “space”; you have to let them bump into the jagged edges of
life and figure out their own way. But there does come that cold April
night when a concerned mother says to her young daughter: “Get into the
boat, Rose.” Because the Titanic is going down. And the time for sweet
talk and sweetie-wait-till-later is over.
For 75 years, I think it’s fair to say that the Voice of Prophecy has
been a quiet presence on the airwaves. My predecessors at this microphone
didn’t shout, and neither do I. When we talk about the great, solid pillars
of Christianity, we’re very enthusiastic about our convictions, but we
still prefer to lay the evidence out for our friends to consider, and
then give the invitation: “Take a look. Think about this for yourself.”
And certainly, when we address some of the harder, more controversial,
less settled issues of the faith – like, for instance, what happens to
a believer when they die – we want to be as gentle and as self-effacing
as we possibly can. Nobody is right about everything; you know that, and
behind this microphone, I certainly know it too.
But you know, for four weeks now, we’ve been talking about this unique
Person named Jesus Christ. All the evidence is that He WAS divine. All
indications are that He did indeed come out of the grave on Resurrection
Sunday, and that He is alive and a force in our world even today.
And at some point, it is incumbent upon me as the speaker of this ministry
to lay aside the vocabulary of gentility, of soft suasion, and say as
passionately as I can to each of you: “Hey. Get into the boat. Please.”
A few years ago, there was a major stir in the Republic of South Africa.
Just before an international AIDS conference to be held in Durban, incoming
President Thabo Mbeki announced an unwillingness to acknowledge any specific
link between HIV and AIDS. Oh, it was possible that there might be a connection.
But a special panel he had appointed was going to consider the question,
and he wouldn’t accept the link unless they clearly proved it to his satisfaction.
Unfortunately, the panel was largely stacked with AIDS dissidents who
shared his aberrant views. “A virus simply cannot cause a syndrome,” he
stoutly asserted to his legislature, much to the discomfiture of 5,000
doctors in South Africa’s medical community.
Former President Mandela tried to diplomatically say that he disagreed
with his predecessor. Health activists protested that the President’s
wrongheaded views were putting young people’s lives in jeopardy, that
he was undermining efforts to help HIV-positive moms avoid infecting their
babies. Anglican Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane pleaded with Mbeki to
“abandon his skepticism and put out a strong message on the HIV-AIDS link.”
Ironically, the President instead suggested that the various antiretroviral
drugs the nation sorely needed might instead be the CAUSE of AIDS in his
nation!
Now, let me ask a very plain question. Why did all of these people care?
Why did they raise their voices? Because the lives of real people were
at stake! One South African in nine already had tested positive for the
HIV virus. Welfare Minister Zola Skweyiya “told reporters . . . the AIDs
pandemic would kill about six million South Africans over the next 10
years if it was left unchecked.”
Fortunately, two years later the chastened President moderated his views,
and announced that the government would step forward and take the lead
in fighting the global killer.
Well, friend, for about a month now you and I have broken spiritual bread
on both sides of this radio. We’ve talked about the attributes of Jesus.
We’ve explored the “divinity” claims of Jesus and His Church. We’ve considered
His teachings, His resurrection, His place in history.
And now, here on this final Friday, some 2000-plus years after another
Friday where the subject of our twenty discourses got Himself nailed to
a cross, what else is there to say but this: Sin is a deadly killer. The
link between sin and death is proven and it’s real. We’re surrounded by
the proof. We see the evidence everywhere. And really – here I raise my
voice to express my urgency – the only answer to the dilemma of sin and
death is this Man. Jesus Christ. He is the solution for sin. He is the
Savior from sin. And He is the ONLY way of escape. There is no other.
There never has been; there never will be.
We studied together recently about the incredible teachings of Jesus.
Even skeptics and atheists generally concede that they are unique, life-changing,
revolutionary. Napoleon Bonaparte once marveled that he and Alexander
the Great and Caesar and Charlemagne had all “founded empires.” But based
on what? By his own confession: raw force. Then he concludes humbly:
“[But] Jesus Christ founded His empire upon love: and
at this hour millions of men would die for Him.”
But even the great apologist C. S. Lewis, who left
atheism and became a Christian because of the power of Jesus’ teachings,
once remarked that if all we had were these admittedly insightful teachings
of a really wise man, then . . . no big deal.
“If Christianity only means one more bit of good advice,”
he writes, “then Christianity is of no importance. There has been no lack
of good advice for the last four thousand years. A bit more makes no difference.”
But then he goes on from there. As smart as he was,
why did he, himself, then become a Christian? He was brainy enough to
sketch out his own life philosophy and make a pile of royalty money doing
so; he didn’t really need Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. But in a 1963
dialogue just six months before he died – the same day John F. Kennedy
was assassinated – interviewer Sherwood Wirt of the Billy Graham Evangelistic
Association quoted a bit of G. K. Chesterton – a Lewis favorite – to him.
Why had Chesterton joined the Church? His reply: “To get rid of my sins.”
And Lewis answers:
“It is not enough to want to get rid of one’s sins.
We also need to believe in the One who saves us from our sins. Not only
do we need to recognize that we are sinners; we need to believe in a Savior
who takes away sin.”
A bit later, reflecting back on the same body of evidence
we’ve considered in this series – the Resurrection, the changed lives,
the teachings, the miracles, the claims, the sacrificial love – C. S.
Lewis almost raises his own voice too. It’s as though the captain on the
Titanic has sounded the alarm, there ARE enough lifeboats to go around,
but some people simply won’t stop playing gin rummy in the E Deck restaurant.
“In a civilization like ours,” he told Wirt, “I feel
that everyone has to come to terms with the claims of Jesus Christ upon
his life, or else be guilty of inattention or of evading the question.”
That’s very frank, isn’t it? And friend, let me put
it to you right here. We have a Man who claims He can save us. He says
He can take away our sins. He offers to give us – not ten more years of
life, like a health guru might – but an ETERNITY! He says He can do it!
And so many things about this Man suggest that He is telling the truth
all the way. Millions of thoughtful men and women have already weighed
those claims and accepted them . . . and found their lives made new.
I think very tenderly and sympathetically of a person who is living a
risky lifestyle where HIV might hit at any moment. Despite what the government
says, he indulges in promiscuous behavior. Warning ads are everywhere;
TV commercials scream caution and abstinence, but he blithely goes his
own way, partying and recklessly taking part in so-called “bareback” couplings.
My heart breaks for such a person when they finally get the bad news from
a blood test or that toll-free call to a hotline, but you could also say,
with anguish in your voice, “How could you not have paid attention to
the warnings? How could you have ignored the opportunities to exit from
the broad path to destruction?”
Friend, let me give you the boldest invitation I can: PLEASE, PLEASE .
. . come to Jesus. Accept Him as your Savior. Let Him be your Lord. Allow
Him to give you a pathway out of the death sentence that looms over this
human race.
We’ve rejoiced that Jesus came here and healed, but He didn’t come here
to heal. His teachings are amazing, but He didn’t come here to teach.
His miracles brought delirious joy, but He didn’t come here to work miracles.
People got complimentary dinners from Jesus, but He didn’t come here to
establish cafeterias. He came here to SAVE!
The great reformed theologian, W. A. Visser ‘t Hooft, who helped my friend
John Weidner rescue refugees from the Nazis in World War II, wrote a book
entitled No Other Name. Based on Acts 4:12, of course: “There is no other
name whereby we must be saved.” And he writes this:
“Jesus Christ did not come to make a contribution to
the religious storehouse of mankind, but that IN HIM God reconciled the
world unto Himself.”
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