Lesson Thirteen: “God’s So Great Gift of Salvation Demands Some Things”

“Have You Thought Lately Of What Christ Has Done For You?”

Hebrews 2:3

Introduction:

More than three hundred years ago a man named Isaac Watts wrote the words of a song that we often sing in churches unto this day, but I wonder if we truly ever consider the meaning of those words.

In the year 1707 as Isaac Watts wrote "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross" in preparation for a communion service, he wrote the words as he contemplated a passage of Scripture found in Galatians 6:14 where nearly seventeen centuries before him, the Apostle Paul humbly wrote, “But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.”

Originally, the hymn was named “Crucifixion to the World by the Cross of Christ”, following the practice of the day to summarize a hymn's theme in the title. It was first published in 1707 in Watt's collection Hymns and Spiritual Songs.

In Watts’ day such hymns were termed “hymns of human composure” and they stirred up great controversy. At that time, congregational singing was predominately ponderous repetitions of the Psalms of David, but this hymn gave Christians of Watts’ day a way to express a deeply personal gratitude to their Saviour. And this well-loved song still continues to stir our hearts today.

But I believe it stirs our hearts because it causes us to be reminded of what our dear Saviour did for us upon the cross of Calvary some two thousand plus years ago so that sinful mankind might be purchased and redeemed unto God and that our gratefulness unto God for His great love demonstrated unto us might cause us to live our new life in Christ the way that God so desires for us to live it—humbly, gratefully, sacrificially, and soul-consciously as not simply a servant of God, but as an heir of God through Christ Jesus even as we read in Galatians 4:3-7 where the Bible says, “Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world: But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.”

So many times, people make heroes out of the so-called ‘superstars’ of this old world, but even the best of these men still find themselves to be only mortal men at best.

And when you and I gaze circumspectly upon the cross of Calvary, upon which our Saviour willingly shed His blood and died for sinful men, that great love should demand our wholehearted love and devotion in all that we do.

Oh, that you and I, no matter where we live or what sort of earthly treasures we may possess upon this sinful world, oh, that we might survey that wondrous cross, on which the Prince of Glory died, truly cause each of us to willingly see our calling and duty unto God as a divine calling and duty unto other sinful men, women, boys, and girls, so as to reach them with the glorious message of such great love that God our Redeemer both had and still has for every person upon the face of this earth!

Won’t you consider these words as you consider the price that was paid for your sin and for mine so that we might be made the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus?

Listen to the words of this song today…

On which the Prince of glory died,

My richest gain I count but loss,

And pour contempt on all my pride.

Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast,

Save in the death of Christ my God!

All the vain things that charm me most,

I sacrifice them to His blood.

See from His head, His hands, His feet,

Sorrow and love flow mingled down!

Did e’er such love and sorrow meet,

Or thorns compose so rich a crown?

Were the whole realm of nature mine,

That were a present far too small;

Love so amazing, so divine,

Demands my soul, my life, my all.

Oh may we never forget all that God did for us through the divine giving of His own dear Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, so that you and I might be able, not only to be with Him in Heaven one day when this physical life comes to an end, but that we might truly know and have life more abundantly while we live upon this temporal dwelling we call Earth and willingly and lovingly face its demands with the joy of the Lord and of our so great salvation in our hearts and lives!

May all those vain things that charmed us most before we were so marvelously saved be laid down and sacrificed under the precious crimson fountain of our Saviour’s precious blood!


Let us consider these things in this lesson entitled, “God’s So Great Gift of Salvation Demands Some Things”…


Lesson: “God’s So Great Gift of Salvation Demands Some Things”


I : God’s So Great Gift of Salvation Demands Our Love and Commitment…

    A: Unto The One Who Has Saved Us
        - I Thessalonians 4:1-7, Ephesians 2:1-7, Jeremiah 9:23-24, Titus 2:11-14

    B: Unto The One Who Has Kept Us
        - I Peter 1:3-5, Titus 3:3-7, Isaiah 64:6-8, John 17:11-12

    C: Unto The One Who Has A Plan For Us
        - John 15:16, Acts 1:8, John 14:26, John 15:26-27, Matthew 28:18-20,
          Luke 24:44-49


II : God’s So Great Gift of Salvation Demands Our Willingness To Trust Him
- For us to ‘willingly’ do something means that we are ‘ready and eager to help and that our actions will be prompt and without reluctance through the power of our own volition and choosing’.
- And as we so willingly ‘choose’ to serve the One who has saved us, we learn to trust Him…

    A: To Know What Is Best For Us
        - Exodus 13:17-22

    B: To Know Where To Send Us
        - Genesis 12:1-3

    C: To Know Why We Do What We Do…
        - Psalm 124:1-8, I John 4:19, Titus 2:14, Hebrews 2:1-3, Joshua 24:14-15,
          Galatians 2:20
        - Folks, there are only two manners of standing with the Lord God of our so great
          salvation!
        - We stand either…
            1: …For Him, as we see God beg for someone to do in Ezekiel 22:30 where God
                had the prophet to write, “And I sought for a man among them, that should
                make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I
                should not destroy it…”
        - Or we stand…
            2: …Against Him as we see in the last part of that same verse where, sadly,
                God had His prophet to write, “…but I found none.”


Conclusion:

This so great salvation that God has given unto each of us who know Him as our own personal Saviour demands some things…but the greatest thing that our so great salvation demands from each of us today is simply, a grateful heart!

Child of God, “Have You Thought Lately Of What Christ Has Done For You?”

Doesn’t what Christ has done for you and for me deserve our very best in our service unto Him?

I believe it does, and if you truly know Christ as your own personal Saviour today, I believe you know it too!

“Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip. For if the word spoken by angels was stedfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward; How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him;”! (Hebrews 2:1-3)

Romans 10:14, “How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?”

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