Author: Fred Pruitt
How to get saved or how to be found of the Lord is a question confronting many souls. The truth is, the Lord is looking and longing for every sinner to come to Him for rest. He wishes to comfort souls in this life with the hope of eternal life.
Sinners are those who transgress against God by doing that which they know He forbids. Rebelling against Christ by doing evil and rejecting Him as Savior means being lost eternally unless they find the Savior in this life. He is the only hope for man and the doorway to heaven. According to the Bible, He is the way, the truth, and life. (John 14:6)
That the great tender heart of God is longing for all who will come to Him and find rest, (Matt. 11:28), is expressed in many places throughout the Bible, which is God’s Word to man.
Paul declares that “Christ Jesus came to save sinners.” (I Tim. 1:15). Perhaps the best word picture we have in the Bible of God’s yearning love for the lost is found in Luke 15. In this chapter, Jesus gives a parable of leaving ninety-nine sheep and going after the one that is lost until He finds it. When He does, He lays it on His shoulder, rejoicing, and calls His neighbors to celebrate with Him, for the sheep (man) that was lost is found. He speaks of the great rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents.
He also tells of a woman who had ten pieces of silver and lost one. He describes how she lit a candle, swept the house, and looked diligently until she found it. Then she called her neighbors and friends to rejoice with her, for she found the piece that was lost. And the Lord repeats: “There is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth.” God does not force or compel people to serve Him. He wants willing service. We have the privilege of choosing to love and serve Him or choosing to live on in sin.
This is shown very clearly in the parable of the prodigal who decided to leave his father (God). The father gave him his inheritance and the son gathered it together and went into a far country (where God did not dwell) and wasted it in foolish living.
Yes, dear friend, if you choose to, you may waste all the strength, talents, and time God gives you in unwise living, destroying your own soul. But you need not be lost, for you have the power to choose again when you see the folly of your choice.
When you fully come to yourself, you can (as the prodigal) make the decision to arise and go to your Father. You will find His warm love has not abated in all these years. He will be looking for you, will see you afar off, and come running with outstretched arms to receive you. Who could wish for greater love, for more tender care?
Though the son deliberately left his Father and had been living selfishly for many years, the Father loved him greatly and was willing to forgive and forget all past insults.
We see that the Father’s love did not cease there. When the young man repented and humbly said, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son,” the Father said to his servant, “Bring forth the best robe and put it on him [a robe of righteousness], put a ring on his hand [a seal of acceptance] and shoes on his feet; And bring forth the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat and be merry [symbolizing the great rejoicing of the angels in heaven over the lost that was found; over the dead sinner who has been resurrected to life eternal], For this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.”
By this parable we readily see the tender love that God has for those who are in sin. He has provided Christ as a Lamb who was sacrificed for our sins, and all who look to Him can be made alive in God, can have the past all blotted out, and can have a warm welcome under the sheltering wing of our Father in heaven.
A sinner must know and do a number of things to find favor with God.
1. First of all, you must become aware of your lost condition.
2. Then you need to know what caused this separation from God.
The way to obtain this knowledge is to go to the Word of God, the Bible, and let God talk to you through His Word. Turn to Isaiah 59:1-2 and you will find the cause of your troubles: “Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save [Christ, is strong to save all who will come]; neither is his ear heavy, that it cannot hear [He readily hears a sincere cry]: But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid His face from you, that He will not hear.”
3. When you admit and acknowledge this to be true, then comes another question: What must I do? Isaiah 55:7 tells us: “Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts [your thoughts that are evil]: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.”
By this Scripture we easily see that if we will forsake our ways of sin and return to the Lord He will forgive and pardon. Repentance toward God and faith in Christ is the only remedy for the removal of the sins that separate us from God, for we read in Isaiah 53:6, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him [Christ] the iniquity of us all.”
In the latter part of the 8th verse we read: “For the transgression of my people was he [Christ] stricken.” This Scripture and connecting ones are what the Ethiopian was reading when Philip ran and joined himself to the chariot at the command of the Lord. (Acts 8:32). Philip opened his mouth and began at the same Scripture, and preached to him Jesus. The Ethiopian believed that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, so he was saved, and after obeying the Word in baptism he went on his way rejoicing.
Dear sinner friend, you can have the same relief. If you believe within your heart that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, your Savior, you can go on your way rejoicing in a Redeemer’s love. The way of the transgressor is hard, and the end of such a life is eternal misery. Why not turn to the Savior and live! Do not die in your sins when God has planned and given you a way to escape. His great, tender, compassionate love is reaching out after you. Respond to Him today!
