Sunday English Service – 30 MAY 21

Transcript

Today, I want to remind you about the greatest treasure that you have as a believer. I want to remind all of us about our greatest treasure. We have a very great treasure and you have it today. And all of the problems in this world and everything that has happened has not touched. It has not affected it one bit. I want to talk to you about that today. Once you realize what an amazing thing this is that we’re going to see today. Once you realize how great this is, the other things that you lost, or maybe are afraid of losing won’t bother you as much. The things happening around you won’t bother you as much. If I can give an illustration, imagine that, let’s just say, just for example, say, your house is robbed. I don’t want this to happen, but I’m just saying as an example. Imagine that you house is robbed and a few important things are missing, stolen. That is very disturbing and it makes us very upset and all that. But let’s say we discovered that, we realized that the most expensive thing or a very priceless jewel, maybe some very expensive diamonds that we own let’s say, for example. You own that. You discover that, that is intact. The most expensive thing and the most valuable thing and the most priceless thing. Imagine that those diamonds are worth more than the house put together, right? And you find out that is intact. When you find out, when you realize that, immediately that gives you some comfort, even though it got robbed and some other things are missing and stolen, you still have this.

And that’s what I hope to do today. Especially, as I’m preaching, I have people in mind who have suffered a lot in the recent times that we’re living in. They’ve lost this or that. I’m thinking of people, they have lost loved ones, or maybe they’ve lost jobs. They’ve lost their income. They’re lost this or that. And they may be down, but I want to encourage them by showing them that they have the greatest treasure, still intact, untouched, unaffected. And I believe this will comfort them a lot and give them hope. These messages, only for those kinds of people, but especially for them. But I believe it will apply and help all kinds of people, right? So let’s look at this. I want to talk to you. Let me break up the message in three parts. So today, first we look at what this great treasure is. I keep saying this greatest treasure, greatest treasure. Well, what is it? That’s what we’ll see first. Secondly, we’ll talk about why it’s so valuable. I’ll give you some reasons as to how valuable it is and why it’s so valuable, right? Why am I calling this your greatest ration? And thirdly, I want to talk about how this helps us practically in our day-to-day life, in the challenges we face, right? And I am going to spend a lot of time on that third part practically, how you can take this truth and really benefit from it on a day-to-day basis in the challenges you are going through now. And I’ll give you a couple of specific examples there.

So let’s begin. What is this treasure? Why is it valuable or what makes it so valuable and how great is its value? Those kinds of things. And then thirdly, how do we practically benefit from this? All right, what is this treasure? What is the greatest treasure that you own? As a believer, what’s the most valuable thing you have? Now, if I look at a group of people just out there in the world just generally and ask them, what’s the most valuable thing you have? What do you consider your most valuable treasure? Your greatest treasure. You may get different answers. Some may say, well, I have this land here or there, and that’s what the lot. Some may say, I think what’s most valuable is my talents and abilities and things like that. Some may say my greatest treasure is my kids, my children. They are like my treasure. My family. Some may say, well, health, the times we’re living in health has become very important. And people may say, health is more worth than in all the money you can have. It’s better than all that. Good health. Some may say just being alive, that itself is a huge deal today in the world we’re living in. I’m just grateful for being alive. I count that to be a great treasure. So these are the kinds of answers that usually people will give to this kind of question.

Now I’m asking believers, I’m talking to believers and saying, what is your greatest treasure? Now believers are like other people also. We are also human beings only. And so we also count these things that I just mentioned as valuable, don’t we? Our health is very valuable. And our family’s very valuable and all that is valuable. And I’m not taking away anything from that. But as believers, we have something that is far more valuable than everything I just mentioned. What is that? Let me put it simply like this. It’s your salvation. Your greatest treasure is your salvation. The salvation that you received, not your money, not your talents, not your work, not your health, not your family, but your salvation. I believe I’m talking to mostly people who will consider themselves as saved believers. Are you saved? Are you a believer? That means you’ve received salvation.  And that is the most valuable thing you have. When I say salvation, I mean several things, because that one simple word, there’s a lot in that. For example, let me just say what all is included in that. For example, you are forgiven, you are saved, means you are through salvation. You have been forgiven of your sins. You have been cleansed. You have been made holy or sanctified. You’ve been justified. That’s a very biblical word. What does that mean? You’ve been made righteous. God has cleansed your sin, made you holy. And he has clothed you with the righteousness of Christ. All of this is part of salvation. You are redeemed from bondage. You are reconciled to God, you who are far off, away from God, aliens, enemies of God. Now you are brought near by the blood of Christ, reconciled to God.

And today you have peace with God, peace with God through Christ. You become children of God. Salvation has made you a child of God. God is your father, and you are His child. God loves you as His dear children and will always love you forever and ever. Nothing can separate you from his love. And I say, you’ve received salvation. I mean all of this and more. Salvation and everything it brings, you may say. Salvation is like one big package. When receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and savior, as your personal Lord and savior, you’re saved, we call it you’re saved. You’re born again, whatever you want to call it. You receive this salvation, but it’s one big package. And you may not even know half the things in the package, but the point is you’ve got it. You’re saved. You’ve received this salvation. And this salvation is the greatest treasure that you have today. I want to know what your reaction is at this point? Are you shocked to hear me say that your salvation is your greatest treasure? Are you disappointed? Are you thinking, well, I was thinking maybe message is going to be about this. Something else, something better. But you said salvation. Are you thinking about going and listening to something else because you think this is not so great. What is your reaction? I’m asking you this on purpose because your reaction shows what you think about salvation. When I say salvation is your greatest treasure. If you are shocked, if you’re disappointed, that means you don’t really understand how great salvation is. I purposely use the word treasure because people don’t think of — oftentimes people don’t even believers don’t think of salvation as a treasure, as the greatest treasure. So that leads me to my second point. I want to talk about why salvation is so valuable. Why do I say it’s your greatest treasure? Is it really that valuable? Let me give you some reasons as to why it’s so valuable, or let me give you some proofs that it is so valuable.

If you want to know the value of something, if you want to appreciate, we say appreciating the value of something. One of the ways to really appreciate it if you — to realize what life would be without it. For example, you’re sitting there in your home, probably not being able to come out. Now only we appreciate what a blessing it is to simply walk outside of the house, get into your car or bike and just go out on the road. We took that lightly, didn’t we? We thought that was nothing because we did it all the time. And we got so used to it. But now we can’t come out. By law, we can’t go out and do this and that. And so now we’re forced to sit in the house and we’re deprived of this. And now we appreciate the value of simply walking out of the house, going to the road and just, going here. This is something small like that. We appreciate it better because we know what life is without being able to do that. Similarly, we appreciate things better whenever we are somehow deprived of it, or like that. I say this only to say one of the ways to understand the value of salvation or to appreciate salvation more and how great it is, is to simply imagine what life would be without salvation. Imagine your life without salvation. Where would you be if not for your salvation? Would you just imagine that with me? Where would you be without your salvation? Where would the best of us be without salvation? Imagine. Let’s start from the best and go to the worst. Imagine the best person who has everything in this life and who achieves everything, and who does everything, and he’s on top of the world, but he has no salvation. What kind of a person will that person be? He will be like that man Jesus spoke about in Mark 8:36, the man who gains the whole world, but loses his soul. You know what Jesus said about that kind of man? I mean, this is the best kind of person there is. Who gains the whole world, achieves everything, owns everything, gains everything. Jesus said, what shall it profit a man, if he gains the whole world loses his own soul. No profit, zero profit, Jesus says, if you gain the whole world and you lose your own soul, meaning your soul is not saved, in the end all that you gained is for nothing. Zero profit. What shall it profit a man, if he gains the whole world and yet loses his own soul, that’s the best it can be. Without salvation, where would we be? The best we can be is like that person who gains the whole world, but loses his own soul. And therefore ends up with zero profit. Nothing.  You can have everything, but no salvation means you have nothing. That’s the best picture.

The worst picture is. I give you the worst picture now. Without salvation, where would we be? Our sins would not be forgiven. We would not be cleansed. We would be unworthy sinners before God, with no right ability to stand before him to come before him, to approach his throne, in prayer or praise or nothing. We just spent the — Before this, we were singing and praising God. Without salvation, our praises are not acceptable to God. Everybody’s praises are not acceptable to God. Everyone can’t just come to God and approach God, it doesn’t work that way because all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God the Bible says. And God is against sin and God will not look upon sin. And so He cannot tolerate a person in sin, which is all of us. And that is why He gives His salvation because in salvation, He takes the unworthy sinner and He cleanses him of his sin, forgives him, clothes him with the righteousness of Christ. And He looks upon him in a different way. Without salvation, we can’t even approach God’s throne. Can’t even pray to God asking him for some help, without salvation, we can’t have any hope of receiving any help from God in this life. All our life on this earth, we’d have to manage on our own, without God’s help, and when this life comes to an end, that’s when the real bad part starts. Without salvation, what would happen when this life comes to an end. This life will come to an end for each of us, for every one of us, one day, it’s going to come to an end.

We can live as long as we like or aspire to or whatever, but how long is that going to be a hundred, 120, whatever you want, you put it, but it’s going to come to an end, unless Jesus returns before that. One day, this life is going to end. Imagine what it would be. I’m asking you to imagine, because I think it’s important to realize where we would be without salvation to remember that. Without salvation, when this life ends, what would happen if we didn’t have salvation. We’d enter an eternity without God, without hope, without happiness, but even worse than that, we then turn the eternity of punishment, of judgment, of hell fire. That’s what the Bible says. Without salvation, we would be doomed to hell fire for all eternity. That’s where we would be. Terrible, terrible situation. Without salvation, we would have nothing now, nothing for all eternity, but punishment and hell fire. And just think about that. Without salvation, where would we be? That shows how important and how valuable and what a different salvation makes, because we would have nothing without salvation.

Secondly, I’m talking about the value of salvation. I’m talking about how do you appreciate its value? Imagine what life would be? What eternity would be without salvation. Secondly, think about how much of a different salvation has brought to you. Think about first, I said, think about where you would be without salvation. Now think about where you are because of salvation. Think about where you are because of salvation. I think I’m talking to save the believers. Because you’re saved, you got a lot of things. Don’t look at what you don’t have. Maybe you’ve lost a lot of things, but I’m asking you to think about what you have as a result of salvation. You have your sins forgiven. You have cleansing, you have the righteousness of Christ upon you. You have peace with God. Romans 5:1 says peace with God. God is not mad at you because you are saved. And because you are His child, God is your father and you are His dear child, and God loves you with salvation. You have everything. You have righteousness. You have the right to go before God. Boldly. In fact, God invites us as believers to come boldly to the throne of grace. Whenever we need mercy and grace in times of need. In fact, the Bible says we have the boldness to enter the holiest place by the blood of Jesus. Without salvation, you can’t even come near. With salvation, you can go to God, the God of heaven and earth boldly. Why? Not because we have qualified ourself. No, God has qualified us. We’ve had nothings and nobody’s, but God took us and washed us and cleansed us and clothed us with the righteousness of His perfect son. Because His son died for us, shed His blood for us. God qualifies us. When we put our faith in Christ, He qualifies us to come before Him, receive all the blessing. Not only in this life, the best part is in the next day.

As I told you, no matter how long you live, it’s only a drop in the ocean compared to eternity. Billy Graham in one of his summons, he talks about how he knows he’s saved and he knows where he’s going to go after he dies. And he knows that he’s going to live forever. And he says, I’m going to live for a billion years and more. We haven’t thought about that. With God, not a billion years and more than hell, but billion years and more with God. With Jesus in the new heavens and the new earth for ever and ever experiencing the greatest happiness, joy and fulfilling. Salvation has brought all of this. It has brought you into a relationship with God that can never be broken forever. Isn’t that amazing? Without salvation, we have nothing now, and forever. With salvation, we have everything. We have God Himself as our father forever. We have eternity itself on our side. We want to understand it’s value. Think about what life would be without it. Think about what life is with it.

Thirdly, if you want to understand its value, think about the unbelievably high price that was paid for your salvation. The way you understand something’s value. Let’s say you have a land, a piece of land. How do you know it’s value? Whatever a person is willing to pay for it. That’s what the land is worth. That’s the value of the land. If a person is willing to pay two crores for that land, then that land is worth two crore. Its value is two crore. Your salvation was bought with a price. A price was paid for your salvation did not come cheap. It did not come easy. That’s why we can never think, we got saved by our own good works or by our own righteousness or by doing, because that is not, that is nothing. Your salvation came at a very high price. What was the price? Just the price of the life of the son of God. The blood of the son of God was shed for us to save us. Jesus gave His life for us on the cross of Calvary, suffered and died for us. That’s the price for our salvation. Acts 20:28 puts it like this, that we believers the church of God were obtained. Let me just read a phrase from that verse. Paul there is giving instructions saying, care for the church of God, which God obtained with His own blood. Literally which God bought, which got acquired with His own blood. The price with which He acquired obtained the church, the group of believers, you and me, we’re part of the church, is his own blood. That’s the price.

So great is the price of our salvation. So if you want to know value of your salvation, you look at the price paid for it. The price paid for it was Jesus’ life. Jesus’s blood. How much is Jesus’s life and blood worth. What’s the value of that? That’s the value of your salvation. What is the worth and value of Jesus’s life and blood my friend? Forget about Jesus’s life and blood one minute. What is the word of a man’s life? Any person, any human being’s life? What is it worth? How great is it’s worth. Think about that one minute. We are willing to do anything to save a man’s life. Somebody we know is sick or a family member or something sick, and they need treatment. We’re willing to spend all the money, whatever it takes to save that person’s life. We’re willing to do anything, to save the person’s life. Why? Because that man’s life. That person’s life is worth it. The value of one life is so great that no amount of money, no amount of this or that is greater. You can do anything to save a man’s life, and it will be worth it, because a man’s life is worth so much. Can’t put a price on it.

Now I’m talking about any human being’s life. Now think about the value of the life of the son of God. What is its value? Is much more my friends, much more. In fact, I would say the value of Jesus’s life and blood is more than the whole world put together. All of creation put — you know why I say that? Because He’s the creator. He’s the one who made the world. He’s the one who created the world. In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. And everything was made by Him. You have the whole world on one side, all of creation. You have Jesus on one side was more valuable. It’s Jesus actually. His life is more valuable, but in salvation, the marvel of marvels is. This Jesus’s life and blood was given, was paid for the salvation of you and me. Now, this is so amazing because that means your salvation, when we talk about its worth and value, what is its value? It is more valuable than the world put together because it is as valuable as the price that was paid for it, which is Jesus’s life and blood. Let me say that again. Your salvation, how much is it worth and how valuable is it my friend? It is more valuable than the world put together. That is why I told you in the beginning itself, your salvation is worth more than your money, your treasure, your work, your talents, your family, your health, your life itself. In fact, your salvation is worth more than the world because it is worth the same as Jesus’s life and blood.

1 Peter 1: 18, Peter says, “Knowing that you are ransom from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things, such as silver or gold.” “Silver or gold is nothing “ Peter says. But with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. Your salvation is priceless because Jesus’s life is priceless. I could give you more proofs that your salvation is the greatest treasure you have and its value is so great. But the point is quite simple. There is no doubt that the most valuable thing you have, your greatest treasure is your salvation. I hope that’s clear to you. If you were shocked or disappointed, or if you were, if you didn’t really understand how it’s your greatest treasure. I hope now you’ve got at least that much, that it is your greatest treasure. There’s no doubt. There is nothing more valuable than your salvation. That’s why Paul says in 2 Corinthians 9:15, thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift. Inexpressible. He says, I don’t have words to express. The gift that God has given us, thanks be to God for this. We’ve seen what our treasure is, greatest treasure. It’s our salvation. And we’ve seen proofs that it is really as valuable as we say it is. And let me at this point, stop and just tell you, you have this greatest treasure, just to remind you, you have it. We’re walking around with a greatest treasure in our lives.

Let me also remind you that you may have lost several things. Your life may have been turned upside down through the events of the last year, and I don’t know. Maybe I’m speaking to someone like that, but let me remind you, let me tell you, let me point out this amazing fact that this greatest treasure of yours, this salvation has not been touched, has not been affected one bit by all the thousand problems that are surrounding us. Your life may be shaken up today, my friend, but your salvation is as secure as ever. Is that amazing? That gives me great comfort. That the greatest thing I own and I have. The greatest thing in my life is untouched by the thousand problems surrounding us, unaffected, unshaken. We’ve seen what our treasure is salvation. We’ve seen proofs for its value.

Now, thirdly, let me talk about how it practically, how we can benefit from this practically, in our day-to-day life. I want to bring this down to practical benefit, day-to-day, as we face our challenges, as we live our lives in this very challenging time, how do we practically benefit?I want to bring this down to that level, but I don’t want to just leave it up here. Yeah, we understand salvation is a great treasure and it’s valuable, but how do we practically benefit in our lives today from this truth? So let’s apply this very practically right. Now, here’s where there’s a problem, because all believersare saved, all believers have this great treasure of salvation. But the problem is often times any believers don’t seem to benefit from it very practically in their daily lives, in their day-to-day lives, when they face challenges or whatnot. They have this amazing thing, salvation. They have this treasure, but they don’t seem to practical benefit from it. Now on one level, that’s simply not true, meaning people are ignorant as to how they benefit from it. In other words, as I’ve already shown you, everything is actually only from the salvation. You can’t even praise God without your salvation. You can’t even pray to God without your salvation. So people don’t even realize how much they benefit actually.They think salvation is not such a big deal without even realizing that every little thing they do as a believer is actually based on that. So sometimes it’s just ignorance of people think they don’t benefit but, in another sense, people don’t benefit as much as they should. People don’t practically benefit on a day-to-day basis, as much as they should. In fact, the people even talk about salvation in a disparaging way. Have you seen this? I don’t know if you’ve, people will talk like this. Oftentimes they’ll say, talking about their life’s problems, they’ll say, I’m saved brother, but have you heard that? I’m saved, but, and then they’ll talk about one list of problems. The effect of which will be I’m saved, but it’s made no difference. I’m saved, but my life is still in a mess. I’m saved but, meaning the salvation didn’t really do anything big. They kind of that implication. I don’t know if they’re thinking that, but the way they speak about it is I’m saved, but I’m saved, but I’m saved, I’m baptized. I’m this, I’m that. But what’s the use? That’s the kind of implication that gives. Why do people not benefit from their salvation as much as they should? Why?

That’s very important question. It’s very important. Why don’t we see the benefits of this great treasure in our practical life sometimes? Let me give you the reason. There is a simple reason. I’m that probably there’s more than one, simple reason. We hardly think of our salvation. I’m talking about believers on the whole. Believers in general, we hardly think of our salvation. We get saved, and then we move on to supposedly higher and greater and more important matters. We don’t learn about our own salvation. We don’t study what the new Testament teaches about our salvation. We don’t try to understand how we got saved and how God planned it and how we got it, and what all is in it, and we don’t try to go into the depths of it. We don’t appreciate its greatness. We have not seen its greatness many times. We just continue to live life as if we are not saved almost sometimes, I’m talking about some people. This is not only the fault of believers, it’s also, I think the fault of Christian preaching, where salvation is viewed as this topic for unbelievers. The moment you say salvation, everybody thinks this is something unbelievers need. Unbelievers are the one who needs to hear the salvation gospel message. So it’s for them. We are all believers. We are already saved, we don’t need to know about salvation. So what we’re saved, let’s move on to something bigger, higher, better.

People are like that. Preaching is also many times like that. The end result is believers often do not value their own salvation in their day-to-day lives. No wonder they don’t benefit much from it. No wonder they don’t benefit much from it. If you want your salvation, this greatest treasure that you have to make a significant difference in your daily practical living, you’ve got to value it in your daily practical living. What does that mean? You’ve got to value. It means you’ve got to look into how great it is. You’ve got to study it. You’ve got to meditate on it. You’ve got to understand it. You got to appreciate it. You got to think about it, meditate. You got to go into it. You got to be conscious about it. It has to have some kind of important role in your daily life, but that’s the problem. That’s what’s missing. What I’m saying is, if you want this amazing treasure of salvation to really benefit you in a big way in your day-to-day life, you’ve got value it in your day-to-day life. Now let me ask you, do you value your salvation in your daily life? Do you value your salvation in your daily life? Now, if I ask you that question, of course, you’re going to say, yeah, I think it’s valuable, I think it’s great. We all would say that, but let me give you some tests on it to test to test yourself whether or not you value it, and how much you value it, the salvation in your daily. Here is one test. What are you most thankful for? What are you most thankful for? As Christians, especiallywe give thanks to God. We discipline, I hope we discipline ourselves. I hope we have a routine, even I would say of giving thanks to God. Now what I’m saying, what do you give thanks to God for most of the time. Most of time, what do you thank God for? When we say let’s give thanks to God. What comes to your mind first?

In the times that we are living in, I think oftentimes believers, what did they thank God for? We thank God for our health, we thank God for maybe protection. Thank you, Lord for giving me good health, protecting me from all harm and danger. Or maybe if we have fallen sick, and then we got healed, we’re thanking God for our healing, not only for our health, healing protection, but our family. Thank you, Lord for keeping my family safe and healing us and all that. This is how we usually thank God; I think. Now, that’s very good. There’s nothing wrong in that, because all of this comes from God only.Every good gift comes from God only. Life, breath and everything, the Bible says comes from Him. And so it’s good that we give, but the point is, what I’m trying to say is where does salvation factor in there? Does salvation factor into your thanksgiving and how much does it factor into it? In other words, do you thank God for your salvation?How much do you thank God for your salvation? How often do you thank God for your salvation? How does it compare with the other things that you thank God for?

Because the principle is what we’re most thankful for is what we value the most in our life. Let me say that again. What we’re most thankful for is what we value the most in our life. Another test is a test so that we can test ourselves. What makes you happy most often? What gives you happiness most often or joy? What gives you joy most often?For different people, it’s different things. For some people it’s finishing their assignment successfully, their work, doing their job well. That gives a sense of satisfaction, doesn’t it? For some others, maybe it’s seeing their kids do well, their children, when they see their kids really succeed, that gives them a sense of joy and happiness in that satisfaction. Here’s the principle. What do you enjoy most of the time? What gives you joy most of the time, is what you value most of the time. I say all this to say, do you know the joy of salvation? Do you know the joythe salvation gives you joy. The salvation give you joy. Let me put it like this. When you think about your salvation, does it make you happy, does it causes you to rejoice. Have you experienced this joy that comes from knowing that you’re saved, and just thinking about it. Have you experienced this? Do you miss it when you don’t experience it for a while? Like the Psalmist David, he missed it in Psalm 51. When he has sinned, after he commits murder and adultery.These horrible sins, he kind of, he must’ve had a tough time. All the guilt and all that. And what happened in Psalm 51, one of the things he says he says he misses. And one of the things he prays to God for is this Psalm 51 verse 12 restore to me, the joy of your salvation, Psalm 51 is very repentance as God for forgiveness. One of the things he says is restore to me, the joy of your salvation.

He’s saying, God, I missed that joy that came from knowing that I am saved and you’re my savior. The Psalmist David usually had that joy and he often had the joy, but sin took that away. It didn’t take away salvation, but it took away his joy. The joy that comes from his salvation, meditating on his salvation. And he says, God, I miss that, I want that back, restore to me the joy of your salvation. Do you have that kind of yearning? Have you experienced the joy of salvation? Do you know what it’s like to feel that? And if you have not felt it for a while, do you miss it? I can keep giving you more tests. I’m talking about tests to see how much value do you actually place on salvation in your daily life. The point is, I can give you more tests such as, what calms your fears, what gives you hope most of the time. But the point is very simple. I don’t have to give more tests because the point is what we value the most in our daily lives must be seen somewhere in our daily lives. What we value most in our daily lives will be seen somewhere in our daily lives. It will be seen in our Thanksgiving, or it will be seen in our joyful moments, or it will be seen in our hope or whatever. It must be seen somewhere. It must be found somewhere. It must be in your Thanksgiving, or it must be in your rejoicing, or it must be in your hopes or somewhere if it’s not anywhere. If salvation is not a big deal in your thanksgiving, in your rejoicing, in your hoping. If it’s not a big deal there, it’s not a big deal, period, in your life. It may be the biggest treasure you have, but you simply, the truth of the matter is we’re not giving it the value it deserves.

If we’re not giving it a prime place in our Thanksgiving, in our rejoicing, in our hoping and things like this, it must be seen somewhere. And if it’s not seen in these places, that means we don’t value it, as we ought to in our daily lives. We may think of it on Sunday, and we may think of it when we take communion and say, thank you God for saving me, dying for me. But some believers that’s about it. Sunday communion. That’s it. That’s when they think about salvation, that’s it. No wonder, they don’t benefit from it, because they don’t value it in their daily lives. Now I’ve shown you, I’ve talked about why we don’t benefit, but now let me talk about, okay, how do we practically benefit? But because this is where I really want to come to, How do we practically benefit from this amazing salvation that we have? And I want to give you some specific, practical, easy ways. Because I believe that on your worst days, the thought of — on your saddest days, let me put it like that. On your worst and saddest days, I believe that your salvation, the thought of your salvation will reduce your sadness. It’ll reduce your misery. It will lift you up. It will comfort you. It’ll give you peace and it will give you hope. I told you at the beginning of the sermon that I have, especially in my mind as I’m preaching this, I have people who are going through a very tough time, lost this or that. And really struggling in many ways, feel that their whole life is shaken up.

I have those people, so let me apply this practically to them. If you’ve lost your loved one, if you’ve lost your job, if you feel like your life has all shaken up. If you just feel down, let me show you how this can pick you up. I’m telling you to think of your salvation and you feel like your life is all in a mess and everything is upside down, everything is affected and you don’t know what to think. And you don’t know how to get up and progress from here. I’m asking you to think about your salvation because a thousand things may be affected. Even if a thousand things in your life have been affected. Even if many things have been removed or taken away or affected or shaken up, your salvation has not been touched. Your salvation is unaffected, unshaken by all that has happened to you, my friend. And that’s why I’m telling you to look there, because that gives you a little bit of an anchor. It gives you a little bit of a solid place. When everything around you is shaking. I’m telling you to look here where your salvation. You are still saved. You are still saved it. You are still forgiven. You are still accepted by God. God is not angry with you. Remember the truths of salvation, my friend. You have peace with God. God is not mad at you. God is not punishing you. No,He punished His son on the cross for your sin, my sin. That’s what salvation says. When he looks at us today, He doesn’t see our sin. He sees the righteousness of His son covering us, enveloping us.

He sees us as righteous, so what you’re going through is not a punishment from God. Look at your salvation my friend, look at the cross. Your salvation is still intact. You’re still righteous, you’re still at peace with God. You may not have peace inside, but you have the most important peace, which is not peace inside. It is peace with God. That means God has no problem with you. Whether you have problem with him or not today. Whether you’re questioning His loyalty or not. God has no problem with you because you’re saved, you’re His child. I’m telling you to think of your salvation because I believe when you think of that, you’ll immediately receive a comfort. The peace will come inside. When you think of the peace with God, you have not lost your relationship with God. You may have lost several things, but you have not lost your most important treasure, salvation and everything that it brings. And it brings a relationship with God. He’s your father. You’re His child, and that remains the same. God still loves you. Nothing can separate you from his love. All these things are still in intact. No matter what you have suffered, no matter what you have lost, understand that any suffering, all suffering, it cannot touch our main thing. What is our main thing? God, His love,His salvation. It cannot touch it. I’m asking you to look there. Think of that.

Let me give you a specific example. Let me show you. I’m saying, think of it, but let me show you how it’s done. It’s done by going to the word. Two weeks back, you remember we talked about what we need to do to move forward to actually receive peace or whole bar strength or whatever we need. What do we need? God does a lot of things, but we need to go to His word. Remember I said, go to the word and let the word go into you. Go to the word. So now let’s go to the word, Romans chapter 8, when your life is all shaken up, and when you’re experiencing, when you’re at your worst season. I have people like that in mind mainly. People who are going through their worst days What do you do? You go to the word, my friend. The principal is the same. The solution is same. You go to the word, but you got to pass this like this and which will help you a lot, I think. Romans chapter 8 and look at verse 35,who shall separate us from the love of Christ, shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword. As it is written for your sake, we are being killed all the day, long we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. As you read these words, I hope that you’re getting a comfort from them. Look at what it says. It says, who shall separate us or what shall separate us from the love of Christ. And then he names specific things. Maybe you’re going through one or two of that, tribulation. Can tribulation separate you from the love of Christ? Can distress separate you, can persecution or famine or nakedness or any kind of danger or sword. Even if you’re being, and then he uses this picture being killed all the day long and regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. Even if you’re going through your worst days, experiencing the worst circumstances. Can this separate you from the love of Christ? The answer is obviously No.

Who shall separate? That means no one can, nothing can separate us from the love of Christ. So as you read a verse like this, this is how you practically do this. You go to the word; you go to passages like this. You go to these unshakable things. When everything around you is shaking, the love of Christ is unshakeable. You go and you read that. And as you read it, as you, this kind of verses, you got to open your mouth and read it. It’s not enough just read it like that, silently, open your mouth and say, who shall separate us from the love of Christ. Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword. Nothing can separate me from the love of Christ. Now, when you just read it like that and just speak it, I believe it will give you a great comfort. Now, if you just do that, you’ll receive a certain level of comfort. But I want to go into this a little deeper. I want to show you how you can receive, not just comfort, but the kind of surety that Paul has because Paul, if you, the Bible is an amazing book because you get whatever you put into it, meaning you can go and you can read through it and you can get something just on a superficial reading. But if you go deeper, you’ll get more. So you’ll never go without profit. Even if you read superficially, you will get at least something. But if you got deeper, you’ll get more, and as I look at this passage, and as I meditate on this passage, I realized that Paul, Paul is a — what can I say? He’s talking in a very strange way.

Paul is talking in a very unusual way, very strange way. Didyou notice that? Usually when bad things happen to people.When bad things happen, how do people think. They’ll question God’s love? They will doubt God’s love. When bad things like Paul is talking about tribulation and persecution and distress and nakedness, and all this. If this is happening, usually what is the approach? People will start questioning God’s love. They’ll say, does Christ love me? Does He still love me, or has He taken His love away? Is He angry with me? Is this why this is all happening to me. That’s the way people usually think. But Paul, he does not. Paul says, even if the worst things were to happen, even if all this were to happen, nothing can separate me from the love of Christ. I want you to notice Paul, where we would not only question Christ’s love, Paul does not question whether Christ love him. In fact, loves him. In fact, he does the opposite. He is sure, surety. He is hundred percent sure that Christ loves him. And on top of that, he is a hundred percent sure that all these terrible problems cannot separate him from the love of Christ. Cannot take him away from the love of Christ. It’s a very strange and upside down way of looking at things.

Usually people, when bad things happen to them, they will question and doubt God’s love. And they’ll say, does God love me? Paul is doing it upside down. He’s saying the worst things, but in the midst of that, he does not question. He does not doubt God’s love. And he has a — instead he has a hundred percent confidence and surety in God’s love. And that’s amazing to me. That leads me to think how in the world is he talking like this? And how can he talk like this? What gives him this kind of confidence? I’ll tell you what gives him this kind of confidence. The verse that we’ve were reading is Romans 8:35. This is at the climax of chapters one through eight in Romans. Paul has been talking about some amazing stuff for eight chapters. And here in these verses, he reaches a climax, which is as a result of everything that has been talking about, what has he been talking about for eight chapters? What has been the subject? If you know Romans, you know that the subject is basically salvation. The gospel. Paul has been talking about God’s plan of salvation, this brilliant plan of salvation, which God executed by sending His son into the world and His son died for us. And then how we receive, , in detail, he talks about all this. In the previous chapters, in Romans. In Romans 3 and 4, he talks about how we receive the salvation, not by doing good works, simply by faith, just believe. And by grace through faith, we get the salvation. This is how Abraham got, this is how David got it.

He says in chapter 4, this is how we get it. And it’s amazing. And then the chapter 5, he talks about what all comes with the salvation package. And then in chapter 6 and 7, he talks about how we can live victoriously over sin. And so on chapter 8, he talks about how the holy spirit empower, empowers us and leads us to live this new life that salvation gives us. By time he comes to the end of chapter eight before, say until Romans 8:30, he has even covered about the matter about how one day when Jesus returns salvation will reach it perfection or complete fulfillment consummation. Our salvation is right now given us a down payment. We’re saved, but it’s like only the down payment has been given. The full perfection, and the consummation of the salvation is waiting the return of Christ. When Jesus returns, our bodies itself will be redeemed. We’ll receive new and glorious bodies. And we will receive that salvation in its perfect state. He has covered all that already. By the time he comes to Romans 8:30. Before this passage, he has covered it. He has been doing a very deep meditation on salvation. The whole plan, the way it was executed how we receive it, how we experience its power. And after all this, he’s able to speak these words.

Now, you may say, well I don’t know Romans 1 to 8 brother, you’re talking all this. I don’t know whether to believe you or not. You don’t have to even look at Romans 1 to 8. Just look at the few verses before this. I want you to just look at the few. We read Romans 8:35. Just look with me at the previous, just two, three verses. You will see that what is in Paul’s mind is salvation. Out of that only he’s able to have such surety and confidence. Look at Romans 8:30, we read 35.Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Look at 34. I’ll show you that what’s in Paul’s mind is salvation. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore, he is also risen? Who is he who condemns? What is he talking about? Who is he who gives us a condemnation sentence that comes out in the [inaudible 00:59:21] Means who gives you a condemning sentence? Right? The picture is like a courtroom where the judge gives a condemning sentence, guilty. And then you you’re pronounced to given a punishment. Once the judge says you’re guilty, then you’re sentenced, based on the crime. What Paul has in mind is. I’ll tell you what he has in mind. He actually has in mind, the final judgment day and leading up to that day when Christ the judge will judge the earth and He will condemn the guilty.

Paul is thinking of that. And he’s saying, who is he, that condemns? It is Christ who died. The interesting thing is, Paul knows that Christ is the judge on that final day, but Christ is the one who died. And so Christ is not going to condemn him on that final day. And if Christ cannot condemn him and Christ does not condemn him, nobody can condemn him. Nobody can — he’s challenging. It’s a challenging question. Who is he who condemns? Christ died? Does anybody want to challenge the death of Christ? For me? What he means to say is nobody can condemn me and sentence me to eternity in hell because Christ died for me. Meaning Christ already took my condemnation upon himself. Christ already took the punishment for my sin upon himself and Christ satisfied the sentence, finished, died for me, no more condemnation left, no more condemning sentence left for me, Christ died. And He’s risen. Furthermore, he has also risen, who is even at the right-hand, who also makes intercession. He is thinking about the cross and how now, because of the cross, we are not condemned. We will not be punished. Christ took our punishment. We will not be condemned punished, now, not ever not on that final judgment day. He is thinking about salvation, and it’s results. Verse 33, the previous verse, also he’s thinking about salvation, I’ll show you verse 33, who shall bring a charge against God’s elect.

It is God who justifies. As soon as you see the word justifies, you should immediately realize that’s going to come to salvation. That’s the word Paul brings up in Romans 3. Or even before that, but Romans 3it becomes very important. Justifies means what? Somebody put it like this. It’s just as if we’d never sinned. Justify. That’s just a nice way of saying it. But justify means to make righteous.

In Romans 3 and 4, Paul explains how God takes sinners and makes them righteous. How he justifies, makes righteous the ungodly. Simply when they put their faith in Christ, they’re justified, made righteous, counted as righteous. It’s connected to salvation. It’s a very important word for Paul connecting. It’s a basic salvation word. It expresses something basic that happens in salvation. A sinner comes to God, puts his faith in Christ and that’s it. He’s no longer a sinner is righteous. An exchange takes place where he is now clothed with the righteousness of Christ. That’s justification. He’s thinking about salvation. Who can bring a charge against God’s elect. It is God who justifies. The previous verse also, he’s thinking about salvation. He who did not spare His own son, but delivered Him up for us all. He’s thinking about the cross, how our salvation was bought, purchased, God delivered up His son for us all. He did not spare His own son, delivered Him up for us all means for our salvation. Think about the cross, Christ died, rose again. He’s thinking about how, because of that, God justifies us and Christ does not condemn us and nobody can condemn us anymore because God has acquitted us. All this is salvation.

Read the previous verse, Romans 8:31, what then shall we say to these things if God is for us, who can be against us? Now, here’s the verse which many people know, but they take it very generally. God is for us, who can be against us. Now, it’s true generally, but it’s true generally only because it’s true specifically about salvation. Because you must understand the whole thing up to Romans 1 to 8 has been about the gospel about salvation. There’s amazing salvation. And then he comes to Romans 8:31 and he says, what then, shall we say to these things? What does that mean? You got to read the Bible in context. Maybe I’ve lost some of you. I don’t know if you’re following or what. If you read the Bible — like I said, you get from the Bible. What you put into it. You read superficially. You’ll get a superficial temporary comfort. You read deep, you go deep, you take the time, you meditate. You think about things. You’ll get a deep comfort. I can just tell you, God is for you. God is not against you. Be hopeful and God will help you in your mourning will be turned into dancing and your sorrow, into joy. And I can just make you feel good and send you out. I don’t want to do that. I’m telling you to dig deeper, I’m telling you to look at this verse and I’m telling you to see that this comes out of a deep conviction. It comes out of a deep meditation in salvation.

Paul is saying in Romans 8:31, what then shall we say to these things? What it means is I have spoken for eight chapters about this amazing salvation. What then, shall I say now, how shall I bring this to a conclusion? And he says, if God is for us, who can be against us? You know what he means? He says, I’ve shown you this amazing salvation. How can I conclude this? If God is for us? What it means to say is if God is for us in salvation, that means he’s for us everywhere all the time, who can be against us. It’s connected to salvation only. It’s coming from their. His conviction is surety, his confidence is coming from there. He says, if God is as proved himself to be for us in salvation, then he is for us forever. And if God is for us, no one can be against us. It’s not just a general statement. If God did not spare his own son, but gave Him up for our salvation, then will He not also give us all other things. Again, it’s springing from that salvation. God is the one who justifies and we cannot be condemned, and all that. And that’s how he comes to verse 35. And He’s able to have that upside down thinking. Just think about this for a minute. People who have lost many things, people who are going through terrible time, people who are just having the worst season in their life. There’s no way they can look at their life and get any kind of confidence that God loves them. It’s impossible. It’s impossible, because everywhere they look in their circumstances, it raises a question. Does God love them?

That this way I’m saying, don’t look at the circumstances, but look at this. What do you look at? You look at something, look at your salvation. Because when you look at your salvation, that will give you the deep conviction and confidence that it gave Paul. When you look at yourself, when you meditate on that salvation, then you’ll come out of it saying, yeah, I lost this and that and that, and I’m in in a terrible state today, but salvation shows that God is for me, not against me. Salvation shows that God loves me. Christ loves me. And this is enough proof. What I see in salvation is enough proof to counter all the proof that I see in my outward circumstances. This upside down thinking is possible only if you draw from a deep well, deep foundation. So with this kind of deep conviction, Paul ends this whole passage. After saying nothing and separated me from the love of Christ. Look at verse 37,yet in all these things, what things in all the troubles and the persecution and the distress and all the suffering in all these things, we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. Verse 38,for I am persuaded. Look at that, persuaded. Not I’m just having a little bit of hope. No, I’m persuaded, that neither death nor life. How can he talk like this? Is that salvation? He says, no matter what happens, let death itself come. So what? He says salvation ensures that I’m with God forever, neither death, nor life, angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creative thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. This is the apostle Paul, not an ordinary man talking.

This is a person who has gone through a lot of suffering my friend. If you are going through a lot of suffering, let me tell you, this is a man in suffering speaking here. He has gone through. Paul talks about this list of suffering. He has gone through half of this, tribulation, distress, persecution, peril. He has gone through all this. And he’s able to have that kind of unshakeable confidence because he has been meditating on his salvation. He is persuaded. Nothing can separate him from the love of Christ. So I encourage you to get into your salvation, meditate on it, study it, listen to a message on it. Read the book of Romans. Don’t just be the kind of people who read Romans 8:31 to the end. No. Be the kind of person who reads Romans 1 to 8, who gets into it deeply, studies it, meditates on it. All right, Let me give you another example. I talked about people who are struggling, lost this and that in life and how you can benefit from this. Now, let me speak to those who are suffering from fear. I want to show how practically you can benefit from this truth of salvation. Fear. Fear is a big problem today. For many people, fear of losing this or that, or fear of what will happen? What if this happens or what if that happens? What if my health, something happens or what if my family suffers this or that? All kinds of thoughts come into our head and kind of, sometimes it parallel people, the fear. How do you deal with that? Well, very simple, when it comes to practically dealing with things, you got to go to the word, go to the word. So you got to go to the word and have a strategy.

If you’re afraid of something, go to a promise that matches what you’re afraid of. If you’re afraid of not being protected, go to a promise that is about protection, Psalms 91, or whatever you know, or look it up, Google it, do something, go to the word, go to a promise that regarding protection, take it, meditate on it, say it, confess it, if you are afraid about whether you’ll be healed or not, go to a promise, God’s promise regarding healing. So this is a strategy that is a very good strategy, which you can use. But sometimes, Now listen to this. Sometimes all kinds of fears attack us at the same time. It’s not like one fear. It’s all kinds of fears attacking us at the same time. So much so that we feel overwhelmed. You know what I’m talking about? Let me describe another scenario. Sometimes a person is afraid and you ask them, why are they afraid they’re not even able to tell you why? Have you seen that? You asked them, why are you afraid? They say, I’m not sure, it’s like a cloud of fear hanging over me. It’s like, just I’m afraid, but I don’t know why exactly. It’s like, they’re afraid about everything basically generally and generally afraid. When that happens, I think — let me give you an easy and a very practical way to get rid of that kind of fear. An overwhelming attack of fear, a very general attack. Let me give you a practical way.

Go to the promises regarding salvation. Go to God’s word, pick the promise regarding salvation, especially the ones which talk about God’s saving us to the end, God saving us all the way. God saving us from everything. There are these sweeping promises in the Bible that are about salvation, but they are sweeping in the sense that it talks about God saving us all the way to the end from everything forever. Have you seen these kinds of promises? You need to know this. Let me give you some examples here. John chapter 10, John chapter 10 verse 28. So let’s say you are just having this cloud of fear, you don’t know from what or let’s you are attacked from fear, with all of all kinds of fearful thoughts about various things, just feels too overwhelming. Go to John chapter 10, verse 28. Look at this verse. Amazing promise. I give them eternal life. Jesus is speaking. I give them eternal life and they will never perish. And no one will snatch them out of my hand. If you’re a believer, this applies to you, Jesus says, I give them eternal life. Jesus has given you eternal life and look what Jesus says, they will never perish. You got to stop and look at these words. They will never perish and no one will snatch them out of my hand. Have you received eternal life? Jesus is looking at you and saying, you will never perish. No one will ever snatch you out of His hand.

Just picture that. You are not just hanging on thin air. You are in the hands of Jesus, in the mighty hands of Jesus. He has taken you in. He has given you eternal life and you will never perish. Look at those words, you will never perish. No one, nothing can snatch you out of his hand. And as if this is not enough, Jesus gives one more further assurance. Look at this. Look, at verse 29, my father who has given them to me is greater than all. And no one is able to snatch them out of the father’s hand. He says, not only are you in my hands believer, you are actually in my father’s hand, it’s like a double hand, two hands protecting you, covering you, overshadowing you. He says, you’re in my hands, but also you’re in my father’s hand. And no one can snatch you out of my hand and no one can certainly snatch you out of my father’s hand. Don’t worry. You are safe in my hands. Can you see this kind of promise? My friend, you take this, you meditate on this. I don’t get how many fears you have. I don’t care what kind of fear you have. It has to go. It will go such are the power of these words my friend. Just one verse like this, just one promise like this. It will drive out those fears. Just stay with this. You got to stay with it. You got to meditate on it. You got to speak these words. You got to think about each word. Each word has to become precious to you.

This kind of promise. It’s a promise about salvation. I give them eternal life. They’ll never perish. No one can ever snatch them out of my hand and out of the father’s hand, they are mine forever, Jesus says. You are in the hands of Jesus and the father. 2 Timothy 4:18, another example.2 Timothy 4:18, this is like hitting two birds with one stone. You know that phrase? We say in English, usually with one stone, you hit one bird. If you’re going to hit two birds, that’s very good. I would say this is probably like hitting all the birds with one stone. Meaning you cast out all your fears just with one promise like this. That is the kind of promise, this is. It’s a sweeping promise about salvation till the end. 2^ndTimothy verse 4:18, the Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom,to him be the glory forever and ever. Amen. The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed. You may say, I got this. There’s so many evil deeds. There’s so many evil, so much evil surrounding me. So many problems. So many fears, so many this and that. The Lord will rescue you from every evil deed and bring you safely into His heavenly kingdom, means He will take care of everything from now until eternity forever. Don’t worry. That’s the kind of sweeping promise this is. It covers everything.

Hebrews 7:25. Another example, to the word, go to these kinds of promises about salvation, these sweeping things that covered everything. Don’t just — what I’m saying is in your strategy to fight your fears, you should not just be going to just this promise, about healing. Just this promise, about protection. That means you’re not even considering salvation at all. I’m saying factor in your salvation, in the way you fight against your fears. And I have seen I’ve experienced that it is amazingly effective.? Hebrews 7:25, consequently, He is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them. Here is an amazing promise. Jesus is able to save to the uttermost all the way to the end, that means. Jesus is able to save to the uttermost since He always lives to make intercession, because He’s always living, praying for us. That’s what it means. What an amazing thought. Fill your mind with this my friend, Jesus lives forever. And He prays for you forever. So what it says, read it. And therefore,He’s able to save you forever, all the way to the end.

This is like a blanket which covers everything. You put this on your fears, everything has to subside. I can give you more examples, but I’ll stop. Fight your fears, your overwhelming fears with God’s promises of salvation. My friend, apply this amazing salvation you have. Apply it to your struggles, your challenges that you’re going through right now, receive strength from it, whether you’re in fear, whether you’re in — lost many things or whatever your state is. I’m telling you when you meditate on your salvation, when you think about your salvation, when you really understand and appreciate its greatness, a peace will come over you, a joy will fill your soul. The holy spirit will fill you the joy of salvation. You’ll get a great hope. You’ll begin to speak like the apostle Paul in Romans 8:31, not just read his words. I’m talking. You’ll begin to speak like that. I am persuaded that no matter what comes against me, God loves me. God is for me. God will rescue me. God will help me. You will begin to speak with this deep conviction out of a deep foundation. That is my prayer for you. Give this kind of value to your salvation, your greatest treasure.

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