Of The Freeness Of Salvation

Open your bibles to Matthew 11…. This morning we are returning to our look at our statement of faith. We are on section six this morning and looking at the freeness of Salvation. Keep in mind that the purpose of preaching through this is to be a tool for us as a church. The statement of faith takes these biblical principles and summarizes them in a neat fashion, but sometimes we need to have a bit of explanation. So, may God bless the preaching of his word, the preaching of his doctrine, and the preaching of truth. Let me first read the section from our statement of faith and then we will stand together for the reading of God’s word.

“We believe that the blessings of salvation are made free to all by the gospel; that it is the immediate duty of all to accept them by a cordial penitent, and obedient faith; and that nothing prevents the salvation of the greatest sinner on earth, but his own inherent depravity and voluntary rejection of the gospel; which rejection involves him in an aggravated condemnation.”

Matthew 11:20–30 LSB

20 Then He began to denounce the cities in which most of His miracles were done, because they did not repent. 21 “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles had occurred in Tyre and Sidon which occurred in you, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. 22 “Nevertheless I say to you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for you. 23 “And Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? You will descend to Hades; for if the miracles had occurred in Sodom which occurred in you, it would have remained to this day. 24 “Nevertheless I say to you that it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment, than for you.” 25 At that time Jesus said, “I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants. 26 “Yes, Father, for this way was well-pleasing in Your sight. 27 “All things have been handed over to Me by My Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father; nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him. 28 “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. 29 “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 “For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

Jesus begins this discourse by denouncing cities or in the positive, pronouncing their judgment. Chorazin and Bethsaida were two Jewish cities that Matthew declares Jesus to have performed many miracles in. What this text is implying is that the miracles of Jesus declared his likeness to God. They declared a reason to listen to Him. And what Jesus pronounces to these Jewish people that are listening is that it will be more tolerable when? In the day of judgment… when is that? The day of judgment is the day that Jesus returns to the earth to make war. On that day He will judge the living and the dead. He will separate those who are saved into eternal glory and those who are not into the eternal abyss. 

How can one know if they are saved? Well the whole issue Jesus takes with these cities is that they have not repented. They continue to go on in life like everything is fine. They heard a message like I preached last week and went, ahhhh I don’t need to take that seriously. So, Jesus tells them directly… you will be sorry you don’t take this seriously. This isn’t a human judgment either, he knows their hearts and knows how hard they are. He brings up the cities of Tyre and Sidon. What is the significance of these cities? Well it is that these are two gentile cities. Were jews fans of gentiles? No. But notice what Jesus said about them… You oh jewish cities won’t repent… but they would have repented if the miracles were done there. They are missing the significance now, but we can here the mistep when Jesus tells us in Matthew 15

“But He answered and said, “I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.””

Matthew 15:24 LSB

So Christ, the word of God. The literal Hebrew scripture, came in the flesh to Hebrew people and the Hebrew people rejected him. But if he would go on over to Tyre and Sidon, they would be saved. Christ came to the Jews first… he came to the center! But in their ignorance and hardness of heart He turned a swtich and projected light for the Gentiles in the outermost.

This would have been a diss to the Jews because they saw themselves alone as a better class of people who alone had the right and access to salvation through their heritage. He is calling out how blind they are. Salvation does not come by DNA, or geographical placement… Salvation comes through repentance. Now understand, Jesus came to them directly. He doesn’t pronounce judgment on the people that they had not been warned about. And because they were warned, and they still rejected it Jesus says they will suffer an unbearable consequence. 

But why is it worse for them? Because he was there! It’s like the amount of shame you suffer for not paying attention in class right before test time. What does the instructor do. He says, the exam is coming up, make sure you can explain this, and that, and this other thing because it WILL BE on the test. Now, the test is on monday and its sunday night and you can’t remember what the instructor said… or have not tried at all to study and you begin to cram… how do you think you will do on the exam? Probably not well… Ans who’s fault is it? Yours. You don’t do bad on the exam because the teacher is mean and tricked you… not because test taking is just too hard for you… those are blame shifting excuses. You don’t do well on the exam because you didn’t take what the instructor said seriously. Salvation had come to chorazin and Bethsaida, and they didn’t care.

He says the same thing about Capernaum. A Jewish fishing town, and the complete center of Jesus’ ministry. He came to them and spent so much time there preaching and teaching and working miracles that they had enough evidence to know the Savior! But they rejected Him. Now, he goes a step farther and says if the works done in Capurnaum would have been done in Sodom… THEY TOO would have repented and it would still be around… this in my opinion would have been an even greater judgment on them. For Sodom was understood to be the epicenter of sinful living. So wretched that God blotted it off the map with a fire storm from Heaven. Jesus tells these Jews, it will be better in the day of judgment for Sodom than for them. And he sang the song of salvation in every key, and with every instrument, and on repeat… But they still rejected it. 

When we say that salvation is free what is meant is that the message of salvation is not preached to certain age groups, ethnic groups, nationalities, or class of wealth. Consider with me for a moment what Paul says in Romans 6:23 

Romans 6:23 LSB

23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gracious gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

some translations say, "but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord".

What is happening here is a contrast of sorts.

The wage of sin is death. What we know about wages is that they are paid to people who earn them, right? A workman doesn't work for free. He is worth his wage. So the wage of sin is death. All men, are workers in sin. Every class, male or female, brown, white, American or not. Humanity is born a worker of sin. That’s what we need saved from! We get the wage of death because we earned it. Death, came into the world through one man, that is Adam. And all the children on Adam are partakers in that death. 

But the free gift, the gracious gift is not earned. Meaning to say, eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord is not earned, it is free. To say that it is free means that you can't earn your salvation! You can’t work for it. There only ladder man can climb to get a promotion in his spiritual life is the ladder of Christ. To say that you earned or deserve salvation is to say that you worked salvation. No not you, for you child of Adam are by nature a child of wrath. It is by grace alone that you have been saved. Salvation belongs to God…

“Behold, the eye of Yahweh is on those who fear Him, On those who wait for His lovingkindness, To deliver their soul from death And to keep them alive in famine.”

Psalm 33:18-19 LSB

In the midst of a famine even the greatest farmer is left dependent upon God alone for salvation. It is he who brings the crops. It is he who opens and closes the womb. It is he who gives and takes away. So it it with our soul. Your soul without God is famished. Even the greatest good work cannot save you. But the grace of God, oh it is salvation. His loving kindness endures forever! Thus my friends, fear God. Do you fear God? You should. He is a righteous judge. Even though he allows those who are dead in their trespasses and sin to taste his grace every day, the day will come when he will no longer. Wages will be distributed accordingly, and on our final day, our righteous judge will examine our life to see if we are in Christ, the true salvation. 

But consider now the end of the Matthew 11… Jesus thanks God for revealing truth to infants. Jesus continues to level the charges against them and now indicts them as a warning. Because one day he will one day again judge them as the chosen savior and King and say “depart from my presense, I never knew you”…. He is doing on earth what he will do in Heaven. He is telling the righteous judge that he doesn’t know them. Which is the only way to be saved, is through knowing Jesus. Your only plea on the day of judgment is knowing Him.

He says they have no plea, but the infants do. Who are the infants? I put before you that the infants are His disciples. The 12 have come to him, and he sent them out. That was in the passage before. They believed Him And repented! They are infants in their faith. In contrast to the “wise and intelligent” who are so prideful to believe they could never be taught anything, and they are so right in their own eyes to say…. This Jesus guys, he isn’t the Messiah. But the disciples of Jesus don’t know very much, they are not wealthy, and by their own estimation don’t have the answer… They simply believe. 

And Jesus is thanking God. Because what we have here in these verses is a relationship between the work of God in salvation and the responsibility of man. It is God alone who reveals these things to people. How are eyes and ears open? By God’s farming work. He plows up the settled ground to receive the seeds of truth. It is by HIS grace that anyone is drawn to christ to hear the words of truth.  And Jesus tells us that it is the son who chooses also to reveal the Father to whom He wills. Which is to say, he is not revealing him further to these people and they are upstream without a paddle. But then what does Jesus say? 

Come to me all you who what? Are weary and heavy laden. Remember my sermon last week? The only ones who live are the ones who first declare, I’m dying, the ones who need the remedy shout, I’m sick and in need of medicine. The call of Christ is to all people. But who will find rest in Jesus? Who will find rest for their souls? Who will find Jesus to be gentle and humble and easy and light rather than burning with anger and exacting the wrath of God on the day of judgment? It is the heavy laden… oh my friends, salvation being free 

It is not that salvation did not cost something. 

Salvation cost Jesus his life! He paid for salvation with his life on the cross. It was there that your heavy and wearly burden was paid for. He humbled himself to the point of death on a cross. He felt every pound of the hammer. He felt every second that ticked by as his flesh was falling off of him. He felt the distance from his father like he had never had. And he didn’t deserve any of it. He alone has the right to give rest. And those who will find it are those who come to him. To have rest is to come to the right Jesus. There are many ideas out there today of who Jesus is, in many of those estimations he would have never raised his voiced and said, woe to you… but here he is. In Matthew 11. Do you know the right Jesus? Is your salvation found in Jesus Christ, God’s declared King alone? 

Salvation being free does not mean that salvation does not cost you something. 

For we hear the words of Christ in our text. Repent, and come to me. It requires coming. And coming requires the load being placed on you so that you may learn just how heavy your sin actually it. It requires humility, trust, desperation… it requires bearing a cross daily. Coming to Christ costs us family, and friends who hear of your repentance and despise you for it. Coming to Christ requires something of us...the gracious gift of God is his gift. But it requires you to receive it. And how do we do that? As a child receive his food… daily in faith, and gladness. 

Salvation being free does not mean that all will be saved. 

the freeness fo Salvation through Jesus Christ is not simply toleration. My friends, we must open our eyes today with an introspection. A searching. And consider, am I following Jesus? And is it the Jesus I want or the Jesus God has shown me in his word? There is only one. And the divining line or salvation is this… who do you say Jesus is? 

Let me end with this… John Bunyan once wrote this… "Take heed of this you that flatter yourselves with your own deceivings. Words will not do with Jesus Christ. Coming is Coming, and nothing else will go for coming with him."… come, and welcome, to Jesus Christ.