SERMON TITLE: MEANING AND SIGNIFICANCE OF SALVATION

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SYNOPSIS:

A heartfelt gathering exalts Jesus Christ, celebrates salvation, and gives thanks for God’s mercy, faithfulness, and blessings over Ghana’s jubilee year.

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TRANSCRIPT.
All that is within me, bless his holy name. Mighty Jehovah, we come to you.
Unto you the gathering has always been. Unto you and for your glory this
gathering. And while we bow our hearts and minds and spirits and crowns
before you, we ask you to raise our spiritual ears and our understanding that
we walk the path of faith with you. The understanding of your purposes of
revelation of yourself in your son Jesus Christ and the passing on of the spirit
to us through the workings of the scriptures and the ministry of the Holy
Spirit with and among men, that your name be glorified. Jehovah, we thank
you that you would have such mercy on mortal beings, especially mortal
beings of rebellion and disobedience, who have escaped the blessings and joy
of fellowship with you, and have sought to establish their own. But your
mercy and your faithfulness and your desire to connect with sick and fine
men have never been withdrawn, but they have always been made available
to men. The Bible tells us that in the beginning you spoke to men by angels
and animals and prophets, but in this time and this generation until the end
of time, you are speaking to us by your son Jesus Christ. And so, we exalt
him tonight in a special way. Jehovah, have your way. Jesus, take your seat.
People of God, behold your master and savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
We want to thank God for this gracious time. We have been on these grounds, I
remember, since 1976 and from this place many things have taken place. Many
people have been saved, discipled, and sent on mission throughout the world from
this very place and this very podium and tonight it has pleased the Lord at this
end-year Bible revival school to bring back to us the beginning of beginnings, the
explanation, the meaning and significance of salvation, and our relationship with
him, the creator, our future in the faith, our hope in Christ and the faith, and our
joys in the salvation that he brings to us.
Tonight, we want to give thanks and praise to God for his mercies and wonderful
works that have kept Ghana compact together during the jubilee year, which
comes to an end, indeed a majestic end, in a few days from now. Our gathering
here is a gathering, as I said earlier, unto God.
We have gathered here as citizens of Ghana. We have also gathered as believers
in God to celebrate God and his Christ on behalf of the nation and government
and people of Ghana and, of course, on our own behalf.
The Believers’ Convention is a token and affirmation of our thanks and gratitude
to God for Christ and the Christian faith, which have been the bulwark and
machinery for the liberation and redemption of our country, Ghana, from slavery
and condemnation to sin, death, desolation, the captivity to the reign and rule of
Satan and man-kingdom order, and above all, the eternal, lasting wrath of God
against disobedience and sin.
Beloved, Ghana is spiritually, politically, and socially free from the tentacles of
the Satan-man-kingdom order due to the trust in God and recourse to the
reconciliation of the country. We’ve got true faith in Jesus Christ and the Christian
faith that brings life, liberty, joy, and hope to believers in the salvation and
worship of God, the Creator. We are here for a three-day Bible revival school.
It’s a celebration of God and the Christian faith, but we also consider it as a revival
school for Christians as well as for those who are seeking to know God, and for
all believers in God, that they might know the way, the truth, the life, and the
hope that is in Jesus Christ, or for that matter, the salvation that God has
established in Jesus Christ.
We have gathered here as a token of the sincerity and confidence of the people
of Ghana in God, Christ, and the faith and we are devoting the three days of the
Jubilee Year and Believers’ Convention to an open Bible revival school for the
benefit of Christians in Ghana, as I said, and for all believers in the Most High
God and all seekers of God. We call it school because it may be more of a teaching
session than ministration. And it is necessary that we pay attention strictly to the
things that the Holy Spirit will teach us these few days, because there’s so much
departure from the truth of the Scriptures. There’s so much departure from the
salvation that God has brought in Jesus Christ and the Scriptures.
There’s so much diversion of the blessings of God inherited in salvation by
unbelievers as well as the antichrists, false prophets, false teachers, and people
who have converted their faith into a human institution or a human machine for
the pacification and glorification of man in the state of hopelessness and
eagerness to establish his own ego and kingdoms and glory on earth.
All over the world, there are many people that have ceased, even in Europe and
suddenly even in America, to believe in a Creator. The concept of evolution has
taken over even some thinkers in the Christian faith in the church that to the extent
that the Bible has become one of the books that people might read and not the
guiding prime line, not a spiritual power, a gift of God, and not a presentation of
God himself unto mankind through the pages of the prophetic utterances of God’s
prophets and Jesus Christ himself.
Beloved, we are in a world beset not merely with sin. We are well beset not
merely with departure from truth and liberty that is in God and hope that is in the
salvation of God, but we are witnessing a world that is attempting to build
machines, kingdoms, empires on the sinking sand of man’s philosophy and also
on the wicked works of Satan, the deceiver, who have been a deceiver and a liar
from the beginning. Such that even in the church today, you have men that are
using satanic power as it were to entice men to believe that they have a message
of salvation. We have men that have believed in the thinking of men, philosophies
of men, who are dependent upon scientific discoveries rather than the creator who
set the thing that they are discovering in motion in the first place.
The Bible says in Romans chapter 1 that they have believed in the creation rather
than the creator and every day they are still seeking to know the dynamics and
the virtues of nature and as they begin to find out the dynamics and virtues of
nature, they want to believe that their findings is greater than the one who set the
thing in motion. The Bible says, can the one who created eyes not see? I was
telling the church last Sunday that if God created all things, the scientists are only
finding that which is already existing and they are not setting anything in motion,
they are only finding what already exists and if a man finds what already exists,
then he makes himself the creator of that which already exists and he wants to
deceive himself that he’s a creator or he wants to believe that that which he has
found is complete and absolute himself, said that the creator who said the thing
in motion either is blind and does not know it, and therefore does not deserve to
be honored, or that the creator is indifferent as to how they put his creation into
use, or for that matter his findings become the cardinal truth and the be-all and
end-all for the human enterprise.
Of course, that is not merely sin, that’s not merely wickedness but it’s utter
foolishness and the foolishness of men are being pitted against the wisdom of
God but the foolishness of God is higher than the wisdom of men.
So, in these few days, we are going to discuss the place of God and Christ, the
scriptures, and the hope that God has brought us through faith in Him, that is, in
His Son, Jesus Christ.
Beloved, the school is to help us in the study of scriptures. We are attempting to
find the meaning and significance of the faith and the hope of glory in Christ the
Savior, the Redeemer, King, and God’s kingdom glory for the individual, for
nations, and therefore peoples, and the world at large. In this three-day visitation
to the Bible, beloved, we want to seek to understand the faith.
We want to redetermine and redefine our connection with Christ Jesus, the truth
of the Christian faith, and the significance of the faith in our lives, and the life
and destiny of nations in this context of our nation, Ghana, and of Africa.
Indeed, as the Bible declares, there’s no name and there’s no person to trust for
the reconciliation and restoration of glory to peoples and nations except the name
Jesus Christ. Our theme for discussion this three-day shall be the Christian faith
and you. So as you hear me, as you commune in your heart with the Holy Spirit,
as you go back home and study the scriptures, and wait upon God on your knees,
please remember that the address here is basically for the whole nation and for
humanity, but you are the center of the address because it is you who have
accepted the invitation to be here. And in the end, it will still be you that God will
send to help to nullify the wicked works of men and the satanic ploys of deception
and destruction that is rampant in our age, generation and in the world of this day.
Therefore, you are not here just to learn for yourself, but you are here also to learn
to be a disciple, a servant, and a missionary that you might spread the good news
of salvation. For the Bible says, greater love has no man than that which hath laid
down his life for his brethren.
Therefore, as you are here, it is not a selfish motivation, but it is an opportunity
for you to be empowered with the truth of the gospel, the anointing that comes
from the scriptures and the presence of the Holy Spirit, that you will be an
instrument of redemption, you will be an instrument of restoration, you will be
an instrument of reordering of human society, you will be an instrument for the
establishment of the kingdom of God and the glory of God in the affairs of men.
You want to redefine your connection with Christ. You want to redefine your
connection with the truth of the scriptures, and you want to find out the
significance of the truth to your life, and for that matter, the life and destiny of
our nation.
I’m happy that you have warmly agreed to accept the proposition that it is not
merely for your personal salvation, but that you will be an instrument of the
spread of the gospel and the dissemination of the beauty and glory of God in the
affairs of men.
The first topic we take tonight is the Meaning and significance of Salvation.
Tomorrow we shall be discussing Faith and Glory of faith and on Saturday, we
take up Joy and Hope in the Faith.
Now let’s begin with the beginning. The meaning and significance of salvation.
The Christian faith, according to the scriptures, is built around the spirit person
of Jesus Christ, the truth of the word of God, or the scriptures, the worship of God
through faith in Jesus Christ, and the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Which edifice,
or which body, that is Christ, the scriptures, the worship of God, the truth of the
scriptures, the worship of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, and the ministry of
the Holy Spirit. This constitutes a body, or a belief system, which the Holy God,
the Father, Jesus Christ, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, have agreed to convey and
establish for the benefit of men, nations, and people through God’s holy men, the
apostles and prophets, that He chose for the purpose.
That is to say, the Bible declares in this version that the foundation of the church,
and for that matter, the Christian faith, is built upon the foundation of the apostles
and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself, being the chief cornerstone, Ephesians 2
verse 20.
The church is presented by the Bible, therefore, as the body, we normally say
body of Christ, but I’m putting it this way, as the body of believers in God, through
faith in Christ. The church is a body of believers in God, through faith in Christ,
who are born anew, not by the blood, nor the will and flesh of man, but by the
Spirit of God, or the Spirit of Christ. If we talk about the church being the body
of Christ, we are referring to a group of people who believe in God, first. They
believe that there is God, and they have found out through the scriptures, as they
proclaim, that this God has manifested the entire world in Jesus Christ, and have
believed the truth of the manifestation of God in the flesh, in the person of Jesus
Christ. Having believed that, they have received into their being the Spirit of
Christ, by which, therefore, the Bible describes them as being born again.
There are people who walk not according to the flesh, that is, according to human
imagination, human will, or the genetical arrangements, transitional system of a
father to a child through the blood of man. No! All men that are not born again
cannot be children of God. They are creation of God, yes! but only those who are
born again by receiving, believing in God, receiving the gift of God that is in the
Spirit of Christ manifests, and have received that Spirit that is a gift of the Son
into themselves, and therefore are connected to the tree of life of the Creator
Himself, through that connection, these constitute the believers or the body of
Christ. You cannot inherit, or you cannot be transformed, or repositioned as a
child of God, or a believer in God, by mere acceptance of theories or philosophies,
but by actual receiving of this seed of the Divine Person, Jesus the Christ. So, you
need to believe in God, you need to accept the testimony of God, about the Son
that He manifested Himself through for great is the mystery of Godliness, God
was manifest in the flesh.
Having so believed, you would have received the Spirit of Christ into you. If you
believe, and you don’t invite Christ into you, if you believe intellectually, if you
believe by building statues and pictures, and you are carrying a long cross around
your neck and your body, and you have an altar with stones and jewels and
candles and lavenders, and all kinds of things on it, but this person, if you believe
by studying all the Bible, and passing every examination and quoting from every
page of the scriptures, from Genesis 1-1 to Revelation 22, and yet the Christ who
is the subject of discussion or revelation in the scriptures, has not come into your
heart, you remain a creature, and you cannot be termed as a child of God, and you
do not belong to the body of Christ, or body of believers.
We are saying that the body of believers in God, through faith in Christ, who are
born again, not by the blood or the will and flesh of man, but by the Spirit of God
or Christ, these are the people that can truly say, that they are not only believers,
but sons and daughters of the Most High and that puts them in a different position
as human beings. The Bible describes them as second Adam persons, people who
have been taken out of the old first Adam system, regenerated and created a new,
hallelujah, through the Christ Spirit that comes to indwell them, and made them
separate and apart from the rest of humanity. These are the believers; these are
the Christians.
If you are hearing me and you say you are a Christian and believe in God yet you
go to the fetish priest and so called prophets, you go with stones and kill cows
and have even taken scriptures and are writing on them but the Christ is not in
you then you are not a child of God.
This body of believers or the church, born through faith in Christ, are described
as a spiritual building, a temple for the habitation of God, through the Spirit of
Christ among men. You find that in Ephesians chapter 1 and chapter 2. You study
Ephesians chapters 1 and 2 clearly, you see the position of Jesus Christ vis-a-vis
the church and God’s divine purposes and they said the church is the habitation
of God through the Spirit among men.
Entry into the body of believers or in Christ is certified through faith in the person,
teachings, and works of Jesus Christ. We are saying that if you are born again, it
will be necessary in the first place to have believed in Jesus Christ, his person.
Number two, you would have accepted his teachings which are recorded in the
Bible and the works that he did Christ on earth and which he continues to do
through the body of believers today. If you believe that, then you can consider
yourself as belonging to the body of believers of the church.
The center and most significant teaching of Christ is repentance. The first and
most important teaching by Jesus Christ is repentance. Repentance towards God
and faith in whom? Jesus Christ. The crucial work of Jesus Christ is the
crucifixion and death on the cross and his resurrection from the dead unto eternal
glory as Savior, Judge, Redeemer, King of glory in things pertaining to God. We
are saying that Jesus Christ, his spirit, his teachings, and his works are the three
cardinal points of the Christian faith. Faith in Christ, faith in his teachings, and
faith in his works.
Among his teachings is repentance, the preaching of repentance through faith,
trust in God and faith towards him. Then there is crucial work. If you believe his
person, that Jesus Christ is a spirit, is a divine spirit, bottom one. Number two,
his teachings. The cardinal issue in the teaching is that there’s need for repentance
of man towards God. And if you need, you agree on repentance of man towards
God and therefore reconciliation with God, then you must, you also consider his
works. Now the chief work is that he allowed himself to be crucified, to shed his
blood on the cross, he died, he was buried, and the Bible says He rose again. You
will have to accept these tenets, the cardinal pillars of the faith namely, the blood
shed on calvary cross.
If you don’t accept the blood shed on Calvary Cross as sufficient for you, and you
want to offer another blood, or do some other work, the Bible strongly suggests,
that those other works will not be accepted. Salvation is by grace, through faith,
not of works and the works that are accepted are those done by Jesus Christ
himself, on the cross, and his resurrection.
If you believe in that, the important point of the crucifixion on the cross, and his
death and resurrection, unto eternal glory, as Savior, Redeemer, Justifier, and
King of Glory, in things pertaining to God, you are a Christian.
Now, what is the divine package of salvation? I have here the divine salvation
package. Having stated the few conditions to be fulfilled to be a child of God, or
to be a Christian, we state that belief in, acceptance and confession of faith in
Christ, his teachings and the purposes for his death on the cross, and the reality
of his resurrection from the dead, constitutes the divine package of salvation for
souls, for people and for nations. For the individual, you must accept, not only
Jesus Christ as Savior, as such, you must accept that he died on the cross on your
behalf and you must accept that there is need for repentance of your sin and your
negligence or disobedience of God, as a condition for the salvation of your soul.
If you accept the blood on your own behalf, and you confess Christ as your Savior
and Redeemer, then you will be accepted, and the spirit of Christ will then follow
your faith into you. Then your salvation will be clear.
God has presented a package in faith in Jesus Christ, as a person, divine person
that became man, faith in his teachings and works, and the reality of his
resurrection from the dead. This is a package that you need to believe in, so that
your soul can be redeemed, the Bible says that will make way for the remission
of your sins for if he died on the tree for you, and he made the blood atonement
for you, and you confess him, your sins shall be remitted or forgiven and they
shall not be accountable to you anymore. So, the Bible says you would have
passed from death unto life. In other words, you would have passed from the
condemnation that follows sin and wickedness, and the fact that you have been
eternally separated from God. God will open the door of reconciliation unto you,
He will draw you unto himself, He will cleanse you by the blood and he will open
fellowship with you. The fellowship that was lost in the garden of Eden shall
come to you. We are saying that this proposition of salvation package should not
be sought only in terms of the individual Christian or the individual believer. This
salvation package can be believed and accepted by a whole family, a whole
community, a whole nation. So, a family, a community, and a nation that will
accept the package will come under the mercy of God, under the salvation, mercy
and blessed hope that is in Jesus Christ so don’t think of salvation only as a
proposition for an individual. Yes, it’s for you as an individual, but through you
it can be transmitted to your family, it can be transmitted to your community, it
can be transmitted throughout your nation. So, a whole nation can be a Christian
nation, and a nation can then be the body of believers or the church.
I want to suggest tonight that salvation should not be looked at only in terms of
the individual believer, but it’s a community belief. It can be a belief system of
Ghanaians as a whole. It can be a belief system of Africans and when this
becomes the belief system and the practice of Ghanaians, then the whole nation
comes under the mercy seat of God and the salvation and hope that is through
faith in Jesus Christ.
Belief in acceptance and confession of faith in Christ, his teachings and the
purpose for his death on the cross, and the reality of his return from the dead
constitute the divine package of salvation for souls, for people, and nations.
Through faith, people and nations can be reconciled unto God. The Bible says
that God was manifest in Christ, that he might reconcile the world unto himself.
So, we are suggesting here that the salvation message of God in Christ, as I said
earlier, is available to nations, people, the whole world. It is not a proposition for
you alone, but through you to your whole household, your nation, your race, and
your people.
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nd Corinthians chapter 5, from verses 17 through 19, tells you that God was in
Christ reconciling the world unto himself. Faith in Christ leads to reconciliation
of people, that the wrath of God that abides on people who worship Satan or
neglect God can be canceled, just as the wrath of God that abides on me or you
and him, when you have no knowledge of God and you worship the idols, just as
you will have salvation, your nation and your people can also come under the
same salvation if the whole nation accepts the salvation package of the Most High
God.
It is God’s wish to reconcile the whole world. The salvation of God is not an
individual matter. It’s a global and human matter. It’s addressed to the whole of
humanity. It’s addressed to all nations, and this mission has been committed to
the church. That’s why I say that as you are sitting down here, you should not be
just happy in your own personal salvation but accept the responsibility of being
an instrument of reconciliation, change, and kingdom mission in society.
The key scripture of salvation is given as follows, and we all know it. Let us say
it together “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that
whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
Whosoever, whichever person, whichever family, whichever community,
whichever tribes, whichever people, whichever continent, whichever human race,
shall not perish but have eternal life. We will come to understand what eternal
life is very soon, but it is important for you to know that this is eternal life anyway.
From the brief discussion above, the Apostle Paul and Apostle Peter, and were
led by the Holy Spirit to declare as follows, and here I quote, “Therefore let all
the household of Israel know that God has made this same Jesus, whom ye have
crucified, both Lord and Christ. Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be
baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins,
and ye shall receive the gifts of the Holy Ghost.” Acts chapter 2 verses 36 and
38. Then Peter also was quoted as saying in Acts chapter 4 verse 12, “Neither is
there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among
men whereby we must be saved.” There is no name or power that can give man
salvation except the name Jesus Christ. In this world, the holy scriptures say that
there is no other name so you can’t say you believe in Prophet Mohammed,
Agbozo, Ororo or any other name. There is no way by which man can have life
except the name Jesus Christ. You can’t say if someone worships idols or is a
Buddhist or what, the person can have access to God. You are deceiving yourself.
We are not saying it is only ours that is good, but the bible says it is only him
whether in the heavens, the earth, the grave and everywhere. There is no other
name so don’t be deceived by religious people. Don’t be deceived by those who
don’t know Jesus Christ. Don’t be deceived by those who are confused about the
way of salvation. Don’t be confused by religious philosophers. Don’t be confused
by false teachers or whatever they call themselves. Don’t be confused that they
too are worshipping God. If they were worshipping God, they would have known
who Jesus is. Jesus told them you said David was your father but David being a
prophet whilst he was in the flesh, even called Jesus whom? My Lord. Praise the
Lord.AMEN.