What are the steps to salvation?

I pray you to learn from Joseph's history that the only way to rightly pass through this scene is by having a sense of what is sin against God, and then knowing your own sin, to turn to the true Joseph and let Him save you. Turn to Him for pardon, forgiveness, and blessing. Do not be ashamed to own the Lord, nor to confess Him. "If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God has raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believes to righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made to salvation" (Rom. 10:9-10). God's salvation is very simple. You turn to the Saviour who died for you, with the acknowledgement of your sin and guilt, you bow your heart to Him, and you receive blessing from Him. He says, "He that believes on me has everlasting life" (John 6:47). God give you grace tonight to receive Christ as your own blessed Saviour, and then to confess him boldly.

Remember the door of blessing swings open on two hinges: (1) “Repentance toward God, and (2) “Faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ” (Acts 20:21). “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:31). “If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God has raised Him from from the dead, thou shalt be saved” (Rom. 10:9). “These things I have written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that ye may KNOW that ye HAVE eternal life” (1 John 5:13).

Will you believe in Him? I ask you, Will you believe in the Son of Man? I think you will feel an awful fool by-and-by, when the Lord has to say of you — There is a man who would not trust Me, there is a man who would not believe in Me. Note that Gods says that "whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." Mark, it is an absolute present possession, the possession of faith. Eternal life is the gift of God. "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" (John 3:16). Oh, that is a beautiful verse, the 16th verse of John 3. Look at it. It begins with God, and ends with life. You cannot get life save from God, but "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but HAVE everlasting life." You may have it. I have it. You have in this verse God's side of the action, and man's side also. God's side, loving and giving; and on man's side — my, and your side — believing and having. Really, my dear fellows, the gospel is wonderfully simple. God, loving, and giving; and man, believing, and having. I believe His love, I believe His grace, I believe what He says, I believe on His Son, and what is the result? I get eternal life as His own free gift.

As in creation, so in the matter of salvation, the Son is the person Who works out the divine purpose to its appointed end. He came into the world to save sinners; yet men are not saved by His incarnation, but by His atoning death. The death of Christ has furnished God with an irrefragable ground of righteousness on which to act in His grace towards perishing men. Nothing is demanded from men but faith — simple confidence in God and His beloved Son. He who in his deep need turns his eye in faith to God and Christ becomes at once entitled to all the advantages of Christ's most costly sacrifice.

When, therefore, we say that you are a lost sinner we mean that you are not now under probation, that God is not now waiting upon you to see whether you will serve Him or not; for He has settled that question once and for ever in the cross of Christ. On this account, His dealings with man from that time have assumed a new character. Instead of expecting anything from man, He declares that man is lost and undone before Him, that by works of law no flesh shall be justified in His sight; and thereon He brings His own righteousness to the sinner, and proclaims, that He justifies "freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God has set forth a propitiation through faith in his blood … to declare his righteousness; that he might be just and the justifier of him who believeth in Jesus." (Rom. 3:20-26.) In other words, when God had shown, by His long patience in His ways with man, that man could produce no fruit for Him, could bring nothing to God, He stepped in, gave His only-begotten Son to die on the cross that He might lay a righteous foundation for the salvation of sinners through faith in Christ. Salvation, therefore, is now through faith, and not by works of any kind; for God has shown, that the sinner is not only incapable of doing anything, but also that he is already lost and under condemnation on account of his sins.

Of old God brought His commandment very near to Israel that they might do it. He has brought His word even nearer to us in Christ. It is now not a word of what we ought to do, but of what Christ has done, and of what He Himself has done in raising Christ from the dead. On our part the word only demands that we believe with the heart that God has raised Him from the dead, and that we confess Him as Lord with our mouths. When heart and mouth thus go together there is of course reality. Real subjection to Jesus as Lord carries with it salvation.

The personal character of present salvation should therefore be laid hold of by us. It is of the last importance to do so in these days of departure from the truth, and apostasy from the faith. To be saved, is to be saved! To be unsaved, is to be lost! The final issue is fast approaching! The coming of the Lord draweth nigh! The lights of the oil-less lamp-holders are going out! Those who “have not received the love of the truth that might be saved” (2 Thess. 2:10) will soon be carried away by the strong sweeping currents of error, “that they should believe what is false, that all might be judged who have not believed the truth, but have found pleasure in unrighteousness” (v. 12). God has no pleasure in this, but desires rather that “all men should be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim. 2:4). The Son of God came not to judge the world, “but that the world through Him might be saved” (John 3:17 and 12:47). Upon the cross He bore the believer’s sin, and the judgment that those sins deserved; moreover, He was raised again from among the dead for their justification. On the basis of that work the believer is saved, for it is on account of this God righteously forgives sins, and the gospel brings “the knowledge of salvation … by the remission of their sins” (Luke 1:77). The first person outside of Judaism to be reached by the glad tidings was Cornelius. He heard words whereby he and all his house were saved (Acts 11:14). Those words pointed him to Christ, through whose Name everyone that believes on Him receives remission of sins (10:43). Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, for grace alone could meet the need of such; and while It is truly by the grace of God such are justified freely, through the great redemption which is in Christ Jesus, it is likewise true, we are “saved by grace” (Eph. 2:5, 8); not on the principle of works, so that none might boast. Grace is in Christ Jesus, and so is salvation (2 Tim. 2:1, 10). This latter is obtained there through faith, whether in regard to judgment, enemies, state, adverse influences, this present evil world or age. “Neither is there salvation in any other.”

Believing on the Lord Jesus Christ saves the sinner, because He died on the cross, atoned for sin, and shed His precious blood. “The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:7), is the divine testimony of Scripture. We cannot be saved by anything we can do. Our religion cannot save us. Our so-called good works cannot procure us God’s forgiveness But, blessed be His name, He points us to His Son. He bids us put our faith in Him. He tells us, “There is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). Thank God, His name is enough.

Before we proceed further, let us seek to apply this. We tell you, dear reader, of Jesus the Son of God, who came into the world to save sinners. We present to you His death as the Sin-bearer upon the tree; for "He died the Just for the unjust, to bring us to God." We testify of His blood; for the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin. Dear reader, Jesus only can save you from the wrath to come, and He can save to the uttermost. All Scripture points thus to Jesus. God the Father draws sinners to Jesus. Jesus Himself says to the heavy laden sinner, "Come unto me, and I will give you rest." The Holy Spirit leads the convicted sinner to Jesus. The gospel declares there is salvation in no other. Your state as a sinner is incurably bad. You are lost. You now hear of Jesus, that blessed Saviour who came to seek and to save the lost. God commands this good news to be published. How do you treat this blessed report? Do you come to Jesus to save you! You have just seen that many crowded around Jesus, but only the touch of faith got virtue out of Him. It is not merely hearing of Jesus, or reading about Jesus, or talking about Jesus, that will save you. No; those taught of the Spirit of God know that they must perish for ever, except they come to Jesus to be cleansed by His precious blood. Oh, my reader, Jesus delighteth in mercy! Though He sits on heaven's throne, His eye discerns your inmost thoughts, and His ear can welcome the feeblest cry. He knows how thoroughly sinful you are, and still He says, "Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out." Be assured that He will not be indifferent to your case, if you desire His salvation. The Father will run to meet you when you are a great way off, and then you will feel happier than you ever did before. You will know Jesus as the One who put away your sins by the blood of His cross, who was brought again from the dead by the blood of the everlasting covenant, and who entered into heaven itself by His own blood. Be assured, dear reader, that as soon as your troubled, sin-sick soul looks to the atoning death of Jesus, believing God's testimony to the value of that blood, you will feel whole of your plague; for you will see that Jesus bare your sins, and put them away for ever, under the judgment of God, by His death upon the cross. You will then no longer dread the wrath of God, but will enjoy peace in His holy presence, and be able to sing — "He ransomed me from hell with blood, And by His power my foes controlled; He found me wandering far from God, And brought me to His chosen fold."

And best of all it contains God’s offer of free salvation, of the forgiveness of sins, of the gift of eternal life to sinful men through the efficacy of the atoning death of our Lord on the cross of Calvary. But to receive these wondrous blessings there must be on our side “repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ” (Acts 20:21). There is such a thing as being intellectually convinced of the truths of Christianity, and yet knowing nothing of a link by faith with the Lord Jesus Christ as a personal Saviour.