Why Are Men Saved?

"Nevertheless He saved them for his name's sake." Psalm 106:8

In looking upon the works of God in creation, there are two questions which at once occur to the thoughtful mind, and which must be answered before we can procure a clue to the philosophy and science of creation itself. The first one is the question of authorship: Who made all these things? And the next question is that of design: For what purpose were all these things created? The first question, "Who made all these things?" is one which is easily answered by a man who has a honest conscience and a sane mind; for when he lifts his eyes up yonder to read the stars, he will see those stars spell out in golden letters this word — God; and when he looks below upon the waves, if his ears are honestly opened, he will hear each wave proclaiming, God. If he looks to the summits of the mountains, they will not speak, but with a dignified answer of silence they seem to say, "The hand that made us is Divine."

If we listen to the rippling of the freshet at the mountain side, to the tumbling of the avalanche, to the lowing of the cattle, to the singing of the birds, to every voice and sound of nature, we shall hear this answer to the question, "God is our maker; he has made us, and not we ourselves." The next question, as to design — Why were these things made? — is not so easy to answer, apart from Scripture; but when we look at Scripture we discover this fact — that as the answer to the first question is God, so the answer to the second question is the same. Why were these things made? The answer is, for God's glory, for his honor, and for his pleasure. No other answer can be consistent with reason. Whatever other replies men may propound, no other can be really sound. If they will for one moment consider that there was a time when God had no creatures — when he dwelt alone, the mighty maker of ages, glorious in an uncreated solitude, divine in his eternal loneliness — "I am and there is none beside me" — can any one answer this question — Why did God make creatures to exist? — in any other way than by answering it thus: "He made them for his own pleasure and for his own glory." You may say he made them for his creatures; but we answer, there were then no creatures to make them for. We admit that the answer may be a sound one now. God makes the harvest for his creatures; he hangs the sun in the firmament to bless his creatures with light and sunshine bids the moon walk in her course by night, to cheer the darkness of his creatures upon earth. But the first answer, going back to the origin of all things, can be nothing else than this: "For his pleasure they are and were erected." "He made all things for himself and by himself!"

Now, this which holds good in the works of creation, holds equally good in the works of salvation. Lift up your eyes on high; higher than those stars which glimmer on the floor of heaven. Look up, where spirits in white clearer than light, shine like stars in their magnificence; look there, where the redeemed with their choral symphonies "circle the throne of God rejoicing," and put this question "Who saved those glorified beings, and for what purpose where they saved. "We tell you that the same answer must be given as we have previously given to the former question — "He saved them — he saved them for his name's sake." The text is an answer to the two great questions concerning salvation: Who saved men and why are they saved? "He saved them for his name's sake."

Into this subject I shall endeavor to look this morning. May God make it profitable to each of us, and may we be found among the number who shall be saved "for his name's sake." Treating the text verbally — and that is the way most will understand — here are four things. First, a glorious savior — "He saved them;" secondly, a favored people — "He saved them;" thirdly a divine reason why he saved them for his name's sake;" and fourthly an construction conquered, in the word "nevertheless," implying that there was some difficulty that was removed. "Nevertheless he saved them for his name's sake." A Savior; the saved; the reason; the obstruction removed.

I. First, then, here is A GLORIOUS SAVIOR — "He saved them." Who is to be understood by that pronoun "he?" Possibly many of my hearers may answer "Why, the Lord Jesus Christ is the Savior of men." Right, my friends; but not all the truth. Jesus Christ is the Savior; but not more so than God the Father, or God the Holy Spirit. Some persons who are ignorant of the system of divine truth think of God the Father as being a great Being full of wrath, and anger, and justice, but having no love, they think of God the Spirit perhaps as a mere influence proceeding from the Father and the Son. Now, nothing can be more incorrect than such opinions. It is true the Son redeems me, but then the Father gave the Son to die for me, and the Father chose me in the everlasting election of his grace. The Father blots out my sin, the Father accepts me and adopts me into his family through Christ. The Son could not save without the Father any more than the Father without the Son, and as for the Holy Spirit, if the Son redeems, don’t you know that the Holy Spirit regenerates? It is he that makes us new creatures in Christ, who begets us again unto a lively hope, who purifies our soul, who sanctifies our spirit, and who, at last, presents us spotless and faultless before the throne of the Most High, accepted in the beloved. When you say, "Savior," remember there is a Trinity in that word — the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, this Savior being three persons under one name. You can not be saved by the Son without the Father, nor by the Father without the Son, nor by Father and Son without the Spirit. But as they are one in creation, so are they one in salvation working together in one God for our salvation, and unto that God be glory everlasting, world without end, Amen.

But, note here, how this Divine being claims salvation wholly to himself. "Nevertheless HE saved them." But, Moses, where are you? Did not you save them, Moses? You did stretch the rod over the sea, and it crave in halves; you did lift up your prayer to heaven, and the frogs came, and the flies swarmed, and the water was turned into blood, and the hail smote the land of Egypt. Were not you their Savior, Moses? And you Aaron, you did offer the bullocks which God accepted, you did lead them, with Moses, through the wilderness. Were not you their Savior? They answer, "Nay, we were the instruments, but he saved them. God made use of us, but unto his name be all the glory, and none unto ourselves." But, Israel, you west a strong and mighty people; did not you save yourself? Perhaps it was by your own holiness that the Red Sea was dried up, perhaps the parted floods were frighted at the piety of the saints that stood upon their margin; perhaps it was Israel that delivered itself. Nay, nay, says God's Word; he saved them; they did not save themselves, nor did their fellow-men redeem them. And yet, mark you, there are some who dispute this point, who think that men save themselves, or, at least, that priests and preachers can help to do it. We say that the preacher, under God, may be the instrument of arresting man's attention, of warning him and arousing him; but the preacher is nothing; God is everything.

The most mighty eloquence that ever distilled from the lips of seraphic preacher is nothing apart from God's Holy Spirit. Neither Paul, nor Apollos, nor Cephas, are anything: God gave the increase and God must have all the glory. There are some we meet with here and there who say, "I am Mr. So-and-so's convert; I am a convert of the Revelation Dr. this or that." Well, if you are, sir, I cannot give you much hope of heaven, only God's converts go there; not proselytes of man, but the redeemed of the Lord. Oh, it is very little to convert a man to our own opinions; it is something to be the means of converting him to the Lord our God. I had a letter some time ago from a good Baptist minister in Ireland, who very much wanted me to come over to Ireland, as he said, to represent the Baptist interest, because it was low there, and perhaps it might lead the people to think a little more of Baptists. I told him I would not go across the street merely to do that, much less would I cross the Irish Channel. I should not think of going to Ireland for that; but if I might go there to make Christians, under God, and be the means of bringing men to Christ. I would leave it to them what they should be afterwards, and trust to God's Holy Spirit to direct and guide them as to what denomination they should consider nearest akin to God's truth. Brethren, I might make all of you Baptists, perhaps, and yet you would be none the better for it; I might convert you all in that way, but such a conversion would be that you would be washed to greater stains, converted into hypocrites, and not into saints.

I have seen something of wholesale conversion. Great revivalists have risen up; they have preached thundering sermons that have made men's knees knock together. "What a wonderful man!" people have said. "He has converted so many under one sermon." But look for his converts in a month, and where will they be? You will see some of them in the alehouse, you will hear others of them swear, you will find many of them rogues and cheats, because they were not God's converts, but only man's Brethren, if the work be done at all, it must be done of God for if God do not convert there is nothing done that shall last, and nothing that shall be of any avail for eternity.

But some reply, "Well, sir, but men convert themselves." Yes, they do, and a fine conversion it is. Very frequently they convert themselves. But then that which man did, man undoes. He who converts himself one day, unconverts himself the next; he ties a knot which his own fingers can loosen. Remember this — you may convert yourselves a dozen times over, but "that which is born of the flesh is flesh," and "cannot see the kingdom of God." It is only "that which is born of the Spirit" that "is Spirit," and is therefore able to be gathered at last into the spirit-realm, where only spiritual things can be found before the throne of the Most High. We must reserve this prerogative wholly to God. If any man state that God is not Creator, we call him infidel, if any man entrench upon this doctrine, that God is the absolute Maker of all things, we hiss him down in a moment, but he is an infidel of the worst kind, because more specious, who puts God out of the mercy throne, instead of putting him out of the creation throne, and who tells men that they may convert themselves whereas God cloth it all. "He" only, the great Jehovah — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — and he saved them for his name's sake.

Thus have I endeavored to set out clearly the first truth of the divine and glorious Savior.

II. Now, secondly, THE FAVORED PERSONS — "He saved them." Who are they? You will reply, "They were the most respectable people that could be found in the world; they were a very prayerful, loving, holy, and deserving people; and, therefore, because they were good he saved them." Very well, that is your opinion, I will tell you what Moses says, — "Our fathers understood not your wonders in Egypt, they remembered not the multitudes of your mercies; but provoked him at the sea; even at the Red Sea. Nevertheless he saved them." Look at the 7th verse, and you will have their character. In the first place, they were a stupid people — "Our fathers understood not your wonders in Egypt." In the next place, they were an ungrateful people — "they remembered not the multitude of your mercies." In the third place, they were a provoking people — "they provoked him at the sea even at the Red Sea." Ah, these are the people whom free grace saved, these are the men and these the women whom the God of all grace condescends to take to his bosom and to make anew.

Note, first, that they were a stupid people. God sends his gospel not always to the wise and prudent, but unto fools;
"He takes the fool and makes him know
The wonders of his dying love."

Do not suppose, my hearer, because you are very unlettered and can scarcely read — do not imagine, because you have always been brought up in extreme ignorance, and have scarcely learnt to spell your name, that therefore you cannot be saved. God's grace can save you, and then enlighten you. A brother minister once told me a story of a man who was known in a certain village as a simpleton, and was always considered to be soft in the head, no one thought he could ever understand anything. But one day he came to hear the gospel preached. He had been a drunken fellow having wit enough to be wicked, which is a very common kind of wit. The Lord was pleased to bless the word to his soul, so that he became a changed character; and what was the marvel of all was, his religion gave him a something which began to develop his latent faculties. He found he had a something to live for, and he began to try what he could do. In the first place he wanted to read his Bible, that he might read his Savior's name; and after much hammering and spelling away, at last he was able to read a chapter. Then he was asked to pray at a prayer-meeting; here was an exercise of his vocal powers. Five or six words made up his prayer, and down he sat abashed.

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