Artistic Piano Tuning

                                                                                  12/29/2007

My wife Nancy and I are active members of Providence Baptist Church.  It is an excellent Bible teaching church.  I highly recommend Providence.   It is located in Raleigh on Glenwood Ave.  For more information go to www.pray.org

My Story of How Jesus Saves         By David Mainesmith

 Now that I’m a “Grandpa” with so many grandchildren that and remembering all their names is sometimes a challenge and have spent over 25 years teaching Sunday School. My reflections on why I believe in Jesus Christ are something that has been long thought out and I hope they are a help to you.  The longer I live the more absolutely convinced I become of the value and truthfulness of Jesus’ teachings.  It is very obvious that the popular drug and alcohol lifestyle of so many does not work and only destroys individuals, marriages, children, and families.  The teachings of Jesus, on the other hand, tend to promote health, wealth, peace, contentment, and wholeness.

My father became a Baptist shortly before his marriage to my mother.  My mother was a graduate of a Baptist seminary and quite interested in missions work. Dad and Mom always had us three boys and our two sisters in church three times a week.  One of my earliest memories was that of standing on the pew beside my father in church singing as he pointed out the words.  My mother sang solos at church and had “jiffy clubs” for the neighborhood children where she taught Bible stories on a flannel-graph board.

When I was about 8 years old my parents sent me to a Christian summer camp in upstate New York.  I had a great time and remember two distinct events about that summer.  One was a lightning hit that severely damaged a huge tree just outside the door of our little cottage.  The second was that I wrote my dad a letter saying that I had accepted Jesus Christ as my savior.  You would think with such a start, that I would have understood the basic teachings of Jesus Christ from childhood, but I didn’t – not at all! 

If someone had asked me, “Are you saved?” I would have said, “Sure”.  I knew all the vocabulary and some of the Bible verses but, there was no real relationship between Jesus Christ and me.  Being “saved” made little difference in my life.  I had no real interest in studying the Bible.  Whenever someone mentioned the second coming of Jesus or death I had a real sense of fear.   I tried to live what I thought must be a good life, but it was mostly self centered.  You see, my confidence was in a prayer I did not remember or understand, a church membership card that was probably lost, a prayer that was just repeated and not understood or believed.  I was a nominal Christian at best, even though I went to church regularly.

            In my early thirties I began teaching Sunday School at Calvary Church in Charlotte.  Dr. Ross Rhoads was the pastor.  My primary motivation for teaching was to help boys possibly not make some of the mistakes I had made.  After a time, I came to a point were I said “I have got to figure out what the primary teaching of Jesus Christ was, especially regarding the doctrine of salvation.”  I needed to explain it to the boys and knew I did not really understand it myself.  I knew Jesus died on a cross, but how did that relate to me?  What was I supposed to do with that fact?  Who was Jesus and why were so many people willing to die for him? The Apostle John remembered Jesus saying that “God loved the world so much that he sent his only son that if anyone would believe in Him he would have eternal life.” What did it really mean to believe in Jesus?  How where you supposed to know if you believed enough or the right way? 

            I took a piece of paper and wrote at the top of the page "What did Jesus say that we should do?"  I went through all four of the Bible’s gospels  (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) and wrote down the things Jesus said we should do.  I came up with a very interesting list.  Just a few of the items on the list were:

" Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord:

And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength"[1]

"Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you."[2]

"Give to every man that asketh of thee; and of him that taketh away thy goods ask <them> not again."[3]

"Give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross, and follow me."[4]

"Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." [5]

"You must be born again." [6]

“Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God”  Matt 5:8.

“Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees you will in no case enter the kingdom of heaven.”  Matt 5:20

            I said to myself, “That is what I will do.”  Did you ever try to be pure in heart or perfect? 

  I quickly discovered that I:

 did not love God with all my heart and mind

      did not even like my enemies;

 my human nature was selfish and not giving;

      I was not even close to God's holiness;

  I could not live up to the standard Jesus spoke of.

I found that the standard Jesus spoke of is not just difficult to live up to, it is impossible.

I discovered the same thing that Jeremiah did when he wrote about his own heart:

"The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?"  Isaiah realized the same thing and wrote wrote:  "Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips ..."   He also wrote: "We are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away."   St. Paul who wrote almost half of the New Testament said: "...Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief" and “the things I want to do I don’t do, while the things I don’t allow I do.” (Romans 7:15)   This was incredible to me.  That these men, who seemed so close to God, all admitted a real sin nature of their own.

            What is faith?  Faith is a decision to believe based on knowledge, agreement, and trust.  Faith is only as strong as the object in which it is place.  The focus of most people’s faith is self.  They would want to tell God about how good they have been and what good things they have done if asked why He should let them into heaven.  God is asking us to refocus our faith on Jesus Christ.  Look to his strength and works – don’t rely on your self. 

We can remember the meaning of faith using the simple acronym “KATE”.

                                                            K – knowledge

                                                            A – agreement

                                                            T – trust

                                                            E – eternal life 

     First the K stands for Knowledge.  There are 3 things that you must know.  The first is really good news. God Really Loves You!!!

The apostle John wrote in his first epistle:  "God is love." [11]

John was one of the closest friends of Jesus and remembered Jesus saying:

"God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.  For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned." [12]

          The Second thing we need to know is that sin has separated us from God's love. Isaiah wrote: "Behold, the LORD'S hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear: But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear".[13]  St.Paul wrote " ... all have sinned."[14]   That includes Saint Paul all the prophets, you and I and every man who has ever lived (except Jesus Christ).  The consequences of our sin is expressed in terms of a payment - as though we did some work and now we were going to be paid for it.  The Bible says "the wages of sin is death".[15]  That means separation from God's Holy Spirit now and eternal punishment for those who refuse to accept Him during this lifetime.

            The third thing we need to know is: God came to earth, became a man (the man Jesus Christ), and provided a complete, and perfect sacrifice (by allowing the world to crucify Him) which totally paid the penalty of our sins.  But is that all that saving faith is?  Is it just knowledge?  Is faith just something we know? I had known these facts for years and just knowing these things had brought me no sense of assurance. No.  Saving faith is not just knowing some historical facts or some Bible verses.  One major concern of mine is the fact that we can know the four spiritual laws but not know the Lord.  James the brother of Jesus wrote: "You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that--and shudder." [16]  No, we are not saved just by knowledge. 

            The second part of saving faith is Agreement. (The letter A in our KATE acronym). Unless we agree with God it does not matter how we feel, rationalize, or believe.  Our thoughts and feelings are not the standard for right and wrong or faith.  God says “For my thougts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.  For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts”.  Isa 55:8.  People today want to base their faith on personal experiences, feelings, faulty logic, or inappropriate analogies.  I have recently heard a women try to defend her disbelief in Christ’s teachings on hell based on the workings of an apple sorting machine.  But, the Bible clearly says that our theology is to be based on scripture not on our feelings.  Paul wrote “All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine_” (2 Tim 3:16).  He did not say our feelings or experiences are profitable for doctrine.  We are far too good at rationalizing evil as good for our feelings or logic to be a bases for theology.

Jesus Christ is the standard of right and wrong.  He said that “I am the way and the truth_” (John 14:6). He did not say, “I am one option or one path among many that leads to God,” but that He was the ONLY way and the ONLY correct teaching on how to be accepted by God. He said that – not me.  We must agree with God that we desperately need His forgiveness and His ability to cleanse our heart.  We desperately need His love and His sacrifice on calvary.   When Billy Graham asks new believers to follow him in a prayer they are hopefully expressing an agreement with God's word.  God's response and promise to us is: "For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." [17]

            The next letter T stands for trust.  Our trust must be in Jesus Christ and what He has done for us.  Our confidence must not be in our own good works; it must not be in our experiences, nor in church memberships, nor in any religious acts, baptism,  or sacraments.  The Apostle Paul wrote: "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: <it is> the gift of God:   Not of works, lest any man should boast."    "By the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight”.  (Rom. 3:20).

             You see the only thing that God asks us to do to receive the gift of eternal life is to depend on Jesus the Christ because He paid It all on Calvary's cross.  The Bible says "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house."

            Returning to our acronym of the concept of saving faith, the E in the name KATE stands for eternal life.   Jesus said "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life:" Please notice that word "hath" is present tense.  That means that at the moment you place your confidence in Jesus as your savior, eternal life begins. It is not something you earn.  It is God's gift to us paid for by the blood of Jesus.   Saint Paul wrote  "The gift of God <is> eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." [21]  Jesus said in John 10:28   "I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish".

            Our confidence must be in Jesus Christ and His finished work on calvary's cross:

  not in our good works,

  not in sacraments,

  not in experiences,

  not in churches or their traditions,

  not in religious works,

  not in people with degrees in theology,

  not in what we know but in Jesus Christ alone.  Jesus did all the tough stuff!  Jesus did all the work.  He totally paid the price - so that anyone can be saved.  We must depend on Him for our salvation and nothing else!

     If we were to believe that our salvation was partially dependent one of these items in the above list then consider all the theological problems that that would cause.  For example, let’s suppose we take the attitude that our salvation was dependent on our faith plus our being baptized.  Suddenly, baptism becomes immensely important and we must begin asking our selves about the validity of our baptism.  Just how are we to be baptised?  Are we to be poured, sprinkled, or dunked and at what age and how often?  Suddenly there is no assurance of salvation because it has now become partly dependent on our works. We could be baptized weekly until our skin was bleached white and we would still have no confidence in our salvation. 

     This attitude also means Christ must have been wrong. Because, when he was being crucified on the cross he told the thief that was being crucified with Him, “Today you will be with me in paradise”. (Luke 23:43) The man was totally incapable of going to be baptized, joining a church, or doing anything to earn his salvation.  He was nailed to a cross.  His death was just hours away.  St. Paul would have been wrong in saying “the just shall live by faith” (Rom 1:17, Gal 3:11, Heb 10:38, and also Hab 2:4) and saying “for by grace you are saved, it is not of works_.”.  But, they were not wrong.  And so God’s grace allows a person who is totally incapable of any kind of work (such as a blind isolated quadriplegic)  still to be saved because the payment of our salvation was completed by Jesus Christ on Calvary’s cross. John records the last word Jesus said on the cross as the Greek word “tetellisti”. (John 19:30)

We translate it as “It is finished”.  But, to the person of that time it meant much more.  It meant the legal requirements of the law had been totally satisfied.  It was the word written at the bottom of a sales or loan contract indicating the debt had been paid in full. It indicates to us that our salvation is not even partially dependent on our poor works but on Christ’s perfect and finished work on the cross.

              A good statement to memorize, because it summarizes so much important theology is: We are saved by faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone, based on the Bible alone.

            If you have never asked Christ to be part of your life then you might want to pray to Jesus and ask Him to come into your heart and mind.  Tell Him that you are completely dependent on Him for your salvation and for making your heart pure and perfect in God’s sight. Thank Him for dying on the cross for you.

If someone was to ask me why I should be let into God’s heaven there would be two parts to my answer.

1. I believe in Jesus
2. Because Jesus:

        has the power to save

        has the right to save

        has the authority to save

        has promised to save (John 3:16)

        has paid the ransom for my salvation

        has taken the penalty of my sins upon Himself

        has hidden my sins in the deepest sea

        has willed to forget my sin

        has clothed me with His righteousness.

Jesus is God whose word is final, does not change, and He cannot lie.

Jesus is not willing that any should perish.

Jesus  is the living water, my daily bread, and the light of life

Jesus  is the judge and my defense attorney

Jesus is the solid rock, the chief cornerstone and the sure foundation (De 32:4)

Jesus is the lamb of God sacrificed at Calvary for me

Jesus is the king of kings and Lord of lords.

                        Jesus loves me and you and wants what is best for us.

            There are two excellent books that would be a great deal of help to a new believer or anyone still trying to understand the gospel.  They are both available in paperback and not very expensive. 

            Learning to Walk With God by Charlie Riggs is available from Billy Graham.

Write to:  Grason,  P.O. Box 1240  Minneapolis, Minnesota  55440-1240.  The first chapter is a review of the basic principles of salvation as I have discussed here which are so important.  The rest of this book will be very helpful to a new believer.

And Why I Believe by D. James Kennedy.  This is a really excellent book that discusses why Christians believe in God, Jesus, Heaven, Hell, and lots more.  It should be in your local Christian book store or write to:

Dr. D.James Kennedy   P.O Box 40    Ft. Lauderdale, Fl.  33302.   This is a really great book to strengthen your faith.  It tells why all the apostles and thousands of other early church Christians would rather die than deny the Lord Jesus.

            If I can help answer some questions for you regarding the Christian faith send an email to me at mainesmith@nc.rr.com.  Don't forget to pray about your questions. James, the brother of Jesus wrote  

"If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. Don't give up.  Jesus said "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled". 

I am a member of Providence Baptist Church.  If you would like to learn more go to www.pray.org and there is a tremendous about of information that can be downloaded including mp3 files of recent Bible teaching.

God Bless You!!

Sincerely,

David Mainesmith                                                                           www.ArtisticPianoTuning.com

Only God knows the future.  Everyone else is just guessing.  Trust in Jesus who is God!

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[1]      Mark 12:29

[2]     Luke 6:27

[3]     Luke 6:30

[4]     Mark 10:21

[5]     Matthew 5:48

[6]     John 3:7

[7]     Jeremiah 17:9

[8]     Isaiah 6:5

[9]     Isaiah 64:6

[10]     1 Tim 1:15

[11]     1 John 4:8

[12]     John 3:16 - 17

[13]     Isaiah 59:1

[14]     Romans 3:23

[15]     Romans 6:23

[16]     James 2:19 NIV

[17]     Rom 10:13

[18]     Ephesians 2:8

[19]     Acts 16:31

[20]     John 3:36

[21]     Romans 6:23

[22]     James 1:5 NIV

[23]    Matt 5:6