Nice, okay, let's open a word of prayer and we'll get started. Heavenly Father, as we begin this morning, we thank you for the rain and that it wasn't snow and ice. And just we pray as we study this very important topic of salvation, that we understand it, that we know that some things within it are mysterious, but one thing is certain, your son has died for us and has been raised from the dead. and whoever believes and trusts in him, confesses with their mouth that Jesus is Lord and believer in their heart, they shall be saved and secure. We are so thankful for that truth. In Christ's name we pray, amen. All right, so let's get started with a couple questions. Let me just type this in real quick. Can you guys read that Bible verse there up on the screen? Is that big enough? I wasn't sure. And let me just put this number in. All right, let's do a couple quick fun quizzes to see what you know about salvation. And there may be a few trick questions in there. OK, first one. That's the wrong quiz. So let me go to quiz number seven. I'll be asking you the wrong questions. It'll really confuse you. Okay, no one can come to salvation unless God calls him or her to himself. True, exactly. God desires all people to be saved. Excellent. God grants salvation to man when man seeks God's favor by obeying his commandments. False. Let me say that again. God grants salvation to man when man seeks God's favor by obeying his commandments. In other words, by doing good works, I can get God's favor. False. To keep our salvation, we must continually to do good. False. As a first step toward salvation, the Holy Spirit must convict a person that Jesus Christ is God. True, yes. Notice the work of God in preparing a sinner. To become a Christian, a person does not need to repent of his or her sin, but just pray to accept Christ into their heart. Yeah, sinner's prayer would be an example of that. Not to say some aren't saved by sinner's prayer because there's genuine repentance in their heart, but that's one of the things, easy believism. Gotta watch out for that. A person cannot be saved unless he or she is willing to submit to Jesus Christ as Lord of their life. Very true. This is another big controversial topic. It shouldn't be, but it is. Now notice it says willingness. That's the key. You come into repentance with, Lord, you are God. You are king of my life. I will submit to you. Help me submit to you. And then you start submitting with the help of the Holy Spirit. Repentance means turning away from sin and turning to God. True. Though technically I would flip it. It's turning to God from sin. And I'm going to pull a verse on that. I think it's 1 Thessalonians somewhere, because the emphasis again is I'm turning to God, right? Versus from my idols. Because if I was turning from my idols to God, it could be misunderstood as I'm going to clean up my life first, and then I'm going to come to God. and then no one could sing that song just as I am. All right, number nine. God is holy and just, therefore he requires punishment for sin. True. Sometimes it's so obvious you're like, I think that's an obvious answer. I'm not gonna say anything. Faith with respect to salvation is simply an intellectual belief that Jesus Christ is God. A lot of people say, well, I know who Jesus Christ is. He's the son of God. A great example of this would be Mormonism. They will say to you, if you ask the question, who is Jesus Christ? They'll go, the son of man, son of God. Well, that's an intellectual understanding. But if you probe further and say, is he the half-brother, a created being with Lucifer? They would say, well, they probably won't answer that unless you press them. But the answer is yes on their part. And now that's a completely different Jesus. So good job, you passed with 100%. Those questions are fun, aren't they? All right, if you got your workbook, I've handed out the answers so you have all the answers. Now I will confess up front that I remember John MacArthur. We love him as a Bible teacher. I respect him. I went to his seminary, and we agree on most things. But he is a very strong Calvinist, and there's actually things that we teach here that align with Calvinism, because Calvinism is aligned with the Bible. Though this chapter doesn't specify election, it is implied in a lot of this. But what I like about this chapter is it doesn't bring in the terms election, which can be confusing at times, and just as focuses on salvation. And so this is actually a really good chapter on this topic. So, Ephesians 2, 8, 9, and 10, great passage, for by grace you've been saved through faith. Not of yourselves, it's a gift of God, not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. And then it's important to put in 10 because for we are his workmanship. The Greek word is poema. We are his poem. We are his story that he's writing in our life. Created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. And I have this very interesting quote by MacArthur. He's talking about John Eddy. The 19th century Scottish preacher said, men without Christ are death walking. The beauties of holiness do not attract man in his moral insensibility, nor do the miseries of hell deter him. You can talk about heaven to him, he's not interested. You can talk about hell to him, he's not afraid. Now this kind of man doesn't need renewal. This kind of man doesn't need repair. This kind of man doesn't need restoration, resuscitation. This kind of man needs resurrection. He needs life because he's dead. This is such an important concept when we're witnessing and evangelizing. They are dead persons walking. And so, yeah. And I'm sure as you share the gospel with friends, family, you know this experience all too well. So the question is, how is Christ's work applied to man? How do we know whether someone's a believer, a true Christian? God has decreed, he's ordained this single plan of salvation that he's revealed to us in the scriptures. And in this lesson, we'll learn how he saves those who believe. So if you will, you can go open to your workbook or you can open up your Bible. Let's go to, I'll have Romans 8, 28, 29 on there. I'm gonna try a little different trick to have the Bible up there. So verse 29, whom he foreknew, He also predestined. So this is the golden chain of salvation. They describe it as that. Verse 30, whom he predestined, he also called. Verse 30, whom he called, he justified. There's that intersection where you repent and believe and now you're declared legally righteous and God gives you his righteousness. And whom he justified, he also glorifies. That's our future. So there you go. You have the sinner in the beginning, right? He gets saved and then one day he'll be glorified. Any questions just on that in general? It's a pretty straightforward series of events. Michael. I hold that view that the book of life was created before Adam was, and God put everyone's name, whatever be born in there. And then your name remains in that book until your point of death. And if you're a believer in Christ, then your name remains on, because at the millennial kingdom, at the great white judgment, after the millennial kingdom, the book of life is opened up, the Lamb's book of life. And if your name's in there, you're saved. If your name's not in there, then you're judged. Right. So at the point of death, which is your last moment of opportunity to believe when you die, your name is removed because you didn't trust in Christ. And so you are in a sense, doubly dead spiritually and physically. And that's based on that sermon I preached some time ago on that. And just so you know, that's, It's not a, that's not, I'm not gonna say a typical view. I've dug into it a little bit deeper and a lot of teachers are very superficial in talking about it. But from my studies, I think that's the best understanding of the book of life. Yeah, great question. Ephesians 1, 4 through 6, what has been God's plan since before the foundation of the world? And that phrase, before the foundation of the world, is very fascinating because you have from the foundation of the world and you have before the foundation of the world. And from is Genesis 1, 1 going forward. Before is before Genesis 1, 1. So this is the eternal past. Before is just when only the Trinity was existing. So what has been God's plan? That we should be holy and blameless before Him. Very important. So that's always been God's desire that we could be in fellowship with him. And what is the purpose of his plan of salvation? Ultimately for his glory, right? To the praise and glory of his grace. Yes, you're saved and you get some benefits from that. You're rewarded and you have relationship, but never miss that the purpose of God's salvation is to bring glory to him. That is the whole point of salvation. Think about it. Here's these sinners who've rebelled and rejected God. It brings, I mean, he's glorified in his wrath and judgment, but he's also glorified in his mercy and compassion. And every time a sinner is saved, think about it, the day that you got saved, what did you do? Thank you, Lord, I'm forgiven. I didn't deserve it, I rebelled against you. And so God gets all the glory because he's the one who does all the work. And we have to remember that our response is not a work that we do. It's a response to the work that God has done. Very important. So grace is God's free and sovereign act of love and mercy in granting salvation through the death and resurrection of Jesus, apart from anything men are or can do, and of his sustaining that salvation to that glorification. So think about this. Angels were created holy, right? So all they can do is sin and fall. There's no redemption for them. There's no forgiveness for them. So without man falling and Christ coming and dying and God forgiving men, how do we know that God is a forgiving God? So maybe in God's wisdom, in order to expose, and again, this is all speculation, but in order for the angels and for us as well, to understand that who God is, this particular aspect of God, his grace and forgiveness, while yet he's still holy and just, how else could you express it without some situation where man would be needing forgiveness? And that's another way of thinking about salvation. Without salvation, how would we know God is a forgiving God? We know he's a holy God, perfect God, and pretty amazing. So what is man's spiritual condition before salvation? You guys know the answer to this. What's our condition before we're saved? Slaves to sin, dead, and our trespasses and sins. And those two words, trespasses and sins, are trying to cover the full spectrum from ignorance to outright, I know this is wrong, I'm gonna do it anyway. That's the idea behind those two words. And what does God, the Holy Spirit, do concerning sin? What is something the Holy Spirit will do to the sinner before they get saved? He'll come along and he will convict. Right? Concerning sin, your sin, and the nature of sin, and righteousness, and judgment. Without the Holy Spirit help, there's no way you and I could ever come to faith. And that's an amazing gift, isn't it? And that's the work of God in our lives. What is needed before someone can know the truth? repentance. 2 Timothy 2.25, let me just read that. With gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth. This is really key, another interesting God side of the equation, right? God grants repentance, you repent, you repent because God, you repent, God grants your repentance. There's a little bit of mystery there in how that all works. But the key is that repentance must come first. And here's why, oh, go ahead. So many churches don't teach repentance at all. They teach, oh, God loves you and forgives you. Yeah. In fact, Sue sent me, I can't show it on my screen, but Sue sent me a little cartoon. So imagine two booths. And one booth has this really long line, and the other booth does not. And in the booth, each booth has a sign. And in booth one with a long line, it says John 316. but in the booth with no line, John 3, 16 through 20, which is the one, you know, all the other part. If you don't believe you're going to go to hell. So there you go. So providentially it was meant for today, but it's such a true statement. Now who grants repentance? God does. And I think one of the best pictures of this is in Matthew 18, the parable of the two debtors. Remember the first guy with a huge unpayable debt? God calls him up, and God forgives him of this huge debt, billions of dollars. And then this guy who's been forgiven, who's now a believer, finds his buddy owes him nothing, hardly anything, and strangles him, and he refuses to show mercy to him, because it's God who grants repentance. And from that, we learn to be merciful and compassionate. Okay, who grants us, along the same lines, who grants us the right to become children of God? God does. But as many as received him, let me float my mouse over that verse, to them he gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in his name. That's a profound concept, that we are adopted into God's family. Notice that this right or privilege is not granted because of our birth. Right? This is early in John. In fact, let me just, verse 13, who were born, not of blood, nor of the flesh, nor the will of man. None of those things contribute to you being saved. Yes. You could say in the most generic sense that, because Paul kind of loosely says that we're all small g gods in the sense that God created Adam and we're all descendants, but to say we're of the true family of God, absolutely. And that is something that is unfortunately misunderstood. Who causes growth in the believer? You know the verse, I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth. We can do all the planting, all the watering, and we are called to do that, but remember, it's God who will make it grow. Who will cause the resurrection to occur? And of course, 1 Corinthians 6.14 says, now God has not only raised the Lord Jesus Christ, but will also raise us through his power. 1 Corinthians 15, the resurrection chapter. If Christ had not been raised, we might as well just eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die. But we are raised, as done through the power of God. And then God culminates his plan. Romans 8, 29, for whom he foreknew, he predestined to become conformed to the image of his Son. This is one of the key concepts of predestination. You are destined, as a believer, to be conformed to Christ. That's what predestination, a lot of it has to do with, is that we're heading towards this one destination, to be conformed to the image of the Son. And that's an incredible thing. And when we get raised from the dead, we're gonna have a body just like Jesus, which is gonna be really amazing and awesome. What is going to happen to every believer? Well, I just kinda said it. We're gonna be transformed. Verse 21, who will transform the body of our humble state, that's our current body, into conformity with the body of his glory by the exertion of the power that he has even to subject all things to himself. I was asked the question the other day, apparently they have a new way of disposing bodies besides burying and cremating. You can go through this process, it takes, I don't know, 60-90 days, and You're basically turned into dust, and then you can be planted, or put dirt, you can take your ashes, whatever that's left over, your compost, and then you're placed in a land, and now you become part of the trees. And someone's asking me, you know, is that biblically okay? And I'm generalizing, and I said, sure, whatever happens to your body, it doesn't matter, because you're spirit and body, and once your spirit leaves, that thing is dust, and you get a new body. This old one is gone. pretty amazing. So if you want to go through that process, all the power to you. Just make sure you warn me because I don't want to eat from the apple that grew from that tree that was where you were buried. All right, let's talk about conversion. And Numbers, which we're actually gonna be talking a little bit today about, records how the children of Israel sinned against God and God sent deadly snakes that bit them and caused death. You might remember that. The people realized their sin and asked to be delivered. And so God instructs Moses to create this amazing little thing. Well, I don't know about little, but amazing thing. fiery bronze serpent on a pole. And when someone was bit, they could look on it and be saved. And if you think about it, this is a picture of the cross and what was accomplished on the cross by Christ. Christ was crucified, sin on it. And sin, of course, represented by being bitten by the snake, so to speak. Instead of a serpent on a pole, we have the Son of God on a cross. And so there's a wonderful picture there. What God has given people to reveal, what has God given people to reveal their sinfulness? What's that? Conscience is certainly, you could put that in there. The law, yeah. That's why, what's his name? The evangelist, why am I drawing back? Ray Comfort. You'll see him on the videos, do the walk through the Ten Commandments. It's pretty effective. And that is one of the purposes of the Ten Commandments. And remember, if you're gonna share the Ten Commandments, make sure you say, now listen, it's not just about the external obedience to the law. The rich man said he did all those things, except Jesus did leave out covetedness, because he coveted his wealth. But it's also, remember, what Jesus taught about the law, it's what goes on in the heart. And it's what you fail to do as well as what you did do. And that's when people understand that, hey, when you look upon a woman, that is considered adultery before the Lord, and now you are in sin. When people realize in Acts 2.36, the ladies who are in Acts would know this answer, realize they made the mistake in crucifying Christ, how did they feel in their hearts? Do you remember the expression? pierced to the heart. Oh, I understand. What have I done? Could you imagine being one of those people and not realizing what you've done? But I find it even more amazing that God still forgave some of them. And that is amazing. Repentance from sin. Why did the tax collector, remember the tax collector and the Pharisee standing side by side at the wall? He said this, but the tax collector, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast saying, God, be merciful to me, the sinner. He knew he was a sinner, didn't he? That's how you can tell when someone is truly saved. You're gonna see this conviction, like I am so unworthy. And sometimes it can go too far. And this can keep people from being saved. God could never forgive me. You hear that? That is such a deception of pride. Like you're somehow the worst sinner in the world. And when people do that, I take them to Paul. I said, I hate to say this, but Paul's the chief of sinners. And so I try to remind people that that's a very fleshly response. Right, and in that case, that context very specifically was, here was the work of the Spirit being done in delivering, I think it was delivering like an exorcism, and they concluded, you did this by the power of Beelzebub. And so here's an apparent work of the Holy Spirit, and they denied it. Now they have full knowledge, full rejection, they can't be saved. For us today, and you've alluded to it, the only sin that can't be forgiven today is on repentance, is refusing to believe in Christ. That's the only sin that can't be forgiven. Yes. Yeah. And it's important to have them understand that all sins are forgiven, are forgivable, except for rejection of Christ. And yeah, there are people out there who are believing that lie. 2 Corinthians 7, 9 through 10, what does godly sorrow over sin produce? Repentance, that's right, Deb. And what does it lead to? Salvation. I love this passage because it's so clear. For the sorrow, this is verse 10, actually verse 9, I now rejoice that you were made sorrowful, but that you were made sorrowful to the point of repentance, For you were made sorrowful according to the will of God, so that you might not suffer loss in anything through us. For the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation. But the sorrow of the world produces death." That's that sorrow that says, I can't be forgiven. That's just death. And think about it. It's true that there's things in our past prior to being saved that we wish we never had done. But don't you have a confidence, at least you shouldn't if you don't talk to me, but there should be a confidence there that says, but God, you've forgiven me. And I can stand in your presence with joy and righteousness because you've given me that righteousness. And the end of Jude says that, blameless with great joy. Okay, turning to Christ. When people have been bitten by a deadly serpent, they looked at the serpent on the pole, they were exercising faith in God's word. What promise is given to those who call upon the name of the Lord? Romans 10, 13, Romans Road, whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved. Remember, that's not a formula. That has to be from the heart sincere. And then, of course, Romans 10, eight through 10, talks about the rule of faith. And so let me just read those real quick. But what does it say? The word is near you, in your mouth, in your heart. That is the word of faith which we are preaching, that if you confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with a heart, a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth, he confesses, resulting in salvation. That's just awesome truth. So we must confess Jesus as Lord, and we must believe that God raised him from the dead. Faith means trusting in, clinging to, embracing Jesus Christ, who is the sole object of your faith. At the end of the day, you have to understand that only through Christ. Nothing else counts, right? When I die, when you die, what's going to allow us to be transferred to heaven is our trust in the person and work of Christ. If our faith was genuine, we're in Christ, and He brings us to heaven's shore. Nothing else will get us there, except Christ. That's why the picture of the ark that we talked about some weeks ago with Peter is such a great picture, right? You have Noah, judgment waters are coming, everyone is drowned, but Noah and his family, eight in all, get in the ark. Christ is the ark of safety. Such a great picture. And when freed from sin, what does a believer become? No longer slaves to sin, but slaves of? righteousness, right? Now our life starts producing good works. Do we fall short of time? Yes, but our life should be different, should be changed. And that's a process. What benefit results from Romans 6.22? But now having been freed from sin, And enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in, here it is, sanctification and the outcome of eternal life. In other words, when you get saved, now begins the process of sanctification. You become more and more like Christ. You start saying no to sin. You start trusting and growing, becoming more conformed to Christ. And the ultimate end is eternal life, glorification. So sanctification, as it's written here, is the process of being conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. You should look more like Jesus every day, though some days you may be off a little bit. Three important evidences of a true believer, a faith that works, a love that labors, and a hope that endures. And this is all in 1 Thessalonians 1, 3 through 4. Let me read that. You can see it on the screen there. 1 Thessalonians 1, constantly bearing in mind your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the presence of our God and Father, knowing, brethren, beloved by God, his choice of you. Pretty amazing. Now, what reveals genuine faith? It's your fruit, right? You'll know them by their fruits. Pharisees, bad fruit, bad tree. You can't produce good fruit from a bad tree. Figs don't come from an olive branch, et cetera. And so James says one works. And this is a verse that you may run into some people trying to say it's faith plus works. This will happen, especially if you witness to some strong Catholics. If you say faith alone, they're going to quote you this verse. But someone may well say, you have faith and I have works. Show me your faith without the works and I will show you my faith by my works. There's the faith plus works. Now, the key on this is understand why he says this. The context is he is quoting Abraham in Genesis 22 when Abraham offers Isaac. Abraham got saved back in Genesis 15, actually got, I believe, saved as far back as Genesis 12 when he left the Arachideans. But in 15, his faith is reaffirmed. But it says Abraham believed and it was credited to him as righteousness. But between 15 and 22, you couldn't really tell if Abraham was saved or not. He kept lying and deceiving a few things along the way. But the ultimate test of his faith was when God asked him to give up his son. And so that's the work. Faith is real, but it needs to be expressed in a life of works. And this is about sanctification, not justification. So that's a really important difference in the James passage. And then 1 Peter chapter 1, 6 through 7, which we read earlier, is how you respond to trials. Even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in the praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ, how you go through trials. If you remember the sower, the parable of the sower, those two middle grounds, the ones that had the roots that weren't deep and the sun melted it away or destroyed it, or you have the rocky soil, the one that had thorns, one had rocky soil. In both of those, it never really bore any fruit, did it? Trials came into their life and they walked away. And we see that, unfortunately, in too many people today, because the faith was never genuine. And then what did God prepare us, believers? We read this earlier, for good works, right? When you get saved, God has a purpose for your life. And part of the faith walk is to discern, what are my gifts? What's my purpose? How am I to serve you, Lord, at work, in the church, everywhere, in my family? Titus 3.8. Say says that those who have believed in God should do what? And this is a great passage. Let me just read that. You can see it on the screen there. This is a trustworthy statement. In concerning these things, I want you to speak confidently so that those who believe God will be careful to engage in good deeds. These things are good and proper for men. This is how the world knows that our doctrine is sincere, that we're genuine, that we're going to actually obey the word. Otherwise, we'll be called hypocrites and be a stumbling block. I love that labors. Besides faith, what else does God take note of in the believer? This is kind of neat. I always find this amazing. For God is not unjust, so as to forget your work, and the love which you have shown toward his name in having ministered and is still ministering to the saints. God sees your work and he will not forget it. He will reward you for it. And then what is the source of love in the life of believer? And that is the love of God. Because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. And I don't know if you've had those moments where you just are overwhelmed by the truth of God's love for you, in light of all that we've done. Who is true of a person who is born of God? And this is, we love one another. This doesn't mean you get in conflicts. It doesn't mean you don't have struggles and things like that. But ultimately, you're gonna love. It just will happen. And then of course, how does a true believer show love? Let us not love with word or with tongue, in other words, just kind of for show, but in deed, in our actions and in truth, right? If you have love but no truth, you spoil. You have truth without love, you harden. And both of those extremes are not good, but you have to have both together, deed and truth. We will know by this that we are of truth and we will assure our heart before him. And hope then endures. This is the last part. What did Jesus say? Who will be saved? Who did Jesus say will be saved? You'll be hated by all because of my name, but as the one who's endured to the end who will be saved. That's a picture of the perseverance. You will, till your last dying breath, Pursue the Lord. Now, if something happens like you get Alzheimer's and you forget everything, that doesn't count, so you know. That's a whole different issue. Describe the hope that a Christian has. Galatians 5.5 says this. I'll pull up on the screen there. For we, through the Spirit, by faith, are waiting for the hope of righteousness. Isn't there a part of you that just is waiting for that? 1 Thessalonians 5.8 says the same thing. But since we are of the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation. And then Titus 3.7 just reaffirms this truth. So that being justified by his grace, we would be made heirs. according to the hope of eternal life. That's it. This is why we endure what we do, because we long for the day to be in the very presence of God himself, to be free from this body of sin, to be in fellowship with God. and other believers in a place of perfect peace and righteousness. And then it goes on, what three things did Paul notice about the Colossians? This is a really good picture of believers. Since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love which you have for all the saints because of the hope laid up for you in heaven of which you previously heard in the word of truth. Faith, love, hope. Those are the three, but hope abides, right? Application, we're almost done here. And we'll leave time for some questions if you have any. So God is sovereign in salvation. There's no way you can get around that. He is the first cause of your salvation. Apart from God, you can't be saved, period. The believer is not called to salvation because of his own worthiness, but because of God's purpose and grace. And that's the whole chapter of Ephesians 1. Realizing that God has chosen you for salvation, how should you respond? And Ephesians 1, verse 4 says it perfectly. It's about being holy. Just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before him in love. Great picture. And then how are you exhorted to live? And there's so many passages. Romans 6, 12 through 13 is just one. Don't use your body as an instrument for sin. That's the bottom line. So a true believer will be convicted of sin and turn from it. He will be willing to submit to God and his word and follow Christ. A true believer will exhibit a faith that works, a love that labors, a hope that endures. Now, unfortunately, in the Christian walk, sometimes this goes wrong. Sometimes there are setbacks. There are times when you fail. And you may have a season of depression or anxiety or struggles. And you may be, in a sense, paralyzed. That can happen. That doesn't mean you've lost your salvation, but that is an important time to reexamine your heart, begin to pray, connect with believers, open up the word, ask God to help, and take action. because life is difficult and there are setbacks. You will be hurt in your Christian walk, unfortunately, by more believers than unbelievers. And that's partly because sometimes the only relationships we have are believers. Sometimes the unbelieving world treats believers better than believers treat believers. It's that sad when that happens. But these three qualities overall, if I were to draw a little chart, it would look like an up and down chart, but it would always be progressing ultimately upward. These qualities are present in every true believer in the direction. And then Psalm 116 is just a psalm that they recommend. So this is a really good chapter. So let's pause here. We got like five, 10 minutes. You may have just other questions on salvation. Dennis might. And I'm just messing with you. But what questions can I answer for you on this topic of salvation? Dennis, surprise, you got a question. Oh, that's a hard one to give. So let me go to Romans. Thanks for that question. You can tell I'm pleased. Let me hang on a second. Let me do it this way. Let me go to the verse first because there's a little bit of a discussion that has to go with that. Okay, Romans 8, 28. Okay, so literally the word predestination in the Greek is to decide beforehand. It's actually pro and then orizo. That's two parts put together. To decide beforehand, all right? Now, depending on where you stand in your doctrine, there's a variety of explanations for this. For the Calvinist and Hyper-Calvinist, it means that God decided beforehand who will be saved and who will be lost. Now, I think that's unbiblical. Nowhere in scriptures will you ever find God predestined a person to hell. As I shared this before, the closest example you can get to this would be Judas, but the role that he was in, the betrayer, which was prophesied in the Psalm, the role was predestined. Someone would betray Christ. But Judas, of his own volition, stepped into that role. And so that's not predestinating Judas to be lost. It was predestining the betrayer, that whoever did betray would be lost. So from a strictly Calvinistic standpoint, they interpret this word as God chose everyone before Adam, essentially, to be saved or to be lost. I think that biblically doesn't stand. It also means to decide beforehand. Now this I would definitely agree that there is a decision by God to create a plan of salvation. God knew in advance man would fall. He knows the future, past, present, future. And so he predestined a decision that there's gonna be this path of salvation, and that's gonna be in Christ, by faith alone, apart from works. And that would be another view. There is a third view, which is the Arminian view, and they would say this, God looked into the future, and he saw who would believe, and he saw who would reject. And based on what he saw, that decision that that person made, God then decided, after seeing the future, that he would save that person who believed. Now, who's really making the decision in that point? God or man? Man. Now, where's God being sovereign in that? He's not. So I would also reject that view. So this is just a very, very difficult word. I think it's actually used one other place. In the Bible, let me do a quick search on that. And that's surprisingly slow. There we go. Actually, it's used in several places. Let me just read through those. This will help you get a better feel for that. And this is very fascinating. All right, so we have Acts 428, which you can see up there on the screen. Let me read it. To do whatever your hand and your purpose predestined to occur. Do you see the decision beforehand? Okay. We read Romans 8.29, 8.30. Another one 1st Corinthians 2 7 we speak God's wisdom in a mystery the hidden wisdom Which God predestined before the ages of to our glory So here's God with wisdom in eternity past and he is now Brought it to be revealed in this time made a choice beforehand Ephesians 1.5, you can't get around this one. He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to himself. Again, you see the decision? All people to be saved through Christ. And so I link predestination to the path of salvation in Christ. We're going to be conformed to his image. We're going to be, that salvation is destined to that person and only through that person. Well, I gotta be careful how you, let me clarify that. What I mean is God desires all to be saved, and all are gonna be saved through this predestined choice of Christ and only Christ. He's the only vehicle, he's the only ark. That's the predestination, right? And then God begins calling people to him, to Christ, to be saved. And if they get saved, they are predestined into Christ, nowhere else. One place, one destination. Ephesians 1.11 goes on to say, also we obtain an inheritance, having been predestined according to his purpose, who works all things after the counsel of his will. So salvation is a plan of God decided beforehand. And this is really important. Maybe this is another aspect of predestination. All of this was done before there was ever Genesis 1.1. Okay, all of it was decided. the plan of salvation, that Christ would be the one that we would be saved through, that faith alone was the means, the instrument. That was all decided beforehand. It had nothing to do with anyone, who they are, what they did, what they said, what they worked, what they failed to do. Man had no part in that decision making. This was solely a thought within the Trinity. But again, I just want to be careful. This word is controversial. And depending on which theological framework you're in, you're going to have all these different views. Because if you make the view that God predestined some, you can't get around. So now they'll say this. This is what they will say. They'll say, well, God predestined some, and he just passed over the rest. That's a soft way of saying he predestined some and he predestined others. Because why did he pass over these? That's a conscious choice to pass over. That may soften the language and make you feel better, but you can't get rid of double predestination in that case. So I keep the definition as what it says. God made a decision beforehand, and when you look at every use of it, it's always connected to Christ as the vehicle of salvation, and who's the one who gets in that vehicle? Man who repents and believes. So a man who repents, a man, woman, child who repents and believes, their destination is Christ and Christ alone. Exactly. In other words, it was a whole plan. It's a plan versus a person. That's the, you know, Roger, you really said it very well. That is exactly the difference. The Calvinist will personalize it and insert the person. God was predestining persons versus I'm taking the view, no, God is predestining the plan. Now within that plan, there are persons. And, but I see it because every time you see predestined, it's conformed image of son. It's to be saved in Christ. It's, it's a plan. It's a decision. It's a path. And again, as we can see, anyone who gets on that path, who repents and believes, they only go to that one destination, Christ. Some Calvinists will actually go so far. Now, not all of them, but many will say, they'll say, are you the elect? It'll actually ask you that question, are you the elect? And if you say no, they'll just move on or they won't evangelize because they know it doesn't depend on you. But that's so contrary to scriptures. What is the Great Commission all about? We go and declare God uses us as witnesses in the world. And as I've shared this list before you, God's working 24-7 to save. He has general revelation, the universe, look at it, there's a creator. He has special revelation, the Word of God. He has the knowledge of God he places in everyone, right? They knew God, but they chose not to believe. He gives them a conscience, right? They know right and wrong. He providentially has consequences for sin to instruct you, this is wrong. He then sends witnesses into the world, the Holy Spirit as one who convicts of sin, righteousness, and judgment, the Israel as a witness, and the church. All these things God is doing to bring you to a place to say, repent and believe. But again, this is a very controversial topic, and I am not saying that I have fully understand it, but this is just where I've ended up at this point in my life on this particular topic. But I more reject that personal because it ultimately leads to double predestination, and that is hands down unbiblical. Thoughts? Questions? We did it. We got through the topic of salvation. Next month, we're going to do the ministry and person of the Holy Spirit at the end of next month, April 30th, I think it is. So let's close in prayer. Heavenly Father, thank you for the truths in this book derived from your word. And we don't understand all the mysteries of salvation, particularly even the role of predestination. But we do know this, we only can be saved by grace, through faith, and in Christ. And that is where our hope, that is the work that was done to redeem us, and his resurrection proves that you accepted his work for us to be saved. Help us to walk in these truths with joy and hope through the trials and tribulations of life. In Christ's name we pray, amen.