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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.
Fundamentals of the Faith: Salvation
Series Fundamentals of the Faith
| Sermon ID | 46251852416849 |
| Duration | 46:34 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday School |
| Language | English |
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