Okay, if I get the opportunity to share the gospel with a person, if someone has a scheduled appointment and they desire to talk to me about the gospel, the verse that I will normally take them to is 1 John 5, verse 13. That's normally the verse that I will take them to. Now, I remember 20 years ago, being a young soldier and being a member of this church and being taught how to lead someone to the Lord, Typically, I was taught four or five verses that I was supposed to memorize. They typically came from Romans, as Kim said, and then you just take them through these things, and at the end you ask them, would you like to receive Jesus? If they say yes, then Kevin, we would lead them in a prayer. If they prayed the prayer, we would say, were you sincere, as implying that maybe they weren't. And then they would say yes, and then when they said yes, we would tell them, Joey, congratulations, you're saved, as though we now know something that, quite frankly, you cannot know. And that's the difficulty. That's what frustrates us. I want to know, Kim, whether my son's saved or not. I need to know, is his name written in the Lamb's Book of Life or not? I want to know. You want to know, Mom. I want to know. Just, golly, give me some affirmation. And the truth of the matter is, he or she can know for themselves, but I cannot know for them, and you cannot know for me, and that's the difficulty. So what questions do you have about that beginning point, right off the bat? What? What about, here's one I have struggled with. As a child, I always believed in Jesus. Right. So I always believed. And so I thought I was saved. And then when I really got saved, I didn't know that I got saved until later. I realized that's when I got saved. Yes, and I think that is a very accurate representation of what happens in many people's lives. I think you're exactly right. In fact, I believe that sometimes pastors do people a disservice by insisting, when was the date? When was the place? And there seems to be this necessity of pinpointing people down to an exact location. But what we do not see, for example, in the books of the New Testament, is when was Peter converted? When can we pin it down for sure? He says stuff like, thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God, and he says, flesh and blood is not revealed to you but my Father in heaven in Matthew 16. And then he's turning around and denying the Lord three times with cursing. Satan, get thee behind me. I mean, what happened there? The reality is our spiritual journey is often an up and down lengthy process. And so while we would never want to say that salvation is progressive because you must be born again, Kevin, and born again is a decisive moment of regeneration. What oftentimes is difficult is pinpointing, when was I born again? When was that moment of time? And for different people, it's different ways. If you grew up in a Christian home and a godly home, sometimes pinpointing a decisive moment of conversion is much more difficult for you than someone who grew up a rebel and was running from God and in sin. And then they had an incredible encounter with God, and they remember that heartbroken at the altar, begging God for forgiveness, the turning, you know what I'm talking about? And for them, it's so clear and it's so decisive. But like you said, if I was to say to my son, son, when did you not believe that Jesus exists? There was never a time, your son, all of us that have children, Keith grew up going to church. It was never an option for him. He was introduced to who God is from the very beginning. So then for him to determine when was that decisive moment could be difficult. And that's why sometimes you see what happens on a regular basis around this church. Emily Hubbard recently made a profession of faith at camp, and yet she believes she had a profession of faith before. And sometimes there'll be multiple points of contact in their life as to when they believe they were making commitments towards God. It's not really that important for us to hammer down with Emily and say, when was that moment? And that's not really that important. What is important then? How would you answer that question? And I'll go back to, let me answer, you answer my question, then I'll go to Kim's question. What is important then, if I say it's not important to wicker that down and keep asking her the day and the time, what is then important? What would you say is important? Yeah, exactly. I would agree with you 100%. What do you currently believe? Tell me what you currently believe. Your current state of belief is what is important. What do you believe right now about God, the gospel, Jesus? What do you currently believe? I don't want to know about what you believed five years ago. I want to know about what do you believe right now. Now, Kim, what was your question? Maybe I'm getting ahead of things, but one thing I just wanted answered. The New Testament talks about bringing to full assurance of faith, while there's a passage in the Old Testament that says the effect of righteousness is quietness and assurance forever. So, in that moment of time that you believe, there is that assurance and quietness forever. You know, I know that I have believed, but the New Testament does talk about bringing to full assurance of faith, and that, you know, I know salvation is not progressive, but I just... Yeah, and you know what, and I would say that salvation is progressive in one sense, and that's the sanctifying element of salvation. I have been saved. I am being saved. I will be saved. And so sometimes the verses that we're looking at are dealing with the progressiveness of it. Sometimes the verses that we're looking at are dealing with the decisiveness of it. For example, if we were to read John chapter number three, Nicodemus, you must be born again. If we were to read Paul's writings, Work out your own salvation. Well, work out is a progressive thing. Work out is a continual thing. And so, you will have assurance of salvation. However, Dev, I can't give you that assurance. It's impossible. And a lot of times kids want you to give them that assurance. Just tell me, am I saved or not? Amen. You're right. You're exactly right. Not just kids. I said that because we're doing teacher in service, but adults want to know too. And adults will often come and meet with me and just, can we just get to the bottom line? Am I saved or not? I have been emailing with a gentleman here in North Carolina that heard the message, Joey from Hebrews chapter number six. And man, he's just been wore out over this thing because, preacher, tell me whether I'm saved or not. And we need to identify right away that if a person has this, why am I saved? This desire to know, they are not beyond a point of reach. Because people who are beyond a point of reach don't care. So if they're asking, if they are working, if they are desiring, I need to know. That is a great sign. That is an awesome sign. We are thrilled with that questioning. We are thrilled with that examination. And do not try to put that to bed. Do not try to, hey, don't worry about that. You are saved. Let's stop. Don't do that. Why? They might not be saved. That's right, Darlene. They might not be saved. So let them work that out, let them go that. Those of you that are old like me, you will remember, or maybe you won't, that's too presumptuous. I remember going to some Pentecostal churches, going to some fiery Methodist churches during some revivals, Joey, and when the person came forward to be dealt with, there wasn't anybody there to deal with him. And they would go to the altar and they would say stuff like, pray it through, brother, pray it through. And what they were talking about is, work it out. You get on your hands and knees before God. And they would let them, they would back away from them. There wasn't a counselor, Natasha, that was going to rush up to them, try their very best to bring this to an end. No, this was something that they needed to work through. This was a crying and a weeping and a repenting and a working through. And there wasn't anything that you or I or the pastor could jump in there and bring it to an end. It was something that God was dealing with them and they had to deal with God. Sometimes we almost think that God can't save them without us. You know what I mean by that? God can save that boy or girl or that young man or young woman without you. Now does He use human beings to preach the gospel? Absolutely. But God at the same time can bring truth alive in a boy or girl's heart or mind and they can come to salvation and you might not even know about it. You might not even know about it. It's not like I have to be involved. It's not like if I'm not involved they can't get saved. That's not the case. That's why we don't run the invitations super long around here. There's not a necessity. It's not as though we do the preaching, all right, the preaching's over with, now we open up the window of time where God can now save people. You know what I mean? Okay, now it's the invitation. Now if you'd like to get saved. No, our expectation is that boys and girls, men and women, are getting saved anytime throughout the message. Anytime. So, here's my favorite verse to use. Let me share it with you and then we'll talk about many other verses. Here's the simplicity of this verse is what I love so much. Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. It's done. It's a one sentence, that's a complete idea right there. Any male, any female, any boy, any girl, anyone who believes 1 John 5 1. I had some people looking. 1 John 5, verse 1. Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. That's a done deal. That's it. There's nothing more that needs to be said. If you believe that Jesus is the Christ, you're born of God. You've been born again. There's nothing more. So then, the logical question that we back off from that are several. What does it mean to believe? What does it mean to believe that Jesus is the Christ? What does it mean to be born of God? Why do I need to be born of God? Those are all great questions that I now will back off and start teaching the lesson. And so here's the graph because I'm a visual kind of guy that I always use and I normally will take out a piece of paper on a blank 8.5 by 11 piece of paper and I'll just start drawing. I'll just start taking them through this story. You do not have to do this. This is not the magic solution. This is one way of sharing the gospel. There are lots of ways, but what I want to caution you on is you're not telling them, all right, there is a God. He died for you. You're a sinner. Do you believe that? Yes, yes, yes. Okay, you're saved. That's not the gospel. The gospel is a story. The gospel is a narrative. The gospel is a message that needs to be communicated. It is not That you go, do you believe this? Yes. Do you believe this? Yes. Do you believe this? Yes. Well then, according to the Word of God, you are born again. You cannot do that. You cannot do that. Because you don't know if they're born again. You can tell them that those who believe this truth are born again according to the Word of God. That's what you can say. And so for me, I will start graphing it. So here's the circle that we're looking at. So on the left side of the paper, I've got a circle. You automatically know that that circle represents creation. I want to start with the beginning, especially in the 21st century. I am not going to assume that the person I'm dealing with believes that God made them. That's the foundational truth that has to be established. And so for every teacher that's teaching Bible, every K-4, every K-3, start with the very beginning, year after year. God made you. God made you. That is a fundamental truth. And then from there, you're going to take that fundamental truth, that simple idea that there is a God who made you. There is a God who made you. That's the basic Genesis 1 truth. And our goal in their 12 years keep expanding that, and keep expanding that, and larger and larger and larger. Because we recognize that a K-3 student's understanding of who God is, and a 12th grader's understanding of who God is, should be substantially different as we continue to teach them, and teach them, and teach them, and teach them. But we would never say, we would never say that you have to understand all the attributes and intricacies of the triune God in order to get saved. We would never say that. We would never suggest that, but I'm not going to deal with a 40 year old man the way I deal with a 3 year old. I'm not going to let a 40 year old man get over on just the idea of, do you believe God? No way, because we're dealing with 40 years of baggage. 40 years of baggage that has to be worked through. A three-year-old understands, in the simplest sense, God made you. And they're not going, I don't believe that. I really have been subscribed to a more elaborate feeling, a big bang. No. You tell a three-year-old, God made you, and they believe. Mommy told me God made me. Daddy told me God made me. Sunday school teacher tells me God made me. I believe God made me. And then all you're looking to do every year after that is just keep opening it up and keep opening it up and keep opening it up. And hopefully you're seeing that the catechism books that we're using are doing that exact idea. Any questions about that idea? We're right there, that beginning point that we want to talk about. Nate. Yeah, we've started last year or the year before? Yeah, very good. We've got a simple catechism book. Normally catechism is a bad word and it has this idea of Catholicism or something, but it's question and answer. Catechism is just the idea of question and answer. And we want question number one, who made you? God did. Why did God made you? To glorify him and enjoy him. These are the foundational truths that must be built within the lives of the boys and girls. So this is the first book. And there's a second book, and there's actually a junior high book that you and I will talk about using. And that's the basic foundational truths that we want to do. So there's my circle. Above my circle is that backwards line on our chart that takes me back into eternity. Below that is my small, thin line that I want to talk to them about, which is mankind, the history of mankind. then you will see my vertical line dropping down onto my timeline, and what am I dropping down into there? That's the virgin birth. Okay, what is it Loretta? I was just wondering, are there scriptures that go with each and every catechism question and answer? There are, yes ma'am. There certainly are. So what I'm showing you here on this, because remember I'm telling you Whosoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. So what I've got to unpack with you is, who is Christ? That's really the central issue. So Christ is the Creator. Christ is the Eternal God. Christ is the Son of the Eternal God. Christ has always existed. So that's the point of my backwards arrow showing that He's always existed. Then I'm showing that He has been existing in time as humanity has been marching through. This is my entire Old Testament, if you will. And then I drop down and I'm beginning with the what here? The virgin birth, that's right, the virgin birth. You cannot be saved and deny the virgin birth. Now, let's be clear here. You do not have to understand the virgin birth to be saved, but you cannot deny it later at a point in time when you've been introduced to that doctrine. Do you understand the difference there? Because remember, a boy or girl could be regenerated or not regenerated, we don't know. The evidence of the regeneration is going to be the progressive sanctification, that is, his growing knowledge of who God is. So we would not think that a 17-year-old who was born again at four denies everything about who Christ is. Because of Philippians 1.6, we looked at that yesterday, He which began a good work in you will continue to perform that good work. Who is it that's going to open up his eyes? Who is it that's going to reveal truth to him? The sovereign God of the universe is. Why? Because he's a child of God. So one of the fruits of full assurance that you're talking about is the acceptance of orthodox doctrine. Do you understand what I mean by that? a new truth that's been revealed to you in the Word of God, you will accept that truth. You will receive that truth. Why? The Holy Spirit inside you confirms that that is truth, and you go, yes, thumbs up inside there. If the thumbs down is a continuous process, then we begin to wonder, well, maybe the Holy Spirit is not residing inside you, and we need to deal with this. Now, I don't mean that they don't have questions. Don't misunderstand what I mean by that. There's not a night that I don't go, wow, God. There's not a night that I'm not doing that, okay? There's not a night that I'm not going, I don't understand the Trinity. There's not a night that I'm not, where are people right now? Where are they, God? We're not saying that they don't question. We're not saying that they're not investigative. We're not saying that they don't have doubts. That's not what we're saying. But we are saying that a person who's born again does not believe that Jesus is the half-brother of Satan. You see the difference there? And furthermore, let's be clear, we're also not saying that they couldn't have a window of time where they believe that to be true. You know what I mean by that? Let me clarify. 18, 19 years old. They find themselves shacking up with some friends who are Mormons and for a window of time they are brought into that Mormon community and they embrace that truth for a window of time. But because they are regenerate, God reveals to them that that is heresy and sometime during their life they would come out of that heresy. Why? Because he which began a good work and you will perform that work according to Philippians 1.6. So we're not suggesting to you that people don't have moments of doubt. We're not suggesting to you that there's never a time in which they struggle with orthodox doctrine. We're saying things like characterized by. Characterized by in a general sense. The fact that your son at 21 or your son at 19 or whatever has a window of time in which he says, Dad, I don't believe that there's a God. That doesn't mean, oh, he's not saved. That's not what that means. You don't know, I don't know. If we were to look at Peter's life at that one day in which he was denied the Lord with cursing, we would say, man's not saved. But only until we are able to look back and forward in his life, can we make a great assessment, Peter's born again. But if you drop down and look at that one day, that one rough day for him, you would say, man, I don't think that man's born again. He doesn't look like he's regenerated to me. And so make sure that we understand that it doesn't mean the first time you teach him the virgin birth and the student says, I don't think that, that just doesn't make sense to me. Oh, must I be saved? No, of course not. Because you don't know that. Questions about that? Yes. Progressive sanctification, is that kind of lining up with the idea, or not the idea, but the fact that enduring to the end, perseverance in the saints, all that kind of thing? Yes, very good. I don't know if I ever really thought that until right now. Praise the Lord. That's good. So then we look at, the next thing we want to look at is the small rectangle that I have to the right of my arrow, and that rectangle represents the sinless life of Christ. The sinless life of Christ. The fact that Christ was born of a virgin, 100% God, 100% man, lived on this planet, and had a sinless life. Now, K-3 teachers, K-4 teachers, kindergarten teachers, we are not suggesting to you that they have to understand the depth of all these truths in order to be born again. That's not what we're suggesting. But I am telling you that as you teach these things, you just keep teaching them, and keep teaching them, and keep teaching them, because you don't know what seeds are being planted. You don't know how much truth is being encapsulated into their little minds. So we are not suggesting that we are gonna line up 15 facts that you must all subscribe to in order to get saved. That's not what we're saying. What is the heart of the gospel? According to 1 Corinthians 15, the heart of the gospel is that Christ died for you and was raised again. That's the heart of the gospel. That's the very nucleus of the gospel. But that nucleus can be expanded into the life of Christ, and moreover, it can be expanded into God's overall redemption plan from the very beginning of time, beginning with Adam and Eve. Okay, is that clear to everyone, that idea? So you as the teacher have to be so sensitive to what, how, what you can communicate. But if you don't have an adult comprehensive understanding of the gospel, you can't communicate it well to any age. You can't. You have to have an adult understanding of the gospel. There's no more important truth for you to know. No more important truth. There's nothing more important for you to get a hold of than the most complex presentation of the gospel. You have to. When I'm meeting with an adult, Kim, we're gonna spend an hour on this. A solid hour. And there'll be no pressure whatsoever to get them saved. None. There'll be no pressure. I'm not trying to bring the net in, draw the net in, close the deal, get them to sign on the dotted line. I'm not trying to do any of that. I'm just gonna tell you this amazing love story. That's all, I'm just gonna tell you. I'm gonna start from the very beginning. God made you. God has always existed and God made you in his image. God has a plan for your life. All right, you obviously know what the cross is all about, but I would suggest to you that the words that you must articulate in your own mind, not to the boy or girl, is the depth of substitutionary atonement. Substitutionary atonement, the depth of it. It would be a criminal shame for our students in 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th grade never to hear about substitution and atonement. Because the gospel is atonement, making you one with God through Christ's substitution of place. What Old Testament scripture would you go to that would give you the greatest chapter about this? Sure, that would be an example, but I'm talking about what Christ did on the cross. Yeah, Isaiah 53, absolutely. Isaiah 53, I would go to Isaiah 53. That's Christ all over, Isaiah 53. My dear teachers, if you don't know Isaiah 53 right now, if you're wondering what that says, you've got to commit it to memory. Clearly, if you don't, and it's okay, it's okay if you don't know it. That's why I'm here. Please, I'm not here to put you under condemnation and give you a guilt trip. I'm just telling you that there are some chapters in the Bible more important than other chapters. That's just the reality. We would never say all chapters are equally important, especially when we're dealing with a new coveted relationship with God. John chapter three would be one of the most important chapters in the Bible, yes or no? So Isaiah 53 is one of those chapters. Every one of your students should be introduced to Isaiah 53 year after year after year after year. Because what we're dealing with is one of the most complex prophecies of what Christ does. 600 plus years. Go ahead, Kim. And this is just a concern for a teacher's heart. And I think this is something that's been voiced. Because we have a verse every week, which I so understand that, so on board with that, but we have lost really memorizing those chapters. And I really feel like It would really be helpful, even if we picked for first grade, we're memorizing this chapter, right? And just worked on that all year long. But we've lost that because we've gone to verse by verse by verse. And I think there are chapters like Isaiah 53, Psalm 23 in the younger grades, you know, the Christmas, the things that we really need to know that we have, it's kind of gone by the wayside. Because we're doing that first every week. Yeah, Kim. I think your point is well taken I'm writing that down because we're talking about some ideas of how we're going to change that for this year So I appreciate you bringing that to my attention because we definitely want our students not only to have isolated versus memorized But we also want them to have an understanding so that when you say things like Isaiah 53, even if they can't remember all the verses, they immediately know we're talking about the suffering servant on the cross. Immediately they're able to go to things like that. When we say stuff like Genesis 3, and we just expect them to go, well you know what happened in Genesis 3, and they don't know that the fall of man is recorded in Genesis 3, and that's one of the foundational events. All right, let's continue on my chart. We have the resurrection. If you don't believe in the resurrection, you cannot be saved. It's just a fact. It's impossible. There's nothing negotiable about that. The up arrow is Acts chapter number one, the ascension of Jesus Christ. You'll notice now above the up arrow, I've got a rectangle and then I've also got arrows going left and to the right. That's very intentional. It reminds me that God has always existed and God will always exist. In the rectangle though, what is Christ doing on behalf of believers right now? Interceding for us. That's right, amen. And that's what that doctrine must be taught, Clarissa, that he's interceding on our behalf right now. And that's why I intentionally put a rectangle there, because it reminds me that there is a purpose, there is a mission. He is my advocate right now on the right hand of the Father, and oh, how grateful I am that he is there. The down arrow represents his coming again. The up arrow represents the fact that he's taking me back to be with him forever, okay? Now here's what I want you to recognize. Here's what I want you to recognize. We did not tie specific verses to every one of these things because there are many verses that you can use. Many verses. We're not looking for you to learn eight good verses and be done. I want you to know this story so well inside and out that you can find yourself talking about the life of Joseph in Genesis chapter number 50. And next thing you know, you find yourself teaching the gospel again to the boys and girls. And all of a sudden they realize, man, teacher, it seems like the gospel's throughout the entire Bible. And you go, yes, yes, you're getting it. That's what you want them to see. You want them to see, turn to Luke chapter number 24 with me, please. Luke 24. Can anyone tell me the context of Luke 24? Where are we at in the life of Christ here? Yeah, post-resurrection. Where else? Let's be more specific. The Emmaus Road. Alright. Kevin, what happens on the Emmaus Road? and then He appears and talks to them, meets with them, and then eventually shows them who He is. Amen. So that's the context. That's where we're at. So let's look at verse number 44, and if you don't have this underlined in your Bible, please underline it. When God opened my eyes to this verse, it clicked. It just, the light went on, and those moments are glorious moments because it reminds you, I must be born again because unsaved people don't have the light turned on. And here's the simple verse, These are the words which I spake unto you while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the Psalms concerning me. concerning me." The point of this verse is that you can find yourself in the Old Testament preaching the gospel. The gospel is not found just in five verses in Romans. The gospel is not found just in 1 Corinthians 15. The gospel is not found just in Philippians 2. The gospel is found in Genesis 3.15, culminating in the revelation of Christ by the Apostle John. and you wanna challenge yourself as a teacher to get proficient at explaining the gospel from multiple angles, multiple ways, multiple points of contact, that you don't need only five verses because you are not a person who's still drinking milk. You like a steak sandwich, as Sam would say to me. I wanna be fed the word of God. So let's look at When Christ says the Law of Moses, He's talking about 5 books of the Bible, right? When Christ says the Prophets, He's talking about 17 books of the Bible. When Christ says the Psalms, He's talking about 150 chapters. In other words, the Old Testament. The Old Testament, it's all there. All my elementary teachers that are new, I did a lesson in Deb's class last year called Understanding the Books of the Old Testament. It's on some sermon audio. I wish you would listen to that. New teachers, I wish you would go on. I think it'll be helpful to you. Maybe you've already got it. If you don't, just click it off. You don't have to bore yourself with the entire lesson. But it helps you hopefully understand how your Old Testament is organized, the way your Old Testament is organized. It's very important for you to be able to explain to your students the organization of the Old Testament. Now, you'll notice that I have written down on our graph that the human response to this message, the person and work of Christ, is repentance and confessing faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. So, let's grab that idea person and work of Christ. If we were to test any of our middle school students, any of our high school students, and we were to say to them, tell me about the person and work of Christ, and they failed this, we would consider ourselves a failure. We would consider ourselves a failure. It would be no different than if we were graduating students from the academy who could not read and write. If they could not read and write, we would say, that's a failure of a school. So the P and W of Jesus Christ over and over with your students, and it's real simple. Write it down if you don't have it. It's the humanity of Christ. It is the deity of Christ. The humanity of Christ and the deity of Christ united in one person, the Lord Jesus Christ. All God, all man, even now. Even now, there's a lot of people that are confused about that idea and believe that he left his humanity behind. That is not the case. We will see nail-scarred hands in heaven, all human, all divine. The work, the work is the PPW, the PPW. I knew that didn't sound right. Prophet, priest, and king. Prophet, priest, and king. Prophet, priest, and king. Prophet, priest, and king. So, Kevin, we go back to 1 John 5.1, and we say to that man or that woman, that boy or girl, whosoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. So we take Jesus, and we're talking about the one born of the Virgin Mary who lived Christ is the one who fulfilled these three Messianic offices. Messianic offices of prophet, the messianic office of priest, the messianic office of king. Remember, Christ is the Greek word for Messiah. That's all it is. Christ is the Greek word for Messiah. You have to believe that Jesus is the Messiah to be born again. What does it mean to believe that Jesus is the Messiah? You believe that God sent his only begotten son born of a virgin, all flesh, all God, the Son of God, the Son of Man, wrapped up in one being, ontologically separate but united in one person, who was God's prophet, God's priest, our king. What are your questions about that? What are your questions about that? So when I'm unpacking that with the person, I'll take the time, Megan, and I'll say, what does it mean for Christ to be my prophet? What does it mean for Christ to be my priest? What does it mean for Christ to be my king? How does that work out in my own life? Well, prophet, he speaks to me. Prophet, he teaches me. Prophet, he is the one that guides me, directs me, is the spokesman, if you will, Another word for prophet would be rabbi. Another word for rabbi would be teacher. Right? Yes? Priest. He is my priest. I don't have a priest in between. He is my priest. He is the one on the right hand of Father Croesus interceding on my behalf. He is my high priest. I don't have anybody in between me. There's no one else. He is my priest. He is my savior. He is my advocate. And you could go on and on. We could spend lots of time thinking about all the words that make reference to prophet, all the words that make reference to priest. He is my king. He is my lord. He is my B-O-S-S. He's my boss. He's my boss. I cannot isolate these things. I cannot say, Lord, I want you to be my savior, but not so much on all the others. No. It is all together. It's encompassing in one thing. I don't get to pick and choose what I like. Now, because salvation is, in one sense, progressive, he's not always my king. I fail miserably. And when I fail miserably, I run to him as my priest and seek cleansing and forgiveness. Make sense? Yes, ma'am. So this is where maybe people Well, again, I would be careful with the idea of let, because He is Lord. Sure, they've got to have a willing obedience. Turn to John chapter number two, please. There is an amazing passage in John two that I would hope that you also would write down that really deals with your question. John chapter number two, let's look at verse 23 together. The he there is referring to Jesus, verse number 23 of chapter number two of the Gospel of John. Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover in the feast day, many believed in his name when they saw the miracles which he did. Okay, look at the next verse. But Jesus did not commit himself unto them because he knew all men. Wow. God knows the heart. God knows the intellectual assent to facts and repentant faith in the Messiah. And there's a difference. If all I say to you is, do you believe? Yes. That's not enough to confirm whether you're saved or not. I can't give you any assurance on that. I would never want to do that. I would want to talk to you about how's God working in your life? How's your relationship with the Holy Spirit? Do you love God? Have you been in us for Jesus? What are you struggling with? Have you ever experienced the Holy Spirit convicting you of sin? Have you ever had a scripture unpacked? Have you ever had a moment of time in worship where it was just you and God and you knew it was just you and God? And those aren't the three checks. I'm not suggesting check, check. Don't misunderstand what I mean. It is a relationship. Look what he says. If all we read was just 23, we would say, many believed in his name, we would say, glory, hallelujah, a whole bunch of people got saved that day. But when we flip it over and we go, but Jesus did not commit himself unto them because he knew all men, and then please notice verse 25, and needed not that any should testify of man, for he knew what was in man. He doesn't need you to tell him what's in you. He knows. Now, if you want to tell Him what's in you, tell Him. Tell Him. Tell Him. Tell Him. Tell Him. Tell Him. Tell Him. Tell Him. I believe. I tell God I believe in Him all the time. I'm not praying to get saved. I'm reminding Him how much I believe in Him. That's a regular part of my outpouring. I'm not getting saved over and over again because I say those words. I love you, Lord. I believe in you. I'm trusting in you, God. I'm counting on you, God. You're my only hope. I'm not getting saved again with those words. Those are words of worship. Those are words that are coming out of a heart that's been regenerate. Those aren't words that get me saved. There are no words that get me saved. The scripture's very clear. He needed not that any should testify of his name, for he knew what was in man. He doesn't need a four-year-old to say anything. Now, if the four-year-old wants to say something, let him say it, let him say it, let him say it. Back up and get out of the way. You know? It's like the old preachers, pray it through, brother. Let the Lord work. If he's down there confessing sin and just going to town, you don't stop and, hey brother, you don't need to do that. Let the Lord do the Lord's work. But my point is that there are no words that can be articulated that obligate God to save someone. There are no words that can be articulated. And we're struggling with that. We're going all the way back to my very first point, which is, there are no words that we can hear from somebody's mouth that go, done. There are no words like that. And so, whether it's intellectual assent unto known facts, whether it's a failure to submit to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, whether it's an incredibly backslid state, you know what, sister, we don't know. It's so troublesome, we don't know. God simply does not permit us to know. We can know for ourselves, full assurance for ourselves. We can certainly look at fruit and go, my goodness, that definitely looks like an apple tree. Man, there are some awesome apples on that tree. This is a great year. But you and I know if you've done anything with gardening, every tree, the apple tree doesn't always look that way. My mama has peach trees up in Indiana. There's been some years where those peaches were like that, and they were awesome, and there's been some years where those peaches were like that, and you don't even want to eat them. It's still a peach tree. And I'm sure if you looked at my life, seven days a week, 24 hours a day, sometimes it would be a great big peach, and sometimes you'd go, and you'd want to spit it out. Still a peach tree. So this idea of us being able to identify sometimes is really tricky, really difficult, really hard. The response must include, and I wanna spend a little bit of time here with you, repentance toward God, confessing faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. In my little life of watching fundamentalism, and I guess I've been doing it for about 22 years, 25 years, there was a time where you didn't hardly hear anything about repentance. Now it's almost as though we swung this direction and you hear repent, repent, repent, repent, and I want to talk about this for just a second. Sometimes you'll hear preachers say repent of your sins. Please do not use that expression. First of all, it's not biblical. It's not biblical. You will not find any New Testament references to repent of your sins. Because what is the logical question that needs to be asked when I say to you, Nate, repent of your sins? All right, Joey, which ones? Have I ever done repenting? Because I keep sinning. Absolutely, sister. Go into it. All of them? Got to remember everything? How far back? What if I forget one? It's critical. What if I don't think it's sin? What if I don't know it's sin? Absolutely. It's critical. It's critical. I was at camp this week, a couple weeks ago, and I was so glad I was there. Because it was happening over and over again, and our teenagers were coming up and spending some time with me, and I was so glad I was there to spend some time with them. Because it was very confusing to them. Because now all of a sudden it goes, well how many? How far back? What if I forgot one? And next thing you know, salvation is what I do to get saved. And then, once it becomes what I do, there's no hope. There's no real full assurance, because if I'm counting on myself, I am a miserable failure. So repentance toward God. Let's go to Acts 20, 21, please. Acts 20, 21. This would also be a verse, new teachers, that I would ask that you underline and mark in your Bible. Acts 20, 21. Acts 20, 21. This is the apostles' testimony. So this is Paul talking to the Ephesian elders, the church at Ephesus, and he's giving a summary of what they preached. To both the Jews and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. We don't repent of our sins, we repent toward God. You have to turn to God. And what you turn from is gonna be different. It's not gonna be the same for everyone. It's not gonna be the same. Some are turning from idolatry. Others are not turning from idolatry. Think about a boy or girl that grows up in a Christian home their entire lives. They never remember a time when they were an idolater. They never remember a time when they were a Muslim. They never remember a time when they were a Hindu. They never remember a time in which they were a socialist or a materialist. As far as they know, they've always been believing in God. So to suggest to them that they need to repent of specific sins is just ludicrous. The illustration that I like to use, and you can come up with any that you want, but we often talk about the idea of belief or trust in regard to Christ. We say that you can say you trust in the sufficiency of this chair all day long, but until you fully stand on it or sit in it, there's no evidence that you trust in the sufficiency of the chair, right? We understand that idea. One time I had a wheelbarrow in the sanctuary. Some of you old-timers remember that. We were talking about the idea that you've got to get in the wheelbarrow in order to demonstrate your trust. You remember that fellow that would wheelbarrow people across Niagara Falls? And real evidence that you believe that he could wheelbarrow someone across Niagara Falls is you got in the wheelbarrow. You can say all day long, I believe you can do it, but only until you get in the wheelbarrow do you really believe that he can do it, right? We understand that from trust. We understand that from faith. We understand that from belief. Do you believe this chair can hold you? Yes, I do. Do you trust that this chair can hold you? Yes, I do. Do you have faith in this chair? Yes, I do. See how those words are all the same. They're synonyms. We can use them anyway. But only until I stand on the chair do you really believe, right? We all understand that. Now let's go back and let's talk about repentance. In order to sit in this chair or stand on this chair or trust in this chair, I've got to move towards the chair. If you see me walking away from the chair, there's no evidence that I believe the chair can hold my weight and I'm going to stand in that chair. I'm going the wrong way to stand in the chair. If I tell you, in order to get saved, you must stand on that chair, and if you stand on that chair, you can be saved, and you see me walk in this direction, you will say to me, hey Sean, you're going the wrong way. The chair's over here. The chair is over here. You're going the wrong way. If salvation is trusting in the chair, and it's not, but if it were, and I was walking away from the chair, the first instruction you would give to me is, turn around. That's repentance. Turn around. The call to repent is turn around. The call to repent is get going the right way. You can't put your faith in Christ when you're walking away from Christ. It's impossible. We're not asking them, Angie, to repent of all their sins. That's not what we're asking. That's not what we're commanding. That's not what we're instructing. Turn to God. But you only have to tell people to turn to God who aren't walking in the right direction. When a boy or girl comes up to you and says, what must I do to be saved? They're obviously concerned about it and moving towards God. So the necessity of saying, repent, I'm already moving to the chair. You don't have to tell me to turn around when I'm going to the chair. Do you understand what I mean? But in Luke chapter number 13, repent except you perish. You all likewise perish if you don't repent. Well, obviously, yes. If you don't turn to God, you will perish. So unsaved people, step one, obviously, is turn to God. Turn to the one true God. Move to God. Turn to God. Trust in God. 180 degree turn. Metamorphosis. So when I use repentance, it's going to determine my audience. We know that to be true because look at the scripture. Every single reference to believe is not always coupled with repentance in front of it. Sometimes you'll find in the New Testament it's only repentance. Sometimes you'll find that it's faith. Sometimes it's believe. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. This verse right here that I just showed you, 1 John 5, 13, is there any reference to repent there? No. Who's there who believes that Jesus Christ is born of God? Is the word repent there? No. It's not. Because if you believe that Jesus is the Christ, you have repented. You cannot believe that Jesus is the Christ and not not repent. It's impossible. It's impossible. You can't do it. Because in order to believe that Jesus is the Christ, you have turned to God because He is God. So please, please do not turn repentance into the pre-step to salvation. Do not make repentance what the man does and faith is what, don't do that. They are just like this, both works of God. Both works of God. In Acts chapter number 11, there is a simple word. It says, God granted them repentance. granted than repentance. We know what a grant is. It's a gift. Just like we would say faith is a gift, repentance is a gift. And what Charles Spurgeon said is that they're two sides of the same coin. And that's a great illustration. You can't have one without the other. So you say, do I have to mention repentance? No, you don't have to mention repentance. People can get saved. But if you're dealing with a hard-hearted sixth grader, he might need to hear the word repent. Might need to hear the word repent. If you're dealing with a tender, soft little four-year-old, who just, their little heart is just so tender, and they just, do I believe? And I got scared. I don't wanna go to hell. Trust in Jesus then. Trust in Jesus. He'll protect you. Jesus is your savior. Trust in Jesus. They say that next week. Keep trusting in Jesus. Three weeks later, keep trusting in Jesus. You say, when did they get saved? I have no idea. It doesn't matter. It's still the same message. Your 5 year old comes to you, 3 years later they come to you at 8 years old, 5 years later they come to you at 14 years old. That wasn't 5, 13 years. You still have the same message. You don't have any different message. The message is still the same. It's the same message when I told you when you're four, and when you're nine, and when you're 13. Trust in Jesus. Trust in Jesus. Trust in Jesus as your Savior. Trust in Jesus as your Lord. Trust in Jesus as your King. Just keep trusting in Jesus. Yes? You guys getting it? It's one message. And every time they come to you with a need of assurance or any of those things, you have the same message. You have the same message. Would you turn over to 1 John 5, please, again? Just a couple more clarifying points. I appreciate your attentiveness. There's no more important thing for us to go over as an academy than this right here. There's nothing more important for us to do than this. Verse 13 was a verse that I was taught as a very young soldier from this church, and it was a way of giving people assurance of salvation. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may believe in the name of the Son of God. One of the things that I discovered as I was preaching through the book of 1 John was I didn't put enough emphasis when I was a young soldier on these things. these things." What are these things? What I wrote in chapter 1, what I wrote in chapter 2, what I wrote in chapter 3, what I wrote in chapter 4, and all the preceding verses. Oftentimes, Megan, this verse is taken out of context. It's jerked out of context, and it's the single way of assuring Angie, somebody of salvation. Because we say something like, do you believe Jesus is the Son of God? The person says, yes, well then you must be saved. But John would say to us, wait a minute, time out. Why are you reading the end of the letter without reading the beginning of the letter? Please don't jump into the middle of my letter. I started with 1 John 1, 1. So please don't ignore the first four chapters. There are critical things in these first four chapters. There is a message on Sermon Audio that you could find if you wanted to, but I preached 13 things out of these things from these first four chapters. They're all in there. It's amazing how much is in there. One of the things that he says is if you don't believe that He came in the flesh, you can't be born again. You have to believe that He came in the flesh. You cannot deny His humanity and be born again. You cannot say, I believe that He was a spirit being. He says very clearly, you cannot say that you're not a sinner because we all sin. He calls him a liar. You cannot say that I hate my brother and love God. You're a liar again. So when we take this little thing, we go, do you believe Jesus is the son of God? And the person says, yes, I do. Oh, you're saved. Time out. These things. All right, flip the paper over, please. And let's go over what we went over yesterday one time very quickly. G is for? God. O is for? Offense. That's right, sin. Now, think about this. Think about this. Teachers, you have offenses all day long. All day long. Your kids are going to offend each other all day long. You're gonna be offended by them, you're gonna offend them, they're gonna offend each other. I mean, offense is just everywhere. I mean, it is everywhere in the school. That means that God is granting to you multiple opportunities to share the gospel all the time. Now either you can seize those opportunities or you can ignore those opportunities, but God is granting to you every time an offense occurs, an opportunity to talk about the gospel. Doesn't mean you have to spend 20 minutes on it. You can narrow it down to a 30 second presentation, but we're all sinners in need of a S solution. We're all sinners in need of a solution. I need the gospel, you need the gospel, every boy and girl needs the gospel, every man and woman needs the gospel, mom and dad need the gospel, everybody needs the gospel. And because God is the gospel, we need God. P is for the person of Christ, and I think we already went over that. E is for what he experienced. And then L is the life that he gives us when we put our faith in him. That's it. That's an easy way for me to remember the gospel. Now remember, I have not given you a litany of verses because I want you to understand this truth, and then I want you throughout the year to discover how many verses you can use for yourself to share the gospel. Because Kim, they're everywhere. They are everywhere. you will find the gospel jumping off of the Old Testament and the New Testament and just everywhere. And you will be amazed at how many different points of contact there are in your 66 books to share the gospel. All right, Joey, Kevin, anybody? Is there something I failed to cover that I need to talk about? Is there something I haven't talked about that I've talked about in the past that I've forgotten for any reason? questions anybody have any questions yep this is my favorite way of doing it right here this is my favorite way of doing it right here yeah but for example when I say you must be born again well why do I need to be born again then I've got to talk about the fall of man. I can't assume that they know what the fall of man is all about. I cannot assume that they know that the wages of sin is death. I cannot assume the fact that they understand that they're born dead. So that's why the O right there reminds me, why are we even talking about this good news? What is the necessity of good news? The S is the solution. There's a problem. There is a chasm between you and God, and there's a necessity of that chasm being taken care of. You are separated and alienated from God. That's a fact. But that is the precondition to the gospel message. Does that make sense to you? The gospel doesn't include the fact that you're a sinner. The fact that you're a sinner presents the necessity of this good news. So the way the master and pinning them down with the commandments and they're, you know, not keeping the commandments, that's. No, I think there's a lot of value in that, but that would be confrontational evangelism. See, what I was sharing with you is when someone comes up to you and says, man, I need to know more about this Jesus and what you people believe and all that. Well, at that point, there's not a necessity for me to pin them down to What did you do? Because the reason they're asking is because God is doing a convicting work in their heart. Lost people don't ask those kind of questions. Way of the Master is really specific towards confrontational value. I'm downtown, fourth Friday, and I'm just talking to arbitrary people, and I'm trying to show them that they're sinners in need of a solution. Most of our scenarios on this campus, they understand that they're sinners. We present to them the law on a regular basis, whether that's the Old Testament law, or the BBA law, or your classroom law, or whatever. It's the law. It's a hammering device, if you will. It's a, you are not cutting the mustard device. Why aren't I? Well, you're a fallen being, and fallen beings won't naturally obey. You need to get saved. You need to get saved. That's the problem. You're not born again. You say, I am born again. Well, then let me just pray that God will continue to do work in your life and call you. And I'm just going to be praying that God's grace is sufficient. And we're just going to believe that you're going to get more self-control because self-control is one of the fruits of the spirit. See where I'm going in that direction? Nothing wrong with Way of the Master, but Way of the Master, all it does is prepares the heart. Galatians calls the law a schoolmaster. Still need the gospel. Still need to run to the gospel. Once I figure out, oh, there is a chasm. Does that help? Okay. Joey. Yeah, yeah, that's great appreciate you bringing that don't ever ever ever ever ever don't just don't do it Okay, that's it. It's really we don't do it. You do not need to ask Jesus in your heart He doesn't need you to testify of anything according to John 2 25 He knows whether you believe now having said that if they just start busting out in prayer of their own accord let him pray and but you would never, ever, ever lead them in a model prayer. You don't need to ask Jesus in your heart. When you believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Holy Spirit fills you. The Spirit of Christ fills you. He's not a little dude living inside your heart. He comes and encompasses your entire life, your soul, your mind, your spirit, your arms, your fingers. He's there for all of it. So again, we don't take them to a model prayer, for there is no model prayer. Thank you, Joey, for that clarifying thought. Sarah? I was thinking about the whole lordship, salvation, lord of your life kind of phraseology. What would you use instead of saying that? Because that's not right. Well, I'm not sure that it's not. He has to be Lord. He is Lord, but you don't have to make him Lord in order to be saved. There is a distinction, but you are submitting to him as your prophet, priest, and king. You cannot say, boss? No way. That's why people didn't get saved in the New Testament because they were refusing to submit to him as Lord. So to suggest that there are things that I do and once I get these things done in demonstration that I believe He's Lord is what it takes to get saved. Now you've crossed grace and you're into works. But I'm never gonna ignore any of these three because if I was, I would be ignoring one of the messianic offices that He came to fulfill. There are no more kings. There are no more priests. There are no more prophets. He is all that there is. There will be no more. We're not going to start a new Davidic life, for example. Jesus is going to come and rule and reign. He's presently ruling and He will come on this earth and rule and reign. So, when someone says, well, you guys believe in that Lordship stuff, well, yes, I believe that Jesus is Lord, absolutely, and I believe that I'm to submit to Him as Lord, but I don't believe that my inability to do it on any given day negates my salvation. Does that help? Sure, you're talking about John 644. John 644, yeah. Yeah, you can't come unless the Holy Spirit's doing the work. John 3, John 3, the Spirit blows where it wants to go. Just like the wind, you don't know where the wind's coming from. You don't know when the Spirit's moving. I mean, I ask myself that question all the time. Joe, you preach your heart out to 400 people on Sunday morning. You do somersaults and everything you can to get them to come to Christ and nobody moves. And you're like, my goodness. And then the Lord says, Sean, it's not your work. It's my work. I will save the souls that I'm going to save. You just do your job. You just preach the word. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God, right? Romans 10, 17. However, I don't know why two people can hear the exact same gospel message. One jumps up, runs to the altar, falls down, cries, weeps, and the other person goes like that. Other than the fact that the spirit works where the spirit chooses to work. He's Lord whether you yeah, he's Lord, so is it more of you know crisis my lord, but I have to come to the realization of that I That's the progressiveness of it, that every single day I want to submit more and more to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. That is Philippians 1.6, He which began a good work and you will continue to perform that work. that conforming you to the image of Jesus Christ. This justified, sanctified, glorified, this continual process. But the suggestion that we don't present Christ as Lord is ridiculous. testifying in faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ. Every one of them have a purpose there. Every one of those words. So this idea that I can just kind of set that aside and say, don't you want to go to heaven? Well, yes, I want to go to heaven. Well, ask Jesus in your heart and when you do that, you're all set. That's ridiculous. That's almost heretical. Yeah. But certainly the way a four-year-old submits to the Lordship of Jesus Christ and the way a 40-year-old who's getting called out of homosexuality is going to be radically different. Radically different. And to suggest to a 40-year-old who's knee-deep in homosexuality that he can ignore the Lordship of Jesus Christ and be born again is absolutely wrong. Wrong. That would be no different than telling an idolater that they can remain an idolater and become born again. It can't happen. It can't happen. So there may be sins that must be repented of before salvation occurs, but not in order to be saved. I have to be willing to forsake my homosexuality. If I'm not willing to abandon my homosexuality, we're not going to keep having a conversation about getting saved. So when we're talking to Catholics, we always say that you can be Catholic and be saved. But how do we work that out with them? Where should that conversation go with someone has so many works in the whole scenario, you know? Yeah, that's a great question. Because they have to believe in the Holy and the Christ, and they don't. And that's very hard to get them to come to that point that Christ is the one and only, because they have their idols, their saints and Mary, and they're very buried in that. And so they have to give up that and put Christ Yeah, if I was to say that, and I would be so careful if I was to say that, that would concern me that you can be a Catholic and be born again. I might say that there are Catholics who are born again. I might say that. But it would be hard for me to say you can be a Catholic and be born again. Because being a Catholic means you keep the sacraments. And in keeping the sacraments, you're saying that the sufficiency of Jesus Christ is not sufficient. There is a necessity of doing more. But I would never tell a Catholic that they must leave the Catholic Church in order to be saved. However, I believe in most cases they will leave the Catholic Church. However, God providentially may keep them there to do a work of salvation on His behalf. So I would never want to presume upon God and act as though I know His sovereignty. You understand what I mean by that? But clearly, we're gonna have to go to Ephesians 2, and we're gonna have to get into, for by grace are you saved. And we're gonna have to talk about the Protestant Reformation. And we're gonna talk about why do we have this thing called Protestant and Catholics? And what is it that split the church? And what is the difference between a Protestant and a Catholic? Why did Martin Luther leave that church? So to me, that's the direction I would go with them, because some of them just don't know the difference between those that are not in the church and those that are in. And they have not received a counter-argument to the sacraments and the fact that the sacraments suggest that Christ is not sufficient. Thank you. Anyone else? This is our time. No one's driving us. We get to choose. Right? This is our time. Is it wrong? to tell someone it doesn't matter what church you go to? I would be very careful with that statement, especially in the postmodern world that we're living in. I probably would have been a lot easier with that statement a hundred years ago. But here's the problem, Darlene. If you ask most typical evangelical Christians, are Mormons Christians, do they go to church, they would say yes and yes. So I would be very careful if I said to someone, it doesn't matter what church you go to. In that context, I mean, is it wrong to say it doesn't matter what church you go to as long as you have the right relationship with Christ? And being very careful, of course, knowing that they understand that relationship, that Christ has to come first. Will they, in time on their own, grow