Assurance of Salvation
Notes
Transcript
This whole year, we've started an in-depth exploration of the book of Romans, where Paul provides us with a full and complete understanding of salvation.
Paul's central aim in Romans is to show us what it means to be saved by the Gospel.
Throughout our study in Romans, Paul has shared key truths, painting a complete picture of salvation.
Firstly, he emphasizes our need for the Gospel.
In chapter 1, Paul declares, "the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men."
From this, we've learned that our sins and rebellion bring about God's wrath on us.
Continuing to chapter 3, Paul, drawing from the Old Testament, asserts, "None is righteous,” “No one understands,” “no one seeks for God,” and “no one does good.”
Here, Paul reveals that our failure to meet God's perfection places us under His wrath.
Transitioning to our second point, Paul unveils that salvation is attained through faith.
Further in Chapter 3, he explains we are “justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.”
This scripture teaches us that God's standard of perfection is met not by our deeds, but through faith in Jesus Christ.
It would not be through anything we can do, but through the blood of Jesus Christ.
By placing our faith in Christ, our sins are nailed to the cross, and we are clothed in Jesus's righteousness.
Therefore, when God looks upon us, He no longer sees imperfection but the flawless image of His Son, Jesus Christ.
Lastly, Paul illustrates that salvation transforms us.
In Chapter 6, he poses the question, “How can we who died to sin still live in it?” and states, “For one who has died has been set free from sin.”
Here we see that God not only looks at His followers as sinless, but He is also working in us to remove sin from our life.
Also, in Chapter 6, Paul highlights that being “dead to sin” and “alive to God in Christ Jesus” allows us to “present our members to God as instruments for righteousness.”
This transformation means that, where we were incapable of righteousness before salvation, we are now equipped to live righteously.
So, my questions for us today is, do we possess this salvation that we have learned about?
Do we know that we know Jesus Christ?
My greatest concern is that we will come here and learn about this salvation, but then walk out of here without it.
Maybe we trust that...
we have lived a good enough life to escape the judgement of God.
we have made an effort to do Christians things like come to church on Wednesday nights, so that counts as a relationship with Jesus.
we can take care of this salvation thing later on.
I want to be very clear, Scripture calls us to examine our salvation.
I want you to know that you know Jesus Christ.
Tonight, I don’t ask you to doubt your salvation.
Instead, I want you to be at peace in where you stand with God.
Sometimes that requires us to ask hard questions.
Tonight, we will turn to the very words of Jesus from His Sermon on the Mount.
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’
The first significant truth that we see in this passage is that not everyone will get into heaven.
Even more important, just calling Jesus "Lord" isn't enough to make it into heaven.
Sadly, many will be shocked to discover where they'll spend eternity once their life on Earth ends.
Having the right beliefs about God is necessary, but that alone will not save you.
This idea that not everyone will get into heaven gets even bigger when we realize that even people who do a lot of good things might still not make it in.
In this passage, they asked, “Did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?”
Today, we might be asking similar questions:
Did we not help people in need around us?
Did we make sure to go to church every Wednesday night?
Did we not worship loudly when others were quite?
Did we not study the Bible every night?
Tonight, some of us might be asking these questions, and one day, Jesus might say to us, “depart from me.”
This phrase “depart from me” is really important and something we need to think about. But what Jesus says right before that, “I never knew you,” is even more important.
It tells us that it's not just about what we do; it's about having a real, personal relationship with Jesus.
You have the choice of being a fan of Jesus, or a follower of Jesus.
The ones that Jesus said depart from me in this passage were fans of Jesus.
They did all the right things a fan should do.
Let's think about this in the context of what being a fan of someone famous, like LeBron James, means.
You know all his statistics.
You watch his games.
Your wear his jersey.
And you may even talk about him a lot
But does that make you a follower of LeBron?
Being a fan of Jesus is the same, it means
you know a lot about Him.
you may do things like go to church .
And you may even talk about Him.
But being a follower of Jesus is different.
Being a follower means that you have a personal relationship with Jesus.
You don’t just know about Him, but you actually know Him.
So how do I know that I know Jesus in this way?
Well lets look to the book we have been studying for this answer
because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
It is important that we see the word “and” in this passage.
As we saw in our previous passage just saying Jesus is Lord won’t save you.
However, it is the first part of salvation.
With our confession that Jesus is Lord, we must also believe in God with our heart.
Believing with our heart means that we put our faith in the work of Jesus.
It means that we trust God to save us.
It means that we give everything that we are to God so that we may be known by Him.