India #3 Soteriology Part 2
Sermon • Submitted • Presented
0 ratings
· 2 viewsNotes
Transcript
INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION
We have seen how man is utterly sinful.
We have talked about the foundation of salvation, man is saved by grace through faith according to the sovereign elective purposes of YHWH.
I would be remiss if I did not point out the necessity of salvation.
THE NECESSITY OF SALVATION
THE NECESSITY OF SALVATION
In my country, there is a growing error whereby pastors, denominations, and seminaries are denying the existence of hell and judgment.
This has given rise to the false doctrine of universalism, the lie that nobody perishes and all are saved.
But the truth of the matter is this, if there is no hell and judgment, then there is no need for a Savior.
Another error is the thought that one is saved from hell, and that is in part correct, but leaves out the main truth.
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness,
Previously we talked about man’s part is this, man suppresses the truth about God.
That is bad, but the worse part is the wrath of God is revealed against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.
Friends, the lost unbelieving world needs to be saved from God.
The lost are under the wrath of God.
That is the danger.
YHWH is angry with the sinner every day.
Yahweh is slow to anger and great in power, And Yahweh will by no means leave the guilty unpunished. In whirlwind and storm is His way, And clouds are the dust beneath His feet.
YHWH must punish all sin, He cannot leave any sin unpunished.
But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who will repay to each according to his works: to those who by perseverance in doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life; but to those who are selfishly ambitious and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, wrath and anger.
Here in this verse we see some terrifying truths.
First, sinners are storing up for themselves wrath everyday that they do not repent.
God’s wrath increases with every sin of the unbeliever.
Second, YHWH will repay to each person.
Folks, no unbeliever will escape the wrath of God.
Third, again wrath and anger are for those do not obey the truth of the gospel.
The very essence of salvation is that man needs to be saved, and he needs to be saved from God.
In 1618 and for the next 6 months, a council met in Dort Belgium to discuss some of the many heresies that had invaded the church.
One of the issues discussed had to do with how to harmonize God’s wrath and His love.
Listen to their decision.
God is not only supremely merciful, but also supremely just. His justice requires (as he has revealed himself in the Word) that the sins we have committed against his infinite majesty be punished with both temporal and eternal punishments, of soul as well as body. We cannot escape these punishments unless satisfaction is given to God’s justice.
We cannot escape these punishments, unless satisfaction is given to God’s justice.
This was a great statement that warrants our consideration.
God has a great love for sinners.
But at the same time, He is a God of justice, and sin must be dealt with.
Notice, they did not minimize YHWH’s need to be just.
Nor did they minimize His desire to be merciful.
And they move us to the only possible solution, in order to escape God’s wrath, His justice must be satisfied elsewhere.
The wages of sin are death, and that debt must be paid.
Which brings us to the doctrine of justification.
JUSTIFICATION BY GRACE THROUGH FAITH
JUSTIFICATION BY GRACE THROUGH FAITH
As we established that salvation is by grace and through faith, we looked to Abraham for our illustration.
Abraham believed God, that is faith.
Now, we must turn our attention the second part, and YHWH credited it to him as righteousness.
When we say this, we are speaking of justification.
Romans 3:21-26 offers the purest explanation of this great doctrine.
But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith, for a demonstration of His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed; for the demonstration of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
First, righteousness is apart from the law.
The law never justifies anybody.
The power of the law is that it condemns.
In Galatians 3:24 we read…
Therefore the Law has become our tutor unto Christ, so that we may be justified by faith.
A tutor was the schoolmaster in their culture.
It was the job of the tutor to train the children.
As the tutor did so, he often had to discipline the children when they got out of line.
That is the idea here, the tutor disciplined the child, every time the child misbehaved.
Likewise, the law, convicts mankind of their sin.
It is relentless and unwavering.
Time after time, the law says you have sinned.
And that is a good thing.
The law was never meant to justify anybody.
because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin.
The convicting purpose of the law in absolutely critical.
For until we understand our guilt, we will never see our need for a Savior.
Thus when the law of God convicts of sin, it drives us to Christ for mercy.
The role of the Spirit is seen in John 16:8
“And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment;
Here is this statement we see again how the Spirit of God and the Word of God work together to bring about salvation, just as we saw in John 3.
Here we see the foundation for gospel preaching and evangelism, preach the sin of man, the righteousness of Jesus Christ and the judgement of sinners who refuse His offer of grace.
The law cannot save, but it does convict of sin and drive us to Christ, that is it’s primary purpose.
It has always been this way.
Listen top Jeremiah 17:5
Thus says Yahweh, “Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind And makes flesh his strength, And whose heart turns away from Yahweh.
That is works, who trusts the strength of his flesh.
Jesus affirmed this doctrine, Matt 25:41
“Then He will also say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels;
To be cursed is to be destined for hell.
“Blessed is the man who trusts in Yahweh And whose trust is Yahweh.
That is saving faith.
Second, righteousness comes through faith in Jesus Christ.
Abraham believed, and he received righteousness.
And I showed you how Abraham believed in the future death of Jesus Christ.
Third, justification is by grace and a gift of God.
Another critical truth, justification is a gift!
It cannot be earned.
Your country men need to hear this great truth.
Because so many who claim to believe in Jesus, really have simply added Jesus to their list of idolatrous gods and are still seeking to earn God’s favor.
Fourth, Jesus is a propitiation through His blood.
That is where we must spend some time.
Remember our question was, how can a just God, justify a sinner?
The answer is seen in the word propitiation.
The council of Dort rightly understood, that in order for sinners to be justified, God’s justice had to be satisfied elsewhere.
Jesus is that satisfaction.
Propitiation means that Jesus satisfied the just demands of a holy God against sin.
Jesus paid the debt when He died in your place and mine.
How did He do that?
He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
Jesus took on Himself, all the sins of all people of all times, and paid the debt of that sin, death.
Jesus died to pay that debt.
The Father, made Christ the sinless Son, to be sin in our place.
So that He could then justify the sinner.
My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world.
Propitiation means to satisy.
Jesus satisfied the just demands of a Holy God against sin and the sinner.
When we say Jesus is the propitiation, we are saying He totally and completely satisfied the Father’s wrath and anger against sin.
The Father according to Isaiah 53:10 was pleased to crush the Son.
But Yahweh was pleased To crush Him, putting Him to grief; If You would place His soul as a guilt offering, He will see His seed, He will prolong His days, And the good pleasure of Yahweh will succeed in His hand.
This is how YHWH could justify the sinner, and still be just and righteous Himself.
Thus the Father laid all the sins of all people of all time on Jesus and then poured out His wrath against that sin and on the Son.
Wrath that should have been ours.
What I have just described is the penal substitutionary atonement.
Penal in that it fulfilled the law, the wages of sin is death.
Substitutionary, in that Jesus died in the place of the guilty as their substitute.
Atoning in that He death covered our sin completely.
In all of this, the Father was satisfied.
You see Jesus fulfilled the just demands of the law, the wages of sin are death, and He died.
This freed the Father to pour out His grace mercy and love upon the believing sinner.
And the greatness of that grace is seen in the righteousness we receive by faith.
I like to call this the great exchange.
Jesus took our sin, paid our debt.
We in turn receive His righteousness.
Here is the beauty of the cross, YHWH treated the Son of God as if He were one of us, so that He could treat us as if we were His Son.
This is what has happened, but what does it mean?
To be declared righteous is to be made acceptable to YHWH.
The Believer is acceptable to YHWH, because YHWH has dealt with the believers sin in totality.
Our sin is forever gone,
As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us.
This is a powerful statement.
East from west is much better than north from south.
If you begin travelling north, and keep going, eventually you reach a specific point where you are now going south, hence north and south meet.
If you travel east, you can go on forever, and you never meet west, you are continually heading east.
East and west never meet.
The point is, YHWH has taken away our sin, and it will never be counted against us, never.
The reason this is possible is that our sin was laid on Christ, the debt paid, and the debt no longer exists.
How blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, Whose sin is covered! How blessed is the man whose iniquity Yahweh will not take into account, And in whose spirit there is no deceit!
This verse describes for us justification.
Our sin was forgiven, covered, and removed from our account the moment we believed.
This is great news.
The letter to the Galatians makes it crystal clear in chapters 3 & 4, a faith based salvation results in blessing.
Whereas a salvation based on works, or even faith plus works, results in the curse.
To be cursed is to be damned to hell.
because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin.
A Salvation by grace through faith that results in righteousness is the foundation for our great hope in Jesus Christ.
You have been declared righteous by God, and your sin is gone and will never be held against you.
This is the basis for the foundation of salvation, it speaks of the eternal aspect of salvation.
If our sin is gone, and can never be held against us, then we are secure in our salvation.
ETERNAL SECURITY OF THE BELIEVER
ETERNAL SECURITY OF THE BELIEVER
I am amazed at the number of people who claim to be Christian and yet deny this essential truth.
Folks, if salvation is not secure, if it is not eternal, then the whole of Christianity and the gospel collapses.
It is an essential doctrine.
Think about it this way, if you can lose your salvation……
Then God is unfaithful to His promise.
Jesus is a liar.
Justification is of no value.
Foregiveness has no meaning.
Grace is a fraud.
And the gospel has no merit.
Don’t let anybody tell you eternal security isn’t important.
It is the foundation of all that salvation is.
We have talked about justification, how it happens and what it means.
Justification is a precious doctrine, but only if it is eternal.
If it can be taken away, then it is not so precious.
Let me add this, those who deny eternal security are in actuality denying the finished work of Jesus Christ.
Thus in their mind, salvation is by faith in Jesus Christ and my good works.
That is not the gospel Jesus preached, it is not the gospel Paul preached, it is not the gospel of the Bible.
In fact, this is the message of the Judaizers that the apostle Paul confronts in the Galatians letter.
Judaizers taught that salvation was by faith in Christ, AND, circumcision, AND keeping of the law.
Jesus started your salvation, but in order to keep salvation, you had to keep the law.
Thus, failure to keep the law, could result in the forfeiture of salvation.
Now folks, if you want to go that route, you must remember this, the standard of God in the law is absolute perfection.
This is why we failed in the first place, the standard is perfection.
For as many as are of the works of the Law are under a curse, for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law, to do them.”
One tiny sin condemns a soul to eternal damnation.
So if it is Christ plus works, then you have to be perfect.
This is not good news, in fact any so called gospel preacher that adds to the finished work of Christ is accursed.
But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should proclaim to you a gospel contrary to the gospel we have proclaimed to you, let him be accursed! As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is proclaiming to you a gospel contrary to what you received, let him be accursed!
Twice, a works based messenger is accursed.
To be cursed is to be damned to an eternal hell.
To believe such a false gospel is equally dangerous.
You have been severed from Christ, you who are being justified by law; you have fallen from grace!
The true gospel is a gospel of grace, a gift, and it is eternal by nature.
One of the most compelling arguments that salvation is forever is seen in the language Jesus utilized.
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.
Here the case is clear, faith in Jesus Christ results in life.
Since Jesus is talking to a man who is alive physically, and dead spiritually, we understand the life here in view is spiritual life.
Believers are made alive in Christ Jesus, this is regeneration.
But God, being rich in mercy because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—
And you being dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive with Him, having graciously forgiven us all our transgressions.
For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive.
Even Jesus said, John 10:10
“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.
The follower of Jesus Christ has been given new life, through the new birth, and we are now a new creation.
Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.
Every single follower of Jesus Christ has been made alive, is no longer dead but has new spiritual life in Christ.
This is what Jesus speaks of in John 3:16.
But is this life temporary or it is permanent?
The beauty of this life is seen in the word eternal.
Jesus spoke not just of life but eternal life.
You and I have physical life.
But we know that at some point we shall die, and physical life as we know it comes to an end.
The life we have in Christ Jesus is nothing like that, it is eternal.
Now listen to me, if the life Jesus gives is eternal, then it will never end, will never be taken back, can never be taken from us.
Thus we can say, we are eternally secure in our salvation.
There are over 250 statements in the NT that affirms the eternal nature of spiritual life and salvation.
Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ, none.
The key to this verse is the word now.
There is now no condemnation.
Let me ask you when is now?
Now is the present, the present is always now.
So no matter what point in your life you want to compare, there is no condemnation.
There is none today, because it is now.
Tomorrow, when it arrives, it will be now, and no condemnation.
Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
On the surface this does not appear to say anything about eternal security.
But when you examine the Grammar of the verse, you see very quickly it is teaching peace with God forever.
Prior to salvation we were at enmity with YHWH.
He was angry with us everyday because of sin.
HIs anger and wrath hung over our head like a dense cloud.
But when we were justified, declared righteous, all the anger and wrath disappeared.
among whom we all also formerly conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.
For God has not appointed us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep, we will live together with Him.
The wrath of God was satisfied in Christ on the cross, and no longer are we in danger.
We now have peace with God because His wrath was propitiated.
Back in Romans 5:1, the verb have is in the present tense and the indicative mood.
The present tense in Greek describes an action that is continuous, it is ongoing, with no end.
Thus the peace we have with God is continuous, and will never change.
The indicative mood describes an action or event that is real and certain.
So the verse is actually saying, you have peace and will have peace with God continuously, and that is a certainty.
“My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish—ever; and no one will snatch them out of My hand.
Our life in Christ is eternal, it will endure forever.
There is no danger that we shall ever perish, none.
And just to reassure us, He tells us why these are true, nobody can snatch us out of His hand,
We have well established that our salvation is secure, but here we see how.
We are not secure because of our hold on Christ, we are secure because of His hold on us.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and unfading, having been kept in heaven for you, who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
There are two essential truths concerning our salvation here.
First, YHWH is the cause of our salvation.
He caused you and I to be born again.
Second, YHWH protects that salvation.
We are protected by the power of God through faith.
What that means is that God will not let your faith fail.
Our faith will persevere to the end, because our faith is not only a gift from God, but is protected by God.
And just to add one more fact, we are in agreement that salvation is a gift, right?
Well how about this verse, Romans 11:29
for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.
When the Lord gives a gift, it is irrevocable because He is faithful.
One last verse, Romans 8:29-30
Because those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brothers; and those whom He predestined, He also called; and those whom He called, He also justified; and those whom He justified, He also glorified.
These two affirm the eternal nature of our salvation.
Notice the tense of the verbs in verse 30, they are all past tense.
YHWH predestined you to salvation, past tense.
He called you to salvation, past tense.
He justified you, past tense.
And we see it, all of those things happened in the past.
But that next statement is different.
YHWH glorified you is what it says.
But we know we are not yet glorified.
So why does the Lord say it has already happened?
Because in His mind it has happened.
Our God knows the beginning from the end, He sees the final outcome.
But more importantly, He has predestined the final outcome that we would be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ, that is glorification.
In the mind of God, your glorification is as much a matter of fact as is your justification.
Our salvation is secure, because our God has decreed it to be that way.
CONCLUSION
CONCLUSION
Man’s two greatest needs were to be made right with God, to have life.
Through the substitutionary atoning work of Jesus Christ, both became a reality for the one who believes.
The believer is justified, made right with God and acceptable to God.
Man is born again, to eternal life, a life that is secured and protected by God.
And friends, we have just begun to look at the blessings of salvation.