Back To the Basics

Back to the Basics 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 / Titus 3:3-8

Sunday, June 24, 2018

6:47 AM

Sometimes we just need to get back to the basics.

Every once in a while, whether we realize it or not -- we need a refresher course.

Several years ago when Vince Lombardi was the coach of the Green Bay Packers, who was big on mastering the fundamentals of football. One day after the Packers suffered a very humiliating defeat Coach Lombardi called all of the players in for a meeting. When the Coach came in the room went silent.

Vince picked up a football and held it up for all of the professional players to see. Then he said something like this: "Gentlemen, this is a football."

Then he went over to the chalkboard and drew a large rectangle. "And this," he said, " is a football field. At the end of the field is a goal line. When you carry the ball across the goal line, you score six points."

Sometimes we just need a refresher on the basics.

This morning I want to do that in this message. We are continuing our series on Make Holiness Great Again.

One aspect of understanding what Holiness is, you need to know how it fits and applies to our lives.

I want to using the scriptures I read as a foundation give us the very basics of redemption.

Paul is writing both letters, and is saying very similar things in both passages.

When our journey begins we are awakened. However that happens. Sometimes it happens so uneventfully as it did with me as a 10 year old sitting on the front pew and suddenly I realized I needed a savior.

Sometimes it is a great epiphany in a persons life. However that happens there has to be an awakening

We must then respond to that awakening by either doing something about it, ignoring it, or putting it off.

To do something about it begins with the basics of Repentance and faith in Jesus Christ Repentance - We find in the Bible Mk 1:14 Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, 15 And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel Mk 2:17 When Jesus heard it, he saith unto them, They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Twice Luke 13:3, & 5 Jesus says - I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. Lk 15:7 I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance. What is repentance? I think the simplest way to put is: A Changed Mind - The sinful things you do - suddenly become that - sinful things A Changed Heart - You no longer want to do the sinful things because you would rather please God A Changed Life - You life will show that you no longer want to do anything that would displease God. The idea is "not only repentance for but from them [i.e., sins]… We do not repent of the sins we still live in. Thomas Manton The Next step in redemption is SALVATION - Salvation means in its basic form and use in the scriptures - DELIVERANCE. Delivered from eternal death and the judgement to eternal life and peace.

Salvation is shown in several steps. Justification -

Romans 4:23-25 (KJV)

Ro 4:23 Now it was not written for his [Abraham's] sake alone, that it was imputed to him;

24 But for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead;

25 Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.

Romans 5:1-2 (KJV)

Ro 5:1 Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:

2 By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

Justification - an instantaneous act that results from the immediate response of God to the faith of the sinner in the Lord Jesus Christ. It is a judicial act of God where he: grants the sinner full pardon of all guilt Releases him from the eternal penalty of sins committed All on the basis of faith. Justification in a negative since is the forgiving of our sins as an act of the sovereign grace of God. In a positive aspect, it is the acceptance of the believer as righteous, a judicial act of remitting the penalty due the sinner. I love how John W. Peterson puts it:

Born of the Spirit with life from above into God's family divine,

Justified fully thru Calvary's love, O what a standing is mine!

And the transaction so quickly was made, when as a sinner I came,

Took of the offer, of grace He did proffer, He saved me, O praise His dear name!

Regeneration / Initial Sanctification -

Titus 3:5 (KJV)

Tit 3:5 Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;

Regeneration simply put means: "to be again" and involves the replacement of the old individual with "a new creature" (2 Cor. 5:17) The difference between justification and regeneration is this Justification takes place in the mind of God toward us Initial sanctification in the moral nature of man. It is the cleansing from acquired depravity or sins acted out, with its guilt and pollution. (Entire sanctification as we will see in a moment deals with the inherited depravity.)

Growth (Progressive Sanctification) -

2 Corinthians 3:18 (KJV)

2Co 3:18 But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

Entire SanctificationConsecration

Romans 12:1 (KJV)

Ro 12:1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

Cleansing - Not committed sins, but inherited depravity or inbred sin (sometimes referred to as carnality, the old man, or other terms)

Acts 15:8-9 (KJV)

Ac 15:8 And God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us;

9 And put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith.

Filling

Acts 2:4 (KJV)

Ac 2:4 And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.

Maturity (Progressive Sanctification) Glorification -

1 John 3:2-3 (KJV)

1Jn 3:2 Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.

3 And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.