REVIEW FROM
PREVIOUS LESSONS
During this
study we have been looking at things the way God sees them. In 1 Samuel 16:7
the Bible says, “Man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on
the heart”. Many people are preparing for eternity by basically ignoring it,
thinking that somehow, when they die and stand before God, they will be able to
talk their way into Heaven. But the Bible says we will be judged according to
the truth of the Word of God. In preparation for that judgment, God has already
given us the Old Testament law to show us what God values as righteousness,
holiness, and godliness. He has given us 613 laws in all, but there are ten of
them which most people are familiar with, which in essence sum up the Old
Testament law. We know them as the Ten Commandments.
As we
looked at the Ten Commandments, we concluded that there is no way that an
honest man, understanding what God says, can say, “I'm not guilty”. Every one
of us is guilty of breaking God’s law. We are guilty of having told a lie many
times in our lives, having stolen something at sometime or another in our
lives, blasphemed God over and over again in our lives. The Bible tells us that
when we stand before God, if we have offended in one point of the law, just one
sin in all our lives, as far as God is concerned, we are guilty of breaking it
all.
Then we saw
how the Bible says God sees two different kinds of men. The first group is
those who have no relationship with Him, violators of His law, who have never
found forgiveness from God. The second group is those who have a relationship
with God, those who have violated His law also, but have been forgiven by God.
Those with a relationship do not get a relationship by what they do. It is not
according to our works of righteousness, or good deeds we do, because God says
those are nothing more than filthy rags in His sight. Our only hope is the
mercy of God.
In the last
lesson we talked about what God has done to provide for a change of location:
from no relationship to a relationship with God. God has provided for that
change to take place by the death of Jesus Christ on the cross. He died as our
Substitute. He died in our place. He took our punishment that we might be
forgiven by God. He paid for the sins of the whole world when He died on the
cross.
But even
though it is true that Jesus died for all, all do not have a relationship
with God. The Bible makes that
abundantly clear. In this fourth and final lesson, we want to look at what we
must do to make the work of Christ personal. We will see how a person takes
what Jesus Christ has done on the cross and receives it as his own, thereby
receiving pardon and forgiveness of sin from God.
TWO
INGREDIENTS OF SALVATION
“Now after
that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of
the kingdom of God, And saying, The time is fulfilled, an and the kingdom of
God is at hand: ______________ ye, and ________________ the gospel” (Mark 1:14-15).
Remember we
said the word Gospel means good news, and refers to the death, burial and
resurrection of Christ. He died for our sins, according to the Scriptures, just
as the Bible prophesied. He was buried and He rose again from the dead on the
third day, according to the Scripture, just like it was prophesied.
In other
words, Jesus didn’t just show up in a vacuum. The death, burial and
resurrection of Jesus Christ was all according to a plan that God had revealed
starting in Genesis chapter three. God had revealed how He would come, where He would come,
how He would
live, how He
would be betrayed, how He would die
and how He would rise from the
dead. When Jesus came there was no mistaking exactly Who He was. Jesus is not
just another prophet. He is not just another religious teacher. He is God in
the flesh.
We see here
in Mark 1 that Jesus came preaching the Gospel, the good news. How does a man
receive the Lord Jesus? How does a man get right with God? How does a man
prepare for eternity? The answer is found here in the words of the Lord Jesus
when He said, “Repent ye, and believe the gospel”.
In
case you think that Jesus
preached something different than
the others in the
Bible, look in Acts
20:20-21. The Apostle Paul tells us the same thing. “And how I kept back
nothing that was profitable unto you,
but have shewed you, and have
taught you publickly, and from house to
house, Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ”.
How does a man
become right with God? We know he cannot make himself right on his own. It is
not by his own works, but it is by what Jesus Christ has done. But remember we
said that even though Jesus Christ has died for all, all will not be in Heaven,
because many have never obeyed the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Paul tells us that
the way to become right with God is through repentance toward God and faith
toward the Lord Jesus Christ. It is the same thing that Jesus said. Repent and
believe the Gospel. Let's look a little closer at those two ingredients of
salvation.
1.
REPENTANCE
First we
are going to look at a description of repentance as it is found in the Bible. I
could give you my definition and you could give me yours. It really makes
little difference what you and I think. But it does matter how God looks at
this matter, and He has recorded it for us over and over again in the Bible. We
are going to just look at a few of the
passages that deal with it.
Job 42:6—First,
repentance causes a person to abhor themselves. In Job 42:6, Job says,
“Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes”. Job had been going
through a tremendous trial in his life, and he was coming up with all of his
own answers as to why things were so bad in his life. Job was thinking that God
wasn’t treating him fairly. He couldn’t understand why God was letting all the
bad things happen to him. Suddenly God showed up and started asking Job some
very simple questions about life. Job realized he was in the presence of a holy
God and he didn’t have the answers for the simple things of life, let alone his
own complicated life. In response, Job fell down in front of God and repented
in dust and ashes.
When a
person repents, they realize that they are not right before a holy God and they
hate, they abhor what they are. I don’t like what I am. In the past I would
hide it and try to play like it really
wasn’t there, that it really wasn’t me. But now that I see myself in the
light of God’s Word, I see how God looks at me and I can’t
stand what I see. When I see God’s pure holiness and my wretched
sinfulness I hate what I am. I can’t stand to stay this way any longer. I abhor
myself. That is what Job says.
2
Corinthians 7:9-10—Second, repentance brings a deep sorrow for sin. A deep
sorrow is a sorrow that reaches into the very heart of the individual who realizes
they are not right with God. In
Second Corinthians 7:9-10,
the Bible says, “Now I
rejoice, not that ye were made
sorry, but that ye sorrowed to
repentance: for ye were made sorry after a ________________ manner, that ye
might receive damage by us in nothing.
For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the
sorrow of the world worketh ______________”.
The church
in Corinth had some members living in sin, and the other members of the church
were trying to cover it up rather than deal with the sin. Paul wrote a very
strict letter to them and told them what they were doing was wrong and a sin
against God. As the people read the letter they realized they were wrong, and
they began to sorrow over their sin, and made things right. Paul now is writing
another letter to them telling them how happy he is that they had a godly sorrow instead of a worldly sorrow.
What is the
difference between godly sorrow and worldly sorrow? The worldly sorrow is a
sorrow that people repent of. Repentance basically is a change of mind, a
change of direction.
Worldly
sorrow comes when a person realizes what they are doing isn’t right. Maybe they
have been caught and know they are in trouble, so they say they are sorry, and
they are willing to turn around from it. They seem genuine and do turn from it
for a little while. But tomorrow or next week or somewhere further down the
road they decide that maybe it wasn’t so bad after all and they just made a
rash decision. Consequently, they turn and run right back to it again. That is
worldly sorrow.
Worldly
sorrow is when a person runs down an aisle and says, “I want to be saved and I
want to be a Christian”. They go along fine for awhile, then one morning
they wake up and say, “You know,
I don’t think I want to go back to
that church. They make me feel
bad down there. They expect me to live the Bible, and I don’t really know if I
want to be like that. I don’t know if I am going to like being a Christian”.
That is a worldly sorrow. It is a sorrow that leads a person to say, “I'll be a
Christian one day”, and tomorrow they are willing to turn their back on Christ.
That is not godly sorrow. That is not
Bible repentance at all.
Bible
repentance is a godly sorrow. A godly sorrow is a sorrow that leads a person to
a point where they realize, “I have sinned against God, and I’m sorry for my
sin”. They are not just sorry because they have been caught. They are not just wanting
to join in with the crowd.
Godly
sorrow comes when a person is honestly sorry before God for the sin that he has committed against
God. Godly sorrow causes a person to make a turnaround in his life. Godly
sorrow for sin causes them to desire to walk for Christ the rest
of their life,
no matter what
the outside circumstances
become. They know they belong to Christ, and they must please Him. It is a
sorrow that they do not turn away from.
1
Thessalonians 1:9-10—Thirdly, repentance causes a person to turn from
idols. In 1 Thessalonians 1:9-10 we
read, “For they themselves show of us what manner
of entering in we had unto you, and how ye _______________ to God from __________
to serve the living and true God, And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us
from the wrath to come”. Godly repentance is something that causes a person to
turn from their idols.
Most people
in Australia think they don’t have any idols in their house. Oh, but you
probably do. You have things in your house that you love more than you love the
Lord Jesus. Maybe it is a television set. Maybe it is skis, or a fishing rod,
or the people in the house you love more than Christ. Maybe it is the car you
park in your garage. Maybe it is your job, your occupation. These are all
things you can love more than Christ, and they become an idol in your life.
You would
never give certain things up, because you love those things more than you love
Christ. Remember in the first commandment God said, “…have no other gods before
me”. When you love something more than God,that is idolatry. It is idol
worship.
When a man
has true repentance, he is willing to turn from those things that he once
loved, willing to turn away from them and turn towards the Lord Jesus Christ. A
person who has godly repentance is willing to give anything up that comes
between him and his Savior. Nothing is
too costly for my Savior. That is the attitude in repentance.
Matthew 3:8—Fourthly,
when true repentance is in a person’s life, it causes a difference in a
person’s life. Let’s look at Matthew 3:8. John the Baptist was preaching and
some people came to him and wanted to be baptized. John the Baptist refused to baptize
them, telling them instead, “Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance”. Now what are these fruits meet for
repentance? He is talking about an outward
act, an outward picture,
an outward change that evidences itself in that
person’s life so people know they have truly repented.
Others can see the difference.
Therefore,
when true repentance takes place in a person’s life you will see the difference
in the way he lives. There will be a difference in the way he talks. There will
be a difference in the way he acts. There will be a difference in the attitude
of his heart. His life will be different. There will be an evident change. If a
man has not changed, he has not repented. If a man has not turned from idols,
he has not repented. If there is no sorrow for sin, there is no
repentance. Nothing can be plainer from
the Word of God.
Luke 19:1-10—Fifth, repentance evidences itself when a person wants to make things
right. In Luke 19:1-10 we read the story of the man by the name of Zacchaeus
who repented. What evidence does he give
to God? He told Him, “Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor,
and if I have taken any thing from any man by
false accusation, I ____________ him fourfold” (Luke 19:8).
Zacchaeus not
only said, “I am sorry”
to those he had
wronged, but he paid them back four times more than he had stolen from them. Imagine that for a moment. Maybe one of our problems in Australia is
that the brand of Christianity we have is too easy. We think, “I'll just say
I’m sorry, and it will be okay”. But when people get saved they want to make
things right. They have a longing in their hearts to make amends for their past
wrongs.
2 Timothy 2:25-26—Sixth, repentance causes a person to acknowledge the truth. In Second
Timothy 2:25-26, the Bible says, “In meekness instructing those
that oppose themselves; if God
peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth; And
that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken
captive by him at his will”.
One of the
marks of a man or woman without the Savior is that they are self-willed. They
have their own mind, their own ideas, and their own views that they believe.
But when a person gets saved they don’t trust their own views anymore. I have
opinions, but I can’t trust my opinions, unless they are founded on the Word of
God.
I
don’t run to the Word of God to try to prove my point or to cover my tracks or to try and get what I want out of
God. I go to the Word of God to find out what God wants, and what God
says. Then I change my opinions and
ideas to fit with the Word of God. Repentance causes a person to acknowledge
the truth. It causes a person to admit their own bankruptcy, their lack of
spiritual understanding, and to acknowledge the truth of the Word of God. When
repentance takes place, mark it down, a person will always bow before God and say,
“Whatever you say is right, and whatever I feel that is contrary to what You
say, is absolutely wrong”. When someone wants to argue with God, mark it down,
they do not know God. Repentance causes people to acknowledge the truth.
How does a
person get right with God? He must first come to the place where he
acknowledges the truth of God’s Word. He must realize his sinfulness, as God
sees it, and realize that Hell is what he deserves because he has wronged God.
The
religious world of today laughs at that truth. But without an acknowledging of
the truth there is no repentance, and without repentance, there is no
relationship with God. You may argue with me, but one day you will stand before
God and your mouth will be stopped. God does not judge according to the outward
appearance but according to truth and according to the heart. He knows you
inside out.
True
repentance then will include these six things. First, we saw in the book of Job
that repentance is a deep sorrow for sin. Not just one of these, “Well you
know, I really shouldn’t have done that”, but “I have sinned against God. This
is serious business”.
Second, in
1 Corinthians we saw that repentance is a sorrow that a person doesn’t get
sorry they were sorry. They don't say, “I sure made a fool of myself crying
like that”. No. I can’t be sorry enough for the sin that I have committed
against God Almighty. Repentance is a sorrow that you aren’t sorry for.
Third,
repentance causes a person to turn from idols, which includes anything they
love more than God.
Fourth,
when repentance is in a person’s life, it will make a difference in his life.
An evident change will take place.
Fifth,
repentance evidences itself by a person wanting to make things right.
Then sixth,
repentance causes a person to acknowledge the truth. These things are all
included in true repentance.
2. FAITH
The second
ingredient that Jesus spoke about was faith. Repentance and faith work hand in
hand, but you are in no position to exercise faith in the Lord Jesus as your Savior
until you first have come to a place of repentance.
We are
going to look at James 2:14-24 and see
what God says about faith. In this
passage we see three kinds of faith. Only one is real.
Dead Faith—In James 2:14, “What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he
hath faith, and have not works? can faith
save him?” Notice the question
that James asks here. If a person says they believe in Jesus but there has been
no change in his life and he is not doing anything that would prove he is a
Christian, can his faith save him?
This person
has no works that accompany his belief. He doesn’t live for God. He isn’t
interested in attending church. He isn’t interested in reading the Word of God.
He isn’t interested in following the
Lord. When confronted with truth, he doesn’t change his path. He just goes on
the way he is, yet he says he believes. Can his faith save him? That is the question that is asked.
James 2:15-16, “If a brother
or sister be naked,
and destitute of daily food, And one
of you say unto them, Depart in
peace, be ye warmed and filled notwithstanding ye give them not those things
which are needful to the body; what doth it_____________?”
James
answers by giving an illustration. Suppose your next- door neighbors come
knocking on your door wanting help. They are in complete rags. They have
absolutely nothing. They are emaciated because they haven’t eaten in a long
time. They come to tell you that the heat has been turned off, they don’t have
any clothes or food left, the whole family is starving to death, and they need
your help. You look at them, smile real big and say, “God bless you. I’ll pray
for you”, and you close the door. Is that man any warmer now? Is his belly any
fuller? Is his family any better off? No, it didn’t do him any good. The point
that James is trying to make is that if a man says, “I believe in Jesus”, but
his life isn’t any different, does he truly have faith? Can his kind of faith
save him?
James 2:17,
“Even so faith, if it hath not works, is ________, being alone”. If a man says,
“I believe”, but he doesn’t show any works, his life hasn’t
changed, he is still the same old mean, ornery, deceitful person, just
as much as a liar as he ever was, he has a dead faith. Faith, being
alone is dead. It produces nothing.
James 2:18,
“Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: show me thy faith
without thy works, and I will show thee my
faith by my works”. Do you want someone to be convinced that you believe in Jesus Christ?
Then you need to show works that prove your faith is genuine.
I have
absolutely no reason, no confidence at all to trust that someone knows Christ
whose life does not change. I have every reason to doubt that his faith is
genuine, just like John did when he refused to baptize the Pharisees and told
them to bring forth fruits meet for repentance. He wanted to see a changed life
before he would be willing to baptize them.
Devilish Faith—James 2:19, “Thou believest that there is one God, thou doest well: the
devils also believe, and tremble”. The next kind of faith is devilish faith. We
have seen dead faith, which is seen in a person that says he believes but his
life isn’t any different.
A lot of
folks have that kind of faith. The next kind of faith is demonic faith,
devilish faith. This is the kind of faith the devils have. The devils know that Jesus is God. They don’t
doubt that. They know it beyond any doubt. The devils look at Jesus and they
tremble, knowing that one day they will bow before His throne and be judged and
cast into the lake of fire for all of eternity.
Some people
know the Bible is true. They don’t just
kind of believe it. They know it. When they sit and hear the Word of God preached, they tremble. They know one day
they will stand before God, and
they are not ready. One day they will have to give an answer for the deeds done
in their body, and they are not ready. What will they answer? What will they do?
They know these things are true, and it bothers them. But they walk away and
don’t do anything about it. They walk away, turn their back and say, “I don't
know if I want to go back there for awhile. I have to get away from that for a
while. It unnerves me a little bit to be around that kind of preaching and
teaching. I know I’m going to face God one day. I just don’t like thinking
about it”.
It is kind
of like a lot of people when they think about death. They don’t like a cemetery
salesman calling them at home. They don’t want to talk to him. It is not so
much that they aren’t interested in talking to a salesman, but they don’t want
to think about the uncomfortable subject of death that is ultimately going to
overtake them. They know it is going to
happen. They just don’t want to even think about or acknowledge it.
James 2:20,
“But wilt thou know, o vain man, that faith without works is________ ?” doesn’t
matter whether you have a dead faith or a demonic faith. Neither one is of any value to you. Faith
that doesn’t change your life is of no value at all.
Dynamic Faith—The third kind of faith is dynamic faith. It is illustrated in the life
of Abraham in James 2:21-24, “Was not Abraham our father justified by works,
when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? Seest thou how faith wrought
with his works, and by works was faith made perfect? And the scripture was
fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for
righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God. Ye see then how that by works a man is
justified, and not by faith only”. Let me quickly run through this and try to
explain what James is talking about here.
In Genesis
chapter twelve, we see Abraham being called by God to leave his country to go
to a land that God will show him. God also promised that his descendants would
be more than the sands of the sea. Abraham obeyed God.
Several years later in Genesis chapter fifteen, God spoke to Abraham again. God had promised to give him children, and he had none yet at this point. But again God promised Abraham that he was going to have many descendants, and ultimately the Savior, the One who would die for the sins of the world would come from his lineage. Through the Messiah, Abraham would become a blessing to all families of the earth. This incident in chapter 15 takes place some thirteen years after chapter twelve.
Several years later in Genesis chapter fifteen, God spoke to Abraham again. God had promised to give him children, and he had none yet at this point. But again God promised Abraham that he was going to have many descendants, and ultimately the Savior, the One who would die for the sins of the world would come from his lineage. Through the Messiah, Abraham would become a blessing to all families of the earth. This incident in chapter 15 takes place some thirteen years after chapter twelve.
The Bible
says in Genesis 15:6, “And be believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him
for______________”. That word “counted” is a bookkeeping term. It means the same as the word “imputed” which
we read in James, and that word “accounted” that we read in the book of Romans.
A bookkeeper has a ledger sheet that shows how much money is owed. These amounts
are on the debit side, the minus side. When money is received, then this amount
is put on the credit side, and added in to balance out the minus amount.
Spiritually,
we are on the minus side. When we go to God He imputes His righteousness to us,
it is in essence like adding a positive figure to balance the books, so we
don’t owe anymore. When Abraham believed God, when he put his faith in God’s
promise, it was at that moment that Abraham was counted righteous by God.
How did
Abraham get to be counted righteous with God? How was he made right with God?
How were his sins forgiven? How did he get a relationship with God in chapter
fifteen? He very simply believed God. He didn’t get circumcised to be right
with God. He didn’t get baptized to get right with God. He didn’t turn over a
new leaf to make himself right. Abraham believed God. He was so impacted by the
truth of what God said that for the rest of his days he was a changed man.
In Genesis
22, 41 years after Abraham was counted right with God, God told Abraham to take
Isaac to Mount Moriah and offer him there for a sacrifice. We looked at this
story in the last lesson, and we know that God didn’t really want him to kill
Isaac, but God was testing Abraham’s faith to see if he loved God. Abraham
obeyed just what God told him to do. He was even willing to take his only son
and put a knife through his bosom because God had told him to. Why? He trusted
God and believed what God said. God
had told him to sacrifice his son and he was willing to obey. When God saw that
Abraham was willing to obey, he stopped him from killing Isaac. Obviously it
was not God’s will for Isaac to die, but God was testing Abraham.
Here is the
point I want to “drive home”. To believe God means to put our faith and trust
in what God has said. It means to depend on what God said instead of what we
can see. It means we depend on what God said instead of what we can do. It
means to depend on what God said instead of what we can understand or reason
out on our own.
God said
the only way of salvation is by what Jesus Christ has done on the cross of
Calvary. That is the only way to have your sins paid for. Some people can’t
accept that because it just doesn’t seem logical to them. But when you really
believe God, a change takes place in your life, from that day forward.
Forty-one years after Abraham believed God, his life showed that he was still
believing God. If you really believe something, you act upon it.
I was
taught something as a young child. I have believed it all my life and I act
upon it daily. It is the law of gravity. I believe that what goes up has to
come down, and what steps off tall buildings falls to the ground. I believe it
without a doubt. I expect the law of
gravity to act, so everyday of my life, I still live as if that law of gravity
is in effect. When I get ready to step off a platform, I don’t force my foot
down. I know the law of gravity says my weight will help me go down very
quickly. So I don’t just kind of plop myself. I let myself down gently, so that
each foot goes where it belongs. The law
of gravity takes me down. All I have to do is make sure it is guided in the
right direction.
What does
that have to do with faith? When you have faith that Jesus Christ died
for you on the
cross of Calvary,
it becomes something that will order your life for the
rest of your days. You will act
on that truth. You will count on the truth of the fact that He died as your
substitute. Therefore you live in such a way that every decision from here on
out is going to be made with that fact in mind. Your attitude is, “Lord, You
died for me. You bought me with a price. I belong to You. What do You want me
to do?”
Every
decision of life now comes under the scrutiny of the God who loved you enough
to die for your sins. He becomes the owner of your life. He becomes the boss.
He becomes the One who orders your steps, the One who calls the shots to
determine which direction to go. He tells you what is right and what is wrong.
He becomes the Lord of your life. That is what happens when you believe.
A person
may say, “I believe in Jesus”, but their life will tell you they have a dead
faith, a devilish faith, or a dynamic faith. A person who has dead faith or
devilish faith will live a selfish life. They will want their own way. They
will make their own choices based on their desires. They will do their own
thing and not be worried about what God says.
There will
be no change in their life. Their life will prove that they have no real faith.
They say they believe in Jesus but you can tell they don’t because it hasn’t
made a difference in their life. If a person has real faith, or dynamic faith,
it will make a difference in their life. You will be able to see their faith by
the life that they live.
Romans 4:1-5—“What shall we say then that Abraham our father, as pertaining to the
flesh, hath found? For if Abraham were justified by works, be hath whereof to glory; but not
before God. For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was
counted unto him for righteousness. Now
to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt.
But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that
justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for_______________”.
These
verses plainly teach us that we are saved by faith, not by our works. If
we earned our way to Heaven by getting baptized, joining the church, giving
our money, praying prayers, being a good person, etc.,
then when we got to Heaven, we
would have the right to walk around boasting about what we had
done. But God says that is not how we get into Heaven, because we cannot in any
way save ourselves. All the good works we do don’t get us any closer to Heaven.
Therefore, we have nothing to glory in.
How do we
get salvation? First, there must be
repentance. Remember that repentance comes when a man realizes he is sinful
before God, that he has wronged God. He is deeply sorry for his sin, he hates
his sin as it is and wants to be different. Yet he realizes he cannot change
himself because reformation will not work. He desires to be different and wants
to be made different and made right with God.
When a man
recognizes all that, then his only hope is to rest on what Jesus Christ has
promised by dying on the cross of Calvary. If he believes, if he has faith in
the Word of God, faith that God has done what He said He would do, he will be
saved.
A person
who is truly saved is overwhelmed with gratitude to God for rescuing him. He knows he didn’t deserve to be rescued and
is grateful to God for saving him. That gratitude changes his life and carries
out for the rest of his days. That is why we see Abraham in Genesis 22 willing
to obey God and offer Isaac forty-one years after believing God in Genesis 15.
His gratefulness to
God shows in his obedience, his willingness
to do whatever God asked him to do.
WHERE DOES
FAITH COME FROM?
Romans
10:17, “So then faith cometh by ______________, and hearing by the of God”. God’s way of you and
me coming by faith
to Jesus Christ, having our sins
forgiven, moving from no relationship to
a relationship with God, is by first hearing what God has to say.
Remember
God does not look on the outward appearance but on the heart. We need to know
what God says because we are so filled up with what we think. We already know
what everyone else thinks. Besides it isn’t going to matter on Judgment Day
what you or I think. We can all vote if we wish but it won’t amount to
anything, because ultimately it is what does God say that is going to matter.
Faith comes by hearing God’s Word. If God says it is true, then it is true.
Imagine
someone born and raised in outer space, where there is no law of gravity. All
of a sudden in mid-life, they decide to enter for the first time the atmosphere
of Earth. Others try to explain to them the law of gravity and how it works,
but they don’t believe it because they have never seen anything like that in
all their life. They refuse to believe it and declare publicly that they will
not operate that way when they get to Earth. But when they get inside the
earth’s atmosphere and under the control of the law of gravity, will it make
any difference what they believe or what they say? No. As soon as they enter
earth’s atmosphere, they are going to be convinced. Immediately they are going
to be pinned to their chair. Immediately, when they step out of the space
capsule and try to float down 30 feet to the ground, they are going to hit the
ground hard and realize it is true. All of a sudden they realize, “What I
thought was reality before isn’t reality at all”.
One day you
are going to stand before God Almighty. You think You have God and eternity and
how to get to heaven all figured out. But God says, “Faith cometh by bearing,
and hearing by the word of God”. We must follow God’s way. God has given us the
laws of eternity in the Word of God. We can either believe God’s law and be
prepared for eternity, or we can be ushered into eternity unprepared and suffer
the consequences.
FAITH IS
BELIEVING
John 3:16,
“For God so loved the world, that he
gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever____________ in him should not perish, but have
everlasting life”. How does a
person get everlasting life? It is by
believing, by faith. We find this truth all through the Word of God. It is by
faith, it is by believing, that a person is delivered from perishing, from
eternal Hell, and translated to a relationship with God which gives him everlasting life. That is God’s
way of salvation.
But you
can’t be convinced that you need to believe God until you are first convinced
that your way of looking at things has been wrong all along. Most people see
themselves as pretty good people. They are doing the best they can, and they
think that when they get to heaven they will be able to work out a deal with
God. But the Bible says in Proverbs 14:12, “There is a way which seemeth
___________ unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of______________”.
That way which seemeth right unto a man is trying to get to Heaven by good
works, by doing the best you can, and thinking God will overlook your sin. But the
end of that way is death, eternity in Hell. You can’t be saved until you first
admit that your way is wrong. You must admit you are a sinner and in need of a Savior.
A lot of folks try to skip repentance.
But you can’t skip it and get genuine faith. It is impossible.
FAITH
BRINGS JUSTIFICATION
Romans 3:21-28 “But now the righteousness of God
without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the
prophets; Even the righteousness
of God which is by faith of Jesus
Christ unto all and upon all them that
believe: for there is no difference: For all have sinned, and
come short of the
glory of God.
Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in
Christ Jesus; Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his
_____________, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are
past, through the forbearance of God; To declare, I say, at this time his
righteousness, that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth
in Jesus. Where is boasting then? It is
excluded. By what law? Of works? Nay, but by the law of ____________. Therefore
we conclude that a man is justified by _____________ without the deeds of the
law”.
If a person
truly believes, what difference is that going to make in their life? These
verses tell us it will make every difference in the world. Here is how God has
set it all up. God has shown us what real righteousness is in the person of
Jesus Christ. God says there is only one way of salvation, and it is through
Jesus Christ.
Everyone
who comes to Christ is saved the same way, and that is by believing. It doesn’t
matter if you are a pastor of a church or if you are the worst sinner in town.
It doesn’t matter if you are a good moral person or if you are a heathen in a
foreign country. Every person has sinned against God. Every person is going to
stand before Him.
The way God
justifies us, makes us right, is by redemption. The word redemption means “to
be bought back”. The redemption that is in Christ refers to the fact that
Christ paid for our sins. Therefore God
is able to buy us back, to redeem us from sin.
When we by
faith accept the payment of Jesus Christ as the payment for our sins, God says
that we are justified. God is right in doing this, because God demands that sin
must be paid for. Either you will pay for your sin by dying and going to Hell
for all eternity, or you will believe on Jesus Christ whom God has set forth to
be the One to pay for your sins. You will trust in Him, and rest on what He has
done. You will count on His work being sufficient to make you right with God.
What did
Jesus do to make you right with God? He died on the cross of Calvary to pay for
your sins. He died on the cross of
Calvary to take your place. Sin had to be paid for. God demands a payment. God
doesn’t just snap His fingers and say, “I think I’ll be
sweet, kind and merciful and let
all your sins be forgiven”. No. Sin had
to be paid for, and the only way it can
be paid for is either you die and go to Hell for all eternity, or you accept the payment that
Jesus Christ has made on the
cross of Calvary.
But
remember that even though Jesus died for all men, it does not mean that all men
are saved. God will not make that payment good on your account until you are ready
to admit that you need someone to pay your debt for you. You must admit that
your sin is what caused Jesus Christ to have to hang on that cross.
John 3:36
“He that
believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and be that believeth not the Son
shall _____________ ; but the _______________ of God abideth on him”. We are
going to look at the first part of this verse. It can be broken into two
sections. There is God’s part and man’s part. We are going to look at each of
these parts.
1. GOD'S
PART
God’s part
is found in the words, “hath everlasting life”. God’s part has to do with
giving eternal life, everlasting life. The word hath means to possess right
now. If you have something, it is in your present possession. If I believe on
Jesus Christ I have, right now, everlasting life. That doesn’t mean that one
day I will get everlasting life. It doesn’t mean I have to wait until I die to
finally figure out if I have
it. It doesn’t mean I have to wait until I die for God to finally give it to
me. It means everlasting life is my present possession, right now.
Life—Life
is not just existence, but it is a relationship. It is a reason for living. It
fills life up. It is not, “Okay, I’m here. I’m taking up space. I’m using up
food and air, polluting the planet all on my own”. Life gives a person a reason
for living. It is a life to its fullest. It is a man fulfilling the reason he
was made.
Don’t you
sense that you were made, born for a reason? There has to be more to life than just eating food, sleeping,
going to work and eating more food and
going back to sleep. There has to be more to it than all this. That is what the
Bible is all about. Jesus Christ came so that we can have eternal life, right
now.
Everlasting—But
this eternal life is also permanent. How long is everlasting? It is forever,
eternal, never ending. It is not going to stop a thousand years from now, ten
thousand, or a hundred thousand years from now. It is never going to stop. It is not like the “permanent” that ladies
get at the beauty shop. Three months or six months later, she is back at the
same shop again for another permanent. You would think sooner or later someone
would sue the beautician for false advertising. Call them what they are, temporaries, not permanent.
God isn’t into false advertising, though.
When God gives life, it is everlasting. It is permanent. It never ends.
Some teach
that after God gives you eternal life you can sin and lose it. Not any sin is a mortal sin. But be
careful, there is a sin that leads to death (1 John 5:16-17). You do not sin if
you walk in the light (1 John 1:7). And if you do fall into sin you still have
hope if you confess your sin and are cleansed (1 John 1:9). God is the only One
who can give salvation, and God is that only One that can take it away. And there
is a sin that is mortal as 1 John 5:16-17 clearly states. So after receiving
the gift of eternal life strive to always walk in the light.
People read
what God said and decide it doesn’t make any sense to them, so they invent
their own teachings which are not found in the Word of God. They think it makes
no sense that God would give eternal life when we still have the ability to sin
after we are saved. They say that an eternal life that can be lost is not “eternal”
at all. They say conditional security makes no sense to them. Well, it may not
make sense to you, but that is how God operates. God does things according to
His Own counsel, and God tells us in His Word exactly what He is going to do (1 John 5:16-17). The
gift of eternal life does not stop being eternal if its possessor neglects it
and lose it.
2. OUR PART
We have
seen what God’s part is in salvation. But what is our part? It is found in the words, “He that believeth
on the Son” (John 3:36). Let look at this for a moment.
He—Who is
he referring to? It is a universal term. It means any man, any woman, anyone
that believes. He doesn’t say what color your skin has to be. He doesn’t say
what religious denomination you have to be. He doesn’t say where you have to
live, or where you have to be.
That
believeth—The word believe is a word which means to commit, to trust, to have
faith. It speaking of a person who understands
they are lost and deserve to go to Hell, who doesn’t like the way they
are and wants to be different. This person also understands that Jesus Christ
died on the cross for their sin. They understand that the only thing God will
accept as payment for their sins is the death of Christ. They know that
accepting Jesus is their only hope of making Heaven. God has invited all who
will believe to trust in His Son. He offers eternal life to all who will come
to Him, and He says He will in no wise cast out any who will come to Him.
When a man
believes he is saying, “Once and for all, I turn my back on my sin. I turn from
my idols. I turn away from all my wrong ways. I turn to the Lord Jesus Christ, and for the rest
of my
days I will order my life
based on the fact that I know Jesus Christ is the only way my sins can be
made right with God. Jesus Christ died for me in my place”.
This is a
belief that comes from real faith, and for the rest of his days that is how he
lives. What a different person he becomes! Once he was motivated by greed, by
selfishness, by what he wanted in life. But now he is motivated by wanting to
please the Lord. He wants to serve Him and love Him the rest of his days. The
cost for serving Christ is nothing in comparison to what Christ has done for
him.
On the
Son—This is the key to it all. Your belief must be on the Son, on Jesus Christ.
In order to be saved you must know who Jesus is and what Jesus has done. If you do
not understand who He is and what He has done, there will be no
salvation for you. If you don’t understand
He died on the cross and He is God’s
payment, there is no hope. That is where you must start.
TIMELINE
Imagine a
timeline. This line is representation of your life. There was a day when you
were born. There was a day when most of you graduated from high school. There
was a day when you went to university or TAFE, or you began your first job. There was a day when some of you got married.
Eventually, there will be a day when you will die. We will put it far enough
out to plan on life being long for you. But no one really knows, do they?
Somewhere
on the line of life, there must be a time and a place when you were born again.
There must be a time and a place when you understood you were not right with
God, you realized that Christ died for you and He was your only hope, therefore
you repented of your sins and believed on Christ. You asked God to save you
based on what Christ had done for you. That day came for me in 1989, at a midday Sunday service, at age 24. The Lord Jesus came into my heart and into my life. I acknowledged I
was a sinner. My life has been altered visibly ever since.
Romans 10:9
says, “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt _________________ in thine heart that God hath
raised him from the dead,
thou shalt be __________” . Here is God’s means of taking what Christ
has done on the cross and making it yours. You must with your mouth call on Him
as Lord. It is not just enough to say you believe in Jesus. We are talking
about believing in the sense that your life course is altered. We are talking
about a change of life that happens.
You must
see yourself as a sinner. You must repent and be willing to turn from all sin,
both sins on the inside and sins on the outside. You must
then turn to the Lord Jesus Christ and in a moment of
time, as you put your faith in Him
alone, the Bible says
you are translated from the kingdom
of darkness into the kingdom of
light. You are moved from the side of not having a relationship with God
to the side of having a relationship with God.
It is a
momentary thing. It is like a crisis situation that happens at a point of time
in your life, and it is something that you will never ever forget. It doesn’t
happen over a long period of time. You don’t grow into salvation. There is a
point in time when Jesus Christ comes into your heart and life. You cannot meet
the God of the universe, and walk away not knowing you met Him.
Has God
ever saved you? Has He ever rescued you? When did it happen? Draw your own
timeline. Do you remember the experience? You may not remember the date, but
you ought to remember the experience, where you were and what happened. If you
do have a time and an experience, then ask yourself what happened? Was there
genuine repentance? Was there a change? Was there genuine faith in Jesus Christ
alone to save you and take you to Heaven?
If it is a
true salvation experience, those ingredients will be there. If I called on you
right now, could you explain it? If there has never been a time like this in
your life, then I invite you right now to come to the Savior, turn your back on
your sin and your selfishness, receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior,
your only hope of Heaven. I invite you to come to Him.
----------------------------
IF YOU’VE BEEN SAVED, LET US HELP YOU LEARN THE BASICS OF THE CHRISTIAN LIFE
Write to us using the Contact Form provided
in the sidebar of this blog. We will
rejoice with you in the most important decision you
have ever made. Because you
will want to know all about your
new
relationship with Christ, we’ll be
happy to guide you thru the
lessons of How To Study Your Bible. And remember, if at any time you
feel you would like someone from our church to answer your questions or doubts,
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