Salvation [A]

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Transcript:

Well, tonight we’re going to be in Ephesians chapter 2. better said we’re going to start in Ephesians chapter 2. I’m going to do something a little bit different tonight.

There’s just no way. I’ve told you before, one of the difficulties I have in preparing these messages on what we believe is what is said in our doctrinal statement comes from a collection of teachings that we take from various parts of the Bible, things that are taught throughout scripture, and they condense them down into one paragraph. Well, then you’ve got dozens and dozens of scriptures in some cases that cover those things and explain those things.

And finding just one passage to deal with that topic is sometimes the hardest part. And when it comes to what we understand the Bible to teach about salvation, there was just no way to cover this section of our doctrinal statement with one scripture. So what I’m going to do tonight is go through and kind of explain what this says about what we believe about salvation.

Look at some of the verses that we take these teachings from, and then encourage you to go back and on your own, read some of these passages that are written if you have the booklets with our doctrinal statement. Take some of the verses that are written there and read them for yourselves. Study them for yourselves, because you will find that these things are taught throughout scripture.

These aren’t just verses that we’ve taken, we’ve pulled out of context and them say what we want them to say. These are teachings that are taught throughout Scripture. And if you have your little booklets with the Baptist Faith and Message, we’re on page 11 tonight, and we’re going to look at section 4, which is about salvation.

I may get through this tonight. I may not. If I don’t, I’ll finish it up the next Sunday night that I’m preaching.

As I mentioned this morning, Brother Greg is preaching next Sunday night. I think we have praise night the week after that. So if I don’t finish this tonight, we’ll pick it back up in October.

That sounds like such a long time away, but it’ll be here before we know it. So on page 11, it says, salvation involves the redemption of the whole man and is offered freely to all who accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, who by his own blood obtained eternal redemption for the believer. In its broadest sense, Salvation includes regeneration, justification, sanctification, and glorification.

There’s no salvation apart from personal faith in Jesus Christ. Okay, this says that salvation involves the redemption of the whole man. That we believe, essentially we believe that we’re new creations in Jesus Christ. He doesn’t just save our soul. He doesn’t just, folks, he saves all of us.

He saves us from first to last. And it’s offered freely. It’s a free gift of God. It’s not something that we earn or deserve, but it’s offered to all who accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

He is the Lord, and he is the Savior, whether we accept him or not. But it’s sort of an acknowledgment on our part that he is those things. Who by his own blood obtained eternal redemption for the believer.

His blood was the payment for our sins, and it wasn’t just a band-aid on the problem. It was an eternal redemption that he purchased for us. He did it once for all time.

We talked about that some in the book of Hebrews, that Jesus doesn’t have to be offered routinely. He doesn’t have to be offered week after week. He doesn’t have to atone for us all over again.

The book of Hebrews makes it clear that he accomplished in one act what all the religious rituals of all of mankind throughout all of history could not. And it says, in its broadest sense, salvation includes regeneration. We’re going to talk about what that means.

excuse me, justification, sanctification, and glorification. We’re going to talk a little bit about what all those words mean tonight, or in the course of this message, whether it’s tonight or tonight and in a couple weeks, we’ll talk about those. And it says there’s no salvation apart from personal faith in Jesus Christ as Lord.

So there is no other way of salvation. There is no plan B. And I know sometimes, I’ve seen it a few times in the media, People will interview big-name pastors, and they’ll try to trip them up and say, well, what about the people who’ve never heard?

And the good ones will say, well, here’s what God’s Word says. And the ones that we probably shouldn’t listen to say, well, I don’t know. I can’t say.

Who’s to say? The Bible says, there is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. And that tells us that there is no plan B.

There is no salvation apart from Jesus Christ. So what about those who have never heard? that’s why God left us here as a witness and if people if people have never heard that’s on us okay that’s our responsibility I do think God you know I’m torn on how this happens because I believe in the sovereignty of God but I also believe that our sovereign God created us with a free will and his sovereignty is so sovereign it’s not threatened by our free will at all I think I think God responds to, I believe God foreknows and I believe he responds and he makes sure that those who would respond to the gospel, hear. There’s no one verse I can point to that says that, but I think we can make a case for that from scripture.

I don’t want to get too far off in the weeds on that tonight. My point being, this says, and the Bible says, more importantly the Bible says, that there is no salvation apart from Jesus Christ. He is God’s plan A and he’s God’s plan A through Z. He’s the whole thing.

There’s no other way. There’s no other option. And so it goes through, and rather than read on these and then comment about them and then talk about them some more, I’m just going to read through this, and then we’ll get to the message where I’ll comment on each of these things.

It says, Regeneration or the new birth is a work of God’s grace, whereby believers become new creatures in Christ Jesus. It is a change of heart wrought by the Holy Spirit through conviction of sin, to which the sinner responds in repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Repentance and faith are inseparable experiences of grace. Repentance is a genuine turning from sin toward God.

Faith is the acceptance of Jesus Christ and commitment of the entire personality to him as Lord and Savior. Now, I do want to point one thing out on there, because I’ve been telling you repentance is not turning from your sin. Repentance isn’t turning from your sin in the sense that I’ve got to get my life cleaned up.

The better way to say that is repentance is a turning toward God. It’s a change of our mind toward sin and toward God. And if we do that, God is going to work within us to lead us away from that sin.

So I don’t think I’m really, hopefully I’m not out of line with what our doctrinal statement says, but I’m more concerned with being in line with what I believe the Word of God teaches. And repentance has nothing to do with, I’m going to get my life cleaned up. It has everything to do with the way we understand God’s truth and the way we orient ourselves toward him.

Repentance is a genuine turning from sin and toward God. Those last two words being most important, toward God. Faith is the acceptance of Jesus Christ and commitment of the entire personality to him as Lord and Savior.

Justification is God’s gracious and full acquittal upon principles of his righteousness of all sinners who repent and believe in Christ. Justification brings the believer into a relationship of peace and favor with God. Sanctification is the experience beginning in regeneration by which the believer is set apart to God’s purposes and is enabled to progress toward moral and spiritual maturity through the presence and power of the Holy Spirit dwelling in him. Growth and grace should continue throughout the regenerate person’s life.

And finally, glorification is the culmination of salvation and is the final blessed and abiding state of the redeemed. I believe these things are true. I believe these things are taught in scripture.

But tonight I want to put them a little bit more in human language and less in language of the seminary. I think what they’ve said here is true. I think it’s well said.

But I think we need to make sure we understand it on a personal level. And sometimes that requires that we distill it down from some of the big words that have taken me years to understand what they mean. So I’ve broken this down tonight a little bit differently than the way they have, and I’ve broken it down into three sections.

What salvation requires, what salvation is, and what salvation brings. So you see in here there are four sections, and there’s a subsection here and subsection there. I’ve broken it down into three sections, and each of them have their own separate parts, but I’ve categorized on what salvation requires, what salvation is, and what salvation brings.

And the first thing I want to talk to you about tonight is what salvation requires. And there are three things. Hopefully that doesn’t make you too nervous because we do believe salvation by grace through faith, by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.

And the three things I’m going to point out to you are totally in line with that. That you will not find any suggestion in my message tonight of anything that you have to do or earn or deserve for your salvation. If something I say sounds to you, like I’m saying you have to earn or deserve or work for your salvation, that is not what I meant, and see me afterwards and we’ll clarify it.

And I may come back up here next time and clarify it in front of everybody, because I don’t want anybody to misunderstand that. What salvation requires, first of all, is God’s grace. It would not matter how much faith we had.

It would not matter how repentant we were if it were not for the grace of God. We see this in Ephesians 2, where I’ve already asked you to turn tonight. Ephesians 2, starting in verse 8, says, For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. I think that verse, and others like it, totally take the wind out of the sails of any teaching or any teacher who would say, you’ve got to earn your salvation.

I cannot think of a way to more clearly state it, that it is by God’s grace and not because of something we’ve worked for or deserved. He says it is the gift of God, and I’ve never once worked for a gift. I think we’ve all worked to earn our wages, but we’ve never worked to earn a gift.

The minute you work for it, it’s no longer a gift. And the New Testament talks about that. It says that if it’s something we’ve earned, it’s no longer, if it’s reckoned of debt, it’s no longer grace.

So if it’s something we’ve earned, it’s no longer the gift of God. By definition, grace has to be unearned and undeserved. By definition, a gift has to be freely given.

If you earned it, it’s not a gift. By the same token, if somebody forces it on you, it’s not a gift. If you force it away from somebody else, it’s not a gift.

If I pulled out my gun at Walmart, which I would never do, but if I pulled out, I just want to be clear on that, If I pulled my gun out of my pocket at Walmart and asked the cashier for a 20 and she hands it to me, it’s not a gift. If I went back there to Luana and pulled my, she’s probably a quicker draw than I am. But if I got the drop on her somehow, hers is bigger than mine.

Yes, I know this. But if I somehow got the drop on Luana and I said give me a 20 and she hands it to me, it’s not a gift. Right?

I’ve stolen it. By the same token, if LaWanna comes to me and pulls out her big gun and says, you take this 20, and I don’t really want it, but I know she’s going to shoot me if I don’t, it’s not a gift, right? LaWanna’s a good sport.

If I go out and I mow her yard and she gives me a 20, it’s not a gift, right? It’s earned, yes. A gift has to be unearned and freely given and freely received.

Romans 4. 4 thank you I knew I read that verse this week I just couldn’t remember where it was I tell you what let’s turn there for just a moment because I always I’m the one always telling you check what I’m telling you make sure it’s biblical Romans 4. 4 now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace but of debt so if you worked for it if you earned it it’s no longer grace it’s something that God owes you and yet that’s one of the verses I was thinking of I think there’s another one I was thinking of and mixing the two together.

But yes, that’s a perfect illustration right there. If we’ve worked for it and deserved it, it’s not God’s grace. And going back to my previous point that grace is necessary, it doesn’t matter if we believe in God.

It doesn’t matter if we believe in Jesus. It doesn’t matter if we throw ourselves at His feet and say, forgive us if we’re repentant. It doesn’t matter the whole nine yards.

If God’s response to the whole thing is, no, you people sinned. You didn’t want me. I’ll sometimes say that to Charlie you know because Charlie will I’m going to sound like a bad dad saying this Charlie will hand him to me and he’ll flip out because he loves mama and sometimes he just doesn’t want anybody but mama and she’ll try to hand him to me and he’ll flip out and then later on he’ll come back to me and he’ll want me to pick him up I will eventually pick him up don’t think I’m a bad parent here but I’ll look at it first and mess with him a little bit and say oh no you didn’t want me okay if that was God’s response to us, after all that we’ve done, he were to look at us and say, no, you didn’t want me.

You don’t get to change your mind now. If that was God’s response, then no amount of faith or repentance or anything or effort on our part would do anything. If God was determined to say, you know what, you’re just going to be punished.

You’re just going to suffer for your sins and hell. Then no amount of anything else would matter. The die would have been cast. The decision would have been made, and we’re just out of luck.

But that’s not who God is. See, grace is something that comes not just as an action from God, but because it’s part of his nature. It starts with who God is.

All of God’s actions start from who he is. Because God is loving, he loves. Because God is merciful, he shows mercy.

Because God is just, he judges sin. All of these things come from God’s nature, and the Bible tells us that God is gracious. God is merciful.

And there’s something in the character of God that says even though they deserve to be separated from me, even though they deserve punishment, even though they deserve an eternal punishment, I don’t want them to endure that. Do they deserve it? Absolutely.

Should I give it to them? Yeah, but we’re going to find another way. Not because we’re lovable, not because we earned it, but because it’s in the nature of God to want to be gracious.

And it’s got to start there. because if our idea of salvation starts from something we’ve earned or starts from something we’ve deserved or starts from something that God owes us, then we have a really skewed view of salvation. And we have a view of salvation where there’s something we’ve contributed to it.

And if it starts from the grace of God and if we understand God’s grace correctly, then it’s a gift. That it’s an absolute, freely given, freely received gift. Then we realize that you and I have nothing to boast about.

We have nothing to brag about. Hey, I’m saved. Look at me.

Our attitude would be more, I’m saved. Look at Jesus. How great is he?

And we return to him the glory that he deserves. So any understanding of salvation has got to start with God’s grace. Because if you even start with the idea of faith, faith wouldn’t matter if God wasn’t gracious.

Repentance wouldn’t matter if God wasn’t gracious. So we start there with God’s grace, the undeserved kindness that is in his nature and makes him to forgive us. But then there are two other things, and they’re not really works.

They’re more responses on our part, and there’s debate about how much of this, you know, comes from us, how much of this comes from God. That’s not really within the spectrum of what we’re going to talk about tonight, but the two other things that salvation requires, the conditions, maybe a good way to say that, are repentance and faith. Repentance and faith, and we’re going to talk a little bit about what those mean.

Let’s actually start with faith because we see it from the same passage that we’re already in, Ephesians 2, 8, and 9. He says, for by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it’s the gift of God, not by works, lest any man should boast. God says that works are not a condition for our salvation. The only thing our works do as far as salvation is make us need it.

I like what Brother Tim has said to me, and I’m sure it didn’t start with him. He’s a brilliant man, but I think I’ve heard this somewhere else. That’s why I say that, not that Brother Tim could not have thought this out.

But he says to me all the time, the only thing I contribute to my salvation is the sin that made it necessary. So faith is the condition, not any kind of works. He says, by grace are you saved through faith.

And this is the condition that God very clearly puts on our salvation. He wants us to believe. And it’s not just faith that God exists.

It’s not even faith that Jesus exists. It’s faith about who Jesus is and what he’s done for us. So it’s got to start with God existing, and it’s got to start with Jesus existing, but it goes a step further and doesn’t just say, I believe Jesus is real. I believe God is real. The devil believes those things, and it’s not going to get him anywhere with God.

It goes a step further and says, I have full confidence that Jesus Christ died in my place to suffer the entire penalty for all of my sins and pay the price for them in full. It’s a complete confidence in Jesus Christ as Savior. And I’ve seen the illustration before where somebody goes to sit in a chair and they use that to illustrate their faith.

They have full confidence that that chair will support their weight. And so they’re willing to put their full weight, They’re full trust in that chair. And there are some chairs that I’ve seen I am not willing to put my full trust in.

We have some for the kids, and they have a weight limit on it. And by golly, I’m about two or three times the weight limit. I have zero confidence that that chair is going to hold me up, so I look for something else.

But when I find a comfortable chair and I’m confident that it’s going to hold me, I put my full weight on it, and I’m not looking for something else. See, when we put our faith in Jesus Christ, we are believing that not only He can save us, but that He’s all we need to save us. Faith isn’t looking around for, well, what if Jesus doesn’t work out?

What’s my plan B? In faith, we’re putting our full confidence in Jesus. We believe that He died for us.

He paid for all the penalty of sin. He’s all we need, and we’re satisfied we’re not looking for something else. That’s faith.

Let’s go back a little bit to repentance. And we’ve talked about repentance in the last few weeks. I’ve talked about repentance in the last few weeks, what it means, and tried to be very careful in explaining it, because I don’t want to add to salvation.

We believe that salvation is, again, by grace alone, through faith alone, and Christ alone. The thing is, you can’t separate faith from repentance. It’s sort of the step in between the lines.

And repentance, I’ve told you, is not turning away from your sin and cleaning your life up. It’s not feeling bad for your sins. It’s not promising you’ll never do it again.

It’s a change of mind toward God that says, God, you’ve been right all along. This sin that I just loved and I wallowed in is wrong. God, why did I do that?

And we may feel bad for our sins as a result. We should walk away from our sins as a result as much as we’re enabled to by the power of the Holy Spirit. But the repentance itself is coming to that point where we realize and agree that God has been right all along and we’ve been wrong all along and that we need his salvation.

Because somebody who’s not repentant doesn’t care that they’re not right with God. Somebody who’s unrepentant doesn’t care that they’re under God’s judgment. They just want to do what they want to do.

Repentance is that moment where faith becomes possible. Because until we believe, until we become convinced that God is right and that our sin is wrong and that we’re going to be judged for it, until we come to that realization, until we come to that place where our hearts are broken and our minds are changed, we’re never going to have faith in Jesus Christ. Not the kind of faith I just described. For us to throw ourselves entirely on His mercy, for us to put our full confidence in Him as the one and only person who could save us from our sins and who did it in full, we’ve got to realize and we’ve got to believe that our sin has separated us from the Holy God and that our sin is worthy of His condemnation.

It’s that realization that we’ve sinned, that God was right, we’re wrong, We’ve sinned and we need his forgiveness. That is repentance. And so even though the Bible says faith alone, it doesn’t spell out repentance.

Repentance is there by implication because we can’t come to that point of faith without repentance. And again, I don’t want to add anything to what the Bible says. It is biblical because the Bible talks about the need for repentance.

In 2 Peter chapter 3 that we looked at last Sunday morning, God is merciful, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Jesus told the told the people in his day and pointing at some people who had been killed in a tower collapse and some of them thought they were greater some of the people thought those were the greater sinners because God punished them with a tower collapse and Jesus said they weren’t greater sinners than you and I’m here to tell you that unless you repent you will also likewise perish he was calling them to repentance Jesus said I came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance The verse I want to look at tonight, Acts 17. 30, if you could turn there with me for just a moment.

As Peter, I’m sorry, I did that this morning. I called him Peter when I mean Paul. I must have.

Either that or my children are scrambling my brains. It could be either of them. Paul was preaching in Athens, and he said in verse 30, The times of this ignorance God winked at, but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent.

He’s talking about their idolatry. He’s talking about how the Athenian people had been worshiping all these false gods, and it says these times of ignorance God winked at. In other words, God let it go for a little while, not because he was okay with it, but because he was preparing things for the gospel to come to them.

And he says God winked at that. God allowed that to go on for just a little bit, but now God calls all men everywhere to repent.

The book of Acts also says that we’re called to repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. so I don’t want anybody to leave here thinking I’m adding something to the gospel repentance and faith are just inseparable it’s it’s by grace alone through faith alone but you can’t come to that point of faith without repentance and the reason that sounds so strange to us nowadays is because repentance has been way downplayed in our conversations as churches and as Christians over the last 40 years as in the culture we’ve come to a place where we don’t want anybody to feel bad we don’t want anybody to feel bad about their sins I don’t want to make anybody feel bad just for the sake of feeling bad but if it’s a question of you’ve either got to feel bad so you realize that sin is a big deal or I just let you feel fine and never explain to you the gospel of Jesus Christ I’m okay with you feeling bad for a few minutes not you specifically but just whoever we’re talking to.

Jesus preached repentance. John the Baptist who came to prepare the way for Jesus preached repentance. The apostles who carried Jesus’ message on after his death and resurrection preached repentance.

And again, I just want to be very clear. It’s not cleaning your life up, turning away from your sin in the sense of cleaning your life up so that God will love you and you can come to him. Repentance is that change of mind that comes with realizing my sin is a big deal to God and I desperately need his forgiveness.

Think about the prodigal son when you think about repentance because that’s one of the greatest examples that we have in all of scripture. So what salvation requires, the grace of God, our faith, and thereby implication in some places, and they’re just spelled right out in some others, is repentance, which brings us to the point where faith is possible. Let’s talk a little bit tonight about what salvation is.

And we’re going to look at John chapter 3 for just a moment, and we’re going to talk about a couple of these big words that were thrown out there in our doctrinal statement. John chapter 3. And the end of this passage will be familiar to you.

This is the same passage where Jesus talks to Nicodemus and toward the end says, For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Well, as much as we’ve quoted that verse by itself over the years, that verse has a context. And the context was a story, was a conversation, I should say, that Jesus had with Nicodemus one night.

Starting in John chapter 3, verse 3, well, before this, Nicodemus a Pharisee had come to Jesus at night and admitted that Jesus was a great religious teacher. He says, we know nobody could do the miracles you do or teach the things you do unless they were empowered by God. And so in verse 3, Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

Jesus had this really great ability. When somebody came to him with a question, they came asking a question, Jesus would often sidestep the question, and not in the way that politicians do because they don’t want to answer. He would sidestep the question because he knew behind it was a bigger issue that they were trying really hard not to deal with.

He did it with the woman at the well. He asked her about her husband’s, and she came, well, I perceive you’re a prophet. Which mountain are we supposed to worship on?

He won’t let it go, and he goes back to the issue at hand. Jesus does the same thing with Nicodemus. Nicodemus didn’t ask him about seeing the kingdom of God.

Nicodemus came and said, you know, we think you must be, I think you must be a teacher approved by God, otherwise you wouldn’t be able to do these miracles. Jesus totally goes around that question and comes to what Nicodemus really needed on the inside but wasn’t prepared to deal with, And he says, a man cannot see the kingdom of God unless he’s born again. And Nicodemus said unto him, how can a man be born when he is old?

Can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb and be born? And I cannot imagine a more horrifying question that is asked in all of scripture. He reminds me of my son because he’s being far too literal in what Jesus is saying.

Jesus did not tell Nicodemus, you have to go back into the womb and be physically born a second time. Jesus answered, verse 5, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. There’s been a lot of debate over the centuries what that verse means.

Two of the most prevalent explanations for the being born of the water and of the Spirit. One explanation says it’s talking about a physical birth being the water birth and the spiritual birth being birth of the Spirit. There’s another explanation that’s been offered that says he’s talking about a spiritual cleansing when he talks about the birth, being born of the water and by the spirit.

That’s the one that I lean toward. I used to lean toward the first one, but a very smart man in Arkansas explained to me his position. I think that makes more sense.

There’s a third explanation that’s often offered that says you have to be born in the waters of baptism and by the spirit, which you have to read that into the text. You have to go in looking for that meaning, for that to be there. But what Jesus says to him is that we can disagree about what that water means, whether it’s talking about spiritual cleansing, whether it’s talking about physical birth.

But the important thing here is that he’s talking about we have to be born a second time by the Spirit, or we can’t enter into the kingdom of God. And he says, that which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. He says, marvel not that I said unto thee, you must be born again.

And we saw that word regeneration several times in the Baptist faith and message. Regeneration, as far as I understand it, is a fancy term for being born again. When you see the word regenerate, it means born again.

When you see unregenerate, it means not born again. And this idea of being born again is describing the new life that we’re given in Jesus Christ. We’re given by God where he overcomes this previous state we live in where we’re dead in our trespasses and sins. The Bible says that we are dead in our trespasses and sins.

We are dead to God. We are separated from God spiritually. We cannot do anything to make ourselves live again.

But there’s that moment where God rebirths us through the Holy Spirit. We’re given new spiritual life that we didn’t have before. Jesus says that has to take place.

That has to take place or we don’t see the kingdom of God. There has to have been a point where we were born again. And I remember one of the most frustrating conversations I’ve ever had in my life about spiritual things.

I had a co-worker when I worked at Homeland in the city. I was in high school. And one day we were closing.

She needed somebody to take her home and it was a mile or two away. And I drove her home and I started asking her if she knew Jesus as her personal savior. Very nice girl.

She began to tell me, I’ve always been a Christian. And I began to try to wrap my head around this concept of always having been a Christian. Well, since when?

Well, she always. I didn’t understan