Today is the third Sunday after Pentecost and we are back from a two week vacation from preaching. And the theme of the sermon today is a progression from Pentecost where the Holy Spirit was poured out on all flesh as was prophesied in the Old Testament by the prophet Joel who live 500 years before Jesus Christ was born but whom Peter quoted in the first sermon of the church on the first Pentecost Sunday.
But today’s sermon speaks to the order of salvation and what happens to those who are given two necessary conditions for their salvation. And those things that are given are grace and faith. But all this presupposes that human beings are in a state that makes salvation necessary.
And as I have said many times who good in the good news of the gospel of Christ if there is no bad news.
So we must go back to the beginning or near the beginning after God created the first human being and then he created the second human being for in God’s words the only thing that was not good about His creation was that it was not good for the first human being to be alone.
God pronounced all of his creation to be good but for this one important detail.
If was not good for Adam to be alone, he lacked something.
So God did not create Adam to be self sufficient. According to God Adam needed a helper and God proceeds to make Eve from Adam’s flesh.
But Adam and Eve rebel against God’s one command that Adam not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil for if he eats of this tree He and since Eve did also, they will surely die. And when they do eat of the tree they must be removed from the garden for there is another tree of life in the garden and if they would eat of it they would continue in this fallen state forever. Genesis 3
But God is so angry at their rebellion that he curses the ground and all creation is cursed. Genesis 3:14-17
And so all human beings are born spiritually dead and have a depraved mind and in their flesh they inherit from Adam and Eve and natural rebellion against God.
But from the removal of man and woman from the garden, God has a plan of redemption, a remedy for this bent for sinning against him.
So today I will speak to what God’s remedy is for the fallen state of mankind being spiritually dead in their sins and unable to effect or accomplish their own salvation.
What is God’s plan for the reconciliation of mankind to himself? What are the steps to salvation and what is the theme or study of this plan.
The study of salvation is called "soteriology" or the study of salvation and this subject is taught in seminaries.
So we have all of mankind in a state of depravity unable to free themselves from their natural desire to rebel and be their own gods “so to speak”. To live their lives their own way and that is still as true today as it was in the garden of Eden. And Satan said it best. “Did God really say that you would die?" Genesis 3:1
Satan accuses God of duplicity and tells Eve that the reason God did not want her to eat of the forbidden fruit was that God did not want Adam and her to “be like God knowing good from evil”. Genesis 3:5
But back to the remedy and God’s plan for salvation.
So we have human kind living in a desperate state and needing a Savior for they cannot no matter how hard they try save themselves. And why? Because God gave them through the prophet MOSES a covenant of “WORKS”. The Ten Commandments was a covenant of works and was dependent upon obedience by human beings as a condition of the covenant.
But the Law became a curse for them because there was a blessing for obedience and punishment for disobedience and the standard of obedience to the law was to obey it completely and perfectly.
We know this because when the Savior of human beings came on to the earth what did he say in his ministry to his disciples, “Be ye perfect as my Father in heaven is perfect” (Matthew 5:48 KJV).
The opening words of his ministry were, “Repent for the kingdom of God is at hand. (Matthew 4:17)”
Jesus Christ set the conditions of entering his kingdom and that is "repentance.”
And the condition of perfection is reiterated by the teaching of the Apostle Paul who tells us all that those who follow the law must obey it completely and that failing on one single part of the law makes us guilty of breaking the whole law.
Here are Paul’s exact words from the book of Galatians chapter 3 verse 10:
All who rely on observing the law are under a curse, for it is written: "Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law."
So Paul testifies that the Standard the Jesus has set was to obey everything contained in the Law of Moses and to live by it perfectly.”
And since no one but Christ has obeyed the law perfectly where does that leave us. It leaves is a state of desperately needing rescue from out fallen state. We desperately need God to come to our rescue and redeem us, to save us.
So God provided us a Savior in His Son. And this promise goes back to the first substitutional sacrifice that the Bible Fast Forward class should remember when God told Abraham to take his son Isaac on Mt Moriah on a rock and sacrifice him. And when Isaac asks his father on the way up the mountain where is the lamb for the sacrifice father. Abraham replied, “God will provide the lamb.” Gen 22:7-8
And 2000 years later Jesus Christ would be sacrifice on that sane rock on Mt Moriah and the place was then called CALVARY. Today that rock is under the roof of the dome of the rock, the Muslim mosques on the temple mount and it golden dome dominates the sky line of modern Jerusalem.
But God calls all who he gives to his Son Jesus his gift of grace through faith. And grace and faith are so intimately connected that faith is also a gift of God for those who would repent and believe in God’s son.
And the most central of all scripture was written by the Apostle Paul in the book of Ephesians Chapter 2 verse 8 and 9 where Paul defines what grace is and what it does.
And here are the words, “8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast.
For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
And so we have Paul telling us that grace of God was given to us as a gift and that God had created us to do good works by this His grace.
Are God’s kindness and mercy important aspects of his gift of salvation?
"For while we were still sinner’s Christ died for us". Romans 5:8
God could have left us in our fallen state could he not have?
God’s grace is his unmerited favor to those who he foreknew and for those he predestined to become conformed to the image of his son and to those who he predestined he also justified and those he justified He also glorified.
So this is the golden chain of the steps to salvation.
So let’s look at what justifies us for that is the title of the sermon. We are justified by faith in Christ, alone.
What does justification mean?
It means we are made righteous.
So what has to happen first! Remember before we are saved we are spiritually dead with a depraved mind and a flesh that is naturely bent toward rebellion against God.
In a word, we are "selfish", for that is what self-centered people are!
We are totally consumed by our selfish desires to gratify the flesh.
In words of John Calvin, we are totally depraved.
How can we now be justified in the sight of God without being changed in our nature?
The answers is, we can’t.
We must be changed?
And what was the subject of my sermon two weeks ago before vacation.
What did Jesus of Nazareth tell us we MUST do.
Jesus says we must be changed.
And he told this to the most self righteous religious people of his time.
What did Jesus tell Nicodemus and the Pharisees. "YOU MUST BE BORN AGAIN".
No one can see the kingdom of God, unless he is born again! (John 3:3)
And Jesus means born of the Spirit of God.
And I said in that sermon last time, that the subject is "regeneration" in which there is a indwelling of the spirit of God in the believer.
And it is implied that without this fundamental change in the nature we cannot act in faith and believe in Christ.
Well some may object, is belief in Christ necessary for our salvation?
The answer is yes!
And how do we know that faith or belief in Christ is required?
Faith and belief are one and the same but some may say that trust is involved and they are also correct in this detail.
Well did anyone in the bible ask the question?
What must I do to be saved?
And the answer is yes.
In fact two people that I am aware of asked this most important of all questions anyone can ask of God for it effects our eternal destiny.
The first was the rich young ruler sometimes called the rich young fool. For he asks Jesus of Nazareth to his face "What must I do to be saved in Matthew 19:16. He asks the question, "What must I do to get eternal life." Jesus replies, "Obey the commandments."
Is obedience required for salvation or not?
And the young man replies, "I have kept them but what do I still lack.
And Jesus tells him, "sell all you have and follow me".
And the young man went away sad for he could not obey Christ's command for he was very rich.
And who was the other person who asked the same question and where in the bible did he ask it.
"What must we do to be saved?"
It is in the book of Acts and the question was asked and it was asked by the jailer who was in charge of keeping by the Apostles in jail and when an earthquake happened the jailer thought they had escaped and he would be killed but they assured him they were still there and the jailer asks, “What must I do to be saved?” And what was the Apostles, Paul and Silas answer him.
“Believe on the Lord, Jesus and you and your whole household will be saved” (Acts 16:31).
Is faith or belief in Christ important or not?
It is required for our salvation for it is in our faith so that we are made righteous just like Abraham.
But can we be saved by faith in someone other than Christ? Can someone else save us?
Is Jesus the only way to salvation!
What do the apostles teach in regard to this question?
The Apostle Peter tells us plainly in regard to Jesus Christ's name. Peter says in Acts 4:12, "There is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved."
But Jesus tells his disciples that there is no other way to salvation except through Him when He says, "No one comes to the Father Except Though Me". John 14:6.
Jesus tells us himself that he alone gives eternal life only to those who believe in him in John chapter 10 and here are his exact words.
25 Jesus answered, "I did tell you, but you do not believe. The miracles I do in my Father's name speak for me, 26 but you do not believe because you are not my sheep. 27 My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish...
Jesus is the only "WAY TO SALVATION " by his own words!
Amen.
Sunday, June 13, 2010
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