Great Doctrines of Salvation, The Gospel

Am I not being very good at watching the calendar? Next Sunday is the first of October, which means we switch classes, and so I gave you questions for the second to the last chapter, which is the Gospel, and the last chapter is actually the chapter called Salvation, so we're going to do them both today.

But that's okay, because they do actually go together. So, in basic generic terms, what does the Gospel mean? What's the word mean? Good news. The proclamation of good tidings. The root word is the word where we get evangelism from. So, what does the gospel message declare? What is it?

It's in 1 Corinthians 15.3. That's the Gospel, and there's no additions or subtractions from it.

Earlene, if she were here, she'd be rattling it off by now. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received. And if you study Galatians, you'll find that Paul makes a case of the fact that his Gospel did not come from any man, that it came directly from Jesus Christ. So he got this information directly from Christ, that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures.

I think my battery's... am I on? I'm on. I had my head... I may be slumped. So the first issue is that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures. So the good news or the glad tidings declares the vicarious death of Christ and His bodily resurrection, the fact that He was delivered for our offenses and raised for our justification. That's all it is. That's the hardest thing for us to settle down with. There's no commitment there. There's no receiving Jesus into your heart there. There's no doing spiritual push-ups. That's the good news. And what's your responsibility upon hearing the good news? That's it.

So, why was it necessary that the gospel be offered to us? What do you think? According to the author, he had a reason why it was necessary. And maybe why it's necessary for our salvation. No? Well, ultimately, yeah, but why would he have to offer it? Sure, because all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. The reason, from our perspective, that he had to offer it is because we needed it. We had all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

So, the act that affords salvation is what? What act of Christ that affords us salvation? What did He do that allows Him to save us? That's right. While we were yet enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son. The reason I ask what sound like mundane questions there is this. Salvation, or the Gospel which affords us salvation, is all God's work. All of it. What did you contribute? When it comes to the gospel and salvation, what have you contributed? You did contribute. I'll tell you that, but what did you contribute? Why not belief? What's the thing about belief or faith? Non-meritorious.

That's right. So what did you contribute? Sins. Sins. That's what you contributed. You contributed the bad stuff. Yeah, you're the reason for the season. You're the one that sinned. So your entire contribution to the work of Christ on the cross is that you put him there, you know, by your sins. That's what you did, that was your contribution.

So when you exercise faith in the gospel, you're not contributing anything to the gospel or to your salvation. Because if you were, it wouldn't be a gift. So, is the gospel the only way that one can be saved? And I ask you to give me some scriptural references. Is belief in the gospel the only way you can be saved? I am the way, the truth, and the life, and the righteousness.

Okay, that's a good one. Acts 4, 12. For if when we were enemies, I'm sorry, neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. Jesus Christ alone. Verse 16, For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of salvation, power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. So, He is the only way, the only one of salvation and of the good news. And that's why the gospel has to do only with Him. So, we enter in how? By believing.

Some references, 1 Peter 1.19, let's see, 1.19-21, I'll read 21. Who through him believe in God who raised him from the dead and gave him glory so that your faith and hope are in God. Now, one of the interesting things about faith, is that it has to have something to believe. Do you understand that?

So, faith always has to have an object. Now, I grew up in an environment and in a denomination that talked about faith just for faith's sake. That it was a commodity that everybody had and that if circumstances got difficult in your life, you're just supposed to have faith. But they never talked about the object.

So faith, in order for it to be faith, you have to have something or someone to believe in. So the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation. And so we believe in the Gospel and the person that the Gospel has to do with. Where is the value? In my faith or in the Gospel? Or is it a combination of both? What do you think? Do you understand my question? Where's the value? Is it in your faith or is it in what you believe? Or is it some of both? It's totally in what you believe.

And it's hard for us because we're We're exhorted so often in the Word of God and amongst each other to believe, to not think of faith as having some sort of triggering value that God puts on us that has value. It is the tool used to receive the value. Is that a good way to look at it? It is the tool God demands of us to receive the value of what we believe in. But only God can create the value in what we believe, and only He can do it. Our faith allows us to enter in, but our faith doesn't have any contribution to anything. But faith is the most valuable thing we have. It's the most valuable thing we have.

Don't you agree? Even though in and of itself it has no value at all for you. You can't say to God, well, I believe now you owe me. Because what you believe is always something God has already done towards you. God does put a condition on man for the gospel, does he not? Does God put a condition on us? That we believe.

Hebrews 4.2, for indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them, but the word which they heard didn't profit them. Reason why? Not being mixed with faith and those who heard it. So, it's interesting, there are 115 passages in the New Testament regarding salvation that are hinting on the word belief alone. And there are 35 that just say simple faith. So it's important. Was there salvation in the Old Testament? What was the condition of salvation there? Same thing? I'm just looking forward toward the coming of Christ. So, faith was... you were saved in the Old Testament by the same way.

Galatians 3.6, just as Abraham believed God and was accounted righteous. And then he says, notice that therefore know that only those who have faith are the sons of Abraham. Okay.

So, with the Mosaic Law, huh? What if you lived after Moses? Is salvation by keeping the Mosaic Law? It was by faith then too, huh? So, the same condition for salvation in the Old Testament is the same one that is in the New. Now, this is kind of a difficult question. Are there other forms of the Gospel that are for other ages. In other words, is there good news for somebody other than us here as Christians in this dispensation? And is it available? Maybe I'll make it simple for you.

Go to Matthew 4.17. Alright, now Arlene isn't here, so some of you guys are going to have to speak up. Matthew 4, 17. Anybody?

From that time Jesus began to preach and say, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Is that the same message we have? What's the word repent mean? Change of mind. Okay, have a change of mind. For what's at hand? So how does that differ from our Gospel? Are you guys going to be in the Kingdom of Heaven? And by the way, notice that the Gospel message that we, in 1 Corinthians 15, doesn't use the word repent. Here the word repent is used.

Why? I guess the point is, who is this gospel targeted to? The Jews. So the Jews would need to have a change of mind about something, because they were already Jews, right? And what would they have to have a change of mind about? It works to Christ. It works to Christ? But even more basic than that. Here this man is, standing in front of them, saying, repent, the kingdom of God is at hand.

What's he saying to them? What do you need to change your mind about? Him. Who He is. You know, I'm not a carpenter from Bethlehem or wherever. I'm the Messiah of Israel. So you need to change your mind about me. And you need, the Kingdom of God is at hand. What's the Kingdom of God? He was standing right there. In Matthew 24, 14.

And this Gospel of the Kingdom will be preached In all the world is a witness to all nations and then the end will come. So, the gospel of the kingdom is going to be preached to all nations and then the end will come. When is that going to be preached? When do you think? So that's the question. Is the gospel, which is 1 Corinthians 15, is that what's being preached to the end of the earth now? Or is the gospel of the kingdom, the gospel of the kingdom preached to all the world? Because they're not the same gospel. Well, yes. No, it's true. No, that's true. I mean, the issue is we like to use the word kingdom a lot, and really what we're doing is we're borrowing it from the Gospels, rather than the Gospel being 1 Corinthians 15, which is Christ died for your sins, was buried and resurrected. A kingdom is a very interesting term, because it presupposes that there's a king, and a bunch of subjects.

It's before the end will come. What's the end? The end of this present evil age? I think so. Because once the rapture happens, is there no more gospel to be preached? Sure there is. What's the gospel that's going to be preached? The gospel of the kingdom. Right? Because who will God be dealing with from the time of the rapture to the time of the beginning of the millennial kingdom? The Jewish nation again. Right?

And so the issue of the kingdom. Now, you can't have a kingdom without a king and that's why he says the kingdom of God is at hand. I'm the king. You're not going to have a kingdom unless I'm here. That's right. That's right. So, I think it's important for us to distinguished between the kingdom gospel, which is Christ ruling and reigning as a king on the earth over the nation of Israel and the whole earth, and the gospel that has to do with our salvation in this present age. You see that? Both of them center in Christ. Both of them do. But the only issue for us, we don't have kingdom issues, we have Christ dying, being buried and resurrected. That's the only issue.

And so when you're saved, do you end up in the Kingdom of God? What do you think? Huh? Think about this. Are you going to end up in the Kingdom? Are you in the Kingdom the minute you're saved? I have some people going like this, some people going like this, and the people going, yeah. Here's the deal, I think. Where are you positioned the moment you believe? And what is he? He's the king.

It's like in Hebrews, it's a very subtle difference. When the writer of Hebrews talks about the new covenant, And lots of people construe that the New Covenant in Hebrews has to do with Christianity. But it's a very interesting thing there. The writer says you have not been brought to the New Covenant, but you've been brought to the mediator of the New Covenant. You see the difference? We're in the mediator. We're not in the covenant. See?

By being in Christ, you're a member of the royal family. Does that mean you're in the kingdom? Well, I guess so, from that perspective you are. I've used this example a lot. If you live in England and your last name is Windsor, who's mom? She's the queen, right? Are you a subject of the queen? Yeah, but she's mom. And we've got the same life. I'm a Windsor, she's a Windsor.

Well, in the kingdom of God, or the millennial kingdom on the earth, is Christ the king? Yeah, but who is he to me? He's my life. He's my very life. I'm in Him and His Father is my Father. See that? I share in the inheritance. I share in the glory. I'm conformed to His very image. Am I a subject to the King? In the sense that He's King, yeah. But I'm in Him. See the difference? So, I'm a servant, but I'm also a son. When the millennial kingdom happens, what are you and I going to be doing? Walking around subject to the king? No, we're going to be ruling and reigning with him. Our importance even extends to the fact that we'll judge angels. Try that one. So, it's important for us to think of ourselves as who we really are, rather than identifying ourselves with somebody that we're really not.

So, I could spend a lot of time on, there's the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and the Second Thessalonians, there's the Gospel of Peace, there's the Gospel of Glory, but the basic issue is that the gospel has one purpose, and the one purpose is that it's about salvation. That's what it's about.

So, how does the gospel bind us together? What elements of it bind each one of us in this room together? Okay, life. We all share the same life. Give me another one. There's a hope for his return. How about faith? Does faith bind us together? Okay. How about God's love? Does that bind us together? You know what's interesting about God's love is that it's unique to him and because we have his life, we have it. We're sharers of that because we have the life, we have the love.

Does that make sense? We're the only people that have ever had it. My buddy across the street doesn't have that because he doesn't have the life. We also have the same nature. We share the same nature as a resurrected Christ. So it's interesting how we are bound together and how intrinsically we are depended on one another.

I was thinking yesterday, in Ephesians 4.16, in discussing the relationship between Christ and each one of us and he relates it to a physical body and he says in 15 speaking, the truth and love may grow up into him in all things who is the head, even Christ. And this next part is how we are united. From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplies, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, makes increase of the body into the edifying of itself in love." Not only are we individual members of Christ, but we're interlinked because we're in Him, and we're interdependent on Him just like a Like your human body, the parts of it are interdependent on other parts, all controlled by the head, and the head is Christ.

So this analogy has been used for centuries. Your finger or your thumb doesn't move without your head giving it the go-ahead, so to speak, and sending the signal, right? comes down through your nervous system, all the way down to your thumb, and it has the energy to move. It has a skeletal system that keeps it in place with the nerve system and blood vessels and skin.

It's all one thing. And each one of those little entities is a member. See that? And they're all interlinked together. As a matter of fact, a palmyloid has a stem cell transplant. from somebody else's stem cells, they have to give them anti-rejection drugs. Why? Because it ain't from him. You see that? The body will automatically reject what's not of itself. Isn't that interesting how that happens? But we have been joined into one body without any anti-rejection drugs. We're all joined together like that. See that? Okay, any questions?

Now, let's talk for a minute, focus a little bit on salvation. Salvation is a word that's derived from the Greek word Soteria, so when you hear the word Soteriology, which you might hear around here with all the brainiacs we have, That's what it means.

It has to do with salvation. The scope of salvation has to do with the whole entire work of God. It just isn't The saving work of God, salvation is the entire package, maybe to say it that way. I remember years ago when I first heard this concept, it was from Ron Merriman. He said that salvation is a package deal. It includes the saving work of Jesus Christ, but it's an entire package deal, which includes identification and all the positional truths.

Now, salvation is talked about in past, present and future. Somebody want to try to explain that to me? I am saved, I am being saved and I will be saved. What does that mean? Two forms of the present though, right? Two forms of the present and one future? Actually, one is past, one is present, and one is future. But I am, I am being. I am saved. I am saved right now. I have been saved, maybe is a better way to say it. What have I been saved about? Saved from what? What do you think? What have I been saved from?

Maybe you're not. From the penalty of your sins. You're never going to meet them. You have been permanently and eternally... I wonder if it's mine. I've got it on vibration. I don't feel a thing. We have been saved from the penalty of our sins, all of them. And the reason is because the penalty has already been paid. No problem with that? So what are we presently being saved from?

The power of the sin nature, the power of sin. How much power does the sin have? Position or condition? Position, no. Position it has no power at all. Come to identification classes, I'll show you, I'll tell you why. Conditionally, how powerful is it? Is it more powerful than your willingness to resist sin? Not only is the sin nature powerful, but it's deceptive. Some of the Old Testament passages are very interesting, talking about deception. God looked over the earth and saw that man's heart was only evil continually. I think we think of ourselves as well. I sinned on Thursday and maybe another one on Friday. I was good on Saturday. But the real truth is that the sin nature pumps out sins 24-7. It never stops. And if you're walking in the Spirit, it's still trying to activate you to continue to pump out sins. It doesn't stop. And if you use law to put it down, it just inflames it. And law, I don't mean mosaic law. I mean these little rules that you've got in the back of your head about how you're controlling things.

Right now, this very minute, the power of the Spirit of God is delivering you and saving you from the power of your sin nature. Right this very minute, He's doing it. Everything in your life is being worked towards that end, to save you and free you from the power of sin. And that's a work only He can do, you can't do it. You agree? Now how about the future aspect of sin and salvation? What are you going to be saved from there? Isn't that cool?

Can you imagine? Have you ever thought about that? Can you imagine going 15 minutes without sin? Even thinking about it, being involved in it, that it just isn't part of your existence? Imagine what that would be like. I beg for my question. What's left when we step into eternity? The total conformity to Christ. Body, soul, and spirit. But without sin. What is the essence of who I am? Oh, I see what you're saying. Anybody want to stab at the answer? I have the answer. Anybody want to take a shot at it? It's Christ.

Does that mean the difference between you and me in eternity? Uh-huh. It's just personhood. Our persons would be different, but now animated, we're by Christ. That's the interesting thing, because we talk about personhood almost as the old man, to a certain degree, says it's all Christ. Are we still different? Absolutely. There's still personality. Absolutely. I know, but that's my question.

What's left after we step out of Trinity? Well, what's interesting is that that question points up the fact of how pervasive the sin nature is. You know, as you think about that, though, I think there's a shift there in the sense that you are drawn to other believers, and what you're drawn to is the life of Christ that is coming out of that world. That's a good point. Isn't it interesting that Courtney isn't the only guy thinking like that in the room, that we think that, boy, if I don't have a sin nature, what do I got?

What am I? It's like if you pump out a cavern of oil or whatever you call it in your business, it leaves a void. So what's the void going to be filled with? Sure. And not only leaving a void, but you know what God has done? He recreated the void. You understand? When the Lord Jesus said, you don't put new wine in old wineskins, He meant that this new life that we have goes in a new creation. Same person, new creation. I mean, the totality of the salvation that we have is, why do you think they call it regeneration? It's starting over. Everything's new. Behold, those that are in Christ Jesus, old things have gone away, everything is new.

So, like our buddy Strong says, you can't think outside the box. You can't think outside of sin. Your mind is totally punctuated and permeated with the sin nature. And so when you get to Corinthians and you start reading along about, gee, I have the mind of Christ, you think, wow, the only way that you can think God's thoughts after him is with the mind of Christ. My sin nature that totally dominates my thought process is nothing but garbage. It's sin all the time.

See that? You can see why beholding the glory of the Lord Jesus is so critically important. Because that beholding does the one thing you can't do for yourself, and you know what it is? Not think about yourself. Not be self-absorbed and self, self, self, self, self. The great thing about the freedom of beholding Christ is that he becomes the object, your object, and not you.

Courtney's sitting there saying, gee, if I lose my sin nature, I'm just hmmm. Do you see what the mind is saying? If I lose you, I lose everything. Yeah, you do. Bye. What is the essence? I mean, it's all Christ, we're in Christ. And we'll all have new names, we'll have, I mean, there's differences. In eternity, we'll all have, we'll be different, but in heaven. I mean, that's why I said, imagine 15 minutes without sin. Where there's no sin in your thought process. There's no temptation in your heart. You know, like James says, you are tempted by your own lusts and desires. There's none of that. It's gone.

You're totally free to love God and behold His glory. And not only that are you free to do it, you're equipped to do it. You've got everything necessary to do it to the full on all the time. I mean, it's like, wow, would God be that gracious? Absolutely. Absolutely. For you to realize that you're spending 20, 30, 40, 50, 80 years on this planet struggling with sin the whole time, you're going to spend eons without it. Eons being a son of God and never stop growing in Christ. Never.

How cool is that? So the salvation that we have, the future aspects of it, are just overwhelming. And God is intending, with the present aspects of it, to begin the work of it to be part of what we are now, as we grow in grace and in the knowledge of Christ. So as you grow in Christ, what happens? What happens to your mind, your thought process, your heart and your rest and everything about you? What happens? It's ever conforming to Him.

His mind, His heart, His rest, His frame of reference, His point of view, so that when you get to heaven it isn't a big surprise. How many Christians do you know that when they leave this planet, it's going to be, oh, I didn't know it was going to be like this? They think of it as a place with buildings and gold streets, and I don't know, my buddy Will thinks he's going to play golf every day. I said, well, if you shoot 18 every day, what does it matter?

Where's the challenge? Do you understand what I'm saying? The issue being this entirely new creature that's the Son of God that finds all of its resource and all of its joy just in Christ himself. Imagine that. That's going to be something else. And that process started the day you got saved from the penalty of your sins. Now, I wanted to, without it making it too tedious, one of the things I've done when I've taught this class before, and I'll show you, I pass out a sheet like this, and it lists everything that we've discussed in 13 weeks. And I'm going to go through them quickly because they are the definition of our salvation. Understand what I mean by that?

What did you get at salvation? Well, you had a change of mind. Did you not? Which is called repentance. And you were converted. You turned around. Then you were regenerated, which means you were created anew. Then you found out that you were redeemed, that you were purchased back by God for His own use. Then you found out that you were justified, that you were pronounced by God to be righteous in His sight. You were forgiven all of your sins, past, present and future, all of them. and you'll never have to face them ever. Then you found out that you have this incredible assurance that all that God has done so far is absolutely true of you and you can rest in that. You have a confidence that you know from the Word of God.

That's part of salvation too. Then you have this little thing called reconciliation. And reconciliation has to do with a thorough change in your heart towards God. We're such good guys and religious people in America, we don't realize, I think, until after we're saved, that that sin nature that we have really does hate God. It does. And you find out, gee, God reconciled me, and one of the things he did vis-a-vis reconciling him me back to Him, was He totally changed my heart about Him. Do you see that? That's part of salvation. The other thing we got along with reconciliation is propitiation. Tough word, but what we've discovered was that God's righteousness has been totally exonerated by the work of Christ on the cross. He is absolutely and perfectly satisfied about you. and all of the sins that you've ever committed or will commit. He's totally satisfied about those. He's been propitiated. Has been propitiated.

And then we find out this next cool thing that we've been adopted. And that doesn't mean that, you know, God went to the orphanage and picked us up when we were six days old. That means that we have gone through an adult adoption ceremony and now we are an adult son of God with all the right title to all the inheritance of Christ. Now. Right now. That's part of our salvation. Then this other next cool thing is that we've been sanctified. We've been set apart by God specifically for His use. Not only set apart, but suited out for it. We have all the tools necessary because we're in Christ. And then, we discover after all of that's in place, I'll be darned if God didn't elect me.

That he chose me. He picked me out beforehand and said, Wayne, I'm going to do all of this and this is going to be true of you. All of it. And why did he do it? Because he foreknew you. He specifically created you in his mind before you ever existed and he knew you personally and elected you then. Not now, then. Not the day you were saved, then. Before he ever created the first atom. A-T-O-M.

And he knew from all eternity, with his foreknowledge, all about you. He took into consideration, before you were ever saved, all of the nuances of what a real rat you were, and he went ahead and saved you anyway. And then, he predestinated you to a specific, certain outcome, which is absolute and perfect conformity to his dear son. Total.

That's what salvation is. It's all of those things. It's not just the penalty of your sins being paid for. That's just the beginning. All of that comprise, every one of those elements, every chapter in this book comprises the gospel and your salvation. See that? That's why it's so important. And what's interesting about it is that It's so gracious.

You can hardly handle it. I mean, I can't. If you sit down and spend any time about the grace of God, just in the basics of salvation, it's really hard to hold on to it because it's so gracious. And when you recognize you can't lose it, it's even more gracious. Did the second buzzer go off?

So all of those things are included in your salvation, every single one of them. So if you ever have the opportunity to use this book with a believer who is either uninformed or worried about their salvation, this is a terrific book to use to sit with somebody if you think, oh gee, I've never been a teacher or I've never been able to sit with somebody who's a young believer who isn't sure or is uninformed. This is a tremendous tool. What they all look like, these 25-cent Christian words, but as you go through them, you find out that every one of them is punctuated and saturated with God's grace. And by the time you get to the end, the assurance and the confidence that a believer will have in his salvation will be overwhelming.

And there's never been any talk about identification. Not one word yet. Not one word past Romans 5.12.

Everything that's from Romans 1 to Romans 5.11.

Salvation. It is an incredible, gracious doctrine. And I dare say with most believers, not very well understood or taught, that all of these things are already true of every single believer and can never change. A believer can't sin his way out of salvation. You can't sin your way out of any of these things. You can't change any of it. Not one iotem. Not any of it. The only thing you can change is your enjoyment of it.

Right? Through non-belief. But you know what? You can go from now to the day God takes you off this planet in unbelief, but then you're out of gas. And you've got to enjoy them whether you like it or not. Because you're going to be totally in them with no obstructions. Isn't that neat? And it's interesting, you will willingly want to then, because you won't have any of that garbage going through your mind resisting.

Let's close. Our dear Father, how we thank you for your salvation and how I personally thank you for the participation in this class. It's been such an edifying experience for me and so I pray for all of those that are here that they would grow and continue to grow in the knowledge and grace of your dear son and I pray in his name. Amen.