Great Doctrines of Salvation
Mike Doyle · Aug 22, 2010
Great Doctrines of Salvation, No. 34
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926213314323

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Last week we had the teaching this morning and we were discussing about the glorious results of our justification and we covered We covered two questions. We asked ourselves, what is peace with God? Remember, we read from the book of Romans, chapter 5, verse 1 to 11. And we answered question 1 and 2, and partly of question 3. So today, this morning, we are going to continue from where we stopped. But before that, let us review what we discussed last week.

We said that we who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, we have peace with God. How did we get this peace? We said that this peace, we got it by believing, by having faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and what He did on the cross. How did we get this peace? We got this peace or we have this peace only in Jesus Christ when we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.

So question number three we said how did we get access into his grace? We discussed and we As we discussed, we discussed what grace means and we said that grace is the unlimited and merited favor of God based upon what Jesus Christ did on the cross for our redemption.

So today we are going to continue from there and a question will come. This is the question now from the text we read. What does it mean for us to have access before God? The scripture, when we read in the scripture, somebody can turn there. Romans chapter 5 verse 1 to 11. By whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand and rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Thank you.

In Jesus, we have access. What does it mean to have access? He's saying that we have access to stand. We have access to stand now before God as children of God. By believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, the door has been opened before us to enter into the presence of God.

Remember in the Old Testament, the Holy of the Holies. It was only the high priest to enter into the Holy of the Holies once in a year. And he had to prepare himself for the full year such that he can present the sins of the people of Israel before the Lord. And in his preparation, he was to prepare with a lot of fear to appear before God.

But how blessed are we that today in Jesus Christ we appear in the presence of God just by having faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Faith in the Lord in the verse we have just read says that through whom also we have had our access into the grace wherein Where in we?

We stand. We stand in the presence of God just by what the Lord Jesus Christ did on the cross. Now, you know, when we discussed last week and at the introduction, we said that the glorious results of our justification, these are gifts that the Lord has given unto us as a result of believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. As we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, in the passage you have just read, we have 10 items which the Lord gives unto us. We said one last week that we have peace with the Lord. Secondly, we say that we have hope. Thirdly, we have access into His presence. The fourth one is because we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, we also have the fourth item as suffering for him.

As believers, you know, when you read in the book of Philippians, it says that we, and now not only so, but we also rejoice in the tribulation which is beset before us, knowing that tribulation is not working out in working out endurance, and endurance, a sense of approvedness. Oh, to we as believers, what is suffering to we as believers? Maybe let me rephrase it. Do we believers, having believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, do we have challenges? Do we have a suffering? Yes, yes we have suffering, but somebody might say, oh no, I have believed in Jesus. Jesus is mighty. He has all the power.

Why should I go through sicknesses? Why should I lack what to eat? Why should I lack the basic necessities? Somebody may say, oh no, I have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. Why should my children be sick? Those questions always go on in our minds when we face challenges. Those questions when we go through situations which are hard, we question the grace of God. We question our salvation. Why? Because We haven't, sometimes the faith we have isn't all that build on the truth of the Lord. But today, we are asking ourselves, what is suffering for a believer?

If we all go through suffering, what is your perception towards that suffering which you go through? Do you go through it complaining? Do you go through it appreciating God that what I'm going through, it is you who have ordained it to come my way? Do you go through it well knowing that so and so is the one who has caused this to come my way? What is your perception?

What is suffering for a believer? The word suffering means persecution. It means being a me. a burden upon you. The word suffering can also mean synonymously tribulation or trouble, or being in a hostile situation whereby you find that turning on left or right, all around you everything is hard, you cannot go through. So, suffering to a believer, it means according to what Paul presents unto us, that we as believers, in all the situations that we go through, in all hostile times that we go through, we should rejoice in them.

When suffering comes on our way, should we rejoice in them? Yes, we should rejoice in the sufferings that come before us. Why? Because today we are not the first ones who are going through suffering. We are not the first ones. We are not the first ones who are going through tribulations.

When you read in the New Testament, Paul and the Apostles, they went through suffering. Even our Lord Jesus Christ said that if the Master has gone through all this tribulation, all this suffering, then how about the servant? How about if Jesus Christ went through challenges, if he went through suffering, how about we who believe in him? So ought we to rejoice in our sufferings?

Yes. Let somebody read for us Acts of the Apostles, chapter 14, verses 22. Acts 14, 22. Strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying through many tribulations, We must enter the kingdom of God. Yes. Through many tribulations we must enter into the kingdom of God. Should we rejoice? Yes. Why? Because we know that this is the way that the Lord has put before us.

Okay? Through tribulation we may enter into the kingdom. Thessalonians chapter 3. Thessalonians chapter 3 verse 3. so that no one would be disturbed by these afflictions, for you yourselves know that we have been destined for this. Thank you. The suffering, the tribulations that come our way as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, they have been ordained. God has put them in place for us to go through them. for us to go through these tribulations such that by going through these tribulations we will be in position to know what God has for us in advance.

I think we made a mistake, it should be 1 Thessalonians 3.3 1 Thessalonians 3.3?

1 Thessalonians 3.3 says that no man should be moved by For you yourselves know that we are appointed to these things. We are appointed to these things. Thank you. Thank you for the correction. We are appointed for these tribulations that we go through.

What are kinds of tribulations or sufferings that believers go through, if we are to ask ourselves? I would say, at least initially, we go through the same thing that everybody goes through. Yes. You know, physical suffering, illness, financial problems, emotional, psychological issues. We all, our sufferings are no different than the non-believers initially. Yes. Our sufferings as believers, it is not different from what the unbelievers go through. It is the same. Emotionally, psychologically, financially, they are all the same. But what is the attitude? The attitude towards this suffering, these tribulations matters a lot.

We know that Sorry. We know that as believers, we have been ordained for these sufferings. But somebody who does not know the Lord Jesus Christ, when he or she is going through sufferings, will not have that attitude. In fact, even believers, some believers who do not know this, they will go through suffering with a lot of complaining, blaming others for what has come before them. Even believers, some believers also will start condemning God for what they are going through. But what we should know is this, that we are appointed for this suffering as children of God. Paul regarded this suffering as a light affliction. He said that A moment, this moment of working exceedingly an eternal weight of glory.

That this suffering as we go through them, they are preparing us for the eternal glory of God. These sufferings are preparing us. As you go through all that it looks to be hard on your side, just know that the Lord through that is preparing you. Our attitude towards suffering should be joy. We should find pleasure in our suffering.

It is hard, but this is what the Bible says, that God has ordained this to come our way. Unto you is given on behalf of Christ not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake. As children of God, we have inherited, we have found favor before God, we have got this grace of the Lord, but we should know that as we have been justified before the Lord, in the package that we have, we have suffering. And our attitude should be that we know that we have been ordained for this suffering and to suffer for He who called us. If we suffer, according to 2 Timothy 2 verses 12, he says that, if we suffer, we shall also reign with him. When we go through all these challenges, tomorrow, one day, when he appears, we will reign with him.

The glorious gift of suffering is a distinct, specific gift just as any other gift of God given to the church, given to us. What other gifts do we have as children of God besides suffering? We have said that Besides the glorious results of justification, we have other gifts that the Lord has given unto us.

For example, we have the gift of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is a gift given unto us. Okay? We didn't earn it, we didn't maybe work for it, but God just gave unto us the Holy Spirit. What other gift has God given unto the Church? The gift of teaching. God has given unto the church the gift of teaching to equip saints for the good work.

Okay? Just as other gifts that the Lord has given unto the church or to us as believers, He has also given unto us suffering, tribulation, challenges. Why has He done that? To prepare us. to prepare us for the glorious kingdom, for the glorious glory which is coming ahead of us. Paul says that these sufferings that we go through, they are to transform us into the This transference which we got through, according to Miles Sanford, he says, that transformed us into the image, into the resemblance of He who has called us, who is above, who is the greatest and the noblest of them all. This gift of Suffering, it is noble for us to go through it because it prepares us for what is coming ahead of us.

Do you think that the believers struggle with sin as part of the suffering he goes through? Okay, thank you. The question is, do you think believers struggle with sins as part of what they should go through? Church, what do you think? Thank you for the good question. It could be part of it. Part of it? Yeah. That God has ordained sin to come our way, to be part of the suffering? Oh, no. Okay. You have said it is part of it. No, I guess not. None. Okay. Okay, sorry.

I think he puts it there for us to see how we can't. We have no control over it. He's the one that can fix the problem. We can't. It's an opportunity to show us how weak we are. I know. Yes. Then sin comes. Okay, we go. So you are agreeing that sin is also part of the suffering that we go through as believers? Thank you. And Adam?

I think there's, when I think about the sufferings too, to me there's two different kinds of suffering. In that if I go rob a bank, the consequences of that, I may be caught and thrown into jail. And the suffering from that is a consequence of my own actions.

I think God uses that. If he's sovereignly in control of all things, he uses that. But I think the suffering, There's sufferings as a consequence of our actions, but then there's suffering for Christ's sake and in our lives for different reasons and different things. For him, I think he uses all of it. But I think some people misunderstand, I'm suffering because I'm thrown in jail. You robbed a bank. There are consequences to your actions.

So I think God uses all of it. to draw us to him, to work in our lives, to point out different things, that we're still weak in an area, we may still be tempted by something. I think he uses all of that to his glory, to refine us, to kind of get those things out to where we have to depend on him. So, I think, yeah, he uses all things in his process of conforming us to his image. Yes. Thank you. Let us start Romans chapter 8. Romans chapter 8 to answer that question. Verse 28. Romans says, verse 28, And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.

Sin in a believer's life, when you are a believer and you find that sin has encroached into your life, God is going to use that for your good. Does this encourage us to go on seeking sin to sin? No. But he is saying that all things that come, all, it means that everything including sin, when you go through a moment of sinning God who has put it in the scripture that all things work for good for us who believe through that moment he will reveal himself to you more and more the grace of God will be revealed unto you now you say that the grace of God will be revealed so it means that we should continue sinning no if you continue sinning and you are depicting or you are showing a bad example, what the glory of the Lord might, what the Lord might do for your good, He might take you home. Because you are continuing sinning deliberately, knowing that the grace of God is available. But, according to this verse, it means that God has perpassed it, that as we have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, that we have challenges that will come in our life. And based on what we have gone through before the Lord called us, you might find that there is a lot that you are doing which is biblically not accepted. But as you have believed, you find that the habits which you are going through, all the things which you are doing, your flesh, your sin nature is still desiring to go back to where you were before.

And what the Bible is telling us here is that by that, when you seek to know, when you desire to know and do the will of God, you will go through a moment of pain, emotional pain because of, you know, this is what I am not to do as a believer. This is sin, I shouldn't do that. But now, in your own strength, in your own ability, you cannot do what?

Stop it. When you read in the book of Romans chapter 6 verses 11, he says that now we as believers, we should count ourselves dead to sin, but alive to who? To God. If you are going through a moment of, let me say, sin, you find that sin is eating you up, you should count yourself dead to sin. Why?

Because by what Christ did on the cross, by what He provided, He died on the cross such that we who believe in Him, we also died with Him on the cross. He died on the cross that we can be dead to sin. By knowing that, that you are dead to sin and you should live a life, let me say, you should live a life before God, that by depending solely on the work of God, what God did on the cross, you will be able to overcome sin.

Sin, according to what we have read, is part of our suffering. If you go through a moment of, let me say, you find that there is a sin in your life which is eating you up, the Lord will use that to draw you close to Him. Does that mean that we go on sinning? No. Paul says that no, that grace should not allow, we should not give that permission to go on sinning. But when we sin, we have an advocate. Christ Jesus is standing before God to speak for our sake if we sin. He stands before God and reminds, brings forth what He did on the cross before God such that we can be continually by His grace to continue in the faith. Is that clear? Any question? Yes. So, just as it is suffering to all believers, to all believers it comes the same way as it is to the non-believers.

But what is our attitude? We should know that we are ordained for this suffering. We should know that through suffering we are prepared to go into a glorious place or to be conformed into the image of Christ. Suffering is a divine process that we go through. What is the basis of our joy in suffering? The basis for our joy in suffering, we should know that it is a divine process that we do what? We go through. God brings us into tribulations that of all sorts graciously supplying, therewith and rejoicing and deliverance due time. With time the Lord delivers us out of what? Suffering.

Just take an example of an oak tree. oak tree. We have many types of trees, but just have this mind of an oak tree. Just have that picture. You know, when an oak tree is in the ground, the more wind that comes and waves that come and swing it around, it gives this tree more, let me say, more opportunity to take its ground, to take deeper its roots into the ground such that when the winds come around, they will not throw the tree down. The oak tree, it will only survive the heavy winds by putting deeper its root into the what? Into the ground.

We also as children of God, when When tribulations come, when sufferings come, they are coming such that we also as children of God, we can have more deeper understanding of who our God is. Such that we can be grounded into the faith that we have believed. Sufferings, when they come our way, it is not a moment of blaming, a moment of cursing, but it is a moment that we should now get close. The sufferings that come before us, they are to draw us close to our Father. Sufferings that do come our way, they are to make us to be approved before the Lord.

Just imagine if you have your child who is always around you. You find that everything that you are doing, this child will be interested to know what you are doing. And if you have If you are missing, you are not around, you find that this child of yours will be missing your presence. Why? Because in everything that you do, you are always involving Him. Now, we also, God has desired that we be involved in the relationship with Him and always to be drawn close to Him.

But when we do not have anything, because after you have believed, you find that you are at peace with God, and you find that by the flesh you tend to forget God. So what does God do? God allows sufferings to come our way, such that through these sufferings we can remember to depend solely on whom? On God, but not on our what? Our efforts. When we have tribulations, challenges that come our way, then it will remind us, oh, our God is mighty.

He said in His Word that He can heal. He said in His Word that when I call unto Him, He will answer. He said unto His Word that draw close unto me and let us reason together. Why does God allow that? Because He allows sufferings to come our way because He wants us to come close to His presence. Why doesn't our hope disappoint us?

As we studied last week, we said that it is a package that God has given unto us. And in this package so far, we have discussed and we have said that there is peace in this package. There is access into His presence in this package. There is suffering in this package. And also, we have hope in this package.

The gift that the Lord has given unto us as we go through suffering, we have hope for what the Lord has provided. And our state of hope does not disappoint us. It does not disappoint us. It is poured out into our hearts through the gift of the Holy Spirit.

There is no thought of wishing. This hope we have, it is not a wish hope. It is not the hope that we have maybe that tomorrow we will be disappointed. It is a sure deal that we have this hope. That God who promised, He will not leave us alone. He will always be on our side. Hope is not a wish, but it is a guarantee in the Word. The hope that we have, it is a guarantee.

It is determined already that what God has promised, it will come to pass. Every human hope can disappoint. When somebody promises you something, he might end up not fulfilling what he promised. When somebody offers you something, sometimes he can come around and do it and take it away.

But what God has presented, it is a sure deal. When he says that we have been justified in Christ by faith, that is sure. It is a gift which he is not going to change. It is a hope that we have which is guaranteed and God will never change. How does this hope come away? It is by the love of God. God has shown this hope, given unto us this hope through His love in the Lord Jesus Christ.

When you read verse 6 and 8, it describes who we are before accepting the Lord Jesus Christ. In the position where we were before accepting Christ, We were in a moment, we were in a state of hopelessness. We were in a state of sin. We were separated and we were very far away from God. We were very far away from Him. We could not have any relationship with Him. Why? Because of sin that separated us from our God. But today we are learning that By His grace, He offered the gift on the cross. He gave, He opened the way for us that we can be reconciled back to our God. If we are to describe how we were, if somebody asks you, who were you before you believed? What can you say? Can you describe the state in which you were before you believed?

I was dead in my sins. Yes. We were dead in our what? In our trespasses. You have another idea? We were dead in our trespasses. And in our trespasses we were helpless. We could not help ourselves out of the mess where we were in. How did we cause ourselves to be dead in sins? Did we maybe do something wrong to be dead in our sins?

I didn't have to be taught. I did not have to be taught how to sin. Yes, it was part of me. Every morning I wake up and my mind, my flesh just plans on how to do what? To sin. How? Well, how did we, okay, how come that we, God's people who are created in His image, how come that God created us in His image that we can plan to do what is evil? Our God does not do evil. Why is it that those who are created in His image, they wake up every morning planning to sin?

It's Adam's fault. It is Adam's fault? Yes. As unbelievers we're in Adam. It was in nature because we inherited it. Yes. The sin nature we have, we wake up every morning planning, okay Monique? Okay, but doesn't it also have to do with the devil who's tempting? The devil is tempting us. Yeah. That's why we wake up every morning planning to sin. To do things that shouldn't be done. Yes. Thank you. You must be real important. The devil never picks on you.

Before we accepted our Lord as our Saviour, we were dead in our sins. We were helpless. How did that come? By what our ancestor Adam did. We all, we are born, we are raised up in sin. But the moment you believe Jesus Christ as your Saviour, that background, that history you have, it is what? It is terminated. It is cut off of you. Then you start a new history in the Lord Jesus Christ from the moment you believe until eternity.

How do we get this, as children of God, how do we get the hope? We have hope in the Lord by the fact that we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. We were helpless, we were dead in sin, we were far away from God. Remember last week we said that we were enemies of God, but by His grace He offered Christ on the cross and paid for all needed for His satisfaction towards our sinful nature. Now in Christ, we have peace with God. We are reconciled to Him. We are now children of God.

And in our study, we have said that, let us remind ourselves, we have said that we have The items in our package, we have items that God has presented unto us. We said item number one last week is we have peace with God. What was the second item? Access. We have access to appear before his presence in Jesus Christ. The third item? Suffering. Yes, we are ordained, we are appointed to suffer because through suffering His glory is revealed in us. We are transformed, we are drawn close to Him. The fourth one, hope. We have hope that He who promised is faithful to fulfill what He promised. Okay? We have hope in the Lord that we who were helpless, we who were sinners, that God has reconciled us unto himself. As we were helpless, as we were hopeless, dead in sin, God reconciled us unto himself. Okay?

There is that question, how many times do we get saved? That question we answered it sometime, it was last week at the beginning. So I didn't prepare anything on that because I wanted the class too. How many times do we get saved? Once. We get once? We get saved once.

But when you read in the scripture, it says that The text in which he is presenting this word, he is saying that, and you shall be saved. Get verse, he says in verse 10. For if, when we were God's enemies who were reconciled to him through the death of his son, how much more having been reconciled Shall we be saved through his life? What does it mean to me?

I see that we shall Shall we be saved as if it is a future? Does it mean that we shall be saved? Maybe somebody can But we believe we are saved right now. We have to wait for the future. Yes, we are saved right now. But the scripture, the verse we have just read, is saying that, shall we be saved? It's a conditional statement, that if we believe, we shall be saved. That if we believe, we shall be saved.

We are reconciled because he died and satisfied God about the thing that separated us from God, which was sin. But the life that we have is not a life of reconciliation, it's a life of Christ. So the salvation is in his life. The salvation we have now, it is in Jesus Christ. As children of God, the salvation we enjoy today, it is just by the fact of what Christ did on the cross.

Okay? Are we also being saved continually? Being saved from the power of sin? which is the sin nature in us, and we shall be saved from the presence of sin. I think the issue of life here is the fact that a believer, because he has a life of Christ, a resurrected life of Christ, in that life or in that person of Christ is where salvation is, and we will be saved for all eternity in his life, because we have his life.

That means that conditionally we are saved once and before God we are declared righteous in Jesus Christ. That is positionally. But conditionally, there are three steps of our being saved. One, it is justification, that is, we are saved from the power of sin. Sanctification, meaning it is a process on a daily basis. we are saved from the presence. We are saved from... The first one is we are saved from the penalty. Yeah, the first one from the penalty of sin, that is justification. The second one is sanctification. We are saved from there, on a daily basis, from the power of sin. And then the last one, that is glorification, which will come which are saved from the presence of sin.

Okay? I have a question. I think what happened is that the projector got hot and shut down. Oh. Okay. I have another comment about life. I remember reading some time ago that Believers have this idea that if they love the Lord Jesus enough, that that would be sufficient for them to live the Christian life.

Would you agree with that? If we love Christ enough, then we would, you know the grace circle that I love him because he first loved me and I obey him because he loved me and he rewards me, is that enough? To live the Christian life? For me to live the life? What do you think? How do I admit Christ?

It ain't going to work any other way. Well, the point is, the point I'm trying to make is that it's not, the love motive isn't enough. It's got to be the life motive. It's life itself that causes me to live and secures from me salvation. The fact that I love Jesus isn't enough of a motive for me to live. It has to be life itself. But that's not the declaration. He loved us first, so therefore it's from him. I don't know if I'm making myself clear. I missed that. Say that again. I missed it.

What motivation in me would motivate me to obey God? the best way to put it. So if he says, as he teaches me things, and he asks me to believe him, and I do, but what is it that's going to keep me from sinning? Is it the fact that I love God? Well, if you love God, you have transformed, and so you wouldn't want to do the things you at one time did.

So that's my point. My point is that I live unto Him because I have the life that will live unto Him. Right. Does that make sense? So the motive is the life I have rather than the fact that I just love Him. The life I have does love Him, but I can't live a life that's pleasing to God without having His very own life. Can't do it. In other words, I can't take my human life and say, well, I'm going to dedicate myself to God and I'm going to, you know, I'm going to be his servant for all eternity.

Well, that'll get me to about this afternoon. But if I recognize that I have his resurrected life and he says, saved by his life, I will live in a life that's consistent with his life because I have his life. That make sense? You're still frowning. I'm a frowner. So it's the recognition and that recognition is different from love. Yeah, okay. I can go with that. It's the life itself. Yeah. He says I've been reconciled. I shall be saved by his life. He said from now on For all eternity, it's His life that has saved me. I live in His life. It's not my life, it's His life. That's right. I have a question about question number two. Yes?

How did we get this peace? Okay, the answer we gave was faith, but it seems to me like we should say that Christ made this peace through the blood of His cross. That's how we got it. Well, Christ made the peace through the blood of his cross, and that is available to anyone who believes. Yeah. But initially, that's how we got it. Well, when you have faith in what Christ did on the cross, that's where we say that peace will be appropriate to you. Faith in what Christ did on the cross. How do we get this faith? We get this faith by what Christ did on the cross.

He made the peace. Yes. So as we finish today's teaching, we have to review. Any questions before we close up? All the writing that was on the board, I'd love to have a copy of all that. How can that be available? I have it. Oh, you do? Okay. Thank you. He's going to be in Uganda, so... He can't run back over next year. Yeah. So, let us review what we have discussed in this teaching. We have said from last week that God presented unto us a gift. And this gift, we have said that these are the glorious results of our salvation. Glorious results, the outcome of our justification.

Having believed the Lord as our saviour, as our own way to go to the Father, what are the things that he has unveiled unto us? One, we say that now we have peace with God based on what Christ did on the cross. The second one, in the package, we have access to God. Third one, the grace of God is availed unto us. The fourth one, we rejoice in God because of what he has given unto us.

Five, because of what he has done, in the package we have suffering or adversity, tribulations. Sixth one, We have said that we have hope as we go through all these challenges, as we go through all these things that make us upset. We have hope because He promised and He is faithful. Why is it all this to us? It is based on the love of God towards us.

Amen. Any question before we close? Say that again. Okay. In verse 1, I'll go through them. We have peace with God. Verse 2, we have access to God by what Christ did on the cross. Verse 2 still, another item is grace of God has been revealed unto us. We rejoice in what God has provided for us.

That is the fourth one. There is suffering. Then hope. And why has this all come to us? It's just by the love of God. It is not any man's work, but it is God who has loved us. Thank you. pray? Okay, let's pray. Father, in the name of Jesus, we thank you for the work that you've given unto us this morning. We pray that your Holy Spirit will appropriate it to each one of us for the glory of your name. In Jesus' name, Amen.