Greetings in Jesus' name. It's a beautiful opportunity we have to gather: beautiful day, beautiful place. Let's pray. Oh God in heaven, we thank you for your great love and your mercy to us for the great salvation that you worked for us. We pray Lord that you would help us walk worthy of this. We thank you for the things that we've been able to hear this morning already. We pray Lord that you would guide us now and guide my thoughts, guide all our thoughts, and we pray Lord that we could look into your word and be edified and draw closer to you. Be with those who are not here with us today and keep them in your care and bless their day as well. In Jesus' name, amen
Well, I want to continue today with the third message on salvation, and my focus today is on how we are being saved. I'll start by reading in John chapter 8. There's a few verses in here that kind of give an outline of what I want to talk about today. In John chapter 8:31 he says, and Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed him, If you continue in my word, then you are truly disciples of mine. And you will know the truth and the truth will make you free. They answered him, we are Abraham's descendants and have never yet been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say 'you will become free'? And Jesus answered them, truly, truly I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever. The son does remain forever, so if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.
Just there in that little passage is this concept that if we sin, we're a slave to sin. We are bound by sin. There is this concept how the servant of the slave does not abide in the house forever but the Son abides forever. And the concept of how the Son will free us, and if He does free us ,we'll be free indeed. It'll be a reality. Not just a thought or a mental understanding that we'd be free, but we'll be free indeed. And then the condition I want to talk about too in this passage where He says "if you continue in my words, you'll be my disciples".
I've spent a lot of time thinking about this whole series the last while, and I understand not everybody is thinking about it as much as I do, so I'm going to recap a few things of the other two messages, about how God, the creator of the universe, Almighty, all-knowing, all-powerful, He's the one who spoke a word and the universe came into existence, the one who makes the clouds His chariot and rides on the wings of the wind, heaven is His throne and the earth is His footstool. How this God stooped down and suffered and died at the hands of His creation. The very people that He made did not know Him when He came, so they crucified Him.
And then in the second message we looked at how this works, like, how this works that this act makes us at one with God, how this is a work of atonement by the ransom that He paid, and if you remember how God could have defeated the devil, He could've taken man back, as God. He could've done that by just speaking the word, the devil could've been out of the picture, man could be back and be His, but what He would've shown by doing that is that God is more powerful than the devil, and He also would've ended up with a world full of people that were His, whether they wanted to be His or not. But by becoming man, and taking on the seed of Adam, being born of woman and being made flesh and dwelt among us and being tempted as we are, and as that, encountering the devil, He has showed us and the devil that when man denies his flesh and is obedient to the Father and to the Spirit, and bears his cross, he can be victorious over sin and death and hades and the devil himself. And not only that this thing that God has been setting before man from the very beginning, this option to chose life or death, He has taken this option, this choice to a new level. We as man can now become partakers of this salvation and this is good news.
The bible says, whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. See, even in the garden of Eden God already had a tree of life and He had this tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which if they ate of it, brought forth death. And Adam and Eve chose to eat from that tree and it brought forth death. Now the reason that I think that this choice has now been taken to a new level, is become Adam and Eve were very inexperienced, they were very ignorant. I don't even know if they were warned beforehand that there's a deceiver out there. All we know, that they were given this command and now they hear this voice that tells them something contrary and it was their choice. They chose to disobey. But they were so inexperienced, you almost can't fault them. But now we and mankind, we've transgressed. We have tasted death in the sense that we have partook of sin and it has put a separation between us and God. In that sense we have already tasted death and if we can be aware of it, we have been brought under the bondage of sin because we sinned and he who sins is a servant to sin, a slave to sin. Christ, by becoming the ransom has saved mankind from this hopeless fate, and in this condition of bondage He has now given us this opportunity once again to choose life or death, and He wants us out of our free will to choose life. Another aspect into which this has been taken into a new level, is that the perfect will of the Father has never before been revealed with such clarity until the Son of God comes and lives it and teaches it by word and deed. This is the first time that the will of the Father has been given to man with such clarity. It's there in the old covenant, it's in dark sayings, in shadows, in figures, you can see it through the prophets, you can see it through Moses , you can see it there, but never with such clarity.
That light, the prince of light that entered Hades and crushed the serpent’s head and defeated the prince of darkness, and freed the captives, this can happen in our hearts and in our lives today. Sadly, many still choose death because the light hurts their eyes. The light reveals and exposes the deeds of wickedness and people like darkness rather than light, because that light reveals their wickedness and it's hurtful to look at it. They don't want to look at it. They've been so used to darkness, it's hurtful when the light exposes everything.
It's like mice and rats, they're always up to no good, doing evil deeds, doing things they're not supposed to, chewing things they're not supposed to. If you've ever noticed, when you walk into a barn, whether they be in your house or barn or building, at night when you flip on the light, these critters scamper for the corners. Their deeds have been exposed and they gotta hide! That's how it is with a lot of people when light comes to them. Many are so used to their condition of being bound, or a servant to sin, that it's just normal, and repentance is so costly. Many of them don't know that they're bound and the deceiver who had tricked Adam and Eve into thinking that there's more that they should know, there's something hidden from them that they should receive from him, that same deceiver is still deceiving the multitudes into making them think they are not bound, that they're good. How often when we're out preaching and we ask somebody if they'd want to talk about what Jesus taught, the scripture or we'd like to initiate and conversation and they say "we're good, we don't need it".
It is as if mankind is confined in a city and this city is surrounded by walls that we cannot penetrate, and the experience of somebody within this city may be different, like for some people the experience in this city may be an experience of violence and destruction, but for others it may be an experience of ease and luxury and everything seems pleasant so long as they can ignore that there's yet others in here who are suffering and poor, at their expense often times. And there would be the case with some other people, their condition is poor, bleak and lifeless. Some people's experience within this city is even an experience of being religious; they compare themselves with the rest of the people in the city and they think themselves to be pretty righteous; they think they're the good people in the city. But they're all in this one city surrounded with these walls they can't get through, and they're all under this one ruler, this king name Beelzebub.
Then one day a king that is stronger than Beelzebub breaks through this wall from the outside and he comes into this city. He's a strange man with a strange message. He's bleeding from bursting through
that wall and he exposes the wickedness of the city. He calls men to repent and follow him and 'I'll lead you out of this city into a new nation'. He tells the people 'save yourself from this wicked generation' Some people don't even hear him because their ears are completely dull of hearing. Some people hear him but it makes them angry, or they mock him. Some people hear him and they secretly admire that someone could be so courageous and defiant, boldly and openly, against the king of this place, but that's all they do, they just admire him. To really follow what he says is pretty costly on their part, it's too much for them.
And then there's a few people who hear him and believe him and they follow him out of this city. These people are mocked, they're considered rebels and traitors. This king leads them out into a new nation with new laws. He gives them instructions, he gives them conditions and he gives them warnings, and he says 'I'll leave you here, but someday I'll come back and I'll judge you by what you did with this liberty that I gave you, so don't use this liberty for an occasion to flesh, but walk worthy of this calling that you heard and perform deeds in keeping with repentance'. He says, 'when I leave, to those who obey me I will give them my holy spirit and he will guide you into all truths. ' and before he leaves he gives them all some talents according to their ability, he tells them to work with them and to handle with them while he's gone till he comes back, and then he leaves. We'll pick this story up in the next message, when he comes back and we'll talk about the final salvation.
But here we are now, by the mercy of God, saved from the bondage of Beelzebub, no longer a slave but justified as a child because of our faith in Christ. But our future salvation requires something from us. Jesus has done what He'll do. That's not taking away from the fact that the Holy Spirit will be at work, that he will teach us and draw us like he said he will if we obey him, he will give us this spirit and he will guide us into all truths. But Jesus has done this work of salvation, of saving mankind, of breaking the bondage and if we have this faith in Him to follow Him out of this city, out of this bondage, away from this tyrant, we are considered a new creature, justified as a child and no longer a slave to sin. Scripture has all these conditions. When I look at these conditions I just wonder how has the devil even deceived so many people into the idea that someone could not lose this salvation. He says, IF we abide in Him, IF we walk in the light. IF we remain in His love. IF we continue in His words. IF we hold the beginning of our confidence and IF we endure to the end. These are just a few of the IFS.
We'll start by John 15 where Jesus talks about the vine and the branches. He says, I am the vine and my father is the vine dresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, He takes away. And every branch that bears fruit He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away as a branch and dries up and they gather him and cast him into the fire and they are burned. If you abide in me and my word in abides in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you. My father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. Just as the father has loved me, I have loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in His love. These things I have spoken to you that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be made full.
As a disconnected branch, as a branch that lays on the ground and is not connected to the Father, like that child in Ezekiel 16 we talked about last Sunday, that helpless and hopeless condition of this child whose naval wasn't cut, who wasn't washed who lay out in the field in her blood, and what God did to bring life to her. Or the condition of the children of Israel when they were bondmen in Egypt or like these men who were in this city under Beelzebub in these surrounded walls, like in that condition God does not expect that we bear fruit. We do not expect that a branch that lays on the ground bears fruit, but once He has picked up that branch and He has grafted it into the vine, He expects fruit. He requires fruit, else, it will be cut off and burned.
Now it's very true that the nutrients that this branch gets to produce fruit comes from the vine and the vine is Jesus. Jesus said 'I am the vine. You are the branches'. The nutrients that it gets comes from the vine, but in order for this branch to bear fruit it must be attached and abide and continue in the vine. And the interesting thing is that He has told us what that is. What it means to abide in the vine, in this very passage. He says in verse 10, If you keep my commandments you will abide in my love. John reiterates this in his epistles in John 3:24 He who keeps his commands, this is John speaking, He who keeps His commands abides in Him. That is how we can abide in the vine, and it is our keeping the commandments and abiding in the vine that can produce fruits. If there is no fruit there, and I want you to bear in mind, according to this parable it is possible to be in the vine and not produce fruit, at least for a time until you are cut off and thrown in the fire.
But it's not just about keeping from being cut off, it's about enduring the pruning, the suffering, the chastisement that brings more fruit and fruit to perfection. It's about growing in the grace and knowledge of God. It's about leaving the elementary principles and pressing on to perfection. This happens with pruning, by mortifying the deeds of the flesh, chopping them off so that we bear more fruit, a chipping away and the pruning of everything that would hinder fruit production. It's being willing to endure that. How bad! How sad! If at the end of our life our last works are not better than the first, if we have not grown in wisdom, if we have not matured in sobriety, in love, in patience, in self- denial and in all good works.
In John 8:31 we read this verse earlier in that little passage that outlines this message, he says, If you continue in my word, then you are truly my disciples. A disciple is disciplined. That's what the word disciple means, is someone that's disciplined, and in this case he's saying, if you continue in my word, you are my disciples truly. That means we will be disciplined by His word. Christ, when He was here, denied his flesh in order to obey the Father and to be in His perfect will. If we're to walk worthy of this calling then we must walk as He walked, we want to do the same. There's this continuous conforming to His image, and as more is given to us, more is required. there's a process here, a process of salvation that's happening here.
In the first epistle of John there's another condition that we read. In chapter 1 starting in verse 5, he says, This is the message we have heard from him and announced to you that God is light and in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship and yet walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned we make Him a liar and His word is not in us. So we see this condition, in order for the blood to cleanse us from sin, we must walk in light. And that doesn't mean that you saw the light when He came into the city, or that you stood in the light, it says you walk in the light.
I've said this multiple times and maybe you've all heard it before, I see it as this process in which we were slaves to sin, bound by sin, and He has given us this opportunity to choose life and to walk in light. He has given us light that we can walk in. Now as we walk in this light, that does not mean that there is nothing in our life that is still considered sin. He says in this passage, if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and of course we know we have sinned. But even now, we have repented of every thing that we know of, and we have done away, and as these temptations come, as we recognize these deeds of the flesh we mortify them, we chop them off, we get pruned, and as we do this, we draw closer and closer to that light and as we draw closer, that light is shining brighter and brighter and brighter upon us and as it shines brighter, it reveals things we've never seen before, and we must continue this process, of when we see these things, to mortify them, to put them away, to prune them off, else, whenever this condition stops, this condition of walking in the light, whenever that stops, the blood of Jesus Christ will no longer cleanse us from these sins.
Other scriptures talk about, IF we remain in His love, IF we hold the beginning of our confidence
steadfast to the end, and IF we endure to the end we will be saved. These are all conditions for us.
In second Timothy chapter 2, he says, It is a trustworthy statement, for if we died with him, we also will live with him. If we endure, we will also reign with him. If we deny Him, he will also deny us. If we are faithless, He remains faithful for He cannot deny himself. First it says, If we died with him, we will also live with him. If we are willing to deny self and mortify these deeds, that the flesh would die if we are willing to bear our cross like He did and deny ourselves and be obedient to the Father which is what it means to live, then if we're willing to do that, like He did, we can also live with him. That's what I thing it would mean when he says if we die with him, we will also live with Him. If we endure (I think some translations say if we suffer with him, I'm not quite sure, if we endure it says here), we will also reign with Him. Now this is another condition, If we endure this thing to the very end we will reign with Him in the eternal salvation, in the final salvation, in the final kingdom, and then here's another condition. IF we deny Him, He will deny us. Jesus does want a relationship, there is this relationship that we have with God, and it's a relationship where He is not carrying us all the way, though He's there to carry us, but He's given us a yoke, He wants us to yoke with Him. A yoke is a balanced thing here where two oxen stick their heads through and they walk together, they have to walk together. There can't be one lagging behind too much or it's painful for both of them, or rushing ahead for that matter.
With these things in mind, let's read Romans 5. Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand and we exalt in hope of the glory of God and not only this, but we also exalt in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance, and perseverance, proven character, and proven character, hope and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the holy spirit who is given to us. For while we were still helpless at the right time Christ died for us, the ungodly, for one would hardly die for a righteous man, though perhaps for a good man someone would dare to die, but God demonstrates His own love towards us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more than, having been now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more having been reconciled we shall be saved by His life. And not only this, but we also exalt in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we now have received the reconciliation, or the atonement some translations say, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin and so death spread to all men because all sinned, for until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam till Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of Adam, who was a type of Him who was to come. But the free gift is not like the transgression, for if by the transgression of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of one man, Jesus Christ, abound to many. The gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned, for on the one hand, the judgment arose from one transgression, resulting in condemnation, but on the other hand, the free gift arose from many transgressions, resulting in justification. For if by the transgression of the one death reigned through the one, much more those who received the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness will reign in life through one, Jesus Christ. So then, as through one transgression, there resulted condemnation to all men, even so, through one act of righteousness, there resulted justification of life to all men. For as through the one man's disobedience, the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the one, many will be made righteous. The law came in so that the transgression would increase, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
So through our faith in this one who has paid the ransom and delivered us and given us these
instructions, if we abide in these, if we have been grafted into this vine, if we meet these conditions, he has justified us. And we see here, some of these things here in Romans 5, I don't know that I fully understand, but one thing he does say here, the death that came through Adam because Adam sinned, it spread through all men. In verse 12 it says, therefore, just as through one man, sinned entered into the world and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned and I just think like Adam was the opening or the channel into which death came and we all became partakers of sin, death and hell. But not because Adam sinned but because we also sinned. If that can make sense. Adam was just the forerunner, the beginning, the opening, the channel into which sin entered the world and now we've all followed suit. We've all sinned. We've all transgressed, and therefore this condemnation comes upon all of us.
Now in a similar way I think we are not righteous because Christ was righteous, at least in one sense. We are not found sinners because Adam sinned, and in the like manner, we are not found righteous just because Jesus was righteous when He was here. But He was the author, he was the beginning, he was the opening, the channel into which we could escape and be found as partakers of this divine nature. Instead of being found guilty of sin, death, Hades and bondage by sinning like Adam sinned, through Christ we can become partakers of righteousness, life and freedom, and liberty. I feel like in light of that, verse 19 makes sense, for as through one man's disobedience, the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of one, the many were made righteous.
In Hebrews 5:9 he says, And being made perfect He became the author of eternal salvation, to all them that obey Him. And some translation say: the source. Like the source or the author is the origin of it, it's the beginning, there might even be better words, but like the thing in which has made it come into being, or helped it come into fruition.
The children of Israel were saved from Egypt, and they were to follow the cloud and pillar by day and night. All 600,000 of them, plus women and children were all saved out of Egypt, through a mighty hand that did miraculous things. But in the wilderness of being saved, in the wilderness of abiding in God, in keeping His commandments, in continuing in His word, in enduring to the end, most of them got lost. Most of them got lost through unbelief and rebellion and lusting and discouragement and grumbling, regardless how saved they had been. With all the mighty works God did to bring them out, it was easier for God to bring them out of Egypt, than it was to get Egypt out of the children of Israel. Walter read this verse in James, therefore, putting aside all filthiness, and all that remains of wickedness, in humility receive the word implanted ,which is able to save your souls.
Are we being saved? and if not, how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?
Let's pray. Oh God in heaven, we thank you for your great love and the great salvation you wrought for us. Help us to abide in you, to continue in your word, to keep your commandments, to hold fast to the end. We pray Lord that you would help us to mortify the deeds of the flesh that hinder fruit production. We know Lord that you are glorified in that we bear much fruit and we want you to be glorified. So help us, Lord, in Jesus name, amen.
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