Let’s turn in our Bibles to Romans chapter
5. And the title of my message is, “What is Salvation?” A quick question. How many of you are saved
here today? You know you are saved. You are sure of it. Ok. Good. Very good. Now here
is my follow up question. Do you, do I, do we, really fully understand all that salvation
is? I read an article recently in USA Today about
various peoples that had won the lottery but never went and claimed their prize. In other
words they bought the winning ticket but somehow they weren’t paying attention or whatever
and they did not get that enormous prize that was theirs for the taking. One individual
won $46 million dollars. He beat the odds. 76,275,360 to 1 to win this incredible jackpot
but he missed the deadline and the prize went unclaimed. And apparently, according to this
article, this happens quite often. A few years ago in California a $25 million dollar prize
went unclaimed. Now by the way this is not an endorsement of the lottery. In fact frankly
I can’t think of a better way to waste your money than to buy lottery tickets. Ok. But
there are a few people. “I don’t know about that.” But here is my point though.
Here is this enormous prize worth millions of dollars. You have the winning ticket and
you did not go and claim what was rightfully yours. God has a prize waiting for you that is of
greater value than millions and millions of dollars. It is called salvation. It is called
salvation. And for some it is unclaimed. For others it is unused. And for many of us it
is unappreciated and perhaps somewhat unknown. Do we really grasp, do we really understand
all that salvation is. What God has given to us when we put our faith in Christ. As you know recently we did a series on the
last days. And it seems as though people can’t get enough teaching on this particular topic.
And when we use terms like Armageddon and the Millennium and the Second Coming and the
rapture and the Antichrist and so forth oh we just want to know everything we can know
about those things. And that is fantastic. But there are other terms we know very little
about that quite frankly have a greater impact on our life. Words that when we her them we
think, “Oh I don’t really know if I want to know that much about it.” Words like
regeneration. Salvation. Justification. Adoption. Those are big words in the Bible. And every
one of those words I just mentioned are a part of what happens when a man or a woman
puts their faith in Jesus Christ. So let’s talk about this incredible gift
God has given to each of us that we call salvation. First of all what is it? How do you get it?
And once you get it can you lose it? The very word salvation says it all. Now we have used
the word. You have probably even approached or someone came up to you with a wild eyed
look on their face and they say, “Are you saved?” They always have to say it kind
of word. It is not, “Are you saved?” But, “Friend, are you saved right now I have
to ask you.” What is wrong with you? “Nothing is wrong with me.” And it seems a little
overly dramatic doesn’t it. Saved. I am saved. Do we have to use that term? I mean
it is not like I was out drowning at sea or I was in a burning house and I had to be saved.
I was a reasonably good person and now I have put my faith in Jesus. And no question I am
going to heaven. No. No. Wait a second. Saved is the perfect term to use because your fate
was worse than being out at sea. It was worse than being in a burning house. You literally
were pulled out of the flames by Jesus Christ Himself when you were saved. It is a big deal.
A really big deal. And listen to this. Salvation covers your
past, your present, and your future. First of all when you are saved, in other words
when you put your faith in Jesus Christ that covers your past. God forgives you of all
your sin. And you need to know that when you put your faith in Jesus the devil is going
to be there to attack there. And he will whisper in your ear the same thing that he said to
our first parents in the garden. “Did God really say what you thought He said?” You
remember. He came to Adam and Eve and challenged the Word of God. And in the same way after
you have put your faith in Christ he will come to you and say, “Do you really believe
God has forgiven a creep like you? Do you really believe that you are going to go to
heaven when you die? Well you are not worthy. You don’t deserve it. You are not good enough”
and so forth. And I will address those issues in a moment. But he will challenge it. And
it is then that we base our salvation not on our feelings in the moment but on the fact
of what the Word of God says. And when you put your faith in Christ the
Bible is adamant in saying you are saved. It is your present possession. You can know
that you know. 1 John 5:10 says, “Anyone who believes in the Son of God has this testimony
in His heart.” Romans 8:16 says, “His Spirit bears witness with our spirit that
we are the children of God.” Jesus said in John 5:24, “I tell you the truth. Whoever
hears My word and believes in Him whom God has sent has eternal life.” He doesn’t
say will hope to have or maybe we will get some day. He says, “If you believe in Me
you have eternal life.” And one of the most often quoted assurance verses. 1 John 5. “These
things we write to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know
that you have eternal life.” Salvation covers your past. You are saved. Number two. Salvation covers your present.
Not only has God saved you. But listen to this. God is saving you. Saving me from what?
Saving me from the power and control of sin. 2 Corinthians 1:10 says that, “God delivered
us from so great a death and does deliver us in whom we trust and will still deliver
us.” Yes God has saved me. God is saving me every single day. And yes He will save me in the future as well.
From what? From future judgment. Romans 5:9 says, “Since we have been made right in
God’s sight by the blood of Christ, He will save us from God’s judgment. For since we
were restored to friendship with God by the death of his Son while we were still His enemies,
we will certainly be saved from eternal punishment by His life.” God has saved me. God is saving me. And God
will yet save me in the future. But what does it mean to be saved? What does
that encompass? What does that include? Well let’s unpack it. Let’s unwrap this thing.
Open it up and lay all of the pieces out before us and see what salvation actually is. Let’s look now at Romans 5 verses 1 and
2. Paul writes, “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God
through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace
in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.” First off Paul tells us that we are justified.
Now before I get to that very important word let me contrast it with another word we need
to know about called regeneration. Ok. When you believe in Jesus you are regenerated.
To be saved is to experience regeneration. We use interchangeable terms like born again,
believe in, saved, regenerated. So when you put your faith in Christ God has regenerated
you. You have passed from darkness to light. From the power of Satan to God. From hell
to heaven. Now contrast that with this word that we are
going to talk about identified here in Romans 5. The word justification. Regeneration has
to do with what takes place in the believer’s heart. And justification concerns our standing
before God. Regeneration is God’s answer to the problem of spiritual death. Justification
is the answer to the problem of guilt. We don’t want to rush over this. We want to
take it in. The word justified that our group just sang
about carries a twofold meaning. First of all to be justified means that you are forgiven
of all of your sin. When you put your faith in Jesus Christ all evidence of sin and guilt
is completely wiped out. Now don’t rush over that. Think about it for a moment. Let
it sink in. When you believe in Jesus you are forgiven. Let me ask you a question. How many of you
have ever done something you are ashamed of? Yeah. Me too. I have done things I wish I
had not done. I have said things I wish I had not said. Things I wish I could take back.
But I can’t. And you say, “Well that is the end of that.” No. Actually it isn’t.
Because when a person is justified God forgives this thing. He wipes this thing out. Acts
13:38 says, “Brothers, listen! We are here to proclaim that through this man Jesus there
is forgiveness for your sins. Everyone who trusts in Him is free from all guilt and is
declared righteous or us justified—something the law could never do.” Speaking of our
sins God says in Hebrews 10:17, “I will never again remember your sins and your lawless
deeds.” Over in Jeremiah 50:20 it says, “In those days they'll look high and low
for a sign of Israel's guilt and they will find nothing. They will search nook and cranny
for a trace of Judah's sin. Again they will find nothing. These people that I've saved
will start out with a clean slate.” I love that. Wouldn’t you love a clean slate? Wouldn’t
like a fresh start? That is what happens when you believe in Jesus. We are told over in
Micah 7:18–19, “Where is there another God like You who pardons the sin of the survivors
among His people. He does not stay angry with His people forever. He takes our sins and
throws them into the depths of the oceans.” Do we have any scuba divers out there? Raise
your hand. Ok. A couple. Any snorkelers out there. Do we have people that use the bathtub?
Ok. Good. All right. I scuba dive every now and then. And I remember years ago I was over
in Hawaii diving with some friends. And we weren’t down that deep. We were probably
about maybe 15 feet under the surface. And you know as you are kind of cruising along
there you can see the ground below you. And it was getting deeper and deeper. In other
words the ground was getting further and further down. And we stayed at our same depth. And
then we came to this one point where there was this massive cliff that just dropped off
and you couldn’t see anything. And I kind of just went out a few feet and I am just
sort of looking at nothingness and it freaked me out. And I turned back and went back. I
just started thinking of the story of Jonah and the whale there. And then I thought of
the Jaws movies and I started hearing (jaws theme). It just kind of freaked me out a little
bit. I couldn’t see the bottom. Now it didn’t change my situation, but it was so deep. Now God has taken your sins and He has cast
them to the depths of the sea. They are gone. They are forgiven. And listen to this. They
are not just forgiven. They are forgotten. They are forgotten. Now that doesn’t mean
that God has a lapse in memory. “Oh I can’t remember.” No. He technically knows, but
He has chosen to not remember. You know a lot of times when you are married
you say you forgive. But you don’t forget now do you? Because you bring up things that
were said 20 years ago. “Well I remember when I said this to me?” “Was that like
20 years ago?” “Yes it was. And it was like yesterday.” “I thought you forgave
me.” “I did, but I don’t forget.” Well that is not real forgiveness now is it?
We should not choose to remember what God has chosen to forget. Why do we dredge up
old sins? Why do we have to keep reliving those things again? Can you not accept the
fact that when you have salvation in Christ you are justified, which means that God has
taken your sin and He has forgiven and He has forgotten. As Corrie ten Boom used to
say, “God has taken your sins. He has thrown them into the sea of forgetfulness and He
has posted a sign that says, ‘No fishing allowed.’” Let it go. Put it behind you.
As Paul said, “Forgetting those things that are behind, and reaching forward to the things
that are before.” On my computer key I have a key that has the
word delete on it. You have that key as well. Right. Maybe you are working on a document
and you write some things and you say I don’t want to use this. And so you highlight it
and you hit the delete key. Now where does that text go? I have no idea. I don’t really
even care. Do you? Probably goes the same place that all those socks go. Why is it you
only lose one sock? You ever notice that. And you know I don’t know about you but
I always keep the other sock. So in my drawer I have single socks. It is just waiting for
the return of its mate you know. One day the prodigal sock will come back. The other day
I was walking down the street and I saw a sock laying in the gutter. I thought, “That
is where they go. There is the prodigal sock right there laying there.” Anyway. So I don’t know where these things
go. But I am just glad they are gone. That God forgives and God forgets. Now that is only part of justification. That
denotes the negative part. What God has taken away? But listen. Justification is a positive
side as well which includes what God has done and given to us. A technical definition of
the word justified is to put to one’s account. To put to one’s account. Listen. When God
justifies a person He does so by placing to his or her credit the righteousness of Jesus
Christ. This balances the moral and spiritual budget for us if you will. Philippians 3:9 says, “We have been found
in Him not having our own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through
faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith.” Now that is not a gradual
process. It doesn’t take place over a period of time. It is instantaneous. God removes
your sin. And then He puts the righteousness of God in your account. Now let’s illustrate it. Let’s say that
you somehow got yourself in debt for $10 million dollars. And you were going to go to prison
for it as a matter of fact. And there was an article in the paper with your photo there
saying that you were in debt for all of this money and you were going to be sentenced that
day. And let’s just say you were in the courtroom and Bill Gates shows up. I don’t
know if Bill Gates is still the richest man in the world. I know he is one of the richest.
So he heard about your plight and he had arranged a deal with the judge where he would pay all
that you owed plus interest. And so with one stipulation. He said you had to use a PC computer
the rest of your life. You had to get rid of your Mac. That was hard. But you agreed.
And I am messing up my own illustration. Ok. Let’s go back there. So Bill Gates pardons
you for $10 million dollars. You say, “Thank you Mr. Gates. I appreciate that.” And then
as you are leaving the courtroom he says, “Oh by the way check your balance at the
bank.” “Well why would I do that? I already know what it is.” He goes, “Check it again.”
So you are on your way home. You go by the ATM machine. You punch in your code and you
have $20 million bucks in the bank. That is justification. God removed all of your sin. He forgave it.
And then He put the righteousness of Christ into your account for the future. See that
is the part a lot of people don’t always know about. It is a wonderful amazing thing
that God has done for each of us. How is this done? Is this done through my
good works that outweigh my bad works? Hardly. This is done through the sufficient death
of Jesus Christ on the cross when He met the righteous demands of God. We are told over
in 2 Corinthians 5:21, “He made Him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be
made the righteousness of God in Him.” John McArthur defined justification as follows.
“On the cross God treated Christ as if He had personally committed all the sins of every
sinner who had ever believed so that He could treat believers as if they had lived Christ’s
perfect life.” I am going to repeat that again. Listen. “On the cross God treated
Christ as if He had personally committed all the sins of every sinner who would ever believe
so that He could treat believers as if they had lived Christ’s perfect life.” See that is how God sees me now. In Christ.
Not me and my good works. Me and my accomplishments. No. He sees me in Christ with His righteousness
in my spiritual bank account. Let me illustrate again. I heard the story
of a wealthy successful well-dressed lawyer walking down the street. And there was a homeless
guy begging. And as the lawyer walked by he stopped for a second and turned around and
said, “Excuse me. You look familiar to me. Do we know each other?” The guy said, “Yeah.
Steve. English. Third period. Remember.” “I do remember you Steve.” Wow. He could
see that Steve had fallen on hard times. So the attorney pulled out his checkbook and
wrote a check for $500. He said, “Listen Steve. I want you to have this. You don’t
have to explain to me how you got to the place you are at right now. I want to give you a
fresh start. Let the past be in the past. I hope this helps.” And the lawyer leaves.
And Steve. Tears filled his eyes. It was such a generous gift. And the next day the attorney
is walking down that same street and there is Steve still begging. He says, “Wait.
What happened Steve? Did you drink the money up? Did you? Wait. What happened?” Steve
said, “Well actually I never cashed the check.” The lawyer said, “Why not?”
He said, “Well I went down to that bank and here I am in these tattered clothes and
you know obviously I don’t have any money. And I looked at all of those well-dressed
people and there and I thought that they would take one look at me and think that I forged
this check and they would never give me the money. Maybe even call the police on me. I
just didn’t think it would work. So I never cashed the check that you gave to me.” And
the attorney said, “Steve listen. What makes that check good is not your clothes or your
appearance. What makes that check good is my signature. Now you go and cash it.” In the same way the devil comes to you and
says, “Well you are not worthy to go to God. You are not going to.” Hey that’s
not what gives me access to God. It is based on the signature of Jesus Christ written in
blood over my life when He gave me salvation which means that I can go to God any time. This is what God has done for each of us.
And when I think about the fact that God has forgiven me and I think about the fact that
He has placed the righteousness of Christ in my spiritual bank account it causes me
to have peace with God. Go back to Romans 5 again. “Therefore, having
been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through
whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we are saved, and we rejoice
in the hope of glory of God.” See I don’t have to live in constant fear
of what God thinks about me. I don’t have to do things to earn His approval. I don’t
have to worry about where I am going to spend eternity. This is all covered in Christ. And
that gives me peace. An inner peace that says no matter what happens the big things are
covered. So I don’t have to sweat the small stuff. Oh sure we all have our trials and
our tribulations and our heartaches. But we also know that we are saved and safe in the
Lord’s protective care. And we know that the Lord can take these odds and ends of life
and what seemed to be mistakes or tragedies and bad things and He can bring glory to His
name through them. For He has promised in Romans 8:28 that He can cause all things to
work together for good to those that love Him and are the called according to His purpose.
So I have salvation. You have justification. We all have peace. Let’s look at what else God has given to
us. Go back to Romans 5:1–2 again, “Having been justified by faith, we have peace with
God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith.” I want
you to underline those three words. Access by faith. “Into this grace in which we stand
and rejoice in the hope of glory of God.” Listen. Peace with God takes care of our past.
He will no longer hold our sins against us. But access to God takes care of our future.
(maybe should be present?) We can come to Him anytime for the help that we need. And
the hope of the glory of God takes care of the future knowing I am justified and I have
free access into His presence. There is so much that God has done for me. And if that was it, it would be plenty. But
as they say in those commercials on TV. But wait. There’s more. Oh there is a lot more.
Not only has God justified me. Not only has God forgiven me. God has adopted me into His
family. He has adopted me. Regeneration has to do with a change in nature. Justification
has to do with a change in standing. Adoption has to do with a change in position. A change
in position. When I am adopted into God’s family I become His child as though I were
born into that family. In fact the word adoption used in Scripture means the placing of a son
or a daughter. Ephesians 1:5 says, “His unchanging plan has always been to adopt us
into His own family and bring us to Himself through Christ because this gave Him great
pleasure. Galatians 4:4 says, “When the time was just right, God sent forth His Son,
born of a woman, to redeem those that are under the law, that we might receive the spirit
of adoption whereby we cry, ‘Abba Father.’” Slavery was common in biblical times. You
could go down to the slave market and purchase a man or a woman to work for you. So here
is the picture that is used in the word redeem because that word there redeem in Galatians
4:4 means to buy out of a slave market. So here is what it looks like. Jesus Christ went
down to the slave market. There you were up on the auction block. He paid the price for
you. And then He took you and marched you straight down to the courtroom and adopted
you as His son. So not only did He forgive you and pardon you as a slave and take you
out of that bondage that you were in, but then He placed you in His home as His own
son or his own daughter. Now that is amazing. I can stand in awe of a God who would have
the power and the desire to do something like that for me. But by adopting me God is basically saying
don’t just stand in awe of me. Come close to me. See by adoption He is saying I want
relationship with you. Again, coming back to Galatians 4, we have been bought out of
the slave market and we received the spirit of adoption whereby we cry, “Abba Father.”
You don’t necessarily know what that means. Very tender intimate phrase. When Jesus was
in Gethsemane and He was sweating as it were great drops of blood according to Dr. Luke
as He contemplated the horrors of Calvary Jesus, the Son of the Father, said, “Abba
Father.” It is tenderness. It is closeness. It is intimacy. And here is what the Bible is saying. Not
only can Jesus say that to the Father. You can now too. Remember after He was resurrected
He said to Mary, “I now go to My God and your God, to My Father and your Father.”
It was unthinkable to a Jew living in this time to address God almighty as Father. But
this is what happens through the new covenant. Through the death and resurrection of Jesus
Christ I come to this relationship with God where He has adopted me into His family and
I can cry, “Abba Father.” Now I don’t know what kind of father you
had on earth. I never really had a dad for the most part growing up. As I told you before
my own story my mom was married and divorced seven times. At least. At least that we know
of. And a lot of guys in between there. And you know I got to a point where I got tired
of calling strange men dad. And my mom would say, “Call him daddy.” And I think after
the second one I said, “Nah. I am not going to do that.” See because the men that were
in my life either mistreated me or they indulged me or they ignored me. But there was only
one man in my life growing up that ever treated me as a father ought to treat a son and his
name was Oscar Laurie. And as a matter of fact he adopted me and hence my name. So because
of that, even though he is not my biological father, I think of him as my father to this
day. And he is now in heaven. Along with my mom. And along with my son. But I am glad
he adopted me. But it is even greater to know that I have been adopted by my Father in heaven.
And He has adopted you as well. He has adopted all of us. Three important things you need to know about
being adopted by God. Number one. When you were adopted by God and
you call Him Father you need to know that God understands you. He understands you. Psalm
103:13 says, “As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion
on those who fear Him, for He knows how we are formed. He remembers we are dust.” Parents know their children. Don’t they?
And we look at our kids and we know what’s up. We know when they are doing well. We know
when they are not doing so well. We know when they have done something wrong. They get this
look on their face. We know these things. We understand. And we care. Even when our
children have failed we care for them. We hurt for them. Their pain becomes our pain.
If they are hurting we are hurting. We want the best for them. We look out for their welfare.
We think about them. We pray for them. We lose sleep over them. Don’t we? So we have
compassion on our children. How much more our Father has compassion on
us because we have been adopted. Number two. Because you have been adopted
by God He will take care of you. He will take care of you. Jesus in Matthew 6:32 said, “The
pagans run after all of the things that this world offers, but your Father knows you need
them.” Jesus was talking about nonbelievers who only think about what they are going to
eat, what they are going to drink, and what they are going to wear. Isn’t it funny?
It is 2000 years later and that is still all nonbelievers think about. He says, “You
know what? Your Father knows you have need of those things. Here is what you need to
focus on. Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all of these things
(what you will eat, drink, and wear) will be added to you.” Listen. God will take
care of you. You are His child. Number three. God loves to bless you. Your
Father loves to bless you. Matthew 7:11 Jesus says, “If you then are evil know how to
give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good
gifts to those who ask Him.” Then Jesus said in Luke 12:32, “Fear not little flock,
for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give to you the kingdom.” Listen. Your Father is not stingy. I don’t
know about your earthly father. But your heavenly Father is generous. Your heavenly Father loves
to lavish things on you. Your heavenly Father loves to bless you. Just like maybe you like to bless your own
kids. You know I have recently entered into the mysterious pink aisles in the toy stores.
I had never tried those aisles out before. Nothing there much interested me because they
were all for girls and I was a little mystified by all of these dolls and pink things you
know. Because I had two boys and buying gifts for them was very easy because I still liked
toys. I would just go play with things and this is cool and I would get it for them.
And they generally liked what I liked, which says a lot about me doesn’t it? Kind of
sad. But shopping for a girl is different. Girls like different things. For instance
they seem to really be into being little princesses now don’t they? I didn’t know that before.
And little outfits and dresses and you know scepters and crowns and they want to rule
us even when they are little you see. It is just a foretaste of things to come. But you
know as I began to examine this world and learn more about it with my granddaughters
I kind of like that too. I am having fun with it you know. And I am there with my granddaughter
Stella and we are doing the little outfit changes and the little castles and princess
things and all that. And every down and then I will knock something down like a boy but
then we will put it back up. And you know how it is. But listen. It is my joy. It is
my delight. In fact if anything I have to restrain myself because I don’t want to
spoil them. But the Lord loves to bless us. This is the
great thing. We are justified. We are forgiven. We are adopted. It has all been given to us
by God. What am I supposed to do with all of this?
This great thing called salvation. Should I just put it up on a shelf and look at it
and admire it? People come over. “Hey check this out. This is salvation. Is this not cool?
Look at it from this angle. Look at it from that angle. Is this not amazing.” Yeah.
We can do that. We need to explore it. We need to understand it. We need to appreciate
it. But then you know what? We need to work it out. We need to work out our salvation.
I didn’t say work for your salvation. It is a gift from God to you. But you need to
work it out in your life. Because we are told over in the book of Philippians chapter 2
verses 12–13, “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God that
works in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure.” Work out your own salvation.
You know you have to work it out for yourself. Someone else can’t work it out for you. It is like that one guy who always was worried
and he was just a worrywart. And one day his friend saw him and noticed he didn’t seem
to be worried about anything at all. He said, “You know you don’t seem to be all stressed
out like you normally are.” The guy said, “Well I am not.” His friend said, “Why?”
He says, “Well I don’t worry anymore.” “You don’t worry anymore. How did you
stop worrying?” He says, “I actually took an ad out in the paper and hired someone to
worry for me.” “What? Took an ad out in the paper.” “Yeah I did.” “What did
the ad say?” “Wanted: Someone to worry for me. I will pay you $10,000 a week.”
His friend said, “$10,000 a week. You don’t make that kind of money. How are you going
to pay this guy?” “Hey that is for him to worry about.” You can’t get someone else to worry for
you. And you can’t get someone else to work out for you. Wouldn’t that be nice? I need
to get in better shape. Listen. I want you to go run 20 laps right now. And then go do
some crunches and other stuff that hurts. Tell me how it goes. Well he is going to get
in shape, but you are not going to. You have to do your own working out. That is why these
things you see advertised on TV you know you hook it up, lay there, and it just shakes
you. “Yeah I don’t have to do anything.” It doesn’t work that way. You need to work
it out. And so work out your own salvation. What does
that mean? A better translation of that verse would be, “Carry to the goal and fully complete.”
And the phrase that Paul used there in the original context spoke of working a mine.
A mine. Sort of like you are going into the mine. You are seeing what’s there. You are
discovering it. You are bringing it out. In the same way we are discovering all that
God has for us and we are letting it affect our life. And listen. If you are saved it
will affect you in the way that you live. We look at other people and we say, “Well
are they saved?” Well I don’t know if they are saved or not. And someone will get
angry and say, “Judge not lest you be judged.” I get so tired of nonbelievers quoting that
verse. Is that the only verse non-Christians know. “Judge not lest you be judged.”
They usually say that when we say something to them like, “Well you know you really
shouldn’t be doing that.” “Oh judge not lest you be judged. Doesn’t the Bible
say judge not lest you be judged?” “Yes the Bible says that.” “Well judge not
lest you be judged.” Well actually I am going to judge you. And you are going to judge
me. “No Greg. Judge not lest you be judged.” Let’s understand. The Bible says, “Judgment
begins in the house of God.” The Scripture says, “Are you not worthy to judge even
the smallest matters.” Of course we make judgments. Of course we make evaluations.
The Bible tells us to do these things. When Jesus says, “Judge not lest you be judged”
it could be better translated, “Condemn not lest you be condemned.” I am not in
the position to condemn a person. And by that I mean I am not in the place to say that person
is going to hell. I can’t see their heart. I don’t know what the final result of their
life is going to be. So I leave that in the hands of God. It is not for me to make the
final judgment. But I can make an evaluation. I can make a temporary judgment. Let’s say it a different way. Instead of
judging, which is still valid; let’s just say we are all called to be fruit inspectors.
Ok. Because Jesus said, “By your fruits will you be known.” The only way if I can
tell if you are a Christian is not by what you say. It is by how you life. James says,
“You show me your faith by your works.” Works don’t save a man, but they are a good
evidence that he or she is saved.” If I don’t see any results in your life, fruit
in your life, a change in your life, I have to wonder if you are saved.” So instead of worrying about if other people
are saved, let’s just think about ourselves and do a little personal fruit inspection.
Here from 1 John in closing are six quick litmus tests to apply in our lives asking
ourselves the question, “Am I bringing forth the fruit of salvation or the evidence that
I have really encountered Christ.” Number one. If you are a Christian you should
confess Jesus Christ is Lord. 1 John 4:15. “If anyone confesses that Jesus is the Son
of God, God lives in him, and he in God.” You should confess that Christ is Lord. Have
you done that? You say, “Well people know I am a Christian by the way that I live. I
try to be moral. I try to be compassionate. I try to be caring.” Those things are nice.
But there needs to be a moment where you say, “I believe in Jesus Christ. I confess Him
as my Savior and Lord.” That is one of the reasons we call people forward publicly in
many of our meetings. We don’t believe that walking down an aisle makes them a Christian.
But we believe that if they will confess Christ before men He will confess them before the
Father. And this is a way to openly profess that their faith is genuine. Did you confess
Jesus as Lord? Number two. Do you obey the commands of Christ?
Do you obey the commands of Christ? 1 John 5:3 says, “This is love for God, to obey
His commands and His commands are not burdensome. “ See this is the problem for some. They
say they are a Christian but they disregard what the Bible says. They say they are a Christian
but they don’t obey God’s commands. Jesus said in John 15, “You are My friends if
you do whatsoever I command you.” He didn’t say, “You are My friends if you do whatsoever
you are comfortable with.” Or, “You are My friends if you do whatsoever you personally
agree with.” Or, “You are My friends if you do whatsoever you find easy.” No. “You
are My friends if you do whatsoever I command you.” And that brings us to point number 3. If you
are really a Christian you will love and obey the Word of God. Because 1 John 2:5 says,
“If anyone obeys His Word, God’s love is complete in him, and that is how we know
we are in Him.” How am I going to obey the Word if I don’t read the Word? So first
I have to read God’s Word to know what His commandments are. And then I can live accordingly.
That is why Bible memorization is so important. Remember the psalmist said, “Thy Word have
I hid in my heart that I might not sin against You.” Psalm 119:11. When you hide the Word
of God in your heart. When you commit to memory is there to draw upon in times of temptation
and trial. I think of Bible verses that I memorized as a teenager that I still remember
today. And that was ten years ago. Seriously. I am 57. I memorized Bible verses 40 years
ago as a 17 year old kid that I still remember today and I still draw upon today. What a
great thing for all of us especially you that are young with such active minds to fill them
with the Word of God. And these Scriptures will be there for your lifetime. Number four. If you are really a Christian
you will be unhappy or miserable when you are sinning. You will be unhappy or miserable
when you are sinning. 1 John 3:9 says, “Everyone who has been born of God does not continue
to sin. Because God’s seed remains in him, he is not able to habitually sin because He
has been born of God.” The Bible does not teach that if you are a Christian you will
be sinless. But it does teach that if you are a real follower of Jesus you will sin
less. And less. And less. With the passing of time. See we are all going to sin. The
Bible even says, “If we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not
in us.” But we shouldn’t use that as an excuse for godless behavior. The fact of the
matter is the true believer should be unhappy when they are sinning. If you can go and do
something God has told you not to do without any discomfort, without any conviction in
your heart, I suggest to you you may not be a child of God. At the very least you are
a very disobedient child of God that is going in the wrong direction. And we are going to
talk about that in our next message when we talk about backsliding. Because can we lose
our salvation once we have it? Can it be lost? If so, how? And what does it mean to backslide.
And once you have backslidden can you come back to Christ again? Those are important
questions. I have no idea what the answers are, but they are good questions. No. I have
a few ideas. We will talk about them next time. But my point is you should be uncomfortable
when you are living in sin. And if you are comfortable there, something is not right. Also we are told that if we are really saved
we will keep ourselves from the devil. Keep ourselves from the devil. 1 John 5:18, “Whoever
is born of God does not habitually sin, and he that has been born of God keeps himself
and the wicked one does not touch him. Now when John wrote that when the child of God
keeps himself he wasn’t suggesting that Christians keep themselves saved. Because
that is the work of the Holy Spirit who has sealed us. The Scripture clearly teaches that
it is God that keeps us. 1 Peter 1:5 says, “We are kept by the power of God through
faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” We are kept by God. However
the Bible also teaches we should keep ourselves in the love of God according to Jude. We don’t
keep ourselves saved but we do keep ourselves safe. There is a difference. God saves me.
God keeps me saved. But I keep myself safe you see. When Jesus said in the Lord’s Prayer,
“Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Your name, Your kingdom come, Your will
be done on earth as it is in heaven.” And then He went on to say, “Deliver us from
evil.” He is saying, “Pray Lord keep me from the evil one.” Another way of saying
that is, “Lord help me to have the good sense to stay away from situations where I
know I could fall. Help me to be careful Lord. There is Your part. You are keeping me. But
help me to keep myself as close to You as I possibly can.” Coming back to that phrase we read in Philippians,
“Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.” Or another way to translate
it. “Carry it to the goal and fully complete.” But then it goes on to say, “For it is God
that works in you both to will and do of His good pleasure.” Listen. There is God’s
part and there is Greg’s part. There is God’s part and there is your part. God does
the saving but you need to stay as close to Him as you possibly can. And number six and lastly. If you are really
saved you will love other Christians. You will love other Christians. 1 John 5:1, “Everyone
who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone that loves the Father
loves His child as well.” Do you love Christians? Do you love to be around Christians? You see
I find that relationships affect me. And there are some people when I am around them I just
come closer to God. I had a conversation with a friend of mine
the other day. Last night. And after I was done talking with him for 10 minutes I felt
like I was closer to God. Because this man represented Christ very well in what he said
to me. And then there are other people when I am
around well how do I put it? They are just kind of a drag. They kind of pull me away.
There might be a relationship with a person that when you are with that person it is not
like they are hostile to your beliefs but there is something about what they say and
what they do that makes the world a little more attractive. That makes your faith a little
less important and it begins to diminish your commitment. Spend most of your time with Christians.
Now I am not saying you should isolate yourself from the world and never have a conversation
that does not know the Lord. We want to influence people. We want to affect people. We want
to call others to Christ. But yet we want to be careful to not be drug down either.
We are told over in 2 Peter 2:22, (Should be 2 Timothy 2:22). “Run from anything that
stimulates youthful lust. Follow anything that makes you want to do what is right. Pursue
faith and love and peace and enjoy the companionship of those that call on the Lord out of a pure
heart.” Listen. I am going to be straight with you.
I know there are weird people in church. There are. Come on. Let’s be truthful. You know
why? The church is a place that says to anyone you can believe and become a part of the family
of God. You know when I was in school I hung around cool people. You know why? Because
I thought I was cool too. And I only wanted to be around people that I liked that I related
to that were like me. And then I became a Christian and all of a sudden here are all
of these strange people. And I am related to them now. But guess what? They looked at
me and said I was a strange person they were related to. One day it dawned on me I wasn’t
as cool as I thought I was and we all were those strange people that were welcomed into
God’s family. We need to love one another. And you know
what? God will use people that are different than you to bring you closer to Him. And they
will build you up and you will build them up. And there is something wonderful when
we gather together for fellowship. And I amazed when I travel around and go to
a different part of the world and I meet someone I have never met before and we begin to talk
about the things of the Lord and there is that immediate fellowship and connection.
It is like we have known each other for our whole lives. I think, “Only the Lord could
do this.” That special bond. Spend time with God’s people. If you are saved you
will want to do this. If you are looking for excuses to get out of fellowship, if you always
have something you come up with. “Well I can’t go to church today. There was one
drop of rain in L.A. I think. I am not sure where. It might not be good.” Or “Oh I
can’t today. I have a little sniffle.” Or, “Oh I can’t today. Really I went last
week. Month. What was it? I can’t remember now.” You know you are making up excuses.
What is wrong with you? You should be looking for opportunities to go and be with God’s
people more. Not less. If you are saved you will do that you see. Salvation. No wonder the Bible calls it so
great a salvation. No wonder the Bible asks the question, “How can we escape if we neglect
so great a salvation.” In this salvation God forgives me of all of my sin. He places
the righteousness of Christ in my account. He adopts me into his family. He gives me
peace. He saved me. He is saving me. He will yet save me. Why would anyone say no to that? And yet here it is offered to us as a gift.
And to reject it is so incredibly stupid. Here it is. God says, “Salvation. I bought
it for you. I purchased it for you. I will give it to you. Will you take it?” What is holding you back from receiving this
salvation? “Well you know the forgiveness of all of my sin and the assurance that I
will go to heaven one day. These are good things no doubt. But you know I still want
to kind of do this other thing.” Really. Is that other thing really so important? Is
it really so fulfilling? Are you sure about that? Or would you stop and look at this for
a moment and say, “This is the ultimate deal of the century. Of all time. The opportunity.” How do you receive salvation? “Well live
a good life and your good deeds outweigh your bad deeds you will.” Where did you get that?
It is not in the Bible. It is not true. You see the only way you are going to be saved
and forgiven is by taking hold of what God has already done for you because Jesus died
on the cross. He paid the price for your sin. He rose again from the dead. And He stands
at the door of your life and He knocks. And if you will hear His voice and open the door
you can be saved. It can be yours now. Not a month from now. Not a year from now. Now.
You can leave here knowing you are saved. And I want to close by giving you that opportunity
as we invite you to Christ in this closing moment of prayer. Let’s pray. Father thank
You for the promise of salvation. Thank You for all that it is and all that it does. All
that You have given to us who have believed in You. Now help those Lord that do not have
salvation yet to receive it. To receive it as a gift from You Lord we pray.
