SALVATION THREE WONDERFUL BLESSINGS

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1 From the Book Salvation Why Jesus Came Salvation from A to Z Copyright 2013 by Bob Marcaurelle Available Online Mail 2003 Lynn Ave, Anderson, SC These messages were prepared in the midst of a busy pastorate and are in need of more editing and corrections Week 1 SALVATION THREE WONDERFUL BLESSINGS Call his name, Jesus (The Lord saves), because He will save His people from their sins. -Matt. 1:21 Save yourselves from this crooked generation. Acts 2:40 THE MEANING The Bible uses the term save for those who give Jesus their sins to forgive (faith) and their lives to change and control (repentance). Nothing is more important to God than our salvation. It is His desire. Peter says He does not wish for any to perish, but for everyone to come to repentance. (2 Pet. 3:9) He named his Son Jesus, the Lord saves. Jesus came to seek and save that which is lost the lost (Lk. 19:10). He gave us the Bible to give us wisdom for salvation. (2 Tim. 3:15). Most of all Jesus went to the cross so we can have salvation. The OT says without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins (Heb. 9:22 / Lev. 5 ). We can only imagine the horror Jesus felt when as a boy or young man He read this and knew it was his destiny. The important thing is He accepted it. The night before He died He said in the memorial supper, This is my blood of the new covenant shed for many for the forgiveness of sins. (Mt. 26:28) Max Lucado says Jesus looked at the cross and saw hell but He went there anyway because He did not want to go to heaven without us. The term salvation means to deliver; rescue, release, set free etc. When the Israelites were set free from the Egyptians at the Red Sea they sang of God s salvation (Ex.15). When Peter was drowning he cried out to Jesus, Lord save me. (Mt. 14:30). We use the term to this day saying such things as a fireman who saves someone from a burning building. There are over 90 different descriptions of salvation and they all come under three headings. We are forgiven delivered from the penalty of wrongdoing. We are changed - delivered from the controlling power of wrongdoing. We are allowed into heaven where we will be delivered from the very presence of sin. Sadly, salvation is not important to the world. The term itself is mocked. It is nonsense to them (1 Cor. 2:14). They do not understand it because they don t want to understand. Unbelief is more moral than mental. People don t like the idea of a judgment waiting beyond the grave. Sadly they are betting their souls that they are right. Deep inside them is the gnawing fear that they are wrong. When Paul stood before a pagan ruler we read:

2 (Paul) said there will be a resurrection of the righteous and the wicked / As he preached on righteousness, self control and the Judgment to come, Felix trembled with fear. and said, That is enough for now. -Acts 24:25 A TV child actress had improper relations with her father for years. One day, in her twenties she walked in and said, Daddyyou and I are going to hell for what we have been doing. Then she put a stop to it. THE THREE STAGES Salvation comes in three stages - a past completed act; a present process and a future completion. Eph. 2:8 By grace you have been saved. 1 Cor. 1:18 To those of us who are being saved, Christ is the wisdom of God and the power of God. ( 1 Thessl. 4: 3 / 5:23 This is the will of God, your sanctification; that you may avoid sexual immorality / May God Himself, the God of peace sanctify you through and through. 1 Cor. 1:2 To the Church of God in Corinth sanctified- holy in Christ Jesus and called to be sanctified holy Rom. 13:11 Our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. Christians have been saved. Somewhere in their past is the moment when they were instantly and eternally forgiven. This is justification- made righteous. At that same moment they were instantly and eternally changed on the inside in the new birth. This is regeneration. You never find anyone in the Bible who is justified or born again twice. It is a once for all, never to be repeated act of God. We can also say we are being saved when in Christian growth we are slowly being delivered from individual sinful habits and attitudes like profanity, worry, prejudice, greed, etc.. This new life, called sanctification (holy, being made saints, etc.). is comparable to our baptism when we enter the family of God. Sanctification is comparable to foot washing; where we daily wash off the world s dirt. The terms sanctification holiness saints holy mean something or someone God sets apart as His own. It is used in two different ways. It is used of justification where God calls us His own even though we still have unholy lives. This is positional sanctification. It is also used in the progressive sense of being made more truly holy in Christian growth. The Corinthian church was filled with sinful people, some of whom were not truly saved (2 Cor. 13:5). Yet Paul addressed them as people who are sanctified- made holy in Christ / called to be holy Christians will be saved completely in heaven. There will be no sin in us because we will be made like Jesus (1 Jn. 3:2) and no sin around us because Revelation 21:27 says nothing unclean will enter there. Since God lives in glory this is called glorification. A Christian lady said an unkind thing and when she apologized, the person said, All you Christians are hypocrites. The Christian lady answered, I know I do

3 things that are wrong but the fact that I hate them, try to overcome them and do things like apologize and ask for your forgiveness shows I am not a hypocrite pretending to be what I m not. I am a weak child of God. But there are three things I know about me: I m not what I ought to be I m not what I used to be but thank God- I m also not what I am going to be THREE DELIVERANCES Forgiveness When Jesus first comes to us He does not talk about the good books we have read but about the bad books; not about the people we have helped but the people we have hurt or refused to help. We realize that God takes wrongdoing seriously. He is not like Hugh Hefner who tells us party on or like grandparents who pat us on the head as say, That s alright. First Century Corinth was known as sin city but it was there that many were set free from their twisted generation. Paul wrote them in 1 Corinthians 6:11, The wicked will not inherit the kingdom of heaven- the immoral, / the idol worshippers / the adulterers / the homosexuals / the thieves / the drunkards / the slanderers. And some of you were like that! But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified, in the name of the Lord. The great term justification (Rom. 3:21-27, etc.) means God, the moral ruler of the universe, looks at us as innocent of all charges, as though we never did wrong. Hebrews 10:17 says of our sins that God remembers them no more. Psalm 103:12 says He separates them from us as far as the east is from the west. Adrian Rogers says he is glad God didn t say as far as the north is from the south because there is a north pole and a south pole but no east pole and west pole. In other words the distance can t be measured. Paul s list of sins shows God s forgiveness is for anyone no matter what they have done Judas did not go to hell for betraying Jesus. He went there because he went to the wrong tree. Instead of going out and hanging himself he should have gone to the foot of the cross and asked the Lord to forgive him. We still do wrong at times and will need forgiveness. That is why Jesus tells us in the Lord s Prayer to pray Our Father and later to pray, Forgive us for our trespasses. Initial forgiveness establishes our new relationship with God. A Christians forgiveness restores our fellowship with the Father. After committing adultery and murder (2 Sam. 11) David did not pray for his salvation to be restored, but for the joy to be restored (Ps. 51). W. T. Conner says we can be disobedient children but can never be condemned rebels again. New Birth God never forgives a person He does not change. Before He gets us into heaven He gets heaven into us. Before He gets us out of hell He gets hell out of us. Matthew Henry says if God let an unchanged person into heaven he would pick the angel s pockets. Spurgeon says for God to forgive us and leave us in our sins would be like healing a leper and leaving him in his leprosy.

4 At conversion the Holy Spirit changes us on the inside and we are delivered from the controlling power of sin. (Jn. 3) We are no longer slaves to sin (Romans 6). This It is called regeneration-being birthed again (Titus 3:6); being born again (Jn. 3); dying to sin as a way of life (Rom. 6); etc. God says: A new heart I will give you, causing you to know me / to return to me / to fear me / to walk in and obey my statutes. (Jer.24:7 / 32:38/ Ezek. 36:26-27). God causing us to walk in His ways is not external coercion. It is internal. It is like Him telling us we have to love our children and grandchildren to make it to heaven. It is our nature to love them. The two primary inner changes are that we hate our wrongdoing and have the desire to live right. This means we obey God which Jesus calls this living a life of love. 1 John 3:10 says, Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God and neither is anyone who does not love his brother. This doesn t mean we never do wrong. Sins intrude but they do not rule. Anyone who claims to have no sins John says is a liar (1 Jn. 1:7-10). We commit sins but like David in Psalm 32 we experience the hell of internal guilt. David said his strength was dried up and he groaned night and day. A Christian can get up during the night, stump his toe and take God s name in vain. But before he gets back in bed he will ask God to forgive him and help him to be set free from cursing. Billy Graham says a cat that falls in the mud, jumps out and cleans itself for hours because that is the nature of a cat. A hog, however, wallows in it because that is the nature of a hog. Heaven At death we are delivered from the defiling presence of sin. There will be no sin around us. Rev. 21:27 says nothing impure will enter there. The great preacher E. V. Hill said, Don t go to hell; you won t like your neighbors. There will be no sin inside us. First John 3:2, says we will be like Him (Jesus) and Jesus was sinless. (Heb. 4:14-16) We are set free from suffering. Rev. 21:4 says God, will wipe every tear from our eyes. There will be no more death or pain. This is not pie in the sky as our critics claim. It is the only thing that makes this trail of tears we call life make any sense. We are set free from separation. We are in a joyful assembly (Heb. 12). There will be reunion, recognition and reconciliation with our loved ones. We will know each other. People in heaven are called by their names - Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Peter and John recognized Elijah and Moses on the Mount of Transfiguration (Matt. 17:1-3). We are all different and identifiable. If we do not know each other all history is meaningless. This earthly life will be a forgotten, tragic waste. We are set free for service. Revelation 7:13 says We will serve Him day and night in His temple. Michelangelo said, I am happiest with a chisel in my hands. To do nothing forever would be hell to most of us. We will work without

5 weariness, boredom, frustration, failure, competition, pride and envy. My mother and I never got along. It was partly her fault, and partly mine. One of the great blessings of heaven will be to get to know her as a fellow human being, who bravely struggled against life s challenges just like you and me. I believe she and I will be the best of friends. Things like pride, anger, jealousy, resentment and cruelty will be gone and love, understanding and caring with reign supreme.