{"id":19096,"date":"2016-02-03T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-02-03T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sugar-land-bible-church.local\/sermon\/soteriology-005\/"},"modified":"2016-02-03T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2016-02-03T06:00:00","slug":"soteriology-005","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/soteriology-005\/","title":{"rendered":"Soteriology 005"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","book":[89],"series_event":[459],"sermon_service_type":[473],"speaker":[6],"class_list":["post-19096","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","hentry","book-acts","series_event-soteriology","sermon_service_type-sunday-school","speaker-dr-andy-woods","no-post-thumbnail"],"acf":{"sermon_title":"Soteriology 005","sermon_date":"20160203","sermon_month":"2","sermon_year":"2016","sermon_notes":5063,"sermon_slides":3367,"sermon_mp3":3370,"sermon_id":"23161956418","series_or_event":459,"service_type":[473],"speaker":6,"books_of_the_bible":89,"chapter_and_verse":"16:30-31","sermon_transcript":"Andy Woods\nSoteriology 05, Acts 16:30-31\nFebruary 3, 2016\n\nGood evening everybody. We have notes for tonight, does anybody need a copy of the notes? We are in the midst of a series of studies on the doctrine of salvation. And tonight we\u2019re going to start a section that I think\u2019s very important, the section that we\u2019re doing here is God\u2019s one condition of salvation. I have a picture of Lewis Sperry Chafer there, the founder of Dallas Seminary, one of my theological heroes, and that\u2019s what he entitled this section, God\u2019s one condition of salvation.\n\nSo you see the other things we\u2019ve covered so far; last week we talked about salvation words. And now we\u2019re in Roman numeral V on our outline, God\u2019s one condition of salvation. Here\u2019s kind of a lesson overview that we\u2019re going to go through tonight. We are going to look at some miscon-ceptions regarding how to share the gospel. There\u2019s a lot of bad verbiage out there. And then I\u2019ll show you what the Bible teaches very clearly, it says it almost 200 times.\n\nAnd then we\u2019ll take a look at why God has set salvation up in this way, why has God conditioned salvation on faith alone. And then we\u2019ll talk very briefly about what does it mean to believe in Christ. I\u2019ll give you some synonyms for the word believe. And then we\u2019re going to look at what saving faith is not. And then I\u2019ll show you what you have to believe in, exactly, to be saved. And then I won\u2019t just leave you with a bunch of theory, I\u2019m going to give you an evangelistic model that mirrors or replicas the theology that we\u2019re talking about in this lecture. And then on the last part of that outline I\u2019ll sort of hint at what we\u2019re going to be talking about next time, because we\u2019re going to have some questions as I present the material. You\u2019re going to say well, that\u2019s not right because of this passage over here or that passage over there. And I\u2019ll tell you, do not fear, I will be covering those passages in detail, just not tonight.\n\nOne of the things I do when I teach soteriology, the doctrine of salvation, at the College of Biblical Studies, in a classroom of maybe twenty people, is I say okay, pretend somebody is in the back of your car and they\u2019re dying of a heart attack, and you\u2019re rushing them to the hospital. You don\u2019t have the opportunity to teach the whole Man, Sin, Salvation class to them, they are going to die at any moment. And you\u2019re really not sure if the person that\u2019s in the back of your car dying of a heart attack, being rushed to the emergency room, is a Christian. And I say some of you may be in this circumstance someday so you need to think about this. How would you lead that person to Christ? What would you tell this lost person to do?\n\nAnd what I do is I spend almost half an hour on this; students will raise their hand and offer up suggestions and I\u2019ll write it on the board and I\u2019ll have a long list of things that people come up with. And I basically do that to show them that all the answers that they\u2019ve given, me except for one, are incorrect. And you\u2019ll find in the evangelical world today there\u2019s a lot of misunderstanding what is necessary to be saved.\n\nIf you get the opportunity to share the gospel with someone what exactly do you focus on in terms of what they need to do to be saved? There is something floating around out there, these are poor word choices by the say, called the ABC method, and that method advocates three steps: the A stands for admit you\u2019re a sinner, the B stands for believe in Jesus, and the C stands for confess. You hear that from a lot from people. Other very poor word choices that are out there are confess Christ, deny yourself, yield to Christ, surrender to Christ, sorrow, you\u2019ve got to shed a few tears, people need to cry a little bit, make Jesus Lord of your life, ask Jesus into your heart, forsake all and follow Christ, receive Christ, accept Christ, invite Christ into your heart. And these are just buzzwords that we toss around but as we start studying this today you\u2019ll see that these buzzwords have almost no, let me rephrase that, they have no support in the Scripture.\n\nSo before I get to the right answer, why do we think this way? Well, we think this way largely because of the influence of Charles Finney. Charles Finney is the man who is credited with leading the Second Great Awakening in America. And Charles Finney is what was called a revivalist. And Charles Finney did a lot of good but he brought in some baggage, I think, to the way we do evangelism. He says you do whatever you have to do to induce people to convert. So if that means you use guilt, then you use guilt. That means if you want to darken the lights then you darken the lights. If you want to use dry ice, I don\u2019t know what special effect you want to use, you use that, but you induce conversions through human means. And that\u2019s basically what Charles Finney taught. He had a huge impact in America because of the Second Great Awakening.\n\nSo in the 20th century and the 21st century we find ourselves today using all of these word choices, that really aren\u2019t found in the Bible at all, in terms of leading people to Christ. And the reason we use things is we\u2019ve heard other people use them and the reason other people use them is they\u2019ve heard others use them, and the reason they themselves use them is we\u2019re all living in the wake of Charles Finney.\n\nSo what I\u2019m trying to do and what Dr. Chafer is so good at with this one condition of salvation is he\u2019s getting us back to the biblical text, because the Bible actually answers this question. What does the Bible say? What is necessary for an unsaved person to do in order to enter into a relationship with God?\n\nThose are the wrong answers, the correct answer is you focus on the word \u201cbelieve.\u201d There are, as I\u2019ll show you, close to 200 passages,(not a small number, right) that teach that justification before God is conditioned on faith by itself, faith along. And this is what the Protestant Reformers called Sola Fide. The whole Protestant Reformation really was fought over this issue and a few other issues. \u201cSola\u201d means alone, it\u2019s a Latin word, Fide means faith, faith alone.\n\nAnd the Bible from cover to cover teaches this, it\u2019s very clear when you actually start studying the text instead of listening to all the evangelical babble out there, that salvation is conditioned on faith alone. Now let me give you some very well-known passages. Probably one of the most well-known is Genesis 15:6, I have it there at the top of the screen, this is how Abraham, whose name at that time was Abram, entered into a saving relationship with God. Paul, of course, quotes this in Romans 4 and many other places. But it says, \u201cThen he\u201d that\u2019s Abram, \u201cbelieved in the LORD; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness.\u201d\n\nSo when you look at that verse you ask yourself well, what did Abram do, what was the one condition that he had to meet, and it\u2019s very clear\u2014he did one thing, \u201cbelieved in\u201d the object of faith that was revealed to him at that point in time. So faith is God\u2019s one condition of salvation.\n\nNow the Gospel of John says this 99 times, I hope you know that by now, we spent three years in John at this church, hopefully we at least learned this, that 99 times John\u2019s Gospel holds out the word \u201cbelieve\u201d as the one thing the lost sinner must to do enter into a relationship with God.\n\nJohn\u2019s Gospel is very significant because John\u2019s Gospel is the only gospel\u2026 let me rephrase that, it\u2019s the only book in the New Testament written to unbelievers. We know that from John 20:30-31, which says these things are written that Jesus, through these various signs that Christ is the Son of God, I\u2019ll show you the verse a little later, and that by believing you may have life in His name. That\u2019s John\u2019s purpose statement. So when John uses that terminology it\u2019s very clear that he\u2019s writing, primarily, to people who don\u2019t know Christ; he is writing to people who have not received the gift of life and he\u2019s weaving his material together to teach them how to be saved.\n\nIt\u2019s different than Romans, obviously great salvation truths are found in Romans but Romans was written to the church at Rome, a believing church. It\u2019s different than Corinthians, Corinthians was written to the church at Corinth, they\u2019re called saints. And as you go through the New Testament you\u2019ll see that every book, as far as I can tell, is written to believers, John\u2019s Gospel being the exception, it\u2019s written to unbelievers. So that\u2019s why we really need to start taking our evangelistic ques from John. And John, 99 times, holds out faith by itself as the one condition that the lost sinner must satisfy.\n\nYou all know John 3:16, right, and as I read some of these verses ask yourself what\u2019s the one condition for the lost person. \u201cFor God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever\u2026\u201d what? \u201cbelieves in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.\u201d There\u2019s one condition there for the lost sinner, which is to believe.\n\nJohn 5:24, \u201cTruly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and \u2026 has passed out of death into life.\u201d What causes a person to receive eternal life? What moves a person from spiritual death to spiritual life? You\u2019ll notice again it\u2019s one verb, one condition, which is to believe.\n\nIf you\u2019ve got your Bible with you let\u2019s look at a few more; take a look at John 6:28-29, \u201c Therefore they said to Him, \u2018What shall we do, so that we may work the works of God?\u201d That\u2019s what lost people always want to know, what do we have to do. And Jesus, in verse 29 \u201canswered and said to them, \u2018This is the work of God, that you\u201d what? \u201cbelieve in Him whom He has sent.\u201d End of story! One verb again, to believe.\n\nNotice, and we\u2019re not going to go through all 99 verses but I just want to give you a flavor of this biblical reality. Notice John 6:47, Jesus says, \u201cTruly, truly, I say to you, he who believes,\u201d one condition, one verb for the lost sinner, \u201cbelieves has eternal life.\u201d It\u2019s pretty simple.\n\nNotice John 16:8-9, which is a description of what the Holy Spirit is doing in the world right now. Do you know the Holy Spirit is active in the world doing something in the hearts of unbelievers? He\u2019s not trying to fix them of drug addiction, He\u2019s not trying to stop them from using swear words, He\u2019s snot trying to stop them from gambling or looking at pornography, or spousal abuse. What He is doing\u2026 now does he do that with the believer? Of course He does, that\u2019s called progressive sanctification, I\u2019m talking about with the unbeliever. He\u2019s not interested in that, He\u2019s not interested in morally reforming an unbeliever. What He\u2019s interested in is convicting the unbeliever to the point where they will exercise their volition to believe in Christ. John 16 has a wonderful verse on that, I wish we had time to go into these verses in detail. We did in our John series, by the way, that you can find on our website.\n\nBut it says there in John 16:8, \u201cAnd He, when He comes,\u201d that\u2019s the Holy Spirit, Jesus in the Upper Room speaking, He \u201cwill convict the world concerning sin, righteousness, and judgment.\u201d And then it goes on and it defines what sin, righteousness and judgment are. [9] \u201cconcerning sin,\u201d now does it says \u201csins\u201d? No it doesn\u2019t it says \u201csin,\u201d hamartia is a singular noun, \u201cconcerning sin because they do not believe in Me,\u201d [10] \u201cand concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father;\u201d verse 11, \u201c and concern judgment because the ruler of this world has been judged.\u201d\n\nWhat is the Holy Spirit trying to convince (that\u2019s what convict means) convince the unsaved world of? \u201cto believe\u201d in Jesus. And once they believe in Jesus they will experience, positionally, the righteousness of God, and they won\u2019t be judged with Satan, who\u2019s the prince of this world that\u2019s going down.\n\nOther than that the Holy Spirit is not trying to do anything in an unbeliever, other than to convict them to the point where they trust in Christ. So if you are being used by the Holy Spirit to evangelize and you start talking about a bunch of other stuff you\u2019re lingo is not consistent with the agenda of the Holy Spirit. We need to cooperate with what the Holy Spirit is already doing in their hearts, which is to get them to believe so when you evangelize, as I\u2019ll show you in just a minute, we focus on that word \u201cbelieve.\u201d\n\nOf course, the purpose statement of John\u2019s Gospel is very clear on this, John 20:30-31, it explains why John wrote this whole book. \u201cTherefore many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; [31] but these have been written so that you may\u201d what? \u201cbelieve that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that by believing you may have life in His name.\u201d\n\nSo one of the things you\u2019ll run into is you\u2019ll run into honest seekers and they\u2019ll say this: you know, I\u2019m interested in investigating the claims of Christianity, I\u2019ve never read the Bible before, what book of the Bible do you recommend I start with? Now where are you going to send them? Numbers? Leviticus? You send them to John because John is tailor-made for the unbeliever. It\u2019s a record of Christ\u2019s signs, about seven of them are recorded, which reveals Christ\u2019s identity as THE Christ. By the way, \u201cChrist\u201d is not Jesus\u2019 last name; we don\u2019t refer to Him as Mr. Christ. \u201cChrist\u201d means the anointed one, the Messiah, the Meshach in Hebrew.\n\nSo these signs reveal that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and he\u2019s not just giving us a theology lesson, he wants the unbeliever to respond to the message of Christ\u2019s teaching, by believing in Christ. So once again you see the focus just on this word \u201cbelieve.\u201d\n\nLeaving John for just a moment, Acts 16:30-31, I have it there at the bottom of the screen, this is the Philippian jailor, he\u2019s speaking to Paul and Silas, \u201cSirs, what must I do to be saved?\u201d Don\u2019t you wish your evangelistic opportunities were that easy, I mean, he just asked the question which is life\u2019s most important question, by the way, because how you answer it depends on where you spend eternity, \u201cSirs, what must I do to be saved? They said,\u201d that would be Paul and Silas, \u201cBelieve in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved.\u201d So once again when evangelistic opportunities are recorded in the book of Acts, just like John\u2019s Gospel, the focus is always on \u201cbelieve.\u201d\n\nTake a look very quickly at Romans 1:16, Paul says, \u201cFor I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who\u201d what? \u201cbelieves, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.\u201d Notice Ephesians 2:8-9, this is another one of those verses that we commit to memory very early in our walk with Christ, Ephesians 2:8-9,\u201cFor by grace you have been saved through\u201d what? \u201cfaith\u201d one verb, \u201cthrough faith;\u201d and then it goes on, \u201cand that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; [8] not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.\u201d\n\nAnd you might be familiar with the book of Hebrews, chapter 11, verse 6, which says, \u201cAnd without faith it is\u201d what, it doesn\u2019t even say difficult, \u201cAnd without faith it is impossible to please Him,\u201d [for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him]. So faith in the object of faith, which I\u2019ll talk about in just a moment, is the only condition that must be satisfied by the lost sinner.\n\nNow how frequently does the Bible say this? Lewis Sperry Chafer writes \u201c\u2026because upwards of 150\u201d now I think his number is very conservative there, I think it\u2019s more, closer to 200, \u201cbecause upwards of 150 passages of Scripture condition salvation upon believing only.\u201d [Lewis Sperry Chafer, vol. 7, Systematic Theology, (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications, 1993), 265-66.]\n\nAnd what we have done, because of the influence of Finney, in our evangelistic methods and tracts, we want to put aside the 150-200 passages and we want to find the one remote obscure passage and build evangelism around that. And that\u2019s kind of a silly way of doing things, if we want to be biblical.\n\nSo that basically is what I mean by \u201cbelieve,\u201d or \u201cfaith,\u201d God\u2019s one condition of salvation. Now you have to start to try to think the way God thinks, and you have to ask yourself: why has God done it this way? Why has He conditioned salvation on this one verb? Why has He designed it in such a way that the lost sinner can only come into a relationship with Him through faith by itself? And I think there are at least five reasons why God has orchestrated the plan of salvation this way.\n\nSo here they are: Faith is non-meritorious. Now what do I mean by meritorious? Meritorious means I can merit something from God through a work. Now if we know anything about God at all we know that He is not interested in our good works by which we curry His favor, or try to curry His favor. God has no interest in that. In fact, Isaiah 64:6 refers to our good works as what? Filthy rags. [Isaiah 6:4, \u201cFor all of us have become like one who is unclean, And all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment; And all of us wither like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.\u201d]\n\nSo any work that\u2019s inserted into evangelism, other than to believe, is to God a \u201cfilthy rag.\u201d Faith, on the other hand, is the one thing a person can do (which is not a good work) in the eyes of God. And I get this from Romans 4:4-5, look at this, it says, \u201cNow to the one who works, his wage is not credited as a favor, but as what is due.\u201d So if you log in two weeks on your job and you get a pay check for it, you don\u2019t say to your boss, thank you for the gift because you put in sweat to get that paycheck, right? So \u201cNow to the one who works, his wage is not credited as a favor, but as what is due. [5] But to the one who does not work, but\u201d what? \u201cbelieves in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness\u201d In other words, what Romans 4:4-5 is saying is in the mind of God the only thing a lost sinner can do which is not a work, non-meritorious, is to believe. That\u2019s the only thing that God will accept.\n\nSo reason number 1, faith by itself is non-meritorious. Reason number 2 is faith gives us grace and not works. Notice Romans 11:6, Paul says, \u201cBut if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace is no longer grace.\u201d So what is grace? Grace is unmerited favor, and the only thing that gives us that grace is faith alone in Christ alone, and if we teach some other message then it\u2019s no longer grace, because grace is unmerited favor, and if I insert anything into the equation other than faith as far as what we must do, then I\u2019ve just unintentionally created a merit system. And if I\u2019ve created a merit system grace (unmerited favor) is no longer grace.\n\nSo number 2, faith is by grace and not by works.\n\nNumber 3, why has God set up salvation in such a way that the only thing He will accept is faith. Number 3, faith alone maintains God\u2019s glory. In the book of Isaiah, chapter 42 and verse 8 you\u2019ll see a very strong statement there concerning the zeal of God for His own glory. Isaiah 42:8, God says, \u201cI am the LORD, that is My name; I will not give My glory to another, Nor My praise to graven images.\u201d\n\nGod certainly shares a lot of things with us but one thing He\u2019s not going to share and that\u2019s His glory. That\u2019s what Isaiah 42:8 says. Now think about this for a minute. If my salvation is based on what I do, then who gets part of the credit? I do! Look at what I did, look at what I accomplished, look at what I achieved. See, you can teach the gospel 99% accurately but insert one single word in it, you\u2019ve just created a merit system which is no longer grace and it gives man part of the bragging rights.\n\nAnd this is why the gospel is always challenged by people, because they want to do something to earn favor from God. Lost man always thinks that way because of pride. If I can insert myself some way, some form or substance, then I get part of the glory. But you see, God has set up the whole thing in such a way that man gets no glory because the only thing that\u2019s non-meritorious is faith. That\u2019s the only thing God will accept.\n\nAnd there\u2019s a fourth reason God has set it up this way; I just made reference to it, faith eliminates boasting. Take a look, if you could, at Romans 3:27 just for a moment, the book of Romans, chapter 3, verse 27, one of the things we learn is that when we all get to heaven no one is going to be bragging, no one is going to be singing Frank Sinatra\u2019s I Did it My Way kind of thing. And God has designed it this way, Romans 3:27, \u201cWhere then is boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? Of works? No, but by a law of faith.\u201d\n\nSo God has set up salvation in such a way that all of the glory goes to Him; man gets none of the credit. Man has no bragging rights and this is why God won\u2019t accept anything other than faith alone.\n\nEphesians 2:8-9 passage that we read just a moment ago, \u201cFor by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; [9] not as a result of works,\u201d look at that last clause, \u201cso that no one may\u201d what \u201cboast\u201d or brag. Why has God set up salvation this way? Because it eliminates boasting.\n\nAnd then the fifth reason that God has set up salvation by faith alone is God is interested in maintaining the offense of the gospel. God has designed the gospel in such a way that it is an offense to sinful men. God wants it to be an offense. The reason it\u2019s an offense is because the lost sinner, who always wants to (because of pride) contribute to his salvation, learns that he can contribute nothing. And that\u2019s a blow to the ego; that\u2019s a blow to pride. And God has designed salvation in such a way so as to wound, He\u2019s intentionally wounding the pride of lost humanity.\n\nThis is what Paul is teaching in Galatians 5:11, now remember the Galatians were mixing works, circumcision, with faith and Paul confronts them, and Paul says, \u201cBut I, brethren, if I sill preach circumcision, why am I still persecuted? Then the stumbling block\u201d that\u2019s the translation of offense, \u201cthe stumbling block of the cross has been abolished.\u201d Paul says if I make the gospel this way, faith plus a work (like circumcision), then the offense of the gospel has been removed, because now you have a gospel that appeals to man\u2019s pride. God doesn\u2019t want that, God wants to wound man\u2019s pride. And so that\u2019s why He\u2019s designed it in such a way that the only thing we can do is the one non-meritorious thing available to us, which is to believe.\n\nSo you look at these reasons here, about five of them, and you start to understand why God has set up salvation on the basis of faith by itself. Faith is non-meritorious, if you insert a work it\u2019s no longer grace, faith maintains God\u2019s glory, faith alone eliminates boasting, faith alone maintains the offense of the gospel.\n\nNow moving on in our outline here let\u2019s move to the next issue, what is saving faith? I mean, we\u2019ve used the word \u201cbelieve\u201d and \u201cfaith\u201d and seen how dominate this subject is in the Scripture, what do we mean by \u201cbelieve\u201d exactly? Well, to believe, the Greek verb pisteu\u014d, believe, the noun form, pistis, faith, means basically one thing; it means to trust.\n\nHere is Vine\u2019s Bible Dictionary of Greek Words and it says this: \u201c pisteu\u014d\u2026\u201cto believe,\u201d also \u201cto be persuaded of,\u201d and hence, \u201cto place confidence in, to trust,\u201d signifies, in this sense of the word, reliance upon, not mere credence. It is most frequent in the writings of the apostle John, especially the Gospel. He does not use the noun\u2026[pistis]. Of the writers of the Gospels he uses of the verb, John does, \u201cninety nine times.\u201d [W. E. Vine, Merrill F. Unger, and William White, Vine's Complete Expository Dictionary of the Old and New Testament Words (Nashville: Nelson, 1996), 61]\n\nSo when we say \u201cfaith\u201d or \u201cbelieve\u201d what are we talking about here? To be persuaded of something to the point where you place your trust in that object. So synonyms for the word \u201cbelieve\u201d or \u201cfaith,\u201d remember what a synonym is, it\u2019s a same meaning, different word, here are some synonyms: to trust, to have confidence in, to depend upon, or to rely. So synonyms of believe are: trust, confidence, dependence upon, reliance in, Jesus alone for one\u2019s eternal destiny or the safekeeping of the soul. Let me say that again: What is saving faith? Trust or confidence or dependence or reliance in Jesus alone for one\u2019s eternal destiny or the safekeeping of the soul.\n\nThat\u2019s basically what believe means. See, that\u2019s the type of thing to communicate to the unsaved person because you\u2019re going to throw the word \u201cbelieve\u201d at them and your unsaved person doesn\u2019t know anything about the Greek language or most of them have no biblical teaching at all. They don\u2019t know what it means to believe, and that\u2019s where you can take the word \u201cbelieve\u201d and put it into words they can understand, like to trust, to rely upon, to depend upon.\n\nNow we all trust and rely upon a lot of different things, don\u2019t we? The fact that you sat down in that chair was an act of faith, was it not; you were trusting that that chair was manufactured properly and it was going to hold you up and you sat on it. So what I\u2019m saying is we use trust in all areas of life. And God has designed it so simply that all the lost sinner must do is rely, depend, trust, place their confidence in, which are synonyms for believe, in the promises of Christ and Christ alone for their salvation. That\u2019s what the Holy Spirit is convicting them of as I speak; He is convicting them to trust in Christ alone.\n\nSo if you come at the unbeliever with the message of don\u2019t smoke, don\u2019t chew, don\u2019t go with girls who do, get rid of your tattoos, cut your hair, get a job, you know, all of these kinds of things, you\u2019re coming at them with the wrong message. You\u2019re not cooperating with the message of the Spirit; the message of the Spirit is to get them to believe in Christ. So that\u2019s what saving faith is.\n\nNow what is saving faith not? If saving faith is trust in Christ and Christ alone, what is saving faith not? Saving faith is not mere intellectual assent. There\u2019s a lot of people walking around Houston and walking around the world for that matter, and I know this for a fact because I was one of them; for the first 16 years of my life I was one of these people. I knew stuff about Jesus, in fact, if you questioned me about Jesus I could probably give you right answers about a lot of things. I knew He was Jewish, I knew He was born in Bethlehem, I even knew that he was born of a virgin, I even knew that He died on a cross and rose from the dead. But you see, at that point in my life, prior to the age of 16 it was all data, facts, information. It wasn\u2019t until I heard a presentation of the gospel and was invited to believe or trust in that message, not until that occurred did I actually get saved.\n\nSo knowing things about Jesus\u2026 you know, atheists know things about Jesus; knowing things about Jesus doesn\u2019t save anybody. A couple of verses on this, you may know James 2:19, it talks about the demons, James says, \u201cYou believe that there is one God,\u201d he\u2019s being kind of sarcastic here, \u201cYou do well; the demons also believe, and shudder.\u201d And right now in the ranks of the demons they know all kinds of things about Jesus. In fact, if you gave them a quiz (the demons) they could pass the test with flying colors. But they are not trusting in Christ for anything; their belief, the way it\u2019s defined here, not the way it\u2019s defined in John, but the way it\u2019s defined here is just intellectual assent.\n\nHere is Matthew 8:28-29, it says, \u201cWhen He came to the other side into the country of the Gadarenes, two men who were demonically possessed met Him [as they were coming out of the tombs. They were so extremely violent that no one could pass by that way.\u201d And then dropping down to verse 29 it talks about what this man was saying, these men were saying as the demons inside of these demon possessed individuals was prompting them, \u201cAnd they\u201d that\u2019s the demons, \u201ccried out, saying, \u2018What business do we have with each other, Son of God? Have You come here to torment us before the appointed time?\u2019\u201d\n\nYou\u2019ll notice that the demons understood that Jesus was the Son of God, so their Christology, doctrine of Christ, was very good. You notice that they had a pretty good eschatology, doctrine of the end, they knew that there was a final judgment coming. They knew that they were on the losing side of history, but you see, it\u2019s all facts and information in the mind. There is no volition of the will to trust in what Christ has done. And see, this is what you have to get across to the unbeliever. You can know a lot of stuff, like an encyclopedia, and spit out all kinds of facts but that doesn\u2019t save. It\u2019s not until knowledge moves into trust in the message that a person can actually get saved.\n\nThis is in Ephesus, in Acts 19, Paul had a huge ministry there in Ephesus, on his third missionary journey he started performing miracles. And the seven sons of Sceva said hey, that looks like fun, we want to do some miracles. We saw Paul cast out demons so we want to do that. So these seven sons of Sceva, who were unbelievers, cornered a demon in a house, which is not the smartest thing to do, and they tried to exorcise or cast out this demon, and the man in whom these demons resided arose and gave the seven sons of Sceva such a beating that they ran out of the house bloody and naked. But what\u2019s interesting is what this demon, through this individual, this demonized person, says. Notice what the demon says: \u201cThe evil spirit answered and said to them, I recognize\u201d or \u201cknow Jesus, and I know about Paul, but who are you guys.\u201d [Acts 19:16] So notice that this demon knew who Jesus was, this demon knew who Paul was, and obviously these demons aren\u2019t saved, it\u2019s just facts and information in the intellect.\n\nSo all of this to say that faith is more than filling one\u2019s head with data. There\u2019s nothing wrong with data, but data is only a first step. Data has to move into trust or a person is never actually saved.\n\nA few illustrations on this, you may have heard of Charles Blondin, according to this report he is the one that could wow the crowds because he would walk across a tightrope suspended over Niagara Falls; he would do it holding things, he would do it with people on his back sometimes, according to the legend he actually was able to push a wheelbarrow across this tight rope suspended over Niagara Falls, and the crowds would gather there on the banks of the shore and were amazed at his ability to do this. And one day he calls out to the crowd and he says do you all think I can push this wheelbarrow across this tightrope suspended across Niagara Falls? And they all said yeah, you can do it, we\u2019ve seen you do it. And Blondin says okay, which one of you wants to get into the wheel barrow. See, once you get into the wheel barrow it\u2019s no longer just intellect, right? Now you\u2019re actually trusting your life to Charles Blondin. And people, to be a Christian, to be saved, they have to move away from intellectual knowledge into trust.\n\nI like to talk about George Washington, one of my favorite characters in history, I can tell you a ton of stuff about George Washington. I can tell you about his farewell address, I can tell you about his favorite verse of Scripture, I can tell you about his Mt. Vernon estate, his wife, Martha, I could tell you about how he was almost killed and he got home from battle and there were bullet holes through his coat, he was miraculously spared. I could just go on and on with information about George Washington, but you see, I\u2019m not trusting George Washington for anything. He\u2019s just a man of history. And a lot of people have this attitude about Jesus, He\u2019s just a man of history in their minds. It\u2019s not until you\u2019re actually trusting Jesus with your soul that you become a believer.\n\nAnother illustration I like to use is the airplane. When you get on an airplane it\u2019s no longer just information and facts, right? You\u2019re trusting that that pilot knows what they\u2019re doing, that they\u2019ve been trained properly, that they\u2019ve put enough gas in the tank, that they know how to read a compass, and know how to fly an airplane. So boarding that plane\u2026 now people like to say well, there\u2019s just a little bit of faith and then there\u2019s the real faith. But you see, the Bible never makes that distinction. You\u2019re either on the plane or you\u2019re not. I mean, you could be on the plane with sweaty palms, as I am many times, nervous, but the fact of the matter is, I\u2019m on the plane. And you\u2019ve got to at some point trust in Christ just like you would an airplane. So that\u2019s what saving faith is.\n\nNow one of the hotly debated issues is what is the content of saving faith. What exactly do you have to believe about Christ? And there\u2019s a movement in what\u2019s called the free grace circles, where they are shrinking what has to be understood by the unbeliever. Some will say you don\u2019t even have to believe Jesus is God. We had a fellow, even at our house in Dallas who tried to convince us that all you have to do is believe Jesus, you can even believe Jesus is Michael the Archangel. And may I just say that I don\u2019t think any of these new views that are coming out that are shrinking the content of saving faith are accurate. I think there are certain things you have to believe about Jesus.\n\nObviously you, as an unbeliever, don\u2019t have a fully orbed Christology yet but you have to believe that Jesus has the power to do what you\u2019re trusting Him for, right? I mean, if you\u2019re trusting Him for your eternal destiny you have to believe that Jesus has the power over your soul if you entrust it to Him. So you have to in some way, shape or form, understand that Jesus is deity, or God.\n\nNow there are three verses I like to use when we get into this discussion of the content of faith. One of them is John 8:24, it\u2019s very clear, Jesus says this: \u201cTherefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.\u201d See the word \u201cbelieve.\u201d Okay, so far so good. What do they have to believe in? This audience had to believe that Jesus was the \u201cI AM.\u201d What is the \u201cI AM\u201d? The \u201cI AM\u201d eg\u014d eimi in Greek goes right back to Exodus 3:14 which is a divine name that God disclosed Himself through to Moses. Who shall I say sent me? Moses says to God, \u201cGod said to Moses,\u201d you tell them \u201cI AM\u201d sent you. [Exodus 3:14, \u201cGod said to Moses, \u2018I AM WHO I AM\u2019; and He said, \"Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, \u2018I AM has sent me to you.\u2019\u201d]\n\nThat\u2019s why at the end of that chapter, John 8:58, Jesus claims the title \u201cI AM\u201d again. [John 8:58, \u201cJesus said to them, \"Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am.\u201d] And the Pharisees, who knew the Old Testament backwards and forwards, knew exactly what He was doing; He was claiming to be God. And because they were unbelievers, to them that was idolatry, and so the end of the chapter is very clear, John 8:59, they picked up stones to stone Him because Leviticus 24:16 says if a mere man claims to be God he is to be stoned to death. [John 8:59, \u201cTherefore they picked up stones to throw at Him, but Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple.\u201d Leviticus 24:16, \u201c'Moreover, the one who blasphemes the name of the LORD shall surely be put to death; all the congregation shall certainly stone him. The alien as well as the native, when he blasphemes the Name, shall be put to death.\u201d]\n\nThe Pharisees thought that Jesus, because they didn\u2019t believe He was God, was blaspheming. So there was no doubt in their minds what He meant when He used the expression \u201cI AM.\u201d So the lost sinner must understand something about the deity of Christ. You have to believe that Jesus has the power to do what He is claiming to do for our salvation.\nOf course, the end of John\u2019s Gospel reveals, answers this question, the content of saving faith. It says, \u201cTherefore many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; [31] But these are written so that you may believe\u201d believe what, \u201cthat Jesus is the Christ,\u201d the Messiah, \u201cthe Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name.\u201d\n\nSo what do you have to believe? You have to believe Jesus is the Messiah. If I\u2019m reading this right you have to believe He\u2019s the Son of God. Do you fully understand the doctrine of the Trinity when you get saved? Probably not, but you have to believe that Jesus has the power to do what He says he will do for you. So you have to have some kind of an awareness, knowledge, understanding of the deity of Christ. And then another verse to me that\u2019s very helpful when we talk about the content of saving faith is 1 Corinthians 15:1, Paul writes: \u201cNow I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preach to you, which you also received in which you stand.\u201d\n\nSo he\u2019s dialing back to how he was with them, originally when they were unbelievers and he led them to Christ. [2] \u201cby which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain.\u201d And then he\u2019s rehearsing what he shared with them, [3] \u201cFor I delivered to you as of first importance,\u201d \u201cfirst importance\u201d means the basics I gave to you so that you could be saved. \u201cFor I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received,\u201d from the Lord, that is what? \u201cthat Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, [4] and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.\u201d\n\nSo what were the things of first importance that Paul delivered to them so these people could be saved. He taught them that man is a sinner, because he says \u201cour sins.\u201d He taught them that Jesus is the Savior to their dilemma. He taught them that Jesus died as their substitute on the cross. And he taught them that Jesus was raised from the dead. He also taught them that these things happened in accordance with Old Testament prophecy.\n\nSo when you\u2019re dealing with an unbeliever and they\u2019re confused about who Jesus Christ is, these are the sort of things you want to focus on. Man is a sinner, Jesus is the Savior. Jesus died as your substitute, Jesus rose from the dead according to Old Testament prophecy. And then as you\u2019re sharing with them you\u2019re praying that the Spirit of God, as you\u2019re talking, is exercising His ministry of convicting them of their need to believe in Christ.\n\nAnd beyond that you would focus on things like He is the Messiah, He is the Son of God, if you have time you might even focus on the fact that He is the great I AM, He is deity. In other words, He has the power to do what He claims He will do, which is take you to heaven, give you the gift of life and take you to heaven when you die. No one can do that other than God.\n\nSo having said all that, let\u2019s come up with an evangelistic model that I think incorporates all of this theology that we have been talking about. At Sugar Land Bible Church we emphasize a five-pronged approach, five things that we focus on and they\u2019re designed like a hand, you can see this in all of our Sunday School rooms. Points 1, 2, 3, and 5 are just education; you\u2019re educating unbelievers about things. Point 4 is you tell them what they have to do once they have the knowledge. So you\u2019ll notice that what they have to do is one thing, after you have explained to them points 1, 2, 3, and 5.\n\nSo the first two points are bad news; the last three points are good news. You talk to an unbeliever about the bad news, which is you are a sinner before a holy God. You focus on sin. Now do you have to get them to admit that they\u2019re a sinner, you have to put them through all these extra steps? No, what you have to do is ask the Lord to use you as His vehicle to communicate this truth to them. You\u2019re not asking them to do anything, you\u2019re educating at this point.\n\nAnd if you want a verse on it, Romans 3:23 is very, very good, it says, \u201cfor all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.\u201d Then you focus on a second piece of bad news, see, you\u2019ve got to get a man lost before you can get him saved, right. The first two points as the Spirit of God uses you gets them lost, helps them recognize they are lost because your average person out there in America doesn\u2019t think they are lost, because they are successful and they\u2019ve got 2.5 kids and they\u2019ve two cars in the driveway, and their house mortgage is almost paid off. They don\u2019t see themselves as lost. You have to, as the Lord uses you, convince them that they\u2019re lost.\n\nSo then you focus on the penalty for your sin is death. Good verses on that are Genesis 2:17, what God told Adam, \u201cthe day you eat thereof, of the forbidden tree, you shall surely\u201d what? Die. [Genesis 2:17, \u201cbut from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.\u201d] Another excellent verse is Romans 6:23, which says, \u201cFor the wages of sin is\u201d what? \u201cdeath, [Romans 6:23, For the wages of sin is death but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.\u201d] So here you can use the criminal illustration, if you don\u2019t want to the time don\u2019t do the crime.\n\nNow the unbelievers will say well, I don\u2019t do bad things every day. Well guess what, there are people on death row right now that don\u2019t do bad things every day. The reason they\u2019re on death row is they did bad things one day, so all it takes is one infraction. One murder makes you a murderer. Right? One lie makes you a what? A liar.\n\nSo now you move into the good news, and the good news is that God, in His infinite love provided His Son, Jesus Christ, who died for you and paid your sin penalty. An excellent verse on this is Romans 5:8, which says, \u201cBut God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.\u201d So here you\u2019re communicating to them what Jesus did in their place to remedy their dilemma.\n\nAnd now you move into the one thing they\u2019re supposed to do, after they get the information. Piece of good news number 2 you can be saved from hell by believing\u2026 now when you use the word \u201cbelieve\u201d they won\u2019t know what you mean unless you define it for them. To believe means to be flushed out for them so they understand the concept of dependence. You can be saved from hell by depending on Christ alone to save you. Excellent verses on this, we won\u2019t read them again, we read them earlier, are Ephesians 2:8-9, \u201cFor by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; [9] it is not of yourselves lest any man should boast.\u201d\n\nNow if you have time you can explain to them what grace means, unmerited favor; what faith means, to depend; with it means to receive a gift, if it\u2019s coming to you as a gift\u2026 see, if you tell your kid who\u2019s 16 hey, I\u2019ve got a gift for you in the driveway, it\u2019s a brand new car, it\u2019s a free gift, when are you going to start making payments on it\u2014it\u2019s not a gift any more. Right? We understand what a gift is; a gift is a gift, it\u2019s free. That\u2019s the nature of a gift. You communicate to them the nature of the gift, and you don\u2019t attain it by works. And I used the chair illustration a little earlier to talk about what it means to believe, you\u2019re depending on something. You could use the Charles Blondin tight rope example.\n\nAnd then once you\u2019re confident that they\u2019ve trusted in Christ, now people always say well, don\u2019t you have to make them say a prayer of some kind? We\u2019ll be covering this in our next session but prayer, a prayer doesn\u2019t save anybody. It\u2019s faith alone in Christ alone that saves. There are no biblical examples of people with \u201cevery head bowed and every eye closed\u201d as we like to say, praying a saving prayer of faith. Now is it wrong to pray a prayer? No it\u2019s not wrong, as long as they understand that the prayer doesn\u2019t save. That\u2019s where people get confused. I said the prayer, I\u2019m saved. That\u2019s not what saves. What saves is dependence on Christ, that\u2019s what saved.\n\nNow if you want to express your faith through a prayer, then go for it, but the prayer is optional. It\u2019s not required. And the moment you put on them they have to pray is the moment you\u2019ve inserted something into evangelism that God never requires. And we do this because we\u2019ve heard other people do it this way. And I showed you the source of this, it was Finney that taught all these types of things but they\u2019re not found in the Bible.\n\nSo after you\u2019re convinced that they have trusted in Christ then you move to the last piece of good news, and you want to assure them that they are saved and have eternal life. And this is where you teach the assurance of salvation because if salvation came to them as a gift, what could they do to undo the gift? Nothing, because their salvation depends upon whose promises? God\u2019s! Can God lie? No He can\u2019t. And God, many times in His Word, some of these verses we\u2019ve gone over, John 5:24, John 6:47, assures the lost sinner that they have the gift of eternal life at the point of faith. [John 5:24, \u201c\"Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.\nJohn 6:47, \u201cTruly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life.\u201d]\n\nIf nothing else you could quote to them 1 John 5:13, which says, \u201cThese things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may\u201d what, \u201cknow that you have eternal life.\u201d And if you don\u2019t educate them in this realm right off the bat, what is going to happen to them is they\u2019re going to go home, they\u2019re going to be on a euphoria, probably, of some kind, and then the sin nature is going to crop up and they\u2019re going to sin. They\u2019re going to go back to taking a drink of the alcohol or smoking a cigarette or having a lustful thought or whatever, and they\u2019re going to think I\u2019m not saved.\n\nAnd they have such little doctrine under their belt they don\u2019t understand the assurance of salvation and eternal security, and the devil is going to work overtime in their minds convincing them they\u2019re not a Christian. But you see, if you take the time to explain to them that their salvation depends upon Christ and not your performance, therefore you can be assured of your salvation at this very moment, you\u2019re going to head the devil off. You\u2019re going to minimize the negative influence that the devil has in their minds.\n\nWhen I first got saved I went through the euphoria and I had such a poor doctrinal understanding because I was basically a new Christian, I went home, I woke up the next day, I moved off into sin and I said I just undid the whole thing, when in reality there\u2019s nothing I can do to undo it because it\u2019s not my performance that got me in the door. If it\u2019s not my performance that got me in the door then how can my lack of performance kick me out of the door. Do you follow? So that\u2019s why this last step of giving them some kind of assurance of salvation is important.\n\nDo hopefully that\u2019s a model you can use, and next week, or the next time we\u2019re together we\u2019re going to go through those passages you\u2019re all thinking of\u2014don\u2019t you have to pray a prayer to receive Christ, don\u2019t you have to confess Christ, don\u2019t you have to experience emotional sorrow, and I\u2019ll show you the passages that people use to teach these kind of ideas and that they\u2019re not really understood in proper context. So that\u2019s what I mean by response to problem passages.\n\nAll right, we\u2019re done.","series_sermon_number":""},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t<!-- All in One SEO 4.9.10 - aioseo.com -->\n\t<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"max-image-preview:large\" \/>\n\t<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/soteriology-005\/\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"generator\" content=\"All in One SEO (AIOSEO) 4.9.10\" \/>\n\t\t<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"es_ES\" \/>\n\t\t<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sugar Land Bible Church - Bringing the Bible to Life\" \/>\n\t\t<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n\t\t<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Soteriology 005 - Sugar Land Bible Church\" \/>\n\t\t<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/soteriology-005\/\" \/>\n\t\t<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/cdn.slbc.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/22075101\/SLBC-Logo-Square_10pct.jpg\" \/>\n\t\t<meta property=\"og:image:secure_url\" content=\"https:\/\/cdn.slbc.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/22075101\/SLBC-Logo-Square_10pct.jpg\" \/>\n\t\t<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-02-03T06:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n\t\t<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-02-03T06:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n\t\t<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/facebook.com\/sugarlandbiblechurch\" \/>\n\t\t<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n\t\t<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Soteriology 005 - 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