{"id":19147,"date":"2017-04-16T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-04-16T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sugar-land-bible-church.local\/sermon\/soteriology-056\/"},"modified":"2017-04-16T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2017-04-16T05:00:00","slug":"soteriology-056","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/soteriology-056\/","title":{"rendered":"Soteriology 056"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","book":[104],"series_event":[459],"sermon_service_type":[473],"speaker":[6],"class_list":["post-19147","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","hentry","book-james","series_event-soteriology","sermon_service_type-sunday-school","speaker-dr-andy-woods","no-post-thumbnail"],"acf":{"sermon_title":"Soteriology 056","sermon_date":"20170416","sermon_month":"4","sermon_year":"2017","sermon_notes":4554,"sermon_slides":4553,"sermon_mp3":4558,"sermon_id":"41617954332","series_or_event":459,"service_type":[473],"speaker":6,"books_of_the_bible":104,"chapter_and_verse":"2:14-26","sermon_transcript":"Andy Woods\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Soteriology 56,\n\nJames 2:14-26\n\nApril 16, 2017\n\nFather, we\u2019re grateful for today, particularly this Sunday as we celebrate fact that you\u2019re not a dead Savior but a living Savior, You\u2019re alive not just through the resurrection but You\u2019re alive right now at the Father\u2019s right hand, and You\u2019ve lived to make intercession for us and we\u2019re grateful for the fact, Father, that we serve not just a risen Savior, not just a crucified Savior, not just a buried Savior but the living Savior, so we glorify You today in that and I pray that that would come across in our time together this morning.\u00a0 Be with our Sunday School class and the worship service that follows.\u00a0 We lift these things up in Jesus\u2019 name, and God\u2019s people said Amen.\n\nGood morning everybody.\u00a0 Happy Resurrection Day.\u00a0 Do you guys like the word Resurrection Day better than Easter?\u00a0 I do too.\u00a0 I can\u2019t find the word \u201cEaster\u201d in the Bible.\u00a0 All right, If I can get you to open your Bibles, let\u2019s go to Matthew 16:24-25.\u00a0\u00a0 We are continuing to wind down, believe it or not, our Soteriology class.\u00a0 Here\u2019s out outline we\u2019ve been using as we\u2019ve been going through soteriology, the doctrine of salvation.\u00a0 We\u2019re taking a test just to kind of dust the cobwebs off and help you remember some of the things we\u2019ve studied.\n\nYou should have three things in front of you.\u00a0 Number 1, the test, do you guys all have that?\u00a0 Number 2, the PowerPoint for today; do you guys have that too?\u00a0 And Number 3 the give God a hand evangelistic model; do you have that?\u00a0\u00a0 Question 45, it\u2019s true or false, repent, believe and confess are poor word choices for salvation.\u00a0 I think the answer to that is true.\u00a0 Now the one that\u2019s accurate is believe.\u00a0 Repent can be accurate if you define it correctly as a synonym for believe.\u00a0 A synonym, of course, different word, same meaning.\u00a0 And repent means change of mind, so when you stop trusting in yourself or your religion, or whatever, for your salvation and you trust exclusively in Christ\u00a0 you\u2019ve changed your mind and that happens at the point of faith.\u00a0 We don\u2019t believe in \u201crepent and believe,\u201d\u00a0 or \u201cbelieve and repent\u201d because when you repent you believe and when you believe you repent, they happen simultaneously at the point of justification.\n\nAnd the problem is when you use the word \u201crepent\u201d today with people they won\u2019t interpret it correctly.\u00a0 They think it means don\u2019t smoke or chew or go with girls who do or something like that.\u00a0 And you\u2019re going to end up preaching, if you don\u2019t have time to unpack the meaning you\u2019re going to end up preaching a works oriented gospel.\u00a0 So what we encourage you to do is to do exactly what John does when he wrote to the unsaved.\u00a0 John uses the word \u201cbelieve\u201d about a hundred times.\u00a0 You know John\u2019s Gospel is the only gospel written to the unsaved; John uses the word \u201cbelieve\u201d a hundred times.\u00a0 How many times does he use the word \u201crepent\u201d?\u00a0 Zero!\u00a0 So if the word \u201crepent\u201d to the unbeliever is so important as everybody makes it out to be why does John never use the word?\n\nNow if you want to use the word \u201crepent\u201d because sometimes when the gospel is presented to the unbelievers, like in Acts 2 the word \u201crepent\u201d is used, if you want to use the word \u201crepent\u201d make sure you have time to explain to people what it means.\u00a0 But if you don\u2019t have the time to explain it my advice to you is just to drop the word entirely because people will misunderstand it and focus on the word \u201cbelieve.\u201d\n\nAnd we also don\u2019t believe that confess is a requirement for justification, and we\u2019ve gone through the passages that make it look\u2026 people use Romans 10 and others but the bottom line is you can believe in Jesus Christ in privacy and never tell anybody about it, as people in Muslim countries have to do, or else they risk their wives and daughters being raped or some terrible thing.\u00a0 So they believe in Christ many times and they don\u2019t say anything about it; are we going to say those people aren\u2019t saved?\u00a0 Of course we\u2019re not going to say that.\n\nSo this is the problem with the ABC method; first you must admit, second, you must believe, third\u00a0 you must confess and confess means you have to confess to the world that you\u2019re a Christian or confess to somebody.\u00a0 And the problem with that is it works pretty good in America but it doesn\u2019t work too well in Saudi Arabia.\u00a0 So I think the gospel is not just an American thing, it goes out to the whole world.\n\nSo confess, everybody\u2019s got that at the end of their evangelistic tract but the fact of the matter is there\u2019s no biblical basis for that; it\u2019s a condition that people add to justification.\u00a0 Now if people want to confess they\u2019re Christians I say thumbs up, go for it.\u00a0 It\u2019s probably good to do that but I don\u2019t hold that out as an extra step the unbeliever has to take.\u00a0 I\u2019m not against confession, it\u2019s just not a necessary prerequisite or condition for justification.\n\nSo why do we use all this stuff in our evangelistic tracts?\u00a0 A lot of it comes from a guy named Charles Finney.\u00a0 Charles Finney is significant in American history because he led the second great awakening in America.\u00a0 Charles Finney was also a lawyer so there\u2019s part of the problem right there, right?\u00a0 As a matter of fact, Charles Finney, you might be interested to know this, got saved by studying for law school, reading legal commentaries.\u00a0 You say you\u2019re kidding!\u00a0 No, that\u2019s true, because in his day the commentary that was used was called Blackstone\u2019s Commentaries on the Law, <\/em>which was used everywhere.\u00a0 It was brought over from Europe and it became the basis for American common law and all the way through Blackstone\u2019s Commentaries on the Law<\/em>, and you can get these for free off the internet and put them on your Kindle and look through them, there is Scripture all over these commentaries.\n\nIn fact, Blackstone said we shouldn\u2019t have any laws on the books that contradict what God has spoken in nature or in His Word.\u00a0 So therefore Blackstone called homosexuality \u201ca crime against nature.\u201d\u00a0 It was actually illegal in early America to be a homosexual because it was \u201ca crime against nature\u201d itself because God had spoken on that subject in creation, only male and female repopulate, not male and male, female and female, and God had spoken on that, against that in Romans 1. I mean, this is in Blackstone\u2019s Commentaries on the Law <\/em>so here\u2019s this guy Charles Finney getting ready for a legal career and he gets saved reading the book that\u2019s preparing him to be a lawyer. It\u2019s kind of interesting isn\u2019t it.\u00a0 So times have changed just a tad, wouldn\u2019t you say, since the days of Blackstone\u2019s Commentaries<\/em>.\n\nYou know, you can look at a historical figure like Finney and have respect for him in a lot of ways but on the other end of the stick he brought in what\u2019s called revivalism and one of his famous lines is you induce conversions by any means possible.\u00a0 So if you want to use guilt, use guilt.\u00a0 If you want to darken the sanctuary and get the dry ice out, or whatever you\u2019re going to do, do that.\u00a0 And if it takes people to walk forward then you use that.\u00a0 Use any means possible to make a convert out of somebody.\u00a0 Well, the reality of the situation is that\u2019s not biblical because it\u2019s the Spirit that convicts men and women of their need for Christ, right?\u00a0 And they\u2019re supposed to respond to that by way of faith.\n\nSo Finney brought in all of this extra verbiage into evangelical evangelicalism; you start seeing terms like confess, sorrow, yield, surrender, all of these things you don\u2019t find in the Gospel of John related to how someone gets saved and so what happens to people is they get saved and I was like this for years, I evangelized others the way I was evangelized.\u00a0 Or I evangelized others based on what I hear or see other people do and most people haven\u2019t really studied the Scripture on this subject and as you start to study the Scripture you start to realize how far off our evangelistic models are.\n\nThat\u2019s one of the things we\u2019ve tried to present in this soteriology class. But your average person hears all this stuff through writing or Christian media or conversation and so when they go out to evangelize they use the same terminology.\u00a0 And unless you\u2019ve actually taken the time to reprogram your mind, as one of my students said as I was trying to teach this, he kept saying recalibrating (it\u2019s like when you\u2019re lost and your Map Scope keeps saying \u201crecalibrating\u201d because you\u2019re so lost the Map Scope doesn\u2019t even know where you are.\u00a0 Has that ever happened to you guys?\u00a0 Have\u00a0 you ever gotten so lost that Google Maps can\u2019t even figure out where you are.\u00a0 Or have you ever misspelled a word so badly that Spell Check doesn\u2019t even know how to spell the word correctly.\n\nSo a lot of people haven\u2019t gone through this process of recalibrating.\u00a0 Romans 12:2 says our minds are to be reprogrammed.\u00a0 [Romans 12:2, \u201cAnd do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.\u201d]\u00a0 And so what people are out there doing is they won\u2019t go through the discipline of reprogramming themselves and so essentially they are out there just rehashing verbiage that they hear which ultimately can be traced back to Charles Finney.\u00a0 And that\u2019s why we\u2019re not promoting the ABC method of salvation.\u00a0 If you want a method, and people like methods and methods are fine, we promote the five fingers approach where all the points are educational except the ring finger which is giving a condition, which is to do what?\u00a0 To believe!\u00a0\u00a0 So the right answer to question 45 is true.\n\nQuestion number 46, trust, confidence, dependence, or reliance are other ways of describing belief.\u00a0 Is that true or false?\u00a0 That\u2019s true.\u00a0 So when you use the word \u201cbelieve\u201d one of the things you want to get across to people is becoming a Christian is more than stockpiling information in your mind; there\u2019s a lot of people out there that can tell you all kinds of things about Jesus that are not saved at all.\u00a0 I have atheists members of my extended family (as long as they\u2019re not outlaws we\u2019re okay) and you get into a conversation\u2026and it\u2019s interesting how much they know about Jesus.\u00a0 They can say all kinds of things but you see, they\u2019re not saved because it\u2019s data in the mind that they\u2019re not trusting in.\u00a0 So when you look up the word \u201cbelief\u201d the Greek noun is pistis<\/em><\/em>, the Greek verb pisteu\u014d <\/em>in a basic lexicon, it has the idea of being persuaded of something to the point where you place your confidence, or your trust, or your reliance in whatever it is you\u2019ve been persuaded of.\u00a0 So \u201cbelief,\u201d for it to be salvific in a person\u2019s life has to get beyond data in the mind and it has to actually get into the realm of trust.\n\nI think we\u2019ve used James 2:19 on that, the demons believe and what? tremble. [James 2:19, \u201cYou believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder.\u201d]\u00a0 So their belief is not biblical belief the way John uses it.\u00a0 John uses it in terms of trust.\u00a0 So you can think of different examples to communicate that; I\u2019ve used the example of Charles Blondin walking across the tightrope stretched across Niagara Falls pushing a wheelbarrow, and he yells out to the crowd, \u201cdo you guys believe I can do this?\u201d\u00a0 And they all say \u201cyes\u201d because they\u2019ve seen him do it over and over again and then he says which of you wants to get in the wheelbarrow?\u00a0 Now that\u2019s trust, and that\u2019s what saving faith is, you\u2019re placing your trust for the safekeeping of your soul and your eternity into Christ.\n\nNow one of the things we covered is why in the world has God set it up this way?\u00a0 And you have to get into the mind of God to understand why He\u2019s conditioned salvation on faith.\u00a0 We\u2019ve given five reasons in the class, but the first one is faith is the only thing a person can do which is non-meritorious.\u00a0 Meritorious means you do something and then you get something in return; that\u2019s a merit system.\u00a0 So you show up at your job, you put in a certain number of hours, you get a pay check and you don\u2019t say well thank you for the gift, because\u00a0 you logged in hours and time and sweat and energy that you could have used elsewhere to get that paycheck.\n\nSo the only thing that God will accept that\u2019s nonmeritorious is faith and the key verse is Romans 4:4-5, \u201cNow to the one who works, his wage is not credited as a favor, but as what is due.\u00a0 [5] But to the one who does not work, but believes\u201d see that there? \u201cbut believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness.\u201d\u00a0 So you notice that \u201cwork\u201d and \u201cbelieve\u201d there are two different things in God\u2019s mind.\u00a0 Since God will not accept people on the basis of works, in fact Isaiah 64:6 says \u201call of our\u201d what \u201cworks\u201d?\u00a0 Not just works but our \u201crighteous\u201d works.\u00a0 [Isaiah 64:6, \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\nWhat\u2019s a righteous work?\u00a0 It\u2019s something that I\u2019m trying to do to get God to like me more.\u00a0 \u201c\u2026all of our righteous works are as\u201d what? \u201cfilthy rags.\u201d\u00a0 So since God does not accept people on the basis of works the only thing He will accept from a lost sinner is faith.\u00a0 \u201cTo the one who does not work but believes,\u201d [Romans 4:5, \u201cBut to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness\u201d].\u00a0 And beyond that faith is by grace and not works, Romans 11:6 says, \u201cBut if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace is no longer grace.\u201d\u00a0 What is grace?\u00a0 Unmerited favor and the moment you add a single condition beyond faith alone\u00a0 you\u2019re just introduced a meritorious works system.\u00a0 And by the way, people love the works because it appeals to pride\u2014look at what I<\/strong> can do, look at what I\u2019ve<\/strong> done.\n\nAnd jumping down to bullet point number 4, which relates to what I\u2019ve just said, faith alone eliminates what?\u00a0 Boasting.\u00a0 Ephesians 2:8-9 describes grace, faith, and then it says in verse 9 \u201cso that no one may\u201d what? \u201cboast.\u201d \u00a0[Ephesians 2:8-9, \u201cFor by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is<\/em> the gift of God; [9] not as a result of works, so that no one may boast\u201d]\u00a0 The moment a single work is introduced, I raised my hand and you didn\u2019t; I walked the aisle, you didn\u2019t.\u00a0 I was really sorry about my past life and\u00a0 you weren\u2019t.\u00a0 That becomes the basis for bragging.\u00a0 Do you see that?\n\nAnd God has set this whole thing up so that bragging is excluded. Romans 3:27 indicates that the gospel principle excludes boasting.\u00a0 [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]\u00a0 This is why God set it up totally on the basis of faith.\u00a0 That\u2019s why Hebrews 11: 6 says, \u201cWithout faith it is impossible to please God,\u201d not difficult to please God, \u201cimpossible.\u201d\n\nAnd then that third bullet point God set it up this way because faith alone maintains whose glory?\u00a0 God\u2019s!\u00a0 So if it\u2019s not based on my works but it\u2019s based on His work, who get the glory at the end of the day?\u00a0 God does.\u00a0 And Isaiah 42:8 says God will not share His glory with another.\u00a0 [Isaiah 42:8, \u201cI am the LORD, that is My name; I will not give My glory to another, Nor My praise to graven images.\u201d]\u00a0 This is how you can always recognize a false gospel.\u00a0 You ask yourself who\u2019s getting the glory here; is the spotlight on God and what He has done and what we have received by faith or is the spotlight come upon me and what I\u2019ve done?\n\nSo God, if He\u2019s not interested in sharing His glory with another is obviously going to set salvation up in such a way that the only way you can get into the door is based on what he has done.\u00a0 So anything else subtracts from the glory of God.\u00a0 What is God\u2019s purpose?\u00a0 What is the purpose of our lives?\u00a0 To love God, the Westminster Confession says, and to glorify God.\u00a0 Does it not say that?\u00a0 \u00a0What does it say, somebody help me with that.\u00a0 Glorify God and enjoy Him forever.\u00a0 So the whole basis of humanity is to glorify God.\u00a0 So therefore when I receive His salvation who\u2019s supposed to get the glory?\u00a0 God is.\n\nAnd then finally at the bottom there the reason God has set up salvation completely on the basis of faith is to\u2026 watch this carefully\u2026 maintain the offense of the gospel.\u00a0 We have to understand something, that when God, in eternity past designed the gospel He set it up to assault pride.\u00a0 That\u2019s why Paul calls the gospel an offense.\u00a0 The gospel, if you understand it, it\u2019s one of the most offensive things that could ever be said to you because the gospel, when rightly understood, says this: you\u2019re totally gone in your trespasses and sins, you can\u2019t fix yourself even if you wanted to, even though you\u2019re an American and you believe that we can all pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps, the gospel comes along and says you can\u2019t pull yourself up by your own bootstraps!\u00a0 The only thing\u00a0 you can do is to trust in the life preserver, and if you won\u2019t trust in the life preserver you\u2019re just going to drown.\u00a0 Now that is a wrecking ball, if you will, to the pride of man which is always trying to earn something from God and take credit for salvation.\n\nSo this is the reason that we have to be sticklers on this point of faith alone, because of these five reasons, at least.\u00a0 Faith is non-meritorious!\u00a0 Faith is by grace and not by works!\u00a0 Faith alone maintains the glory of God!\u00a0 Faith alone eliminates human boasting!\u00a0 And Faith maintains the gospel\u2019s offense!\u00a0 That\u2019s why the great temptation on the part of lost humans is always to add something in because if I can add something in it\u2019s less offensive and I get some of the credit.\u00a0\u00a0 That\u2019s why there\u2019s this constant battle that goes on related to keeping the gospel pure, keeping the gospel clean.\n\nSo question number 46 is true and I\u2019ve explained why God has set it up that way.\n\nQuestion 47, Acts 2:38, Acts 3:19, Acts 17:30, you can toss into the mix 2 Peter 3:9 use repentance relative to unbelievers but when that word is used relative to unbelievers it\u2019s describing a what?\u00a0 Change of mind, which is a synonym for what?\u00a0 Faith!\n\n[Acts 2:38, \u201cPeter said to them, \u2018Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.\u2019\u201d\u00a0 Acts 3:19, \u201cTherefore repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord;\u201d\u00a0 Acts 17:30, \u201cTherefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent.\u201d\u00a0 2 Peter 3:9, \u201cThe Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.\u201d]\n\nAs your confidence moves from works to Christ alone you mind is changed.\u00a0 So as a 16 year old the moment I trusted in Christ I repented automatically my mind changed.\u00a0 And that\u2019s what \u201crepent\u201d means when it\u2019s used relative to unbelievers.\u00a0 It has nothing to do with fix yourself up morally.\u00a0 And you talk like this and people say well, you\u2019re against people being reformed morally\u2026 well of course I\u2019m not against that but that starts to happen when?\u00a0 After you\u2019re saved; the Holy Spirit will start working on you with other issues in your life.\u00a0 Amen!\u00a0 Has that happened to anybody or am I the only one.\n\nSo we\u2019re in favor of moral reformation and under God\u2019s help cleaning one\u2019s life up and all that kind of stuff but that is NOT a condition of justification.\u00a0 The gospel is NOT clean yourself up and come to Jesus.\u00a0 If I were to say clean yourself up and come to Jesus that\u2019s nothing more than a works system, right?\u00a0 And because we\u2019re not precise in our terminology, and most Christians aren\u2019t given any real teaching on this subject, this is the kind of thing the unsaved world is hearing all the time\u2026clean yourself up and come to Jesus.\u00a0 The reality of the situation is you come to Jesus through His avenue, \u201cfaith alone.\u201d\u00a0 Now the cleaning up He\u2019ll start dealing with you on once you\u2019re saved but let\u2019s not frontload the gospel; let\u2019s not get the cart before the horse here.\u00a0 Let\u2019s get people saved and then we\u2019ll start the cleaning up process as God starts to work in their lives.\n\nSo that\u2019s all the word \u201crepent\u201d means.\u00a0 Every time you see the word \u201crepent\u201d in the Bible as it is expressed to an unbeliever just understand that it means change of mind, which is being used as a synonym for faith.\n\nAnd then we come to Matthew 16:24-25, question 48.\u00a0 Matthew 16:24-25 is not a justification text because it\u2019s referring to someone already saved.\u00a0 Do\u00a0 you think that\u2019s true or false?\u00a0 It\u2019s true.\u00a0 For example, take a look at Matthew 16:24-25, and tragically people use verses like this to preach to unsaved people.\u00a0 Jesus is speaking to Peter, and he says, \u201cThen Jesus said to\u201d the unbelievers present, NO, it doesn\u2019t say that does it.\u00a0 \u201cThen Jesus said to His disciples,\u201d now this is towards the final week of His life.\u00a0 See, He doesn\u2019t talk like this unless He\u2019s dealing with people that have been with Him for three years.\u00a0 He\u2019s talking to Peter.\u00a0 Do you all think Peter was saved by this time?\u00a0 I think he was clearly saved.\u00a0 \u201cThen Jesus said to His disciples, \u2018If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. [25] For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.\u201d]\n\nAnd people use a verse like this to go out to an unsaved person and they quote this verse.\u00a0 The reality of the situation is they\u2019re not paying attention at all to the chronology of the Bible.\u00a0 Jesus is speaking these words to the disciples.\u00a0 This is not something that Jesus fired out of the gate at these guys; these guys have been with Him for over three years.\u00a0 So this is a call, not to justification but to progressive sanctification.\u00a0 This is a call not to initial saving faith in Christ but to discipleship.\u00a0 And you can discern this by simply looking at a chronology of the events in the life of Christ.\u00a0 I\u2019m using the Ryrie Study Bible up here, (which is the proper Bible to be\u00a0 used by all Spirit-led Christians\u2026. But anyway, a really good study Bible in the middle of the testaments, in between Malachi and Matthew, will have something called harmony of the gospels.\u00a0 See how mine goes on for several pages here.\u00a0 That\u2019s what\u2019s called the life of Christ put together in chronological order.\u00a0 It takes everything that happened in the life of Christ and orders it for you.\n\nAnd the reason I bring this up is Peter was saved in event 20 in the life of Christ.\u00a0 That was his initial contact recorded in John 1 I believe; it was his initial contact with the Lord Jesus Christ, his brother, Andrew, brought Peter to Christ and Peter is saved.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 You\u2019ll find that at the end of John 1 \u00a0\u00a0I think it is.\n\nWhen Jesus says to Peter in Matthew 4:19, \u201cAnd He said to them, \u2018Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.\u2019\u00a0 [20] Immediately they left their nets and followed Him.\u201d\u00a0 It goes on and it says immediately they left their bot and their father and followed Him.\u00a0 [Matthew 4:21, \u201cGoing on from there He saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets; and He called them.\u201d]\n\nHe came to these guys and told them to leave tour careers, leave your place of security and follow Me.\u00a0 And these fish you\u2019re catching, you\u2019re going to catch men.\u00a0 And I want you to understand that when you study Peter\u2019s initial salvation and Peter\u2019s calling into what I would call discipleship, there is a different chronology in the life of Christ.\u00a0 These occur at different times in Christ\u2019s ministry.\u00a0 The first event, John 1, happened in event 20; this even that I just read about, leave your nets, leave\u00a0 your boats and follow Me, is event 35.\u00a0 See that?\u00a0 So the basic order in Christ is first you become a believer through the sharing of the pure gospel.\u00a0 And then as people start to grow and they start to mature, then a second call is issued into a deeper walk with Christ that we would call discipleship.\n\nAnd the problem that\u2019s happening is people aren\u2019t distinguishing these two components of salvation.\u00a0 They\u2019re merging them into one, throwing it onto an unbeliever who doesn\u2019t even know what it means to be a disciple and in the process preaching a works oriented message, without even knowing it because they\u2019re not paying attention to details.\n\nLet me show you this in the Old Testament.\u00a0 When was the nation of Israel redeemed?\u00a0 Passover, and they passed (after that) through the Red Sea; God closed the waters on the pursuing Egyptians after the children of Israel were safe on the other side, and you read Exodus 14:30-31, it says they believed God and they believed His servant Moses.\u00a0 So you get beyond Exodus 14 and there\u2019s no doubt that the Hebrews are saved.\u00a0 [Exodus 14:30-31, \u201cThus the LORD saved Israel that day from the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. [31] When Israel saw the great power which the LORD had used against the Egyptians, the people feared the LORD, and they believed in the LORD and in His servant Moses.\u201d]\u00a0 And we pointed out how that verse, the Hebrew of that verse is identical to the way Abraham\u2019s saving faith is described in Genesis 15:6.\u00a0 [Genesis 15:6, \u201cThen he believed in the LORD; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness.\u201d]\n\nThen look at Exodus 19:1 just for half a second,\u00a0 \u201cIn the third month\u201d let me say that again, \u201cIn the third month after the sons of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt, on that very day they came into the wilderness of Sinai.\u201d\u00a0 Two\u00a0 months have passed and now God brings them to Sinai and enters into them the covenant called the Mosaic Covenant where they are put under the Law of God.\u00a0 What\u2019s the purpose of the Law of God?\u00a0 It\u2019s not to redeem a nation, they already had redemption.\u00a0 They had redemption at the Passover.\u00a0 It is not given to redeem a nation, rather it\u2019s given to a redeemed nation.\n\nHow is God\u2019s redeemed nation supposed to act as they interact with each other.\u00a0 Commandments 6-10 govern that, don\u2019t they?\u00a0 Don\u2019t commit adultery, don\u2019t murder.\u00a0 How is God\u2019s redeemed nation supposed to act as they interact with God?\u00a0 Commandments 1-5 cover that, don\u2019t they? No other gods before me, no graven images, all that kind of stuff.\n\n[Exodus 10:1-15, \u201cAnd God spoke all these words: [2] \u201cI am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.\u00a0 [3] You shall have no other gods before\u00a0 me.\u00a0 [4] You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. [5] You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, [6] but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.\u00a0 [7] You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name. [8] Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. [9] Six days you shall labor and do all your work, [10] but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns. [11] For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.\u00a0 [12] \u201cHonor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you.\u201d]\n\nHow is God\u2019s redeemed nation supposed to act towards the rest of the world?\u00a0 The Mosaic Covenant covers that because it teaches them that they are now a kingdom of priests, meaning they\u2019re intermediaries to the world.\u00a0 So the Mosaic Law is not an instrument of justification, it is an instrument of sanctification.\u00a0 This is the whole problem that Jesus had with the Pharisees.\u00a0 They were taking an instrument of sanctification and turning it into an instrument of justification.\u00a0 The problem wasn\u2019t the Law of Moses, the problem was their abuse of it, and in the process they were teaching a works oriented salvation.\n\nBut what I want you to see is there is at least two months in between the redemption of the nation and the giving of the Mosaic Law at Mount Sinai, two months, so therefore the call into discipleship is a second call.\u00a0 See that?\u00a0 And it\u2019s carried over into the New Testament as 1 Peter is saved, John 1, then he is called into a deeper walk of discipleship, Matthew 4.\u00a0 And that calling keeps going after Peter, right up until the final week of Christ\u2019s life before He was killed, murdered, in Jerusalem.\n\nWhat\u2019s happening is people are not paying attention to the chronology of the Bible; the chronology of the Bible is a big deal.\u00a0 Paul himself even mentions Bible chronology in Romans 4 when he says do you all understand that chapter 17 comes after chapter 15 of Genesis?\u00a0 That\u2019s kind of my translation of what he says, because in chapter 17 the nation was circumcised. Well, does circumcision gain salvation from God?\u00a0 NO, because circumcision is recorded in chapter 17, Abraham\u2019s saving faith is recorded in Genesis 15.\u00a0 So Paul points out the chronology here.\n\nAnd you see, because people aren\u2019t getting the basic chronology of the Bible and they don\u2019t really understand that things happen at different times they take two events separated by time, like the redemption of Israel and putting them under the Mosaic Law, like the salvation of Peter and when he was called into discipleship, and they just conflate the two and they put that out to the unbeliever and in the process they\u2019re no different than the Pharisees who got the gospel wrong because they took something that was intended for a saved person and they\u2019re holding that out to an unsaved person.\u00a0 Do you follow that?\n\nSo people say well why, Andy, are\u00a0 you into this verse by verse teaching?\u00a0 I mean, it\u2019s so slow, we don\u2019t get out till 12:30 if we\u2019re lucky, and you have to cover every word.\u00a0 The fact of the matter is the only way you\u2019re going to get the chronology of the Bible is to study it in the order in which it was given.\u00a0 Are you with me on that?\u00a0 So a lot of these false gospels that people are preaching, they\u2019re just\u2026 I don\u2019t mean to say this in an unkind way but I don\u2019t know another way to say it, it\u2019s basically just biblical illiteracy.\u00a0 People do not understand the order of the events and they\u2019re conflating things that don\u2019t go together.\n\nSo what we believe is this: All disciples are believers but not all believers are disciples.\u00a0 All believers are called to be disciples at some point but not all of them\u00a0 are at that place.\u00a0 The children of Israel were believers but not disciples for two months as they traveled to Sinai.\u00a0 And they weren\u2019t acting very saintly, were they, the children of Israel?\u00a0 The way they were acting is like the way your kids act when you take them on vacation.\u00a0\u00a0 You\u2019re out of the driveway and they say what?\u00a0 Are we there yet?\u00a0 I\u2019m hungry, I\u2019m tired, so and so hit me and all this kind of stuff.\u00a0 And then you need another vacation just to recover from your vacation.\n\nSo that\u2019s who the children of Israel are; after they are redeemed they\u2019re acting like this because they haven\u2019t entered into the Law, which was only given to Israel, they haven\u2019t entered into the walk of the [can't understand word].\u00a0 This is the way Peter is acting, really all the way through the gospels.\u00a0 And if we\u2019re honest with ourselves we\u2019re exactly the same way aren\u2019t we?\u00a0\u00a0 We get saved and we\u2019re just a bunch of little babies, that\u2019s all we are; we don\u2019t know how to live above and beyond the sin nature, we go back to the sin nature, we don\u2019t understand the walk of discipleship and God starts to gradually work on\u00a0 us.\u00a0 Do you see that?\n\nSo all disciples are believers but not all believers are necessarily disciples.\u00a0 See, our goal here at Sugar Land Bible Church is to get folks saved.\u00a0 Now a lot of churches, their mission statement stops right there, but that\u2019s not where our stops; we want to see people move into discipleship.\u00a0 And there is no other way to enter into the walk of discipleship other than through perpetual exposure to the Word of God.\u00a0 Did not Jesus say in John 17:17, \u201cSanctify them by thy Word,\u201d or thy truth, \u201cthy Word is truth.\u201d\n\nFirst of all, you\u2019re not going to get saved without the Word of God because \u201cfaith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.\u201d\u00a0 [Romans 10:17]\u00a0 Secondly, you\u2019re not going to grow unless you\u2019re exposed to the Word of God and when I mean the Word of God I mean the whole enchilada, or to use Jewish terminology the whole shawarma<\/em>.\u00a0 There are people sitting in churches hearing the exact same messages over and over and over again, that have been saved for decades, that are going to heaven and haven\u2019t grown an inch spiritually and the reason is they\u2019re in the wrong environment.\n\nSo what\u2019s the difference between a believer and a disciple?\u00a0 Believing is justification which is initial salvation.\u00a0 Becoming a disciple is different.\u00a0 Becoming a believer is a free gift, but let me tell you something about being a disciple, it\u2019ll cost you something.\u00a0 Now I\u2019ve found that what God takes away he returns tenfold or a hundredfold.\u00a0 But that\u2019s why He\u2019s saying to Peter unless you\u2019re going to lose your life you\u2019re not going to find it.\u00a0 So there\u2019s things a disciple has to give up and the Holy Spirit works on us in different areas there.\u00a0 Justification is entered into through faith; discipleship is entered into through commitment and obedience\u2026 watch carefully this next clause, through the Spirit\u2019s enablement.\u00a0 Did you catch that last part?\u00a0 Because a lot of people teach discipleship this way: I\u2019ve to white-knuckle it, I\u2019ve got to exercise more will power, when the reality of the situation is you get saved through the guidance of the Spirit and the empowerment of the Spirit.\u00a0 How do you grow?\u00a0 The exact same way.\n\nAnd see, this is the whole problem with the Galatians, the Galatians were saved people but they were trying to grit it through human power in the walk of discipleship and Paul says to them, Galatians 3:3, \u201cAre you so foolish?\u00a0 Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?\u201d\u00a0 Discipleship means you become aware of your resources and as you become aware of those you start to yield moment by moment to those resources.\u00a0 So the sin nature raises up in you and wants to be pacified, and you say to yourself, you know what?\u00a0 In the past I\u2019ve gone back to this particular sin, whatever sin it is you may have been committing, I may have been committing, but you know, this time I\u2019ve been studying Romans 6 and I recognize that I have been baptized into Christ and my sin nature has not been disabled but it\u2019s dead, it\u2019s still there to tempt me but it no longer has the power over me that it once had.\u00a0 So you know what I\u2019m going to do today?\u00a0 I\u2019m going to say no to the sin nature.\n\nWell guess what just happened there?\u00a0 You\u2019ve progressed away from justification only into sanctification; away from believing into spiritual maturity.\u00a0 And it\u2019s a time thing.\u00a0 The more time you spend doing what I just said, saying no to the sin nature on the basis of\u00a0 your resources in Christ is the amount of time you grow as a Christian.\u00a0\u00a0 You do not measure someone\u2019s spiritual maturity on the basis of what they know because a lot of folks know things that they don\u2019t follow\u2026Amen!\u00a0 And you don\u2019t measure it on the basis of the amount of time people have been saved because a lot of people have been saved for a very long time and yet they\u2019re really not walking out this walk of discipleship.\u00a0 Spiritual growth, spiritual maturity, the kind of people you as a congregation should select as leaders, as elders and deacons, are people that you believe have a track record of time saying no to the sin nature under the enablement of the Spirit.\n\nGod is not going to save people against their will; He\u2019s not going to grow people up against their will either.\u00a0 If you want to be a spiritual infant your whole life then God says you can go ahead and do that, but there\u2019s a better way.\u00a0 It\u2019s a matter of volition.\u00a0 I have to start cooperating with the work of the Spirit in my life.\u00a0 Justification is not by works; discipleship involves a great degree of cooperation.\u00a0 Justification is instant, discipleship is a lifelong process, you\u2019re always in that walk\u00a0 until your dying day.\u00a0 The only time that walk stops is when you\u2019re in glory.\u00a0 Justification is justification.\u00a0 Discipleship is sanctification.\u00a0 Justification, Jesus paid the price.\u00a0 Discipleship, do you know who starts paying a little bit of a price, and in some cases a big price?\u00a0 We do.\n\nThat\u2019s why Jesus called some folks to follow Him and one guy said well, I\u2019ve got to go back and I\u2019ve got to bury my dad.\u00a0 And this fellow, to become a disciple had to leave something that he wanted to do.\u00a0 So the Holy Spirit starts to apply pressure on you and say this needs to go, this needs to change, you need more direction here, you need to start doing this.\u00a0 And what you\u2019re going to discover is God is asking you to give up things, but He\u2019s not asking you to give them up through your own power.\u00a0 See that.\n\nHe\u2019s asking you to give them up through the resources that He has provided and the more time, chronologically, you spend cooperating with those resources through your own volition, is the amount of time you grow spiritually, exponentially.\u00a0 The more time we go back to the sin nature, it is a time that I\u2019m still saved but my growth process has been shut down, it\u2019s thwarted.\u00a0 Justification, Jesus paid the price.\u00a0 Discipleship, the believer pays the price.\u00a0 Justification, trusting in Jesus as Savior.\u00a0 Discipleship following Christ as Lord.\u00a0 The prominent role that Jesus plays when you get saved is He\u2019s your Savior.\u00a0 I\u2019m not denying the fact that He is also Lord, Kurios<\/em>, the Lord, but that is not His primary interaction with you; it\u2019s your Savior.\u00a0 I guess there is an overlap between the two because you wouldn\u2019t be trusting Him unless you believed He was your Lord but allowing Christ to begin to rule over your life, now what becomes prominent is His title as Lord.\n\nThat\u2019s why 1 Peter 3:15, look at what it says here, \u201cbut sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts,\u201d notice the concept of Lord or Lordship takes place with what?\u00a0 Sanctification.\u00a0 So if you want to talk about Lordship salvation that\u2019s where your Lordship salvation comes to the forefront.\u00a0 It comes to the forefront in your discipleship because he says, \u201csanctify Christ as Lord,\u201d it doesn\u2019t say justify Christ as Lord, it says \u201csanctify Christ as Lord.\u201d\u00a0 So justification, He\u2019s your Savior; discipleship He\u2019s becoming your Lord, He\u2019s ruling over more territory.\n\nJustification, how many commands are there?\u00a0 I hope you guys are saying one.\u00a0 One command, obey the gospel!\u00a0 Sanctification, how many commands are there?\u00a0 There are so many I can\u2019t even count them all.\u00a0 Do you realize that in Ephesians 1-3 there\u2019s not a single command given; all it\u2019s doing is revealing what we have in Christ because we\u2019ve been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.\u00a0 And then you get to Ephesians 4:1 and it says, \u201cTherefore,\u201d and when we see the word \u201ctherefore\u201d we have to ask what is the word \u201ctherefore\u201d there for.\u00a0 Do you realize that when you get into Ephesians 4-6 there are 38 commands?\u00a0 You see the logic here?\u00a0 You don\u2019t try to grow as a Christian until you understand who you are as a Christian.\u00a0 Once you understand who you are as a Christian, that you\u2019ve been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places now you begin to follow the commands.\n\nAnd this is the opposite of modern day preaching where you have to move to application.\u00a0 Here\u2019s the three things I want you to do this week: and that\u2019s the time everybody gets out their pen and starts taking notes because we like that.\u00a0 But Paul doesn\u2019t teach that way.\u00a0 Paul teaches pure doctrine, with no commands, for three whole chapters.\u00a0 No application, no here\u2019s three things to do this week.\u00a0 If you want to see another place Paul does it is 1 Corinthians 15, which is a good chapter to think about on Resurrection Sunday, he goes on for 57 verses talking about doctrine\u2026 57 verses!\n\nAnd then finally in verse 58 he gives one point of application.\u00a0 \u201cTherefore my beloved, be always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain.\u201d\u00a0 So \u201cTherefore\u201d is your hint that he\u2019s moving into application; the man gives zero application for 57 verses and finally one point of application at the end.\u00a0 This is the opposite of modern day preaching methodology.\u00a0 Most people are giving multiple points of application and almost zero doctrine.\u00a0 We\u2019ve adopted a lot of philosophies and methodologies inside the church and how we evangelize.\u00a0 If we would go back to the Bible we would see things very differently.\u00a0 So the one command for justification is to believe the gospel; the commands for discipleship are multiple: pray without ceasing, don\u2019t quench the Holy Spirit, forsake not the assembling of yourselves together as is the habit of some, study and show\u00a0 yourself approved as a worker that need not be ashamed that rightfully handles the Word of truth.\u00a0 There\u2019s just a few commands I can think of off the top of my head.\n\nYou don\u2019t give those commands to unsaved people.\u00a0 You give those commands to believers who are beginning to get an understanding of who they are in Christ.\u00a0 Justification\u2014one condition.\u00a0 Discipleship\u2014multiple conditions.\u00a0 Justification\u2014experienced by all Christians.\u00a0 Discipleship\u2014 experienced by some Christians.\u00a0 Well, what do you get if you\u2019re justified?\u00a0 Eternal life, you\u2019re not going to hell!\u00a0 Right, isn\u2019t that a good thing?\u00a0 Now here\u2019s the big question I\u2019m asked: well, if I have that why do I need to worry about being a disciple?\u00a0 Because discipleship results in other benefits above and beyond simply having your fire insurance paid up.\u00a0 It results in rewards in the next life.\n\nAre you interested in rewards?\u00a0 Are you interested in promotion?\u00a0 Does anybody here not want to be promoted?\u00a0 We like the idea of promotion and what you start to learn is promotion and authority in the kingdom and differing degrees of authority\u2026 why is it one man rules over ten cities and one rules over five, Luke 19?\u00a0 Why is there a difference?\u00a0 It has to do with the walk of the disciple.\u00a0 The walk of the disciple does not determine heaven and it does not determine eternal life but it results in other things.\u00a0 The problem with the Corinthians is they had the justification but they didn\u2019t have the walk of discipleship and that\u2019s why Paul says in 1 Corinthians 3:15, \u201cIf any man's work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.\u201d\n\nIn other words, you can go into the judgment of rewards and have nothing to show for it because you spent your whole life as a Christian going back to the sin nature but notice, you\u2019re still saved.\u00a0 So what he\u2019s telling them is you people, he\u2019s not saying you people need to get saved, what he\u2019s saying is you need to enter into the walk of the disciple because you need to experience these other rewards beyond simply getting to heaven.\u00a0 Do you see the difference between those?\n\nSo where are we?\u00a0 Question number 4 is true.\u00a0 One more and we\u2019ll finish.\u00a0 Question number 49, John 1:12 is an example of interpreting receiving or accepting Christ as a synonym for faith.\u00a0 The correct answer to that is true.\u00a0 People say well is it okay if I use the word people need to receive Christ?\u00a0\u00a0 Yes, it\u2019s okay to use that word as long as you explain to people that \u201creceive Christ\u201d is a synonym for what?\u00a0 Faith!\u00a0 You\u2019ll notice John 1:12 connects the two.\u00a0 \u201cBut as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name,\u201d\n\nThe key word is \u201cbelieve.\u201d\u00a0 John does not use the word \u201creceive\u201d 99 times in his gospel.\u00a0 He uses the word \u201cbelieve\u201d 99 times, occasionally he uses synonyms, different words, same meaning, and when he\u00a0 uses a synonym he explains it.\u00a0 So should you use the word \u201creceive Christ,\u201d you need to \u201creceive\u201d Christ when dealing with the unbeliever.\u00a0 My answer to that is the same as the word \u201crepent.\u201d\u00a0 Use IF you have time explain it to them.\u00a0 IF you don\u2019t have time to explain it I would leave out the word \u201creceive\u201d just like I would leave out the word \u201crepent.\u201d\u00a0 I would focus on believe and explain what that means.\n\nI\u2019ll stop talking at this point. My goodness, we made it through three questions, I\u2019ve got to pick up the pace here.\u00a0 The next two weeks I\u2019m not going to be here.\u00a0 Pastor Jim is going to be teaching next week and then the following week in the Sunday School class J. B. Hixon is going to be here.","series_sermon_number":""},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t